text:
Your UNofficial source for All Things Eph!
About EphBlog
Follow EphBlog
Eph Blogroll
Eph Planet
Quote Wall
CGCL VI: A New Presidency
Class of 1988 Reunion
CGCL V: Accreditation
CGCL IV: Education's End
Tue 8 Aug 2006
Mayo Shattuck and Wife #2
Posted by David Dudley Field '25 under Mayo Shattuck '76 at 6:16 am
We are getting a lot of Google hits for "Mayo Shattuck wife". Our (innocuous) page is #3. The reason is this New York Times article on the search for the next NFL commissioner. Shattuck '76 is one of the five finalists (although the fix seems to be in for the internal candidate).
If the owners of National Football League teams agree to hire Mayo A. Shattuck III as the league's commissioner this week, he would have to resign his current job — and his wife, Molly, might have to quit hers, too.
Mr. Shattuck, 51, is the C.E.O. of the Constellation Energy Group, a Baltimore-based utility that is being acquired by the FPL Group. Mrs. Shattuck, 39, is a cheerleader for her husband's favorite N.F.L. team, the Baltimore Ravens.
He would forfeit as much as $23 million of cash and stock in postmerger compensation, but could earn as much as $8 million a year as commissioner. She presumably earns a lot less for shaking her pompoms.
More on Shattuck here. The #1 ranked page for "Mayo Shattuck wife" reports:
D'oh! Hot Blonde Cheerleader for Baltimore Ravens is Actually 38-Year-Old Married Mother of Three – Molly Shattuck is not your average NFL cheerleader. Yes, she's a perky blonde in great shape, but she also happens to be about 15 years older than most of the other woman on the squad, married and the mother of three. Molly Shattuck also happens to be the trophy–I mean second–wife of Mayo Shattuck, 50, the chief executive of Constellation Energy, a Baltimore-based Fortune 500 company. (Mayo reportedly still has strong corporate ties to the Ravens, helped sell the team to its present owners in the late 1990s while serving as the president of the investment bank Alex Brown.) By all accounts Molly earned a spot on the squad fair and square, based on her good looks and athletic ability (she comes from a long line of cheerleaders) not using her last name on the application form to get any kind of special treatment from the judges when she tried out last March. Now, in addition to running after her kids (all under the age of six), does Martha Stewart-style home crafts by the truckload, hosts elaborate fundraisers . . . and dances around is a crop top and short shorts for thousands of drooling Ravens fans each weekend.
"Trophy wife" is interesting terminology. Shattuck's first wife, an Eph, is about 13 years older than his second. Very rich men, like Shattuck, seem to have a habit of marrying second wives that are much younger than their first. Wonder why? You can bet that our web searchers want to find pictures of wife #2 and not wife #1. Here is what they are looking for.
Creepiest picture ever on EphBlog or just an artifact from a culture with practices different from our own? You be the judge!
I have wanted to write a much longer post on this topic for a long time but lack the eloquence and empathy for the task. See Professor Sam Crane on marriage as duty.
Duty is not a popular idea in contemporary America: it tends to be overwhelmed by notions of fun and self-interest and frolic in our youth-oriented, celebrity-driven popular culture. But, beyond the bright lights and front pages, duty is what defines the lives of most Americans. We discover ourselves in our committed actions toward others, most often family members but also neighbors and community groups and ideals larger than ourselves.
Sam has been married 25 years. (Congratulations!) Shattuck did not make it that far in his first marriage and, I'd wager, is unlikely to make it that far in his second. (Does anyone know the divorce statistics on second marriages? On second marriages in which there is a 10+ year age difference? On such marriages for rich men who are under 50?)
Of course, this might not be Shattuck's fault. Goodness knows that I have female acquaintences who have ended marriages for reasons that seemed (to me) shallow. Perhaps wife #1 insisted on a divorce despite his pleas to try to work things out. Perhaps he wanted to seek marriage counseling and she refused. In any event, he ended up with someone a decade younger and, probably, much less intelligent. (This might be unfair to wife #2 but her educational background does not scream out "Intellectual!")
Apologies for the cruelty. There is a tendency for Ephs to value the things that got us into Williams, that mattered to our parents and professors: intellectual accomplishment and ambition. Who is to say that brains are more important than beauty, in a person or in a wife? No doubt my feminist friends regularly decry the habit of rich men to discard their wives for younger, better-looking women. Should we lament this example? Could you begrudge Mayo and Molly some happiness after reading this?
The coming football season will be the first in seven years that Shattuck isn't expecting a baby or nursing one. Motherhood has been a struggle for her since her first pregnancy, when she went into pre-term labor at a Ravens game. Although she has borne three healthy children, she has miscarried five times. After months of bed rest and the birth of her youngest child, 2-year-old Lillian, she decided not to have more.
Shattuck needed something to take her mind off this unfamiliar sense of emptiness. She considered law school, or mountain climbing.
Instead, she found happiness in a 9-inch purple skirt.
We all find happiness in different places. Could any reader of EphBlog deny Molly hers? Perhaps. Consider Linda Hirshman's observation that the choices some women make affect the options of others. And look what happens in the skybox.
In the Constellation Energy skybox last week, Mayo Shattuck managed to look both forlorn and delighted, switching from camcorder to digital camera to brand-new binoculars as he searched for a figure four stories down and half a football field away. He could just make out her face above a pair of churning pompoms.
"Just watch," he said. "That smile will never come off."
He was grinning pretty hard himself, flanked by executive buddies, some casting hopeful glances at their own wives.
Hmmm. And what glances did those wives cast in return? The choices that Molly Shattuck makes affect more than just her own life and those of her family. Her choices affect all of us. The wives of those executives are unlikely to be cheerleader material, just as their husbands would not stand a chance at linebacker. But Molly's choice changes the framework in which those executives think about the meaning of "wife" or, perhaps more distressingly, "second wife."
You can be sure that some of the cheerleaders on Molly's squad would welcome the chance to live her life, to marry a man who might provide for them in the manner in which Mayo provides for her. Those cheerleaders, many of whom did not go to college and almost all of whom went to colleges unlike those attended by Mayo's "executive buddies," deserve a chance at the happiness they see in Molly. Perhaps she could introduce them to some of the men in the skybox.
All of which raises the question: Who introduced Molly and Mayo?
Molly Shattuck became her husband's second wife in 1997, a few years after meeting him at Alex. Brown, where she worked in marketing.
Hmmm. This sentence calls for some deconstruction. Shattuck had been president of Alex Brown since 1991, when his son Mayo '03 and daughter Kathleen '05 were 10 and 8. Does a "few years" mean back to 1991, when Shattuck first moved to Baltimore? Consider this tidbit.
But Shattuck also learned that life in the limelight meant his private life would be fodder for the media and water cooler talk. A 1995 Baltimore Sun article reported his divorce from his first wife Jennifer after nearly 20 years of marriage and suggested that his busy schedule hampered his family life. Shattuck remarried in 1997 to Molly George Shattuck, who used to be director of the Pikesville Sylvan Learning Center.
"Busy schedule" huh? Well, something/someone was doing some hampering. Why do I think that the Sun article reported more than this? Note that this Business Journal puff-piece omits the fact that Molly used to work at Alex Brown. Call me suspicious, but I think that this omission tells us something about when Molly and Mayo met. Hint: It was before Mayo's divorce in 1995. My speculation ends there, but perhaps a reader with access to Nexis could provide the 1995 Sun article.
Perhaps this explains how Molly and Mayo met.
Best Move: When she was still working as a marketing assistant, walking out of an office backwards while talking to a colleague – and almost literally sweeping stranger Mayo of his feet. "I met him by running into him," she says. "I almost knocked the guy over."
Marketing assistant meets company president. A classic love story.
Mayo seems to have no regrets.
"Suddenly", says her 50-year-old husband, "I'm married to an NFL Cheerleader! How good is that?"
Not as good, I think, as being married to the woman you met at Williams, the women you promised to love and to cherish until death do you part. But there is a problem in the land of how-good-is-that.
She's received national attention for being one of the oldest cheerleaders in the NFL, and now 38-year-old Ravens cheerleader Molly Shattuck is hanging up her pom-poms and saying goodbye to the job she made her professional career.
Looks like Mayo and his executive buddies will no longer be able to oogle Molly from the comfort of the skybox. Age, alas, catches up with all of us eventually. Fortunately, there are other, younger, cheerleaders, at least some of whom would like to meet a man like Mayo, would like to spend some time in his world. How good is that, indeed? If I were Molly, I would take care that no marketing assistants, much less cheerleaders, "run into" Mayo anytime soon.
In any event, I am not up to the task of a good post. Perhaps some of our readers are. What duties do Eph husbands and wives owe to each other? What duties do we all owe to spouse #1? What do you tell friends who are thinking of divorce?
Sexual Contact with Minor
Mayo Shattuck and (former) Wife #2
Mayo Shattuck
Print • Email
« Tim Cook, RIP Eph NFL Commissioner »
40 Responses	to "Mayo Shattuck and Wife #2"
Nishant	 says:
Everything in this post, apart from the fact that Mayo Shattuck might become the NFL commissioner, seems high unnecessary.
August 8th, 2006	at 10:22 am
Agreed. Totally out of line. Maybe David's just a little bit jealous.
David Kane	 says:
These comments would be easier to take seriously if they were more specific. As the links demonstrate, Mayo Shattuck, class of 1976, appeared in a People Magazine story which centered on his cheerleader wife. There are no People Magazine stories on other wives of members of the class of 1976. Wonder why?
I am ready to believe that various aspects of this post are out of line. But the reason is that EphBlog is getting all of these hits is because of Molly's career. Should we ignore these facts? Are careers only relevant if they meet with Nishant's approval? Must we avert our eyes from the cheerleaders among us?
If a member of the class of 1976 was married to a famous doctor who was featured in People Magazine, I assume that Nishant would have no problem with me posting a link to the article, selected quotations and even a picture or two. Why is Molly's case any different?
Again, I suspect that Nishant (and others) have a more subtle case to make against this post, have reasons to object to some parts rather than others. If so, they should make the case.
No man is a fair judge of his own jealousy, but I am certain who I feel most sorry for here: Mayo's children from his first marriage. Divorce is a brutal event for the children whose families are ripped apart. Spare a thought for them as well.
frank uible	 says:
Unseemly is the word I would use.
Jeff Z.	 says:
I agree with the two prior comments. David, I thought that you had planned, after the class of 2010 golfer incident, to refrain from targetting individual Ephs in a potentially hurtful, ill-advised, ill-informed effort to make some sort of broader point about the values you hold dear. I don't see how Shattuck's marriages are any of your business. I doubt you'd appreciate public speculation about your family life. While I'm sure aggrieved first wives everywhere are pleased that you have appointed yourself as their avenging angel, if this situation is really upsetting you, I recommend you rent the First Wives Club and blow off some steam. In the meantime, why don't you start a new "Ephblog Page Six" where you can post gossip like this. Maybe you can even attract additional undergrad readership if you camp outside of Mission on sunday mornings and issue a weekly walk of shame report.
Your insinuations regarding an individual's fidelity is what I had a problem with. My problem with some of your posts, David, is the use of insinuation, innuendo and sarcasm.
If you want to know what I object to, please read your post again and substitute Mayo Shattuck with David Kane. If you still don't get it, I am not sure if I can really explain it.
For the first time in a while, I will come to Dave's defense.
We have an alum who has made fame in an area of endeavor and he is in the news lately. One factor that other outlets have deemed newsworthy is that he is married to an NFL cheerleader. This in and of itself has garnered her a certain level of fame and attention, making her a minor public figure in the way that people who pose in beefcake poses WITH THEIR CHILDREN become. In other words, don't blame Dave for the fact that Ms. Shattuck (I'm sure she must go by Ms. . . .) has decided to immerse herself in a very public world. She made the decision to shake her pom poms before the world. Dave did not go peering in windows.
Furthermore, blogs are about covering a whole host of issues in a whole host of ways. Sometimes that coverage might be a bit snarky or mean or even over the top. And I have to say, I actually thought Dave probed some issues with more depth than I would have expected — and maybe more than I would have done; I probably would have stuck with snarky given the tone of the story.
Finally, since when did Ephblog become, erm, cheerleader for all alums? Since when is there no room for critical takes on "all things Eph"? And when did that become the case, because I have to say, Jeff Z and Frank, I've seen you criticize aspects of Williams here in the past. Why this stand, and why now? Very peculiar.
Sometimes blog posts work, sometimes they don't, and they all get buried to the bottom of the page and eventually to the archives for all eternity. On the list of transgressions real and small, this ranks low, and I find the rush to judgment, in a "I need to show that i am more pc than thou" sort of way to be amusing. Maybe even, yes, "unseemly."
I guess this means Mrs. Kane doesn't need to worry about her job…
Derek, here is the problem I have. David states, or strongly implies, the following:
(1) Shattuck had an affair while he was married
(2) He dumped his smarter, "better" wife soley because he met a younger, supposedly more attractive woman
(3) This new woman is dumb, uneducated, and a money-grubber who gets by on her looks
(4) Given the opportunity, Mayo will dump HER in turn for a younger, better looking woman, and
(5) Neither Mayo nor wife number two give a damn about how all of this affects Mayo's kids.
This is gossip, not "criticism." All five could be true, all could be totally false. It is hurtful in a way that attacking an institution like Williams' choices, or even, say, the policy positions of a politician who attended Williams, is not. I don't think Ephblog need be (I'm not sure if you intended the pun) a cheerleader for all alums. For example, William Bennett did attend Williams, and I am happy to slam him for his hypocrisy and the utter stupidity of some of his positions. And I'd even feel comfortable commenting on so much of his public, personal failings as are relevant to the fact that he has appointed himself the authority on what is virtuous. But I just don't see anything that Mayo and his wife have done that invites the kind of naked, pointless speculation about their personal life advanced by David here. If Mayo was a politician who rose to prominence by advocating family values or something like that, maybe, MAYBE I could see room for snarky commentary. But even there, I would still refrain from the sort of uninformed character attacks at issue here. As noted above, I doubt David would appreciate public speculation about his wife's motivations for marrying him.
I thank Nishant for clarifying his (very reasonable) point. In composing the post, I thought about leaving out the infidelity stuff. I suspect that others (like Jeff?) would still have found it objectionable, so I am glad to think that Nishant agrees that the rest is reasonable.
As to infidelity, some points:
1) I make it clear that I do not know what happened here. I give Shattuck the benefit of the doubt when I write that:
Of course, this might not be Shattuck's fault. Goodness knows that I have female acquaintences who have ended marriages for reasons that seemed (to me) shallow. Perhaps wife #1 insisted on a divorce despite his pleas to try to work things out. Perhaps he wanted to seek marriage counseling and she refused.
How much clearer do I need to be?
2) But, any experienced person, looking at the available evidence, would conclude that it is highly likely (90%?) that something untoward happened here. We'll know more once we find that article, but review the evidence above. Nishant may not know this (I did not know it when I was an undergraduate) but very rich men who marry women they work with only 2 years after messy and publicized divorces are very likely to have been involved with those women (or others) prior to the divorce. Now, this may not be true in this case. Maybe the divorce happened and then Molly and Mayo met. Don't bet that way.
3) One of the purposes of Williams is, in Professor Murphy's phrase, to shape the "hearts and minds" of her students. EphBlog, in its own small way, aspires to do the same. I bring up infidelity because infidelity is an important topic and the way to approach important topics is not with bromides and cliches. Better is real people living real lives teaching all of us real lessons. Sam Crane talks about marriage as "duty." Read what he has to say. Did Mayo Shattuck meet his duty? Or is divorce just a personal choice that deserves no praise or blame from anyone?
4) Jeff notes that he
thought that you had planned, after the class of 2010 golfer incident, to refrain from targetting individual Ephs in a potentially hurtful, ill-advised, ill-informed effort to make some sort of broader point about the values you hold dear.
That is correct about non-public figures and, especially, incoming first years. But once you pose for People Magazine, I think that commentary on your actions is appropriate.
But, again, one of the reasons that I like these discussions is that it helps me to wrestle with what belongs in EphBlog and what does not. Last year's discussion led me to change what I post on — as is obvious by the posts since then. Perhaps this discussion one will to. But, so far, I see little cause to change.
I implied 1) and 4). I deny that 2, 3, or 5 are true. I also deny that I implied them. Critique the post I made, not the post you think I made.
If you don't think that 4) is true on average, you don't know much about divorce statistics or the lives of rich people. I believe that the evidence clearly points to 1) being true. Would you bet otherwise?
As for number 2 and 3, I don't think my characterization of what you implied is AT ALL stretch. You say:
"In any event, he ended up with someone a decade younger and, probably, much less intelligent. (This might be unfair to wife #2 but her educational background does not scream out "Intellectual!")" and
"Not as good, I think, as being married to the woman you met at Williams, the women you promised to love and to cherish until death do you."
As for the "money grubber" portion, your post clearly states/implies that the motivation for a cheerleader or any other attractive young woman to marry someone like Mayo is for his money and the lifestyle he affords.
Number 5, I was referring to your subsequent comment about the children from the first marriage, and I grant my characterization may have been a bit of a stretch on that one. But, you do make it seem like you are more concerned than Mayo for his children's welfare. Not every divorce is necessarily a tragedy for the children involved, particularly when that divorce terminates a truly disfunctional marriage.
And I don't see what "evidence" you have of point 1 unless you were stationed in the participants' bedrooms and caught them in the act.
The point is, if you really want to address the topic of rich men dumping their true loves for young trophy wives, you can do so without impugning the motivations of two people you know basically nothing about. And I don't think posing for a photo in a puff piece in People makes that any more OK.
Eislerman	 says:
GOD DAMN I LOVE IT! It's been a while since there's been a throw-down, no-holds-barred Ephblog psuedo-fiasco, the type that will inevitably end with Lowell Jacobson challenging Rory Kramer to a fistfight.
At least all of g1 Shattucks are out of Williams…well, actually, that might just increase the entertainment value by giving the Contras more to bitch about…
August 8th, 2006	at 12:06 pm
Rich '97	 says:
Just to quickly weigh in…I find this post distasteful…and I imagine that someone reading it with no familiarity with Williams will think the school is filled with snobs.
Let me just say that David Kane is not the mainstream of the people I went to Williams with
August 8th, 2006	at 1:21 pm
BHC	 says:
Kanee: "…I am certain who I feel most sorry for here: Mayo's children from his first marriage. Divorce is a brutal event for the children whose families are ripped apart. Spare a thought for them as well."
It is certainly possible that the breakup of the first marriage was a painful event for the children. However, it seems possible that Ephblog's lengthy public airing of this private family event, supplemented by speculation and innuendo that may or may not be accurate, might be painful for them as well.
Did Kane "spare a thought" for the (Eph) children before deconstructing their (Eph) parent's marriage in front of the Eph community?
Give Dave a break, there's an unspoken cry for help running through this particular post.
Perhaps Dave is having trouble with fidelity issues in his own marriage; perhaps his wife is fancying an upgrade to some nice young stud fifteen years younger than himself, and Dave is identifying strongly with Jennifer Budge Shattuck '75 (or, as Dave calls her, wife #1).
(This is all just speculation, of course; I haven't got an ounce of real evidence to support any of this wild gossip. But that won't stop someone who really loves Williams from posting it all on the internet. After all, we have to spare a thought for his girls. They may read this someday, and they should know that someone cared enough about Williams to speculate about their personal lives in a blog.)
By the by, it may salve Dave's cuckolded anguish to know that Jennifer Budge Shattuck is Executive Director of Ladew Topiary Gardens in Monkton, MD. According to her bio, she has served on the boards of several schools and environmental organizations in Maryland and California. Not really all that bad (and just think of the alimony).
Seriously, doesn't everyone win with a trophy wife?
1. The husband gets a newer, younger, probably more va-va-voom model (hell, she's an NFL cheerleader!) who's probably more willing to be enthusiastic about certain (ahem) marital duties.
2. The wife gets massive alimony, which certainly cushions the blow.
3. The kids get a hot new Mom (hell, she's an NFL cheerleader!)
4. The Divorce Lawyer makes a mint.
David just posted this trash because he hates Ainsley.
Guy Creese '75	 says:
This post was just a simple mistake. David inadvertently typed the title as, "Mayo Shattuck and Wife #2," implying a link to Williams College, rather than his original title, which was, "Musings on Trophy Wives." Once he got the title wrong, David then just naturally posted it on Ephblog, rather than his personal blog, called Kaneblog. Oops.
eph06	 says:
For reference, Katie Shattuck was '05 not '06.
As a friend I find the post despicable. I agree with Jeff Z's 5 points and think David should avoid such commentary about other people's private lives. People article or no, I think many would consider the issues private.
M. Esa Seegulam '06	 says:
FYI: Kay Kane is hot too.
But she's also a brainiac, so she won't count as a trophy wife. Maybe she's a National Academy of Sciences Wife. Ha! I'm so funny sometimes. I am gonna go hang out with myself for a while and enjoy the company while I wait for this bitchfest to bubble up some more…
1) Anonymous, non-substantive comments will be deleted in this thread. (Aidan's comment above isn't very substantive, but at least he puts his name behind it.)
2) Kay's line on this topic is that I am very lucky — turns out that my first wife is my trophy wife!
3) BHC reasonably asks:
I did. I have had brief dealings with both Shattuck children on other topics. I considered reaching out to one or both of them on this topic. I considered reaching out to Budge. In the end, I didn't but may soon.
3) It is always a hard question to know whether the private pain that will be inflicted — this happens anytime anyone comments on anything in less than glowing terms — is worth the benefit of the public conversation. Loyal readers convinced me a year ago that this trade-off is best handled, at least in the case of non-public figures like Williams students, but not tying general comments on controversial issues too directly to specific individuals. This seems like a sensible rule which I have (tried to) follow ever since.
But Mayo Shattuck is a public figure. He posed for People Magazine. He invited reporters into his skybox to watch him oogle his wife and the other cheerleaders with new binoculars. He is one of the dozen or so richest and most powerful men in Baltimore. If we can not comment on his actions with regard to his first wife and his second — actions publicly documented on the web, often with his explicit permission — then we can never comment on such topics.
But how are we to shape "hearts and minds" — both our own and those of others around us — if we do not discuss topics of marriage and duty, infidelity and respect? I submit that we can't.
How seriously should I take my marriage vows? How seriously should the recently married and soon-to-be married commentators in this thread take theirs? These are hard questions without easy answers.
For the record, I did not "deconstruct" Budge and Shattuck's marriage. I know nothing of their marriage, except that it ended in a messy divorce and produced two accomplished Williams graduates. I deconstructed Shattuck's behavior.
If you think that this does not "belong" on EphBlog, then why do you think that analysis of the behavior of Laleian or Foster or McIntosh does?
If I were rummaging through Shattuck's garbage or snapping pictures of him on his way to work, that would be one thing. But virtually all of the above links are part of the public record, most of it with his explicit or implicit permission. I realize and take responsibility for the fact that I have a) put the puzzle pieces (correctly?) together and b) brought this to the attention of an audience (engaged Williams alumni) which Shattuck would prefer, perhaps, to keep in the dark on this topic. I do not do so lightly.
And, again, there is a good chance (1%? 10%?) that I am totally wrong about Shattuck, that he was a loving father and attentive husband, that his first wife went bonkers and through him out for no good reason, that he met Molly only after these events had played out. I know men to whom this has happened, men who have been unreasonably, in my view, divorced by their wives. But the preponderance of the evidence tells a very different story here.
Have the critics above read what Sam Crane had to say, have they confronted what "duty" means? Hint: It does not mean just your duty to your wife. It means your duty to another man's wife, your duty to treat her with respect to recognize her role and status in the community. It means that when Mayo Shattuck gets a new, pretty cheerleader wife, we do not forget that there was a wife before, a women who was there before the money and the fame came along. What duty do we — not Mayo, not her children, but you, me and the rest of the Williams community — owe to Jennifer Budge Shattuck?
You tell me.
Random thoughts:
Why are anonymous comments to be deleted only here? Is this a new rule at Ephblog?
Aiden's comment was actually quite funny (and for the record, Mayo Shattuck received over $6M in salary, bonuses and other compensation as COO of Alex. Brown in 1995 — the year when his first wife filed a complaint to divorce him).
Kay is quite correct — Dave is very lucky to have her (as I am lucky to have my own spouse).
For the record, I didn't particularly think that the post was about what Sam Crane had to say, as it was not entitled "Sam Crane's musings on marriage and duty from almost a full year ago." The post was about dissing Shattuck and his second wife.
Speaking of luck, of course, Crane also attributes the longevity of his own marriage to blind, dumb luck:
"Increasingly, I am aware of how many other people have to worry about being fired, or losing health care, or putting in more hours on the job: the kinds of pressures that can burst the seams of the strongest marriages. The academic job market is famously fickle. And somehow I drifted through it successfully. Maureen (the more practical one) could find a job just about anywhere as a registered nurse. My situation, however, has a heavy dose of luck attached to it, and that has helped our marriage a lot.
So, duty and luck: that is what explains twenty-five years."
I have no problem attributing my own marital success (going on 13 years) to a healthy dose of good fortune.
David, have you read that other half of Crane's wise observations? If so, why did you not credit them in your post?
Perhaps it was inconsistent with a long moralistic rant, devoid of eloquence or empathy, that you have wanted to post "for a long time."
Or perhaps there was another reason; after all, I wouldn't want to be guilty of speculating unfairly about anyone's motives (here's a clever rhetorical device: maybe it was only 99% — or even only 90%? — about enabling the vicious diatribe).
Speaking for myself, I never wrote that the post didn't "belong" on Ephblog. The post is larded with speculation (as was much of the commentary about Laleian, Foster and McIntosh, BTW), about someone connected to Williams, and what better place than the internet to post that kind of material, assuming one has an uncontrollably narcissistic impulse to post such speculation anywhere at all?
I think "we" owe Jennifer Budge Shattuck nothing in particular. Please don't bother to try to persuade me otherwise.
Lastly, I have to confess that I laughed out loud when I read the irrelevant defense about knowing men who have been wronged, implying that such acquaintance immunizes one against approaching this material with an impure motive or with prejudice against the "rich man" with a "trophy wife" after the "messy divorce".
August 9th, 2006	at 1:11 am
07Eph	 says:
Wow, I'd have to agree with Nishant's first comment. The additional info seems highly unnecessary. I can't wait until in a few years some Eph alum with too much time on his or her hands writes a long, frivolous post about Kane and he ponders why on earth someone would do that. I'm sure his kids too will get a kick out of it. Kane, what the hell is wrong with you?
I appreciate Kane's response to my previous post. But I still don't find it convincing.
Kane is correct to note that the husband and second wife in this case are public figures. But other members of the family are not. Ephblog's lengthy coverage affects them too, and quite possibly in an unwelcome manner.
Kane acknowledges that "private pain will be inflicted," but suggests that this 'is worth the benefit of the public conversation." In some cases, this could be true, but not here, because Kane's story is still too cloudy. Maybe the husband was unfaithful to his marriage vows, or maybe he was "a loving father and attentive husband". Maybe the first wife had nothing to do with the breakup, or maybe she "went bonkers" and refused marriage counseling. The bottom line: Kane genuinely doesn't know if he put the "puzzle pieces" together correctly, and neither do we.
In this case, the puzzle was too incomplete to justify posting the story. Privacy was invaded for no good reason, because nothing definite was established.
Kane apparently wanted to use this specific family story as a launchpad for a more general discussion about infidelity and divorce. This is a legitimate issue, but Kane's effort to initiate this dialogue have failed. There has been little discussion of the general issue here, because most readers can't get past the clumsy and inappropriate handling of the family story at the beginning.
JLo	 says:
I agree with how unseemly all of this is to consider. However, Mr. Kane raises questions that our culture needs to address. I'm pleased to discover relatively civil discourse among Ephs on issues this important.
Mr. Shattuck and his wife have made themselves (and by extension their families)very public figures. They should expect this type of curiosity about and examination of their choices.
Unfortunately, Mr. Kane's suppositions about the timing and circumstances of the Molly/Mayo meeting are correct. It was sad saga at ABrown and in Baltimore. Wife #1 is a lovely lady and a credit to Williams as I'm sure her children are.
Despite his financial/business success, Mayo is another story.
Loweeel	 says:
BHC, legally speaking, it doesn't matter if non-public figures may be affected by commenting on the lives of public figures. If the subject of the speech is a public figure, it doesn't really matter who reads it or who is offended by it — the public figure status still attaches to the sppech.
Morally, however, that's another question, and ultimately one I'm not going to take a position on.
August 10th, 2006	at 12:28 am
1) Thanks for the graduation year corrections. They have been made above.
2) I appreciate BHC's comments. I am not sure we disagree. Pain will be caused. The same is always true in the context of controversial events. Recall the case of Aida Laleian. She has a child who will, probably, one day read EphBlog's account of her mother's actions. She will, probably, be upset. I am sorry about that. I wish that there were someway to have these discussions without that side effect. I try, as best I can, to achieve that goal. But you can't talk about infidelity and divorce in all the messy specifics of real human relationships without causing pain to someone. So, our choices are either to cause that pain or not to talk about it at all. I choose the former.
3) BHC (and other readers) are correct that "most readers can't get past the clumsy and inappropriate handling of the family story at the beginning." This is a shame and, clearly, my fault. Perhaps I need a better editor.
4) But BHC is, I think, wrong to claim:
The bottom line: Kane genuinely doesn't know if he put the "puzzle pieces" together correctly, and neither do we.
Perhaps. There is a sense in which I do not "know" if the sky above Williamstown today is blue. I am not there, after all. But I still think it is safe to bet that way. The same is true here. Now, the only additional evidence I have, so far, is the anonymous comment above. But I think that only a naive person would think it possible (5%?) much less likely that Mayo Shattuck was faithful to his first wife. Maybe he was. And maybe the sky above Williamstown is green this morning. I have no firsthand evidence on either point.
5) I think that the issue is clouded because there are two schools of thoughts among my critics, both reasonable. School 1, suggested by BHC, is that we do not "know" what happened and that, therefore, the whole topic is off limits. School 2 argues that, even if everything I imply above is true, it is still rude or "unseemly" to discuss it.
I am not sure who is a member of school 2. If anyone is, I would like to argue against them, argue that a refusal to discuss the marital infidelity of a public figure — or to insist that other people like me refrain from discussing it — is to acquiesce in the betrayal of Jennifer Budge '75.
What happens in social situations? If you used to invite the Shattuck's to your Christmas party, do you invite Mayo and his new family or Jennifer and hers (or neither or both)? When Mayo gets an award from Williams or elsewhere, is he described as having 5 children or just 3, a handy public erasure of his first marriage?
This is not an anti-divorce screed, although I am no fan of divorce. This is anti-infidelity. Assume that Mayo cheated on his wife (if the evidence above does not make you 99% confident that this occurred, then you better check the color of the sky — it might have changed!), should Williams still award him a Bicentennial Medal, as it no doubt plans on doing someday?
I suspect that many readers would say Yes, would claim that Mayo's public accomplishments are unaffected by his private failings. Perhaps. If push came to shove, if I were on the Nominating Committee, I would probably agree. But I would feel guilty about it.
6) For those looking for some fun and vaguely relevant fiction reading on rich men and infidelity which captures the flavor and mores of Mayo Shattuck's social circle, I would recommend The Nanny Diaries and A Man in Full.
August 10th, 2006	at 8:01 am
David: Do you subscribe to the Golden Rule? If so, are you applying it in this case?
There's also School 3, which I belong to, which says that discussing this in a long-winded post on Ephblog is inappropriate, as it does not directly involve Williams. A short post noting that Mayo was being considered for the NFL Commissioner spot and a short bio warrants inclusion on Ephblog, but not a 1,727 word post on marriage, divorce, trophy wives, etc. Again, this is Ephblog, not Kaneblog.
Kane: "There is a sense in which I do not "know" if the sky above Williamstown today is blue. I am not there, after all. But I still think it is safe to bet that way. The same is true here."
This is totally unconvincing. First, we can speculate as to the color of the sky in Williamstown without invading anyone's privacy. Second, the color of the sky above Williamstown can be verified independently if necessary. Neither point is true about Ephblog's speculations in this instance.
If the issues in this case could be verified in the same manner as the Williamstown weather, then I would accept discussion of them (which puts me in Kane's "School 1"). But there is a difference between discussing the news and spreading gossip. If you have to fill the story with disclaimers, like "Of course, this might not be [the husband's] fault," or "there is a good chance…that his first wife went bonkers," then it's not sufficiently well documented to qualify as news.
August 10th, 2006	at 5:00 pm
Left off the name in the previous post. BHC
Look, DK has his views regarding what's interesting, appropriate, tasteful, etc, and at the end of the day none of us can *force* him to change his perspective (this is, I think, a basic philosophical point). Nor should we expect to- such is the right to one's own opinion.
I think the issue is that DK is the dominant Ephblog poster/personality, and many of us who visit, for better or for worse, see Ephblog as a domain shared by everyone who has an attachment to Williams (Guy has effectively pressed this in invoking the Kaneblog/Ephblog chasm). There's nothing so formal about Ephblog such that it even begins to enter the domain of the legal (were Kane, say, formally authorized by the Alumni Office to operate within 'commonly accepted boundaries of taste and interest' or something along those lines, it'd be a different story)- it's just an intuitive reading of why people react badly to some of the posts.
Though, at the end of the day, titillating posts like this probably best produce what DK might want most- attention, reaction, debate. Unfortunately, the debates that emerge tend to quickly devolve into arguments about the proper content of blogging that's quasi-affiliated with an institution- a matter of taste and judgment, and a rather boring matter at that.
Mike E '04	 says:
Just because something makes the pages of People doesn't mean it's worth comments about Ephs such as "…Looks like Mayo and his executive buddies will no longer be able to oogle Molly from the comfort of the skybox." I admit, I read that and a few other choice phrases and (I think legitimately) skimmed the rest. The original posting is boring and tasteless! Let's incorporate a use-vote system on Ephblog (all the rage I hear, on the intenet these days) to get rid of this and similar pap smears. Sorry for such a strong metaphor, but it seems appropriate. (A swipe of evidence from the nether regions aimed at testing for dubious and dangerous conditions, or conversely a careful attempt to drag various characters into dirt (admittedly, home-turf dirt, as in, dirt from where such ephs are to be found) using evidence from People magazine.)
well looks like the discussion has died down – but i must say i'm glad you posted this. molly appeared tonight on a fox tv reality show – secret millionaire. i was curious about her husband in the "energy business" and found a bunch of stuff, but this post really connects much of it together in the way that i was thinking it was connected, plus with links to other articles i hadn't found.
just as a note, i'm a seven sisters alum who almost went to williams (it was the 4 hour bus ride from boston, after a 7 hour plane ride from CA, that got me). but then i spent a (wonderful) summer there on a research fellowship. so when i saw that mayo the third went to williams, i got that much more interested.
there's a ton more here than even this post suggested. it's now late 2008 – when this topic first came up, mayo's company, constellation energy, was no doubt flying high. in fact i think it was even when secret millionaire was filmed. but now with the economic meltdown our nation is going through, constellation came to the brink of disaster (i believe it was bought by another company at the eleventh hour – not sure.)
also, the family name shattuck, and the "III" of course, suggests super-old money. there's a street in my current town (berkeley, ca) called shattuck. actually it's one of the main streets through town. i can't find any information on mayos I or II or the rest of the family though. though one of the articles does mention his family's place in maine, and his friendship to bush sr.
i find this quite interesting as a grad of a similarly elite school. our country's mythology includes notions of egalitarianism and being able to pull oneself up by one's bootstraps. and people like me – child of immigrant parents, financial aid student – come to schools like williams and my alma mater believing in this idea that we got there by our intellectual smarts, and that we can make it wherever else we go.
but the real truth is so much more complicated. it's really people like mayo – who came from a background of privilege already, who i can't help but think is not the biggest intellectual, and whose attendance at places like williams is more a stamp of certification than anything else – who continue to rule this world – and wreck it, as the last several months have shown. (and of course, bush sr. and bush jr. fit this mold to a T.)
i don't know if any of that made any sense. kane, i'm glad you posted this. i absolutely agree that once a person's life story is being covered in _people_ magazine, it's absolutely fair game. at the very least, blog posts like this serve as a reality check on the puff pieces that appear in mags like _people_ and elsewhere (there was a baltimore sun article, i believe, that appeared to have been written in a critical vacuum).
and the truth is, nobody else except for people who have connections to such people (by whom i mean mayo, not the mag :-) and therefore more of an interest in delving into the backstory, are going to even want to take the time to do such background research and writing. this is the beauty of blogs. so, thank you.
December 18th, 2008	at 1:35 am
a: Running a little late on keeping up with your blogging, eh?
nuts	 says:
i absolutely agree that once a person's life story is being covered in _people_ magazine, it's absolutely fair game.
Fair game? Sure. But not always a good choice of topic for Ephblog, especially when the focus of the Ephblog post is the hot wife, not the Williams grad.
December 18th, 2008	at 12:15 pm
whocares	 says:
Comment deleted by moderator. Please keep it clean.
Let me guess! Did the immediately prior commenter post something to the effect, "Who cares who is shtupping whom?"
Trackbacks & Pingbacks:
Pingback from Google Me : EphBlog	January 30th, 2009	at	2:30 am
[…] tried to address the issue of successful (male) Ephs who abandon their wives here. Still one of my favorite (and most criticized) efforts. In the discussion thread, I argue that: […]
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post
If a comment you submitted does not show up, please email us at eph at ephblog dot com. Please note that commenters are required to use a valid email address when submitting comments.
David Dudley Field '25 on Hopkins Ends Legacy Admissions, 2
Anonymous on Hopkins Ends Legacy Admissions, 2
Gen X Alum on Hopkins Ends Legacy Admissions, 2
fendertweed on Hopkins Ends Legacy Admissions, 2
timothyjohn on A Few Emails from Williams
abl on A Few Emails from Williams
fendertweed on The Ghost of EphBlog Future
Whitney Wilson '90 on Hopkins Ends Legacy Admissions, 1
anon on Underrep Identities
David Dudley Field '25 on A Few Emails from Williams
Log in to EphBlog
To join us as an author, write to:
eph at ephblog dot com
EphBlog is powered by WordPress and delivered to you in 1.059 seconds using 41 queries..


text:
This month I've been looking at something rather different. There has been a trend in recent years for Black to combine ...b6 and ...Nf6, and I've been examining situations which fall outside the usual Queen's Indian Defence fare.
Download PGN of November '18 Daring Defences games
The Accelerated Queen's Indian Defence (TAQID) [A50]
Some encounters start out as an English Defence (...e6 and ...b6), but then Black opts for an early ...Nf6 (rather than the usual ...f5). This move order I've given the term the Queen's English (as it's essentially an English Defence with a Queen's Indian feel to it). Then there are other cases where a sort of off-shoot of the QID is employed straight away (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 b6!?). What's it called, you might wonder? I have seen a couple of sources describe it as a Queen's Indian Accelerated, but this doesn't sound right to me. In my opinion, the Accelerated Queen's Indian Defence (TAQID) is a more natural way to describe that move order. If White then refrains from an early Nf3, transposition to a mainstream QID doesn't generally occur and, in any case, Black usually has the option of steering the game away from established theory. These lines seem to be placed somewhere in a grey area between the English Defence and the Queen's Indian Defence and don't get the attention they deserve (New in Chess doesn't even have a classification for it, for instance!). Anyway, these systems have been overlooked in my Chesspublishing column until now, and yet they are becoming increasingly popular and not just with rapid time limits.
So are you ready to study the Queen's English and the TAQID!?
To help you get into the swing of it, here is a summary of my recommended responses for Black in the TAQID:
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 b6!? 3.Nc3 (after 3.f3 the odd-looking 3...Nc6!? is OK) 3...Bb7 4.Qc2 (4.f3 d5! 5.cxd5 Nxd5 6.e4 Nxc3 7.bxc3 e5!; or 4.d5 e6 5.a3 Bd6!) 4...d5! 5.cxd5 Nxd5 6.e4 Nxc3 7.bxc3 e5!
English Defence with ...Nf6 - White plays d4-d5 [A50]
The game Lysyj, R - Ovetchkin, I begins like many an English Defence encounter, but with Black opting for ...Nf6 without ...f5 we have an A50 rather than an A40. The early advance d4-d5 focuses both players' attention: White gains space whereas Black has a target for his counterplay.
Ovetchkin fianchettoes his king's bishop with ideas of obtaining pressure along the long diagonal, but Black's set-up held firm. Indeed, there are probably other ways for the second player to get an acceptable game, so I don't rate this approach by White. In the game, Lysyj, the higher-rated player, outplayed his author colleague by opening up White's king in an opposite bishop middlegame.
Kirill Stupak seems to be a specialist in these TAQID lines, as there are quite a few references with him involved in this month's update. In Enchev, I - Stupak, K White opted for 7.e4 which bolsters the centre and intends pointing the light-squared bishop in the direction of Black's king:
Although it seems that Black obtains an acceptable game, if he is not careful he ends up with less space and few prospects for counterplay. So it's necessary to keep pressing against d5 and the squares around it, just as in the featured game. Later, Black only really won because White's piece sacrifice was far too optimistic, whereas if he had been less ambitious the middlegame was equal and should have logically ended with a draw by repetition.
English Defence with ...Nf6 - White plays f2-f3 [A50]
In the TAQID move order 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 b6, if White opts for 3.f3 then I think that Black's best practical response is the eyebrow-raising 3...Nc6!? as in our featured game:
In Volkov, S - Rakhmanov, Ale White seemed to do lots of logical things but found himself to be worse! It just goes to show that even an experienced Russian Grandmaster might find it difficult to cope with Black's dynamic potential. How far to push and getting the timing right isn't evident, but clearly Volkov's early queenside play didn't work when he was so lagging in development on the other wing. As things stand, the more critical try is 7.Be3, even if the bishops get exchanged, rather than Volkov's 7.Nge2.
In the encounter Ju Wenjun - Li Chao, I'm not quite sure what Li Chao's reasoning was (I know, he likes to provoke sometimes) but his eighth move didn't work very well:
Here, previous experience suggests that 8...Nd7 is fine for Black, but in the game 8...Be7?! enabled White to grab a pawn, and after 9.dxe5 Nd7 10.Qa4 she was better. Later, a very complicated struggle ebbed and flowed, but for most of the early stages White missed chances to be clearly better with a timely e5-e6. When it finally came however, it was too late!
English Defence with ...Nf6 - White plays Qc2, Black avoids ...d7-d5 [A50]
I have to be honest, I'm sceptical about those lines where Black desists from the chance to play an early ...d5. So, for example, in Schreiner, Pe - Shengelia, D the modest 4...d6 gave Black a certain flexibility, but whether he then plays for ...e5 or ...c5 White's central grip is going to remain quite strong. To counter this centre, the creative ...c6, ...a6, and then ...b5 wasn't a bad try, with Black getting some room to dodge and weave on the queenside for the loss of a pawn. It might have offered enough 'practical compensation' to keep White in check, but no more than that. In the game, Shengelia became a little impatient which led to his downfall.
After 4...e6 5.e4 Bb4 6.Bd3 c5 7.d5 I don't think that Black can equalize with quiet play:
Here, I examine 7...d6 as played in Abdusattorov, N - Faizulaev, A plus a few other tries in the notes. In each case the pawn wedge on d5 is awkward for Black whose minor pieces lack space and general effectiveness. He soon ran out of things to do and had to wait patiently while White made progress.
Despite the rather mediocre opening, the game was a great fight with Black showing great resilience even when two exchanges down!
In Rychagov, A - Bortnyk, O a more active reaction was employed, as Bortnyk aimed to counter his opponent's central ambitions with 7...b5, which has to be critical:
The problem is that despite such a vigorous approach the d5-pawn remains in place and with it White's extra space. I am even willing to stick my neck out by considering White to be better then in all lines, especially if he had later played 12.Bg5! rather than 12.Bf4. In the actual game, I'm not sure what happened at the end, but White did snatch a pawn early on and was on top until he lost control in the endgame.
English Defence with ...Nf6 - White plays Qc2, Black reacts with ...d5 [A50]
In Schekachikhin, M - Ladva, O ambitious gambit play by White (see the choice of 5.Bg5!? which has hardly ever been played) pays off after a chaotic and rather original opening which reminds one of other systems where ...dxc4 and ...b5 occur early on.
I can't really give a definitive judgement, but Black is a lot more flexible than in the Semi-Slav (I'm thinking of the Anti-Meran Gambit or Anti-Moscow Gambit). However, this didn't do him any good here as White obtained tricky play in the vicinity of Black's king.
What should Black have done differently then? Well, you are probably expecting some sort of guidance, even in such a murky situation! There were certainly improvements later, but my feeling is that 10...e6 (to anticipate and limit the danger from White's centre) would have been a good idea.
The encounter Shmeliov, D - Akobian, V involved the 'natural-looking, but a shade timid' 7...e6 which led to a sort of inferior Semi-Tarrasch where Black was struggling to obtain counterplay:
Indeed, the whole game Akobian was rather passive in his approach and was fortunate not to go down, as White got his move order wrong when combining on the verge of winning.
All-in-all, I'm not a fan of Black's opening and feel that he needs to try 7...e5! (challenging the white centre immediately) rather than 7...e6.
It seems that the opening sequence in Navara, D - Kempinski, R constitutes the main line of the 'English/QID' hybrid. Both players seemed to be employing the critical moves, in particular note 7...e5! (which deserves its !) and then, a little further on, the Czech Star produced a novelty 11.Qa4 (which I think is more of a !?):
Previously 11.Bxd3 had been played a few times including in an old Bronstein game, but my notes suggest that Black can then get a decent enough position with a quick 0-0-0. Kempinski rose up to the task and was able to diffuse White's initiative, except there was a hint of an edge for White with an alternative on move 22. Although a draw was an honourable result there might even have been an opportunity for Black to play for more near the end.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Boarding Services are only offered at the Briarcliff Road location of The Pet Set.
In order for us to have time to process your online reservation, we must receive your reservation 72 hours prior to your arrival. You will receive an authorization code once your reservation is entered into our system. If you have spam blockers on your computer you may not get this code. If you need to make an earlier reservation, please call 404-633-8755.
If you have questions, or have trouble submitting this for, please call the Briarcliff Road store at 404-633-8755.
We will not admit any pet that is not current on their vaccinations. Please make sure prior to arrival that you have submitted these to us.
Our Lobby is Closed for arrivals/departures therefore a two-night minimum stay is required on: New Year's Day, Easter Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. A one nights deposit is required of non package clients during holiday period rates.
For the safety of pets and staff we must have the current shot record dates recorded in your pets file. No pet will be admitted without being current. Please have your vet clinic fax us your records to 404-636-4903, or bring them with you at check in.
Keeping your information up to date allows us the opportunity to better service you and your pet.
*72 hours notice is required to schedule an appointment. *A 72 hour window has been placed in these fields for you automatically. This is the earliest possible time to schedule your appointment. Feel free to modify these times for any date and time BEYOND the default. If you need a earlier reservation please call 404-633-8755.
*A 72 hour window has been placed in these fields for you automatically. This is the earliest possible time to schedule your appointment. Feel free to modify these times for any date and time BEYOND the default.
Boarding checkout is 2:00pm unless having services or using a package, late checkout is one nights stay.
Additional People who my pets maybe released to. We will only release pets to you or your assigned agents.
Allows us to keep up to date on late pick ups.
If picking up before 11:00am, and having bathing or grooming service, please schedule that service to be done the day before your scheduled checkout.
Things you feel we should be know or be attentive to.
All boarding reservations must have a credit card on file. A one nights deposit is required during holiday rate times. You may call the store to add it to your profile. If you have a boarding package, this is not required.
Boarding Reservations must be cancelled at least five (5) days prior to arrival. Failure to cancel five (5) days prior to arrival will result in the forfeiture of deposit. Day Camp and Grooming Reservations require 24-hour cancellation notice.


Suffolk Downs, the historic racetrack that straddles Revere and East Boston, celebrated its final day of live horse races on Saturday.
After 79 years, the management of New England's last remaining thoroughbred track, has indicated the operation is not financially viable. In fact, it has been operating in the red for several years. State House News Service has reported the track has lost about $47 million since 2007.
Suffolk Downs had pinned its hopes to a casino license and when the state gaming regulators opted for an Everett casino plan instead of Mohegan Sun's plans for Suffolk Downs, it appeared to seal the horsetrack's fate. Chief Operating Officer Chip Tuttle said at the time of the decision that it would mark the end of horsetrack racing in New England, adding that his team would be looking at ways to wind down the operation. He blasted the commission's decision as a job-killer.
However, in recent days,The New England Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association filed an application with state authorities that would allow them to host live horse racing at the track. Whether the state regulators approve the application remains to be seen.


text:
namespace Dealership.Models
{
    using System;
    using System.Collections.Generic;
    using System.Linq;
    using System.Text;
    using System.Threading.Tasks;

    using Contracts;
    using Common;

    public class Comment : IComment
    {
        private string author;
        private string content;

        public Comment(string content)
        {
            this.Content = content;
        }

        public string Author
        {
            get
            {
                return this.author;
            }
            set
            {
                Validator.ValidateNull(value, "Author can not be null");
                this.author = value;
            }
        }

        public string Content
        {
            get
            {
                return this.content;
            }
            private set
            {
                Validator.ValidateNull(value, Constants.CommentCannotBeNull);
                Validator.ValidateIntRange(value.Length,
                                           Constants.MinCommentLength,
                                           Constants.MaxCommentLength,
                                           string.Format(Constants.StringMustBeBetweenMinAndMax,
                                           "Content",
                                           Constants.MinCommentLength,
                                           Constants.MaxCommentLength));
                this.content = value;

            }
        }
        public override string ToString()
        {
            var sb = new StringBuilder();
            sb.AppendLine("    " + new string('-', 10));
            sb.AppendLine(string.Format("    {0}", this.Content));
            sb.AppendLine("      User: " + this.Author);
            sb.AppendLine("    " + new string('-', 10));
            return sb.ToString().TrimEnd();
        }
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Mark Baile Music
Join the Big Country Mafia!
New Album Available!
"This Old Hat" includes 10 songs and can be found on all major streaming platforms.
click here to get your copy
Sweet Ebony
Mark Baile
Sweet Ebony 4:02
Whoa! 3:17
Come hang out with the Big Country Mafia!
Island Green family fun Center
Saturday, January 28 @ 7:30PM — 10:30PM Sat, Jan 28 @ 7:30PM — 10:30PM
Island Green Family Fun Center, 1199 Pleasant Valley Rd S, , Westminster
Maggie's Restaurant
Friday, February 3 @ 8:00PM — 11:00PM Fri, Feb 3 @ 8:00PM — 11:00PM
310 East Green Street, Westminster
Littlestown Eagles
Saturday, February 4 @ 7:00PM — 11:00PM (EST, UTC-05) Sat, Feb 4 @ 7:00PM — 11:00PM (EST, UTC-05)
Littlestown Eagles, 427 Mengus Mill Road, Littlestown PA 17340
Thursday, February 9 @ 6:00AM — Sunday, February 12 @ 7:00PM Thu, Feb 9 @ 6:00AM — Sun, Feb 12 @ 7:00PM
Fort Myers Flordia
Saturday, February 25 @ 8:00PM — 10:30PM Sat, Feb 25 @ 8:00PM — 10:30PM
All Rights Reserved.™


Pre Lit Flock Holly Pop Up Christmas Tree Christmas Trees Lights Pop Up Trees Uploaded by bonsaivault on Friday, January 4th, 2019 in category Bonsai Ideas.
See also Pop Up Trees The Holiday Aisle Pop Up 6 Green Pine Artificial Christmas Tree from Bonsai Ideas Topic.
Here we have another image Paper Pop Up Tree Papery Paper N Cardboard Art Pinterest Pop Up Trees featured under Pre Lit Flock Holly Pop Up Christmas Tree Christmas Trees Lights Pop Up Trees. We hope you enjoyed it and if you want to download the pictures in high quality, simply right click the image and choose "Save As". Thanks for reading Pre Lit Flock Holly Pop Up Christmas Tree Christmas Trees Lights Pop Up Trees.


A deep, mahogany bronze finish elevates the look of this sophisticated medium direct wire energy-efficient LED picture light.
Brighten a hallway display with the help of this stunning medium direct wire energy-efficient LED picture light from House of Troy. Made from metal, this lamp boasts an elegant, traditionally-inspired silhouette. This mahogany bronze finish picture light is accented with charming decorative straps and rivets. Made in the USA.


PLANO, Texas, Oct. 24, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nuvectra Corporation (NASDAQ:NVTR), a neurostimulation medical device company, announced today that it will release its financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2017 on Wednesday, November 1, 2017 after market close.
Nuvectra will hold a conference call on Wednesday, November 1, 2017 at 4:30pm ET to discuss the results. The dial in numbers are (844) 882-7830 for domestic callers and (574) 990-9704 for international callers. The conference ID is 95424626. A live webcast of the conference call will be available on the investor relations section of the Company's website at http://investors.nuvectramed.com/.
A replay of the call will be available starting on November 1, 2017 through November 8, 2017. To access the replay, dial (855) 859-2056 for domestic callers and (404) 537-3406 for international callers and enter access code 95424626. The webcast will be available in the investor relations section of the Company's website for 90 days following the completion of the call.
NuvectraTM is a neurostimulation company committed to helping physicians improve the lives of people with chronic conditions. The Algovita® Spinal Cord Stimulation (SCS) System is our first commercial offering and is CE marked and FDA approved for the treatment of chronic intractable pain of the trunk and/or limbs. Our innovative technology platform also has capabilities under development to support other indications such as sacral neuromodulation (SNM) for the treatment of overactive bladder, and deep brain stimulation (DBS) for the treatment of Parkinson's Disease. In addition, our NeuroNexus subsidiary designs, manufactures and markets leading-edge neural-interface technologies for the neuroscience clinical research market. Visit the Nuvectra website at www.nuvectramed.com.


text:
Q: Referencing cell above in power query custom column I'm working on converting an Excel process to a power query custom column, and the way it currently works is by referencing the cell above to write to current cell.
The Excel formula is =IF(G2<>"", IF(I2<>"",I2,""),H1)
Which would be entered in H2 in this example. It essentially says when I have cells with values to the left, and the right of me, I will write the value of the cell to the right, until I see a cell on the left which isn't partnered up with a cell on the right, and go back to null. This runs through a few thousand rows and may be triggered a couple dozen times to patch tiny holes.
The end result essentially looks like this, the center column is my new data (I'm using zeros instead of "" or null for visual sake):

*

*0 0 0 - Write null

*0 0 0 - Write null

*x 1 1 - Write value to the right

*0 1 0 - Write value above

*0 1 0 - Write value above

*x 0 0 - Write null

*0 0 0 - Write null

Right now I have to write the formula before executing my query chain, I'd like to incorporate this step into a custom column, but I have yet to find a solution. I am a total newb to m code and power query, and stack overflow, but so far I have been able to execute each step I needed except for this one.

A: My suggestion would be a different approach:
The query below is based on Table1 with columns G, H, and I, which creates the first 2 steps.
Next column H is removed.
A new column H is added, initially with the value from I if both G and I are <> null, else if G = null then a blank (will be null later on).
Next the new column H is filled down.
Next "" is replaced with null.
Finally the columns are reordered.
Edit: all steps done via the UI; the formula for the new column was entered in the formula box (without "each ") after choosing "Add Custom Column"
let
    Source = Excel.CurrentWorkbook(){[Name="Table1"]}[Content],
    #"Changed Type" = Table.TransformColumnTypes(Source,{{"G", type text}, {"H", type any}, {"I", Int64.Type}}),
    #"Removed Columns" = Table.RemoveColumns(#"Changed Type",{"H"}),
    #"Added Custom" = Table.AddColumn(#"Removed Columns", "H", each if [G] <> null and [I] <> null then [I] else if [G] <> null then "" else null),
    #"Filled Down" = Table.FillDown(#"Added Custom",{"H"}),
    #"Replaced Value" = Table.ReplaceValue(#"Filled Down","",null,Replacer.ReplaceValue,{"H"}),
    #"Reordered Columns" = Table.ReorderColumns(#"Replaced Value",{"G", "H", "I"})
in
    #"Reordered Columns"

A: You can add an index column and then access the cell at the current index minus 1. For example, if you added an index column Index and named that step Table, then to access the value in column Column in the previous row you would this expression in your custom formula:
if [Index] > 0 then Table[Column]{[Index] - 1} else some_default_value
some_default_value would be whatever you want the first row's cell to be. In your case, this would probably be null. We need the if statement because there's no row -1 in the table.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Brilliant Banana Bread Dairy. Egg. Gluten. Free.
Grind the linseeds (flax) until they are powdery and add the water to them. Stir and rest for 10 minutes.
Put the porridge oats and millet flakes in a processor and blitz to a fine flour.
In a large bowl mash the bananas, then add the melted coconut oil, vanilla, agave and flax mixture.
Add the rest of the dry ingredients (except coconut sugar) and mix gently. Try to retain some air in the batter by not vigorously beating it!
Pour into a greased or lined loaf tin. Gently shake to level the mixture. Sprinkle the coconut sugar over the top.
Bake in a preheated oven at Gas Mark 4 (350f / 180c) for 50-60 minutes. This will still be slightly sticky when cooked but will firm up on cooling. It is cooked when it is golden brown and the edges are coming away from the sides of the pan.
Allow to cool in the pan and try to resist eating this straight out of the oven!
Allow to cool before slicing (really yes!) then munch away as it is.
Spread with nut butter (almond yes please) for a great after school snack.
Add your favourite spread or butter.
Top with jam or try my berry blast!
For even more banana goodness top with mashed or sliced banana.
Store wrapped in kitchen roll or in an airtight container for up to a week.
mmmmm indeed Semra! 🙂 Thank you!
That looks really lovely. I like that it doesn't taste too sweet, and I'm sure that it makes a great snack.
Mmm That sounds wonderful! I've never seen millet flakes though. Is that like a cereal made from millet?
A georgous lovely Gf banana bread,..Another must make,…Ooh yes! Yummmm! ?
Thank you Sophie! I've just sent hubby out for more bananas and porridge oats so I can make another loaf! 🙂 Enjoy!


Shopping centre St Stephen's has announced a range of events and exclusive discounts for Hull shoppers this Easter.
The Ferensway shopping centre has revealed there will be appearances from Hull FC and Hull KR players, as well as free crafts and competitions.
There will also be savings at Rock Up, Reel Cinema, Zizzi, Kerbedge and more.
On April 16, players from Hull FC and Hull KR will be challenging each other to a "climb-off" at Rock Up, the centre's indoor climbing area.
Kicking off at 3.30pm, the players will be trying to win money for their chosen charity – Hull FC Community Foundation or Dove House Hospice – with shoppers invited to watch for free, as well as meet their favourite players and bet on the winning team.
All money raised on the day will be donated to the winning team's chosen charity, along with a £250 donation from St Stephen's.
St Stephen's is also running a competition on its social media pages, giving one shopper the chance to win a pair of tickets to the derby match on Friday, April 19. Find out how to enter here.
Children's toy shop The Entertainer will be hosting a free Lego make-and-take event on the same day.
From 2pm to 4pm on Tuesday, April 16, children are invited to build their own Lego Easter bunny to take home for free.
Later on in the week, on Thursday, April 18, KCFM will be broadcasting live from the chill-out zone at the centre, and will be running a Golden Egg game throughout the day, where shoppers can roll a giant foam dice for the chance to win a prize.
There will also be lots of Easter treats and a crafts table, where kids can decorate foam eggs from 11am to 1pm.
For anyone venturing to the shopping centre on Easter Sunday, parking will be free when people visit the shopping centre's range of food and leisure outlets.
To find out more information, visit the website here .


text:
Verstappen 'took one for the team' in Germany
Max Verstappen Red Bull Germany
Christian Horner hailed the team spirit and co-operation at Red Bull after Max Verstappen said he 'took one for the team' by letting Daniel Ricciardo through while the pair were running third and fourth.
You have to earn that trust as well - I'm quite new still...
At that stage Verstappen was ahead - courtesy of an around-the-outside pass at the start at Turn 1 - but Ricciardo was on softer rubber and had a clear pace advantage. More significantly, Mercedes' Nico Rosberg was only a handful of seconds up the road, and had a looming five-second penalty for his pass on Verstappen at Turn 6.
Verstappen's decision to cede ground to his team mate ultimately helped the team secure second and third - their first double podium since Hungary 2015.
"The way they worked together to ensure both cars got ahead of Rosberg - fantastic," team principal Christian Horner said. "They worked exactly as a team should, in harmony. They did everything you could have expected today."
Verstappen said he had no regrets about allowing his team mate an easy pass, explaining: "I think Daniel and I have a good relationship so we can do that. You have to earn that trust as well, because I'm quite new still.
"For the team it was a very positive day. The most important thing was for us to be in front of Ferrari. That definitely worked today and we were even challenging Mercedes. We kept Nico behind us on fair pace, so that was good."
Horner too was buoyed by Red Bull's pace, saying it bodes well for the second half of the season - which features circuits like Singapore, where Red Bull are traditionally very strong.
"Our pace on this track - where we didn't expect to be so competitive - was really encouraging," Horner added. "We weren't too far off - which is really encouraging for the second half of the year."
F1®ACCESS
Free and simple registration required to view this content
REGISTER OR SIGN IN
Race highlights - Germany 2016


How to Unlock Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0?
15. Your phone is now permanently unlocked!
* The resell value of Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 will increase significantly as it is available to more carriers.
* There is absolutely no risk of damaging your Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 by unlocking it.


Very warm – above 0 degrees F, light snow but very little wind!!!! We could even see the horizon and a few breaks in the clouds.
We set our alarms so we could be drilling by 5:30am. If everything was going smoothly at 9am we were going to call Kangerlussuaq and have the Otter pilots pick us up at the end of the day. We have a lot of gear so they were going to do some shuttling of ice core boxes and then pick us up on their way back. We will have 25 boxes, each holding 6 1meter cores. Each box will weigh about 100 pounds.
As I have explained before as new layers of snow accumulate on top of the existing layers of snow and ice the old ice is covered up. The deeper we drill the older the ice is. As it snows, gases can be locked in the snow. One interesting and confusing part is that the gas can move freely through the snow and ice for many years. What this means is that the age of the ice is different than the age of the gas that is caught in the ice. When it snows, the snow is fluffy and has many pores that gases can move through. Over many years more snow is accumulated on top of the old snow putting more pressure on it and finally closing the pores so gases cannot move through it. Picture little tunnels in the snow and after awhile the pressure on top of the tunnels squeezes them closed. Once this happens the gases that are in the ice are locked inside. For example, the gases in the atmosphere right now could possibly move 50m below the surface and become locked in the ice that is 100's of years old. That is why there is a difference between the age of the ice and the age of the gases that are locked into the ice. Ice cores are the only way to study gases from the past at this time. For scientists this is very important as they make their models for understanding climates and change.
The deeper the ice is, the more pressure is put on the gases in the ice. The fun part for non-scientists is to put this ice into a warm liquid such as soda or water and listen to the ice. The gases that are in the ice want to be relieved of the pressure and make popping sounds as they are released from the ice. This ice is notably called 'party' ice because it is fun to use!! One problem with this ice is that it can be very fragile. Because of the gas pressure in the ice, the ice can 'explode' in situations if it is bumped. If you are picturing an explosion like a bomb you are a little strong, however the ice can shatter into many pieces. We are not drilling deep enough to get ice that has that much pressure but in deep drilling operations, say below 400m, this could happen.
Unfortunately we cannot bring any ice home as it will be studied, however if little pieces have broken off we can put those in warm water and hear them talk!
Even deeper in the ice, the ice takes on a different look. The gases are so pressurized that they are forced into the matrix of the molecules of ice. This makes the ice very clear and very strong as compared to above were the pressure could actually cause the ice to fracture into pieces.


text:
Fair And Unbalanced
http://fairandunbalancedblog.blogspot.com
Wilco Rocks -- And Not Just For Dads
Tags: rock wilco band
I originally wrote this piece on February 1, 2012, after Wilco played a fabulous show at the Warfield in San Francisco. This week they are playing at the Fillmore and I can't wait to see them again.
Dad Rock, my ass. OK, I'll admit that I am over 50 and the father of two, and that when I saw Wilco at the Warfield in San Francisco the other night, I fit comfortably within the demographic most represented -- relatively immobile white men over 40, holding plastic cups of beer and shaking nothing but their heads to the music. So, maybe that's the audience for Wilco these days. But that should not diminish their stature as one of the truly great rock bands or that of their front man, Jeff Tweedy, who is the most compelling singer/songwriters of his generation.
For me, the pantheon of (North) American rock musicians who not only capture the spirit of their time but leave a legacy well beyond it are Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen. If the torch must be passed, I don't think it is that outrageous to think of Tweedy, the 44-year old leader of Wilco, as the one to pick it up. (It is not surprising that along with Billy Bragg, Tweedy (with the rest of Wilco) recorded the brilliant Mermaid Avenue albums based on unreleased material written by Woody Guthrie.)
Jeff Tweedy is an elegant lyricist who crafts deeply effecting, unsparingly honest songs, often about pain and loss, self-doubt and self-destruction, and sings them with his nasally but soulful and quite captivating voice. Part way through the show at the Warfield, he paused to check in with the audience. He somewhat jokingly conceded, "this has been kind of a morbid show so far," and asked, "are you guys okay?" He then added, "we figured if you're here, you probably enjoy being sad -- at least a little bit. I know I do." One reviewer described the show in a way that aptly describes Tweedy's music generally. Rather than morbid, "it felt like a solemn celebration . . . the songs themselves may have expressed misery, but the grace and energy given to them imparted a kind of a buzzing, heartworn elation."
What makes the Dad Rock moniker so misplaced in my view is that Tweedy and Wilco are not merely an easy throw back to those artists and bands of my generation's heyday. While the influences of the Byrds, the Band, Neil Young, John Lennon and others can be heard, there is also a hard driving, progressive sensibility coursing through the music. Some tunes are simple and straightforward, others experimental and complex or, as is often the case, a combination as one critic described of "elaborate constructs surrounding their simple melodies."
Tweedy has evolved from when he practically co-invented the genre of alt-country rock in the late 1980s-early 1990s with the band Uncle Tupelo. Wilco's albums over the years have taken very welcome if "unexpected detours" into psychedelia, power pop, soul, R&B and electronica. Or, as David Dye put it, Wilco has alternated between folk-tinged alt-country and experimental pop, surprising fans and critics with its sonic inventiveness along the way," and in the process "made some of the finest albums of the '90s and '00s, while establishing itself as a virtually peerless live band."
Another reviewer explained that "Wilco's great strength lies not just in Jeff Tweedy's world-weary inscrutability, but the ways he and the band matched those stark, sometimes startling sentiments to expectation-defying deconstructions of Americana."
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is now ten years old, but it remains for me one of the greatest Rock 'n Roll albums of all time. As the notoriously stingy Pitchfork beams: "Complex and dangerously catchy, lyrically sophisticated and provocative, noisy and somehow serene" it is "simply a masterpiece."
Wilco is known as a great band to see live, a reputation cemented by their release in 2005 of Kicking Television: Live in Chicago, "a recording that doesn't merely retread a band's back catalog, but puts their songs in a new perspective, and in this case these performances reveal that one great band has actually been getting better."
The concert at the Warfield did not disappoint. It included several songs from their fine new album, A Whole Love, as well as compelling renditions of some of the band's impressive catalog, including I Must Be High and Shouldn't Be Ashamed (from A.M.); Sunken Treasure, Misunderstood and Forget the Flowers (from Being There); Shot In The Arm (from Summerteeth); Ashes of American Flags, Heavy Metal Drummer (from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot); At Least That's What You Said, Handshake Drugs (from Ghost Is Born), and Impossible Germany (from Sky Blue Sky).
As I waited eagerly for each gem, I was struck by how many more great songs there are in the Wilco oeuvre. Personal favorites not covered on this night included How To Fight Loneliness, She's A Jar, Via Chicago, Jesus Etc, Poor Places, Pot Kettle Black . . . . I could go On and On and On. (Click on the "Wilco" tag below for a sampling.)
Given how Wilco changes up the set list for each show, I was tempted to go see them again at the Fox Theater in Oakland, where they played last night. But two shows in one week for a 50+ year old family man would be pushing it.
Dad Rock? Here's what Tweedy himself had to say about Dad Rock:
I recently had a revelation about it: When people say dad rock, they actually just mean rock. There are a lot of things today that don't have anything to do with rock music, so when people hear something that makes them think, "This is derived from some sort of continuation of the rock ethos," it gets labeled dad rock. And, to me, those people are misguided. I don't find anything undignified about being a dad or being rocking, you know?
Indeed, I do.
This post first appeared on Fair And Unbalanced, please read the originial post: here
Where To Stay In Barcelona 2020 [The Backpackers Hostel Guide]
Coach Depression sent in the play, why can't I execute it?
Halloween Festivities
Sixth Annual CoinAgenda Global Adds Industry Titans and Enterprise Leaders to Speaker Lineup
6 Health-Boosting Superfoods You Should Start Eating Now
American Tourister Moonlight Luggage Review
Islamic Art and Islamic Carpets
Waterfall and birds chirping sounds
Markets gaping down a bit, USMCA, Gun Control and the Raiders, My thoughts
What Is So Unique With The Baby Boomer Generation?
Subscribe to Fair And Unbalanced


text:
Rethinking the frontline services of brands
Brands are quick to identify customer experience as an area of critical success for them. Yet too often those responsible for frontline service delivery lack the authority or the experience to fully act in the interests of those customers.
How to effectively manage under-performing brands
Smart brand managers actively manage their brand portfolios for maximum collective and individual brand return. If you've recently re-assessed your brand portfolio and identified what appear to be one or a number of under-performers, there are a range of options you can pursue to fix that situation.
Should your brand sponsor a big event?
Some events, like the Olympics, Formula One and the FIFA World Cup, attract huge audiences. If you're a smaller brand looking to change how you are perceived, is it a responsible action to bet everything you have on being a brand sponsor?
What's the half life of a digitally-built brand?
There's some evidence to suggest that brands globally can expect to have shorter and shorter half lives. But do the same dynamics apply to digitally-based brands that have applied to the brands that were built "physically" in the past?
Brand strategy vs creative strategy
Often, when people in agencies talk about brand strategy, what they are meaning is the thinking that has led to the work they have been doing on the brand. That's not brand strategy, it's creative strategy. Both are important – but they are not the same.
Has the search for purpose got in the way of selling?
Coke's new campaign direction feels like a push back towards product-focused advertising. The decision to move away from the more abstract concept of happiness towards a campaign that focuses much more specifically on the taste and the bottle begs the question: are marketers trying to be too clever? With all the focus on searching for purpose, have we forgotten that we're here to sell?
10 things that break brands (and how to fix them)
There's a lot of things that brands keep doing that can turn their value south. By way of a checklist, these are the things I see happening far too often.


TERMS: Prepayment by PayPal, check, money order, debit or credit card.
Secure on-line Credit Card order processing is provided by PayPal. When our patron clicks Add to Cart button, he is transferred from our server to secure PayPal server, where all transactions take place. PayPal secure server software encrypts all of the information that you provide, including your credit card number, name and address. Orders are processed by PayPal, who verifies the credit card information and approves the order within minutes. We receive the approval message with the list of items ordered. To maintain high quality of services, our policy prohibits from taking our customer credit card information over the phone. We do believe that it is more safe to place it through PayPal secure server.
CHECK OR MONEY ORDER: List the products you wish to order by product name, size and price. Include shipping cost: $ 5.00 for continental USA, $12.00 for Canada. Please include 7% sales tax for orders from North Carolina. Mail ordering information with payment to Floraleads GR, PO Box 5546, CARY, NC 27512. Please include the name and street address with your order. We will confirm the order and shipment date by e-mail, if e-mail address is provided with the order. If you want us to confirm the shipment date by phone, please indicate. There is a 10% discount on all orders paid by check at $ 50.00 or more (before shipping charges).
SALES TAX Sales tax is required for orders from North Carolina and will be charged at check out. No sales tax is required for orders from other states.
BULK ORDERS: Contact us for prices on bulk orders.
WARRANTY All products manufactured and distributed by Floraleads GR are guaranteed to be 100% natural and contain no artificial ingredients or synthetic additives, unless specified otherwise. All reagents used are of pharmaceutical grade or higher, all herb, berries and roots are raw and unprocessed.
RETURNED ORDERS AND HANDLING FEE. Shipping cost of returned orders is not refundable. Handling fee is applied only to returned orders. There is a handling fee of $ 2.90 on domestic orders returned due to incorrect address or other reasons. There is a handling fee of $ 9.90 on international orders returned due to incorrect address falure to pick up or other reasons. No handling fee is charged if order was returned due to our mistake.
OUR REFUND POLICY If you are not happy with the product you receive from us for any reason, we will issue a full refund, less actual shipping cost (the cost we paid to ship the order) and handling fee, upon receipt of the unopened product in the original package shipped back to us pre-paid within 30 days of the shipping date.
International orders are shipped via insured registered USPS air mail. Shipping cost is in indicated at check out. If shipping via UPS or FedEx is preferable, visit UPS or FedEx web sites and calculate the cost of shipping to your location from Cary, NC (index 27512), assuming reasonable weight and size of the parcel (minimum 1 lb, 6x6x6). Add $ 1.00 for additioanal handling/shipping (below) to the shopping cart. Multiply it in the cart to obtain the amount, which, when combined with regular shipping fees, will give the cost of UPS or FedEx shipping. Please indicate the preferable carrier in the comments to the order. Alternatively, e-mail us and we will respond with shipping cost. Please note, we reserve the right to cancel the order if shipping fee will be lower than actual shipping cost.


Now that Christmas and New Year are out of the way and the decorations have all been stored, we now move on to planning for our upcoming trip to The Exumas, in the Bahamas. We will share some of this planning with you as we go along. First Sian will share what she is up to with the provisioning for Sonas.
So, you don't often hear from me on this blog but as I outfit the galley for our first extended cruise I thought, novice that I am, some of those adventures might at least make you smile.
We plan to cruise for three months, and while we are not headed for the back of beyond, we are going somewhere we have never been, with little idea of what grocery options are available. Checking TripAdvisor there are only seventeen restaurants featured across the chain of over 300 islands, which sounds like a lot of home cooking!
So, what kind of cook am I? Basic, definitely. No frills and someone who does not want to spend too much time cooking while missing beautiful tropical beaches. And yet….. I do get pleasure from turning out a yummy meal on board, and that is the dilemma. Planning food for three months is quite overwhelming as it rattles around in my head, so the only thing to do is start. Reading some books and getting good tips on food storage (like bay leaves in flour to avoid weevils, who knew?) and talking to cruisers who have gone before me, I start making lists. And then make lists of the lists!
Then I remind myself that some folks do this without the luxury of the space and equipment that our home away from home offers. First up we have a full size fridge freezer so no worries about storing meat, frozen veggies and fruit. So stop over-thinking this and get back to the list! Google is becoming my best resource; " Google, can you freeze celery?'" The answer is yes. " Google, how long can you store spaghetti squash?" Four weeks if you are interested. "Google do you have one hundred and one ideas for one pot meals?" Certainly!
Secondly we do have a lot of storage space, although I have never heard a boater say they have too much space! I can fit in the slow cooker and the bread maker. Martha Stewart here I come! Keeping ingredients dry seems to present challenges so storage bags and plastic totes abound. Cardboard attracts bugs so everything that comes cloaked in cardboard needs to be removed and stored another way. Soda cans are going in 7" high totes, wine bottles inside socks in plastic milk crates.
Totes, just the right size for soda and beer cans!
Plastic crates for the larger bottles – think wine!
It would be wonderful to think all this planning will result in no spills or infestations but realistically that has to be prepared for too. Advice from the experts? Deal with the mishaps as soon as you see them, the only thing assured is they will not improve with time!
That brings me to the next point .Every time I get too fancy Paul brings me back with the KISS principle (Keep It Simple Stupid) and much as it pains me to say so, he is right. No one on a boat has ever said "I don't want that", when presented with a meal, every one scarfs down everything on offer and licks the plate if no one is looking! A day's boating always leads to a good appetite!
A food inventory sheet is a great idea. I chose to detail what is on board, quantity, location. Dates for rotation were not so important as I hope to come back with very little left over in the way of cans and frozen food. Fresh food rotation will be pretty much when and where we can find it, I hope often!
We have also bought backpacks so we can carry food back from the store to Sonas on the bicycles more easily, and a cold bag for the stuff that needs to stay cool.
I will keep you posted, more later!
Although I'm sure you have thought of it, canned veggies, soups,stews etc are always a good staple. Crossing the "big pond" we always had a very large stock of the regular stuff in canned form. Don't sweat it, if you don't have it,you are not eating it.
This is fantastic Sian! I hope you will post your inventory list for us to see. Your blogs will help you plan for your next trip!!! What an adventure!!!!
Unpack anything in boxes before you bring it on board.
As soon as you open things like chips, crackers, pasta, etc. transfer them to ziplock bags or air tight storage containers.
Get and use a vacuum sealer.
There are a couple good markets on Staniel Cay and of course in Georgetown. Find out what day the mail boats comes to get the best chance of getting the freshest stuff and most variety.
Reserve the majority of your freezer space for meats you buy before you leave.
Vacuum bag your meats before hand.
Personally I wouldn't waste freezer space on celery.
did Paul pay you to nix celery? Seems likely!
Yes. And big money to.
Nice trip. Done it a couple times.
Chuck, we are leaving at the end of February and taking a week to get their via Palm Coast, Titusville, Vero Beach, Palm Beach, Lucaya, Nassau, then Exumas.
Your freezer space will fill up faster than you anticipate. I used to buy 3 pound Hormel Black Label bacon at Sams and vacuum seal it in smaller portions. Repackage anything you can in meal size portions. Frozen chickens are always appreciated as tips by islanders. If you are a diet Coke fan forget it – for some reason the Coke will eat thru the cans in a couple of weeks, especially if stored in a warm place. Regular Coke is OK.
If you have space, a small (7 foot or so) chest freezer will be very handy. Put the ice cream on the bottom to protect it best… It will stay fine for hours at a time – ours would last for 7 or more hours without electrical power – as long as you do not open it frequently.
At the end of your cruise I am sure the local folks will appreciate any leftover provisions you do not want to haul home. A freezer can usually be sold to a local for whatever you paid for it as they can be very expensive to purchase in the islands.
I would make up a menu to be repeated several times which made shopping easier. Take plenty of wasabi and soy sauce in case you encounter tuna fishermen… Locally baked breads are great!
A good first aid kit is necessary, including immodium and antibiotics for the bad times. Perhaps some butterfly bandages for wounds.
Have a great trip. I envy you!


Our white infrared panel heaters provide energy efficient, discreet heating and are highly versatile. They can be installed on walls or ceilings and are ideal bedrooms and living areas. Also suitable for commercial heating installations.
We offer frameless white panels from our premium Inspire range and our high performance Select XL range range.
Panels from our popular Select range have a white frame.


> drug addicts, because what do they know.
OK, I just did but I could elaborate highly. But first can I dump on the list?
consider a booster dose of Ibo from time to time, to "clean out the tubes".
feel. couldn't write, couldn't create, couldn't surf, couldn't barely talk.
Really didn't want to go to a meeting so I just rode the fucker out.


Patient care is being compromised due to shortages of nurses and support staff, according to RCN members across the South East of England.
A survey of more than 30,000 nursing staff across the UK - including 3,867 in the South East region - asked about staffing levels on their most recent shift and the quality of care provided.
57% of respondents in the South East region (Buckinghamshire, Milton Keynes, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex, Kent and the Channel Islands) reported that there was a shortfall of one or more registered nurses on their last shift.
And 41% of respondents in the region reported that there was a shortfall of one or more health care support workers on their last shift.
More than half of South East region respondents (52%) felt that patient care was compromised on their last shift. The most common reasons given for compromised care were not having enough nurses or health care support workers, as well as having an increased number of patients who required a greater intensity of nursing care.
"These figures need to act as a stark warning to Ministers. They need to wake up and take action. Whatever the rhetoric about 'more nurses in the system' it is clear from this survey that there simply aren't enough registered nurses in our hospitals.
"This is because year on year the investment hasn't been there and there have been poor choices in long term planning. This won't come as a shock to any nurse, they have been saying this for years, but enough is enough.
The RCN is calling on the boards of health and social care providers across the UK to urgently review nurse staffing levels, give public assurances on patient safety and take action where standards are not met.
Nationally almost half of all respondents (44 per cent) said no action was taken when they raised concerns about staffing levels.
Nursing staff rated the quality of care more highly when there are fewer patients for every one registered nurse, which supports recent research by Dr Jane Ball. The work, released last month, found a link between the number of registered nurses, patient care duties left undone and mortality levels.
The report also states that short-sighted measures designed to cut costs led to unregistered nursing staff making up a greater proportion of the staff on duty. The proportion of registered nurses on adult general wards has fallen to 48 per cent this year, from 62 per cent in 2009.
The RCN is calling on providers of health and care services to urgently provide assurance to their boards that they are providing safe services. In addition, the Royal College of Nursing is calling for new legislation across the UK that guarantees safe and effective nurse staffing. It would give clear accountability and responsibility for workforce strategy, policy and planning and must lie at ministerial level.
The College repeated its call for increased funding for health and care services to meet the patient demand.