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May 2022 Plays and Clarifications From USA Softball Director of Umpires Kevin Ryan
Category: UIC Utterings Created: 30 May 2022 Hits: 2121
2023 UIC Clinic:
We are in the process of wrapping up the final details of the UIC Clinic. It will be at the Shearon Downtown and all the events will be held at the hotel. We are putting together the final details and should have an email blast out in a few days. Save the dates, February 2nd through the 5th 2023, with the 5th being the travel home day. We will have all the details of cost of registration, rooms etc. out at the same time so stay tuned.
Rule Changes:
We have had a lot of discussions about some of the 2022 rule changes submitted and approved by the USA Softball Council. The new rules creating the most questions are the rule concerning the extra hitter in JO Fast Pitch, the pitching rule for JO Fast Pitch, and the five-second rule in Slow Pitch. Hopefully, we can explain and answer a few of the questions here.
Rule 4, Section 1C [1] [D&E] is our new rule that allows the offense to bat 10 players. When using 9 players and having the extra hitter, that hitter may be anywhere in the batting order. It also allows any player in the line-up to play defense at any time. It is important to remember for the sake of our courtesy runner rule, any change for pitcher or catcher must be reported to the plate umpire.
Section E also allows the use of the DP/ FLEX and bat 10 with an EP. When using the DP/FLEX the DP/FLEX rules still apply. You still can have any 9 in the line-up play defense. However, if someone plays defense for the FLEX this is a substitution for the FLEX since they will not be on defense any longer. The FLEX will still be listed at the end of the batting order just like our previous rules.
Rule 6A, Section 3K is our new rule for Women's and JO Girls Fast Pitch that allows for both feet of the pitcher to be in the air during the pitching motion. Look at this as disengagement of the pivot foot from the ground. New techniques of pitching being taught can cause the pivot foot to be airborne and this will no longer be considered illegal. All else in the rule remains the same such as the step back, feet on or off the pitcher's plate, and staying within the 24-inch length of the pitcher's plate.
Rule 6C, Section 3J is a change in the Slow Pitch rule reducing the time for the pitcher to release the ball from 10 seconds to 5 seconds. Nothing else has changed in the pitching rule for Slow Pitch. The batter still has 10 seconds to get in the box and once the ball is put back in play the pitcher now has the 5 seconds to release the pitch. Questions on when does the 5 seconds start have been asked. It starts at the same time as the 10 seconds count started. Nothing changed except when the ball is put in play or remains in play after a pitch, the pitcher has 5 seconds to deliver the pitch. If the pitcher is in the act of delivering the ball, has stopped, and started the pitchers motion, the 5 seconds stops just as it was with the 10 seconds. In summary treat this rule as we did the 10 seconds rule, once the player is in the box and the umpire says play the count starts. If on a pitched ball and the batter stays in the batter's box, the 5 seconds starts after the pitcher has received the ball from the catcher.
Play: B1 hits a single to left field, rounds 1B and is obstructed by F3. B1 stops and realizes they have been obstructed and calmly trots to 2B where they are tagged with the ball on the way to 2B. The umpire calls the runner out since the umpire feels that B1 reached the base they would have reached had there been no obstruction.
Ruling: Incorrect. An obstructed runner cannot be called out between the basses they were obstructed except for the five reasons listed in the USA Softball Rule Book. Once the player is tagged with the ball the umpire should call dead ball and place the runner on the base they would have reached had there been no obstruction, in this case back on 1B. Rule 8, Section 5BA.
Play: In Slow Pitch Softball with R1 on 1B and one out B3 three hits a single to right field. The ball comes back in the infield and all playing action had ceased and the umpires call time with R1 on 3B and R2 on 1B. The ball is returned to the pitcher who is ready to pitch but B4 is not in the box. B4 steps in the box and the umpire says play ball and then calls time and awards a ball on the batter since the pitcher took more than 5 seconds to pitch once receiving the ball.
Ruling: This is incorrect. Once the batter is in the box and the umpire signals play ball the pitcher now has 5 seconds to start their delivery. Rule 6 Section 3J
Play: (Fast Pitch) The team at bat is using an EP, batting 10 players, and using the DP/FLEX. In the 3rd inning, one of the 10 players in the batting order goes in for the FLEX to play defense. The plate umpire reminds the coach that this is a substitution and they just went from 11 in the line-up, 10 in the line-up batting with the DP FLEX to 10 in the line-up with the FLEX now being out of the game.
Ruling: This is correct. When batting 10 and using the DP/FLEX if any of the 10 players play defense for the FLEX, the FLEX has left the game. Rule 4, Section 1C [1] [D&E] and Rule 4, Section 3E.
Play: (Fast Pitch) B2 at bat with one out. B2 swings at strike three and it is not caught by the catcher. B2, thinking they have struck out heads back toward the dugout as the coach tells them to run to 1B. F2 has the ball and holds the ball as B2 runs to 1B. F2 finally throws the 1B and beat B2 by a step and U1 calls B2 out at the play at 1B.
Ruling: This is a correct ruling. Since the third strike was not caught and the batter did not enter the dugout or dead ball territory the ball is still live by the dropped third strike rule and B2 is not out until they are either tagged with the ball or the ball is thrown to 1B before B2 arrives. Rule 8, Section 2A, Rule 8, Section 2H, Rule 8, Section 2D3 and Rule 8, Section 7U.
May 2022 Plays and Clarifications (PDF)
May 2022 Plays and Clarifications (Word)

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However interesting these developments are, their importance is nevertheless being exaggerated. Editorial writers and op-ed commentators seemed inconsolably frightened, for instance, by the Supreme Court's affirmations of states' rights—which made "a kind of fetish out of state sovereign immunity," opined one in the Washington Post, or even harked back to "racist precedents of the 1880s," declaimed another in the New York Times. In truth, neither the recent body of court decisions nor of legislative initiatives will restore the decentralized federal system that prevailed in this country prior to the latter half of the twentieth century. A bigger, or at least more invasive, central government has been the dominant trend for decades. And signs today (including the latest Republican and Democratic party platforms, neither of which would abolish a single federal agency) augur anything but a radical reversal.
In 1908 Woodrow Wilson observed that the proper relationship between the national government and the states "is the cardinal question of our constitutional system." The question would not be settled by "one generation," he added, but would preoccupy—every successive stage of our political and economic development." The latest round of this enduring debate grapples with the propensity of federal authorities to 11 preempt" state laws. A glimpse at this controversy is worthwhile, not least because it suggests that the contemporary dissent against federal dominance is by no means steadily gaining traction.
The ink was barely dry on the devolutionary measures of the mid 1990s when state and local officials noticed that their policies were still being displaced by new prescriptions and prohibitions stipulated by federal lawmakers or bureaucrats. Concern over a profusion of such so-called preemptions was duly aired in congressional hearings in 1999, but to no avail. Correctives—such as those in a proposed Federalism Accountability Act authored by Tennessee senator Fred Thompson—were advanced but eventually withdrawn.
The short answer to why projects like Senator Thompson's fizzled is that corporations presently fear aggressive regulators and tax collectors in the state legislatures and bureaucracies even more than the divided, hence suitably gridlocked, governing institutions at the federal level. These business interests now look to preemptive acts of Congress not just to set baselines (floors) below which state policies must not fall but to secure compulsory ceilings on the possible excesses of zealous states. Perceived as disabling this type of legislated constraint on local zealotry, the Thompson bill was zapped by an eleventh-hour corporate lobbying blitz.
And there were other complications. Challenging the ability to preempt ultimately meant questioning, multiple forms of federal leverage over the states. The kinds of illustrations offered at hearings before the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs in July 1999 included more than the much—reviled Internet Tax Freedom Act, which imposes a moratorium on state taxation of Internet retail transactions, and a few other unvarnished injunctions on states and localities. Also on the list of examples were new requirements accompanying federal grants-in-aid and instances of what policy makers a few years earlier had characterized as unfunded mandates: that is, new federal commandments that foisted unwanted financial liabilities on the states.
Measures preempting the states, it appeared, covered a considerable assortment of federal encroachments. There seems to be little perceptible difference between a preemption and, say, a binding national standard, or an inadequately funded mandate, or a restrictive condition tied to federal aid that the states cannot do without. What continued to rankle many governors, mayors, and other proponents of local flexibility, in other words, was more or less the same range of devices with which federal powerbrokers have been commandeering local policies for decades. Deactivating the full range was, to put it mildly, a tall order.
A basic difficulty with this line of attack is that, although defenders of states' rights have alluded to "traditional" state prerogatives for more than two centuries, no one has been able to delineate what they are. Surely, federal displacement of state statutes in the realms of trade, financial services, and much more is anything but unprecedented. A national restriction on state taxation of electronic commerce may seem like an "unprecedented usurpation" but only because the Internet is new, not because disputes over state taxes are. At the crux of the fabled case of McCulloch v. Maryland, 181 years ago, was a state tax that the U.S. Supreme Court disallowed.
In the latter third of the nineteenth century and first third of the twentieth, the Supreme Court strove repeatedly to parse economic activities that Congress could constitutionally regulate and activities that would remain under the aegis of the states. The result was a welter of seemingly arbitrary distinctions: Federal laws governing the movement of lottery tickets, liquor, prostitutes, and harmful foods and drugs were upheld, while other basic functions—including manufacturing, insurance, and farming—were classified as intrastate commerce, hence left to state regulators. By the 1940s, however, the Court had changed its mind. Not only would farmers and manufacturers be subject to federal regulation of commerce but, in time, just about anybody else, whether the local janitor or window-washer, was too, if he happened to work for a company transacting business across state lines.
Amid this expanding centralism some inexplicable anomalies have persisted. Why, for example, are lawyers but not baseball players said to engage in interstate commerce, so that federal antitrust laws tag the former but not the latter? Why, according to the courts, may the Commerce Clause empower Congress to instruct the city of San Antonio how to pay its transit system operators but not to direct the local police to perform background checks on prospective gun purchasers? True, the courts recently have affirmed for state governments Tenth Amendment relief from federal directives for the disposal of radioactive waste and Eleventh Amendment immunity from certain lawsuits arising under federal labor laws. Yet the same guarantee of local latitude has not been extended for such matters as the administration of mental health facilities, intrastate sales of natural gas, or the tax-exempt status of municipal bonds.
If judicial rulings on dual sovereignty sometimes appear to lack consistency, the determinations of lawmakers and presidents can be downright fickle. The Republican majorities in the 104th Congress proclaimed a commitment to devolution. But soon the same Republican legislators preempted, among other duties of the states, the enforcement of child-support laws and the eligibility standards of legal aliens for public assistance. President Clinton, a former governor, came to office determined to rehabilitate state competencies in key areas. His blueprint in 1992 listed criminal justice as an area in which no expanded federal role was justified. A few years later, however, Clinton approved legislation federalizing numerous crimes that were previously the sole purview of local law-enforcement officials.
Regardless of whether these vagaries are intellectually defensible or ultimately capricious, this much is certain: They have provided few practical guidelines for determining where state sovereignty should give way to federal supremacy. Interpretations of the Tenth Amendment, in other words, have not drawn a distinct demarcation. Occasionally, politicians and judges have invoked that amendment to restrain the federal government from aggrandizing powers supposedly reserved to the states, but the constitutionality of the disputed aggrandizement has been decided not according to some clear organizing principle but mostly on an ad hoc basis. The phenomenon, therefore, is not easily critiqued on constitutional grounds. Albeit with exceptions, the courts, not to mention the other branches, have deemed thateven the strangest assertions of federal primary are permissible.
To suspect that a legalistic critique of federal preemptions was bound to fail, however, is hardly to imply that critics do not have much of a case. The practice of displacing state policies with federal ones, though sometimes quite justifiable, has arguably become so pervasive and often injudicious that the outcome is often, not surprisingly, inefficiency and public distrust.
At issue, again, is a variety of means by which the federal government dictates to the states what they must or must not do. The methods include policies that, technically, are grants-in-aid. In theory, states can decline to receive federal money, but in practice that option is mostly illusory, and federal stipulation of increasingly intricate grant conditions overrides or distorts local priorities. New federal strings are often attached after aid programs have been institutionalized; by then, powerful constituencies are so deeply invested in the programs, and so fiercely protective of them, that what started as a voluntary partnership with the states degenerates to federal arrogation. And typically, federal rules remain firmly in place even if congressional appropriations fall far short of authorizations. The local provision of special education for students with disabilities, for instance, is essentially governed by federal law, even though Congress has never appropriated anything near its authorized share of this $43 billion-a-year mandate.
These bait-and-switch dynamics aside, much of the nation's public agenda is simply too expensive for the states to administer on their own, so it is hard to imagine how they could forgo the promised federal contributions. No matter how many onerous obligations Congress affixes to it, could any state really refuse to accept federal support for Medicaid?
How many preemptive statutes, broadly speaking, has Congress enacted? The only authoritative answer to that question was supplied a number of years ago by the now-defunct U.S. Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (ACIR). The commission's compendium painted an astonishing picture. There were more preemptive laws passed between 1960 and 1969 than in any previous decade, but what happened during the 1960s pales in comparison with the explosion that followed. More preemptions were piled on after 1970 than in the entire preceding history of the Republic.
Interestingly, the Reagan and Bush administrations scarcely slowed this surge of coercive federalism. Despite their protestations against the Washington-knows-best mindset, the Republican presidents signed several pieces of legislation setting federal standards for matters that were once decided by the states. A number of these had virtually no intelligible rationale for turning a local concern into a federal preoccupation. Who should be allowed to consume alcoholic beverages, whether a local school needs to remove asbestos, what height and strength qualifications a local fire department chooses for its recruits, or how a community purifies its drinking water, for example, are hardly questions that demand national answers. Yet each became subject to national directives.
It strains credulity to suppose that the world suddenly became so utterly different after 1970 as to warrant what the ACIR documented: a doubling of the amount of centralization in American government. However, some fundamental changes did occur that necessitated broader federal intervention.
The rise of environmentalism was one. A substantial share of the intergovernmental strictures imposed in the past 30 years pertain to environmental protection. For some forms of pollution the abatement efforts of localities and states would not suffice, for the simple reason that much pollution crosses boundaries. Certainly, a forceful case could be made for national oversight of the Clean Air Act. Emissions of greenhouse gases and of sulfur dioxide are not local problems, Even local concentrations of ozone can blow across hundreds of miles, and one region's foul air can become another's impure water.
Second, the world economy has become much more integrated. National prosperity now rests more than ever on the ability of firms to compete in global markets, and on standardizing rules that might otherwise complicate the free flow of trade, foreign investment, and financial capital. In the United States, as in other major trading partners such as the European Union, it is no surprise that higher orders of government increasingly have moved to dismantle local impediments to negotiating international trade treaties, improving the competitive position of businesses, and streamlining financial markets. Globalization at least partly explains recent federal efforts to harmonize banking regulations and to challenge anticompetitive practices in some states—their decisions to harbor trade sanctions, for instance, and to countenance boundless tort litigation.
Alongside the accelerating liberalization of international commerce came advances in procompetitive regulatory reform of key U.S. industries. This process, too, has called for correcting some local eccentricities by imposing more uniformity. Restructuring the electricity industry offers a current example. Although state initiatives account for much of the progress that has been made to date, the complete deregulation of electric power may require federal legislation to ensure a successful outcome nationwide.
Finally, the breakneck pace of change in telecommunications and information technologies is also calling local variances into question. The cellular phone industry in Europe is ascendant because, among other considerations, the European Union promptly established a single Continent-wide technical standard. Meanwhile, wireless service in the United States has lagged in part because companies here have to navigate multiple systems. No doubt, this anachronism cannot last indefinitely. Similarly, another local convention—namely, excise taxation on almost any purchase of goods and services within the geographic jurisdictions of states—chafes against the borderless nature of online commerce and against the national, if not international, interest in encouraging its growth.
But along with solid justifications for federal rules to supersede the variations among states, there are also plenty of unconvincing reasons more rooted in bureaucratic rigidity or raw politics than in sober deliberation. For example, too many of the federal environmental programs that burgeoned after 1970 adopted a one-size-fits-all approach. Not every environmental problem has the transboundary properties of air pollution. For all but a handful of biological contaminants in drinking water, for instance, the dangers of high concentrations of toxins are borne only by residents. in the vicinity who might consume the polluted water for a lifetime.
Another notable share of the centrally dictated standards that have multiplied in the past three decades falls under the capacious category of civil rights. What began in the 1960s as a straightforward goal of ensuring equal opportunity for African Americans would later expand into a vast apparatus of federally mandated protections and preferences for multiple minorities, women, the elderly, the disabled, and so on. It is questionable whether all these groups merit the same compulsory remedies, and whether the remedies ought to be designed and decreed from the top down.
Mercifully, after pitched legal battles, the federal planners relented and lowered the costs. New York, with its old and extensive transit system, should never have been sidetracked from opting for cost-effective alternatives to the DOT's retrofit plans. The larger point here is that when top-heavy federal regulations indiscriminately narrow local options, they risk stifling local innovations and foreclosing solutions that fit local circumstances. The result can be enormously wasteful.
The same logic does not hold for the ascent of national authority over criminal law. Granted, the administration of criminal justice varies, sometimes peculiarly, among states. But the differences in how crime is policed by the states usually reflect diverse conditions and public preferences, not the clout of potent pressure groups in dogged pursuit of material gain for themselves. If anything, federal supervision of state law enforcement and correctional policies runs the risk of spawning such questionable stakeholders where none existed. For example, prodding the states to adopt stricter sentencing guidelines may sound like an unalloyed reform. But what if it impels some states to overspend on new prison construction, and entrenches a vested interest in mass incarcerations? At a minimum, if this federally induced growth industry expands at the expense of other local needs, or of local experimentation with better alternatives, it decidedly misallocates resources.
Also behind Justice Rehnquist's critique is serious doubt whether national institutions are prepared to cope with the added burden they appropriate. Hauling the federal judiciary into the adjudication of more and more local crimes taxes its limited resources and capabilities. In contrast to the overloaded central administrations of unitary regimes, a federal system attains efficiencies through a division of labor and the decentralization of routine tasks. This advantage of federalism will erode if Congress persists in preempting one state function after another.
In 1964, three-quarters of the American public said they trusted the federal governement to do the right thing most of the time. By 1998, barely over a quarter did. Confidence in state and local governments has also sagged, but far less. The number of Americans who said they preferred more concentration of power at the federal level than in the states plunged from 56 percent in 1936 to 26 percent by 1995. According to a survey reported in 1998 by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, 59 percent of respondents now viewed the federal government unfavorably, compared to 29 percent who held an unfavorable view of the states. The concept of returning more responsibilities to the states has gained popularity, even if it promises no net reduction in tax burdens. A 1995 poll asked, "Would you still favor shifting responsibility for programs from the federal government to the state governments if it meant your state taxes would increase to offset a decrease in your federal taxes?" Fully 76 percent said yes, only 16 percent said no. Of course, this support sometimes diminishes when "shifting responsibility" means devolving specific programs rather than discussing abstractions. Still, it seems clear that the public has become disenchanted with the intrusions of Washington in affairs formerly settled through selfgovernance.
During the past 35 years, Americans have largely tolerated a hyperactive federal government when its activism was wrapped in the mantle of civil rights. But even then, patience wore out as federal paternalists overreached. The national government did not endear itself to a majority of citizens by ordering numerous cities to bus thousands of schoolchildren, sometimes across vast distances, in the name of racial balance. Nor did Washington's social engineers earn the respect of most voters by insinuating that, as a condition of aid, state universities should practice reverse discrimination to achieve suitably "diverse" enrollments. Such distortions of a shared national value-equality of opportunity-offended common sense and hence provoked a backlash.
So did the presumption that federal judges should be the final arbiters of various other complex moral issues on which there was no consensus. Whatever one's views on legalized abortion, for instance, substantial segments of the public are understandably uncomfortable with an absolute, nationwide standard set by judicial fiat. On such highly charged, morally unsettled questions, many Americans would prefer a measure of community discretion, greater federal humility, and at a minimum, no Olympian edict from an unelected body invoking the "penumbras" of the Bill of Rights to decide matters of life and death.
The inordinately long arm of federal law in local civic life is more than clumsy; its intrusive reach may alienate, if not infantilize, significant parts of American society. Not unaware of this failure, why does the Washington political establishment have trouble desisting?
To solve this puzzle, it is useful to begin by recalling that since 1970 majorities of both parties in Congress have not hesitated to nationalize issues when it was to the advantage of their respective clienteles. During these decades, Republicans have repeatedly paid lip service to decentralization. Yet a recent systematic study of roll calls in the 98th through the 101st Congresses actually found the Republicans more prone than the Democrats to overrule state and local regulations.
One source of this proclivity, of course, has been the customary prominence of business regulatory issues on the GOP's agenda. Large companies tend to prefer comprehensive regulatory standards to a hodgepodge of local rules. How, for example, did bipartisan support for federal motor-vehicle safety and emissions controls coalesce? The automobile industry lobbied to preempt the states from setting disparate standards, some of which might be overly militant. Better to have one 500-pound gorilla in charge of regulating the industry, its lobbyists reckoned, than to deal with 50 monkeys on steroids.
Politicians of either party today also invoke "the law of the land" in more and more controversies because, contrary to Tip O'Neill's aphorism, their politics are no longer local. As links to local party organizations have weakened, the allegiances of congressmen have moved increasingly beyond strictly parochial concerns to the causes of national lobbies and advocacy groups. This delocalization of influence is reflected in the pattern of congressional campaign finance. Whereas candidates, particularly for House seats, once depended primarily on the backing of the local party hierarchy, the soaring costs of earnpaigns now compel office-seekers to rely more heavily on external sources. The winners of recent House elections have drawn upwards of 40 percent of their contributions from political action committees—that is, from the funding arms of national interest groups.
Further, the media contribute to the heightened national profile of every imaginable misfortune by depicting the events as "trends" worthy of prime-time attention. Members of Congress do not want to seem uncaring about the latest reported tragedy. Their response: Enact a law. This was how, for example, the Anti-Car Theft Act, "Megan's Law," and various other federal incursions into local law enforcement sailed through.
In addition, federal rules supplant local ones because policy debates in Washington are now framed increasingly in the terminology of rights. Emulating the civil rights movement of the 1960s, interests of all kinds have found it expedient to portray their claims as a quest for basic justice. Major environmental programs, for example, were said to secure everyone's "inherent right to the enjoyment of pure and uncontaminated air" or water. In the past few years, even irate airline passengers, truckers protesting fuel prices, and subscribers to healthmaintenance organizations have queued up to obtain not just relief but a "bill of rights." This style of redress implies national commands and controls. A right, after all, is not a mere aspiration that can be adjusted up or down according to local preferences; it is absolute and universalistic. There is, in other words, no such thing as a partial right; rights are all or nothing. And because these legal warrants, by definition, are not divisible, they cannot be allowed to vary by locale.
To be sure, a skeptic might consider much of the resulting standardization superfluous. By the time policy makers in Washington had begun introducing proposals to affirm a universal right to special education for preschool handicapped children, 42 states already had begun programs of this sort. Before Congress proclaimed that every student should be entitled to attend an asbestos-free school, at least 31 states had programs to inspect and abate the potentially hazardous substance. Proponents of central preemption, however, have been undeterred. By their logic, if so many states have already blazed a trail, national standards only complete what the states have started. Thus states are as likely to have their independence shorn when they are proactive and progressive as when they are laggards.
This is not to say that national preemption is always instigated inside the Beltway. Sometimes state officials agitate to have their powers trumped. In the fiercely litigious arena of environmental policy, for instance, state and local officials have sought cover under the blanket of federal tutelage. Invoking a coast-to-coast rule, even if a blunt instrument, is often safer than trying to defend nuanced exercises of local discretion.
Still, the centripetal force of Washington has largely maintained a momentum of its own. Contrary to what one might suppose, fiscal constraints over the past 20 years have scarcely shrunk the federal leviathan. Up to a point, its influence used to increase primarily with the growth of grants-in-aid. Once many state and local governments became, so to speak, federal aid junkies, they would be at the mercy of congressional benefactors and federal patron agencies that could attach to their dollars increasingly elaborate requirements. But the inexorable tightening of grant conditions was in some ways less coercive than the tendency of national policy makers to impose costly undertakings on local authorities without offering any compensation.
Budgetary deficits in the 1980s, followed by relatively austere discretionary spending in the 1990s, provided a pretext for this practice of mandating activities and shifting costs. The political incentives to prescribe or prohibit state functions in this fashion are formidable. National politicians could now continue to claim credit for their supposed good deeds but without incurring, to use Princeton political scientist R. Douglas Arnold's term, "traceable" blame for the tax increases required.
Finally, no explanation for the consolidation of federal power is more fundamental than the historic volte-face of the federal judiciary. For most of the nation's history, the courts kept federal hegemony in check. By 1937, however, the Supreme Court had mostly switched sides, and in 1941 it concluded that the Tenth Amendment was "but a truism" (United States v. Darby). Judicial conceptions of the Commerce Clause, among other muscular provisions of the Constitution, became so openended that almost any act of Congress could be justified under them. According to a 1996 Wall Street Journal article, a federal judge sustained the constitutionality of the Violence Against Women Act (a 1994 statute that effectively preempted state criminal codes in the case of crimes "motivated by gender") because the law was "a proper exercise of congressional power under the Commerce Clause." Interstate commerce, the judge thought, might suffer if victimized women experienced medical costs, diminished productivity, fear of traveling on business, and so forth. Last May, in United States v. Morrison, the Supreme Court finally signaled that this type of reasoning would not stand up forever. Even so, the pendulum of opinion is quite unlikely to swing back to where it was some 65 years ago.
This last point bears emphasizing. Even if conservative justices hold their slight edge for the foreseeable future (a big "if"), the Supreme Court's judgments on federal-state disputes will continue to be a mixed bag. The Court's detractors have been quick to assail it when it has defended the states, but they seldom mention that plenty of decisions have gone the opposite way. The same Court, after all, recently overturned state policies governing everything from child-visitation rights and oil-tanker safety training, to the sale of personal databases by motor-vehicle bureaus and the ability of car-accident victims to invoke state safety standards in lawsuits.
The statutory reforms Congress debated in 1999 were designed to roll back, or at least decelerate, the federal juggernaut by interposing procedural requirements that rule makers and legislators would have to fulfill before preemptive policies could take effect. Under the Thompson bill, rules promulgated by federal agencies or pieces of legislation clearing congressional committees would have required "impact assessments"—that is, reports on how the measures might affect intergovernmental relations. These were to be buttressed by independent evaluations from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), among other watchdogs. Any federal statute or rule effectively subordinating state and local laws would have had to enunciate its intent clearly or risk nullification by judicial review.
These sorts of suggestions had deep roots. Their inspirations could be traced to largely ineffectual executive orders in the 1980s and 1990s, to the critical work of the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations in 1984, 1988, and 1992, and even to the 1955 report of the Kestnbaum Commission (a body appointed by President Eisenhower to help define the proper parameters of federal and state jurisdictions). The only major departure the Thompson proposal made from these earlier projects was that it no longer relied on mere exhortation; state officials could now go to court to challenge federal laws that, among other things, failed to mention explicitly what state statutes were being preempted.
Lurking here was the possibility of considerable litigation, as the courts tried to determine whether legislative language was "explicit" enough, and so on. Opening yet another avenue for legal squabbles seemed like a dubious exercise, but it also might have served part of its intended purpose: to delay, if not deflect, at least some peremptory federal actions.
The additional reporting requirements probably would have further contributed to this result. This was not simply because more reporting would bury federal administrators in red tape. (They are already suffocating.) Rather, the formal disclosure of impacts on federal-state relations, especially when assessed by the CBO, occasionally might have disciplined a few members of Congress: Casually voting to strip power from the states might become more difficult when a vote's implications are transparent.
That said, to suppose that such palliatives, if they had been adopted, could truly stay the federal government's heavy hand is a stretch. The operative constitutional restraints on the federal presence have remained pretty weak. Surely, in the sweep of its jurisprudence since the late 1930s, the Supreme Court has maintained precious few limitations, notwithstanding a handful of closely decided recent verdicts that may restore some limits. Indeed, especially in the past three decades, federal court orders have themselves become a prime vehicle for national micromanagement of local government. Senator Thompson's reform scarcely addressed the towering issue of judicial activism.
Economic and technological changes will continue to furnish many reasonable arguments for replacing local with national, even international, standards. Whether the resulting regimentation is always commendable or not, powerful corporate lobbies will apply great pressure to secure it. Further, for this and other reasons, both parties in Congress remain receptive to centralist claims. There is not much basis for believing that all this will change. Multiple forces—including the role of the media and of contemporary campaign finance, to name but two—will continue to intensify the political temptations to nationalize, or preempt, public policy in the American federal system. At best, those temptations could only be tweaked, not suspended, by schemes such as a Federalism Accountability Act.


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Get in touch with professionals who understand what you're looking for: It helps to have a lead generation service work for you, especially if you want leads that will bring profit to your company. While internal marketing teams might be capable of doing this themselves, having a specific service help you do this will allow your own team to focus on improving your overall branding. Not to mention, these professionals will be able to focus on lead generation instead of other tasks.
Concentrate on getting yourself leads in line with your objectives: Hiring an external lead generation service will allow you to have a dedicated team focused solely on helping you get leads without reducing workflow. This team won't be interfering with other essential daily tasks your company has to do, which means they'll be geared towards using their resources to achieve your goals and not get interrupted.
Make the most of marketing automation and other tools you have: External lead generation services will likely bring with them their own marketing automation tools, which you can use in conjunction with your own. You can even consider using their after they've tried it out in your company. Tools such as HubSpot, Google AdWords, SERPs, Zapier, Moz, and even Facebook and LinkedIn can be quite the formidable resource provided you know how to use them. Lead generation services can demonstrate how these tools could help you achieve your goals.
Generate follow-up strategies and lead prioritization protocols: Having an internal team work on lead generation can remove their focus on creating better sales or marketing strategies. This is why a lead generation service can do a great deal when it comes to formulating a more intimate and precise follow-up and lead prioritization strategy suited for your needs. They're capable of helping you come up with a lead scoring strategy or other ways to assess your leads and determine which leads have to be focused on.
Shorten the steps in order to make sales: With your marketing team focused on other important aspects of your branding, having a lead generation service can save you both time and resources in the sales cycle. The lead system your lead generation service will be establishing can help you determine just parts of the sales cycle leads are entering and how you can tackle these properly.
Nowadays, there are a ton of lead generation services available at your disposal. What's perhaps both interesting and exciting is how you can actually combine these services together, be it through an in-house team or a third party, to generate better leads for optimum success. Lead generation shouldn't be a difficult process. It can in fact be an exciting endeavor for you to tackle to bring your business into new heights.
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SOME HISTORY ABOUT "TIME FOR THE BIBLE"
Time for the Bible was founded by Art McDonald in 1959. Mr. McDonald received the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour, in March of 1954.
He entered Bible School in January, 1955 and was called to pastor a Baptist Church the next year. He was ordained by the denomination in 1957.
After becoming a Christian, Mr. McDonald had a desire to spread the Word of God to others and started searching for the most effective method to "sow the seed of the Word of God." It soon became obvious to him that the printed page was the answer. Moreover, in keeping with the doctrine of grace, he felt that these materials must be made available at no cost, to all who requested them.
The first challenge was to find the most efficient way to do the printing. It seemed that the most logical thing to do was to open a printing company. But not knowing anything about the printing business made this a seemingly difficult task. However, it was at that time God sent a family into Mr. McDonald's life, John and Barbara Gregory. John had recently moved to Oregon and was experienced in many areas of the printing. If one doubts that God sent him at this time, please find a better reason for a family to leave Florida, and move to Portland, Oregon, other than the Lord's directing? Enough said. John took the time, and exercised much patience to share his knowledge and professional expertise, not only in the printing, but he was also instrumental in laying the foundation for the radio ministry.
John's faithfulness in teaching Mr. McDonald the printing business enabled him, not only to offer the printed page without cost, but provided a way to support his family.
After preparing and printing the messages, he then needed an avenue to make them available to the people. The logical answer was radio. The printing business had provided enough profit to help support a radio broadcast, but a second challenge was then faced. Mr. McDonald had no expertise in that area. His only experience came from performing with his guitar on a March of Dimes program, many years before.
Again God provided the right man, in the right place, at the right time. Don Fults, a man with much experience in radio ministry, came into his life. He guided Mr. McDonald through the purchasing of necessary equipment and gave instruction on how to put a radio program together. That original tape of the first radio broadcast is still in the archives of Time for the Bible.
In 1973 his daughters, Sandra and Marilyn joined the "Time for the Bible" ministry, providing music for the radio broadcast.
In August, 2000, his son, John, suggested that we put the lessons on the Web. He designed the Web site and took the responsibility of placing all of the lessons given on "Time for the Bible" Radio programs on the Internet. John, his wife Mindy (and daughter, Sarah,) became a vital part of "Time for the Bible," making it possible for the ministry to become a world-wide outreach. People have down loaded the messages in places never dreamed possible. This would have been beyond the wildest dream of the ministry team in 1959!
So at the close of each broadcast the words "Speaking on behalf of the entire team of "Time for the Bible," include many people. In addition to those mentioned, some behind-the-scenes folks include Forest Downie, the man first responsible for teaching and discipling Mr. McDonald in the Word of God, and Harold and Goldie Stoddard, fellow Bible School students who have been a tremendous source of help and encouragement down through the years. And the many others who have stood by this ministry providing prayer and support, without whose help the task would have been most difficult, if not impossible. Thanks again for all the help and encouragement given to an old country farm boy from the sand hills of West Texas.
Let us add, we have no doctrinal axe to grind, no denominational fences to build, no theological hairs to split, and no political fields to plow. Our desire is to teach the Word of God without fear or compromise.
10. The premillennial return of Christ.


After that, we motored our way to Spanish Town to have lunch and clear customs where we had some troubles, but we were able to get it sorted out. We spent time ashore, then got back on the boat to go to the bay just outside of Spanish Town to have an early dinner and take showers in the warm waters of the Caribbean. Now we are all getting ready for our night sail from Virgin Gorda to Statia. I am excited about this night sail because I have never done one, but also a bit nervous. Next entry will be from Statia where we are all hoping to go diving.


Use MySQL Information Schema carefully!
While working on a procedure which was running on dynamically created data table to derive one complex number, I observed one strange problem where MySQL was continuously eating memory and in spite of 35GB RAM, it was running out of memory after few hours.
After debugging the algorithm, it is found that we were querying on information_schema.columns to get the column name for each calculation and after 10,000 queries, it MySQL would start crawling and we had to restart it to release the memory. The issue is fixed by adding one static table containing column names which would be populated each time the data table got created dynamically.
But then it is interesting to observe this behavior of system table which uses the cache but does not close it fast! In fact one can optimize the usage of information schema referring MySQL official manual.


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2016, a year of travel in review
December 31, 2016 / lapoubelle1969	/ 1 Comment
Reviewing 2016 is a bitter-sweet thing. There's much that could (and has) been said about the last twelve months, but this is a travel blog and I'll steer clear of geopolitics. I think of travel as a positive force, promoting understanding of places and cultures, and bringing people closer together. If 2017 is anything like its predecessor, promoting understanding is going to be important.
Viva la revolución, celebrating New Year in Cuba
Seeing Cuba before the death of Fidel Castro seemed to be the reason so many European's were visiting Cuba at the start of 2016. That fear has now come true, with the world's most famous politician bowing out in November. Cuba was a lot of fun, its people warm and friendly, what awaits them in an uncertain future remains to be seen.
Cigar rolling, Robaina cigar plantation, Pinar del Rio, Cuba
Hasta la Victoria, Siempre!, Havana, Cuba
Classic American car, Cuba
Playa los Cocos and La Boca, Cayo Santa Lucia, Cuba
Colonial quinceanera, Trinidad, Cuba
Views over Trinidad, Cuba
Ploughing, Valle de Silencio, Vinales
Discovering Dutch castles
The Netherlands is not short on history, and historic towns with perfectly preserved medieval centres are seemingly everywhere. Castles, though, seem in short supply. I guess that's down to a landscape without hills to build castles upon. Look hard enough though, and you can find a few beautiful castles dotted around the countryside.
Kasteel de Haar, Netherlands
Cycling the River Vecht, Slot Zuylen, Netherlands
Muiderslot castle, Netherlands
Dutch medieval castle, Slot Loevestein, Netherlands
Rome, a long weekend in the Eternal City
The Eternal City has over 3,000 years of human history and, as you walk the bustling and fascinating streets, much of it is on display. Attractions like the Vatican and Colosseum are 'must sees', but for my money this incredible city is best discovered by just wandering its neighbourhoods and eating the food.
Teatro Marcello, Jewish district, Rome, Italy
Altare della Patria, Rome, Italy
Isola Tiberina, with Ponte Rotto or Broken Bridge in foreground, Rome, Italy
Piazza Navona, Rome, Italy
Piazza Navona, Rome Italy
Châteaux of the Loire Valley, France
The towns of Orleans and Tours are reason enough to visit this fantastically beautiful region of France, but surreal, fairytale châteaux are the main reason people make the journey here. In the early morning light, the Château de Chenonceau is unmissable, but the history and stunning views of the Château de Chinon are even more impressive.
Château de Chinon, Loire Valley, France
Joan of Arc projection, Cathédrale Sainte-Croix d'Orléans, Orléans, France
Chinon, Loire Valley, France
Cathedral of Saint Gatien, Tours, France
Hôtel de Ville, Orléans, France
Statue of Joan of Arc, Place du Martroi, Orléans, France
Château de Chenonceau, Loire Valley, France
Back on the streets of Bangkok, Thailand
Squeezing in a couple of days to explore the sights, sounds and smells of Bangkok's fascinating streets at the end of a working trip, brought me face-to-face with Khlong Toei, a food market with the power to amaze and churn your stomach simultaneously. Add a trip to Thonburi and a visit to some temples, and a weekend passes quickly.
Wat Bowonniwet Vihara, Bangkok, Thailand
Talin Chan Floating Market, Bangkok, Thailand
Restaurant in Khao San area of Bangkok, Thailand
Khlong Toei wet market, Bangkok, Thailand
Food market, Bangkok, Thailand
Canals in the Thonburi area of Bangkok, Thailand
The wonderful world of Hieronymus Bosch, Netherlands
The work of medieval Dutch artist, Hieronymus Bosch, is strange and sublime in equal measure. To mark the 500th year since his death, the small museum in his home town of 's-Hertogenbosch managed to bring most of his surviving works together for a blockbuster exhibition, and created a wonderful Bosch trail around the town.
Hieronymus Bosch trail, Den Bosch, Netherlands
Sculptures from Hieronymus Bosch paintings, Den Bosch, Netherlands
Learning the méthode champenoise in Champagne
To truly understand the méthode champenoise you have to go underground into the the hundreds of kilometres of Épernay's champagne houses. To fully understand where the fizzy stuff comes from, you have to explore the champagne routes that weave their way through the beautiful countryside between Reims and Troyes.
Heart-shaped sculpture, Troyes, Champagne, France
Champagne, Épernay, France
Marne Valley Champagne Route, Champagne, France
Cellars at Moët & Chandon, Epernay, France
Mesnil-sur-Oger, Côte des Blancs Champagne Route, France
Vines, Hautvillers, Champagne, France
48 hours in Seoul, Korea
Exploring Seoul could take a lifetime. A visit to the Love Museum made me realise that understanding Korean culture could take several more. Seoul is a pulsating and friendly city that, from the moment you arrive to the moment you leave, seems to hold you in its grip. Explore ancient palaces by day and modern nightlife districts by night.
Nightlife in Jongno, Seoul, Korea
Trickeye Love Museum, Seoul, Korea
Noryangjin Fish Market, Seoul, Korea
Changdeokgung Palace, Seoul, Korea
Bruges, the Venice of the North
A well-preserved medieval centre, beautiful canals and magnificent churches, makes Bruges just about as picturesque as it's possible to get in Europe. It also happens to be home to some good museums and is the epicentre of Belgian beer culture. With over two million visitors annually, try to come outside the main tourist season.
Canals and bridges and cobbled streets, Bruges, Belgium
Belfort at night, Markt, Bruges, Belgium
Medieval buildings and canals, Bruges, Belgium
Oude Civiele Griffie, Burg, Bruges, Belgium
Brisbane, Australia's new world city
Brisbane came as a complete surprise. I arrived for a conference thinking I wouldn't like it, and left thinking I might want to live there. The picturesque river front has an urban beach and a fun atmosphere, there are bohemian areas with microbreweries and great restaurants, and weather that cultivates a vibrant outdoor culture.
The Brisbane River at night, Brisbane, Australia
Southbank, Brisbane, Australia
The Brisbane River, Brisbane, Australia
Street art, Brisbane, Australia
Spending a night on Whitehaven Beach, Australia
Whitehaven Beach, on Whitsunday Island in the middle of the Great barrier Reef, is perhaps the most exquisite strip of white sand anywhere in the world. The near-pure silica of the sand is matched only by the brilliant aquamarine blue of the water and a beautiful location amidst 73 other islands.
Whitehaven Beach, Whitsunday Islands, Australia
Exploring Granada's fascinating Moorish history
Spain's Andalusia region is filled with extraordinary historic towns and villages, but few can rival the sheer majesty of Granada and the former stronghold of Moorish Spain, the Alhambra. Throw in a beautiful old town filled with maze-like streets, and a tapas culture second to none, and Granada is a place to top any bucket list.
Granada, Andalusia, Spain
12 things to know about Cuba
March 17, 2016 June 25, 2016 / lapoubelle1969	/ 2 Comments
Cuba is one of the hottest travel destinations in the world right now. Its strangely alluring Communist chic, all that is left of an ideology that once vied to be the dominant force of the 20th Century. The "see it before it changes" rush is in full flow and the tourist infrastructure is barely able to keep pace. Ironically, all those people visiting before the US embargo ends are speeding up the pace of change.
I don't think a month in Cuba makes me an expert but, bearing in mind the changes taking place, what would I tell someone who's planning to visit this fascinating country?
1. Cuba, Last Chance to See. Judging by the number of tourists (over 3 million last year), and the businesses and property developers tripping over each other to get their hands on property and land, Cuba's isolated existence is ending with a bang. What happens next is anyone's guess, but change is likely to be rapid, widespread and leave plenty of casualties in its wake. Like any endangered species, this is your Last Chance to See the real Cuba. Whatever that means.
2. Cuba is full of tourists. They should have a sign at Havana airport that reads: Cuba Is Full. At least that's how it felt over Xmas and New Year. Our casa owner in Havana said that, on New Year's Eve, a young Brit arrived on his doorstep in tears. He'd spent hours walking the streets looking for somewhere to stay. He was offered the sofa. The tourist juggernaut is unlikely to end any time soon, so plan ahead.
3. Tipping is a lifeline for many people. Most Cubans are on government salaries, and the Cuban government pays lousy wages. A speech therapist we talked to earned $30 per month. He couldn't support his family so he quit to become a taxi driver earning more than that in a day driving tourists. That's the reality for most Cubans. Tipping is not just a way of showing your appreciation, it's a vital source of income.
Playing chess, Havana Vieja, Cuba
4. Sex tourism is thriving in Havana. The Soviet Union's fall in 1991 destroyed Cuba's economy, plunging many into poverty. The US embargo has kept Cubans in poverty. This has affected all areas of life, including efforts to end the sex trade. You don't have to look far to spot sex tourists, visiting to exploit the steady stream of women and girls trying to support themselves and their families. It happens most places, but that doesn't make the exploitation of poverty any less depressing.
Musicians, Trinidad, Cuba
5. Where's the wildlife? Cuba has some of the most extraordinary marine ecosystems in the world, but on land things are very different. When a 4-kilogram tree rat counts as your largest wild land mammal things have reached a pretty low point. I was hoping for monkeys, sloths and other creatures we'd seen in Central America, but everything has been driven to 'extinction'.
Havana Vieja, Cuba
6. Stay in Casas Particulares. Cuba's gap in accommodation is being plugged by entrepreneurial home owners who rent out rooms. This is the best way to get a feel for Cuban life and also puts $s into the hands of people who need them. Our stay was greatly enriched by meeting the families of the casas where we stayed. They're great sources of local knowledge, will book a room in your next destination and organise transport.
7. Eat in your Casa Particular. Food in Cuba is far better than we'd been led to believe, and without a doubt the best food we had was in casas particulares. Who can argue with fresh lobster, fish, shrimp, chicken or pork accompanied by rice, beans, plantain, salad, bread, soup and fruit for €10? Just remember to take your own spicy sauce, it's almost impossible to find.
8. Take a mosquito net. I hate mosquitos. I'm sure they play an important role in some ecosystem or other, but I for one wouldn't be unhappy to see the end of them. There are very few mosquito-borne diseases in Cuba, but that doesn't mean they don't have mosquitos. Not a single place we stayed had nets, so if you don't like being bitten take your own. Insecticide sprays are non-existent.
Playa Santa Lucia, Cuba
9. Transport. Invention being the offspring of necessity, Cuba has some of the most inventive forms of transport known to humankind. My advice is to use whatever's available. Bullock cart anyone? Cuba also has the ViaAzul bus. Cheap and reliable, you'll be hostage to the whims of the driver. Expect stops to buy cheese, pick up friends and chat with relatives. Taxis are affordable and don't stop to discuss the price of chickens.
10. Jineteros aren't so bad. Jineteros, a Cuban word for hustlers, seemed to be everywhere in Havana Vieja. We spent an afternoon in Bar Bilbao on Calle O'Reilly, watching a constant stream of jineteros trying to get tourists into the bar so they could 'befriend' them and remove some of their excess cash. It's annoying, but rarely threatening. In the end, people are just trying to make a living in difficult circumstances. Elsewhere in Cuba we hardly came across any hard sell.
11. Cubans like a drink. When in Rome go to a bunga bunga party. When in Cuba drink rum. There are other kinds of alcohol but rum is ubiquitous and very cheap. What else is there to do with all that sugar cane? Havana Club is common, but at New Year the drink of choice seemed to be Ron Mulata. At less than €1 for a bottle it would be impolite to say 'no'. Not many people did. Also try Ron Cubay and Ron Santiago De Cuba.
Man walking pig, Trinidad, Cuba
12. Manage expectations. Cuba is like nowhere else. It's a country that comes with a weight of expectation that can weigh a visitor down. It's also a country going through a seismic shift. Accept things won't always go smoothly. The casa room you booked will have been given away. When you order a cheese and ham sandwich expect to eat the set lunch because there's no cheese, ham or bread (it happened). Do as Cubans do, drink rum and get on with it.
Camaguey, Cuba
A farewell to Havana, Cuba
March 15, 2016 June 25, 2016 / lapoubelle1969	/ Leave a comment
You could spend weeks in Havana and still not find the time to see or experience half of it. It's easy to understand why people come to Cuba just to visit the city. It's a place that imposes a lazy pace of life on you whether you like it or not. Best to embrace the rhythm of the city, have that 10am glass of rum with your casa owner and see where the day takes you.
Cuban flag, Museo de la Revolucion, Havana, Cuba
We had three days in Havana when we first arrived and quickly realised that we'd want to have more time in Cuba's greatest city. Coming back for another couple of days at the end of our trip a different Havana greeted us. Thanks to its economic isolation, most of Cuba is very sleepy and Havana suddenly felt like a big, bustling city.
Most of our time in Havana was spent wandering the streets, popping into cafes and bars to cool down and listen to music, trying to get a feel for the city. We were staying in a casa particular just behind the Malecon, Havana's iconic waterfront, in the Havana Centro area of the city. A perfect location for exploration.
Havana Vieja, Havana, Cuba
Havana Centro, Havana, Cuba
Havana Centro is yet to feel much benefit from the tourist boom or government investment. It's a dilapidated area of crumbling buildings, piles of rubbish grace street corners and the smell of broken sewers fills the air. Yet it's the most fascinating area of Havana we visited. The busy compact streets are full of life, day and night. It's a more authentic, less glamorous version of Havana Vieja.
Built in the late 18th and early 19th Centuries to accommodate the city's growing population, Havana Centro is separated from Havana Vieja by the glorious Prado, or the Paseo de Marti to give it its official name. This was one of our favourite streets, home to ever-changing scenes of daily life overshadowed by beautiful buildings.
Prado, Havana, Cuba
You can walk from the waterfront all the way up the Prado to the Capitolio Nacional. Styled on Washington DC's Capitol, it was built slightly larger just to make a point. It sits next to the meringue-like Gran Teatro de Havana, and is close to Parque Central where a clutch of high-end hotels offer wifi, good drinks and live music. The terrace of the Hotel Inglaterra was the obvious choice for a piña colada and people-watching.
Plaza de la Revolucion, Havana, Cuba
Parque Central, Havana, Cuba
Gran Teatro, Havana, Cuba
Behind the Capitol is a part of Havana Centro mostly ignored by foreigners. We strolled for hours, finally giving in to the heat and taking a bicycle taxi to the weirdly sterile Plaza de la Revolución. After the cramped streets of Havana Centro this vast open space feels like you've entered a different universe, almost like it doesn't belong to Havana.
This is the seat of the Cuban Government and home to the Communist Party. It's also where Fidel Castro addressed up to a million people on important dates associated with the Revolution. There isn't a scrap of shade and Castro would bore the pants off people for hours on end. My idea of hell. More recently, Pope Francis addressed a huge crowd here. Also my idea of hell, but a sign of changing times.
The Plaza de la Revolución is instantly recognisable by the large steel memorials to Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos. Cienfuegos, The Hero of Yaguajay, is less well-known than Che Guevara (have you ever seen a t-shirt with Cienfuegos on it?), but he played a key role in defeating Batista's government. He died in 1959 shortly after the triumph of the Revolution.
Malecon at sunset, Havana, Cuba
The plaza is a sort of No Man's Land dislocated from the rest of the city. As we pondered our options a Coco Taxi pulled up, the urge to take a ride in Havana's most absurd form of transport was irresistable. Coco Taxis have a less than enviable safety record, but they are a lot of fun. We whizzed down to the Malecon and then walked all the way back to Havana Centro as the sun set. It was a fabulous 'goodbye' to Cuba.
Cars, cars, cars…a Cuban icon
March 13, 2016 June 25, 2016 / lapoubelle1969	/ 27 Comments
Think Cuba, chances are cigars and cars will come to mind. It might be cliché, but both are true. Cuba's been called a 'Jurassic Park for cars', and there's truth in that. Classic American cars grace every piece of tourist literature and travel story about Cuba, but I didn't actually believe there'd be so many 1950s, 60s and 70s cars driving around. They are everywhere and in all sorts of conditions.
In Havana, some of the best preserved and renovated cars chauffeur tourists along the Malecón and into Havana Vieja. Elsewhere in Havana, and every other town in Cuba, there are old American cars that have been patched up, rebuilt and fitted with specially adapted Lada engines imported from Russia. I doubt there's a classic car left that isn't made up of several different cars.
Classic American car, Havana, Cuba
We ended up taking classic cars on several different trips. You get a little thrill every time you step inside one, but it would be hard to describe the majority of these workhorses as comfortable. Most have mismatched seats long bereft of functional springs, windows that don't work and little in the way of suspension. It's not unusual to see them by the side of the road awaiting repair.
Five hours squeezed with two other people into the front seat of a 1970s Dodge was enough to convince me to never do it again.
In a country where cars and car ownership are rare, people take great pride in their vehicles, and have used enormous ingenuity to keep them on the road. In many ways, they're an ironic yet iconic symbol of Cuba's defiance in the face of hostility from the United States.
Given the difficulty of buying new parts, it's a miracle that so many cars continue to be roadworthy. A casa owner we stayed with said he'd travelled 80km to a small town to find spare parts for his car engine; when he got there he wasn't able to strike a deal with the owner and went away empty-handed. A daily occurrence in Cuba.
For sentimental reasons we were looking for a 1958 Studebaker. Try as we might though, we couldn't find one anywhere. We searched and asked wherever we went, but although we found Fords, Chevrolets, Buicks and Dodges from the 1950s, and American 'muscle cars' from the 1960s and 70s, a 1958 Studebaker wasn't to be found anywhere on the island.
Amidst the many classic American cars, Ladas, motorbikes, cycles and various horse-drawn transport, we did see a handful of Japanese, Korean, French and German cars, none especially new. Once the US embargo ends they'll be more cars, lots more, clogging up Cuba's highways.
Most of all there'll be a new batch of American cars on the streets. In another one of those ironies in which Cuba seems to specialise, it's likely that Cuba's classic American cars will be heading the other way, back to the United States as vintage collectables.
Santa Clara and the making of the myth of Che Guevara
Santa Clara is awash with revolutionary sights and folklore. It was here, following a three-day battle, that the Cuban Revolution went from being a guerrilla movement to becoming Cuba's government. For the last 57 years, the town has been the lodestone of the revolution; and, for all that time, it has nurtured the myth of Che Guevara as idealist turned military genius.
Memorial at Che Guevara's mausoleum, Santa Clara, Cuba
If the memorial to Che's most famous role in the conflict is anything to go by, military genius means bulldozing a railway line to derail a train. True, the train was filled with heavily armed government troops who had been sent from Havana to crush the revolution; also true, the odds of the ragtag band of revolutionaries winning the battle were pretty remote.
On paper the attack on Santa Clara should have only ended one way: a resounding victory for the government.
The bulldozer Che Guevara used to derail the train, Santa Clara, Cuba
Revolutionary memorial of the train Che Guevara derailed, Santa Clara, Cuba
The nearby railway line to the derailment, Santa Clara, Cuba
The forces commanded by Guevara numbered no more than 300 men. Government troops in the city numbered around 2,500, and an armoured train had been dispatched with 400 reinforcements and lots of supplies. It should have been a bloodbath for the rebels. Instead, on the second day of the battle, the train was derailed and attacked with Molotov cocktails.
The majority of the soldiers on the train quickly surrendered and Guevara's troops found themselves in possession of lots of new weaponry. The ease with which the train was captured led Batista to claim the officers had done a deal with Guevara. If true, this would undermine the foundation upon which the Che myth is based.
Che t-shirt anyone? Guevara memorabilia, Santa Clara, Cuba
The fighting continued inside the city – bullet holes still pockmark the Hotel Santa Clara Libre where snipers were positioned on the roof. Stiff resistance came from police headquarters, but once that fell to Guevara the town was his. It was New Year's Eve 1958, and when Batista heard that Santa Clara had fallen he fled the country.
The next morning the nearby army garrison surrendered. Santa Clara, and Cuba, was now under the control of Fidel Castro's revolutionary forces. Che Guevara moved on to Havana which was 'liberated' two days later.
Wall painting of Che Guevara, Cuba
Celebrating the Cuban Revolution, Santa Clara, Cuba
Scary statue of Che Guevara, Santa Clara, Cuba
Hotel Santa Clara Libre still with bullet holes from the battle, Santa Clara, Cuba
Paintings of Che Guevara, Cuba
Guevara, his place in the revolution assured, led the round-up, trial and execution of many Batista regime loyalists. The trials, which almost always ended in a death sentence, have left a bloody stain on Guevara's legacy. He went on to take up high positions in the Castro government, but his relationship with Fidel and others was already deteriorating.
In 1965 he was dispatched to Congo to foment revolution in post-colonial Africa. The whole sorry affair was a complete disaster. Frustrated by failure, Guevara's Cuban troops were almost wiped out by a force of South African mercenaries. Tail between his legs, he returned to Cuba and shortly afterwards found himself in Bolivia trying to overthrow the government.
This too was a total disaster. He and his Cuban followers quickly found themselves in an impossible position. Quite where the idea of him being a military genius comes from is a mystery. It was here in the poorest country in Latin America that Guevara was captured, executed and buried in an unmarked grave. His remains were found in Vallegrande in 1995 and repatriated to Cuba in 1997.
To celebrate this, and to perpetuate the myth of Guevara, a mausoleum and memorial were constructed in Santa Clara. The monument is topped with a giant bronze statue. Underneath is a museum (no bags, phones or cameras allowed) that essentially deifies Guevara, communist-style. Stalin would have been proud.
Che Guevara number plates, Cuba
Che Guevara versus Assassins Creed, Santa Clara, Cuba
Guevara's cult-like status is everywhere in Cuba, but its epicentre is in Santa Clara. Fifty years after his death, he is still one of the most recognisable people in the world, and still revered by many. Yet, it's fair to ask whether the myth flatters to deceive? After all, Alberto Korda's famous photo hides a grim reality: he was a ruthless and unbending ideologue, capable of torture and murder. Is that really suitable for a t-shirt?
Viva La Revolución! Celebrating victory in Santa Clara
March 9, 2016 June 25, 2016 / lapoubelle1969	/ Leave a comment
Santa Clara holds a special place in the mythology of the Cuban Revolution. It was here at the end of December 1958 that two columns of Fidel Castro's revolutionaries – one commanded by Che Guevara, the other by Camilo Cienfuegos – fought what would prove to be the final and decisive battle of the Cuban Revolution. It also cemented Guevara's reputation as a guerrilla leader and military strategist.
The swift defeat of government forces in Santa Clara convinced President Batista that the war was lost. He fled Cuba for the Dominican Republic less than twelve hours after the city had capitulated. It was 1st January 1959, and within two days the city of Cienfuegos had fallen and Castro's forces entered Havana without a shot being fired.
Celebrating the Revolution in Santa Clara, Cuba
While this was happening, Fidel Castro was far away in the south attacking Santiago de Cuba. Once it was confirmed that Batista had fled and his government had fallen, Santiago capitulated and Castro was able to undertake a 'victory parade', driving in a convoy through Cuba to reach Havana.
Castro's victory parade is celebrated each year by a reenactment that leaves Santiago and visits numerous places en route to Havana. We weren't aware of it before we arrived, but this revolutionary travelling circus was scheduled to descend upon Santa Clara the morning after we arrived.
We'd arrived late in the evening after taking the ViaAzul bus from Playa Santa Lucia. This itself was a stroke of luck. This bus service wasn't listed in any guidebooks and, again, we had Rafael, our casa owner from Camaguey, to thank for providing us with the information. The bus left at 11am and arrived in Santa Clara a gruelling ten hours later. I was very happy we weren't going all the way to Havana.
A taxi whisked us through pouring rain from the bus station to our casa close to Santa Clara's main square, Parque Vidal. Tired and hungry, we were glad we'd asked if we could have dinner at the casa. The food was excellent and, after some beer had been found, we chatted with our young hosts and then headed to bed for an early night.
The next day the rain had been replaced by sunshine and we headed out to explore Santa Clara proper. Our first port of call was Parque Vidal, where the peculiar sight of throngs of schoolchildren were noisily gathering. We asked a teacher what was going on, and found out about the imminent arrival of the reenactment of Fidel Castro's victory parade.
We didn't have long to wait, soon a police car entered the square with its lights flashing, next came several army vehicles and trucks filled with banner waving school children and soldiers. They drove three times around the square, horns blaring and the small crowd cheering. It was fascinating but, to be honest, a bit underwhelming.
Santa Clara, Cuba
If the only people who show up for one of the most important days in the revolutionary calendar are school children, a few adults and a handful of tourists, the revolution's in trouble. The whole thing had the feeling of being antiquated even though the Castro government is still in power. Give it a year or two and, I suspect, there won't be a parade anymore. Certainly not one with actual veterans.
After all that excitement we went for a walk around the town to see what else Santa Clara had to offer. While it lacks the charm of other cities we visited, and was definitely less clean than most, the streets had more life and energy. All of which is probably thanks to the large number of university students that live in the city.
We strolled the streets for a while, and then headed off to visit two memorials to the revolution that are also dedicated to its most famous son, Che Guevara…
Playa los Cocos, a Cuban idyll
March 7, 2016 June 25, 2016 / lapoubelle1969	/ 6 Comments
Imagine a golden crescent of sand, sparkling azure waters and a brightly painted Cuban village nestling amidst palm trees on the edge of the ocean. Throw in a couple of thatched-roofed beach bars and a scattering of people lounging on the sand, and you will be imagining what Playa los Cocos and the village of La Boca looks like. A Cuban paradise by the sea.
Rafael, our charming and resourceful casa owner in Camaguey, had told us not to leave Cayo Santa Lucia without spending at least one day at Playa los Cocos; and not to leave Playa los Cocos before we'd drunk rum and eaten grilled fish caught by the villagers of La Boca on the beach. It seemed like a challenge of which we were capable.
La Boca and Playa los Cocos stand at the top of Cayo Santa Lucia, about 10km away from the hotel resorts on Playa Santa Lucia. Even though the development on Playa Santa Lucia is pretty low key (especially compared to other Cuban resorts), the contrast with Playa los Cocos couldn't be more pronounced.
Two wooden shacks serving food and drinks are the only buildings on the beach, beyond this there is no tourist development whatsoever. Only a potholed dirt road connects Playa los Cocos to the rest of the world. I imagine that will change in coming years, but hopefully the salt flats behind the beach, where dozens of flamingos live, might prevent the developers from destroying this atmospheric spot.
We took a taxi to the beach early in the morning, and arranged for the driver to collect us later. When we arrived there was nobody around, so we strolled along the beach away from the village. The shore quickly became rocky, but we found a small beach amidst the rocks that we claimed as our own for a couple of hours. No people, and only the sound of the wind and sea for company. Blissful.
Eventually we were joined by a Cuban couple and their young daughter. Hunger was getting the better of us, so we shuffled off back to the main beach to see if the bars had opened. They had and a couple of dozen people, Cubans and tourists, had arrived on the beach. We had a delicious lunch of fish and prawns washed down with cold beer at the El Bucanero restaurant, and then hired a couple of loungers for the rest of the day.
I'm not very good at sitting on the beach, so after a while I took off to go and explore the village of La Boca and the coast further around the headland. The village is small, dirt roads and weather-beaten wooden houses give it a ramshackle and careworn feeling. People are friendly though, and I was invited into one house by a man who was keen to show me a whalebone from a whale that had washed ashore.
Walking further down the deserted coast was fantastic. A sailing boat passed close to the coast, some fishermen floated in inflated tire inner tubes, and a few seabirds wheeled overhead. I took swim from a small patch of sand and bobbed around for a while before heading back to the main beach. It was idyllic.
Beach time on Playa Santa Lucia
We were beginning to despair of finding a patch of golden sand, for which Cuba is rightly famous, to call our own. We'd planned to go to the beach near Cienfuegos, and again near Trinidad, but there were so many tourists in Cuba that we literally couldn't find anywhere to stay. We'd been travelling for three weeks and had spent one day at the beach. Something had gone badly wrong.
We were bemoaning our fate to Rafael, our casa owner in Camaguey, and he decided to take matters into his own hands. This is typical of Cuban hospitality. It took a day and numerous phone calls, but when we came back one afternoon he triumphantly declared success. He'd found a place for us to stay at the Playa Santa Lucia.
Cayo Santa Lucia, Playa Santa Lucia, Cuba
There are two sides to Playa Santa Lucia: one, with all-inclusive resort hotels that were last in fashion when the Soviets were still exporting Ladas to Cuba; the other, south of the 'strip' with a few houses, bars and tiendas scattered amongst palm trees. It was here, amongst the palms, that Rafael found a motel for us. It had a swimming pool, an al fresco bar and restaurant, and was a short walk to the beach. It cost €30 per night.
It was clear from the moment we set foot on the beach that we were staying in a Cuban area. It was the weekend and families were eating, drinking and swimming on this southerly stretch of beach with no facilities beyond some thatched umbrellas. A lot of rum was being consumed and a lot of fun was being had. The water was crystal clear and sublimely warm. We dived in and realised what we'd been missing.
Relaxing in the warm azure waters, it felt like we were washing off the dust of the many Cuban towns we'd visited and the many kilometres of road we'd travelled. It was glorious. The beach here stretches for 20km and we walked towards the resort hotels through the surf, watching fishermen at work in the shallows.
It was clear when we left the public beach and entered the resort beachfront. Suddenly there were people wearing wristbands, and people checking them, loungers by the dozen and Canadian English replaced Cuban Spanish as the lingua franca. We were searching for lunch but none of the hotels took our fancy. Instead, we found a small restaurant just off the beach and ordered up some cold beers and grilled fish.
After a long lunch we wandered further along the beach before retracing our steps along several kilometres of beach towards our motel. Passing the strip of resort hotels, we stumbled upon a wedding on the beach, which was drawing a crowd of unofficial onlookers. As we stood there the groom took the microphone and burst into song at the altar. They do weddings differently in Cuba.
As we walked, dark forbidding clouds started to gather and for a moment it looked like we might get caught in a thunderstorm. Luckily the rain held off just long enough for us to get back to the motel. The rain was warm and didn't last long.
That night we sat out by the pool, drank mojitos, ate fried chicken and (bizarrely) cabbage, and pondered the transformation that the Cuba we'd come to know over the last three weeks had just undergone. Being by the beach was like being in a different country.
Camaguey cemetery and the legend of Dolores Rondón
March 3, 2016 June 25, 2016 / lapoubelle1969	/ 1 Comment
Like all good Latin American cemeteries, Camaguey's is home to a legend surrounding a tragic young woman. Dolores Rondón was the beautiful mulata daughter of a poor Catalán immigrant. Through marriage to a Spanish military officer she transcended her humble origins and joined Camaguey's high society.
She travelled, went to balls and attended high society events. Then tragedy struck. Her husband died and she was left adrift in a world in which she was an interloper. She fell into poverty. Destitute, she made her way back to the Camaguey streets from which she came, and died of smallpox in a local hospital.
Camaguey Cemetery, Cuba
The twist in the tale? There's always a twist in the tale…after returning anonymously and without financial resources, it was her rejected former suitor – a humble barber – who found her in the hospital and who paid for her funeral. Legend has it that it was he who inscribed the biting epithet on her gravestone.
The epithet* has become a memorial to her life and a lodestone to those who seek meaning in graveyards. It asks us mortals to consider where 'true greatness lies', before going on to admonish us for the 'pride and vanity of wealth and power'. Ironic really, her grave sits in a cemetery that seems dedicated to projecting the wealth and power of Camaguey's most prominent citizens.
Like Havana's larger Cementerio de Cristóbal Colón, Camaguey cemetery and the attached Iglesia del Santo Cristo is an impressive place. Graceful marble statues rise up into the air, exquisitely carved details giving a hint of the craftsmanship (and money) that has gone into their creation.
True it's not as grand or quite so beautiful as other Cuban cemeteries which might explain why, in an UNESCO World Heritage listed town, it isn't a national monument. Despite that, it's still an atmospheric place.
The old part of the cemetery is quite beautiful, with large tombs and wide avenues; but over to one side is a newer part to the cemetery. This is much more cramped, and there are far more tombs that are far more humble. It's clearly the more used part of the cemetery; there were fresh flowers and, on a child's grave, a cake being slowly devoured by ants.
Cuban independence hero, Ignacio Agramonte, is also buried here…or at least that's the rumour. It turns out that although there is a mausoleum to Agramonte, he may not reside within. Agramonte was killed in battle and, fearing that Cuban forces would try to retrieve the body, the Spanish brought his body to Camaguey to be cremated.
It's not really known what happened next, but a witness claimed the body was never fully burned and the remains were interned in a grave in the cemetery. Two historical conundrums in one cemetery…
* Here Dolores Rondón
Ended her life.
Approach, mortal, and consider
Where lies true greatness:
Pride and vanity,
Wealth and power.
All of them come to an end
For only immortaliSed is
The wrong that is saved
And the goodness that is done.
A confusion of streets in Camaguey
Camaguey was built with a confusing street layout, meant to baffle and disorient would-be attackers. Our first indication that they'd succeeded in this aim was when our driver stopped to ask for directions. A short time later he stopped to ask for more directions. The third time, he stopped and offered a woman a lift if she'd guide us to our casa particular. We still ended up on the wrong street.
Our misadventure seemed trifling compared to the troubles Camaguey endured when it was first founded, as Santa Maria del Puerto Principe, in 1514 on Cuba's northern coast. A wealthy hub, it was repeatedly attacked by pirates, and faced rebellions from local indigenous tribes.
The town finally moved to its current inland location in 1528. This didn't stop the pirate attacks, and it had to be rebuilt in 1668 after a particularly destructive raid by Welsh pirate, Henry Morgan. It was after this that its haphazard street pattern took place.
Parque Ignacio Agramonte, Camaguey, Cuba
Plaza San Juan de Dios, Camaguey, Cuba
Some commentators compare Cameguey's maze of streets to an Arabic medina. These commentators have clearly never been to Fez in Morocco where, without the aid of a guide, you could wander for days without ever finding your way out. There were times when we were a little disoriented, for sure, but unlike Fez we never had to resort to paying someone to lead us to safety.
Camaguey should really be known for its numerous lovely plazas, the premiere example of which is the colonial-era Plaza San Juan de Dios. It's a picturesque place with some nice restaurants that have tables with umbrellas; it's perfect for having a mojito and watching children playing football, itinerant musicians playing the nearby bars, and the occasional tour group sweeping through.
Plaza de los Trabajadores, Camaguey, Cuba
Walk through a tangle of narrow streets past the 'five corners' and you'll arrive at another splendid square, Plaza Del Carmen. You approach down a narrow street lined with pastel-coloured houses with a pretty colonial church at the far end. The real delight is a series of humorous statues depicting scenes of daily life in this traditional barrio: women gossip, lovers get intimate and a man reads a paper.
Another favourite was the Plaza de los Trabajadores, with its visually oxymoronic Iglesia de Merced on one corner and a large mural of Che Guevara opposite. Inside the church there was a tour group of pilgrims – an unexpected sight – underscoring Camaguey's reputation as Cuba's most Catholic city. At night one corner of the plaza became an informal dance hall. It was a lot of fun.
Plaza Del Carmen, Camaguey, Cuba
Our guide book said to be aware of street crime in Camaguey, but we walked around the town day and night without ever being hassled or feeling insecure. It's a peaceful and clean city that belies its status as the country's third largest. People were helpful and friendly, the worst thing I could say is that after walking up a dozen flights of steps to reach the rooftop bar of the Gran Hotel, it wasn't open.
We were staying in a lovely casa particular. The owner, Rafael, gave us lots of tips on places to go, and barmen who made the best cocktails. He even found accommodation for us at the Playa Santa Lucia when we moved on from Camaguey. Before that though, we had a lot of exploring to do, wandering the twisted streets and taking in scenes of day-to-day life.
Fruit seller, Camaguey, Cuba
Iglesia de Merced, Plaza de los Trabajadores, Camaguey, Cuba
This included an alarming number of pig roasts taking place in the street. We were on our way to the cemetery when we first saw a pig being manhandled and hung from a tree while it was gutted. Not a sight for the squeamish. The pig was unceremoniously skewered on a large pole that entered one orifice and exited another. There is no dignity in death for the pigs of Cuba. It doesn't make them less tasty though.
Pig roast, Camaguey, Cuba
After this little demonstration we went into the hugely attractive Necropolis de Camaguey. It seemed fitting…


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SPOTLIGHT: Naomi Watts
Posted on September 28, 2010 by matterspamer
Few actresses in Hollywood that are this attractive get famous for their talent. That's just how the business works, unless you're Naomi Watts. Her career was launched by a David Lynch movie early in the 2000's, and she's been on an almost perfect hot streak ever since. Sure, she does venture into the mainstream (King Kong), but it isn't because she's looking for a paycheck. She is an actress who does movies she cares about. In 2010, after a couple years out of the spotlight, she makes a return in the new Woody Allen movie and takes the starring role in a thriller about the outed spy Valerie Plame. On her way to becoming one of the endearing performers of modern movies, let's hope Watts continues to send volts through the system for years to come.
Watts became famous on the film critic's circuit in 2001 in this out-of-nowhere stunner of a performance in David Lynch's neo-noir masterpiece. Without giving too much away (secrets are key to watching this movie), she plays Betty, a new actress in Hollywood staying in her aunt's apartment. When she finds a woman claiming to not know who she is hiding naked in the shower, the two embark on an identity-bending nightmarish journey that is very open to interpretation. What isn't is Watt's performance, which doesn't hold the movie together, but bends with its reality in perfect sync.
An unsentimental, if shockingly emotional tale of drug addiction and loss, Alejandro González Iñárritu's 21 Grams is the perfect showcase for a talented actor. Watts, alongside Sean Penn and Benecio del Toro, scores a knockout as a grieving mother. Many a talented performer has stepped into the shoes of the parent who loses a child, but with the movie's scrambled structure and her brutally uncompromising performance, it helps make it seem new.
The Painted Veil
This British period drama would be dull if the actors at its center weren't so volcanic. Watts plays Kitty Fane, an adulterous wife who is dragged to China by her physician husband (Edward Norton) in the midst of a cholera epidemic. Predictable tragedy strikes throughout the movie, especially in the third act, but Norton and Watts are great together and they believe in their characters enough to shed light to something you think you've seen before.
Taking the lead role opposite Viggo Mortensen in this Russian crime drama may seem out of place for Watts, but she handles it sublimely. As a nurse trying to find out the secrets behind an abandoned child in her care unit, she uncovers a dark web of rape and murder that may lead her to a similar fate. She turns to a seemingly apathetic mob driver (Mortensen), and the two fall in love. It's handled well by both the actors and director David Cronenberg, and the focus stays on the main event. It's a violent yet low-key movie, and she deserved more attention in it than she got.
In Peter Jackson's remake of the classic big ape film, Watts almost seems born to play the new-age Ann Darrow. She brings charisma, charm, and a terrifying, ear-piercing scream to the table, as if she were meant to be a leading lady all along. Though almost everyone knows the story, Jackson's special effects marvels and Watts keep the surprises coming until the movie's tragic conclusion fades to black.
Other notable performances: The Ring, Funny Games, and The International
This entry was posted in Features and tagged 21 Grams, Best Performances of the 2000s, David Lynch, Eastern Promises, King Kong, Mulholland Drive, Naomi Watts, Peter Jackson, Sean Penn, Spotlight, The Painted Veil, Underrated actresses, Viggo Mortensen by matterspamer. Bookmark the permalink.
6 thoughts on "SPOTLIGHT: Naomi Watts"
Marc on September 29, 2010 at 11:27 AM said:
I just saw Mulholland Drive and while that movie still confuses the hell out of me (I think I have an idea of what it was all about) she FLOORED me in that audition scene. Holy Crap was she riveting.
And I think I need to watch King Kong again because I don't remember he being that great, but if you say so, I'll put it to the top of my list.
And you're right, she was also good in The Ring. Nice write up Matt!
Castor on September 29, 2010 at 1:52 PM said:
The audition scene is definitely a highlight, it's like she turned on a switch. It makes you realize she was intentionally over-acting for the entire first half of the movie. Great talent display for sure 🙂
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rtm on October 3, 2010 at 11:02 PM said:
I just saw Fair Game and she was impressive as Valerie Plame. She's one of my all time favorite actresses (funny, my all time fave is a fellow Aussie, Cate Blanchett) and looks like her career just keeps getting better!
King Kong was great partly because of Watt's performance. She made us believe the giant monkey was really falling for her!
matterspamer on October 5, 2010 at 2:27 PM said:
We have similar taste in actresses then! Both Watts and Blanchett are among my favorites. I did a spotlight on Cate a couple of weeks ago. If you didn't see it, check it out.
https://cynicritics.com/2010/08/30/spotlight-cate-blanchett/
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The Elizabeth SIAS in the 1790 Census of Patapsco Lower Hundred, Baltimore Co., MD, has been presumed to be John's widow, but I've yet to see any proof that she is, and her name argues against it.
WARNING: While there is direct evidence that these four are siblings, the evidence that John & Mary are their parents is entirely circumstantial.
There is a James SIAS (b. ca. 1755-60) in the 1790 census of Baltimore Co., MD, and later censuses of Huntingdon Co., PA, who is almost certainly related to this family, and he is the right age to be a sibling of the above. He is not mentioned by Keziah (GREENLAND) SHANAFELT in her 1858 letter, though her knowledge of her grandmother's siblings may not have been complete. Note that James SIAS shows up listed just two lines from Keziah (SIAS) LANE in the 1800 census of Huntingdon Co., PA.
1. Robert Barnes. 1975. Maryland Marriages, 1634-1778. Genealogical Publ. Co., Baltimore, MD (Broderbund CD-195).
3 BA - St. Paul's Parish; copy made by Harrison, at MHS.
2. Letter, dated 19 Jun 1858, from Keziah (GREENLAND) SHANAFELT (click Keziah's link for a full transcription) of Clarion Co., PA, to her son, Thomas. Keziah is a granddaughter of Benjamin & Sarah (SIAS) CORBIN. The letter is in the possession of Laurel Shanafelt Powell of Colorado; Lorinda Clendenon Greenland generously posted a transcription at her web site.
Elizabeth has been presumed to be John's widow, but she could just as easily be someone else's widow or even John & Mary's unmarried daughter. Daughters Sarah and Keziah were married by 1790, so the second female is neither of them.
4. Broderbund. World Family Tree. Vol. 1, Pedigree #2346. Has John's wife as Elizabeth CHAMBERS.


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