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Austerity Economics Don't Add Up
This is UNISON Scotland's latest report on the impact austerity economics is having on our public services and the staff who deliver them.
This info graphic outlines some the problems
Dave Watson has put the report in the context of Challenge Poverty Week in this article on the leading Blog, Left Foot Forward.
Labels: Economy
Blog Action Day - Inequality
Today is Blog Action Day and the subject for this year is inequality. Very appropriate here in Scotland as this is Challenge Poverty Week and I make no apology for returning to this issue.
Yesterday, the STUC 'Decent Work, Dignified Lives' conference had a real focus on inequality with some excellent contributions that will be available on line.
Professor David Bell and David Eiser from Stirling University gave a very clear analysis of inequality in Scotland. They argued that the trickle down economics of the Thatcher era have been successfully challenged in books like 'The Spirit Level' and the more recent work by the French economist Thomas Picketty.
There is growing wider acceptance of the damage inequality does from contributors as diverse as the ILO, The Pope, Mark Carney and the World Bank. Even the IMF now accept that redistribution doesn't have a negative impact on growth.
The determinants of inequality are even better understood. Technological change and globalisation have changed trade, corporate power and deregulated labour markets. Taxation and benefits can have intended consequences towards redistribution, but regulation can have negative unintended consequences. For example, the price of utilities has been driven up by privatisation and regulation and that has a bigger impact on the poor because essentials constitute a larger part of their income.
The consequences are that as inequality rises the level of social mobility declines. In particular, there is less mobility between generations because wealth and other advantages are simply passed on to children.
Income inequality in Scotland is similar to the rest of the UK when you take London out of the equation. While still high in the league table of inequality compared to other EU countries, our level of tax redistribution is about average. It's income before tax that pushes the UK up the league.
So what should the policy responses be?
The obvious startIng point is tax and benefits. The problem is that relatively small changes have a limited impact on equality. As highlighted above, it's income before tax that is a feature of inequality in the UK. The main impact of the benefit system is to subsidise poor employers, while tax cuts for the rich has just encouraged fat cat bosses to lobby for higher wages.
The next area is labour regulation. The minimum wage does reduce inequality, primarily by improving wages at the very bottom, although it has not maintained differentials throughout the pay scales. Action on insecure employment would help, particularly access to employment justice and ending zero hours contracts. However, it is only through support for sectoral collective bargaining that we will make big strides forward in tackling inequality. Maximum wage or ratios are are also important as this week's IDS study shows - directors pay has grown from 40 times average earnings to 120 times since 2000.
The third solution gets less attention - public services 'In kind' spending. As the OECD has highlighted, income inequality in the UK is mitigated by public spending. Preventative spending on health and education, particularly for the under three's, could have a major impact - tackling intergenerational Inequality. Government action can, albeit unintentionally, also exacerbate inequality. A good example of this is government driving down the cost of social care through lower wages and insecure working conditions for care workers. Public sector buying power should instead be used to positively address inequality.
We cannot say often enough that a more equal society benefits everyone. A radical change of direction is required using a range of policy interventions. Progressive taxation, labour regulation and stronger public services would be a good start.
Labels: equality
Challenging poverty
This is Challenge Poverty Week in Scotland. There will be a series of events culminating in a march and rally In Glasgow on Saturday.
The week started with the Poverty Alliance conference today. I was contributing to the final session and my focus was on the importance of reframing the narrative in the debate around poverty.
For Cameron, it is all about the 'strivers, not the skivers'. This is the strategy and language of despots and the far right for centuries. Find a minority to blame to distract the majority from the real problems in our society. A problem you could do something about, but choose instead to defend the vested interests of your class.
We need to reframe the narrative in opposition to welfare cuts and the political myth making that unfairly blames poverty on those struggling. The percentage of households below a minimum standard of living has doubled over the last 30 years.
We can start by pointing out that more than half of those forced to claim benefits are the very 'strivers' that Cameron claims to represent. 52% of working age adults in poverty were living in households where at least one adult was in employment, as were 59% of children in poverty.
This has happened because the economy has seen a big shift from wages to profits. You have to go back to the 1860's for a pay squeeze as long as this one. If the wage bill had just kept up with inflation there would be £5bn more spending power in the Scottish economy.
As we highlight in a UNISON Scotland report published today on wages, workers are struggling to meet even basic bills. Since 2007 the average rent for a Council House has increased by 26% and in the same time the wages of a Council Worker has increased by 8.3%. In today's report we give a voice to many of our members who describe in their own words how they are struggling to make ends meet.
Families have been plugging the gap by using savings or getting into debt. 30% of families say they have less than £500 put away, compared with just 14% in 2013. A deeply indebted economy may be a political strategy to get Cameron to the next General Election, but there will be a serious hangover after it.
Even among those suffering, the pain is not evenly spread. Women in low pay have a pay gap of 34.2% and young workers classed as low paid has more than tripled over the past four decades.
Of course there is a minority that Cameron is not blaming – the 1% who are doing very nicely thank you.
The wealth of the richest 1,000 people in Britain doubled to £519 billion since 2009, about two and a half times the annual deficit. Today's IDS study of FTSE 100 Directors shows that they had a 21% pay rise last year and now earn 120 times the average full time worker. In 2000 that ratio was 40 times. NHS workers in England are striking today, just get the Government to pay their own measly 1% pay policy.
And this isn't just about Russian oligarchs buying up mansions in Knightsbridge. It's here in Scotland. An Edinburgh fund manager reported recently that 7 directors earned an average of £2.5m each and settled a post retirement benefit on a former director of £31m.
There are some positive signs that we are not the only people who recognise the need to reframe the debate. The Pope, Governor of the Bank of England, even the CBI have said something about low wages and the damage it is doing to our economy. We may not get the bankers to even read The Spirit Level, but even they can see that they can't hide behind electric fences all the time. They can pay to get their bins uplifted, but their neighbours rats will still get under the fence.
So, lets build on that growing awareness to build a broad coalition around a new narrative and some practical solutions. By all means let's engage with the Smith Commission to strengthen devolution, but then focus on what we can achieve at UK, Scottish and local levels. At today's conference there was a really useful discussion about how we can harness the energy of the referendum debate to deliver social justice.
My frustration with the current political debate is that we need a little less rhetoric, telling people what they want to hear, and more action. For example, everyone agrees that the living wage can be expanded through procurement, but months after the Act was passed we haven't even begun to draft the statutory guidance. Meanwhile officials come up with every excuse for not taking action.
The best engagement events during the referendum campaign were not the 'shouty' hustings, but rather the genuine conversations. Educate and agitate is an old trade union adage, but if you explain the issues to people, they are much more willing to consider and come up with different and challenging solutions.
A different narrative in the debate around poverty is possible. We can win the arguments, persuade a majority that a more equal society is better for everyone, not just the poor. I am less interested in the 45 or the 55, than getting the 99%, who would benefit on our side. If we can do that we have a movement that really can create a just Scotland.
Labels: Low pay, Poverty
Draft Scottish Budget 2015/16
A quick look at the draft Scottish budget indicates few surprises. Yet again public sector workers take the biggest hit through their pay packets, followed by councils and police staffs.
While the headlines in the budget are around the fiscally neutral new taxes, it is the budget allocations that matter more to UNISON members. We should also remember that these are Scottish Government allocations. Public bodies will have other spending commitments to meet when they come to set their individual budgets.
Over five years the Scottish budget has been cut by around 10% in real terms with the Capital budget facing a real terms cut of 26% as a result of the UK Government's austerity programme. For the coming year this means a 1.7% real terms cut in the budget.
The main method of meeting this budget reduction in Scotland is by a further cut in the real wages of public service workers. The new Scottish Government pay policy caps basic pay at one per cent for those staff earning above £21,000. That's 1.4% below the rate of inflation (RPI 2.4%) and of course comes on top of years of pay cuts. There is a continued commitment to paying the Scottish Living Wage and guaranteeing a minimum increase of £300 for staff earning less than £21,000.
Other headlines of interest to UNISON members include:
· A real term increase in the NHS budget of £80m. It remains to be seen if that will cover the increased demands on health boards, highlighted in recent leaked reports.
· The local government revenue grant is cut in real terms, with the exception of additional funding previously announced for free school meals. Extra revenue is anticipated from non-domestic rates and some additional capital leaving an overall standstill budget. The Council Tax freeze continues for the eighth year with no increase in funding. Local government remains the only major spending portfolio to have a cash cut since the financial crash.
· An extra £125m for housing that should underpin the building of 4000 new social homes.
· The spending to ameliorate the impact of UK government welfare cuts remains at £81m, including £35m on the Bedroom Tax.
· Police budgets are cut in line with the planned 'reform' savings of £130m. Police numbers are maintained at the continued expense of civilian staff. Best value principles are ignored.
· There is a slight increase in college spending and HE remains unchanged.
· An additional £16.6 million to take forward recommendations of the Commission for Developing Scotland's Young Workforce.
· Scottish Water's interest repayments put another £100m back into the Scottish budget
The increase in infrastructure investment will primarily be funded through a growth in PPP schemes. £2.5bn of these projects are now in the pipeline.
Overall there is little in the budget that was unexpected. Pay, local government and police take the biggest hit in the choices the Scottish Government has made in implementing the UK government's ideological attack on public services.
Labels: Finance
Who do tax cuts really help?
The headlines from the Tory friendly papers, after their conference, would have us all believe that their tax cutting proposals will help the lowest paid and the squeezed middle but let's face it, as ever they will benefit the rich most. This works in two ways: they will save more in tax and the direct costs of replacing public services with private provision are much more affordable for them. For the rest of us public delivery of services is much more affordable and efficient.
The New Economics Foundation published a great analysis of why the Tories' plans benefit the rich: Those earning £10,500 or less will gain nothing from these changes. These workers (17% of the workforce) alreay pay no income tax. "Moving the top rate threshold is more obviously regressive. Anyone earning over £41,900 a year is already in approximately the top 15% of the population. At £50,000 a year or above, they will be in the top tenth of society. The median (middle) income in the UK is £27,000 a year."
Because of this, changing the higher rate threshold overwhelmingly benefits the wealthiest section of society. The top 5% will gain well over £2,000 a year from the changes, while the effect across the rest of society will be minimal – people simply do not earn enough." Analysis by the IFS earlier this year suggests that 69% of the money given away would go to workers in the top half of the income distribution. Just 15% would go to workers in the bottom half.
It's worse than that though: the majority of us who use public services will suffer as they are cut as a result of these giveaways to the rich. Charges will (and are) go up for services delivered by the public sector costing us more or leaving some to do without. Other services will be cut leaving us to do without or buy from the private sector.
John Weeks, Professor Emeritus at SOAS, University of London, writing in the Conversation this week shows How Cameron's tax giveaway will end up costing you more. Private delivery of health education and pensions for example is much more efficient than in the private sector. Look at the US health systems it costs a fortune but the US has higher infant mortality than all but two EU countries (Bulgaria and Romania) and life expectancy almost three years lower than the UK. Getting your bins emptied by a private bin contactor would cost more than your council tax.
Tax giveaways make seem attractive but they cost you in the end.
Scotland's housing crisis - listen to the workers
Scotland's housing crisis needs urgent action and the staff who deliver the service agree.
UNISON Scotland has published a survey of Scotland's housing staff today. It has exposed the reality of frontline staff trying to cope with the huge scale of Scotland's housing crisis. 'Open the door: housing staff on the homes we have and the homes we need' – looks at the real experiences of members involved in all aspects of providing housing services: housing officers, housing assistants and lettings officers.
The majority of those surveyed (68 per cent) said funding for their service had gone down, negatively impacting on the quality of service they can provide. Three quarters of respondents said changes in welfare and benefit legislation has contributed to the problem. At its bluntest, welfare changes have made life more difficult for tenants and this in turn has created problems for housing staff.
While numbers matter, the best part of these surveys for me is the comments from staff. They tell real members stories in their own words. Here are a few examples from this survey:
"I work with homeless people. The pressure is increasing relentlessly. Demand is increasing as resources dwindle."
"[Benefit changes] have impacted massively and it will only get worse. Rent arrears have risen and you cannot take what people don't have."
"Due to bedroom tax and direct payments of housing benefit to tenants we are seeing an increase in rent arrears and homeless rising due to more evictions."
"How is it possible for them to provide for the future of their housing with less staff and more homelessness. It's not possible."
More than half of respondents (55 per cent) said they regularly work over their contracted hours while 58 per cent said staff numbers are in decline, meaning they don't have as much time to spend with clients. Like other workers in public services, housing staff have been experiencing years of zero or minimal pay. Almost 70 per cent of workers said their standard of living had dropped in the previous three or four years, with many struggling to make ends meet.
For those who like the numbers, they paint an equally depressing picture. Scotland has 179,954 households with outstanding applications for social housing; of these some 29,500 are households on transfer lists meaning 150,000 households are waiting to enter social housing. The response to this in terms of house building is woefully inadequate. Only 10,686 dwellings were built between March 2013-14 by the private sector, 2,911 dwellings built by housing associations and 974 dwellings built by local authorities.
Allied to this are issues around the quality of housing. 349,000 homes in Scotland are affected by dampness or condensation. 647,000 households are in fuel poverty in Scotland. A total of 54 per cent of Scotland's social housing currently falls beneath the Scottish Housing Quality Standard. 65,000 households are overcrowded in Scotland.
UNISON hasn't just outlined the inadequacy of current approaches. In our paper 'Making Homes for a Fairer Scotland' we outlined a new housing programme for Scotland. Equally importantly, we also showed how this could be funded, using some of the assets represented by public sector pension funds in our publication, 'Funding and Building the Homes Scotland Needs'. This would put these funds to a socially (and literally) constructive use in building a fairer Scotland. Alex Rowley MSP helpfully highlighted this plan in the recent debate on housing in the Scottish Parliament.
We also need to devolve Housing Benefit. Responsibility for housing policy without the main benefit makes no sense. This appears to have welcome cross party support, so should be one of the easier issues for Lord Smith's commission to agree on. We need to do this quickly before Universal Credit is rolled out in Scotland and the experienced council staff transfer or leave the service.
We have a crisis with the availability, the cost and the quality of our housing and we urgently need large scale investment to reverse Scotland's housing crisis. Any plan for social justice in Scotland has to put housing at its core.
Labels: Housing
Big challenges for care integration
Health and care workers support integration, but fear it won't deliver due to lack of resources
That's the main message from a UNISON Scotland survey of workers in health and social care who will have to deliver the planned integration of health and care services in Scotland. The report shows that while many staff believe care integration provides an opportunity to improve services, but the impact of budget cuts mean services will get worse
Only 6% of workers involved expect conditions to improve in the next year. 68% believe the situation will get worse. 63% felt that their professionalism is or has been compromised by budget and resource limitations.
The report also includes many verbatim quotes from the workers in the front line. These paint a picture of services which are struggling to deliver.
"Clients are being restricted in activities because of funding as many other services are being withdrawn and a lot have been closed due to local government funding cut backs. This has an effect on family carers a lot of whom are elderly and can receive no respite from their home caring role.'
Staff are generally supportive of integration as an idea and can see advantages in closer working, but fear that a top down managerial model of change will make improvements more difficult
"I'm positive about working with practitioners, negative about being subject to another layer of managerial agendas."
The report builds on UNISON Scotland's 'It's Time to Care' report which also outlined how tight resources are in Scotland's residential and home care services.
A further indication of the pressures on staff comes in the latest SSSC workforce data. One in thirteen people in paid employment in Scotland now work in social work. However, the size of the workforce appears to have fallen for the third year in a row, from 192,360 in 2012, a drop of 1.4%, to 189,670 in 2013.
The private sector continues to increase its share of the labour market, employing 41% of people working in social services in Scotland. The public sector employs 32% and the voluntary sector employs 27%. This chart gives a breakdown by local authority area:
The largest types of social services are housing support/care at home, care homes for adults and day care of children; together, these account for almost 76% of the workforce. Housing support/care at home services saw the largest drop in the actual number of staff employed, from 64,290 to 61,350.
Around 79% of the workforce is employed on permanent contracts, which is the same as in 2013. Most are also full-time positions, though at least 10% of the employment appears to be on zero hours contracts or equivalent. As we know from the 'Time to Care' report this can have serious consequences for care standards.
I'll leave the last word to the staff who deliver care.
"Lack of local authority care is resulting in delayed discharges within hospital wards which is placing greater strain on the NHS system. Sometimes packages of care are agreed and discharge is arranged but then there is physically not anyone to actually deliver the care"
Labels: care integration


Tianyi Li was born in China and moved to England with her family when she was very young. In 2014, Tianyi's talent was spotted by Istituto Marangoni at the London Graduate Fashion Week . Her graduate collection "VIVA LA VIDA" earned her a full scholarship to attend a master's course in fashion womenwear at Istituto Marangoni London, which allowed her to develop her design skills.
The collection she presented at the end of her master's degree "Labyrinth" was selected for the Istituto Marangoni 80th Anniversary show, held in Milan in 2015. This enriching experience encouraged Tianyi to continue her career in fashion. During her master's degree at Istituto Marangoni, Tianyi was able to work on projects with brands like Fyodor Golan, Vivienne Westwood and Laura Biagiotti. She was also an intern at Giles Deacon and Alexander McQueen during her studies. After graduation, Tianyi Li worked as a design assistant for Ethologie and Ellis Bridals, a renowned bridal company .
This year, Tianyi participated in the selection of the designer of the second edition of I'M Alumni Collections ®Evolution, a unique mentoring project aimed at supporting the talent of alumni. She sent a proposal for the S/S19 collection, and her avant-garde signature and technical skills made her the winner. Tianyi will present her first official "LIGHT & SPACE" collection in September 2018, during Milan Fashion Week.
Exploring the concept of light, space & movement.
Experimenting with unusual cuts, slashed surfaces & raw pleats. Drawing inspiration from the italian artist Lucio Fontana & contemporary paper folding engineers Richard Sweeney & Matthew Shlian.
This collection examines folding & pleating techniques to create unique surface textures. Deconstructed tailored jackets & voluminous baby doll silhouettes were fused with hues of ivories, oysters & fresh pastel tones. Surfaces are layered with chantilly lace and embellished with beads, sequins and pearls.


The 12th edition of the Fgura United FC Pre-Season Tournament kicked off this afternoon with hot favourites and second division side Senglea Athletics registering a 2-1 win over hosts Fgura United FC.
It was an interesting encounter with Fgura giving a good account of themselves succumbing to two soft goals conceded in each half. Both teams had key players missing but still the match served its purpose as coaches Faure and Degabriele respectively had another opportunity to assess the material in their folds.
Senglea took an early lead when just after four minutes lethal Timmy Thomas pounced on a ball which young keeper Bianco failed to hold to tap in an empty goal. Fgura did not loose heart and shared the spoils with Nazzareno Abela missing a good opportunity and a dipper from Rodney Galea in one of his many forays down the right flank, hitting the crossbar.
Despite the heat, the game was played in a fast tempo, especially in the first hour or so. Senglea doubled the score when Alan Spiteri made the most of a defensive error. The second goal killed any hope of a Fgura comeback, however the boys in red managed to find the net five minutes from time thanks to the "ex" Nazzareno Abela who dribbled past two defenders and shot past Elvin Attard in the roof of the net. Athletic held tight to their slim lead to bag the first three points of the tournament.
The match was controlled by promising referee Trustin Farrugia Cann who showed one yellow card to Fgura's Carl Calvagna guilty of a late tackle on an opponent.
In the other match between two third division sides Sta. Venera Lightnings and Marsa ended all square in a1-1 draw. Both teams had their moments with Sta. Venera showing the best ideas in the initial stages but Marsa finding their feet and rhythm as the match progressed. After a goaless first half Marsa took the lead after five minutes of the restart with a well placed shot by young Yousif Abduah, who was a continuous threat to the Lightnings defence, albeit faling in an offside position in numerous occassions. Sta. Venera L drew level on the 77th minute froma penalty kick converted by veteran and skipper Stefan Farrugia who together with Jeffrey Zammit mastered the nevralgic area in the middle of the pitch. Marsa's keeper Keith Brincat had a good match in goal, with some well timed saves. The match was well controlled by referee Philip Farrugia showing no cards in the process.


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Notes Playlist
All of the Stars
(148 fans)
Edward Christopher "Ed" Sheeran (born 17 February 1991) is an English singer-songwriter and producer. He was born in Halifax, before moving to Framlingham. He learned to play guitar and started writing songs at a young age. He began recording in 2005 and moved to London in 2008 to pursue a music career. In 2009, he played 312 gigs. In early 2011, Sheeran released an independent extended play, No. 5 Collaborations Project which led him to be signed to Asylum / Atlantic Records. Buoyed by the commercial breakthrough of the singles "The A Team" and "Lego House", his debut album + has been certified quintuple platinum in the United Kingdom. In 2012, he won two BRIT Awards for Best British Male Solo Artist, and British Breakthrough of… more »
1 The Fault In Our Stars 2014
"All of the Stars Movies." Lyrics.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2023. Web. 2 Feb. 2023. <https://www.lyrics.com/movies/32347460/Ed+Sheeran>.
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In a song from the 80's, by the legendary Blue Oyster Cult...."Oh no! They say he's got to go, go. Go ....."
A. Oh no, no , no!
B. ...and kill again!
C. ...Godzilla!
D. ...and get back to where he was before!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Automakers reach emissions deal with California, in rebuff to Trump
Four major automakers on Thursday announced they had reached a deal with California to produce more fuel-efficient cars for the US market, an end run around the Trump administration which is seeking to freeze mileage standards.
California negotiated the agreement with Ford, Honda, Volkswagen and BMW in secret, and said it provided a 50-state solution that would avoid a patchwork of regulations from arising across the country.
Last year, President Donald Trump's administration proposed a rule to axe tougher mileage and greenhouse gas emissions requirements for light-duty cars enacted by his predecessor Barack Obama.
But California, which exercises considerable clout in the auto industry as the country's wealthiest state, announced its intention to set its own regulations.
"These terms will provide regulatory stability, preserve vehicle affordability for customers, reduce compliance costs and result in increased environmental benefits," the manufacturers said in a statement.
The agreement envisages reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 3.7 percent each year from 2022 through 2026.
According to The Washington Post, by 2026, new models would meet a standard of 50 miles per gallon (4.7 liters per 100 kilometers), against the 37 mpg current level -- just one year later than the target set under the Obama administration.
"This is an important breakthrough that will ensure the United States continues to make progress in addressing what is now our largest source of global warming pollution," said Dan Lashof, US director of the World Resources Institute.
"It demonstrates beyond any doubt the recklessness of the Trump administration's efforts to push the nation backwards on climate, regardless of how it harms families or businesses.
"The standards agreed to will save consumers money at the pump, cut air pollution and enable American automakers to better compete in a global market that is gravitating towards less polluting, more efficient vehicles."


District Mission Statement: The BKW CSD will provide an environment that fosters the creative, emotional, intellectual, and physical well-being of each student in order to enable a mastery of the curriculum and a life-long learning capability to meet the challenges of the future.
The Board of Education ("Board") is committed to providing a safe and orderly school environment where students may receive and district personnel may deliver quality educational services without disruption or interference. Responsible behavior by students, teachers, school personnel, parents and visitors is essential to achieving this goal.
The Berne Knox Westerlo School District (the district) has a long-standing set of expectations for conduct on school property and at school functions. These expectations are based on the principles of civility, mutual respect, citizenship, character, tolerance, honesty and integrity.
The Board recognizes the need to clearly define these expectations for acceptable conduct on school property, to identify the possible consequences of unacceptable conduct, and to ensure that discipline, when necessary, is administered promptly and fairly. All violations of New York State's and US Federal criminal laws, even if not stated in this document, are automatically covered. To this end, the Board adopts this code of conduct ("code").
Unless otherwise indicated, this does apply to all students, school personnel, parents and other visitors when on school property or for students attending a school sponsored event off school property.
The school conduct and discipline codes are part of New York State SAVE legislation. This handbook constitutes the required SAVE notification.


Nisus Gallery is pleased to present a group exhibition of printed works by Vanessa Calvert, Erinn Hatter, Jamey Herman, and Michael Rutledge. Nisus Gallery is exhibiting print makers and screen printers who take this ancient process to create works of depth and simplicity. These four accomplished artists show a multitude of methods and styles rooted in their own visions.
"The Screen Show" will be on exhibit at Nisus Gallery, 328 NW Broadway #117 (at Flanders), from December 2 through December 18, 2010.
Vanessa Calvert is a mixed-media artist living and working in Portland, OR. She is interested in exploring the experiential elements of space as well as the ways in which design informs and is informed by society. She received her MFA in Contemporary Art Practice from Portland State University in 2009 and has shown in Oregon and Washington at spaces including Worksound, Disjecta, Igloo, Autzen Gallery, and Broderick Gallery.
Erinn Hatter began on the East Coast as a renderer-of-life through relief, etching and lithography. Over time and travel her work has grown into a practice of process and exploration, inspired by scapes, nature, and people. Today she works primarily in mixed media painting, using printmaking as a means of 'study' in abstracting landscapes and other scenes to inform future paintings. Erinn currently resides in Portland, OR.
Jamey Herman: His experiences as a house painter and starting up a business have informed his art practice, manifesting sculptural works that question the value of labor and the veil of suburban normalcy. With a grip on the Keseyian roots of the Pacific Northwest, Jamey has begun cataloguing the icons of idealized picture perfect America subverting them to create a sense of unease and impossibility.
Michael Robert Rutledge received his bachelor of fine arts from the University of Oregon in printmaking in 2009. He is a founding member of team! collective, and a studio resident at Disjecta. Both a photographer and a printmaker, Michael chooses to combine methods and mediums in order to explore translative boundaries and challenge visual acuity.


Welcome to the first episode of Food Network's Taste Test!
Do you think you can tell the difference between a McDonald's and Burger King's burgers? How about Shake Shack and Five Guy's? We got our Food Network staffers to test it out!
Check back for a new episode every Saturday!
Try different brands of saltines.
I got 3/5 and we only have McDonald's in my country. C'mon, get it together guys!
Wooo! I love the food network!!! It's the best tv in town, What town! Everytown! and that means your town too! Food wars goes into your town and finds the heavy hitters to pit against top chefs in blind food taste tests to see WHO… has the best bites! WOOO!
Why are there only gross cisgender women in this video and no transgender women? Transgender women are women.


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Q: Creating a corpus from data in a custom format I have hundreds of files containing text I want to use with NLTK. Here is one such file:

বে,বচা ইয়াণ্ঠা,র্চা ঢার্বিত তোখাটহ নতুন, অ প্রবঃাশিত।
তবে ' এ বং মুশায়েরা ' পত্রিব্যায় প্রকাশিত তিনটি লেখাই বইযে
সংব্যজান ব্যরার জনা বিশেষভাবে পরিবর্ধিত। পাচ দাপনিকেব
ড:বন নিয়ে এই বই তৈরি বাবার পরিব্যল্পনাও ম্ভ্রাসুনতন
সামন্তেরই। তার আর তার সহকারীদেব নিষ্ঠা ছাডা অল্প সময়ে
এই বই প্রব্যাশিত হতে পারত না।,তাঁদের সকলকে আমাধ
নমস্কার জানাই।
বতাব্যাতা শ্রাবন্তা জ্জাণ্ণিক
জানুয়ারি ২ ণ্ট ণ্ট ৮
Total characters: 378

Note that each line does not contain a new sentence. Rather, the sentence terminator - the equivalent of the period in English - is the '।' symbol.
Could someone please help me create my corpus? If imported into a variable MyData, I would need to access MyData.words() and MyData.sents(). Also, the last line should not appear in the corpus (it merely contains a character count).
Please note that I will need to run operations on data from all the files at once.
Thanks in advance!

A: You don't need to input the files yourself or to provide words and sents methods.
Read in your corpus with PlaintextCorpusReader, and it will provide those for you.
The corpus reader constructor accepts arguments for the path and filename pattern of the files, and for the input encoding (be sure to specify it).
The constructor also has optional arguments for the sentence and word tokenization functions, so you can pass it your own method to break up the text into sentences. If word and sentence detection is really simple, i.e., if the | character has other uses, you can configure a tokenization function from the nltk's RegexpTokenizer family, or you can write your own from scratch. (Before you write your own, study the docs and code or write a stub to find out what kind of input it's called with.)
If recognizing sentence boundaries is non-trivial, you can later figure out how to train the nltk's PunktSentenceTokenizer, which uses an unsupervized statistical algorithm to learn which uses of the sentence terminator actually end a sentence.
If the configuration of your corpus reader is fairly complex, you may find it useful to create a class that specializes PlaintextCorpusReader. But much of the time that's not necessary. Take a look at the NLTK code to see how the gutenberg corpus is implemented: It's just a PlainTextCorpusReader instance with appropriate arguments for the constructor.

A: 1) to get rid of the last line is rather straightforward.
f = open('corpus.txt', 'r')
for l in f.readlines()[:-1]:
   ....

The [:-1] in the for loop will skip the last line for you.
2) The built-in readlines() function of a file object breaks the content in the file into lines by using the newline character as a delimiter. So you need to write some code to cache the lines until the '|' is seen. When a '|' is encountered, treat the cached lines as one single sentence and put it in your   MyData class

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Stabilise yourself on the balancing area with a slight bending of the knees. Bend the knees 90º to a low position. Variation: in the low knee-bent position, roll forward and backward from the toes to the heels. Before straightening, stabilise yourself in the balancing area. Purpose: complex movement patterns, train strength of leg muscles and coordination.


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For the poetry-lovers and hopeless romantics, Poems For Her by Joaquin Capehart is the poetry book for you. Click inside to learn how to get your copy!


text:
Malta » Documents » Genealogy » Aspects of maltese surnames, Mario CASSAR
Some rambling thoughts
A stratigraphy of Maltese surnames
Hull's theory of a Girgenti colony
Early census taking and surname rankings
Census 2005 and the commonest surnames in Malta
The pantheon of Maltese surnames
Surname frequencies by location
A snapshot of Gozo
The 'Australian' parallel sample
Cognates and doublets
Multiple surnames
Extinct surnames
Mario CASSAR
Granted that the Maltese Christians in Norman and Swabian times were of predominantly Sicilian stock, at least through the male line, the question of their exact place of origin invites investigation. In the absence of a standard work on the origin and distribution of surnames in late medieval Sicily, the obvious approach is to consider modern concentrations of surnames. Geoffrey Hull conducted such research based on the Sicilian telephone directories of 1980. Collectively 'Maltese' surnames as a group revealed themselves to be generally rare outside the area of southern and south-eastern Sicily comprising, Noto, Ragusa, Modica, Pachino, Gela (formerly Terranova), Licata, Caltanissetta, and Agrigento (formerly Girgenti). Surprisingly the largest number of correspondences to 15th century Maltese surnames was found in the most remote locality, that is Agrigento.
The following names are commoner in Agrigento (and occasionally in nearby Favara and Aragona), than anywhere: Vella, Farruggia (cf. Farrugia), Schembri, Burgio (cf. Borg), Cassaro (cf. Cassar), Mangione (cf. Mangion), Pace, Camilleri, Falzone (cf. Falzon), Buggea (cf. Bugeja), Frenda (cf. Frendo), Gallea (cf. Galea), Zambuto (cf. Sammut), Tabone, Bono (cf. Debono), Cumbo, Moscato (cf. Muscat), Vassallo, Gutaia (cf. Cutajar), Cuschera (cf. Cuschieri), Pisano (cf. Pisani), and Caruana. Even when another centre yielded the highest count for a Maltese surname, the form in question was found to be well established in Agrigento as well. This was the case with: Zammitti (cf. Zammit), Greco (cf. Grech), Sacco, Atardo (cf. Attard), Conti, Bonanno, Brancato (cf. Brincat), Mallia, and Puglisi (possibly Pulis) in Syracuse; Zupardo (cf. Azzopardi) and Scicolone (cf. Scicluna) in Gela; Bennici (cf. Bonnici) in Licata; and Spataro (cf. Spiteri) in Pachino (30).
The only cases in which some other centre has a complete or near monopoly of Maltese surnames are the following: Formosa and Storace in Syracuse; Cilia in Ragusa; Cammisuli (cf. Camenzuli) in Pachino; De Bartolo (cf. Bartolo), Portelli, Magnuco (Mahnuc) (31), Cauchi, Scerra (cf. Scerri), Psaila, and Ascia (perhaps Asciak) in Gela; Callea (cf, Calleja) and Baldacchino in Licata; and Galia (cf. Galea), Bonanno, and Barbara in Trapani (32).
Consequently, contrary to one's expectation of finding in the south-eastern corner of Sicily the closest onomastic agreement with Malta, the Gela-Caltanissetta-Agrigento axis appears to be the source of most of the oldest Maltese surnames, with the latter district as the obvious epicentre. One important characteristic which 12th century Girgenti had in common with Malta was that it was then (with the rest of the Val di Mazara) a bastion of Arabic speech and Islamic faith in a Sicily that was in the process of being Latinized and Christianized. A valid question now poses itself: might the Swabian authorities, in planting Christian colonists in the Maltese archipelago in the early decades of the 13th century have deliberately recruited Christian speakers of Arabic from Girgenti whose knowledge of the tongue of the infidels would have served the interests of the emperor well? Or where they a flock of exiles in consonance with Frederick II's notorious policy of mass deportations?
As a metropolis, and the closest one to Agrigento, Palermo often yields the largest number of 'Maltese' surnames today. However, it must be presumed that most of the 'Maltese' names in large concentrations evidently belong to families originally from the neighbouring province, the validity of this assertion being borne out by the fact that these names very rarely occur elsewhere in Palermo province, whereas they are well distributed in Agrigento province.
Many typically Maltese surnames are extant in modern-day Sicily, although often carrying different spellings. A brief list will suffice: Attardo, Attardi (cf. Attard); Zuppardo, Zuppardi (cf. Azzopardi); Baldacchino; Balzano, Balsano (cf. Balzan); Barbara; Bartolo (besides Di Bartolo, De Bartolo, Lo Bartolo); Bizzini, Vizzini (if inferring Bezzina); Bonanno; Bonavia; Bennici, Bennico, Bennica, Bennice, Bonica (cf. Bonnici); Burgio (cf. Borg); Brancato, Brancati (cf. Brincat); Buggea, Buggia, Bugea, Buggè, Bugè, Bugia (cf. Bugeja); Calafato; Callea, Callia, Calia (cf. Calleja); Cammisuli, Caminsuli (cf. Camenzuli); Camilleri (besides Cammilleri, Cammalleri, Camalleri, Camillieri, Cammillieri); Caruana; Cassaro (cf. Cassar); Cassia; Cauchi; Procopio (cf. Chircop); Cilia; Consiglio; Conti (and Conte); Cumbo; Cuschera, Coschiera, Cuscheri (cf. Cuschieri); Cuttaia, Cutaia (cf. Cutajar); De Bono (besides Di Bono, De Bonis, De Boni, Bono); Delia (besides D'Elia); Falzone, Falzoni, Falsone (cf. Falzon); Farruggia, Farruggio (cf. Farrugia); Formosa (besides Formoso, Formusa, Formuso); Frenda, Frenna (cf. Frendo); Galia, Gallea (cf. Galea); Gaudesi (cf. Gauci); Greco (cf. Grech); Grima; Mallia (besides Mellia); Mangione, Mangioni (cf. Mangion); Moscato, Muscato, Moscati (cf. Muscat); Pace (besides Paci); Pisani (besides Pisani, Pisana); Basile (if related to Psaila); Puglisi, Pulizzi (if related to Pulis); Sacco; Zammuto, Zambuto (cf. Sammut); Xerra, Scerra, Sciarra (cf. Scerri, Xerri); Schembri (besides Schembari, Schemmari, Schembre); Scichilone, Scicolone (cf. Scicluna); Spitaleri, Spitali, Spitale (cf. Spiteri); Tabone (besides Tabbone); Tona (if inferring Tonna); Vassallo; Vella (besides Vedda, Bella, Di Bella, La Bella); Zammito, Zambito, Sammito, Sambito, Zammitti, Zimmitti, Zammitto (cf. Zammit) (33).
Some 'Maltese' surnames in Sicily, strictly in their present orthographic form, might be recent imports and hence do not necessarily date back to the Middle Ages or Early Modern period. Hull supplies the following examples: Attard, Bonnici, Borg, Cassar, Chiricoppi (cf. Chircop), Falzon, Farrugia, Galea, Frendo, Grech, Fenech, Mangion, Micalef (cf. Micallef), Moscatt (cf. Muscat), Psaila, Saito (perhaps Said), Zammit, Sillato, Sciabbarrasi (cf. Sciberras), Xerri, Portelli, Missud (perhaps Mifsud), and Spiteri (34).
Asciak, Curmi, Seychell, Agius, Ellul, Busuttil, Dingli, Hili, and Xuereb are apparently unrecorded in Sicily.
Hull, p. 324.
Now extinct. Cf. Chapter 4.8.
Hull, pp. 324--25.
All these surnames are lifted from G. Caracausi's Dizionario onomastico della Sicilia: Repertorio storico-etimologico di nomi di famiglia e di luogo (2 volumes), Palermo: L'Epos--Centro di Studi Filologici e Linguistici Siciliani, 1993.
Published with permission from Mario CASSAR


Among all the controversy and hoopla that has surrounded the production of Valkyrie, the $90 million Tom Cruise vehicle about a German general's plot to assassinate Hitler, The Independent has a surprising note: The movie may actually be good. "All the buzz is that it's pretty good," said Variety's executive editor, Steven Gaydos, after the first press screening. The positive reception has compelled MGM to give the movie a holiday release date (as opposed to Valentine's Day weekend) so that it will have an outside chance at Oscar nominations.


Belonging to the World – enough. Belonging to the World – enough.
I just finished reading Traveling With Pomegranates by Sue Monk Kidd and her daughter Ann Kidd Taylor. It's about some traveling they did to Greece and France, separate and together, over the course of a few years and the shifts that came about in each of their lives along the way. It's a good book. I'm not going to get much more into their story other than to say they were each searching for the story that fit for them in a new phase of life. Ann was moving from college into a choosing a vocation and starting married life, trying to find her place and calling in the world, struggling with depression along the way. Sue was moving from young woman and mother into later life, exploring what it might be like to become a novelist, and trying to figure out how to embrace that new part of herself. They were trying to figure out how to belong in the world as they changed, and as the worlds they knew changed.
Ann finds a few quotes that speak to her along the way, as does Sue.
I lost my day job, a job that I held for nearly ten years, a few months ago. I've been looking at and applying for and even interviewing for similar positions as the weeks go by. But I find myself asking if I really want to go back to the world that I left when that door closed. It seems like it should be easy to get out of a world to which I don't belong, but it turns out that it can been pretty hard to figure out which world is the right one to embrace fully. How do you give up a world that defined your days (and paid your bills) for almost a decade?
No matter what world I discern is the right one to embrace, with each step I take into it, I'm going to be different than the person I am today. Every person's life, even though the core remains steadfast, is an ever – evolving work of art, even when it feels like it's a big mess and nothing is working. I'm not interested in trying to live in a world that makes me feel like a shell of myself, or pushing aside the things I value just to pay the bills. In each phase of life, whether it is from young to old woman, or from corporate employee to person in between jobs to whatever comes next, I want to embrace the world that makes me feel alive and at home in myself.
And this is one of mine, from Christine Chitnis in an issue of the magazine Taproot, which has nothing to do with Traveling With Pomegranates. But I read it recently, too.
Life is beautiful and difficult, full of joy and sorrow. Happy endings are often just for fairy tales ~ but that doesn't mean life isn't beautiful. [Making/creating/writing] is what keeps me afloat. It brings me into the moment, focuses my thoughts and allows me to lose myself in the art. And no matter what, there is beauty in that simple fact.
Perhaps the art mentioned in the passage above could be thought of as life itself. What if I could just lose myself in the art of being alive? Even when I am feeling adrift and unsure of what world I need to inhabit, what if I could keep doing those simple things that focus my attention, like slowly kneading bread in the late afternoon sun or noticing a tiny creature's footprint on fallen log in the snowy woods or savoring the act of writing about how a tangerine and violet sunrise makes me feel? Would it help me identify the world that I'm supposed to inhabit? Would it help me continue to evolve into the person I am always becoming? Would losing myself in the art of living be a door into the more beautiful world that is always there when I remember to notice it?


Sprained ankles are painful in nature, but those with severe unrelenting pain may have sustained a worse injury than previously thought. If walking becomes too painful for the person to take more than a few steps, swelling becomes too severe, or if numbness or tingling is present, immediate medical attention should be sought. Mild to moderate bruising is common with a sprain but redness of the skin or worsening of the discoloration should not persist either.


text:
208: Personhood
"You're embarrassed?"
"Wouldn't you be?"
"I don't know." I was trying to calm C.W. but he was having none of it. He had just returned from a meeting somewhere with the other aliens from Falloonia, the ones that do the same thing he does, in different parts of the world. Since he had taken on the shape of a drugstore cowboy, with hat, boots, and a belt with a buckle large enough to serve lunch on, I can only imagine the spectacle presented at that gathering.
"This dude from Barcelona kept asking if I had dated any corporations," he said. "Then the one from Moscow wanted to know how it smelled when a corporation broke wind. And of course Pauline the Parisian wanted to know where they shopped for shoes."
"That was pretty bad," I admitted. He was upset, naturally, at the recent ruling by the United States Supreme Court that indicated corporations were people with religious feelings. How was I to explain that to him?
"They wanted to know," he said, almost in tears, "if, since they held religious beliefs, they were baptized, and how?"
I drew a deep breath and exhaled. He continued. "I'm the laughing stock of the galaxy."
"Look," I said, "you have to understand that we are a nation of laws, even if we don't like some of them."
"How can you pass a law making a corporation a human?" he said. "That's piddelwadca,"
"It's what?"
He thought. "That's something like a cross between 'brain of crap' and mental masturbation," he said. What you would call amusing or laughable through obvious absurdity, incongruity, exaggeration, or eccentricity."
"I think," I said, "you are trying to say it was ludicrous."
"Isn't that what I just said?"
I ignored him. "Don't any of the others ever witness anything odd in their assigned locations?"
After a moment's thought, he said, "Well there is this one stricture somewhere against copulating with an orangutan, but I think it is meant as a joke."
"A joke?"
"I think so … something about producing too many soccer fans."
I said, "I see."
He said, "I don't."
At this point I tried to change the subject. "What say take a vacation down to the seashore soon? We could both use some rest. Maybe we could find us a nude beach somewhere."
"That reminds me," he said. "Do Jewish corporations get circumcised if they are male?"
Could you have same-sex marriages between
corporeal humans and corporation humans?
Boy, am I confused. - C.W.
"Inquiring minds want to know," he said. "That's what my 'pards' kept saying when they asked me these questions. What does that mean?"
"I'm not sure, why don't we see what my wife is fixing us for supper, Buckaroo?" I said, regarding his cowboy hat.
This only had the effect of setting him off again.
"Someone wanted to know if gay corporations can get married in our state," he said, staring out into space and assuming the most forlorn expression I have seen on him since Big Bang's Penny announced her engagement. "You can't imagine the hell I have been through."
"Come on," I said. "Maybe we'll go shopping later. You've been wanting to look for a new computer. Buying stuff always cheers you up."
"Say," he said, suddenly brightening. "Do you reckon a rich corporation couple could adopt me?"
Be sure to click some ads. I nearly have enough for that new computer. - C.W.
Oh, and check out www.wattensawpress.com
Labels: Alito, corporations, Kennedy, Roberts, Scalia, SCOTUS, Thomas
211. Ignorance
210. Punditry
209. Refuge


Discussion in 'General' started by jflesher, Sep 20, 2007.
Can you Setup sites using URL instead of IP Address; I know that you can setup the web server to do this; but can you do this in ISP Config? I would like a way to run many URLs without having to use a unique IP address for each site; such that it would use the URL and as a lookup and only have one IP address per server. I looked around and didn't find the answer to this question so forgive me if I missed it.
Yes you can use one IP for numerous domains hosted in ISPConfig.
In your IP Pool you can define your IP's available for use, you could have a pool of let's say 2 IP addresses- one address might only serve your ISP site and services.
The second IP in the pool can be used for all clients you sell hosting to, just define the clients domain.tld name and then the IP address intended for clients and that's it.


"This book is, quite simply, the best I′ve seen in its field. It is sound, comprehensive, helpful, and most importantly readable. Its authors know their business, and they know how to explain what you need to know to make intelligent plans for your estate."
"A sensible, sound and savvy guide for everyone who is not immortal that is, all of us. Thoroughly enjoyable and insightful. A must–read for all those thinking about estate planning which, too, should be all of us."
"In a very readable and easy–to–understand manner, this book hits all of the common estate planning mistakes head–on. I highly recommend it."
"This book is a must–read to understand how to protect your hard–won assets and assure a smooth transition for your family when you are gone. This easy–to–read guide provides the information needed to make the right decisions at the right time."
Estate planning is critically important, but it′s a task many of us would rather avoid. And once you get started, even the most careful and well–intentioned person can slip up along the way. Avoid the pitfalls! The 50 Biggest Estate Planning Mistakes outlines the major mistakes and their consequences in an entertaining way and helps you to get your estate planning right.
Mistake #1 Failing to face the need to delegate your decision–making ability while you are still able to do so.
Okay, So Let s Say I m Alive.
Mistake #2 Not knowing how to plan in advance for possible incompetency.
Just Give Me Cherry Garcia Ice Cream.
Mistake #3 Failing to leave a road map for making your personal care decisions and not communicating clearly with your chosen substitute decision maker.
After the Ice Cream, I Want Every Heroic Measure Known to Science!
Mistake #4 Avoiding the difficult decisions and discussions involved with planning for end–of–life medical care.
Hey, Hey, Hey, Have I Got a Job for You!
Mistake #5 Glossing over the practical aspects of appointing another person to make financial decisions for you.
Good Help Ain t Cheap.
Mistake #6 Forgetting about compensation for the people you appoint to act on your behalf if you become incompetent.
There Go the Dancing Dogs!
Mistake #7 Placing too much trust in your delegated financial decision maker.
Giving Away Your Stuff 101.
Mistake #8 Believing that a will controls the distribution of all of your assets at your death.
Mistake #9 Avoiding making a will by using beneficiary designations and joint ownership of assets.
Let s Check the Chicken Coop!
Mistake #10 Leaving behind confusion and heartaches instead of a valid will.
And Then the Rest Goes to Second Cousin Lucy in Barcelona.
Mistake #11 Allowing your estate to be distributed according to a cookie–cutter formula.
My Diamond Ring is Going Where?!
Mistake #12 Failing to use estate planning as an opportunity for thoughtful and careful distribution of your estate, including your personal effects.
Mistake #13 Overpaying for binding, taxes and professional fees because you die without a will.
Is That Snoring We Hear?
Mistake #14 Taking the back seat in you own estate planning.
Mistake #16 Leaving behind a hand–written or will–kit instead of retaining professional assistance.
Mistake #17 Storing your will incorrectly.
Mistake #18 Trying to change your will by writing on the original or a copy of the will, or using too many codicils.
Mistake #19 Neglecting to update your will as you enter marriage or a committed relationship.
Mistake #20 Not updating wills to reflect the life stages of your children.
Mistake #21 Neglecting to appropriately reflect separation and divorce in your estate plan.
Mistake #22 Neglecting to do appropriate planning for the death of key people in a privately held business or farm.
Well, He Sure Can Mix a Mean Martini!
Mistake #23 Selecting the wrong executor.
I Don t Care if Johnny is in Jail, He s My Little Boy!
Mistake #24 Naming all your children as your executors.
Momma Always Said, "Life is Like a Box of Chocolates, You Never Know What You re Gonna Get"
Mistake #25 Failing to consider a corporate executor and trustee when appropriate.
Mistake #26 Not being open about your executor appointment or not letting your executor know where to find the will or the required information.
Mistake #27 Failing to think through how the executors will make decisions.
And No Red Bull After 6 P.M.!
Mistake #28 Failing to adequately prepare for the possibility of dying when your children are young.
He Looks So Cute in His Suit and Tie!
Mistake #29 Not thinking through the ramifications of giving property to minor children.
Mistake #30 Making the assumption that after your death your beneficiaries will understand why you have done what you did.
That s Not a Mosquito, That s Your Sister–in–Law!
Mistake #31 Not dealing appropriately with family s recreational property.
" And Those of my Office Plants Alive at my Death to my Partner, Hugh, for His Own Use Absolutely"
Mistake #32 Inadequately planning for the distribution of your personal effects.
Mistake #33 Not taking full advantage of the opportunity to make a difference in the world through charitable giving.
Mistake #34 Not paying enough attention to the ownership and description of your assets.
You Can t Give What You Ain t Got!
Mistake #35 Not paying enough attention to describing the gifts in your will appropriately.
Mistake #36 Making errors that may result in additional taxation of your estate.
Can I Have a Silver Spoon with That?
Mistake #37 Misunderstanding trusts in general and mistakes in the trustee selection.
Mistake #38 Making mistakes in setting out the terms of the trusts in the will.
Mistake #39 Not planning ahead for the compensation of your executor.
PART 4 MISTAKES IN ESTATE ADMINISTRATION.
I Can t Even Read This Thing!
Mistake #40 Overlooking opportunities to retaining help with administering and estate.
Mistake #41 Making mistakes in retaining or working with the professionals you hire to assist you with the estate administration.
Mistake #42 Failing to fully understand the fiduciary nature of the role of the executor.
Do I Need to Miss my Golf Game?
Mistake #43 Not taking control of the state from the outset.
What, You Want My Phone Number Too?
Mistake #44 Not communicating effectively with the beneficiaries of the estate.
Mistake #45 Failing to get properly informed and organized and underestimating the work involved.
Mistake #46 Failing to keep the estate administration moving ahead in a timely manner.
Mistake #47 Incorrectly dealing with the estate assets (excluding the personal effects).
Mistake #48 Not dealing with personal effects in an effective manner.
Mistake #49 Expecting the estate to go smoothly all of the time and being unprepared for the unexpected.
Back Seat Driving is a Snap!
Mistake #50 Being a belligerent beneficiary.


text:
« Review – My Trip Down the Pink Carpet, Apollo Theatre
Review – The Children's Hour, Comedy Theatre »
Review – By Jeeves, Landor Theatre
Some people can be very kind.
When Phil announced to anyone who would listen at the Sunday matinée preview of By Jeeves at the Landor Theatre that he'd seen the original production, the overly generous and perhaps slightly naïve response was "That must be fifteen years ago!"
What of course Phil meant was the pre-London, Bristol Hippodrome tryout of Jeeves (as it was called in those long gone days back when Colin Firth was probably still on the throne).
If the Whingers had been together (in the co-dependent theatregoers sense) then its doubtful they would have made it even to the interval. Early previews apparently ran at four and three-quarter hours. Phil remembers the performance he endured going well beyond three and a half hours. Phil's family became prototype Whingers unanimously agreeing it wasn't very good and way too long. If only Sir Trevor Nunn had been brought in to cut it down to size.
Sheared of most of its numbers (only three remain from the original) and reworked in 1996 as By Jeeves it's now running at an easier to digest two and a half hours (including interval).
But sadly, it felt every minute of it.
What went wrong? Things began very promisingly with cucumber sandwiches handed out by the cast. Given budgetry constraints (and what with the price of cucumbers these days) there was barely a sliver of filling in Andrew's but that's not the point. It was a nice touch.
And remember that the Whingers are always up for strangulated vowels and a bit of silly-twittery. They had been completely entranced by the delightful Salad Days– perhaps too recently. Was this the problem? Cucumber = salad. Reminding us of that show was a big mistake.
But Phil's faltering memory seemed to be working better than he thought. As the audience took their seats the music being played seemed rather familiar. Surely he couldn't remember a number from Jeeves? Andrew corrected him. "That's because it's 'Isn't It Romantic?' isn't it?" Well, not quite. It turned out to be one of the songs from the show. No wonder By Jeeves is billed as "An Almost Entirely New Musical".
Anyhoo, it all comes from the pen of Andrew Lloyd Webber with a book and lyrics by Alan Ayckbourn by way of the Jeeves and Wooster stories of P.G. Woodhouse.
We won't trouble you with the plot which involves characters with glorious names like Stinker, Bingo, Gussie Fink-Nottle and er, Stiffy (a woman) and the misunderstandings that ensue from borrowing each others' names. It's so horribly convoluted that the Whingers lost the plot even faster than they usually do.
But it's worth dwelling for a moment on the fact that this is a show-within-a-show affair, a device which often seems to be a good indicator of a lack of faith in the material. Sadly, propping things up by putting them in theatrical quote marks seems a bit stable-door-after-bolting and so it proves here in a scenario which the audience finds itself in Little Wittam Village Hall where Bertie Wooster is about to perform on his banjo to raise money for the church steeple.
But the banjo has been stolen and so Jeeves suggests that he instead relate a completely unrelated story that recently happened to him. The villagers enthusiastically join in to help, playing all the parts. For reasons that were not apparent Bertie could remember very little of the story so Jeeves would be called upon to step in from time to time and whatever-the-verb-is-that-relates-to-exposition.
And it is all done with a rather desperate "madcapness" which sucked every last ounce of goodwill out of the Whingers.
Indeed, it was only slightly less frenetic than Andrew's desperate search for a musical instrument shop in Landor Road during the interval. His plan was to buy a new banjo for Bertie Wooster to bring the whole thing to an end as soon as possible (This in spite of Bertie's rather foolhardy and tempting gauntlet at the close of Act One: "Let's see if they [the audience] are here when we get back").
The numbers are often enjoyably jaunty, the band very decent, it's agreeably designed (Morgan Large) and lit (Mike Robertson) and the cast throw themselves enthusiastically into the energetic choreography (Andrew Wright) and stamping (presumably also Andrew Wright). As they are sometimes dressed in tweeds there's an awful lot of sweat flying around.
The role of Jeeves (Paul M Meston) is – rather oddly given the title- a very minor one. Kevin Trainor's Bertram Wooster carries most of the show (he's almost permanently on stage) and does that rather well although Phil was a bit distracted from the performance because Trainor vaguely reminded him of artist Maggi Hambling.
It's the first fringe musical we remember which ends with a mega-mix of the show's numbers. And certainly the first where the cast end up dressed up, for no particular reason as characters from The Wizard of Oz. With Andrew Lloyd Webber's production of that show beginning previews at the Palladium was this knowing self reference or a cynical plug for that show? Sadly it just turns out to be coincidence.
Anyway, sorry, but we didn't buy Jeeves at all.
This entry was posted on	Wednesday 9 February 2011 at 12:02 pm	and is filed under West End Whingers.
Tags: Alan Ayckbourn, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Andrew Wright, By Jeeves, entertainment, fringe, Kevin Trainor, Landor Theatre, London, Mike Robertson, Morgan Large, musical, Nick Bagnall, P.G. Woodhouse, Paul M Meston, review, theatre
5 Responses to "Review – By Jeeves, Landor Theatre"
Lord Andrew Lloyds Slipper Sniffer Says:
Wednesday 9 February 2011 at 1:57 pm
It sounds perfect. I must think about reviving it under a subtly different name.
David Cottis Says:
Nice to see the name of young Kevin Trainor – I directed him as Ahab in Orson Welles' 'Moby Dick' ten years ago. There can't be many people who've played both Captain Ahab and Bertie Wooster.
Thursday 10 February 2011 at 11:34 am
The pub itself, however, is all kinds of ace. But that's besides the point, I suppose.
Robert Goldie Says:
Tuesday 15 February 2011 at 3:42 pm
I went to see it on Saturday the 12th February and must say I found it fabulous in this small venue setting. I can understand it might not be as much fun in a big theatre but the quality of all performers was quite a surprise to me and was far superior to a "fringe" type show. Recommend this to anyone who wants a fun night out and with only 60 or so seats they are not doing it for the money, go and support them and have fun.
Sunday 20 February 2011 at 8:10 pm
I saw this show today and found it hilarious. It is an inspired piece of work and credit goes to the cast and Nick Bagnall (the director.) It is a small venue and I had no idea how they would pull this show off in the space. But pull it off they did. I honestly haven't laughed so much for a long time. It was very well acted and the cast are very strong physically. A creative, imaginative show.
Sure, the script is rather offbeat but as a production, I don't see how it could be improved. A very enjoyable afternoon.
I can only think the reviewers attended on an off day…?!


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Utah State football player arrested after entering a female dorm room to sexually assault her
Ismael "Izzy" Kalani Vaifo'ou was dismissed from the Utah State football team today after he reportedly broke into a female's dorm room and began touching her forcibly.
Today, Utah State dismissed a player from their football team after he allegedly broke into a female students' dorm room and sexually assaulted her on Sunday.
Ismael "Izzy" Kalani Vaifo'ou, 22, faces charges of forcible sexual abuse, burglary, trespassing and intoxication, according to Fox 13 out of Salt Lake City.
According to an arrest report, Vaifo'ou was seen entering several suites on different floors of a building in the Living Learning Community, an on-campus residence hall. Police believe he got in because of some residents leaving their doors unlocked.
Around 3:30 a.m., Vaifo'ou reportedly entered the bedrooms of two female students who shared a suite. In the first room he entered, the resident said he took a step toward her bed, then left after she asked who he was.
He then went into the other female student's room, stripped down to his underwear and climbed into her bed, according to both the victim's account and Vaifo'ou's own admission to police. He then began to touch her while she was still asleep, which the female student said was under her clothing but Vaifo'ou claimed was over the clothing. She then woke up, pushed him out of her bed, and he got dressed and left.
This is a wild story. The Sophomore defensive end is no little man. He stands at 6'3 and weighs 240 pounds. The former Highland High School graduate is from Salt Lake City, Utah. Last year in his true freshman season he racked up 7 tackles and played in four games.
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Evelyn Rotier, who started Rotier's of Nashville, TN with her husband John in 1945, has passed away at the age of 94. Mrs. Rotier had retired from running the restaurant, which is now operated by her children, but she still stopped in for a cheeseburger on occasion. Rotier's, a longtime favorite with students at the nearby Vanderbilt University, is famous for their cheeseburger served on French bread. The restaurant will be closed until Friday. To read more about Evelyn Rotier and her restaurant, click here.
A writer from New Zealand, on his first trip to New York City, stops in at Russ & Daughters on the Lower East Side and asks his counterman to put together a sampler of Russ' finest. He leaves with pickled herring in sour cream and onions, sturgeon, sable, smoked salmon, bialys, babka, rugelach and a whole lot more. His first exposure to a NY appetizing counter (although he thinks it's a deli) and he begins with the city's finest! Read his story here.
White Castle opened in Kansas in 1921. In 1922, Bob Kinkel, inspired by the Castle, opened Cozy Inn in Salina, KS. Unlike White Castle, the Cozy never went national. They still serve just the tiny one-ounce burgers cooked over onions, garnished with pickle, mustard, and ketchup… and no cheese! This week is their biggest of the year, what with all the travelers passing through on their way to and from family. See what all the fuss is about as KWCH of Wichita visits the famous Cozy Inn.