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BANGKOK TOP TEMPLES TRAVEL GUIDE FOR 2020 (with DIY itinerary, budget, where to stay and how to get there)
Updated as of January 2020
Summary: This blog shares a DIY guide for a temple hopping adventure in Bangkok, specifically at its three top temples: Wat Arun, Wat Pho and the Grand Palace. It also lays out a 1-2 day travel itinerary with an estimated budget of 1,280+ THB per person which covers expenses for entrance, food and transportation. All needed details for each Bangkok temple are shared in the post including operating hours, entrance fee, location and information on how to get there. Further, this Bangkok blog is intended for first-time travelers and backpackers who are on a tight budget either solo or traveling in group.
Check the latest video on my Youtube channel:
BANGKOK TEMPLES AT A GLANCE
THE THREE MAJOR TEMPLE COMPLEXES IN BANGKOK
BANGKOK TEMPLE HOPPING DIY ITINERARY
BASIC COURTESY WHEN VISITING THE TEMPLES
TIPS IN GETTING AROUND THE TEMPLES IN BANGKOK
WHERE TO STAY IN KHAO SAN ROAD
EXTEND YOUR TRIP
BANGKOK, the vibrant capital of Thailand, is rich on food, top attractions and fun folks; but what really underpins its strong sense of culture is its gold-spired Buddhist temples which are spread out around the city to at least 400 in number. The most famous among these temple complexes are the Grand Palace, Wat Pho (or the Temple of the Reclining Buddha), and Wat Arun (or the Temple of Dawn).
How to get to Bangkok?
Transport to Bangkok either via ferry, bus or train are available from the following destinations. Use the search box below to check for transport availability, price and schedule.
Amphawa Floating Market
Wat Arun during blue hour, as seen across the river at Sala Rattanakosin Rooftop Bar.
Going around the three temple complexes has been a usual thing to do for most tourists in Bangkok as it makes for a good morning activity, a weekend trip or even for a full day itinerary whether you are in group or alone.
As the temples are a popular attraction, it comes as no surprise that these places are crowded and a breeding ground for touts and scammers. This travel guide aims to help you keep away from the possibility of getting into the traumatic swindle and learn tips on how to get the most of your experience while going around the temples.
walkway to the upper terrace of the Grand Palace, left side of Wat Phra Kaew
The temples in Bangkok are strongly influenced by Buddhism which take up the greater part of Thailand as far as religion is concerned. These temples have become a central part to the cultural and architectural scene in the country and are recognized as some of the best tourist spots. In Bangkok, the most known and celebrated temples are the ones located at the banks of Chao Phraya river – Wat Arun, located on the west part, and Grand Palace and Wat Pho on the east side. All are about few minutes away from each other, whether on foot or by ferry. Read below for the details of each temple.
WAT ARUN (TEMPLE OF DAWN)
The main prang of Wat Arun which stands 70 meters high.
Wat Arun or the Temple of Dawn derives its name from the Hindu god Aruna, who is often personified by the radiations of the rising sun. True enough, Wat Arun gleams in golden hues as the sun goes up at dawn and settles down at dusk creating one of the most photographed spectacles over the waters of the Chao Phraya river.
steps to the top part of the main prang
Wat Arun is notable for its 70-meter tall tower-like spire (or prang in Thai) in Khmer style at its center, which is surrounded by four smaller satellite prangs that are plastered with lime, seashells and tin-glazed broken porcelain tiles that produce a beaming glow when hit by a sunlight.
At my back is the main entrance to the prangs. Buy a ticket for 50 THB before walking inside.
After the temple went through a major restoration from 2013 through 2017, the top most part of the main prang where visitors used to climb to get a full view of the Chao Phraya river has been barred with gates and is now inaccessible. A charge of 50 TBH is collected to enter to the prangs.
Few steps to the right of the prangs is the Ubosot or the Ordination Hall. To get to it, one must go through its passageway which is guarded by two giant demon figures at the entrance that goes straight to a courtyard surrounding the hall. This part of Wat Arun is free of entrance.
Tourists donning a Thai costume at the entrance to the Ordination Hall.
How to get to Wat Arun?
Using BTS, take the Silom line to Saphan Taksin (or the S6) station. Fare is 21 THB. Go out through Exit No. 2 and walk down the stairs for about 5 minutes to Sathorn pier where boats for Chao Phraya river await. Expect 2 lanes to buy a riverboat ticket. Choose the lane for the "orange flag" riverboat (the one used by locals) and pay 3 THB only to Pier 9 where Wat Arun is located. The boat trip takes about 15 minutes.
Note: The other lane is targeted to tourists who opt for a river tour, which comes with a very steep price.
The Ordination Hall.
Opening hours (prang area only) : 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Note: I was able to enter the Ordination Hall free of charge as early as 7:00 a.m. where I witnessed the monks on their morning prayer.
Time to spend: 1 to 2 hours
Author Rating: 5/5
At the gardens in between the prangs and the Ordination Hall.
Tip for photographers: The best spot to capture a full view of Wat Arun during sunset is right across the river at Tha Tien pier on any of its rooftop bars. To get there, take a cross-river ferry at the docking area adjacent to the Ordination Hall, it's only 10 steps away from Pier 9 docking area. Boat ride to Tha Tien (N8) pier is about 2 minutes, fare is 4 THB. You will arrive at Tha Tien market. Go out and walk to your desired bar. Be there as early as 4:00 p.m. so you can choose a better seat.
List of rooftop bars for a nice Wat Arun sunset experience:
Sala Rattanakosin Rooftop Bar (where I stayed and bought coffee for 160 THB, use of tripod is not allowed in this bar.)
Eagle Nest Bar
Eight Sight Story
WAT PHO (RECLINING BUDDHA)
The massive upper body part of the Reclining Buddha.
Wat Pho is yet another highly regarded and first-class royal temple complex of Thailand. It is one of the oldest and largest Buddhist temples in the country with an area encompassing about 80,000 square meters.
Just like its two neighbors, Wat Pho is a temple complex in full swing consisted of carefully designed ordination hall, courtyards, chedis and a school where the traditional massage was originated and is still being taught.
The Fun-sized Traveller! 😉
Wat Pho is prominent for housing over a thousand collection of Buddha images and the massive Reclining Buddha with a foot sole that is nifty inlaid with mother-of-pearl. Behind the reclining statue are 108-bronze bowls that represent the different characters of Buddha, which are believed to send good fortune if you drop coins into it.
The reclining Buddha from head to foot. Notice the beautiful inlays at the sole.
Opening hours: 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Entrance fee: 100 THB
Author rating: 4.5/5
How to get to Wat Pho?
The nearest port from Wat Pho is Tha Tien pier which can be accessed from Wat Arun by a cross-river ferry for about 4 THB. To get to Wat Arun, read the information above, on the designated section (How to get to Wat Arun?)
Once at Tha Tien pier (N8), walk out through the market. Outside, you will see street food vendors and further ahead is the Wat Pho temple complex.
The small chedis outside the Reclining Buddha hall.
Note: You need to wear a proper dress and leave your footwear in the free plastic bag provided outside the hall before entering to the reclining Buddha.
The upper terrace of the Grand Palace, left side from the entrance.
Dripping in glitter and gold, Grand Palace, the former residence of the royal family is another major tourist attraction at the fringes of the Chao Phraya river. The temple complex is divided into two main zones: Wat Phra Kaew or the temple of the Emerald Buddha, and the Royal Residence which is broken into 3 courts that serve as venue of royal ceremonies and location for government offices.
Wat Phra Kaew is the most important Buddhist temple in Thailand as it enshrines the highly respected emerald Buddha, which is made of a single block of jade of about 26 inches tall in a yogic posture. This part of the Grand Palace imposes a strict dress code. Visitors are required to wear long pants and shirts with sleeves, feet must not be showing the heels.
Wat Phra Kaew as seen from the main entrance.
How to get to the Grand Palace?
Go to Saphan Taksin (or the S6) station using the Silom line of the sky train. Fare is 21 THB. Walk up to Exit No. 2. Take the stairs down to Sathorn pier where you can buy a ticket to Ta Chang Pier (N9), the closest port to the Grand Palace. Choose the ticket lane for the "orange flag" boat. Fare is only 3 THB. Boat trip takes about 15 minutes.
Once at Ta Chang Pier, walk up north to the walls of the Grand Palace. Follow the signs. For about a 5-minute walk, you should find the main entrance.
A demon figure facing a golden stupa and some chedis at the courtyard of the Grand Palace.
Things to know before visiting the Grand Palace:
From the main entrance, the ticket booth is about a 2-minute walk. Follow the walkway from the gate.
Wat Phra Kaew which shelters the emerald Buddha is located upon entry of the first door from the ticket booth.
Try to visit during the first or last hour. The situation in the Grand Palace can become rowdy because of the flock of tourists which numbers to a fifty in a group, not adding up the loud tourist guides on their megaphone giving instructions as its assigned group go on a tour.
Because of high volume, visitors are not allowed to go back and forth in any area in the Grand Palace. Once you enter the Royal Residence area, you will no longer be allowed to go back to Wat Phra Kaew and its nearby halls and shrines.
The Grand Palace is the earliest to close among the three temple complexes.
The Grand Palace is close during Songkran and birthday anniversary of HM, the king.
The Royal Residence area.
Below are 2 samples of DIY itinerary covering Wat Arun, Wat Pho and the Grand Palace, good for full day which assume a party of one and will set back a budget of 1,280+ THB per person, excluding expenses for souvenir and other incidentals.
If you are easy to "temple out", you can reduce the itinerary to half day, either on the morning or afternoon with 1 hour allotment to each temple.
The Fun-sized Traveller at the walkway to the entrance of Wat Arun Ordination hall.
Things to consider for this Temple Hopping DIY itinerary:
The itinerary uses the Chao Phraya riverboat as the main transport in transferring from one temple to another, which is the most ideal in getting around considering how heavy the traffic situation is in Bangkok. Boat operating hours is from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., and comes in every 20 minutes after the morning rush hour.
Riverboat fare for short distance (one port away) is 4 THB while for long distance is 15 THB.
The itinerary assumes that the traveler chooses an accommodation within Khao San road for easy access to the Chao Phraya river.
The two samples start either at Wat Arun (because it's an open place and not ideal for a noon-time activity especially on a very hot day) or at the Grand Palace (because it's a crowded place most of the time and is best visited during the first hour of opening). Whereas, Wat Pho is allotted as a mid-day activity because most of its areas are covered courts.
Royal residence hall at midday.
BANGKOK TEMPLE HOPPING SAMPLE ITINERARY 1
Activity Time Budget
Breakfast 6:00AM 150 THB
To Phra Arthit pier
(nearest from
Khao San) 7:00AM –
To Wat Arun 7:30AM 15 THB
Wat Arun Activities – –
Wander Around
Hall 8:00AM –
Wander Around the
Prangs 9:00AM 50 THB
Take a riverboat to
Wat Pho 10:00AM –
Wat Pho Activities – 100 THB
Visit the reclining Buddha 10:30AM –
Wander around Wat Pho 11:00AM –
Lunch (outside Wat Pho) 12:00PM 150 THB
Walk for 10 minutes or take a ferry to the
Grand Palace for 4 THB
(Tha Tien to Ta Chang pier) 1:00PM –
Grand Palace Activities 1:30PM 500 THB
Visit the Emerald
Buddha 2:00PM –
nearby shrines 2:30PM –
courtyard 3:00PM –
To Sala Rattanakosin
Rooftop Bar for dinner and
Wat Arun sunset
experience 4:00PM 300 THB
Back to hostel at Khao San (Tha Tien to Phra Arthit pier) 7:00PM 15 THB
Socials at Khao San
road 8:00PM –
Lights out! 11:00PM –
The Grand Palace, as captured while riding a riverboat from Wat Arun.
(nearest from Khao San) 8:00AM –
To Grand Palace
(Ta Chang pier) 8:30AM 15 THB
Walk to Grand
Palace main entrance 9:00AM –
Grand Palace Activities 9:30AM 500 THB
Visit the Emerald Buddha 10:00AM –
nearby shrines 10:30AM –
Royal Residence courtyard 11:00AM –
Go to Wat Pho on foot for 10 minutes or by ferry for 4 THB (Ta Chang to Tha Tien Pier) 11:30AM –
Visit the reclining Buddha 1:00PM –
Wander around Wat Pho 1:30PM –
take a cross-river ferry to
Wat Arun (Tha Tien to Pier 9) 2:30PM –
To Wat Arun 3:00PM 4 THB
Ordination Hall 4:00PM –
Wander Around the Prangs 4:30PM 50 THB
Take a riverboat to Wat Pho 5:30PM 4 THB
To Sala Rattanakosin Rooftop Bar for dinner and
Wat Arun sunset experience 6:00PM 300 THB
Socials at Khao San road 8:00PM –
Dress properly. Wear clothes that would cover the shoulders and knees. Avoid tight-fitting trousers, see-through clothes and ripped jeans. Wear a pair of footwear that would hide the heels.
Remove your shoes, shades or hats and refrain from taking photos while at the temple worship area.
When taking photos with a Buddha image, try not to turn your back as you do when taking a selfie and avoid raising yourself higher as you pose.
Treat the monks with utmost respect. Do not disturb them as they pray and avoid pointing at them either by your finger or feet as you speak with them.
A wide-angle shot of the main prang of Wat Arun with 4 smaller prangs surrounding it.
The Bangkok temple hopping activity is exhausting especially when going around mid-day under the scorching heat of the sun. Make sure to have breakfast, bring extra clothes, wear hats and bring a bottle of water. Water fountains are available at the Grand Palace in case you want a refill.
Beware of scams, especially outside the Grand Palace and Wat Pho. The scammers would look like a person in authority, wearing a police uniform or would introduce themselves as teachers. They will inform visitors that the temples are closed and would offer for a tuktuk ride tour which would take you to souvenir shops to splurge. When you encounter them, decline politely and proceed to the main entrance of the temple.
Wat Pho and the Grand Palace are only a block away from each other. Feel free to walk. If you opt for a taxi or tuktuk, make sure to agree for a set price or ask the taxi driver to use the meter before going.
Read and research about Buddhism and the history of Thailand before going, to better appreciate the temples.
The best time to visit is early in the morning or late in the afternoon, and on weekdays when there is less crowd and audience halls are mostly open to the public.
While this article is best suited for DIY budget travelers, we also share the same sentiments with those who love to go on a tour package. KLOOK offers the most affordable and hassle-free tour services for Bangkok, Thailand.
Here are some of its tour packages that might be useful in your travel. Click each link for more details.
Bangkok Landmarks Day Tour: Grand Palace, Wat Pho, Chao Phraya River & More for P2,453
Chao Phraya Princess Cruise for P1,399
Bangkok City & Temples Tour for P1,522
Floating Markets Day Tour for P1,218
For more Bangkok transport and tour services from KLOOK, use the search box below:
Khao San road at night.
Here are some of the top-rated budget hotels in Khao San Road, a perfect location if you are keen on wandering around the top temples in Bangkok, Thailand.
Vivit Hostel is well-suited for family or group travelers. Click the photo for rate and availability.
Samsen Sam Place. Click the photo for rate and availability.
Zen Rooms Holiday. Click the photo for rate and availability.
Check out other major destinations in Thailand:
Got a day to spare while in Bangkok? Head out to Sukhothai for a day trip using this DIY budget travel guide.
If you are keen on wandering around the Old City of Chiang Mai and its top attractions on a DIY, check this guide: Chiang Mai Budget Travel Guide.
Visit the artistic city of Chiang Rai using this DIY budget travel guide.
More DIY travel guide for Asia destinations:
PHILIPPINE DESTINATIONS
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Baler Budget Travel Guide
Batanes Budget Travel Guide
Cordillera Budget Travel Guide
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Manila Budget Travel Guide
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Palaui Island Budget Travel Guide
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Puerto Princesa Budget Travel Guide
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Sagada Budget Travel Guide
Vigan Budget Travel Guide
Zambales Budget Travel Guide
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Gigantes Islands Budget Travel Guide
Iloilo Budget Travel Guide
Negros Budget Travel Guide
Sipalay Budget Travel Guide
Siquijor Budget Travel Guide
Siargao Budget Travel Guide here.
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Budget Travel Guide
Johor Bahru, Malaysia Budget Travel Guide
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Budget Travel Guide
Penang, Malaysia Budget Travel Guide
Phnom Penh, Cambodia Budget Travel Guide
Siem Reap, Cambodia Budget Travel Guide
Singapore Budget Travel Guide
BE A RESPONSIBLE TRAVELER
Leave No Trace Principle
And lastly, don't forget to be awesome! 😉
DON'T STOP HERE
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That that comes of a cat will catch mice.
Voice of one, voice of none.
When a man has fallen into the mire, the more he flounders the more he fouls himself.
Aragorn threw back his cloak. The elven-sheath glittered as he grasped it, and the bright blade of And£ril shone like a sudden flame as he swept it out. 'Elendil!' he cried. 'I am Aragorn, son of Arathorn, and am called Elessar, the Elfstone, D£nadan, the heir of Isildur Elendil's son of Gondor. Here is the Sword that was Broken and is forged again! Will you aid me or thwart me? Choose swiftly!
But it is the way of my people to use light words at such times and say less than they mean. We fear to say too much. It robs us of the right words when a jest is out of place.
Criticism - however valid or intellectually engaging - tends to get in the way of a writer who has anything personal to say. A tightrope walker may require practice, but if he starts a theory of equilibrium he will lose grace (and probably fall off).
Don't ever laugh at live Dragons, Bilbo you fool!


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Q: Proof of the range of the multivariable function $f(n, m)=|cos(n)-cos(m)|$ I am trying to prove that $f(n, m)=|cos(n)-cos(m)|$ where $n$, $m$ are distinct natural numbers, can be made as small as possible; or that the greatest lower bound on $f(n, m)$ is $0$.
I think the answer lies in proving that for any irrational number $r$, the greatest lower bound of $|n-mr|$ is $0$. I can't think of anyway to proceed further. I have only ever dealt with ranges of single variable functions so this is a real roadblock for me. Please help me find a way.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Democrats are sick and tired of the endless lies about Hillary Clinton, the character attacks, the distortions of her record, the contorted caricature portrayed in the media. They want an unfiltered connection to her without the prism of GOP-style talking points and false frames.
If the headline of this piece blows some minds, you can thank three decades of relentless lies and smears by the conservative attack machine and its corporate media enablers, who have labored to create an aura of corruption around Hillary Clinton. Her detractors on the right, left and center reel off a laundry list of unsupported accusations with an air of absolute authority, as though it is simply a given that she is a terrible, horrible, no-good human being.
And that is precisely the intention: Taint her through innuendo and guilt-by-association, throw enough dirt at her that voters develop an instant negative association with her name. Accuse, accuse, accuse until the accusation becomes the reality, and may the truth be damned.
Karl Rove, the Koch brothers, and billionaire conservative moneymen like Paul Singer have spent inordinate sums to paint a malignant picture of Hillary, using sophisticated propaganda techniques to render her toxic to the American electorate.
Sadly, too many on the left imbibe and regurgitate these fabricated narratives. They are joined by corporate media operatives with personal vendettas, whose venomous words reveal more about their own failings than about Hillary.
But the fact is this: no one has ever produced an iota of evidence that Hillary has behaved improperly because of a campaign contribution. No one has produced a scintilla of proof that there is a quid pro quo when it comes to her speaking fees. From Whitewater to Benghazi to her emails, nobody can point to a single instance of corruption or wrongdoing on Hillary Clinton's part.
The most they have are votes and positions they disagree with or mistakes for which she has expressed regret. And even there, the false frames are tossed around with no regard for facts. During the Democratic primaries, Hillary's critics portrayed Bernie Sanders as pure good and Hillary as pure evil. That's hogwash. They are both politicians who make judgments and adopt positions, some of which we agree with, others we don't.
Hillary's Republican opponent, Donald Trump, has spent a year hurling insults at people who disagree with him. He has embraced intolerance as a platform. He has a shameful history of demeaning and degrading women. He lashes out at reporters in the most personal terms whenever he is questioned. He lacks even the most rudimentary preparedness for the office he seeks. He has a self-admittedly vindictive temperament which is profoundly ill-suited for the presidency. He has called our sitting president a terrorist and threatened Hillary's life. Yet astonishingly, he receives less (yes, less) negative coverage than she does, according to two independent studies.
No matter how shocking this may sound to Hillary's professional critics – those who spend their time condescendingly mocking anyone who says a good word about her – Hillary is an upstanding, principled and dignified leader who has survived the most intrusive, invasive, aggressive and unending vetting process in political history.
Having worked with Hillary for three years as an adviser and seen her approach to life and politics, having watched her as a mom and daughter, as a friend to so many people, I know that the rightwing caricature of her is an offensive distortion and I feel personally compelled to speak the truth and to fight the slander.
It is gratifying to Hillary's friends and supporters (and infinitely vexing to her detractors) that millions of Americans see through the spin and connect to Hillary on a personal level. These are the voters across America who are poised to carry her to the White House in November, sending a monumentally important and inspiring message to women and girls across the globe.


ISRAEL of new york in the house of representatives Wednesday, October 16, 2013 Mr. ISRAEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today on the sixteenth day of the federal government shutdown to submit for the record a satire sent to me by my constituent, Donna Rusinski of Huntington New York. Donna's satire perfectly portrays the current state of affairs in our nation's capital and I am pleased I can share her short story with you today.
So, imagine that the company you work for held a poll, and asked everyone if they thought it would be a good idea to put a soda machine in the break room. The poll came back, and the majority of your colleagues said ``Yes,'' indicating that they would like a soda machine. Some said no, but the majority said yes. So, a week later, there's a soda machine.
Now imagine that Bill in accounting voted against the soda machine. He has a strong hatred for caffeinated soft drinks, thinks they are bad for you, whatever. He campaigns throughout the office to get the machine removed.
Well, management decides ``OK, we'll ask again'' and again, the majority of people say ``Yes, let's keep the soda machine.'' Bill continues to campaign, and management continues to ask the employees, and every time, the answer is in favor of the soda machine. This happens, let's say 35 times. Eventually, Bill says ``OK, I'm not processing payroll anymore until the soday machine is removed,'' so nobody will get paid unless management removes the machine.
What should we do? Answer: Fire Bill and get someone who will do the darn job.
Bonus: Bill tells everyone that he was willing to ``Negotiate,'' to come to a solution where everyone got their payroll checks, but only so long as that negotiation capitulated to his demand to remove the soda machine.


As a registered investment advisor, Towers Watson Investment Services, Inc. (TWIS) maintains a disclosure brochure (i.e. Form ADV Part 2A) as required under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (Disclosure Brochure). In order to provide you with current information about TWIS and its business practices, we include our Disclosure Brochure here.
TWIS encourages its clients to read the Disclosure Brochures in its entirety, and to contact your client representative should you have any questions. If you would like to receive another set of copies of supplements containing biographical information for client representatives who formulate and deliver investment advice to you, or have any questions, comments or concerns, please contact your client representative or our Chief Compliance Officer at TWISCompliance@willistowerswatson.com.


attached log file for your help.
"No exposed shoreline segments found. This could be from a too-high depth threshold or a too-low exposure proportion"
Have you tried adjusting the depth threshold or exposure proportion? What happened?
Did CV give you the same error or a different one? Please post the log file from this latest run, thanks.


We have reached "Peak Blogger" in this society, folks. If the existence of Tobyblog was not proof of that already, take a look at the above picture. It was a cold, blustery Saturday afternoon and I was visiting nearby Arlington. It was around lunchtime and I had some time to kill, so I decided to walk over to the nearby strip mall and scope out the restaurants. There were a surprising number of cuisines on offer for such a small area, but this place caught my eye. Brian Hammons had mentioned to me recently how his buddy Nick Van Bever is a fan of chicken strips and fries. I figured I'd do some recon for Nick, in case he ever makes his way down to Dallas.
As I was walking up I notice this guy standing out in front of the place taking pictures of the storefront with his DSLR camera, and I instantly recognized what was happening. I was being scooped! I have no idea who this guy was or what exactly he was doing, as I didn't care to introduce myself, but I'd like to imagine he was just another hipster blogger, and that half the people there that day were just working on their blogs. Or maybe he was a reporter. At any rate, it made everything I did from that point forward seem weird and superfluous, especially since he had a much better camera rig than mine, and was waaaay more forward about whipping it out to get shots of the employees and in-store signage and such, with all these closeups and weird angles and multiple shots. I figured it would be best not to draw attention to myself.
I don't know for sure, but I'd bet my pics are not quite as interesting as his.
The place was smallish, clean, and efficient. The prices were pretty decent. I got the 4 piece tender combo with fries, house dipping sauce, and a fresh-squeezed lemonade plus a frozen custard for dessert, which I assure you I did only for review purposes. It was cold that day! All of that for around $10, which as I said was not bad because the portions were easily generous enough to fill me up.
The lemonade was fresh squeezed and delicious, and left none of that film on the tongue that Chik-Fil-A's version is notorious for.
The fries were like a weird hybrid that hit the sweet spot between McDonald's classic shoestring style and Arby's curly fries. They were delicious and had a great texture. The house dipping sauce (they offered several other traditional sauces) was similarly a mix between honey mustard and barbecue. It wasn't bad, but I wasn't really blown away by it. I stopped using it about five or six bites in.
Last of all I tried the custard. Lemon-meringue flavor. They offer a large variety of flavors, around 10 as I recall, but if you want a small cup with your meal you'll have to settle for one of the two flavors that they keep on hand, vanilla or lemon. To get one of their more exotic flavors you need to buy it by the pint. Although it was way too cold for frozen custard, I'm glad I decided to try it because they knocked it out of the park. So much better than soft serve, and I'm a huge fan of soft serve ice cream. Not only was the flavor rich and spot on (it tasted like they used Meyer lemons when making it), but they actually crumbled up bits of vanilla wafer in there that somehow managed to retain their crunchiness and individual flavor. So, so good.
Super Chix is a fantastic joint for a simple tenders and fries meal done right. But it has a weird story. A little research shows that this is not a chain, at least not as I originally thought, but rather a one-off prototype restaurant from the parent company of KFC that is being used to iron out the bugs for a planned chain of restaurants outside the U.S. market. The Dallas/Arlington location is unique, with no plans to expand inside the U.S. So if you want to experience this for yourself, you'll need to come to Dallas.
I tell you, there are times when I really love living here.


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My father continually asks me for money and is exhausting me with his many demands. I have a family and commitments of my own. To what extent am I obliged to give him, and what is the meaning of the hadeeth, You and your wealth belong to your father?
The hadeeth You and your wealth belong to your father was reported by Ibn Maajah (may Allah have mercy on him) in his Sunan from Jaabir ibn Abd-Allaah, who said that a man said, O Messenger of Allaah, I have wealth and children, and my father wants to take all my wealth [to spend it on his own needs] and leave nothing. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: You and your wealth belong to your father.
(In al-Zawaaid it says: its isnaad is saheeh and its men are thiqaat according to the conditions of al-Bukhaari).
From Aaishah who said: The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: The best of what a man consumes is what he earns, and his children are part of his earnings.
From Muhammad ibn al-Munkadir: a man referred his dispute with his father over his earnings to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him). The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: You and your wealth belong to your father.
From Aaishah who said: A man can consume whatever he wishes of his son's wealth, but a son cannot consume anything of his fathers wealth without his permission.
From Saeed ibn al-Musayyib, who said: A man can take whatever he wants from his son's wealth, but a son should not take anything from his fathers wealth except with his consent.
From Ibn Jurayj, who said: Ataa did not see anything wrong with a man taking whatever he wanted of his son's wealth, even if it was not a case of necessity.
Those who say: a man should not take anything of his son's wealth except with his permission.
From Ibn Seereen, who said: A son should honour his father, but each man has more right to that which he himself owns.
Saalim reported that Hamzah ibn Abd-Allaah ibn Umar sacrificed a camel, then a beggar came to Ibn Umar [i.e., Abd-Allaah, the father of the one who offered the sacrifice]. Abd-Allaah said, Its not mine [i.e., the meat of the sacrifice isnt mine to give away]. Hamzah said: O my father, you have my permission, so give away whatever you want of it.
Any father has the right to take whatever he wants of his son's wealth and to take possession of it, whether the father needs it or not, and whether the son is an adult or a child, provided two conditions are met. The first is that this should not be unfair to the son or cause him any harm, and that the father should not take anything that the son needs. The second is that he should not take from the wealth of one child to give it to another child. This is what was stated by Ahmad This is because it is prohibited for a father to show favouritism in giving to one child from his own wealth, so the prohibition should apply even more to the case of a father taking from one child to give to another.
He does not have the right to take any more from his son's wealth than what he needs, because the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: Your blood and your wealth are as sacred to you as this day of yours in this month of yours.
Whoever is given to a person as a gift, he is allowed to take his wealth, just as he has the right to take the wealth of his slave. (al-Mughni, part 5).
He should not take what his child needs or the loss of which would cause harm to his child.
He should not give it to another of his children.
He should not take anything when either of them is on his deathbed.
The father should not be a kaafir when the son is a Muslim.
The wealth should exist in a tangible form.
Whatever the father takes from his son becomes his when he takes it with the appropriate intention or a spoken statement.
This is the gist of what our fuqaha (may Allaah have mercy on them) have said, and this is our fatwa.


text:
Q: Trying to pass an array to ajax as an array Im trying to pass my array from a controller to my ajax results and then use the results to determine if I should show certain div or not. Below is my PHP controller.
public function actionCheckUser(){
    $user = $this->user;
    $has_name = $user['realname'] != '' ? 'name_tab' : 'none';
    $has_mobile_verified = $user['mobilestatus'] == 1 ? 'mobile_tab' : 'none';

    $check = array($has_name, $has_mobile_verified);
    $data['result'] = $check;
    echo json_encode($data);
}

And here's my ajax
    var myarray = new Array();
$.ajax({
    url: "/member/CheckUser",
    type: "POST",
    success: function(data){
        var myarray = $.parseJSON(data);
        array = myarray.result;
        myarray = array.split(',');
    },
    error: function (xhr, ajaxOptions, thrownError) {
        //alert(xhr.status);
        alert(thrownError);
    },
    //dataType:"json"
});

$(".tab").each(function(){
    if(jQuery.inArray($(this).attr('id'), myarray) !== -1){
        var id = $(this).attr('id');
        $('#'+id).removeClass('tab');
        $('#'+id).hide();
    }
});

I'm not able to return it as array and it also didn't do anything to my div...
I'm trying to use the results to determine which div to hide and which to show.

A: I guess, there is some issue with the way you are handling ajax response, You dont need to slit the array myarray = array.split(','); , variable array is already array with two values as per your controller logic, You should change your JavaScript logic as follows,
var myarray = new Array();
$.ajax({
    url: "/member/CheckUser",
    type: "POST",
    success: function(data){
        var myarray = $.parseJSON(data);
        initializeTabs(myarray.result);
    },
    error: function (xhr, ajaxOptions, thrownError) {
       //alert(xhr.status);
       alert(thrownError);
    },
    //dataType:"json"
});

function initializeTabs(myarray) {
    $(".tab").each(function(){
        if(jQuery.inArray($(this).attr('id'), myarray) !== -1){
            var id = $(this).attr('id');
            $('#'+id).removeClass('tab');
            $('#'+id).hide();
        }
    });
}

Hope this would help you.


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The holidays are here and that means holiday parties! Why incorporate pistachios into your holiday recipes? Because they're not only delicious but they pack a nutrient punch, and offer a versatile flavor profile that works perfectly with sweet and savory dishes. Pistachios are high in antioxidants, which may prevent damage to the body's cells and reduce cancer risk. They're also high in protein and fiber, which are good for your gut – and who couldn't use a little extra healthy boost during the holidays? Heather Bell and Jenny Engel, chefs and co-owners of Spork Foods have come up with 6 Hot Holiday Tips to make your next gathering a hit!
Toss them into your favorite sweet or savory recipe for Chex Mix.
Click HERE for our recipe for Sweet Chocolate Pistachio Chex Mix that incorporate our favorite snack, Pistachio Chewy Bites. Pistachios will add a pop of color and a buttery and unique flavor to this classic party appetizer.
Pair them with dried cranberries.
Pistachios and cranberries are a match made in heaven. Toss this mighty duo into a rice dish, orzo salad, in a green salad, or even in your favorite holiday cookie recipe for a splash of festive color and complex flavor.
Blend them for a smooth and creamy dip that's easy to make and fun to eat!
All you need is a food processor or high-powered blender. Throw in a handful of pistachios, garlic, salt, lime juice, cilantro and a dash of oil and BOOM you have a creamy and satisfying dip! It's a great alternative to hummus and your guests will never know how easy it was to whip up.
Serve flavored pistachios in the shell next to your cocktails.
When your guests arrive, that's usually the time when you need a few extra minutes putting the finishing touches on your meal. While sipping on a refreshing beverage, cracking open pistachios from their shell is a fun activity for kids and adults alike, making this is the perfect snack to entertain your guests – and stave off their hunger until dinner is served.
If you're looking for a homemade gift idea for your friends and family, try making them from scratch granola and tossing in some shelled pistachios, dried blueberries, and dark chocolate. You can deliver this gift in a mason jar, with a homemade tag and it will be a huge hit. Here's a recipe for inspiration!
For the next level foodies in your life, make them a batch of home made Dukkah.
This aromatic Egyptian spice blend can top anything from avocado toast to olive oil. It's made from ground nuts including pistachio and hazelnuts, and all you do is blend the ground nuts with a bit of sesame seeds, coriander, cumin and some hot chili, if you want to kick up the heat. Store it in a small spice container and your friends will tell you it's the best gift they received over the holidays.
Check out Setton Farms website and Pistachio Chewy Bites website for more recipe inspiration. Happy Holidays!


text:
AIG: A Complex Industry,
A Very Complex Company
By CHRISTOPHER OSTER and KEN BROWN
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Lanny Thorndike, manager of the Century Shares Trust mutual fund, knows as much about insurance company American International Group Inc. as almost any other investor. He keeps a 3-foot-wide color-coded map showing 250 of AIG's subsidiaries and where they fit into the parent company. It's the only such map the fund manager has. "It's the only one we've needed it for," says Mr. Thorndike, who says AIG is one of his fund's largest holdings.
But Mr. Thorndike admits he doesn't know everything about AIG. "It's the only company we feel we have not developed the type of subsidiary knowledge we want," says Mr. Thorndike, whose firm specializes in financial-service stocks. Mr. Thorndike says his research on AIG includes talking to rivals and insurance brokers who sell AIG products. "You have to talk to that many more people just to get a sense of understanding" even a small piece of it.
New York-based AIG falls into the realm of black-box companies both because of its sheer size and because it is in the insurance industry, which itself is rife with black-box issues. "To some extent, every insurance company is suspect," says David Schiff says, editor of Schiff's Insurance Observer, a newsletter, noting that insurers have leeway in the way they reserve for claims.
Many Accounting Practices Are Hard to Penetrate
Insurance companies take in premiums and set aside some of that money as reserves for future losses. Insurers have discretion about how much to set aside, which means they can build bigger reserves during the good times and put aside slimmer ones when times get rough. A big reason for the discretion is that setting up reserves involves a large number of assumptions about claims that in some cases, as with workers' compensation and medical-malpractice insurance, won't be paid for years.
Mr. Thorndike believes that AIG could be in the camp that maintains better-than-adequate reserves in the good times, a tactic that helps smooth out earnings in what is normally a cyclical business. Aside from the quarter including claims from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, AIG hasn't had an earnings disappointment of any real note for at least 15 years. "It's part of the mystery of AIG, they just make their number," says David Bugajski, a senior analyst at Fred Alger Management, a big AIG shareholder.
For its part, an AIG spokesman says, "Our reserve development is fully disclosed in our regulatory filings," declining to elaborate. He adds: "AIG's strong performance year after year speaks for itself."
Insurance companies' financial statements are complicated enough -- then add AIG's hundreds of subsidiaries to the mix. "Who the hell knows what each one does? In trying to analyze their numbers, it's not obfuscation, it's sheer complexity," Mr. Schiff says. "So many businesses -- and businesses that involve estimates that can be proven wrong even if they're made with the best of intentions. It's hard to understand these things."
What investors understand, however, is that AIG delivers double-digit earnings growth year in and year out, which is why AIG stock is richly valued, particularly compared with other insurers. The company, with its $207 billion in market capitalization, boasts a price-to-earnings trading multiple of 22.7 based on estimates of its earnings for this year, highest of any property-casualty insurance carrier and well above the industry average of 13.4.
Insurance reserves are watched by state insurance regulators and ratings agencies, but as a sign of how malleable they can be, consider the experience of Reliance Group Holdings Inc., the insurance holding company long controlled by financier Saul Steinberg. Hit in 2000 by ratings-agency downgrades and deteriorating underwriting results, Reliance boosted its reserves by more than $1 billion in roughly 12 months, adding to the $3 billion it already had set aside. Even that, however, wasn't enough, and regulators announced in October that it would liquidate Reliance's insurance operations.
Of course, no one is comparing Reliance with AIG, whose chairman, Maurice R. "Hank" Greenberg, has been at the helm since 1967 and is famous for his strong oversight of the company and knowledge of insurance. "Their reserves are always top level, even using our stringent requirements," says Peter Dickey, a managing senior financial analyst who follows AIG's property-casualty operations for ratings agency A.M. Best Co.
Coca-Cola: The Real Thing
Can Be Hard to Measure
By BETSY MCKAY
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Soft drinks would seem like a straightforward business. But at Coca-Cola Co., critics say it can be hard to figure out the real thing.
Analysts and accountants say the company has muddied the waters since the mid-1980s, when it started spinning off capital-intensive bottling operations into publicly traded entities in which it retained stakes of just less than 50%. The move allowed Coke to wipe capital-intensive assets and billions of dollars in debt off its books. But it also saddled its bottlers with huge debts. "It was a contrivance," contends Albert Meyer, an analyst with Dallas-based investment research firm Tice & Associates, and a frequent critic of Coke's accounting practices.
Mr. Meyer and others concede that the Atlanta beverage powerhouse is no Enron. It makes a lot of money on its basic brands by selling concentrate to the bottlers, and the bottlers are publicly traded, so it isn't as if the debt is hidden in a private partnership. "If you want to do a lot of work, you can figure out what is going on," Mr. Meyer says.
Mr. Meyer and others have historically argued that Coke used its bottlers, franchisees that make and distribute the soda pop, as tools to boost its profits -- an argument buttressed by Coke's hefty ownership stake and board seats on many of these entities. Coke would increase the price of the concentrate sold to bottlers every year, raking in big profits, even if the bottlers were having a bad year and unable to raise soft-drink prices. The bottlers would get some compensation from Coke in the form of marketing support, but this funding often didn't make up for the concentrate price increase.
In the past couple of years, this formula has been a source of friction as bottlers -- and investors in these bottling companies -- complained about Coke's unfair advantage. Late last year, Coke said it would rejigger the formula of concentrate prices and marketing support with its biggest bottler, Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. Coke will now take into account the bottler's ability to raise soft-drink prices when it raises concentrate prices. It has also agreed to increase CCE's marketing allowance, injecting $160 million more than originally planned this year and next, according to analysts.
Still, William Pecoriello, an analyst with Morgan Stanley, estimates that Coke's return on invested capital is 26%, while its big publicly traded bottlers around the world post an average return of only 5%. Rating agencies such as Standard & Poor's Ratings Group reconsolidate key bottlers, such as Coca-Cola Enterprises, into Coke's balance sheet when analyzing the company.
At the end of the third quarter, CCE reported about $11.2 billion in long-term debt while Coke's long-term debt was a meager $1.4 billion. In 2000, the bottler had net income of $233 million, or 54 cents a share, on revenue of $14.8 billion.
It doesn't help investors that Coke and CCE record some of the support payments in conflicting ways, Mr. Meyer notes. Coke defers recognition of some of its infrastructure support payments made to CCE, with the idea that they are for equipment to be amortized, he says. At the same time, CCE takes immediate credit for those same payments against its operating expenses. In 2000, Coke gave $989 million in total support payments to CCE, including $223 million in infrastructure support. "It's treated as an asset by one company and an immediate credit by another," Mr. Meyer says.
Coke makes up for the deferred expenses by adjusting the amount of equity income earned from its bottlers. A Coke spokesman says, "In accordance with U.S. GAAP, our accounting policy is to record an expense to match the period in which we obtain benefits." The spokesman added that in recording income from bottling investments, "we eliminate the financial effect of different accounting methods." A CCE spokeswoman declined to comment ahead of the company's earnings release, due today.
Coke has been one of the most outspoken opponents of an FASB draft rule for consolidating related entities that are less than 50%-owned. In a 1999 letter, Gary Fayard, who is now Coke's chief financial officer, wrote that the draft rule "will result in numerous disagreements among corporations, their auditors, the public and the Securities and Exchange Commission on how to interpret these highly subjective guidelines and presumptions as to when control of another entity exists."
General Electric: Some Seek
More Light on the Finances
By RACHEL EMMA SILVERMAN and KEN BROWN
To some critics, General Electric Co. could bring a little more light to its own finances.
Shining one of its famous light bulbs onto its financial statements would help explain one of the great mysteries of the stock market -- how GE has managed to produce steady earnings growth for better than two decades even though many of its businesses are cyclical in nature.
Some observers say GE has built that enviable track record and earned a premium valuation in the stock market in the process by "managing earnings." That is the practice of offsetting gains from large asset sales with carefully timed "one-time" restructuring charges in certain businesses, for plant closures or layoffs, for example. That way, quarterly earnings appear smooth, rather than jagged. How the biggest company in terms of stock-market valuation achieves this is, at times, one of the biggest black-box mysteries around.
For its part, GE maintains that it doesn't manage earnings. "Our focus is on managing businesses, not on 'managing earnings,' " says a GE spokesman.
Still, there are two phrases that appear with frequency in analysts' earnings reports about GE: "in line with expectations" and "offset by." And so it was last week when the company announced its fourth-quarter earnings. Despite the lousy economic environment, the company's net income rose 9.7%, right "in line with expectations," with strong performance in its power-unit business helping to "offset" weakness in other areas such as aircraft engines. Until the third quarter of last year, which was hurt by the Sept. 11 attacks, GE had met or beat analysts' expectations for 29 consecutive quarters.
But ask an analyst or professional investor how GE hits those numbers and some will smile and shrug, admitting that they don't really know. Most will attribute it to GE's diversity and scale, which hedges it against downturns in individual units. Many will also point to GE Capital Services, the company's huge financial-services arm, accounting for roughly 40% of the company's earnings, as the source of the mystery.
Sure enough, GE Capital, which does everything from issuing credit cards to airplane leasing to mortgage lending, posted a big one-time gain in the past quarter, which came stunningly close to the charge it took in the same period. GE's one-time gain was $642 million from a strategic partnership in a satellite business, which was more than offset by a $656 million charge incurred after exiting from "certain unprofitable insurance and financing" product lines, disposing "several nonstrategic investments and other assets," and "restructuring various global operations," according to its fourth-quarter earnings release. No detail was given in the release on what those global restructurings entailed, although GE did disclose its $84 million in losses in Enron Corp. bonds.
GE officials dispute contentions that the company doesn't tell investors enough. "We disclose more than is required," the spokesman says, adding that the company discusses GE Capital "in substantial detail numerous times in a given year with the financial community."
Investors and analysts say it's tough to get a grasp on GE Capital's earnings because of its size and complexity. GE Capital has 25 businesses, ranging from airplane leasing to mortgage lending, but it consolidates those businesses into six segments on its financial statement. "Disclosure is always a concern," says Joe Williams, senior portfolio manager of the Commerce Trust Company's Commerce Growth Fund and a GE shareholder. "They have so many different parts to it. Whether or not you're getting the full disclosure on it -- I'm sure you're not. It's so complicated. You're not quite sure where your risks are."
"It's a challenge to find out what's going on" in each individual GE Capital business, agrees William Fiala, an analyst with Edward Jones. "You don't know everything. You never will, even in the ideal disclosure situation." Still, he believes "GE does a good job telling the big-picture story."
One reason GE doesn't disclose more is its huge size. Companies are required to tell the public "material information," but "what's frustrating about 'materiality' is that there is no clear definition," says Paul R. Brown, chairman of the accounting department, New York University's Stern School of Business. "Policy makers have literally avoided defining materiality." With GE, he says, "it's extremely frustrating, because we know, given the size of GE, there are probably some interesting disclosures that would say something about their business model, good or bad, that we're not getting." GE officials respond: "Material information is what we believe will be important to a prudent investor. There is judgment involved."
GE Capital has 25 businesses, ranging from airplane leasing to mortgage lending, but it consolidates those businesses into six segments on its financial statement.
Six categories...
GE Capital Services' profit for three months ended Dec. 31, 2001, in millions
Specialized Financing $126
Middle Market Financing 400
Consumer Services 587
Equipment Management 771 (1)
Specialty Insurance 94
Other -572 (2)
Total GECS 1,407
(1) Includes $642 million gain on formation of Astra/SES partnership
(2) Includes the after-tax costs of $656 million
For 25 businesses
MIDMARKET FINANCING
* Commercial Equipment Financing
* Commercial Finance
* European Equipment Finance
* Health-care Finance
* Vendor Financial Services
SPECIALIZED FINANCING
* Equity
* Real Estate
* Structured Finance Group
* Employers Reinsurance Corporation
* Mortgage Insurance
* Financial Guaranty Insurance
EQUIPMENT MGMT.
* Aviation Services
* European Equipment Management
* Fleet Services
* GESeaCo
* Modular Space
* Penske Truck Leasing
* Rail Services
* Technology Services
* Trailer Leasing
* Capital Markets
* Global Process Solutions
* Card Services
* Financial Assurance
* Global Consumer Finance
Source: the company
IBM: Unexplained Expenses
Can Mean Other Opinions
By WILLIAM M. BULKELEY
Last week when International Business Machines Corp. reported that net income fell 4.9% in 2001 -- its first downturn in eight years -- the focus was on falling sales of personal computers and semiconductors and weak growth of services.
But deep in its financial results was another reason. An unexplained category of expenses called "other income" had gone from a positive $617 million in 2000 to a negative $95 million in 2001. Without that $712 million swing IBM's pretax income would have edged upward.
Such accounting moves -- given little elaboration by IBM officials -- help to explain why the company draws criticism from investors who pore over its financial statements long after the quarterly news headlines appear.
In this case, the $617 million gain in 2000 came mostly from the sales of company investments in Web-related enterprises made during the Internet bubble period. In 2001, IBM wrote down hundreds of millions of dollars in such investments, with little more than an occasional aside about the moves mentioned during conference calls with analysts. In both years, the adjustments had little to do with the performance of IBM's operations but made a significant impact on per-share earnings.
James Grant, editor of Grant's Interest Rate Observer and a longtime IBM skeptic, says IBM's steady earnings growth prior to last year "was the result of ingenuity in the financial department. It isn't illegal or fattening, but it's not generated by operating results."
In past years IBM's results have been bolstered by big investment gains in its giant employee pension fund, huge stock buybacks, which reduce shares outstanding and thereby bolstered per-share earnings, and by steady reductions in its world-wide tax rates.
Nobody sees an Enron situation in IBM. There is little doubt that the bulk of its revenue and earnings result from profitably selling computers, software and services to some of the world's biggest companies. John Joyce, IBM's chief financial officer, says, "We pride ourselves on being one of the most conservative companies regarding our accounting policies." Noting that IBM doesn't have any off-balance sheet financing, he added that "cash becomes the great equalizer in financial analysis, and we have grown cash flow significantly since 1998."
Indeed to its fans, part of IBM's appeal is its ability to deliver expected per-share earnings numbers, even when sales falter. Jay P. Stevens of Buckingham Research says that because IBM gets a lot of its revenue from long-term contracts, each year "they know what they have to do. They can be conservative or aggressive," and speed or slow operations and accounting in various places around the world to deliver predictable earnings.
Critics say the ability to precisely control reported earnings obscures IBM's true performance. "I care how realistically financial statements reflect the economic realities of the basic business," says Robert Olstein, manager of the $1 billion Olstein Financial Alert Fund. "The long-term growth rate that people are building into the [stock price] is too high if you strip out nonrecurring factors."
Critics complain that they can't calculate the impact of IBM's gains from its overfunded pension plan. That plan added $530 million to IBM's pretax income in 2000, 80% more than the previous year. Fueling the rise, IBM had raised its expected return rate on the fund's investments to 10% from 9.5% for 2000, a move that boosted 2000 pretax income by an extra $195 million. An IBM official says that the increase reflected IBM's experience with the long-term growth of its fund.
IBM includes the impact of the pension fund as part of its expense line for "sales, general and administrative." For 2001, Mr. Joyce indicated to analysts that the fund contributed even more to earnings, although IBM won't break out the number until it files its 10-K report with the Securities and Exchange Commission in March.
Meanwhile, investors complain that preliminary results fail to reveal various other elements that in the past have been a factor in earnings. For example, IBM includes income from royalties and licensing as part of its SG&A line, helping hold down the expense line.
Once a year it discloses the amount of that income -- in 2000, it was $1.7 billion, up from $1.5 billion the year before. Mr. Joyce told analysts the amount dropped last year.
Williams: Enron's Game
But Played With Caution
By CHIP CUMMINS
Amid sky-high energy prices last January, Williams Cos. made an unusual boast for an energy company.
Instead of relying on cyclical oil and natural-gas prices, the 94-year-old pipeline company told analysts it had figured out a way to make at least $500 million a year in profit "under most market conditions" as it bought and sold commodities on its trading floor. It did that and more over the course of the year, accumulating pretax operating profit from trading of $1.14 billion in just the first nine months of 2001.
Williams already had followed Enron, Dynegy Inc. and others into the explosive business of energy trading, transforming itself by the middle of last year into an energy conglomerate with oil and natural-gas fields, pipelines and power plants and a trading floor that was bringing in an increasingly hefty portion of profits. Williams's trading profits for those first nine months contributed more than half of the Tulsa, Okla., company's overall pretax operating profit.
As Wall Street started asking more questions last year about how energy companies were accounting for their trading-floor gains, Williams's then-chief executive, Keith E. Bailey, moved to distance his company from Enron and its opaque accounting, its related-party transactions and what Mr. Bailey described as Enron's aggressive appetite for risk. "If you think of a spectrum of businesses that operate across a risk continuum, I would sort of view Williams as one bookend and Enron being another," he said in an interview in July.
Wall Street has generally agreed. While Williams's stock price is down about 40% over the past year amid the whole Enron meltdown, it has held up better than many of its peers. But one fundamental question continues to dog Williams: A large chunk of Williams's earnings still comes from unrealized, noncash gains. Therein lies this company's black box.
At issue is a technique called mark-to-market accounting, under which energy traders have wide latitude to include in current earnings the profits they expect to get in the future from energy-related contracts andother derivative instruments. Each quarter, Williams and others "mark to market" their energy contracts outstanding, valuing them according to current market prices. If prices increase, companies can record gains in their contracts' values and book those gains as earnings for the quarter.
But many of these contracts, especially in Williams's case, stretch out as long as 20 years, when reliable market prices don't yet exist. For instance, Williams early last year signed a contract to sell electricity to three Georgia power cooperatives over the next 15 years.
In these cases, accounting rules allow companies to use their own mathematical models to come up with a contract's "fair value." Critics maintain companies have too much discretion to assign value, but the Financial Accounting Standards Board says there are so many different types of energy contracts out there that it would be impossible to apply a cookie-cutter approach.
Williams's unrealized, noncash earnings for the first nine months of last year were $1.1 billion, according to a presentation by the company late last year. That is about half of the company's total pretax profit in the period.
That makes it hard for investors to value Williams, according to Jeff A. Dietert, an analyst at Simmons & Co., an investment firm in Houston. Based on Williams's earnings projections for this year, the stock "looks cheap," he says. "On the other hand, it's hard to say how much of that is mark-to-market" gains that could ultimately prove too optimistic.
Mr. Dietert says he "trusts" Williams's management, which he calls "arguably the most proactive in providing incremental disclosure" of its trading-floor accounting methods. Still, the latitude energy companies have to value their contracts and book noncash earnings make it almost impossible to compare the performances of energy-trading companies.
Williams, like its rivals, doesn't disclose the models it uses to value its contracts, but it says that most of its noncash gains will be fully realized within five years and are booked only after committed buyers and sellers of energy contracts are matched up, effectively locking in profits.
And, Williams notes, the company doesn't have a choice about using mark-to-market accounting. "We realize the need for further disclosure," says Andrew D. Sunderman, vice president for finance and accounting. "Williams has always been upfront. Our model is very different than Enron's."

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Where is Italy's electricity heading? The Irex Annual Report tries to provide an answer. The report will be presented on 11 April at "The energy revolution. Renewable networks, consumers", the conference organised by the strategic consulting firm Althesys and held at the GSE auditorium in Rome.
The event, sponsored by Enel, will take stock of trends and strategies of the electricity industry in the wake of the Energy G7, held in Rome right before, on 9 and 10 April.
According to Althesys CEO and Irex Annual Report coordinator Alessandro Marangoni, at least four critical issues must be dealt with. On the one side, the costs of renewables keep on dropping, but due to the low prices on the electricity markets, they are sustainable only under favorable environmental conditions. Italy could be far from achieving the European objectives for 2030: renewable-supporting policies are not sufficient, more modern plants and new installations are needed. In addition, small consumer digitisation and solar PV micro-diffusion should not be underestimated; they are possible "technologies killer" for the industry. Finally, the overall scenario remains uncertain, and it is necessary to find new business models that will meet rapidly changing energy habits of consumers.


When purchasing a new pair of fitness shoes, you should look for a properly fitting arch support.
Using equipment that you haven't been trained on A. is OK as long as you're careful and read the directions. B. is a good way to add variety to your workout. C. can cause major damage to your body and to the equipment. D. allows you the opportunity to teach yourself how to do a particular exercise.
They calimed that since the colonies had no representation in Parliament, Parliament had no right to tax them is why the colonists opposed the taxes imposed after the French and Indian War.


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Christine and Kevin had a super eventful wedding day. It was hot and muggy then the clouds came then the rain. It literally only rained for their entire ceremony and stopped immediately after. Anybody would be bummed in this situation but it never phased them. They just went on with the wedding and didn't care. In fact, all of the guests realized that if the bride and groom are gonna go in the rain then they must too. It was just a lot of fun (and a little scary running 3 cameras in the rain for 12 minutes) shooting in the rain like that and I am not sure if I will ever have another experience like it, and as you can see in the picture below, my hair never recovered. Having said that, they were blessed with an insane golden hour and rainbow. Just look at those colors! Unbelievable end to the day! Thank you both so much, you rule!


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Q: R - How to make all data points visible in map plot_usmap() +
  geom_point(data = filtered1,
             aes(x = 1, y = 1, size = FoodServices),
                 color = "red", alpha = 0.25)

My sample data is as follows
County               State            FoodService
Alabama                                    200
Baldwin                AL                   20
Bibb                   AL                  180
.
.
.
For all states and counties

My graph as displays like this

Ignore the legend for now. What I want is to have plots for all states. I don't know why it's just South Dakota. Maybe because it's the last one in ABC order?
The counties also confuse me. I'd just use the total aggregate for the whole state (since that's what all the counties add up to), but I'm confused how that would map out and if I need coordinates.
Can someone help me plot? I'd like to use a color scale based on the highest or lowest value (FoodService) per state if possible. IDK why it's just South Dakota.

A: As you have not provided any data, I am creating some data and plotting it using the following code
library(tidyverse)
library(urbnmapr)
library(sf)

#Download the US shapefile
states_sf <- get_urbn_map(map = "states", sf = TRUE)

#Calculate the centroids of each County
centroids <- st_centroid(states_sf)

#Add some data to the centroids point shapefile
centroids$FoodService <- runif(nrow(states_sf),10,200)

#Plotting using `ggplot2`
ggplot() +
  geom_sf(data = states_sf, fill = "grey", color = "#ffffff", size = 0.25) +
  geom_sf(data = centroids, aes(size = FoodService)) +
  theme_bw()


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South Boston Stars to field three hoop teams, one soccer squad
Home/Sports/South Boston Stars to field three hoop teams, one soccer squad
By KEVIN DEVLIN
Spring is sitting on the horizon as we glance at winter through our rear view mirrors. Such optimism abounds as the South Boston Stars spring soccer and basketball teams get ready to rumble.
This upcoming season, from March through late May, the Southie Stars will be fielding three hoop teams and one soccer team. Southie Stars founder, Marc Iannaco, is coaching the Under 12 and Under 13 boys' hoop teams, while Megan Cheeseman will be coaching the eighth-grade girls' hoop team. Basketball practices will be on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the South Boston Catholic Academy gym. They started Tuesday, Feb. 23. Practice for the boys' teams are from 6 to 7:30 p.m., while the eighth-grade girls' team practices are from 7:30 to 9 p.m. The three hoop teams will play in AAU sponsored tournaments at various locations throughout April and May.
Practices for the Under 12 boys' soccer team starts in mid-March. Tom Harnon and Edward Tirabassi will be coaching this squad. This team will be playing in the South Shore League and games begin in April. Home games are at "M" Street Park and away games are on the South Shore in towns like Braintree, Quincy, and Weymouth. Last year the team was in Division III and did well (7-1) so this season they have been moved up to Division II.
Iannaco is getting ready for the new season and anxious to get down to business.
"I want the players to be willing to attend every practice and work hard," Iannaco said. "Kids who are committed to the game and will be ready to go every time they step onto the field or the court … and then they can show us what they've learned from practice during the games.
"I would like to see these kids improve to the degree," he added. "…that when they get to high school they can play on their high school hoop or soccer teams. That's one of our major goals along with character development.
"I'm always looking for coaches to help out," he concluded. "Need people who are dedicated to the kids and want to see them improve their game and mature as people and athletes.
Interested athletes should contact Marc Iannaco at 617-820-7505 or visit SouthBostonStars.com for more information.
(Photos courtesy of Iannaco)
Jeanne Rooney2016-02-26T15:57:43-05:00February 24th, 2016|Categories: Sports|Comments Off on South Boston Stars to field three hoop teams, one soccer squad


The Congregation of the Resurrection, made up of Roman Catholic priests, brothers and seminarians who founded Gordon Tech High School and other Chicago-area schools, decided on March 12 to change the name of the school to DePaul College Prep, effective this summer.
The board also voted to establish a Father Francis Gordon Endowed Scholarship Fund for family members of Gordon Tech graduates, establish a Heritage Committee to maintain the heritage of Gordon Tech and to keep the ram as the school's mascot.
"After analyzing all of the data, reports and feedback, the board made its decision," said Mary Dempsey, a member of the DePaul Board of Trustees and the chairwoman of Gordon Tech's Rebranding Task Force.
"The alumni are still our alumni and we hope they can see that," Dempsey said. "We're proud that they are a part of our history."
"This decision honors the rich heritage of Gordon Tech and most especially honors Father Francis Gordon, C.R., while also reflecting the exciting momentum of our academic partnership with DePaul," said Congregation of the Resurrection provincial superior the Reverend Gene Szarek said. "As the founders and Catholic sponsors of the school, the congregation is grateful to the board of directors for undertaking this rebranding process to ensure the vitality of Catholic education at the school and grateful for DePaul's partnership in that important work.
"We are proud to join with the excellent Catholic high schools in our area to provide another strong academic option for families on the North Side. We look forward to welcoming you to DePaul College Prep at the Father Gordon campus."
According to Gordon Tech officials, the name reflects the improvements made at the school and signals a new beginning for the school. Changes made at the school since a partnership was formed with DePaul University in 2012 include upgrading the infrastructure, adding technology and improving academics.
Steve Imparl, who graduated from the school in 1981, opposed the name change.
"That justification is long on buzzwords and short on facts," Imparl said. "I find these statements extremely unpersuasive. With all the improvements that have occurred and are planned, they still had to change the name of the school?"
At a February meeting on the possible name change, many alumni supported the upgrades to the school but opposed the name change, many saying it would diminish the history and tradition of the school.
"We have a school that's operating and running, and we want to bring them more resources," Dempsey said.
DePaul University was involved in the operation of the now defunct DePaul University Academy, which closed in 1968.
Although the name of the school will change, the campus will be named the Father Gordon Campus, a small consolation to the alumni. "When people ask me where I went to college and law school, I tell them DePaul University," Imparl said. "I don't tell them the Lincoln Park campus or the Loop campus.
The school, 3633 N. California Ave., opened in 1952, and it moved to its current location in 1961. It is named after a leader of the Congregation of the Resurrection.


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Teacher-Community Unionism: A Lesson from St. Paul
How one teachers union brought parents and students into the bargaining process—and won.
Mary Cathryn Ricker ▪ Summer 2015
Milwaukee school board meeting on privatization, January 23, 2015 (Overpass Light Brigade / Flickr)
When I was elected president of the St. Paul Federation of Teachers (SPFT) in 2005, I thought my own story might help transform the relationship between teachers and administrators as well as improve the image of teachers in the community. I was a veteran middle school English teacher, and I'd been honored for my work. And I had been active in the SPFT as a political and community volunteer as well as the union's professional representative on local and state committees.
I had also spent enough time in my classroom and in the city to know—and be bothered by—the dominant story told about public school teachers and our union by the mass media, a number of Minnesota legislators, and in many local communities. On a local TV station's evening news show, a Minnesota Republican state senator, Richard Day, had even declared, "We all know Minneapolis and St. Paul schools suck." In too many conversations, I got accused of failure unless I quickly told people about the awards I had won for creating a model English/language arts classroom and running a program for my colleagues on how to improve writing in middle schools. If local citizens, especially parents, could learn about our talent, our dedication, and our ideas, I was convinced their perceptions would change.
Students in urban public schools deserve teachers who are both creative and optimistic. Additionally, spending many years of your career teaching in an urban setting can stimulate good ideas about how to improve that work.
In St. Paul, we knew we were doing wonderful things both inside and outside the schools. We applied for grants to teach middle school science to students alongside environmental and historical community activists while rebuilding the historic watershed on St. Paul's East Side, a largely working-class neighborhood. We held public sessions where students read their essays and stories. We designed geography and history lessons about the immigration patterns of our city and our students. We lobbied our school board to maintain funding for peer mediation programs. We were thrilled to wake up every morning and share our love of these subjects with our students.
We also knew the value—and the potential—of our union. We were committed to achieving a high-quality, universal public school experience for every child. The members of the SPFT could be on the frontlines advocating that goal, and our contract could be the document that helped make it happen.
But first, we had to parry negative images about us. Administrators and politicians treated students and their families as the "consumers" of an educational system, whereas we saw them as partners in building better schools. That consumerist mentality framed us as nameless and faceless workers, instead of people who were forging relationships with children and their families. It's no wonder that the notion of teachers as greedy and lazy had taken hold.
To dispel that falsehood, we had to forge an active bond with the people we served. St. Paul is a city of about 300,000 people. Over three-quarters of children in public schools belong to communities of color, and more than a third speak English as a new language. Over 70 percent of students in St. Paul qualify for a free or reduced-priced lunch. Only by talking, listening, and working with our students and their families could we change the pernicious perception of teachers and become the union we aspired to be.
The first step was quite simple: to talk to one another. In union meetings, we deliberately discussed why we became educators in the first place, what public schools meant to us, what unions meant to us, and what a decent contract would look like. We crafted A New Narrative for Teachers, Educators, and Public Education, which became our guiding document. Our narrative was anchored by five key themes: we are committed to building a good society; we believe in honoring the value of and cultivating each student's potential; we believe that working in community is essential to student success; and we believe that educating students is a craft that requires talented and committed professionals. We are committed to working collectively as a powerful force for justice, change, and democracy.
We read from this document at the beginning of nearly every union meeting. We shared it with new teachers and asked them if this was the kind of union they wanted to join. We relied on it so much that the Narrative practically had a seat on our executive board. It was not unusual for a union leader to ask, in response to a question or during a debate: "What does the Narrative say we should do about this?"
One practice that clearly needed to change was how we negotiated our contracts. By Minnesota law, public-employee contract negotiations are open to the public; anyone can attend and observe the negotiations. Usually, a union team of five or six members sits across the table from administrators. But in 2009, we invited special education teachers to attend, and encouraged them to invite members of the families they served. In one session, we even had the traditional bargaining team get up and join the audience to allow special education teachers to advocate directly for themselves.
These actions were limited, but we learned a great deal from them. We learned not to assume that members were too busy to participate in negotiations. We also learned that families were interested in collaborating with their teachers and education assistants on issues that affected them all.
In 2011, we went into contract negotiations with a more developed plan to democratize the process. We encouraged anyone involved with the education of St. Paul children to attend. We managed to schedule negotiations on the same evening every week—Thursdays from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.—to help fit it into busy lives. The first session attracted just eight people, but the audience grew steadily after that. By the end of the nine-month-long process, nearly a hundred union members, parents, and others from the St. Paul community were showing up—and we had both parent and rank-and-file voices on our side of the table.
We focused on demands to improve the quality of our teaching. We want to expand a successful pilot program in which teachers helped one another. We wanted to require that any teacher who applied for a leadership position have a recent evaluation of their classroom performance on file. And we wanted to see that class sizes would not vary widely over time. We also wanted administrators to recognize Future Educators of St. Paul, our union's program to encourage local high school students to become teachers, as a valid extracurricular activity.
Over time, we built trust within our ranks and with the residents of St. Paul who cared about and had a stake in the health of the public schools. The more we engaged them, the more they believed in our cause and our motives. One union member stood up at a negotiation meeting and said: "I came to prove that you guys weren't doing your jobs at the table and that you were slacking off—selling us out—and what I learned was that you are fighting relentlessly for us."
"Us" had become the rank-and-file members who no longer felt the negotiations were being conducted behind their backs. Now, local shop stewards were being treated as leaders in the process instead of just following orders. "Us" had become a neighborhood group that had been organizing independently but were now our partners. "Us" became parents who attended negotiations and shared their hopes and dreams for their children in our public schools at the bargaining table. Dora Jones, executive director of Mentoring Young Adults, who came to work very closely with us through the last two contract campaigns said, "We can talk to the school board all day and try to make changes there, but if we don't really start dealing with the issues inside of that classroom—where the teachers are every day—then we are not really going to change anything."
Of course, tensions within the union did not suddenly vanish. One group of members, hoping to gain higher wages and better fringe benefits, wanted to push further than others wanted to go. Some veteran negotiators on our side were anxious about bargaining in the presence of other members. We spent time talking this through and, at the end of our conversations, it came down to one question, "Do you ever recall saying anything at the bargaining table that you wouldn't have wanted our members to hear?" The answer was an emphatic "No!"
With our contract set to expire on June 30, 2013, I knew we had to prepare well before that and engage the community in the process along the way. So in the fall of 2012, eight months before our contract was set to expire, we began two monthly study groups—or book clubs—made up of a cross-section of members, parents and community members that met monthly until April 2013. One group read The Schools Our Children Deserve by Alfie Kohn; the other group studied Teaching 2030 by the Center for Teaching Quality.
With the help of each book, the groups tackled three big questions: what are the schools St. Paul students deserve? Who are the teachers St. Paul students deserve? What is the profession those teachers deserve?
In April 2013, the study groups presented their contract ideas to our union's executive board. The priorities included: educating the whole child, authentic family engagement, smaller and more predictable class sizes, more teaching and less testing, culturally relevant education, high-quality professional development for teachers and education assistants, and a significant increase in access to our pre-school program. After a thoughtful discussion, we adopted their priorities and directed the union's bargaining teams to negotiate on that basis. We dubbed this plan "The Schools St. Paul Students Deserve." We were realizing the kind of partnership with the community we had begun to build four years earlier.
Unfortunately, negotiators for the school district did not share our vision. Together with some elected officials, they balked at negotiating with a union that didn't behave in the narrow way they expected a union to behave. For years we had been told that "unions would be respected more if you acted differently and showed that you cared about students." But now, school district officials and the lawyer they had hired to negotiate for them were essentially scolding us to get back in our box and "act like a union." It was apparently "not our job" to concern ourselves with these teaching and learning issues.
In Minnesota, matters not directly related to a teacher's wages, benefits, or working conditions are permissive, not mandatory subjects of bargaining. Of the twenty-nine community-supported proposals we presented in May 2013, district representatives refused to negotiate on twenty of them. For the first time in history, they hired an attorney to be their lead negotiator. She correctly pointed out that state law did not compel them to negotiate about class size, the expansion of early childhood education, or hiring an adequate number of school nurses, librarians, and counselors.
But we would not drop these or other issues in our contract campaign that we thought were important, simply because the lawyer said so. We knew these were all permissible areas of negotiations. We would make the case that it was in everyone's interest to have agreements that made progress in each of these areas. So we arranged for representatives of the union, parents, and the larger community to present their views directly to the district negotiating team.
In September 2013 the board's team unilaterally closed negotiations to the public in the only way they could: by calling for mediation. We weren't deterred. We knew we had the community on our side, and frankly, they didn't appreciate having their ideas cast aside. At 5:00 p.m. on September 19, 2013, the district bargaining team walked into a room filled with over seventy-five people and journalists from both local newspapers, read their letter, and immediately walked out—a series of smartphone photos, gasps, and scattered hissing followed them. Because a small group of students, parents, and union members had been assembled to testify that evening on behalf of improved counselor-and-social-worker-to-student ratios and dependable access to physical education and librarians, we reassembled, listened to their prepared testimony and then opened it up to hear what the audience had to say. The audience—made up of SPFT members, parents, and community members as well as our student presenters—brainstormed ways to continue the public dialogue about our priorities now that open negotiations were no longer possible for us.
We knew we had the upper hand if we could rally the community that had worked to create these solutions only to have them dismissed; and so we went to work. We made phone calls, knocked on doors, put up "St. Paul kids deserve " yard signs (or, in our case, snow-bank signs) and let people fill in what they liked. We held "walk-ins" inspired by the organizers of Moral Mondays in North Carolina. Only, we held our walk-ins at the main entrance of nearly every school in the district at the end of January 2014, in a blizzard.
Some 2,500 teachers, education assistants, parents, students, and community members started their day by rallying for the schools our children deserve. Photos of signs were posted on Twitter proclaiming "St. Paul Kids Deserve Preschool"; Facebook posts depicted dozens of educators and their students outside a school, covered in snow, rallying with parents for reasonable class sizes or "More Teaching, Less Testing." Some teachers played drums, others made up chants like "What do we want? Happy students!" or adapted the lyrics of popular songs to our cause.
Finally, SPFT members voted to authorize a strike. Our primary demands were better access to preschool, consistent class sizes, more teaching and less testing, and equitable access to nurses, librarians, counselors, social workers, art, music, and physical education. Two days before our last scheduled mediation, we held a rally in front of the district headquarters before the school board met. Parent after parent spoke to the crowd. They then filed into the school board meeting to make their views known.
When that final, mediated negotiation session before our authorized strike vote arrived, we spent almost twenty-four solid hours together with the district's bargaining team—now including three Board of Education members, just for this meeting—negotiating on every contract proposal that was put forward. When we emerged (in the aftermath of another blizzard) we made progress in every priority area advanced by the study groups. And our cars had been shoveled out by a parent and community member, which almost brought us to tears.
In the end, we averted the strike and made progress on nearly every issue for which we had fought. We won a commitment to expand the preschool program and to hire additional nurses, counselors, librarians, and social workers. We won an agreement for reasonable and predictable class sizes and a reduction of standardized testing. We established School Climate Improvement Teams composed of educators and parents who would collaborate to make students of all ethnic and racial backgrounds feel welcome and reduce the number of suspensions and other measures used to discipline children. We also successfully negotiated a method of redesigning schools to replace the mandated school restructuring process, which had until then forced school closings, turned schools over to Charter management organizations, or forced removal of half the teachers. Our process would be teacher-led, allow teachers and parents to design school programs together, and draw on the assets of the communities in which schools were based.
In a larger sense, we felt vindicated by the democratic process we had created. Members of all the groups who had worked together asked one other, "What comes next?" I had negotiated almost a dozen previous contracts for the SPFT. But, for the first time, I felt that signing a contract was just one step in building a larger movement.
Later that year, in summer of 2014, I was elected executive vice-president of the national AFT. But the union-community partnership I helped build in St. Paul is a natural extension of the priority my national union has given to community engagement, since we seek to improve our teaching and our schools, and not simply file grievances and try to protect our wages and benefits. Similar things are taking place in Chicago, Los Angeles, Toledo, New Haven, Albuquerque, and elsewhere. In local after local, teachers are rebutting those who view them as failures. Everyone is learning that teachers can be a powerful force to create the kind of schools their students deserve.
Mary Cathryn Ricker is a National Board Certified middle school English/language arts teacher who is currently serving as executive vice-president of the American Federation of Teachers.


I have to admit I was challenged by this script at first. It didn't have easy answers to the questions it asked and I am not always good with ambiguity. As we explored and played together in the rehearsal room and talked about the script and this story I realized just how much ambiguity life throws at us. And that is what made this script so special.
There was complexity and nuance hidden in the magic and that was so exciting. The cast played so well together and supported each other so fully that we discovered so much in this story. All of the emotions, all of the magic, all of the memories and all of us. We breathed together. Wrestled together. Took chances together and found hope within the devastation and the power within our truth. This story began to mean so much to us and we are so excited to share it with all of you.
This story is about coming of age in a time when you are both encouraged to speak your truth and discriminated and threatened for doing so. Marginalized bodies never truly know if they are safe. Children go to school not knowing if today is the day the school will be on the news for a deadly shooting spree. Americans start to feel anxious in crowded spaces wondering if there is a shooter planning a mass homicide among them. We live with this ambiguity every day.
As you watch this play I want you to sit with the ambiguousness of the tough questions. The complexity of the issues we face and the openness to find a solution that allows us to live in a safer, more accepting and more progressive world. Let the uncomfortable live in you and drive you to action. Let the magic and whimsy of the show give you hope. Let the humans you see on stage fill you with love and anger and courage and despair. Feel everything…and then let's do something…together.
To Barb Bloom, our community engagement coordinator, Anne Ulseth for PR, Brian G. Murphy for graphic design, St. Peder's Lutheran Church for rehearsal space, Hillary Olson photography for promotional photos, Haley Sisler-Neuman for work with choreography, The Off Leash Art Box and Jennifer Ilse and Paul Herwig, and Martin Sheeks for being Front of House Manager.