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REFUSE THE DANCE
February 12, 1995 Alan Preece	Leave a comment
The road ran from the resort town of Missing Heath in the mountains through Blackbridge to the cities of the south beyond. The road – It goes without saying – was long, the car's headlights doing little to alleviate the blackness in which the man travelled; illuminating only twenty feet or so in front of the speeding vehicle.
Its occupant blinked, fighting back his fatigue as he tried to follow the broken white line that preceded the small blue car.
Cats eyes, embedded within their protective rubber, rushed past, their reflective shine mocking the feeble headlight beams.
The man turned the radio up higher as the talk show host introduced another caller, a man named Richard who was apparently concerned with passive smoking on public transport.
The driver sighed, rubbing his tired eyes with the heel of his hand and half listened to Richard's dull monologue. Lindsay, the shows host, spoke, her vaguely attractive voice drifting from the speaker.
You sound as bored as I feel, the man thought and glanced yet again at the car phone between the front seats.
Along the darkened highway the girl walked, tears of anger and humiliation clouding her vision.
Normally the night would have scared her, nothing would have persuaded her to walk the lonely, exposed track of tarmac, but things do they always do. It was one of the fundamental facts of lift that the girl had learned so many times over.
She pulled the jacket she wore tighter around her, but id didn't help against the biting cold of the night. The wind tore through it and the short skirt she wore with little resistance, her fingers had been numb for the last hour, her wrists and forearms for the last forty minutes, her legs had gone too, making her stumble along like a little girl in her mothers shoes.
It was beginning to occur to her that she may be freezing to death, but the idea was a remote one and all she could feel was a distant complacency concerning it. The road she'd travelled had been such a long one, its dark corners too treacherous for even the most street hardened to survive without wounds to show for it.
The girl had her wounds, deep ones that scarred her heart but left her well enough to walk further along the lost highway.
She thought, arranging and re-arranging the occurrences of her life in some foolish attempt to make some sense of it all, even though no-one knew her would consider her a foolish soul.
Clever could not come close to describing her, she was more intelligent than even she suspected. Her problems was that her heart was strong, and in straight battle between it and her mind her heart always left no prisoners or gave up any ground. Her mind, strong as it was, never stood a chance to it; it always lost, as it had done tonight.
When she felt the first drops of rain a sickening shiver ran through her as she staggered to a halt in a near panic to find shelter of some description, but in the sheer blackness around her she saw nothing, knowing that in this darkness she could be feet away from shelter and not see it. She looked down at the faint image of her feet, blotches of grey in a confusing monochrome world of greys and blacks.
As the wind buffeted her, the rain began to fall harder and the young woman wished that she was merely freezing once more.
Some miles behind her the car sped, constantly closing the distance. Inside the man yawned as he switched over the windscreen wipers to double speed. On the radio Lindsay spoke, drawing her conversation with Richard to a close moments before David Bowie and Mick Jagger began to singe of people dancing in the streets, the man tapping the steering wheel in rhythm.
Nothing else changed, the car was like a time capsule moving through the night with the only reality being an invading force on the radio.
The man knew he would have to stop eventually, if he failed to find a twenty-four hour petrol station then the side of the road would have to do. Either way he knew he would have to, driving in this state was foolish at best, his attention could barely be contained on the strip of blackness before him, so he had little choice, and he had to stop or find some other way to cease his minds endless wanderings. The man smiled, he knew he had the attention span of a goldfish at the very best of times.
Five minutes, he promised himself, five and I'll pull over, maybe have fifty winks.
In the darkness through the veil of rain he saw something, a pale flicker of movement. Instantly his feet slammed down on the clutch and brake and the car slid, skating on a fine skin of rainwater.
Heart slamming the blood between his temples, the driver fought for control against a car that seemed possessed by evil spirits intent on some vicious deed. The man twisted the wheel into the skid, trying to angle the tyres into the direction of slide, praying for their tread to bite into the wet tarmac. Finally he reined the evil beast in and won, the car grinding to a halt.
The young woman, half deafened by the pounding rain, never heard its approach until something huge slammed through the air beside her.
Her mind, driven to irrationality by the cold and pain, saw it as a beast, a thing conjured from the deepest recesses of the sickest man's mind.
She shrieked, throwing herself backward into the shallow ditch beside the slick tarmac of the hellish road. The thing rocked, swaying across the whole highway before it stopped sliding to a standstill, affording the young woman a view of its low, blood red eyes and she felt sure that it was indeed a monster.
Suddenly light sprang on from inside, and she saw a figure move behind glass.
A car!
It was a car that was all!
That was all? She thought. Oh! Lord!
She pushed herself from the ditch, sliding on its slick sides and the figure from the car moving in her direction. She slid, her nylon clad legs sinking deeper into the thick mud. Thoughts of quicksand suddenly filled her mind and in panic she began to kick frantically until a hand slipped around her bicep and dragged her from the marshy ditch.
The car, now tamed with its engine idling, tilted and shook as she climbed into the passenger seat. The man climbed in beside her, his body twisted to half face her as be babbled an almost continual stream of drivel in her direction. The words washed over her broken mind as the warmth of the cars heater dried her sodden clothes, but all the meaning in his words were lost on her, she caught a phrase here, a word there, but that was all. All she felt she needed to know for now was that she was out of the cold, if anything else turned up, and then she'd deal with it when it came.
She looked over to the man briefly and thought, but maybe I'm not safe yet.
He was twenty-six if a day past the age where most bothered to try to be interesting, his clothing was neat though a little out of sync with current fashion, and his dark blue eyes showed nothing but an innocent concern, but it wasn't clear if his concern was for her or for himself.
She looked away, kicking off her single shoe; the other gone lost in the ditch presumably, and pinched her stockings between thumb and forefinger, tugging the torn laddered nylon from a muddied graze that ran up her calf almost to her knee.
The man, unnoticed by wither of them, had fallen into silence, his eyes moving over the wicked rip through her stocking in her leg. Unknown to the girl her skirt had twisted and rode up her right thigh, allowing him a view of the dark band that encircled the snow white top of her leg.
It was obvious by her dress that she'd been out nightclubbing in one of the larger cities to the south, her cropped leather jacket and mid-thigh length skirt affording her so little cover from the cold that she must have endured. His gazes moved to a profile of her face as she inspected her wound, not a single syllable had escaped her yet, no explanation of why she was dressed for partying but had been walking in that freezing maelstrom since God only knew when.
The man was worried, it may have been a wise move to just keep on going, he still could, and he could push her from his car, then from his mind and simply drive on. Instead he dragged his knapsack from behind the back-seat and pushed it into her arms, twisted and stepped out into the biting rain.
The woman gazed at the grey canvas bag, her lower lip trembling and her hands visibly shaking as she clutched it.
When he had moved so fast her mind had ceased and fear had descended on her so fast she thought she'd drown. For one eternally fleeting moment she had found herself caught in a vacuum, then the bag had fallen into her lap and the man was just as quickly gone, leaving her alone in the warm cocoon of his car.
Cautiously she unclipped the bags hood and pulled the drawstring that secured the top open, the young woman peered inside.
Should she feel shame? No, a moment's kindness hadn't proved a thing. His actions had so far proved nothing.
She turned off the interior light and peered around through the rain-streaked glass for him. Then, confident that if she couldn't see him he couldn't see her, she began to change.
Not before she locked all the doors however.
His long raincoat kept him relatively dry and the wind had little chance to touch him, but still his legs had gone numb.
The light on the dashboard had gone out so he thought it safe to assume she's accepted his invitation to change and he found himself shocked to discover how deeply pleased he was that she had.
He glanced at the black hulk of the car once more, squinting through the stinging pellets of rain; already this silent, hurt woman had struck something within him making the concept of moving on without her a joke, a delusion. Some people had a magic you simply could not say 'no' to.
Here he stood in this ferocious rain while a stranger changed into his clothes inside his car. A car he'd left the keys in, so the heater could keep her warm. Foolishly he smiled to himself, aware that any moment the car could start up and disappear down the road, stranding him here, but trusting that this wouldn't happen.
The minutes ticked by like hours, and he thought irresistibly of a line from Romeo and Juliet; 'I will wait every day within the hour, for in a minute there are many days.'
He sensed movement and his gaze snapped to the car from which it had wandered, the light inside it was on once more.
When he saw her he was shocked, not because of how different she appeared even though she did, he was shocked because of the choices she'd made. The trousers she's picked were his heaviest, an old army surplus pair that was grey, broad belted with buttons instead of a zip. Her too-big toe capped boots matched, but most disturbingly she had buried herself under at least two shirts that he could count, and an enormous pullover that was too large even for him.
He sat, slamming the door a little too heavily behind him, her gaze snapping to meet his own for the first time and, her long dark hair pulled back into a loose ponytail, he saw the girl properly for the maiden time.
Her flesh had lost its unhealthy blue-grey sheen and, though she was still pale, her understated beauty struck him. With cheekbones so high they seemed almost beside her dark, sad eyes, she looked like an abandoned child of royalty. Her lips were set straight foreboding, with no love lost for anyone.
The sight of her angry, sad perfection struck pain into his heart and he was mildly aware of his hand reaching to his chest.
"Thank you." She said, but her words were as cold as the lips that spoke them and the phantom pain struck again.
His eyes tore from her and instantly the pain vanished.
Concentrating hard, he popped the handbrake with trembling hands and slipped the car into gear and began his trek once more.
Like that they drove, his gentle questions going unanswered until he gave up and only the radio spoke, sometimes with song other times with callers. Even the man's sideways glances ebbed away once he discovered that his chest began to hurt every time he did.
The woman sat unmoving, staring out over the darkened road, through not seeing it. Her mind was in another place, another car in fact, re-experiencing hell only hours old.
When he heard her tears he didn't look, he couldn't bear to knowing the consequences, so her crying joined the radio as the only sounds in their tiny world travelling through limbo.
The man, driven to distraction, began to speak, the words themselves unimportant, as before she found in them a calming affect.
Gradually the young woman's tears subsided, drawn from her by his almost senseless rhetoric, but still he spoke, his words drifting in tone and content toward a place he did not wish to go.
From the corner of his eye he saw the lovely young woman staring at him, her face-swollen red around her eyes, and a stark contrast to the pastiness of her cheeks and forehead. The man looked at her, his heart twisting in his chest, and frowned at her questioningly, then quickly looked back at the road.
"So what your name?" He asked her over the murmur of the radio, glad of her inadvertent rescuer from the road of his mind.
Hands hidden under the long sleeves of her pullover, the woman crossed her arms over her chest and looked down at her feet.
"Marianne." She answered simply, voice still cold.
"Jacob." The man crossed his right hand over his left arm for her to shake, still grasping the wheel with his left. Not at all surprised when she ignored it he placed it back on the wheel and forced a smile over his lips.
"So where are you going?"
Something flickered across her face, Jacob missing it entirely. Marianne shifted in her seat and crossed her legs, right over left.
She had no idea where, she hadn't thought of it. Quickly she rooted through her mind desperately, but there was nowhere, the car was heading away from the only place she had ever been welcome, and there was no way she could ever return.
Not after what had happened.
She opened her mouth to answer, and then closed it with a snap.
Jacob looked over, biting his lip as he frowned in bleak consternation, then he slowly relaxed and spoke quietly.
"You don't have anywhere to go do you?" Silently she shrugged and Jacob plunged on ahead. "You're running from someone!"
Immediately she shook her head vigorously, her dark eyes looked up at him, fresh tears spilling down her face, her tiny voice saying, "no!"
The pain slammed through him, the car swerving. Putting a hand to his chest he took a deep breath and mercilessly continued.
"You are, don't lie to me. What happened?"
Marianne sobbed, burying her face in the soft wool that covered her arms, her whole body rocking with the force of her pain.
Jacob groaned, pushing himself back into his seat.
This wasn't easy, he thought, not at all. There was little he could do for her, no way he could help unless he took her to a hospital or contacted the police, and he was reluctant to do either until he knew more.
He half listened to Lindsay talk over the static infested speaker as he thought, trying to make sense of how a night can so suddenly change. He leaned forward and turned the radio up a little more and froze, his gaze moving to the car phone between the front seats. He picked it up and dialled from memory the number the radio constantly played and waited, glancing at the woman who cried beside him oblivious to his actions.
Only when he spoke did the young woman react, looking up through her tear-dazed eyes as he mumbled to the man on the other end of the line, after a moments conversation dropping the phone into the crook between head and shoulder, holding it there with the pressure of his head.
"What are you doing?" She spoke as he waited; he was pleased despite the alarm of her voice, a reaction at last.
Jacob waited until she asked again then, forcing an offhand tone into his voice he answered.
"Well what's the point in talking to you? You're no an…"
A shrill voice on the other end of the phone line cut him off and, at its request; he turned the radio down a little.
Marianne's eyes followed his hand, her first impulse was to rip the phone from his grasp, but he was driving in the rain, and she knew that the odds of survival if the car crashed were non-existent.
It surprised her that she cared, half an hour ago she wouldn't have but now, inexplicitly she did.
"Is it the police?" She asked, her voice low.
Jacob glanced at her then, on the radio, Lindsay spoke.
"Our next caller is Jacob from…. from where Jake?"
From next to Marianne the man spoke into the phone in reply.
"No fixed abode Lins."
"So you're a traveller?"
"Not a Gypsy, if that's what you're thinking, just a drifter of sorts. "He glanced across to his passenger and smiled."
The woman on the phone coughed quietly, Jacob hearing its echoes a second later over the radio.
"So what's on your mind? She asked in her lyrical voice.
He thought for a moment, Marianne watching as his brow wrinkled, her first impressions may have been wrong, he may no be the blank innocent she's assumed.
Jacob, his thoughts collected, began to speak.
"I was driving along this dark, lonely stretch of road thinking about my life you know? I was thinking and something occurred to me."
"That was?" Lindsay asked.
"How little we know of each other. I have no idea what my mothers favourite colour was for instance, I don't even remember the colour of her eyes, and it worried me."
"You mean that it worried you that you knew so little of someone who was so close?"
Marianne's face was a picture of confusion, her brow a wrinkled mass as she gazed at the heavy gold ring that rested on Jacobs's third finger.
Did he know? And if he did, how did he? Her eyes shot to the radio as Lindsay spoke again.
"So are you asking if it's normal? Because it is a think."
"Pretty sad state then", Jacob shot back, "if ignorance is ever considered normal."
The word 'normal' revered, the radio echo punctuating the idea, then fell silent. Jacob waited a moment.
"Lindsay?"
"I'm here, there's not a great deal I can say to you there. You're right of course Jake, but think of it this way; have you ever told her anything? Your favourite colour? Anything."
"No", he said and smiled an unpleasant knowing smile, "but she knew it all anyway."
From across the miles Lindsay signed.
"I guess the moral of this tale is its good to talk, eh?" She laughed softly at her bad humour. "Well lets give someone else a chance to talk Jacob my friend, so keep well."
"Yeah sure Lins, you too." On the phone there was a click and the air went momentarily dead on the radio before the same woman, it was hard to believe it was the same woman, introduced another caller. Jacob slid the phone into its cradle, his eyes momentarily looking with Marianne's.
"What was all that about? She asked and he found himself even more pleased, her cold tone had been replaced with an in comprehending curiosity.
"It's true don't you think?"
She looked away, arms still crossed, hands still invisible.
"Don't tell me. You're an artist right?" Her sarcasm weighed heavily, she pronounced 'artist' to rhyme with 'prick'.
"Cause only an artist could talk such crap."
Jacob smiled yet again and suddenly Marianne pursed her lips and nearly shrieked.
"Stop laughing at me!" She half shouted like a child taunted by an adult, Jakes smile sliding from his face.
"I'm sorry!" He said, meaning it, for when she spoke she'd sounded so lost that the pain in his chest had returned. From the corner of his eye he watched as her fine fingered left hand emerged from its woollen cocoon, a large dark brown graze covering the pad of her thumb. She twisted the volume of the cheap radio-cassette and Lindsay's voice dropped to a murmur. Slowly Jacobs beautiful passenger's head twisted on her slim neck and Jacob found his gaze torn from the road.
"Do you want to know why I'm running?" She asked softly.
The drivers' breath caught, Marianne's eyes were that of a stormy sea, dark, dangerous and inescapable. Jacob found that he did not want to know under any circumstances, ever. But the woman's eyes washed over him, their dark waves forcing him below their surface, him fighting but failing and finally saying 'yes'.
Magic he couldn't say 'no' to.
She smiled and her spell broke, the driver snapping his attention back to the ever-present white line before them.
Marianne began her story with a steady, even voice that belied the tears that Jacob was sure he saw in her eyes.
With every word the pain in his chest seemed to increase.
"I have to start a long time ago", she said over the bug like murmur of the radio, "eight years is a long time when you're twenty-two."
"I was fourteen when I was first raped, he was a boy in my history class and I was a virgin." She paused and Jacob, a lump the size of a golf ball in his throat, stole a look.
"I thought it was normal. I had nothing to compare it to you understand." She met his gaze with her own, and his eyes suddenly felt hot and heavy. Marianne nodded to the road and obediently Jacob studied the crescent of light before the car.
"It sounds so silly when I say it out loud. He said yes, and I said no. So, being the stronger, he took what he wanted. It wasn't long before he left me lying on the thin, worn carpet tiles of the classroom with my blouse and underwear torn from me.
"I never told a soul. My mother died in childbirth and my father", her voice faltered and there was another pause before she recovered and continued, "my father wasn't much of a father. He never hurt me, but he never had much time for me either, I was the invisible girl.
"It wasn't until a long time later that I connected what happed to me with the word 'rape'. I was probably seventeen or so, and the incident had faded in my mind to a grotesque dream. Up until recently that's exactly what I thought it was, a vivid dream like I sometimes have.
"Eventually I met someone." Marianne's voice dropped low, her gaze examining a far off world as Jacob watched from the corner of his eye. Her words had been accompanied by a dull irregular drumbeat that boomed through his head and settled behind each ear.
In his chest the pain thumped in unison.
"He was nice", her voice had gained a lilting, singsong quality of miss-managed opportunity, "I liked him a lot, but when he began to ask for things I couldn't give I grew afraid and ran from him."
"That's when things got bad. Wall's in my mind crumbled to dust and I couldn't pretend it was a dream any more." The woman's eyes cleared and she looked over to him.
"My father took me to see a shrink, and then a specialised councillor and I met other women who'd been hurt in the same way.
"Eventually I began to cope again, four years; a quarter of my life was spent trying to deal with it. I never left the house, unless it was to go to the centre, but after a while I discovered that I could, just. The world began to feel real again."
Marianne's eyes clouded, and Jacob felt his legs go numb with sudden fear. Just as quickly her eyes cleared and she smiled a shocking open smile, but Jakes far did not abate.
"For the last year things had been fine, until tonight. I even began to lose my fear of men." She said, sliding down into her seat, her look drifting mercifully from him.
"There was a girl at the centre called Jenny who I spoke to more than most and it was her brother that I began to see. I figured that the brother of a rape victim must be safe."
Unbidden the driver found his gaze upon her again, his fear turning to horror as she waited, jaw set and eyes straight ahead. He too waited, knowing he'd have to ask, knowing what she'd say.
"What happened tonight?" Jacob said in a quiet, drained voice. The voice of a corpse dragged from a grave.
"All that you think did", Marianne responded, "and much more besides."
He turned his head from her dizzying image, back to the road, the never-ending road. The nape of his neck had begun to tingle and the hairs on his arms had stood, as if trying to abandon him.
"We were on our way home; we'd gone to one of his friends parties. Me, him, Jenny, and her boyfriend." Her left hand made an appearance again, to tuck a loose strand of hair behind an ear; its job done it disappeared once more.
"Jenny was stoned", she reminisced sadly, "she was always stoned, she and her man had the back seat and they'd began to use it before she passed out, but he went on and used her anyway."
Her voice broke, groaning rather than speaking her last words, the driver grasped the wheel in bloodless hands.
Suddenly a shaking fit ripped through him, his whole body quaking for perhaps thirty seconds before settling. Jacob gasped, the world greying as he fought to control his turbulent cocktail of emotions. Next to him Marianne calmly watched, waiting before collecting herself to continue.
"From the corner of my eye I watched as her brother grinned brainlessly and I knew I was in trouble. Before long, bored with her I suppose, the thing on her call to Tim, her brother, to pull over, then they both leered at me and the car turned to ice and my clothes to vapour." Fresh tears spilled down Marianne's cheeks and she no longer groaned the words, she sobbed them.
Jacob sat in the pocket universe of his car, trapped with passenger's anguish and his own hot shame, a miniature hell on wheels. In the passengers seat Marianne coughed taking a deep breath.
"I probably begged I hoped I didn't but I think I probably did. I know I fought and kicked, but there were two of them." She shrugged, her head lolling to one side drunkenly. "It took years of forcing and punching and hurting before they had their fill. Then they sat back in the car and waited, Tim smiling and saying. 'C'mon honey get in.' it was the smile that did it I think. I mean he actually smiled!"
Another shaking fit ripped through Jacob and again Marianne waited for the phenomenon to pass. He glanced across to her questioning gaze, then back at the road.
"I think its shame", he said, making believe he was alone, that he wasn't speaking to this emotional storm disgusting as a woman. "Serial killers are men, rapists are men, men designed the H-bomb and men used it. I'm not saying that a world of women would be perfect, but it'd be a better one I'm sure."
Jacob frowned and bit his lip in frustration. Sighing he asked. "You hurt him didn't you?"
"I did more that that", she replied through a grim smile, "in the glove box he always kept a few tools. So when I sat down in the passenger's seat I calmly popped it open and reached in. My eyes were fixed on Tim so I reached in blindly, grasping the first thing my fingers touched. He was looking at me like a fool, mouth half open to speak and before he knew it, before even I did, the tip of the screwdriver I'd grabbed pierced his lip, smashing a tooth before I felt it pop through the back of his throat. I think it went into his spinal column because he twitched, spasms, and then just died, simple as that.
"Boring really, he died so damn easy it made me mad. The other big brave man bolted for it, ran."
Marianne laughed shrilly and Jacob winced. Strangely he felt little fear now, just a dull sadness that complemented the pain in his heart to perfection.
"Ran from little me", Marianne finally continued when her fit had passed, "I caught him easily, and he was floundering around like an elephant. This was before the rain, while there was still light. I still had the blue handled screwdriver, so I struck out with it, he screamed and we toppled over together, me scratching the hell out of myself on the tarmac. Blood pumped out everywhere, he was choking and gagging, coughing it up. I sat next to him and watched until he stopped, the screwdriver sticking out of his throat at an odd angle.
"I wondered if there was a saw in the car, so I could cut up the bodies and leave them out for the birds. I thought of Jenny still lay on the back-seat and I thought of killing her too, putting her drug intoxicated brain out of its misery, but instead I stood and walked away."
Her tale told; the young woman looked down, studying her arms that were hidden beneath the thick sweater.
Slowly the world solidified around the Jacob once more, the radio's murmur, the cars engine, and the warm air coming from the heater becoming real again, as he was released from the vicious world of Marianne's past.
"That's all of it really; I began to walk the road and a long while later you came along." She paused for a lifetime, eyes darting around, desperate for a distraction, finally finding the radio he turned it up.
"Well?" She asked finally over the sound of Lindsay's voice, and then her own voice dropped to a whisper. "Are you going to say something?"
Jacob sat his face an impassable wall, staring out over the headlight beams. It was impossible for him to put it all together.
She was both incapable of committing such acts, and telling the whole truth simultaneously. He looked across to her.
"What are you going to do?" He asked, voice calm.
"I don't know." She said, her words belittling the profound depth of her loss, but she knew that she did. Only one option really presented itself, an option hidden from Jacobs view. Her right hand, forever hidden, made its début, unfolding like a flower exposing its secret treasure.
Jacob screamed, for the second time his feet slamming down on the clutch and brake, the car skidding.
Blood fountained as the Stanley knife, the one that lived in the car's glove box, bit deep into flesh, slashing through veins and tendons with little resistance.
The car stopped and Jacob pounced at the blade bit again. Her hands encircling her forearm but the cut, from wrist to elbow, deep enough to show bone, a crevice that led to her very soul, could not be closed. The knife switched hands and, weakly, Marianne opened her other arm, Jacob wresting the blade from her before it cut too deep. It fell to the dirty carpeting beneath the passenger seat, and Jacob ignored it, his hands busily trying to cut off Marianne's gyrating flow of blood.
Weakly she whispered words that even his own furious heart and frantic hands he could still hear, words she repeated until she spoke no more.
Jacob howled the black, feral howl of a lone beast. When the howl faded he sat and ran her last words over and over in his head. His whole body shaking as he sobbed, crying because he knew of nothing else he could do. Through his confusion, pain and shame her words, her final wish, cut, driving him out of the car into the rain.
Around the car he wondered, his body on automatic, his mind elsewhere as he prepared, working long her words, her commandments.
It didn't take long for him to finish, even so his arms were blue, his legs non-existent as they carried him away from the car that was to become Marianne's final resting place.
He felt the heat before the explosion robbed him of his hearing. He felt his unprotected neck burn and his hair caught fire. His body lifted, carried along by a purifying wind that he's help unleash, flames licking over his skin, clothes setting aflame.
Jacob slammed into the ditch at the side of the road, into the rainwater caught within that doused his burning body, its ice cold mercifully killing the pain of his broken form.
There he laid, eyes staring into the black sky, hard rain pelting down on him, a drunken weariness flowing through him, his eyes fluttering closed.
It would not take long he knew.
As he died Jacob remembered Marianne's final words; 'don't let them touch me Jacob, please don't let them.'
He remembered her dark, sad eyes and her royal cheekbones.
He remembered her tears, but most of all he remembered her pain and his own hearts empathic but feeble echo of it.
They can't touch you now, he thought.
In the never ending cruelty of the road the car burned, turning flesh to smoke.
In the cold lonely ditch Jacobs frozen heart stopped, and across his lips, cold and dead as they were, a sad smile stretched.
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BAYYATH ONLINE
Reality of Realization
Sufi Masters
Sufi Path
Divine Knowledge
Self-Purification
More Selected Speeches
Naqshbandi Centers
Visiting Sheikh Nazim
Nazim Villa
The Origin of the Naqshbandi Order
An introduction to the most distinguished Naqshabandi Tariqat
By Moulana Shaykh Muhammed Nazim Adil Al Haqqani Al Qibla.
Shaykh Muhammed Nazim Al Haqqani says, "It is important for us to know about the beginning of Tariqat un Naqshbandiya til aliyya, if you do not know this, it is a huge imperfection. It must be perfect for anyone who is interested in or is in Tariqat Naqshabandiya must know where this tariqat began and where it came from, that is only one of the secrets that has been revealed about the Night of the ascension to the hearts of the saints through the transmission of the Golden Chain of the Naqshabandi Order." Many more visions were given to the Prophet (s), but there is no permission to reveal them.
That Night the Prophet (s) was ordered by God to perform fifty prescribed prayers a day. He asked God to shorten it to five prescribed prayers a day on the advice of the Prophet Moses alai his saalam. He returned from the night journey, and the first one to believe him was Abu Bakr as Siddiq (ral). The unbelievers, hoping to ridicule him, asked him to describe Jerusalem. He described it in all its details. The unbelievers were humiliated.
Persecution against the Prophet (s) and his companions escalated. Then God sent him the helpers from Madinah. Islam had begun to spread among the tribes of this small oasis not far from Makkah. God gave the believers permission to emigrate to Madinah, the home of the helpers. Abu Bakr (ral) wanted to emigrate, but Muhammed (s) told him, not yet, wait and maybe you will travel with me. There is a very important event, which must take place.
The Prophet (s) departed at night with Abu Bakr (ral) and left behind him Ali (ral) to impersonate him in his bed. On the way he stopped to hide in the cave of Thawr. Abu Bakr (ral) said, "O Prophet (s), do not enter, I will enter first.? In his heart he thought that there might be something harmful inside. He chose to encounter it first. He found a hole in the cave. He called the Prophet (s) to come in while he put his foot over the hole. The Prophet (s) came in and lay down with his head on Abu Bakr (ral)'s lap.
A snake inside the hole began to bite the foot of Abu Bakr (ral). He tried not to move although he was in great pain. Tears flowed down his cheeks. One warm tear dropped on the blessed face of the Prophet (s). At this, as was mentioned in the Quran, "He said to his friend, 'grieve not for verily God is with us [9:40]. He also said, "What do you think of two when God is the third" (Bukhari). Abu Bakr (ral) said to the Prophet (s), "O Prophet of God, I am not sad, but I am in pain. A snake is biting my foot and I am wo ied that it might bite you. I am crying because my heart is burning for you and for your safety." The Prophet (s) was so pleased with the reply from his beloved Companion that he hugged Abu Bakr as Siddiq (r), put his hand on his heart and poured the knowledge that God had given him into the heart of Abu Bakr (ral). That is why he said in a Tradition, "Whatever God poured into my heart, I poured into the heart of Abu Bakr."
Shaykh Muhammed Nazim al Haqqani, describing some of the secrets given to the Naqshbandi saints, says, following this the Prophet (s) put his other hand on the foot of Abu Bakr as Siddiq radhiyallahu anhu and recited, 'In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate,' and the foot was immediately healed.
Then he ordered the snake to come out and the snake came out, coiling itself in front of the Prophet (s). Then the Prophet (s) said to the snake, 'Do you not know that the flesh of a Siddiq is forbidden to you? Why are you eating the flesh of my companion?' He replied to the Prophet (s) in a perfect and pure Arabic, 'O Prophet of God, were not all things created for your sake and for your love? O Prophet, I too love you. When I heard that God Almighty and Exalted said that the best community is your community, I asked him to prolong my life, to grant me the honour of being from your community and to look at your face. God granted me that wish and that honour. When Abu Bakr (r), put his foot in that hole, it blocked my sight. I wanted him to move his foot to enable me to see you. The Prophet (s) said, "look at me now and fulfill your wish". The snake looked and looked. After a while, it died. The Prophet (s) ordered the jinn to carry the snake away and bury it.
Then the Prophet (s) said to Abu Bakr (ral), There was no need to stop in this cave, except that a significant event will happen here. The light of the root of the spiritual tree which is going to spread over all humanity the Light coming directly from the divine presence, will appear here. God has ordered me to transmit it to you and to all the Naqshbandi sufi followers.'
This lineage was not called the Naqshbandi at that time, but was known as the children of Abu Bakr as Siddiq (ral), and he was known to Saints, as the 'father' of this line.
God asked the Prophet (s) to order Abu Bakr as Siddiq (ral) to call all the masters of the Golden Chain who are the inheritors of Abu Bakr (ral). The latter called the GrandShaykhs of the Golden Chain, all of them, from his time down to the time of the Mahdi (alai). All of them were called through their spirits from the world of souls. Then he was ordered to call the 7007 Naqshbandi Saints. Then the Prophet (s) called the 124,000 prophets. Abu Bakr as Siddiq (ral), by order of the Prophet (s), ordered every GrandShaykh to summon all his followers to appear spiritually.
Then Abu Bakr as Siddiq (ral) ordered all the shaykhs to take the hands of their followers to receive initiation. He put his hand above them all. Muhammed (s) put his hand above all of them. God put His Hand, the Hand of Power, over them all. God by himself, put on the tongue of everyone present His recitation. He told the Prophet (s) to order Abu Bakr as Siddiq (ral) to order all the saints present with their followers to recite what they were hearing from the voice of power,
Allah Hu Allah Hu Allah Hu Haqq
All of those present followed their shaykhs. The shaykhs followed what they heard the Prophet (s) reciting. God, Almighty and Exalted, taught the secret of the dhikr, known as Khatm al Khwajagan (recitation of the masters), to Sheikh Abdul Khaliq al-Ghujdawani (ral), who led the first dhikr among the saints of this order. The Prophet (s) announced to Abu Bakr (ral), who announced to all saints, that Sheikh Abdul Khaliq al Ghuijdawani is the leader of the Khatm al Kwajagan. Everyone was honoured to receive that secret and light from Khwaja Abdul Khaliq al Ghujdawani (q), in the presence of all saints, in the presence of Abu Bakr as Siddiq (r) , in the presence of the Prophet (s), and in the presence of God Almighty the Exalted. Anyone who accepts initiation from us or attends our dhikr must know that he was in the cave at that blessed time, in the Presence of the Prophet (s), and that he received all of these secrets then. These secrets have been transmitted to us from the masters of the golden chain, through Abu Bakr as Siddiq (ral) . Abu Bakr as Siddiq (ral) was overjoyed and astounded with what took place in the cave. He understood why the Prophet (s) had chosen him to be the companion of his emigration. The Naqshbandi Shaykhs consider the events in the cave as the foundation of the spiritual Way. Not only is it the source of the daily devotion, but the souls of all members of the order were present together at that time.
After the events in the cave they continued on to Madinah. When they reached Quba, a village near Madinah, on a monday in Rabi ul Awwal, they stopped for several days. There the Prophet (s) built the first, mosque. They continued on their way on a Friday, after praying the first Fridat congregational prayer at Quba. He entered Madinah with his friend, amid shouts of "Allahu Akbar" and "Praise belongs to God," and the excited, joyful happiness of everyone. He moved to the place his camel stopped. It is there that he built his mosque and his home. He stayed as a guest in the home of Abu Ayyub al Ansari radhiyallahu anhu until his mosque was built.
When the Prophet (s) went to Madinah, it was full of disceases. As soon as he arrived, the disceases disappeared. It is also said, all of us who were present in the cave also accompanied the Holy Prophet (s) and Hazareth Abu Bakr as Siddiq (r) along with all the Great Sheikhs and Imams of the most distinguished Naqshbandiyya Tariqa to Medina .
© 2022 by Nazim Villa

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Kansas Files Notice to Overturn Judge's PP decision
By Kathy Ostrowski, Kansans for Life Legislative Director
Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt
Kansas' Attorney General yesterday filed a notice of appeal asking the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn Federal Judge Thomas Marten's order that blocks Kansas from contracting primarily with public health clinics for the provision of Title X family planning services. In a separate motion, the state also asked the appeals court to immediately suspend the judge's order pending the appeal of his decision.
The 2011-2012 state budget instructs Title X contracts be prioritized to full service health providers. Judge Marten agreed Planned Parenthood would suffer irreparable harm if the statute were to go into effect and (in his words) ruled, "The purpose of the statute was to single out, punish and exclude Planned Parenthood."
Marten's ruling was rebutted, point by point, in a 24-page brief penned by James Armstrong of the Foulston-Siefkin law firm, hired to handle this issue by state Attorney General Derek Schmidt. The appeal verbally raked Judge Marten over the coals for his "zeal to find a bad legislative motive," causing him to get so many points of law just plain wrong in his August 1 ruling.
* Armstrong stresses that it is impossible to find a direct –or even indirect—conflict between federal Title X law and the Kansas proviso prioritizing public health clinics as subcontractors.
* Even if Marten's position were correct that the budget instruction 'must be about abortion,' the appeal said "it simply cannot be that the right to obtain an abortion in certain limited circumstances, or even to advocate for abortion, trumps both federal and state spending authority, as well as the state's sovereign immunity."
* Armstrong argues that Marten "added words" to the Title X federal statute and wrongly decreed that grantees may not freely sub-contract, and must use any qualified applicant—which is simply not in the law. In fact, Armstrong points out, if Marten's error were really the law, then in those states where Planned Parenthood is the grantee, it could be forced to subcontract with pro-life entities!
Planned Parenthood had argued that without the injunction, it would have annually lost $330,000 in federal funding and been forced to close its clinics in Hays and Wichita. The appeal faulted Marten for failing to dismiss Planned Parenthood's unsupported "rank speculations" about irreparable harm, because it admitted it was already covering annual shortfalls of $264,000 from those two clinics.
The appeal criticized Marten for issuing judicial "relief" without meeting the requisite burdens of proof. For example he accepted Planned Parenthood's "naked allegation" that clientele could not be handled by the Wichita health department. (It is a premiere multi-million-dollar-funded service, four times as large as the Wichita Planned Parenthood, and annually serves the reproductive health care needs of 14,000 low-income women and 121,000 families who receive assistance through WIC—the Women, Infants, and Children program).
In fact there is no shortage of outlets in Kansas that provide the services typically reimbursed under Title X. Kansas' Secretary of Health & Environment, Dr. Robert Moser, said, "Title X was not intended to be an entitlement program for Planned Parenthood. Other providers are already offering a fuller spectrum of health care for Kansas patients."
Last month in a separate lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Carlos Murguia issued an injunction against the state's new abortion facility regulation law. The injunction will stay in effect until there is a trial in the lawsuit which involves the other two Kansas abortion clinics—Aid for Women and Center for Women's Health.
Your feedback is important to improving National Right to Life News Today. Please send your comments to daveandrusko@gmail.com. If you like, join those who are following me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/daveha
Categories icon NRLC
Tags icon abortion, family planning, Kansans for Life, Kansas, PPFA
Sex Selection Eugenics
Wisconsin Right to Life Celebrates Retention of Pro-Life Majority in Senate


Investment Services offer people in our community a full range of financial products and services. We believe that tax planning, retirement planning, and estate conservation strategies should be a top priority for individuals and families of all ages and income ranges.
That's where Investment Services can help. Our goal is to take the mystery out of investing, managing risk, preparing for retirement, and preserving your wealth. By helping you acquire the information and strategies you need to pursue your financial objectives, we hope to establish long and trusted relationships with our clients.


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With Lake Ontario levels below 2019, IJC stops deviating from Plan 2014
WRVO | By Payne Horning
ceedub13
Flickr, Creative Commons
Moses-Saunders Dam
The international governmental body that helps regulate water levels in Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River has been reducing how much water is being released from the Lake through the Moses-Saunders Dam.
The International Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River Board had been deviating from the prescribed outflow levels set forth in its water management plan, Plan 2014, since last October in order to avoid a repeat of flooding along the Lake Ontario shoreline in 2019. But officials now say that thanks to higher outflows, when Lake Ontario peaked in early May it was 20 inches lower than where it peaked last year.
"Lake Ontario has peaked early and will keep dropping, so the Board is no longer deviating from Plan 2014," said Stephen Durett, the U.S. co-chair of the Board.
By lowering the outflows from Lake Ontario, the Board hopes to make navigation in the St. Lawrence River safer and raise the water levels in Lake St. Lawrence, which officials say are extremely low.
See current water levels here
Durrett said the Board's forecasts show that Lake Ontario will continue to decline for the rest of the summer. However, Lake Ontario is still about a foot above its long-term average currently and is experiencing record inflows from Lake Erie. So, the Board plans to keep outflows at the highest level allowed under Plan 2014 while also maintaining safe navigation in the St. Lawrence River.
"We're going to keep very close tabs on it and keep monitoring and make adjustments to our strategy as necessary depending on what the weather conditions actually do," Durrett said.
Board officials estimate that the deviation from Plan 2014 shaved off seven inches from Lake Ontario's peak this year.
Correction: A previous version of this article said water levels on Lake St. Louis were extremely low. It is Lake St. Lawrence that is experiencing very low water levels, not Lake. St. Louis. We regret the error.
Regional News Lake OntarioIJCSt. Lawrence RiverRegional NewsLake Ontario floodingInternational Lake Ontario - St. Lawrence River Board
Payne Horning
Payne Horning is a reporter and producer, primarily focusing on the city of Oswego and Oswego County. He has a passion for covering local politics and how it impacts the lives of everyday citizens. Originally from Iowa, Horning moved to Muncie, Indiana to study journalism, telecommunications and political science at Ball State University. While there, he worked as a reporter and substitute host at Indiana Public Radio. He also covered the 2015 session of the Indiana General Assembly for the statewide Indiana Public Broadcasting network.
See stories by Payne Horning
Shipping season opens on Lake Ontario after delay over water levels
Lake Ontario continues to rise, IJC gives board authority to deviate from Plan 2014
Weather factors help ease concerns about Lake Ontario shoreline flooding


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Q: Measuring Email Send Speed The Trailblazer "Email Send Speed Optimization" section does a fine job explaining WHAT send speed is and what to consider, but it doesn't explain HOW to measure send speed.
Is the speed simply the difference between "PickupTime" vs. "DeliveredTime" on the _Job Data View?
Ref: https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/email-send-speed-optimization/measure-send-speed

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Employed since November 2016 as a research assistant at the Division of Speech and Language Pathology, Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology at the Karolinska Institutet (KI). Before this, Sofia did her post-doc at the same department, focussing on increased integration between courses on the Study Programme in Speech and Language Pathology.
Earned her doctoral degree in April 2014 at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm (KTH), with a thesis focusing on perceptual consequences of misarticulated speech in children – how these children's speech are perceived by adult listeners and by the children themselves. Apart from her M.Sc degree in SLP (Lund, 2007), Sofia also has a M.Sc degree in computational linguistics (Uppsala, 2000).
The main focus in Sofia's research is perception of pathological (or otherwise non-typical) speech – how speech is perceived by the speakers themselves, as well as by other listeners. This research involves perceptual instruments that – in contrast to traditional categorical measures – are sensitive to fine phonetic variation in listeners' perception of non-typical speech.
An additional research focus are the communicative consequences of producing misarticulated speech, particularly with regards to intelligibility. This research involves listener evaluations performed in real-time, where listener reactions are registered during the continuous playback of connected speech. This method has been used for registering listener reactions to misarticulated speech in children, but also for the perceptual evaluation of speech recorded from speakers with acquired neurological conditions. By relating listener reactions to annotated events in the speech signal, this method could potentially address questions like "which specific voice/speech problems contribute the most to unintelligibility?" or "which specific voice/speech problems are most salient to naïve listeners?". These instruments are used in the project Functional consequences of misarticulation in children's continuous speech.
Sofia also has a more broad interest in speech and language disorders in children, and how these may affect everyday life activities, such as when interacting with peers, family and others. Questions relating to this interest have mostly been investigated in student projects, under Sofia's supervision.
Since 2016 responsible for various courses at the Study Program in Speech and Language Pathology; particularly involved in courses relating to children's typical and atypical speech and language acquisition. Supervises Master theses (30 credits, advanced level).
During 2014-2016 guest lecturer at the Department of linguistics and philology at Uppsala university.
Sofia's post-doc project involved the pedagogical development of the Study Program in Speech and Language Pathology at the Karolinska Instiutet during 2014-2016.


– What in the world is happening in Venezuela and to the people of Venezuela's gold?
As a sovereign nation, Venezuela should have the right to take possession of and sell their gold on the open market. As sovereign individuals, we should too.
It is a difficult issue as the recent election is in doubt and the concern is that the euros (or dollars) garnered by the sale of the people's gold reserves may be squandered trying to prop up the Maduro government rather than looking after the humanitarian needs of the people of Venezuela.
Central banks are repatriating and taking possession of their gold and indeed buying gold today. This tragic story highlights the importance of all people owning gold in the safest ways possible.
We must all become our own central banks!
What are the '7 Key Gold & Silver Storage Must Haves'?
2. Can you visit, view and collect your bullion whenever you want and is liquidity and competitive pricing ensured?
7. Can you visit, view and collect your gold bullion whenever you want and is liquidity and competitive pricing ensured?


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The Gay Man's Clique: Five Friends You Need!
August 13, 2017 Guysexual	3 Comments
Every guy needs friends, and every gay guy?
More so.
As we live our short, but fabulous lives, we collect friends like we collect discount coupons from the newspaper — greedily. You have friends that you unwind with, friend that wind you up, and some friends that even flake out on you like the wind (that would be me).
People come and people go, but some stay till the very end, or till last call, whichever comes first. These are the ones that matter; these are the ones that you make unfulfilled plans to vacation with.
Whether you are an out-and-about social butterfly, or a Netflix-binger of the most asocial kind, start those tabs, guys — because you'll be doing shots all night with these five friends every other weekend:
The Fag Hag
The Fag Hag is the crown jewel of the crew that the average gay man calls his own — she's vivacious, brilliant, and woefully brash — but you only cherish her for every bit of it. Your relationship with the Fag Hag is one of extremes — extreme joy and debauchery — which is built on a string of bad exes, internet memes and free shots at the bar.
Have you dissed each other's exes as you downed glasses of Ciroc? Check.
Made fun of someone you mutually hate over scrolls-worth of WhatsApp conversations? Check.
Proclaimed your undying love for each other every alternate date? Check and check.
The Fag Hag takes your love life seriously, and scrutinises all your romantic prospects down to the last detail, automatically loving or hating them based on 1) what they think of her outfit for the night, and 2) what your future artificially-inseminated kids will look like when they grow up.
The fact that she'll always be dismissive of your long list of conquests aside, remember one thing, boys. You'll be a great friend to a lot of people, but for her, you'll always be her every-day guy. Her 4 am friend. Her little pet. Her therapist. Her punching bag. Her shopping cart. Her grocery list. And occasionally, even her prescription reminder.
It won't be a problem, because she'll most certainly be yours as well.
The Diva is a strong mix of Kim Kardashian quotes, gin-based cocktails and bottled-up sass that would put the entire cast of Real Housewives Of New Jersey to shame — which means you also need to go through a few bottles of wine to go through a sitting with him.
In his bespoke shirts and Italian loafers, the Diva feels terribly out of place in your motley crew of misfits, and he makes it a point to tell you (repeatedly) so. He has an important-sounding job in an important-sounding organisation — which lets him eat at 'all the right restaurants', shop at 'all the right places', and date 'all the right boys'. He'll tell you all about it over expensive drinks (and repeatedly so), but never introduce you to any of them.
But that's the thing about the Diva — apart from his raucous jokes, his self-worth and his complete disregard for anyone's (or more importantly, your) feelings; he's a really nice guy. Plus, he is friends with 'all the right people in the world'.
Including you.
The Brozoned Buddy
Hidden behind deleted cookies, incognito windows and emptied caches; the brozoned buddy and you have a history that neither likes to bring up at the dinner table (or the bar). You've probably hooked up with him in the past, but decide to stay friends because of two reasons: The sex was bad, but the fallout that followed probably wasn't.
Now, months later, you bond over your (thankfully) similar taste in alcohol and (fortunately) different taste in men. You overcompensate your (un)resolved feelings by slurring out compliments to each other every time you hit the bar, because you don't want to make the mistake of hitting the bed ever again.
Have you ever called him your 'guuuurlfriend'? Yep.
Is he a 'Damn! You are a goddess' kind of boy? Oh yes.
Would he #SLAAAY? Most definitely.
Does that mean you are still attracted to him? Certainly not.
When you are not talking about each other's boy problems, you are sorting out each other's boy problems. You still look at each other's romantic pursuits with mild interest and milder jealously, but support the other wholeheartedly, because that's what friends do.
References to the past will never be made and if they do ever spring up, they are drowned over vodka shots and bad decisions you'll probably regret when you wake up the morning after.
Hopefully, separately.
Let's get it straight. The Husband is only here because his wife/girlfriend/lover wants him to 'try a bit harder and get to know her friends as well'. You both show a mild interest in each other's lives because of that one thing you have in common: his significant other. He'll ask you questions about your boys, you'll ask him questions about his work, all peppered with 'hellos!', 'how do you do's' and 'it's been so long's'.
You finally give up trying to get to know each other because it's going to be a losing battle — and now, you stick to politely nodding your heads at each other every time you hang out, chuckling over sports jokes that you don't get, chugging beer that you don't like.
The Lovebug
We might all be looking for love, but some of us look for love harder than others. The Lovebug is the ditzy lead character from every feel good rom-com — he falls in love so often (every week, if you want to keep a count) — he's a walking ad for Tinder. All it takes is a gorgeous, Rumi-spouting man to send him a charming hello on Grindr, and he's already planning out the wedding. Bonus points if it doesn't include a dick pic.
He's spoken about so many boys over quarters of cheap rum and soda, you've reached a point now where you just nod and smile every time he starts a new story because you've no idea who 'Sam from Santa Cruz' is.
CrewFriendsGayGay Best FriendsGay FriendsLGBTMean GirlsMotley CrewQueerSquadSquad GoalsThe Clique
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The fearsome Mt Baw Baw climb is tucked away out on the Baw Baw plateau around 120km east of Melbourne. The adventure out to the climb is as much of an experience as the ascent itself. The tight and twisting Mt Baw Baw Tourist Rd brings you in from the west, through the lush forest of the southern Victorian Alps. The drive is relatively long over its short distance but that just serves to build the anticipation of what's to come.
Hidden amongst the foliage is the road up to the 1567m high ski resort. This height is reached in short fashion by a narrow winding road that shoots straight up to the sky. This imitates one of Baw Baw's most famous flowering plants, the Eucalyptus regnans. It's the tallest flowering plant in the world and the second highest tree after the Californian Redwood. It is an apt plant to be growing beside the steepest challenge amongst the 7 Peaks climbs!
The infamous ascent of Mt Baw Baw grips you from the moment your tyres roll over the first few metres. The climb itself has an even gradient over its length, although the fact that gradient comes in at 11% means you won't be focusing on much more than just trying to survive! The start of the climb is rather inconspicuous as the undulating Mt Baw Baw Tourist Rd and South Face Rd from Noojee, if you choose to start your ride from there, makes you feel like you have been climbing for quite a while.
Hidden in the lush grass is the start sign, almost as if the mountain wants you to miss it, so it can slap you in the face with the surprise of its vicious gradient moments later. If you can spare a look away from your stem, the opening 1.5km along the South Face Rd provides beautiful views through the southern valleys of the Victorian Alps. It's more likely you'll have your head down, though, with the opening section touching 12% in places.
It is also a big 'if you can see the view' as it is dependant on the inclement weather, which can turn any sight-seeing venture into disarray quickly. Thick fog can blanket the range, although rather than being a nuisance (save for the cold that will no doubt accompany it) the fog can add to the mystical nature of the suffering. The towering eucalypti tower out of sight above and you're left alone with your thoughts.
Turning left off South Face Rd puts you back onto Mt Baw Baw Tourist Rd with the intersection providing a fleeting moment of respite. From there it's a 'pleasant' (as in slightly less brutal than what's about to come), cycle up to Winch corner. And this is where Baw Baw gets exciting. For now you face the maximum challenge, with over 20% gradient around a sweeping left - although the biggest challenge may not be tackling it but carrying on afterwards!
The gradient relinquishes control of your screaming quads for a fleeting moment around a hairpin before it's back to a stem chewing 11%+ to the top. This largely relentless assault on your body is what makes the Baw Baw climb such a brute. You don't have a chance to cruise a section and recover the energy before the next steep section, like other climbs among the 7 Peaks. It's 'only' 6.5km but it should be treated with as much respect as a full 30km climb like Hotham or Falls Creek. But the challenge is there for a reason, the 7 Peaks is an achievement to be sought out and conquered… not just gifted on a platter.
When you should ride Mt Baw Baw
Picking a window of good weather may prove difficult, but given the surface of the road isn't great it's best to be tackled in the dry if possible. The isolated location means the traffic, such as cars and motorbikes, isn't terrible during peak periods but the road is narrow so picking a quiet day with good weather can pay off.
Basing yourself out of Marysville or Healesville means that you can link the Mt Baw Baw climb with the Lake Mountain climb for a great weekend away. Vibe Hotel Marysville gives you the option of lunch and dinner at the hotel, which makes for a great base, whereas Healesville is bigger with more options for food.
The isolated location of Mt Baw Baw means you're best to be as self-sufficient as possible. Taking a packed lunch to put in a support car, if that is available, or carrying enough to eat is best.
Starting point – The Gantry, Mt Baw Baw Tourist Road
Finishing point – Mt Baw Baw Village Entry Gates, Mt Baw Baw Tourist Road
Distance – 6.4km
Average gradient – 11%
KOM – Matt Clark 27:04
QOM – Lizzie Williams 35:34
Village Central Restaurant. Open 9am to 5pm with 24-hour stamp access
Pacing – The steep gradient of Mt Baw Baw requires a nice and even pacing strategy. The moment you get carried away could be your undoing. Keeping things contained and the ticking over of the pedals will get you to the top.


A report into claims of bullying within the Great Britain cycling team has criticised British Cycling's board, former technical director Shane Sutton and funding agency UK Sport.
A "culture of fear" existed within the team, according to many staff members.
The chair of the review, Annamarie Phelps, denied the long-awaited report was "a whitewash" after a more damning draft was leaked in March.
Sutton is said to have worked within a "power pocket" without real oversight.
However, the report's language and some of its conclusions are significantly diluted from the draft that was written at the end of February.
That draft was leaked to the Daily Mail in March and reportedly accused the British Cycling board of being "dysfunctional", "inept" and effectively covering up an internal investigation into Varnish's claims last year.
That section in the final report, however, is much altered, although the central message is still that the panel believes the board mishandled the case and failed to follow "contractual due process".
That follows the Maxwellisation process – which gives those criticised the right to reply – but Phelps denied the original criticisms had been toned down.
"I don't think there's a shift in tone. I think we've been as strong. We've changed some of the wording," she said.
UK Sport chief executive Liz Nicholl said a "root-and-branch review" of culture in high-performance programmes would be carried out.
"Any suggestion that UK Sport is about a winning-at-all-costs approach is frankly disturbing and it's wrong. It never has been and it never will be," she said.
"It's a missed opportunity," she said.
Many referred to "a culture of fear" over possible retribution or losing employment for speaking out.
BMX and mountain bike riders felt like "second-class citizens" in comparison to track athletes.
Co-commissioned by UK Sport and British Cycling in April 2016, the report – which dealt with 108 written contributions and 45 interviews – has cost about £90,000 to put together.
In response to March's leak, British Cycling admitted it did not pay "sufficient care and attention" to the wellbeing of staff and athletes at the expense of winning medals.
Australian Sutton, who quit in the wake of Varnish's allegations, was found guilty of using sexist language towards her but cleared of eight of nine charges against him. He was also cleared of any bullying allegations.
April 2016 – Sutton quit and was later replaced by British Sailing performance director Stephen Park.
October 2016 – Chief executive Ian Drake announced his resignation. Julie Harrington came in for Drake from the Football Association.
February 2017 – Bob Howden stepped down as chairman – though remained the organisation's president – and was succeeded by former Vauxhall chief Jonathan Browning.
June 2017 – Plans outlined for an overhaul of its medical services for athletes after it was scrutinised as part of an anti-doping investigation into a mystery medical package for Team Sky cyclist Sir Bradley Wiggins in 2011.
British Cycling's board of directors is set to be replaced after the governing body called an emergency meeting for 22 July to vote on reforms.


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Investor's Corner
Tesla (TSLA) receives "Buy" rating, $450 price target from Jefferies Financial Group
By Simon Alvarez
Just days after receiving a higher price target from CFRA and a vote of approval from New Street Research, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) has received yet another round of support from Wall Street. In a recent note to its clients, Jefferies upgraded Tesla from "Hold" to "Buy," while raising the company's price target from $360 to $450, representing a 24% gain from the stock's $363.06 closing price on Thursday.
In a note to clients on Friday, Jefferies analyst Philippe Houchois stated that Tesla's strengthening balance sheet, its resilient growth relative to the rest of the auto industry, as well as the company's improving productivity, bodes well for the electric car maker as a whole. Houchois noted that among the carmakers in the industry today, Tesla might be the only one that would avoid a "volume zero-sum game" or "negative margin trade-off in EVs."
"Tesla should continue to stand out with broader price points, battery security of supply, product edge and a brand that transcends the volume/premium divide. In short, in the year ahead we think only Tesla will avoid a volume zero-sum-game or negative margin trade-off in EVs," Houchois said.
While Houchois remains optimistic about Tesla's chances as a self-sustaining business, the Wall Street analyst nevertheless stated that it might be better for Elon Musk to reduce his direct involvement with the company's day-to-day operations. Instead, the Jefferies analyst noted that Musk should consider focusing on projects such as "product/vision/other ventures."
"Elon Musk's erratic behavior makes us wonder if he might be considering reducing his direct involvement in Tesla to focus on product/vision/other ventures. We think such a move might be better suited to Mr. Musk's talents than driving manufacturing efficiency and would benefit Tesla," Houchois wrote.
Apart from Jefferies' upgrade to a "Buy" rating, Tesla also received a higher price target from another Wall Street firm, Wolfe Research. In a recent note, Wolfe analyst Rod Lache gave TSLA an "Outperform" rating while raising the company's price target from $410 to $430 per share, on account of the electric car maker's capability to sustain the impressive performance it displayed in the third quarter.
Jefferies Upgrades Tesla to Buy from Hold; Raises PT to $450 from $360$TSLA #Tesla pic.twitter.com/98NO10BERr
— Vincent (@vincent13031925) December 7, 2018
As Wall Street adopts a friendlier stance on Tesla, the company's shares have proven resilient on the stock market. On Thursday alone, TSLA shares ended at $363.06, even trading as high as $371.25 on Friday's pre-market. The stock's price as of Friday's pre-market places it above a critical milestone, higher than the $359.88 conversion price on $920 million in convertible bonds that are due this coming March. The recent levels of Tesla stock also places it close to levels that were last seen back in August, during the first phases of Elon Musk's "funding secured" fiasco.
Tesla seems to be preparing itself for yet another delivery and production blitz this December, as the company attempts to deliver as many vehicles as it can to customers in the United States, whose $7,500 federal tax credit is set to expire by the end of the month. Amidst the company's plans to bring the Model 3 to international markets, as well as its aim of producing the $35,000 base variant of the electric sedan, Tesla's coming quarters would likely be even more historic.
Disclosure: I have no ownership in shares of TSLA and have no plans to initiate any positions within 72 hours
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The International Forum on Literacy Policies and the Development Objective (ODS) 4 was held November 13 and 14 in Mexico City. This event was organized by the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) and CREFAL, with the collaboration of the Ministry of Public Education of Mexico (SEP).
The objective of this forum was to define new directions oriented mainly to the countries that have higher rates of people with lower literacy levels, considering the lessons learned and achievements of the first stage of the Global Alliance for Literacy within the Framework of Lifelong Learning (GAL). It was mostly representatives of those countries who participated in the meeting.
At the end of the event, it was mentioned that one of the future activities to be carried out is the mapping of policies and experiences, undertaken by governments and NGOs, in order to provide a high-level panorama in terms of literacy. ICAE is considered to be partner in this initiative.


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Rapid research in a deadly epidemic pays off
Antivirus: A weekly digest of COVID-19 research
By Mary Beth Griggs Oct 17, 2020, 10:00am EDT
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Image: CDC
This week's US Food and Drug Administration approval of an Ebola drug is a big milestone in drug development — one that's closely tied to our current efforts to fight COVID-19.
Before COVID-19 started sweeping across the world, Ebola was one of the most high-profile viral diseases on the planet. "Everyone was ready to speed up and contribute and do things with Ebola that they don't routinely do because Ebola is such a dire situation," virologist Daniel Bausch told The Verge's Justine Calma last August. "There are a lot of bad diseases in the world, but there's not many that provoke the same sort of response and kind of an all-hands-on-deck approach to things."
A newsletter highlighting the COVID-19 research, developments, and stories that matter. Subscribe here!
More than a year later, and the Ebola experiments have finally paid off in more ways than one. The drug is an antibody treatment called Inmazeb developed by Regeneron, and dramatically helped increase survival rates in Ebola patients during an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). In addition to having a drug capable of treating Ebola, the trials also provided a blueprint for responding to future 'all-hands-on-deck' viral outbreaks. Researchers at the time piloted ways to responsibly conduct clinical trials in the middle of deadly outbreaks. Now, some of the same techniques that were piloted during the Ebola epidemic are being used to design clinical trials for COVID-19 treatments today.
The trial for the Ebola drugs focused on four possible treatments. Two of them, remdesivir and ZMapp, didn't dramatically reduce death rates in Ebola patients — at least not compared to their competitors. The other two had vastly better outcomes increasing survival rates among some patients to between 89 and 94 percent. They both used lab-grown antibodies known as monoclonal antibodies to help cure people infected with the virus. One of the successful drugs, REGN-EB3, later became Inmazeb.
"it is possible to conduct scientifically rigorous and ethically sound research during an outbreak, even in a conflict zone."
At the time, it was a new way of doing things. During the deadly outbreak of Ebola in West Africa between 2013 and 2016, clinical trials moved too slowly, and researchers weren't able to get enough data to draw conclusions about potential treatments. The scientists knew that Ebola would come back, and wanted to find a way to quickly test treatments during future outbreaks of the disease. The World Health Organization and many other international partners took the lessons from the West African outbreak and came up with a framework that could be used to ethically conduct clinical trials during future outbreaks.
The researchers put the plan into action when an outbreak started in the DRC in 2018. They faced particularly challenging circumstances, including distrust of government and health officials, unstable power supplies, and regional violence. But it still worked. "This trial showed that it is possible to conduct scientifically rigorous and ethically sound research during an outbreak, even in a conflict zone," the researchers wrote in a report published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2019.
The success of the 2018 Ebola trial, and others like it, are part of what helped COVID-19 research get going so quickly after the virus started spreading. Back in February, researchers had already started testing treatments, modeling their efforts off the Ebola trials in 2018. "What we learned from Ebola is definitely something that is helping us to be even better during this outbreak." Andre Kalil, a professor of internal medicine at the University of Nebraska Medical Center told The Verge's Nicole Wetsman in February.
There's still a long way to go. We're starting to see early signs of what drugs might work to treat COVID-19 under certain circumstances, and which might not. (Remdesivir got emergency approval by the FDA in May but it is now on thin ice again). But even at remarkably fast speeds, it still took two years for the Ebola treatment to go from clinical trials to full FDA approval. It probably won't take quite as long to see emergency approval of other COVID-19 treatments, but full approval may still be a distant speck on the horizon — even with all hands on deck.
Here's what else happened this week.
The Great Barrington Declaration's "herd immunity" strategy is a nightmare
This pandemic is set to go on for a long time. Many people would like to move on, and some have proposed some pretty unethical ways to do it. At Vox, Brian Resnick breaks down why a proposed 'herd immunity' strategy is a nightmare — and looks a lot like giving up.
(Brian Resnick/Vox)
A rare Covid-19 complication was reported in children. Now, it's showing up in adults.
A strange inflammatory syndrome appeared in some children with COVID-19 earlier this year. The condition is now showing up in a few adults, but it still seems rare.
(Erika Edwards/NBC)
'Nobody has very clear answers for them': Doctors search for treatments for covid-19 long-haulers
Researchers and doctors are still trying to figure out how to care for COVID-19 patients with symptoms that just won't go away.
(Lenny Bernstein/Washington Post)
NIH paused Eli Lilly Covid-19 antibody trial because of safety concerns
An antibody treatment trial was paused this week amid safety concerns. Stat reports that the NIH paused the trial because one of the two groups — either the placebo or the treatment — was doing better than the other.
(Damian Garde and Matthew Herper/Stat)
Johnson & Johnson pauses COVID-19 vaccine trial due to unexplained illness
Another trial, this one for a vaccine, was halted this week. An unexplained illness in a participant caused the trial to pause. It's the second COVID-19 vaccine trial to be put on hold. Two vaccine trials, run by Pfizer and Moderna are still underway in the US. (Nicole Wetsman/The Verge)
Pfizer Says It Won't Seek Vaccine Authorization Before Mid-November
For a while, Pfizer promised that it would have results from its vaccine trials by mid to late October. Now, they're saying that while they might have some data by the end of the month, they're not going to seek FDA authorization before November at the earliest.
(Katie Thomas and Noah Wieland/NYT)
Remdesivir Fails to Prevent Covid-19 Deaths in Huge Trial
A WHO trial of remdesivir found that it did not prevent deaths. The analysis has not been peer-reviewed yet, and some researchers say that the trial was not designed properly. (Katherine J Wu/NYT)
In the US, 50 States Could Mean 50 Vaccine Rollout Strategies
Maryn McKenna takes us through the potentially messy rollout of a future COVID-19 vaccine.
(Maryn McKenna/Wired)
The Guardians of Elmhurst
"Almost 4,000 people work in Elmhurst Hospital, and around 3,000 of them are women." Mattie Kahn highlights four of the women who helped keep Elmhurst Hospital running during New York City's horrifying COVID-19 spike earlier this year.
(Mattie Kahn/Glamour)
More than numbers
To the more than 39,393,994 people worldwide who have tested positive, may your road to recovery be smooth.
To the families and friends of the 1,105,462 people who have died worldwide — 218,602 of those in the US — your loved ones are not forgotten.
Stay safe, everyone.


No matter the message, the campaign, or the product launch, choosing between traditional and online PR methods is not always easy. More often than not, a mix of the two works best. To help you along, here are a few key elements to consider before planning your next campaign or launch.
What constitutes traditional public relations?
At first, public relations was used to address any issues surrounding a company's behaviour, with the aim to regain favourable public opinion. Today, it's very different: brands, companies, news, new products, new services, etc. are announced first to advertisers or to the media. The idea is to send a clear and specific message to a target market.
– Develop brand awareness. Make your company or products known.
– Increase visibility. Traditional PR will reach a larger audience thanks to large-scale media coverage.
What is online public relations, anyway?
Online public relations campaigns are employed in order to engender trust between a brand and its target market(s). Don't forget that people trust the recommendations of their friends, which increases the importance of influencers such as bloggers, YouTubers and celebrities. Online public relations are principally used to boost online presence. Social media is a source of awareness for brands and companies. Correct and strategic use of hashtags, proper sharing of pertinent content plus effective, targeted messaging, designed for changes on the fly, are all essential to a successful online campaign. Social media opens the door to brands and companies to humanize themselves and thus invite the target market to interact. This is one of the many advantages of online public relations.
These differences make public relations even more interesting and the possibilities endless. As such, customized, multi-platform campaigns designed to meet specific objectives are now, more than ever, the foundation for public relations success!


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Трёхсвятское — деревня в Малоярославецком районе Калужской области России.

История
Первые упоминания о Трёхсвятском встречаются в исторических бумагах, датированных серединой XVII века и связанных с Храмом «в честь святых мучеников Гурия, Самона и Авива».

Во время Отечественной войны 1812 года у отца Филиппа из личного хозяйства армейские фуражиры изъяли свиней и кур, рожь, ячмень, сено, солому. Зачастую батюшки сами пахали и выполняли крестьянские работы. Настоятель доносил в епархию:
За всем тем содержание имеем самое нужное, и оставшегося у нас скота содержать нечем, и к посеву семян ничего не осталось...

В настоящее время в храме ведутся реставрационные работы. Рядом построен домовый храм, в котором регулярно совершаются богослужения. Настоятель храма иерей Игорь Йовбак..

Население

Храм в честь мучеников: Гурия, Самома и Авива
 действующий приход Русской православной церкви
Первое письменное свидетельство о храме встречается в записях села Трёхсвятское, датированных серединой XVII века, в которых упоминается священник Родион Васильев (1669 год).
Церковь в Трехсвятском долгое время оставалась деревянной. В 1794 году её возобновили после пожара. Село было казённое, а не владельческое, строительство велось на средства прихожан.

В Клировых ведомостях XIX века отмечалось, что «церковь в Трехсвятском деревянная с таковой же колокольнею, на каменном фундаменте, зданием крепка, под железной кровлею, утварью достаточна».

В 1873 году церковь Гурия, Самона и Авива приписали к соседнему храму села Федоровское.
В отчете за 1916 год священник Иван Сергеевич Лихачев писал, что церковь и колокольня в Трехсвятском становятся ветхими.
Деревянная церковь сгорела по неизвестной причине в середине 1920-х годов

В начале XX века (1904—1910 года), на средства Алексея Михайловича Глухова- местного жителя и владельца текстильной минифабрики возводится каменный храм который действовал до 1931 года. Треугольные щипцовые завершения и окна в арках южного и северного фасадов. В кирпичной кладке стен выложены декоративные элементы в духе русского узорочья XVII века: кокошники, отрезки поребрика, рельефные и заглубленные в кладку кресты, полуколонки наличников.

После закрытия прихода, со временем храм пришёл в запустение и был частично разрушен.
В настоящее время ведутся проектные и реставрационные работы. Приведены в порядок внутренние помещения храма. Установлен забор вокруг территории. Заготавливаются строительные материалы для полного восстановления.

Примечания

Населённые пункты Малоярославецкого района

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Bring a Big Break to the men of your church, group or community!
I've led many dozens of men's retreats over many years — and been blessed to sit around hundreds of campfires with thousands of men. There's just something special about that setting. That's why the very last thing written about Jesus' life by an eyewitness (the Book of John) is a story about Him sitting around a campfire with his apostles!
When you're ready to offer your men a Big Break, give me a call at 210-286-4875 or email me at mike@christianuprising.org.


Former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci took to Twitter on Tuesday to call for White House chief of staff John Kelly to resign over the controversy surrounding Rob Porter's resignation amid domestic abuse allegations.
The former White House communications director was fired by the chief of staff shortly after Kelly took over the role and about a week into Scaramucci's stint at the White House.
Scaramucci cited FBI Director Christopher Wray's testimony to the Senate intelligence committee on Tuesday, which detailed that the bureau repeatedly briefed the White House on the background investigation into former White House staff secretary Rob Porter, who resigned last week after news broke that he was accused of physically abusing his two ex-wives.
The White House has maintained that its staff, including Kelly, was not fully aware of the allegations against Porter until the initial news story broke last week. However, Wray testified Tuesday that the White House was given details of Porter's background investigation as far back as March 2017.
It's not completely clear what information was included in those background reports and White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Tuesday that officials hadn't completely passed on all the information to the White House by the time Porter resigned.
"Again, that would come through the White House personnel security office, which had not completed their investigation and not passed that information to the White House," Sanders said.
When asked if the report on Porter's background check had any information regarding the assault claims, Sanders said she didn't know.
"I wouldn't have access to that information. I wouldn't know the answer to that," Sanders said.
The White House maintained during the Tuesday press briefing that the president still has confidence in Kelly as chief of staff.


READERS' PICK: The American Home Furnishings Showroom next to the Tucson Mall offers an enormous selection of mass-produced furniture covering all the basics, from rustic to modern. Whatever room you need to fill, this low-key place will give you plenty of ideas of how to fill it: kitchen, bedroom, living room, office or elsewhere. Choose from the substantial in-house inventory, or order any style in the upholstery of your choice. It's fun, easy, and often less expensive than department store brands. But the real deal is the American Home Furnishings Warehouse, where you can find amazing deals on factory seconds and discontinued merchandise. We've seen those exceedingly popular rustic Mexican armoires and pie safes for a third of the price you'll score them anywhere this side of Nogales. This melting-pot of home décor is everything Americans are about: eclecticism, consumer demand and the pursuit of the perfect TV room--er, we mean happiness. The pursuit of happiness.
READERS' POLL RUNNER-UP: Copenhagen Furniture and Gifts, 3660 E. Fort Lowell Road.


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Graduate, The (1967): Mike Nichols (Overestimated) Youth Film, Starring Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft
September 16, 2007 by EmanuelLevy
Set in an affluent, upper-middle class suburb of Los Angeles, Mike Nichols' The Graduate deals explicitly with the generation gap, and in the process helped to widen that gap considerably.
At a time–the movie was released during the Vietnam War–when so many traditionally accepted American values were challenged by youth, The Graduate added fuel to the fire of the youthful rebellion and helped give a voice to those who felt they were suffering from the strife.
"The Graduate" is not concerned with the counterculture movement. There is just one scene in which Benjamin's landlord at Berkeley University asks him, "You're not one of those agitators, those outside agitators"? But the film presents a discontentedness that spoke for American youth, both mainstream and radical.
As a movie, "The Graduate" was also an idealistic and ultimately romanti growing-up story that caused many of the 1960s generation to reexamine their future and alter the course of their lives.
At the center of the film is Dustin Hoffman's Benjamin Braddock, who is like J. D. Salinger's Holden Caulfield in "The Catcher in the Rye": a perplexed, rather confused youngster, trying to find his own way.
In one scene, Benjamin tells his girlfriend Elaine (Katharine Ross), "My whole life is just a waste. It's just nothing." Benjamin's disillusionment is revealed at his birthday party, where he becomes the "feature presentation" for his parents' friends in a humiliating diving costume. As Dustin Hoffman put it, the character is "a walking surfboard." Benjamin was the first movie anti-hero for 1960s American youth, released before "Bonnie and Clyde," also in 1967, or Wyatt and Billy of "Easy Rider," in 1969.
Ben is a moralist anti-hero, seeking meaning in his life in place of his parents' shallow, materialistic life. Turning him into insecure, still virginal, in the end, the film rewards his never-abandoned seeking spirit with a regained and confirmed idealism.
"The Graduate" was stylistically and thematically a significant change of pace for Hollywood. Just as Benjamin questioned the values of his parents, "The Graduate," with its French New Wave jump cuts and extreme close-ups, and theme of sexual frankness, questioned the values of traditional Hollywood films, which had existed since the 1940s.
The film's first attack is on the "adult race," which takes a formidable beating from its progeny. Adults are portrayed as crass, vulgar, and insensitive in The Graduate. The upper-middle class milieu is stereotyped as wholly corrupt, beyond redemption, and devoid of true love. "The Graduate" portrays marriage as a prison for these adults: Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft) and her husband are certainly stuck with each other.
The message of "The Graduate" was, "No matter what, do not become One of Them." The film never compromises itself in its war on adults; there is never any reconciliation with adult society. In fact, as the film progresses, the young become younger and more attractive, and the old become only older and more frightful.
The illicit affair between Benjamin and Mrs. Robinson, the wife of his father's partner, leads to Benjamin's falling in love with Mrs. Robinson's beautiful daughter. At first, when Elaine finds out that Benjamin was sleeping with her mother, she doesn't want to see him anymore. But at the end of the film, due to Benjamin's persistence, romantic love is celebrated over calculated and self-serving sex as Benjamin disrupts Elaine's marriage ceremony to a "square" medical student. For the first time in Hollywood history, a man could have an affair with a woman and still marry her daughter, without going to jail.
At the end of the tale, when Elaine runs off with Benjamin, her mother Mrs. Robinson tells her it's "too late." Her daughter replies "Not for me," and gets a slap from mom. There are Freudian implications to this scene: Mrs. Robinson's repressed jealousy of her daughter's beauty, youth, and sexuality. All the adults are like the living dead, perplexed by and jealous of youth, who are innocent and pure. It's Mrs. Robinson who has to suffer the consequences of the affair, not Benjamin. She is the one who ultimately gets left out in the cold, losing her lover, her husband, and her daughter.
The scene where Benjamin ruins the wedding ceremony represents the most compelling and unforgettable moment in the film, where the themes of decrepit adult world and new sexual world came together. Suddenly, marriage was not holy in America anymore, even the "I do's" had been violated. As Benjamin and Elaine rush out of the church, Benjamin uses a cross as a weapon against the adults, and then traps them in the church by barring the doors with the cross.
The frankness of the film's language was one of the "The Graduate" strong points, and as such, inspired a new inhibition in popular discourse about sexuality. When Mrs. Robinson first seduces the nervous Benjamin, she blurts out "Would you like me to seduce you Is that what you are trying to tell me, Benjamin" Later, Mrs. Robinson asks Benjamin, "Do you find me undesirable" His answer is an insult, although seemingly unintentional: "No. I think you're the most attractive of all my parents' friends."
But the film also highlights and makes fun of the adults' "uncool" languageand, likewise, unauthentic young people, such as Elaine's fianc and in a brief scene, his fraternity buddies. Benjamin's father's friend tells him hilariously, "There's a great future in plastics." This becomes one of the film's major symbols: Plastic products stand for the adult world. They are a code for phoniness, sterility, and a "plasticene" life.
In another scene, Benjamin balks when Elaine says her "square" fianc told her they'd "make a pretty good team." This kind of business-like language is marked in the film as being fake, which must have had an effect on American viewers, teaching them what was cool to say and what was not.
The melancholy music of youth culture heroes Simon and Garfunkel, cannot be overlooked in regards to the film's success and impact on audiences. The Simon and Garfunkel songs, which are interspersed throughout the film, especially "The Sound of Silence," created not just a soundtrack for the film, but also a soundtrack for the lives of American youth at the time.
In an early scene in the film, Benjamin tells his father that, "I want my future to be… different." It is in this way that The Graduate spoke for young people of 1967.
The Graduate was nominated for seven Oscar Awards, but won only one, Best Director, which is a reflection of its originally tenuous relationship with dominant American culture.
However, the movie legitimized the youth counterculture and the generation gap, through non-conformist Benjamin Braddock, played to perfection by Dustin Hoffman.


Lake Como, one of the most beautiful spots in Italy, has been a vacation destination since Roman times. It's nestled into the foothills of the Alps, just south of Switzerland and an hour north of Milan. Without the busy monuments and museums of Italy's large cities, it's a perfect place for a relaxing getaway.
Don't let yourself get caught up in trying to plan lots of things to do - there aren't many here, and that's exactly the point. The main activity around Lake Como is to simply enjoy being there. Take life at a slower pace, lingering over all your meals and always allowing yourself a few extra moments to admire the views. Four or five days should be enough for leisurely walks and elegant villas to become your new routine, but stay longer if you want it to really sink in.
If you're traveling by train, you'll probably arrive in the charming town of Como, full of shops and restaurants. This is a beautiful place to spend an afternoon having a meal - try La Vita è Bella - and taking the quick funicular train up to your first view over the lake.
But the best of Lake Como lies further north, so board the next ferry to the heart of the region, Bellagio. Take the 50-minute speed ferry, or opt for the slower 2-hour ferry for a closer look at all the tiny villages that line the lakeshore. My advice: take the slow ferry up to Bellagio, and the speed ferry on your way back at the end of your trip, or vice versa.
Overlooking the three branches of Lake Como, Bellagio is possibly the most picturesque town in the lake district. It's also the most central spot, making it an ideal place to stay. Check into an apartment at Residence La Limonera, a room at Hotel du Lac or Hotel Florence, or splurge on a stay at Villa Serbelloni.
For your first evening in Bellagio, stroll through the center of town and keep walking all the way to the northern end of the peninsula. Surrounded by the mountains, the water, and the colorful lakeside towns, take in the panoramic view and have dinner at Ristorante La Punta, or spread out under the trees with a picnic.
One morning, wake up early and walk along the waterfront promenade. It's lined with benches and flowering trees, and it's especially peaceful early in the day. Stop in at a café for breakfast and watch the main street come to life.
Later, take a lake cruise to see the villas along the shore on your way to a delicious lunch. We saw Villa Carlotta and the famous Villa del Balbianello before our lakeside lunch at Locanda la Tirlindana.
Back in Bellagio, tour Villa Melzi or take a guided walk through Villa Serbelloni park. The park is owned by the Rockefeller Foundation, and is home to their inspiring Bellagio Center - and the best views in town. Have dinner under the wisteria at the Hotel Florence, or over the water at La Terrazza Metropole.
Anytime you want, walk through the narrow stone streets and let yourself get lost. When you're ready to see somewhere new, hop on the ferry to explore the nearby towns Menaggio, Tremezzo, Lenno, and Varenna.
Varenna, tucked into the eastern side of Lake Como, is equal parts colorful port town and medieval stone village. On your way into the city from the marina, you'll pass the charming Caffè Varenna Bistrot, a perfect place to stop for an aperitivo or a light meal.
In Varenna, there are countless pretty streets to follow up and down the hillside, with views of the lake and mountains all around. Take your time to explore, get a bit lost, and marvel at the sycamore trees that grow in the piazzas.
Make your way over to Villa Monastero and give yourself plenty of time to see the grounds and botanical gardens that stretch along the lakeshore. From the villa, follow the steep trail up to Castello di Vezio - the spectacular views over Lake Como are well worth the hike. Have dinner on the terrace at Ristorante Hotel du Lac, and watch the sun set over the mountains to the west.
'star' the map below to access it from the google maps app on your phone.