text:
cuba, baseball, and obama
I was 4 when we lived in Havana, and though I recall nothing concrete, there are swirling images of bright colors and energy and activity and nonstop fast-talking voices and rousing music. My father was playing professional baseball in Cuba during the winter after a season in Tampico, Mexico, where he jumped to from the big leagues for better money.
On my wall is a small black-and-white framed photo of Dad with his team mates on his Cuban team, the only American among black and lighter-skinned men of Spanish ancestry against a backdrop of a rickety stadium. A man of high passion and strong opinion, Dad loved Cuba and had already learned the language while in Mexico. As a man raised in the Great Depression and serving in World War II, he was convinced the secret to life was making the best of every situation, to ignore hardship and differences in culture and concentrate on the joy of relating to people and their customs.
Dad remembered Fidel Castro as a polite kid wanting to be a ball player and working out with his team and having a "decent glove as an infielder for a tall gangly kid, but couldn't hit a bull in the ass with a base fiddle as a hitter."
He talked of the fans: "It was love-hate. They were rabid, much more so than American fans, even New York and Detroit and Philly fans, who were real wolves. Cuban fans bet on games, bet on innings, bet on at bats. The cities and towns practically closed down when there was a game. They came to the park or listened on radio. They were rough on you if you didn't produce, and if you were an American with a big name and came down and laid an egg, didn't come through in the clutch, they would literally run you out of town. I was fortunate to play well down there until the malaria I got from the South Pacific during the war recurred."
Mother said: "The Cuban people were very warm and good-hearted. No matter how poor they were they seemed good-natured and happy about what they had, there was a spirit and a soul about them, they were not afraid to reach out and embrace you. At night, Murray and I would go out after the games, very late, because it was so exciting, and also we had not seen each other for almost two years while he was away during the war, and we would go to the cantinas and clubs, and there was always music, and the people loved to dance, and we loved to dance, the parks were always full of people playing games or playing music, there was so much life and excitement in Havana, it was a city of ongoing festivity that never shut down."
Dad talked of his team mates, and players like Minnie Minoso and Sandy Consuegra and many others, the black ones like Minoso not allowed to play ball in America no matter how gifted they were, while the lighter skinned Cubans were allowed to play before the color line was broken by Jackie Robinson. Minoso finally established an illustrious career in the big leagues in his 30s.
Dad said: "The Cubans played with a different emotion, what you would call flair. You could call them showboats. They came from a different background, a different culture. What I learned about them was that if you made an effort to learn their language and made an effort to be friendly they would do anything for you and were very loyal, they would take you into their homes and no matter how poor they were or how little they had in their pantries, they would serve you their last plate of rice and black beans, because you were a guest, and they liked you. They had this inborn quality of thinking about you first, a trait I find very rare and good in people and which I tried to copy as a man, because, in the end, it serves everybody better to share what they have. You are always learning in life, and my experience in Cuba taught me humility, even though I was a pretty humble guy to begin with and always appreciated what I had."
Cuban baseball players risk their lives to come to America to play the great game, possibly to live in freedom, make real money, and compete against the best to show us just how great they really are. They play with a different rhythm and instinct pleasantly devoid of over-coaching and over-training, like kids growing up in the sandlots and dirt parks a century ago, like Cobb and Ruth and the Gas House Gang; so unlike the controlling and insane supervision and over exposure of American Little League and the structured and robotic techniques taught to and applied by American players along with the new metrics moving them around by front office stooges and automat coaches like chess pieces.
Cuban ball players are colorful, ours are not.
Imagine the culture shock of Cuban ball players coming to America and facing the vastness of our country, the huge shiny powerful cars marauding our massive highways, the sudden big money, the freedom, the incredible hi-tech toys and the splendor of even our minor league systems much less the luxury of the big leagues. Imagine their reaction to the tight-lipped grimness of the baseball tradition in America…
…And then imagine our players, raised in a culture of over abundance and entitlement if you are a big league prospect, the best food and equipment and stadiums and pampering, and going to Cuba and playing ball there, seemingly for a pittance, in seedy surroundings, for love of the game and patriotic reasons of one-upmanship on a country like ours.
Baseball, our great game, is their great game also, and now our President, Barrack Obama, is trying to renew relations with Cuba by using baseball as a sort of bridge to build a new relationship of visiting each other and sharing.
Meanwhile, politicians on the right squawk sanctimoniously of how they are a Communist country punishing their people and denying them human rights, while at the same time these very same hypocrites wish to deny women in our country the right to make their own decisions on abortion, seek to deny black people the right to vote, try to destroy the first health care provider in our country primarily for the poor, and hang on to a cold war mentality that has long ago dissolved and a bombastic occupational foreign policy that has failed miserably and infuriated most of the world.
We negotiate trade and exchange tourism with Viet Nam and China, supposed enemies, and seem to have no problem with their regimes, or their propaganda against America, and they seem to have no problem with our history of exploiting Latin and South American governments for decades, assassinating their leaders and replacing them with any ruthless despot who would do what we told them for military support while these military puppets and millionaire aristocrats tossed crumbs to their impoverished people and jailed or murdered them if they rebelled.
And for what?
What Obama is trying to explain to the mindless knuckleheads in this country is that what he is trying to do is about people, their people and our people. It is about allowing their people to taste a little of what we have while we taste a little of what they have, and in the process we can learn a little something about each other without trying to turn their country into South Florida. It is about no longer demanding THEY change before WE concede even to talk to them because of their terrible record on human rights, or about us imposing our political philosophy and ideology on them, or boycotting their goods and placing embargos and strangling their economy and rendering their people poorer than they already are.
Cuba is a proud country with as many social ills as we have, but what it is really about is Cubans and Americans, the lot of whom if we ever met would probably like each other and have a great time together if we just for a minute allowed ourselves to have a few beers and forget about politics and history and perhaps watch a baseball game together, whether it be here or there.
white sox temper tantrums, boo-hoo
Between the ages of 7 and 10, I grew up hanging around the clubhouse and dugout and ball fields where my Dad, a former big leaguer, played, and I wonder just what the hell the 14 year old son of Chicago White Sox firstbaseman Adam LaRoche is doing hanging around the clubhouse 24/7 when he should be out playing with and against his peers at Babe Ruth League or American Legion. The situation seems odd and abnormal, and the fact that his father allows it is even odder and more abnormal.
My father played for Detroit before WWII and later from 1949 until retirement in 1953 in the old Pacific coast League for the Hollywood Stars, San Diego Padres, and LA Angels. While with the Stars, I hung out in the clubhouse with him and ventured onto the ball field during batting practice and learned how to handle a bat and glove while playing pepper against the centerfield fence with Dad's fellow infielders, Gene Handley, Eddie Baxes, Lou Stringer, and Johnny O'Neill. These guys literally groomed me to be a ball player, and I took to it like a Lab retriever pursuing a tennis ball hurled into the ocean. All of these players had endured tough times from the Great Depression, some had been hardened by war, and they were not the types to baby me if I was going to hang out with them. Many of the ball player's sons my age wanted no part of the clubhouse.
"You a lover or a fighter, Meat?" They'd ask me.
"A fighter!"
"Naw, we heard you were a lover boy."
The kidding was harsh. If I wanted to hang here, I learned to take it and witnessed these men absolutely relishing the banter of tough love with each other, and realized early on that this was there way of accepting you as a tough kid addicted to the game they considered sacrosanct. To make myself useful, I polished their spikes and boned their bats and accepted having a towel snapped at my ass and my head roughed.
Later, after Dad retired, as a teenager, I could not fathom being in this same situation.
At this point I was making my own way, and felt I did not deserve to be rubbing elbows with these men, who had paid their dues and hard knocks to arrive at such an exalted level. I would have felt squeamish, undeserving, an intruder. Even as a little kid I realized some of these men, crude and downright profane, did not WANT a child hanging around and holding them back from the kind of obscene behavior and pranks that was part of their culture.
What is truly embarrassing and insane in this year 2016 are Chicago White Sox players supporting Adam LaRoche, who quit baseball when the GM and owner of the White Sox wanted his 14 year old kid to cease being a nonstop presence in the clubhouse and field, perhaps feeling he was starting to be a distraction, or perhaps certain players felt they could not be themselves around an adolescent.
The fact that these players staged a boycott of a spring training game and their manager supported them yet eventually talked them into playing is as bush and downright stupid as anything we've seen in baseball ever.
Try and imagine something like this happening in the past, when there was no player's union, no agents, no multi-million dollar contracts, no big leaguers raising their kids in gated communities, but instead one owner who would flat out release you to go sell cars or insurance or dig ditches if you acted in such a childish, outrageous way.
When my dad was traded from San Diego to Los Angeles in 1953, the ownership, unlike the Stars and Padres, did not allow kids like me to be in the clubhouse, dugout or on the ball field, possibly for insurance reasons. So be it. Those were the rules. By this time I was starting to feel somewhat guilty about the advantages I'd already experienced by being a ball player's son at such a high level, where I was privileged to be taught by professionals and to sit and soak up the game like osmosis, so that my instincts and know-how was already on a 19 year olds' level.
Evidently LaRoche possesses what the pundits are calling "fuck you" money, so that he doesn't need $13 million in paychecks, which indicates his lack of passion for the game. That he stunk last year on a lifeless, spiritless team going through the motions, playing for a rather sedate manager, says it all—his team mates have their heads so far up their asses they threw tantrums after this 14 year old, who even had his own locker beside his dad, was told he had to cut down on time spent with a ball club the GM and ownership actually wanted to see start winning a few ball games and be in contention.
These ball players are showing themselves to be petulant, entitled brats with no clue as to what a fan goes through and pays to watch them wallow in mediocrity. Poor things, they had their 14 year old mascot taken away! Boohoo. Life is so unfair. Every single one of those players protesting, even discussing a boycott, ought to be suspended or sent down and replaced by hungry minor leaguers who wouldn't mind the banishment of a 14 year old who ought to be out competing against his peers instead of being one of the boys.
Word is, the players' union will have something to say about it. Go ahead and quit, LaRoche, and take your kid to watch a high school game—maybe he'll learn a little something about life.
goofy goose gossage
The great fearsome side-winding flame-throwing Hall of Fame relief pitcher Goose Gossage sounds like a grumpy old redneck with a horn out for Latinos with his latest comments about modern players over-celebrating, especially when it concerns two power hitting players by the name of Cespedes and Bautista, one of Cuban extraction, the other Puerto Rican. Bautista, a splendid all around ball player with amazing power, has seldom showed any inclination to showboat, but happened to get excited about a homerun that was the biggest hit of the year for his team in a tense playoff game. All he did was suddenly realize the momentous moment, and flip his bat, as if to say, "It's about goddam time!"
Cespedes likes to have fun, is flamboyant, and plays the game with a sense of enthusiasm and excitement. He can be lackadaisical, but he plays hard and with tremendous instinct. Some of the defensive plays he's made are just short of miraculous.
You can call Goose old-school, but he's mostly stubborn and probably teed off these days seeing so many of these guys hitting home runs and celebrating when in his day they would have hit the dirt twice their next times up and hesitated about charging the mound against a guy with that look and that mustache.
Maybe the Goose went after Bryce Harper, a 23 year old white Mormon, because he too seems to play with a flair for the game that to most of us with an objective view seems like pure joy at being on the field, wanting to win, wanting to cut the guts out of his opponents, and is as old school in his pursuit of fly balls as the great Pete Reiser who ran into so many cement walls he destroyed his career.
It's doubtful old Goose is a racist, but he needs to realize that half the players in today's big leagues are Latinos from all over the map—Dominicans, Venezuelans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, etc, etc.—and these are mostly dirt poor kids suddenly making tons of money in a strange country where we as Americans do not recognize their customs, their lack of inhibitions, nor their shock at the stoical behavior handed down by the baseball gods for over 100 years here in America, where Cubans have been banned for well over 50 years.
The Japanese and Korean players now in the big leagues seldom show emotion, a reflection of their culture and an adoption of our baseball culture.
But Latinos are just different. They seem to love playing the game more than us Americans, white or black. They strike me as kids who would play 12 months out of the year if owners of their contracts here in America didn't stop them. Latin countries have produced some of the most breath-taking shortstops in a generation, a passel of Ozzie Smiths and Omar Vizquels, clones as slick and smooth and acrobatic as anybody holding down that position ever.
Of note: the two most valuable players for the Kansas City Royals' World Series run were Latinos, shortstop Alcides Escobar, and catcher Salvador Perez, two gems as modest and humble as anybody in the league.
The Goose should just savor the game and overlook the antics of a few hotshots and cease griping.
All this talk about how the average baseball fan is 56 years old and baseball is losing young people and trying to please young people so they will become baseball fans is a waste of time. It's not about the game—it's about a generation glued to cell phones and ear-buds with the attention span of hummingbirds. These kids are hooked on technology from the get-go and even if they like baseball they are ill-equipped to play it, much less watch it.
These kids need instant gratification 24/7 and grow bored and restless when things slow down. Then they turn to those little things they poke at with their fingers. It's as bad as drug addiction. Take away these little pads and they'll go crying to mother. They are needy. They need to email or twitter to avoid looking and seeing and thinking and getting involved.
You want this crew to become baseball fans? Baseball is a game of leisure and patience and dogged strategy and ultimate observation for the kind of junkie who buys in. The games are too slow? Bullshit. The games are supposed to be show. If you're home, watching a game on TV, work a crossword or read a magazine or novel between pitching exchanges or commercials. Drink a beer. Smoke a cigar.
If you're at the game, before you is a cornucopia to savor. Study how one individual player conducts himself both as a performer and person throughout the game. Years back, I went to a game to observe St. Louis shortstop Gary Templeton, a kid with a future as a Hall of Famer. But instantly I observed his attitude-- nonchalant and uninvolved as if to be asleep; and, furthermore, the facial expression and body English of a spoiled sour all star who was doing you a favor to play the game.
I was immediately disappointed, and Templeton never did fill his potential, and his career petered out.
Watching a baseball game is like sitting at a sidewalk café at a very busy intersection in Paris, sipping and smoking, with cafes across the street and people coming and going—so much stuff going on, obvious and subtle (including fan behavior) that one should never be bored, but instead constantly amused and entertained.
Taking a cell phone or I pad to a baseball game is a desecration.
romney the clueless dork
Mitt Romney doesn't get it and never will because he's the child of precious privilege indoctrinated into the prep school milieu and safe cocoon of his religion, a man who has never dished the dirt and when around those who have (and do) has no clue as how to reach out and engage them, much less ingratiate and embrace. He is "above it all" and this all came back to the public in blindingly bright Technicolor during his outraged and impassioned skewering of Donald Trump, who, scamp that he is, at least knows how to get down in the muck politically and win over the hapless white sheep who are on the brink of choosing him for the same role Mitt failed at 4 years ago.
This very same breed of petulant white Americans couldn't stomach the inherent snobbism in Romney's personality, and instincts told them he was the kind of guy who if he showed up at their greasy garages or moldy bars would be run out or beaten within minutes just on smell alone. Of course, Romney is without vice and gallantly sanitized and pious, all traits that led him to excoriate the bad Don's gutter tactics and fabled life as a huckster, womanizer (God bless him), a cheap charlatan who somehow stole the populace he, Mitt, lost.
Mitt is gagging, and in a snit went about helping the Donald and further enhancing his following by trying to destroy him in what he says is his concern for the country and American people when we all know he is coming on as the main shill for the billionaire greed-bags who are trying to prop up the unctuous little boy called Marco Rubio and the sleazy jackal named Ted Cruz, both of whom are about as hard to swallow by trusty old-school republicans as eating a handful of doggie-do.
Poor old rich Mitt, he tried to do everything right, came from the right family, reeks of scholarly sophistication, doesn't cheat or lie or talk big or act mean, looks right out of Hollywood central casting as President, has the perfect blond matronly yet slightly glamorous smiling blond wife at his side, has four exemplary sons who never served in the military just as Mitt who backed the Viet Nam war found himself on a mission in France during the killing of nearly 60,000 Americans who probably would have ended up seeing him for what he is had they lived.
The kind of people who adore and are inspired by Trump can sniff out Romney a mile away and want to puke at his patronizing manner and painfully embarrassing way of trying to stoop to their level, as well as his incompleteness as a man and façade of trying to be a tough guy/Everyman when he's always been comfortable only with his own—the opposite of Bill Clinton, who could get along anywhere and with anybody.
It must gall Mitt to witness a scoundrel like Donald drawing the monster crowds and blind hero worship and crazed idolatry that nobody felt for him as he tried to be a "real guy" on the campaign trail and once in Detroit talked about how he "liked the trees…" WHAT?
Mitt is damn lucky his wife (who Donald once called wonderful and beautiful and labeled the Romney's a beautiful couple when Mitt was kissing his ass for money for his 2012 presidential run) talked the very sensitive Mitt out of running in 2016, because months back the scabrous Donald would have done the same axe job on him he did on another dorky prep school pussy from an entitled supposedly Patrician family, Jeb Bush, who licks his wounds in Florida, a beaten man, humiliated to the core.
Oh but the Donald would have excoriated Mitt in his beautiful suits and flawless grooming and perfect hair and smile "as a nice guy, a very nice man, I know Mitt, he has a beautiful wife, who I love, and a beautiful family, and he's a good guy, but he's weak, a loser, pathetic, he begged me for money and he's got all the money in the world, so why didn't he pay for his own campaign instead of begging…and then the 47%...he looks down on those people, you know, I guess he feels he's better than 47% of the American people, so imagine how he feels about the rest of you…Maybe Mitt only cares about the people like me—the ones with money to give him because he's too tight to pay his own way, like I am!"
Somehow, Mitt would, like poor frightened Jeb, had to fight back, to grovel in the gutter, to roll around in the shit while getting his ass handed to him by a skilled street fighter with a psychic take on his mentality and a ruthless conviction to destroy he, delicate Mitt, who has probably never been in a fight in his life, unless it was in the first grade when somebody threw rocks at him.
So we all know the real Romney: the kind of guy you see in movies, hanging out in exclusive countryclub locker rooms or dining hall after a round of golf, talking hush-hush about deals and secretly engulfing the country while they toss the discontented underclass morsels and crumbs and keep them happy with bullshit promises by politicians they bought—the 1%.
Mitt, you've lived a sheltered, climate controlled life, and that makes you a clueless dork, somebody even the gullible American people could not swallow, and so eat the crow the Donald has fed you and the whole damn party and stop showing up on TV as some sort of saintly savior as forgotten as yesterdays bad meal.
kobe & the nba's disgrace
As a long time Laker fan since watching Elgin and Jerry play exhibition games at LA State in the autumn of 1960, I am nauseated at the spectacle of Kobe Bryant disgracing himself as a player and as a person with his sudden phony humility while ingratiating himself with the press and opponents he has done his best to humiliate with every physical and psychological weapon in his arsenal for almost 20 years.
Even more nauseating is the phony response from players who just had to detest him for his arrogant and demeaning attitude toward them. They all seem to be on some sort of zombie robotic monotone as they praise him, never once alluding to him as being a good guy or good human being, but always that he "contributed to the league with his exploits and inspired me with his awesome work ethic."
Fact is, I love Kobe as a great player and one of the worlds' greatest admitted assholes and hate seeing him try to palm off this new benevolent image of a good guy that fits him like a pair of Alabama cotton patch overalls. Now that he's nearing retirement, he seems to finally realize how supercilious and patronizing and dismissive and hateful he's been toward his perceived peers or enemies and is at last trying to make amends, when it seems what he is really trying to do in a cold-bloodedly calculated way is repair his image so as to enhance his brand as a future team owner or corporate conglomerate billionaire, just another money and power monger bamboozling the public like a staged politician with fifty image repairing advisors.
Watch closely when he smiles, and it resembles something frozen or painted on, almost like a student picture where a photographer urged you to say cheese, as lacking in spontaneity and as scripted as his boring interviews and the narcissistic movie he made of himself. The guy seems acutely aware of his every movement and utterance.
The NBA didn't help much by turning the all star game into a Kobe extravaganza that had to have his fellow all stars close to gagging as they felt forced for the good of the league image to embrace him with the mandatory insincere hugs (except for Pau Gasol), and during taped in interviews during that ghastly all star game of sounding out the usual clichés of how inspiring the Black mamba has been to their careers.
Kobe, along with Byron Scott, owner Jim Buss and GM Mitch Kupchak have made a sham of their team as they night after night defer to Kobe coming out on court one last time in arenas in cities on the road and waving to the fans before chucking up one bad shot after another, his team mates spectators who just have to resent being frozen out one minute and instructed the next while their progress as rookies is stunted and the team loses big again in embarrassing fashion.
During certain games, with Kobe on the bench, the kids have rallied to make it close, only to have to watch Kobe chuck up supposed clutch game winners and fail miserably, his legs gone, his shot wayward, the only remnant of his old self the glory seeking hero worship of himself
It's the same old thing: some greats lead by saying come with me, we'll do it together, while Kobe says follow and watch me be the man.
I wonder what these young teammates playing for a pittance compared to Kobe feel about his flying to games on a helicopter from his estate in Orange County, never practicing, spending hours in the training shrine, missing home games that don't include last time ovations and failing to show up to sit on the bench for moral support when he's ailing, and bravely "playing for road fans" when he's ailing and useless, and picking up players he once disdained after fouling them when they blow by him like he's standing still—this once relentless perennially all league bulldog on defense having chuckle sessions with opponents during free throw dead time.
Never in the history of all professional sports in America have we endured a more prolonged and insufferable good bye to the fans of the NBA. Somebody wrote that he didn't want to go out this way, with all the adulation, but anybody with any sense knows this is a crock of bullshit, that he's savoring each and every ovation and chant of his name and seems to feel no guilt or misgivings about his selfish and horrific performance on the court.
He now allows interviews presenting a mellow Kobe paying compliments to those he tormented and trash-talked, a thoughtful complex Kobe who, as one of the most creative and fascinating assassins of all time, is an absolutely uninteresting person who seems only able to talk about himself—a windbag oozing with fake humility and modesty.
Larry Bird must be puking. A lot of us are and will heave a great sigh relief when he's gone to make his billions and enhance his so-called brand in the real world and the NBA can get back to life without Kobe and his team mates can start concentrating on basketball and repairing a once glorious but now tarnished and mutilated franchise.


We caught up with Minnie the Minx and asked her 20 questions about herself - here are her answers!
Only three? I need three words just to describe my little finger! It's mischievous, nimble and useful. See? But if I have to pick only three, I'm going for clever, fearless and funny!
I never leave the house without my peashooter and some ammo. And I also have a lucky bit of bubble gum.
I can remember my dad leaving me in my pram while he nipped into a shop. I slipped the brakes off, then sped downhill at about 50 miles an hour, all the way to the Town Hall! My dad chased after me the whole way, you should have seen his face!
I want to be me, forever!
I once came second to Cuthbert in a face-pulling competition, and I thought I would never be able to show my face in public again.
Turns out Wilfrid was standing on his toe, so I don't feel so bad about it now.
Who cares? I'm a Minx!
I'd hate to lose my voice. Does that count?
I would trust Michael, Martin, Mark, Morris, and Max - they're my big brothers!
We have a cat who lives with us, but I'm not even sure if he counts as a pet. He's called Chester. He does his own thing, mostly.
At Christmas, I like minx pies, ha ha!
The rest of the year, it's fish and chips.
I draw my own comics and they make me laugh. I'll show you them one day.
Rey from Star Wars. She's epic!
14. If you had insomnia and couldn't ever sleep, how would you fill the time?
I would draw comics till I fell asleep.
My greatest strength is that I don't let other people stop me doing the things I want.
Sometimes I don't listen to other people very much, even when they might be right. Which is hardly ever, but it has happened once or twice.
Football, making comics and standing up for myself.
18. And three things you're really bad at?
Homework, resisting temptation and doing what I'm told. I like to make my own decisions.
I'd like to save the world... from boredom!
I like cereal. Toast takes too long to make.


Photo 365 #153 – Suddenly they all died. The end.
I've been hard at work on a couple of projects this week. It's nice to feel that I'm being productive again, after an extended bout with the lazy bug.
Anyway, I finished rewriting chapter 16 of The Price of Mercy and got a decent start on chapter 17 this noon. I've been polishing my query up a little more, too. I've finished formatting the e-book version of my new poetry book and have moved on to working on the cover. And have I mentioned the story that Miss Tadpole commissioned? I've been working on that, too, and have set it in Lokana, about a thousand years before the events in The Price of Mercy. It rhymes and is rather like a fairy tale, which has been both interesting and challenging because it's not the sort of thing I normally write.
There's still lots to be done on all of these projects, but I'm having a lot of fun with them. What are you working on right now?
I've begun my end-of-the-world novel. I've even found a deeper plot than I thought. i can't wait. the only downside is that it will take a lot of studying.
I think I might have caught your lazy bug. I'm not working on much right now. I'm proud of you for getting so much done! That's awesome.


text:
Real Food Heals: Eat to Feel Younger and Stronger Every Day (Hardcover)
By Seamus Mullen, Frank Lipman (Foreword by), Genevieve Ko
Most titles are on our shelves or avaialble within 1-5 days.
Healthy cooking reinvented by top chef Seamus Mullen, with over 125 Paleo-inspired recipes designed to revitalize your health every day.
In the high-end food world, "healthy cooking" has long been taboo. But as one of the only high-profile chefs today guided by the understanding that the food we eat has a deep impact on our health, Seamus Mullen has rewritten the old rule that healthy can't be delicious. Seamus's powerful transformation came out of his own health crisis—after a near-death experience brought on by autoimmune disease he'd struggled with for years, he radically changed the way he cooked, both at his restaurants and at home. As a result, the biomarkers of disease disappeared and the constant trips to the ER he experienced while he was sick have come to an end.
But what Seamus has been surprised to discover is that this new way of eating—dishes starring real, whole foods such as vegetables and fruits, meats used as garnishes, whole grains, fermented foods, and no refined sugar or gluten—has not only controlled his disease but has also made his body feel younger, stronger, and more energized every day. It is his mission to share his brand of cooking with readers everywhere to inspire them to shift their diets and truly redefine what "healthy eating" can and should be.
A powerful manifesto with Seamus's moving journey at its heart, Real Food Heals is packed with 125 easy-to-prepare, Paleo-inspired, and nourishing recipes packed with delicious whole food ingredients, including Kefir Scrambled Eggs with Grated Garlic; Nori Rolls with Olive Oil, Tuna, Avocado, and Sprouts; and Fig Almond Cacao Nib bars. Complete with a 21-day jump-start meal plan, this unique cookbook will help everyone prepare healthy, irresistible food with big flavors every day and put them on the path to total wellness.
Seamus Mullen is an award-winning chef, restaurateur, and cookbook author known for his inventive yet approachable modern Spanish cuisine. He opened his first solo restaurant, Tertulia, in 2011, followed by El Colmado, a tapas and wine bar, in 2013. Seamus has been named "Chef of the Year" by Time Out New York and has been a semifinalist for Best Chef in NYC by the James Beard Foundation three years in a row. He was a finalist on Food Network's The Next Iron Chef and has been featured as a guest judge on Chopped and Beat Bobby Flay. Hero Food was his first cookbook. He lives in New York City.
"Seamus Mullen's journey to wellness is inspiring, and he believes deeply that food can heal. But as a chef first, Seamus won't eat anything that doesn't taste delicious! This cookbook brings those passions together and is a must-have for your cookbook shelf. The recipes will excite you and forever change the way you cook."
—Gwenyeth Paltrow
"As an avid runner and fellow chef, I'm excited by the way Seamus combines his passion for food with his commitment to a healthy lifestyle. These delicious recipes will fuel you and leave you satisfied at the table."
—Marcus Samuelsson, Restaurateur/Chef of Red Rooster Harlem and Streetbird Rotisserie
"The way Seamus has transformed his life through cooking delicious, wholesome, simple food is truly inspiring. Throughout this book it's easy to see his passion for the craft and love for healthful eating, but also for sharing his knowledge and talent with others. "
—Daniel Humm, chef/co-owner Eleven Madison Park
"Both Seamus and I know what it's like to have to renegotiate our relationships with diet and eating after being diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder, but we also both know how exciting and empowering it is to reclaim a love of food in spite of this life-change. In Real Food Heals, Seamus teaches you how to cook with ancient, healthful ingredients that heal your body in the immediate and long term."
—Danielle Walker, New York Times bestselling author of the Danielle Walker's Against All Grain series
"Seamus's story shows us that we can all reclaim our health by fueling our bodies with nutrient-rich foods. We can feel strong, symptom-free, and energized every day. This delicious collection of simple recipes—from a renowned chef!—makes change not only possible, but irresistible."
—Terry Wahls, M.D., author of The Wahls Protocol Cooking for Life
"We love Seamus's message about the power of real food, and of course that healthy food should be absolutely delicious too! Seamus's story of overcoming illness is nothing short of inspirational and you'll crave the bold flavors in these easy, everyday recipes and return to them again and again."
—Hemsley and Hemsley
"Seamus Mullen is a thriving example that Real Food Heals. Fueled by his jaw dropping transformation and his professional work as an acclaimed chef, Seamus takes us through a practical and enjoyable process of healing we can apply in our daily lives to feel younger and stronger every day."
—Tara Stiles, founder of Strala Yoga
"[An] outstanding collection...Readers interested in transitioning to a healthier diet—particularly those new to the kitchen—are sure to appreciate this terrifically accessible approach."
—Publishers Weekly, starred review
Publication Date: August 22nd, 2017
Cooking / Health & Healing / Weight Control
Health & Fitness / Diet & Nutrition / Diets
Cooking / Health & Healing / Low Carbohydrate
Kobo eBook (August 21st, 2017): $14.99

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Are you curious about how plants grow? Join us for a free workshop about planting, growing, and caring for plants! Omoye Aikhuele, expert gardener and plant enthusiast, will guide the class in a seed bomb workshop. Assemble provides all soil, clay, seeds, and building materials.


text:
<?php
/**
 * Class with methods listeners for sfDoctrineGuardCulturePlugin.
 *
 * @package    sfDoctrineGuardCulturePlugin
 * @subpackage lib.event
 * @author     Daniel Ancuta <whisller@gmail.com>
 */
class sfGuardCultureExtension
{
    /**
     * Method is executed when user is created.
     *
     * @param  sfEvent $event
     * @author Daniel Ancuta <whisller@gmail.com>
     */
    public static function listenToUserCreated(sfEvent $event)
    {
        $sfGuardUser = $event->getSubject();
        if (sfContext::hasInstance()) {
            $user = sfContext::getInstance()->getUser();

            $sfGuardUser->setCulture($user->getCulture());
            $sfGuardUser->save();
        }
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Midway ISD Leader Selected as Region 12 Superintendent of the Year
Waco, TX - Midway ISD Superintendent Dr. George Kazanas has been named the 2018 Region 12 Superintendent of the Year and regional nominee for the Texas Superintendent of the Year. Kazanas has served as superintendent of Midway ISD since 2012 and as an educator for 27 years. The native Central Texan also received this highly esteemed recognition in 2004, while serving as superintendent in China Spring ISD.
"We are delighted to recognize Dr. Kazanas as one of the top superintendents in the state of Texas," Executive Director of ESC Region 12 Dr. Jerry Maze said. "He was chosen by a committee of school board members from around our region for his skilled leadership and unwavering commitment to his students, staff and community. We are proud to have him represent our region at the state level."
Kazanas has overseen a number of innovative, forward-thinking instructional programs and impactful student support services. Innovative programs include the district's 1-to-1 technology program, flexible learning environments and collaborative research partnerships with Baylor University. His careful planning and implementation of these programs have led to remarkable successes. Midway ISD has grown in the number of distinctions each year since the inception of STAAR, celebrated dozens of state leadership awards and expanded the number of students taking college entrance exams while achieving record numbers of National Merit Scholars. In the area of support programs, Midway provides a full-day Pre-K program at no cost to families, an affordable after school program and a weekend food supply program for those in need. To combat disciplinary placements in alternative settings, the district has developed restorative discipline plans, resulting in a 75 percent reduction in expulsions. Staff also provides outreach and interventions, such as community partnerships, home visits and parent classes to strengthen family support and combat chronic absenteeism.
Board members and staff describe Kazanas as being an authentic, dependable, fiscally-conservative and innovative instructional leader. He consistently invests in the growth and success of those who serve Midway students and collaborates with administrators on training and goals for campus principals. He recently led the charge to develop long term strategic planning, involving more than one thousand community members through surveys and focus groups. Under his guidance and support, a community collaboration for school safety has led to a nationally-recognized security program, in which two local police departments work closely to enhance safety, reduce response times and advise the district's security procedures.
"We are excited and proud of George for this well-deserved recognition," President of Midway ISD Board of Trustees Pete Rusek said. "In the time that George has been superintendent at MISD, there have been many noteworthy accomplishments and achievements, both for him individually and for the district. Any one of these would be worthy of recognition of this caliber, and yet we are blessed to have endless celebrations and successes due to his leadership."
Rusek says that Kazanas works tirelessly with others to promote a common voice, shared values and cohesive sense of community. This collaboration allowed the district to facilitate solutions for overarching issues, such as childhood hunger, safety, mental health and economic growth. In addition to serving on the Waco Chamber and Hewitt Chamber of Commerce Boards, Kazanas was instrumental in organizing Prosper Waco. This group works with schools, business leaders and others to improve societal issues related to education, health, and financial security. As a servant leader, he invites and encourages team members and students to serve the community through volunteer programs and charity fundraisers.
His leadership and impact on education reach far beyond the doors of Midway ISD. His commitment to the advancement of Texas public education is evident through the many programs he serves. For example, Kazanas serves on the long-range planning steering committee for the State Board of Education, which is working to develop recommendations for the future of Texas public education. Kazanas also teaches and mentors future administrators through Baylor University's educational leadership doctoral program and serves as a superintendent mentor, making his impact on education leaders for years to come.
Kazanas is a product of Central Texas public schools, growing up in and teaching in West ISD and later serving in leadership positions in China Spring ISD. Prior to joining Midway ISD, Kazanas served as superintendent of Wichita Falls ISD and China Spring ISD. He holds a doctorate in educational leadership and policy studies from Tarleton State University, a Master of Science in educational administration and a Bachelor of Business Administration with teacher certification from Baylor University.
Kazanas and his wife Kim reside in Woodway and have two grown sons, both Midway graduates.
Kazanas will serve as the Region 12 nominee for the 2018 Texas Superintendent of the Year award presented by the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB). The state winner will be announced in September at the TASA/TASB Convention.
About the Superintendent of the Year Program


text:
Woman arrested for pouring sand into her daughter's eyes and mouth during exorcism
Centerville, Calif. - A Northern California woman was arrested after allegedly "viciously" attacking her 11-year-old daughter while attempting to perform an exorcism on the child at a beach near Ferndale as roughly a dozen people watched, the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office said Monday.
The Humboldt County Sheriff's Office released this booking photo of Kimberly Felder.
Around 9 a.m. Friday, a caller dialed 911 to report a child being attacked by the mother at Centerville Beach, a sheriff's news release stated.
The mother, identified as 45-year-old Kimberly Felder, had allegedly stripped the girl naked and was shoving handfuls of sand into her eyes and mouth, saying "she was trying to remove the Demons from the child," according to the Sheriff's Office.
Felder viciously struck, bit and choked the child in front of a crowd of about 10 to 12 people, the release said.
A local resident, identified as John Marciel, stepped in to restrain Felder and prevent the girl from further harm. Marciel struggled with Felder on the beach as the woman continued to strike her daughter with a piece of driftwood, according to sheriff's officials.
At some point, Marciel called 911, according to the Associated Press.
Shortly after that, a sheriff's deputy arrived and handcuffed Felder after separating her from the victim.
As deputies subdued the woman, Marciel further assisted by tending to the injured girl. She was hospitalized and treated for multiple wounds, including a severe injury to her ear.
The child has been taken into protective custody, AP reported.
"The worst thing was when we got the child away and into the sheriff's truck, she said people drove by and nobody stopped," Marciel told AP. "When you see something like this, it shakes your foundation and faith in people."
Sheriff's officials hailed Marciel for his heroism, crediting him with helping to save the youngster's life.
"If it were not for the intervention and heroic actions of John Marciel, it is very likely that the child would have been killed by Felder," the release stated. "The Humboldt County Sheriff's Office would like to offer special thanks for his assistance."
The Sheriff's Office said it will request that Marciel is recognized with the Red Cross Life Saving Award.
Felder, meanwhile, was booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility on suspicion of attempted homicide, assault with a deadly weapon, felony child abuse, and aggravated mayhem.
Parents of a baby who died with 96 fractures charged in her death
Police release new photos of infant found abandoned in Georgia woods
'Very tough' 11-year-old grabs machete and slashes home invader, officials say
'Prank gone wrong': Florida man admits to lighting firecrackers under a child's bed
Suspect thwarted by machete-wielding 11-year-old flees hospital
Florida man claimed cocaine on his nose 'was not his,' deputies say
R. Kelly arrested again in Chicago on federal sex charges
Arkansas woman sentenced to prison after posing as deputy, springing boyfriend from jail
Indiana dad lures alleged child predator by pretending to be teen, captures him
A deputy pulled over a car for speeding. That traffic stop saved a 12-day-old baby's life
Three charged after pregnant woman strangled, baby cut from her womb: Chicago police
Police: Husband mistakes wife for intruder, fatally shoots her


However, recent statements by position and opposition leaders from Republika Srpska do not give hope that BiH will soon submit its MAP. Firsty, Milorad Dodik, a member of the BiH Presidency and president of the SNSD Party, said that "Republika Srpska does not have the readiness and support to become NATO member" and that they do not trust the Alliance. And then the president of the opposition SDS party, Vukota Govedarica, stated that [Republika] Srpska and the Serbian people have nothing to do in the NATO alliance, and that they will follow all the moves of Serbia and decide on further steps about this issue with this country.


I have drafts in my head that I want to put on page but instead I'm painting so the words will have to wait just a bit longer.
Things are brewing. Not coffee of course. Welp. I made it three hours into the morning and legitimately thought about throwing in the towel. That is how much I was missing my coffee. But instead I brewed lots and lots of hot water with lemon. Then I stared at piles of vegetables and decided to figure out a Plan for them later.
Just Follow the Joy! • This entry was posted in Art, Writing & Big Magic, Birds, Mind of Sarah and tagged art, blogging, cleanse, creativity, daily life, health, illustration, watercolor, writing, yoga. Bookmark the permalink.
← Pour me some hot water and get me a lemon! Change is in the air.
Birds would definitely choose lemon water over coffee. Tap into your inner bird in times of craving!
Yes they would wouldn't they? Great idea!


Is nuclear the safest and most cost-effective path forward?
(Whitby-Oshawa): Are there safer and cheaper ways to meet our energy needs than rebuilding outdated nuclear plants? Why hasn't the government even considered alternatives like large-scale energy efficiency and importing clean water power from Quebec?
No nuclear project has delivered on time or on budget in Ontario's history. Yet the Liberal government has refused to conduct an independent, public review of costs and alternatives before committing billions to rebuild old nuclear plants.
The GPO asked Ontarians to support their call for an independent, public review of how much nuclear will cost, and how it compares to alternatives – and to date 2275 Ontarians have signed their names in support.
Schreiner in an open letter to the Minister is calling on the government to stop work on rebuilding nuclear plants in Ontario, until a full, independent and public review is completed.


Keep your unused floor coverings organized and easy to manage. This guide is about storing area rugs.
Save old belts to use when storing or moving large area rugs. Roll up the rug and wrap a couple of belts around it, using the belt buckles to secure the belt in place. The belts are great for preventing the rug from unrolling and also work as handles for moving the rug.
Nylons work well too. I use them to tie up alot of things, as hoses, stacks of garden fence, rugs, etc.
just the tip I need as we are moving in the next month!
What a fantastic idea! Thanks, I will have to try this one- it is a keeper of an idea that is for sure!
The only problem with the belts is that once you use them; you can NOT roll the rolled carpet without fear of scratching and knicking the floor. You will have to carry the rug.
We use old bits of rope so we can roll the carpets easily. It makes use of smaller rope pieces and prevents any type of mold from forming if you're in a wet climate and happen to use leather belts.
To protect our hands we use gloves when lifting or you can tuck in some small handtowels (we use them for cleaning) and thus have removable and flexible handles when needed.
We donate old belts to charity if we no longer wear them.


Choosing the ride that is right for you is the very important for an enjoyable and safe holiday. At any stage in the process you can email or call us for advice. We can talk through the holiday and fill in any information gaps.
The following are some guidelines. These are only general guidelines, so please make sure you read this carefully about the trip you are interested in. It is your responsibility to make sure you are adequately prepared.
Someone who has never sat on a horse or had only limited very easy rides. Probably not able to rise to the trot.
A rider who is capable of mounting and dismounting unassisted, capable of applying basic aids, comfortable and in control at the walk, moderate length posting trots, and short canters.
Confident and in control on a forward going horse at a steady canter in the open over uneven ground. Has ridden for a number of years. A rider who has a firm seat, is confident and in control at all paces (including posting trots, two-point canters and gallops). May not ride regularly.
Confident and in control on a forward going horse at a fast canter in the open over rough and variable ground. There are likely to be long stretches of fast riding and/or you will be riding in areas with potentially dangerous game. Is comfortable in the saddle for at least 6 hours.
Do you ride in English or Western tack?
How much riding can you realistically do to prepare for the ride?
Will it be in the controlled conditions of an arena, or on trails with varied terrain?
What is your level of physical strength and stamina?
It is generally best to estimate on the conservative side. If you have a particular ride in mind, but do not meet the riding criteria, consider joining an instructional program where you can gain the necessary skills and confidence.
Previous experience may be required. You should be in excellent health and top physical condition to enjoy such an experience.


text:
Q: Setting up an assembler on 64-bit Windows I really need some help here. I've been searching online for about 2 days now and can't seem to find an answer to the problems that I got.

*

*I downloaded nasm and installed it it seems to work but I can't seem to find any example code that works on windows 64bit (it would be awesome if you could make a simple hello world example for me or something).
(And how to compile it)

*How would I turn the .o file into a .exe?

*How would I accesses the screen or gpu memory (I think) to print stuff on the screen (like some sort of console application)?

A: There a a few things to consider when programming in assembly using NASM under Windows:

*

*NASM is just an assembler
A linker is needed to create an executable.

*Windows API are implemented as a user space library.
The library is not entirely in user space, some functions cross the boundary, but the interface to the application is a set of DLL, most notably: kernel32.dll, user32.dll and so on.

*Windows' executables can have different subsystems.
Among the others the IMAGE_SUBSYSTEM_WINDOWS_GUI and IMAGE_SUBSYSTEM_WINDOWS_CUI are the most used, the former being used by applications that create windows and the latter by applications that use a console1.

The linker takes to COFF object (.obj) file generated by the assembler, takes a set of library definitions (.lib) and perform these important steps:

*

*It resolves the call to external functions found in the object file.
A function marked as external is meant to be found in one of the library definition, the linker then fixes the call instruction to point to a location where the address of the function will be found at run-time.

*It add the dependency libraries to the final executable.
This is done with the help of the PE file format, basically if F if found on the library L then L is added to the dependencies list along with a location where to write the address of F.
The loader will do the rest.
The linking is actually more complex than that.
It is also responsible for setting the various PE flags and settings, including the subsytem and the entrypoint.

To write an executable using NASM with need:

*

*A linker.

*The set of library definitions.

These can be found in the Windows SDK2.
The linker we will use in this example is the Microsoft LINK linker.
As @CodyGray pointed out in its comment (quoting because I'm lazy):

The Windows 7 version of the SDK that you linked does include all of the build tools. The Windows 8 SDK changed and no longer ships with the command-line build tools, forcing you to download a Visual Studio package

Once we have the tools, we can start programming.
We will use WriteFile to write a string to the standard output (like we would in Linux assembly).
The handler to the standard output must be retrieved with GetStdHandle though.
In Windows you can exit a process with a ret even with no CRT (C run-time) linked (i.e. in a bare process).
I won't explain the Window 64 ABI nor the trickery of programming in 64-bit.
BITS 64
DEFAULT REL                  ;RIP relative addressing by default

GLOBAL main                  ;Main must be visible to the linker

;Function the linker will look for in other modules (libs or objs)
EXTERN WriteFile
EXTERN GetStdHandle

STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE   EQU -11

SECTION .data

 strHelloWorld  db "Hello world!", 13, 10, 0
 lenHelloWorld  dd $-strHelloWorld

 hOut           dd 0    ;Will store STDOUT handler

SECTION .text

main:
 sub rsp, 30h               ;20h (Home space) + 10h (params)

 ;Get STDOUT handler (Handler are 32-bit values)

 mov ecx, STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE
 call GetStdHandle

 mov DWORD [hOut], eax                 ;Useless as now, for future reuse

 ;Write strHelloWorld to STDOUT

 mov ecx, eax
 lea rdx, [strHelloWorld]
 mov r8d, DWORD [lenHelloWorld]
 xor r9, r9
 mov QWORD [rsp+20h], r9
 call WriteFile

 add rsp, 30h
 ret

To create an executable from this source, we first assemble it into a 64-bit object file:
nasm -fwin64 hello.asm -o hello.obj

then we link it against the kernel32 library (the only one we need):
link /MACHINE:X64 /SUBSYSTEM:CONSOLE /OUT:hello.exe /NODEFAULTLIB /ENTRY:main kernel32.lib hello.obj

the CLI switches are pretty straightforward, NODEFAULTLIB avoid linking with MSVCVRXX.lib, the Microsoft CRT.
Those are the minimal switches necessary to build an executable in this example.
I assume you are smart enough to fix the path issues when issuing the commands above, particularly you can tell link where to find the lib files.
For this example I just copied them from the SDK installation folder.

As proposed in other answers, you can use other assemblers that may came with a linker.
Another possible developing environment is to use gcc (either inside cygwin or as mingw) to perform the linker step.

1 In this case Windows automatically create a console for the application and set the standard handlers appropriately. GUI application can recreate the console too (or more than one), so IMAGE_SUBSYSTEM_WINDOWS_GUI must be intended as "No console by default".
2 The version linked is the first Google result, invest more time in finding a suitable version. Also, I'm not sure if there is a linker in the Windows SDK or you need to download a Visual Studio instead.

A: Download Flat Assembler.(Download->flat assembler for windows)
http://flatassembler.net/
Extract zip.
Goto 'examples/win64/pe64demo/'
open 'pe64demo.exe'
(source code is in 'pe64demo.asm')

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


The intense heat of the day had subsided, and in its wake the sun cast a golden glow over the rolling Tuscan hills and vineyard below. Seated at the patio table was Massimo's wife Chiara, two young sons Andrea and Lucs and my adult children Alex and Pat. Their dogs Billba and Bamboo, scurried chaotically about, while Mia the cat kept them in check with a few timely swats. In the distance, Charlie Brown, the family pony settled in for another night, and the harmonic sound of cicadas rounded out the summer in Tuscany soundtrack.
This accidental private Italian family dinner would become the highlight of our trip.
20 minutes earlier Massimo had been taking a dip in the pool with his family, a restful end of day ritual on an evening off. And we had been barreling along a dusty Tuscan dirt road, heading inland from the coast after a day on the Adriatic Sea, anticipating a return to La Cicicchia Country House and a night out at the well- regarded restaurant. We had stayed at the country house, but an evening dining experience had escaped us. Evidently, we had failed to read the business hours while being seduced by the reviews online.
Four days previous, our families had never met, and yet here we were now seated for a private family meal in Tuscany.
Fate had brought us together initially when we discovered late in the day that our previous pension reservation was "permanently closed." While most places in the area were full, the owner of a country house close by had taken pity on us, and managed to find us a room at La Cicicchia Country House after an exhaustive search.
Primarily a restaurant high upon the hill, the available guest room was all we could have hoped for, and all my hips could have wished for after camping three nights in the Dolomites on a yoga mat – a comfortable king-sized bed, air-conditioned room, spacious private bathroom, tasteful Italian décor, and a magnificent valley view beyond the opening shutters. Gob smacked, we smiled graciously, as Massimo greeted us that afternoon, making us at home with a fresh pulled Italian espresso and bottled water for our room.
We were yet to learn that the evening of our arrival, Fri July 27, 2019, was a total lunar eclipse over Europe. I had provisioned bread, cheese, prosciutto, olives, grapes and rose wine in town, for a casual late evening hillside dinner outside our room. We mused that the activity at the patio restaurant – the arrival of an MC, sound system and karaoke along with many tables decked out in white linen and well-dressed guests arriving at sunset, was for a private wedding reception. Later in the evening when Massimo brought champagne and breads, we discovered it was a special lunar eclipse viewing dinner, attended by reservation, due to the excellent viewing location. We then ordered more wine, and before we knew it we were singing and dancing with the locals until well after 1am.
The following two mornings and evenings, the dogs Bamboo and Billba would playfully come into our room, often followed by Mia, the cat. The playful chaos that ensued reminded us of being at home. And the breakfast of local fruits, yogurt, cheeses, prosciutto and croissants with Italian coffee each morning was the perfect start to the day.
My daughter and I were in the Cupramontanna area to attend the International Downhill Federation Verdiccio World Cup longboard race, which was also the Italian National Championship. My son, a previous Canadian champion, was there to compete. His photo, plastered all over town, had made him the poster boy for the event.
We stayed at La Cicicchia Country House two nights, and would gladly have stayed on if not for a previous reservation I had made in Anacona on the coast, with the intention of spending a couple days by the sea as a family after the competition.
And so it was, that we found ourselves drawn back to Agugliano that night. La Cicicchia Country House had felt like home. As we roared up the road in a now familiar dust ball, cutting through vineyard covered hills, the dogs greeted us with barks and wagging tails, like we were coming home.
But the disappointment was palatable at the sight of the gate's closure. Soon enough, no doubt influenced by the kids and dogs communicating, Massimo opened the electronic gate and up we drove. He was wrapped in a towel, fresh out of the pool, and in broken Italian we explained our likely mistake about his restaurant hours. Without hesitation, he beckoned us to join them for a private family dinner, and before we knew it, we were on the patio drinking champagne and eating fresh prepared mussels. Steak Florentine would follow along with an Italian salad and breads, and several well selected and carefully decanted Italian red wines as the evening progressed, wrapping up with an Italian custard desert and a local liqueur.
Our Italian was limited at best. But over a three-hour meal, my daughter's high school French seemed workable in deciphering translations, and my son, having spent previous summers in Europe, had a decent smattering of Italian vocabulary to his credit. This coupled with a lot of hand waving, smiling, guessing and head nodding, mixed with the Google translate app on my phone, and Massimo's notes from having taken an English course 17 years previous, helped us hobble through an evening of conversation.
This Italian family dining evening turned into one of the most memorable events of our trip. That comment, when entered into my translate app at the end of the evening, was met with heartfelt hugs.
My attempts to offer payment for the dinner were denied, but Massimo eventually agreed to me being able to cover the wine. And in a further gesture of friendship, Alex retrieved an extra skateboard and some race wheels from the event, and offered it as a gift to the boys, along with a signed copy of the program poster. They were thrilled.
We learned that evening that language knows no barriers when there is a desire to communicate friendship. Truly the best travel memories are created through accidental circumstance.
Massimo ha caricato il suo bicchiere in un brindisi all'amicizia, "Ad amici e buon cibo". Mentre non capivamo ciò che veniva detto, sorridevamo tutti entusiasticamente d'accordo, intuitivamente sapendo che significava "per gli amici e il buon cibo".
Il caldo intenso della giornata si era placato, e sulla sua scia il sole proiettava un bagliore dorato sulle dolci colline toscane e sulla vigna sottostante. Seduti al tavolo del patio c'era la moglie di Massimo, Chiara, due giovani figli Andrea e Lucs e i miei figli adulti, Alex e Pat. I loro cani, Billba e Bamboo, scapparono caoticamente in giro, mentre Mia il gatto li teneva sotto controllo con qualche tempestivo schiaffo. In lontananza, Charlie Brown, il pony di famiglia si stabilì per un'altra notte, e il suono armonico delle cicale completò l'estate in Toscana con la colonna sonora.
Questa cena privata privata in famiglia italiana sarebbe diventata la parte migliore del nostro viaggio.
20 minuti prima, Massimo aveva fatto un tuffo in piscina con la sua famiglia, un rituale riposante di fine giornata in una serata libera. Eravamo incappucciati lungo una polverosa strada sterrata toscana, dirigendoci verso l'entroterra dalla costa dopo una giornata sul mare Adriatico, aspettando un ritorno a La Cicicchia Country House e una serata al ristorante ben considerato. Siamo stati in casa di campagna, ma un'esperienza culinaria serale ci era sfuggita. Evidentemente, non eravamo riusciti a leggere l'orario di lavoro mentre eravamo sedotti dalle recensioni online.
Quattro giorni prima, le nostre famiglie non si erano mai incontrate, eppure eravamo qui per un pasto privato in famiglia in Toscana. Il destino ci aveva riuniti inizialmente quando scoprimmo tardi che la nostra precedente pensione era "chiusa permanentemente". Mentre la maggior parte dei posti nella zona erano pieni, il proprietario di una casa di campagna nelle vicinanze aveva avuto pietà di noi e riuscì a trovarci una camera a La Cicicchia Country House dopo una ricerca esauriente.
Principalmente un ristorante in cima alla collina, la camera degli ospiti era tutto ciò che avremmo potuto sperare, e tutti i miei fianchi avrebbero potuto desiderare dopo il campeggio tre notti sulle Dolomiti su una stuoia di yoga – un comodo letto king-size, con aria condizionata camera, ampio bagno privato, arredamento italiano di buon gusto e una magnifica vista sulla valle oltre le persiane. Gob sbuffò, sorridemmo gentilmente, mentre Massimo ci salutava quel pomeriggio, facendoci sentire a casa con un nuovo espresso italiano tirato e acqua in bottiglia per la nostra stanza.
Dovevamo ancora sapere che la sera del nostro arrivo, venerdì 27 luglio 2019, è stata un'eclissi lunare totale sull'Europa. Avevo messo a disposizione pane, formaggio, prosciutto, olive, uva e vino rosato in città, per una cena informale in collina a tarda sera fuori dalla nostra stanza. Abbiamo pensato che l'attività al ristorante del patio – l'arrivo di un MC, sistema audio e karaoke insieme a molti tavoli addobbati con lenzuola bianche e ospiti ben vestiti arrivati al tramonto, era per un ricevimento di nozze privato. Più tardi, la sera, quando Massimo portò champagne e pane, scoprimmo che si trattava di una speciale cena di osservazione dell'eclisse lunare, alla quale partecipava la prenotazione, vista l'eccellente posizione di osservazione. Poi ordinammo altro vino e, prima che ce ne accorgessimo, stavamo cantando e ballando con la gente del posto fino a dopo le 1 del mattino.
Le due mattine e le sere seguenti, i cani Bamboo e Billba entrerebbero scherzosamente nella nostra stanza, spesso seguita da Mia, il gatto. Il caos giocoso che ne è seguito ci ha ricordato di essere a casa. E la colazione a base di frutta locale, yogurt, formaggi, prosciutto e croissant con caffè italiano ogni mattina era l'inizio perfetto per la giornata.
Mia figlia ed io eravamo nella zona di Cupramontanna per partecipare alla gara di longboard della Coppa del Mondo di Verdiccio International Downhill, che era anche il Campionato Nazionale Italiano. Mio figlio, un ex campione canadese, era lì per gareggiare. La sua foto, intonacata in tutta la città, lo aveva reso il ragazzo del manifesto per l'evento.
Siamo stati a La Cicicchia Country House due notti, e sarei felice di aver soggiornato se non per una precedente prenotazione che avevo fatto ad Anacona sulla costa, con l'intenzione di trascorrere un paio di giorni al mare come una famiglia dopo la competizione.
E così è stato, che ci siamo ritrovati ritratti ad Agugliano quella notte. La Country House La Cicicchia si era sentita come a casa. Mentre ruggivamo per la strada in una palla di polvere ormai familiare, tagliando colline coperte di vigneti, i cani ci accolsero con code e scodinzoli, come se stessimo tornando a casa. Ma la delusione era gradita alla vista della chiusura del cancello. Abbastanza presto, senza dubbio influenzato dai bambini e dai cani che comunicavano, Massimo aprì il cancello elettronico e noi guidammo. Era avvolto in un asciugamano, appena uscito dalla piscina, e in italiano spezzato abbiamo spiegato il nostro probabile errore riguardo le ore del suo ristorante. Senza esitazione ci invitò a unirsi a loro per una cena privata di famiglia e, prima che ce ne accorgessimo, eravamo nel patio a bere champagne e a mangiare cozze fresche preparate. La bistecca alla fiorentina avrebbe seguito con un'insalata e pane italiano, e diversi vini rossi italiani ben selezionati e accuratamente decantati come la sera progrediva, avvolgendo con un deserto di crema pasticcera italiana e un liquore locale.
Il nostro italiano era limitato al massimo. Ma nel corso di un pranzo di tre ore, il francese delle superiori di mia figlia sembrava funzionale a decifrare le traduzioni, e mio figlio, avendo trascorso le precedenti estati in Europa, aveva una discreta infarinatura del vocabolario italiano al suo attivo. Questo, insieme a un sacco di mani che sventolano, sorridono, indovinano e annuiscono, mescolato con l'app di Google Translator sul mio telefono, e gli appunti di Massimo dopo aver preso un corso di inglese 17 anni prima, ci hanno aiutato a zoppicare in una serata di conversazione.
Questa cena da pranzo famiglia italiana si è trasformata in uno degli eventi più memorabili del nostro viaggio. Quel commento, quando è entrato nella mia app di traduzione alla fine della serata, è stato accolto da un profondo abbraccio.
I miei tentativi di offrire il pagamento per la cena sono stati respinti, ma alla fine Massimo ha accettato di essere in grado di coprire il vino. E in un ulteriore gesto di amicizia, Alex ha recuperato uno skateboard extra e alcune ruote da gara dall'evento, e l'ha offerto come regalo ai ragazzi, insieme a una copia firmata del poster del programma. Erano entusiasti.
Abbiamo appreso quella sera che la lingua non conosce barriere quando c'è il desiderio di comunicare amicizia. Veramente i migliori ricordi di viaggio sono creati attraverso circostanze accidentali.


On September 29, 2018, the Foundation for Improvement of Justice honored sexual assault "Sister Survivor," Amanda Thomashow, with its prestigious Paul H. Chapman award. The Foundation for Improvement of Justice is a not-for-profit institution whose mission is improving local, state, and federal systems of justice in the United States. Lansing attorney, Jim Graves, who represented Ms. Thomashow and other survivors in the largest sports sexual assault case in history, also attended the award ceremony at the Four Season Hotel Atlanta.
Sinas Dramis partner and Michigan sexual assault attorney, Jim Graves, has represented numerous Sister Survivors of the disgraced MSU sports doctor, Larry Nassar, since 2016. He recently had the privilege of nominating his client, Amanda Thomashow, for the Foundation for Improvement of Justice, Inc. award.
A person's home is supposed to be a safe place. Unfortunately, sexual assault at an apartment complex is all too common due to inadequate security and landlord negligence. The following outlines a recent successful settlement for one Chicago resident obtained by Sinas Dramis partner and attorney, Jim Graves.
Late Tuesday evening, May 15, 2018, Michigan State University reached a settlement with the 332 sexual abuse survivors of Larry Nassar. While the substantial MSU settlement amount cannot begin to repair the damage caused by the former physician, it is a step in the right direction of serving justice and bringing closure to the Army of Survivors.
While the unfortunate tragedy at Michigan State University, USA Gymnastics, and Twistars USA involving hundreds of sexually abused gymnasts continues to make headlines, several recent Larry Nassar case updates attempt to bring justice to survivors and also protect future athletes.


text:
Public Engagements
CV & Publications
Martin Kemp
New Yorker etc.
Martin Kemp Blog	0
On Sat 1st Oct in New York for the New Yorker Festival – a panel of "sleuthing", with Stacy Schiff (the very lively biographer), an impressive former CIA agent and a scary NYPD officer. The cop was the very image of Rooster Cogburn in the Cohen Brothers disappointingly formulaic remake of True Grit. So laid back as to be almost horizontal and a voice like gravel rolling slowly in a wooden box.
I've been on panels where it is obvious what the panellists have in common. And some panels have not worked. In this case, we were so alert to the obvious fact that it was not very evident why we were on the stage together, we worked hard to find surprisingly strong affinities of method – centred not least on the perpetual scrutiny of the status of sources and conscious scepticism. The session was set up and chaired by the journalist David Grann, who managed well to devise some shape for the event and to keep everyone in play.
Lots of nice ironies. David Grann's long piece on the attribution of the Leonardo portrait on vellum had made severe allegations of malpractice against Paul Biro, who had written on the fragmentary fingerprint that Pascal Cotte had found on the vellum. Although Grann's piece was fair on what Pascal and I had done, the allegations about Biro served to allow those hostile to the attribution to dismiss all our evidence. The fingerprint analysis comprised only a small and subsidiary part of our argument, but the press seized disproportionately on the cops-and-robbers dimension of the print – as the "killler" evidence. Biro is suing Grann and the New Yorker. Afterwards I met the lawyer who is representing Biro (though I have no direct engagement with the case). The same lawyer has also been leading the action taken Jeanne Marchig, the previous owner of the portrait, who has been suing Christie's NY. Jeanne is altogether admirable – stoic, honest and charming. She has been selling works owned by her late husband to support her animal charities. The case has so far foundered on being out of time (the Statute of Limitations), but there are still possibilities apparently. It is clear that Christie's were negligent in their handling of the work, which they said was German 19thC on no sound basis, but the case has been deemed to have been brought too long after the sale. The law, as usual, is more concerned own arcane technicalities than natural justice. The evening before I had dinner with the very well-informed and urbane lawyer who once represented the owner of the portrait. Who says academics live in ivory towers? All grist to the mill of Living with Leonardo when I get round to writing it.
The press and media coverage of our new research on the origins of the portrait has been extensive and generally favourable. But I have no responses from the scholars to whom I sent the full study before the press deadline.
Paradox of blogging	Steve Jobs
© Martin Kemp, 2020


Ever felt you didn't belong? As if you should have lived in the past or the future instead of the world we live in now? Well look no further! Out of Time follows a collection of employees at a company that for a small fee will be able to send you to either the future or the past to live an entirely new life. The one catch: don't make any cataclysmic changes to history. We follow Redmond, a depressed forty something wishing that his life had been different, Lizzie, a young girl who is sure that her dreams will come true through reality TV, NC-1000 aka Nigel, an employee who has made so many era jumps that he now thinks he is a robot and Annette a shape changing alien. Four pen pushers who have the job of making sure that history remains in tact.
Click HERE to download Out Of Time on DriveThruComics now!


text:
Tag: The Ladder
LGBTQ2 for September 1
Before the 1900s to The Suffragettes
1864, Ireland – Sir Roger Casement (September 1, 1864 –August 3,1916) is born in Kingston, Ireland. A former British diplomat he joined the Irish nationalists. Casement was captured and tried for treason. At his trial, the fact he is gay is used as further evidence of his evil ways and he is hanged. Described as the "father of twentieth-century human rights investigations," he was honored in 1905 for the Casement Report on the Congo and knighted in 1911 for his important investigations of human rights abuses in Peru. He then made efforts during World War I to gain German military aid for the 1916 Easter Rising that sought to gain Irish independence. Casement's remains lay in state at Arbour Hill in Dublin for five days during which time an estimated half a million people filed past his coffin. After a state funeral, the remains were buried with full military honors in the Republican plot in Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublinwith other Irish republicans and nationalists. The President of the Republic of Ireland, Éamon de Valera, who in his mid-eighties was the last surviving leader of the Easter Rising, attended the ceremony, along with an estimated 30,000 others.
The Friends of Dorothy Era and The Hayes Code
1937 – Actress, writer, comedian Mary Jean "Lily" Tomlin (September 1, 1939) is born. She is an American comedian, writer, singer, and producer, and an openly lesbian feminist. Tomlin was the 2003 recipient of the Kennedy Center's Mark Twain prize for humorists. Tomlin began her career as a stand-up comedian, and performed Off-Broadway during the 1960s. Her breakout role was performing as a cast member on the variety show Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In from 1969 until 1973. She currently stars on the Netflix series Grace and Frankie as Frankie Bernstein. Her performance as Frankie garnered her three consecutive nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 2015, 2016 and 2017. Her signature role was written by her wife (then partner), Jane Wagner, in a show titled The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe which opened on Broadway in 1985 and won Tomlin the Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Play.
1939, Poland – German invasion of Poland begins WWII. Thousands of gay men are called to military service yet over 20,000 civilians are convicted under Paragraph 175 for homosexuality. More than 7,000 servicemen are also convicted, sent to prison, then forced to return to the front. Gay men had to wear the pink triangle as indication their homosexuality.
1939 – The first openly gay judge in the United States was Stephen M. Lachs(born September 1939) is born. He appointed by Governor Jerry Brownto the Los Angeles County Superior Court in 1979-1999.Before leaving office in 1981, Brown appointed three more gay and lesbian judges to the California courts, including the nation's first openly lesbian judge, Mary Morgan, who served on the San Francisco municipal court.
1949 – Leslie Feinberg (September 1, 1949 – November 15, 2014) was an American,butchlesbianand transgender activist, communist, and author. Her writing, notably Stone Butch Blues (1993) and her pioneering non-fiction book, 1996'sTransgender Warriors, laid the groundwork for much of the terminology and awareness around gender studies and was instrumental in bringing these issues to a more mainstream audience. Feinberg described herself as "an anti-racist white, working-class, secular Jewish, transgender, lesbian, female, revolutionary communist." Feinberg's widow, Minnie Bruce Pratt(born September 12, 1946), wrote in her statement regarding Feinberg's death that Feinberg did not really care which pronouns a person used to address her: "She preferred to use the pronouns she/zie and her/hir for herself, but also said: 'I care which pronoun is used, but people have been respectful to me with the wrong pronoun and disrespectful with the right one. It matters whether someone is using the pronoun as a bigot, or if they are trying to demonstrate respect." Feinberg's last words were reported to be "Hasten the revolution! Remember me as a revolutionary communist."
1950s The Decade the public learned heterosexual women wanted sex
1959, Paraguay – Radio host Bernardo Aranda is assassinated. 108 gay men were arrested for the alleged murder and their names were publicly released. "108" became a slang term for homosexuality in Paraguay.
The Civil Rights 60s: When the Boomers were under 30
1961 – Czechoslovakiaand Hungary decriminalize sodomy.
1961, Rome – The Vatican declares that anyone who is "affected by the perverse inclination" towards homosexuality should not be allowed to take religious vows or be ordained within the Roman Catholic Church.
1964 – The first photograph of lesbians appears on the cover of lesbian magazine The Ladder,showing two women from the back, on a beach looking out to sea. The Ladder was the first nationally distributed lesbian publication in the United States. It was published monthly from 1956 to 1970, and once every other month in 1971 and 1972. It was the primary publication and method of communication for the Daughters of Bilitis(DOB), the first lesbian organization in the US. It was supported by ONE, Inc. and the Mattachine Societywith whom the DOB retained friendly relations. The name of the magazine was derived from the artwork on its first cover, simple line drawings showing figures moving towards a ladder that disappeared into the clouds. The first edition of The Ladder appeared in October 1956, edited by Phyllis Lyon(born November 10, 1924), who co-founded the Daughters of Bilitis in 1955 with Del Martin (May 5, 1921 – August 27, 2008), both of whom had journalism experience. Many of its contributors used pseudonyms or initials. Lyon edited The Ladder as "Ann Ferguson" for the first few months but dropped the name as a way of encouraging their readers not to hide. In 1963, Barbara Gittings(July 31, 1932 – February 18, 2007) took over editing The Ladder, giving it a more politically urgent stance, and by adding "A Lesbian Review" under the title of the magazine. The line drawings on the cover were replaced with photographs of lesbians to make them more visible. The first woman who appeared in a photograph on the cover in May, 1964 was an unnamed model. The first woman who allowed her name to be printed was from Indonesia who had sent her picture and a letter explaining how isolated she was. In 1975, Arno Press released a nine-volume compilation of The Ladder in hardback as part of their series "Lesbians and Gay Men in Society, History, and Literature" with a short foreword by Barbara Grier (November 4, 1933 – November 10, 2011). Speaking to journalist and historian Rodger Streitmatter about The Ladder, Grier commented that "no woman ever made a dime for her work, and some … worked themselves into a state of mental and physical decline on behalf of the magazine."
1969, Germany – West Germany repeals its laws prohibiting homosexual acts between consenting adults. It's interesting to note that this change didn't affect lesbians, as West German sex laws had never acknowledged the existence of lesbians.
West Germany repeals laws prohibiting gay acts between consenting adults-applies to males only as lesbianism was never proscribed by W. German law.
Feminist, Gay Liberation and Lesbian Separatists: Civil Rights
1970 – Del Whan taught the first gay studies class at the University of Southern California, titled "Social Movement: Gay Liberation." It evolved into USC's first student group, The Gay Liberation Forum. USC approved it as a student organization in 1975. The name was changed to Gay Student Union.
David Bowie released "John, I'm only Dancing" in the U.K. The song was not released in the U.S. until 1976.
Elton John and Steely Dan shared a bill at Balboa Stadium in San Diego, California.
The present-day Log Cabin Republicans organization is founded as the "Gay The Log Cabin Republicans club is formed in Southern California (originally called "Gay Republicans). Log Cabin Republicans was founded as a rallying point for Republicans opposed to the Briggs Initiativewhich attempted to ban homosexuals from teaching in public schools. In addition to sanctioning the termination of openly gay and lesbian teachers, the proposed legislation authorized the firing of those teachers that supported homosexuality. On October 22, 2016, the board members of LCR voted not to endorse the Republican nominee for President, Donald Trump.In defiance, the LCR statewide chapters of Colorado, Georgia, and Texas, along with the LRC countywide chapter of Orange County, California and the LCR city chapters of Houston, Texas; Los Angeles, California; Miami, Florida; and Cleveland, Ohio; voted to endorse Donald Trump. In Florida, at least one report claimed Trump was able to cut into the vote margin in heavily Democratic Broward County, Florida with the help of the local chapter of Log Cabin Republicans. Since 1977, LCR has expanded across the United States and has 34 chapters, representing 26 states and the District of Columbia.
The Immigration Act of 1976 came into effect on 1 April 1978. This new amended Act lifted a ban prohibiting homosexuals from immigration. There was a shift in language in this particular legislative act, this was created to state who was welcome in Canada instead of who should be prevented from immigrating. The Act was positively regarded as a progressive piece of legislation and received broad support from the parliamentary parties.
The Gay Bob doll makes its debut in stores across the nation. He had a pierced ear and his box was shaped like a closet.
New Jersey decriminalizes private consensual homosexual acts
The Genderfuck Apathetics vs Yuppies : Aids the new STD on the list
1980 – John Boswell's Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexualitydebuts in book stores. John Eastburn Boswell (March 20, 1947 – December 24, 1994) was an historian and a full professor at Yale University. Many of Boswell's studies focused on the issue of religion and homosexuality, specifically Christianity and homosexuality. All of his work focused on the history of those at the margins of society. His first book, The Royal Treasure: Muslim Communities Under the Crown of Aragon in the Fourteenth Century, appeared in 1977. In 1994, Boswell's fourth book, Same-Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe, was published, but he died that same year from AIDS-related complications. Boswell was a Roman Catholic, having converted from the Episcopal Church of his upbringing, at age 15. He remained a daily-mass Catholic up until his death, despite differences with the church over sexual issues. Although he was orthodox in most of his beliefs, he strongly disagreed with his church's stated opposition to homosexual behavior and relationships. He was partnered with Jerome Hart for some twenty years until his death. Hart and Boswell are buried together at Grove Street Cemetery, New Haven, Connecticut.
1982 – The Centers for Disease Control uses the term AIDS for the first time in September 1982, when it reported that an average of one to two cases of AIDS were being diagnosed in America every day.
The album "Tonight" was released by David Bowie.
One of Canada's first programs to combat anti-gay discrimination and violence is implemented by the Toronto District School Board after a hate crime in which their employee Kenneth Zeller is murdered in Toronto's High Park.
90s: Listserves and Email distribution replaces telephone trees for activism
David Bowie opened Bowienet, which offers basic Internet services and keeps fans informed with Bowie news and releases.
Post 9/11 – From "gay and lesbian" to "lesbigay" to "Lgbt/Lgbtq/Lgbtq2"
Faux Lesbian Marketing helped propel: The Spice Girls had five places in a list of the UK Top 20 earning celebrity directors. Monsta Productions (Emma), Moody Productions, (Posh), Red Girl Productions, (Mel C), Moneyspider Productions, (Mel B) and Geri Productions with £6m each.
Thousands of people lined the streets of Quebec's capital city Sunday for the community's first gay pride parade. The march was held to mark the 25th anniversary of the province's bill of rights, which outlaws discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Elton John had the top U.K. song with "Are You Ready for Love".
Vermont's same-sex marriage law goes into effect.
2011, Lichtenstein – The law recognizing same-sex registered partnerships goes into effect.
2013, Japan – Yodogawa, a ward within the city of Osaka, is the first government in Japan to officially support LGBT inclusion.
A Blue Plaque marking the first home Freddie Mercury lived in when he arrived in England has been unveiled. The Queen frontman moved to the semi-detached home in Feltham, west London, after his family left Zanzibar in 1964 when Mercury was 17.
Today in LGBT History – September 1 | Ronni Sanlo
lavender effect
History of Canadian Pride | QueerEvents.ca
Daily Elvis: September 1
Author dykewriterPosted on September 1, 2021 September 1, 2021 Categories bisexual, gay, lesbian, LGBTQ2, movies, music, science, UncategorizedTags AIDS, – John Boswell, Bernardo Aran, Daughters of Bilitis, David Bowie, Del Whan, Elton John, Freddie Mercury, homosexual acts, Jane Wagner, Kenneth Zeller, Leslie Feinberg, Lily Tomlin, Log Cabin Republicans, MatmATtachine Society, same-sex registered partnerships, Sir Roger Casement, Stephen M. Lachs, The Centers for Disease Control, The Gay Bob doll, The Gay Liberation Forum, The Ladder, The Immigration Act of 1976, Toronto District School BoardLeave a comment on LGBTQ2 for September 1


October in Asheville ushers in more than eager leaf peepers; around town, foodie hot spots get into the spirit with cauldrons full of seasonal flavors. Of course, with Halloween soon approaching, it would be a ghastly oversight to ignore these wicked offerings, although we only have space for a few. The best part is you don't need to wait until Oct. 31 to go door to door for these special treats.
Even with cooler temperatures finally beginning to creep in, Frostbite Ice Cream sees no need to slow down. Owner Jason Istvan is making sure his chilly treats are Halloween-worthy with several new tastes this month.
Zombie Bite, a combination of green apple and peach-flavored syrups punctuated by a shot of sour spray, is one of five holiday-themed shaved ice flavors being served this month — the others are Witches' Brew, Frog Legs, Mystery and Pumpkin D'Light.
If you lean more toward classic fall flavors, Frostbite also has pumpkin spice ice cream. And hot apple topping, made in-house with local organic apples, can be added to enhance any ice cream flavor. Mulled cider is currently available as a hot beverage but will cool down into an ice cream flavor a little later in the season.
Legendary local ice cream parlor The Hop is also scooping out some spooky flavors at its production facility at 167 Haywood Road during Flights for the Doomed on Friday, Oct. 26. At this event, guests can buy flavors by the flight (choose four varieties), scoop or pint. After this launch, the flavors will head to The Hop's two retail locations, where they'll be available through Halloween.
Owner Greg Garrison promises customer favorites like Broken Glass, which incorporates house-made hard candy mixed into one of The Hop's familiar ice cream bases, as well as newer flavors like Black Death, made with organic coconut ash. Pepper lovers can challenge their taste buds with Fear the Reaper, a chocolate ice cream pumped up with heat from Carolina Reaper peppers.
Top of the Monk mixologists might as well don white lab coats as costumes. The cozy cocktail bar pays homage to everyone's favorite reanimated cadaver with two specialty drinks through month's end. Try the Boris Karloff to electrify your taste buds with a zesty mix of Strait gin, St. Germain, citrus and other ingredients — served on ice, of course.
If that doesn't do the trick, call on the classic Corpse Reviver II, prepared as directed in Harry Craddock's The Savoy Cocktail Book circa 1930. For an added thematic punch, Top of the Monk uses Death's Door gin, alongside Lillet Blanc, Cointreau, absinthe and fresh lemon.
On Wall Street, MG Road invites guests to enjoy a few creature comforts on Tuesdays throughout October as part of the bar's Keep it Classic Tuesday series. For a drink with a cidery punch, pucker up for a Witch's Kiss, made with Espolon Blanco tequila, Liquore Strega (Strega translates to "witch" in Italian), apple butter, cinnamon tincture and lemon. If witches aren't your thing, the Zombie stays true to its Caribbean origin with a mix of three rum varieties and other spirits. Want something even darker? The Goth Negroni lists activated charcoal among its ingredients alongside Beefeater, Campari and Dolin Rouge.
Nearby on Eagle Street, cocktail bar and restaurant En La Calle celebrates the Mexican holiday Dia de los Muertos Thursday, Oct. 25-Sunday, Nov. 4, with café de olla, a tequila-spiked Mexican coffee brewed in a clay pot. The special holiday menu also features traditional Dia de los Muertos foods such as banana-leaf tamales and pan de muerto.
Nothing embodies the spirit of Halloween quite like pumpkins — which may be why they perform serious double duty this month as both a decorative element and lead ingredient. Try sinking your teeth into a pumpkin cake doughnut at South Slope's Vortex Doughnuts. The doughnut's glaze is made from chai concentrate sourced from Black Mountain-based AppalaChai.
Downtown on Haywood Street, the Chocolate Fetish is crafting edible chocolate jack-o'-lanterns for the season. "These are three-D items made with a thick shell of chocolate. The colors are made using hand-tempered, colored chocolates," explains chocolatier Elizabeth Foley. The shop also pays homage to the iconic sugar skulls associated with Dia de los Muertos with a molded chocolate version that's intricately decorated with piped chocolate accents.


Every business, irrespective of the size or field it operates in, needs a great base to propel it forward and aid it to achieve its full potential.
A great and reliable database system serves as a base for which all the future development of a business occur. You should ensure that it's the best client database software in the market before starting to utilize it in your business.
But what exactly is the benefit of database in business? Using spread sheets and emails or files have been shown to work for big businesses before, so why should we stop using them and use database in the business?
The answer is simple; database saves time and money, thus increasing the business profitability.
Before we start on why business owners need database software in their business, we need to understand what exactly a database is.
Looking at it, it's just rows and columns that need you to fill in with data. But with the appropriate software, you'll be able to turn this data into valuable information which will steam your business forward and help you to achieve the business goals.
In the everyday running of business, especially in the digital era, the amount of data that pass through a business is tremendous. This data can become overwhelming since it's widespread and concerns different areas of the business. But database software provides a highly efficient method of handling this data.
Database software eliminates the need to manually do tasks in the business thus saving time. Tasks such as storing data, analyzing and retrieving it used to take a lot of time but now are efficiently done in considerably shorter time.
Using database software also increases the amount of data that can be stored by the business. The business is now able to store data over a long period thus they can notice the change in trends and customer preference. It's also able to adjust in time to avoid being irrelevant in the market.
The businesses operating in 2016 need to understand the increased competition brought about by the advance in technology and thus be as technologically advanced as possible so as not to be ousted out of the market.
Understanding the needs and demands of one's customer and basic needs of your business will help you to determine what database software to use thus maintaining your grip in the market.
NextWhat to Look For In a Criminal Lawyer?


Universitystudy.ca is published by Universities Canada, a national organization representing 97 public and private not-for-profit universities and university degree-level colleges. The information found on this website is compiled by Universities Canada staff in cooperation with member universities and regional university associations in Canada.
The university profiles on this site are generally written in the working language or languages of each university. Bilingual universities and universities where students are allowed to write papers, examinations and theses in either French or English will have profile information in both languages.
Universitystudy.ca and its printed counterpart, the Directory of Canadian Universities, offer a single starting point for anyone looking for information on university study in Canada. The association has long been a key source of information about Canadian higher education. The 2015 edition of its print directory is the 49th edition, while online it has published information since the early days of the Web. Much of the information contained in universitystudy.ca was previously available as an integral part of the Universities Canada website.
At UniversityWorks, students and recent grads from across Canada talk about their global research and study experiences, and how those opportunities are helping to shape the rest of their lives.
So you've done all your preparation, and you're sitting in your new home waiting for classes to start. What happens now?