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The Word impossible is not in my dictionary

(The Word impossible is not in my dictionary was actually said by the first man who compiled a dictionary, Dr. Johnson.)

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Now, have you ever thought, what a novel idea it was to think of compiling a dictionary?? I mean, there was Dr. Johnson, he was doing very well in the literary line; he was selling his stuff all over the place. But, he suddenly thought, no, let's stop writing the stuff with the ideas and let's get all the words and put them in one book, alphabetically like a telephone book, except of course there were no telephone book, except of course there were no telephone books then.

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And he went around to his publisher, I have a wonderful idea; instead of flogging away at these essays, how about a dictionary?

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And the publisher said, "What IS a dictionary?"

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He said, "Well, now, if you had a dictionary, you'd be able to look it up and SEE what it meant."

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So the publisher said, "Well, if you can do it fairly quickly, I may be able to find a market for it."

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So, Dr Johnson went home and he set about compiling a dictionary. Now, how do you start compiling a dictionary?

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That was his first problem. So what he did was first of all, he wrote down all the words that he knew.? Just one after another, Marine, hepatitis, all those common garden words that everyone uses.

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And then he called round all his friends and said, "Just give me words. Throw them at me.? Any word you like."

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And they just threw these words at him, all sorts. "Agorophobia," one man said.

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And he said, "What's that?"

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And he said, "It's a a morbid fear of public places."

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And Johnson said, "Well, I never knew that."??

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And he wrote that one down.

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He said, "That is a winner."? And he put that one down, agorophobia, it came on page 23.

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He knew he was going to tell his publisher, if you think it's dull, sir, wait until you get to page 23."

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And then he sorted them all out and put them all in alphabetical order, one under the other.? They were left with the letter I.?

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They didn't seem to find many for the letter I. Illicit.? Someone kept saying "Illicit.

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And then it came to the word Irk.

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And Johnson said, "It starts with an e. "

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He said, "No it isn't.? That's the Air Force one.? It's irk, i-r-k."

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And Johnson said, "I always thought that was Iraq."

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"It's pronounced irk."

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"All right. We'll put it down."

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And they looked at the list and they had all these wonderful words that begin with I, like ironmonger and income tax and iridescent, iraquaquana; he had that down.

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And he got them all down, and he said, "Now, before we go round to the publisher let's just make sure that there's no word that we forgot. Is there any word at all that we've forgotten?"

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And they all sat down.? They sat down for an hour.

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"Is there any word at all? Any word at all?"

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"Have you got epsilentary?"

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He said, "There isn't such a word."

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"Right.?? Right.? I was just trying you out.? You're quite right."

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They finally decided that they had all the words in the English tongue.? And they took this round to the publisher and Johnson said, "Very well. There you are.? There it is. The very first ever dictionary.? With every word in the English language."

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And the publisher said, "I can't believe it."

He said, "It's so.? Tell me any word."

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"Agorophobia."

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"It's on page 23.? Look."?

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And sure enough, page 23, there was agoraphobia.

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And the publisher said, "I cannot believe this."

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And Johnson said, "It only took me three months."

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And the publisher said, "You DID ALL THIS IN THREE MONTHS.? Impossible."

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Johnson said, "What?"

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And he said, "Impossible."

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And Johnson burst out crying and said, "The word impossible is not in my dictionary."

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Denis Norden 580709b

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Download at http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?2rt75kqd4dw6r23

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I keep seeing "chia seed water" all over social media, with influencers saying it helps with constipation, bowel regularity and weight loss. Is that true?

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In a video on TikTok, a woman waves a plastic bottle containing chia seeds, lemon juice and water. She's on her fourth day of drinking the gloop, she says. "Let me tell you something," she adds, "this is, like, the realest thing I've ever learned on the internet. I am the most constipated person I know," but since drinking the chia seeds, she continues, she has "never been so regular."

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On TikTok, views for videos about "the internal shower," as the drink has been called, number in the millions. Chia seed water is made from simple ingredients: just a tablespoon or two of chia seeds, water and perhaps a squeeze of lemon juice for taste. Yet it has been said to have big benefits, helping with bloating and irregularity and stimulating weight loss.

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To an extent, these claims are true, said Amanda Lynett, a dietitian specializing in gastroenterology and hepatology at Michigan Medicine. Thanks to the high fiber content, chia seeds are one of her go-to dietary recommendations for people with constipation.

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Experts say that no matter how you consume chia seeds ?- whether sprinkled onto oatmeal or yogurt, or mixed into puddings, baked goods or smoothies - they'll still help your digestion. There's good research in general showing that dietary fiber ?- an essential nutrient abundant in chia seeds - can help.

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A two-tablespoon serving of dry chia seeds contains nearly 10 grams of fiber, over twice the amount in a medium Red Delicious apple, and a good portion of the recommended 21 to 38 grams most people should eat a day.

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Chia seeds contain both soluble and insoluble fiber, said Dr. Sophie M. Balzora, a gastroenterologist at NYU Langone Health. Soluble fiber forms a gel-like substance when it dissolves in water and can help keep your stool soft, while insoluble fiber adds mass to your bowel movements, making them bulkier and easier to pass, Dr. Balzora said.

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Ms. Lynett added that chia seeds can also help reduce bloating and discomfort.

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This laxative-like effect isn't unique to chia seeds, said Joanne Slavin, a dietitian and professor of food science and nutrition at the University of Minnesota. Other fiber-rich foods - like nuts and seeds, most fruits and vegetables, and whole grains - can help reduce constipation too; as can staying hydrated and taking supplements like psyllium husk.

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Some on social media have said that chia seed water can also help you lose weight - fast. One woman on TikTok said it helped her lose four pounds in three days.

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Such rapid weight changes are probably a result of losing water weight from going to the bathroom, not of losing body fat, Dr. Balzora said. That weight would most likely come right back after drinking a large glass of water, she added.

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But chia seed water could help you feel full, which could reduce how many calories you consume. "You're going to feel more satiated than someone who had, say, a bagel," Dr. Balzora said.

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Over time, this could contribute to longer-term weight loss.

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Chia seeds in liquid might be easier on your stomach than eating them dry, Ms. Lynett said.

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When soaked in water, they expand and produce a slimy substance called mucilage, said Elvira de Mejia, a professor of food science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. This is part of what helps to bulk up your stool and keep it soft.

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When you eat chia seeds dry, Ms. Lynett said, that expansion happens in your gut instead of in your glass, potentially leading to bloating and cramping.

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No matter how you consume them, the discomfort you feel from eating chia seeds will depend on how much fiber you're used to eating in general, she said. It may take some experimentation to figure out how many chia seeds mixed into your food or drink will ease your constipation without stomach discomfort.

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Ms. Lynett recommended starting off with one tablespoon (or less) and soaking the seeds in water (or milk to create chia pudding, or adding them to overnight oats or smoothies) until they've visibly expanded.

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If you notice any sudden changes in your typical bowel habits, such as unusual constipation, blood in your stool, vomiting or severe stomach pain, it's a good idea to forget the chia seeds and see a doctor, since these symptoms can sometimes signal a serious condition, Dr. Balzora said. You can start with a primary care doctor, who might then refer you to a gastroenterologist.

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Caroline Hopkins Legaspi

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Arthur made several musicals at Paramount, which put him i touch with the composers who came out from New York. Our house became a gathering place for them. I had a fine piano, a medium grand Steinway handmade from pearwood. My mother was always very fussy about pianos nothing but a Steinway would she ever touch. One night Richard Rodgers, Jerome Kern, George and Ira Gershwin fought for that instrument, practically knocking each other down getting to the piano. One would get up and another would jump in. They played and played. Augustine Lara, the Mexican composer, was there. He sat in absolute ecstasy at this display of musical wealth. The talent good Lord! But we really had a musical theater then.

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Dick Rodgers played a beautiful piano, which is not always true of composers. We had become friends making Love Me Tonight and stayed friends through the years. I would always see him and Dorothy when they came out to California. Besides that marvelous Love Me Tonight score, he wrote a song for Manhattan Melodrama, which, after several changes of lyrics by Larry Hart, became "Blue Moon," a very New York song. It has a quality about it that is the city at night. He played those and other songs at my house always his own songs, of course, vying with his peers for that pearwood piano.

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Jerry Kern came into my life while composing that lovely score for High, Wide and Handsome, one of Arthur's Paramount musicals. He was dear and diminutive, with an impish sense of fun. I adored him. Sometimes I'd come home from the studio in the evening and find him sitting on our front porch. He would drive up from his house in Beverly Hills and just wait for us. Once, planning to surprise me, he climbed into an enormous ceramic jar on the porch and got stuck. We had one hell of a time extricating him. Arthur and I, with some of the servants, had to overturn that heavy thing and pull, coax, and squeeze, nearly breaking his little bones. This was Jerry, full of whimsical pranks to relieve what seemed a constant flow of creativity. He worked late at night, which was hard on his wife, a lovely woman, patient; they all had to be, married to those mad men. As he composed by an open window one night, a bird's insistent call annoyed him. "Close that window!" he shouted to his wife. "It's driving me crazy." But the birdcall came back to haunt him, and, dozens of melodies later, it became the first seven notes of "I've Told Every Little Star." Beautiful melodies poured out of him.

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James Kotsilibas-Davis & Myrna Loy (Myrna Loy – Being & Becoming) 1987

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Inevitably the union moved closer to violence. Though a strike was going on, the union people felt free to enter the factory, and they held suribachi courts on the factory floor, more brutal than in the past. Masuda's people carried their battle into the workers' dormitories. The dorms became the center of the worst kind of civil war, conducted within the larger one. There the union people assaulted anyone they thought was against them. They harassed entire families, blocking some from using the toilets or the kitchens. Sometimes they set their wives upon the wife of a wavering worker; the wives would taunt the woman for several days, cutting her off, making fun of her, making it impossible for her to cook for her family. One worker years later could remember corning home and finding a huge sign outside the door of his room. It said, "The spy for the company lives here." Inside were five men.

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He had seen only one of them before, "We know what you are up to," one said. "Do not think you can fool us." Then they remained silent. For four hours they just sat there, not saying anything. No one spoke to him. When his children tried to move around, they were told to be quiet, as if they were intruders in the house. The only noise was the occasional sound of weeping from one of the children. Finally one of the men turned to the others and said, "Do you think he gets the idea?" Then they got up and left. For days afterward the worker wondered what he had done to bring them to his apartment. He had been a member of the union, he had believed in Masuda. He had, it was true, been a little uneasy about the conduct of the union, and in his heart he believed that a man should be paid only if he worked. But he could not remember having revealed any of these seditious thoughts - to anyone, not even his wife.

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David Halberstam "The Reckoning" (1987)

A few years later, during production on Into the Abyss, I had only a few minutes with Reverend Richard Lopez, the death-house chaplain, whose job is to be with prisoners in the moments before and during their execution. He immediately tapped his wristwatch, saying, "I have to be in the death house in forty minutes to assist with an execution." I had ten seconds to introduce myself before placing him in front of the camera and filming him. He immediately started speaking like a phoney, superficial television preacher; about a merciful and forgiving God, about redemption for everyone and paradise awaiting us all, about the beauty of Creation. Then he mentioned how much he loves being alone on the golf course in the morning, and how he switches off his cellphone so he can listen to the sounds of nature. He wanted to experience the dew-covered early-morning grass and watch the squirrels and deer running about and a horse looking at him with big eyes. I sensed our conversation was moving in the wrong direction, that I had to put an end to these platitudes, so I stopped him and asked something that nobody else on God's wide earth would have. From behind the camera, with a cheerful voice, I said, quite spontaneously, "Tell me about an encounter with a squirrel." Immediately, within twenty seconds, he began to unravel and completely came apart. He was so shaken to his core that he started to weep, talking about the bad choices and mistakes of the many people with whom he had been during the last moments of their life. Although he was able to stop his golf cart before it ran over a squirrel, he couldn't halt the inexorable procedures of an execution. I don't know why I asked him about the squirrel; I only knew I had to crack him open.

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Werner Herzog? "Werner Herzog A Guide For The Perplexed" (2015)

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Organizing Information

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Because of these faulty connections in the brain, an individual may receive information but be unable to organize it or make sense of it. Donna Williams, a well-known person with autism from Australia, mentions that spoken words turn into "blah-blah-blah" and the meaning disappears. She is hearing the words clearly but not understanding them. Problems with organizing information affect children's ability to form categones - the foundation for later concept formation. Difficulties people on the spectrum have with multi-tasking would also fall into this category. Again, these difficulties are highly variable, and range from mild to severe depending on which brain circuits connected during development and which ones did not. One classic test of flexible thinking is the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. In this test, a person has to sort differently-patterned cards, one at a time, into categories such as YELLOW or CIRCLES. A person on the spectrum is slower to figure out new categories as they are introduced.

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Sensory overload can cause either vision or hearing to shut down completely. During these times, no information will get through to the brain, and learning will not occur. Also, sensory and information processing problems are worse when a child is tired. It is therefore best to teach difficult material when the child is alert and wide awake. Since my oversensitivity to noise was fairly mild, I responded well to a generally intrusive teaching method where the teacher grabbed my chin to make me pay attention. Donna Williams told me that method absolutely would not work with her. The tactile input coupled with the teacher speaking would be overload and could not be processed simultaneously; Donna is a mono-channel learner. She either has to look at something or listen to something, but she cannot look and listen at the same time. Information processing on more than one sensory channel is not possible.

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An effective teacher with spectrum children and adults is one who is a good detective and looks for the source of learning difficulties.

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Often they can be found in one or a combination of these categories mentioned above. A challenge, even one considered mild, will dramatically compromise a child's ability to learn via traditional teaching methods. Teachers who truly want to help students with sensory and perception difficulties will figure out the child's unique learning style and adapt teaching methods accordingly. Some children do best with written instructions and assignments; others will do best through oral methods or oral testing. The best teachers have a flexible approach and teach to the style through which each child learns.

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Temple Grandin "The Way I See It: A Personal Look at Autism & Asperger's" (2011)

While the censorship battle was raging, George Tomasini did his brilliant editing, and Bernard Herrmann composed what many regard as his quintessential score. Herrmann's frenetically paced all-strings orchestration – what one critic called "screaming violins" and another "pure ice water" - would set the all-time standard in film music. The main Psycho theme is "repeated so often and at such musically strong points that it seems to be not only a point of departure but a point of return as well," according to film music scholar Royal S. Brown. The musical backing went beyond any previous Hitchcock theme "in its array of jarringly dissonant chords, the bitonality of which reflects on the film's ultimate narrative theme."

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Although the director originally intended the shower scene to be one of his silent short stories, he changed his mind after hearing the piercing music. So Marion's ordeal would begin with "an extremely high-pitched string passage," in the words of film scholar James Naremore, "punctu-: Marion's screams and a series of notes that are like whistles," abruptly shifting, after Mother has stopped stabbing and fled, "into a loud but slow sequence of bass chords in a minor key." Only after Mother leaves the room does the music fade away, as a staring Marion slides down the wall. The final shot of her lifeless eye is complemented only by the natural noises of running water and a drain gurgling.

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While the film was being edited and scored, Hitchcock convened a series of meetings in Lew Wasserman's office to plan the publicity, advertising and release strategy for Psycho.

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It was a campaign Hitchcock had really begun BEFORE the filming, making a series of provocative statements about the intentional shocker he had planned - complete with nudity, bloodshed, and transvestism - and then closing the Psycho set to journalists.

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This created an aura of supersecrecy that extended even to the cast members. According to Vera Miles, the ensemble actually had to raise their right hands and swear not to divulge the plot twists of the film. That Hitchcock actually took such self-serving pains was unlikely, as was the rumor that the director bought up all copies of the book in Los Angeles. Psycho was a popular novel that hasn't gone out of print since its original publication.

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One thing Hitchcock DID buy was the book's original cover design, from artist Tony Palladino, ordering the poster to be modeled after the book jacket. (Since early in his career, Hitchcock, who started out in design, had consulted on his titles and advertising, but this was the first time he was able to dictate the style. Harold Adler, who worked with Saul Bass on title sequence - "nervous, balletic horizontal and vertical bars that expanded and contracted in mirror-image patterns," in Stephen Rebello's words - noticed that Hitchcock's office "contained more art books and current magazines on graphics than I owned.")

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Having agreed to direct the film for a deferred salary, Hitchcock was a major investor in - and co-owner of - Psycho. At one of the early advertising and publicity meetings, Barney Balaban objected to Hitchcock's promotional ideas, insisting they would never work, but Wasserman flourished Hitchcock's contract, reminding Balaban of the director's rights.

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All his life Hitchcock had been a student of publicity; now he could take all the lessons he had been learning since Islington - lessons he had mastered with his television series - and apply them to Psycho. He hired his witty amanuensis James Allardice to write the Alfred Hitchcock Presents-type trailers, with the director himself offering a guided tour of the Bates Motel, lingering in the bathroom, flushing the toilet, and rolling his eyes.

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"All tidied up," Hitchcock says ruefully. "The bathroom. Oh, they've cleaned all this up now. Big difference. You should have seen the blood. The whole, the whole place was, well, it's too horrible to describe. Dreadful. And I tell you a very important clue was found here (pointing to the toilet]. Down there. Well, the murderer, you see, crept in here very silently - of course, the shower was on, there was no sound, and uh. . . "

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At which point, the director whips the curtain aside, and Bernard Herrmann's screeching violins are heard. There crouches an undressed blonde (not Janet Leigh, but the accommodating Vera Miles in a wig) emitting a bloodcurdling scream. It was one of the world's great trailers.

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With the exception of the Selznick productions, Hitchcock had never enjoyed the big promotional and advertising budgets that came with studio affiliation. That was a continual gripe about his deal with Warner Bros.; Paramount was better, but some of his Paramount films - like Vertigo - received surprisingly modest press attention during filming, and only average budget support upon release. Now, with Paramount keeping to the shadows, Hitchcock had the opportunity to mastermind a film's release as never before.

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It was Hitchcock himself who made the unprecedented decision to exclude critics from advance showings (supposedly to prevent them from giving away the ending in reviews), and to advertise, "No one BUT NO ONE will be admitted to the theater after the start of each performance." As Rebello points out in his book, the latter gambit was not unique (Paramount had tried the same angle with Vertigo), but it never worked as well as with Psycho.

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Exhibitors were forced to comply. Publicity kits advised theater owners how to handle long lines and surging crowds, and cautioned them, in a recording from Hitchcock himself, "to close your house curtains over the screen after the end-titles of the picture, and keep the theater dark for half a minute. During these thirty seconds of stygian blackness, the suspense of Psycho is indelibly engraved in the mind of the audience, later to be discussed among gaping friends and relations. You will then bring up houselights of a greenish hue, and shine spotlights of this ominous hue across the faces of your departing patrons."

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The postproduction gloss and release plans were then left to trusted subordinates as the Hitchcocks embarked on a two-month global vacation. They departed on the President Cleveland on April 3 for Honolulu, and from there traveled to Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney, Rome, Paris, and London, as usual mingling publicity with pleasure.

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In Tokyo, he later told Andy Warhol, he was escorted by an "extremely sedate" Japanese representative to a press club and steak dinner. Afterward they trooped upstairs, where Hitchcock had the kind of accidental encounter with undressed women that he also had been mastering since Islington days. He wasn't expecting pornography: "Awful films American ones, French ones and then [after the films] they had two live girls sticking a brush between their 'legs' and writing on white paper in Japanese characters."

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Patrick McGilligan "Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light" (2003)

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These are the times that try men's souls

(Thomas Paine)

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Yes, what a provocative minx, Dame Fate is, because I actually said this line, These are the times that try men's souls. It was during a bus strike actually.? And I was limping rather badly.? I was in some agony because I had a corn.?

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And I was walking to work from the railway and I also had a cold.? And I was sucking a peppermint which had no taste in it.? And it wasn't quite a wild.? I realized that what had happened was that my children, through some sense of humor, had realized the close resemblance between a corn plaster and a peppermint with a hole in the middle, and had switched them over.?

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But having cured my corn, I realized that to stop its recurrence I would have to have a scooter, because a lot of people are having these scooters. I find they're very tiring on the right leg all that sort of pushing back on the pavement.? But I did get along very well.

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I'll try to keep the story as brief as possible, just keep to the essentials.

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I was in south Kensington and I threw myself into a skid; and I came away from the scooter. And I couldn't get the scooter's wheel; it had buckled.

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I was quite near Nancy Spain's.?? So I went in to ask Nancy whether she could help me straighten the wheel, because she's stronger than I am.

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Nancy actually wasn't at home and I was walking across the drawing room when I slipped on a globule of quince jelly which was on the floor and struck my hip.

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I'll try to cut out all the superfluous bits. I struck my hip against the armchair.? And in reaching out to save myself I grabbed a book on the bookshelf and it was Thomas Paine.?

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And the page opened and there was this line, these are the times that try men's souls, and somehow that line, these are the times that try men's souls, stuck in my mind like a literary fishbone.

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And some time later, this was the Thursday.? No it was the Friday because we had fish. No, it was the .... No, it was the Friday.?? No it was the Wednesday, I remember, because Mrs. Turret rang up.? No, she rang up on a Tuesday.? No, it was a Saturday because I was up in town and I was sitting opposite this chap in the railway compartment.? And he was a smiling sort of chap. He was reading one of those financial papers. And I could see that he was happy. He was viewing the world through rose-tinted newsprint.? And he was quite happy.? and I got into conversation and asked him how he was and he was going to see his income tax inspector.

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And I said, sort of, how are things, and he said, "Well I find this bus strike rather irksome because I've worn out two pairs of shoes."

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Well, then this line sort of occurred to me and I said, "Well, These ARE the times that try men's soles."

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And he started to laugh. And it so transpired that he laughed all the way to work and he went to his income tax inspector and he came out of the building, still laughing, and was arrested for being drunk, because he was laughing coming out of an income tax office. And the shame killed him.?

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And a month later, apparently, I had the information from his solicitors that he'd died but that he'd left me a small, but rather lovely plaster of paris bust of Lord Roberts in his will.

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He's left this to me, as he said, because, in the train, when he'd had those holes in his shoes, and I had said, "These are the times that try men's souls"

It had brought him happiness. I thought it was rather charming.

But you know, actually, it's rather odd because I brought him a little Paine.

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Frank Muir 580709a

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Download at http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?2rt75kqd4dw6r23

I'm just no good at rhyming.

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I'm just no good at rhyming.

It makes me feel so bad.

I'm just no good at rhyming,

And that's why I'm so blue.

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My teacher asked if I could find a word that rhymes with "hat."

"It's something that a dog might chase."

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"Aha!" I said. "A car!"

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My teacher asked if I could find a word that rhymes with "wizard."

"It's something small and with a tail."

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"Aha!" I said. "A puppy!"

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My teacher asked if I could find a word that rhymes with "wall."

"It's something you might try to catch."

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"Aha!" I said. "A lizard!"

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I'm just no good at rhyming.

I'm sorry, but it's true.

I'm just no good at rhyming,

And that's why I'm so sad.

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I'm pretty good with meter,

And with spelling and with timing.

But I'll never be a poet,

'Cause I just can't rhyme words at all.

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Chris Harris "I'm Just No Good at Rhyming: And Other Nonsense for Mischievous Kids and Immature Grown-Ups" (2017)

Interviews, as I've said, were like Presidential press conferences then, because there were so many newspapers. You always had to have somebody from the studio to help you through them. Larry Barbier, one of Howard Strickling's assistants, was my protector. If I went to New York or anywhere on studio business, Larry accompanied me, reinforced by people from the local Metro office once we arrived. There would always be a phalanx of people around to protect me. We were so coddled by the studio. This was the "M-G-M syndrome" that Judy Garland and I used ty talk about, a strange kind of conditioning that wasn't good for us. I considered it great sport to shake them, to escape the constant surveillance. Others, like Judy, became too dependent on it.

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On the other hand, you had the public to deal with, which I rudely discovered on a trip to New York with Arthur. Like all native New Yorkers, Arthur loved to shop there, and in that day, before cut-rate chain stores and suburban malls, New York shops were really something. We went down to Macy's one morning to buy place mats and things for the house. I'm a pretty fast shopper; I don't fool around, so a salesgirl took me behind her showcase to show me what they had. I'm examining this stuff, when all of a sudden I look up and there's a sea of faces crowding in on me. Two big Macy cops appear, grab my arms, and start pulling me: "Word's out that you're in the store; we've got to get you out of here. They're coming up the elevators and the stairways." They were scared; they really had a mob on their hands. Just then some woman yells, "I luf you! I luf you!" and cracks me on the back of my neck. I actually saw stars. She almost killed me with her luf. I'm staggering, calling for Arthur, who's wandered off to another department, with these two cops dragging me downstairs, all the while bawling me out: "Don't you know better than to do a thing like this? Don't you ever come in here again." They got me to a side entrance and literally threw me out of Macy's. Imagine! I stood there absolutely nonplussed until Arthur found me. "They just threw me out," I gasped. "I mean, they actually told me never to come back." The irony started us laughing as we headed toward Fifth Avenue for a shot of brandy.

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James Kotsilibas-Davis & Myrna Loy (Myrna Loy – Being & Becoming) 1987

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That was always the obstacle. The financial people were conservative - all they could think of was that immense sum they owed the bank - and their instinct about any new venture was reflexively negative. To their mind the company was already stretched too thin, too many new factories were being built, there was too little cash, and America remained an uncertain world dominated by automotive giants. Only Ishihara, an Ishihara living in Tokyo instead of New York, could handle them. His requests were not the requests of some difiant, lowly manager who had gone native in America and who was probably trying to create his own empire at Nissan's expense; these were the requests of one of their own, a man of profit. He knew all the numbers, all the games that the financial people played, and he had their trust. Because Katayama was living in America: he was perceived as alien. Every time he challenged Tokyo, it was additional proof that he was more American than Japanese. Ishiaara's word would be trusted as Katayama's would not. Ishihara was acutely aware of this. Once, early in the course of the American venture, during a visit to the California offices he took Katayama and Nobe Wakatsuki, the trading company executive who in 1957 had urged Nissan to send cars to the Los Angeles auto show, to dinner. The question of Tokyo's reluctance to accept suggestions from America hung heavily in the air that night. It was very hard to make Tokyo respond to American needs, Ishihara said. "I am the only one who can do it, who can push it through," he told them, "and I can do it only from Tokyo. Always remember that."

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There was soon ample evidence of it. Nissan capitalized the American company at $1 million. To the Japanese that seemed an enormous amount of money. There were strict governmental limits on how much a company could spend overseas. They were sure $1 million would last five years. But America turned out to be a terribly expensive place. Breakfasts at a hotel could cost the unwary traveler several dollars. Advertising on radio and television was like burning money. Even arranging dealerships turned out to cost money, for lawyers were expensive. Nothing was cheap in this country. There was no way to save. Within two years there was only $100,000 left from the original $1 million. In late 1962 Ishihara went back to the board, hat in hand, and asked for another $500,000. They had, he acknowledged, spent more rapidly than anyone had anticipated, but doing business in America had proved far costlier than imagined. He had done everything he could to save, but it was impossible to save in the Japanese sense of that word. If they held back now, the American company would come to a complete stop, and Nissan would have to retire from the American market, which meant in effect from the export market.

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When he made his presentation at the board meeting, there was no real challenge to him. The board voted the money rather readily and he felt very little heat. But the American operation continued to be costly, and results remained hard to come by. A year later he had to go back and ask for another $500,000. This time he knew he was going against the wishes of the board. Some board members suggested he had been careless and that for so much money there ought to be more to show. Ishihara replied politely that he was still confident they could attain their objective, that Nissan could make a car that would do well in the American market. Again he repeated what he believed, that if Japan was to have any world export market in autos, it had to prove itself in America, against the best. But they had all underestimated how expensive starting out in America was. He was positive that if they held on a little longer they would succeed. Indeed, he was willing to bet his career on it. If we don't make it with this request he added, I will resign from the company. When he made that promise, no one, he noted, tried to talk him out of it.

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The eyes on him at the meeting, he thought, were as cold as stone, and he could even see a small amount of pleasure in the faces of some potential adversaries. The board again gave him $500,000, but it left no doubt that he was not to come back again, and that his promise should be a serious one. If he failed, he might as well quit, for he would have no future at Nissan.

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It was, he often reflected later, a very close call. In 1964 the company began to show a profit, about $200,000. Years later, when Ishihara was president of Nissan and was frequently congratulated on the brilliance of Nissan's performance in America, he was always mildly amused, for he knew how near they had come to failure.

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David Halberstam "The Reckoning" (1987)

NOT MANY FILMMAKERS HAVE BEEN INVITED BY THE DALAI LAMA TO FILM A BUDDHIST RITE.

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Which is one reason why I made Wheel of Time, though I could never claim to be very connected to Buddhist culture. At the time my understanding of the religion was rudimentary. A group of Buddhists in Graz, Austria, were planning to hold the Kalachakra initiation ceremony there. Every few years the Dalai Lama settles on one place where he invites the Buddhist world to celebrate this event with him. I was initially hesitant because I can't stand crowds of Western Buddhists crammed together in one place; there's something about seeing them in multitudes that looks wrong to me. Besides, I had no desire to be a cultural tourist, slipping into a religion I knew little about. Then I watched an amateur video from an earlier Kalachakraceremony ?Ladakh, in the Himalayas, and was impressed. The plan was also to hold the ceremony in Bodhgaya, a small village in India, where - after years of wandering as an itinerant - the historical Buddha had experienced his enlightenment under a tree.

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I was still undecided about the project, but the Dalai Lama sent an envoy who asked me to reconsider and make the film, starting in Bodhgaya. Apparently he's a big fan of cinema, especially vampire films, and enjoyed Nosferatu. It isn't easy to say no when the Dalai Lama summons you; the man is charismatic, warm-hearted and deeply philosophical, with an astoundingly clear worldview, able to articulate complex ideas, and one of the best laughers I have ever met. I decided to move forward with the project and read as much as I could about Buddhism, though made the film very much as an outsider, keeping to my own culture, an approach to the subject that I feel comes through in the film. The Dalai Lama has spoken of the importance of studying religions other than our own, but at the same time staying within our own faith. Explore Buddhism, but don't leave your own religion behind.

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In Bodhgaya we were confronted by the vast makeshift tent-city constructed on the outskirts of town to cater for the half a million pilgrims expected for the Kalachakra event, an eagerly awaited ceremony for the faithful. Some people arrived hanging on to battered, overflowing trucks, some by train from Delhi, others travelled thousands of miles on foot. One had even come nearly two thousand miles, prostrating himself at each step by lowering his body, arms outstretched, touching the ground with his forehead then standing up and moving to where his head was. The journey had taken him three and a half years. Although he had protected them with wooden clogs, the bones in his hands had grown nodules, and there was a permanent wound on his forehead that came from touching the ground a couple of million times. Yet this man radiated the placidity of a statue. It's the kind of devotion that one can't help but be respectful of, regardless of what religion otherwise – or otherwise is being honoured.

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Werner Herzog? "Werner Herzog A Guide For The Perplexed" (2015)

Other professionals in the autism community are coming to the same conclusion, and research is shedding light on the hidden abilities within this population. Professionals have generally agreed that about 50% of individuals with autism will never speak. Catherine Lord, a University of Michigan pioneer in autism research, is suggesting we may be way off the mark. In her 2004 study sample of children diagnosed and treated at age two, only 14% remained nonverbal by age nine, and 35-45% could speak fluently.

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Our current perceptions about nonverbal individuals with autism are also being stretched by people on the spectrum, like Tito and others, who are coming forth and writing about their rich Inner worlds, their abilities, and bit by bit, deflating the notion that not being able to speak means having nothing to say. Through the Increased use of augmentative and alternative communication aids with nonverbal individuals, we are discovering that many children with autism have taught themselves to read, some in more than one language; that these individuals are highly aware of then surroundings and have self-learned far more than parents and teachers imagine. It's their bodies that don't work, not their minds.

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And these individuals have a lot to say. Amanda Baggs is one such woman, and her nine-minute YouTube clip, "In My Language," is illummating to all who watch it. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnylM1hI2jc).? As it opens we see her rocking back and forth, flapping her hands in front of a large window. She goes through a series of odd repetitive behaviors, all the while accompanied by an almost eerie hum. Swatting at a necklace with her hand, slapping a sheet of paper against a window, running her hand over a computer keyboard, flicking a metal band against a door knob. Then the words "A Translation" appear on the screen, and the twenty-seven-year-old nonverbal autistic mesmerizes us with a highly articulate explanation of her thoughts and her actions. She explains how touch, taste, and smell provide her with a "constant conversation" with her environment. She challenges our neurotypical way of thinking about nonverbal individuals in a manner that cannot be ignored. And I, for one, applaud her and others who are speaking out about what it means, and doesn't mean, to be nonverbal people with autism. It's about time.

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In our interactions with nonverbal individuals with autism, it is critical that we accurately determine their level of ability and challenge, and not automatically make assumptions based on their verbal language capabilities, nor their IQ scores. It is true that many highly impaired individuals with autism exist who also have accompanying mental retardation. But that percentage may be far smaller than what we currently assume.

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Slow Processing of Information

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For most nonverbal and impaired individuals with ASD, the brain processes information very slowly. They may have fewer input channels open to receive information, or their connections may work like dial-up rather than high-speed internet connections. They need much more time to switch gears between different tasks. In autism and many other developmental disorders, attention-shifting is slow, and nonverbal impaired individuals are often slower than individuals with milder forms of autism. In her lectures, Lorna King, one of the early pioneers in using sensory integration, warned all therapists attending her meetings about a phenomenon called "clipping." Clipping can occur in both verbal and nonverbal individuals. Attention-shifting can be so slow that the person may miss half the information the teacher is trying to convey to them. This is most likely to happen when the child's attention has to be shifted to a new task. For example, if I said to a child playing with his toy "The juice is on the table" the child may hear only "on the table." To avoid this problem, the parent or teacher should first capture the child's attention with a phrase like, "Tommy, I need to tell you something." Then deliver the instruction or important information. If half of the first phrase is "clipped" it does not matter, because now the input channel is open and the statement about the juice can get through.

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Temple Grandin "The Way I See It: A Personal Look at Autism & Asperger's" (2011)

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Psycho may well be the most overly familiar motion picture in history.

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There are innumerable essays, books, college courses, academic symposia, fan clubs, and Web sites devoted to extolling and analyzing the film. But when Hitchcock first presented Psycho to his agents, his staff, and Paramount, he framed it as a simple, low-budget American shocker, in the style of his TV series, which would provide a breather from more lavish grandiose productions.

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Galleys of Robert Bloch's novel had circulated at Paramount back in mid-February 1959, but the weird yarn about a psycho killer who runs a lonely roadside motel was promptly rejected by studio readers as too ghoulish and posing insurmountable problems for censorship. Hitchcock's office routinely saw the reader reports, but the director's antenna shot up when Anthony Boucher, in his New York Times crime-fiction column of April 19, 1959, praised the novel as "chillingly effective." Hitchcock, a devotee of Boucher's column, asked his assistant, Peggy Robertson, to him a copy of the book.

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Bloch, a Wisconsin author little known outside pulp-fiction circles, had been inspired by the real-life case of Ed Gein, a Plainfield, Wisconsin, farmer arrested in 1957 for grave robbing, cannibalism, and murder. A search of Gein's property revealed the remains of an indefinite number of female victims who had been cut up, eviscerated, and cannibalized; their skins, skulls, and body parts were displayed throughout his home. The investigation revealed that Gein, who adorned himself in garments made from the flesh of his victims, had had a tormented, perhaps incestuous relationship with his mother, whose death triggered his spree.

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The basic facts of the Gein case were spun by Bloch into a macabre suspense story about a fat, lonely middle-aged tippler who has killed his other and stuffed her corpse. One rainy night, a young woman who has stolen forty thousand dollars arrives at the motel he runs; he rents her a room, then spies on her through a peephole as she prepares for a shower. Dressed grotesquely in his mother's clothes, he surprises her with a visit.

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"Mary started to scream, and then the curtains parted further and a hand appeared, holding a butcher's knife. It was the knife that, a moment later, cut off her scream."

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Hitchcock liked to boast about playing the emotions of audiences as though they were notes on a organ, but when he read Psycho he must have recognized his own inner music surging through him. It was The Lodger as the Landlord of a motel; it was a phantasmagoria with a scary mansion, stairwell, and dark basement; it was a Peeping Tom and a screaming Jane; it was the world's worst bathroom nightmare, mingling nudity and blood; it was a plunging knife in the muscled grip of a man dressed, bizarrely, as his own mother. It is no exaggeration to say that Hitchcock had been waiting for Psycho - working up to it - all his life.

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Late in April, MCA quietly arranged to option the screen rights - so quietly that the author had no idea who the buyer of his book might be. Only later did Bloch learn that Psycho was going to be immortalized by Alfred Hitchcock; like some other authors of books used for Hitchcock films, he always resented the price: a low, blind bid of nine thousand dollars.

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According to Rebello, these "risque elements" were, as usual, Hitchcock's deliberate" ruse to divert the censors from more crucial concerns." And sure enough, when Paramount submitted Stefano's draft, Code officials said it would be impossible to approve such a film, predicting that if Hitchcock did not modify the objectionable scenes - especially the lunch-hour tryst, the toilet flushing, and the shower scene - Psycho would also be condemned by local censors and the Catholic Church's Legion of Decency.

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Yet Stefano's script was thoughtful as well as intentionally provocative.

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One example is the crucial supper scene, the only time Norman and Marion have a meaningful interchange and forge a connection. Norman talks about his hobby of taxidermy and voices qualms about his mother, yet takes offense when Marion suggests that perhaps Mrs. Bates should be put in an institution. "She's not crazy!" he blurts angrily.

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The book and film versions of that scene aren't vastly different, except Stefano's script puts the characters in an office den, a room eerily presided over by Norman's collection of stuffed birds. "The [stuffed] owl, for instance, has another connotation," Hitchcock informed Truffaut. "Owls belong to the night world; they are watchers, and this appeals to Perkins's masochism. He knows the birds and he knows that they're watching him all the time. He can see his own guilt reflected in their knowing eyes."

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But the conversational "duet" between Norman and Marion is longer in the film, more substantive, and it boasts some of Stefano's finest dialogue - helping to lift Psycho out of the category of cheap horror almost into the realm of philosophy.

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When Norman tells Marion she doesn't look as though she's had many empty moments in her life, she insists she's had her share. "I'm looking for a private island," Marion admits ruefully.

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"You know what I think?" counters Norman. "I think that we're all in private traps, clamped in them, and none of us can ever get out. We scratch and claw but only at the air, only at each other, and for all of it, we never budge an inch."

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Marion says yes, but (thinking of the money she has stolen) adds that sometimes people deliberately step into their own traps. Norman replies that he was born into his trap, but doesn't mind anymore. Marion says he ought to mind, and asks gently, wouldn't it be better to put his demanding mother someplace safe?

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"But she's harmless!" insists an agitated Norman. "She's as harmless as one of those stuffed birds."

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Apologetically, Marion says she meant no offense.

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"People always mean well," Norman continues resentfully. "They cluck their thick tongues and shake their heads and 'suggest,' oh so very delicately. It's not as if she were a maniac - a raving thing. She just goes a little mad sometimes. We all go a little mad sometimes. Haven't you?"

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Patrick McGilligan "Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light" (2003)

Abstain from Beans

(Pythagoras)

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Which is of course attributed to Pythagoras.? And you may think it odd that that a man can live in history a thousand and thousand of years on the basis of two statements.? One, that the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the square on the other two sides, the other, abstain from beans.

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Now, obviously it could not have been said by Pythagoras.? It would have been very out of character. It was in fact said by Euclid, who was also in the geometry business.

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Now, if you can think back to the very early days of geometry, in the days of Euclid, who was inventing it at that time.? Before him there was no geometry.

There was five angles in a square, five right angles, before he straightened it out.

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But of course, he, first of all, started with acute angles and so on, then you got the geometry of angular things. And then came the problem on inventing the geometry of curved things.

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But they ran into great difficulty in working out this particular kind of geometry because there was no such thing as compasses in those days.

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Well, they started by drawing round the outline of a pea, which made a very nice little small circle, not quite big enough to work in. And somebody remembered, all right, we'll do it with an orange.? And they drew round an orange.?

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And they drew round an orange and so, we have all the geometrical laws about circles, about radiuses and radii and diameters and pi and things.

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And then comes this very advanced geometry about ovals.?

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Now, how do you draw an oval when you haven't got the proper equipment?

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The only way you can draw an oval is draw around a haricot bean.? Well, this worked very well, except again, you have no room to work within the outline of a haricot bean.

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If, for example, you want to drop a perpendicular, you just cannot drop a perpendicular in that space. There's not room to swing a radii.

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And it might very well have been that geometry would have stopped there, and then so there'd be no more geometry. All the school children that learn geometry now would have had to have four extra periods of English literature instead. And that would have meant the end of a program like this.

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But Euclid suddenly, who thought this out and was not going let this thing finish, because he knew he was onto something good and said, "I'm going to think it out." And, as you know who knew all the angles

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They were all working around these haricot beans, drawing like mad around haricot beans

He suddenly raised his hand and said, "I've got it. Abstain from beans."

And triumphantly he held up a watermelon.

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Denis Norden 580702b

download at http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?827vkqu4n217yxy

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I keep seeing "chia seed water" all over social media, with influencers saying it helps with constipation, bowel regularity and weight loss. Is that true?

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In a video on TikTok, a woman waves a plastic bottle containing chia seeds, lemon juice and water. She's on her fourth day of drinking the gloop, she says. "Let me tell you something," she adds, "this is, like, the realest thing I've ever learned on the internet. I am the most constipated person I know," but since drinking the chia seeds, she continues, she has "never been so regular."

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On TikTok, views for videos about "the internal shower," as the drink has been called, number in the millions. Chia seed water is made from simple ingredients: just a tablespoon or two of chia seeds, water and perhaps a squeeze of lemon juice for taste. Yet it has been said to have big benefits, helping with bloating and irregularity and stimulating weight loss.

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To an extent, these claims are true, said Amanda Lynett, a dietitian specializing in gastroenterology and hepatology at Michigan Medicine. Thanks to the high fiber content, chia seeds are one of her go-to dietary recommendations for people with constipation.

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Experts say that no matter how you consume chia seeds ?- whether sprinkled onto oatmeal or yogurt, or mixed into puddings, baked goods or smoothies - they'll still help your digestion. There's good research in general showing that dietary fiber ?- an essential nutrient abundant in chia seeds - can help.

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A two-tablespoon serving of dry chia seeds contains nearly 10 grams of fiber, over twice the amount in a medium Red Delicious apple, and a good portion of the recommended 21 to 38 grams most people should eat a day.

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Chia seeds contain both soluble and insoluble fiber, said Dr. Sophie M. Balzora, a gastroenterologist at NYU Langone Health. Soluble fiber forms a gel-like substance when it dissolves in water and can help keep your stool soft, while insoluble fiber adds mass to your bowel movements, making them bulkier and easier to pass, Dr. Balzora said.

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Ms. Lynett added that chia seeds can also help reduce bloating and discomfort.

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This laxative-like effect isn't unique to chia seeds, said Joanne Slavin, a dietitian and professor of food science and nutrition at the University of Minnesota. Other fiber-rich foods - like nuts and seeds, most fruits and vegetables, and whole grains - can help reduce constipation too; as can staying hydrated and taking supplements like psyllium husk.

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Some on social media have said that chia seed water can also help you lose weight - fast. One woman on TikTok said it helped her lose four pounds in three days.

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Such rapid weight changes are probably a result of losing water weight from going to the bathroom, not of losing body fat, Dr. Balzora said. That weight would most likely come right back after drinking a large glass of water, she added.

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But chia seed water could help you feel full, which could reduce how many calories you consume. "You're going to feel more satiated than someone who had, say, a bagel," Dr. Balzora said.

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Over time, this could contribute to longer-term weight loss.

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Chia seeds in liquid might be easier on your stomach than eating them dry, Ms. Lynett said.

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When soaked in water, they expand and produce a slimy substance called mucilage, said Elvira de Mejia, a professor of food science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. This is part of what helps to bulk up your stool and keep it soft.

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When you eat chia seeds dry, Ms. Lynett said, that expansion happens in your gut instead of in your glass, potentially leading to bloating and cramping.

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No matter how you consume them, the discomfort you feel from eating chia seeds will depend on how much fiber you're used to eating in general, she said. It may take some experimentation to figure out how many chia seeds mixed into your food or drink will ease your constipation without stomach discomfort.

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Ms. Lynett recommended starting off with one tablespoon (or less) and soaking the seeds in water (or milk to create chia pudding, or adding them to overnight oats or smoothies) until they've visibly expanded.

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If you notice any sudden changes in your typical bowel habits, such as unusual constipation, blood in your stool, vomiting or severe stomach pain, it's a good idea to forget the chia seeds and see a doctor, since these symptoms can sometimes signal a serious condition, Dr. Balzora said. You can start with a primary care doctor, who might then refer you to a gastroenterologist.

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Caroline Hopkins Legaspi

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We lived high off the hog on Fifth Avenue, which was not, of course, Fifth Avenue, New York. It was just a nice middle-class neighborhood. Most of the richer families were building on the opposite mountainside. Helena is a spacious city, climbing up Mount Ascension and Mount Helena from Last Chance Gulch, so we had wonderful, steep streets. When it snowed, you could slide past Judge Cooper's house all the way to the railroad station in the valley part of town. The Coopers lived just below us in a fairly elegant house with an iron fence around it. My parents knew them, but I didn't see much of their son Gary, who was four years older and spent some time at school in England. Later, in Hollywood, we used to laugh about living on the wrong side of town, but, curiously, we seldom talked about our Helena days. That didn't keep him from talking to others about them. According to Edith Goetz, Louis B. Mayer's daughter, Gary would cheerfully describe me "belly bustin' hell-bent for election" down the street past his house.

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Gary Cooper confided she had bright red hair in braids, great big freckles, and a turned-up nose, revealed Myrna's erstwhile co-star, William Powell, after the three converged in Hollywood. She wasn't what a boy might call beautiful, but there was something about her that got to him. He was shy and she was shy, and the most pleasure he got out of the romance was leaning on the Williamses' picket fence listening to Myrna play "The Wedding of the Winds."

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The only time he ever spoke to her in those Helena days was one afternoon when he went to the Williamses' house on an errand for his mother. Mrs. Williams, the soul of Montana hospitality, sent Myrna down to the cellar for a glass of apple jelly. Now, back of the furnace down there was a dark hole that had become a phobia with Myrna. She went down the steps bravely enough, carefully made her way to the jelly shelf, but visions horrible and dank rose from the black hole. "Yo-oo-oow!" shrieked Myrna, falling up the cellar steps, bruising her knees and tearing her stockings.

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"You," remarked Master Cooper, "are a sissy," probably the only ungallant thing Gary Cooper ever said to a lady. Certainly there have been no complaints since. Myrna, completely mortified, chose to forget the entire episode, including Judge Cooper's little boy, as quickly as possible. They met eventually in Hollywood, but by that time Gary had his hands full with the temperamental Lupe Velez, and Myrna was already far gone into the bizarre. Nothing ever came of the Loy-Cooper romance.

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My first beau was another neighbor - John G. Brown, Jr. Actually, he wasn't really my beau. I had a terrible crush on him, but he had no time for me. He would let my girlfriend Ruth Rae ride on the back of his tricycle, while I lust trailed along, very disturbed by the whole thing. On Saturday afternoons, Ruth would ask me to call him up for her, and I like a fool would do it. This went on and on, but he never paid any attention to me at all.

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Years later, when I started at Warner Brothers, who should send me my first fan letter? Johnny Brown! I had played only a few parts, probably the Orientals, but he wanted pictures of me for his room at college. He claimed the whole college wanted to know about me. Well, I thought, this is my revenge for all those years he ignored me.

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James Kotsilibas-Davis (Myrna Loy – Being & Becoming) 1987

It was a personal choice of Kawamata, who seemed to have some odd hidden streak of Anglophilia running through him. Fair Lady had been so decreed because Kawamata had once seen and apparently liked the musical My Fair Lady. Generally Katayama accepted his defeats on nomenclature reasonably well, but in 1970, when the first Japanese sports car arrived in America - the car that Katayama had always wanted - and he saw with horror that it had actually been called the Fair Lady, he and his men simply pried the nametag off the car and replaced it with one using the company's internal designation for the car, 240Z. It was far more appropriate, they decided, and using the company's own designation was the only way he could change the name without being insubordinate. Generally, however, he had lost out on names in the beginning, and normally on sportiness as well, but he was winning on almost everything else. The car was adapted to American conditions, it was economical to drive, and servicing was very good; there were always parts.

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David Halberstam "The Reckoning" (1987)

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WERE YOU EVER ON THE SUMMIT OF CERRO TORRE YOURSELF?

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Twice, both times by helicopter, which took five minutes. The second time I landed on the summit I stepped out of the helicopter with Mezzogiorno, turned around and saw him lying as flat as he could on the ground, his nails dug as deep into the ice as he could get them. I asked what was wrong. "I want to get up but my body won't co-operate," he said meekly. "Give me a little more time." I spoke to Hans Kammerlander - the climber who appears in The Dark Glow of the Mountains and has a small role in Scream of Stone - about the ice cave that had been built at the top of Cerro Torre and stocked with eight days' worth of provisions, in case we needed to take refuge. When Kammerlander saw me walking towards it without holding on to the rope, he grabbed me and said, "If you start to slide, there's nothing anyone can do for you. You will accelerate, then be airborne for a mile." Kammerlander looked me right in the eye. "If that happens," he said, "promise me one thing: enjoy the vista."

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At one point our helicopter took Stefan Glowacz, a cameraman and me up to a ridge not far from Cerro Torre's peak to prepare a sequence. Normally a team of climbers would make extensive preparations, like building an emergency shelter and taking up provisions and equipment, after which the actors and technical crew would follow. A storm had been raging for ten days, but suddenly we had a calm, crystal-clear night, followed by a beautiful morning without wind. The conditions looked so good we made the mistake of flying up there without sending a vanguard. Once we were dropped at the ridge, the three of us started walking towards our location. All of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something absolutely outrageous, something I will surely never witness again in my life. Below us, as far as the eye could see, were clouds; they looked like motionless balls of cotton. All of a sudden everything exploded like gigantic atomic bombs. I immediately radioed the helicopter, which was still in sight, and watched as it made a loop towards us. It came as close as 150 feet before the storm hit us like a bullet. The clouds were over us, there was a gust of more than a hundred miles an hour, and the temperature fell thirty degrees. After twenty seconds my moustache was a lump of ice. The helicopter was literally tossed away and we found ourselves alone with no sleeping bags, tents, food or ropes. Nothing except two ice picks. We had to dig ourselves into the snow immediately, otherwise we would have frozen to death within a few hours.

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We spent just over two days and nights in the snow hole. All we had to eat was a small piece of chocolate I had in my pocket. You can get by with nothing to eat for fifty hours, but water is something else; you have to drink at least a gallon of water a day, otherwise your toes and fingers freeze away. Ninety-five per cent of all losses of digits are the result of dehydration. After twenty hours some of my toes were turning black, and the cameraman, a very tough man, was in bad shape. He was running a temperature and having cramps. We used our walkie-talkie only every two hours for a few seconds to save batteries, and radioed down that he wouldn't survive another night. This stark message alarmed our team in the valley and two teams of four climbers were sent out to reach us. The strongest of them became delirious, threw his gloves into the storm, then clicked his fingers, insisting on calling a waiter over so he could pay for his cappuccino. They had to guide him down back to the glacier, but an avalanche swept them down two hundred feet and they had no choice but to dig a snow cave themselves because one of them had lost his sunglasses and showed signs of snow blindness. After fifty hours, the clouds burst open for ten minutes and with this lull in the storm the helicopter was able to pick us up. The pilot was in a panic and couldn't wait until the last person - me - had scrambled inside, so I crouched in a basket outside the helicopter and held on to a metal bar. When we finally touched down, my hand had frozen to the bar. It thawed out after one of the Argentinian climbers urinated on it.

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Werner Herzog? "Werner Herzog A Guide For The Perplexed" (2015)

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My Experience with Teasing and Bullying

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In elementary school, I had friends because the other children enjoyed doing craft projects with me. I was good at making gs that the other children were interested in, projects such as kites or tree houses. My big problems happened in high school.

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In high school, teenagers become purely social beings. Being good at crafts or science projects did not score any points in the social scene. The children's rhyme says, "Sticks and stones will break your bones but words will never hurt you." It's not true; words hurt a lot.

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At first, my response to teasing was anger. I got kicked out of a large girls' school for throwing a book at a girl who called me a "retard." In ninth grade, I went to a small boarding school for gifted but troubled students. Within the first week, the teasing started. They called me "bones" because I was skinny, and "tape recorder." I responded with fists. After a major fistfight in the cafeteria, I had horseback riding privileges revoked. Since I really wanted to ride the horses, I stopped fighting. The consequence for fist fighting had an impact on me.

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However, the strong emotions I felt did not just go away. I had to find an outlet for the emotion - it could not just be shut off. So I started crying when I was teased. I wonder if some of the terrible problems with school shootings would stop if boys could react with tears rather than anger. Teasing has been a major factor in many school shootings. In our society, I think there is too much emphasis on teaching men to be tough.

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Even today I defuse anger by crying. Angry outbursts would not be tolerated at work, but if I have to cry, I can find a private place.

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When I went off to college at Franklin Pierce in New Hampshire, there were many good teachers who helped me. However, teasing was still a problem. They called me "buzzard woman." The turning point came - and the teasing stopped - when the other students found out that I had talents and useful skills that interested them. I became involved in the school talent show, working many hours making scenery, and acting in some of the skits. I made a sign for the Old Palace Theatre, covered with silver glitter, with orange and green lettering. I also sang some funny songs in a screeching voice.

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Until a person participates in activities that are SHARED with other people, the teasing will continue. I strongly recommend that students with autism/AS get involved 'in special interest clubs in some of the areas they naturally excel at, activities such as computers, art, math, karate, etc. These clubs will help provide a refuge from teasing and improve the person's self-esteem. Being with people who share your interests makes socializing easier.

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As I have said many times before, talents need to be developed.? Parents and teachers need to work on expanding the child's range of interests into areas that can be shared with other students. For example, the AS or autistic student may have good art skills, but all he draws are doorknobs. Skills such as drawing need to be broadened. A good first step may be to enroll the student in an art class where drawing other subjects is required. I can remember when I took a pencil sketching class and had to spend the entire two-hour class drawing my own shoe. At college, the other students didn't become interested in my artistic talents until I made scenery for the school show. We all shared a common goal - the show - and I became part of their "group."

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While I made scenery for some of my high school plays, the young teenagers were too socially hyper to appreciate my abilities. Some gifted autistic or Asperger's students may need to be removed from this hyper-social high school scene. Enroll them in a university or community college course where they can be with their intellectual peers. College students are a bit more mature and they recognize and appreciate talents and don't tease as much. In high school, I dropped out of the teenage social scene because it was too hard for me to deal with. It was not until the college talent show that I was able to participate again.

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Temple Grandin "The Way I See It: A Personal Look at Autism & Asperger's" (2011)