The Wyoming prospect camp, technically, was over. UW head coach Dave
Christensen had talked to the group of about 100 high school prospects,
thanking them for coming and urging them to return for games in the
fall. Recruiting coordinator Matt Rahl made it official, standing in
front of the group and saying, “You are dismissed.”
But while
most players flooded out the doors of Wyoming’s indoor practice
facility, meeting with parents who had watched the camp’s drills from
along the sidelines, Fort remained.
The 6-foot-4, 210-pound
Gillette quarterback went through a private workout with the coaches,
throwing all kinds of routes as Christensen watched attentively from
behind.
For Wyoming, Fort’s athleticism was never the issue. They
knew he could run, and Fort’s 4.7-second 40-yard-dash on Saturday
confirmed that. They knew he had size, an obvious fact as his head
consistently poked above the crowd.
The question was, and still is, his accuracy.
Earlier,
Fort had thrown twice on the run, once rolling out right and the other
rolling out left. Each ball hit the ground with a thud, skipping into
the feet of his intended receiver.
He had better results in the
after-hours workout, setting his feet and delivering the ball accurately
on deep fades, crossing patterns and outs. Occasionally, though, a ball
would sail high or wide, causing Fort to slap his hands in frustration.
His
audition here, he knew, could make the difference between getting an
offer to play at Wyoming or heading out of state to pursue his gridiron
dreams.
He's generally considered the state's second-best
football prospect in the 2014 class behind Natrona County lineman Taven
Bryan, who already holds an offer from UW. The state's incoming senior
class is considered one of Wyoming's best in recent memory.
“I
just wanted to show what I could bring to the program and try to prove
myself as a quarterback. That’s all I’m trying to do,” Fort said after
the workout. “They know me and I know them, and they just need to see me
perform.”
Regardless of Fort’s performance on Saturday, the
strong-armed quarterback certainly has other options. He plans to camp
at Colorado in Boulder on Sunday, confirming that he has received
interest from CU. Fort says he has also been talking to coaches at
Colorado State and plans to attend a camp in Fort Collins in late July.
After
the season Fort had with Gillette in 2012, the Division I interest
isn’t unexpected. Fort threw for 2,137 yards and 14 touchdowns as a
junior, leading his team to the Wyoming State High School Class 4A
Football Championship. The Star-Tribune Super 25 member also ran for 735
yards and 10 touchdowns in his first season after transferring from
Orlando., Fla, to Wyoming in January 2012.
Fourteen touchdowns
through the air. Ten touchdowns on the ground. As Gillette coach Vic
Wilkerson confirmed, that’s a true dual threat.
“One of his
biggest strengths is his size and speed. He’s a 6-foot-4, 200-pound
quarterback that runs well, so we use that dual threat in the run and
the pass game,” Wilkerson said. “He’s got the speed where when he gets
into the open field, he can create plays.”
That athleticism was
on display Saturday at UW's Indoor Practice Facility. In a broad jump
drill, Fort easily outdistanced the players around him.
He
finished the drill first by a wide margin, turning around and politely
waiting while the rest eventually met him on the other end.
Read the full story at wwww.beralleshoes.com!
2013年6月8日星期六
2013年5月26日星期日
who we have trained up through the scheme
Instead of using bows and arrows to take from the rich and give to
the poor, she uses the money spent by wealthy people on her expensive
handmade pieces to help some of the world's most disadvantaged
communities.
With her jewellery selling for as much as ￡70,000 per item, London-based Pippa is in demand with fashion houses like Gucci, Chloe and Nicole Farhi.
Her designs are worn by celebrities including actress Nicole Kidman, and Pippa attends fashion weeks around the world. Yet in stark contrast to such glitz and glamour, she also inhabits a completely different world.
"Just as I was starting the business full-time 10 years ago, I had spent a summer working with Burmese refuges in Thailand, who were just full of horror stories, horrendous testimonies," she says.
"And I remember coming back to Europe to go to the Paris fashion week, and just being struck dumb by the contrast. I just couldn't reconcile the two completely different realities."
Instead of using bows and arrows to take from the rich and give to the poor, she uses the money spent by wealthy people on her expensive handmade pieces to help some of the world's most disadvantaged communities.
With her jewellery selling for as much as ￡70,000 per item, London-based Pippa is in demand with fashion houses like Gucci, Chloe and Nicole Farhi.
Her designs are worn by celebrities including actress Nicole Kidman, and Pippa attends fashion weeks around the world. Yet in stark contrast to such glitz and glamour, she also inhabits a completely different world.
"Just as I was starting the business full-time 10 years ago, I had spent a summer working with Burmese refuges in Thailand, who were just full of horror stories, horrendous testimonies," she says.
"And I remember coming back to Europe to go to the Paris fashion week, and just being struck dumb by the contrast. I just couldn't reconcile the two completely different realities."
Today Pippa gets 70% of her jewellery made in India, "the world's gold jewellery capital", with the profits she makes from this main part of her business being invested into special collections made in workshops in countries such as Afghanistan, Kenya, Panama and Bolivia from locally sourced materials.
While Pippa admits she has a profitable business and good lifestyle, in all countries she pays at least a 10% premium to ensure working standards are as high as possible, both in sourcing the metals and precious stones she uses, and for the workers who then make the jewellery.
In Bolivia her jewellery is made from gold produced in a mine that is run as a co-operative, and is working towards Fairtrade accreditation through it being run in as an environmentally friendly a way as possible.
In marked contrast, Pippa's Kenya-made jewellery is all made from recycled glass and scrap metal sourced from Nairobi's largest waste tip.
Working with the Made charity, 160 people who live in a slum next to the site are involved in the manufacture of the jewellery.
"They live in completely inhuman conditions, but they are really industrious, going through the garbage seeing what they can sell," says Pippa.
"I know we are only helping a very small number, but it is amazing to see the difference we can make - it is all about giving these people the confidence of having a skill and being able to contribute.
"Within a couple of years, many people who we have trained up through the scheme leave to start their own micro-businesses. That is particularly pleasing."
With two Pippa Small boutiques, one in London and the other in Los Angeles, she plans to continue to grow both the business and her work with disadvantaged groups.
With her jewellery selling for as much as ￡70,000 per item, London-based Pippa is in demand with fashion houses like Gucci, Chloe and Nicole Farhi.
Her designs are worn by celebrities including actress Nicole Kidman, and Pippa attends fashion weeks around the world. Yet in stark contrast to such glitz and glamour, she also inhabits a completely different world.
"Just as I was starting the business full-time 10 years ago, I had spent a summer working with Burmese refuges in Thailand, who were just full of horror stories, horrendous testimonies," she says.
"And I remember coming back to Europe to go to the Paris fashion week, and just being struck dumb by the contrast. I just couldn't reconcile the two completely different realities."
Instead of using bows and arrows to take from the rich and give to the poor, she uses the money spent by wealthy people on her expensive handmade pieces to help some of the world's most disadvantaged communities.
With her jewellery selling for as much as ￡70,000 per item, London-based Pippa is in demand with fashion houses like Gucci, Chloe and Nicole Farhi.
Her designs are worn by celebrities including actress Nicole Kidman, and Pippa attends fashion weeks around the world. Yet in stark contrast to such glitz and glamour, she also inhabits a completely different world.
"Just as I was starting the business full-time 10 years ago, I had spent a summer working with Burmese refuges in Thailand, who were just full of horror stories, horrendous testimonies," she says.
"And I remember coming back to Europe to go to the Paris fashion week, and just being struck dumb by the contrast. I just couldn't reconcile the two completely different realities."
Today Pippa gets 70% of her jewellery made in India, "the world's gold jewellery capital", with the profits she makes from this main part of her business being invested into special collections made in workshops in countries such as Afghanistan, Kenya, Panama and Bolivia from locally sourced materials.
While Pippa admits she has a profitable business and good lifestyle, in all countries she pays at least a 10% premium to ensure working standards are as high as possible, both in sourcing the metals and precious stones she uses, and for the workers who then make the jewellery.
In Bolivia her jewellery is made from gold produced in a mine that is run as a co-operative, and is working towards Fairtrade accreditation through it being run in as an environmentally friendly a way as possible.
In marked contrast, Pippa's Kenya-made jewellery is all made from recycled glass and scrap metal sourced from Nairobi's largest waste tip.
Working with the Made charity, 160 people who live in a slum next to the site are involved in the manufacture of the jewellery.
"They live in completely inhuman conditions, but they are really industrious, going through the garbage seeing what they can sell," says Pippa.
"I know we are only helping a very small number, but it is amazing to see the difference we can make - it is all about giving these people the confidence of having a skill and being able to contribute.
"Within a couple of years, many people who we have trained up through the scheme leave to start their own micro-businesses. That is particularly pleasing."
With two Pippa Small boutiques, one in London and the other in Los Angeles, she plans to continue to grow both the business and her work with disadvantaged groups.
2013年4月6日星期六
Wherever you are sitting on the plane
Boston lobster thermidor, wagyu sirloin and red Thai curry duck are on a menu created by celebrity chefs including New York's Alfred Portale, Kyoto's Yoshihiro Murata and Sydney's Matt Moran.
But to taste some of these dishes you may have to pay as much as $6000 for a fold-out table for one. That's the price of a sleeper suite on board an A380 superjumbo with Singapore Airlines from Australia to Singapore return, and the menu is part of the luxury offering for premium passengers.
Portale, Murata and Moran are on the airline's nine-strong global culinary panel of celebrity chefs who have a kitchen cabinet full of Michelin stars between them and who are at the forefront of creating the airline's menus, not just for first and business classes, but also more basic dishes in economy.
Advertisement
Carlo Cracco, a two-star Michelin chef in Milan, is the latest appointee and his classic Italian fare was rolled out on Singapore Airlines' flights in January. Celebrity chefs are a phenomenon at many airlines.
"Airline food used to have a reputation for being bland, but the quality of inflight meals has improved massively as airlines place greater importance on serving good food at altitude," he says.
Wherever you are sitting on the plane, he says, the food is a welcome distraction, especially on long-haul flights. "People get bored and look forward to the food and movies. Any interruption is welcome.
"Although our customers are flying with us to get from A to B, the inflight experience is a significant part of why they choose to fly with us. If you think back to your recent flights, more often than not great food is the most memorable part of the experience.
"Our customers have ample time to reflect on their meals and, as the popularity of cooking shows has demonstrated, expectations have only increased."
Singapore Airlines has an annual food and beverage budget of about $500 million and has a large kitchen facility at Changi Airport, where 50,000 meals are prepared daily. (Emirates has an even bigger kitchen operation in Dubai, where 175,000 meals are made each day.)
Within the Singapore facility, which I was able to tour recently, there are several specialist kitchens for different cuisines, such as Indian, halal, Japanese, vegetarian, and even dim-sum. The airline is at pains to point out that all the meals are made from fresh, seasonal produce, and all the meals are less than 24 hours old when served inflight.
It is also at pains to maintain high hygiene standards. During the inspection of the kitchens I was outfitted with a white coat, hat and face mask. Visitors also need to remove jewellery and scrub down at sinks like surgeons before passing through a wind tunnel designed to blow away any dust remnants.
"The first thing to make the headlines [and create a PR disaster for airlines] is a food-poisoning case," Freidanck says. "The second thing that will make headlines is a foreign object in the food. That's why so much care is taken."
Among all this super cleanliness, there's also an omelet station where 5000 of the egg dishes are made each day and a test kitchen that simulates an aircraft's cabin pressure, which can lead to the deprivation of a person's taste sensation by up to 30 per cent.
Apart from the volume of dishes that airlines need to turn out daily, one of their biggest culinary challenges is to overcome this distortion of the flavours of food and wine, and therefore they are careful to select meals that will reconstitute well and wines that are bold.
Freidanck says the main issue is serving meals that are moist and full of flavour. "This is why we always feature soups and salads for starters, and our ICP [international culinary panel] chefs have certainly developed a good sense of what flavours and textures are robust enough to be served on-board. The same principle applies with our wine experts, and explains why our wine selection aims for a primary fruit character."
In a painstakingly thorough process, the Singapore Airlines chefs put forward their menus to Freidanck and then each dish is analysed for ingredients and whether it will be suitable to the airline's cooking process (initial preparation of the dish at the airport's catering facility, blast chilling, then being reheated on board).
Other factors considered are the weight of the dish, and cabin crew and galley space constraints for plating up.
William Angliss food expert Felicity Fraser says that at altitude our taste buds are not as receptive, therefore it is harder to detect flavours. "The compression effect on our sinuses at altitude deadens the salt and sugar and all those things that bring the flavours out of food," she says.
One solution is to overseason the food once it arrives on your tray table, but Fraser says it also pays to keep an eye on what reconstitutes better in the aircraft kitchen.
"Then it's a matter of bringing it up to temperature quickly in regethermic-type ovens without the food stewing for a long time and drying out. It's like snap freezing, but also snap reheating."
Much fanfare is made of airline food in the annual Skytrax World Airline Awards. At Farnborough, England, last July, Malaysian Airlines won "best airline signature dish" for its first- and business-class appetiser of chargrilled beef, chicken and lamb satay sticks.
The airline serves at least 15,000 of them each day. The sticks are marinated for 18 hours in tumeric, garlic, galangal and lemongrass, and grilled on charcoal at Malaysian Airline's inflight kitchen at Kuala Lumpur before being warmed and smothered in sauce on the plane.
The Skytrax award for best economy catering was won by Singapore Airlines, best business-class catering by Swiss International Air Lines, and best first-class catering by Etihad. Despite the improved standards, indiscretions of the past are never far from the mind.
The food and travel blog Not Quite Nigella recalls a cracked, dried cannelloni on the now-defunct Air Paradise, and Fraser squirms remembering a dead cockroach in her fried rice on a Bali flight.
But to taste some of these dishes you may have to pay as much as $6000 for a fold-out table for one. That's the price of a sleeper suite on board an A380 superjumbo with Singapore Airlines from Australia to Singapore return, and the menu is part of the luxury offering for premium passengers.
Portale, Murata and Moran are on the airline's nine-strong global culinary panel of celebrity chefs who have a kitchen cabinet full of Michelin stars between them and who are at the forefront of creating the airline's menus, not just for first and business classes, but also more basic dishes in economy.
Advertisement
Carlo Cracco, a two-star Michelin chef in Milan, is the latest appointee and his classic Italian fare was rolled out on Singapore Airlines' flights in January. Celebrity chefs are a phenomenon at many airlines.
"Airline food used to have a reputation for being bland, but the quality of inflight meals has improved massively as airlines place greater importance on serving good food at altitude," he says.
Wherever you are sitting on the plane, he says, the food is a welcome distraction, especially on long-haul flights. "People get bored and look forward to the food and movies. Any interruption is welcome.
"Although our customers are flying with us to get from A to B, the inflight experience is a significant part of why they choose to fly with us. If you think back to your recent flights, more often than not great food is the most memorable part of the experience.
"Our customers have ample time to reflect on their meals and, as the popularity of cooking shows has demonstrated, expectations have only increased."
Singapore Airlines has an annual food and beverage budget of about $500 million and has a large kitchen facility at Changi Airport, where 50,000 meals are prepared daily. (Emirates has an even bigger kitchen operation in Dubai, where 175,000 meals are made each day.)
Within the Singapore facility, which I was able to tour recently, there are several specialist kitchens for different cuisines, such as Indian, halal, Japanese, vegetarian, and even dim-sum. The airline is at pains to point out that all the meals are made from fresh, seasonal produce, and all the meals are less than 24 hours old when served inflight.
It is also at pains to maintain high hygiene standards. During the inspection of the kitchens I was outfitted with a white coat, hat and face mask. Visitors also need to remove jewellery and scrub down at sinks like surgeons before passing through a wind tunnel designed to blow away any dust remnants.
"The first thing to make the headlines [and create a PR disaster for airlines] is a food-poisoning case," Freidanck says. "The second thing that will make headlines is a foreign object in the food. That's why so much care is taken."
Among all this super cleanliness, there's also an omelet station where 5000 of the egg dishes are made each day and a test kitchen that simulates an aircraft's cabin pressure, which can lead to the deprivation of a person's taste sensation by up to 30 per cent.
Apart from the volume of dishes that airlines need to turn out daily, one of their biggest culinary challenges is to overcome this distortion of the flavours of food and wine, and therefore they are careful to select meals that will reconstitute well and wines that are bold.
Freidanck says the main issue is serving meals that are moist and full of flavour. "This is why we always feature soups and salads for starters, and our ICP [international culinary panel] chefs have certainly developed a good sense of what flavours and textures are robust enough to be served on-board. The same principle applies with our wine experts, and explains why our wine selection aims for a primary fruit character."
In a painstakingly thorough process, the Singapore Airlines chefs put forward their menus to Freidanck and then each dish is analysed for ingredients and whether it will be suitable to the airline's cooking process (initial preparation of the dish at the airport's catering facility, blast chilling, then being reheated on board).
Other factors considered are the weight of the dish, and cabin crew and galley space constraints for plating up.
William Angliss food expert Felicity Fraser says that at altitude our taste buds are not as receptive, therefore it is harder to detect flavours. "The compression effect on our sinuses at altitude deadens the salt and sugar and all those things that bring the flavours out of food," she says.
One solution is to overseason the food once it arrives on your tray table, but Fraser says it also pays to keep an eye on what reconstitutes better in the aircraft kitchen.
"Then it's a matter of bringing it up to temperature quickly in regethermic-type ovens without the food stewing for a long time and drying out. It's like snap freezing, but also snap reheating."
Much fanfare is made of airline food in the annual Skytrax World Airline Awards. At Farnborough, England, last July, Malaysian Airlines won "best airline signature dish" for its first- and business-class appetiser of chargrilled beef, chicken and lamb satay sticks.
The airline serves at least 15,000 of them each day. The sticks are marinated for 18 hours in tumeric, garlic, galangal and lemongrass, and grilled on charcoal at Malaysian Airline's inflight kitchen at Kuala Lumpur before being warmed and smothered in sauce on the plane.
The Skytrax award for best economy catering was won by Singapore Airlines, best business-class catering by Swiss International Air Lines, and best first-class catering by Etihad. Despite the improved standards, indiscretions of the past are never far from the mind.
The food and travel blog Not Quite Nigella recalls a cracked, dried cannelloni on the now-defunct Air Paradise, and Fraser squirms remembering a dead cockroach in her fried rice on a Bali flight.
2013年4月1日星期一
More notices will be sent in the new financial year
If your annual phone bill is higher than your income tax submissions or if your passport has multiple visas in the past couple of years, then the Income Tax (I-T) Department may come knocking at your doors.
After identifying 1.2 million high-spending non-filers linked to more than 47 million information records, the I-T department is looking at a different set of parameters to identify more people who have not been paying their dues properly.
Officials said millions of pieces of information are available with the department and in the first phase only 1.2 million people were identified, based on three main parameters—they have a PAN card, conducted high value transactions and did not file their returns.
In the next round, notices could be sent based on information from various other parameters such as frequent foreign trips, purchase of high-value jewellery or doing large-scale property transactions, if not in sync with the income declared by a taxpayer or the amount of tax paid by him.
“More notices will be sent in the new financial year, using a different set of parameters. The department has a lot of information which can be used to catch tax evaders. If your monthly phone bill runs into several thousands, you cannot fall in the category which is exempted from paying tax,” an official said.
Of 1.2 million identified non-filers, the finance ministry last month issued letters to about 1,05,000 people in three lots of 35,000 each, reminding them to pay their income tax dues or face the consequences. About 10,000 people have filed their returns after receiving the letters.
“These letters have had a salutary effect. I’m inferring that our approach is paying dividend,” Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who is personally monitoring the revenue collections on almost a daily basis to ensure that they reach closer to the Revised Estimates, said recently.
The letters were primarily being sent to non-salaried taxpayers who bought land, property, gold, mutual funds, shares or made huge purchases on credit card but did not file their return. The letters contained the summary of information of financial transactions, along with customised response sheets.
A nodal cell has been set up to capture the response. There will be an online monitoring system to ensure follow-up action and track return filing and tax payment of the target segment.
The tax department gets information about these transactions from sources like the annual information returns, furnished by entities such as banks and financial institutions. Sale of purchase of property over Rs 30 lakh, credit card payment of over Rs 2 lakh, cash deposits aggregating to Rs 10 lakh and payment of Rs 5 lakh or more are some of the transactions currently included under these returns.
After identifying 1.2 million high-spending non-filers linked to more than 47 million information records, the I-T department is looking at a different set of parameters to identify more people who have not been paying their dues properly.
Officials said millions of pieces of information are available with the department and in the first phase only 1.2 million people were identified, based on three main parameters—they have a PAN card, conducted high value transactions and did not file their returns.
In the next round, notices could be sent based on information from various other parameters such as frequent foreign trips, purchase of high-value jewellery or doing large-scale property transactions, if not in sync with the income declared by a taxpayer or the amount of tax paid by him.
“More notices will be sent in the new financial year, using a different set of parameters. The department has a lot of information which can be used to catch tax evaders. If your monthly phone bill runs into several thousands, you cannot fall in the category which is exempted from paying tax,” an official said.
Of 1.2 million identified non-filers, the finance ministry last month issued letters to about 1,05,000 people in three lots of 35,000 each, reminding them to pay their income tax dues or face the consequences. About 10,000 people have filed their returns after receiving the letters.
“These letters have had a salutary effect. I’m inferring that our approach is paying dividend,” Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who is personally monitoring the revenue collections on almost a daily basis to ensure that they reach closer to the Revised Estimates, said recently.
The letters were primarily being sent to non-salaried taxpayers who bought land, property, gold, mutual funds, shares or made huge purchases on credit card but did not file their return. The letters contained the summary of information of financial transactions, along with customised response sheets.
A nodal cell has been set up to capture the response. There will be an online monitoring system to ensure follow-up action and track return filing and tax payment of the target segment.
The tax department gets information about these transactions from sources like the annual information returns, furnished by entities such as banks and financial institutions. Sale of purchase of property over Rs 30 lakh, credit card payment of over Rs 2 lakh, cash deposits aggregating to Rs 10 lakh and payment of Rs 5 lakh or more are some of the transactions currently included under these returns.
2013年2月18日星期一
What might seem to be a healthier
Wellington coroner Ian Smith is calling for high-visibility clothing to follow helmets and become mandatory for cyclists. Reckons it's a no-brainer if we're serious about reducing cycling accidents. Unfortunate choice of words, really, given most credible studies utterly contradict his mantra. In fact, according to the New Zealand Medical Journal, compulsory helmet wearing has reduced, not improved cycling safety since its introduction in 1994.
And yes, you read that correctly. Far from making cycling less dangerous, the NZMJ last year published results from studies showing our smugness about the effectiveness of the helmet law is wildly misplaced. Average cycling hours have plummeted (halved) yet risk of injury remains the same. Overall, the law making helmets compulsory has resulted in 53 more premature deaths per year. Helmet wearing legislation has reduced public health.
No brainer? The only no-brainer is that, based on some of the most rigorous scientific studies, forcing cyclists to wear special clothes and funny helmets doesn't work. As pointed out in the NZMJ, making cycling less convenient, less accessible, and increasing the potential for parents to have to pay fines for non-compliant dependents, is actually counter-productive. The fewer cyclists on the road, the greater the danger for them.
Put it this way. According to the survey data, there were better outcomes when we had more cyclists and less protection. Scoff if you like but the numbers are fairly unambiguous. More cyclists meant safety in numbers; that is, road users were more used to sharing with bikes when it was the norm. Fewer cyclists, however, meant motorists were less familiar with their presence and behaviour. And with that unfamiliarity comes increased dangers and risks.
What might seem to be a healthier, safer landscape is more like a fool's paradise. At a time when so many of us are wringing our hands over the country's obesity problem and all its associated conditions and costs, we're also actively discouraging people from enjoying one of life's great therapies. And all for a flawed concept. Researchers estimated the life years gained by cycling outweigh the life years lost in accidents by a factor of twenty to one.
Instructionally too, most western nations, including the UK, have resisted the "no-brainer" Mr Smith speaks of. In fact, one of the chief objections to introducing helmet-wearing legislation in the UK is the way such laws have negatively affected cycling in countries such as New Zealand. British evidence is consistent with that published in the NZMJ - mandatory helmets are likely to both reduce cycling levels, and lead to more premature deaths than they save.
Yes, some of us will have experiences of a helmet saving their life, or the life of someone dear to them. Fair enough. No-one's suggesting helmets should be made illegal. Just discretionary. Let people choose for themselves. Numerous population-based studies agree that making helmets compulsory has proved a failed experiment. No wonder "helmet lady" Rebecca Oaten has rushed to dismiss them. Her law's costing more lives than it's saving.
Coroner Ian Smith would have cyclists not only made to wear high-vis vests, he'd also have them restricted to certain lanes and parts of the road for their own safety. He misses the point by some distance. As noted in the UK study, "if transport professionals wish to save the lives of cyclists, our focus should be on other measures that will encourage more people to cycle by making the bike a safer and more attractive transport option."
And yes, you read that correctly. Far from making cycling less dangerous, the NZMJ last year published results from studies showing our smugness about the effectiveness of the helmet law is wildly misplaced. Average cycling hours have plummeted (halved) yet risk of injury remains the same. Overall, the law making helmets compulsory has resulted in 53 more premature deaths per year. Helmet wearing legislation has reduced public health.
No brainer? The only no-brainer is that, based on some of the most rigorous scientific studies, forcing cyclists to wear special clothes and funny helmets doesn't work. As pointed out in the NZMJ, making cycling less convenient, less accessible, and increasing the potential for parents to have to pay fines for non-compliant dependents, is actually counter-productive. The fewer cyclists on the road, the greater the danger for them.
Put it this way. According to the survey data, there were better outcomes when we had more cyclists and less protection. Scoff if you like but the numbers are fairly unambiguous. More cyclists meant safety in numbers; that is, road users were more used to sharing with bikes when it was the norm. Fewer cyclists, however, meant motorists were less familiar with their presence and behaviour. And with that unfamiliarity comes increased dangers and risks.
What might seem to be a healthier, safer landscape is more like a fool's paradise. At a time when so many of us are wringing our hands over the country's obesity problem and all its associated conditions and costs, we're also actively discouraging people from enjoying one of life's great therapies. And all for a flawed concept. Researchers estimated the life years gained by cycling outweigh the life years lost in accidents by a factor of twenty to one.
Instructionally too, most western nations, including the UK, have resisted the "no-brainer" Mr Smith speaks of. In fact, one of the chief objections to introducing helmet-wearing legislation in the UK is the way such laws have negatively affected cycling in countries such as New Zealand. British evidence is consistent with that published in the NZMJ - mandatory helmets are likely to both reduce cycling levels, and lead to more premature deaths than they save.
Yes, some of us will have experiences of a helmet saving their life, or the life of someone dear to them. Fair enough. No-one's suggesting helmets should be made illegal. Just discretionary. Let people choose for themselves. Numerous population-based studies agree that making helmets compulsory has proved a failed experiment. No wonder "helmet lady" Rebecca Oaten has rushed to dismiss them. Her law's costing more lives than it's saving.
Coroner Ian Smith would have cyclists not only made to wear high-vis vests, he'd also have them restricted to certain lanes and parts of the road for their own safety. He misses the point by some distance. As noted in the UK study, "if transport professionals wish to save the lives of cyclists, our focus should be on other measures that will encourage more people to cycle by making the bike a safer and more attractive transport option."
2013年2月5日星期二
welcome the little reminders of my American life
A common sentiment amongst people who’ve spent time abroad is that small things make the biggest difference. I mean the interactions with strangers, the random comments your roommates make and the small reminders of home that help get you through a rough day.
Germans are stereotyped as being closed off and cold. But some of the most touching random acts of kindness I’ve experienced have occurred here in Germany. For example, a friend’s nice black shoes got stained with salt as a result of walking the streets in the middle of winter. This left him understandably upset. Yet when we were in a crowded train station, with people rushing past us in all directions, a man paused, came up to us, and gave him a tissue to rub the salt off. But what’s funny about this act is it might’ve been easily interpreted as a snarky comment regarding the state of his shoes — such is the German culture.
The Germans also like to call me out on my stereotypical American "personality." While waiting for class to start, I started making small talk with some of my classmates. One mentioned — in a pleasant way — how typically American my friendliness is. Its weird – I’ve always thought my personality is my own and not a mere national stereotype.
Finally, though I love German culture, there are times when I welcome the little reminders of my American life. It’s hard to describe the feeling you get when biting into a BLT after being deprived of them for months or the feeling of stumbling across your favorite cold medicine at the drugstore. I’ve never enjoyed the disgusting licorice taste of NyQuil more than I have this past week. It still tastes gross, but also a bit like home.
Shoobees developed from my need as a parent to have safe, non-slip affordable pre-walkers for my son Jack, who’s now four. He was slipping on floors in his socks and what I found on the market was quite expensive. I went in search of a soft, safe leather that would allow movement and growth of the feet and would give the barefoot feeling so that feet weren’t restricted.
I needed the soles to be non-slip to negotiate wooden floors and tiles; I needed elasticated ankles to keep the shoes and socks on; and I wanted them to be attractive. But the most important thing was that I needed them to be affordable.
Although it is an online business, there is a high level of customer care through emails, phone and face-to-face contact. Customers can phone and ask about sizing, I love to hear from them.
Bountiful Police have posted a "missing and endangered person" advisory for 46-year-old Sharon Ann Chatwin.
The five-foot, one-inch tall woman was last seen Jan. 31. She weighs about 115 pounds and has green eyes and long brown hair.
Her family and friends haven’t seen or heard from her and tell police that its very unusual for her to be gone so long, said Bountiful Assistant Police Chief Ed Biehler.
Her bank and Facebook accounts have also been untouched since the end of January, police said.
On Facebook, a man claiming to be her son-in-law has started a campaign to look for her. That man, Devon Bell, and Chatwin's daughter, Jamie Bell, report online that she left her shoes and jacket behind. She talks to her four grown children regularly, they posted.
Chatwin may be with 49-year-old Ector Martinez Medina, a neighbor she may have had a relationship with, Biehler said.
Medina was “last known to have plans of traveling to Wendover, Nevada for the Super Bowl,” according to the police department. He may be in a blue 1999 Jeep Cherokee Sport with the Utah license plate C899HS.
Police visited Chatwin’s home after her family called and found that “some of the things you would normally take are still there,” Biehler said. “She hasn’t packed a bag to leave or anything.”
Germans are stereotyped as being closed off and cold. But some of the most touching random acts of kindness I’ve experienced have occurred here in Germany. For example, a friend’s nice black shoes got stained with salt as a result of walking the streets in the middle of winter. This left him understandably upset. Yet when we were in a crowded train station, with people rushing past us in all directions, a man paused, came up to us, and gave him a tissue to rub the salt off. But what’s funny about this act is it might’ve been easily interpreted as a snarky comment regarding the state of his shoes — such is the German culture.
The Germans also like to call me out on my stereotypical American "personality." While waiting for class to start, I started making small talk with some of my classmates. One mentioned — in a pleasant way — how typically American my friendliness is. Its weird – I’ve always thought my personality is my own and not a mere national stereotype.
Finally, though I love German culture, there are times when I welcome the little reminders of my American life. It’s hard to describe the feeling you get when biting into a BLT after being deprived of them for months or the feeling of stumbling across your favorite cold medicine at the drugstore. I’ve never enjoyed the disgusting licorice taste of NyQuil more than I have this past week. It still tastes gross, but also a bit like home.
Shoobees developed from my need as a parent to have safe, non-slip affordable pre-walkers for my son Jack, who’s now four. He was slipping on floors in his socks and what I found on the market was quite expensive. I went in search of a soft, safe leather that would allow movement and growth of the feet and would give the barefoot feeling so that feet weren’t restricted.
I needed the soles to be non-slip to negotiate wooden floors and tiles; I needed elasticated ankles to keep the shoes and socks on; and I wanted them to be attractive. But the most important thing was that I needed them to be affordable.
Although it is an online business, there is a high level of customer care through emails, phone and face-to-face contact. Customers can phone and ask about sizing, I love to hear from them.
Bountiful Police have posted a "missing and endangered person" advisory for 46-year-old Sharon Ann Chatwin.
The five-foot, one-inch tall woman was last seen Jan. 31. She weighs about 115 pounds and has green eyes and long brown hair.
Her family and friends haven’t seen or heard from her and tell police that its very unusual for her to be gone so long, said Bountiful Assistant Police Chief Ed Biehler.
Her bank and Facebook accounts have also been untouched since the end of January, police said.
On Facebook, a man claiming to be her son-in-law has started a campaign to look for her. That man, Devon Bell, and Chatwin's daughter, Jamie Bell, report online that she left her shoes and jacket behind. She talks to her four grown children regularly, they posted.
Chatwin may be with 49-year-old Ector Martinez Medina, a neighbor she may have had a relationship with, Biehler said.
Medina was “last known to have plans of traveling to Wendover, Nevada for the Super Bowl,” according to the police department. He may be in a blue 1999 Jeep Cherokee Sport with the Utah license plate C899HS.
Police visited Chatwin’s home after her family called and found that “some of the things you would normally take are still there,” Biehler said. “She hasn’t packed a bag to leave or anything.”
2013年2月3日星期日
which represents doctors in the state
As physician assistants and other midlevel health professionals fill growing gaps in primary health care, turf battles are erupting in many states over what they can and can't do in medical practices.
One of the bitterest fights is in Kentucky, where physician assistants are lobbying the state legislature to repeal a law that says that for the first 18 months after certification, physician assistants are allowed to treat patients only when a supervising physician is on site. Being in phone contact isn't deemed sufficient.
The Kentucky Medical Association, which represents doctors in the state, says it is still evaluating the bill. But it helped push for an on-site requirement in 2003 and helped block two previous attempts to rescind the 18-month rule, on the grounds that physician assistants have far less experience than physicians and benefit from more supervision.
PAs, as they are known, are licensed to practice medicine as part of a physician-led team. Their "scope of practice" rules vary from state to state, but PAs can generally do whatever tasks the doctor delegates to them within those rules, including examining patients, prescribing medications, conducting rounds in hospitals—even closing surgical incisions—as needed. About 80% have master's degrees, with an average of 27 months of classroom and clinical work after college.
Demand for PAs has grown, particularly in primary care and rural areas, as more doctors choose to specialize and work in urban settings. That demand is expected to increase further when the federal health law next year extends coverage to millions more Americans, likely prompting many of them to seek care.
"Our focus is on the safety of the public," says David Bensema, the Kentucky Medical Association's board chairman, who likens the training PAs receive to that of third-year medical students. The doctors' group has also opposed attempts by nurse practitioners, optometrists and other nonphysicians to expand their scope of practice in Kentucky. A 2011 flier from the Kentucky Medical Association told state residents, "Not everyone in a white coat is a medical doctor."
The Kentucky Academy of Physician Assistants argues that no other state requires PAs to have 18 months of on-site supervision. (Colorado, the state with the next-longest mandate, requires supervision only for the first 1,000 hours). The Kentucky group also says the rule needlessly complicates patient care, especially in rural areas where doctors are stretched thin. The Kentucky Academy of Physician Assistants is planning a rally at the state capitol this week and has hired two lobbyists to make its case to hospitals, insurers and medical practices.
Some Kentucky physicians agree with the PAs. Naren James is the only primary-care doctor for two central-Kentucky clinics, 25 miles apart. He and his four PAs handled a total of 25,624 patient visits or calls at the two clinics last year. Two of the PAs can treat patients at one clinic while Dr. James is at the other. But the other two PAs can only work when and where Dr. James does, because they have been on the job less than 18 months.
If Dr. James is out sick, on vacation or treating patients elsewhere, he says he has to hire another doctor to fill in—not easy in rural Kentucky. If not, the two PAs have to stop working until he returns. "None of this makes clinical sense," says Dr. James.
"We're here to help distribute the workload," says Jeremy Caudill, a former pro football player who graduated from a PA program in June and works with Dr. James. But if the doctor is away, he says, "I can't even refill a prescription for blood-pressure medication that someone has been on for 10 years."
Across the country, such skirmishes are increasing, as nurse anesthetists, nurse midwives, psychologists and podiatrists seek more autonomy and authority—and often meet opposition from physician groups. In the past two years, more than 1,795 scope-of-practice bills were proposed, but only 349 were enacted, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Some states are expanding what PAs can do. Ohio now allows them to prescribe physical therapy for patients, for example, and insert and remove chest tubes. Massachusetts allows PAs to bill patients and insurers directly for their services, generally at 85% of a doctor's rate. All 50 states allow PAs to write prescriptions, though not for controlled substances in Kentucky or Florida.
Many health-care experts say PAs will be in even greater demand when the Affordable Care Act expands insurance to 30 million more Americans next year. The Association of American Medical Colleges has warned that the supply of new doctors can't keep pace, due to limits on federal funding for medical residency programs, and estimates that the U.S. will face a shortage of more than 90,000 physicians by 2020, particularly in primary care and in rural areas.
The number of licensed PAs, meanwhile, has doubled in the past decade, to 86,500, and is likely to grow another 30% by 2020, according to the American Academy of Physician Assistants.
One of the bitterest fights is in Kentucky, where physician assistants are lobbying the state legislature to repeal a law that says that for the first 18 months after certification, physician assistants are allowed to treat patients only when a supervising physician is on site. Being in phone contact isn't deemed sufficient.
The Kentucky Medical Association, which represents doctors in the state, says it is still evaluating the bill. But it helped push for an on-site requirement in 2003 and helped block two previous attempts to rescind the 18-month rule, on the grounds that physician assistants have far less experience than physicians and benefit from more supervision.
PAs, as they are known, are licensed to practice medicine as part of a physician-led team. Their "scope of practice" rules vary from state to state, but PAs can generally do whatever tasks the doctor delegates to them within those rules, including examining patients, prescribing medications, conducting rounds in hospitals—even closing surgical incisions—as needed. About 80% have master's degrees, with an average of 27 months of classroom and clinical work after college.
Demand for PAs has grown, particularly in primary care and rural areas, as more doctors choose to specialize and work in urban settings. That demand is expected to increase further when the federal health law next year extends coverage to millions more Americans, likely prompting many of them to seek care.
"Our focus is on the safety of the public," says David Bensema, the Kentucky Medical Association's board chairman, who likens the training PAs receive to that of third-year medical students. The doctors' group has also opposed attempts by nurse practitioners, optometrists and other nonphysicians to expand their scope of practice in Kentucky. A 2011 flier from the Kentucky Medical Association told state residents, "Not everyone in a white coat is a medical doctor."
The Kentucky Academy of Physician Assistants argues that no other state requires PAs to have 18 months of on-site supervision. (Colorado, the state with the next-longest mandate, requires supervision only for the first 1,000 hours). The Kentucky group also says the rule needlessly complicates patient care, especially in rural areas where doctors are stretched thin. The Kentucky Academy of Physician Assistants is planning a rally at the state capitol this week and has hired two lobbyists to make its case to hospitals, insurers and medical practices.
Some Kentucky physicians agree with the PAs. Naren James is the only primary-care doctor for two central-Kentucky clinics, 25 miles apart. He and his four PAs handled a total of 25,624 patient visits or calls at the two clinics last year. Two of the PAs can treat patients at one clinic while Dr. James is at the other. But the other two PAs can only work when and where Dr. James does, because they have been on the job less than 18 months.
If Dr. James is out sick, on vacation or treating patients elsewhere, he says he has to hire another doctor to fill in—not easy in rural Kentucky. If not, the two PAs have to stop working until he returns. "None of this makes clinical sense," says Dr. James.
"We're here to help distribute the workload," says Jeremy Caudill, a former pro football player who graduated from a PA program in June and works with Dr. James. But if the doctor is away, he says, "I can't even refill a prescription for blood-pressure medication that someone has been on for 10 years."
Across the country, such skirmishes are increasing, as nurse anesthetists, nurse midwives, psychologists and podiatrists seek more autonomy and authority—and often meet opposition from physician groups. In the past two years, more than 1,795 scope-of-practice bills were proposed, but only 349 were enacted, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Some states are expanding what PAs can do. Ohio now allows them to prescribe physical therapy for patients, for example, and insert and remove chest tubes. Massachusetts allows PAs to bill patients and insurers directly for their services, generally at 85% of a doctor's rate. All 50 states allow PAs to write prescriptions, though not for controlled substances in Kentucky or Florida.
Many health-care experts say PAs will be in even greater demand when the Affordable Care Act expands insurance to 30 million more Americans next year. The Association of American Medical Colleges has warned that the supply of new doctors can't keep pace, due to limits on federal funding for medical residency programs, and estimates that the U.S. will face a shortage of more than 90,000 physicians by 2020, particularly in primary care and in rural areas.
The number of licensed PAs, meanwhile, has doubled in the past decade, to 86,500, and is likely to grow another 30% by 2020, according to the American Academy of Physician Assistants.
2013年1月28日星期一
whose eye-catching Prabal Gurung black
She might have lost out on the best actress award for her role in The Impossible, but Naomi Watts was the big winner on the red carpet at the 2013 Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles yesterday.
Complemented by her vintage hair style, the British-born, Australian- raised star shone in a delicate hand-embroidered silver Marchesa gown, which she paired with Christian Louboutin shoes and a silver Salvatore Ferragamo clutch.
Other winners on the red carpet were Marion Cotillard, who wowed in a Dior Haute Couture number with an ivory silk top and dark blue skirt; and Mad Men star January Jones, whose eye-catching Prabal Gurung black matte wrap gown with draped white organza was anything but boring, especially when paired with her pompadour-mullet hairstyle, reminiscent of David Bowie from his Aladdin Sane days.
Julianne Moore was a winner on and off stage. Moore took home yet another accolade for her role as Sarah Palin in the TV movie Game Change and looked every inch the star in her low-cut white Chanel Haute Couture gown covered in navy flower appliques.
Despite being struck by a bout of pneumonia, best actress winner Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook) went for old Hollywood glamour in a navy mermaid-cut Christian Dior gown, while Les Miserables star Amanda Seyfried showed off her curves in a form-fitting navy Zac Posen gown.
Nicole Kidman also had a case of the blues in her lacy midnight-blue Vivienne Westwood couture gown, where she did her best Angelina Jolie impression through the gown’s thigh-high split.
Best TV drama actress winner Claire Danes (Homeland) also opted for black, sporting a unique black one-sleeve Givenchy gown which she complemented with dark berry lips.
While nearly every star got it right on the red carpet, Rose Byrne wasn’t so lucky.
The Australian actress was the event’s worst dressed in a floral ruffle- detail Valentino gown, which looked more like a recycled 1970s curtain than a red-carpet awards gown.
Away from the red carpet it was Ben Affleck’s night, as his Iran hostage thriller Argo won the event’s top award for best ensemble in a motion picture, adding to the movie’s Producers Guild Award on Saturday night and, two weeks ago, a Golden Globe drama award for best film.
Argo is now laying down a major challenge to Lincoln at this year’s Oscars even though Affleck missed out on a best director nomination.
A pizzeria owner found an entry door window broken and cash stolen when he opened up for the day at 7 a.m. Monday, according to Niagara County sheriff’s deputies.
The owners of Rocky’s Pizza Too, Gregory Surniak and his wife Cheri, told deputies that a window in the front door of the Academy Street restaurant was smashed and that loose change from the cash register and a box of about $60 to $100 worth of rolled change from under the register were missing.
Total loss included about $100 worth of change and a front door window valued at $400.
A single suspect, wearing a hooded sweatshirt, light colored jacket and dark shoes, who appeared to have knowledge of the restaurant was identified on surveillance video, according to deputies.
Complemented by her vintage hair style, the British-born, Australian- raised star shone in a delicate hand-embroidered silver Marchesa gown, which she paired with Christian Louboutin shoes and a silver Salvatore Ferragamo clutch.
Other winners on the red carpet were Marion Cotillard, who wowed in a Dior Haute Couture number with an ivory silk top and dark blue skirt; and Mad Men star January Jones, whose eye-catching Prabal Gurung black matte wrap gown with draped white organza was anything but boring, especially when paired with her pompadour-mullet hairstyle, reminiscent of David Bowie from his Aladdin Sane days.
Julianne Moore was a winner on and off stage. Moore took home yet another accolade for her role as Sarah Palin in the TV movie Game Change and looked every inch the star in her low-cut white Chanel Haute Couture gown covered in navy flower appliques.
Despite being struck by a bout of pneumonia, best actress winner Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook) went for old Hollywood glamour in a navy mermaid-cut Christian Dior gown, while Les Miserables star Amanda Seyfried showed off her curves in a form-fitting navy Zac Posen gown.
Nicole Kidman also had a case of the blues in her lacy midnight-blue Vivienne Westwood couture gown, where she did her best Angelina Jolie impression through the gown’s thigh-high split.
Best TV drama actress winner Claire Danes (Homeland) also opted for black, sporting a unique black one-sleeve Givenchy gown which she complemented with dark berry lips.
While nearly every star got it right on the red carpet, Rose Byrne wasn’t so lucky.
The Australian actress was the event’s worst dressed in a floral ruffle- detail Valentino gown, which looked more like a recycled 1970s curtain than a red-carpet awards gown.
Away from the red carpet it was Ben Affleck’s night, as his Iran hostage thriller Argo won the event’s top award for best ensemble in a motion picture, adding to the movie’s Producers Guild Award on Saturday night and, two weeks ago, a Golden Globe drama award for best film.
Argo is now laying down a major challenge to Lincoln at this year’s Oscars even though Affleck missed out on a best director nomination.
A pizzeria owner found an entry door window broken and cash stolen when he opened up for the day at 7 a.m. Monday, according to Niagara County sheriff’s deputies.
The owners of Rocky’s Pizza Too, Gregory Surniak and his wife Cheri, told deputies that a window in the front door of the Academy Street restaurant was smashed and that loose change from the cash register and a box of about $60 to $100 worth of rolled change from under the register were missing.
Total loss included about $100 worth of change and a front door window valued at $400.
A single suspect, wearing a hooded sweatshirt, light colored jacket and dark shoes, who appeared to have knowledge of the restaurant was identified on surveillance video, according to deputies.
2013年1月24日星期四
who has had a tough draw
Roger Federer does not do breakfast here at the Australian Open. The world No 2, who has played his last four matches at night, has not been getting to bed before 3am and then sleeps through the morning.
"In some ways I'd rather have the day session because that creates a normal rhythm and a normal life," Federer said. "Going to bed at three in the morning and getting up at noon is not what you're supposed to be doing. But I'm happy to do it."
Federer, who meets Andy Murray in the semi-finals today, has a remarkable fitness record and usually recovers well after matches. However, it remains to be seen how much his five-set quarter-final against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Wednesday night, which lasted three hours and 34 minutes, took out of him.
Darren Cahill, the highly respected former coach of Andre Agassi and Lleyton Hewitt who is working here as a broadcaster for ESPN, said: "I think physically that five-set match with Tsonga was reasonably taxing. While it wasn't that long a match it was the same sort of style of match that Roger plays. There are five-set matches you can play for four hours and physically you feel OK. There are five-set matches that last three and a half hours and you feel like you've hit the wall.
"That was one of those matches because Tsonga's so explosive in his movement Roger couldn't settle into any type of pattern and he had to do a ton of running as well. How he feels physically will maybe determine how aggressively he comes out at the start, but I think you'll see someone that's going to take the game to Andy."
Murray has won all his matches here in straight sets. Federer, who has had a tough draw, admitted he would rather have been in Murray's shoes, though he said there were positives to take out of his win over Tsonga.
"I toughed it out," Federer said. "That also gives you confidence when you have to go through those matches. The physical stamina was there, the focus was there until the very end, so it does give you a lot of confidence moving forward. I didn't play any lead-up tournaments, so that's exactly maybe what I needed for the semis. Then again, I may be totally wrong. Time will tell."
Cahill, who worked with Murray when he was between coaches and introduced him to Ivan Lendl, has been impressed by the Scot's "great progress" over the last 12 months, though he believes that Federer also played his part in making him a more aggressive and more effective player.
"I can remember four or five years ago that Roger was saying Andy's counter-punching style wasn't going to get him over that hurdle," Cahill said. "The fact that he's playing more aggressively is taking what Roger said on board –and to me he's a better player now than he was four or five years ago."
Asked what he expected from today's semi-final, Cahill said: "Those couple of big wins Andy had at the US Open and the Olympics will serve him really well in those particular moments. Again playing Roger is a completely different thing and you can't put your finger on what is eventually going to help him get over that hurdle in a Slam. I think he's 0-3 against him in majors. It's a factor, but I'm not sure how big a factor.
"I think the Olympics went some way to erasing that, but in the end Roger is incredibly difficult to beat in majors and until you do it there's always going to be that small element of doubt in your mind. But it looks like Andy has prepared as well as he can, he's playing exceptionally well, and if he's going to do it, it's probably as good a time as any."
"In some ways I'd rather have the day session because that creates a normal rhythm and a normal life," Federer said. "Going to bed at three in the morning and getting up at noon is not what you're supposed to be doing. But I'm happy to do it."
Federer, who meets Andy Murray in the semi-finals today, has a remarkable fitness record and usually recovers well after matches. However, it remains to be seen how much his five-set quarter-final against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Wednesday night, which lasted three hours and 34 minutes, took out of him.
Darren Cahill, the highly respected former coach of Andre Agassi and Lleyton Hewitt who is working here as a broadcaster for ESPN, said: "I think physically that five-set match with Tsonga was reasonably taxing. While it wasn't that long a match it was the same sort of style of match that Roger plays. There are five-set matches you can play for four hours and physically you feel OK. There are five-set matches that last three and a half hours and you feel like you've hit the wall.
"That was one of those matches because Tsonga's so explosive in his movement Roger couldn't settle into any type of pattern and he had to do a ton of running as well. How he feels physically will maybe determine how aggressively he comes out at the start, but I think you'll see someone that's going to take the game to Andy."
Murray has won all his matches here in straight sets. Federer, who has had a tough draw, admitted he would rather have been in Murray's shoes, though he said there were positives to take out of his win over Tsonga.
"I toughed it out," Federer said. "That also gives you confidence when you have to go through those matches. The physical stamina was there, the focus was there until the very end, so it does give you a lot of confidence moving forward. I didn't play any lead-up tournaments, so that's exactly maybe what I needed for the semis. Then again, I may be totally wrong. Time will tell."
Cahill, who worked with Murray when he was between coaches and introduced him to Ivan Lendl, has been impressed by the Scot's "great progress" over the last 12 months, though he believes that Federer also played his part in making him a more aggressive and more effective player.
"I can remember four or five years ago that Roger was saying Andy's counter-punching style wasn't going to get him over that hurdle," Cahill said. "The fact that he's playing more aggressively is taking what Roger said on board –and to me he's a better player now than he was four or five years ago."
Asked what he expected from today's semi-final, Cahill said: "Those couple of big wins Andy had at the US Open and the Olympics will serve him really well in those particular moments. Again playing Roger is a completely different thing and you can't put your finger on what is eventually going to help him get over that hurdle in a Slam. I think he's 0-3 against him in majors. It's a factor, but I'm not sure how big a factor.
"I think the Olympics went some way to erasing that, but in the end Roger is incredibly difficult to beat in majors and until you do it there's always going to be that small element of doubt in your mind. But it looks like Andy has prepared as well as he can, he's playing exceptionally well, and if he's going to do it, it's probably as good a time as any."
2013年1月20日星期日
victory and banned for two years after failing
Hundreds of cyclists and rollerbladers will take to the streets of Tel Aviv on Monday night demanding that all Knesset candidates commit to allocating at least 1 percent of the Transportation Ministry budget to maintaining cycling paths, the organization Israel for Bikes said on Sunday.
In the past four years, bills encouraging the use of bikes and increasing the safety of their riders have been repeatedly blocked in the Knesset, despite the fact that their creators have hailed from the government’s major parties, according to Israel for Bikes.
Likewise, new bicycle parking regulations that the Interior Minister approved last year also ended up frozen. The Transportation Ministry budget dedicated thus far to bicycle infrastructure development has been minimal, amounting to less than 1% of the ministry’s expenses, the organization said.
“Despite the existing understanding of various government ministries that there is a need to encourage cycling on a daily basis, as part of a healthy lifestyle and for quality of life, environment and increased accessibility for the public, and despite the supposed commitment to act to increase the safety of cyclists, the investment is still negligible,” said Alik Mintz, founder of Tel Aviv Rollers.
Aside from Tel Aviv, where the municipality spends about NIS 30 million annually on bike infrastructure and has about 120 kilometers of paths, the country is not reaching its cycling potential, the group argued. In second place as far as bike paths are concerned is Herzliya, with only 17 kilometers.
Israel for Bikes is therefore calling upon Knesset candidates to support a bill immediately following their election to encourage cycling – including bike path construction, parking space installation, workplace showers and economic incentives to push people to cycle.
The bill, launched by Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan and Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar, passed in its first reading in 2008 and received additional support from Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz, Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz, Culture and Sport Minister Limor Livnat, five other ministers and 65 other Knesset members, the organization said.
Israel for Bikes also asked that the forthcoming Knesset members quickly approve a second bill that would increase the safety of cyclists, requiring drivers to maintain a distance of 1.5 meters from cyclists and granting riders priority over open doors of parked cars, the group added.
“We invite the general public and cyclists to vote with their two feet [Monday] evening and show decision-makers that there is great support for cycling infrastructure development,” said Yotam Avizohar, CEO of Israel for Bikes.
Avizohar encouraged Israelis “to exercise their right and civic duty and take advantage of this day of rest, not only through leisure and shopping but also by walking – or riding – to vote.”
The Spaniard, Tour de France winner in 2007 and 2009 before being stripped of his 2010 victory and banned for two years after failing a dope test, believes the American's mea culpa can close the door on cycling's depressing recent history.
"It's true that his admissions damaged the image of cycling but I see good things coming from this. Perhaps it'll allow us to close the door once and for all on this chapter and concentrate on the future," Contador told marca.
"We have to forget about the previous decade and look forward to what tomorrow holds."
Contador returned to action last August and won the Tour of Spain.
He will kick off his 2013 season at the Tour of San Luis in Argentina tomorrow with his Saxo-Tinkoff team.
Contador said that nothing in Armstrong's confessions, aired over two days in a lengthy interview with US TV host Oprah Winfrey, surprised him.
"It's something that's been talked about for a long time already and it needed to be got out of the way. The revelations came as no surprise to anyone."
The 30-year-old Contador lost his 2010 Tour de France and 2011 Giro d'Italia titles after testing positive for traces of clenbuterol in 2010, which he insists came from a contaminated steak.
Meanwhile, Spain's Miguel Indurain, a five-time Tour de France champion, also said that Armstrong's admission that he doped his way to seven Tour triumphs had done serious damage to the sport.
"It's bad for everyone - riders, organisers, teams - especially at a time when we are trying to correct the mistakes and look ahead," said Indurain.
Indurain also believes that the scandal shows that current drug testing procedures in cycling are not effective as they should be.
In the past four years, bills encouraging the use of bikes and increasing the safety of their riders have been repeatedly blocked in the Knesset, despite the fact that their creators have hailed from the government’s major parties, according to Israel for Bikes.
Likewise, new bicycle parking regulations that the Interior Minister approved last year also ended up frozen. The Transportation Ministry budget dedicated thus far to bicycle infrastructure development has been minimal, amounting to less than 1% of the ministry’s expenses, the organization said.
“Despite the existing understanding of various government ministries that there is a need to encourage cycling on a daily basis, as part of a healthy lifestyle and for quality of life, environment and increased accessibility for the public, and despite the supposed commitment to act to increase the safety of cyclists, the investment is still negligible,” said Alik Mintz, founder of Tel Aviv Rollers.
Aside from Tel Aviv, where the municipality spends about NIS 30 million annually on bike infrastructure and has about 120 kilometers of paths, the country is not reaching its cycling potential, the group argued. In second place as far as bike paths are concerned is Herzliya, with only 17 kilometers.
Israel for Bikes is therefore calling upon Knesset candidates to support a bill immediately following their election to encourage cycling – including bike path construction, parking space installation, workplace showers and economic incentives to push people to cycle.
The bill, launched by Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan and Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar, passed in its first reading in 2008 and received additional support from Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz, Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz, Culture and Sport Minister Limor Livnat, five other ministers and 65 other Knesset members, the organization said.
Israel for Bikes also asked that the forthcoming Knesset members quickly approve a second bill that would increase the safety of cyclists, requiring drivers to maintain a distance of 1.5 meters from cyclists and granting riders priority over open doors of parked cars, the group added.
“We invite the general public and cyclists to vote with their two feet [Monday] evening and show decision-makers that there is great support for cycling infrastructure development,” said Yotam Avizohar, CEO of Israel for Bikes.
Avizohar encouraged Israelis “to exercise their right and civic duty and take advantage of this day of rest, not only through leisure and shopping but also by walking – or riding – to vote.”
The Spaniard, Tour de France winner in 2007 and 2009 before being stripped of his 2010 victory and banned for two years after failing a dope test, believes the American's mea culpa can close the door on cycling's depressing recent history.
"It's true that his admissions damaged the image of cycling but I see good things coming from this. Perhaps it'll allow us to close the door once and for all on this chapter and concentrate on the future," Contador told marca.
"We have to forget about the previous decade and look forward to what tomorrow holds."
Contador returned to action last August and won the Tour of Spain.
He will kick off his 2013 season at the Tour of San Luis in Argentina tomorrow with his Saxo-Tinkoff team.
Contador said that nothing in Armstrong's confessions, aired over two days in a lengthy interview with US TV host Oprah Winfrey, surprised him.
"It's something that's been talked about for a long time already and it needed to be got out of the way. The revelations came as no surprise to anyone."
The 30-year-old Contador lost his 2010 Tour de France and 2011 Giro d'Italia titles after testing positive for traces of clenbuterol in 2010, which he insists came from a contaminated steak.
Meanwhile, Spain's Miguel Indurain, a five-time Tour de France champion, also said that Armstrong's admission that he doped his way to seven Tour triumphs had done serious damage to the sport.
"It's bad for everyone - riders, organisers, teams - especially at a time when we are trying to correct the mistakes and look ahead," said Indurain.
Indurain also believes that the scandal shows that current drug testing procedures in cycling are not effective as they should be.
2013年1月16日星期三
something that may seem frivolous to some?
“So why bother to have a second inauguration?” a young colleague asks. “It’s too expensive. It’s alienating to the losing team. It’s always cold. You already know the man. We’ve already done it once. Why can’t he just get sworn in quietly like he’s going to do on Sunday and then give a State of the Union speech later?”
As we approach the second Barack Obama inauguration, those questions are being asked around the city. The young man makes some good points. Why do we bother?
We bother because the second inauguration is as important as the first. Certainly it would be hard to top President Obama’s first inauguration. He was the first black president ever to be elected. That will never happen again. But he’s also the first black president to be reelected. On some level, the state of the economy, the fact that we are in a war, the rancor of this past campaign and his detractors on both sides, this is huge.
More important, though, this is America’s chance to show the world what democracy looks like.
“The assumption is that the only purpose is to welcome a new president,” historian Michael Beschloss says. “But there are very few unifying moments in America, and this is one of the most important. We get a glimpse of the president’s priorities, not only in the words he says, but the people he’s chosen to participate. You get a lot of information you wouldn’t otherwise get.”
There is a sense that Washington is a bit jaded by inaugurations. We see them every four years and come to regard them with a nonchalance that isn’t felt in the rest of the country. We see traffic jams and tourists and bad weather and the same old parades and the endless inaugural balls. We talk, inauguration after inauguration, about how horrible the balls are, how freezing cold and impossible to get to. How there’s no place to check your coat and no place to get a drink. How your clothes and shoes get destroyed in the crush and that it is wise to wear combat boots instead of evening shoes. And then, how you get a five-minute glimpse of the president and first lady before they are rushed to the next ball by their handlers. And forget parking.
These things are all true. But those who come from out of town don’t see it that way. They are thrilled to be part of a community of democracy that brings us together once every four years.
“It’s a classic Washington bit of solipsism to think it’s all rigmarole,” says historian Jon Meacham, author of “Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power.” “But that rigmarole means a lot to the high school band from out of town. Washington becomes the people’s city. It’s a real grass-roots core. It’s a civic ritual. It’s not really about Washington or even about the president. It’s once in a lifetime for people who come to Washington for it, more than for people in Washington.”
It was George H.W. Bush, who, Meacham reminds us, said at his inauguration, “we meet on democracy’s front porch.”
What about the money, though? In these troubled times, should so much be spent on something that may seem frivolous to some? The inaugural committee changed course and allowed corporations to buy packages of $1 million. The Washington package includes two tickets to a benefactors’ reception, an invitation to a Finance Committee “Road Ahead” meeting, two tickets to the children’s concert, two tickets to the co-chairs’ reception and four tickets to a candlelight reception, two reserved bleacher sets for the inaugural parade and four tickets to the inaugural ball.
As we approach the second Barack Obama inauguration, those questions are being asked around the city. The young man makes some good points. Why do we bother?
We bother because the second inauguration is as important as the first. Certainly it would be hard to top President Obama’s first inauguration. He was the first black president ever to be elected. That will never happen again. But he’s also the first black president to be reelected. On some level, the state of the economy, the fact that we are in a war, the rancor of this past campaign and his detractors on both sides, this is huge.
More important, though, this is America’s chance to show the world what democracy looks like.
“The assumption is that the only purpose is to welcome a new president,” historian Michael Beschloss says. “But there are very few unifying moments in America, and this is one of the most important. We get a glimpse of the president’s priorities, not only in the words he says, but the people he’s chosen to participate. You get a lot of information you wouldn’t otherwise get.”
There is a sense that Washington is a bit jaded by inaugurations. We see them every four years and come to regard them with a nonchalance that isn’t felt in the rest of the country. We see traffic jams and tourists and bad weather and the same old parades and the endless inaugural balls. We talk, inauguration after inauguration, about how horrible the balls are, how freezing cold and impossible to get to. How there’s no place to check your coat and no place to get a drink. How your clothes and shoes get destroyed in the crush and that it is wise to wear combat boots instead of evening shoes. And then, how you get a five-minute glimpse of the president and first lady before they are rushed to the next ball by their handlers. And forget parking.
These things are all true. But those who come from out of town don’t see it that way. They are thrilled to be part of a community of democracy that brings us together once every four years.
“It’s a classic Washington bit of solipsism to think it’s all rigmarole,” says historian Jon Meacham, author of “Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power.” “But that rigmarole means a lot to the high school band from out of town. Washington becomes the people’s city. It’s a real grass-roots core. It’s a civic ritual. It’s not really about Washington or even about the president. It’s once in a lifetime for people who come to Washington for it, more than for people in Washington.”
It was George H.W. Bush, who, Meacham reminds us, said at his inauguration, “we meet on democracy’s front porch.”
What about the money, though? In these troubled times, should so much be spent on something that may seem frivolous to some? The inaugural committee changed course and allowed corporations to buy packages of $1 million. The Washington package includes two tickets to a benefactors’ reception, an invitation to a Finance Committee “Road Ahead” meeting, two tickets to the children’s concert, two tickets to the co-chairs’ reception and four tickets to a candlelight reception, two reserved bleacher sets for the inaugural parade and four tickets to the inaugural ball.
2013年1月10日星期四
where several young trampers were staying
The death of a tramper who drowned after breaking his neck while trying to cross a swollen creek in Mt Richmond Forest Park has highlighted the dangers of river crossings, particularly while tramping alone, coroner Carla na Nagara says.
The inquest into the death of 23-year-old Sharny Aaron Abbott in December 2011 found that he drowned, but the pathologist found that a fractured neck and spinal cord injury were likely to have happened as he was swept downstream, resulting in paralysis of a quadriplegic type that meant Mr Abbott would not have been able to make any effort to surface.
"As such, the pathologist considered the injury significantly contributed to the fatal drowning," Ms na Nagara said in her findings, released this week.
Mr Abbott's body was found near the edge of the Roding River on December 6, 2011, about seven kilometres downstream from where he is believed to have lost his footing while crossing the Hacket Creek.
The Richmond man had left on a solo tramp in the park on Friday, December 2. He expected to be gone for several days, and left his mother a detailed plan of where he thought he would go. He was carrying a 25- to 30-kilogram pack, which the coroner noted was heavier than most trampers would carry.
Mr Abbott, described as an experienced tramper, left the Hacket car park and walked to Starveall Hut, where he spent the night. He was in touch with his mother and girlfriend that night, indicating he had suffered cramp in his legs, his running shoes had been rubbing his heels and his pack had been rubbing his lower back.
The coroner said Mr Abbott left the next morning for Slaty Hut, but phoned his mother that afternoon to say he was turning back due to failing weather. He was expected back home on the Sunday night.
He returned to Starveall Hut, where several young trampers were staying. They spent the evening talking with him.
Mr Abbott's lack of proper tramping footwear, and an indication that he would not hesitate to cross rivers because he was determined to get home, contributed to the group's view that he lacked experience, Ms na Nagara said.
It had rained on and off throughout the Saturday, and the rain was then "extremely heavy" overnight.
Ms na Nagara said the other trampers left the hut just before 1pm on the Sunday. Mr Abbott was still there, but was packed and ready to leave.
After he had not returned home by Monday evening, his mother contacted the police. A search was launched the next morning and, following media reports, one of the group of trampers contacted the police and told them of the route Mr Abbott had planned to take.
Ms na Nagara said a member of the Search and Rescue team with expertise in tracking followed evidence of where Mr Abbott had been to the Hacket Creek where it met the first river crossing. The creek had to be crossed at a 90-degree angle, which involved fighting the current. It was flowing at waist height, but it was clear that in the days prior it had been up to half a metre higher.
There were no signs indicating Mr Abbott had made it to the other side of the creek, at that point at least, Ms na Nagara said.
Items belonging to Mr Abbott were found in the bed of the Roding River later that afternoon. His body was found that evening in a willow tree near the edge of the Roding River, below the Hacket car park.
The inquest into the death of 23-year-old Sharny Aaron Abbott in December 2011 found that he drowned, but the pathologist found that a fractured neck and spinal cord injury were likely to have happened as he was swept downstream, resulting in paralysis of a quadriplegic type that meant Mr Abbott would not have been able to make any effort to surface.
"As such, the pathologist considered the injury significantly contributed to the fatal drowning," Ms na Nagara said in her findings, released this week.
Mr Abbott's body was found near the edge of the Roding River on December 6, 2011, about seven kilometres downstream from where he is believed to have lost his footing while crossing the Hacket Creek.
The Richmond man had left on a solo tramp in the park on Friday, December 2. He expected to be gone for several days, and left his mother a detailed plan of where he thought he would go. He was carrying a 25- to 30-kilogram pack, which the coroner noted was heavier than most trampers would carry.
Mr Abbott, described as an experienced tramper, left the Hacket car park and walked to Starveall Hut, where he spent the night. He was in touch with his mother and girlfriend that night, indicating he had suffered cramp in his legs, his running shoes had been rubbing his heels and his pack had been rubbing his lower back.
The coroner said Mr Abbott left the next morning for Slaty Hut, but phoned his mother that afternoon to say he was turning back due to failing weather. He was expected back home on the Sunday night.
He returned to Starveall Hut, where several young trampers were staying. They spent the evening talking with him.
Mr Abbott's lack of proper tramping footwear, and an indication that he would not hesitate to cross rivers because he was determined to get home, contributed to the group's view that he lacked experience, Ms na Nagara said.
It had rained on and off throughout the Saturday, and the rain was then "extremely heavy" overnight.
Ms na Nagara said the other trampers left the hut just before 1pm on the Sunday. Mr Abbott was still there, but was packed and ready to leave.
After he had not returned home by Monday evening, his mother contacted the police. A search was launched the next morning and, following media reports, one of the group of trampers contacted the police and told them of the route Mr Abbott had planned to take.
Ms na Nagara said a member of the Search and Rescue team with expertise in tracking followed evidence of where Mr Abbott had been to the Hacket Creek where it met the first river crossing. The creek had to be crossed at a 90-degree angle, which involved fighting the current. It was flowing at waist height, but it was clear that in the days prior it had been up to half a metre higher.
There were no signs indicating Mr Abbott had made it to the other side of the creek, at that point at least, Ms na Nagara said.
Items belonging to Mr Abbott were found in the bed of the Roding River later that afternoon. His body was found that evening in a willow tree near the edge of the Roding River, below the Hacket car park.
2013年1月6日星期日
We posted a note stating sunflower seeds
Among the pitfalls in composing a column like this is the fact that it won't see ink for six days after I've written it. Will we have fallen over the dreaded fiscal cliff or still be dangling above the brink? Either way, we'll be carrying a bucket in our boat as we row toward the shore.
Santa found us; that's the good news. The bad news is we don't have a chimney. But he found an opening and made our Christmas joyful. Our daughter and son-in-law were with us Christmas Day, and our hearts were filled with the spirit of the season.
We kept the bird feeder full of seeds for our feathered friends and furry squirrels that stop by now and then for a bite to eat. Oddly, since the cold weather has set in, the dining crowd has dwindled. We changed to a different brand of fodder that contains fewer sunflower seeds, and we think that may be the problem. It looked good in the bag, but the birds disagree and the squirrels have disappeared. We posted a note stating sunflower seeds would be forthcoming.
Among the coolest things Santa left with my name on it was a handcrafted wind chime made by stout hands holding a hammer in the state of Maine. Well, I'm not real sure about the hammer but this wind chime is made of hefty iron that sings forth with hearty tones of a soothing nature.
This new wind chime will join in with a crew of two others we have had for several years. We bought them in the 1990s while living in Bandon-by-the-Sea on the southern coast of Oregon. Now we can make music when the wind blows using chimes from both sides of our nation. So far our neighbors haven't chimed in with any notes of discontent.
Their good nature may be enhanced because these iron chimes have a deep resonance that adds a chorus of cheerful notes during stormy weather. The Oregon chimes are made of naked iron that rusts over with character that only age can inspire. The new chime from Maine is coated with colorful enamel, which will set it apart from the others in appearance only.
The size of a chime determines the depth of its tone. We've been enjoying one deeper baritone voice along with a smaller midrange chime, both from Oregon. This new voice from Maine will fill in between those two for a gentle addition to our sound of music on stormy days.
My mother used to say that big feet were the mark of wisdom. I think she brought that idiom from Iowa when she and her twin sister came to sunny California. She nodded with approval when I came home from the army wearing size 11 boots.
After Fran and I were married my feet blossomed to size 12. Thinking that would do me for the duration, I kept buying size 12 footwear. In need of new hiking boots, I went to the Red Wing store for size 12. The boot man declined; I begged. He insisted I was size 13. Alas, he was right; so was Mom; I'm older and wiser now, or so I thought.
My hiking boots look big as boats; size 12 shoes squeeze slightly but appear less overwhelming. Alas, my Sunday shoes were killing me; I was wallowing in vanity. Wife and daughter got together. My dear old shoes were gathered up and gifted to smaller-footed folks. Santa brought me a new pair of shoes and slippers, honed to size 13. Now my feet sing joyously, like iron chimes in the wind.
Santa found us; that's the good news. The bad news is we don't have a chimney. But he found an opening and made our Christmas joyful. Our daughter and son-in-law were with us Christmas Day, and our hearts were filled with the spirit of the season.
We kept the bird feeder full of seeds for our feathered friends and furry squirrels that stop by now and then for a bite to eat. Oddly, since the cold weather has set in, the dining crowd has dwindled. We changed to a different brand of fodder that contains fewer sunflower seeds, and we think that may be the problem. It looked good in the bag, but the birds disagree and the squirrels have disappeared. We posted a note stating sunflower seeds would be forthcoming.
Among the coolest things Santa left with my name on it was a handcrafted wind chime made by stout hands holding a hammer in the state of Maine. Well, I'm not real sure about the hammer but this wind chime is made of hefty iron that sings forth with hearty tones of a soothing nature.
This new wind chime will join in with a crew of two others we have had for several years. We bought them in the 1990s while living in Bandon-by-the-Sea on the southern coast of Oregon. Now we can make music when the wind blows using chimes from both sides of our nation. So far our neighbors haven't chimed in with any notes of discontent.
Their good nature may be enhanced because these iron chimes have a deep resonance that adds a chorus of cheerful notes during stormy weather. The Oregon chimes are made of naked iron that rusts over with character that only age can inspire. The new chime from Maine is coated with colorful enamel, which will set it apart from the others in appearance only.
The size of a chime determines the depth of its tone. We've been enjoying one deeper baritone voice along with a smaller midrange chime, both from Oregon. This new voice from Maine will fill in between those two for a gentle addition to our sound of music on stormy days.
My mother used to say that big feet were the mark of wisdom. I think she brought that idiom from Iowa when she and her twin sister came to sunny California. She nodded with approval when I came home from the army wearing size 11 boots.
After Fran and I were married my feet blossomed to size 12. Thinking that would do me for the duration, I kept buying size 12 footwear. In need of new hiking boots, I went to the Red Wing store for size 12. The boot man declined; I begged. He insisted I was size 13. Alas, he was right; so was Mom; I'm older and wiser now, or so I thought.
My hiking boots look big as boats; size 12 shoes squeeze slightly but appear less overwhelming. Alas, my Sunday shoes were killing me; I was wallowing in vanity. Wife and daughter got together. My dear old shoes were gathered up and gifted to smaller-footed folks. Santa brought me a new pair of shoes and slippers, honed to size 13. Now my feet sing joyously, like iron chimes in the wind.
2013年1月4日星期五
This vision of Eden hovers over the rest of the novel
Ayana Mathis is the rare first-time author who is guaranteed thousands of readers, thanks to Oprah Winfrey, who selected "The Twelve Tribes of Hattie" for Oprah's Book Club 2.0. Winfrey compared Mathis' first novel to the work of Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, whose work was selected four times for Oprah's original book club, beginning in 1996 with "Song of Solomon," a third novel published when she was a relative unknown. For better or worse, Mathis has huge shoes to fill.
"The Twelve Tribes of Hattie" opens in 1925, when Mathis' matriarch, Hattie Shepherd - mother of 11 and grandmother of one, her "12 tribes," in a biblical reference to the patriarch Jacob - is 16, and newly wed. She and her husband, August, are refugees from the Jim Crow South, two teenagers caught up in the historic 20th century migration of African Americans to the North. In an exuberant mood, young Hattie names their newborn twins Philadelphia and Jubilee - "names of promise and of hope, reaching forward names, not looking back ones."
Hattie has what turns out to be a brief interlude of contentment in the small house on Wayne Street in Philadelphia that August rents for his new family. "It rained every morning, but the afternoons were bright and the grass in Hattie and August's tiny square of lawn was green as the first day of the world," Mathis writes. "The three of them, Hattie and her twins, dozed in the shade on the porch." This vision of Eden hovers over the rest of the novel as a bitter reminder of Hattie's blighted dreams.
In visceral, heart-wrenching scenes, Mathis describes Hattie's days-long struggle to save the twins from pneumonia. "Hattie's babies burned brightly: their fevers spiked, their legs wheeled, their cheeks went red as suns." As she fights to save her babies, Hattie recalls seeing her father collapsed in the corner of his smithy back in Georgia, murdered by two white men, and fleeing through the woods two days later with her mother and two sisters to board a train to Philadelphia. Her mother dies, her sisters head back south, and Hattie is left an orphan, a stranger, unaccustomed to the "crackling cold."
When the furnace fails, she heads desperately to a neighbor's, where the twins die.
After this moving opening, Mathis flashes forward, revealing in chapters dated from 1948 to 1980 how Hattie's grief at the loss of her firstborn twins distorts her maternal love and afflicts her nine surviving children with a range of plagues, from crippling self-doubt to dramatic self-destruction.
In the first of these self-contained chapters, we meet her son Floyd, a musician traveling through the South in 1948, troubled by sexual confusion and shame. Hattie's son Six is tormented by scars from burns inflicted when he fell into a tub of scalding water as a boy. Six has bouts of violence balanced by fits of Bible-spouting eloquence. The story of Hattie's daughter Bell begins as she lies dying of tuberculosis in a run-down ghetto apartment in 1975, fantasizing about her mother's soup. "Hattie had kept them all alive with sheer will and collard greens and some old southern remedies. Mean as the dickens, though."
And on it goes. Ruthie is the child of another man, born after Hattie has put up with 25 years of August's womanizing. Franklin follows his father's pattern, losing the woman he loves. Alice's marriage to a doctor is haunted by childhood abuse shared with her brother Billups. Hattie is forced by economic necessity to give her last baby, Ella, born in 1956, away to her childless sister Pearl, back in Georgia.
By 1980, her daughter Cassie is succumbing to madness, with banshee voices insisting that her mother is trying to poison her. Hattie faces yet another challenge in Cassie's daughter, the new generation. It's no surprise that the last chapter features a sermon about the trials of Job. And that somehow Hattie finds the grit to go on.
Mathis has been forthright about her influences. Marilynne Robinson was her mentor at the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop (and like Robinson, she knows how to shape a scene to hit the emotional jugular). Morrison's "Beloved," she says, was her "manual." With its historic sweep and focus on an African American mother faced with brutal choices, "The Twelve Tribes of Hattie" bears some resemblance to "Beloved."
But Mathis has little of Morrison's mystical bent. Her structure is more akin to short stories in a linked collection than fully integrated chapters in a novel. And her plainspoken prose conveys intimacy more readily than mythic resonance.
"The Twelve Tribes of Hattie" is an exceptional first novel. Some of Mathis' characters are more fully rendered than others, some of her plotting is melodramatic, and she leaves us with a trail of unanswered questions. But she brings considerable empathic gifts to the detailed realistic snapshots in Hattie's family album, and to the sense of displacement that has contributed to generations of troubles and travails. Her challenge will be to stay true to her talents until after the Oprah hubbub dies down.
"The Twelve Tribes of Hattie" opens in 1925, when Mathis' matriarch, Hattie Shepherd - mother of 11 and grandmother of one, her "12 tribes," in a biblical reference to the patriarch Jacob - is 16, and newly wed. She and her husband, August, are refugees from the Jim Crow South, two teenagers caught up in the historic 20th century migration of African Americans to the North. In an exuberant mood, young Hattie names their newborn twins Philadelphia and Jubilee - "names of promise and of hope, reaching forward names, not looking back ones."
Hattie has what turns out to be a brief interlude of contentment in the small house on Wayne Street in Philadelphia that August rents for his new family. "It rained every morning, but the afternoons were bright and the grass in Hattie and August's tiny square of lawn was green as the first day of the world," Mathis writes. "The three of them, Hattie and her twins, dozed in the shade on the porch." This vision of Eden hovers over the rest of the novel as a bitter reminder of Hattie's blighted dreams.
In visceral, heart-wrenching scenes, Mathis describes Hattie's days-long struggle to save the twins from pneumonia. "Hattie's babies burned brightly: their fevers spiked, their legs wheeled, their cheeks went red as suns." As she fights to save her babies, Hattie recalls seeing her father collapsed in the corner of his smithy back in Georgia, murdered by two white men, and fleeing through the woods two days later with her mother and two sisters to board a train to Philadelphia. Her mother dies, her sisters head back south, and Hattie is left an orphan, a stranger, unaccustomed to the "crackling cold."
When the furnace fails, she heads desperately to a neighbor's, where the twins die.
After this moving opening, Mathis flashes forward, revealing in chapters dated from 1948 to 1980 how Hattie's grief at the loss of her firstborn twins distorts her maternal love and afflicts her nine surviving children with a range of plagues, from crippling self-doubt to dramatic self-destruction.
In the first of these self-contained chapters, we meet her son Floyd, a musician traveling through the South in 1948, troubled by sexual confusion and shame. Hattie's son Six is tormented by scars from burns inflicted when he fell into a tub of scalding water as a boy. Six has bouts of violence balanced by fits of Bible-spouting eloquence. The story of Hattie's daughter Bell begins as she lies dying of tuberculosis in a run-down ghetto apartment in 1975, fantasizing about her mother's soup. "Hattie had kept them all alive with sheer will and collard greens and some old southern remedies. Mean as the dickens, though."
And on it goes. Ruthie is the child of another man, born after Hattie has put up with 25 years of August's womanizing. Franklin follows his father's pattern, losing the woman he loves. Alice's marriage to a doctor is haunted by childhood abuse shared with her brother Billups. Hattie is forced by economic necessity to give her last baby, Ella, born in 1956, away to her childless sister Pearl, back in Georgia.
By 1980, her daughter Cassie is succumbing to madness, with banshee voices insisting that her mother is trying to poison her. Hattie faces yet another challenge in Cassie's daughter, the new generation. It's no surprise that the last chapter features a sermon about the trials of Job. And that somehow Hattie finds the grit to go on.
Mathis has been forthright about her influences. Marilynne Robinson was her mentor at the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop (and like Robinson, she knows how to shape a scene to hit the emotional jugular). Morrison's "Beloved," she says, was her "manual." With its historic sweep and focus on an African American mother faced with brutal choices, "The Twelve Tribes of Hattie" bears some resemblance to "Beloved."
But Mathis has little of Morrison's mystical bent. Her structure is more akin to short stories in a linked collection than fully integrated chapters in a novel. And her plainspoken prose conveys intimacy more readily than mythic resonance.
"The Twelve Tribes of Hattie" is an exceptional first novel. Some of Mathis' characters are more fully rendered than others, some of her plotting is melodramatic, and she leaves us with a trail of unanswered questions. But she brings considerable empathic gifts to the detailed realistic snapshots in Hattie's family album, and to the sense of displacement that has contributed to generations of troubles and travails. Her challenge will be to stay true to her talents until after the Oprah hubbub dies down.
2012年12月26日星期三
I think this will be a wake-up call to everybody
As Matt Lipan spent Christmas Day with his wife’s family in New Castle, he debated whether they should stay the night with his in-laws and attempt their day-after-Christmas tradition of shopping, or go home to Noblesville ahead of the impending blizzard.
They went home to Noblesville, and the only shopping Lipan had done as of Wednesday afternoon involved a quick stop at Meijer for coffee, eggs, sidewalk salt and a few items for his 10-week-old baby. The family delayed its trip to Edinburgh Premium Outlets, which, like most Simon malls in Indiana, closed early because of the blizzard.
Most day-after-Christmas shoppers in Central Indiana visited grocery stores instead of electronics stores and clothing retailers, who count on post-holiday shopping to ramp up their sales numbers.
The weather hindered stores’ efforts to make one last push for profits before 2012 comes to a close, bringing more disappointment for retailers that generally experienced a lackluster holiday shopping season.
Early numbers released this week in the MasterCard Advisers SpendingPulse report predict that sales likely increased less than 1 percent over last year, the most sluggish gain since the recession. Earlier, sales had been projected to increase 3 to 4 percent.
Stores — and consumers — just might have enough time left to finish the holiday shopping season strong, said John Talbott, associate director of the Center for Education and Research in Retailing at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. His prediction: People still will spend through the rest of this week and the weekend.
“I suspect that what will happen is that the dollars that people have to spend will be distributed more densely over the days they do have to spend it,” he said. “I would expect the malls to be crazy (for the rest of the week). Families have been cooped up together for four days now, so they’re going to be ready to shop.”
Big retailers such as Macy’s could recover, especially if people shopped online while they stayed home from work Wednesday, he said. Local businesses may find it harder to make up for losing a day to snow, even if they picked up a few customers turned away from the closed malls.
While Simon spokesman Les Morris said the company closed its Indianapolis-area malls Wednesday because it worried about the safety of shoppers and employees, some local businesses took a chance on the weather and stayed open to glean a few sales and bolster their image.
By early afternoon, all three Stout’s Shoes locations — in Brownsburg, Carmel and Downtown — had sold only three pairs of shoes. Stout’s two New Balance stores didn’t do any sales, so he planned to shut them at 1 p.m.
Owner Brad Stout said he expected online sales to be better because so many people stayed home, but he hoped the rest of the week would bring even more customers, perhaps because of the storm.
“I think this will be a wake-up call to everybody,” he said, “and they’ll come in and buy a bunch of boots tomorrow and this weekend.”
Keith Payne, who owns North Meridian Hardware near 14th and Meridian streets, found business slightly better. He decided to open his store Wednesday because it has been around less than a year, and he wants the neighborhood to gain trust in it.
Payne described sales as slower than usual, but customers who came in to buy snow shovels and ice melt thanked him for staying open, and he hoped to get a little word-of-mouth advertising from those people telling their friends where they shopped.
“That’s more important than looking at sales,” Payne said.
Grocery stores, gas stations and retailers such as Meijer and Wal-Mart, which carry food and snow-removal supplies, seemed to be the only stores attracting many customers Wednesday. Even those stores lacked crowds, and the customers didn’t stay long.
Stephen Canter, 44, Fishers, tried to beat the storm when he went on an early-morning run to a Marsh supermarket and a gas station near 116th Street and Brooks School Road. He said the weather wasn’t bad when he left around 8 a.m., but as he drove home less than 30 minutes later, the roads had gotten much worse.
They went home to Noblesville, and the only shopping Lipan had done as of Wednesday afternoon involved a quick stop at Meijer for coffee, eggs, sidewalk salt and a few items for his 10-week-old baby. The family delayed its trip to Edinburgh Premium Outlets, which, like most Simon malls in Indiana, closed early because of the blizzard.
Most day-after-Christmas shoppers in Central Indiana visited grocery stores instead of electronics stores and clothing retailers, who count on post-holiday shopping to ramp up their sales numbers.
The weather hindered stores’ efforts to make one last push for profits before 2012 comes to a close, bringing more disappointment for retailers that generally experienced a lackluster holiday shopping season.
Early numbers released this week in the MasterCard Advisers SpendingPulse report predict that sales likely increased less than 1 percent over last year, the most sluggish gain since the recession. Earlier, sales had been projected to increase 3 to 4 percent.
Stores — and consumers — just might have enough time left to finish the holiday shopping season strong, said John Talbott, associate director of the Center for Education and Research in Retailing at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. His prediction: People still will spend through the rest of this week and the weekend.
“I suspect that what will happen is that the dollars that people have to spend will be distributed more densely over the days they do have to spend it,” he said. “I would expect the malls to be crazy (for the rest of the week). Families have been cooped up together for four days now, so they’re going to be ready to shop.”
Big retailers such as Macy’s could recover, especially if people shopped online while they stayed home from work Wednesday, he said. Local businesses may find it harder to make up for losing a day to snow, even if they picked up a few customers turned away from the closed malls.
While Simon spokesman Les Morris said the company closed its Indianapolis-area malls Wednesday because it worried about the safety of shoppers and employees, some local businesses took a chance on the weather and stayed open to glean a few sales and bolster their image.
By early afternoon, all three Stout’s Shoes locations — in Brownsburg, Carmel and Downtown — had sold only three pairs of shoes. Stout’s two New Balance stores didn’t do any sales, so he planned to shut them at 1 p.m.
Owner Brad Stout said he expected online sales to be better because so many people stayed home, but he hoped the rest of the week would bring even more customers, perhaps because of the storm.
“I think this will be a wake-up call to everybody,” he said, “and they’ll come in and buy a bunch of boots tomorrow and this weekend.”
Keith Payne, who owns North Meridian Hardware near 14th and Meridian streets, found business slightly better. He decided to open his store Wednesday because it has been around less than a year, and he wants the neighborhood to gain trust in it.
Payne described sales as slower than usual, but customers who came in to buy snow shovels and ice melt thanked him for staying open, and he hoped to get a little word-of-mouth advertising from those people telling their friends where they shopped.
“That’s more important than looking at sales,” Payne said.
Grocery stores, gas stations and retailers such as Meijer and Wal-Mart, which carry food and snow-removal supplies, seemed to be the only stores attracting many customers Wednesday. Even those stores lacked crowds, and the customers didn’t stay long.
Stephen Canter, 44, Fishers, tried to beat the storm when he went on an early-morning run to a Marsh supermarket and a gas station near 116th Street and Brooks School Road. He said the weather wasn’t bad when he left around 8 a.m., but as he drove home less than 30 minutes later, the roads had gotten much worse.
2012年11月20日星期二
The shoes arrive in a kid-friendly shoebox
St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Watertown recently wrapped up a service project aimed at lending a hand — or perhaps a foot, in this case — to those in need.
The church collected 686 pairs of shoes, or 835 pounds, to donate to Soles4Souls, a national organization that donates shoes to those who need them across the United States and in other parts of the world. The organization is particularly active in donating shoes in the aftermath of natural disasters, and was formed in response to the 2004 tsunami in Asia.
Cherie Greenhagen, a St. Paul’s member who helped organize the drive as part of a women’s group service project, said she was caught off guard by how well the members of her church responded to the collection effort.
“It was a great service project, and it was amazing how the community came together and brought in their shoes,” Greenhagen said. “It was something so easy, but it turned into a great event.”
The service project came about when 30 women from the church attended an annual retreat, the theme of which this year was “Beautiful Feet.” The group wanted to find a service project to fit the theme, and settled on Soles4Souls.
The collection effort lasted about 5 weeks, and organizers originally figured they might be able to take the shoes to several of the dropoff locations in the Twin Cities. However, each location accepts no more than 30 pairs of shoes, and this particular effort quickly soared way past that number.
“When they started coming in, we were like “Oh gosh, we’re going to have to ship them because there is no way we’re going to be able to haul them to enough locations to drop these off,” Greenhagen said. “It was a great experience. It’s amazing how many people have that many pairs of shoes sitting in their closet that can help other people in need. It was really nice to see that.”
To ship the 835 pounds of shoes — which took up 38 boxes — it cost more than $300. To cover the shipping costs, the church hosted a dinner called Harvesting4Souls and raised well over the amount needed for shipping the shoes.
Just in time for the colder weather, FootPals has just expanded their lineup to include calf-length zippered boots – perfect for the upcoming snow. Choose from bunny, gator, koala or monkey boots for colder outdoor adventures. Their original line of velcro-closure shoes include bunnies, monkeys, gators, koalas, and pandas. Boots and shoes come in a variety of colors for both boys and girls. Most importantly, they are comfortable with every step, and made with quality-tested materials. They also meet all Consumer Product Safety Commission guidelines.
FootPals quality details include intricate stitching and dimensional eyes, and durable, lightweight and flexible soles. Their secure fit, roomy toe box, and moisture wicking insoles are perfect for active and growing feet. They're also easy to take on and off, perfect for parents and independent kids - unless of course they refuse to take them off!
The shoes arrive in a kid-friendly shoebox, reminiscent of an antique travel suitcase, complete with an adventure packet. Kids can name their Pals with the pet license, and add stickers to their FootPals passport for each adventure they take their Pals on, from visiting the park to going to school.
The church collected 686 pairs of shoes, or 835 pounds, to donate to Soles4Souls, a national organization that donates shoes to those who need them across the United States and in other parts of the world. The organization is particularly active in donating shoes in the aftermath of natural disasters, and was formed in response to the 2004 tsunami in Asia.
Cherie Greenhagen, a St. Paul’s member who helped organize the drive as part of a women’s group service project, said she was caught off guard by how well the members of her church responded to the collection effort.
“It was a great service project, and it was amazing how the community came together and brought in their shoes,” Greenhagen said. “It was something so easy, but it turned into a great event.”
The service project came about when 30 women from the church attended an annual retreat, the theme of which this year was “Beautiful Feet.” The group wanted to find a service project to fit the theme, and settled on Soles4Souls.
The collection effort lasted about 5 weeks, and organizers originally figured they might be able to take the shoes to several of the dropoff locations in the Twin Cities. However, each location accepts no more than 30 pairs of shoes, and this particular effort quickly soared way past that number.
“When they started coming in, we were like “Oh gosh, we’re going to have to ship them because there is no way we’re going to be able to haul them to enough locations to drop these off,” Greenhagen said. “It was a great experience. It’s amazing how many people have that many pairs of shoes sitting in their closet that can help other people in need. It was really nice to see that.”
To ship the 835 pounds of shoes — which took up 38 boxes — it cost more than $300. To cover the shipping costs, the church hosted a dinner called Harvesting4Souls and raised well over the amount needed for shipping the shoes.
Just in time for the colder weather, FootPals has just expanded their lineup to include calf-length zippered boots – perfect for the upcoming snow. Choose from bunny, gator, koala or monkey boots for colder outdoor adventures. Their original line of velcro-closure shoes include bunnies, monkeys, gators, koalas, and pandas. Boots and shoes come in a variety of colors for both boys and girls. Most importantly, they are comfortable with every step, and made with quality-tested materials. They also meet all Consumer Product Safety Commission guidelines.
FootPals quality details include intricate stitching and dimensional eyes, and durable, lightweight and flexible soles. Their secure fit, roomy toe box, and moisture wicking insoles are perfect for active and growing feet. They're also easy to take on and off, perfect for parents and independent kids - unless of course they refuse to take them off!
The shoes arrive in a kid-friendly shoebox, reminiscent of an antique travel suitcase, complete with an adventure packet. Kids can name their Pals with the pet license, and add stickers to their FootPals passport for each adventure they take their Pals on, from visiting the park to going to school.
2012年10月15日星期一
The sights and sounds of Old Town are always enjoyable
Grab your dog's leash and slip on your most comfortable walking shoes for Sunday's dog-and-family friendly event.
The Animal Welfare League of Alexandria (AWLA) is hosting the Alexandria Shelter Walk for Homeless Animals starting at 9 a.m. Sunday. This fun weekend event will benefit the residents of the Vola Lawson Animal Shelter, and is the only walk to benefit Alexandria's homeless pets.
The walk helps increase awareness about the ever-present problem of pet overpopulation,and covers 1.5 miles, beginning and finishing at Market Square.
Participants, on four legs and two, will stroll through the streets of Old Town Alexandria's historic neighborhoods, and yes, George Washington himself once walked there (although no one can confirm whether a dog accompanied him.).
Those who share their homes with cats, ferrets, bunnies, guinea pigs, hamsters, birds or fish are asked to let their animal companions stay home from the Walk---really, the pets much prefer sleeping in on the weekend!-- but are encouraged to walk to represent their animal friends' species.
The sights and sounds of Old Town are always enjoyable, and on this coming Sunday, a spectacular autumn morning will offer new appreciation of the quaint and storied community. Hundreds of area canine-and-human duos are expected to turn out at this event, which is open to the public and the media. Congressman Jim Moran and members of the Alexandria City Council have also been invited.
Teams such as the Lyles-Crouch Animal Crusaders, a group of local 2nd through 5th graders, will participate, as well as sell baked goodies to hungry walkers, with proceeds going to AWLA.
Local vendors will be in place all around Market Square in support of the AWLA and all the Walk participants.
Adult registration is $25 and includes an event t-shirt and bandana. Children and teen are invited to join in the fun under the supervision of a registered adult. Youth registration (ages 6-16) is $10 and includes a t-shirt. Children 5 years of age or younger are free. Walkers are encouraged to form teams with coworkers, family members or civic group members. Prizes will be awarded to the top Team and Individual fundraisers. Adult participants who raise $100 also win an LED flashlight and poop bag dispenser to keep your evening walks clean and bright.
The Animal Welfare League of Alexandria (AWLA) is hosting the Alexandria Shelter Walk for Homeless Animals starting at 9 a.m. Sunday. This fun weekend event will benefit the residents of the Vola Lawson Animal Shelter, and is the only walk to benefit Alexandria's homeless pets.
The walk helps increase awareness about the ever-present problem of pet overpopulation,and covers 1.5 miles, beginning and finishing at Market Square.
Participants, on four legs and two, will stroll through the streets of Old Town Alexandria's historic neighborhoods, and yes, George Washington himself once walked there (although no one can confirm whether a dog accompanied him.).
Those who share their homes with cats, ferrets, bunnies, guinea pigs, hamsters, birds or fish are asked to let their animal companions stay home from the Walk---really, the pets much prefer sleeping in on the weekend!-- but are encouraged to walk to represent their animal friends' species.
The sights and sounds of Old Town are always enjoyable, and on this coming Sunday, a spectacular autumn morning will offer new appreciation of the quaint and storied community. Hundreds of area canine-and-human duos are expected to turn out at this event, which is open to the public and the media. Congressman Jim Moran and members of the Alexandria City Council have also been invited.
Teams such as the Lyles-Crouch Animal Crusaders, a group of local 2nd through 5th graders, will participate, as well as sell baked goodies to hungry walkers, with proceeds going to AWLA.
Local vendors will be in place all around Market Square in support of the AWLA and all the Walk participants.
Adult registration is $25 and includes an event t-shirt and bandana. Children and teen are invited to join in the fun under the supervision of a registered adult. Youth registration (ages 6-16) is $10 and includes a t-shirt. Children 5 years of age or younger are free. Walkers are encouraged to form teams with coworkers, family members or civic group members. Prizes will be awarded to the top Team and Individual fundraisers. Adult participants who raise $100 also win an LED flashlight and poop bag dispenser to keep your evening walks clean and bright.
2012年10月11日星期四
where the department stores live and the shops with all the clothes
My relationship with malls is fraught at the best of times. I get antsy in foodcourts. I become unreasonably annoyed by slow-moving family groups. And yet, malls are where the department stores live and the shops with all the clothes that I don't really need to buy but will anyway. And, I'm going to be honest, I do like the vastness and comparative anonymity that one gets in mall toilets. So many stalls to choose from! I'm going to choose the one in the furthest corner so no one can hear me pee!
So let's just say that when it comes to suburban shopping malls, I am ambivalent.
And perhaps that's why I'm struggling to understand the promotional poster I saw at Northlands Mall yesterday.
Yes. That is a woman with a shoe in her mouth.
No. I have no idea what we're supposed to make of this.
I get that in advertising it's common to picture women putting things near their faces. Lipstick for instance, or that weird thing where someone who's just done the laundry buries her face in it and inhales as if fabric softener is some kind of intoxicant. Fair enough, I can understand either of those things being near someone's face.
But let's be clear, the woman pictured is eating a shoe. And she's not even doing it in a sexy way. I realise that the idea that there is a sexy way in which someone might consume their own footwear is a bit a foreign notion. I think what I'm trying to get at is that there's no "only the crumbliest, flakiest chocolate" vibe going on here.
When I look at this, all I get from it is:
"Oh Gog, hah muck wonger do I half do halve dis shoo in mah marf? It tace wike fwoor. I bwahshed my teef for dis?"
At times I would rather take a stiletto to the face than find myself in the mall but somehow I don't think this is the association they were going for.
And the thing is, I think I might be the target market for this poster. I'm a young(ish) woman with disposal income to spend on things like high heels and I'm very much a shoe enthusiast. But just because I like buying and owning impractical footwear doesn't mean that putting a shoe into an image will make me think "oh yes, that's something I'd be interested in". I also don't want everything in my life to be covered in depictions of shoes or shaped like a shoe. You can get "shoe" everything these days. Handbags shaped like shoes, tape dispensers, jewellery holders and various household knick-knacks. Yes, I am a woman. Yes, I like shoes. No, I don't need to be reminded that they exist every waking moment. No, I don't love them enough to want to nom one.
So let's just say that when it comes to suburban shopping malls, I am ambivalent.
And perhaps that's why I'm struggling to understand the promotional poster I saw at Northlands Mall yesterday.
Yes. That is a woman with a shoe in her mouth.
No. I have no idea what we're supposed to make of this.
I get that in advertising it's common to picture women putting things near their faces. Lipstick for instance, or that weird thing where someone who's just done the laundry buries her face in it and inhales as if fabric softener is some kind of intoxicant. Fair enough, I can understand either of those things being near someone's face.
But let's be clear, the woman pictured is eating a shoe. And she's not even doing it in a sexy way. I realise that the idea that there is a sexy way in which someone might consume their own footwear is a bit a foreign notion. I think what I'm trying to get at is that there's no "only the crumbliest, flakiest chocolate" vibe going on here.
When I look at this, all I get from it is:
"Oh Gog, hah muck wonger do I half do halve dis shoo in mah marf? It tace wike fwoor. I bwahshed my teef for dis?"
At times I would rather take a stiletto to the face than find myself in the mall but somehow I don't think this is the association they were going for.
And the thing is, I think I might be the target market for this poster. I'm a young(ish) woman with disposal income to spend on things like high heels and I'm very much a shoe enthusiast. But just because I like buying and owning impractical footwear doesn't mean that putting a shoe into an image will make me think "oh yes, that's something I'd be interested in". I also don't want everything in my life to be covered in depictions of shoes or shaped like a shoe. You can get "shoe" everything these days. Handbags shaped like shoes, tape dispensers, jewellery holders and various household knick-knacks. Yes, I am a woman. Yes, I like shoes. No, I don't need to be reminded that they exist every waking moment. No, I don't love them enough to want to nom one.
2012年10月7日星期日
Canadian Thanksgiving has Stores Hopping
Thanksgiving is still a month and a half away in the United States, but in Canada it is already here.
The tasteful holiday falls on Monday, so many packed up and headed south of the border for the weekend to enjoy the sights and sounds of Fargo.
Stores at West Acres Shopping Center were not even open, but that did not stop curious shoppers like Shelley Kuzyk from getting a peek at what stores had to offer.
"I'm just gonna see if I can buy some clothes," says Kuzyk.
She and her husband Victor are not new to the area. They have been traveling from Winnipeg to celebrate their Thanksgiving holiday in Fargo for the past three years.
"When you're caught up in the day-to-day routine of life, there's nothing like a break," says Victor.
Not only is Fargo a Canadian shopper's paradise, but stores also look forward to this time of year because they see a significant increase in sales. For some it could be a 20 to 30 percent increase.
Tradehome Shoes store manager Jon Skudlarek says, "Because their limits went from $400 for 48 hours to $800 now, it seems like they come down and really just spend a lot more."
Skudlarek says every Canadian holiday sometimes means more to his store than other holidays, since so many people make the trip.
"Overall prices down here on shoes a lot of times are less than in Canada," he says.
Though to those like the Kuzyk's, money does not make a big difference. "You can't start thinking about the price. If you wanna do it, you just go and do it," says Shelley.
Victor says, "We make it an event for us to celebrate the fall season and approaching winter."
Stores at West Acres Shopping Center say they are looking forward to the U.S. Thanksgiving next. That is because Black Friday shopping will actually begin at 11 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day.
The tasteful holiday falls on Monday, so many packed up and headed south of the border for the weekend to enjoy the sights and sounds of Fargo.
Stores at West Acres Shopping Center were not even open, but that did not stop curious shoppers like Shelley Kuzyk from getting a peek at what stores had to offer.
"I'm just gonna see if I can buy some clothes," says Kuzyk.
She and her husband Victor are not new to the area. They have been traveling from Winnipeg to celebrate their Thanksgiving holiday in Fargo for the past three years.
"When you're caught up in the day-to-day routine of life, there's nothing like a break," says Victor.
Not only is Fargo a Canadian shopper's paradise, but stores also look forward to this time of year because they see a significant increase in sales. For some it could be a 20 to 30 percent increase.
Tradehome Shoes store manager Jon Skudlarek says, "Because their limits went from $400 for 48 hours to $800 now, it seems like they come down and really just spend a lot more."
Skudlarek says every Canadian holiday sometimes means more to his store than other holidays, since so many people make the trip.
"Overall prices down here on shoes a lot of times are less than in Canada," he says.
Though to those like the Kuzyk's, money does not make a big difference. "You can't start thinking about the price. If you wanna do it, you just go and do it," says Shelley.
Victor says, "We make it an event for us to celebrate the fall season and approaching winter."
Stores at West Acres Shopping Center say they are looking forward to the U.S. Thanksgiving next. That is because Black Friday shopping will actually begin at 11 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day.
2012年9月11日星期二
Shoe designs by day fire juggling by night for Jennifer Romas
Bombshell brunette Jennifer Romas is a star dancer at “iCandy Burlesque: the Show” with her sizzling striptease, unbelievable gravity-defying pole routines and her phenomenal fire-juggling skills. By night, she KOs audiences six times a week in the hot, new Planet Hollywood Miracle Mile show.
But by day, she’s knocking out extraordinary and exotic embellishments for her shoe line Sekshual Design.
“Dancing is my passion,” Jennifer told me. “But I like keeping busy and creative. So I worked on my own costumes, and the shoe accessorizing followed automatically.” Now the former gymnast and stilt-walker has a shoe-in fan following with fashion aficionados and her fellow dancers at shows up and down the Strip.
It’s not yet to the level of where Christian Louboutin and Manolo Blahnik are opening boutiques at every hotel in town, but Jennifer is busy finishing her first full boutique collection ready to showcase.
Born in Michigan, she became a competitive athlete in track, diving and gymnastics and went on to become the U.S. Gymnastics Federation state floor and vault champion in Minnesota. Her coaches encouraged her to take dance classes to help her routines, and Jennifer wound up in the international touring jazz company Gus Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago.
En route to Los Angeles for her career, she stopped in Las Vegas, won an unexpected downtown gig at “X-Treme Scene” in Union Plaza and still has yet to continue her 270-mile journey to the California movie capital. She’s danced in shows in Las Vegas, Chicago, Washington, D.C., New York, Korea and China. She’s been seen on NBC and Fox, for NASCAR on Speed TV and placed in the Top 15 of “America’s Got Talent” with her Sexy and Dangerous act.
Jennifer danced in the Charo and Rick Thomas shows on the Strip and was the headliner in “Striptease,” which played at the Sahara until the casino hotel closed in May 2011. Michael Jackson show director and choreographer Kenny Ortega hired her to perform at Steve Wynn’s birthday dance show at XS.
To keep fit, she does 40 minutes of cardio training with sit-ups and lunges at the gym five days a week and adds in a 6 a.m. boot camp. Needless to say, no pizzas or cheeseburgers in her diet. “I even use green cabbage leaves around my knees to reduce the swelling from all the dance workouts,” Jennifer said.
Her dancing, modeling and choreography assignments keep her busy, but she managed to debut her Sekshual Design shoes a year ago at the Vegas Rocks Magazine Awards at the then-Las Vegas Hilton (now LVH). “I love creating the unusual, the unique, the exotic,” Jennifer said. “I rework the shoes over in feathers, crystals, straps; in fact, the embellishments also work on hats, lingerie and costumes.”
She's thrilled dancing in"iCandy Burlesque" and that her erotic shoe designs have caught on:"I love Las Vegas because you can do what you need to do or want to do any time of the day or night. I feel like I never really have any free time, but with all the work I pack into a day, I am the happiest I've ever been in my life. Everything is beautiful, and I know it's going to continue getting even bigger and better."
But by day, she’s knocking out extraordinary and exotic embellishments for her shoe line Sekshual Design.
“Dancing is my passion,” Jennifer told me. “But I like keeping busy and creative. So I worked on my own costumes, and the shoe accessorizing followed automatically.” Now the former gymnast and stilt-walker has a shoe-in fan following with fashion aficionados and her fellow dancers at shows up and down the Strip.
It’s not yet to the level of where Christian Louboutin and Manolo Blahnik are opening boutiques at every hotel in town, but Jennifer is busy finishing her first full boutique collection ready to showcase.
Born in Michigan, she became a competitive athlete in track, diving and gymnastics and went on to become the U.S. Gymnastics Federation state floor and vault champion in Minnesota. Her coaches encouraged her to take dance classes to help her routines, and Jennifer wound up in the international touring jazz company Gus Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago.
En route to Los Angeles for her career, she stopped in Las Vegas, won an unexpected downtown gig at “X-Treme Scene” in Union Plaza and still has yet to continue her 270-mile journey to the California movie capital. She’s danced in shows in Las Vegas, Chicago, Washington, D.C., New York, Korea and China. She’s been seen on NBC and Fox, for NASCAR on Speed TV and placed in the Top 15 of “America’s Got Talent” with her Sexy and Dangerous act.
Jennifer danced in the Charo and Rick Thomas shows on the Strip and was the headliner in “Striptease,” which played at the Sahara until the casino hotel closed in May 2011. Michael Jackson show director and choreographer Kenny Ortega hired her to perform at Steve Wynn’s birthday dance show at XS.
To keep fit, she does 40 minutes of cardio training with sit-ups and lunges at the gym five days a week and adds in a 6 a.m. boot camp. Needless to say, no pizzas or cheeseburgers in her diet. “I even use green cabbage leaves around my knees to reduce the swelling from all the dance workouts,” Jennifer said.
Her dancing, modeling and choreography assignments keep her busy, but she managed to debut her Sekshual Design shoes a year ago at the Vegas Rocks Magazine Awards at the then-Las Vegas Hilton (now LVH). “I love creating the unusual, the unique, the exotic,” Jennifer said. “I rework the shoes over in feathers, crystals, straps; in fact, the embellishments also work on hats, lingerie and costumes.”
She's thrilled dancing in"iCandy Burlesque" and that her erotic shoe designs have caught on:"I love Las Vegas because you can do what you need to do or want to do any time of the day or night. I feel like I never really have any free time, but with all the work I pack into a day, I am the happiest I've ever been in my life. Everything is beautiful, and I know it's going to continue getting even bigger and better."
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