An honest review of the Frye Carson Ballet Flat (after a year and a half) | Save. Spend. Splurge.
I bought 2 pairs of Frye Carson Ballet flats in two different colours about a year ago, and now it's a year and a half later, so I figured I'd do an honest review on them.
I dropped about $300 in total for these flats, having bought them in-person at their Frye location in NYC.
As suggested by their salespeople, I bought them half a size smaller at 6.5. I'm normally a 7.
I wear them TO DEATH. As long as it's warm enough, I like to just slip on these ballet flats and go.
I wore them pretty much every day, 7 days a week for about 3-8 hours a day. I went EVERYWHERE in them, so trust me, when I say I wear these to death.. I WEAR THEM TO DEATH.
It's the reason why I bought 2 pairs to begin with, because I wanted to alternate them so that they wouldn't stink from my constant use of them (you need to let your shoes air out in between wearings).
The first few months were great. Super soft, super comfortable, great right out of the box.
They were a teensy bit tight because I bought them in a 6.5 but they stretched to a 7 pretty easily after 2 weeks or so.
I had to add on Dr. Scholl's padding in the back because my heels tend to always chafe in ballet flats and never stay in them, but otherwise, they were fantastic.
Even though they were at 6.5, they started to stretch beyond a 7. I had to add ANOTHER Dr. Scholl's padding at the back to keep them on my feet.
They were still wearable, but now my feet were starting to get pushed to the front, and the toe area started to stretch out even more than before.
They simply wouldn't stay on my feet.
Apparently, the heel on these things are a "base" heel, meaning there is a very THIN veneer of rubber on them, which wears out very quickly.
So when I took them into my favourite cobbler (Sole Survivor) in Kensington Market, they told me I should have come in months ago, because the heel had worn down so much that they had to rebuild the entire heel and put another rubber pad on there.
I kind of scratched my head because I hadn't really worn them THAT long to need to have them resoled, but it kind of made sense now why they were slipping on my feet — there was NO rubber traction so my foot was compensating by pushing forward even more to try and dig my toes into the shoe to keep them on my feet.
You can kind of see that little tiny, THIN black piece of rubber in the top picture at the back. That wore out within a month or less.
Even after I had them resoled, they were too stretched out to be comfortable any more. They would have fit a size 8, I'm sure.
I started putting Foot Petals on the front to try and get them to grip on my foot to stop sliding forward.
I was walking with a distinctive CLOP CLOP CLOP sound, and my mom remarked: Your shoes don't even stay on your feet or look comfortable. Your heel comes out like it's a slipper.
I added a THIRD layer of Dr. Scholl's padding at the heel.
… but it just got to be too much.
Now the shoes are just going to be shoes I use to quickly run outside or around the building and back in.
I won't be wearing them to walk outside at all.
You can see the indents of my toes pushing forward at the front, and the 3 layers of heel padding at the back.
The sole was not rubberized at the front, so you can see how much I wore it down after a year and a half.
The heel was pretty much done just 3 months ago, so it looks almost brand new. I regret wasting money on repairing them.
Leather is way too soft — soft leather is great, but not in a ballet flat. You need a balance between hard/soft.
VERDICT? I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND THEIR CARSON BALLET FLATS.
That said, I REALLY like their Frye Melissa Back Zip Back Button boots.
I find the sole VERY comfortable (I don't even need my Birkenstock supports), and they haven't stretched out at the ankles, and still look and feel great.
I did however, take the boots in to be re-soled by my cobbler immediately after buying them because if I drop $300 on a pair of boots, I want them to last.
So far, they're pretty awesome for the most part.
The button flaps are a bit annoying sometimes (especially at the heel), but they snap on after a few tries.
The back zipper is also slightly annoying on the right side to zip up, but the left side is perfectly easy to zip.
← Why don't I just let my partner provide for me while I am pregnant / on maternity leave?
Love the Carson ballet flats. I have 5 colors and am always checking for sales online. I wear size 8.5 and have small fine bones. I buy my regular shoe size and love the stretching as it makes the shoes even more comfortable. I don't wear hose with them and love how there is no stinky feet smell with real leather. I love the cut, the round toe…these shoes are the best!!
For me, not a great buy 🙁 I preferred the Banana Republic pointed flats that really cling to my feet.
Is the Carson Ballet blocked or goodyear welted? (I never saw them personally, I live in Brasil).
But, they look like stitched.
There is a way to shrink leather with water! I did it accidentally with a sneaker. Take a look about it on Google!
I think they were blocked and cemented with a stitching, there was no double stitching from what I saw!
Yes, I know I also shrunk leather once but then it looked terrible.
Maybe depends of the leather.
My sneaker looks like very nice, like 95% in appearance and texture (it is normal leather with nubuck details). And I didn't apply leather conditioner.
Thank you for sharing your experience with FRYE CARSON BALLET FLATS. Oddly, I haven't had the same experience with the pairs I have of these shoes. They are some of my favorite ballet flats for their style, variety of colors and finishes, quality workmanship and for their all leather – leather upper, lining and soles. One thing that might make the difference is what I learned from my brothers (taught to them by our dad), which is how they make their expensive, leather shoes last for-almost-ever. For starters, they never wear the same shoes for two days in a row. Although they might not look it, shoes hold onto a small amount of moisture and need to dry between wearing. This way they are less likely to stretch out or form to the shape of wearer's toes. To maintain the shape of my shoes, I invested in cedar shoe trees and even travel with them to place in my shoes immediately after wearing. Another thing is to regularly clean and polish my shoes with saddle soap and shoe cream, rather than waxy shoe polish. I own some very soft and perishable shoes, like Bally, and have managed to keep them looking new for several years. I currently own Frye Carson Ballet Flats is black, tan, cement, red as well as in "Blue Denim" suede, which have held up very well. I love Frye boots and shoes; and now that pointed toes are in fashion, I have purchased two pairs of the Frye Regina Ballet Flat for their toe and Frye quality. Some of the shoes mentioned by others have man made lining and/or soles, which are sure to make feet hot, sweaty and puffy. Maybe it's because I started out life in orthopedic shoes and night time leg braces, I am finicky about my shoes, borderline neurotic. Wear yours in good health.
I think what I need is a higher vamp on these flats. They keep slipping off… Or my foot needs flats that are elastic and really bendy.
Hi There: I would like to purchase your Frye Carson Ballet flats exactly in their present condition and knowing about your problems with them, please. Simply, I like the way they look. Please let me know what you'd consider a fair price and the shipping cost. Thanks.
I will look at Sam Edelman or Vince Camuto. Thank you!
I've had great luck with the Born Julianna flats. Love them.
I will look into those thanks!!
My favorite ballet flats are the Reva by Tory Burch. However, I am not sure where they are manufactured now (used to be Brazil in the beginning). Long lasting and flattering. The leather ones (matte or metallic) are more comfy than the other materials (the animal print ones were kind of too stiff in my opinion).
Frye boots will last a lifetime for sure! Too bad the flats stretch out so quick. I would never expect flats to last as long as a boot but that is too short for that price.
I paid a lot and expected more out of them than regular crap but this was not the case.
The leather is way too soft for a shoe. It has to be tougher and the vamp had to be higher.
Well, that's a disappointment. I'll be crossing those off my splurge list. I still haven't found the perfect ballet flat: durable, cute, comfortable, not made in China. Too many brands are designing for people who don't keep things for long.
*nods* I'm trying out Etsy now.
I am also on the hunt for a good quality ballet flat. I've been hearing about this brand "London Sole" .. have you thought about checking them out? The Daily Connoisseur really swears by them, she has a few pairs in her wardrobe and they always look SO CHIC!
@Tracy: Just a heads up, I was checking out the Daily Connoisseur's site and her family owns French Sole/London Sole. Which isn't to say they're not great shoes, just that she's probably a wee bit biased 🙂 I'm certainly intrigued, though — I've read great reviews elsewhere, and it seems that they're manufactured in France, Spain or Italy, which is a huge plus in my book.
Well that makes more sense. I haven't tried the brand though.. but I'd like to if they're good. I'm going with Etsy for now.
What brand is this one??
I bought a pair of Frye Carson flats in bronze back in early June and have worn them often over the summer. I usually wear an 8 (Euro 39) but was told to get an 8.5 (the size I wear in Frye boots – I have 2 pairs). Yes, they have stretched and yes, my toes are outlined in the soft leather, but luckily after 4 months wear, they still fit well. I also bought a back-up pair for when these are trashed. I hope I don't experience what you did with yours, because that would just be frustrating. I don't look forward to additional stretching because they are stretched just enough right now. I also found a pair of patent grey Carsons on ebay, but I have worn these less often.
I read your post on recommended ballet flats, which I found good. Maybe I will look into the Sam Edelman's next. Repetto's will probably have a lot of the same issues as the Frye's but at a higher price tag. Please keep us informed….
It was really frustrating for me but perhaps with your feet it is not as picky as mine.
Sam Edelman used to be good, but Repetto I find has NO support and cuts into my feet at the top. So far, no luck. I'll have to try Etsy.
Thanks for your response. Actually, I have very fussy feet: high arches and instep, slightly wide, some issues with plantar fasciatis. Luckily this has not been an issue thus far (though the Fryes are comfortable, they are not supportive for PF). Maybe the metallic leather and patent leather don't stretch as much as the regular leather ?!?
You say Sam Edelsen "used to be good" – what issues have you noted with them? I was hoping to pick up a pair of plum or burgundy flats from either them or Frye (or another brand)?
Perhaps? I have no idea but it was a terrible experience for me.
Sam Edelman is just uncomfortable now. No support in the style I tried, the top ballet flat cut into my vamp… I just hated it.


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The Collective Monstrosity of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre"
Directed by Tobe Hooper
Screening at Nitehawk on Friday (April 27) and Saturday (April 28) at 12:15am
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is one of a handful of films that punctuate the very life-blood of cinematic history. Intensely brutal with very little reprieve or consideration for the audience, Texas Chainsaw Massacre came out of a rift of a socio-cultural framework, bursting onscreen with the evisceration of the family structure, youth culture, and cultural fragility in a post-Vietnam United States. Like Night of the Living Dead did five years earlier, Texas Chainsaw Massacre reveals the unraveling framework of society and places the possibility of horror/death to occur anywhere; not in the Gothic castle nor in the fields of Vietnam but, more terrifyingly, in our surrounding neighborhoods.
The film represents a collective monstrosity where multiple monsters emerge from all angles. This barrage of the monstrous is reflected in the cannibal family, the irresponsible youth, and the cultural codes embedded within. In Tobe Hooper's world we are all monsters, killers, victims, and survivors.
Despite being Nitehawk's final film in its Raining Blood midnight movie series, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is actually quite bloodless. Famous for making viewers believe they saw something that was never there (no, you don't actually see her placed on the meat hook), the film does not contain much splatter despite being a full-force of brutality that comes in quick succession, blunt cuts, and nightmarishly insane characters. The power of suggestion is married with an intentionally violent and disturbed micro-universe to establish visceral terror.
And boy is The Texas Chainsaw Massacre a corporeal beast. Hooper constructs a rotting landscape of meat, flesh and bones found in the slaughterhouse, cured meat stand, graveyards, and the old farmhouse. From the salty sweat in the van to the suffocating dinner scene, the audience looks on to a modern version of hell. And in this house of death, the cannibals consume any fresh meat that comes within proximity, without sympathy; this is business as usual.
Embedded within this inferno are the fresh wounds of the Vietnam War and the resulting unstable domestic environment. This manifestation of immediate historical trauma can be seen in the empty gas station that prevents the teens from driving away (a direct reference to the 1973 U.S. gas crisis), distrust for authority (the teens are hippies and the sheriff a cannibal), reference to the serial killer and flesh-mask wearer Ed Gein, and in the overall elimination of youth. It's a film that attempts to incorporate the violent world of the early 1970s, turn it inside out, and expose the senseless killing of human kind.
Watching The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a charged experience, gritty and unrelenting, forty years after it came out is because Hooper presents a mini-apocalypse; the end of the world as the protagonists know it, the continuous cycle of death for the killers, and a window onto the world for the viewers. Enjoy the end of the world.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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CA Letters 394 – December
Your views on the latest issues raised in CA.
Dreaming about Dinas Dinlle
I was interested to see the news item in CA 391 on Dinas Dinlle (below). It reminded me of two family holidays enjoyed there, around 1960, in a guest house on the beach very close to the fort, which I climbed up most days. I think the building is still there, from photographs. I was reading T H White's The Once and Future King at the time, and the misty view across to Anglesey from the ancient fort seemed an appropriate setting for reading about this mysterious period of the past. Maybe it contributed to my later choice of research in the early medieval period – although I have worked in the brighter, drier air of East Anglia, and I am more sceptical about mystery and magic than I was in my teens.
IMAGEs: YAT-GAT 2021
Catherine Hills
Murder mysteries and maps
I saw in CA 392 that a British Historic Towns Trust book on Oxford has been published. My husband bought me the one on York and it is fascinating. I was reading a set of historical novels, Matthew Cordwainer Medieval Mysteries, set in York in the 13th century, and I had been bemoaning the lack of a map, which would allow me to relate places in the books to the city's modern layout that I knew reasonably well. When the book was delivered, we were both surprised at its size but immediately appreciated how interesting it is to be able to overlay maps to understand York's development. Most importantly for me was seeing where characters in the novels lived, worked, and were murdered. An interest in archaeology and history can take you down many different paths.
Jacquie Howard
Bramhope, Leeds
Puzzling pommels
Sword-guards and other pommel items are a puzzling component of the Anglo-Saxon Staffordshire hoard. There is a possible clue about them from samurai-era Japan in a wonderful book by Takashi Matsuoka: Cloud of Sparrows. In the book, a character gives Lord Genji a sword-guard as a token of allegiance. In the context of Mercia, they could also be tokens of submission to an aggressive king.
Richard Durrant
Portland, Dorset
IMAGE: C Hilts
Silly signage
Reading the 'Odd Socs' article on the Ministry of Works Signage Appreciation Society in CA 392, I was reminded of something my father, Sussex archaeologist Eric Holden (1911-1989), told me many years ago. He and my mother Hilda were on a visit to a Welsh castle with the Society for Medieval Archaeology (1960s?). Dad was chatting to a Dutchman who spoke good English. The man chuckled as he looked at the signage either side of the path, saying 'I shall never understand your English language – here I see a sign saying "Path to the Keep", and there another saying "Keep to the Path".' Though presumably the Ministry of Works was not to blame.
Janet Pennington
Steyning, West Sussex
Reply from Carly:
Thanks for writing in, Janet! I think my favourite sign from a heritage site is this rather ominous warning that I photographed during a visit to Sutton Hoo…
Digging up Staffordshire
Members of Stoke-on-Trent Museum Archaeological Society enjoyed Joe Flatman's recent review of the CA archive focusing on Staffordshire. Joe appeals for reports on early prehistoric sites in the county, and our Society is happy to help.
Kings Low and Queens Low, a pair of Bronze Age barrows north of Stafford, were excavated under the direction of Professor Gary Lock and published in an exemplary publication by Archaeopress. The kerbed tumuli were found to contain collared urns and a faience bead. The Society later dug two Bronze Age burnt mounds south of Uttoxeter, with detailed dig diaries archived on our website http://www.StokeArchaeologySociety.org.uk. The reward for months of hard digging here was a magnificent trough securely radiocarbon dated with charcoal from 1300 BC.
Earlier still, we excavated a rock shelter at Wetton Mill with stratified evidence of use through every period from Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age, and Roman through to the 19th century. Finds from there and Kings Low are displayed in the Potteries Museum.
Keith Ryan
Stoke-on-Trent Museum Archaeological Society
EDIBLE ARCHAEOLOGY
Every year my mum has challenged herself to bake me a prehistoric-themed birthday cake. Previous (re)creations include a shortbread Stonehenge and Bryn Celli Ddu (complete with carved standing stone). This year's was of Pentre Ifan in Pembrokeshire, replicated in chocolate.
I'm currently studying for a PhD in Archaeology at the University of Bradford and also working as the Community Archaeologist for the Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust, so I'm not the slightest bit miffed that my mum made it into Current Archaeology before I did…
Jack Rowe
CA Online
Alec Badenoch @alec_badenoch
Lovely column on Scotland's archaeology by a dear friend, dedicated to my favourite Scottish archaeologist.
Excavating the CA Archive: Scotland https://archaeology.co.uk/articles/opinion/excavating-the-ca-archive-scotland.htm via @CurrentArchaeo.
HE Archaeology @HE_Archaeology
For #Halloween reacquaint yourselves with how the medieval inhabitants of #wharrampercy dealt with the problem of reanimated corpses that arise from their graves in this open-access publication from 2017: https://doi.org/10.1016/ j.jasrep.2017.02.023 @CurrentArchaeo #heritagescience.
Paul Jeffery @HeritageMedic
As a student in the 1080s, I spent a night camping in the graveyard while working on an excavation. To my knowledge no corpses were reanimated and I had a good night's sleep.
Sarah May @Sarah_May1
I hope you mean 1980s or are you yourself reanimated.
Write to us at: CA Letters, Current Publishing, Office 120, 295 Chiswick High Road, London, W4 4HH, or by email to: letters@archaeology.co.uk
For publication: 300 words max; letters may be edited.
Sutton Hoo helmet in LEGO
'We really need the public's help to make the LEGO Sutton Hoo helmet an official LEGO set that anyone can buy and…
CWA 117 Letters – January 2023
Your observations, your objections, and your opinions: send them to cwaletters@world-archaeology.com…
MHM 132 Letters – January
Your thoughts on issues raised by the magazine…
CA Letters 395 – January
Your views on some of the latest issues raised in CA.…
Ancient Egypt 134 Letters
Your thoughts on issues raised by the magazine, plus what's coming up in future issues. Email the Editor: peter@ancientegyptmagazine.com with your comments.…
CWA 116 Letters


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Archives For Seminary
Do Titles Matter?
There are many sorts of titles one may accumulate, and some people pursue them with great passion. There are familial titles like "Grandmother," military titles such as "Ensign," academic titles like "Associate Professor," and ecclesiastical titles as in "Archimandrite."
And that's only the tip of the titular iceberg. Titles are prominent in many fields, such as medicine, politics and the judiciary. And appellations such as "Coach," are precious to multi-millionaire athletic leaders and folks working with preschoolers in the gym or on the field alike.
The best way to tell how important a person's titles are to them, is to witness how they respond to the "misuse" of one. My wife and I have a joke when I show my identification card when we enter a military installation. If the guard courteously says, "have a good day, colonel," after I roll up the window and proceed, I will sometimes say (for Delores' benefit) "that's lieutenant colonel!"
If you're unfamiliar with the armed forces, there's a good chance you miss the joke. A lieutenant colonel is junior in grade to a "full" colonel, although addressing one simply as "colonel" is allowed. In fact, in a sense it's an added courtesy or sign of respect. (I should mention that it's not uncommon for some of the civilian guards to follow up such a greeting with a glance towards my wife and the words, "and a good day to you, general.")
I have mixed feelings about titles, a trait I believe I share with C.S. Lewis.
In 1952, Lewis declined appointment as a Commander (CBE) in the Order of the British Empire. He did so to avoid entangling his Christian witness with political considerations. But by declining he forsook the opportunity to be known as "Sir Lewis," although, I doubt he lost sleep over his decision. (In fact, in his humility, Lewis never revealed the matter for public scrutiny.)
A 1959 letter to Lance Sieveking, the BBC producer who wrote the radio script for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, offers an interesting insight into Lewis' attitude about titles. He begins with this greeting:
Dear Sieveking
(Why do you 'Dr.' me? Had we not dropped the honorifics?)
Volume three of Lewis' letters reveals this was representative of his thinking. Once he had established a rapport with some correspondents, he requested that they drop the use of titles. A typical example reads, "We may both drop the honorific now, mayn't we?." In one case he writes in the imperative, "Dear Hooton (Do drop the honorifics!)."
So, Do Titles Matter?
My grandchildren surprised me the other day by addressing me as "Doctor Grandpa." They proudly shared in my joy (read "relief") at having completed my Doctor of Ministry degree.
I responded to their adulation with "actually, kids, it's 'Reverend Doctor Grandpa.'" This led to a fun discussion about titles during which I was able to explain to them how my pastoral title was of greater significance to me than the doctoral honorific. After which I reminded them the matter was moot because all I want them to call me is grandpa. I explained how only eight people in the entire world can call me that, and it made that title extremely precious to me.
Ultimately, the most valuable title any human being could have is to be addressed as son or daughter, by God. As Jesus' disciple John wrote:
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. (1 John 3:1).
On this, I have no doubt C.S. Lewis would agree.
Despite this, there are cases where titles are critical. The military, with its "chain of command" sometimes being a life or death matter, is a prime example.
In other settings, the honorifics are less significant. I addressed all my instructors in college as "Professor," regardless of whether they were full/associate/assistant/whatever.
I doubt that many of Lewis' very fortunate students thought less of his lectures because of Oxford's politics which withheld from him the full "professorship" he had certainly earned. (It would be left to the wiser University of Cambridge to rectify this oversight.)
This suggests to me that titles mean less to most people than the way others think of them. If people respect you as someone with integrity . . . if they call you "friend . . ." how much more fortunate could you be?
In C.S. Lewis, Modern Life	BBC, C.S. Lewis, Cambridge, Children, Cumberbatch, Doctorates, Faith, Family, Honorifics, Military, Oxford, Rank, Respect, Seminary, Titles
Any Name But That
This week I read one of the clearest descriptions of the gospel I have ever heard. It appeared in an article written by the most (how do I put this mildly?) daunting professor I have encountered in my Doctor of Ministry studies. "Intimidating" would also work . . .
But his brilliance and rapid fire delivery of thought-provoking concepts is not the reason for me mentioning him here. It is his ability to cut through the confusion, and express simply the essence of the good news, the Christian hope, the gospel.
I'm not pandering to him, mind you, because my grade for his systematics course was filed long ago. It is simply that Joel Biermann said extremely succinctly, something that I have always attempted to emphasize in my own ministry.
The Gospel is the good news, but it is not just any good news. The Gospel is a word of liberation and encouragement, but it is not just any word of liberation and encouragement. The Gospel is a wonderful event and a joyful experience, but it is not just any wonderful event and joyful experience.
In other words, when it comes to defining the Gospel, it is vitally important that we move past vague ideas or general notions and grab hold of the central thing. The central thing is Jesus.
This is a truth too many fail to understand. Sadly, this is true for some "inside" the Church as well as outside of its doors.
Goodness is good. Generosity is wonderful. Encouragement is precious. Courage is noble. Love is (almost) divine.
Yet none of these are the Gospel. The Gospel is Jesus. In him the world discovers every good thing from the hand of God the Father, our Creator.
Jesus is indispensable. Without his holy name, the "faith" would simply be a praiseworthy "religion." Without Jesus, it could instruct how to live, but it could not redeem.
It is precisely this point—the name of Jesus—that makes the Gospel objectionable to some. "Care for the sick," some say, "just don't mention that name." On other lips we hear "The Church does lots of things that benefit the community, but please don't mention that name that offends people."
They arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison. But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out, and said, "Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life. . . ."
And someone came and told [the High Priest], "Look! The men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people. . . ."
And the high priest questioned them, saying, "We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man's blood upon us."
But Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him." (Acts of the Apostles, chapter five).
C.S. Lewis knew quite well that Christianity is all about Jesus. Without him, the person Jesus the Christ, whatever passes for the "Church" would merely be a noisy gong. Lots of "religious" talk would remain . . . but the Gospel would be absent.
"What are we to make of Christ?" There is no question of what we can make of Him, it is entirely a question of what He intends to make of us. You must accept or reject the story. The things He says are very different from what any other teacher has said. Others say, "This is the truth about the Universe. This is the way you ought to go," but He says, "I am the Truth, and the Way, and the Life." He says, "No man can reach absolute reality, except through Me. Try to retain your own life and you will be inevitably ruined. Give yourself away and you will be saved. . . ."
"Come to Me everyone who is carrying a heavy load, I will set that right. Your sins, all of them, are wiped out, I can do that. I am Re-birth, I am Life." (1950 essay, "What Are We to Make of Jesus Christ?").
In the same way as the apostles, C.S. Lewis, my seminary professor, and all of those who have entrusted themselves to the grace of God in Christ, know the name of Jesus is not optional. In fact, it is all about the name.
For it is Jesus, and him alone, who is the alpha, omega and the whole of the Gospel.
In C.S. Lewis, Christian Life, Christianity, The Modern Church	Apostles, C.S. Lewis, Christianity, Faith, Forgiveness, Good, Gospel, Hope, Jesus, Names, Professors, Salvation, Seminary, Witnesses
Coffee or Tea for C.S. Lewis and Me
February 3, 2014 — 19 Comments
The older I grow, the more important coffee becomes. Spending the last past two weekends ensconced in the doctoral program of a Midwestern seminary near the polar vortex has merely reinforced that fact.
Coffee versus tea. It is the perennial international battle between caffeinated beverages. C.S. Lewis, famously, weighed in on the side of tea. (That's no surprise, given the historic hold Camellia sinensis' on British taste buds.)
One of Lewis' most frequently quoted aphorisms is, after all: "You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me."
In Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature Lewis alludes to this cultural preference. In a passage discussing different ways of experiencing foreign customs, he describes the quintessential "bad tourist."
One man carries his Englishry abroad with him and brings it home unchanged. Wherever he goes he consorts with the other English tourists. By a good hotel he means one that is like an English hotel. He complains of the bad tea where he might have had excellent coffee.
Despite their preference for tea, as the quotation above reveals that many Brits enjoy a good cup of coffee. Lewis himself loved a good cup at appropriate moments. In a 1939 letter to his brother Warnie, he mentions his need for a caffeine jolt prior to proctoring examinations.
My colleague Bone asked me to lunch with him at St John's prior to an afternoon's invigilation. I've known him quite good company: on this occasion, however, he spoke in almost a whisper and very seldom, and while other people were eating all round us (this was in John's) nothing arrived for us till I was 'nearly sick' with hunger and embarrassment.
When at last we'd had some chicken another pause ensued, during which, almost in desperation for something to say, I asked him for the cheese, only to be told in sepulchral tones that there was a sweet coming. It came. Another pause.
Desperate for my coffee, I said presently that I supposed I'd better be getting along: my host, after pondering this for a minute or two, replied yes, he supposed I had. On our way out he stopped at the other end of the table and introduced me to a jolly old man as his father Sir Muirhead Bone. Now can it be that the mere paternal presence explains the whole business? One can imagine such things! Anyway I went off to my 3 hours' invigilating without any coffee.
While we're considering the role of coffee in the life of the Oxford don, I thought it might be an interesting exercise to search the Chronicles of Narnia to see if the drink is mentioned there. I uncovered several, the last of which is particularly delightful.
From The Horse and His Boy.
By the time Shasta had finished his porridge, the Dwarf's two brothers (whose names were Rogin and Bricklethumb) were putting the dish of bacon and eggs and mushrooms, and the coffee pot and the hot milk, and the toast, on the table. It was all new and wonderful to Shasta for Calormene food is quite different. He didn't even know what the slices of brown stuff were, for he had never seen toast before. He didn't know what the yellow soft thing they smeared on the toast was, because in Calormen you nearly always get oil instead of butter.
And the house itself was quite different from the dark, frowsty, fish-smelling hut of Arsheesh and from the pillared and carpeted halls in the palaces of Tashbaan. The roof was very low, and everything was made of wood, and there was a cuckoo-clock and a red-and -white checked tablecloth and a bowl of wild flowers and little curtains on the thick-paned windows. It was also rather troublesome having to use dwarf cups and plates and knives and forks.
This meant that helpings were very small, but then there were a great many helpings, so that Shasta's plate or cup was being filled every moment, and every moment the Dwarfs themselves were saying, "Butter please ," or "Another cup of coffee ," or "I'd like a few more mushrooms," or "What about frying another egg or so?" And when at last they had all eaten as much as they possibly could the three Dwarfs drew lots for who would do the washing-up, and Rogin was the unlucky one.
From Prince Caspian.
They breakfasted at last in another of the dark cellars of Aslan's How. It was not such a breakfast as they would have chosen, for Caspian and Cornelius were thinking of venison pasties, and Peter and Edmund of buttered eggs and hot coffee, but what everyone got was a little bit of cold bear-meat (out of the boys' pockets), a lump of hard cheese, an onion, and a mug of water. But, from the way they fell to, anyone would have supposed it was delicious.
From The Silver Chair.
Breakfast was scrambled eggs and toast and Eustace tackled it just as if he had not had a very large supper in the middle of the night. "I say, Son of Adam," said the Faun, looking with a certain awe at Eustace's mouthfuls. "There's no need to hurry quite so dreadfully as that. I don't think the Centaurs have quite finished their breakfasts yet."
"Then they must have got up very late," said Eustace. "I bet it's after ten o'clock."
"Oh no," said Orruns. "They got up before it was light."
"Then they must have waited the dickens of a time for breakfast," said Eustace.
"No, they didn't," said Orruns. "They began eating the minute they awoke."
"Golly!" said Eustace. "Do they eat a very big breakfast?"
"Why, Son of Adam, don't you understand? A Centaur has a man-stomach and a horse-stomach . And of course both want breakfast. So first of all he has porridge and pavenders and kidneys and bacon and omelette and cold ham and toast and marmalade and coffee and beer.
"And after that he attends to the horse part of himself by grazing for an hour or so and finishing up with a hot mash, some oats, and a bag of sugar. That's why it's such a serious thing to ask a Centaur to stay for the weekend. A very serious thing indeed."
I occasionally wonder what it would have been like to have shared a pint with Lewis at the Eagle and Child. Magnificent, to be sure.
But perhaps better still would have been to share a conversation in his study or home over a simple cup of coffee (or tea). After all, just as a good meal establishes the mood for jovial discussion, so too can a soothing warm "brew" whet one's desire to share an intimate conversation.
In Animals, C.S. Lewis, Christian Life, Narnia	Aging, Brew, C.S. Lewis, Caffeine, Coffee, Conversation, Narnia, Seminary, St. Louis, Starbucks, Tea, Writing
Theological Training
October 31, 2012 — 20 Comments
I'm proud I graduated from a well-respected seminary. And I'm proud of following that Master of Divinity degree with an advanced Master of Theology degree in Patristics. And that's precisely the problem . . . I'm proud.
As a Christian, I recognize that pride is one of the most destructive and insidious sins. As a pastor and chaplain, I have seen all too frequently how pride expressly targets members of the clergy. Our vulnerability to the temptation to be proud is one of the common chinks in the armor of the ordained.
C.S. Lewis recognized this fact. In A Severe Mercy, he wrote:
I think there is a great deal to be said for having one's deepest spiritual interest distinct from one's ordinary duty as a student or professional man. St. Paul's job was tent-making. When the two coincide I shd. have thought there was a danger lest the natural interest in one's job and the pleasures of gratified ambition might be mistaken for spiritual progress and spiritual consolation; and I think clergymen sometimes fall into this trap. . . .
In fact, the change [to a Christian ministry] might do good or harm. I've always been glad myself that Theology is not the thing I earn my living by. On the whole, I'd advise you to get on with your tent-making. The performance of a duty will probably teach you quite as much about God as academic Theology wd. do. Mind, I'm not certain: but that is the view I incline to.
Lewis understood that "advancement" in ecclesiastical contexts can mask the inner heart and be mistaken as a form of holiness when it is in actuality vanity. I was reminded of this weakness in clerical armor recently, when I read a tribute to a Chinese Christian whose name is little known beyond his homeland. Dr. Sun Yi-yin, known in America as "Freddie Sun," died in August at the age of 76. A professor of Geology, he lost his faculty position for failing to deny Christ.
Like thousands of other Christians living under the atheist regime, he was imprisoned for his work in establishing churches and Bible schools. He raised the funds to start no fewer than 154 of these training centers, and was key to the equipping of approximately 60,000 underground pastors and teachers. The "underground" Church in China is distinguished from the government-controlled "Three-Self Patriotic Movement."
For his labors, Sun endured a decade in a Chinese labor camp. (His wife, Dorothy Chang, was also imprisoned. Rather than reducing his faith, during his sojourn in the harshest of conditions, Sun experienced a personal revival and his zeal increased.
His story is amazing, but here is the aspect that hit the mark in the center of my conscience. In his autobiography, The Man in the Fiery Furnace, Sun described his imprisonment as his "seminary" experience: "Instead of learning homiletics, hermeneutics, Greek, and Hebrew, I was being taught the greater lessons of obedience, submission, forgiveness, love, endurance, and patience."
Now, I am grateful that God has preserved me from the "fiery furnace," but I do long to experience the fruit of the spirit that Sun so richly harvested in prison. While not dismissing the importance of the classical subjects of homiletics and hermeneutics, as the Apostle says, "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing." (I Corinthians 13:1-3, ESV).
In The Problem of Pain, Lewis' treatise on suffering, he addresses how God can redeem terrible things such as unjust punishments. For those desiring to understand how an omnipotent God can allow evil to occur, Lewis' presentation is quite helpful. And, the life example of Dr. Sun provides a superb example of its validity.
I advance six propositions necessary to complete our account of human suffering which do not arise out of one another and must therefore be given in an arbitrary order. 1. There is a paradox about tribulation in Christianity. Blessed are the poor, but by 'judgement' (i.e., social justice) and alms we are to remove poverty wherever possible. Blessed are we when persecuted, but we may avoid persecution by flying from city to city, and may pray to be spared it, as Our Lord prayed in Gethsemane.
But if suffering is good, ought it not to be pursued rather than avoided? I answer that suffering is not good in itself. What is good in any painful experience is, for the sufferer, his submission to the will of God, and, for the spectators, the compassion aroused and the acts of mercy to which it leads. In the fallen and partially redeemed universe we may distinguish (1) the simple good descending from God, (2) the simple evil produced by rebellious creatures, and (3) the exploitation of that evil by God for His redemptive purpose, which produces (4) the complex good to which accepted suffering and repented sin contribute.
Now the fact that God can make complex good out of simple evil does not excuse—though by mercy it may save—those who do the simple evil. And this distinction is central. Offences must come, but woe to those by whom they come; sins do cause grace to abound, but we must not make that an excuse for continuing to sin. The crucifixion itself is the best, as well as the worst, of all historical events, but the role of Judas remains simply evil.
I thank God for the life and testimony of Sun. I pray God will reap an abundance of believers in China, and elsewhere, due to his faithfulness. And I thank God for using Sun's words to cause me to stop in the midst of my busy activities and take the time to examine my own heart and motives.
In C.S. Lewis, Christian Life, Christianity, Faith, Military Chaplaincy, Ordained Ministry	Ambition, Armor, Atheism, C.S. Lewis, China, Christianity, Faith, Hermeneutics, Homiletics, House Church, Love, Mercy, Ministry, Ordination, Persecution, Pride, Prison, Religion, Religious Education, Seminary, Spiritual Growth, Theology


text:
boys basketball, Illinois
Scales Mound: Are We Seeing Another 'HOOSIERS' Movie?
Date: March 9, 2022Author: statelinesportsnetwork 0 Comments
Special thanks to AreaSports.net for use of this article! Check them out on Facebook and Twitter
By Randy Olson
(3-8-22) Scales Mound, Illinois. How many people have ever heard of that community before last night? Not too many. This quiet community of 390 citizens with a high school enrollment of just 70 students has done something that you often only see in the movies. It is truly a David vs Goliath moment.
The Hornets were matched up against perennial basketball powerhouse, Chicago Marshall in the Class 1A Super-Sectional at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb on Monday night. The Commandos came in as a much quicker, faster, taller, and stronger team, who arguably had played better competition in the Chicago inner-city during the season than the tiny town, Hornets.
Prior to Covid, the Scales Mound Hornets had recently seen some terrible years in basketball, going a combined 2-53 over a two-year span in 2017 and 2018.
None of that mattered. Scales Mound used a balanced attack as they have all season and stunned Chicago Marshall and much of Illinois with 55-41 victory to punch their ticket to the Final Four in Champaign-Urbana. It wasn't that long ago that Chicago Marshall won the State Title in Class 3A, and now here they are competing in Class 1A, so this was a big-time win for Scales Mound.
The Hornets are not that big, they have two players at 6'4" tall. They have three players who average in double figures and a fourth player who averages just over 9 points per game. The win last night improved the Hornets record to 35-2 this season, far from the 1-26 and 1-27 seasons they painfully endured a few years ago before Covid….all under the same coach.
That's what makes this story all the more fascinating. Coach Erik Kudronowicz is in his sixteenth season as the head coach of the Hornets. Most school boards would probably not stay with a guy who went 2-53 at the Varsity level, but they did, which is remarkable. They saw something in him and believed in him, and now the small community of 390 is rejoicing in the excitement of March Madness.
By checking the school website, it appears that Coach Kudronowicz is also a third grade teacher at the K-12 facility, which is located in Jo Daviess County in the far northwest corner of the state, just a few miles from the Wisconsin border.
This is a Cinderella story like no other. Scales Mound is not known as a basketball town. In fact, this is only the sixth winning season by the Hornets and Coach Kudronowicz in his sixteen-year tenure at the school. In fact, coming into this year, the basketball program had suffered 1,100 losses over a 71-year span, with a winning percentage of just 38% overall in the school history. But, none of that matters now.
In a town this small, with a school enrollment of just 70 high school students, each boy on the basketball team has to multi-task in order for the team to succeed at this level. Coach Kudronowicz explained that fact to reporters during post-game comments:
"Everyone is taught everything at our school. Everyone is a post player. Everyone is a guard. With a school our size, everybody has to play that role, depending on the opponent, and every game is about all five guys, not one or two. One or two can be stopped, but not all five. We expect all five to be the shooter, all five to be the passer, all five to be the defender when your number is called."
Scales Mound will now face Liberty at 11:45am on Thursday morning at Champaign-Urbana in the Class 1A semi-finals at the State Farm Center (Assembly Hall) where the State Tournament has returned after a long stretch in Peoria. Everyone loves a good story, so I think much of Illinois will be pulling for tiny Scales Mound. The IHSA needed a shot in the arm to boost attendance again. If the Hornets reach the Championship game, you could see a rush at the gate.
The AUDIO play-by-play of their games at the State Tournament in Champaign will be audio streamed at this link:
https://radio.securenetsystems.net/cirrusencore/WQLFFM
1A2022ihsastate tournament
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text:
The Sentimentalists, also known as the "Clark Sisters" (and also as the "Original" Clark Sisters; so-called to distinguish them from the current gospel music group of the same name), were an American close harmony singing group, consisting of sisters Mary Clark Branson, Peggy Clark Schwartz, Ann Clark Terry, and Jean Clark Frile. Hailing from Grand Forks, North Dakota, they were a mere 17 to 23 years of age when they signed with the Tommy Dorsey Band in 1944 to replace the popular Pied Pipers, after the Pipers had quit Dorsey's band to go out on their own.

Although they never achieved the fame and fortune of some of their contemporaries (like The Andrews Sisters and The McGuire Sisters), the Clark Sisters' recordings are highly prized by jazz aficionados for their unique vocal stylings in which they often emulate instrumental sections.

Early history

The Clark Sisters were born and raised in Grand Forks, North Dakota. They began singing as young children, and by the late 1930s were performing together in civic events and church services. After achieving some local fame, the sisters traveled by train to New York City, where they appeared several times on the Major Bowes Amateur Hour. Although they did not win, they did receive a contract to appear for several months in a USO show.

Following their USO tour, they returned to New York. Tommy Dorsey was looking for a vocal quartet to replace one of his band's most popular features, the Pied Pipers: he had become angry at one of the Pipers for sending him in the wrong direction at the train station in Portland, Oregon, and fired him. The Pipers, out of "team loyalty", resigned en masse. At that moment, the #1 record on the charts was "There Are Such Things" sung by Frank Sinatra and the Pied Pipers; it was the last RCA record they did with Dorsey.

The sisters auditioned for Dorsey in their West Forty-Fifth Street apartment, where he offered them a job on the spot.

Emerging popularity

Following their initial few appearances on Dorsey's radio program (for which they were not credited), he began to receive mail from listeners wondering about the identities of the new vocalists. Realizing he had a potential threat to the vocal domination of The Andrew Sisters, he made plans to build them into regular and featured appearances on his show.

However, rather than allowing the Sisters to be billed under their own names, he re-christened them as "The Sentimentalists" - a name which he had previously utilized for a small instrumental combo. Since he "owned" the name, he was confident that he could avoid a repeat of the incident with the Pied Pipers.

Although the Sisters had to begin by learning all of the Pipers' songs with the band, they were soon able to grow into their own artistic voice as well. This was helped along by the willingness of Dorsey's band members (particularly lead alto saxophonist and arranger Sid Cooper, as well as Nelson Riddle, guitarist Bob Bain, Sy Oliver and Buddy Defranco) to write and arrange musical numbers which featured the Sisters' talents to their fullest. The Sisters' "wholesome" good looks and extrovert personalities had endeared them to the members of Dorsey's band, who became their friends, and acted protectively towards them.

Peggy Clark Schwartz (the widow of clarinetist Willie Schwartz of the Glenn Miller Orchestra), later recalled, in the Tommy Dorsey biography, authored by Peter J. Levinson, that she and her sisters may have been a little naive when they originally went to work for Dorsey: "In those days, you had to be young and stupid. You also had to be pretty needy ... it was almost comical when you look at it; it was part of the growing-up process!"

While with Dorsey's Band, the Sisters had several hit records, including "I Should Care", "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe", "On the Sunny Side of the Street", a version of "Chicago" (with Sy Oliver) and "Why Do I Love You?", from the musical Show Boat.

Later years

In 1953, the Clark Sisters made the decision to leave the Dorsey organization, primarily due to Dorsey's failure to pay them what they felt they were worth, as well as their desires to quit touring and devote themselves to family and to recording. True to his original intentions, Dorsey refused to allow them to continue to use the "Sentimentalists" name, and would not allow them to reference in their publicity information that they had ever been known under that name.

Despite this setback, the Sisters persisted and, in addition to continuing to perform well into the 1960s, they recorded three albums under the "Clark Sisters" name, and under the Coral Records label. In 1990 however, Jasmine Dream Records acquired the rights to the master tapes, and re-released the three albums, compiled into a single CD, titled, "The Clark Sisters Swing Again".

The Clark Sisters also sang the original soundtrack to Walt Disney's "Tiki Room" at Disneyland.  Peggy Clark Schwartz and Ann Clark Terry sang in the chorus' of many television shows including Judy Garland, Andy Williams, Carol Burnett and Sonny and Cher.

References

1.  "Tommy Dorsey: Livin' In A Great Big Way" by Peter J. Levinson (Da Capo Press)

External links

 Clark Sisters, "I've Got My Love to Keep me Warm", on YouTube
 The Sentimentalists, "On the Sunny Side of the Street" (1944), on YouTube

American women singers

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Q: How to stop dialog title text from shrinking when positive button text gets shorter? I want to create an AlertDialog whose title text and message changes each time the user clicks on the positive button as they work through a series of steps.
It all works ok except that when the user gets to the third and final screen the size of the title text shrinks! This appears to be because the string for the positive button's text is shorter for the final screen. If I make it longer the title text no longer shrinks on the final screen.
Here's a stripped down version of my code. dialog.xml layout file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:paddingStart="16dp"
    android:paddingEnd="16dp"
    android:orientation="vertical">

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/text_view"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"/>

</LinearLayout>

This is the code for the dialog fragment:
package com.world.test.fixshrinkingdialogtitletext;

import android.annotation.SuppressLint;
import android.app.AlertDialog;
import android.app.Dialog;
import android.content.DialogInterface;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.support.annotation.NonNull;
import android.support.v4.app.DialogFragment;
import android.view.LayoutInflater;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.Button;

public class ChangeTitleDialogFragment
        extends DialogFragment {

    private static final String DIALOG_TITLE = "DIALOG_TITLE";
    private static final String TEXT_PROMPT = "TEXT_PROMPT";
    private static final String POSITIVE_BUTTON_TEXT = "POSITIVE_BUTTON_TEXT";
    private static final String SCREEN_COUNT = "SCREEN_COUNT";

    private String dialogTitle = null;
    private String textPrompt = null;
    private String positiveButtonText = null;
    private int screenCount;

    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        if (savedInstanceState == null) {
            screenCount = 1;
            dialogTitle = "First Screen";
            textPrompt = "Click continue";
            positiveButtonText = "Continue";
        } else {
            dialogTitle = savedInstanceState.getString(DIALOG_TITLE);
            textPrompt = savedInstanceState.getString(TEXT_PROMPT);
            positiveButtonText = savedInstanceState.getString(POSITIVE_BUTTON_TEXT);
            screenCount = savedInstanceState.getInt(SCREEN_COUNT);
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void onSaveInstanceState(Bundle outState) {
        super.onSaveInstanceState(outState);
        outState.putString(DIALOG_TITLE, dialogTitle);
        outState.putString(TEXT_PROMPT, textPrompt);
        outState.putString(POSITIVE_BUTTON_TEXT, positiveButtonText);
        outState.putInt(SCREEN_COUNT, screenCount);
    }

    @Override
    @NonNull
    public Dialog onCreateDialog(Bundle savedInstanceState) {

        AlertDialog.Builder builder = new AlertDialog.Builder(getActivity());

        LayoutInflater inflater = getActivity().getLayoutInflater();
        @SuppressLint("InflateParams")
        final View view = inflater.inflate(R.layout.dialog, null);
        builder.setView(view);
        builder.setTitle(dialogTitle);
        builder.setMessage(textPrompt);
        builder.setPositiveButton(positiveButtonText, null);
        builder.setNegativeButton("Cancel", null);

        AlertDialog dialog = builder.create();

        dialog.setOnShowListener(new DialogInterface.OnShowListener() {

            @Override
            public void onShow(final DialogInterface dialog) {
                final AlertDialog alertDialog = (AlertDialog) dialog;

                final Button okButton = alertDialog.getButton(AlertDialog.BUTTON_POSITIVE);
                okButton.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
                    @Override
                    public void onClick(View v) {

                        if (screenCount == 3) {
                            dismiss();
                        } else {
                            screenCount++;

                            dialogTitle = "Screen Number " + screenCount;
                            alertDialog.setTitle(dialogTitle);

                            if (screenCount == 3) {
                                // "OKOKOKOKO" won't cause the dialog title text to shrink!
                                positiveButtonText = "OKOKOKOK";
                                okButton.setText(positiveButtonText);
                            }
                        }
                    }
                });
            }
        });

        return dialog;
    }
}

And here are the screen shots of the 3 screens (the last 2 are cropped):

I notice the dialog shrunk slightly in width on the final screen, presumably because the layout is set to wrap its contents and the text on the positive button is shorter. So maybe the title text size is being shrunk automatically by Android as well to ensure it will still fit. But that's a guess.
Does anyone know how to update the title text but keep it the same size throughout all the screens?
I find it unintuitive that the the title text size changes at all. Can anyone explain why it does change size? Is this intended behaviour or an Android bug?
The best solution won't involve setting the text size explicitly because then, if I ever change the app theme later on, I'll have to remember to change the title text size to match the theme in all of the multi-screen dialogs like this one.

A: Have you tried to set the minWidth on your linear layout?
ex.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
             android:layout_width="wrap_content"
             android:layout_height="wrap_content"

             android:minWidth="150dp"  <!-- The size you want -->

             android:paddingStart="16dp"
             android:paddingEnd="16dp"
             android:orientation="vertical">

<TextView
    android:id="@+id/text_view"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"/>

A: This was tough to solve so I want to share it here so others don't have to tear their hair out like me!
First, why does the title text change size in the first place? I don't know for sure but I'm guessing the app's theme specifies the text size in 'scaled pixel' units which means that the actual text size might change if the screen configuration changes. So I think this is intended behaviour.
The example layout I used was a bit silly because it had an unused TextView, as @Ruan_Lopes pointed out. This is completely unnecessary because I could've used alertDialog.setMessage(textPrompt) to change the dialog's message anyway. In fact, using the Layout Hierarchy Viewer in Android Device Monitor showed me that the user's layout is inserted below the message anyway.
The Hierarchy Viewer also showed me that the height and width of the alert dialog's title actually did not change even when the text did shrink! So setting the height or width of the TextView for the title did not cure the text shrinkage issue.
In the end I recorded the text size of the title (in pixels) when the dialog was first shown and then used that same value to set the text size whenever I updated the dialog title's text. As I also wanted to preserve the text size across device rotations I chose to save the text size in onSaveInstanceState(Bundle outState). But you don't have to do that if you don't mind the title text size being different between screen rotations.
Note that TextView.getTextSize() returns a value in pixels so you have to use the correct units when calling TextView.setTextSize(int, float).
Here's the final code. I didn't change the layout xml other than delete the TextView and replace it with an EditText although that makes no difference here.
package com.world.test.fixshrinkingdialogtitletext;

import android.annotation.SuppressLint;
import android.app.AlertDialog;
import android.app.Dialog;
import android.app.DialogFragment;
import android.content.DialogInterface;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.support.annotation.NonNull;
import android.util.TypedValue;
import android.view.LayoutInflater;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.Button;
import android.widget.TextView;

public class ChangeTitleDialogFragment
        extends DialogFragment {

    private static final String DIALOG_TITLE = "DIALOG_TITLE";
    private static final String TEXT_PROMPT = "TEXT_PROMPT";
    private static final String POSITIVE_BUTTON_TEXT = "POSITIVE_BUTTON_TEXT";
    private static final String SCREEN_COUNT = "SCREEN_COUNT";
    private static final String TITLE_TEXT_SIZE = "TITLE_TEXT_SIZE";

    private String dialogTitle = null;
    private String textPrompt = null;
    private String positiveButtonText = null;
    private int screenCount;
    private float titleTextSize;

    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

        if (savedInstanceState == null) {
            screenCount = 1;
            dialogTitle = "First screen";
            textPrompt = "Click continue";
            positiveButtonText = "Continue";
            titleTextSize = -1;
        } else {
            dialogTitle = savedInstanceState.getString(DIALOG_TITLE);
            textPrompt = savedInstanceState.getString(TEXT_PROMPT);
            positiveButtonText = savedInstanceState.getString(POSITIVE_BUTTON_TEXT);
            screenCount = savedInstanceState.getInt(SCREEN_COUNT);
            titleTextSize = savedInstanceState.getFloat(TITLE_TEXT_SIZE);
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void onSaveInstanceState(Bundle outState) {
        super.onSaveInstanceState(outState);

        outState.putString(DIALOG_TITLE, dialogTitle);
        outState.putString(TEXT_PROMPT, textPrompt);
        outState.putString(POSITIVE_BUTTON_TEXT, positiveButtonText);
        outState.putInt(SCREEN_COUNT, screenCount);
        outState.putFloat(TITLE_TEXT_SIZE, titleTextSize);
    }

    @Override
    @NonNull
    public Dialog onCreateDialog(Bundle savedInstanceState) {

        AlertDialog.Builder builder = new AlertDialog.Builder(getActivity());

        LayoutInflater inflater = getActivity().getLayoutInflater();
        @SuppressLint("InflateParams")
        final View view = inflater.inflate(R.layout.dialog, null);
        builder.setView(view);
        builder.setTitle(dialogTitle);
        builder.setMessage(textPrompt);
        builder.setPositiveButton(positiveButtonText, null);
        builder.setNegativeButton("Cancel", null);

        AlertDialog dialog = builder.create();

        dialog.setOnShowListener(new DialogInterface.OnShowListener() {

            @Override
            public void onShow(final DialogInterface dialog) {
                final AlertDialog alertDialog = (AlertDialog) dialog;

                final int alertTitleId = getActivity().getResources().getIdentifier( "alertTitle", "id", "android" );
                final TextView titleTV = (TextView)alertDialog.findViewById(alertTitleId);
                if (titleTextSize < 0) {
                    // Then user has launched this dialog directly from the calling activity.
                    titleTextSize = titleTV.getTextSize(); // Units = pixels!
                } else {
                    // Use the existing value we saved when the configuration changed:
                    titleTV.setTextSize(TypedValue.COMPLEX_UNIT_PX, titleTextSize);
                }

                final Button okButton = alertDialog.getButton(AlertDialog.BUTTON_POSITIVE);
                okButton.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
                    @Override
                    public void onClick(View v) {

                        if (screenCount == 3) {
                            dismiss();
                        } else {
                            screenCount++;

                            textPrompt = "Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah";
                            alertDialog.setMessage(textPrompt);

                            dialogTitle = "Screen Number " + screenCount;
                            alertDialog.setTitle(dialogTitle);

                            titleTV.setTextSize(TypedValue.COMPLEX_UNIT_PX, titleTextSize);

                            if (screenCount == 3) {
                                positiveButtonText = "OK";
                                okButton.setText(positiveButtonText);
                            }
                        }
                    }
                });
            }
        });

        return dialog;
    }
}

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Володимир Ярославич (князь галицький)
Володимир Ярославич (князь новгородський)


Report from yesterday in Liverpool. See also: Photo report and link to BBC news item, Call-out, Call-out with downloadable flyer, Feature, Count Me Out website.
It was a wet and windy morning in Liverpool so all credit to the 20-odd people who turned up in spite of the weather to support Sarah Ledsom outside court, including people from Liverpool Occupy who were battling against the elements to stop their camp from blowing away that morning.
Dale Street Magistrates Court is on a busy junction and, once all the banners were up, we were very visible to both foot and vehicle traffic with lots of support from the drivers of passing cars, vans and buses. Banners pointed out Lockheed Martin's track record as a company which profits from war and death, for example killing children in Palestine and making the nuclear weapons that threaten all life on earth. Hardly surprising, therefore, that people oppose its involvement in the Census.
We'd been told by a couple of journos the night before that Dale Street Magistrates court were saying that the case was to be heard at a different court about 5 minutes walk away. Sarah hadn't been informed about this and would have struggled to walk between the courts in any case, so we turned up at Dale Street as planned, Sarah stayed outside with the demonstration until 5 to 10 and the hearing did in fact take place there. We haven't got to the bottom of this bit of mis/disinformation.
There was a fair amount of media interest outside the court with BBC Radio Merseyside, Radio City, the Liverpool Echo, Granada TV and BBC TV turning up. Not sure how much of it translated into media reports, but BBC put 2 minutes on the evening regional TV news. Unfortunately, the media influenced the whole event as well as reporting on it. Walking in or out of the court for a second time so the cameraman could get his shots was a minor inconvenience. Being whisked away to Radio Merseyside studios so the interview with Sarah could be filmed under more conducive conditions and to give 'variety' or something meant that Sarah didn't have time to talk with her supporters after the hearing, which was a real shame. At least it did make it onto the news - after over an hour spent getting there, setting up and filming, the reporter announced that there was every chance the story might be dropped from the list.
Back inside the Magistrates Court at 10am, Sarah gave her name to the Usher and we ascertained that we could be waiting all morning as there was no running order. "Don't worry" said Sarah. "They'll want our demonstration out of the way soonest. I don't think we'll be waiting long." She was right. 10 minutes later she was called in, but not before we'd discovered another census refuser waiting for his case to be heard. We only had time to tell him Sarah was planning to plead not guilty and to hand him a flyer before it was Sarah's turn. She answered 'not guilty' to the charge, the trial date was set for 17 January, there was a bit of a discussion about how long might be allocated to hear her case, with the District Judge suggesting that she would have 'the rest of the morning' after the first census refuser's case had been heard (so that was another one), unconditional bail was given to 17 January and Sarah was free to leave.
As we left, we spoke for another minute with the census refuser we'd seen earlier; then he was called in. He decided to plead not guilty too and we caught up with him outside the court afterwards. His case had been adjourned to 18 January, indicating that the judge had allocated the whole rest of the day on the 17th to Sarah's case.
For more information about the campaign, contact NoCONcensus[at]yahoo.co.uk.
Next hearing that we're aware of is Deborah Glass Woodin's case (and possibly others) on Tuesday 13 December at 10am in Reading Magistrates Court.
Followed by Roger Grenville's case in Birmingham Magistrates Court on 5 January.


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I made a beeline for Kansas yesterday morning to spend some time with my dad while my grandma — his mom, and my last surviving grandparent — lies in a nursing home about two hours south of here watching the last few days of her life tick away. We're going down to see her tomorrow; I had wanted to go today, but I chose to stay here with my dad instead. It's been a good day.
Before my mom left this morning to go down and be with Grandma, we talked a lot about stuff of mine that was still left in the basement. I knew I had some random things down there, but the last room I occupied in this house suffered water damage a few years ago and I thought most of what I had left down there had been lost to the water. But, there were about six boxes of stuff down there – old comic books, papers I wrote in college, the notes from my Fundamentals of C class.
I loaded it all up in my car and will drive it home; it'll be fun to go through that stuff, throw the vast majority of it away, and relive the "me" of the late 1980s and early 1990s for a few hours. I'll post the really good stuff on here.


People with ADHD can bring tremendous energy to your team.
Have you ever felt frustrated by a team member who was smart and hardworking, but who was disorganized and easily distracted? You might have assumed he or she was lazy, had a poor attitude, or just didn't care. But it's also possible that he had ADHD – Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
In this article, we explain what ADHD is, and we suggest strategies to help you manage someone with ADHD, so she can be a successful and productive member of your team. We also explore the challenges it can present for you and your team, and we highlight some of the benefits that can come with ADHD, such as the energy and creativity that is often displayed by people with the condition.
ADHD covers a range of behavioral symptoms that includes inattentiveness, hyperactivity and impulsiveness. Most people with ADHD have a combination of these symptoms.
Some people have a milder version, called Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), which affects their ability to concentrate, but they do not experience hyperactivity or impulsiveness. ADD can go unnoticed because the symptoms can be less obvious than those of ADHD. The American Psychiatric Association uses the term ADHD whether a person experiences hyperactivity or not.
ADHD usually appears in childhood, but may not be diagnosed until adulthood. It appears equally in men and women, although it is more commonly diagnosed in boys.
Physical or cognitive restlessness and mood instability.
A frequent search for high stimulation, and a low tolerance of boredom and frustration.
Trouble with getting organized, planning, managing time and money, and completing tasks.
A tendency to worry needlessly and endlessly.
A tendency toward addictive behavior, impulsive decision making, and impulsive behavior.
and inconsistent mental focus, at times super-focused, at other times totally distracted.
Unexplained underachievement, and not fulfilling his potential.
A lack of awareness of her behavior, or how it impacts people around her.
Family history of ADHD or other impulse control or mood disorders.
. It's important to be familiar with the appropriate legislation, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, in the U.S., and the Equality Act 2010, in the U.K. This will ensure that you're treating your team members fairly, and in accordance with the law in your particular region, state or country. Talk to your HR department if you have any questions or concerns about managing someone with ADHD.
Unfortunately, there is a stigma attached to ADHD, so your team member may not disclose his condition to you – and he's not obliged to. If you manage someone who demonstrates any of these behaviors, it's important that you do not attempt to diagnose him yourself, but you can make suggestions to help him, as you would any other member of your team.
The key to managing a team member with ADHD successfully is to support her as she overcomes her own challenges, but also to get the best from her for your team and organization.
If a team member tells you that he has ADHD and asks for some extra support, arrange a time to talk to him to find out what he'd find helpful. Then, talk to your HR department to make sure that you comply with relevant disability legislation.
time for new activities, and offering her refresher training.
Making workplace adjustments: providing a quiet, or even a private, workspace can reduce disruption to your team and benefit the individual with ADHD. He may find it hard to concentrate and can be easily distracted by office noise and activity. You can provide him with noise-canceling headphones or move him to a quieter part of the office.
Your team member may exhibit signs of hyperactivity or impulsive behavior, such as tapping, humming and fidgeting, which could disturb her colleagues and perhaps affect their performance. Scheduling regular breaks can create an outlet for physical activity. Providing her with a private workspace can reduce the disruption to other team members.
Gaining the support of colleagues: some of the behaviors of someone with ADHD, and some of the measures needed to accommodate them, could impact the rest of your team. But there are steps you can take to build good working relationships among your team members.
or innuendo, so a mentor can help him understand social cues.
. So, you can help her to concentrate on what she's good at by helping her to be more organized. A simple timer can give her a clear idea of when she needs to complete a task. Providing a written list of assignments and deadlines may be useful.
, has tips for improving office organization.
Giving feedback and setting boundaries: You may be willing and committed to helping a team member with ADHD as much as you can, but that does not mean "bending over backwards" to such an extent that you cannot get your own job done.
on areas where he can improve. It's also important to be clear about your organization's conduct policy, and review it in a way that helps him understand what standards of behavior are expected.
While a manager should show compassion and understanding, and provide a supportive environment, your team member must also be made aware of what is acceptable behavior. You should contact your HR department if you need help and advice to do this.
And consult HR before instigating any disciplinary procedures against anyone whose behavior may be linked to ADHD, to ensure you do not unwittingly fall foul of any anti-discrimination legislation.
People with ADHD can bring energy, enthusiasm and new perspectives to your team. For example, when they are engaged in work that is interesting to them, their energy can provide them with an ability to "hyperfocus." While people with ADHD may find it hard to concentrate on some activities, they can also focus intently on tasks or subjects that interest them.
They are often bright, energetic and creative people who have found innovative ways to overcome a lifetime of challenges. This also means that they are aware that people are different and need different things to succeed. Consequently, they can be very compassionate and generous individuals.
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a group of behavioral symptoms that include inattentiveness, hyperactivity and impulsiveness, or a combination of these. ADHD usually appears in childhood, but some people may not be diagnosed until they are adults.
People with this condition often struggle with time management, organization, memory, concentration, and hyperactivity. Their creativity, energy and ability to hyperfocus on particular tasks, however, can make them valuable members of a team.
You can help a team member with ADHD succeed with a few simple accommodations in the workplace, and by thinking about your approach as a manager. For example, you could find a quiet or private area for him to work in, and talk to him to find out what kind of learning or training works best for him.
If you have any concerns about her behaviors or standards of work, talk to your HR department.
Your feedback on how your colleague reacted to your disclosure was sadly typical. If you feel you would like to, why not start a thread in the Forums and open up a discussion with other Club members? We'd love to hear your voice on the topic.
Thank you for posting this, I have ADHD and work in HR. This has given me a few ideas on how to manage my time and prioritization. I am shocked at the stigma that is still attached to it. I am very open about my ADHD and a colleague said to me just the other day "I am shocked you are ADHD I thought that was only naughty kids had it and grew out of it in their teens". I think more understanding is needed in the workplace.
Thank you for sharing with us, and for the positive feedback.
Job Accommodation Network (JAN) (2013). 'Accommodation and Compliance Series: Employees with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder,' Morgantown, WV: Office of Disability Employment Policy, U.S. Department of Labor.
American Psychiatric Association (2013). 'Diagnosis and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,' Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.
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Websites Can Now Identify You By the Way You Type |
Websites Can Now Identify You By the Way You Type
Jeff Fox
State of the Net
September 28, 2015Human Rights
Every new technology can be used for good or ill.
Such is the case with the newly developing field of behavioral biometrics, a technology that's not the same as the "biometrics" many of us know well. The chart below (provided by security expert Per Thorsheim) differentiates the two categories.
As you can see, behavioral biometrics uniquely identifies you by your actions ("what you do") rather than your physiology ("what you are"). Signature and voice recognition are examples familiar to everyone. But I hadn't heard of identifying people by their keystrokes until I recently attended a talk on the subject by Thorsheim at PasswordsCon (which he founded).
Whether you type on a conventional keyboard or a touchscreen display, researchers have found, you tend to follow certain patterns of movement and timing. These may vary a bit from one occasion to the next, but they are consistent enough to characterize you as an individual. Differences have been observed, says Thorsheim, even between how men and women type. (Patterns have also been found in how individuals swipe touchscreens and move their computer's pointing device.)
Here are some examples of the kind of data that can be collected while you type. It includes how long you press any single key and how long it takes you to move from one key to another or press a particular sequence of keys. (Source: BehavioSec)
[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"603512","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"113","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"289"}}]]
Using such information, fraud and identity theft prevention products have been able to distinguish between legitimate users and imposters with a high degree of accuracy. For example, in a pilot project at a bank, Swedish security company BehavioSec says, it was able to correctly identify both legitimate users and imposters 99.7% of the time.
And when such information is combined with traditional password authentication, it becomes a form of two-factor authentication that can offer better security than using a password alone. Because the data collection is invisible to the user, it's painless and more convenient for the user than having to offer a fingerprint, reply to a text message, or enter a special security code (also known as a token).
The down side
Keystroke data could also fuel a privacy threat. If, say, a company like Facebook or Google maintained a massive database linking keystroke patterns to specific individuals, that data could be used by anyone who obtained access to it—a criminal, the company's business partners, or someone working for a government agency–to identify that person even when they used a different device, such as a friend's computer. In light of the amount of tracking and surveillance to which the public has already been subjected, the potential for abuse of this technology is worrisome.
There is no evidence that anyone is yet amassing such a database. Still, Thorsheim has given this challenge some thought and, together with fellow researcher, Paul Moore, developed a Chrome browser plug-in called Keyboard Privacy to defeat keystroke profiling. It camouflages your keystroke data, making it harder for the website to pin down a clear pattern. Based on some of the early user reviews of this plug-in, I suggest that anyone considering giving this plug-in a try have serious technical expertise.
While we may not yet need this kind of privacy-protection tool, our experiences with browser cookies, targeted advertising, and other online tracking technologies suggests that it is a good thing that someone is already thinking about and working on this problem. One of these days, we may well need such a tool.