Todd Bernhard lives in a $500,000 dream home. Tacy Kennison built her home herself with volunteers as part of the Habitat for Humanity program. Cora Jeffries’ house has stood where it is since 1963.
All three Fort Pierre homes are under assault by the rising Missouri River below the Oahe Dam.
“I’m absolutely devastated,” Kennison said.
She moved into her house only six months ago -- able, through the Habitat for Humanity program, to finally own her own home after years of living with her parents.
Now, Kennison is back with her parents, evacuated from her new house to escape floodwaters expected to engulf up to half of the Missouri River town.
“We just threw everything in storage. We didn’t even pack an overnight bag,” Kennison said.
For Jeffries, who is 79, being driven from her longtime home by floodwaters has a tinge of irony. In 1963, rising waters upstream from the Big Bend Dam forced Jeffries and her husband to relocate their house from its original Pierre location to the mouth of the Bad River in Fort Pierre.
Now, both that house and the newer structure where she now lives are in danger of being inundated.
“The dam was supposed to prevent flooding. We already had to give up one place for the dam,” Jeffries said. “Here we are, the second time around.”
Jeffries, whose son Ron is the manager of the Central States Fair in Rapid City, reluctantly left her home -- and the efforts to protect it -- in the hands of relatives to attend a graduation in Rapid City.
“It makes me nervous, but the kids just said: ‘Get out of here, Mom. You can’t do anything,’” Cora Jeffries said. “It’s stressful being away, and it’s stressful being there.”
Kennison surrounded her house with a three-foot wall of sandbags and moved all of her belongings she could fit into a storage unit. Kennison was lucky in that respect: She was already renting a storage unit. Trying to find storage in the Pierre area now is impossible, she said.
“There are no storage units in this town at all,” she said. “I talked to a couple people, and they’re hauling their stuff clear to Aberdeen to get storage.”
2011年5月31日星期二
The eighth annual event was co-chaired
The eighth annual event was co-chaired by The First Tee Board of Director members Steve Coman and Dick Schwob. Past events have been held at Pinehurst Resort, the Country Club of North Carolina, Pine Needles and Forest Creek.
“This event has raised much-needed funds for our volunteer coaches to offer 300-plus classes, clinics and tournaments each year,” said First Tee Executive Director Bill Baker. “It was a success due to the support of more than 20 corporate sponsors, including four teams from T.E. Connectivity and five from the Tin Whistles network of supportive Pinehurst residents.”
Dormie Shootout: The Dormie Club is holding a shootout tournament on Wednesdays that offers golfers a chance to play the heralded new Bill Coore-Ben Crenshaw layout at a bargain rate. The tournaments, using a four-person Stableford scoring format, are limited to 72 players, and prizes are awarded to teams and individuals.
The entry fee is $75, including carts and prizes. Caddies and forecaddies are available. For information, contact Randy Cavanaugh or Mike Phillips at (910) 947-3240 or (678) 982-0511.
N.C. Amateur: Brooks Honeycutt and Patrick Barrett, of Pinehurst, were among 15 players to earn berths in the North Carolina Amateur Championship in a qualifying tournament held Echo Farms Golf and Country Club in Wilmington.
Honeycutt tied for sixth with 74, while Barrett tied for ninth with 75.
Patrick Sawrey, of Smithfield, shot even-par 72 to earn medalist honors.
Christian McDonald, of Pinehurst, missed the cut with 79, as did Lincoln Jackson, of Southern Pines, with 82.
Third Ace: Dick Mitchell, a resident of Pinewild and the executive director of the Carolinas Golf Reporters Association, scored his third hole-in-one last week. Mitchell aced the 147-yard 17th hole on Pinewild’s Holly Course with a 5-wood.
“This event has raised much-needed funds for our volunteer coaches to offer 300-plus classes, clinics and tournaments each year,” said First Tee Executive Director Bill Baker. “It was a success due to the support of more than 20 corporate sponsors, including four teams from T.E. Connectivity and five from the Tin Whistles network of supportive Pinehurst residents.”
Dormie Shootout: The Dormie Club is holding a shootout tournament on Wednesdays that offers golfers a chance to play the heralded new Bill Coore-Ben Crenshaw layout at a bargain rate. The tournaments, using a four-person Stableford scoring format, are limited to 72 players, and prizes are awarded to teams and individuals.
The entry fee is $75, including carts and prizes. Caddies and forecaddies are available. For information, contact Randy Cavanaugh or Mike Phillips at (910) 947-3240 or (678) 982-0511.
N.C. Amateur: Brooks Honeycutt and Patrick Barrett, of Pinehurst, were among 15 players to earn berths in the North Carolina Amateur Championship in a qualifying tournament held Echo Farms Golf and Country Club in Wilmington.
Honeycutt tied for sixth with 74, while Barrett tied for ninth with 75.
Patrick Sawrey, of Smithfield, shot even-par 72 to earn medalist honors.
Christian McDonald, of Pinehurst, missed the cut with 79, as did Lincoln Jackson, of Southern Pines, with 82.
Third Ace: Dick Mitchell, a resident of Pinewild and the executive director of the Carolinas Golf Reporters Association, scored his third hole-in-one last week. Mitchell aced the 147-yard 17th hole on Pinewild’s Holly Course with a 5-wood.
2011年5月26日星期四
Comedy dancing has been around a long time
Comedy dancing has been around a long time. We’ve probably all seen magnificent displays from the likes of the Monty Python team, Ricky Gervais and even Alan Partridge, with his genuinely arousing striptease. But there’s definitely something quite unique about the comedy dance duo New Art Club.
Most notably, they're both trained and highly experienced dancers, which means they can do a lot more than your average overweight comedian, prancing about like a mal-coordinated baboon. Furthermore, their entire act is built around inventive comic routines that exploit those dancing talents, making this the first comedy show I’ve seen completely devoted to the medium of dance. Whereas many comedians incorporate dancing to look as ridiculous as possible, New Art Club have a deadpan seriousness about much of their performance (though they are also perfectly capable of extreme silliness at times as well).
In this respect, they remind me most of Laurel and Hardy, dancing the brilliantly choreographed and beautifully executed routine outside the saloon doors in Way out West, the charm of which is that they play it straight. There are no particularly silly faces or movements as such; just a real sense of joy about what they’re doing.
This links into another quality New Art Club have: great chemistry. Pete Shenton plays the more intellectual, serious member of the team whilst Tom Roden is the more passionate and silly. Yet, as with many double acts, the two characters are actually very similar, as we see when their facades start to slip and they lose control of their actions. Also crucial (and another feature of most top double acts) is the sense of mutual affection between them, no matter how much they slag each other off behind the other’s back.
Most notably, they're both trained and highly experienced dancers, which means they can do a lot more than your average overweight comedian, prancing about like a mal-coordinated baboon. Furthermore, their entire act is built around inventive comic routines that exploit those dancing talents, making this the first comedy show I’ve seen completely devoted to the medium of dance. Whereas many comedians incorporate dancing to look as ridiculous as possible, New Art Club have a deadpan seriousness about much of their performance (though they are also perfectly capable of extreme silliness at times as well).
In this respect, they remind me most of Laurel and Hardy, dancing the brilliantly choreographed and beautifully executed routine outside the saloon doors in Way out West, the charm of which is that they play it straight. There are no particularly silly faces or movements as such; just a real sense of joy about what they’re doing.
This links into another quality New Art Club have: great chemistry. Pete Shenton plays the more intellectual, serious member of the team whilst Tom Roden is the more passionate and silly. Yet, as with many double acts, the two characters are actually very similar, as we see when their facades start to slip and they lose control of their actions. Also crucial (and another feature of most top double acts) is the sense of mutual affection between them, no matter how much they slag each other off behind the other’s back.
The vacant car repair lot hardly
The vacant car repair lot hardly looks out of place in a vibrant but gritty part of the northern colonial city of Durango, famous as the set for John Wayne westerns.
Only a closer look reveals the secrets hidden at “Servicios Multiples Carita Medina,” clues to exactly what kind of “multiple services” were rendered. The freshly turned soil is sprinkled with lime to kill the smell and littered with discarded Latex gloves and an empty cardboard box: “Adult Cadaver Bag. 600 gauge, Long Zipper, For Cadavers of up to 75 inches. 15 pieces.”
In the most gruesome find in Mexico’s four-year attack on organized crime, police dug up 89 bodies in the repair lot, buried over time in plain sight of homes, schools and stores.
Then, like the killers, authorities left one of Mexico’s most puzzling crime scenes completely open and unprotected.
It was the largest of seven graves found in bustling urban areas of the city of almost 600,000, where a total of 219 bodies have been uncovered since April 11.
Publicly, authorities say they don’t know who’s inside the graves in a state that was home to Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa, but that today is more synonymous with the country’s powerful Sinaloa drug cartel. Officials only say the mass graves probably hold the corpses of executed rivals from other gangs or possibly kidnap victims and even some police.
A new and more detailed account, however, comes from a top federal police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press because of security reasons. The official said investigations indicate the grave holds rivals of the Sinaloa cartel, and that the once orderly and brutally efficient gang is undergoing a bloody internal power struggle in Durango.
The Sinaloa cartel had seemed immune to the kind of missteps, mindless violence and internal power struggles that have plagued other drug gangs, to the extent that most Mexicans believed the Sinaloa cartel was either exceedingly sophisticated or in cahoots with the government.
But the portrait now emerging from the 219 corpses is of a cartel that is riven by internal cracks, according to the official.
Only a closer look reveals the secrets hidden at “Servicios Multiples Carita Medina,” clues to exactly what kind of “multiple services” were rendered. The freshly turned soil is sprinkled with lime to kill the smell and littered with discarded Latex gloves and an empty cardboard box: “Adult Cadaver Bag. 600 gauge, Long Zipper, For Cadavers of up to 75 inches. 15 pieces.”
In the most gruesome find in Mexico’s four-year attack on organized crime, police dug up 89 bodies in the repair lot, buried over time in plain sight of homes, schools and stores.
Then, like the killers, authorities left one of Mexico’s most puzzling crime scenes completely open and unprotected.
It was the largest of seven graves found in bustling urban areas of the city of almost 600,000, where a total of 219 bodies have been uncovered since April 11.
Publicly, authorities say they don’t know who’s inside the graves in a state that was home to Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa, but that today is more synonymous with the country’s powerful Sinaloa drug cartel. Officials only say the mass graves probably hold the corpses of executed rivals from other gangs or possibly kidnap victims and even some police.
A new and more detailed account, however, comes from a top federal police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press because of security reasons. The official said investigations indicate the grave holds rivals of the Sinaloa cartel, and that the once orderly and brutally efficient gang is undergoing a bloody internal power struggle in Durango.
The Sinaloa cartel had seemed immune to the kind of missteps, mindless violence and internal power struggles that have plagued other drug gangs, to the extent that most Mexicans believed the Sinaloa cartel was either exceedingly sophisticated or in cahoots with the government.
But the portrait now emerging from the 219 corpses is of a cartel that is riven by internal cracks, according to the official.
2011年5月24日星期二
No one wants to challenge the first sentence
No one wants to challenge the first sentence of the NCAA website’s discussion of the issue: "Student-athletes are students first and athletes second. They are not university employees who are paid for their labor."
That’s fine. This is only a first, tentative step. It is not all about altruism, either. Even if you just gave the money to football and men’s basketball players, the cash cows, you would be talking about $300,000 a year at a football factory-level place. There is no way that people in non-BCS leagues could afford such a thing without tapping a currently non-existent revenue stream.
Thus, the issue: If you are a high school football player, and you are pretty good but not great, and you have a choice between starting for Small U or playing special teams at Big U - and Big U is able to offer you $3,000 a year in spending money on top of the current scholarship - well, let’s just say that Big U and its brethren are going to have the best special teams in their history.
That is the obvious flaw - that a lot of Division I schools couldn’t afford it without finding some money somewhere, while teams in the biggest leagues could write the check without a great stretch. The Big Ten, with its television network, makes a ridiculous amount of money - which is undoubtedly why this has begun there.
But the conversation needs to continue. Coaches have never made more money and leagues have never generated more television revenue. Meanwhile, the players, especially in football, never have been under more financial pressure. We already have seen missed field goals cost schools millions of dollars - the difference between BCS and non-BCS bowl-game payouts.
That’s fine. This is only a first, tentative step. It is not all about altruism, either. Even if you just gave the money to football and men’s basketball players, the cash cows, you would be talking about $300,000 a year at a football factory-level place. There is no way that people in non-BCS leagues could afford such a thing without tapping a currently non-existent revenue stream.
Thus, the issue: If you are a high school football player, and you are pretty good but not great, and you have a choice between starting for Small U or playing special teams at Big U - and Big U is able to offer you $3,000 a year in spending money on top of the current scholarship - well, let’s just say that Big U and its brethren are going to have the best special teams in their history.
That is the obvious flaw - that a lot of Division I schools couldn’t afford it without finding some money somewhere, while teams in the biggest leagues could write the check without a great stretch. The Big Ten, with its television network, makes a ridiculous amount of money - which is undoubtedly why this has begun there.
But the conversation needs to continue. Coaches have never made more money and leagues have never generated more television revenue. Meanwhile, the players, especially in football, never have been under more financial pressure. We already have seen missed field goals cost schools millions of dollars - the difference between BCS and non-BCS bowl-game payouts.
As per rules of the Mid-day Meal scheme
As per rules of the Mid-day Meal scheme, a school has to supply prepared food for at least 20 days a month but the target could not be met as they could not get rice regularly.
At some point of time, the supply was made for three to four months together, he went on to reveal.
Owing to the irregularity in the supply of rice, cooks appointed for preparation of food got their monthly honorariums without discharging their duties.
Even though, food was not supplied to the students, the cooks received the amount sanctioned for buying firewood and other food items, which is ' 50 a day.
Local MLAs sometimes intervened in appointing cooks to the schools, another headmaster disclosed.
When Hueiyen Lanpao asked an official of the ZEO office, he said that the rice under the scheme is being supplied to the schools after submitting indents to the DC concerned who in turn furnish them to the FCI authority.
They do not measure the weight of each rice bag at the time of offloading at the ZEO godown.
In some instances, each bag weighed less than 50 kg due to rupture of gunny bags.
There is no question of deducting rice by the officials of the ZEO, he said alleging that the teachers often lodged complaints after they had siphoned off the rice before depositing it at their schools.
Apart from this, most headmasters are not sincere to put up the exact number of students in their respective schools.
For example, when only around 20 students were enrolled in some schools, they put the number students over 100 in order to get more rice.
Besides this, most of the headmasters do not maintain the stock of the rice left over each month even though the left over rice which resulted from the absence of students are to be kept in their stock and to submit a detail report to the ZEO, the official added.
At some point of time, the supply was made for three to four months together, he went on to reveal.
Owing to the irregularity in the supply of rice, cooks appointed for preparation of food got their monthly honorariums without discharging their duties.
Even though, food was not supplied to the students, the cooks received the amount sanctioned for buying firewood and other food items, which is ' 50 a day.
Local MLAs sometimes intervened in appointing cooks to the schools, another headmaster disclosed.
When Hueiyen Lanpao asked an official of the ZEO office, he said that the rice under the scheme is being supplied to the schools after submitting indents to the DC concerned who in turn furnish them to the FCI authority.
They do not measure the weight of each rice bag at the time of offloading at the ZEO godown.
In some instances, each bag weighed less than 50 kg due to rupture of gunny bags.
There is no question of deducting rice by the officials of the ZEO, he said alleging that the teachers often lodged complaints after they had siphoned off the rice before depositing it at their schools.
Apart from this, most headmasters are not sincere to put up the exact number of students in their respective schools.
For example, when only around 20 students were enrolled in some schools, they put the number students over 100 in order to get more rice.
Besides this, most of the headmasters do not maintain the stock of the rice left over each month even though the left over rice which resulted from the absence of students are to be kept in their stock and to submit a detail report to the ZEO, the official added.
2011年5月17日星期二
Keeping It Local in Phoenix
Organized by the Arizona chapter of Fashion Group International and Local First Arizona, it's a kind of community trunk show at Legend City, designed to bring Valley designers and business owners together and expose them to each other's customer base.
"As a fashion organization, we want to support anything fashion that's happening," said Angela Johnson, a Scottsdale clothing designer and Fashion Group International member. "But it's an international organization and we wanted to do something that focused on local talent as a way to highlight the best of best."
Johnson, who helped organize the expo, is one of the nearly 30 vendors. She'll be giving shoppers 50 percent discounts on her dresses, which are made from recycled t-shirts.
Many of the vendors will be offering deals, she said, to help off-set the $10 admission. And, each will contribute a raffle item, which may include gowns and jewelry made with real gemstones.
Glendale-based Pink House Boutique will be there, along with designers Alina Iovita and Rebecca Turley of Nostalgic Boutique. Tempe-based Rock N Couture will bring a collection of burlap handbags embellished with designer fabrics and Swarovski crystals, and Phoenix-based Mikki's Millinery will sell formal and summer hats.
Johnson said the vendors were selected, in part, for their trendiness, so expect to see a lot of white, clothes and necklaces with varying layers and lengths, and products made from recycled materials.
Two new vendors are Vonanningham Featherwear, headed by Ann Cunningham, a 21-year-old who makes feather earrings in Mesa, and Mystic Pieces, owned by Shelly Brooks, a 48-year-old jeweler who makes steampunk-inspired pieces in Laveen.
Both women sell their products online and in boutiques - Cunningham at MADE Art Boutique in Phoenix, and Brooks at Evermore Nevermore in Mesa, English Rose Tearoom in Cave Creek and a few other stores.
But, they said, the expo gives them the opportunity to attract new customers and network with other Phoenix-area designers and business owners.
"Angela Johnson reached out and gave me an opportunity to apply to be part of Keeping It Local," Cunningham said. "We've ever met, but she liked my work and extended a hand out. I love the sense of community of it."
Johnson said products range from less than $10 to a few hundred. She recommended that shoppers bring cash or checks because not every vendor can accept credit cards.
"As a fashion organization, we want to support anything fashion that's happening," said Angela Johnson, a Scottsdale clothing designer and Fashion Group International member. "But it's an international organization and we wanted to do something that focused on local talent as a way to highlight the best of best."
Johnson, who helped organize the expo, is one of the nearly 30 vendors. She'll be giving shoppers 50 percent discounts on her dresses, which are made from recycled t-shirts.
Many of the vendors will be offering deals, she said, to help off-set the $10 admission. And, each will contribute a raffle item, which may include gowns and jewelry made with real gemstones.
Glendale-based Pink House Boutique will be there, along with designers Alina Iovita and Rebecca Turley of Nostalgic Boutique. Tempe-based Rock N Couture will bring a collection of burlap handbags embellished with designer fabrics and Swarovski crystals, and Phoenix-based Mikki's Millinery will sell formal and summer hats.
Johnson said the vendors were selected, in part, for their trendiness, so expect to see a lot of white, clothes and necklaces with varying layers and lengths, and products made from recycled materials.
Two new vendors are Vonanningham Featherwear, headed by Ann Cunningham, a 21-year-old who makes feather earrings in Mesa, and Mystic Pieces, owned by Shelly Brooks, a 48-year-old jeweler who makes steampunk-inspired pieces in Laveen.
Both women sell their products online and in boutiques - Cunningham at MADE Art Boutique in Phoenix, and Brooks at Evermore Nevermore in Mesa, English Rose Tearoom in Cave Creek and a few other stores.
But, they said, the expo gives them the opportunity to attract new customers and network with other Phoenix-area designers and business owners.
"Angela Johnson reached out and gave me an opportunity to apply to be part of Keeping It Local," Cunningham said. "We've ever met, but she liked my work and extended a hand out. I love the sense of community of it."
Johnson said products range from less than $10 to a few hundred. She recommended that shoppers bring cash or checks because not every vendor can accept credit cards.
Thanks to globalization, uneasy public sentiment about foreign cars has waned in recent years.
In particular, young Koreans have driven the change. Foreign automakers say the general sentiment has turned to “favorable” from “negative” as younger generations, born in the 1970s and 1980s, have become mainstream buyers.
They also say the number of Korean female drivers of foreign-made cars has been increasing recently, regardless of age.
“Younger customers have less negative sentiment against imported cars,” a spokeswoman of Audi Korea said. “This means the general perception of foreign cars is changing fast.”
She said young customers in their 30s and 20s have been buying more foreign cars over the past few years.
A BMW Korea executive said that the rise in demand from younger consumers reflects their liberal attitudes and stronger individualism, with the Internet era and increased overseas travel also contributing to a weakening of nationalistic sentiment among youth.
“Young customers just choose what they want of their own free will, without caring much about conventional ideas,” the official said.
He said many imported car models with affordable prices are now also attractive to young drivers, adding that until the 1990s, high-income male customers in their 40s and 50s were the mainstream customers.
In particular, young Koreans have driven the change. Foreign automakers say the general sentiment has turned to “favorable” from “negative” as younger generations, born in the 1970s and 1980s, have become mainstream buyers.
They also say the number of Korean female drivers of foreign-made cars has been increasing recently, regardless of age.
“Younger customers have less negative sentiment against imported cars,” a spokeswoman of Audi Korea said. “This means the general perception of foreign cars is changing fast.”
She said young customers in their 30s and 20s have been buying more foreign cars over the past few years.
A BMW Korea executive said that the rise in demand from younger consumers reflects their liberal attitudes and stronger individualism, with the Internet era and increased overseas travel also contributing to a weakening of nationalistic sentiment among youth.
“Young customers just choose what they want of their own free will, without caring much about conventional ideas,” the official said.
He said many imported car models with affordable prices are now also attractive to young drivers, adding that until the 1990s, high-income male customers in their 40s and 50s were the mainstream customers.
2011年5月10日星期二
Luanne's Boutique
Luanne's has creative, original pieces that would please any person on the receiving end. Their unique jewelry pieces include beaded bracelets, large, statement necklaces and colorful earrings. In addition to jewelry, clothing and accessories are also sold. Floral scarves and handbags fill the shop.
Need something great to wear to the million and one parties you were invited to? Not only does Luanne's have great picks, but with the array of accessories, you can change up your look without having to break the bank on a new outfit for every event.
Looking for something for the home? For a shower gift, perhaps? Luanne's also has home decor pieces including mirrors, wreathes, vases and floral arrangements.
Next time you're stumped on what to get the person who has everything or you are looking to get yourself a fancy treat, head to Luanne's.
Need something great to wear to the million and one parties you were invited to? Not only does Luanne's have great picks, but with the array of accessories, you can change up your look without having to break the bank on a new outfit for every event.
Looking for something for the home? For a shower gift, perhaps? Luanne's also has home decor pieces including mirrors, wreathes, vases and floral arrangements.
Next time you're stumped on what to get the person who has everything or you are looking to get yourself a fancy treat, head to Luanne's.
Prada shop in Scottsdale to rouse Valley fashionistas
Italian luxury retailer Prada will open its first Arizona store at Scottsdale Fashion Square later this year.
The high-end Milan fashion house, led by head designer Miuccia Prada, has been noticeably absent from the Arizona retail-fashion scene, and its arrival reflects the area's growing shopping clout.
Prada currently operates boutiques in 10 U.S. markets that sell women's, men's and some children's clothing and shoes in addition to handbags, jewelry, eyeglasses, belts and leather goods.
The Scottsdale store is good news for Prada fans who have seen the label become scarce in the Phoenix area as the designer has moved to enhance the exclusivity of the brand.
Prada has steadily reduced shipments of its products to upscale department-store chains such as Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and Barney's New York, where the label was once readily available.
Prada contends its brand is cheapened when the products are subject to department-store discounts.
Instead, Prada and other luxury labels, such as Gucci and Dior, have been pressing department stores to lease them space inside their stores for independent boutiques, or concessions.
In Las Vegas, Prada staffs and operates a boutique inside Neiman Marcus. The fashion label shoulders more risk with a concession but has more control over prices.
Not all retailers are cooperating. In February, Barney's turned down Prada's request for concessions, which prompted the designer to pull its women's wear out of all of Barney's stores, including its location at Scottsdale Fashion Square.
The spat with Barney's further reduced the availability of the Prada label in the Phoenix area and may have contributed to the decision to open the stand-alone boutique.
Prada did not return calls seeking comment on its decision.
The Prada boutique will be located near rival Gucci on the mall's second level where a sign announces the store's expected arrival. An expected opening date is unknown.
Prada was founded in 1913 by Mario Prada as a leather-goods shop that sold trunks and handbags. His granddaughter Miuccia took over the business in 1978, and with help from business manager and eventual husband Patrizio Bertelli, she built it into one of the world's top fashion labels. The brand became a household word with the 2003 novel "The Devil Wears Prada" and its screen adaption in 2006 starring Meryl Streep.
There are now more than 250 Prada boutiques worldwide, that generate more than $2.4 billion in annual sales.
The high-end Milan fashion house, led by head designer Miuccia Prada, has been noticeably absent from the Arizona retail-fashion scene, and its arrival reflects the area's growing shopping clout.
Prada currently operates boutiques in 10 U.S. markets that sell women's, men's and some children's clothing and shoes in addition to handbags, jewelry, eyeglasses, belts and leather goods.
The Scottsdale store is good news for Prada fans who have seen the label become scarce in the Phoenix area as the designer has moved to enhance the exclusivity of the brand.
Prada has steadily reduced shipments of its products to upscale department-store chains such as Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and Barney's New York, where the label was once readily available.
Prada contends its brand is cheapened when the products are subject to department-store discounts.
Instead, Prada and other luxury labels, such as Gucci and Dior, have been pressing department stores to lease them space inside their stores for independent boutiques, or concessions.
In Las Vegas, Prada staffs and operates a boutique inside Neiman Marcus. The fashion label shoulders more risk with a concession but has more control over prices.
Not all retailers are cooperating. In February, Barney's turned down Prada's request for concessions, which prompted the designer to pull its women's wear out of all of Barney's stores, including its location at Scottsdale Fashion Square.
The spat with Barney's further reduced the availability of the Prada label in the Phoenix area and may have contributed to the decision to open the stand-alone boutique.
Prada did not return calls seeking comment on its decision.
The Prada boutique will be located near rival Gucci on the mall's second level where a sign announces the store's expected arrival. An expected opening date is unknown.
Prada was founded in 1913 by Mario Prada as a leather-goods shop that sold trunks and handbags. His granddaughter Miuccia took over the business in 1978, and with help from business manager and eventual husband Patrizio Bertelli, she built it into one of the world's top fashion labels. The brand became a household word with the 2003 novel "The Devil Wears Prada" and its screen adaption in 2006 starring Meryl Streep.
There are now more than 250 Prada boutiques worldwide, that generate more than $2.4 billion in annual sales.
2011年5月6日星期五
Google faces its next big challenge
There is, in the words of Jeff Atwood, "trouble in the house of Google". It's not unrest within the company that he's talking about, though; it's externally among users who are beginning to find that when they try to do searches to evaluate or buy consumer items - such as dishwashers, or iPhone 4 cases - or to find a site that will give them some useful answers, that Google's results are awash with spam.
In fact, the problem that plagued the first generation of search engines such as Altavista now seems to be gaining traction on Google, which outdistanced those earlier rivals precisely because it dumped the spam so effectively.
Paul Kedrosky ("investor, speaker, writer, media guy, and entrepreneur") noted in a plaintive post in mid-December that
"Over the weekend I tried to buy a new dishwasher. Being the fine net-friendly fellow that I am, I began Google-ing for information. And Google-ing. and Google-ing. As I tweeted frustratedly at the tend of the failed exercise, 'To a first approximation, the entire web is spam when it comes to appliance reviews'."
Kedrosky noted that "Google has become a snake that too readily consumes its own keyword tail. Identify some words that show up in profitable searches - from appliances, to mesothelioma suits, to kayak lessons - churn out content cheaply and regularly, and you're done. On the web, no-one knows you're a content-grinder."
He also adds that "Google has to know this. The problem is too big and obvious to miss."
And indeed Google does know about this. Jeff Atwood at Coding Horror - one half of the creators of Stack Overflow (the other half being Joel Spolsky) and the other "Overflow" sites (which let people ask questions on a topic and the better ones get voted up - like a, ahem, better version of Quora) - had already noticed how sites which scrape Stack Overflow and its siblings actually rank better on Google than the original.
Now, Stack Overflow allows scraping, as long as there's a link back to the original (which cannot be a nofollow); yet even with this, it ranked below the scraping sites.
Atwood consulted Matt Cutts, Google anti-spam king:
"We did a ton of due diligence on webmasters.stackexchange.com to ensure we weren't doing anything overtly stupid, and uber-mensch Matt Cutts went out of his way to investigate the hand-vetted search examples contributed in response to my tweet asking for search terms where the scrapers dominated. Issues were found on both sides, and changes were made. Success!"
Except it isn't really success. It's a temporary respite. As Atwood points out moments later, "Anecdotally, my personal search results have also been noticeably worse lately. As part of Christmas shopping for my wife, I searched for 'iPhone 4 case' in Google. I had to give up completely on the first two pages of search results as utterly useless, and searched Amazon instead."
In fact, the problem that plagued the first generation of search engines such as Altavista now seems to be gaining traction on Google, which outdistanced those earlier rivals precisely because it dumped the spam so effectively.
Paul Kedrosky ("investor, speaker, writer, media guy, and entrepreneur") noted in a plaintive post in mid-December that
"Over the weekend I tried to buy a new dishwasher. Being the fine net-friendly fellow that I am, I began Google-ing for information. And Google-ing. and Google-ing. As I tweeted frustratedly at the tend of the failed exercise, 'To a first approximation, the entire web is spam when it comes to appliance reviews'."
Kedrosky noted that "Google has become a snake that too readily consumes its own keyword tail. Identify some words that show up in profitable searches - from appliances, to mesothelioma suits, to kayak lessons - churn out content cheaply and regularly, and you're done. On the web, no-one knows you're a content-grinder."
He also adds that "Google has to know this. The problem is too big and obvious to miss."
And indeed Google does know about this. Jeff Atwood at Coding Horror - one half of the creators of Stack Overflow (the other half being Joel Spolsky) and the other "Overflow" sites (which let people ask questions on a topic and the better ones get voted up - like a, ahem, better version of Quora) - had already noticed how sites which scrape Stack Overflow and its siblings actually rank better on Google than the original.
Now, Stack Overflow allows scraping, as long as there's a link back to the original (which cannot be a nofollow); yet even with this, it ranked below the scraping sites.
Atwood consulted Matt Cutts, Google anti-spam king:
"We did a ton of due diligence on webmasters.stackexchange.com to ensure we weren't doing anything overtly stupid, and uber-mensch Matt Cutts went out of his way to investigate the hand-vetted search examples contributed in response to my tweet asking for search terms where the scrapers dominated. Issues were found on both sides, and changes were made. Success!"
Except it isn't really success. It's a temporary respite. As Atwood points out moments later, "Anecdotally, my personal search results have also been noticeably worse lately. As part of Christmas shopping for my wife, I searched for 'iPhone 4 case' in Google. I had to give up completely on the first two pages of search results as utterly useless, and searched Amazon instead."
Cara makes a welcome return to town
Cara in Duke Street has returned to the town where the business started in the Sixties.
The shop, which is in the former Betfred premises, sells women抯 clothes, bags, accessories and its own brand of shoes and boots as well as designer items.
Henley Mayor Jeni Wood attended the official opening on Saturday.
The business began as a store called Midas, also in Duke Street, which then merged with Turner shoes before the business changed its name to Cara in the Eighties.
Managing director Jim Sommerville, who joined the company in 1982, said: "It抯 nice to be back in Henley. We have been encouraged by the comments we抳e received and look forward to being here for many years to come."
The company抯 head office is in Reading and it has six other shops, including ones in Caversham and Wokingham.
The shop, which is in the former Betfred premises, sells women抯 clothes, bags, accessories and its own brand of shoes and boots as well as designer items.
Henley Mayor Jeni Wood attended the official opening on Saturday.
The business began as a store called Midas, also in Duke Street, which then merged with Turner shoes before the business changed its name to Cara in the Eighties.
Managing director Jim Sommerville, who joined the company in 1982, said: "It抯 nice to be back in Henley. We have been encouraged by the comments we抳e received and look forward to being here for many years to come."
The company抯 head office is in Reading and it has six other shops, including ones in Caversham and Wokingham.
2011年5月3日星期二
Ready, set, Swap & Shop downtown
Nine weeks, 40 booths, $100 prizes and an $11,000 goal.
Those are the numbers Swap & Shop organizers are dealing with as they get ready for this year’s first event Thursday, May 5.
Cherrine Wheeler, tasked with keeping track of raffle ticket sales and donations, likened the Thursday evening marketplace to a weekly citywide garage sale all on one block.
For nine weeks, from May 5 to June 30, vendors and shoppers will congregate in Smithville’s downtown courtyard, one group peddling their wares and the other hoping to find a bargain.
Last year Swap & Shop debuted as a fundraising effort sponsored by the Downtown Heritage Business District Association to build a public restroom downtown. This year the goal is the same, but there will be some payback for a select number of shoppers.
A raffle has been added at 7:30 p.m. each Thursday.
“If you are there and your name is drawn, you will receive $100,” Wheeler said.
But you don’t have to be present to win. If your name is drawn and you’re not on site, you will receive $50, and another drawing will decide who wins the remaining $50.
The name of anyone who makes a donation to the bathroom fund will be included on a plaque on the exterior of the future building.
“This is a chance for people to be a part of the history of this town,” Wheeler said.
Donations can be made at the Platte Valley Bank on Main Street.
Filling the booths
Margie Filger is coordinating booth rentals. As of Friday, April 29, half of the 40 total booths had been taken, some for a single night and some for Swap & Shop’s whole season.
There will vendors with food like popcorn and jerky, candles, glassware, flower arrangements, jewelry, wooden crafts, handbags and fresh-from-the-field produce.
Among the vendors will be the familiar faces of local store owners like Jean’s Flowers and Midwest Grills & BBQ Supplies.
Filger was a vendor last year and will be selling candles this year.
Finances aside, there is an educational benefit to having a booth at the market, she said, explaining that it’s a great way for a business to get its name out to the community.
And sellers get a different perspective on potential customers.
“It was a good way to see what people are buying,” Filger said.
Prospective vendors can still sign up for one of the Thursday evening sales.
Anyone interested in renting a booth should contact Filger at 620-687-3666. The cost is $10 per week.
Following the money
Money from booth rentals, raffle ticket sales and donations will all go toward the bathroom fund.
“We need a bathroom desperately,” Filger said.
Under the current proposal, if the community raises $20,000, the city would put forth $20,000 to hit the project’s estimated $40,000 cost.
Wheeler said $11,000 was the target amount to be raised through Swap & Shop and $9,000 was still needed.
The Chamber of Commerce has committed to helping with the community portion of the cost.
Filger said she hoped this would be the last year the Swap & Shop would need to raise money for the bathroom project, but it’s not because she wants the market to end. In the future, the market could benefit another worthy cause.
“It doesn’t have to be every year for the potties,” she said.
Those are the numbers Swap & Shop organizers are dealing with as they get ready for this year’s first event Thursday, May 5.
Cherrine Wheeler, tasked with keeping track of raffle ticket sales and donations, likened the Thursday evening marketplace to a weekly citywide garage sale all on one block.
For nine weeks, from May 5 to June 30, vendors and shoppers will congregate in Smithville’s downtown courtyard, one group peddling their wares and the other hoping to find a bargain.
Last year Swap & Shop debuted as a fundraising effort sponsored by the Downtown Heritage Business District Association to build a public restroom downtown. This year the goal is the same, but there will be some payback for a select number of shoppers.
A raffle has been added at 7:30 p.m. each Thursday.
“If you are there and your name is drawn, you will receive $100,” Wheeler said.
But you don’t have to be present to win. If your name is drawn and you’re not on site, you will receive $50, and another drawing will decide who wins the remaining $50.
The name of anyone who makes a donation to the bathroom fund will be included on a plaque on the exterior of the future building.
“This is a chance for people to be a part of the history of this town,” Wheeler said.
Donations can be made at the Platte Valley Bank on Main Street.
Filling the booths
Margie Filger is coordinating booth rentals. As of Friday, April 29, half of the 40 total booths had been taken, some for a single night and some for Swap & Shop’s whole season.
There will vendors with food like popcorn and jerky, candles, glassware, flower arrangements, jewelry, wooden crafts, handbags and fresh-from-the-field produce.
Among the vendors will be the familiar faces of local store owners like Jean’s Flowers and Midwest Grills & BBQ Supplies.
Filger was a vendor last year and will be selling candles this year.
Finances aside, there is an educational benefit to having a booth at the market, she said, explaining that it’s a great way for a business to get its name out to the community.
And sellers get a different perspective on potential customers.
“It was a good way to see what people are buying,” Filger said.
Prospective vendors can still sign up for one of the Thursday evening sales.
Anyone interested in renting a booth should contact Filger at 620-687-3666. The cost is $10 per week.
Following the money
Money from booth rentals, raffle ticket sales and donations will all go toward the bathroom fund.
“We need a bathroom desperately,” Filger said.
Under the current proposal, if the community raises $20,000, the city would put forth $20,000 to hit the project’s estimated $40,000 cost.
Wheeler said $11,000 was the target amount to be raised through Swap & Shop and $9,000 was still needed.
The Chamber of Commerce has committed to helping with the community portion of the cost.
Filger said she hoped this would be the last year the Swap & Shop would need to raise money for the bathroom project, but it’s not because she wants the market to end. In the future, the market could benefit another worthy cause.
“It doesn’t have to be every year for the potties,” she said.
Vice has its virtues on Bravo!'s In Short series
MONTREAL - Nothing like a little sin to inspire Canadian filmmakers and actors. So, imagine how fired up our artists can become when confronted with a lot of sin.
In Short is an eight-part series focusing on the seven deadly sins. It kicks off with quite the bang Wednesday at 10 p.m. on Bravo. Kudos to the broadcaster simply for providing Canadian talent with a showcase, let alone undertaking such an ambitious project. Each hour-long episode is chock full of short films, featuring an array of established filmmakers and actors as well as up-and-comers.
The sin series begins with the May 4 peek into pride, and its opposite, humility. (In the interests of fair play, the producers have included a corresponding virtue to go along with the seven deadly vices.)
Over the coming weeks, viewers will be treated to examinations of envy and kindness, lust and chastity, greed and charity, wrath and patience, sloth and diligence, and gluttony and temperance – the latter an unknown term here in Sin City.
The eighth and final episode, to air June 22, will be a sort of greatest-hits compendium and will feature the Oscar-nominated short I Met the Walrus as well as a two-minute offering by homeboy and Oscar-nominated director Denis Villeneuve (Incendies).
Although only excerpts of some of the films will be broadcast over the next eight weeks, all the shorts in their entirety will be available for viewing on www.bravofact.com (even for Montrealers who don’t have Bravo as part of their cable package or who have missed an episode).
The Pride/Humility segment starts on just the right note as Montreal director/actor Joe Cobden plays an ego-crazed filmmaker who turns the camera on himself. Gazing into a mirror, he proclaims: “I love me. It’s amazing what you can learn through my eyes. I’m giving you something.” Cobden then auditions 40 actors he found on Craigslist for a starring role in a film to be called, appropriately, Greed. But can anyone measure up to the impeccable qualities of its director?
A slew of other actors – Nicholas Campbell, Liane Balaban and Dan Levy – quickly learn that pride comes before a fall in the shorts that follow on the opening instalment of the series.
One of the more arresting films in this segment is My Father Joe, set in Montreal in the mid-1940s. This is a son’s heartfelt tribute to a man who managed to evade the Nazis in France and bring his family to this city. But the dad, an expert maker of handbags, finds it difficult to adjust to his new home. It’s that pride factor rearing its head again.
Offering commentary on this sin are actors who can attest to the prevalence of pride in their business. Jason Priestley, for example, declares that vanity is the engine that drives Hollywood. Gordon Pinsent, on the other hand, stresses how humility is vital if one hopes to hang in for the long haul – as he has certainly done.
The latter’s daughter, actress Leah Pinsent, doesn’t necessarily concur with her dad: “Some do think that humility is actually the sin and that vanity is a virtue.”
The Envy/Kindness episode, airing May 11, begins with an absolutely inspired piece by beloved maverick director Bruce McDonald. A frustrated architect watches – enviously – as a flock of birds flies, perhaps south for the winter. So he decides he’d like to fly – without an airplane – and devises the most primitive and unorthodox plan to achieve flight. It involves a giant slingshot and would certainly give pause to those pioneering brothers Wright.
Also memorable in this segment is Alex and the Ghosts, a piece that will definitely resonate with local hockey fans. An animated homage to the Habs, the short sees the good guys locked in battle with the cursed Boston Bruins. And as some had always suspected, the ghosts of Canadiens teams past come to the rescue of the home squad. Which begs the question: Where were those ghosts when we needed them last week?
In Short is an eight-part series focusing on the seven deadly sins. It kicks off with quite the bang Wednesday at 10 p.m. on Bravo. Kudos to the broadcaster simply for providing Canadian talent with a showcase, let alone undertaking such an ambitious project. Each hour-long episode is chock full of short films, featuring an array of established filmmakers and actors as well as up-and-comers.
The sin series begins with the May 4 peek into pride, and its opposite, humility. (In the interests of fair play, the producers have included a corresponding virtue to go along with the seven deadly vices.)
Over the coming weeks, viewers will be treated to examinations of envy and kindness, lust and chastity, greed and charity, wrath and patience, sloth and diligence, and gluttony and temperance – the latter an unknown term here in Sin City.
The eighth and final episode, to air June 22, will be a sort of greatest-hits compendium and will feature the Oscar-nominated short I Met the Walrus as well as a two-minute offering by homeboy and Oscar-nominated director Denis Villeneuve (Incendies).
Although only excerpts of some of the films will be broadcast over the next eight weeks, all the shorts in their entirety will be available for viewing on www.bravofact.com (even for Montrealers who don’t have Bravo as part of their cable package or who have missed an episode).
The Pride/Humility segment starts on just the right note as Montreal director/actor Joe Cobden plays an ego-crazed filmmaker who turns the camera on himself. Gazing into a mirror, he proclaims: “I love me. It’s amazing what you can learn through my eyes. I’m giving you something.” Cobden then auditions 40 actors he found on Craigslist for a starring role in a film to be called, appropriately, Greed. But can anyone measure up to the impeccable qualities of its director?
A slew of other actors – Nicholas Campbell, Liane Balaban and Dan Levy – quickly learn that pride comes before a fall in the shorts that follow on the opening instalment of the series.
One of the more arresting films in this segment is My Father Joe, set in Montreal in the mid-1940s. This is a son’s heartfelt tribute to a man who managed to evade the Nazis in France and bring his family to this city. But the dad, an expert maker of handbags, finds it difficult to adjust to his new home. It’s that pride factor rearing its head again.
Offering commentary on this sin are actors who can attest to the prevalence of pride in their business. Jason Priestley, for example, declares that vanity is the engine that drives Hollywood. Gordon Pinsent, on the other hand, stresses how humility is vital if one hopes to hang in for the long haul – as he has certainly done.
The latter’s daughter, actress Leah Pinsent, doesn’t necessarily concur with her dad: “Some do think that humility is actually the sin and that vanity is a virtue.”
The Envy/Kindness episode, airing May 11, begins with an absolutely inspired piece by beloved maverick director Bruce McDonald. A frustrated architect watches – enviously – as a flock of birds flies, perhaps south for the winter. So he decides he’d like to fly – without an airplane – and devises the most primitive and unorthodox plan to achieve flight. It involves a giant slingshot and would certainly give pause to those pioneering brothers Wright.
Also memorable in this segment is Alex and the Ghosts, a piece that will definitely resonate with local hockey fans. An animated homage to the Habs, the short sees the good guys locked in battle with the cursed Boston Bruins. And as some had always suspected, the ghosts of Canadiens teams past come to the rescue of the home squad. Which begs the question: Where were those ghosts when we needed them last week?
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