text:
Home | Genweb | Blog | Facebook | Search | Index of Persons | Surnames |
(Quick links: whipple.org/10420 | db.whipple.org/10420)
Mary L. Whipple
Mary (Whipple) Graham
(Submitted by Ellen Vanderyacht, 3 Aug 2007)
BIRTH: 25 Jan 1841, , Saratoga, New York
DEATH: 14 Mar 1876, Benona Twp, Oceana, Michigan
BURIAL: Benona Twp Cemetery, Benona Twp, Oceana, Michigan
View descendants in the Whipple Database
Father: Calvin D. Whipple (17 Mar 1809 - 6 Apr 1868)
Mother: Eliza Maria Clark (18 Jun 1814 - 24 Jul 1888)
Family 1: David Graham (2 Dec 1831 - 29 Sep 1879)
MARRIAGE: 8 Oct 1861, Pamelia, Jefferson, New York
Frank Graham (8 Jul 1863 - ____)
+Carrie M. Graham (12 May 1865 - 1929)
Nellie Louise Graham (11 Mar 1867 - 10 Nov 1923)
Morris C. Graham (27 Nov 1869 - ____)
Myrtle Graham (11 Mar 1876 - Mar 1876)
_Israel Whipple _____|_____________________
_Israel Whipple _____|
| (1754 - 1789) m 1776|
|                     |                      _____________________
|                     |_Eunice _____________|_____________________
_William P. Whipple _|
|                     |                                            _Daniel Whipple _____+
|                     |                                           | (1688 - 1768) m 1715
|                     |                      _Joseph Whipple _____|_Mary _______________
|                     |                     | (1718 - ....) m 1741  (.... - 1730)
|                     |_Leah Whipple _______|
|                       (1751 - 1790) m 1776|
|                                           |                      _Joseph Razee _______
|                                           |                     | (1686 - 1755)
|                                           |_Sarah Razee ________|_Sarah Whipple ______
|                                             (1712 - ....) m 1741  (1687 - 1727)
_Calvin D. Whipple __|
|                     |                                                                  _____________________
|                     |                                                                 |
|                     |                                            _____________________|_____________________
|                     |                      _____________________|
|                     |                     |                     |                      _____________________
|                     |                     |                     |                     |
|                     |                     |                     |_____________________|_____________________
|                     |_Lydia Aldrich ______|
|                       (1786 - 1852)       |
|                                           |                                            _____________________
|                                           |                                           |
|                                           |                      _____________________|_____________________
|                                           |_____________________|
|                                                                 |                      _____________________
|                                                                 |                     |
|                                                                 |_____________________|_____________________
|--Mary L. Whipple
|                                                                                _____________________
|                                                                                |
|                                                                  _____________________|_____________________
|                                            _____________________|
|                                           |                     |                      _____________________
|                                           |                     |                     |
|                                           |                     |_____________________|_____________________
|                      _Thomas Clark _______|
|                     |                     |                                            _____________________
|                     |                     |                                           |
|                     |                     |                      _____________________|_____________________
|                     |                     |_____________________|
|                     |                                           |                      _____________________
|                     |                                           |                     |
|                     |                                           |_____________________|_____________________
|_Eliza Maria Clark __|
(1814 - 1888) m 1835|
|                                                                  _____________________
|                                            _____________________|_____________________
|                      _____________________|
|                     |                     |                      _____________________
|                     |                     |_____________________|_____________________
|_Esther Carmichael __|
|                                            _____________________
|                      _____________________|_____________________
|_____________________|
|                      _____________________
|_____________________|_____________________
!SOURCE: Mail from Ellen van Nieuwenhuyzen (undisclosed at example dot net) to Weldon Whipple, 1997. Second email received 10 Jan 2000 gives Mary's burial place.
!SOURCE: Family group sheet from Ellen Vander Yacht to Weldon Whipple, 3 Aug 2007.
RIN 10420. Quick link to this page: https://whipple.org/10420
View this person at db.whipple.org: https://db.whipple.org/10420
Email corrections and additions to webmaster@whipple.org
© Whipple Website. All rights reserved.
HTML created by GED2HTML v3.6-Linux (Mar 8 2001) on Sun Jul 14 12:45:14 2019 GMT.


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Q: railstutorial.org chap 4 full_title_helper.rb causes RuntimeError (Circular dependency detected...) I was working my way through Hartl's Ruby on Rail's Tutorial chapter 4 when I ran into a problem. My project loaded just fine in the rails server until I added the full_title_helper.rb file.
I get:

RuntimeError (Circular dependency detected while autoloading constant FullTitleHelper):

app/controllers/application_controller.rb:1:in 'top (required)'
app/controllers/static_pages_controller.rb:1:in 'top (required)'

I tried adding config.middleware.delete Rack::Lock to my development.rb file as per this suggestion but that didn't help.
I tried switching from rails 4.0.2 to 4.0.0; that didn't work.
My full_title_helper.rb is directly from Hartl's page
module ApplicationHelper

# Returns the full title with minor modifications depending on the page
def full_title(page_title)
    base_title = "Ruby on Rails Tutorial Sample App"
    if page_title.empty?
        base_title
    else
        "#{base_title} | #{page_title}"
    end
end
end

What do I do to fix this?

A: My mistake, I mis-named the helper file. Thanks to anyone who looked at this question.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
package data.trainnetwork;

import java.io.Serializable;
import java.math.BigInteger;
import java.security.SecureRandom;

/**
 * A class representing a Seat within section
 * @author Balazs Pete
 *
 */
public class Seat implements Serializable {

	/**
	 *
	 */
	private static final long serialVersionUID = 3197202742981022435L;

	private String id, sectionId = null;

	/**
	 * Create a new Seat
	 * @param id
	 */
	public Seat() {
		this.id = new BigInteger(130, new SecureRandom()).toString(32);
	}

	/**
	 * Get the ID of the Seat
	 * @return
	 */
	public String getId() {
		return id;
	}

	/**
	 * Add the corresponding {@link Section} (will be stored as an ID reference)
	 * @param section The section the seat belongs to
	 */
	public void addSection(Section section) {
		sectionId = section.getID();
	}

	/**
	 * Get the ID of the corresponding {@link Section}
	 * @return The id of the section
	 */
	public String getSectionId() {
		return sectionId;
	}

	/**
	 * Get the abstract ID of the section (format: <station>-<station>-<id>)
	 * @return The abstract id of the section
	 */
	public String getAbstractSectionId() {
		return sectionId.split("=")[0];
	}

	/**
	 * Compare another seat with this one
	 * @param seat The other seat to compare with
	 * @return True if the two seats are identical
	 */
	public boolean equals(Seat seat) {
		return id.equals(seat.getId());
	}

	public String toString() {
		return id;
	}
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
North Fork Chocolate Co. Chef Steven Amaral on Living The Sweet Life
By Eric Feil Posted on October 24, 2020
Chef Steve Amaral. Photo by Barbara Lassen
"One thing about the food industry," says North Fork Chocolate Company owner Chef Steven Amaral, "you learn at a young age 'tuck and roll.' We are on the edge as chefs, managing insanity. At any given moment, a fastball can turn into a slider."
Such an outlook has been key for Amaral's evolving and pivoting during the pandemic. He has continued to create his astounding chocolates—many made in combination with local wine, spirits, fruits, herbs—and even just opened a new waffle bar at the Aquebogue shop, his devotion to local and innovative flair front-and-center. "We have this savory waffle going on with herbs from our garden, some wild garlic chive, chèvre, smoked Bay View Farm corn, crimson pineapple sage flowers, and drizzle on fig balsamic courtesy of Vines and Branches in Greenport."
Throughout it all, Amaral has kept creativity at the fore, in his chocolates, his paintings and his unique assessment and appreciation of the world around him.
On Adapting…
We were concerned, as was the planet, when the news broke of the "shut down" that we would be closed indefinitely. A week into COVID, Ann, my partner, received news that chocolate was essential! Aaaah, hallelujah! We started window service, home delivery, curbside pickup, online ordering, Door Dash. I think I overheard Ann on the line with Tesla to see if they had anyone on Mars yet and if chocolates were okay in an antigravity situation—!#%-ing SpaceX delivery?Many businesses and families weren't as fortunate, and my heart is truly saddened by all of the stories out there—it's so important nowadays to have empathy and compassion for everyone, and love.
What has been inspiring as of late is nature. It seems that I've come much more in tune with nature—not hiking trails to find it, but it seems like it has been searching me out. For example, each morning around 7 there is a mocking bird that sings its heart out, perched atop the neighbor's weathervane. My grandfather had a mockingbird sit on his weathervane each morning at his farm. He would tell me, 'My friend is here to sing for me!'
On the Power of Pairing Local…
Fortunately, combining ingredients with chocolate is a blast….I search through local crafters' and farmers' social media for what's in the moment. What is super important is considering the effort it takes to be a farmer. Whether or not you ever hoed a couple long-ass rows of potatoes, tossed a field's worth of bushel bags of corn on the back of a flat bed or hand-harvested a couple acres of Cabernet Franc, it's the idea of supporting the farming community and the local economy.
On His Other Creative Canvas…
I started painting in 1995. At the time I was a corporate chef in Hawaii and did a side hustle carving ice sculptures for corporate clients and resorts along the Wailea beach strip. I met a very dear friend, Piero Resta, a native of Florence, Italy—his studio was in up-country Haiku Maui. He was setting up an event, a triathlon to the summit of Haleakala, and he had painted a promotional poster for it. We decided to collaborate on an ice sculpture for the buffet, and I mentioned to him I had a burning desire to paint on canvas but had no idea how to release the energy.
He gave me the number for his acupuncturist, and said I should have her open my seven gates—and be sure to go twice. Piero called, asked if I had gone, and a week later he brought a roll of linen, wooden stretchers and a starter kit of brushes and golden paints. I would wake up in the middle of the night from a dream and go to the garage and paint it!
On what the East End needs right now…
On a selfish level, a stop light at our driveway. For our beloved East End community: LOVE! LOVE! LOVE!
Visit North Fork Chocolate Company at 740 Main Rd, Aquebogue, and at northforkchocolate.com.
This story first appeared on danspapers.com
For more food and drink coverage, visit longislandpress.com/category/food-drink
Sign up for Long Island Press' email newsletters here. Sign up for home delivery of Long Island Press here. Sign up for discounts by becoming a Long Island Press community partner here.
Loaves and FishesInventory/ Sales Associate
Sound Shore IrrigationIrrigation Positions
Classic Movie: Citizen Kane (1941)
Something to Wine About: Wolffer Estate Rosé Wine 2021
Freedom Brewing Corp. Adds to Brewers Row in Holbrook
Something to Wine About: 2020 Waypoint Ritchie Vineyard Chardonnay

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Mangroves at UNFCCC COP 24
Nature-based solutions to climate change, like mangroves, drive conversations at the 24th COP
Written byMegan McDaniels
Mangroves are tightly linked to climate change, as both a tool for mitigation and an at-risk ecosystem. At the annual United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in December, mangroves were a part of the larger conversation about nature-based climate solutions.
The Global Mangrove Alliance hosted a mangrove-focused side event in coordination with the Save Our Mangroves Now! initiative, led by WWF-Germany. Representatives from GMA organizations including CI, IUCN, RARE, TNC, Wetlands International, and WWF highlighted the ways in which mangrove restoration and conservation can help countries demonstrate more ambitious efforts to address climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts, as well as strengthen their Nationally Determined Contributions and other policy commitments.
The event kicked off with a Talanoa Dialogue-inspired mangrove storytelling session, during which government representatives from Australia, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea all spoke compellingly about what mangrove ecosystems mean for climate mitigation and adaptation in their countries. A recording of the event can be found here.
Julika Tribukait (WWF-Germany) shares guidance for mangrove investment and legal frameworks for mangrove conservation, produced by Save our Mangroves Now!
Mangroves were also highlighted by the Sustainable Development Goals Communities of Ocean Action. Our Ocean as a Climate Solution dove into the linkages between climate and the ocean. Ali Raza Rizvi of IUCN represented the Mangroves Community of Ocean Action and shared some of the mangrove Voluntary Commitments (VC) that NGOs and governments have made. "60% of these commitments directly contribute towards climate action" Rizvi stated.
Rizvi encouraged greater government engagement in mangrove conservation through VCs — NGOs and civil societies currently lead on the number of commitments pledged. "At the end of the day the mandate for mangrove restoration is with the states…all these pledges may not be realized unless those states have the ownership and they move forward"
You can join the community to and make a pledge here.
The Global Mangrove Alliance and our partners look forward to building mangrove conservation action from these valuable discussions in Poland.


text:
Q: How to provide custom ObjectMapper to cosmos client in java azure-cosmos sdk 4? cosmos java sdk
<dependency>
    <groupId>com.azure</groupId>
    <artifactId>azure-cosmos</artifactId>
    <version>4.1.0</version>
</dependency>

We want to use custom date format while serialization of POJO to JSON, Currently it is converting to long only. @JsonFormat( ...) can be put on getters to provide date format but it needs to be added to all the fields and there may be requirement of some other customization. What is the way to provide a custom ObjectMapper to cosmos client?

A: The cosmos converter class looks like this:
public MappingCosmosConverter (
    MappingContext<? extends CosmosPersistentEntity<?>, CosmosPersistentProperty> mappingContext,
    @Qualifier(Constants.OBJECT_MAPPER_BEAN_NAME) ObjectMapper objectMapper) {
    this.mappingContext = mappingContext;
    this.conversionService = new GenericConversionService();
    this.objectMapper = objectMapper == null ? ObjectMapperFactory.getObjectMapper()
        : objectMapper;
}

So if you provide a bean like that:
@Bean
public ObjectMapper cosmosObjectMapper() {
    return ObjectMapperFactory.getObjectMapper();
}

Where the factory is provided by cosmos sdk: com.azure.spring.data.cosmos.core.convert.ObjectMapperFactory then you can customize your object mapper.


Over at the German-speaking version of ScienceBlogs, they're talking about a referendum (and nobody's going to sing a song with that as the refrain), or rather a whole package of them. Switzerland famously has a lot of referendums, but this one is interesting because it points up the fundamental tension between democracy and the republic.
So part of Switzerland voted, in a referendum, to deny naturalisation of anyone from a state formerly part of Yugoslavia. Later, the courts struck down the ban on the grounds that this decision breached the constitutional prohibition on arbitrary rule (Willkurverbot, something I can well agree with). Although it was democratic, it was illegitimate. Now, people who are cool with arbitrary rule in so far as it effects teh immigrants are trying to restore the ban by means of a federal referendum.
I've never liked direct democracy very much – especially not the version that's centred on referendums rather than deliberation. And as I happened to be in Switzerland last week, I took the opportunity to confirm my prejudices. The Neue Zurcher Zeitung for this Friday carried an interesting item, which tends to deny the idea that referendums are a means of clearer, more faithful, more independent political representation. Their Parolenspiegel – "slogan mirror" would be an insufficient translation – sets out a table with three columns, one for each referendum, and 12 rows, one for each of 12 political parties. Each cell in the table contains either the word JA or NEIN, depending on that party's view of that particular proposal. Below this, there is a further table with the same information for 22 different interest groups. Now there's independent for you.
In footnotes to this, 24 cases are listed where the youth, women's, or local branches of this or that party has a different position. Clearly, the citizen is offered an unparalleled choice of ways to avoid thinking about their vote, although what happens in the event of conflict is an interesting question – perhaps you put all the data in tables and use the Analytic Hierarchy Process?
This entry was posted in A Fistful Of Euros, Minorities and integration, Political issues, The European Union by Alex Harrowell. Bookmark the permalink.


Fenix LD Camping Lampshade AD501 transforms your Fenix LD10-22 and PD20-30 into a powerful camping lampshade, enabling your light to serve as a verstile, multi-purpose lighting tool without the added weight and bulk of a seperate lantern.
Perfect for camping, backpacking, mobile home, tradesmen and home use, without compromising on performance. Also great as a work light or reading light.
If you have a Fenix LD or PD, you need one of these to complete your lighting set up!
Suitable for LD10/12/20/22 and PD10/20/22/30.


Game of Thrones – Episode 4: Sons of Winter will be released next week starting on May 26, Telltale Games has announced.
In Episode 4, the fate of the Forresters "hangs in the balance," and no one associated with the family is safe. We'll skip the rest of the synopsis in case you haven't finished Episode 3 yet.
Sons of Winter is the fourth of six episodes in the series and it will be available on Mac, PC and for North American PSN users on May 26.
Xbox users and PSN users in Europe can download the episode the following day, May 27. Android and iOS users can pick it up on May 28.


text:
Paterson man hurt in Pennington Street shooting - 10 hours ago
Sayegh administration hired Paterson assistant business administrator's son for public works job
November 26, 2019 by Jayed Rahman
Mayor Andre Sayegh's administration hired the son of the city's assistant business administrator for a public works job, according to public records.
Dylan Hirschmanner was hired as a laborer in the parks and shade tree division on Apr. 22, 2019 for $30,000, according to records. He is the son of assistant business administrator Jennifer Hirschmanner.
He graduated from Clifton High School and is attending Union County College, according to records. At the time of his job application submission in Feb., he was not a resident of Paterson. His application states he had been a resident for eight months.
The city has a residency ordinance that requires employees being hired to be residents. It also has a nepotism policy that bars the hiring of relatives where such would result in the "creation of a prohibited employment relationship."
A prohibited relationship is defined as a relative having authority to supervise (directly or indirectly), appoint, remove, discipline, evaluate the employee; and would create a conflict between the city's interest and their own, according to municipal personnel policy.
The son disclosed his relationship to the assistant business administrator in his job application.
The business administrator is the appointing authority in the city. It's also the office that enforces the residency requirement and approves overtime. The assistant business administrator is in charge of approving overtime, according to a memo circulated last month.
It isn't clear whether the hiring violates the city's nepotism policy.
Hirschmanner declined to comment about the residency rule or the nepotism policy. She referred questions to her attorney Lisa Fittipaldi.
Fittipaldi could not be reached for comments on Monday.
Sayegh did not respond to a message seeking his comments for this story.
Sayegh has faced criticism from council members since taking office for hiring and promoting non-residents.
Council members were surprised by the assistant business administrator's son's hiring.
"That's ridiculous," said councilman Luis Velez, vice chairman of the public works committee. "I can't believe this."
Velez said the position could have been filled by a local resident.
Hirschmanner, the assistant business administrator, is facing scrutiny over her own residency. Another employee, Lydia Rosario, who wanted the assistant business administrator job, alleges Hirschmanner does not live in Paterson.
Hirschmanner has denied the allegation and has stated she does live in Paterson.
Article views: 6,613
Tags Andre Sayegh
DemocrapSocialistsSuck
Corruption, nepotism, and pay to play in Paterson? No way this must be fake news!! Mayor McCheese promised it wouldn't be business as usual!
so he couldn't find anyone in Paterson for that position?
Patersonians have s difficult time getting hired outside of Paterson.
because of Stigmas. and he hires an outsider. him. and his mother.
numerous people in Paterson could have used that job. to pay the high taxes he raised.
to spend their money locally and in their neighborhoods. and on their children.
this M'FER gotta go! hopefully the feds will step in again!
Miss jamaica
Why aren't these jobs open to Paterson residents.
Were is the transparency.


Light up the city was a outreach program that was birthed in the mind of our pastor to bring the community together. The local church working with the Michigan State Police to bridge the gap of communication, building friendships, & loving people.
I.C.D is a non-profit 503c charity that desires to assist in global immigration issues and resettlement efforts helping with relocation assistance, housing, and english as a second language programs to immigrants.
Every week our team goes out into the neighborhood and picks up children for Sunday School. The bus team also picks up adults who may have no other means of transportation. It is a ministry we want to give back to our community, we want to be there for every soul that wants and needs Jesus.
Collaborated with Panera Bread-donated sandwiches, baked goods, Aldi's -donated the bags, food/monetary donation from members of the church, and Empowerment plan founder and CEO, Veronika Scott, donated 100 coats that convert into sleeping backs.
MSP Summer Camp consisted of us inviting boys from the community of Inkster to attend a summer camp where they built on character building, how to interview for a job, and become a leader in the community through MSP mentorship at the academy. We partnered with stores with in our community that donated, shirts & tie for job interviews, duffel bag with Hygiene products, back packs with scholastic materials. along with certs of completion and possible job hire through MSP, when older.


text:
Originally published: 2015-10-25 18:27:26
Last updated: 2015-10-25 18:27:27
Author: Vasudev Ram

This recipe shows how to create a simple alarm clock in Python, that can be run from the command line in a terminal. It lets you specify the alarm time in minutes as a command line argument, and prints a wake-up message and beeps a few times, after that time arrives. You can use 0 for the minutes to test it immediately, including to adjust the volume using your speaker controls.


Lunk is a certain kind of special that I want to see more of in this world.
Paladin is missing most of his armor since he's level 90 and otherwise one-shots the spiders.
We all know Superman's pretty much a paladin, right?


text:
Traveling to The Grand Circle from Hawaii
The Mittens in Monument Valley.
Why not Try Traveling to the Grand Circle from Hawaii?
Many people from Hawaii like to travel to the mainland for vacations. While living in paradise certainly has a lot to offer, after a while, there is nothing more for locals to see. This is because the islands are not that large geographically. So why not try something different and try traveling to the Grand Circle from Hawaii.
What's the Grand Circle and Where is It?
So many people from Hawaii like to travel to the mainland United States. Typically, many visit the Southern California area to visit Disneyland and the other theme parks in the area. While others travel to the Pacific Northwest to visit friends and relatives. Or many others do what many from Hawaii have a keen propensity to engage in, which is to fly to Las Vegas. And then they indulge themselves in what many people from Hawaii just love to do, gambling.
But there is something many people from Hawaii do not realize when visiting the Las Vegas area. And that is, they are in the middle of a region of the country called "The Grand Circle." The Grand Circle is a special area of the Southwest. Here, if you drive for hundreds of miles in a circular manner, you will see some of the most spectacular natural wonders of the world.
What Makes The Grand Circle Grand?
Delicate Arch, Arches National Park.
The Grand Circle includes many famous national parks, monuments and recreation areas. The National Park Service administers these areas, so you are sure to enjoy a quality experience. Here, you can see the popular Grand Canyon, Mesa Verde, Arches, Bryce and Zion national parks. Also you can get to experience the lesser known parks and monuments. These include Canyonlands, Capitol Reefs, Canyon De Chelly, Walnut Canyon, Rainbow Bridge, Bandelier and many more. Lake Mead and Lake Powell are national recreation areas you can find within the Grand Circle.
Bryce Canyon National Park.
But it also includes many tribal parks and many historic attractions. Here, you can experience stunningly beautiful Native American tribal parks such as Monument Valley and Antelope Canyon. You may recall seeing Monument Valley highlighted in Hollywood westerns, such as Stagecoach, Fort Apache and The Searchers. There are also many other historic places and areas of geologic or technological interests. These are places like Santa Fe, Route 66, the Very Large Array radio telescope site and Meteor Crater.
We Can Take You There
So if you like visiting and taking pictures of iconic and majestic American scenery, The Grand Circle is the place to go. And, of course, Panda Travel ®, can help you with traveling to the Grand Circle from Hawaii.
Antelope Canyon.
Golfing in Hawaii
National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific


text:
Yeovil Town Council is represented on the Yeovil Crematorium and Cemetery Committee - a joint committee, which has been appointed to oversee and manage the operation and development of these key facilities in the Town. The other partners on the Committee are South Somerset District Council, Yeovil Without Parish Council and Brympton Parish Council.
The Town Clerk acts as Clerk to the Joint Committee, and the Town Council contributes towards the annual maintenance costs of the Cemetery.
Contact details for each facility are set out below:
Yeovil Cemetery
Preston Road, Yeovil BA21 3AG
Tel (01935) 423742
Email: yeovil.cemetery@southsomerset.gov.uk
Yeovil Crematorium
Bunford Lane, Yeovil BA20 2EJ
Email: yeovil.crematorium@southsomerset.gov.uk
A summary of the general fees and charges made in respect of both facilities is set out below.
These are set to help recover the cost of providing and managing the service; to help maintain the grounds to a high standard and to help cover the cost of carrying out future improvements.
Crematorium Fees 2019/20
Cemetery Fees 2019/20
A wide range of memorial facilities is available at both locations. These include inscribed granite or marble memorial tablets and a memorial rose garden at Yeovil Crematorium.
The Crematorium also offers a range of options for recording a tribute to a loved one in specially inscribed books, which are displayed in cabinets located in the Hall of Remembrance.
Please contact the Cemetery or Crematorium (contact details above) for details of the options available along with a list of current prices and an application form.
Dates of future meetings:
Wednesday 22 July 2020 (to be held at Yeovil Crematorium)
This is a useful booklet that includes details of all the facilities available at the Crematorium:
Crematorium booklet


text:
TV SERIES: What to expect from the new series of Vienna Blood
Undated BBC Handout Photo from Vienna Blood ??? Series 2. Pictured: (L-R) Matthew Beard as Max Liebermann, Juergen Maurer as Oskar Rheinhardt and Miriam Hie as Lisa Linder. PA Feature SHOWBIZ TV Vienna Blood. Picture credit should read: PA Photo/BBC/Endor Productions/MR Film/Petro Domenigg. WARNING: This picture must only be used to accompany PA Feature SHOWBIZ TV Vienna Blood. WARNING: Use of this copyright image is subject to the terms of use of BBC Pictures' BBC Digital Picture Service. In particular, this image may only be published in print for editorial use during the publicity period (the weeks immediately leading up to and including the transmission week of the relevant programme or event and three review weeks following) for the purpose of publicising the programme, person or service pictured and provided the BBC and the copyright holder in the caption are credited. Any use of this image on the internet and other online communication services will require a separate prior agreement with BBC Pictures. For any other purpose whatsoever, including advertising and commercial prior written approval from the copyright holder will be required.
Georgia Humphreys hears from stars Matthew Beard and Jeurgen Maurer, who discuss filming in Austria, learning about Freud and personal challenges.
Matthew Beard is recalling the tragic day last year when a gunman opened fire at six locations in the centre of Vienna.
It was November 2, the evening before a Coronavirus lockdown came into force. Bars and restaurants were reportedly particularly busy – and four people were killed in the attack (the gunman was also shot dead by police).
Londoner Beard, 32, had been on set in the city that day; he plays Max Liebermann in BBC Two period crime drama Vienna Blood, which is returning for a second series next month, and is filmed in the Austrian capital.
He had finished work early and was on his way home from a dinner out when the shooting started.
"I have lived through terrorist attacks in London, but it felt very different here," reflects the star – who's best known for films such as The Imitation Game and And When Did You Last See Your Father? – when he chats over Zoom from the set.
"It's relatively small compared to London. I knew those streets very well; I knew those bars very well. So, it felt very different when it happens in London. Even though this isn't my home city, it was very shocking."
They were already due to have the next day off from filming, he adds.
"I think everyone needed that because everyone was so shaken."
Vienna Blood, which was last on our screens at the end of 2019, is written by Sherlock's Steve Thompson. The new episodes are once again inspired by the Max Liebermann novels from author Frank Tallis.
Each story is 90 minutes long and follows the perceptive young doctor Max – he has impressive psychology skills – and the tenacious Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt (Juergen Maurer) as they investigate a different disturbing murder case.
Max is a middle-class British Jew who moved to Austria in his teens, while Oskar is half-Slovak. Filmed in English, the series has become a hit around the world, and perhaps one of the reasons why is its setting of 1900s Vienna, with grand cafes and opera houses as a backdrop.
These new episodes explore the city in 1907, and the change between the centuries is a particularly interesting time, notes Austrian star Maurer.
"It was the time for revolution not only in science, like psychology, but also in fine arts and music. Vienna was a hotspot for this development."
Maurer, 54, studied art himself as a young man, in the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and he still lives in the city.
"What really surprised me was how filming changed my view on Vienna because you get so used to all the pictures and buildings and the sites that you forget how well you can shoot a period film in it," says the actor, who's previously starred in long-running German cop show Tatort. "It's like, 'Wow, look at this! This is where I live'."
"Often we just turn up to an amazing location, and it's just ready for shooting," adds Beard excitedly.
"There are a few touches – obviously historical things and plug sockets have to be hidden and whatnot. But, apart from that, most places are ready to shoot at. So, it's a great trip through the city."
Like so many other TV shows, the filming of Vienna Blood was delayed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Beard admits he was worried about getting back into the headspace of the character after such a long break.
"I was thinking, 'How am I going to find this again? Am I this person? How can I do this?'
"It did take a day or so. But once the costume was on, and especially once the Max and Oskar scenes started and that relationship kicked back in, it became second nature again.
"I've never had to do that before; I've never really returned to a character. So, I was nervous about it."
Setting the scene for the new episodes, Beard explains that Max has now set up his private practice, away from the hospital where certain people look down on the Freudian treatments and practices he employs.
"He's taking on responsibility and he's committing even more to what he believes in.
"His passion for psychoanalysis and Freud in the first season is there, against those people telling him that it's a fad or it's not based on any rational science, and he just doubles down on that in this season."
And then Oskar turns up, quite early on in the first episode of the new series, teases Beard.
"I think Max, as much as he's enjoying having this private practice and going out on his own, is also quite happy when Oskar appears with another case for him because I think he misses that world – the seedy underside of Vienna."
What makes the relationship between Max and Oskar so special is that they come from "really opposite ends of the personality spectrum", offers Maurer.
"Oskar is not an intellectual kind of man," he elaborates.
"He likes Max a lot and often he simply doesn't understand him. But he understands that the things that Max tells him about psychology make great sense for his job, for his success in hunting down criminals."
Vienna Blood is Maurer's first English-speaking role, and he confides "the first challenge was to dare to do it".
"The producers from England were friendly enough to tell me, after our first discussion we had, that they will take my accent as a role model for the other German spoken actors, which really relieved me a lot," he adds. "And we have a brilliant voice coach who really helps me to be understandable."
What's clever with Thompson's writing is the balance of the show's themes; it's a thriller, but there is also an intriguing psychoanalytical element.
Beard says he read a lot of Freud at university, as part of his English Literature degree. When the role in Vienna Blood come up, it was "a great excuse" to delve into his works once more.
"I read Interpretation Of Dreams again and also visited his house in London, which is a great museum, and his office here.
"The original waiting room is here, which is pretty special to sit in."
Does he find Freud's work is subconsciously in his mind while playing Max?
"He totally haunts the production because every morning we're always talking about our dreams from the night before," he quips.
"It's always there and you can't help but look at the props in the scene and the Freudian angle on everything does start to take over. Even the crew get involved, it's quite fun."
Vienna Blood returns to BBC Two on Friday, December 10.


We're continuing our #BossWomen spotlights in April with Tanya Washington, a professor of Law at Georgia State University and community activist in Atlanta.
Throughout the month of March, we're speaking with #BossWomen in our community - civic leaders, entrepreneurs, mothers, and leaders - to hear their stories and discuss their experiences in the work place.
On March 14th, 2019, the Center for Civic Innovation (CCI) launched an independently-led, multi-year study and review of the city's historic Neighborhood Planning Unit (NPU) system.
The Center for Civic Innovation held Atlanta's third annual Civic Impact Awards on Thursday, December 13, 2018.
The Center for Civic Innovation launched the Civic Impact Awards in 2015 to shed light on the work of dedicated and effective leaders in Atlanta. They are a reminder that amazing things are happening in our city every day. Now we are thrilled to announce the finalists for Atlanta's third annual Civic Impact Awards!


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Bush's Selective Perception
October 2, 2006 Issue
President Bush's address to the UN General Assembly was less disdainful than earlier speeches, but it shined a light on the President's willful blindness to the complexity of the problems facing the Mideast and the world.
By Ian Williams
Just before he spoke today to the United Nations General Assembly, George W. Bush sent a discreet message to both the United Nations and the US Congress by quietly withholding payments, for the fifth consecutive year, to the United Nations Fund for Population Activities. The health of hundreds of thousands of women and children will be impaired–and many lives lost–as a result of his pandering to the most prejudiced elements of his conservative constituency.
Missing from this year's speech was some of the snide innuendo and challenge of Bush's previous comments on the United Nations, perhaps reflecting some injection of reality into his unilateral worldview. This time around, the President also refrained from making ultimatums to the assembled delegations threatening action if they did not go along with his Administration's ideas of what was good for them.
Bush's message was mainly addressed to the ostensible silent majority of moderates in the Middle East. But his words were as cushioned from the cruelty of the real world as one would expect from an Administration that is making Panglossianism a state religion.
Up to a point, the President was in harmony with Secretary General Kofi Annan's address to the General Assembly, in that both dwelt on the Middle East. But while Annan identified the core of many of the problems in the Middle East, Bush's simplistic assessment of "the bright future in the broader Middle East" was such a caricature as to leave some listeners chuckling. Neither the elections in Egypt, nor the municipal elections in Saudi Arabia that he trumpeted, offer any conclusive evidence of the march of democracy.
"Some have argued that the democratic changes we're seeing in the Middle East are destabilizing the region. This argument rests on a false assumption, that the Middle East was stable to begin with," he said. In fact, his argument is against himself: Most of his critics will adduce that the actual and threatened military intervention of the United States and Israel are not infusions of democracy but destabilizing forces in and of themselves.
But Annan had a firmer grip on the truth in his address to the Assembly that preceded the President's. "As long as the Security Council is unable to end this [Israeli-Palestinian] conflict, and the now nearly forty-year-old occupation, by bringing both sides to accept and implement its resolutions, so long will our impartiality be questioned," he said. "So long will our best efforts to resolve other conflicts be resisted, including those in Iraq and Afghanistan."
Bush's invocation of the envoys of Iraq and Afghanistan seated in the General Assembly as representing elected governments, compared to when he spoke five years ago, may be accurate. But he was silent on the powerlessness of those governments to actually govern. The Lebanese in particular are unlikely to recognize his depiction of their "homes and communities…caught in the crossfire"–in light of the Bush-supported blitz that was actually mounted against their country. "We see your suffering," the President said, but he failed to explain why he did nothing to stop it for a long month of bombing and shelling from Israel.
His remarks on Iran were also remarkable for a selective view of reality. "Iran must abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions. Despite what the regime tells you, we have no objection to Iran's pursuit of a truly peaceful nuclear power program. We're working toward a diplomatic solution to this crisis," Bush noted, without explaining why the UN's nuclear watchdog last week reprimanded the Administration for gross exaggeration of the very slender evidence of an actual weapons program. (After the speech, Bush was spared close confrontation with reality in the form of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad because the latter skipped the heads of state lunch, since wine was being served there. Reformed imbiber Bush suffered in silence.)
The one redeeming aspect of Bush's cartoonish tour of the Middle East was that he lowered the "terrorist" word count and more often replaced it by his latest buzzword, "extremism." But if this speech was addressed to the people of the region, it is certainly one of the most inept ever.
His invocation of a Palestinian state that has "territorial integrity" raises many questions, not least concerning his previous green light for Israeli annexation of settlement blocs and acquiescence in building the wall. Although some UN observers looked hopefully for signs of a realization that economic sanctions against the democratically elected Palestinian Authority has been counterproductive, they were not, in fact, very visible.
Hanan Ashrawi, mentioned as possible foreign minister of a new coalition Palestinian Authority, criticized Bush's "very simplified view of the Middle East." Ashrawi summed up the American President's speech, describing it as "more of the same. It contained no concrete proposals to deal with crucial issues, the boundaries, the settlement…. Right now Kofi is speaking out on the issues. I wish he had done it earlier."
"A broken record," was the similar description from one UN official. In fact, Annan, in yet another oblique, nuanced and hence unrecognized critique of the Bush Administration, identified another very tangible reason why the President's invocations of democracy may generate so much skepticism at the UN.
"Even the necessary and legitimate struggle around the world against terrorism is used as a pretext to abridge or abrogate fundamental human rights, thereby ceding moral ground to the terrorists and helping them find new recruits," Annan said.
Bush was on firmer ground on Darfur, announcing the appointment of former USAID administrator Andrew Natsios as presidential special envoy to Sudan, "to lead America's efforts to resolve the outstanding disputes and help bring peace to your land." But he pinned the strategy on the UN peacekeeping troops going in, warning, "If the Sudanese government does not approve this peacekeeping force quickly, the United Nations must act."
It will be interesting to see what size of stick Natsios is issued for his negotiations, or what form of diplomacy the White House can use to persuade China to go along with a more robust UN involvement. And if one were cynical, one would wonder whether the interest in Darfur would outlast Bush's need to mobilize conservative Christians, for whom Darfur is a defining issue, to vote for Republican candidates in the midterm elections.
Ian WilliamsIan Williams, formerly UN correspondent for The Nation, is the author of Rum: A Social and Sociable History of the Real Spirit of 1776; The Deserter: Bush's War on Military Families, Veterans and His Past; The Alms Trade; and The UN For Beginners.


As the opioid crisis in Canada reaches alarming new heights, claiming the lives of 2,800 Canadians in 2016, new research suggests that the controversial psychoactive plant kratom could help provide the relief patients, clinicians, and policymakers are looking for.
The study, led by researchers at UBC's Okanagan campus and the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC), reviewed 57 years of international scientific data and determined that kratom has a substantial history of use as an alternative to opioids, and that it may also help manage withdrawal symptoms among people trying to reduce their opioid use.
Kratom is a tropical plant form of the coffee family that grows in South East Asia and has been used medicinally for centuries.
However, according to Zach Walsh, associate professor of psychology at UBC Okanagan and co-author of the study, the use of kratom is not without controversy.
Study lead author Marc Swogger, associate professor in URMC's department of psychiatry, agrees. He says that clinicians and the public are receiving conflicting or confusing information that seems to be unfounded.
"This study clarifies that there is no good scientific basis for claims that kratom causes psychosis, suicide, or violence, and the available data do not indicate that kratom is a significant public health problem," says Swogger.
According to Walsh, many individuals are being left behind without effective alternative treatment as many of the current approaches to addressing the opioid epidemic are falling flat.
The study was published recently in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.


Founded in 2014 by 5 HEC students, W4's field partner Follow'Her promotes women's empowerment in developing countries by harnessing digital technologies.
This year's field mission brings together four friends from ESSEC – Manon, Rachida, Lorelie, and Ines – who aim to take Follow'Her's work further and expand the Follow'Her community.
Digital technologies can be a powerful catalyst for women's empowerment, enabling the widespread sharing of information and opening up possibilities for economic and social collaboration. Follow'Her aims to help women in developing countries to take full advantage of the vast range of digital opportunities that can contribute to women's empowerment and also render women's role in socioeconomic progress more visible.
In partnership with W4, Follow'Her's mission in 2016 is to spotlight women changemakers in developing countries who are pioneering social enterprises that are effectively addressing local community needs. Follow'Her will assist the female entrepreneurs to harness digital technology to further develop and replicate their social enterprises.
Follow'Her's field mission will take place over a period of 6 months and will take the team to Africa and the Middle East. During their trip, Follow'Her will work with local female social entrepreneurs to help scale up and publicize their enterprises. Follow'Her will also help spotlight the innovative techniques and best practices of these female social entrepreneurs through a series of interviews and a documentary film.
In Tunisia, the team will work with another W4 field partner, Acacias For All, a social enterprise founded by Sarah Toumi (an Ashoka and Echoing Green Fellow). The project Acacias for All works to combat desertification, promote sustainable agriculture, and promote women's social and economic empowerment in the Sfax region of Tunisia. The Follow'Her team will help to develop the digital component of this program, i.e., the creation of a website and MOOC to enable other female farmers in the region to replicate the model.
In Kenya and Uganda, Follow'Her will work with Buffalo Grid, a social business originally founded in India, which uses solar energy to provide a mobile power and internet service to off-grid communities. A network of female solar-energy hub operators delivers the service to local communities. The previous Follow'Her team worked with Buffalo Grid in India, and this year Follow'Her will help Buffalo Grid to extend their services across Kenya and Uganda. The team will carry out market studies to optimize the implementation of Buffalo Grid in the region.
Your donation will enable Follow'Her to carry out their field missions to provide capacity-building support for Buffalo Grid and Acacias for All, two wonderful organizations with huge potential but very limited resources.
Join Follow'Her and follow their exciting journey on Facebook, Twitter and their website.
digital pow/her to the world!
Digital pow'her for the world!
Best wishes in your efforts for 2017!
Bravo pour votre projet les filles !!
Merci aux passionnées que vous êtes pour ce superbe projet.
BRAVO pour ce magnifique projet à fort impact social pour les femmes mais aussi la société en général !


This ebook addresses all matters suitable to errors prevention and secure perform within the acute and emergency health-care environment. It starts off with the elemental ideas of human habit and choice making after which walls into 3 sections the place the person, the crew, and the organizational impacts in the health-care approach are mentioned in better intensity.
Serious care in obstetrics is an upcoming area of expertise within the constructing nations. This booklet is first of its type as there are only a few books written in this topic with the South East Asian point of view. The publication discusses numerous facets of serious care in obstetrics ranging from the elemental rules, body structure, ethics, tracking and association of a severe care unit.
Observe whether the patient has spontaneous breaths, noting both the rate and average tidal volume of each breath. Note the amount of pressure required to ventilate the patient for later comparisons to determine changes in pulmonary compliance. If available, continuous end-tidal C0 2 is integrated into the respiratory picture and compared to the ABGs. If chest tubes are present, assess the area around the insertion site for crepitus. Note the amount and color of drainage and whether an air leak is present.
Assessing patient progression on the pathway helps caregivers to have an overall picture of patient recovery as compared to the goals and can be helpful in early recognition and resolution of problems. PREVENTION OF COMMON COMPLICATIONS The development of a critical illness, regardless of its cause, predisposes the patient to a number of physiologic and psychological complications. A major focus when providing care to critically ill patients is the prevention of complications associated with critical illness.
The following content overviews some of the most common complications. Physiologic Instability Ongoing assessments and monitoring of critically ill patients (see Table 1-13) are key to early identification of physiologic changes and to ensuring that the patient is progressing to the identified transition goals. It is important for the nurse to use critical thinking skills throughout the provision of care to accurately analyze patient changes. After each assessment, the data obtained should be looked at in totality as they relate to the status of the patient.


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Tag Archives: Paul Darrow
June 6, 2019 · 10:46 am
Paul Darrow on cult SciFi show "Blake's 7" – its fans, scripts and BBC cutbacks
In the third, concluding extract from my 1980 chat with actor Paul Darrow, who died earlier this week, he talks about starring in Terry Nation's TV series Blake's 7, fans, writing and….
Blake's 7 is vividly remembered by many possibly, in part, because of – after four series – its jaw-dropping final scenes
JOHN: Because Blake's 7 is 'science fiction', people may not treat it as seriously as other drama. The "Oh, it's only kids' stuff" attitude.
PAUL: They originally called it a 'kidult' series.
JOHN: Usually the problem with science fiction is that it's weighted towards plot and ideas at the expense of psychology.
PAUL: Well, this is where Blake's 7 was probably successful and this is perhaps why the characters are as popular as they seem to be. The emphasis on character – whether it came from the writers or the actors themselves – was such that it created a deeper interest. People care about the characters and that's important.
When I get fan letters, okay, some of them are admiring, some silly, some charming, but the majority are fairly reasonable and intelligent and say I care about this character. Now that's marvellous for an actor, marvellous, because it means you've achieved something. The fact that it's in science fiction doesn't mean it's any less good than if it were in Shakespeare. I've seen some pretty bad performances of Shakespeare that we wouldn't have had in Blake's 7.
JOHN: You seem to have some loyal fans.
PAUL: They make you what you are. I loathe some people's attitude. There are one or two people, who shall be nameless, that I know very well who ignore letters and despise people who write in and I feel like thumping actors who say: "No, I don't bother: I throw them straight in the wastepaper basket."
I think if people take the trouble to write, you should reply. Without them, you're not going to get anywhere. I just wish some of the fans knew which people these were so that they didn't support them any more and they wouldn't get the work. I feel very strongly about the relationship you have with the people who watch you. That's why I go to science fiction conventions: because that's part of my job.
JOHN: You won a Starburst Award last year. It's hardly an Oscar, though, is it?
PAUL: Alright, it isn't Hollywood and it isn't an Academy Award, but it is an award and somebody somewhere has gone to a lot of trouble to think about it and a lot of people have gone to a lot of trouble – if you count the stamps at 10p or 12p each – to write in and say who they like, so I can stand up there on the day and be feted and given an award. That means a lot; it means more than I've been able to convey in what I've just said.
And that Starburst Award I won has pride-of-place in my home. That's the reward, the contact with the audience, which you don't get on television. In the theatre you get it because you get the applause at the end. And it's marvellous and I love it.
JOHN: Especially from children?
PAUL: A nine-year-old sent me a script. It was very funny, because it said:
SCENE ONE: Avon and Blake and Villa teleport down on the planet.
SCENE TWO: They arrive on the planet. Avon says: "I don't like the look of this place." Blake says: "Neither do I – Let's go back."
That was the end of the script. I thought that was hilarious. What a great idea for a gag!
JOHN: Is writing something you would like to get into yourself?
PAUL: Yes, I would. If an actor does a particular character for any length of time, he gets to know that character better than anybody else. You get to know how that character reacts with other characters and consequently you know more about the other characters than perhaps a lot of people.
JOHN: So maybe you should write a Blake's 7 episode…
Paul Darrow wrote a Blake's 7 novel
PAUL: I wouldn't mind, actually. The only trouble is that, if you write for yourself, everybody says: "Oh dear me! He's just writing so that he looks that much better!" So that's a dodgy thing.
I'd probably have to write it for another character, so they wouldn't be able to say that. But then you defeat the object of the exercise because your character's the one you know about, so… A lot depends on the writers, actually.
Chris Boucher (the script editor on Blake's 7) was very much on the right wavelength for this kind of thing. Terry Nation's original idea was a good one. And then they got in one or two other interesting writers.
JOHN: Like Tanith Lee. As well as writing for Blake's 7, she wrote the radio play The Silver Sky which you starred in.
PAUL: I did that because she wrote it. I didn't even read the script before accepting because I didn't need to. She writes well and it was a marvellous part; I think it calls out to be televised. It's a love story set in a time warp. And those two people, who come from two different areas of time, meet and fall in love and then are destroyed. She is destroyed physically; he is destroyed as far as his personality is concerned, because he suddenly realises everything's worthless.
JOHN: You haven't done much radio.
PAUL: No.
JOHN: But, during the breaks in Blake's 7, you've done stage plays.
PAUL: Yes. It's to keep my hand in, really, because they're different techniques.
JOHN: What's the difference?
PAUL: Well, projection (of the voice) for one. With a microphone, you can be very quiet; in the theatre, you've got to convey a quiet emotion loudly. So it's a different technique. Also a live audience means sustaining a performance with a beginning, a middle and an end. In television, of course, it's all shot out of continuity.
Blake's 7 was scheduled in peaktime on BBC1
JOHN: …but the money's better in television.
PAUL: (LAUGHS) Well, I was about to say money's not important but, of course, it is… As long as you get a fair whack, as long as it's a reasonable amount to live on. But the BBC, you see, is faced with all sorts of cutbacks…
Actually, I must put in a plug for the special effects boys. Having mentioned money and cutbacks, that's the kind of department that is faced with them and what those boys do with limited resources is amazing. It is staggering. They come in and they say: "We've made this gun for you" or "this bomb for you". And it's a working model! It works! They're marvellous.
JOHN: Ian Scones used to do the Blake's 7 effects and now he's off to do the House of Hammer series for ITC.
PAUL: Yes, I'm in one of those. All about vestal virgins being sacrificed on the altar, so I'm going to spend most of my days sitting among a group of beautiful girls – it's going to be terribly difficult, isn't it?
JOHN: Keeping up your image.
PAUL: (LAUGHS) What image? Avon never got the girl. I'd quite like it if he did once in a while, but then I don't think they'd cast Raquel Welch would they?
Filed under Acting, Science fiction, Television
Tagged as acting, BBC TV, Blake's 7, Chris Boucher, fans, House of Hammer, Ian Scoones, Paul Darrow, SciFi, Tanith Lee, Terry Nation, TV
Life on a cult TV show – Paul Darrow on "Blake's 7" scripts, squabbles and laughs
Yesterday's blog was the first part of a 1980 interview with actor Paul Darrow, whose death was announced this week.
In August 1980, I interviewed him for Marvel Comics' Starburst magazine. He was then known for starring as Avon in Terry Nation's peaktime BBC TV science fantasy series Blake's 7.
Yesterday, he talked about how an actor can turn a villain into a hero.
In this second extract, he talks about movies, fans, scripts, other members of the cast and the then-planned fourth series.
Blake's 7 was notable for killing off central characters – rebel leader Blake himself disappeared in Series Two and jaw-droppingly – SPOILER ALERT – at the end of the fourth series, all the remaining rebels with whom the audience had identified were killed off; in effect, the baddies won and the heroes lost.
You do not have to have seen Blake's 7…
Jacqueline Pearce and Paul Darrow relax between filming scenes for an episode of Blake's 7
JOHN: A lot of people I interview say they were brought up in the front row of the cinema.
PAUL: I can do the whole of The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca and Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid.
JOHN: Casablanca is over-rated.
PAUL: (PUTTING ON A HUMPHREY BOGART VOICE) Casablana'sh a grate movie… And there are lines like
"Rick, why did you come to Casablanca?"
"I came four de watersh."
And Claude Rains says: "But we're in the middle of the desert!"
There's a slight pause and Bogie says: "I wash mishinformed."
That's a very witty line and it was written the year I was born.
In fact, Chris Boucher (script editor on Blake's 7) and I are both mad on films, so I used to say: "Listen, I've remembered a great quote from a great movie – Can you slip it in somewhere?" And occasionally he slipped one in.
There was one that was a pinch from Butch Cassidy where Redford turns to Newman and says: "Stick to thinking, Butch, that's what you're good at." And Chris put that in an episode for me, so I actually turned round to Blake and said it. You'd be surprised the people who pick it up, too.
Tanith Lee wrote some wonderful lines. Steven Pacey (who plays Tarrant) had a great long speech to me saying: "I'm better than you, I'm faster than you, I'm younger than you, I'm harder than you; you didn't reckon you'd have any trouble with me but you're gonna have trouble with me!" and so on and so on. And, at the end of all that, I had one line which was pure Humphrey Bogart: "You talk too much!"
JOHN: Do you get a lot of male fan letters?
PAUL: A fair amount, but more from women. The men who write, I suppose, would like to be this sort of person and I can understand because so would I. I don't think I am quite him, but it's what I quite admire.
If you actually look at the people in films today that do capture the imagination, they are the strong men. And, as I say, I was brought up on them: my favourite actors are people like Marlon Brando, Clint Eastwood… You know where you stand with people like that. John Wayne: no-one knocked over his glass of milk and got away with it.
Whatever you think of John Wayne, when you went in to see one of his pictures, you knew exactly what you were going to get. That, I think, is the most important thing: you must never disappoint.
When we get a Blake's 7 script where I don't think the character is treated properly, then I'll complain. Not because I'm trying to be difficult or give myself a better part – you can cut the part out if you want to – but don't give the people what they don't expect, because they're far more intelligent than they're given credit for.
Terry Nation created Doctor Who's Daleks as well as Blake's 7 – He had overall say, but only wrote a few of the Blake scripts
That's a fault with writers: they think they have to hit everything over the head with a sledgehammer to explain. Actors are stupid and the audience is stupid: that's the theory. They're not.
In fact, the audience tends to know more than the actors – not about a character, but about what's going on. I often get letters saying that, when I said such-and-such a thing, it actually isn't possible. And that's from children.
JOHN: Children are very perceptive.
PAUL: You can't fool them for a minute. There are two little boys who live over the road – 9 and 11 they are – and one day they said: "What episode are you working on at the moment?" And I was working on the one where the girlfriend rolled-up.
And the little one turned to me and said: "Oh no-o-o! You don't kiss her, do you?" (LAUGHS) And then his eyes widened and he said: "I bet I know what you do! You kill her, don't you? You would!" That redeemed me in his eyes. And, of course, that's exactly what Avon did.
We had this one episode where Avon met his only friend in the Universe. And David Maloney (the producer) said: "Don't worry – You kill him on the last page!"
So I've killed my only friend in the Universe and I've also killed my only love in the Universe. It's wonderful, isn't it? Where's he going to go?
JOHN: The new producer is Vere Lorimer. Are you going to be in the next series?
PAUL: As far as I know. What's happened at the moment is that Vere's rung us all up personally to say: "We are thinking of a fourth series and would you be interested in doing it?"
Then it's a question of what's going to happen in it – Where's it going to go? I think it has to develop and that's part of its appeal. We've lost four of the Seven – five if you count the Liberator (the space ship).
We've lost the Liberator, Zen, Blake, Jenna and Gan. That's quite a change, really. Now we've got a situation where really Avon is in charge, isn't he?
JOHN: Yes, what do you think Avon felt about old softie-liberal Blake?
Avon and Blake had a fraught relationship in the Blake series.
PAUL: I think he really admired the commitment – we were talking about commitment earlier on – and that's why he stuck with Blake to a certain extent. Also, he had nowhere else to go. As he made clear halfway through the second series, Blake could have what he wanted but what Avon wanted was the Liberator and eventually he got it.
JOHN: It was really a case of "This spaceship isn't big enough for both of us".
PAUL: Yes. what happened at the end of the second series – we discussed this quite carefully – was that, as far as the personalities were concerned, one of those characters had to go: Blake or Avon.
I used to expect an episode to arrive on my desk entitled Showdown or Gunfight at Jupiter Junction or something and it would be Blake and Avon saying: "I've had enough – This is where you get yours!" Gareth (Thomas, who played Blake) expected that too.
But, in fact, what happened was that Gareth got a good offer to go to the Royal Shakespeare Company and he said: "I don't want to go on playing the straight up-and-down hero". He was – I think you can quote that… I don't think he was happy. I think he'd agree.
JOHN: It was a boring part – having to play the man in the white hat.
PAUL: And it wasn't his fault. He's actually quite good, you know. But the character had to be 'morally sound' all the way through.
When the third series started, David Maloney said to me: "What we're going to do is introduce a streak of morality into Avon."
I said: "Oh no, no, you mustn't do that!"
But he said: "No, we're going to."
And I thought, well, if they introduce a streak of morality in him, I can play it in such a way that he looks as though he's amoral. So I left it at that. An actor can do all sorts of things. You can say the phrase "I love you" in 9,000 different ways. What was good about the series was that there was a marvellous balance between everybody and we all got on well.
The Blake's 7 cast minus Blake etc; Josette Simon is on the left
There was very little hassle among the actors. Once or twice we obviously got a bit annoyed but, generally speaking, it was pretty good.
Josette Simon (Dayne) was straight out of drama school. I saw her recently and she'd been to do an episode in another TV series, which must be nameless, and she said: "I had the most horrendous time. I thought everything was going to be like Blake's 7, but it isn't. It was awful! They didn't speak to me, they were rude when they did speak and it was dreadful."
She hated it – It was so unlike Blake's 7.
(Left-Right) Gareth Thomas, Paul Darrow and Michael Keating relax between takes on Blakes 7
… CONTINUED HERE …
Filed under Acting, Science fiction, Television, Writing
Tagged as Blake's 7, Chris Boucher, David Maloney, Gareth Thomas, Jacqueline Pearce, Josette Simon, Michael Keating, movies, Paul Darrow, SciFi, Steven Pacey, Tanith Lee, Terry Nation, TV, Vere Lorimer
Paul Darrow of "Blake's 7" in 1980 – How an actor turns a villain into a hero
Actor Paul Darrow's death was announced yesterday. In August 1980, I interviewed him for Marvel Comics' Starburst magazine. He was then starring as Avon in Terry Nation's BBC TV science fantasy series Blake's 7.
When, in a 1978 interview, I had asked Terry Nation about the character of Avon, he told me Paul Darrow "took hold of the part and made it his own. It could have been a very dull role, but this particular actor took hold of it and gave it much better dimensions than I'd ever put on paper. He is an enormously popular character. He is incredibly popular – and rightly so. He's a good actor. I think he's terrific."
In a December 1980 interview, co-star Jacqueline Pearce, who played Servalan in Blake's 7, told me: "Paul always knows what he's doing in front of a camera; technically, he's quite brilliant".
In this first extract from my 1980 interview with Paul Darrow, he talks about how an actor can play "a bastard" sympathetically and, by talking about Avon, perhaps also reveals a lot of his own thoughts.
This is the 1980 article, starting with its introduction…
Paul Darrow was born in Surrey. As a child, he wanted to be a sugar planter because "it seemed terribly romantic". He thinks, perhaps, he saw a film about sugar planting. He used to go to the cinema a lot and eventually decided he wanted to be involved in the film industry in one way or another. The best way to go about that seemed to be to become an actor. So, after education at Haberdashers' Aske's public school, he went to RADA (the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art) in London.
After graduating, he worked with repertory companies in this country, went to Canada with a play and toured the Netherlands for six weeks, playing one-night stands as Jimmy Porter, the working class rebel in Look Back in Anger.
Darrow appeared in small parts in cinema movies The Raging Moon (1970) and Mister Jericho (1970) and starred as a James Bond figure in the television movie Port of Secrets (1974) for Norway's NRK. More recently, he starred in the tele-movie Drake's Venture (1980) for Westward Television. But he is best-known as Avon in BBC TV's Blake's 7 series, a part he has played in 38 episodes over three series.
Paul Darrow's autobiography, published in 2006
JOHN: The obvious question is are you too strongly identified with Avon?
PAUL: No. Someone else asked me if I wasn't typecast as a villain. But, take Shakespeare. That means I could play Cassius, Iago – you name it – I wouldn't call that typecast. I happen to like playing that type of character and also I was able to develop Avon.
JOHN: You said you like playing "that type" of character. What type?
PAUL: The type of character that I'm able to develop on my own – the loner, if you like. I can really go anywhere with him, can't I?
JOHN: Why did you develop him the way you did?
PAUL: The Blake character was very much the straight up-and-down hero, the man in the white hat, and I thought: Well, life isn't like that. It isn't like it now; it's certainly not going to be like that in 300 years' time or whenever. So I thought: What is the series about? It's really about survival and, if you look at the Federation as Nazi Germany, then we're heroes; if you look on the Federation as Britain, we're the IRA, so we're villains. It's a matter of whatever point of view you happen to have.
From Servalan's point of view, we're terrorists.
So I thought: If you're a terrorist, you must behave like one and you must have some kind of commitment. Whether you agree with it or not doesn't matter; you've got to admire the commitment. So I thought: If he's going to kill somebody, he's going to kill somebody. It doesn't matter if he shoots them in the back or if they're unarmed – it doesn't matter – he MUST do it. So I thought I'd play him like that.
JOHN: He's an untrustworthy egotist, isn't he?
PAUL: No, he's not untrustworthy. If he gives his word, he'll stick by it. It's getting him to give it that's difficult. And I admire that.
JOHN: Is that why viewers admire him?
PAUL: I think you know where you stand with him. If he does give his word, then he'll back you, as he always did with Blake. He never backed down at the crucial moment. Blake actually had a line: "If we get into a tricky situation, Avon may go, may run". Well, no, he wouldn't. In that very episode, Avon was the one who pulled them all out of it. The reason he, the character, didn't get on with Blake was because Blake was a woolly-minded liberal.
Blake didn't know what he wanted.
"I want to finish the Federation," he says.
And Avon says: "And then what?"
Who cares? You're never going to stop corruption. You're just going to replace one Federation with another. What I like about Avon is that I am able to keep back quite a lot and let him come out every now and then because the basic storyline is an adventure story.
JOHN: What do you mean "keep back quite a lot"?
PAUL: Keeping back a lot of his personality.
JOHN: Isn't that a bad thing? The audience doesn't know what's going on if you keep him too enigmatic.
PAUL: No, because occasionally he does reveal something else. For example, when his girlfriend rolled up, I don't think there was any doubt that he loved her. But what I liked about it was that, however much he loved her, she betrayed him, therefore – BANG! He killed her. Very painful, very nasty but very necessary. He's the supreme pragmatist, isn't he?
JOHN: Sounds emotionless, though.
PAUL: No, that's not emotionless, because he loved her. But he's not going to share the pain with anybody else. That's private; that's his business.
JOHN: And the audience finds this attractive…
PAUL: As an audience, you're objective and you look at the man and say He is feeling the pain and, every now and then, when he's on his own and The Look comes, you can think Oh dear! Poor fellow! And he is a poor fellow. It's a sad situation in which he finds himself but that's tough, that's show business and he's got to fight and he's got to continue and go the way he thinks is right.
One of the guest artists said to me: "I love this series because it's the only series that has the courage to have a right bastard as the hero".
And I made the point to him as I did to you that he isn't a bastard; he's a wonderful, warm human being. (LAUGHS) Because, you see he doesn't think he is a bastard. That's the secret of playing somebody who is apparently unpleasant: that he doesn't think he is.
JOHN: What does he think he is?
PAUL: He thinks he's just realistic, sensible and, above all, going to come through. He's going to win. They're all playing a game and he's going to win the game. If he can't win the game, he doesn't play.
JOHN: What's his background, do you think?
"What's his background, do you think?"
PAUL: I did discuss this with Chris Boucher (script editor of the series) and I said: "It's all very well saying we're Earthmen, but where from? It does make a difference what school you go to and all that sort of thing."
And the one remarkable thing I noticed was that the class system still prevails in the future. Avon, if anything, certainly feels himself an elitist and I would imagine, if you look at him in a cliché way, he was probably a Prussian or a South African or very, very aristocratic English.
He obviously went to a very good school. He doesn't like people en masse and I personally (LAUGHS) find them a bit frightening, so that wasn't too difficult to play.
JOHN: Away from work, you're interested in military history and particularly the Napoleonic era. Why Napoleon?
PAUL: He's my kind of man. One of the Blake's 7 fans wore to me – it's one of the greatest compliments I've been paid – and said: "There's something distinctly Napoleonic about the way you play Avon". That was a compliment.
JOHN: Why is he your kind of man?
PAUL: Because he was a realist. He was able to combine romantic idealism with realism. Somebody once said to him: "We can attack in flank on the Austrian Army, but it will mean going through these rather beautiful gardens and destroying them."
Napoleon said: "How long will it take you to do it?"
And he said something like: "Forty minutes, preserving the gardens."
And Napoleon says: "How long will it take not preserving the gardens?"
And he says: "Twenty minutes". Half the time.
So Napoleon says: "Go through the gardens. Win. We can always rebuild the gardens."
Which is sensible.
JOHN: Very Avonesque.
PAUL: Yes. He wouldn't think twice. The actor Audie Murphy, in his book To Hell and Back, wrote about when he was in the American Army in Sicily and they suddenly came across two Italian officers riding two magnificent white horses.
They were armed; they came round the corner and the American officer and all his men froze. Murphy went down on one knee and gunned down the Italians and the horses. He had no choice and that was the professional in him. When everybody else froze, those Italians could have blown them to smithereens.
Jacqueline Pearce as Servalan with Paul Darrow as Avon…
So the kind of realism that allows a man to do something like that instinctively – sad though it is to kill beautiful horses – appeals to me. He was the most decorated hero of World War II; he was fascinating.
You see, being brought up in the cinema, those are the sort of people I admire. I was brought up on Humphrey Bogart and a situation where men were men and women were women. Now, alright, that's a cliché, but I like that. I don't like all this unisex stuff.
Tagged as acting, Audie Murphy, BBC TV, Blake's 7, Chris Boucher, fantasy, Jacqueline Pearce, Napoloeon, Paul Darrow, SciFi, Terry Nation
The late Jacqueline Pearce on the Actors Studio, Blake's 7 & "crying and crying"
Actress Jacqueline Pearce died two days ago. So it goes. She is remembered, among other roles, for being the iconic main villain Servalan in BBC TV's science fiction series Blake's 7.
Yesterday's blog was taken from the chat which I had with her in December 1980, as published in Starburst magazine in April 1981. The chat happened between Series 3 and Series 4 of Blake's 7. This blog concludes that interview.
JOHN: Getting back to te way you approach roles. Between 1967 and 1971, you were in America. You joined the Actors Studio in New York, which is the home of Method Acting – Marlon Brando and so on. Why did you go to America?
JACQUELINE: I got divorced. I just wanted to get away. I joined the Actors Studio because I wasn't working and so I was going crazy. I didn't have a work permit. I knew I had to do something, so I went to the Actors Studio and auditioned and passed and was accepted, which meant I could work there. So it was a way of saving my sanity.
JOHN: Did you learn anything useful?
JACQUELINE: I think one always does, even if it doesn't seem to have much value at the time. I think Lee Strasberg (who runs the Actors Studio) tends to be a little bit of a dictator. His way is the only way and that's it. It's like religion. If you're not Catholic, you won't go to heaven. And, if you don't do the Actors Studio, you won't be a good actress. That's rubbish..
JOHN: Just like being back in a convent?
JACQUELINE: Yes, it is.
JOHN: And you react against that?
JACQUELINE: Yes, I do. I always do react against it.
JOHN: Why did you not stay in America?
JACQUELINE: Well, I love New York passionately, but Los Angeles is like a planet all on its own. It's hard enough to cope if you're a man. It's virtually impossible if you're a woman. Also, I didn't get a work permit from working with Strasberg. I just became a member of the Studio. It took about three years to get my work permit, by which time I was so homesick I just had to come home.
JOHN: Did you come back a Method actress?
Jacqueline as Servalan and Paul Darrow as Avon in Blake's 7
JACQUELINE: I came back with an understanding of it, but not necessarily a way to work with it. I'm very instinctive in the way I work – You ask Paul Darrow! (Avon in Blake's 7) I love working with him. We work together very, very well. Paul always knows what he's doing in front of a camera; technically, he's quite brilliant and I rely on him for that. He will make sure I'm in the light or not blocking myself. He lets me go completely intuitively and he responds to that. It's like a wonderful marriage: very rare and wonderful when it happens.
JOHN: You have had to contend with two different actors playing the part of Travis.
JACQUELINE: That was very difficult.
JOHN: They were slightly different characters.
JACQUELINE: Totally different.
JOHN: It must have been very difficult to…
Jacqueline (Servalan) with Brian Croucher (Travis) in Blake's 7
JACQUELINE: … adjust. Yes, it was. Steve (Greif), the first one, I could bounce off. Brian (Croucher) is a totally different type of actor. And the reason he had to go on being (a character called) Travis was that Terry Nation (the show's originator) insisted on having that name.
But, instead of letting Brian find HIS Travis, they tried to make him follow Stephen's. Fatal. He's actually a wonderful actor. I've seen him do wonderful things. But Brian's not really a heavy. He's lightweight and cuddly. He's not really menacing, which Stephen was.
JOHN: Menace is indefinable. Your character is sort of menacing.
JACQUELINE: I think it's the danger of Servalan that makes her menacing: the opposites that are in present in her all the time. No-one ever feels totally relaxed around her except Avon.
JOHN: Avon has two facets to his character, too.
JACQUELINE: Well, we have always felt they were opposite sides of the same coin.
JOHN: He's nice with nasty bits and you are nasty with nice bits?
JACQUELINE: That's right, yes.
JOHN: Was that conscious?
JACQUELINE: No. In the third series, we got more and more to do together because we insisted on it. When we had the love scene: that brought in loads of fan letters. And, in another episode, I kissed him as well and the audiences loved it. They like people to relate.
JOHN: The new character Tarrant is a sort of Blake Mark II. The first Blake character didn't seem to work out, because it's difficult to get any humanity into a straight up-and-down hero.
Audience thinks: "I'm not quite so bad after all"
JACQUELINE: Impossible. No-one really likes a nice guy.
JOHN: Why do you think villains like you are more interesting than heroes like the original Blake?
JACQUELINE: The straight up-and-down characters tend to make most people resentful because they're being good and, God knows, we are not. Whereas someone who is a villain is fallible and makes mistakes and is cheap and rotten and we all are that sometimes. So, seeing someone be that, an audience thinks: Oh, I'm not quite so bad after all. They can identify and empathise. Well, Servelan's a bit over-the-top: there aren't many people who go around like her. (LAUGHS)
JOHN: You are maybe not a Hitler figure, but you are a sort of female Napoleon?
JACQUELINE: Yes, but I think if Servalan did get full power, full control, she would rule very fairly. I don't think she's into power for its own sake; I think power means something different for her. It might originally have been power for its own sake but, when she fell in love with Avon, she realised that the main power is love.
JOHN: Ah! You should be a scriptwriter.
JACQUELINE: It requires tremendous self-discipline, which I don't have. What I would really like to do is produce.
JOHN: Why?
JACQUELINE: Because then I could pick the directors I wanted, the crew, the actors and the script.
JOHN: You would just produce?
JACQUELINE: I would act as well. But I would love to produce, even if it were just once – which it probably will be. I would love to do it on film. You know – go for broke. (LAUGHS)
A BBC TV fan photo signed by Jacqueline
JOHN: Why film rather than stage or TV?
JACQUELINE: Of all the media, I love film best. It is free-est. It uses the imagination in a way you can't in theatre and don't on telly. The options are enormous. Ideally, I would like to do films all the time.
JOHN: So what have you been doing since the last season of Blake's 7?
JACQUELINE: I went straight off to America the day after we finished the show and spent some time in New York and Mississippi and then went out to Los Angeles and I saw Terry Nation when I was in Hollywood. He doesn't want to be in England any more. You can understand. It takes so long to get anything done here. Anyway, I came back from there and I was offered a film which I turned down. It was vulgar, cheap and exploitative.
It was a science fiction film, of course – you can see how their minds work. My part consisted of sitting on a loo doing something extremely intimate and then I got murdered sitting on the loo and I could see no justification for this. I thought: No! I am not going to sit on a loo, dear! Awful film! I can't even remember its name.
JOHN: And then?
"… I collapsed and was resting in hospital …"
JACQUELINE: Then I went into hospital. I collapsed and was resting in hospital for a while. Then I came out and I was going to do one of the first Hammer House of Horror (TV) films and I found I had a lump on my breast and had to go and have that taken out. I had never been ill before. I came out of hospital again and went off to do (the Tom Stoppard play) Night and Day and apparently anaesthetic stays in your system for about a month after you have had a general anaesthetic and I didn't allow enough time and I'm quite highly-strung, as you may have noticed.
So I finished Night and Day, which is a very, very tough job, came back here, tried to keep going but I got to the state where all I could do was cry. The other Saturday morning, I was just sitting in a heap here crying and crying and crying.
JOHN: Night and Day has the female lead on stage most of the time, doesn't it?
JACQUELINE: Yes, it's a huge part to carry, particularly when you're not well. But now I feel absolutely wonderful.
JOHN: You have done Blake's 7 for three years. There's the obvious problem of being typecast.
JACQUELINE: Well, we will just have to see. I mean, I've always been typecast as a strong lady. I think being dark-haired you tend to get put into a category. If you are blonde, you play the wife and, if you're dark, you play the mistress.
JOHN: I am surprised Blake's 7 has developed such a following. The BBC scheduled it against Coronation Street.
JACQUELINE: I know. And one year we were put up against Charlie's Angels, which had a very, very big following. But, last season, we averaged 10 million viewers a week, which is a lot of people.
JOHN: What happens if Blake's 7 stops after the upcoming fourth season?
JACQUELINE: Well, the way it looks to me, it could go on forever, if they keep giving the public what the public seems to want and not trying to give them something they want the public to have, which is very different. There is no reason why it couldn't go on forever.
(BLAKE'S 7 ENDED WITH SEASON 4)
Filed under Acting, Psychology, Science fiction
Tagged as Actors Studio, Blake's 7, Brian Croucher, Hammer House of Horror, Jacqueline Pearce, Lee Strasberg, mental breakdown, method acting, movies, Night and Day, obituary, Paul Darrow, SciFi, Starburst, Stephen Greif, Terry Nation, Tom Stoppard, TV