Decision Making and Correct Answer

Caleb is late to his first meeting because his car broke down, and Caleb's boss concludes that Caleb is not punctual when he first walks in. 4. It is important for managers to balance managerial authority and team member autonomy. Which Of the following is true about a typical team? *b. Mangers have the latitude to make some decisions without consulting the 5. The major conclusion from the Cash studies was: Groups have a significant influence over individual members 6. Katherine project team is extremely cohesive; it has become a norm to cooperate and agree with one another.Although Katherine disagrees with mom of the influential members in the group who have decided that they do not need to conduct interviews as part of their data collection, she doesn't question their decision. As a result, the group falls prey to: *c. Grouping 7. Peter is working for a publishing company that works mainly on children's books. His team is working on a storyboard for a new book. One member suggests that it would be a good idea to introduce a children's book on sexual education for the second grade level.Before Peter can say anything, one member excitedly starts to draft a story while two others offer to work on harasser development, and a final member begins work on the cover art. This scenario is an example of: *a. Group popularization b. Shared information bias c. Confirmation bias d. Escalation of commitment 8. Fear of being challenged for speaking up will most likely lead to: a. Group popularization b. Overconfidence *c. Shared information bias 9. Zoe is leading a sales team for a jewelry company. The group has attempted to open more stores in shopping malls, but what little stores they have opened have not been very profitable.Zoe decides to request a larger budget to pursue more space in shopping malls. Zoe is demonstrating: *a. Escalation of commitment d. Ingrown/outgrip bias 10. After taking this class, you know that the most effective leaders: a. Discourage deviant op inions encourage deviant opinions c. Play the role of the designated deviant d. When did we learn about deviants this semester? 1 1 . The orientation phase of group decision making begins with: a. Brainstorming as many solutions to the problem as possible b. Critically evaluating and reflecting upon decisions *c. Clearly defining the problem d. Eating to know your team members 12. A professional NAB basketball has just retired from the game and decides o start a sports bar. The basketball player's status as a former NAB star is an example of a: *b. Diffuse status characteristic 13. Which of the following is not one of the seven steps in Puffer's (1992) model for applying power dynamics? A. Predict what individuals' points of view are likely to be; how will they feel about what they are trying to do? B. Determine what external power bases you will contend with which of them will have the most influence in the decision? C.Determine which of the various strategies and tactics for exerc ising power are most appropriate; which are likely to be effective, given he situation you confront? *d. None of the above 14. Who would be considered to have high status in an organization? A. An expert driller in an oil company b. A sales rep who is likeable and friendly c. A project manager who knows several people in other groups All of the above 15. Which of the following is not a benefit of having a deviant? *a. Deviants create conflict early, which accelerates team maturity and cohesion b. Deviants foster creativity and innovation by forcing multiple perspectives c.Deviants are the strongest opposition to Grouping d. All of the above are benefits of having a deviant 6. According to Malcolm Caldwell, people gain status by: *c. High degree of likeability d. All Of the above 17. Harold is the â€Å"guy that knows a guy. † Whenever the team proposes to bring in a contractor or use outside help, Harold always comes through with a contact. Harold is a: a. Maven Connector 18. Kelsey decides to use her Spring Break to help build houses in Southern Missouri. Unfortunately, she is the only one on her team that knows how to use a hammer. Kelsey could best be described as: *a. Maven 19.John is enthusiastic, optimistic, and well-liked by everyone on his team, asking him one of the most influential members. According to Malcolm Caldwell, author of The Tipping point, John derives his credibility from being *b. Salesperson 20. The author of the textbook gives a â€Å"Top 1 0† list of hard lessons learned by working in teams. This list includes: a. Be easy on people and tough on the problem b. Being trustworthy is a good thing c. Take your time *d. All of the above 21 . The following is an example of personalization: â€Å"We need a budget for the project by tomorrow or else we will cancel the project altogether. A. True *b. False 22. Lisa does not get the promotion she wanted. She concludes that her boss doesn't like her and is probably still is upset th at she accidentally spilled coffee on him two weeks. The following is an example of both personalization and mind reading. *a. True b. False 23. Grouping is a collaborative group decision making effort that has become popular in recent years as a valuable decision making tool. 24. Shared information bias is a common occurrence in teams where member's fear challenged or being challenged in their perspectives. True 25.The Orientation phase of decision making involves brainstorming and proposing solutions to a given problem. 6. An example of an objective of the Discussion phase of decision making would be to critique the accuracy of and evidence for one's conclusions. 27. Carl Jung defines introverts as people whose personalities lend them to spending more time alone or with small groups. False 28. Systems thinking encourages group members to resist reductionism views of problem solving in order to avoid short-sighted solutions and unintended consequences. 29. The Decision Rule phase i s often when roles and tasks are assigned. 0. Diffuse status characteristics have little to do with the task at hand and so hey are generally ignored when judging or perceiving group members. 31 . What is Fundamental Attribution Error? What are three common mistakes (aka cognitive distortions) made when receiving and responding to messages, as identified by Beck (1995), that are associated with Fundamental Attribution Error? (Note that these are different than Grouping, overconfidence, etc. ). For one of the three, give an example. Correct Answer: Varies 32. Describe the Functional Model of Decision Making.Pick two of the steps in the decision making process and describe how leaving them out might negatively affect a decision. 3. Give a personal or historical example of a decision making process gone wrong. Use your knowledge of either the Functional Model of Decision Making or the Ladder of Inference, as well as your knowledge of common decision making problems. Chi 1 . While growi ng up there are many external factors that influence the creative potential of an individual. During the adolescent and young years there is one specific factor that plays a key role in nurturing the development of creativity.This force fosters creativity through providing knowledge, resources, and encouragement to an individual. What is this force? *a. Mentoring 2. Tyler is working math problems for his calculus class. Which type of problem will most likely involve divergent thought? A. Arithmetic problem b. Drawing a graph c. Algebra problem *d. All of the above are examples of convergent thought 3. Elliot works for a large supermarket. He receives an email from Mark, the UP of Marketing. The UP wants Elliot to design a new store layout that will encourage customers to see more of the store, and so purchase more. Mark wants the design by next week.In order to accomplish his task, Elliot should: *d. Think elaborately 4. Which of the following is true concerning creative people? *d. Their creativity is often limited to one domain 5. Which of the following is not a characteristic of a creative person? *b. Acceptance of Norms 6. Which of the following is not one of the group processes that reduces the effectiveness of brainstorming? *a. Negative morning 7. In which career would convergent thought be used more commonly than divergent thought? *b. Accounting 8. At Google, employees are often given a large portion of the day to work independently on any projects that they choose.What character trait is Google trying to encourage in its employees? *b. Intrinsic Motivation 9. Ambler's (1985, 1990) poem experiment found that: *c. Extrinsic prompts have a negative effect on creativity 10. Sentimentally (1 988; 1 990) posits that creativity can be understood within three subsystems: *d. Person, domain, field 1 1 How could the difference between a field and domain be most aptly described? A domain is a realm of expertise while a field is a group of people who define exce llence for that realm 12. Which social influence has the most impact on an individual's creativity ring adolescence and young adulthood? D. Mentors 13. Generally speaking, what is the most significant social influence on the development of creativity? *a. Parents 14. Which of the following social influences is best known for having both a positive and negative influence on creative development? *a. Education 15. Which of the following statements is true concerning creative influence? *d. Mentor figures are especially important in adolescence and young adulthood, but colleagues are the primary influences in adulthood. 16. Organizational creativity under the conditions that: *a. Creative ideas should be supported, but also critiqued and evaluated 17.Each was a group leader in a project last semester, and it was very time consuming and taxing on him. This semester he has yet another group project to do. He notices that Nicole is on his team. She was also in his class last semester and he remembers her as Very proactive and hard-working. He determines that he will â€Å"sit this one out' and delegate most of his work to Nicole. Each is demonstrating: Social Loafing 18. Which of the following is not true of creative people? *c. Creative people are limited inasmuch as they are restrained by social invention 19.

Opportunities to work from home

Uncovering legitimate work from home opportunities in Canada We here at the Employment and Education Centre recognize that there are many capable and talented people who for a variety of reasons are looking for legitimate opportunities to earn a living from home. To support our clients who have a need and interest in creating a work from home situation we decided to do some research. Are there legitimate opportunities to find employment from home? How do you separate the real opportunities from the scams? What kind of work is available? These are Just a few of the questions we wanted to find answers to.We have worked elegantly to research, dig, and verify the information presented here. We Goggled a variety of terms, read articles, followed links, checked information on the WHO'S database, and then reached out to the companies presented below. Here are some symbols to guide you: Connected with the company via email, chat or telephone Link from a good source and requires further resea rch Be advised that this information comes from research on our part but we do not verify or warrant any of these sites. We are sharing this information with you and it is now your responsibility to pick up and continue to do the research.Our Professional Employment Counselors are here to support you in developing the skills and abilities to find work that suits and supports your life goals. We look forward to working with you, so please call, stop in or email us. Sincerely, The Employment and Education Centre Team 0 2012 The Employment and Education Centre 2 TELEPHONE BASED WORK Agents / Sales Lexicon Communications From their website: Lexicon Communications is looking for customer service representatives to be Independent telephone contractors, working from home.We are excited to further expand this opportunity across Canada. We offer phone opportunities (as little as 20 hrs per week up to 60 hours per week) for contractors to service the largest Communication Company in Canada. W age: $1 1. 35/hour & $12. 35 depending on your selection of shifts Payments are made to you on the 13th and the 28th of each month by direct deposit Requirements: Ability to work from home as a remote agent Availability to work a minimum of 20 hours per week between the hours of am-am with 4 of these hours on the weekend- $1 1. 5 per hour. We also have an evening option that does not require weekend work- $12. 35 per hour Complete a Voice audition Background Check (we will provide the location to complete) Windows based Computer with XP Service Pack 3 or Windows 7 High-Speed Internet service Dedicated Phone Line Approved headset http://www. Licentiousness's. Com/3201/index. HTML Transom – Home Agent Option From their website: Transom is a global employer in an industry that depends upon strong, resourceful, talented people.In return for commitment, hard work and talent we offer competitive salaries and benefits, high quality training and opportunities to forge a career in a p rogressive, client focused business. Http://careers. Transom. Com/ To go Job Search, Go to Location & select Home Agent Canada to apply 3 Contract World From their website: The World Of Work-At-Home Jobs Begins Here Contractor. Jobs is the website at the center of the expanding world of contract work for home-based customer service agents. There's nothing quite like it.The site was first launched 5 years ago in Canada and now has over 50,000 members from all across thriving new I-J based agent community at Contractor. Co. UK. Home-based agents are finding helipad, interesting work from the growing list of call enters who recruit on-line at Contractor. Jobs. Depending on who you decide to contract with you will need to invest anywhere from $30 to $300 to be trained. If you pass the training you are guaranteed work. Anne-Marie Some of North America's largest companies are recruiting right now and there's certainly a lot more companies and contracts to come. Http://'. NM. N. Ml. Contra dictoriness/work_at_home_]bobs_Canada/01 _home/ work_at_home_]bobs_ho me. HTML Alpine Access Canada We understand that Alpine Access pays From their website: When hired by Alpine you for the time you spend in training. Access, you are an employee – not an independent contractor. We are committed to you and believe that an employer-employee relationship creates the best experience for you and our clients. We've found that when our employees feel valued and excited about work, they provide great service to customers. HTTPS://]bobs. Alpenstock. Mom/work-home/employee-benefits/Canada The following are links that we found and more research is needed to see if the opportunities exist. NCO Virtual – http://www. Inconvertible. Com/index. HTML Divans – http://field. Divans. Ca/en/ Marketing – http://www. Racketing. Com/careers. HTML Converged – wry. Converges. Com/careers 4 Medical, legal and insurance transcription services from home Way With Words From th eir website: TRANSCRIPTION: APPLY TO WORK FOR US Our application process is simple yet challenging. Only between 2% – 5% of our applicants pass our assessments as we take the applicants' English-language skills very seriously.To apply to work for us as a transcriber please click here. PROOFREADING: APPLY TO WORK FOR US To apply to work with us as a proofreader, please submit your C.v. proofreader(at)weatherproofing. Com. Should you like to apply to work for us as a transcription proofreader (audio transcript proffer) please download the following sound file and request the test transcript. Instructions will be emailed to you. CAPTIONING: REGISTER WITH US To be considered for our register of capacitors in future, please submit your C.V. to captioning(at)weatherproofing. Com.Note: Only experienced individuals with own computer, internet access and appropriate captioning software need apply. Http:// www. Watchwords. Info/ Obstetrician From their website: Obstetrician Job Applica tion please complete all parts of this application, including the requested transcription sample. Thank you. Interesting to note that the head office is located in Cape Town, South Africa – they contract with Canadians regularly. Key facts about being a transcription with Obstetrician: 1. We pay $0. 50 per audio minute 2. We pay weekly via Papal for work completed the prior week 3.Work your own hours 4. Join a fun growing team! Http://www. Obstetrician. Com/ 5 Accent's From their website: Medical Transcription – Accent's Inc. , a leading provider of independent physicians across Canada, has ongoing requirements for experienced Canadian medical transcriptions/editors to work as independent contractors from home. Http://www. Accent's. Ca/careers/Canadian. PH Terra Nova From their Website: Terra Nova prides itself on hiring talented employees who support its mission of delivering high quality results and best-in-class service to each customer.

Allegory and Obstacles in The Pilgrim’s Progress

Allegory and Obstacles in The Pilgrim’s Progress In the classic allegory The Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan explains the journey of a newly-saved believer. Bunyan’s story unraveled in a dream of a man named Christian. After reading a section in the bible, Christian tells his wife and children that he must find a way to deliver them from the City of Destruction or they will be burned by fire from Heaven. As Christian sat in a field crying for salvation, a man named Evangelist advised him to run toward a shining light that would lead him to the Wicket-gate where he could learn how to be saved. Throughout his journey to the Celestial City, Christian encountered people who tried to discourage him and lead him astray in many ways. Two of these deceiving people, Worldly Wiseman and Apollyon, symbolize very common setbacks that occur in the walk of believers. Worldly Wiseman was a man of high standing in his hometown Carnal Policy. He had great knowledge of how the world sees morality. As he crossed paths with Christian he tried to convince him that going to the Celestial City was a waste of time. He told Christian not to take counsel from Evangelist or read the Bible because doing so would only lead him to peril and death. However, even though Mr. Worldly Wiseman seemed to know what he was talking about, he didn’t. He tried to deceive Christian into thinking that he could have happiness and be released from his burdens if only he lived a moral life. He considered people who took the hard road to the Celestial city foolish. (13-19) For the most part, Worldly Wiseman allegorically represents the world’s scorn of having a relationship with God. The world’s outlook, and that of Worldly Wiseman, fits right into the Devil’s plan because it makes people believe that if they are a good person they will go to Heaven without having a relationship with God and without taking the sins from their life, which is just not true. Christian was led astray by what Worldly Wiseman told him until Evangelist found him again and got him back on the road to the Celestial City. Apollyon was a horrific beast, in the Valley of Humiliation, who believed that he was lord and protector of all the land. He despised the Prince (Jesus) and killed anyone who went to seek Him. When Christian encountered Apollyon, he tried to strike fear in his heart. He told Christian to go back to his home in the City of Destruction or he would kill him as he did the others who passed to find the Prince. Christian did not listen to him, but instead told him that he liked the things of the Prince better than those of Apollyon and would not return to his previous home but continue his journey. Hearing these things enraged Apollyon and he decided to kill Christian. However Christian stood his ground and fought him for nearly half a day. Battered and injured things looked grim for Christian but when Apollyon turned his back the Lord gave him the strength he needed to pierce his sword into the monster, and he flew away bringing victory to Christian. (63-69) Within the narrative, Apollyon symbolizes subjection to worldly power and the loss of spiritual freedom. He tried to take away Christian’s freedom to choose a path towards God. Apollyon is comparable to a dictator who demands that the people under his rule must not worship or follow God, but instead take part in worldly, sinful practices. This type of government is all too common in this world. It causes people to have less knowledge of God because people fear to share the gospel in highly persecuted countries. Also the people who do know the gospel must risk everything at times. It’s hard for a father to sacrifice his wife and children or his life to follow God. However, people in lost, tyrannical countries must stay strong and fearless in their walk with God, and missionaries must trust that God can protect them as they share His Word with those countries. Evangelist went into Apollyon’s dominion, knowing the dangers, in attempt to save as many people as possib le. Christian left his home and family, and went through many trials and obstacles to follow God. God is infinitely worth it though, both Evangelist and Christian knew this. Every character in The Pilgrim’s Progress allegorically stands in for obstacles or blessings that occur in a Christian’s walk with Christ. This essay is focused on the obstacles. One of the worst things that happens in Christian churches across the world is the spectacle of half-hearted â€Å"Christians† believing that they don’t need a relationship with God. Instead, they have the mindset of Mr. Worldly Wiseman and believe following religious rules alone can get them to Heaven. Another common obstacle in a Christian’s, or even a non-believer’s walk is persecution. Apollyon, much like the world’s dictators, persecuted all who wanted to follow God. This kind of leadership makes it much more difficult for believers to follow Christ. Worldly Wiseman and Apollyon both symbolize some of the most destructive problems in the lives of Christs followers. However, those problems in reality, just as in the book, can be overcome.

Aquinas for Armchair Theologians by Timothy Renick Essay

Aquinas for Armchair Theologians by Timothy Renick - Essay Example If God is as powerful as we are led to believe, he should have the ability to eliminate Satan. However, saying that God cannot get rid of Satan brings into question a possible limitation of God’s power. Furthermore, if God is all good, he should want to terminate evil and injustice, and thus Satan. By continuing to allow Satan to wreak havoc on God’s marvelous creation, God’s goodness is being undermined. In an attempt to understand the presence of evil in the world, believers and skeptics alike are throwing God’s entire being into a circle of doubt and confusion. Aquinas steps in and tries to set the argument straight. Aquinas believes that God does not make evil; he is only capable of creating good. Evil is not a substance, a physical thing, but simply the removal of some of the good from a wholly good object. This still causes people to believe that God is the creator of evil. The Manichees believe that God is a co-creator with Satan; evil is a substanc e, and Satan is its source. Aquinas, as well as many others, refuse to accept this, as it puts Satan on the same level with God. Aquinas enforces the idea that evil is not created, but a subtraction of good. As an example, Renick turns to Adolf Hitler, claiming that, under Aquinas’s ideals, Hitler was wholly good, but a portion of this good was removed. He used his created talents for evil ends. God made good, but Hitler did evil. In the first chapter of Genesis, God made the world and â€Å"it was very good.† There are no exceptions to this. God created Satan to be completely good, though not perfect. When Satan rebelled against god, he did not become evil; his angelic abilities were still there and they were good, but he used these attributes for evil. Satan is good, yet his actions are evil. Nevertheless, we now must figure out who or what causes this removal of good. If God is the cause of the removal of good, that would make God responsible for the existence of ev il, which brings us back to the beginning of the argument. Aquinas’s perception of this part of the debate is that we, as imperfect human beings, must expect and accept that good has the ability to decay. God may be the cause of all the things that happen, but he is not morally responsible for the evil acts of human beings. The argument of God and evil turns into an argument of human beings having free choice. John Calvin and Martin Luther were under the impression that humans could not possibly have free choice, otherwise it would undermine God’s ability to be all-knowing. Calvin believed that everything we say and do is predestined by God. We have no choice but to do it, and therefore have no free will. Aquinas’s argument is more accepted by Christians, and some skeptics. Aquinas believed that if we lacked tree freedom and all is predestined by God, God could not be just. If humans have no free choice because everything is a product of God’s control, th e God punishes people for actions that are not their own. God would be unjust, which is a characteristic that goes completely against who God is. Aquinas pushes the concept that God is timeless to help further straighten out the argument. Humans may see what is behind them, and they may aware of what is ahead of them, but only to a certain point. God sees everything as it happens at once, but not before

Drug Seizure Laws Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Drug Seizure Laws - Assignment Example However in the pursuit of such forfeiture, care must be taken to ensure that those who are innocent do not unfairly suffer the same consequences. Introduction The application of the laws that ensure that the profits or benefits obtained from criminal enterprise are forfeited by the state brings about with it a myriad of challenges and obstacles. The most difficult one is working out exactly what parts of this benefit can be directly linked to the drug-associated criminal activity and which parts are not. Care must be taken to ensure that those who may have inadvertently and innocently found themselves assisting in the commission of such crime are absolved of their involvement and that they do not suffer unduly due to the activities others, especially when it can be proven that they had no knowledge of it and did actively participate. The process of such determination is purely in the hands of the investigators and it is their responsibility to ensure that those who are innocent do no t suffer while at the same time ensuring that as much as possible of the proceeds of such crime is recoverable and recovered. 1. If a house was rented but was found to be used for illegal drug-related activities, it can still be seized by the authorities since it was being used in the commission of a drug-related crime under the civil forfeiture regulations. Under these regulations the police have the right to seize any such properties (Silveira, 2010). The detail of exactly how this happens varies from State to State. In Minnesota for example the police are supposed to notify the landlord if drugs valued at more than $100 are found in a rented property. The landlord is then expected to get the tenant to vacate the property. If that doesn’t happen and a second seizure of drugs takes place then the property is liable to judicial forfeiture. Similarly if a stash of drugs valued at over $1,000 is found at a rented property it may also be seized (Pirius, 2010). In a case reported in Orange County, Southern California, a Tony Jalali’s property was seized after it was found to be used for illegal drug-related activities (Bullock & Salzman, 2013). 2. If the car belongs to a relative, the car is still liable for civil forfeiture. A car that is used for the committing of a drug-related offence and especially one that is used as a possible means of escape from lawful arrest is liable for forfeiture regardless of whether the person that was using it at the time was the legal owner or not. According to the Minnesota Forfeiture laws, as long as the retail value of the drugs is $75, the vehicle is still forfeitable. In Court, the legal owner would have to prove that they have a defense against the forfeiture or that seizure of the vehicle would cause undue hardship to the members of the owner’s family for the vehicle to be released back to them (Pirius, 2010).In many cases, proceeds from the sale of vehicles collected under the drug-related seizure laws are usually ploughed into the operations of law enforcement so it is their interest to seize as many of these as possible as it goes directly to their budget, creating an incentive for the policemen to seize such vehicles.

Sickle cell enemia Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Sickle cell enemia - Research Paper Example The disorder shortens the life expectancy of patients with few living beyond the age of fifty. Since its discovery, doctors have worked towards developing a cure for the disease. The cure has been elusive and only methods for reducing severity of the disorder such as taking penicillin and folic acid and the use of hydroxyurea for causative treatment of the disorder. Other management practices include blood transfusion therapy that raises the number of red blood cells in a patient. Bone marrow transplants in children have also been proven to significantly reduce severity of the disorder (â€Å"Woman Cured of SCA† 6). In June 2012, researchers from the University of Illinois Hospital & Health Science Systems, announced that they had developed a new transplant technique that successfully cures a sickle-cell anemia patient. The stem cell transplant requires one to have a genetically-compatible and uninfected sibling. The donor is first given drugs that cause an increase in the number of the stem cells in their blood. The donor’s blood is then taken and processed and then stored in sub-zero temperatures. At the time of the transplant, the blood is thawed and transfused in the patient ( Woman Cured of SCA 6). The transplant which is known as leukapheresis has been carried in at least 25 patients, 22 of whom have been completely cured. The therapy remains by far the most successful ever attempted to cure sickle-cell

Franz Peter Schubert Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Franz Peter Schubert - Essay Example He worked at his father’s office until the spring of 1986 and pursued his application for a higher position. From that year onwards, he failed to get a regular job. He became a freelance musician, earning money only where and when opportunity allowed him. The popularity of his music won him a lot of friends who supported him when he was financially incapable. He was not really concerned with generating income to feed and clothe himself. All he wanted to do was to focus on his musical career by writing compositions (Hurd 294).Schubert’s works have gained wide popularity and they began to appear in print in 1821. At first, his musical compositions were paid for by private subscribers. However, his musical genius was highly regarded as he was later paid by regular publishers. Entering a new a more assured phase, he wrote more piano sonatas and was elected to the Vienna Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (Franz Schubert).Schubert became famous in Viennese musical circles. Schube rt-Evenings or Schubertiads were frequently conducted where he played his latest works to his friends who were artists, poets, and wealthy bourgeoisie. His circle of friends includes Josef von Spaun, Johann Mayrhofer, and Franz von Schober. This elite circle gave him access to influential contacts like the Sonnleithners and the baritone J.M. Volg (Franz Schubert). The death of Schubert in 1828 was due to typhus. After a few days’ illness, he died and was buried in a grave near Beethoven’s (Hurd 294).... However, his musical genius was highly regarded as he was later paid by regular publishers. Entering a new a more assured phase, he wrote more piano sonatas and was elected to the Vienna Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (Franz Schubert). Schubert became famous in Viennese musical circles. Schubert-Evenings or Schubertiads were frequently conducted where he played his latest works to his friends who were artists, poets, and wealthy bourgeoisie. His circle of friends includes Josef von Spaun, Johann Mayrhofer and Franz von Schober. This elite circle gave him access to influential contacts like the Sonnleithners and the baritone J.M. Volg (Franz Schubert). The death of Schubert in 1828 was due to typhus. After a few days' illness, he died and was buried in a grave near Beethoven's (Hurd 294). His Music: Schubert is known as one o the most prolific composers of melodies in his period, with his capacity to write almost eight compositions in a day. Schubert wrote over 600 songs. The two most famous are Die Schune Mullerin and Die Winterreise. His most well known chamber music includes Piano Quintet in A major-The Trout, Piano Quartet in D minor-'The Death of the Maiden,' Octet in F major and String Quintet in C major. He was able to writ 15 string quartets, 14 piano sonatas, and sets of dances and variations for piano, as well as the remarkable 'Wanderer Fantasy.' Schubert has composed 10 symphonies, the most important ones are No. 4 in C minor-'The Tragic,' No. 5 in B flat major, No. 6 in C major, No. 8 in B minor--'The Unfinished,' and No. 9 in C major-'The Great C major." His choral music includes Mass in A flat, Mass in E flat, and many short choral songs with piano accompaniment. Schubert also

Research Report - Experimentation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Research Report - Experimentation - Essay Example The source of the trust-image (dependent variable) in the experiment was a store visit by a close ally and was manipulated as one/zero. The store image was manipulated as positive/negative implying positive or negative the impression on its ability and competence in carrying out basic store services. The experiment used apparel stores for its investigations. This was a good selection especially considering that there are a great number of new apparel stores being opened in India from time to time. This provided an excellent opportunity for carrying out a longitudinal experimental study on emergent stores. Sampling and subjects The subjects used in the experiment were students in a renowned Management Institute in India. Random sampling was used to gather the 160 subjects from four out of the institute’s seven largest dormitories. This is a good sampling procedure because it does not give room for the selection of a biased group of subjects for example subjects of a certain soc io-economic class, taste preference or whose parents own large apparel shops in India. Being college students, the subjects ranged from 20-28 years in age. This was very good considering that individuals in this age bracket were free from parental influence in terms of shopping preference for example apparel purchase. According to Kaul et al (2010), the use of male respondents is another positive aspect of this research and it improves the reliability of its results. This is because product quality for formal and informal men’s wear in large Indian apparel stores is relatively established. If ladies had been sampled in the experiment, the results would have had some levels of bias and unreliability. This is because their formal wears are western and are only available in limited range in few large stores and selected cities. However, the use of ladies under a parallel experiment would have been good for proofing further the reliability of the results obtained from male subjec ts. When the results of pre-visit and post visit scenarios were compared, they were similar. The participants also verified the research results by naming large apparel stores they could recollect after the experiment. As expected, all the participants mentioned various large regional and national apparel shops. This was in line with the hypothesis of the experiment and hence the experiment can be said to be worthy and valid in indicating that store image has an impact on the shopper trust. This was supported by use of a manipulation check to check the experiment’s believability. The manipulation check was in form of an open-ended question â€Å"According to you, on what has your friend probably based his opinion about the store?† Kaul et al (2010), In addition to the manipulation check, an additional item to test the respondents’ willingness to visit the store again was used.. However, it was not necessary to use the manipulation checks and additional test item because the data collected were too rich to be analysed. Therefore, it is true to say that the experiment was overdone. As much as the data collected was too rich, it could also be unreliable because it could just be a reflection of top-of-mind recall instead of all relevant cues. The experiment did not involve repeated experimentations which should have been done after some good

Trade or Not to Trade Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Trade or Not to Trade - Essay Example The major impact can be felt in sectors such as agriculture, automobiles, consumer goods, textiles and fashion accessories, and electronic goods. If one country imports agricultural products at certain costs that may be higher than its original costs, it probably gains by exporting electronic goods by producing the same at lower costs and selling at higher prices. It can save resources, money and time in producing agricultural goods and instead devote more towards production of electronic goods. However, proportionate benefits for all NAFTA countries in terms of labor, environment, and resources cannot be guaranteed through this agreement. These issues were regulated through formation of the NAAEC and NAALC. Initially, for the first 10 years GDP grew steadily and exports by NAFTA countries also increased tremendously. Mexico’s imports rose from 6.8% to 11.6% and earned huge profits by increasing their net trade surplus. Mexico’s per capita income decreased and resulted in loss of millions of jobs in agricultural sector. Mexican exports remained stagnant due to slowdown in US. NAFTA helped in elimination of various other pacts and further improved free trade. For example, the two classes of auto manufacturers, those with Auto pact status and those without were merged into one class after NAFTA came into existence. NAFTA brought about significant impact on cross border trade and increase in exports of raw materials and/or OEMs rather than commodities. Both export and import increased and therefore the productivity; during this process, job losses also increased in Canada in the manufacturing sector. However, job losses in one sector were compensated by creation of jobs in other sectors; this means, enhanced innovation and creativity and greater potential for harnessing unexplored areas resulted from the constraints brought by these trade agreements. Uniformity was not followed in terms of regulations followed by

Vernacular Language Essay Example for Free

Vernacular Language Essay According to the dictionary, vernacular refers to the native language of a country. Throughout Rome, the language that was used was Latin; it was used throughout the Mediterranean and became the dominant language. Widely used by people with power, kings and queens. Latin was used as the formal language used in government and politics, this all changed during the 12th century when vernacular language started to become increasingly popular. During the Renaissance, Europe was undergoing a transformation. Cultural change occurs when there is a change in language or idea. During these times, people were interested in intellectual exploration. It was during this time that people felt that only highly educated people knew Latin. Bringing about a vernacular language was a way that they felt the need to educate the ordinary people. It was during this time that they began the transformation into the vernacular language. Up until the 17th century, most scholarly works were said to be in Latin. During the 12th century, many literary works were subject to translating. Most of the time the person translating would change things, they were not concerned with the ending, only how they have changed the various pieces into art. The development of the printing press and other technological advances was thought to be a method that sped up the process of spreading vernacular language. During this time, people who were economically disadvantaged could now read and own a bible. The use of vernaculars was thought of as a way to convert the non-believers. The spread of Christianity proved to be a method for spreading vernacular language. Petrarch was thought of as one of the most important figures of this time. He criticized the habits of the culture and believed their ideas were ancient soon others followed and this brought about the birth of humanism. Humanism was based on the belief that the philosophical works of Ancient Greece and Rome provided the best guide for living. Humanism was believed to be founded on three teachings humanistic studies, moral philosophy, and the qualities that make men and women good. Women played an important role in the spread of vernacular language, noble women insisted that literature was either written or translated to vernacular. Women began to assert their role as preservers of history. (Mccash, 2008) Most women had limited education so they were not proficient in Latin, this led to the acceptance of Romance and Germanic vernaculars. Women were given a chance to express themselves and participate in courtly debates. Women played a huge role in the transformation from clergy to court. (McCash, 2008) Women felt a sense of power by the rise of vernacular language; they began to write poetry, some even became translators. In the 13th century, Margery Kemp wrote the first autobiography in the English language. â€Å"Women turned to literature to express their pain and suffering, their longing and their loss, and their beliefs and vision† (McCash, 2008)

Most Important Issues Facing British Society

Most Important Issues Facing British Society Ever since the 1880, immigrants came to Britain to flee from various reasons such as poverty, religious persecution, and other different social reasons. Britain was the worlds largest market for transportation of human lives. Now, Britain offers LGBT rights, Black rights, and other minority rights that most countries lack. Moreover, it also offers health care benefit for anyone living inside Britain. Lastly, it is a safe haven for refugees to seek for asylum. As a result, Britain has received more immigrants and asylum seekers than any other countries in the European Union. There immigrants come from countries in many different parts of the world including Afghanistan, Poland, and even Ireland. However, in the recent years, there have complaints by the British natives that there have been way too many immigrants. In the past 10 years, there are about 1.5 million people immigrated into the UK. Over two-third of them came from the continents of Asia and Africa. In 2006, the United Kingdoms population was 61 million. If immigration continues at this current rate, the total population in the UK in 2031 will be 70 million according to the government actuary department. Currently, the people born outside of the UK account for 10% of the UKs population compare that to just 6% in 1981 and 8% in 2001. This has made Britain a very ethnically diverse nation. However, there have been major clashes between cultures in the United Kingdom. Native British people believe in tradition rather than fairness and value community rather than individualism. Most indigenous British residents complained that the government allow too many immigrants to enter inside Britain and felt that the British culture has been diminished by these newly immigrants. Most of these complaints are from the London region, where most of the immigrants resided. With the large wave of immigrants, British people felt their tradition was being harmed. With the freedom of mobility in the European Union, people from countries inside the EU can visit and stay in the United Kingdom. Many of them would just stay and not return to its formal countries. There is an estimate that there could be 35000 people from outside of the European Union who come on a visitors visa and then never leave. When these immigrants arrive, they for m their own community and transforming the once British community into their own. This frustrates a lot of indigenous British citizens as they see their old community getting converted into a foreign community. For example, the largest immigrant group to Britain is Polish. Currently, Polish represents 1/60 of the population in Britain. These polish immigrants dont fully integrated into the British society and still continue their lives as if they are in Poland. They form their own community in Britain and keep themselves separated from traditional English community. Furthermore, many indigenous British citizens are concerned that their jobs might be taken away from these newly immigrants. Most of the immigrants who came into Britain are usually from poorer nations. They would work hard and would be satisfied with getting paid minimal wages. Many indigenous underclass British people have seen their jobs taken away by new immigrants. Moreover, indigenous British complain that these immigrants have received more benefits from Britain such as health care benefit than they have contributed to the system. British people argued that they see the quality of their social service decline as immigrants are drying up the social fund. According to governments latest Citizenship survey, over 77% of the population thinks that immigration should be cut. Therefore, in the UKs election in may, both the Labour and the Conservative party are considering putting a limit on immigration. They also want to increase security to prevent illegal immigration and will have stricter criteria for refugees to join, making sure that refugees genuinely need help in order to survive . Race Relation: Ethnic minority in the United Kingdom complained that they dont receive the same rights or opportunity as native white British citizens. A lot of ethnic minorities find it hard to find jobs in Politics or to take on an executive position in a company compared to white British citizens. For instance, Yasmin Aili Brown said she was the only minority in her News Paper company in the United Kingdom. The British public had been very hostile/racist against her, sending her hate mails and saying that the real Britain is for White people. A lot of ethnic minorities especially the Muslim group shares the same experience as her when it comes to discrimination. Immigrants complained that there were stereotypical and derogatory jokes towards them. For example, Black is often characterized as uneducated and uncivilized outlaws. Muslim would often have characterized as wearing Hijab, turbane all the time and their refusal of alcohol. One example our speaker Adrian gave us was an example of a Musli m who immigrated into UK 10 years ago had to change his name from Mohammad to John in order to fit in with the British Society more. He always doesnt get invited to social events or get promoted. Lastly, many ethnic minorities / immigrants dislike the fact that most British people would classify them either as Black or Asian. People from India, China, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, and Japan would all be considered Asian and People from Hispanic countries, Caribbean island are all be considered as Black. Thus, this is causing a lot of minorities feel as if they dont belonged in Britain as they have lost their identity. Therefore, the clash between the indigenous and newly immigrants is currently a serious issue facing Britain. Security: Due to the recent waves of immigrants into Britain, there is a fear of the Muslim community with Islamic religion. In 2006, 3% of the working age populations are immigrants born in the Middle East. People feel like security being jeopardized because of the concern for terrorist attack. In recent years, many terrorist activities were conducted by the Muslims who were born inside Britain. For instance, there was a coordinated suicide attacks in London subway station on July 7th, 2005. The bombings were carried out by four British Muslim men, three of Pakistani and one of Jamaican descent, who were motivated by Britains involvement in the Iraq War. Furthermore, there was an attempt bombing attack by a British African this year. Many of members of these terrorist organizations were 2nd or 3rd generation immigrants, meaning they were born in Britain. This is a serious issue currently for Britain because it cant prevent internal terrorist attacks from its own citizens. Economic recovery: Due to the recent financial crisis, Britain is currently facing serious issues in terms of cutting its unemployment rate and reducing its national debt. In 2008, the United Kingdom had to bail out its financial banks such as RBS from bankrupting because a large part of the UKs economy was financial based. As a result, the United Kingdom has piled itself with debt after many stimulus packages to revitalize the economy. Now, the United Kingdom faces the problem of fixing its financial system and the need of reducing its national debt. The UKs government has to cut public spending and raise taxes. This is a serious issue because Britains social welfare budget and government spending has already been very low due to the poor economy. It would be difficult to continue to cut spending in the public sector when there is a very high unemployment rate. Cutting spending in social welfare program would mean there will be less benefit for the UKs citizens and the homeless people who need it on t he street. Moreover, raising taxes in a country that already has a very high VAT of 20% wont be good for the economy as people will have less disposable income to spend. In order to reduce deficit, the labour party said that there will be a tax increase of 60% to only the top% of earners. The conservative party proposed to start cut spending immediately in 2010 to eliminate the UKs structural deficit within the next five years. Therefore, both parties consider the large UK deficit as a serious issue facing the UK. However, cutting spending and raising taxes would ultimately slow down the UKs recovery and would be an issue for the public as no one likes paying high taxes. UK economy is too weak for sharp spending cuts. Currently, both Tory and labor party tried to avoid taking about spending cut because the public usually isnt very supportive of it. The government faces the issue of reducing the unemployment rate at the same time because there would be social unrest. Britain certainl y doesnt want its economy to be like its economy in the 1970s when there was a very high unemployment rate. The government is currently proposing to provide training for unemployed workers in the UK for more than six months in order to solve the unemployment issue. Relationship with the Europe Union Britain has lost its once dominance as an empirical power in the world. However, it stills wants to exert influence in the world. Ever since the end of WWII, Britain is losing its once close relationship with Australia and Canada as they are continuing becoming more independent. It is hard for Britain to maintain its relationship with the commonwealth countries due to geographic reason. In 1973, Britain joined the European Union to receive funding from the EUs central budget in order to salvage its poor economy. Moreover, it joined to give Britain an more importance role in world affairs. Currently, with the rise of emerging markets such as China and India, Britain has found itself falling behind in terms of influencing the world and need to develop a closer tie with the European Union. Now, it faces the issue of whether to further integrate into the European Union or not. Currently, the European Union wants to further integrate economically and politically. However, Britain dislike the idea of political integration in Europe and still wants to keep independency/sovereignty as an imperial state. Britain refuses to adopt Euro as its official currency and refuses to contribute to its part of the share into the Common Agricultural Policy. Britain is against most of the policy proposed to the European Union such as enlargement of the EU. Thereby, most European nations consider Britain as a hindrance rather than a helper for the European progress. This is really harming the relationship between Britain and the European Union. According to the Suns poll, the majority of British citizens prefer the European Economic Community rather than the European Union, where Britain will only receive trading benefit for the EU rather than political benefit. It is not taking an advantage of its relationship with the European Union in terms of trading because most of the UKs businesses are service based. Many citizens proposed that Britain should withdraw from the EUs political uni on as they dont want a centralize government to make the decision for the British. British people want a British government, in which the British can enjoy the basic democratic free right and the ability to throw out a Government they dont like. Leaving the European Union would severely harm the relationship between the United Kingdom and Europe. Therefore, developing a good relationship with the European Union while maintaining Britains sovereignty is one of the major issues Britain is facing today. Conclusion: Britain is a rapidly transforming nation that still wants to retain its traditional customs and imperial status. However, current issues such as immigration, internal ethnic relationship, internal security, economic recovery, and Britains relationship with the EU act as major blocks to the progress of the British society. Whatever the next British government may be, these are the issues that party has to address and solve. The modern British society has to find ways to deal with these crucial issues in order to move towards a brighter future. Citations: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/apr/01/immigrationpolicy.immigrationandpublicservices1

Aline Helgs Our Rightful Share: The Afro-Cuban Struggle for Equality, 1886-1912 :: Aline Helg History Cuba Essays

Aline Helg's Our Rightful Share: The Afro-Cuban Struggle for Equality, 1886-1912 Introduction: Within Aline Helg’s book titled, Our Rightful Share: The Afro-Cuban Struggle for Equality, 1886-1912, she includes many historical events that serve as a foundation for her arguments in order to emphasize the "black struggle for equality" starting in the late 19th century and according to her, still transpiring today. These events are, the formation of the first black independent political party called the, Partido Independiente de Color (146), the United States’ role during intervention and the black struggle to overcome the system of racial hierarchies that had developed in Cuba. Blacks had to fight for equality while simultaneously being, "†¦accused of racism and antinationalism". (145) According to Helg, this placed an undue burden on the black groups that were organizing to demand their "rightful share" because it made divided the goals of their plight into many different facets, thus yielding a lack of unity necessary for their success. During the United Stat es’ intervention, Cuban nationalism as a whole was threatened which also served to downplay the importance of demands being made by the Partido’s leader, Estenoz. The United States displayed a greater concern on the affirmation of its power as an international police, rather than allying its resources to help the indignant and discriminated Afro-Cubans. All of these circumstances illustrate the extremities of the political and social institutions that the Afro-Cubans attempted to defeat but could not. They also exemplify the perpetuation of the black struggle, and how it affected and continues to affect the lives of Afro-Cubans in present-day Cuba. Racial Hierarchies and Ideologies in Cuba The entire struggle that Helg is alluding to in her book is founded within the racial hierarchies and racial ideologies that were formed early on in Cuba’s history. Several aspects of Cuban society (as discussed by Helg) served to foster the racism and the antagonistic attitudes that whites had towards the Afro-Cubans. An acute example of the inequality that the blacks were made to suffer was the denial of citizenship after 1886. According to Helg, Afro-Cubans were denied the titles of "Don" and "Doà ±a" on their identity cards. This was a blatant form of discrimination against because it prevented blacks from being considered as first class citizens, "†¦despite the fact that they were full taxpayers". (25) What Helg means by this is that even though the Afro-Cubans were participating in the economic spectrum of Cuba, they were still denied access into the political and social arenas.

A Critique of the Movie, The Birdcage (La Cage aux Folles) Essays

A Critique of the Movie, The Birdcage (La Cage aux Folles)      Ã‚  Ã‚     A gay couple, living in a gay apartment, with a gay houseboy, above a gay nightclub, in a gay city . . . and they have to straighten it all out for one evening.   In 1996 La Cage aux Folles (a 1978 French play) was remade by MGM into The Birdcage, a daringly flamboyant comedy that is in-tune with the times and redefines the idea of family values.   It combines the talents of Robin Williams (Armand), Nathan Lane (Albert), and Hank Azaria (Agador) with writer Elaine May and director Mike Nichols.   The film is brought to life by the superb uniqueness of each character and what they bring to the screen and add to the plot.   This film sheds a new light on non-traditional but equally effective family values and role models through a series of hysterical follies. The Birdcage is a film about a gay couple who have to act straight when their son's fiance's conservative, Republican parents are planning a visit.   Amidst the hysterically dramatic disasters involved with this event two valuable lessons are taught.   They are lessons in avoiding self denial, and accepting various forms of family values.   What makes The Birdcage wonderful, aside from the lessons it teaches, is it's combination of great acting abilities, the unique role of each character, and the extravagant set and props used.   A great comedy team is only to be expected when you hear the names Williams and Lane together, and a great team is exactly what The Birdcage delivers.   Lane, a Tony Award nominee really changes gears for this film from his usual Broadway stage performances.   He plays Albert, the feminine half of the gay couple who own The Birdcage nightclub.   He appears nightly in the club's dr... ...ovie worth seeing if you want a good laugh along side a good dose of family values.   With such a stellar cast, crew, and director, only a movie of such absolute hysteria delivering such sound messages could be produced.   These qualities are what make The Birdcage a wonderful movie. Works Cited Alexander, Al.   "'Birdcage' Sounds Sour Note."   The Patriot Ledger 8 March 1996:   15+. Daly, Steve.   "The Farce Side."   Entertaiment Weekly 20 December 1996:   88-89. Anson, David.   "Gay Films are a Drag.Ó" Newsweek 18 March 1996:   71. Maslin, Janet.   "La Cage aux Folles, But in South Beach."   New York Times 8 March 1996:   C3. Carr, Jay.   "Birdcage Sings."   Boston Globe 8 March 1996:   47+. Hartigan, Patti.   "Birdcage Clips Right Wingers."   Boston Globe 22 March 1996:   47+. Nichols, Mike, dir.   The Birdcage.   Perf. Robin Williams and Nathan Lane.   MGM,   1996.

Osteoporosis Essay -- essays research papers

Osteoporosis   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Osteoporosis is a health ailment which causes bones to become so porous that they can break easily. Osteoporosis literally means 'porous bones'. The bones in our skeleton are made of a thick outer shell and a strong inner mesh filled with collagen [protein], calcium salts and other minerals. The inside looks like honeycomb, with blood vessels and bone marrow in the spaces between bone. Osteoporosis occurs when the holes between bone become bigger, making it fragile and liable to break easily. Osteoporosis usually affects the whole skeleton but it most commonly causes breaks or fractures to bone in the wrist, spine and hip.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Women are potentially at higher risk of osteoporosis because of the bone loss that occurs when they get relatively old and are experiencing menopause. (Men can, however, acquire the bone disease as well.) The low estrogen level results in an accelerated bone loss. This can lead to osteoporosis and an increased risk of fracture. There are also many other factors which can increase your risk, and these are early menopause (before 45), early hysterectomy (especially if one or both ovaries were removed), or infrequent periods often linked to over-dieting (especially anorexia) or over-exercising (long distance running). Other risk factors are a fracture after a minor accident or fall, long term or high dose oral corticosteroid treatment, family history (parent or close relative with os...

Why Was Slavery Abolished in 1807/1833?

The Trans-Atlantic slave trade which began in the early 16th century, gained ground in the following three centuries and was eventually abolished in the 1800s. By the late 18th century, the British population began to find the slave trade both morally and financially disagreeable. The four main factors which contributed to the abolition of the slave trade were the campaigns of the white middle class, the mass support from the white working class, the protestations by the black slaves and the economic impracticality of the trade. The abolition was successful mainly due to the effort of the middle class, which surged ahead in its demands for the freedom of the African slaves and was amply backed by the other three factors. _____________ One could argue that the white middle class campaigners were the prime influence in the abolition of the slave trade, as they initiated and persisted with the anti-slavery movement. The campaigners ranged from uneducated yet enlightened people like Granville Sharp, through Methodist clerics like George Fox, to established politicians like William Wilberforce. They were appalled at the inhuman treatment meted out to the African slaves and took it upon themselves to fight for their freedom. This contributed greatly to the final abolition of the trade. George Fox, the pioneer of the movement, founded a group called the ‘Quakers’, which comprised of evangelical white campaigners who believed in the Christian values of equality in the eyes of God. In 1783, they sent their first petition to the Parliament in which they wrote ‘that a nation professing the Christian Faith, should so far counteract the principles of humanity and justice as by a cruel treatment of this oppressed race, to fill their minds with prejudices against the mild and beneficent doctrines of the Gospel’; aiming this argument towards the religious members of Parliament. A similar petition was sent to Parliament two years later. Their speeches, essays and letters conveyed that their ‘fellow-creatures’ who were held in ‘cruel bondage’ were ‘entitled to the natural rights of mankind’, thereby appealing to the moral passions of both the Parliament and the public. While the written word was used to persuade the Parliament to pass the bill, the spoken word was used to raise awareness and convince the masses to join the cause. Granville Sharp, a prominent abolitionist, was an apprentice to a Quaker linen draper until he quit after learning about the treatment of black slaves. He took up the case of a slave, Jonathan Strong, in 1765. Strong ran away after being brutally beaten by his owner. Sharp was moved by Strong’s condition and took the case to court where justice was served to Strong after three years. After the case gained publicity, Sharp became more involved in the abolition of the slave trade. William Wilberforce, a member of the House of Commons and a famous abolitionist also played an important role in the campaign as he gave the blacks and the public a voice in the Parliament. He personally knew William Pitt, the prime minister, and therefore had a lot of influence in the Parliament, which helped him gain support for the campaign. In addition to the abolitionists, white working and middle class women involved themselves in the movement. Names of Mary Birkett, Hannah More, the writer of the ‘Sorrows of Yamba’ and Mary Wollstonecraft are worthy of mention. The cause of the slaves gave women the opportunity to stand up for something they believed strongly in. They, along with the men, boycotted slave-grown products like sugar, rum and cotton. That they contributed considerably to this movement is borne out by the fact that 10% of the subscriptions to the Abolition Society were women. Art and literature also played an important part in the success of the white middle class campaigns. The middle class’ targeted the educated and the Parliament through art and literature. They argued that poets such as Wordsworth and Coleridge also wrote about slavery in their works. The abolitionists cited poems like William Cowper’s ‘The Negro’s Complaint’ to convince the Parliament that if ‘enlightened’ romantics like Cowper and Wordsworth found the slave trade unacceptable, they ought to be taken seriously. Josiah Wedgewood, a potter by profession, created the Wedgwood medallion. From 1787 until his death in 1795, Wedgwood actively participated in the abolition of slavery cause. His ‘slave medallion’ with the inscriptions Am I Not a Man and a Brother, showing a black man in a supplicatory pose attracted the public’s attention. It soon became an identity of the campaign and was seen everywhere, on ornaments, tobacco pipes and hair pins. The white middle class campaigners tried to appeal to as many sections of society as possible. Their Christian teachings attracted the evangelicals; they gained mass support from the working class with their speeches and introduced the movement to the upper class and Parliament with petitions. They focused on raising awareness and their emotional arguments convinced the public to espouse the cause of the slaves. _________________ Another factor that greatly affected the abolition of the slave trade was the support of the white working class. Their support was gained through the influence of the white middle class campaigners. The working class took action by signing petitions which were sent to the Parliament. In 1788, over one hundred petitions defending African slaves were presented to the House of Commons in the span of three months. The sheer number of people who had signed these put the Parliament under pressure to comply and deliver to the masses what they wanted, for fear of revolts and rebellions. The British regime had to manage rebellions in the slave colonies of Barbados, Haiti, Cuba, America and such like and could not afford their own people revolting. The working class used mass support a means of forcing the Parliament to agree to their proposition to abolish slavery. In Manchester in 1778, 10,000 people signed a petition to the Parliament and one year later, an additional 10 thousand people signed yet another petition. In 1792, 592 letters and proposals were sent to the Government, once again urging them to take proactive measures. _______________ Because of the vital role the African slaves played in the struggle for their freedom, it could be said that their influence was most crucial to the abolition of the slave trade. Their discontentment and rebellions pushed the Parliament to consider abolition of this trade. They resisted capture and imprisonment and black mutinies, such as the infamous mutiny on the ship Amistad which carried black slaves, were not an uncommon occurrence. Many pregnant slaves preferred abortion to giving birth to a chattel slave. Very few people in Britain knew about the maltreatment of slaves until some slaves like Olaudah Equiano bought their freedom and spoke of their wretched lives in the colonies. Equiano wrote an autobiography titled ‘The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African’ in which he exposed the atrocities perpetrated on slaves, including the mass killing on the slave ship Zong. The impression he made on the British populace inspired many other black slaves to revolt and buy their freedom. Toussaint Louverture, another slave, rebelled against authorities by leading the Haitian Revolutions which put a lot of pressure on the Parliament which feared a chain reaction of similar events. The Parliament could not, however, take action because they had not yet taken a legal stance on the trade. No laws or bills had been passed to legalise the slave trade, nor had any been proposed to abolish it. The Parliament had to make a decision, which they did in 1807, and their choice to abolish the slave trade was influenced greatly by the riots and rebellions of the African slaves. _________________ In addition to reasons cited above, the economic impracticality of continuing with the slave trade contributed to its abolition, although it was relatively less important. With America becoming independent in 1776, it was no longer obliged to trade with British sugar colonies such as Barbados and Jamaica, and instead traded with the French and the Dutch. The import of sugar in Britain also decreased dramatically and was replaced by cotton, causing the textile industry during Industrial Revolution to flourish. The Industrial revolution which began in 1750 and picked up pace by the early 1800s relied on the growth of technology, therefore making manual labour redundant. These economic reasons finally gave everyone a reason to abolish the slave trade and therefore, in 1807 the first bill against slavery was passed. ________________ Of the four factors that spurred the Parliament to abolish slavery, the campaigns made by the white middle class were most important. The revolution was sparked off by the campaigners’ efforts to raise awareness of the condition of the slaves. Although the slave expressed their discontentment through revolts, they did not ruffle the feathers of the Parliament. It was not until the middle class protested against the practice that the Parliament considered abolition of the slave trade. It was the middle class’ campaigning that not only emboldened the black slaves to step up the intensity of their protests, but also swept up the support and empathy of the working class for the cause. The middle class, headed by Wilberforce, also submitted petitions to the Parliament, making them aware of the demands of the public. The middle class campaigning, however, could not have achieved what they did without the support of the masses and the persistence f the black slaves. The fact that the slave trade was not economically viable too was important and finally gave the Parliament a reason to abolish the slave trade. The Parliament had little to lose and could also support a movement that sweeping the nation and therefore, the economic factors created a big change in the Parliament’s final decision to abolish slavery, but had the white middl e class campaigners not initiated the movement, slavery may have taken a considerably long time to be eridicated and this abhorrent practice may have still been alive today. The efforts of the white middle class campaigners, the empathy of the white working class, the perseverant struggles of the African slaves and the realization by the Parliament of the economic futility of continuing with the slave trade bore fruit and the abolition act of 1833 was passed.

Black House Chapter Fifteen

15 BY EVENING, the temperature has dropped fifteen degrees as a minor cold front pushes through our little patch of the Coulee Country. There are no thunderstorms, but as the sky tinges toward violet, the fog arrives. It's born out of the river and rises up the inclined ramp of Chase Street, first obscuring the gutters, then the sidewalks, then blurring the buildings themselves. It cannot completely hide them, as the fogs of spring and winter sometimes do, but the blurring is somehow worse: it steals colors and softens shapes. The fog makes the ordinary look alien. And there's the smell, the ancient, seagully odor that works deep into your nose and awakens the back part of your brain, the part that is perfectly capable of believing in monsters when the sight lines shorten and the heart is uneasy. On Sumner Street, Debbi Anderson is still working dispatch. Arnold â€Å"the Mad Hungarian† Hrabowski has been sent home without his badge in fact, suspended and feels he must ask his wife a few pointed questions (his belief that he already knows the answers makes him even more heartsick). Debbi is now standing at the window, a cup of coffee in her hand and a puckery little frown on her face. â€Å"Don't like this,† she says to Bobby Dulac, who is glumly and silently writing reports. â€Å"It reminds me of the Hammer pictures I used to watch on TV back when I was in junior high.† â€Å"Hammer pictures?† Bobby asks, looking up. â€Å"Horror pictures,† she says, looking out into the deepening fog. â€Å"A lot of them were about Dracula. Also Jack the Ripper.† â€Å"I don't want to hear nothing about Jack the Ripper,† Bobby says. â€Å"You mind me, Debster.† And resumes writing. In the parking lot of the 7-Eleven, Mr. Rajan Patel stands beside his telephone (still crisscrossed by yellow police tape, and when it will be all right again for using, this Mr. Patel could not be telling us). He looks toward downtown, which now seems to rise from a vast bowl of cream. The buildings on Chase Street descend into this bowl. Those at Chase's lowest point are visible only from the second story up. â€Å"If he is down there,† Mr. Patel says softly, and to no one but himself, â€Å"tonight he will be doing whatever he wants.† He crosses his arms over his chest and shivers. Dale Gilbertson is at home, for a wonder. He plans to have a sit-down dinner with his wife and child even if the world ends because of it. He comes out of his den (where he has spent twenty minutes talking with WSP officer Jeff Black, a conversation in which he has had to exercise all his discipline to keep from shouting), and sees his wife standing at the window and looking out. Her posture is almost exactly the same as Debbi Anderson's, only she's got a glass of wine in her hand instead of a cup of coffee. The puckery little frown is identical. â€Å"River fog,† Sarah says dismally. â€Å"Isn't that ducky. If he's out there â€Å" Dale points at her. â€Å"Don't say it. Don't even think it.† But he knows that neither of them can help thinking about it. The streets of French Landing the foggy streets of French Landing will be deserted right now: no one shopping in the stores, no one idling along the sidewalks, no one in the parks. Especially no children. The parents will be keeping them in. Even on Nailhouse Row, where good parenting is the exception rather than the rule, the parents will be keeping their kids inside. â€Å"I won't say it,† she allows. â€Å"That much I can do.† â€Å"What's for dinner?† â€Å"How does chicken pot pie sound?† Ordinarily such a hot dish on a July evening would strike him as an awful choice, but tonight, with the fog coming in, it sounds like just the thing. He steps up behind her, gives her a brief squeeze, and says, â€Å"Great. And earlier would be better.† She turns, disappointed. â€Å"Going back in?† â€Å"I shouldn't have to, not with Brown and Black rolling the ball â€Å" â€Å"Those pricks,† she says. â€Å"I never liked them.† Dale smiles. He knows that the former Sarah Asbury has never cared much for the way he earns his living, and this makes her furious loyalty all the more touching. And tonight it feels vital, as well. It's been the most painful day of his career in law enforcement, ending with the suspension of Arnold Hrabowski. Arnie, Dale knows, believes he will be back on duty before long. And the shitty truth is that Arnie may be right. Based on the way things are going, Dale may need even such an exquisite example of ineptitude as the Mad Hungarian. â€Å"Anyway, I shouldn't have to go back in, but . . .† â€Å"You have a feeling.† â€Å"I do.† â€Å"Good or bad?† She has come to respect her husband's intuitions, not in the least because of Dale's intense desire to see Jack Sawyer settled close enough to reach with seven keystrokes instead of eleven. Tonight that looks to her like pardon the pun a pretty good call. â€Å"Both,† Dale says, and then, without explaining or giving Sarah a chance to question further: â€Å"Where's Dave?† â€Å"At the kitchen table with his crayons.† At six, young David Gilbertson is enjoying a violent love affair with Crayolas, has gone through two boxes since school let out. Dale and Sarah's strong hope, expressed even to each other only at night, lying side by side before sleep, is that they may be raising a real artist. The next Norman Rockwell, Sarah said once. Dale who helped Jack Sawyer hang his strange and wonderful pictures has higher hopes for the boy. Too high to express, really, even in the marriage bed after the lights are out. With his own glass of wine in hand, Dale ambles out to the kitchen. â€Å"What you drawing, Dave? What â€Å" He stops. The crayons have been abandoned. The picture a half-finished drawing of what might be either a flying saucer or perhaps just a round coffee table has also been abandoned. The back door is open. Looking out at the whiteness that hides David's swing and jungle gym, Dale feels a terrible fear leap up his throat, choking him. All at once he can smell Irma Freneau again, that terrible smell of raw spoiled meat. Any sense that his family lives in a protected, magic circle it may happen to others, but it can never, never happen to us is gone now. What has replaced it is stark certainty: David is gone. The Fisherman has enticed him out of the house and spirited him away into the fog. Dale can see the grin on the Fisherman's face. He can see the gloved hand it's yellow covering his son's mouth but not the bulging, terrified child's eyes. Into the fog and out of the known world. David. He moves forward across the kitchen on legs that feel boneless as well as nerveless. He puts his wineglass down on the table, the stem landing a-tilt on a crayon, not noticing when it spills and covers David's half-finished drawing with something that looks horribly like venous blood. He's out the door, and although he means to yell, his voice comes out in a weak and almost strengthless sigh: â€Å"David? . . . Dave?† For a moment that seems to last a thousand years, there is nothing. Then he hears the soft thud of running feet on damp grass. Blue jeans and a red-striped rugby shirt materialize out of the thickening soup. A moment later he sees his son's dear, grinning face and mop of yellow hair. â€Å"Dad! Daddy! I was swinging in the fog! It was like being in a cloud!† Dale snatches him up. There is a bad, blinding impulse to slap the kid across the face, to hurt him for scaring his father so. It passes as quickly as it came. He kisses David instead. â€Å"I know,† he says. â€Å"That must have been fun, but it's time to come in now.† â€Å"Why, Daddy?† â€Å"Because sometimes little boys get lost in the fog,† he says, looking out into the white yard. He can see the patio table, but it is only a ghost; he wouldn't know what he was looking at if he hadn't seen it a thousand times. He kisses his son again. â€Å"Sometimes little boys get lost,† he repeats. Oh, we could check in with any number of friends, both old and new. Jack and Fred Marshall have returned from Arden (neither suggested stopping at Gertie's Kitchen in Centralia when they passed it), and both are now in their otherwise deserted houses. For the balance of the ride back to French Landing, Fred never once let go of his son's baseball cap, and he has a hand on it even now, as he eats a microwaved TV dinner in his too empty living room and watches Action News Five. Tonight's news is mostly about Irma Freneau, of course. Fred picks up the remote when they switch from shaky-cam footage of Ed's Eats to a taped report from the Holiday Trailer Park. The cameraman has focused on one shabby trailer in particular. A few flowers, brave but doomed, straggle in the dust by the stoop, which consists of three boards laid across two cement blocks. â€Å"Here, on the outskirts of French Landing, Irma Freneau's grieving mother is in seclusion,† says the on-scene correspondent. â€Å"One can only imagine this single mother's feelings tonight.† The reporter is prettier than Wendell Green but exudes much the same aura of glittering, unhealthy excitement. Fred hits the OFF button on the remote and growls, â€Å"Why can't you leave the poor woman alone?† He looks down at his chipped beef on toast, but he has lost his appetite. Slowly, he raises Tyler's hat and puts it on his own head. It doesn't fit, and Fred for a moment thinks of letting out the plastic band at the back. The idea shocks him. Suppose that was all it took to kill his son? That one simple, deadly modification? The idea strikes him as both ridiculous and utterly inarguable. He supposes that if this keeps up, he'll soon be as mad as his wife . . . or Sawyer. Trusting Sawyer is as crazy as thinking he might kill his son by changing the size of the boy's hat . . . and yet he believes in both things. He picks up his fork and begins to eat again, Ty's Brewers cap sitting on his head like Spanky's beanie in an old Our Gang one-reeler. Beezer St. Pierre is sitting on his sofa in his underwear, a book open on his lap (it is, in fact, a book of William Blake's poems) but unread. Bear Girl's asleep in the other room, and he's fighting the urge to bop on down to the Sand Bar and score some crank, his old vice, untouched for going on five years now. Since Amy died, he fights this urge every single day, and lately he wins only by reminding himself that he won't be able to find the Fisherman and punish him as he deserves to be punished if he's fucked up on devil dust. Henry Leyden is in his studio with a huge pair of Akai headphones on his head, listening to Warren Vach? ¦, John Bunch, and Phil Flanigan dreamboat their way through â€Å"I Remember April.† He can smell the fog even through the walls, and to him it smells like the air at Ed's Eats. Like bad death, in other words. He's wondering how Jack made out in good old Ward D at French County Lutheran. And he's thinking about his wife, who lately (especially since the record hop at Maxton's, although he doesn't consciously realize this) seems closer than ever. And unquiet. Yes indeed, all sorts of friends are available for our inspection, but at least one seems to have dropped out of sight. Charles Burnside isn't in the common room at Maxton's (where an old episode of Family Ties is currently running on the ancient color TV bolted to the wall), nor in the dining hall, where snacks are available in the early evening, nor in his own room, where the sheets are currently clean (but where the air still smells vaguely of old shit). What about the bathroom? Nope. Thorvald Thorvaldson has stopped in to have a pee and a handwash, but otherwise the place is empty. One oddity: there's a fuzzy slipper lying on its side in one of the stalls. With its bright black and yellow stripes, it looks like the corpse of a huge dead bumblebee. And yes, it's the stall second from the left. Burny's favorite. Should we look for him? Maybe we should. Maybe not knowing exactly where that rascal is makes us uneasy. Let us slip through the fog, then, silent as a dream, down to lower Chase Street. Here is the Nelson Hotel, its ground floor now submerged in river fog, the ocher stripe marking high water of that ancient flood no more than a whisper of color in the fading light. On one side of it is Wisconsin Shoe, now closed for the day. On the other is Lucky's Tavern, where an old woman with bowlegs (her name is Bertha Van Dusen, if you care) is currently bent over with her hands planted on her large knees, yarking a bellyful of Kingsland Old-Time Lager into the gutter. She makes sounds like a bad driver grinding a manual transmission. In the doorway of the Nelson Hotel itself sits a patient old mongrel, who will wait until Bertha has gone back into the tavern, then slink over to eat the half-digested cocktail franks floating in the beer. From Lucky's comes the tired, twanging voice of the late Dick Curless, Ole Country One-Eye, singing about those Hainesville Woods, where there's a tombstone every mile. The dog gives a single disinterested growl as we pass him and slip into the Nelson's lobby, where moth-eaten heads a wolf, a bear, an elk, and an ancient half-bald bison with a single glass eye look at empty sofas, empty chairs, the elevator that hasn't worked since 1994 or so, and the empty registration desk. (Morty Fine, the clerk, is in the office with his feet propped up on an empty file-cabinet drawer, reading People and picking his nose.) The lobby of the Nelson Hotel always smells of the river it's in the pores of the place but this evening the smell is heavier than usual. It's a smell that makes us think of bad ideas, blown investments, forged checks, deteriorating health, stolen office supplies, unpaid alimony, empty promises, skin tumors, lost ambition, abandoned sample cases filled with cheap novelties, dead hope, dead skin, and fallen arches. This is the kind of place you don't come to unless you've been here before and all your other options are pretty much foreclose d. It's a place where men who left their families two decades before now lie on narrow beds with pee-stained mattresses, coughing and smoking cigarettes. The scuzzy old lounge (where scuzzy old Hoover Dalrymple once held court and knocked heads most every Friday and Saturday night) has been closed by unanimous vote of the town council since early June, when Dale Gilbertson scandalized the local political elite by showing them a video of three traveling strippers who billed themselves as the Anal University Trio, performing a synchronized cucumber routine on the tiny stage (FLPD cameraman: Officer Tom Lund, let's give him a hand), but the Nelson's residents still have only to go next door to get a beer; it's convenient. You pay by the week at the Nelson. You can keep a hot plate in your room, but only by permission and after the cord has been inspected. You can die on a fixed income at the Nelson, and the last sound you hear could well be the creaking of bedsprings over your head as some other helpless old loser jacks off. Let us rise up the first flight, past the old canvas firehose in its glass box. Turn right at the second-floor landing (past the pay phone with its yellowing OUT OF ORDER sign) and continue to rise. When we reach the third floor, the smell of river fog is joined by the smell of chicken soup warming on someone's hot plate (the cord duly approved either by Morty Fine or George Smith, the day manager). The smell is coming from 307. If we slip through the keyhole (there have never been keycards at the Nelson and never will be), we'll be in the presence of Andrew Railsback, seventy, balding, scrawny, good-humored. He once sold vacuum cleaners for Electrolux and appliances for Sylvania, but those days are behind him now. These are his golden years. A candidate for Maxton's, we might think, but Andy Railsback knows that place, and places like it. Not for him, thanks. He's sociable enough, but he doesn't want people telling him when to go to bed, when to get up, and when he can have a little nip of Early Times. He has friends in Maxton's, visits them often, and has from time to time met the sparkling, shallow, predatory eye of our pal Chipper. He has thought on more than one such occasion that Mr. Maxton looks like the sort of fellow who would happily turn the corpses of his graduates into soap if he thought he could turn a buck on it. No, for Andy Railsback, the third floor of the Nelson Hotel is good enough. He has his hot plate; he has his bottle of hooch; he's got four packs of Bicycles and plays big-picture solitaire on nights when the sandman loses his way. This evening he has made three Lipton Cup-A-Soups, thinking he'll invite Irving Throneberry in for a bowl and a chat. Maybe afterward they'll go next door to Lucky's and grab a beer. He checks the soup, sees it has attained a nice simmer, sniffs the fragrant steam, and nods. He also has saltines, which go well with soup. He leaves the room to make his way upstairs and knock on Irv's door, but what he sees in the hallway stops him cold. It's an old man in a shapeless blue robe, walking away from him with suspicious quickness. Beneath the hem of the robe, the stranger's legs are as white as a carp's belly and marked with blue snarls of varicose veins. On his left foot is a fuzzy black-and-yellow slipper. His right foot is bare. Although our new friend can't tell for sure not with the guy's back to him he doesn't look like anyone Andy knows. Also, he's trying doorknobs as he wends his way along the main third-floor hall. He gives each one a single hard, quick shake. Like a turnkey. Or a thief. A fucking thief. Yeah. Although the man is obviously old older than Andy, it looks like and dressed as if for bed, the idea of thievery resonates in Andy's mind with queer certainty. Even the one bare foot, arguing that the fellow probably didn't come in off the street, has no power over this strong intuition. Andy opens his mouth to call out something like Can I help you? or Looking for someone? and then changes his mind. He just has this feeling about the guy. It has to do with the fleet way the stranger scurries along as he tries the knobs, but that's not all of it. Not all of it by any means. It's a feeling of darkness and danger. There are pockets in the geezer's robe, Andy can see them, and there might be a weapon in one of them. Thieves don't always have weapons, but . . . The old guy turns the corner and is gone. Andy stands where he is, considering. If he had a phone in his room, he might call downstairs and alert Morty Fine, but he doesn't. So, what to do? After a brief interior debate, he tiptoes down the hall to the corner and peeps around. Here is a cul-de-sac with three doors: 312, 313, and, at the very end, 314, the only room in that little appendix which is currently occupied. The man in 314 has been there since the spring, but almost all Andy knows about him is his name: George Potter. Andy has asked both Irv and Hoover Dalrymple about Potter, but Hoover doesn't know jack-shit and Irv has learned only a little more. â€Å"You must,† Andy objected this conversation took place in late May or early June, around the time the Buckhead Lounge downstairs went dark. â€Å"I seen you in Lucky's with him, havin' a beer.† Irv had lifted one bushy eyebrow in that cynical way of his. â€Å"Seen me havin' a beer with him. What are you?† he'd rasped. â€Å"My fuckin' wife?† â€Å"I'm just saying. You drink a beer with a man, you have a little conversation â€Å" â€Å"Usually, maybe. Not with him. I sat down, bought a pitcher, and mostly got the dubious pleasure of listenin' to myself think. I say, ‘What do you think about the Brewers this year?' and he says, ‘They'll suck, same as last year. I can get the Cubs at night on my rah-dio ‘ â€Å" â€Å"That the way he said it? Rah-dio?† â€Å"Well, it ain't the way I say it, is it? You ever heard me say rah-dio? I say radio, same as any normal person. You want to hear this or not?† â€Å"Don't sound like there's much to hear.† â€Å"You got that right, buddy. He says, ‘I can get the Cubs at night on my rah-dio, and that's enough for me. I always went to Wrigley with my dad when I was a kid.' So I found out he was from Chi, but otherwise, bupkes.† The first thought to pop into Andy's mind upon glimpsing the fucking thief in the third-floor corridor had been Potter, but Mr. George I-Keep-to-Myself Potter is a tall drink of water, maybe six-four, still with a pretty good head of salt-and-pepper hair. Mr. One-Slipper was shorter than that, hunched over like a toad. (A poison toad, at that is the thought that immediately rises in Andy's mind.) He's in there, Andy thinks. Fucking thief's in Potter's room, maybe going through Potter's drawers, looking for a little stash. Fifty or sixty rolled up in the toe of a sock, like I used to do. Or stealing Potter's radio. His fucking rah-dio. Well, and what was that to him? You passed Potter in the hallway, gave him a civil good morning or good afternoon, and what you got back was an uncivil grunt. Bupkes, in other words. You saw him in Lucky's, he was drinking alone, far side of the jukebox. Andy guessed you could sit down with him and he'd split a pitcher with you Irv's little tte-? ¤-tte with the man proved that much but what good was that without a little chin-jaw to go along with it? Why should he, Andrew Railsback, risk the wrath of some poison toad in a bathrobe for the sake of an old grump who wouldn't give you a yes, no, or maybe? Well . . . Because this is his home, cheesy as it might be, that's why. Because when you saw some crazy old one-slipper fuck in search of loose cash or the easily lifted rah-dio, you didn't just turn your back and shuffle away. Because the bad feeling he got from the scurrying old elf (the bad vibe, his grandchildren would have said) was probably nothing but a case of the chickenshits. Because Suddenly Andy Railsback has an intuition that, while not a direct hit, is at least adjacent to the truth. Suppose it is a guy from off the street? Suppose it's one of the old guys from Maxton Elder Care? It's not that far away, and he knows for a fact that from time to time an old feller (or old gal) will get mixed up in his (or her) head and wander off the reservation. Under ordinary circumstances that person would be spotted and hauled back long before getting this far downtown kind of hard to miss on the street in an institutional robe and single slipper but this evening the fog has come in and the streets are all but deserted. Look at you, Andy berates himself. Scared half to death of a feller that's probably got ten years on you and peanut butter for brains. Wandered in here past the empty desk not a chance in the goddamn world Fine's out front; he'll be in back reading a magazine or a stroke book and now he's looking for his room back at Maxton's, trying every knob on the goddamn corridor, no more idea of where he is than a squirrel on a freeway ramp. Potter's probably having a beer next door (this, at least, turns out to be true) and left his door unlocked (this, we may be assured, is not). And although he's still frightened, Andy comes all the way around the corner and walks slowly toward the open door. His heart is beating fast, because half his mind is still convinced the old man is maybe dangerous. There was, after all, that bad feeling he got just from looking at the stranger's back But he goes. God help him, he does. â€Å"Mister?† he calls when he reaches the open door. â€Å"Hey, mister, I think you got the wrong room. That's Mr. Potter's room. Don't you â€Å" He stops. No sense talking, because the room is empty. How is that possible? Andy steps back and tries the knobs of 312 and 313. Both locked up tight, as he knew they would be. With that ascertained, he steps into George Potter's room and has a good look around curiosity killed the cat, satisfaction brought him back. Potter's digs are a little larger than his, but otherwise not much different: it's a box with a high ceiling (they made places a man could stand up in back in the old days, you had to say that much for them). The single bed is sagging in the middle but neatly made. On the night table is a bottle of pills (these turn out to be an anti-depressant called Zoloft) and a single framed picture of a woman. Andy thinks she took a pretty good whopping with the ugly stick, but Potter must see her differently. He has, after all, put the picture in a place where it's the first thing he looks at in the morning and the last thing he sees at night. â€Å"Potter?† Andy asks. â€Å"Anyone? Hello?† He is suddenly overcome with a sense of someone standing behind him and whirls around, lips drawn back from his dentures in a grinning snarl that is half a cringe. One hand comes up to shield his face from the blow he is suddenly certain will fall . . . only there's no one there. Is he lurking behind the corner at the end of this short addendum to the main corridor? No. Andy saw the stranger go scurrying around that corner. No way he could have gotten behind him again . . . unless he crawled along the ceiling like some kind of fly . . . Andy looks up there, knowing he's being absurd, giving in to the whim-whams big time, but there's no one here to see him, so what the hey? And nothing for him to see overhead, either. Just an ordinary tin ceiling, now yellowed by age and decades of cigar and cigarette smoke. The radio oh, excuse me all to hell, rah-dio is sitting on the win-dowsill, unmolested. Damn fine one, too, a Bose, the kind Paul Harvey always talks about on his noon show. Beyond it, on the other side of the dirty glass, is the fire escape. Ah-hah! Andy thinks, and hurries across to the window. One look at the turned thumb lock and his triumphant expression fades. He peers out just the same, and sees a short stretch of wet black iron descending into the fog. No blue robe, no scaly bald pate. Of course not. The knob shaker didn't go out that way unless he had some magic trick to move the window's inside thumb lock back into place once he was on the fire escape landing. Andy turns, stands where he is a moment, thinking, then drops to his knees and looks under the bed. What he sees is an old tin ashtray with an unopened pack of Pall Malls and a Kingsland Old-Time Lager disposable lighter in it. Nothing else except dust kittens. He puts his hand on the coverlet preparatory to standing up, and his eyes fix on the closet door. It's standing ajar. â€Å"There,† Andy breathes, almost too low for his own ears to hear. He gets up and crosses to the closet door. The fog may or may not come in on little cat feet, as Carl Sandburg said, but that is certainly how Andy Railsback moves across George Potter's room. His heart is beating hard again, hard enough to start the prominent vein in the center of his forehead pulsing. The man he saw is in the closet. Logic demands it. Intuition screams it. And if the doorknob shaker's just a confused old soul who wandered into the Nelson Hotel out of the fog, why hasn't he spoken to Andy? Why has he concealed himself ? Because he may be old but he's not confused, that's why. No more confused than Andy is himself. The doorknob shaker's a fucking thief, and he's in the closet. He's maybe holding a knife that he has taken from the pocket of his tatty old robe. Maybe a coat hanger that he's unwound and turned into a weapon. Maybe he's just standing there in the dark, eyes wide, fingers hooked into claws. Andy no longer cares. You can scare him, you bet he's a retired salesman, not Superman but if you load enough tension on top of fright you turn it into anger, same as enough pressure turns coal into a diamond. And right now Andy is more pissed off than scared. He closes his fingers around the cool glass knob of the closet door. He squeezes down on it. He takes one breath . . . a second . . . steeling himself, getting ready . . . psyching himself up, the grandkids would say . . . one more breath, just for good luck, and . . . With a low, stressful sound half growl and half howl Andy yanks the closet door wide, setting off a chatter of hangers. He crouches, hands up in fists, looking like some ancient sparring partner from the Gym Time Forgot. â€Å"Come outta there, you fucking â€Å" No one there. Four shirts, one jacket, two ties, and three pairs of pants hanging like dead skin. A battered old suitcase that looks as if it has been kicked through every Greyhound Bus terminal in North America. Nothing else. Not a goddamn th But there is. There's something on the floor beneath the shirts. Several somethings. Almost half a dozen somethings. At first Andy Rails-back either doesn't understand what he's seeing or doesn't want to understand. Then it gets through to him, imprints itself on his mind and memory like a hoofprint, and he tries to scream. He can't. He tries again and nothing comes out but a rusty wheeze from lungs that feel no larger than old prune skins. He tries to turn around and can't do that, either. He is sure George Potter is coming, and if Potter finds him here, Andy's life will end. He has seen something George Potter can never allow him to talk about. But he can't turn. Can't scream. Can't take his eyes from the secret in George Potter's closet. Can't move. Because of the fog, nearly full dark has arrived in French Landing unnaturally early; it's barely six-thirty. The blurry yellow lights of Maxton Elder Care look like the lights of a cruise ship lying becalmed at sea. In Daisy wing, home of the wonderful Alice Weathers and the far less wonderful Charles Burnside, Pete Wexler and Butch Yerxa have both gone home for the day. A broad-shouldered, peroxide blonde named Vera Hutchinson is now on the desk. In front of her is a book entitled E-Z Minute Crosswords. She is currently puzzling over 6 Across: Garfield, for example. Six letters, first is F, third is L, sixth is E. She hates these tricky ones. There's the swoosh of a bathroom door opening. She looks up and sees Charles Burnside come shuffling out of the men's in his blue robe and a pair of yellow-and-black striped slippers that look like great fuzzy bumblebees. She recognizes them at once. â€Å"Charlie?† she asks, putting her pencil in her crossword book and closing it. Charlie just goes shuffling along, jaw hanging down, a long runner of drool also hanging down. But he has an unpleasant half grin on his face that Vera doesn't care for. This one may have lost most of his marbles, but the few left in his head are mean marbles. Sometimes she knows that Charlie Burnside genuinely doesn't hear her when she speaks (or doesn't understand her), but she's positive that sometimes he just pretends not to understand. She has an idea this is one of the latter times. â€Å"Charlie, what are you doing wearing Elmer's bee slippers? You know his great-granddaughter gave those to him.† The old man Burny to us, Charlie to Vera just goes shuffling along, in a direction that will eventually take him back to D18. Assuming he stays on course, that is. â€Å"Charlie, stop.† Charlie stops. He stands at the head of Daisy's corridor like a machine that has been turned off. His jaw hangs. The string of drool snaps, and all at once there's a little wet spot on the linoleum beside one of those absurd but amusing slippers. Vera gets up, goes to him, kneels down before him. If she knew what we know, she'd probably be a lot less willing to put her defenseless white neck within reach of those hanging hands, which are twisted by arthritis but still powerful. But of course she does not. She grasps the left bee slipper. â€Å"Lift,† she says. Charles Burnside lifts his right foot. â€Å"Oh, quit being such a turkey,† she says. â€Å"Other one.† Burny lifts his left foot a little, just enough for her to get the slipper off. â€Å"Now the right one.† Unseen by Vera, who is looking at his feet, Burny pulls his penis from the fly of his loose pajama pants and pretends to piss on Vera's bowed head. His grin widens. At the same time, he lifts his right foot and she removes the other slipper. When she looks back up, Burny's wrinkled old tool is back where it belongs. He considered baptizing her, he really did, but he has created almost enough mischief for one evening. One more little chore and he'll be off to the land of dreamy dreams. He's an old monster now. He needs his rest. â€Å"All right,† Vera says. â€Å"Want to tell me why one of these is dirtier than the other?† No answer. She hasn't really expected one. â€Å"Okay, beautiful. Back to your room or down to the common room, if you want. There's microwave popcorn and Jell-O pops tonight, I think. They're showing The Sound of Music. I'll see that these slippers get back to where they belong, and you taking them will be our little secret. Take them again and I'll have to report you, though. Capisce?† Burny just stands there, vacant . . . but with that nasty little grin lifting his wrinkled old chops. And that light in his eyes. He capisces, all right. â€Å"Go on,† Vera says. â€Å"And you better not have dropped a load on the floor in there, you old buzzard.† Again she expects no reply, but this time she gets one. Burny's voice is low but perfectly clear. â€Å"Keep a civil tongue, you fat bitch, or I'll eat it right out of your head.† She recoils as if slapped. Burny stands there with his hands dangling and that little grin on his face. â€Å"Get out of here,† she says. â€Å"Or I really will report you.† And a great lot of good that would do. Charlie is one of Maxton's cash cows, and Vera knows it. Charlie recommences his slow walk (Pete Wexler has dubbed this particular gait the Old Fucks' Shuffle), now in his bare feet. Then he turns back. The bleary lamps of his eyes regard her. â€Å"The word you're looking for is feline. Garfield's a feline. Got it? Stupid cow.† With that he continues his trip down the corridor. Vera stands where she is, looking at him with her own jaw hanging. She has forgotten all about her crossword puzzle. In his room, Burny lies down on his bed and slips his hands into the small of his back. From there down he aches like a bugger. Later he will buzz for the fat old bitch, get her to bring him an ibuprofen. For now, though, he has to stay sharp. One more little trick still to do. â€Å"Found you, Potter,† he murmurs. â€Å"Good . . . old . . . Potsie.† Burny hadn't been shaking doorknobs at all (not that Andy Railsback will ever know this). He had been feeling for the fellow who diddled him out of a sweet little Chicago housing deal back in the late seventies. South Side, home of the White Sox. Blacktown, in other words. Lots of federal money in that one, and several bushels of Illinois dough as well. Enough skim available to last for years, more angles than on a baseball field, but George â€Å"Go Fuck Your Mother† Potter had gotten there first, cash had changed hands beneath the proverbial table, and Charles Burn-side (or perhaps then he'd still been Carl Bierstone; it's hard to remember) had been out in the cold. But Burny has kept track of the thief for lo these many years. (Well, not Burny himself, actually, but as we must by now have realized, this is a man with powerful friends.) Old Potsie what his friends called him in the days when he still had a few declared bankruptcy in La Riviere back in the nineties, and lost most of what he still had hidden away during the Great Dot-Com Wreck of Double Aught. But that's not good enough for Burny. Potsie requires further punishment, and the coincidence of that particular fuckhead washing up in this particular fuckhole of a town is just too good to pass up. Burny's principal motive a brainless desire to keep stirring the pot, to make sure bad goes to worse hasn't changed, but this will serve that purpose, too. So he traveled to the Nelson, doing so in a way Jack understands and Judy Marshall has intuited, homing in on Potsie's room like some ancient bat. And when he sensed Andy Railsback behind him, he was of course delighted. Railsback will save him having to make another anonymous call, and Burny is, in truth, getting tired of doing all their work for them. Now, back in his room, all comfy-cozy (except for the arthritis, that is), he turns his mind away from George Potter, and begins to Summon. Looking up into the dark, Charles Burnside's eyes begin to glow in a distinctly unsettling way. â€Å"Gorg,† he says. â€Å"Gorg t'eelee. Dinnit a abbalah. Samman Tansy. Samman a montah a Irma. Dinnit a abbalah, Gorg. Dinnit a Ram Abbalah.† Gorg. Gorg, come. Serve the abbalah. Find Tansy. Find the mother of Irma. Serve the abbalah, Gorg. Serve the Crimson King. Burny's eyes slip closed. He goes to sleep with a smile on his face. And beneath their wrinkled lids, his eyes continue to glow like hooded lamps. Morty Fine, the night manager of the Nelson Hotel, is half-asleep over his magazine when Andy Railsback comes bursting in, startling him so badly that Morty almost tumbles out of his chair. His magazine falls to the floor with a flat slap. â€Å"Jesus Christ, Andy, you almost gave me a heart attack!† Morty cries. â€Å"You ever hear of knocking, or at least clearing your goddam throat?† Andy takes no notice, and Morty realizes the old fella is as white as a sheet. Maybe he's the one having the heart attack. It wouldn't be the first time one occurred in the Nelson. â€Å"You gotta call the police,† Andy says. â€Å"They're horrible. Dear Jesus, Morty, they're the most horrible pictures I ever saw . . . Polaroids . . . and oh man, I thought he was going to come back in . . . come back in any second . . . but at first I was just froze, and I . . . I . . .† â€Å"Slow down,† Morty says, concerned. â€Å"What are you talking about?† Andy takes a deep breath and makes a visible effort to get himself under control. â€Å"Have you seen Potter?† he asks. â€Å"The guy in 314?† â€Å"Nope,† Morty says, â€Å"but most nights he's in Lucky's around this time, having a few beers and maybe a hamburger. Although why anybody would eat anything in that place, I don't know.† Then, perhaps associating one ptomaine palace with another: â€Å"Hey, have you heard what the cops found out at Ed's Eats? Trevor Gordon was by and he said â€Å" â€Å"Never mind.† Andy sits in the chair on the other side of the desk and stares at Morty with wet, terrified eyes. â€Å"Call the police. Do it right now. Tell them that the Fisherman is a man named George Potter, and he lives on the third floor of the Nelson Hotel.† Andy's face tightens in a hard grimace, then relaxes again. â€Å"Right down the hall from yours truly.† â€Å"Potter? You're dreaming, Andy. That guy's nothing but a retired builder. Wouldn't hurt a fly.† â€Å"I don't know about flies, but he hurt the hell out of some little kids. I seen the Polaroids he took of them. They're in his closet. They're the worst things you ever saw.† Then Andy does something that amazes Morty and convinces him that this isn't a joke, and probably not just a mistake, either: Andy Railsback begins to cry. Tansy Freneau, a.k.a. Irma Freneau's grieving mother, is not actually grieving yet. She knows she should be, but grief has been deferred. Right now she feels as if she is floating in a cloud of warm bright wool. The doctor (Pat Skarda's associate, Norma Whitestone) gave her five milligrams of lorazepam four or five hours ago, but that's only the start. The Holiday Trailer Park, where Tansy and Irma have lived since Cubby Freneau took off for Green Bay in ninety-eight, is handy to the Sand Bar, and she has a part-time â€Å"thing† going with Lester Moon, one of the bartenders. The Thunder Five has dubbed Lester Moon â€Å"Stinky Cheese† for some reason, but Tansy unfailingly calls him Lester, which he appreciates almost as much as the occasional boozy grapple in Tansy's bedroom or out back of the Bar, where there's a mattress (and a black light) in the storeroom. Around five this evening, Lester ran over with a quart of coffee brandy and four hundred milligrams of OxyCon tin, all considerately crushed and ready for snorting. Tansy has done half a dozen lines already, and she is cruising. Looking over old pictures of Irma and just . . . you know . . . cruising. What a pretty baby she was, Tansy thinks, unaware that not far away, a horrified hotel clerk is looking at a very different picture of her pretty baby, a nightmare Polaroid he will never be able to forget. It is a picture Tansy herself will never have to look at, suggesting that perhaps there is a God in heaven. She turns a page (GOLDEN MEMORIES has been stamped on the front of her scrapbook), and here are Tansy and Irma at the Mississippi Electrix company picnic, back when Irma was four and Mississippi Electrix was still a year away from bankruptcy and everything was more or less all right. In the photo, Irma is wading with a bunch of other tykes, her laughing face smeared with chocolate ice cream. Looking fixedly at this snapshot, Tansy reaches for her glass of coffee brandy and takes a small sip. And suddenly, from nowhere (or the place from which all our more ominous and unconnected thoughts float out into the light of our regard), she finds herself remembering that stupid Edgar Allan Poe poem they had to memorize in the ninth grade. She hasn't thought of it in years and has no reason to now, but the words of the opening stanza rise effortlessly and perfectly in her mind. Looking at Irma, she recites them aloud in a toneless, pauseless voice that no doubt would have caused Mrs. Normandie to clutch her stringy white hair and groan. Tansy's recitation doesn't affect us that way; instead it gives us a deep and abiding chill. It is like listening to a poetry reading given by a corpse. â€Å"Once upon a mih'nigh' dreary while I ponnered weak ‘n' weary over many a quaint ‘n' curris volume of forgotten lore while I nodded nearly nappin' sun'ly there came a tappin' as of someone gen'ly rappin' rappin' at my chamber door â€Å" At this precise moment there comes a soft rapping at the cheap fiber-board door of Tansy Freneau's Airstream. She looks up, eyes floating, lips pursed and glossed with coffee brandy. â€Å"Les'ser? Is that you?† It might be, she supposes. Not the TV people, at least she hopes not. She wouldn't talk to the TV people, sent them packing. She knows, in some deep and sadly cunning part of her mind, that they would lull her and comfort her only to make her look stupid in the glare of their lights, the way that the people on the Jerry Springer Show always end up looking stupid. No answer . . . and then it comes again. Tap. Tap-tap. â€Å"‘Tis some visitor,† she says, getting up. It's like getting up in a dream. â€Å"‘Tis some visitor, I murmured, tappin' at my chamber door, only this ‘n' nothin' more.† Tap. Tap-tap. Not like curled knuckles. It's a thinner sound than that. A sound like a single fingernail. Or a beak. She crosses the room in her haze of drugs and brandy, bare feet whispering on carpet that was once nubbly and is now balding: the ex-mother. She opens the door onto this foggy summer evening and sees nothing, because she's looking too high. Then something on the welcome mat rustles. Something, some black thing, is looking up at her with bright, inquiring eyes. It's a raven, omigod it's Poe's raven, come to pay her a visit. â€Å"Jesus, I'm trippin',† Tansy says, and runs her hands through her thin hair. â€Å"Jesus!† repeats the crow on the welcome mat. And then, chipper as a chickadee: â€Å"Gorg!† If asked, Tansy would have said she was too stoned to be frightened, but this is apparently not so, because she gives out a disconcerted little cry and takes a step backward. The crow hops briskly across the doorsill and strides onto the faded purple carpet, still looking up at her with its bright eyes. Its feathers glisten with condensed drops of mist. It bops on past her, then pauses to preen and fluff. It looks around as if to ask, How'm I doin', sweetheart? â€Å"Go away,† Tansy says. â€Å"I don't know what the fuck you are, or if you're here at all, but â€Å" â€Å"Gorg!† the crow insists, then spreads its wings and fleets across the trailer's living room, a charred fleck burnt off the back of the night. Tansy screams and cringes, instinctively shielding her face, but Gorg doesn't come near her. It alights on the table beside her bottle, there not being any bust of Pallas handy. Tansy thinks: It got disoriented in the fog, that's all. It could even be rabid, or have that Key Lime disease, whatever you call it. I ought to go in the kitchen and get the broom. Shoo it out before it shits around . . . But the kitchen is too far. In her current state, the kitchen seems hundreds of miles away, somewhere in the vicinity of Colorado Springs. And there's probably no crow here at all. Thinking of that goddamn poem has caused her to hallucinate, that's all . . . that, and losing her daughter. For the first time the pain gets through the haze, and Tansy winces from its cruel and wiry heat. She remembers the little hands that sometimes pressed so tidily against the sides of her neck. The cries in the night, summoning her from sleep. The smell of her, fresh from the bath. â€Å"Her name was Irma!† she suddenly shouts at the figment standing so boldly beside the brandy bottle. â€Å"Irma, not fucking Lenore, what kind of stupid name is Lenore? Let's hear you say Irma!† â€Å"Irma!† the visitor croaks obediently, stunning her to silence. And its eyes. Ah! Its glittering eyes draw her, like the eyes of the Ancient Mariner in that other poem she was supposed to learn but never did. â€Å"Irma-Irma-Irma-Irma â€Å" â€Å"Stop it!† She doesn't want to hear it after all. She was wrong. Her daughter's name out of that alien throat is foul, insupportable. She wants to put her hands over her ears and can't. They're too heavy. Her hands have joined the stove and the refrigerator (miserable half-busted thing) in Colorado Springs. All she can do is look into those glittering black eyes. It preens for her, ruffling its ebony sateen feathers. They make a loathsome little scuttering noise all up and down its back and she thinks, â€Å"Prophet!† said I, â€Å"thing of evil! prophet still, if bird or devil!† Certainty fills her heart like cold water. â€Å"What do you know?† she asks. â€Å"Why did you come?† â€Å"Know!† croaks the Crow Gorg, nodding its beak briskly up and down. â€Å"Come!† And does it wink? Good God, does it wink at her? â€Å"Who killed her?† Tansy Freneau whispers. â€Å"Who killed my pretty baby?† The crow's eyes fix her, turn her into a bug on a pin. Slowly, feeling more in a dream than ever (but this is happening, on some level she understands that perfectly), she crosses to the table. Still the crow watches her, still the crow draws her on. Night's Plutonian shore, she thinks. Night's Plutonian fuckin' shore. â€Å"Who? Tell me what you know!† The crow looks up at her with its bright black eyes. Its beak opens and closes, revealing a wet red interior in tiny peeks. â€Å"Tansy!† it croaks. â€Å"Come!† The strength runs out of her legs, and she drops to her knees, biting her tongue and making it bleed. Crimson drops splatter her U of W sweatshirt. Now her face is on a level with the bird's face. She can see one of its wings brushing up and down, sensuously, on the glass side of the coffee-brandy bottle. The smell of Gorg is dust and heaped dead flies and ancient urns of buried spice. Its eyes are shining black portholes looking into some other world. Hell, perhaps. Or Sheol. â€Å"Who?† she whispers. Gorg stretches its black and rustling neck until its black beak is actually in the cup of her ear. It begins to whisper, and eventually Tansy Freneau begins to nod. The light of sanity has left her eyes. And when will it return? Oh, I think we all know the answer to that one. Can you say â€Å"Nevermore†?