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519 F2d 257 Schiff v. R Williams G

519 F.2d 257

Ed SCHIFF et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees,
Kenneth R. WILLIAMS, individually and as former president of
Florida Atlantic University and Glenwood G.
Creech, as president of Florida Atlantic
University, et al.,

No. 74-2205.

United States Court of Appeals,
Fifth Circuit.

Sept. 17, 1975.

James T. Schoenbrod, Miami, Fla., Charles E. Miner, Jr., Gen. Counsel, John D. Carlson, State of Fla. Board of Education, Tallahassee, Fla., for defendants-appellants.

John L. Parker, Jr., West Palm Beach, Fla., for plaintiffs-appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Before GOLDBERG, CLARK and GEE, Circuit Judges.

CLARK, Circuit Judge:

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Three students brought suit against the president of Florida Atlantic University alleging that he had dismissed them from their positions as editors of the school newspaper in violation of their First Amendment rights. The district court found in favor of the students, ordered them reinstated, and awarded them back pay, compensatory damages, and attorneys' fees. We affirm the decision insofar as it grants back pay and compensatory damages, but reverse the award of attorneys' fees.

The plaintiffs, Schiff, Littman and Vickers, were editors of the Atlantic Sun, the student newspaper of Florida Atlantic University. On April 27, 1973, the President of the University, Kenneth Williams, dismissed all three from their positions and began publishing the student newspaper using administrative personnel. He published his reasons for this action in a statement which read in pertinent part:

"I am today dismissing Mr. Ed Schiff as Editor of the Atlantic Sun and Mr. Tom Vickers and Ms. Carin Litman as Associate Editors. I take this action because I have become convinced that the level of editorial responsibility and competence has deteriorated to the extent that it reflects discredit and embarrassment upon the university. I am also convinced that the decreasing quality of the Atlantic Sun is irreversible under the present senior staff leadership.

"It is clear to me that the Editor does not respect, or is not able to interpret correctly, the guidelines1 of the Board of Regents and the President. The Atlantic Sun currently reflects a standard of grammar, of spelling and of language expression unacceptable in any publication, certainly unacceptable and deplorable in a publication of an upper-level graduate university.

"The editorial policy of the Sun has increasingly emphasized villification and rumor mongering, instead of accurately reporting items likely to be of interest to the university community. Even articles on non-controversial issues such as enrollment trends recently have been incorrect and misleading. The editorials themselves have degenerated into immature and unsophisticated diatribes which reflect most negatively on the overall quality of our student body."

Under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981, 1983, and 1985, the student editors sought injunctive and declaratory relief against Williams and his successor in office, Glenwood Creech, and requested general, special, and punitive damages and attorneys' fees for alleged violations of their rights. The court found that the protection of the First Amendment barred defendants' action, ordered plaintiffs reinstated, and enjoined the defendants from further control of the editorial content of the Atlantic Sun. The court also ordered that the students be awarded back pay; that nominal compensatory damages of one dollar be paid by Williams in his personal capacity to each plaintiff; and that the defendants in their official capacities pay the attorneys' fees incurred by plaintiffs in prosecuting the action.

Awaiting Supreme Court action on pending cases which could resolve controlling issues, we remanded the case for clarification, since neither the source of the back pay award nor the source and rationale for the award of attorneys' fees appeared clear here. The supplemental record now filed discloses that back pay awards are to come from an activity fund contributed by students which the trial judge ordered placed in an account to be held by an appropriate state agency. The attorneys' fees award against the defendants in their official capacities was made as an integral part of the equitable remedy of injunctive reinstatement. The court made no finding of bad faith or obstinate conduct by the defendants.

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The defendants' basic assertion of error relates to the court's finding that the dismissal of the editors was an actionable violation of their constitutional rights. They contend the question is not whether Williams restricted the editors' First Amendment freedom by regulation of the content of the newspaper, but whether the restriction was legally justified. The defendants maintain that since the editors were state employees, their free speech could be restricted by their employers if this right was outweighed by a more significant governmental interest in this case, the university's interest in a publication which maintained high standards of grammar and literary value so as to project a proper view of the university and its student body. Defendants argue that the judge did not hear testimony on the significance of these nonconstitutional reasons for the students' dismissal (control of technical quality); wherefore he could not and did not balance them against the constitutional aspect of the dismissal (control of content).

The defendants' argument fails on two grounds. First, no evidence was presented on the university's nonconstitutional reasons except for the unsubstantiated reference to poor technical quality of the newspaper in the president's statement. In the absence of any evidence as to specific publications, it was not possible for the court to make a balancing type of evaluation.

Second, the right of free speech embodied in the publication of a college student newspaper cannot be controlled except under special circumstances. The cases relied on by the defendant all involve university employees performing tasks unrelated to the First Amendment, who, incidental to their employment, exercised their First Amendment freedoms to the displeasure of the university. By firing the student editors in this case, the administration was exercising direct control over the student newspaper. See generally Healy v. James, 408 U.S. 169, 183, 92 S.Ct. 2338, 2347, 33 L.Ed.2d 266 (1972). The dispositive case in this circuit in the area of control of content of student publications is Bazaar v. Fortune, 476 F.2d 570, rehearing en banc 489 F.2d 225 (5th Cir. 1973). The rule of Bazaar is that special circumstances must be present to give a university the right to control student publications, for " . . . once a University recognizes a student activity which has elements of free expression, it can act to censor that expression only if it acts consistent with First Amendment constitutional guarantees. . . . (T)he courts have refused to recognize as permissible any regulations infringing free speech when not shown to be necessarily related to the maintenance of order and discipline within the educational process." 476 F.2d at 574-75. See Antonelli v. Hammond,308 F.Supp. 1329 (Mass.1970). In the case at bar the "special circumstances" relied on by the university poor grammar, spelling and language expression could embarrass, and perhaps bring some element of disrepute to the school; but, assuming the president's assessment was correct, these faults are clearly not the sort which could lead to significant disruption on the university campus or within its educational processes. See Bazaar v. Fortune,supra at 576. See also Papish v. Board of Curators of the University of Missouri, 410 U.S. 667, 93 S.Ct. 1197, 35 L.Ed.2d 618 (1973).

The defendants also contest the award of compensatory damages by asserting that these public officials are immune from liability because they were performing discretionary duties and acted in good faith. The district court acknowledged that the president was not "motivated by malice . . . perhaps he thought he had a right to do what he did; he probably did think so." Nevertheless he found that President Williams did not seek legal advice prior to his actions and that the sort of motivation for his actions which the proof established did not constitute a defense to a charge that his acts had abridged First Amendment rights.

Recent precedent has broadened the qualified immunity available to public officials who are accused of constitutional wrongs while exercising discretionary duties within the scope of their authority. "These considerations suggest that, in varying scope, a qualified immunity is available to officers of the executive branch of Government, the variation (is) dependent upon the scope of discretion and responsibilities of the office and all the circumstances as they reasonably appeared at the time of the action on which liability is sought to be based. It is the existence of reasonable grounds for the belief formed at the time and in light of all the circumstances, coupled with good faith belief, that affords basis for qualified immunity . . .." Scheuer v. Rhodes, 416 U.S. 232, 94 S.Ct. 1683, 1692, 40 L.Ed.2d 90 (1974). "To be entitled to a special exemption from the categorical remedial language of § 1983 in a case in which his action violated a student's constitutional rights, a school (official), who has voluntarily undertaken the task of supervising the operation of the school and the activities of the students, must be held to a standard of conduct based not only on permissible intentions, but also on knowledge of the basic unquestioned constitutional rights of his charges. Such a standard neither imposes an unfair burden upon a person assuming a responsible public office requiring a high degree of intelligence and judgment for the proper fulfillment of its duties, nor an unwarranted burden in light of the value which civil rights have in our legal system." (Emphasis added.) Wood v. Strickland, --- U.S. ---, 95 S.Ct. 992, 1000-01, 42 L.Ed.2d 214 (1975). The district court's finding that good faith immunity was not available was based on a proper concept of the character and scope of this defense. President Williams cannot avoid responsibility for his abridgment of First Amendment rights because his motives were to serve the best interest of the school.

The defendants urge that the back pay and attorneys' fees award expend themselves upon the treasury of Florida, and that under Edelman v. Jordan, 415 U.S. 651, 94 S.Ct. 1347, 39 L.Ed.2d 662 (1974), the Eleventh Amendment bars federal jurisdiction over an action to recover a compensatory award which must inevitably come from general revenues of a state.

Insofar as the instant decree required past earnings be repaid to plaintiffs, Edelman's teaching applies full force. If this facet of the judgment had expended itself upon the state treasury, it could not stand.

Attorneys' fees, however, present a different question. Edelman recognizes that a very dim line divides prospective relief incident to a federal court's equitable power under Ex parte Young, 209 U.S. 123, 28 S.Ct. 441, 52 L.Ed. 714 (1908), which may be costly to the state but is permissible under the Amendment, from a compensatory or retroactive money judgment to which the judicial power of the United States does not extend. Cases testing awards of attorneys' fees in such situations are now pending on the Supreme Court's docket. We initially thought that the pendency of these cases required the withholding of our decision. After the district court's clarification, it now appears that both the back pay and attorneys' fees questions in the present litigation can be answered without raising the Eleventh Amendment issues which are awaiting resolution.

The supplemental record discloses that the back pay award was to come from a fund composed of payments by students of the university as part of their activity fee. The private monies in this fund were intended to be used for operating expenses of the paper, which included the salaries of Atlantic Sun personnel. The fund was not the property of the State of Florida. It had been entrusted to a state agency only to hold and invest pending the outcome of this appeal. Under these circumstances the judgment term requiring that monies from this fund be used to repay lost wages had no true impact on the state treasury; the effect of paying over such trust funds for their intended purpose would be an ancillary one at best. Such payments are not prohibited by the Eleventh Amendment. Hander v. San Jacinto Junior College, 519 F.2d 273 (5th Cir. 1975).2

An intervening decision of the Supreme Court on a completely different ground has now effectively foreclosed the award of attorneys' fees to plaintiffs in this action. In Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. v. The Wilderness Society, --- U.S. ---, 95 S.Ct. 1612, 44 L.Ed.2d 141 (1975), the Court explicated the legal history of the "American rule" on awards of attorneys' fees each party must bear the cost of its own attorneys' fees and the traditional exceptions to that rule 1) a contract between the parties; 2) a specific statute; 3) the common fund theory; or 4) cases involving willful disobedience of a court order or instances of bad faith, vexatious, wanton, or oppressive conduct. 95 S.Ct. at 1621-23. Alyeska has now made it plain that it was improper for the district court to make an award of attorneys' fees because the first three exceptions were not present and the award made was not based upon any conduct by the defendants which could qualify under the "bad faith" exception. The trial court stated that the award was bottomed upon the exercise of its chancery powers in the particular circumstances of the case. This statement does not constitute a basis which can bring the court's action within any traditional exception permitted by Alyeska. It therefore must be vacated. See Pupa v. Thompson, 517 F.2d 693 (5th Cir. 1975). The awards of nominal compensatory damages and back pay are affirmed. The award of attorneys' fees is reversed.

Affirmed in part and reversed in part.

GEE, Circuit Judge (specially concurring):

While in agreement with the result and with much the majority has said, I am unable to muster such confidence as it avows (supra, at 261) in the district court's "proper concept of the character and scope" of the good faith defense. The question of whether a public official knew his official actions violated a person's constitutional rights or, alternatively, should have known it is not always easily answered. In very recent opinions treating of the defense, for example, the Supreme Court has repeatedly cautioned that "an official has, of course, no duty to anticipate unforeseeable constitutional developments." O'Connor v. Donaldson, --- U.S. ---, ---, 95 S.Ct. 2486, 2494-95, 45 L.Ed.2d 396, 408 (1975), citing Wood v. Strickland, 420 U.S. at ---, 95 S.Ct. at 1004, 43 L.Ed.2d at 225 (1975). Nor is it certain in every case what facts constitute reasonable grounds on which to found good faith belief. Indeed, in our circuit at any rate, it presently appears that a sheriff charged in a § 1983 false imprisonment suit cannot invoke the good faith defense at all. I do not think that holding correct, and my views there expressed prevent my speaking with as much certainty about the good faith defense as does the majority. See Bryan v. Jones, 519 F.2d 44 (5th Cir. 1975), dissenting opinion. But it seems to me that in this case, despite trial-court findings of a want of malice and of probable good faith belief by President Williams in the propriety of his actions, it appears clear that he should have known better and would have had he sought legal advice. After all, our panel's opinion in Bazaar v. Fortune, 476 F.2d 570 (5th Cir. 1973)1 had come down two months before, and its view of the law was scarcely unprecedented.

The guidelines attached to the statement provide in part:

a. . . . (W)e want only a newspaper which serves its public the University family in the tradition of all great newspapers. So long as it does this it will have our support and it will have earned the freedom it must have.

b. What is it not?

It is not a gripe sheet;

It is not a smear sheet;

It is not representative of shoddy, 'yellow journalism'; or of pornography; or of innuendo; or of invective;

It is not a platform to serve special interests of the administration, or of the faculty, or of any student clique.

c. Primarily 'of, for and by' the students, it must serve the entire University family.

d. It must accept responsibility for writing the truth and for presenting all sides of issues.

e. It must reflect the best interests of the University community it serves.

f. Low and vulgar language or art is prohibited.

Sections 18.101, 239.01(6), 240.095 and 240.0951, Florida Statutes Annotated indicate that this fund is at all times treated distinctly from state funds. The fund is expressly excepted from the general requirements that all state funds be deposited in the state treasury. Expenditures are limited only to those benefiting the student body. Such expenditures are determined by each respective student government association subject to veto by the university president. University presidents may reallocate funds, but only for health service, intercollegiate athletics, or current bond obligations. Unexpended and undispersed funds do not revert to the state treasury, but are carried over to the next fiscal year's student activities fund. As Edelman teaches, the Eleventh Amendment bars federal jurisdiction to make awards when "(t)he funds to satisfy the award . . . must inevitably come from the general revenues of the State." 415 U.S. at 665, 94 S.Ct. at 1357

Modified 489 F.2d 225 (5th Cir. 1973) (en banc)


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CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida, February 7, 2018 - SpaceX CEO and Tesla Motors founder Elon Musk sent his own cherry red Tesla Roadster into space Tuesday atop a SpaceX rocket, making it the first electric car to fly in space.

The Tesla was supposed to orbit around the Sun at the distance of Mars’ orbit. Musk called it "a red Roadster for the Red Planet," but ... something went wrong.

Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster as it cruises past the Earth, February 6, 2018 (Photo courtesy Elon Musk)

Falcon Heavy, the rocket carrying the Roadster, instead put the car into a farther orbit, one that extends out into the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

After launching from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Tesla cruised through the Van Allen radiation belts aboard Falcon Heavy for six hours, an event live-streamed by SpaceX. Then came the final engine burn, and Falcon Heavy flung the electric car that Musk once drove around Los Angeles into a final orbit.

Now, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has officially listed Musk's Roadster as a "celestial object," a spacecraft. It will be monitored along with all the other objects in the solar system, from planets to satellites.

At the wheel of the Roadster rides a spacesuit-wearing mannequin nicknamed Starman. On the dashboard is a Hot Wheels toy model Roadster with a mini-Starman inside. The message “Don’t panic!” is stamped on the dash. David Bowie is playing on the speakers, and a data storage device contains a copy of Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" novels. On one the car's circuit board is stamped "Made on Earth by humans." A plaque is etched with the names of some 6,000 SpaceX employees."

On Tuesday Musk tweeted exultantly, "Apparently, there is a car in orbit around Earth." He staged the stunt to demonstrate that the new Space X rocket, Falcon Heavy, the most powerful rocket ever built by a private company, can fly payloads as far as the orbit of Mars. He knows his market. Companies are already testing gear for asteroid mining, space tourism and moon expeditions. Space-based energy production could be a reality within a decade or two.

Musk has said the Tesla Roadster could drift in space for a billion years, but Starman and the Roadster must endure constant collisions with micrometeorites and other space junk as well as extreme radiation that could tear them both to bits.

By Sunny Lewis, Environment News Service (ENS)

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Release Day Review: When Everything is Blue by Laura Lascarso

release day review

Dreamspinner Presents

When they were kids, Chris Mitcham rescued Theo from the neighborhood bullies and taught him how to “be cool.” Now, years later, Theo’s developed feelings for his best friend that arise at the most inopportune times. Theo hates lying to Chris, but in coming out, he might lose the one person who understands him best, a risk he’s not willing to take.
When a relationship with another young man goes south, Theo is forced to confront his own sexuality along with his growing attraction to Chris and his stunted, tenuous relationship with his father. Will Chris abandon Theo when he learns the truth, or will he stand by him in this tumultuous season of self-discovery?

In this quirky coming-of-age romance, Theo’s path to manhood is fraught with awkward firsts and a few haters, but also the unexpected comfort of a friend turned lover

Usually I don’t go for YA stories but I am so glad I chose this one. This book is a beautiful story of young love. The struggle of best friends becoming lovers at its best and I didn’t want it to end. The story is told from Theo’s point of view. We see how difficult he finds it navigating the path through adolescence. Chris is always there for him but Theo tells himself that he can’t keep relying on that and is certain Chris is straight. I absolutely loved the depth of feeling the author portrayed in this book. It brought a sense of realism and I felt like I was watching a snapshot of both their lives. I thought this was excellent writing since we never got the story from Chris’s POV but I felt I knew what it was from the dialogue and Theo’s comments. The other characters in the story all added strength in their own way. Theo’s twin sister as the opposite of him and provides a good contrast. His hardworking loving and supportive mother and indifferent absent father. And lastly we have the catalyst Dave who victimised Theo. Theo and Chris get their happy for now ending, they have a journey ahead of them and I hope we will get a chance to check in on them in a few years. It feels like they could have a lot of interesting stories to tell before they get their happy ever after (fingers crossed)
On the strength of this book I will definitely look for more by Laura Lascarso

4.5 of stars out of 5

Copy Generously Provided for Honest Review

Audiobook Month: Training Season Audiobook by Leta Blake Narrated by Michael Ferraiuolo

Audible Link

Unquestionably talented figure skater Matty Marcus is willing to sacrifice everything for his Olympic dream, but his lack of discipline cost him the gold once before. Now the pressure’s on. He needs a coach who can keep him in line, but top coaches don’t come cheap, and Matty can’t afford to stay in the game no matter how badly he wants to win.

When a lucrative house-sitting gig brings him to rural Montana, Matty does his best to maintain his training regimen. Local residents turn out to be surprisingly tolerant of his flamboyant style, especially handsome young rancher Rob Lovely, who proves to be much more than a cowboy stereotype. Just as Matty requires a firm hand to perform his best on the ice, Rob shows him how strong he can be when he relinquishes control in the bedroom. With new-found self-assurance, he drives himself harder to go straight to the top.

But competition has a timetable, and to achieve his Olympic dream, Matty will have to join his new coach in New York City, leaving Rob behind. Now he must face the ultimate test. Has he truly learned how to win—on and off the ice—during his training season?

This book is the perfect example of the importance of a good narrator. I had tried to read this book when it first came out a couple of years back. But I just couldn’t get into it. I thought Matty was too whiny, too vain, too shallow, too annoying… and the book was too long and rambling. So I put it aside on the “everybody-but-me-loved-this-hate-it-when-that-happens”-shelf and forgot about it. Then the audio cam out and at first it wasn’t on my radar, until I saw who had narrated it! Michael Ferraiuolo is one of my all time favourite narrators, so I thought if anyone could turn this book around for me, it would be him! And I was so right! He brings it!

Matty is still whiny, vain, shallow and annoying, but he is also kind and generous and insecure. And his forever boyfriend – ice skating – takes that insecurity and punishes him with it over and over again.
After an injury and some disappointing results in the last Olympic games, Matty finds himself in Montana house-sitting and getting back into shape for the upcoming season. Here he meets his hunky neighbor, Rob and his 12 year old son, Ben. Rob is everything Matty isn’t, he is Montana personified. He is ruggedness and slow cooking, he is wide open fields and the north star in the sky and he is, it turns out, an amazing boyfriend too.

This story is long, it takes place over several years, and I can still see why I gave up the first time I tried reading it. It is long and in places it may feel a bit of a drag, especially because it is all so hurtful! Ice skating continues to kick Matty over and over again, and yet, he keeps going back to his abusive first love, whilst everyone he loves just have to watch him go. It hurts!

But however much it hurts, however much you want to shake Matty until his teeth rattles, you still understand his choices and the reasoning behind making them. There is some truly great characterization going on here, because I understood, I really did. I wanted to disagree, but I did understand. And don’t worry, at the end of it all, at the end of 12 exhausting hours of hurt we get our happy ending after all.

4.5 out of 5 stars

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The Next Competitor by Keira Andrews

If he risks his heart, can he keep his head in the game?

To win gold, figure skater Alex Grady must train harder than the competition morning, noon, and night. He’s obsessed with mastering another quadruple jump, and due to the lack of filter between his mouth and brain, doesn’t have a lot of friends. As for a boyfriend, forget it. So what if he’s still a virgin at twenty? The Olympics are only every four years—everything else can wait. Relationships are messy and complicated anyway, and he has zero room in his life for romance.

So it’s ridiculous when Alex finds himself checking out his boring new training mate Matt Savelli. Calm, collected “Captain Cardboard” is a nice guy, but even if Alex had time to date, Matt’s so not his type. Yet beneath Matt’s wholesome surface, there’s a dirty, sexy man who awakens a desire Alex has never experienced and can’t deny…

Note: This gay romance from Keira Andrews features opposites attracting, new adult angst, sexual discovery, and of course a happy ending.

This new version has been extensively rewritten, updated, and expanded into a new adult romance with explict on-page sex.

I did not read the original version, but I have to wonder if it wasn’t a bit more appropriate for this story.

Alex is a 20 year old (virgin!) Olympic figure skater who is so focused on winning he has no time for anything else and no social filter thus no real friends and definitely no boyfriends (or even hookups!). He’s on his fourth coach in 6 years and has moved to Toronto to work with her where he meets Matt, another of her pupils?, a pairs skater.

Alex notices Matt but finds him “boring” but that’s unimportant anyway as all he focuses on is win, win, win.

Matt isn’t a very well developed character, and though he has some potential interesting things about him (his Italian blue collar family, being in the closet, an injury situation) he doesn’t translate as a overly “interesting” and I can kinda see Alex’s point.

But… they do cross paths and eventually end up as boyfriends.

What worked for me: I liked Alex as a character. I think he rang very authentic. The kind of drive it takes to make it the Olympics requires a certain personality type that isn’t going to just give up – ever!

I thought his being a virgin and how that got handled was both sweet and sexy (there were parts I didn’t like that I’ll get to) but that definitely added some much needed heart to this very self-centered, driven character.

I thought the background info on training and the figure skating circuit was pretty interesting. I kinda wanted there to be a bit more drama surrounding the gay v straight skaters – especially if that’s a real thing!

I loved the secondary characters – the other skaters, the coach, the parents – and thought they added a lot to this story.

What didn’t work for me: I didn’t feel a connection between Matt and Alex. They spent too much time apart and the time together either fighting or “making out” – ahem – or more. When Alex “flipped” and saw Matt in a new light it didn’t feel authentic and it felt more like a virgin wanting experience than a boy falling in love.

Matt – as a character – needed to be developed more. Maybe if we’d seen things from his POV I’d have felt more connected to him. He had so much potential – his family, his finances, his injury situation… but he just read as pretty flat to me.

What really didn’t work for me was the “dirty talk”. This felt tacked on to give this YA story an adult spin and it didn’t feel authentic at all. It didn’t match the tone of the rest of the story and made me a little uncomfortable.

I’m guessing the YA version is less “sexy” but I’m wondering if that’s more appropriate.

In any case. Keira is a gifted writer and I was captivated by the story and didn’t ever feel like I wanted to stop reading. I NEEDED to know how it ended and was moderately pleased by the HFN ending. Maybe if we’d seen these guys down the road… I’m not sure. With something like competitive sports that only happen every four years… wow – you just have to be kind of crazy to keep going don’t you?

I think fans of the author will like this, fans of figure skating as well, and fans of high-maintenance characters will get a kick out of Alex.

3.5 of 5 stars

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text:
I used to work at a gas station, and still believe it is a great first job if you’re in a local service station and not a Wawa or worse (fuck you, Royal Farms).

We had staggered shifts on weekends, and coming in one day my coworker stops me at the counter and says “some guy left his wallet; it’s on the shelf right here. If anyone comes in asking for a wallet, check their face against the ID and hand it back over if it’s him Igottatakeashitbye” and he scurried off towards the back to punish a toilet.

A couple minutes later, early-30s business casual guys comes in and says he left his wallet. I ask for his name and address, and pull the ID out of the wallet and sure enough it’s Mr. Forgetful. I hand it over, and he opens it and counts a big-ass stack of $100 bills, and remarks how good it is that we hadn’t taken any of his money and that it was all still there. He then peeled off a Franklin and handed it over to me saying “thanks for being honest”, and walked out before I could process the fact that I’ve been at work for 5 minutes and already had someone hand me $100 for doing nothing.

Ten or fifteen minutes later (that poor toilet), my coworker comes out of the back and asks about the wallet. “Oh yeah, the guy came back in and picked it up,” I told him with a huge grin on my face, “and was so grateful no one stole anything he gave me $100. Isn’t that nice?” My coworker filled the doorway to the booth and told me we were going to split the $100 or I was going to have to rochambeau him for it. Needless to say I laughed and split the $100, and we ate like kings that evening.


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‘Friends’ of Seumas are Liars

Robert Mendick in The Telegraph has been speaking to ‘friends’ of Seumas Milne who say he was “not a willing participant” in the hour long public display of affection last Thursday night. Guido’s co-conspirator with the camera-phone says otherwise. The ‘friend’ says “I know the pictures tell a different story… But I know there is nothing going on. I don’t think it’s a quick snog. There may have been a bit of nuzzling on her part but if you look at Seumas’s face, you can see he is not a willing participant.” How did Jennifer Robinson get him to hold her head? Did she suck his tongue out of him against his will as well?

Guido suspects Cristina won’t believe him the ‘friend’ and given that Seumas did not do his usual post-PMQs briefing, he didn’t fancy getting a ribbing from the Lobby lads who also don’t him believe. Or perhaps he is hiding a black eye when he failed to duck a flying plate of pasta?

Talking of pasta here is another picture of the couple snapped by a Guido co-conspirator in Ciao Bella. This time in a more discreet corner behind a pillar in the Bloomsbury Italian restaurant which is popular with lawyers. It was taken late on a Friday night a few months ago. It was March 10, if you are interested, Cristina…

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Company Confidential

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Assistant In-Store Promotions Manager

at Company Confidential

Posted: 11/19/2018
Job Status: Full Time
Job Reference #: 726118

Job Description

The Job Window is excited to reveal that one of its most innovative lead generation clients in the Kissimmee area is looking for an Assistant In-Store Promotions Manager to join their in-store retail marketing & sales promotions division!
Offering a unique take on face to face marketing & advertising, our client helps build the success of services offered by some of the largest brands in the electronics, communications & satellite TV industries! By developing and executing an in-store lead generation program specific to each brand, our client effectively encourages brand to consumer relationships, brand awareness and increased retailer revenue.
In this entry level role, the Assistant In-Store Promotions Manager will use their ability to capture the attention of a retail audience to assist the in-store retail marketing & sales promotions team with increasing revenue and customer awareness of in-store retail marketing and lead generation programs.
Responsibilities of the Assistant In-Store Promotions Manager:

  • Impact sales results by taking part in the development and execution of in-store lead generation tactics
  • Execute on-site retail marketing, sales promotions and lead generation initiatives from start to finish for some of the largest electronic & satellite TV brand names in North America
  • Promote excitement around in-store marketing and sales initiatives occurring to create consumer awareness of brands and promote consumer cooperation in on-site retail marketing and sales promotions events
  • Provide exceptional customer service and in-store service knowledge to customers of retailer services being promoted
  • Problem solve and make professional judgement on whether customers qualify for the in-store services being offered (full training will be provided)


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• Day, Date, Month

    October 2008
    S M T W T F S
    « Sep   Nov »
  • What I said before

  • Advertisements

Most, if not all, of my five readers know that; I was a ‘teacher’ in a previous life. In fact, not all that long ago.  One thing that has always stayed strong with me is the desire to teach others…especially kids…not on a daily regular basis anymore…but to at least on some level.  Then I was approached with this.

I have joined in on something, on the groud floor, of being able to touch a lot, and I do mean a lot of children…My friend Marjuanna’s husband, who knows me all to well, thought of me when this was presented to him. He emailed me, after joining himself, and we attended a seminar together. I went in with the idea that ‘NO I am not going to buy into something nor I will not be hard sold’…3 hours later I was contemplating the system and being part of the beginning team of Professor Brainstorm. I am here now to tell you all that I am an Official Ambassador of the company.  One of the first 300 to be a small part of a huge project headed by some bigger names…Shane Dugger who is the Senior Accounts manage at CDW…Shane hand a couple other guys pulled CDW out of a guys garage and into what it is today. Greg Aronowitz, who does all the art work..he has worked with Steven Speilberg and Georget Lucas on the Star Wars movies creating the latest Jabba the Hutt. He also did art work for the Power Rangers Series and has a new movie coming out called Labou.
enough about that….I am not required to sell anything I can take my product and run…never look back. But I BELIEVE in the product I BELIEVE that is can and will make a difference in the reading and math scores of all children who play it. I BELIEVE that is is that good.

Check me out

Debi Pavletic

Poke around have a look see…there is not a whole lot there yet…we are tiny and growing…I am happy to talk to anyone about it…just ask.

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Katherine Blundell

Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford and Supernumerary Research Fellow in Astrophysics at St John's College

Psalms, the stars, and transcendance

On scientific truth and a "god of the gaps"

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Holmes Park

Holmes Lake

Location Overview

Power boats allowed. Lake community surrounds it.

No food available, no boat ramp

  • Free Parking
  • Picnic Tables

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Help your fellow paddlers by posting any relevant information, photos, or videos in the comments area below. Include information about facilities, conditions, fees, parking, etc. Click on the photo icon to upload photos. For videos, simply include the link to the YouTube or Vimeo video and it will be included in your comment.


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Crystal Gardens by Amanda Quick – Ladies of Lantern Street (Book 1) Review

So, in my attempt at shaking up my reading list a little bit I purchased Crystal Gardens – A Ladies of Lantern Street Novel by Amanda Quick the first in the trilogy.

Crystal Gardens By Amanda Quick

Crystal Gardens By Amanda Quick

I had never read any Jayne- Ann Krentz novels before and was intrigued to learn she regularly writes under the pseudonyms Amanda Quick and Jane Castle depending on the genre of her writing, Crystal Gardens is paranormal fiction and my first real taste of the genre. I am a regular reader of fantasy novels and thought this would be an easy transition.

Crystal Gardens is set in Victorian England; the main character of the novel is Evangeline Ames a paid companion, with ‘special talents’. Evangeline is a young woman past the age of marriage for her time with no other way to support herself finical she joins the companion agency who, it turns out only take on woman with special physic ‘gifts’ with these gifts the agency goes about solving cases for its clients, mostly regarding extra marital affairs. Evangeline is paid well, a lot higher than the usual companion rate as are all the girls because the risks they take, It is during one of these cases that a threat is made on Evangeline’s life and is she and her friends decide it is a good idea for her to get away for a while to the small town of Little Dixby. While there another attempt is made on Evangeline’s life and, in an attempt to escape Evangeline runs to the nearest and largest and coincidentally the most supernatural house in the area Crystal Gardens.

She is saved by the mysterious Lucas Sebastian who immediately takes an interest in her, and her abilities, of course Lucas and Crystal Gardens have their own secrets which Evangeline is just dying to discover.

All in all Crystal Gardens is all right, it was a very easy ready but personally I didn’t think the paranormal side to the book was done particularly well. The romance between Lucas Sebastian and Evangeline Ames was the only thing that I really liked about the book; I guess I found it all a bit predictable.

This was the first  Jayne- Ann Krentz novel I have ever read and, I have read reviews from  long-time fans saying her other books are much better than Crystal Gardens so I haven’t been put off I’m all for second chances but I won’t be buying the rest of the trilogy any time soon!

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Why Ghee Deserves a Spot in Your Paleo Cupboard

Clarified butter (Ghee)

Ghee (also called clarified butter or butter oil) is basically butter if you take out everything but the fat. Regular butter is 82% milk fat and 18% “other” (water, protein, and a very tiny amount of carbohydrate). Ghee is about 98% fat, with very little of anything else. It’s a significantly purer form of dairy fat.

It’s possible to make ghee from milk, but it’s also possible to make it from butter, by gently cooking the butter and then straining out the milk solids to leave nothing but the pure fat.

Ghee has been a traditional form of fat in India for years, and it’s part of ayurvedic medicine if you’re interested in that, but it’s interesting to Paleo eaters because it hits all the high points of dairy with almost no lactose or milk proteins – and it has some interesting health benefits along the theme of “saturated fat is actually good for you.”

Why ghee?

Ghee is really an addition to the Paleo fat cupboard. It’s something you can add on top of other delicious Paleo fats like olive oil and coconut oil. So…why would you add it?

It’s a butter sub for the lactose intolerant

Ghee is like butter but with even more delicious butter fat, and not as much lactose.

For one thing, it has almost no dairy proteins or lactose at all. Even butter has some, but ghee has almost negligible amounts. This makes ghee OK for a lot of people with lactose intolerance, since the amount of lactose is so tiny.

An important safety note: lactose intolerance and milk allergy aren’t the same thing!

Milk allergy is rare in adults: most adults who have trouble with dairy are lactose intolerant, not allergic. If lactose intolerance is your problem, ghee might be a very delicious solution that still lets you eat all that delicious dairy fat.

It’s good for your heart

Ghee is also chock full of healthy fat. About half the fat in ghee is saturated, which makes it much better than PUFA-rich industrial fats like soybean oil. Ghee also has a relatively high amount of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), which has benefits for preventing weight gain and might also help with weight loss. You can read more about CLA here.

For ghee, there’s specific evidence that all of those good fats have heart-health benefits. This study, admittedly in rats, found that far from harming the rats’ cardiovascular health, ghee as 10% of calories reduced total cholesterol, LDL, and VLDL. The rats also enjoyed lower levels of liver cholesterol and triglycerides, possibly by increasing excretion of cholesterol. For anyone confused by all the science: that’s all really good news for the rats!

By changing the composition of the fats in the rats’ bodies, the ghee also helped reduce oxidative damage and made the rats more resistant to oxidative stress.

Human studies also confirm the benefits of ghee for cardiovascular health. For example, in this study, the researchers compared ghee to vegetable oil (specifically mustard oil, which is high in omega-6 fats like other vegetable oils). They found that people who typically ate ghee had lower rates of cardiovascular disease than people who ate mustard oil.

It’s delicious

Ghee doesn’t taste exactly like butter, but it’s recognizably butter-adjacent. If you think of the way oven-roasted vegetables get those nicely brown crispy edges, that same chemical reaction happens when you heat up butter to make ghee, so there’s a bit of that flavor to it. The stereotypical description of ghee is “nutty,” which also describes it pretty well.

Using ghee in Paleo cooking

Step 1 is to get yourself some ghee. You can buy ghee in any grocery store: look in the international foods aisle with the Indian food and/or the other shelf-stable fats like olive oil. You might also find it refrigerated with the butter. A note about store-bought ghee: it might have BHA listed on the ingredients list: this is just an antioxidant and nothing really to worry about.

Alternately, you can make it yourself from regular butter (we’ve published a guide to making ghee here).

Once the ghee is in your cupboard, you can use it in Paleo recipes just like you’d use butter or any other cooking fat. It’s particularly delicious in sweets and dessert recipes, but it’s also great with protein (ghee-drizzled scallops? Chicken with ghee sauce?) and vegetables (try some broccoli roasted in ghee with a sprinkling of almond slivers on top, if you really like the “nutty” aspect of the ghee flavor).

Because ghee is so highly saturated, it’s good for high-heat cooking. Unlike butter, it doesn’t have any milk solids to burn, so you don’t need to watch the heat as hawkishly as you would with a pat of butter. So for culinary purposes, if you want to sear a fillet of fish or some other job that takes super-high heat, ghee might be your new favorite fat.

Making ghee even better: eat it with other real foods!

Citrus + ghee + fish = delicious.

WIth any kind of cooking fat, there’s a danger of oxidation. Oxidation is a kind of damage caused by heat and light – it can make a fat pro-inflammatory and damaging (for more on inflammation, take a look here).

But guess what protects the fats in ghee from oxidation? Basically any antioxidant-rich food! For example, in this study, researchers used orange peel mixed into ghee and found that the orange peel protected the ghee against oxidative damage. Orange peel was even more effective than butylatedhydroxyanisole (BHA), a pure antioxidant that sometimes gets added to fats like ghee and lard to protect them from oxidative damage.

Lycopene, an antioxidant found in tomatoes, and curcumin, found in the spice cumin, also did the trick. So did rosemary, cloves, coriander, and green tea.

The point: this is one more way that whole foods complement each other and a whole-foods-based diet ends up being more than the sum of its parts. If you’re making your own ghee, you could even bake the herbs right in for delicious flavored ghee (orange ghee would be great on fish, or rosemary ghee would be perfect for beef roasts, just for example).

What’s your favorite ghee recipe? Let us know on Facebook or Twitter!


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Steak Dinner Lesson Learned

Recently my husband read an article about Faviken a restaurant located on a remote hunting reserve deep in the Swedish Scandinavian forest. Under the guidance of young chef Magnus Nilsson they serve only fresh local foods in season or in-house preserved ingredients. Keeping in mind my opinion that indigenous food gathered grown and preserved or cured in the way they been for centuries and prepared traditionally or as in this case with exquisite creativity is the best cuisine. Since Nilsson has become the head chef the restaurant is now considered 34th on the list of the world’s top 50, and he’s considered one of the world’s 10 top young chefs.  After an internet search I was hooked on trying at lest one of Chef Magnus Nilsson’s recipes.  I’d love to snowshoe out for some wild game, forge fresh fungi and flora, and collect fresh scallops from a bay down the road.  Here in California’s Central Valley that’s not going to happen.

Local dry aged beef, was my best option, I decided to add a salad with greens from my yard, including dandelion, nasturtium leaves and blossoms, baby lettuce and green garlic leaves.  Dressing will be my home-made Honey-Dijon dressing using local wildflower honey, and walnut oil.  Locally grown organic yams for fries.  All paired with the an exceptional Lodi CA. wine, Earthquake Zinfandel from Michael David Winery.  My decadent dessert is Sprouted Chandler Walnut Maple Toffee smothered with Sharffen Berger 70% dark chocolate which also pair superbly with the wine.

First I was off to Dave’s Meat Service to get dry cured beautifully fat marbled ribeyes from local cattle.  Dave cut them 1 inch thick as called for in the recipe.  Next take them out 2 hours before cooking so the meat comes to room temperature. Salt the meat with good sea salt, but here I made a mistake by using too much salt.  Make some garlic butter, using a local source for butter from pastured cows and local garlic. The recipe said to cook the steaks in cast iron on medium high to caramelize in the butter on both sides.  Next take them out, and wipe the skillet clean. Add new butter and juices from the steak plate, return the steaks to the hot pan turn frequently to baste, cook until meat is firm yet yielding to touch.

Sounds simple, but then I made the mistake of second guessing.  Medium high heat, won’t the butter smoke and burn?  It must be a miss print.  So in my steaks go on medium, a couple of minutes in, I know I’ve done something wrong. The meat is steaming!  Not good.  I plate the meat, remove the steaming liquid.  Re-read the directions.  Not hot enough!  Restart this time on medium-high, ok I just hope it’s not to late. I get some carmizling,  remove the steaks clean the skillet, it’s cast iron so I wipe it clean with paper towels.  Now to restart medium-high heat add new garlic butter and juices from the steak plate. Turn a lot to achieve basting. Now I don’t test by feel as recommend by Nilsson, because I don’t trust my judgment on that, so in goes my instant read thermometer and I get a perfect 123-125 degree reading.  The steaks where succulent juicy and tender just a bit beyond rare, although the over salting was a big mistake.

My two big mistakes here were over salting the meat, and starting to cook at the wrong temperature.  The lesson, is never second guess Magnus Nilsson and always make dessert first!  The dessert recipe and the others will appear in the next few posts.  Up dates will be added with pictures when I repeat and improve on this recipe.

*The steak recipe is paleo.

DSC02457 Click on picture for the salad recipe.

DSC02464 Click on picture for walnut chocolate toffee recipe

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