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Walking to the Bottom of the Bend. Explorations of the eastern Sierra Quemada, down to Mariscal Mountain and back
Dec. 8th-13th, 2011
67 miles walked, 63 with pack, 4+ without
Gear List My lightest load ever!
There are a few areas of the park that I have never been to and on top of the list was Mariscal Mountain, the southern most extent of the Rocky mountains in the U.S. and the very bottom of the Big Bend of the Rio Grande. The problem is how to get there? Because we always fly in and have to rent a vehicle, that will just sit for a week while we walk, I never want to pay an extra $200 for an SUV just to get into someplace. I kept looking at where we could park a passenger car and still walk to Mariscal Mountain. Several options were possible but the best was if we could get down to the junction of the Glenn Springs and Juniper canyon roads. It would allow for the best combination of mileage, water and pack carry weights. The second choice would be to park at the Mule Ears overlook but that would add at least 10 miles to the loop and make for some uncomfortable pack weights on some days.
I was going to do this trip next winter but with the drought and it’s forecast for possibly continuing for several years I decided I had best get it done while there was at least some water in the Sierra Quemada (2011 was the driest year ever recorded with just 2.53″ of rain). While this trip was more than three years in the planning I did have some very recent water and road condition reports from BigBendChat that gave me the confidence we could pull it off.
On short notice my two cohorts from the across the park hikes were not available so I brought yet another person to the park who had never been there before. Even crazier, I had never hiked with Mark but knew him from other common pursuits. This was to be a hard trip but he has hiked extensively in the Grand Canyon and climbed many of the highest peaks in North and South America and was interested in Big Bend. He said he wasn’t a complainer, I can now say, true dat.
We flew from North Carolina to San Antonio arriving about 1:00. Rental car and off to Good Sports for fuel canisters, some road food and we were on I-10 to Marathon by 2:30. The 80 mph speed limit makes it much faster than it used to be and we got to Marathon by 7:30. We stopped to order a pizza at Guzzi Pizza and went to check into the Marathon Motel while it cooked. We sorted and packed equipment over pizza and beers and then passed out. I still recommend the Marathon Motel even with the trains, but I slept through them with no trouble.
Trail Day One
Up early and at Shirley’s Burnt Biscuit at 6:30. Good coffee and sausage gravy biscuits and we are down the road to the park as a great sunrise greeted us.
We get to the visitor center at Panther Junction (PJ) at 9:00 and the young ranger gave us no trouble when we said we wanted to take a passenger car down the Glenn springs road, “just go slow” he said. Neither did he blink when filling out the permit but I did just give him the zones we wanted and didn’t elaborate on the route.
Fill up some water bottles and we are off. It is 7 miles down the Glenn Springs road to the Juniper Canyon road turn off and we did go slow, with only the deep gravelly sections near Chilicotal Mountain being a bit disconcerting. We arrive with no damage and there is a good place to pull off right at the junction.
We are on the trail by 10:30 with 27 pound packs including a week’s food and 3 quarts of water each, enough to get to water in Fresno canyon tonight. Temps in the 50’s and sunny, typical Big Bend weather.
Here is the full route map with each days route in a different color and the camps and springs marked. If you click on it, and then again and you will get the full size 7.5 minute topo.
The route took us south down the wash that becomes, what I refer to as, Holly spring canyon. Not bad walking until we come to a 40’ pour off but we can get down the slope on the right hand side.
We can begin to see the vast badlands to the west and the ramparts of the eastern Sierra Quemada.
We reach the bottom and begin to see bear tracks in the sand that is between very cool rock formations.
11:30 and 2.25 miles later we reach Holly spring which has several small clear pools, at least one you could dip water out of.
A break in the shade and we head out into the flats below the badlands and west of the Black Gap road. As we are cutting through some low hills we find about a dozen of these odd little rock structures all on one low bench above the wash. We later find out they are called chiquiteros and were used to shade newborn goats from the sun.
The next stop is Screwbean spring which is in a broad wash (part of Juniper Draw) and all we find is some damp, salt crusted sand.
On westerly towards a wash that will take us up through the badlands and past several springs on the way to Fresno canyon. This wash runs in a northwesterly direction past three springs and is NE of points 2929 and 3049.
We see the location of Shelf spring which is up on a shelf above the main wash with lots of vegetation but don’t climb up to look for water and see none below the shelf.
Soon we come to a pour off and decide it is a good time to stop for lunch before climbing around it. 6.2 miles so far and 1:00.
A nice long break and we make the easy climb around and start looking for Shrub and Yum springs but see no sign of either. At the intersection of the side wash that Yum spring was to be at we hung a left up that wash in a slight southwesterly direction. Soon the wash is choked with vegetation so we climb the south side up onto the ridge and into a recently burned area. Makes for much easier walking that is for sure.
We are now looking down into Fresno canyon and we make our way down into the wash right above the upper of the two pour off/amphitheaters in this section of the canyon. 8.6 miles to this point.
Now we start the fun walk up, the mostly rock bottomed, Fresno wash. After about a half an hour the palm tree shows itself, growing in a crack at a narrow turn of the canyon.
Not too far up canyon is Fresno spring and it’s lone cottonwood, all we find is two medium sized green pools with no flow. A bit worrying as this might be the best spring in the drainage.
After some more rock scrambling and a few dank pools
We begin to see several clear pools with water running between them. For at least a quarter mile there is running water from Estrecho spring. Parts of the canyon here are really a dark black shiny rock like that at Banta Shut-In. We fill up with water for tonight and the morning and begin to look for a campsite.
We find the first of two garter snakes we will see this trip, both dead.
Arriving at the junction of a large wash that comes in from the south, Elephant Tusk side, the canyon opens up and there is a nice soft gravel bar to sleep on. It is 5:30 and we have come 11.7 miles today, a good solid start to the trip. 66 degrees was the high for the day. We will be going up over the far saddle tomorrow.
The moon is nearly full and is up early so it feels like we are sleeping out on Main Street with all the street lights on. Clouds move through all night but not enough to dampen the moon. 36 degrees this morning but the sun hits the camp early.
This day was planned to be an exploration/easy day after the initial adrenaline filled days of travel and getting on the trail. We were a few miles ahead of schedule because I originally thought we might camp nearer to Fresno spring instead of further up canyon. It is apparent that in most years there is running water from above the Waterworks all the way down past Fresno spring but not so in this extreme drought year.
We leave camp and walk the quarter mile or so up to the bottom of what is known as the Waterworks but officially named by the NPS spring survey folks as Skip and Jump tinajas.
This slot, cut by the forces of water from the entire Fresno creek drainage, goes through what is probably a fault line. Going up canyon it first twists, in a slight S curve, left then right with about eight pools in succession.
I climbed up this section mostly on the right hand side without any trouble, finding good foot holds but the rock is slick so Mark stayed behind as his shoes were not gripping as well as mine. The lack of flowing water also made it much easier as well. None of the pools appear to be more than knee deep except the last one at the bottom.
After the right curve it then straightens out for a 100’ or so with a cottonwood tree and chock stone forming a flat section. This would be hard to get around without getting wet if there was water in the pool at the base.
It then takes a hard left up over a sloping drop with a pool at its lip. This was the trickiest to get around and I was able to find enough foot and hand holds on the left to get up and slid down it on the way back, landing in the gravel at the base of the slope.
Several more pools above this and you are at the top and the wash widens out again.
I walked on up nearly a half mile to the big walnut(?) tree and past where Hop spring should have been, no sign of recent water flow. The top of Tortuga Mountain is prominent.
Turning around I considered going over the top on a ridge to the right hand side, going down canyon, but could not effectively communicate that to Mark so descended back through the waterworks and we strolled back to camp. We thought about what it would look like with a flood blasting out of the slot and into the canyon below, it has certainly scoured out everything.
We decide to move camp a few miles over to at least the ET drainage instead of hanging around in the same place all day. So we fill up with 6 quarts of water each, enough to get us to Dominguez spring tomorrow afternoon, from a clear tinaja just up canyon from camp. This would be the heaviest packs of the trip at 32-33#.
On the trail by 10:30 we climb up the drainage to the south, to the divide between points 4233 and 4206. This is looking back towards Fresno canyon. The entrance to the waterworks is just up stream from the steep sided section just above Mark.
And this is looking down towards the ET drainage with the two peaks of Dominguez Mountain on the horizon.
A little over a mile to make the climb over the top and down to the ET drainage and the ET “trail”. We drop packs and walk up to check on Elephant spring where we find some damp sand and a very tiny bit of visible water next to the canyon wall.
On down to Elf spring and just above it, the wash cuts through a narrow slot. No sign of water at the spring.
We get to the intersection of the wash that leads SW up to the divide on the NW shoulder of Elephant Tusk and drop packs in the shade. On down canyon to Elegant spring and it’s big cottonwood. There is evidence of a recent camper and a tiny flow of water with one hole dug out enough to dip water out of.
We go on down canyon, on and on, past multiple walk down drops until we finally reach the chockstone suspended above a drop into what is frequently a pool of water.
Having gone far enough we return the mile or so back up to our packs and settle in for a long lunch.
While the gravel here would make a nice camp we decide to move on up to the divide and see if we can find a nice campsite. Pretty easy walk to the top without too much dangerous vegetation. From the top looking back down toward ET drainage.
No campsite right on top but we find a nice one not too far down the other side on the low saddle in the center right.
4:30 and the end of what would be our warmest day at 69 degrees. Only 3 miles with packs but another 4 plus without.
I walk up to the top of the small rise in front of camp in hopes of some good afternoon sun pictures of Backbone Ridge and surroundings. Not great but good views all the same.
A weak sunset over the shoulder of Dominguez Mountain.
Again the clouds moved in and out all night over the full moon
Bright enough at times to see ET like it was daytime
When we wake up it is totally clouded over and 36 degrees. It doesn’t seem like it will rain but it sure is a downer.
On the trail by 9:00 and we quickly are down into the main wash that runs between Backbone Ridge and Dominguez Mountain. We considered dropping packs and walking up to see if Double spring was running but the day is so gray we decide to keep moving down canyon.
Tusk spring is not too far down wash and just has some damp sand. Several walk down drops later we come to Steps spring which is running for several hundred feet and has lots of bear and mountain lion sign including deer parts lying around under some bushes where the lions have been noshing on them.
We come to the side drainage that climbs up towards Dominguez peak and its pass. I was last here with Stewart in 1998 when base camping at Dominguez spring and we day hiked up from the other side, over the pass between the two Dominguez peaks, down this wash and returned by going back around the south side of the mountain. These next few miles will be the only “old” territory we will walk on this trip.
This wash is steeper and filled with larger boulders than the west side, some the size of pickup trucks which required quite a bit of climbing to work around.
There was also an amazing amount of bear scat in the flats between the big boulders too!
We scramble up the last part topping out at 11:30, just north of point 4226, which on the map shows some green wooded area, maybe back in the day but no trees or even big bushes there now. It is cool, around 50 degrees and still very overcast. We take a break before we head over the divide in the middle of the picture.
The views back towards ET are as good as I remembered except the South Rim was now in the clouds.
The drainage down the other side is much more gradual and the boulders much smaller and easier to walk down. We have a good view of the back of the Punta de la Sierra and the basin that Dominguez spring is in.
About half way down to the bottom my foot slips off of a boulder as I am stepping down and I drop straight down about three feet. My butt bounces off of the boulder, throwing me forward into some brush (fortunately non-thorny). The wind kind of knocked out of me, I struggle to get up. Mark says don’t move you are bleeding and indeed I am from above my ear.
I finally get myself upright, pack off and sit down for a few minutes to regain my senses. The cut must have been from a stick and the bleeding stops with some light pressure. We head on down towards Dominguez spring and everything is fine except my backside is really sore!
We get to the old ranch house ruins at the spring about 1:30
I put my hat on and my head starts to bleed again so we sit down to diagnose the situation. Mark trims the hair away from around the cut and determines that it is just a gouge and doesn’t need stitches. We put a square of gauze on it and hold it down with a clean bandana, bleeding stopped. This is definitely the worst accident I have ever had in the backcountry.
The patient taken care of we go and look for water. Dominguez spring is flowing nicely over some rocks and into clear pools not too far above the old dam. We filter the floaters and other detritus out, of 5 quarts each, through a bandana and then treat it with chemicals.
We had planned to camp here but as we are ahead of schedule, the weather is so crappy and we have a really long day tomorrow we decide to have lunch instead and then drop down out of the mountains and knock some miles off before dark.
3:00 we start down the Dominguez wash/trail to just below the last hill that separates it from the Backbone wash and we begin to cut over towards it and continue across the alluvial fans in a southeasterly direction. By 5:30 we have covered 5 more miles and are looking for a campsite out of the wind that is blowing up wash.
We find a good place behind a small hill and settle in for the night. 11 miles today, the temperature barely got into the 50’s and we hope it won’t rain because all we have is our ground sheets to hide under if it does.
Click on 2 below for the next 3 days
Well it doesn’t rain overnight and the temp only drops to 44 degrees because it is still really clouded in but we optimistically think that it looks like it is clearing, or at least I do. I keep telling Mark that this is not typical Big Bend weather and it usually clears out fast.
Originally we were going to make the long cross country run between Dominguez spring and Talley at the base of Mariscal Mountain in one day so it was good to have gotten some of it out of the way yesterday. It is still a long way across the low country to the base of the mountain in the far right side of the picture though.
Off again by 9:00 and we make a few more miles down the Backbone drainage until we can cut across below some badlands that are part of the Cow Heaven Mountain group.
We jump over into the next drainage east, looking for Y-spring. This is the only known water source in this entire section of the park SE of the Punta de la Sierra and W of Mariscal Mountain. It is just above the River Road and just east of the side road down to Woodsons. Lots of vegetation and grasses that indicate water but we see nothing wet.
We do begin to see lots of cattle and horse trails up and down this wash. We cross the River Road at 11:00 after 4 miles and take a long break. The horse trails make it much faster to find a route through the vegetation and we stay mostly on the east side of the drainage.
Some sign is so fresh that I keep expecting to come around a corner and be face to face with a vaquero. That doesn’t happen but we do run into this guy who watches us carefully as we move past.
Pretty good and fast walking as we finally jump out of the wash and head SE over the flats towards the road to Talley.
We hit the road right where it jogs more easterly near the point marked 2075. We go on down the mile or so to the Talley #2 campsite, which sits up on a ridge with a nice view and stop for lunch. 1:30 and 9.4 miles so far today. The Chisos are still in the clouds but it is beginning to look a bit brighter over Mexico.
After lunch we walk the road, past the Mariscal Rim trailhead, to the Rio Grande to get water for the next day. Pretty clear and flowing slowly, the sun is trying to poke through the clouds and temp gets up to 64 degrees.
This is my Aunt Jemima look with the bandana holding the gauze in place over my head wound.
3:00 we walk back up the road to the trailhead and start up the side of the mountain. Like all of Big Bend there are just crazy rock formations and juxtapositions like this round volcanic rock field.
The trail is extremely well marked and easy to follow. The clouds are moving out fast to the north and as we climb the sun comes out and it actually gets a bit warm. We pass the nice campsite near point 2343 that is mentioned in Hiking Big Bend and continue on to the rim. Finally some great Big Bend light and striking views north and west off the side of the mountain. We just walked all the way across that! (click on this pano, it is my favorite shot of the trip)
We get to the top about 5:00 and the skies are clear and beautiful. 14.3 miles today and my goal of camping on top has been achieved! The wind is coming up and the temps dropping but the cleared out campsite is down behind some vegetation just enough to block most of it.
I pull on warm clothes and have time to get a few shots down into the canyon before the light leaves. I tell myself not to worry I will be able get more in the morning.
A good dinner and view west off the mountain, finally a reasonable sunset to savor with a bit of light reflecting off the Rio Bravo.
It has been a strong day and now that the weather has moved out the next few days should be stupendous. The night starts with the best stars we have seen as well, including a few meteors just a few days before the Geminid meteor shower begins.
I wake up in the middle of the night and it is totally clouded over again! What the hell? We wake up to clouds and fog, not really thick but our great view had disappeared.
Clouds were rolling over the Mariscal ridge from the east and we were just below the bottom of them.
Crappy views down into the canyon but you can see down into Cross Canyon and even see the Cross Canyon trail winding its way down to the beach at the river.
If you have never been up onto Mariscal Mountain (or the Mesa de Anguila or the Dead Horse Mountains for that matter) they are old limestone sea floor that has been raised up. Lots of fossils in the rock and it is very rough from the slow dissolution of the calcium in the rock by rainfall. It will tear you up if you catch it wrong.
The Mariscal Rim trail becomes the Cross Canyon trail as it turns away from the canyon rim and heads north towards Mariscal Mountain proper along a pretty narrow ridge. Just imagine the high point of Mariscal Mountain straight ahead in the clouds.
The trail then curves around the head of Cross Canyon and drops down to the actual junction with the trail that runs down through Cross Canyon to the river.
We get to the signed intersection at 11:00 after 4.3 miles and have to make a decision.
The grand plan for the trip was to have a short day today, yet still dropping the 1300’ down to the river in 2.5 miles from here, and hanging out on the river for the afternoon. No one I had ever talked to had actually walked down to the river so I really wanted to do it.
Then tomorrow, the bold move. We were going to haul seven quarts of water (enough to get us back to the car) 2000’ up from the river while climbing to the very top of Mariscal Mountain and then walk the spine of the ridge all the way down to the mine. A distance of about 11 miles.
This weather was really harshing our buzz, not to mention our plans. No need to walk the ridge if we would be in the clouds or even if the views were not going to be incredible. It would be a really hard walk and could only be justified if we were going to be blown away by the sights. In addition Mark’s foot was a bit sore from earlier in the trip and maybe in the back of my dinged head and backside I too was not at full power.
We looked at each other and decided to head for the barn. Mark knew this kind of decision making all too well, he has climbed Mt. McKinley four times but only summitted once, some days it is just not meant to be. The barn (car) was still 20 miles away so we would have yet another night out in the desert.
I am sure that this trail was the short route over the mountain for the folks living and farming at Talley to go over and see their neighbors at Solis instead of having to go all the way around the top. They carefully chose the best finger between the straight walled side canyons, that run east off of the main ridge, to bring the trail down. Great, far reaching, views could be had when descending this side of the mountain. Not so good today but you can see Talley Mountain on the left and the Fresno drainage in the middle.
We drop down to the river at Solis and fill up with enough water to get us back to the car tomorrow and then head up the road towards Talley Mountain and the Fresno wash.
Up the Fresno wash a short ways and we take a right up a wash that will lead us east around Talley Mountain and to Juniper Draw. About 5:00 we are at the mouth of the wash that Solis spring is in but we don’t have the will to do the extra mile and half it would take to do the round trip to see if it was running or not.
We move on north and east through some big barren flats towards a low divide over to Juniper Draw between points 2165 and 2189.
We find a protected place out of the up wash breeze and finish the day at 14.1 miles, only 58 degrees for the high. The clouds had thinned enough to give us some alpenglow on the Sierra del Carmens and another outstanding sunset.
Waking up to a fourth morning of overcast skies was becoming a bad habit. The clouds were rolling over 3700’ Talley Mountain. That’s getting to be a really small pack now.
And when we saw that the entire Mariscal ridge was in the clouds we knew we had made the right decision yesterday to head out early.
We jumped over one more low ridge and into the large Juniper Draw proper.
Up stream for a few miles until we could cross over another low divide below point 2448 into the narrower Glenn Draw. The Glenn Draw is more badlands type deposits and winds around more than Juniper. As we near the old Glenn springs community the skies begin to clear some and we come to the end of the water that runs for more than a mile from Glenn springs itself.
Normally I would walk the wash, along side flowing water, up to its source but the damp clays were really building up on our shoes so we exited stage right up onto the flats above the wash, very near the Lewis grave monument and overlooking the entire Glenn springs area.
For the first time in six days we saw other humans. As they drove by below us, on the Glenn springs road, I imagined that we looked like a menacing Indian party up on the ridge. Over 120 hours since we saw people, a new record for me.
We steamed up the road, past the springs and over the hill and there was the car in the distance.
We roll on to the car by 1:00 after 8.6 miles. We clank walking sticks together and the trip is completed! We had one beer in the trunk to celebrate with as we pulled off the packs and pulled on clean T-shirts.
We carefully walked the car back out the Glenn springs road and then we drove down to Rio Grande Village for a cold drink and to show Mark around that side of the park. Back up to PJ to turn in our permit and onto the Chisos Mining Co. motel for a much relished shower and more beers.
Mark began to get a feel for the local culture when we had dinner at the Starlight and the community chorus came in to sing Christmas carols along with Santa Clause giving out presents to the kids, right in the middle of a fellow playing some pretty good country western music!
The Tourist Days
One good thing about coming out a day early is it gave me a chance to show Mark more of the park. We were up before light and had breakfast at the Big Bend Motor Inn. Off towards the park to another overcast morning but a great sunrise over the Chisos
All the way down the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive to Santa Elena canyon which we had to ourselves except for the Mexican crew working on the other side of the river doing Tamarisk control.
We took our time driving back up, taking in all the road side exhibits- the Dorgan house, Castolon, Mule Ears overlook, Burro Mesa Pour Off, Sotol Vista, Homer Wilson, etc. The Chisos from the Tuff canyon overlook.
Up into the Basin to the lodge for lunch. Pretty good chicken fried steak but the highlight was the bear who had been hanging around the back of the kitchen made a promenade past the dining room windows.
And even stood up on the glass trying to get to the salad bar (a picture I just missed), can you say Yogi anyone?
Back to PJ to give them our detailed water report and to peruse the books, etc. Everyone we talked to commented on how weird the weather was, it was certainly nothing like I had ever seen in Big Bend. On our way back to Study Butte, I was searched because of the suspicous shirt I was wearing ;).
We returned to our room to do some packing and then off to the front porch in Terlingua where we got quite a show by three different musicians. Dinner at La Kiva and open mike night. Mark was really getting the whole immersion experience!
Next morning we had breakfast at India’s with the local coffee klatch group and felt right at home. Time to head towards San Antonio but we went via Alpine so we could visit the Museum of the Big Bend. Lunch in Ft. Stockton at Bienvendos and onto SA eventually in some light rain. The next morning we flew back home and now the planning for the next trip is already underway.


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domain: chemistry


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domain: artistic


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Actor Alia Bhatt raised eyebrows when she said ‘I love you’ to Ranbir Kapoor at the recently held Filmfare Awards. However, she doesn’t think of it as an ‘announcement’ of her relationship. The actor has been promoting her upcoming film, Kalank, in the media and during one promotional interaction, she was asked to comment on what she did at the award ceremony.
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domain: news


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But it also shined a light on an issue that's been slowly coming to the surface: Was Brangelina the last true Power Couple?
Now there will always be powerful couples in Hollywood.
Brad and Jen ceased to be and their status was transferred over to Brangelina.
Ben and Jen are deep into conscious uncoupling and coparenting, much like their counterparts-in-separation Gwyneth and Chris.
Lady Gaga, the mother monster herself, is dating an up-and-coming singer.
Taylor Swift has eschewed her past high-powered celebs for the fresh face of one Joe Alwyn.
And until their very recent breakup, Amy Schumer was ensconced with a furniture designer from Illinois.


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na000340Regular price $260.00 Save $-260.00
This Kewa Pueblo triple strand handmade necklace reminds us of Indian corn in subtle autumn colors. The primary stones are spiny oyster shells with the primary colors purple and mauve, and, white, brown, yellow and orange highlights. Other stones include lapis, turquoise, and coral. The strands end with two inches of heishi beads. It ends with two strands of braided cord, making it very comfortable to wear.
Size: 32" L

domain: design


text:
September 22, 2000
Mr. Jonathan G. Katz
Securities & Exchange Commission
450 Fifth Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20549-0609
Dear Mr. Katz:
I am a partner with Honkamp Krueger & Co., P.C. in Dubuque, Iowa. I am writing in response to the recent SEC proposal to limit the scope of CPA services. Although our firm does not perform any audits for SEC companies, this proposal is cause for serious concern because of its dramatic negative impact on the accounting profession and my firm.
We are a regional CPA firm located in Eastern Iowa who provide services to well over 5,000 clients. These services include audit, tax, information technology consulting, human resource consulting, bookkeeping and various other services. This proposal, if enacted, would have a significant negative financial impact on our firm. We provide several types of service to our audit clients and we provide these services at their request. I do not believe the performance of these services causes any impairment in audit effectiveness. In fact, I believe these services assist the auditors and produce a better audit product. I also believe that the SEC has based its decision to move forward with this rule prohibiting non-audit services without facts or evidence. Even the SEC admits that there is no empirical evidence that non-audit services have compromised audit quality or auditor independence, nor ever caused an audit failure. None of the studies or reports cited by the SEC concluded that the scope of services impaired audit effectiveness, or that an exclusionary ban was necessary or appropriate. The SEC's proposed rule is a solution in search of a problem.
In addition, the SEC ignored the conclusion of the current Panel on Audit Effectiveness of the Public Oversight Board, a Panel that was formed at the request of the SEC. The panel concluded that, "both the profession and the quality of audits are fundamentally sound." The Panel said it could find no evidence that the provision of non-audit services has hurt audit quality. On the contrary, it concluded that in numerous instances, non-audit services contributed to a more effective audit. I agree with the Panel's conclusions and have seen this happen in actual audit engagements.
Our firm audits financial institutions and provides both business and personal tax services to our audit clients. This rule is dangerous for the accounting profession because the rule will set a precedent for other regulators (OCC, FDIC, ERISA, etc.). The proposed SEC rule would be viewed as the new model by state boards of accountancy and regulators. Therefore, accounting firms that do not audit SEC registrants will be impacted by these new rules. In addition, the SEC claims its proposed rule "would not affect tax-related services" to audit clients. However, it would ban acting as an advocate for an audit client, or providing expert services in administrative proceedings, thus (except in preparing returns) potentially prohibiting CPA's from representing clients before the IRS. It would be very difficult to explain to a client for whom we've provided tax advice that we cannot provide IRS representation for them.
This proposal is hasty legislation. In its rush to regulate, the SEC
It makes sense to me that we wait and see how the new reforms work before we adopt legislation that dramatically alters the operating practice of virtually all CPA firms.
This proposed rule also severely hampers a CPA firm's growth into other business or service areas.
Accounting firms effectively would be precluded from entering into almost any joint venture or partnership, since the accounting firm's independence could be impaired as a result of the activities of other parties in which it may have only an immaterial investment, or with which it may be associated in only limited respects, but does not control. Regional alliances or cooperative agreements between accounting firms could result in each firm being required to be independent of each other firm's attest clients. Moreover, the restrictions would extend to any alliance or cooperative agreement with overseas accounting and other firms (such as legal service providers).
The financial consequences of this proposal are far reaching. It is realistic, based on this proposal, that our firm would have to eliminate services that provide over $1 million in revenue. Our audit practice could possibly be eliminated, as well as consulting areas such as human resources. Our firm would have to look seriously at providing only non-attest services.
Recent regulatory changes now allow CPA firms to perform services in the financial services industry. We would have to examine how this ruling would impact our affiliations in this area. Again, we would have to strongly consider the impact of this ruling on our attest and non-attest services.
The SEC proposal is also bad news for CPA's working in industry, since it would restrict public companies' freedom of choice when seeking outside professional services. The SEC would force public companies to constantly choose whether to hire a firm solely as its auditor or solely as a provider of other services. In fact, under the proposed new rules, a public company might be compelled to dismiss an audit firm that has done consistently outstanding work in order to obtain services from the auditor's non-audit colleagues.
If the rule is adopted there will be a negative effect on recruiting and retention of the best talent. The best audit professionals will not want to be at a firm where 25% - 40% of the market is "off-limits", and the same is true for the best non-audit professionals. Similarly, the best and brightest students will not be drawn to firms with a limit on upward opportunities. The "audit-only" firms endorsed by the proposal will have difficulty attracting the necessary talent both from accounting programs and from information technology programs, because the best talent will be drawn toward industries with broader career opportunities.
It is extremely difficult to attract talented professionals to Dubuque, Iowa. If this rule is adopted, recruiting will become virtually impossible. It is my opinion that this will eventually cause a degradation in audit quality because less-qualified personnel will eventually be performing the audits.
Broad restrictions on non-audit services will likely have the perverse effect of undermining auditor independence by making audit firms overly or exclusively dependent on auditing fees, which would certainly be contrary to the public interest.
I believe the SEC has needlessly tied its popular and long-overdue modernization of family disqualification rules - depression-era rules that discriminate against working women and two-career families - to its far more controversial scope of services initiative. Modernization of the financial-interest standards can and should occur on an expedited basis, independent of the scope of services initiative. The scope of services initiative requires more time for fact-finding and analysis than provided by the SEC's timeframe.
In addition, the SEC lacks authority to its sweeping scope of services rule. The statutory provisions cited by the SEC in the proposed rule pertain to public companies' filing of financial statements that have been audited by independent accountants and do not expressly authorize the SEC to make rules governing or regulating directly the accounting profession itself. The proposed rule is based primarily, if not entirely, on alleged concerns relating to the "appearance of independence" - but not independence in fact. The SEC does not have statutory authority to impose restrictions because of possible perceptions about independence.
In conclusion, the SEC's proposal to restrict the services offered by accounting firms represents a fundamental restructuring of a profession that has successfully given investors the reliable, independent data they need for the past century. A decision by a government agent to tell some business organizations what services they may offer and to tell other businesses from whom they can buy services is an extraordinary economic intervention without any empirical or other basis. We think most Americans would find this a curious public policy position for their government to take.
This scope of services rule must not be allowed to go forward.
HONKAMP KRUEGER & CO., P.C.
Arnold N. Honkamp, Managing Partner
Richard R. Runde, Partner
Dale J. Leibfried, Partner
Alan W. Krueger, Partner
Gregory C. Burbach, Partner
Kevin R. Schmitt, Partner
Natalie H. Hoffmann, Partner
Ronald F. Helle, Partner
Robert R. McQuillen, Partner
Terry J. Maiers, Partner
Douglas R. Rogers, Partner

domain: law


text:
Confidence is when you see a problem and you have a solution for it. Abi Monage took up stage at the Presec Bonfire Event and showed what it means to be called an entertainer.
The female songstress whose new single Sugar is receiving crazy responses all over social media and the streets gave the crowd a memorable performance that they will never forget. Being her first major stage, she made sure she left her mark with what she came to do.
For someone who has said in her interviews that women need to ip their game in the music business, she is in to each a lot of people what to do. Watch her stage craft in this video here.
Abi Monage – Sugar (Prod by ForqzyBeatz) [Download]

domain: celebrity


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About the BEAT IT Trainer Course
BEAT IT Trainer is an evidence-based program for exercise physiologists, exercise scientists and other exercise professionals. It is designed to provide the skills and knowledge necessary to deliver safe and effective group-based physical activity and lifestyle programs for people who may be overweight and/or obese, and living with or are at risk of diabetes and other lifestyle-related chronic conditions.
This course has been developed as a two part education and training program for exercise professionals to become registered facilitators of the BEAT IT Lifestyle and Physical activity program.
A total of 19 CPD points are available from ESSA
Part 1: Diabetes and Exercise online learning program
This online learning program provides you with extensive knowledge of how to ensure exercise prescription is safe and effective for people living with diabetes. Topics include:
Once successfully completed, you become eligible to undertake additional training to become a registered facilitator of the BEAT IT: Physical Activity and Lifestyle Program.
This additional training will consolidate information from the Diabetes and Exercise Online Learning program and provide you with the skills and support to provide community-based exercise programs.
Delivery mode: online – 12 hours
11 ESSA CPD points
Part 2: BEAT IT: Physical Activity & Lifestyle Program
BEAT IT:Physical Activity & Lifestyle Program is a face to face interactive training day that provides you with all the materials, content and support to initiate and run BEAT IT group physical activity programs. The training will cover:
On successful completion, you will be a registered BEAT IT Trainer and have access to prospective clients, ongoing support and resources from Diabetes Qualified.
Delivery mode: face to face – one day
8 ESSA CPD points
Once both courses are successfully completed, as a BEAT IT Trainer, we will provide you with 12 months of support including:
As a registered BEAT IT Trainer, you may be eligible to contract to deliver BEAT IT for Diabetes NSW & ACT! Email us to find out more: email@example.com.
What is BEAT IT?
BEAT IT: Physical Activity and Lifestyle Program is an evidence-based exercise program for people with, and at risk of, diabetes. Diabetes NSW & ACT developed this program to support people living with diabetes in becoming more active in their lifestyles, and to get greater control over their condition.
The BEAT IT program is an evidence-based, 12 week physical activity and lifestyle program designed to assist participants to:
ESSA Member: $595.00
ESSA Non-Member: $645.00
ESSA Student Member: $595.00
|2017 Dates TBA||
19 points total
Part 1: Diabetes and Exercise online learning program – 11 points
Part 2: BEAT IT: Physical Activity and Lifestyle Program Trainer – 8 points
For more information or to enrol in the course, please contact the provider on the below details:
Diabetes Qualified Helpline
Ph: 1300 727 194

domain: medical


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Man From Deep Creek. [Inscribed and Signed by Author]
“The story of a man from Deep Creek, Virginia and how he became a man of New York City, and a father to be adored. This is every daughter’s story of unraveling her loving father.” (sub-title)
Description: Man From Deep Creek. [Inscribed and Signed by Author]
[Canada: Self-Published, 2013]. 35pp. First edition[?] Hardbound with dust jacket. Illustrated. Bright clean copy in fine to as new condition.

domain: library


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Miami Dade College and CINTAS Foundation Announces Visual Arts Fellowship Finalists. -MDC’s Art Gallery System will showcase the works of visual arts finalists at an exhibition at the Iconic Freedom Tower
Miami, October 14, 2011 – After reviewing nearly 100 submissions from around the world, the CINTAS Foundation has selected ten finalists in the visual arts category for its annual CINTAS Foundation Fellowship competition. They are Ivan Abreu, Harold Batista, Domingo Castillo, Ivan Depena, Coco Fusco, Jillian Mayer, Fabian Pena, Dinorah de Jesus Rodriguez, Ruben Torres Llorca, and Juana Valdes.
Miami Dade College (MDC), the new home of the world-renowned CINTAS Fellows Collection, will host an exhibition of this year’s visual arts finalists. The CINTAS Fellows Finalists Exhibition opens with an invitation-only reception at 7 p.m.Thursday, Oct. 27,at the college’s Freedom Tower.
Link to the original article


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Yuhuan hua yang Machinery will accelerate the pace of R&D and the launch of new products. Check now!


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I have been anxiously waiting to get Cupcakeabella dirty!!! :D I found some cardstock at my LSS and it was textured and shimmery...it's really pretty! I used My Minds Eye DP and paper pieced her dress and the cake liner. This is the first time I paper pieced anything and I am so happy with it!!! I added some satin ribbon to divide the texture CS and the DP. I also found these amazing felt flowers by Creative Cafe at my LSS and just had to have them!!! I thought it went well with this card.
Stamps: Cupcakeabella, Sans Alphabet (CTMH) Paper: Chocolate CS (CTMH), My Minds Eye
Ink: Chocolate (CTMH) Other: Satin Ribbon (American Crafts), Felt Flower (Creative Cafe), Pop Dots, Pencils, Copic Marker
Have a Fabulous Weekend!!! :D

domain: hobby


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by Warren Motte
From the perspective of American readers, Jacques Jouet’s writing is one of contemporary French literature’s best-kept secrets. That’s because until very recently none of his books had found their way into English translation—and the fault is ours rather than his, because Jouet himself has been producing smart, funny, vibrant, pungent literature in astonishing diversity and abundance for the last quarter century. Since inaugurating his career in 1978 with a book called Guerre froide, mère froide (Cold War, Cold Mother), Jouet has written sixty-odd major texts. Those works stride boldly across traditional generic boundaries, traversing a literary horizon that seems virtually endless. Jouet has produced numerous volumes of poetry, five novels to date, theater (his plays have been produced from Paris to Ouagadougou), short fiction, literary criticism, and even a work of lexicography. He has led writers workshops and articulated with a variety of theatrical troupes. As a member of the Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle (Oulipo), a group of writers and mathematicians founded by Raymond Queneau and François Le Lionnais in 1960, he has participated closely in what can now be regarded as the most successful—and long-lived—collaborative effort in the history of French literature.
As a reader I find that keeping up with Jacques Jouet can be daunting. John Coltrane once remarked that playing music with Thelonious Monk was a heady experience, but that if his attention flagged for even a moment, he felt as if he had fallen down an elevator shaft. I feel much the same way about reading Jacques Jouet, because each of his texts seems to come from a different angle, and launches out, engines full ablaze, upon a different literary trajectory. Clearly enough, having suggested the exceptional amplitude of his oeuvre on the one hand and, on the other, my own readerly bewilderment, I cannot pretend to offer anything like a normative, comprehensive account of Jouet’s career here. Instead, what I would like to do is to take a few soundings in his work, pointing out a few texts among the many he has written that might, for whatever reason, pique the interest of readers as yet unfamiliar with him.
I would like to turn to Jouet’s poetry in the first instance, because I am persuaded that, whatever sort of writing he may turn his pen toward, his literary imagination is above all a poetic one. In his novels, his plays, his short fiction, and even in his essays, he is constantly attentive to effects such as rhythm, the architectonics of image, and the fundamental materiality of words. In 107 Ames (107 Souls), published in 1991, Jouet offers a collection of 107 brief poems, each one devoted to a different—and very real—person. He chose those subjects blindly, as it were, recruiting friends of his to find willing subjects, and distributing questionnaires to those subjects, polling them about their age, their place of birth, their job, their income, and so forth. A final question invited them to describe a determinative event in their lives. Armed with those data, Jouet composed poems about each of them in a similar poetic form: three stanzas of six verses each. He used, moreover, a structure of internal rhyme that his fellow Oulipian Harry Mathews had unearthed in the first of John Berryman’s dream songs.
I think these poems are very excellent as poems, but I’ll say that once about Jouet’s writing, and then leave it as read. What interests me more particularly here is the manner in which Jouet puts poetry on stage in 107 Ames and the role that he scripts for it. Much of the material in these texts is mundane—necessarily so, since much of the information in the responses to the questionnaires is mundane, and since Jouet proposed to use that information, and only that information, in his poems. The people, the subjects of those poems, are likewise very ordinary folk for the most part. The lens in this collection is focused very carefully upon the quotidian, with all of its utterly familiar vexations. Moreover, that focus is apparent even in the conception of the project. In other words, one of the things Jouet is after in 107 Ames is to enable poetry to engage a dimension of the world that often proves refractory toward literary representation: the ordinary, the familiar, the everyday. We are creatures of the ordinary after all; we spend most of our lives in the domain of the trivial rather than in the realm of the heroic. We don’t generally dwell upon the ordinary, for, believing its terms to be obvious, we leave them unsaid. And in consequence our cultural forms are largely unequipped to represent it. What Jouet provides here is a glimpse of the world that we thought we knew, insisting very closely on crude detail in an effort to persuade us that the commonplaces of our lives deserve to be reexamined. It is a humanist poetics, in short, and such a stance subtends much of Jouet’s work from that point forward.
Navet, linge, oeil-de-vieux (Turnip, Napkin, Old-Man’s-Eye) deserves mention here, if for no reason other than its size. That work is a three-volume collection of poems which Jouet wrote during a four-year period. It comprises almost a thousand pages and was published in 1998 in one daring whack by POL, a Parisian publishing house that has provided a home to some of the most interesting and innovative writers working in France. Ours is a time and (more pertinently perhaps) an economy that does not particularly value poetry, and in light of that, POL’s gesture is all the more laudable. There are many kinds of poems in the collection. There is a long piece composed in alexandrine verse that Jouet returned to periodically during a four-year period, totaling 4,002 lines. There are several poems on the still-life that figures in the collection’s title, a sort of poetic fetish that Jouet kept on his desk during those years, consisting of a tur-nip, a linen napkin, and an old-man’s-eye (a biconcave lens used by landscape painters). There are examples of a form called an “addressed poem” that Jouet conceived, a text written with a specific person in mind and sent by mail to that person upon completion. Jouet has remarked, with tongue firmly in cheek, that such a form maximizes the chances of a poetic text being read carefully by at least one person. Whatever other projects he may be engaged in at any given moment, Jouet has for the past ten years made it a rule to write one poem a day. Tracing as it does four years of that experiment, Navet, linge, oeil-de-vieux can be read as a poet’s diary, one in which poetry is firmly cast—however quaint and outdated such an idea may seem to some readers—as a perfectly ordinary integer in the algorithm of everyday life.
Poèmes de métro (Metro Poems), published in 2000, displays a similar concern for the quotidian. Fascinated throughout his career by venerable poetic fixed forms such as the sonnet, the triolet, and the Malayan pantoum, Jouet chose to invent a new fixed form. He provided the definition of that new form in a text which is itself a metro poem:
A metro poem is a poem composed
in the metro, during the duration
of a trip.
A metro poem has as many verses as
your trip has stations, minus one.
The first verse is composed in your
head between the two first stations
of your trip (counting the station
from which you departed).
It is transcribed onto paper when the
train stops at the second station.
The second verse is composed in
your head between the second and
third stations of your trip.
It is transcribed onto paper when the
train stops at the third station. And
One must not transcribe when the
train is in motion.
One must not compose when the
train is stopped.
The last verse of the poem is
transcribed on the platform of
your last station.
If your trip involves one or more
changes of subway lines, the poem
will have two or more stanzas.
There are several examples of metro poems in this collection, most notably a text of 490 lines and forty-nine stanzas composed during a sixteen-hour trip in which Jouet rode through every station on the vast Parisian subway system. Poèmes de métro is by turn intriguing, amusing, and, well, moving, in the broadest sense of that term. Once again, I feel that it is most compelling in the way it offers the poetic act itself for our inspection. In the ordinary way of things, there are few settings less apt to inspire creativity than a subway ride. We think of a trip on the subway—when we think of it at all, that is—as an essentially empty interlude that we endure in order to get somewhere else and do something. A quick (and carefully noncommittal) glance at the glazed faces of one’s fellow passengers will confirm this. Jouet’s experiment is intended to demonstrate that even such an apparently banal moment can be invested with meaning, more particularly, poetic meaning. Clearly, it is a form that someone living in, say, rural Kansas would find difficult to practice on a regular basis. But the subway itself is not the point. Jouet’s example argues that even the bleakest of our daily landscapes—a supermarket, a traffic jam, a dentist’s waiting room, for heaven’s sake—can be traversed poetically.
Jacques Jouet has grouped his novels and several pieces of short fiction under the general rubric “The Republic Novel.” Broadly speaking, each of the texts included in this ongoing project speaks in some fashion about contemporary society and the politics through which it is governed. That is not to say that these works are examples of a narrowly defined littérature engagée bound to a particular political orthodoxy. To the contrary, Jouet’s social critique is constantly mobile, playing upon the more egregious of society’s contradictions in a variety of perspectives. It is moreover principally ironic and interrogative in character, rather than prescriptive. His first novel, Le directeur du Musée des cadeaux des chefs d’Etat de l’étranger (The Director of the Museum of Gifts from Foreign Heads of State), which appeared in 1994, focuses on the man whose task it is to collect, inventory, and display gifts given to the nation over the years. As the syntax of the novel’s title suggests, one of the things Jouet examines here is a principle of accretion, as gift follows upon gift in the history of the Republic, and thus in the museum’s collection. Every gift has a story to tell, of course, and Jouet structures each of those stories in ways that make them ramify far beyond themselves. In that manner, his tale ramifies pleasingly both on the level of social critique and on that of narrative itself. For one of the lessons of this text is that narrative is infinitely protean, supple, and resourceful; it can be put to many different purposes; it can target many different ends—even ends that one might hardly expect.
La Montagne R, published in 1996, will soon appear in English translation as Mountain R. The central conceit that Jouet postulates in it will appeal deeply to ironists of any political stripe: the president of the Republic has decided to build an artificial, 5,000-foot mountain as a monument to the glory of his nation. The first part of the novel is devoted to the speech in which the president announces that project to the benighted masses. It is a hilarious, wonderfully trenchant example of the kind of flatulent “politspeak” that habitually assails us, both here and in France. The second part takes place after the project has failed, as a young female journalist questions her father (who worked on the mountain for many years) about his role in the building of the mountain. The third and final part of Mountain R takes place during a trial in which the people responsible for the project are brought to account. It focuses on the testimony of a writer named Stéphane who had been commissioned to write an official history of the Mountain R and who claims to be working on a novel based on the project. As perspectives shift thus, so too do our perceptions of political action, social imperative, and moral responsibility—whether the latter notion be construed on the national, the familial, or the individual level. In ironic and canny fashion, Jouet asks us to consider how we view monuments and how we tend to monumentalize our leaders, our progenitors, and the tasks we pursue, both individually and severally. Just as this mountain is flawed by its uncertain foundations, both in the literal and the figurative sense, so too are the relations between the young woman and her father, and between Stéphane and his art.
In the first instance, Jouet argues, we build our monuments out of words, whether those words be an inaugural address, conversations with family members, or a novel. To the degree that those words are used to obfuscate realities that are otherwise painful to utter, our monuments will be correspondingly fragile. Duplicity is, thus, centrally at issue in Mountain R. Yet it should be noted, too, that the novel is among the most duplicitous of our cultural forms. The best novels always say something other than what they appear to say; they speak most eloquently from the side of the mouth; they are cunning, double-dealing, and lavishly deceptive. It is thus with high good humor and considerable wit that Jouet invites us to speculate on both Stéphane’s novel and his own here, asking us a whole range of questions. Can the novel render an accurate account of reality through a construction that is necessarily a fiction? If storytelling is the gesture we use in order to come to terms with experience, what are the possibilities and the limits of that gesture? What kinds of truths do we look for in narrative—and what kinds of truths do we commonly reject therein? As we reflect upon questions such as those, it may become apparent that the readerly strategies we bring to the text are every bit as duplicitous as those that the writer has elaborated, with just this kind of reciprocal recognition in mind.
Fins (Ends), the most overtly Oulipian of Jouet’s novels to date, appeared in 1999 and focuses on two Parisian couples who grapple with the demands of marriage in a variety of comic—and sometimes painful—ways. Jouet uses two systems of formal constraint in Fins in order to provide his text with structural rigor. The first is based upon the sestina, the poetic form broadly practiced in the Italian Renaissance, involving the regular permutation of six rhymes. Here, the permutational integers are sentences, rather than rhymes. There are 216 paragraphs in the novel, each of them composed of from one to six sentences. The first paragraph contains one sentence, the second two, and so forth. In the seventh paragraph, another permutation begins, in which the order is shifted: 6, 1, 5, 2, 4, 3. The second permutation begins in the thirteenth paragraph, with a shift that is symmetrical to that in the second set: 3, 6, 4, 1, 2, 5. Jouet follows that pattern in Fins until all of the combinatoric possibilities of his algorithm (6×6 x 6 = 216) have been exhausted. The idea that a novel should have the formal rigor of a poem is certainly not a new one, and by his own account Jouet’s gesture responds to Raymond Queneau’s prescriptive brief for more structure in the novel. The effect of this particular device can be traced most directly in the area of narrative rhythm, and it serves to remind us too that any storytelling, as Italo Calvino argued, is combinatoric by its very nature. The second constraint that Jouet uses involves the notion of narrative closure. Each of the 216 paragraphs stages a brief narrative that “ends” somehow. Jouet has remarked that he wished to test the notion of a novel that ends—or might end—at any moment of its elaboration. Playing on the principle of narrative closure, Jouet plays in savvy manner on his reader’s semiotic desire as well, on our craving to hear always more, on our undoubtedly unreasonable—but thoroughly human—longing for stories to develop beyond the boundaries of the fictional worlds they construct.
Une réunion pour le nettoiement (A Meeting for Cleansing), published in 2001, focuses once again on that slippery construct that so deeply fascinates Jouet: the Republic. The setting is a meeting to discuss public sanitation, and initially at least issues such as garbage collection, sewer maintenance, and the suppression of vermin are batted about with the kind of otiose lustiness that is typical of meetings. It shortly becomes apparent, however, that other, more troubling kinds of cleansing are on the agenda as well. The members of this group are perhaps not quite what we assume them to be, and their goals may well be more broadly social than they pretend. Most of us wish to live in an environment that is reasonably (if not obsessively) clean, after all. But what happens when we extend that principle to our social environment? Most of us are pleased to have our trash picked up at the curb, since we have decided that that trash no longer has any value for us. But how might we react if our garbagemen took it upon themselves to police our society according to similar principles? As often happens in Jouet’s fictions, a situation that seems on the face of it familiar and utterly normal goes awry in dramatic ways. In view of recent developments in our own society and in others only a bit more distant, Une réunion pour le nettoiement would be far more comic if it were any less chilling.
La République de Mek-Ouyes (The Republic of Myass), Jouet’s most recent novel to date, also appeared in 2001, and once again the fate of the Republic hangs in the balance. Subtitled “Serial Novel,” it is a lengthy work of 822 pages. Its subtitle is more than mere posturing on Jouet’s part: the first half of La République de Mek-Ouyes was indeed serialized—and doubly so, both in radiophonic form on France Culture between September 2000 and June 2001, and simultaneously in written form on POL’s website. Among the many other stories the novel tells, the story of René Pascale-Sylvestre is central. He is a truck driver who, changing his name to “Mek-Ouyes,” decides to occupy a rest area on a superhighway and declare thereupon a sovereign republic. That state’s natural resources are constituted by the forty tons of pig and elephant manure that his truck contains, a puissant mixture that produces an extremely toxic gas called “tricoruzene defoliant.” In the course of the story, the reader is regaled with an abundance of quirky characters and situations. There is, for instance, a wild boar who reads Queneau; a rapturous, deeply erotic scene in which a woman makes love with a snail; and a man named John Flandrin who once sold a thousand cubic meters of ice cubes in Greenland, dreams of a beach made entirely of couscous, and may have authored an erudite pamphlet on the customs of the Gonocos of Ganaca. There are lots of interpolated stories here; there are episodes written in alexandrine verse; and there are enough characters to satisfy even the most hardened devotee of the serial genre. Among those characters are a serial novelist (coincidentally working on a text called La République de Mek-Ouyes) and his reader, a young woman who brings considerable intellectual brio to her job and who keeps her novelist reasonably honest. Through those two figures, La République de Mek-Ouyes insistently questions its own terms and the conditions that enable a serial novel. For example, what is the relation, it asks, between the episodic rhythm of composition and the interrupted rhythm of reading? What are the specific uses of a serial novel? If this novelist drives his characters onward like a gaggle of geese (to borrow Queneau’s image, as Jouet does), in what fashion does that gesture “drive” the narrative—and the reader, as well? Perhaps by virtue of its very form, and quite regardless of its specific narrative content, a serial novel puts forward a case for the importance of narration itself as human behavior. As Jouet himself puts it, “There must be someone, some people, who will tell. A society cannot live without telling about itself.” That is a lesson that echoes throughout the ample halls of this novel, as indeed it echoes throughout Jouet’s work as a whole—and a very telling lesson it is.
Selected Works by Jacques Jouet in Translation
Mountain R. Trans. Brian Evenson. Dalkey Archive Press, $12.95.
Selected Untranslated Works
107 Ames. Ramsay, €12.96.
Actes de la Machine Ronde. Julliard, €10.67.
Alsace, Dialogues du Paysage (Version Sous Coffret). Castor & Pollux, €39.64.
Annette et L’Etna. Stock, €10.52.
Le bestiare inconstant. Out of Print.
Ce que rapporte l’envoyé. Le Verger, €5.34.
Des ans et des ânes. Out of Print.
Le directeur du Musée des cadeaux de Chefs d’Etat de l’étranger. Seuil, €19.51.
Echelle et Papillons, Le Pantoum. Out of Print.
Fins. POL, €11.43.
Guerre froide, mère froide. Out of Print.
Mon bel autocar. POL, €10.00.
Les mots du corps dans les expressions de la langue française. Larousse €18.00.
Navet, linge, oeil-de-vieux. Out of print.
Poèmes avec partenaires. POL, €18.00.
Poèmes de métro. POL, €21.34.
Le point de vue de l’escargot. Le Verger, €10.67.
Raymond Queneau. Out of print.
Regarde les têtes en l’air. Out of Print.
La République de Mek-Ouyes. POL, €23.00.
Une réunion pour le nettoiement. POL, €16.77.
Romillats: nouvelles. Out of Print.
Sauvage. Autrement, €9.00.
La scène et sur la scène: théâtre. Out of Print.
La scène usurpée. Rocher, €4.42.
Vanghel: Théâtre IV. POL, €20.00.

domain: literature


Following the release of 21 of the Chibok girls, the Global Excellence Foundation (GEF), on Sunday, called on the Federal Government and the Nigerian military to build on the current success in the fight against the Boko Haram insurgency and ensure that every Nigerian held captive by the terrorist group is freed.
The Country Director of GEF, Professor Ola Yemi, who addressed a press conference, in Abuja, on Sunday, however, appealed to the wife of the President, Aisha Buhari, not to withdraw support for the president at this critical time, but rather galvanise women support for him.
While Professor Yemi stated that many people who were not known to the public were still being held captive by Boko Haram; he pointed out that the recent interview, in which Mrs Aisha Buhari alluded to withdrawing support for President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019, was a distraction that is not needed at this moment.
He regretted that the hectic fallout from her interview detracted from the joy of the Chibok girls’ release.
Meanwhile, the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev Dr Samson Ayokunle, has commended the Federal Government for the breakthrough recorded by getting 21 of the kidnapped Chibok girls released from the captivity of Boko Haram insurgents.
Ayokunle, in a statement issued and signed by his spokesman, Bayo Oladeji, who described the news of their release as great and pleasant since the beginning of the year, assured the Federal Government of CAN’s prayers to ensure every one of the Chibok girls still in captivity is released.
In a related development, the President of Christ Apostolic Church, Worldwide, Pastor Abraham Olukunle Akinosun, has commended President Muhammadu Buhari over the release of 21 Chibok girls. He said this is a step in the right direction which gives hope that the remaining girls would soon be released.
Pastor Akinosun, who was addressing the press in Abuja, during this year’s Pastors’ Conference in the Federal Capital, said the entire nation was happy at the news of the girls’ release and he urged the President to expedite action on the release of the remaining girls.
“It is one of the best news we have ever received this year from the government as a nation. Let the government be aware that CAN is with them in prayer in getting the rest of the girls released and that they should leave no stone unturned in getting the rest that are still alive released,” he said.
The leadership of CAN also rejoices with the parents of the released girls and prays that the rest of th


Good morning and welcome to my daily sports updates.Tap on the follow link on the top right corner if you haven't done so to receive more news.Welcome.
Harambee Stars defender Eric Ouma alias Mercelo clocked full minutes for his side AIK against Varberg in the Swedish allavaskan league yesterday night.The Kenyan international helped his side to win 1.0 as they collected their three points for their second win of the league this season. Ouma was outstanding as usual in his left back position.Kenya n duo of Collins Shichenje and Henry Meja did not make the squad, with Shichenje yet to receive his work permit.
In the English Premier league, Arsenal FC surprised many fans including pundits who had predicted a huge loss in the hands of their London rivals Chelsea.Thr Gunners had lost three consecutive games before yesterday, almost everyone was certain for Chelsea to win the encounter. However,Hale End products Eddie Nketiah, Smith Rowe and Bukayo Saka ensured a dramatic 4.2 win for Mikel Arteta's side.In another encounter, Brazilian striker Richerlson ensured a point for Frank Lampard in the dying minutes of the game against Leicester City as the two sides fought to a 1.1 all draw.
Manchester City reclaimed their top spot in the Premier league table after a second half win against Brighton and Hoves Albion. Goals from Riyadh Mahrez,Phil Phoden and Kevin De Bryne did the good job for Pep Guordiola. In another encounter, Newcastle won 1.0 against Crystal Palace to ensure their survival hopes of remaining in the Premier league next season remains alive.
We wish them all the best ahead.
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Tonaki-jima Island is located in Tonaki-son. To visit Tonaki-jima Island on your trip to Tonaki-son, use our Tonaki-son day trip planning app.
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Tonaki-jima Island reviews
Tonaki is a small island just west of the main island of Okinawa. With a population of about 300 people, it's 12 km in circumference with the village situated between two hills of about 150 m. The...
Tonaki is a small island just west of the main island of Okinawa. With a population of about 300 people, it's 12 km in circumference with the village situated between two hills of about 150 m. The... more »
The book I'm reading introduced about this jewel-like islet, so I hope that one day everyone will be able to visit this island, and some of what is written in this book. I would like to post it. "This island, which belongs to Tonaki Island, is rich in fish and shellfish, and mulberry trees and watermelons are cultivated. Before the war, it was praised as a treasure island for the villagers, but after World War II, the U.S. military The land was unconditionally requisitioned, and residents were prohibited from entering the area, making it impossible to fish in the surrounding sea. , The islanders continue to be annoyed by the roar of bombers flying at ultra-low altitudes day and night "(from a book published in 2007).
It seems that it will come out at the opening of Chura-san (a little previous TV novel)!
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60 days in Okinawa Prefecture BY A USER FROM UNITED KINGDOM Ishigaki Hateruma-jima Iriomote-jima 60 days in Okinawa Prefecture BY A USER FROM ISRAEL Naha Tokashiki-son Zamami-son 4 days in Kumejima-cho BY A USER FROM JAPAN Tsumugi Bridge Kumejima Nature Park Tonnahaenchi Kumejimacho Oshima Tatamiishi 40 days in Okinawa Prefecture BY A USER FROM UNITED STATES Ishigaki Hateruma-jima Iriomote-jima 17 days in Okinawa Prefecture BY A USER FROM SWEDEN Tonaki-son Zamami-son Aguni-son 14 days in Tonaki-son BY A USER FROM SWEDEN Tonaki-jima Island Shunza (Amanjaki)

domain: geography


text:
It can be difficult to determine whether your feelings towards your parents stem from their behavior towards you or if they stem from more personal issues within yourself. It’s important to note that toxic relationships are unhealthy, damaging, and can have lasting effects on your mental and emotional wellbeing.
First and foremost, it’s important to take a step back and assess if there have been any red flags of toxic behavior in the relationship. Signs that a relationship might be toxic include: physical and verbal abuse, persistent and abusive criticism, micromanagement, controlling behavior, manipulation, or other behaviors that make you feel at fault, unworthy, and devalued.
If any of these signs seem to be present in your relationship with your parents, it’s important to take a step back and assess the situation.
It might be helpful to consider your parents’ possible motivations for their behavior, as well. In some cases, parents might employ toxic tactics out of fear or insecurity in the relationship, or out of a desire for control.
It can also be helpful to look at the bigger picture, such as your childhood, family dynamics, and other personal experiences that might be contributing to their behavior.
Finally, it is important to consider whether your feelings might be rooted in more personal issues that are unrelated to your parents’ behavior. It’s possible that you are feeling resentment towards your parents for issues that have nothing to do with them, such as trauma, disappointments, feelings of insecurity or inadequacy, or other life experiences.
If this is the case, it may be helpful to take some time to process these feelings and understand how they impact your interactions with your parents.
Ultimately, it can be difficult to determine whether your parents are toxic or not. It is important to assess the situation objectively, consider the dynamics at play and look inward to understand your own feelings and motivations.
It might also be helpful to consult with a professional, such as a therapist or counselor, to get a better understanding of the situation and determine the best way to move forward.
Table of Contents
Can parents be unintentionally toxic?
Yes, parents can be unintentionally toxic in various ways. Unintentional parenting toxicity can be caused by a range of factors, including but not limited to, lack of knowledge and understanding of child psychology, stress and anxiety, and difficult relationships with their own parents.
When it comes to lack of knowledge and understanding, it is very common for parents to be unfamiliar with certain parenting techniques and the psychological impact they can have on children. For example, when a parent is overly strict or possessive, the child often becomes fearful or resentful.
Also, some parents may show preferences for one child over another, which can lead to feelings of neglect or resentment in the other child.
Stress and anxiety can also be a major source of toxicity for parents, especially when it isn’t acknowledged and dealt with in an appropriate and timely manner. In such situations, parents can often rely on punitive measures to cope with their own stress, as well as punishment-based parenting techniques to take control of their child’s behavior.
This can lead to an environment of fear, anger and guilt, that can have lasting negative consequences in a child’s life.
Finally, difficult relationships with their own parents can also contribute to unintentionally toxic parenting. Often, when a parent is still struggling to cope with unresolved issues from their own childhood, this can lead to negative modeling and an overall unhealthy relationship in the home.
As a result, the child can suffer from a variety of long-term psychological issues.
All in all, parenting toxicity can be unintentional, caused by a range of factors and have lasting negative consequences. Therefore, it is important for all parents to be mindful of their own mental state and any unresolved issues, as well as make the effort to learn about positive parenting approaches and ultimately ensure a healthy and secure home environment for their children.
Why do I feel like my parents are toxic?
Feeling like your parents are toxic can be a difficult and overwhelming situation to navigate. Unfortunately, the dynamics of the parent-child relationship can often lead to feelings of toxicity. This can include feelings of invalidation, lack of emotional support, manipulation, or feeling of lack of control.
When considering why you may feel like your parents are toxic, it is helpful to first consider what you have been exposed to growing up. If your parents used emotional manipulation tactics to control you, often in the form of guilt-tripping or shaming, this can have a lasting affect on how you view your relationship.
In addition, any form of emotional, physical, or sexual abuse can have a huge impact on your present day relationship with your parents.
It is also important to consider how you view your parents’ behavior and expectations. If you feel like your parents have unreasonably high expectations that are impossible to meet or if they push you to do things that make you uncomfortable or are otherwise not okay with you, then this also has the potential to contribute to feelings of toxicity.
Finally, it is important to consider if your parents’ behavior has shifted over time. This could be due to a major life event, mental health issue, or changes in the relationship dynamics.
All these factors play a role in creating an environment of potential toxicity, and it can be important to seek help to better understand your feelings, the dynamics of the relationship, and the best ways to move forward.
What does a toxic parent say?
A toxic parent can say many different things, some of which may be hurtful or manipulative. Generally, they will use words that are intended to criticize, belittle, or manipulate their children. They may say destructive things such as “you’re stupid”, “you’ll never amount to anything”, or “you’ll never be successful”.
They may also be very controlling, expecting perfection and making unreasonable demands. Often, they will compare their children to others in a negative way, or tell them they are “not good enough”. Toxic parents may also try to control their children by issuing threats or ultimatums.
If a child ever disagrees with them, a toxic parent may use aggressive tactics such as yelling, name-calling, or shaming. These words can have extremely damaging and lasting effects on a child’s self-esteem, relationships, and sense of security.
Did I grew up in a toxic household?
No, I did not grow up in a toxic household. I had a loving and supportive family that provided me with a stable and nurturing home environment. My parents were always present in my life, providing guidance and comfort when needed.
They taught me to be kind, understanding, and empathetic, emphasizing the importance of honesty and integrity. I was able to communicate openly with them, and I was never made to feel ashamed for expressing my feelings.
Conflict was rare in our family; if it did arise, we would talk it through rather than engage in a heated argument. I am very grateful for the positive family dynamic that I had growing up and believe it helped me become the person I am today.
What are signs of a toxic mother?
Signs of a toxic mother may include:
1. Unconditional Love With Conditions: Toxic mothers often love their child in an unconditional way, with strings attached. The mother may be unpredictable in her affection, will often demand certain behaviors from her child or withhold love if those behaviors are not present, and may become upset or angry if her expectations are not met.
2. Humiliation, Embarrassment and Ridicule: Another sign of a toxic mother is humiliation, embarrassment and/or ridicule of her child. This can come in the form of public shaming, mocking, or belittling her child.
This behavior can lead to feelings of guilt, shame, and insecurity.
3. Controlling Nature: Toxic mothers often try to control every aspect of their child’s life. This includes things like who they can and cannot see and what they can and cannot do, as well as total control over decisions and choices.
This behavior can inhibit the child’s ability to think on their own and grow.
4. Holding Grudges: Toxic mothers are often known for holding grudges for long periods of time, refusing to forgive or forget any mistakes or missteps made by their child. This behavior can lead to an unhealthy power dynamic, where the mother makes all the rules and has all the power, making it difficult for the child to grow and learn from their mistakes.
5. Gaslighting: Gaslighting is a tactic often used by toxic mothers. This involves manipulating facts or situations to make the child feel that their perceptions and feelings are wrong and that they are to blame for all issues or situations.
This behavior can be damaging to the mental health of the child, as it invalidates their feelings and makes them feel small and powerless.
What is toxic childhood syndrome?
Toxic Childhood Syndrome is a set of symptoms associated with the effects of trauma experienced during childhood. It often manifests as emotional, cognitive, and behavioral issues that can last into adulthood if the trauma is not properly addressed.
Symptoms can include things like depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse, and relationship difficulties. Childhood trauma can come in many forms, such as physical, mental, or emotional abuse, neglect, family dysfunction, and other traumatic experiences.
In order to prevent and address Toxic Childhood Syndrome, it is important to recognize when a child is at risk of harm and provide care, support, and a safe environment for them to heal. Additionally, adults can help to support children affected by trauma by providing emotional, physical, and practical support.
How can you tell if your home is toxic?
Such as a noticeable smell or the presence of pests and mold. Paying close attention to the air quality in your home is essential, and if you notice any strange or unpleasant odors, it could be a sign of something out of the ordinary, like chemical fumes or mold.
Additionally, if you start to experience a range of novel symptoms like dizziness, headaches, nausea, and skin irritation, it could be indicative of a much more hazardous problem like exposure to toxins from materials like asbestos, paints and chemicals.
Other signs that your home may be toxic can include visible mold spores, water damage, and pests like rodents, bugs, and other wildlife. If you notice any of these signs or other telltale signs that something wrong is happening in your home, it is important to address the issue right away and have the air quality tested by a professional.
How do toxic parents behave?
Toxic parents are those who cause harm to their children emotionally, mentally, or even physically. They can come in a variety of forms, but some common behaviors include: seeking to control their children rather than allowing them to make their own choices; behaving in a manipulative or emotionally abusive way; being authoritarian and rigid with their children; exhibiting narcissistic tendencies; having a negative and punishing attitude; deflecting responsibility for their own role in parenting; and refusing to show empathy or understanding for their children’s needs and feelings.
Additionally, toxic parents may have unrealistic expectations for their children and be unable to provide the nurture and support necessary for a child’s positive development. They may also be emotionally distant and uninvolved in their child’s life, which can lead to further confusion, distress and even mistrust.
Ultimately, toxic parents not only create unhealthy relationships but can also have a major negative impact on a child’s self-esteem and sense of identity.
What parents should not say?
One of the most important things for parents to remember is that the words they say to their children have a powerful impact. Therefore, it is essential for parents to be mindful of what they say and the tone in which they say it.
There are certain things that parents should try to avoid saying, such as:
• “You’re not good enough. ” Comparing children to others or expressing disappointment in their abilities can lead to feelings of inferiority. Instead, parents should be offering encouragement and support.
• “You should be ashamed of yourself.” Such phrases are more shaming than corrective and can teach children that they are not worthy of anyone’s respect or love.
• “Stop crying or I’ll give you something to cry about. ” Instead of resorting to threats or ultimatums, it’s better to try to understand the root of the child’s emotions and to address the issue directly.
• “You never/always do _______.” This phrase does not take into consideration individual circumstances or differences.
• “This isn’t a big deal.” Even if it isn’t a big deal for the parent, it probably is for the child, and it should be taken seriously.
• “I agree” without giving an explanation. Children should never be expected to understand everything without receiving an explanation from their parents. Communication is key!
Overall, it’s essential for parents to treat their children with respect and kindness, and that includes being mindful of their words as well.
What is the meanest thing to say to a kid?
Saying mean things to anyone is never okay and should be avoided at all costs, particularly when it comes to kids. It is especially cruel to say cruel and hurtful things to a child, as it has the potential to cause long-term psychological damage.
Depending on the context, some of the meanest things to say to a kid might include personal insults such as “you’re worthless”, “you’re ugly”, or “you’ll never amount to anything”, which would be devastating to hear.
Other phrases to avoid include blaming the child for things they cannot control, minimizing their feelings, comparing them to others in a negative light, or screaming or failing to acknowledge when they are trying or trying to do their best.
At the end of the day, it is important to be mindful of the words we say and their potential effect. It is far better to remain patient, understanding, and compassionate when dealing with children, so that we can offer them the love, support, and positivity they need to grow and thrive.
What’s the worst thing a parent can say to their kid?
The worst thing a parent can say to their kid is that they are a disappointment or a failure. These words can have an incredibly damaging and lasting effect on a child; it can cause them to have low self-esteem, feel unloved, or even question their worth.
When a parent communicates these negative and unsupportive feelings, it can create a sense of shame in the child and can lead to deep feelings of inadequacy. Additionally, it can erode the parent-child bond and make it difficult for the child to trust and develop healthy relationships with others.
Instead, parents should focus on providing constructive criticism and support while staying mindful of how their words can impact their child.
What should you not say to a child?
It is important to remember to be respectful when speaking with a child, and that it is not appropriate to say anything that could be hurtful to them. While it is accepted to discipline a child and set boundaries, it is generally unwise to speak harshly or negatively to them.
Instead of addressing their behavior in a negative way, it is usually better to focus on positively reinforcing them for their good behavior and addressing their bad behavior in a firm but understanding manner.
Additionally, it is generally not a good idea to say anything that belittles them, such as making comparisons with other children, or insulting them by calling them names. It is also important to be aware of the language that you are using with a child, as cursing or intimidating language can be particularly detrimental to their mental welfare.
Finally, it is important to remember that children can pick up on things said to them, even as a joke, so it is best to avoid saying anything that could potentially cause them emotional harm such as comments about their physical appearance or remarks about their relationships with their parents.
Do and don’ts of a parent?
The do’s and don’ts of being a parent are guidelines for providing guidance, support, and love for your children as they grow and develop. A good parent provides a nurturing, structure-filled, affection-filled environment that is both physically and emotionally safe for their children.
There are many positive things parents can do to ensure the best outcome for their children.
•Provide a safe, supportive and nurturing environment.
•Make sure your child is getting enough sleep and the right nutrition.
•Encourage physical activity, outdoor time, learning and creativity.
•Show love and affection to your children, and recognize their accomplishments.
•Ensure that your child hears your expectations clearly, and emphasize the importance of using good judgment.
•Empower your children by allowing them to make decisions and be accountable for their choices.
•Talk to your children regularly, especially if they are having a difficult time.
•Be a role model and lead by example.
•Don’t ignore the importance of good communication and honest conversations with your children.
•Don’t be too judgmental of your children’s mistakes.
•Don’t shame or criticize your children for their feelings and emotions.
•Don’t hide your own feelings from your children.
•Don’t use threats or physical punishment to discipline your children.
•Don’t set unrealistic expectations for your children and expect them to follow them.
•Don’t overwhelm your children with too many rules and expectations.
•Don’t neglect your own mental and physical health, since this will negatively impact your children.
By following this list of do’s and don’ts, you can ensure that your children are well-taken care of and have the best chance of success in all aspects of life. Ultimately, it is important to remember that parenting is not a one-size-fits-all, and that each family has to figure out what works best for them.

domain: sociology


President Barack Obama appeared in "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" and read some "Mean Tweets," one of which happened to come from Donald Trump.
Mayor Charles Wasko, who found himself in the center of controversy over racist Facebook posts, including posts that depicted the Obama family as apes.
President Barack Obama called out Donald Trump and told him to stop "whining" about claims that the election is rigged against him.
Arnold Ray Jones, a convicted, drug dealer is the only inmate so far to reject clemency granted to him by President Barack Obama, who recently granted sweeping clemency to several drug-related offenders.
President Barack Obama took just a moment while on the campaign trail for Hillary Clinton to reassure everyone that he is not, in fact, a demon.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama offered 102 federal inmates the chance to leave prison early, wielding his clemency powers Thursday as part of his end-of-term push to spur action on criminal justice reform...
Dan Johnson, who is running for Kentucky's State House, is not apologizing for Facebook posts he made about President Obama that many are calling racist.