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'Simpsons' Creators Drop Classic Episode Featuring Michael Jackson
by Naharnet Newsdesk 08 March 2019, 21:05
The creators of "The Simpsons" have shelved one of the animated series' classic episodes because it features Michael Jackson's voice, the show's executive producer told The Wall Street Journal Friday.
Simpsons producers made the unanimous decision after viewing the bombshell documentary "Leaving Neverland," which revives pedophilia accusations against the late megastar in excruciating detail.
"It feels clearly the only choice to make," Simpsons executive producer James L. Brooks told the WSJ.
The move appears to be the first such artistic ban in the United States since the documentary aired on U.S. network HBO earlier this week. Several radio stations in Canada, New Zealand and Australia have stripped Jackson songs from their playlists in light of the film.
The 1991 episode in question sees Homer Simpson meet a mental hospital patient who believes he is the popstar Michael Jackson, and speaks in the star's signature high pitch.
Entitled "Stark Raving Dad," the segment that aired on Fox in the show's third season triggered intense fan speculation because Jackson's name was not in the credits.
But just last year, Simpsons creator Matt Groening confirmed Jackson had indeed done the voice work -- but not the song bit.
"When it came time to sing the songs, he had a soundalike singer," Groening told Australian television.
"And he stood there and watched the guy who was so nervous, who had to sound like Michael Jackson."
Brooks told the paper the episode had been one of his favorites -- but that pulling it was necessary in light of the documentary.
"This was a treasured episode. There are a lot of great memories we have wrapped up in that one, and this certainly doesn't allow them to remain," Brooks said, citing "evidence of monstrous behavior."
Prior to his 2009 death, Jackson emphatically denied molesting children, and was acquitted of child abuse charges in 2005 after a dramatic trial.
The late superstar's estate has smeared the documentary as a "posthumous character assassination," and is suing HBO for $100 million.
Brooks told the paper the Simpsons episode would be removed from streaming services, TV stations and box sets, a process that "has started."
"I'm against book burning of any kind. But this is our book, and we're allowed to take out a chapter," Brooks said.
SourceAgence France Presse
s.o.s 11 March 2019, 16:34 00
This is revisionism. It begs the question, was Jackson a pedophile back in 1991 when the episode was produced and aired?
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2016 was a year of many things. For some, it was heartbreak; for others, triumph; and for other others, it was a year of adult coloring books. The trend seemed to have really taken off last year, as books filled with intricate black and white designs just waiting to be filled in by a leisurely grown-up with freshly sharpened colored pencils flew off the shelves. Those books are fine for some people, but in 2017, let's step up our game.
This year, we want a book with different types of activities, and also one with more Jeff Goldblum. U.K. publisher Belly Kids has apparently been rifling through our diaries, because they've just released Do I Hate Being Right All the Time: The Jeff Goldblum Activity Book (via IndieWire).
"First crush, only love, most charming man on screen," the book's description reads. "To say Jeff Goldlum is the one great thing in this world would be a mass under statement."
The best part, aside from all the obvious awesomeness, is that Do I Hate Being Right All the Time won't break the bank: Shipped to the U.S., it'll only cost you £10 (about $12.22). Check out more images from the book here, and snag a copy for yourself here.


UPDATE: CONGRATULATIONS TO NATALIE PARK, OUR GIVEAWAY WINNER!
Before I got married and had a little one, I had all the time in the world. (Didn't we all?) I LOVED scrapbooking. No seriously, check this out. My "Bryan + Emily" scrapbook from back when I was Emily Cowan, not Emily Ley.
I know, I know, my hair was so blonde. And look at that photo where we're staring at each other. That was literally the moment we locked eyes at a (very romantic) sports bar and didn't stop talking the rest of the night. My friend Danielle captured that and it's one of my fave photos of all time. :) I digress!
So a major source of some serious Mommy guilt has been that I haven't scrapped the even more precious moments our family has had since Brady has joined our party of two. Sure, I've stuck the photos in a drawer or at least imported them into iPhoto, but I'm horrible at carving out time to make something extra magnificent like the album I made for Bryan and I way-back-when.
I started trying to think of innovative ways to document these precious years of our lives. Digital scrapbooking? (no time) Journaling? (no time) Then it dawned on me… I LOVE Instagram. It's such a fun way to share awesome moments from our days. And I've done a REALLY good job being addicted keeping up with it since Brady was born. Around the time I started being diligent about capturing special moments with Instagram, I was introduced to Becky Higgins. Surely I was the only person on the planet who didn't know about Project Life, but I was immediately enamored. Watch this video to see what it's all about.
What is Project Life? from Becky Higgins LLC on Vimeo.
You mean… these incredible scrapbooks I see everywhere are easy, simple and this gorgeous!? Becky and I exchanged a few emails and she so generously sent me a whole bundle of Project Life goodies. I was OVER THE MOON. So, one morning, while I was quarantined in bed with the flu (ugh), I ordered prints of nearly all my Instagram photos online as well as some extra Photo Pocket Pages – Design J so that the Instagram prints would fit perfectly. With Instagram + Project Life I was going to make it happen.
Then, last Saturday, when Brady went down for a nap at noon, I gathered all my Instagram prints, my Project Life pieces, and got to work. It was SO FUN going through each photo and remembering those special moments. One of my favorite things I've done is capture happy moments and pivotal moments (Brady's first doctor visit for a high fever or the moment we learned of the Sandy Hook tragedy and prayed for those families together in the back of my Explorer). One by one, I slipped them into the pages and wrote notes to go alongside them.
One hour later, I was done. FLOORED! I couldn't believe I'd just put together an ENTIRE "Brady since birth Instagram album" IN ONE HOUR! Brady was still napping!? With Project Life, there are an ARRAY of page styles and core kits (kits of gorgeous, colorful cards with cute designs and even prompts to write special notes and memories on them) so that you can really make your album as elaborate as you'd like it to be. For me, I wanted quick, simple, clean and joyful. The Honey Core Kit was perfect for that. Here are a few photos of my new Project Life Instagram Album. The next thing I'm going to do is print some photos from my "big camera" and work on some larger pages to put throughout this album.
Perhaps my favorite part about Project Life is what the brand stands for. This piece is inside all of Becky's albums. "Cultivate a good life and record it." I love that. That's what life is all about.
I'm so EXCITED to share that Becky and her team have offered to give a Project Life BUNDLE to one lucky winner here on my blog – everything you need to create your own Project Life album!!
One lucky winner will receive a Project Life Album, Core Kit of their choice and Photo Pocket Pages!
Winner will be selected at random on Wednesday, July 24 at NOON EST. Winner must be located in the US.
I'll start… my one memory that I'd really love to make happen is a visit to Clearwater Beach with both my boys. Brady and I went once earlier this summer and he LOVED it so much. I'd love for Bryan to see his little face light up when he finds new shells for the fish jar on his dresser or gets to eat his most favorite Superman ice cream barefoot on the Pier.
Adding to my album soon: Photo Pocket Pages – Big Pack of Design A (for larger photos I'll be printing from my "big camera" and some 3 x 4 cards from my Core Kit).
PPS: Special thanks to my amazing photog friends for many of the images I used in my album: Gina Zeidler, Shay Cochrane and Michael Newman.


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Q: Selecting Item inside Child Arrays Javascript I produce an array like this and I want to grab the first item in each of the child arrays:
arrayName = [[item1,item2,item3,item4],[item1,item2,item3,item4],[item1,item2,item3,item4]];

I'm trying this in a loop:
var num = arrayName.length;
for (i=0; i < num; i++) {
var title1 = arrayName[i][0];
}

But I get this on alert:
alert(title1);
=
[
[
[

I need:
alert(title1);
=
item1
item1
item1

I've tried using .nodeValue, .firstChild, etc but still not finding the answer. What's the right way?

A: var num = arrayName.length;
var title1 = new Array();
for (i=0; i < num; i++) {
title1.push(arrayName[i][0]);
}
console.log(title1);

Better?

A: You can the use the Array.prototype.map method.
var arrayName = [[item1,item2,item3,item4],[item1,item2,item3,item4],[item1,item2,item3,item4]];

var childrenArray = arrayName.map(function(childArray) { return childArray[0]; });

JSFiddle example

A: I found that it was how the array was being created. Each child array was being pushed into this array but it was detecting the [ as part of the string. Changing this push has solved my problem. Thanks for your input though :)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Siam Tea Blog
5 o' clock tea, afternoon tea, ancient trade routes of tea, Britisch tea culture, butter tea, East Frisian tea, East Frisian tea ceremony, East Frisian tea culture, high tea, middle east tea culture, tea culture, tea cultures, tea cultures of the middle east, tibetan tea culture, Trade routes of tea, trade routes of tea from China to Europe, trade routes of tea from China to Russia, turkish black tea, western tea culture, western tea cultures
Ancient Trade Routes of Tea from China to Europe, Russia and the Middle East
(Land and Sea) Routes of Tea Trade from China to Russia and Europe (click to enlarge)
1. Milestones of Tea on its way to Europe, Russia and the USA
1600 – First tea reaches Europe with Portuguese sailors and establishes at the Portuguese court
1610 – The newly established Dutch East India Company begins shipping green tea from Japan and black tea from China on sea route via Java to Holland. Especially the green tea suffers considerable loss of quality from exposure to the humid sea air on the long journey of at least 6 months.
1618 – In the same decade, Russian ambassador Vasily Storkov sends 200 boxes of tea from China to Russia as a present for his Tsar.
1644 – First tea delivered (100 pounds!) to England by the Dutch
1657 – First introduction of tea in England's nobility-reserved "Coffee Houses". The majority of these should soon be renamed "Tea Houses".
From 1669 – The British East India Company assumes increasing shares in the Asian trade. Finally, it acquires the monopoly for European sea trade with China – and thus for the tea trade of that time. The monopoly position continues until 1834.
1717 – Thomas Twining opens England's first tea shop in London.
Around 1750 – tea reaches East Frisia via Holland. There, a tea culture and tea ceremony develops, whose "Wulkje and Kluntje" today is not only a well-known term in the German tea sphere.
1773 – After the first British tea imports to the New World, tea begins its triumphal parade in America. There, the more popular tea becomes, the deeper Britain reaches into the pockets of American tea drinkers by constant increases of the import tax on tea. This leads to protests throughout the country, finally culminating on December 16, 1773.
December 16, 1773 – Members of the Masonic Lodge, the so-called "Boston Tea Party" dressed as Mohawks board the ships of the British East India Company lying in the harbor and drop 342 crates of tea in the sea. The event is generally considered a prelude to the American Revolutionary War.
1823 – British adventurer Robert Bruce encounters native tea trees in Assam. He establishes relations with the local tribes and opens the gate for tea imports from Assam to the British colonial empire.
1834 – British botanist Robert Fortune succeeds in smuggling tea plants from China to India on behalf of the British East India Company. These are nurtured in the botanical garden in Calcutta and propagated through cuttings for cultivation in India.
From about 1850 – The availability of tea from the Indian colony finally gives the United Kingdom far-reaching independence from China imports. In the aftermath, tea from India dominates the European market. At the same time, Europe's connection to tea imports from China gets almost completely lost. This is probably also the reason why the western tea cultures emerging from the middle of the 19th century hardly show any Chinese elements and characteristics.
Dock of the Dutch East India Company in Amsterdam
2. Western tea cultures
2.1. British tea culture as the "mother" of Western tea cultures
So, although it was the Portuguese and Dutch who first brought tea to Europe, it is mainly the British tea culture that has left its mark on Western tea cultures. Here, black tea is clearly the main focus. However, this is less owed to taste preferences than to given circumstances of that time. Green tea did not do very well, often taking many months to transport from Asia to Europe. Instead, especially the long storage period in damp ship's hull led to the green tea often being already moldy upon its arrival in Europe. In contrast, black tea is much more resistant to the negative effects of long and improper storage.
British tea clipper "Cutty Sark"
At first glance, the British tea culture does not show much Chinese influence. Instead, it has its own – British – aesthetics, follows its own – British – rules and incorporates its own – British – culinary environment. In turn, this reflects in a British style of tea ceramics, specific practices on relevant occasions, fixed regular daily tea times, and a given range of foods accompanying the same.
2.2. Introduction and development of tea culture in England
As the story goes, England's first prominent tea drinker was actually a Portuguese. Catherine of Braganza, scion of the Portuguese royal family, married King Charles II of England in 1662 and from then on lived with her husband at the British royal court. What she brought with her from Portugal was the tea, which was already popular at the court of the Portuguese seafaring nation at that time. Subsequently, Catherine became the first person to regularly celebrate afternoon tea at the British court.
Catherine de Braganza
After that, British tea culture received further promotion by British Queen Anne (Stuart, 1665-1714). Because of the poor quality of water at the English court at that time, boiled warm beer was the common morning beverage at the British court. It is said that Queen Anne replaced her morning warm beer with tea, in order to avoid the negative effects of alcohol on the remainder day. Allegedly, this role model significantly contributed to the diffusion of the tea drinking habit into broader segments of the population.
Coffee houses soon became tea houses, and tea quickly established as a special luxury of the British upper class. In 1783, when the previously extremely high tea tax was drastically reduced, tea became affordable for the general population. And the common people did not hesitate to follow in their royalty's footsteps….
2.3. The British tea ceremony
The British traditionally prefer strong black teas. At this, instruments of preparation are a teapot and a tea set, consisting of cups, creamer and sugar bowl. The predominant material here is porcelain.
At first, the tea leaves are poured over with hot water in the pot. After a few minutes of infusion, the tea is then distributed to the cups, while the tea leaves remain in the teapot with the remaining water. To prevent the tea from becoming too bitter after a longer period, hot water is added from time to time. Most Britons drink their tea with milk and sugar. That said, whether tea or milk is added to the cup first, or vice versa, is still an unresolved dispute between the supporters of both camps in England to this day.
5 o'clock tea
2.4. "5 o'clock tea" and "High Tea"
The regular tea break in the afternoon, namely "5 o'clock-tea", "Low Tea" or "Afternoon Tea", was introduced at the English court at the time of Queen Victoria by one of her court ladies. The same applies to the "High Tea", a synonym for the English dinner. Both "tea times" are accompanied by specific dishes, which are to be served in a predetermined order.
To this end, the "Afternoon Tea" comes with snack-like dishes in 3 courses. First, there are sandwiches, followed by scones with cream and jam, and finally candied fruits and chocolates. The high-tea dishes, on the other hand, are more savory: meat, pies and cooked vegetables, often topped off with a sweet dessert.
2.5. Other western tea cultures
Initially, the tea cultures of other western countries have little to add to this. Whether in Germany, France, Italy or the US, in most western countries tea culture seems to be little more than a localized version of the English variant. In addition, there are substantial shortcomings in the significance of tea culture within the respective societies. While the tea really means A LOT to the Brits, it doesn't mean much at all to the Germans (exception: East Frisia), French, Italians or Americans.
2.6. The East Frisian tea culture – "Wulkje" and "Kluntje"
Well, as usual, exceptions confirm the rule. One such exception is the East Frisian tea culture. Tea reached East Frisia through its large North Sea ports at a very early stage in the history of tea imports to Europe. The "rugged East Frisians" soon developed a preference for particularly strong black teas. And indeed, the typical "Ostriesentee" blend is so strong that one can hardly enjoy it without milk and sugar. It usually consists of a major share of Assam teas, with smaller portions of tea from Ceylon, Indonesia, Africa and / or Darjeeling.
The traditional ritual of preparing genuine East Frisian tea represents a tea ceremony of its own, the "Teetied". First, a large piece of candy is placed on the bottom of the teacup. After an infusion period of minimum 5 minutes, the hot tea is poured over the Kluntje, just enough so that the Kluntje still protrudes from the deep brown liquid. If it cracks while pouring, this is a sign that the tea is hot enough. Then cream is added in a circular motion along the edge of the cup in such way that it forms little clouds ("Wulkje"). Especially the latter requires a lot of practice for a successful effect!
East Frisian Tea Preparation / East Frisian Tea Ceremony – Sequence
With 300 liters of tea per capita per year, the East Frisians hold the official world-wide record in tea drinking. Even before England, before China, before Japan, before India and before all others. Therefore, as small as East Frisia might be, in comparison to Great Britain or even China, there is no way around the East Frisian tea culture when looking at the tea cultures of the world.
2.7. The way of tea to America
The way of tea to the newly discovered American continent was a predictable one. The British, then rulers of the New World, brought the tea from England to America. The high taxes imposed on tea there should represent a significant contribution to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War.
"Boston Tea Party" – prelude to the American Revolutionary War
On December 16, 1773, Boston citizens disguised as Mohawks storm a British tea clipper docking in the harbor and throw all the cargo into the sea. The event goes down in history as the "Boston Tea Party". Just over a year later, on April 19, 1775, the American Revolutionary War breaks out.
What the tea cultures of the world owe to American tea culture is the invention of the tea bag. This was invented in 1908 by an American tea merchant by accident. Actually, the purpose of the silk bags, in which he started packing his tea one day, was to save space and weight when transporting to the customer. These, however, thought that the silk bag was intended to facilitate the preparation of the tea … After clarifying the misunderstanding, the idea was retained and further developed in a purposeful way.
Invention and development of the tea bag
2.8. Y2K – Western tea culture in transition
Traditionally, Western tea culture is mainly about black tea. Therefore, black tea still represents the major share in tea consumption in western countries today. Nevertheless, the popularity of green tea in Western tea culture has been steadily increasing over the last decades. One reason for this is the lack of long transport routes due to developments in aviation. On the other hand, Western societies have been showing a sustainable health trend during this period. And Westerners do consider green tea as particularly healthy. However, even more crucial for the current transformation of Western tea cultures are 3 other, much more fundamental factors.
Modern communication technology, the concomitant globalization of economic activity and the spread of the English language as a world language have made the world a village. This applies equally to the availability of information and products. Anyone interested in tea in the West today will inevitably encounter a rich cultural and culinary wealth that is not covered by their own country's traditional tea culture. Adding to this is is the option of ordering tea online, either directly from the producer country or from newly emerging specialized traders on the Western markets. Thus, old and/or exotic tea cultures have become available for tea lovers in the West not only on an informational, but also on a physical level. Namely in the form of relevant teas, respectively.
Modern communication technology and economic globalization make tea widely available
Overall, we can say that for tea lovers in western countries, the gates to the world of tea have never been open that wide before. As a result, the tea culture in Western countries is no longer as uniform as it used to be. Instead, the big old tea cultures of the world have meanwhile found their way into western living rooms and heads. In Germany, for example, circles of dedicated enthusiasts have formed particularly around the Chinese and Japanese tea cultures. But even comparatively exotic tea cultures, such as the Moroccan or Tibetan one, have become common subjects of exploration by tea enthusiasts in the west.
3. Tea cultures in the Middle East and Eastern Europe
3.1. Land route instead of sea route – caravan tea
While the sea route was the primary route of tea from China and India to the west, there were also land routes for the spread of tea culture. At this, old caravan routes such as the famous "Silk Road" or the "Tea Horse Road" play a significant role.
Ancient Tea-Horse Road – since about 1000 AD
From around 1000 AD, caravans brought pressed tea from the Chinese provinces of Yunnan and Sichuan to Lhasa in the Tibetan highlands via the tea-horse road. And from there, traders spread it further east along the network of trails of the ancient Silk Road.
Trade routes of the ancient Silk Road
3.2. Tea cultures in the Near and Middle East
As a result, tea cultures emerged in the regions along the way, beginning with Tibet. There and in the neighboring highland regions of Nepal and Bhutan, the regional tea culture has developed in particular around the so-called "butter tea". This regional invention takes orientation directly on the local climate conditions and resulting culinary needs. Tibetans drink butter tea already for breakfast, usually not from cups, but from small bowls. Butter tea also accompanies all other meals of the day. At this, it is customary to refill a guest's cup as soon as they had a sip on it. Accordingly, one easily gets to drink ten bowls of butter tea or more in Tibet throughout the day.
Tibetan butter tea
Subsequent stops along the old caravan routes are countries like Saudi Arabia and Turkey, at the southern tip of the European continent. The countries of the Orient were unaware of both the culture of ancient China and that of modern Europe. Accordingly, they developed tea cultures of their own, rooted in the oriental-Muslim culture of Arabia.
Turkish black tea
An example of this is the Turkish black tea. Typical features of the pertaining tea culture are the use of glasses instead of cups, a tendency for strong sweetening and the role of tea houses as hubs of the social life.
3.3. Tea cultures in Eastern Europe
As early as the 17th century, caravans also brought tea directly from China by land to Russia. As a result, not only in Russia, but also in Mongolia, in Kazakhstan and in other countries located along the route of this route have each developed native tea cultures. These, like the tea cultures in the Near and Middle East, on the one hand have regional characteristics, while on the other hand they are linked by the divided culture of the Greater Region. For example, the samovar is a divided symbol of Eastern European tea cultures.
The samovar is the symbol of Russian and other tea cultures in Eastern Europe
Did you like Part 3 of our article trilogy "Discovery and Development of Tea as a Beverage – Tea Cultures of the World"? If so, then you might also want to read its part 1,
Discovery and Development of Tea as a Beverage in China
and part 2,
The Spread of Tea Culture in Asia
The Chen Family, Wuyishan – Yancha and Bohea Tea Cultivation in 3rd Generation

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Brandeis University's embattled Rose Art Museum finds itself without a fall show…again.
The Boston Globe reported today that James Rosenquist suddenly had second thoughts about supplying his works for a one-man show that had been hastily scheduled at the embattled museum after three other artists—Bill Viola, Eric Fischl and April Gornik—had abruptly pulled out of an exhibition of their works that had been scheduled to open in September. Their decision had been a gesture of protest against Brandeis' refusal to renounce any future sales of works from its collection to address the university's financial shortfalls.
featuring some of his massive paintings, along with other works.
the university not to sell works.
Brandeis insists that some kind of show will somehow go on, but two months is a paltry lead time for putting together a new loan show. It's almost a given that contemporary artists will be leery of cooperating with Brandeis after all the controversy and chaos.
I guess the staff (what's with that Audrey Flack picture?) may just have to rely on that permanent collection that the university has been thinking of selling and is now trying (at least in part) to monetize through Sotheby's-brokered rentals. Anything that forces the university to focus on the collection's educational value to its own community could be a good thing.
keen, experienced eyes of its caretakers.


This class is for those who already know how to play the Ukulele and want to go a step further . Learn Tablature reading on Ukulele, more familiarization with cords to apply on songs like,( Eric Clapton) Tears in heaven, Hawaiian wedding Song, Somewhere over the rainbow, ( Elvis)Can¡¦t Help Falling in Love. Etc. Some ukuleles available to use in class or bring your own.


text:
Discworld Reading Order
Publish Date: The Discworld is a fantastic series. However reading it in order of publication is generally ill-advised. We recommend the Watch arc for a more mature read and the Witches for the younger audience.
Rincewind
The Colour Of Magic
In the beginning there was…a turtle.
Somewhere on the frontier between thought and reality exists the Discworld, a parallel time and place which might sound and smell very much like our own, but which looks completely different. Particularly as it's carried though space on the back of a giant turtle (sex unknown). It plays by different rules.
But then, some things are the same everywhere. The Disc's very existence is about to be threatened by a strange new blight: the world's first tourist, upon whose survival rests the peace and prosperity of the land. Unfortunately, the person charged with maintaining that survival in the face of robbers, mercenaries and, well, Death, is a spectacularly inept wizard…
Plot Summary for The Colour Of Magic »
'What shall we do?' said Twoflower.
'Panic?' said Rincewind hopefully. He always held that panic was the best means of survival.
As it moves towards a seemingly inevitable collision with a malevolent red star, the Discworld could do with a hero. What it doesn't need is a singularly inept and cowardly wizard, still recovering from the trauma of falling off the edge of the world, or a well-meaning tourist and his luggage which has a mind (and legs) of its own. Which is a shame because that's all there is...
Plot Summary for The Light Fantastic »
Equal Rites
They say that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it is not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance.
The last thing the wizard Drum Billet did, before Death laid a bony hand on his shoulder, was to pass on his staff of power to the eighth son of an eighth son. Unfortunately for his colleagues in the chauvinistic (not to say misogynistic) world of magic, he failed to check that the baby in question was a son. Everybody knows that there's no such thing as a female wizard. But now it's gone and happened, there's nothing much anyone can do about it. Let the battle of the sexes begin...
Plot Summary for Equal Rites »
Death comes to us all. When he came to Mort, he offered him a job.
Henceforth, Death is no longer going to be the end, merely the means to an end. It's an offer Mort can't refuse. As Death's apprentice he'll have free board, use of the company horse - and being dead isn't compulsory. It's a dream job - until he discovers that it can be a killer on his love life...
Plot Summary for Mort »
All this books and stuff, that isn't what it should all be about. What we need is real wizardry.
There was an eighth son of an eighth son. He was, quite naturally, a wizard. And there it should have ended. However (for reasons we'd better not go into), he had seven sons. And then he had an eighth son... a wizard squared...a source of magic...a Sourcerer.
Unseen University has finally got what it wished for: the most powerful wizard on the disc. Which, unfortunately, could mean that the death of all wizardry is at hand. And that the world is going to end, depending on whom you listen to. Unless of course one inept wizard can take the University's most precious artefact, the very embodiment of magic itself, and deliver it halfway across the disc to safety...
Plot Summary for Sourcery »
Things like crowns had a troublesome effect on clever folks; it was best to leave all the reigning to the kind of people whose eyebrows met in the middle.
Three witches gathered on a lonely heath. A king cruelly murdered, his throne usurped by his ambitious cousin. A child heir and the crown of the kingdom, both missing…
Witches don't have these kind of dynastic problems themselves – in fact, they don't have leaders. Granny Weatherwax was the most highly-regarded of the leaders they didn't have. But even she found that meddling in royal politics was a lot more complicated than certain playwrights would have you believe, particularly when the blood on your hands just won't wash off and you're facing a future with knives in it...
Plot Summary for Wyrd Sisters »
'Look after the dead', said the priests, 'and the dead will look after you.'
Wise words in all probability, but a tall order when, like Teppic, you have just become the pharaoh of a small and penniless country rather earlier than expected, and your treasury is unlikely to stretch to the building of a monumental pyramid to honour your dead father.
He'd had the best education money could buy of course, but unfortunately the syllabus at the Assassin's Guild in Ankh-Morpork did not cover running a kingdom and basic financial acumen...
Plot Summary for Pyramids »
Guards! Guards!
'Vimes ran a practised eye over the assortment before him. It was the usual Ankh-Morpork mob in times of crisis; half of them were here to complain, a quarter of them were here to watch the other half, and the remainder were here to rob, importune or sell hotdogs to the rest.'
Insurrection is in the air in Ankh-Morpork. The Haves and Have-Nots are about to fall out all over again. Captain Sam Vimes of the city's ramshackle Night Watch is used to this. It's enough to drive a man to drink. Well, to drink more. But this time, something is different – the Have-Nots have found the key to a dormant, lethal weapon that even they don't fully understand, and they're about to unleash a campaign of terror on the city. Time for Captain Vimes to sober up.
Plot Summary for Guards! Guards! »
Eric calls up a demon to grant him three wishes - but what he gets is the Discworld's most incompetent wizard...
Eric is the Discworld's only demonology hacker. The trouble is, he's not very good at it. All he wants is the usual three wishes: to be immortal, rule the world and have the most beautiful woman fall madly in love with him. The usual stuff.
But what he gets is Rincewind, the Disc's most incompetent wizard, and Rincewind's Luggage (the world's most dangerous travel accessory) into the bargain.
Terry Pratchett's hilarious take on the Faust legend stars many of the Discworld's most popular characters in an outrageous adventure that will leave Eric wishing once more - this time, quite fervently, that he'd never been born.
Plot Summary for Eric »
'Holy Wood is a different sort of place. People act differently here. Everywhere else the most important things are gods or money or cattle. Here, the most important thing is to be important.'
Alchemists have always thought that they can change reality, shape it to their own purpose. Imagine then the damage that could be wrought on the Discworld if they get their hands on the ultimate alchemy: the invention of motion pictures, the greatest making of illusions. It may be a triumph of universe-shaking proportions. It's either that or they're about to unlock the dark secret of the Holy Wood hills - by mistake...
Plot Summary for Moving Pictures »
Reaper Man
'Death has to happen. That's what bein' alive is all about. You're alive, and then you're dead. It can't just stop happening.'
But it can. And it has. Death is missing – presumed…er…gone (and on a little farm far, far away, a tall dark stranger is turning out to be really good with a scythe). Which leads to the kind of chaos you always get when an important public service is withdrawn. If Death doesn't come for you, then what are you supposed to do in the meantime? You can't have the undead wandering about like lost souls. There's no telling what might happen, particularly when they discover that life really is only for the living...
Plot Summary for Reaper Man »
Witches Abroad
'Things have to come to an end, see. That's how it works when you turn the world into stories. You should never have done that. You shouldn't treat people like they was characters, like they was things. But if you do, then you've got to know where the story ends.'
It seemed an easy job... After all, how difficult could it be to make sure that a servant girl doesn't marry a prince? Quite hard, actually, even for the witches Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick. That's the problem with real life – it tends to get in the way of a good story, and a good story is hard to resist. Servant girls have to marry the prince. That's what life is all about. You can't fight a Happy Ending, especially when it comes with glass slippers and a Fairy Godmother who has made Destiny an offer it can't refuse.
At least - up until now...
Plot Summary for Witches Abroad »
'Just because you can't explain it, doesn't mean it's a miracle.'
In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was: 'Hey, you!' This is the Discworld, after all, and religion is a controversial business. Everyone has their own opinion, and indeed their own gods, of every shape and size, and all elbowing for space at the top. In such a competitive environment, shape and size can be pretty crucial to make one's presence felt. So it's certainly not helpful to be reduced to appearing in the form of a tortoise, a manifestation far below god-like status in anyone's book.
In such instances, you need an acolyte, and fast: for the Great God Om, Brutha the novice is the Chosen One – or at least the only One available. He wants peace and justice and brotherly love. He also wants the Inquisition to stop torturing him now, please...
Plot Summary for Small Gods »
Lords and Ladies
The fairies are back – but this time they don't just want your teeth…
It's Midsummer Night - no time for dreaming. Because sometimes, when there's more than one reality at play, too much dreaming can make the walls between them come tumbling down. Unfortunately there's usually a damned good reason for there being walls between them in the first place - to keep things out. Things who want to make mischief and play havoc with the natural order.
Granny Weatherwax and her tiny coven are up against real elves. And even in a world of dwarfs, wizards, trolls, Morris dancers and the odd orang-utan, this is going to cause real trouble. With lots of hey-nonny-nonny and blood all over the place.
Plot Summary for Lords and Ladies »
'What's so hard about pulling a sword out of a stone? The real work's already been done. You ought to make yourself useful and find the man who put the sword in the stone in the first place.'
The City Watch needs MEN! But what it's got includes Corporal Carrot (technically a dwarf), Lance-constable Cuddy (really a dwarf), Lance-constable Detritus (a troll), Lance-constable Angua (a woman... most of the time) and Corporal Nobbs (disqualified from the human race for shoving).
And they need all the help they can get, because someone in Ankh-Morpork has been getting dangerous ideas - about crowns and legendary swords, and destiny. And the problem with destiny is, of course, that she is not always careful where she points her finger. One minute you might be minding your own business on a normal if not spectacular career path, the next you might be in the frame for the big job, like saving the world...
Plot Summary for Men at Arms »
This is a story about sex and drugs and Music With Rocks In.
Being sixteen is always difficult, even more so when there's a Death in the family. After all, it's hard to grow up normally when Grandfather rides a white horse and wields a scythe. Especially if he decides to take a well-earned moment to uncover the meaning of life and discover himself in the process, so that you have to take over the family business, and everyone mistakes you for the Tooth Fairy.
And especially when you have to face the new and addictive music that has entered Discworld. It's lawless. It changes people. It's got a beat and you can dance to it.
It's called Music With Rocks In.
And it won't fade away.
Plot Summary for Soul Music »
'A foot on the neck is nine points of the law'
There are many who say that the art of diplomacy is an intricate and complex dance. There are others who maintain that it's merely a matter of who carries the biggest stick. The oldest and most inscrutable (not to mention heavily fortified) empire on the Discworld is in turmoil, brought about by the revolutionary treatise What I did on My Holidays. Workers are uniting, with nothing to lose but their water buffaloes; warlords are struggling for power - and what the nation wants, to avoid terrible doom for everyone, is a wizard. Rincewind is not the Disc's premier wizard – in fact, he can't even spell 'wizard' – but no-one specified whether competence was an issue. And they do have a very big stick…
Mighty Battles! Revolution! Death! War! (And his sons Terror and Panic and daughter Clancy).
Plot Summary for Interesting Times »
'I thought: opera, how hard can it be? Songs. Pretty girls dancing. Nice scenery. Lots of people handing over cash. Got to be better than the cut-throat world of yoghurt, I thought. Now everwhere I go there's...'
Death, to be precise. And plenty of it. In unpleasant variations. This isn't real life – it's worse. This is the Opera House, Ankh-Morpork...a huge, rambling building, where innocent young sopranos are lured to their destiny by a strangely-familiar evil mastermind in a mask and evening dress, with a penchant for lurking in shadows, occasional murder, and sending little notes full of maniacal laughter and exclamation marks. Opera can do that to a man.
But Granny Weatherwax, Discworld's most famous witch, is in the audience. And she doesn't hold with that sort of thing. So there's going to be trouble (but nevertheless a good evenin's entertainment with murders you can really hum...). And the show MUST go on.
Plot Summary for Maskerade »
'Sorry?' said Carrot. If it's just a thing, how can it commit murder? A sword is a thing' - he drew his own sword; it made an almost silken sound - 'and of course you can't blame a sword if someone thrust it at you, sir.'
For Commander Vimes, Head of Ankh-Morpork City Watch, life consists of troubling times, linked together by…well, more troubling times. Right now, it's the latter. There's a werewolf with pre-lunar tension in the city, and a dwarf with attitude and a golem who's begun to think for itself, but that's just ordinary trouble. The real problem is more puzzling - people are being murdered, but there's no trace of anything alive having been at the crime scene. So Vimes not only has to find out whodunit, but howdunit too. He's not even sure what they dun. But soon as he knows what the questions are, he's going to want some answers.
Plot Summary for Feet of Clay »
Susan had never hung up a stocking . She'd never put a tooth under her pillow in the serious expectation that a dentally inclined fairy would turn up. It wasn't that her parents didn't believe in such things. They didn't need to believe in them. They know they existed. They just wished they didn't.
It's the night before Hogswatch. And it's too quiet.
Where is the big jolly fat man? There are those who believe and those who don't, but either way it's not right to find Death creeping down chimneys and trying to say Ho Ho Ho. Superstition makes things work in Discworld, and undermining it can have Consequences, particularly on the last night of the year when the time is turning. Susan the gothic governess has got to sort everything out by morning, otherwise there won't be a morning. Ever again...
The 20th Discworld novel is a festive feast of darkness and Death (but with jolly robins and tinsel too). As they say: 'You'd better watch out...'
Plot Summary for Hogfather »
'Neighbours... hah. People'd live for ages side by side, nodding at one another amicably on their way to work, and then some trivial thing would happen and someone would be having a garden fork removed from their ear.'
And when the neighbours in question are the proud empires of Klatch and Ankh-Morpork, those are going to be some pretty large garden tools indeed. Of course, no-one would dream of starting a war without a perfectly good reason…such as a 'strategic' piece of old rock in the middle of nowhere. It is after all every citizen's right to bear arms to defend what they consider to be their own. Even if it isn't. And even if they don't have much in the way of actual weaponry. As two armies march, Commander Vimes of Ankh-Morpork City Watch faces unpleasant foes who are out to get him... and that's just the people on his side. The enemy might be even worse.
Discworld goes to war, with armies of sardines, warriors, fishermen, squid and at least one very camp follower.
Plot Summary for Jingo »
The Last Continent
'Anything you do in the past changes the future. The tiniest little actions have huge consequences. You might tread on an ant now and it might entirely prevent someone from being born in the future.'
There's nothing like the issue of evolution to get under the skin of academics. Even if their field of expertise is magic rather than biology. With the best and most interfering minds of Unseen University somehow left in charge at a critical evolutionary turning point, the Discworld's last continent needs a saviour…
Who is this hero striding across the red desert? Sheep shearer, beer drinker, bush ranger, and someone who'll even eat a Meat Pie Floater when he's sober.
In fact, it's Rincewind, a wizard so inept he can't even spell wizard. He's the only hero left.
Still...no worries, eh?
Plot Summary for The Last Continent »
In this and indeed other lives there are givers and takers. It's safe to say that vampires are very much in the latter camp. They don't have much time for the givers of this world – except perhaps mealtimes – and even less for priests.
Mightily Oats has not picked a good time to be a priest.
Lancre's newest residents are a thoroughly modern, sophisticated vampire family. They've got style and fancy waistcoats. They're out of the casket and want a bite of the future. But they haven't met the neighbours yet: between them and Lancre stand Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg. And Magrat, who is trying to combine witchcraft and nappies. And young Agnes, although she is really in two minds about everything.
Mightily Oats knows he has a prayer, but he wishes he had an axe.
Plot Summary for Carpe Jugulum »
They say that diplomacy is a gentle art. That mastering it is a lifetime's work. But you do need a certain inclination in that direction. It's not something you can just pick up on the job.
A few days ago Sam Vimes was a copper – an important copper, true – chief of police – but still, at his core, a policeman. But today he is an ambassador - to the mysterious, fat-rich country of Uberwald. Today, Sam Vimes is also a man on the run.
He has nothing but his native wit and the gloomy trousers of Uncle Vanya (don't ask). It's snowing. It's freezing. And if he can't make it through the forest to civilization there's going to be a terrible war.
There are monsters on his trail. They're bright. They're fast. They're werewolves - and they're catching up.
Plot Summary for The Fifth Elephant »
William de Worde is the accidental editor of the Discworld's first newspaper. New printing technology means that words just won't obediently stay nailed down like usual. There's a very real threat of news getting out there.
Now he must cope with the traditional perils of a journalist's life - people who want him dead, a recovering vampire with a suicidal fascination for flash photography, some more people who want him dead in a different way and, worst of all, the man who keeps begging him to publish pictures of his humorously shaped potatoes.
William just wants to get at THE TRUTH. Unfortunately, everyone else wants to get at William. And it's only the third edition...
Plot Summary for The Truth »
The Thief of Time
Time is a resource. Everyone knows it has to be managed. You mess with it at your peril. You can let it move fast or slowly but what you mustn't do is allow it to stop.
On the Discworld time management is the job of the Monks of History, who store it and pump it from the places where it's wasted (like the underwater - how much time does a codfish need?) to places like cities, where there's never enough time.
But the construction of the world's first truly accurate clock starts a race against, well, time for Lu Tze and his apprentice Lobsang Ludd. Because it will stop time. And when time stands still, everything stops with it. Then, there really is no future.
Plot Summary for The Thief of Time »
The Last Hero
He's been a legend in his own lifetime. He can remember the great days of high adventure. He can remember when people didn't tell you off for killing dragons. But he can't always remember, these days, where he put his teeth.
Now, Cohen the Barbarian is going on one final quest. He's going to climb the highest mountain in the Discworld and meet his gods. He doesn't like the way they let men grow old and die. The last hero in the world is going to return what the first hero stole. With a vengeance.
That'll mean the end of world, if no one stops him in time. Someone is going to try. So who knows who the last hero really is?
Plot Summary for The Last Hero »
The Amazing Maurice And His Educated Rodents
IT'S A RAT-EAT-RAT WORLD . . .
Every town on Discworld knows the stories about rats and pipers, and Maurice – a streetwise tomcat – leads a band of educated ratty friends (and a stupid kid) on a nice little earner. Piper plus rats equals lots and lots of money.
Until they run across someone playing a different tune.
Now he and his rats must learn a new concept: evil . . .
Plot Summary for The Amazing Maurice And His Educated Rodents »
'Don't put your trust in revolutions. They always come round again. That's why they're called revolutions. People die, and nothing changes.'
For a policeman, there can be few things worse than a serial killer loose in your city. Except, perhaps, a serial killer who targets coppers, and a city on the brink of bloody revolution.
For Commander Sam Vimes, it all feels horribly familiar. He's back in his own rough, tough past without even the clothes he was standing up in when the lightning struck. Living in the past is hard. But he must survive, because he has a job to do. He must track down the murderer and change the outcome of the rebellion.
The problem is: if he wins, he's got no wife, no child, no future...
A Discworld Tale of One City, with a full chorus of street urchins, ladies of negotiable affection, rebels, secret policemen and other children of the revolution.
Truth! Justice! Freedom! And a Hard-boiled Egg!
Plot Summary for Night Watch »
The Wee Free Men
A nightmarish danger threatens from the other side of reality . . .
Armed with only a frying pan and her common sense, young witch-to-be Tiffany Aching must defend her home against the monsters of Fairyland. Luckily she has some very unusual help: the local Nac Mac Feegle – aka the Wee Free Men – a clan of fierce, sheep-stealing, sword-wielding, six-inch-high blue men.
Together they must face headless horsemen, ferocious grimhounds, terrifying dreams come true, and ultimately the sinister Queen of the Elves herself . . .
Plot Summary for The Wee Free Men »
Monstrous Regiment
'Trousers. That's the secret...Put on trousers and the world changes. We walk different. We act different. I see these girls and I think: idiots! Get yourself some trousers!'
Women belong in the kitchen - everyone knows that. Not in jobs, pubs or indeed trousers, and certainly not on the front line. Polly Perks has to become a boy in a hurry if she wants to find her brother in the army. Cutting off her hair and wearing the trousers is easy. Learning to fart and belch in public and walk like an ape takes more time. And there's a war on. There's always a war on. Polly and her fellow raw recruits are suddenly in the thick of it.
All they have on their side is the most artful sergeant in the army and a vampire with a lust for coffee. Well . . . they have the Secret. And it's time to make a stand.
Plot Summary for Monstrous Regiment »
A Hat Full of Sky
Something is coming after Tiffany . . .
Tiffany Aching is ready to begin her apprenticeship in magic. She expects spells and magic – not chores and ill-tempered goats! Surely there must be more to witchcraft than this!
What Tiffany doesn't know is that an insidious, disembodied creature is pursuing her. This time, neither Mistress Weatherwax (the greatest witch in the world) nor the fierce, six-inch-high Wee Free Men can protect her. In the end, it will take all of Tiffany's inner strength to save herself . . . if it can be done at all.
Plot Summary for A Hat Full of Sky »
The post was an old thing, of course, but it was so old that it had magically become new again.
Moist von Lipwig is a con artist and a fraud and a man faced with a life choice: be hanged, or put Ankh-Morpork's ailing postal service back on its feet.
It's a tough decision.
The post is a creaking old institution, overshadowed by new technology. But there are people who still believe in it, and Moist must become one of them if he's going to see that the mail gets though, come rain, hail, sleet, dogs, the Post Office Workers Friendly and Benevolent Society, the evil chairman of the Grand Trunk Semaphore Company, and a midnight killer.
Getting a date with Adora Bell Dearheart would be nice, too.
Perhaps there's a shot at redemption in the mad world of the mail, waiting for a man who's prepared to push the envelope...
Plot Summary for Going Postal »
Thud!
'Some people would be asking: whose side are you on? If you're not for us, you're against us. Huh. If you're not an apple, you're a banana'
Koom Valley, the ancient battle where the trolls ambushed the dwarfs, or the dwarfs ambushed the trolls, was a long time ago.
But if he doesn't solve the murder of just one dwarf, Commander Sam Vimes of Ankh-Morpork City Watch is going to see it fought again, right outside his office.
With his beloved Watch crumbling around him and war-drums sounding, he must unravel every clue, outwit every assassin and brave any darkness to find the solution. And darkness is following him.
Oh . . . and at six o'clock every day, without fail, with no excuses, he must go home to read 'Where's My Cow?', with all the right farmyard noises, to his little boy.
There are some things you have to do.
Plot Summary for Thud! »
'Crivens!'
Tiffany Aching put one foot wrong, made just one little mistake . . .
And now the spirit of winter is in love with her. He gives her roses and icebergs and showers her with snowflakes, which is tough when you're thirteen, but also just a little bit . . . cool.
And if Tiffany doesn't work out how to deal with him, there will never be another springtime . . .
Crackling with energy and humour, Wintersmith is the third tale in a sequence about Tiffany Aching and the Wee Free Men - the Nac Mac Feegles who are determined to help Tiffany, whether she wants it or not.
Plot Summary for Wintersmith »
It's an offer you can't refuse. Who would not to wish to be the man in charge of Ankh-Morpork's Royal Mint and the bank next door? It's a job for life. But, as former con-man Moist von Lipwig is learning, the life is not necessarily for long. The Chief Cashier is almost certainly a vampire. There's something nameless in the cellar (and the cellar itself is pretty nameless), it turns out that the Royal Mint runs at a loss. A 300 year old wizard is after his girlfriend, he's about to be exposed as a fraud, but the Assassins Guild might get him first. In fact lot of people want him dead Oh. And every day he has to take the Chairman for walkies.Everywhere he looks he's making enemies.What he should be doing is . . . Making Money!
Plot Summary for Making Money »
Football has come to the ancient city of Ankh-Morpork. And now, the wizards of Unseen University must win a football match, without using magic, so they're in the mood for trying everything else. This is not going to be a gentleman's game.
The prospect of the Big Match draws in a street urchin with a wonderful talent for kicking a tin can, a maker of jolly good pies, a dim but beautiful young woman, who might just turn out to be the greatest fashion model there has ever been, and the mysterious Mr Nutt (and no one knows anything much about Mr Nutt, not even Mr Nutt). As the match approaches, four lives are entangled and changed for ever.
Because the thing about football - the important thing about football - is that it is not just about football.
Here we go! Here we go! Here we go!
Plot Summary for Unseen Academicals »
As the witch of the Chalk, Tiffany Aching performs the distinctly unglamorous work of caring for the needy. But someone – or something – is inciting fear, generating dark thoughts and angry murmurs against witches.
Tiffany must find the source of unrest and defeat the evil at its root. Aided by the tiny-but-tough Wee Free Men, Tiffany faces a dire challenge, for if she falls, the whole Chalk falls with her . . .
Plot Summary for I Shall Wear Midnight »
This is the countryside, after all. Everyone sees where you go and you never know who is behind a hedge.
And if you're very unlucky, the person behind the hedge could have very unfriendly intentions. It may look idyllic, but the countryside isn't all flowers and thatched cottages and bracing walks in your best tweed. Beneath the greenery lies a dark underbelly, and there's something about rambling country houses that attracts dastardly plots and grisly murder. A challenge for any detective, but especially for one bred in the city who doesn't understand the Way Things Are Done. In the countryside, people know their place, and everyone else's place too, especially if it's beneath their own. And they have some rather old fashioned ideas about people who are different from them.
Plot Summary for Snuff »
Raising Steam
It's all change for Moist von Lipwig, swindler, conman, and (naturally) head of the Royal Bank and Post Office.
A steaming, clanging new invention, driven by Dick Simnel, the man with t'flat cap and t'sliding rule, is drawing astonished crowds - including a few particularly keen young men armed with notepads and very sensible rainwear – and suddenly it's a matter of national importance that the trains run on time.
Moist does not enjoy hard work. His . . .vital input at the bank and post office consists mainly of words, which are not that heavy. Or greasy. And it certainly doesn't involve rickety bridges, runaway cheeses or a fat controller with knuckledusters. What he does enjoy is being alive, which may not be a perk of running the new railway. Because, of course, some people have OBJECTIONS, and they'll go to extremes to stop locomotion in its tracks.
Plot Summary for Raising Steam »
A SHIVERING OF WORLDS
Deep in the Chalk, something is stirring. The owls and the foxes can sense it, and Tiffany Aching feels it in her boots. An old enemy is gathering strength.
This is a time of endings and beginnings, old friends and new, a blurring of edges and a shifting of power. Now Tiffany stands between the light and the dark, the good and the bad.
As the fairy horde prepares for invasion, Tiffany must summon all the witches to stand with her. To protect the land. Her land.
There will be a reckoning . . .
Plot Summary for The Shepherd's Crown »
© 2021 - Discworld Reading Order


On this day in 1968 the Nobel Prize–winning novelist John Steinbeck died. His groundbreaking book, of course, was The Grapes of Wrath, published in 1939. Critics of literary celebrity in the 21st century would do well to read the essay on Steinbeck published in The Nation that November, written by then–literary editor Margaret Marshall, which addresses the question of whether Steinbeck would let the fame go to his head and whether the film version of the novel then in production would violate the spirit of his work.
"The Grapes of Wrath" is now being filmed. Mr. Steinbeck told Darryl Zanuck in a reported interview that he was keeping in reserve the $75,000 he got for the movie rights and intended to sue if the picture violates the theme and spirit of the book. Mr. Zanuck told Mr. Steinbeck that he had had detectives investigate the plight of the Okies and had been informed that conditions were much worse than Steinbeck pictures them. This suggests a new social use for detectives which only a Hollywood producer would have thought up.


text:
The One Food That Will Ruin Your First Date in Minnesota
Curt St. John
Curt St. John Published: June 5, 2021
If you order THIS food while you're on a date, it could make it much tougher to get a second date!
There is no shortage of foods out there that can be off-putting, especially if you're on a first date and you're trying to be on your best behavior and put your best foot forward. Ordering foods that are heavy on garlic isn't a good idea. Nor is taking your date to a restaurant that's known for having a more exotic menu (unless you know ahead of time they like that kind of food.)
But if you order THIS food, over half of Minnesotans say it's a deal-breaker and will pretty much kill your chances of going out with them again. What is it? It's ordering a well-done steak.
That's right, if you order a big 'ol t-bone steak but request that it's cooked well-done, well, goodnight, take the 'l' out of loverboy, it's over, boy. At least, that's the word from this new survey conducted by OnePoll on behalf of JBS USA.
It says that out of 2,000 people surveyed, 53 percent of them claim they wouldn't date someone who liked their steak prepared in a different way than they did-- especially if that steak is prepared well-done.
Now, it also noted that here in Minnesota (and across the Midwest), 3 out of 4 respondents are so particular about how their steak is prepared, they'd rather grill it themselves! (I've been to those grill-your-own-steak restaurants, but I always find myself worried I'm going to ruin it-- I'd rather have the pros at the restaurant cook it for me...)
There is some good news, though. The survey also claimed that 62 percent of us here in Minnesota are willing to pretty much eat whatever is put in front of us while on a date, even if we wouldn't necessarily order it ourselves while out at a restaurant.
Speaking of restaurants, is there anything better than grabbing a bite to out while sitting outside during the summer here in Minnesota? Keep scrolling to check out the restaurants with the best outdoor seating here in Rochester!
Listen to Curt St. John mornings from 6 to 10 on Quick Country 96.5
and afternoons from 2 to 6 on 103.9 The Doc
14 Rochester Restaurants with the Best Outdoor Seating
Eating out on the patio at a restaurant is one of the best ways to enjoy warm weather in Minnesota. Check out the 14 Rochester, Minnesota restaurants with the best outdoor seating (in no particular order).
Source: The One Food That Will Ruin Your First Date in Minnesota
Filed Under: Dating, food, Minnesota, Restaurants
Categories: Lifestyle


Today is the day! The day of ALL THE COOKIES.
It's the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap and these peppermint slice and bake cookies of an ombré nature are my contribution. It's classic meets newfangled (is ombré even newfangled anymore? Do people even say "newfangled" anymore? My age is showing). It's Christmas meets cookie meets get in my belly meets YUM.
The inspiration for this recipe comes from the cover of the December issue of Bon Appétit, which literally made me gasp with glee when I first saw it. The recipe in that issue for those particular cookies sounds pretty fantastic, but I needed a cookie that would hold up well being shipped cross-country, ergo the peppermint slice and bake route. I assure you, though, nothing was compromised in that decision.
I baked up a ton (no seriously, like A TON.) of these cookies and sent them on their merry way to Charles, Amber and Christy, and brought a few extra to a cookie exchange that weekend. The rest went to work with my husband, and a few also made their way into my belly. For quality control purposes, of course.
To me came giant chocolate cookies from Robin, oatmeal pumpkin cookies from Kathleen and gluten free no-bake dreamsicle cookies from Heidi. All of them are incredibly good and I can't stop eating them, even though I've stashed them in the back of the freezer in hopes to keep myself from going full-on Cookie Monster. It has not gone well.
My contribution to the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap, these cookies, requires a little bit of love and patience and time to put together, but they are worth every minute and bit of energy. Because in the end, you get a cookie so festive, so delicately peppermint-y, so delightfully ombré that you can't help but share them with others. But keep some for yourself too, obviously. After all that hard work, you certainly deserve one or five.
So can we have this cookie swap, like, once a month? KTHANKSBYEEEEE.
In very large bowl, cream sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add milk, vanilla, peppermint extract and eggs; stir to combine. Add flour, baking powder and salt. Stir until just combined.
Divide dough into 6 equal pieces; place each piece in separate small bowl. Dye 1 piece light green, another piece slightly darker green and another even darker green. Dye another piece light red, another piece slightly dark red and another even darker red.* Shape each piece into 7-by-7-inch square; wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 4 hours.
Unwrap chilled dough and place on lightly floured surface. Starting with lightest red dough, brush top of dough square lightly with water. Top with slightly darker red dough, lining up edges. Press down slightly to adhere dough. Brush top of dough square lightly with water, then top with darkest red dough, lining up edges. Press down lightly to adhere dough. Cut dough in half, then brush top of one half with water. Top with other half, lining up edges, and press down firmly to approximately 4-inch tall rectangle. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate 30 minutes. Repeat with green dough.
Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Chill cookies in fridge 20 minutes or freezer 10 minutes, then brush tops with egg wash. Sprinkle with sparkling sugar, if desired. Bake 13 to 15 minutes until edges are set. Cool on baking sheet 5 minutes, then transfer to cooling rack to cool completely. If desired, trim edges of fully cooled cookies for straight edges.
*NOTE: To dye each piece of dough, I used a stand mixer with the paddle attachment and beat the dye into the dough, working from lightest to darkest shades, cleaning the bowl and the paddle between red and green colors.
So gorgeous dear! I love that you pulled inspiration from a magazine cover and made these cookies your own to work for the swap. Cheers to eating all the cookies and raising money for a great cause!
These are TOTALLY gorgeous Stephanie! Bon Appetit has nothing on you!! Happy Holidays!
These are so cool!!! I would have loved to receive beauties like this! Amazing girl!
These are so pretty and creative! I love participating in the swap and checking out everyone's amazing cookies!
I'm sort of obsessed with these. So pretty!!
Question–I do not like to make peppermint flavored cookies because I always give assorted gift tins, and I find that if I use peppermint, everything smells of peppermint.
Do you think these cookies would work with almond flavoring, or do you have other suggestions?
These are really fun! I made a batch and when stacking the dough I had about 2" in height (recipe says it should be 4"). Typo? They are so pretty & tasty! Thanks for sharing.


Def Leppard members Joe Elliott and Phil Collen were interviewed in Japan in November 2016 and a new TV special will air this weekend.
Music Air TV in Japan will premiere the 30 minute 'Masa Ito - Def Leppard Special' on Sunday 5th February.
The show features Joe and Phil being interviewed by legendary journalist and presenter Masanori "Masa" Ito. A longer version of a shorter interview that has already been shown.
Masa presented the band with their Classic Rock Album Of The Year award in November 2016 when this interview was filmed.
According to the news quote from the channel and from Barks Music Network one song from the new DVD will be included as well (Let's Get Rocked).
The DVD/Blu-ray/2CD was released in Japan on 27th January.
Joe and Phil also appeared on a 90 minute special with Masa Ito in November 2015 which featured interviews and 'Let's Go' live from the Tokyo show.
"Masanori Ito delivered a new type of Western music lock special program that had never existed before! We will send you the latest information such as the latest album, precious live video before release, exclusive interview of the artist!"
"The exclusive interview of Phil Collin & Joe Eliot of Def Leppard from the first broadcast in 2017 has been on air for four consecutive weeks, but this" Rock TV! Def Leppard special feature "is 4 It was re-edited by putting an unpublished part that could not be entered by the times broadcast."
"It is full of highlights that Masanori Ito is sharply questioning that the album "Def Lepard" was selected as Album Of The Year with and about the condition of Joe's throat It's 30 minutes."
"In this broadcasting, "Let's Get Rock" from among the latest live work "And · There Will Be A Next Time · ... Live From · Detroit" which was just released in Detroit Famous songs such as 'Let's Go', 'Animal' and 'Photograph' are scheduled to appear, also decided to be on TV first public & full on air. looking forward to."


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What happened to the America we grew up in, the America of Truman, Ike, JFK and Reagan?
Can we please stop romanticizing farming?
And on the ninth day, God created farm subsidies.
David Harsanyi
Reading reviews of Super Bowl XLVII, it seems there is a consensus that the standout commercial on Sunday was a Dodge Ram ad called "God Made a Farmer" (see video below). And it�??s a beautiful ad, featuring still shots of hardscrabble life in the American Midwest and a speech by the late broadcaster Paul Harvey celebrating the noble farmer (first given to the Future Farmers of America back in 1978): �??God said, �??I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, milk cows, work all day in the fields, milk cows again, eat supper, then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the school board.�?�
I hate school board meetings as much as the next guy, but with the technological advances we've seen in agriculture and the remarkable boom in productivity, God probably doesn�??t need the same level of commitment from the farmer anymore. It's this kind of romanticizing of agriculture — in movies, literature, ads, and politics �?? that makes it nearly impossible to shoo the industry away from government trough. Farmers aren�??t doing you a favor; they�??re selling you something.
Actually, most of them are doing quite well. That's great. So there is no reason that farmers �?? a minority to them to sure, but still �?? should be addicted to taxpayer funded corporate welfare. There are an array of jobs Americans undertake just as vital to the nation as farming, many of them in industries struggling to survive, many of them taking on far more risk, yet agriculture is the only vocation I can think of in the private sector that is treated as if it were a form of patriotism.
Pre-order David Harsanyi's new book Obama's Four Horsemen: The Disasters Unleashed by Obama's Reelection
�??If you want to become rich,�?� Jim Rogers, the noted investor once said: �??Become a farmer.�?�
Small farms are dying because they can�??t compete with the productivity of larger competitors, a reality that many other industries wrestle with — and from which many consumers inevitably benefit. But even if farm subsidies were intended to alleviate rural poverty and disparity within the industry, then why do most go to commercial farms with average incomes of $200,000 to nearly $2 million? As Robert Samuelson recently pointed out:
Symbolic of the debate we're not having about government's size and role — the essence of the deficit problem — is the future of farm subsidies. Running $10 billion to $15 billion annually, they don't do much good. For starters, they haven't saved small farms. Since the 1930s, when subsidies began, the number of farms is down 70 percent. Nor do farmers need subsidies to stay profitable. Farmers' income for 2011 and 2012 ($135 billion and $133 billion, respectively) were the highest and second-highest ever and would have been without subsidies.
Taxpayers spend about $7 billion a year on crop insurance alone, the largest farm subsidy, as if the industry apparently has the God-given right to operate in certainty. The Department of Agriculture hands out from $10 billion to $30 billion in cash to farmers every year �?? depending on the vagaries of the world around them.
Only 10 percent of farmers collect 75 percent of all subsidies. More than 90 percent of agriculture subsidies go to farmers of just five crops — wheat, corn, soybeans, rice and cotton. Government does not subsidize almost any of the fruits and vegetables we eat (also grown under the threat of unpredictable weather) or flat screen TVs we watch (also produced in a highly competitive marketplace) yet you can find any of them without worrying too much about serious fluctuations in price.
Fact is, success itself has now become the argument to continue corporate welfare. Here is Senator Debbie Stabenow, chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, last year (via Cato institute):
�??American agriculture represents a bright spot in our economy. Agricultural exports are reaching record highs and American farmers and ranchers are continuing to outpace the rest of the world in productivity and efficiency. Sixteen million American jobs are supported by American agriculture, so it�??s critical we pass the Farm Bill this year. We must provide farmers and small businesses the certainty they need to continue growing and helping the country�??s economy recover.�?�
I�??ve got nothing against farmers, but when we implement price controls and impel Americans to buy things like ethanol, even though the policy does nothing for our energy needs or to curb pollution, we only distort the price of crops and increase food costs on consumers. Perhaps I�??m overstating the influence of popular culture on the problem, but I can�??t help believe that our distorted agricultural policy has something to do with public perception.
Buchanan: The GOP obsession
New York City gives tens of thousands of morning-after pills to high-school students, without parental permission
Written By David Harsanyi
David Harsanyi is the former editor of Human Events. He is a syndicated columnists and his work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Weekly Standard, National Review, Reason, New York Post, and numerous other publications and is the author of �??Obama�??s Four Horsemen: The Disasters Unleashed by Obama�??s Reelection�?� (Regnery, 2013) and �??Nanny State: How Food Fascists, Teetotaling Do-Gooders, Priggish Moralists, and other Boneheaded Bureaucrats are Turning America into a Nation of Children�?� (Doubleday/Broadway, 2007).
How Justin Trudeau Is Pushing Canada Further Right


In addition to Ben's wonderful trench we have also been sent photos of the art created by three more pupils – all are stunning and the NorfolkinWW1 team really wouldn't have liked to be judging this competition!
This entry was posted in Arts projects, research project, Schools and tagged art competition, Gresham's School, models, Somme, trenches, We Will Remember Them. Bookmark the permalink.


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What is the Plenary Indulgence?
The next Jacobean Holy Year is just around the corner, and one of the things we will be able to "win" in 2021 will be, the Plenary Indulgence. Let's discover what it is and how we can obtain it when we arrive at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela during the Holy Year 2021.
1 What is the Plenary Indulgence?
2 How can I earn the Plenary Indulgence?
3 How can I win the Plenary Indulgence for a deceased person?
4 Walk the Camino in 2021 and get the Plenary Indulgence
In Catholic theology, the Plenary Indulgence is considered in relation to the concepts of sin and penance. By the term sin, we refer to any voluntary action or omission against the commandments, that is, the law of God. On the other hand, penance consists of the penalty that sinners have to suffer in order to purge themselves of their sins.
The first examples of the practice of the Plenary Indulgence go back to the third century. The Plenary Indulgence can be granted by the Pope, the bishops or the cardinals to all Christians "vere penitentibus et confessis", which means "truly repentant and confessed". In this way, temporary punishment obtains a remission. This does not mean that the sin itself is forgiven, but that the faithful are exempted from the penalties that they would otherwise have paid with the sufferings in this life or with a time in purgatory.
Through the Church, which grants the Plenary Indulgence, all Christians can thus come closer to heaven by "winning the Jubilee" and thus avoid the penalty for sins committed and confessed until that moment. This gift that God gives to his faithful, though guilty of sin, is a demonstration of the philosophy of forgiveness that is at the base of the Catholic religion.
How can I earn the Plenary Indulgence?
Also, you can obtain only one Plenary Indulgence a day. To obtain a Plenary Indulgence, certain requirements must be met:
Once the Way has been completed, when arriving in Santiago de Compostela, the faithful must visit the Tomb of the Apostle in the Cathedral of Santiago.
Pray for the intentions of the Pope (Our Father or Creed).
Go to confession (at most 15 days before or 15 days after the visit to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela) and receive the sacrament of Eucharistic Communion (one for each indulgence).
Attend Holy Mass once they arrive in Santiago de Compostela.
All pilgrims who arrive in Compostela and fulfill the above conditions with sincerity and faith will automatically obtain the Plenary Indulgence.
How can I win the Plenary Indulgence for a deceased person?
The Plenary Indulgence is applicable to oneself or can be won for the soul of a deceased loved one, but cannot be passed on to another living being. If you want to ask for a Plenary Indulgence for a deceased person, so that he can leave purgatory, you must meet the same requirements as for the Plenary Indulgence, that is:
Visit a church or an oratory and pray the Creed and an Our Father for the Pope's intentions.
Go to confession and receive the sacrament of Eucharistic Communion.
Attend the Mass.
Walk the Camino in 2021 and get the Plenary Indulgence
At Galiwonders we believe that doing the Way of Saint James during the Holy Year is a unique occasion. You will be able to obtain the Plenary Indulgence after finishing your itinerary and share this moment with thousands of other faithful. Discover our 20 reasons for doing the Way in the Xacobean Year 2021 in this post and tell us what your reasons are.
For finding out the best itinerary for you to undertake in next Holy Year 2021, please do not hesitate in contacting us to receive an offer. At Galiwonders, we are your Local Experts on the Camino de Santiago.
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Q: Constructing a linq query with dynamic ListItem columns that are type boolean "selectedBA" is the variable that contains a value determined @ runtime.  how can i incorporate this into a linq statement that will give me all the items in a SPList where the dynamic column selectedBA is True in the item.  Probably something simple i am over thinking...  the dynamic column is Type Boolean in the SPList
DataTable dt = siteTemplateList.GetItems().GetDataTable();
var query = from template in dt.AsEnumerable()
            where template[selectedBA].Equals(true)
            select template;

A: try
DataTable dt = siteTemplateList.GetItems().GetDataTable();
var query = from template in dt.Rows
            where template[selectedBA].Equals(true)
            select template;


The fries here are a classic crinkle cut. I sat down ordered fries and as soon as I scooted my chair in I had my fries. Super fast service. This place is must if your on the west side of town. I enjoyed every minute of my french fries. Hot down to the last bite. They must cook their fries in different oil or cook some other food in the fryer because the fries always have a different taste. Not better or worse just a tad different. They get a 7 out of 10.
This entry was posted on November 18, 2010 at 11:34 pm and is filed under 2. Good fry place, UnCommon Fry Places with tags French fries, price hill chili.	You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.


When a patient's spinal column has become unstable due to the ravages of degenerative disc disease, wear, and tear injury, or other causes spinal fusion may be necessary to restore stability to the spine and aid in decompression. The spine consists of a series of individual bones known as vertebrae spaced with intervertebral discs, responsible for the protection and lubrication of the spine. These fluid-filled sacks are soft in the center with a remarkably robust exterior known as the annulus.
Interbody fusion is a procedure that places bone grafts and fusion implants into the area located between two individual vertebrae. This fusion technique uses implants composed of a variety of potential materials, including bone, metal, and plastic. Grafts of bone may be inserted along with the implant to speed the bones to heal and fuse. The purpose of the implant is to stabilize a gap between two individual vertebrae, to relieve pressure and permit bone to grow and fill this gap. Additionally, this form of treatment can be used to correct the malformations of the spine and restore alignment.
What About Transforaminal Lumbar Interbody Fusion (TLIF)?
This procedure is performed under general anesthesia with the insertion of the instruments occurring through an incision on the back. The number of levels of vertebrae treated is directly related to how large these incisions are. During a TLIF, screws are inserted into the bone to encourage stability and permit fixation to these pedicle screws. The opening around the nerves is widened while the surgeon works beneath the neural foramen, from which the procedure gets its name. To complete the procedure rods are placed, and graft material is put in place near the back of the spine to provide additional fusion points.
What Will It Be Like Recovering from My TLIF?
It is common for patients recovering from this procedure to spend a minimum of two days in the hospital, and a maximum of four. Pain control after the surgery will be provided with IV pain medication while in the hospital, transitioning to oral medicines on discharge. The day after surgery will see the patient beginning a physical therapy program that will continue until the patient can walk safely, climb stairs, and getting into and out of bed before they are released.
This procedure is an efficient way of fusing the spine in the lumbar region, with the overall goal of relieving pain, improving stability, and addressing deformities of the spine. While complications can occur, they are uncommon and not a significant concern. Any smoking habits should be ended before the performance of this procedure as they have been shown to be hazardous to spinal health and the healing of bone.
If you think you may benefit from a TLIF, you should make an appointment at the Khavkin Clinic for an exam and consultation, during which Dr. Yevgeniy Khavkin will study your case and make an assessment determining the proper treatment. TLIF has been shown to be useful in providing patients with an improved quality of life due to reduced or eliminated pain.


Management solution delivers data, insights and control through VertivTM Intelligence app and online portal.
Vertiv has introduced a scalable, cloud-based management platform that brings advanced visibility, analytics, and control to complex IT infrastructure, including large enterprise and hyperscale facilities and those at the edge of the network. Vertiv™ Intelligence (vIntelligence) delivers holistic, customer-directed visibility and control of the entire infrastructure through an easy-to-use app and online portal. It is available in the United States today and available globally in 2019.


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Surecomp® unveils Trade Finance-as-a-Service for holistic trade finance management
Surecomp > 2020 > Surecomp® unveils Trade Finance-as-a-Service for holistic trade finance management
Toronto, Canada, 1 July 2020 – Surecomp®, the market leader in global trade finance and treasury solutions for banks and corporations, today announced the launch of its Trade Finance-as-a-Service (TFaaS) suite comprising back-office trade finance management and processing, front-office for banks' corporate clients, open API connectivity and full access to its Marketplace. The new subscription-based service is fully scalable and offers a cost-effective and holistic solution that allows parties to digitally apply for, track, and manage all their trade finance needs. It enhances collaboration to ultimately facilitate global trade, increase operational efficiencies, and drive revenue.
The fully integrated end-to-end cloud-based suite supports the full portfolio of trade finance applications while adhering to the highest standard of security, service level agreement, cloud technology performance, data segregation, storage, and messaging requirement. The platform is SWIFT certified, and the service assures compliance with all future applicable SWIFT changes.
Offered as a flexible SaaS subscription-based model, the feature-rich and scalable solution promotes improved business agility for banks and corporates of all sizes and needs. Reducing cost and reliance on internal IT infrastructures, the complete trade finance suite supports the gradual transition to the cloud, frictionless upgrades, and access to the wider trade finance ecosystem through the open API gateway and Surecomp's Marketplace – the fintech partner solutions and services platform.
"Our solutions have been driving the evolution of trade finance operations for many years," commented Guy Perry, Surecomp's President. "By responding to our customer's needs, we are offering yet another way to gain value from our state-of-the-art trade finance solutions. With TFaaS, customers can now consume the entire trade finance service via powerful, cloud-based, easy-to-onboard technology, which is fast, efficient and extremely cost-effective. This means our customers can become more agile, and in turn deliver a more efficient trade finance service to their customers."
Surecomp Contact:
Abby Bickford
Email: abby.bickford@surecomp.com


most items ship within two weeks.
note about polyester: This is not your mothers polyester! I hate polyester and I love wearing these clothes.
Not all polyesters are created the same. Most items have polyester in them which makes the printing quality better.


Spring fares: Romania to Cyprus, Sicily or Sardinia from only €17/ RON77!
Hungarian low cost carrier has lowered fares on flights from Romania to Mediterranean! Flt to Sicily, Cyprus or Sardinia from only €17 round trip!
Sardinia is the second biggest island of Mediterranean. Whether you want to check out Phoenician and Roman ruins or you prefer to spend your time by the sea, Sardinia will certainly capture your heart.
We encourage you to stay at 3* Alghero City Hotel with good reviews.
Thanks! I just bought two tickets from Iasi to Larnaca!


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north-east -king' aims for crown
NORTH-EAST boxing coach Gary McCrory is hoping to see one of his charges win the British Super-Middleweight Championship, on Saturday.
Derwentside's answer to Don King, Gary, brother to former IBF World Cruiserweight Champion Glenn McCrory, never quite became a true big hitter himself, but this weekend he could see his 25-year-old charge, Alex Mason, clinch the Lonsdale belt live on satellite TV.
The main event on Saturday night's Sky Sports boxing schedule, Alex's bout with David Starie will be the culmination of years of blood, sweat and tears by the unassuming Annfield Plain coach.
Alex, a 12-stone powerhouse originally from the West Midlands, approached father-of-two Gary, and asked him to coach him, after hearing of his burgeoning reputation with amateur and professional fighters alike.
Gary, who spends an hour a day turning raw teenage talent into genuine big hitters at North Road Gym, in Catchgate, had 14 fights as a professional in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
He said: "It's really exciting. I find it unbelievable to think that we are going into such an important fight with a real chance.
"Since I started coaching Alex about seven months ago, the kid's done everything I've asked. I couldn't be happier with his progress.
"He comes up to Derwentside for his training, so I think the people of the North-East should get behind him at the weekend."
Alex's 15 rounds with David Starie, the British Super-Middleweight Champion, will probably be the most high-profile event in the lives of coach and prodigy.
Alex said: "Since I've been coming to the North-East, Gary has shown me a few new moves, and spent more time with me than anyone before.
"I've never been on TV before so I would like as much support as possible, especially from the people of the North-East."