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Tag Archives: Dodger Stadium
July 24, 2019 by Ken Goldstein	- 0 comments
I keep thinking I'm going to run out of things to write about The Beatles. I keep proving that notion wrong, at least to myself.
I recently enjoyed the final night of Paul McCartney's Freshen Up Tour. He played to about 50,000 fans at a sold-out Dodger Stadium, where I last saw him five years ago. In fact, I included the setlist of that previous concert in the appendix of my second book, Endless Encores.
My key observation then was that Paul was as committed to his new music as he was to his historic catalog. That is what has allowed him not only to stay in the game for six decades, but to remain at the top of his own game—that constant hunger for reinvention. That is what has made him not just an artist, but a legend.
I had a new observation this time, partly about us, and partly about much more than us.
We are aging through time. These songs are becoming a constant.
Our memories are a snapshot in time. These songs bridge those snapshots.
We are temporal, driving the arcs of our lives. These songs are a continuum.
We will not be here forever. These songs could be.
These songs are ours to enjoy, but they don't belong to us. They don't even belong to Paul or The Beatles. They belong to the world.
These songs are universal. They bring us together. They make us happy. They make us remember.
We connect the dots of our life's timelines from song to song, and in the moment of a single song played back at various points throughout those long and winding roads.
I remember first listening to "Sgt. Pepper" as a child and it takes me back to the record store where I bought the album. I remember first listening to "Band on the Run" as an adolescent and I am back in the hallways of school. I remember first listening to "Here Today" and I am transported to that sad December day when I was in college and John was murdered.
Each song fixes a moment in time that is never erased. Sometimes these moments get back-burnered for a while, but then the associated song reignites our memory. It's a visceral reaction. It cannot be preempted.
Then there are the songs that pop up all through our lives. I remember "Blackbird" when I initially tried and failed to play it on my first guitar, scratching up my copy of The White Album with each needle reset. I remember hearing it at a New England rally protesting the war in El Salvador. I remember hearing at it the memorial service for a dear friend who loved The Beatles and left this world much too early in his own life. Whenever I think of the ceaseless work we still have to do in civil rights, I hear the lyrics in my mind: "You were only waiting for this moment to arise."
A single song can traverse the entirety of our lives, inspiring one emotional reaction in our youth, an entirely different response in adulthood, and something even more profound as we continue to age. That's an awful lot of punch for three minutes of commercial composition. Call it the miracle of creativity. Maybe we're just very lucky to be in this audience.
Is this somehow unique to Paul, or even to The Beatles? Of course not. We all have our own take on the soundtrack of our lives. Yet sitting there in Dodger Stadium far from the stage but genuinely close to the music, my mind wandered from here to there and back again.
This night's setlist spanned the entirety of an impossible 60something year career. All those perfect songs held me in the moment and connected the dots of my own journey. The songwriter's inspirations became my timeline and all of our shared history.
In a single performance, all these songs come together in a temporal theme. We connect the dots of our lives in the collision of moments forced into relevancy. Sadness, joy, loss, love, babies born, children grown, the progression of our careers, the paths of our relationships, generations of sharing—it's all there in the continuum.
For the performer on the grand stage, it's his life's work in stunning summary. For those beyond the proscenium, it's pure accessibility, sheer singalong joy, and dancehall madness.
At the end of the show, Paul thanks us because we are one with his brilliant talent. We are part of it, and now we pass along the music to others who will not know The Beatles as more than a story. They will not see Paul play live. They will only know it is real because of the continuum. Their memories will replace ours. That is the continuum. It is why art is more permanent than we can ever imagine.
John Lennon is gone, but the songs remain.
George Harrison is gone, but the songs remain.
George Martin is gone, but the songs remain.
Ringo Starr plays two songs live with his former mate, perhaps never again, and the songs remain.
Paul McCartney at age 77 puts on a three-hour rock show without a break that reminds us who we were, who we want to be, who we want to be with, and who we still can be. We connect the dots of our lives through his lyrics, rhythms, and melodies. There is something eternal about that.
Not convinced this is a form of magic that is as rare as it is tangible?
Listen again to the songs. Just listen to the songs.
This is awe.
Paul reminded us not to wait past the point of no return to say what needs to be said.
There's one person I need to thank for bridging the continuum that is the almost six decades of my life.
His name is Paul.
Photos: Bruce Friedricks
A Beguiling 20%
This month our nation celebrated its 242nd birthday. As I was sitting in the stands at Dodger Stadium on July 4 watching a spectacular and patriotic fireworks display (following a wonderful midseason win) something quite obvious but strange occurred to me:
I have been alive for over 20% of our nation's history.
That may not seem curious to you, but it does to me. No one in Russia, China, or most of western Europe can say that.
It is only because we are such a young nation that our lives constitute such a significant portion of our nation's entire state of being.
I have been trying to put that in context. I am over a half-century in age, and the nation is less than five half centuries in age. For sake of context, I have tried to segment those de facto quintiles into what I have experienced as current events (the most recent 20%) and what I must study as history.
Latest 20%: Age of economic triumph, the information age, and age of civil rights.
Prior 20%: Age of two world wars, one Great Depression, and vast immigration.
Middle 20%: Age of Civil War and Reconstruction.
Second 20%: Age of Manifest Destiny & Industrial Revolution.
Initial 20%: Age of our Founding Fathers, American Revolution, and the visionary foundation of secular democratic governance.
It doesn't seem like a whole lot of time for all that to have happened when you think about it. I guess that's because it really isn't. What's 242 years? These days, it's about three full lifetimes. If you time them correctly, you could talk to someone who talked to someone who knew someone who experienced Independence Day as current events.
That's just wild. Mind-boggling! And look how far we've come!
Or have we?
Well, we have sent humans to the moon and probes to Jupiter and Pluto. We have air conditioning, spiffy kitchen appliances, and running water in our homes (when we don't run out). We have lots and lots of TV channels. We have supercharged computers in our pockets we call mobile phones. We have this Internet thing that has eliminated almost all barriers to information access and makes globalization a reality.
Yet we still fight a lot, among ourselves and with faraway strangers. It seems that in every one of those quintiles we fought a lot. Maybe fighting is a constant in almost every nation's evolution. History would seem to reinforce that recurrence.
We haven't had all that many U.S. presidents. Our current office holder is only number 45. Many recaps of U.S. presidents show that many of the individuals who held the office weren't very good at it in hindsight. Luckily, there are a few most of us agree regardless of political affiliation will always be American heroes. There's Lincoln. There's Washington. I think it might start to get controversial after that.
I wonder if the top people in charge of running our nation day-to-day in all its complexity—whether elected officials or policy makers or military leaders or business executives or educators—are in awe of their 20% stage time. I doubt it. The truly influential people I know and the many I study from afar seem to like their gigs a lot, but in my observation very few of them seem in awe.
I also wonder how many of the leaders guiding our 20% are good listeners. Do they hear the studied voices among us? Do they listen for the quieter voices who choose not to enter the knock-down, drag-out drama of overpowering influences and powerful, conflicted mandates? Do they immerse themselves in understanding the previous 80% of our time as a nation where we might have emerged a winner but didn't necessarily embrace a sense of humility and real justice in establishing a fair set of rules? Do they strive for a true sense of vision or just winning for bragging rights and lovely take-home prizes?
I also find myself thinking about things I have lived through largely from inception, particularly the rapid compounding of computer technology. I imagine this is how people felt who went from horses and buggies to the Model T, having seen automobiles take over roads that were created for drawn carriages. I can't remember a time before air travel, but my dad can. When I think about his lifespan, the numerator and denominator tell me he has lived through almost a third of the nation's history. He may achieve a beguiling 40%!
I thought life was breathtakingly scientific when I sat in front of a black-and-white CRT eating Space Food Sticks while NASA astronauts blasted into orbit. Now I write about that as nostalgia while pretty much every public document in human history is available to me by typing on this keyboard into a conceptual framework of storage we simply refer to as the cloud.
Why take pause on the magnitude of a quintile? I guess for one reason because I am naturally sentimental about milestones. All forks in the road of consequence inspire my introspection, giving me excuse if not reason to try to put into perspective the meaning of our timeline.
Yet more than that, I am particularly absorbed in trying to make sense of the coming quintile, which by all stretches of the imagination I will not see resolved. I suppose if lucky I may live to see our nation on its 275th birthday, but there is not chance I will see our Tricentennial.
Am I worried what we might become collectively between now and then? If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know the depth of my concern. I guess that will give me much to write about as we walk forward together through future milestone celebrations. Between now and then, I can only hope that the nation's leadership does embrace the gravitas of our current context.
America is an idea more than anything. Promising ideas need to be nurtured, not battered.
Speaking of milestones, this happens to be my 200th blog post since I launched CorporateIntel in 2011. Along the way I have met hundreds of interesting new people both virtually and in person. Writing is a solitary endeavor until you push the Publish button on your text editor. This magnificent innovation has opened my life to so many minds I would never otherwise have encountered. When we share ideas and swap stories, technology goes into the background and our human thoughts take precedence over the engineering that facilitates our interactions. As long as human interaction and exchange overrides the technical wonder of its creation, you can count on me for another 200.
Photo: Pexels
April 24, 2018 by Ken Goldstein	- 5 Comments
My Beatles Top 10
Is it just me or we in the midst of a Beatles Renaissance? Each month of this decade offers a 50th anniversary of something surrounding The Beatles. I've already attended the 50th anniversary of The Beatles concert at Dodger Stadium. I've enjoyed a screening of Ron Howard's documentary Eight Days a Week featuring the band's live tours of the U.S. to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their final stadium appearance. I've bought the live performance audio CD with reengineered recordings from the new film. I've subscribed to the new Beatles Channel on SiriusXM. I've marveled at multiple "Deconstructing The Beatles" lectures by my friend Scott Freiman, whose live presentations are now memorialized on DVD.
Okay, maybe it's just me. Then again, with my new novel coming about how the soundtrack of our lives is inescapable in charting our life paths, The Beatles have never been more in the forefront of my mind.
For many years I have wanted to suggest my own Beatles Top 10 song list, but I have resisted for multiple reasons. First, because it does seem to change from year to year, depending on what's consuming my attention or memory. Second, because I have been strictly advised by most Beatles luminaries that this is a fool's errand—to rate The Beatles catalogue is akin to publicly stating the order in which you love your family and friends (a 2017 noble but flawed attempt to force rank all 213 songs is strong evidence of this). Third, because a single omission or overstated opinion might start an argument far more volatile than any around religion or politics, again putting the goodwill of colleagues at high risk. And fourth, because for all these reasons and more, I would undoubtedly be on course to a retraction, apology, restatement, or mass deleting of this post from the digital world, which is of course impossible.
Lists have a sad tendency to become permanent, even if deemed ephemeral.
Well, too bad, I'm doing it, if for no other reason than to defy my own fears, which I am certain John, Paul, George, and Ringo would applaud. I've restricted the list to songs written and recorded by The Beatles in their organic whole, without covers or selections from their various solo careers. The list is not in a precise order 1 to 10, because that numeration does ebb and flow with my mood, and so they remain unnumbered out of sheer fear of regret. Directionally this is my set list, and I hope I can stick to it.
Ladies and gentlemen, The Beatles!
In My Life (1965)
Hey, it's my wedding song. If I don't put it in first position I'm really in trouble. But it's my wedding song for a reason, and the lyrics sit in a silver frame on my wife's dresser because I bought the frame and put them there for both of us to read every day. Have a look at the words sometime. You may want to change your wedding song. "In my life, I love you more."
While My Guitar Gently Weeps (1968)
This George Harrison tune haunts me unendingly, even more so since we lost George in 2001. I remember walking into a rock memorabilia store in Las Vegas years ago and seeing The Concert for George playing from a DVD on a widescreen and just standing there mesmerized with the sound pouring out in tribute. The guitar licks emerge like spoken lyrics and weave in and out of the simple verses with delicacy and determination. If you wanted to solo within the voice of an originator, this song gives you the chance of a lifetime.
Get Back (1969)
Whenever the word "Beatles" crosses my eardrums, I think of this song. It's the quintessential tune that harnesses the ethos of the band, emerging from the tension of the end of their career but harkening back to the earliest days at the Cavern Club. If you ever get a chance to see the amazing Cirque du Soleil show Love at The Mirage in Vegas, or simply immerse yourself in the soundtrack mixed by George Martin, note the placement of this song in the early transition of the show from one era to another. The back beat is railroad steady yet quiet, it roars and rumbles without being bombastic. It is sonic, uncompromised rock 'n' roll, with Billy Preston on the backing keyboards to bring it home.
Nowhere Man (1965)
Ever have a song you can't get out of your head because you're not supposed to get it out of your head? This song, which somehow found its way into the core of the Yellow Submarine screenplay and inspired the character Jeremy Hillary Boob Ph.D., sings to me at every level of interpretation and inspiration. It begins a capella, offers some of the band's finest happy harmonies, and tells a story that reaches into our hearts. "Isn't he a bit like you and me?"
I Saw Her Standing There (1963)
Should you have the poor fortune of walking into a karaoke bar when I'm the leadoff fodder, I will be kicking off with this standard. It's simple, it's lively, it's old school, and it works. It's my wife's second-favorite Beatles song no matter how badly I botch it. There is also a bit of sentimentality in it for me, as I remember when Lennon came out of hiding in 1974 after a tough few years, he was brought onstage for this one by Elton John—even more ironic because it's a McCartney vocal. It's on the B-side of "Philadelphia Freedom." If you don't know what a B-side is, my apologies.
Here Comes the Sun (1969)
How can a song be purely joyous and enormously sad at the same time? George Harrison had a way not only with melody and instrumentation, but with short words as fuses of emotion. Similar to "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (and for that matter, "Something," which just barely misses my list), it seems as though this epic was meant to be covered and reinterpreted. Did you see George play it with Paul Simon on Saturday Night Live in 1976? Yes, you need to do that.
Come Together (1969)
This is one of those Beatles tunes that sort of doesn't fit in with the rest of their discography. It's almost too dark for the lads from Liverpool to pull off, yet they do. The drumbeat cooked up by Ringo is as hallucinatory as the lyrics are caustic and scary. Possibly the only good thing to come out of the disastrous movie adaptation of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was the Aerosmith cover of this piercing track. If John hadn't envisioned it for The Beatles he might have handed it to Steven Tyler (to be fair, the Earth, Wind, and Fire cover of "Got to Get You into My Life" is the only other decent tune to come out of that movie, but I digress).
All You Need Is Love (1967)
As if it weren't enough for it to be a perfect anthem for the 1960s and every decade to follow, this beautiful tune debuted on one of the first global satellite TV broadcasts of all time, adding science to art to a community be-in that included Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton sitting on the floor. It also was well placed as the denouement resolution to the Yellow Submarine movie in lovingly crushing the Blue Meanies. Love, love, love.
Eleanor Rigby (1966)
"Ah, look at all the lonely people." Yeah, on many days I'm one of them. When I was in high school the lyrics to this song somehow appeared in our poetry anthology. It was one of the more controversial classroom moments I can remember as a young student of literature and music, and I never forgot it. The question posed in English class was how to differentiate the contemporary (where the root word is "temporary") from the canon worthy of poetic study. I wondered why that was important. I still do. "Eleanor Rigby" still makes the canon for me.
"Abbey Road Medley" (1969)
As I wrestled with the rest of the catalogue, I honestly couldn't come up with a tenth song. I argued with myself and couldn't find a way to win. I know it's cheating, but I settled on the Abbey Road Medley, which is technically up to eight songs that begin with "You Never Give Me Your Money" and close with "The End." Some people think it starts five songs later with "Golden Slumbers" and "Carry That Weight," which is the shorter version Paul has been playing in his latest live tours as an encore. Regardless, it's a powerful collection that spans the band's musicality from rhythm solo to storytelling to full orchestration. It finishes big as a rocker. It's how a lot of people remember the band coming to an end, myself included.
Agree, disagree, or want to chime in? I'm all ears, and always up for a good Beatles chat. Let me hear from you. Pretty soon these 50th anniversaries will have expired and we won't have such a good excuse.
Photo: Freda Kelly circa 1962 (a gift to the author)
February 8, 2018 by Ken Goldstein	- 4 Comments
The Emergent Miracle of 50
Were popular songs from 1918 played widely in 1968?
How about songs from 1928 in 1978?
Or songs from 1938 in 1988?
So how come songs from 1968 are still widely played in 2018?
Want to know why? Here are ten songs from the top of the charts in 1968, from the Billboard Hot 100 of that year:
"Hey Jude" by The Beatles (#1).
"Sunshine of Your Love" by Cream (#6).
"Mrs. Robinson" by Simon and Garfunkel (#9).
"Mony Mony" by Tommy James and the Shondells (#13).
"Dance to the Music" by Sly and the Family Stone (#20).
"Born to Be Wild" by Steppenwolf (#31).
"Jumpin' Jack Flash" by The Rolling Stones (#50).
"Light My Fire" by Jose Feliciano (#52).
"Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell (#57).
"I Say a Little Prayer for You" by Aretha Franklin (#93).
I don't think I need to write any more words today. The point proves itself. We don't need to know why. The songs speak for themselves. They sing for themselves. Our attachment is primal, mystical, enduring.
Given the fifty years between the 1960s and the 2010s, not a day goes by that we don't celebrate the 50th anniversary of something, for many of us our own time on the earth.
Last year we celebrated the 50th anniversary of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. This year it's The White Album.
The Rolling Stones already have a 50 and Counting tour on their resume. Last year Fleetwood Mac hit 50 and headlined The Classic West and East stadium tours alongside iconic peers the Eagles, Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan, Journey, and Earth, Wind, & Fire.
Paul McCartney will likely tour until he can no longer stand on the stage. Ringo is still regularly on the road with his All-Starr Band. You'll remember that The Beatles led The British Invasion shortly after the Kennedy assassination. Yes, "all those years ago!"
So what is the endurance factor of what we now call classic rock? Is it simply that the baby boomers who shepherded these bands in youthful acts of defiance are living a lot longer? There might be something to that, but it doesn't explain why so many millennials are subscribing to the same Spotify channels as their parents.
Certainly improvements in studio and consumer technology have made it easier to preserve and share high-quality recordings of later eras, but the conduit of access is a mechanical bridge, not an emotional path to replay. Variety shows on television in the 1960s and 1970s harkened back to songs of prior times, but not with the same urgency, devotion, or pervasiveness. The sheer volume of fifty-year-old songs populating playlists across age groups today tells us that "something's happening here."
Walk into a downtown bar or hotel lounge and you might be as likely to hear a cover band playing "Suzie Q" (Creedence Clearwater Revival, #97 in 1968) as you are anything from Bruno Mars or Beyoncé. I'm not suggesting every roadhouse on the highway basks in nostalgia, but when you walk into a live club and hear "Hello, I Love You" (The Doors, #14 in 1968) little about it seems dated or out of place. Of course there is an entire segment of the population who couldn't care less about fifty-year-old relics, but the fans who forever revel in these not-so-ancient hits will stay up all night on the dance floor as long as the song list rolls.
It's the music. It was good fifty years ago and it's good today. For many who loved the music when it first hit the airways, this is the soundtrack of our lives. We love it, we love the memories that come with it, we love the way it makes us feel. We are silly enough to believe it keeps us young, and we want to share the beat with anyone who can't sit still once the guitar licks begin pouring from the stage.
It doesn't matter if that stage is a tiny corner platform in a pizza joint or a grand proscenium dragged into Dodger Stadium. We love the famous original acts when they are on the road, but we also love the young house bands who take the time to learn to play the hits well and then sneak in an original song of their own.
We love the occasional current star who braves an interpretation of a long-ago track (Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" covered by Devlin with Ed Sheeran is mighty powerful material). We love the new beside the old. We feel those classic rock tunes as part of our being, whether live, broadcast, streamed, satellite transmitted, or silently resonant in our minds.
Surely there is context to consider in a half-century of resilience, the voices of youth and diversity fighting for equal footing with established authority in the latter half of the twentieth century. Yet context doesn't make a pop song last. Composition does. Performance does. Texture does. Maybe artists under contract just got better at the whole Tin Pan Alley game. Maybe they started to care as much about their legacy as their commercial acumen. Maybe connecting the generations came to mean more to them than the hunger for flowing cash. Well, maybe.
I've been thinking and writing about these songs most of my life, linking them to stories and plays, stitching their lyrics into the fabric of modern and historical philosophy. I'm never quite satisfied with the words I choose to explain why this music matters to me as much as it does. I suppose the songs are an organic whole without explanation. As so many of the young artists declared of their work when it was created, it was never meant to be analyzed. The songs were meant to be felt.
That doesn't adequately address why this half-century is different, and why people like me believe so many of these songs are not likely to evaporate from the earth when we are no longer here to listen to them. The magic has emerged without anyone showing how the trick is done. That's probably because the magicians don't know how they did the trick.
It's probably better that way. It keeps things authentic.
Keep listening. Keep embracing the beat. Feel young and stay young. You know I will—with any luck for another fifty years.
November 6, 2017 by Ken Goldstein	- 3 Comments
When Your Team Loses
The Houston Astros won the 2017 World Series last week. The Los Angeles Dodgers lost. It was an epic contest. Many have observed it was one of the greatest World Series match-ups in the history of Major League Baseball. It lasted into the mythic and deciding Game 7, crossing tentatively into the month of November, creating the first-ever Game 7 at Dodger Stadium and the first-ever MLB game played in November at Dodger Stadium.
This year's fall classic delivered all of the drama any fan could want from a World Series. There were come-from-behind victories one after another, larger-than-life villains and heroes caught in an explosive discussion of racism, more lazy walks and majestic home runs than most of us could imagine, and two world-class managers locked in a battle of wits. It was an endurance contest. It began in Game 1 at 103 degrees on the sweltering Chavez Ravine field and ended there eight days later some forty degrees cooler. It brought many viewers back to the game who had abandoned baseball for its slow pace in our ever-hectic world. It was the perfect collision of talent and human will emerging from an always imperfect playing season.
Then it was over.
Only one team could take home the Commissioner's Trophy. One team did, in a stadium not their own but on a makeshift stage they made their own. The local contenders, who could win only three of seven games, looked on from the home team dugout and watched the award ceremony broadcast to the globe. Behind the blue-flagged dugout sat their fans, also staring vacantly beyond the bright television camera lights with sadness and acceptance. I was among those fans. I slumped in my hardwood seat and watched the grand on-field celebration to my right and the silence of humility to my left.
Bart Giamatti, former MLB Commissioner and President of Yale University, probably said it best in his acclaimed essay The Green Fields of the Mind:
It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart.
That is the game, where each preliminary round of the postseason always ends in an event called an elimination game, and then the World Series itself winds down to the final elimination game. When your team is eliminated from competition, your season is over. There are no appeals. At the final elimination game, one team is victorious. The other team retains the consolation prize of league champion, but it is increasingly less of a bragging right than it was in professional baseball's beginnings over a century ago.
The eliminated team leaves the field with a broken heart shared with its fans. That is the design. It needs no improvement. A loss is as perfect in its ability to stir emotion as a win means to those who share a parade in the glorious days following the final pitch.
So why does any of this matter? Baseball is a business, a big-money enterprise where fans shell out enormous sums of money for ballpark visits, television and internet subscriptions, staggeringly high-margin junk food, proud but ridiculously overpriced authentic field wear, signed souvenirs, trading cards, collectors' memorabilia, and tiny parking spots where door dings are as much a part of the game as the ceremonial first pitch. Players are traded back and forth late in the season as insurance for a playoff spot, and just because you call it your home team doesn't mean many of the players on the payroll call it home.
Why does it matter? If you are a fan, you have to answer it in your own way. Let me try to answer it in mine.
Never mind that the Los Angeles Dodgers, a controversial transplant from Brooklyn today playing in the second-largest media market in the nation, haven't even appeared in a World Series since 1988, the year ace Clayton Kershaw was born. Never mind that the Dodgers are the team of historic #42 Jackie Robinson, whose jersey number is the only one retired across both the National and American leagues. Never mind that Dodger Stadium, the model for modern stadiums when it opened in 1962, the year I was born, is now the third-oldest stadium among the 30 in MLB. All of that is nice context, but it doesn't reasonably define why I would feel sorrowful over a loss in Game 7.
In fact, in a world plagued by continuing terrorism, nonstop acts of violence, social vitriol, political lunacy, global instability, and wildly unjust economic inequality, why do seven months of three-hour-plus games played day and night on well-manicured fields by young millionaire athletes directed by billionaire ownership groups matter at all? It shouldn't, right? We're adults, aren't we? We've got important stuff to worry about, not the velocity of a breaking ball walloped by a carved piece of wood and sailing 400 feet into the bleachers of a 50,000-seat arena.
Well, let's try it another way and go back to Bart Giamatti, a Renaissance scholar and baseball fanatic who left us much too early but was gracious enough to capture some meaning in all of it in his own temporal longing:
There are the truly tough among us, the ones who can live without illusion, or without even the hope of illusion. I am not that grown-up or up-to-date. I am a simpler creature, tied to more primitive patterns and cycles. I need to think something lasts forever, and it might as well be that state of being that is a game; it might as well be that, in a green field, in the sun.
That is why it matters to me. It matters because it lasts all our lives. It dies with the coming of winter and is reborn in the spring. I love the game because my father loved the game. It is essentially the same game, forget the bells and whistles and data analytics and all that newfangled scoreboard jazz. The game no matter what is fully unpredictable to the final out, the alchemy of athleticism, calculating strategy, and too often chance. It is consistent in its ritual routines, relentless in its aggregate simplicity, intoxicating in its repetitiveness. Forever it has broken hearts. We share that from generation to generation, from season to season. It is absolute in its constancy, absolute in its recurring challenge, absolute in its finality — until it comes again.
It always comes again. It has to come again. It is designed to break your heart.
When your team loses, you internalize the emotion, politely congratulate the winning opponent, and make no excuse for the silliness of the sadness in your obsession with constancy. We all like to win. We all want to win. We all want to be part of winning. Yet more than that, we all want to be part of something that matters because it holds us together with permanence solely because its vitality is assured in its unfailing renewal.
The Brooklyn Dodgers, who didn't win a World Series until 1955, owned the nickname Dem Bums. Each year they lost, Dem Bums and the fans who followed them would finish the season with the same words: "Wait 'til next year." Dem Bums knew the answer to what you do when your team loses.
I'll see you at the green field next April. Opening Day is traditionally played in the early afternoon. With a little luck the sun will be shining on all of us.
Photo: By the author, Ken Goldstein (11/1/17)
October 1, 2015 by Ken Goldstein	- 1 Comment
Chance Meetings and Their Power to Change Your Life
I was sitting on a flight recently, observing the informal "Golden Rule" among business people who frequently travel: You don't bother me, I won't bother you. By bother, we mean talk. Business people can actually sit next to each other for a full Trans-Atlantic flight never saying more than "excuse me" when we need to step over each other to get to the aisle. Strange as it may seem, we consider this polite. We are terrified of the notion of losing an hour or two of work time, reading time, movie time, or sleep time, to idle conversation time—or worse, opening the door to being asked for a favor. We like silence in our air travel. Silence is safe.
Silence is also a lost opportunity.
About twenty minutes before this flight landed the person in the seat next to me braved the opening of a conversation. He asked me if I was headed home or away. He told me he was headed home after playing a music gig in Seattle. Turns out he was a studio session guitarist who has been surviving as a professional musician for fifty years. I told him I used to play, but now was just a devoted fan. He asked me which musicians I admired and suddenly we found overlap in artists whom he had backed. He had played behind Don Henley onstage. He had played on an album with Frank Sinatra. I told him I had just seen Jackson Browne at The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles and he said he always wanted to play with Jackson Browne, that was on his bucket list. We agreed The Greek was the best live venue currently in the L.A. area, and he said the next time he played there he would try to invite me if he could get extra tickets. We exchanged cards. He asked me for nothing.
It was a great twenty minutes. I don't know if I will ever see him again, but it made me think hard about that unwritten rule of bothering the strangers around you. How many amazing opportunities get away from us because we are too wrapped up in ourselves to reach out, or too exhausted from today's turmoil to see tomorrow's opportunity? We'll stare into a tiny LED screen and page through infinite tidbits in a news feed, but we'll hide from the tangible stranger who is less than a foot from our elbow. It's a weird way to partake in humanity, and it's probably costing us an unseen miracle or two over the course of a lifetime.
We all know well the image of the "Meet Cute" that plays out in romantic comedies. Two unlikely strangers bump into each other in the supermarket parking lot and knock their groceries to the asphalt. Eggs break, toilet bowl cleaner ruins their leather shoes. Ninety minutes of screen time later—after at least one baffling breakup and a healing montage of running along the beach—they get married and the best man offers a drunken toast about how the couple was always meant to be. The truth is, it does happen in real life. It happened to me over a quarter century ago, although the groceries involved had more to do with a commercial real estate rental. I wake up every day thanking my lucky stars I was paying attention. I could have let that go by. It would have been much easier to maintain silence. My life would not have been the same. The risk involved was sub-measurable. The reward was beyond belief. How close I came to blowing that. How very, very close!
Wait a second… risk… reward… aren't those words better applied to, uh, business? Is it possible we are shutting down real possibility by obsessing in our solipsism? What part of the obvious are we shutting down for no good reason at all? If someone doesn't want to talk, he or she will tell us. If someone doesn't want to be bothered, that can be revealed in a nanosecond. Why are we so afraid of interaction? What might the avoidance of a kind greeting be costing us?
The "Chance Meeting" is the Platonic version of the Meet Cute, where the paths of two strangers intersect for any number of reasons and the grounds of some relationship begins. Like the Meet Cute, where romance comes when you least expect it, the Chance Meeting commences without expectation. In my own life this has resulted in a job opportunity, discovery of a favorite vacation spot, invitation to a speaking opportunity, the hugely rewarding chance to mentor a technology star, a book recommendation that changed the way I think about words, an affordable channel for collectible wines, and more than one new friend who likes to hang out at Dodger Stadium. The Chance Meeting is powerful, and yet I rarely leave myself open to it. When I think about what may have gotten away based on what didn't, it's scary. And stupid.
My new book, Endless Encores, is all about a Chance Meeting. It takes place in an airport executive lounge, where a veteran CEO offers a life's experience to a rising executive who is about to encounter failure for the first time. When I was sending out early versions of the manuscript for feedback, one reader told me she really loved what the book had to say about what it takes to repeat success, but she couldn't buy the premise that a successful woman in an airport would strike up a conversation with a downtrodden young manager who was in desperate need of all she had to say. Was it really that outlandish, I wondered, that a seasoned business leader would engage in dialogue with a stranger to pass a few hours and hand off her years of learning without expectation of anything in return? My reader said yes, that was a sticking point for her, if I could get past that, the rest of the wisdom was solid. I guess my reader closely observes the unwritten Golden Rule of the business traveler. These days, I'm trying to get over it.
Don't miss out on a Chance Meeting. You never know where it could take you. You never know where you could take someone else. Learning happens when ideas are exchanged. For ideas to intersect, people have to intersect. That only begins when someone says hello. Imagine the power you can unlock with a single word. Or you can stay safe and stay silent.
Your risk. Your reward. Your choice.
This article originally appeared on The Good Men Project.
September 18, 2014 by Ken Goldstein	- 7 Comments
How to Make a Family Happen
Volunteering and serving on non-profit boards has been an integral part of my life. For the past 14 years I have been deeply involved with Hathaway-Sycamores Child and Family Services, which is one of the most expansive agencies serving Los Angeles County. Hathaway-Sycamores will impact the lives of more than 8500 children this year through 26 innovative programs, from residential care and counseling for youth at risk to foster family placements and permanent adoptions.
Our signature fundraising event each year is called Celebrating Children. We invite all our wonderful donors and sponsors to this gathering in the fall, and for the second year we have held it in the Stadium Club at Dodger Stadium when the Dodgers play an away-game. I am the event chair as well as the MC, which gives me the privilege of working closely with our dedicated staff all year-long to bring friends together in a room filled with love. We broadcast the game on a multitude of monitors and invite a retired Dodger Great to join us. This year we welcomed the legendary Ron Cey to talk a little about his career and a lot about how the Dodgers are also rooted in community service. We then honor one or two of our supporters with our highest service award, and this year that went to my dear friends, Annsley and George Strong, longtime contributors of their time, money, and vision to the kids and families of Southern California.
All that is wonderful, but it's not what I really wanted to post just now. We held the event earlier this week, and as we do each year we made a short video that shows a bit of our work. This year we focused on foster care and adoption. We called this story: "How to Make a Family Happen." The words I write will never do the mission or impact of this work justice, so please have a look:
The Gutierrez and Puccia families who appear in this video were with us at the event, and there were not a lot of dry eyes in the house. They are examples of what happens when individuals decide in their own way to make a forever family happen. These stories are powerful, and they are just two of the miracles we can help make real, to bring a touch of hope and light to a troubled world. If you want to support the kind of work exemplified here, please visit our website.
Please share this video with anyone whose life you think it might touch. There is so much work we can do to improve our communities, and it all begins with local stories of caring and success.
Together, we can make families happen.


The GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is now in force. Touted as the biggest reform of data privacy in a generation, it has and will continue to impact almost every business in the UK. If you run a small business and haven't done your GDPR homework you're probably not alone. But don't panic: keep calm and carry on with making your business GDPR friendly.
We've written several blog articles, over the past few months, about GDPR for small businesses. This one is for those of you with small businesses who have not yet gone through the process of making sure you comply with the GDPR requirements. According to the Mike Cherry, National Chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, many are still unprepared.
Data protection legislation is not new. The GDPR is an evolutionary step in the laws that regulate how personal data is used and protected. Personal data is, in some ways, the new digitial currency: it's hugely valuable to both you and the businesses you deal with. If you, as a business owner, understand and respect the importance of your customers' data then you shouldn't find it difficult to meet your legal obligations.
The GDPR replaces the Data Protection Act, which has many similarities to the GDPR. So, if you understood what was required of you under the DPA, then you may be not far off being GDPR compliant. If, however, you've never given much thought to how and why you use and protect personal data then you've probably got a fair amount of work to do.
You need to start at the very beginning, by documenting what personal data you collect, why you collect it, what you use it for, how long you keep it for.
Under the GDPR, the definition of 'personal data' has been broadened to include additional forms of data including: cookies, IP addresses, bio metric data and images. For many small, online businesses the main type of personal data will be your customer's contact details (name, address, email, telephone). You are required to keep records of your use of personal data. If you've never produced such a document before then it might be time consuming - but also quite illuminating since you will need to think about your business processes, workflow and website in order to fully understand your use of personal data.
As you start to document your business processes you can also take the opportunity to ask yourself "does my business really need this data?". One of the principles of data protection law is that you should not process more personal data than you actually need, nor keep it for longer than is strictly necessary. If you find that you no longer need, or can't justify, certain items of data then now is a great time to delete any excess data and don't collect it in the future.
Website cookies are now classed as personal data so you will also need to understand, and document, what cookies your website uses. You may have to ask your website developer for assistance.
The document you produce should record your use of personal data in quite a detailed way. You can use the template spreadsheet for data controllers provided by the ICO as a starting point. Once completed, you should keep this document safe since it will be helpful to demonstrate your compliance with the law. You also need to review it from time to time. Nothing about GDPR compliance is a 'one off': everything has to be kept up-to-date and accurate.
Once you understand your use of personal data then you can tell the world (or, at least, your customers). In fact, you are required by the GDPR to tell data subjects what personal data you collect, why you collect it, how you use it, who you share it with and more. And you have to express this information clearly and concisely. When you ask a data subject (client, customers, member etc) to provide personal data you must tell them, there and then, why you need it and what you'll use it for.
The right of the data subject to lodge a complaint with the ICO.
The above last is not exhaustive but covers the main areas likely to apply to many small businesses.
If your capture person data on paper forms then you may also have to update your forms to provide information about your use of personal data. If you are asking for consent then you should double-check that the way you ask for, record and handle consent is in line with the higher standards set by the GDPR.
The term 'lawful basis' simply means the legal reason that makes it acceptable for you to process personal data in a particular way. The GDPR sets out 6 lawful bases that you can use. It sometimes takes a bit of head scratching to figure out which apply, but you need to be quite clear about what bases you are relying on. You can't be vague nor can you (lawfully) change your mind after you've started processing data. One of our earlier blog articles talked about privacy policies and lawful bases.
The right to access - data subjects have a right to ask if you hold personal data about and, if so, they have a right to access that data and to know how it's used. This right existed under the DPA but the time period to respond to such requests has been reduced from x to x under the GDPR.
The right to restrict processing - you have a right to restrict our processing of your personal data.
You need to understand and have appropriate processes in place to respond correctly should a data subject contact you to exercise any of their rights. If the only personal data you collect is a customer's contact details, and you allow online access to manage account details, then you are already providing a method to access and correct personal data.
The right to erasure might cause a bit of panic but it needn't. It does not mean that you have to immediately delete all sales data relating to a customer, thereby compromising your internal reporting. This right applies to a data subject's personal data, meaning that you can retain data that does not identify an individual person. One approach might be a process to remove or 'anonymise' the personal data (the customer name, address, email etc) from your sales database whilst retaining the base transaction details. You have one month to respond to such requests. This is a qualified right, so there are cases where you might need to justify not erasing personal data when requested to do so - see the ICO website for details.
What will happen if I don't comply with GDPR?
The GDPR gives much greater powers (that those that existed previously under the Data Protection Act) to the supervisory bodies to punish data processors and controllers for breaches and non-compliance. The ICO now has the power to dish out fines up to €10 million or 2% of a company's global annual turnover.


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// This file is automatically generated.

package adila.db;

/*
 * Huawei Y6 II
 *
 * DEVICE: HWCAM-H
 * MODEL: CAM-L03
 */
final class hwcam2dh_cam2dl03 {
    public static final String DATA = "Huawei|Y6 II|";
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Signed in lower right. Verso with estate stamp of the Kunstmuseum Basel (Lugt 1570b) and the hand-written registration number "B Be/Bg 17". On creme paper. 31 x 47.2 cm (12.2 x 18.5 in) , the full sheet. [JS].
Expressive, large-size drawing from Kirchner's Berlin years.
This work is documented at the Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Archive c/o Henze & Ketterer, Wichtrach/Bern.
Private collection Germany (presumably acquired from Kunstkabinett Klihm, Munich, in the 1950s; since then family property).


Once an Acura, always an Acura.
Why are Acura Certified Pre-Owned vehicles so pristine? See what goes into the certification process in order for a vehicle to qualify.
When you purchase an Acura Certified Pre-Owned vehicle from us, you can expect the same uncompromising standards of a brand-new Acura. All vehicles are under six years old with less than 80,000 miles and have a 12-month/12,000-mile Certified Limited Warranty and provides powertrain coverage for up to 7 years*/100,000 total odometer miles (which ever comes first). Each vehicle must also pass a 182-point vehicle inspection and is covered by an extensive Roadside Assistance program.
Gillman Acura in Houston, TX treats the needs of each individual customer with paramount concern. We know that you have high expectations, and as a car dealer we enjoy the challenge of meeting and exceeding those standards each and every time. Allow us to demonstrate our commitment to excellence!
Our experienced sales staff is eager to share its knowledge and enthusiasm with you. We encourage you to browse our online inventory, schedule a test drive and investigate financing options. You can also request more information about a vehicle using our online form or by calling (281) 821-1100.
If you don't see a particular vehicle, click on CarFinder and complete the form. We will gladly inform you when a matching car arrives. If you'd like to see a vehicle in person, click on Contact Us for step-by-step driving instructions to our site, or give us a call. We look forward to serving you!


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Modern glass at Chrysler pt 1
Red Gum Tree Leaf, Dante Marioni, 1988; to make these vessels, Marioni organized brightly colored and colorless canes into chevron patterns, picked them up on a blowpipe, and then shaped the glass into elongated, stylized leaf forms
Aquaman Stinger, Nancy Callan, 2014; while her work exemplifies the skill and finesse of the Venetian tradition in glass, Callan exhibits the witty humor and aesthetic sensibility of a contemporary artist who loves pop culture, fashion and design
Faliera, Ettore Sottsass and Luciano Vistosi, 1974; at a Christie's auction in 2002, this piece sold for almost 1000 euros (that would be about $2400 US today)
Cold Stream Cast Basket, Mark Peiser, 2006; imagine winding soft-serve ice cream inside a bowl, resting one coil upon another; by carefully controlling the glass as it came out of the furnace Peiser created this piece in much the same way
Iasia Vase, Ettore Sottsass, 1986; this piece made in Murano, Italy (I love that place!) has a red element roughly in the middle of the piece slightly off center giving the intentional impression of instability.
Stone Vessel, Curtiss Brock, 1986; Brock cites the 9 years he spent working and teaching at the Pilchuck Glass School (in Stanwood, WA founded by Dale Chihuly) as the primary influence driving his creativity
Untitled, Dale Chihuly, 1988; the new Chihuly Garden and Glass (located next to the Space Needle) is the number one thing to do in Seattle according to TripAdvisor (I've added it to my bucket list)
Passage 7, Mark Peiser, 2015; in his quest to capture the transparency and luminosity of the sky, Peiser formulated a unique opal glass that is many colored due to microscopic particles that formed within the glass during the cooling process
Blue-Green Linked Forms, Harvey Littleton, 1983; considered the father of the US studio glass movement, he initiated the first glass program at a US university (Wisconsin) which fostered the talents of a generation of glass artists, including Dale Chihuly
Storm Eater, Barbara Earl Thomas, 2018; the artist is known for her distinctive style that grapples with societal issues like gun violence, environmental harm and the continuing needless loss of young Black men
Tray, Maurice Heaton, ca. 1950s; the complex variation in texture and color on the tray—in hues of red, dark blue, and white—are a result of Heaton's technique of fusing glass enamel powder that he pioneered

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Posted on November 18, 2019 by Paulette Blagrove
A proposed rule was issued on November 6, 2019 to amend regulations regarding the approval of Licensed Home Care Service Agencies ("LHCSAs"). To comply with changes made to the Public Health Law in 2018, Subpart 765-1 of Title 10 NYCRR must be updated to include the new requirements of public need review and financial feasibility review. This Rule, effective April 1, 2020, would require the following:
Applicants Must Show Public Need and Financial Resources.
The amended Section 765-1.2 would provide that, in addition to existing requirement of a character and competence review, applications for licensure as a LHCSA must include information on the public need for new LHCSAs and the financial resources of the proposed agency. Public need for a new LHCSA would be determined based on the time and place, and on the circumstances outlined in the newly added Section 765-1.16. Review of the LHCSA's financial resources would consist of (i) an examination of the sources of available working capital of the operator(s), which must, at a minimum, equal to at least two (2) months of estimated operating expenses; (ii) the passing of a reasonableness test with respect to the financial capability of the agency or sources for start-up funding; and (iii) an examination of the agency's financial feasibility or of the projections indicating that its operating revenues will be equal to or greater than projected expenditures over time.
Standard of Review: Applicants Must "Satisfactorily Demonstrate" the Above Requirements.
As amended, Section 765-1.3 would provide that to be approved for licensure, applicants must "satisfactorily demonstrate" to the Public Health and Health Planning Council (the "PHHPC") that there is a public need for the LHCSA, pursuant to the methodology laid out in the new Section 765-1.16, and that there are adequate finances and sources of future revenue to properly establish and operate the LHCSA. Additionally, the proposed operator must demonstrate "satisfactory" character and competence and standing in the community in the PHHPC's review.
Changes to Principals, Patient Capacity, and Operating Budget Would Now Be Considered Amendments.
The current Section 765-1.4 provides that changes to services and changes in the principals of the applicant are considered amendments to applications. This Rule would amend the foregoing to state that any "significant" change in the principals constitutes an amendment. Further, the Rule adds that (i) any "significant change" to the agency's patient capacity, (ii) any change in the agency's proposed service area, and (iii) any "significant change" in the proposed annual operating budget would also be considered amendments to the application and require approval by PHHPC.
In addition, this Section is amended to add that failure to disclose information that qualifies as an amendment shall be "grounds for the revocation, limitation, or annulment of the approval" for licensure.
The Public Need Methodology.
This newly added Section 765-1.16 details the methodology to be used in determining public need and the review and describes the hearing process for applications that are disapproved solely on the basis that there is a lack of public need.
Factors to be Considered in Determining Public Need
Population demographics and health status of residents in the planning area
The number of patients who have been on waiting lists and who cannot be served elsewhere
The number, capacity, quality of services, and cultural competency of already existing LHCSAs
Availability of the workforce
The agency's ability to dedicate personnel and resources to training and adding more members to the workforce
The existence of subpopulations that require specialty services
When a Public Need Review Would Not Be Necessary
There would be a presumption of no need for new LHCSAs in a planning area (defined by county) that already has five or more LHCSAs actively serving patients in that planning area.
Applications for licensure based on change of ownership for LHCSAs "actively serving" at least twenty-five (25) patients would only be evaluated based on financial feasibility and the character and competence of the proposed operator, and would not have to demonstrate public need.
Finally, LHCSAs that share common ownership with Assisted Living Programs or Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly do not have to undergo a determination of need.
Additionally, new LHCSAs must agree to serve population groups in the planning area that have difficulty gaining access to appropriate LHCSA care due to minority status, age, medical history, case complexity, or payment source.
These regulations would affect all agencies applying for licensure as a home care services agency or for changes of ownership on or after April 1, 2020. A new application form will be provided.
Click Here to download the Legal Alert.
Should you have any questions regarding the above, please contact the Garfunkel Wild attorney with whom you regularly work.


text:
Q: Spring Integration Gateway Without Reply in DSL My question is very similar to this Stackoverflow Question in that I want to send to JMS and then carry on with my integration flow.
The response is totally asynchronous and is therefore handled on a separate Jms.messageDrivenChannelAdapter. So, I basically want to "fire and forget".
My code is this (Spring 5.3.14);
.enrichHeaders(
    h -> h.headerFunction("JMSCorrelationID", m -> m.getHeaders().get(MessageHeaders.ID))
)
.handle(
   Jms
      .outboundGateway(connectionFactory)
      .requestDestination(queueName)
   )
.handle(p -> System.err.println("Do something else with ... " + p))
.get();

And I get this;
org.springframework.integration.MessageTimeoutException: failed to receive JMS response within timeout of: 5000ms,
The referenced answer to me implies that I need to listen to a dummy queue, which I don't want to have to do. So what do I need to fix in my code above?
Edit; final code using the solution below tested with/without "queue PUT inhibit" in order cause an exception.
.publishSubscribeChannel(s -> s
  .subscribe(f -> f.handle(
    Jms
      .outboundAdapter(connectionFactory)
      .destination(queueName)
  ))
  .subscribe(f -> f.handle(
    p -> System.err.println("Do something else with ... " + p)
  ))
)

A: You need to use Jms.outboundChannelAdapter() instead. And together with that next handle() wrap them into a publishSubscribeChannel() as two subscribers sub-flows. This way they are going to be called one after other, but in parallel and their individual flows.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Novel: See What I Have Done
August 13, 2018 ~ Lisa Helm
See What I have Done
Sarah Schmidt
Why are we so intrigued by parricide? Maybe it is because we cannot imagine a more profound love that exists between a parent and a child. There seems to be a resurgence of interest in one such relationship, that between Lizzie Borden and her father. With the release of the film Lizzie directed by Craig William MacNeill and last year's PBS documentary Lizzie Borden Full Biography as well as a plethora of novels built around the murder (see Bookriot).
This summer I picked up See What I have Done by Sarah Schmidt honestly first of all because I really liked the cover. You'll understand the significance of the severed pigeon head after you read the novel. The second reason why I picked it up is that Schmidt uses multiple narrators to tell the story. I LOVE this format; getting the viewpoints from all the participants of a story makes who questions who is most reliable?
The chapters written in Lizzie's voice are convoluted and claustrophobic. Instead of feeling empathy for Lizzie in her confusion we feel frustrated, echoing her sister Emma's frustration. In fact, Emma is the one I felt closest to. I wanted her to leave that house and STAY AWAY forever.
Schmidt uses VERY effective imagery creating a visceral reaction in this reader. The image of nausea and throwing up (purposeful poisoning? Salmonella? Mutton broth sits on the stove for how long?) are rampant, inferring both psychological and moral rot. And don't get me started on the descriptions of blood. Also, the repetitive taste and sight imagery regarding pears is interesting. I would love to get into a discussion about its purpose in the novel (Atmospheric? Symbolic?).
The secondary story of Benjamin weaves nicely with the story of the Borden's murder. An individual struggling with hostile feelings of betrayal and anger towards his own father successfully in supports the relationship between Lizzie and her own father. Is there such a fine line between love and hate?
This book drew me into its web from page one. The story of Lizzie Borden is interesting in and of itself, and worth reading, however, Schmidt's account is written in such an entertaining and mesmerising style reading it in one sitting makes for a full day's entertainment. As a bonus, the story runs very close to the facts around the crime as per the PBS documentary 2017. Small details such as the Andrew Borden insisting on having all his doors locked each night, and the small maniacal laugh heard coming from Lizzie as she stood on the stair landing as stated in the documentary are included in the novel making it informative as well as entertaining (what better way to learn history than through story!).
I can genuinely say that "See What I have Done" has been my favourite read of the summer thus far. I will be recommending this one to my book club not only because it is uncomplicated and entertaining, but also because it offers a multitude of topics for discussion! Father/daughter relationships, familial betrayal as well as familial loyalty, feminism etc.
‹ Previous"Social Creature" by Tara Isabella Burton
Next ›Go Ask the Kids


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Despite the blur and the poor focus in this image, I LOVE it. I always have. I feel like it says so much about childhood. It's carefree and playful and full of life. Many of us can probably see ourselves in this image playing as a child. Although I spent a ton of time outside exploring the marsh and wilderness of South Georgia, I loved to care for and love my dolls like they were my babies. How did you play as a kid? Do you have images that you love that are not perfect?


WATERFRONT Lot on Cowan Lake in Rockford Schools! Build your dream home or perfect Lakefront cottage! All kinds of boats allowed , enjoy the privacy and quietness of Cowan Lake a a no wake lake with awesome fishing,swimming, kayaking, boating, and great for winter sports enthusiasts also! See info on line for sewer assessment! 2nd Lot 9758 10 mile also available for sale or own both ! This could be your dream site for your waterfront home! Lake living is the Best!
9772 NE 10 Mile Road, Rockford, MI 49341 (MLS# 18057033) is a Lots/Land property with a lot size of 0.3015 acres. 9772 NE 10 Mile Road is currently listed for $69,900 and was received on December 03, 2018. Want to learn more about 9772 NE 10 Mile Road? Do you have questions about finding other Lots/Land real estate for sale in Rockford? You can browse all Rockford real estate or contact a Coldwell Banker agent to request more information.


LBSNAA Festival of Literature & Arts was held on 12th and 13th April, 2019 at the LBSNAA Campus, Mussoorie. The festival started with inauguration of Book Fair, philately exhibition and "Celebrating Indian Languages" painting exhibition by Dr. Sanjeev Chopra, Director, LBSNAA. This was followed by interactive sessions and book readings by eminent writers on issues as diverse as governance, fiction & contemporary Issues and writings in Hindi & Indian Languages. Over 110 of 182 Officer Trainees of the IAS Phase-I, took roles as Session Moderators, Escorts, Reviewers and Rapporterurs. The officers had also reviewed the books of the authors, who participated in the Litfest.
The first evening saw the Cultural Program "SAJDA" by legendry Vijay Vardhan & Radhika Chopra. The morning on the 2ndday was filled with flute performance by artists from ITC Sangeet Academy. The second day of the festival was also dedicated to interactive sessions and book readings. An interactive session with the famous film lyricist Irshad Kamil along with Dastaan-e-Raag Darbaari performance by Mahmood Farooqui marked the highpoints on the 2nd day.


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Paula Guran Reviews All the Fabulous Beasts by Priya Sharma
December 4, 2018 October 3, 2018 locusmag 0 Comments Paula Guran
All the Fabulous Beasts, Priya Sharma (Undertow 978-1-988964-02-7 $17.99 tp) May 2018.
Despite frequent appearances in "year's best" compilations and on Locus Recommended Reading Lists, as well as a British Fantasy Award for Short Fiction, Priya Sharma may not yet have come to your attention. This award-worthy debut collection from Sharma, a practicing medical doctor in England, could change that. Sharma's stories often feature families or the sea, but range widely in era, tone, locale, and dramatis personae. Two original and 13 reprint stories – all but one published in the last eight years – go a long way in showing why readers should take note of this true storyteller who invariably writes from her heart.
Written for a bird-themed anthology, "The Crow Palace" is a story about family relations or the lack of them. But it twists away from reality into a tale of supernatural corvid power and how humans can be doomed by the wishes they make.
"Rag and Bone" is set in an alternate Victorian-era Liverpool where the affluent stay healthy by using the flesh and blood of the genetically selected poor. A richly textured piece, "Rag and Bone" takes a couple of dark turns before its end.
Sam, in "The Anatomist's Mnemonic", is a "nice, unassuming guy," except he's fixated on beautiful hands. His obsession's deadly outcome is somewhat predictable, but it's a well-crafted story from which we also learn a bit of palmistry and anatomy
Like "The Crow Palace", "Egg" deals with the price paid for wishes and the desire for maternity, but in a very different way. A complex fairy tale, "Egg" veers away from reality even more profoundly. Parenting an impossible child, despite the fantastic element, is portrayed as a very human struggle between self and sacrifice. Like many of the fairy tales that came before, it is both cruel and captivating.
Pip is a reluctant mother to Emma in "The Sunflower Seed Man". Her daughter was closer to her father, and, after his death Pip struggles to be the kind of parent her husband was. The supernatural intervenes and Pip learns what motherhood can mean. Creepy.
Guilt alone is not enough to defeat the first-person female narrator of "The Ballad of Boomtown". It is enough to haunt her, to skew her life to the negative, but it takes disapprobation, economic crisis, and an ancient Irish curse and spirits to bring her down. Or maybe it doesn't. Sharma subtly hints that the woman is more bound to the past than the present and there may be no supernatural intervention at all in this unnerving tale.
In "The Show", Martha is a successful television psychic who – helped by presenter Philipa and her producer husband Greg – finds ghosts in haunted places. Her mother, Iris, really had the gift, as does her estranged sister Suki, but for Martha it's all show biz – until one day in a particularly spirit-infested cellar she learns more about the dead than she wants to know – this is a spooky tale that could easily be an urban legend.
"Pearls" is a clever retelling and updating of the myth of Medusa. It's not a tale that can easily been given a happy ending, but Sharma manages.
"The Absent Shade", an unsettling story set in Hong Kong with echoes of Philippines history, explores a family devoid of love and the son's relationship with a caregiver who becomes everything to him.
Another family-focused tale, "Small Town Stories" – one of the collection's two excellent originals – is a small tragedy set in a small town near London. Except no tragedy is small when it defines and confines you.
Crippled after barely surviving an accident at sea, Peter must now be a fishmonger rather than a fisherman like the rest of his family in the touching "Fish Skins". His wife of 20 years, Marianne, came from the sea and he's never felt the need to question her provenance. Then her behavior indicates he needs to pay some mind to who and what she is.
Dr. Cariad Evans is deeply depressed in the powerful "The Rising Tide". She retreats to her late father's house in the Preseli Hills of Wales. As we learn the cause of her depression, we struggle with the weight of it. When she thinks she sees and hears Gwrach-y-Rhibyn, the Hag in the Mist – a death omen – we can't discount it any more than we can ignore her disorder. Logic demands that the guilt-ridden learn to overcome emotion and return to the world of the productive, but this physician cannot heal herself, and we understand why.
"The Englishman" is a universal story despite its exotic setting. The man of the title is a Hindu who married an Englishwoman. Now, 25 years later, she has died and he has returned to the land of his birth. India shocks him; it has "become so modern and brutal," no longer the "place of genteel corruption and colour" he remembers. He is reminded that to "be reborn he has to die. That is the wheel."
"The Nature of Bees" is the weird and lovely story of Vivien Avery, who blossoms at age 38. She becomes herself while vacationing in a cottage that once housed beekeepers. An odd family, direct descendants of the original beekeepers, live in a nearby orchard and keep bees that produce wonderous honey. In the family, sturdy women work while handsome men look on, and Vivien finds a special place among them.
"A Son of the Sea" is the other original. Thomas Briggs returns to Hong Kong when he inherits his father's wealth, a father he seldom saw. His mother deserted him as an infant and all he knows about her is that she was from Ma Wan Island. Thomas himself, raised in British boarding schools and Texas, has always been drawn to the sea. On Ma Wan he meets Simone, a woman much like himself. Whatever expectations you may have of this one, Sharma will likely shatter them. Brilliant.
Novelette "Fabulous Beasts" tells of herpetologist Eliza. Snakes "are easy," but she doesn't know how to "charm people." Sharma takes us back to her hard-knocks childhood as Lola, a little girl with a single mom. Eliza is not traditionally attractive and has inherited an unusual genomic legacy, but she is bright and has her cousin Tallulah to love and support her. When their Uncle Kenny is released after many years in prison, life for them all turns toxic. Like many of these stories, "Fabulous Beasts" is both beautiful and disturbing.
Paula Guran has edited more than 40 science fiction, fantasy, and horror anthologies and more than 50 novels and collections featuring the same. She's reviewed and written articles for dozens of publications. She lives in Akron, Ohio, near enough to her grandchildren to frequently be indulgent.
This review and more like it in the October 2018 issue of Locus.
← Previous Blinks: Slate on Jemisin, NYTBR on Jemisin, Wells, and others; Scott Edelman dines
2018 Goodreads Choice Awards Next →
Liz Bourke Reviews The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark
Russell Letson reviews Iain M. Banks
Adrienne Martini reviews Tim Pratt
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Carolyn F. Cushman Reviews Titanshade by Dan Stout and The Unspeakable Unknown by Eliot Sappingfield
Paul Di Filippo Reviews Intimations of Death by Felix Timmermans
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"Sitting down with Locus Magazine is like catching up with an old friend who always knows the good gossip and has the best book recommendations. It's a great way to keep up with exciting things happening in SFF, and to get inspired by other authors and artists through in-depth interviews. We're lucky to have it."


The THYME Project is a new academic network intended to boost the bioeconomy in Yorkshire, the Humber, and the Tees Valley. We were asked to design and build a website to provide information about the project and allow researchers, academics, and industry representatives to get involved.
The resulting website provides an attractive design, clear access to information, and a complete network membership system. New members can sign up directly from the site, subject to administrator approval, and are provided with access to exclusive information about the project and its other members.
We used WordPress to manage content and user accounts, providing a solid and reliable foundation for the website. The design and the code of the custom theme used on the site are entirely bespoke, allowing us to build a system perfectly tailored to the needs of the client and the members of the network.


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The Philippines: Lawyer: Armed men seen outside offices of NUPL, Bayan, Karapatan
Armed men in motorcycles and cars, along with military trucks, have reportedly surrounded the offices of National Union of People's Lawyers (NUPL), Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, and Karapatan, a lawyer said on Thursday.
Citing reports reaching the NUPL, lawyer Edre Olalia said men in uniform and civilian attire were seen outside a building in Diliman, Quezon City, which houses the offices of the three organizations.
"Reports reaching NUPL: Armed men in motorcycles, cars & a military truck, both uniformed & in civilian attire, are presently surrounding & within vicinity of building housing Bayan, Karapatan & NUPL offices at No. 1 Matatag cor. Maaralin St., QC," Olalia said in a message to reporters.
He also said that one National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) consultant told them that unknown elements are following him and monitoring his movements.
"Last night, an NDF consultant sent an SOS that he was being tailed & that a riding-in-tandem was posted outside the place he was staying. Lawyers are on their way," Olalia added.
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1064844/lawyer-armed-men-seen-outside-offices-of-nupl-bayan-karapatan?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR2y77efq88RI83_ztZjfIELahk2mCFeUHYC3BzQqr7RpJiWY9aZ9niM6Fw#Echobox=1545274045
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1065045/lawyers-group-cries-out-vs-surveillance?fbclid=IwAR36iGOujBPybxxTdmAjoYVzI5sxJOgNHgMkH05XGALqvgzbXiLEx7Uhudo
https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2018/12/20/1878588/un-experts-call-end-attacks-vs-rights-advocates-irks-palace
https://www.sunstar.com.ph/article/1779574/Manila/Local-News/UN-rapporteur-hit-lauded-for-call-to-end-attacks-vs-rights-defenders
https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2018/12/20/1878526/philippines-urged-end-attacks-vs-human-rights-defenders
https://www.ccbe.eu/fileadmin/speciality_distribution/public/documents/HUMAN_RIGHTS_LETTERS/Philippines_-_Philippines/2018/EN_HRL_20181221_Philippines_Murder-of-lawyer-Nasser-M-Laban.pdf
https://nupl.net/
https://www.facebook.com/nuplphilippines/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagong_Alyansang_Makabayan
https://www.facebook.com/BAYANnational/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karapatan
http://www.karapatan.org/
Nicaragua: Political upheaval in Nicaragua leaves scientists under siege
Ongoing protests against the Nicaraguan government have led to violent clashes, and the crackdown by security forces has engulfed the country's scientists, causing some to flee their homes in fear for their lives.
The student-led protests started in April in response to a decree from President Daniel Ortega that increased social security taxes and reduced pensions. Ortega's increasingly authoritarian administration tried to quell the protests with deadly force, which sparked demonstrations across Nicaragua. Since then, fierce confrontations between protesters, police and activists supporting the government have resulted in more than 300 deaths.
Universities have fired faculty members who have criticized the administration's response to the demonstrations, and scientific conferences have been moved or postponed. In early December, the government shut down the offices of nine non-governmental organizations (NGO), including the Fundación del Río, which focuses on environmental protections for the southeastern region of Nicaragua. The state seized the property of all 9 NGOs and they can no longer operate legally in the country.
An economic crisis that has proliferated in the wake of the political unrest resulted in emergency cuts to the 2018 budget in August. They included a roughly 7% reduction to the National Council of Universities, Nicaragua's governing body for higher education institutes.
The trouble has even affected the Nicaraguan National Academy of Sciences, which released several statements in April, May and June in support of students and academic freedom. Its president, lawyer María Luisa Acosta, fled the country in May after receiving death threats. The threats stemmed from those statements of support and her long-standing criticism of government projects that would impact Indigenous groups and the environment.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07837-5
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/12/universities-held-hostage-nicaragua-s-political-crisis
https://www.laminute.info/2018/12/20/accuses-dingerence-des-organismes-de-defense-des-droits-de-lhomme-expulses-du-nicaragua/ (FRANCAIS)
Iran: Iran rights lawyer Sotoudeh to face new trial
Imprisoned Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh will go on trial again on December 23, her lawyer Payam Derafshan told official news agency IRNA.
Sotoudeh, an award-winning activist, was arrested in June and told she had already been found guilty "in absentia" on spying charges and sentenced to a six-year prison term by Tehran's Revolutionary Court.
It was not clear what charges she would face in the new trial, which will be heard at Tehran's Revolutionary Court.
Prior to her arrest in June, 55-year-old Sotoudeh had taken on the cases of several women arrested for standing in public areas without their headscarves, which are mandatory in Iran.
She had also criticised a new criminal code that allows only a small number of lawyers to represent individuals charged with national security offences, including a list of just 20 for Tehran.
In September Sotoudeh's husband, Reza Khandan, was also arrested and charged with conspiring against national security, propaganda against the system and campaigning against Iran's Islamic dress code.
Sotoudeh won the European Parliament's prestigious Sakharov human rights award in 2012 for her work on high-profile cases, including those of convicts on death row for offences committed as minors.
She spent three years in prison after representing dissidents arrested during mass protests in 2009.
https://www.france24.com/en/20181219-iran-rights-lawyer-sotoudeh-face-new-trial
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-6511819/Iran-rights-lawyer-Sotoudeh-face-new-trial.html
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/iran-human-rights-lawyer-sotoudeh-to-face-new-trial/
https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/jailed-iranian-lawyer-to-stand-trial-as-condemnation-grows/5068728.article
https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/afp/2018/12/iran-rights-justice.html#ixzz5a8QUqHOx
https://irannewsupdate.com/news/human-rights/5616-tehran-continue-to-deny-while-facing-pressure-over-human-rights-violations.html
Nasrin Sotoudeh 21.12.18 Iran intervention letter 2
https://pen.org/advocacy-case/nasrin-sotoudeh/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social-pug
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasrin_Sotoudeh
https://www.hra-news.org/2018/hranews/a-18351/ (FARSI)
https://www.i24news.tv/fr/actu/international/moyen-orient/191295-181219-iran-nouveau-proces-en-vue-pour-une-avocate-des-droits-de-l-homme (FRANCAIS)
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasrin_Sotoudeh (FRANCAIS)
https://www.fffi.se/2018/12/19/nytt-atal-mot-nasrin-sotoudeh-medan-ep-kraver-att-hon-friges/ (SWEDISH)
#FreeNasrin
Reza Khandan, imprisoned in #Iran since September for posting updates about the imprisonment of his wife, prominent attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh, was released today. Sotoudeh said she would end her hunger strike after hearing the news. #FreeNasrin pic.twitter.com/lbDtQRs6mm
— IranHumanRights.org (@ICHRI) December 23, 2018
Prominent rights attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh, imprisoned on a 5 year sentence issued in absentia, will go on trial December 23rd on bunch of new bogus charges. pic.twitter.com/aqqVbxbrH2
— Persian Banoo (@persianbanoo) December 19, 2018
The #European Parliament has overwhelmingly passed a motion urging #Iran to "immediately and unconditionally release" prominent #HumanRights attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh. #IranUpdate #PrisonersofIran @Europarl_EN @ICHRI https://t.co/wFdGm2gInl
— FDD's Iran Program (@FDD_Iran) December 18, 2018
The former director of NASA's Solar System Exploration program Dr. @Firouz_Naderi urges #Iran to release all political prisoners including Nasrin Sotoudeh, Farhad Meysami and Reza Khandan. Join us in calling for #Rights4Iran #FreeNasrin pic.twitter.com/Dcfz3jw2Zh


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Long List of Worldcons
From Fancyclopedia 3
(Redirected from Long-list-committee)
The Long List of Worldcons (often called simply the "Long List") is the official, definitive, fanhistorical list maintained by WSFS delineating basic information about every Worldcon held, including its year, number, name, site, gohs, chairman, attendance figures and other notes.
The list is compiled by the Long List Committee established by Noreascon 4 and subsequently endorsed each year by the WSFS Business Meeting. It is not technically a WSFS committee, but acts as one in practice. It is also called the Formalization of Long Lists Committee (FOLLE).
The committee also maintains the similar Long List of NASFiCs and Long List of Hugo Awards.
The committee states:
Our philosophy is to create lists which accurately reflect reality without being so detailed that the main information is lost in a forest of subtle detail. To do this we have divided the Long List into two parts: The Long List itself and an extensive set of notes. We anticipate that the Long List will be printed in Worldcon Souvenir Books and the like, while the notes will typically only be referred to on-line. When multiple interpretations of a piece of data (who chaired a convention, what its name was, where it was held, etc.) exist, our policy is to have the Long List include the version which in our judgment best reflects the facts as understood by the people involved, and to document whatever variations or details we have discovered in the notes. We will respect historical judgments as long as they are not clearly in error, and we will attempt to objectively verify any corrections or notes we add.
Current members are: Mark Olson (chairman), Kevin Standlee, Joe Siclari, Rich Lynch, Dave Grubbs, Colin Harris, Vince Docherty and Craig Miller.
Website (IA)
Retrieved from "http://fancyclopedia.org/index.php?title=Long_List_of_Worldcons&oldid=18964"
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About Fancyclopedia 3


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Kathleen Sebelius
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Key Food Safety Advisory Committee NACMCF Renewed This Week
By News Desk on February 1, 2013
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) this week announced the re-chartering of the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods (NACMCF) and named who exactly will be serving on…
Continue Reading Key Food Safety Advisory Committee NACMCF Renewed This Week
Letter From The Editor: New Years Resolutions
By Dan Flynn on January 6, 2013
I wrote a few imaginary New Year's resolutions for some of our newsmakers that we haven't gotten around to publishing until now. As the great Willie Nelson would say: "Funny how time slips away."
Continue Reading Letter From The Editor: New Years Resolutions
Obama Re-election Does Not Mean Everyone Is Staying for a Second Term
By Dan Flynn on November 8, 2012
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack Tuesday saw his boss re-elected as President of the United States, but his wife defeated in her run for Congress. What does that mean for Vilsack, the former governor of Iowa? …
Continue Reading Obama Re-election Does Not Mean Everyone Is Staying for a Second Term
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Officials Unite on Food Safety Message
By Helena Bottemiller on September 17, 2009
Key food safety officials at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services emphasized the need for stronger food safety laws last week before back to back food policy conferences
Continue Reading Officials Unite on Food Safety Message
The Seven Most Powerful In Federal Food Safety
By Dan Flynn on September 1, 2009
When looking at a maze of federal agencies, be it the "intelligence community" or our nation's food safety mechanism, it is easy to forget that it is the individuals that actually count. Multiple agencies housed…
Continue Reading The Seven Most Powerful In Federal Food Safety