2012年4月24日 星期二

Shakespeare's Home Razed To The Ground and Utterly Destroyed


Shakespeare's England

From a passage by Mark Twain:

"That beauty which is England is alone; it has no duplicate. It is made up of very simple details, just grass, and trees, and shrubs, and roads, and hedges, and gardens, and houses, and churches, and castles, and here and there a ruin, and over all a mellow dreamland of history. But it's beauty is incomparable and all it's own".

From: Shakespeareland:

It is a happy circumstance that the small town which may be described as the heart of England should be set in such rich but homely scenery as that of "leafy Warwickshire". It would not, perhaps, be easy to determine who first applied the epithet "leafy" to the county, but it is so happily descriptive, that one rarely thinks of the name of Warwickshire without the addition; and so, also, it is difficult to think of Stratford-upon-Avon without thinking of it as Shakespeare's Stratford. Citizens of the place may be able to think of it as a kind of town entity, but for others it is a background to one of the worlds greatest men, to the supreme poet and dramatist whose genius commands the homage of the whole civilised world. It is a background full of beauty and of deep interest, a little conventionalized, maybe, from being a show-place. Few can be those people "with souls so dead", to use Sir Walter Scott's familiar phrase, as to be unmoved by wandering about spots associated with the greatly admired great.

The majority of visitors from afar reach Stratford-upon-Avon by railway, and the entries from the railway stations are perhaps those which give the least favourable first impression of the town. Especially is this the case with that from the Great Western Station, on the Alcester Road, leaving which, we find ourselves in a broad road, with the large general Hospital on our left, then new red-brick villas, and then flat-fronted, low, unpicturesque houses and shops rising from the foot walk. We have to pass along a road of strangely varying width, and might go right across the town from west to east - the one road having five names, Alcester Road, Greenhill Street, Wood Street, Bridge Street, and Bridge Foot - and come out on Clopton Bridge over the Avon without having any idea that we had passed through anything more than a quiet, comfortable market town of a kind not uncommon in the English Midlands.

A glance at the shop windows, with their in-numerable picture-postcards and varied souvenirs, would have shown that the town was other than it seemed. A little way on our left we should have passed the central shrine of this centre of many shrines - the birthplace of William Shakespeare - while a glance to the right down the High Street, which branches off at the point where the narrowest part of our highway of Wood Street becomes the broad Bridge Street, would give glimpses of some more of the older buildings of the town. When our traveller, whom we have presumed to be ignorant of the significance of Stratford, came to Clopton Bridge, looking downstream he would see a striking building by the waterside - a building of red brick and white stone, a building of high-pitched green-slated roof and many turrets and small gables. Such a building, in such a town, would surely pique our traveller's curiosity, and he would find on enquiry that it is the Shakespeare Memorial. Beyond, further down the river, he would see the spire of Stratford Church rising from amid trees - the church in which Shakespeare is buried - and he would surely wish at one to linger in and about the town that had at a first glance appeared to have little that was especially attractive.

Clopton Bridge itself may well detain us. It is a fine stone structure of many arches, with low parapets, over which we have delightful scenes up and down the course of the soft-flowing Avon, the windings of which give us but short views of the water, while the low-lying meadows are backed by the greenery of Warwickshire's ever-present trees. Looking downstream, towards the Memorial and Church, we see the old bridge is close-neighboured by another one of red brick, built for carrying a disused railway, and said to be one of the earliest of our railway bridges, a fact which may lessen our impatience at its obstructing the view downstream, and also for obstructing our view of the fine old bridge when we look upstream from the playing-fields on the left bank of the Avon.

Here it may be said that an old-time Stratford clergyman derived the name of Avon from a "British word, aufona, with them signifying as much as fluvius with us". The river was spanned by an old wooden bridge, across which unsupported tradition says that Queen Matilda led her troops; but this was removed by one of Stratford's more notable citizens and replaced by the current stone bridge, iron plates on which record its building and its repairing and widening in the early part of the last century. Until the widening there stood on it a stone pillar with the following sufficient story: "Sir Hugh Clopton, Knight, Lord Mayor of London, built this bridge at his own proper expense in the reign of King Henry ye Seventh".

To the Avon we shall return. Going eastward again by Bridge Foot and Bridge Street, that we may visit the shrine associated with the memory of one who is not only Stratford's, but England's most famous son, we pass up the wide Bridge Street, and find the way forks on either side of plain white, many-windowed bank premises. The left road is Wood Street, by which we came from the railway station. The right is Henley Street, a short thoroughfare, two-thirds of the way along which we reach a neat and very picturesque timbered and gabled house rising, as most of the houses do in these older Stratford ways, straight from the street. This is "The Birthplace". On either side of it is now garden ground, preserved open that the shrine may be less liable to any danger from fire, from which the town thrice suffered severely during the lifetime of Shakespeare. On the last of these occasions - July. 1614 - no fewer than fifty four dwelling-houses were destroyed, so that it is no doubt largely to those fires we owe it that there are not more of the Tudor buildings standing. Fortunately, among those spared are those most interesting.

To gain admittance to the house the necessary ticket must be obtained at the cottage immediately to the east, the office of the Trustees and Guardians of Shakespeare's Birthplace. Though brick-fronted and much altered, this cottage was standing in the poet's time, his neighbours there resident being of the name of Horneby.

The Birthplace itself is one of the chief shrines of the town, a place annually visited by many thousands of people from all over the world. From it's small rooms, it's tiny irregular staircase, we may easily imagine how comfortable citizens lived in the spacious days of great Elizabeth; in the fine collection of documents and books, signatures, mementoes, and curios, we get glimpses more directly personal to Shakespeare himself, his family, and the people whom he knew. Upstairs we are in the very room in which, on April 23rd, 1564, the poet first saw the light. Here generations of visitors scrawled their names, in accordance with a bad old habit to which Thomas Carlyle, Sir Walter Scott, and Charles Dickens fell victims. Now the autograph record of those who visit the house is duly kept in a visitor's book provided for the purpose.

It is not possible for anyone gifted with imagination to be in these rooms unmoved - rooms in which the poet was born, in which he passed what we may well believe was a happy childhood, from which he went to the Grammar School about a quarter of a mile off, and from which he went a-courting a mile across the fields to Shottery. Of intimate knowledge of Shakespeare's personality we may have but little, of the story of his life much may be surmise, but, here, at least, we can feel that we see rooms much as he saw them, though in place of the simple furnishings of Tudor times we have in some of the rooms the omnium gatherum of a museum. It is a museum full of interest to the student of Shakespeareana, and tempts the visitor to linger over the sight of copies of books which the poet himself might have read, over his and other old signatures to legal documents, over the celebrated "Ely" portrait of Shakespeare, over pictures, plans, and other relics of bygone Stratford-upon-Avon.

Little as we know of the details of Shakespeare's life story, the history of his birthplace, from possessor to possessor, is fortunately complete from the time of his birth up to the purchase of the house by the nation in 1847. It is true that there have not been wanting theorists who have sought to prove that his birth did not actually take place here, but circumstantial evidence strongly supports the belief that it did. Here his father, John Shakespeare, lived, and here carried on his business of wood stapler and glover. The immediate surroundings have changed with improving conditions, for in the sixteenth century the elder Shakespeare was fined for keeping a muck-heap outside his street door! Now Henley Street is a neat and pleasant thoroughfare, though modernity is marked by a motor garage a little to the west, and passing along the street on a Saturday evening I have noticed, if not an ancient, certainly a fish-like smell from a fried-fish shop nearly opposite the Birthplace, while from the end of Henley Street have come the strains of a Salvation Army hymn. Even in Stratford men cannot live on sentiment.

Passing out at the back door of the house, we are in a garden, the guardians of which have made it a peculiarly interesting one by planting in it representatives of all flowers and trees named by the poet in his works. Here, during a September visit, I have found "the pale primrose" in full bloom, and here, earlier in the summer, are to be seen a beautiful display of those "oldfashioned flowers" and herbs which flourish unfadingly in the words of Ophelia and of Perdita:

"There's rosemary, that's for remembrance: pray you, love, remember: and there is pansies, that's for thoughts.... There's fennel for you and columbines: there's a rue for you: and here's some for me: we may call it herb of grace o' Sundays: O, you must wear your rue with a difference. There's a daisy: I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died".

For you there's rosemary, and rue, these keep

Seeming and savour all the winter long....

Here's flowers for you;

Hot lavender, mints, savory, marjoram;

The marigold that goes to bed wi' the sun,

And with him rises weeping:... daffodils,

That come before the swallow dares, and take

The winds of March with beauty; violets dim,

But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes,

Or Cytherea's breath; pale primroses,

That die unmarried ere they can behold

Bright Phoebus in his strength, a malady

Most incident to maids; bold oxlips, and

The crown-imperial; lilies of all kinds,

The flower-de-luce being one.

All these flowers of the poet's - flowers to which he has attached epithets now familiar as themselves - will be found in the neat little garden at the back of the Birthplace. Passing through it in to Henley Street again, we retrace our way to the bank building, and thence, following the route which the schoolboy Shakespeare must have passed, sometimes perhaps -

with his satchel

And shining morning face, creeping like snail

Unwillingly to school -

we go in to the short High Street, at the further end at which we see projecting the simple ugliness of the Town Hall, and beyond the grand old Guild Chapel.

Before getting so far, however, there are places to arrest our attention. Just short of the Town Hall on our right - those with a sense of humour will in passing have observed smilingly the Shakespeare Restaurant, kept by one Bacon! - is a projecting timbered building worthy of more than a momentary glance. It is a beautiful specimen of a Tudor dwelling, with its richly carved timbers, its bulging upper floors. This is known as Harvard House, because it was the home of Katherine Rogers, the mother of John Harvard, founder of the famous Harvard College at Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is an interesting fact that as Shakespeare had gone, according to tradition, from Stratford to Southwark, so Katherine Rogers, his neighbour in Warwickshire, should have married a Southwark man. It suggests that there may have been some special reason for drawing the Stratfordians who went to London to the town at the southern end of London Bridge. This attractive old house, architecturally one of the gems of Stratford, has recently and most fittingly been converted into a rendezvous for the American visitors who form a goodly proportion of those who make the pilgrimage to Stratford. Picturesque outside, the interior, with its old-world furnishings, is also well worthy of inspection.

Nearly opposite to the Rogers-Harvard house is the undistinguished, not to say wholly unworthy, Town Hall, built a hundred and fifty years ago, and illustrating the beginning of one of the least pleasing periods in English architecture. On the northern end, facing up High Street, is the statue presented by David Garrick at the conclusion of the famous "Shakespeare Jubilee" of 1769. Within the Hall are some interesting pictures, including Gainsborough's portrait of Garrick.

Next door to the Town Hall is the Shakespeare Hotel, part of which is the "Five Gables", a picturesque timbered building, the lower portion of which consists of shops. The rooms in this hotel have long been notable as being named, frequently with peculiar felicity, after Shakespeare's plays. Thus the bar - parlour is "Measure for Measure", the coffee-room is "As You Like It", and so on.

With that lavishness in the naming of streets which cannot fail to strike a visitor, we find that High Street ended at the Town Hall, and already we are in Chapel Street, with the handsome stone tower of the old Guild Chapel a short way ahead. A little beyond the "Five Gables", and also on the left, at the corner of Chapel Street and Chapel Lane, we reach the site of "New Place", the house which Shakespeare purchased in his prosperity, and in which he died on April 23rd, 1616. The house passed immediately before reaching it, New Place Museum, is known as Nash's House from having been the home of the first husband of Shakespeare's granddaughter, Elizabeth Hall - Thomas Nash, who is not to be confounded with the Elizabethan writer of the same name.

The site of the house and the garden are fenced from the road by a low wall, surmounted by an ornate iron railing, in the decoration of which the initials "W. S." and the poet's and town arms are included. The railings are somewhat uglified by being picked out with gilding. A little way down Chapel Lane, at the foot of which is the Memorial, is the entrance to the pleasant and well-kept garden attached to New Place. Here a mulberry stump is described as scion of that tree long associated with Shakespeare. Hare to be seen are a pillar from the ancient Town Hall, a sculpture from before the old Shakespeare Gallery in Pall Mall, and a large stone on which are engraved verses in honour of the poet by Richard Jago. The mulberry tree planted by the poet attracted so much attention on the part of visitors when interest in Shakespeare awakened in the eighteenth century, that the un-Reverend Mr. Gastrell, who then owned New Place, "damned himself to everlasting fame" by cutting it down; and he carried his despicable vandalism further still when, a few years later, in consequence of a quarrel with the Corporation in the matter of rates, he had New Place demolished, after which he fittingly retired altogether from the town of Stratford. The mulberry tree was acquired by a local tradesman, who made of it many momentoes for Shakespeare lovers - indeed, he is accused of having made far more souvenirs than the genuine timber could have supplied. Drinking at the great Festival from a cup made of the famous tree, Garrick sang his own words:

Behold this fair goblet, 't was carved from the tree

Which, O my sweet Shakespeare, was planted by thee;

As a relic I kiss it, and bow at the shrine,

What comes from thy hand must be ever divine.

All shall yield to the mulberry tree,

Bend to thee,

Blessed mulberry;

Matchless was he

Who planted thee;

And thou, like him, immortal be!

Of Gastrell an indignant writer said many years ago: "The rabid old gentleman who destroyed Shakespeare's mulberry tree, and in an impotent fit of bilious rage pulled the poet's last abode to the ground, quited Stratford amidst the general execration of it's inhabitants. This wild mischief could only have been the work of eccentricity on the very verge of madness. We pity the poor wretch capable of an act so unfeeling and senseless; for though it was, we know, the constant visible presence of the Deity which hallowed the bulwarks of Sion, and fortified her walls with salvation, ten thousand vivid recollections sanctify the deserted dwellings of the truly great, endear their earthy abodes, and hallow their relics to the hearts and imaginations of posterity."

New Place, which had been originally built by Sir Hugh Clopton in the time of Henry the Seventh, was purchased, altered, and given its lasting fame by William Shakespeare in 1597. Before becoming the property of Mr. Gastrell, of infamous memory, it had returned to the possession of the Clopton family, and under the famous mulberry another Sir Hugh entertained Garrick, Macklin, and other notables in 1742.

When Shakespeare's daughter, Susannah Hall, was still living at new place - she died there in 1649 - there came the troubles of the Civil War, and hither Queen Henrietta Maria came on her way to join Charles the First at Oxford in 1643, and she made her stay at New Place, as being presumably the chief residence of the town. Prince Rupert, too, was here, and for a time the quiet town was a centre of military activity, with about 5000 troops quartered in it. A year earlier the town must have been in a fine flutter of excitement, with the Battle of Edgehill taking place less than a dozen miles away. One historian says: "At this period the Queen took up her abode for about three weeks at New Place, Stratford, while Mrs. Shakespeare resided there." The writer was evidently confusing the poet's wife and his daughter, for Mrs. Shakespeare had died twenty years before. Stratford did not go unscathed in these troubled times, for one of the Clopton Bridge arches was destroyed, and the old Town Hall was blown up - a pillar from it, as has been said, is to be seen in the New Place garden.

Divided by the width of a turning from the site of New Place is the beautiful old Guild Chapel of the Holy Cross, and immediately beyond it is a long range of fine timbered buildings, comprising the Guild Hall, the Grammar School, and almshouses for twenty four old people. Somewhat plain inside, it's ancient mural paintings obliterated, it is as fine specimen of fifteenth-century architecture that the old Chapel claims attention. From its tower at morning and evening during the winter is still heard the clanging of the curfew bell. Here it is supposed that Shakespeare attended public worship, as there used to be a pew in the Chapel attached to New Place.

This connection of the house with the Chapel possibly dated from the time when Sir Hugh Clopton resided there, as he was a great benefactor to the edifice, rebuilding the nave and tower. On the south side of the Chapel is the entrance to the old half-timbered Guild Hall and Grammar School - the latter being above the former. This building is supposed to have been erected about the end of the thirteenth century by Robert de Stratford, presumably for the brethren of the Holy Cross. Shakespeare associations are everywhere about us. In the great schoolroom, with open timbered roof, he is supposed to have received his education; in the Guild Hall below, it has been suggested, he may have been present when companies of stage players are known to have given their performances during the time that his father was Bailiff of the town. In the pleasant enclosure at the back of the Guild Hall we see another timbered building, known as the Pedagogue's House. With these old buildings on either hand, and the ancient Chapel in front of us, we have the corner of Stratford that is perhaps least changed of all since Shakespeare's time, a true coup d'oeil of Tudor England.

That Stratford Grammar School - formed certainly as early as 1424, and re-established by Edward the Sixth in 1553 - was an educational centre of some importance in the time when Shakespeare was a boy, may be gathered from the fact that the headmaster was allowed "wages" of twenty pounds a year, a circumstance which made it likely that the best men available were sure to be obtained for the post, seeing that the ordinary headmaster of the time - as at Eton - had only ten pounds. This being so, it is likely that the poet's education was probably a better one than early theorizer's about his life were inclined to think. An inscription marks the place at which what is supposed to have been Shakespeare's desk stood; and it has been suggested that if - as that snapper-up of unconsidered biographical trifles, John Aubrey, records - Shakespeare was for a time a schoolmaster, it may have been here in the school in which he had been educated. It is a pleasant conjecture, but nothing more. The desk is now at the Birthplace.

Next to the Guild Hall comes a similar but somewhat lower range of half-timbered, red-tiled buildings, the Guild Almshouses, for twelve old men and twelve old women - almshouses which are described as being among the oldest and most interesting in England. The fronts of these picturesque fifteenth-century dwellings were long plastered over; but the care with which Stratford guards it's many ancient relics has been extended to them, and the fine timber framing has been newly and properly made plain. Continuing south - the street has become Church Street from from when we left New Place - we soon turn downwards to the left into what is known as Old Town, where Dr. Hall, the poet's son-in-law, lived, and so reach the second of the chief Shakespearean shrines of Shakespeare's town - the church in which he is buried.

Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon, is probably one of the most widely known, by pictorial representation, as it is assuredly one of the most beautiful of our churches. It's tall spire, rising amid trees, as viewed from the meadows on the farther bank of Avon, has been represented in many paintings and in photographs without number. As we approach it from the town it is perhaps less impressive than as seen, in its cathedral-like proportions, from the left bank of the river. The approach from the road is by a short avenue of limes - "a sedate and pleasing shade". Old elms that stood near the porch were cut down in 1871, and their wood was turned into momentoes, as that of "Shakespeare's Mulberry Tree" had been more than a hundred years earlier.

If Stratford Church was not the burial-place of Shakespeare, it would be worthy of a visit as one of the most beautiful, as it is probably in part one of the most venerable of Midland churches. There was a church here when "Domesday Book" was compiled, but no vestige of that earlier structure remains. Sufficient antiquity is, however, claimed for Holy Trinity, for the tower is supposed to have been erected shortly after the Conquest, and the rest of the fine cruciform edifice to have been built during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Though there are many monuments of interest in the church - notably to members of the ancient Clopton family - it is in its memorials of Shakespeare and his kindred that it is attractive to the great majority of visitors, for the son of the sixteenth-century Bailiff of Stratford has become the town's focal centre, so that it's old benefactor and his family are of comparatively small interest. But of Sir Hugh Clopton, who built the beautiful bridge across the Avon and who owned the"Great House" (later the New Place of Shakespeare), only conjecture can point to his resting-place, and even so it is but few who trouble to enquire as to the good knight's resting-place. It is Shakespeare's grave and monument, and the graves of his people, in which most visitors to the church are interested. These will be found at the eastern end of the beautiful chancel. On the north wall there, near the altar, is the famous half-length figure of Shakespeare himself, with quill in hand, as in the act of writing. It is set, as it were, in an entablature with the poet's arms and crest above, flanked by a couple of boyish figures. This monument, the work Gerard Johnson, was erected some time between the poet's burial in 1616 and the issue of the First Folio edition of his work in 1623, as we learn from a reference made to it in the latter year. From the fact that it was erected soon after his death - and there can be little doubt by members of his family - it may well be accepted as giving us the likeness of Shakespeare nearest to him in the habit as he lived. The figure was coloured, and in 1748 John Ward, grandfather of the Kembles, had the tomb repainted and repaired from the profits of his company's performance of "Othello" at Stratford, thus giving, as it were, a posthumous "benefit" to the great poet. In 1793 Edmund Malone obtained permission to paint the bust white, and white it remained until 1861, when the whitewash was removed, and the old colours, as far as they were traceable, restored. Fortunately an old historian of Stratford had described its original appearance: "The eyes were of a light hazel colour, and the hair and beard auburn. The dress consisted of a scarlet doublet, over which was thrown a loose black gown without sleeves. The upper part of the cushion was of a green colour, and the lower of a green colour, with gilt tassels." Beneath the effigy of the poet is the following inscription:-

IVDICIO PYLIVM, GENIO SOCRATEM, ARTE

MARONEM, TERRA TEGIT, POPVLVS MAERET,

OLYMPVS HABET.

Stay Passenger, why goest thou so fast?

Read, if thou canst, whom envious Death hath plast,

Within this monument; Shakespeare with whome

Quick Nature dide; whose name doth deck ys Tombe

Far more then cost but page to serve his witt.

OBIIT. ANO. DOI. 1616

AETATIS 53. Die 23 AP.

Within the chancel rail is the actual grave of the poet, under a stone inscribed with the famous lines traditionally said to have been penned by Shakespeare himself to prevent the removal of his remains to the charnel house, which was long attached to the church, and contained a vast collection of human fragments. This charnel house was only taken down in 1800. It is also said that to prevent the likelihood of anyone's risking the curse, the grave was dug seventeen feet deep. The lines run:

GOOD FREND FOR IESVS SAKE FORBEARE,

TO DIGG THE DVST ENCLOASED HEARE:

BLESTE BE YE MAN YT SPARES THES STONES,

AND CVRST BE HE YT MOVES MY BONES.

It was not until 1694 that these lines were said to have been written by Shakespeare himself. The tradition, it may be surmised, arose from the use of the words "my bones", for it is not easy to believe that the great poet really did write such doggerel. It may well be that he had expressed horror of the custom, in accordance with which graves were redug, and the bones of their old occupants removed to the charnel house to make room for new tenants, and that his family had his wishes put into the lasting form, in which they are now familiar. Between Shakespeare's grave and the north wall, on which is the monument, is the gravestone of his wife, on which their son-in-law, Dr. Hall, is supposed to have written the Latin memorial lines that follow in inscription: "Here lyeth Shakespeare, who depted this life the 6th day of August 1623 being of the age of 67 yeares". On the other side of Shakespeare's grave are the graves of Susannah Hall (1649), of her husband Dr. John Hall (1635), and of their son-in-law (1647). The inscription placed on Susannah Hall's gravestone is worthy of quotation, because it suggests that, "witty above her sex", she may have inherited some of her great father's qualities, and also because it has been thought that possibly the lines may have been written by her daughter Elizabeth (later Lady Barnard), the last of Shakespeare's direct descendants:

HEERE LYETH YE BODY OF SVSANNA WIFE TO:




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Senior Uses Ubuntu System 14 Months Trouble Free


Computers started making their way into homes, en masse, 15 years ago. After 15 years, computer users should not be afraid of using their computer.

This case study tells the story about a customer of mine, Wanda, who happens to be in her 70s. Like most computer users she used a Windows based computer. In her case, it was a system put together by her grandson in 2002 or 2003 and has a 1.8ghz processor, 256mb of RAM and the XP Home version of Windows.

When I first met Wanda a few years ago, she had typical Windows user problems; slow computer, slow Internet, couldn't open some attachments, virus and spyware problems. She used dialup Juno for Internet and Norton Antivirus on her system. I couldn't talk her into getting a DSL or cable connection, but I did change her security from Norton to AVG and optimized the startup and running of the system. However, with dialup and Juno, she continued to have problems that cropped up every 3-4 months.

In April of 2008, I talked with her in detail about computer usage. She stated that she really only needed to do three or four things with her computer:


Email
Word Processing
Solitaire
Very light Internet browsing

We talked about the cost of a new computer and a high speed connection. And then we talked about taking Windows off her system, installing a different system (Ubuntu and Linux didn't mean anything to her) that would be virtually trouble free and no cost to acquire besides my install and configuration time. She liked the sound of that, but I informed her that I could not install Ubuntu unless she was agreeable to getting a DSL connection for the Internet. She agreed.

I installed Ubuntu for her and configured her desktop with shortcuts to her email, the web, solitaire, and her word processor. Again, that was April of 2008. Prior to that I received at least one call from her every month, and visited her for cleanup and troubleshooting appointments at least 3-5 times per year.

Today, Wanda called me for the first time since I installed Ubuntu on her system 14 months ago. She asked two questions:


Why can't I get email from my daughter?
My printer stopped printing, do I need a new one?

Knowing that it would be a quick visit, I stopped by her house in between two other appointments. To my delight, the computer desktop looked exactly the same as I left it the prior year except for a few saved PowerPoint slideshows she saved from email to it.

Since she was using Hotmail, I could almost guarantee that she had blocked her daughter's email address (Microsoft places the spam / junk mail button dangerously close to the delete button). Sure enough, a trip to the blocked senders settings revealed what I suspected. Her daughter's email address and a dear friend were blocked. I rectified that in a few clicks.

Next, her printer problem turned out to be a paper jam. After clearing it, the computer was happily printing again. I left her home in under 15 minutes after correcting the problems that had nothing to do with Ubuntu, and she was beaming like a kid in a candy shop.

MORAL OF THE STORY

Properly setup and customized for an individual's computing needs, Ubuntu Linux can be used successfully and easily by anyone of any age and computing ability. AND, the problems associated with computing under the Windows environment disappear.

My only regret is that I did not start looking into and learning about Linux prior to 2006.




Rick Castellini hosts a nationally syndicated radio show, is an author and computer consultant in Colorado. He also is a freelance writer for newspapers around the country. Visit his web site at HelpMeRick.com for practical tips and computer information every week.





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2012年4月23日 星期一

Yorkie Names - Be Inspired by the Seasons - Summer


When considering a name for your new Yorkie puppy, perhaps the season of Summer has all the inspiration you need! There are plenty of names to choose from for both male and female Yorkshire Terriers, and whether you prefer a relatively common name or prefer something unusual, you're sure to find something you like...

Let's start with the name of the season itself: Summer- a lovely name for a puppy with a sunny disposition! There are some wonderful names related to Summer, sunshine or the sun that you might want to consider:

Suvi- (French) 'Summer'
Xia- (Chinese) 'Summer'
Helia (Greek) 'The sun'
Eliana 'daughter of the sun'
Helen or Ellen 'sun ray, shining light'
Sunna (Icelandic) 'sunny'
Sunny
Sol 'sun'
Solaris 'sun'

If none of the sun-related names appeal to you, why not take a look at the names related to the months of Summer? Now of course, these will depend on where you are in the world! For the purpose of this article, I will just explore the summer months of the Northern Hemisphere- if you reside in the Southern hemisphere, you'll just have to wait for my article on Winter-inspired names to explore the month names related to your Summer, or alternatively visit this article of Winter-Inspired Names for Yorkies.

The Northern hemisphere's summer months are of course June, July and August: each in itself is a delightful name, and you could also consider the following related names:

Juno- the Roman goddess of marriage and prosperity
Junia- a name found in the New Testament
Junius - this is a Latin name and means 'born in June'
Julius Caesar gave his name to the month of July: a Spanish variation of this name is Julio
Some feminine variations are Julia, Juliette, Juliet, Julie and Juliana
Augustus Caesar gave his name to the month of August: some great variations are Augusten, Augustine or Gus
While for people the feminine form 'Augusta' might bring on images of ageing Great Aunties, it may well be the perfect name for your female Yorkie!

What about the birthstones and birth-flowers of each Summer month? There are some lovely names to be found in these lists!

June: Birthstone is Pearl or Alexandrite, and flowers are Rose and Honeysuckle
July: Birthstone is Ruby, and flowers are Larkspur and Waterlily
August: Birthstone is Sardonix or Peridot, and flowers are Poppy and Gladiolus

Some other sources of inspiration would be the things you associate with summer: what about...

Holiday
Beach names, such as Bay, Coral, Dune. Shelly, Surfer or Tide
Names that have a meaning associated with the sea: for example, Cordelia (daughter of the sea), Marisol (sea and sun), Nerida (sea nymph or mermaid), Delmore (of the sea) or Mervyn (sea hill).

You can see, there are many names that the season of Summer could offer for your Yorkie pup: just sit back and consider the thoughts and feelings that Summer creates for you!

Please visit my article on Yorkie Names Inspired by Summer for more ideas about Summer-related names: and of course there are many other Yorkie Name Ideas to be found at the same site- enjoy!




Elena King combines two passions: Yorkies and names into a single ongoing project- the Yorkie Names website! You can visit it here at http://www.yorkienames.net





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November 2009 Astrological Overview


November 2009

Happy Birthday Scorpio and Sagittarius

WELCOME TO THE WILD HATTERS RIDE

WE begin this month using the energy of November's gemstone which is the Aquamarine or Beryl. Power colors great for us to be using now are those passionate and Deep Reds and oranges of Passion and creativity.

Planets are actors and the planets highlighted during this time are Jupiter which moved direct on 10/12 and Chiron moving direct 10/30 and NOW the 3rd magical partner adds his energy as Neptune the planet bringing this 3 some into action moves direct on 11/4.

This magical energy of Faith (Jupiter) healing (Chiron) and Bringing in our Dreams and intuition into the mix (Neptune) have been traveling together in Aquarius this last year for the first time in thousands of years. They enter their last joining of being at the exact same degree on December 21st at 12:53am and this energy begins to move away from us forever.

Of course it will be replaced by other energy but the change your mind and HEAL YOUR Past with the dreams you have for your future shifts after this date. So...sign up now for the RIDE and change the past by Healing your thoughts and begin to IMAGINE: Time is running out for this special deal the universe is offering us, sign up now..

How we encounter this energy and use it is to BELIEVE and begin to create a new reality within our minds, and then open our hearts to the recognition that we are truly one and all in this together. We need to recognize that we can heal and there are others who will need our help and others who we will receive assistance from and be willing to open to this next step for ourselves and the planet. We must stop looking at those outside of self as others and recognize our connections.

The sun shining in the sign of Powerful and emotionally connected Scorpio until the 21st is asking us to encounter the passions within ourselves and says that only by really feeling what is happening within our selves can we change external circumstances in our lives. The theme of Scorpio is "I CREATE WITH FEELINGS" and this fixed water sign is symbolized by the Scorpion, the eagle and the Phoenix. SO we all are encountering the resourceful and powerful energy of recreating ourselves if we are willing to do the work.

WE also have a strong energy of REVIEWING our lives, options and a strong need to now really get to work Manifesting our dreams into reality with the full moon, releasing time on the 2nd of November. This full moon is in the fixed signs of Scorpio and Taurus and asks us to look at how we feel and what are we holding onto (fixed on) which is hurting us and to eliminate it over the next 2 weeks.

Juno the asteroid about equality in partnerships moves direct at 21 degrees of Pisces on the 2nd and we are asking. WHAT next, and where is that person I have been waiting for and this energy exists to help you find that connection.

On the 4th of November Neptune moving direct at 23 degrees of Aquarius says, IMAGINE and BELIEVE and heal, and what you are looking for is coming very soon.

On the 7th Venus the planet of love moves out of Libra and into the realm of powerful emotions as it enters the sign of Scorpio. Venus in Scorpio encounters passion joyfully and is willing to feel and works well with the other powerful energy this month of moving into our emotions to use them rather than have them use us. Making our thoughts and our feelings into our peaceful and healing servants is part of the task we all have this month..

Mercury also will be in Scorpio until the 15th when it enters Sagittarius. So the theme right now really favors anything which involves intimate and inner connections to self and others. This is a time of tender feelings and people paying attention to what they believe are your motives, so make sure and be clear and ask If others understand what it is that you are really saying during the first of this month.

Dark of the moon magical dates are the 14th which carries some very POWERFUL energy of healing and intuition, the 15th with not quite such an easy energy and the 16th until 11:14am when we have the new moon. This new moon seed planting time happens at 24 Degrees of Scorpio and is a very Powerful day. Now energy begins to INCREASE as the moon grows larger in the night sky and we are connected more powerfully to inner knowing, guides and angels.

After the 21st when the sun moves to Sagittarius the energy shifts to a lighter and more free theme. Sagittarius is FIRE and mutable in nature and when planets enter this sign often we lighten up and are more open to new options.

The Colors of Sagittarius are Purple and deep colors of blues. Keywords for this time are freedom-loving, truth, optimistic, aspiring to higher awareness and can also be a bit dogmatic in a belief that there is only one truth.

Topaz is a wonderful stone to connect you to this powerful time of intensity and knowing your own truth.. Topaz is worn to radiate the gift of light that dispels the darkness and ignorance. The topaz is said to calm anger in the wearer and light a path through the darkness.

On the 23rd as the moon in Aquarius touches Jupiter, Chiron and Neptune again we are able to connect to healing and connection of body, mind and spirit for next to the last time in your lifetime. Aquarius says, move into change and be willing to LET GO OF WHAT WAS in order to create what CAN BE:

Use Kindness and understanding with self and others this month. You are in charge, you can control this energy and turn it to hope, and joy and love, rather than your fears, or anger controlling you. I see huge transformations for us all during this month. Saturn now in the sign of Libra (relationships and balance) and Uranus (in Pisces, creating dreams by imagination and vision) are working for the next year in opposition trying to bring changes to the world and to us by some very radical means. Going inwards and healing the past in order to have a healthy future is the only answer for how to make any of this work. Stop...take a look in the mirror Please and begin there...

And if you are not willing to transform, which seems to be the word of the month, how about we think about reviewing how we are feeling about our lives and see what needs transforming? and For other articles pertaining to the planets shifting, and more, please visit my website at

http://www.carolbarbeau.com Namaste

Carol Barbeau carolastro@carolbarbeau.com




Carol Barbeau is an teacher, author and student of many metaphysical and healing traditions. Visit Carols website at http://www.carolbarbeau.com for free articles and more. You may call her for an appointment at 206 542 7641 or e mail her at carolastro@carolbarbeau.com





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2012年4月22日 星期日

Nelly Furtado - A Brief Bio


Nelly Furtado is one of the most dynamic stars in pop music today. Since the release of her first album "Whoa, Nelly!" in 2000, she's consistently pushed the boundaries of music genres by incorporating influences from music around the world. Nelly Furtado songs have won a Grammy, six Juno awards and one MTV Europe Music Award.

Born in Canada in 1978, Furtado was inspired to sing and perform at an early age. She started singing at 4 and began writing her own lyrics at 12. Shortly before she graduated from secondary school, she began making contacts within the rap and hip hop community in Toronto. A solo performance at the 1997 Honey Jam in Toronto caught the attention of Gerald Eaton and Brian West, two members of the group The Philosopher Kings. The duo helped Furtado create a demo which led to a deal with DreamWorks records. Her first single appeared on the soundtrack album for the film Brokedown Palace.

Eaton and West helped Furtado produce her debut album "Whoa Nelly!" The album was released in October of 2000 to rave reviews. The hit single "I'm Like a Bird" eventually won Furtado her first Grammy award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Additional hits from the album were "Turn Off the Light" and "On the Radio (Remember the Days). The Nelly Furtado video for the former showcased her multicultural background.

The album was critically acclaimed for her unique musical style and fresh approach to pop music. Her cultural background gave the album a unique mix of genres and sounds. Furtado is of Portuguese descent and speaks Spanish, Portuguese and Hindi.

Her second album, "Folklore", was released in November of 2003 shortly after the birth of her daughter, Nevis. Due to poor promotion by the label, the album was less successful than her first album. The singles from the album were "Powerless (Say What You Want)" and "Try". The song "Forca" from the album was used as the official anthem of the 2004 European Football Championship. The song "Childhood Dreams" was dedicated to her daughter.

In 2006, Furtado's third and most successful album to date was released. "Loose" was primarily produced by the hip hop producer Timbaland which is evident in the album's hip hop and R&B sound. Although many of her old fans rejected Furtado's new direction, the album produced number one hits across the globe. The singles "Promiscuous", "Maneater", "Say It Right" and "All Good Things (Come to an End)" topped charts in many different countries due to Nelly Furtado videos and radio play.

In addition to singing, Furtado has recently added acting to her list of skills. She made her debut in the 2006 movie "Nobody's Hero" and had a role in 2008's "Max Payne" movie. She has also appeared on television in the shows CSI: New York and Roswell.

Even though many of the lyrics on her album "Loose" are sexually suggestive, Furtado has repeatedly rejected attempts by outside influences to oversexualize her image. She turned down $500,000 that was offered to her by Playboy to use Nelly Furtado pictures. She refuses to pose in sexy outfits for magazines, and was very upset when a men's magazine digitally removed portions of her outfit so it appeared more revealing.

Furtado plans to release her fourth album between May and August of 2009. She will be recording songs in English and Spanish for the new record. She will also be recording an entire album in Spanish and an additional album in Portuguese.




Searching for music videos online? Come check out the largest collection of music videos online featuring all of the most popular artists and bands, including Nelly Furtado, Beyonce and Akon.





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Summer Solstice - Season of Passion and Compassion


Summer Solstice is the season Mother Nature is at the peak of abundance, and you too can join this natural cycle and accomplish miracles. Give your full attention to your fiery passion for life, and nurture and restore yourself with watery emotional compassion for where you are now, and also for the future you desire. That's an ancient formula for abundance at the time of Midsummer Solstice.

The Summer Solstice Sun is at Zenith

Summer Solstice, June 21st, is the longest day and shortest night of the year. The Sun's power is at it's most potent - and on that day, the sun reverses, and the days shorten, as the nights lengthen. The journey into the harvest season has begun, and at the Winter Solstice, the Sun again "turns" and the days begin to lengthen.

The solar cycle was revered by your ancient ancestors, and their "Sun Markers" are etched in stone cave drawings - in monuments like Stonehenge and in medicine wheels. The temples in Egypt, those of the Mayans, and the Inca in Peru center around the Sun.

Sun cycles and life cycles.

The visual movement of the sun to the north - and then the reversal (returning to the South) marked a turning point in the year that has been celebrated since time-out-of-mind. And many of the ancient traditions are embedded in our modern world -- their origins obscure. Yet your cellular memory still holds the wisdom of Nature.

You are no longer dependent on seasons and daylight for your survival. A drought does not mean famine, and winter no longer means "early to bed." The importance of the sun is lessened by today's technology. Electricity, and infrastructure for travel and transportation advances eclipse the sun's dominance. It is easy to forget all life depends on the sun.

Sun as the source of life.

Ancient people lived the truth that life came from the sun and without it, life could not exist. The journey of the sun through the solar cycle (seasons) guided the planting, growing, and harvesting times - as it does today.

The sun may have lessened in importance in your mind - but not in your life. You are still bound genetically to the ancient cycles. Can you feel this special time of year as unique and offering you an opportunity? It is - don't miss it!

Summer Solstice - the season of abundance

Summer is a happy and joyous time, especially when compared to the darker, quiet and colder winter. Midsummer (Summer Solstice) is roughly the middle of the growing season - the time when everything is abundant and flourishing. Brilliant fields of flowers bloom, trees are luscious green with new leaves; and vegetables, sweet fruits and berries are ripening. Nature is reaching her peak of abundance.

Ancient symbols unit the earth and sun.

Midsummer is the time when the Sun reaches the peak of its power. The Sun, manifests as the Sun King, or The Green Man seated on his Oak-foliage throne - and lord of the forests. His face surrounded by leaves is seen carved in stone or wood in churches,on fountains, and at gateways.

On this longest day of the year, light and life are abundant. At mid-summer, the Sun God has reached the moment of his greatest strength. His union with the Earth Mother Goddess is the promise of abundance, and she manifests as a pregnant Mother Nature, or Litha (Saxon).

Capture the essence of Midsummer or Summer Solstice.

Natural cycles of the seasons influence you as do circadian rhythms of night and day. Why not test (and try) what the ancient cultures knew to be the "energy of the times."

If you align with Nature, you took the time to carefully plant the seed ideas you want to grow into your future at the Spring Equinox (March 21st.) Now is the time to nurture your passion just as the sun nurtures all life. Focus on what is growing in your life, weed out what you do not want, and water (love and nurture) your Dreams.

Nurture and enjoy NOW.

Take the time to celebrate both work and leisure - for it is in enjoyment and childlike play that life grows abundantly. Accept and make time for enjoying your current life - before harvest. Take responsibility now for your future and assure abundance at your harvest time -- in the Fall.

Find your balance: Passion and Compassion.

The power of the sun at Summer Solstice is at its most potent, and the earth is fertile with a promising harvest. Midsummer is a time to balance the Sun's warming rays - strength and passion - and the cooling freshness of the "water or compassion" that nurtures all growth.

Through awareness, willpower, strength and conscious action - your passion for your creations come to fruition at harvest in the Fall. Explore your passions and the "fiery force - the heat" within you.

Next, find a good balance to your fiery passion in your love and compassion for your creations, and your love and desire to share your harvest with others. Deep heart-felt caring nurtures your dreams and your future. Without the balance - the passion alone is easily misdirected and can "burn up" your destiny in wasted efforts, wrong directions and intense misplaced emotions.

Without the soothing, nurturing of your heart-felt compassion, like a plant starved for water, your dreams dry up and wither on the vine.

Yet compassion alone (the watery emotions) may lie stagnant, without the balance of the fiery passion and direction of a clear focus. In right combination, fire and water nurture a productive, abundant future.

A balance between passion and compassion fine tunes your sense of purpose, and your inspiration guides you in the right direction. When your heart and compassion are your guides, your creativity will blossom, bear fruit and return you a bountiful harvest.

Summer Solstice and the first day of summer.

"Solstice" is Latin for "sun stands still" (sol "sun" and sistere "to cause to stand still.") To those watching, the (apparent movement of the Sun's path north or south) comes to a stop before reversing direction.

To the observers, the sun appears stationary in its northern and southern progression and seem to rise and set at the same location on the horizon for about five days before and after the actual solstice. At that time the Sun begins to wane or lose power - and the days shorten and nights lengthen.

The Summer Solstice and Marriage.

The union of the Solar power and Mother nature is the promise of abundance, and the fruit of that union is the harvest or birth of your Dreams. In a similar fashion, the potency of this time joined couples in marriage.

The Romans celebrated Summer Solstice as sacred to Juno, the patroness of marriage, and her month, June, remains today the most popular time for weddings.

In old Europe, the time between planting and the harvesting of the crops, allowed time for weddings. June was selected, as the sacred marriage or union of the Goddess and God occurred in early May at Beltaine and it was unlucky to marry in May.

The Druids' celebrated the day as the "wedding of Heaven and Earth", and that may also be one of the beginnings in the present day belief of a "lucky" wedding in June.

The only moon of Midsummer is the Honey Moon, a time when the hives are harvested for honey. Fermented honey is the ancient drink of the Gods, known as mead, and customarily drunk at wedding parties. The roots of the modern day "honeymoon" survive in current customs.

Summer Solstice is celebrated around the world - in England at Stonehenge and Avebury thousands gather before the sunrise to welcome the Sun.

Other ancient names and celebrations for Summer Solstice.

Midsummer eve was also called Alban Heruin or Alban Hefin, Whitsuntide, Vestalia (Ancient Roman), Cerridwen (England), the Faiery goddess Aine of Knockaine (Ireland), the Feast of Epona (Ancient Gaulish), Feill-Sheathain, Gathering Day, Sonnwend, Thing-Tide, All-Couple's Day, Johannistag, and St. John's Day.

After converting Europe to Christianity, the Pope declared the feast day of St. John the Baptist to be June 24th and is one of the oldest feasts in church records. The date was the Summer Solstice time of Jack-in-the-Green or The Green Man. He was converted to the Feast of St. John the Baptist, and St. John was then often portrayed in leafy and rustic attire, sometimes with horns and cloven feet (like the Greek Demi-God Pan) and with the classic face in the foliage of The Green Man.

Summer Solstice was a time of magic, meeting with the Fairies and of protective garlands of herbs and flowers to deflected evil spirits. St. John's Wort (also known as "chase-devil") is used today by herbalists to calm emotions and relieve depression.

Most celebrations (Celts & Slavs among others) marked Midsummer with huge bonfires that celebrated the power of the sun. Couples jumped through the flames, with the belief their crops grew as high as they leapt. Some traditions celebrated this time of year by setting large wheels on fire and then rolling them down a hill into a body of water.

The Chinese marked the day by honoring Li, the Chinese Goddess of Light. The Summer solstice ceremony in balance celebrated the earth, the feminine, and the yin forces of darkness.

Ancient Egypt worshiped the sun and many temples and monuments mark Solar Solstice cycles and star formations.

Native American rock formations, petroglyphs (carvings etched in stone) and stone markers dot the North and South American continents. Ancient cultures from the Mayan, Oltec, and Aztec to Machu Pichu in Peru mark solar times and stars with stone temples and markers.

Your Good Fortune: "Aligning with the natural cycles empowers you now to succeed against all odds."




Cheryl Janecky is the expert on attracting Good Fortune in quick easy steps.

Get the FACTS and FREE "21 Insights Home-Study course. PLUS weekly tips and strategies. Begin here: http://www.quick-good-fortune.com There are more ancient customs details on Summer Solstice too.

Start today and live your Dream. From the new sciences and ancient wisdom: get the FREE facts to find your passion at Quick Good Fortune.com. Copyright 1974-2009 c The Good Fortune Company LLC - All Rights reserved.





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2012年4月21日 星期六

Star Wars Force Unleashed 2 and Where to Find a Great Deal


Fans will be thrilled to know that Star Wars Force Unleashed 2 has recently been released. This updated action packed game has some new tricks and features, making it even a bigger hit then the original game that was released in 2008.

The History of the Game

Of course, part 2 is a sequel to the original Star Wars game which first introduced Starkiller. In the sequel, Starkiller is back and he's on a mission to find his true love, the one and only Juno Eclipse. However, Darth Vader has other plans as he wants to find our hero and turn him into the most powerful Sith warrior ever created. It's an evil plan and one that must be stopped and you get to control the outcome.

New Tricks and Features

Star Wars Force Unleashed 2 wouldn't be a very exciting game without all-new tricks and features available to Starkiller to take advantage of. Therefore, the creators have given you a host of new abilities to take advantage of during your exciting game play. One of the exciting new tricks is the highly deceptive Mind Trick which allows the controller to turn enemies against their allies! Another exciting feature waiting to be unlocked is the Force Rage. This power allows Starkiller to powerfully execute targeted strikes against the enemy.

There are host of other great features and tricks in this game that are just waiting to be discovered. Some of these include new combo attacks, enhanced puzzle-solving gameplay, increased customization, dual wielded light sabers and much more. You will not be disappointed with the new Star Wars Force Unleashed 2 game. In fact, Wii players will be able to experience the ultimate 4-player showdown! The game can be purchased for Nintendo Wii as well as Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3 and XBOX 360.

Incidentally, my son got this game for Christmas for his Wii and he sais that it's a lot more challenging than the first one and that the graphics are much better. He's quite particular given that he is a huge fan of the movies and cartoon series. This game wasn't a disappointment at all.

Where to Find a Great Deal This Game

Of course, as a devoted Star Wars game player, you want to get your copy of Star Wars Force Unleashed 2 as soon as possible. You can easily find it at your local game store, but you should do a little research before you buy the game from them. More than likely you can find it for less online. Online retailers are known for selling products, especially electronics for quite a bit less than the price found at game stores. You may even be able to find it with free shipping when you buy online as well, thus saving even more money!




The biggest reason to shop online for the Star Wars Force Unleashed 2 video game is the convenience of being able to shop from your home. When you visit the Force Unleashed 2 blog, you'll discover a retailer that can ship this item to your house within a few days and for free.





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Palm Springs Film Festival


Glamorous stars, creative directors and Hollywood moguls congregate in luscious Palm Springs sunshine at the 19th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival. They come here to accept their awards, meet their fans and celebrate their notoriety. But there's also another reason for their presence here. Since the 1930's and the golden days of the Palms Springs Racquet Club, stars have been attracted to the Desert like fireflies to a porch light on a balmy, summer day.

Why is that?

Forget the films, the panels, the chance to meet the stars- while you're in the middle of all that, stand outside a little apart from the crowd and look up. You will see and feel the natural opulence, the breathtaking presence of a star-studded a Palm Springs evening. The star-studded jewels in the sky and the jewelry-studded Hollywood stars on the Red Carpet are natural companions in this fabulous venue. More than 200 films from all over the world, dozens of appearances and award ceremonies, an unbeatable congregation of incredible film panels create the intrigue and excitement of this event but they can never completely obscure the natural opulence of their setting.

Although the entire schedule is still draped in mystery, we do know that this year, Jerry Weintraub will receive the prestigious Patrons of the Arts Award presented by emissaries from SAG in honor of his contributions to the film industry. Sometime actor, sometime producer and sometime manager of the Stars, Hollywood has surely felt his touch. We also know that Jason Reitman's Juno will receive the Chairman's Vanguard award. But when the full schedule is released, it will be as dazzling and surprising as ever.

January 3-14 is just stone's throw away in time, but there is still chance to plan for a twelve-day event that you will never forget. This is the 19th year of the famous film festival, started by Mayor Sonny Bono, Cher entrepreneur/singing partner, whose visionary political leadership spanned the rebuilding of Palm Springs downtown, a serious Salton Sea initiative and the creation of an enduring film festival. By this time, there are few directors, actors or cinematographer's who have not somehow touched the Festival with their talents or their personal appearance. Recently Shirley Maclaine, Kate Winslett and Sydney Pollock have received their honors personally. Last year, Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett accepted an award for their Movie, Babel.

The film festival is a natural place for the stars to visit as they have continued to do since they fell in love with Palm Springs real estate during the era of Charles Farrell and Ralph Bellamy's discovery of the Racquet Club. Elvis Presley, Groucho Marx, Bob Hope, Liberace, Frank Sinatra were one of the hundreds who have lived or played here. We wonder if, besides the living, the shades of many Hollywood celebrities of Palm Springs rest easier as this festival honors their great legacies. Surely, Sonny Bono will be among them, a happy parent to what is now an enriching global epiphany of talent, film and natural splendor.




Elaine Stewart - Palm Springs Real Estate Agent

http://www.investdesert.com





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2012年4月20日 星期五

Nightmares and Fear of the Dark - 5 Tips To Help Your Child Get Through The Night


Just as you've gotten into a nice sleep routine with your child, you find yourself face to face with the next groggy stage in development - fear of the dark and nightmares! Is your toddler terrified of being left alone in the dark and waking up with nightmares in the middle of the night? Don't fret! Fear of the dark and bad dreams are quite common among toddlers who are still separating reality from their vivid imaginations.

Here are some tips on how you can help your toddler get through this rough time:

1. For the time being, avoid any books, movies, and television that depict things that could upset or scare your child.

2. Provide your child with an extra light source such as a nightlight. A nightlight will help your little one see their surroundings (and realize that there are no monsters lurking about) - whether they're trying to fall asleep or are suddenly woken up by a frightening dream.

3. Give your child some sort of talisman - something that makes them feel safe and protected. A favorite stuffed animal can help stand guard and protect them while they're sleeping.

4. Create a cozy and fun bedtime routine that makes going to bed more enjoyable. Have a fun bubble bath, read some sweet stories, and sing some soothing songs. Routine provides comfort.

5. Most importantly, always acknowledge your child's fear. Although you think it might be helpful to tell them that there's nothing to be scared of, this can feel unsupportive to a toddler. Their fears are very real. Share some stories of how you used to have nightmares or fears of the dark when you were a child. Tell them that you completely understand their fears - that the dark can be a scary place. And don't forget that all important "monster check" before bed. Checking under the bed together can go a long way!

And if you're looking for the friends at Juno Baby to help your little one through the night, feel free to check out Way to Go, Juno (http://www.junobaby.com/product.php?catid=8). Filled with phobia-facing fun, Way to Go, Juno is designed to help toddlers and infants deal with some common fears and concerns.




Belinda Takahashi, Ph.D. is a mother, an award-winning composer, educator, and co-founder of the children's media company, Juno Baby (http://www.junobaby.com) and writer for the Juno Baby Blog (http://www.junobaby.typepad.com). Originally from New York City, she now resides in the San Francisco Bay Area.





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Why Do So Many Women Suffer from Heart Disease?


Heart disease is the number one killer of Americans and it is befitting considering the health of the heart, on many levels. Most people really do have good hearts, mainly women, but many hearts or heart centers have shut down and hurt is the number one reason for this. Many a women's heart is damaged, i.e. "a broken heart" or "broken-hearted." Usually some man or male caused the damage. When you shut the heart down in an attempt to protect yourself from hurt, this emotional constriction results in a physical constriction (of the blood vessels in the heart), i.e., poor blood pressure (or high blood pressure). High blood pressure means the blood pressure is high due to constriction of the blood vessels so the heart has to work faster and harder to get blood to flow. This activity taxes the heart.

Now when you harden up your heart emotionally speaking, you have just spun into effect the physical manifestation of hardening up your arteries (that are connected to your heart), hence, arteriosclerosis. Arteriosclerosis is a medical condition or pathology that basically means "hardening of the arteries", from the Greek word arteria meaning "arteries" and Sklerosis meaning "hardening." Mosby's Medical Dictionary, 3rd ed., pg. 94

In addition, hardening up the heart makes the heart heavy, i.e., a "heavy heart."

Many women suffer from angina pectoris, a stinging pain in the heart. When your heart has been pained or hurt, emotionally speaking, the emotional hurt or pain stores in the tissues of the heart and can manifest as physical heart pain that doctors call angina.

Metaphysically speaking, the heart is the seat of our true inner-self, the doorway of spiritual illumination, the center through which we express our capacity for deep feeling, nurturing, unconditional love, affection, forgiveness, compassion and sensitivity for oneself, others, and life. Our fears of being hurt, insecurity, feeling unloved, broken-hearted, arrogance, insensitivity, intolerance, misplaced affections and desires; long-held hurt, bitterness, anger, hostility, rage, excessive anxiety and stress, heavy-heartedness, resentment, and lack of forgiveness can block the flow of vitality in the heart area.

There a lot of unhealthy hearts in America, a lot of hurt, injured and damaged hearts. But believe it or not, hurt is actually good for the heart because you can't know love without knowing pain/hurt. Pain causes the heart to evolve, to blossom. Pain also leads to hate in many women. While hate is detrimental to the body, however, it is simply one extreme of the polarity. Hate and love are the same thing in nature or essence, simply differing in degrees, just like ice and steam, both of which are water but differing at degrees (or temperature). That's why there's such a thin line between love and hate, because they are in essence the same thing. Duality exists in all things. This is Universal Law!

Love is the best elixir for a healthy heart and the best mendicant for a broken heart. Like John Travolta's character in the movie "Michael" was singing in the backseat of the car: "All you need is love!"

Formula of the month: JOINT FORMULA

Our Joints Formula will help provide relief to any joint condition or problem, i.e. arthritis, rheumatism, rheumatoid arthritis, tendonitis, and carpal tunnel syndrome. Joint problems are usually inflammatory in nature. Acidosis causes inflammation. The acidic byproducts from meat consumption, dairy, and complex starch/carbohydrate consumption are the biggest culprits in inflammatory joint conditions/problems.

People with joint problems should greatly modify their diet and incorporate more green foods which are alkaline and which neutralize acidosis, start drinking cherry juice concentrate, drinking more water (to flush the body, mainly the joints), and start bathing in sea salt and essential oils of Eucalyptus and Peppermint.

Our Joint Formula contains the best anti-inflammatory herbs available today - Boswellia, Devil's Claw, Meadowsweet, Uva Ursi, Mullein, Guaiac, and Safflower. To order, visit our Shopping Cart.

FOOD FACTS and TRIVIA:

Why are commercial brand chicken eggs white? ANSWER: because they are sterile. Chicken eggs are naturally brown. Chickens are not farm raised today. They are caged in cages located in buildings with synthetic lighting that fool the chickens and makes them produce eggs throughout the day, which greatly taxes the chickens.

Spiritual Facets

"Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat; Because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." MATTHEW 7:13-14

The Peacock's Complaint A peacock was discontented with his ugly voice, and he went to the goddess Juno to complain about it. "It's true that you cannot sing," said the goddess, "but your great beauty more than makes up for it." But the peacock was not to be consoled. "What is the use of beauty," he asked, "with a voice like mine?" Now Juno grew impatient. "Each has his destined gift: you have beauty, the eagle strength, the nightingale song. Yet you alone are dissatisfied. Complain no more, If your present wish were granted, you would only find some other grievance. MORAL: Instead of envying the gifts of others, make the most of your own.

"If we would have the Creator hear us when we pray, we must listen when the Creator speaks.' - Thomas Benton Brooks

"You can't keep a good man down without staying down with him." - Booker T. Washington

"Cross the river, before insulting the crocodile." - African proverb

"None are so hopelessly enslaved as those who falsely believe they are free." Johann W. Goethe (German Poet, 1749-1832)








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2012年4月19日 星期四

Portal 2


Release Date; April 19, 2011
Publisher: Valve
ESRB Rating: Everyone

The original Portal was a complete surprise to the gaming market when it was released in 2007. Presented in a manner similar to developer Valve's Half-Life series, Portal was a genre-bending first-person experience that was lauded for its creativity and originality. The game's short length, however, left fans begging for more. Fortunately, the development team had plenty of ideas to implement in the world of Portal, enough for a full stand-alone sequel. Portal 2 has everything that made the original so engaging, but has been refined and expanded upon-in other words, exactly what a sequel should be.

In the first game, the player-controlled Chell, is a test subject in Aperture Laboratories. Her main tool for completing obstacle-based tests was a gun that shot portals, through which the character and other objects could traverse. At the end of the testing, Chell was forced to escape a fiery death at the hands of GLaDos, the AI in control of the entire facility. She ultimately destroys GLaDos and the game ends. Portal 2 begins with Chell waking up in a test subject's dormitory hundreds, or possibly thousands, of years into the future. The now-crumbling facility is overrun with vegetation, and Chell must once again navigate her way through the complex to escape. Things become drastically worse when GLaDos is found and accidentally brought back to life and attempts to make Chell endure another series of life-endangering tests.

Fans of the original should know that the brilliant dark humor of the first game is brought back, only amped up to stomach-hurting levels. In fact, Portal 2 features some of the funniest moments and best writing of any video game previously released. In comparison, almost every other game on the market seems shallow and as if the dialogue was written and tacked on at the very last moment. The jokes and commentary are so rapid fire that it makes it almost impossible to catch all of them, similar to an episode of Arrested Development or Monty Python's Flying Circus. Of course, good writing is nothing without good delivery, and the developers definitely did not skimp on acquiring incredible voice actors. Ellen McLain returns as the voice of GLaDos, while British comedian Stephen Merchant (The Office, Extras) takes the role of the loveable robot Wheatley, and J.K. Simmons (Juno, Up in the Air) voices Aperture's CEO Cave Johnson.

While the writing and voice acting are achievements of their own, Valve is a company known for excellent, innovative gameplay, and the story is no different here. Portal 2 doesn't reinvent the gameplay of the first game by any means, but that isn't a bad thing. The first Portal presented such a fun, original way of solving puzzles and exploring a game world that it would have been a mistake to scrap the gameplay mechanics. Instead, the sequel expands on the idea of using portals to avoid obstacles and complete tasks by making larger, more complex stages and adding new physics-based elements. These include lasers, bridges made of light, and gels that propel the player across the level, all of which are manipulated by the player's one and only tool. The idea of only giving the player one device (the portal-gun), and no weapons was a radical idea in the first game. How the developers used that limitation to create an experience with endless possibilities, even more so in Portal 2, is simply incredible.

Valve noticed this too, which is why they created a cooperative multiplayer experience in Portal 2 which is every bit as complex and fun as the single player. Two players play the levels, each as a robot, and must complete portal-based tests together. While the single player campaign isn't the longest game you'll play this year (about 10 hours) there is so much content and replay-ability between it and the co-op that it is easily worth the price of admission.

Portal 2 is a game that almost anyone can, and should, get in to. It features some of the prettiest, smartest and most innovative gameplay of any recent game interwoven beautifully with fantastic, hilarious writing. Play the single player, play the co-op with a friend, and have an awesome, hilarious time. You will not regret it.




If you want more great reviews, visit www.slackers.com!





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Rome Centre - The Home of Christianity


For centuries, Rome has been the site for pilgrimages. From the doorway of many a hotel, Rome centre has been a starting place for providing Christians with a way to discover, or rediscover, the history and reality of the Catholic Church.

Early Christian

Abandon your hotel - Rome centre is the start of your journey to the past, when Christianity was at its earliest stages. The Catacombs are cemeteries constructed underground by ancient specialists- the fossores or gravediggers. They carved the walls of dirt and stone creating gallery after gallery for the dead.

The most famous catacombs date from the 2nd century. To reach them, you will have to travel beyond your hotel in Rome centre, along the former consular roads to the former suburbs of their time. Currently, you can visit any or all five of the following Catacombs:

1. The catacombs of St. Agnes, Via Nomentana

2. The catacombs of Priscilla, via Salaria

3. The catacombs of Domitilla, via delle Sette Chiese

4. The catacombs of St. Sebastian, via Appia Antica

5. The catacombs of St. Callixtus, Via Appia Antica

While it may seem slightly ghoulish to visit the Catacombs, it does give you a chance understand early death and burial customs - especially noting the funerary paintings on the walls.

From Temples to Churches

The survival of many an ancient pagan Roman temple has depended on its conversion into a Christian Church. You can find examples throughout the city where the early religious buildings were taken over by the newer form of religion. Put on comfortable shoes, even though you may be taking a taxi, and leave behind your hotel. Rome centre is a significant part of this history.

Your expedition should firstly take you to the Forum. Here stands the former Temple of Romulus. It became the vestibule of the Church of Santi Cosma e Damiano sometime in the 6th century. This semi-circular brick temple is topped by a cupola with other points of interest being the concave porch and two original heavy, bronze doors. The church also occupies a former hall of Vespasian's Forum of Peace. Visit to see the 18th century carved figures making up the Nativity scene.

The Pantheon was designed by Emperor Hadrian to celebrate the pantheon - the collective name of the Roman Gods. Its noted feature was its magnificent dome. Hollow decorative coffering helped to decrease the overall weight of the dome. This made the entire structure more stable with the help of the structurally embedded brick arches. The dome features an oculus - an eye or hole in the centre. It is the only source of light to this remarkable and beautiful building. Of particular beauty is the marble floor with its restored Roman pattern.

Many people come here to pay homage to the artist, Raphael who is entombed within, some to admire the architecture, and others to see the tombs of Italy's former kings.

Santa Nicola in Carcere is a small medieval church in the Campo de' Fiore. It stands on the sites of three Roman temples: Juno, Spes and Janus. Inside, several columns are integrated into the walls and testify as to the origins of this church. The Roman columns and an early bell tower are points of interest.

San Clemente, with architectural elements from the 4th century, is one of the earliest Christian churches. Beneath it, however, lie the ruins of several ancient Roman buildings, including a temple dedicated to the all-male cult of Mithras. Several frescoes illustrating his life are of interest.

Rome also has many early Christian churches. Not all were built on the foundations of pagan temples. Among them are Santa Pudenziana, with its extraordinary 4th century mosaic, and San Cecilia in Trastevere,with an altar canopy by Arnolfo di Cambio. Beneath San Cecilia is another Roman ruin worth visiting - the ruins, not of a temple, but of a Roman tannery.

All these historic sights are well within easy reach of your hotel - Rome centre and her history await!




Looking for a hotel Rome centre? Roberta Stuart is the Travel Manager for World Hotels, a company offering the best rooms at a Rome centre hotel and a selection of unique and four and five star hotels around the world.





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2012年4月18日 星期三

Sweden & Norway - Scandinavian Highlights For a Real Holiday


From the magical northern lights that dance in the sky above the wilds of the north, to the thousands of small, uninhabited islands in the south, now is the time to seek out the "real" Scandinavia.

The variety of accommodation, away from bland corporate hotels and international chains, is fascinating. Accommodation is available in chic, boutique city centre hotels, traditional fishermen's cottages (rorbu) and elegant manor houses

As a "must" in Sweden, you can visit Stockholm and its archipelago of over 24,000 islands. You can tour Oslo in Norway with its wealth of museums and parkland. Join the locals in one of the many waterfront restaurants and sample mouthwatering delicacies - oysters, crayfish, cod, salmon, reindeer, kottbuller (meat balls) to name but a few.

In summer, you have the Sweden's hundreds of miles of beaches to choose your ideal spot. Particularly fine are those on the west coast, where there were 96,000 lakes at the last count!. There are many waterskiing and windsurfing centres on the coast and lakes, ideal hunting ground for those looking for activity and exercise, and to indulge their passion for the water.

Also available to the active sportsperson, there are superb facilities around the country for skating, tobogganing, snowmobiling, ice climbing and even dog sled driving/riding.

A host of nature based activities are available. This includes hiking, canoeing, bird watching, midnight sun cruises and crayfish, lobster and oyster safaris in the summer months. In the winter, in addition to the husky dog sledding, snowmobile tours and ice fishing, there is also the fantastic spectacle of the and northern lights.

Sweden also has over 400 golf courses: and there is even one north of the Arctic Circle enjoys with 24-hour daylight during the summer months, for those who simply cannot get enough golf in their lives!

Or how about a cruise along the Norwegian coastline onboard Hurtigruten cruise lines, or a trip sailing along the 190km Gota Canal onboard the M/S Juno, the oldest steam passenger boat in the world.

Between the main cities there are sparsely populated wildernesses with - for example - Jostedalsbreen, Europe's largest glacier. In these regions, outdoor activities including skiing, fishing and rock-climbing hold sway. Anyone who comes here will simply marvel at the stunning beauty of the Norwegian countryside, with its multitude of steep-sided valleys, high mountain lakes and breathtaking vistas..

Meanwhile, a 'right of access' to the countryside in Sweden and Norway opens up this diverse natural landscape: pristine wilderness areas, imposing mountain ranges, meandering rivers, fjords and glaciers and peaceful archipelagoes - all there just waiting for the visitor to enjoy.

Whether you are looking for a short city holiday in Sweden or a trip to Norway, a relaxing week doing nothing or a multi-centre activity holiday - the 'real' Scandinavia is the place for you! And with cheap flights from the UK and Europe in plentiful supply, this is the time to go.




Country Connect editor Penny Church, writes for the map-based holiday destination and flight finder Travelwhere. With Country Connect, you can find cheap flights to Scandinavia. On Travelwhere you can access a wealth of additional information - including the package holiday brochures of specialist tour operators to Scandinavia.





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Women of the Gold Rush Era Not Told to Stay Home


Okay, you males out there - listen up, because it's way time for you folks to get a clue. I don't know where the mid to late 1900's male idea that women are helpless came from, but it is quarter past high time for you all to get over it. Women do not have the raw body strength ounce per ounce that a man has, we aren't going to argue that. If I had an acre of land to plow I would undeniably hire a man over a woman any day. Where the idea that I am helpless follows from that, is such a quantum leap of logic that it can't realistically be given any credence.

I'm going to cut you just a bit of slack, and blame it on the fact that life in America has become

so cush that men just don't really much get the chance to see what a Woman can accomplish

when put to the test. Did I forget to mention in the last paragraph, that if there was no one I could

hire, I would get it done on my own.

I am a woman. I am a rockhound. As a rockhound, I travel to places out in the wilds to collect

my treasures. I do this with no company other than my dog most of the time. It is relaxing and

keeps me mentally sharp, physically fit, and well entertained. Unfortunately, I continually get

slammed by men who feel this is wrong for me to do. It is dangerous. I am too old. The car

might break down. I might get lost. Anything could happen. And the one that really gets under

my skin - I belong at home unless I am working or running errands. These are seriously

attitudes that I am faced with frequently.

One February I was stranded in the Ochoco Mountains. Temperatures were in the single digits

at night. It took me 4 days to get out. When I hit the main road, I flagged a car to get a ride to

town. My dog and I were a bit dirty, but didn't feel any too bad. The same day that I walked out

onto the main road, a man was being dragged off of Mt Hood in a stretcher. He had been out the

same amount of time I had been. He didn't fare so well. Guess no one ever taught him to climb a

tree to get dry wood to get a fire going. He wasn't a smoker, so he probably "just forgot" his

lighter, too. The press did it up real well. I was never contacted to talk to the media - guess it

might have made the guy look bad, or just wasn't exciting without a major rescue involved.

When I got to town I called my boss. He fired me without even asking if I was alright. He

simply pointed out that I had no business going off by myself. Not even on a day off. To this day I

firmly believe that had I been a male, my prowess at getting out of the situation in one piece would

have been highly applauded. Would a man have been told that they had no business leaving the

house on a day off?

Another man asked me if I had "learned my lesson" meaning did I know now my place was in

the home. I quickly pointed out that yes I had. I learned that for a 44 year old woman I was still

pretty buff. I also learned that I can still build a campfire that would make an Indian cry from

jealousy. Oh, and that crayfish and fish are really easy to catch when the water gets cold enough.

The truth is that throughout the history of this nation, women have proved to be able to handle

any conditions a man can, handle any crisis a man can, and even excel financially in even the

roughest of environments. Some of them can do this better than the very man who might have

told them that their place is in the home.

Mining towns and camps were not the easiest places to live. Just getting to some of those

towns in those days was often a life threatening journey. Women were just as likely to survive

the trip as the men were. The towns themselves were often built to be temporary and were

nothing more than tents or cabins with dirt floors at best. Winters were bitter, food often scarce

when weather would not permit supply wagons through. But there were women in these camps.

Surprisingly, many were making more money than the miners.

Once in the camps, women proved to be very enterprising, very necessary, and very well able

to handle the conditions. They set up businesses washing miner's clothing, cleaning, and much

money was made by good cooks.

One miner's wife, Mrs. C.J. Everson of Empire, Colorado made her fortune when she

discovered and patented a new means of concentrating metals by pouring pulverized ore in a

solution of water and an oily substance and agitating it. In the early 1880's the new method of

concentrating allowed many local mines to double and triple their production of gold and silver.

Bet none of the miners ever told her that she should not be there.

Of course there were women, also, that went into the field of mining themselves. I can't

imagine a man being so pig-headed or insipid to have ever told Nellie Cashman that she had no

business out there in the rough, that she was too frail, or not smart enough to handle the rough

environment.

Nellie was born in Ireland in 1845 and her family came to America during the potato famine. In

1872 she and her mother moved to the Pioche, Nevada mining camp area and opened a

boarding house there. Pretty rough country for a couple of women on their own, one an aged

woman at that.

Nellie moved on a few years later on her own to the Cassiar district of British Columbia, close

to where Juno now stands, where she operated a boarding house and started to actually to do

some placer mining of her own.

It was here she claimed the title "Angel of Mercy". Nellie was in the Victoria area when she

heard that her fellow miners at Cassiar were hit by an extremely violent blizzard. No one could get

through. Supplies were running out. People were sick. There wasn't much time to lose in saving

her friends. How could she get through? Not one man who had tried had succeeded.

No one remembered to tell Nellie that her place was in the home. She gathered supplies,

dogs and sleds, hired a few hands, and was off to the rescue. No one could make it through. But

Nellie did.

Her ability to get through the snow that no one else could get through, bringing life saving

medicines and supplies to the camp made her famous. No one told Nellie that she had no

business out there - that she wasn't capable or that something might happen to her, or that she

didn't belong out there. The miners were damned grateful that she had the grit to go - they

thought of her as a hero. She had saved them from miserable deaths. She had accomplished

what no man had been able to do.

Nellie continued to work boarding homes and hotels in mining districts. She also became quite

knowledgeable about mining geology and worked and owned several claims. She made much

money and gave much of it to hospitals and churches. In 1905, at the age of 60, Nellie moved to

Nolan Creek in Koyukuk country, the northern most mining area at the time, and a more than

harsh environment. Nellie spent the last twenty years of her life there, working and purchasing

claims which she worked with her own hands and the help of a few paid assistants.

At the age of 79 she finally gave up tending her mines and claims when her health began to

fade and worked her way south to receive care at Sister's of St. Ann in Victoria - a hospital that

she had contributed much funding for forty years earlier. She died there in January of 1925, at the

age of 80.

Okay, sure, that is one woman, but there were others. Need more convincing?

Caroline Moorehouse Mallin, born in Ohio in 1829, was widowed with 2 children. She became

an extremely successful miner in the Buena Vista area of Colorado. She worked extremely

dangerous avalanche areas at high altitudes, and had 15 mines recorded in her name. Caroline

worked these claims by herself.

The work was not easy. Caroline did her own mining work - shored up her mines with timbers,

drilled and blasted, and even hauled the ores all by her little self. At home life was no easier. She

had to haul water almost a mile, and had to go down the mountain and haul supplies back. After

all she had two children to care for on her own. When the end of the miner's day had come and

the men started their journey's home to sit and rest after a hard day, Caroline got to go to her

second job - her home and family. Someone forgot to tell her that this kind of life was too hard for

a woman, or that she might become lost if she ventured from home on her own for supplies.

Olga Schaaf is another woman who just missed the fact that the wilderness is no place for a

woman. Olga started breaking horses for pay at the age of fourteen. At twenty-six she married a

mine owner and worked for him taking pack trains of Burros up the mountains to deliver supplies

to miners who had no means to get supplies in winter. Olga became famous when stranded at a

mine during a snowstorm, she was able to save the lives of the miners (and incidentally her own),

leading them out and down the mountain she knew so well to safety and supplies. None of the

miners receiving Olga's delivered supplies, nor those that she rescued from the mine told her that

a woman needed to stay home because something might happen to her if she left the house on

her own.

Mollie Kathleen Gortner had a different reason for going to mining country - Cripple Creek,

Colorado. She went to visit her son. While there she was looking for a herd of elk her son had

told her about when she accidentally found gold, a find that started her own mining career. Her son

staked her first claim for her, but the Manager at the claims office told her women couldn't file

claims. By the time she left the office, however, she was the proud owner of the soon to be

famous Mollie Kathleen mine. Guess someone forgot to tell her that it was too rough for a woman

out there.

Doctor Susan Anderson (Doc Susie) of Fort Wayne, Indiana moved to the mountains for her

health after finding out she had tuberculosis. She went from Cripple Creek to Denver and on to

Greeley finding little acceptance in these towns for women doctors. She moved back up to the

Mountains of Fraser, Colorado when her illness worsened. She did not tell the people there that

she was a doctor, but word eventually leaked out despite. Doc Suzie ended up with many patients

and was known to travel to very remote places in very difficult weather to treat them. The sick and

injured miners she treated seem to have forgotten to mention that being a woman she was likely

to become lost if she ventured out into the mountains on her own.

Now if these stories aren't convincing, all you need to do is troll through the histories of the

myriad of mining areas during the gold rush era. Women played a major part of these histories.

They not only supplied the services that miner's needed, but many were miners themselves,

working all day just to return home to care for their families and friends. The men in these camps

and towns did not tell the women to stay home. They did not admonish them for going into

environments that were hostile or outright dangerous, or where life was hard. Sure bad things

could happen - but they could, and did, happen to men, too. ( Hmmn. No one ever told a man he

should have stayed home if something happened to him while he was out). Men knew they

needed these women, and were grateful that the gals could handle it out there so well. Life would

have been much rougher without them.

All in all, where men came up with the idea that women are helpless is really unclear. Do they

tell us not to go places because they are afraid that THEY couldn't handle it and would have their

egos severely bruised if a woman could handle something the man could not? Or are they just so

selfish that they think that a woman who is to have a man in her life is to completely give up her

life to be available 24/7 to serve his needs because a man can't take care of himself without a

servant for a day or two, or just don't want to have to do anything for themselves? Perhaps they

are worried about the poor little fragile thing like a woman (funny they don't worry about protecting

her from children's vomit and diarrhea or blood, terrible working conditions, or just plain over

work).

Now in light of what you just learned, you can see that women just see your protests as silly,

juvenile attempts to control another person's life for your own selfish wants. For those of you who

kiss your women goodbye even though there is danger where she chooses to go, you are to be

commended for your rationality. The rest of you need to get a clue, grow up, and learn to take

care of yourself a little bit without the continual need of a "mommy" to do it for you. We really

don't need your guidance to decide how we want to live our lives or what is best for us.

Now that I have unloaded and have spoken my mind, I need to get out of here. There is a

mountain that I want to go check out. If you have a problem with that, don't bother emailing me. I

am not receptive to your childish and tyrannical whims. You may feel free to call 1-800-waahh

with your complaints anytime, though. Maybe the man that answers the phone will be more

understanding.




c 2007 Sally Taylor:
You don't have to be Indiana Jones to find gemstones and fossils or prospect for gold and artifacts. Come on over to http://www.rockhoundstation1.com and learn how easy it is to turn those dull weekends into a life of adventure.





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