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"The Boswell Legacy" (by Kyla Titus)
by Thomas Cunniffe

Nearly 80 years after making their last recordings as a trio, the Boswell Sisters are enjoying a resurgence in popularity. All three of the sisters—Connie, Martha and Vet—passed away many years ago, but in October 2014, several vocal groups from around the world gathered in the Boswell’s adopted hometown of New Orleans to celebrate and recreate the trio’s unique style. Recordings by some of these tribute groups were recently collected on a CD called “The Boswell Sisters: Their Music Goes Round and Round”. One of the groups at the convention but not represented on the CD, Duchess—featuring three vocalists previously reviewed on these pages, Amy Cervini, Hilary Gardner and Melissa Stylianou—plan to include the Boswell’s “good luck song”, “Heebie Jeebies” on their forthcoming release. Through overdubbing, Bette Midler covered all three vocal parts on “It’s the Girl”, the title track of her latest CD. In addition, a traveling exhibit of Boswell family artifacts was on display at the New Orleans gathering, a documentary on the Boswells called “Close Harmony” is scheduled to air on PBS in 2015, and Vet’s granddaughter, Kyla Titus has self-published a new book “The Boswell Legacy” which clears up several misconceptions about the Boswell’s lives and careers.

Much of the confusion regarding the Boswell Sisters can be traced to “the Foore Code”, a strict set of family bylaws which had been followed since before the Civil War. Basically, the code stated that family business stayed within the confines of the family, that everyone was expected to retain a united, loyal front regarding other family members, avoid saying unkind words about anyone else, and work hard for what they desired. Most importantly the code said if an unacceptable event occurs, close ranks, ignore facts or, if necessary, alter them. The Foore Code is a recurring metaphor in Titus’ book, and as the narrative comes to a close, she credits an infraction of the code as a factor in the breakup of the Boswell trio. Still, it is by breaking through the deceptions encouraged by the code that Titus deciphers the mysteries surrounding the family. For example, Connie’s legs were paralyzed due to a childhood incident. For years, it was reported that she was involved in an accident with a New Orleans streetcar. However, Titus recounts an account from the Boswell’s mother of an accident in Birmingham, where three-year-old Connie was thrown from a child’s pieced-together wagon. Connie was stricken with polio about the same time, and in a footnote, Titus claims both the polio and a later accident, from when Connie was 22, were the reasons Connie never walked again. Regardless of the cause, Connie’s paralysis made her the prime concern of her mother, who nearly ignored her newborn daughter, Vet, to care for Connie. Martha, the eldest daughter, had to take over some of the motherly duties, despite being only a teenager herself.

The Boswell family moved to New Orleans, where Connie, Martha, Vet and their older brother Clydie received instruction in classical music. Clydie was a prodigy on violin, but he died during the 1918 outbreak of Spanish influenza. The three sisters, who all played instruments as well as sang, became the focal point of the family. After initial successes in New Orleans and encounters with several local musicians (including the doomed trumpeter Emmet Hardy), the Boswell Sisters traveled to Chicago for an engagement at the Englewood Theatre. In reality, the “invitation” they received was only for an audition. They were finally accepted by a booking agent, and the sisters slowly built their act up to professional standards. After a miserable tour on the vaudeville circuit, the Boswells were encouraged to try their luck in California. When they arrived in San Francisco, the unescorted Boswells sisters naively checked into a brothel for their first night’s lodgings. The desk clerk, Harry Leedy, befriended them and eventually became Connie’s lover and the trio’s manager. However, there was another slow year for the sisters (and considerable concern from their parents) before Leedy took charge of the Boswell Sisters’ careers. Despite his inexperience in show business, the Boswells became major stars in radio, films and recordings.

The Boswell Sisters were true innovators who introduced many unique style elements into their approximately 100 recordings. To start, Connie, Martha and Vet could phrase together like few other trios, anticipating or delaying motives and incorporating subtle inflections in the same manner as a solo singer. While Titus and many other authors have attributed this to the sisters’ strong telepathy, there is little doubt that they planned and drilled these variations in rehearsal. Their arrangements featured surprising and frequent tempo changes, minor-key thematic transformations, uncanny imitations of instruments, thrilling riff patterns, and vocal tricks like “gulling” (a back of the throat sound later incorporated in Spike Jones’ recordings, but performed in three-part harmony by the Boswells) and “gibberish” (a Boswell family language resembling pig Latin). On some arrangements, the Boswells would completely jettison the song’s harmony and sing the lyrics over a 12-bar blues!

While the trio amassed a large fan base, Leedy decided to build up Connie’s solo career. Concerned for the welfare of all three daughters, the Boswell parents were instantly skeptical of Leedy’s intentions. However, they eventually acquiesced to Connie’s wishes. Titus posits that Leedy’s increasing attention to Connie’s solo career, and relative neglect of the trio was the main cause for the trio’s demise in 1936. However, the musical evidence indicates that the trio may have just run out its artistic course. Most of the innovations listed above had already appeared on Boswell recordings by the end of 1933. While the trio made several more fine recordings in the next two years—including an arrangement of “Dinah” which incorporated many of their achievements—they seemed to just plug in the old innovations rather than create new ones. With the exception of the remarkable “Let Yourself Go”, the group’s final recordings for Decca are disturbingly pedestrian, missing many of the innovations that had made the Boswell’s music so exciting just a few years earlier. All three of the sisters were married by that time, but Martha and Vet were quite willing to continue touring and recording with the trio (so much so that Vet kept her wedding a secret for over a year!). With the big band era just getting started, it’s rather surprising that Leedy didn’t try to team up the Boswell Sisters with an up-and-coming orchestra. Instead, Leedy decided that Connie should focus on her solo career and Connie—now Leedy’s wife—apparently agreed.

For all the benefits of Titus’ biographical research, the book suffers from an utter lack of musical analysis. The Boswell recordings—truly the centerpiece of their legacy— are basically ignored in favor of radio and film performances (most of which are unavailable at present). In the entire book, there is only one quote which describes a Boswell arrangement from beginning to end, and musicologist James Van Schilling accomplishes it without using musical jargon. Why wasn’t Van Schilling invited to include a comprehensive look at the Boswells’ music? (After all, he was the editor of the book!)  And if he wasn’t available, why not Will Friedwald, who described the complex arrangement of “Shout, Sister, Shout” in his book “Jazz Singing”, or Cynthia Lucas, who created a superb online audio essay on the elements of the Boswell style? Without a discussion of the Boswell Sisters’ music, Titus’ book is only useful to long-standing fans of the trio, and it will do little to encourage newcomers to explore the Boswell recordings. That is a missed opportunity—one that is especially tragic in light of the renewed interest in the Boswell Sisters.


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Men ought always to pray, and not to faint.

Archive for February, 2017

A Prayer of Praise

{Based on Psalm 103}

Abba Father, I will praise YOU because You are worthy of praise. I praise You for Your infinite attributes–I praise You for being holy, good, just, faithful, gracious, long-suffering, patient, kind and merciful. I praise You because You have a plan to save us from all that harms us and You have the desire and ability to execute this plan. In Your time, you will save us from our sin, our self, our weakness and all our sickness. You will save us from death, darkness, demons and diseases. I praise You because You do not give us what we deserve which is death and hell. I praise You for the ability to separate us from our sin as far as the east is from the west. I praise You for your infinite love which is higher than the heavens and deeper than outer space. I praise You because Your love is supernatural, unconditional, eternal, complete and perfect satisfying our souls deepest need. I praise you for creating me and for knowing me. You know more about me than I know about myself. You know my frailty, my weakness, my sins and my motives. There are no secrets with You. I praise You because You know me yet you love me. I praise You because You or KING of kings and LORD of lords: You are sovereign, You are in absolute control. I praise You because You allow us to serve You; what a joy it is to be your servant. In spite of all my failures; in spite of my fleshly nature, my inordinate pride, my selfish ambition and my uncontrolled anger: I will praise YOU because You are all that I am not and all that I long to be.

Prayer For Wisdom and Success

This prayer is based on Psalm 90

Abba Father, You are the Eternal One–You have no beginning and no end. You are clothed in mystery. By the power of your word, You created from nothing all that our eyes behold: the majectic mountains, the vast seas and endless space. You created us from the dust of the earth and to the dust these clay bodies will return but You breathed into our nostrils the breath of life, Your Ruach, Your Spirit and we became living souls who will dwell with You in eternity future. Our life here on earth is short; like a watch in the night, like a day at work. It passes like an evening shadow, it disappears like smoke from a cheminey or steam over a kettle. We are here for a moment and then we are gone. Please give us wisdom that we may use our brief time wisely. Deepen our respect for Your awesome power. Satisfy us with your perfect love. Give us joy even in the midst of sorrow. Make us glad to be your children. Show us Your power by transforming our lives into the image of Your sinless Son and let our children witness this power. May they become your humble servants and love You with all their heart. LORD our purpose is to please YOU and to this end, we pray for success. In Jesus name. Amen!

A Prayer For The President

Based on Psalm 72 {NIrV}

Father, give our president the ability to judge fairly. He is your servant, help him to do what is right. May he govern our people in the right way; may he be fair to those who are hurting. May you prosper his leadership so that we can help others. May the president stand up for those who have no voice, may he save the unborn from being slaughtered. May the president be blessed with health and long life. May his rule shine with justice like the noon day sun. May his courage refresh us like a failing rain. May he have influence throughout the world and may his enemies lick the dust. May leaders of other countries respect him. May he be an advocate for the persecuted. May all lives be special to him. May Christians everywhere pray for him. May the LORD bless him and keep him so that all nations will be blessed by him. May his name be remembered forever, may his fame last as long as the sun shines. May he honor, love and respect the King of kings.

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Full Text JBuzz Transcripts September 23, 2014: President Barack Obama Wishes The American Jewish Community a Sweet, Happy, and Healthy New Year

Wishing You a Sweet, Happy, and Healthy New Year

Shanah Tovah from the White House! On Wednesday evening, Jews in the United States and around the world will begin celebrating Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.

The High Holidays offer the Jewish community a moment of pause, a time to reflect on the previous year and recommit to the unending task of Tikkun Olam, repairing the world. Together, working with people of all faiths, we can bring greater peace and prosperity to the world in 5775.

In his 2014 video message for the High Holidays, President Obama extends his wishes for a sweet new year and discusses why this time of year is so significant.

Watch on YouTube

Read the remarks:

Hello. As Jews across America, Israel, and the world gather together for the High Holidays, Michelle and I extend our warmest wishes to you and your families for a sweet and happy new year.

My good friend Elie Wiesel once said that God gave human beings a secret, and that secret was not how to begin but how to begin again. These days of awe are a chance to celebrate that gift, to give thanks for the secret, the miracle of renewal.

In synagogues and homes over the coming days, Jews will reflect on a year that carried its shares of challenges. We’ve been reminded many times that our world still needs repair. So here at home we continue the hard work of rebuilding our economy and restoring our American dream of opportunity for all. Around the world, we continue to stand for the dignity of every human being, and against the scourge of anti-Semitism, and we reaffirm the friendships and bonds that keep us strong, including our unshakeable alliance with the State of Israel.

So let’s approach this new year with new confidence and new hope. Let’s recommit ourselves to living out the values we share as individuals and as a country. Above all, let’s embrace this God-given miracle of renewal, this extraordinary opportunity to begin again in pursuit of justice, prosperity, and peace. From my family to yours, shanah tovah.

JBuzz Musings February 8, 2014: After survey of American Jews Pew Research Center plans one for Israeli Jews

Speaking at Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) annual conference on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2014, philanthropist Joseph Neubauer announced that he has partnered again with the Pew Research Center to fund this time a survey…READ MORE

JBuzz Politics November 27, 2013: President Barack Obama’s Statement on Hanukkah

Statement by the President on Hanukkah

Source: WH, 11-27-13

Michelle and I send warm wishes to all those celebrating Hanukkah.

For the first time since the late 1800s – and for the last time until some 70,000 years from now – the first day of Hanukkah falls on Thanksgiving.  It’s an event so rare some have even coined it “Thanksgivukkah.”  As we gather with loved ones around the turkey, the menorah, or both, we celebrate some fortunate timing and give thanks for miracles both great and small.

Like the Pilgrims, the Maccabees at the center of the Hanukkah story made tremendous sacrifices so they could practice their religion in peace.  In the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, they reclaimed their historic homeland.  But the true miracle of Hanukkah was what came after those victories almost 2200 years ago – the Jewish Temple was cleansed and consecrated, and the oil that was sufficient for only one day lasted for eight.  As the first Hanukkah candle is lit, we are reminded that our task is not only to secure the blessing of freedom, but to make the most of that blessing once it is secure.

In that spirit Michelle and I look forward to joining members of the Jewish community in America, in the State of Israel, and around the world as we work together to build a future that is bright and full of hope.  From my family to yours, Chag Sameach.

JBuzz Musings October 23, 2013: American Jewish views of Israel, its government becoming more liberal, critical

American Jewish views of Israel, its government becoming more liberal, critical

By Bonnie K. Goodman

Two surveys recently released in early October 2013 looked at the views of American Jews on Israel; one poll looked at the average Jewish Americans position, and the other looks at the position American rabbis take towards Israel. The first…

JBuzz Musings October 23, 2013: High Intermarriage numbers reveals troubling future for Judaism in the US

High Intermarriage numbers reveals troubling future for Judaism in the US

By Bonnie K. Goodman

Earlier this month, on Oct. 1, 2013 the Pew Research Center released their new poll entitled “A Portrait of Jewish Americans” showing a growing a trend of American Jews identifying only culturally as Jews, but not religiously. What…READ MORE

JBuzz News June 13, 2013: Evelyn Kozak: World’s Oldest Jew Dies At 113

Evelyn Kozak Dead: World’s Oldest Jewish Person Dies At 113

Source: AP, 6-13-13
Evelyn Kozak

The world’s oldest Jewish person, Evelyn Kozak, whose family fled Russia to escape anti-Semitism in the 1880s, has died at age 113….

Kozak, who was one of nine children, was born on Manhattan’s Lower East Side on Aug. 14, 1899. Her family had moved from Russia to escape organized anti-Semitic attacks….READ MORE

JBuzz News May 28, 2013: Funeral held in New York for Torah scrolls ruined by Hurricane Sandy

Funeral held in N.Y. for Torah scrolls ruined by Sandy

Source: JTA, 5-28-13

A funeral was held in New York for 12 Torah scrolls that were destroyed in superstorm Sandy….READ MORE

JBuzz News May 26, 2013: Naomi Schaefer Riley: Why do Jews intermarry, and who’d marry a Jew anyway?

Why do Jews intermarry, and who’d marry a Jew anyway?

In her new book, Naomi Schaefer Riley takes a look at why so many in the American Jewish community are marrying out of the faith.

Jewish wedding

Jewish wedding Photo: Thinkstock
Over the past half century, intermarriage has become increasingly common in the United States among all religions – but among Jews at the highest rate.

Why that is the case is one of the questions Naomi Schaefer Riley probes in her new book, “‘Til Faith Do Us Part: How Interfaith Marriage is Transforming America” (Oxford University Press).

One of the main reasons, Riley finds, is that the older people get, the more likely they are to intermarry….READ MORE

JBuzz News May 21, 2013: Barbra Streisand to receive honorary PhD at Hebrew Universty in Jerusalem

Barbra Streisand to receive honorary PHD in Jerusalem

Source: BBC News, 5-21-13

The award is in recognition for her human rights work and dedication to Israel and the Jewish people. Professor Menahem Ben-Sasson, president of the Hebrew University, said they were “deeply proud” to honour her….READ MORE

JBuzz News May 1, 2013: No White House party? What’s a Jew to do during Jewish American Heritage Month

No White House party? What’s a Jew to do during Jewish American Heritage Month

Source: Jewish Telegraphic Agency (blog), 5-1-13

May is Jewish American Heritage Month, a commemoration first recognized by President George W. Bush in 2006. Since then, hundreds of programs have taken place nationwide annually to honor the rich contributions of Jews to American culture and society….READ MORE

JBuzz News November 10, 2012: Steven Windmueller: Ira Sheskin: Republicans make inroads, but most Jewish voters stay with Democrats

Republicans make inroads, but most Jewish voters stay with Democrats

Source: Broward Politics (blog), 11-10-12

The vote shift from 2008 to 2012 was “nothing huge and dramatic,” said Ira Sheskin, of Cooper City, a geography professor at the University of Miami where he’s also director of the Jewish Demography Project….READ MORE

JBuzz News November 8, 2012: Steven Windmueller: Do we matter? Jewish Voters & US Presidential Elections

Do we matter?

Source: thejewishchronicle.net, 11-8-12

Steven Windmueller, professor emeritus of American Jewish affairs at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles, told the Chronicle that Jews, as a voting bloc, are becoming increasingly diffused….READ MORE

JBuzz News October 31, 2012: Yehuda Kurtzer: US Jews: Ashamed of Israel, proud to be Jewish

US Jews: Ashamed of Israel, proud to be Jewish

Source: YNet News, 10-31-12

They are politically involved, have high voter turnout rate and are no longer purely Democratic. Dr. Yehuda Kurtzer seeks to strengthen American Jewry’s connection to Israel, but clarifies that Jewish vote has nothing to do with Israeli issue

“Statistically, Jews in the United States have a particularly high voter turnout rate and are very politically involved,” he tells Ynet. “They are always ‘more,’ perhaps because they are relatively educated or feel committed to the democratic idea of voting and making a difference.”

“Israelis are always surprised when they discover that despite all the talk about Israel within the communities – and there is always a lot of talk about Israel – most of the population does not vote for a president based on his foreign policy in the Middle East.

“The American Jew votes for his president according to the usual measures: Economic policy, or identification with social values. Israel has nothing to do with it.

“On the other hand, there is a lot of talk, especially among certain population groups like Israelis (the American definition for former Israelis), who believe Obama does not sympathize with Israel or even seen him as anti-Israel, and it bothers them. But most Jews see this issue as unrelated.”…READ MORE

JBuzz News October 23, 2012: Susan MacManus: Can Mitt Romney sway Jewish voters with ‘apology tour’ quip?

Can Mitt Romney sway Jewish voters with ‘apology tour’ quip?

Every four years, the Republicans think they will make inroads with Jewish voters in Florida, says Susan MacManus, a professor at the University of South Florida. “And every four years it does not come to fruition.” Democrats have won at least 76 percent….READ MORE

JBuzz News October 17, 2012: Ruth Wisse: Harvard Professor: Jews Should Vote for Romney

Harvard Prof: Jews Should Vote for Romney

American Jews who care about Israel should vote for Mitt Romney, says Ruth Wisse, a Harvard professor of Yiddish and comparative literature….READ MORE

JBuzz Reviews April 20, 2012: Jonathan Sarna: Jewish vote in elections past and present

Jewish vote in elections past and present

Source: Brandeis Hoot, 4-20-12

Professor of American Jewish History Jonathan Sarna (NEJS) recently published his new book “When General Grant Expelled the Jews,” discussing the election of 1868 in comparison to today’s political climate.

During the election of 1868, Jewish voters faced a daunting choice. Republican candidate Ulysses S. Grant was the man who had issued Order 11 on Dec. 17, 1862, expelling the Jewish people from Grant’s war zone. While it was eventually exposed that Grant issued his order for partially personal reasons related to his father, it was still viewed as a harsh act. The order was revoked on Jan. 4, 1863, upon reaching the desk of President Abraham Lincoln. It held consequences for the Jewish people both psychologically and physically, as some of them were mistreated in the process of relocating.

As Sarna argues, the election of 1868 presented a dilemma for Jewish liberals. “Domestic policies of the republicans during that time period were very much to their liking, but how could they vote for a man who had expelled Jews from his far zone, in what was the single most anti-Semitic act in the United States,” Sarna said.

Sarna describes this choice for the Jewish liberals as an internal one, a question of whether a person should “vote for a party bad for the country in order to avoid voting for a man who is bad for the Jews.”

Sarna wants to get across that Jewish liberals at this time were in turmoil, trying to measure out the “percent of yourself as an American and sense of self as a Jew” and which percent would overcome the other.

He draws a direct parallel to the 2012 elections, arguing that today, there is a “sense on the part of many Jews that Obama is not as supportive of Israel as his predecessors.” If Jewish liberals do not wish to vote for Obama because they question the strength of his support for Israel, their other choice is to vote for the Romney, whose platform goes against what many liberals believe politically.

Sarna believes that “lots of Jews in both cases will find their situation very parallel to the election of 1868.”

Like the election of 1868, Jewish voters have to consider their obligations as Americans as well as their obligations to the Jewish community. Sarna discussed whether a person can forget they are Jewish in a voting booth, or whether that is an identity that cannot be left outside the voting polls. Making connections to further back in history, Sarna even related the election of 1868 to the Federalist papers—their “concern over factions” and “putting the needs of country first regardless of group interest.”

Sarna does admit that the impact of the Jewish vote in both the election of 1868 and today may be over-exaggerated. Grant won the election of 1868, yet it may have been more because of black voters who approved of his efforts to improve their lives and grant them rights. Indeed, Sarna believes that the “power of the Jewish vote was exaggerated by four to five times,” and that people believed there were more voters than actually existed.

At the time, the media was concerned with the ramifications of Order 11, so the Jewish vote came to the forefront despite the fact that the number of Jewish voters was not as large as imagined.

Leonard Saxe: Study Jewish numbers on rise 6.4 million in the US, Brandeis team estimates

Study: Jewish numbers on rise

6.4 million in the US, Brandeis team estimates

Brandeis Professor Leonard Saxe has some good news for those fearing for the future of Judaism in America. The number of American Jews is actually increasing, not decreasing. A Brandeis team estimates the total US Jewish population at 6.4 million as of 2010, up from 5.7 million in 2000, and 5.5 million in 1990….READ MORE

Israel Political Brief December 20, 2011: President Barack Obama’s Hanukkah Statement

Statement by the President on Hanukkah

Source: WH, 12-20-11

Michelle and I send our warmest wishes to all those celebrating Hanukkah around the world.

This Hanukkah season we remember the powerful story of a band of believers who rose up and freed their people, only to discover that the oil left in their desecrated temple – which should have been enough for only one night – ended up lasting for eight.

It’s a timeless story of right over might and faith over doubt – one that has given hope to Jewish people everywhere for over 2,000 years.  And tonight, as families and friends come together to light the menorah, it is a story that reminds us to count our blessings, to honor the sacrifices of our ancestors, and to believe that through faith and determination, we can work together to build a brighter, better world for generations to come.

From our family to the Jewish Community around the world, Chag Sameach.

Jonathan D. Sarna: American Jewry’s Data Problem

Jonathan D. Sarna: American Jewry’s Data Problem

There’s been no national census of Jews since 2001 and none is planned for the indefinite future.

Source: WSJ, 12-2-11

Do we need a new nationwide count of America’s Jews?

It has been 10 years since anyone conducted a census of American Jewry—and no major organization has plans to conduct another one soon. (The official U.S. Census can’t ask questions about religion.) This means that the Jewish community may indefinitely lack the kind of data required for communal planning—how many Jews there are, where they live, whom they are marrying, what Jewish religious movements they adhere to and so forth.

Gathering such data is no easy task. Whereas many Christian churches calculate membership as the sum of all those they have baptized or who have made public declarations of their faith, Jews see themselves as a people embracing religious and nonreligious members alike. Thus life-cycle ceremonies and synagogue membership are insufficient proxies for membership in the Jewish community.

When the United Jewish Communities (now known as the Jewish Federations of North America) surveyed the nation in 2001, the organization pegged the Jewish population at 5.2 million. But the $6 million effort was fraught with problems: Data were lost, the response rate was low, the design was controversial, and the results contradicted those of other studies. One prominent researcher, the late Gary Tobin, characterized the survey as “utter nonsense,” while some others charged its organizers with manipulating population and intermarriage figures in order to raise more money….READ MORE

Tevi Troy: The White House’s Advice for Your Rabbi

President presses: Preach politics from the pulpit

Source: WSJ, 9-23-11

The Jewish High Holidays are upon us, so naturally it’s time for the White House to feed political talking points to rabbis.

As has become its annual practice, the Obama administration on Thursday convened a conference call with several hundred rabbis and Jewish leaders. According to a participant on the call, President Obama promoted his jobs bill—noting that those who have been more blessed should pay their fair share—and briefed the rabbis on U.S. efforts to counter the push for a declaration of Palestinian statehood at the United Nations.

I was on another such call recently, the purpose of which—according to the Jewish rabbinical group that invited me—was to help listeners “understand the current state of the economy; learn about the impact of the proposed budget cuts on the poor and disenfranchised; consider the consequences of the increasing gap between the rich and poor in America; and, glean homiletic and textual background to help prepare their High Holiday sermons on this timely topic.”

The agenda of the call organizers was clear. Two speakers, one of whom was a (non-Jewish) Democratic senator, spoke of our country’s need for “raising revenue,” the new code phrase for tax increases. When I suggested that we separate politics from spirituality, a third participant pushed back, saying “the Torah is a political document.” A curious assertion in a crowd that would quickly denounce any invocation of the Bible in political discussions.

Of course the Obama administration didn’t invent the politicized sermon. In the Conservative temple in which I was raised, the joke (not an original one) was that the rabbi would take homiletic guidance from the New York Times editorial page. In his memoir, former Nixon speechwriter William Safire told of his displeasure with a Yom Kippur sermon in which the rabbi warned “not to let our country be divided and polarized by those who use the technique of alliteration”—referring to Vice President Spiro Agnew’s critique of “nattering nabobs of negativism.”

Related Video

Tevi Troy on political sermonizing in synagogues.

So President Obama is taking advantage of an existing proclivity toward political sermonizing. Other presidents have acted similarly, hosting calls around holidays or meeting with Jewish leaders before the White House Hanukkah party, as George W. Bush did. But Mr. Obama has innovated, as by focusing on a specific issue or two with rabbis before the High Holidays each year.

In 2010, according to the New York Post, he “asked a conference call of about 600 rabbis to preach his Mideast peace plan from the pulpit.” In 2009, he invited a group of 1,000 rabbis to discuss his health-care plan and then preach about it afterward. Some certainly delivered. Rabbi Amy Schwartzman of Temple Rodef Shalom in Falls Church, Va., for example, gave a Yom Kippur sermon that year entitled “The Jewish Understanding of Health Care: A Moral Imperative,” declaring that “working towards health care for all, however that might be accomplished, is a Jewish mandate.”

Political sermonizing is a mistake for many reasons. First, the Holy Days are supposed to bring forth a universal message about the unity of the Jewish people, the importance of our shared religious tradition, and the need to rededicate ourselves to observance of the Torah in the year to come.

Then there’s the risk of alienating part of the congregation. Even if you know that 70%-80% of your synagogue votes one way—and public opinion polls suggest that this may be the case in Conservative and Reform synagogues—why risk alienating the other 20%-30%? In many (or most) communities, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are the only time certain congregants set foot in synagogue that year. Why risk driving them away with a message that could offend?

Furthermore, while it may appear easy to find support for left-wing political positions in the Torah and rabbinical sources, the truth is that the Jewish tradition doesn’t give much guidance on the optimum level of marginal tax rates, Medicare restructuring, or food-stamp funding. To claim otherwise is to give false guidance.

The passages read aloud on the High Holidays each year are filled with the most important problems of the human condition, including Jonah’s attempt to shirk his responsibilities, Hannah’s desperate plea for a child, and God’s testing of Abraham’s faith with the binding of Isaac. All of these stories still resonate today, and skillful speakers can use them to guide congregants.

The mandate of religious leaders is to convey to their communities spiritual encouragement and the wisdom of the ages. For the other stuff, there’s cable news.

Mr. Troy, a senior fellow at Hudson Institute and former deputy secretary of health and human services, was a White House Jewish liaison under George W. Bush.

Shuly Rabin Schwartz: More City Bar Mitzvahs Hold the Religion

Source: WSJ, 7-23-11

A small but growing number of families are opting for secular bar mitzvahs, taking the occasion to celebrate personal growth and Jewish culture instead of Jewish faith. Although such celebrations are derided by some religious leaders as little more than birthday parties, participants say they are a thoughtful alternative for those who do not subscribe to religious beliefs.

While secular bar mitzvahs veer away from traditional religious elements, they also tend to forgo the over-the-top celebrations that have become a subject of criticism by Jewish leaders.

“I think a bar mitzvah party that has a six-course meal and a large band, and doesn’t have a spiritual piece except that the food is kosher, is not as holy as one that is trimmed down and includes community service,” said Rabbi Kenneth Brander, dean of the Center for the Jewish Future at Yeshiva University in New York.

The City Congregation for Humanistic Judaism in Manhattan is leading a nationwide movement to create meaningful secular services for Jewish teenagers. Marge Greenberg, whose daughter Rachel Gerber recently completed City Congregation’s 18-month bat mitzvah program, says it’s no accident that parties for participants tend to be small.

“The part that comes beforehand is the important part. The celebration is just the culmination of the study,” Ms. Greenberg said. “The party is incidental. It’s like a social occasion. It’s just not the point.”

The idea is slowly gaining acceptance, though some rabbis have different views.

“The concept of a ‘secular bar mitzvah’ is of course a bit of an oxymoron since ‘bar mitzvah’ means ‘one who is commanded by God,'” said Daniel Nevins of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. “Without the religious part it is just a birthday party.”

Secular bar mitzvahs continue centuries-old traditions: The emotions and themes common at bar mitzvahs—family history, maturity and hard-won pride—are all present, proponents say.

“This is part of the contemporary world,” said Shuly Rabin Schwartz, a professor of American Jewish History at the Jewish Theological Seminary. “In an odd sort of way the nontraditional ceremonies are affirming the value of the tradition. They’re saying something should happen at this stage. They’re trying to figure out something meaningful for individuals in that community.”

At City Congregation, bar mitzvah candidates spend up to two years preparing for their big day. Students in the program write essays on topics such as family history, community service and role models, and complete a project on a topic in Jewish culture. (One recent project’s title was “Holy Carp: Gefilte Fish, Judaism and Me.”)

“It’s not Judaism lite,” says Rabbi Peter Schweitzer of the City Congregation. He has conducted the bar mitzvah training for more than 50 students… READ MORE

Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun Fire: Blaze Shatters a Heart of New York Jewish Life

Source: NYT, 7-13-11

Andrea Morales/The New York

Members of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun gathered outside the synagogue on East 85th Street Tuesday to survey the damage from a fire that destroyed the roof.

The fire that severely damaged Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun on Monday night sent ripples of distress across the Modern Orthodox community of Manhattan’s East Side and among Jews around New York familiar with Ramaz, its affiliated school.

Andrea Morales/The New York Times

Rabbi Haskel Lookstein delivered prayers on Tuesday. The congregation was founded in 1872.

Librado Romero/The New York Times

The building had been under renovation when the fire hit on Monday.

The synagogue was where generations of congregants gathered to pray — and schmooze — on the Sabbath, the place where they married their beloved, bar mitzvahed their young, bade farewell to a dead parent.

On Tuesday, dozens of congregants or their friends flocked to 85th Street near Lexington Avenue to view the damage for themselves, and many seemed stunned. Hundreds called and wrote the synagogue and Ramaz with expressions of sorrow and offers of help.

“This building is really the center of my life and my family’s life,” said Gabriella Major, 69, a psychological counselor who has attended the synagogue since she was 14 and sent her four children and nine of her grandchildren to Ramaz. “Everything — all my happiness and all my sadness — has been through this synagogue.”

Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, the synagogue’s senior rabbi since 1979, broke down and wept during the morning Shacharit service, held across the street at the Ramaz middle school, when he read the psalm that declares: “May God answer you on the day of your travail.” He took some comfort in leading the Kaddish prayer of mourning that follows soon after the psalm.

“It’s a prayer that says God’s will shall triumph, and we have absolute faith in that,” he said in an interview. He sent his community an e-mail that read, “Out of the ashes of destruction will come the seeds of reconstruction.”

The four-alarm fire, which broke out on the upper floors while the 110-year-old building was being renovated, destroyed the roof and punched out large segments of the four stained-glass windows on the limestone neo-Classical facade. Rabbi Lookstein said the collapse of the roof caused the sanctuary’s ceiling to cave in. The Torahs, however, were not inside the sanctuary because services were being held at Ramaz.

Rabbi Lookstein said that it would be difficult to resume services inside the synagogue in time for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, when the pews swell with worshipers, and that an alternative space would have to be found….READ MORE

Fire Ravages Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun Prominent N.Y. Synagogue

Source: JTA, 7-12-11

A fire has badly damaged one of New York City’s most prominent synagogues.

The four-alarm fire broke out in Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun on Manhattan’s Upper East Side at around 8:30 on Monday night, according to the Associated Press.

The fire caused the synagogue’s roof to collapse and severely damaged the building’s top floors. The New York Fire Department reportedly is concerned about the massive 110-year-old building’s structural integrity.

The fire was brought under control an hour after it began. Four firefighters sustained minor injuries quelling the blaze, The New York Times reported.

The cause of the fire, which fire officials think began on the roof or top floor, has not yet been determined.

The synagogue building had been undergoing renovations. Religious articles had been removed prior to construction, so no Torah scrolls were damaged in the fire.

Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun is an Orthodox synagogue and one of the city’s most prominent Jewish congregations. It is led by Rabbi Haskell Lookstein, a leading figure in American Modern Orthodoxy.

In NY-9, Orthodox Jewish Vote Critical To Victory

Source: NY Daily News, 7-12-11

Observers are increasingly saying the battle for control of Anthony Weiner’s former Congressional District, NY-9, will be about winning the hearts and minds of the area’s sizable Orthodox Jewish population.

orthodox.jpgMuch more on this for you in tomorrow’s Daily News, but for now, our Blau, Einhorn and Gendar report:

GOP pollsters have estimated about 100,000 of the district’s roughly 300,000 registered voters are Orthodox Jews. John Mollenkopf, a professor of political science at the CUNY Graduate Center, said the district has a large number of older conservative Jewish voters in their 50s, 60s and 70s.

“I would say that social security and Medicare are probably far more important to them as issues than… following Mayor Koch’s effort to say they should vote for the Republican to protest President Obama’s position on Israel,” Mollenkopf said.

Democratic state Assemblyman David Weprin, who also carries the endorsement of the Independence and Working Families Parties, will face off against Republican Bob Turner, a retired TV exec who’s also the standard-bearer of the Conservative Party.

Weiner, of course, resigned the congressional seat earlier this summer after a sexting scandal.

Democrats argue they outnumber Republicans in New York’s 9th CD, which covers portions of Queens and Brooklyn. And more liberal Democrats have successfully represented heavily Orthodox stretches and ultra-Orthodox Hasidic communities in Congress.

“It is going to come down to turnout,” said political consultant Hank Sheinkopf. “Turner may have a chance if he can paint Weprin as being chosen by the party bosses and will just be another voice for Obama in Washington. Weprin’s got to get out the vote and tag Turner as a typical Republican who wants to cut Medicare, slash and burn.”

Former Mayor Ed Koch has tapped into the idea of sending a message to Obama by electing a Republican to Weiner’s old district, but Weprin was already collecting top-notch support.

“We’re both from the same part of Queens. We grew up together. I’ve known him for more years than I care to remember,” said Gov. Cuomo of Weprin when asked about the contest at a news conference today. “So any way I can be helpful to him, I will. I don’t know that he needs my help, but if he thinks I can be helpful, I will be.”

Mayor Bloomberg also fielded a question about the Sept. 13 special election at a separate presser: “I probably will not [get involved in the special election] but I haven’t thought about it yet,” he said when queried about Koch’s having stepped in.

Asked if it’s a good strategy on Koch’s part to invoke the president and Israel, the mayor replied:  “You know, let me tell you: Ed Koch has been around a lot longer than I have and had a lot more experience. I would never second-guess his judgment. Some things work, multiple things work — there are a number of ways to express yourself.”…READ MORE

Ron Chernow, Jack Rakove: Liberate George Washington 1790 Letter to RI Jews!

Liberate the Letter!

Source: NY Jewish Week, 7-6-11

When Ron Chernow was travelling the country last year to talk about his new biography of George Washington, he was often asked about Washington’s 1790 letter to the Jews of Newport, R.I. — the one that famously promised that the United States government would give “to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.”

“There were very few speeches that I made where people didn’t ask about that letter,” Chernow recalled. “I can vouch for the fact that there’s tremendous curiosity out there.”

He’s curious, too. Even though Chernow spent six years reading through Washington’s papers to research his book, and was awarded the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for his effort, he’s never seen the original letter. In the last decade, hardly anyone has.

That cannot go on. As the Forward has documented in recent weeks, the letter that embedded religious freedom as a core American value has been hidden away in a nondescript arts storage facility in suburban Maryland ever since the museum in which it was housed closed its doors in 2002. The museum was run by B’nai B’rith International, which was lent the letter by its owner, the Morris Morgenstern Foundation, a private foundation based in Ventura, Calif. And neither B’nai B’rith nor the foundation has offered a convincing reason for why this iconic document has not been allowed to be publicly displayed.

So it’s time to persuade them otherwise. Joseph J. Ellis is another Pulitzer Prize-winning historian who has written an acclaimed book about the first president, and he, too, has never seen the letter. “It would be an honor to have it displayed,” Ellis said. “I’d like to see it myself.”

Historians know as well as anyone the deep significance of Washington’s words, the way they branded the new nation with the pledge of pluralism, addressed to “the children of the stock of Abraham” but in reality applicable to all. “It’s the most eloquent statement perhaps in our history of religious tolerance,” Chernow said. “There is a mystique about this letter that is almost unique among Washington’s papers. And there is a warmth to the letter that makes it especially compelling.”

The letter has, in the words of Jack Rakove, another Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, “a talismanic quality.” With the possible exception of President Truman’s declaration in support of the new State of Israel, Rakove said, “it is the most important document in American Jewish history.”

It’s not long — only 337 words — and like all such historical documents, its contents are in the public domain, easily read in print or online, and copies of it are hung in select museums and libraries. But that leaves history to speak in only a whisper. A fascimile fulfills a certain purpose, but it can feel cheap, manufactured. It doesn’t stir the soul, nor conquer doubt, nor make a civic connection. Authentic documents, Chernow reminded, “take us out of the realm of myth and put us into the world of historical events, real people and situations.”

Richard Beeman, a University of Pennsylvania historian, is also a trustee of the National Constitution Center, and is intimately familiar with visitors’ interactions with historical artifacts. “One thing we have learned is that many members of the public experience an important intellectual and emotional response when they see the original document. It brings this moment in the past alive,” he said.

That’s why, Beeman continued, “it is astonishing that there should be any inhibition whatsoever in displaying such an important document. I can see no justification for it.”

But this is not only about how best to display the past; it is also about how honestly and accurately to deal with the present. Understanding the motivations and beliefs of the founding generation is more than an academic exercise, for it gives us a broader persepctive on the America we strive to perfect today.

Washington’s warm and sturdy embrace of religious diversity was in keeping with his egalitarian vision for the new nation that he was asked to lead. It wasn’t a perfect egalitarianism — it’s not likely that he knew many Jews, and he certainly owned black slaves — but scholars say that he was the kind of leader who genuinely was openminded about others. Chernow reported that he did not find any racist comments in all of Washington’s papers, and noted that he was the one founder who arranged, at his death, to free the 125 slaves under his legal control.

As the first president of a nation far more homogenously Christian than it is today, Washington must have known the outsized impact of his statement to Newport’s Jews. He was not speaking only for himself. “Among the founders, there was a pretty clear and deep commitment to the principle of religious freedom and toleration,” Ellis said. “The public [today] needs to know, more than it does, that we are established on a set of principles that doesn’t privilege any one particular faith.”

This is why the Morgenstern Foundation must loosen the reins on Washington’s letter and allow it to be appropriately, carefully displayed in Newport, its historical home, or in the new National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, or in the Library of Congress in Washington — all of which asked, and were denied — or anywhere it sees fit.

In fact, B’nai B’rith had approached the foundation on behalf of the Philadelphia museum to display the letter, but the request was turned down. When asked why B’nai B’rith made the request, spokeswoman Sharon Bender replied: “Because we think NMAJH would be a wonderful venue for this important letter.”

It would be.

The Forward believes so strongly in this cause that we will continue to press for answers and ask readers to send us their comments and support. As Rakove noted, this is probably the most important document in American Jewish history, “and to have it squirreled away seems like an embarrassment.”

Liberate the letter.


text:
Night Terrors

Night Terrors

When Nox and I go panting

beneath, we
have asked the same black questions;

Who Sleeps Now, In The Hydra House?
Who Wears The Ugliest Chains Of Art At All?
Who Rattles The Bells Of Tinnitus?
Who Else Has Broken Their Teeth In Passionate Delusions?

Arrrrrrrhhh, you?
Is it you,
hanging in your silken slip?
You, my barbiturate?

Arrrrrrrrrrhhh, who can follow
that great shearing of love
in a look out the window,
and a panting on the pillowcase?

That I have screamed for angels! and asked:

Why Are The Mad Treated With Small-Town Philosophies?
Why Does The Shower Persist In Its Bitterness?
Why Must My Laugh Be One Of Such Cruelty?
Why Does My Heart Keep Breaking, All On Its Own?

And in your passing,
as it were – the passing of angels –
gave life to both the lily and the nettle;
life to the Caique and the worm impartial!

And Nox’s visions,
pale, dark you’s all,
trembling beyond finesse!

Those fragments creaked
and groaned

What fantasies, what mad passions do I dare reclaim?
And of what insanity? of what, sheer madness?
of what mad obsessions? of what consequence memory
breaking teeth
in the sleeping man’s throat?

I’m going quite mad now, I think. It is a controllable, manageable madness. I am drinking less and smoking less and thinking barely at all. I am able to work all day without thinking about my liberties and freedoms. I am able to satisfy myself, if only temporary, with driving a little too fast and drinking too much coffee. I am able to sleep quickly most nights, and wake up wholly exhausted.

I think I am becoming too distant now. I think I’m losing something, but I’m not sure what. I’d show my work, such as it is, to people I know but I don’t want to. I don’t want my depression to be taken seriously; I want to remain fodder for endless jokes. I don’t want my hatreds to be revealed, but will content myself to rant and make bitter smiles blossom into joyous ones. I don’t want me to be seen everyday. It’s important, I think, to keep hiding who I am in some small, dark place where only I can see me, and talk to me, and let me out occassionally to masturbate my ego.

I’m glad I’ve never shown my work to the people around me. I’m afraid it’s all shit anyway. I don’t want to watch people I know pretend to care about every idle thought; every mad desire. I want to stay quiet, and secretive, and let my figure be a lonely one in the bars and pubs, in the cafes I frequent and slip whiskey into my coffee. I’m glad, I think, and ashamed, that my depression has turned into nothing more than a tag I can use, to drag foreign eyes to read the exhausted notes I play.

I’m sorry for being so unhappy all the time. I’m sorry that the noises I make are so ugly.

Swearing in Italian

Swearing in Italian

I spend my days wrestling with angels,
gripping and grappling;
I am regularly surprised by the amount of Mumford & Sons
played in the coliseums of Heaven;
what wars are empty wrestling rings;
nothing is so loud as the echoes
from empty stone seats flirting
with the skeletons of lions
and cannibals about the crucifix – licking their lips.

I spend my nights framing invisible scars,
with expensive ink from Rialto
and granting the same privilege
to mad doodles;
and only saliva or turpentine can bleach
the skin back to sweat only
the crushed bodies of purple leaves
can make the wiry hairs regrow;
like rat’s fur unrolling on the floor
of a shaded glass idol merchants’
swearing in Italian
with an honest smile.

This was something I wrote almost two years ago, while drunk in Venice. I’d spent most of the day walking around the city, admiring the streets and the canals. I stood on the same bridge that Byron did, surrounded by tourists with cameras and selfie sticks. It kind of ruined the mysticism of the whole thing, and what romanticism there was left there became nearly impossible to hear amongst the footsteps and chattering in a dozen languages.

Anyway, my latest novella, The Burden, is up on Smashwords, if you fancy something vaguely miserable and fairly existential to read. It deals with some issues I have around depression and identity and what the cost of any kind of mental treatment actually is on the individual.

If you’re not in the mood for something quite so mentally-taxing, as it were, then check  out some of the other stuff I’ve written over the years like the short poems For Hannah;A Red Dress or Bluebird. And, as always, everything you see on the left is completely free.

On The Depressive; A Short Personal Essay

On The Depressive; A Short Personal Essay

I would like, if I may, to introduce to you a man. He is a depressive (hereafter to be used not as a term of judgement on a person’s personality, but of their entrenched depression), and he would tell you that himself. Neither he, nor I, would treat that term as a marker of pride or of shame, or because we want to elicit a particular sympathy from anyone listening. “I,” he would say, “am a depressive”. It may have something to do with his permanent physical ailment (depression is an extremely common occurrence amongst anyone who happens to suffer from a debilitating health disorder, such as diabetes), or it may simply be who the man in question is. In the past, he has been prescribed anti-depressants, but he has refused to take them.

If he was depressed, he reasoned, then it must be for a reason – it must be because there is something in my life making me depressed and, instead of hiding behind the shield of medication, I must work to resolve that issue. This, you will agree, shares a great deal of his perception of depression. He believed that depression was a rational thing; something that could be worked at, fought on its own terms and eventually defeated. Like it was a wall to break through; like it was a prison cell to sunder.

It has become apparent, to me, that depression is not actually the result of any extraneous circumstance, as our subject believed. Depression is not contextual. Instead, I have come to understand depression as a result of personal interpretation. A true depressive (which, once again, is not a grandiose term looking to place one form of misery above another in some hierarchy of contentment) is impossible to cure without showing them the executioner’s needle. To a true depressive, their depression is impossible to relieve. It is as much a part of them as their memories, as what fleeting passions they manage to cling to.

A study of the depressive tends to reveal the same vague sensations which are practically impossible to truly transcribe. Perhaps the most effective, and certainly one of those I would agree with, is that depression is, ultimately, a feeling of hollowness. It is not an emptiness, per se, but hollowness in the sense that the exterior of the depressive is so thin, so ‘porcelainate’, that in and of itself it becomes a major component of the depressive’s hollowness. Personal experience lays this hollowness at the back of the throat, or feeling like it’s just below my oesophagus. It might seem odd to try and physically place a feeling which is largely emotional and certainly mental, but it seems to be the most honest description I can conjure. A hollowness at the back of the throat.

In addition to this hollowness, there are many other symptoms of the depressive. The lack of excitement and hope in favour of a general, all-consuming sense of anxiety – a form of anxiety, in fact, which often results in a borderline obsession with the event, situation or context of the anxiety. This is a permanent anxiety which flickers from source to source like some form of physical parasite. This anxiety is also reflected in terms of nostalgia – but not a positive one. Depressives often find themselves caught in a permanent cycle of shame; something as little as an awkward reply in a single conversation can sit and fester on the brain for months, which can often lead to a form of insomnia.

True, also, is the fact that depression can severely impact motivation. The instinctive, gut-reaction of the depressive to practically everything is ‘fuck off’. Largely, this comes from an understanding that nothing genuinely matters, and a perception that even those things which arguably do matter are irrelevant. This can manifest itself in laziness which not only has its own range of severe side effects, including weight change, lack of exercise, lack of sunlight, low energy, low inspiration to look after oneself and, perhaps most commonly, a disturbance of one’s sleep pattern which can then contribute to the already existent insomnia, thereby making it practically impossible to sleep until early the following morning, if at all.

The most common misrepresentation of depression, or rather the fight against one’s own depression, is that many people tend to picture it as something to be overcome. In my experience, that is blatantly untrue; instead of being something to defeat, it is something that one learns to exist with. Or it kills one. I have heard the great metaphors, of depression as a dragon desperately requiring some heroic passion for its defeat, or for the silver bullets of drugs to bury the werewolf of depression once and for all.

In truth, depression is an endless ocean. An ocean which sometimes sits calmly and is sometimes rocked by the most nauseating of storms. Sometimes the water will open into gigantic whirlpools and swallow the depressive, causing them to kick and fight and scream against their own consciousness. Sometimes, the water is a muddy blue and sometimes it is pure black, reflecting every glance the depressive throws its way. Sometimes it recedes enough for the depressive to reach a small island, and shore up their boat before the water crashes down on forgotten sand again – even the most well-built and protected of boats will be torn to shreds after so long in such foreign, volatile and blackened seas.

Yeah, so this has been inactive for a long time. Motivation is hard to come by. Hopefully, I’ll have more time over the next few weeks and months to really get back into the habit of using this platform; I’ve got plenty of stuff written and saved up for posting, it’s just a matter of making sure it’s actually worth throwing into the meagre public eye.

If you’re interested in reading any of the stuff I wrote before I took my half-year hiatus, then you can check out some ‘poetry‘ here!

Ramblings On… Actual Sunlight

‘Take a walk on the thin line between hope and despair in Actual Sunlight: A short interactive story about love, depression and the corporation.’ Created using RPG Maker, Will O’Neil’s Actual Sunlight is the gaming world’s answer to Literary Fiction.

‘I guess it was the first time that I realised that you could just get dealt a shitty hand. That there could be something wrong with you, and that no matter what, you would never be able to do anything about it.

Will O’Neil – Actual Sunlight

I had intended, when I first began to play Actual Sunlight, to join in that crowd who will proclaim, on internet forums unread save for the same few pairs of eyes over and over again until they all end up staring at each other around one of their number’s grave, that this is not a game. I had intended to call it a treatise on something beautiful, on the terrible reality of humanity. The very first text I saw was ‘Why Kill Yourself Today, When You Can Masturbate Tomorrow’ and I knew then exactly what this programme was.

I had barely played for ten minutes when I came to the realisation, as I did with The Stanley Parable and Gone Home; that at no point was I really playing a game. And then the writer, Will O’Neil, left a message in one of the faceless characters on the street:

‘This game is not a game: It’s a portrait.’

‘I’ve created it to document something that I think is human and beautiful and real, and if you appreciate that, great – that’s what art is.’

I came to dread, very quickly, whenever the screen went black and that white text spit across the screen in jarring episodes, each one brought on by my own application of pressure to the Enter key. I dreaded it, with the obscure fascination one applies to honesty. I dreaded it like one doesn’t want to know what happens on the next page of 1984, the threat of discovery a consistent trend throughout the narrative. I dreaded it as though the very text I was reading was seditious, that it spoke out against a system we all knew to exist, and yet had refused to realise.

It has captured the loneliness of the modern man, the ageing, overweight business man that seems to form the core of civilisation. It takes the pretentiousness of writers dealing with topics that they cannot begin to wrap their minds around, though they might believe they do. It provides arguments against itself, often says how lucky Evan Winter is to have this life, providing examples of immigrants and crippled old men working for minimum wage, whilst he has shelter, food, warmth and entertainment. In a way, it says that this is the beauty of humanity, if not one of our major attributes; that we can be jealous of those who have less, that we can consider any life to be better than the one within which we live, that we, alone of all evolution, have the ability to hate ourselves with such fervent apathy, with such dull passion.

The project is littered with paragraphs and phrases that could easily be attributed to some great literary mind of the past, Albert Camus, George Orwell or Alain Robbe-Grillet, if any of them were thrust into the modern era and experienced a lifetime in a few condensed moments. It is obvious that this is the product of a mastermind, though I cannot offer the pretence of understanding the creator, simply from this project.

This is the game I wish Always Sometimes Monsters had been. Occasionally, of course, if one could get past the cast of irritating characters, capitalist obsession with money and irrelevant activities you endure along the way, ASM had glimpses of this game. It focused, less on making the player uncomfortable, with knowledge of their own worthlessness, but instead on the fact that ‘none of this is your fault’, that the character was that way because of extenuating circumstances, because he helped his friends and dealt with bastards. Evan Winter is, instead, who he is because that is who he is. He is, as the project describes in its final moments, an Impossible Man.

The only way I could accurately relate to you the skill involved in the creation of this program, the style of language used in every black-screened celebration of life, if not its misery, would be to make some poor attempt to recreate the entire experience myself, using Will O’Neil writing. If you only ever read one modern book, one example of literary fiction originating in what we understand as the modern world, then abandon the pages of Anne Rice and J.K. Rowling, ignore the drivel of E.L. James and John Green and, instead, turn to the innate honesty of Actual Sunlight.


text:
Austin White
Import / Export

Austin White, born and raised on the outskirts of Memphis, Tennessee, is an artist and designer currently studying at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Just before his sophomore year of high school, White’s father was relocated which brought them to Fort Wayne where White attended and graduated from Canterbury High School in 2014. Fort Wayne brought him a handful of opportunities as he was able to work closely with Julie Wall Toles in her local printmaking shop, Hedgehog Press. In Chicago he is primarily studying Visual Communication Design and also involves himself greatly in the Printmedia Department. At only twenty years old, White has already built a diverse portfolio of work which bases itself on themes of sexuality, gender, and competition among many more. He will be interning this summer with a letterpress studio in Humboldt Park, Chicago to continue his education and artistic exploration.


text:
Ditch the Microwave Meals: Improving Your Diet When You Work From Home

[AD] Working from home can be a tricky thing to crack. Even if you have a thriving business under your belt, adapting to a working lifestyle but from home instead of an office can be a tough transition. It sounds like the easiest thing in the world, right? You just wake up, whack your laptop on and spending the day working from your bed in your pajamas. I mean, certainly there are days where that is the case but on a whole, just like with any “regular” job, us work-from-homers need to find a healthy and balanced routine that separates the “work” and “home”, in working from home.

I’ve been working from home for a number of years now and I love what I do but I definitely still haven’t got it all figured out. There’s definitely things I could improve on and things I should change in order to be more productive and work more efficiently. One of the main aspects of working from home that we need to consider, is food.

Sounds silly, right? But when you’re constantly within walking distance of your fridge or food cupboards, it can be very easy to slip into extremely unhealthy habits, especially as everything is so convenient.

So if you work from home and find yourself constantly reaching for the microwave meals and last night’s Chinese takeaway leftovers, here are some alternative ways we can be eating and maintaining a healthier lifestyle when working from home!

Meal prep

Sometimes, it’s definitely the thought of actually having to make something which can put you off trying to be healthier and eat a more balanced lunch. This is where those handy microwave meals come in! So preparing your food the night before might be a great option. Grab yourself a bunch of tupperware boxes, stick some labels on the top and you’re good to go!

Try something new!

If cooking is your thing but it’s the inspiration that you’re lacking and find yourself coming back to the same old meals, then maybe it’s time to seek inspiration elsewhere. Tools such as The Recipe Matchmaker from HelloFresh can help as it’s a simple but effective way to find meal ideas. You can even specify what sort of meal you’re looking to make, so if you need something quick, they’re got you covered!

Healthy snacks

Snacking is definitely my weakness some days and it’s so incredibly easy to just reach for the chocolate, the crisps or even the Babybels in the fridge as a quick snack! There’s nothing wrong with a few snacks throughout the day of course but if you’re a big snacker, like me, then it might be time to switch it up! Make sure you have plenty of fresh fruit available, yogurts (I love the dairy-free Alpro yogurts the best!), granola, Nakd bars (chocolate crunch are my favourite!) and things like that.

Delete the takeaway apps

Hands up who’s ordered a pizza at lunchtime because it was convenient and they couldn’t be bothered cooking or trying to think of something to cook? *sheepishly raises hand* I know it’s not going to delete the actual takeaway shop but deleting the app is a good place to start. If you spend a lot of time on your phone (like I do), then not seeing that icon on your home screen and feeling the temptation really does help.

Get moving

Although not a food-related point but it’s really important to make sure you get your body moving when you work from home, especially if you work from a computer all day. You don’t get to walk to the bus stop or the train station in the morning on your commute and get that element of exercise in your day but you can carve out time to go for a walk around the block, go for a run or do some Yoga to make sure you get the blood pumping!

Do you work from home? If you do, what ways do you try and stay healthy?

* This post is sponsored by Hello Fresh

Posted by

Twenty-something lifestyle blogger from Essex. Book lover, Slytherin, organisational wizard and enjoys Motorsport, Disney and Yoga.

35 thoughts on “Ditch the Microwave Meals: Improving Your Diet When You Work From Home

  1. My eating habits are so strange, especially in winter. As I’m photographing a lot of my food I end up eating dinner for breakfast a lot when the days are short in daylight hours. Literally the only thing I like about summer is the fact I don’t have to stress about that. It’s so easy to snack on easy/ unhealthy stuff when you’re working at home though! x

  2. I really want to try Hello Fresh at some point since I keep seeing it everywhere and it would help when my mental health stops me from going out! I haven’t used my microwave for so long and I’m actually proud of myself. c;

    Dee xoxo | TheDeeWhoLived

  3. I only work from home one day each week, but when I do, I find that I’m actually healthier than when I’m at work. I think it’s the ability to cook up anything I like, with a lot more options in my cupboards (I’m not organised enough to take meals to work with me so normally end up buying something from the local shop). Since the turn of the year, I’ve also been making sure I leave the house at lunchtime for a jog around the local park. I do wonder if this would still be the case if I worked from home more often, but I like to think it would be 😊 great article, thank you for sharing

  4. I haven’t properly worked for quite a while now due to my health so it means I spend a hell of a lot of time at home and it is so much easier to just grab something that’s there rather than make a whole meal. The meal prep is such a good idea as you’ve got all the things you need at home to warm things up etc, too! I really do struggle for inspiration sometimes especially as I’m not the best at pairing flavours so I’m definitely going to have a look at the Hello Fresh recipe matchmaker! Totally agree with buying healthier snacks too, I make sure the fruit bowl is well stocked and if I do have chocolate I make sure it’s fun-sized bars so I can satisfy my craving without over-indulging! Great post 🙂
    Alice Xx

    1. Totally agree – I’d never deprive myself and if I fancy chocolate, I’ll have chocolate! I know microwave MEALS aren’t great but like you said, if you prep a healthy meal the day before it only takes a few minutes to warm up! xxx

  5. Very informative Jenny! Working from home causes you to live quite a highsedentary life as cool as it is to not be in an office. Exercise definitely helps to combat this though, stretching particularly. I think getting rid of all the junk food in your cupboards and fridge and replacing them with healthier alternatives is very good as that’s all you’ll be able to eat when you find yourself slipping into the habit of going to the kitchen and snacking.

    Johnny | Johnny’s Traventures

  6. I used to love to cook, well bake more than cook, to be honest. I really miss baking! All my meals are prepared for me now, which is ok but sometimes I wish I could cook my own meals. 🙂

    Sarah 🌺 || Boxnip

  7. I don’t work from home but being on maternity leave I’m home most of the time and I’m awful for eating junk, It’s a case of grab something while you can because you never know if you’ll get another chance. I meal prep Rhys’ meals for work though so I should probably do some for myself as well. The smoothies in your photo look delicious by the way. I’ll hopefully be able to make more things like that when Mila is on blended fruit and veg.

  8. This is really useful because snacking can be such a temptation– just one more biscuit– so healthy snacks sound like a good idea. And meal prep as it can be tempting to just be lazy with meals!! 😊
    Great post!!

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1000 Eau De Toilette Spray By Jean Patou

1000 Perfume By Jean Patou Eau De Toilette Spray

SKU: 537964 Category: Tag:

1000 Perfume by Jean Patou, 1000 was created in 1972 after 10 years of careful blending and perfecting by the great jean patou perfumer, jean kerleo. This was first introduced as a true haute couture fragrance; made to order upon request. 1000 was named for the thousand different submissions that were made and rejected before the perfect scent was chosen.

Additional information

Weight 400 kg

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Only logged in customers who have purchased this product may leave a review.


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Director, Customer Strategy/CRM

Internet/E-Commerce City of Industry, California

Join the fastest growing plus size fashion retailer in the nation! We're hiring for a Director, Customer Strategy/CRM. You'll be responsible for leading the development and deployment of Customer and Loyalty strategies across all channels at Torrid, LLC.  The right candidate will have a deep understanding of direct marketing principles, particularly in the online space, and will have a demonstrated interest in and facility with “test and learn” strategies and data analysis.  The Director will leverage large-scale databases, both independently and through the Data and Analytics team, to develop insights that will lead to profitable customer strategies. The Director will collaborate cross-functionally to execute the defined strategies.

  • Leverage large-scale databases to derive data-driven insights into customer behavior that lead to profitable customer strategies.
  • Develop impactful customer segmentation strategies that inform relevant, timely, response-driving messaging to customers.
  • Lead customer and contact strategy and execution for large-scale direct mail program.
  • Support digital teams with audience strategy and execution for targeted digital programs.
  • Lead and grow brand loyalty programs for Torrid, including management of private label credit card program.
  • Coordinate loyalty efforts across all channels and functional areas to integrate loyalty into all marketing programs.
  • Collaborate with Marketing, Merchandising, and Operations to execute messaging and promotional plans.
  • Drive analysis of results and make recommendations for future testing and rollout of campaigns.
  • Provide insight into customer behavior in support of corporate, product, and brand initiatives.
  • Effectively visualize data as part of compelling presentations providing insight and recommendations executive and board level stakeholders.

  • Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, or equivalent experience. MBA or advanced quantitative degree a plus.
  • Eight years or more experience in analytics and marketing, with a focus on direct/database marketing.
  • Capable of independently accessing and leveraging large scale databases using SQL and business intelligence tools to conduct analysis.
  • Knowledge of customer segmentation techniques, persona development, and lifecycle management.
  • Experience in project management, planning, and process improvement, as well as problem analysis and resolution at both a strategic and functional level.
  • Experience running marketing programs and developing strategies to optimize customer lifetime value.
  • Experience building and/or running a loyalty program is a plus.
  • Strong ability to collaborate and partner with cross-functional business partners and vendors to execute strategy.
  • Must have the ability to handle a multitude of diverse responsibilities and work independently to achieve desired results; have sound judgment and business acumen.

  • Our open floor plan allows for a creative, collaborative and fun environment.
  • A competitive benefits package including medical, dental, vision, 401k and paid time off.
  • Additional perks to consider are generous employee discount, access to employee-only sales, café and coffee shop, weekly on-site physician, chiropractor, masseuse, gym, fitness and yoga classes, basketball court, and more.

Our company participates in E-Verify. E-Verify is a program that electronically confirms a candidate’s eligibility to work in the United States after completing the Employment Eligibility Verification (Form I-9). The information provided on the Form I-9 is compared to the records contained in the Social Security Administration and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) databases. This helps employers verify the identity and employment eligibility of newly hired employees.


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We make
plans for the future

Corporate Services

View jobs

Our corporate teams allow us to get the news where it's needed, when it's needed.

Our legal department – with lawyers based in London, Glasgow and Belfast – provide pre- and post-publication advice to all of our titles.

Our HR expertise helps to make Reach plc a great place to work, inspiring our people to develop, learn and exceed their ambitions.

Our committed and talented Finance team provide support to our MD's and support the board by providing reliable, accurate and detailed reports.

Typical Roles

  • Legal
  • HR
  • Creative
  • Security
  • Finance

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Find out what makes working in Corporate Services so rewarding and challenging.

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I see ourselves as playing an important part in transforming the business from a historically print based business to a digitally growing business that will be sustainable in the longer term.

Sing Ling Koh, Finance Director, Digital Innovations Team

Nigel Black , Commercial Marketing Manager

Acting as a brand guardian and working across all media channels, Nigel creates and implements marketing campaigns to build brand awareness and drive business growth.

Christina Little , Multimedia Designer (Media Scotland)

Christine is, in her own words “a little on the weird side, a little on the boyish side and a little on the ‘open to office cake idea’ side”.

Dominic Le Roy , Commercial Marketing Manager

Dominic brings a wealth of experience and passion from his varied career and most enjoys seeing a project go right from conception through to results.

Mind the Gap – managing gender inequality in the workplace

We wanted to build our very own women's network in Reach plc and discuss how we could move forward positively to encourage women to progress at work.

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Job Description

8:15am-5:15pm Monday-Friday

To provide services to patients and assist providers by greeting and checking-in patients, ensuring patient information is correct, collecting appropriate co-payments and fees, scheduling appointments for patients, routing calls, and or messages to the appropriate Medical staff member.

  • Verify cash in cash box at the beginning of shift and reconciles cash count at the end of the day
  • Prepare and submit drawer count, reconciliation form, all balancing reports, and post settle to the Accounting Department
  • Greet and check in patients in a courteous, friendly and professional manner
  • Verify patient information (insurance, address, telephone number), complete Advance Directive, Medicare questionnaires, Financial policy, and make necessary changes in the practice management system. Review dorms for completeness and accuracy of information
  • Verify patient identity by requesting government issued photo I.D. or two forms of non-photo identification of patient or responsible party (parent, step-parent, or guardian) and scan in to the practice management system
  • Answer questions regarding patient account status. Refer patient to appropriate source when questions involve patient account activity such as collection, slow pay, fee-for-service errors, claim processing or refunds to patient
  • Determine correct amount of co-payment and collects it before services are rendered. Collect fees per current policy and based on payor agreement by contract, fee-for-service, and private insurance, or self-pay. Inform new patients of SLFHC’s current payment policy
  • Collect payments made to outstanding accounts
  • Refer patient to Outreach department if eligibility for sliding fee is identified or if a change in payor source is identified
  • Answer questions regarding patient accounts, services provided by the clinic, and all other pertinent questions
  • Provide patients with information regarding cost of procedures
  • Check patient out, and, if necessary, schedule follow-up appointment
  • Answer incoming telephone calls and messages in a timely and professional manner, and routes them to the appropriate medical staff/provider
  • Creates charts and packets for new patients as needed or requested
  • Complete medical records releases, MR number assignment, and registration filing on a daily basis
  • Assure compliance with all HIPAA requirements. Maintain patient confidence and protect clinic operations by keeping information confidential, and following release of information protocol
  • During staff shortages and/or busy times, provide coverage for Outreach and Enrollment staff and outlying sites as needed to ensure quality and expedient customer service

  • Participate in in-service/education regarding Quality Improvement
  • Perform all other related duties as assigned or requested
  • Accountability- Role Model, mission, vision and shared values
  • Customer Focus:
    Has a clear understanding of internal customers needs, preferences, timelines and decision-making criteria
    Recognizes that building long-term customer satisfaction is the key to employee engagement
  • Teamwork - If someone needs help, help them
  • Initiative - Be innovative, apply fresh ideas and continuously improve how you do your work
  • Confidentiality - Maintains strict confidentiality and respect the privacy of others
  • Ethical - Demonstrate consideration and appreciation for co-workers and customer
  • Respect - Demonstrate - consideration and appreciation for co-workers and customer

  • Cash handling
  • Knowledge of basic bookkeeping principles
  • Ability to work under stressful situations
  • Computer literate

  • 2 Years supervisory experience
  • High school diploma or equivalency
  • One year as a cashier/receptionist in a medical facility or public contact position
  • Bilingual preferred and may be required based on patient needs

[x] High School Diploma or GED preferred

[ ] Technical Certification: ________________________

[ ] License: ___________________________________

[ ] years experience in

[ ] addition to cert/degree;

[ ] in lieu of cert/degree

Specific Degree

[ ] Degree: ____________________________________

[x] Bilingual (English-Spanish) Preferred

[x] Computer literate

[ ] Typing

[x] Filing procedures

[x] Money handling

[x] Calculator, office machines, etc.

Physical demands

[ ] Balancing [x] Carrying [ ] Climbing

[ ] Crawling [ ] Crouching [ ] Feeling

[x] Fingering [x] Grasping [ ] Kneeling

[x] Lifting 20 lbs. [ ] Pulling [x] Hearing (communicate)

[x] Talking (communicate) [x] Sitting [x] Standing (mobility)

[x] Walking (mobility) [x] Vision: far [x] Vision: near

[x] Vision: color [x] Vision: depth [x] Vision: (w/assistance)

[x] Airborne particles [ ] Muscular strain

[ ] Chemicals [ ] Caustics

[x] Electrical current [ ] Fumes

[x] Noise [x] Odors

[ ] Sharps [ ] Body fluids

The above statement reflects the general duties considered necessary to perform the principal functions of the job as identified, and shall not be considered as a detailed description of all work requirements that may be inherent in the job.

Application Instructions

Please click on the link below to apply for this position. A new window will open and direct you to apply at our corporate careers page. We look forward to hearing from you!

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Newly Qualified Teacher of Science - Croydon

£28500 - £35000 per annum
02 Mar 2018
Closing date
01 Apr 2018
Doug Campbell
Job level
Full time
Listing type
Job vacancy

Newly Qualified Teacher of Science or experienced Science Teacher wanted - July 2018 start - Permanent Position.

11-18 Mixed School - London Borough of Croydon.

Are you currently undertaken a PGCE in Science and keen to secure a permanent placement for July or September as soon as possible?

Due to the ever demanding need for good quality graduate teachers especially within the core subject areas many Head teachers are looking to make earlier appointments this year and are keen to start interviewing with immediate effect. The aim of this is simply to ensure they attract the most talented NQT's currently training who will be undertaking their induction year from September 2017.

This Croydon located 11-18 so-educational school will have 2 vacant posts within the Science department come the summer and are interested in hearing from final year students with a passion for Science who are keen to join a vibrant and positive environment to kick start their teaching careers.

The school which was graded as a "Good" following its most recent Ofsted inspection in 2014 boasts an excellent community spirit and prides itself on delivering high academic standards to students across the age and ability range. In addition the school is committed to supporting and developing students to maximise their potential.

As a Newly Qualified Teacher of Science the school can offer a comprehensive induction programme which will assist in ensuring a smooth first year's teaching, in addition you will have regular one to one meetings with the Subject Leader of Science and you will also be encouraged to share your ideas and discuss any points regarding your progress.

The Science department is made up of 5 Science teachers and you will be working within a fantastic and creative team. You will have access to a wide range of resources as will be made to very welcome from day one. Last year the school appointed 2 NQT'S both which are currently flourishing.

To be considered for this Newly Qualified of Science position you will need a related Science degree and be able to demonstrate the skills necessary to be a confident practitioner within the classrooms. The school are excited to hear from talented and passionate Science graduates who can create diverse and exciting lessons that will engage students across the key stages.

There are around 1200 students on role and the school catchment area is the Croydon/Bromley boarders. As the school has a 6th form the Science department is happy to commit making sure the timetable does include A-level classes for those who express an interest in teaching at post 16 level.

If you are a graduate Teacher of Science qualifying this year then please forward an updated copy of your CV today.

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HR Advisor - Entertainment

07 Mar 2018
Closing date
04 Apr 2018
Stephanie Goldfinch
Job function
HR & training
Full time
Listing type
Job vacancy

Are you an experienced HR Generalist looking to take the next step up in your career?

Do you value commerciality and creativity in the workplace?

Handle are pleased to announce that we are recruiting for one of the most instantly recognisable entertainment media brands on a new HR Advisor opportunity based in Central London.

Our ideal candidate will be creative, resilient and have strong stakeholder management experience. You will be expected to offer sound commercial advice within your business areas as well as working proactively on delivering on HR Operations in an informal and imaginative style.

Reporting to the Head of HR, you will be autonomous for your client group business area but you will have the full support of the UK HR team and Group L&D, Recruitment and Compensation and Benefits specialists.

Key Responsibilities:-

  • Assist the Head of HR with organisation design initiatives and the delivery of the HR Strategy
  • Deliver a mentoring approach to line managers on long term absence and performance management issues to ensure a unified process across the organisation
  • Leading on mergers, acquisitions, restructures and ideally experience in managing consultations would be highly advantageous
  • Collaborating with the Learning & Development team to tailor development plans and running the annual appraisal process

The environment is creative and multifaceted and you will be working with driven and hardworking individuals who are looking to make a difference to their industry. We are looking for like minded people who are passionate about HR and working in a creative Entertainment Brand.

If you have thorough knowledge of employment law and have a strong personality with the ability to present ideas and advice senior managers and stakeholders, this may be the next role for you.

PLEASE NOTE: Due to the high volume of applications we receive we are unable to respond to everyone. If you have not heard from us within 5 working days of sending your CV then unfortunately you have not been shortlisted for the position you have applied for.

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Day to Day Primary Supply Teacher Wigan

£90 - £125 per day
09 Mar 2018
Closing date
30 Mar 2018
Neil Hetherington
Part time
Listing type
Job vacancy

Are you looking for regular flexible teaching work in primary schools in Wigan

We are currently working on behalf of a number of primary schools in Wigan who are looking for support to cover courses, PPA and sickness on a day to day basis. Academics have been supplying to primary schools for the last 10 years and we are busy busy busy!

Benefits of day to day supply work with Academics

Regular supply work in your preferred schools

Local work in Wigan

Working in good and outstanding schools with clear expectations for staff and pupils

Clear behaviour management policies

Work left for planned absence

Friendly supportive staff

Flexible work

Competitive pay rates

Range of payment vehicles -PAYE or umbrella - whichever you prefer.

Free access to resources for supply teachers

Advice and guidance on changes to education and supply teaching

As an Academics day to day supply teacher you will need

A Teaching qualification with Qualified Teacher Status

Experience of teaching the current primary curriculum

Ideally willing to work across Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2

Personal resources to provide and enhance cover lessons

A positive can do attitude to respond to busy schools

Able to get to schools in Wigan by 8.30am and work until 3.30pm

Be available at least 3 days a week

Whilst we do get notice for a lot of bookings, often we get 30 minutes notice for supply work. Therefore if your CV does not show your address or you live more than 30 minutes from Wigan we will not contact you for this vacancy.

To be able to start this role you would need to attend an interview at our Warrington office to complete the safeguarding checks and have a clear enhanced DBS certificate registered on the update service.

All candidates are subject to standard safeguarding and employment checks including a face to face interview and DBS check. Academics Ltd is an employment business.

To find out more about registering with Academics today

Please call 01925 231 375 and speak to Rachael or Neil

or email

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I'm sure you've all experienced it. It's the worst enemy of a college student at midnight the night before a ten-page paper is due. It's the monster hiding under the bed of a successful business person who has to explain to their board the reasoning behind their next big idea. It's the un-talked about villain for anyone who has to produce content on a regular basis - or even those who don't. You may have guessed it: I'm talking about writer's block. A couple of colleagues and I recently began a blog specifically for Seventh-day Adventist young adults and we were just discussing the other day how sometimes we just sit down at the computer and look at the blinking curser with nothing to say. As a pastor, I have my share of writer's block. My job entails a lot of content: preparing blog posts, radio programs, sermons, worships, prayer meetings, the list goes on. In fact, there are times I stand up to preach feeling like my sermon may easily be over in ten minutes and the congregation won't get anything out of the message I've prepared. But those are the sermons that God seems to use the most to reach people. In my insufficiency He speaks the words that need to be spoken.

The apostle Paul had a problem. No one knows exactly what it was, but scholars tend to think that he may have struggled with his eyesight after being struck blind on the Damascus Road. Whatever his ailment, he begged God to take it away. Three times he bargained and pleaded, asking for this thorn in his flesh to be removed. Finally God answered his prayer in a way he didn't expect. “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Paul then exclaims, "Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me" (2 Corinthians 12:9). We don't always have the words to say. We don't always know exactly what we are supposed to do. And sometimes, that's alright. Because it is when we are at our weakest that God is at His strongest. Next time you don't feel up to the task He has given you, turn it over to Him. Boast in your infirmities! Let the power of Christ rest upon you. He's the one who gives you the task and He's the one who ultimately accomplishes it through His power.

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Stay Afloat With Proper Boat Insurance

By johnscottins Uncategorized Comments Off on Stay Afloat With Proper Boat Insurance

stay afloat with proper boater's insurance

There many hidden costs associated with owning a boat. They include dock fees, general maintenance, and winter storage, just to name a few. One expense that boat owners should never skimp on is purchasing the best available boat insurance policy for their watercraft.

Because buying a boat is a huge investment, owners should protect their boat with comprehensive insurance coverage. Plans are often based on the type and size of the boat.

Owners of larger, more powerful boats and yachts will need to purchase a separate insurance policy for their boat. The insurance company will take into account the size and type of boat, its value, and where the boat sails when drawing up the conditions and cost of the policy.

Separate boat and watercraft insurance policies provide much more coverage to the owner. These policies generally include loss and damage coverage to the boat’s hull, machinery, furnishings, fittings, and any permanently attached equipment, like a navigation system.

Liability coverage is extended to:

  • Bodily injury to other persons
  • Damage to other’s property
  • Legal expenses associated with non-consensual operation of the boat
  • Medical costs for injuries to the owner and passengers
  • Boat theft

Be sure you know what is covered on your boat insurance policy and what you can add to it.

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