1.19.14 … book jackets and wine labels …

 “Ballet Shoes” , Nol Streatfeild, “You’ve Got Mail”, book jackets,  wine labels,  small independent bookstores: So, I saw a refernce on a FB page to  “Ballet Shoes” and asked, “Isn’t  the book that this film is based the one  that is refernced in one of the later scenes in You’ve Got Mail?”

A Mighty Girl Pick of the Day: “Ballet Shoes,” a 2007 BBC movie adaptation of the Noel Streatfield novel, starring Emma Watson of Harry Potter fame. This compelling film tells the story of three orphaned girls, Pauline (Watson), Petrova, and Posy, living together as sisters and being supported — barely — by one elder sister, Sylvia.

The three girls each have high ambitions: Petrova wants to fly airplanes, Posy wants to dance ballet, and Pauline wants to be an actress. The story follows the girls as each of them pursues their dreams and learns important lessons about kindness, love, and family.

These loving sisters and their determination to write their names in the history books are sure to inspire every watcher and their willingness to stand alongside one another in support is heartwarming. This lovely film is recommended for ages 7 and up.

via (3) A Mighty Girl.

And the answer is yes …

“Nol Streatfeild wrote Ballet Shoes and Skating Shoes and Dancing Shoes. Id start with Ballet Shoes its my favorite. Although Dancing Shoes is completely wonderful but its out of print.”

via Ramblings of an English Teacher: You’ve Got Mail.

And then I had a great FB conversation …

FB friend: ” I love that scene. We’ve come full circle here with only a small independent bookstore in my immediate area. I try to frequent it, but it is so hard to beat the price and convenience of Amazon.I still have to go in person for browsing fun. I am drawn to certain book jackets the same way i shop for wine by the wine labels.”

…

me: “I love book jackets and wine labels! I was in my independent bookstore yesterday, picking up an signed copy of a book for a “spiritual” basket for my church’s youth mission trip fundraiser. i asked if it had discounts because I needed 8+ books for the basket. (Long story, short: spiritual basket contains ministers and staffs’ favorite books with personal notes among other things) … I of course prompted a discourse on why they could not compete with Amazon…) As for wine labels, i was just commenting to my sister in law, that all the small vineyards John and I loved on our last visit to Napa 24 years ago, some because of their fun labels , are now big vineyards.”

Fyodor Dostoevsky, doodles manuscripts, Open Culture:  Puts Dostoevsky in a new light. 🙂

Few would argue against the claim that Fyodor Dostoevsky, author of such bywords for literary weightiness as Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, and The Brothers Karamazov, mastered the novel, even by the formidable standards of 19th-century Russia. But if you look into his papers, you’ll find that he also had an intriguing way with pen and ink outside the realm of letters — or, if you like, deep inside the realm of letters, since to see drawings by Dostoevsky, you actually have to look within the manuscripts of his novels. Above, we have a page from Crime and Punishment into which a pair of solemn faces (not that their mood will surprise enthusiasts of Russian literature) found their way

via Fyodor Dostoevsky Draws Elaborate Doodles In His Manuscripts | Open Culture.

Tweet of the Day:  I’m really slow sometimes.

Huffington Post

(@HuffingtonPost)

1/15/14, 9:36 PM

Girl choir breaks stained glass ceiling at Canterbury Cathedral

…

CANTERBURY, England (RNS) Canterbury Cathedral, mother church of the 85 million-member worldwide Anglican Communion, will have its first girls’ choir perform since it was rebuilt nearly 1,000 years ago.

On Jan. 25, worshippers will hear the voices of 16 girls between the ages of 12 and 16 at a historic Evensong service, which will include the music of English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Until now, only male voices have been heard at the cathedral’s services.

via Canterbury Cathedral Will Have Girls’ Choir Perform For The First Time Ever.

The Best Airport Food, lists, WSJ.com:  I hate airport food and never venture beyond Starbucks or McDonalds. Anyone else with recommendations?

Middle Seat favorites: Urban Taco’s chicken tinga and Dos Equis Amber barbacoa tacos at DFW, Legal Sea Foods chowder and crab cakes in Boston or Philadelphia (and returning to Washington’s Reagan National this spring), and that incredible barbecue beef from The Salt Lick, which must be chased by Amy’s Mexican vanilla ice cream.

Farther afield, one of my all-time memorable meals was the salade gersoise at 8e Ciel at the airport in Toulouse, France. Every conceivable preparation of duck—and Toulouse is known for its duck—is nestled on greens and priced at about $26. The restaurant, a highlight of an otherwise dreary, small airport, features regional cuisine “advised” by chef Michel Sarran, with the added bonus, for aviation buffs, of a broad view of the Airbus factory flight line.

via The Best Airport Food in the U.S. and Beyond – WSJ.com.

And a few additions from FB Friends …

FB Friend: “The Varsity on Concourse C ATL”

…

FB Friend:  The article here mentions Legal seafood at Boston. I’ve had good seafood at BWI too. The new Delta concourse in NY (Kennedy?) has great restaurants. Houston has beer vendors with carts that roll down the concourses!

…

FB Friend: “Ditto on BWI. Used to be a great little gourmet restaurant in Bakersfield but I haven’t been back there in a while.”

1968 Artist Imagines What John Paul George & Ringo,  “When I’m Sixty-Four”, Open Culture:

When I get older losing my hair,

Many years from now,

Will you still be sending me a valentine

Birthday greetings bottle of wine?

Paul McCartney’s wistful song “When I’m Sixty-Four” was released on the Beatles’ 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The next year, an artist named Michael Leonard tried to imagine what the young musicians might look like four decades later — on their 64th birthdays. We never got a chance to figure out whether he sized up Lennon and Harrison correctly. But we know that Paul, even at 71 today, never got jowly. And Ringo never went the suit route. You can see for yourself when the two perform at the Grammys on January 26.

via In 1968, Artist Imagines What John, Paul, George & Ringo Will Look Like When They’re 64 | Open Culture.

How sugar affects the brain, Nicole Avena,  Why Diets Fail by Nicole Avena, TED-Ed , YouTube:  My name is ______, and I am an addict, a sugar addict.

Sad, but true ..

I mentioned a new book called Why Diets Fail by Nicole Avena, a neuroscientist and research psychologist at Columbia University who has done a lot of work in this area. She\’s particularly interested in the neurotransmitters and brain receptors involved in eating. In lab experiments with rats, she\’s shown how overeating tasty foods (like sugar) can produce changes in the brain and behavior that resemble addiction.

The Salt

Is Sugar Addiction Why So Many January Diets Fail?

Science

Overeating, Like Drug Use, Rewards And Alters Brain

Avena has also just put out a clever TED-Ed video with colorful visuals to help explain the details of just why sugar makes our brains go bonkers.

As the video shows, the key player in the reward system of our brain — where we get that feeling of pleasure — is dopamine. Dopamine receptors are all over our brain. And doing a drug like heroin brings on a deluge of dopamine.

Guess what happens when we eat sugar? Yes, those dopamine levels also surge — though not nearly as much as they do with heroin.

via Why Sugar Makes Us Feel So Good : The Salt : NPR.

Elena Shumilova/Russian Mother,  Magical Pictures, Two Kids With Animals On Her Farm,  Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Bored Panda:  These are more than magical … 

These wonderful photographs by Elena Shumilova plunge the viewer into a beautiful world that revolves around two boys and their adorable dog, cat, duckling and rabbit friends. Taking advantage of natural colors, weather conditions and her enchanting surroundings, the gifted Russian artist creates cozy and heartwarming photography that will leave you amazed.

The boys in the photographs are the photographer’s sons and the animals belong to the farm she runs. “I largely trust my intuition and inspiration when I compose photos. I get inspired mainly by my desire to express something I feel, though I usually cannot tell exactly what that is” Shumilova explained to BoredPanda.

Rural settings, natural phenomena and the changing seasons seem to be the greatest stimuli in her works. “When shooting I prefer to use natural light – both inside and outside. I love all sorts of light conditions – street lights, candle light, fog, smoke, rain and snow – everything that gives visual and emotional depth to the image,” the photographer said.

Shumilova told us her passion for photography manifested in early 2012 when she got her first camera. Her most recent equipment includes the Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera and a 135mm lens. As a mother who doesn’t want to miss out on her growing children, she says she shoots every day and processes the images at night.

We suggest you take a cup of tea, lean back comfortably in your armchair and browse this beautiful collection of Elena Shumilova’s photographs.

via Russian Mother Takes Magical Pictures of Her Two Kids With Animals On Her Farm | Bored Panda.

Snowboarders, lawsuits,  Alta Ski Area, OutsideOnline.com, the Fourteenth Amendment(citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws): So I asked my guys, one ides, one skis, what do you guys think?  I think there are some valid arguments since it is on government land.

Four snowboarders and a Utah nonprofit corporation have sued Alta Ski Area and the U.S. Forest Service, challenging the resort’s skiers-only rule.

The lawsuit states that Alta’s policy prohibiting snowboarders from riding at the resort violates the Fourteenth Amendment, which addresses citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws.

Alta is one of three resorts in the country that does not allow snowboarding, and it is the only one that operates on public land controlled by the U.S. Forest Service, according to the lawsuit.

via Snowboarders Sue Alta Ski Area | News from the Field | OutsideOnline.com.

LOL, man’s best friend: Sounds like my house!!

2.27.13 … If I hate being late, why am I always late …

Van Cliburn, RIP,  Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No.3 in D minor Op.30, YouTube:  What a life!  RIP, Van Cliburn.

Pianist Van Cliburn died Wednesday at the age of 78 in Forth Worth, after battling bone cancer.

In 1958, Van Cliburn won the first Tchaikovsky International Competition in Moscow — he became an international classical music star.

via Van Cliburn Dead at 78: His Great Performances (Video) – Speakeasy – WSJ.

Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No.3 (Van Cliburn) in D minor Op.30 – YouTube.

“Solvitur Ambulando” – It is solved by walking, 2013 Lenten labyrinth walks,  Avondale Presbyterian Church, 2013 FPC Charlotte Lenten Devotional, 2013  NAPC Lenten Devotional:

 

  

   

  

 

    

Beautiful day …  as I opened the car door I hear the chimes ringing softly in the wind.  What a great way to start my walk.

Things I thought about …

From FPC’s Wes Barry:

I had a professor in Seminary say that anytime the word “bread” shows up in scripture we should take notice, because it is by this earthly substance that we are told by our Lord to remember him.  So when God asks us “why spend money on what is not bread,” he is asking us why would we spend our resources on things that do not satisfy?  In the end, it is only Jesus Christ, his body broken for us, which satisfies our longings.

From NAPC’s devotional …

Life is like this; just a little seed of an evil desire can cause us to go down another path. James is encouraging us to endure temptation and to stand the test so that we will receive a blessing beyond our imagination.

And from Henri Nouwen …

Discipline in the spiritual life is the concentrated effort to create the space and time where God can become our master and where we can respond freely to God’s guidance.Thus, discipline is the creation of boundaries that keep time and space open for God. Solitude requires discipline, worship requires discipline, caring for others requires discipline. They all ask us to set apart a time and a place where God’s gracious presence can be acknowledged and responded to.

via Daily Meditation: Creating Space for God.

TED Talks, business, Harvard Business Review:

It’s happening right now.

Thousands of very lucky individuals are seated in the Long Beach Performing Arts Center are at TED 2013. TED has become a brand name as they have uploaded their archive of 18-minute presentations from their exclusive annual event to TED.com. Originally available only online, the speeches are now distributed and broadcasted on TV, radio, podcasts and even on Netflix. I have been fortunate to have attended the annual conference since 2008, and I’ve found TED an experience that helps businesspeople unlock a new way to think about the work that we do, where we are going as leaders, and our collective role in the evolution of the world. In the spirit of TED 2013, here are 10 amazing TED Talks that have helped me think differently about what business can be, how to be a better leader, and how to become a better global citizen

via 10 TED Talks to Help You Reimagine Your Business – Mitch Joel – Harvard Business Review.

The Cloisters, The Cloisters’ 75th Anniversary, WSJ.com:  I love it that my husband sent this to me. 🙂

Set on a hill overlooking the Hudson River in northern Manhattan, the Cloisters museum and gardens were designed to give visitors the impression they are stepping back in time, wandering through what feels like an old-world monastery.

But as America’s only medieval-art museum approaches its 75th anniversary this spring, its curators are stepping gingerly into the modern world.

This year, the Cloisters will for the first time present a contemporary-art installation. The museum, a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is developing new digital content for visitors to view on iPods. And after decades of displaying the same permanent collection, the museum is making a bid to attract return visitors with more special exhibitions, made possible by climate-control improvements in recent years.

Change is a delicate issue at the Cloisters, where curators are looking to draw a broader audience without alienating those who cherish the spot’s timeless quality.

via The Cloisters Opens Up – WSJ.com.

 Vatican, Pope Benedict’s new title, CNN.com, fyi:

Pope Benedict XVI will keep the title “his holiness” once he retires and will be called “pontiff emeritus,” Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told reporters at the Vatican on Tuesday.

via Vatican reveals Pope Benedict’s new title – CNN.com.

BofA,  Warren Buffett, Brian Moynihan, gaffes, Bloomberg:  Worth reading …

“Brian certainly doesn’t show up on anyone’s list of most- admired bankers,” Miller says. “If he’s successful, he will have a lot more stature than is now the case.”

Buffett, who stands to become Bank of America’s largest shareholder, says he has little doubt Moynihan will succeed.

“I’ve been around other companies that have great underlying strengths, where some huge event has gotten them into major trouble,” the 82-year-old billionaire says. “Sometimes, you can make a very good investment when that happens.”

via BofA Affirms Buffett Bet as Moynihan Recovers From Gaffes – Bloomberg.

Colm Toibin,  “Summer of ’38” , The New Yorker, bookshelf:  Colm Toibin: “Summer of ’38” : The New Yorker.

poems,  Rudyard Kipling, NPR:  I love lost works …

Fifty previously unpublished poems by Rudyard Kipling, the author of The Jungle Book and Just So Stories, were discovered by Thomas Pinney, an English professor at California State Polytechnic University. The lost works by Kipling, whose most famous poems include “If” and the notorious “White Man’s Burden,” are to be published next month. Kipling was widely derided as an apologist for British colonialism — George Orwell called him “a jingo imperialist” — though he was also a respected novelist who won the Literature Nobel in 1907.

via Book News: 50 Poems From Rudyard Kipling Discovered : The Two-Way : NPR.

Macy’s CEO Terry Lundgren,   Martha Stewart, J.C. Penney, lawsuits:  Ah, intigue in retail …

Lundgren, 60, said Stewart sounded like she was reading from a document prepared by lawyers when they spoke, and that he cut off the conversation when the home goods doyenne claimed her deal with J.C. Penney would be good for Macy’s.

“I think that’s when I hung up,” said Lundgren. “The thought this was going to be good for Macy’s was so far from anything I could comprehend.”

Lundgren said that at the time he considered Stewart a friend, and he has not spoken to her since.

via Macy’s CEO Terry Lundgren ‘Shocked And Blown Away’ Over Martha Stewart’s Alliance With J.C. Penney.

Swiss watchmakers, The Economist:  I met someone a few years back whose ex worked with a swiss watchmaker … very interesting …

No one buys a Swiss watch to find out what time it is. The allure is intangible: precise engineering, beautifully displayed. The art of fine watchmaking has all but died out elsewhere, but it thrives in Switzerland. “Swiss-made” has become one of the world’s most valuable brands.

In the popular imagination, Swiss watches are made by craftsmen at tiny firms nestled in Alpine villages. In fact, the industry is dominated by one big firm. The Swatch Group’s stable of brands Breguet, Blancpain, Omega and a dozen others generated watch and jewellery sales of SFr7.3 billion in 2012. That is up by 15.6% over the previous year and accounts for one-third of all sales of Swiss watches. In January Swatch announced the purchase of Harry Winston, an American jeweller which also makes watches in Geneva.

via Swiss watchmakers: Time is money | The Economist.

YMCA, ballene:  I attended my second ballene class in a month … I like it!

Ballene: A unique blend of core, strength and flexibility exercises using the stability ball

via Exercise Class

gay marriage, GOP, NYTimes.com:

Dozens of prominent Republicans — including top advisers to former President George W. Bush, four former governors and two members of Congress — have signed a legal brief arguing that gay people have a constitutional right to marry, a position that amounts to a direct challenge to Speaker John A. Boehner and reflects the civil war in the party since the November election.

The document will be submitted this week to the Supreme Court in support of a suit seeking to strike down Proposition 8, a California ballot initiative barring same-sex marriage, and all similar bans. The court will hear back-to-back arguments next month in that case and another pivotal gay rights case that challenges the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act.

The Proposition 8 case already has a powerful conservative supporter: Theodore B. Olson, the former solicitor general under Mr. Bush and one of the suit’s two lead lawyers. The amicus, or friend-of-the-court, brief is being filed with Mr. Olson’s blessing. It argues, as he does, that same-sex marriage promotes family values by allowing children of gay couples to grow up in two-parent homes, and that it advances conservative values of “limited government and maximizing individual freedom.”

Legal analysts said the brief had the potential to sway conservative justices as much for the prominent names attached to it as for its legal arguments. The list of signers includes a string of Republican officials and influential thinkers — 75 as of Monday evening — who are not ordinarily associated with gay rights advocacy, including some who are speaking out for the first time and others who have changed their previous positions.

via Prominent Republicans Sign Brief in Support of Gay Marriage – NYTimes.com.

Secretary of State John Kerry,  Free Speech, only in America, NYTimes.com: “In America, You Have a Right to Be Stupid.”  If you want to see the clip … Kerry Defends American Liberties.

In a robust defense of free speech during a meeting with young Germans in Berlin on Tuesday, Secretary of State John Kerry explained just how far the limits of tolerance extend in blunt terms. “In America,” the country’s top diplomat explained, “you have a right to be stupid.”

That remark, at a forum hosted by the United States Embassy in Berlin, went completely unmentioned in German newspaper and television reports on the event, but it was gleefully seized upon by Mr. Kerry’s critics back home, and bored journalists everywhere, hungry for a gaffe.

via ‘In America, You Have a Right to Be Stupid,’ Kerry Says in Defense of Free Speech – NYTimes.com.

North Avenue Presbyterian Church, Dr. Frank M. Eldridge:  I spent a day with Frank while my mother was having surgery in 2008.  What a blessing he is to NAPC … and what an accomplishment  … by title alone …

Name with titles: Hon. Rev. Dr. Frank M. Eldridge, Sr., JD, LL.M., M. Div., Th.M., Associate for Congregational Care, Senior Judge of the Court of Appeals of Georgia.

via North Avenue Presbyterian young adults, Who’s Who at NAPC?.

Ben Affleck’s Oscar Speech, marriage, truth:  I thought this deconstruction of his speech very interesting …

Did you see Ben Affleck’s speech accepting the Best Picture award last night? If not, he made a moving and authentic statement about marriage. Read more about it here.

The part that has people in a tizzy is this:

I want to thank you for working on our marriage for 10 Christmases. It’s good, it is work, but it’s the best kind of work, and there’s no one I’d rather work with.

The criticism centers around this statement as lacking in cuteness, and focusing on the negative. It wasn’t the “right forum” for this type of declaration, it was a possible indicator that “something is wrong” in the marriage, he should have just stuck to “I love you and adore you and you’re perfect” — basically whining that a major Hollywood star was uncomfortably honest about his relationship and said overly blunt things about marriage in one of the most public forums on the planet.

Anyone who actually agrees with the above criticism doesn’t get marriage.

A fundamental reality of human relationships is that two people are not meant to be in a single monogamous partnership for all eternity (or even until the end of their lives). Humans crave sexual novelty. We get bored. We lose interest after just two years. We find our intimacy crushed by the weight of daily routines. Marriage is a voluntary commitment that flies in the face of all scientific research and human evolution.

We enter this voluntary (some say insane, and they’re not entirely wrong) pact because we do a cost-benefit analysis and decide that the benefits of getting married (or otherwise partnering for life) outweigh the potential costs — breakups, emotional pain, financial disarray, the list goes on. We make just about the biggest emotional leap of faith a person can make, because we think, feel, and hope that the rewards will be great.

via Ben Affleck’s Oscar Speech Revealed A Truth About Marriage.

The Silver Linings Playbook, bookshelf, film/lit:  I need to read the book and see the movie!

Paper or Plastic, games, icebreakers, app:  There’s an app for that?

Paper or Plastic App | A Simple Game to Break the Ice.

Kayla loves the moon, YouTube: Endearing .. to the tune of 300,000 hits in the first week!

That doesn’t make her attempts any less endearing.

In this swoon-worthy YouTube video, the pink-clad, stuffed-animal-toting toddler converses with her dad, who encourages her to reach for the moon before eventually agreeing with her that it’s a lost cause, and she should say “goodbye.”

Since being uploaded on Friday, the clip — which denmoff77 posted alongside links to the Lunar and Planetary Institute and its moon-themed site, MyMoonspace.com — has racked up almost 300,000 views.

via Kayla Loves The Moon So Much, She Wants To Catch It (VIDEO).

@amandapalmer, human connection, mutual dignity of gift economies,  TED2013, Maria Popova ‏@brainpicker:  I can’t wait to watch this 2013 TEDTalk.

Maria Popova ‏@brainpicker

“Asking makes you vulnerable.” @amandapalmer makes a beautiful case for the human connection and mutual dignity of gift economies #TED2013

via (73) Twitter.

bikes, cycling, training, Bicycling Magazine: Indoor Bike Trainer Tips, Tricks & Strategies | Bicycling Magazine.

11.17.2011 … MARTA Gold Line to Civic Center to Megabus to Charlotte (with a mere 2 hour delay) … WOOHOO! great visit with the mum and sis!

Atlanta, MegaBus, travel, kith/kin: Megabus to Charlotte. WOOHOO! great visit with the mum and sis… Massive traffic jam … This delay is not Megabus’ fault … View from the bus for the last 1/2 hour … 🙂 — at I 85

.

This is what I was trapped in …

A truck driver has been charged in a wreck that completely shutdown Interstate 85 for four hours on Thursday.

Rafael Lopez, 48, of New Jersey, has been charged with driving too fast for conditions, according to Highway Patrol Lance Cpl. Bill Rhyne.

The southbound lanes reopened at about 2 p.m., and traffic started to slowly move again. The northbound lanes reopened at about 2:45 p.m.

A truck ran off the road and into the support for an electronic message board used for AMBER alerts and other information that spans all lanes of the interstate. It caused the structure to collapse across the northbound lanes near mile marker 67, according to the Highway Patrol.

via I-85 Reopens; Driver Charged In Wreck – Local News – Greenville, SC – msnbc.com.

A Very Young Dancer, children’s/YA literature, followup:  Having friends in the ballet world I found this interesting …

IN the fall of 1976 “A Very Young Dancer” leaped into the imaginations of a generation of little girls. This children’s book by the photographer Jill Krementz chronicled the day-to-day life of a 10-year-old student from the School of American Ballet, following her to class and through her starring role as Marie in New York City Ballet’s “Nutcracker,” for which she was handpicked by George Balanchine himself. (“George Balanchine’s Nutcracker,” performed by City Ballet, begins its 57th season on Friday at the Koch Theater.)

Stephanie DePierro was profiled at 10 in Jill Krementz’s 1976 photo book “A Very Young Dancer.”

For a time the book’s subject, Stephanie, was perhaps the most famous and easily recognizable ballerina in the world. Young readers wanted to be her. There were bags of fan mail and appearances on “Today,” “Midday Live With Bill Boggs” and a one-hour “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” Christmas special.

For anyone who’s read the classic book, it’s easy to see why it was a best seller. Stephanie’s intensity — her beauty, her dark eyes and her seriousness — draws the reader in. The stark black and white lends some of the photos a Grimm’s fairy tale quality, with a haunted undertow that appeals to girls. And it offers a rare, behind-the-scenes look at the most prestigious ballet academy in the country, which has an almost mystical quality for aspiring ballerinas. (My own daughter is a student there.)

via ‘A Very Young Dancer’ and the Life That Followed – NYTimes.com.

Roget’s Thesaurus, words:  You know what, I must be a real nerd … I love Roget’s Thesaurus, too.

A confession: I love Roget’s Thesaurus. Mine is not a popular position to avow. Most writers I know, asked if they use a thesaurus to discover more interesting vocabulary for their essays or stories, bristle with resistance. Haven’t those who look up “say” in the Thesaurus and consequently force characters to “utter,” “breathe,” “pour forth,” “state,” “declare,” “assert,” “aver,” “relate” “murmur,” “mutter,” or “gasp” ruined countless reading experiences? Haven’t students who looked up “refute” and found “confute” next on the list composed arguments that got off on the wrong track, only to be further derailed when they decided that “apodixis” suited them better than “proof”? Whatever folks think of Stephen King, most would agree with his advice, in On Writing:

One of the really bad things you can do to your writing is to dress up the vocabulary, looking for long words because you’re maybe a little bit ashamed of your short ones.  This is like dressing up a household pet in evening clothes . … Make yourself a solemn promise right now that you’ll never use “emolument” when you mean “tip.”

via An Aficionado (Connoisseur, Fan, Devotee, Enthusiast) Speaks

college majors, humanities:

“So, what do you study?”

“I’m an English major and I’m also pre-med.”

Blank stare. Glazed eyes. Crickets. So begins another awkward introduction in the dining hall.

Similar situations are erupting on campuses across the country as a small, but growing number of aspiring doctors choose to major in the humanities or social sciences instead of the usual bio or chem. Last year, nearly a quarter of medical school applicants majored outside the sciences, and for good reason: Nowadays, medical schools don’t care about what you majored in during your undergrad.

Admissions rates are virtually equal for science and non-science majors, and most med schools encourage undergrads to take substantial courses in the humanities to prove that they’re concerned with the human condition, not just the human body.

For pre-med English majors like me, the idea is simple. I want to spend my college days reading Shakespeare; I want to spend my post-college life delivering health care to under-served communities. Why should I have to choose between them?

The possibility of becoming a non-science pre-med is far from obvious to most college students, however.

via Are you pre-med? Major in the humanities | USA TODAY College.

Davidson College, Arab Spring Lecture, William Roebuck:

William Roebuck is director for the Office of Maghreb Affairs in the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. His office has been on the front lines, helping shape the U.S. government’s diplomatic response to the momentous developments known as the Arab Spring. His lecture will focus on the wave of revolutionary movements across the Arab World, as well as his recent experiences in Libya. A question and answer session will follow the lecture.

via Davidson College – Arab Spring Lecture.

diets, health: Ooh … t00 many questions!

1““““““`11111Have you tried out a trendy diet plan, such as a juice fast, the 17-Day Diet, Wheat Belly, the Paleo Diet, or the Dukan Diet (a.k.a. the “Kate Middleton Diet”)? Or are you committed to an older weight-loss plan, such as Weight Watchers or South Beach? If you’ve found success with a popular diet—or want to rant about your bad experiences with one—we want to hear from you for an upcoming Gourmet Live feature on the best diets for food lovers. Please cut and paste the following questions and send your answers to gourmetlive@condenast.com.

DIET QUESTIONS:

What is the name of (and any books associated with) the diet you tried?

How did you choose this diet?

What foods and drinks—if any—are you required to give up for the diet?

How would you sum up the other “rules” of the diet in three or four sentences?

How did you feel while on the diet (emotionally and physically)?

How long were you on the diet and did you lose any weight (if so, how much)?

What were the best things about the diet?

What about the worst things about the diet?

Would you recommend this diet to a food loving friend? Why or why not?

Can we quote you by name? If so, please supply your name as you’d like to be listed, and (if you are comfortable with this), your age and gender.

via Have You Tried a Trendy Diet Plan? — Gourmet Live.

food, globalization: “And, as our food supply becomes ever more globalised, I can’t help but imagine that more and more producers of “luxury” foods will seek to make their product even more desirable with reference to a hyper-specific, utterly imaginary atlas of aspirational origins.”

Provenance is a tricky issue. Over the past few years, the names of agricultural regions, villages, and even specific farms have proliferated on urban menus and shelf labels, providing the aspirational consumer with a shorthand guarantee of authenticity, taste, and, often, local origin.The idea is that by listing the farm on which your heirloom tomato was picked, chefs honour growers as the co-producer of flavour; meanwhile, by achieving protected designation of origin (PDO) status, traditional makers of pork pies and prosciutto preserve the geographic context of their product, as well as its artisanal technique and, often, its continued economic viability.For consumers, however, these place names tend to form a more abstract cartography of implied inherent value. I confess to finding it reassuring that the lamb on offer at the restaurant up the street comes from Jamison Farm, even though I have no idea where that is, and I look for San Marzano DOP tomatoes despite the fact that (this is a little embarrassing) I couldn’t point to their carefully protected origin on a map….However, it is the branding geniuses at Marks & Spencer, suppliers of underwear and luxury ready-meals to the UK, who have taken the abstract, yet powerful, geography of food labeling to its logical, imaginary conclusion. While re-reading Sarah Murray’s excellent book, Moveable Feasts (of which more later), I came across this nugget:Sometimes places that are entirely fictional are created to add to the appeal of a food. British chain Marks & Spencer recently introduced “Lochmuir salmon,” despite the fact that Lochmuir cannot be found on a map.Marks & Spencer is refreshingly open on the subject of Lochmuir’s non-existence, with Andrew Mallinson, the company’s “fish expert,” explaining to The Scotsman newspaper that “it is a name chosen by a panel of consumers because it had the most Scottish resonance. It emphasises that the fish is Scottish.”

…

And, as our food supply becomes ever more globalised, I can’t help but imagine that more and more producers of “luxury” foods will seek to make their product even more desirable with reference to a hyper-specific, utterly imaginary atlas of aspirational origins. Chinese fois gras will come from the French-sounding Beauchâteau, Vietnamese mozzarella will be marketed under the faux-Italian name of San Legaro, and the role of geography in food description — originally intended as a means to reconnect consumers and producers — will end up further disguising the industrial commodity chain while creating an entirely alternate universe, made up of the places that we dream our food comes from.

via The Atlas of Aspirational Origins.

The Vatican, lawsuits,  Benetton,ad campaigns:  Truly bizarre:  world leaders kissing!

The Vatican is promising legal action to stop the distribution of a photo of Pope Benedict kissing an imam on the mouth. The photo is fake, by the way, and is part of a shock-factor advertising campaign by Italian fashion company Benetton that features world leaders getting fresh.

Benedict’s inamorata in the photo is Ahmed Tayeb, leader of Al Azhar in Cairo, Sunni Islam’s most influential institution. Another ad shows President Obama kissing Chinese President Hu Jintao.

The new campaign, as well as the UNHATE Foundation, a new Benetton think tank aimed at, um, communicating love, are part of the company’s social responsibility strategy. Click here for the foundation website and here for slideshow of the ads. WSJ’s Heard on the Runway has more here, and the Journal has a story on the ad campaign here.

The Vatican, however, isn’t feeling the unhate. It said in a statement Thursday its lawyers in Italy and around the world had been instructed to “take the proper legal measures” to stop the use of the photo, even in the media, Reuters reported. And Here‘s a link to the statement in Italian, for what it’s worth. (Prego.)

The statement said the ad was “damaging to not only to dignity of the pope and the Catholic Church but also to the feelings of believers.” It wasn’t clear whether the Vatican intended to sue Benetton directly.

via The Vatican is threatening a legal response Italian fashion company Benetton’s new ad campaign of world leaders kissing – Law Blog – WSJ.

art, photography, Nate Larson, Marni Shindelman, “Geolocation”series: “The images originate as tweets that Larson and Shindelman select for their poignancy, humor or some other quality. They then travel to the places that the tweets were sent from, indentified by GPS coordinates embedded in the messages, and take a picture. The resulting works pair image with words, to sometimes startling effect.” … interesting concept.

Every photograph in Nate Larson and Marni Shindelman’s “Geolocation”series starts with a caption. But the artists don’t write them themselves.

The images originate as tweets that Larson and Shindelman select for their poignancy, humor or some other quality. They then travel to the places that the tweets were sent from, indentified by GPS coordinates embedded in the messages, and take a picture. The resulting works pair image with words, to sometimes startling effect.

A selection of “Geolocation” images is on view at Montpelier Arts Center. Read my review of the exhibition (whose images are also available in book form), and check out a few of the pictures after the jump.

via Art in focus: Nate Larson and Marni Shindelman – Going Out Gurus – The Washington Post.

Storify:  How Storifying Occupy Wall Street Saved The News … still trying to figure out storify!

In the dead of night on Monday, November 14, Zuccotti Park in New York City was raided by police. In the preceding days, there were crackdowns at several of the major Occupy protests around the country. The effort had apparently been coordinated between cities. Monday night’s actions against the original Occupy Wall Street encampment were stern, heavy enough to bring a decisive end to the protest. But the raid only served to turn up the heat in New York and around the country.

As they have since the Occupation began, people on the ground fired up their smartphones to report the events as they happened, and curators around the Web gathered and retweeted the salient messages. But early on in the raid, mainstream media outlets began reporting that the police were barring their reporters from entering the park. The NYPD even grounded a CBS News helicopter. The night had chilling implications for freedom of the press. But the news got out anyway. The raw power of citizen media – and the future of news envisioned by a site called Storify – thwarted the media blackout.

…

But for the Monday night raid at Zuccotti Park, and indeed for much of the Occupation, Storify has come into its own as the social news curation tool par excellence. In fact, thanks to the media blackout Monday night, some of the most important news outlets in the country would not have had a story if not for Storify.

…

In October, it rolled out a brand new editing interface making the tool vastly easier to use. And one week ago, just before the police raided Zuccotti Park, Storify made its move, redesigning its homepage as a destination featuring the most important stories on the social Web. Storify’s vision is no less than a leveling of the media playing field. On the Storify homepage, lifelong and first-time journalists stand side by side.

…

Damman says this is the perfect demonstration of the Storify redesign. These social media documents are the real story, and the NYPD’s obstruction of credentialed journalists only shows how out of touch the police are. “The police in New York don’t realize that it doesn’t matter to not have journalists on the scene,” Damman says, “because everybody is a reporter. What happened last night shows that they don’t get that.”

“Most of the content comes from the people on the ground, from the 99%.”

via How Storifying Occupy Wall Street Saved The News.

tweet of the day, Steph Curry:  🙂

Stephen Curry (@StephenCurry30)
11/17/11 8:00 PM
Lol no doubt i have something nice in store RT @sdotcurry: Cmon son! #blood RT @StephenCurry30: Big game tomorrow. What do I wear lol?

Occupy Wall Street:  Do you think OWS reflects the sentiment of  50 % of the country?

The Occupy Wall Street protests continue to spread around the country, highlighting grievances some Americans have about banks, income inequality and a sense that the poor and middle class have been disenfranchised. A recent New York Times/CBS News poll found that almost half of the public thinks the sentiments at the root of the movement generally reflect the views of most Americans. What are your thoughts about the movement? Do you agree with the protesters’ methods? Please note you must be logged in to post a comment.

via Public Opinion and the Occupy Movement – Interactive Feature – NYTimes.com.

criminal acts, fashion, Marc Jacobs:  Thought this one interesting …

In a case that seems ripe for Sherlock Holmes, Scotland Yard is investigating an alleged theft of samples from designer Marc Jacobs‘s Spring 2012 fashion collection that took place along a posh London Street.

The missing clothes, shoes and handbags were from the collection that the designer showed on his New York runway in September, as well as less-dramatic looks from his so-called pre-collection, according to a person familiar with the situation. Police estimated the value at £40,000, or a little more than $63,000.

Marc Jacobs executives declined to comment.

ReutersMarc Jacobs had to cancel its planned London ‘press day’ for fashion editors; above, a look from the Spring 2012 collection.

Sales to retailers of the Marc Jacobs collection closed in October, and the loss won’t affect products destined for stores next spring, said the person familiar with the situation. Those items are already being manufactured. What’s more, the brand has duplicates of the samples in New York, the person said.

But as a result of the samples’ disappearance, the Marc Jacobs brand was forced to cancel its planned London “press day” where fashion editors and reporters are invited to view the collections. Press days allow publications to see and select items they may photograph in future issues.

via Marc Jacobs’s Spring Collection Allegedly Stolen in London – WSJ.com.

President Abraham Lincoln, Mormons, history:  Very interesting piece!

On Oct. 20, 1861, a vital piece of the Utah puzzle was solved, as the final lines of a telegraph were strung together, linking the

Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific, through an office in Salt Lake City. On that auspicious occasion, which spoke so loudly of union, Brigham Young remarked,“Utah has not seceded, but is firm for the Constitution and laws of our once happy country.” Those were words guaranteed to warm Lincoln’s heart. Two days later, more good news, as General J. Arlington Bennett wrote him to ask if he could recruit 1,000-10,000 Mormons to fight for the Union.

But the question was far from solved, and on Nov. 18, Lincoln attacked the Mormon question in a most Lincolnian way. Instead of ordering an invasion, Lincoln ordered information. Specifically, he asked the Library of Congress to send him a pile of books about Mormonism, so that the aggregator-in-chief could better understand them. These included “The Book of Mormon” in its original 1831 edition, and three other early studies of the Mormons, with extensive, lurid chapters covering their polygamy. For some reason, he also ordered a volume of Victor Hugo, in French, a language he could not read.

Fortified by his reading, Lincoln came to a great decision. And that decision was to do nothing. Sometimes that, too, can be a form of leadership — what Churchill called “a masterly inactivity.”

Typically, Lincoln reached his decision through a homely parable, told to a Mormon emissary:

When I was a boy on the farm in Illinois there was a great deal of timber on the farm which we had to clear away. Occasionally we would come to a log which had fallen down. It was too hard to split, too wet to burn, and too heavy to move, so we plowed around it. You go back and tell Brigham Young that if he will let me alone I will let him alone.

That parable is about as much as we will get in the way of a formal explanation, but it is enough. To his generous store of common sense, we might also add the freshness of Lincoln’s memories of the bloodshed at Nauvoo in 1844, when angry mobs had killed the Mormon leaders, with elected officials standing by and doing nothing. And the centrality of Utah to the grand vision of a transcontinental republic, embraced fully by America’s most western president to date.

via Lincoln and the Mormons – NYTimes.com.

1.23.2011 … Sunday, Sunday … so nice to have a day of rest …

followup, Jake’s , Charlotte, restaurants/diners:  So we ventured to Jake’s Good Eats for a second visit.  It is an upscale diner … in an old gas station.  The food is interesting.  The friend oysters were very good, but the sautéed spinach underneath was to die for.  The wedge with bleu cheese and bacon was very good … a meal in itself.  And my vegetable plate was quite good.  I could not have downed a full entre after the other two shared items.  I’ll go again … but get there early.  It is worth a 30 minute wait … but not an hour.

Jake’s Good Eats -.

music, classical music, lists:  I am not a music person, but I do consider myself educated … so I laughed when I got to her number 10 and had never heard of him.

I am about to reveal my list, though as those who have been with me on this quest already know, I’ve dropped hints along the way. And the winner, the all-time great, is … Bach!

…

But forced to pick only one more composer, I’m going with Bartok. In an earlier piece I made my case for Bartok, as an ethnomusicologist whose work has empowered generations of subsequent composers to incorporate folk music and classical traditions from whatever culture into their works, and as a formidable modernist who in the face of Schoenberg’s breathtaking formulations showed another way, forging a language that was an amalgam of tonality, unorthodox scales and atonal wanderings.

via The Greatest Composers – A Top 10 List – NYTimes.com.

Julio J. Ramirez, Davidson, kudos: To former neighbor Julio, kudos!

Julio J. Ramirez, the R. Stuart Dickson Professor of Psychology at Davidson College, has been named by President Barack Obama as a recipient of a the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring.

Ramirez will receive the award next Thursday, Jan. 27, at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington. John P. Holdren, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, will make the presentation. Ramirez will deliver a 10-minute talk on that occasion about his 30 years of involving students in his research on recovery from brain injury and his national efforts to promote neuroscience education and research.

via Obama honors Prof. Ramirez for mentoring | DavidsonNews.net.

Civil War Sesquicentennial, education, history, research:  We are only in the first weeks … It will be interesting to see how I/we feel after retracing this history in 5 years.

Over the next four years Americans will be reminded of and engage in debates about every aspect of a war that fundamentally transformed the nation and that set us on a path we are still working to come to terms with. America went through the same process at the centennial. What’s different this time around is the focus on race and slavery, both of which have the potential to divide Americans and obscure the boundaries between the present and the past; that, and the ability for anyone to access millions of pages of information about the war, its causes and consequences through the Internet.

via Teaching Civil War History 2.0 – NYTimes.com.

Silent Sam, public art, UNC-CH, Civil War, history, icons:   I remember first encountering Silent Sam and hearing the tale of why he is silent (read on … ).  I laughed and went on.  I never knew he was memorializing the Civil War veterans who attended UNC.  I am sure all the current students will know his history as calls to topple him are made.  A compromise needs to be made.  He is a university icon.  Maybe it is time to publicly remember slavery and teach to understand the war by all students.

The present generation, I am persuaded, scarcely takes note of what the Confederate soldier meant to the welfare of the Anglo Saxon race during the four years immediately succeeding the war… their courage and steadfastness saved the very life of the Anglo Saxon race in the South — when the ‘bottom rail was on top’ all over the Southern states, and today, as a consequence, the purist strain of the Anglo Saxon is to be found in the 13 Southern States.”

Carr then proudly recounted his contribution to Reconstruction’s racial violence:

“100 yards from where we stand, less than 90 days perhaps after my return from Appomattox, I horse-whipped a negro wench, until her skirts hung in shreds, because upon the streets of this quiet village she had publicly insulted and maligned a Southern lady.”

This disturbing past is part of our beloved institution’s history. All paths forward carry their own perils. Destroying the monument erases an uncomfortable past, but to ignore its connections to racial ideologies that barred African Americans from UNC until the 1950s is equally problematic. Even new interpretive signs would stir debates on what to include. These debates are healthy. As we near the Civil War’s sesquicentennial discussions over the meaning of our past ensures a more informed public. This I celebrate.

via The Daily Tar Heel :: Why Silent Sam was built: A historian’s perspective.

It is silent because the figure wears no cartridge box for ammunition,[2] but legend has it he fires his gun every time a virgin walks by; since supposedly “no one” on campus is a virgin, he never fires his gun, hence why he is known to be “silent.”

via Silent Sam – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Erected in 1913 as a monument to the 321 alumni of the University who died in the Civil War and all students who joined the Confederate Army, this statue is known by students as Silent Sam. The university continued operation during the Civil War, thanks to President Swain’s reliance on wounded veterans and men who were exempt from military service. Although the soldier holds a rifle, it is silent because he wears no cartridge box for ammunition.

via Landmarks | Silent Sam | The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

childhood, Disney Princesses, end of an era, RIP, Bruno Bettelheim, followup, :  Still think this is sad that our society has outgrown the princess fairy tales.  I am sure followers of Bruno Bettelheim would say the stories were never about happy endings … but still for a generation who grew up with the films and who raised its children on the films it is a sad end.

Tangled, Disney’s latest fairy tale movie, was shut out at the Golden Globe Awards last weekend. Nominated for two — Best Animated Feature Film and Best Original Song (“I See the Light”) — the retooled Rapunzel story won neither.

The critical shunning could be construed as a key indicator: Fairy tale movies have fallen on hard times. In fact, around Thanksgiving, the Walt Disney Co. revealed it has no plans to make another animated fairy tale.

It’s hard to imagine a world without Disney’s fairy tales. What do we tell the children? Kissed frogs don’t turn into princes, wicked stepsisters win out, glass slippers just won’t fit. And what colorful icons will we silkscreen all over kids’ pillows and lunchboxes?

via The Fairy Tale Struggles To Live Happily Ever After : NPR.

In The Uses of Enchantment (1976), his prize-winning treatise on the uses of fairy tales in the child’s upbringing, Bettelheim poignantly described how the child’s imagination is served by romantic stories, especially those told to the child and, in the telling, elaborated by the child’s freely created variations. Again, Bettelheim emphasized the collaboration of parent and child in sharing fairy tales to enhance the child’s developing sensibilities. The child needs not only those coping skills that are fostered by didactic parents, but also, Bettelheim wrote, a moral education communicated not through abstract (ethical) concepts but through fairy tales that deal with what is tangibly right and therefore meaningful. He likened the child’s understanding of fairy tales to the psychological insights gained long ago by poets. The German poet Schiller wrote: ‘Deeper meaning resides in the fairy tales told to me in my childhood than in the truth that is taught by life.’10

As in so many of his works, the foundation for Bettelheim’s thesis that fairy tales foster the child’s developing mind and provide a forum for emotional expression rested primarily on the application of psychoanalysis to childhood education. True to the subject, Bettelheim whimsically discussed some of the most difficult psychoanalytic concepts in clear, amusing and fanciful language, rendering his thesis accessible to contemporary parents. Conspicuously oedipal themes in fairy tales are brought forth for the reader to consider. The power of Bettelheim’s writing resides in his ability to illuminate concepts that are obvious to psychoanalysts but remain obscure to parents without explication. A little girl’s conflict with her mother is narrated in ‘Cinderella’ by the device of having the child’s mother portrayed as the wicked stepmother. Such a theme resonates with a girl’s feeling of helplessness which is then overcome by the ‘good mother,’ a fairy godmother, who rescues Cinderella and supports her in her aspirations to meet the prince. Bettelheim also highlighted the importance of sibling rivalry in the family and in the Cinderella story, which depicts beautiful but shy Cinderella helpless at the hands of her stepsisters. This, too, is resolved by the rescuing fairy godmother, a resolution that every little girl deeply appreciates. Bettelheim hoped that as parent and child together understood the deeper meaning of these stories, the parent and the child would bond in mutual enjoyment.

http://www.ibe.unesco.org/publications/ThinkersPdf/bettelhe.pdf –

random, video, NAPC, Atlanta:  Well this is an interesting way to teach a group of dull Presbyterians about their leaders and leadership! I’m a North Avenue Officer.

news, media, Keith Olberman:  So in the end does it just come down to money?

This was all Keith’s choice. He has several times over the years said that he wants out of his contract. He never meant it until this year. He started lawyers negotiating twice this year. He stopped them in the spring. Then, about a month ago with the guidance of his new ICM team and a new LA manager (who were making zero $ on his current deal), he once again said he wanted to leave and this time they negotiated the full package.

via NEW DETAILS: “MSNBC And Keith Olbermann Have Ended Their Contract”; Lefty MSNBC About To Make Right Turn? – Deadline.com.

“I think the same fantasy has popped into the head of everybody in my business who has ever been told what I’ve been told–that this is going to be the last edition of your show,” Olbermann said. “You go directly to the scene from the movie ‘Network’ complete with the pajamas and the raincoat.”

via Keith Olbermann’s Parting Words on MSNBC (Video) – Speakeasy – WSJ.

Arizona Massacre, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, rehabilitation:  So much hope … but I would hate to be in the spotlight.

Instead of doctors making you well, rehab means “teaching you how to help yourself” to get your life back, said Dr. William Donovan, a former medical director of the rehab hospital who still works there part-time.

It’s frustrating when your muscles and mind won’t work the way you want them to. Emotional challenges, post-traumatic stress and physical problems like seizures, headaches and infections loom as risks that could complicate her recovery.

via Rep. Gabrielle Giffords ‘More Alert,’ Says Dr. Gerard Francisco.

random, viral videos, lawsuits, YouTube:  I am sure this has happened before.  But the security guard did nothing to help her and posted the embarrassing video on YouTube. Do you think it really never crossed the guard’s mind that this was not appropriate? … unkind? … reflective on him or her that he/she was not doing their job?

But their lack of action has opened the floodgates. Sitting next to Marrero on GMA was her attorney, James Polyak. “We plan to hold all responsible parties accountable,” he said, for letting the video out, and will at the very least request an apology from the security team.

(More on TIME.com: See photos of the monstrous Mall of America.)

Marrero’s outcry has already made waves within the mall staff. According to the Reading (Pa.) Eagle, the Berkshire Mall security guard who posted the video has been fired. (via ABC News)

via Woman Falls in Fountain While Texting: Yes, She’s Real. And Mad. And Suing – TIME NewsFeed.

truth, friendship, relationships, Jane Austen, Davidson friends:  Ah, Jane once again subtly revealing the truth. This reminded me of my friend Cary’s recent article about our Davidson friend group gatherings.  I think one of the core requirements is that you tell the truth about yourself.

Truth is a very dangerous commodity. It is like a very sharp knife. You will kill or wound someone with truth more easily than you will cut the cords of ignorance with it. Truth often hurts; sometimes the hurt is necessary. A friend of mine used to say, “The truth will set you free, but it will make you miserable first.” In order for wounds to be healing wounds, they must be both given and received in a context of love and trust. Emma may often disagree with Mr. Knightly, but she never doubts his concern for her and her father.

via Holy Nativity Orthodox Church: Who’ll Tell Emma The Truth?.

heartbreak, Alzheimer’s, personal stories: Jan’s Story: Love and Early-Onset Alzheimer’s – CBS Sunday Morning – CBS News.

college students, Duke:  Duke is getting nailed for what has been happening on college campuses forever.  The women should know better; the men should know better.  “Student activists call the parties exploitative and dangerous to the young women who take part.” Stupid … and these kids are supposed to be the best and the brightest.

Some Duke University student activists hope to end a long-held practice where female students are plied with booze and encouraged to cozy up to new fraternity recruits.

It happens at “progressive” parties, generally held at the end of rush, the period during which fraternities and sororities evaluate prospective members. At Duke, the latest rush period concludes next weekend.

Female students are invited to be hosts at these fraternity parties. The Duke Chronicle student newspaper reported this week that the women’s tasks at the parties can range “from bartending to providing sexual favors.” The women often dress provocatively and are stationed in party rooms bearing such themes as “spring break” and “school girls,” critics say.

Student activists call the parties exploitative and dangerous to the young women who take part. A new group, the Greek Women’s Initiative, recently held a forum examining the issue, and petitions seeking to end the practice have garnered about 800 signatures.

via ‘Progressive’ Duke parties under scrutiny – CharlotteObserver.com.

random, literature, museum exhibits, Morgan Library, NYC:  Diaries are interesting.  I would like to see this exhibit at  the Morgan.

“I have tried to keep diaries before,” John Steinbeck writes in a giant ledger book filled with his methodical script, “but they didn’t work out because of the necessity to be honest.”

via ‘The Diary’ at the Morgan Library – Review – NYTimes.com.

random, politics, Congress, man cave:  I never thought about where freshman members of congress lived.  But if you think about it they have just spent a ton of money and are only assured of two years.  Man Cave in the office??

“I probably got it as good as a man cave can be,” Walberg said.

Down the hall, freshman Republican Joe Walsh of Illinois, is still figuring out how to manage his nights. He sleeps on a couch.

“I think it’s important that we show we don’t live here, we are not creatures of this town,” Walsh told us. “There’s so much to do the next two years, I don’t want to be distracted with another place. I don’t want to have to think about an apartment.”

Walsh, Walberg and nearly two dozen of their colleagues are part of a trend that may have reached a historic high point.

A CBS News survey of all freshmen members of the U.S House of Representatives has found that at least 21 of the 96 members are sleeping in their office – that’s 19 of the 87 new Republicans and 2 of the 9 new Democrats.

The reasons range from making a symbolic statement that they are not part of Washington, proving they are fiscal conservatives, and just saving money.

They sleep on air mattresses, cots, couches, and rollaway beds.

via One-Fifth of House Freshmen Sleep in Offices – CBS Evening News – CBS News.

Arizona Massacre, emotional injuries, prayers:  Keep them in your prayers.

They cried together. They promised one another to seek professional help. And they said they would remain in frequent touch. When Mr. Green drove by with his son the other day, Ms. Hileman vowed that there would be more backyard water gun fights.

In a certain sense, Ms. Hileman sees herself, along with Ms. Giffords, as the third corner of a triangle — she wanted Christina to know that she, too, could become the kind of woman who emanated intelligence and pizazz.

“Christina and I were doing exactly what we wanted to do,” Ms. Hileman said. “We weren’t dragging somebody to the movies. We were happy. Some idiot decided to rain on my parade.”

via Tucson Shooting Survivors Struggle With ‘What If?’ – NYTimes.com.