#and then charles saying we looked young about the video of them together in 21

[alexturntable]

“we looked young”

[winchester90210]

The BH 90210 Rewrite. Bonus #2: The E! True HollyWood Story

Rewrite Masterlist

My work is not to be reposted and/or edited without my expressed written consent. (Reblogging is fine and encouraged!!)

Chapter Summary: E! News has made a documentary on you, following Shannen's. Although it may seem like the full story, remember-- media is still media and there's still things that need to be uncovered. Italics are the narration.

Warnings: mentions of drugs, addiction, sex, adultery, divorce, rumors, tabloids.

Word count: 2,500

A/N: Like the other bonus chapter, this isn't necessary for the rewrite itself, but will supply background knowledge for the reboot! Hope you guys enjoy :)

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July 19th, 2008. E! True Hollywood Stories.

America's sweetheart. The girl who played with fire. An old interview of yours pops up on screen, from when you were promoting season 4 on 90210.

"Shannen's a lot more... headstrong than I am, for sure. She gets me in trouble from time to time," you laugh. Y/N Perry. She blew audiences away with her portrayal of Y/N Y/L/N on Beverly Hills, 90210. But she wasn't always the wholesome 90's starlet.

Jason Priestley, "Y/N was one of my best friends. I've never met anyone with a bigger heart." Her romantic and musical exploits made her a tabloid heavyweight. But her friendship with notorious bad girl Shannen Doherty was what made her a target. This is the story of Y/N Perry. The E! True Hollywood Story.

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Y/N wasn't always the romantic we knew her to be, but that charming sparkle in her eye quickly became a trademark for her.

June 20th, 1972, Y/N was welcomed to James and Carol Clark's upper-class home.

A man, Kevin McLaren comes on screen with the title "Entertainment Journalist." He speaks, "Y/N was born into a catholic family in Columbus, Ohio, and they had her working in commercials by the time she was eight." Her family then located to Encino, California. From there she joined a Children's drama group where a talent agent immediately took notice. Not long after, she was introduced to TV star, Tom Selleck.

Mary Murphy, senior editor of TV guide, "Selleck sort of... discovered her. Her teacher at the theater group introduced them and he seemed to see something in her. He was her mentor, she really looked up to him. He even got her her first major acting job." She had a 3 year stint on Magnum P.I. as Carol Baldwin's spunky and outspoken niece. She later won the role of Diane Court in the 1989 classic Say Anything, opposite John Cusack which was what began her lift to stardom. The buzz from the romantic comedy hit veteran TV producer Aaron Spelling, who was currently auditioning actors for a new series.

Aaron Spelling, 1993, "We went through hell with casting. It took weeks to pick everyone out. Then, Tori came to me one night talking to me about the lead girl in Say Anything, Y/N Clark. She was telling me "She's perfect, you have to hire her." and I told her uh, we'll see." That show was Beverly Hills, 90210. And in February of 1990, Y/N landed the part of Y/N Y/L/N. But she had originally gone for a different part.

You, an Arsenio interview in 1995, "I was called in to read for Brenda at the beginning, Y/N Y/L/N didn't exist. I didn't get the part obviously, and I was totally crushed. But then a few weeka later my agent called me to let me know that they had written a new character, and they wanted me to play the part. This was after they had filmed the two part pilot, which was why I'm in the second episode." The cast included several unknown actors, including Spelling's daughter Tori, Jennie Garth, Ian Ziering, Luke Perry, Jason Priestley, and established actress and Y/N's soon-to-be best friend, Shannen Doherty. The cast bonded immediately. And while Y/N would continue to become closer with the entire cast, she was instant best friends with Doherty, both of them bonding over their similar family lives and careers.

On October 4th, 1990, Beverly Hills 90210 premiered on the fledgling Fox network. The series clicked immediately with teen audiences, and so did the hot young cast. 17 year old Y/N Clark was center stage. She was a magnet for paparazzi, but she didn't understand how wanted she truly was until leaving a night club with Tori Spelling and Shannen Doherty one night, when they were immediately surrounded. The night was heavily publicized-- magazine covers and gossip columns.

You, 1992 at the red carpet with Tori and Shannen for the MTV Video Music Awards, "Just don't believe everything you read, tabloids are nasty and they only want to twist the truth and bring out the worst in people. They'll dig anywhere they can to get something that shows in the worst light possible." 90210 was becoming the most famous zip code in the country. You, 1992, sitting down for a casual interview on Howard Stern, "I don't think anyone expected the show to take off like it did. No one is quite used to it yet, at least I'm definitely not. On one hand, the attention is flattering and I'm grateful for all the love, but on the other... it's definitely a little scary." 90210 originally centered around the Walsh Family as they tackled their new surroundings. But as the show carried on, it turned into an ensemble show.

Mary Murphy, "They all had different opinions about the switch. Shannen was definitely happier when every episode was going to be about Brandon, Brenda, and Y/N. She didn't like the shift in attention at all, and she wasn't afraid to speak her mind. Y/N, though, wanted to keep to herself and was willing to go where the show took her, wherever that was." During the very beginning of the first season, Clark would become infatuated with castmate Luke Perry, but he immediately rejected her, due to her being barely 18 at the time. Things heated up later for her though, when she and Jason Priestley began dating near the end of filming the first season.

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Tori Spelling, for the documentary, "Y/N and Jason were so crazy about each other. It was so sweet. If you ever look at behind the scenes stuff from the show, they're all over each other. I think their chemistry really translates on screen, and that's what made Y/N and Brandon so great."

You, the Today Show, "Our relationship was so wholesome. I was so in love with him. I had been eighteen for a while and he'd just turned 20 or 21, we were total babies back then!"

Jason, "I remember the night we got together. She'd been flirting with uh, Brian-- Brian Austin Green the entire night, it was a cast Christmas party and I was grumpy, unbelievably grumpy. And I couldn't figure out why. Ian Ziering had to pretty much spell it out for me because everyone else knew why and they were pretty fed up. I was head over heels for her from the start."

They would continue to date for almost five years. But romancing Priestley and befriending Doherty would prove to be an unlucky combination for her.

Joe E. Tata, 2001, "When the tabloids got ahold of her and Jason, they had a field day. They followed them on dates, to clubs. Everywhere." Shannen and Y/N continued to fuel the fire with non-stop partying and clubbing.

Kevin McLaren, entertainment journalist, "After working non-stop since she was a child and being 21 and newly exposed to things like drugs, alcohol, sexual freedom, she certainly fell prey to it all." 1993 was just on the horizon. But little did she know it would become her most dramatic year yet.

Charles Rosin, producer of 90210, "We do know, during 90210, when there was a lot of coverage on the tabloids that we had people in our own crew spreading stories and feeding them information."

Jason Priestley, 2001, "It was horrible. We felt so violated. I remember Y/N/N being absolutely destroyed. And that made me feel awful, because there was nothing I could do, nothing she could do. We had to sit there and take it all."

Clark would continue to be slammed with press, her partying habits only elevating as the tabloids became more and more vicious. Rumors of her being pregnant with other castmates babies, cheating on Jason Priestley, sex tapes, and an oxycodone addiction.

You, filming an MTV interview, 1998, "Media loves to make you and break you. They build you up, and they tear you down twice as hard. It's... ridiculous. But it comes with the job description, I guess. For a while I just felt like I couldn't do anything right." Her frequent club nights came to a crashing halt, as Jason Priestley became fed up with it, and managers and agents became worried of her further tarnishing of her good girl image.

Jennie Garth, "Her and Jason were a real fireball together. Jason adored her, so when he saw her start to spin out of control he gave her an ultimatum. Either she settles down and stays away from the party scene, or he leaves. She was crazy in love with him, so she had no other choice." But her image and her drama didn't stop her from bonding closely with yet another co-worker. Luke Perry. Despite being rejected early on, Y/N maintained a friendly close relationship with Luke and as those two became closer, so did their characters.

Heidi Parker, Playboy, "Y/N, Jason, and Luke were very close. Although Y/N got along with everyone, those boys loved her, and she loved them. It was a really strong, intimate friendship. Despite Jason and Y/N being in love, that didn't stop people from insisting Luke and Y/N were seeing each other. I mean, when you saw them on screen, it was completely electric and everyone caught wind of that. It spawned some awful rumors. This girl hadn't done a thing to anyone, but her mere association with Doherty was what dragged her in to begin with. Y/N was known for being a total sweetheart on set, yet she was still getting pummeled. It got out of control. Everyone who knew her loved her and everyone who read about her hated her."

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At the end of 1996, Jason and Y/N parted ways. After almost 5 years of dating, Y/N moved out of their shared condo and into a Beverly Hills apartment with Tori Spelling.

Jill Ishkanian, US Weekly, "Everyone was surprised when they split. They had talked marriage, they had talked kids. But she left him after they had gotten in a fight about Shannen. Jason did not want Shannen around as often as she was and Y/N wasn't willing to let Shannen go that easily. She was Shannen's main support system, especially with all of her relationship struggles. Two failed marriages, a handful of abusive relationships. Y/N was the only stable thing she had. So, she dumped him, packed her things and left." Y/N went on a few dates with Ian Ziering a few months after, but they quickly decided they were better as friends and they kept it professional from there on out.

You, late night with David Letterman, 2000, "Oh, everyone hooked up with everyone. I definitely wasn't one to stray from that. We were so young, everyone was so attractive on that show, I mean it was kind of inevitable."

Clark and Spelling would live together for two years, with Spelling being a shoulder to lean on during the fallout.

You, 1996, "Look, it's not a pretty scene for anyone and I really just need... privacy right now. It would be great if people could stop asking me about it." As the couple fought in real life, so did their characters.

Jennie Garth, "When Jason and Y/N broke up it was chaos. There was a good period where they didn't even want to be near each other, let alone make out all day at work, y'know? They weren't exactly fighting, but they wanted nothing to do with the other, they were miserable. Luke had been gone at that point and the producers were freaking out because they had planned out this whole thing with Brandon and Y/N and they had to scrap it, because with them butting heads it just wouldn't work. So they switched gears and had their characters fight too. I think it was just cathartic enough to get them close again." They repaired their damaged relationship slowly but surely, just in time for things to heat up with Clark and ANOTHER 90210 alumni.

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In the winter of 1997, Y/N and Luke Perry embarked down a romantic path, sharing their first kiss at Tori Spelling's casual New Years Eve party with their friends and families.

Tori Spelling, "When they started dating it was like everything fell into place. It dawned on everyone how perfect they were for each other, I know Jason wasn't thrilled about it, but we were all genuinely happy for them."

Jennie Garth comes onto the screen. "Luke and Y/N/N have always made sense to me. They're both very humble, well rounded people. And they always had this really flirty element to them from the start, I'm surprised it took that long," she laughs. A year and a half later, they tied the knot with a small private ceremony at their shared home in Beverly Hills, California. Costing only $20,000, it was the cheapest wedding of all of the 90210 clan's. And in June of 1999 they welcomed their first child, a baby girl, Sophie. Selling their 3 million dollar home, they moved into a 6 million dollar house outside of Hollywood, accidentally moving in next to none other than Jason Priestley.

Thankfully that caused no serious drama between the two families. But the finale of Beverly Hills, 90210 caused a stir that no one could have expected. Priestley made a surprise guest appearance that reportedly caused more drama off screen than on.

Jennie Garth, MTV, 2000, "It's so ridiculous. Everything was just weirdly timed. Jason being on the show had nothing to do with his divorce and it has nothing to do with Y/N's pregnancy, either. People love to make stuff up and cause drama that wasn't there to begin with and it's probably so exhausting for her."

Shortly after appearing on 90210, Priestley filed for divorce, ending his 8 month long marriage. Around the same time, the Perrys announced their second pregnancy. Tabloids began to say that Y/N had caused the divorce and that she was secretly pregnant with Priestley's baby.

Tori Spelling, "Those were so awful and so fake. Her son is a carbon copy of Luke, I'd be floored if Jason was the father..." "I think that part of Jason will always be in love with her... and that shined through in the finale a little bit and that's what people are picking up on. But her and Luke are soulmates. She has a good head on her shoulders, a lot of integrity."

Shannen Doherty, the Rosie O'Donnel Show, 1997, "Y/N's my best friend in the entire world, we went to Ireland together last summer and everything. Yeah, her and I have always been close."

Jennie Garth, "She's incredibly intelligent, super funny. Easily one of the strongest women I know."

Join us tomorrow when we air Tori Spelling: The E! True Hollywood Story. Only on E!

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Taglist: @be-patient-be-good @mpmarypoppins @bevelyhills90210 @blueoz @harleylilo88 @princess-ghost-alien @hueycat2004 @l4life

[bunnymcbunnister]

SPN Season 15 Spoiler Sheet, update 9/13

Reblogging early for all the amazing content we get today!! Will do again on Monday if needed. We got PHOTOS! PROMOS! A returning character!

General Info (oldest to newest)

There is likely to be 20 episodes

They are filming the 4th episode 1st, which Jensen is directing

Returning this year are: Rowena, Ketch, Eileen,Amara, and Adam

Jared and Jensen know the ending. Jensen struggled with it at first. Misha does not know the ending as of SDCC

Matt Cohen and Richard Speight Jr. will direct

Sam, Dean, and Cas will struggle with the concept of free will and if they ever really had it

The focus will be more on Hell than Heaven

There is hope to wrap up some Wayward Daughters storylines in the back half of the season

They are adding a whole extra day to filming to do the final scene (Implies logistics- lots of returning people?)

Brad Bucker used the word “romance” when asked about Sam and Dean’s arcs. Did not specify who.

Chuck will be more of an absent protagonist in the 1st half of the season (but he in in ep 4)

At the beginning of the season Dean and Cas will still have a rift. They will reconcile “at some point”. Jensen claims as of script 4 they still have friction. This has been repeated several times, from Misha as well. He indicated Dean is still mad at Cas, but Cas doesn’t feel to blame for Mary’s death.

In an interview, Kripe indicated that the series ending would have “peace” for Sam and Dean

Not much new at the TCA’s, but it was said it is “unlikely” Jeffery Dean Morgan will be back since his last appearance was such a good end note. There were some jokes about a Castiel spin off. Hell, I’d watch.

There will be a special tribute ep, not clear if its one of the 20 or additional

Misha will be in 15 out of 20 episodes this season

According to Dabb, Sam and Dean are going to start to lose people who, in past seasons, we would’ve never lost — and lose them in a very real way. Our guys are going to realize there’s a certain finality, and some of the things they’ve relied on to get through the day — people, talents, things like that — they are no longer going to be able to roll out. And that’s going to throw them for a loop (Unfortunately, my guess in Rowena)

Also according to Dabb, Jack is still in the empty and “he’s not coming back in the near future” (this makes no sense. He’s on set for several episodes- interacting with the boys)

Cas’ deal with the Empty may come up later in the season.

Kevin will return.

Season 15 promo: https://youtu.be/V232RpcCdTY

Episode 15x01

Title: Back to the Future

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS:

Written by: Dabb

Director: Showwalter

Filming Dates:  7/30-8/9 (no filming 8/5 for Canadian holiday)

Airdate: Oct 10

Photos: http://www.ksitetv.com/supernatural/supernatural-season-premiere-photos-back-and-to-the-future/196183/

Promo:   (for at least ep one and two) ttps://youtu.be/V232RpcCdTY

Sneak Peak:

Castiel? Yes Jack ? yes

Guest stars:

Other Spoilers/info:

The first episode will start right where the previous left off

Misha posed with the John Wayne Gacy clown

Jensen posted a series of pics- one clean shaven, one vid of him shaving, and one where he    appeared to be in character with blood and dirt on his face and in Dean plaid, but with his beard… confusing.

Jensen was photoed filming (wearing an FBI jacket)outside with Alex!

Misha and Jared filmed outside with a woman and young girl. They were running from the clown guy and a few other zombie looking creatures. CAS WAS NAKED (haha just no trench) and holding a shotgun. It could have been rehearsal and there was no camera in the clip shared by a fan which might explain the coat? Another fan said it was hot and Misha kept taking the coat off, so I’m sure this just a piece of rehearsal footage.

Alex was filming in white sunglasses. Other set photos indicate he had makeup on his eyes making them look burnt out. There is some spec that Jack will come back blind.

Misha posted a pic of the 4 of them in the impala

According to Variety, the boys will escape the zombies in a temp shelter. They are working together, but Cas feel “detached.” Misha seems to indicate that Cas feels unfairly blamed in Mary’s death and is deeply upset about Jack.

Episode 15x02

Title: Raising Hell

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS:

Written by: Buckleming

Director: Singer

Filming Dates:  8/12- 8/21

Airdate: 10/17

Photos:

Promo:

Sneak Peak:

Castiel? YES Jack ? YES

Guest stars: Ruth Connell, David Haydn-Jones, Rob Benedict, Emily Swallow (?)

Other Spoilers/info (newest to oldest):

A set was a high school set up to be a shelter.

Chuck, Ketch and Rowena will be in this. Maybe Amara too. Emily Swallow was in town for only a short time, so I imagine it would just be a scene or two

Ghosts/zombies were seen on set. There will be a scene with Rowena attacking them that includes at least Dean and Cas.

There will be one longer scene in a park.

Alex was in sunglasses again - not sure if this is a costume thing or an Alex thing

Ruth posted two vids of Misha claiming that he had filmed several scenes, but had no dialog - over three days so it must be a scripted reason(A spell? Chuck? Is he giving Dean the silent treatment?)

Ruth posted a video with her trailer, but the video showed Alex’s as well, so Jack

Misha posted from set in costume. Minus the coat again, but I’m still blaming the heat…. But he was without in the two Ruthie videos as well… soo……? I don’t know. I still think it’s a heat issue.

Night shoots are scheduled in a warehouse. Hand painted signs indicating quarantine were nearby

Episode 15x03

Title: The Rupture

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS:

Written by: Berens

Director: Charles Beeson

Filming Dates:  8/22-9/3 (No filming on Labor Day?)

Airdate: 10/24

Photos:

Promo:

Sneak Peak:

Castiel? yes Jack? yes

Guest stars:  Ruthie Connell

Other Spoilers/info (newest to oldest):

Misha mentioned a scene at VanCon with him, Sam, Dean, Rowena, and Jack

Sam Smith was on set, but I would imagine she was visiting as she was in town for VanCon

Episode 15x04 (filmed out of order)

Title: Atomic Monsters

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS:

Written by:

Director: Jensen Ackles

Filming Dates:  7/18-7/29

Airdate:

Photos:

Promo:

Sneak Peak:

Castiel? Probably not  Jack? Probably not

Guest stars:  Rob Benedict

Other Spoilers/info (newest to oldest):

Jensen mentioned  a guest star “fan favorite���  that hasn’t been seen since season 7 that is no longer in the business. Guesses include Becky, who hasn’t acted in a while but isn’t exactly a fan favorite, Meg, who hasn’t acted but she was in season 8, and Balthazar or Frank or Jo or Rufus, but all act frequently. Jensen doesn’t always have the most accurate season memory, so he could be off on the season. Since this seems like a Chuck episode, my guess is Becky but I hope for Meg. SOURCE UNCONFIRMED- I haven’t seen this in a reliable source, so take it with a grain of salt.

There was a beaver mascot on set… it looks like they are filming at a school called Beaverdale

Jensen and Jared filed outside in fed suits

Chuck will be in this one. Jensen directed him first alone with his beard unshaved (so maybe a solo Chuck scene or him interacting with others/not the boys)

This will be a one off, classic monster hunting episode with some ties to ongoing storylines. Sam and Dean will leave the bunker to keep their skills sharp

Jensen directed

Misha will not be in this ep

SD Comic Con was during filming

Episode 15x05

Title:

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS:

Written by: Yockey

Director: Speight

Filming Dates:  9/4-9/13

Airdate:

Photos:

Promo:

Sneak Peak:

Castiel? very doubtful Jack?

Guest stars:

Other Spoilers/info (newest to oldest):

This will most likely be Yockey’s last episode.

Not sure about Cas’s status in this one. He tweeted from home Friday, so I am going to say no.  I don’t think he was on set the first week of filming, have to see about next. 

Matt Cohen was around, but I imagine he is following directors to prep for his own debut directing.

Scenes were filmed in the bunker and in a wooded area. A woman could be heard screaming in the outside scene.

Episode 15x06

Title:

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS:

Written by:

Director: Steve Boyum

Filming Dates:  

Airdate:

Photos:

Promo:

Sneak Peak:

Castiel? Jack?

Guest stars:

Other Spoilers/info (newest to oldest):

Episode 15x07

Title:

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS:

Written by:

Director: Speight

Filming Dates:  

Airdate:

Photos:

Promo:

Sneak Peak:

Castiel ? Jack ?

Guest stars:

Other Spoilers/info (newest to oldest):

[harryandmeghan0-blog]

It's Cultural & Culinary Delights For Harry and Meghan In Rabat!

New Post has been published on https://harryandmeghan.xyz/its-cultural-culinary-delights-for-harry-and-meghan-in-rabat/

It's Cultural & Culinary Delights For Harry and Meghan In Rabat!

For their final day in Morocco, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex carried out several engagements in Rabat celebrating young people and Moroccan culture.

They kicked off the busy day with a visit to the Royal Federation of Equestrian Sports.

From there, the Duke and Duchess visited Villa des Ambassadors in Rabat for a cooking demonstration. 

The couple were joined by renowned chef Dar Moha. Harry was already familiar with his work as he visited his restaurant in Marrakesh before the royal wedding.

The couple saw how traditional Moroccan cuisine is supporting young people and teaching children from under-privileged backgrounds a new skill. Meghan is passionate about food bringing people and communities together. During the launch of Grenfell cookbook Together, she said: “This is more than a cook book and what I mean by that is the power of food is more than just the meal itself it is the story behind it. And when you get to know the story behind the recipe, you get to know the person behind it and help us celebrate what connects us rather than divides us. That is the ethos of Together.”

It seemed only fitting for the group to prepare one of the recipe’s from Together. They chose the pancakes with honey and almond butter by Cherine Mallah (which reminds me Shrove Tuesday is next week).

When Harry sampled one Meghan laughed and said “Big bite”, Harry replied “It’s a bit late now”.

[embedded content]

 They sampled an array of dishes including spicy creations and a pigeon pastilla which Meghan called “delicious”

A group of young chefs from Hadaf.

‘Hadaf supervises 85 people suffering from moderate or mild developmental disabilities, many of whom come from disadvantaged backgrounds.

“It all started with my daughter, who has a mental disability,” says Amina Mseffer, president of the association. When she could not put her daughter at school because people were scared to have a disabled person with the other children, Mseffer said, she decided to put her in a special institution. But this was expensive, and stops when the person is 21 years old.

So she joined forces with relatives and friends and in 1997, they created Hadaf, which means “goal” in Arabic, but also stands for “Association of parents and friends of mentally disabled people.” Help and donations have come from official institutions, companies and even the Moroccan king and private donors, including nearby mosque-goers.

In 2005, Hadaf set up a social-professional center in the Hay Nahda neighborhood of the capital Rabat, housing various workshops and courses including jewelry making, sewing, decorative painting and carpentry.’

The couple met representatives from the organisation.

The Mail Online reports:

‘Inside they walked around the stations and chatted to the young cooks, aged between nine and 18, stopping to try mince and onion pastries (Harry) and Harira – a spicy chickpea soup (both). Chef Moha handed them each a decorated ceramic bowl to try and they each took a sip. ‘C’est delicieux,’ said Meghan in French. ‘What’s in it?’ asked Harry, before joking, ‘It’s a secret recipe!’

One child said something in Arabic to the chef, who turned to the Duke and said: ‘He finds you a very good person. ‘He is a good person,’ smiled the Duchess, putting an affectionate hand on her husband’s arm. 

‘Harry and Meghan took up the offer of a meal for ‘the whole family’ from top chef Moha Fedal, who hosts the North African nation’s version of Masterchef. He told the couple: ‘I hope to cook for you next time,’ as they joined him for a cookery demonstration with underprivileged children in the capital Rabat.

The Duchess replied: ‘The whole family next time.’ The chef said: ‘You come with your baby to Marrakesh next time’ referring to the fact that the prince is believed to have visited in 2018, just before his wedding. 

‘We would love to,’ said Meghan. ‘Come with your baby and I will cook for all three,’ he told Harry as he joined them. The Duke – clearly inspired by the delicious spread he had sampled – replied: ‘We will cook for you!’ 

The Duchess gave Chef Moha a copy of Together. She wrote: “Chef Mohar. Wishing you continued success and congratulating you on your incredible work in engaging the community in cooking. All the best. Meghan”.

In return, He gave her his book Le Vrai Goût du Maroc.

A group photo.

For their final public event, the Duke and Duchess met young entrepreneurs supporting youth empowerment at an arts and crafts market in the Andalusian Gardens in Rabat.

It was a quick change of clothes for Meghan.

They enjoyed a traditional musical performance upon arrival.

The beautiful Andalusian Gardens provided the perfect backdrop for the engagement.

Omid Scobie shared these stunning photos on Twitter.

Harry and Meghan’s names in Arabic.

As they viewed local arts and crafts, the Duchess was given a necklace. Of course, Harry was on hand to assist…

They were given an array of items including a bronze plate representing British – Moroccan friendship.

Meeting local craftspeople.

Royal reporter Rebecca English noted Meghan was particularly impressed by one pair of shoes.

The couple discussed sustainability. More from the Mail:

‘Harry spoke as he and the duchess met entrepreneurs in Morocco who have started companies aimed at tackling the country’s social, economic and environmental problems. Talking to Youssef Chaqor, who runs a recycling company called Eko-Geste, Harry said: ‘You need to put more pressure on the big companies.’

He said that while big companies might give money to environmental projects, ‘they are still producing single-use plastic bottles.’ He added: ‘Go to the source!’

Looking at a stand which featured wallets and shoes made from cured fish skin, the duchess told PhD student Nawal Allaoui: ‘It’s very clever.’ Meghan asked what happened when it got wet, but she replied: ‘It’s waterproof.’ Harry congratulated her on moving away from snakeskin and crocodile skin.

Meghan said: ‘It’s really amazing not to use exotics like that, and instead use something sustainable that would otherwise go to waste. But they still have a fashionable impact.’

Victoria Murphy shared a look at some of the young entrepreneurs.

Many of the people they met are working to address youth unemployment and involved in creating new initiatives.

People reports:

‘Silver craftsman Sakhi Driss had a photo of Harry’s father, Prince Charles, on display from when the Queen’s son visited his store in Fez. Driss said of Harry, “He asked when the visit was and where was the picture taken.” At one point, Harry jokingly shielded his eyes as the sun reflected off one of the silver pieces – and Meghan learned that it takes about six days to make one tray.

At one of the first stops in the fabulous walled gardens high above the coast with the Mediterranean sea, they were handed two embroidered foot cushions – which will perhaps come in useful in their new home, Frogmore Cottage in Windsor Castle. “They were interested. They asked many questions. It was a great pleasure to see them,” Ismail Boudrous from the social enterprise says.’

This video opens with footage of Harry and Meghan meeting two darling little girls.

[embedded content]

For Meghan’s looks today she opted for a mix of new and old pieces. This morning’s engagements saw the Duchess in casual attire including a striped sweater and black jeans.

The Duchess wore her hillside green J Crew Field jacket. Meghan’s had the piece since 2016 and was photographed wearing it several times in Toronto before the engagement.

After numerous searches, Michelle from Perth Fashion identified Meghan’s breton top as the Equipment Lucian style.

Meghan wore the Stuart Weitzman Brooks Suede Boots (with thanks to UFO No More). The almond toe boots are available in very limited sizing at Saks Fifth Avenue.

And accessorised with her Ecksand Tresses yellow gold earrings.

For the afternoon’s engagement, Meghan changed into a more formal look. Initially it was thought Meghan’s dress might be a re-purposed Givenchy piece, however it turns out she wore the Loyd/Ford Pleated Dress (with many thanks to eagle-eyed reader Jennifer). 

The pleated chiffon dress is currently reduced from £432 to £324 at ShopBop. It’s also available in pink.

You can see the thin strap on Meghan’s dress in the photo below.

The Duchess wore the Artizia Babaton Keith jacket she debuted for a polo match in 2016. It is described as “This take on the tailored blazer does away with a standard collar and plays with architectural tailoring. The Japanese basketweave fabric is textural and fluid, emphasizing the weighted drape.” It retails for $198.

Meghan wore her Manolo Blahnik Carolyn Black Satin and Velvet Polka Dot Slingback Pumps.

And accessorised with the $200 Gas Bijoux Onde Drop earrings (with thanks to UFO No More and Meghan’s Fashion). For US shoppers they are discounted by $50 with code FASHION at Neiman Marcus.

Harry and Meghan will meet with the King this evening. I expect we’ll see photos.

Source: http://madaboutmeghan.blogspot.com/2019/02/first-look-meghan-casual-for-equestrian.html

[news-mashable-yahoopartner-blog]

23 things on 'The Office' you've never noticed before

The Office is truly the show that keeps on giving.

Though the NBC comedy has been off the air since 2013, the discussion surrounding it is still very much alive. To this day, fans keep finding new, hilarious Easter eggs in the show.

The more than 750,000 diehards who come together on r/DunderMifflin to chat about the program are experts at pointing out the hidden details they pick up mid-rewatch. 

We've compiled 23 of the best. Find out how well you really know your stuff.

SEE ALSO: The 65 absolute best moments from 'The Office'

1. David Wallace *also* has a world's best boss mug

If you thought Michael Scott was the sole best boss in the world, you're wrong! At least according to the desk mugs ...

Turns out David Wallace, chief financial officer of Dunder Mifflin, has a World's Best Boss mug on his desk, too. It's visible in the Season 2 episode, "Valentine's Day." It's black and has a more obnoxious font than Michael's. It's unclear whether David Wallace bought his own mug.

Will the real World's Best Boss please stand up? Oh look, it's Michael!

Image: the office/netflix

2. Michael uses his own brand of salad dressing

In the second episode of Season 4, Michael and Jan are chatting about ageism in his office while eating salads. Everything seems normal until you look closely: The salad dressing on the table is Michael Scott's own personal brand, "Great Scott."

Great Scott!

Image: the office/netflix

The jar is adorned with a homemade label featuring Michael's face and a bowl of salad. Thanks to a deleted scene from the previous episode, "Fun Run," we know all about it. 

"What do I look like to you, Paul Newman? That's actually not a good example, because I have been compared to a young Paul Newman, my eyes and my face. And I make my own salad dressing," Michael says in the deleted scene, which starts around 4:10. "I mix Newman's Ranch with Newman's Italian. Sell it at flea markets for a slight loss. I could make ... I could make a profit if I changed one of the ingredients to Wishbone, but I won't do it."

3. That Dunder Mifflin Newsletter was trolling us

In Season 1, Episode 4, viewers get a glimpse of an old Dunder Mifflin Employee Newsletter. The Easter egg lies within the text.

In a classic move, the people writing the words didn't take the time to crank out a full article. Rather, they wrote a bit of sensical information followed by absolutely anything.

"A lot of useless information"

Image: the office/netflix

"Welcome to yet another exciting edition of the Dunder Mifflin Employee Newsletter," the article begins quite reasonably. But by the second paragraph, things get meta.

"As anybody can easily tell, this newsletter doesn't really have a lot to say. It's really just a prop to fill some space and sort of look like a newsletter without really being much of a newsletter at all ... In fact, at times we can probably get away with not using real English words, such as kjgavbiwiwpo..."

This isn't even the only time The Office writers did this. Now you know!

4. Jim signs Meredith's pelvis cast "John Krasinski"

Remember when Michael hit Meredith with his car and she had to get a cast on her pelvis? John Krasinski does! Because in Season 4, Episode 3, he signed it ... as himself, not his character Jim Halpert! Whoops.

Hmm ...

Image: the office/netflix

5. Stanley's resolution was, um, telling

In "Gossip," the first episode of Season 6, Dunder Mifflin Scranton learns Stanley's been cheating on his wife, Teri, with some woman named Cynthia. In Season 7, Episode 13, it's crystal clear that hasn't changed. Stanley's resolution card literally says, "To be a better husband and boyfriend." Boy, have you lost your damn mind?

To be fair, everyone's resolutions are a lot.

Image: the office/netflix

6. Oscar's drinkin' prop wine

Oscar was so excited to drink the wine in Season 8, Episode 12, no one realized the prop label was still on the bottom of the bottle. If you pause the episode you can clearly see a piece of tape with the word "Oscar" on that bottle of, um, Chateau Galmon?

"I am Bacchus, God of wine!"

Image: the office/netflix

7. Michael keeps his broken plasma on the wall for a while

Michael and Jan broke up after all hell broke lose in the Season 4 episode, "Dinner Party," but he held onto a key reminder of his ex well into Season 5.

In "Dream Team," Pam visits Michael's place to start the Michael Scott Paper Company, and his pride and joy — the mini plasma TV Jan shattered by throwing a Dundie Award at it — is still mounted on the wall. The most hilarious part of the situation? Michael clearly got a new television, which he placed directly under the broken flatscreen, neglecting to trash the old one. 

Could it be he wasn't ready to let go — or that Jan mounted it on the wall and he had no idea how to take it down? We may never know.

Two TVs ...

Image: the office/netflix

8. He then attempts to sell the broken plasma

Finally, in "Garage Sale," Episode 19, of Season 7, Michael is finally ready to part with his tiny broken plasma. But rather than throw it out, he attempts to SELL IT at the warehouse garage sale. Come on, dude.

Nope.

Image: the office/netflix

9. Return of the clown art

Speaking of that warehouse garage sale, another familiar object was for being sold: That creepy clown painting that used to be stuck to the walls of Jim and Pam's house (aka, Jim's parent's old house). Wonder how they finally got it off the wall ...

No one will buy that clown painting.

Image: the office/netflix

10. Bob Vance was possibly a marketing genius

Any fan of The Office knows that Phyllis' husband, Bob Vance (of Vance Refrigeration), loves to plug his business whenever he gets the chance. 

But one theory considers the idea that Bob Vance wasn't simply trying to market Vance Refrigeration to Dunder Mifflin employees — instead, perhaps he was constantly repeating his company name for the cameras filming the Dunder Mifflin documentary in hopes that if the footage ever aired it'd be free advertising. Genius.

11. Michael ate tiramisu from the trash

This one's kind of a long story, but in Season 5, Episode 10, Jim gives Pam a piece of tiramisu as a peace offering after going out to lunch with Michael.

Pam rejects the offering and throws the tiramisu away, but in a later scene we see Michael eating a piece of tiramisu at his desk. Though some speculate Michael also brought tiramisu back from the restaurant, he's seen walking into the office alongside from Jim empty-handed and even claps at a joke.

Michael later takes a shot at Pam, scolding her for throwing away "perfectly good tiramisu" just because it has a hair on it, so all signs point to him digging Pam's dessert out of the trash.

12. This extremely deep paper clip find

In Season 5, Episode 1, Michael introduces Pam to the office's replacement receptionist, Ronnie, via video chat, explaining that Ronnie is unable to find "those little colored paper clips" he likes so much.

Somehow, an Easter egg mastermind discovered that Jim and Pam's license plate, CHD-0032, is the model number for those clips Michael likes. (If you Google the plate number, they come up.) 

13. Jim's title in Stamford was "Assistant Regional Manager"

Dwight spent season after season begging for the title "Assistant Regional Manager" instead of "Assistant to the Regional Manager," and all Jim had to do to get it was transfer to the Stamford branch. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

In Season 3, Episode 6, Jim falls asleep at his desk, and we get a peek at that nameplate, baby!

The real deal

Image: the office/netflix

14. Creed's fake name is the actor's real name

In Season 4, Episode 4, Creed Bratton — the character on The Office played by actor Creed Bratton — explained that whenever he gets into financial trouble, he transfers his debt to a man named "William Charles Schneider." Turns out William Charles Schneider is actor Creed's real name, and there's a good chance that's his real passport.

15. Michael's wallet looks like a '90s DIY project

Does Michael Gary Scott carry around a bedazzled wallet? That's absolutely what it looks like...

16. Jim wears a wig in Season 3

John Krasinski's received some feedback on Jim's floppy hair over the years, but if things looked a little off in Season 3, it wasn't his fault.

Krasinski had to cut his hair short for his role in the film Leatherheads, which gave him no choice but to wear a wig during the last six episodes of The Office's third season. Krasinski further explains his hair challenges in this interview starting at around 2:15.

Wig Tuna

Image: the office/netflix

17. St. Patrick's Day celebrations were lit

Season 6, Episode 19 is dedicated to St. Patrick's Day, and the office really goes all out. For example, did you notice Michael has an Italian flag on his desk instead of an Irish one, or that they dyed the water in the community water cooler green? LOL.

The closest the Irish get to Christmas

Image: the office/netflix

Image: the office/netflix

18. Andy's Call of Duty username is extremely Andy

Viewers get a glimpse of Andy playing Call of Duty in Season 3, Episode 5 of the show. If you look closely you'll see his username is a very fitting "Here Comes Treble" — named after his college a cappella group, who we later hear about in the Season 9 episode, "Here Comes Treble."

Image: the office/netflix

19. Creed possibly has a mugshot hanging at his desk

Does Creed casually have his mugshot hanging above his desk? Honestly, we wouldn't put it past him.

20. Jim's last name is misspelled on his wedding sign

Congrats to Pam Beesly and Jim HalpRET on their wedding. Was this a typo or an intentional joke? We can't keep track anymore.

Hmm...

Image: the office/netflix

21. Wait, who is that?

You know when TV shows like actors so much they bring them back to play other roles in the future? How about when they replace a character with a different actor and expect viewers not to notice or to be totally fine with it? The Office is guilty of doing both of those things.

Image: the office/netflix

Dwight's nephew in the show's final season was also an extra in Season 7's "WUPHF.com" episode. Elizabeth, the stripper hired throughout the course of the show, appeared in the "Ben Franklin," "Fun Run," and "Finale" episodes, yet not everyone seemed to remember her. Andy's parents and Pam's mom were recast throughout the series. And Dwight hired Devon, the employee Michael fired in Season 2, back in the finale.

22. John Krasinski shot the opening Scranton footage

This one's less of a "did you notice?" and more of a "did you know?" but John Krasinski, the man you know and love as Jim Halpert, is semi-responsible for the iconic Office intro. According to TV Guide, Krasinski shot scenes from the opening credits sequence while on a research trip.

23. There's a nod to the UK version of the show

What would the U.S. version of The Office be without a reference to the UK version of the series? 

The address of Dunder Mifflin's Scranton office is 1725 Slough Avenue, Scranton, PA, which is special because there's a town in the UK called Slough, where the UK version of the show just so happens to take place. 

Image: screengrab/google maps

And that's not all. When you search in the Scranton branch's address in Google maps it shows Pennsylvania Paper & Supply Company, the building that's featured in the intro footage, and Poor Richards Pub, the Dunder Mifflin employees' go-to place for Happy Hour.

So there you have it, fans. The writers, cast members, and show runners of your favorite comedy were even more clever than you realized. Now it's time to re-watch the show and see if you can spot any other hidden treasures.

WATCH: What is the cast of ‘The Office’ doing now?

[ashxpad]

Spider-Man’s Cameras: A Look at What Peter Parker Shoots With

I’m sure photographers out there are one of two minds. One is that Peter Parker being both a photographer and a superhero is amazing and that we wish we could get those crazy angles. The second is that by taking pictures of himself for money, he is a total scam artist that raised the bar on pictures of Spider-Man no one could hope to accomplish.

Spider-Man is not on trial today, though. We just want to know what camera gear he used.

In this article, we will explore this question for three incarnations of Peter Parker. Sadly, so far we have only seen Tom Holland’s Peter Parker taking video with a smartphone, so he won’t be included on this list. We also won’t be looking at anything from the comics or cartoons, as they are generally made up. Like his belt camera or ambiguous rangefinders.

I promise you though that these real-life cameras are nothing short of spectacular.

1970s Spider-Man: Nikon F2

First up, we have to go all the way back to the late 1970s.

The TV series The Amazing Spider-Man was first aired in 1977 as a pilot film, starring Nicholas Hammond as Peter Parker. In this incarnation, Peter doesn’t get bit by the radioactive spider until he’s in college, and there doesn’t even appear to be an Uncle Ben.

During my research, I watched the pilot and I was both entertained and amused.

In an early scene, he’s talking to J. Jonah Jamison about some photos he’s trying to sell for the Daily Bugle, and he gets rejected. Jamison mentions a recent sighting of Spider-Man stopping a thief, which was just Parker on a wall testing his abilities and freaking out a purse snatcher. This prompts Parker to lie, saying he already has a photo of Spider-Man, and he quickly throws together a costume, sets his tripod and self-timer up, and takes photos of himself clinging to the wall.

The camera that Parker uses is a Nikon F2. Specifically, it’s the all-black version with a coupled metered prism, self-timer, and motor drive. The F2 has its own self-timer, but I imagine they used an accessory because it looked better for the scene.

We can also see that they used an F2 in the promo materials.

The Nikon F2 was released in 1971, so it was about a six-year-old camera at this point. Assuming Parker bought his a year before this, he would have paid about $400 with the prism and a 50mm lens, as seen here in this Cambridge Camera Exchange ad in Modern Photography, released in February 1976. That’s about $1,900 in 2021 money.

When the F2 was released in 1971, Popular Photography did an extensive review in their December issue, addressing many of the rumors, most of which turned out to be false.

“It isn’t fully automatic without the addition of special accessories,” wrote Norman Goldberg. “It isn’t equipped with an electronically governed shutter or built-in meter. It isn’t made in Kankakee, Illinois, either.”

The F2 would be metered but requires a separate photomic finder. Much of the review goes over the upgrades from the original Nikon F. Goldberg explains that for an extra hundred dollars more than the original you get proof that Nikon has been listening to comments of the original Nikon F owners for the previous twelve years.

“Nikon treated the Nikon F as a wise man treats a woman.”

Uh oh…

“The good qualities were recognized, appreciated, and enhanced, while the less desirable qualities were modified, but not harshly. In this respect, it would seem that both a good woman and a good camera respond favorably to gentleness coupled with wisdom.”

Moving on…

Here is an ad from 1977 that is impressive in itself. From my research on other cameras, usually they drop advertising after about two years even if the model lives on, but not the F2 though. With a two-page ad, Nikon lets you know that the F2 has “Unquestionably, the most accurate viewfinder in 35mm photography.”

“At Nikon, meticulous hand-finishing, inspection, refitting, and re-inspection assure a centered, incredibly accurate view,” boasts the ad. “Small wonder that Nikon is the choice of today’s demanding photographers.”

2002 Spider-Man: Canon F1

The 2002 Spider-Man starring Toby Maguire is the Spider-Man I love the most. When this movie was released I was just 21 years old, still young enough to make a huge impression on me and give me a burst of nostalgia whenever I go back and watch it.

This Peter Parker is still in high school, and during a field trip with his class, he asks Mary Jane if he can take her photo and this is where we get a solid look at Parker’s camera. Like in most movies, the brand is taped up or Sharpied, but here, the model type is not. We can clearly see an F-1 and right away we can deduce this is the Canon F-1.

There are two versions of this camera though. The original F-1, released in 1971, and the new version, released in 1981. There are many ways to tell them apart, most of them subtle. The most obvious though, is that the New F-1 has a hotshoe.

While I don’t have records for what a new F-1 would cost in 2002 I do have one for 1998 from an ad in Popular Photography, and it’s reasonable to assume the price wouldn’t have changed much in three years. If Peter bought it from Smile Photo and Video in New York, it would have set him back $1,600, or $2,680 in 2021 money. That’s a hefty price for a high school student from a lower-middle-class family. Perhaps it was a hand me down.

The Canon F-1 was a legend of the time, and regularly made top-recommended cameras in magazines like Modern Photography and Popular Photography years after much more advanced models were released.

In this first look by Popular Photography, released in September 1981, it is explained that the new F-1 is also called just F-1 on the cameras but will be advertised as “New F-1” These days, however, it is known as the F-1n.

“It is a totally revamped model,” says reviewer Steve Pollock. “with a matching line of viewfinders, focusing screens, power film, advance devices, film backs, and other accessories, Only the lenses, lens accessories, and integrated flash units are interchangeable with other Canon models.”

Also in the lab report is a visual of how each of the three metering modes is prioritized, and a look at the viewfinder.

This November 1982 ad titled “The New F-1 Concept” showcases the wide range of accessories.

“For the professional level photographer, there can be no one camera that can satisfy every requirement. So when Canon designed our New F-1 camera, we created a camera that could be changed to meet every conceivable need, no matter what the photographic challenge.”

Buying an F-1n today will set you back anywhere from three to six hundred depending on the condition.

2012 Spider-Man: Yashica Electro 35 GSN

In The Amazing Spider-Man, released in 2012 we are introduced to Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker. What I find fascinating is that one of the newest incarnations of Spider-Man sports the oldest camera. Not with the earliest release, but the most aged camera. You can see it pretty early on in the movie, and film enthusiasts will pick up right away that it’s a rangefinder.

Now, I must confess that for the longest time I was convinced it was a Cannonet QL17 GIII. However, during my research, I discovered it was in fact a Yashica Electro 35, a camera originally introduced in the mid-1960s. This discovery would require some further narrowing down because according to KenRockwell.com, there were several versions of this camera between 1966 and 1973.

A scene in the movie helps reveal exactly which model it is though. Spider-Man is in the sewers pursuing The Lizard, hoping for a photo. Attached to the camera, is a flash. Only two models of the electro 35 had a hot shoe, and only one came with a chrome finish, The Electro 35 GSN, released in 1973.

You can also see the GSN label briefly here.

The Yashica Electro 35 is an aperture priority rangefinder, highly popular in its time and known for its low price tag.

In 1969, you could pick one up for $115, or about $850 in 2021 cash. Pretty good for what it was offering.

You can see they kept their $100 price tag in the GSN version, advertised by K-Mart here for $99.88 in 1981, which actually works out to $300 today.

“Even if you’ve never taken a picture before, the amazing new Yashica Electro 35 will make you an expert instantly,” claims this ad from the 1960s.

Another ad I found put the Electro 35 in the hands of a professional photographer: Charles Varon. In the ad, it’s explained that usually, he uses expensive equipment, and he was frustrated he couldn’t bracket and had to “leave it all to the solid-state electronic exposure system with the electromagnetic shutter.”

Of course, his mind was changed after the development. “He’s not skeptical anymore,” says the ad.

Another version of this ad sums it up by saying, “You’d take a dozen shots to get this picture. With Yashica’s Electro 35, one’s enough.”

In a full report by Phot Argus by Gerard Bouhot, we get a detailed explanation of how the camera works, an exploded view, and some pros and cons. A few of the cons include the inability to go over 400 ASA and the need for a mercury battery. Among the pros are reliability, a battery check, and simplicity for beginners.

You can still find one today for under $100 on eBay.

And there you have it, Spider-Man’s cameras. I hope you found this deep dive into photography history interesting. What fascinates me is that despite thirty-five years passing, the camera models stayed within a decade. 1971, 1973, and 1981.

I would absolutely love to see Tom Holland’s Peter Parker adopt photography at some point, but I won’t be holding my breath for any film cameras.

About the author: Azriel Knight is a photographer and YouTuber based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. You can find Knight’s photos and videos on his website, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

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[the-master-cylinder]

“In 1977, from being a film collector and videotape guy, which at that time was a very small club,” said Band, “I recognized there was something very wonderful about having even a bad print of a movie for screening in the privacy of your own home. When I got wind of the Beta format, and of Andre Blay, who licensed 20 films from 20th Century-Fox and set up a company called Mag Video in the Stone Age of video, I thought it was absolutely wonderful and was going to be very successful. So I decided to go out and do my own video label.

“I went around to a bunch of independent distributors who had successful films out theatrically, pictures like TUNNELVISION, FLESH GORDON, THE GROOVE TUBE, HALLOWEEN, TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE and I put this limited catalog together of these kind of successful, high-profile theatrical releases. I called it Meda Home Entertainment. Meda was my first wife’s name. In 1978 I started that label.

“Originally I started it up as a hobby, it was just in the back of my little facility that we were making movies out of. We started very simple and very low key, and within two years it just totally overtook my life. It became a hungry beast sort of business.”

Unfortunately for Band, to gain capital to expand his business, the inexperienced entrepreneur took on some partners who gained control of the business, a business that according to Band was doubling every month. “The video business just exploded,” he said, “and every time we needed money, which was virtually every month-I needed cash flow I’d do a deal with these people. They’d take two more points of the company in return for a certain loan. If the business was predictable, which at the time it wasn’t, then the cash flow and all the planning would have worked out, but I’m a player, the business doubled, and suddenly we needed more tape, more machines and more everything. So little by little they kept eating away at my stock until finally they had control.”

Charles Band sold out his interest in the company in early 1980 and about 18 months later, that was sold to Heron, who bought the company for $20 million. When Band sold the company, his partners added an “i” to the name so that Meda became Media. Band was also behind the Wizard label, which distributed a number of rare and cult European films in this country for the first time, sometimes under alternate titles, as well as films like the infamous I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE, which became an incredible seller on video.

Born into a movie-business family, his film making ambitions started very early; as he puts it, “My ambitions were there basically when I could walk. I grew up on motion picture sets.” Band spent his growing years in Rome where his father, Albert Band, was producing and directing a string of genre pictures, ranging from Steve Reeves epics to such Italian Westerns as A Minute to Pray …. A Second to Die. As soon as Band was old enough to work, his father trained him in just about every facet of movie making, Band had enough know-how to produce his first picture, a horror thriller called Mansion of the Doomed. Since then he has concentrated on the horror-sci fi field with such features as Laserblast, End of the World and Tourist Trap. Band has always been in touch with this genre: “I’m a fan myself. When these movies come out-good, bad or indifferent I’m there.”

Early Filmmaker/Pre-Empire Years 

The first film you’re credited with is Mansion of the Doomed, although you had done some earlier work in Italy with your father. How did you get Mansion of the Doomed together? Charles Band: “You know, I’ve made enough mistakes. I just jumped into it. I wanted to make my first movie. I wanted it to be a horror film. At the time, unrelated to the film business, I had a successful little gift item business. I was real young, I was 21, and even though I’d grown up on a movie set and apprenticed with my dad and certainly knew a lot about the craft of film-making, I had no business training – which I really regretted later in life. I was thinking: boy, if I could just have spent a few years in a business school I would have avoided a lot of pitfalls. But I certainly had all the energy and passion to make my first movie. Between my own money, and I brought in a few investors, we jumped into Mansion of the Doomed.

“It was originally called The Eyes of Dr Chaney. That was the title I would have preferred to release it as – this was years before The Eyes of Laura Mars – and it would have been kind of a cool title. But I learned the first of many lessons: when the picture was done I gave it to a distributor, got a very small advance, never saw another penny – or a report, for that matter. And that’s one of the great pitfalls of making small movies. Small distributors, even if they have good intentions, have nothing but problems. Usually they don’t pay the producers.

“Eventually if a producer or director is looking at being prolific and having some longevity in this business, they will realize that the only way to protect themselves is to do their own distribution, not give their baby away to someone who will do everything including putting a bad title on it. That was his title. There was a distributor called Group 1 who wanted to call it Mansion of the Doomed which, even back then, sounded terrible. At least The Eyes of Dr Chaney was a little classier.

“I put it together and at the time interesting people were involved. The editor was John Carpenter who was a friend at the time – and no-one knows that. Andy Davis who became a big-time director was the director of photography. Stan Winston, who was a very close friend, did the effects. And I forget who else, there are probably a few I’m forgetting. It was Lance Henriksen’s first movie. When I look back, it was an interesting group of people. I’m proud of the movie. It’s actually a well-made small movie, it’s classy, and it just suffers from the terrible title.”

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A few years before that was a film called Last Foxtrot in Burbank which has been obliterated from history. I’m guessing that’s one you’re not so proud of. Charles Band: “That’s obliterated for good reason! I was involved very peripherally. In some cases my name was attached or wasn’t attached. So somewhere in the mix I did have some involvement in the movie and I’m glad if it’s substantially erased because it was just something I helped someone out with and the next thing you know it somehow got stuck to me as a movie I made, which is not the case, nor did I direct it or anything. So the first real movie that I put my name on officially, that was my first genre film – I pulled in people who were friends – was: I want to say The Eyes of Dr Chaney but it really was released as Mansion of the Doomed.”

You then went straight into making a whole series of films: Crash and Cinderella and End of the World – that whole production line thing. It wasn’t a faltering start. Was the plan to make one movie and then immediately start making the next and so on. Charles Band: “That’s what I did. On those first seven or eight movies, unfortunately, I had no involvement with distribution and it was a miracle I survived that period because you don’t even really get enough money to get the next movie going. It’s just torture, and it’s still extremely difficult if you control distribution, and I can look at all the differences over 30 years. I can’t believe it’s been 30 years. And of course there have been some years when the video business was amazing and it really fuelled thousands of movies, most of which probably shouldn’t have been made, but nonetheless there were good years for people making small movies and bad years.

“But back then it was extremely difficult because there was no video, there was nothing. This was a theatrical world. You made a movie, it had to be on film, you had to cut a negative, you had to release it in theatres and try to make a few dollars. There were no ancillary markets. Home video didn’t really exist, of course the internet didn’t exist, there were really no television sales, maybe just a few local stations. That was in the days when these were truly B-movies; they would be the B-side of a double bill. They would get released theatrically and you just hoped a few dollars would be collected because they played at drive-ins and around the country. That was it, there was nothing else.

“The price of entry to the industry back then was steep. Because we weren’t in a digital world, there was no real cheap way of anyone getting in. No matter how many friends would work for free, you had to rent the equipment, you had to buy the film, you had to cut the negative, you had to make prints which were expensive back then and are still very expensive today. So whereas today a kid with some talent (or lack of) can buy a digital video camera and a computer and for literally a few thousand dollars make a little movie. If that person has some training and is talented it can actually look and feel like a movie. Those tools did not exist thirty years ago.”

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You worked with two of the horror greats during this period: John Carradine in Crash and Christopher Lee in End of the World. That must have been a thrill. Charles Band: “It was a thrill, absolutely, because I grew up watching all of their famous movies. It’s funny: you wish you could go back with a little more maturity and enjoy the moment. I was certainly excited and aware of the people I was working with – but I was in my early twenties and I could have done things a little differently. But just the fact that I worked with them. I worked with a lot of wonderful people.

“I also worked with people who, at the time, were just young actors or actresses who went on to become very famous. I guess I could make that point 20 different times. But to have worked with Christopher Lee and John Carradine, you’ve actually cited the only two – well, Richard Basehart was also a thrill. I loved his work and he was another fantastic actor. But when it comes to the genre of horror movies, working with Carradine and Christopher Lee was really amazing.”

Last Foxtrot in Burbank (1973) Cult director Charles Band brings you this “Last Tango in Paris” spoof with editing by acclaimed filmmaker John Carpenter.

Mansion of the Doomed (1975) Four ruthless escaped convicts looking for a safe place to hide out from the law with their terrified hostage stumble across an isolated hunting lodge, only to fall into the deadly grip of an ancient curse in a blood-spattered satanic shocker from filmmaker Olaf Ittenbach. From the outside it looked like the perfect hideaway. Once inside, however, a deadly secret that has festered for generations begins to awaken, and the devil-worshipping backwoods family emerges from the darkness to torture, maim, and murder anyone who crosses their path in the name of the Prince of Darkness. As the sun goes down and darkness rises, the evil of man will fill the night with the screams of the damned until the light of dawn.

Crash! (1976) After a woman is nearly killed in a car accident, a doctor investigates the collision, which points towards revenge, destruction and occult.

End of the World (1977) Prof. Andrew Boran (Kirk Scott) is a research scientist who discovers strange radio signals in space that appear to originate from the Earth. The signals seem to predict natural disasters occurring around the globe. When he and his wife (Sue Lyon) decide to investigate the source of the signals, they end up being held captive in a convent that’s been infiltrated by aliens. These invaders plan to destroy the world with the natural disasters. As the human, Father Pergado and alien leader Zindar (Christopher Lee) explain – the Earth is a hotbed of disease that cannot be permitted to continue polluting the galaxy.

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Cinderella (1977) An adaptation of the fairy tale, Cinderella traces the misadventures of our heroine, who, via the help of her “fairy” (i.e. gay) godmother, is granted heightened sexual prowess to win over Prince Charming. After a blindfolded orgy at the royal castle, the nerdy Prince must sleep with every willing woman in his kingdom until he finds that one, mysterious lover who so “stood out” on the night of the sex Ball.

Auditions (1978) American erotic pseudo-documentary directed by Harry Hurwitz (credited as Harry Tampa). It was written by Albert Band and Charles Band, and stars Bonnie Werchan, Rick Cassidy and Linnea Quigley. Hurwitz also appears in the film as the director, although he is not credited. The film follows the process of casting actors and actresses for a pornographic film. Although several actual porn stars are in the film, it does not depict any actual sexual acts. It was remade in 1999 as Auditions from Beyond.

During the week of March 15, 1978, an ad appeared in the Hollywood Variety that the producers of films Cinderella (1977) and Fairy Tales (1979) were on the talent search for their new motion picture Fairytales Part II. They were looking for “the world’s sexiest woman” for the role of Sleeping Beauty, “the world’s sexiest man for the co-starring role of Prince Charming and “the world’s most unusual act or personality”. Two sets were constructed in a Hollywood studio: a medieval dungeon and a French boudoir. Across from these sets was a mirrored wall behind which cameras and sound equipment was concealed. Hundreds of people responded to the advertisement and on March 25 the two days of auditions began.

The Primevals (1978-1989) Part One DEVELOPMENT/BACKSTORY Hollywood is a strange microcosm of phenomenal flukes and broken dreams, peopled by filmmakers young and old who take years developing pet projects which never get off the ground due to economic factors or a lack of enthusiasm on the part of producers. Drastic compromises are imposed on the artist by the powers that be until he’s forced to toil somewhere in the middle of the road, a world of low budgets and technical limitations. On the other dark side of the coin, a work often gets produced but fails to pump adrenaline into the hearts and souls of distributors, and what we have left is an orphan in a storm. For the stop motion animator and special effects artist, this dilemma is usually a stark reality, with no alms given for talent or concept. Prejudice against animation never helped matters much: surrealistic conflicts between real beings and the chimeras of stop motion netherworlds are sadly aborted, pieces of dreams that evaporate into the stratosphere and just maybe, by some fluke, condense and precipitate on a Hollywood sound stage or in someone’s converted garage.

The Attack of the River Lizard A pre-production sketch by Randy Cook of a special effects sequence in THE PRIMEVALS, based on an original script written by Cook and David Allen. Allen designed the River Lizard, one of numerous stop-motion creatures to appear in the film. The River Lizard animation model

THE PRIMEVALS is a ten year-old dream come true for thirty-three year-old animator David Allen. Without trying to toot his own horn too loudly, Allen sums up his feelings toward the awesome task that still lies mostly before him: “There’s not anything in THE PRIMEVALS that is all that revolutionary: a few of the concepts maybe. The style is the thing. I don’t have all that much experience, admittedly. And twenty years from now I might wish I had some simpler film to cut my teeth on. But I think the personality of this picture will really triumph over any possible shortcomings.

Now under the auspices of executive producer Charles Band who is finally gearing up for an ambitious, higher-budgeted product, THE PRIMEVALS becomes a reality and promises to be a big prestige adventure-fantasy film for 1980. The blow-by-blow account of how all this came about is something of a saga in itself and an object lesson, perhaps, for would-be animators and filmmakers who lean towards a more idealistic conception of the ways of Hollywood rather than a pragmatic one.

In 1975, a young actor-filmmaker and former artist at Disney’s named Randy Cook came into the picture. Randy had been approached by an independent producer on the East coast who asked him if he’d be interested in directing a film. In order for the producer to get some money together, he needed a property. “I didn’t know Randy very well then,” remembers Allen, “but he knew about RAIDERS OF THE STONE RING (never produced). He called me up and expressed his interest in the project. I briefly explained what had happened to the property over the years and that I felt the old script was no longer workable. I told Randy I had a very brief synopsis for a new story, but that it needed fleshing out. He suggested that we both put our heads together and write up a complete synopsis for presentation and approval. After two or three months, we had it down on paper, but around the time we were winding up, we heard that this producer had been thrown in jail! In any case, I was happy to get the treatment into presentable condition. Then, more or less on our own, we decided to continue working on it even though we had nowhere to turn, hoping that something might come up. We did a lot of further collaborating based on the treatment, producing a first draft script. That, in fact, is the script we have for THE PRIMEVALS now, although I am constantly rewriting and improving it.”

Randy Cook’s sketch of the Hominid man-apes, which play a key role in the plot of THE PRIMEVALS, which spans from the prehistory of mankind to our future destiny. Left: Cook sculpts the Hominid makeup. The Hominids will be played primarily by actors in suits, although stop-motion Hominids are required for certain special effects sequences.

Makeup artist Steven Neill provided the final link in the long chain of events by attracting producer Charles Band’s interest in THE PRIMEVALS. Neill recommended Allen to Band for the stop-motion work required in Laserblast (1978), which Band had in production at the time. As an example of his work, Allen dug out his footage on the RAIDERS OF THE STONE RING presentation reel, which he had begun revamping in 1976. “I went way, way back into the old stuff and shot a few inserts just to round out a couple of effects shots.” Neill made the reel available to Charles Band, and Allen got the job on LASERBLAST. In fact, Band wanted to use the presentation reel’s lizard man for his own film, an idea nixed by Allen who wanted to save the model for his own project. When work on LASERBLAST was complete, Allen managed to get THE PRIMEVALS script on Band’s desk, and suddenly the project was no longer a pipedream.

Financed by Charles Band Productions, pre-production work on THE PRIMEVALS is in full gear, and the budget is promising to spiral well over the million dollar bracket. David Allen has assembled a talented corps of artists, many with whom he has had long-term affiliations. Among them are Phil Tippett who is busy casting models; Dave Carson, noted illustrator known for his Ray Harryhausen Portfolio, who is serving as art director; Ken Ralston, whose prior work at Cascade and photographic background are assets to the production; Tom St. Amand, a skillful model and armature builder; Robin Loudon, Allen’s production assistant; Randy Cook, assistant animator, writer and sculptor; Dave Stipes, and Dennis Gordon, miniature makers; and Jena Holman, the matte painter on the show.

The most intriguing aspect of THE PRIMEVALS’ effects work is the fact that Charles Band has requested the picture be done in Panavision. While this might sound benign to the layman, it complicates the old Dynamation technique quite a bit. Panavision, being an anamorphic system, is basically a “wide-angling” field of view process.

In a sense, THE PRIMEVALS will face the same problems Ray Harryhausen encountered on First Men in the Moon (1964). Matte shots still have the quality of looking less virgin than the footage which is not composited, but the mattes will look better in quality than the composites achieved by using miniature rear projection. “The same degradation ratio is there,” says Allen, “it’s just on a higher plane. This kind of work can seldom be absolutely perfect. When you’ll see a cut to an effects shot in THE PRIMEVALS, it’s no doubt still going to have a different characteristic. I’m trying to create a film in which that’s not going to be fatal.

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“I’m no magician,” Allen continues. “Ray Harryhausen is an excellent magician. I think that’s one of the problems with Ray’s movies we keep going back to his tent to see the same act. It’s a different lady that gets in the box that gets sawed in half, but it’s still the same trick. It’s bound to start wearing a little thin. Harryhausen and Schncer imply these darkly secret and political rationalizations for the way their films have to be. Although I have a great respect and admiration for many of their efforts, I just don’t see it as they do. Because they’re part of the establishment, they elect to proceed in orthodox ways, to keep the system lubricated. I am hopeful I can avoid those obligations and any of those concerns and do only what’s right for the project.

“I’m sure the long shadow of Ray Harryhausen will leave its mark not only on THE PRIMEVALS but my entire career, just as he works in the shadow of Willis O’Brien. I’m just trying to take the good and add something to it. And I’m attempting to make a well-rounded film for a lot less money than Schneer spends, to show others and myself that an undertaking such as THE PRIMEVALS can combine this kind of work and also have real film values.”

To reveal the storyline of THE PRIMEVALS at this time would be counterproductive. What can be said, so as not to leave the reader totally out in the twilight zone, is that it delves into an extraordinary aspect of evolution, territory that no filmmaker has trespassed to date. In a sense, it deals with moral concepts right and wrong, good and evil-in a manner that is not abstract or superficial. “I’m trying to give it some stature,” says Allen, “trying to make it more worthwhile than 95% of what we’ve been seeing.” While certain stock ideas established in the original RAIDERS OF THE STONE RING script and other works of the genre are largely intact-lost civilizations, surrealistic locales, anachronistic conflicts, etc. the film will be more on the level of FIVE MILLION YEARS TO EARTH. Allen stresses the need for more gray matter in the standard adventure-fantasy film format. “I’m not looking for the excellence of THE PRIMEVALS to lay strictly in its special effects.

That’s my specialty and my handle on the entire project, the reason why I have the credibility and bankability to do it. But if people are talking about this film twenty years from now, I hope it won’t be simply because of the animation.”

As far as directing is concerned, David Allen will be doing most of the honors with Randy Cook doing some sequences. Although Allen readily admits his directorial inexperience as far as feature films are concerned, he feels confident enough to tackle it. Moreover, he recognizes the danger inherent in bringing in someone from the Guild. “If you get a well-known director,” Allen points out, “he’s going to want to meddle with it in order to serve his own interests. I don’t want that kind of problem. As a director, I’m likely to be a bit straight but I think the film will benefit from being shot in a ‘classic’ manner. I’m not intimidated directing it. I think that what I may lack in directorial technique I will make up for in the feeling of what I know the script needs in order for it to work, which is something a journeyman director would not know. I think we’ve seen that enough times in the past.”

Executive producer Charles Band sees it all as an extreme departure from his usual low-budget programmers, but a solid project. In David Allen, Band has found the dedicated artist with the kind of knowhow and integrity it takes to pull-off a film like THE PRIMEVALS. Interestingly, the relationship is not unlike that which developed between Ray Harryhausen and producer Charles H. Schneer back in 1957 when The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958) began production. “It’s really the most exciting project that I’ve ever been involved with,” says Band. “I’m used to shooting a film and having it ready in 120 days from inception to execution. With THE PRIMEVALS, we’re talking about a year and a half! The use of Panavision was my idea. It’s really a spectacle of sorts, and I felt that the wide-screen look is meaningful for the show. We took on a lot of trouble for the sake of Panavision, not so much in the principal photography, but in terms of special effects work. It’s something that really hasn’t been done before when you consider the amount of animation going into it.

“The budget promises to spiral into the $2 million bracket,” says Band proudly. “We’re talking about the possibility of going on location in the Himalayas for some sequences. But a good chunk of the budget will either directly or indirectly go toward the special effects. We’re not going to cheat this one out of anything!”

“It’ll be one of those films that when you come out of the theatre, you’ll say to yourself: ‘Of course, of course this picture. Why hasn’t it happened before now?”

Fairy Tales (1979) On his twenty-first birthday, a prince is approached by his father (the king) and other courtiers. They present him a girl as birthday gift. The king asks him to enjoy sexual life and to produce the next heir. However, the prince experiences erectile dysfunction and is unable to perform sexually. He discovers that his sexual attraction is focused towards a long forgotten princess whose picture is hanging on the wall. He goes in search of this princess, and encounters many people along the way. Ultimately, he finds the princess and is able to perform sexually with her.

From the fans’ point of view, your business model seems to be based to some extent on Roger Corman’s. Is that true to any extent? Charles Band: “I guess to some degree. I don’t really think that way. I know I’m compared to Corman just because I’ve made almost 300 movies and he’s made twice that.”

I was going through some old trade mags and found the Screen International Product Guide from the 1986 AFM. Empire had 32 full-page ads. It looks like it had got out of hand. Charles Band: “For a few short years we were second only to Canon because sometimes it seemed like they bought the whole magazine! I think it did and I’d love to go back and do things differently. I have only myself to blame. I, ultimately, was the one who made the decisions – but you have partners, you have investors, you have advisors, suddenly you’ve got a few hundred people working for you. And I have no formal business training, I just wanted to make movies and I should have stuck to that. I could now write a book about it, I could certainly point out things and say why I wouldn’t do that again, but back at the time these ideas and proposals made sense. They made sense short term, they never made sense long term.”

Laserblast (1978) Retrospective

Tourist Trap (1979) Retrospective

The Day Time Ended (1980) Retrospective

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    The History of Empire Films Part One "In 1977, from being a film collector and videotape guy, which at that time was a very small club,” said Band, “I recognized there was something very wonderful about having even a bad print of a movie for screening in the privacy of your own home.

[rosewoodlliars]

PLL UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

(Not in any particular order) 1. CeCe claims that she wasn't the one to talk to Melissa (even though she told Emily that she talked to her to get the tapes and we saw a flashback) and that it was Bethany. So how is Melissa and Bethany talking if they don't know each other and how did Jason know what Bethany looked like to mistake her for being CeCe? 2. The rooftop incident is one of the biggest plot holes from 6x10. First of all, why would a institution let patients on a rooftop WITHOUT supervision? No hospital does that. And how is Charles 12 years old when Marion died in 2007?yes I know you wanna kiss me. 3. Why did it say "prom queen" in the yearbook if cece didn't go to school at rosewood high? Just sit on down so we can take your picture even though you don't go to school here. 4. What was the point of bringing up that Mrs. D and Mr. Young (Bethany's dad) had an affair if it's never not going to be addressed again? Further more, who the fuck are Bethany's parents and why did Mrs. D tell Bethany to call her "aunt Jessie"? Also we didn't see Bethany's face only when she was a child... 5. What does Sara Harvey have against Hanna? I recall seeing redcoat burning Hanna's doll head off... 6. How did CeCe become an expert in the medical field? 7. Apparently CeCe found out that Ali was alive in 3x24 but yet weren't Noel and CeCe helping Alison the whole time? I can't remember if it was an assumption since Ali helped CeCe escape to Paris and we assumed it was because Cece helped Ali stay in hiding, too. So if someone can explain that to me that would be great. 8. Marlene confirmed in via interview that CeCe buried Mrs D so CeCe is just going to send a video of burying her mom and send it Alison even though she claimed that she loved her? but now we're being told that Mary might been the one to bury her.... well what the fuck. 9. What the fuck happened to Eddie lamb? 10. Why did A need a tux rental if it was CeCe and Sara? 11. So did CeCe turn herself in at the end of 4x23? Or did someone else turn her in? It's a plot hole until explained. 12. Why would CeCe dress as a male in the dollhouse if she identifies herself as female now? No one that is transgender wouldn't do that because it would remind them of their past. You can say that she did it to make the girls think it's a guy or whatever but a trans person wouldn't do that. 13. In 6x06 Mona said that Leslie said that two patients snuck out that night CHARLES and Bethany, who the fuck is Charles? That would've been Charlotte by then. 14. Why did Barry help CeCe escape? 15. If Jessica was protecting CeCe, then why bother telling the girls that she didn’t want Ali and CeCe spending time together. If she was protecting CeCe, why cast any suspicious light on her at all? 16. Why didn't Mrs. D show any emotion to CeCe being arrested? She just starred at her... 17. If she was a patient at Radley while attending U Penn, then how in the hell did she have a room mate when she went to U Penn? If the room mate was just a person she hired, then why have her tell the girls that she blamed them and Ali for her getting kicked out of U Penn. 18. Why did Wren make CeCe a visitors badge? 19. How was CeCe allowed to go to cape may if she was in radley? They're not going to let you out for summer trips.... 20. Spencer said she felt something familiar about the guy in the dollhouse, now before y'all say that it's because CeCe and Spencer are sisters, this wasn't planned back then and CeCe and Spencer barely had any interaction with each other. So how is the person going to feel familiar to you if you barely know them? 21. "One of you have been touch by the one Alison fears the most." We can all assume that it was because Aria touched CeCe when she was about to fall in 4x12 but Alison never feared CeCe and I just don't think so.... 22. Why are the girls irrelevant to the mystery and are just being tortured for fun 23. Why was Mary at the blind school in 7x10? 24. Who was the blond girl in the window of Alison's bedroom in 1x01? 25. When and where did CeCe and Sara meet? 26. Why did Sara help CeCe and what were her motives? 27. Marlene confirmed in via interview that Ian killed himself, okay why? 28. What was Alison talking about in 4x24 that she saw Ian walk out of the church after pushing him off? I recall Ian looking colorless on that rope.... 29. Who was the person in 5x03 that was behind the glass with Mona while Hanna is getting her hair done? 30. Who the person in the black cap talking to Melissa on the security footage in 5x07? 31. Why would CeCe frame her sister for murder if she loved her so much? 32. Why would CeCe toss her fucking brother down an elevator shaft? "Oh Charlotte was angry." Confirmed in via interview. um okay we need better answers than that marlene.... 33. Who was the blond girl at the reptile place in 4x20? With our luck they're probably going to say it was Sara... 34. Who exactly knew that Alison was alive? Because it seemed like a lot of people knew.... 35. Who dug up Alison's grave? Who exactly was there that night? You could say it was CeCe but it never came out of her mouth that she did it. 36. How did Maya die? Is she really dead? Why didn't we get any closure? Lyndon was the one who supposedly killed her but yet he had no relevance to the story... and he didn't even confirm that he killed her. "What do you think?" Isn't confirmation. 37. Was Melissa really the other queen of hearts? We didn't see her. 38. Who gave Ali the bloody lip? 39. Why was Noel helping CeCe in the dollhouse? What did CeCe have on him? 40. What is Melissa's significance to the story? Why did Melissa take that photo of Wilden, Alison, and CeCe on the boat at cape may? 41. Why didn't Eddie and Wren not like each other that much? "The minute that guy got here it wasn't for the right reasons." well what the fuck. 42. Who did Mona, Jenna, and Sydney meet at the park in 5x05? 43. Who was Wren talking to on the phone in 4x10? Why did he want 44. Was Bethany really the one who was writing to Alison or was it it CeCe? 45. Marlene said black widow was Endgame so is Sara Harvey endgame? 46. Why did Melissa want the NAT club videos so bad? 47. What were on the NAT club videos and what happened to them? 48. WHAT HAPPENED TO VARJACK? 49. What happened to Cyrus? 50. Why were 3 people wearing yellow tops that night? 51. What did Maya know? That Nate was in town? Because Nate isn't relevant to the story 52. Why did Jason have stab wound on his side? 53. Who did Aria stab with the screwdriver? 54. Marlene confirmed in via interview that Wilden was acting alone but yet we heard two voices talking? 55. Who did Spencer hear scream in 1x01? 56. Who was the person in the black hoodie that Mona gave the pills to in 3x13? 57. Who hit Toby over the head that night and planted that lighter? 58. Jenna said that Wilden saw Alison that night, how come Alison never mentioned this when she came back? Was Jenna lying? 59. Why were Melissa and Ian in such a rush to get married? What did they need the alibi for? 60. What blond girl was Dr. Palmer talking about? 61. Why are there two different versions of the kissing rock video? 62. Who the fuck is Dr. Sullivan's son? Mona was apparently threatening him in 2x25. 63. Why was Andrew being adopted brought up in the first place if it's just going to be dropped? 64. Why were Jenna and Shana afraid of Melissa? 65. Why does 214 keep being brought up and what's the significance of it? 66. Since it has been "confirmed" that Noel pushed the girl down the steps at the frat party, why did cece's roommate say that Alison was the one to push the girl down the steps which resulted in getting cece kicked out? 67. What did Jenna give Shana at the park in 2x24? 68. Who did Jason give the 50,000 dollars to? And what kind of information did they give him in order for him to give them the money? 69. Why did Mona tell Wren "that's before I knew where your loyalties lie."? 70. Who attacked Alison on Halloween? We were led to believe that it was Lucas but it was never confirmed. 71. Who opened the door to that creepy house in 2x13? And why was there a radley car outside of the house? 72. What was the significance of the ghost girl and how come only Ashley saw her? 73. Who was the person in the redcoat Wren was coloring in? 74. What led Ezra to believe that Mrs. D was A? 75. What happened at Ali's house when Alison came over to Spencer's house. crying? 76. Who was that little boy at the doll shop referring to when he said "a man and woman with dark hair?" 77. Why did Mike have 18,000 followers in his bank account? 78. So Shana's death was just forgotten about? 79. Where was Jason when he was suppose to be at rehab? 80. Did Cyrus really cut Alison's leg? And if not where did it come from? 81. Why would Alison take pictures of Aria while sleeping? 82. Why did Melissa and Alison have masks made of themselves? 83. Who did Alison get in the car with outside of hectors? 84. What did the lawyer in 5x22 tell Ezra? He basically said that "If you don't tell me then you can tell the police." but yet he came out and said he wouldn't tell him anything? What? 85. Who set up the A bullshit at the park in 5x01? 86. Who was the guy that knew Emily's name? 87. What was up with the bloody bandages in Jason's trash? 88. Why was Holbrook kissing Alison at the ice ball? 89. Why was CeCe on Ezra's payroll? 90. Why was CeCe eavesdropping on aria and Ezra in 4x11? 91. What the fuck happened to Pepe and Tippy? 92. Why was Alison blackmailing people for money if she wasn't planning on running away? 93. Who was Ali's friends boyfriend that pulled the gun on her? 94. How is CeCe hanging out at a pub where Ezra and Ali met if she was suppose to be at radley? 95. What was Grunwald talking about when she said "Each one hated the other because each one feared the other because each one knew something about the other."? 96. Who was hiding upstairs in the dilaurentis house? 97. Who was living under the crawlspace at the dilaurentis house? Was it Sara or CeCe? 98. Who was Bethany talking about on the tapes? 99. Why are there quotation marks around the word "Dr." Kingston on the police board? 100. How did Alison’s ‘Jenna Thing’ bracelet get on Bethany’s body if she left it with Mona at the Lost Woods Resort? 101. What is the ‘plan’ Bethany is talking about on the tape? 102. Was the story Mona told Spencer about her seeing Alison as Vivian in Brookhaven in 2x25 true? Or did she just make it up? If it was true, who was Alison watching? 103. What was on page 5 of Alison’s autopsy report? 104. Who took the photo of Alison and the Liars in 4x13 that was given to Holbrook? 105. Who took the photograph of Alison with Spencer’s shadow in the background the night she disappeared? 106. Is Alison’s ghost story about the twins real? If so, who are the twins? 107. Why would CeCe let the Liars think Ali was A? She said she was mad at the liars for being glad that Ali was dead, but she actively let them hate her. 108. Why did Bethany have Melissa’s riding helmet? 109. Why did Melissa say she saw Toby in London when she didn’t? 110. Why did Wren misspell the word "diagnosis"? Well that's it. At least that's all I put down... let's see how all (or at least half) this is answered within the next 3 episodes. WE NEVER GOT CONFIRMED ANSWERS FOR THESE.

[raeofalbion]

Bajillion Questions Meme

I see you, @littleblue-eyedbird trying to find out all my secrets and critical hit points. I’m literally the most boring person in the world and it’s so sweet of you to keep tagging me, omg.

Rules: Answer all questions, add one question of your own and tag as many people as there are questions! 1. Coke or Pepsi: Both? Both. 2. Disney or DreamWorks: My friends...it embarrasses me to admit this, but I haven’t seen an animated movie that wasn’t anime in years. I just don’t even know. 3. Coffee or Tea: BOTH! Mainly tea, though. 4. Books or Movies: Books! 5. Windows or Mac: Windows. 6. DC or Marvel: DC. I never really had a chance to get into Marvel. 7. Xbox or Playstation: OKAY. So, here’s the thing...I hate both Sony and Microsoft. But I actually like both of those consoles? I tend to favor Xbox, though, cuz it has 99% of my favorite games on it. 8. Dragon Age or Mass Effect: Dragon Age 9. Night Owl or Early Rise: Night owl. Please don’t attempt to wake me, apparently I argue with people in my sleep. 10. Cards or Chess: Both? Maybe more cards than chess. 11. Chocolate or Vanilla: Chocolate 12. Vans or Converse: I wear combat boots everywhere...but both are nice. I think I have a couple pairs of Batman-themed Converse that I’m saving for an appropriate occasion. 13. Lavellan, Trevelyan, Cadash or Adaar: Lavellan 14. Fluff or Angst: BOTH AT THE SAME TIME Why can’t I write fluff??? -sobs- 16. Dogs or Cats: Better question is why choose? Why not cuddle both and sneeze from twice as many allergies? 17. Clear Skies or Rain: Rain. Thunderstorms scared me for years, but they’re pretty common here (if we get a storm, that is) so now I’m just like “yes, good, more rain please”. 18.Cooking or Eating Out: Depends on how lazy/inspired I am. Also how broke I am. 19. Spicy Food or Mild Food: SPICY 20. Halloween/Samhain or Solstice/Yule/Chirstmas: Halloween/Samhain all year round! 21. Would you rather forever be a little too cold or a little too hot: I get sick from everything heat really easily, so I’d honestly rather be too cold. Can always put on another sweater. 22. If you could have a superpower, what would it be: Something that would let me borrow other people’s powers, even if they were dormant, just so I could try them all. 23. Animation or Live Action: Depends on the show/movie. Both have their perks. 24. Paragon or Renegade: I’ve never played Mass Effect. =( But, judging by how I play through other games, Paragon 25. Baths or Showers: Baths. If I never had to get out, I’d be perfectly fine with that as long as the water stayed warm. 26. Team Cap or Team Iron Man: Neither? Guy who plays Stark is pretty hot, though. 27. Fantasy or Sci-fi: Both? 28. Do you have three or four favorite quotes? If so, what are they?

“We're all gonna die. The only question is when. This is as good a place as any to take your first steps to heaven. The only question is how you check out. Do you want it on your feet, or on your fucking knees... begging?! I ain't much for begging! Nobody ever gave me nothing! So I say fuck that thing! Let's fight it!” - Dillon, Alien 3

“Some grief is too great, even Death may keep it’s distance.“ - Theresa, Fable II

“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.” - H.P. Lovecraft

Not a quote, but I want to quote a specific bit from Dorian Gray and it’s too long. OTL (Maybe if someone actually wants to read it, I’ll post it?) Also wanna quote Edgar Allan Poe and Charles Baudelaire, but there’s too many options, so just know my fourth quote would have been something from those.

29. YouTube or Netflix: Both are nice, though YouTube is somewhat less so. 30. Harry Potter or Percy Jackson: Harry Potter 31. When Do You Feel Accomplished: When I actually get something finished. The other day I completed my third long fic and am still having happy “I did something” feels. Also when I get reviews. 32. Star Wars or Star Trek: BOTH 33. Paperback Books or Hardback Books: Hmm...I like hardback books, but paperbacks are nice, too 34. Handwriting or Typing: Depends on what I’m writing, tbh. 35. Velvet or Satin: ...what is the fabric for, because that’s really gonna change my answer here. 36. Video Games or Movies: Video games. 37. Would you rather be the dragon or own the dragon: Why can’t I be a dragon that owns a dragon? 38. Sunrise or Sunset: Both <3 39. What’s your favorite song: Why are you tormenting me like this? Why make me choose? (I have been pretty obsessed with Prismo’s Neverland lately, though. Also Vancouver Sleep Clinic’s Stakes.) 40. Horror Movies, yes or no: I wanna say yes, but I also want to sleep when I can. 41. Long or Short Hair: Long 42. Opera or Theatre: Theatre 43. Assuming the multiverse theory is true and that every story ever told has really happened somewhere, which one of the movie/book/tv show/game/etc worlds would you pick to travel to first: -throws self into Fable, burrows into the soil, and never leaves- 44. If you had to eat only one thing for the rest of your life what would it be: I’m tempted to say pizza, but definitely soup! I can eat soup nonstop. Alternately, eel sushi...which is my absolute favorite food. You now know my ultimate weakness. 45. Older guys or young guys: I see your question and I’m gonna raise you with sass master partners. 46. If you could erase any show from TV history, what would it be: I...don’t...know...? I don’t really watch tv? 47. Singing or Dancing: Singing. Loudly. When no one’s watching me. I used to sing in talent shows? And it was terrifying. Now I just kinda sing nonstop when no one’s around. 48. Instagram or Twitter: Twitter, though I’m not around much anymore. 49. Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit: I only ever really got into the Hobbit book? But I liked all the movies for both. They were fun. 50. If you could create either a sequel or bring back any tv show/movie, what would you choose: A sequel for the original Teen Titans cartoons, alternately...another Riddick movie or a sequel to Labyrith...though that might feel weird with Mr. Bowie not...well.... 51. Who is your movie/tv show character that you are looking up to and why? I’m kinda struggling with this one. I relate to more game characters, tbh? But if I had to pick...probably Ellen Ripley. I first saw the Alien movies when I was very, very smol, but Ripley made a huge impact on me? She showed that you can be strong and vulnerable and survive everything that comes your way as long as you’re determined enough and it was really a lesson I needed at the time and still need on occasion. 52. If you were ever convicted of a crime, what would it be? -innocently pushes legal record out of view- Either protesting or getting into a fight because someone was in trouble and I wanted to help them. Also wandering into a place I’m not supposed to be in because I was reading and not paying attention because that’s basically what happened. 53. Anime- subbed or dubbed? Depends on the cast. 54. City or countryside? Both have their perks??? 55. What book have you read over and over? Harry Potter. I read them so many times I just can’t anymore. Which is a shame because I miss them. Also, the Forbidden Game series by LJ Smith...which sounds like a cheap smutty romance, but it’s actually about a shadow demon abducting a group of teenagers into another realm and tormenting them with their worst nightmares until dawn. There’s also a bit of romance. But, yeah, my beloveds I read too much and can no longer read, though I wish I could. Also, shout out to Tom Becker’s Darkside series which I’m on my...4th read through? Discounting all the times I read the first two books? And I’m trying desperately not to burn myself out on. 56. What is your personality type? INTP

My question: 57: What’s your go to comfort item?

There is just about one less question than I currently have followers, so anyone who wants to do this? Y’all can do it. ^^

[wp-yahoo-style-1042-yahoopa-blog]

Designer Is Calling For Shoppers to Boycott Forever 21

Designer Charles Smith II recently accused Forever 21 of ripping off his work, and he’s calling for a boycott. (Photo: Action Press)

Fast fashion retailer Forever 21 regularly faces copyright accusations. One Dallas-based designer wants to do something about that, because he is one of the many creatives who believes he has been ripped off by the retailer.

Charles Smith II, the creative director of high-end label Smith II and S2 by Smith II, first noticed that a bralette designed by Forever 21 looked strikingly similar to one of his Do Not Touch designs after model Rose Acosta posted a video of herself wearing the garment on Instagram. 

I love working out and eating well but as women we all are prone to cellulite and stretch marks. @vannabelt reached out to offer me her products and I decided to give them a chance and I LOVE THEM! Nothing wrong with a little help!!! They help take your fitness game to the next level! Keep your curves looking smooth and tone with @vannabelt Ps: the gloves feels amazing ????

A post shared by Rosa Acosta (@rosaacosta) on Mar 3, 2017 at 12:21pm PST

The $3.99 Forever 21 seamless bralette featured the phrase “Do Not Touch,” which is the name of one of Smith’s collections. Smith’s Do Not Touch concept was inspired by three things — police injustice, the personal space and boundaries of a woman, and the phrase as it relates to art in a museum.

Smith tells Yahoo Style that friends and colleagues began sending him direct messages about the Forever 21 bralette, mistaking it for his own design. 

Fed up with the retailer ripping off independent designers, Smith posted a photo comparing his products featuring the phrase with Forever 21’s bralette. He also included a lengthy note slamming the retailer in the post.

I was going to keep silent about this and handle it legally but fuck that, @forever21 is a giant corporation that gets over on creating cheaply made designs made out of cheap ass Fabric that in a spin cycle of one wash is over before you even dry it. This fuck company ripped off a concept that I incepted January of 2016, as a designer I research every detail of design or concept that I plan to squeeze throughout the collections I create in variations, @donottouchs2 was was a simple idea that went untapped in both commercial & high fashion and I can honestly say and you can Google "Do Not Touch Fashions" and my shit pops up first. Do Not Touch has helped create scholarship funds for kids in a public school system that was built for them to fail and I created and came up with this collection not only to express but to create positive change through the platform I have in the little way that I can, so when giant companies such as @forever21 blantantly steal your ideas and not ask nor compensate you and let alone steal an idea that also belongs to the youth of our public schools, your not only taking money out of my families mouth but you are also taking dreams away from these kids and your taking money out of there pocket which goes to helping there transition into the next great phase of there lives. So @forever21 I know you think your untouchable you seriously have fucked with the wrong nigga, your lack of common decency shows you don't respect young creatives who are trying to accomplish there dreams with our ideas, and sense you lack decency I also will do what I have to do to make you respect me and every other designer you have stolen ideas that you couldn't incept on your own from. @vidakush @asherahswimwear @kimikouture let's stand together and not let these giant companies or fake websites and IG profiles continue to theft our hard working ideas. #OurIdeasAreWorthSomething

A post shared by Charles Smith II (@smiththe2nd) on Mar 5, 2017 at 3:58pm PST

“I was going to keep silent about this and handle it legally but f*** that, @forever21 is a giant corporation that gets over on creating cheaply made designs made out of cheap ass fabric that in a spin cycle of one wash is over before you even dry it,” he wrote in the caption.

Smith also detailed the amount of research he did before conceptualizing the Do Not Touch design he believes Forever 21 ripped off. He explained to Yahoo Style that he checked out all of major fast fashion retailers before the collection was launched in January of 2016 to ensure his design was authentic.

“As a designer I research every detail of design or concept that I plan to squeeze throughout the collections I create in variations, @donottouchs2 was a simple idea that went untapped in both commercial & high fashion and I can honestly say and you can Google ‘Do Not Touch Fashions’ and my s*** pops up first,” he wrote in his Instagram post.

Smith added that there’s a meaningful reason behind his the Do Not Touch collection, which also compelled him to speak out against the retailer.

“Do Not Touch has helped create scholarship funds for kids in a public school system that was built for them to fail, and I created and came up with this collection not only to express but to create positive change through the platform I have in the little way that I can,” he wrote. “When giant companies such as @forever21 blatantly steal your ideas and not ask nor compensate you — and let alone steal an idea that also belongs to the youth of our public schools — you’re not only taking money out of my [family’s] mouth, but you are also taking dreams away from these kids and your taking money out of [their] pocket, which goes to helping [their] transition into the next great phase of [their] lives.”

Proceeds from items in his Do Not Touch collection — including hats and shirts, as well as a percentage of ticket sale profits from his runway shows — directly fund the scholarships for high school graduates moving on to creative art institutions within the Dallas Independent School District. The brand has already raised $9,000 for the scholarships.

RESTOCK Now Available at: ➖www.smiththesecond.com➖[Link in bio] [[Including @smiththe2nd A/W17 "DELMAR" Runway Presentation Ticket Admission]] @donottouchs2 Dad Hats benefiting D.I.S.D and St. Louis Public Schools for high school graduates moving onto creative art institutions. [FREE SHIPPING]

A post shared by S2 by SMITH II (@donottouchs2) on Feb 12, 2017 at 11:59am PST

Smith says knocking off other designers work has been an issue with Forever 21 for a number of years. “You can’t keep stealing ideas from emerging designers and creatives and get away with it,” he tells Yahoo Style. “They’re deliberately doing it.”

Even though Forever 21 has removed the product from its website, Smith shared that he cares more about the noise he is making about the issue than a potential payoff from the retailer.

“Any other designer is being paid off with a settlement or a gag order, but they can’t say anything after they pay them off,” he says. “Designers don’t really speak out in a sense to fight for this. Even if they gave me a settlement, I’m not even going to take that. It’s not even about the money.”

Smith is urging other designers and creatives to band with him against Forever 21. “This isn’t the first time they’ve done this,” he tells Yahoo Style. “They do it all the time, but somebody has got to be the one that stands up for all of us.” The designer added the hashtag #boycottforever21 to a followup post on the matter.

The designer does plan to take legal action. We have reached out to Forever 21 about the matter and will update you when we hear back.

Read more from Yahoo Style + Beauty:

Melania Trump Denies Reports About the First Couple’s Sleeping Arrangements

Ivanka Trump Just Hired a Hollywood Stylist

White House in Color: Footage from the 1930’s Has Resurfaced

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. For Twitter updates, follow @YahooStyle and @YahooBeauty.

[orbemnews]

Remembering the Freedom Riders and their impact on the Civil Rights Movement Remembering the Freedom Riders and their impact on the Civil Rights Movement Three stories on the impact that the Freedom Riders had in the Civil Rights Era Updated: 12:54 PM CST Feb 25, 2021 Hide Transcript Show Transcript every time I went away to tell them we don’t serve colored folks here, they would ignore that, and they kept on sitting at accent for coffee. I never did hear them, actually, nothing else but coffee. I remember watching the evening news. I will see dogs biting individuals I saw individuals being spent on. I saw individuals being beaten and I couldn’t understand why. But I keep hearing these words. Freedom Riders, When I got off, went over to the phone booth, a pickup truck. White men pull up at the little bus station. They literally dragged Frank and the three girls out, put them in the back of the truck and drove off. And I knew if they found me, it would have been another luncheon. That night, in 1961 a group of civil rights activist participated in freedom rides across the South. While on these freedom rides, they attempted to test the enforcement of the Supreme Court’s decision in Boynton v. Virginia. The activists would protest by writing the bus across states where Jim Crow laws were still being enforced and attempt to use whites only restrooms, waiting rooms and lunch counters. Hezekiah Watkins was 13 years old when freedom writers came to Jackson, Mississippi, in 1961 Watkins wanted to join in protest, but it nearly cost him everything, including his life. 73 year old Hezekiah Watkins now spends his days working at the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum on Lee. He’s not just an employee, he’s a part of history. And so you grew up in the midst of the civil rights movement. What do you remember most about that time? Well, I remember watching the the evening me. I will see dogs biting individuals I saw individuals being spent on. I saw individuals being beaten and I couldn’t understand why. But I keep hearing this these words Freedom Riders, The Freedom Riders traveled throughout the South, protesting segregation and Jim Crow laws. In 1961. They came to Jackson Watkins just 13 at the time. Disobeyed his mother by going to see the peaceful protests on Lee to be arrested and sent to prison. They didn’t give you any charges. They didn’t give you any explanation. Nothing. When I got there, they didn’t actually nothing. It took me directly to a cell. I said I haven’t done anything. Oh, yeah, you’ve done something. You wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t done anything. Uh, they give you a date. A date for heart there. Did they kill your date to kill you? At just 13 years old, Watkins was put on death row after five days in prison. He says Mississippi’s governor, Ross Barnett, ordered his release. From that moment on, he spent his life working as an activist, organizing boycotts and registering black voters in Mississippi. He was arrested over 100 times, often with unnecessary force. I’m sure you’ve seen the video of George Floyd. When you saw that, what came to your mind to see how the officer just just pent his knee on his neck and just like he forgot all about it treated him like he was just not human. But it made me sad. It makes me wanna, I don’t know, do something. But then you asked yourself, What could you do? Where we going? Where is the country going from here? After what we saw this past summer, way to go was the register and vote. And that’s what we started on. And by registering and voting, the results is here in Mississippi, like I said, I put in this in the pie based on what we started years ago and based on what is happening now and to answer your question. Yes, sir, things are much better in our next story. We’ll hear from Betty Daniels Rosemond, who grew up in a segregated New Orleans where Jim Crow was the law of the land. Her experiences with racism pushed her to become a freedom writer and fight for change in the country through an organization named Core the Congress of Racial Equality. We knew every time we took a ride that if we die, we die. Was there fear among you and your friends when you went out or, ah, fear that maybe you weren’t doing the right things or going to the right places that you would be stopped by police. Who or harass? Oh, you would be stopped. But you had thio. If they tell you to move, for instance, if you got on the metro bus and a white person wanted your seat, they could insist that you move and go to the back of the bus because that part was for black people. And if you didn’t do what they said you would be arrested. So that was always you had toe do it or you pay consequences. At 21 Betty Daniels Rosemond. Then Betty Daniels decided to leave school at L s U to join the Freedom Writers. I went through some of the training. One of the girls slapped me and almost knocked me down. But that was part of your training to see if you retaliate and you couldn’t retaliate. Betty and four others went on a freedom ride from New Orleans to Mobile, Alabama, just days after another groups bus was bombed. On the way back when we got to a little town in Mississippi on Freedom, riders were testers. The job was to test the facilities to see if they were now following the law. My job was to make a phone call when I got off and went over to the phone booth, A truck of men, a pickup truck. White men pull up at the little bus station. They literally dragged Frank and the three girls out, put them in the back of the truck and drove off. I knew if they found me, it would have been another luncheon that night. All of this because you were black. Of course, everything must because of that. I mean, if you were like it was, you just didn’t stand a chance. And here we sit. Today in 2021 we’ve had our first black president way have had our first female and black and South Asian vice president. How do you feel about where we are today? I feel good. I really dio good to know that people were still willing. Thio try to see that change will come. And there are still people who risk their life to see that this happens. And do you feel that we have achieved or are close to the dream that Dr King spoke of? You know, we have worked to Dio It ain’t over to God says And so the Bible tells us is we must love each other. Love our neighbor as ourselves. We’re compelled toe love one another. And there that’s what’s missing in the world today. When Charlie Best was 23 years old, he worked at Woolworth’s counter as a bus boy in Greensboro, North Carolina. He recalls the day when four college students walked in, sat at the whites only counter and asked to be served. I was a bus boy and I was Campbell bus boy. I’m walking through our just like this right here at 83 years old. I mean, that’s why Miss Ho kept me on here because I could move fast. Charles Best still hasn’t slowed down. I would say hot stuff and people get out of the way. But he stood still for at least a moment behind the Woolworth’s counter in 1960. That’s me. What do you see when you see that young man? I’ll pat myself. I’m I’m just proud to be a part of I will worth Put me in that moment where these four young men came in, sat down at this very counter and then refused to get up every time went awaiting way. Tell them we don’t serve colored folks here that would ignore that and kept on. And they kept on sitting at accent for coffee. I never did hear them. Actually. Nothing else but coffee. Um, everyone was looking at each other Wonder Wonder what? What? What what was happening? I was I was standing close by on, and I wonder what What was going on. Were you ever scared? Scared? Yeah. No, I wasn’t. I was get it all because because the reason The reason I was scared because I was glad to see it happen. There’s a new generation coming forward to do those same courageous things to get more to get closer. Thio Equality eso When you look a some of the things that we experienced over the summer, even the protests that happened here in Greensboro. What did you see? The black man has moved that has moved forward. Hey, move forward. But, um, and in some in some areas in some areas still have still having got there. When you see these young people again, it’s it’s people oftentimes to look like me out there. If you could sit down with them and talk with them, what would you say? I would tell them that that we that we can’t accomplish nothing by Ben Balance, but we can accomplished by praying together and just, uh, start doing what’s right. Advice for the next generation from a bus boy who witnessed history now a man determined to keep it from repeating. I’m glad Toby alive to tell the story off the city. The movement. I’m glad. I’m just I just prayed the Lord that, uh, I’m here to tell the story. The freedom writers will always be remembered for their courageous stance and fight for racial equality. Their fight within the civil rights movement continues to impact and inspire future generations. Thanks for watching. Yeah, yeah. Remembering the Freedom Riders and their impact on the Civil Rights Movement Three stories on the impact that the Freedom Riders had in the Civil Rights Era Updated: 12:54 PM CST Feb 25, 2021 Remembering the impact that the Civil Rights Activists who traveled by bus across the South had in 1961. On their Freedom Rides they set out to protest against Jim Crow laws that were still being enforced across the southern states. These three individuals recall the stories that shaped and impacted their lives.Stitch brings you heartwarming stories from a community just like yours. It celebrates our hometown heroes and is inspired by communities, revitalized. Stitch is committed to honoring our history, celebrating our potential and highlighting the tales that bring us together. Every day, we are stitching together the American story.Want more stories like these? Follow Stitch on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. Remembering the impact that the Civil Rights Activists who traveled by bus across the South had in 1961. On their Freedom Rides they set out to protest against Jim Crow laws that were still being enforced across the southern states. These three individuals recall the stories that shaped and impacted their lives. Stitch brings you heartwarming stories from a community just like yours. It celebrates our hometown heroes and is inspired by communities, revitalized. Stitch is committed to honoring our history, celebrating our potential and highlighting the tales that bring us together. Every day, we are stitching together the American story. Want more stories like these? Follow Stitch on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. Source link Orbem News #Amplify2021 #BHM20201 #BHMStitch2021 #Black #BlackHistory #blackhistorymonth #Civil #civilrights #CivilRightsmovement #Freedom #freedomriders #history&hope #HistoryandHope #htvamplify #impact #Movement #racism #Remembering #Riders #Rights #stitch #stitch2021

[lodelss]

Irina Dumitrescu | Longreads | August 2020 | 5,406 words (21 minutes)

When I was a teenager I read James Thurber’s Secret Life of Walter Mitty. I fell in love with this story of a meek, middle-aged Connecticut man whose daydreams afford him temporary escape from a dreary shopping trip with his overbearing wife. Maybe it was because I was an incorrigible daydreamer too. Or maybe I read in his fantasies of being a fearless Navy commander, a world-famous surgeon, or a brandy-swilling bomber pilot a sense of my own opportunities in life, at that point still wide open if you left my gender out of it. Unlike Walter Mitty, I could still learn anything, be anyone.

With time I found a calling, studied for a doctorate in medieval literature, published a book only a handful of people would read, and gained a longed-for professorship. But new desires arose. I discovered I want to write books for more than five readers, and that doing so is remarkably hard. I started to feel afraid of being trapped in one role for the rest of my life. That sense of endless possibility I once had was slipping away.

One day, when MasterClass sends its millionth paid ad into my Facebook feed, I decide this is the answer to the Walter Mitty lurking inside me. MasterClass seems to offer everything: from writing seminars with over a dozen famous authors to celebrity-driven inspiration to take my hobbies further. Clearly, all I was missing were the right teachers, filmed professionally and beamed into my living room. I may not become a surgeon or a pilot, but what if the renaissance woman I’d hoped to be is just a $200 subscription away?

* * *

It’s October 2019, and I begin with Malcolm Gladwell. The funny thing about these courses is that you have a relationship with the teachers already — or at least with their reputation. Gladwell has a host of detractors. He’s been reproached for oversimplification and vast generalization, for illogical arguments and a lack of critical thinking. A book reviewer once wondered why Gladwell didn’t “hold a tenured professorship at the University of the Bleedin’ Obvious.” But nobody questions Gladwell’s ability to write. He is the small-town Canadian boy who made it to the New Yorker on the strength of catchy ideas, brilliantly told. I have been reading his books, sometimes despite myself, for years.

Gladwell teaches his class in a cozy space that looks like a cross between a bar and an apartment. A chess set on a low table behind him suggests something intellectually challenging could happen, but no worries, strong drinks will be served. Ever the model pupil, I open a fresh notebook and write down every other sentence Malcolm says, intent on letting no insight or bon mot slip my attention. I spend so much of my life teaching that it feels like a treat to be a student again, waiting to be filled up with wisdom. It helps that Gladwell is wry and quietly charming, his self-effacing good humor belying a deep seriousness about the calling of writing. More importantly for me, he offers a lot of practical advice — nitty-gritty tips for conducting interviews, structuring articles, and building characters.

I may not become a surgeon or a pilot, but what if the renaissance woman I’d hoped to be is just a $200 subscription away?

Having so much concrete information about how he goes about his work makes me feel confident that I could do it too. Suddenly, this all seems possible. I will become a fantastic writer! I will publish features in the New Yorker and give entertaining talks to sold-out auditoriums! David Remnick will invite me to dinner and I’ll have everyone in stitches with my anecdotes! Pass the butter!

Most exhilarating for me is Gladwell’s approach to imperfection. “What you find interesting is not perfection,” he explains. An imperfect moment in an essay irritates readers just a little, like “red pepper,” but keeps them thinking and talking about it. Gladwell appears generous, providing his audience with surprises and space to draw their own connections. But he’s also happy to make promises he won’t keep, or to force an unwieldy argument together with writing. His way of working is wildly unlike my good-girl academic mindset, but it seems suited to getting things done. “The task of a successful writer,” he says while arguing for bad first drafts, “is to lower the bar.”

Of course, it is one thing for your writing buddy to tell you to embrace your imperfections and slam out a crappy draft, and another for Malcolm Gladwell to do it. Success creates its own truth. This is the MasterClass formula: once a person is famous enough they acquire a charismatic glow. Their counsel is prudent, their past decisions are justified, and their jokes are funnier, too.

* * *

Gladwell’s MasterClass leaves me energized. Writing seems more manageable now, simply a matter of the right tools and attitude. I decide to work on one of my weak areas. Due to a series of curious life choices, I trained to become a scholar and teacher but wound up spending much of my workday carrying out managerial tasks. MasterClass is ready to help me, however, with a course by Anna Wintour on “Creativity and Leadership.” There is a cheekiness to offering advice on how to deal with employees when a hit movie has been made about your notoriously demanding — if not outright callous — management style. Then again, maybe I could use a bit of that Wintour ruthlessness, or what might be called “decisiveness” if she were a man.

The course introduction confirms my suspicion that its appeal is as much about offering a glimpse of the woman behind the mysterious sunglasses as it is about learning how to deliver negative feedback. Sitting in a discreetly lavish apartment, and wearing a stunning green dress with bulky statement jewelry, Wintour describes her vertiginous rise to the top — from somewhere remarkably close to the top. She learned the ropes from her father, Charles Wintour, editor of the Evening Standard in London at the time. (She leaves out the part where he arranged her first job at Biba, a trendy fashion store.) Much of the course revolves around Wintour’s comfort with risky decisions, even if they are wrong. She deals with her mistakes by owning, acknowledging, then moving briskly past them. It sounds like excellent advice for people cushioned by money and an astounding network of connections. By the time Wintour says, “act like no one’s telling you ‘no,’” I want to ask her if anyone ever did.

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The most depressing thing about Wintour’s advice is that it is not wrong. “Own your decisions,” she says, “and own who you are, without apologizing.” It’s just that most people do have to apologize at some point in their lives. (If they are Canadian, like me, they will apologize to complete strangers simply for disturbing the air in their general vicinity.) I want to see a visionary describe how they wrestled with mistakes that had real consequences. Wintour’s suggestion to give direct feedback does give me the courage to have a frank conversation with an employee, and we are both better off for it. But I wonder how her life lessons could possibly translate to someone else’s reality.

The name MasterClass also increasingly bothers me. I remember when I first saw the term (as the two-word “master class”) on a poster in graduate school. A musician friend explained that a visiting eminence would work with one of the students on stage, correcting and training them right in front of an audience. It sounded horrifying, but my friend said it was an honor to be chosen for this kind of specialized attention.

Was there a more sinister urge that made “master class” such good branding for a course? I suspect that the name appeals to people because it promises not just expertise, but power.

Over the years, I began to see all kinds of things called master classes, not just intensive live workshops for people who already had a thorough grounding in their field but online introductions to topics like social media marketing and meditation. Why couldn’t people just take classes, I wondered, especially when they knew nothing about the topic? Were they worried about feeling like a child again, afraid of admitting their own ignorance? Was there a more sinister urge that made “master class” such good branding for a course? I suspect that the name appeals to people because it promises not just expertise, but power.

* * *

It seems easy to turn into a success story when you start out young and privileged. I want to watch a self-starter, someone who had to figure out how to practice their craft on their own. Enter Werner Herzog, who materializes on a dark, empty film set, wearing a green Bavarian-style jacket with elbow patches. Herzog begins with his childhood: the bombing of Munich, his escape with his mother to the mountains, living with no running water and only occasional electricity. “I did not see films until I was eleven,” he says, “in fact, I was not even aware that cinema even existed until I was eleven.” I know there is some legend-polishing here, especially when he mentions the bombing again in the second video, but it’s a more appealing myth than the well-connected London girl who becomes editor of Vogue in her thirties.

Herzog has the air of a professor who has cultivated his eccentric persona for so long that he can now let it do most of the work. His voice alone, at once hypnotic and foreboding, brings me back to evenings in grad school when my German boyfriend did his best to introduce me to the highlights of the Herzog film corpus. Lessons of Darkness, Fitzcarraldo, Grizzly Man — we watched these masterpieces on his laptop in bed. I usually fell asleep after about 20 minutes, occasionally waking up just enough to be confused by a burning oil field or a screaming Klaus Kinski. Still, that boyfriend became my husband, so I have a soft spot for old Werner. I don’t need him to make sense or teach me anything practical. I’m not going to make a movie. I’m just hoping to absorb some of the unflinching resolve of a man who once ate his own shoe after losing a bet.

Although the course is aimed at budding filmmakers, much of Herzog’s advice applies to making art in general. It helps that he speaks in enigmatic aphorisms: “you have to know, you have to know, that you are the one who can move a ship over a mountain.” It also helps that he cares very little about the standard ways of doing things or about the rules of a particular medium. Herzog’s advice is to search for inspiration in a wide range of music and books, to gather nuggets that can be reshaped into a snippet of dialogue or an unusual camera angle. I love this, probably because it confirms so many of my own beliefs. “Read, read, read, read, read, read, read!” he intones, and laments all the prestigious film-school students he meets who do not read and are doomed, as he puts it, to be “mediocre at very best.” Could I make my own students watch this? Could I show them Herzog reading the opening of the Poetic Edda out loud, explaining how its laconic description of the creation of the world and the birth of the gods helps him edit his scenes?

There is a gossipy appeal to watching famous people play an avuncular version of themselves, but I’m not sure what I can really learn from them.

My semester is shifting from intense to overwhelming, so I watch much of the course while folding laundry or cutting vegetables for dinner, chuckling at reliably absurd Herzogisms. My notebook and pen are always close by, but my notes wind up as cryptic as his movies. What is the iguana? The Swiss chocolate? Why have I written down “20 milking cows”? Something penetrates my distraction, though: the intensity of Herzog’s belief in his own films, and by extension, in the power of great art. Although I teach literature for a living, I rarely hear my fellow scholars talk about why creative work matters. And seldom does anyone venture a judgement about the quality of a book or a poem. It seems like it would be overstepping our boundaries to call something “excellent,” or “middling,” or even “bad.” We are deft at dissecting novels and plays, pinning down their references and ideologies and unresolvable tensions, but not particularly good at putting things together. I realize at this point how ill-suited years in the academy have made me for making art.

My husband walks into the room at one point and watches a few minutes with me. “With Herzog you get the feeling that he absolutely does not censor himself,” he says quietly, “No self-doubt. He totally trusts his own judgement.” Mired as I am in endless discussions with my inner critic, I find something beautiful about Herzog’s assurance in the brilliance of his own work — even when it is, let’s be honest, kind of awful. A deep belief in my writing would give me the freedom both to make a mess on the page and to edit it ruthlessly. Herzog seems to be speaking directly to me when he says that “there’s something much bigger than your own quest for perfection: your own quest for inner truth.”

* * *

Three months in, the MasterClasses are beginning to frustrate me. There is a gossipy appeal to watching famous people play an avuncular version of themselves, but I’m not sure what I can really learn from them. Am I ever going to be the editor of a fashion magazine? No. Am I ever going to direct a movie in Antarctica? Actually, come to think of it, even that’s more likely than the fashion magazine. I want something within reach, I want a celebrity to teach me something I can actually try to do. I have spent untold hours watching Gordon Ramsay tell people what they’re doing wrong in the kitchen — now it’s time for him to show me how to do it right.

In order to do Gordon’s cooking class full justice, I prepare a full dinner spread and bring it to the couch on a tray. I have baked frozen miniature spring rolls and jalapeno poppers in my oven, which at this point has had a broken thermometer for about four months. For a touch of class and nutrition, I also have fresh radishes. And a cold beer. It is some sight.

The class is set in Gordon Ramsay’s kitchen, which is spacious, sunlit, all marble and polished steel, and filled with jars of fresh herbs. Through the window we catch a glimpse of a manicured lawn, a backyard pool, and behind it a gently rolling Cornish hill. This kitchen is possibly the most pornographic thing I have ever seen. I try not to think about my own kitchen, which my husband and I outfitted in a hurry when we moved into our bare apartment, as you have to in Germany. The cabinets were the cheapest available from Ikea, and we bought them second hand. We got our fridge from someone who had used it to store raw meat for his dog. All of it began falling apart immediately.

Ramsay is annoying at first. He repeats himself a lot. Everything is “unbelievable.” At one point he demonstrates how to choose good produce, picking up flawless baby vegetables from a tray in front of him and showing them to the camera. (“Unbelievable!”) I think about how I could not buy those vegetables even if I had the time to seek them out in my city. But as I let the videos roll on, I start to find him charming. I have watched Ramsay play a dour taskmaster in a series of television shows by now, but here he has the enthusiasm of a labrador retriever. He explains how to lovingly brush carrots with toothbrushes instead of peeling them (confession: I will never do this), and describes herbs as being like “a lady putting perfume on.” Then he demonstrates how to sharpen knives and I’m off to the races.

I have a decent set of knives — a remnant from my childless twenties, when I did footloose things like take the free knife-skills classes offered at Williams-Sonoma. The day after beginning Gordon’s course, I go on a hunt for my knife sharpener, which finally appears behind an entire regiment of mismatched tupperware. I spend a meditative afternoon sharpening my knives, testing each one by slicing it through a piece of paper I hold up in the air. At one point my son and husband walk into the kitchen, see me with all the knives, and quietly slink out again. I feel powerful. My knives are sharp. I can cut things again. I resolve to use my honing steel every time I cook, with the exact up-and-down movement Gordon taught me. It gives me the feeling of being a kitchen warrior.

I have come to suspect that MasterClass will put any celebrity in front of a camera for a few hours and call it a course.

Gordon’s is the one course I don’t watch in order. Instead, I pick the recipes I think I can manage given the state of my oven. I decide to attempt the poached eggs and mushrooms on brioche. To my surprise, my local discount supermarket carries brioche buns, most of which my delighted son eats before we make it to breakfast. I get up on Sunday morning, make myself a pot of coffee, review the recipe, and cook alone for an hour. The result is not perfect. I oversalt the mushroom-and-bacon mixture. My eggs come out a bit harder than I would’ve liked. It has been so long since I have poached an egg that I’ve forgotten how to do it.

But the time spent in the kitchen, learning some new techniques and remembering others, brings me back to the early days of my relationship to my husband. There was a time in our lives when we would spend an entire weekend day trying out a new recipe, or experimented with poaching eggs three different ways to see which method was best. Now we put eggs in water with a tiny mechanical device that plays “Killing Me Softly” to let us know they are soft-boiled. You could say our standards have fallen. But on this particular day, we eat so much brioche with protein on it that we are unable to move for hours. I’m not sure what makes me feel younger, trying out a new recipe or spending an entire day doing nothing afterwards.

Emboldened, I take on experiment number two: lobster ravioli. Fresh lobster would be impossible to get, but I look up a vegetarian filling with spinach, ricotta, and pine nuts. Nor can I find the correct Italian flour, so I settle for the most promising alternative. But life intervenes, and by the time I have a few hours to make fresh pasta, most of the eggs have disappeared from the fridge. I decide to make a smaller batch, with the wrong flour, just one egg, and a bit of oil and water — after all, I think, surely an Italian nonna could make do without the ideal number of eggs? The dough turns out tough, and my wrist hurts trying to soften it, which seems far from the sensuous experience Gordon is having as he expertly kneads his pasta dough in the video.

My son comes to the kitchen to see what I am doing, and I convince him to join me. He tries to knead the pasta with his little hands, helps me roll out the dough and run it through the pasta machine. Sometimes he loses interest in the work but likes staying close to me, and I find it comforting to feel this small, curious creature by my side. At one point he insists on making a dough of his own out of flour and water, which I am to fry for him. After three hours of labor, we manage to produce a grand total of ten ravioli filled with spinach and ricotta; in all the excitement I forgot to add the pine nuts. We supplement our small dinner with my son’s fry bread, cut in half and smeared with cream cheese. Making and shaping the dough has been so pleasurable that we don’t mind that we got almost every part of the recipe wrong and had very little to show for our efforts. In the weeks that come, my son and I make pasta again, screwing it up even more thoroughly, and having even more fun.

* * *

The idyll does not last long. My life is increasingly taken over by work. In January, I am part of a grant renewal application that involves a two-day inspection by a crew of visiting scholars, a process in which millions of Euros of funding are at stake. I remember that I am, in fact, expected to demonstrate mastery at my job. In my morning shower and before I fall asleep at night, I practice answers to potential questions, working out what impressive German abstract nouns I need to survive this experience. I try to cultivate an air of confidence, but worry it might be coming out more Herzog than Wintour. But the questions we get are not the ones I practiced, and by the end of the ordeal my project is booted out. I travel to my hometown to teach for a few months, and the hassle of settling in helps me put the failure out of mind. Then, a few weeks later, I learn that someone I trusted has spread a damaging lie about me. My stomach drops. I feel rage. Then I feel as though I have left my body altogether. A day later, my lower back spasms. I wind up immobile in bed.

I had planned to learn tennis with Serena Williams or do barre with Misty Copeland, but here I am in a rented house in a rented bed, moaning in pain if I turn as much as an inch. Propped up against pillows that do little more than fix my body in the least excruciating position, I have little patience for books or even television. Then MasterClass sends me one of its emails, and I can barely believe my eyes: it’s RuPaul.

I have come to suspect that MasterClass will put any celebrity in front of a camera for a few hours and call it a course. This particular class is only nominally about drag: it claims to be about “Self-Expression and Authenticity.” This is convenient, because covered with heating pads and smeared with a variety of pungent salves, I’m not in much of a position to try and look fabulous. Still, I would watch RuPaul explain the finer points of installing drywall, so I click the button to join.

By this point, I have realized that there are two kinds of teachers. Some focus on transmitting their skills. They seem to be saying to the student: “this is how to do what I do.” Others offer themselves as models to be imitated: “this is how I became who I am.” Many MasterClass instructors pretend they are selling the former while in fact delivering the latter. RuPaul doesn’t even pretend. Dressed in a carmine suit and seated against a black-and-neon set reminiscent of Studio 54, RuPaul talks about some of the most basic challenges of growing up in the world. He describes the course of his career, the role artistic inspirations played in his life, the challenges of addiction, criticism, and just plain being ignored. I take no notes — I physically can’t. But I am moved by RuPaul’s vulnerability, a refreshing change of pace after the unrelenting cockiness of the other teachers. Instead of presenting himself as magnificent from the get-go, brave and destined for greatness, he comes across as a human being who had been broken but helped along his way by kind mentors, friends, and a lot of therapy.

Here is something bracing to think about: it is hard to learn how to be yourself.

The other MasterClass teachers seemed impervious to criticism, able to brush it off with a knowing smile. But what do you do when you are not born that way, or if you have been brought up to value the opinions of others, sometimes to a fault? In one episode, RuPaul describes the unquenchable hunger of bullies to feed their fragile egos: “The only time they feel visible is when they create pain.” I reflect on how attached I still am to what people think of me, and how hard this makes it to distance myself from the hurt they cause even when I know they act out of their own self-loathing. RuPaul’s answer is to focus on finding what he calls “your natural frequency, your natural energy source.” Incapacitated, I can muster little of my usual cynicism about talk of “energies.” Besides, I like what he seems to be getting at. Maybe the secret to freedom is not to emulate the bravado of a few wildly successful people, but to tap into what feels true. According to RuPaul, doing so will draw other people with a similar energy to yours, but, “like a garden, it takes managing. You have to cultivate it.” Here is something bracing to think about: it is hard to learn how to be yourself.

I binge-watch RuPaul’s MasterClass late into the night. I am only half-focussing when a story breaks through my daze. RuPaul recalls his parents divorcing when he was seven. His father had custody on the weekends, and every weekend, little RuPaul would sit on the front porch waiting for his father to pick him up. His father never came. RuPaul looks straight into the camera and speaks softly now, to the child he somewhere still is: “Baby, that had nothing to do with you.” I think of my father, who left my life eight years ago, who is now just an hour’s drive away, and who I know I will not see. I think about the grandson he has never met. I am fuzzy on the details, but this may be when I begin weeping like a baby. Ru breaks down too as he describes his own journey to sobriety. And there we are, two people separated by a screen, crying together in the dark.

* * *

Half a year after starting my MasterClass adventure, I am a different person from the eager pupil who scribbled down every pearl of wisdom from Malcolm Gladwell’s lips. I am disappointed in other people and — in a distant way I cannot quite place — also in myself. I wish I were stronger, or easier to transform. My back still hurts. And if that were not enough, I have returned home to voluntary quarantine. Now, instead of a fun distraction from everyday life, the computer is my only point of contact with the rest of the world. I cannot bear to see more people talking on the screen, but there are not too many other places to go.

As the global pandemic unfolds, MasterClass shifts its offerings with uncanny acumen. Instead of promising me greatness, the ads in my inbox invite me to take what seem like a humbler course: gardening. The instructor, Ron Finley, is a fashion designer turned urban-gardening advocate. MasterClass pitches him as a “gangsta gardener,” and he offers fresh, zen koan-like takes along the lines of “Air is gangsta as fuck” and “When Bambi dies, or some shit… no one buries it.” At first, I ignore the ads. I have no green thumb. My rap sheet includes a long list of potted herbs, houseplants, and even cacti that I have, by some amazing level of neglect, managed to dry to death. In the past 20 years I have moved through a variety of dorm rooms, house-sits, and rental apartments in three countries. How could I grow something when I have barely put down roots myself?

As the global pandemic unfolds, MasterClass shifts its offerings with uncanny acumen. Instead of promising me greatness, the ads in my inbox invite me to take what seem like a humbler course: gardening.

The ads keep coming. One night, I have a dream about planting a garden. Then I get flashes of another version of myself: a teenager tending to the front and back yards of my family home. I had the boring chores of raking leaves and mowing the lawn, but I also grew flowers and pulled weeds and cared for a bed of strawberries. I remember now how I used to pore over seed and bulb catalogues, calculating the amount of sun each part of our yard received, imagining how I could replace our lawn with a glorious cacophony of color, if only my parents would fund the project. I never did manage to plant the garden I dreamt of. One bad spring my mother spread grass seeds all over my flower bed, and in my anger I gave up gardening altogether.

I start the course.

Finley is charismatic and funny and, wouldn’t you know it, down-to-earth. He’s not precious about gardening, a point he makes by showing how to turn a wooden dresser drawer into a makeshift planter. The course itself is not so much a master class as a basic introduction to keeping a plant alive. Finley stands behind his big wooden table and rubs different kinds of soil between his hands to show how to recognize the good, loamy kind that plants will flourish in. He gently eases seedlings out of their pots and pats them into the ground, pokes holes with his finger, and pops in sugar snap peas. Given that I haven’t touched a bag of soil in over two decades, this is what I need.

Between little jokes like “size does matter… in a garden,” Finley slips in an entire philosophy of being in the world. He describes building a relationship to plants as a way of connecting to one’s body, one’s environment, to life itself. Learning to care for plants, he says, is a way to learn to care for yourself. As he shows how to loosen the roots of a nursery plant or divide a sprouted sweet potato, Finley calls attention to the creative force deep inside all living things. “Plants want to grow, they wanna live, they wanna thrive,” he says, and I’m enchanted by the potential of survival he sees in a part of life I had wholly overlooked. I can’t remember looking at a plant and not seeing a future reproach.

In my happiest moments of creation, I have experienced this sensation of standing by as a mysterious energy unfolded itself according to a plan all its own.

Watching these videos makes me want to nurture something. I run to my kitchen and pick up a pot of fragile supermarket parsley. I pick off the dry leaves, then water it. A few days later, it has perked up. I gain courage. That weekend, I go with my family to a garden center, where we don our masks and look through fogged glasses at a bewildering variety of soils. We spend hours on our balcony, mixing soil with fertilizer, planting a cut-off wine barrel full of kitchen herbs. In other pots, we give a tiny strawberry seedling and a tomato plant a chance next to some sprouted onions from the pantry that I have learned how to divide on YouTube. In the days that follow, the three of us are stupidly happy. We go out on the balcony, stare at the plants the way parents watch sleeping newborns, call each other to witness how quickly they have grown. Then, what begins as an experiment turns into a minor obsession. Flowers and a miniature olive tree join the herbs. We plant peas and potatoes, and my son and I try germinating seeds for herbs we could not find in the store. There is no special talent here: it is an ordinary hobby, but that does not dull its wonder.

As I observe our seedlings take root and flourish, it dawns on me how little power I have over their growth. I can provide them with a fertile space to be. I nurture, prune, and guide them as necessary. I can destroy them through neglect or poor decisions. But I do not make them what they are. In my happiest moments of creation, I have experienced this sensation of standing by as a mysterious energy unfolded itself according to a plan all its own. It is what being pregnant felt like. It is also how some essays have come to me, in full bud and pressing to be written down.

More often than not, though, making things in the world feels like slamming dead clay on the ground, hoping that enough force might shape it into something beautiful. It occurs to me that what I have to learn in my little balcony garden has nothing to do with mastery. As I watch the cilantro and the basil and even the sad supermarket parsley take root, I feel that I am coming back to myself, to a part of me I had forgotten. Here it is at last: something new.

***

Irina Dumitrescu is an essayist and scholar of medieval literature.

Editor: Ben Huberman

[news-mashable-yahoopartner-blog]

23 things on 'The Office' you've never noticed before

The Office is truly the show that keeps on giving.

Though the NBC comedy has been off the air since 2013, the discussion surrounding it is still very much alive. To this day, fans keep finding new, hilarious Easter eggs in the show.

The more than 750,000 diehards who come together on r/DunderMifflin to chat about the program are experts at pointing out the hidden details they pick up mid-rewatch. 

We've compiled 23 of the best. Find out how well you really know your stuff.

SEE ALSO: The 65 absolute best moments from 'The Office'

1. David Wallace *also* has a world's best boss mug

If you thought Michael Scott was the sole best boss in the world, you're wrong! At least according to the desk mugs ...

Turns out David Wallace, chief financial officer of Dunder Mifflin, has a World's Best Boss mug on his desk, too. It's visible in the Season 2 episode, "Valentine's Day." It's black and has a more obnoxious font than Michael's. It's unclear whether David Wallace bought his own mug.

Will the real World's Best Boss please stand up? Oh look, it's Michael!

Image: the office/netflix

2. Michael uses his own brand of salad dressing

In the second episode of Season 4, Michael and Jan are chatting about ageism in his office while eating salads. Everything seems normal until you look closely: The salad dressing on the table is Michael Scott's own personal brand, "Great Scott."

Great Scott!

Image: the office/netflix

The jar is adorned with a homemade label featuring Michael's face and a bowl of salad. Thanks to a deleted scene from the previous episode, "Fun Run," we know all about it. 

"What do I look like to you, Paul Newman? That's actually not a good example, because I have been compared to a young Paul Newman, my eyes and my face. And I make my own salad dressing," Michael says in the deleted scene, which starts around 4:10. "I mix Newman's Ranch with Newman's Italian. Sell it at flea markets for a slight loss. I could make ... I could make a profit if I changed one of the ingredients to Wishbone, but I won't do it."

3. That Dunder Mifflin Newsletter was trolling us

In Season 1, Episode 4, viewers get a glimpse of an old Dunder Mifflin Employee Newsletter. The Easter egg lies within the text.

In a classic move, the people writing the words didn't take the time to crank out a full article. Rather, they wrote a bit of sensical information followed by absolutely anything.

"A lot of useless information"

Image: the office/netflix

"Welcome to yet another exciting edition of the Dunder Mifflin Employee Newsletter," the article begins quite reasonably. But by the second paragraph, things get meta.

"As anybody can easily tell, this newsletter doesn't really have a lot to say. It's really just a prop to fill some space and sort of look like a newsletter without really being much of a newsletter at all ... In fact, at times we can probably get away with not using real English words, such as kjgavbiwiwpo..."

This isn't even the only time The Office writers did this. Now you know!

4. Jim signs Meredith's pelvis cast "John Krasinski"

Remember when Michael hit Meredith with his car and she had to get a cast on her pelvis? John Krasinski does! Because in Season 4, Episode 3, he signed it ... as himself, not his character Jim Halpert! Whoops.

Hmm ...

Image: the office/netflix

5. Stanley's resolution was, um, telling

In "Gossip," the first episode of Season 6, Dunder Mifflin Scranton learns Stanley's been cheating on his wife, Teri, with some woman named Cynthia. In Season 7, Episode 13, it's crystal clear that hasn't changed. Stanley's resolution card literally says, "To be a better husband and boyfriend." Boy, have you lost your damn mind?

To be fair, everyone's resolutions are a lot.

Image: the office/netflix

6. Oscar's drinkin' prop wine

Oscar was so excited to drink the wine in Season 8, Episode 12, no one realized the prop label was still on the bottom of the bottle. If you pause the episode you can clearly see a piece of tape with the word "Oscar" on that bottle of, um, Chateau Galmon?

"I am Bacchus, God of wine!"

Image: the office/netflix

7. Michael keeps his broken plasma on the wall for a while

Michael and Jan broke up after all hell broke lose in the Season 4 episode, "Dinner Party," but he held onto a key reminder of his ex well into Season 5.

In "Dream Team," Pam visits Michael's place to start the Michael Scott Paper Company, and his pride and joy — the mini plasma TV Jan shattered by throwing a Dundie Award at it — is still mounted on the wall. The most hilarious part of the situation? Michael clearly got a new television, which he placed directly under the broken flatscreen, neglecting to trash the old one. 

Could it be he wasn't ready to let go — or that Jan mounted it on the wall and he had no idea how to take it down? We may never know.

Two TVs ...

Image: the office/netflix

8. He then attempts to sell the broken plasma

Finally, in "Garage Sale," Episode 19, of Season 7, Michael is finally ready to part with his tiny broken plasma. But rather than throw it out, he attempts to SELL IT at the warehouse garage sale. Come on, dude.

Nope.

Image: the office/netflix

9. Return of the clown art

Speaking of that warehouse garage sale, another familiar object was for being sold: That creepy clown painting that used to be stuck to the walls of Jim and Pam's house (aka, Jim's parent's old house). Wonder how they finally got it off the wall ...

No one will buy that clown painting.

Image: the office/netflix

10. Bob Vance was possibly a marketing genius

Any fan of The Office knows that Phyllis' husband, Bob Vance (of Vance Refrigeration), loves to plug his business whenever he gets the chance. 

But one theory considers the idea that Bob Vance wasn't simply trying to market Vance Refrigeration to Dunder Mifflin employees — instead, perhaps he was constantly repeating his company name for the cameras filming the Dunder Mifflin documentary in hopes that if the footage ever aired it'd be free advertising. Genius.

11. Michael ate tiramisu from the trash

This one's kind of a long story, but in Season 5, Episode 10, Jim gives Pam a piece of tiramisu as a peace offering after going out to lunch with Michael.

Pam rejects the offering and throws the tiramisu away, but in a later scene we see Michael eating a piece of tiramisu at his desk. Though some speculate Michael also brought tiramisu back from the restaurant, he's seen walking into the office alongside from Jim empty-handed and even claps at a joke.

Michael later takes a shot at Pam, scolding her for throwing away "perfectly good tiramisu" just because it has a hair on it, so all signs point to him digging Pam's dessert out of the trash.

12. This extremely deep paper clip find

In Season 5, Episode 1, Michael introduces Pam to the office's replacement receptionist, Ronnie, via video chat, explaining that Ronnie is unable to find "those little colored paper clips" he likes so much.

Somehow, an Easter egg mastermind discovered that Jim and Pam's license plate, CHD-0032, is the model number for those clips Michael likes. (If you Google the plate number, they come up.) 

13. Jim's title in Stamford was "Assistant Regional Manager"

Dwight spent season after season begging for the title "Assistant Regional Manager" instead of "Assistant to the Regional Manager," and all Jim had to do to get it was transfer to the Stamford branch. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

In Season 3, Episode 6, Jim falls asleep at his desk, and we get a peek at that nameplate, baby!

The real deal

Image: the office/netflix

14. Creed's fake name is the actor's real name

In Season 4, Episode 4, Creed Bratton — the character on The Office played by actor Creed Bratton — explained that whenever he gets into financial trouble, he transfers his debt to a man named "William Charles Schneider." Turns out William Charles Schneider is actor Creed's real name, and there's a good chance that's his real passport.

15. Michael's wallet looks like a '90s DIY project

Does Michael Gary Scott carry around a bedazzled wallet? That's absolutely what it looks like...

16. Jim wears a wig in Season 3

John Krasinski's received some feedback on Jim's floppy hair over the years, but if things looked a little off in Season 3, it wasn't his fault.

Krasinski had to cut his hair short for his role in the film Leatherheads, which gave him no choice but to wear a wig during the last six episodes of The Office's third season. Krasinski further explains his hair challenges in this interview starting at around 2:15.

Wig Tuna

Image: the office/netflix

17. St. Patrick's Day celebrations were lit

Season 6, Episode 19 is dedicated to St. Patrick's Day, and the office really goes all out. For example, did you notice Michael has an Italian flag on his desk instead of an Irish one, or that they dyed the water in the community water cooler green? LOL.

The closest the Irish get to Christmas

Image: the office/netflix

Image: the office/netflix

18. Andy's Call of Duty username is extremely Andy

Viewers get a glimpse of Andy playing Call of Duty in Season 3, Episode 5 of the show. If you look closely you'll see his username is a very fitting "Here Comes Treble" — named after his college a cappella group, who we later hear about in the Season 9 episode, "Here Comes Treble."

Image: the office/netflix

19. Creed possibly has a mugshot hanging at his desk

Does Creed casually have his mugshot hanging above his desk? Honestly, we wouldn't put it past him.

20. Jim's last name is misspelled on his wedding sign

Congrats to Pam Beesly and Jim HalpRET on their wedding. Was this a typo or an intentional joke? We can't keep track anymore.

Hmm...

Image: the office/netflix

21. Wait, who is that?

You know when TV shows like actors so much they bring them back to play other roles in the future? How about when they replace a character with a different actor and expect viewers not to notice or to be totally fine with it? The Office is guilty of doing both of those things.

Image: the office/netflix

Dwight's nephew in the show's final season was also an extra in Season 7's "WUPHF.com" episode. Elizabeth, the stripper hired throughout the course of the show, appeared in the "Ben Franklin," "Fun Run," and "Finale" episodes, yet not everyone seemed to remember her. Andy's parents and Pam's mom were recast throughout the series. And Dwight hired Devon, the employee Michael fired in Season 2, back in the finale.

22. John Krasinski shot the opening Scranton footage

This one's less of a "did you notice?" and more of a "did you know?" but John Krasinski, the man you know and love as Jim Halpert, is semi-responsible for the iconic Office intro. According to TV Guide, Krasinski shot scenes from the opening credits sequence while on a research trip.

23. There's a nod to the UK version of the show

What would the U.S. version of The Office be without a reference to the UK version of the series? 

The address of Dunder Mifflin's Scranton office is 1725 Slough Avenue, Scranton, PA, which is special because there's a town in the UK called Slough, where the UK version of the show just so happens to take place. 

Image: screengrab/google maps

And that's not all. When you search in the Scranton branch's address in Google maps it shows Pennsylvania Paper & Supply Company, the building that's featured in the intro footage, and Poor Richards Pub, the Dunder Mifflin employees' go-to place for Happy Hour.

So there you have it, fans. The writers, cast members, and show runners of your favorite comedy were even more clever than you realized. Now it's time to re-watch the show and see if you can spot any other hidden treasures.

WATCH: What is the cast of ‘The Office’ doing now?

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Prince Harry ‘thrilled’ after announcing he is to marry Meghan Markle

Couple appear in public for first time since announcing their engagement and give 20-minute television interview

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are to marry in the spring after announcing their engagement and admitting they were totally unprepared for the media storm that surrounded the first months of their relationship.

The prince said he was thrilled to be marrying the US actor after an 18-month romance, and the couple presented themselves to the world with a photocall and 20-minute television interview at Kensington Palace.

Play Video

2:47

Who is Meghan Markle? video profile

On Tuesday, Palace aides are expected to announce the venue for the wedding and details of the first royal engagements that Markle will undertake with the prince as she is quickly assimilated into the royal household.

In the TV interview, conducted by Mishal Husain, they revealed how the prince proposed to his future bride at his Nottingham Cottage home in the grounds of Kensington Palace on what was a standard typical night in for us while they were roasting a chicken for dinner.

Markle said it was just an amazing surprise, it was so sweet and natural and very romantic. He got on one knee … I could barely let you finish proposing. I said, can I say yes now?

Markle, whose mother is African American and father is white, also described as disheartening and discriminatory some of the media coverage she received as Prince Harrys girlfriend because it centred on her racial background.

Markle admitted that even though she had starred in TV drama Suits, the media coverage had been a learning curve and said, I did not have any understanding of what it would be like.

Harry declined to give details about the engagement, but joked: Of course it was romantic. Photograph: Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images

That coverage forced the prince to take the rare step last year of publicly attacking the British press for introducing racial overtones into the reporting of their relationship.

Among the headlines that were believed to have angered the palace was one on Mailonline.com that read: Harrys girl is (almost) straight outta Compton, referring to the city in Los Angeles that has become known for gang violence.

The announcement of their engagement was made by Clarence House on behalf of Prince Charles earlier on Monday. Later, the Prince of Wales, speaking for himself and the Duchess of Cornwall, said: Were both thrilled. We hope theyll be very happy indeed.

Profile

Who is Meghan Markle?

Show Hide

Who is Meghan Markle?

Meghan Markle is an American actor, best known for her role in the hit series Suits. She has described herself as an actress, a writer, the editor-in-chief of my lifestyle brand the Tig, a pretty good cook, and a firm believer in handwritten notes. She has also campaigned for humanitarian causes.

The 36-year-old grew up in Los Angeles. She studied at a girls Roman Catholic college there before attending Northwestern University. Recently she has lived in Toronto. She is the daughter of a clinical therapist and a TV lighting designer. Markle has written about her mixed heritage, describing herself as a strong, confident mixed-race woman. She was married once before, to film producer Trevor Engelson, but the pair were divorced in 2013.

Since news of her relationship with Prince Harry broke in 2016, she has closed her blog and given an interview in which she described the couple as really happy and in love. She said: Nothing about me changed. Ive never defined myself by my relationship. She will become a duchess or princess when the couple wed.

Photograph: Picture Perfect/REX/Shutterstock/Rex Features

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Thank you for your feedback.

Prince Harry said he designed her engagement ring himself using a stone sourced from Botswana, where the couple went camping in the first weeks of their relationship, and two smaller gems from Princess Dianas jewellery collection to make sure that shes with us on this crazy journey together.

Markles parents, Thomas Markle and Doria Ragland, said: We are incredibly happy for Meghan and Harry. Our daughter has always been a kind and loving person. To see her union with Harry, who shares the same qualities, is a source of great joy for us as parents. We wish them a lifetime of happiness and are very excited for their future together.

Thomas Markle is an Emmy award-winning former television lighting director who worked on shows including Married With Children and General Hospital. He married Ragland, a yoga instructor, in 1979 and they divorced in 1988.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle wave after posing for the media. Photograph: Alastair Grant/AP

The Queen, Prince Philip, prime minister Theresa May, and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn were among others who offered their congratulations.

Downing Street moved quickly to dampen speculation that there would be a bank holiday to celebrate the wedding. The prime ministers spokesman said: There are no plans for a bank holiday. There isnt precedent in this area. There was no bank holiday for Prince Andrews wedding in 1986 or Prince Edwards in 1999.

However, the wedding of Princess Anne, the Queens second-eldest child, and Mark Phillips in 1973 was marked by a bank holiday.

Tourists film Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at Kensington Palace on Monday. Photograph: Nick Ansell/PA

The wedding ceremony is likely to be conducted by Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, who said he was delighted by the news and had been impressed by the princes immense love for his family.

A royal source said it would be a happy church wedding, although the date is yet to be fixed. The Duchess of Cambridge is due to give birth to her third child in April.

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Locals in the View Park-Windsor Hills suburb of Los Angeles where Ragland lives were also upbeat. Mike Young, 56, out walking his pitbull Tipper, said: I think theyre a respectable family, he said, referring to the Windsors. Id be excited to meet Prince Harry.

The couple said they were set up by a friend on a blind date and about a month after two dates in London in summer 2016 they went camping in Botswana.

Timeline

Prince Harry’s relationship with Meghan Markle

Show Hide

July 2016

The pair meet in London through friends and begin a relationship.

30 October 2016

News breaks that the prince and Markle are dating.

8 November 2016

Kensington Palace confirms in an unprecedented statement that they are dating. The prince attacks the media over its abuse and harassment of his girlfriend.

11 November 2017

Markle is spotted in London amid unconfirmed reports she is enjoying her first stay at Kensington Palace since the relationship was made public.

10 January 2017

Markle reportedly meets the Duchess of Cambridge and Princess Charlotte for the first time in London.

5 September 2017

The engagement looks set when Markle graces the cover of US magazine Vanity Fair and speaks openly about Harry for the first time, revealing: Were two people who are really happy and in love.

24 September 2017

Markle makes her first appearance at an official engagement attended by the prince when she attends the Invictus Games opening ceremony in Toronto, Canada although the pair sit about 18 seats apart.

19 October 2017

It emerges that the prince has taken Markle to meet his grandmother, the Queen, whose permission they need to marry. They met over afternoon tea at Buckingham Palace.

22 October 2017

The princes aides are reported to have been told to start planning for a royal wedding, with senior members of the royal family asked to look at their diaries to shortlist a series of suitable weekends in 2018.

21 November 2017

Markle is spotted in London, prompting speculation she is preparing for an engagement announcement.

27 November 2017

Clarence House announces the engagement, and the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh say they are delighted for the couple and wish them every happiness.

Was this helpful?

Thank you for your feedback.

I managed to persuade her to come and join me in Botswana, the prince said. And we camped out with each other under the stars. She came and joined me for five days out there, which was absolutely fantastic.

It was hugely refreshing to be able to get to know someone who isnt necessarily within your circle, doesnt know much about me, I dont know much about her. So to be able to start almost afresh, right from the beginning, getting to know each other, step by step and then taking that huge leap of only two dates and then going effectively on holiday together in the middle of nowhere and you know sharing a tent together and all that kind of stuff. It was fantastic.

The official announcement. Photograph: AP

He added that he thought Markle and Diana would be as thick as thieves, without question, I think she would be over the moon, jumping up and down, you know so excited for me. It is days like today when I really miss having her around and miss being able to share the happy news.

Republic, the anti-monarchy campaign for an elected head of state, issued a one word statement: Congratulations.

Read more: http://ift.tt/2iV5T1L

from Viral News HQ http://ift.tt/2pUHmQh via Viral News HQ

[shg11]

Couple appear in public for first time since announcing their engagement and give 20-minute television interview

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are to marry in the spring after announcing their engagement and admitting they were totally unprepared for the media storm that surrounded the first months of their relationship.

The prince said he was thrilled to be marrying the US actor after an 18-month romance, and the couple presented themselves to the world with a photocall and 20-minute television interview at Kensington Palace.

Play Video

2:47

Who is Meghan Markle? video profile

On Tuesday, Palace aides are expected to announce the venue for the wedding and details of the first royal engagements that Markle will undertake with the prince as she is quickly assimilated into the royal household.

In the TV interview, conducted by Mishal Husain, they revealed how the prince proposed to his future bride at his Nottingham Cottage home in the grounds of Kensington Palace on what was a standard typical night in for us while they were roasting a chicken for dinner.

Markle said it was just an amazing surprise, it was so sweet and natural and very romantic. He got on one knee ... I could barely let you finish proposing. I said, can I say yes now?

Markle, whose mother is African American and father is white, also described as disheartening and discriminatory some of the media coverage she received as Prince Harrys girlfriend because it centred on her racial background.

Markle admitted that even though she had starred in TV drama Suits, the media coverage had been a learning curve and said, I did not have any understanding of what it would be like.

Harry declined to give details about the engagement, but joked: Of course it was romantic. Photograph: Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images

That coverage forced the prince to take the rare step last year of publicly attacking the British press for introducing racial overtones into the reporting of their relationship.

Among the headlines that were believed to have angered the palace was one on Mailonline.com that read: Harrys girl is (almost) straight outta Compton, referring to the city in Los Angeles that has become known for gang violence.

The announcement of their engagement was made by Clarence House on behalf of Prince Charles earlier on Monday. Later, the Prince of Wales, speaking for himself and the Duchess of Cornwall, said: Were both thrilled. We hope theyll be very happy indeed.

Profile

Who is Meghan Markle?

Show Hide

Who is Meghan Markle?

Meghan Markle is an American actor, best known for her role in the hit series Suits. She has described herself as an actress, a writer, the editor-in-chief of my lifestyle brand the Tig, a pretty good cook, and a firm believer in handwritten notes. She has also campaigned for humanitarian causes.

The 36-year-old grew up in Los Angeles. She studied at a girls Roman Catholic college there before attending Northwestern University. Recently she has lived in Toronto. She is the daughter of a clinical therapist and a TV lighting designer. Markle has written about her mixed heritage, describing herself as a strong, confident mixed-race woman. She was married once before, to film producer Trevor Engelson, but the pair were divorced in 2013.

Since news of her relationship with Prince Harry broke in 2016, she has closed her blog and given an interview in which she described the couple as really happy and in love. She said: Nothing about me changed. Ive never defined myself by my relationship. She will become a duchess or princess when the couple wed.

Photograph: Picture Perfect/REX/Shutterstock/Rex Features

Was this helpful?

Thank you for your feedback.

Prince Harry said he designed her engagement ring himself using a stone sourced from Botswana, where the couple went camping in the first weeks of their relationship, and two smaller gems from Princess Dianas jewellery collection to make sure that shes with us on this crazy journey together.

Markles parents, Thomas Markle and Doria Ragland, said: We are incredibly happy for Meghan and Harry. Our daughter has always been a kind and loving person. To see her union with Harry, who shares the same qualities, is a source of great joy for us as parents. We wish them a lifetime of happiness and are very excited for their future together.

Thomas Markle is an Emmy award-winning former television lighting director who worked on shows including Married With Children and General Hospital. He married Ragland, a yoga instructor, in 1979 and they divorced in 1988.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle wave after posing for the media. Photograph: Alastair Grant/AP

The Queen, Prince Philip, prime minister Theresa May, and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn were among others who offered their congratulations.

Downing Street moved quickly to dampen speculation that there would be a bank holiday to celebrate the wedding. The prime ministers spokesman said: There are no plans for a bank holiday. There isnt precedent in this area. There was no bank holiday for Prince Andrews wedding in 1986 or Prince Edwards in 1999.

However, the wedding of Princess Anne, the Queens second-eldest child, and Mark Phillips in 1973 was marked by a bank holiday.

Tourists film Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at Kensington Palace on Monday. Photograph: Nick Ansell/PA

The wedding ceremony is likely to be conducted by Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, who said he was delighted by the news and had been impressed by the princes immense love for his family.

A royal source said it would be a happy church wedding, although the date is yet to be fixed. The Duchess of Cambridge is due to give birth to her third child in April.

Q&A

Share your reaction to Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's engagement

Show Hide

You can tell us what you think about the royal engagement using our encrypted form. We will feature some of your contributions in our reporting.

Only the Guardian will have access to your contribution and one of our journalists may contact you to discuss further.

Was this helpful?

Thank you for your feedback.

Locals in the View Park-Windsor Hills suburb of Los Angeles where Ragland lives were also upbeat. Mike Young, 56, out walking his pitbull Tipper, said: I think theyre a respectable family, he said, referring to the Windsors. Id be excited to meet Prince Harry.

The couple said they were set up by a friend on a blind date and about a month after two dates in London in summer 2016 they went camping in Botswana.

Timeline

Prince Harry's relationship with Meghan Markle

Show Hide

July 2016

The pair meet in London through friends and begin a relationship.

30 October 2016

News breaks that the prince and Markle are dating.

8 November 2016

Kensington Palace confirms in an unprecedented statement that they are dating. The prince attacks the media over its abuse and harassment of his girlfriend.

11 November 2017

Markle is spotted in London amid unconfirmed reports she is enjoying her first stay at Kensington Palace since the relationship was made public.

10 January 2017

Markle reportedly meets the Duchess of Cambridge and Princess Charlotte for the first time in London.

5 September 2017

The engagement looks set when Markle graces the cover of US magazine Vanity Fair and speaks openly about Harry for the first time, revealing: Were two people who are really happy and in love.

24 September 2017

Markle makes her first appearance at an official engagement attended by the prince when she attends the Invictus Games opening ceremony in Toronto, Canada although the pair sit about 18 seats apart.

19 October 2017

It emerges that the prince has taken Markle to meet his grandmother, the Queen, whose permission they need to marry. They met over afternoon tea at Buckingham Palace.

22 October 2017

The princes aides are reported to have been told to start planning for a royal wedding, with senior members of the royal family asked to look at their diaries to shortlist a series of suitable weekends in 2018.

21 November 2017

Markle is spotted in London, prompting speculation she is preparing for an engagement announcement.

27 November 2017

Clarence House announces the engagement, and the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh say they are delighted for the couple and wish them every happiness.

Was this helpful?

Thank you for your feedback.

I managed to persuade her to come and join me in Botswana, the prince said. And we camped out with each other under the stars. She came and joined me for five days out there, which was absolutely fantastic.

It was hugely refreshing to be able to get to know someone who isnt necessarily within your circle, doesnt know much about me, I dont know much about her. So to be able to start almost afresh, right from the beginning, getting to know each other, step by step and then taking that huge leap of only two dates and then going effectively on holiday together in the middle of nowhere and you know sharing a tent together and all that kind of stuff. It was fantastic.

The official announcement. Photograph: AP

He added that he thought Markle and Diana would be as thick as thieves, without question, I think she would be over the moon, jumping up and down, you know so excited for me. It is days like today when I really miss having her around and miss being able to share the happy news.

Republic, the anti-monarchy campaign for an elected head of state, issued a one word statement: Congratulations.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/nov/27/prince-harry-to-marry-meghan-markle

[militaryspouse101]

New Post has been published on Military Spouse

New Post has been published on http://militaryspouse.com/news/navy-ids-2-dead-8-missing-sailors-from-the-uss-john-mccain/

Navy IDs 2 Dead, 8 Missing Sailors From the USS John McCain

Shared from Yahoo News

The U.S. Navy has found the remains of two of the 10 sailors missing after the USS John McCain collided with an oil tanker near Singapore.

Divers recovered the remains of Electronics Technician 3rd Class Dustin Louis Doyon, 26, on Thursday night. He is from Suffield, Connecticut.

They earlier recovered the remains of Electronics Technician 3rd Class Kenneth Aaron Smith, 22, who the Navy listed as being from New Jersey. His mother said Smith grew up in Novi, Michigan, and moved to Norfolk, Virginia, as a teenager with his father.

The military says five sailors were injured and 10 were missing following Monday’s collision. The Navy says missing soldiers were from Missouri, Texas, Maryland, Ohio, New York, Connecticut and Illinois.

The collision tore a hole in the ship’s left rear hull and flooded adjacent compartments, including crew berths and machinery and communication rooms. The U.S. Navy said it has suspended search and rescue efforts, though divers continue search and recovery efforts inside flooded compartments of the ship.

Here are brief portraits of Smith, Doyon and the missing sailors:

___

Electronics Technician 3rd Class Kenneth Aaron Smith, 22, of New Jersey

Darryl Smith called his son “a great young man” who made his family “incredibly proud.”

“Kenneth was a great young man, son and sailor,” the elder Smith said in a statement issued by the Navy. “He truly loved his family, the Navy and his shipmates. I am incredibly proud of his service to our country. He will be greatly missed and I am thankful we had 22 wonderful years together.”

The third-generation sailor, who worked in radar technology, was in the fourth year of a seven-year commitment and had considered a military career like his father.

April Brandon, who lives in Michigan, told Detroit media outlets that her son joined the Navy out of a desire to serve his country but also for the education it provided. His long-term goal was to develop video games.

___

Electronics Technician 3rd Class Dustin Louis Doyon, 26, of Connecticut

Doyon enlisted in the Navy in April 2015, and reported to the USS John S. McCain, his first ship, in June 2016.

“We appreciate the courageous work of the crew in the aftermath of the collision,” his family said in a statement.

Doyon graduated from Cathedral High School in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 2009. The school was destroyed in a tornado in 2011 and its students were later sent to a new regional Catholic high school, Pope Francis High School.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal called for “a swift and thorough investigation to determine how this could have happened and how to prevent future tragedy.” He added that it’s the fourth Navy accident in the Pacific since January and second involving a Connecticut sailor.

Ngoc T. Truong Huynh of Watertown, Connecticut, was killed in a June collision between a destroyer and container ship off Japan. He was one of seven sailors killed aboard the USS Fitzgerald.

___

Electronics Technician 1st Class Charles Nathan Findley, 31, of Missouri

Findley’s sister, Toni Greim, says she and Findley spent most of their childhoods “attached at the hip” and “moved around a lot as children with a Navy dad.”

After spending some of his childhood in the Kansas City suburb of Parkville and attending high school in the northern Missouri city of St. Joseph, Findley got his GED and found the Navy. Greim, who is 34, said her younger brother was “really into computers.”

“It’s crazy how much he excelled,” Greim told WDAF-TV on Wednesday. “He’s always graduated first of his class. He became First Class. He’s getting awards; he’s sailing around the world; he fell in love with a woman named Riho and married her.”

Findley has an 8-year-old daughter and a 6-year-old son who live in Virginia with their mom.

Greim said the hard part is “just not knowing” what happened to her brother.

“I want to know where my brother is — I want to know what’s taking so long,” she said.

___

Information Systems Technician 2nd Class Timothy Eckels Jr., 23, of Maryland

Eckels initially wanted to go into the Army, but his mother put her foot down.

“Absolutely not,” Rachel Eckels recalled telling her son in an interview with The Baltimore Sun. “They’re the first to go to war, the first on the line,” she said.

Eckels enlisted in the Navy before graduating from Manchester Valley High School in 2012, but had to delay entering the service due to medical issues, his mother said. She told the newspaper he was an athlete in school and loved cooking.

Rachel Eckels said he would call her from the ship a couple of times a week and tell her about their port visits in Japan, Vietnam, Australia and Singapore and about life at sea.

“At night the sea is so still that it looks like ice or a sheet of water,” she recalled her son telling her.

The last call from her son came Sunday morning, but she missed it, she told the Sun. Hours later, her ex-husband texted her about the collision, she said.

___

Electronics Technician 2nd Class Kevin Bushell, 26, of Maryland

Bushell tried a few jobs after high school but nothing really excited him until he decided to join the Navy, his father said.

Thomas Bushell said the service ended up being a good fit for his son, who didn’t mind the regimented schedule or taking orders.

When Bushell was growing up, the two of them enjoyed riding all-terrain vehicles in the woods together. Thomas Bushell described his son as an outgoing man who gets along with everyone.

“There was never a mean bone in that boy’s body,” Bushell said. “He was a joy growing up. He was just the sweetest boy,” he said.

If his son is gone, it’s because “God wanted him back,” Bushell said.

“To me, he had nothing left to prove to the rest of the world or anybody about what kind of man he was,” Bushell said.

___

Information Systems Technician 2nd Class Corey George Ingram, 28, of New York

A county executive from New York’s Hudson Valley expressed his support and admiration for the bravery of Ingram and his fellow sailors, as well as those involved in the search and recovery efforts.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with his parents, Hubert and Jacqueline, one of our own Dutchess County employees, and his friends and loved ones during this time,” Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro said. “We appreciate the brave men and women who are searching for Corey and his fellow sailors, and we pray they soon bring these American heroes home.”

Ingram’s parents, Hubert and Jacqueline, live in Poughkeepsie, where his mother works for the county’s Department of Social Services.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a statement that his “heart goes out to” relatives and colleagues of Ingram and his shipmates, who “dedicated their lives to serving our nation.”

___

Electronics Technician 3rd Class John Henry Hoagland III, 20, of Texas

When looking out from the deck of the USS John McCain, Hoagland often was struck by the immensity of the Pacific Ocean and the sparkling clarity of the stars above.

His mother, Cynthia Kimball, said Hoagland knew as a 5-year-old that military service was for him. A recruiter steered him toward the Navy.

“He wouldn’t have wanted to be in any other branch,” Kimball said Wednesday. “He sends me pictures of just water.”

Hoagland spent his early years in Cleveland, Texas, northeast of Houston, and later lived in the Central Texas city of Killeen. He had long expressed an interest in stepping out of Texas and traveling the world, she said.

Hoagland enlisted in 2015 and has served aboard the McCain since October as an electronic technician.

“He’s very proud of what he does,” says Kimball, who lives with her husband at Fort Benning in Georgia.

___

Interior Communications Electrician 3rd Class Logan Stephen Palmer, 23, of Illinois

Palmer loved serving in the Navy because it let him see the world after an eye injury kept him from being an Air Force fighter pilot, brother Austin Palmer said.

He said his family is in shock and worried but hopeful after hearing Logan is among the missing. He told WAND-TV in Decatur, Illinois, “I speak for my family when I say that we have put our faith in God’s mighty hands.”

The interior communications electrician 3rd class petty officer graduated from Sangamon Valley High School. His family said in a statement released by the U.S. Navy that his relatives are thankful for all who have offered prayers and support as they await word from the military. They called it “a very difficult time for our family.”

The Palmer family attends Life Foursquare Church, where the Rev. Mark Cooper told the (Decatur) Herald and Review there are hundreds of people praying, “pulling together and believing for the best in this situation.”

U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis said he’s spoken with Palmer’s mother, Theresa Palmer, and called the family “extremely proud and patriotic.”

___

Electronics Technician 2nd Class Jacob Daniel Drake, 21, of Ohio

Drake’s fiancée, Megan Partlow, said she has been planning their wedding scheduled for next summer, but now is overwhelmed and unsure how to proceed.

Partlow, 20, told the Columbus Dispatch that Drake last texted her on Sunday. Drake’s relatives gathered at their home in the rural Ohio village of Cable, about 50 miles west of Columbus, but she said they aren’t ready to talk.

“I just want him to be safe,” she said.

Drake graduated from Triad High School, and fellow graduate Boston Gregg remembers Drake once fit himself into a school locker “just to prove a teacher wrong.”

“Everybody I know is praying for him and pulling for him,” Gregg said.

Drake’s sister, Veronica Drake, told the Springfield News-Sun that he joined the Navy after high school graduation partly out of a desire to travel. She last talked with him a few days before the collision.

“In December he was going to be back in the United States for good,” she said.

___

Interior Communications Electrician 1st Class Abraham Lopez, 39, of Texas.

The alumnus of El Paso’s Irvin High School enlisted in the Navy in 1997. The Navy says Lopez had been stationed in Japan, Spain, Pearl Harbor, San Diego and the Great Lakes before he joined the McCain crew in November 2014.

He was an enlisted surface warfare specialist with a Navy Marine Corps Commendation Medal and the Navy Marine Corps Achievement Medal to his credit.

In a statement, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Lopez and Electronics Technician 3rd Class John H. Hoagland III, also from Texas, “represent the best Texas has to offer,” and he extended condolences to his family.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke of El Paso also extended condolences to the Lopez family. Regarding the collision, the House Armed Services Committee member told the El Paso Times that “there has to be accountability for this and make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

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