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The Magistrate's Blog (2005-2012)

This blog has migrated to www.magistratesblog.blogspot.co.uk This blog is anonymous, and Bystander's views are his and his alone. Where his views differ from the letter of the law, he will enforce the letter of the law because that is what he has sworn to do. If you think that you can identify a particular case from one of the posts you are wrong. Enough facts are changed to preserve the truth of the tale but to disguise its exact source.

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Location: Near London, United Kingdom

The blog is written by a team, who may or may not be JPs, but all of whom are interested in the Magistrates' Courts.

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Shortest Ever Programme?

It's late. I am wearily scanning the hundreds of channels on my telly, more in hope than expectation, while Madame Bystander, who is feeling poorly, gets off to sleep.

"The Best of Top Gear" comes up.

Isn't that a bit like "Fifty Fun Moments in The Dentist's Chair?"

Y'a-t-il quelq'un la qui parle Francais?

The excellent blog by Eolas is one that I try to follow regularly (he even has a Droit Etranger bit that mentions this blog) although a mixture of colloquial and legal French often has me struggling, but a point arises from a recent post. Eolas writes of 'blogs' and 'blogues'. Are they the same thing? Aidez-moi, Francophones!

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Anger Non-Management

I sat on a trial last week that was quite fascinating as a study of the petty hatreds and paranoia that can be found in neat and expensive suburban streets. Unfortunately I can't say too much about it without running the risk of the case being identifiable, but there were wild allegations of unacceptable conduct involving gardening techniques, and totally unsupported claims of attempted mayhem. Unfortunately we are not allowed to knock parties' heads together. We threw the case out though, since the evidence was desperately thin. I do wish that people would not make criminal allegations in an attempt to settle what is essentially a civil matter.

Sneaking Suspicion

The continuing furore over prisons has led me to suspect, just ever-so-slightly, that one or two of Her Majesty's judges have been playing the game a bit. If you want to excite the tabloids, take a paedophile's sentence down a notch (or just say that's what you are doing) and Fleet Street's finest will rage with kneejerk condemnation - but not of you. The target will be elsewhere.

The judiciary at all levels has suffered almost a decade of criticism, veiled and not-so-veiled threats, and attempts to fetter its discretion. Unsurprisingly quite a few people have had enough and we may well see more carefully worded judgements that have a subtext of making the Home Secretary and his minions look stupid.

The contempt that has been shown to the judiciary means that politicians have taken on a powerful and articulate body who are a great deal harder to sack than any minister. Where I grew up, that's called leading with your chin.

Well, What Would You Give Him?

The Sun report speaks for itself. Assuming that the driver is charged with Dangerous Driving, possibly TWOC, and No Insurance, what would you give him?

(EDITED) Whoever gets to hear the case will turn to his trusty Bench Book (link on sidebar) and head to page 162 of the pdf.

Sunday, January 28, 2007

Have Your Say

The Sentencing guidelines Council has a consultation going on about the treatment of drivers who cause death. The consultation is open until April. I shall reply, and I hope that some of you will as well.

Saturday, January 27, 2007

I have just done a live telephone interview on Radio Five Live about the prisons crisis. I was happy to do it, but slightly alarmed to find that the other interviewee was Lord Scott, a Law Lord, no less. The BBC allowed me to call myself John, so perhaps I won't be hunted down!

Another Quote

To all judicial office-holders:

Message sent on behalf of the Lord Chief Justice

"You will have seen reported the proposals to split the Home Office and create a Ministry of Justice, and you may have seen the Lord Chancellor discussing them on the BBC's Sunday AM programme. I have myself discussed this proposal with the Lord Chancellor and with the Home Secretary.

They have explained that there is important work to be done on the detail before any final decision is taken, and there will be need for further discussion with the Cabinet Office and other parts of Government.

The proposal has important implications for the administration of justice and I shall make sure that the impact on, and the views of, the judiciary receive proper consideration, and, to this end, discuss the proposal with representatives of all levels of the judiciary when further details are available."

Phillips CJ

Friday, January 26, 2007

Patronising Sod

There is a patronising sod who was recently quoted thus:-
He said he had written to the judiciary because home secretaries had to remind them of sentencing guidelines "from time to time".

Most judges are appointed in their forties and fifties after at least two decades practising law. The gentleman who made the above comment has held his office for about twelve months. That is why judges spend quite a lot of time trying, and often failing, to remind successive Home Secretaries of the basics of English law.

A Bit of Seasonal Fun Updated

I put this on the blog in December. I have now added the answers from the January edition of Benchmark:-

"In the current issue of Benchmark, a newsletter published for the judiciary, there is a Christmas quiz set by Jim Wood, Regional Chairman of the Social Security and Child Support Appeal Tribunal".

So who said this? :-
1. If it falls to me to start a fight to cut out the cancer of bent and twisted journalism in our country with the simple sword of truth and the trusty shield of British fair play, so be it.
Jonathan Aitken
2. A long time ago came a man on a track
Walking thirty miles with a pack on his back/And he put down his load where he thought it was the best/Made a home in the wilderness/He built a cabin and a winter store/And he ploughed up the ground by the cold lake shore/And the other travellers came riding down the track/And they never went further, no, they never went back/Then came the churches then came the schools/Then came the lawyers then came the rules
Dire Straits, Telegraph Road
3. To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice.
Magna Carta, clause 40.
4. The law in its majestic equality forbids rich and poor alike from sleeping under bridges, from begging in the streets, and from stealing bread.
Anatole France, The Red Lily
5. We shouldn’t have all these campaigns to get the (Birmingham six) released if they’d been hanged. They’d have been forgotten and the whole community would be satisfied.
Lord Denning, writing in the Spectator, August 1990
6. In this country, it is thought well to shoot an admiral from time to time to encourage the others.
Voltaire, Candide
7. I never saw a man who looked
With such a wistful eye
Upon that little tent of blue,
That prisoners call the sky.
Oscar Wilde, Ballad of Reading Gaol
8. Who breaks a butterfly on a wheel?
W. Rees-Mogg, 1st June 1967, on the prosecution of Mick Jagger for the possession of cannabis.
9. If the sons of company directors, and judges’ fine and private daughters, had to go to school in a slum school, dumped by some joker in a damp back alley.../Buttons would be pressed, rules would be broken/ Strings would be pulled /and magic words spoken/Invisible fingers would mould palaces of gold.
Leon Rossellson, Palaces of Gold
10. Put on your high-heel sneakers, child/Wear your wig-hat on your head now/Put on your high-heel sneakers, baby/Wear your wig-hat on your head/Ya know you’re looking mighty good, really/I’m pretty sure you’re gonna knock ‘em dead
Tommy Tucker, High-Heel Sneakers
11. Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made.
Otto von Bismarck
12. If this is justice, I am a banana.
Ian Hislop, on an award of £600,000 libel damages to Sonia Sutcliffe, against Private Eye, May 1989.
13. ‘To my mind,’ observed the Chairman of the Bench of Magistrates cheerfully, ‘the only difficulty that presents itself in this otherwise very clear case is, how we can possibly make it sufficiently hot for the incorrigible rogue and hardened ruffian whom we see cowering in the dock before us. Let me see: he has been found guilty, on the clearest evidence, first, of stealing a valuable motor-car; secondly, of driving to the public danger; and, thirdly, of gross impertinence to the rural police. Mr. Clerk, will you tell us, please, what is the very stiffest penalty we can impose for each of these offences? Without, of course, giving the prisoner the benefit of any doubt, because there isn’t any.’
Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows
14. Judge every dispute fairly whether it concerns only your own people or involves foreigners who live among you. Show no partiality in your decisions, judge everyone on the same basis no matter who he is.
Deuteronomy Chapter 1, v.16
15. No, no! – sentence first, verdict afterwards.
Lewis Carroll, the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland
16. “Ask yourselves the question: would you approve of your young sons, young daughters – because girls can read as well as boys – reading this book. Is it a book that you would have lying around the house? Is it a book you would wish your wife or servant to read?”
Mervyn Griffith-Jones, prosecuting counsel, R v. Penguin Books Ltd (the Lady Chatterley case).

No. 13 is my favourite. they don't make 'em like that any more!

Statement from the Criminal Justice Ministers to the National Criminal Justice Board

23 January 2007

Managing the Impact of Rapid Growth in the Prison Population

The prison population is currently running very close to capacity with prisoners having to be held in police stations and even, on one night, in court cells. Last night around 480 prisoners were locked out in police cells.

The growth in the prison population is a post-war trend which accelerated in the 1990s. A good deal has changed since then. Although the total number of prison places has risen by 19,700 since 1997, changes in legislation, sentencing guidance, improved detection and conviction rates and longer term trends in sentencing practice have combined such that demand for prison places has consistently outpaced supply. In addition, in recent months the trends have become harder to predict – the latest Christmas drop in the prison population was unexpectedly shallower than in previous years.

The growth of the prison population is a problem which affects the whole of the criminal justice system.

The essential sentencing principles are set out in legislation:

Custodial sentences should be reserved for serious, persistent and violent offenders
Where appropriate one or other alternatives to custody should be used
Pre-trial remands in custody should be limited to cases identified in the Bail Act 1976 and, in particular, cases where there is a risk of non-attendance, committing further offences or intimidating witnesses
The Government has taken action to increase capacity. The Home Secretary announced plans for an extra 8,000 prison places last July. These are already starting to come on stream with nearly 1,000 extra places added since May 2006.

The Government announced last summer a range of actions in “Delivering Simple, Speedy, Summary Justice” to speed up the trial process, reduce the number of adjournments, and bring trials on faster. Various pilots are showing it is possible to make a significant reduction in the number of hearings in Magistrates Courts. CJSSS improvements will not only improve timeliness and increase confidence in CJS, they can also reduce the amount of time which defendants spend on remand.

The Government supports alternatives to custody for non-serious, non-violent and non-persistent offenders – criminal justice legislation offers a wide range of tough non-custodial sentences. Through the Judicial Studies Board and Sentencing Guidelines Council sentencers are provided with up to date information about use of non-custodial sentences.

The roll out of video link technology has been an important technical innovation for the CJS. Greater use and availability of video links will reduce the need to transfer prisoners to court and reduce delays in hearings.

The Government is working to increase public confidence in community sentences – the range of punitive and restorative conditions which can be imposed by way of community sentences has increased significantly in recent years. Ministers and the Criminal Justice Agencies have a responsibility to ensure that local communities understand how community penalties can contribute to the delivery of justice.

There will be greater sharing of information about police and other operations which could impact on the prison population. Knowledge of the timing of these operations can help CJS agencies to plan capacity more effectively.

The enforcement and collection of fines has considerably increased, from 69% of fines in 2003 to a current payment rate of 94%. Fear of lack of enforcement should not be a reason for not fining.

Prosecutors are under a duty to ensure that sentencers are fully informed of the relevant statutory provisions.

The National Criminal Justice Board is inviting LCJBs to ask chief officers to advise on the impact locally of trends in prison and non-custodial disposals and report back to their NCJB sponsor ahead of the next NCJB meeting in March.

We note a number of features of recent decisions of the Court of Appeal Criminal Division and welcome the Senior Presiding Judge’s recent letter to the judiciary underlining:

The possible use of tagging on bail as an alternative to remand in custody. Greater use could reduce the numbers that have to be remanded in custody
Use of stand-down reports. Greater use of “stand down” reports enabling the defendant to be dealt with on the day, could avoid unnecessary remands in custody pending the report. Over 40% of defendants remanded in custody for a pre-sentence report do not receive a custodial sentence

There is an application to vacate a trial, due to take place next week. The date was fixed six weeks ago. The principal police witness has broken his leg. I am very sorry for the officer, but since when has a broken leg prevented anyone from speaking in court? We have disabled access, a wheelchair if required, and we can allow the officer to give evidence while seated. I give the prosecutor a hard time, but we are boxed in and we have to vacate the date because it is too late to contact the officer and get him in.
Net result:- three magistrates, a legal adviser, an usher, witness support volunteers, the defendant the victim and the other witnesses are all no longer needed. It's too late to allocate anything else to the vacant slot. An expensive courtroom will stand empty, while other cases are waiting in the queue for trial. It will take weeks or months to rearrange the cancelled trial. Justice is delayed, and the court will probably be blamed. It's unacceptable, and I am very cross.

Modern Times

A number of issues came together this week in the unlovely shape of Robert, a long-time alcoholic who is sometimes to be seen lurching his bleary-eyed way around my patch. He had been arrested for the seventh time for breaching his ASBO, the order forbidding him to be drunk anywhere in the Borough. He is drunk all day, every day so he is effectively under house arrest. Another difficulty that was not considered by those who drafted and those who granted the ASBO is that his home is in the Borough, so technically he is in breach when drunk in his own home. He had been arrested at 9.30 am, since he doesn't subscribe to the nonsense about waiting until the sun is over the yardarm, and was brought before us in the afternoon. We could not deal with the case, since he had no legal aid, and other things had to be sorted out. The CPS, following their rule book rigidly, opposed bail and asked for a remand in custody. The duty solicitor got to his feet and said that Robert could stay in a house in the neighbouring borough, which got round the fear of committing further offences because he was only banned from being drunk in this borough and no other. He pointed out that so far Robert has served almost eighteen months in prison for breaching his ASBO, which is more than some serious offenders get, and he has never done more than succumb to his addiction, although he can admittedly be a nuisance when he starts shouting at people. We bailed him for a week. When he comes back he faces either another prison sentence of up to six months or committal to the Crown Court where a judge can give him up to five years.
So we have a prison crisis (yes, I too have had the letter from senior judges) in which a sex offender was not imprisoned due in part to the lack of prison space, while we incarcerate a hopeless drunk who is no more than a damned nuisance at worst, and spend thousands of pounds to do it.
ASBOs are unsuitable for addicts since the deterrent effect is overwhelmed by the addiction and we end up in a cruel pointless and unjust game of cat and mouse. Locking up non-violent drunks is a waste of prison resources. Of course we need some more prisons, but we also need to look at the many thousands of inmates whose incarceration serves no useful purpose.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Sleeping Dog Wakes Up and Bites

The Times reports that the Magistrates' Association has finally lost patience with the Government's cynical and unworkable policy of taking vast amounts of crime out of the courts and 'bringing offences to justice' with the issue of a fixed penalty ticket, or a caution of some sort. It's money driven and has nothing to do with justice, and it's nice to hear the MA speaking out for once. The MA does a lot of valuable work for magistrates but there has been a feeling for some time that it is just a little too cosy with the Government. A symptom of that is the fact that last year a great majority of Bench Chairmen voted to separate the National Bench Chairmen's Forum from the MA, to give chairmen, who know their benches better than anyone, a voice at the top table. Even Rumpole's creator is getting fed up with it.
In response to the Times story the best that the Minister could do was to parrot the Whitehall mantra 'Criminal Justice, Simple, Speedy, and Summary'. We all want to see that. What he missed off was 'cheap' and 'unfair'.

The MA website has a lot about this, and it's well worth a read

A Matter of Conscience

The BBC reports that a Roman Catholic magistrate has resigned to avoid having to be involved in placing children for adoption by same-sex couples. Of course if a magistrate finds his conscience in conflict with the law he must either enforce the law of the land or resign: there is a principled case to be made for either course of action, but two things puzzle me about this case:- firstly why did the JP not simply withdraw from Family Panel work (the BBC article is not quite clear, but I am assuming that he has resigned from the Bench) and secondly why is an Industrial Tribunal getting involved? Being a magistrate is not employment, and we are appointed by the Lord Chancellor on behalf of the Crown. What is he asking the Tribunal to order? What power does it have anyway? Surely it cannot be right that a Tribunal would insist that Parliament can only pass laws that do not impinge on the conscience of the judiciary?
This is a mystery, and I shall be interested to see how things turn out.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Ministry of the Interior - Part 2

The Lord Chief Justice released this statement today:-
You will have seen reported the proposals to split the Home Office and create a Ministry of Justice, and you may have seen the Lord Chancellor discussing them on the BBC's Sunday AM programme. I have myself discussed this proposal with the Lord Chancellor and with the Home Secretary.

They have explained that there is important work to be done on the detail before any final decision is taken, and there will be need for further discussion with the Cabinet Office and other parts of Government.

The proposal has important implications for the administration of justice and I shall make sure that the impact on, and the views of, the judiciary receive proper consideration, and, to this end, discuss the proposal with representatives of all levels of the judiciary when further details are available.

Does anyone else detect that this may have been dictated through clenched teeth?

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Ministry of the Interior

According to the BBC the Home Office may soon be split into two parts, a Ministry of Justice and a Ministry of Security.
I am reminded of the story of a diplomatic reception many years ago at which a Soviet Commissar found himself in conversation with a gorgeously uniformed Swiss, resplendent in the uniform of an Admiral of the Fleet: gold braid on sleeve and hat, sword, the lot. "Tell me, Comrade" said the Commissar "You appear to be an Admiral of the Fleet, but Switzerland is a landlocked country, and you have no coast, no navy, and no ships. How do you account for this?"
"Well, Comrade" replied the Admiral "We thought that if your country has a Minister of Justice........."

By the Way

I was disturbed to read that police were preparing to involve themselves in the goings-on in an exploitative television programme that has been causing a lot of controversy recently. Please, please, if there is any officer out there who combines quite a bit of rank with solid common sense - tell Hertfordshire's finest to get back to something important, even if it will deprive some Inspector of his moment of glory in front of the cameras. De minimis non curat lex - and you can't get much more minimal than this rubbish.

Saturday, January 20, 2007

I have no view of the cash-for-peerages row, other than being certain that it has been going on in one form or another for very many years, but can I just question if it was really necessary to arrest a Downing Street apparatchik at 6.30 a.m., and to send no fewer than four officers to do it? Were the police afraid that she would attack just a single officer? Were they afraid that she would flee to a country with no extradition arrangements with the UK? What was wrong with asking her to attend the police station by appointment?
I am afraid that this is yet another example of the police carrying out their duty with one eye on the media to see how it will play. Unprofessional, lads. You can do better than that.

Friday, January 19, 2007

Back To The Drawing Board, Hoskins

From the Daily Telegraph:- (thanks to Chase Me Ladies for the link)

The Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) - which the Serious Crime Bill abolishes - also tried to take money and assets in the civil courts from alleged criminals who could not be brought before the criminal courts and, after four years, had failed to complete any cases in the courts in England and Wales.
So another bright idea founders, as millions of pounds slip quietly down the drain. So it was, is now, and ever more shall be.
RIP Intermittent Custody, Custody Plus, Child Support Agency, Night Courts, Unit Fines, and the rest. The depressing thing is that most of these failed wheezes will resurface in a few years time, as soon as ministers move on and civil servants have gone home to Camberley to draw their pensions.

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Another Loophole Shuts

The advent of high quality colour copiers made low-level forgery a lot easier, and there is a thriving black market in such things as certificates of motor insurance. Now that ANPR number-plate readers are widely deployed, those forgeries are not just pointless but risky too. The Insurance Database will flag up the car as uninsured, which is bad enough, but if the driver is unwise enough to produce the certificate to the police, they will know that it is probably forged from the outset. We saw a driver at the end of last year who was stopped twice in five days, and produced a dodgy certificate both times. As a result he faced two no-insurance charges, which makes a ban of at least six months inevitable, and two much more serious forgery and deception charges for which prison was a distinct possibility.
While we are on the subject of motoring, if you left the pub after a session and found a PC in the car park who advised you not to drive and to call a cab because you seemed to be drunk, would you, ten minutes later, not just drive off, but drive off in the same direction that the police car had taken? I saw someone who did just that last month. He gets his licence back in December 2009.

New Top Man

There has been a new Senior Presiding Judge for England and Wales since the 1st of January. Lord Justice Leveson, formerly Brian Leveson QC, is a highly experienced barrister who prosecuted Rose West at Winchester Crown Court and went on to become a High Court judge, spending quite a lot of time in the North of England. The Lord Chief Justice has delegated the legal overview of the magistrates' courts to Leveson LJ, so we shall see what changes he has in mind once he has settled in. He is fiercely defensive of judicial independence, and highly scornful of those who accuse judges of being out of touch. "I go to Tesco's" he says, "and I have teenage children who keep my feet on the ground. I don't live on a rough estate, but otherwise I lead a normal life".

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Busy Boy

After a lull over Christmas and New Year, with a cancelled sitting and a couple of short days caused by a lack of business, I am back to work this week with a couple of committee meetings and two court sittings, one to help out a colleague who has a last-minute family problem to cope with. On my scheduled sitting day I have a note in my diary to remind myself that a defendant whom we dealt with in November is coming in so that we can review how he is getting on with paying his fine and compensation. There was some doubt about his motivation so we ordered him to attend for a review on a day when I was sitting, and I told him that I was making notes (that are now in his court file) and that we would hold him to what he promised to do. We left him in no doubt about what could happen if he failed to pay.
Today's Sunday Times has a piece that confirms something that this blog and the many police blogs have been saying for a while: the so-called improvement in Offences Brought To Justice is based entirely on the issuing of thousands of fixed penalty tickets and many more thousands of cautions for cannabis possession. Convictions in court have actually fallen. Most of the trials that we are seeing nowadays are for Common Assault, almost all in a domestic context, a direct consequence of current CPS policy. Let's see how we get on.

Saturday, January 13, 2007

What's Going On In America?

The New York Times reports:-
WASHINGTON, Jan. 12 — The senior Pentagon official in charge of military detainees suspected of terrorism said in an interview this week that he was dismayed that lawyers at many of the nation’s top firms were representing prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and that the firms’ corporate clients should consider ending their business ties.

Can anyone from over there even begin to justify this?

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Okay, So I'm A Cynic

According to today's 'Times':
Metal grilles are to be placed over prison cell windows to prevent convicts using catapults to get drugs. Inmates at Liverpool jail were using rubber gloves tied to cell window bars to form crude catapults. They shot a weight, with string attached, over the fence, to which accomplices attached drugs for reeling in.

If the quantity of illicit drugs taken into prison by that route is equal to one percent of the amount taken in by corrupt staff, I should be very surprised indeed. Just think about it. Where do they get the rubber gloves from? Just how elastic are they? How far away is the fence? How does the accomplice know where to be and when to be there? I don't believe a word of it, and if the grilles are really being installed someone has been conned.

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

What About The Cat Then?

We were talking about this case before Christmas,in which a woman cruelly killed her boyfriend's cat by putting it in a washing machine. I have had a go at doing a sentencing exercise from basic principles, but an awful lot is going to depend on the pre-sentence report that is due to be put before the court on the 10th January. I have had a look in Stones (Justices' Manual) and as I suspected there is no guidance at all as to sentence.
So what will the bench do? They will assess how serious the offence was 'of its type'. They will agree the right point on the scale, the lowest being perhaps a kick or blow, the highest being deliberate and ingenious cruelty. Given the limited information we have from the press reports, this offence seems pretty well up the scale being deliberate and involving a high level of suffering for the cat. Next they will consider what sentences are available, in this case a maximum of a £5000 fine, six months in prison, or a community order of some kind. A reduction of one third for a guilty plea is mandatory. Fine or discharge? No, too serious. Serious enough for a community penalty? Certainly. So serious that only custody is appropriate? That's the tough one - nasty offence, but this isn't a human, it's a cat. It's borderline in my view. The report may well throw up mental or other problems that need to be addressed and probation may recommend an order for supervision plus specific programmes. That deals with reform and rehabilitation, and the bench can always add on unpaid work as an element of straightforward punishment -in this case, perhaps 200 hours (it would be nice to order it to be done at the RSPCA but we can't do that). A suspended sentence is an option but it would be wrong to approach that as the next point up the scale. The offence has to justify custody, full stop. If it does, only then does the bench ask itself whether it is possible to suspend it.
As I have said a lot will depend on the report on this one. My hunch is a community order including unpaid work and rehabilitation, but I would not be too surprised to see custody, either suspended or immediate.
My colleagues will have to sentence this from basic principles, but they can rely on their training and their clerk's advice.

The case has been adjourned for a psychiatric report, which is no surprise. In these cases it is usual for the writer of the first report to ask for the further reports, and we would invariably go along with that.

Monday, January 08, 2007

Which Visitor to London Wrote This?

On Saturday nights, a half-million workers, male and female, together with their children, flood the city like a sea, flocking especially in certain sections and celebrate the Sabbath all night until five in the morning," he notes. "They stuff themselves and drink like animals ... They all race against time to drink themselves insensate. The wives do not lag behind their husbands but get drunk with them; the children run and crawl among them. It is like a biblical picture, something out of Babylon, a prophecy from the Apocalypse coming to pass before your eyes."
The year was 1862 and the visitor was Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky.

Thumbs-Down From The Judges

Last Autumn the Home Office issued a consultation document called Making Sentencing Clearer. I have a copy of it on my desk.

The consultation has nearly finished and the Council of Circuit Judges have blown a judicial raspberry (that's a Bronx Cheer to our American readers) to most of the proposals.

The Times has a leader and this and this in today's paper.

Sunday, January 07, 2007

Probation, Community Orders, and Fines

I think that I know what Ministers want, which is to offload work from court-based probation officers (and that will mean restricting community penalties) to free up people to improve parole supervision and, as a bonus, to increase the number of offences dealt with by way of a fine, dovetailing neatly with the enormous and continuing rise in the number of fixed penalty tickets as mentioned in the Sunday Telegraph. The Lord Chief Justice extolled the virtues of the fine at the Magistrates' Association conference last November. What he didn't mention was how to impose realistic fines when the vast majority of our defendants are on benefit.

By the way - and you read it here first - there is every chance that the Suspended Sentence Order will be taken out of JPs' armoury fairly soon. It is such a useful sentence, because we can combine it with community requirements as well, that we are making about 3000 of them every month according to His Lordship. That costs money to administer, and worse, there are two ways of breaching an SSO, either by reoffending or by breaching the community requirements. When we were stopped from imposing 'benders' a few years ago it was because too many were being breached through reoffending and thus implemented. I think that will happen again, even though I really hope it will not.

Saturday, January 06, 2007

Back to the Drawing Board

The Intermittent Custody (weekend jail) scheme that has been on trial for a couple of years has now been abandoned. The official line is: "The high prison population and the need to divert attention energies and resources to protect the public from the most and more serious offenders". Yeah, right.
In practice, the scheme was a shambles. I have heard from a defence solicitor about clients who would go to the locality of the(open) prison where they were to serve their IC sentence leaving enough time for an afternoon in the pub with fellow miscreants, reporting half-cut to the prison gates just before the deadline. In practice there was little or no effective sanction that could be applied, so the scheme has bitten the dust.

Friday, January 05, 2007

All-Time Great Legal Jokes No. 277

A man was arrested for having sex with a chicken on a London Underground train.

His brief got him off the bestiality, but he was fined £200 for the post-coital cigarette.

It's Quiet Out There, Hoskins - Too Quiet

There isn't a lot going on at the moment. There was the holiday break of course, and a lull in police activity on 'routine' crime. Quite a few courts were cancelled over the last two weeks (including one of mine) because there wasn't enough work to go around. A number of new laws are coming into effect, and the lawyers are trying to find time to get a grip before they are faced with a live case. Our legal advisers are on a work-to-contract so out of hours and Saturday work are having to be concentrated in a few courts. They are understandably fed up with a below-inflation pay increase, and are apprehensive about a massive pay and grading review scheduled for mid-2007. This will impose a consistent structure across the government's legal services, and as in all such exercises there will be winners and losers. At least it should end the anomaly whereby one of my legal advisers can improve his salary by £5000 or more by moving to the CPS - it cannot make sense for government departments to compete with each other for broadly similar posts.
I spent a bit of time chatting to two local PCs this week as they were in the road outside my house waiting for someone to turn up. I asked them how their Sanction Detection figures were going, and I heard the usual tale of targets being met by a blizzard of fixed penalty tickets for (mostly) Section 5 Public Order Act and cannabis posession offences. As ever, crime statistics are being shamelessly massaged, which is a regular theme on the Policeman's Blog. Burglary figures a bit high? Easy - charge all the little ones as Criminal Damage. Violent offences making the town look bad? Nick 'em for Drunk and Disorderly. Job done.
There are several consultations going on at the moment on changes to management of the courts and on 'Making Sentencing Clearer' so I shall have to get together with colleagues to formulate our responses. My modest study is crammed with paperwork from HMCS and all the other arms of Government that feel the need to write to me. A ruthless weeding-out session is on the cards, I think. I hope they are planting lots of trees in Norway. The English legal system is going to need them.

Monday, January 01, 2007

A Bit Odd?

I am grateful to alsojp for pointing me to this in today's 'Times':
Detectives in Nottinghamshire are dismayed by the plans of Deputy Chief Constable Howard Roberts to make them wear uniforms and fluorescent jackets to improve police visibility. The county has the highest crime rate in England and Wales, with 134 victims of crime per 1,000 people, statistics indicate.

Isn't that a bit like giving them baseball caps with 'Undercover Detective' on the front?

Happy New Year

It will be two years tomorrow since I made the first tentative posts on this blog. Since then we have had a gratifyingly large number of visitors, and a steady stream of comments ranging from the congratulatory to the abusive. I have left alone abuse directed at me, but tidied or deleted that directed at other posters. As an aside, I am fascinated to see how a minority of people can infer from some remark of mine that appears to them to be over-liberal (or - less often - over-strict) an entirely fictional picture of Bystander the man and Bystander the JP. If I suggest that the behaviour of some police officers or prosecutors is less than perfect, then I am immediately branded as being the thugs' friend, smiling indulgently as old ladies are battered for their pathetic belongings, and then sentencing with a light hand to a discharge here and an small fine there. If I suggest that the Mr. Toad lobby are misguided and selfish in their opposition to speed enforcement, then I become an out-of-touch old duffer.

2007 is going to be yet another challenging year. The Government has not lost its appetite for legislating, and there is as yet no sign that they have taken on board the lessons of previous ill-considered and over-complex law that has in some cases had to be abandoned after Royal Assent but before being put into practice. The Courts' Service is still in upheaval, as the introduction of HMCS less than two years ago was swiftly followed by drastic financial stringency. As a result we now have a confused and sometimes demoralised staff who are taking limited industrial action. Many of them do not know if they will have a job in six months' time, or where that job will be located if they do have one. So-called Community Courts are being trialled in a number of areas, but based on the cheaper Salford model rather than the gold-plated Liverpool set-up which proved, to no-one's surprise, that if you throw enough money at a project it can work fairly well.

Whatever happens, today and tomorrow and for the rest of the year crimes will be committed and people will be brought before the courts. My colleagues and I will deal with them without fear or favour, affection or ill-will, and in accordance with the law, rather than the nudge-nudge of politicians or the ranting of the tabloid mob.

Happy New Year.


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Fresh from the Capitol

Have you seen the latest motion product posters from the Capitol? They're beyond awesome!  Seneca Crane, Caesar Flickerman, and Cinna are featured on these motion posters. Would you buy the tooth whitener or eyeliner?

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Home » Policing

Missing dogs from Lincoln village found

The four pedigree dogs that were taken during a burglary at a property in a Lincoln village have arrived home safely.

As previously reported, the four brown and white female Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, one of which is elderly, were taken in a burglary on May 27 from Sturton Road in Ingleby.

On Tuesday evening Coningsby Kennels found four Spaniels roaming along Ivy Lane, some 40 miles away from where they went missing.

The dogs were discovered after the neighbour of the dog rescue centre in Coningsby called the kennels, asking if they had lost four dogs.

All four were found dirty and in need of feeding.

The rescue took the dogs straight into its care and later realised they were the four missing Cavalier King Charles Spaniels.

According the the kennels, the owner of the dogs visited to pick them up as soon as she was notified.

Lincolnshire Police are yet to be contacted to confirm the dogs are safe and well.


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Kate joins royals at London waxwork museum

LONDON, April 5 — Prince William’s wife Kate made her first entry into the world-famous Madame Tussauds in London yesterday as new figures of the couple were unveiled for the first time.

The Duchess of Cambridge’s figure wears a replica of the blue Issa dress she wore at their engagement announcement in November 2010, with a version of the sapphire and diamond ring once owned by William’s mother Diana on her finger.

Picture shows waxwork models of Kate and Prince William during their unveiling at Madame Tussauds waxwork museum in London on April 4, 2012. — AFP picPicture shows waxwork models of Kate and Prince William during their unveiling at Madame Tussauds waxwork museum in London on April 4, 2012. — AFP pic“It was such an iconic moment in time — that’s what people wanted to see here at Madame Tussauds,” museum spokeswoman Liz Edwards told AFP.

The prince was previously represented in the attraction’s royal throne room but a new wax figure has been created to stand alongside Kate’s, this time wearing a navy two-piece suit by tailors Gieves and Hawkes.

New likenesses of the royal couple were also unveiled yesterday at Madame Tussauds in New York, where Kate wears a replica Alexander McQueen gown, and in Amsterdam, where she wears a lace Temperley London dress.

Each wax figure cost £150,000 (RM720,000) and took a team of experts four months to make.

All three versions capture Kate’s broad smile and her trademark glossy hair, which is already proving to be a big hit with visitors.

“Everybody’s asked to come and see the hair, to touch the hair because, let’s face it, she’s got a fantastic set of locks,” Edwards said.

Madame Tussauds had hoped to include the couple in their collection before now, nearly one year after their lavish wedding at Westminster Abbey on April 29, but they had been waiting to get them in for a sitting.

“We hoped to have that before the wedding but it wasn’t possible because they were so busy and since then they’ve had other commitments,” Edwards said.

“It just got to the point where we had to work with the palace but without the sitting in order to get them done for their first year anniversary — because people were honestly crying out to see them here.”

Until now the model of Queen Elizabeth II was the most popular attraction, standing alongside her husband Prince Philip, their son Prince Charles, his late wife Diana and current wife Camilla, and the Princes William and Harry.

But this is likely to change, as visitors flocked to the new figures yesterday.

Michiels Ralfons, a teacher from Belgium on holiday with his family, was among the first to get a look at William and Kate in London.

“There were many people around the models so it was not so easy to get close and have a look. But we thought Kate looked much better than William,” he said. — AFP-Relaxnews

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Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Ross Kivett named Player of the Week

K-State second baseman Ross Kivett was named Big 12 Player of the Week for the period ending March 2, the conference office announced Monday afternoon. It is the senior’s first career conference player of the week honor.

Kivett tied for the Big 12-lead with a .500 (6 for 12) batting average during K-State’s 3-0 week, while he finished second in hits and third in OBP (.536).

The senior, who also had three RBIs, two stolen bases and two runs scored, had a hit and an RBI in each game, including a season-high three hits in the Wildcats’ 8-3 victory over Missouri State on Saturday.

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1 The Muppet Mindset: THE MUPPETS Original Soundtrack Review

Nov 17, 2011

THE MUPPETS Original Soundtrack Review

Review by Ryan Dosier

This article contains detailed information on the soundtrack for The Muppets. If you wish to remain completely unspoiled on the movie or its songs, you may want to hold off on reading this article until sometime next week.
Ryan Dosier - On November 21st, The Muppets Original Movie Soundtrack will be hitting store shelves all across the country and be available for digital download via iTunes and Amazon.com. I was lucky enough to acquire the soundtrack early and I'm thrilled to say that I haven't stopped listening to it for two days. It's such a delight hearing new, quality Muppet music performed by the incredible voices of the Muppeteers along with great vocals from Jason Segel, Amy Adams, and Chris Cooper.

There are 30 tracks on the soundtrack, half of which are short dialogue tracks used to introduce (and in one case close) the musical tracks. The dialogue ranges from about four to twenty seconds long, so they hardly get in the way, but some of them provide some good context for the music that is to come. Though they are fun to have, none of the songs are missing anything when the dialogue isn't present. Just think of the dialogue tracks as a nice little bonus when you listen to the soundtrack the whole way through, in order.

The album hits the ground rolling with a fun, raucous redo of "The Muppet Show Theme" that we all knew was coming. Unfortunately, there is nothing too spectacular present here. Yes, all the voices sound wonderful--Steve Whitmire's Kermit is especially a treat to hear in this classic--but it's a complete copy of "The Muppet Show Theme" we've always heard. This song works a lot better with the added visual of a complete reconstruction of the theme on the movie screen. Getting to see the Muppets put on their show again adds an immeasurable amount to the song we all know and love.

"Life's a Happy Song" is one of my favorite songs on the soundtrack and is quickly becoming one of my favorite Muppet songs of all time. This track introduces us to the characters of Gary (Jason Segel, surprisingly comfortable and adept singing here) and Walter (performed by the soothingly-voiced Peter Linz who brings heart, soul, and humor to the character just through the voice) as well as a brief solo from Mary (Amy Adams, whose attempts at being funny don't fall short here) and extremely quick vocal cameos from Feist and Mickey Rooney. The brilliance of this song is that it's just so wonderfully happy and unbelievably catchy. You'll be humming the chorus ("Everything is great, everything is grand, I've got the whole wide world in the palm of my hand! Everything is perfect, it's falling into place, I can't seem to wipe this smile off my face!") for days and you won't be mad about that at all. This song works on so many wonderful levels. It's exciting, it's fun, and it's happy. Segel and, especially, Walter carry this tune to a new height, making it a true highlight of the soundtrack and the film itself.

The second song in the film and the third on the soundtrack is Kermit the Frog's heart-wrenching ballad, "Pictures in My Head" which also features Fozzie Bear, Gonzo, The Swedish Chef, and The Electric Mayhem. This song is unbelievably touching and hits all the right notes of emotion with a nice influx of humor as well. There are so many beautiful lyrics in this song, but the stand out is easily, "If we could do it all again... just another chance to entertain... would anybody watch or even care? Or did something break we can't repair?" This line is not only poetic and lovely, but it says so, so much about the Muppets and their recent plights to regain fame and fans. Thankfully, Fozzie (who sounds perfect thanks to Eric Jacobson), Gonzo (the irreplaceable Dave Goelz), Swedish Chef, Dr. Teeth (both the pitch-perfect Bill Barretta) and harmonies from the rest of The Electric Mayhem (Matt Vogel, David Rudman, et al) make this song soar as they sing along with Kermit. "Pictures in My Head" is beautiful and will give you chills every time you hear it. A truly perfect piece.

Next, we hear Paul Simon's "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard," which is only used in the movie for its beautiful guitar melodies. No lyrics from the song appear in the film at all. Later in the soundtrack we also here Starship's "We Built This City," which takes place while the Muppets clean up the theater. I don't have much to say about these two songs, since they aren't Muppefied... but they do work well in the film.

Fozzie Bear leads a rendition of "Rainbow Connection" that I never thought I would hear... one that shills for a Reno casino and hotel. The Moopets join Fozzie as back-up in this song while he sings such wonderfully funny lines as, "Why are there such great deals on our hotel rooms?" and "Our wedding chapel is 24 hours, no marriage certificate is needed." It's funny, it's Fozzie, and it works. Such a cute, stupid (in a good way) little novelty song that they didn't have to include on the soundtrack... but one I'm really glad they did. Again, Fozzie sounds perfect with the voice of Eric Jacobson, who never ceases to amaze me.

Up next is "Me Party" with Mary (Amy Adams) and Miss Piggy. I mentioned in my review of the movie that this was the only part that left me feeling "Meh," and I feel the same way about the song itself. Both Amy Adams and Miss Piggy have great voices here (Piggy, especially, sounds excellent) but the song itself is just... odd. It doesn't fit the tone of the rest of the music and the lyrics seem rushed. I think this song would have worked a lot better if it was an actual, planned duet with the two leading ladies. Instead, it's just Amy and Piggy singing separately, harmonizing only on one verse. It's just weird, and the low point of the soundtrack for me.

Chris Cooper gets to test his rapping chops (bet the Academy wasn't expecting that when they gave him the Oscar) with the hysterical and catchy "Let's Talk About Me." This song is oozing villainy, greed, and clever lyrics. Bret McKenzie's impressive lyrical skills shine here, as well as Chris Cooper's surprisingly well-suited for hip-hop voice. This is actually an extended version of the song that appears in the film, and provides some background context for why Richman hates the Muppets. In the movie, the song is much shorter (and works much better that way for the movie), but having the full version on the soundtrack is great. The included dialogue clip featuring Richman and Kermit is hysterical and is the perfect pay-off for the song.

Possibly my favorite song in the entire film... "Man or Muppet" sung by Jason Segel and Walter is perfect. Jason's singing is, once again, surprisingly fantastic, but not even he can match Walter. His adorable, spine-tingling voice is just beautiful in this song. Peter Linz shows us exactly why he was the perfect choice for Walter here with his sweet, lifting voice alongside Jason. The lyrics are awesome, and I think, "If I'm a man, that makes me a Muppet of a man" might become my new catchphrase. What I really love about this song, though, is the way it plays out in the film. One revealing shot during the song will have you laughing so hard that you might not hear the rest of the lyrics. I can't say enough how much I love this song. If we're looking for Oscar-worthy songs on this soundtrack, "Life's a Happy Song" is the standout, but "Man or Muppet" is a very close second.

Without a doubt the most exciting and unexpected song on the soundtrack for Muppet fans is "Smells Like Teen Spirit," the Nirvana classic covered by The Muppet Barbershop Quartet consisting of Sam the Eagle, Rowlf the Dog, Link Hogthrob, and Beaker. This unbelievable matching of characters and song is a true callback to The Muppet Show as it pairs the Muppets with a barbershop-rendition of a hard-rock song. I also have to commend Eric Jacobson, Steve Whitmire, and Bill Barretta on their vocals here, because all four of these characters sound incredible. Sam Eagle has a rich timber to his voice that will have you second guessing whether it's really Frank Oz, Rowlf's gruff soulfulness is spot-on, and Link Hogthrob makes his first major vocal appearance in 20 years, and Steve Whitmire has him sounding just as perfect and smooth and idiotic as ever. It's glorious and it's another personal favorite song of mine.

The funniest song on the soundtrack, by far, is Camilla and the Chickens clucking their way through Cee Lo Green's insanely catchy "Forget You" (or, "Cluck You" for you poultry-minded individuals). I'm a sucker for chicken covers of absolutely any song, and this one is 100% perfect. I really don't have any complaints about this. It's hilarious, it's fun, and it's an amazing treat to sing along with in the car. This scene in the movie is another of my personal favorites, and brings one of the biggest laughs of the whole thing, just because it's chickens clucking on screen in glittery outfits for a minute and a half. What's not to love?

There is no more meaningful song in the Muppet world than "Rainbow Connection." The Paul Williams classic carries the message, spirit, and beauty of the Muppets like nothing else. On this soundtrack, it's sung by Kermit, Miss Piggy, and all of the Muppets in an amazing, soaring, guaranteed-to-give-you-shivers manner that will never disappoint. Steve Whitmire and Eric Jacobson are the perfect harmonists as Kermit and Piggy tackle the opening verses of the song, and the drums that come in for the tail-end of the song are phenomenal, adding an extra level to this already-classic entry. This is my favorite song on the soundtrack. Every time I hear it I smile. Yes, we've heard it before, but never like this. It's an amazing tribute to an amazing song. Perfection.

"The Whistling Caruso" is a whistling wonderment penned by popular singer Andrew Bird, but not performed by him in the film. I won't reveal who does perform this in the movie and how it fits into the wonderful story, but it's magic. I adore this part of the movie, and this song is a part of the reason why. The melody is perfect and it's not too long, not too short. Whistling has never sounded better.

The movie closes with a reprise of "Life's a Happy Song (Finale)" that sends the song to an even higher level (if that was possible). Finally, we get a ton of Muppets joining together to sing a huge song for an amazing dance number that literally shut down Hollywood Boulevard. The song features vocal appearances by Kermit, Miss Piggy, Gary, Mary, Walter, Scooter, Fozzie, The Electric Mayhem, Uncle Deadly, Marvin Suggs and the Muppaphones, Tex Richman, Statler and Waldorf, Bobo, Beaker, Lew Zealand, Swedish Chef, Sweetums, Beautiful Day Monster, rats, penguins, chickens, and a whole chorus of others. I will never not be amazed by the fact that Marvin Suggs and Uncle Deadly have solo lines in a song from a Muppet movie in 2011. The lyrics are changed a bit for the finale here, but they are still perfect and I might even like them a little bit better here. It's just a wonderful finale that sends you into a million smiles and is guaranteed to leave a smile on your face.

The album closes with the original version of "Mahna Mahna" performed by Jim Henson. It's lovely to have Jim's voice included on this soundtrack, and "Mahna Mahna" is always fun to have.

I really can't talk about how glorious this soundtrack is enough. The songs will lift your spirits, make you smile, and have you singing along with them for days and days to come. Whether you buy this soundtrack when it is released on Monday, November 21st or wait to buy it until after you've seen the movie, you are guaranteed a musical treat. So, what I'm saying is... buy this soundtrack. The Muppets and your ears will thank you.

The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier, ryguy102390@gmail.com

  1. great reviews - does anyone know who is doing the song just as the credits begin?

  2. just found out the song at the beginning of the credits was Mah Na Mah Na - but I think I also heard an updated disco version of this song last year in a club - anyone know if someone else beside Henson did this?


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Baidu, the dominant leader in China’s search market, has leapt on to Android with a new browser for the Google-owned mobile OS. The browser features a new HTML5 and Javascript engine that the company says is fast enough to compete on the international stage against rival offerings from Google and Opera.

The Beijing-based company announced the browser, which is dubbed Baidu Explorer in English, at its annual Baidu World forum. The product has been in development since 2010, it says, and it is available to download (here) with both Chinese and English versions. It is claimed that the new browser runs 20 percent faster than the competition, on average.

The company expects the browser to perform well in China — where it holds around 80 percent of the domestic search market — but it is also taking steps to push it out internationally and, to that end, it has signed a deal with France Telecom’s Orange operator in Egypt to distribute the browser to its subscribers.

Baidu’s search services are being integrated into Apple’s upcoming iOS 6 in China and its browser will give it another firm footprint on mobile.

The Baidu Explorer scored an impressive 482 out of 500 on the HTML5 test, compared to 371 on mobile Chrome, 349 for Firefox and 367 from Opera, according to tests performed by Baidu. For further comparison, a MacBook Pro running Chrome 21 on Mac OS X Lion scored 437 and Mobile Safari on an iPhone 4S scored 324.

Additional benchmarks provided by the company show that the new browser also beats out its rivals on Javascript tests, such as v8benchmark and Sunspider, and it had the top score on a WebGL test.

The T5 engine provides a significant boost for Baidu’s browser. When the engine was turned off, Baidu Explorer scored just 276 on the HTML5 test. T5 (the T stands for Taikonaut, or Chinese astronauts, and the 5 refers to HTML5) also integrates WebSocket and Web notification technologies and can provide developers access to some hardware functions, such as a webcam.

Other core features of the browser include multi-task rendering, intelligent Chinese-language voice search and access to location-based services.

As is to be expected, Baidu has integrated its browser with its search service. The home page of the application features a Baidu search bar and shake-to-display search trends and hot topics.

Baidu, which posted $859 million in revenue last quarter, is also building its browsing technology into its search application on the Google market. It has set its sights high with the launch, with goals to have its Baidu search and/or browser software pre-installed on 80 percent of Chinese Android phone shipments by the end of the year.

In the domestic arena, the new browser will likely take share from Chinese mobile browser UCWeb and Opera. Baidu has partnered with UCWeb for years, giving the company a share of revenue from searches made through its browser, in fact it was even reported to be considering an investment in the firm. However, a Baidu spokesperson recently downplayed the new rivalry, recently telling reporters that its relationship with UCWeb is “still good”.

Baidu’s long-term goal is to derive more than half of its revenue outside of China by the year 2020. The company recently made forays into Southeast Asia with a new research office and has also quietly entered Brazil.

Even as it’s entering the mobile browser space, Baidu is fighting off an assault on its bread-and-butter search business, which accounts for roughly 80 percent of the Chinese market. Qihoo 360 launched a search engine last month and picked up an estimated 10 percent market share, passing Google in its initial bump. Since then, the rivalry between the two companies has gotten tense, with both sides moving to block each other’s services.

➤ Baidu Explorer for Android


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Hey Buddy, Wanna Buy Some Tap Water?
Here's a low-overhead business: Selling New York City tap water! Yep, you wish you'd thought of it yourself, amiright?!
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Ex-Div Reminder for Boston Pizza Royalties Income Fund (BPF.UN.CA)
On 10/17/12, Boston Pizza Royalties Income Fund (BPF. N) will trade ex-dividend, for its monthly dividend of $0.098, payable on 10/31/12.
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HP Courted for Autonomy, EDS Units: Report
Hewlett-Packard has received expressions of interest for Autonomy and its EDS units, but HP CEO Meg Whitman said the company is not yet ready to sell the business, according to a report.
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iQuiz: Create and share quizzes for Video iPods

iQuiz: Create quizes for video iPods

I just came back from an awesome evening with the Singapore Mac user group @ Geek Terminal (official launch in May). Been celebrating too much after my teaching stint ended. While I procrastinate blogging everything on my mental inbox, here’s a quickie from my online ethnographer and educator buddy, Preetam Rai.

He gives us an illustrated step-by-step process of how he creates quizzes for the Video iPod using iQuiz, the latest iPod game which costs only US$0.99. Pretty neat if you have enough students using iPods. It’d be neater if it worked on Nanos too, but I guess you can’t read the type then. And I only have a Shuffle.

BTW: Jesse Perry was enterprising enough to setup iQuizLibrary.com, where creators can post their user-generated quizzes.

  • http://www.thedeelirium.com deelirium

    This looks fantastic. I don’t understand why it can’t be played on nanos, though.

  • http://www.preetamrai.com Preetam Rai

    Hi deelirium.. none of the ipod games play on the nano. Maybe its because nano just does not have enough horsepower or as Kevin mentions the screen size is too small to display the games well.

    Thanks for the link Kevin,

  • http://www.iquizshare.com www.iquizshare.com

    Its a pity that iQuiz can only play on 5th generation iPods. However, I must say, it is a dang good game!

  • Xtreminator

    It’s nice. However, where can I download the actual game. I think it is 16 MB or moew


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Obama asks lawmakers to authorize $1.5 billion to build drug stockpiles, monitor future cases.

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11 Typed Letters Signed by Philip K Dick Written to Dear Claudia

The letters to Claudia are arguably among the finest and most illuminating letters written by Philip K. Dick. Among the very few other PKD manuscripts to be offered on eBay in recent years are a few pages of carbon copies of manuscripts which sold for $1,100 on July 5, 2003 (3532977488), and a carbon copy of a one page letter from 1979, which sold for $1,100 on July 14, 2003 (6911252469). Claudia Bush was writing a Thesis on Phil, and had initially contacted him. From there, a long correspondence began. I selected these letters based on the time-period in which they were written. The letters begin shortly after his February/March 1974 mystical experience. This experience forever changed him. You can read entries from his Exegesis in the book In Pursuit of VALIS, culled from over 1 million words of Phil's putting to paper his thoughts, interpretations, and studies into his visions and experiences. Phil Dick kept every scrap of his writing, and in doing so made it a point to type his letters, keeping the carbon for himself, editing, signing, and sending the typed page. It is my understanding that the letters to Claudia Bush have never been on the market individually, so any way you cut it this is a rare find indeed. MORE

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Minority Report Screenplay. Pre-release draft. Details - Specializing in Philip K Dick, Science Fiction, and Radical Movement.


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Destination out

By JON GARELICK  |  March 24, 2008

This was a glorious noise band, spontaneous free improvisations all the way — the first piece was an uninterrupted 47 minutes. But this quartet have played together a lot (last year they released Prezens on ECM), and they have their procedures. Torn, another diminutive genius, wore a big fur cap like a crown throughout the set. He would begin quietly, creating throbbing sustained chords on his guitar, or coaxing whooshing sounds from a giant effects box in front of him. Berne would float in on his alto sax with some fluttery free-bop figures while Taborn’s keyboards began to chirp and squeak. The velocity would begin to pick up, and then, BANG!, Rainey would kick in with a hard funk-rock beat laced with muscly cross-rhythms. The music would build and subside, build and subside, patterns emerging from the maelstrom, then disintegrating. At its peaks of velocity and volume, it was a beautiful squall, and you could hardly tell which sounds were emanating from which instruments. The music’s shifts seemed based not on chord patterns or tunes but on rhythmic and dynamic cues. At times, Rainey and Taborn created a hard, abstract funk that, together with the wails of Torn and Berne, suggested the outest of Miles Davis’s early-’70s electric bands. Then the smoke would clear, Rainey bringing it all down with his brushes to a whisper, and — in the space between noise and silence — Torn would look over at Berne with the beginnings of a smile.

LEO GENOVESE’S CHROMATIC GAUCHOS | Ryles, 212 Hampshire St, Cambridge | March 28 | 617.876.9330 | SEWER RATS, “Beehive-Art-Scope 1,” 541 Tremont St, Boston | April 1 | 617.423.0069

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Posts by slykatrinah

Great video.   Thanks
Great instructions and video. more please!
Lee Westwood fortunes on the course this year have been amazing partly because of a  change in his putting grip. He was adviced by Putting Tips guru Dave Stockton.   Stockton just asked Westwood to ease the pressure on his putting grip. Due the change in his putting grip, Lee Westwood putting stroke has got better and his short game has got lower.
The key muscles for hip movement are gluteal and hip. They have  to be strong and flexible for a proper hip turn. To get them strong and flexible do resistance training and stretching.   All the best!
that's the spirit; hardworking and eager to learn. i think you should try and find a balance between patience and desire to improve. most importantly: enjoy your golf!
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My happy place – Day 8

I’ve gotta say, I really struggled to find my happy place today. It was one of those super full on days and by the time I got home in the afternoon, I was in a super full on bad mood. So where did I find my happy place in the end? It was on the toilet.

Yes, in the toilet.

I read magazines in the toilet. I feel like I am making some major confession here because some of my friends find this really gross  but hopefully this is not a universal view?!

Anyway, my current toilet reading material is Latte, the Business Chicks magazine and in there today, I found a quote that really hit home – especially given my mood at the time. So here it is … I even made a free printable out of it for you (just click on the image to download the pdf)!

Happiness is ... (click to download)

On another note, I have to say that (present day excepted!) this “My Happy Place” challenge is really making me stop and really appreciate the ‘moments’ in each day that make me smile. I think it definitely proves Nat’s theory that:

“when you take the time for a few minutes everyday to notice the positive,
it does make a difference in your whole attitude.”

Comments ... oh they do make my heart sing!

  1. I don’t actually get the whole reading in the toilet thing, but I am a believer of taking your time out where ever you can get it. If this is your opportunity, grab it and hang onto it.
    Hope your evening was a little brighter.

  2. Natalie at Mummy Smiles says:

    I hope your day is looking brighter now xx

  3. Your day yesterday is my day today and Just found a happy moment in the toilet too, reading and editing my books, now that make me happy xx

  4. Must be in the stars… having one of those days today, for no particularly good reason. My happy moment was putting the washing out – I’m not a toilet reader!

  5. Yes… it’s wonderful to just stop and value what we actually have, from time to time in this world where people are encouraged to want more. Realising that what we have is good be it priceless or paid for, can help us to get off the proverbial hamster wheel, stretch in the sawdust *and realise how good it feels.

    (*No idea where the hamster reference came from**)

    Anyway, your comment reminded me to do that, in a who-needs-new-products-i-can-manage-with-what-I-have-and-enjoy-it-while-concentrating-more-on-being-a-good-person (**or hamster!)-and-therefore-valuable-to-others kind of way.

Feel free to leave a comment below - I LOVE hearing from readers!


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Behavioral finance has exploded in popularity not just because it’s interesting—regular finance is interesting, too—but because it combines that interest factor with an abundance of what one scholar called “descriptive charm.”

There is something strangely entertaining in reading about the economic foibles of others: one part schadenfreude,  plus one part abashed recognition of one’s own past mistakes—mixed with quiet relief to find oneself  with lots of company in making those mistakes.

Plus, it gives many of us readers great stories that to tell at dinner parties. Being able to talk about the myth of the “hot hand” in basketball, or investor preferences for cash versus stock dividends, can make for a pretty entertaining evening in some circles.

Reading behavioral finance can also provides a sense of Finally Understanding How Things Work when it comes to money and markets. Learning about common cognitive errors in economic decision making, such as “anchoring,” and “availability bias,” feels like getting a peek inside the flawed machines that are our brains, making it seem possible to predict the behavior (particularly the mistakes) of others, and guard against them in oneself. In short, behavioral finance seems to offer insight and a sense of control, imposing order on what otherwise appears chaotic and unpredictable.

But a dozen years after my own personal infatuation with behavioral finance began—by devouring Richard Thaler‘s classics, Advances in Behavioral Finance and The Winner’s Curse—a number of limitations have become obvious.

All research programs have limitations, of course. But those of behavioral finance undermine its purpose: that is, to enhance understanding of financial markets and investor behavior. Others have written eloquently on this subject, particularly Daniel Beunza and David Stark, and John Y. Campbell. What I have to add to this ongoing debate boils down to two points and their consequences:

    1. Failure to acknowledge the findings of the allied social sciences
    One of the cardinal laws in scholarship is to acknowledge the work of others and avoid reinventing the wheel. But when you read works of behavioral finance, you’d never know that deviations from rational, self-maximizing behavior are old news in psychology, political science, sociology and anthropology. Check the references section of a behavioral finance article or book and see how many citations from those fields you can find. Chances are, there will be zero. Behavioral finance scholars generally cite each other, or work from mainstream economics and finance.
    This is particularly strange since so much of contemporary behavioral finance depends on the contributions of social psychologists like Daniel Kahneman (a 2002 Nobel laureate for his work in behavioral finance) and the late Amos Tversky, as well as much older work by people like Herb Simon, who was a Professor of Political Science and Industrial Administration at various points in his career. Simon won the Nobel Prize in economics for work done half a century ago on “bounded rationality“—a concept closely tied to many of the key phenomena examined by behavioral finance, but which is virtually ignored in their publications.
    While a lot of academic research speaks to a rather small group of other academics, behavioral finance is distinctive within the social sciences for restricting its scholarly conversation so tightly. This isn’t the case in the closely-related disciplines of economic sociology, neo-institutionalist political science, and economic anthropology, all of which regularly cite and engage with one another, to the enrichment of all.
    In the case of behavioral finance, reluctance to acknowledge the many research interests it shares with the allied social sciences may be part of the larger project of rigid separation and boundary enforcement that has been carried out by economists since the time of Pareto. This has created what Schumpeter described as a regime of “mutual vituperation” which has kept economics and finance in a state of self-imposed incommunicado with sociology, limiting the advancement of knowledge on our shared interests. Behavioral finance, it seems, is sticking to the party line on this point.
    2. A narrow, limited critique of economic theory
    Cataloging the many ways humans fail to think rationally about money, investments and risk is a good start. But in most ways, behavioral finance leaves intact the problematic assumptions of traditional finance, pulling its punches, so to speak. Among the most noteworthy examples:
    a. Behavioral finance remains stuck at the individual level of analysis
    As in traditional finance and economics, the object of inquiry in behavioral finance is the individual—despite rafts of evidence going back decades that individuals don’t make decisions about money, risk or investing in a vacuum, but as a result of social influences. Of course, this evidence comes from those allied social sciences that are being so studiously ignored. For example, economic psychologist George Katona showed 35 years ago that most people choose investments based on word of mouth recommendations from their friends and neighbors. This influence of social forces in economic decision-making has been demonstrated with equal or greater impact among finance professionals—for instance, in a study of Wall Street pension fund managers by economic anthropologists O’Barr and Conley, and more recently in a sociological study of arbitrage traders by Beunza and Stark.
    In the past, there were encouraging signs that behavioral finance might break through the limitations imposed by sticking to the individual level of analysis, most strikingly in Robert Shiller’s 1993 statement that “Investing in speculative assets is a social activity.” But thus far, the implications of such statements, and the plethora of evidence supporting them, remain unexplored.
    b. Behavioral finance limits itself to pointing out failures of cognition and calculation
    As important as those factors are in distorting financial decision-making, there are a host of others that we know about—based on research in those allied social sciences that behavioral finance doesn’t acknowledge—that are excluded from research in behavioral finance. This includes emotions, and social phenomena like status competition, both of which play a significant role in the findings of economic sociology, psychology and anthropology. The cognitive/calculative failures may interact with the socio-emotional phenomena, but we won’t know as long as behavioral finance pretends the latter don’t exist. That’s a loss for all of us interested in markets, money and investing.
    c. Behavioral finance doesn’t explain how individual acts and decisions produce aggregate outcomes
    As a consequence of keeping the analytical focus on individuals—avoiding the social and interactive aspects of economic activity—behavioral finance doesn’t have the theoretical means to address mechanisms through which individual acts and decisions aggregate. That means it can’t explain institutions and other manifestations of collective behavior which form the context for all the individual behavior it examines. Of course behavioral finance can’t answer all questions about money and markets, but it ought to be able to explain what happens when hundreds, or hundreds of millions, of people fall prey to the “hot hand” fallacy or availability bias? If behavioral finance won’t touch questions like that, who will?

The consequences for ignoring the other social sciences and mounting a very narrow critique of traditional finance and economics, include:

  • Limited predictive power
    Behavioral finance tells us more about what people won’t do (e.g., behave according to notions of rationality outlined in economic theory) than what they will do.
  • Contradictory implications
    Are investors risk-averse or overconfident? How should we reconcile seemingly contradictory findings like these? Behavioral finance doesn’t tell us, because of its…
  • Failure to offer a viable alternative to the theories it challenges
    Pointing out all the ways that real life behavior doesn’t bear out the predictions of traditional economics and finance is interesting—even fascinating, at times—but it’s not an alternative theory. “People aren’t rational” isn’t a theory: it’s an empirical observation. An alternative theory would need to offer an explanation, including causal processes, underlying mechanisms and testable propositions.

All this keeps behavioral finance dependent on traditional economics and finance rather than allowing it to grow into a robust theoretical realm in its own right. Perhaps someday the field will develop into something more truly challenging to economic orthodoxy. Until then, behavioral finance will have to play Statler and Waldorf to the Muppet Show of mainstream finance—providing entertaining critique, but not replacing the marquee acts. (Now if economics would just substitute Milton Berle for Milton Friedman….)


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'Bachelor' Jake Pavelka Gives Sean Lowe Relationship Advice & We Can't Stop Laughing

Sean Lowe DWTSSo... last time I checked, former Bachelor Jake Pavelka was still a jerk. Is that not still the case anymore? Did hell freeze over or something? Because I'm pretty sure he's still most famous for publicly humiliating his ex-fiance on live television. Oh, and I think he also became a stripper. Awesome.

Well, now he's come out of the woodwork to give Sean Lowe some relationship advice before he competes on this upcoming season of Dancing With The Stars. Because, you know -- Jake was also a recently engaged Bachelor star when he competed on the dance floor just a few years ago -- and we all know how great that turned out.

Jake said:

You have to have a high level of communication with what you’re doing on the dance floor because she’s going to see everything. No matter how secure a woman is, when she sees her man dancing the way he’s going to with another woman, it would make anyone crazy.

I'm sure it will be hard for Sean's fiance, Catherine Guidici to watch Sean dance intimately with another woman. And I'm sure it's only a matter of time before rumors start swirling that Sean's having an affair with his dance partner, Peta Murgatroyd. But, you see, I'm not too worried about these two -- because Sean isn't like Jake. And if I know Sean like I think I do (and that's pretty damn well), I'm sure all of this crossed his mind before even deciding to sign onto a show like Dancing With The Stars. He doesn't need to be reminded to make his lady feel comfortable. He's Sean Lowe for crying out loud. He's one half of the most realistic Bachelor couples to date! Clearly, he's doing something right.

So while I'm sure that Jake was simply trying to stay relevant by giving Sean some advice, it only shows us how much better of a guy Sean is. So thanks, but no thanks, Jake. Sean's got this covered. And we can't WAIT to see our favorite Bachelor hunk hit the dance floor tonight ... hopefully with Catherine cheering from the sidelines.

Sean & Catherine FOREVER.

Are you surprised by Jake's advice?

Image via ABC

the bachelor, dancing with the stars


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Feed on

Can a good thing be turned into a bad thing. It appears that Americans are responding to the taxes, exhortations, health risks and other anti-smoking efforts and have actually been reducing their smoking at rates faster than experts initially calculated.

So what’s the problem?

Some of you are old enough to remember the tobacco boondoggle settlement from 1998. That was a $200 billion+ settlement from the tobacco companies to the states as downpayment on cartelization compensation for the damages that smoking had caused over the years. Of course, states being the patient fiscally responsible entities that they were, couldn’t wait for the dollars to flow in from the tobacco companies. So, taking their cue from the investment banks who can basically take any cash flow, package it up and sell it off as a bond (and I am sure at the urging of the investment banks), states and municipalities “securitized” these expected future cash flows. In other words, states took the money now (by raising it from investors) and sold the investors the rights to a fixed stream of future cash flows based on the expected future payments from tobacco companies.

These future payments were in part a function of how many cigarettes the tobacco companies sold, and hence how much people smoked. Oops. People are smoking a lot less than we anticipated 14 years ago, and even 9 years ago when studies were commissioned to estimate this.

What does this mean?

Well, the “securitization” means that the issuing entities (not all of them are states) are liable for any shortfalls. And it appears likely that the amount of cigarette settlement money expected to come in will fall short of what the issuers have promised to pay investors. Either the investors are going to lose (when the issuing agencies do not have the power to tax) or the taxpayers will lose (if the issuing agencies DO have the power to tax). Others may lose too. The point of course is that only in government can something like a reduction in smoking, something which has been front and center for public policy for 30 years, turn out to be a problem.

But are you surprised? Governments that find themselves in favorable fiscal positions are very much like those famous videos of kids sitting in front of the marshmallows. To be fair, this problem works in both directions. There is an embedded Hayekian point here, one actually that is made very well by Bob Higgs, and it is this: the various government entities in the US and the states have so vastly expanded the range of their interventions into our lives that it is impossible to foresee the impacts of current rules and regulations on future outcomes. One major reason for this is that each and every ruling we make interacts with some other existing ruling, even as most conscious homonids and beyond have no idea that most of them exist. In the case of the MSA, we should have at least have understood that raising federal cigarette taxes would eat into cigarette sales. The latter point is rather funny too, given the recent outcome in France wherein some pundits think you can just ramp up top income tax rates to 75% and not see people flee. Maybe in this case the states actually believed their own BS?

If you read the article I linked to, I think the authors leave out one potential option for the states.  I used to think this was tongue-in-cheek, but not anymore. Maybe the Fed can create a separate credit facility for the states to tap. After all, the states themselves are not supposed to access the discount window (just as non-banks were not supposed to). But of course, the “common” justification for the Fed is to keep liquidity in the system, keep credit markets from collapsing and ensuring confidence in the financial system. So will it create Maiden Lane LLC IV in order to buy up these toxic assets to get them off the books of the investors who stand to lose? Will it instead just make loans directly to the states (on harsh terms of course, right?). Can you even speculate on what sort of facility the Fed may create if it wanted to intervene?

A final observation from this entire incident (and indeed there is a LOT more interesting stuff to learn here) is that we cannot even model out cigarette smoking a decade out, based on millions of observations about cigarette smoking and prices, yet the all knowing planners in Brussels, Washington, and beyond seem to think they can model out responses to a warming planet 100 years out.

4 Responses to “Only in Government: Thank You for Smoking Edition”

  1. Speedmaster says:

    Over the weekend we were all in the car heading out to various family activities (track meet, RIT engineering expo).

    My 8th grade son ask me if it was true that a very large percentage of the price of a pack of cigarettes was taxes. I assured him that it was.

    He then asked if the govt. wanted people to smoke more (raise more tax $$), or less (the natural effect punitive taxes). I told him that they were kind of playing both sides. They claim that they want people to smoke less, but they’ve become addicted to the tax receipts.

    As far as that old tobacco settlement, I remember it well. Even at the time I recognized it for what it was, a massive political shakedown.

  2. Harry says:

    The article points out that some states will be in technical default by tapping into special reserves to pay off the bondholders, essentially using the bondholders’ own money. This sounds like what Bernie Madoff did. Bernie might wonder why he’s in jall.

  3. […] Only in Government: Thank You for Smoking Edition […]

  4. […] smoking tobacco, not to quit buying tobacco. Posted on May 12, 2012 12:30 pm by razorbacker It appears that Americans are responding to the taxes, exhortations, health risks and other anti-sm… Some of you are old enough to remember the tobacco boondoggle settlement from 1998. That was a $200 […]

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Volume 74, Number 39 | February 2 - 8, 2005

Stealth garbage truck garage on Gansevoort raises a stink

By Albert Amateau

Waterfront watchers and Hudson River Park advocates could hardly believe their eyes last week when they saw the steel superstructure of a two-story building rising on the Gansevoort Peninsula.

The 8-acre remnant of the 19th-century landfill is used by the city Department of Sanitation to store rock salt — for melting ice and snow — and park garbage trucks that serve the Village. The peninsula is supposed to be turned over in the next few years to the Hudson River Park Trust, the state/city agency building the 5-mile long riverfront park between Chambers and 59th Sts.

Indeed, the deadline set by state law for the removal of the salt pile and the truck garage from Gansevoort is more than a year past its Dec. 31, 2003, date, and D.O.S. is mandated by the same law to “make its best efforts” to entirely vacate the peninsula.

But the new 17,000-sq.-ft. structure rising about 50 ft. high on the west side of the existing garage — formerly a garbage incinerator — came as a surprise and does not look like it is going anywhere soon.

“We did not know it was going to be built,” said Chris Martin, spokesperson for the Trust, but he declined to say whether the Trust believes D.O.S. had the right to put it up.

Daniel Klein, director of the D.O.S. office of real estate, said the structure is temporary and will be a garage for garbage trucks that serve the Village or the east side of Midtown while new permanent facilities elsewhere are being built. The structure is to be completed at the end of this year and will serve as a garage for six or seven years, he said.

“I know that ‘temporary’ means different things — to the community it means months, but the department has to think in terms of years,” Klein said. But he insisted that the structure would not in any way make D.O. S. stay on the peninsula any longer than has been contemplated.

Even so, the city is proposing another sort of D.O.S. facility for the peninsula. The city Economic Development Corporation has had two forums in the Village in the past few months calling on Villagers to support a proposal for a D.O.S. marine-transfer station for recyclable metal glass and plastic that would be compatible with the Gansevoort Peninsula when it becomes a park in six or seven years. The transfer station would be built at the same time as the park.

But community advocates are upset about the new steel-frame building rising on what they anticipate as a major section of the park. Some people see the structure as a violation of the state 1998 Hudson River Park Act and many more believe it violates the spirit of the law.

“We’re going to look into the possibility of legal action,” said Albert Butzel, president of the Friends of Hudson River Park, a civic organization that advocates for the park. “We don’t know yet if they have the right to build another structure on the peninsula,” he said. In any case, Butzel said, not notifying the community about the D.O.S. plan to build the garage was “not very wise,” especially while presenting plans for the marine-transfer station.

Don MacPherson, chairperson of the Community Board 2 Waterfront Committee, said that notifying the community would have been “a wise gesture even if D.O.S. has the right to build the structure without permits.”

Tobi Bergman, a member of the C.B.2 Waterfront Committee, said he believes the construction is an illegal move that compromises the peninsula — “the best single site in the Hudson River Park.” Bergman said the move indicated the city’s disregard of community wishes. “It’s a small example compared to the Jets stadium monstrosity that threatens the entire borough,” he said, “but for our park-starved community this is still a major setback. This construction is illegal and it breaks the commitment the city and D.O.S. made to use best efforts to vacate Gansevoort and allow the park to be built.”

The section of the Hudson River Park Trust legislation that deals with Gansevoort reads as follows:

“Upon the relocation of any incompatible governmental uses, the Gansevoort Peninsula, or any portion thereof from which such incompatible governmental uses are removed, shall be used solely for park use (of which at least eighty percent shall be passive and active public open space uses), plus the marine company one fireboat station on Pier 53; provided however the city of New York shall use its best efforts for the relocation of the sanitation garage and by December 31, 2003, relocate the salt pile and remove the incinerator.”

In April 2002, D.O.S. demolished the incinerator’s twin smokestacks — the incinerator itself had been converted into a garage years before. The new structure covers the site of the old smokestacks.

Klein, however, said the structure is entirely legal because the “incompatible” government use was not removed. “The garage is still there and you can’t make a park on Gansevoort piece by piece,” he said.

Klein also noted that there have been many conversations over the past two years or so about the necessity to continue using Gansevoort until new places are found and constructed for the garbage trucks and street-sweeping equipment. When the smokestacks were taken down in 2002, D.O.S. told the Trust at that time that the site would be used for a maintenance facility for Sanitation vehicles.

But even back then, while D.O.S. let it be known that the smokestacks would eventually come down, the department did not notify the Trust when the job would begin. Klein said this week that the department had publicly said it would make more intensive use of Gansevoort. “But we may not have mentioned a building,” he said. “If we didn’t mention a building, it was a mistake and I’m sorry for that.”

At least three garages are planned or under construction — at W. 57th St. east of the West Side Highway, E. 73rd St. by the F.D.R. and at W. 30th St. just south of the proposed Jets stadium — that would eventually take all the garbage trucks currently on Gansevoort, including the ones that will be moved into the temporary structure.

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Volume 75, Number 42 | March 8 -14 2006

Villager photo by Talisman Brolin

Cherry Lane set to bloom again

A preview on Monday of the historic Cherry Lane Theatre, where renovations are being completed, was attended by, from left, Angelina Fiordellisi, the theater’s artistic director; Matt Williams, a board member of the Cherry Lane Theatre; actor Tamara Tuni; playwright Michael Weller; and James King, the theater’s managing director, seen in the main-stage theater space where renovations are being completed. The Cherry Lane, an incubator for playwrights and actors throughout its long history, will reopen with a gala event on April 3 at which honorees will include playwright Edward Albee; John F. Breglio, the theater and entertainment attorney; playwright David Henry Hwang; and City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn. The gala host will be actress Judith Ivey. The program will include special performances and appearances by F. Murray Abraham, Amiri Baraka, Robby Benson, Billy Crudup, Karla DeVito, Dule Hill and others.

Reader Services

Email our editor

The Villager is published by
Community Media LLC.

The Villager | 487 Greenwich St., Suite 6A | New York, NY 10013

Phone: 212.229.1890 | Fax: 212.229.2790
Email: news@thevillager.com

Written permission of the publisher must be obtainedbefore any of the contents of this newspaper, in whole or in part, can be reproduced or redistributed.