TEL AVIV, Israel -- Yitzhak Shamir shook his head slowly, his smile turning hard at the thought of the agreement Israel was about to sign yesterday in Washington with the Palestinians.
"This is a terrible experience for me. A terrible experience," said the former prime minister.
For Mr. Shamir, one of the chief architects of a "Greater Israel," it was a bleak day. Even before the White House ceremony, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was saying that the newest accord ended Israel's ambitions for "Eretz Israel" -- a "Land of Israel" that would stretch from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River.
Mr. Rabin even called it "the delusion of Greater Israel." But for more than half a century, that "delusion" has been Mr. Shamir's dream.
He fought in the 1930s and '40s for the creation of Israel as a member of underground guerrilla groups, using the same tactics he later called terrorism when used by Arabs. When he became prime minister, first in 1983 and then from 1986 to 1992, he pushed hard to expand Jewish settlements into the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Now, he sees that Jewish hold in what he calls by the biblical names, Judea and Samaria, being loosened by Mr. Rabin. Although no settlers have yet been forced to move, the West Bank gradually will come under Palestinian control, as much of the Gaza Strip already has.
Mr. Shamir seems perplexed by what the government is doing.
"I don't see any arguments for taking such a step. I don't understand [Rabin]." Mr. Shamir's head, which has always seemed large for his frame, moved back and forth in wonderment. His hands drew tiny maps on a blank blotter on his desk.
"Why is he interested in a small piece of a country?" he continued, fixed on the puzzle of Mr. Rabin. "Why? Is this a dream for a people?"
Mr. Shamir said his vision was for an Israel that stretches to the Jordan River -- big enough to accommodate all the Jews of the world.
"Our dream was to come here and concentrate all the Jewish people. Now we have 13 million Jewish people" throughout the world -- fewer than 5 million of them in Israel.
"Where will we put them here? We have such a small country. If you give part of it to the Arabs , " he said, trailing off with a dismissive wave of his hand.
Without the West Bank and Gaza Strip, he says, Israel is a "Lilliput country."
Mr. Rabin and his Labor Party argue that Israel cannot force out the 2 million Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza but also cannot absorb them without losing Israel's identity as a Jewish state. Instead, Mr. Rabin and his supporters favor giving back the land in exchange for peace.
Mr. Shamir questions whether it is necessary to compromise over the land. If enough Jews emigrated to Israel, he said, Arabs would become a small minority in the state, and the absorption problem would disappear.
Mr. Shamir, under pressure from the United States, took Israel to the Madrid Peace Conference in 1991. That conference was a seed for the negotiations that led to the latest agreement. But the former prime minister said that, if left to him, Madrid would have led to nothing very fast.
"In Madrid, there was never an idea of giving up to the Palestinians a great part of the country," he said. "We would never do such a thing. We never dreamed of giving up Judea and Samaria or Hebron.
"We wanted to have much more Jewish people -- at least 10 million," he said. "It's not normal that a people who have a country of their own are not living there."
As prime minister, Mr. Shamir was single-minded in the pursuit of that goal. With Mr. Shamir's blessing, then-Housing Minister Ariel Sharon planted thousands of mobile homes and slapdash houses throughout the West Bank, oblivious to budgets set by the parliament or promises of restraint made to Washington.
Mr. Shamir opened Israel's doors to Jews from the former Soviet Union to try to fill those homes and lured Israelis to the "territories" with tempting home-purchase deals. Aides complained privately that Mr. Shamir had little interest in domestic Israeli affairs, except where they concerned Judea and Samaria.
The election of Mr. Rabin's Labor coalition in 1992 was not a rejection of the goal of a Greater Israel, Mr. Shamir argues. He said the loss was due to infighting among his right-wing Likud party and its partners.
"They did not understand that they have to keep their unity," he said of his colleagues. "If we won the election, we could work for carrying out the dream."
After the election, Mr. Shamir took his seat in the Knesset, from where he usually listens quietly to the debates. He will be 80 next month, and will not run again in the 1996 elections. "It's enough," he says.
He has a small office in a skyscraper near the headquarters of Israel's military in Tel Aviv. It is an office with few adornments. Only two pictures suggest his public life: one of his predecessor, Menachem Began, and one of him shaking hands with President Reagan.
Does he see his dream of Greater Israel vanishing?
"I will always keep my dream. Otherwise life has no value," he replied.
He said he believes a Likud-led government will return to power next year. It will stop the agreements set in motion by Mr. Rabin, even if land already has been given to the Palestinians, he said.
"Nothing is irreversible. Maybe it's difficult to change something. But I don't know any government existing in the world arena that conducts a policy that is against its [people's] conscience and views," he said.
"Maybe it will take time." But the changes made by Mr. Rabin are "not a fact that has to stay for 100 years."
Would he advocate trying to retake land from Palestinians by force?
"We don't want to fight with them. But I think they will fight with us," he said.
"When they fight with us, I am sure we will win."


I just adore that man.
Brooks Robinson was my guy. In football, Don Meredith. Golf: Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer hit the tape at the same time. Animal hero would be Secretariat, a stud literally and figuratively. Nice work if you can get it.
But those guys, through no fault of their own, were always playing for second place in my own personal Hero Department.
My guy was, is, and always will be Dan Jenkins, the most influential sportswriter of the 20th century, the undisputed star of Sports Illustrated during my generation's youth, a scratch golfer in his day, a scratch human being, and a scratch novelist until only a few days before he died on March 7 in his hometown of Fort Worth.
My guy, 90, ran through the tape. He was cleaning the clubs and signing the scorecard of his final book just days before his passing.
Mistakes, I've had a few, but then again, too many to mention. But if the category is Choice of Hero, I aced it. In Mr. Dan, I chose wisely. And in this bureau, a candle will always burn.
I've told this story to only a couple of people, but please let me tell you now. Stories involving Mr. Dan have always made me feel better; I hope this has the same effect for you.
I'd just started writing for a living in 1984. As a college student, I'd written for money for a few years, but now I had dental and a steady byline and everything. Thought I was Hemingway's little brother and Raymond Chandler's caddie. Almost bought a snap-brim hat.
I told him, best I could, that I was the little boy in a South Carolina town of 750 people who always had a paperback and baseball glove and Sports Illustrated in my back pockets whenever I headed to the tractor or tobacco barn or cow stall or church or school or wherever it was I was supposed to be, and that I so appreciated him taking me every week from Dillon County to places like Fayetteville, Arkansas or Austin, Texas or New York City or, most recently, to St. Andrews. And even to Lincoln, Nebraska, although I didn't necessarily want to go there anymore if he could help it.
I told him he made me think and laugh, that he was better than the Winnie the Pooh guy and maybe even the Hardy Boys guy, and that I was beginning to understand how hard it was to make it look easy and so I appreciated, deeply, how hard he worked, secretly, to pull it off. And that if it wasn't for him, I had no idea what I'd be doing. And also that I'd been meaning to write him since I was 9 and just hadn't gotten around to it — high school and acne and adolescence and all — and that I was sorry.
His writing was like what he'd once said about Augusta National its ownself: Mr. Dan gave you nostalgia along with the thrills. Perspective plus accuracy and clarity. And, when it fit, humor.
When I'd finished, I bought a stamp and mailed it to Sports Illustrated.
"Dear Teddy: I don't normally do this because I don't have a secretary and I don't have the time, but your letter demands and answer because it was so nice and flattering. I really appreciate it.
He then told me who to read, gave me a journalism lesson or two, told me that knowing what you want to do in life, regardless of the money, was what was important, and suggested I look him up that fall in Fort Worth when he'd be in Texas hawking sales of Life Its Ownself, the long-awaited sequel to his best-selling novel of 1972, Semi-Tough. "I may be all alone and can use the company," he wrote.
And that's just what I did. For The News-Star in Monroe, I covered Notre Dame at LSU on a Saturday night in Tiger Stadium, then drove in a GMC Sierra pickup truck through the night to the old Anatole hotel in Fort Worth and ate breakfast with Mr. Dan and his son Marty. Another story for another time but I will add this: The first thing he said to the waitress was, "I need 14 cups of coffee, 7 ashtrays and maybe two dozen eggs," and, to her credit, she said, straight-faced, "We'll start you off with the coffee and ash trays," and she did and here we went.
One of the great days of my life is all.
And from that exchange, I was allowed within his gravitational pull the past several years. Few things have blessed me more. Eventually I wasn't in awe all the time and was able to relax and put a decent swing on the ball now and then.
Got to meet and share a few meals with Hero and his secret weapon, the priceless June Burrage Jenkins, his Paschal High classmate and wife of 60 years, ever since they'd honeymooned in Augusta while he covered the Masters some April in the early 1960s. Got to meet his wonderful family — I'd trust Marty and his cousin Amy with anything I could ever have in life; it's been suggested that with that pair on your flanks, no intruders get through the wire.
Also got to meet their friends, people they've lived life most closely with for 70 and 80 years. Mr. Dan always knew how lucky he was, and he was eternally grateful to "the Skipper," as he said, for it. It's likely why he was so quick to share.
One reason he's my hero is because, of the hundreds of other sportswriters I've eaten with through the years, Mr. Dan is the only one I ever recall, besides me and a couple of others, who'd ever picked up a check. A very generous soul. But that's only about No. 218 on the List of Reasons I'll Miss Him. Simply, I mourn because the world has lost a great man.
Through writing about life and disguising it in stories about ball, Mr. Dan encouraged both in me since I was a little guy and in everyone who recognized it a vitality of existence, a hopeful view of life, and a tender attitude about love. How do you repay a guy for modeling that for you his whole life?
And what I witnessed from him and June Jenkins in what they liked to call their "advanced stage of our development" was that they fought every day's battles with the best weapons any of us could have — love, kindness, and humor. My guy retires as the heavyweight champ, undefeated, undisputed.
What hurts me most is that no matter how dreary the day might be, there was always the possibility of opening your email and finding something funny from him. You always knew that when it seemed all hope of victory was gone and you had your head bowed in the huddle, defeated, he'd come running out of the tunnel, bum knee taped and stitches in his forehead, putting his helmet on and buckling his chin strap as the crowd recognized what was happening and now roared … he'd come to save the day. Again.
We always knew we had the best player on the field.
Bingo. It was fun and comforting just watching Mr. Dan be Mr. Dan. The service was a celebration of a couple of love stories really, the one between him and June Jenkins, and then the one between that dream-come-true couple and everyone who knew them.
Like I've said, the guy shared.
And I laughed, because for 55 years or so, ever since I learned how to read, I'd been looking for the word to capture how I felt about him. It was something beyond love or admiration and even appreciation. Not to be all giddy or anything, but it was some mix of all those.
And that was it. Adore. I just adore that man.


Some 280,000 happy punters descended on Berlin that year for the event (that number would swell to 750,000 the following year, as the event moved from Kurfürstendamm to the Tiergarten), and the footage includes killer cuts like DJ Misjah & Tim's Access, Red Herring by Union Jack and Lo-Tec's excellent Spacebar.
Looking back now, one of the most refreshing things to see is that nobody is glued to their phones…although Super Soakers seem to be a must have accessory.
Interesting side note – the 1995 Love Parade was subtitled 'Peace On Earth'. Given the state of the world we currently live in, isn't it time we all went back to the Tiergarten for another spin..?


I work for a government agency, and my position is somewhat supervisory, but not directly. I am often asked for input for the secretaries' annual evaluations. Due to our office structure, several of us share a few secretaries, and we interact with them often, assigning work, working together, and communicating in writing and in person. My boss normally sends out an email to us for our input and we are given some time, but very few/no parameters. When I have a good working relationship with a secretary, it's easy– I try to give examples of things they handled well. I talk generally about how they approach their work and if it's enjoyable to work with them. But when I don't, I've struggled with whether to provide feedback and what is the best way to do so.
Additionally, my coworkers told me that they don't provide feedback on the evaluations because they have been burned in the past. Their comments have been shared and attributed to them, which has made it more difficult to work with the secretaries. They said that they always say that everything is okay. However, everything is not okay. Balls are dropped, lots of mistakes are made, and honestly it stresses me out. Also, I understand that since I work for the government, no one is going to get fired or let go. I feel like I want to do something about it, and providing feedback is a good way for me to do that. But I don't want to seem grumpy or adversarial or petty (most of my evaluations of the secretaries would point out a lot of issues), and I don't want them to not be taken seriously. What would you suggest?
First, tell your boss that you'd like to share candid feedback but are concerned about causing tension in your relationship with the secretaries, and ask if she can use your feedback as background for herself or in aggregate with no names attached. But then, yes, you should absolutely give feedback. Balls being dropped and mistakes being made are big deals, and you're being explicitly asked to give feedback on their performance. It's not grumpy or adversarial to point out factual things like that, as long as you do it in a calm, objective way. If there are things you do like about working with them, include that too, of course.
Over this past weekend, I saw two openings listed on Idealist at a company in which I am very very interested. I went to the company's website and they were listed there as well. I was thrilled, but I wavered as to which I should apply to, as they were both semi-similar but very interesting and frankly I believed I could be happy with either. So, I wavered until Monday — and I could not believe it, but they had been removed from the job listings. I reloaded the page multiple times to make sure it wasn't an error. I checked the original job posting site, and sure enough, they had been removed from underneath the company's heading. I am shocked and angry at myself for not moving more quickly, but most of all I feel as though I've lost my opening within this company.
My question is what now? Is that it, do I just move on and check back to see if anymore relevant openings come up? Would it be plausible to contact the company just to inquire about whether the jobs were filled? Or should I assume that they were because the listings are gone? What is your advice going forward for seeking a job at a company in which you are interested, but there are no listed openings and you have no internal contacts?
There's no harm in contacting the company and asking if they'd still accept your application — or, even better, just submitting it now with a note saying that you hope they're still accepting applications. Don't go into the explanation of why; just keep it simple.
And yeah, generally if you see a job you want to apply to, you don't know what the window of opportunity might be (they might stop accepting applications, they might hire someone, etc.), so it' good to apply as soon as you can.
I am a law student currently interning at a firm in a city that I have absolutely no connections with. Generally, all the interns receive offers to come back to the firm, but I am really worried that they may make an exception for me. My work hasn't been outstanding to the extent that there is no way they could not give me an offer, but I think it's generally been fine. The biggest worry is that I'm from California, and I have a boyfriend in a different city, so I have no real reason to stay there. And to make things worse, an attorney that has only been around for 6 months, and is also from California, just quit to go back to CA. I think they're going to be worried about making the same mistake twice. My mid-summer evaluation is coming up, and I want to convey to them that I am interested in staying here long term without making it too obvious that I'm worried about that. What should I say?
Just be straightforward: "I've really loved working here and I'd love to stay on long-term. I know you're probably not at the point where you're making decisions about that, but I wanted to let you know how very interested I am in that." It will help if you can talk more specifically about why you want to stay with the firm — what you like about the work, the culture, etc.
I had an interview this past Tuesday for a property accountant position with the director of accounting (not HR). After the interview, I emailed my references to the director as requested and sat tight, as she had said they would make their decision by Friday. On Thursday, I missed a call from her when I was in a meeting with my team. She did not leave a message, so I had no idea if I should have called her back or why she didn't leave some sort of message (I've received rejection voicemails before). I called her back as soon as I saw the missed call (about an hour later) and could not reach her, so I left a brief but detailed message.
Was this the correct action to take? Should I call again sometime this week? She was not the easiest person to get ahold of initially to get the interview set up, so I'm not sure if she just isn't savvy with scheduling or HR type of etiquette.
5. Am I owed overtime when two pay periods are lumped together?
The company I work for made a mistake on my last check and decided to put the missing hours on my next check. When they do that, it'll put me over 80 hours (I get paid bi-weekly). If they do it in this way, do they have to pay me overtime for the hours they're correcting or are they are able to put it on my check as straight time?
No, they don't have to pay you overtime just because they're including it on a check with another pay period. You're only owed overtime for weeks in which you actually worked more than 40 hours, not when they're just lumping one pay period in with another.
#3 — Are you really interested in staying long term or do you just want the security of having a job lined up? No harm in either one; each is a valid choice for you. But your employers would prefer for you to be truly interested. You are probably going to be seen as someone who will leave as soon as they get an opportunity in a different city as you say you have no real reason to stay in your current city. I think to be taken as a serious candidate, you're going to have to come up with some reasons to stay in town other than your job and mention those reasons much more frequently than talking about your boyfriend in other city or your hometown. At the very least, start looking at real estate and talking about it in the office — asking what are nice neighborhoods, etc. I'm not saying actually buy a house but make it look like you have an interest in settling there.
I think that showing you want to establish ties is great advice. I recently lost out on a job in a city and state where I had no connections, and this ended up being a real focal point for one of the senior leaders of the company who was interviewing me. He kept on coming back to why would I move there with no family in the area. No matter how much I tried to explain that I was interested in the company and the career path, and I'd make any location work, I could tell I lost him in the interview. It was a blessing in disguise for me, but it showed me that some people really do put a high emphasis on things like roots and don't want to risk it on someone who they fear will go "back home".
A few months ago, I interviewed for a job in the Midwest. This was during the polar vortex. I live in one of the few places that wasn't hit by the polar vortex (we even had a super warm winter). One of the interviewers kept being like "Are you sure you want to move here and leave the sunshine?" I kept saying I was very interested in the company and the opportunity (very true) to no avail.
Aah! I had this in my last interview too! It wasn't weather based, but the interviewer kept asking if I understood that I would have to move from Scotland to Philly for the job in question. I swear I was asked if I was "sure" about that no less than ten times at each stage of the process. I got the distinct impression that no one interviewing me could believe that any sane person would make such a move.
I kept stressing my genuine interest & my extensive family connections in the area because (a) the job looked crazy amazing, (b) Philly is way nicer than the Philly-based interviewers seemed to want to believe and (c) Scotland is lovely, but being unemployed can take the shine off of any place.
I interviewed for a job in Philly and really liked the city. Granted, the job was at a university, so I would have been working (and maybe living) in the University City/Center City Bubble. And I know Philly does have lots of legitimate problems.
Once again, as someone in an academia-allied field, this is all so bizarre. Moving for work is so totally the norm in what I do that I can't imagine prospective employers ever being concerned you wouldn't have any ties to an area.. that's the norm and the expectation.
Well, they could have been burned in the past. It's not the same thing, but my dad works in the Arctic Circle, and the typical schedule is two weeks on / one week off. They have a terrible time with staffing because people come because the money or chance for advancement looks good, they swear they can handle the schedule … and six months in, they or their SO start complaining about all the time away and they quit. Distance is really hard for some people to handle.
It happens in academia too. I just lost my 2nd set of tenure-track faculty neighbors because they didn't like the weather here in the Midwest. The previous set didn't even get to experience the polar vortex!
Better than window-shopping for real estate – get involved in the community or in social groups if you aren't already. That also gives something to talk about with people in the office and shows a commitment to staying, instead of just being there for the job.
Yeah we just had two people move back to CA from the midwest. This happens quite often so we make sure to ask also. I understand wanting the security but to have someone just really get up to speed then leave because they really don't want to live here is frustrating.
OP #1, do you give the secretaries feedback/call it out at the time when a mistake gets made or a ball gets dropped? Because that's probably the first step here, and if you don't do that, I'd really recommend you all start. "Hey, Secretary A, you know that typing for the Percival Montblanc file – I was expecting it done like X, but it seems to be done like Y. What was going on there?" Then the old… just listening.
Frankly, if they're not hearing about the mistakes at the time, they have some justification to feel narked if it's coming up in feedback at evaluation time only. Good luck!
I was a bit surprised that Alison didn't ask about giving feedback in the moment. I've given feedback that could be perceived as negative when requested by other departments, but I've always made sure that the person hears it from me first so that I can put it in context and so that it is never a surprise coming out of left field. Luckily my coworkers return the favor–just the other day my boss mentioned she'd been given some negative feedback about me. It was actually a relief to be able to say "I'm aware of that concern and I've been working with Jane and Wakeen on it already by doing X, Y & Z." I definitely would have felt very frustrated if I thought everything was going great and then had a bunch of negative observations sprung on me.
My manager brought something up to me the other day that I knew myself was a bit of a problem (related to a new work process and new software), but when I told her how I was working to minimise the error she took it as defensiveness. I'm not sure how to deal with that sort of response. It wasn't defensiveness, I just wanted her to know that I was aware of a problem and how I was dealing with it.
I struggle with that so much. Especially since I have two coworkers who are at the same level of authority and seniority, and sometimes I'll ask one how to do something, do it the way he says, and then the other one ends up being the one to check my work, and he says I've done it wrong. And how do you say "but that's what Wakeem told me to do!" Without sounding like a child?
I have been on the receiving end of your problem a lot, btw. I don't feel like the other person sounds like a child when I hear "I did X because Wakeen asked me to do it that way." Then I can either say, okay, do it Wakeen's way, or explain that I understand it's frustrating, but if a project is going to be done for me, please do X, and listen to Wakeen when the project is going to be done for Wakeen.
I never was good at accepting feedback until I had been a manager that had to give it frequently and became frustrated when I hear defense/rationalization/excuses. And when I'd point this out to the recipient, it is clear that is not what they feel they are doing. So I've taken steps to make sure that I'm completely open to the feedback. I find it is better that you take some time before responding because then you create the perception that you have mulled it over and given it some thought.
I think it's good for managers to keep in mind that it isn't always defense/rationalization/excuses, though. There are definitely times that when I get the feedback I really don't have a problem with it. Sometimes I just want to explain why I did it the (wrong) way that I did, to show there was a reason for it and that I wasn't doing it because I was not thinking/disregarding what they said/didn't give a crap. Sometimes I truly had an innocent reason for doing it the way I did (misunderstanding, conflicting instructions and I obviously chose the wrong one, etc.), and I just want to get that out. But I'm happy to do it the way that they want it now.
The thing is, those are defensive behaviors even if you don't feel defensive (and I say this as a practitioner myself). I don't think they're necessarily a big deal individually, but if it's a cumulative pattern that's not presenting yourself in the best possible light. Unless you're seeking clarity or suggesting a different way, there's no reason the boss would really need to know why you thought stuff went to Jane and not Bob; she just wants Bob to get the stuff. Wanting her to know why is essentially defensive.
The sane supervisor is going to assume the reason for your not doing it is innocent anyway and that you do give a crap, and the not-sane one is going to really bristle at defensive behaviors. So it's pretty unusual to be in a situation where this actually helps you.
True, although 'clarity' is the exception. If you thought stuff went to Jane and not Bob because you got misinformation from the office know-it-all, or because the procedures are poorly explained, I would want to know that – not because you need to prove you are innocent but because that is a problem that needs fixing.
90% of the time, though, "Oh, okay, I'll do Y next time" is the correct response.
Yes, this is what I was trying to say about why I would think that sometimes a manager would want an explanation.
And 90% of the time I do just change whatever I've done, but I do think that sometimes there is a process issue that the manager should know about.
You say it isn't "defense/rationalization/excuses", but you had "an innocent reason" and you "just want to get that out". Do you see the contradiction here? You're saying you're not defensive, but you just want to defend yourself.
Of course I cannot speak for all managers, but for myself, if this is the first time we're having a conversation about a mistake, I am not blaming you and there is no reason on earth for you to feel guilty or need to defend yourself. It's far more likely that I am blaming myself for forgetting to tell you about something before you needed to know it; or I am concerned that we gave you too much new information at once and you weren't able to absorb it all.
If you immediately jump to explaining what you did and why, it shows that you don't understand what's important about the feedback you're getting. For example, if your response to "Hey Monodon monoceros, can you please do X instead of Y from now on?" is "Well, I'm doing Y because I thought A, then B and I also considered C"; then you missed the point. Talk about X first; make sure you understand it and then express your agreement to do it. After you've done that, then it's your turn to talk and you can bring up the things that misled you if they are likely to mislead other employees and the manager can work on correcting them. This is a separate and secondary topic in the conversation though. Make sure the previous topic was finished and take a breath before you introduce the new one.
And fposte said this much more succinctly while I was typing.
Hmm, I can see what both you and fposte are saying. Perhaps in those situations I am either being defensive or perceived as defensive, even if I am really not intending to be?
I think there is a difference between "defending" and "explaining" but I guess it's just not worth the risk of any misinterpretation.
Yeah, I think on the recipient's end the difference isn't explaining vs. defending but needing to know vs. not needing to know; most explanations don't fall on the need to know side.
Frankly, as a manager, no, I'm not really interested in hearing an innocent reason. I'm seeing X, when I really want to see Y. When I give feedback, I make sure I explain why Y is better than X. After I go through that, if someone says, "But by doing X, I was hoping to accomplish ABC", it shows to me that they aren't listening to me. If I was open to a discussion of X vs Y, I'd have phrased it as a discussion – "I see you are doing X instead of Y. Why is that?" But correcting feedback isn't usually meant to be a philosophical discussion of how to get a task done. It's meant to steer behavior in a different direction.
As fposte rightly points out, a sane manager won't assume you are taking the wrong action for malicious reasons. The manager just wants a different action to take place.
When AAM posted a list of things a boss wishes their employee knew a few weeks back, this is one I wish was included. We don't care why you were doing something when we give you feedback. We just want it to change.
Except that puts an employee in a very bad position if they can't change it.
Would managers rather not hear the innocent reason? I think it could depend in many cases on personal history. If the manager has often dealt with defensive, excuse-making people in her life (whether in family, or in work) she is more likely to interpret explanations as excuses.
That was one of the hardest things as a new grad in the workforce. I always wanted to respond to feedback immediately with justification or defensiveness.
I don't know exactly what was said, but I think to avoid sounding defensive, make sure that you first clearly acknowledge the mistake and let your boss know that you understand why it's a problem. Then you can say what you are doing to deal with it. It can sound defensive if you skip right to how you are dealing the issue.
I did all that in the way that AAM had suggested (Iknow it's a problem, I know why it's a problem and this is how I am working to prevent it in the future) and the manager still thought it was defensive.
My boss does this too. Explaining what your thinking was on something and/or how you will be changing that in the future is verboten for him apparently. It's hard to have a real conversation because of that. He also expects us to be psychics on certain things, which is difficult.
I never defend myself. This leads to perpetual problems and unsolved issues. Boss doesn't want to hear it and as I read here it's given boss is right , there's no excuse and so bad management rumbles along.
Why not ask why? A good employee keeps making an error? Why would that happen?
Dumb. Telling someone why is not defensive always often it would help.
I don't think it's a given here that boss is right.
It is a given that the boss has authority her reports don't, of course, so if you have a boss that doesn't want to hear it, you're right, it doesn't make much sense to share.
But I have really good staff. Like everybody including me, they make mistakes, especially when they're learning something new. Unless it's an obstacle to doing it correctly in future, I don't really need to know why they did it the way they did, because I assume they had logical reasons; I also assume they'll do it the way requested in future.
There are a lot of corrections and redirections in working with staff, and it would take a whole lot of time for no real organizational gain to hear the reason every single time. Tell me if it's procedurally important or if there's a reasonable chance the way I asked for it is a problem. If it's just because you thought something else, figure that I've already guessed that.
Not to be defensive :) but like you said, the boss might need the explanation when it is procedurally important or they way it was asked was a problem- this is exactly what I am saying that managers need to be open to hearing these explanations. And not just immediately think the employee is being defensive.
When I have managed people, I wanted to know if there was a way to avoid the problem in the future. Of course I didn't want to hear excuses, and tone makes a difference, but it was useful to me to correct bigger issues and avoid similar mistakes or misunderstandings.
I do sometimes. It depends on the issue and how much I have to fix/redo. I'd say that about 3/4ths of the things I've brought up, I've addressed or attempted to address. Some things there isn't an opportunity, because it's not just a single mistake, but a a pattern of behavior. Also when I've added my boss whether I should address x our y problem directly, the answer has been No.
That advice is crucial when it's somebody who reports to you, but it sounds like these people don't, which makes it more difficult.
Yes. This creates a difficult dynamic. Also, I check in with my boss since these people are not direct reports. I don't know what priorities they have been given (maybe my work is considered less urgent by management?), or other personal stuff they have going on that could affect work.
+1. This letter could have come from my old workplace. I was an admin in a govt law office and the attorneys were asked to give input on the support staff at annual evaluation time. One of my coworkers got dinged in her first evaluation because one of the attorneys said she socialized too much. It was a valid complaint but it's hard not to get defensive when it doesn't get reported for months.
I can see your point from the other side.
Speaking of #4… You absolutely made the right move, although I'm curious you meant by "brief but detailed". I'm sure your message was fine, but that jumped out at me for some reason. I do think it was rude of the director to not leave a message when she didn't get you though, but that's somewhat beside the point.
I'd move on mentally, especially since you don't know the nature of the director's call.
I took this to mean name, number, returning call, maybe reminder about job applied for. No rambling, no over explanation, no asking why she called, no speculations.
I got one once, which was surprising. But I did appreciate that the interviewer let me know and told me why they went with a different candidate.
Honestly, people who call me back when I didn't leave a voice mail is one of my pet peeves. If I don't leave a message in a business context, it's because I need info immediately and will ask someone else, or I will send you an email because I'd rather play email tag then phone tag.
As Alison pointed out, you aren't going to lose a job offer because you missed a call. They will leave a voice mail offering you the job or asking you to call back.
ETA: For all we know the hiring manager called the wrong number by mistake and still hasn't made a final decision.
If I'm waiting/expecting a call and get one without a message I would certainly call back. How do you know that somehow the voice mail didn't get messed up?
I'd call my voice mail, and if I didn't have a message I'd wait and check back after the deadline has passed. The hiring manager already knows I'm waiting for the decision, s/he's not going to make it faster if I call to say I saw the number on the Caller ID.
ETA: I can understand why the LW or someone in this situation would call to check in, but I do disagree with Mimmy that the hiring manager was inherently rude for not leaving a voice mail when s/he called.
Well, if you're going to do it, do it today. Your chance of getting considered dwindles with each passing day.
I don't have advice about job postings disappearing, but I don't think there's any reason you can't apply for two positions at the same time, assuming you are qualified for both.
I'm an admin and large companies frequently have more than one admin role open, if I have interest in more than one role I explain that in my cover letter so the recruiters don't think I'm resume bombing.
I'm not sure what kind of first-hand experience you're looking for, but in many job posting systems, the employer has to enter an end date, after which the posting will no longer appear on the site. It's fairly typical to pick a Friday or Sunday because that's the end of the week. If they don't have enough qualified candidates, it's easy enough to repost the positions.
Apply! It won't hurt. If you are really late and they've already picked the shortlist, then yeah, maybe you won't get considered but no one should hold it against you for trying. (Even then, you might get a second look if the current candidates are not what they had hoped.) But I've looked at candidates who submitted after the deadline if the interview process hasn't started yet, no big deal.
If I understand you correctly, you wavered because you were deciding which of the two to apply to. If something similar happens again, why not apply to both? There's advice in past columns about what to do in this situation (how to apply to two different jobs in the same organization at the same time).
#3 – do you really really want to stay there?
I lived in an interesting city from 22-25 (not going to mention name because it is considered cool, and don't want that to detract) that I had no connection to. Obviously I made friends there, which is very easy at that age…..
But as I was approaching 26 I started to feel guilty being far from home because the living relatives in my grandparent's generation were getting old, I was missing weddings, was missing graduation parties for younger first and second cousins, missing baptisms of my older cousins' kids…..and I decided to go back, which was totally not my intention at 22.
for #1 – I would provide comments verbally rather than in writing if you're concerned it will get back to them.
Also, I don't think it's necessarily fair to the admin assistants if you don't say anything at the time but then say something when it's time for the their appraisal. Are you giving them feedback throughout the year?
Finally, are these secretaries or admin assistants? The word "secretary" is so outdated to me and where I am they're admin assistants. It's a small difference but it matters.
I find the title "secretary" so much more professional than "admin assistant". An admin assistant could be quite unskilled while secretary implies a poised skilled professional. If I worked in that field I would prefer the title "secretary".
Thier job title is Secretary. I understand the differences in uses & that many people prefer admin assistant, but their job title is secretary– which is why I used it.
Also, it's a govt position job titles will go unchanged for up to 20 years.
Yes, some feedback is given. See other responses I've given here. Some is pattern of behavior and some is addressed but blown off. I've asked my supervisor whether to address some specific issues and the answer has been no.
Ouch. Sounds like your hands are tied, in that case. If your supervisor doesn't want you to address the issues, you may just have to smile and nod and say everything is fine, regardless of what you really think.
I work in government too, I know how frustrating it can be!
#1 – we have a similar system in place where faculty are asked to provide annual feedback our general admin staff. I've heard that many faculty do not provide any feedback at all because they don't want the comments attributed back to them. So few people respond to the email request, and those who do are generally neutral to mildly positive (generally about how friendly the staffer is, rather than how their work performance is).
I've heard firsthand from faculty about many instances where balls were dropped and stuff weren't done, but nobody is willing to say anything about it. The faculty just figure out who the star staffers are and go to them instead (everyone "knows" that there are about 5 reliable staffers out of 26 staffers and if there's a crucial task, you get one of those 5 staffers involved).
As for on-the-spot feedback – I can hear it from my cubicle and frankly, it doesn't seem like the staffer cares. When a professor asked why the staffer had missed an important deadline, the response was basically simply "I forgot". There are absolutely no repercussions for poor performance – faculty don't even yell at staff anymore like they used to (not that I think they should but these days, it feels like faculty have to beg and implore staff to get stuff done).
On the flip side, I was in a staff meeting once where we were discussing improving the evaluation process. Some staffers said that they would rather not know which faculty/student provided feedback because they didn't want it to affect the working relationship.
Yes! This is the dynamic at my work place! I'm glad to see I'm nog alone and disappointed because I have a feeling that things aren't going to get better.
My suggestion with dealing with staff who have a history of not completing their tasks – be very specific about what you want (and how it should be done) and give a firm deadline. Send a reminder for crucial tasks – don't worry about "nagging". It's better to be safe than sorry.
For the performance evaluation feedback – I'd give a couple of specific examples of balls being dropped and such. Ideally, it will help the staffer understand what was expected and how he/she failed to meet that expectation.
I tend to approach other staff (and frankly faculty) with the assumption that they will forget, or that they will have a different interpretation compared to what I think is correct. It's a sad world view :) but it reminds me to be very clear and also tempers my expectations. After all, people aren't mind readers and when someone gives me a task to do, I'd rather they be excruciatingly clear about what they want. I still remember the time my boss sent me to the student store to buy her a bottle of water, and me standing there in front of 3-4 displays of bottled water, utterly confused about what I should get. In my mind, the gallon size would be cheapest (per ounce), but maybe she doesn't want to lug around a gallon. Is a 20 ounce enough or should I get the liter? Should the bottle be refrigerated? Does she like Arrowhead or Crystal Geyser? Is a regular lid ok or does she need the sports top? Too many choices!
yes, that is how I communicate with staff (all– actually, because it's just easier to have good habits for assigning work than tailoring for 1-2 people when you have to), but it is still difficult.
#3 — the bigger issue is that your work is not outstanding. In a competitive job market, "fine" doesn't cut it, nor should it. You need to make the case for them to offer you to come back and, reading your letter, you sound okay with your mediocre performance. I would use your mid-summer evaluation to figure out how you're going to move the needle. Stop focusing on things outside your control and focus on doing a great job.


text:
Date of the publication : 2018/01/21 - 2:44 am
Category : Scholars
If not for the Iraqi people, Daesh would be in Kuwait now
Press Shia – In response to the insult of a Kuwaiti actor who called Iraq a "country of hypocrisy," Hujjat al-Islam al-Qubanchi said, "Daesh would be present in Kuwait now if it were not for the people of Iraq."
Press Shia Agency – During his Friday prayer sermon delivered to a large and fervent crowd of believers in the Iraqi city of Najaf's al-Fatimiyah Husayniyah, Hujjat al-Islam Sayyid Sadruddin al-Qubanchi referred to the upcoming Iraqi parliamentary elections, saying, "Political coalitions before the elections represent the free will of the Iraqi people."
Parliamentary elections are scheduled to be held in Iraq on May 12th, 2018.
The Iraq Shi'ah cleric added that the Iraqi people are assessing the political coalitions contesting for the elections on the basis of their will and honesty to fight against corruption.
He emphasized the necessity of holding elections on their scheduled date to avoid a major constitutional vacuum, saying, "Any delay in holding the elections is illegal and the parliament is not in a position to delay them. The people and the governorates are ready to conduct them, including Nineveh and al-Anbar."
Hujjat al-Islam al-Qubanchi condemned the twin terrorist attacks in Baghdad which killed at least 38 people and wounded another 105 innocent Iraqi people on January 15th, saying, "Such actions were aimed at retaliating against the people and putting pressure on them in order to delay the holding of the elections."
His Eminence called for more vigilance in the intelligence and security agencies and stressed, "The remaining elements of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist groups that are secretly operating in the country must be confronted."
He stated that the people must report to intelligence and security agencies by observing any suspicious movements.
In response to the insult of a Kuwaiti actor who called Iraq a "country of hypocrisy," Hujjat al-Islam al-Qubanchi said, "This insult upset millions of Iraqis, so the Kuwaiti government must officially apologize to the people of this country."
He added that these defamatory remarks were made after Iraq's victory over Daesh and noted, "They must know that Daesh would be present in Kuwait now if it were not for the people of Iraq."
The Friday prayer leader of Najaf described the Iraqi people as brave people who receive millions of Arab and non-Arab pilgrims every year and were patient during Saddam's dictatorship.
In other remarks, Hujjat al-Islam al-Qubanchi accused Saudi Arabia of "supporting terrorism, Daesh and separatism" and added, "But the enemies were defeated in all their plans to form a Sunni-Shi'ah bloc with Saudi funds and guidance."
"We must be careful of Saudi Arabia's attempts to penetrate the ranks of the Shi'ah and overthrow the political system," he warned.
Hujjat al-Islam al-Qubanchi added, "We are open and we are advocates of unity but we warn against penetrating our ranks and the exploitation of our good relations in order to overthrow the political system in Iraq."

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


So it's time to invest in a new jacket, but what type do you need? How much should you spend? How does GORE-TEX work? All these questions will be answered in this easy guide to jackets & coats, taking in waterproof shells, down and insulation, 3 in 1s, softshells, gilets and parkas.
There are two main things to look for in a waterproof jacket - firstly, you need it to be waterproof (obviously), and secondly you need it to be breathable, which means it lets air escape. There's no point in keeping the rain out only to overheat on the inside and end up soaked in sweat.
Hydrostatic head - This measures how waterproof the jacket is, and is calculated by applying a column of water an inch in diameter against a fabric, and seeing how high the water will rise before it starts to seep through. So a 5000mm rating means the water rises to 5 metres before water penetrates. For a fabric to be called waterproof at all it must have a rating of at least 1500mm, but in everyday use with pressure from wind, elbows, and brushing up against rocks you need a much higher rating.
MVT (Moisture Vapour Transfer) - This measures how breathable the jacket is, and is calculated by how much moisture can pass through the fabric in 24 hours, displayed as 10,000 gr/m²/day, or 10,000gr. Breathability ratings don't need to be worried about too much as a good waterproof membrane will be highly breathable and manufacturer guidelines can be misleading. For highly active use where you will sweat no matter what, look for features such as pit zips to increase ventilation.
So waterproofing and breathability are the two key factors, but what about all the different technologies that are used? It can get very confusing very quickly, but they fall into three basic c ategories.
GORE-TEX and eVent - These are the two leading waterproof technologies, and they work by using a microporous membrane underneath the outer fabric that has thousands of tiny holes in it. The holes are small enough to stop water particles passing through, but big enough for air to escape. So these wonder fabrics keep out rain, are fully windproof and provide exceptional levels of breathability. GORE-TEX® is ePTFE (expanded Teflon), and eVent® is a similar patented material. Because of a slightly simpler structure, eVent® is arguably more breathable, but that's a hot debate we won't go into here!
Own brand technology - The top outdoor brands all have their own waterproof systems such as HyVent® (The North Face), AQ™ (Berghaus), and TEXAPORE™ (Jack Wolfskin). These aren't technically standalone membranes, but they use a coated fabric within a layered system that works like a membrane and uses the same principle as GORE-TEX® to keep water out and let air pass through. At the higher end of the scale these technologies tend to have pretty much the waterproofing and windproof levels of GORE-TEX® and eVent® but won't offer the same breathability.
Coated fabrics - A basic waterproof jacket won't have a membrane at all and will use a Durable Water Repellent (DWR) or PU (Polyurethane) coating to prevent water penetrating the jacket. These are used on lightweight jackets and packaways and whilst being breathable and water repellent, they won't offer anywhere near the performance levels of membrane technology.
Festivals, day trips and sporting events - Here a basic packaway shell will suffice. This would usually be constructed using a DWR coating over a lightweight polyester fabric. These won't offer too much breathability and won't have a very high hydrostatic head (1000-2000mm) but they will do the trick if you aren't moving around too much.
Everyday commute and light trail - Look for something with a good waterproof rating, 5000mm hydrostatic or above, and good breathability. You'll be walking a lot, and potentially in some heavy rain so one of the brands' own waterproof systems as mentioned above will more than suffice.
Heavy trail and mountain use - This is where the GORE-TEX® and eVent® shells will count. For long tough walks in changing conditions you'll be varying degrees of hot and cold throughout the day, so you'll want to stay dry inside and out even when you might be sweating a lot. Any of the top brands' waterproof systems like HyVent® and AQ™ also perform in these conditions, but look to the more rugged 2.5 or 3 layer versions. In a GORE-TEX® 2 layer the membrane is bonded to the outer fabric only, with a separate layer to protect the membrane and add next to skin comfort. With a 3 layer construction all 3 layers are bonded together, which means no movement between the layers and a stiffer, more rugged and durable construction better suited to mountain pursuits where you are more likely to brush up against rocks and face much stronger winds. The GORE-TEX® Pro Shell range is a great example of this kind of rugged wear, and tends to favoured by professional mountaineers and rescue services.
Sealed/taped seams - As well as the waterproofing technology, a jacket must also have sealed seams to fully ensure no water enters the jacket.
Adjustable cuffs - These will help adjust the fit of the jacket and trap in warmth, and will feature on most basic shell jackets, but look out for bonded cuffs on mountain jackets that can withstand more wear and tear.
Hem drawcord - This again adjusts the fit and traps in warmth, but also stops the jacket riding up when wearing a backpack.
Map pocket - If you're using your jacket on the trail this is essential to keep your map dry and easily accessible. Virtually all shells will also feature front zippered pockets for carrying snacks or essentials.
Storm flap - A key feature of walking jackets, this ensures no water will enter through the zip.
Bonded zips - A key feature of top mountain shells, the bonding will prevent weather entering the jacket through the zips, and keeps weight down by reducing the need for further fabric.
Pit zips - Mountain trekking requires more exertion, so zippered vents under the arm pit allow additional breathability, which can be essential to keep you dry as you reach the colder climes of the summit.
Zip-in compatibility - This allows a fleece to be zipped in to the jacket to add winter warmth, also known as Interactive (IA).
Adjustable hood - Important for a good comfortable fit and to ensure complete coverage, higher end trail jackets may also feature a stiffened Helmet compatible hood – essential for mountain pursuits, this ensures comfort and safety when wearing a helmet.
When trail walking, make sure you wear the correct layers underneath your waterproof to ensure moisture is transferred. Polyester is the best material for this – start with a base layer, then a fleece in cold conditions, then your shell jacket on top. The layers trap heat and provide insulation to keep you warm, and the correct material means moisture won't get caught up and make you uncomfortable. If you wear cotton you're likely to end up drenched in sweat on the inside and prone to a chill once you cool down.
A good jacket is an investment, and put simply the more you invest the more you'll gain. There's no point breaking the bank if you only need a basic shell for the odd shower, but if you're using the jacket regularly on trail or mountain walks you'll really see the benefit of the higher end fabrics like GORE-TEX®, eVent® and GORE-TEX® Pro, particularly in terms of breathability and durability. If you look after these type of jackets properly you'll get years of use.
Which brings me to my final point- take care of your jacket! A good waterproof shell needs to be looked after, as over time dirt and grime can affect its waterproof capability. A jacket with a waterproof membrane will also use a DWR treatment on the outer layer to stop water building up on the surface. Use a Nikwax or Grangers spray or in-wash cleaner every few months to refresh the DWR coating and this will significantly extend the life of your jacket.
Worn with a base layer underneath, it's also the full layering system in one, allowing you trap warmth between the layers and still allow moisture to escape, keeping you warm and dry as you hike. You can also add or peel off the layers as the weather dictates, equipping you for any conditions you might encounter.
Look for a minimum of 200 grams of insulation in the fleece layer for complete winter warmth in the UK; anything less won't cut it in the colder months.
Down is the light, powdery feathers plucked from next to the bird's skin, and this is combined with the outer feathers to provide the insulating fill. The higher the ratio of down to feathers, the warmer the jacket will be, i.e. 90/10 ratio has 90% down and 10% feathers.
50/50 – this is used mainly for fashionable jackets for light protection in cool conditions.
70/30 – this is a high ratio found in premium jackets for cold conditions. Anything around this ratio will easily be warm enough for the coldest UK conditions.
90/10 – provides incredible insulation for extreme cold and artic expeditions. Pretty much the highest ratio you'll see as any higher and it becomes incredibly expensive, and 100% down doesn't exist as it's not possible to separate it in this way.
This is basically the size of the down clusters and the fluffiness of the down. The bigger it is the more air it will trap, providing better insulation and a warmer jacket. 600 fill power combined with a high down/feather ratio will provide enough insulation for the coldest UK climates and is found in premium down jackets, but for colder climes 800 fill would be better suited.
With new technologies like Berghaus' Hydrodown™, the down itself is treated with a water repellent coating. This doesn't mean it will still work when completely soaked; it's more to do with recovery. Hydrophobic down will dry quicker, regaining its insulating properties, and it won't absorb nearly as much water, so it will retain its warmth better than regular down when wet.
Why not just have down with a waterproof membrane on top?
A non-waterproof layer is always going to be more breathable than a waterproof membrane, and down needs to be able to breathe. Basically with a waterproof membrane you would get very hot, forcing you to open up the jacket to vent, then you'd cool down too quickly and end up repeating this process all day. Also down is designed primarily for snowy conditions rather than heavy showers, where by and large it will do its job.
There are many kinds of synthetic insulation, but two prime examples are Thinsulate™ and Primaloft®. Thinsulate™ is the original warmth without weight fabric, and provides insulation in a range of sportswear an outdoor wear including fleeces, hats and gloves. It performs when wet, resists water and is highly breathable.
Primaloft® is a relatively new innovation, and has been hailed as the best synthetic alternative to down. Its wet performance is outstanding and retains 96% of its insulation power. It's also extremely hard wearing and compressible. The North Face's ThermoBall™ is the latest Primaloft® innovation, and uses small clusters of fibre to create numerous tiny air pockets that trap air to provide pretty impressive warmth for synthetic down, equivalent to the 600 fill power of goose down.
With down being essentially an animal product, there are ethical concerns. Particularly with the live-plucking process, and the issue of birds being force fed prior to plucking. Most of the major brands have begun to address this issue, with Mountain Equipment setting up the International Down and Feather Laboratory (IDFL) to monitor all aspects of production. Berghaus now adhere to the processes outlined by Mountain Equipment and state that "All the down we use is a by-product of the food industry. It is not the result of live plucking, and does not come from geese that have been force-fed".
600 fill power will be warm enough for any conditions you'll encounter in the UK, so you only need to go higher if you're heading to Scandinavian or Arctic climes. With this in mind a high end synthetic jacket should do the trick in the UK, plus it'll work when wet and is much easier to look after.
If you do go for down (and it is still the best choice for extreme cold) you must look after it, and the old tricks still work. After use put in a tumble dryer on a low setting with a tennis ball- this will even out any clumps of feathers and help regain its loft and maintain its insulating properties. Also, never store down in a compressed state, as this will crush the feathers and destroy its ability to loft.
Gilets are a great option when it's cold and dry and you don't want the bulk of a full fleece or down jacket. The sleeveless design gives you a full range of movement, and you'll retain core body warmth. They are also great as part of a layering system- wear over a shirt or fleece or under a waterproof shell. Gilets tend to be either fleece or insulated/down. Down has a better warmth-to-weight ratio than fleece so will be the best option in extreme cold. It's also highly compressible so it can be packed away easily in your rucksack.
The North Face Nuptse is a classic example of a down gilet and has become an icon of the outdoors; it also looks great in a casual setting.
Perfect when you need a waterproof to carry in your rucksack on trail walks or day trips, these jackets will pack away either in to their own pocket or in to an accompanying stuff sack. Some down/insulated jackets can also be packable due to their high compressibility. These are a great option for active mountain treks where over the course of the day (or weeks and months!) the temperatures can change dramatically, and you may need to throw on an insulating layer.
With packaways, the lighter they are the better. You want it to take up the least weight and size in your pack as possible. GORE-TEX®'s Paclite is a great example; it still uses a membrane but remains incredibly light, exceptionally breathable and waterproof.
Softshell is perfect if you want a versatile, warm and lightweight layer to protect when it's cold with a chance of light showers. Made from polyester fleece with a water repellent outer layer, they're perfect for active outdoor use, as the stretchy fabric allows a full range of movement. The smart finish of softshell jackets means they also look great for casual use, and can be ideal as a day-to-day autumn/winter jacket.
A top softshell can be the ideal solution in most conditions if you want to keep weight to a minimum- it'll keep you warm and dry without slowing you down, but look for a windproof option such as WINDSTOPPER® if you're wearing as a standalone piece.
Parkas are essentially the ultimate winter jacket. Heavy, insulated and often with a waterproof outer in the higher end options, you'll be completely snug all season, and they are the ideal choice in extreme cold or in some cases Arctic conditions. Parkas are identified by a fur or faux fur lining on the hood, and are often great as a casual winter jacket because of the twill or shell finish of the outer fabric. A parka is the perfect option when you find yourself stood still for long periods of time in cold or extreme cold.
Keep an eye on the spec, a parka might look really warm and snug, but you need some serious insulation to keep you warm when it's below freezing. As with the down jackets look for 600 fill power or equivalent for use in the UK, or go higher for sub-zero temperatures.
Are all of these GORE TEX and eVENT?
To answer your question, all of the jacket's you have listed provide excellent waterproof protection but do not use GORE-TEX or eVent technology. You would be well protected against rain and snow in all, however the 66 North Snaefell (111385) is best suited to mountain walking as the others are more ski focussed.
The Columbia Millennium Blur Jacket (124122) features Columbia's own waterproof technology known as Omni-Tech. This offers great wet weather protection and also comes with insulating technology (Omni-Heat), making it a great ski option.
The 66 North Snaefell Jacket (111385) uses Polartec Neoshell, a material designed to withstand extreme weather yet is light and flexible. This is fully waterproof, will protect you in heavy rain and is a great option for mountain environments.
The Helly Hansen Eclipse (112134) is a fully waterproof ski jacket which like the Millennium features the brands own waterproof technology known as Helly Tech Performance. This jacket is also insulated and has a cosy faux fur hood trim.
I have a North Face Jeppeson jacket, colour red, weight approx. 1200grams.
I wish to replace same with a jacket of similar weight and warmness for UK winter conditions. My colour preference would be red, if not available, a bright colour for our dreary dark winter days. The jacket will need to be rain and wind resistant. The Jeppeson was marvelous but seemingly it is not available. I would appreciate your advice and assistance to keep WARM and DRY during our wet and windy winter.
Product code 288055 north face men's point five waterproof jacket. What weight is this product? Is the weight more than 1200 grams? How good is the insulation against damp wet cold UK winter conditions? What type of insulation is provided?
Thanks for your messages. I'll do my best to help you find a replacement for your trusty Jeppeson.
Looking at your second question 1st. The Five Point is much more a dedicated waterproof outer layer, so though it will be lightweight (i.e. much less than 1200g) and very wind and waterproof (thanks to Gore-Tex Pro membrane), it doesn't feature any insulation so it might not be as warm as your Jeppeson. Just something to think about.
1. Salomon Ice Glory Ski Jacket - Like the Jeppeson, the Iceglory is technically a ski jacket but it will keep you very dry and warm, with synthetic insulation and a 20,000mm hydrostatic head waterproof outer-layer. Points for colour.
2. Mountain Equipment Vega Jacket - Not completely waterproof but it makes up for it in insulation (800 Fill Power - Very high).
3. Berghaus Hudsonian Parka - Bit of a wild card and heavier than most of the others on this list; it offers comprehensive waterproofing and insulation (synthetic).
Alternatively, you could consider a 3-in-1, like the Northface Anti-Freeze Tri-Climate, but it might not be as colourful as you might like.
Few there to consider. Please get back in touch if you are still struggling.
I get very cold.. and would like a very warm jacket for walking which is also waterproof... this is Britain after all.. and even if you start oit in sunshine it's bond to rain At some point!
I thought about down but they are not waterproof. Looked at your synethic down north face thermoball as an option, but not sur how well it would cope with a downpour or continuous strong rain.
I often layer up at the moment with fleece and raincoat... Berghaus but still feel the cold... hence looking at the down jacket option.
There are a few options you can consider here, you could look at The North Face Thermoball Jacket (product code: 287740), which uses clever synthetic insulation to stay warm even when wet. You could then use your waterproof Berghaus coat to layer on top in the event of rain. This makes for a very versatile combination as you can wear the Thermoball alone if it is not raining.
Berghaus also produce down jackets that are made with Hydrodown, this is a down jacket where the insulation is treated with Nikwax to provide water-repellency for light showers . The Berghaus Women's Tephra Down Jacket (product code: 285049) is part of our new Autumn and Winter range and features the Hydrodown technology.
Alternatively, you could look at parkas. We do have a range of parkas that offer both warmth and waterproofing. A few suggestions here would be the Peter Storm Women's Phillipa II Down Jacket (product code: 297125), this is fully waterproof and has 600 fill down for warmth. The Didriksons Women's Frida Parka is a thermal parka that is fully waterproof, windproof and breathable, it also has storm flaps over the main zip for extra protection against the elements. One of the most high-end parkas we offer is The North Face Zaneck parka (050775), this is filled with synthetic down so slightly lighter than real down. It is fully waterproof as it uses The North Face's DryVent fabric and the high loft Heatseeker technology which locks in warmth.
Hope this helps in your search, if you have any further queries please don't hesitate to contact us again.
Just a quick question would you say the north face zaneck parka was fully waterproof for downpours? Is it as good on your opinion as gore tex used in the Berghaus jackets for instance?
Yes, The North Face Zaneck is a fully waterproof jacket. Gore-Tex waterproofing is suited to more extreme conditions but the DryVent waterproofing technology in The North Face Zaneck Jacket will be more than sufficient for what you're looking for.
Considering purchasing a jacket for my daughter either the North Face Tonnero full zip or the North Face Trevail but how am I supposed to know what the sizes are? How big do you buy them?
Many thanks for your message and apologies it has taken us so long to get back to you! Hopefully we are not too late.
Both the Tonnero and the Trevail have a back length of 63.5cm in a size medium.
This should give you a good idea of required size. If still unsure, please let us know.
We do have GORE-TEX Jackets size 18+ on our site!
We have The Berghaus Glissade III which comes in 2 colours so there's plenty of choice.
We also have the Berghaus Hillwalker Jacket, which features a ripstop face fabric for durability and tear resistance.
The main difference in these two is that the Glissade is designed with a longer length for extra coverage.
Hope this helps. If you any other questions don't hesitate to ask.
Does the north face exhale gilet have a hood as advertised or doesn't it? I wanted a hood but the one I have just bought from Blacks does not have one. Is the advert wrong or have I been sold the wrong product?
Thanks for emailing in, and my apologies for a mistake in the copy on our site. The North Face Exhale Gilet does not have a hood. None of our current insulated gilets feature hood, but if you are seeking something with the same level of warmth and lack of arm restriction you may wish to look at either The North Face Thermoball Gordon Lyons Hoodie, the Columbia Ramble Down Hybrid, or the Regatta Anderson III Hybrid. All of these have core warmth and lightweight, flexible sleeves. Again, apologies for the mistake in our description and I hope you find something that suits.
Good afternoon I was bought one of these coats a year ago.Have just washed coat for 1st time,checked instructions, coat has come out blotchy.
Hi Pauline, thanks for your message. We're sorry to hear the coat is not meeting your expectations. Please could you contact the customer care team using the details found here: https://www.blacks.co.uk/customer-service so we can look into this further for you.


Art by Fiona Legg - Our Bodies Our Blood, showing at Plan B on Gottingen Street, is an art project with over 30 artists submitting from across Canada, some parts of Europe, Australia, and a few artists from the US.
Art by Sam Logan - The show's curators have also launched a fundraiser towards menstrual products for two local shelters.
KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) - For most people, if they think about it at all, it's something they think about once a month. And when Alanah Correia started the Our Bodies Our Blood art project, her original intention, she says, was to get people talking publicly about something normally considered so private.
It wasn't until she expanded the project to include a drive to raise funds and tampons for local women's shelters that the full importance of a project dedicated to menstruation started to strike a chord.
On some level, it would seem that the federal government agrees; on July 1st, the GST was removed from tampons and other menstrual products in a move that NDP MP Irene Mathyssen, one of the sponsors for a private member's bill addressing the tax, called it 'a victory for all women' (a victory, it should be noted, that had long since been won for such apparent necessities as condo fees, cocktail cherries and edible cake decorations). Nova Scotia introduced an HST rebate on tampons back in 2010.
But while tampons and other menstrual products are no longer taxed as a luxury, they're still priced like one – averaging 20 tampons a period, or 9,600 over a lifetime, menstruation costs roughly $2400 – and continue to tax the budgets of many of those who menstruate, particularly people who are homeless or on income assistance.
"We have to have a supply of tampons the same way we have to have a supply of cereal," says Kathy McNab, Fund Development and Communications officer at Adsum house.
In Adsum's crowded subterranean storeroom, personal care items are piled to the ceiling. But while there are several boxes of menstrual pads – which McNab says are more frequently donated but not regularly in demand – there are very few tampons.
The shelter gets donations of other necessities, such as food, from Feed Nova Scotia, but the food bank doesn't provide personal care items, and any money to buy them comes out of Adsum's annual budget. These are products in demand not only by Adsum's residents, says McNab, but also the members of the community who come to the shelter's door seeking necessities.
Donations to the drive will also go to Barry House. Colleen Ritchie, Communications and Fund Development Specialist at the shelter, says that while the 600 women who stay at Barry House's two locations annually would never go without the products they need, the money to buy them comes out of the overall budget, meaning any donations free up funds to be spent elsewhere.
Although the drive might only provide supplies for a few weeks, the act of making menstruation front and centre could get to the root of why tampons aren't getting donated to shelters in the first place.
And while it isn't necessarily stigma around menstruation that the drive needs to help us collectively get over, says McNab, the drive nonetheless acts as a starting point for a broader conversation about the hidden ways that poverty affects women.
The drive's starting point – the Our Bodies Our Blood art project – will be showing work at Plan B gallery through the month of September. Correia says she's been surprised by the level of interest in the project, with works coming in from as far away as Australia and Europe.
But even after the focus shifts away from raising the supplies needed for menstruation to showing artwork devoted to it, the drive will continue to accept donations, drawing attention to the unconsidered aspects of menstruation – and serving as a reminder of how something as innocuous as a tampon can have an important impact.
Donations can be dropped off at Plan B at 2180 Gottingen until the end of September, and the crowdfunding campaign for the drive is here. Any questions can be directed to ourbodies-ourblood.net.


City E1 (Whitechapel) airport taxis by City E1 (Whitechapel) taxi service, the cheapest and best City E1 (Whitechapel) airport taxi solution for City E1 (Whitechapel) airport, covering London City E1 (Whitechapel) Airport, we provide transport to and from City E1 (Whitechapel)	for any long distance transfer to any UK town, airport or city, with no additional call out fees and just fixed low City E1 (Whitechapel) taxi prices! We are dedicated to providing an outstanding service and to provide the best service at all times.
Leicester City travel to West Ham in the Premier League - watch Final Score and follow live text coverage.


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go / blog / 0b048609b102a8ac242417e7c101db1c48c3d493 / . / content / survey2016-results.article
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# Go 2016 Survey Results
Tags: survey, community
Summary: What we learned from the December 2017 Go User Survey.
Steve Francia, for the Go team
spf@golang.org
## Thank you
This post summarizes the result of our December 2016 user survey along with our commentary and insights.
We are grateful to everyone who provided their feedback through the survey to help shape the future of Go.
## Programming background
Of the 3,595 survey respondents, 89% said they program in Go at work or outside of work,
with 39% using Go both at home and at work, 27% using Go only at home, and 23% using Go only at work.
We asked about the areas in which people work.
63% said they work in web development, but only 9% listed web development alone.
In fact, 77% chose two or more areas, and 53% chose three or more.
We also asked about the kinds of programs people write in Go.
63% of respondents write command-line programs, 60% write API or RPC services, and 52% write web services.
Like in the previous question, most made multiple choices,
with 85% choosing two or more and 72% choosing three or more.
We asked about people's expertise and preference among programming languages.
Unsurprisingly, Go ranked highest among respondents' first choices in both expertise (26%) and preference (62%).
With Go excluded, the top five first choices for language expertise were
Python (18%), Java (17%), JavaScript (13%), C (11%), and PHP (8%);
and the top five first choices for language preference were
Python (22%), JavaScript (10%), C (9%), Java (9%), and Ruby (7%).
Go is clearly attracting many programmers from dynamic languages.
.html survey2016/background.html
## Go usage
Users are overwhelmingly happy with Go:
they agree that they would recommend Go to others by a ratio of 19:1,
that they'd prefer to use Go for their next project (14:1),
and that Go is working well for their teams (18:1).
Fewer users agree that Go is critical to their company's success (2.5:1).
When asked what they like most about Go, users most commonly mentioned
Go's simplicity, ease of use, concurrency features, and performance.
When asked what changes would most improve Go,
users most commonly mentioned generics, package versioning, and dependency management.
Other popular responses were GUIs, debugging, and error handling.
When asked about the biggest challenges to their own personal use of Go,
users mentioned many of the technical changes suggested in the previous question.
The most common themes in the non-technical challenges were convincing others to use Go
and communicating the value of Go to others, including management.
Another common theme was learning Go or helping others learn,
including finding documentation like getting-started walkthroughs,
tutorials, examples, and best practices.
Some representative common feedback, paraphrased for confidentiality:
.html survey2016/quotes.html
We appreciate the feedback given to identify these challenges faced by our users and community.
In 2017 we are focusing on addressing these issues and hope to make as many significant improvements as we can.
We welcome suggestions and contributions from the community in making these challenges into strengths for Go.
.html survey2016/usage.html
## Development and deployment
When asked which operating systems they develop Go on,
63% of respondents say they use Linux, 44% use MacOS, and 19% use Windows,
with multiple choices allowed and 49% of respondents developing on multiple systems.
The 51% of responses choosing a single system split into
29% on Linux, 17% on MacOS, 5% on Windows, and 0.2% on other systems.
Go deployment is roughly evenly split between privately managed servers and hosted cloud servers.
.html survey2016/dev.html
## Working Effectively
We asked how strongly people agreed or disagreed with various statements about Go.
Users most agreed that Go's performance meets their needs (57:1 ratio agree versus disagree),
that they are able to quickly find answers to their questions (20:1),
and that they are able to effectively use Go's concurrency features (14:1).
On the other hand, users least agreed that they are able to effectively
debug uses of Go's concurrency features (2.7:1).
Users mostly agreed that they were able to quickly find libraries they need (7.5:1).
When asked what libraries are still missing, the most common request by far was a library for writing GUIs.
Another popular topic was requests around data processing, analytics, and numerical and scientific computing.
Of the 30% of users who suggested ways to improve Go's documentation,
the most common suggestion by far was more examples.
The primary sources for Go news are the Go blog,
Reddit's /r/golang and Twitter;
there may be some bias here since these are also how the survey was announced.
The primary sources for finding answers to Go questions are the Go web site,
Stack Overflow, and reading source code directly.
.html survey2016/effective.html
## The Go Project
55% of respondents expressed interest in contributing in some way to the Go community and projects.
Unfortunately, relatively few agreed that they felt welcome to do so (3.3:1)
and even fewer felt that the process was clear (1.3:1).
In 2017, we intend to work on improving the contribution process and to
continue to work to make all contributors feel welcome.
Respondents agree that they are confident in the leadership of the Go project (9:1),
but they agree much less that the project leadership understands their needs (2.6:1),
and they agree even less that they feel comfortable approaching project leadership with questions and feedback (2.2:1).
In fact, these were the only questions in the survey for which more than half of respondents
did not mark "somewhat agree", "agree", or "strongly agree" (many were neutral or did not answer).
We hope that the survey and this blog post convey to those of you
who are aren't comfortable reaching out that the Go project leadership is listening.
Throughout 2017 we will be exploring new ways to engage with users to better understand their needs.
.html survey2016/project.html
## Community
At the end of the survey, we asked some demographic questions.
The country distribution of responses roughly matches the country distribution of site visits to golang.org,
but the responses under-represent some Asian countries.
In particular, India, China, and Japan each accounted for about 5% of the site visits to golang.org in 2016
but only 3%, 2%, and 1% of survey responses.
An important part of a community is making everyone feel welcome,
especially people from under-represented demographics.
We asked an optional question about identification across a few diversity groups.
37% of respondents left the question blank and 12% of respondents chose "I prefer not to answer",
so we cannot make many broad conclusions from the data.
However, one comparison stands out: the 9% who identified as underrepresented agreed
with the statement "I feel welcome in the Go community" by a ratio of 7.5:1,
compared with 15:1 in the survey as a whole.
We aim to make the Go community even more welcoming.
We support and are encouraged by the efforts of organizations like GoBridge and Women Who Go.
The final question on the survey was just for fun: what's your favorite Go keyword?
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the most popular response was `go`, followed by `defer`, `func`, `interface`, and `select`.
.html survey2016/community.html


Former Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere is staying in the Premier League after signing with London rivals West Ham.
After Uruguay's World Cup campaign came to an end, Lucas Torreira confirmed he was close to joining Arsenal.
DFB head Reinhard Grindel says Germany international Mesut Ozil needs to explain why he met Turkey's president before the World Cup.
David Ospina says Colombia can be proud of their World Cup despite their elimination to England.
Arsenal have secured the future of 23-year-old defender Calum Chambers, who has signed a new long-term contract at the Emirates Stadium.
Sokratis Papastathopoulos is happy to join former Dortmund team-mates Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Henrikh Mkhitaryan at Arsenal.


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Back to Ideas
Aasha M. Abdill
News is a public good.
What does it mean to treat journalism as a public good? Without an informed citizenry able to access the news they need to navigate their lives, actively participate in the public square, and hold their local and national government officials accountable to their public duties, we are at risk of weakening democracy's most vital participant and protector, the people. That is why NewsMatch has spent five years building a people powered campaign to support and strengthen nonprofit news.
Since 2004, nearly 1,800 communities in the United States have lost their newspapers. This is in addition to communities that have long existed with limited access to news and information that is relevant and useful to navigating local life. Not only are Americans losing their local newspapers, but local tv and radio news programs are also losing the original and substantive investigations these newspapers used to provide. While some news seekers turn toward social media, local tv and local newspapers remain the most utilized sources for news. The ongoing disappearance and deterioration of credible and comprehensive local news limits people's ability to meet the critical information necessary to make important decisions that impact their everyday lives. It is not enough to simply save what has been lost, we need to rebuild stronger with serving the public as our foundation.
Mission versus money.
As traditional news models break down, there have been entrepreneurial efforts experimenting with business models to find new markets and new audiences. Many of these efforts utilize digital platforms and focus on attracting paying subscribers and advertisers. Yet, people most in need of quality and credible news are the least likely to be able to pay for it (and for what advertisers are trying to sell). They are also often part of communities whose stories and informational priorities need to be better reflected in the news already. Fortunately, there are emerging newsrooms who are increasingly committed to improving representation, inclusion and equity in their news content creation and seeking to transform the industry. But these newsrooms are forced to compete with the bottom-line need to be financially sustainable. NewsMatch seeks to level the playing field through philanthropic matching dollars and in-depth investment in capacity building around fundraising for nonprofit newsrooms.
News for all, not for some.
More and more, the philanthropic world is recognizing the opportunity to protect democracy by supporting rigorous and inclusive journalism. Finding ways to disentangle news generation from news revenue ensures that the media industry won't just serve the interest and needs of those who can afford to pay for it or pay to influence it. Supporting news organizations committed to inclusive and fact-based news and information might also help to stymie the proliferation of media organizations with nefarious objectives that are filling the media gap in poor communities with news that is often free to the consumer, but also highly partisan, not credible and not independent from political or corporate interests. A public shift from seeing news as a service one pays for solo access to a collective good that benefits us all is an important step toward treating local news like the vital democractic resource it is.
NewsMatch is one strategy.
NewsMatch was created as a strategic way to support quality journalism. It aims to jumpstart small, emerging newsrooms, some serving communities that have been poorly served by mainstream or national media. News for the people, with the people, NewsMatch's 2020 slogan captures the promise of what newsrooms can become when we recognize the public good it provides and act to protect it.
The NewsMatch annual campaign pools funds nationally to provide participating newsrooms with a matching incentive and tools and training to build its long-term fundraising capacity. Newsmatch is a powerful tool for donors, foundations, and corporations concerned about the future of local and investigative reporting. Since 2016, NewsMatch helped 200+ nonprofit newsrooms across the country raise more than $100 million from hundreds of thousands of people — many of whom were first-time donors to nonprofit news. In 2019, NewsMatch turned $3.7 million in philanthropic investments into $43.5 million in support for local news in just two months, a more than 1200 percent return on investment.
So, how is NewsMatch doing?
So far, so good. Last year, Democracy Fund partnered with the Knight Foundation to commission an evaluation of NewsMatch to see how the campaign was faring on three ambitious goals: 1) to dramatically increase giving to journalism, 2) to strengthen long term fundraising capacity in newsrooms; and 3) to build awareness about journalism's impact in our democracy. There was ample evidence that the 2019 NewsMatch program met the first goal, with returning organizations securing more donors and donations then the previous year. The second and third goals, which were longer-term in nature, were not yet met, although there was indication of progress toward both goals. Related to the second goal by design, NewsMatch serves a diverse array of nonprofit news organizations ranging from small community-based start-up organizations to national public media outlets. That diversity makes it a necessity to tailor the training and support provided so that it is more relevant to the specific context and challenges each media organization faces. To better provide this added nuance, an investment toward additional administrative support was made to help newsrooms strengthen long-term fundraising capacity. As for the third goal, while this evaluation found some evidence that the general public may not yet be aware of news as something to donate to, part of NewsMatch approach is to help funders and the public begin to see news as vital to our democracy and thus cannot be left solely to market forces.
This post opened with the line local news is a public good. If after reading this you agree, well then, we're a bit closer to it becoming one. Reimagining the role of the news as a collective good that strengthens and protects democracy moves us beyond futile attempts to patch and reinstitute a flawed industry with a history of neglecting and harming communities of color. There is an opportunity now to set the bar much higher by supporting local news organizations committed to the transformative change necessary to become a news industry that truly serves all people.
If you are an individual interested in donating to support news as a public good, you can find a local media organization by using the search engine NewsMatch provides on their site. If you are a grantmaker, consider becoming a partnering funder.
Lastly, while philanthropic giving is powerful, we recognize that it is just one strategy to treat local news like a public good. Newsrooms serving marginalized communities can struggle to compete for philanthropic dollars as well. While philanthropy is important, it is no replacement for sound local and federal policy. Democracy Fund is also supporting burgeoning media policy efforts to protect local news. We look forward to sharing more about this work in future posts.


text:
These Lovely Throw Blankets Prove Fine Art Isn't Just For Walls
Marc Hendrick, the designer behind the Los Angeles-based textile brand Slowdown Studio, creates a new collection of woven blankets the way others might curate a site-specific art show. For each new set, he commissions a handful of artists to create original pieces, makes sure each piece works with the others, adapts them to textile versions, then sends them to a manufacturer to be produced.
As a result, Slowdown's blankets truly are pieces of art—and the most recently released designs are no exception. Working with artists from Texas to Paris, the new collection features abstract, painterly textiles that will look as lovely on your wall as they will tossed over the back of your couch.
Hendrick had the idea for Slowdown Studio after buying a house in L.A. and finding that most of the textiles he was looking at for furnishing were severely lacking in creativity. One day, he was struck by the originality of a few textiles he came across that were being used as wall hangings. It made him want to create his own. "I have a background in fashion and retail, and I just thought it was an interesting product and a way of producing it as art," Hendrick says.
After finding a manufacturer in North Carolina to produce the blankets, Hendrick went about commissioning original designs from artists he admires. "It's been a hobby of mine to track and collect these artists," through social media like Pinterest and Instagram, he says. At this point, the studio has been around for nearly two years, so many of the people he contacts are already familiar with the brand. Hendrick will point out a few of their pieces that he thinks would translate well to the 100% cotton woven blankets, and the artists come back with a handful of original designs. Considering the colors and forms that will show up best on a blanket, Hendricks whittles it down to one design per artist. For each piece sold, the designers get a cut of the proceeds.
Sourcing online lends itself naturally to commissioning people from all over the world, says Hendrick, and the new collection is decidedly international. Byzance Design Studio is located in Paris, painter Jonathan Ryan Storm lives in Texas, the Hungarian textile designer Dora Szentmihalyi is based in Barcelona, and the graphic designer and artIST Marleigh Culver lives in Virginia. Each of the artists brings their own style and sensibilities to the pieces, but the common thread through the collection is that the designs elevate a cotton throw to the level of art—though at a relatively affordable price.
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Soft focus: Slowdown Studio adds to its collection of art-inspired textiles THE REDCAT GALA Decorated with Art by Geoff McFetridge, Woven Art by FiberA...


We are proud to offer a selection of beautiful literary sets, from complete works to selected novels, writings, plays, poetry, and more! These sets are perfect gifts for the reader in your life to both read and display in their home.
Part of the attraction of reading Ernest Hemingway is getting a glimpse into the mind of an author who was a great character in his own right. Our beautiful dark green Hemingway set, designed with the author's iconic signature, will become the centerpiece of any shelf.
From African grasscloth and the colors of the Spanish flag to his iconic signature, our Hemingway Elephant Set will display beautifully among your book collection. We brought several elements of his adventurous, globe-hopping life into an original design that also captures themes present in his work.
In this collection, we've brought together three legendary scholars of Greek literature, arguably some of the most important writings from Ancient Greece. This set is a perfect introduction to Greek history for someone looking to explore the vast array of available texts, yet comprehensive enough to be an amazing set for even the most dedicated Greek scholar.
Readers of Fitzgerald know there's a certain kind of magic in being taken back to this time in history, and now his novels and a short story collection are available in this set. We designed the custom jackets based on the iconic cover art for The Great Gatsby.
Charles Dickens has been widely admired since he first appeared in print in the papers and journals of Victorian England, and his remarkable characters and plotlines are as popular today as they've ever been. Our custom-designed jackets feature a period etching of Dickens with his name in a 19th-century typeface.


Just completed! Nice, big Cracker Jack Raccoon taxidermy mount. This Raccoon is mounted with his left paw in the Cracker Jack box, looking for the leftovers. The right paw is holding the bottom of the box. He has very thick, plush fur in beautiful coloring of black, gray and tan. Claws are intact. Curious looking expression on this gorgeous "bandit". With the spectacular craftsmanship and beauty of the animal, it receives our taxidermy rating of "Excellent". Great wildlife piece for the shelf or mantel or an ideal gift for the outdoorsman.
Size: 17" tall x 11" wide x 12" deep.