#*checks notes* its been in production hell for nearly 9 years

[ashenxrogue]

wait a god damn minute

is that a dragon age reference in my genshin?

[tellmealovestory]

What The Hell

Summary: Dialogue prompt - Put the knife down

Notes: Also posted on my ao3. This was written for @sillyqt​ 1k followers challenge. Congrats again on all the followers!

Warnings: Swear words galore, back at it with the dumbass reader, mentions of smut, implied smut, did I mention the readers a dumbass?

There were a lot of things running through your mind that made sleep impossible. 

The storm raging outside. Heavy, fat rain drops that slammed against your window, wind that howled and shook the ratty frames, the loud claps of thunder that had you jumping each time they rolled across the night sky, the lightning that lit up your small room for brief seconds of a time reminding you just how lonely it could be at night when Bucky was away on a mission.

There were always too many things that could go wrong on those extended missions that left you tossing and turning unable to catch a wink of sleep. While you understood it was his job it didn’t make dealing with the worries over him getting hurt any less easier to handle. 

Rolling onto your back you whined at the mugginess that had settled in your room. The whirring of the small fan that sat in the corner only circulated more hot air doing little to cool you off. 

Outside sirens from an ambulance wailed causing you to wince. As much as you loved this apartment the neighborhood wasn’t the greatest and each time you heard sirens when alone or the creaking of what you were convinced of was someone breaking into your apartment you broke out in hives of worries and what ifs. 

Despite Bucky’s insistence that you move to a better apartment in a safer neighborhood your reluctance to leave the space you had called home since moving to the city had always won out. But laying in bed alone tonight you were beginning to rethink that position when you were convinced you heard your apartment door creaking open.

With a racing heart, shaking breaths and sheets tangled around your feet you sat up in bed tilting your head to the side trying to decipher if the creaking of a door opening was real or if you were imagining it. 

Break-ins weren’t unheard of in the building, but so far you had been lucky enough to never experience one. 

Floorboards creaked under heavy boots.

Shit, shit, shit.

Your phone was sitting on the kitchen counter next to the half empty boxes of Chinese food you had ordered earlier which meant if someone was breaking in you couldn’t even call 9-1-1 for help. 

Bringing your knees to your chest your eyes quickly scanned your darkened room looking for anything to arm yourself with.

Another heavy step, another creaking floorboard.

You understood why Bucky wanted you to move somewhere safer now. 

Think, think, think your mind screamed. With no phone to call for help, no baseball bat to smack whoever was inside your apartment you were fucked. You were about to die. You were about to die a horrible, slow death because you were the idiot in every horror movie who couldn’t manage to keep their phone with them. You were about to die wearing nothing but a tank top and a pair of underwear. You were about to die in a dingy apartment littered with take out containers during the middle of a thunderstorm. Fuck.

Swinging your legs over your bed you winced at the groaning of your worn out mattress. Freezing you sucked in a deep breath only exhaling when your bedroom door didn’t fling open to reveal a seven foot man wearing a hockey mask and holding a giant machete. 

Fuck you really needed to stop watching horror movies if you survived this.

Opening your bedside drawer slowly you rummaged around looking for anything you could use as a weapon, but so far all your fingers had run over was a condom, a vibrator with dead batteries that you were supposed to have changed earlier in the day and something sharp that sliced your finger.

Hissing you pulled your hand out of the drawer as you brought your finger up to your face struggling to inspect it in the darkness of your room. You didn’t dare turn a light on and alert your intruder you were in here. The metallic taste of blood filtered through your nostrils and you wrinkled your nose in distaste. 

Something sharp. Fuck, you really were that idiot in the horror movie who gets killed first for being a dumb bitch. You couldn’t believe you hadn’t thought of this sooner! If you survived this night you were going to spend the rest of the year on your knees giving Bucky Barnes the best blowjobs of his fucking life.

Carefully you dipped your hand back into the drawer. Grasping the handle of the knife he had thrown in there after a particularly kinky night of sex you sighed in relief. It may not have been a phone to call for help, but it was better than nothing. 

On shaky legs you stood up only to freeze when you saw yellow light flooding beneath your door.

Any hopes of the creaking floorboard, of the heavy boots being a product of your overactive imagination flew out the window. Your heart plummeted to your stomach, your hand grew sweaty the handle of the knife nearly slipping out of you grasp. And when the deafening sound of thunder echoed through your room you nearly pissed yourself from fear.

You were really about to die tonight. A million things flashed through your mind. Regrets, unfulfilled promises, moments you would never get to experience, places you would never get to see. Tears filled your eyes, but no matter how much you told yourself to pull it together you couldn’t. You had never imagined dying in your dingy apartment alone.

Taking a shaky step towards your bedroom door you tried to formulate a plan in your mind, but all you could think about was Bucky. The last time you had kissed him, the last time you had held his hand, the last time you had laid curled up in his arms sated after a passionate night together.

But mostly you thought about the last thing you had said to him. It hadn’t been I love you like it usually was. No be careful. No be safe. No come back to me in one piece. No. The last thing you had said to him was he had better plan on spending the next week buried between your thighs putting that long tongue to good use after he been called away on a mission in the middle of swirling his tongue over your swollen clit. 

Closing your eyes you whimpered at the memory. You had spent the day in bed going at it like rabbits. With your legs thrown over his shoulders, sweat dripping down every crevice of your body, his large hands holding your thighs open to him he had lavished your clit with the attention of a man on a mission and fuck had he ever been on a mission. 

Writhing beneath his body your knuckles had been turning white with how tight you had been gripping your bedsheets. Right on the edge of what you were convinced would have been a mind blowing orgasm his phone had gone off and though you had begged him to ignore it, fucking cried that you were so close, so goddamn close and to please, please, please just let you cum the fucker had pulled away with a kiss to your dripping center telling you he couldn’t ignore it and that he’d make it up to when he came back.

It was the last time you had seen him, last time you had talked to him and now you were about to die thinking about the goddamn orgasm you had missed out on. What the hell was wrong with you?

Reaching your bedroom door you hesitantly grasped the doorknob frowning when your sweat soaked hand slipped right off it. Sucking in a deep breath, praying to whoever would listen you twisted the doorknob, wincing as the door squeaked on its hinges. So much for trying to sneak out of here unseen.

Your body moved on its own as your feet shakily carried you out of your bedroom and into the short hallway. A quick glance into the living room appeared to show nothing missing. Swinging your gaze to the kitchen you noticed your takeout boxes had been moved from the counter. What kind of sick fucker broke into someone’s apartment and ate their food? Granted, the food was definitely not edible after having been sitting out on the hot counter for hours, but still. You really were dealing with a monster. With the kitchen, your bedroom, and the living room cleared that only left the bathroom and the spare bedroom. 

The thought of walking in on some freaky Goldilocks killer taking a bath or taking a nap had you shuddering. Tilting your head to the side you closed your eyes listening to the rain, the thunder, the wind, but you didn’t hear any running water and while it didn’t rule out them being in the bathroom you weren’t about to go and check to be positive.

Taking slow, careful steps forward you padded across the living room and to the kitchen in search of your phone. You had left it next to the takeout boxes, but much like the boxes your phone was gone now too. 

Fuck, fuck, fuck. 

Two options. 

You could stay and fight which despite Bucky trying to teach you how had been pretty much a disaster. Sure, you knew the basics, how to kick a guy in the balls, punch him the face, stab him in the eye, but that wasn’t going to do you much good if they got to you first.

The other option was running. Running out of your apartment, into the streets, anywhere but here. But your lack of clothing, the storm, the cut on your finger that had blood dripping down onto your leg was anybody going to take you seriously? And it wasn’t like you knew any of your neighbors who could help you.

Stay or go. 

Gasping at the low creaking of a door opening you crouched down on the kitchen floor holding the knife out in front of you. The apartment door was only a few feet to the right of you, but you were doubtful you could make it when footsteps echoed closer through your small apartment. The heavy steps matched the frantic beating of your heart. Sobs threatened to spill from your quivering lips. Slapping your free hand over your mouth your only hope was that whoever was in your apartment creeping closer couldn’t hear your muffled sobs. 

Adrenaline pumped through your veins and in a split second decision of stupidity or bravery you jumped up. Scrambling across the kitchen floor in your bare feet you came face to face with your intruder. 

Raising the knife your hand shook, your breath came out in heavy pants, your eyes were wide, your heart thundered and when lightning lit up your kitchen you let out a blood curdling scream as you lifted the knife and sliced through the air in a blind attempt to strike your attacker.

Like a scene straight out of a bad eighties horror movie where once again you were playing the dumb victim doomed to die your aim was off. Embarrassingly so, yet that didn’t stop you from trying again as you took a step forward slashing through the air screaming. If you couldn’t stab him maybe your screams would scare him off or at the very least alert your useless neighbors that you needed assistant.

“Y/N!”

He knew your name. Oh god. The killer in your apartment knew your name. 

Screaming at the top of your lungs you clutched the knife. Turning on your heels to run you yelped when a thick hand wrapped around your wrist holding you to the spot.

“Y/N!”

Blindly kicking at his shins, thrashing in his arms, you screamed, wildly waving the knife around in the air.

“Put the knife down!”

Out of breath with tears running down your face and scared shitless you watched helplessly as he grabbed the knife tossing it across the kitchen with such ease it was enough for you to stop your thrashing and your screaming.

As your eyes began to focus and a flash of lightning lit up your kitchen and the intruders face your jaw dropped in shock. 

“What the fuck are you doing!?” You yelled. 

Slamming your free hand against his chest repeatedly the adrenaline that had been pumping through your veins only moments before dissipated to surprise followed by anger.

"Shh it’s just me you gotta calm down, Y/N I didn’t mean to scare you, but you gotta calm down."

Ignoring his words you tried to yank your wrist free from his grasp, but he only tightened his hold. It was probably a good thing because you were about two seconds away from passing out. “You broke into my apartment!”

“I live here.”

Huffing you had no rebuttal to that, but that didn’t stop you from blurting out the first thing that came to mind no matter how ridiculous it sounded.

“Why were you stomping around like some serial killer? Huh Mr. I live here too and think it’s cool to give my girlfriend a heart attack!”

“I wasn’t stomping around,” he snapped, eyes narrowing in suspicion. “What are you doin’ waving my knife around like a maniac? You could've hurt yourself!”

“You left it in my bedside drawer! I didn’t have a choice I thought you were a murderer and my only options of defense was this or a dead vibrator!”

Breathing heavily you glared at him in the darkness amazed at the fact that no one had bothered to check on you after the screaming match that had occurred. Then again it wasn’t like your neighbors knew you. 

"What are you doing here? The mission a-and you always get me up when you come hone why didn’t you wake me?"

Loosening his grip on your wrist he pulled you close his hand going to the back of your head as he quietly shushed you. It was unusual for him to be taking care of you after a mission usually it was the other way around with you bandaging him up, asking him if he was okay, giving him space whatever the mood called for depending on how bad the mission had gone.

Though you were wrapped in his arms in what should have made you feel safe and secure your body shook like a leaf, ugly sobs wracking your frame over the what ifs that could have happened. Snot and tears stained his shirt by the time you finally pulled away.

"I could have hurt you, Bucky! What if i had stabbed you? You could have died!"

Lightning illuminated the room again lighting his face up and though it may have been your eyes playing a cruel trick on you you swore you saw a hint of a smirk on his lips.

"Doll, the way you were waving that knife around the only person you were gonna hurt was you."

Yanking free from his grasp you crossed your arms over your chest. 

"I’m glad you find this funny James!" You hissed, anger and fear lacing your words. 

Storming into the bathroom you flipped the light on flinching at not only the brightness but the reflection in the mirror. Wide, crazy eyes stared back at you. Your hair was a matted mess with sweat, your face burning hot with tears and snot drying on your nose. You looked like shit, but found it difficult to care about that when you almost fucking died tonight. The strap of your tank top slid down your arm as you forcefully turned the hot water on. Reaching for a washcloth you ran it under the water ignoring the stare of Bucky as he stood in the doorframe.

"I’m sorry," he started, stepping into the small room before taking a seat on the edge of the bathtub. Yanking his shirt over his head he tossed it in the hamper staring at your reflection in the mirror. "I knew it was late and it was selfish, but I needed to see you I figured you’d be sleepin’ so I was gonna crash in the spare room till morning. I really didn’t mean to scare you, doll.”

"Yeah, well you did," you mumbled like a petulant child. Turning to face him you frowned inspecting the various cuts and bruises that littered his face and chest. Gently lifting the washcloth to his face you wiped away the dried flecks of blood that dotted the corner of his mouth. Had you been in a better mood you would have made a joke about him being a vampire. 

"I’m sorry", he tried again. Resting his large hands on your hips he pulled you closer so you were standing in between his thick thighs as he laid his head on your stomach. 

Carding your fingers through his hair you closed your eyes. Your heart was still thundering beneath your chest and you were still convinced you were two seconds away from passing out, but as you stood between his legs listening to the rain and the wind pound against the windows for the first tine tonight you breathed an easy sigh.

"You don’t know how scared i was," you mumbled, choking on a sob. "And you know the worst part? I couldn’t stop thinking about how i didn’t even say i love you before you left. I could have died tonight and my last words weren’t even I love you." Choking on a strangled cry you collapsed against his bruised and battered chest the events of the past hour taking their toll on you as your knees gave out.

Holding tight to you he ran his hands down your back, against the back of your head all the while cooing that he had you and you were safe and he would never let any harm come to you no matter what.

You weren’t sure how long you stayed like that sobbing and eternally grateful in his arms that you were okay, that he was safe, that you were both going to be okay.

Kissing the top of your head, your forehead, your cheeks, the corner of your mouth he pressed a gentle kiss to your lips. It was sweet and loving, the kind of kiss that was meant as an apology for a myriad of mistakes made by the both of you, the kind of kiss that sent your heart fluttering, your knees to shake, your stomach to fill with butterflies, the kind of kiss that if it could talk would whisper nothing but I love you, I love you, I love you.

But it wasn’t enough for you. Sliding your hands to his chest you gripped his hair yanking his head back as you kissed him hungrily. It was a desperate kiss, a sloppy kiss, a needy kiss, but he got the hint, wrapping his arms tightly around your waist as he roughly shoved his tongue into your mouth. Groaning he tore his lips away from yours only to kiss his way down your neck. "Never meant to scare you," he mumbled. "But maybe we should start those self defense classes back up."

Nodding your head at his kisses, at his apologies you never wanted him to stop, but his words had you frowning. 

"I had it under control."

But you didn’t. Had he been an actual killer like you had originally thought you would have been dead in a minute.

Chuckling he stroked your hip. "I love you, but you didn’t have anything under control." 

"Yeah, well," you sputtered. "Had you woken me up none of this would have happened!"

"I know," he sighed, regret tinging his words.

Staring down at his cloudy blue eyes, his tanned chest full of well defined muscles, those glorious thighs you quirked your lips up. "You could always make it up to me," you started, your voice sultry as your fingers stroked the back of his neck.

Catching on quickly he quirked his eyebrow up. 

"You did promise to spend the next week between my thighs... what do you say we make it two weeks and I’ll think about forgiving you?"

"You'll think about it? Honey, you'll forgive me after the first orgasm," he promised.

"Well, what are you waiting for?"

Squealing as he stood up and dragged you to your room you quickly forgot about the horror, the worries, the anxiety you had been through as a different kind of adrenaline filled your veins when he pushed you down onto your bed ready to make you scream for an entirely different set of reasons. 

[sherlollydramoine]

The Proposal

Prompt 9: “will you look at this”

Fandom: Joe Mazzello/BoRhap/Bohemian Rhapsody Movie Cast

Pairing: Joe Mazzello X Reader

Word Count: 1227

Warnings: None, this is just absolute FLUFF. 

The evening fall air was crisp and cool, a slight breeze blowing rustling the leaves on the trees that hadn’t yet fallen. Everything was bright and warm in hues of oranges, yellows, and reds providing the perfect setting for the annual fall festival. 

Fallen leaves crunching under your boots as you and Joe made your way through the throngs of booths, occasionally stopping to check out some of the treats and handmade wares. One hand firmly ensconced in one of Joe’s and in the other was a mug of freshly made hot apple cider. Taking slow sips of the hot liquid as it warmed you from the inside giving your cheeks a rosy glow.

Wandering through the maze of booths and families you came to a stop at one of the booths on the very edge of the festival. This was your favorite booth by far as the owner ran a sheep farm and every year he sold bags of sheared wool, scarves, coats that had been hand-dyed by the farmer, and made by his wife and eldest daughter. You’d never seen such finely made items in your life and you’ve been decked out in clothing made by some of the top designers in the world.

“I’ll probably be here for a little while,” you sheepishly tell Joe with a shrug. 

“I know babe. You do this every year. Whatever you want it’s yours,” he responded casually, brown eyes alight with amusement before wandering away towards a bench that was within sight of the tent. With one last glance up at you now engrossed in deep conversation with the farmer, he pulled out his phone and typing away in a group chat.

You chat amiably with the farmer as you check out the different scarves and other products on display. Jerry, the farmer, happily regales you with the fine details about his process for shearing his sheep and the processes he uses for dying the wool which was so deeply fascinating that you asked about a million questions. It comes up that so many people think that the wool making process is harmful to the sheep which led to a small boycott in some circles of any wool products but you listen as Jerry explains that the sheep have to be sheared for health reasons, so wool is really one of the best ethically sustainable resources in the world. Wool can be used to make so many different things and it’s easily renewable.

After spending nearly a thousand dollars on a few items, Jerry hands you his business card with a handwritten note on the back. ‘If you are ever in need of any wool or wool fabric please give me a call. My wife is also happy to take commissions to make you any garment you’d like.’

You smile broadly and think to yourself. Yes, Jerry, I will definitely be in touch.

Arms now laden with a few heavy, recyclable paper bags stuffed with your purchases you head over to the bench where Joe had been patiently waiting, engrossed in his group chat and roaring with laughter.

“Hey you!,” you nudge his foot with your boot which makes him lookup.

“Hey, done so soon?” he jokes, eyeing your bags.

“Yup! Got everything I needed. Jerry is so nice and I think I’m going to commission his wife to make me some new pieces for our wardrobe,” you excitedly inform him.

“Yeah, that would be cool,” he says, sounding disinterested. A small frown forms at the corners of your lips wondering why his mood had suddenly shifted. 

He reaches out to take your bags from you as he stands up. You just hand him the heavy bags silently, his right hand finding its way back to yours. His palms feel clammy in yours as you try to fight off the concern for Joe’s health. He is leading you away from the crowds as concern blends with confusion.

“Joe, where are we going?”

“It’s a surprise.” 

You follow behind him dodging and weaving through the crowds until you are on the other side of the park, the din of the crowds barely audible from where you stood.

“This is exactly where I wanted to go as soon as we got here but I knew that if I waited until the dark settled in, it would be even better,” he raves though none of what he is saying makes any sort of sense to you. 

You wouldn’t lie, the vision before you was utterly breathtaking. The ancient white gazebo was wrapped in hundreds of white fairy lights twinkling brightly. Gourds of all shapes and colors and brightly-hued leaves littered the ground all around the gazebo spilling onto the wooden stairs.

“YN, come with me please?” he asks, with a slightly nervous edge to his voice, his hand pulling against yours, brown eyes glittering in the light pleading with you to go.

“Joe, are you okay?” 

“I’m fine just come with me please.”

He drops your bags at the foot of the stairs, bits of wool spilling over the sides of the paper in varying shades of greens, blues, and purples. You allow yourself to be pulled along until you are standing directly in the middle of the gazebo. The light emanating a sort of warmth enveloping you like a warm hug against the cold winds of autumn. Your eyes trained on Joe, the sweat forming on his brow as he nervously kept looking at your face then the floor, his right hand digging into the inner pocket of his coat.

“Joe? Are you okay?” 

“Yes. Yes, ummm,” he mumbles, as his face lights up successfully locating whatever he was searching for in his pocket. Without warning he drops to his knee, shock registering on your face thinking Is he hurt? Or is he doing what I think he’s doing?

“YN, my love, my life, my lover, my best friend, I-I-I had a big speech planned but now I can’t seem to remember any of that. I-Will-shit-I mean not shit, but…,” an amused smile tugging at your mouth as you wait for him to gather himself, “Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?” he finally finishes, as he slides the ring onto your finger.

“Yes! Oh my God Joe- a million yeses,” you shout as you launch yourself at him. WIth a happy giggle, he stumbles backward taking you with him as you hit the floor with an ‘oof’. You attack him, peppering his face with kisses, until you catch his lips. One of his hands sliding up to cup your face, pressing your body into his as your lips lock for a heated kiss. 

On the hard floor of the ancient gazebo the two of you sat making out for far too long, it wasn’t until things were about to escalate that you were reoriented to reality.

Breathlessly you extract yourself from his embrace and standing up, reaching out to help him off the ground when the lights caught the diamond in your ring.

Giggling, you hold your hand up admiring the way all the facets of the diamond seemed to sparkle in the light.

“Will you look at this? That’s one hell of a rock Mr. Mazzello. It’s absolutely stunning.”

With a wide grin, he responds with, “Only the best for you Mrs. Mazzello.”

@ramimedley​ @sweetsam89​ @spacedustmazzello​ @mrhoemazzello​

[recentanimenews]

RECS: Top 30 Anime of All Time According to CDawgVA

  We've all had that moment where you're in the car with your friend and they ask to put some music on. For me, panic sets in — my music is weird as all hell. Do I lie and play music I think they will like, or do I just embrace the fact that I'm going to play weird stuff? This is the modern-day reality of being an anime fan online.

  Hi, I'm Connor, a personality online! I had my YouTube career (if you will) blow up because of my love of anime, and I'm constantly asked which anime are my favorites. Well, for the first time, I'll let you know! Essentially, this list is my 30 favorite anime of all time. Now this list will include some you expect, some you didn't and of course Jojo. 

    1. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure

I think anyone who knows me expected this. I love Jojo's, I love everything about Jojo's. The fanbase may be rabid and obnoxious at times, but there's something about this series that makes it a community event to be a part of. It's got a hard-to-appreciate art style at first, but it really grows on you. It becomes almost infectious and there isn't anything like it. Luckily, for fans of the manga, the anime produced by David Productions has done nothing but heighten the series by adding a soundtrack and voice work that most anime would die for.

    2. Bokurano

  Bokurano is difficult. It's uncomfortable. It's ugly. But it's a show you can't ever forget. Bokurano constanly leaves you unsettled and unhappy. It forces you to address your thoughts on life and the suffering that can come with it, something that many anime have tried and failed to do. I wholeheartedly believe Bokurano is a show that everyone must watch at least once.

    3. Ping Pong the Animation

  I think at one point or another, we've all naturally took to a skill or hobby and later dropped it, only to, later on in life, wish we had tried harder. Inversely, I think we've all had skills that we wish we could get better at, only to get frustrated seeing people exercise those skills with ease. Ping Pong manages to capture that very basic human experience and package it in a simple 12-episode series that I ended up loving way more than I ever expected.

    4. Attack on Titan

A very safe pick for sure, but Attack on Titan really does deserve the hype surrounding it, and as the final season is coming to an end, it's been an amazing experience getting to follow along for nearly eight years. Continually, Attack on Titan has surprised audiences with tear-filled episodes and goosebump-inducing moments.

    5. Mob Psycho 100

Mob Psycho 100, although sometimes overshadowed by its bald, overpowered brother, [Mob Psycho 100] really has shown audiences that it's something special. Mob's journey of self-improvement, mixed with the fantastically charismatic Reigen makes for a beautiful, heart-warming, and overall beautifully animated experience. 

  And here are the rest of the series:

  6. Death Note 7. Hellsing Ultimate 8. Gurren Lagann 9. Hunter x Hunter (2011) 10. Banana Fish 11. Toradora 12. Monster 13. Code Geass 14. One Punch Man 15. Samurai Champaloo 16. Steins;Gate 17. Psycho-Pass 18. Death Parade 19. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood 20. Devilman Crybaby 21. Made In Abyss 22. Ouran High School Host Club 23. Baccano! 24. Parasyte -the maxim- 25. Golden Time 26. Rent-A-Girlfriend 27. Kill La Kill 28. Jormungand 29. One Outs 30. Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto

  Honestly, writing this list was way harder than I expected, we are absolutely spoiled for choice, this list could easily be a top 100. But I hope some of you reading this find something new that you might check out.

  How many of your anime favorites made the list? Tell us in the comments!

        You can subscribe to the CDawgVA YouTube channel here. You can follow Connor on Twitter here.

  Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: Guest Author

[timelordthirteen]

A Card for Mr. Gold - Part 3

Mr. Gold/Belle, G

Summary: Mr. Gold receives a card on Christmas Eve.

Chapter Summary: Prior to the events of chapters 1 and 2, Mr. Gold ruminates on the Christmas gifts he's sold at the pawn shop.

Notes: More angst. :( I'm sorry. Set two days before Christmas Eve and the first chapter of this story. For the 31 Days of Fandomas prompt #9 - Shopping.

[AO3]

Two days until Christmas and Gold couldn’t wait for it all to be over.

The emerald ring sparkled in the bright light over his workbench, and he checked the sizing again to be sure before he put it away. He snapped the lid shut on the black velvet box before nestling it in a pile of green tissue paper inside a small, shiny red bag. The strings of the bag were tied with a white ribbon, the ends curled into corkscrews with a quick slide of his scissors. He found himself smiling as he stepped through the curtain into the front of the shop where David Nolan was waiting with a rather pensive look.

“That’s it?” David asked, his fingers tapping on the counter beside the cash register.

Gold inclined his head slightly as he set the bag down between them. “Yes, as promised.”

David blew out a breath and stared at the bag. “This is really happening.”

Gold wasn’t sure if he was being spoken to, and his lips twitched in amusement. “It is if you have the last payment.” Then he flipped open the small notebook he kept by the register and examined the page. “I believe there was two hundred left?”

David’s head shot up and he frowned. “Two? It was four.” He pulled a wad of bills out of his pocket, twenties and fifties held together with a large binder clip he’d probably borrowed from his soon to be fiance Mary Margaret.

Gold shrugged. “My notes say two.”

David leaned back a bit, eyeing Gold. “What are you up to, Gold?”

He huffed, ignoring the fact that he'd lowered the remaining price by two hundred dollars. “Mr. Nolan, it’s nearly Christmas, and I believe you wished to be engaged by then. I suggest you don’t argue with the man helping to make that happen.”

David undid the clip and peeled off two hundred dollars, laying each bill on the counter slowly so it could be counted. He glanced up when he was done, his eyes crinkled at the corners. “Two hundred.”

Gold snatched up the cash, and popped open the register drawer. “Pleasure doing business with you,” he said absently as he laid the money out in the appropriate slots.

David smile. “Thanks, Gold.” His voice was warm and Gold could tell there was a smile in it without looking. “Merry Christmas.”

Then he picked up the small bag, turned, and left the shop.

Gold sighed and leaned on the counter. It was just after four and he was strongly considering closing up early and going home to a glass of scotch and leftover tuna salad. Only the former seemed appealing at the moment.

Bloody Christmas.

He shook his head and retreated to the back room once more, having decided he’d at least finish up his ledger for the day before he left. Sitting at his work table he scanned the columns, which, lately, consisted of rent and holiday gifts. Despite his reputation and general misanthropic ways, he paid a lot of attention to other people. There were always ways to exploit others or bend them to his needs, and as a by product it made him quite good at steering customers towards the item their intended giftee would want.

There had been Leroy, who was seeking something for Astrid, the girl he was sweet on but hadn’t yet asked out on a date. She left the convent over a year ago, and had only recently found employment and a place to live after a short period of being ostracized by half the town. Gold had nudged him away from anything religious as a start, and towards something tasteful for her new apartment, an antique vase with delicate, hand painted cherry blossoms. She’d gazed at it more than once when she’d come to him during her apartment search, and his mouth curved as he imagined her rather ear piercing squeal of delight when she saw it.

Hopefully, it would survive her clumsiness.

Ruby Lucas had needed something for her grandmother and her girlfriend. Necklaces with little charms that had meaning for both her and them fit the bill and budget perfectly. Dr. Whale needed to keep his latest bed mate happy, and Gold was all too keen to encourage the idiot to buy the most ridiculous and expensive yellow diamond earrings. It was inevitable that Whale would philander his way into breaking her heart, and Gold hoped to see her come in his shop in the spring, selling the earrings back to the very shop in which they’d been purchased.

David Nolan wanted to propose to Mary Margaret Blanchard, and had decided that Christmas Eve was the right time. After all, their first kiss had been on Christmas Eve at Granny’s annual party, or so Gold had heard. At first David had been drawn to a princess cut diamond ring, bordered by smaller round diamonds, with tiny stones set all along the band. His intentions were noble, believing that she deserved the best, but not only was such an ostentatious ring more than he could afford, it wasn’t what Mary Margaret would have wanted. After several days of coming in and staring at rings and leaving empty handed, David finally decided he wanted something less traditional. Gold was able to direct him to an emerald solitaire set in a unique platinum band. Mary Margaret had looked at it several times over the years when she’d been in the shop, and once David saw it, he knew it was the one. He said It reminded him of a ring his mother had when he was little. Now it was in a little gift bag and on its way to Mary Margaret’s left hand.

Gold closed the ledger, and leaned back in his chair. He helped so many others find the perfect gift for their loved ones, and yet it had been ages since he’d been on the receiving end of a present. The last one had been -

He let out a short huff and tossed his pen down on the table. Mulling over the gifts others had bought for their loved ones made him wish he had gone home to his excellent scotch and mediocre sandwich. Sighing, he pushed back from the desk and lifted his coat from the rack by the back door. He switched off the lights as he made his way to the front of the shop, and then stepped out into the cold, dry December air.

Shivering, he turned his collar up and fluffed the knit scarf around his neck to block the chill from slipping in the gaps. Less than a block down the street, Belle French was exiting the Dark Star drug store, and he paused beside his black Cadillac, watching her. She waved to Mr. Clark on her way out, and smiled at Leroy as she held the door open for him. Over one arm was the handbag she’d been carrying the last few months, notable for its bold, cobalt colored leather, which matched the shoes she was wearing today.

She always had a kind word for him, and a smile, and for a brief instant he wanted to cross the street and say hello to her, though he’d never done it before. Sure they had talked from time to time, but only in passing. He’d never sought her out in any kind of friendly way, but then he noticed what else she was holding.

In her free hand were two bags, one of which looked like a bright green gift bag, and he felt a small pang in his chest. She had probably purchased a gifts for her friends and family, and Christmas cards to boot. She struck him as the type who would spend an inordinate amount of time wrapping them, making sure the corners were perfect, and decorating them with elaborate bows and ribbons that coordinated expertly with the pattern of the paper. He could see it all in his mind’s eye, and smiled in spite of the ache in his ribs.

Belle had been in his shop just twice since moving to town, but if anyone ever wanted to buy her a gift, he knew exactly what to pick. At that moment, she turned in his direction and raised her hand in a wave. Abruptly, he turned away at the same time, and yanked open the car door.

She had just stepped off the curb when the car’s engine rumbled to life, and he ignored her as he pulled out into the street. He drove passed the houses with their rows of lights, flashing and blinking in all manner of colors, and pulled into the driveway of his three story pink Victorian. It was absent of any decoration or indication that any sort of special day was approaching. It was a dark void in the riot of Christmas that lined Morning Glory Lane and every other street in Storybrooke.

He sneered as he got out of the car, glaring at the blinking rows of light up candy canes on the house across the road. The hell with the whole town, he thought. Maybe he wouldn’t open the shop at all tomorrow. It wasn’t as if anyone would care. Though there was always the chance of someone needing a last minute gift, and he did appreciate a desperate soul.

[rieshon]

Fall 2017 Preview

Another season, another... season.

1 Houseki no Kuni: This might be one that looks silly in three months but it's definitely the show I'm most excited for right now. 3D anime has been nothing but good to me for the past few years and has proven to me that both cute girls and the spirit of Japanese anime can be preserved in 3D. This one has got an out-there concept and aesthetic and I can't wait to see what they do with it. Add to that the best voice cast of the season and you've got yourself a hype.

2 Blend S: This is going to be amazing. Just look at what it says under the title in the logo. [x]SADISTIC [x]TSUNDERE [x]IMOUTO [x]ONEESAN [x]IDOL. It's got all the ingredients: adorable character design, a blondenblu, and a cafe theme which automatically makes me think it's better because of subconscious influence from Gochiusa. It can't miss!

3 Konohana Kitan: Cute shrine shenanigans! Blend S is my pick for cute girls doing cute things this season but this show doesn't look like it's going to lag very far behind. The director is the guy responsible for a couple of criminally underrated classics: Ebiten and Nagasarete Airantou.

4 Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou: This looks like it could be what I really wanted out of Made in Abyss: cute girls having slow adventures at the end of the world. The ever-masterful Fudeyasu Kazuyuki is penning the adaptation, so it's got everything going for it. A definite AOTS contender.

5 Mahoutsukai no Yome: This looks like one of the most... serious? shows of next season? I'm not really sure how to put it. It actually looks like it has an interesting plot and setting and stuff? Anime has broken my brain's ability to think about fiction outside of the frame of cute girls. Girls do look cute though!

6 Kino no Tabi: Kino is one of those things I've always heard about being really good but never had anything to do with. Never saw the old anime (it was already old when I started watching anime in 2004) or read any of the novel, but by all accounts it's one of the best LNs out there. Kuroboshi Kouhaku's stock couldn't be higher right now, so it's as good a time as any to do a new adaptation of it. Ao-chan and Ayaneru is a power duo in the cast department so I have high hopes for this one.

7 Imouto Sae Ireba Ii: I recently read the first volume of the LN this is based on, and honestly, I thought it was kind of bad. But if there's one thought I had while reading it, it was "this should really be an anime and not a book." There's literally no plot to speak of, it's just sequential vignettes of characters doing random things like playing a tabletop RPG or going to Okinawa because reasons. That makes for a shitty novel, but sounds like it'll be right up my alley for an anime. Plus Oonuma Shin is directing, and you know he's one of my all-time favorites.

8 Boku no Kanojo ga Majimesugiru Shobicchi na Ken: Now this, lads, is anime. It's an anime about dirty jokes starring Yuuki Aoi, how can it NOT be good?

9 Himouto! Umaru-chan R: I keep forgetting this is coming next season entirely. Umaru is one of those shows that firmly occupies a distinct "second tier" of cute girl doing cute thing shows. Not bad by any stretch of the imagination, and I have fond memories of the first season, but just lacking that je nais sais quoi that your Gochiusas and Hidamaris have. Looking forward to more Kirie-chan, who is best girl.

10 Two Car: When I see the title of this show (it's つうかあ in Japanese) I just hear the train driver from Densha de Go announcing that he's passing through a station. Everyone thinks of the same thing when you mention an all-girl sports anime based on an obscure or fictionalized concept; I don't think I even need to mention it by name. That's right, but I don't think this will be nearly as lewd as Keijo! No but in all seriousness, it's gonna be Garupan but with sidecars. I just wish the girls wore lewd outfits or something instead of race suits. What can I say, I am simple man.

11 Kujira no Ko-ra wa Sunajou ni Utau: Looks fantasy as fuck. Ishiguro Kyouhei is directing his first anime since the best show of last year, Occultic;Nine, and the usually capable Yokote Michiko is on the script (although I haven't actually liked anything she's written since uh, I guess Sekkou Boys would be the last one...) Still, this kind of artsy-fartsy show looks like a good followup to O;9 for Ishiguro so I'm interested in how it turns out.

12 Dies irae: Everyone says the game this is based on is a masterpiece, or whatever, but all anyone is going to talk about with this show is it's that one crowdfunded show. If it turns out to be bad everyone is going to feel real stupid. The character designs look pretty ugly to my taste, although Nabatame Hitomi's character is pretty cute. Man, when was the last time Naba-nee played a major heroine?

13 Ousama Game The Animation: Ah yes the Osama Game. Death game stories are always way too far up their own ass; I think the only good one I've seen was Akuma no Riddle and that was solely good because the entire cast was cute girls. There's some pretty cute girls in this one too but it looks like most of the main cast is dudes. Nice to see Pine Jam continue to raise their profile though.

14 URAHARA: The joshiryoku is takai with this one. The art looks aesthetic but the PV makes it look kind of cheap and doesn't inspire confidence. I'm not sure if Takahashi Natsuko has ever written an original anime of note so it's up in the air how this one turns out.

15 Wake Up, Girls! Shinshou: Ah WUG, or as it's known in the business, Yamakan's Folly. Funnily enough, Yamakan isn't even bothering to direct this one and I'm really interested to see if that's a good or a bad thing. WUG is definitely at the bottom of the tier ranking for idol anime but it's kind of taken on a life of its own, with the 3D version of the Wake Up Girls being pretty successful. The first anime was just okay; it'll be cool if they could pull an actually good one out of their hats.

16 Lovelive! Sunshine!!: Why do I continue to subject myself to aidorus. The first season of Sunshine was garbo and I hated it for just being the exact same thing as the original but worse. And yet I'm going to happily watch the second season because it's gonna have more Yohane in it, and Yohane is love, Yohane is life.

17 Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru -Washio Sumi no Shou-/-Yuusha no Shou-: Yuyuyu may have left a sour taste in a lot of mouths with the way it ended, but it was a complete story that actually, you know, ended. I'm really not sure we actually need more stories in this world, much less a prequel. We all already know what the twists are now so I'm not sure how they'll make it compelling. The second part of this weird production actually is a sequel but I think I want that even less than I do a prequel. Just leave the memories alone! At least it's got Hanabee.

18 Netojuu no Susume: Dork romance. Almost certainly a short, but Fudeyasu is writing it so it'll surely be good for a laugh.

19 UQ HOLDER! Mahou Sensei Negima 2: HIKARU KAZE WO OIKOSHITARA NANI GA MATTEIRU NO KANA AMEFURI DEMO HEIKI NIJI NI NARU YOOOO KARAFURU HAPPY MATERIARU GO!! KIMI NI KITTO AERU NE CHIISANA YUUKI WO SAKASEYOUUUUUUUUUU

20 Omiai Aite wa Oshiego, Tsuyoki na, Mondaiji: This is clearly shoujo bait but I'm a total sucker for cute teacher chan-nees and this one looks cute as hell. It's the first show that airs in the season so I'll probably end up checking it out just because of that, but I don't expect to finish it. It's probbaly going to end up being a weird abusive relationship because shoujo.

21 Shokugeki no Souma San no Sara: Unfortunately I won't be watching this since Tane-chan's role was recast. Nothing against Rierie but da Tane was literally half the reason I even watched this series (the other half being Alice who never gets enough screentime anyway).

[englishchinesetranslations]

General Motors did not fall due to natural forces. Like the twin towers on 9-11, GM was taken down. Like 9-11, GM was sabotaged from the inside. The corporate raiders who took down GM are part of the same network of Jewish Zionists who brought down the World Trade Center.

How much is the truth about the huge financial and terror crimes changing our world worth to you?

THE ZIONISTS BEHIND THE DESTRUCTION OF GENERAL MOTORS The bankruptcy of General Motors (GM) is very similar to the collapse of the twin towers of the World Trade Center on 9-11. Both catastrophic events are described in the controlled media as having occurred due to natural forces, while actually they are both the results of sabotage carried out by insiders. In both cases, the people who brought down the operation were Trojan Horses, people who had bought their way into positions of control in order to destroy them. The people behind the destruction of GM and the WTC are corporate raiders of the worst kind.

General Motors did not simply collapse as a result of market forces; it was bankrupted by corporate raiders who had infiltrated the company and taken control of its finances. Likewise, the evidence indicates that the twin towers of the World Trade Center did not collapse due to the stresses associated with the plane crashes; they were prepared in advance to be demolished using extremely powerful explosives, including tons of nano-thermite, or super-thermite. This was facilitated by the people who had obtained control of the towers shortly before 9-11, namely Larry Silverstein and the former Israeli commando Frank Lowy.

What is most remarkable is that these events are closely related. The same people are involved in the conspiracy to plunder and destroy both the World Trade Center and General Motors. This article identifies some of the key people and reveals the strategy behind the destruction of one of America’s oldest companies.

BANKRUPTING GENERAL MOTORS

General Motors Corp. filed for bankruptcy on June 2, 2009, as the Zionist-run Obama administration provided unprecedented federal funding and oversight. The bankruptcy filing by GM was the third-largest in American history and the largest ever in U.S. manufacturing. Now that GM is facing restructuring, its assets will be taken over for pennies on the dollar. The notorious corporate raider Carl C. Icahn, for example, is reportedly looking at taking over Delphi Chassis Systems.

So, how did GM go bankrupt? If one looks at the sales figures for GM, it simply does not make sense. In 2007, GM was the largest producer of vehicles in the world, manufacturing 13 percent of the total, and had the largest slice of the U.S. car and truck market with 23.4 percent of domestic sales.

In 2007, GM led in global production and U.S. market share. Graphics from Wikinvest.

Globally, GM sold 9.4 million cars and trucks in 2007, an increase of 3 percent over 2006. GM’s 2007 tally was, in fact, the second best global sales total in the company’s 100-year history and marked the third consecutive year the company had sold more than 9 million vehicles. That doesn’t sound like a company on the brink of collapse, does it? In its 100-year history GM had been through much worse downturns, such as the Great Depression and the Second World War, yet GM managed to survive and thrive. What is so different about the management at GM in the past few years that it caused America’s biggest auto manufacturer to go into bankruptcy despite three consecutive bumber years of global sales?

George Richard (Rick) Wagoner became president and chief executive officer of GM on June 1, 2000. The value of GM stock started the month of May 2000 at its peak of over $93 per share. The day Wagoner became CEO the stock finished at $69.81. By the end of the year it was worth less than $51 per share. GM stock had fallen to about $35 when Wagoner was elected chairman on May 1, 2003. Why promote a CEO who was clearly taking the company down the drain?

Despite the falling stock price, Wagoner remained CEO and chairman of GM until March 29, 2009. Under Wagoner’s leadership GM suffered more than $85 billion in losses — losing $82 billion in the last 4 years! Why wasn’t Wagoner replaced earlier? How was GM selling more cars than ever but losing more and more money? It simply doesn’t make sense.

Save

Were his hands tied? Rick Wagoner (center) with Mark Neporent (left), COO of Cerberus, and Eric Feldstein (right), chief executive of GMAC and treasurer of General Motors Corp. This photo is from the 2006 announcement of the Cerberus deal for a majority stake in GMAC in which Bernard Madoff’s partner-in-crime, J. Ezra Merkin, became chairman of GMAC. Is Wagoner responsible for $85 billion in losses at GM – or was he just a useful idiot?

In 2008, GM sold 8.35 million cars and trucks globally under the following brands: Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, GM Daewoo, Holden, Hummer, Opel, Pontiac, Saab, Saturn, Vauxhall and Wuling. GM’s largest market is the U.S., followed by China, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Canada, Russia, and Germany. Despite three years of record sales, GM lost $18.8 billion during the first 6 months of 2008; by late October, its stock had dropped 76 percent, and it was considering a merger with Chrysler.

At the time the GM-Chrysler merger was being considered, Chrysler was primarily owned (80.1 percent) by the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, L.P., headed by Stephen A. Feinberg and Jacob Ezra Merkin. Cerberus is named after the mythological three-headed dog of Hell. It should be noted that Feinberg and Merkin also controlled General Motors Acceptance Corp. (GMAC), the financial services branch of GM.

GM sold 51 percent of GMAC in 2006 to Feinberg’s private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP, and Jacob Ezra Merkin became chairman of GMAC. Had the merger gone through, Feinberg and Merkin would have probably become majority owners of both GM and Chrysler. This appears to have been the plan. Feinberg and Merkin, the owners of GMAC, had plundered and conspired to bring down GM so that they could take it over.

When Cerberus gained control of GMAC, they hurt GM’s domestic sales by raising the credit requirements for car loans. Feinberg and Merkin reportedly raised the credit requirements so high that they caused a very sizable chunk of sales to be lost due to customers’ inability to secure financing. Cerberus reportedly used this tactic to pressure GM into selling or trading their remaining stake in GMAC.

Ezra Merkin became a controlling owner of Israel’s Bank Leumi shortly before he got his hands on GMAC in 2006. Here he shakes the hand of the notorious war criminal Ariel Sharon as he hands him a check for $500 million. Ehud Olmert (center) held secret meetings in New York City on September 10, 2001. Merkin’s private Israeli bank has a branch in Switzerland that contains billions of stolen dollars held in secret numbered accounts.

Merkin is clearly a criminal. He is one of the key players of the multi-billion dollar criminal fraud carried out by Bernard Madoff. Merkin secretly diverted untold billions to Madoff’s fraudulent investment fund. One of Merkin’s funds lost $1.8 billion of investor cash with Madoff. Merkin was seen as “the Golden Boy controlling the Golden Goose.”

Feinberg and Merkin were also controlling co-owners of Israel’s Bank Leumi, which had been privatized in 2005 under finance minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Bank Leumi also has off-shore banks and a branch in Switzerland in which billions of dollars are held in secret numbered accounts.

It was reported on December 30, 2008, that the U.S. Treasury would provide $6 billion more for GMAC, headed by Merkin and the extremely secretive Feinberg. Feinberg is so secretive his Who’s Who biography says he is deceased!

Stephen A. Feinberg, Ezra Merkin’s partner-in-crime.

The U.S. Treasury was reportedly buying a $5 billion stake in GMAC and lending $1 billion to GM. This “loan” was in addition to $13.4 billion of taxpayer dollars the Treasury had already lent to GM and Chrysler LLC. Once again, a plundered and bankrupted company was being “bailed-out” with taxpayer funds.

Merkin had been chairman of GMAC since November 2006. GMAC reportedly lost nearly $8 billion while Merkin was in charge. Despite Merkin’s huge losses at GMAC and his involvement in the Madoff criminal scam, the U.S. government evidently had no problem providing billions of taxpayer dollars to Merkin, whose Ariel Fund was one of the largest funds feeding billions to Bernie Madoff’s financial black hole. Madoff reportedly “lost” some $50 billion, or more.

Jacob Ezra Merkin, orthodox Jew and devoted Zionist, finally resigned as chairman of GMAC on January 9, 2009. How was Merkin allowed to remain in control of the privately-held GMAC operation for so long despite his history of financial fraud?

WHO RAN GMAC?

GMAC is a very interesting operation. A wholly owned subsidiary of General Motors since 1919, GMAC provided customers with more than $1.4 trillion in credit to finance more than 162 million vehicles. Originally designed to provide financing for people buying GM vehicles, it branched out into other fields, such as real estate. GMAC Commercial Mortgage (GMACCM), for example, provided the funds for Larry Silverstein and the former Israeli commando Frank Lowy to take over the World Trade Center in July 2001. The towers served as the collateral. GMAC Commercial Mortgage sold $563 million in bonds backed by a loan to Silverstein Properties for its purchase of the towers. If Silverstein and Lowy were part of the conspiracy to destroy the World Trade Center, the people controlling GMACCM would probably also be. Who was controlling the purse strings at GMAC in 2001 when Silverstein was negotiating to obtain control of the World Trade Center?

Larry Silverstein, here with his daughter Lisa, made billions of dollars from the destruction of the World Trade Center. He is the former chairman of the UJA-Federation of New York, the largest Zionist fund-raising organization in the world.

At GMAC, the person in charge of the money was Eric A. Feldstein, born in Brookline, Mass. in 1959. Feldstein had worked in the office of the treasurer at GM Corp. from 1981-91 and was regional treasurer in Europe from 1991-93. In 1993, he returned to New York as assistant treasurer. In March 1996, he was named executive vice president and chief financial officer of GMAC and chairman of the GMAC Mortgage Group, where he oversaw corporate activities responsible for general finance, audit, and worldwide borrowings.

Feldstein became treasurer of General Motors in November 1997, and was elected vice president the following month. In June 2001, Feldstein was named General Motors’ vice president, finance, and corporate treasurer. When GM and GMAC failed in 2008, Feldstein went to work for Feinberg and Merkin at Cerberus, joining the team named after the three-headed dog of Hell. At Cerberus, Feldstein was made executive vice president.

Eric Feldstein, the treasurer of GM, laughs with Rick Wagoner and Mark Neporent, COO of Cerberus, as the Zionist-run fund took majority control of GMAC. By this point, GM was well on its way to losing $85 billion – all during Feldstein’s term as GM corporate treasurer and vice president in charge of finance.

Eric Feldstein is the son of Donald Feldstein, a high-ranking member of a number of Zionist organizations in New York and New Jersey. The elder Feldstein is one year older than Larry Silverstein and has a long history of leadership in the same Zionist organization as Silverstein. Donald Feldstein was an executive director of the United Jewish Appeal-Federation Jewish Philanthropies in New York City from 1976-81. This is the huge Zionist fund-raising organization that Larry Silverstein headed as the chairman of the board and where he is an honorary board member. The connection between Donald Feldstein and Larry Silverstein at this Zionist organization certainly played a role in Eric Feldstein’s decision to use GMAC money to back Silverstein’s bid for the World Trade Center. It is through such Zionist organizations like the UJA-Federation and the secretive order of B’nai B’rith, an international organization of Jewish Freemasons, that the Zionist network functions. In this way actions and decisions that affect whole nations can be made without anyone outside the “community” being aware.

GMAC Commercial Mortgage Corp., under the leadership of Donald Feldstein’s son, provided an $800 million loan to fellow Zionists Silverstein and Lowy to back their bid for the soon-to-be privatized World Trade Center in the summer of 2001. This privatization deal, initiated by the Zionist Ronald Lauder and managed by Lewis Eisenberg of the Port Authority, was finalized at the end of July 2001. The WTC complex was finally put into private hands – Zionist hands – only 6 weeks before it was demolished and pulverized with super-thermite.

FELDSTEIN JOINS ETON

After being fired from GMAC, Eric Feldstein went to work for Cerberus in March 2008. Three months later he became CFO at Eton Park Capital Management. Eton Park is a hedge fund run by 42-year-old Eric M. Mindich, formerly with Goldman Sachs, and Alan R. Batkin, the vice chairman of the fund. Batkin, 64, is the senior partner at Eton Park. Although Feldstein lost billions as the head of GMAC and was fired because he had destroyed the 90-year-old company, Mindich and Batkin made him chief financial officer at Eton Park. Feldstein’s colossal failure at GMAC evidently did not bother them. He was clearly being rewarded for a job well done.

Alan Batkin, the vice chairman at Eton Park, is very highly connected. Batkin was, for example, vice chairman of Kissinger Associates Inc. from 1990 through 2006. It is, however, his executive positions at some of the biggest companies of Israel, such as Israel Discount Bank (IDB) and Discount Investment Corporation, Ltd., that reveal the intense Israeli character of Eton Park. (The IDB has been privatized and is also closely tied to the Madoff scam.)

Alan R. Batkin is a member of the board of governors of Tel Aviv University and is treasurer of PEC Israel Economic Corp. (part of Discount Investment Corporation, Ltd.) where he has served as CEO, president, and director. He also served as the Chief Executive Officer and President of Orama Ltd. (a venture capital firm founded in 1999 to support companies in the Israeli technology sector; a subsidiary of IDB Group, Ltd.)

From 1972 to 1990, Batkin was an investment banker at Lehman Brothers, where he a Managing Director for 14 years. Batkin has been, since 1999, a director of Overseas Shipholding Group Inc. (OSG), which owns and manages a large fleet of transatlantic oil tankers. As a director of OSG, Batkin works with Solomon Merkin, the brother of Jacob Ezra Merkin. Their father, Hermann Merkin, was one of the owners of the company along with the Recanati family of Israel Discount Bank. Batkin is also vice chairman and a director of Hasbro Inc. since 1992.

Solomon Merkin

Batkin was a director of Infinity Broadcasting Corp. since April 1992. Infinity provided popular talk radio with a distinctly pro-Israel point of view. Foremost among Infinity’s talk show staff was Howard Stern, a vulgar and controversial radio personality. Other national radio performers employed by Infinity included Don Imus, Larry King, G. Gordon Liddy and Rush Limbaugh. Infinity merged with CBS Radio in 1997.

Alan Batkin is a scion of the intensely Zionist Batkin and Tenzer families and the son of Stanley Irving Batkin, a leading Zionist figure since the 1930s. Stanley Batkin is a recipient of Israel’s Prime Minister’s Medallion (1974) and the City of Jerusalem Medal (1976). These awards are given to Zionists for extraordinary service to Israel. The elder Batkin has served, since the founding of the state of Israel, as an executive of the following organizations (among many others): the Zionist Organization of America; the State of Israel Bond Committee; the Jewish Theological Seminary; State of Israel Bonds; Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science; Friends of Bezalel Academy of Arts & Design, Inc.; and Yeshiva University Museum.

Sources and Recommended Reading:

Bollyn, Christopher, “The Israeli Who Will Run the Obama White House,” November 6, 2008

Bollyn, Christopher, “Update on Madoff’s Guilty Plea,” March 12, 2009

Bollyn, Christopher, “Who is Bernard Madoff, the man behind the $50 billion fraud?” updated March 24, 2009

General Motors Data, Wikinvest

General Motors’ U.S. Sales History, Domestic Brands, 1908-2008, Automotive News, June 1, 2009

General Motors’ Top Ten Markets in Europe, 2008

“Obama gambles on reviving GM from bankruptcy,” Reuters, June 2, 2009

Source:  http://thisiszionism.blogspot.com/2009/06/zionist-gang-that-bankrupted-general.html

In 2006, New York’s Sun reported:

A real estate investment company says in a $750 million lawsuit that it lost a chance to buy the General Motors Building in the city because of a bid-rigging conspiracy by a group controlled by billionaire investor George Soros.

Leslie Dick Worldwide Ltd. says in court papers the 50-story building at Fifth Avenue and 59th Street in Manhattan was sold to Macklowe Properties Inc. in a “sham” auction for $1.4 billion in September 2003 after the seller ignored Dick’s $1.5 billion offer.

The building was sold by Conseco Inc., which owned a majority interest, to raise cash after it declared bankruptcy in December 2002. Conseco, of Carmel, Ind., told the court that sale of the GM building “presents a unique opportunity to provide capital.”

After the auction, court papers say, Conseco accepted Macklowe’s $1.4 billion bid although “plaintiffs’ bid was superior to Macklowe’s bid in every material respect.”

Dick’s amended complaint, filed three weeks ago in Manhattan’s state Supreme Court, says Mr. Soros gave Macklowe $350 million, including the $50 million deposit Macklowe made, “essentially making Soros the real purchaser of the building.” […]

Macklowe Properties spokesman Howard Rubenstein said his client called the lawsuit “absurd” and said it was “totally devoid of any merit.”

The building once was partly owned by developer Donald Trump, who bought it with Conseco in 1998 for $800 million. Trump’s name was spelled out across the front of the building in huge gold-colored letters.

A RICO (racketeer influenced and corrupt organizations) complaint filed by Leslie Dick Worldwide’s attorney in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against George Soros, Donald Trump, Deutsche Bank, and other entities – the full text of which is available here – alleges, in summary, the following:

The RICO conspiracy of the defendants was to invest in, operate, and acquire control of various entities involved in continuing fraudulent transactions and surreptitious and conspiratorial alliances and agreements through unlawful means, including but not limited to Money Laundering, Bankruptcy Fraud, and Bid Rigging, acquired Conseco’s prime assets, including Conseco Finance and the General Motors Building in New York City, and thereafter attempted to conceal their illicit activities. […]

In or about May 1998, Conseco and Donald J. Trump entered into a contract to purchase the General Motors Building in New York City, located at 767 Fifth Avenue between 57th and 58th Street, across the street from the Plaza Hotel.

The unlawful Money Laundering through the sale of the General Motors Building, orchestrated and carried out by the RICO Enterprise, including George Soros, Soros Fund Management, SFM Management, Vornado Realty Trust, German American Capital, Fortress Investment Group, Donald J. Trump, and the RICO conspirators Conseco, Deutsche Bank, Lazard, Eastdil Realty, Harry Macklowe, Cerberus Capital Management, Lazard, Kirkland & Ellis, Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, Carmel Fifth and 767 Manager, and, upon information and belief, other members of the Enterprise and co-conspirators, operated through a pattern of racketeering and forms one of the cornerstones of the defendants’ illicit activities of Money Laundering and Bankruptcy Fraud, predicate acts of RICO alleged herein and Bid Rigging. […]

Upon information and belief, this was because, at or about the beginning of March 2001, the mastermind of the RICO Enterprise, George Soros, had contacted, among others to be found in discovery, Gary C. Wendt and Donald J. Trump to contrive a Money Laundering scheme to launder money through the sale of the General Motors Building by Conseco, a co-conspirator, through a pattern of racketeering activity. […]

Upon information and belief, at or about this time, the head of the Enterprise, George Soros, or someone else acting on behalf of the Enterprise, began implementing the pattern of racketeering activities which could be accomplished by having Conseco file for Bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code, so as to acquire Conseco’s assets at a discount price, including Conseco Finance and the General Motors Building and launder money through these entities. […]

Upon information and belief, as part of the racketeering activity engineered by the RICO Enterprise, Soros or someone else on behalf on behalf of the RICO Enterprise approached Trump with a proposal to use Bankruptcy Fraud to acquire the General Motors Building and, once acquired by the Enterprise, Soros and the other individuals associated in fact with Soros, including Trump, to engage in a Money Laundering scheme through which they could launder money through the General Motors Building sale.

Mentioned in the Sun article quoted above is the fact that Jewish real estate developer Harry Macklowe, named in the Leslie Dick complaint as one of the Soros-Trump conspirators, was represented by Howard Rubenstein. Rubenstein, a disciple of Edward Bernays and founder of public relations firm Rubenstein Associates, has been described as “a kind of gentle fixer for those who run New York” – his other notable clients including media moguls, mayors, governors – and Donald Trump. A New Yorker profile of Rubenstein, in fact, features a caricature of the “fixer” with Trump lurking sinisterly in the background.

Rubenstein represented Trump most notoriously during his high-profile divorce from wife Ivana, the negative publicity from which, Rubenstein claims, resulted in his being “fired”. Beth Whitehouse relates Rubenstein’s tongue-in-cheek impressions of the episode:

“He never came to me and said, ‘You’re fired,’” Rubenstein says. “He said, ‘Howard, I think on this one, goodbye.’

“It hurt me to the quick. He stabbed me in the heart that day,” says Rubenstein, half-joking. “In a way it hurt, but not really. We always remained friends.”

Rubenstein says it would have been more painful had the Donald said, “I never want to see you again, you’re banished.” But Rubenstein was later rehired.

Indeed, Trump reunited with Rubenstein Associates when it came time for his 2016 presidential bid.

Rubenstein’s reputation as a PR man is simultaneously legendary and tawdry. “The former governor George Pataki,” recounts The New Yorker’s Ken Auletta, “once said that had Howard Rubenstein been around to represent rats during the bubonic plague the headlines would have read ‘Rodents Unfairly Accused of Mild Rash.’” Auletta goes on to relate this revealing anecdote about Rubenstein’s services:

Rubenstein has a special talent for bringing his clients together for their mutual benefit. The real-estate developer Donald Trump got a call from Rubenstein after Rupert Murdoch and his wife, Wendy, bought a Fifth Avenue apartment, in late 2004—Laurance Rockefeller’s former triplex––for a reported forty-four million dollars. Rubenstein asked if Trump could help the Murdochs find a rental while they were waiting for their new place to be renovated. “Howard really wanted something special for Rupert,” Trump says, and he found something suitable for the Murdochs. Everyone was happy: the Murdochs had shelter from the rain and wind, Trump had done something for the owner of a paper whose attentions he enjoys, and Rubenstein had performed another service.

What is intriguing about this story is how it demonstrates that Howard Rubenstein and Rubenstein Associates are not merely a public relations firm; they are also favor brokers. New York’s “fixer” is reputed to have “strong feelings about the State of Israel” and he peddled spin on a professional basis for the government of Ariel Sharon. He has also acted as an advisor to Larry Silverstein, who described him as “a super confidant”.

Rubenstein’s relationship with Trump has received much more publicity, but the public relations titan also has ties to Hillary Clinton. In 2001 he represented Democratic Party fundraiser Denise Rich, whose husband, hedge fund manager Marc Rich, received a last-minute pardon from outgoing commander-in-chief Bill Clinton. Hillary was spotted hobnobbing with the likes of Al Sharpton and Dr. Ruth Westheimer at a Rubenstein gala described as a “sublime rat-fuck”.

Asked in 2006 whom he would like to see become the next president of the United States, Rubenstein replied that Hillary Clinton would be a top pick.

Read more: https://aryanskynet.wordpress.com/2016/01/27/donald-trump-the-soros-connection/

See also:  Donald Trump: The Soros Connection

Stephen Andrew Feinberg

(born March 29, 1960) is an American businessman and investor, who is active in hedge fund management and private equity. He is known for turning around struggling businesses and making them profitable.[1] He is co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Cerberus Capital Management. As of March 2019, his net worth is US$1.5 billion.[2] In 2017 Cerberus also owned DynCorp, which is a major national security contractor with the US government, charging billions for overseas military and police training.[3] On May 11, 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump named Feinberg to head the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board.[4]

Early life and education

Feinberg was born to an Jewish family[5][6] and raised in The Bronx, New York. When aged eight, his family moved to Spring Valley, New York,[7] a suburb of New York City. His father was a steel salesman.[7] He attended Princeton University and graduated with a degree in politics in 1982.[8] While there, he captained the tennis team and joined the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps.[7]

Professional career

After graduating from college, Feinberg worked as a trader at Drexel Burnham in 1982 and later at Gruntal & Co..[9]

In 1992, at the age of 32, Feinberg co-founded Cerberus Capital Management with William L. Richter.[9] At the time the firm had $10 million under management; its assets under management have since grown to over $30 billion in 2016.[10][11] In 1999, the firm hired former vice president Dan Quayle as a chairman of Cerberus Global Investment.[12] In 2006, the firm hired former United States Secretary of the Treasury John Snow, who serves as a chairman of Cerberus.[13]

In May 2011, Feinberg stated that he believed residential mortgage-backed securities may present “a real opportunity for continued investment for quite a period of time”[14] and that there were opportunities in buying assets from European banks.

Feinberg has been critical about the pay received by private equity executives, stating, “In general, I think that all of us are way overpaid in this business. It is almost embarrassing.”[15] He has also noted in comments made in 2011 that smaller private equity fund sizes may be better for investor returns: “If your goal is to maximize your return as opposed to assets under management, I think you can be most effective with a big company infrastructure and a little bit smaller fund size.”[15]

Feinberg has been described as “secretive” in The New York Times.[16] In 2007, Feinberg told Cerberus shareholders, “If anyone at Cerberus has his picture in the paper and a picture of his apartment, we will do more than fire that person. We will kill him. The jail sentence will be worth it.”[17]

Cerberus is the parent company of DynCorp, which is a major national security contractor with the U.S. government.[18]

Political involvement

Feinberg is a major Republican donor.[19] In 2016, he served on the Trump Economic Advisory Council during Donald Trump‘s presidential campaign, donated nearly $1.5 million to pro-Trump PACs, and co-hosted a $50,000 per person Republican National Committee and Trump fundraising dinner alongside other financiers.[20][21] In February 2017, the New York Times reported that President Trump will assign Feinberg a role in the White House leading a review of the US intelligence agencies.[22]

He is a member of The Business Council in Washington, DC, an association of chief executive officers from a broad range of companies who meet several times a year for high-level policy discussions.[23] [24]

Personal

Feinberg reportedly made $50 million in 2004. His lifestyle is less extravagant than his peers in private equity.[25] He splits time between his homes on Manhattan‘s Upper East Side and Greenwich, Connecticut with his wife Gisela (née Sanchez).[7]

Source:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Feinberg

[newsnigeria]

Check out New Post published on Ọmọ Oòduà

New Post has been published on http://ooduarere.com/news-from-nigeria/world-news/hypocrisies-about-refugees/

Hypocrisies About Refugees

by Eric Zuesse for Ooduarere via The Saker Blog

Here are two visuals from the latest annual U.N. report about the world’s refugee situation, “UNHCR Global Trends 2018”, and though these images don’t pack the emotional punch of a child’s corpse that has just been washed upon a beach after drowning when his family had attempted to escape from a country that the U.S. and its allies were ‘trying to make free’ by bombing it to hell, each of these two pictures below contains a much bigger and more important message than does any such tear-jerking image or anecdote, but each of these pictures requires a bit of intelligence in order to understand it:

The first picture shows the result of the U.S. regime’s regime-change wars under Obama and Trump, in Syria and Venezuela especially. (Syria by using Al Qaeda in Syria to lead jihadists to bring down the Government, and Venezuela by strangulating sanctions that have produced an economic blockade which prohibits food and medicine from being able to reach the population). The 9-year earlier “UNHCR Global Trends 2009”, which covered the end of the George W. Bush Presidency, had reported that “There were 43.3 million forcibly displaced people worldwide at the end of 2009,” and that this was up from 42.0 million in 2008. The “UNHCR Global Trends 2007” said only that “available information suggests that a total of 67 million people had been forcibly displaced at the end of 2007”, and so there might have been a reduction during the later years of Bush’s Presidency. In any case, the number of “forcibly displaced people” was stable during the final years of Bush’s second term and the entirety of Barack Obama’s first term, until 2012. 2011 was the first year of the Arab Spring uprisings, which were a CIA production, as was documented by two books from Ahmed Bensada, each of which was well reviewed by Stuart Jeanne Bramhall, in her two articles, one on 18 January 2014, and the other on 25 October 2015. Of course, the impression that the American public was presented about the Arab Spring uprisings is that those were spontaneous. Actually, Obama came into office in 2009 hoping to overthrow Syria’s Government.

So, whereas the numbers had been stable for Obama’s first term of office, all hell broke loose throughout his second term, with his invasions of Libya and Syria, plus his continuation of George W. Bush’s occupations of both Afghanistan and Iraq. And, now, under Trump, the number is back again to GWB’s peak level and rising.

As I noted on June 30th under the headline “U.S. Government Tops All For Creating Refugees”, “the U.S. regime’s regime-change operations produce around half of the entire world’s refugee-problem.” That fact is shown in the second visual here. (Just look at Syria and Venezuela there.) What the first visual shows is that the U.S. regime’s attempts to overthrow the Governments of Syria and of Venezuela caused those global totals to soar. Those two nations alone accounted for nearly half of the global total, and part of the rest was from America’s prior invasions: Afghanistan, Iraq, the U.S.-backed coup in Honduras in 2009, etc. America’s invasions and attempted coups (such as in Venezuela) provided the dynamos that drove those rising numbers of refugees.

Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton at The Gray Zone headlined on June 19th, “This celebrated Western-funded nonprofit collaborated with al-Qaeda to wage lawfare on Syria” and documented how U.S.-and-allied billionaires and the U.S. Government fund “lawfare,” a war in international courts, and not only a huge international propaganda campaign to demonize Bashar al-Assad, in order to overthrow him. I had previously documented that “U.S. Protects Al Qaeda in Syria”. Actually, Obama bombed Syria’s army at the oil center city of Deir Ezzor on 17 September 2016 in order to enable both Al Qaeda and ISIS to take over that city. The U.S. team talk a storm against “terrorism” but quietly (along with the monarchs of Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Qatar) sponsor it as being “boots-on-the-ground” fighters — proxies there, instead of U.S. troops — to bring down leaders such as Muammar Gaddafi and Bashar al-Assad.

So, when the U.S. and its allies complain about the refugee crisis, and pontificate against “dictators,” and assert international law when they are the worst violators of international law, maybe they enjoy fooling their own public, but outside the U.S. alliance, their lying and evil are obvious. It even shows up clearly in the UNHCR’s statistics (such as those visuals). Obviously, China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, and other nations that the U.S. regime labels as ‘enemies’, are not to blame for those tens of millions of refugees. The U.S. and its allies definitely are to blame for it. This isn’t a situation where the pot is calling the kettle black, but instead it’s one where the pot is calling the fresh-fallen snow black, and in which only propagandistic ’news’ media refuse to reveal this to their audiences. The snow is white, and the U.S. regime and its allies are red, covered with their tens of millions of victims’ blood and flaming misery.

International poll after international poll finds that the country which is considered to be “the greatest threat to peace in the world today” by the most people worldwide is the U.S., but that Americans don’t think it’s true. So: who is right? Americans? Or the rest of the world? Now, why would people outside the U.S. believe that way? Maybe it’s because of “communist propaganda”? The most important thing to recognize is that the U.S. is a dictatorship. That scientifically demonstrated fact explains a lot. None of these sanctions and coups and invasions against countries that had never invaded nor in any way endangered the U.S. could exist otherwise than this, because any dictatorship is based upon lies. Invading Iraq was based upon lies. Invading Afghanistan was based upon lies. Invading Syria was based upon lies. Invading Libya was based upon lies. The economic sanctions against Russia are based upon lies.American foreign policies are based upon lies. It’s no wonder, then, why Americans are so misinformed.

—————

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of  They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of  CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity.

[joannrochaus]

AI-powered grocery stores and Chip and Joanna Gaines: How to use the temporal for the eternal

Imagine a day when your grocery cart will scan and weigh items, alert you to sales, suggest items based on what you’ve already chosen, and help locate products in the store. It will then scan your credit card to check out.

Here’s an even-easier fantasy: You could download a free app, scan a QR code at the store’s entrance, grab items off the shelves, then exit through the turnstiles. By the time you’re halfway to your car, you’ll receive a receipt in the app.

Sounds like science fiction? It’s actually just science. The Wall Street Journal tells us that AI-powered shopping is already here and coming to stores nationwide this year.

Will a robot drive your next taxi?

Here’s another fiction-to-fact story: According to Bloomberg Businessweek, robot-driven taxis will soon make travel in a driverless cab much cheaper than owning our own car. Ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft are making personal car ownership less attractive as well.

AI-powered grocery stores and Chip and Joanna Gaines: How to use the temporal for the eternal: https://t.co/awtg0IMYoH pic.twitter.com/IkDc7y6Y1f

— Jim Denison (@JimDenison) March 5, 2019

FedEx is testing autonomous delivery robots that will bring products from Pizza Hut, Walmart, Walgreens, and other companies to your door. AutoZone, Lowe’s, and Target have also signed on to the program.

An adjunct professor at Stanford School of Medicine has developed an AI-assisted mental health platform. Woebot offers flexibility for patients by being available at any hour of the day. This virtual counselor also offers anonymity that might free patients worried about how their therapist is evaluating them.

And an unmanned space capsule has docked at the International Space Station. The SpaceX vessel is carrying a data-collecting test dummy named Ripley, which will monitor how traveling in the craft may affect humans in the future.

“The deadliest animal in history”

Humans can do amazing things. However, we are still finite people living in a fallen world.

I just finished reading No Beast So Fierce by Dane Huckelbridge. The subtitle tells the tale: The Terrifying True Story of the Champawat Tiger, the Deadliest Animal in History.

A Bengal tiger was shot in the mouth by a hunter in 1900 but survived. Its injury rendered it unable to catch its normal prey, so it began hunting people. Over the next seven years, the tiger killed and ate more than four hundred people in Nepal and India. A hunter retained by the British government was finally able to kill it in 1907.

Why was the Bengal tiger able to hunt humans so effectively for so long? As Huckelbridge notes, such tigers can run nearly three times faster than humans. Their bite is stronger than that of a great white shark. A single blow from their paw can decapitate a human. And they are smart, often outwitting their prey by imitating their sounds and tracking them into places where they are susceptible to attack.

Tigers are not the only predators humans should fear. Mosquitoes, snakes, dogs, and tapeworms are among the animals that kill the most people worldwide.

Luke Perry and Job

However, if you’re like most of us, you’re not really afraid of Bengal tigers, mosquitoes, and tapeworms today.

Our technological advances can lead us to think we are immune from mortality. If we had been living in the jungles of Nepal a century ago, the perilous nature of life would have been far more obvious to us. Even a generation ago, we would have lived in fear of polio or smallpox.

But Scripture is still true: “It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). Science can improve our lives, but it cannot prevent our deaths.

Janice Freeman, one of the most popular contestants on The Voice two years ago, died last Saturday from pneumonia and a blood clot. She was thirty-three years old. Pedestrian deaths have reached their highest level since 1990. A helicopter crashed in Kenya last Sunday, killing four American tourists and its Kenyan pilot. And television star Luke Perry died yesterday after suffering a massive stroke.

Job complained that his prosperity “passed away like a cloud” (Job 30:15). So will ours, one day.

Defeating the devil

Satan wants lost people to ignore their mortality until it’s too late. For the devil, “the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts” (C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters). He wants those who reject their need for Jesus to realize they are wrong only when they stand before the Lord in judgment (2 Corinthians 5:10).

The devil employs a similar strategy with Christians. He wants us to ignore the eternal peril of the non-believers we know. And he wants us to put off preparing for heaven until we arrive there.

Our response should be to use the temporal to serve the eternal. How?

“Now is the day of salvation.”

—2 Corinthians 6:2

One: Pray urgently by name for the lost people we know, then do all we can to help them trust in Jesus. “Now is the day of salvation” because tomorrow is promised to no one (2 Corinthians 6:2).

Two: Use our material resources and cultural influence to serve eternal souls. Such compassion echoes in heaven (Revelation 14:13) and imitates the One who “came not to be served but to serve” (Mark 10:45).

How Chip and Joanna Gaines helped a homeless church

Church Under the Bridge is one of my favorite ministries anywhere.

In 1992, Jimmy and Janet Dorrell began meeting with homeless people under the Interstate 35 bridge in Waco. Their ministry has become one of the most inclusive, transformative churches I have ever seen.

Then, ironically, construction to widen the highway at their location rendered their ministry homeless.

In stepped Chip and Joanna Gaines to offer the church free use of the lawn at their Magnolia Market at the Silos. The couple joined two hundred members of the congregation for worship last Sunday. The church’s website now welcomes everyone to “Church Under the Bridge at the Silos.”

How will you use your temporary possessions to serve eternal souls today?

The Dorrells and Gaineses have very different stories, but both show us what God can do with our influence when we surrender it to him.

How will you use your temporary possessions to serve eternal souls today?

The post AI-powered grocery stores and Chip and Joanna Gaines: How to use the temporal for the eternal appeared first on Denison Forum.

source https://www.denisonforum.org/columns/daily-article/ai-powered-grocery-stores-and-chip-and-joanna-gaines-how-to-use-the-temporal-for-the-eternal/ source https://denisonforum.tumblr.com/post/183239182872

[denisonforum]

AI-powered grocery stores and Chip and Joanna Gaines: How to use the temporal for the eternal

Imagine a day when your grocery cart will scan and weigh items, alert you to sales, suggest items based on what you’ve already chosen, and help locate products in the store. It will then scan your credit card to check out.

Here’s an even-easier fantasy: You could download a free app, scan a QR code at the store’s entrance, grab items off the shelves, then exit through the turnstiles. By the time you’re halfway to your car, you’ll receive a receipt in the app.

Sounds like science fiction? It’s actually just science. The Wall Street Journal tells us that AI-powered shopping is already here and coming to stores nationwide this year.

Will a robot drive your next taxi?

Here’s another fiction-to-fact story: According to Bloomberg Businessweek, robot-driven taxis will soon make travel in a driverless cab much cheaper than owning our own car. Ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft are making personal car ownership less attractive as well.

AI-powered grocery stores and Chip and Joanna Gaines: How to use the temporal for the eternal: https://t.co/awtg0IMYoH pic.twitter.com/IkDc7y6Y1f

— Jim Denison (@JimDenison) March 5, 2019

FedEx is testing autonomous delivery robots that will bring products from Pizza Hut, Walmart, Walgreens, and other companies to your door. AutoZone, Lowe’s, and Target have also signed on to the program.

An adjunct professor at Stanford School of Medicine has developed an AI-assisted mental health platform. Woebot offers flexibility for patients by being available at any hour of the day. This virtual counselor also offers anonymity that might free patients worried about how their therapist is evaluating them.

And an unmanned space capsule has docked at the International Space Station. The SpaceX vessel is carrying a data-collecting test dummy named Ripley, which will monitor how traveling in the craft may affect humans in the future.

“The deadliest animal in history”

Humans can do amazing things. However, we are still finite people living in a fallen world.

I just finished reading No Beast So Fierce by Dane Huckelbridge. The subtitle tells the tale: The Terrifying True Story of the Champawat Tiger, the Deadliest Animal in History.

A Bengal tiger was shot in the mouth by a hunter in 1900 but survived. Its injury rendered it unable to catch its normal prey, so it began hunting people. Over the next seven years, the tiger killed and ate more than four hundred people in Nepal and India. A hunter retained by the British government was finally able to kill it in 1907.

Why was the Bengal tiger able to hunt humans so effectively for so long? As Huckelbridge notes, such tigers can run nearly three times faster than humans. Their bite is stronger than that of a great white shark. A single blow from their paw can decapitate a human. And they are smart, often outwitting their prey by imitating their sounds and tracking them into places where they are susceptible to attack.

Tigers are not the only predators humans should fear. Mosquitoes, snakes, dogs, and tapeworms are among the animals that kill the most people worldwide.

Luke Perry and Job

However, if you’re like most of us, you’re not really afraid of Bengal tigers, mosquitoes, and tapeworms today.

Our technological advances can lead us to think we are immune from mortality. If we had been living in the jungles of Nepal a century ago, the perilous nature of life would have been far more obvious to us. Even a generation ago, we would have lived in fear of polio or smallpox.

But Scripture is still true: “It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). Science can improve our lives, but it cannot prevent our deaths.

Janice Freeman, one of the most popular contestants on The Voice two years ago, died last Saturday from pneumonia and a blood clot. She was thirty-three years old. Pedestrian deaths have reached their highest level since 1990. A helicopter crashed in Kenya last Sunday, killing four American tourists and its Kenyan pilot. And television star Luke Perry died yesterday after suffering a massive stroke.

Job complained that his prosperity “passed away like a cloud” (Job 30:15). So will ours, one day.

Defeating the devil

Satan wants lost people to ignore their mortality until it’s too late. For the devil, “the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts” (C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters). He wants those who reject their need for Jesus to realize they are wrong only when they stand before the Lord in judgment (2 Corinthians 5:10).

The devil employs a similar strategy with Christians. He wants us to ignore the eternal peril of the non-believers we know. And he wants us to put off preparing for heaven until we arrive there.

Our response should be to use the temporal to serve the eternal. How?

“Now is the day of salvation.”

—2 Corinthians 6:2

One: Pray urgently by name for the lost people we know, then do all we can to help them trust in Jesus. “Now is the day of salvation” because tomorrow is promised to no one (2 Corinthians 6:2).

Two: Use our material resources and cultural influence to serve eternal souls. Such compassion echoes in heaven (Revelation 14:13) and imitates the One who “came not to be served but to serve” (Mark 10:45).

How Chip and Joanna Gaines helped a homeless church

Church Under the Bridge is one of my favorite ministries anywhere.

In 1992, Jimmy and Janet Dorrell began meeting with homeless people under the Interstate 35 bridge in Waco. Their ministry has become one of the most inclusive, transformative churches I have ever seen.

Then, ironically, construction to widen the highway at their location rendered their ministry homeless.

In stepped Chip and Joanna Gaines to offer the church free use of the lawn at their Magnolia Market at the Silos. The couple joined two hundred members of the congregation for worship last Sunday. The church’s website now welcomes everyone to “Church Under the Bridge at the Silos.”

How will you use your temporary possessions to serve eternal souls today?

The Dorrells and Gaineses have very different stories, but both show us what God can do with our influence when we surrender it to him.

How will you use your temporary possessions to serve eternal souls today?

The post AI-powered grocery stores and Chip and Joanna Gaines: How to use the temporal for the eternal appeared first on Denison Forum.

source https://www.denisonforum.org/columns/daily-article/ai-powered-grocery-stores-and-chip-and-joanna-gaines-how-to-use-the-temporal-for-the-eternal/

[newyorktheater]

Below is a selection from an Off-Broadway season full of starry faces like Daveed Diggs, Jake Gyllenhaal, Isabelle Huppert, Uzo Adubi et al,  in plays by Lynn Nottage, Suzan-Lori Parks, Martyna Majok, Anna Deavere Smith,  Lydia Diamond, Enda Walsh, Donald Margulies, Halley Feiffer, Luis Alfaro, John Guare, Florian Zeller et al; and musicals by Tom Kitt (Next to Normal), Duncan Sheik (Spring Awakening) and Dave Malloy (Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812.) It can feel overwhelming

Daveed Diggs in White Noise

Jake Gyllenhaal in Seawall/A Life

Isabelle Huppert in The Mother

Uzo Aduba in Toni Stone

Chris Noth in The Mother

Justice Smith in The Mother

Composer Dave Malloy – “Octet”

playwright Luis Alfaro – “Mojada”

playwright Martyna Majok – “Sanctuary City”

Tim Blake Nelson, author of “Socrates”

Anna Deavere Smith

Playwright Suzan-Lori Parks – White Noise

Halley Feiffer, playwright and star of The Pain of My Belligerence

Playwright Stefano Massini – The Lehman Triology

Cillian Murphy in Grief is the Thing With Feathers

Lynn Nottage — The Secret Life of Bees

Composer Duncan Sheik — The Secret Life of Bees, and Alice By Heart

Composer Tom Kitt – Superhero

Theaster Gates, Black Artists Retreat

Playwright Leah Nanako Winkler – God Said This

Marin Ireland in Blue Ridge

Playwright Christopher Shinn – Dying City

Playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury — Mary Seattle

Playwright John Guare — Nantucket Sleigh Ride

To make the sorting more manageable, the shows are largely grouped together by the theater that’s presenting or producing them, in order of my preference for those theaters (determined by such factors as their recent track record, the promise of the new season, and by the overall experience I’ve had with the theater as theatergoer and critic.) After my favorite theaters, I list some individual shows from other theaters.

Some might argue there is little distinction anymore between Broadway and Off-Broadway, especially in a season when so many downtown darlings are moving to Broadway, such as Taylor Mac,Tarell Alvin McCraney, Dominique Morisseau, Anais Mitchell (See Spring 2019 Broadway Preview Guide: A Season of Theater Geniuses Making Their Broadway Debuts)  

Yet, Off-Broadway remains less expensive  and, frankly, potentially more rewarding. It’s also more sprawling — not quite possible to present all the riches of a season in a single post.

I’ve put a red check mark — √ — besides a few shows about which I’m especially excited or intrigued. (I’ll only know if my excitement was justified once I see them.)

Click on the theater’s name for more information about the theater, and on the show title for more about the individual production.

(Also check out my monthly calendar of openings)

THE PUBLIC THEATER

425 Lafayette Street and in Central Park. Twitter: @PublicTheaterNY

The Public is on a roll once again, and not just because it originated Hamilton.  , The successful downtown empire that Joe Papp created half a century ago offers a eclectic, inclusive mix of challenging and entertaining theater. Truth is, I could put a check mark next to nearly every one of its offerings in the Spring.

Under the Radar Festival

January 3- 13

The 15th annual festival presents 21 artists from nine countries. See details of this and several of the January theater festivals in my January 2019 New York Theater Openings

 √ Sea Wall/A Life

February 1 – March 31. Opens February 14.

Tom Sturridge and Jake Gyllenhaal appear separately in a pair of plays, Sturridge in Simon Stephen’s “Sea Wall,” a monologue about love and the human need to know the unknowable, and Gyllenhaal in “A Life,” and Gyllenhaal in Nick Payne’s A Life, a meditation on how we say goodbye to those we love most.

√White Noise

March 5 – April 14. Opens March 20.

Daveed Diggs (Hamilton) returns Off-Broadway in a new play by Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by Public Theater artistic director Oskar Eustis. Long-time friends and lovers Leo, Misha, Ralph, and Dawn are educated, progressive, cosmopolitan, and woke. But when a racially motivated incident with the cops leaves Leo shaken, he decides extreme measures must be taken for self-preservation.

Ain’t No Mo’

March 12 – April 21. Opens March 27.

In this satire by Jordan E. Cooper that began at the Fire This Time Festival, African-Americans leave en masse a country plagued with injustice.

Socrates

April 2 – May 19.

A new drama about the Greek philosopher written by Tim Blake Nelson and directed by Doug Hughes. Michael Stuhlbarg portrays Socrates.

Mobile Unit: The Tempest

April 29 – May 19

Mojada

July 2 – August 11

Luis Alfaro, whose “Oedipus El Rey” bowled me over, returns with the New York premiere of his drama inspired by the Ancient Greek story of Medea

PARK AVENUE ARMORY

Everything I’ve seen at the Park Avenue Armory in the past couple of seasons has been spectacular, from A Room in India to The Damned to The Head and the Load, and this season looks to continue the feast. The theater they present is largely European, cutting-edge, often hybrids, and they sometimes require patience and an open mind. But, offered in the vast expanse of the Armory’s Drill Hall, these aren’t just shows; they’re events.

  Simon Russell Beale, Ben Miles and Adam Godley in The Lehman Trilogy

 √ THE LEHMAN TRILOGY

March 22–April 20, 2019. Opens March 27

Italian playwright Stefano Massini’s play, adapted by Ben Power and directed by Sam Mendes (The Ferryman!) stars acclaimed actors Simon Russell Beale, Adam Godley, and Ben Miles and the Lehman brothers and their sons and grandsons over nearly two centuries, climaxing with the end of the firm that bore their name in the crash of 2008.

  EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED AND WOULD HAPPEN

June 3–9, 2019

Artist and composer Heiner Goebbels reenacts 100 years of history to show a world in strife through performance, sound, movement, and moving image

DRILL

June 20–July 21, 2019

Immersive, site-specific film installation Drill by Hito Steyerl that mounts new commissions by the Armory alongside pre-existing works in a dynamic installation exploring the world’s power structures, inequalities, and obscurities

In the Fall:

ANTIGONE

September 25–October 6, 2019

Japanese director Satoshi Miyagi’s multicultural adaptation of Antigone, which stages the classic Greek tragedy within a large river of water and incorporates traditions from Japanese Noh, Indonesian shadow play, and Buddhist philosophy

BLACK ARTISTS RETREAT 2019: SONIC IMAGINATION

October 11–12, 2019

Theaster Gates’ Black Artist Retreat, hosted for the first time outside of Chicago and designed to facilitate the exchange of ideas and innovation among black visual artists, recreating the kind of public-spirited dialogue associated with the civil rights movement of the sixties. As part of the weekend’s event, the public is invited to a roller skating celebration party in the Drill Hall amidst an installation of Gates’ seven-foot-tall disco-ball glacial sculptures, known as housebergs.

JUDGMENT DAY

December 5, 2019–January 11, 2020

 The world premiere of a new adaptation of Ödön von Horváth’s 1937 play Judgment Day, part moral fable, part sociopolitical comedy, part noirish thriller commissioned by the Armory and directed by Richard Jones  

NEW YORK THEATER WORKSHOP

79 East 4th Street. Twitter: @NYTW79

NYTW has gotten much attention over the past few years for presenting David Bowie’s musical “Lazarus,”    “Othello” with movie stars Daniel Craig and David Oyelowo, and “Mary Jane.” Its fare has ranged from the innovative and tuneful — “Hadestown” — to the cutting edge and incomprehensible — “Fondly, Collette Richland”

Fall 2018 offered a surprise hit, What The Constitution Means To Me, and a controversial debut, Slave Play.  Based on their track records, the offerings in Spring 2019 sound extremely promising, though we’re still not yet told much about them.

Hurricane Diane

February 6, 2019—March 10, 2019. Opens February 24.

In this play by Madeleine George directed by Leigh Silverman,  Diane is a gardener who is actually the Greek god Dionysus, returning to the modern world to gather mortal followers and restore the Earth to its natural state.

√?Sanctuary City

Opens May 6.

There are few clues as to the particulars of this play, but it’s written by Martyna Majok, last year’s Pulitzer Prize winner for “Cost of Living.,” who in such dramas as Ironbound and “queens” has given a voice to the new immigrant.   “DREAMers. Lovers. Life-long friends. Negotiating the promise of safety and the weight of responsibility, they’ll fight like hell to establish a place for themselves and each other in America”

√?Anna Deavere Smith project

Opens July 15 (?)

No clue whatsoever as to its subject, but her one-woman shows about race riots in Crown Heights (“Fires in the Mirror”) and Los Angeles (“Twilight”), about health care (“Let Me Down Easy“), and about the school to prison pipeline (“Notes from the Field“) have made it clear that Anna Deavere Smith is one of our country’s greatest theater artists.

PLAYWRIGHTS HORIZONS

416 W. 42nd St. Twitter: @PHNYC

Annie Baker’s “The Flick” is one of six plays that originated at Playwrights Horizons that have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The theater offers new plays and musicals that are consistently worthwhile, in an environment that feels dedicated both to the theater artists and the theatergoers.

If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka

February 15, 2019 – March 31, 2019. Opens March 10.

In the village of Affreakah-Amirrorkah, no one questions that Akim is the one true, perfect beauty — not even her jealous classmates. But they’ll be damned before they let her be the leading lady in this story. A decidedly contemporary riff on a West African fable by Tori Sampson

The Pain of My Belligerence

March 29, 2019 – May 12, 2019. Opens April 22.

Halley Feiffer’s play about an eight year relationship between journalist Cat and devilishly charming Guy, which charts a rapidly changing America.

A Strange Loop

May 24, 2019 – July 07, 2019. Opens June 17

Michael R. Jackson’s musical about a black, gay writer, working a day job he hates while writing his original musical: a piece about a black, gay writer, working a day job he hates while writing his original musical

ATLANTIC THEATER

Cofounded in 1985 by David Mamet and William H. Macy, this theater entered in a whole new realm of achievement with the acclaimed musical The Band’s Visit

Blue Ridge

Opens January 7. Closes January 26.

Marin Ireland stars in this play by Abby Rosebrock as aprogressive high-school teacher with a rage problem who retaliates against her unscrupulous boss and is sentenced to six months at a church-sponsored halfway house, where she attends to everyone’s recovery but her own.

The Mother

February 20 – April 7. Opens March 11.

Isabelle Huppert stars in a play by Florian Zeller (The Father) as a woman suffering from clinical depression and grasping for stability after her grown children move on to build lives of their own.

√ The Secret Life of Bees

May 12 – July 7. Opens June 13.

A musical adaptation of Sue Monk Kidd’s beloved novel,  with music by Duncan Sheik and book by Lynn Nottage, about two runaways in 1960s South Carolina, taken in by beekeeping sisters.

ST. ANN’s WAREHOUSE

Although, as with Park Ave Armory, St. Ann’s Warehouse primarily presents avant-garde European exports,  this Brooklyn theater climbed up in my preference thanks to Taylor Mac’s homegrown “  24-Decade History of Popular Music ,”  then nailed it with “The Jungle.” Its production of “Oklahoma!” is moving to Broadway.

 THE B-SIDE: “Negro Folklore from Texas State Prisons”

March 4-24

The Wooster Group brings the 1965 LP to life, channeling the voices of the men performing work songs, blues, spirituals, preaching and toasts on the record via an in-ear receiver, and providing context via the book Wake Up Dead Man: Hard Labor and Southern Blues.

Grief is the Thing With Feathers

April 20 – May 12

Adapted and directed by Enda Walsh from a novel by Max Porter, the play tells the story of Crow visiting a family whose mother just died. “This sentimental bird is drawn to the grieving family and threatens to stay until they no longer need him.” Stars Cillian Murphy.

IRISH REPERTORY THEATER

Listed here because it’s offering the “Sean O’Casey season”

The Shadow of a Gunman

January 30 – May 25, 2019

Juno and the Paycock

March 9 – May 25, 2019

The Plough and the Stars

April 20 – May 25, 2019

PRIMARY STAGES

In their second year in their new location at the Cherry Lane in the West Village, Primary Stages has a promising season lined up.

God Said This

January 16 – February 15

In Leah Nanako Winkler’s play, five Kentuckians face mortality in very different ways.

Little Women

“May to June”

Kate Hamill’s take on Louise May Alcott’s novel

  LINCOLN CENTER THEATER*

@LCTheater

The shows at Lincoln Center’s Off-Broadway venues are inexpensive (especially at the Claire Tow theater, where initial-run tickets cost $20) and often rewarding. I’m hoping that someday they will be literally more inviting to independent New York theater critics. 

Mary’s Seacole

February 9 – March 24

In this new play by Jackie Sibblies Drury (Fairview), Mary (Quincy Tyler Bernstine) is an ambitious Jamaican woman determined to live a grand life; her adventures take her across oceans and eras, from a battlefield of the Crimean War to a contemporary nursing home, and many times and places in between.

Nantucket Sleigh Ride

February 21 to May 5

In a new play by John Guare, John Larroquette portrays a playwright turned New York stockbroker, who ventures from Manhattan to Nantucket island one day on a surreal errand. “He gets mixed up with a giant lobster, Roman Polanski, a pornography ring, Walt Disney, stranded children, a murder, and Jorge Luis Borges…”

ROUNDABOUT* LAURA PELS

The empire that is now Roundabout includes three Broadway theaters, and that’s where most of the attention is focused, mostly on star-studded revivals, especially musicals.  But its fourth building houses two Off-Broadway theaters (one of them a tiny “Black Box” theater.) It is in its Off-Broadway facility that Stephen Karam’s The Humans originated, which went on to Broadway and Tony love. The Roundabout’s “Underground” series discovers new playwriting talent, with tickets priced at $35.

Merrily We Roll Along

January 12 – April 7. Opens February 19.

Fiasco Theater reimagines Stephen Sondheim’s musical about a trio of showbiz friends who fall apart and come together over 20 years, going backwards in time.

Something Clean

May 4 – June 30. Opens May 30.

Playwright Selina Fillinger’s new drama slips into the jagged cracks of a sex crime’s aftermath—the guilt, the grief, and the ways we grapple with the unthinkable.

√ Toni Stone

May 23 – August 11. Opens June 20

Uzo Adubi stars as the first woman to go pro in the Negro Leagues, in this play by Lydia Diamond directed by Pam McKinnon, based on a true story.

MANHATTAN THEATER CLUB*

This looks like a good lineup, but It’s hard to embrace a theater completely when you don’t get to see many of its plays.

The Cake

February 12 – March 31. Opens March 5

In what sounds like a recent Supreme Court case, Debra Jo Rupp portrays a baker in North Carolina who refuses to create a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. The difference — one of the brides is the daughter of a dear friend, now deceased. The play is by Bekah Brunstetter (who writes for the TV series This Is Us.)

Continuity

May 7 – June 9. Opens May 21

Though the description doesn’t tell us very much —  a comedy “in six takes where storytelling and science collide…” — it is written by Beth Wohl (playwright of the odd but satisfying Small Mouth Sounds) and directed by Rachel Chavkin (Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812).

Long Lost

May 14 – June 30.  Opens June 4.

A play by Donald Margulies (Dinner with Friends) directed by Daniel Sullivan. “When troubled Billy appears out-of-the-blue in his estranged brother David’s Wall Street office, he soon tries to re-insert himself into the comfortable life David has built with his philanthropist wife and college-age son. What does Billy really want?”

  SECOND STAGE*

This 40-year-old theater has became the fourth “non-profit” to produce theater both on and Off Broadway.

Superhero

January 31 – March 24.Opens February 28.

A musical, with music and lyrics by Tom Kitt (Next to Normal) and a book by John Logan (Red), about “a fractured family, the mysterious stranger in apartment 4-B, and an unexpected hero…”

Dying City

“Begins May 2019”

Christopher Shinn’s play is set in a spare Manhattan apartment, where a young widow receives an unexpected visit from the twin brother of her deceased husband. Dying City explores the human fallout of global events, including the Iraq War and the terrorist attacks of 9/11, through the interwoven stories of three characters

  OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish moves to Stage 42, opening February 21st.

Alice By Heart (MCC). January 30 to March 10. Opens February 26 Two friends who escape in the cherished story of Alice in Wonderland during the London Blitz of World War II. The musical is by Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater, the team that came up with Spring Awakening.

Fleabag (Soho Playhouse) February 28 – April 7 The play by Phoebe Waller-Bridge that inspired the BBC television series currently being shown on Amazon Prime.

Daddy (Vineyard/New Group at Signature) February 12- March 24. Opens March 5. In the second Off-Broadway play by Jeremy O. Harris (who gained some notoriety with his Slave Play in the fall), Alan Cumming plays Andre, an older white art collector who befriends Franklin, young black artist on the verge of his first show. Their bond creates a battle of wills with Franklin’s mother.

Diary of One Who Disappeared (BAM) April 4-6 In 1917, Czech composer Leoš Janáček became obsessed with a married woman 40 years his junior. In the throes of despair, he penned more than 700 love letters and a haunting 22-part song cycle called Diary of One Who Disappeared, about a village boy who falls in love with a Romany girl. Director Ivo van Hove, in collaboration with Flemish opera company Muziektheater Transparant, brings his trademark physicality and stripped-down aesthetic to bear on Janáček’s opera.

Octet (Signature) April 30 – June 9 Dave Malloy, composer and conceiver of Natasha, Pierre and The Great Comet of 1812, is not through experimenting.  His new musical is scored for an  a cappella chamber choir and explores high-tech addiction, his libretto inspired by Internet comment boards, scientific debates, religious texts and Sufi poetry.

  Other companies and theaters worth checking out:

Ars Nova

Classic Stage Company

Mint Theater

Mayi Theater Company

There are also commercial shows put together by independent producers that are presented in theaters for rent, such as:

Cherry Lane Theatre Daryl Roth Theatre Gym at Judson Lucille Lortel Theatre New World Stages Orpheum Theater The Players Theatre Snapple Theater Center Theatre Row Union Square Theater Westside Theatre

*THE ASTERISK: Off-Broadway AND Broadway

*Just to complicate matters, several of the resident theaters also present shows in Broadway theaters they own  –  Lincoln Center (Vivian Beaumont Theater), Manhattan Theater Company or MTC (the Samuel J. Friedman), the Roundabout Theater Company (American Airlines, Stephen Sondheim, Studio 54), and Second Stage Theatre, which has bought the Helen Hayes. Their Broadway offerings are listed in my Broadway 2017-2018 Season Guide

What Is Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off Broadway?

Off-Broadway theaters, by definition, have anywhere from 100 to 499 seats. If a theater has more seats than that, it’s a Broadway house. If it has fewer, it’s Off-Off Broadway.

There are some terrific Off-Off Broadway theaters, sometimes confused for Off-Broadway. These include (but are not limited to)

 The Flea

Labyrinth Theater

 LaMaMa ETC.

New theaters and theater companies crop up all the time.

Monthly Calendar of Openings

Because there are so many shows Off-Off Broadway, and their runs are so limited, I include them in my monthly theater preview calendar (along with Broadway and Off Broadway openings) posted near the beginning of each month.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

For more information about Off-Broadway, go to  The League of Off-Broadway Theatres and Producers (aka The Off-Broadway League).  This should not be confused with the Off-Broadway Alliance, which is a separate organization (though they should probably merge, no?)

What’s Off-Broadway Dough? Does that mean there’s not much of it? pic.twitter.com/KHH1kApUzb

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) September 4, 2016—-

Off Broadway Spring 2019 Preview Guide Below is a selection from an Off-Broadway season full of starry faces like Daveed Diggs, Jake Gyllenhaal, Isabelle Huppert, Uzo Adubi et al,  in plays by Lynn Nottage, Suzan-Lori Parks, Martyna Majok, Anna Deavere Smith,  Lydia Diamond, Enda Walsh, Donald Margulies, Halley Feiffer, Luis Alfaro, John Guare, Florian Zeller et al; and musicals by Tom Kitt (Next to Normal), Duncan Sheik (Spring Awakening) and Dave Malloy (Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812.) It can feel overwhelming

[duaneodavila]

California Bar Exam Pass Rate Reaches Nearly All-Time Low

The results from the July 2018 administration of the California bar exam have been released, and compared to last year’s “breath of fresh air” — an almost 50 percent pass rate — they are pretty bad. In fact, compared to any year in recent memory, they are still really, really bad. Just how bad are we talking here? This is the worst pass rate the state has seen in nearly 70 years.

According to a press release from the State Bar of California — which notes that “[t]he latest results mirror a national downward trend in scores from the July 2018 bar exams” — the overall pass rate for the July 2018 exam was 40.7 percent, while the pass rate for first-time takers was 55 percent. In July 2017, the overall pass rate was 49.6 percent, and the pass rate for first-time takers was 62 percent. The pass rate for repeaters was a horrifyingly low 16 percent. Although California’s overall pass rate dropped by 8.9 percentage points, and its pass rate for first-time takers dropped by 7 percentage points, its examinees seemed to be a bit “more able” than test-takers in other states. The state’s mean scaled MBE score was 1404 (down 17 points since July 2017) compared with the national average of 1395 (down 8 points since July 2017), but this is the closest these numbers have been in quite some time.

Perhaps that bright spot ought to be taken with a shaker of salt, because this is the lowest overall pass rate California has seen for the July administration of the bar since results were released in the fall of 1951, when only 37.6 percent of all test-takers passed the exam. The state hasn’t seen an overall pass rate this low in 67 years. In fact, this pass rate is historically horrible — it’s actually the second-lowest summer pass rate California has seen since the state began publishing test records in 1951. The last time the overall pass rate was nearly this low was 34 years ago in 1984, when 41.8 percent of test-takers passed the exam. In more recent times, the last time the overall pass rate for California’s July exam was this low was in 2016, when just 43 percent of all test-takers were successful on the exam. This is a disturbing trend.

Recall that after the February 2017 administration of the California bar exam, the State Bar changed the way it calculated the total percentage of those who passed. That percentage now includes only those who finished the exam, whereas in the past, that percentage included the total number of those who sat for it. This summer’s low overall pass rate would have been even lower had the State Bar not eliminated those who were unable to complete the test from the calculation. Something is clearly wrong, but it doesn’t seem like anyone in charge knows what to do.

Leah Wilson, Executive Director of the State Bar of California, said she and her team are “troubled by a low pass rate, and are working to better understand the reasons behind this national trend.” Here’s what the California Bar is doing to combat the problems that law graduates face when taking the exam:

Over the last 18 months we have conducted four distinct studies on the California Bar Exam designed to determine if the passing score is appropriate and the content valid. While these studies did not suggest that changes to either should be made at this time, the State Bar takes seriously its commitment to ensuring integrity and fairness in the admissions process. We have just launched a California Attorney Job Analysis Study to collect information about the knowledge and skills that entry level attorneys need. This job analysis will form the basis of a new review of the exam itself to ensure that the Bar Exam is relevant and actually testing what’s needed.

The first meeting of the working group for the Job Analysis Study will be held on December 10, 2018, and the study will be published sometime in December 2019. That study is supposed to help the Bar figure out if they’re “testing for the skills and content that new attorneys need.” (Spoiler alert: They’re not.) The State Bar will also be finishing up its Productive Mindset Study — remember, that’s the one those who failed in February 2018 couldn’t sign up for even though it was advertised to those who had failed the exam so they could succeed in July 2018 — to see if they can figure out how to help students pass the exam. (Hint: They can’t.)

For the sake of comparison, let’s take a look at the results for the last decade or so of summer administrations of the California bar exam. At this point, you can probably feel free to disregard the July 2017 results since we can now attribute that little hiccup of “success” to the state moving to a two-day test. Check it out, below:

Year Overall Pass Rate July 2018 40.7 percent passed July 2017 49.6 percent passed July 2016 43.07 percent passed July 2015 46.6 percent passed July 2014 48.6 percent passed July 2013 55.8 percent passed July 2012 55.3 percent passed July 2011 54.8 percent passed July 2010 54.8 percent passed July 2009 56.4 percent passed July 2008 61.7 percent passed

Here are some additional statistics that the State Bar of California released from this summer’s exam (pass rates rounded to whole numbers):

School Type First-Timers Repeaters California ABA 64% 22% Out-of-State ABA 58% 12% California Accredited (but not ABA) 16% 9% Unaccredited: Fixed-Facility 12% 6% Unaccredited: Correspondence 11% 8% Unaccredited Distance Learning 23% 10% All Others 31% 16% All Applicants 55% 16%

Even though pass rates went down across the board, graduates of ABA-accredited law schools still displayed an obvious advantage over their peers who attended California-accredited or unaccredited law schools. Specifically, the pass rate for first-time takers from California’s ABA-accredited law schools decreased by 6 percentage points, down from 70 percent last summer. Those who went to law schools accredited only by California and took the exam for the first time saw their pass rate decrease by 17 percentage points. Boy, are we eager to see the pass rates for individual law schools.

When you’ve run out of words to describe how bad the situation in California is, it’s inherently obvious that something here needs to change — and fast. Yes, law school admissions standards have played a large factor for bar exam results in the past, but something more must be done. If the California Supreme Court had decided to lower the state bar’s cut score to bring it in line with that of the vast majority of other states (or hell, even if the state’s high court had decided to lower the cut score by just a point or two), imagine how many more people would have passed. This is ridiculous, and it seems like all the State Bar is doing is collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars from the would-be lawyers who have been forced to take the test over and over again instead of offering them legitimate assistance. Won’t someone, anyone please help the thousands of would-be lawyers who continue to fail the test year after year?

Congratulations if you managed to pass the bar exam in California this summer. If you didn’t pass, don’t despair. Many very successful people have failed the bar exam (see our list of famous bar exam failures). Focus on February and try to develop a plan for passing, and someday, you’ll conquer the beast that is the California bar exam.

State Bar Releases July 2018 Bar Exam Results [State Bar of California]

Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

[jakehglover]

Asbestos and Benzene in Crayons and Markers

By Dr. Mercola

The term “asbestos” is used to describe six types of fibrous, heat-resistant asbestos minerals: chrysotile, amosite, crocidolite, tremolite, anthophyllite and actinolite — all of which are carcinogenic to humans.1 While asbestos kills 100,000 people each year and is banned in nearly 60 countries,2 the mineral continues to be legally used in the U.S.3

The World Health Organization calls exposure to benzene a major public health concern4 as it has been associated with a range of cancers and aplastic anemia. Sources include industrial processes, indoor air, food and water. The chemical is liquid at room temperature and evaporates quickly, often sinking to low-lying areas as the vapor is heavier than air.5

A recent report from a federation of U.S. and Canadian nonprofit organizations operating under the umbrella of the U.S. Public Interest Research Groups (US PIRG) reveals these same chemicals may be found in some of the back-to-school supplies you purchase for your children.6

Leave These Off Your Back-to-School Supply Shopping List

Laboratory testing on popular school supplies, such as markers, crayons, glue and spiral notebooks, revealed toxic chemicals such as lead, asbestos, phthalates and BTEX compounds, including benzene and toluene. Supplies were purchased across the country from a variety of big box stores, online retailers and arts and crafts stores.7

The results revealed asbestos in Playskool crayons; a three-ring binder from Dollar Tree contained high levels of phthalates; dry erase markers contained benzene; and two water bottles were recalled due to high levels of lead.8

Although alarming, the results actually demonstrate a reduction in the amount and level of dangerous chemicals used in the manufacture of children’s art and school supplies. According to Kara Cook-Schultz, toxics director at US PRIG and lead author of the report:9 "The good news is that when we were testing three years ago, all sorts of brands came back with asbestos. Now it's just this one."

Tests run in 2015 on major brands including Disney Mickey Mouse Clubhouse crayons and Nickelodeon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle crayons demonstrated trace amounts of asbestos fibers.

At the time, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) acknowledged asbestos trapped in wax may have limited inhalation danger, but noted children sometimes eat crayons and recommended parents avoid those brands as a precaution.10

Since then, most manufacturers have changed their process to eliminate even trace elements. After the report was released, a spokesperson for Dollar Tree stated all their products are independently tested and met legal and safety standards. Leap Year, the licensee of the product, also released a statement, saying:11

"We are aware of a report of trace amounts of asbestos being detected in a small amount of product testing conducted by a private group and are reviewing our own certified lab testing, which to our knowledge, passes all regulatory requirements and had no detectable asbestos.”

Phthalates and Benzene Detected in Frequently Used School Supplies

Learning asbestos may be found in school supplies raises red flags, but it’s important to note the study also found phthalates, BTEX and lead in children’s products. Researchers found three-ring binders, made by Jot and sold at Dollar Tree, tested positive for phthalates, a chemical linked with asthma, obesity and reduced IQ.12

Phthalates are pervasive chemicals found in cosmetics, foods, household cleaners and plastic products. For the most part, they are added to plastics to make them durable and flexible, but since they are not strongly bound, they easily leach or migrate out of the products that contain them and into your environment.

Phthalates are endocrine disrupting chemicals and are “reasonably considered to be a human carcinogen.”13 What’s more, research suggests even minute amounts can cause significant harm, especially in children.

The American Academy of Pediatrics is even asking parents to limit their children’s exposure to plastic chemicals such as phthalates and bisphenols, as these chemicals may damage your child’s health for years to come.14,15

The data also indicated BTEX chemicals such as benzene, xylene and toluene — all known carcinogenic chemicals — were found in dry erase markers made by Expos and The Board Dudes.16 These chemicals may be responsible for the sweet smell emanating from the markers.

According to the US PRIG:17 “Benzene is a probable carcinogen linked to dangerous disruptions in sexual reproduction, liver and kidney function and immune system functioning.”

Asbestos Is Still Legal, Dangerous and Use May Be Expanding

Asbestos is primarily linked to lung conditions, including asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma.18 Although many believe exposure is a thing of the past, it remains a deadly public health concern and may become an even larger one in the near future.

After a 10-year study of the effects, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ordered asbestos phased out in 1989.19 The asbestos industry then took the EPA to court and won a ruling that has essentially hamstrung the agency and its efforts to ban not only asbestos but other dangerous materials.

The chemical kills as many as 15,000 Americans each year from mesothelioma, asbestosis or other lung cancers.20 There is no safe level, as even brief exposure can cause mesothelioma. The Environmental Working Group (EWG) Action Fund analysis determined more than 8.2 million pounds of raw asbestos and waste products containing asbestos arrived in U.S. ports between 2006 and 2018.

Nearly 25 million American homes have asbestos in attic insulation and more can be found in pipes, flooring, wall shingles or ceiling finishes.21 In fact, it may show up in kitchen appliances, cement and some heat-resistant fabric and clothing. The bottom line is that while it is lethal, it continues to be legal and used in common consumer products.

What’s worse, the number of consumer products containing asbestos may soon grow, as the Trump administration has proposed a rule to open the door for asbestos to make a comeback. Prior to becoming president, Trump indicated his support of the chemical by suggesting asbestos could have prevented the collapse of the World Trade Center during the 9/11 attacks.22

New Proposed Rule May Increase Use of Asbestos in Home Products

The new proposed rule would require manufacturers to alert the EPA if they want to use asbestos in an array of building or electrical materials. However, Melanie Benesh, legislative attorney for EWG, and Thomas Burke, environmental epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University, believe this may present a problem.23

A combination of previous omissions and the proposed rule may leave room for manufacturers to increase use of asbestos in new products. In December 2017, Brazil, the leading exporter of asbestos to the U.S., issued a nationwide ban on mining, use and commercialization of asbestos.24

Although lethal, the U.S. had imported 705 metric tons from overseas, 95 percent of which came from Brazil. This change places Russia in the unique position to become the largest exporter to the U.S., and Russian manufacturers see an opportunity to expand their market while Trump remains president.

Believing the continued support of the Trump administration will increase profits, one Russian company has gone so far as to stamp Trump’s face on their packaging, along with an “Approved by Donald Trump, 45th President of the United States” stamp.25

Burke believes the road to hell may be paved with good intentions, but the same applies to environmental protections, citing the gasoline additive MTBE used so fuel burns cleaner, saying:26

“This is now perhaps one of the most pervasive drinking water contaminants and groundwater contaminants in the U.S. That’s what happens when you use a narrow lens, when you have the blinders on. Asbestos is a bellwether issue for the protection of public health and chemical safety. It’s important to have a public health approach that looks at the full range of uses and potential risk to a population.”

Look for Safety Labeling in Your Art Supplies

To ensure your child’s safety, Cook-Schultz recommends parents check products for nontoxic labels or to check with manufacturers for the Children's Product Certificate,27 which guarantees the product was made in a factory adhering to CPSC standards.28 The US PRIG recommends:29

“Given that it is often legal to sell products containing these toxic substances, parents can do several things. First, look for the Art and Creative Materials Institute (ACMI) ‘AP’ label, letting consumers know that the product is nontoxic.

If there is no AP label, look for the manufacturer's ‘Children's Product Certificate’ on the product, which assures parents that the product has been tested in a third-party laboratory under government specifications.

If neither of those labels is on the product, parents can reach out to the manufacturers and ask that they start using AP certification, or that they meet the requirements needed for a children's product certificate.”

ACMI’s “AP” seal indicates the product is certified nontoxic and a medical expert has evaluated the product and the ingredients, while the “CL” (caution label) seal indicates the ingredients are toxic or hazardous but may be used safely with appropriate caution.

Products bearing the CL seal should only be used by those who are able to read, understand and follow suggested safety precautions for handling the materials.30

You can also look for the California Proposition 65 label. This label indicates the product contains chemicals that have been shown to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm. Even if only a trace amount is found, a warning is required by California and caution is recommended when using these products.31

from HealthyLife via Jake Glover on Inoreader http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2018/08/22/asbestos-and-benzene-in-school-supplies.aspx

[sherristockman]

Asbestos and Benzene in Crayons and Markers Dr. Mercola By Dr. Mercola The term “asbestos” is used to describe six types of fibrous, heat-resistant asbestos minerals: chrysotile, amosite, crocidolite, tremolite, anthophyllite and actinolite — all of which are carcinogenic to humans.1 While asbestos kills 100,000 people each year and is banned in nearly 60 countries,2 the mineral continues to be legally used in the U.S.3 The World Health Organization calls exposure to benzene a major public health concern4 as it has been associated with a range of cancers and aplastic anemia. Sources include industrial processes, indoor air, food and water. The chemical is liquid at room temperature and evaporates quickly, often sinking to low-lying areas as the vapor is heavier than air.5 A recent report from a federation of U.S. and Canadian nonprofit organizations operating under the umbrella of the U.S. Public Interest Research Groups (US PIRG) reveals these same chemicals may be found in some of the back-to-school supplies you purchase for your children.6 Leave These Off Your Back-to-School Supply Shopping List Laboratory testing on popular school supplies, such as markers, crayons, glue and spiral notebooks, revealed toxic chemicals such as lead, asbestos, phthalates and BTEX compounds, including benzene and toluene. Supplies were purchased across the country from a variety of big box stores, online retailers and arts and crafts stores.7 The results revealed asbestos in Playskool crayons; a three-ring binder from Dollar Tree contained high levels of phthalates; dry erase markers contained benzene; and two water bottles were recalled due to high levels of lead.8 Although alarming, the results actually demonstrate a reduction in the amount and level of dangerous chemicals used in the manufacture of children’s art and school supplies. According to Kara Cook-Schultz, toxics director at US PRIG and lead author of the report:9 "The good news is that when we were testing three years ago, all sorts of brands came back with asbestos. Now it's just this one." Tests run in 2015 on major brands including Disney Mickey Mouse Clubhouse crayons and Nickelodeon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle crayons demonstrated trace amounts of asbestos fibers. At the time, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) acknowledged asbestos trapped in wax may have limited inhalation danger, but noted children sometimes eat crayons and recommended parents avoid those brands as a precaution.10 Since then, most manufacturers have changed their process to eliminate even trace elements. After the report was released, a spokesperson for Dollar Tree stated all their products are independently tested and met legal and safety standards. Leap Year, the licensee of the product, also released a statement, saying:11 "We are aware of a report of trace amounts of asbestos being detected in a small amount of product testing conducted by a private group and are reviewing our own certified lab testing, which to our knowledge, passes all regulatory requirements and had no detectable asbestos.” Phthalates and Benzene Detected in Frequently Used School Supplies Learning asbestos may be found in school supplies raises red flags, but it’s important to note the study also found phthalates, BTEX and lead in children’s products. Researchers found three-ring binders, made by Jot and sold at Dollar Tree, tested positive for phthalates, a chemical linked with asthma, obesity and reduced IQ.12 Phthalates are pervasive chemicals found in cosmetics, foods, household cleaners and plastic products. For the most part, they are added to plastics to make them durable and flexible, but since they are not strongly bound, they easily leach or migrate out of the products that contain them and into your environment. Phthalates are endocrine disrupting chemicals and are “reasonably considered to be a human carcinogen.”13 What’s more, research suggests even minute amounts can cause significant harm, especially in children. The American Academy of Pediatrics is even asking parents to limit their children’s exposure to plastic chemicals such as phthalates and bisphenols, as these chemicals may damage your child’s health for years to come.14,15 The data also indicated BTEX chemicals such as benzene, xylene and toluene — all known carcinogenic chemicals — were found in dry erase markers made by Expos and The Board Dudes.16 These chemicals may be responsible for the sweet smell emanating from the markers. According to the US PRIG:17 “Benzene is a probable carcinogen linked to dangerous disruptions in sexual reproduction, liver and kidney function and immune system functioning.” Asbestos Is Still Legal, Dangerous and Use May Be Expanding Asbestos is primarily linked to lung conditions, including asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma.18 Although many believe exposure is a thing of the past, it remains a deadly public health concern and may become an even larger one in the near future. After a 10-year study of the effects, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ordered asbestos phased out in 1989.19 The asbestos industry then took the EPA to court and won a ruling that has essentially hamstrung the agency and its efforts to ban not only asbestos but other dangerous materials. The chemical kills as many as 15,000 Americans each year from mesothelioma, asbestosis or other lung cancers.20 There is no safe level, as even brief exposure can cause mesothelioma. The Environmental Working Group (EWG) Action Fund analysis determined more than 8.2 million pounds of raw asbestos and waste products containing asbestos arrived in U.S. ports between 2006 and 2018. Nearly 25 million American homes have asbestos in attic insulation and more can be found in pipes, flooring, wall shingles or ceiling finishes.21 In fact, it may show up in kitchen appliances, cement and some heat-resistant fabric and clothing. The bottom line is that while it is lethal, it continues to be legal and used in common consumer products. What’s worse, the number of consumer products containing asbestos may soon grow, as the Trump administration has proposed a rule to open the door for asbestos to make a comeback. Prior to becoming president, Trump indicated his support of the chemical by suggesting asbestos could have prevented the collapse of the World Trade Center during the 9/11 attacks.22 New Proposed Rule May Increase Use of Asbestos in Home Products The new proposed rule would require manufacturers to alert the EPA if they want to use asbestos in an array of building or electrical materials. However, Melanie Benesh, legislative attorney for EWG, and Thomas Burke, environmental epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University, believe this may present a problem.23 A combination of previous omissions and the proposed rule may leave room for manufacturers to increase use of asbestos in new products. In December 2017, Brazil, the leading exporter of asbestos to the U.S., issued a nationwide ban on mining, use and commercialization of asbestos.24 Although lethal, the U.S. had imported 705 metric tons from overseas, 95 percent of which came from Brazil. This change places Russia in the unique position to become the largest exporter to the U.S., and Russian manufacturers see an opportunity to expand their market while Trump remains president. Believing the continued support of the Trump administration will increase profits, one Russian company has gone so far as to stamp Trump’s face on their packaging, along with an “Approved by Donald Trump, 45th President of the United States” stamp.25 Burke believes the road to hell may be paved with good intentions, but the same applies to environmental protections, citing the gasoline additive MTBE used so fuel burns cleaner, saying:26 “This is now perhaps one of the most pervasive drinking water contaminants and groundwater contaminants in the U.S. That’s what happens when you use a narrow lens, when you have the blinders on. Asbestos is a bellwether issue for the protection of public health and chemical safety. It’s important to have a public health approach that looks at the full range of uses and potential risk to a population.” Look for Safety Labeling in Your Art Supplies To ensure your child’s safety, Cook-Schultz recommends parents check products for nontoxic labels or to check with manufacturers for the Children's Product Certificate,27 which guarantees the product was made in a factory adhering to CPSC standards.28 The US PRIG recommends:29 “Given that it is often legal to sell products containing these toxic substances, parents can do several things. First, look for the Art and Creative Materials Institute (ACMI) ‘AP’ label, letting consumers know that the product is nontoxic. If there is no AP label, look for the manufacturer's ‘Children's Product Certificate’ on the product, which assures parents that the product has been tested in a third-party laboratory under government specifications. If neither of those labels is on the product, parents can reach out to the manufacturers and ask that they start using AP certification, or that they meet the requirements needed for a children's product certificate.” ACMI’s “AP” seal indicates the product is certified nontoxic and a medical expert has evaluated the product and the ingredients, while the “CL” (caution label) seal indicates the ingredients are toxic or hazardous but may be used safely with appropriate caution. Products bearing the CL seal should only be used by those who are able to read, understand and follow suggested safety precautions for handling the materials.30 You can also look for the California Proposition 65 label. This label indicates the product contains chemicals that have been shown to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm. Even if only a trace amount is found, a warning is required by California and caution is recommended when using these products.31

[junker-town]

The Numerical: What’s wrong with Michigan’s offense?

Also, new numbers on Alabama, Oklahoma State, Mississippi State, Purdue, Duke, Houston, and more.

1. What’s wrong with Michigan’s offense?

Despite extreme youth, Michigan is 3-0, having handed Florida, Cincinnati, and Air Force each their only losses, each by at least 16 points. So it should be immediately noted: things could be much worse.

If you've actually watched Jim Harbaugh's Wolverines, however, you've noticed some significant issues. Thanks in part to preseason projections, UM still ranks a decent 49th in Off. S&P+, but the raw numbers are scary: 108th in success rate (98th rushing, 99th passing, 114th on standard downs), 118th in points per scoring opportunity.

Big plays from running back Ty Isaac (7.1 yards per carry) and young receivers Tarik Black (13.6 yards per catch) and Kekoa Crawford (17.2) are propping the Wolverines up, but Black is now out for a while with a foot injury.

This was a deceptively tricky early schedule for this squad. Florida, of course, has ranked 13th or better in Def. S&P+ for nine consecutive years, but facing Luke Fickell's Cincinnati (Fickell was previously the co-coordinator for a consistently awesome Ohio State defense) and Troy Calhoun's Air Force (the Falcons have a particularly aggressive, unique 3-4 attack) offers its own challenges.

This isn't an offense that is offering threats on standard downs, then falling apart when behind schedule — the opposite, actually. The Wolverines have bailed themselves at times on passing downs (32 percent success rate, 60th), but they're falling into far too many.

Michigan has snapped the ball 88 times on first down. The Wolverines are averaging a not-completely-awful 5.3 yards per play, but of their 464 total yards gained, 211 have come on five plays. They have gained one yard or fewer 43 times. Success rate: 33 percent — 27 percent rushing and a much healthier 46 percent passing.

It gets even worse when the Wolverines generate scoring chances. Yards per play on first downs in the red zone: 1.1. They’ve gained zero or fewer yards in eight of 12 instances.

With Don Brown’s defense, Michigan doesn’t need a top-five offense to finish with a healthy win total. And Harbaugh is, after all, 23-6 as UM head man. But while the Wolverines have averaged 6.2 yards per play in those wins, they’ve averaged 4.1 in those losses.

With three S&P+ top-10 opponents left to face, plus early-season overachievers Purdue, Michigan State, and Maryland, there are a lot of potential losses on the schedule for a team that can't move the ball on first down.

2. Does Bama have a No. 2 receiver?

Alabama quarterback Jalen Hurts didn’t get a ton of work in during the Crimson Tide’s 41-23 win over Colorado State. He threw just 17 passes and completed 12 of them for a whopping 248 yards. So now probably isn’t the time to critique Bama’s passing game too closely.

Once again, however, Hurts was focusing mainly on one man. Calvin Ridley was targeted six times (he caught three balls for 92 yards), and nobody else was targeted more than three. That furthered a staggering imbalance.

Ridley has been targeted 23 times in three games. Robert Foster and running back Bo Scarbrough are second on the list ... with six. Foster caught a 52-yarder against CSU, which almost single-handedly pushed him into second on the team in receiving yards with 75.

Ridley’s pretty good, and this isn’t costing Bama just yet. But there are some good pass defenses left on the schedule. Pretty sure some of them will figure out how to slow down a one-man attack.

Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

Robert Foster

3. Big play watch: Oklahoma State vs. Penn State, Week 3

It’s your weekly check-in on the nation’s two funnest teams: Oklahoma State and Penn State. Round 1 of this yearlong fight went to OSU, and round 2 was a draw.

Man, this was a tough round. PSU destroyed Georgia State, 56-0, while OSU laid waste to PSU’s Week 2 conquest, Pitt, 59-21. The round goes to the Cowboys for sheer quantity; there’s just no choice but to give them the round after they registered 11 passes of at least 21 yards. (Mason Rudolph: 23-for-32 for 497 damn yards and five touchdowns.)

But let’s just say that it’s also really difficult to not award bonus points to Penn State for this:

An inside glimpse at @saquonb21's 85-yard touchdown reception from the BTN truck. Impressive from every angle, TBH. http://pic.twitter.com/3jv5B4DyOp

— Penn State Football (@PennStateFball) September 19, 2017

Three different guys had the angle. If the Heisman were awarded to the player who made me yelp out loud the most, Barkley’s the leader.

4. Duke will give you a few big plays, but otherwise, will make a ton of stops.

In 2014, Duke’s defense ranked 105th in success rate and third in IsoPPP (explosiveness). Defensive coordinator Jim Knowles was helping the Blue Devils reach minor bowls with a bend-don’t-break approach. But he clearly wasn’t excited about that.

Beginning in 2015, the Blue Devils got more aggressive. Their success rate ranking improved into the 50s, and they began to allow more big plays as well. But the product was improving — from 60th in Def. S&P+ in 2014 to 56th, then 48th.

Through three games this year, Duke’s defense ranks 129th at preventing explosiveness. The Blue Devils have allowed only 25 gains of 10-plus yards (21st in FBS), but four of them have gone for 40-plus (80th), and three have gone for 70-plus (125th).

They’re also first in success rate allowed (21.7 percent) and have stopped an incredible 39.1 percent of rushes at or behind the line (first in stuff rate). Sophomores Joe Giles-Harris and Tre Hornbuckle have each taken part in seven run stuffs, and senior tackle Mike Ramsay has taken part in four.

Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images

Duke’s Davis Koppenhaver (81) and Joe Giles-Harris (44)

Granted, returns are diminishing. The Blue Devils allowed seven points to NC Central, then 17 to Northwestern, then 20 to Baylor. A woeful Baylor offense couldn't find any efficiency, and quarterback Zach Smith was just 9-for-24 on passing downs, but those nine completions went for 256 yards. Thanks to two long touchdown passes, Baylor trailed by only four points heading into the fourth quarter.

Of course, the aggression then paid off again: Ben Humphreys’ 22-yard pick six put away an eventual 34-20 win.

If the breakdowns become too significant, the quest for extreme efficiency perhaps becomes less worth it, once some more competent offenses show up. But goodness, is Knowles a man after my own heart. Efficiency is the aspect of football you have the most control over, and for at least a little while longer, head coach David Cutclife’s squad has the most efficient defense in college football. It also has a 3-0 record.

5. Overachiever watch

S&P+ regressed to the mean a bit in Week 3, still batting over .550 against the spread thus far. But each week, there are some performances the ratings didn’t see coming. Here are the five biggest stunners of the week:

Purdue over Missouri — projection: Mizzou by 10.6 | result: Purdue by 32

Mississippi State over LSU — projection: LSU by 8.7 | result: MSU by 30

Arizona over UTEP — projection: Arizona by 17.4 | result: Arizona by 47

Rutgers over Morgan State — projection: RU by 36.3 | result: RU by 65

Northwestern over Bowling Green — projection: NU by 15.3 | result: NU by 42

There’s a theme: at the margins, the Big Ten had one hell of a week. Thanks to the Boilermakers, Scarlet Knights, and Wildcats, the conference averaged 10.9 points per game of overachievement. That pushed the conference ahead of the Big 12 on the performance vs. projections list for 2017 to date.

FBS conferences in order of performance vs. S&P+ projection

Big Ten (+2.6 points per game)

Big 12 (+1.9)

Pac-12 (+0.9)

MWC (+0.6)

AAC (+0.4)

ACC (-0.0)

MAC (-0.2)

CUSA (-0.6)

Sun Belt (-1.0)

SEC (-1.1)

This isn’t a quality list; it’s a quality-versus-expectations list. And thanks to teams that were at or near the bottom of the conference last year — Maryland and Purdue in particular — the Big Ten is your biggest overachiever so far.

S&P+ underachievers (min: 2 games)

East Carolina (-26.2 points per game below projections)

Baylor (-22.7)

FIU (-22.3)

Georgia State (-19.9)

Bowling Green (-19.8)

Missouri (-19.7)

UTEP (-19.4)

Oregon State (-16.9)

Western Kentucky (-15.8)

Pitt (-15.4)

ECU and Baylor have dominated this list in 2017, but look out for my Missouri Tigers! After the most unprepared, underwhelming performance I’ve seen from Mizzou in nearly two decades, Barry Odom’s Tigers surged onto a leaderboard you don’t really want to show up on.

S&P+ overachievers (min: 2 games)

Mississippi State (+29.3 points per game above projections)

Air Force (+28.9)

Purdue (+27.4)

Maryland (+24.2)

Duke (+21.8)

Wake Forest (+21.2)

Fresno State (+19.6)

Oregon (+19.6)

Oklahoma State (+19.2)

UTSA (+17.6)

Purdue a top overachiever, eh? With Michigan and its inefficient offense coming to town, eh?

6. Ed Oliver + a field position advantage

Houston is 2-0, having survived a trip to Arizona (19-16) and taken care of business against hapless Rice (38-3). The stats that might jump out to you are pretty clear — quarterback Kyle Allen is completing a cool 86 percent of his passes, defensive tackle Ed Oliver is on pace for another 15 to 20 tackles for loss, etc.

Allen’s passes aren’t really going anywhere, however; he’s averaging just 9.5 yards per completion. That is not creating a scoring machine ... but it is helping to create a field position machine.

The Cougars have a field position margin of plus-16.4 yards per drive thus far. The offense is generating a couple of first downs before punting, the defense both creating negative plays and preventing big ones, and the special teams combination of punter Dane Roy (nine punts, six fair caught, six inside the 20), kickoffs master Caden Novikoff (17.1 yards allowed per return), and kick returners John Leday and Brandon McDowell (three returns, 138 yards) have dominated in their respective opportunities.

What’s the one thing worse than facing Oliver and the Houston defense? Facing it at the bottom of a tilted field.

Photo by Thomas B. Shea/Getty Images

Kyle Allen

7. Gunner of the Year Watch

Out of pure curiosity, I’ve been tracking special teams tackles this year. Maybe we’ll give a pretend award out to whoever has the most of them at the end of the season. Your special teams leaderboard at the moment:

USF’s Nate Ferguson is tied for the national lead with 5 special teams tackles, and he’s been extremely efficient as well. He’s taken part in three tackles on punt returns, and those returns have averaged just 5.7 yards. Meanwhile, he’s taken part in two kick return tackles, and those returns have averaged a paltry 14 yards.

Notre Dame’s Julian Love has 4.5 tackles, and the two punt returns he’s taken part in stopping have lost a combined four yards.

Boston College’s Isaac Yiadom remains a special teams stalwart. He’s made two punt return tackles (average: 3 yards) and two kick return tackles (average: 19 yards).

[walkonwalkonwithhopeinyourheart]

MATCH THREAD: GAME WEEK 38 via /r/LiverpoolFC

MATCH THREAD: GAME WEEK 38

PREMIER LEAGUE : GAMEWEEK 7

MATCH INFORMATION

Stadium: Anfield

How to watch it?:

Sky Sports 1, NBCSN HD, NBCSN

Who is the ref?: Martin Atkinson

OTHER USEFUL LINKS

Pre Match Thread

LINEUPS

Position Liverpool Middlesbrough GK 1. Mignolet 12. Guzan RB 2. Clyne 2. Fabio CB 6. Lovren 25. Chambers CB 32. Matip 6. Gibson LB 7. Milner(C) 3. Friend MID 5. Wijnaldum 34. Forshaw MID 23. Can 8. Clayton MID 10. Coutinho 7. Leadbitter FWD 20. Lallana 19. Downing FWD 15. Sturridge 29. Gestede STK 11. Firmino 20. Bamford

Liverpool Substitutes: Karius, Klavan, Moreno, Grujic, Lucas, Origi, Alexander-Arnold

Middlesbrough Substitutes: Konstantopoulous, Bernardo, Ayala, Roon, Negredo, Stuani, Fischer

PRE MATCH UPDATES

Submitting this a touch early to see if it's possible to do from the pub, if not, /u/_cumblast_ will take over.

I'm picking up my friend for his first game and he's running late. Come on come on come on.

We've made it to the pub. Penny Lane in Richmond, VA is absolutely rocking.

MATCH UPDATES

AND WE'RE OFF.

1' Early shot from Firmino saved by Guzan

What a beautiful fucking shade of red that kit is.

3' Liverpool working the ball around and Coutinho whips in a great cross, which is cleared.

4' Middlesbrough play themselves into a bit of trouble but recover. It's all Liverpool so far.

5' Ads break dances around a player and makes him look quite foolish.

6' Nathaniel Clyne has a shot fall to him but flashes it wide on the half volley.

Update from the other games of note: City has scored. If City were to lose today then Liverpool could skip qualifying for CL altogether.

7' Daniel Sturridge is nearly slipped through but Guzan and his baldy dick of a head smothers it.

9' Milner overhits a cross.

10' Mignolet gathers after Liverpool reset.

Update in other games: Arsenal up 1-0.

12' God Joel Mario looks pretty with those long long legs in those short short shorts-er uh anyway Coutinho crosses and it's gathered by Baldy Americanman.

14' Coutinho finds Sturridge who isn't able to bring it under control. Goal kick to Boro.

14' Linda sighting.

UPDATE: The French defender that's name starts with a K and plays for Arsenal is off after a brutal tackle against watford. Edit: too lazy to try and spell that shit but I know how to pronounce it.

16' Wijnaldum fouls Gestede.

17' Milner called for a foul near the edge of the box. Stuart Downing stands over it.

19' Coutinho clipped. Daniel Sturridge down, but back up. Free kick pings around the box after two good shots, but Boro clears.

21' Emre Can fires over the bar and wide, but only just.m after a great piece of play. Boro growing into the game slightly before that.

22' ATKINSON SAYS NO ERA PENAL TO BORO. Replays will indicate whether we got away with something there. E: Replays show that he Boro player was already on his way down.

24' Clyne crosses but it's cleared back out to Coutinho who can't find his way through.

24' Gestede finds himself on the end of a cross which cause Mignolet to sweat a little bit, but it's wide.

25' Another cross is claimed by Guzan.

27' Sturridge shoots from the corner of the box and it goes wide. Meanwhile, City have doubled their lead.

Update: 10-man Arsenal up two.

29' Liverpool starting to show, as they're shooting from way out.

30' Coutinho gets into his spot, but there were a lot of players in front of him and he pushes it wide.

32' Clyne wins a throw in deep in then Boro half. And again.

33' Sturridge shoes some great strength to hold off the defender, turn and fire, leaving the Bald One at full stretch but it rolls JUST wide.

34' Corner to Liverpool.

36' Liverpool counter but Lallana fires at Guzan.

37' My friend has informed me that Guzan looks like One Punch Man, so I'll refer to him as such for the rest of this, unless time is of a factor.

39' Friend skips through the LFC defense and Milner clears for a corner.

40' Big dick Migs punches clear.

42' Boro wins a deep corner.

42' Liverpool recover.

43' Boro's long diagonal out for a throw.

Also, City have 4.

44' Milner wrongly judged to have fouled the man whose muscles and tendons decided to stop working in tandem when Miner kicked the ball.

45' One minute added.

45' + 1' HARRY FUCKING HOIJINI GOAL

GOD I LOVE THAT LITTLE MAN AND HIS BEAUTIFUL SMILE. HE'S GOING ON THE KIT NEXT YEAR AND ALL YOU PEOPLE THAT DISLIKE THE IDEA OF THAT CAN FUCK RIGHT THE HELL OFF.

And breathe. Halftime. City up 4. Arsenal up 2, but down a man against the Blue Shite. But Liverpool up 1, and fate is still in our hands. Up the motherfucking Reds. I love this fucking club and their heart attack footie.

Check out this adorable video of /u/SerSamwell's dog celebrating

46' Once more dear friends, unto the breach.

46' Can down from a flailing arm to the head, courtesy of Rudy Dickbreath Gestede.

47' Can back up and moving. Don't worry.

49' Liverpool win a deep corner and then reset.

50' Sturridge dances and is fouled.

51' Coutinho stands over the kick.

51' HE BURIES IT 2-0 TO LIVERPOOL

HANDS THE FUCK OFF BARCA, HES OURS AND YOU CAN DIE

52' WHO KNEW YOU COULD MAKE A TENT WITH YOUR DICK WHEN WEARING JEANS. IVE NEVER BEEN HARDER, NOT EVEN WITH THAT GIRL THAT WAS WELL AND TRULY OUT OF MY LEAGUE.

53' Firmino fires a shot which goes off a Boro player and Clyne shoots over the bar on the volley.

Update: Gabriel stretchered off in the Arsenal game.

56' Corner to Boro

56' A 5 ON 2 COUNTER RESULTS IN US FUCKING UO THE COUNTER BUT BEAUTIFUL, CHARACTER FILLED ADAM LALLANA SMASHES HOME AFTER ALME EXCELLENT INTERCHANGES.

3-0!!!!

58' COUTINHO GETS IN AN AMAZING POSITION AND ONE PUNCH MAN JUST FINGERS IT WIDE.

Unsurprisingly our corner comes to nothing and the Boro counter and win a free kick.

No one gives a shit, but Everton have one back.

62' Lallana fouled.

64' Excellent opportunity for a fourth, but the ball doesn't bounce kindly.

65' Boro forgetting that you can't just shove through someone's back and complaining when they're called for it.

67' Another foul by Boro.

67' Absolute Poetry In Motion there. Just unable to finish.

69' Sturridge showing his worth despite his lack of pace. It may be that we get to see him for a few more years if he and Klopp's have had the productive talks that have been rumored.

70' Shot from Lallana saved by One Punch Man.

73' Daniel Sturridge fires over, with an excellent chance that gets Anfield on its feet.

74' HUGE THROBBING MASSIVE ERECT AND VEINY COCK MIGNOLET MAKES A NICE SAVE THAT WOULD HAVE CHIPPED HIM EARLIER THIS SEASON. MR. NASTY IN THE BUILDING.

City up to 5. I'm beginning to think Watford might not pull off the comeback.

77' Can misfires but draws a round of applause from Anfield.

78' Lucas getting ready and my Buffalo Chicken Tenders are here. Updates may be a touch slower. If and when you come to Richmond's Penny Lane Pub, owned and operated by a family of Scousers, order the Buffalo chicken or spicy barbecue tenders. You won't be disappointed.

79' Lucas on for Firmino. Could this be his last run out for us? I certainly hope not, but if he wants more playing time, then I do understand.

82' Boro have a shot butnits wide and no one gives a fuck. More importantly, Divock Origi is on for Daniel Sturridge.

83' Lucas nearly put through and he runs back with the highest fucking grin. Edit, biggest, but whatever.

84' Lucas told to shoot by the supporters. Liverpool win a corner.

85' Liverpool fans telling Lucas to shoot from midfielder here at Penny Lane.

86' Alberto Moreno in for Milner. Milly hands the band to Lucas.

87' BORO PLAYER THINKS THAT MILLY MADE THE WRONG CALL AND BLASTS LUCAS IN THE FACE WITH THE BALL. He's okay that. He's Scouse Tough.

88' Moreno getting into shit with the Boro defender.

89' Lucas had a shot that would have been out for a throw, but the Boro defender puts it out for a corner instead.

90' 2 minutes of stoppage.

91' Mignolet smothers a weak shot.

92' LIVERPOOL HAVE A NEW THEME

UEFA CHAMPION'S LEAGUE GET READY TO HAVE YOUR ASSES HANDED TO YOU.

This is OxfordsandTea signing off. Great season reds. Up the reds.

Submitted May 21, 2017 at 02:24PM by Oxfordsandtea via reddit http://ift.tt/2qHWWxl