months, with food prices up 18 per cent this year over last - a major contributor to the country's slowing economic growth. Even if the economy rebounds next year, as many analysts predict, high food prices are likely to remain a central campaign issue ahead of parliamentary elections in the spring. Prices of tomatoes and potatoes are rising, as well. Recently, billboards have popped up around New Delhi showing Narendra Modi, the opposition party's prime ministerial candidate, posed before a heap of onions and tomatoes, shaking his fist in indignation at the "waist-breaking inflation".

Some have blamed darker forces, suggesting that traders are fixing prices or that hoarders - ''onionnaires'' - are keeping the bulbs tucked away. "We will change India!" the poster declares. In the meantime, many ofIndia's poor and even middle-class citizens have been forced to cut down on onions or stop eating them altogether, which has been a tough change for some. In farming communities in the northern states of Haryana and Punjab, many of the field workers come to work with nothing more than a roti (Indian bread), a raw onion and a green chilli pepper. That's lunch. Narendar Singh, 47, a petrol station employee, said he has not been able to buy fruit for his family of five for four months and has cut down on vegetables, buying the cheapest gourds and chickpeas available. "We cannot afford to buy onions to spice up the meal, either," he said. "Instead of tomatoes, we now use tamarind pulp to sour the curry."

His dream,


he said, is to educate his three children so they can afford fresh fruit and vegetables - and motor scooters. Indian officials say they expect onion prices to drop in the coming weeks because of increased imports and other measures. One recent morning in Delhi's vegetable market, as a cool November rain began to fall, a group of onion farmers who sell to wholesalers said they had bought about half as many sacks of onions this year as they did last year because the extended monsoon had spoiled their crop. Even now, they were nervously monitoring the weather back home in the eastern state of Rajasthan via their mobile phones; it was raining again, they said, and if it didn't stop, the rest of the onions would rotWhen Barack Obama was first elected president of the United States, it was hard to predict what the coming years had in store. That's always the case to some degree, of course — that's the nature of the future. But even stipulating that predictions about the future are especially difficult, the final months of 2008 were especially tumultuous and uncertain. Through all the chaos, though, at least one thing seemed certain: the Republican Party, which had just gotten blown out for the second election in a row, was in deep, deep trouble.

Fast-forward about six years, and the picture is rather different. The economy appears to be stabilizing, and Barack Obama is by now a normal part of most Americans' lives. Most dramatically of all, the Republican Party has


Who can forget David Beckham on a speedboat careering up the River Thames with the Olympic torch blazing last year? But who knows that the maze of waterways he navigated to finally reach the Olympic stadium was a route devised by the Canal & River Trust?

Previously British Waterways, the Canal & River Trust only became a charity in July 2012 and is one of the newest charities in the UK. It manages 2,000 miles of waterways in England and Wales, and many of the waterways in and around the Olympic Park in the Lower Lea Valley are owned by the charity, including the River Lee Navigation, Hertford Union Canal, Limehouse Cut and Bow Creek.

The Canal & River Trust had been sprucing up the waterways in and around theOlympic Park since 2005 as part of a £60million regeneration and restoration programme. It wasn't just for the benefit of the millions of onlookers in summer 2012 – it is hoped there will be a legacy left behind for East End communities and the many boaters, walkers and cyclists who use them all year round.

The Olympics, and Beckham's grand entrance, was a glorious opportunity to showcase the canals, says Mark Blackwell, Lower Lea Valley & Olympics enterprise manager at the charity. Beckham's speedboat came in through Limehouse Basin, along the Limehouse Cut, turned right along the Bow Back River and the newly refurbished City Mills Lock to finally power alongside the Aquatics venue.

Blackwell says they met with the opening ceremony team in 2010 to discuss security issues for


the last few miles of the torch relay along the waterway network.

"There were lots of rehearsals," he says, with colleagues choreographing the stunt in support boats. Complexities involved how to make a smooth transit through a lock – which can sometimes take 20 minutes – but in the end, the footage was recorded for television and the lock transits appeared seamless.

It's quite a change to the recent past. Immediately prior to the Olympics, the waterways in the area were non-functional, contaminated and blighted the landscape, says Blackwell. "Most times of the day, you wouldn't be able to navigate a boat out there," he says. "The towpaths were all cut-off and overgrown – and invasive plants, discarded tyres, fridges and rubble littered the area."

In 2006, it was agreed tolease the waterways within the Olympic Park to the London Development Agency so as not to break up the waterways from the national 2000 mile network, but instead, work with the Olympic Delivery Authority on the canals within the site. At the start of 2015, the charity will get back its waterways when they will take on the task of maintaining the newly cleaned-up canals and towpaths.

As well as advising the ODA, the charity worked both on the physical infrastructure and with local community groups, businesses, councils and volunteers, "with a view to that relationship continuing well beyond the games," says Blackwell.

"The Olympics was a boost in the arm to give this area of London a new lease of life, not just in the land but in the


waterways that thread through it," he adds.

The new lease of life involved inspiring local people to use the canals, not just as visitors but getting actively involved as volunteers. Since 2006, the charity has run ad-hoc volunteer events recruiting over 1000 volunteers for Olympic-linked events. Now they attract at least 500 volunteers per year in London, up from 150 annually in 2009. Often they get cold-called by corporates who want to volunteer their staff.

Sam Thomas, maintenance manager, looks after the day-to-day running of the waterways as well as the volunteering engagement team. "We will identify something that we can't deliver with our own resources or additional enhancements such as putting a herb garden in as part of a public towpath," says Thomas.

In the year leading up to theOlympics, the charity ran towpath, canal clear-up and enhancement events attracting around 30 people per event.

One project near the Olympic site was on the canal stretch off Blaker Road. Once the charity had professionally dredged the canal and rebuilt the brickwork, it recruited 40 community volunteers – many residents from the local area – who over two days replanted the verges and, "put the cherry on the cake" says Thomas.

The charity has worked with volunteers to clear dross from hedgerows and tackle flytipping. They use boats, driven by staff, which allows life-jacketed volunteers to stand in the front hold, using grapple-hooks and long-handled litter pickers to collect rubbish from the water.

It has also collaborated with other charities or community groups such as Growing Concerns and Thames21 to clear


canals and create enhancements. For instance, the Trust last year took part in London Mayor Boris Johnson's Big Waterways Clean Up, led by local London waterways charity, Thames 21, on rivers around the Olympic Park.

Apart from the Greater Tufted Boris, the pre-Olympics clean-up attracted other wildlife. Thomas says their ecologists worked closely with those from the Environment Agency on enhancements just south of the Olympic Park such as building sand martin nests – holes in the concrete riverbank walls – in riverbanks to encourage the birds. They also built floating rafts on which aquatic fowl could nest.

Other enhancements – which involved both corporate and community volunteers – included graffiti removal and prevention, and replacing flytipped blights with rockeries and herb gardens.

However, it hasn't all been plain sailing. BlackwellThis invention relates to a room ventilator and, more particularly, to a regenerative room ventilator of the type wherein polluted air is removed from and fresh air is supplied to the room, and wherein heat is transferred between the polluted, or room, air and the fresh air.
In an effort to conserve energy, buildings, and particularly dwellings, are constructed in a manner which minimizes leakage between air within the structure and exterior air. Sources of leakage, such as joints, windows, doors and other openings, typically are sealed effectively to prevent any leakage of warm interior air during the cold winter season or cool, air-conditioned interior air during the summer season. While such sealing techniques have improved energy conservation, the resultant reduction of air infiltration has aggravated indoor pollution.
Polluted, or


used that revamp to also put an end to one of its old media players. Yes, the iPod Classic, with its old fashioned but roomy hard drive and its click wheel, is no longer available for sale on...

In late June Apple rejiggered the iPod touch line, making a consistent feature set across the line, dropping the price and lowering the cost of additional storage capacity. It's probably enough to provoke some short-term sales increases of the iPod touch, but I'm more interested in what comes...

Alive Inside: A Story of Music and Memory, the Sundance Audience Award-winning documentary by Michael Rossato-Bennett that opens today in the U.S., soars on a single, inescapable note — that for people suffering from Alzheimer's and dementia, iPods and personal playlists can make a...strengths.”

Concordia University Irvine was invited by WASC in 2011 to participate in a pilot program for a new institutional review process. Institutions who joined the pilot program were asked at an early stage to focus on several new components which had not been required previously. With eight schools participating in the first group of the pilot program, Concordia was one of three schools to receive ten year regional reaccreditation, the longest term of accreditation awarded. The WASC Commission commended Concordia University Irvine for its early work in some of the new accreditation components and featured that work at this year’s Academic Resource Conference. Several of the new components Concordia University Irvine implemented were adopted by WASC as “best practices” and will serve as models for other institutions to


for defining and assessing co-curricular activities and student success that has become embedded into the infrastructure of the institution. The WASC team also noted Concordia University Irvine’s remarkable fiscal stability and sustainability.

Concordia University Irvine prepares students for their vocations—their calling in life. Concordia University Irvine offers undergraduate, graduate, doctoral, and adult degree programs in a beautiful Southern California location in the City of Irvine, with online and regional cohort options. Concordia’s undergraduate program is distinctive among universities in California because of its nationally recognized Core Curriculum, and its Lutheran heritage that provides a thoughtful and caring Christian community that lives out the theology of "Grace Alone. Faith Alone." Concordia is a U.S. News Top Tier Regional University and has been named by The Chronicle of Higher Education asit is enjoyable watching the younger yuppie generation popping their wind corks and looking modern and rich, and it also enjoyable watching the teenage generation walking around looking for a pickup or to be the pickupee.Life in these United States.And the song "Be Young - Be Happy" is playing in my head... why don't I remember the rest of the song?

Oh-Ho-Ho and a Bottle of Rum Mate!! Aarree!

I snapped this at the Colonel Cemetery in Savannah. Unfortunately, the wall is lined with markers that they have yet matched with the underground remains since some vandals did damage of 20 years ago, when the last time we were there.

Friday, April 28, 2006

Virginia Hill

I was in downtown Marietta and saw that her house is for sale. The sign says, "History


for Sale."

Virginia Hill grew up in Marietta and graduated from Marietta High School. She was Bugsy Malone's girlfiend.

After she became famous as being Bugsy's girlfiend she would visit Marietta often to visit her mother. She came so often she bought a house.

She was known for riding a horse all over Marietta as he means of transportation. They said she was also spending cash for things while here and tipping big. She got plenty of service - all the young men were at her beck and call.

Photo Moment

This barn is not far from us. I run or bike by it sometimes when I exercise.

The yard is a corner lot. The barn is behind the house. In front of the house, facing both roads is a huge sign saying somethinglike "GET OUT OF THE UNITED NATIONS" and in smaller print it has The John Birch Society and the 1-1800 number.

Bush may help them with that request. Before he gets through, we might be kicked out of the United Nations.

"Action Philosophers" #3 "Action Philosophers" #4When you think of action, only one name springs to mind: Plato.

Okay, maybe not, but if Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey have anything to say about it, it soon might. They're the creators of the new Xeric Award winning comic book series "Action Philosophers," a series detailing the life and thoughts of some of history's greatest thinkers through Van Lente's slightly warped humor and artist Dunlavey's dynamic, cartoon influenced art.

Instead of a dry treatise on deep thoughts, you get Bodhidharma's students trying to


get him to teach them to learn the "gaze so hard it drills holes in mountain" trick to help them pick up girls, or Isaac Newton strangling Dunlavey for drawing him getting hit on the head by the apple. It's not your ordinary book on philosophy.

"The title, sure, is a gag-- and has led a bunch of people who haven't read the book to think it's about philosophers dressed as super heroes beating on each other-- but to me it also implies that thinking is an active process," Van Lente told CBR News. "Most of the stories are as much about how that philosopher reached the conclusions that he did, based on his or her biography and what he or she went through or was exposed to inhis or her early life. To me that's the most inspiring and gripping thing about reading these tales-- to follow exactly how the philosopher went from one position to the other, and (oftentimes), altered the course of human history in the process."

Philosophy and humor might seem like a strange fit to most, but to series writer Van Lente, it's a perfect fit.

Living in the Living Room

Navy VII

In the last segment we mourned the death of John F. Kennedy and I brought my car up from Georgia.

Two items I overlooked was Sunday after I returned there was a big fire nearby out in the pines someplace near. Everybody in the barracks were ordered to be on standby to fight the raging fire. As many things people are put on


on the right road or highway and found Carmel.

My uncle, William Leroy “L-Rod” (we called him “Roy”) Petty was a famous hero on D-Day. He climbed the cliffs at Normandy Beach and ended up shooting many Germans… I mean, a big number, he found himself in the middle of bunch of them and killed them all. And throughout the day killed bunches at a time.

Roy is one of the principle characters in the movie Rudder’s Rangers by Robert L. Lang. He was also in the book “Longest Day”, which he served as technical director when they made the movie.

He told our family each time ahead of time – for a few years on the Sunday closest to D-Day he was asked to stand up in the Ed Sullivanaudience.

He married a glamorous New Yorker by the name of Dorothy. Their marriage lasted nine or ten years. She left Roy and married an heir of Pillsbury and moved to Tarrytown, New York. Dorothy and her their two sons Billy and Rodney were once in a full page insurance ad in Saturday Evening Post. She was very gracefully holding her two sons and the ad asks will you be prepared if something should happen to your husband.

Apparently, she made her own preparations.

Roy got custody of the kids in the divorce.

He and his two sons lived on top of a big hill that in a big house that he built himself. It was big then, but I doubt if today’s standards it would be considered big.

It was brick, with


an upstairs of four bedrooms and an office, the main level had a big kitchen, dining room, living room, den, and a big screened-in side porch. Also a big enclosed carport and a full basement.

Paintings by him hung everyplace – which I may show some of them in a future blog.

He was cooking dinner when we arrived and he sent us to downtown Carmel, probably about 2 or 3 miles away to get beer on his tab at a local old fashion general store that you would only see in rural areas. Rodney went with us and told the man behind the cash register to put it on Dad’s tab, without signing anything. And the man nodded not asking for proof or anything.

Carmel, NY, is the home ofReaders Digest, which the town seems very much like a Readers Digest kind of New England town.

When we arrived it was dark. We didn’t get to see the outside.

We had a pretty good drinking session after dinner, talking about many subjects, including religion. Roy was an atheist.

He has been dead about five years now, so he either knows he was wrong, or if he is right I suppose he is in oblivion.

The next morning we went with a walk with my first cousins Rodney and Billy. What we couldn’t tell the night before was the beautiful scene looking from his house and front yard. High up on the hill we looked down on a huge lake which we were told was the New York City Water Reservoir.

On our


morning walk in the beautiful country side we were walking along the curvy road at the base of the hill they lived on top and a car sped around the corner which we had to jump out of the way and the boys’ dogs didn’t jump in time. His tail got cut off.

This was a get-reacquainted-visit. That I hope to mention some of the things that happened in some visits that was yet to come.

We mostly visited and ooing and ahhing over Roy’s works in various endeavors.

Before the war he was going to the University of Georgia. After the war he started a laundry business in Dalton, Georgia, and it didn’t prosper fast enough for him so he sold it and went back to the University of Georgiato finish up and get his degree, which he did.

During our conversations I mentioned that Berry College in Rome turned me down when I applied there. He said they won’t now.

And sure enough, in a few weeks I got a letter, with my HU-4 address, from the director of admissions of Berry College saying the looked at my application again and decided that I was accepted. I was to just let them know when my active duty was over. Probably one of my many mistakes, I didn’t follow up.

When he lived in New York City he was an athletic coach for the youth at Madison Square Garden. After a while he was offered a position as director of a youth club at Clearpool Camp, Carmel, NY. The biggest


benefactor of the youth camp was the Heinz Foundation, which he also worked for them and had an office in the city.

Elijah Petty's Daughters

These women are my g-g grandfather's daughters. They were born between 1840 and 1860, mostly in Fannin Co., Ga., in a the Suches community near Blue Ridge.

All but one of them scattered to the western plains states with their husbands and their kids. So, being sitting together all at one time makes me think the picture was taken about 1881, the year of their father's death. But if that was the case the oldest one would be about 41 and the youngest about 21. I think they look older than that, but pioneer life probably ages one - but I don't think that much.

Wednesday, AprilCounty Police only have one per car, but I noticed that when one has someone pulled over, usually a second police car is near, overlooking it all.

Then I went to the Central Library. It was 6pm, I still had an hour before the Cobb County Genealogical Society met. This month's speaker was a professor giving a talk on Indian Trails in Cobb County, which she really gave the history of the trails and how the Indians got screwed, and she had some unkind words to say about Andrew "Old Hickory" Jackson.

A brother of an ancestor mine owned a farm next door to The Hermitage, near Nashville, and was a pallbearer at his funeral. I saw no need to share that with the professor, I wasn't there to name


drop.

I went there last Tuesday, getting my Tuesdays of the month mixed up, so I made up for it.

While waiting for the meeting to start I checked out two CDs, one was Buddy Moss's "Atlanta Blues" and the other one was "The Very Best of John Lee Hooker".

In the library there are easy chairs all over the place for people to read. They seem to be mostly, but not limited to, the magazine section. There, it is meant, I suppose that people can relax and read. In other places there are upright chairs at tables, in areas people would mostly likely do research.

One thing I noticed, in the magazine area a lot of people sitting in the easy chairs relaxing reading magazines have back-packs. They are homeless. Atnine o'clock they will be shooed out. In the winter time there are more.

I went to the Georgia Room and utilized my time doing some research. I spent four or five dollars on copies at 15cents a page of pages of a Macon County, NC, deed book, that my surnames were listed in the index.

Then I got down the Cobb County Marriage book (1834-1937) and found a good many uncles, aunts, and cousins who got married. I listed them all. Two of the names were Edwin Tyson Hunter and Ethel America Petty, February 27, 1937, Marriage Book L, p106. My parents.

Aisle #3 Incident

Just one more about the Dahlonega area.

On our way up to Dahlonega I noticed a certain convenience store in Dawsonville, about 7 miles south of Dahlonega


and on the way back we ate at Wild Man’s Barbecue across the highway from the same convenience store.

We have a history with that store.

Back when our sons were young a carrier by the name of Kenny at work was telling me about 100 acres of land he and his girlfriend jointly bought in Dawsonville. He said it had a creek running through the property and he rigged up a mining table, that pumped water up on a table, and somehow you shift the creek sand from the bottom and the gold remains, and so far he has found several tiny little gold nuggets.

He suggested that I bring Anna and the boys up and he would demonstrate it for them and they could mind for gold. Which weembarrassed, her face was very red.

I suppose she thought we had a couple of hot chicks out in the car raring to go.

Kenny said that he kept stopping by that store and from time to time and each time the cashier would laugh with him over that incident.

Bus

This is my uncle Bus, my father's oldest brother, and the last sibling to die. His real name was Robert Ray Hunter- but Bus was the nickname that he went by.

He died last year at age 96. He spent most his working life as a electric lineman for a rural electric company. At his funeral the preacher told "Bus" stories, which delt mostly with his strenght. To hear him talk he was something like a Georgian Paul Bunyan.

Bus was also a


poet. During the war he wrote long poems to hs parents. Bus could recite poems by Poe, Whitman, and many others and was doing it at his 95th birthday party.

He had the unfortunate of buying his only child, who was a pilot and shot down in Vietnam.

Monday, April 24, 2006

Daytona Beach 1960

In 1960 our senior year, the night after we graduated we headed to Daytona Beach, Florida. I think it was May the 27th.

I made reservations for four of us at a big green stucco building named the Renee. They was only one of two that responded to my request, and of the two it was cheaper.

On the way down I rode with Monty. That was before expressways. You had to drive through each little town between herecan there?” (pointing to an empty beer can in the floorboard in the front seat). Monty said, “Its empty sir” (ignoring the fact that there were several full ones iced down in the back seat.

The policeman said, “Get out of the car boys”. With that, Monty started the car and we sped off. Leaving our friend standing by the policeman and the dog.

Our friend looked as surprised as the policeman and then started running through a park. Monty circled around and rode up to our friend and slowed down, then stopped. Our friend opened the door and he jumped into the car and we sped off, just as the policeman, not use to running at his age, came walking up almost to the car towards hurriedly.

The Renee House


It was across the street from a big outside round orchestra shell looking thing. The rounded half-opened, good for acoustics kind of thing with rows of chairs in the open in front of the stage.

Next to it was a boardwalk and a pier with carnival type gyp joints and rides.

After that was the beach that you could drive on if you wanted and then the Atlantic Ocean.

It seems the Renee Inn was about four stories high. All rooms had to be entered by a hallway except the ones on ground level.

A good many high school people stayed at the Renee. The manager was a nervous bald-headed chubby man. He watched every move we made. We called him Wart.

There was also lurking nearby an elderly man with a walkinggood meal a day – for .39! Not bad.

All three places were having continuously parties. Just about everybody at one time or another on the trip drunk themselves silly.

One friend there was Bubba. Bubba was wealthy. His father owned a textile plant that made underwear and socks. Bubble stayed drunk the entire week. He wore a straw hat that seemed bigger than his head the whole time. A friend Clare brought her car, a Metropolitan. Early in the week Clare and a friend was going someplace in her Metropolitan. Bubba wanted to go, but there was no room in the tiny Metropolitan. So, he rode on the back, standing on the bumper. As they drove off Clare tooted her horn for us to see, she pointed with her


thumb to back of the car. There was Bubba with his straw hat standing on the bumper holding a beer in one hand and his penis in the other. He was urinating as they drove off.

Clare married and moved to a neighboring county and became a newspaper reporter and after that a detective in that same county. She was on TV about 8 years ago about unsolved mysteries. Bubba had just about nine or ten more years to live.

He was a representative for his father’s company and was on the road a lot, and nobody really knew his schedule or where he would go next. He was found dead in a cheap motel in Texas, after being dead about three days.

Our first night there a bunch of usmoment of misjudgment and I would have landed on the pavement. They lived in Cartersville, Georgia, not far from Marietta. After we got back I called her and had a few dates with her.

Three of my friends, Parks, Paul, and Larry B. preferred to sit in the room and stay drunk. They had a big beer can pyramid. While they were out to eat one day the room cleaners cleaned up the apartment and threw away the beer cans. They were very mad and made another pyramid and waited for the cleaners to come in the next day.One of my friends called them the “N” word. The cleaners threw down their stuff and quit on the spot.

They went to the office to get their pay and Wart insisted


It added to it all.

Back on the streets after the rain went by was one group of fiddlers and banjo pickers who had a little wooden platform in front of them, no bigger than a pallet, in fact it probably was a pallet... the kind a fork lift would lift up with goods on it and stack someplace.

People were invited to come on up and get on the pallet and do a jig to their music. There dancing reminded me a lot of the Irish Jig, but it more like the Drunk Mountaineer Stomp. People who tried dancing on the wood platform looked dazed and drunk. But they were good. One guy was dancing away, clicking to the music and suddenly an aged gray-blond long drink of waterskinny woman with denim and a cowboy hat jumped up and jointed him on the platform and they both did an excellent job.

Sunday, April 23, 2006

Hambone

Do you know what the Hambone is? It is a form of music making. Your body is the musical instrument and you rapidly slap at various parts of your body with your opened hands in a rhythm beat.

It is a probably considered a form a of jazz or blues. It is thought of little black shoe shiners playing hambone music back in the early 40s.

BUT!!! It is not limited to poor blacks that cannot afford a musical instrument. Poor white people that cannot afford a musical instrument play the hambone too.

Yesterday in Dahlonega we were tempted to go to the music hall to


because I am not used to people recognizing my presence.Surpisingly, when the Dulcimer group completed he grabbed the mike and in a very professional radio announcer's voice said, "Lets give a big hand to...." Then he went on to talk about the weather, and then stayed talking ad-libbing until that group packed up and left and the next group came in and sat up. Then he introduced them. I think he was a teenage announcer on a local bluegrass station.

Ed

This is Ed in his WWI uniform.He is my father's mother's brother. He is why my name is Edwin. Although his name is Edward, my father was named after him, but instead somebody wrote down Edwin instead of Edward, and I am a Junior, being named after my father.

Whywe are not Edward Sr., and Edward Jr. was probably a clerical error. Details, details.

Edward married late in life. He had two sons. As they grew up the youngest complained because of the cold wind whistling through the cracks of the old house they lived in and his father would say, "Be grateful for what you have son." That son grew up to be a successful business man. The other son, the oldest, was involved with always doing something to get rich quick. He was also a big gambler. He won the local pool hall in a poker game, so I heard.

Saturday, April 22, 2006

Cashiers and Spilling Water

It is raining now, and supposed to lighten up this afternoon. So, after giving it some thought we decided to go


as long as you Far Easterns an't discussing a suicide bombing or a terrorist attach of something, as long as you were discussing a shirt label.

Also, apparently the cashier was gay. He had a flouncy way about him. I bet he was a popular sort in his homeland. I doubt if he will ever returned home I thought.

At least he had both hands, which might be the sign of a honest man over there.

Then we went to Walmart which employs it fair share of rednecks.

At the cash register there my wife and the cashier were having a disagreement about a coupon, and the cashier there to relieve her was standing there holding her cash tray tried carrying on small talk with me and told me she has abank in her yard that is too steep to use a lawnmower on so she and her husband bought a weedeater - actually, it was the brand name Weedeater, but it was a blower. She told me the box said Weedeater, but only had a long tube to blow through. She said her husband tried cutting the weeds on the bank with it and just blew air. She shrugged, like saying in body language, "Go figure".

We had an enjoyable evening at the Thai Restaurant. The food was good and I on purpose picked spicy food, some kind of yellow curry, chicken. It wasn't as spicy as I was wishing for - like I wanted my sinuses to loosen up and my eyes to water. But it was good


quaint European little town he may go this summer.

More about Tate and his family someday.

I looked over her list of the people that are going this time and I saw another old school mate and neighbor. His name is Frank. He and his wife is on the manifest. When we were growing up he looked like a little man and so did his puppet he carried around. The puppet was the kind that sits in your lap and you makes his lips move. I wonder if he still has that thing... and if so, I wonder what his wife thinks of it? Some time in high school Frank and I parted company. I think I started running with a wilder crowd and the only thing I remember ourwith still good posture who used to be a Rocket in her prime seemed to always be there, and wanting to tell newcomers about her claim to fame.

At Murphy’s we met several female school teachers who lived in New York City and they went in together and bought a ocean near bungalow. They became part of our life for quiet a while.

Closer to the base in the town of Lakehurst, was a bar that was nice and friendly. We found ourselves there a bunch of times.

Down the street and around the corner was downtown Lakehurst. There was a laundry ran by a mother, father that spoke in an accent, and their two teenage daughters who seemed to hang around to meet the men from the base, but did


not speak in an accent. We did some of our business with them. One day while the mother was handing me a laundry receipt she had a tattoo some place on her hand or arm, I forgot which. It was a number. I asked Sam about that because he is the one who recommended them for laundry and he told me they were prisoners in a concentrated camp.

Also, about a half block off the main street of the town of Lakehurst was a little house with a yard about the size of a porch and a picket fence. It was the home of Obie, the head petty officer in our Personnel Office. He had a wife named Lucy. Lucy was a drunk. She loved a good fight. Obietell her the time a warrant was issued for my arrest in Panama City, Florida, in 1961, and I wonder if the Statue of Limitations are over yet.

Back in the late 50s and early 60s we young people would go to Panama City every year.

In 1961 I was working and attending college at night. The girl I was dating, was going to Panama City with a group of girls, after they graduated. It was surprisingly how many Marietta High School students and Marietta alumni showed up. Even many of our friends who joined the service showed up, one was even AWOL. It was a way of life that we thought would last forever. It was like an annual pilgrimage to the Holy Lands.

The girl I was dating shared


a motel room with a bunch of girls. We partied down by the motel's pool and the beach, which steps led to.

During that week I went deep sea fishing for the first time on Captain Anderson's fishboat and caught a big grouper. It was the largest and won the pot money that day. Ironically, Ronnie Witcher hooked a red snapper by the tail, which was pretty funny. I attended Ronnie's memorial service serval weeks ago.

Back to the party at the motel. Several of the girls were up in their rooms and I thought it would be the teenage show-off thing to do was to climb on the ledge that ran just around 3.5 feet under the window line and climb in their window. Which I was drunk andguy that got knocked out had a warrant out for my arrest.

I avoided that motel after that and whenever I police car would cruise by I would look the other way - just like the fugitive.

Mama's Aunts and Uncles

These are my grandfather's siblings, my mother's father's brothers and sisters. They grew up and died in Murray County, Ga., near an area just south of the Tennessee line, south of Cleveland, Tennessee.

The two women standing and the man on the left never married. They lived in a un-painted Norman Bates looking house on a hill in the middle of a big farm.

The man sitting in the middle was a crafty horse-trader type of farmer. He lived just down the road, also in a big two story house, but his


was painted white. One of his two sons became a millionaire farmer and on his huge farm was an airfield registered with the FA. He also owned a bank in Chatsworth.

The man on the right moved to Detroit as a young man to find work and married a Detroit native and spent most his adult life there, but retired back near his relatives. One time his brothers and sisters had to hold him down while his cousin Willis, a country doctor, amputated his frostbit toes. I don't know much else about him except his daughter joined a carnival and left home.

Lets get back to the brother and sisters who lived together in the big unpainted house. As a preteen I used to love to visit them. He hadin the parlor taking a swig out of the brown jug. The great uncle leaped up very serious looking and yanked the shotgun out of my hand. He said it was loaded. Boy, was that embarrassing!

His name was Wesley. His sisters were Alice and Nancy. Later Alice died and Nancy broke her leg or hip and it didn't set right, so she could not get around so she was put in a rest home. After Wesley was living alone the house caught on fire and Wesley burned up with the house.

After my mother heard about Wesley dying in the fire she cried and cried. She was closer to her daddy's siblings than I realized.

Also they were the family artifacts keepers. They kept in the house the heirlooms handed


down and most of the family portraits, photographs, etc. - up in smoke.

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Gobble Gobble!

Another Teen Dies In a Wreck

Yesterday before Anna got home I heard on the TV news of a "deadly" accident on Bryant Lane. Bryant Lane is the road that my street runs into. They showed a overview from a helicopter and there below was a dump drunk and a smashed in car. The news said one person was killed. I heard and felt the helicopter’s prop rotations. On the news it looked like the traffic was backed up. By the best I could tell it was about a quarter mile away.

I called Anna and asked where was she and she said turning onto Bryant Lane. I advised her to turn off thethe Museum of Modern Art. Sam took us to see the play FANTASTICKS which was just getting started good as an Off-Broadway play in the Village.

We also went to Sea Side Heights, to ponder our thoughts at the ocean, which was 13 miles away. We went to movies in Lakewood, about 5 miles north, bars in Toms River, about 5 miles east, whatever at Atlantic City, about 40 miles south, Philadelphia, 40 miles west, and above that was New Hope, Pennsylvania, which was a artsy kind of place. New Hope was in Bucks County, Pa., I remember reading a book “Devil In Bucks County” which was pretty good and I believe it helped us to serve sort of a guide.

In the Personnel Office it didn’t take long for


served in WWII, he settled in Newark, NJ, and after he retired came back to Marietta, but he wasn't around in my formative years like Doug was.

Doug loved to kid his nieces and nephews. You had a very quick wit and we would think he didn't have a serious bone in him.

He almost was a professional baseball player one time. A scout came to town to watch him play, and left, without leaving any promises. And wasn't heard from again.

Doug and Lolagene had three children, two girls and a boy.

I remember one time on one of those Sunday afernoon visits Doug taking my father and me around behind his garage to show us his new possession: A hog in a pen, which was completely out of character forhim... he had more of a city-bred way about him.

In the summer of 1985 he called me and asked me was I going to the Hunter Reunion in Blairsville, Ga., that year and I said yes. He asked did we have room for him, he would like to go and meet the distant cousins he didn't know and I said we had plenty of room, I was the only going. Anna or the boys didn't want to go.

He went with me and we had some nice quality time together. He was no longer the jester. He was now more sincere and serious. He told me his son's wife had a baby just a day or so before.

He got to meet his long lost cousins, some he knew already


but didn't know they were cousins - they knew each other from working at Lockheed.

One of our Hunter cousins, Austine, who was a grammar school principal, wife of a University of Georgia professor, took Doug and I to meet her father, who was at home alone, he was about 90 years old. She showed us around the house and pointed out bullet holes in the wall, ceiling, and floor, where the Hunters had a ruckus one time.

Doug really enjoyed that trip. I also took him to the cemetery of our ancestor, John Hunter, and to John's cabin that is still standing.

Doug died about 6 months later.

Recently I discovered that in 1946, Doug picture was in a group picture of the Marietta Fire Department. Digging deeper, by a cousin,are either going down hill or up hill. And the incline of the hilly area is steeper than what I have been pampering myself with on the treadmill.

Sunday and since my thigh leg muscles are very tight and sore. It is painful to walk up and down the stairs to the basement.

Monday, April 17, 2006

Christms 1926 - Ho Ho

This is my mother-in-law's family and extended family. My mother-in-law is the little girl up front on the right holding a doll, and next to her is her brother. Another brother is in the middle row.

Her brother next to her went into the Marines during WWII and afterwards had a career with the Postal Service. He died within a few years. The little boy in the middle went into the


Army, the Air Army, that is, and became a pilot. After the war he became a TWA pilot and now is retired. He, his wife, and my mother-in-law generally meet at a restaurant on most Sundays for dinner. There was one other daugther to reach adulthood and she became a banker and died about ten years ago. Two or three siblings died as babies.

Have you ever noticed with old pictures you rarely see people smile? I doubt if the photographer told every body to say "cheeeese!" on the court of three.

Dahlonega

Up until 1832 it was illegal for white men to come north of the Chattahoochee River in Georgia. A treaty existed to keep white men out that was signed by the representatives of the Creek Indians, Cherokee Indians,moonshine haul was something of a status symbol. The movie “Thunder Road” impressed us.

My senior year in high school, I think it was probably spring of 1960, a friend found out that their was a certain cliff north of Dahlonega that at the foot of it, many feet down, were a bunch of cars that went off the road. Some of the people there in Lumpkin County, and neighboring Fannin and Union Counties after they got tired of paying car payments would push their cars off that certain cliff and collect the money from the insurance.

Several of us decided that we would go up very early one weekend and with a long rope lower ourselves to the bottom and pick prime parts from the various vehicles and hoist


several fallen limbs. He loved to build fires of big logs, which he did – in the middle of the road, in a outward bend, which hid by the geography of the road…. Gasp!

We continued to talk about old times, good times, and what all. Then, off in the distance we heard a truck shifting gears on the mountain terrain. We knew it was headed towards us. We tried stomping out the fire, we tried moving the burning logs but couldn’t because they were covered in flames and the truck was getting louder and louder.

Oh shit! Was about our only verbal response.

Around the corner its headlights materialized and his brakes begin to squall. We took off to the side of the road.

In a last minute decision the drivercemetery by the road. And also road by the future property my uncle bought for a weekend cabin…. Which I am going to use for a future blog.

We timed it pretty good and arrived back at the site at daybreak and lowered the rope. Larry went down, then Gene, then me. The other Larry was going to stay up top to raise the rope as we died parts to it.

Half-way down I began to feel woozy. On a dangling rope with many feet straight down I was getting sick. I couldn’t let go. I hung on for dear life and vomited. Which splattered on Gene. He took it good stride and even laughed about it.

Gene had about 2 months to live at that point. He was in a


drag race, which he collided head-on with a policeman, a Mr. Hood, who had just left his house for dinner, and apparently forgot to turn on his headlights. He and Gene were killed instantly. Gene was a freshman at Georgia Tech.

We got to the bottom and there were 3 cars. Larry looked around each one and anything of value had already been stripped off.

So, back home.

Dahlonega was just about the only town of any size you would first come to as you went to the north Georgia mountains from Marietta. I remember one time double dating we were getting gas in the middle of town and there was a big sign beside the service station saying, “MAKE PEACE WITH GOD”. Joe, the other male in the car, readthat they are also having a week end long blue-grass fest there. A friend that our son went to Europe with will be there playing with his new band and we would like to hear him play again.

Sunday, April 16, 2006

Brokeback Mountain & Happy Easter or Eostre

Friday we checked out Brokeback Mountain from Blockbuster and last night we got to watch it. I made it plain to the clerk at Blockbuster that it was my wife who wanted to see the movie, and I pointed out to the car, which she was sitting in.

The movie was very good. The photography was spell bounding. And as everybody knows by now it was a romance story of two cowpokes (get it?) who, had a fling while herding sheep on Brokeback


in his appearances. Before he and his older brother Twiddledee parted company Twiddledum walked behind and in step with his brother, wearing a crew cut, military camouflage fatigues, and pants tucked into his boots.

Then Twiddledum apparently moved in with a 40ish car window representative with an Arby’s and after that he became sloppy. I saw him twice at Krogers with his little short redheaded roomy buying groceries. The Arby window sales representative would carefully check his list and his coupons, carefully getting the most for the money. And Twiddledum had a dirty tee-shirt with food stains all over it and looked like he in the second or third week wearing it, and he looked exhausted. He leaned over the grocery cart as he pushed it.

I wondered what happenedto Twiddledee. Did Twiddledum get mad and move in the Arby’s man or did Twiddledum find it lonely in the old house by himself and Twiddledum invited the Arby’s man to move in with him. And if so, where was Twiddledee?

Buried under the house?

Part of the mystery was solved today. The part that Twiddledee was buried under the house or not.

Twiddledee is not buried under the house. He is alive and well.

Today at Krogers I saw Twiddledee and Twiddledum standing beside the old white car their grandparents used to own, getting ready to buy groceries. Twiddledum was again looking neat with a short haircut and clean pressed clothes and his military uniform. As I walked by they was getting a live lily out of the trunk of their


the circumstances in which it is applicable. In some instances it has been treated as a rule, inhering in the very nature and definition of every contract, which requires the assent of a party to whom a proposal is made to be signified to the party making it, in order to constitute a binding promise; in others it has been considered as a rule springing from the peculiar nature of the contract of guaranty, which requires, after the formation of the obligation of the guarantor, and as one of its incidents, that notice should be given of the intention of the guarantee to act under it, as a condition of the promise of the guarantor.
The former is the sense in which the rule is to be understood asis not of itself a bar.
There was a question made at the trial as to the meaning of the word "overdrafts," as used in the guaranty. It was contended that it would not include the debit balance of account charged to Gordon & Murray, and assumed by Gordon & Co., as their successors, before the guaranty was made, nor charges of interest accrued upon the balances of Gordon & Co.'s account, which were entered to the debit of the account. The reason alleged was, that no formal checks were given for these amounts. The point was not urged in argument at the bar, and was very properly abandoned. The charges were legitimate and correct, and the balance of the account to the debit of Gordon & Co. was


favor of the amendments hereinbefore provided for, G.S. § 52-4 shall be repealed and said repeal shall be effective on the date the Governor certifies the amendments to the Secretary of State. Section 4.1 provided: "From and after the date of certification of the amendments set out in Section 1 of this Act, wherever the word `spouse' appears in the General Statutes with reference to testate or intestate successions, it shall apply alike to both husband and wife." This Act was ratified on 26 June 1963. A majority of votes cast by the qualified voters of this State on 14 *741 January 1964 were in favor of the amendments, and such result was duly certified by the Governor of the State of North Carolina on 6 February 1964.
TheAct, wherever the word "spouse" appears in the General Statutes with reference to testate or intestate succession, it shall apply alike to both husband and wife.'"
Section 4 of this Act provides that it shall be in full force and effect from and after its ratification. It was ratified on 8 June 1965.
Pursuant to Chapter 1209, Session Laws 1963, the constitutional amendment to Article X, Section 6 was submitted to a vote of the people on 14 January 1964, and was approved, and the result of the vote was duly certified on 6 February 1964. In Section 4 of the Act it is expressly provided that if a majority of the voters cast their votes in favor of the amendment, "the amendment so certified shall be in full force


100th day of school

Resource Information

The work 100th day of school represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Worthington Public Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

After counting down the school days, it is finally the 100th Day of School! Readers will love learning about how this popular milestone is celebrated in the classroom. This book includes fun and challenging activities that exercise both the mind and body. Children will enjoy learning how other children around the world celebrate this eventtheir star witness before the Mueller investigation is done."

Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina, the House Freedom Caucus chairman and a close GOP ally of Trump on the oversight panel, hinted at the acrimony Cohen should expect from the Republican questioners.

"I think it's strange that the very first big hearing, the witness is a convicted felon who's going to prison because he lied to Congress," Meadows said.

Cohen could use his willingness to testify as a way to appeal for a more reduced sentence, though there is no agreement with prosecutors to consider that. He is due to start his three-year sentence on March 6.


DVD Review – A Woman’s Face

A Woman’s Face

A Woman’s Face is certainly not the strongest George Cukor film, nor is it the best Joan Crawford film I watched in the last two weeks but it was alright.

The film tells the story of Anna Holm, played by Joan Crawford, who is a shrewd businesswoman with a horribly scarred face. The film is a long flashback sequence that doesn’t play too well. Holm happens across a plastic surgeon who offers to rebuild her face and give her back the beauty she had lost. After the surgery Holm does a 180, marries, and moves out the country. But her past will not leave her alone.

One issue I take with the film is also one of its strengths. At its release JoanAsk America series

It's a way we find new perspectives on big issues or unearth interesting stories happening across the US

You can sign up for our Ask America newsletter - where BBC readers are sharing stories and asking questions

Intervention

One 24-year-old recent graduate shared his experience of calling out male colleagues after two women at a previous workplace told him the men had been behaving inappropriately.

"The guys had been flirting and it was going overboard - asking the women to go to a club and a hotel afterwards, with the express interest of having sex," explained Callian Stokes.

"Overall the men were very sexist, telling women that moving a chair was a man's job. We ended up having a meeting to address the issue along with some other interns who were


This election season, fiscal conservatives own the GOP grassroots.

The coalition Ronald Reagan assembled of fiscal and economic conservatives, evangelicals, and national-security advocates has always been dominated by the social issues at the grassroots level. While free-market economic conservatives lived in New York and dutifully attended their Club for Growth meetings and national-security types inhabited Washington, the Republican social conservatives dominated the grassroots of the party. They alone could turn out the numbers to rallies and to the polls on primary or Election Day.

Now, all that has changed. It is the fiscal conservatives and free-market supporters who own the Republican streets. Through the Tea Party, they have come to dominate the grassroots of the GOP. It is as if an invisible primary were held for supremacy at the grassrootsThis swing of voter sentiment might reflect the growth of the evangelical community of believers or simply the aging of the baby-boomer population. But even as the right to lifers move toward a national majority, their clout at the grassroots level of the Republican party is waning.

But despite this growing support for pro-life policies, no Republican candidate is basing his or her insurgency against an incumbent Democratic congressman, senator, or governor on social issues. There are no ads urging the ouster of a Democrat for his pro-choice policies or backing of gay marriage. All the ads and the rhetoric are devoted to fiscal transgressions like support of the stimulus package, the TARP bailout, or Obamacare.

The failure of presidential candidate Mike Huckabee to win the GOP nomination in 2008


was, in retrospect, a harbinger of this grassroots shift. Governor Huckabee starred in the Republican debates with his witty sallies against big government and his commonsense folk wisdom. He capitalized on this strong performance to build mighty field organizations in Iowa and other early primary states. He looked like a real contender.

But the attacks on his spending programs in Arkansas by the Club for Growth — often inaccurate or exaggerated — undermined his ability to reach beyond the confines of the evangelical ghetto and doomed his candidacy to a regional one. He won state after state in the South but had trouble making inroads in the northeast. (If Huckabee runs again in 2012, it will be interested to see how his hosting of a weekend show on FoxNews will affect his standing.)

But the Tea Party has flourished in all regions, drawing libertarians in the North and evangelicals in the South, all committed to its agenda of reduced spending, limited taxation, balanced budgets, and free-market economics. It is the new mantra of the Republican grassroots and has a lot to do with the massive gains the party will win on November 2.

– Dick Morris and Eileen McGann are the authors of 2010: Take Back America: A Battle Plan and founders of www.dickmorris.com.


Shin (Bandai Namco Games President)

Kitagawa Naoki (Sony Music Entertainment President)

Noma Yoshinobu (Kodansha President)

Hori Yoshitaka (Horipro President)

Oonishi Hiroshi (Isetan President)

Komoda Masanobu (Mitsui Fudousan President)

Takeda Shinji (Tokyo Broadcasting System President)

Danny Choo (Culture Japan Producer)

The full list of members was announced by METI on their website while the establishment of the Creative Industries Internationalization Committee was announced by the Minister of METI earlier in March.

While I have been working with the Japanese government on various projects for a few years now, I didn't expect to be asked to take on such an key role. As a committee member, apart from making your voice heard, one of the things I do is make recommendations on how Japan should allocate budget to various products, services or contents which not only helps promote JapaneseZoey Leigh Peterson

Zoey Leigh Peterson was born in England, grew up all over the United States, and now lives in Canada. Her fiction has appeared in TheWalrus, Grain, PRISMinternational, and has been anthologized in The Journey Prize Stories and Best Canadian Stories. She is the recipient of the Far Horizons Award for Short Fiction (The Malahat Review) and the Peter Hinchcliffe Fiction Award (The New Quarterly). Next Year, For Sure is her first novel.

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SALT LAKE CITY -- The expectations didn't quite match the actuality as a crowd of about 100 people gathered in City Creek Park, some to sign letters of resignation from the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and most to show support for those resigning.

The event organizers expected between 400 and 600 to attend but said they are pleased with how it went anyway.

"The purpose of this sort of event, demonstration, protest, is to give voice to the people that are marginalized within the LDS religious community," organizer Micah Nickolaisen said.

On a park bench in the middle of the crowd, Tamara Fox sat penning her letter of resignation.

Now 33, Fox said she stopped attending about 10 years ago. She considers her resignation a statement of solidaritywith women who, unlike her, want to remain in the faith while voicing support for women's ordination.

"I'm particularly excited to be here today because the reason I initially stopped participating in the church is because of issues of gender and the way that women are treated in the church," Fox said.

Fox referred specifically to Kate Kelly, the founder of Ordain Women, who was excommunicated from the LDS Church by a disciplinary council in Virginia on June 23.

After a few short speeches spoken through a megaphone, the crowd marched around Temple Square before depositing letters of resignation in a mailbox across from the Lion House on State Street and South Temple.

The LDS Church staff were not working Thursday due to the state holiday and could not be reached for


The
mysterious polar craters of the moon,
often hidden in shadow, will soon be shown in a new
light. NASA scientists
are currently working to offer up illuminating details of their
topography for the first time with the most precise
and complete map to date, thanks to NASA's
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and
the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA).

According
to NASA's web page, LOLA, which is on board the LRO
spacecraft, works by propagating a single laser pulse through a
Diffractive Optical Element that splits it into five beams. The beams
strike and are backscattered from the lunar surface. From the return
pulse, the LOLA electronics determines the time of flight which,
accounting for the speed of light, provides a precise measurement of
the range from the spacecraft to the lunar surface.

"Recent
papers have clarified some aspects of lunar processes based solely on
the more precise

LimeWire, a popular file sharing application that offers users access to music, movie and other downloads via the decentralized gnutella network developed by Justin Frankel, the late Gene Kan and others, has more than doubled the size of its music store catalog by adding around 1.2 million tracks from music distributor The Orchard.

"This is a way to partner with artists and labels to provide a way to connect the artist and the fan, and just to be a contributor to a new and exciting music industry," said LimeWire CFO Jesse Rubenfeld. "We think there's interest in this product, and we've made a large investment to offer a quality program. We're excited about it."

While bit torrent clients and online music services generally offer a wider range of music than


Words: Steve Brown

Manchester police have released images of potential suspects after a man was raped and robbed during a night out in the Gay Village.

The 28-year-old victim reportedly met two men in Canal Street on April 3 when he was raped and robbed while walking towards Back Piccadilly, Manchester Evening News.

Now, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) have released three images of men they want to speak with in connection to the attack.

Police believe the men travelled on a National Express service to London via Birmingham.

Detective Constable Louise Kelly said: “Since the attack, we’ve been following numerous lines of inquiry, but unfortunately we have yet to find the men responsible.

“We have now released images of three men we want to speak to. Anyone who recognises these men should get inmany quadrants? Otherwise you're talking about Crestview, Defuniak Springs, Panama City, Chipley, Pensacola, Ft. Walton Beach, Milton, Freeport, Quincy, etc. etc.

Last night we were at 70 degrees (Hurlburt Field) while Tampa was at 54! Also the highs in the area of 77 and 78 matched Miami and Key West for highest in the state. Gotta love that southwesterly flow!

Nothing tornadic, severe, or even thundery with the latest frontal system passage. Lots of rain, mainly the "steady soaking" kind. 1.32 inches of rain total from the system. Now its cloudy with temperatures on the decrease.

The NWS Storm Prediction Center has issued a
Tornado Watch for portions of

a large part of Alabama
far western Florida Panhandle
parts of northwest Georgia
parts of southeast Mississippi
coastal waters

Effective this Wednesday morning from 140 am until 800 am


Earlier this year, Warner Bros. announced that Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens would offer some content exclusively for people who buy the game on PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 3.

The developer has now detailed the Droids Character Pack, which is one of two PlayStation-exclusive add-ons. As explained on the PlayStation Blog, the the droids featured in the pack include the following:

R5-D4 (the droid Luke Skywalker bought in the first film before it malfunctioned and he opted for R2-D2)

IG-88 (from Star Wars: Episode V -- The Empire Strikes Back)

Captain Battle Droid, Super Battle Droid, Captain Commando Droid (from Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series)

General Grievous

ME-8D9 (from Star Wars: The Force Awakens)

W1-LE (from Star Wars: Rebels animated series)

Vulture-class droid starfighter for flight levels

Microfighter version (for the the game's fiveClarence “Slim” Watrin competing at the Calgary Stampede. He won the North American bronc riding championship at the Calgary Stampede in 1928. His brother Leo won the Canadian championship at Calgary that same year.

PHOTO COURTESY OF LAWRENCE BEWS COLLECTION

Crossing western Canada by horse and wagon to homestead near Okotoks in the early 1900s might have provided the grit for the Watrin family to compete at the Calgary Stampede.

The Watrin brothers — Clarence (Slim), Eddie, Leo and Lawrence — were mainstays and champions in the saddle bronc at the Calgary Stampede in the 1930s.

“Their dad died when the boys were teenagers or younger,” said Lawrence Bews, a nephew of the Watrin brothers. “The boys were faced with farm life, riding horses and steers — I just think they were


rough and tumble kids who learned to ride on their own.”

The school of hard knocks paid off.

“The two older boys (Clarence and Eddie) started riding local rodeos and stampedes — Black Diamond, Chestermere Lake, Hand Hills — before making their debut in Calgary in 1923,” Bews said.

The Watrins had already proven their toughness. The four brothers were part of a large family — 21 children (a first and second wife) — which made the trek from Minnesota to the family farm approximately two kilometres west of the now defunct Magcan plant off of Highway 2A. The rodeo brothers were 10 or younger when they made the journey.

Leo and Slim would set the Okotoks-High River area abuzz when they swept the saddle bronc titles in 1928 at the CalgaryStampede.

Leo won the Canadian bronc riding championship in Calgary that year, while Slim was the North American champion.

“They were separate events in those days — the Canadians could compete for the Canadian championship and everybody would compete for the North American,” Bews said. “The Watrins won them both that year.”

Leo nearly defended his Canadian championship in 1929 and 1930, finishing second both years.

In 1930 he was second to the legendary Pete Knight, the King of the Cowboys, from Crossfield.

Tragically, it would be Leo’s last Calgary Stampede.

“Leo was changing a tire just south of Calgary (not far from the current Okotoks overpass) and he got hit by a passing motorist not long after the Stampede,” Bews said.

“He was in the prime of his career when he got killed at


24 years of age.

“I think Leo would have been the best of them, but Clarence went on to win more championships.”

Clarence “Slim” Watrin would win the Canadian championship at Calgary in 1931, earning $750. His brothers Eddie and Lawrence also picked up day money in 1931.

Slim was inducted into the Canadian Professional Rodeo Hall of Fame in 1984.

Eddie’s best Stampede was in 1930, when he finished fourth in the North American championship.

He would win several rodeos, including Portland in 1932.

However, it was seven years earlier that Eddie caught the rodeo world’s attention.

“Midnight was a very famous bucking horse and Eddie might have been the first to ride him in 1925 in Edmonton,” he said. “Pete Knight would ride him again a year later in Montreal.”

The Watrins brothers wereOne of the youngest directors of Bengali cinema, Sandip Ray was born of Satyajit Ray and Bijoya Ray on September 8, 1953. He almost grew up on father Satyajit Ray’s sets, beginning as a still photographer while still in school. Sandip started off by assisting his father on Shatranj Ke Khiladi (The Chess Players) in 1977. Earlier he had worked with Ray as a production photographer in a few projects. Ray went on to praise Sandip saying that he was "the best assistant that I have ever had". His own directorial debut was in the year 1983, with the classical children’s fiction, Phatik Chand, which told the endearing story of a child kidnapped from his home and his adventures after he loses his memory in an accident. The


film went on to receive an award at the International Children's Film Festival in Vancouver.

This was followed by two televised serials (in 15 episodes) based mostly on stories by his father and the filming of Goopy Bagha Phire Elo (The Return of Goopy and Bagha 1991), a sequel to the delightful children's film by Ray, Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne.

Incidentally it was from the legacy of Feluda, the fictional private detective created by Ray and immortalised by actor Soumitra Chattopadhyay as the on-screen avatar, that Sandip Ray experienced true commercial success. HisBombayer Bombete and the other Feluda films that followed had a certain cinematic dynamism about them, creating a different ‘Feluda’ in starkly different times, yet retaining the original experience intact.

Ray on Sandip

“… Sandip is handicapped by the additionalweight of being my son. His latest work – The Return of Goopy & Bagha is cent percent his own work. Only the plot and a few songs were mine. But the direction, the photography, the script were all Sandip's. In his handling of the camera, he is a master. His skill is better than mine. The bravura work of his cinematography is incomparable...” said Satyajit Ray in his interview given on 4 January, 1992, to Tim McGrick of The Independent, London.

His Filmography

Goopy Bagha Phire Elo (The Return of Goopy and Bagha), 1991 (Akira Kurosawa Award, San Fransisco International Film Festival 1992)

Uttaran (The Broken Journey), 1993 (Glauber Rocha Award as the best political film, Chili 1994)

Target, 1995 (The best film of the festival according to the viewers' opinion


except the third (Julie and Nathan's story). But then I found Julie's character to be a little annoying, although better than most "I'm an outspoken woman cliche" characters, and I thought Nathan had no personality. Plus the sex was either uncomfortable or boring.

That said the other three are HOT.

Read in the bed of a highlander or whatever it's called, felt like I was reading a Julie Garwood novel. Very different from her sweet series.

I just finished Saddled and Spurred, the 2nd book in Lorelei James' Black Top Cow Boy series. It was pretty typical James, in terms of heat level and the Wyoming setting. I liked the heroine a lot, a beauty queen who is a very hard worker and devoted to her family to a fault. SheSANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Upon his hiring as the San Francisco 49ers' head coach in February of last year, one of Kyle Shanahan's first and most important tasks was finding a capable defensive coordinator.

For Shanahan, who cut his teeth in the NFL as an offensive coach, finding someone capable of acting as defensive CEO was of the utmost importance. That figured to be a difficult task, though, considering that many of the other newly hired head coaches had already filled their staffs.

The Niners kicked the tires on experienced coaches such as Gus Bradley, who took the Los Angeles Chargers' defensive coordinator job, and showed at least some level of interest in Chicago Bears defensive coordinator Vic Fangio. Meanwhile, new Rams coach Sean McVay scored one of the ultimate


coups, landing Wade Phillips as his defensive coordinator. It was a move that essentially allowed McVay to turn the defense to Phillips and focus on what he knows best.

Under Robert Saleh, the Niners' defense made steady improvement in 2017. Robin Alam/Icon Sportswire

Alas, Shanahan had no such choices. After combing through some of the coaches he knew who could install the system he wanted, Shanahan landed on then-Jacksonville Jaguars linebackers coach Robert Saleh. Shanahan and Saleh had worked together with the Houston Texans when Saleh was a quality control coach.

"I always really respected how he worked," Shanahan said. "I thought he was always a very smart guy. I’ve kept in touch with him over the years and played against him a number of times. So I felt really goodand 25th in points allowed per game (23.94).

But those numbers represented a step forward in all of those categories since 2016. That season, the Niners finished last in yards allowed (406.4), 29th in yards per play (5.9) and last in points allowed per game (30).

Those statistics also don't tell the whole story. After quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo took over as the starter in Week 13, the Niners' defense finally wasn't on the field for most of the game and was able to cut it loose and attack. During the final five weeks, the Niners ranked seventh in yards allowed (301.8), ninth in yards per play (4.96) and tied for ninth in points allowed per game (19.8).

Robert Saleh said that he liked how his Niners' defense played with "violence" late


in the season, including in a win over the Texans in Week 14. AP Photo/Eric Christian Smith

After finishing as one of the worst run defenses in NFL history in 2016, the Niners improved to 22nd in rushing yards allowed per game (116.3) and seventh in yards allowed per rush (3.79). The jump was even more eye-popping in those final five weeks, when the Niners no longer found themselves trailing as teams ran the ball nonstop. From Week 13 on, the Niners were fourth in rushing yards allowed (87.2) and yards per rush (3.52).

All of those were steps in the right direction for the 49ers' defense, but Saleh recognizes that there is plenty of room for improvement heading into 2018.

"I don’t want to sound cliché, but you want toA Bronx father pleaded guilty Tuesday to suffocating his 8-month-old son with blankets — in exchange for three to nine years in prison.

Claude Tinnin, 21, copped to one count of second-degree manslaughter in Manhattan Supreme Court for the tragic demise of little August Tinnin on March 22, 2018.

Tinnin allegedly admitted to investigators that he smoked marijuana then wrapped the baby in multiple blankets and sheets, completely covering his head and mouth, then placed him on his stomach for a nap while caring for the tot inside the Rutgers Houses on the Lower East Side.

His girlfriend returned home and found August in his crib, looking pale and blue, and started screaming, according to court papers.

The baby was rushed to a hospital but couldn’t be saved, and a doctor there


have since placed in the care of an uncle.

Tinnin also copped to aggravated criminal contempt for violating an order of protection barring him from contact with his girlfriend and kids at the time of the tragedy.

The protective order stemmed from allegations he roughed her up when she was pregnant, but the charges were later dropped.

Tinnin is due back in court Sept. 10 for sentencing.saying. “I intend as a United States Senator, between now and Election Day, to do everything I can to make sure Donald Trump does not become the next President of the United States,” according to ABC News.

It is rather telling that his stated goal was not to ensure that Hillary Clinton was the next president, but rather to prevent Trump from gaining the presidency.

In reality, it all comes down to Bernie’s base supporters who could almost never agree unanimously on supporting Hillary Clinton, but who certainly would never want Donald Trump as their president.

For Sanders, keeping a distance between himself and Clinton is key in keeping together the grassroots movement that formed behind him after his campaign ended.

Sanders and his group founded an organization that promotes the progressive


One Book, One Week. And a little life mixed in.

The Healthy Green Drink Diet

Earth Day was on April 22, so I thought it would be fun to select a “green” cookbook. The top 3 choices included a healthy cookbook, a green juice cookbook, and a Rick Bayless cookbook with a green cover. H looked through all three and selected the green juice book, primarily because I limit her juice intake and she looked at this as an opportunity for more juice. Or so she thought!

We bought a juicer about 4 months after Jeff and I married and moved to Minnesota. With the abundance of apples and fall orchard festivals in Minnesota, we thought it would be fun to have fresh apple juice. It was heavily used for aboutin the Songshan District at the intersection of Dunhua North Rd. and Nanjing East Rd. At the end of the year 2000, the Taipei City government decided to replace the ballpark with a 15,000-seat multipurpose stadium. Construction began on November 12, 2005 and was completed on July 27, 2005. The stadium officially opened for use on December 1, 2005 and was named the “Taipei Arena.”


to over 25 career advice podcasts on topics including resume basics, interviewing, and personal branding.

Browse and sign-up for upcoming workshops, programs, and events at NOVA and in the surrounding area.

The NOVA ELI Student Blog

The Extended Learning Institute (ELI) is the online learning program at Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA). We offer online courses in over 50 disciplines, with 20 Associate's degrees and 19 certificates available completely online, through ELI. ELI staff, faculty, and students write for ELIfe.Living inside the head of a depressed, alcoholic, drug-addled widower doesn't seem like it would be all that much fun. Certainly not blockbuster video game material. And yet, Rockstar Games is determined. While playing through the first few minutes of Max Payne 3, I'm reminded of the horrors that made Payne the person he is today. The murders of his wife and baby still loom large and, after his vengeful rampage in Max Payne 2, he no longer has his job on the police force to exorcise those demons. So he turns to the bottle, once a close friend, now a lifelong companion.

For a game, this sounds about as much fun as a Requiem for a Dream marathon. Not exactly the sort of thing you'd want to play


at the end of a long day. But Rockstar isn't looking to offer up light, mindless action fodder. They want to tell the story of the man behind the gun, and all the rough, dark corners that come along with that. More than his story, though, they want players to feel like they're seeing and experiencing everything through Payne's eyes.

Jeronimo Barrera, the VP of development at Rockstar Games, explains it simply. "This is a character study," he says. "It's something that you don't really see a lot in games. "We've always wanted to tackle complex characters. Max is no different. A lot of people think of him like a cliché action star, but it's more interesting to dwell in the depression and alcoholism and the addictions." Those addictionsare what define him. In Max Payne 3, as with every Max Payne game, the hero heals his wounds with bottles of pain pills, found in caches scattered throughout levels. Every pill he takes causes his vision to double for a few seconds, emphasizing the damage he's doing to himself. Poetic irony.

Pills and booze aren't his most impactful addictions, though. His addiction for revenge propelled him through the first two games. It's something else he's looking for in Max Payne 3. "He's addicted to redemption," says Barrera. "He's never really gotten over the loss of his wife and child. [He's] kind of looking for a way to break that. He wants to get better and it's sort of this endless struggle of him trying to find that light


at the end of the tunnel."

"The game is about Max's emotional journey into the gutter, and his realizations about that journey."

Dan Houser, the writer of Max Payne 3, explains in an interview with Polygon, where Payne is seeking that redemption.

"Part of him still yearns for a quest," says Houser, "a damsel in distress or some other simplistic and easy to understand scenario in which he can act like a heroic good guy once more, even though last time it did not turn out so good." To tell Payne's story of redemption, Rockstar put a lot of work into getting inside his head. They want players to see the world from his perspective, with all the blurring and haziness that you'd expect from a middle-aged drug addict. In ana few moments, settling to a moderate thud.

Moments later, a door is kicked in and bullets start flying. It's chaos. "Max communicates to the world with his gun," Barrera says. "If that's your sole level of expression in this kind of shooter, it just needs to be so integrated. Everything, not just the mechanics, but the animation, gun mechanisms, the way we render bullets. All those elements make Max more believable because he's in this world and he's very connected through this ability to communicate with a gun." Payne is perceiving the world around him as the player is perceiving it: through shooting, bullet-time, taking damage and through the non-linear cinematics. Payne will have flashbacks. He will jump forward and backward in time. He — and the player


— will find himself in different locations throughout the game and have to react.

"This let us structure the narrative in a more interesting way," says Houser, "using Max's memories as the driver of the story, and crafting a story and a game that is about Max's journey towards some kind of self awareness. "The various flashbacks have been timed in such a way as to shed light on the things Max is experiencing at that moment in time – the game is about Max's emotional journey into the gutter, and his realizations about that journey, so events from the past are only relevant when Max remembers them." For example, the club level ends with Payne looking over at his helicopter pilot, Raul Passos, who convinced him to takeadvanced NASA computer systems and military programs; Bob Pratt, a co-founder and the chief technology officer, was a designer of stealth bomber radar systems. And yet, Mr. Young said, the technology behind the Herbalizer “has been the greatest challenge of our lives.”

The vaporizer heats up in seconds and uses a 32-megahertz processor, a 300-watt halogen bulb and a temperature sensor to release active compounds in the plant selectively, without creating smoke. Ninety percent of Herbalizer’s customers use it for marijuana, Mr. Young said, although drug paraphernalia laws prevent the device from being marketed for that purpose (it is sold instead for use with herbs like peppermint and lavender). The company expects first-year revenue of more than $2 million.

Image Although the bags are awaiting government approval, Mr. Fortune said


Hawk Headlines – Happenings at Holy Name School – 9/19/19

The first official day of Autumn is only days away, and the students and staff at Holy Name School have settled into routines and schedules. This article was written by Brynn Koscho and Mary Golden.

This month Junior High Interscholastic Reading Competition has started with seventh and eighth grade graders students forming a team for the fall competition. Each team member will read a set number of books from the list and become an expert on the story line and characters. Mrs. Alexa Kline is coaching the team members on their ability to recall important facts from each book to prepare for the November competition.

The Officer Phil Safety program sponsored by the Ebensburg Police visited our school yesterday. This programJohn Papapolymerou Tapped for Prestigious IEEE Committee

Ioannis "John" Papapolymerou has been appointed to a two-year term on the IEEE TAB Periodicals Review and Advisory Committee (PRAC).

This committee monitors the timeliness, appropriateness, and quality of all IEEE society- and council-sponsored periodicals, with reviews of all periodicals taking place every five years. In addition to the committee chair, the group is comprised of chairs from the TAB periodicals, magazines, newsletters, and transactions committees, as well as up to seven additional members.

Dr. Papapolymerou has been on the faculty of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech since 2001, and since 2011, he has also served as the associate director for the Georgia Electronic Design Center.


The release of Fallout 76 may still be months away, but that hasn’t stopped droves of fans from getting out to West Virginia to celebrate the upcoming release. A fan event on Sunday saw fans travel to an unofficial meetup at Camden Park; the iconic West Virginia amusement park (and the only amusement park in the state).

The Fallout 76 Event at Camden Park

Camden Park is expected to be one of many iconic West Virginian locations to feature in Fallout 76. Certainly, fans have already seemed to have singled it out as a key location featured in one of the trailers. The announcement of Fallout 76 has prompted a surge of interest in West Virginia, and a park supervisor was quoted last month; “This is kind of a first,340 F.3d 87
Eleanor SHERMAN and Armen Nishanian, as parents of son Grant Nishanian, Plaintiffs-Appellees,v.MAMARONECK UNION FREE SCHOOL DISTRICT, Sherry King, Individually and in her capacity as Superintendent of the Mamaroneck Union Free School District, Michael Luzzi, Individually and in his capacity as Section 504 Coordinator, Mark Orfinger, Individually and in his capacity as High School Principal, Anne Garcia, Individually and in her capacity as Unit Principal of Mamaroneck High School, Jane Friedlander, Dr., and Mamaroneck Union Free School Board, Defendants, andMamaroneck Union Free School District, Defendant-Appellant.
Docket No. 02-7335.
United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.
Argued: October 23, 2002.
Decided: August 12, 2003.

MARK C. RUSHFIELD, Shaw & Perelson, LLP, Highland, New York, for Defendant-Appellant.
JOHN W. FREEMAN, Jamaica, New York, for Plaintiffs-Appellees.
Before: WINTER, McLAUGHLIN, and CABRANES, Circuit Judges.
WINTER, Circuit Judge.

1
The Mamaroneck Union


Free School District ("School District") appeals from Judge Brieant's decision that it violated the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act ("IDEA"), 20 U.S.C. § 1400 et seq. The issue on appeal is whether the district court erred when it concluded that appellant had denied Grant Nishanian ("Grant") a free appropriate public education by denying him use of an advanced calculator in a particular mathematics class. Because the district court failed to give proper deference to the administrative rulings of the Impartial Hearing Officer ("IHO") and State Review Officer ("SRO"), we vacate and order entry of judgment for appellant.

BACKGROUND

2
a) Origins of the Dispute

3
Prior to entering high school, Grant was classified by the School District's Committee on Special Education ("CSE") as "learning disabled" because of a disorder affecting his ability inbut apparently before receiving the IEP, Grant's mother, appellee Eleanor Sherman ("Sherman"), requested that the School District allow Grant to use a more advanced calculator, the Texas Instruments Model 92 ("TI-92"), in his upcoming Math 3A class. Notes from a meeting held in May, 1998, indicate that it was agreed that Grant's teachers would determine whether use of the TI-92 during tests would be appropriate.

6
On or about June 16, 1998, Sherman received the IEP for Grant's junior year. Although Sherman signed a form indicating that she consented to implementation of the IEP, she also noted that she did so "under protest regarding study in Biology, and Geometry Sketch pad instruction only." Sherman did not raise the issue of Grant's use of a TI-92 calculator in her consent to


capability. It would, therefore, be inappropriate for him to retake tests using the TI-92 to factor.

10
b) School District Proceedings

11
On December 18, 1998, following communications with members of the Board of Education and an unsuccessful appeal to the School District's superintendent, Grant and his parents met with the building principal, the School District's Assistant Superintendent for Administration and Personnel, the Assistant Supervisor of Special Education, and Grant's resource room teacher. They discussed, inter alia, the procedures to be followed when Grant took tests and quizzes, his use of a calculator and laptop computer, and the method of grading to be applied in his math class.

12
In a letter dated December 18, 1998, Principal Mark P. Orfinger summarized the results of the meeting, namely, that Grant would not be allowed touse the TI-92 either in class or during exams. The letter also stated that Grant's first marking period grades would not count towards his final grade in Math 3A and that he would be given an alternative assessment — limited to use of the TI-82 — in order to allow him to demonstrate mastery of the topics taught prior to December 18, 1998. Ms. Peikes testified that she provided Grant with this alternative assessment over the Christmas holiday period but that he never turned in the work.

13
c) Administrative Proceedings

14
Following receipt of Principal Orfinger's letter, Sherman sent letters to the building principal and the superintendent of schools expressing dissatisfaction with the outcome and alleging that her son was being discriminated against on the basis of his disability. Sherman had


that he was capable of factoring with the assistance of the TI-82. The only testimony to the contrary was from Grant himself, but even this testimony was undermined by his admission that the TI-82 was sufficient for him to answer questions in Math 3A. Moreover, Grant's Math 3A teacher demonstrated how the TI-82 could be used to factor, albeit in a step-by-step process. There was also evidence that Grant was responsible for his failing grades in Math 3A. The School District provided Grant with an alternative assessment in December 1998, but he never completed the work. In other exams, he refused even to attempt to answer questions, although his own testimony and his work with Grapka showed at least some ability to factor with regard to those questions.

39
Infive examples:

Miami-Dade Police say officers had to fire after the teen pulled a gun.

Jerry Iannelli is Miami New Times’ daily-news reporter. He graduated with honors from Temple University in Philadelphia, where he developed a reputation for pestering college officials until they cursed at him. He then earned his master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University. He moved to South Florida in 2015.


Kevin Garnett goes down: Late in the first quarter, Garnett went up for a wide-open dunk, held on to the rim for an extra second as he grimaced in pain and limped up the floor on his left leg. Moments later, Celtics trainer Ed Lacerte worked on the same right leg that kept Garnett from finishing the 2008-09 season and hobbled him last year. Then, the official word: Garnett was out for the remainder of the game with a “lower right leg injury.”

Later, the Celtics stressed it was not a knee or ankle issue, but indeed a lower right leg injury. Garnett underwent X-rays, which showed no fractures, and he’ll have an MRI on Thursday. He walked to the locker and training rooms on his own accord.

Is itWhat’s On In Japan This June

One of the best times to visit Japan is in the summer. In the month of June alone, the country holds several dozens of vibrant festivities and events that should make your trip a fun and enjoyable one, something that you will treasure for a long time.

The following are highly recommended festivals and activities in Japan in June that you should not miss:

Izu Shimoda Ajisai (Hydrangea) Festival – June 1-30, 2019

For some gorgeous nature experience, the Hydrangea Festival at Shimoda Park is a must-see event. Throughout the entire month of June, it showcases the 150,000 hydrangea flowers that cover the 81-acre park in full bloom.

Open to the public for free, it offers a nice and pleasant uphill stroll through the hydrangea garden filled


with purple, pink, blue, and white flowers, surrounded by green and thriving forests. Once you reach the top of the hill, you can also enjoy fantastic views of the skies and mountains around.

Yosakoi Soran Festival – June 5-9, 2019

Introduced in 1992, the Yosakoi Soran Festival is a dance festival celebrated in the city of Sapporo in Hokkaido. It features tens of thousands of Japanese and international dancers dressed in colorful outfits, playing their naruko clappers to the melody of Hokkaido’s Soran Bushi folk music.

During the five-day event, visitors can watch dance performances with lively and dynamic choreography on stage or during the parade held at Odori Park and other parts of the city, or even join in and showcase their dancing prowess at the Waodori Square dance floor.to your itinerary. For three days every June, the city holds Tohoku Jibiiru Festival or Craft Beer Festival, which gives visitors the opportunity to get a taste of the different products of the 12 major brewing companies in this part of the country.

More than 100 kinds of beer from Iwate-kura, Akita Aqula, North Island, Tazawa-ko, and other brewers are available to try, and prices start at 500 yen. There are also other meat, snacks, and other Japanese foods for sale that you can pair with your beer.

Sanno Matsuri – June 7-16, 2019

One of the three great festivals of Edo, along with the Kanda Matsuri and the Fukugawa Matsuri, the Sanno Matsuri is an annual celebration held in central Tokyo.

During the 11-day festivities, there are several small events held,


such as Shinto ceremonies and rites. However, the main attraction is the parade that features elaborately decorated floats and portable shrines, starting from and ending at Hie Shrine, a 15th century Shinto shrine in Chiyoda, Tokyo.

This 2019, the event is held from June 7 (Friday) to June 16 (Sunday). You can find more information about Hie Shrine and the festival on the Hie Jinja website.

Himeji Yukata Festival – June 22-24, 2019

With a history that dates back to more than 260 years ago, the Himeji Yukata festival is an ancient Japanese festival where people can enjoy a wide variety of local dishes, drinks, and music at the hundreds of food and drink stalls scattered around Himeji Park, while wearing their yukata or summer kimono.

Worn by men and women, yukatais a type of Japanese clothing that looks like a kimono but is made of cotton or some other light fabric material. It was originally worn by the Japanese as a bathrobe, but its use has expanded to fireworks festivals, bon-odori festivals, and outdoor summer events in the modern times. It is also commonly worn by guests at onsen or hot spring resorts all-year-round.

If you want to attend the event, do not forget to bring your favorite yukata to avail of discounted rates to the Himeji Castle, museum, zoo, and other sites in the city. Also, visit the official Himeji Yukata Festival website for more information.

Izawanomiya Otaue Festival – June 24, 2019

An annual event held in Mie Prefecture, the Izawanomiya Otaue Festival is a Shinto tradition related to


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Maggie Q, the Vietnamese-American actress known for her role alongside Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible III and her leading role in the CW action series Nikita, is confirmed to star in a historical miniseries titled Red Flag.

Set in 1800’s China, Red Flag follows the true story of the famous Ching Shih, a Chinese prostitute who eventually became one of history’s most powerful pirates. Ching gained control of the South China Sea with her crew of 100,000 sailors and over 1500 vessels, and went on to conquer the Imperial Chinese, Portuguese and British navy vessels during her reign of the seas. Ching is reported as having led the most successful crime syndicate in Chinese history.

“It’s exciting to have the opportunity to share Ching Shih’s real-life story with audiencesthat are both familiar and unfamiliar with her prominent history,” Maggie Q said on the latest project, which has yet to be picked up by a television network.

Audrey Magazine is an award-winning national publication that covers the Asian experience from the perspective of Asian American women. Audrey covers the latest talent and trends in entertainment, fashion, beauty and lifestyle.


When Jim Spanfeller and a private equity firm called Great Hill Partners took over G/O Media—formerly Gizmodo Media Group—in April, their stated goal was to make the company profitable. It was a welcome refrain for employees all too aware of how the company had languished under Univision’s doomed ownership. But as Spanfeller began to implement his vision, that hope was replaced by employee frustration and skepticism over his hiring practices and interference with the company’s journalism.

Spanfeller, a man who is regularly and perhaps euphemistically referred to in press accounts as a digital media “veteran,” has so far hired a slew of his former colleagues at Forbes.com—where he was CEO from 2001 to 2009—and Playboy—where he was a senior vice president from 1989 to 1993. These include a seniorhis previous jobs at Forbes, Playboy, and Ziff Davis. They include:

Chief financial officer Tom Callahan, who worked at Forbes while Spanfeller worked there. (Spanfeller told Deadspin that he and Callahan had “only been in a single meeting that I recall.”)

Editorial director Paul Maidment, who worked with Spanfeller at Forbes and The Daily Meal.

Senior vice president of marketing Bruce Rogers, who worked with Spanfeller at Forbes.

Vice president for west coast sales Steve Thompson, who worked with Spanfeller at Playboy, Ziff Davis, and The Daily Meal.

Vice president for east coast sales Sean Flanagan, who worked with Spanfeller at Playboy, Ziff Davis, and The Daily Meal.

Vice president of sales for the south Lance Johnson, who worked with Spanfeller at Forbes (and most recently worked with Bruce Rogers at a company called


time to contribute to Forbes, where he posted 14 articles in July. (“The people I work for and the people who report to me know what I do,” Rogers, 63, told Deadspin in an email.)

Without posting the jobs publicly, Spanfeller hired a stable of white men to fill executive positions overseeing nearly every facet of the company.

The anger stems from Spanfeller’s apparent disregard for his own stated company values, which include a commitment to diversity and inclusion. While cleaning house and bringing in some trusted former colleagues is not entirely uncommon in private-equity acquisitions, Spanfeller filled nearly his entire top layer of management without any public recruitment process; the only woman hired as a department head, head of talent Angela Persaud, was also the only person at thatlevel whose job was posted publicly. A source said Spanfeller told editors-in-chief of the company’s websites that he had chosen Maidment, 68, for the job before the sale was completed and did not interview other candidates, including Banikarim. (Spanfeller says this is inaccurate and that he “did consider other candidates for the editorial director role, but Paul quickly rose to the top after he expressed an interest in the position.”) Three of the men Spanfeller hired were installed over successful women who had been at the company for years. In two cases, women asked for and were promised the opportunity to interview for executive-level positions for which they were qualified, only to see Spanfeller hire one of his former colleagues before they were given a chance to interview.

A


Deadspin she was surprised that Spanfeller seemed to know little about her team, which last year won Digiday’s “best content studio award.”

Then, in early June, former Onion CEO Mike McAvoy, who—until he was separated from the company on July 11—had been leading sales across all the sites, told the SVP that Spanfeller had hired two new sales leaders, Flanagan and Thompson. Former SVP of sales and operations Kurt Mueller had left the company, and McAvoy told the woman Spanfeller was hiring his replacement. McAvoy described the SVP of marketing job as a combination of sales strategy, account management, and managing creative teams—all responsibilities that fell under the SVP’s purview. She asked McAvoy, then her immediate supervisor, for the opportunity to interview for the position, citing her leadership ofSVP emailed Spanfeller to remind him of their meeting in April and express her hope that women, people of color, and people who identify as LGBTQ would be considered as he hired his leadership team, and to say that she looked forward to discussing her role in the organization. Spanfeller responded that he would be happy to get together, but did not say anything about open roles. That evening, the woman received an email from McAvoy telling her that the SVP of marketing job had been filled with someone who worked with Spanfeller at Forbes.

The person hired was Bruce Rogers, who most recently ran the “institute” arm of SITO Mobile, a mobile data company. As for why that move was never announced, Spanfeller told Deadspin he believed Mike