PATHOLOGICAL GAMBLING. Jack (Clive Owen), the son of a gambler in South Africa, was literally born in a casino and learned the croupier's art from hgis father. Jack tries to shed his past by moving to London where he aspires to become a novelist. He lives with Marion (Gina McKee), a former police detective who now is a department store detective, a rather straight woman whom he calls his "conscience." Strapped for cash and blocked in his writing, Jack reluctantly acquiesces when his father calls to say he's lined up a job for his son in a London gaming club. Back in the gambling atmosphere, Jack excels as a skilled croupier from his South Africa days. A highly principled professional, he nevertheless finds himself pulled irresistibly into theamoral, at times even ruthless, yet alluring life surrounding the work, violating the rules forbidding fraternization with staff or patrons, especially after he meets two provocative women, the mysterious gambler Jani (Alex Kingston), and the sexually bold Bella (Kate Hardie), another dealer.

He also begins to write again, this time about "Jake," an unprincipled croupier who seems more and more to represent Jack's darker side. It is Jack's internal struggle - between attempting to live up to a higher moral standard versus the lying and cheating style of the inveterate gambler (like his father) - that is the central story here, and it is well informed. External events, especially near the end, fit together less well, and make for a sort of helter skelter ending. The screenplay (by Paul


film also demonstrates the profound possibilities of self-redemption when a very quirky person finds a means to put this eccentric bent to good use, as in Crumb’s art. Grade: A- (1995)

DANCE WITH A STRANGER (Mike Newell, UK, 1985). THEMES: ABUSE OF WOMEN BY MEN; NARCISSISTIC PERSONALITY; MASOCHISM; ALCOHOLISM; CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. Miranda Richardson's film debut as Ruth Ellis, in the fact-based story of a private club madame in love with an upper class alcoholic narcissist, David (Rupert Everett). Saved time and again by her devoted friend and would be lover, sleazy Desmond (Ian Holm), Ellis continues a downhill spiral of obsessive, masochistic love that ends when she shoots David outside a London pub. Good acting. Dull dialog. Set in the 1950s. Ellis was the last person executed for acapital crime in Great Britain. Grade: B- (10/99)

DANCER IN THE DARK (Lars von Trier, Denmark, 2000). THEME: DISSOCIATIVE DISORDER. A truly strange film, Dancer combines elements of melodrama and musical theater. It was made in Europe by Europeans but the setting is rural Washington State, USA. An immigrant woman (Bjork, the Icelandic pop singer in her film debut) struggles to save money for an operation to save her son’s eyesight. She runs into nothing but trouble. Whenever things get really bad, she dissociates. And when she does, she is transported during her trances to a land of music – song and dance numbers to be exact, and here she finds temporary escape and safety. Bjork shows wonderful range here as an actress. Her naïf-like portrayal rings entirely true


away at daybreak to rejoin them.

Then we have Anita, a tough yet pathetic, foul mouthed soul who spouts a steady stream of f--- words, violent threats and imagery. She's become like a ticking bomb over the past 3 years, her rage overflowing, since Olof, her husband of 26 years, skipped off with his young physiotherapist, Petra. Olof managed to expropriate the house, furniture and most of the money, leaving Anita in a cheap apartment, forced to deal prescription sedatives in the parking lot to help make ends meet. Anita takes a taser gun in lieu of cash in a drug deal one evening, and shows up at the house she and Olof once shared, where Olof and Petra now live. Armed with the taser, she orders Petra totie up Olof (with duct tape, naturally) and begins a nonstop harangue at both.

Petra, one of the few noble souls on display here, bravely reaffirms her unconditional love of Olof, but eventually, when Petra tries to run away, Anita zaps her with the taser, rendering her unconscious for the rest of the night, which Anita spends spewing forth her non-stop vitriol, dissipating the pent up venom that had been poisoning her. By daybreak she has wound down, mellowed, become surprisingly tender toward Olof, actually found some rapprochement with him. At least her vindictive energies have been spent, and she is able to take her leave softly.

The third story is far more conventional: it’s a classic case of love betrayed in upscale suburbia. Richard, a heart surgeon, is screwing


around. His devoted wife - a woman who has dutifully abandoned her own career, made a good home, and raised two sons - is rewarded for these efforts with the news that Richard has been shagging Sofie, the wife in a couple who are their best friends. Richard has just dumped Sofie, but gets no credit for this from anyone, only Sofie’s anger, which comes blurting out one night along with Richard's wife's and Sophie’s husband’s resentments when the two couples meet over dinner and whole sordid story surfaces.

There’s one twist: Sofie’s husband Mats, who had discovered the affair months earlier, and Sofie, have meticulously planned their revenge, arranging for Richard to lose his job, have Mats appointed in his place, and then, when Richard must seek ajob in another city and his house is placed on the market, Mats and Sofie, who have been openly envious of the place for years, secretly buy it through a blind lawyer. Richard and his wife may reconcile, but she suffered a nosebleed while shopping early in the movie, a matter never followed up, and, as any seasoned movie goer knows, chronic coughs and nosebleeds always portend serious health problems ahead.

So now it is daybreak: Anita is walking home to her apartment, Anders is driving his van home to spend a Sunday hanging out with his wife and daughter, and Richard’s wife and kids in one car are madly chasing after Richard in another. They all pass each other at the same intersection, and for a moment it


hospital withdrawing from booze, Lemmon's character is viewed in a camisole in a padded cell throwing himself about in a potentially harmful manner. Yet there seem to be plenty of attendants on hand; he is finally given a shot to calm him. This was not the standard of care for DTs in 1962.

Apart from these few annoyances, the film does somberly and authentically depict many aspects of alcoholism: progression from heavy drinking through problem drinking to destructive, high dose alcoholic drinking; mutual reinforcement of drinking in a married couple, and, conversely, the problems arising when one partner seeks help and the other won't; vulnerability to relapse; attempts to make amends in the recovery process, and the resistance these efforts can encounter in loved ones who still feel angry.begins with Anka, a young woman, splashing water on a man, Michal, presumably her husband, to awaken him playfully. He returns the favor. It is an intimate series of scenes, and we are surprised to learn that they are in fact father and daughter, and seem to have a loving relationship. He leaves on a business trip for several days, and she is tempted to open a letter, the existence of which she has been aware of for years, marked to be opened only in case of her father's death. She does open this outer envelope finally, only to discover a sealed inner envelope addressed to her in her mother's handwriting (she had died when Anka was just an infant). When her father returns she confesses to him


that she has opened the letter and learned that he is not her father. They have several drinks and each then confess their sexual attraction to one another over the years. She attempts to seduce him but he refuses. The next day their old equilibrium seems to be reestablished. She confesses that in fact she did not open the letter but had made up its contents. Together that evening they burn the unopened letter, but a fragment remains, which begins just like her made up story.

The final segment, based on the Commandment, “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods,” is a black comedy. Two brothers inherit their father's stamp collection, the finest in Poland and worth a fortune. Torn between cashing in the collection and keeping it outof devotion to the memory of their father (who was incredibly miserly - giving the family nothing while hoarding money for stamps), the brothers embark on a series of misadventures culminating in theft of the collection by a conspiracy of other characters.

The same gaunt, sorrowful, sandy haired young man appears in wordless cameo roles in all but two episodes (he may appear in episodes 7 and 10 but I could not spot him even on a second viewing). One gets the feeling that perhaps he is a supernatural being, an ethereal, moral fair witness to the proceedings, an angel even, who ties nearly all the episodes together in some inchoate sense (he’s a student in an ethics lecture in episode 8). This series is one of the finest


minutes to that). Both are rife with disjointed major scene shifts...the flow in both narratives is far from smooth. Each in its own way portrays the violent situation in SE Asia in extremely surreal terms and images. For Coppola, the surreal is embodied in the colony of death and violence presided over by the self-deified renegade Colonel Kurtz, a former poster boy for military virtues who has become corrupted by the war, possibly driven mad. Cimino chooses the metaphor of "Russian roulette" for conditions in Vietnam: his three army buddies lives' are permanently altered by their participation in the deadly game of chance that was the Vietnam war, two for the worse, the other for the better.

Here the two films part company. For Coppola the story, following Conrad,concerns the larger-than-life entwined fates of Kurtz and the war weary young captain dispatched to assassinate him. For Cimino the important story concerns how the war changed people. He begins by showing us the way folks were before the war: the camaraderie, the close ties, among friends - all descendants of Russian immigrants - in a little steel town in the Allegheny Mountains of western Pennsylvania. Nearly the first half of Deer Hunter is an account of this extended group of buddies and, secondarily, their loves, seen through the events of one long night and day spent together. We see how their small joys, drunken partying, and habitual petty gripes with one another bind them together, especially on this eve when three of them are about to leave


for Vietnam, and one has just gotten married. This story is wonderful, almost sufficient material to make a whole film in itself.

Then the scene shifts abruptly to a firefight in a small hamlet in Vietnam, following which somehow the three buddies from Pennsylvania come together, all captured by the Viet Cong. From this point on their lives diverge horribly. Only their natural leader, Michael (Robert DeNiro), survives more-or-less intact. Michael in fact is transformed by the war from an unemotional, seemingly even callous, man into someone better, a man more capable of love as well as pain, and less capable of killing, than he had been beforehand. His buddies Nick (Christopher Walken) and Steve (John Savage), on the other hand, are not killed but are in important waysdestroyed by the war.

The penultimate sequence in the film, when Michael returns to Saigon to search for Nick, is implausible and unnecessary, and detracts from the film. Nick's psychological demise could have been revealed effectively, for instance, by having him return to the US in his terrible state of emotional numbing and obsessive preoccupation with self destruction. Nick displays a severe case of chronic PTSD, although that diagnosis would not be recognized as such until several years after this film debuted. Another problem is that DeNiro is too old for the role of Michael. His age confuses the issue of his positive transformation, i.e., making it hard to sort out the effects of age from those of the war on his character development. Subsequent to the war, psychological


research showed that the younger the recruit, the more likely that long lasting psychological damage would occur as a result of combat experiences in Vietnam.

Meryl Streep is convincing as a love interest of both Nick's and Michael's - she's all the better here for not sporting some exotic, overly intrusive foreign accent. The last scene is stupendous: the surviving old gang sitting around the table in their favorite tavern, after Nick's funeral, solemnly singing "God Bless America." This film won the "Best Picture" Oscar in 1978, but that arguably could have gone instead to Coming Home, another Vietnam antiwar film focusing on the impact of war on relationships back home. Grade: B+ (12/01)

THE DEVIL AND DANIEL JOHNSTON(Jeff Feuerzeig, US, 2005, 110 min.). THEMES: CREATIVITY AND MENTAL DISORDER; BIPOLARDISORDER; ASPERGER'S SYNDROME. Biodoc about Daniel Johnston, a multitalented man, a compulsively prolific cartoon artist, song writer and performer, whose bipolar disorder and drug abuse led to episodes of severe mental illness and destructive behaviors, beginning in his early 20s, in the 1980s, that stifled his career for many years, until consistent psychiatric care and parental oversight effected a more stable course for him in the past few years. Now approaching age 45, Johnston has made a comeback of sorts, reaching a level of artistic self control and productivity that has swept him toward unprecedented recognition.

This film charts Johnston’s life and family, ingeniously assimilating materials made by Johnston himself as a kid and young adult - super 8 and video footage; cassette audiotapes; still photos – as well


as contemporary video interviews and stills. By mid-adolescence he was holed up in the basement of his family’s home, staying up all hours, writing songs, drawing, making tapes almost nonstop. By his mid-20s he had run away to Austin, Texas, and made a splash on the pop music scene there. But within a year or two, abetted by lots of marijuana and LSD, he began a series of horrendous manic and depressive episodes that scuttled his career, even as he was beginning to receive recognition locally and on a national level.

For much of the next 15 years Johnston was hospitalized frequently after extremely dangerous manic episodes (he seriously injured one acquaintance with a lead pipe, and later interfered with control of his father’s small aircraft, leading to acrash landing that, luckily, both survived), zoned out on medications, and vegetating at the family home in Waller, Texas. But in the past few years his course has stabilized. He’s obese, the result of his mood stabilizing medications no doubt, and he’s no longer the flamboyant, zany free spirit that titillated and frightened so many of his followers in the past. But the film shows us that he is now in better control of his drawing and singing performances than he ever was years earlier. He has been helped immensely by his parents, Bill and Mabel, now in their early 80s, his agent and owner of a small recording company, Jeff Tartakov, and an Austin music journalist, Louis Black, all of whom have worked hard to help sustain


and enhance Johnston’s reputation as a creative artist.

Their loyal efforts have been well rewarded. The film demonstrates the success of a show of Johnston’s more recent drawings at Gallery Zero One in Los Angeles, where over 90% of the works were sold to a single collector before the exhibition even opened. In 2003 Johnston sang before an audience in Sweden that obviously worshiped him. Cartoonist Matt Groening is a fan of Johnston’s. Tom Waits and Beck, among many others, have covered his songs. And just a few weeks ago (subsequent to the film) the Whitney Museum in Manhattan announced that Johnston’s works would be included in the 2006 Whitney Biennial.

With regard to psychiatric diagnosis, while his bipolar disorder is undeniable, that may not be all that's "wrong" withDaniel Johnston. For many years - from at least early adolescence until recently - there was a consistently driven, compulsive quality to his artistic acts (music, drawing, and filmmaking), a pattern that is unmistakably obvious in this film. He would often stay up all night working nonstop. Frenzied work jags certainly are a common feature of mania, but I believe in Johnston's case such a pattern of activity was not always linked with his manic states, at least that was not clearly apparent to me. I am reminded by this pattern of the feverish state of compulsive creative activity that typified Vincent Van Gogh's driven, constant drawing and painting during his last years, in Arles.

Neuropsychiatrists have had great sport over the years guessing what was wrong with Van


Gogh. Many ideas - schizophrenia, lead or absinthe poisoning, alcoholic brain disease - are put to the lie for anybody who has examined Van Gogh's writing during that period, as I had the opportunity to do once, in 1987, when I visited a touring Van Gogh retrospective ("Van Gogh in Arles") at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan. There I came upon a trove of letters on display, written by Van Gogh in a second language for him, English, to a patron in New York City. His command of the language was astonishingly refined and sophisticated, demonstrating a wide vocabulary and mastery of subtleties of grammar and syntax.

Therefore, Van Gogh's brain was functioning just fine in 1888-89, thank you; i.e., he did not have a dementing disorder,or other persisting "brain damage" in the ordinary sense of that term. Many believe that he had bipolar disease, and, indeed, that's highly likely, given his waxing-waning course of episodes of disordered behavior late in his life, which ended in a suicidal depression. His periodic grand mal seizures in that period were probably "rum fits" - caused by alcohol withdrawal. But several neurologists have also suggested that he suffered from another sort of seizure disorder, a more rare phenomenon marked by lengthy compulsive paroxysms of driven activity. This could possibly be the case for Daniel Johnston as well.

A far less exotic possibility is that he (as well as Van Gogh, for that matter) suffers from a form of autism, Asperger's Syndrome, marked by driven, prodigious, though often perseverative


Erickson have the benefit of caring parents who welcomed and arranged decent psychiatric care from the getgo, as Johnston’s parents have done. Unlike Erickson, who does little in his daily life nowadays, despite the heroic efforts of a brother to rehabilitate him, Daniel Johnston has come back.

Yet, even in the best of circumstances, life is difficult for someone with severe bipolar disorder. I've already mentioned Johnston's obesity, almost certainly caused in part by his medications. And, just in December, he was hospitalized again, not for a mood episode but in delirium (acute confusional state) because of kidney failure. Accounts vary, but both lithium toxicity and infection have been mentioned in Web postings as the causes. Lithium is the most widely used and most effective mood stabilizing medication foris the first narrative feature film on the theme of mental illness to ever achieve commercial distribution in India. It is the troubled story of Sheshshayee ("Shesh") Desai (Atul Kulkarni), a man with early promise who then failed to graduate from college or pursue medical studies, as he had intended. Shesh then develops paranoid schizophrenia, and now, when we works at all, he tends the family’s mango orchard in a small rural village.

Through flashbacks, we learn that as a child Shesh was jolly and playful, but in adolescence he gradually changed, becoming a loner with a penchant for mercurial mood swings who slowly slid into increasing eccentricity and, finally, following his mother’s death five years earlier, when he was 30, he became absorbed in a delusional life centered


on his devotion to a sacred patch of woods near his village, what is known as a “devrai” or sacred grove.

Shesh comes to experience this grove as animate and a more compelling reality than his ordinary life, which is marked by estrangement from and fear of others, and a tendency toward irrational, irritable encounters with family members and strangers alike. Shesh develops a paranoid concern that others intend to destroy his beloved grove, a place he sees as offering a solution to all the “chaos” Shesh perceives in the ordinary world.

He also becomes fixated on Parvati, the wife of a family servant, whom, in his fantasies, he imbues with magical powers and the sensuous attractiveness of an enticing goddess. In Shesh’s mind, Parvati becomes his sacred lover, aninhabitant of the grove (like his mother after her death, Shesh believes) who gives a heart and human face to his devrai. Parvati seems to be a replacement for both Shesh’s mother and also for a younger cousin, Kalyani, for whom Shesh had developed an abiding infatuation while growing up.

We also follow the impact of Shesh’s progressively disturbed life on his family, as he grows ever more compromised by his illness. His odyssey culminates in a frank psychotic episode while visiting his sister Seena Gore (Sonali Kulkarni), five years his junior, and her scientist spouse Sudish (Tushar Dalvi) in the city. When Shesh erupts at a reception in the Gores’ home honoring Sudish for his recent promotion, Sudish becomes furious and remains impatient with Shesh thereafter. Seena is


caught in the middle, trying to placate her husband while offering support and seeking professional aid for her brother.

To that end Shesh is admitted to a psychiatric facility where he and Seena encounter a sophisticated team headed by an older, kindly psychiatrist (played by Mohan Agashe). Shesh receives ECT and medications that suppress his erratic behaviors but do not eradicate his mystical, naturistic delusional system. Near the end Shesh returns from the city to his village, where he will be tended by Kalyani, who was recently divorced. While the Gores see this hopefully as an effective relocation, we can tell that Shesh remains seriously deluded, and that it will be only a matter of time until his next psychotic breakdown.

Mr. Kulkarni does an admirable job of portraying Sheshin a manner that is clinically authentic. His periodic monosyllabic utterances, angry, agitated outbursts, vocalization of auditory hallucinations, negativism, rhythmic mannerisms and movements, and avoidance of eye contact with others all are behaviors that ring true to his disorder. While taking medications and visiting a day treatment center at the hospital, Shesh tries to follow the advice of fellow patients, telling himself that his visions of Parvati are not real, are hallucinatory. This causes the vision to disappear, though only temporarily.

The film addresses most issues associated with severe and persistent mental illness. Questions of causation (faulty parenting versus chemical imbalance), proper treatment (institutionalization versus care in the community), developing the patient’s capacity to resist giving in to delusions and hallucinatory experience, and family involvement are all explored in


some detail.

The problem with all this is that the messages are delivered in a heavily didactic manner, even preachy at times. The fundamental truths explained here are already well known to mental health professionals the world over, and known also to the more sophisticated lay audiences in developed nations that are likely to seek out foreign language films.

That said, I should hasten to add that this film will probably be highly edifying for lay audiences in India and possibly throughout the Indian diaspora, e.g., here in North America, in Britain, Europe and Down Under.

Besides its didactic tone, other weaknesses of the film are its length and confusing cast of female characters. At nearly two hours running time, the film would be stronger if edited down to 90 minutesThis was Bresson's third feature length film, made after Angels of Sin in 1943 and Ladies of the Bois de Boulogne in 1945 - both of which were made during the Nazi occupation, after Bresson had been interred as prisoner of war for 9 months in Germany. Diary is one of three films - along with A Man Escaped (1956) and Pickpocket (1959) - said by Anthony Lane to represent Bresson at his best, in the 1950s. (This and the other Bresson films mentioned here are part of a retrospective of 10 of his 11 feature length films brought together by James Quandt, of the Cinematheque Ontario, first shown in Toronto, later at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, in early 1999.)

In this, his longest, film


a young priest seems to have everything going against him: he is socially awkward and diffident; lacks the skills to manage his first assignment out of seminary, as parish priest in a small village church; he is morose and melancholy; virtually no one in the village takes well to him; and he is dying of stomach cancer. Nevertheless, he is able to transcend his dilemma and touch several lives, including an older priest from whom he often seeks advice, a young girl in his catechism class, and the wife of the leading citizen of the town, a countess who herself has suffered from depression for years since the death of her young son. The drama is poignant, rich, vivid. Bresson uses a camera in the most delicate manner.Often stationary, he lets the action come to the camera, and he also often uses sound out of view to complete the scene. A remarkable, completely accessible, though decidedly heavy dose of the human struggle to move from torment to grace. (In French) Grade: A (10/00)

DIVIDED WE FALL (Jan Hrebejk, Czech Republic, 2001). THEMES: COURAGE AND HAZARDS OF PROTECTING JEWS IN NAZI CONTROLLED EUROPE; THE PLACE OF HUMOR IN TRAGIC STORIES. Story set in a Bohemian (Czech) town during the Nazi occupation of WW II. Excellent and contrasting principal characters, each well developed by fine actors. A couple hides a Jewish fugitive they know, who escaped from a camp. Josef, the husband, is an unlikely hero, a malingerer who exagerates a gimpy gait to avoid conscription. The couple’s


their diametrically opposing views on the use of violence in the African-American quest for equality.

Among other things, this film is gorgeously photographed: there are wonderful uses of vivid color and numerous richly imagined scenes. It moves along well. The characters are without exception interesting. The criticisms seem even handed, if harsh. With Ruby Dee as Mother Sister, a grumpy Brechtian moral judge of everybody else’s conduct on the block, serenely ensconced on ethical high ground, observing the street action from a perch at her windowsill. She's especially tough on Da Mayor, her agemate, accusing him of dereliction of leadership in favor of alcohol. Mother Sister’s terrible, keening emotional breakdown at the end, as she stands in the street gazing at the fire raging in Sal's place, makes herwent on for several years. Hall in fact became progressively more fond of and attached to this man, who was emotionally indifferent and ultimately rejecting. In the film Hall explains in a simple, lucid manner, how through psychotherapy he came to recover memories of his early trauma, then to understand and integrate the effects of this, the later sexual relationship in adolescence, and his family relationships on his personality, and the changes he has made.

The film is narrated by Dr. Hall, whom we meet and see as a talking head from time to time. He is a gentle, affable, well spoken fellow. Most of the time, as he tells us his story, the accompanying visuals are special ones created by Nkara to symbolically evoke or represent various emotional


states and events Hall is describing. She uses dance and movement sequences, glimpses of a Japanese tea ceremony, reenactments of a young boy helping his mother do chores, and scenes of rain splashing on the rippling surface of a lake, among others. The overall effects are at once poetic and lyrical, transformative and edifying about the far reaching effects of childhood trauma and the possibilities for recovery from these effects. If only Dave, the sad protagonist in Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River, could have had such a beneficent fate. Screened at Sundance and LA Film Festivals in 2003. Won awards at New Jersey and Ann Arbor Film Festivals. Seen on January 28, 2004, on PBS/Independent Lens. Video available for purchase from Nkara Films, e-mail: francesnkara@yahoo.com. Grade: A (01/04)

DREAM WITHlow budget, the sound has more echoes than a bad cell phone transmission, and the photography and editing are nothing to write home about, but the screenplay is ingenious and the acting of the two principals is splendid. Fine soundtrack features Greg Brown's "Sadness" - and the rentable VHS adds a music video at the end of Brown's number. Grade: B (12/00)

THE DREAMLIFE OF ANGELS (Erick Zonca, France, 1998). THEME: BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER. Story of two young women who seem at first to have much in common. But Isa (Elodie Bouchez ) proves to be open and cares about others, while Marie (Natacha Regnier) is self-absorbed, shy, explosive and self destructive, and their differences emerge ever more sharply as the story unfolds. Bouchez and Regnier were named as


co-best actresses for these roles at Cannes. (In French) Grades: drama: B; borderline personality: A- (02/99)

THE DRESSER (Peter Yates, UK/US, 1983). THEME: INTERDEPENDENT RELATIONSHIP OF TWO OLDER MEN. Superb drama of two men who desperately need one another to go on in life. Set early in WW II, during Germany's bombing of Britain, "Sir" (Albert Finney) leads a traveling Shakespeare repertory troupe. He's an aging star, but is unraveling from the strains of age, illness, and having to make do with a les than desirable acting troupe, the war effort having conscripted away the best players. On the day of his 227th performance of Lear, he literally goes mad and is briefly hospitalized. But he signs out and returns to the theatre, where is longsuffering dresser, Norman (TomFAITH-BASED TREATMENT PROGRAMS. Psychiatrist-documentary filmmaker Ken Rosenberg turns his attention from persistent mental illness (Through Madness, Back From Madness) to addictions in this outstanding film made for the HBO/America Undercover series. As in the other films, his method is to introduce us to several patients (in this film it's three families), show us something about their treatment and the caregivers who treat them, and then follow their course for the next 18 months or so.

Dr. Rosenberg lets the families do most of the talking; in fact, in this film, there are no voiceovers. Families were selected from among those seeking help at the Ackerman Institute for the Family in New York City, which treats families in crisis. We see parts of the intake interviews in each case, and


glimpses of several subsequent therapy sessions. (As in all of his films, Dr. Rosenberg shoots spontaneous scenes throughout; none are based on reenactments.)

The families differ in makeup, no doubt by design. Sam and Toinette are African-American, perhaps in their early 40s. Both have spiraled downhill because of substance abuse: indeed, their five-year marriage has been conducted in a haze of intoxication. It has been a costly ride. Sam drank his way out of a Wall Street bond manager’s job; Toinette lost her career as a police officer. As we meet them, Toinette has just been released from an 11-month prison-based alcohol/drug rehab program, after conviction for felonies related to her drug and alcohol use. Sam, who has been caring for the couple's two young children, has been cleanthird group consists of three people in the same household: Erica, a 17 year old Hispanic-American youth who is drinking a lot regularly, smoking “weed” and sometimes staying out all night on the streets with her girlfriends, her mother, a former heroin addict who is now securely clean and sober, and the mother’s boyfriend. (We catch glimpses of the grandmother and Amanda, Erica's older sister, both important in the family network but not engaged in the treatment.) The mother and boyfriend seem responsible, but mother and daughter are often locked in battles. Erica used to fret and plead with her mother, when she was addicted; now the roles are reversed.

One of the unexpected pleasures in this film is the window it provides into the operations of family therapy.


contact, they are still together, though one can sense that their situations - individually and as a family - probably remain tenuous.

Eric and Jillian experience escalating emotional battles as early therapy sessions mobilize strong feelings. They drop out of therapy and soon thereafter break off their relationship, apparently for good. Eighteen months on, each of them is doing well though unattached. Jillian has reduced her alcohol consumption significantly. Eric has also cut down his drinking and, after dropping out nine years earlier, has returned to complete college, where, ironically, one of his jobs as a dorm supervisor is to enforce alcohol/drug use rules.

Erica leaves town and joins the Job Corps. After a bumpy course in the early months, she does eventually graduate, with a G.E.D., some computer skills,and a new capacity to smile. She reconciles with her mother and plans to go on to community college.

The structure and editing of this film are excellent. So is the photography, making allowances for the unavoidably grainy footage often shot at awkward angles during family therapy sessions, which were filmed by Dr. Rosenberg himself under difficult circumstances, he has told me. The musical score is terrific: some jazz from Joshua Redman, one or two contemporary pop numbers, and that gospel choir.

Dr. Rosenberg had as consultants some of the most prominent authorities in the field of substance abuse: Drs. Richard J. Frances, Mark Galanter and Robert Millman, as well as Dr. Steinglass. This is one of the best films I have seen – documentary or narrative – both in


Edith J. Carrier Arboretum

The Edith J. Carrier Arboretum is an arboretum and botanical garden on the James Madison University campus, located in Harrisonburg, Virginia, United States in the Shenandoah Valley. Groundbreaking for the arboretum took place April, 1985, under direction of Dr. Norlyn Bodkin,[1] who is credited the first scientific botanical discovery along the Eastern Seaboard of Virginia since the 1940s, Trillium: Shenandoah Wake Robin, presently found at the arboretum[2]. The only arboretum located on the campus of a Virginia state university. Exhibits include a developed trail system through  of mature Oak-Hickory Forrest with two identified century specimens and a species on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Threatened Species list protected at the arboretum: Betula uber, Round-Leaf Birch.[3]

Its gardens include:

Andrew Wood Memorial Garden (1994) - 92 speciesVirginia white-haired leather flower, ragwort, spike moss, and hairy lipped ferns, with "near endemic" prickly pear cactus and the shining sumac.
Mid-Atlantic Azalea Garden (1996)- azalea natives including pinxter flower, flame azalea, rose azalea, plumleaf azalea, and hybrid crosses.
McDonald Azalea and Rhododendron Garden (1995) - Azaleas and rhododendrons of many varieties.
Norlyn L. Bodkin Oak Hickory Forest (1998) An approximate 20 acre mast producing forest named to honor the arboretum founding director.
Sinclair Garden (1996)- a variety of shrubs and perennials, including Japanese barberry, kousa dogwood, leyland cypress, cherry laurel and rhododendrons.
Viette Perennial Garden (1992) - 18 varieties of daylilies and 8 varieties of Siberian iris, hostas, and Eupatoriums.

See also
 List of botanical gardens in the United States

External links
The Edith Carrier Arboretum Website
James Madison University

Carrier Arboretum
Carrier Arboretum
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Dancing, Depravity and all that Jazz The Public Dance Halls Act of 1935 by Jim Smyth

A protracted war of independence and a bitter civil war left the new Irish Free State with economic and social problems of enormous proportions – the economy and infrastructure were ravaged, unemployment and ill-health were endemic and the wounds of the civil war were far from healed. But the agenda of perhaps the most powerful organised force in the country – the Catholic Church – was noticeably different.

In the Lenten pastorals of 1924 the bishops made their preoccupations unmistakably clear: The Irish bishops in their Lenten pastorals refer to the existence of many abuses. Chief among these may be mentioned women’s fashions, immodest dress, indecent dancing, theatrical performances and cinema exhibitions, evil literature,drink, strikes and lock-outs. A constant obsession Among this litany of putative abuses, one. obsession remained constant and central for the next decade: the dangers attributed to the morals of the young posed by unlicensed dance halls and unsupervised dancing of any sort. This popular rural pastime became a classic terrain of fantasy projection and pseudoknowledge, involving a potent brew of alleged sources of evil and degradation: cars, darkness, jazz music and the prospect of illicit and unsupervised dalliance between the sexes. Just as the advent of the railways was treated with horror by a section of Victorian England, and the bicycle was condemned by The Times in i898 as adding an ominous dimension of mobility to the ‘organised terrorism of the streets’, the motor car was seen


as an instrument of seduction in the hands of unscrupulous males. Cardinal MacRory in his pastoral letter of 1931 stressed the danger of too much mobility: Even the present travelling facilities make a difference. By bicycle, motor car and bus, boys and girls can now travel great distances to dances, with the result that a dance in the quietest country parish may now be attended by unsuitables from a distance. The clergy were not against dancing in principle – as long as the dances were Irish (confined, of course, to the modest ceili dances and not the wilder and less restrained set dances) and the supervIsIon was close. Cardinal Logue in his pastoral of 1924 set the tone: It is no small commendation of Irish dances that theywas the amendment of the Criminal Law Amendment Acts of 1880 and 1885 (Stead’s Act) which were originally enacted to combat juvenile prostitution, protect minors and make brothel keeping an . offence. The fact that one in six houses in London was a brothel during that period may have had something to do with the passing of this Act. The government response was the Carrigan committee (called after its chairman) which reported in 1931, having heard a large number of witnesses in private. None of this evidence was published in the press and the final report was never published. The committee interpreted its brief as nothing less than an inquiry into the moral state of the country: Under the terms of our reference we had to consider the


us has dissented from the view expressed by nearly every witness that the moral condition of the country has become gravely menaced by modern abuses, widespread and pernicious in their consequences, which cannot be counteracted unless the laws of the state are revised and consistently enforced so as to combat them. The committee, having established the dreadful moral state of the country, then proceeded to uncover the causes. The conclusion arrived at was that illegitimacy was in large measure to blame:Illegitimacy must be regarded as one of the principal causes of the species of crime and vice of which the state takes cognisance in the branch of penal and preventative legislation which we were appointed to examine.

The misuse of motor cars

Although the report did not spell it out,the implication was clear: young unmarried mothers were forced into prostitution as a result of their fallen state, and, indeed, could constitute an occasion of sin for others during confinement in Poor Law institutions: ‘it is an objectionable fact that unmarried mothers of first-born children cannot be maintained apart from other inmates (the decent poor and sick)’. The report then moves on to the reasons for the alleged rise in illegitimacy and lays the blame clearly at the door of the dance halls: The testimony of all witnesses, clerical, lay and official, is striking in its unanimity that degeneration in the standard of social conduct has taken place in recent years. It is to be attributed primarily to the loss of parental control and responsibility during a period


of general upheaval, which has not been recovered since the revival of settled conditions. This is due largely to the introduction of new phases of popular amusement, which being carried out in the Saorstat in the absence of supervisupervision, and of the restrictions found necessary and enforced by law in other countries, are the occasions of many abuses baneful in their effect upon the community generally and are the cause of the ruin of hundreds of young girls, of whom many are found in the streets of London, Liverpool and other cities and towns in England. The ‘commercialised’ dance halls, picture houses of sorts, and the opportunities afforded by the misuse of motor cars for luring girls, are the chief causes alleged for the present looseness of morals.

Socialbetween 1926 and 1933 – the level of illegitimate births rises. The lowest level reached after independence was in the fifties when emigration was at its highest since the Famine.

The response of the state

Copies of the Carrigan Report were printed up in the normal way but it was decided that the contents could prove embarrassing if made public. Department of Justice officials were dismissive of it, as a memorandum now in the State Paper Office shows: Unless these statements are exaggerated (as they might easily have been owing to the anxiety of the reverend gentlemen to present a strong case to the committee), the obvious conclusion to be drawn is that the ordinary feelings of decency and the influence of religion have failed in this country and that


penalties, create offences, and remove existing safeguards for people charged: their main concern seems to be to secure convictions. Action on the report was slow. It had been submitted in August 1931 and the Departmental memorandum is dated October 1932, indicating that the Cosgrave government, which had previously shown some courage in the face of episcopal pressure, was not prepared to move swiftly on the matter, particularly as a general election was due the following year. The election was won by Fianna Fail and the new government, headed by Eamonn de Valera, was soon to show itself to be more than pliant when faced with the demands of the bishops. The new Minister for Justice, however, agreed with his officials that the report should not be published andexpressed serious doubts . as to the picture of the country presented when he submitted it to the Executive Council (the equivalent of the cabinet). Instead of immediate action, an all-party committee was set up to make recommendations. The committee met in secret; its membership was never revealed, nor were its recommendations. The senate went to great lengths when the Criminal Law Amendment Bill was being debated some two years later to avoid discussing the I sincerely hope that the efforts of Conradh na Gaeilge in your county to restore national forms of dancreport or the conclusions of the all-party committee. Indeed, when reading the senate record, it is often difficult to identify the subject being discussed so dense are the circumlocutions.

In December 1932, the Minister for Justice


met with the bishops who put their case for legislation as proposed in the report. The problems discussed embraced the usual litany of clerical obsessions: dance halls, the age of consent, prostitution, motor cars and immoral behaviour on the public highway. The government obviously took the ‘motor car scandal’ seriously but faced insurmountable difficulties in drafting legislation. Not only was car ownership a middle class privilege but it was impossible to restrict the use of cars or even legislate for the behaviour of individuals within a vehicle. The ingenious solution was to define a motor car as a street in the paragraph dealing with soliciting and importuning in the bill: ‘The word street in this section (shall) include a motor car, carriage or other vehicle’. This allowed thepolice to treat a car as a public place and use their discretion as to the nature of behaviour within. The Alicein- Wonderland nature of this logic led the irrepressible Dr Mahaffey, whose witty and pertinently liberal speeches enliven an otherwise dull senate record, to suggest that a wheelbarrow was a street and therefore could be used for an immoral purpose! The anti-jazz campaign Meanwhile the pressure for constraints on the dance halls was becoming intense. The Gaelic League re-launched its anti-jazz campaign in 1934 with a statement very much in tune with the sentiments of the bishops: It is this music and verse that the Gaelic League is determined to crush .. .its influence is denationalising in that its references are to things foreign to Irishmen: that


when the Criminal Law Amendment Bill was being debated some two years later to avoid discussing the report or the conclusions of the all-party committee. Indeed, when reading the senate record, it is often difficult to identify the subject being discussed so dense are the circumlocutions. In December 1932, the Minister for Justice met with the bishops who put their case for legislation as proposed in the report. The problems discussed embraced the usual litany of clerical obsessions: dance halls, the age of consent, prostitution, motor cars and immoral behaviour on the public highway. The government obviously took the ‘motor car scandal’ seriously but faced insurmountable difficulties in drafting legislation. Not only was car ownership a middle class privilege but it was impossible to restrict the use ofcars or even legislate for the behaviour of individuals within a vehicle. The ingenious solution was to define a motor car as a street in the paragraph dealing with soliciting and importuning in the bill: ‘The word street in this section (shall) include a motor car, carriage or other vehicle’. This allowed the police to treat a car as a public place and use their discretion as to the nature of behaviour within. The Alicein- Wonderland nature of this logic led the irrepressible Dr Mahaffey, whose witty and pertinently liberal speeches enliven an otherwise dull senate record, to suggest that a wheelbarrow was a street and therefore could be used for an immoral purpose!

The anti-jazz campaign

Meanwhile the pressure for constraints on the dance halls was becoming intense. The


Gaelic League re-launched its anti-jazz campaign in 1934 with a statement very much in tune with the sentiments of the bishops: It is this music and verse that the Gaelic League is determined to crush .. .its influence is denationalising in that its references are to things foreign to Irishmen: that it is the present day instrument of social degradations all too plain, even in Ireland. That was the reason for there-Iaunching of the anti-jazz campaign,the reason it received the blessing of the church and the approval of the state.The League was quick to condemn politicians who were seen as behavin an ‘anti-national’ fashion. The Secretary of the League, attacking the broadcasting of jazz on Radio Eireann, had this to say about the minister responsible: Our Minister ofFinance has a soul buried in jazz and is selling the musical soul of the nation for the dividends of sponsored jazz programmes. He is jazzing every night of the week. A number of County Councils adopted resolutions condemning jazz and all-night dancing and District Justices took up the refrain talking of the dangers of ‘nigger music’ and the orgy of unrestricted all-night dances’. In January 1934 a large demonstration took place in Mohill, County Leitrim. It was made up mostly of young people and the press estimatedthe attendance at 3,000, with

five bands and banners inscribed with DOWN WITH JAZZ and OUT WITH PAGANISM. Support came from church and state. A letter from Cardinal McRory was read out: I heartily wish success to the Co. Leitrim executive of


separate legislation, which was passed in 1935 without debate in the Dail. The act was draconian, making it practically impossible to hold dances without the sanction of the trinity of clergy, police and judiciary. With its passing, the hierarchy could rest content that its proposals for the legal control of personal morality had, without serious modification, been transformed into law. But like many laws in Ireland it was probably honoured more in the breach than in the observance. Enforcement seems to have been patchy and the overall effect is hard to assess.

Jim Smyth is a lecturer in sociology at Queen ‘s University, Belfast.

Further reading: T. Inglis, Moral Monopoly: the Catholic Church in modem Irish society (Dublin 1987). J.H. Whyte, Church and State in modem Ireland (Dublin 1984). T.Monday, July 4, 2016

Foto Tunes

John went to the US Open in Pittsburgh last week. He spent some time wandering downtown around the PNC Park, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

"Take Me Out to the Ball Game" is a 1908 Tin Pan Alley song by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer which has become the unofficial anthem of North American baseball, although neither of its authors had attended a game prior to writing the song. The song (chorus only) is traditionally sung during the middle of the seventh inning of a baseball game. Fans are generally encouraged to sing along, and at some ballparks, the words "home team" are replaced with the team name.

This, in turn, reminded me of our visit to Fenway Park in Boston.

"Sweet Caroline" has been played


Det. John Falcone honored by 200 near streets where he served

Feb. 24, 2011

Father Peter Kihm and Father Francis Mfodwo administer Communion during the memorial Mass. About 200 local residents came to the church in memory of the slain policeman, who was killed Feb. 18. / Photos by Ryan Paraggio/For the Poughkeepsie Journ

Written by

Michael Valkys

Poughkeepsie Journal

Father Francis Mfodwo, left, and Father Peter Kihm pray during the memorial Mass for Detective John Falcone on Thursday at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church.

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The sisters, both senior citizens, had never met slain City of Poughkeepsie Police Detective John Falcone.

Yet, there they were on a brisk Thursday morning, slowly walking around snowbanks in the parking lot of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in the city, where a memorial Mass for Falcone wascelebrated.

One of the sisters, city resident Teresa Moschetto, believed it was important to pay her respects to the man she did not know.

She did know, she said, that he gave his life to protect her and other residents.

"It's very sad," Moschetto said as she prepared to enter the church off Mill Street, not far from where Falcone was shot and killed on Feb. 18.

She said the tragedy reveals how quickly a life can be extinguished.

"It could have been anybody," Moschetto said. "It could have been me. It could have been anyone in my family."

Eleanor Lomoriello, Moschetto's sister and a Town of Poughkeepsie resident, said others had told her that Falcone was a fine man.

"I understand he was a very nice officer," Lomoriello said.

About 200 people came to the


Mass celebrating Falcone's life. It was held to give local residents who could not attend Falcone's funeral in Putnam County a chance to grieve and pay their respects.

Falcone was laid to rest in Brooklyn Thursday after being shot to death Feb. 18 while responding to a report of shots fired near the Poughkeepsie Train Station.

Falcone, 44, was an 18-year veteran of the department. A patrolman when he was killed, he was promoted posthumously to detective.

Outside Our Lady of Mount Carmel, before the Mass began, small groups huddled and made their way inside. Black-and-purple bunting, a common sight in Poughkeepsie over the past week, hung near the entrance. The Walkway Over the Hudson stood in the distance as ice floated on the river. The only sound was the humof cars on nearby Route 9.

Inside the church, mourners sat in silence waiting for the Mass to begin. Some walked down the aisle, kneeled and made the sign of the cross. Others lit candles in front of a framed color photograph of Falcone, smiling in his blue uniform shirt and sporting a black tie.

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A woman dabbed at her eyes with a white tissue. A church official directed people to their seats. An organ played softly.

He noted Falcone's actions last week, how the officer responded to a report of shots fired and helped prevent a 3-year-old girl from being killed.

Falcone, Kihm said, "was responding in goodness."

Falcone was shot and killed by 27-year-old Catskill resident Lee Welch, who moments earlier had shot and killed his estranged wife,


28-year-old Jessica Welch, as they sat in a sport utility vehicle parked off lower Main Street. The couple's 3-year-old child escaped unharmed.

Lee Welch shot and killed himself after mortally wounding Falcone.

"Evil stared us squarely in the face," Kihm said.

Authorities have said the Welches had a history of domestic violence.

Kihm told mourners not to ignore signs of domestic violence, noting that Falcone lost his life responding to such an act.

"We can't let Officer Falcone's death be in vain," Kihm said. "He opted for good. We should learn from his heroic act."Paul Chitlik, UCEAP Madrid 1967-68

UCEAP AlumnusPaul Chitlikis a Clinical Assistant Professor of Screenwriting at Loyal Marymount University and has had a successful career as a screenwriter, producer and director for all the major networks and studios. This year, he has taken on a new role as faculty director, leading a group of nine LMU students on their own study abroad journey in Hungary.

"Almost two years ago, the dean of Loyola Marymount University’s School of Film and Television, Steve Ujlaki, asked faculty to look for ways to broaden our study abroad program. When I told the dean my experience in studying abroad (Madrid, 1967-68) and teaching abroad (Cuba, Venezuela, Chile, Australia, Spain, Italy, and France) he asked me to look into programs in those countries. Unfortunately, our students are


Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.

A Georgia sheriff whose deputies allegedly groped students during a school-wide drug search in April was suspended Monday in an executive order signed by Gov. Nathan Deal.

The order, which took effect immediately, says that Worth County Sheriff Jeff Hobby’s administration would be adversely impacted by an indictment issued last month charging Hobby in the incident.

Worth County Sheriff Jeff Hobby. WALB

Hobby faces charges of violation of oath by a public officer, two counts of false imprisonment and one count of sexual battery, according to NBC affiliate WALB.

Let our news meet your inbox. The news and stories that matters, delivered weekday mornings. This site is protected by recaptcha

His lawyer, Raleigh Rollins, did not immediately respondto a request for comment.

The indictment was handed down after the filing of a federal lawsuit alleging that roughly 900 students at Worth County High School were subjected to a humiliating and warrantless search on April 14.

After a series of burglaries, the deputies were targeting 13 students that day, the suit says, but only three came to school.

According to the suit, which was filed by the Southern Center for Human Rights in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, deputies placed the school on lock down for roughly four hours and ordered students to stand spread eagle in the gym.

The deputies then "touched and manipulated students' breasts and genitals" and "inserted fingers inside girls' bras,” the suit alleges, adding that the searches revealed the students’


News

Tototheo Maritime is pleased to announce that Andreas Chrysostomou has joined its ranks. As Chief Strategy Officer, Mr Chrysostomou will play a key role in developing and implementing the global satellite communications and technology provider’s strategic vision.

Andreas Chrysostomou needs little introduction having accumulated vast experience in the global shipping industry throughout his noteworthy career and had held a number of High profile positions in Cyprus and in Europe. Mr Chrysostomou’s accomplishments have been recognized by the shipping industry worldwide and he has received Award for “Outstanding Contribution to Sustainable Shipping” and the “Distinguished Public Service Award” by the United States Department of Homeland Security, United States Coast Guard in 2011. He has also been awarded with the “Green Shipping Technology Award - Leading Shipping Personality of the Decade‘Th’. So these sites pronounced correctly would be Thingvellir National Park, Thjorsardalur Valley and Lake Thingvallavatn.

Þingvellir National Park

At Þingvellir National Park, the first stop was Þórufoss to view the scene where the goat herder is throwing rocks and Danaerys Targaryen’s black dragon swoops down and toasts his goat! Later, the dragon is accused of killing a child, and the dragons are locked away.

We then headed to the rift valley, which was the entrance to the bloody gate. The rift valley is also of geological significance, as it is where the North America and Eurasian tectonic plates meet. The rift valley walk was made by Sansa and Lord Baelish (I hate that creepy man!) in Season 4.

Þjórsárdalur Valley

The next stop, Þjórsárdalur Valley, is home to an old reconstructed Viking


apply

Against West Coast in the qualifying final, Grundy finished with 48 hitouts, five clearances and 18 possessions in an effort that almost lifted his team over the line.

Camera Icon Adam Simpson and Nic Naitanui at West Coast training on Monday. Credit: Sharon Smith

Vardy and Lycett have been receiving help from a new member of West Coast's coaching staff in recent weeks - none other than Nic Naitanui.

The star ruckman suffered a season-ending knee injury in round 17, but he's doing everything he can to ensure Lycett and Vardy will be ready to curb the influence of Grundy.

"He's the most expensive ruck coach in the history of the AFL," Simpson said with a chuckle about Naitanui, who earns more than a million dollars a season.

"Nic's been working with ourrucks the last few weeks. He's really invested in that. He's doing a really good job.

"He's got really good experience with every ruckman in the comp, so we'd be silly not to use him as a resource."

Play Video WATCH: Subiaco Oval was packed out on Monday as the Eagles held an open training session. The West Australian Video WATCH: Subiaco Oval was packed out on Monday as the Eagles held an open training session.

Suspended midfielder Andrew Gaff and injured defender Brad Sheppard have also been helping mentor teammates in their respective areas.

The duo were also in the coaches' box during the preliminary final win over Melbourne.

Simpson said it was important to include Naitanui, Sheppard and Gaff as much as possible to help them feel a part of West


in the 1880s and originally used as a bakery. The construction of the shops reflect the establishment of Ipswich as a commercial centre in the booming late 1870s and 1880s.

The shops changed hands several times after William Johnston sold the property in 1917. The shops had been used mostly for hospitality businesses in the twentieth century including Bunces Cake Shop and the Dorothy Belle Cafe situated in the shop closest to East St and the Metro Cafe in the middle shop.

In 1970 the property was purchased by Garth Llewellyn and the ground floor of the middle shop and the top level of the two gabled shops were used as offices for Action Realty.

In the 1980s the original iron posts which supported a convex corrugated iron awning were knockedEdinburgh Fringe veteran Simon Munnery made his name during the 1990s with stand-up shows based upon his two alter-egos, 'Alan Parker: Urban Warrior' and comic philosopher 'The League Against Tedium'.

While both personae gained exposure with a BBC radio series, it was in his guise as 'The League' that Munnery caught the notice of TV executives and in 2001 he fronted Attention Scum, his own experimental comedy vehicle for BBC Choice/BBC TWO.

'Comedy vehicle' is an unusually apt description for the show, based as it was on The League driving around the country in a converted transit van with a mission "to discover England and confuse it".

Visiting evocative locations such as Glastonbury and Tintagel, the spine of each episode would comprise The League standing on top of his van in


a car park, preaching his bizarre philosophies to small, baffled crowds. His musings could take in any subject, from wealth ("money doesn't grow on trees? Yes it does, it's paper!") to love and war ("in love as in fighting, the winner has an eight-foot pole").

The League also frequently appeared pacing about the countryside, sermonising to the viewer, with his comic snippets broken up by chains of surreal sketches and the occasional 'Pythonic' animation which were often deliberately incomprehensible: as if to make the point, they'd be book-ended by huge question marks or exclamation marks appearing on screen.

Episodes also featured a clutch of recurring sketches, including Johnny Vegas' guest role as a 24 hour news anchor "who’d been up for 24 hours" and the regular musical segment 'Kombat Opera',complete with sedated vampire on piano.

Catherine Tate, Kevin Eldon and Richard Thomas joined Vegas in a strong supporting cast and director Stewart Lee later revived Kombat Opera for its own six-part run in 2007.

Although it left itself liable to accusations of being too self-consciously clever, Attention Scum certainly never suffered from a lack of invention.

However, it was unable to find the success later enjoyed by Lee and Thomas’ musical spin-offs (including Jerry Springer: The Opera) and despite Parker's continued cult following, the show ran for only one series.


Starting with Captain Flinders and the early settlers, it then gives information on how men were punished, workers wages, female prisoners, various trials, land sales, experiences of a jockey, the Brisbane survey, aborigines, murders, races, arrival of the 'Fortitude', roads, the arrival of orphan girls, newspapers, wrecks of various ships, and the 'election incident'. The separation of Queensland from New South Wales is also covered as is trade with New Caledonia, various floods, Dr Lang's visits, Norfolk Island pirates, and almost everything else. This book is enhanced by the 'Table of Events' section which totals 37 pages, and details everyday happenings of Queensland in chronological order. Starting in 1606, and continuing through to 1894, here is an amazing timelineRajnath Singh has said Indian and Chinese forces are observing "full restraint" at Doklam. (File)

The Congress has submitted a notice of adjournment motion in the Lok Sabha over the "tension at India-China border."

The notice has been filed after some media reports claimed that Chinese troops were trying to enter the Indian territory in Jammu and Kashmir on July 6.

However, on June 13, Army Chief General Bipin Rawat had dismissed reports of intrusion by Chinese troops in Demchok area of Leh in Jammu and Kashmir.

An adjournment motion is an extraordinary procedure which, if admitted, leads to setting aside the normal business of the House for discussing a definite matter of urgent public importance.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said today in Lok Sabha that the Indian and Chinese forces were observing


"full restraint" at Doklam, where a standoff had taken place between the two sides in 2017, and noted that infrastructure was being ramped up along the border with China to ensure security.

Meanwhile, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Manoj Jha gave a zero hour notice in the Rajya Sabha over the "unprecedented floods in several parts of the country."

The notice was submitted in the wake of heavy rain and floods wreaking havoc in states like Assam, Bihar, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh and Mizoram in the last several days.

Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MP Sasmit Patra also submitted a zero hour notice in the Rajya Sabha over the "need to declare the states hit by major calamities as special focus states."being further enhanced. He added that both countries are partners and allies through the EU defense policy and through PESCO’s projects.

According to Prodromou, the two countries currently have a common planning and referred to statements made by French President while on a visit to the island that Cyprus provides services to France and other countries in the framework of the security planning in the Eastern Mediterranean.

He said that French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle docked at the Limassol port along with ships from Britain, Denmark and other countries and added that we promote the bilateral relationship with France in the areas of cooperation and security and when we have specific results, these will be announced.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded and occupied 37% of


Vice President Mike Pence made an unannounced trip to Afghanistan to meet its leaders and underscore U.S. commitment to the country four months after President Donald Trump agreed to an open-ended war against insurgents here.

Pence arrived on a military plane at Bagram Airfield under the cover of darkness on Thursday night after leaving Washington on Wednesday night. He then flew by helicopter to Kabul, where he met President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah at the presidential palace.

Pence told the leaders he hoped his presence there was tangible evidence that the United States was 'here to see this through.'

In a reversal of his campaign call for a swift withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, Trump in August pledged a stepped-up military campaign against Taliban insurgents and signaledthe United States would send more troops to fight in what is the longest war in its history.

At the end of August, there were some 11,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan and more have since arrived.

Here to stay: Mike Pence landed first at Bagram Air Field outside Kabul where he spoke to troops after meeting the country's leaders

VIP travel: Mike Pence arrived on a C-17 Globemaster from the 437th Airlift Wing for his unannounced trip to Afghanistan

Speaking engagement: Mike Pence first addressed troops then posed for selfies at a Christmas tree

'Victory is closer than ever': Pence said U.S. efforts towards victory over the Taliban and other radical elements in Afghanistan were working

Sacrifice: Pence praised the armed forces for their efforts since 2001, which have seen some 2,400 U.S. service


personnel killed

Power on display: Mike pence walked on to a stage at Bagram Air Field in front of an Army Black Hawk. Half of the 3rd Infantry Division's Combat Aviation Brigade is currently deployed to Afghanistan as Task Force Falcon

Force projection: Military assets were gathered in the hangar at Bagram in front of an audience of service men and women for Pence's speech. They included two MRAPs - mine resistant patrol vehicles used by the infantry

Flying the flag: U.S. Air Force personnel were in front of an F-16 in the hangar in Bagram as Mike Pence chatted

Air power: Pence spoke in front of an F-16 which are used in close air support roles for combat operations

Line-up with the top brass: Mike Pence met senior officers who serve underGeneral John Nicholson (left of Pence), commander of U.S forces in Afghanistan

Glimpse of capabilities: Another aircraft in the hangar was the latest intelligence-gathering and surveillance plane, an MC-12. It is designed for surveillance and reconnaissance missions and can fly at low altitudes much more quietly than a jet. Pence shook hands with senior officers in front of it and a Cougar 6x6 patrl vehicle

Mission: Pence used his speech to the troops at Bagram to say that the U.S. was not leaving until Afghanistan posed no threat to the homeland

Selfie time: Pence got an enthusiastic response from service personnel after he spoke

Thumbs up: An upbeat Mike Pence posed for pictures with servicemen and women at the hangar

Meeting the troops: Pence spoke to one group of soldiers in the hangar


at Bagram

Thank you for your service: Pence shook hands with one member of the 82nd Airborne Division. 1,200 soldiers from the 82nd were deployed to Afghanistan in September

Ghani expressed gratitude to the U.S. government and said Afghanistan's partnership with the United States was cemented in sacrifice.

Pence had originally planned to travel to Israel and Egypt this week, but he postponed that trip to remain in Washington while Congress passed legislation to overhaul U.S. tax law.

The short visit to Afghanistan was shrouded in secrecy for security reasons. Reporters traveling with the vice president were asked not to reveal his whereabouts until after the delegation arrived back at the air base from Kabul and Pence had addressed U.S. troops.

Pence, who coordinated the process that resulted in Trump's new Afghanistan policy,has been one of the main interlocutors between the White House and the Afghan leadership since Trump entered office in January.

He repeated his promise of U.S. commitment to the region during remarks to troops at Bagram.

'Under President Donald Trump, the armed forces of the United States will remain engaged in Afghanistan until we eliminate the terrorist threat to our homeland ... once and for all,' Pence said.

The vice president noted the sacrifice of American soldiers here since the 2001 invasion and told the troops, 'I believe victory is closer than ever before.'

Pence said after his meeting with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani that U.S. armed forces will remain engaged in the country until they eliminate the terrorist threat to the U.S. homeland.

He also wished the soldiers a 'Merry Christmas.'

Talking


tough on Pakistan: Pence used his visit to Bagram to say that the U.S. was taking a tough line on Afghanistan's key neighbor

Posing: One Air Force servicewoman was delighted to meet the vice-president

Approval: Mike Pence gave a thumbs up as he greeted troops and civilians, among them soldiers frm the 82nd Airborne Regiment, the 3rd Infantry Division, and Rangers

Meet the boss: Mike Pence spoke with General John Nicholson, commander of US forces in Afghanistan

Key ally: Mike Pence met Afghan President Ashraf Ghani at the Presidential Palace in Kabul for talks

Talks: Mike Pence met Ashraf Ghani to give a message that U.S. troops are in the country to stay, a reverse of Trump's campaign promise of swift withdrawal

Inspection: Pence was greeted by an honor guard of Afghan troops atObama after a U.S.-led coalition overthrew the Islamist Taliban government for harboring al Qaeda militants who plotted the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

But Trump, while acknowledging the decision went against his instincts, argued in August that a hasty withdrawal would create a vacuum for Islamic State and al Qaeda to fill.

He declined to set a timeline for withdrawal or outline benchmarks for the new strategy's success.

Echoing Trump's comments when he unveiled the new strategy, Pence had sharp words for neighboring Pakistan, which he said had provided safe haven to the Taliban and other groups for too long.

'Those days are over,' Pence said. Pakistan had much to gain from partnering with the United States, and much to lose by harboring 'criminals and terrorists,' he said


During a meeting in Monaco of F1's Technical Regulations working group, which is made up of teams and F1 race director Charlie Whiting, time was devoted to discussing which of the two cockpit protection systems would be introduced next season.

Although the Red Bull Aeroscreen idea had received a lot of support from inside the paddock and had been popular with fans, the fact that it had not been tested as extensively as the Halo meant there was a risk that unforeseen complications could emerge if the idea was settled on for 2017.

It was felt that, with teams having been told a final decision would be made by July 1, the short time left to commit to one of the ideas meant that the Halo was the most logicalsolution.

It was agreed, however, that F1 would continue to evaluate the Aeroscreen with a full-scale testing programme, so that it could be reconsidered for an introduction in 2018.

Modified Halo

Following Ferrari's testing of the Halo during pre-season testing at Barcelona, further work has been done on the concept, and a more refined version – which is not as chunky as the original one – is being prepared for the next stage of testing.

It is understood that crash tests are due to take place in the week after the Baku Grand Prix in June to allow the FIA to be totally satisfied that the modified version can be fully readied for next year.

Following those tests, the next Technical Regulations rules meeting is due to take place prior to the British


About Me

I saw active service in conventional, clandestine and covert units of the South African Defence Force. I was the founder of the Private Military Company (PMC) Executive Outcomes in 1989 and its chairman until I left in 1997. Until its closure in 1998, EO operated primarily in Africa helping African governments that had been abandoned by the West and were facing threats from insurgencies, terrorism and organised crime. EO also operated in South America and the Far East. I believe that only Africans (Black and White) can truly solve Africa’s problems. I was appointed Chairman of STTEP International in 2009 and also lecture at military colleges and universities in Africa on defence, intelligence and security issues. Prior to the STTEP International appointment, I served as an independentin the world through diplomacy, economic treaties, participation in international organisations, bank transfers to the French Treasury through the BCEAO and support for the CFA franc have been done by Gbagbo’s government.

The imposition of rebel warlords as members of the Cabinet of a joint government imposed by the French and the UN added nothing to their contributions to the State but cost the Ivoirian taxpayers a small fortune as each rebel minister demanded cabinet rank wages, fancy cars, and jobs for their families. It was a major cost to the government and the people of the Ivory Coast to keep these rebels in the styles in which they chose to live. This was tolerated and accepted by the people as it was part of an agreed process of


has changed in the legal requirements since.

What has changed is that the French were able to persuade the UN and President Gbagbo (but not his party, the FPI) that it was possible to hold elections in a divided country with armed rebels in charge of the North of the country and on the basis of a rigged electoral role provided by the French military company SAGEM. The presidential election in Ivory Coast was held on October 31st, 2010, with a second round on November 28th, 2010. The results of the election are disputed and the position of the Electoral Commission wholly discredited, even by members of that commission. The French and American ambassadors showed up at the campaign headquarters of Ouattara with one of his key electoral advisors.Without any authority the ambassadors and the Ouattara campaign manager announced that Ouattara had won the election. The next day the Constitutional Court said that Gbagbo had won the election. Since then the ‘international community’ has said that Ouattara was the legitimate president but the constitutional authorities of the country have said Gbagbo was the President.

None of this really matters any more. The ‘international community’ has introduced sanctions on the Ivory Coast and a ban on the country’s ability to deploy its assets retained by the French Treasury, It brags that it will starve Gbagbo out by stopping his financial ability to pay the army and the state employees. This has failed abysmally. Yesterday, 4 March 2011 Laurent Gbagbo paid over 60 per cent of civil servant salaries,


spent years in real battles and have plenty of equipment and battle-hardened soldiers who have experience in African wars. The supporters of Ouattara are raggedy irregulars who call themselves the New Forces and incompetent and inexperienced conscripts from Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger who have only ever fought over cattle, water and civil disputes. The Nigerian Army is sitting this out as they have their own battles to fight against a Muslim fundamentalist uprising in the North and an election to supervise. The presence offshore of the South African frigate Drakensberg has had a laxative effect on UN planners.

Being unable to starve Gbagbo out and without the military resources need to take on the regular Army (FANCI) and the FDS and CECOS units the irregular rebel force whichNico Hulkenberg opens up on 'sad' F1 exit, but says he's not retiring

4:14 Sky F1's Martin Brundle speaks to Nico Hulkenberg about his impending exit from Formula 1 and what's next Sky F1's Martin Brundle speaks to Nico Hulkenberg about his impending exit from Formula 1 and what's next

Nico Hulkenberg insists he's not retiring from Formula 1 but is resigned to losing his place on the grid next year, with the German opening up to Sky F1's Martin Brundle about his "sad" departure and future ambitions.

Hulkenberg, a highly-rated driver with 10 years of experience in the sport, will be replaced by Esteban Ocon at Renault in F1 2020 and although he was initially confident of securing his stay, his options have fallen away in recent months and there


TV."

While Hulkenberg, who was linked with Haas, Alfa Romeo and Red Bull, believes there's a chance of a return in the future, there will be those who point to the unfulfilled potential of his career, if this is the end.

Hulkenberg was arguably more successful than multi-F1 world champions Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel as a junior, but despite flashes of brilliance in F1 - including a Brazilian GP pole in his rookie season with Williams in 2010 - he will perhaps be better known for having the longest streak of races, 176 and counting, without ever setting foot on the podium.

Hulkenberg has been consistent throughout his 10-year stay, from Williams, to Sauber, to Force India and most recently Renault, but despite beating most of his team-mates, never earnedthe centuries may still bring us to reconsider its aesthetic quality and perhaps to recognise its proper worth. References Allen, Keith (2010). "Locating the Unique Hues". In: Estetica 43.1, pp. 13– 28. 19 Fabian Dorsch The Aesthetic Relevance of Empirical Findings Brochet, F. (2001). "Tasting: Chemical Object Representation in the Field of Consciousness". Prix Coup de Coeur, Academie Amorin. Budd, Malcolm (2003). "The Acquaintance Principle". In: British Journal of Aesthetics 43.4, pp. 386–392. Byrne, Alex and David R Hilbert (2003). "Color Realism and Color Science". In: Behavioral and Brain Sciences 26, pp. 3–21. Currie, Greg (2005). Arts and Minds. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Cutting, James E (2006). "The Mere Exposure Effect and Aesthetic Preference". In: New Directions in Aesthetics, Creativity and the Psychology of Art. Ed. by P.


Locher. New York: Baywood, pp. 33–46. Dorsch, Fabian (2007). "Sentimentalism and the Intersubjectivity of Aesthetic Evaluations". In: dialectica 61.3, pp. 417–46. – (2010). "Colour Resemblance and Colour Realism". In: Rivista di Estetica 43.1, pp. 85–108. – (2013). "Non-Inferentialism about Justification – The Case of Aesthetic Judgements". In: The Philosophical Quarterly 63.253, pp. 660–682. Dutton, Denis (2003). "Aesthetics and Evolutionary Psychology". In: The Oxford Handbook of Aesthetics. Ed. by Jerrold Levinson. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Goldie, Peter (2004). "Emotion, Reason and Virtue". In: Emotion, Evolution and Rationality. Ed. by P. Cruse and D. Evans. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 249–268. Hopkins, Robert (2001). "Kant, Quasi-Realism and the Autonomy of Aesthetic Judgement". In: European Journal of Philosophy 9, pp. 166–189. Jackson, Frank, Philip Pettit, and Michael Smith (2004). "Ethical Particularismand Patterns". In: Mind, Morality, and Explanation. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kieran, Matthew (2010). "The Fragility of Aesthetic Knowledge: Aesthetic Psychology and Appreciative Virtues". In: Philosophical Aesthetics and Aesthetic Psychology. Ed. by Peter Goldie and Elisabeth Schellekens. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Miller, G. F. (2000). The Mating Mind: How Sexual Choice Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature. New York: Doubleday. Oddie, Graham (1986). Likeness to Truth. Dordrecht: Reidel. Plassmann, H. et al. (2008). "Marketing Actions Can Modulate Neural Representations of Experienced Pleasantness". In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 105, pp. 1050–54. 20 Fabian Dorsch The Aesthetic Relevance of Empirical Findings Sibley, Frank (2001). Approach To Aesthetics: Collected Papers On Philosophical Aesthetics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Thomasson, Amie L (1999). Fiction


A bright orange poison dart frog with a unique call was discovered in Donoso, Panama, and described by researchers from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the Universidad Autónoma de Chiriquí, both in Panama, and the Universidad de los Andes in Colombia. In the species description published this week in Zootaxa, it was named Andinobates geminisae for Geminis Vargas, "the beloved wife of [coauthor] Marcos Ponce, for her unconditional support of his studies of Panamanian herpetology."

Every new species name is based on a representative specimen. The specimen for this species was collected Feb. 21, 2011, in the headwaters of the Rio Caño, in the district of Donoso, Colón Province, Panama, by Samuel Valdés, who was then the MWH Global Inc. environment office director, and his field assistant, Carlosde la Cruz. Additional specimens were collected between the Rio Coclé del Norte and the Rio Belen by biologists Marcos Ponce and Abel Batista, then a student at the Universidad Autónoma de Chiriquí. The specimens were deposited in the Museo de Vertebrados at the University of Panama, the Museo Herpetólogico de Chiriquí at the Universidad Autónoma de Chiriquí and in the Círculo Herpetólogico de Panamá.

"Abel Batista and Marcos Ponce were the first to note the presence of this species," said Cesar Jaramillo, Smithsonian herpetologist. "They've known it was there for several years. However, they were not sure if it was only a variety of another poison dart frog species, Oophaga pumilio, which exhibits tremendous color variation. Based on morphological characteristics of the adult and the tadpole, I thought


it might be a new species of Andinobates."

Andrew Crawford, professor at Universidad de Los Andes and former STRI postdoctoral fellow, sequenced the DNA, confirming that this was a new species of Andinobates. Genetic information about this species is available in the Barcode of Life Data System and in GenBank. A recording of the call is available at AmphibiaWeb.org.

Because this new frog species appears to be found in only a very small area, habitat loss and collecting for the pet trade are major threats to its existence. The authors recommend the formulation of special conservation plans to guarantee its survival. A. geminisae is included in the captive breeding program of the Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation project, a consortium of six zoos and research institutions dedicated to saving amphibiansfrom the chytrid fungal disease, which is decimating amphibians worldwide, and habitat loss.

###

All collecting and export were done with permission from Panama's Environmental Authority, ANAM. Financial support for this study came from MWH Global Inc. and Minera Panama. Funding for DNA sequencing was provided by a CBOL grant to barcode the vertebrates of Panama.

For more information about amphibian biodiversity in Panama, visit amphibianrescue.org or the Smithsonian's new exhibit, Las Fabulosas Ranas de Panama, at Culebra Point Nature Center on Amador Causeway in Panama City.

The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, headquartered in Panama City, Panama, is a unit of the Smithsonian Institution. The Institute furthers the understanding of tropical nature and its importance to human welfare, trains students to conduct research in the tropics and promotes conservation by increasing public


Performance-based contracting in residential care and treatment: driving policy and practice change through public-private partnership in Illinois.
The National Quality Improvement Center on the Privatization of Child Welfare Services selected Illinois as a demonstration site in 2007 to evaluate performance-based contracting in residential treatment services. This article discusses the first two years of project implementation including developing residential treatment performance indicators, adjusting those indicators for risk at the provider level, and setting agency-specific benchmarks, as well as the project's fiscal foundation and related systemic improvements to support policy and practice change resulting from this initiative."I am thrilled with how this came out," West says, on Mountain's official site. "Other guests are on as well, but that will come in a little while. I am excited for the sound on this; it's extraordinary, if I do say so myself."

Soundcheck, which doesn't have an officially announced release date just yet, is West's first solo project since 2013's Still Climbing. That followed a harrowing period of diabetes-related health issues for West, who had his lower right leg amputated in 2011. Unusual Suspects, a solo album from the same year, also had an all-star cast – including Billy Gibbons, Slash, Steve Lukather and others.

Mountain was originally co-founded by West and Felix Pappalardi, then working as Cream's producer, and named after the title of West's debut solo


project. The group appeared on Day 2 of 1969's Woodstock festival. Corky Laing joined not long after, and Mountain took the heavy-rocking "Mississippi Queen" to No. 21 on the Billboard charts.

Pappalardi split with Mountain in 1974, only to die tragically, leaving West and Laing to work on various side projects before reforming Mountain in the early '80s. West collaborated with the Who on sessions for 1971's Who's Next; he's also recorded with Ian Gillan, Ozzy Osbourne and Johnny Winter.NEW YORK -- Fred VanVleet has everybody's attention. The Toronto Raptors guard is not only a part of the best bench in the NBA and the league's best five-man unit, his coach counts on him in crunch time. When he made a game-winning jumper in the corner on national television last week, it shouldn't have been seen as surprising. As unlikely as it might seem for an undrafted, undersized floor general to emerge as a crucial part of the team that is tops in the East, VanVleet has spent his whole season showing that he belongs.

Per 36 minutes, VanVleet has averaged 15.2 points, 5.7 assists, 4.7 rebounds and 1.7 steals while making 39.4 percent of his 3s and pestering opposing guards on defense. He has become a fan


to report his wife of four years missing. He initially told investigators they had spent the night before watching cooking television shows together, and he had last seen her leaving for work the next morning.

Police later found her car parked with her cell phone inside about a mile from their home just outside Creve Coeur.

“She has not been seen or in contact with anyone since leaving her home. Jennifer has no history of leaving and is normally in contact with family members and friends on a daily basis," St. Louis County police said at the time of her disappearance.

When authorities tried to search their home, Rothwell did not let police enter and barred them from looking at his car and cell phone. He also refused to give policePosted!

A link has been posted to your Facebook feed.

Former first lady Michelle Obama and Conan O'Brien, enjoy a moment during her Milwaukee book tour, "Becoming: A Conversation with Michelle Obama" at the Miller High Life Theatre. Angela Peterson/Milwaukee Journal

A photograph is shown from former first lady Michelle Obama's surprise visit at Milwaukee Collegiate Academy earlier Thursday during her Milwaukee book tour, "Becoming: A Conversation with Michelle Obama" at the Miller High Life Theatre. Comedian Conan O'Brien was the moderator for the event. Angela Peterson/Milwaukee Journal

Former first lady Michelle Obama and Conan O'Brien talk during her Milwaukee book tour, "Becoming: A Conversation with Michelle Obama" at the Miller High Life Theatre. Angela Peterson/Milwaukee Journal

A family photograph of former first lady Michelle Obama and her brother Craig Robinson as children


is shown during her Milwaukee book tour, "Becoming: A Conversation with Michelle Obama" at the Miller High Life Theatre. Conan O'Brien was the moderator for event. Angela Peterson/Milwaukee Journal

A Milwaukee high school junior listens as former first lady Michelle Obama talks about her own experiences applying to and getting accepted at Princeton University. Obama, in town to promote her best-selling memoir, "Becoming," made a surprise visit to Milwaukee Collegiate Academy at 4030 N. 29th St., to talk to high school juniors from several schools about their college aspirations. Angela Peterson / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Former first lady Michelle Obama talks about the various criteria universities consider in admitting students during a roundtable discussion with high school juniors at Milwaukee Collegiate Academy in Milwaukee on Thursday. Obama, in town toand late-night talk-show host Conan O'Brien talks with Milwaukee high school students about their college aspirations during a round-table discussion Thursday at Milwaukee Collegiate Academy. O'Brien is in town to act as moderator of "Becoming: An Intimate Conversation with Michelle Obama." Hours before they were to take the stage, the two made a surprise visit at the school. Angela Peterson / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Former first lady Michelle Obama and Conan O'Brien talk during her Milwaukee book tour, "Becoming: A Conversation with Michelle Obama" at the Miller High Life Theatre on Thursday. Comedian Conan O'Brien was the moderator for the event. Angela Peterson/Milwaukee Journal

Former first lady Michelle Obama greets the audience as she arrives on stage for "Becoming: A Conversation with Michelle Obama" at the Miller High Life Theatre


on Thursday. Comedian Conan O'Brien, right, was the moderator for the event. Angela Peterson/Milwaukee Journal

Former first lady Michelle Obama enjoys a light moment with Conan O'Brien during her "Becoming: A Conversation with Michelle Obama" at the Miller High Life Theatre on Thursday night. Angela Peterson/Milwaukee Journal

Former first lady Michelle Obama shares memories from her and former President Barack Obama's time in the White House during "Becoming: A Conversation with Michelle Obama" at the Miller High Life Theatre. Angela Peterson/Milwaukee Journal

Michelle Obama's conversation with Conan O'Brien Thursday evening at the Miller High Life Theatre was Milwaukee's loftiest literary event of the year, and not simply because of their heights (5' 11" and 6' 4").

As she does in her best-selling memoir "Becoming," the former first lady delivered an inspirational messageabout persistence, self-acceptance and taking the high road, even in the face of rumor and falsehood.

A capacity crowd greeted her with enthusiasm and kept the love flowing throughout the evening with applause.

Obama grew up in a family with modest income on Chicago's south side, attended public school and went to Princeton, in spite of a high school guidance counselor openly doubting that she was Princeton material. She drew on her humble background through her conversation with O'Brien not as proof of her exceptionalism, but as encouragement to younger people, including the students she visited earlier Thursday at Milwaukee Collegiate Academy.

In writing her book, Obama said she forced herself to read some of the worst things people wrote about her, including the posting by a West Virginia public employee


that called the former first lady an "ape in heels."

There are still people today, she told the audience, "who believe my husband is a terrorist who wasn't born in this country."

She declared herself a "no shade" person. The current president was mentioned only once: In response to a social-media question relayed by O'Brien, she said that her husband didn't read President Donald Trump's tweets.

But maybe there was a tiny bit of shade in her statement that a president has to read and has to know history, which drew big applause.

Obama and late-night TV star O'Brien, the first male moderator on the "Becoming" book tour, bonded over family stories.

Former first lady Michelle Obama greets the audience as she arrives on stage for "Becoming: A Conversation with Michelle Obama" atthe Miller High Life Theatre.(Photo: Angela Peterson/Milwaukee Journal)

When she had a bad day at the White House, the first person Obama turned to was her mother, Marian Robinson (who was at Thursday's event, her daughter said). When Sasha and Malia were younger, Marian would come over at 4:30 a.m. so Michelle could work out while the girls were still asleep. (Maybe that's the secret of the former FLOTUS' fabulously toned arms.)

She described her marriage to Barack as an attraction of opposites: She's a box-checker, he's a swerver. She rolls her eyes when young people look at their marriage and say, "#relationship goals."

"No one tells young couples that marriage is hard," she said.

She and Barack went to counseling together, though she confesses at first she thought it was just


to fix him. In counseling, she learned that she had to put herself higher on her list of priorities.

Obama praised the courage of her daughters, who had to grow up and try to live normal lives while surrounded by Secret Service agents. When she was asked by students she met Thursday if she would run for president, Obama responded, "Heck no. I'm not going to do that to those two people (Malia and Sasha)."

At some point, leaders need to pass the baton on to the next generation, Obama said. But she expects to be involved with public service for the rest of her life. "Public service is who we are … it fills us up," she said.Before the start of the 2018-19 I-League season, Chennai City's new striker Pedro Manzi had only thing in mind: "I want to help the team win the league this year."

Manzi did just that, guiding Chennai City to become the first team from Tamil Nadu to win the I-League title, in only their third year in the top division.

He scored 21 goals to finish as the league's top-scorer, joining the likes of Ranti Martins and Odafa Okolie in Indian footballing folklore. He was on target even on Saturday, as it was his penalty that put Chennai on course to beat Minerva Punjab 3-1 on a dramatic final day that saw them finish a point above East Bengal.

Also see: Chennai City flying under the radar in adopted home Coimbatore

Beyond tiki-taka:


The story of Chennai's remarkable turnaround

But despite scoring the most goals, losing the least games, and arguably playing the best football all season, Chennai and Manzi's mettle was always questioned.

It was questioned when Churchill Brothers beat them 3-2 last week, forcing the title to the final day. It was questioned again on Saturday, when they had to face Minerva without their best midfielder Nestor Gordillo (suspended) and best defender Roberto Eslava, who picked up an injury during training.

Chennai's coach Akbar Nawas had no such worries, though.

"I'm bringing 18 first 11 players tomorrow," he had said, swatting away the question before the final game.

Just like they have done all season, Chennai came through. Twelve months ago, Chennai had to beat Minerva to simply stay above the relegation zone. Thistime, they had to beat them for the title.

Last season, Churchill had the chance to relegate Chennai, but couldn't. This season, Churchill could have well cost Chennai the title, but they didn't.

In the space of a single year, Chennai's fortunes had drastically changed, but they still had to face many adversities.

Pedro Manzi celebrates after scoring the crucial equaliser against East Bengal in a game billed as the title decider. I-League media

Even before the season started, Chennai lost their best player Michael Soosairaj to the riches of the Indian Super League. The team owner Rohit Ramesh had told ESPN he wanted to "spend wisely."

Spend wisely, they did. Sandro Rodriquez came from the third division in the Canary Islands, while Eslava was purchased from Salamanca. Gordillo was bought from third-tier


Cornella, a team in the autonomous community of Catalonia, while Manzi was recruited from a fourth-division team in Spain. Local players were signed from the Chennai Football Association's Senior Division League, despite none of them being even close to becoming Indian internationals. Even Nawas' pre-season ambitions were small, as he only aimed for a mid-table finish.

Then there was Coimbatore, their adopted home. Chennai City had to make-do with the other Jawaharlal Nehru stadium. Fans weren't coming to cheer them on. The I-League wasn't marketed as well as the ISL, so the buzz wasn't enough. What could a team really achieve without a packed, vocal set of fans?

That question was put to bed in a 4-1 thrashing of Indian Arrows in Chennai's first game of the season, with Manziscoring a hat-trick. Four wins came in the next five, even while Manzi missed two games with injury. They scored 11 goals during these matches, including an impressive win over East Bengal. Chennai's possession stats were looked at with awe, while their goals were stitched together for TV promos.

Wing-back Edwin Vanspaul explained that Chennai were learning from the top teams across Europe such as Barcelona. The philosophy was to win the ball back early, keep possession even when trailing, and counterattack with speed.

But after the early season afterglow, Chennai's temperament was in doubt once again.

When Champions �� celebrate... !!! pic.twitter.com/ijQfQXYgwA - Chennai City FC (@ChennaiCityFC) March 9, 2019

Manzi came back from injury, but the goals dried up. Meanwhile, Real Kashmir won four in a row, most importantly against