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Thursday, June 21, 2012

Hard Days

It is 9:49 in the morning, and already today is a hard day.  People, my daughter is VERY HARD.  I love her and try to remain positive about her personality as much as I can, but I also just need to express that parenting her is very, very hard.  It is intense.  It is thankless.  It is dramatic and full of pessimism, complaining, and possessiveness (on her part).  I have a hard time parenting my little pessimist.  I mean, I am very thankful for her, and grateful that she is my fourth child and thus party to the most patience I've ever had as a parent, and mainly I simply love on and care for her wholeheartedly, knowing that most of the hard bits will pass and that my job is to help her feel secure and loved and celebrated, and supported when she is sad.  But that doesn't mean it is easy.  Or even wholly enjoyable.  She is just so incredibly inflexible, and this effectively means that my life is restricted quite a lot, in a mentally draining way.  I already parent in a manner that restricts my freedom and my life pretty heavily, and I actually prefer it this way and believe it is healthy and very good for our entire family.  It is good for us to be needed as parents, for Brent and I to be stretched and pulled and required to figure out creative solutions for things, for our kids to be surrounded by love and lots of touch, affirmation, positiveness, and family orientating activities.  We carry our babies a lot, I breastfeed long term, we cosleep, we are responsive, and we care about our kids' hearts; what matters to them, matters to us (even Star Wars Lego: do you have any idea the amount of Star Wars trivia I am party to on a daily basis???).  We also have FOUR kids.  That's four separate little lives to pour into, four quirks, characteristics, needs, wants, desires, and hearts to be attuned to.  That's a lot.  And the needier kids (Matthew and Amarys) demand an incredible amount of our focus, subtracting focus from the less needy kids (Ayden and Riley).  I'm peanut butter on toast; but there's a hellofalotta toast on this here plate, and only so much of me.
Some days, I swear she hates me.  It is so hard to keep her happy and regulated and calm and balanced.  Matthew had tons of trouble with emotional regulation too, and it really fed my anxiety disorder and we would get caught up in these cycles of anger, frustration, crying, and total emotional chaos.  I'm happy that I've grown beyond that reality but it doesn't make Amarys' difficulties with emotional regulation any easier to live with.  I handle them better but I hate them just as much.
She's intense.  She hits, bites, scratches, pulls hair, screeches, and flails.  She loses her shit every time I leave to go anywhere~ the bathroom, the office downstairs for an hour to work, the shower, the grocery store, book club, or the laundry room to wash clothes.  She is not easily comforted when she loses her shit.  It takes me a day or two to calm her down and re-regulate her after something like an evening out for book club.  Or ten minutes spent in the company of her Nana while I drive her brothers to school.  So not only is it hard for me to go (and oh my gosh, do I need to go), and hard for Brent and her brothers while I'm gone, I pay for it the next day as I navigate her anger and insecurity that I went.  I pay for it.  This contributes significantly to my feelings of entrapment, as you can imagine.
I'm doing it.  But I need to express that it is hard.  It is hard, it is hard, it is hard.

This is her, right now as I type, frantic to bang on the keyboard

But I'm so cuuuuuute, how can you complain about me on the internet?

melissa said...

I so wish I had a solution for you, but instead, I'll just say thanks. I only have the one kiddo's needs to navigate at the moment, but I can relate on my own level to how stinkin' hard that can be some days. The past few days in particular have been killer, and I'm relieved to know I'm not alone.

Ruchi said...

Kids need and needs and need and you give and give and give but eventually you will run on empty so take your break/time out mama, or you (and your kiddos) will pay for it.
Truly hearing you on this one. Check out mamabirth's blog. she talks about this a little bit. Hang in there :)

emili said...

Oh, friend. Oh, oh, oh. I could have written this post. Jonah is my ultra-demanding one. Though I only have the two boys, I seriously *seriously* struggle most days. I, too, abide by attachment parenting philosophies (it's just what comes naturally) and, obviously, the fact that Jonah has a disability should have me giving more grace to him, automatically being more patient.

Psh. Nope...

I feel like a failure SO MUCH of the time, because I just want some friggin quiet, and his cry (most times, for nothing) is constantly piercing. I feel awful for writing any of this, but... ugh, what I'm trying to say is thank you for being vulnerable and honest. It encourages me to hear another mama, who honest to God loves her children, express realness. I simply can encourage and love you from afar - the hard bits will get easier. Grace, grace, grace for each second of the day.

tamie marie said...

Oh babe. I read this post this morning and I've been thinking about you so much. I've been thinking about how mothering is probably the world's hardest job....well, maybe second to coal mining. But, no, mothering is probably harder.

Whenever I think I can't keep going--which is pretty much most of the time--I think about you, Emili, a mother named Cheryl I know, and a few others. I think about how you (and Em, and etc.) keep going, despite the fact that some days it feels beyond impossible. That helps me keep going. I feel like we are in this together, and if I give up, then I somehow fail YOU, if that makes sense. I guess I feel like, I have to keep going because you keep going.

(And I'm talking to you too, Em, although I didn't know you were going to comment on here, and I would've said the same thing regardless.)

melissa v. said...

Thank you, wonderful women. You are so encouraging and supportive and amazing. I don't know what I would do without you!!

Tamie, thank you. Thank you for being my friend and affirming the hard job that is mothering, and for loving me enough to keep me on your mind when I'm having a rough go. You are wonderful, friend. (((longdistancehugs)))

emili said...

Thank you, Tamie. I have always felt that unconditional support and love from you :)

And again thank you, Mel, for sharing your heart. You're a beautiful mama. xo!


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Welcome, Guest! - or
Easy to remember!  »  VinNews.com

Neturei Karta Joins Palestinian Land Day Protests

Location: ARNOUN, Lebanon
March 30, 2012

Delegates of Neturei Karta, Orthodox Jews opposed to Zionism, are escorted by Hezbollah bodyguards during their solidarity march with Hezbollah and Palestinian factions for a “Global March to Jerusalem” to mark Land Day near Beaufort Castle in Arnoun village in southern Lebanon March 30, 2012. Land Day commemorates the killing of six Arabs in 1976 during protests against the confiscation of their land in Israel’s Galilee region.

Read Comments (1)  —  Post Yours »

 Mar 30, 2012 at 05:30 PM torontonian Says:

Isn't the Kaffia they a wearing big enough for tzitzis? Oh well let those peyes get curled and don't touch the beard mimini achmad umishmoly mohammad.....

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« Ohio: Cuyahoga County considers scrapping present voting machines | Main | Florida: testing on Day One in FL-13 »

Florida: was it bad ballot design?

The Washington Post reports: Almost since the time the votes were tallied here on election night, the race for Florida's 13th Congressional District has been surrounded by a contentious mystery:

Why were there no votes for Congress recorded from more than 18,000 people who chose candidates in other races? ...

But other experts who have analyzed the ballots and the results argue that the culprit might be not the machines but rather voters confused by a poorly designed ballot.

The congressional race appeared on the same screen as the gubernatorial contest, which had a brighter banner and took up more space.

Ted Selker of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a director of the CalTech/MIT Voting Technology Project, said that tests in his lab have shown that as many as 60 percent of voters can miss races when they are displayed in such a manner.

If the missing votes were caused by ballot design, that is bad news for the challenger, because it is more difficult under Florida law to challenge an election because of ballot design or voter confusion. -- Vote Disparity Still a Mystery In Fla. Election For Congress - washingtonpost.com

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Setting up a VPN on Chromebook

by Adam Gill

Chromebooks have some of the best security that Google could place on a product, but it still is susceptible to attacks when on a network. One problem with the Chromebook laptop was its inability to setup a Virtual Private Network (VPN). The technology used by VPN providers offers Chromebook users more privacy and secures your online network without worry about the attacks, blocking, censorship and viruses that many Internet users face. In an attempt to help readers learn that setting up a VPN on Chromebook is possible, we have written these procedures;

Network Icon

The first step in setting up a VPN on your Chrome book laptop is identifying the network icon on the from of system. It will be placed on the top right in the corner of monitor. You will want to move your cursor and select that icon.

Private Network

You will be taken to another page. This second step will require you to identify the private network, which is listed and then select Add a Private Network.3

Fill in Fields

This will take you to another page that requires you to fill in the fields. On this page you will see a new box that is for setting up an L2TP network. You must have selected that protocol during your VPN account setup to ensure that the Chromebook will connect to the VPN properly. After that account setup process, you would have received an email from your VPN provider. This email has all the information you need to fill out all the fields on this Add a Private Network page.

  • Enter the server address in the field labeled, Server Host Name
  • Choose a name of your VPN provider. It can be anything you like or the actual name of the VPN service you are using, such as Enter that name into the field labeled, Service Name
  • In the email sent from your VPN, it will have a Pre-Shared Key, or PSK. This key information must be inserted in the field labeled, Pre-Shared Key, or PSK.
  • Insert the user name you used to for your VPN account access into the field labeled, User Name
  • Insert the password you were given for your VPN account into the field labeled, Password
  • You want to save all this information

Now that you have completed the Private Network setup using all the information provided by your VPN, you can start using your Chromebook laptop through the VPN’s secured connection. When selecting a network to connect to the Internet, just use the new Private Network you just added to your Chromebook. Even though this is a little harder to complete than VPN setups on other devices, it can be accomplished if you take your time.

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Shumlin Taps Into Social Media To Get Message Out

05/13/11 5:50PM By Steve Zind

(Host) The days are past when people over 25 who used Facebook were thought of as a bit weird.

Social media Web sites have come of age.  Young people may still be their most active users, but many others are tapping into Facebook and Twitter to get their message out.

They include Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin.

VPR's Steve Zind has more.

(Zind)  Shumlin is on social media sites Facebook and Twitter. And he isn't alone: Last year, USA Today counted more than 30 governors using Twitter to get the attention of young voters. Shumlin says otherwise, you're invisible to them.

(Shumlin) "And if you don't use their language to speak to them, you're not going to get to young people....So it's really more about accepting the fact that they don't communicate the way we did and we either join them or lose them."

(Zind) Shumlin's Twitter feed is active nearly every day as he moves around the state, sending short Tweets, which are limited to 140 characters. Mostly they describe where he is and who he's with.

For example:  "Met with Vermont Nurses Association this morning. A great group of people working hard to keep us healthy."

Twenty-five year old Stephen Churchill is just the kind of person Shumlin is trying to reach through social media.

(Churchill) "Yea, my Blackberry and my laptop. So I'm generally always plugged in..."

(Zind) Churchill, who's a voracious consumer of news, is plugged in at a downtown Burlington coffee shop on this particular afternoon. He follows Shumlin on Twitter, but he's disappointed in the governor's tweets.

(Churchill) "To be honest, I'm already not as engaged as I should be. But from what I've seen, and I do pay attention, there's really not much actual news coming from his Twitter."

(Zind) The finer points of policy are probably a tall order for a short Tweet, plus Shumlin doesn't actually write most of his. That's handled by press secretary Bianca Slota. Slota says Twitter's value is in its immediacy.

(Slota) "You can say, ‘I'm at the bookstore right now. I'm going to be here for the next 30 minutes. Stop by if you want.' We've seen sometimes people will show up to these events to be able to say, ‘Hi,' to him. And I think that's really why I'm excited about this and what we're trying to create is access."

(Zind) A big part of Slota's press secretary job is keeping the governor's Tweets, blog and Facebook messages current. She also posts video of Shumlin including a series called "Ask the Governor," where she reads Vermonters' questions and Shumlin answers them.

(You Tube video)

(Slota) "What does the term ‘unanticipated receipts' mean? If we don't anticipate receiving it, then how can it save us any money?"

"(Shumlin)  "First of all let me apologize...."

(Zind) Another advantage to new media is it gives officeholders access to voters without relying on press coverage. Still, as important as social media is becoming, it will probably never replace a handshake and a greeting.

(Man) "Governor!  How are you?" (Shumlin)  "Good to see you..."

(Zind)  In politics, face time still trumps Facebook.

For VPR News, I'm Steve Zind.

Recent tweets from Governor Shumlin's Twitter feed, @vtgovernor.

social_media governor_peter_shumlin politics media

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Kosher Desserts

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Hazelnut Chocolate Chip Cookies PDF Print E-mail

Adapted from a recipe by Giada De Laurentiis

An oatmeal cookie batter plus hazelnuts, chocolate chips and crushed chocolate covered toffee candy bars – a cookie lovers dream come true.

1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), at room temperature
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 ounces English toffee candy, finely chopped (recommended: Heath or Skor)
1 cup hazelnuts, toasted, skinned and chopped
1 (12-ounce) bag semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Line 2 heavy baking sheets with parchment paper. Finely chop the oats in a food processor. Transfer the oats to a medium bowl. Mix in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugars in a large bowl until fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Add the flour mixture and stir just until blended. Stir in the toffee, hazelnuts, and chocolate chips.

For each cookie, drop 1 rounded tablespoonful of dough onto sheet, spacing 1 inch apart (do not flatten dough). Bake until the cookies are golden (cookies will flatten slightly), about 15 minutes. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets for 5 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack and cool completely. (The cookies can be prepared 1 day ahead. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.)

Yield: 4 dozen cookies

Can be made ahead of time, formed into logs, wrapped with plastic wrap, and placed in the freezer. When ready to use, slice and bake.

Recipes: Desserts, Cookies, Hazelnut, Chocolate Chip, Dairy, Kosher

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Rocking Beetle

Have you ever seen a beetle that has fallen on its back? It has a hard time getting up. It rocks back and forth and up and down to try to turn over.

  1. You’ll need a thick mat or carpet to lie down on to cushion your spine.
  2. Lie on your back and bring your knees to your chest. Place your hands under your knees (or wrap your arms around them).
  3. Lift your legs and swing up …
  4. … then roll back down.

Make your body into a little ball so you can rock and roll easily. Roll a few more times, then rest.

Did you know that you have nerves that go from your spine to every part of your body? Nerves help your body work. When you rock and roll on your back, you help your nerves work better, and that makes your whole body feel good!

You can find more fun poses like this one in Wai Lana’s Little Yogis Fun Exercise book or Little Yogis DVDs.

USA | UK | Australia
All Prices are in USD. © 2015 Wai Lana Productions, LLC. All rights reserved.


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essential Waitrose frozen chopped spinach 1kg

£1.50 (£1.50 per kg)

  • Vegetarian Vegetarian
  • Waitrose own label Waitrose own label

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Product Summary

Mini portions of chopped spinach, grown with care for the environment by farmers who share our values.

Chopped spinach

Typical values per 100g per 80g serving
Energy 124kj 101 kj
Energy 30kcal 24 kcal
Fat 0.8g 0.6 g
Of which
- Saturates 0.1g trace g
Carbohydrate 1.5g 1.3 g
Of which
- Sugars 1.5g 1.2 g
Fibre 2.7g 2.2 g
Protein 2.8g 2.2 g
Salt 0.25g 0.28 g

Typical values as sold. Contains 12 Servings

From Frozen
For best results microwave from frozen. Microwave ovens vary. Refer to handbook. Place 250gms spinach in a microwaveable dish, cover with suitable film and pierce in several places. Stir and stand for 1 minute after heating before serving. Check that food is hot. If not, reheat for a further brief period. (650W: 4� mins, 750W: 4 mins, 850W: 3� mins)

HOB Time 10mins Place required amount of frozen spinach nuggets into a saucepan, heat gently stirring continuously until piping hot

Component Material Recyclable
bag Plastic - LDPE No

Please note that whilst we take every care to ensure the product information displayed on our website is correct, product recipes are regularly changed and this may affect nutrition and allergen information therefore you should always check product labels and not rely solely on the information presented here.

If you require specific advice on any Waitrose branded product, please contact Customer Support on 0800 188884 or email For all other products, please contact the manufacturer.

This information is supplied for personal use only. It may not be reproduced in any way whatsoever without the prior consent of Waitrose Limited nor without due acknowledgement.


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2010.08.30 Weekly Broadcast

The following updates have been made to the CCCWFU CCOP Research Base website for the week of August 30, 2010.

91105 (Phase III Double Blind, Placebo Controlled Study of Donepezil in Irradiated Brain Tumor Patients)
Amendment 10 has been added to the website. There are no consent or appendix changes associated with this amendment.

97509 (A Feasibility Study of Armodafinil for Brain Radiation-Induced Fatigue)
The Neurocognitive Battery Videos have been added to the 97509 page.  Please note the information below the video link clarifying the sections to be reviewed.

Adverse Event Reports:
There were no Adverse Events received during the month of August.

Monthly Accruals:

The CCCWFU CCOP Research Base sites accrued 11 patients during the month of August.  Congratulations to the top accruing site, WFU, for recruiting 4 patients! Further accrual information is located here.

Quick Reference Guides
The Quick Reference Guides for each study have been added to the website. These guides are a helpful tool in recruiting patients since they include a summary of eligibility criteria, labs and study parameters.

Annual Meeting Registration Available

Hilton Room Block to be Released on Tuesday

Registration is now open for the Research Base 10th Annual Meeting, October 7-9, 2010 at the Hilton Wilmington Riverside in Wilmington, NC. There are no registration fees associated with this meeting or the education credits that are available. Please use the links below to make arrangements to attend.
Register for Meeting
Hotel Reservations– The $155 per night room rate will only be guaranteed through Sept 7.

Continuing Education Credit

Nurses, CRAs, CCRP

“This continuing nursing education activity was approved by the North Carolina Nurses Association, an accredited approver by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.”

This activity has been approved for 16 contact hours

The Wake Forest University School of Medicine designates this educational activity for a maximum of 15 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)TM .

For details regarding this meeting, contact Lisa Autry Hawkins @ 336-716-0891 –lhawkins@wfubmc.edu

Lisa AutryHawkins-

Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center

Department of Radiation Oncology

Research Base Protocol Information Office

2000 West First Street, Suite 401

Winston-Salem, NC  27104

Phone: 336-716-0891

Pager: 336-716-2440, ID number 1689

Fax: 336-716-6275

Quick Reference

Research Base

Fax 336-716-6275
Phone 336-716-0891

2000 West First Street
Protocol Information Office
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Winston-Salem, NC 27104
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Last Updated: 05-11-2015
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Disclaimer: The information on this website is for general informational purposes only and SHOULD NOT be relied upon as a substitute for sound professional medical advice, evaluation or care from your physician or other qualified health care provider.


text:
Where is our compassion and why the overkill?

Posted 5 Feb 2013 by Walaa Idris

Chris Huhne

Chris Huhne has no one to blame but himself for his predicament. And I bet he knows and accepts that. The man lied and lived with his lie for ten years; imagine the anguish and despair he and his wife had to live with all that time. I don’t know or understand his reasons for lying and might not even agree with them. But they must be very important to him otherwise he won’t have risked everything for something as little as three points on his driving licence, a fine and the possible suspension of it.

However, I find the compassionless venomous reaction to his admission of guilt, from many in the media especially social media very disturbing. Falling from grace is tough enough, losing the respect of your loved ones is even tougher. Then facing the prospect of losing your liberty, after ten years of being locked up in your own personal exile of inner turmoil is the utmost punishment any person can impose on them self. Dark negative secrets can sometimes kill, that in itself is a sentence.

Can we possibly just show some compassion? Is it possible for us to let Chris Huhne and his family just be, can we respect their ordeal and allow them the space and privacy to deal with it, while justice takes its course? I am positive, if in their shoes, we would like to be treated with some empathy. I know I would.

Categories: ,

3 comment(s)

Paul Latham

Paul Latham
5 Feb, 11:00

What was the logic behind Chris Huhne having his wife take this speeding offence on her own licence?

The penalty of peverting the course of justice over a simple matter such as speeding reveals much about the way Chris Huhne thinks.

As candidates for political office we must ensure that we submit a CRB check document to party office showing that we have had no criminal convictions before standing in an election.

As a then MEP why did Huhne ignore this big risk? He was later elected to the Westminster parliament as an MP and later still became a Secretary of State. Was the deception over this simple speeding offence worth this huge risk to his career?

This matter raises some serious questions over how politicians minds work compared to the rest of us. Is becoming a politician a corrupting process for some? The record of a considerable number MPs over the past few decades indicates that it may be.

5 Feb, 11:36

Agree with but still can’t comprehend how he though lying about it was the lesser evil?

Sue Doughty

Sue Doughty
5 Feb, 19:33

You are right about Huhne. the lies just came naturally and he thought he could buy his way out of it. He is a bully, anyone who has seen him operate knows that and we all know that bullies have no real friends.

Commenting is closed for this article.


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puppylove Posted: Jan 22nd 2012

i live in bolivia and the girls from my school are a bunch of BIRD BRAINS! NONE of them like to vread so... since i know the brittish love a nice cup of tea and a good book wich one is you favorite?mine is a comedy book called just discusting.(if your not brittish and like to read than do feel free to say whats you favorite book too).:D

puppylove Posted: Jan 26th 2012

ah come on, dont you peaple like to read?

MrTechnoTrousers Posted: Jan 26th 2012

i like diary of a wimpy kid
and a book called contest by matthew reilly

LoveShaun19 Posted: Jan 29th 2012

Well, I'm not British, ;) but I read all the time! My dad read a lot of classic books to me as a kid, ( No," see spot run" stuff. ;) )
Let's see, favorite books, well, I really like studying the Bible.
My favorite story books are ( not in favorites order)
I. " The Hobbit" by J. R. R. Tolkein
2. " The Theatrical tapes of Leonard Thynn" by Adrian Plass ( If you think the title is funny, you should read the book. It's hilarious!! : D)
3. " The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson
( The book really isn't like a horror film, it's more of a mystery story.)
4. Pretty much any mystery book by Agatha Christie ( I especially like the ones with the detective Hercule Poirot, and also the ones with the mysterious detective " Mr. Quin" )
5. " A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens ( if you've ever seen any movie version of the story and liked it, you should read the book. It's ten times better, and shorter than most of Dickens' works)
6. I must confess, I still like some children's stories. :) I really like Rohld Dahl books, ( "Charlie and the Chocolate factory", "James and the giant peach", "Matilda", etc. :) ) and I still love doctor Suess, ( my favorite is " How the Grinch stole Christmas" It's so sweet! :) ).
7. Finally, I know this isn't " stories", but I really have gotten into poetry. I like the old British poets best, (Tennyson, Shelly, Hardy, Houseman etc.) Some people think that's weird, but I think sometimes older stuff is cooler. :)
Have you ( or anyone else on this discussion) read any of the books I mentioned? :D

puppylove Posted: Jan 31st 2012

OMG loveshaun19 i just asked 4 1:Dkkkkkkkk ive seen many of the movies of some of your books and know dr seusse well:D do you really read the bible?:-|its soooooooooooooooooo BIG:D

LoveShaun19 Posted: Feb 1st 2012

Sorry, I don't have just one favorite and I tend to be wordy! :) I'll try to restrain myself. :)
Yes, I really do like the Bible. It is long but I don't try to read it all in one day. :) I enjoy studying it, because it's God's word. It's like an instruction book for us. :) The Bible also gives an account of Jesus and the time he spent on earth, so that he could die and rise again, to give us a hope of eternal life. I'm a Christian, and I believe this is true.
Plus, if you just like good, true stories, the Bible is full of them! Romance, Action, you name it , it's got it. :) My favorite book of the Bible, is Ecclesiastes. It pretty much takes an honest look at our lives, and what we futility try to find happiness in, ( power, Money etc.) It's a little hard to understand, but it sums up with how to serve The Lord believe, in him and do his work is what life's all about. I also like Proverbs,
A lot of famous sayings are taken from the book of Proverbs. It's like " The Book of Virtues", but shorter and the sayings are easy to remember, and they apply to our lives. :)
Which of my " book movies" did you like the best? :D

puppylove Posted: Feb 1st 2012

you did it again kkkkkkkkkkkkkk :D:D i have a different kind of bible in my relegion but its pretty much the same basic principal... to learn whats beond death and decide from whats right and whats easy 8)

puppylove Posted: Feb 1st 2012

the bible is never easy to understand . chocolate factory, cristmas carol,DR seusse, i to lazy to remember or read the rest :-(|)

LoveShaun19 Posted: Feb 2nd 2012

I don't know, The Bible Is pretty specific in places.
Have you ever read John Chapter 3 verses 16-18?
On a side note, do you like the animated " Grinch" cartoon?
Do you care for looney Toons? :D
( That wasn't too long was it? ) ;)

puppylove Posted: Feb 2nd 2012

nope it was just right :D i like the grinch and the looneytoons but in more of a daffy duck fan than bugs bunny |-)

LoveShaun19 Posted: Feb 2nd 2012

Oh My goodness! I LOVE Daffy Duck! Most people love Bugs, but I think Daffy is funnier. :D His personality changed over the years in the cartoons from just plain nuts to kind of an angry/cynical act, but I like the Crazy Daffy the best. :)
(I know a lot about old comedy/cartoons) :)

puppylove Posted: Feb 2nd 2012

ME TOO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D i never understood why peaple prefer bugs i mean hes too mean! he was no mercy what so ever and i dont find him funny. daffy on the other hand hes just more original i use to love this really old program he use to be in called duck dogers.;);)

1flyingdog Posted: Feb 4th 2012

I like diary of a wimpy kid!! and I am from the USA!

iantimothy Posted: Feb 4th 2012

The bible can be really easy to understand, or really hard to understand, because it is not like it is one book but 73 different books, most by different authors with different styles and conveying different messages.
My two favorite in the bible is Luke's gospel and Acts, both are really very straightforward.

puppylove Posted: Feb 5th 2012

hey guys! have you ever read a seies called rangers apprentice? its AWESOME! im already in the 5th book out of 8! there should be a movie for that book! it IS a new york times best seller!!! :D:D:D

LoveShaun19 Posted: Feb 6th 2012

Yeah, Iantimothy, I like Acts and Luke too. I also really like the book of John.

w&gfan75 Posted: Feb 15th 2012

looney tunes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
and my fav. book is green eggs and ham,:-(|):-(|):-(|):-(|):-(|)0:)0:)0:)0:)0:)>:-)>:-)>:-):D:D:D a classic

Rhian38 Posted: Feb 16th 2012

Harry potter series whooooo I might be going to the Harry potter studios in June!!!!!!!!

puppylove Posted: Feb 16th 2012

im going to the harry potter national park in june! and loney toons isnt a book w&tgfan75:-| your name is hard to write :-|:-|

w&gfan75 Posted: Feb 16th 2012

puppylove i know i was saying that because you and loveshaun19 were talking about because i love classic animation. but thats okay no hard feelings

Banjo Boy Posted: Feb 17th 2012

I'm a bit of a book expert. I'll try to name just a few here... in order of favorite down to tenth favorite.
1. The Missing, book 1: Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix
2. The 39 Clues, book 10: Into the Gauntlet by Margaret Peterson Haddix
3. Island, book 3: Escape by Gordon Korman
4. Cahills Vs. Vespers, book 1: The Medusa Plot by Gordon Korman
5. The Genius Files, book 2: Never Say Genius by Dan Gutman
6. The Talent Show by Dan Gutman
7. Bone, book 1: Out From Boneville by Jeff Smith
8. Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
9. Copper by Kazu Kibuishi
10. The Time Machine by H. G. Wells
This just barely scratches the surface of the amazing books I've read. Hope you'll check some out!

sheperdess Wendolene Posted: Feb 17th 2012

I read Shakespeare, it's really interesting in the play antony and cleopatra, I am at the part when antony marries the lovely Octavia, I recently started a winter's tale, and I just finished romeo and Juliet, hamlet and the tempest

puppylove Posted: Feb 17th 2012

... BORINGim just kidding

sheperdess Wendolene Posted: Feb 17th 2012

LoveShaun19 Posted: Feb 17th 2012

Shakespeare is cool! :D I haven't read all of it yet, but I like "Hamlet". I also like "Julius Ceaser" I've read more of Shakespeares poems than stories. I like " The quality of mercy" from the Mechant of Venice. ( I also like that story too, I read a shortened version of it in grade school.)

sheperdess Wendolene Posted: Feb 17th 2012

Thanks loveshaun19, for anyone who has to do a report there are versions that translat Shakespeare plays and anyone can understand ;)

MrTechnoTrousers Posted: Feb 17th 2012

banjoboy hav u read all the diary of a wimpy kid books

puppylove Posted: Feb 17th 2012

i was kidding! i read almost all the shakespear stories. it not to bad. i even made a playon that summer dream one :D

sheperdess Wendolene Posted: Feb 17th 2012

Oh, do you read the ones that are easy to understand (like no fear Shakespeare) or plain old Shakespeare?

EmmyRed18 Posted: Feb 18th 2012

I am a total book nut: also, I tend to reread books that I really like multiple times over. My favorites include:

The Bible

The "Redwall" series by Brian Jacques

The "Calvin and Hobbes" collections by Bill Watterson

Any book by James Herriot

The "Sherlock Holmes" mysteries, both the ones by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the lesser known ones by his son Adrian Doyle

Any book by Agatha Christie

The original "Sacred Diary" trilogy ("The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass", "The Horizontal Epistles of Andromeda Veal", "The Theatrical Tapes of Leonard Thynn") by Adrian Plass

"Watership Down" by Richard Adams

"The King With Six Friends" by Jay Williams

Most anything by Dorothy L. Sayers

"The Chronicles of Narnia" By C. S. Lewis

"Snickers From the Front Pew" by Todd and Jedd Hafer

puppylove Posted: Feb 19th 2012

my god! why haven't i ever heard about all the books you luvvy brittish love. of books that are not brittist! i read a book on shakespears stories on 7th grade. it was many of his stories like romeo and juliet, hamlet that summer dream one etc

The Return of CrackingToast Posted: Feb 24th 2012

I'm British (Welsh specifically), and when I was younger I utterly loved Roald Dahl's books. I must have read all of them. They were just brilliant and so utterly inspiring to me. The imagery in them really helped fuel my imagination. My favourite is probably The BFG.

LoveShaun19 Posted: Feb 24th 2012

I like "James and the Giant peach" the best out of the ones I've read. I love all his poems. :)

The Return of CrackingToast Posted: Feb 24th 2012

Oh, his poems are brilliant, aren't they?

Banjo Boy Posted: Feb 24th 2012

Sorry I'm late answering your question, Mr. Technotrousers. Yes, I have, and I've seen both of the movies. I also read the behind-the-scenes movie diary.

MrTechnoTrousers Posted: Feb 24th 2012

i saw the films and hav read all the books too
but i haven't read the behind the scenes movie diary book

what did u think of the latest one: cabin fever? did u like it? i did:D

sheep13000000013 Posted: Feb 25th 2012

I love reading,im more or less read daily,(it help me to sleep)

I have to say i dont have a Favorite book, but i do love Harry potter,The hitchhikers guide to the galaxy and dirk gently,the hunger games and a lot more.

Banjo Boy Posted: Feb 25th 2012

Hey, Mr. Techno Trousers. I definitely think that Cabin Fever was a lot better than The Ugly Truth. It doesn't beat the first four, however.

MrTechnoTrousers Posted: Feb 25th 2012

i agree

wallace05man Posted: Feb 26th 2012

it's rude to question people:'(

MrTechnoTrousers Posted: Feb 26th 2012

??? what do u mean?

puppylove Posted: Feb 26th 2012

i dont think whey are questioning anybody, just dicusting wallace05man ps: r u ok? i mean, you seem a little sensetive lately :/ i dont want to offend, just curiouse. its ok if u dont wanna talk about it :)

wallace05man Posted: Feb 27th 2012

no, i was joking.  my favourite books are Diary Of A Wimpy Kid, Harry Potter, Sherlock Holmes, and The London Eye Mystery

Banjo Boy Posted: Feb 27th 2012

I also love the Diamond Brothers mystery series by Anthony Horowitz.

cheesehead302 Posted: Feb 27th 2012

Well, I do have to say, from about kindergarden to 4th grade I mannaged to finish 4 or 5 complete series of books. Then in 5th grade I like read none. See, the problem is, I HAVE to read something enertaining. If it's not enertaing, I ussualy read a little and let it sit there for a while. I just ran out of enertaining books to read, really. All the books in the school are old like 30-40 years back. (P.S. So are the teachers)

puppylove Posted: Feb 28th 2012

im in/was in a very similar situation as u cheesehead:) but unfortinally, in your life, your just gonna have to read boring books por example i had to read this book for spanish called the hojarasca and.... I HATE IT SO VERY MUCH! it completely BORING! but i still had to read it:-( my teacher just didnt care about all our conplains. i hate that:-(

puppylove Posted: Feb 28th 2012

i like wimpy kid now. i just starded reading it and its really FUN! :D i also like this collection of books called rangers apprentice that is ALSO a new york times best seller:D im on book 6 now from 8.

puppylove Posted: Mar 7th 2012

hey does anyone like the book coraline??? its so cool!

sheperdess Wendolene Posted: Apr 1st 2012

i love coraline i like it alot! Creepy though!

puppylove Posted: Apr 1st 2012

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Frigidaire NFTR18X4PS

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  • General
    Style Free-standing
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Frigidaire 18.2 cu.ft. top-freezer refrigerator with full-width freezer rack. Keep your fruits and vegetables fresh in the Store-More™ humidity-controlled crispers drawers. Store-More™ gallon door shelf gives you room for larger items like a gallon of milk.

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Arts Desk

Far Out vs. Hot Dang, Vol. 38

To clarify, Far Out vs. Hot Dang is not "what Washingtonians are talking about," nor is it "what Washingtonians should be talking about." No, this weekly assemblage is "what some Washingtonians are talking about." Because, really, who wants to talk about what everybody else is talking about?

Far Out vs. Hot Dang
"Who needs a talk-back at show’s end when the playwright can upend your assumptions even as you’re forming them?" "And now I want to kick myself more than I ever wanted to kick Anna."
"Ah! You said witch house!" "It doesn't sound very cool when you put it that way, does it?"
"We just wanted to play quiet music in people’s bathrooms." "If he can be this entertaining while talking about showering and brushing your teeth, I’d be ready to read his thoughts on everything from dating to dining to dieting."
"I have a love for the shit that no one knows exists." “The ID belonged to some light-skinned girl named, Leah, but somehow I got in.”
"For one course, I ate a tri-colored pill that did not taste like a tomato-basil-mozzarella pizza." Carolyn Malachi: "The one thing about being tall and walking through the woods is that you catch all of the spider webs right in your mouth. Yum!"
Shani O. Hilton: "81 degrees at 8:50 am, feeling sorry for work-bound men in suits. Smash the patriarchy! Sundresses for all!" "it is also the best time of year for straight guys to get laid"
"People can dance, sit down and relax — if they fall asleep on the couch, that's fine." "If you're a burgeoning nightspot, it's not a good idea to electrocute customers."
"I've gotten like six orders so far." "Robert Byrd said it made him look too old."
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Rice Paper Vietnamese Cuisine

6775 Wilson Blvd.
Falls Church, VA 22044

Neighborhood: Falls Church

Opening Hours:
Daily for lunch and dinner.

Price Range: Inexpensive

Reservations: Not Needed

Website: http://ricepaper-tasteofvietnam.com/

Cheap Eats 2013: Rice Paper

Quick reviews of ethnic cuisines you can experience for less than $25 a person, tax and tip included.

If you had to pick one restaurant in which to dip your toes into the Eden Center, this bistro should be it. The encyclopedic menu encompasses dishes from nearly every key culinary region of food-mad Vietnam, and the kitchen is strong across the board. The vermicelli salads are stellar, and the memory of the fabulous, thrice-cooked chicken will haunt you for days. The smoky stuffed grape leaves amount to the best DIY dish in the area.


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Tanning salons, DMV and racetracks

Tanning salons for teens, Maryland horseracing tracks, DMV fines. Here's our morning collection of some of the top headlines from other news sources in D.C., Virginia and Maryland. Come back to PostLocal.com for updates on all the top headlines of the day.

Washington Examiner

Gray slashes salaries of top political appointees

Md. horse racing tracks ask for extended subsidies

The Gazette

Montgomery County Council, school board at odds over funding

Montgomery County ethics panel rules in favor of transgendered aide

Fox 5

Japanese exchange student from Sendai tracks family, friends via the Internet

D.C. DMV database says DPW vehicles owe nearly $30K in fines

The Washington Business Journal

Fenty tapped as Herndon-based Capgemini advisor

Woman seriously injured in SE shooting

Md. father alleges son was put on wrong school bus twice in Pr. Geo’s

Reagan-bound flight diverted to Dulles

Associated Press

Frederick man charged with impersonating a diplomat

Partial skeletal remains found in Fairfax

Md. lawmakers propose ban on tanning salons for minors

Area residents seek out anti-radiation pills

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Editorial Review

REVIEW: Striking gold in acrobatic anthropology
By Rebecca Ritzel
Friday, August 17, 2012

Leave it to the Canadians to turn the theory of evolution into wholesome family entertainment. “Totem,” the Cirque du Soleil show that has pitched its tents at National Harbor through Oct. 7, traces Homo sapiens’ development from grunting apes to grunting men who turn flips wearing neon spandex. Humanity has never looked this superhuman. Unless you’ve been watching the Olympics lately.

There’s a lot of impressive gymnastics in “Totem,” the 28th show in the Cirque franchise. Since the original no-animal circus debuted in Quebec City nearly two decades ago, the troupe has grown both more sophisticated and more commercial, tackling themes that include entomology, Elvis and the Beatles. Now, “Totem” imagines how humans evolved from the primordial ooze, with an emphasis on amphibians and aboriginal aesthetics.

A 20-yard turtle shell is at the center of the tent, and proportionately tall marsh grasses obscure the audience’s view of a band at the rear of the stage. The music is heavy on the pan flute and traditional percussion. Once it starts, the “shell” flies off the turtle, revealing an oval jungle gym and a menagerie of men in glittery green, all ready to ricochet from the high bars to a hidden trampoline down below. They swing, flip, catch and release.

The show’s title suggests that in some cultures, acrobatic skills are akin to native arts. That’s certainly true of two First Nations hoop dancers, who skim across the stage at a smooth heel-toe skip, looping the hoops around their arms as they go. Then there’s a quintet of women, wearing snow-leopard-meets-Shang-Dynasty leotards, who toss bowls at each other’s heads while pedaling unicycles. And the climax of the whole show is the “Russian bars” routine, a combination of balance beam and trampoline.

Nine men wearing brightly patterned spandex costumes, such that they resemble psychedelic Russian nesting dolls, take turns stabilizing the flexible beams. The Olympic commentators in your head will provide narration as the men turn layouts, pike-position flips and tucked somersaults with 2.5 twists. They do this two at a time, each leap taking their feet a good 10 feet off the beam.

At some points of the show, however, “Totem’s” world tour of acrobatic anthropology takes inexplicable detours. A second pair of performers, dressed as Native Americans, perform death-defying spins on roller skates. Very “Dances With Wolves” meets “Xanadu.” There’s a also a beach scene, where two buff guys wearing only sequined board shorts perform on a pair of still rings. This routine and a sketch comedy act featuring water-skiing clowns seem more like promising prototypes for a coming Cirque du Soleil update of “Beach Blanket Bingo.” (Perhaps set to Beach Boys music?)

Much more germane to “Totem’s” survival-of-the-fittest theme are the gymnasts dressed as apes, Cro-Magnon men and Neanderthals who monkey around between acrobatic acts, throwing popcorn at the audience and pretending to steal cellphones. The live music gets cheesy at times but never stops; it’s clear that as Cirque du Soleil evolves, production values only continue to rise. The bodily skills in “Totem” are amazing, but so is the technology, allowing performers to sync their movements with the music, lighting and photographic projections.

The performers hail from nearly 20 countries, but the design team is almost entirely from Quebec. You have to wonder whether Canada could have improved its medal haul by naturalizing a few Cirque du Soleil performers. The country took home just one gold medal, in trampoline. American Gabby Douglas may soon grace the cover of a corn flakes box, but for so many other athletes, there’s no shame is celebrating global human achievement by running off to join Cirque du Soleil.

PREVIEW: Turning athleticism into artistry
By Stephanie Merry
Friday, Aug. 10, 2012

After all the anticipation and celebration (thanks to some shiny medals), the end of Olympics gymnastics competition can trigger a hole in hearts, if not in schedules. But those going through withdrawal might find some relief at National Harbor, where feats of flexibility and aerial artistry will be on view in the Cirque du Soleil show “Totem.”

The man behind the traveling show is writer-director Robert Lepage, perhaps best known as the boundary-pushing Canadian artist who mounted a controversial, visually daring reinvention of Wagner’s “Ring Cycle” for the Metropolitan Opera. “Totem” draws inspiration from creation myths and evolution and marks Lepage’s second entry into the Cirque compendium; he also concocted “Ka,” which has a permanent home in Las Vegas. High-brow opera and circus shows might seem like two very different beasts, but Lepage sees a number of commonalities, which made crossing over that much easier.

“An acrobat and an opera singer are pretty similar in the sense that what they do is larger than life,” Lepage says by phone before heading into rehearsals for an opera version of “The Tempest” in Quebec. “They don’t move or sing or speak in a regular fashion. It’s very extreme, very Olympian.”

In some ways, the reasons people love to watch opera and Cirque shows may have something to do with why so many camp out in front of the television every fourth August. It’s a way for mere mortals to stare in awe at demigods capable of seemingly superhuman achievements.

“That’s what the circus is also about,” Lepage says. “You see regular people onstage, but because of their physical abilities and because of the extreme nature of what they do, they can only play larger-than-life characters.

“We see divers, and for a short moment there, they look like birds. Or people go faster than a human being is supposed to go. So that whole extremity, I think, is actually very similar.”

The work process at Cirque du Soleil also is similar to Lepage’s work at the Met, not to mention at the multidisciplinary company Ex Machina, where Lepage is artistic director. The biggest difference -- and challenge -- is the creative freedom.

“Usually when you want to pitch an idea for a film or a TV series, you would always refer to something that already exists to assure the producers or the presenters that what you’re doing is not too avant garde and you’re not taking too many risks,” he says. “But at Cirque, they despise that, they hate that. They don’t want you to say it’s a cross between this and that. They just want to do something that’s never been done . . . it’s a very different approach.”

With that in mind, the director dreamt up “Totem.” The show was crafted around the time of Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday, but Lepage says the production wasn’t designed to make a statement about evolution vs. creationism. Rather, he looked at origin myths from around the world, blending them with artistic vignettes meant to mimic a human’s progression from the tadpolelike state of conception to our compulsion for flight. But in the end, traveling “soft circus” shows (as opposed to permanent “hard circus” varieties, such as “Ka”) are less about a concept or narrative. The main event is beautiful movement.

“Whatever the story, it’s really about giving the best performance possible,” Lepage says. “So you get really incredible moving machines, these incredible athletes. And a lot of the people that are hired on the soft circus, the people we present in the shows on tour very often -- I’d say at least half of the cast -- are not from an artistic background. They’re from an Olympian background. . . . It’s really about athletes meeting up with poetry.”


text:
Presidential candidates and kids: This campaign season, leave the children on the playground

Rick Santorum stands with his family on Super Tuesday. Surrounding him is his wife, Karen; his daughter, Elizabeth; his son, Patrick; and his mother, Catherine. (MATT SULLIVAN/REUTERS)

I watched Rick Santorum’s speech on Super Tuesday, but it wasn’t the candidate who held my attention during the 20-minute stemwinder.

I was transfixed by 11-year-old Patrick Santorum, standing front and center between his father who would be president and his 93-year-old grandmother.

Young Patrick put on an admirable front. He smiled shyly and applauded at the right moments. But as dad went on about gold medals and silver medals and Obamacare, about Ronald Reagan’s legacy and the national debt, young Patrick did what 11-year-old boys do best. He started to fidget.

He scratched his head. His fingers lingered precariously close to his nose. On several occasions, mom Karen Santorum looked over at him. There was no withering “Stand still and pay attention to your father” look in her eyes. Instead, her looks seemed to say, “You can get through this, bud. I know you can.”

Then came the yawns. It was close to 10 on a school night when the first one came, which he tried valiantly to stifle. But once it had escaped his lips, you knew more were coming.

By the time Rick Santorum wrapped up thanking the fine folks of Steubenville, Ohio, I wanted to tousle towheaded Patrick’s hair and shuffle him off to bed with the promise of ice cream for breakfast.

As parents, we’re proud of our kids. We want to show them off. If they are as adorable and polite as young Patrick seems to be, we think that reflects well on us. But I find kids as political signage unsettling.

Likewise I’m not a huge fan of the ads spread across the Web site of The Washington Post (and I’m sure many others) that show a breathtakingly good-looking family. Mother, father, two beautiful girls who are closer to young women than the little girls they were when we first glimpsed them four years ago. There are confident smiles on everyone’s faces. The family seems the epitome of what all Americans aspire to.

But the Obama 2012 campaign ad bothered me the same way that young Patrick Santorum being made to stand on that stage bothered me. The Obamas have assiduously (and appropriately) guarded their daughters’ privacy. Small items about the girls playing basketball have prompted calls by White House senior advisers to this newsroom. The message was clear: The girls are off-limits.

Except, it appears, when a family portrait can be helpful in wooing campaign contributions and voters.

I’d like to stipulate for the rest of the campaign that the candidates are good fathers who love their children and have tried, despite choosing a line of work that means being away a lot, to do right by their children. They don’t need to prove it by using them as props during stump speeches or on campaign literature.

And it’s not just political candidates who should question what role their children should have in political discourse. You don’t have to look hard to find children holding signs at anti-abortion rallies or even testifying before legislative bodies about gay marriage. They have become part of the Occupy movement. When a Manassas lingerie store opened in 2010, it was not before there were pint-size protesters walking a picket line.

As editor of KidsPost, I think there’s a lot about the news that needs to be explained to kids. But that should happen over the breakfast table or in the minivan on the way to soccer practice. The reality is that kids aren’t expressing their own political views until they are at least teens. They are merely parroting what their parents and teachers have told them. To parents who say that protests provide an important civics lesson, I would point out that we run the risk of turning our kids into little more than props at political rallies and in protest movements. Incredibly cute props, but props nonetheless.

So let’s keep kids in school and on playgrounds until November. And then, in the name of a real civics lesson, let’s take them with us when we vote. There is no better way to show kids — whether their name is Santorum, Obama or Grant — how important participatory democracy is than by letting them watch their parents participate in it.

Tell us: What is the role of a candidate’s child in a political campaign? Weigh in with your comments below.

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Police chase survivor sues police, says that an officer rammed car

Two people were killed and one eventually died of his injuries after a March police pursuit through Chevy Chase ended in a fiery crash. The incident began when a Montgomery County patrol officer saw a “suspicious vehicle” that they say had been stolen. (WRC News 4/COURTESY OF NBC NEWS CHANNEL 4)

The only survivor of a police chase in March that left three people dead after a fiery crash on Chevy Chase Circle alleges in a lawsuit made public Friday that a Montgomery County police officer rammed his vehicle and caused the accident.

Montgomery police have said repeatedly since the March 23 incident that there is no evidence that any of their cars came in contact with the Toyota Echo that police pursued after determining it had been stolen. Police say the car hit a tree before bursting into flames.

“That remains our position today,” Capt. Paul Starks, a police spokesman, said Friday. He declined to comment further, citing a department policy of not discussing active litigation.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Reeco Richardson, 18, seeks more than $10 million in damages. According to the lawsuit, Richardson suffered fractured ribs and emotional damage from hearing two of his friends scream as they burned to death.

Richardson has been charged with car theft in the case. He was the front-seat passenger inside the Echo. The rear-seat passengers, cousins Kyree Nelson, 14, and Emanuel Nelson, 16, died inside the car. The driver, Reynard Osman, 16, was severely injured and died March 28.

The lawsuit asserts that the police chase was improper because such pursuits should be limited to serious suspected crimes.

The suit says Osman was heading south toward the District on Connecticut Avenue at more than 100 mph but slowed the Echo to 50 mph as it entered Chevy Chase Circle, near the line separating the District and Montgomery County. The car skidded to a stop at a curb along the inside of the circle, according the lawsuit. At that point, it says, a police officer rammed the car so that it could not enter the District, where the lawsuit said Montgomery police would have had to halt their pursuit.

“The Toyota Echo operated by Osman had stopped and would not have collided with the tree and [become] engulfed by the flames causing injury to him and the other occupants had the police vehicle not rammed the Toyota Echo which the occupants were seeking to exit,” the lawsuit states.

The suit also faulted the physical design of Chevy Chase Circle. If the interior curb had been better designed, according to the suit, it would have stopped the Echo from crossing into the grassy center of the circle and hitting the tree.

The Toyota in which Richardson and the others were riding was reported stolen in the middle of March by a woman in Silver Spring. She valued the car at $6,300 and said it had been in her driveway.

A Montgomery patrol officer spotted the Echo early March 23 near Connecticut Avenue and East-West Highway. He didn’t know it was stolen, but he typed the license-plate number into his on-board computer, police said. The procedure is common, particularly among night-shift officers.

The officer radioed for backup, and officers started converging on the area. According to previous police accounts, the officers were preparing to make a group stop of the Echo on Connecticut Avenue.

According to the suit, the Echo stopped at a red light on Connecticut Avenue, about two miles north of Chevy Chase Circle — and by that time, about a half-dozen police cars were also at the intersection. When the light turned green, Osman took off, eventually topping 100 miles per hour.

Montgomery County police have said the ensuing chase was proper. After the Echo slammed into the tree, officers ran to it and rescued the two people in the front seat, according to police. They said officers couldn’t get to the passengers in the back because of the flames.

Richardson’s attorneys, Governor E. Jackson III and Donald R. Huskey, said their claims are based on the findings of hired experts and on Richardson’s recollection of the collision.

“He remembers this quite vividly,” Jackson said Friday.

Dan Morse covers courts and crime in Montgomery County. He arrived at the paper in 2005, after reporting stops at the Wall Street Journal, Baltimore Sun and Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser, where he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. He is the author of The Yoga Store Murder.

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text:
Montgomery County veterans want slots at meeting halls

The General Assembly approved an expansion of gambling in the state earlier this month, but some Montgomery County veterans are concerned the bill didn’t go far enough.

An amendment to the legislation made late in the process allowed veterans organizations, such as American Legion posts, in some counties west of the Chesapeake Bay to operate up to five pull-tab instant lottery machines. Such organizations on the Eastern Shore can have up to five slot machines.

But Montgomery County was the only county west of the bay not included in the amendment, at the request of its House delegation, according to delegation Chairwoman Anne Kaiser (D-Dist. 14) of Burtonsville.

“We felt there was a need to take it up as local legislation and have a hearing back home in Rockville,” Kaiser said. Delegates concluded that the issue should be presented to county residents and officials first and may resurface when lawmakers reconvene in January, Kaiser said.

The pull-tab machines dispense a sort of instant lottery ticket. Some organizations already have such machines, but it’s not clear if and how they are regulated.

Montgomery County veterans groups believe they are missing out on gambling money.

“We strongly feel that having [slots] would be a wonderful source of revenue,” said Mark Stilwell, adjutant of American Legion Post 268 in Wheaton. “It would put us on par with those organizations on the Eastern Shore.”

Gail Murdock, who chairs the legion’s state legislative committee, estimates that revenue from five pull-tab machines could total as much as $30,000 per year per post.

The Wheaton post has one pull-tab machine but doesn’t feel it’s enough to draw members to the hall and spend their money. The post would like a full complement of pull-tab machines, but would prefer casino-style slot machines, Stilwell said.

The county has nine American Legion posts and four Veterans of Foreign Wars posts, according to the organizations’ Web sites.

Many veterans organizations are grappling with membership declines as the population ages, and a number of them, such as Post 268, have had trouble raising enough money to continue operating and making charitable donations, Stilwell said.

The Maryland American Legion Department currently has roughly 56,000 members, down from a peak of about 87,000 two decades ago.

Daniel Bullis, first vice president of American Legion Post 41 in Silver Spring, said a coalition of Montgomery veterans groups was planning to get together in early September to strategize for meetings with local lawmakers.

“I’m optimistic that we could use the time between now and [January] to meet with delegates,” Bullis said, adding that he hoped citizens and officials would understand that because they were nonprofit organizations, no one would be profiting from the machines.

Lawmakers from the county have been divided on the gambling issue, with 13 delegates and five senators supporting the expansion earlier this month and eight delegates and three senators voting against it.

Montgomery County Council President Roger Berliner (D-Dist. 1) of Bethesda said he didn’t believe the council had ever discussed the issue and that they hadn’t taken a position. Ultimately, the county delegation to Annapolis would make the call, he said.

Slots have historically been a boon to Eastern Shore groups such as Wicomico American Legion Post 64 in Salisbury, which has had machines for more than 20 years.

Until recently, slots revenues have allowed the post to donate nearly $100,000 annually to causes in the community such as Toys for Tots, said Anthony Iwanski, who serves on the post’s finance committee.

While the post has raised enough to stay open, declining participation and competition from the state’s recently opened casinos in Cecil, Worcester and Anne Arundel counties have taken a bite out of gaming revenues and the resulting charitable donations, Iwanski said.

Commercial casinos in the state also have offered charitable contributions. Penn National Gaming, which owns Hollywood Casino in Perryville, provides grants to local nonprofits in the areas where it operates, and in June, Maryland Live! Casino in Hanover donated more than $166,000 to organizations including the Anne Arundel Community College Foundation and the Baltimore Washington Medical Center.

Eastern Shore slots proceeds are split evenly between the posts and the charities they support. Only members and guests of each post can use the machines, Iwanski said.

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French Lentils 6.000

Dominic Bracco II for The Washington Post

Real Entertaining Mar 18, 2009

According to their package, the green lentils of Le Puy are "rich in fibre and minerals." They are also full of mildly peppery flavor and could not be easier to prepare. They are smaller than regular lentils and look almost black when cooked, so it's nice to add carrot for color. They are available at Dean & Deluca in Georgetown (202-342-2500) and through online gourmet purveyors.

Make Ahead: The lentils can be prepared and refrigerated a day in advance. To reheat, place in the microwave; heat on HIGH for 20-second increments until heated through.

Servings: 6
  • 1 cup dried le puy lentils (see headnote)
  • 3 cups homemade or low-sodium chicken broth (may substitute water)
  • 2 sprigs thyme
  • 1 medium clove garlic
  • 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 medium carrot, peeled and cut into small dice (about 1/2 cup)

Combine the lentils, broth, thyme, garlic, salt, pepper and bay leaf in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, then add the carrot, stirring to incorporate. Reduce the heat to medium (so the liquid barely bubbles), cover and cook, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes, until most of the liquid is absorbed and the lentils and carrot are soft. Discard the thyme sprigs and bay leaf.

Reduce the heat to the lowest possible setting until ready to serve, or transfer to a container, cool completely and refrigerate for up to 1 day.

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From columnist David Hagedorn.

Tested by David Hagedorn.

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text:
Egyptian prosecutors investigate Morsi on murder, espionage, conspiracy allegations

A supporter of Egypt's ousted President Mohammed Morsi holds a photo of him as she chants slogans during a protest in Giza on July 26, 2013. (Nariman El-Mofty/AP)

Egyptian authorities escalated their battle against ousted president Mohamed Morsi and his supporters Friday, launching an investigation into espionage and murder allegations against him as millions took to the streets in rival demonstrations across the country.

The allegations marked the state’s first legal steps against Morsi, who has been held incommunicado since he was deposed this month in a military coup. The steps were taken as the military supervised mass rallies in Cairo that it had called to back its “mandate” to confront violence and “terrorism” — words that rights groups and Morsi’s supporters interpreted as signaling an imminent crackdown. While the demonstrations were mostly peaceful, deadly clashes broke out in the coastal city of Alexandria and early Saturday in Cairo.

Security forces attacked the Brotherhood’s sprawling sit-in outside the Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque in eastern Cairo at about 3 a.m. Saturday, firing barrages of tear gas and live ammunition, killing eight and injuring hundreds of others, the group said. The al-Jazeera television network aired footage showing rows of ambulances moving through hectic crowds of Morsi supporters in eastern Cairo.

On Friday evening, Egypt’s interior minister and interim president had warned in phone calls to the al-Hayat television station that the pro-Morsi demonstrations would soon be forcibly shut down.

“These sit-ins will be ended soon, within the limits of the law,” Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim told the channel.

“We cannot accept this security chaos, and the road blocking, and the bridge blocking,” interim president Adly Mansour said in a separate call. “We can’t accept the attacks on the public property. he state has to enforce its sovereignty.” He urged Morsi’s supporters to “go back to your homes” — saying that if they did, “no one will pursue you.”

In the coming days, he said, Egyptians will see that “terrorism is in decline,” for the state will deal with it with “all strictness.”

Earlier Friday, judicial authorities announced prosecutors are investigating allegations that Morsi conspired with the militant Palestinian Islamist organization Hamas in a 2011 prison break that freed him and about 30 other Muslim Brotherhood members amid the chaos of the Arab Spring uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak.

The allegations also include murder and kidnapping in connection with the prison break northwest of Cairo, in which prosecutors say Hamas gunmen attacked the facility at the behest of Morsi and the Brotherhood, killing 14 guards.

The Brotherhood and Hamas separately denied the allegations. The Brotherhood said local residents carried out the attack to free their relatives.

The judicial announcement was the first official comment on Morsi’s legal status since he was ousted, and his supporters, who gathered by the hundreds of thousands in Cairo and Alexandria on Friday, quickly dismissed the allegations as political.

“The charges are nothing more than an attempt by the coup leaders to discourage the public from supporting the president’s legitimacy,” said Alaa Abdel-Aziz, who served as Morsi’s culture minister until he and other Islamist and Brotherhood cabinet members were ousted on the day of the coup.

The notion that Egypt’s elected president had worked “as a spy for Hamas” is a “silly accusation,” he said. “These are old tactics. They remind me of the ’50s and ’60s,” he added, referring to the military rule of Gamal Abdel Nasser, under which the Muslim Brotherhood was brutally repressed.

Pro-Morsi demonstrators first came under attack Friday in Alexandria when plainclothes men broke through their protest lines, assaulting them with rocks and rubber bullets, witnesses said.

Amr Nasr, the head of the ambulance services in Alexandria, said five people were killed and 140 injured in clashes in the city Friday. The Muslim Brotherhood said more than 300 people were injured.

A spokeswoman for the Brotherhood-led Anti-Coup, Pro-Democracy Alliance said that the attack came in two waves and that the men who descended on the pro-Morsi demonstrators included uniformed police officers.

The protesters were kneeling to pray when “thugs attacked,” said the spokeswoman, Farida Mustafa. “Later, after the prayer, police officers alongside thugs attacked the protesters with live bullets, rubber bullets and tear gas.”

Video footage posted online showed bloodied Morsi supporters being treated at a makeshift hospital for head wounds and shotgun-pellet wounds across their torsos.

The chief of Egypt’s armed forces, Gen. Abdel Fatah al-Sissi, had called on Egyptians to take to the streets Friday to grant the military the authority to combat “terrorists” — a label that it has sought to attach to Morsi’s Islamist supporters in the Muslim Brotherhood.

State and independent media have echoed that portrayal with growing fervor in recent weeks, casting the coup as a “revolution” against extremists. And several television stations and newspaper front pages urged Egyptians to turn out Friday to support the military.

Armored vehicles and troops guarded the entrances to Cairo’s Tahrir Square and deployed outside the presidential palace, where hundreds of thousands of pro-military demonstrators rallied. Many of them hoisted Sissi’s picture aloft. Military helicopters flew low over the square as their pilots waved, eliciting cheers from the crowd. Security forces provided no protection for Morsi’s supporters, who also gathered in the hundreds of thousands across town.

Security forces have rounded up hundreds of Brotherhood members in the past three weeks, including a number of Morsi’s top aides, who also have been held incommunicado. Prosecutors have issued arrest warrants for the Muslim Brotherhood’s supreme guide and other top officials, who have sought refuge amid the group’s continuing protest outside Rabaa al-Adawiya.

The military’s actions have echoed those of Mubarak, who ruled with an iron fist for 30 years and led frequent crackdowns against the Muslim Brotherhood and other political opponents.

Outside Rabaa al-Adawiya, pro-Morsi demonstrators handed out petitions Friday headlined by the word “Reject” and modeled after a campaign by the anti-Morsi Tamarod — or “rebel” movement — that preceded Morsi’s ouster. The petitions offered Morsi’s supporters the chance to declare their rejection of the military’s coup, of “any unelected president” and of the country’s “return to the age of oppression and humiliation.”

The investigation of Morsi and his role in the prison break focuses on the tumultuous days of Egypt’s 2011 revolution. Thousands of political prisoners, including secular activists and Islamists such as Morsi, were detained before and during the 18-day popular uprising that unseated Mubarak. Many were released or escaped amid the protests and clashes in January and February 2011 as Mubarak’s security forces receded across the country and the military took control.

Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that controls the Gaza Strip, rejected accusations of its involvement in the jailbreak as an attempt to drag it into the Egyptian conflict. The group called on the Arab League to oppose such “incitement” against it.

Egyptian security officials and local media have accused Palestinians and other foreigners of stoking violence in Egypt since Morsi’s ouster, particularly in the volatile Sinai Peninsula, which borders Gaza.

Morsi was formally ordered detained for 15 days. He has been held in an undisclosed location since the July 3 coup and has been denied access to his attorney, his family and human rights groups, Brotherhood officials said.

William Booth in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Abigail Hauslohner covers D.C. politics -- and the people affected by D.C. politics. She came to the local beat in 2015 after seven years covering war, politics, and corruption across the Middle East and North Africa. Most recently, she served as the Post’s Cairo Bureau Chief.

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text:
Olympics close with tribute to Russian artists and a little self-deprecating humor

The Winter Olympics closed Sunday night with all the elegance of a Fabergé egg, a glittering evening tucked full of tributes to the Russian arts, opening to reveal carefully crafted surprises, small jokes and even painful memories.

Beyond the celebration of a rich cultural tradition, this was an evening to salute the athletes who marched so joyfully through the arena — and for Russia to proclaim it had delivered all it promised when it was elected seven years ago to host the Winter Games.

“We did it,” Dmitry Chernyshenko, president of the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee, told a cheering crowd. “We conquered the Olympic summit. And these Games will be with us forever.”

This, he said, was a great moment in Russian history.

“This is the new face of Russia,” he said, “our Russia.”

Much of the evening was spent paying homage to the old Russia, a country known to anyone who has ever watched “The Nutcracker,” read “Anna Karenina,” seen “The Cherry Orchard,” laughed at a great clown — or marveled at a jeweled Fabergé egg in a museum.

“We feel your country,” Daniele Finzi Pasca, the artistic director of the Closing Ceremonies and an Italian Swiss, had said earlier in the day. “It is under our skin.”

The great writers were acknowledged in huge banners with portraits of Pushkin — of course — Tolstoy, Chekhov, Dostoyevsky and Solzhenitsyn. The surprises were Joseph Brodsky — expelled by the Soviet Union in 1972 — and the poet Anna Akhmatova — brutally repressed by Stalin, her husband shot by Soviet secret police and her son sent off to the gulag. Most Russians never heard of her until perestroika in the late 1980s.

The scene was set in a vast library, and suddenly gales of wind blew through, sending manuscript pages into the whirlwind of Soviet persecution. A voice recited some of their words, including a passage from Mikhail Bulgakov, “manuscripts don’t burn.” The pages could be burned, but the words would survive.

Konstantin Ernst, chief creative director for the opening and closing ceremonies, had said Sunday’s closing had to strike a different tone from the grand sweep through Russian history of the opening.

“We’re going down the art house avenue,” he said. But art house with a sense of humor.

Remember the Opening Ceremonies, when one of the five snowflake-like figures that opened into Olympic rings failed to unfold? Sunday night, dancers, looking as if they were flowing strands of tinsel in their reflective costumes, first darted and streamed as if they were fish in the nearby Black Sea. Finally, they formed into five flower-like clusters. Four opened into Olympic rings. One hovered, unattached, as if unable to open. Then it did, and the five rings were perfect. The audience laughed and applauded.

Russian tweets exploded: “The Ring!”

The program picked up on the opening theme, a little girl named Lyubov, flying above the Russian landscape. Sunday night she glided in on a rowboat suspended high in the sky.

The music had its own unexpected twist.

“We wanted to start the ceremony with a piece of music that sounds very much like Hollywood music; music written for a Western,” Finzi Pasca said. “All this will amount to a soundtrack that resembles an Oscar-winning blockbuster Hollywood movie.”

So, in this land where anti-Americanism has been encouraged as something of a national hobby, the little girl was ushered in by the theme music for “It’s a Wonderful Life,” the much-loved American Christmastime movie starring James Stewart.

The music was written by Dmitri Tiomkin, who was born in Ukraine in 1894 and ended up in Hollywood, where he became something of a legend. He wrote music for “High Noon,” “The Old Man and the Sea,” “Giant,” “The Alamo” and “Friendly Persuasion.

So, a large slice of Americana, right here in a celebration of Russia.

A great pianist played Rachmaninoff. A Chagall-like village floated by, upside down, with another village below: a cast of 130, including 40 stilt-walkers wearing animal heads, brides hovering from 30-foot-wide clouds, a violinist playing merrily.

Russian athletes had made their country proud, stacking up the most medals: 33, 13 of them gold. (The United States had 28 medals, nine of them gold.)

Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, declared the Games closed. “Tonight we can say Russia delivered all that it promised.”

He congratulated Vladimir Putin. The Russian president’s personal commitment, he said, had meant extraordinary success.

In the end, security was tight. No one slept on the street despite criticism over unfinished hotels. The snow held up, though sometimes just barely.

Still, not everyone was satisfied. Gennady Gudkov, an opposition politician critical of Russia’s human rights record, watched the Closing Ceremonies with some regret.

“If only our rich, talented and athletic country could have good authorities and our people could have the feeling of self-dignity,” he wrote in a tweet. Ernst said the ceremony had ended on a note of optimism and wistfulness. “For 17 days, Sochi has been the center of the universe,” he said, “and now it is time to say goodbye.”

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Bolton Voices Opposition to U.N. Proposals

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By Colum Lynch
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 1, 2005

UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 31 -- John R. Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has voiced firm opposition to U.N. reorganization measures that the Bush administration fears would inhibit U.S. authority to use force and place new legal obligations on countries to intervene where genocide, ethnic cleansing or war crimes were being committed.

Bolton outlined his positions in a series of letters to U.N. delegates participating in negotiations to draft a 39-page statement to be read by world leaders at a summit on development and U.N. reform that begins Sept. 14. The six letters, intended to clarify proposed U.S. amendments to the draft, constitute the most detailed public picture of Bolton's thinking on a range of issues since he became ambassador, including on the fight against poverty and terrorism, the promotion of human rights and the streamlining of the U.N. bureaucracy.

Together, the letters reflect Bolton's long-held opposition to international agreements that he considers incursions on U.S. sovereignty and provide a glimpse at how he is working to influence a lengthy internal negotiating process that has been dominated by foreign policy professionals in the State Department.

Bolton argued that the Security Council already had sufficient legal authority to send foreign troops to halt atrocities in places such as the Sudanese region of Darfur. He insisted that the U.N. charter "has never been interpreted as creating a legal obligation for Security Council members to support enforcement action." He also urged the deletion of language calling on nations to prevent "incitement" of mass atrocities, saying it runs counter to the U.S. First Amendment protections of speech.

Bolton wrote that the United States "stands ready" to intervene in select cases where governments fail to halt mass killings on their soil. But he said that world leaders should not "foreclose" the military option by the United States and other governments "absent authorization by the Security Council."

The U.N. doctrine of humanitarian intervention, known as the "responsibility to protect," has been promoted by Secretary General Kofi Annan, European governments and human rights advocates, who had been pressing U.N. members to accept greater responsibility for intervening in countries where atrocities are taking place. They have also been pressing to ensure a more central role for the Security Council in authorizing military action, a position that the Bush administration has strenuously opposed.

Bolton also pressed for changes in the U.N. document that would ensure that U.S. or Israeli forces would not be exposed to terrorism charges if they killed or injured civilians during military operations. Bolton wrote that the "scope" of the terrorism provision should be limited to "terrorist actions," not "military activities that are appropriately governed by international humanitarian law." Arab governments have insisted for years that the Israeli army has engaged in "state terrorism" against Palestinian civilians.

Bolton urged the U.N. members to deliver a strong statement condemning terrorism but to defer any discussion on a definition of terrorism to the General Assembly, which is negotiating a convention on terrorism. The United States argues that the convention should exclude any acts by armed forces during a conflict.

Bolton, meanwhile, sought to counter criticism Wednesday that the Bush administration had introduced hundreds of proposed amendments to the U.N. document at the last minute to derail the negotiations. Bolton showed reporters several copies of detailed U.S. amendments dating back to June 25, and said that he was confident that a deal could be struck before more than 170 world leaders arrive in New York in two weeks.

"We haven't done something at the last minute here," Bolton told reporters in his most extensive public remarks since he took the job Aug. 1. "I've got my pen in my pocket and I'm ready to go. We can make this deadline, we can get a strong outcome document."

Jeffrey Sachs, a Columbia University economist advising Annan on the world summit, on Wednesday charged that the United States was engaging in a last-minute campaign to "gut" the summit document "with arguments that change by the day."

Sachs accused the Bush administration of backtracking on previous pledges to encourage an increase in foreign assistance by wealthy governments.

He cited President Bush's endorsement of the Monterrey Consensus, a 2002 summit in Mexico that urged wealthy governments "to make concrete efforts" toward reaching a target of contributing 0.7 percent of their national income to poor countries. The Bush administration has praised the Monterrey conference's focus on free-market reforms, and required governments to improve accountability in exchange for aid and debt relief. But it says it never committed to meeting the 0.7 percent target.

"While the U.S. strongly supports increased ODA [overseas development assistance] to those countries that demonstrate an ability to use aid effectively, the U.S. does not accept global aid targets or global taxes," Bolton wrote.

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Microsoft Office Labs Releases ?Touchless? Multi-Touch Software As An Open-Source SDK

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Erick Schonfeld
Wednesday, October 8, 2008; 9:07 AM

No, Microsoft is not getting into the car-wash business. But it is releasing "Touchless," multitouch software from Microsoft Office Labs that uses a regular Web camera and everyday objects as input. You can think of this as a low-end version of its Touchwall technology, which uses more precise lasers to detect movement and objects. The software developer kit is available now under an open-source Microsoft Public License. The SDK only works on Windows (what did you expect?).

Like Microsoft Surface and Touchwall, the Touchless software makes it possible to create applications that turn hand gestures and physical objects into an input device like a mouse. Touchless detects both the size and location of "color markers" (which can be fingers, toys, pens, M&Ms) as they move through space. Microsoft engineer Mike Wassermans Ian Sands and Chris Pratley havecreated four demos to showcase the technology:

Snake - where you control a snake with a marker.Defender - up to 4 player version of a pong-like game.Map - where you can rotate, zoom, and move a map using 2 markers.Draw - the marker is used to guess what¿. draw!

Try it out. Free TechCrunch T-shirt to whoever creates the coolest Touchless app and uploads a video in comments.

© 2008 TechCrunch

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