Thomas Bentley and Alexandra H. Ollinger February 2, 2016
How to Preserve Family Wealth: Better Conversations and Flexible Estate Plans
Tom is an estate planning specialist focused on helping clients understand and embrace estate planning strategies, while Alexandra is a wealth advisor specializing in working with multi-generational family clients. In this Viewpoint, they collaborate to discuss the guiding principles of successful wealth preservation.
"Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations." This old saying describes the experience of many wealthy families: the first generation starts with nothing, but amasses wealth through ingenuity and hard work, only to have the wealth vanish by the time their great-grandchildren are in charge.
This scenario remains entirely too common today. Research from multiple sources confirms that approximately 70% of families lose their wealth within two generations and 90% within three.
Those sobering figures explain why wealth preservation is one of the hottest topics in the financial planning and investment management industry today. The interest is particularly intense among independent advisors and fiduciaries, who may feel they have let down their clients when wealth and assets dissipate too soon. For families whose wealth originated with family-owned businesses, preserving legacies and a sense of purpose may be nearly as important as protecting financial resources for future generations.
Fundamentally, estate planning documents serve as the "roadmap" to long-term wealth preservation. First and foremost, they must protect against the most common threats – divorce and/or creditors – that cause assets to move out of the bloodline. However, the best estate plans are also flexible in allowing surviving spouses to modify how and when assets are distributed, which may be necessary for families facing unique challenges.
Consider a situation where one child of a wealthy family commits to a relatively low-paying career (social work, for instance), while another earns a large salary (as a surgeon, for example). Over time, the family may decide not to distribute assets equally among their children, which is the typical default. A child or grandchild with special education or healthcare needs may also merit a tailored approach to asset distribution.
Tailoring the Right Estate Plan
Wealth preservation strategies are not one-size-fits-all. They can and should be tailored to each family's circumstances. It's also important to remember that the estate planning process can help preserve family legacies, too. For example, philanthropic giving may be an important topic during these discussions. What legacy does a family wish to leave in its community? Do parents want future generations to understand the causes and organizations that mattered most to them? If so, estate plans may specify planned giving to balance wealth preservation with the continuation of a family legacy.
Similar questions apply to family-owned businesses. If future generations are to participate or ultimately control the business, do they understand the values and principles that led to success in the past? Have they been raised to understand the work ethic, commitment to problem solving and succession planning requirements?
There may be other considerations regarding strategic tax planning to ensure future generations avoid inheritance taxes or estate taxes. And, in working on estate documents, parents may see an opportunity to explain to their children that annual gifts (the tax-free maximum is $14,000) should not be expected every year. In this sense, estate planning can help children and grandchildren avoid a sense of entitlement that is a real threat to wealth preservation.
On multiple occasions, we have seen relatively straightforward estate planning conversations about the executor of a will or the designation healthcare power of attorney spark substantive conversations about end-of-life care, burial preferences or family heritage.
These topics are too important to leave to chance. That's why we believe that the more conversation, communication and information sharing the better, as it increases the likelihood that families will preserve their wealth, and their relationships, for generations to come.
The bottom line is that the preservation of wealth – much like the creation of wealth – requires thoughtful planning, an intentional approach and open communication. That may sound like difficult work, but in our experience the rewards (both financial and emotional) are very much worth the effort.
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SBU News > Stony Brook Matters > Alumni Spotlight Story > Archaeologists Reveal Massive Ancient Cemetery Near Lake Turkana, Kenya
AcademicsAlumni Spotlight StoryCollege of Arts & SciencesMedicine and ResearchResearchSocial SciencesStony Brook Matters
Archaeologists Reveal Massive Ancient Cemetery Near Lake Turkana, Kenya
A groundbreaking study has found the earliest and largest monumental cemetery in eastern Africa built 5,000 years ago by early pastoralists living around Lake Turkana, Kenya. This group is believed to have lived without major inequalities and hierarchies, contradicting long-standing narratives about the origins of early civilizations. The study, led by Elisabeth Hildebrand, PhD, Department of Anthropology at Stony Brook University, will be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Stone pendants and earrings from the communal cemetery of Lothagam North, Kenya, built by eastern Africa's earliest herders ~5000-4300 years ago. Megaliths, stone circles, and cairns flank the 30-m platform mound; its mortuary cavity contains an estimated several hundred individuals, tightly arranged. Most burials had highly personalized ornaments. Lothagam North demonstrates monumentality may arise among dispersed, mobile groups without strong hierarchy.
The Lothagam North Pillar Site was a communal cemetery constructed and used over a period of several centuries. A platform 90 feet (30 m) in diameter held a large cavity in its center. There, an estimated minimum of 580 individuals were placed close together. Men, women, and children were typically buried with elaborate personal ornaments. Eventually, burial activities ceased and herders capped the entire platform with stones.
Historically, archeologists researching settled agricultural societies have found that large groups of people built permanent monuments as reminders of shared history, ideals and culture. These ancient monuments have previously been regarded as reliable indicators of complex societies with emerging elites and social classes. However, the Lothagam cemetery was constructed by mobile pastoralists and carries no evidence for hierarchy; it therefore requires alternative models for the relations between monuments and social change.
The discovery has prompted researchers to examine similar examples elsewhere in Africa and on other continents, and has the potential to reshape global perspectives on how – and why – large groups of people come together to form complex societies. In this case, it appears that Lothagam North's architects faced highly uncertain environments as Lake Turkana shrunk by 50%, and grappled with economic and social instability as herding took hold. Early herders may have constructed the cemetery to provide a stable landmark on a shifting landscape.
"The Lothagam North Pillar Site is the earliest known monumental site in eastern Africa built by the region's first herders," said Elisabeth Hildebrand, PhD, in the Department of Anthropology in at Stony Brook's College of Arts and Sciences. "This finding makes us reconsider how we define social complexity, and the kinds of motives that lead groups of people to create public architecture."
Significant findings include:
With an age of around 5,000 years, Lothagam North Pillar Site represents the earliest known monumental site in eastern Africa; it was built by the region's first herders as rainfall decreased and Lake Turkana receded.
Over a period of several centuries, people buried an estimated minimum of 580 individuals – from infants to elderly and including both men and women – within a large mortuary cavity in the center of the platform. This constitutes one of the earliest known cemeteries in eastern Africa.
The monuments may have served as a place for people to congregate, renew social ties, and reinforce community identity. Information exchange and interaction through shared ritual may have helped mobile herders navigate a rapidly changing physical landscape.
Personal adornments occur with nearly all individuals and were not restricted to any sex or interment type. More than 300 vibrantly colored stone and mineral beads were found in diverse forms, showing that these people had a keen aesthetic sense. Making beads and other ornaments would have been time-consuming, and their variation in form demonstrates creativity and individual style.
Burials were tightly packed within the mortuary cavity, and their arrangement was not suggestive of ranking or social priority. This, together with diverse forms of personal ornamentation, suggests that the pastoralists who built Lothagam North did not have strong social hierarchies.
View of Lothagam North Pillar Kenya, built by eastern Africa's earliest herders ~5000-4300 years ago. Megaliths, stone circles, and cairns can be seen behind the 30-m platform mound; its mortuary cavity contains an estimated several hundred individuals, tightly arranged. Most burials had highly personalized ornaments. Lothagam North demonstrates monumentality may arise among dispersed, mobile groups without strong hierarchy.
The Turkana Basin Institute, a component of Stony Brook University, is an international research institute to facilitate research and education in paleontology, archaeology and geology in the Turkana Basin of Kenya. The goals of the institute include building and maintaining two field research facilities surrounding Lake Turkana that will operate all year and support research and educational activities, including field schools.
Archaeologists Reveal Massive Monumental Cemetery Built by Eastern Africa's Earliest Herders Near Lake Turkana, Kenya
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The Free Library > General Interest/Informational > General interest > Sojourners > December 1, 2006
The Free Library > Humanities > Philosophy and religion > Sojourners > December 1, 2006
The Free Library > Date > 2006 > December > 1 > Sojourners
'A light shines in the darkness'.
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Tom Fox was profoundly affected by the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. He recalled the vision held by Quaker leader George Fox in 1647 who said, "I saw, also, that there was an ocean of darkness and death; but an infinite ocean of light and love, which flowed over the ocean of darkness. In that also I saw the infinite love of God, and I had great openings."
Tom Fox's "great opening" led him to join Christian Peacemaker Teams in 2004. "While I knew very little about CPT at the time," Fox told CPT co-director Doug Pritchard, "I had a clear sense that I wanted very much to find some way to pull us out of the darkness and move the world (even if it was the movement of one human being) toward the light."
Fox served in Hebron, in the West Bank--protesting the separation wall, planting olive trees, and interviewing Palestinians whose homes had been destroyed by the Israeli Defense Forces--and in Iraq, accompanying refugees and shipments of medicine, interviewing incarcerated Iraqis and assisting their families, and working with the Muslim Peacemaker Teams.
After Fox was killed on March 9, 2006, his body was held at the Anaconda military base in Balat, Iraq, where CPT/Iraq member Beth Pyles kept vigil with Fox for the next 36 hours. Because he had served in the U.S. Marine Corps band for more than 20 years, Fox's coffin was draped in an American flag and shipped to Dover Air Force Base in the United States. Next to Fox was the coffin of an Iraqi detainee who had died in U.S. custody who was being transported to Dover for an autopsy. For Fox, Pyles read aloud from John's gospel: "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it" (1:5). For his Iraqi companion, Pyles invoked the Muslim call to prayer, "Allah Akhbar" (God is great), and read from Job 1:21--"the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord."
Back in Baghdad, CPT members erected an Iraqi funeral banner near the site where Fox's body was found. It read, in beautiful Arabic script, "In memory of Tom Fox [found] in this place. Christian Peacemaker Teams declares, 'We are for God and we return to God.' To those who held him, we declare, 'God forgave you.'"
"In Iraq I often heard Iraqis say that Tom had a pure heart--a big heart," recalled CPT member Greg Rollins at a memorial service for Tom Fox held in Washington, D.C. "They said this not because he put his life in danger, but because he cared. He believed in following Christ's cal to love God and love your neighbor and your enemy as yourself. Some people said that Tom didn't know what he was doing coming to Iraq, but Tom did know what he was doing. He was there to listen and to tell people outside of Iraq what was actually happening there."
An Iraqi member of the Muslim Peacemaker Teams recently told Sojourners, "I told my Muslim friends that I was sure Tom would go to God because he was working for peace. They said, 'But he's a Christian.' I answered them, 'But he gave his life for us.'"
Rose Marie Berger is an associate editor of Sojourners.
COPYRIGHT 2006 Sojourners
Copyright 2006, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.
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Pic: Vault Festival
The Ultimate Guide to VAULT Festival 2020
January 17th, 2020 | Becky Lima-Matthews
Vault Festival returns in 2020 to liven up the cold winter months between January 28th and March 22nd. Named after the festival's main venue, The Vaults on Leake Street, Waterloo, it's London's biggest annual arts festival. Last year was its most successful ever with over 79,0000 people coming to see over 400 shows. That took work from more than 2000 UK and international artists.
It's one of biggest fringe festivals in the UK outside of The Edinburgh Festival. So you don't have to wait until August or travel hundreds of miles to experience eight weeks of fringe and experimental theatre, comedy, acrobatics, spoken word, film screenings podcast recordings, cabaret, music and late events.
VAULT Festival 2020 Venues
Photo by VAULT Festival
Unlike Edinburgh Fringe, VAULT Festival isn't city-wide. You won't have to dash across London to see lots of shows. All of the festival's 18 venues are in the Waterloo area. Which means you can cut down on programme clashes and going back and forth on public transport.
The Main hub is The Vaults on Leake Street (which is actually a graffiti covered tunnel) just off Lower Marsh. Other participating venues include Network Theatre on Lower Road (follow their directions as it's tricky to find). There will also be plenty going on at VAULTY Towers on Lower Marsh and new comedy venue The Cockatiel at Hello Darling on Waterloo Road, next to The Old Vic. There'll be a smattering of pop-venues too.
What to see at VAULT Festival 2020
Diversity and sustainability are a big part of the 2020 event. VAULT Festival has teamed up with Staging Change, an organisation committed to promoting sustainable practices in theatre. To pick your perfect line-up use the official website below to filter by price point or category (theatre, cabaret, lates, mixed bill etc).
Some highlights to look forward to this year include:
Santi & Naz
There's plenty to see throughout the festival, but in the first week you can check out, Santi & Naz. Playing at the Cage @ The Vaults from Jan 29th–Feb 2nd, it's a story of female friendship threatened by the partition of India, and the drastic action they take to avoid separation.
Passion on the Night Tube
Interacting with other humans on public transport late at night is enough to break most Londoners into a cold sweat. But for writer-director Tony Tang it's the subject of a play about connection in unlikely places. On at The Horse and Stables pub from Jan 29th–Feb 2nd is Passion on the Night Tube. It features Jimmy Wong as a gay Chinese man who becomes homeless and spends the weekend on the night tube.
Freedom, Hi
Later on in the run, from March 10th–15th at Pit @ The Vaults, is Freedom, Hi. It's a devised piece about the ongoing protests in Hong Kong. Definitely one to see if you've had your head in the sand over the protests in Hong Kong (a big shout out to our friends over at Hong Kong Cheapo).
Expect sketch comedy, improv and stand up throughout the VAULT Festival. Shows on during the early part of the festival include Lady Likes: Top Secret House Party! In the Studio @ The Vaults from January 29th–January 31st. There's also Work in Progress from Zahra Barri (as featured on BBC iPlayer) on at The Cockatiel Club @ Hello Darling on January 31st. Then there's improvised reality TV show I'm Not Here to Make Friends, on at Crypt @ The Vaults on February 5th-12th.
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One of the longer-running highlights is The LOL Word Coming Out Special at Crescent @ The Vaults from January 31st–March 13th. Last year's run sold out, so be quick if you want to catch their raucous one-hour show.
Lates
Stick around after hours for late night cabaret, parties and experimental performances. Climate activists, artists and performers invite you to The Underbar @ The VAULTs on 22nd for Extinction Underground where you can dance, play and find out more about Extinction Rebellion.
Catch acts from the graduating class of Soho Theatre's Cabaret & Drag Lab on March 6th at Forge Lates at The VAULTs for a night of queer and fantasic performances. Be sure to stick around for the after party.
Tickets for VAULT Festival
Tickets range from £7.50 to around £18.00 for individual shows. It's worth checking out some of the festival offers too. Download the Stagedoor app to plan your festival experience and get 2-4-1 ticket offers on selected shows, and 10% of selected food and drinks too. These are limited though, so get in quick.
If you're planning on seeing a lot of shows,you can also save 10% off every show by becoming a member for £35.00. Going with mates? You get 10% off for groups of 8 or more when you book together. You can also get £1.00 off the first two performances of any show that's on for 5 nights or more.
One major bonus of the VAULT Festival is that it doesn't take place during peak season. So if you're visiting London during that time, finding cheap accommodation should be fairly easy.
Your best bet is probably a hostel. In fact you can even book rooms at The Horse & Stables, one of the festival venues. That's if it's not already booked out by international cabaret troupes and out-of-town performers. There are mixed and single-sex dorms from £14.00 and private rooms from just £60.00.
Even if you're not staying in the immediate area, transport links are great. Waterloo is in Zone 1 and is a suburban and regional trainline. You can also get trains and the DLR to Waterloo east, or the Underground on the Bakerloo, Northern and Jubilee lines. Southwark tube (Jubilee line) is also a short walk from most of the venues too.
And if you're sticking around for a late show, the Night Tube runs on Friday and Saturday nights on the Northern Line (Charing Cross branch) and Jubilee lines. There are also plenty of buses from Waterloo too, for bonus top-deck sightseeing.
VAULT Festival 2023
Dates: 24th Jan–19th Mar, 2023
The Vaults Theatre
Name Mentioned in this article
Area(s)
Places Mentioned
Network Theatre
The Horse and Stables
Written by: Becky Lima-Matthews
Becky's London favorites are: Kerbisher & Malt, 5 Cheap BYO Restaurants in London, Arancini Brothers
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Structural Changes in Employment Generation: New Approaches
Anil Kumar Thakur (Editor) Bharti Pandey (Editor)
Anil Kumar Thakur
Dr. Anil Kumar thakur, M.A. M.Ed., Ph. D., is a senior faculty member in the Post Graduate Department of Applied Economics and Commerce at College of Commerce, Patna under Magadh University. Many research scholars have obtained Ph. D. degrees under his guidance and supervision.
Thakur has excelled himself in several areas of Economic Policy and Fiscal Management of the Indian Economy. He has also edited more than forty books/journals/souvenirs. Thakur is a matured organizer and architect of Indian Economic Association. He is the youngest Honorary Secretary and Treasurer of Indian Economic Association. He has founded the Economic Association of Bihar and Jharkhand and remained its Founder Secretary for more than ten years.
He is a signature of Indian Economic Association and many organizations of Bihar and India. Thakur is the vanguard of young professional economists living in far-flung rural remote areas to inspire and encourage them to write articles and books.
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Indian Public Finance and the Twelfth Finance Commission
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Development of Informal Economy: Problems and Challenges
Fiscal Federalism in India: Challenges and Reforms
Special Purpose Vehicle: Concepts and Applications
Vietnam's Economic Transition: Policies, Issues and Prospects
Opportunity Beckons: Adding Momentum to the Indo-German Partnership
Growing Cities in a Shrinking World: The Challenges of Urbanism in India and China
Title	Structural Changes in Employment Generation: New Approaches
Author	Anil Kumar Thakur
Bharti Pandey
Publisher	Regal Publications
length	xx+258p., Illustrations; 23cm.
Subjects Business & Economics > Economics


NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The undisputed "King of Country Music," George Strait again used his platform for good, recognizing National First Responders Day yesterday, Oct. 28, by supporting The 100 Club of San Antonio's efforts to assist families of fallen first responders in connection with his latest single "The Weight of the Badge."
Written together by Strait, his son Bubba and longtime collaborator Dean Dillon, "The Weight of the Badge" off Strait's most recent album, Honky Tonk Time Machine, speaks to the sacrifices made by our nation's first responders and marks Strait's record-extending 100th entry on the Billboard Country Airplay chart, where he also holds the record for most Top 10s with 61 songs.
Strait's Vaqueros del Mar Golf Tournament Raised Over $2.2 Million for Feherty's Troops First Foundation (L to R: Tom Cusick, David Feherty, Srgt. Major Tom Capel, Ed Garahan, George Strait) | Photo Credit: Terry Calonge
Strait's ninth annual Vaqueros del Mar golf tournament and benefit concert, hosted together with longtime friend and businessman Tom Cusick from Oct. 20-23 in Boerne, Texas, also raised a record-setting $2.2 million and counting for the Feherty's Troops First Foundation which directly benefits wounded military service men and women. In addition to Strait, the event also featured performances by artists including Ray Benson & Asleep at the Wheel, Jamey Johnson, Randy Houser, Wade Bowen, Randy Rogers and Sailor Jerry.
George Strait Receives the Bob Hope Award for Excellence in Entertainment (L to R: Major Drew Dix, Sgt. Leroy Petry and George Strait) | Photo Credit: Ryan Johnson for the Medal of Honor Society
Strait was recognized last Friday, Oct. 25, at the Medal of Honor Convention's Patriot Award Gala with the Bob Hope Award for Excellence in Entertainment, which honors entertainers who demonstrate an exceptional commitment to the U.S. military through film, literature or music.
George Strait | Photo Credit: David McClister
He also recently announced his return to the heartland in 2020 via performances at INTRUST Bank Arena on Friday, January 24 for Visit Wichita Presents Strait to Oz and in Kansas City for Strait to the Heartland at Sprint Center on Saturday, January 25 and Sunday, January 26, 2020. Additionally, fans can catch Strait later this year at at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas on Nov. 22 and 23, plus two additional "Strait to Vegas" shows at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Dec. 6 and 7. For more information, visit www.GeorgeStrait.com.
Posted by The George Strait Team on 29 Oct 2019
0 comments Albums & Music, Awards


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Five Fantastic Slots Inspired by the Movies
At Castle Jackpot, we love online slots that have a strong theme. From classic Egyptian slots such as Cleopatra slot, to contemporary slots like the space-themed Starburst slot, we can't get enough. But, every once in a while, a slot comes along that really sweeps us off our feet. Often, they turn out to be slots that are based on popular culture, and in particular, some of the most popular feature films of all time.
Some of the movies that game developers choose to base their slots on are cult films, while some are critically-acclaimed classics. All of them are incredible, and we'd love to take this opportunity to share our favourites with all of our loyal Castle Jackpot Knights and Maidens. As ever, our online slots and casino blog is the main place to garner an overview of games, but the best way to decide if they're for you is to play the demo for free.
There are many online casino games that take their theme from films within the Castle Jackpot ranks, and they can all be played as a free demo if thou are unsure, with no deposit required. But, without further ado, we present our top five fantastic slots inspired by the movies.
1. Anchorman Slot
In 2004, comedy legend Will Ferrell starred in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, a film that parodied the Action News format of the 1970s. It follows a fictional news crew as they struggle to cope with the appointment of a new anchorwoman, who rivals Ron Burgundy for the head presenting role. The film was met with widespread critical acclaim and, much like the title character, has been propelled into legendary status in both the US and the UK.
SG Interactive ultimately created Anchorman slot, and it includes most of the main characters from the original film. High paying symbols Baxter the dog, Brian Fantana, Brick Tamland, and Champ Kind join Ron in appearing across the reels, while some of their equipment such as the news team van are lower paying symbols. There are also wilds and bonus symbols in play.
SG make sure they pack slots with bonus features, and this is no different, as there are several additional features thou can enjoy. In the base game, combatants can benefit from the reels becoming stacked with mystery symbols. However, the bonus rounds are what thou shall be hoping to see, and there are four to stumble across, with Ron and Champ offering free spins, Brick giving thee a spin of his weather wheel, and Brian allowing jousters to pick from his aftershave bottles to earn multipliers. There are also jackpots on offer, with The Really Good Jackpot awarding challengers 1,333.33x their stake.
2. Mars Attacks Slot
It's not often that a film is based on a trading card game from the 1960s, but that's exactly where Jonathan Gems found the inspiration while writing the 1996 cult film Mars Attacks!, directed by Tim Burton. In the movie, aliens from Mars invade the United States, as they plan on expanding to world domination, and a small team of misfits attempts to thwart their plans.
Blueprint Gaming have produced an amazing game with the Mars Attacks! slot. The subtle intricacies in terms of the graphics are a joy to behold, with the play symbol resembling a radar, and the flying saucers soaring high in the night's sky behind the reels. Blueprint also include their Jackpot King feature here, which sees jousters compete for progressive jackpots worth eye-watering amounts!
There are tons of base game features that contenders can get stuck into, and the bonus features are some of the best we've seen in any slot game. We know that sounds like an exaggeration, but thou should play the free demo to see exactly what we mean, as they are highly immersive and enjoyable, with a mixture of multiplier features such as We Come in Peace, and free spins features such as Martian Takeover.
3. Naked Gun Slot
The Naked Gun series of films are comedy classics, and the first installment was released in 1988, with sequels following in 1991 and 1994. Based on a short-lived TV series called Police Squad!, the films follow the exploits of hapless detective Frank Drebin (played by the late, great Leslie Nielsen) as he frequently attempts to foil plots to assassinate and/or kidnap public figures, with mixed results. The cult films traversed the Atlantic and became wildly popular in the UK.
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And New: Joshua Franco Upsets Andrew Moloney to win Super Flyweight Title
LAS VEGAS — According to the oddsmakers, it was an upset, but Joshua Franco (17-1-2, 8 KOs) was not surprised. Franco defeated Andrew Moloney via unanimous decision to win the WBA super flyweight world title Tuesday evening by scores of 115-112 and 114-113 2x.
Franco dominated down the stretch, knocked Moloney down in the 11th round and swept the 12th on all three judges' cards to secure the victory.
"After the fourth round, I gained the momentum and figured him out. I always knew this was possible," Franco said. "I wasn't nervous when the decision was being read. I knew I'd done enough to win this fight. My coach, Robert Garcia, had me ready. I'm going home with the belt."
Moloney (21-1, 14 KOs), from Melbourne Australia, was making his American debut.
"It just wasn't my night tonight," Moloney said. "This was not the best version of Andrew Moloney, but full credit to Joshua Franco. He deserved to win the title with his effort. He closed the fight strong, like a true champion.
"I'll be back. One loss won't define me."
Diaz Decisions Sanchez
Christopher "Pitufo" Diaz (26-2, 16 KOs) is back in the world title picture. Diaz, from Barranquitas, Puerto Rico, bested Jason Sanchez (15-2, 8 KOs) via 10-round unanimous decision (98-92 2x, 97-93) in a crossroads featherweight fight.
Diaz has now won two in a row since an April 2019 decision loss to Shakur Stevenson. He has his sights set on a world title opportunity at either featherweight or junior featherweight.
"I can fight at featherweight, or I can make 122 pounds. Whatever Top Rank wants, but I'm ready for a big fight in either weight division. I am a completely different and improved fighter from the one who fought Shakur Stevenson last year," Diaz said. "I worked on my power in the gym. My coaches, Nelson Rodriguez and Freddie Roach, got me ready for tonight."
— In a six-round battle of unbeaten junior welterweight prospects, Miguel Contreras (11-0, 6 KOs), from Bakersfield, California, bested Rolando Vargas (5-1, 5 KOs) by unanimous decision. All three judges scored it 58-56.
— In a six-round heavyweight bout, Helaman Olguin (8-3, 3 KOs) upset the previously undefeated Adam Stewart (8-1-1, 5 KOs) via majority decision by scores of 57-57 and 58-56 2x.
Tags: AND NEW, Andrew Moloney, boxing, Boxing News, Combat Sports News, JOSHUA FRANCO, Super Flyweight Title, Top Rank, upsets, Win
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417 Magazine Lifestyle Life The History Museum in Downtown Springfield gets an Upgrade
The History Museum in Downtown Springfield gets an Upgrade
The History Museum on the Square starts a new chapter as it unveils its new 18,000-square-foot location, which features seven galleries, including six permanent exhibits and one state-of-the-art gallery for special events and traveling exhibits.
By Jenna DeJong
Photo by Brandon AlmsThe museum's Route 66 display has been its most popular exhibit. Purchase Photo
Since first opening its doors back in 1976, The History Museum on the Square (417-831-1976; 154 Park Central Square) has had a few homes around Springfield, including a space in the Old City Hall building. The space had room for several small galleries, and dreams of a larger regional museum were only for the far-off future. Back in 2000, Mary McQueary and John Sellars were volunteers doing what they could to help the museum's mission. They fell in love with the tales of historic Springfield and did their part to make each story known and appreciated by every guest who walked through the door. Their vision for and dedication to the museum, along with their desire to preserve the history of the region, drove them to help build a regional, historical masterpiece.
Their time spent as volunteers moved them up the ranks at the museum: Sellars became executive director in 2005, and McQueary became president of the board in 2007. The two helped execute a $12 million project including renovating two historic 100-year-old buildings and adding interactive elements for the eight brand-new exhibits.
Ten years after the project officially began, the goal is nearly realized. The reimagined museum is no longer a thing of wishful thinking but a nearly completed solid historical masterpiece sitting on Park Central Square, just a few doors down from its current location at the historic Fox Theatre. While the opening date hasn't been announced, the new building encompasses a welcome center, six permanent galleries and one state-of-the-art gallery that can accommodate traveling exhibits and special events.
Native Crossroads at the Spring
Since the original museum first opened, staff has been acquiring tons of artifacts. That's good news for the museum's collection but bad news for the current temporary space. The current museum only had capacity for one rotating exhibit, which currently showcases a Route 66 display. All other artifacts have had to be stored. With the opening of the new location, the organization can haul things out of storage and feature more content, including a collection dedicated to Native Americans.
"There will be a lot of information about the different tribes that passed through here and how they impacted this area," Sellars says. "It will be about their lifestyle and how they lived. Most of them were forcibly relocated, and it tells a lot about how that interaction and dislocation from their homeland got them here. It also talks about the Trail of Tears and how it came through here on the way to Oklahoma."
The exhibit includes artifacts from local tribes, a video and animal tracks embedded in the floor. The museum is also a stop on the National Park Service's Trail of Tears Passport Program.
Photos by Brandon AlmsThe History Museum's Route 66 gallery is very popular among visitors. Purchase Photo
Photos by Brandon AlmsSouthwest Missouri's rich history in on display. Purchase Photo
Photos by Brandon AlmsThe trolley time machine is one of the museum's new interactive installations. Purchase Photo
Photos by Brandon AlmsAnother display details life in Springfield, MO following the Civil War Purchase Photo
Photos by Brandon AlmsThere is a Sunset Drive-In Sign, sharing more recent Springfield, MO history. Purchase Photo
Photos by Brandon AlmsInformation can be found about various settlers that travelled to Springfield, MO. Purchase Photo
Trains, Trolleys and Transportation: Children's Education Area
Although built to pique children's curiosity, this section of the museum is likely to be a favorite among all audiences. An elevator that can hold up to 22 people delivers guests to this gallery. Upon arrival, the first thing visitors spot is a gigantic Frisco train seemingly coming out of the wall on one side and a replica of a trolley car that doubles as a time machine on the other side of the gallery.
Those who head into the train step inside and participate in a simulation where they get to drive the locomotive and take part in educational video games about transportation. Video footage from the simulation was recorded at Wilson's Creek National Battlefield and includes footage of land untouched by technology.
Adams says the gallery also includes a trolley time machine with more than 40 video vignettes showcasing famous Springfieldians and significant historical events.
Pioneers and Founders at the Crossroads
This gallery is exclusively dedicated to showcasing Springfield founders. The Pioneer Theater shows what life was like in the late 1800s and depicts which local businesses got their start in Springfield and how they developed over time. Krista Adams, the director of development, says the museum strives to enlist contractors within southwest Missouri to help support the local economy but also experts in the museum field, including Boston-based Richard Lewis Media Group and Virginia-based Explus. Both worked to develop the interactive elements and exhibits, which are assembled out-of-state before they're shipped to Springfield.
The Civil War in Springfield
As the home of three different battles, Springfield has its own historical wounds and this section of the museum is dedicated to telling those stories. The History Museum on the Square has a close relationship with Wilson's Creek National Battlefield, and together the two worked to articulate what life was like during Springfield's early days. Different videos and interactive displays are included in this gallery.
Wild Bill Hickok and the American West
The storied shootout between Wild Bill Hickok and Davis Tutt in July of 1865 on Park Central Square is a crucial event in Springfield's history, so naturally it has its own gallery at the museum. The exhibit is dedicated to Hickok's early life and influences, the shootout, the ensuing court case, the media coverage and the legend that grew from the shootout. It includes "an immersive shooting chamber that allows the user to experience the Wild Bill Hickok and Davis Tutt shootout," according to a museum press release. Those who choose to participate in the simulation get to use a replica of the gun Hickok used against Tutt.
Birthplace of Route 66
As the only current exhibit at the museum, the gallery dedicated to Route 66 is already popular. Even before the completion of the new museum, visitors from more than 35 countries have stopped in to learn about arguably the most popular road in the United States.
The most notable interactive element is a 66-foot long timeline of the iconic Mother Road. Adams says there are also replica neon signs with electronic interactives that take people back in time through historic Springfield.
Voices of History Temporary Gallery and Meeting Space
One of the biggest upgrades to the museum is a new gallery space dedicated to traveling exhibits and special events. McQueary says the state-of-the-art gallery meets the Smithsonian's security and HVAC standards, allowing the museum to host the Smithsonian and other traveling exhibits. The first few months following the opening of the museum are mostly dedicated to hosting special events.
Monday – Saturday: 10:30 am to 4:30 pm
Adults: $5
Children (3 – 12): $3
There a several free parking options in walking distance from the Fox Theatre.
The closest free parking option is located at the corner of Olive St. and Boonville Ave.
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Working out of the crisis
Edward Jurkevics, Principal Analyst with Chesapeake Analytics of Arlington, Virginia, specially for BC, 03.02.2009.
We can't just speculate on real estate, and never produce anything, proclaimed a recent message from my relative in Talsi, Latvia, who was telling me about hooligans marauding in Doma Laukums.
House prices are falling with no bottom in sight. Saddled with mortgages they can't afford, families are defaulting on their payments and losing their homes to foreclosure. The banks holding large mortgage portfolios on their balance sheets are insolvent. The government has issued a round of recapitalizations in a bail-out to try to save the banking sector, but it's not enough, and the country's biggest banks are failing and being nationalized. The economy is shrinking, unemployment is rising, the stock market is shaky, meager retirement savings are wiped out, and people are afraid.
Wait: I'm talking about the US, not Latvia. This is the situation here in Arlington, Virginia.
Punctured by the price collapse of mortgage-backed securities in the US in beginning in 2007, the worldwide asset-price bubble is rapidly deflating. From housing to stocks and bonds and even commodities like oil, prices have dropped dramatically around the globe. No Latvians, you are not alone.
Here in the US, the numbers are staggering. In late 2006 the total value of real estate in the US was approximately $23 trillion dollars. Economist's estimate it will take two successive years of 15% price declines to deflate the housing bubble. And the deflation typically overshoots by 5%, which will leave the US property stock valued at about $16 trillion, an evaporation of $7 trillion dollars! To top it off, American investors saw an additional $7 Trillion of losses in their stock portfolios in 2008.
This was the discredited American business plan: Buy all our manufactured goods from China, and borrow back the money we pay to them. Trade our houses back and forth to each other at ever-rising prices, so we feel rich. Spend every penny we make, and save nothing, because the party will go on forever!
Well, the party ended just as the first baby-boomer retired, and decided they wanted a smaller house. The Ponzi scheme collapsed. Who was at fault here? Well there is lots of blame to go around.
Let's start with the average American citizen, who lived irresponsibly, and voted against any politician who was brave enough to tell him so. Those politicians that did get elected established policies to extend home ownership to families that simply could not afford to own a home, and set up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to keep the party going. The bankers were only too happy to underwrite all these mortgages, including high-interest sub-prime loans to the least affluent buyers, collecting billions of dollars of fees along the way. Mortgage underwriting fees collected by the banks reached $50 billion in 2006. Why could the banks keep issuing these mortgages to people who couldn't afford them? Because Wall Street financial wizards had figured out how to take mortgage portfolios, perform risk-layering and resecuritization of the mortgage bundles, and issue new securities with names like Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs) and insurance against losses in CDOs called Credit Default Swaps (CDSs).
The risk-rating agencies like Moody's were paid to rate these instruments, and by magic a CDO made up of sub-prime mortgages got a AAA investment grade stamp. And these AAA CDOs could be sold to just about anyone, and they were, spurring the whole US housing bubble. The investment banks like Merrill Lynch, Lehman and Bear Stearns made hundreds of billions of dollars rolling up, issuing and selling the CDOs. And big insurance firms like AIG sold vast amounts of CDSs to cover any prospective losses. About – hold your breath – $400 trillion of these CDSs are outstanding. That's about 8 times the whole world's annual GDP! Wall Street executives paid themselves over $26 billion on bonuses in 2006, to celebrate their genius. Brilliant!
And who was watching over this?
You guessed it, nobody except for the cheerleaders. The Democrats in the House with oversight responsibility for Fannie Mae kept urging them to make more mortgage loans available, despite regulators and auditors shouting that their portfolios were laden with undisclosed risk. Fannie Mae paid millions in campaign contributions to these committee members, like Rep. Barney Frank and Sen. Christopher Dodd. Furthermore, the Congress had specifically forbidden the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) from regulation hedge funds or the explosive new CDS instruments. But the SEC still failed in regulating that which was within its purview, namely the investment banks, who took on more and more leverage and riskier and riskier portfolios. The balance sheets of the financial firms SEC regulated were an utter fantasy, and the SEC cheered all the way. Meanwhile, the New York Federal Reserve had regulatory oversight over the big New York banks like Citi. Lead by Timothy Geithner, they said not a word as the debacle unfolded. Geithner's punishment: President Obama just made him Secretary of the Treasury, despite the fact he was exposed as a tax cheat, and will now oversee the tax collecting agency the Internal Revenue Service. Oh, there is plenty of blame to go around. We should fill Sing Sing prison with these white-collar criminals, the politicians, the regulators, the bankers, the ratings agencies, and on and on.
If you haven't figured it out yet, the Wall Street wizards figured out how to make a financial nuclear bomb powerful enough to blow up the whole world's economy. What happened? KABOOM!
So what is to be done? Well the cure for this applies equally to the US or Latvia or Japan for that matter. Here is the seven-step national economic recovery plan that is needed now:
1) Stabilize the banks and financial institutions. Force a full clean-up and write down of all bad loans. Seize all insolvent financial institutions, recapitalize them or liquidate them, and sell back the viable ones to the public in and orderly fashion, just like was done in the savings and loan crisis by Resolution Trust Corp.
2) Provide relief to mortgage holders by providing a 4% fixed term mortgage to homeowners and new buyers who can afford to pay their debts.
3) Overhaul the banking, financial sector and securities laws and regulatory structure so that there is a clear line of regulatory responsibility for each institution and financial asset class. For goodness sakes, regulate the Credit Default Swaps, other derivatives and the hedge funds. Improve the transparency of financial firm's balance sheets. Regulate the scandalous mortgage underwriting industry, preventing the issuance of unviable or immoral mortgages.
4) Provide protection from the worst of the economic downturn to the most needy, the elderly, the sick, the disabled and the indigent, with temporary social benefits programs. Increase the direct monthly payments to mothers with infant children, to encourage fecundity while providing an economic stimulus.
5) Provide temporary tax breaks for companies that create jobs.
6) Establish a commission to investigate the fiasco, to identify the guilty in every sector public and private, and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law, in a timely and transparent manner. Claw back ill-gotten gains.
7) Announce the plan, act quickly and stick to it firmly, because the foremost thing that is needed is stability. Investors and citizens alike detest uncertainty.
Edward Jurkevics is Principal Analyst with Chesapeake Analytics of Arlington, Virginia.
He can be reached at jurkevics @ chesanal.com.
http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/real_estate/?doc=9384


Excavating Archaeological Texts: Applying Digital Humanities to the Study of Archaeological Thought and Banal Nationalism
Plets, Gertjan; Huijnen, Pim; van Oeveren, David
(2021) Journal of Field Archaeology, volume 46, issue 5, pp. 289 - 302
To date, the evolution of archaeological knowledge production and theory has been discussed and analyzed using qualitative methods by reading vast amounts of archaeological texts in search of specific discourses or framings of the past. In this paper, we present text mining methodologies from digital humanities that can be applied ... read more to large corpora of archaeological texts to trace and evaluate changing knowledge practices. Such a big data approach is imperative. Due to the rapid increase of archaeological publications, qualitative research into the intellectual history of archaeology has become complicated and highly selective. The big data methods presented in this study were tested on a large corpus (4,811 texts totaling over 51 million words) of different types of archaeological texts from the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. The different text mining tools were successful in identifying theoretical trends. Our tools were also successful in charting the decrease in quality due to changed organizational circumstances (developer-led archaeology). Furthermore, we could also map changing banal nationalist framings of the past. show less
Keywords: Belgium, archaeological theory, history of archaeology, nationalism, text mining, Archaeology, Archaeology
Publisher: Maney Publishing
Note: Funding Information: The authors wish to thank the Utrecht University Applied Data Science group for the generous funding that made this project possible. The engineers of the Utrecht University Digital Humanities Lab are also recognized for their assistance with the Text Matcher tool. We also wish to thank our informants who made time for us during the winter of 2019?2020 for providing important input regarding the day-to-day working of contract archaeology in Flanders. A previous version of this paper was presented during the research afternoons of the Department of Archaeology of Ghent University and during the yearly lecture of the Alumni Gentse Archeologen (AGAR). We wish to thank the participants of these workshops for their input and often critical remarks. Jean Bourgeois and Jonas van Looveren provided important feedback on previous versions of this paper. Koen van Daele of the Flemish Agency for Immovable Heritage provided access to the digital archive of the Flemish Government. Alexis Wielemans of the same agency is greatly thanked for his assistance during the digitization of the older archaeological texts. His rich institutional memory helped us in developing a large corpus. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.


Yen's Drop In Value Could Fuel Curency War
By John Ydstie
Published May 16, 2013 at 2:00 AM MDT
Japan's economy is finally getting a lift. The stock market is soaring there. Companies like Toyota and Sony are seeing a surge in profits. And today, Japan's government reported the economy grew a three-and-a-half percent annual rate in the first three months of the year, a significant improvement.
Now, the government has prodded growth by causing the value of the currency, the yen, to decrease against other currencies like the dollar. That affects the price of everything Japan buys and sells - for example, dropping the price of Japanese exports. And now analysts fear that could fuel a currency war. NPR's John Ydstie has our Business Bottom Line.
JOHN YDSTIE, BYLINE: The dramatic shift in Japanese policy has sent the value of the country's currency tumbling around 30 percent since last September. Last week, it crossed the 100 yen to the dollar mark, a level not seen in four years. That's made Japanese products cheaper in global markets, and has competitors around the world howling for relief.
C. Fred Bergsten, director emeritus of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, says that includes U.S. industries, most notably U.S. auto companies.
C. FRED BERGSTEN: They've been urging the Congress, for example, to oppose Japan's coming into the new transpacific partnership trade negotiations with the U.S. They've said they'll oppose that big trade agreement across the Pacific if Japan is in it without rectifying the currency problem.
YDSTIE: The value of the Yen is falling because the Bank of Japan is flooding the country's economy with huge amounts of cash. And some of Japan's other big competitors, like South Korea, have threatened to devalue their own currencies in response. But Bergsten says Japan's current policy is defensible. He says unlike China's manipulation of its currency, Japan's stimulus policy is aimed at boosting its internal growth, not grabbing market share from foreign competitors.
BERGSTEN: If Japan gets back on track through expanding domestic demand, getting consumption going, getting private investment in Japan up, and that does increase their imports, it spills over to the rest of the world as a favorable effect.
YDSTIE: But, Bergsten says, it could also end badly. If Japan simply takes advantage of the devalued yen to boost its own growth by exporting more, it will be a negative for the global economy. Economist Richard Koo of the Nomura Research Institute has spent the past several years analyzing the effects of massive central bank intervention in the U.S. and Europe.
He says the Bank of Japan's huge quantitative easing - which is at about twice the level of the Federal Reserves - does appear to be having positive effects inside Japan, including a 50 percent boost in the Japanese stock market in the past six months.
RICHARD KOO: This rise in the stock market definitely is producing positive results for the Japanese economy. People are feeling much more confident about the future, the Yen is weaker, and so companies are finally beginning to say maybe we can compete in this world after all.
YDSTIE: But, Koo says, the central bank's efforts will fail if they're not combined with other measures being pushed by Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. They include government spending on infrastructure, market opening reforms in the country's economy, and investment incentives for Japanese companies. They've been unwilling to borrow and invest for the past 20 years, he says, despite 0 percent interest rates.
That's because the companies over-borrowed during Japan's stock market and real estate bubble years, and lost big when the bubble burst.
KOO: And that's just like the Americans after the Great Depression. Those Americans who lived through the Great Depression never wanted to borrow money after that, because of the traumatic experience they went through in the 1930s. We have a mini version of that in Japan. Even though the balance sheets are clean, bankers are willing to lend, interest rates lowest in history, companies are not borrowing money.
YDSTIE: Koo says markets could collapse again when the central banks around the world finally reverse coarse and begin pulling money out of the economy to keep inflation in check. John Ydstie, NPR News, Washington. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
John Ydstie
John Ydstie has covered the economy, Wall Street, and the Federal Reserve at NPR for nearly three decades. Over the years, NPR has also employed Ydstie's reporting skills to cover major stories like the aftermath of Sept. 11, Hurricane Katrina, the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, and the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. He was a lead reporter in NPR's coverage of the global financial crisis and the Great Recession, as well as the network's coverage of President Trump's economic policies. Ydstie has also been a guest host on the NPR news programs Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition. Ydstie stepped back from full-time reporting in late 2018, but plans to continue to contribute to NPR through part-time assignments and work on special projects.
See stories by John Ydstie


Alexander H. Stephens papers
Identifier: LG-41
Scope and Contents The Alexander H. Stephens papers consist of microfilm containing primarily correspondence. The letters concern Stephens' Georgia plantation and include some letters from his slaves. The correspondence is especially concerned with politics, in Georgia, on the national level, and in the Confederacy during the Civil War. Topics include secession, the formation of the Confederacy, the progress of the war, the eventual defeat of the Confederate armies, and Reconstruction.The Stephens...
Amos Adams Lawrence papers
Scope and Contents This collection contains five reels of microfilm consisting of Amos Lawrence's personal and business correspondence, legal papers, accounts, political tickets, newspaper clippings and other papers related to Lawrence's business, political, educational, and charitable interests. Subjects include New England Emigrant Aid Company; slavery; politics and education in Kansas, Wisconsin, and Massachusetts; New England manufacturing, the tariff; and national politics. Correspondents include George...
Charles William Cathcart papers
Scope and Contents This collection documents the political interests of various members of the Cathcart family during the years 1821-1889, and is divided as such into the affairs of two generations: that of James Leander Cathcart and that of his sons, James, Charles, John and Henry, with the greatest amount of material pertaining to Charles Cathcart.Letters of the senior Cathcart comprise the first part of the collection. There are several letters, which expound upon his grudge against the...
Henry Wilson Papers
Scope and Contents The Henry Wilson papers consist of microfilm containing correspondence and other papers relating to Massachusetts and national politics, education, abolition, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Grant administration. Correspondents include William W. Belknap, James A. Briggs, Schuyler Colfax, Joseph Cooper, William Lloyd Garrison, U.S. Grant, Adam Gurowski, Arthur Livermore, George G. Meade, Theodore Parker, Parker Pillsbury, William H. Seward, Gerrit Smith, Edwin M. Stanton, Alexander...
James Henry Hammond papers
Scope and Contents The James Henry Hammond papers consists of microfilm containing correspondence, diaries, plantation account books and manuals, scrapbooks and manuscript and printed copies of Hammond's speeches reflecting South Carolina and national politics in the decades before the Civil War. Topics include state's rights, slavery, state banks, the Southern Convention at Nashville, Tennessee (1850), secession, nullification, and the tariff. The plantation books give detailed lists of holdings...
James Rood Doolittle papers
Scope and Content The papers of James R. Doolittle consist of microfilm of letters received and a few letters sent, typed transcripts of letters sent and received, copies of speeches, and newspaper clippings. The transcripts, in part, are annotated by Duane Mowry, the donor.The collection relates primarily to Doolittle's interests while he served in the U.S. Senate, and, later, as a lawyer in private practice. Only a few letters concern personal matters. There is no documentation for his career...
John Jordan Crittenden papers
Collection — Reel: microfilm
Scope and Contents This collection consists of 14 reels of microfilm of the John J. Crittenden papers held at the Library of Congress. Correspondence, legal papers and some speeches and state papers comprise the collection. Correspondence mainly covers Crittenden's career as senator, U.S. attorney general (1841, 1850-1853) and governor of Kentucky (1848-1850).Subjects include national politics, particularly tariff and banking matters, Texas, Mexico, slavery, the southern Whigs, Crittenden's...
New York tribune letter
Identifier: c-00463
The collection consists of parts of a letter addressed to the New York Weekly Tribune regarding the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Dred Scott case.
Orlando Barnes papers
Scope and Contents The material in the Barnes collection encompasses the period 1846 to 1899. Barnes graduated from the University of Michigan in 1850 and settled in Lansing to practice law. After establishing his reputation, he became attorney for the Jackson, Lansing, and Saginaw Railroad. He also assumed a promotional position with the Railroad, and eventually became its secretary and general manager.Barnes was philosophically minded and frequently wrote on various social matters. The bulk of...
Repository: University Archives and Historical Collections X
Subject: Slavery -- United States X
United States -- Politics and government -- 19th century 6
Tariff -- United States 4
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 3
Antislavery movements -- United States 2
Clippings (Books, newspapers, etc.) 2
Education -- Massachusetts 2
Massachusetts -- Politics and government 2
Secession -- United States 2
State universities and colleges -- United States 2
Abolitionists -- United States 1
Africa, North 1
Agriculture -- Georgia 1
Algiers (Algeria) 1
Banks and banking -- South Carolina 1
Bimetallism -- United States 1
Commercial correspondence 1
Confederate States of America 1
Education -- Wisconsin 1
Elections -- Indiana 1
Elections -- United States -- 19th century 1
Etiquette 1
Freedmen -- United States 1
Georgia -- Politics and government 1
Indians of North America -- Government relations 1
Kansas -- Politics and government 1
Kentucky -- Politics and government 1
Lansing (Mich.) 1
Legal instruments 1
Mexico -- History 1
New-York weekly tribune (1841-1866) 1
Nullification (States' rights) 1
Plantations 1
Political conventions 1
Prison administration -- Michigan 1
Social problems 1
South Carolina -- Politics and government 1
States' rights (American politics) 1
Texas -- History 1
Textile industry -- Connecticut 1
Textile industry -- Massachusetts 1
Textile industry -- New Hampshire 1
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Causes 1
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Participation, British 1
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Registers 1
United States -- Politics and government 1
Utopias -- Religious aspects 1
Wisconsin -- Politics and government 1
Blair, Francis Preston, 1791-1876 3
Clay, Henry, 1777-1852 2
Lawrence, Amos Adams, 1814-1886 2
Scott, Dred, 1809-1858 2
Seward, William H. (William Henry), 1801-1872 2
Stephens, Alexander H. (Alexander Hamilton), 1812-1883 2
Toombs, Robert Augustus, 1810-1885 2
Wilson, Henry, 1812-1875 2
Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848 1
Aldrich, A. P. 1
Alvord, Bert 1
Badger, George E., 1795-1866 1
Barnes, O. M. (Orlando Mack), 1825-1899 1
Boutwell, George S. (George Sewall), 1818-1905 1
Boyce, Ker 1
Brisbane, A. H. (Abbott Hall), 1804-1861 1
Brown, John, 1800-1859 1
Brown, Orlando, 1801-1867 1
Burnley, Albert T. (Albert Triplett), 1800-1861 1
Butler, Pierce Mason, 1798-1847 1
Calhoun, John C. (John Caldwell), 1782-1850 1
Cathcart, C. W. (Charles William), 1809-1888 1
Cathcart, James L. (James Leander), 1767-1843 1
Chandler, Zachariah, 1813-1879 1
Clay, Cassius Marcellus, 1810-1903 1
Clayton, John M. (John Middleton), 1796-1856 1
Cobb, Howell, 1815-1868 1
Colfax, Schuyler, 1823-1885 1
Crittenden, John J. (John Jordan), 1787-1863 1
Davis, Charles Augustus, 1795-1867 1
Democratic Party (Mich.). State Central Committee 1
Democratic Party (U.S.) 1
Doolittle, James R. (James Rood), 1815-1897 1
Douglas, Stephen A. (Stephen Arnold), 1813-1861 1
Felder, John Myers, 1782-1851 1
Gadsden, James, 1788-1858 1
Gardner, Henry J. (Henry Joseph), 1819-1892 1
Garrison, William Lloyd, 1805-1879 1
Grant, Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson), 1822-1885 1
Hale, Edward Everett, 1822-1909 1
Hamilton, James, Jr., 1786-1857 1
Hammond, James Henry, 1807-1864 1
Hayne, Isaac W. (Isaac William), 1809-1880 1
Hayne, Robert Young, 1791-1839 1
Jackson, Andrew, 1767-1845 1
Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826 1
Johnson, Reverdy, 1796-1876 1
Johnson, Richard M. (Richard Mentor), 1780-1850 1
Keitt, Lawrence M. (Lawrence Massillon), 1824-1864 1
Lamar, L. Q. C. (Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus), 1825-1893 1
Lee, Samuel Phillips, 1812-1897 1
Letcher, Robert Perkins, 1788-1861 1
Livermore, Arthur, 1766-1853 1
Madison, James, 1751-1836 1
Mason, Robert M. (Robert Means), 1810-1879 1
McDuffie, George, 1790-1851 1
McLean, Andrew, (Merchant) 1
Meade, George Gordon, 1815-1872 1
Michigan State University 1
Michigan. Joint Prison and Affiliated Boards 1
Morehead, C. S. (Charles Slaughter), 1802-1868 1
New England Emigrant Aid Company 1
Nicholas, S. S. (Samuel Smith), 1796-1869 1
Parker, Theodore, 1810-1860 1
Patterson, Angus, 1790-1854 1
Payne, Henry B., 1810-1896 1
Pemberton, A. H. 1
Pendleton, John S. (John Strother), 1802-1868 1
Pickens, F. W. (Francis Wilkinson), 1805-1869 1
Pillsbury, Parker, 1809-1898 1
Pomeroy, S. C. (Samuel Clarke), 1816-1891 1
Porter, Wm. D. (William Dennison), 1810-1883 1
Preston, William C. (William Campbell), 1794-1860 1
Quattlebaum, Paul, 1812-1890 1
Reed, Amos, -approximately 1889 1
Rhett, Robert Barnwell, 1800-1876 1
Robinson, Charles, 1818-1894 1
Robinson, Sara T. L. (Sara Tappan Lawrence), 1827-1911 1
Scott, Winfield, 1786-1866 1
Simms, William Gilmore, 1806-1870 1
Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874 1
Stanton, Edwin M. (Edwin McMasters), 1814-1869 1
Taylor, Zachary, 1784-1850 1
Trescot, William Henry, 1822-1898 1
Tucker, Ben 1
United States. Army 1
United States. Army -- Military life -- History -- 19th century 1
United States. Land Grant Act of 1862 1
United States. Supreme Court 1
University of Michigan 1
Van Buren, Martin, 1782-1862 1
Walker, James M. (James Murdock), 1813-1854 1
Weed, Thurlow, 1797-1882 1
Whig Party (U.S.) 1
Winthrop, Robert C. (Robert Charles), 1809-1894 1
Yates, Richard, 1815-1873 1


On Joan Didion, Home, And The Space Between Text And Reality
Angela Brussel
When people first started urging me to read Joan Didion—as a female writer from California, it would apparently be heretical for me not to—I developed the kind of irrational, fortified resolve a child does when being lectured by their parents.
All I could think was: What could Didion possibly do for me? Why must I read her? And having lived in California for the first 20 years of my life, what could Didion tell me about the state that I didn't already know?
Then, I read Didion. No, wait, not read—consumed. Words became sustenance and real-life conversation was no longer needed because, well, I had Didion. And I soon found myself reciting the same exhortations I detested when I was younger to friends, strangers, colleagues, everyone. Really, no one was spared. You must read Joan Didion, I would say, mirroring the cadence of one of those tireless social climbers whose taste, they believe, is a palpable index of their currency.
I do not give myself enough credit though. I wasn't just passively reading Didion. I studied her work the way one would study Chaucer's or Dante's or Shakespeare's. It was not a tokenistic love or one wielded like a member's only badge. It was true and steadfast and sacred and very much a part of me. And if it wasn't so large, so unruly in its eagerness to share, it would have been secret. I love Didion, I suppose, for the same reason I love anyone: I like the world better with her in it.
This past October, Didion's nephew Griffin Dunne premiered his documentary The Center Will Not Hold, which chronicles Didion's illustrious career, at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall. It was strange watching the documentary with hundreds of other people. The words I had read over and over and over again in the privacy of my own room were suddenly human-sized, sprawled flat against a screen, accompanied by old photographs and interspersed with new footage of the octogenarian Joan. There they were, the inner workings of her mind mediated by the mind of another. And as the multiplicity of perspective and interpretation piled on top of me and everyone else in the audience, I came to terms with what I had known all along but was reluctant to admit: Didion was not just mine. She belonged to others.
And so, I cried. I did. But it was not the cry of a petulant child. It was the cry of a woman who finally felt what Didion had been telling her for years: the center does not hold. Things fall apart. But is this not a relief?
When the screen switched back to black and a spotlight shone on Dunne in the right balcony propping Didion up by her frail arms out of her wheelchair, the wind was knocked out of me. I wasn't expecting for her to be there, so small yet commanding all the power that, say, a Holy Order would. I thought the words had no beginning, like time, or grew from seed, like a tree. They never struck me as belonging to an actual person. Or they did, but it seemed like Didion the person and her body of work were two self-contained units. Why my reaction was so visceral, though, perplexes me. The closest approximation I have to an answer is this: I was mourning her plight, the era that created her, and our world as it now exists. To put it simply, I was mourning the end of things. Change.
You should know that this is not a piece about California. It is not about bougainvillea or crepe-de-chine or L.A. County's 42-mile loop, all of which I knew precisely nothing about until reading Didion. It is about the things that fall apart, and the centers that cannot hold, as professed by William Butler Yeats in "The Second Coming." It is about the words we use to try to harness the ephemerality of the visual order of things and the freedom that comes from the realization that nothing can be contained and nothing remains unchanging, including our memories, our stories. This life cannot be trapped in amber no matter how dedicated we are to the cause. At least, not in the way some of us hope.
"All that is constant about the California of my childhood," Didion writes in Slouching Towards Bethlehem, "is the rate at which it disappears." And yes, in a way, the California of both mine and Joan's respective childhoods has disappeared, as have the locales of everyone's respective childhoods. But let us not forget the way words can suspend time without actually doing so. How they jerk the head backward and forward like whiplash. Can you remember what it felt like to first read about your hometown when you were separated from it? And if not, can you imagine it? The pride and shame that swell in turns. It feels like you belong to something important. It also feels like something has been taken from you.
I do not know whose California I conjure on those days in New York when I see the rats scurry with unsettling willpower across the subway tracks as I imagine the state of my youth. Or when I brush shoulders with strangers who will not return my gaze, though I so eagerly want it matched. The string of defeats I encounter here is rarely perforated by triumphs, yet I remain. Freedom, mobility, privacy—these are the instincts that drove "America to the Pacific, all through the nineteenth century, the desire to be able to find a restaurant open in case you want a sandwich, to be a free agent, live by one's own rules," writes Didion in "7000 Romaine, Los Angeles 38." So why am I living in Brooklyn? Why do I court change when it is the one thing I fear most? Ironically, those instincts that once drove people to the Pacific are precisely what brought me to New York in the first place.
The old and new West loom in my mind like a fever dream—its crop, its climate, and its people—yet I remain in New York. For I know where California lives, and it always lives somewhere else. That place where "boom mentality and a sense of Chekhovian loss," writes Didion, "meet in uneasy suspension; in which the mind is troubled by some buried but ineradicable suspicion that things had better work here, because here, beneath that immense bleached sky, is where we run out of continent"? Yes, that is somewhere else. That is fiction. And maybe what I love most about coming to terms with the aforementioned California is that it reminds me that things aren't required to work and that change is not only inevitable but necessary. Change, it seems, is the only act that allows you to rewrite yourself, both a liberating and terrifying prospect.
Didion dredges California forth from the mire of memory and coats it with the illusory, the imagined, the mythical, and I imbibe it and believe it. Yes, this is my California. Even in her portrayal of its ugliness, its tipping over into the diabolical, the Santa Ana winds that drive us to madness and the apocalyptic earthquakes that shift us nearer to the edge, I beam with pride. Mine. I lap up her words, my eyes feverishly scanning the pages with a piousness I didn't know belonged to me. It was not a California I had ever known, and yet it seized me with that familiarity and intense intimacy one feels in the face of kismet. When I read her, Brooklyn falls away, dissolving behind me.
"A place belongs forever to whoever claims it hardest, remembers it most obsessively, wrenches it from itself, shapes it, renders it, loves it so radically that he remakes it in his image," writes Didion in The White Album. Did she know? That she claimed California hardest when she wrote it? That she has, for many, supplanted John Steinbeck and Raymond Chandler in doing so? She superimposed her California, constructed by stories and hearsay, facts and accounts, on top of the California so many call home. My cathedral of childhood is now filled with her sermons: Things fall apart; the center cannot hold.
"It is hard to see one of these places claimed by fiction," writes Didion, referring to her assertion that Kilimanjaro belongs to Hemingway and Oxford, Mississippi, to Faulkner, "without a sudden blurring, a slippage, a certain vertiginous occlusion of the imagined and the real." What, then, is real? Which memories are ours? "Which is the true California?" asks Didion. "That is what we all wonder."
I recall C. Vann Woodward, whom Didion references in "California Notes" for The New York Review of Books: "Every self-conscious group of any size fabricates myths about its past: about its origins, its mission, its righteousness, its benevolence, its general superiority." Here is the human condition. Here is the story of man. And here is the story, the prose, that sustains me. The one that is so surgically precise that I feel like I am a patient etherized and pinned on a table. When I wake up, when I close the book, I almost forget where I came from. Who I am.
Like Didion, I am a Westerner. And I, too, left Eden to migrate east, to that concrete and steel Babylon of the modern world, New York. "It is assumed," writes Didion in "Notes From A Native Daughter," "that those who absent themselves from its blessings have been banished, exiled by some perversity of heart. Did not the Donner-Reed party, after all, eat its own dead to reach Sacramento?" They did. And I forsook the bounty they doggedly sought. Retribution was mine, but isn't it always with us, predators of nostalgia? I know that I am certainly not the only one who feels guilty about absenting themselves from the blessings of home. Every time my mother calls me, she asks when I am returning for good. And every time, I do not have an answer. I have to keep moving forward, like a shark, but I can't tell her this. So guilt mutates into annoyance, and I feel so damn awful about it all that I just about want to call the whole thing off and give up entirely.
I visited home recently, after reading Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking and The White Album, and walked the streets feeling disoriented. So much of what I had remembered was bulldozed, the very dirt underneath the roads unearthed and piled into giant heaps somewhere in the San Fernando Valley. Gill's Ice Cream Parlor, shut. Jan's Diner, a Chipotle. Jerry's Famous Deli, replaced by a swish restaurant adorned with a clerestory and LED lights. Where was Didion's Los Angeles? Where was mine? Somewhere else, of course. But my mother was so pleased about driving me around the way she used to that I couldn't possibly tell her it no longer felt familiar. I couldn't explain that what I was thinking was, What on earth does this place have to do with me? I reckon, when she drove, she was relying on muscle memory and her cognitive map of Los Angeles. The one that I used to inhabit as a young girl. My mom, I have learned, also fears change and would really rather freeze than reboot.
"She sees your face in all the old familiar places," says dad. Even the ones that have been knocked clear off the grid. The streets stretch west toward the Pacific, north toward the valley, and east toward downtown all the same. Like grooves in a record. And she's living in those damaged grooves that keep skipping, but she doesn't know it because it sounds like it belongs. It feels like it belongs. The skips are lodged in her mind, no matter what clean, new version she hears. And I wonder what it feels like to live on loop. And I wonder if we're all just living on loop. I am starting to believe that we are. Like how I can't stop seeing that photo of the two of us circa 1993 in front of the Montessori on Hauser Boulevard. She's beautiful and blonde, and she's got me affixed to her hip like an appendage. Our old red Chrysler convertible with automatic seat belts and manual locks sits behind us, a testament to freedom and prosperity. She is so young and full of purpose and promise.
Or like how I can't stop thinking about that one time my best friend, J, and I went to Disneyland. Lazing on Tom Sawyer Island, high as hell, eating our massive Bay Cities sandwiches and listening to the shrieks coming from Splash Mountain. His shit-eating grin flashing in and out of view as we whipped through the darkest reaches of outer space on Space Mountain. Him walking down Main Street, the sky darkening, the air growing heavy with the smell of funnel cake.
Is this our way of combating change? By resurrecting the past until we beat the present to a pulp? Now, Montessori is gone. In its place stands a grotesque complex of apartments and penthouses. The red convertible, sold. And mom, though still beautiful, is beginning to grow old and sad about the lives she could have had, the people she could have been. And J? Well, he never had a chance to grow old. And those lives he could have had and those people he could have been? I think about them from time to time, but I try not to.
These people I remember, over and over and over again, inextricably belong to a place. To California. But I had never been so fond of the place as when I saw it through Didion's lens. The forever summers drove me mad. The palm trees bothered me, dotting the sky everywhere I went, pestering me like flies circling above my head. My bedroom curtains were drawn at all times so that when I was ready to retreat, my eyes would only be met by the delicious darkness California is so terrible at offering. I worked the graveyard shift at the diner down the road so as to avoid that blistering sun, nearly incorrigible in its demands for its worshippers to spend their days at the beach doing god knows what.
How terribly horrid, I thought, to squander away all that time in the daylight where objects are just as they appear to be and the absurdity of man is hidden from sight, afraid of how it will be received by society at large. I prefer distance and darkness for that's when the veneer of civilization is scrubbed clear off, when phantom bodies trail you, when delirium kicks into high gear and the bizarre finds its bearings. That's what reading Didion feels like. And I couldn't help falling in love with the California she made in her image because it seemed to be so perfectly aligned with the California I sought when I lived there. The California that is most complete when it is untouched, remote. Like that photograph of me and mom. Like J still being alive. Like words. Like anywhere but here and now.
In Plato's The Phaedrus, he attacks the written word, calling it a "crutch of memory." Rather than aid memory, he believes it disables our dormant ability to know something within ourselves, and it prevents us from acquiring detailed knowledge of the soul. But Didion's words seem just as, if not more, honest to me than any of those photographs of her, marked by quiet stoicism and sadness. It is apparent, though, in Didion's portrayal of the West through the written word, that she is attempting to transcend words, so miserably insufficient, and tap into the world of images quite aptly defined by Virginia Woolf as real with a different reality from that which we perceive in daily life, beholding images as they are when we are not there and life as it is when we have no part in it. Even Didion, whose own writing is in many ways so methodical and controlled, is not concerned with "an accurate factual record." Where there is nonfiction in Didion's oeuvre, there is invariably an "embroidery worked into the day's pattern to lend verisimilitude," she confesses in "On Keeping a Notebook." Those stories we tell ourselves in order to live.
I imagine Didion, that "cool customer" in the eye of a tornado, with images from her past, adrift and unmoored, whipping around her. She is haunted by images, seized by splitting migraines, and assaulted by bad nerves. Things fall apart; the center cannot hold. Maybe, salvation and sanity, in Didion's case, can be found in the small details and the intense concentration required to render them in her image. It is in Didion's expert arrangement of images that she achieves a poignancy that the strictest of realists cannot always conjure. It is also what compels me to want to go home, which we all know is not entirely possible. At least, not the home where mom's got me on her hip and that Chrysler's in our driveway and J is still breathing, walking, loving.
Yet still, however contained and controlled the recollection, here in Didion's oeuvre, and in our memories, is the proof that things fall apart like those versions of ourselves we cling so steadfastly to and those stories we tell ourselves in order to live. And the images that the mind recalls, over and over again, remodeling themselves under the weight of context and desire. I now find myself longing for California in a way that is completely foreign to me. I feel the pull of my body drifting away from the cold and into the light, where I think I belong. Yet here I am in Brooklyn, crushed under my duvet, reaching my limbs out like a climbing plant toward that sun I hated, clinging to my surroundings and heaving myself upward toward its rays.
No. This is not a piece about California. For each time I remember it, the memory grows less precise, almost to the point of being totally false. The brain network alters. And isn't it liberating? To not be bogged down by the actual? To not be corseted by images? Even if I was presented with a panoramic photograph of my childhood, I would still imagine what exists beyond the frame. And I could imagine anything, even within its confines. Because when I write that 34-year-old mom has just met 34-year-old dad at that wild New Year's Eve party and that dad is insisting she read Bonfire of the Vanities and mom doesn't give a damn about Bonfire of the Vanities and that they don't know it yet but they're going to spend the rest of their lives loving the hell out of one another, it's actually happening and it's inside of me. And when I write that my dear friend J is walking down Larchmont with a copy of Tender is the Night in his rucksack and he's the happiest I've ever seen him, he is and he is still alive and he never rode that bike that day. And when I write that I am living in Brooklyn and longing for California and everything that comes with it, I suddenly, remarkably, am doing just that. And it's inside of me, in my center; it will hold for at least a little while, I hope.
culture the center will not hold streaming netflix entertainment film feature joan didion