There appears to be some confusion as to the successive lairds of Silvyland and to the connection to this family of Knox of Dungannon, etc., ancestors of the Earls of Ranfurly. BP1870 (Ranfurly) shows the following succession & connection which we presume has since been found wanting by further research given that (1) BP1934 (Ranfurly) appears to have identified the father of Thomas Knox (who married Elizabeth Spang) as a different Marcus Knox and (2) BIFR1976 shows the connection coming through an earlier generation. We show the connection provided by BP1870 because it may prove useful in the future but report it in italics to show that we suspect that it is at least partly wrong.
MGC (vol 2, p279) confirms that the widow of Uchtred Knox of Ranfurlie married a William Knox of Silvieland, "a near relation" of Uchtred.
BP1870 shows the same children for this Thomas and Elizabeth as does BP1934, which we report below.
The following is reported by BIFR1976.
BP1930 (Ranfurly) reports that the father of both John Knox, Mayor of Dublin, and William Knox of Castlereagh was William Knox of Glasgow, son of Marcus Knox of Glasgow. It reports that William's first wife, and mother of John & William, was Margaret Greenless (married after 16.11.1584-5, she died 22.07.1604). BP1930 does not gives birth or death dates for this William.
This Marcus is identified by BIFR1976 as ancestor of the Earls of Ranfurly. It is provisionally presumed that he is father of the Marcus who is the first of this branch to be mentioned by BP1934 (Ranfurly) but it is clear that there are still inconsistencies to be clarified.


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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The War that Made the Roman Empire
Ten Caesars
The Death of Caesar
Masters of Command
The Spartacus War
The Battle of Salamis
Rowing Against the Current
Barry Strauss
Leadership Lessons from Ancient History
Martin Luther King Jr. and Socrates
This week we celebrated the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., nearly a century after his birth in 1929. Dr. King was the most prominent leader of the civil rights movement, the force that did as much as anything in my lifetime to change America for the better. He was eloquent, far-sighted, and courageous, risking his life many times, as events tragically proved.
Bringing fundamental change to a nation is no easy thing, but King played a central role in doing just that. He was, to use a term coined by James MacGregor Burns and often cited in the scholarly literature, not merely a transactional leader; he was a transformational leader.
What makes a transformational leader? Wisdom, good judgment, the ability to communicate, foresight, courage, and decisiveness are all requisite. King displayed all those qualities as well as another fundamental characteristic: a sense of mission. In that, he recalls the great religious leaders of history, as he should, because King was a Christian pastor as well as a social activist. But since King spoke to a secular as well as a religious audience, I find myself thinking of a lay leader of the past: Socrates.
King shared something else with Socrates, a sense of mission.
Socrates was a philosopher and an important one. He is no less than one of the founders of the Western tradition of political and moral philosophy. But Socrates was also an active citizen of his country, Athens. He served as an infantryman in the hard fighting of the Peloponnesian War. He stood up in the Athenian Assembly, the democratic legislature in which Athenian citizens participated in one of history's first direct democracies. There he opposed the clearly illegal motion to try a group of eight Athenian generals en masse, rather than to give them the individual trials that they were entitled to by Athenian law. Socrates courageously tried to stop the angry assemblymen from committing a miscarriage of justice. Unfortunately, he failed. The trial proceeded; the generals were convicted; and six of the eight were executed; the other two were abroad and escaped.
Half a dozen years later it was Socrates' turn. He stood trial on the grounds of not believing in the gods of the city and of corrupting the young. These were outrageous charges. It was understood by many that they were a smokescreen. The real issue was the anti-democratic coup that followed Athens' defeat in war. For about a year, a small group of oligarchs imposed a reign of terror on the city, until an armed rebellion by loyal democrats drove them from power and restored democracy. There followed history's first known amnesty. Aside from the few most guilty parties, no one would be punished for supporting the oligarchy.
Socrates was not one of the oligarchs; indeed, he defied their order to arrest an innocent man. But he was friendly with several of the oligarchs. He was also a well-known critic of democracy. Nor did he play a part in the anti-oligarchic rebellion by the forces of democracy. The amnesty meant that Socrates could not be tried for any of this. The charges of "corrupting the youth" and "not believing in the gods of the city" were a way to get around the law and attack him even so.
The trial of Socrates took place in 399 BC. Semi-fictionalized accounts of his defense speech were written years later by his followers Plato and Xenophon. In his version, Plato makes clear that Socrates believed in his sense of a divine mission. Socrates issues these defiant words to the jury:
"Indeed, gentlemen of the jury, I am far from making a defense now on my own behalf, as might be thought, but on yours, to prevent you from wrongdoing by mistreating the god's gift to you by condemning me; for if you kill me, you will not easily find another like me. I was attached to this city by the god—though it seems a ridiculous thing to say—as upon a great and noble horse which was somewhat sluggish because of its size and needed to be stirred up by a kind of gadfly. It is to fulfill some such function that I believe the god has placed me in the city. I never cease to rouse each and every one of you, to persuade and reproach you all day long and everywhere I find myself in your company." (Plato, Apology of Socrates)
Such defiance was not likely to win the jury's favor, and it did not. Socrates was convicted and condemned to death. Once again, the philosopher stood his ground. Although he had the chance to flee abroad, he remained in prison. He had a responsibility, he said, to his country, for it had nurtured him and provided a bounty of good things. Socrates stayed in Athens and willingly took a dose of hemlock, a fatal poison. He died a martyr to philosophy.
Socrates' explanation of his decision to stay in Athens, as portrayed in Plato's Crito, is considered a classic text on civil disobedience. So is King's famous Letter from Birmingham City Jail, which cites Socrates, among other examples from history. But King shared something else with Socrates, a sense of mission.
Bringing fundamental change to a nation is no easy thing, but King played a central role in doing just that.
We see this clearly in King's eloquent "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech. In it he speaks of his gratitude to God for allowing him to live in a difficult but inspiring period of history, a period of struggle but also of a human rights revolution. "Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars," King writes. He goes on to suggest what activists should say to those who were doing them injustice:
"God sent us by here, to say to you that you're not treating his children right. And we've come by here to ask you to make the first item on your agenda fair treatment, where God's children are concerned."
King was referring specifically to a strike by sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was speaking, but the words could apply to the civil rights movement generally.
King's mighty speech ends on a striking note. He says that, although he would like to enjoy a long life, he wasn't concerned about that now. "I have been to the mountaintop," he says. Then he adds:
"I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!"
The date was April 3, 1968. Tragically, King was murdered a day later.
What makes a leader? The ability to see things that others do not. The capacity to communicate a vision to his followers. The courage to dare. And, in the case of Socrates and King, the conviction that they served a greater power, one for which they would make the supreme sacrifice.
Let's hope that we have the wisdom to ensure that our leaders never again become martyrs.
Ten Rules for Writers
"Every beginning is hard," so the saying goes. Maybe that's not true of the New Year, which most people ease into joyously, nervously, and often drunkenly. Or, if the saying is true, perhaps it refers only to hangovers, and here in the northern hemisphere, to cold weather, and everywhere to the difficulty of sticking to New-Year's resolutions.
But the saying is certainly true if you are beginning to write a new book. That's what I was doing during the holiday season this year. Classes over, so were my excuses, so I sat down at my desk and started. And false started. And started again.
Writing is frustrating and exhilarating. It's dangerous, like handling explosives.
Writing is frustrating and exhilarating. It's dangerous, like handling explosives. If you try to force it, the words may blow up in your face. If, by contrast, you handle the process with care, then the prose will finally start to pour out, with any bangs removed to a safe distance away.
As my chapter began to take shape, I reflected more than I usually do about the practice of writing. In the hope that my thoughts might be of interest, I'm sharing some of them here. I encourage you to write me with your own ideas about the art of writing or about creativity more generally.
Think of yourself on a beach or a mountain or breathing in the bracing air of a windy sea, a lighthouse looming offshore.
Ten Rules for Writers as you stare at the blank page or screen:
Don't get it right, get it written. It's more important to start with something than to stare and stare at the page in search of perfection. Once you have something down on paper (more likely, on the screen), you'll be able to reshape it or toss it out. Which is not a problem because:
Writing is rewriting. Thanks to the late great William Zinnser for stating this clearly. See his wonderful book, On Writing Well. Few of us nail it at first go, so get out your mental red pencil and be prepared to edit and edit again. I miss the grand gesture, in the old days, of pulling a sheet of foolscap out of a massive Royal typewriter, crumpling it into a ball, and tossing it into the trash. Still, the cross-outs and line-throughs of Track Changes have a certain comforting rhythm to them.
"De l'audace, encore de l'audace, toujours de l'audace!" "Be bold, bolder, and ever bolder," as they said in the French Revolution. If you have something daring or even something outrageous to say, just say it. It may represent your heart's desire. You can always use your head and rethink it later, and you probably will.
Write the first part or the first chapter last. It's best to begin in the middle. Chances are that you'll have a good grasp of at least some of the material there. The opening, however, makes sense only after you've put all the pieces in order. For me, it's usually the last thing that I write. Or, if I do sometimes start at the beginning, it's only knowing that I'll probably end up rewriting it from top to bottom.
Don't sleep on midnight inspiration. If you wake up with what seems like a brilliant idea at 2 a.m., don't count on remembering it when you get up in the morning. Write it down then and there. Either keep a notebook/pen or smartphone on your bedside table or get up and write it down.
Writing is reading. Nothing improves our writing more than reading great writers. Identify work that you admire or that intrigues you. Make time to read it as you write. If you're as detail oriented as I am, you may keep a file of favorite sentences and paragraphs. Go back to it frequently and see if you can match their craftsmanship.
Print it out. It's amazing how much more you see in print than on the screen. Errors or infelicities that pass by us electronically will jump off the page when held in our hands.
Everyone needs an editor. Eventually, your writing, we hope, will pass before the practiced eyes of a professional editor. If that's not the case, or if it's not going to happen for a while, send your work to a trusted friend or two, preferably another writer, but any intelligent reader will do. Feedback is invaluable. What may have seemed clear to you when you wrote it may make little sense to others. You won't know that, of course, until another person reads it.
Set a time limit. We all need to think things through, but if you're like me, you run the risk of overthinking. Improve the situation by putting just a little pressure on yourself – but not too much: remember that dynamite. It's amazing how quickly you can write something if the clock is ticking.
Take a sabbatical. Write at least a little every day but leave one day of the week free from writing. Step away from your work and refresh your mind. Let your imagination wander. Think of yourself on a beach or a mountain or breathing in the bracing air of a windy sea, a lighthouse looming offshore. Be a writer, but be a person too.
Have fun. Writing is hard work, but it should also be joyous.
In December 1944, my father was with his unit in a rest center in the town of Montecatini near Florence, a distance of 85 miles from the front. He was a Private First Class in the 350th Regiment of the 88th Division, U.S. Army. At the age of twenty, he had gone from being a college sophomore to a combat soldier. They called themselves the Blue Devils, but the 88th has also been dubbed the Draftee Division.
In spring 1944 the United States launched an experiment. For the first-time in history, it sent an all-draftee division into sustained combat. The place was Italy, the unit was the 88th Division. Aaron Strauss, my father, was one of the laboratory rats. He was an infantryman but not a rifleman, serving in a weapons platoon rather than a rifle company: a less romantic but perhaps more typical assignment and only somewhat less dangerous. Although he never came face-to-face with an enemy in battle, he was exposed daily to the enemy's artillery barrages, which is what killed most of the Americans who died in Italy.
He hated the war but considered fighting it to have been among his proudest achievements. He never thought of himself as a veteran but would never want to trade places with someone who sat the war out. He fought in Rome, Volterra, and in the Apennine Mountains, where he saw men die, but his preferred vision of Italy in later life was of a tourist destination.
Neither a hero nor a protestor, Aaron typified the reality of the citizen-soldier: a quiet man who does his duty. He served as an antidote to the two misperceptions that dominate what Americans think about war today: that war is either good and romantic, like the Second World War, or bad, like Vietnam. The truth is that war is always bad but frequently moral nonetheless.
This is what Aaron discovered the moment the shooting started for him, outside a small town north of Naples. From May to December, 1944 he was in continual battle, from the heat of Campania to the cold of the mountains outside Bologna. The North Apennine Campaign of fall-winter was the worst, a brutal slog against the entrenched German defenses of the Gothic Line.
He hated the war but considered fighting it to have been among his proudest achievements.
The sources paint a picture of staggering losses. In September-October 1944, five thousand men in the 88th Division had been killed or wounded. From September 21 to October 3, the 350th Regiment alone lost 1420 men, forty per cent of its total, most of them at Monte Battaglia. That means a slaughter as bloody as that which lay ahead in Okinawa. And the casualties kept coming in the Apennine mountains in the winter.
Aaron remembered an occasion that fall when he was in a schoolhouse that was shelled and he was struck by fragments: not a serious wound. Earlier that year, in Tuscany, he and his unit were advancing through the fields on an ancient hill town, when an enemy shell landed at his feet. Fortunately for him (and for me), it was a dud.
No wonder my father started to think, towards the end of his time on the line, that he was going to die. My mother, Diane, once recalled how, in the early 1950s, Aaron took out a photo of the ten men in his squad and pointed out the ones who got killed or wounded — six or seven of them.
Cold, weary, worried by the continuing losses to enemy artillery or to disease, depressed by the endless war and the unconcerned folks at home, the American soldier in those days took what comfort he could in bars and brothels. One memoirist writes:
Groups of infantrymen would throng the red plush anterooms of the whorehouses, drinking bad cognac, often as not indifferent to the doubtful pleasures of going off for a mechanical quickie with one of the girls. (Douglas Allanbrook, See Naples. A Memoir. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1995, p. 215).
When Christmas came, or Chanukah, which fell in mid-December 1944, every soldier had reason to pray for victory and peace. A year later, all was quiet on the battlefields, but not without more months of obscene slaughter and misery.
Neither a hero nor a protestor, Aaron typified the reality of the citizen-soldier: a quiet man who does his duty.
My parents are gone now. After a rough start in the Depression and war, they went on to live great lives. And their children, grandchildren, and greatgrandchildren live even easier lives.
In many, many ways, we live in a better country than our ancestors. But our prosperity depends in no small part on the sacrifices of earlier generations. And in one way, we have to wonder if today's Americans are better. If called to the heroic efforts of our forebears, would we be up to the job? Would we do our duty?
Something to ponder during what, I hope, are happy holidays for everyone.
The Gift of the Magi
When I was young, I loved O. Henry's short story, "The Gift of the Magi." I'm sure you know it. It's the tale of a dirt-poor young couple long ago. One December 24, they each sacrifice their most precious possession to buy the other a Christmas present. Unbeknownst to one another, the wife cuts off her long, luxurious hair and sells it to a wig shop while the husband pawns his prize gold watch. Alas, she has bought him a platinum watch fob chain and he has bought her a set of tortoise-shell combs. Yet their mutual devotion symbolizes to the author the height of wisdom, equal to that of the wise men who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger.
Like most of us, I imagine, my fondest memories are of people, not of gifts. Family gatherings long ago at my grandparents': I remember those like yesterday. Holiday-season presents – not so much. But who would trade a red wagon or a baseball glove for the remembered smells of Grandma's kitchen or the image of Grandpa's smiling face and his hand waving good-bye as the elevator brought us downstairs from their apartment?
It's always the people and their inner gifts that matter most. Two thoughts come to mind, one from the history books, the other from the synagogue.
In December 1941, no sooner had President Franklin Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor than Prime Minister Winston Churchill invited himself to the White House – for Christmas. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was not amused as Churchill's supposedly brief visit turned into a three-week stay (with side trips to Canada and Florida). The President squared it with her because he realized that Churchill had brought an invaluable gift – himself, and the lessons he had learned in over two years of war. No present from Bond Street, no Mayfair trinket could compare to the iron will and strategic acumen that Churchill brought along with his cigars, whisky, and penchant for all-nighters, three uninvited weeks of them. Together, he and Roosevelt built a friendship that paved the way to victory in the world war.
To turn to the synagogue, Judaism requires ten Jews – ten Jewish men, in Orthodox Judaism – for a quorum (minyan) for prayer. It's not always easy to find ten to make the minyan. A rabbi I know told me that when he was growing up, his rabbi told him, "I don't want your presents, I want your presence."
Writing a check may be easy or painful, depending on one's finances. Usually, though, it is easier than sacrificing one's time. Yet time is the most valuable commodity. Again and again, life reminds us that the greatest gift is ourselves.
Merry Christmas to all my friends and readers who celebrate the holiday.
The Godfather – The Political is Personal
Just when we thought we were out of The Godfather, the media dragged us back in. This year marked the fiftieth anniversary of Francis Ford Coppola's Oscar-winning 1972 movie, leading to commentary here, there, and everywhere. Another reminder of the film came with the sad news in July of the death of actor James Caan, who played Sonny, one of the key roles. Attention must be paid to such a movie, but let's not forget the novel that the film was based on.
Mario Puzo published The Godfather in 1969. It spent 21 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. I'm going to praise the novel, gentle reader, but the work is not without its flaws.
The book is too long. There's too much about the singer and actor, Johnny Fontaine, and about Lucy Mancini, the bridesmaid turned hotelier, who mourns her lost lover, Sonny, and finds happiness in the arms of a surgeon whose career hit a roadblock. There's too much repetition of memorable phrases. No worries: Coppola stripped the novel down to essentials and made it more dramatic.
"There's more to the story than the violence, the cunning, and the famous lines. The central theme is that the political is personal."
Then there are the things in the book that grate on contemporary nerves. Puzo repeatedly describes various gangsters' racism toward African-Americans. The sentiments may be true to the characters involved, especially considering the book's setting in the 1940s, but nowadays we would expect the author to signal his dissent. Puzo repeatedly refers to loan sharks as shylocks; again, one might hope for a protest at the anti-Semitism. But the most egregious portrayal is that of women. They are either long-suffering, dupes, the victims of physical or sexual abuse, or voracious sex addicts. True, there's a tough ex-wife or two, but they are minor characters. Rarely does a woman get to stand up to a man. There's too much explicit sex in the novel for my fuddy-duddy taste, but Puzo set out to write a bestseller in the era of Airport and Valley of the Dolls, so the graphic writing is understandable. I don't think that Puzo was racist, anti-Semitic or anti-woman. He was surely describing what he saw as the reality of the gangsters' world, but today we would count on an author to push back.
Now for the praise. My teacher, the late Donald Kagan, used to say about the richness of The Godfather, "it's Homeric." Kagan had a dry sense of humor, and I never knew if he was joking. After re-reading the book twice this year, I think that if he wasn't serious, he ought to have been. It's not just that the book is full of detail or that it gives the rise and fall and rise of a gangster family an epic grandeur. It's also that Puzo offers insight into men and power.
There's more to the story than the violence, the cunning, and the famous lines. The book covers many subjects, but to me, the central theme is that the political is personal. This is not to be confused with the 1960s-1970s feminist rallying cry, "the personal is political," a call to use government power to free women from the home and win equality at work.
"The political is personal" locates real power in the hands of men of iron will whose agents steal, injure, and kill – in a word, in the hands of gangsters. The government, itself corrupt, is manipulated by the criminals. They are brutes. The book has no lack of killing, from the murder of the neighborhood boss Don Fanucci by the title character, young Vito Corleone before he became the Godfather, to the slaughter, on now grownup Vito's order, of a Hollywood big shot's prize racehorse – his bloody head left in the man's bed for him to discover as he woke up – to the massacre of the Don Vito's eldest, Sonny, whose bullet-scarred corpse is uncovered on a gurney in the basement of a funeral parlor.
Yet the thieves of The Godfather are not without honor. Don Vito Corleone may be a murderer, but he lives by his own strict moral code. Its central pillar, aside from family, is friendship. "Friendship is everything," he says. "Friendship is more than talent. It is more than government. It is almost the equal of family." (Puzo, Mario. The Godfather: 50th Anniversary Edition, p. 41. Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.) The Godfather's definition of friendship does not exclude affection. A public embrace, an invitation to a man's house for a cup of coffee or to his home office for a whisky or a glass of anisette – with the added gesture of standing up to greet a guest, that was part of friendship as well.
Vito Corleone valued the personal touch. Tommy Hagen, the Don's consigliere, that is, his lawyer, pays attention when Johnny Fontaine takes the time to drive Hagen to LAX, after Hagen had flown out to see him on business. Hagen approves, musing: "The Don always taught that when a man was generous, he must show the generosity as personal." (Puzo, Mario. The Godfather: 50th Anniversary Edition, p. 21. Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.)
But friendship in the novel is hardly all smooth scotch and easy chairs. By "friendship" Don Vito also has something cold and pragmatic in mind, the mutual exchange of favors. It is understood that the man at the top comes first, and yet he owes something to the little guy. Whether fixing an immigration problem for his baker or protecting a widow from a rapacious landlord, Don Corleone considers the act a deposit in the favor bank, and yet he takes care of the matter, no matter how humble the recipient of his beneficence.
"In our era it's easy to imagine that personal contact doesn't matter. A dangerous illusion."
The ancients would have nodded in agreement. Cicero writes, in his treatise, On Friendship, that the giving and receiving of favors, both getting and repaying, is inseparable from friendship (De Amicitia 8.26). He proceeds to a more elevated definition of friendship, which he considers a form of love, but Cicero doesn't leave out the bottom line.
The ancients and the Corleones share pagan values. (Don Corleone is notably cynical about religion.) Puzo highlights this in the book's penultimate scene (the movie's last scene). Kay Adams was born the daughter of a Baptist minister in New Hampshire, but she ends up marrying Don Vito's son Michael. Kay witnesses her husband's transformation from U.S. Marine to his father's homicidal successor. She observes in horror as his men greet Michael after he had successfully arranged a series of gangland murders. Puzo writes: ""Kay could see how Michael stood to receive their homage. He reminded her of statues in Rome, statues of those Roman emperors of antiquity, who, by divine right, held the power of life and death over their fellow men." (Puzo, Mario. The Godfather: 50th Anniversary Edition (p. 586). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.)
Heaven forbid that we emulate Puzo's mafiosi in their pagan corruption and violence. Yet they have something to teach us. In our era of texts and tweets, Zoom and smartphones, it's easy to imagine that personal contact doesn't matter. A dangerous illusion. The most valuable thing that most of us have to give is our time. There is no substitute for showing up. Contracts matter, but don't forget the value of a handshake. Or driving a visitor to the airport instead of using a car service.
Experts make rules, but the people change a language. That's the way the game has always been played. Take, for example, the case of the split infinitive. The infinitive is the "to" form of the verb, e.g.: to be, to go, to do. The rule is: don't split the two words. Or rather, that was the rule. Nowadays it is violated so often that even the mavens are giving up.
Count me among the resisters. It's not just because I think that rules are rules (although I do). Nor is it just that I think that split infinitives are inelegant, although they are. My beef, rather, is with the word that comes between "to" and the rest of the verb: the adverb.
The adjective is your enemy, as I always tell student writers, and the adverb is its accomplice. Modifiers load up your writing, like a Christmas tree with too many ornaments. In most cases, we don't need to modify a verb with an adverb. Instead, we can replace the verb with a better one.
"The adjective is your enemy, as I always tell student writers, and the adverb is its accomplice."
For instance, instead of saying "to bravely state," say "to defend." Instead of "to strongly favor," write "to love," "to be a partisan of," "to plant one's flag in support of," etc., depending on the context.
Sometimes the best way to deal with an adverb is not to replace it but to kill it. Take for example, a well-known case from the 1960s Star Trek. Writer Gene Rodenberry has Captain Kirk begin every episode by saying:
These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.
The first two infinitives ("to explore," "to seek") are fine, but the third one is split ("to boldly go"). It would be more grammatical as "to go boldly," or even as "boldly to go" – reminiscent of Hamlet's divine if depressing phrasing about death, "'tis a consummation/ Devoutly to be wished."
But who needs boldly? "To go where no man has gone before" is strong enough. The boldness is obvious, unless you were thinking that the crew of the Starship Enterprise are a bunch of shleppers. Well, if you insist, how about "to explore, to seek out, to go where no bold man has gone before"? If you insist.
The bold don't need to put a sign up; they let their deeds speak for themselves. Did Nathan Hale have to say, "I only regret that I have but one life to boldly give for my country?"
"Your infinitives have power. Unleash it!"
Infinitives are bold enough on their own. Shakespeare, for example, didn't have to write in Hamlet: "To boldly be or not to be"; "To be or not to be" did the job nicely. Admittedly, boldness was not Hamlet's defining quality, but it was just that for the hero Ulysses (that is, Odysseus). Tennyson famously gave Ulysses this line in his eponymous poem: "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." No "boldly" there.
For another example of sixties pop culture, turn to the Broadway show, Man of La Mancha. In the show's most famous song, Don Quixote begins, "To dream the impossible dream." He follows with more than a half-dozen other infinitives, with not an adverb among them. No boldly, no hesitantly.
My advice, as is in the song, is "to run where the brave dare not go." Your infinitives have power. Unleash it!
P.S. If you boldly go and seek split infinitives in my writing, I fear you'll probably find them. Every professor needs to take a red pen to his own work.
The Art of Being Number Two
The most important person in the world is the one you never see. He or she is the one who makes the magic happen but never on their own. Yet having the right Number Two is the key to being a great Number One.
Batman had Robin. Sherlock Holmes had Dr. Watson. Captain Kirk had Mr. Spock. Those are fictional examples (sorry, Trekkies, Star Trek really is fiction), but history offers many factual cases of indispensable Number Twos. The Roman emperor Augustus, for instance, had Agrippa. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had Willie Whitelaw. Frank Sinatra, so famous a singer that he was known simply as The Voice, had Nelson Riddle.
"Having the right Number Two is the key to being a great Number One."
Good Number Two's come in an endless variety of shapes and shades, but here are three models: Agrippa was the General. Whitelaw was the Whip. And Riddle was the Arranger.
The man who became Augustus – Octavian, as most historians call him during his earlier years – would never have reached supreme power without the help of his old boyhood friend. Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa was no aristocrat, but he had a genius for command. Octavian did not, although he was brave enough to go into battle. An excellent general, Agrippa accepted a new assignment to build a fleet for Octavian. Agrippa oversaw the construction of a new naval base near Naples and a new fleet. Under Agrippa's leadership, Octavian defeated the navy based in Sicily that threatened his control of Italy. But that was just the start.
With Agrippa's help, Octavian faced his greatest challenge: Antony and Cleopatra. The Roman commander Mark Antony and his lover, Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, commanded a massive fleet that was poised to invade Italy. Octavian responded by sending Agrippa with a sizeable flotilla to seize the enemy's main supply base in Greece. It was a risky strategy and a smashing success. After Octavian brought the rest of the fleet to Greece, Agrippa joined him. He then came up with the winning tactics that destroyed the enemy fleet at the Battle of Actium in 31 B.C., an engagement that gave Octavian control of the Roman empire, and which led to Antony's and Cleopatra's suicides a year later.
Agrippa went on to serve Augustus, as Octavian soon became known, in a variety of administrative, diplomatic, and even dynastic functions. Octavian eventually chose Agrippa as his son-in-law. His descendants included Caligula and Nero. From general to progenitor, Agrippa was the Complete Number Two!
Let's turn from ancient to modern statecraft. Margaret Thatcher was Britain's most consequential prime minister after Churchill. She might not have succeeded, though, without the help of Willie Whitelaw. Charming but crafty, Whitelaw was her righthand man. As chief whip, he had Mrs. Thatcher's back in Parliament. His advice was acute; his loyalty undoubted. Again and again, he saved her from her opponents. The prime minister couldn't do with him, and she handed Whitelaw a variety of sensitive assignments.
Mrs. Thatcher once famously said that "every prime minister needs a Willie." To get the joke, we need to know that in Britain, "Willie" (or usually "Willy") means the same thing as "Dick" in the United States. Mrs. Thatcher was Britain's first female prime minister, a strong woman who broke into an all-male club. By her remark she was poking fun at herself and at her critics while at the same time giving Whitelaw a risqué compliment.
"The bond between Numbers One and Two is more alchemy than chemistry."
Risqué was Sinatra's middle name. His amatory exploits are notorious, but he was all business when it came to music. After rocketing to the top of the vocal charts in the 1940s, Sinatra hit the ropes in 1950. He had voice problems and was forced to sing songs that are better forgotten. Then in 1953 he got his chance. Capitol Records decided to gamble on the down-and-out star, even though Sinatra had become all-but unhirable. They paired him with an up-and-coming young arranger, Nelson Riddle. As arranger, Riddle chose the tempo, the instruments, the harmonies, the mood of the piece of music. He had shown his stuff by arranging the hit song "Mona Lisa" for Nat King Cole. Now Riddle turned to Sinatra. (On the collaboration of Sinatra and Riddle, see "The Riddle of Sinatra.")
Their first session together on April 30 is memorable. No one, it is said, was more surprised than Sinatra with the results. One song in particular stands out, "I've Got the World on a String." With its now-triumphant, now-muted brass playing against Sinatra's mellow voice, the song is barely longer than two minutes, but it redefined the singer's personality.
When he heard the recording, Sinatra was thrilled. "Jesus Christ," he said, "I'm back, baby, I'm back." And so, he was. The song was a hit and relaunched the singer's career. Thanks to Riddle's arrangements, Sinatra became the epitome of cool: mature, sophisticated, older but wiser, philosophical. No longer the "Frankie!" of the Forties Bobby-Soxers, he became the Sinatra of the porkpie hat, the bachelor pad, and the cocktail hour.
Sinatra and Riddle proceeded to lock in his new sound with several classic albums throughout the fifties. Although Sinatra went on to work with several other arrangers, he returned to Riddle often for over thirty years.
The bond between Numbers One and Two is more alchemy than chemistry. The mystery isn't easy to unravel. A successful Number Two must be content to play second fiddle. A successful Number One needs to know when to hold the ego in check so as not to overwhelm Number Two. Not everyone can do it. Americans, for example, can think of more than one recent president who mismanaged his relationship with a chief advisor.
One thing is certain. No one holds the world on a string without having someone holding him or her.
My Appearance on the John Batchelor Show
I was delighted to be interviewed on THE WAR THAT MADE THE ROMAN EMPIRE by the great John Batchelor. Tune in to the eight podcast episodes!
With It or On It
"With it or on it."
Of all the pithy sayings in military history, this is my favorite. It has stiff competition, such as "I came, I saw, I conquered" or "the enemy gets a vote" or "Make haste slowly." But "with it or on it" is mysterious and meaningful. It has something to tell us about how we write today. I'll get to that, but first, a little background. Okay, a lot of background.
"With it or on it" comes from Sparta, the most famous warrior society in history. A place that gives us the adjective, "spartan," which sums up military virtues such as resolute, severe, or austere. Wikipedia lists over 100 sports teams in the U.S. and Canada called "Spartans."
But "with it or on it" is not the product of toxic masculinity. Actually, a woman said it. Spartan women were famously tough, part of a culture that bred females to raise heroes and partner with them. The "it" in question is a shield. The statement belongs to a legendary Spartan mother sending her son off to war. "Come back with your shield or on your shield," she told the young soldier.
A little explanation is needed. The Greek infantryman carried a round body shield, held through a thong by the left hand. The shield protected both the left side of the soldier's body and the right side of the man next to him. A Greek soldier, especially a Spartan, was meant to stand firm and steadfast in the battle line, holding up his shield to protect not only himself but his comrade. And if the enemy broke through the battle line? For a Spartan, that was unthinkable, but other Greeks might break and run. And throw away their shields, the faster to get away. No wonder that "Shield Thrower" was a term for coward in ancient Greece. For those who stayed and fought and paid a price, a shield served as a stretcher, for bringing back the wounded or the dead.
So, when that Spartan mother told her son, "with it or on it," she was saying, "Come back with honor or come back dead."
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the French philosopher, considered Sparta a paradise of virtue. It was not. Ancient Greece was a militaristic society, and Sparta was the most militaristic of all. Ancient Greek city-states exploited unfree labor. Athens depended on chattel slavery, and Sparta on a kind of state serfs known as helots. (See another post for more on this.)
Spartans were proudly contemptuous of book learning. They claimed to be above money, but that rule was often honored only in the breach. No one with an ounce of democratic spirit could prefer Sparta to Athens.
But Sparta had its virtues. One of them was wit. A few examples: When she saw a foreign visitor have his shoes put on and laced up by his slave, the young Spartan princess Gorgo cried out, "Father, the man doesn't have any hands!" To Alexander the Great's demand that every Greek city-state recognize him as a god, the Spartans replied, "If Alexander wants to be a god, let him." To a long-winded threat from King Philip of Macedon threatening to destroy Sparta if Macedon conquered it, a Spartan replied, "If."
No wonder a synonym for pithy is laconic, which refers to Sparta's geographical region, Laconia.
You gotta love the ancient Greeks. It was a Greek, although not a Spartan, who uttered one of my favorite phrases: "Big book, big bad."
Now, back to us. We could use more less. Less verbiage. We live in the valley of verbosity. Word processing ushered us in, and the Internet closed off the way out. Time was, being a man of few words was considered a virtue. Nowadays, a 2000-word blog piece is just throat-clearing.
We have Twitter, of course, which started off strong. The CIA, for example, wrote when it joined Twitter, "We can neither confirm nor deny that this is our first tweet." But the 140-character limit was doubled to 280, and it has since been rendered meaningless by "threads" that string together entry after entry. Tweets have turned into ornithological feeding stations.
But enough complaining. How can you do less? Just do it. Shorten your sentences. Take red pens to your prose. Read writing that slows the word train. The short stories of Edgar Allan Poe or Ernest Hemingway, the poetry of Emily Dickinson, the essays of H. L. Mencken or A.J. Liebling, for example. You want short and sweet? Try children's books, like Goodnight, Moon. Or, for the theory of direct and lucid writing, I recommend a work by Francis-Noël Thomas and Mark Turner, Clear and Simple as the Truth: Writing Classic Prose. The authors are professors but don't worry, they don't write academese.
Let me close with a quotation from the Bible: "Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise, and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding." (Proverbs 17:18, KJV).
The War that Made the Roman Empire: An Interview with Barry Strauss
"Can a free society remain afloat? We need to give young people a life preserver, and that means teaching the Classics. Without apology and without fear."
Read this and the rest of my interview in Antigone, the great online Classics journal.
Barry Strauss ©


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Nun Study Award
Sisters Gabriel Mary Spaeth (left) and Charlene Zeisset (right) accept the Special Service Award on behalf of the SSND Nun Study participants.
Nun Study participants win Special Service Award
Nun Study participants from the School Sisters of Notre Dame were recognized for their unique contributions in the field of Alzheimer's disease care and treatment during the 27th Annual Wisconsin Network Conference on Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias May 5 at the Kalahari Resort Convention Center in the Wisconsin Dells."The findings of this study continue to provide groundbreaking insights into aging and Alzheimer's disease," said Judy Gunkel, representative of the Milwaukee Chapter. "For their dedication and commitment to this important research, the Alzheimer's Association honors the Nun Study participants of the School Sisters of Notre Dame."
Sisters Charlene Zeisset and Gabriel Mary Spaeth accepted the Special Service Award on behalf of the congregation and the sister participants. The award was one of eight presented to winners who were selected based on their outstanding contributions to those with Alzheimer's disease in Wisconsin.
"I accept this award for all School Sisters of Notre Dame and particularly the 678 Sisters who volunteered to participate in the study," Sister Gabriel Mary said upon receiving the award. "Without their willingness and generosity, there would not have been a Nun Study."
Sister Charlene spoke of the ongoing utilization of the data from the Nun Study and the researchers at the University of Minnesota who are developing a new study that will be open to all the SSNDs in North America.
The Nun Study began in the early 1990s and enrolled 678 sisters ranging in age from 75-106. Ten sisters remain in the study.
The Wisconsin Network Conference on Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias is one of the largest in the country with more than 800 attending from Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois, and Wisconsin. Each year, the Alzheimer's Association Wisconsin Chapter Network invites nominations to recognize outstanding caregivers. Diane Baughn from the Milwaukee Chapter nominated the School Sisters of Notre Dame.
These individuals, professionals, and organizations are dedicated to serving those with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. The Special Service Award recognizes an individual or a group that has made a unique contribution in support of the work of the Alzheimer's Association.
– Sister Charlene Zeisset


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Q: What is Premier Support? What is meant by Salesforce Premier Support ? How much does it cost ?
I am preparing for salesforce developer certification, can having premier support help me ?

A: There is certain developer-focussed on-line training that is ONLY available to Premier Customers (customers who pay an additional fee for Premier services including support). I believe that you need to be a Premier customer to be eligible and then they are free. You will need to get in touch with Salesforce about pricing for Premier upgrade. There are also in-person classes that you can attend, see the training section in Salesforce.  The alternative is to self study. Follow the study guide issued by Salesforce to help you prepare for the Salesforce Certified Developer Exam (DEV401).   Salesforce DEV401 Study Guide
Also, here is a link to Force.com Fundamentals which is very useful at getting you started.
Best of luck!

A: I think you mean Premier Support, which has a few benefits:

*

*When you log a case, support will contact you within two (2) hours

*When you log a case you don't start at the lowest support level, but one up

*You have access to an extended collection of training videos. These videos can be used to just about cover everything in the ADM201 course and then some

*You have access to training templates that you can use in your company

If you're looking to get the developer certification, DEV401, I would suggest reading through Salesforce's published study guides. They provide links to good training resources and a breakdown of the topics on the test.
Edit
I forgot to address the cost aspect of the question. There is an additional cost, which is generally a percentage of your per-user license cost and either your entire org has premier support or it doesn't; you cannot purchase it on a per-user basis. Exact pricing should be discussed with your account executive.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Warm, homemade apple crisp, made with fresh apples and topped with ice cream.
Fresh, crisp apples, cinnamon and sugar wrapped inside a pie crust and baked to a tender perfection; served with milk.
Two layers of yellow cake and vanilla pudding. Served with our with out hot fudge.
Delicious, moist spice cake loaded with carrots, nuts and plump raisins; topped with a smooth cream cheese frosting.
Creamy, smooth New York-style cheesecake topped with your choice of strawberries, cherries or blueberries.
Rich cream pie baked in a flaky pie crust and topped with meringue. Choose from chocolate, lemon, coconut or graham cracker.
A large puff shell filled with a lite Bavarian cream, topped with powdered sugar and hot fudge sauce. Can be served without hot fudge sauce.
Three delicious varieties are vanilla almond, chocolate cherry, and red velvet w/cream cheese icing.
Thick, fruity pies baked in our homemade pie shells. Choose from peach, cherry, apple or blueberry.
Hand made bread custard loaded with sliced peaches and white chocolate drizzled with raspberry sauce.
A traditional dessert, homemade like Mamma's.
A sinfully-rich warm fudge brownie, topped with vanilla ice creram, smothered with hot fudge, crowned with whipped cream and sprinkled with nuts. Sure to blow your top.


An unaltered photocopy of your DD-214 displaying your Korea service during the battle period, March through July, 1953. If your eligibility is not stated on your DD-214 you must submit a copy of your DD-214 - AND - a photocopy of military-issued documentation establishing your eligibility.
Authorized for theater Service in Korea during the battle period. Although many historians have criticized the largest battle before the end of the Korean War as pointless, American determination and strength proved that a well-armed and supported force can prevent a vastly superior sized aggressor from achieving victory. Out-numbered two-to-one, American forces inflicted seven times as many casualties on Chinese forces. After Allied withdrawal at the end of hostilities the Chinese Communists gained nothing more than a desolate hill upon which to bury their 1,500 dead.
Lieutenant General Arthur G. Trudeau, Commanding.


Injuries at a Virginia Gym – Can You Sue a Gym for Faulty Equipment?
If you work too hard at the gym and sprain a muscle, you won't have much luck suing the gym. However, when faulty or poorly maintained equipment is to blame for injuries at a Virginia gym, you may have grounds to sue the gym or the manufacturer of the equipment.
There are some obstacles from the outset. If you become injured at a gym, it's not worth considering a lawsuit against a gym unless your injuries are serious. At Cooper Hurley Injury Lawyers, we have a long track record in helping clients who are hurt at a business. These cases are called premises liability cases. They are often complicated and hard fought. If you suffer a sprain, it's not usually worth pursuing legal action. If you break a bone or suffer a head or serious back injury, you should talk to a premises liability lawyer.
Gyms may attempt to duck liability by getting you to sign a liability waiver that will prevent you filing a lawsuit. You should not assume your signature will prevent you from taking legal action. Recently, we have seen a surge of injuries at trampoline parks. The parks have sought to cover themselves by getting users to sign waivers.
A piece of paper will not protect a business owner if conditions at the facility are dangerous. A gym's waiver may seek to limit liability for injuries related to equipment but it will not cover instances where the gym failed to maintain its equipment properly or knew equipment was faulty and but failed to fix it.
Some piece of equipment at the gym are fundamentally dangerous. If you are exercising too hard, fall off a treadmill and suffer a head injury, the gym can't be held liable. Virginia has a contributory negligence doctrine that finds if you are even 1 percent responsible for your injury, you will not be able to make a recovery.
If a piece of equipment is poorly designed and dangerous, users who are injured may have grounds to being a product liability lawsuit against the manufacturer. The gym could be liable if it had knowledge of the defect.
You also may have grounds to file a product liability lawsuit if the manufacturer departed from the intended design or made an omission. If, for example, a bolt was missing and the arm of a machine hurt a user, he or she would have grounds to sue the manufacturer.
If a gym fails to act on a known problem with a machine or fails to properly maintain gym equipment, causing injury, it could be held liable.
If the piece of equipment The equipment lacks adequate warnings or instructions, rendering it unreasonably dangerous, a gym can be held liable.
Gym injuries are not as uncommon as many people think. Treadmills are linked to 24,000 injuries a year. Recently, a woman from California launched a $3.8 million lawsuit over a brain injury linked to a fall on a treadmill.
If you or a loved one has suffered injuries at Virginia gym, you may have grounds to file a lawsuit. An experienced Virginia premises liability lawyer can help you. Call us at (757) 455-0077.


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Breedlove Premier Concert Copper CE Acoustic-Electric Guitar, Spruce Top, Rosewood Back/Sides, LR Baggs Preamp
SKU: BLV-PRCN03CESSIR
Bread Checkout
Breedlove Premier Concert Copper CE
Copper Burst Finish
Concert Body Style
Solid Sitka Spruce Top
Solid East Indian Rosewood Back and Sides
Honduran Mahogany Neck
African Ebony Fretboard
25.5" Scale | 20 Frets
1.75" Nut Width
Breedlove Tuners
LR Baggs EAS VTC Electronics
African Ebony Delta Bridge
Faux Tortoiseshell Binding
Dart Inalys
Lower Bout: 15.37" | Waist: 9" | Upper Bout: 11.28" | Body Depth: 3.75"
Sound Optimization
Deluxe Hardshell Case Included
Made In Bend, Oregon (USA)
Serial #: 23388
Instrument Weight: 4.8 lbs.
Player's Perspective
For the acoustic guitar enthusiast and working musician, the Premier Concert Copper CE is suitable for an array of playing styles and is a favorite among finger style players due to slightly wider nut width and a slim neck profile. Overall the neck actually feels small and very easy to maneuver. It's got to be one of the more comfortable acoustic guitar neck shapes out there.
The softer spruce top is excellent for conveying subtle dynamics and though it may not be the loudest guitar on the market (because it's designed to be more dynamic than it is to just be loud) it is incredibly rich in tone and is extremely responsive to the right hand picking technique. Rosewood provides depth and power in the lower registers, and spruce offers sparkly highs with a touch of natural compression. The Breedlove Bridge Truss reduces string tension for easier playability, exceptional sustain, note-for-note clarity, and balance across the tonal spectrum. It also helps with the longevity of the instrument and stabilizes the top.
New for 2018, the guitars in Breedlove's Premier series are now getting the Sound Optimization process that Breedlove has championed and pioneered over the past couple of years. In short, what this means, is that each of these guitars are built as individuals. Every piece of wood is analized for its density and tonal properties. So, for example, the thickness of every single Premier Concert spruce top will not be identical. They will each be built to the exact specifications that is needed so that the individual and particular pieces of wood being used for that specific guitar are constructed at their optimal measurements. This creates incredible consistency and you don't need to try out 20 different ones of the same guitar to find that magical one.
They call it Sound Optimization... we call it magic...
Our most popular Premier, the Concert cutaway is a dream to play. Versatile in its capabilities, we call it our universal guitar, as it delivers rich sound whether played fingerstyle or strummed. The medium size air chamber still produces pronounced bass with its rosewood back. It projects volume with its Sound Optimized Sitka spruce tops. The Premier Concert is an amazing value when compared for sound, feel, playing comfort and aesthetic appointments.
The Breedlove Concert is the original Breedlove shape. It first appeared in 1992, and has been the best-selling Breedlove body shape ever since. Designed specifically for the fingerstylist to be well balanced, compact, and comfortable to play, it generates a wonderfully articulate range of tone with an ample low end that is never boomy, but always felt. The unique construction also allows the Concert to sing even at a full strum. If you're a fingerstylist, or are seeking an instrument to use as vocal accompaniment, this is the shape for you. The Concert is engineered to provide exceptional sustain with a pronounced bass response, both of which can be achieved with a light touch. The graduated top works in harmony with the Breedlove Bridge Truss to provide an even response throughout the lows, mids, and highs, with sustain, and clear, concise, note-for-note projection.
BREEDLOVE NECK
Breedlove guitar necks feature a slimmer neck profile which enables comfortable play, even with smaller hands. Unlike traditional dovetail neck joints that require major surgery for a neck re-set, it is easy to adjust the play action and neck angle with the Breedlove bolt-on neck and single-action truss rod. The hand-rubbed, semi-gloss Breedlove neck finish contributes to ideal playability – the finish process alone takes three days, including precise finish coat applications, fine sanding, and hand buffing and rubbing.
TOP WOOD
Sitka spruce, picea sitchensis, originates in the northwest United States. Sitka spruce has been the primary top wood for American-made instruments for decades. It is strong and light with extended harmonic content, and it nearly equals the power of Adirondack. It offers a strong, focused tone with a solid fundamental -- perfect for flatpicking styles. When compared with European spruce, Sitka delivers warmer, more fundamental sound, largely free of overtones. Sitka takes a slightly longer period of playing time to open up. It has a straight uniform grain and coloration ranges from white to pink to light brown.
BACK AND SIDE WOODS
Indian rosewood, dalbergia latifolia, originates in India and southern Iran. Indian rosewood has been the standard rosewood choice for decades. It is often associated with the great dreadnoughts, and is an amazingly neutral wood that takes its personality from the player. Well-balanced lows, mids, and highs make it a natural for many styles. For the past 30 years, a vast majority of high-end steel-string and classical guitars have been made from Indian rosewood. It is famous for rich basses and a clear treble response with well-balanced lows, mids, and highs. It is a black-streaked wood with coloration that usually leans toward purplish brown, and then oxidizes to a rich brown color.
Breedlove players around the world can attest: With consistent, proper care, your Breedlove will give you a lifetime of service – and inspiration. New Breedlove instruments, purchased through an authorized Breedlove dealer, are warrantied to be free of defects in materials and workmanship throughout the lifetime of the original owner. In addition to materials and workmanship, Breedlove offers a two-year warranty on tuning machines and electronics packages. Cases and bags are subject to a one-year warranty covering defects in structure and hardware. Full details on our limited lifetime warranty are available here.
Overall Condition
This Breedlove Premier Concert Copper CE Acoustic-Electric is brand new, in pristine mint condition, with absolutely no nicks, scratches, or blemishes of any kind and is being sold by an authorized dealer. Photos are of the exact guitar you'll receive.
Our in-house guitar tech will inspect, test, set up, and clean all of our instruments on site prior to shipping. All of our instruments are guaranteed to be fully functional upon arrival.
At Music Store Live, our goal is to revolutionize the way gear is bought online. It's not just about videos and know how; it's about the person on the other end of the line. Whether you are in Tokyo or Toledo, we invite you to experience the reality of a living online music store and help us shape the best buying experience possible. As you'll see in the video below, we're musicians just like you. We strive to offer the best gear, the best online experience, and the best personalized service in the industry. We invite you to get to know our team, and we would love the opportunity to get to know you too!
Free Shipping - Free Return Shipping - 30 Day Returns
At MusicStoreLive.com we are proud to offer free return shipping and a 30-day return policy in the 48 contiguous states on all new* items over $30. It's all part of our mission to bring the guitar shop to your living room. This policy allows you to get your gear hassle-free and try it with your own rig to be sure that it truly fits with your playing style and sound. If it doesn't work the way you had hoped we'll send you a prepaid return label and work up an exchange or issue you a refund once we get the item back in the same condition it was purchased. It's that simple.
Please allow 2-4 business days from the receiving date for returns to be processed.
Your order must ship to the billing address associated with your credit card, PayPal, or other method of payment (unless an alternate shipping address has been approved by an MSL Gear Specialist).
If you want the shipment to be held at a shipping company hub it is your responsibility to make those arrangements directly with the shipping company.
An indirect signature will be required upon delivery for all transactions over $250. If you would like to require a signature on a transaction of less than $250, please request it when you place your order.
We do not insure packages valued under $3,000. If you would like to add insurance for delivery or return please request it when requesting your order or initiating your return.
All returns are subject to a Tech Check upon arrival. Any instrument that is returned with damage, wear and tear (including pick marks), missing or replaced parts, missing protective or packing materials are not eligible for a full refund.
*Used / Open Box/ Vintage / Clearance items carry our same return policy, except with a 3 day return window.
Orders shipped within California will be subject to 7.25% state sales tax.
In most cases we ship same day if your order is placed by 12 p.m. EST Monday thru Friday!
Is your instrument just not doing it for you? We understand and we absolutely want you to be thrilled with any gear that you buy from MusicStoreLive.com. If you're not happy with your order, you can return it to us at no charge within 30 days of delivery.
Customers outside the continental USA must pay their own return shipping and are responsible for all applicable taxes and fees.
The return policy does not apply to custom orders or modifications (pickup installs, etc)
Contact MSL at info@musicstorelive.com or (866) 256-5725 to begin the return process. You can request a refund, store credit, or exchange.
We'll provide you a return label via email.
Ship the item back to us in its original packaging using the provided return label.
Customer is responsible for returning the item to Music Store Live in its original condition.
A refund or exchange will be issued within 3 business days from our receipt of the returned item.
All returns will go through a technical inspection and are subject to a restocking fee if the item is not returned in its original condition. Restocking fee to be determined by MSL.
Layaways & Financing
Deposit a non-refundable minimum of 10% down of the purchase price on anything in stock
Contact MSL at info@musicstorelive.com or (866) 256-5725 to place your initial deposit.
Pay it off at your convenience within 30 days.
$100 layaway fee for each additional month over the initial 30 days (on most items).
Play Now - Pay Later


The FaxFacts Fax Server is a full-featured, easy-to-use fax server system. The FaxFacts Fax Server based on an open architecture that is completely expandable and designed for customization. The server utilizes the CopiaFacts Engine and Copia WorkStation Client.
Fax is an integral part of any enterprise and FaxFacts is designed with this mission-critical aspect in mind. Systems can remain running for years with no intervention at all.
This feature sets fax broadcast with FaxFacts apart form the rest. The secret is in our patented data encoding font.
Extends the functionality of the Outlook/Exchange Client enabling you to send and receive faxes using the FaxFacts Fax Server. Also included is a HTML-to-Fax converter.


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Animal Collective shares cover of Motown classic "Jimmy Mack" from The Painters EP — listen
The EP, which drops tomorrow, includes three new songs in addition to the cover
Last week, we shared "Kinda Bonkers," a surprisingly sweet and not-so-bonkers song from Animal Collective's forthcoming EP, The Painters. In advance of the EP's release tomorrow, the band has dropped another teaser track. It's a cover of "Jimmy Mack," a Motown staple made famous by Martha & The Vandellas.
Both spastic and oddly menacing, the kaleidoscopic cover subverts the original's winsome romantics with Avey Tare's desperate wails and croaky, swamp-like instrumentation. The band's been playing it on its most recent tours.
In addition to "Kinda Bonkers" and "Jimmy Mack," the EP contains two more new and original tracks recorded during the sessions for last year's Painting With. It will be available digitally, on CD, and as a 12-inch vinyl.
New EP
Psych Pop
The Painters EP
Colin Stetson announces new album, shares video for lead single "Spindrift" — watch
Wilco's Solid Sound Festival announces 2017 lineup: Television, Kurt Vile, Robert Glasper


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Mortal Kombat Sh*t: Alex Gustafsson Knocks Out Glover Teixeira With A Triple Uppercut Combo
Did you ever play a fighting game, thinking you were pretty good, only to lose to an opponent that just spammed the same attack over and over again? Well MMA fighter Glover Teixeira has recently experienced the real-life version of that.
At UFC Fight Night 109, top-ranked light heavy-weights (or really heavy light-weights) Alexander Gustafsson, the home-town favourite, and Glover Teixeira competed in Stockholm, Sweden, with the fight ending in the 5th round.
Gustafsson can be seen reaching for his opponent before delivering the fight ending combo.
Credit: UFC YouTube
It's believed he said, "Oi mate, I think you've got something on your face," to distract Teixeira before slipping in a brutal uppercut.
As the saying goes, "fool me once, shame on me, fool me twice, shame on you", and Teixeira definitely wasn't fooled a second time, unsuccessfully attempting to evade subsequent blows. At one point seems to be a little confused about where he is before Gufstafsson delivers the knock-out punch.
As the ref rushes in Gustafsson know's he's won the fight, but looking exhausted, he's not quite ready to celebrate, no doubt thinking about what would come next.
Yes, that's right, a proposal! Not to Teixeira, but to Gustafsson's long-term girlfriend, and mother of his child, Moa. Nothing says "I love you" like knocking some bloke out cold before popping the question. Gustafsson is clearly a true poet, stating "thanks for having our kid", before dropping down on one knee, ring in hand.
Thankfully for Gustafsson, she said yes, otherwise it would've been an awkward exit to the arena for all involved. Congratulations to the newly engaged couple! Happy days.
Check out the knockout on the player below:
By Michael "Pickles" Tyers On May 31, 2017
Las Vegas venue is set to live stream 'Area 51' raid so everyone can join in
By Chuck Steinway 23 hours ago
Forget bottle-cap challenges, 2019 is rapidly becoming the year of the Storming of Area 51. The bats**t insane plan to storm the American air-base – and supposed home of all of the US's extra-terrestrial research – ha...
Annoyed by loud music, bloke uses drone to shoot fireworks at neighbours
We all know that street parties are pretty friggen grouse. When you're at one, it's almost like law and order just takes a little vacation and the street itself can descend into pure party-flavoured bedlam. You've got...
This sheila read out her cheating fiancé's text messages at the altar
By Chuck Steinway 1 day ago
Marriage is a bloody serious commitment that you should really only go ahead with if you can be pretty certain you're gonna be faithful and honest with your future spouse. Of course, the same holds true for any relati...
A bunch of times people were surprised by how much of a jerk they encountered
If you've ever had to deal with other people, you'll know full well that not everyone has been gifted with a great personality. Yeah, nah, some blokes and blokettes really got shafted in that department. Of course, in...
Meerkats escape zoo to play minigolf by the sea
Thanks to popular culture, Meerkats have become easily recognisable as some of the natural world's most gloriously cheeky little buggers. Deadset, whether they're doing the Big Brother thing in Meerkat Manor, entertai...
Coastguard jumps onto moving submarine filled with $500 million worth of drugs
By Chuck Steinway 2 days ago
If you ask most people how drugs get smuggled into the country, they'd probably just assume that they get crammed up some poor bugger's arsehole before he gets on a plane and starts crossing international borders. But...
Innocent nan puts on 'thermal socks' – not realising they're for something else
Someone hacked a Roomba to shout profanities when it bumps into things
Added by Chuck Steinway 1 day ago
This bloke improves movies by editing his cat into them
A group of over 500,000 people are planning to storm Area 51


We have a motivated seller, take a look at the home you can own for only $59,900.
Here is a beautifully updated and modern Palm Harbor home that has been very well maintained and will have you saying WOW!! at every turn you take.
Where to start!!! As you enter the front door you see the beauty of the designer style wooden wall treatment in both the living room and dining room. This large open living-dining room area is a perfect size for family and friends to hang out in.
Should you make a right-hand turn from the front door you will walk into a very inviting breakfast nook that leads you into a beautiful wrap around kitchen with tile floors. This kitchen is loaded with cabinets, a Stainless-steel cook top stove, a white built-in oven, white dishwasher and white refrigerator.
As you can see in the laundry room picture there is an office space across from the washer and dryer. From this room you have access to the raised Florida room that has a new wall AC unit that is thermostatically controlled to help keep you cool. As you exit the home through the Florida room you have access to the 2-car carport.
Down the back steps from the Florida room you have a spacious storage shed. Out back there is a patio that would be a great place to set up a BBQ grill. This home is equipped with a lawn watering system.
The guest bathroom, which is directly across from the guest bedroom, has some special wooden trim backsplash surrounding the sink. There is also a great shower-tub combo.
The guest bedroom is large enough that a queen bed would easily fit with room to spare. There is also a spacious walk in closet that normally does not come with guest bedrooms.
When entering the master suite, you feel a calming sensation as the warm wooden barn doors and wooden wall treatment invite you in. The sliding barn doors allow you to enter a walk-in closet from either side.
The large master bath has a large soaking tub, a double sink vanity, a linen cabinet and a walk-in shower.
This home comes mostly furnished. When you come to view this home, the seller will have a list of personal items that they will be taking on the dining room table.
Now that you have had a walk thru of the home, here are the improvements that make this home worth the money.
· Flooring: All floors throughout the home were replaced in 2018 with either wood laminate, water proof Bamboo, or linoleum except the kitchen which has tile.
· New roof over 2016.
· AC installed in 2014.
· Vinyl UVA windows installed in Florida room 2018.
· 9000 BTU AC unit in Florida room 2018.
· Double hung front windows 2011.
· New vapor barrier and screening in the underside 2018.
· Transferable Termite and insect control contract (Seller is from up north and decided to be cautious as Florida has termites).
As you can see, this room is ready and waiting for you to move in. The rent includes water, sewer, garbage, yard service, cable and Wi-Fi.


text:
Live Image Processing and Performance Midterm
Nailah, Cy, and I plan to create a rendition of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" that expores the hyperactivity of social media. The story is one of Aesop's Fables from ancient Greece. In the original story, a young shepherd tricks his fellow villagers by shouting for help and pretending that wolves were attacking his sheep. While the villagers rushed to his aid, the shepherd laughed. In the end, a wolf actually came. When the shepherd cried for help, the villagers ignored him, and all of the sheep were eaten.
In the simple story, there is one key takeaway: do not lie or you will find yourself in a bad situation. The simplicity is a good opportunity to build a narrative and connect the themes to our current way of life while preserving the core message. Rather than focusing on the character's habitual lying as a prominent issue, this narrative dives into the backstory of the subject and builds character developments. Viewers are able to see the character in between their release of lies to the public. The subject may lack true friendships and relationships, but the lifestyle that they project reflects that of of the opposite and they are lying for validation.
The video will consist of distorted and exaggerated perspectives, the utilization of montages, diagrams depicting different environments, narration and dialogue, and music (perhaps live). Over the span of six to nine minutes, each frame will include more information in the scene or "frame" that ultimately reveals the actual reality of the subjects and their environment/reality.
In the end, the person will actually have an emergency occur and reach out for help online, but none of the user's followers will believe the user. In the current digital age, misinformation is a prominent issue. Our performance may examine the toxicity of social media and the methods in which lies spread to a gullible public.
Range of examples for our performance:
Photoshoot of the "most instagrammable" installations – plenty of examples in nyc
People using space in historical and natural monuments for long periods of time to acquire the perfect picture
Photoshopping yourself/catfishing
Appearing rich with exclusive access
Attending cool parties/shows
Documenting the more presentable/impressive parts of your life – "went to a museum" – "I read a cool book"
General achievements
Repetition is a key part of the original story and something we may present in a few of these instances. Social media blends the line between reality and fiction. Our performance may explore that line and whether or not we cross the boundaries on a day-to-day basis. The tone will be comical but may offer a thought-provoking social critique. In order to do this remotely, perhaps the video may consist of the user surfing the web. One of us could actually post bizarre messages on our social media and livestream the reactions from our friends and family.


Okovi set for release on Sept 8 via Sacred Bones Records.
Zola is set to play a London show on Nov 7th at Village Underground. Read her statement about the new music and listen to 'Exhumed' below.
"Last year, I moved back to the woods in Wisconsin where I was raised. I built a little house just steps away from where my dilapidated childhood tree fort is slowly recombining into earth. Okovi was fed by this return to roots and several very personal traumas.
Okovi is a Slavic word for shackles. We're all shackled to something—to life, to death, to bodies, to minds, to illness, to people, to birthright, to duty. Each of us born with a unique debt, and we have until we die to pay it back. Without this cost, what gives us the right to live? And moreover, what gives us the right to die? Are we really even free to choose?
This album is a deeply personal snapshot of loss, reconciliation, and a sympathy for the chains that keep us all grounded to the unforgiving laws of nature. To bring it to life, I decided to enlist the help of Alex DeGroot, who has been the only constant in my live band and helped mix the Stridulum EP back in 2010. It will be released on Sacred Bones, the closest group of people I'll ever have to blood-bound family."


The Trench Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) is the most promising structure for the next generation of power semiconductor devices with wide applications ranging from motor control (1-4 kV) to HVDC (6.5 kV). Here we present for the first time an optimum design of a 1.4kV Trench IGBT using a new, fully integrated optimisation system comprising process and device simulators and the RSM optimiser. The use of this new TCAD system has contributed largely to realizing devices with characteristics far superior to the previous DMOS generation of IGBTs. Full experimental results on 1.4kV Trench IGBTs which are in excellent agreement with the TCAD predictions are reported.


The Grohe Essentials holder with glass provides a clean and attractive solution for your dental hygiene.
Finished in hard-wearing and easy-to-clean Grohe StarLight® chrome, the holder will look flawlessly lustrous long into the future.
Sounds good? Looks good, too.


Having grown up in a largely male dominated family, having 'girlfriends' was never really my thing. Most of my formative years, I was a bit of an outsider, with one or two really close friends who were normally male. Sure, they were part of larger groups but I never felt very comfortable around them; I felt like a bit of a spare part, an accessory.


text:
Q: cvxpy stlibc++ Installation error on MacOS Mojave While trying to install cvxpy package using pip install on Mac, I get the following error message:
warning: include path for stdlibc++ headers not found; pass '-std=libc++' on the command line to use the libc++ standard library instead [-Wstdlibcxx-not-found]
In file included from cvxpy/cvxcore/src/cvxcore.cpp:15:
cvxpy/cvxcore/src/cvxcore.hpp:18:10: fatal error: 'vector' file not found
#include <vector>
^~~~~~~~
1 warning and 1 error generated.
error: command '/usr/bin/clang' failed with exit status 1

Mac is running OS Mojave.

A: I solved the issue using the following steps,
First I tried changing the flags to instruct the installation to use libc++,
CFLAGS=-stdlib=libc++ pip install cvxpy

Then it complained about having an invalid deployment target for -stdlib=libc++ (requires OS X 10.7 or later).
Then I ran the following command to set the deployment target,
export MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=10.10

Then running the first command(CFLAGS=-stdlib=libc++ pip install cvxpy) again installed cvxpy successfully.

A: I have been struggling with this all weekend and the most success I have found so far is installing cvxpy in an anaconda environment with these two lines:
conda install -c conda-forge lapack
conda install -c cvxgrp cvxpy

A: I had a similar error on Mojave. The problem is that the location of the headers installed by XCode command-line tools (which includes clang) have changed. I was able to get it working by adding this to my ~/.bash_profile and opening a new shell:
export CFLAGS="-I/usr/local/include -L/usr/local/lib -I$(brew --prefix openssl)/include -I$(xcrun --show-sdk-path)/usr/include"
This adds flags to CLANG that tell it to run the xcrun command to find the headers. It also adds the homebrew openssl headers to the clang path, which may not be necessary for this case (and assumes you have them installed).
See: https://stackoverflow.com/a/52871908/8344813


Designing a wonderful blog is not an easy job as it needs a great effort and experience. You are required be sincere and devoted in order to get a perfectly designed blog. There is no dearth of blog designers all around the world. Nonetheless, you should prefer to find the one who can satisfy your needs in the best way.
Emmas design blog is a wonderful example of the best blog designing. They inspire you to decorate your site in a stunning way so that the users cannot take off their eyes of it. Well, this cannot be done so easily. The person who has a wonderful idea always wins the race of blogging. You need to creative and thoughtful in order to get something unusual from your mind.
Many web surfers and webmasters consider the field of designing a child's play. However, Web designing is not as easy as it seems. A person has to strive for years and then he/she would be able to do something worthwhile in this gorgeous field. You must be careful while talking about the web development and designing because these are two separate terms.
There could be some resemblances in both of these expressions but, majorly they both are different. So, it is necessary to deal with them in a detached way. Web development is something that can never be pertained with the thoughts of a common person. Only developers with extraordinary minds have the ability to accomplish the work of web development in a respectable way.
Apart from all these things, emmas blog design could be a wonderful example of classy design work. Here you can get ideas beyond your inspiration. Employing some of these impressive ideas can give your site a good helping hand. Web designing and blog designing are the terms that can be brought together when discussing the graphic designing. They are not pretty much dissimilar from each other.
Emmas design blogs are known by the users in different ways. They might have unlike themes or patterns which make them distinguished from each other. Some people are interested in light-shaded themes that appear good to one's eyes. On the other side, darker colors can also give a lavishing impression to the visitors. Everyone has different choices according to his/her taste and interests. Hence, emmas web designing is setting a trend for those who wish to see something astonishing in the web designing industry.
Lots of people are interesting in terms of web designing and I found the best Web Designing Company during the competition.
Wonderful design for blogs...great example. Your information really helped me a lot. Thanks a lot!!!
This is really a great Article! Cant wait to learn more!


Since moving to the 'village' of Chiltern Street in 2011, Pauline Burrows' handcrafted menswear has found friends in high places – customers with an appreciation of subtle styling and hidden detail.
Menswear was pretty boring back then," says fashion designer Pauline Burrows of the London scene she discovered after moving down from Northumbria in the Nineties. "I realised there was nothing interesting going on, especially when it came to shirts." Planning to put that right, Burrows started selling her wares wholesale before falling in love with the retail side and the direct contact it gave her with her customers.
Tom Cruise among her clients. On the rails of her small but perfectly formed boutique on Chiltern Street in Marylebone, her core collection of shirts and jackets is defined by soft colours and subtle detailing with tiny design touches that make each piece truly unique.
Her passion for her trade is clear; she's always on the lookout for new fabrics to complement her creations, scouting trade fairs and, when we speak, waxing lyrical about the Italian two-tone linen shirts displayed in store. Employing two other people, her handmade output is decidedly low volume – she produces about ten to 12 pieces a week – while the current waiting list for made-to-order pieces has seen her employ extra pairs of hands to get orders out in good time. Trade is booming right now.
Posted in Style and tagged Menswear, Men's Fashion, Locations, Brands, Shops. Bookmark the permalink.


text:
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This Isn't Working! Book
I signed a book deal with Indigo River Publishing!
My book is titled This Isn't Working! Evolving the Way We Work to Decrease Stress, Anxiety, and Depression will be published on January 31, 2023 and is available for pre-order here on Amazon.
I couldn't be more excited about it.
Below is your sneak preview!
What if you could hit a pause button, pull up, and take an objective look at your life? That's what many of us did in 2020 – whether we wanted to or not.
If you weren't a healthcare worker or on the front lines in some way, you were essentially sent to your room with stay-at-home guidelines to think about what you'd done.
Many people realized what they were doing wasn't working for them.
The pandemic put a spotlight on busyness, overworking, overconsumption, avoidance, and numbing.
From a place of stillness, and maybe even peace, the way we were working was exposed for what it was: batshit crazy.
It would take a long time to list all the famous people I've heard say they will not be recreating their insane travel and speaking schedules going forward.
Connection to self, family, community, hobbies – all of these became increasingly important as ways to stay sane during the insanity of 2020 and 2021. This is good news.
The not-so-good news is people are really struggling now with mental and physical health issues and working, and I know that if we don't confront this, and the trauma we've all experienced, we will have BIG problems.
Which is why I am writing this book.
We shouldn't be striving to go back to "normal" because if we're honest, it wasn't that great, and it wasn't working for many of us.
We need to EVOLVE.
Are you ready to join the evolution?
Our current situation
Rates of anxiety and depression were skyrocketing pre-pandemic. There where dizzying spikes in rates of depression, suicidal ideation, and addiction during the pandemic. The lingering effects and the trauma as we move through and beyond will take years (maybe decades) to work through. We will need to be very gentle with ourselves and others.
The Great Resignation that began in the summer of 2021 is a major factor in 2022, as previously unknown numbers of workers continue to quit their jobs. In August 2021, 2.9 percent of the U.S. workforce gave notice, and in September 2021, 3 percent resigned.[1] "Last year, an average of more than 3.95 million workers quit their jobs each month, meaning 2021 holds the highest average on record, topping the 2019 average of 3.5 million."[2] Employers are reeling, rethinking retention strategies, and increasing hourly rates and compensation packages, which is long overdue.
Nearly 50 million Americans quit or changed jobs in 2021. The top reasons for quitting included low pay, a lack of opportunities for advancement, and feeling disrespected at work, according to a poll by the Pew Research Center[3].
I am feeling a bit smug, to be honest, because I have been on my soapbox saying we have agency and when we stop accepting unacceptable work situations, they will have to change. It's too soon to see if these changes are for now or forever, but I am hopeful we are making some solid strides toward corporate cultures that are more supportive of employees.
That said, rates of stress, anxiety, and depression are catastrophic. I would need another whole book to explore why, but at a high level, I believe major contributors include identifying with the "hustle culture" of self-worth and value being measured by busyness, undervaluing rest and sleep, comparing your real life to someone's filtered life on social media, overindulging in immediate-gratification activities, being tied to your smartphone 24/7, and undervaluing the importance of personal mental and physical health.
That trite "put your own oxygen mask on first" concept remains one of the best strategies for success. You will not have access to creative thinking, productivity, or possibility if you are a shattered shell of a person. I have so many heartbreaking stories of professionals overworking themselves to serious mental health issues and physical health diagnoses.
A recent prospect in our career strategy session began our conversation informing me she's working with a leading anxiety specialist and listing all the anti-anxiety meds she's currently taking. She started to tear up saying she missed her son, although she was in the same house with him at that moment. Years of overworking and an executive who consistently demeaned her had completely gutted her health to the point of regular panic attacks, stroke-risk blood pressure levels, and almost constant migraines. She couldn't drive anymore and could barely function.
I'd love to say this was the first time I had heard this story, but sadly, it's pretty common. People don't call me professionally when things are going well. Instead, they call me when their situation has become unsustainable.
From my perspective, COVID-19 dogpiled on top what was already unsustainable for many professionals, which metaphorically broke the camel's back.
Working shouldn't be making us sick
I have lost count of how many clients have called me after leaving the ER. They went because they thought they were having a heart attack.
My dear friend had a stroke from work-related stress – at 34.
Someone else who I have known for 20 years was overworking for more than one year without a real break. They were clearly going to have a heart attack, breakdown, or cancer diagnosis. It ended up being the last one.
It was SO CLEAR to me this was inevitable that I did a TEDx talk titled Sustaining Personal Energy to Fuel Professional Success in 2015. I'm not sure they ever watched it.
In my TEDx talk, I shared my moment of almost stroking out in my boss's doorway on Christmas Eve from the stress of a tight deadline combined with technology failure.
What I didn't include was the fact that three different doctors had told me I needed to quit that job as soon as possible or I might die. My blood pressure was consistently spiking to dangerous levels, and I generally have low blood pressure.
In fact, at a recent doctor's visit, the nurse commented on my great blood pressure reading. I said it's been fine since I quit my job.
Together, we can evolve the way we work so that it works for everyone.
[1] Eli Rosenberg, "A record 4.4 million Americans quit their jobs in September as labor market tumult continued," The Washington Post, November 12, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/11/12/job-quit-september-openings/.
[2] "Interactive Chart: How Historic Has the Great Resignation Been?" SHRM, February 1, 2022, https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/talent-acquisition/pages/interactive-quits-level-by-year.aspx
[3] Kim Parker AND Juliana Menasce Horowitz,"Majority of workers who quit a job in 2021 cite low pay, no opportunities for advancement, feeling disrespected," Pew Research Center, March 9, 2022, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/03/09/majority-of-workers-who-quit-a-job-in-2021-cite-low-pay-no-opportunities-for-advancement-feeling-disrespected/
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