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The University Record, April 18, 1994

University receives $12 million commitment

The University has received a $12 million commitment from Ann Lurie of Chicago, to establish the Robert H. Lurie Fund, in the name of her late husband, a member of the College of Engineering Class of 1964. The fund will be allocated to new campus buildings, including a carillon tower on North Campus.

“The exceptional nature of Ann Lurie’s generosity is made even greater by the man whose memory her gift honors,” says President James J. Duderstadt. “Robert H. Lurie was a model of entrepreneurial success who stood among the major American business leaders of our time. His vision, personal integrity, wit, and intellect established benchmark standards of excellence and achievement.”

Following completion of his bachelor of science degree in industrial and operations engineering, Robert Lurie earned a master of science degree in the same field in 1966. He died of cancer in June 1990, at the age of 48.

In making the gift, Ann Lurie remarked: “Bob cared about the University of Michigan and the intellectual and professional capabilities nurtured by his experiences in Ann Arbor. We discussed at length our mutual intent to express his gratitude and affection for this fine institution.”

Robert Lurie was president of Equity Group Investments and Great American Management and Investment, and part owner and member of the Board of Directors of both the Chicago Bulls and the Chicago White Sox. He also owned, or was a major stockholder in, Great American Management and Investment Inc., a holding company with interests in manufacturing; Equity Group Investment, a diversified, privately held company with major interests in real estate; Itel Corp.; Nucorp (subsequently named Capsure), an insurance business; and Delta Queen Steamboat Co. Lurie’s career began during his undergraduate days when he, together with fellow student and life-long partner, Sam Zell (A.B. ’63, J.D. ’66), acquired and managed a number of Ann Arbor rental properties.

Leading international architect and Michigan alumnus Charles W. Moore (A.B. Arch ’47; Hon. Ph.D. ’92) completed the design for the carillon tower for the North Campus shortly before his death in December 1993. “Bob held Charles Moore’s work in the highest regard, as did I,” commented Ann Lurie. “Our family’s involvement with the new carillon tower is a very significant, personal pleasure.”

“Ann Lurie’s devotion and her focus on quality will bring to North Campus impressive facilities and an appropriate tribute to the life and achievements of Robert H. Lurie,” says Peter M. Banks, dean of the College of Engineering.

The eldest of Ann and Robert H. Lurie’s six children, Jesse, will begin his undergraduate studies here in the fall.


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1 definition by Mr. Donut Shop

Top Definition
to have an emptiness after having been asked a question in that you do not know what to say
sounds same as
do not know
I donut hole what to say about what they were talking about.
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1 definition by nwing

Top Definition
Computer term

System Has Interrupted Task

The PC has S.H.I.T
Itself i.e it has hung and stopped processing any tasks
by nwing March 05, 2009

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Also known as Scabies, a highly contagious skin mite that doctors say is most commonly transferred during intimate contact.
The doctor said Alexa has boning bugs!!!!
by ermahgerdddd February 20, 2013
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Expressing anger, surprise, or frustration. Note: It is Old English, so it is not often, if at all, used anymore.
"Damme, Deerslayer, if I did not believe you are at heart a Moravian, and no fair-minded, plain-dealing hunter, as you've pretended to be!"
(Excerpt taken from The Deerslayer by James Fenimore Cooper.)
by WhiteChicken November 20, 2013
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1. When someone is so upset that they rant and rave like a transient storm of lightning and thunder.

2. A sudden violent outburst of displeasure.
Lisa: What's wrong with Tom?

Carl: I don't know. Every time something goes wrong that douche breaks out a personal thunderstorm.
by Lele99 April 20, 2009
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When something is the most absolutely fantastic, best thing in the whole entire universe, it is "The Super-Ultra"
Have you checked out the new "Despairacyde" album, it is totally The Super-Ultra!
by LittleLiggyLovedahl April 13, 2011
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used when one person says something to another, and the person who is bieng talked to has no comment on the matter, has not thought through the matter thoroughly enough, or is otherwise unready or incapable of a coherent response. Can also be used to dodge a question or suggestion which one does not feel comfortable answering.
Dude 1: dude, you should ask that chick out
Dude 2: dude, boobies
by jellyfishsandwix November 06, 2007
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a dolebludger living in housing commission (government housing)
i'm a hauso
it's a hauso 'hood
ahhh!!! a gang of hauso's!!!
by KraiZ October 25, 2004
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Interior Designers in Apex, NC

Comprehensive list of Apex, North Carolina based office and home interior design and decorating firms.

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Mary Larsen Designs featured in newly released book! Each month we select homes to Redesign in our expert training. Are you a busy, overextended homeowner who just does not have time to decorate your home? If there was only more time in the day. At the end of a busy day, your home should be the ultimate getaway.

We bring fine furniture, fabrics, window treatments, flooring, lighting, kitchen cabinetry, countertops, bath and decorative hardware, art, fine accesories, wall papers and specialty finishes, designer/customer referral matching services and so much more to the triangle area.

BeyondBlue Interiors is a different type of furniture store that supplies an exceptional shopping knowledge in the Triangle. At BeyondBlue, you can choose from a huge range of comfortable and stylish furnishings available for immediate delivery or create your own individual look by choosing from over 350 fabrics and leathers.

Enables us to introduce ourselves. We are Jackie Carr and Kristy Slater.We are two area decorators/designers who have began an interior decorating consultation business called The Design Corner. Our mission is to save folks money and time by delivering them with the ideas to get began on home decorating projects. At The Design Corner, we assist you with every kind of your decorating plans.

THE GARAGE is the main family entrance and serves as the FRONT DOOR to the home. It is often the biggest room of the house - HOW DOES YOURS LOOK? A well organized Garage can make a change of lifestyle with more time and space - to spend with your family - while creating a Multi-Purpose Room. Plus, when you keep your Garage cleaner, you'll keep your HOME cleaner .

Looking to redesign a room in a single afternoon using your existing furnishings? Need aid selecting paint colors, window treatments, furnishings, or accessories? Want a compassionate guide through your de-cluttering process? Need aid staging your home for resale? You've come to the best place!

  • I can't recommend Amy highly enough. She decorated our whole house for a fraction of what

A visit to our showroom supplies an opportunity for you to step outside your home and into a setting that inspires creativity. It's time to change the perception of interior design services - from unattainable to very affordable. Visit us at 519 East Broad Street in Fuquay-Varina. Window treatments are an adornment to any room.

For a whole house or one room, for your office or meeting space, Ann has vision. Ann's unique gift, Regal Designs delivers big looks on budgets of all kinds. With incredible imagination and creativity and either new items from Regal Designs or your own. IDS Associate Ann Hunt sees all the pieces put together in an easy to live in, easy to love, eye-catching design.


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If this vehicle fits you're driving needs please give us a call for a test drive. We are the largest used vehicle dealership on Vancouver Island .with over 200+ cars .all vehicles get a complete safety set prices we will include a power train warranty on select inventory dealer #30638.all vehicles have a $199 documentation fee ,plus applicable taxes.IN HOUSE FINANCING AVAILABLE ON MOST INVENTORY WITH ABSOULUTLY NO CREDIT CHECKS

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Large Pageant Sapphire Crown (Adjustable)

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Genuine Swarovski crystals give this crown a beautiful sparkle and extravagant look! This beautiful majestic crown is made for those looking for an elegant look without being gaudy.

It is approx 6.75" tall at the highest point in the front, and graduates down. Set with genuine Swarovski crystals stones. Gold setting setting with an 5 rows easy to fit adjustable band. Individually wrapped in plastic to preserve its sparkle Typically IN STOCK for immediate delivery.

You can view this and hundreds of different styles in our ONLINE STORE

adjustable royal crowns blue sapphire, amethyst purple, red ruby, emerald green, pink, gold silver large, medium, small aurora boreales, ab royal coronation WWW.CROWNDESIGNERS.COM

manufacture crystal crowns, tiaras, scepters, for pageants, weddings, proms, homecoming queens, kings, Mardis Gras, and fine theatrical use. We carry both silver and gold finishes. All of our rhinestone tiaras and crowns are designed with style and quality in mind, and are made with genuine Swarovski Austrian Crystals shop online order designer rhinestone crown tiara pageant products,distinctive rhinestone jewelry pins, prom homecoming, coronation, royalty, theatrical beauty pageant supply Distinctive designs Pageant supply includes pageant crowns, hair tiaras, scepters, crown cases, tiara keepsake display cases, tiara bags, and jewelry Princess Di tiara replicas gorgeous antique and victorian style tiaras Popular for prom king and queen, homecoming queens and kings, womens pageants, boy dress up crown, kids crowns, pageant crown for king, Halloween, celtic, princess tiaras, masquerade balls, theater performances, Mardi Gras, Mother's Day gifts, quinceanera tiara, flower girls, bridesmaids, and bridal or wedding brides and grooms. Adult and child's sizes. Convenient online catalog and shopping. men's and boy's kings crowns, custom crowns, wise man's crowns, gold crowns and septors, princess tiaras, and adjustable royal crowns blue sapphire, amethyst purple, red ruby, emerald green, pink, gold silver large, medium, small aurora boreales, ab royal coronation
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Color: GreyWhen it’s a tough day at The Office and you get sent down to help out in the warehouse, stay warm with the Dunder Mifflin zipper hoodie. Darryl Philbin will put you to work right away. It’s this type of pitch-in attitude that has kept the Scranton branch open for so long—despite the alarming amount of unprofessional fun being had selling paper.
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music cd

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No disrespect to women on any level
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get it on Amazon "Take Me To california" by Philip Charles
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Title:Grant Deed
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Legal Description:Lot 6, of Block 213 of Tract No. 42 (Shelter Cove Subdivision), according to the map thereof on file in the Office of the County Recorder of Humboldt County, California, in Book 14 of Maps, pages 73 to 138 inclusive, and Amended Map filed in Book 15, Pages 64 through 116, inclusive,. REMAINDER OF LEGAL GIVEN UPON REQUEST
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If you are looking for a quiet piece of property with ocean views and beautiful surrounding mountain scenery this is the parcel for you! This .25 lot is has residential zoning and paved road access. It has wonderful views of the Pacific Ocean and is only minutes from the beach.
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ATHLETE FEATURE - Meredith Ingbretson

Inbretson reacts after winning her first log rolling World Championship. (Photo credit: Rich Magnone)

“It was really just a blur, I think I just ran down to my mom before I did anything else. It’s an unreal feeling. You work so hard and it felt so good to win.”

For 20-year old Hayward, WI native Meredith Ingbretson, winning the 2015 Log Rolling World Championships on the last Saturday of July marked the culmination of several things. The victory was perhaps, the final hurdle of her comeback from a torn ACL three years ago. It also solidified her as one Log Rolling’s top female rollers. But unbeknownst to most in the crowd that July evening, the win etched Ingbretson into the Timber Sports history book forever. When runner-up Ellie Davenport hit the water for the third and final time, Ingbretson joined Shana Verstegen, Jenny Atkinson, and Tina (Salzman) Bosworth as the only female athletes to ever to win a Log Rolling and Boom Running Lumberjack World Championship in the same year.

Ingbretson, whose Boom title came roughly an hour before her Log Rolling Championship, battled through one of the toughest brackets in recent history to capture her first Log Rolling title. Because she did not qualify for a bye, Ingbretson had to win five matches instead of four to finish the job. Among her opponents were a group of household names that included the world’s current top ranked roller Shana Verstegen and soon to be top ranked roller Ellie Davenport, who had won three of four tournaments leading into World Championships. Ingbretson also knocked out perennial top contenders Abby Hoeschler, Claudia Duffy, and Olivia Judd.

“In the beginning I had to roll Claudia (a close 3-2 match) and that was tough,” says Ingbretson. “It’s always tough to roll someone you train with and that was the closest match of the weekend. After winning that I had to roll Shana, and I was nervous about that. It’s Shana and it was intimidating. But if you stay focused you can beat anybody.” After defeating the four-time World Champion Verstegen, 3-0, followed by a three fall win over Olivia Judd, Ingbretson’s path did not get any easier. She was matched up next in the semi-finals against the world’s number six ranked roller, Hoeschler. In an exciting back and forth match, Ingbretson went on to beat Hoeschler in four falls. “I’d never beaten Abby before,” says Ingbretson. “To beat her 3-1 was amazing.” The win over Hoeschler set the stage for a finals match that would pit two of the youngest rollers on the pro circuit, the 20-year old Ingbretson against the 17-year old Davenport.

It was a finals match for Ingbretson in which a strong mental focus would turn out to be a major difference maker. “I’d rolled Ellie once before,” says Ingbretson. “Getting into the right mindset was huge. I didn’t want to be nervous. Being excited instead of nervous (was key).” Ingbretson’s coaching corner included ten-time World Champion J.R. Salzman, who started coaching her when she was in grade school, and five-time Champ Brian Duffy, who along with Salzman, trains with Ingbretson. “They’re just so experienced, telling you what to do,” says Ingbretson. She adds that most of the real work and preparation happens leading up to the tournament and it’s important to focus on the log come tournament time, rather than having a coach yelling and screaming. “After I fell in (against Ellie) and it was tied 1-1 they just let me fix it,” says Ingbretson. Some coaches yell and get too anxious, which makes you anxious.” She adds that both Salzman and Duffy, who understand what it’s like to go through the process, helped her out considerably in terms of keeping her emotions in check and staying patient against Davenport. “I knew I had to wait until the four (log), and J.R. and Brian were talking to me about waiting a little longer, to wait for my opportunities. I get a little jumpy, when I see them (opponent) start to fall a little it’s easy to get to jumpy. But they kept me relaxed and focused.”

“I think it was her mental toughness (that kept her in it),” says Duffy. “She was focused and she was dialed in. That’s very important. Either you are going to fight to stay on and make the recovery or kind of give up and plop in. It’s easy when you’re tired to just give in rather than dig deep and that’s where the mental toughness comes in, to make the recovery and give the extra effort to win the fall.”

After being tied at one fall apiece, Ingbretson went on to win the final two falls against Davenport, and took home her first Log Rolling World Championship at the age of 20. She joined Taylor (Duffy) Biser and Tina (Salzman) Bosworth as the only Hayward natives to win a women’s World title in front of the home crowd in the past 20 years.

“I think she actually ran faster than I’ve seen anybody run on land.”

It came across as a slight exaggeration, but wasn’t far off. That comment was among the many from those in the crowd at the Lumberjack Bowl last month, and not surprisingly, it was a description of Meredith Ingbretson’s final Boom run at this year’s World Championships. Ingbretson’s time of 14.07 was not the fastest recorded women’s time ever, but it may have been the most impressive.

When three time Boom champion Abby Hoeschler set the World record of 13.98 in 2011, all runners were allowed to get a forward start as long as they did not cross the start line before the signal came to do so. Since 2011, The USLRA has prohibited forward momentum and now forces all runners to start from a standing position. Since the rule change, virtually all of the top times on the both the men’s and women’s side have been roughly a full second behind the records that were set when runners were permitted to get forward momentum. Until last month.

When Ingbretson took off on her final Boom run, she exploded out of the gate and ran a nearly perfect run. When she clocked in at 14.07, it marked perhaps the most impressive run ever for a women’s Boom runner at the Lumberjack World Championships. Her time was more than a half second ahead of the rest of the women’s field, and only four men finished faster. Most impressive, Ingbretson’s run was just nine one-hundredths of a second off the World record, which was set when all runners had the advantage of the forward momentum start. Ingbretson’s 2015 time was the fastest women’s time ever recorded under the current rules.

Ingbretson finishes her World Championship boom run. (Photo credit: Rich Magnone)

Several Professional boom runners were in awe over Ingbretson’s accomplishment, including two time men’s boom champion Marcel Scott, who’s convinced it may have been one of the best runs ever. “It was pretty spectacular,” says Scott. I know Meredith is pretty good with her mental game, when it comes to crunch time she definitely knows what she has to do and she’s very good as a mental competitor. I didn’t really expect that good of a time (under the current rules) but who would have. It’s pretty awesome what she was able to do.” Scott stresses that with the old loop hole of getting a head start gone, it’s hard to believe Ingbretson came as close as she did to breaking the world record. “That in itself is pretty amazing,” says Scott. For Meredith to come that close to a record that probably in most people’s mind would never be beaten, it’s just crazy to think that she came that close. She was just flying across those logs.”

At the age of 20, Ingbretson already sounds like a savvy veteran when discussing the mental side of running the Boom. “With Boom running, it’s all about muscle memory,” she says. “With Log rolling you have to think about the other person. With Boom running, you just have to think about and focus on yourself.” It’s the not the first time she’s proven she can perform under pressure. Ingbretson, who currently plays college hockey at UW-Stevens Point, helped lead Hayward High School to a Hockey State Championship in 2013, with a hat trick in the final game, while playing with a torn ACL. Since returning from the injury, she’s won two of her three Boom titles as well as this year’s Log Rolling World Championship, and continues to skate as a Center/Forward for UW-Stevens Point.

After locking down the 2015 Boom Running title, Ingbretson now has a total of three boom titles (’12, ’14, ’15), and likely has at least 10 plus years of prime running left. She’s already nailed down her first Log Rolling title and her combination of speed and strength are a sure sign that there may be more in her future. There have been just a handful of women who have dominated the winners circle in both Log Rolling and the Boom Run. Shana Verstegen, Jenny Atkinson and Tina (Salzman) Bosworth come to mind as perhaps the best Log rolling/Boom combo’s to ever compete on the women’s side. Following her performance this year, Ingbretson may be ready to join their company soon, if she hasn’t already.

Hayward natives Ingbretson and JR Salzman after their World Championship wins. (Contributed Photo)

USLRA News and Media


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Roofing Companies in Shawnee, KS

Comprehensive list of Shawnee, Kansas based commercial and residential roofing companies and suppliers.

Business Listings

From routine maintenance to complete roofing construction, every project is executed with the same quality workmanship our clients have come to trust. Because our reputation is based on client satisfaction, we at Jeff A. Honer Roofing Company aim to supply the highest-quality service, products, competitive pricing and the highest possible warranties Johnson County has to deliver.

Century Roofing and Exteriors is a locally owned family business servicing the Greater Kansas City metro area. We attribute our success to a very diligent team with over three decades knowledge in the roofing industry giving the public what they deserve: quality workmanship at competitive pricing. In other words, treating people the way they would like to be treated.

Thank you for your interest in Elite Roofing and the possibility to share our aim and our pledge to you. As members of the prestigious National Roofing Contractors Association, the Midwest Roofing Contractors Association, and the Home Builders Association, we're held to the finest standards within the industry and are constantly working to be the finest.

Above All Enterprises. is Kansas City's premier commercial and domestic roofing contractor, conveniently situated in Overland Park. Hail storms and high winds from thunderstorms can cause severe damage to your roof. A leaky roof will only further damage your business or home investment and can lead to structural as well as cosmetic problems.

Your comments and questions are always appreciated. I hope you'll find this site to be helpful and informative. I began my firm in 1995 to provide best quality work and service at a competitive price. In the nine years since then, I have been rewarded with client loyalty and made many nice friends.

Your property says volumes about who you are and what you value. So when you choose the natural beauty of a DaVinci roof, you make a clear statement in support of conscientious living and unsurpassed quality. DaVinci slate and shake roof tiles go beyond protecting your home and belongings from fire, high wind and impact.

Pro-Tec Roofing Supply & Construction is a complete-service roofing provide firm and contractor situated in Edwardsville, Kansas. Tamko and GAF asphalt and shingles to roofing services for domestic and commercial properties, we provide very competitive and fair prices, and will do anything that it takes to get the job done.

Does your roof need to be repaired or replaced? Our job is to supply our clients with high quality roof to protect their homes at a good price. We take pride in our work and we know you'll be glad with our work. Join the many satisfied clients by calling us today for your free, written estimate.


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Time to stop expecting women to smile on command

"Where's my smile, babydoll?"

The "babydoll" bugged me more than the query itself, but the whole thing is obviously pretty obnoxious. It's objectifying, it's bossy, it's presumptuous.

Still, I smiled.

It's a habit. I smile at people when I walk by them — at work, in stores, on the street. I'm friendly. I like when people stop me and ask for directions. Plus, I can think of (and have heard) far worse walking along the sidewalk.

This time, though, I cringed a little afterward.

I'm ruminating on the smile thing lately — had talked about it with a co-worker just an hour before the "babydoll" incident, in fact — thanks to Tatyana Fazlalizadeh's public art series, "Stop Telling Women to Smile."

Maybe you've read about it. Fazlalizadeh is a Brooklyn-based illustrator and painter whose portraits of women are traveling to city streets around the country — from Boston to Chicago, from Brooklyn to Oakland. Her drawings place women above captions that read, "You Are Not Entitled to My Space," "Stop Telling Women to Smile," "My Name is Not Baby, Shorty, Sexy, Sweetie, Honey, Pretty, Boo, Sweetheart, Ma."

(Babydoll, either.)

"You're treated as though you're just a piece of meat, and you're there for consumption by men," Fazlalizadeh told Mother Jones magazine. "I feel like the common thing is men feeling entitled to treat you how they want to treat you. You never feel as though you have a right to the space. And so that's the theme behind most of the posters: 'I'm not outside for your entertainment' and 'I'm not seeking your validation.'"

I totally agree. So why do I have a hard time shutting down the possibly innocent (but maybe kind of harassing) smile commands from the mail room guy, the grocery bagger guy, the barista guy, the stranger-who-called-me-babydoll guy?

I think it's because I dread, more than having to endure pointless directives, a culture where we're so afraid of offending each other that we stop trying to engage at all.

I realize we're a long way from that. And "Where's my smile, babydoll" is hardly a meeting of the minds. But I think my willingness to play along is at least partly rooted in the hope that somewhere, deep down, most of us have something to offer each other.

I was hoisting my son into a Target cart one day when a frantic dad approached me lugging his own toddler son.

"I swear I'm not just asking this because you're a mom," he said. "But what temperature is considered a high fever?"

Some interaction (or series of them) left him afraid I'd be offended at his assumption that I know "mom" things. I wasn't. I wanted to hug him, actually. He looked so nervous. (I resisted.)

But I think we're walking around with more people like that dad — well-intentioned, searching — than people like babydoll-guy. So I hesitate to put my guard up too awfully high. I'd hate to train myself not to smile.

Still, I love what Fazlalizadeh is doing with her project and I hope it continues to foster a dialogue about private lives in public spaces, gender-based power imbalances and our culture of objectivity.

I also hope men and women (and men and men, and women and women) continue to look for ways to engage each other in authentic, non-creepy ways — even if we're just killing time on the train platform.

Also, guys: If you truly want to make a women smile, you shouldn't call her babydoll.

You should compliment her shoes.

Twitter @heidistevens13

Copyright © 2017, The Virginia Gazette


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Vallourec strengthens its premium positioning in growing OCTG markets

30/11/2011 - Activity and markets, Saudi Arabia, United States, Oil ＆ gas, OCTG
Vallourec today announced the advancement of two projects to strengthen its premium positioning to serve the OCTG markets of North America and the Middle East.

In North America: Adding VAM threading facility in Youngstown, Ohio

In Saudi Arabia: Closing of Zamil Pipes acquisition

Boulogne-Billancourt, 30 November 2011 – Vallourec, world leader in premium tubular solutions, today announced the advancement of two projects to strengthen its premium positioning to serve the OCTG1 markets of North America and the Middle East.

In North America, Vallourec will construct a new premium threading facility in Youngstown, Ohio, through its subsidiary VAM USA LLC. This decision is supported by the development of unconventional Oil & Gas drilling of shale resources, driving increased demand for premium connections. The new VAM facility will be located next to Vallourec's existing and soon to be commissioned pipe mills and close to customers operating in both the Marcellus and Utica shale areas. It will complement the VAM USA manufacturing facilities in Houston, Texas and enable the Group to expand its finished goods offer combining pipe and premium connections. Representing an investment of US$ 57 million (€ 42 million), the new production facility will ramp-up in phases, starting with one manufacturing line operating in mid-2012, and multiple lines operating by the end of 2013.

In Saudi Arabia, Vallourec completed the acquisition of Zamil Pipes on 25 November 2011, for a total consideration of € 97 million. This acquisition provides Vallourec with ready-to-run heat treatment capacity and threading facilities of up to 100 kt of pipe per year which will be combined with the existing project to build a VAM threading facility, on the same site. These operations reinforce Vallourec's local presence with end-finishing facilities to serve the premium OCTG market in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East.

Philippe Crouzet, Chairman of Vallourec's Management Board stated: "Increasingly complex and challenging drilling conditions and important safety and environmental considerations are driving demand for premium OCTG and VAM® connections – the leading premium connections in the world. These investments are fully in line with our strategy to strengthen our local presence and provide more premium solutions both in North America, where we are a leading domestic supplier of OCTG; and in Saudi Arabia, in response to growing demand from the world's largest oil producer, Saudi Aramco, and other customers in the Middle East."

1 OCTG = Oil Country Tubular Goods

VAM® is a registered trademark of the Vallourec Group

About Vallourec

Vallourec is a world leader in premium tubular solutions primarily serving the energy markets, as well as other industrial applications.

With over 20,000 employees, integrated manufacturing facilities, advanced R&D, and presence in more than 20 countries, Vallourec offers its customers innovative global solutions to meet the growing energy challenges of the 21st century.

Listed on NYSE Euronext in Paris (ISIN code: FR0000120354, Ticker VK) and eligible for the Deferred Settlement System, Vallourec is included in the following indices: MSCI World Index, Euronext 100 and CAC 40.

In the United States, Vallourec has a sponsored Level 1 American Depository Receipt (ADR) program (ISIN code: US92023R2094, Ticker: VLOWY). The ratio of Vallourec ADR to ordinary shares is 5:1.

Back to all press releases


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Breaking News

Gov. Obi appeals for massive investment in state economy

By Akoma Chinwoke
THE Anambra State governor, PeterÂ Â Â  Obi, has said massive investmentÂ Â  and effective development plan were critical to growth of the state stressing that there was no development master plan in place when he assumed office which was why,Â  he had to take time to plan the direction the state would move to ensure its rapid economic development.

Obi who disclosed this in Lagos at a Town Hall Meeting with Association of Anambra State Development Unions pointed out that his vision was to transform the state into at virile, safe and modern economy that guarantees the most conducive environment for habitation and self actualization by the year 2030.

He emphasized that now that the state has a master plan, all that is required was for the people to be united and committed to the development and rebuilding process of the state by investing massively in the state. Earlier the president of Auto Spare parts and Machinery Dealers Association (ASPAMDA), Chief Sunday Ohanazoeze described as promising, the development of the state under Governor Peter Obi.

Chief Ohanazoeze, who was the chairman of the occasionÂ  in his opening remarks said : â€œIt is an incontestable fact that no Local Government in Anambra state today can deny the efficacy of the Anambra state Integrated Development Strategy (ANIDS), which impact is being felt in every sector of the stateâ€™s economy and the various councils at large.â€
The chairman also commended the governor for his insistence on prudence and the investment of the stateâ€™s money on the people and not sharing it among the elite. In his words:

â€œI am convinced,Â  from the projects on ground in the state, that AnambraÂ  under Mr. Peter Obi is not only making progress, but is on the right track.â€ In his speech, president of the Association of Anambra State Development Unions (AASDU), Lagos , Chief Emmanuel Anyadike, explained that the Town Hall meeting was to afford the people of the state resident in Lagos the opportunity to hear about the state of the state from the governor himself.

Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof.


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The Best Entries from Harvard’s Class of 2003 Tenth Anniversary Report, Sans Context

As a frequent employer of Harvard graduates, we at Vanity Fair receive alumni mail in our office from time to time. This week, we were delighted to find a thick, crimson-covered book in our mailbox: the Harvard Class of 2003 Tenth Anniversary Report. We opened it to find page after page of personal updates from the prestigious university’s Class of 2003 graduates. And they're worth sharing.

Without further ado, we answer the urgent question: what has Harvard’s Class of 2003 been up to?

1. Creating jobs:

I’m looking forward to catching up with everyone. Anyone interested in babysitting, we pay generously.

2. Dreaming poetically:

My wife and I dream of having a house with a Japanese bath to soak in on cold nights.

3. Describing what it’s like to dream:

Having a dream is like carrying a compass. It more often than not leads me in the right direction, but it’s also a constant hustle. I wonder if there is a life where people are content, not striving—where having children doesn’t seem like a distraction. I love stories of football players gearing up for draft day. The low-round picks, trying to prove themselves, waking up at 5:00 AM to train, their entire family depending on them to make it. And then you get the call. The hustle begins again.

“No matter how long it takes, no matter how far …”

4. Visiting London:

“She’s a cool mistress, this wondrous London: ever forgiving but never one to forget. I have returned to her triumphant, lost it all and been broke, then made it again, under her sight, to once more be loved by this, the greatest of the world’s cities.”

5. Picking up hobbies:

“I’ve recently taken up boxing in the tradition of Teddy Roosevelt (1880).”

6. Making important life decisions:

Some Things That Happened To Me Since Last Reunion:

Moved from New York to Portland, Oregon, where:

  • Work really does end at 5:00 PM.

  • No one ever pulls all-nighters. Not the work kind, anyway.

  • No one ever asks where you went to school.

  • I love it! But still adjusting. Obviously.

Wrote. A lot.

  • Published fifty-plus magazine features on topics including: being tall, vibrators, sitting, and ayahuasca.

  • Collected 3,500 relationship diaries from around the globe, and published a series of books in the US, UK, and Italy.

  • Awoke at times like 3:00, 3:15, and 3:20 to promote said books on morning television shows.

Started giving speeches on healthy relationships to college kids.

  • Discovered that many of them have had zero sexual education.

  • Found that this line of work is ridiculously fun.

Shot a TV pilot for Oprah’s Network.

Underwent a career crisis, which involved feeling lost and unmoored and unsure of what to do next.

Spent a while trying to do anything but write.

Fell into relationship psychodrama.

  • Sigh.

  • Exited. Finally.

Traveled to: Iceland, India, Turkey, Cambodia, England, Germany, etc.

  • I am writing this in Cambodia.

  • Hi.

Met the love of my life.

  • Found him at a friend’s thirtieth birthday party, themed “Birth of a Cougar.”

  • Wooed him long-distance, via origami mail. (Yes. You can put a stamp on origami and mail it.)

  • Married him.

  • Became 100 percent more helpful to friends getting married. Previously didn’t get it.

Ran a half-marathon.

7. Performing slam poetry:

(Originally performed as epic-tragic slam poetry in a karaoke bar in Fayetteville, Arkansas.) . . .

Secretive billionaire wants a secretive screenplay? Fancy talks with producers. Move to Los Angeles.

Los Angeles, California: Tired city blocks and blocks with veins of angry traffic and combusted pollution. Or perhaps fresh air beachy dreamers seeking sunshine and palm trees? One’s commute shapes the shades of it. The fancy screenplay never gets funded. The John Harvard guy in a West Coast city is just as surprising as the Idaho guy in Cambridge. Extreme global poverty will end if you can only help it to. What’s the hang-up? Despite the rumors, the philanthropers and innovatists refuse to dance on the same dance floor. Techie fast programmed objects grow more common as surf beach becomes silicon beach. Silicone and silicone merger—the superficiality of Hollywood meets the rising waves of venture capital. Where the private runway of private airlines meets with java platforms and partners and companies. Investing and divesting. Business plans, decks, and sharing shares and lives with others who hope to make a mark, a difference, to create something new at all costs, to change the world if just a little bit, and cash out sooner than later.

Ride on the storied winds of creation and humiliation. The vast world needs bold and authentic leaders who can bare their hearts and keep their heads.

8. Having babies:

You probably felt the earth shift beneath your feet on May 1, 2012, when our daughter, Charlotte, was born, and thus, a new center of the universe.

9. Naming them:

“River,” “Daisuke,” “Sebastian,” “Luke Michael,” “Hendrix,” “Lynx,” “Dante,” “Hans Teodros,” “Teegan May,” “Cole Sidharth,” and “Zora Ruby.”

10. And last but not least, engaging in Smash Bros. rivalries:

*Yeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaah, boooooooyyyyyyyyy!*Obviously, I bought a Nintendo Wii, and obviously, there’s a Smash Bros. game for it. So obviously, Kevin Clancy ’03 and I renewed our rivalry after he graduated from business school and moved a few blocks away from me on the Upper West Side. I am happy to say that I currently lead him 112-103 all-time (we play one-on-one, in Brawl mode, because of course we do, what do you think we are, weirdos?) The process of writing a ten-year update forces me to survey our *Smash Bros.*activities and accomplishments, which, to my surprise, are extensive. Here are some highlights:

  • July 6, 2009: After three straight losses, Kevin switches characters from Ness to Kirby, just to mix things up. Kicking Ness’s butt had become such a matter of routine and predictable movements that the switch turns the tide. I go on to lose five matches in a row. Kevin cackles relentlessly.

  • September 23, 2009: You know that move Samus has where she can rope the opponent in with a chain and then throw them in the opposite direction, inflicting not-insignificant damage? I have trouble with that move sometimes. Not on September 23, 2009. Oh, no. Not at all, my dear friends.

  • April 10, 2010: I return from surgery on a tendon in my right (ass-kicking) hand to challenge Kevin to “smash it up” once again. Kevin returns, a bit skeptical that I’d be able to keep up, since I had limited dexterity. And that wasn’t a bad thought, really. But what he didn’t know—couldn’t have known—was that, well, the hand surgery? It was a fiction, a con, a ruse. I hadn’t had surgery on a tendon in my hand. I don’t even know with certainty whether hands have tendons. What I do know is that a once-complacent Kevin Clancy straight up got his ass handed to him that day.

  • July 8, 2010: LeBron James announces on primetime television that he is signing with the Miami Heat. I, a hopeful Knicks fan, am distraught and listless. Kevin, who really never gave a crap about basketball, more or less has his way with me in Smash Bros.

  • November 14, 2010: Before we settle down on my couch to start playing Smash Bros., I ask Kevin to listen to a little something I’d put together “for the lady in my life.” I pick up my guitar and play a near flawless version of James Taylor’s “Something in the Way She Moves,” which is frequently (but really never should be) confused with the Beatles’ “Something.” Completely different song, and Taylor’s is vastly better. Anyway, my rendition is tender and stunning. Simply stunning. Kevin, having known me since 1996 and roomed with me for two years at Harvard, has no idea that this is a talent I even possess. My fingers are nimble—perhaps about as nimble as one would expect for someone who’s used those same fingers to kick his ass in *Smash Bros.*for years, but he doesn’t see it coming. And my voice is like an angel’s. I softly utter—practically whisper—the final line, “She’s been with me now / Such a long, long time / Yes, and I feel fine,” and I can see a tear escape Kevin’s eye.

“Good grief, Marto,” he says. “That … that was actually beautiful.”

“Thanks, man,” I say. Then a beat. “I just hope your mom likes it.”

A genuinely furious Kevin goes on to take nine of twelve from me in Smash Bros. that day, but honestly, it was totally worth it.

  • April 2, 2011: Kevin beats me thirteen out of twenty games on the same day that India beats Sri Lanka by six wickets in the Cricket World Cup Final. Which is pretty eerie, if you think about it long enough and are really high.

  • January 19, 2012: Do you know how much better competitive *Smash Bros.*is if you play NFL Films music in the background? On this day, we learn.

  • April 13, 2012: I finally finish reading that one three-page long entry from the last Red Book. I feel moved. No, I don’t. I beat Kevin 14-5. With Luigi, no less. And Luigi sucks.


text:
The Garden of Kabbalah

Kabbalah gets dismissed as a fad—with its chic red string bracelets, “blessed” water, and star convert Madonna—but the practice has changed some of Hollywood’s biggest egos into, well, nicer people. The problem lies at the rapidly expanding Kabbalah Centre, whose leaders seem to be turning faith into a business.

Over the course of 5,000 years, wandering Jewish teachers have brought their ancient wisdom to Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon, Caligula’s Rome, and Ivan the Terrible’s Moscow. Now they have found themselves at Kitson, a superhot store on Los Angeles’s Robertson Boulevard that sells “Betty & Veronica” baseball caps and tight little T-shirts that read, HILTON LOHAN 2004. Tonight the store is teeming with paparazzi and frantic camera crews, jostling as if this were the Emmys. The occasion is a publication party for The Red String Book, a pocket-size work about wool bracelets said to ward off the Evil Eye. It was written by Yehuda Berg, elder son of Rabbi Philip Berg (generally referred to as “the Rav”), founder and top guru of the Kabbalah Centre. The seekers of Jewish mystical wisdom here tonight include a smattering of girls in micro-minis and Ugg boots, checking out the Juicy Couture and eating red-dyed sushi, and several Colin Farrell look-alikes, wearing Kabbalah chic: beat-up T-shirts with suit jackets, cords, cool sneakers, and newsboy caps. Among the somewhat bold-faced names are the men’s-wear designer Bijan, former Nicole Brown Simpson intimate Faye Resnick, and Donald Trump’s second wife, Marla Maples, whose entrance causes Karen Berg, wife of the Rav, to crumple with joy.

“Gorgeous!” she exclaims, abruptly dropping her conversation with the frump next to her as Maples comes over to say hello. Karen, 62, sends out a vibe that you’d expect more from the wife of a shopping-mall magnate than that of a religious guru. A boxy woman wearing a red wig and silk blouse, she glides her hand down Maples’s delightful figure and gives her the thumbs-up. “*Seeexxy!*”

As they have in other imperial capitals around the world for millennia, the rabbis are finding the jaded rich eager for their wisdom. Consider Wes Stevens, a type-A talent agent for voice-over actors. Given his Sikh doctor, his yoga instructor, his nutritionist, his dermatologist, and his almost daily lunches at Fred Segal, you’d think he would have been well taken care of. Then he found Kabbalah, and something amazing happened: his tendency to get snippy and all bent out of shape disappeared. Here is how he handled life’s hard knocks thrown at him this particular week: “I was stood up by a guy, my dog was discovered to have a mass, and my computer crashed,” he says. “Before [Kabbalah], I would’ve not been able to get out of bed. By the end of the week, I could laugh about it.”

The Kabbalah Centre, which opened in Los Angeles in 1984 and in Richmond Hill, New York, a year after, can seem frivolous—a Jewishy New Age emporium selling “Sexual Energy” and “Dialing God” candles, magic amulets, and elaborately tarted-up common sense. Its philosophy has little resemblance to the ancient Jewish mysticism whose name it bears. But, for thousands of people—especially those with short fuses and the conviction that the world revolves around them—the new Kabbalah has achieved some remarkable results. From coast to coast, film-industry people, members of the chattering classes, and creative icons are becoming more generous, calmer, and, well … nicer. While the teachings are filled with jargon—about opening curtains, plugging in, and becoming vessels—the message, in its purest form, is old and simple: giving makes life better. It’s the golden rule of the Jewish rabbi Jesus: Love thy neighbor as thyself. Getting that message into the head of a Hollywood agent is no small feat.

Trouble is, just as the kabbalist students are learning to exist on a higher plane, the Kabbalah Centre’s leaders seem to be falling for the material world whence these seekers have come. In their zeal to spread Kabbalah throughout the world (they already have some 50 Centres and satellite branches internationally), the Bergs, of late, have resorted to some unappealing commercialism, offering not only a catalogue’s worth of related but arguably extraneous products, but also the kinds of claims that some say give false hope. “They’ve taken the whole idea of Kabbalah and twisted it around,” says a disillusioned former student from the Centre. “Would you see the Dalai Lama taking out an ad and doing a party at Kitson?” asks another.

Kabbalah, which means “to receive,” traces its roots to medieval Provence and Spain. In those days, it existed on the far fringes of Jewish mysticism, which, in its broadest strokes, was about seeking a closer, more immediate relationship with God, as opposed to the traditional, legalistic approach of Orthodox Judaism. The aim of Kabbalah was to explain no less than the inner workings of the soul and the divine world, and to end humanity’s separation from God, which occurred at the moment of creation. Deeply complex, dangerous even, Kabbalah was reserved for married Orthodox Jewish men over 40. As a prerequisite, they had to have mastered the entire rabbinic literature. Once they joined the ranks, they routinely fasted and rolled around naked in the snow in the name of self-abnegation before God. “It was esotericism par excellence,” says Allan Nadler, director of the Jewish Studies program at Drew University, in Madison, New Jersey. “It was the equivalent of a truly elite monastery somewhere in the middle of nowhere.”

Today’s Kabbalah, by contrast, has been embraced by thousands of people worldwide, many of them not Jewish. On any given day at the L.A. Kabbalah Centre, located in a former Korean Presbyterian church and children’s nursery on South Robertson Boulevard, you might see an African immigrant, a pair of Mexican gardeners, or a Beverly Hills wife with false breasts wandering about to find out what Madonna and Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher know that they don’t. A Sting recording from the later years might be playing quietly in the background. There are lots of attractive things for sale: candles with names like “DNA of the Soul,” various ointments, cute baby clothes, energy bars. All the essential, glossy texts—written by the Rav or either of his two rabbi sons, Yehuda, 32, and Michael, 31—are on prominent display for easy perusal. Published in large print, sometimes with bold pink or red capitals, these revered texts are peppered with pop-culture references we’ve all heard of—A-Rod and Michael Jordan, pizza and chocolate cake—and phrases like “Big time!” and “Let’s Get Crazy!” But the promises are beyond what was previously thought possible: “total fulfillment,” “power of prosperity,” and “endless joy,” which, The Power of Kabbalah assures us, includes “the joy of sex and the ecstasy of chocolate.”

Some who seem to be seekers may simply be trying to catch a glimpse of Madonna, who has integrated kabbalistic symbols into the backdrops for her concerts, written children’s books inspired by Kabbalah, and reportedly donated millions to various Centre branches and initiatives. (The latest official sum, according to her publicist, Liz Rosenberg, is $5 million, but reports have run upwards of $20 million.) Though Madonna is the most famous celebrity associated with the movement, on any given night at the Centre you might also run into her husband, Guy Ritchie, Demi and Ashton, Marla, Donna Karan, Roseanne Barr, or Sandra Bernhard, the pioneer of the group, who started studying Kabbalah in 1995. Other famous people who have recently checked it out include Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson, Courtney Love, Jerry Hall, Mick Jagger, Winona Ryder, Monica Lewinsky, Victoria Beckham, Sarah Ferguson, and blonde shiksa babes Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, and Paris Hilton. Train wrecks, skanks, convicted felons—all are welcome. Like any church worth its salt, the Kabbalah Centre is a hospital for sinners, not a museum of saints.

How does it work? First off, there’s not a lot of God talk. As Yehuda, a bearlike, somewhat insecure-seeming man in a yarmulke, explains, the world already has too much of the “My god is better than your god” thing. The word kabbalists use instead is “light.” Light is perfection, and light wants for nothing, but, rather, gives indefinitely. Think of a match lit in a football stadium, an analogy the teachers frequently use. Therefore, there is no “praying” to the light. The goal, instead, is to “make a connection” to the light, to become more like light itself; i.e., to give. While there are no E-meters to attach to your fingertips (as in Scientology), there is much electrical talk—of neutrons, protons, and, especially, energy. At the New York book party for The Red String Book, at DKNY in mid-December, an excitable Donna Karan explains that it was energy, in part, that drew her to Kabbalah. “I pick up on energy because I work with energy,” she says, bursting with enthusiasm, flashbulbs popping off behind her. “I’m very energetically sensitive.” She holds her hands in front of her. “Have you ever noticed how light comes off your fingertips? … Now, do you feel that?” she asks, placing one hand an inch from your chest, another an inch from your back. “That’s energy!”

There’s lots more energy in store at the Shabbat service at the L.A. Centre, where the men, all of whom wear white to “attract positive energy,” are separated from the women by a low screen, as in a traditional Orthodox synagogue. Vigorous, ecstatic singing fills the room as Esther Sibilia, the Centre’s stunning, 43-year-old book publisher, bellows above the din to this reporter, “I wouldn’t use the tape recorder!,” before explaining something about short-circuiting—due to all the energy. Suddenly the floor erupts in a new noise—“Ay!” “Ay!” “Ay!”—as the seekers deliriously pump their hands in the air and make like they’re throwing something. “We’re sending energy towards Chernobyl,” Sibilia cries, her bright, green eyes aglow. “We’re transforming negative energy to light!”

Throughout the Torah reading, the men meander, carrying small children on their shoulders and trading bear hugs, while the women—a logjam of large jewelry and excellent nose jobs—zip well-manicured fingernails along the Hebrew words at lightning speed. “This line gets us back to the seed,” Sibilia shouts, zeroing in on a line of the Zohar, the main kabbalistic interpretation of the Torah. “It takes us up to today with a corrected DNA. We’re moving forward with less robotic energy!” A routine activity is the meditation on the 72 Hebrew names of God, each of which is endowed with self-improvement properties—an innovation of Yehuda’s—such as “defusing negative energy and stress” and “dumping depression.”

The Jewish establishment is up in arms over Philip Berg’s kabbalism (or “Bergism,” as one critic prefers to call it). It has been denounced by the chief rabbis of Great Britain and South Africa, and by Jewish leaders in the United States and Canada. It’s been called “dangerous,” “cheap,” and “pagan.” Rabbi Yuval Sherlo, of an Israeli hesder yeshiva, spoke for many when he said, during the 3,000-strong Kabbalah Centre pilgrimage to Israel in September, “It’s hard for me to express in words how much I despise this festival and to what extent it has nothing to do with Kabbalah.”

Nadler, who slipped into a couple of lectures at the New York Centre, breaks down the problem. “They didn’t hold press conferences,” he says of the original kabbalists, “and they certainly didn’t put on cone-like bras and prance around. And strap-on penises.” More offensive, says Nadler, is that, while a couple of Berg’s concepts are loosely rooted in tradition, mainly his teachings are a subversion of real Kabbalah. “The goal of the mystic is not to get rid of lower-back pain. It’s actually to increase it,” says Nadler. “What [the Kabbalah Centre] is teaching is the antithesis. They are saying, Here is a vehicle for self-empowerment, to feel better. It’s about healing. It’s about getting laid more often.”

Whatever the ancient kabbalists would have thought about them, the new students are gung-ho, even fanatical. They all have stories about how Kabbalah has profoundly helped them. Addicts have been rehabilitated, broken families brought back together, the egomaniacal brought back to earth.

“L.A. starts to feel really egocentric,” says writer-actor-director Vanessa Parise (Kiss the Bride), who was introduced to Kabbalah through private classes in the home of rising star Monet Mazur. “I was like, God, everything is about me. I’m going to acting class and yoga. It’s all about me and my career, and then when I went there, and it is about you, but you’re just a vessel that you can share with the world.” Andy Behrman—whose riveting 2002 memoir, Electroboy, chronicled his struggles with bipolar disorder, drug binges, sex binges, Barneys binges, hustling, counterfeiting Mark Kostabi paintings during his stint as a publicist for the artist, five months in prison, and electroshock therapy—has found that Kabbalah is integral to maintaining the stability he now enjoys. (He is currently the Centre’s publicist.)

For Southern Baptist Marla Maples, Kabbalah has provided the answers to the spiritual questions she has pondered since youth, such as “Who made God?,” and also healed the rage she’d accumulated during her two-year “You’re Fired!” divorce proceedings from Donald Trump. “During that period of time, you think you’ve cleared out a lot of the pain by the time you decide to move on,” says Maples. “But, as I started looking deeper at myself, I realized there were still places inside where I held anger, or had blame. [Kabbalah] helped me learn to take responsibility for my own choices and no longer be the victim.”

Personal assistants and parking attendants all over L.A. have the Kabbalah Centre to thank for taming world-class divas. Consider Roseanne Barr, a woman who publicly accused her parents of sexual abuse, grabbed her crotch after singing the national anthem at the 1990 World Series, and casually talked about trying to stab a former executive producer. When she became involved in Kabbalah, her goal had nothing to do with changing herself; as far as she was concerned, everyone else was the problem. “I was one of those Jewish people that goes and studies Buddhism and everything else,” she explains. Then one day Sandra Bernhard mentioned that Moses had split the Red Sea by meditating on certain Hebrew letters. “I was like, ‘What?!’” recalls Barr with a cackle. Informed that Kabbalah encompassed some of her other interests, such as numerology and astrology, she went along with Bernhard to a class.

There she met Rav Berg, a man “so awesomely about love that it just blows your mind”—someone who is kind to animals and who, during every service, dandles on his knee his two-and-a-half-year-old grandson, Josh (Michael’s son), who has Down syndrome. That first day, the Rav had a surprise for Barr—a manuscript written by one of his colleagues about Roseanne Conner, the obnoxious crank she played on television, and how this woman could benefit from Kabbalah. “It was just so weird, I’m like, ‘Whaaa?’” recalls Barr. “The way this guy had written about Roseanne Conner, he was, like, seeing deeply into Roseanne Barr, and he was saying these things like, you know, that she always was quick to judgment.”

Barr went on to study with Rabbi Eitan Yardeni, a quiet, good-looking, 41-year-old Israeli, who is a teacher at the Centre. Magnetic, disarming, and patient, Yardeni employs the kind of techniques used by a tough therapist. He refuses to coddle and flatter, but rather forces the seeker, often through long silences, to probe his own role in his misery. One Hollywood power player found the Centre “sweaty” and “culty,” until this person met Yardeni. His roster—Barr, Madonna, Demi, Ashton—reads like the CAA client list and is growing. “Roseanne had a Kabbalah meeting,” says producer Sandy Gallin, recalling how he got involved. “I took Dolly Parton and Barry Diller. Something about Eitan really attracted me. When you meet someone like Deepak Chopra or Eitan Yardeni, you want to get as much as you can.”

After a few years of hard work with Yardeni, Barr became kind of … decent. “All my relationships and everything were pretty well damaged by my bad behavior,” says Barr. “I was able to turn around and heal because of the fact that I could find a quiet space inside my mind and get rid of my fear and feel love… . I had an estranged family—we didn’t speak for 15 years. Now I have a wonderful relationship with my mother and my siblings and with my children and with everyone that I have relationships with. I don’t get high off getting angry anymore.”

Nine years of Kabbalah have similarly mellowed Madonna, once a veritable crucible of selfishness, according to those who know her. “I stopped thinking that I was the beginning and end of everything,” says Madonna, who nonetheless admits that old habits die hard. When she starts acting out, the Rav keeps her in line. “I mean, I see people behaving like obvious idiots all the time, and I’ve had conversations, and I’ve said, ‘Oh God, that’s ridiculous. I can’t believe this person. It’s so selfish, it’s so this, so that.’ He’ll just look at me and just say, ‘You know, you’re using those adjectives again.’”

The kabbalists have a scientific theory for why being nice is a good idea—they call it the Butterfly Effect. Kabbalist Adam Isaacs, a UTA agent who handles Keira Knightley and Juliette Binoche, breaks it down into terms those in his business might understand: “If you scream at your assistant, which you’re allowed to do—I mean, not allowed to do, but you can get away with it ostensibly—you know, your assistant may not be in a position where she or he can yell back at you,” he says. “What they may do is go out to dinner that night and scream at a waiter. Just because it’s got to come out, they’ll scream at a waiter. You have to understand that you’re responsible for that waiter’s evening getting ruined.”

It’s unfair to say that all of the Centre’s adherents are raging tyrants. For many Jews among the crowd, the relevance and participatory ways of Kabbalah satisfy a greater spiritual need than the traditional Judaism they grew up on—the rote, “We destroy, we embitter, we falsify … ” Over a bland Shabbat meal of lamb and couscous at the Centre, attended by a couple hundred hard-core members, Erica Aaron, an attractive eye surgeon wearing a white newsboy cap, explains how the Centre was a refreshing antidote to her old synagogue in Beverly Hills, where, she says, “everyone would eye each other and gossip. ‘I saw her husband with so-and-so.’ They all looked each other up and down.” In the Kabbalah Centre, she found not only wisdom that made sense to her but a home. “This place is like a cocoon of love and trust. In this world, it’s so rare that it’s hard to believe it. [My husband and I] would go home and say, ‘Was that woman for real? Is she really that nice?’ There always has to be an agenda.”

Aaron is right; there is a good feeling during the Shabbat dinner at the Centre. Conversation is easy and full of laughter; time passes quickly. After the meal, Aaron goes to a microphone and, choking back tears, tells the group how much they have done for her this year. Throughout the rest of the evening, women come up to her and give her tight, warm embraces.

In addition, there is another category of modern kabbalists altogether: lovely, somewhat New Agey hoots—people like Jeanette Longoria, a fabulously blonde and sexy 77-year-old social queen from Texas. Raised Presbyterian, she has, over the years, accumulated seven gorgeous children, 13 grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, two mogul husbands (both now deceased), a magnificent estate in San Antonio, a Manhattan apartment at the top of the Olympic Tower, and friends who include Moroccan royalty, ambassadors, style expert Elsa Klensch, and the late Eleanor Lambert, founder of the International Best-Dressed List. For Longoria’s third act, she is spreading the word on how to have an amazing love life after 60, chiefly through her recent book, Aphrodite and Me, the cover of which features a picture of Longoria—looking all of 20—in a diaphanous gown emerging from the Mediterranean Sea in Cyprus. As she explains it, with a charming Texas lilt, “My whole thing is love.”

A key piece to her whole thing of love is Rabbi Moshe Rosenberg, 46, of the New York Kabbalah Centre, whom she met two years ago through a friend after lunching next to the Centre, on East 48th Street. “He was just wonderful,” says Longoria, recalling how she and the rabbi clicked that day, talking about family and, of course, love. Soon thereafter Rabbi Rosenberg, a stout Israeli with a small beard and an unassuming manner, was sharing his kabbalistic wisdom with the Bergdorf crowd in Longoria’s apartment, amid the mirrored walls, matching white furniture, mountains of frilly pillows, and soft paintings of lounging, Longoria-esque creatures.

She passes around clementines and dates, which are to be eaten simultaneously, she gently instructs. “Just bliss,” she promises. She settles into the sofa and smiles warmly, casting an eye toward the rabbi. “He says the books have energy,” she says, referring to the multi-volume Zohar.

“Not only books,” Rosenberg says rabbinically. “Objects. This silver has energy,” he says, picking up one of Longoria’s exquisite goblets and giving it a careful examination. “It’s white, so it reflects. That’s why you love silver.”

Longoria beams. Her eyes twinkle. “See what I mean? Isn’t he cute? … He’s a fabulous man. And I’m just a woman.”

“You’re not just a woman, and I think you know that,” says the rabbi. “She has Kabbalah inside already,” he explains. “She already is Kabbalah and doesn’t even realize it. Because Kabbalah is really just about love.”

“See, this is why we connected,” Longoria says. “I think everything should get to love.”

But even for this idealist, something doesn’t sit quite right. “I don’t like to see Kabbalah get too commercial,” she says privately.

Before all the star-studded parties, there was just one man. Born Feivel Gruberger in Brooklyn, Philip Berg attended yeshiva and was ordained as a rabbi before becoming an insurance agent. Then, in 1962, he met his first wife’s uncle, an Israeli kabbalist named Yehuda Brandwein, then dean of a yeshiva in Jerusalem, which would later become the Kabbalah Learning Centre. Berg and Brandwein corresponded by mail, examining kabbalistic questions. According to the Bergs, before Brandwein died he anointed Philip his successor. (Brandwein’s family, however, has denied the appointment of Berg.)

The mission was given fresh life in the early 70s when Berg happened again upon Karen, a Brooklyn woman who’d worked as a secretary in his office in the late 50s. A restless, ambitious nomad, said to have been into motorcycles, she was intrigued that this businessman was suddenly teaching Kabbalah and wearing a big fur hat, and she made a play for him. “I said to him, ‘I got a deal for you,’” recalls Karen, who beneath her wigs and silk jabot blouses still seems like a tough cookie. “‘I’ll work for free for you, but you teach me.’” Berg cautiously agreed, aware that teaching women was forbidden. But Karen wanted more. “Why don’t we teach it to the masses?” she asked him one day over lunch at Ratner’s Deli. “Because we’re gonna get killed,” he replied. Karen wouldn’t let up. “I said, ‘So what’ll happen? What can possibly happen?’ That’s how the Centres started.”

Berg married Karen, ditching his wife and seven children. After a few years of going back and forth between Queens and Israel, where their two sons were born, the Bergs, thanks to Karen’s chutzpah, went to Hollywood. Their first L.A. Centre was in Westwood, and it could fit no more than 60 people. If Kabbalah was to become a household word, if the Bergs were to be the McDonald’s of spirituality, they had to think outside the box.

Step one, they decided, was to play down the whole “Jewish” thing. Though they secured nonprofit “church status,” which relieved them of tax burdens, they began insisting that Kabbalah was not a religion, but rather “Technology for the Soul” that everyone should have access to. It paid off. When the Bergs opened the new Centre on South Robertson Boulevard, business increased tenfold. “It’s almost like Field of Dreams,” says Yehuda, who loves dropping pop-cultural references. “You build it, they will come.”

They became unabashed networkers, Karen in particular, making bold phone calls to whatever machers they knew, in order to connect to Hollywood’s biggest, wealthiest names. Now, with Demi and Madonna reportedly hosting $75,000 Kabbalah parties at the most happening clubs worldwide, like the private Home House in London, the Centre brings along its own videographer to document every scintillating exchange between a Berg and a boldfaced name. It markets its wares with as much splash as possible—hence a billboard at Sunset and La Cienega Boulevards for The Red String Book, announcing, BUY THE BOOK EVERYONE’S WEARING. “When I saw that sign on Sunset, I was like, They sold out,” says a former student. “Scientology and L. Ron Hubbard does stuff like that.”

The Bergs have made little effort to conceal their special treatment of famous people. Madonna, says this same student, prays behind her very own screen, to protect her from the Evil Eye. At Shabbat, she’ll sit at the A-list table with the Bergs or Eitan Yardeni. Recalls the student, who ate with the hoi polloi, “Madonna’s table had glass, real plates, and knives and forks. Everyone else ate off plastic… . We were eating this crap off, like, paper plates and didn’t know what was what. They had different, nice wine.” When this student pointed out the inequity to those around her, “I think that other people were like, ‘Oh my God, but she has more light. She’s more of a vessel.’” (The Centre denies that Madonna prays separately and that anyone uses plastic.)

Yardeni is refreshingly honest when asked about his reaction when she became his student: “I felt I had a bigger responsibility.” As for Madonna’s take, she explains, “I’ve worked on developing friendships and relationships with certain people, like Eitan and/or the Rav. So I probably have a more open-minded communication with them.”

The closeness between Madonna and the Centre’s leadership has led some insiders to believe that Madonna is borderline brainwashed, that she is “sucked in beyond a point of reason.” According to these sources, she has told friends that studying may help you get pregnant or remove the chaos from your life, that she has even lost friends, such as actress Debi Mazar, because they weren’t buying it.

Madonna denies that she pushes Kabbalah on anyone. “I just have a policy,” she says. “If people ask me questions and they’re interested, then I will discuss things with them, or I’ll give them books to read, or I’ll tell them about classes, or I’ll introduce them to a teacher. Otherwise, no, because Kabbalah isn’t something that you can drag anybody to. You really have to come to it on your own.”

On the other hand, there are rumors that Madonna has had her own frustration with the Centre. Sources say that during her most recent tour a couple of Kabbalah students, at the behest of the Centre, scalped a number of donated tickets and were caught. A source says that Madonna got steamed at the Centre’s leadership and told them in no uncertain terms that they needed to get their act together—leaving them quaking in their boots. (Both Madonna and the Centre’s leadership deny that there has been any tension whatsoever.)

Starting around 1989, the Bergs came up with another winning strategy: selling miracles. They came up with Kabbalah Mountain Spring Water, for which they charge $3.80 a bottle, claiming it cleanses the soul and can cure ills. No matter that there is little precedent in either traditional Judaism or Kabbalah for this water, and that it comes from a plant in Canada; followers swilled it. Barr, who had liver damage when she began studying, partially credits the water for restoring her health. Over Shabbat dinner at the Centre, Sandy Shadgoo, an attractive Angeleno of Persian descent, recalls how her two-year-old son, who had been afflicted with so many allergies that he couldn’t leave the house, was healed when she followed the advice of her teacher to mix Kabbalah water into his bottle and to have him sleep with a miniature Zohar under his pillow. “In three days, he was running around outside,” says Shadgoo. “He had a macadamia-nut muffin and nothing happened.” Erica Aaron shakes her head in awe listening to the account and shares her own miracle: “I can’t tell you how many times the Zohar saved me from getting hit by a car.”

When it comes to potentially fatal car accidents, it seems Kabbalah’s amulets are especially potent. Last spring, a red string bracelet ($26) allegedly saved the life of Centre P.R. man Andy Behrman. “I was walking across Wilshire Boulevard in front of Saks,” recalls Behrman, who speaks with a gentle drawl. “I was on my way to my therapist, and I crossed the street, and a car going about 55 miles an hour went through a red light and hit me. I was a pedestrian. There’s no way I could have survived that [without the string]. I went up in the air, my head went through the windshield, and I had this split second where I thought, The end of my life, right in front of Saks.” He suffered only a few cuts and scrapes.

In his book Becoming Like God, Michael Berg spells it out in giant pink capitals: “IT IS NOW POSSIBLE FOR LARGE NUMBERS OF PEOPLE TO ESCAPE THE PRISON OF PAIN, SUFFERING, AND DEATH.”

Among the true believers, as with Christian Scientists, medical science is regarded as useless. “How much money has gone into cancer research? And what has it done?” asks Esther Sibilia with such fervor that there’s no use pointing out the obvious evidence to the contrary. “You have to deal with the seed“—a key Kabbalah term. “What did that person do to allow that cell to attract the cancer?” However, this belief has not saved the Rav from health problems: in September he had a stroke. While his family insists that he is doing “amazing,” they have also kept him out of sight and quietly relocated him to New York for what they call “rehabilitation.”

For many who are sick—or who have family members who are sick—the message is clear and deeply unsettling: they are not being sufficiently kabbalistic. Many former students feel that the Centre is practicing spiritual blackmail. One tells how she has received the following kind of plea from the Centre: “Your child is sick and you can make them better by giving… . Give till it hurts.” Another says she was told that if she didn’t go on the grand High Holiday trip to New York—which cost about $2,000—her family would be in danger. “I have three little kids,” she says. “I’d leave them all and I would rush over to New York so I could be there.”

One member of a Florida group for former Kabbalah Centre members (the Kabbalah Support Group) claims that the Centre has destroyed people’s lives, becoming overly involved in marriages, for instance, advising Party A to divorce Party B if Party B has any doubts about the Centre. The Rav has said that six million Jews could have been saved from extinction during the Holocaust if only they had studied Kabbalah. He has also said that followers’ inner “opponent” is nothing other than a possession by Satan. To rid themselves of Satan, they must “share”—Kabbalah-speak for giving money and time to the Centre. Giving to other causes is actually discouraged, says a source. “They’re the ones who are really changing the world.”

Where does all the money go? To be sure, some is going toward the opening of new Centres throughout the world. But what about the rest? Tax records reveal that last year the New York branch had net assets of more than $24 million. The Centre has kept its financial books closed, leaving open the question of how much the family is taking out in the form of perks. As it happens, the Rav and Karen are building three houses in Beverly Hills for the family, all of which are titled to the Centre. Karen drives a Mercedes S500. She is given rings and necklaces by kabbalist jeweler-to-the-stars Neil Lane. As one source puts it, “Money is money, and they have a lifestyle that is supported by all of their students and all these businesses like the bookstore, the books, the red string, the candles—all of it. Quite honestly, it disgusts me.” (The Centre asserts, however, that anyone who doesn’t have the means to study can opt into the “scholarship fund,” and get free Zohars and free classes, which otherwise cost about $250 a course.) Another former student sees the motivation a bit differently: “These are people who want Kabbalah to take over the world.”

Meanwhile, the young volunteers, called Chevre (Hebrew for “friends”), live in apartments owned or rented by the Centre, and receive a $35 monthly stipend. Rick Ross and Steven Hassan, the country’s top cult-watchers, have each conducted interventions for such volunteers. Ross, who was hired by a prominent British family to persuade their daughter to quit, recalls, “At the end of the intervention, she decided to leave the Kabbalah Centre, return to England permanently, and she left with the clothes on her back. She had no savings, nothing.”

Few working Chevre, however, say they have a problem with the arrangement. Alison Cohen, 27, a sweet woman who appears to be at Yehuda’s beck and call, walks around with a somewhat glazed smile. When asked about her life, her job, the Centre, how she’s doing, the answer is always the same: “Amazing.” Another Chevre worker, Rachel Liberman, gave up her stipend when she got married, saying, “Right now I prefer not to get paid… . I like that idea that I’m putting that sharing out there.”

After all, for the true believers, no sacrifice is too great. Madonna speaks for many when she says that if Kabbalah were to spread throughout the globe it would mean an end to senseless killing. “The idea that hundreds of millions of people are conscious of the idea of cause and effect is huge,” she says. “I mean, there wouldn’t be any wars.”

Will Kabbalah move the world in the direction of peace, or will it become a victim of its own zeal? At the party for The Red String Book at DKNY, one can’t help but think that the latter is more likely. Ostensibly a benefit for Spirituality for Kids, the Centre’s outreach program for children —including at-risk inner-city youths—the party is a chaotic exhibition of materialism. The main event is a luxury auction. Among the wares are a Neil Lane necklace, a Chambord watch, and a Project Alabama jacket, all displayed in a glass case. The crowd feverishly pushes forward to take a gander as the hip auctioneer screams into his microphone, “Come on, guys, do I hear $525?” A woman with a paddle appears in doubt about whether to bid, prompting a boy in red to push his way through the crowd to get to her.

“I know the designer,” he shouts, nearly hysterical. “I can get it in your size! He’s one of my best friends!”

Meanwhile, a few other kabbalists are perusing the DKNY racks, trying to get a jump on Christmas shopping.

The paradox of the scene is inescapable. Yehuda, when he takes the microphone, is at least shrewd enough to know it should be addressed. “What we see tonight is a bridging of worlds,” he says, trying to sound cheerful. “You can be at DKNY in SoHo and still be spiritual!” It’s hard to tell whether even he believes it.

Evgenia Peretz is a Vanity Fair contributing editor who has written for the magazine on topics as diverse as the Bush administration’s war plans, extreme surfing, the 2000 presidential election, and the Jimmy Choo shoe empire.

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text:
Who Says the Financial Crisis Isn’t Funny?

Chin up, Wall Street. Although nothing short of market stability and a multi-billion-dollar bailout resolution would make bankers smile now, you may find solace in the entertainment industry’s offerings.

Andrew Lloyd Webber is offering pink-slip-carrying theatergoers free tickets to Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and The Sound of Music. Remember how Joseph’s expensive clothes landed him in slavery? Or how happy the von Trapps looked as they abandoned their worldly possessions and ran for the hills? Take note.

Tony Bennett is bringing back “Who Cares?,” a Gershwin tune from 1929. He tested the number at a charity benefit at Cipriani Wall Street this week, crooning: “Let it rain and thunder / Let a million firms go under / I am not concerned with / stocks and bonds that I’ve been burned with.” Guests Oprah Winfrey, Steve Wynn, and Sumner Redstone laughed uncertainly.Internet

Alec Baldwin is making an Interweb comeback with this spoof on a Fidelity commercial, originally aired in 2001.

Saturday Night Live’s Jason Sudeikis is offering this bit of wisdom as Lehman Brothers barrel-clad CEO Richard Fuld: “Life’s a crazy ride. A lot of ups and downs. One week you’re tucking into a $60 steak at Delmonico’s. The next you find yourself at a Greyhound station, wrestling a toddler for his Lunchables.”

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text:
Only 46 to Go

Our national editor looks ahead from Mitt Romney’s decisive Florida-primary win to the still-contentious months ahead.

The Republicans hoped that the Florida primary would be the beginning of the end—that one candidate’s path to the nomination would now be clear. But Mitt Romney’s win marks only the end of the beginning.

By Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.

For a party that, in modern times, has styled itself as the tribune of free markets and natural selection, the Florida Republican primary produced some strikingly anomalous—even artificial—results.

The winner, Mitt Romney—who had more votes, more nationwide support, more money from multiple donors—in short, more backing than any of his rivals—triumphed decisively. In a saner age, he would have been declared the prohibitive favorite for the G.O.P. nomination. (A little secret: even in an insane age, he probably still is.)

But because of the putatively free-market principles enshrined in the Supreme Court’s decision in the Citizens United case, which allowed unlimited “independent” expenditures by so-called Super PACs on behalf of favored candidates, Newt Gingrich has lived past what might have been his natural expiration date to triumph in South Carolina, and to have garnered enough support in Florida on Tuesday to say he will fight on to the Republican Convention in Tampa in August.

“If you have ideas, and you have solutions,” the former Speaker insisted, you can fight on to Burgundy. (But it surely helps if you have the multiple millions of your casino-owning friend Sheldon Adelson, whose support of your Super PAC has brought you this far.)

It remains to be seen just how long Gingrich will stay in the fray. In politics, a vow to fight to the end has all too often come to signal a willingness to drop out and endorse one’s rival for just enough consideration. The coming weeks will be uncongenial for Newt, involving as they do states such as Nevada, where Romney is strong. But the string of Southern primaries on “Super Tuesday,” March 6, constitute ground on which the former Speaker has prevailed in the past.

Gingrich has, more than once, shown himself perfectly capable of destroying an elephant village to save it, and his rhetoric on Tuesday night, while calm on the surface, was seething all the same.

“A competitive primary does not divide us,” Romney proclaimed in his Florida victory speech. “It prepares us, and we will win.”

Perhaps. Perhaps.

But Gingrich has, more than once, shown himself perfectly capable of destroying an elephant village to save it, and his rhetoric on Tuesday night, while calm on the surface, was seething all the same. “It’s now clear that this will be a two-person race, between the conservative leader, Newt Gingrich, and the Massachusetts moderate,” he said. “We are going to contest every place, and we are going to win, and we will be in Tampa as the nominee in August.”

For his part, Rick Santorum, the avatar of conservative Catholic-Christian values, has also vowed to fight on. So has Ron Paul. Well they might, for a while, because at the end of this week, barely 5 percent of the delegates needed for nomination will have been chosen. (Which is why Gingrich’s Election Night lectern had a sign proclaiming, “46 States,” as in how many more to go.)

The hope and dream of journalists and civics teachers lo these many years has been a national nominating convention that was not a pre-baked pie before the opening ding of the oven timer. The last time a G.O.P. nominee had to endure to a second ballot was in 1948, when Thomas E. Dewey got his second crack at the prize, and blew it—against Harry Truman. Dwight Eisenhower, the general whose political leanings had been unclear only months before, had to endure a stiff convention challenge from Senator Robert A. Taft of Ohio, “Mr. Republican.” (He won.) Gerald Ford fended off a similar challenge from Ronald Reagan in 1976 (and lost).

So the Republicans are now in a hell of a fix: If they don’t want Mitt Romney, their only alternative may be a return to the smoke-filled room. And if they’re aghast at the possibility that Gingrich might yet prevail in the skewed marketplace of ideas that allows single donors to put not only their thumbs but their entire net worth on the scale, it’s too late to change that in the short term, and they have only themselves, and the Supreme Court they’ve made, to blame.

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