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GOLD AND INCENSE

[Illustration]

GOLD AND INCENSE

A West Country Story

by

MARK GUY PEARSE

[Publisher's mark]

Forty-seventh Thousand

London
Horace Marshall & Son

Butler & Tanner,
The Selwood Printing Works,
Frome, and London.

          Dedication

     TO SIDNEY HILL ESQ.
      OF LANGFORD HOUSE
           SOMERSET

_It may add to the interest of my story if I state that it is perfectly
true._

Chapter I

To think it is Jennifer Petch of whom I am going to tell--little
Jennifer. How she would laugh if she only knew of it, that shrill,
silvery laugh of hers. It was her great gift. Jennifer was a philosopher
in the matter of laughing; and philosophy is mostly a matter of knowing
how to laugh and when.

[Illustration]

And the village itself would wonder almost as much as Jennifer herself,
for very few of them could see anything to write about in her. Village
people do not see much in what they see always, and Jennifer had lived
among them all her days. There was a time when some of the younger folks
thought they owed her a little bit of a grudge. For Sam Petch was the
tallest, and straightest, and handsomest of the village lads; and the
maidens who strolled down the lane on a summer's evening would go home
with fluttering hearts and delicious dreams if Sam had chanced to come
that way, as somehow he generally did; and if he had loitered laughing
with them in the lane, as he never minded doing.

There was Phyllis, light of hair and blue of eye, light of step and
light of heart, and light of hand, as her butter showed--not one of the
lads had any chance with her so long as Sam was free.

There was Chloe, she of the loose sun-bonnet, with gipsy face and gipsy
eyes, who handled the rake so daintily, and drew the sweet hay together
with such grace that nobody wondered if Sam Petch found it a great deal
easier to turn his head that way than to turn it back again.

And on the Sunday night when the service was over, at the door of the
little chapel, which was the village trysting place, there were half a
dozen of the comeliest of the maidens, who found an excuse to linger
talking, until Sam had gone his way.

It came on them all with an amazement of surprise, especially as events
of that kind were always busily whispered abroad at the slightest hint,
and often without any hint at all--"Sam Petch was going to be married."

"Who to?" asked everybody, brightening with wonder.

After every likely lass had been guessed the voice fell, and the answer
was given almost with a sense of wrong, "Why, to little Jennifer!
Whatever he can see in her I can't think."

For that matter, no more could Jennifer herself. Round and short of
figure, red and brown of face, she had never so much as ventured to
look at Sam, or to think of him either. And even now she was almost
sorry for him that she was only plain little Jennifer, and not like
Phyllis or Chloe.

And because the village maidens could see no reason for it in her looks
they concluded that there must be some hidden wiliness, some depth of
craft for which they were no match. They talked it over as they milked
the cows, the white stream falling with its music into the pail. "She
knew what she was doing, Jennifer did, a regular deep one." It was told
in the lane with a laugh, as if each wanted to show that Sam was
nothing to them, of course.

But the older folks talked of it differently. The women stood in the
doorway of an evening with clusters of children about them, and
according to them it was Sam who was the deep one. He knew what he was
doing, did Sam. There were things, they said, and they spoke feelingly,
that lasted longer than good looks and were worth more. And as the men
came home with heavy steps from the day's work, with a smell about them
like the smell of a field that the Lord hath blessed, they said that a
little thrifty body like Jennifer was a prize for anybody to be proud
of, and Sam Petch was a lucky fellow, that he was.

It was plain enough, whatever Jennifer thought--and she kept her
thoughts mostly to herself--that Sam agreed with these older ones. He
could not do enough to show his pride in Jennifer, and but that she
refused all offers of finery, would have made his plain little
sweetheart as gay as Phyllis or Chloe. Never an evening passed but you
met them walking leisurely together, the declared sign of courtship,
which was also known as "keeping company." It was thus distinguished
from marriage, for which the accepted sign was that the wife kept three
yards behind.

But when Sam and Jennifer were married they still went on "keeping
company;" even though his long stride needed three of Jennifer's short
steps, she was never behind, and Sam would have taken steps as short as
hers before she should be. And if it be true that light hearts make easy
travelling, they might well keep together, up hill and down. A glance
was enough to show that things were flourishing with them. Their
cottage stood on the top of the hill, all set about with a garden fair,
and at the side and back of the house grew "stuff" enough to send to
market. Sam had rented a bit of a meadow where a couple of cows gave
Jennifer the chance of showing her skill at clotted cream and butter.
There, too, a troop of fowls had their run, and away in a corner three
pigs added to the importance of Sam and to the cares of Jennifer. She,
thrifty soul, made enough out of her department to pay the rent; up
early, and always at work, her song only ceasing to make way for her
silvery laugh. The older folks repeated their opinion now as a prophecy
fulfilled, and took to themselves as much credit as if the prediction
had been the chief cause of the prosperity.

Before three years had gone Jennifer's department was increased by the
birth of two sturdy little sons. They were both the image of Sam, so the
women declared; but the men saw in each the image of their mother, and
counted it a pity that they were not girls, for the like of Jennifer
they reckoned scarce.

Chapter II

It was an evening toward the end of August, and the harvest was being
gathered in. The fields on every side were dotted with the tented
sheaves piled up as the custom is in the "catching" weather of the West,
one sheaf reversed on the top of the cluster, so as to form a kind of
roof. The long shadows of the shocks fell across the fields in
the evening light. All the country was beautiful with that rich
restfulness which comes in the autumn, as if the earth had finished its
work. The glories of the sunset gave the sky a hundred delicate tints of
gold and purple.

[Illustration]

Here and there the women brought the sheaves, whilst the men piled them
on the wagons. Away over the hill country in the east the great harvest
moon was rising.

Jennifer, busy as ever, had got her two little ones settled for the
night, and now was preparing a dainty supper for Sam's return; the
savoury smell of it filled the place.

[Illustration]

Then it was that, as to Job of old, one came breathless to the house
with sad tidings. Sam had slipped from the stack and fallen on his head.

"Is--he--dead?" gasped Jennifer.

No, he was not dead; but he had not spoken since his fall, and was quite
unconscious. A messenger had been sent for the doctor, and the men were
bringing Sam home, and would be here in a few minutes.

Up the hill came the group with the injured man in their midst, to all
appearance dead. A great hush fell on the village as they passed slowly
on, men in their shirt sleeves just as they had hurried in from the
harvest field. The women and children stood at the doors with faces full
of sympathy.

They bore him in at the little gate and through the garden and up the
stairs, and laid him on the bed.

       *       *       *       *       *

For weeks Sam lay on his bed, whilst day and night Jennifer waited on
him.

The neighbours stopped the doctor to ask about him, and the answer was
ever the same:

"He'll pull through; he'll pull through," and the doctor tightened his
mouth and nodded his head; "but he would have been a dead man long ago
if it had not been for that brave little wife of his."

Fracture of the skull and concussion of the brain, and a host of other
ills, made it a desperate fight with death. But Jennifer fought and
won. Even in his unconsciousness Sam seemed to know the touch of her
hand, and it soothed him; and the tone of her voice, and the moaning
ceased.

But bit by bit their little fortune was swept away. The savings of those
three or four years were quickly spent; the cows had to be sold, and the
meadow given up; the pigs and fowls were parted with.

The garden lay untended. And when, at last, the doctor had done with
Sam, it was only to leave him an imbecile--helpless as a baby, and a
great deal more troublesome--sometimes muttering to himself for hours
together a round of unmeaning words; sometimes just crying all day long,
and then again cross and peevish and perverse as any spoilt child.

The cottage was given up; they could not afford the rent of that.

Another was taken, the cheapest in all the village--one that was too bad
for anybody else.

Half a crown a week and a loaf of bread from the parish was all that
came in to supplement Jennifer's poor earnings of sixpence a day in the
fields.

       *       *       *       *       *

It was some few years after this had happened that I came to know
Jennifer.

There she sat in the little chapel, her round and ruddy face without a
wrinkle in it, all curves and dimples that were the settled homes of
good humour and thankfulness; a face snugly surrounded by a black
bonnet, set off with a clean white cap. Beside her were her two lads,
their faces as clean and shining as plenty of soap and hard scrubbing
could make them. You met her going home from the service, the short,
round figure wrapped in a thick black shawl, trotting along with her
hymn book in one hand and a big umbrella in the other, short and round
like herself. The happy little lads went bounding before her, the three
of them the very picture of gladness.

Yet it was almost wicked of Jennifer to look so comfortable, when all
the parish knew that there was not a poor body for miles around that had
so much trouble. She certainly had no business to be anything but the
most mournful and melancholy soul that ever went grumbling along the
highroad, if you can measure people's happiness by their circumstances.

Follow her as she turns down this narrow lane, skilfully picking her
way in the mud. At the end of the lane is her cottage. One half of it
has fallen, the cob-walls have given way, and the thatch hangs over the
ruins. It was a wonder that what was standing did not follow, for there
were cracks in the walls through which the wind whistled, and there were
broken places in the roof through which the rain dripped.

But within was a greater sorrow than any that you could find outside. As
Jennifer opens the door she hurries across the uneven floor to the rough
settle by the fire. There is her husband--poor Sam!

As now she comes near and lays her hand upon his shoulder, the dull face
is turned toward her with a smile. He tries to say something, but the
mouth only opens without a word, and the tears fill his eyes. Jennifer
bends and kisses him tenderly. "Poor dear," she says, as she gently
strokes the hands that hold her own. "Poor dear, was he wanting us home
again?"

Presently she slips the hand away so skilfully that her husband does not
seem to know it, and takes off her bonnet and shawl.

The lads meanwhile have set the things for the Sunday dinner. It did not
need much setting. On the rickety table was placed a knife--they had but
one. There were three slices of bread, a thick round off the loaf, and
on each slice a bit of cheese; "Double Gloucester" was, I think, the
local name of it. The one big mug was filled from a large earthen
pitcher.

Jennifer herself had set the kettle down by the wood fire, for if she
had a weakness it was her cup of tea. But there was not much promise of
any water boiling in a hurry; the tiny spark was almost lost in the big
fireplace, a hearth opening into the chimney, and so constructed that a
great deal more cold seemed to come down than heat went up.

The little family group stood and bent their heads in devout
thanksgiving to the heavenly Father, and then the hungry lads fell to.
As for Jennifer herself it seemed as if she never got her dinner at all.
All her concern was to try and tempt her husband's appetite with a piece
of bread and butter daintily cut; and there was for him, too, a drop of
milk. Yet even her hypocrisy could not manage to keep up her happy looks
on nothing.

[Illustration]

This was Sunday: a day indeed of rest and gladness. Other days she had
to be up and about early to get the little lads their breakfast; and to
make them ready for school; and to set her husband by the fire. Then she
herself was off with the dawn, and sometimes before, to work all day in
the fields. Her rough dress was stained earth colour from head to foot;
a sack was tied round the skirts which were tucked well up out of the
way. A big sun-bonnet protected her more often from the bleak winds and
bitter rains than from the sun. From dawn till dusk she worked for
sixpence a day; and then came home thanking God right heartily for the
three shillings a week. And on that Jennifer managed to feed and clothe
her household, and to pay the rent and to keep up her good looks.

The fact is, Jennifer was as we have said, a philosopher, and had made a
great discovery. It was certainly worthy to be set alongside of the most
famous inventions; and like many of them it had the one great defect--so
few knew how to use it. Jennifer had little, it is true. She was, so to
speak, but a moulting bird, half starved and shivering in the dreariest
and dullest of cages--that is, if you looked at what _was_. But
Jennifer found another world, in which she had a boundless freedom and
strength, and here she went soaring like an eagle right up into the sun.
It was what _wasn't_ that she made so much of.

You pitied her, and spoke mournfully about her husband, as if he were a
burden and worry. But Jennifer never seemed to hear it, and certainly
could not see it.

"Poor dear," she said, "I can mind the day he asked me to be his wife. I
did jump. And all the maidens in the parish would have liked him. When
they heard about it they all went wondering whatever he could see in a
poor little plain thing like me; but none of them wondered so much as I
did. I never could do enough for him when he was well, and now that I
have got my chance I should be ashamed if I did not make the best of it.
Poor dear, he is as much to me as ever, and more too--husband and child
all in one." And she said it over tenderly to herself, "Poor dear!"

But this was Jennifer's sentiment, and her sentiments were sacred and
kept mostly for home use. It was the philosopher that met you more
commonly. You spoke to her pitifully of her husband's affliction, and
were almost startled at the tone of her cheery voice.

"Yes, 'tis sad. But bless you, think of what _might_ ha' been. If he was
in racks of torments all day long, and me at his side doing nothing else
but poulticing and trying to give him a bit of ease! Or if we was both
like he is--me and he, too, a-setting by the fire and never able to do
anything for each other, whatever should us have done then? Only to
think of it. And there--it might ha' been; of course, it might ha' been.
What a mercy!" And Jennifer lifted up her hands. "What a mercy!"

You complained of the miserable cottage. But Jennifer was ready to point
out its advantages, until the tumble-down place seemed to grow quite
considerate and kindly.

"Well, you see it isn't half so bad as it _might_ be. The cracks don't
let the wind blow in where we do sit to. And the rain don't drip in
where we do sleep to. _That_ would be bad. And it _might_ ha' done; of
course, it _might_ ha' done. What a mercy!" And again Jennifer's hands
were uplifted.

You began to pity her for the children's sake. But a merry laugh cut
that short in a moment.

"Yes, I often think about that," laughed Jennifer, "_there might ha'
been fourteen of them_. And, bless you, whatever should I ha' done if
there had a-been fourteen!" And Jennifer lifted up her hands and laughed
again, and then slapped them down upon her knees. "Fourteen of them!
Why, where should us all have slept to? And think of the eating all
round, and the clothes and all. Fourteen! And it _might_ ha' been. What
a mercy!"

[Illustration]

You talked pathetically about her work in the fields--the dreariness of
it and the weariness, bending with hoe from morning to night; or
kneeling at the weeds till all the limbs ached. But Jennifer was more
than a match for you. "Ah, that's it. That's what I always say. To think
that it should be such hard work and all that, and that I should have
the strength for it. Now, if I was one of them sort that is always
ailin' and failin', instead of being so strong as a horse! And I _might_
ha' been; of course, I _might_ ha' been. What a mercy! Why, there's some
as couldn't walk there and back, for 'tis sometimes three miles there
and three miles back, and there's some as couldn't do it when they got
there, for the weeds be terrible strong sometimes. And there's some as
couldn't bear it, east wind and rain and snow. And I _might_ ha' been
one of them sort. What a mercy!"

This was Jennifer's philosophy.

Chapter III

Now it chanced one day that the little village in which Jennifer lived
was stirred by the ambition of the congregation to build a new chapel.
The old place was not good enough; not even large enough. A great
meeting was held, and the sluggish life of the place was quickened by a
sermon from a stranger in the afternoon, followed by a public tea
meeting. At night stirring speeches were made and various promises
given. The well-to-do and generous layman who acted as the father of a
group of village chapels in the district would give fifty pounds. One of
the farmers would cart the stones. Another would give the lime. Others
made promises that ranged down to a pound. There the line was drawn.
Those who could do less than that did not count.

Jennifer managed to get to the meeting and sat delighted at the promises
of one and another, neither envying any nor even wishing that she could
do some great thing.

"I will do what I can," she said, as she shook hands with the chairman
at the close of the meeting.

"I am sure you will, Jennifer, your heart is good enough for anything,"
said he tenderly, thinking within himself how much the least gift would
cost her.

The next day Jennifer was off to the fields, and as she hoed the lines
of turnips she was talking to her self of the proposed new chapel.

"Silver it must be, I am afraid; but it isn't the colour for Him. I
should like to give the Lord a bit of gold. If it isn't _that_ it must
be the biggest bit of silver there is."

Then Jennifer went on hoeing the weeds to the tune of the hymn that she
hummed to herself:

    "Kings shall fall down before Him,
      And gold and incense bring;
    All nations shall adore Him,
      His praise all people sing."

The tune rang out cheerily on the breeze as she went on, and the words
got deeper down in her soul. For Jennifer boasted that she could sing.
"If I can't do anything else I can sing," she said. There was very often
a hymn on her lips and always one in her heart. She had her philosophy
about singing. "I am not going to be beat by the birds, and we are
nothing but a sort of creeping thing till we can sing. What's the good
of the blue sky above us if we can't fly up into it? And singing is
wings to my thinking."

       *       *       *       *       *

Eight months had gone by, and the time had come for the opening of the
new chapel.

Then it was that Jennifer came cautiously to her friend and asked to
speak to him privately. They went down the road together, and as soon as
they were past the houses of the village she stopped and took carefully
from her pocket a little piece of paper which she put into his hands.

"There," she said, "that is for the new chapel."

He opened it and found a half sovereign. "I am so glad to give a bit of
that colour, sir," and Jennifer's face beamed with joy.

But the good man started, quite frightened. "I cannot take it, Jennifer.
Really I must not. Half a sovereign from you? No, it would not be
right."

Jennifer pushed back his hand as he held it out to her. "Not take it!"
she cried. "But you must take it, sir; 'tis the Lord's."

"But really you cannot afford it. It is very good of you."

"But I _have_ afforded it, you see," she laughed; "and I am going to
afford another before I have done."

He held the coin reluctantly in his hand. "It really hurts me to think
of it; and you so poor as you are."

"Well, I am sorry to hurt anybody. But there's no need to be hurt about
it a bit. I thought when I rang out that half sovereign that it was the
prettiest music I ever heard, or shall hear till I get up among the
angels. And they don't have a chance of anything like that, I expect."
And she laughed again.

"Well, Jennifer, I suppose I must take it," and he opened his collecting
book to enter the subscription with her name, but she checked him
instantly.

"No, sir, no. You must put it in the box. I did not mean to let anybody
know, but I could not tell how to manage it. If I put it in the box my
own self, why some of them might see me, and then I was afraid they
might be after stopping my half a crown a week and my loaf of bread,
thinking that I had come into a fortune all of a sudden." And she
laughed again.

"No, Jennifer; we must have it down among the subscriptions, and it
ought really to head the list. I will call it _Anonymous_, you know."

"Oh, that's much too fine a name for Jennifer Petch. Call it '_Gold and
Incense_.' I _do_ know what that do mean, if anybody else don't," and
Jennifer laughed again.

And so it was entered, and so it was duly announced. Jennifer blushed
and laughed so much when it was read that any suspicious person might
have found out her secret after all. But no one dreamed that this was
Jennifer's assumed name.

It was not long before her good friend met with Jennifer again.

"I can't get over that half-sovereign of yours, Jennifer," he began. "I
am really quite curious to know how you managed it. You will tell me,
won't you?"

"Well, I s'pose I must," said Jennifer shyly; "but I meant to keep it
all to myself, you know. Nobody knows about it but you."

"Well, then, I may know all, mayn't I?"

Little by little it all came out. And this was Jennifer's story:

"Well, it was the day after the meeting that I was singing to myself
the words,--

    "Kings shall fall down before Him,
      And gold and incense bring,"

when it seemed to me like as if I could see them coming like Solomon in
all his glory, and laying down their gifts at His dear feet; but, there,
you will be getting all my secret out of me. It must come, I s'pose.
Well, the tune and the words were sort of ringing in my head when I
turned round out of the wind for to--to---- You mustn't be hard on me.
It was to take a _pinch of snuff_."

"Oh, Jennifer!"

"It was only a penn'orth a week, sir," she pleaded, "And it did seem to
sharpen me up a bit out in the cold. Well, while I was taking it I
laughed to myself. 'That's the nearest to _incense_ that I can think
of,' I said. 'I will give that to the Lord.' And, bless you, sir, would
you believe it? I got to turning round out of the wind to make believe I
had it, and it did every bit so well.

[Illustration]

"The next Saturday, instead of giving the penny to a neighbour to get
the snuff into market, I put the penny into an old broken teapot, and
put it on top of the dresser, and I said, 'There's a nest egg, then.'
Well, I quite longed for the next Saturday to come, and then there was a
penny more. And in three weeks there was a threepenny bit. I did think
that was a prettier colour for the Lord, but, bless you, I liked the
three pennies better.

"That tiny little threepenny bit in that great teapot! I was most ready
to cry for it in there all by its lonely little self. I couldn't help
thinking about it till it came to be almost like when I had to leave the
baby home and couldn't think of anything else, and thought I heard it
a-crying whenever so much as a lamb would bleat or a horniwink go crying
overhead.[A]

[A] A horniwink is in that dialect a green plover or lapwing.

"My heart sort of went out to the poor little threepenny bit. 'You shall
have company, my dear,' I said to myself, 'that you shall, before very
long.'

"That night when I got home I was just going to get my cup o' tea, when
it came to my mind, 'There's company for the poor little thing.' At
first I tried to put away the thought, for I did dearly love my cup o'
tea. Coming home tired and wet and cold, it was wonderful how it used to
cheer and refresh a body. So I tried to think of something else. But the
more I tried the more I couldn't. At last I sat down by the bit of fire
and had it out with myself before I went to bed.

"'You know,' I said to myself, 'a penny a week--what's that? Why, a
whole year will only come to less than a crown piece. Gold and incense
indeed, they are a long way off at that rate.' Then I got down the
broken teapot and looked in. I had to turn it round and round before I
could so much as see it. And when I did I was fair ashamed of myself.
'Poor little thing,' I said, 'and to think that you must wait three
weeks for company! No, you shan't.'

"Well, I put it back again and then screwed up my courage to see what I
could make believe for tea. At last I thought I would toast some
crusties till they were nice and brown. Then I would pour the boiling
water on them. 'The colour will be right enough,' I said, 'but what
about the taste, I wonder? However, taste as they mind to, there's
threepence a week!' So I went to bed, and that night I dreamed that the
broken teapot was so full of sovereigns that I was quite frightened and
woke all of a tremble.

"I dare say it didn't taste exactly right at the first going off. But
very soon I came to like it just as well. And I really do believe,
after all said and done, 'tis more strengthener and more nourishinger
than the tea.

"So the next Saturday, instead of asking a neighbour to bring home an
ounce of tea, I put the threepenny bit in the broken teapot. And there
was fourpence a week. And I changed it into a shilling; and then it grew
into a half-crown; and last of all it came to _half a sovereign_.

"I was glad to have a bit of that colour. It was years since I had so
much as seen one of them. 'Tis the only colour that is good enough for
Him. And I haven't done yet, please God. In eight months' time there
will be another, and that will make a whole sovereign. It isn't like
doing the thing at all to do it by halves. That is what I have set my
heart upon. That will be '_Gold and Incense--One Pound_.'"

Chapter IV

For days after hearing it her good friend could think of nothing but
Jennifer's story. His own gifts to the new chapel and that of the others
seemed poor and little beside her offering--it was the mite which was
more than they all had given. He felt that he could not rest until he
had found for her something better than the ill-paid toil in the fields.
As he rode on his way he chanced to see a notice announcing the sale of
a coppice of some twenty acres, freehold. Here was the opportunity of
serving Jennifer, and at once he made haste to avail himself of it. The
bit of ground was bought, coppice and all. Then he made his way to her
house.

[Illustration]

It was seldom that any one passed her cottage, and when he saw it he was
distressed and ashamed that he had not done anything for her before.

Jennifer had just got home, tired and wet and cold. He came into the
cheerless place and sat down.

"I had no idea that your cottage was in such a wretched state, Jennifer;
I wonder you could live in it," he began.

"Well, 'tis wonderful how comfortable we do get on in it, sir." And
Jennifer spoke as cheerfully as ever. "I s'pose if it was better we
should have to pay more, so we must set one thing against another, you
know."

"Well, I am going to build you another--a new one; I have made up my
mind to that. And look, Jennifer, you shall have it for your own as soon
as I can get it up, and you can pay me for it."

"I daresay, sir," laughed Jennifer, and she wondered that her friend
could seem to joke on such a subject.

"But I mean it," said he, "and, of course, I am going to put you in the
way to do it."

"Thank you, sir," said Jennifer, quite unable to see any meaning in the
promise. "You see, there's the Guardians, what will they say and all if
I do go living in a fine new house?"

"The Guardians! Oh, you must go and tell them that you don't want any
more of their money or their loaf either."

"But, sir," said Jennifer, trying to laugh, yet almost too bewildered to
succeed, "half crowns and loaves of bread won't grow out of a new house
any more than an old one, you know."

"Well, Jennifer, that is what I have come to see you about. Your boys
are growing up quite big lads now. What are you going to do with them?
What are they--twelve or thirteen years old at least?"

"Just about, sir. I have given them so much head learning as I can. I
suppose they must be going out for to do something; but there, 'tis
terrible hard for to think about their going away."

"Oh, but I don't think they need go away, Jennifer. I have come to tell
you that I have bought that piece of coppice over there. Now, what I
have been thinking is this. You and your boys can cut it all down, and
make up the <DW19>s with the underwood, and sell it for what it will
fetch. That shall go toward the new cottage. And when the land is
cleared I will let it to you, and the boys can turn it into potato
ground."

Poor Jennifer sat down without a word. She could not take it all in so
suddenly and it bewildered her. Clinging to the old ways of her life,
and satisfied with the simple round, she shrank from so large a venture,
involving so many changes.

"Well, what do you say?" asked her friend, somewhat disappointed that
she did not see all the advantages which were so plain to him.

"I don't know what to say, sir. 'Tis very kind of you. But----"

"But what, Jennifer?"

"I was going to say, if you don't mind, I should like one day more in
the fields to think it all over. 'Tis a wonderful place for thinking
about anything. And nobody but the heavenly Father to talk to."

"Yes, Jennifer, take a day by all means." And he rose to go. "Only
remember that you will make out of the coppice more in a month than you
can make in the fields in a year; and be your own mistress, too, and
come and go as you like."

"In a month!" she said gravely. "Then I am afraid I should be putting my
heart in the broken teapot, instead of my money."

However, the next day's thought in the fields showed her a hundred
advantages for the boys in the proposal, whatever it might mean for her
husband and herself. And the cottage, too; the very suggestion of a new
one seemed to make the cracks bigger and the leaks worse. Something
would have to be done if she stayed there. So it was settled, yet not
without a sigh. This was to be her farewell of the fields.

The sun was setting as she took up her hoe and turned homeward. At the
gate she stayed a minute or two, as if to say good-bye. To her eyes the
scene was almost sacred. There were the fields with all the young growth
of the early spring, and beyond this was the rough outline of the hedges
where the rabbits played. There were the hills where the brown trees
reached up to the firs, and from beyond which there often came the roar
of the ground swell when the great Atlantic breakers thundered on the
shore. The very birds had been her company and friends, and she loved
them every one--the lark that went soaring upward with an evening hymn;
the thrush and the blackbird that piped from the tree top; the rooks
that went slowly homeward, a very cloud in the sky, all had come as if
to solace and gladden her, and she blessed them all. Her heart went out
in thanks to God, as the memory of a thousand mercies rose within her.
She took the old worn mittens from her rough, red hands with a sigh,
and shut the gate as if she were shutting that chapter of her life.

Chapter V

But Jennifer found that it was more than a new chapter in her life--it
was a new world into which she stepped at once: a world where everything
was so much more than she ever dared to ask or think, that half the time
she was like one in a dream, and shook herself, as she said, to see if
she were really awake. Before she could get to her door, the lads came
rushing out to meet her with the news that a pair of leggings had come
for each of them, and a couple of billhooks; and there in all their
pride they stood, ready to go forth at once and cut down all the forests
of the world, if they had but the chance. And they must needs take their
mother, hungry and tired as she was, away to the edge of the coppice, to
show her the place that was cleared for their new cottage. Poor Jennifer
sighed a prayer that the Lord would keep her humble; worthy of it all
she felt she never could be.

At dawn the next day the boys were up--men in the estimate of
themselves, and more than most men in their eagerness to get at the
work, sweetened as the thought of it was by the fact that every stroke
was to make the coming cottage their own. Breakfast to-day was a duty
somewhat begrudged. They were impatient of its delay. At last they were
off and at it, coat and waistcoat flung aside.

An old labourer had been sent on that first day to direct them in the
work, for there are two ways even of cutting down a coppice--a right and
a wrong--and of tying <DW19>s. But he got there only to find a good
half-day's work had somehow already been got through.

But Jennifer herself never did so little. To her it was all so new and
strange that she could scarcely steady herself to do anything. In place
of the silent fields there came the cheery voices of her lads, and the
hacking of the billhook; then the bending of the tough boughs was new to
her, and the binding of the <DW19>s.

And underneath all was a certain glow of gladness that disturbed her.
She was so near home, and was now her own mistress too, that she could
not resist the temptation of going off to look after her "poor dear," as
she called her husband.

[Illustration]

And instead of hurrying back, she stayed to wrap him up, and then must
needs bring him out along the lane and over the thick bed of dead leaves
and through the rough undergrowth of the coppice to sit on the first
<DW19> that she had bound. And there she sat beside him, while the sun
peeped in at them between the young leaves; and the bold robin hopped up
to look at them in wonder; and all the birds sang to them, and the sweet
breath of things came with its benediction. Presently, as if ashamed of
herself, she hurried off to join the busy sons. Yet before long there
was Jennifer,--the hardest-working woman in the parish at other
times--creeping slyly over to have a cheery word with her husband, and
trying to amuse him by her skill in this craft, until her happy laughter
rang out upon the silence, and even he tried to join. In a day or two,
however, both mother and sons had got into the mysteries of the art; and
went on steadily clearing the place, amazing themselves and everybody
else at the speed with which the work was done. No hour seemed too early
to begin, and none too late to leave off.

Soon there arrived the man who had bought the wood and <DW19>s, and then
began the further mystery of accounts, each <DW19> duly entered and
each payment recorded. And Jennifer's pride found a new subject in the
cleverness of her sons, for the minutest matters seemed to require the
two heads to settle it.

But now it was that there came Jennifer's great trouble. Such joy could
not fail to bring with it some bitterness somewhere.

Three pounds an acre was the price to be given for the clearing. And
twenty acres came to nothing less than _sixty pounds_.

To Jennifer, who had not seen a bit of gold for years until she had
given the half sovereign to the new chapel, it was really a terrible
thing to have to do with so much money. The little broken teapot looked
full, and the top of the dresser was no safe place in which to keep such
treasures. She could not sleep at night, but must needs get up and go
fumbling about to feel if it was all right. She dreaded to leave home,
and went back three or four times to see to her husband, she said; but
even he had to wait until she had looked at the teapot. The little that
she spent upon the household was a mere nothing. She feared to carry so
much all at once to her good friend to whom it was to be paid toward
the new cottage. At last the lads were sent off to him with a message
entreating him to come as soon as possible. "I shall go out of my mind
or into the 'sylum," Jennifer declared, and began to wish once more for
the sweet simplicity of the fields and her sixpence a day. However, that
trouble was soon done with, and time, the kindly healer of our griefs,
made even this tolerable.

[Illustration]

The work was by no means done when the coppice was cleared. Roots and
stumps had to be dug up, and the ground to be cleared for planting the
potatoes, and the seed had to be bought; in all of which her good
friend took as much interest as if it was his own, and more. And here
was a new lot of accounts to be duly recorded. Jennifer was glad to
leave all that to her boys, who sat every evening figuring away until
it seemed to her, as she looked over their shoulders, that they did more
business than all the rest of the world put together.

[Illustration]

Chapter VI

It was five or six years afterwards that I saw Jennifer again. At that
time the coppice and cottage were her own freehold. The cottage was
covered with creepers: the little garden was full of fruit trees and
flowers. A row of beehives was ranged across one side of it. At the back
there strutted and clucked a great host of fowls. Farther away a dozen
pigs lay in their sties, and grunted their satisfaction with the best
possible of worlds.

[Illustration]

The potato ground was wonderful; no such potatoes grew anywhere else.
The soil, enriched by the decay of the woods for years, yielded
prolifically, and the first potatoes of the district that came to the
market were Mrs. Petch's, as they called her now. But Mrs. Petch herself
was just the same dear old Jennifer, as simple as of old. Her husband
had passed away; without pain he had sunk to rest. The lads were big,
broad-shouldered fellows who walked beside their little mother with more
pride of her than ever.

At every collection now there is a bit of gold from somebody, and if it
ever has to be announced, it still is read out, "Gold and Incense." But
even gold has lost something of its charm to Jennifer, and on special
occasions she whispers, "No other colour is good enough for Him, except
it is a five-pound note."

But there is one matter in which Jennifer sticks to her opinion and will
yield to nobody.

"You may say what you mind to, after all said and done, crusties is more
nourishinger and strengthener than tea. I've a-tried both, and do know
_that_."

Butler & Tanner, Frome and London.

       *       *       *       *       *

Transcriber's note:

    Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully
    as possible, including non-standard spelling.

    The line
        "Oh, Jennifer"!
    was changed to
        "Oh, Jennifer!"

***

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaBook


text:
Captain Marvel: Who is the Cosmic Avenger?
Who am I to dis a Brie?
Captain Marvel: "Well… First there was nothing, then there was everything… Then the good lord saw fit to bring me into the world to kick the asses of those who need it most. So get ready 'cause this day or the next, it's coming."
Avengers #19
A politician speaks at a rally. He rants and raves about minorities, whipping the crowd into a frenzy. Something smashes through the ceiling a moment before the audience's rage threatens to spill outside. A red and blue blur flies through the bodyguards, destroying their guns. An energy blast knocks them out.
The blur slows enough for humans to see a woman grabbing the politician's throat. "Show them the truth!" she snarls, raising a glowing fist. The politician turns green as his features shift, revealing he is an alien. The crowd screams as Captain Marvel knocks him down and flies away.
Captain Marvel is the strongest Avenger. She's been an Air Force pilot, an Avenger, and the centerpiece of one of Marvel's biggest mistakes. So who is she? How did she get her powers? How is she the strongest member of a team including Thor and the Hulk? Let's find out!
Live Kree or Die: Captain Marvel's Backstory
Crash and Burn: Captain Marvel's History
Precog Profiling: Captain Marvel's Modern Stories
Planet Buster: Captain Marvel's Powers and Personality
The Actors who play Captain Marvel
Yonn-Ragg: I told you, you'll be ready the day you could knock me down as yourself. This is that moment! This is that moment, Vers! Turn off the light show, and prove, PROVE TO ME, YOU CAN BEAT ME WITHOUT– [he gets blasted]
Captain Marvel: "I have nothing to prove to you."
Captain Marvel debuted in Marvel Super-Heroes #13 in 1968. She was created by Roy Thomas and Gene Colan. Captain Marvel was heavily influenced by that time's feminist movement.
Carol Danvers was a U.S. Air Force officer assigned to work as the security chief of a secret research base studying alien technology. She and a doctor named Walter Lawson fell in love there. Carol was soon caught in an alien attack and learned that Dr. Lawson was actually an alien hero named Captain Mar-Vell.
Mar-Vell revealed that he was sent to Earth by his people, The Kree. He had been ordered to protect the tactically significant planet Earth from their arch enemies, the shapeshifting Skrulls. Carol decided to help Mar-Vell since they both protected the planet.
Carol was exposed to a Kree artifact called the "Psyche-Magnetron" while fighting the Skrulls and became a Kree-Human hybrid with all of Mar-Vell's powers. Carol became Ms. Marvel. What? Well, Captain Mar-Vell was taken.
Ms. Marvel: "I've been used! That isn't my baby! I don't even know who the father is!"
Avengers #200
Ms. Marvel was dynamite, taking out Skrulls and supervillains like no one's business. She was quickly recruited by the Avengers. But those benefits came with horrible tragedies.
Mar-Vell died of cancer, and unlike most superheroes, he was never resurrected. Carol took a long time to deal with her mentor's death. She eventually took the name Captain Marvel to honor her late ally.
The Avengers celebrated their 200th issue in 1980 with a story about Captain Marvel getting raped. A villain named Marcus Immortus transported Carol to a dimension called Limbo and brainwashed her into loving him.
He somehow impregnated Carol with a clone of himself that was born in the Avengers' dimension. Marcus' presence distorted reality, meaning he had to return to Limbo or destroy Earth. She "willingly" went with him. And the writers tried to suggest it was a happily-ever-after. What the hell?!
Captain Marvel escaped Limbo only to stumble into a fight between the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Future X-Man Rogue, then a villain, latched onto Carol and stole a large portion of her powers. A traumatized, angry Captain Marvel taught her Avengers team about consent and being a victim. before quitting and joined the X-Men.
Captain Marvel: "It would be so nice if you started to figure out I have the best intentions. For all of us. Cap. Tell him I'm not Satan."
Captain America: "She's not Satan."
Captain Marvel: "Thank you."
Captain America: "But I think this has all gone on long enough."
– Civil War II
Captain Marvel eventually recovered from the rape and losing her powers. She joined a S.H.I.E.L.D. spinoff called SWORD to serve as an intermediary between Earth and alien worlds. She also encountered a young heroine named Kamala Khan who had adopted the Ms. Marvel identity.
Captain Marvel was one of the lead characters in the event series Civil War II. Or as I call it "Minority Report with Superheroes". Following an attack by Thanos, the heroes discover a man named Ulysses who can see the future.
Captain Marvel uses Ulysses' powers to prevent crimes and disasters before they happen. Iron Man opposes her on ethical grounds. Many fights interspersed with comparisons between pre-crime arrest and racial profiling follow. The war finally ends with Carol seemingly killing Iron Man and the superhero community ostracizing her.
Captain Marvel: [to Hawkeye] "I may be an Avenger now, but I'm also an agent of S.W.O.R.D. This is what we do. If Nick Fury thinks you're one of these Skrulls, I need to bring you in for interrogation. Those are the rules."
Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, "Who Do You Trust?", (Season 2, episode 7)
There's a reason Captain Marvel is called the strongest Avenger. She has the standard powerset of super strength, speed, durability, flight, and a few other nifty tricks. She also has a sixth sense that functions like the Spider-Sense. Captain Marvel can absorb any form of energy and use it to enhance her powers. When she absorbs enough, Carol goes Super Saiyan by becoming Binary.
Binary is Captain Marvel on steroids. In this form she can lift over 100 tons, fly faster than light, and fire energy blasts strong enough to destroy planets. The only downside is that she has difficulty maintaining her Binary form and returns to normal if she uses too much of Binary's energy. That's a bummer, but cool while it lasts.
Captain Marvel is a strict authoritarian and stubborn as hell. She often ignores her teammates and allies in favor of doing what she thinks is right. This works on occasion, but usually backfires.
Roscoe Handford – X-Men
Grey DeLisle – The Super Hero Squad Show, Ultimate Spider-Man, Avengers Assemble.
Kim Raver – Marvel Rising: Secret Warriors.
Brie Larson – Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame
The strongest Avenger

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


It's October, if you started the year with cohesive therapy groups, I bet you're already throwing kids into mixed groups as they are added to your caseload. Since we often don't have a choice but to group students, we need to find therapy materials that will work for mixed groups.
Books are one of my favorite ways to do that! First of all, you can never read too many books to your students. Second, they can be seasonal or highlight a specific topic (like social skills). Third, you can never read too many books to your students (It was worth repeating!!!!). Fourth, you can use it to target mixed groups by using a central theme and vocabulary.
The key to using a book for therapy is to do a little planning. I know you might not feel like you have time, but 20 minutes downloading materials from Pinterest or Teachers Pay Teachers could solve your therapy or every group you see! One of my favorite books for this time of year is The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything, by Linda Williams. I was a teacher garage sale a few summers ago and grabbed all 6 copies for two bucks! I love to be able to give each student a book to hold and 'read' along with me. Plus they can each use it to go back and look for clues later.
This is the set up for mixed groups of 4/5 year olds. They each get a book and a paint dauber. I'll have them each working on a different activity and then we will play a group game at the end to target vocabulary. I typically move around the circle letting each child take 3-4 turns before moving to the next person.
The activities this group was working on included Final Consonant Deletion, Story Retell, WH questions, and verb +ing.
That's a LOT for the group so I just worked on two skills at a time and let the students help each other.
If you're interested, you can grab the Print and Go Dot Art Companion for The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything in my TpT Shop here.
So tell me, how do you do therapy for mixed groups?
Great idea to use with this book. This is one of my favorite books for this time of year, too. I have a box of props that the students use to do a Reader's Theater- two gloves, a hat, two big shoes, etc. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Jenna, I have this packet, and this is one of my favorite stories too! I agree that stories can lend themselves to mixed group work easily. I'm finding that I'm doing more of this now and looking for books/plans to use. I just bought a TPT packet around using Big Pumpkin and did retelling with "puppets," targeted sent. structure through retelling, wh-questions, vocabulary. Could probably do some artic. in there too. Thanks for sharing!
I love this and have been trying to make lesson plans for specific books to do this in therapy. Do you know of any good resources that already have lesson plans/materials for books?
Thanks for sharing. I love your materials and have several. I also appreciate getting things from you ahead of the season. Gives me time to prepare and gather materials. I like having a jump on things with this book. Thanks!


text:
← Mortgage Acknowledgments: Tiny Deviation From Suggested Forms Can Spell Disaster
Preferences: Surprise – Being Fully Secured May Not Be A Complete Defense →
Foreclosure Procedures: Dot Those i's and Cross Those t's… Or Else
Posted on December 6, 2013 by BankruptcyRealEstateInsights
In re AMRCO, Inc., 496 B.R. 442 (Bankr. W.D. Tex. 2013) –
A mortgagee requested a comfort order from the bankruptcy court to confirm that the automatic stay did not apply to property that it had purchased at a non-judicial foreclosure sale immediately before the mortgagor filed bankruptcy. The debtor countered that the foreclosure sale was invalid. If the debtor was correct, the consequence was that the property would be part of the bankruptcy estate and protected by the automatic stay.
The creditor made a $175,000 loan to AMRCO secured by a lien on an undeveloped lot pursuant to a duly recorded deed of trust. In essence the property was the debtor's only asset and the mortgagee was its only creditor.
After the debtor defaulted, the creditor initiated a foreclosure sale. After unsuccessfully seeking a temporary restraining order in state court, the debtor filed bankruptcy at 10:22 a.m. on June 4, 2013. In the meantime, the creditor claimed that it purchased the property at the non-judicial foreclosure sale no later than 10:12 a.m. on June 4, 2013.
The debtor argued that the sale was invalid because (1) a law firm was appointed as the substitute trustee under the deed of trust, not the lawyer himself, so he had no right to act as substitute trustee in conducting the foreclosure sale, (2) the sale was unfair and irregular and there was a gross shortfall in the price sufficient to void the sale, and (3) the substitute trustee's address was not included in the notice of foreclosure sale.
The court brushed aside the first two arguments. The applicable statute allowed a "person" to be appointed as a trustee or substitute trustee under a deed of trust. Asserting that appointment of an entity as a substitute trustee precluded an individual acting on its behalf was tantamount to claiming that only natural people could be appointed as trustees. Since other similar provisions of the statute made it clear that corporations could be "persons," the court concluded that the reference to "persons" as trustees must include both artificial and natural persons, as opposed to only natural persons. Since law firms must act through their members, a member can represent a firm in acting as a trustee.
As for the second argument, the debtor provided no support for its allegations that the sale was unfair or that the price was inadequate. The court took note that the county appraisal district valued the property at $125,000, while the creditor bid in the full amount of its debt of ~$192,000. The debtor contended that the property had a fair market value of $530,000, but did not provide support for that value.
However, the third argument was a different matter. The applicable state statute provided that the "name and a street address for a trustee or substitute trustees shall be disclosed on the notice" required by statute. In this case the mailing address was provided in a recorded appointment of substitute trustee. However, the court concluded that this did not constitute disclosure in the notice. The notice also attached the deed of trust, which included an address that was the substitute trustee's current address. However, that address was only in an attachment to the notice and was identified as the address of the original trustee, not the substitute trustee (though the addresses happened to be the same).
The creditor argued that this combination of facts amounted to substantial compliance, and the court acknowledged that "it is difficult to imagine how any party could be adversely affected by the deficiency in the Notice of Foreclosure under these circumstances." However, the court held that strict compliance was required under state law to invoke the power of sale under a deed of trust. Consequently, the court held that the sale was void and the property was part of the bankruptcy estate.
While acknowledging that this "might seem to take 'strict compliance' too far" and that "this result may seem overly technical or formalistic," the court concluded the result was required by law and had no sympathy for the creditor: "mortgagees can avoid this result by taking greater care to comply with each requirement of the Texas foreclosure statute."
An "itsy bitsy teenie weenie boo-boo" strikes again. Don't think that this opinion is an aberration. Details do matter. There are a number of bankruptcy cases in which very minor mistakes have caused a mortgagee to lose its lien or otherwise suffer significant adverse consequences in a bankruptcy.


France is one of the top five tourist destinations in the world. It has everything that you could ever want to see on your holidays: a great city like Paris, good beaches, more monuments than any other country, lovely nature, incredible mountain scenery; need I go on? France is also a very pleasant place to stay. It has good food, great wines and people enjoy their lives. And the best thing is, maybe apart from Paris, living in France does not have to be expensive.
The North of France consists of the flatlands around the town of Lille and the Channel. The area will remind visitors in many ways of Belgium and the Netherlands. The Grand' Place in Lille for example is a lot like that of Brussels.
Paris, the city of light and its surroundings are one of the most visited areas. Paris is without a doubt one of the most beautiful cities on the planet.
The West of France is turned towards the Atlantic Coast. In the north Normandy & Brittany have rolling hills, sandy beaches and quiet little harbour towns. Normandy & Brittany have a more rugged coast and many neolithic sites. It has quite a distinct atmosphere from the rest of the country; you can still sense the Celtic origin of the region and its inhabitants. Nantes and Bordeaux are the biggest cities on the west coast. Bordeaux, capital of the south west, is a stylish city famous for its wines and its 18-th century architecture. The Pays Basque is the southernmost part of the Atlantic Coast of France. The resort of Biarritz is posh, but pretty.
The eastern part of France consists of the Alsace, Lorraine, Franche Comté and Burgundy regions. The landscape has rolling hills and many beautiful cities, such as Metz, Strasbourg, Nancy and Dijon. This region produces many famous wines, including magnificent pinot noirs and chardonnays valued the world over, as well as the famous "Yellow wine" from the Jura mountain vineyard.
The Center is in many ways the most quiet part of France. But the great treasure of this region is the Loire valley , with many great castles and beautiful towns. Chartres with its famous cathedral and Tours rate among the most beautiful French cities.
The Auvergne, centered on the Massif Central mountains that culminate at about 6000 ft, is one of the most beautiful regions of France. Much of it is upland, traversed by wild river valleys and an unspoiled natural environment. The north of the region stretches towards the flatter Loire valley. The regional capital is Clermont Ferrand, and the small city of Le Puy en Velay, with its historic churches perched on volcanic pinnacles, is one of the most surprising cities in France.
The Alps are great for skiing in winter and hiking in summer. Albertville, Grenoble and Chamonix have all hosted the Olympic games. But the Alps also have nice towns to visit, such as Chambéry, Annecy or Grenoble.
The South with its lovely nature, good food, roman ruins and of course the Riviera draws a lot of visitors every year. Towns like Orange, and Arles but also big cities like Marseille and Toulon are must sees. The Provence is dotted with pleasant small villages. In the South west of France the Dordogne is one of the most quintessential French regions. The valley is so pretty, the towns are so cute and the food is so good, that it is hard to believe that the people who live here go somewhere else for their holidays. The Languedoc has its own language and culture. In the south of the Languedoc you find the Pyrenees, a great mountain range separating France from Spain, where you can hike and ski. The towns of Toulouse and Montpellier are nice and the medieval town of Carcassone is a top destination.
The island of Corsica has beautiful nature and a very special atmosphere. The Corsicans speak their own language and have a great sense of freedom.
The Autoroutes of France are a great way of getting to one part of the country to another. They are in perfect shape, the places to stop (aire de répos) are always very well organized - in Summer they often have activities for children - but there is one backdraw: péage. That means that you have to pay to use the autoroute, you get a ticket when you go on the autoroute and have to give the ticket and pay when you get off. It is always possible to pay with creditcard so you don't have to have small change in your wallet.
Freeways (autoroutes) are mostly more..
France has the fastest trains in Europe. The TGV (Train a Grande Vitesse i.e. Very Fast Train) take you from Paris to Lille, Marseille or Lyon at an average speed of some 240 km an hour. Nantes, Lyon, Marseille, Lille, Brussels, Amsterdam (by Thalys) and more..
The Grand Randonee is a footpath that takes you from one end to France to the other. In every region of France there are branches of the GR. The total length of the footpaths is 140000 km, that's about 4 times around the globe.
Exotic Vacations is the top agency in South Africa for 9 consecutive years. We are France experts and have been sending clients to France for more than 15 years. We know every hotel and every part of France. Whether you are looking for a family holiday or adults only resort or whether you are looking for half-board or all inclusive, we know where the best deals are and the best value. From 2-star to 5-star, we have the largest selection of France hotels.


The pancake number is the minimum number of flips required to turn a stack of unevenly piled pancakes into a graduated stack where they are distributed from smallest at the top to largest at the bottom.
For a stack in which it doesn't matter which way up the pancakes are, the flipping begins by inserting a spatula and turning from the biggest pancake and continuing in this way until the pile is sorted in order.
For a stack of 5 pancakes, the number of flips required is 5 or fewer. For a stack of 20, the number of flips required is still unknown.
It gets more complicated if one side of the pancake is burnt and the flipping is intended to hide the burnt side from view.
I have to say I would just be grumbling about letting them get cold and asking if the maple syrup is real and is there real butter and enough brown sugar and lemon?
Perhaps that is the definition of intellectual?
Tho perhaps that one is dating now and meaningless for the under 30s?


Within the last couple of months of working out this whole fitness-bridal plan, I have made many mistakes but also experienced many moments of success. To be honest, as soon as I dropped CrossFit from the radar back in October I went through this odd period of withdrawal... I was at a standstill fitness-wise and barely knew how to hit the ground running again (literally).
When I was using CrossFit as my main source of exercise, I ate like a mad woman, too. Lifting heavy + eating a ton translates to big traps and wide thighs on this latin body! When I went to my first dress fitting back in October, I knew immediately I wanted to look a little different come the big day. After an un-shameful Thanksgiving chow down I hopped back on track and boy do I feel great! Good news is, there are tons of way to make the everyday feel like something new.
I know cardio isn't necessarily everyone's cup of tea, but guys it really is good for you! The key to surviving a 20-30 minute cardio session is great music and a training buddy. For a true challenge, take your cardio outdoors. The change up in terrain and temperature will push you that much further and keep you from feeling like you're doing the same old thing.
Whether it be teaching a session or joining in on one, I've been trying to work in yoga at least one time a week. To warm up my muscles, I will get there about 10 minutes early and take a few laps at a brisk pace.
Now that I'm back in my hometown, I finally can workout with my training partner again! She's means so much to me as a friend and honorary little sister, so getting to share in the pain of WOD together truly is an awesome experience! To prevent the muscle gain and emphasize muscle tone, I've been working with lighter weights and moving at a faster pace. To Rx a WOD is always fun to see on the board, but sometimes you have to take a few steps back.
Ab Exercises Everything from planking to class flutter kicks (low boat pose with leg pulses), ab exercises are always a quick and easy add-in to any workout.
Oh an did you think I forgot about our planking deal?
I'd love to hear about how you did!
I took my plank from 1m 15 sec all the way up to 3 minutes!
What special tweaks do you make to your routine to shake things up?
Do you change your fitness routine based on the changes you want to see in your body?


First description by Reppenhagen, Die Gattung Mammillaria; 115; 497-498; 1987.
Body: Somewhat cylindrical, rarely clumping, 25 – 80 mm high and 30 – 60 mm in diameter, sunken apex and covered with wool and spines.
Tubercule: Cylindrical, closely set, firm, 5 – 7 mm long and 3 mm wide. Dull green.
Radial spine: 20 – 27, stiff, straight or curved, smooth, white, 2 – 5 mm long, irregular radiating, the collateral the longest.
Central spine: 1 – 2, needle like, when 2 the uppermost the longest, straight, smooth, erect, 2 – 3 mm long, brown or glassy white with brown tip.
Flower: Broad funnelform, 15 – 18 mm long and in diameter, dark carmine.
Fruit: Glossy red, 6 – 16 mm long, 2 – 4 mm wide, stick-shaped to club-shaped, ripens 12 months after flowering.
Habitat Substrate: Between rocks in sandy soil with humus.
Geographic Distribution: Mexico, Puebla, near El Marqu?s; Guerrero near Mogote and Corralito; Morelos near Chavarria. Altitude 1100 – 1500 meter.
Comments: Less of central spines, a few more radial spines and a more cylindrical growth are the differences with albilanata ssp oaxacana.


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Attorney General Dustin McDaniel Issues His Side On Charity Bingo Raffle Games
February 7, 2007, Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said that outside groups absolutely cannot be paid to operate both charitable bingo and raffle games that were approved by the voters in Arkansas in a constitutional amendment in November 2006, which coincided with the mid-term elections in the U.S.
Attorney General McDaniel's statement also voiced the concern of the amendment's critics, that it would permit private gambling organizations to run the bingo operations in the state on behalf of the charities that are supposed to be the main beneficiaries of the profits from the bingo games. Arkansas Sen. Steve Faris, the author of the bill which will allow the charitable bingo and raffle games, said that the opinion of the Attorney General will provide the framework for the state legislature so that the games can begin in July 2007.
Faris added that Attorney General McDaniel's opinion made it clear that the interests of private gambling organizations that want to manage charitable bingo and raffle in the state will not be tolerated. He also said that many groups that operate large bingo gaming halls in other states are making some call to the charities in Arkansas, saying that the charities will receive more profits if they will be allowed to manage the bingo games on behalf of the charities.
Danny Hudson


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Culinary Call of the Wild
Chefs, NAU tout value of foraging for native foods
Karen Fernau
Nov. 9, 2005 12:00 AM
COTTONWOOD – On a recent Tuesday, chef Tom Pristash drove up to the rolling pastures here to forage for lamb's quarter, dandelions, mesquite beans and stinging nettles with a group of Northern Arizona University scientists.
The next week, he used that harvest and other wild food to create mesquite bean-crusted sea bass, sautéed amaranth leaves and roasted lobster mushrooms at Alchemy at CopperWynd Resort in Fountain Hills.
The gourmet dishes aren't just about unusual tastes but demonstrate a trend in harvesting wild food that Pristash hopes will continue. After a few years of using locally grown lettuce, organic carrots and in-season heirloom tomatoes, some chefs are looking to the wild for their next culinary inspiration.
Pristash and other chefs are working with NAU scientists pioneering the harvest of wild food statewide. The program, run by NAU's Center for Sustainable Environments, matches farmers and ranchers whose lands are filled with edible berries, nuts, roots and greens with chefs eager to add the wild foods to their menus.
The idea is to use food grown as close to the kitchen as possible: It cuts down on fuel use, helps protect soil and water, and usually means better taste. Wild foods could become as practical as they are eco-chic.
"It's a culinary and environmental movement, and although still very small, it is a cause worth supporting," Pristash said.
A geologist turned chef, Pristash learned while attending college in upstate New York to appreciate food the land naturally offered. The wild foods fit into his commitment to using local foods ripe with flavor and nutrients.
While chefs see wild food as new flavors, some farmers like the taste that wild food adds. And some farmers see the future in wild food.
As Tim McKibben, a Cottonwood farmer and wild-food harvester, said, "Society tends to think of people like me who believe in eating local food and wild food as the weird ones. But when a head of lettuce costs $5 because of shipping costs, we will be the smart ones."
Worries over food safety also could stimulate interest in wild food. Although admittedly farfetched, advocates believe wild local food could be lifesaving if growing and shipping produce were disrupted by war or catastrophic weather.
In addition, wild foods are attracting followers because of their health and medicinal benefits. Like organic produce, wild foods grow free of chemicals and pesticides.
For the wild-food movement to go from novelty to mainstream, several factors must fall into place, depending on who gets involved and whether an efficient and economical food-distribution system can be established.
"I literally pick up wild greens from a rancher and take it to a restaurant door and say, 'Hey, do you want this wild spinach for tonight?' " NAU ecologist Patty West said. "Let's just say the distribution system is in the beginning stages. It could use a shot in the arm."
Government grants to farmers, ranchers and foragers would make harvesting wild food economically feasible, according to John Kallas, Oregon-based publisher of Wild Food Adventurer Newsletter .
"Wild food is a niche, but niche is not such a bad idea. There are a lot of people who want high-quality, good-tasting food that is not available everywhere," he said.
Another option is to cultivate wild greens, such as lamb's quarter and wild spinach, to sell to restaurants and grocers.
NAU hopes its wild-food harvesting program eventually produces enough to sell at farmers markets and possibly at food markets that specialize in local and organically grown produce. That way, chefs and the public could start using wild food in dishes.
The same chefs whose commitment to local, in-season and organic produce in the 1990s converted scores of home cooks to the organic-food cause can help do the same with wild foods.
"Chefs are today's food celebrities. They serve as the portals for our food values and changing tastes. They started cooking with organic foods, and the public followed. If they cook with wild food, so will people at home," said Gary Nabhan of the NAU Center for Sustainable Environments.
The challenge is creating a food-distribution system in which harvesters sell the wild harvests at a price restaurants can afford and still make a profit.
"When Mother Nature is the gardener, you cannot control the rainfall and other factors that determine when food is ripe," West said.
In addition, wild foods such as amaranth, dandelions and lamb's quarters are seasonal and can be offered only as in-season menu specials.
Even in erratic doses, wild foods can play an important role in preserving food traditions and heritage. Simply put, this means restaurants serving foods eaten hundreds of years ago by Native American tribes, such as piñon-nut flavored stews.
"Our nation's food is becoming so homogeneous, but when chefs can feature local, wild foods . . . it links us to our past with powerful smells and flavors," Nabhan said.
Executive chef Sandy Garcia agrees and serves saguaro fruit and cholla buds at Kai at the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort & Spa near Chandler. These native touches to his modern menu allow diners to enjoy new flavors while understanding ancient traditions.
Garcia, who occasionally accompanies experienced desert foragers, also buys cactus fruit from professional harvesters.
"People think of the desert as a desolate place, but there's an abundance of foods that grow naturally," he said. "Why leave it out there where it would just go to waste?"
Indigenous Religious Freedom Violations Abound at the U.S.-Mexico Border Barriers
This last year, we have palpably felt a heightened level of traumatic stress pervasive in the Indigenous communities where all three of us have worked on both sides of the international boundary. Throughout our adult lives, we have provided educational opportunities, technical assistance, and land rights advocacy strategies within the many Indigenous communities that live within 100 miles or so from the U.S.-Mexico border.
USDA awards over $4.7M to support and promote 'climate-smart' food production
In arid Arizona, groundwater pumping and the transportation of river water generate more carbon emissions than any other agricultural activities in…
Mexican festival celebrates eelgrass
Eelgrass, underwater grasses found around the world, play a key role in storing so-called "blue carbon." Seagrass habitats are in…
Why You Won't Hear That Arizona Has a Water and Agriculture Crisis
You will never hear the words "water crisis" in the Arizona state government, Salt River or Central Arizona Project. And…
Food from the Radical Center with Gary Nabhan
On today's pledge drive edition from WORT, Patty previews Fermentation Fest by talking with this year's Featured Fermenter, Gary Paul…
Arizona Public Media: Behind the Mask
Do you wear a mask in public? The pandemic has shifted our cultural perception of face covering, and throughout time,…
A Storied Path: On Mark Plotkin's "The Amazon: What Everyone Needs to Know"
FOR THE LAST three decades, the Amazon's critical importance to the health of our planet has flowed in and out…
Patagonia, an essential pit stop for monarch butterflies
When Gary Nabhan was growing up in the Indiana Dunes, Indiana, he remembered being sleepy in the middle of his…
Enhancing Livelihoods & Diets in the Desert Borderlands MESQUITE is the most abundant forestry resource in most of the poorest counties…
Food from the Radical Center: Healing Our Lands & Communities – Dr. Gary Nabhan
Streaming live from the Barrows Lecture Series at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden Wednesday, March 11, 2020, 7:00-9:00 PM…
Can the sights and sounds of nature make you feel better? These 'forest bathers' say yes
Every Thursday for the past several months, a small group of people has set out from a little building in…
Celebration of "Jerri" Wanda Mary Goodwin Nabhan Buxton – 1927-2020
As some of you can guess, I am the last person you'd want to assign to do an obituary of…
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Thousands of scientists expressed alarm this week at the expansion of the wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. A report in BioScience outlined…


Join Airways Brewing in Kent on March 9 as they celebrate three years in business with the brewery's first cans, new beers, giveaways, food truck and more!
KENT, Wash. (February, 2013) – On Saturday, March 9, Airways Brewing will celebrate three exciting years of growth and expansion with a celebration – and several new releases – not to be missed.
Adding on another first for the Kent-based brewery, Airways' third anniversary will mark the release of the brewery's first cans to market. Offering a distinct new look and feel, the 16-ounce cans will house two new brews – Oatmeal PSA™ (Pale Session Ale) and Pre-Flight Pilsner™ – adding to the brewery's growing year round line up. From 2-7pm, craft beer enthusiasts can pick these cans up for the first time – the week before they are released to market – as well as enjoy giveaways, cask releases, food from Lumpia World, the release of Airways Third Anniversary Belgian Dark Strong (available in 22-ounce bottles) and more!
Available in four-packs of 16-ounce cans and on draught, the Oatmeal PSA (Pale Session Ale) and Pre-flight Pilsner will become the newest additions to Airways Brewing's year round lineup. The Oatmeal PSA is a unique, full flavored beer, featuring 5.0 percent ABV and 35 IBUs. Brewed with flaked oats for a creamy sweetness, this sessionable beer is balanced, offering a slight bite thanks to citrusy Northwest-grown Cascade, Centennial and Magnum hops. The Pre-Flight Pilsner is a pre-prohibition style pilsner, fuller in body with a distinct, spicy hop presence, attributed to the Hallertauer and Saaz hops used to brew it. Offering 5.0 percent ABV and 30 IBUs, it's perfect for the next time you're assigned that middle seat on a cross-country red-eye.
Also brewed just for the occasion is Airways Brewing's Third Anniversary Belgian Dark Strong. Featuring 9.9 percent ABV and 26 IBUs, this complex, yet smooth beer is filled with rich, dark fruit flavors, paired with notes of fruit and spice on the nose. Brewed with Hallertauer hops, this limited edition beer will be available for purchase only in 22-ounce bottles at the anniversary party and specialty beer shops shortly thereafter.
In addition to the exciting array of new releases, attendees of the growing brewery's Third Anniversary Party – taking place from 2-7pm on Saturday, March 9 at Airways' Brewery & Tap Room (6644 S 196th St. #T-100, Kent, WA) – will enjoy $4-$5 pints of Airways Brewing's year-round offerings, including the brewery's new Chocolate Stout and infamous Sky Hag IPA®. Added to the list are a few special offering and old favorites including Ol' Wooden Hangar, Berliner Weisse (German sour wheat) and a cask of Maylani's Coconut-Chocolate Tropical Stout. Food will be available for purchase from popular food truck Lumpia World. Each attendee will receive a free limited edition Airways Brewing can koozie, while Belgian-style anniversary glassware, custom growlers and Airways apparel will be available for purchase.


Come meet the planning committee for New York Black Professionals. Learn about upcoming events. Make real connections with professionals of color in top industries!
Check in when you enter, grab your drink ticket, and find a conversation pod.
Each pod will be labeled with topics that matter most to you!


The new format for PSLE gives 3 pictures which may or may not be connected to each other. All 3 pictures will only be linked by a particular abstract theme, e.g. honesty.
Students will be given the option of using at least one of these pictures to construct a narrative related to the theme. For example, one of the pictures may be of picking up a wallet; the narrative then revolves around an act of honesty in which a lost wallet is returned to its rightful owner.
The new format also gives students the option of writing an expository essay, which requires a change in the style of language deployed and can be seen as a pre-secondary school exposure. Students write a discursive essay exploring the various facets of kindness, using the pictures as examples.
These are rather steep and demanding changes, so it is not alarming that schools will choose to introduce it only in late pri 3 or pri 4.
Hi Writer - Do you think it would be a good idea to expose our kids to write a compo based on one picture only since that would be the format. We do not give them four pictures to write a compo. Will it helps if we just give them topic to write the compo. What are the topics we can explore? Honesty, unforgetable day or experience, robbery etc.
Blue Pearl wrote: Hi Writer - Do you think it would be a good idea to expose our kids to write a compo based on one picture only since that would be the format. We do not give them four pictures to write a compo. Will it helps if we just give them topic to write the compo. What are the topics we can explore? Honesty, unforgetable day or experience, robbery etc.
Depends on your child's level. If dc is p1 to early p3, it's ok to still have 4 pictures because they need those aids to help them construct a linear narrative.
Topics wise, you will need a picture. Since it's only for personal use, what you might want to consider is looking for online images related to the theme. The themes can be general concepts - An act of honesty or kindness, pain, surprise, anger etc.
Take care not to choose "adult" pictures - as in things which dc can't really relate to. For example, choosing a picture for anger. You can relate to getting scolded by a manager and blamed for some company mishap you didn't cause, but dc probably won't have that exp/background to write about it, so the pictures will ideally involve kids, or be something kids can relate to.
my boy attends usual eng n maths tution in RC. He used to be in ICR.
Last year I ended his ICR. His tution teacher in RC commented that his creative writing has weakened and getting worse.
I wasn't sure to bring him back to ICR, L Central or other creative writing classes.
Are you a tuition teacher?
I need to source a reliable English teacher for my child.
Have replied you via pm.


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Q: Error using `TFLiteConverter` with `tf.concat` in Custom Layer Using TensorFlow 2.10.
I'm trying to create a CircularBuffer layer for a model designed to be run using TensorFlow Like Micro. It has only basic layers, among them SLICE & CONCATENATE, so I am tring to use those.
This is what I currently got:
class CircularBuffer(tf.keras.layers.Layer):

    def __init__(self, buffer_size):
        super(CircularBuffer, self).__init__()
        self.buffer_size = buffer_size

    def build(self, input_size):
        if len(input_size) > 2:
            raise Exception("Currently support 1D inputs")
        if input_size[0] != 1:
            raise Exception("Currently support batch_size=1")
        self.buffer = self.add_weight(shape=(self.buffer_size, input_size[-1]), initializer="zeros", trainable=False)

    def call(self, inputs):
        # remove oldest row
        sliced = tf.slice(self.buffer, begin=[1, 0], size=[-1, -1])
        # concat new row
        self.buffer = tf.concat([sliced, inputs], axis=0)
        # self.buffer = tf.keras.layers.concatenate([sliced, inputs], axis=0)
        return self.buffer

model = tf.keras.models.Sequential([
    tf.keras.Input(shape=(4,), batch_size=1),
    CircularBuffer(8),
    tf.keras.layers.Dense(2),
])

converter = tf.lite.TFLiteConverter.from_keras_model(model)
tflite_model = converter.convert()
len(tflite_model)

Where I'm feeding vectors of length 4 that should be accumulated to a circular buffer of size 8 and them passed to the rest of the model (in that case, a simple Dense layer).
However, I'm getting the following error on model conversion:
AttributeError                            Traceback (most recent call last)
Cell In [313], line 30
     23 model = tf.keras.models.Sequential([
     24     tf.keras.Input(shape=(4,), batch_size=1),
     25     CircularBuffer(8),
     26     tf.keras.layers.Dense(2),
     27 ])
     29 converter = tf.lite.TFLiteConverter.from_keras_model(model)
---> 30 tflite_model = converter.convert()
     31 len(tflite_model)

File ~/.local/lib/python3.8/site-packages/tensorflow/lite/python/lite.py:930, in _export_metrics.<locals>.wrapper(self, *args, **kwargs)
    927 @functools.wraps(convert_func)
    928 def wrapper(self, *args, **kwargs):
    929   # pylint: disable=protected-access
--> 930   return self._convert_and_export_metrics(convert_func, *args, **kwargs)

File ~/.local/lib/python3.8/site-packages/tensorflow/lite/python/lite.py:908, in TFLiteConverterBase._convert_and_export_metrics(self, convert_func, *args, **kwargs)
    906 self._save_conversion_params_metric()
    907 start_time = time.process_time()
--> 908 result = convert_func(self, *args, **kwargs)
    909 elapsed_time_ms = (time.process_time() - start_time) * 1000
    910 if result:
...
    444     np_config.enable_numpy_behavior()
    445   """)
--> 446 self.__getattribute__(name)

AttributeError: 'Tensor' object has no attribute 'numpy'

I traced it back to the usage of tf.concat. I tried to replace it with tf.keras.layers.concatenate, but that didn't help.
What am I missing? Also, is there an easier way to achieve what I want, maybe without a custom layer? That's the only way I found to hold the state (i.e. self.buffer).

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Beth Haddon
The Independence of South Sudan: The Role of Mass Media in the Responsibility to Prevent
Walter C. Soderlund and E. Donald Briggs
Wilfrid Laurier University Press
Hardly a day goes by that we do not confront the mixed reality of living in an increasingly globalized world on an increasingly small planet. We are all connected.
Buying up the Free Press
In the Canadian media, a shared owner doesn't necessarily mean shared opinions
Changing the Channel
How technology and economics have switched what news gets covered
A Niche for Mainstream Journalism
Are journalists helping to create bad public policy?
Berry'd Alive
How the Canadian media have used new technologies to shut out the public
Today there can be no horrific events taking place in a faraway land we know nothing about with no implications for those of us who live in peaceful developed western countries. Today it is Ebola, yesterday it was SARS. Today it is Yazidi refugees fleeing ISIS in Syria. Yesterday it was the genocide in Bosnia, in Rwanda and in South Sudan. All too frequently it has been South Sudan.
There is a sad irony to The Independence of South Sudan: The Role of Mass Media in the Responsibility to Prevent, a succinctly written and informative book by Walter C. Soderlund and E. Donald Briggs. It focuses on the media's role in how the doctrine of the responsibility to protect played out in South Sudan.
But it is likely that most members of the media have never even heard of the responsibility to protect, let alone considered how to include it in news reporting.
So, first, a little background.
The core idea of the responsibility to protect, or R2P as it is called in United Nations circles, is that under certain circumstances the international community has the responsibility to intervene in the affairs of sovereign states.
R2P was introduced at the United Nations General Assembly in 1999 by Secretary General Kofi Annan, who "posed the central question starkly and directly … if humanitarian intervention is, indeed, an unacceptable assault on the sovereignty, how should we respond to a Rwanda, to a Srebrenica—to gross and systematic violations of human rights that affect every precept of our common humanity?"
The responsibility to protect encompasses three broad ideas: the responsibility to prevent civil war, genocide or other catastrophes by addressing root causes; the responsibility to react when catastrophes happen; and the responsibility to rebuild in the aftermath.
The ongoing crisis in South Sudan, a country the size of France with fewer than 100 kilometres of paved roads, remains one of the world's most intractable political and human rights challenges, involving race hatred, religious differences and disputed oil wealth. For centuries, before the British colonial era, before the Ottoman Empire, the southern region of Sudan—the African south—was where the Arab north captured and transported slaves for sale throughout the Middle East, Europe and beyond. There were Nubian slaves in Pharaoh's army.
Independence came in 1956 with the birth of Sudan and included promises that would not be fulfilled concerning autonomy for the African south. When oil was discovered in 1978, mainly in the south, the Arab north suppressed the various southern separatist movements that had sprung up against forced "Arabisation and Islamisation," a suppression that resulted in burned villages, concentration camps, human rights abuses and recurring floods of refugees.
It is in this historical context that this book analyzes the media coverage of three key events—the 2010 Sudanese election, the 2011 referendum on independence for the South and the July 2011 independence of the South (which has led to ongoing strife displacing at least a million people and killing an estimated 10,000). The media analysis sets out to answer the question of "to what extent did North American press coverage influence governments to consider intervention to prevent another humanitarian crisis in South Sudan."
Soderlund and Briggs begin with an overview of the academic literature showing that mass media influences public opinion and thereby public policy. They quote media theorist Bernard Cohen's famous comment that the press "may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think, … [but] it is stunningly successful in telling them what to think about."
The media does this by "agenda setting"—when journalists and editors decide which issues to cover—and by "framing"—when journalists decide how to interpret the meaning of a story.
The academic overview is followed by a content analysis of 200 stories in four newspapers—The New York Times, the Washington Post, The Globe and Mail and the Ottawa Citizen.
Unfortunately, the study did not include television, where most people get their news. There simply was not enough television coverage of events in Sudan.
Without television, arguably, it is not possible to mobilize public opinion to the point of influencing public policy. And given that newspapers often drive television and radio content, the implication is that the print coverage was neither extensive enough nor compelling enough to overcome the reticence of television line-up editors. So the outcome of the research was something of a foregone conclusion. The answer to their question of whether media—that is, newspaper—coverage of events in Sudan led to the implementation of R2P, is no, it did not.
The media analysis examined agenda setting and framing both quantitatively and qualitatively by looking at the number of stories, date of publication, type of content and affiliation of the reporter. The authors assessed the 200 stories qualitatively by examining the point of view of the story with specific attention to see if the story "assigned international responsibility to deal with problems."
Some findings were surprising: 139 of the 200 stories in the four papers were editorials, op-eds or "inside page" news analysis, which suggests a genuine effort to help readers understand complex events.
Except for the Ottawa Citizen, which relied on wire copy, all the publications had their own correspondents on the ground at least some of the time.
Nicholas Kristof, a columnist with The New York Times, is notable for an op-ed piece he wrote that came close to calling for the international community to intervene when he warned of possible civil war. The Globe and Mail's Africa correspondent, Geoffrey York, was prescient in his news reports. So while journalism fell short of outright invoking R2P, it did, fairly consistently, foreshadow trouble ahead.
Overall, as anticipated, Soderlund and Briggs conclude that the media did not make much difference concerning the implementation of the doctrine of the responsibility to prevent. The preventive efforts (peacekeeping, food aid, support for refugees) undertaken by governments, the UN and nongovernmental organizations were taken because those institutions already knew about the ongoing crisis in South Sudan, not because of public pressure brought on by the media.
If one takes the larger view, the analysis of media coverage of South Sudan does prompt musings on just why western media's sparse coverage of Africa seems unable to move beyond the inevitable narrative of starving children, war, corruption, tribalism and the colonial legacy. A continent of 54 countries and a billion people surely has other stories. But to reach those stories journalists need to know the language, the culture and the history and to have cultivated a wide range of sources. And since the days when Canadian news organizations maintain foreign bureaus and correspondents are largely behind us, it seems likely that those stories will be told only when African journalists gain access to western news outlets.
Beth Haddon is a journalist and former broadcast executive, and an associate editor of the LRC.


(Reuters) - A jaguar clawed an Arizona woman who climbed over a barrier to take a picture at the Wildlife World Zoo near Phoenix, officials said, and the zoo assured animal lovers the big cat would not be put down.
Cellphone video of the incident showed at least one gash on the woman's left forearm as she writhed on the ground in pain on Saturday.
Wilkerson's mother distracted the jaguar by pushing a water bottle through the cage, and Wilkerson said he pulled the woman away. Cellphone video later showed the animal chewing on a plastic water bottle.


text:
Consultant reviews housing situation in Clark County
Sep 8, 2009 | News
Arkadelphia, Ark. –
Clark County has a wealth of resources — leaders just need to capitalize on them.
This was the topic of discussion among members of the Clark County Strategic Plan Steering Committee, which met Tuesday at noon in the community center of The Gardens, Arkadelphia's new retirement housing subdivision.
Angie Rios, a consultant who performed a county-wide housing market study for the Plan, told members that "You already know what you need, you just need someone to tell you."
Rios, of Vilonia, said she has spoken with residents in Amity, Arkadelphia, Caddo Valley and Gurdon residents during the study, and said they were all "humble, helpful and sold on Arkadelphia … You have to market that."
Rios said she developed the report after discussions, phone calls and research on housing in each city.
She said with any community, the key to growth is retaining the population. Unlike Caddo Valley, she said, Amity is not a major highway; but it does have a "wealth of resources" such as a dental office and affordable housing. Other positive factors she attributed to Amity included recreation, services and its tranquility. "A lot of towns that size don't have those services" like a dental office, she said. Retirees, she added, would best fit Amity.
Caddo Valley will grow simply because of its location in regards to Interstate 30, "but it needs some sprucing up on the front end," Rios said of the city's vacant businesses. It is the "fastest growing place in Clark County" though it is the newest and one of the smallest.
While it is located on the once-busy Highway 67, I-30 "cut Gurdon off." But it does have a railroad track. Since the Plan set out to beautify cities throughout the county in 2007, the Gurdon City Council has demolished several dilapidated houses, making room for newer, better-looking homes to be built. The city also has a "well-established government" and several housing opportunities, she said.
Gurdon's "living room" is presentable, Rios said, meaning that the city does not need any major improvements to its entryways. In order to grow, the city's main need is for industries to locate there.
Rios asked present members of the Plan (about 15) to raise their hands if they live in Arkadelphia. Most raised their hands. Arkadelphia's "wealth of resources" includes the two universities, its proximity to DeGray Lake, recreational, outdoor and sports activities and its history. "You just need to grow" those resources, Rios said. According to her, most young professionals who would be interested in working in Arkadelphia would want to have the option of affordable housing, outside the city limits, with larger acreage.
One problem is that younger college professors work here, but do not live in Arkadelphia because of the city's lack of entertainment sources and restaurants. "There are lots of opportunities here. You have what it takes, and you have the desire. Think about how to retain the people who are already here."
She said most younger people do not consider bowling alleys and skating rinks as sources of entertainment, but had rather see a movie.
While Arkadelphia has many rental properties, there are not many that are newer homes. She said that, in order to target more college students and working alumni, rental properties need to be more "upscale" with upper- to moderate living. Young professionals, she said, are looking for a step above what they lived in while attending college, without having to own a home.
The Plan hired Rios Appraisal and Consulting Services six months ago to develop the 163-page study as part of the Housing Subcommittee's goals.
To see the entire study or for more information about the Plan, visit www.clarkcountyplan.org.