The Impact Of Marine Pollution On Our Environment

Marcus Sarvis Mrs.Ashley Rutherford English IV 12 October 2017 The Impacts of Marine Pollution in Society Throughout history humans have always neglected the ocean and polluted the ocean. Pollution has been around even since the Roman times. Marine pollution today has gotten worse due to the fact that society is ignoring the issue and still making over 220 million tons of plastic that are produced each year. There are now close to 500 dead zones covering the ocean globally That is equivalent to the surface of the United Kingdom. Society had let these conditions fester for too long. Marine pollution has impacted society in different types of ways such as nonpoint source pollution, point source pollution, and the negative impact marine†¦show more content†¦Hydro Modifications alter the patterns of the instream, water temperature, sediment type. Also hardened banks are the reason why waterways are increasing and increasing the flow of the pollution into coastal waters. Another form of Nonpoint pollution is a type of pollution that s where mining is taken place, Its called Abandoned Mine Drainage. The cause of it is usually because of coal mining and from people abandoning mines. It can impact the quality of the water has a few types like Acid mine drainage, alkaline mine drainage, and metal mine drainage The most common type is Acid mine drainage. It s very acidic and has a lot of metals in its water. Being extremely toxic it has harmful effects on most organisms such as humans, animals, and plants. Another form of Non Point source pollution is called atmospheric deposition. Atmospheric deposition is the process where precipitation(rain,snow,fog) particles aerosols, and gases move from the atmosphere to the earth s surface (â€Å"Atmospheric Deposition†). The National Atmospheric Deposition Program/National Trends Network indicate that Maryland is in or near the region of most acidic precipitation and receives some of the highest concentrations of sulfate and nitrate deposition in the United States. Acidic deposition is known to cause adverse effects on the aquatic Chesapeake Bay resources of Maryland and the watershed (â€Å"Atmospheric Deposition†). Forestry isShow MoreRelatedResearch: Plastic Pollution in Water1102 Words   |  5 PagesSolutions to Plastic Pollution in our Oceans The Basics We re treating the oceans like a trash bin: around 80 percent of marine litter originates on land, and most of that is plastic. Plastic that pollutes our oceans and waterways has severe impacts on our environment and our economy. Seabirds, whales, sea turtles and other marine life are eating marine plastic pollution and dying from choking, intestinal blockage and starvation. 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Relationships Essay - 1103 Words

Relationships are the way in which two or more people are connected. The relationships that we make in life are very easy to forge; however they are not so easy to maintain. In the relationships of Biggie and the protagonist in ‘Big World’ and that of Max and Raelene in’ The Turning’ both by Tim Winton, we see relationships forged, and then fall apart very rapidly. Between Biggie and the protagonist we see absolute loyalty resulting in the downfall of the relationship. In ‘The Turning’ a once loving and strong relationship becomes one of violence. Through idiom, simile, colloquial language and irony Winton expresses that relationships are easy to forge but not so easy to maintain. Loyalty is one of the fundamental traits that are†¦show more content†¦Loyalty is a trait that helps forge a relationship but can also destroy a relationship. Within every relationship there is an amount of love. The emotion of strong affection and personal attachment is a trait that without a relationship would exist. Love is present in The Turning between the relationship of Max and Raelene. However this love one that begins out well turns out into one of physical and sexual assault. â€Å"He stared at her like a hungry man, like she was food, and it made her feel powerful. All night she had tingles knowing he wanted her† shows how the love was at first sight between Max and Raelene. The use of simile shows Max’s lust for Raelene and depicts him as an animal. This love that forges the relationship is instant and shows how easy this relationship was formed. Love can also be a negative aspect of a relationship. One-sided love can lead to problems in a relationship and affects someone’s overall happiness in life. The love that Raelene has for Max is one that results in her being oblivious to the massive change in Max’s behaviour. The line, â€Å"Raelene imagined that she still loved Max... Whatever kind of bastard he was, he still needed her.† Through the colloquial language use of ‘bastard’ we see Raelene’s belief on what she thinks Max is. However the 3rd person narration expresses her desire for his love. Thus, expressing the one-sided love in the relationship and how Raelene manipulates the situation to make itShow MoreRelated Relationships Essay732 Words   |  3 PagesInterpersonal relationships define us. When we are fortunate enough to experience a loving relationship, we achieve positive characteristics such as security and confidence. Conversely, when we experience negative relationships , we become withdrawn, guarded, and wary of engaging in future relationships. However, it is this wariness that causes us to examine our contribution to the relationship to make the next one, or current one, more successful. 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Being a Gentleman †Great Expectations Free Essays

Great Education Many describe Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations as a Bildungsroman † a novel tracing the education and spiritual growth of a young hero, in this case Philip Pirrip, better known as Pip. Pip’s thoughts on education change throughout the course of the story, beginning with idealistic views of becoming a gentleman and ending with a deeper, more intellectual perspective of being a gentleman. After meeting the wealthy and once elegant Miss Havisham, Pip becomes ashamed of his life as a lowly peasant and son ofa blacksmith. We will write a custom essay sample on Being a Gentleman – Great Expectations or any similar topic only for you Order Now He believes Miss Havisham and Estella are better than he is, and he yearns to be a member of the elite. This commences his longing for an education. At first, he attempts to learn on his own, but realizes It Is a useless effort. Then, on the day young PIP Is told he will be moving to London so that he may become a gentleman, he dreams start to become reality. During PIP’s childhood and adolescence, he believes that the sole purpose of his education Is to become an intelligent social elite. According to Pip, the distinguished members of society with education are perhaps better than the less fortunate. Sadly, that belief becomes a part of his personality. On his Journey toward nobility, he disregards his immediate family and closest friends. He ignores his beloved Joe and Is even embarrassed to be in his presence. Every time Joes Insists on vlsltlng his old pal, Pip attempts either to sabotage the trip completely, or to shorten Joe’s stay with him as much as possible. In the midst of it all, he becomes more and more obsessed with the beautiful, coldhearted Estella. As PIP matures, he slowly loses his boastful attitude. He helps his best friend, Herbert Pocket, start a business, even obtalnlng money from Miss Havisham to Invest in Herbert’s business, without Herbert’s knowledge. In addition, he gradually loses interest in Estella, realizing Biddy is the right woman for him. He goes home only to discover that Joe and Biddy married. However, the evolved PIP feels happiness for them, while he silently suffers for himself. By the end of the novel Pip learns that there is much more to life than social rank. He is aware that family and friends are more significant than money and power. In he closing chapters as Pip is planning Magwitch’s escape, he knows the Inheritance from his benefactor will cease to exist If Magwitch’s Identity Is exposed. Yet, he still fights to help the old convict who insured his quest to become a gentleman. After the plan fails, Pip becomes overwhelmed with sickness, and it is Joe who arrives to nurse the disease-stricken Pip back to health. It is at this moment where Pip realizes what constitutes being a gentleman, and what does not. Joe, the person who cares for PIP the most, hsd the least amount of education roves to be the true gentleman all along. How to cite Being a Gentleman – Great Expectations, Papers

Sof Systems Methodology Of Home Centre At Kuwait †Free Samples

Question: Discuss about the Systems Methodology Of Home Centre At Kuwait. Answer: Introduction Home Centre at Kuwait is a successful business that has been established across various other countries. The business remains extremely profitable and has been able to gain customer confidence. It is considered one of the most liked brands across the country offering home dcor and home related products. However, there are certain challenges faced by the Company in terms of its data entry methodology in its Sales department. This challenge is analysed using soft systems methodology (SSM) approach, whereby organization process modeling is used for solving the problem(Mehregan 2012). The Company has to accommodate management of change in order to overcome this problem by incorporating systems as software methods or data entry tools for entering data into systems. SSM Analysis The soft systems methodology is generally used to analyse complex situations and was developed by systems engineering approaches. It best helps resolve complex situations by analysing the situation and moving from one step to another in a step by step manner(Baskerville 2009). It allows critical thinking approach and it includes 7 stages of representations as following; Analysis of problematical situation: In this situation, Home Centre Kuwait is facing challenges in its Sales and Marketing department. It has affected the brand name and customer feedback in a negative manner. Only a root analysis of the problem can help arrive at suitable solution. The core problem here lies that its financial department due to Sales and Marketing departments challenges is unable to tally and furnish adequate data to its stakeholders. The stock record with that of finances is not tallying, which is leading to immense troubles in developing proper records of financial transactions and accounting statements. Expression of the problem situation: The problem situation arises as some transactions data is not entered in the books of accounts(Flood 2010). Although sales of requisite products have taken place but records have been handwritten. There are no other proofs to depict that the transaction actually has taken place. Formulation of root definitions of relevant systems for purposeful activity: Root definition of problems as these is important as they help in solving them rapidly(Srensen 2010). Home Centre is a reputable brand across Kuwait and is regarded as one of the best retailers. However, this lack of record keeping is not only harming the Company but also its customers, as they are not easily able to exchange goods purchased or adopt maintenance on them suitably. Root definition of the challenge lies in its stakeholders inability to identify a suitable system to record transactions for each and every sale made. Building of conceptual models of the systems named in the root definitions: In order to arrive at the solution to the given problem a software system that can ideally record transaction for the Company can be integrated. This software technology can be a model that input sales data and gives related output as reports when demanded. Compare models with real world situations: In real world situations there are several models or software present that offers variety of solutions. These software models are designed to meet data entry requirements for client companies and then make financial or accounting systems accordingly. Define possible changes which are both possible and feasible: A possible change is to design a software technology that helps to input data and produce reports for the Company(Hanafizadeh 2011). This change is highly feasible and possible in nature as Home Centre can easily afford it. Taking action to improve the problem situation: In order to improve and tackle the present situation such software technology has to be adopted. The software system has to be tested for appropriate fit prior to incorporating it fully. SSM analysis was successful when it had incorporated certain elements of CATWOE model that was developed by David Smyth(Shankar 2009). The process identified processes, people, environment that leads to the situation being analysed in the scope of the study. Business Analysts evaluates possible impacts on six elements of CATWOE as given below; Customers: Here the highest beneficiaries of the business process are evaluated along with issue that affects them. Customers here constitute business stakeholders and also external customers or purchasers of the business products. Both business owners will be affected in presence of an inappropriate accounting or transaction processing system. Customers in absence of proper accounting receipts or systems will not easily be able to tally their transactions or return any goods sold back. Actors: People involved in the situation comprises of stakeholders, senior people of the management, people that are in Sales and Marketing department and so on. All staffs and employees of the department are involved in the situation along with finance and accounts department participants. People in the Sales and Marketing department will be implementing solution. Appropriate data entry methodology will lead to success of the business systems. Transformation Process: Transformation of the system lies at the heart of the software system, that will be transforming accounting and financing needs of the company into real. Appropriate data entry technology will help input correct data and yield output for the system. Weltanschauung (or Worldview): Wider impacts of the issue will be benefiting finance statements that will be produced by the firm. Owner: The processes or situation being investigated is the responsibility of the Sales and Marketing department. Role played in the solution by the department will be the entire motivator for the change to take place. Environmental Constraints: There are constraints as learning relative to the software that is implemented. Limitations that will impact the solution and its success is the capability of the Sales and Marketing department to implement software and conduct transactions successfully. BECM Model A BECM model is an abbreviated form for Being, Engaging, Contextualizing and Managing. This model is applied on basis for understanding a complex situation and problem. At the first step of the model is Being, where the current system of Home Centre Kuwait is evaluated. Background of the problem lies in Sales and Marketing department data entry troubles. There are several ethical considerations that the Company and its employees have not been able to attend to. They are however aware of the complex challenges arising or ways that the problem needs to be resolved. The senior and upper level management is not aware regarding the complex situation facing the company. Customer satisfaction is deteriorating as some of them are not getting printed bills or any records of their transactions maintained when they come to view the same. In the next step towards problem resolution Engaging has to be undertaken to arrive at the root cause of the problem and design appropriate solution. This step deals with analysis of the complex challenges related to the situation. In this case the challenge lies in absence of a system that could possibly integrate an information system for processing of transactions. Absence of a transaction processing system has rendered the entire system ineffective. In the next step of Contextualizing methods of analysis is arrived at such as to understand the position of the Company. Home Centre Kuwait is facing a complex situation related to transaction processing system. The Sales and Marketing does not have any details pertaining various transactions, which has led to challenges in keeping records. Other companies that are operating in the market have an appropriate transaction processing system, which allows their employees to maintain records of every transaction. Moreover customer satisfaction rates in these companies are high as they get well generated printed bills for the same. In the last step of the process is Managing, appreciation of managing the problem to arrive at solution is taken into consideration. This challenge is dealt with by appreciating the problem then adopting a suitable solution as transaction processing system for the same. The suitable solution is arrived at by evaluation of rich picture diagram, multiple cause diagram, system map diagram and control model diagram. LogFrame Approach A Logframe matrix approach is adopted for the project such that it is able to arrive at its desired solution. The following logframe table clearly indicates requirements of the project subsequently with desired output. Project Summary Indicators Means of Verification Risks/Assumptions Goal Adapt a Transaction Processing System for Sales Marketing Department Information Systems Monitoring sales department Adaptability to Company Outcome Convenient customer transaction handling Customer satisfaction high levels of diligence in TPS (Transaction Processing System) Customer Feedback Customer Dissatisfaction Outputs Bills and other transaction details as rations Printed bills bill data Physical Verification Inappropriate formats Activities Bills, ratios, many more Accurate financial output Compliance Management Systems Inaccurate financial data SWOT Analysis Home Centre has considerable advantages in doing business in the Middle East. In order to understand the internal analysis of the Company a comprehensive SWOT is conducted for the purpose(Amin 2011). A SWOT analysis is an abbreviated form for strength, weakness, opportunity and threats as given below; Strength Wide range of collection offered to customers to select from Financial stability of the Company making it easier to expand new business Customer brand perception is high Weakness Lack of internal software methodologies and systems leading to challenges in data entry Current data entry problems have led to several internal challenges in other departments as well Opportunities Expanding branches across various corners of the country Capability to re-engineer entire business processes Highly talented human resource that can help expand business further Threats International brands as Ikea is visualizing market potential in Kuwait and planning to enter the country(Helms 2010). Lack of appropriate financial transaction systems and accounting records might raise corporate governance issue in the country, creating lack of trust amongst stakeholders and customers. Conclusion Analysis of the problem according to Soft System Methodology helps understand that the root problem of the current situation is absence of a software system. In presence of a software system matched to the organizations need, there would be no lags in data entering or its interpretation. It would lead to development of adequate data in financial and accounting forms. Application of SSM analysis helps to arriving at solutions of complex problems. Moreover, a comprehensive SWOT analysis will help analyse strengths, weakness, opportunity and threats related to particular situation. Overall it helps to reflect upon the situation that is experienced by the firm in totality. Client Report Analysing stakeholders of a Company is critical for diagnosing any problems and then arriving at a critical solution for the same. Stakeholder for any company can either be internal or external in nature. Internal stakeholders are those who are internal to the Company. Internal Stakeholders: For Home Centre Kuwait, internal stakeholders includes Directors, Senior Management, employees, staffs, shareholders and other participants of the business. For Home Centre Kuwait it consists of the shareholders, directors, employees, staffs of all departments. Departments of Sales and Marketing, Finance and other types of departments that is engaged in service delivery at their showroom and warehouse. External Stakeholders: External stakeholder includes individuals who are external to the company as Auditors, customers, rating agencies, suppliers, government and any other external bodies or individual impacting on the Company. While analysing Home Centre Kuwait external stakeholders comprise of auditors, customers, government agents and so on. While internal stakeholders are connected in service delivery to final customers, external stakeholders are connected with accepting the products and rating them accordingly. Both internal and external stakeholders forms an integral part of the system. Project Summary The project here concerns Home Centre in Kuwait and the critical challenge they are facing. The Company has already established its brand name around the Middle East, especially in Kuwait it is the favorite brand for customers. Recent problems faced in recording transactions in Sales department has deteriorated overall service delivery for the Company. Moreover ground level staffs are unable to figure a suitable solution for the problem whereas upper level management are unaware regarding the challenge. The project details itself to analyse the challenge in various manner such as to overcome it. Analysis from every possible angle as ground level, stakeholder levels and project analysis tools has been adopted to understand the problem in a detailed manner. Finally the solution arrived at suggested at adaption of a transaction processing system that will help overcome the situation. A suitable transaction processing system (TPS) will not only allow recording of transactions rather a mo re professional approach to recording data. Problem Statement I have identified a problem of analysing transaction entry systems at Home Centre Kuwait. Interiors market in Kuwait region is flourishing with Home Centre being one of the most reputable brands in the region. The challenge experienced related to adoption of transaction processing systems is a ground level problem not easily understood by top level management. In order to conduct the study and collect data from departments of Sales and Marketing, or Finance or any other administrative departments it was not easy. I could not get permission related to this study easily as top level management was not convinced of the idea. They felt that internal data and critical information pertaining to the Company would be lost in case they allowed such a type of study to take place. I had to convince managers at each and every level and highlight the problem to them to ensure that data collection can take place. Moreover, each department wanted to verify with Sales and Marketing department whethe r they were actually experiencing the trouble of maintain transaction related data and information. Sales and Marketing department were not ready and eager to accept that they were actually facing the trouble. Their non-acceptance made it difficult for me to gather data related to procedure for the study. Methods of Solution The challenge analysed was extremely complicated as it involved dealing with higher authority. The higher authority and management was not convinced regarding the reason of the study. In order to resolve the challenge I decided to draw up a proposal plan for the study and then submit the same to the higher management and authorities for their perusal. I fixed an appointment with all necessary authorities from whom I had to obtain permission for conducting the study. While asking for an appointment, I submitted a letter that could to be reviewed for understanding the purpose of my visit. The proposal clearly indicated the various reasons for conducting the study with its goals and recommendations for overcoming the challenges. Higher level management had viewed my proposal letter prior to providing me an appointment for the same, which made my task easier to achieve. This method for solution made it easier to arrive at the data collection procedure for the study. Storage of Solutions Holder I had set up meeting with each and every manager at higher authorities, whose permission was critical for data collection procedure. The Proposal Plan letter that I had sent to every manager was maintained in my storage solution holder. Secondly and most importantly all letters asking permission for appointment was also placed in the holder. Minutes of meetings recorded were placed in the folders to ensure that none of the points of the meetings go unnoticed. Before arriving at the data collection stage I made sure that I obtained all possible written permission and documentation for the same. This was done so that I do not face any challenge related to data collection in the future. The best solution The best solution to all the challenges that I faced was to obtain prior permission before conducting the study. I deemed obtaining of prior permission as an essential documentation procedure. It was an essential element for the study to ensure that I do not encounter any challenge in the future. I visualized that only way to undertake the study and overcome possible challenges was related to my major weakness. I am employed at a junior level and position in the Company, hence none of the authorities would review my recommendations easily. I had to utilize key strength of mine, which was to adopt a formal mechanism of writing a well drafted proposal plan or letter for obtaining prior permission. I realized that I could face negative impacts from my immediate senior who could easily raise questions on me. Realising this potential threat facing me, I turned it into a meaningful activity by highlighting the various positive impact that completion of my project could generate on the comp any. I told them regarding the positive impact of accommodating an information system and the betterment to the company and its processes could be achieved. My senior colleagues and managers were thoroughly impressed with the idea of analysing problems with varied tools by looking at the diagrams. They were also delighted on realising the potential benefits that accommodation of information systems, which could ease their work and reduce their liability. It would increase ethical responsibility of the company y and lead to greater transparency, which would further enhance the brand name for the Company. Tip or suggestions Data collection and its analysis was the most crucial aspect of the study. Though it was difficult to collect information related to the study yet it was difficult to portray the same effectively. In order to understand the problem that is faced by Home Centre thorough analysis of its transaction processing system has to be entailed. It would help arrive at possible root cause definition to the problem identified and then form appropriate recommendations. References Amin, S.H., Razmi, J. and Zhang, G., 2011. Supplier selection and order allocation based on fuzzy SWOT analysis and fuzzy linear programming.Expert Systems with Applications,38(1), pp.334-342. Baskerville, R., Pries-Heje, J. and Venable, J., 2009, May. Soft design science methodology. InProceedings of the 4th international conference on design science research in information systems and technology(p. 9). ACM. Hanafizadeh, P. and Aliehyaei, R., 2011. The application of fuzzy cognitive map in soft system methodology.Systemic Practice and Action Research,24(4), pp.325-354. Helms, M.M. and Nixon, J., 2010. Exploring SWOT analysiswhere are we now? A review of academic research from the last decade.Journal of strategy and management,3(3), pp.215-251. Flood, R.L., 2010. The relationship of systems thinkingto action research.Systemic Practice and Action Research,23(4), pp.269-284. Mehregan, M.R., Hosseinzadeh, M. and Kazemi, A., 2012. An application of soft system methodology.Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences,41, pp.426-433. Page, T., 2008. Soft Systems Modelling of the New Project Development Process-A Case Study.i-Manager's Journal on Management,3(2), p.34. Shankar, R., Acharia, S. and Baveja, A., 2009. Soft-system knowledge management framework for new product development.Journal of Knowledge Management,13(1), pp.135-153. Srensen, C.G., Fountas, S., Nash, E., Pesonen, L., Bochtis, D., Pedersen, S.M., Basso, B. and Blackmore, S.B., 2010. Conceptual model of a future farm management information system.Computers and electronics in agriculture,72(1), pp.37-47.

Battle of Badajoz - Peninsular War

Battle of Badajoz - Peninsular War Battle of Badajoz - Conflict: The Battle of Badajoz was fought from March 16 to April 6, 1812 as part of the Peninsular War, which was in turn part of the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815). Armies Commanders: British Earl of Wellington25,000 men French Major General Armand Philippon4,742 men Battle of Badajoz - Background: Following his victories at Almeida and Ciudad Rodrigo, the Earl of Wellington moved south towards Badajoz with the goal of securing the Spanish-Portuguese frontier and improving his lines of communication with his base at Lisbon. Arriving at the city on March 16, 1812, Wellington found it held by 5,000 French troops under the command of Major General Armand Philippon. Long aware of Wellingtons approach, Philippon had significantly improved the Badajozs defenses and had laid in large supplies of provisions. Battle of Badajoz - The Siege Begins: Outnumbering the French nearly 5-to-1, Wellington invested the city and began construction of siege trenches. As his troops pushed their earthworks towards Badajozs walls, Wellington brought up his heavy guns and howitzers. Knowing that it was only a matter of time until the British reached and breached the citys walls, Philippons men launched several sorties in an attempt to destroy the siege trenches. These were repeatedly beaten back by British riflemen and infantry. On March 25, General Thomas Pictons 3rd Division stormed and captured an outer bastion know as the Picurina. The capture of the Picurina allowed Wellingtons men to expand their siege works as his guns pounded away at the walls. By March 30, breaching batteries were in place and over the next week three openings were made in the citys defenses. On March 6, rumors began to arrive in the British camp that Marshal Jean-de-Dieu Soult was marching to relieve the beleaguered garrison. Wishing to take the city before reinforcements could arrive, Wellington ordered the assault to commence at 10:00 PM that night. Moving into position near the breaches, the British waited for the signal to attack. Battle of Badajoz - The British Assault: Wellingtons plan called for the main assault to be made by the 4th Division and Craufurds Light Division, with supporting attacks from the Portuguese and British soldiers of the 3rd and 5th Divisions. As the 3rd Division moved into place, it was spotted by a French sentry who raised the alarm. With the British moving to attack, the French rushed to the walls and unleashed a barrage of musket and cannon fire into the breaches inflicting heavy casualties. As the gaps in the walls filled with British dead and wounded, they became increasingly impassable. Despite this, the British kept swarming forward pressing the attack. In the first two hours of fighting, they suffered around 2,000 casualties at the main breach alone. Elsewhere, the secondary attacks were meeting a similar fate. With his forces halted, Wellington debated calling off the assault and ordering his men to fall back. Before the decision could be made, news reached his headquarters that Pictons 3rd Division had secured a foothold on the city walls. Connecting with the 5th Division which had also managed to scale the walls, Pictons men began pushing into the city. With his defenses broken, Philippon realized that it was only a matter of time before British numbers destroyed his garrison. As the redcoats poured into Badajoz, the French conducted a fighting retreat and took refuge in Fort San Christoval just north of the city. Understanding that his situation was hopeless, Philippon surrendered the following morning. In the city, British troops went wild looting and committed a wide array of atrocities. It took nearly 72 hours for order to be completely restored. Battle of Badajoz - Aftermath: The Battle of Badajoz cost Wellington 4,800 killed and wounded, 3,500 of which were incurred during the assault. Philippon lost 1,500 dead and wounded as well as the remainder of his command as prisoners. Upon seeing the piles of British dead in the trenches and breaches, Wellington wept for the loss of his men. The victory at Badajoz secured the border between Portugal and Spain and allowed Wellington to begin advancing against the forces of Marshal Auguste Marmont in Salamanca.

shakira essays

shakira essays Shakira Do you know who Shakira is? Well she is a Colombian singer who started singing when she was eight years old. Shakira has worked really hard to persuade her dreams. In this research paper I will tell you everything I figured out about Shakira. I will tell you about her life and her career. Shakira was born in Barranquilla, Colombia on February 2, 1977. Her full name is Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll. Her name means Woman Full of Grace. She has Lebanese blood because her dad is from Lebanon. Her dad is William Mebarak and her mother is Nidia Ripoll. She is the only child of Nidia but not of William. Shakira has eight siblings. Shakira has no tattoos. Her current boyfriend is Antonio de La Rua he is son of the president of Argentina. Before she started dating Antonio she was married to Osvaldo Rios they were only married for eight months. Shakira strong points are discipline and perfectionist(shakira.com). Shakira does not eat candy or drink alcohol or drink coffee. She does not smoke either she hates the smell of cigarettes. Shakira started singing at the age of eight years at this age she wrote her first song. She also started playing her guitar when she was eleven years old. Ironically, she was kicked out off the school choir because her voice projected too loudly(2tup.com). When she was thirteen she sign with Sony Discos. Shakira wanted to be in rock music but Sony had other plans for her. They wanted to mold her into another of these one hit wonder girl singer who seem to disappear at a blink(2tup.com). By age nineteen she had recorded her third album titled Pies Descalzos or bare foot. Which focused on rock, pop and Latin Rhythm. It sold 900,000 copies. The album reached success all over South America and maintained its position in the billboard Latin top 50, moving quickly to the ...

Business Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 36

Business Law - Essay Example Commerce power scope is dependent on â€Å"commerce† interpretation if sufficiently broadly interpreted then it may offer the congress legislation power within various areas, which would have been subject to or within the power of police within the states. The term is not explained the constitution hence the Supreme Court happens to be quite flexible while deciding cases that involve the commerce clause as well as massive authority for influencing the state balance versus federal power (Lawnix ). In the case Pennzoil v. Texaco and the tort of interference with contract, the supreme court ruled that first; the determination for if a party was interested in being bound by contract that is not yet executed happens to be the fact finder’s question of fact. Secondly, contractual terms have to be ascertained to certainty reasonable degree so that the contract can be enforceable (Lawnix). In the case New York Times versus Sullivan, the ruling of the court was he publication of every statement protected by the 1st statement, even that which are false, about public officials’ conduct except only when a statement is maliciously made (Oyez

Not working 40hr work week Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Not working 40hr work week - Research Paper Example The union is clearly correct that the company did not provide notice of offenses, as the August 2001 letter was not labeled as warning. Also, in July 2001 his shift changed and management did not explain these changes to the grievant. The grievant could easily misunderstand the hours of work change, as it stated â€Å"from 3 pm to 12 pm† not from 3 pm to 12 am. This can easily be confusing, as one portion states a 40 hour week, but the times add up to a 105 hour week. Also, the company stated that the CBA was â€Å"clear and unambiguous† which it was not. Also, the company claimed that the grievant had a history of not working the required number of hours per day (8) and he would be suspended if this continued. The grievant had not worked a full 8 hour shift since he started as a doorman. He worked from 3 pm to 11 pm with an unpaid hour for dinner. That is, again, only 7 hours. 2. The CBA provisions dictate this award because of the inaccurate times laid out in the regi stered letter. Also, the grievant was told that he â€Å"will work an 8-hour day and a 40-hour work week.† If this does not happen, he will be suspended. The letter was not a warning and could easily be perceived as a simple letter of the change of his hours of work. There was no explanation of the CBA to the grievant, leaving him to his own devices to understand the readings. 3.

Continental Philosophys Search for Balance Essay

Continental Philosophys Search for Balance - Essay Example "Such absolutizing, he charged, lent itself to generalizations of broad critical scope with respect to the idealistic procedure of hypostatizing the Idea and brought about (as allegorical derivatives from it) certain concrete political and social determinations, such as family, classes, and the state powers...In Marx's view," Hegel's dialectic "was mystifying and alienated inasmuch as Hegel did nothing but sanction, by a method inverted with respect to real relationships, the alienation of all the concrete historical and human determinations" (Rossi). Existentialism with "Soren Kierkegaard in the first half of the 19th century. He was critical of Hegel's philosophical system which analyzed Being (or existence) in an abstract and impersonal way. Kierkegaard was concerned with the individual's subjective experience of what it is to exist as a human being. For Kierkegaard the individual constantly has to choose what s/he is to become without recourse to the findings of science and philosophy" (Jones). Existentialism would eventually come to its most potent expression in the writings of the Frenchman Jean-Paul Sartre.... ..Politically Sartre claimed he was a Marxist and thought that freedom had both political and individual dimensions." Sartre, who in contrast to Kierkegaard was an atheist, coined the Existentialist credo, "Existence precedes essence". "What Sartre meant by the phrase 'existence precedes essence' is this: If there is no cosmic designer, then there is no design or essence of human nature. Human existence or being differs from the being of objects in that human being is self-conscious. This self-consciousness also gives the human subject the opportunity to define itself. The individual creates [oneself] by making self-directed choices" (Jones). There remained echoes of Hegel to be heard within Sartre. "The first Sartrean thought which has been derived from Hegel is the view that if there is to be any Truth in man's understanding of himself, it must be a Truth which becomes. Truth is thus something which emerges." With this assertion we hear "an obvious trace both of Hegelian dialectics and the Marxist tenet of the knowability of man. The second thing in Sartre which can be traced back to Hegel is the claim that what Truth must become is a totalization. We find in Hegelian dialectics that the synthesis is a totalization of the truth found in both the thesis and the antithesis. In the same manner, we find in Sartre asserting that the Truth in man is a Truth not just about his existence but also about the situations surrounding his existence" (Decino). Twenty-first Century Continental philosophy has come to be "preoccupied with two alternative formulations" that seem to transmute the Hegelian dialectic: desire given kinetic energy as jouissance and desire given kinetic energy as power. "These two views oppose and complement each other. They form a frame within which

Wireless Data Entry System Analysis

Wireless Data Entry System Analysis Grand Wine Limited is a dealer to supply various types of Wine through sales representatives around 400 independent wine and liquor store in the state. Through sales representatives they collect data and information about the requirement of delivery of Wines to the customers by shipment. Device which is able to store data or pass the data wireless to remote server is wireless data entry device. This is a very popular device in todays market for data entry system. In the market there are various wireless data entry devices available but we have to select such particular device which is affordable as well as can cover our task requirement. Since our sales representatives are suffering some problems with data transferring from client to our head office which is taking time and more effort, we are going to implement a wireless data entry system so that with out loosing time and loosing any data out representatives can contact to head office easily. For this process we require a remote server located in our head office and wireless data entry device for each representative so that they can connect to companys central database in Sydney. Sales representatives can collect data from various retailers in Sydney and pass the data to server in no time so that it saves time, eff ort, travelling cost as well. Through this process there is very less chance of data loss because data storage system by humans can create human errors but this system directly stores data in device as well as server. Sales representatives can double their work as they dont have to come back and through to store data and send sent it to central data base. In fact it will reduce cost by reducing faxing and phone call which can be benefited to company for long term. 1.2.2 Wireless data entry system and its function As we know the term wireless means with out use of wire, so wireless data entry system will utilize wireless technology to receive and send data from server. As per networking principle we will be using a remote server which will be located in the company central data base office Sydney. Each sales representative will be provided with each particular wireless data entry device to perform their task. We will be using a device called SPT 1800 as our wireless data entry device. SPT 1800 is a portable wireless device which uses palm operating system. It has got wireless WAN, Bluetooth and WWAN functions to connect to server. As it has barcode reader capacity also representatives can easily find the details of product by scanning and sending to server so it minimises the data loss or error. Being a portable device staffs can collect data in any place and any time and send it to main server in Sydney. 1.3 Justification- Wireless Data entry system and important features for Grand Wines Limited- The wireless data entry system implementation on Grand Wines Limited can be very beneficial in various aspects. When wires data entry system is used first thing is company can cut few staff that was doing processing of data to and fro by fax, email, and phone or by post. There will be no time delay to send data from representatives to company office do start the business. Company can save huge amount of money on use of fax and post as well. When wireless technology is implemented there is no more need to fax the data or email data or post data. In other hand the time frame of data transfer is also slow with current system thats why company is not able to do proper business. There is wastage of time between a representative send data to Company office and they again respond back. In fact when a store is running out of particular type of Wine today, the representative can collect data and send to Central office so it takes some time or day so that company gets order and place shipment of product. In this way company is delaying its delivery. But with wireless data entry system a representative can contact or send required data to Central database system so it takes no time to implement the work in time. So it seems more effective and profitable for Grand Wines Limited in overall view. 2. Business case study for Grand Wine Limited in wireless data entry system project- Grand Wine Limited has realised various demerits of recent data entry system which directly or indirectly caused loos to company. As the management of this company decided to change the recent data entry system with new market demand, they have planned to implement wireless data entry system in the company. 20 sales representatives, who are collecting various data like stock needed from various retailers, can send the data instantly to Sydney based head office so company can do delivery quicker. So company can go ahead with other business competitors as well increase their business more. 2.1 Business Objectives- For Grand Wine Limited the implementation of this wireless data entry system will ultimately leads to business growth and profit. This technology will decrease the delay time for the stock delivery to retailers so company can cope with market demand properly without loosing customers. 2.2 SWOT Analysis- 2.2.1 Strength: As the delay in delivery time will be reduced from company to retailers, this technology will directly increase the sales and make customer happy. All sales representatives can communicate to company for stock delivery, stock available and other important data in no time so it can save company other cost like faxing, telephone, etc using wireless technology. 2.2.2 Weakness- Use of wireless system may reduce the directly contact of sales representatives to Main Delivery Office like phone and fax which can be cause for some misunderstanding between deliveries. In the time of network error there might be problem for transferring data, which can lead to loss of some data as well as delay in delivery. 2.2.3 Opportunities- Implementation of this wireless system will save the time of sales representatives to go and through the received data in-order to send the data to Central Office for implementation. So that sales representatives can go and collect more data in same time and process the data to Company. And also Sales representatives can know when the stock is arriving or any further details needed to be collected which can save lots of time as well as money for like transportation and communication. They can process data 24/7 so there is very less chance to be delayed for stock delivery. 2.2.4 Threats- Company might need to hire a server supervisor which can increase company cost. As there is no physically contact between sales representatives between companies after implementing wireless system every data will be transferred by wireless technology, so there is more threats that data errors may occur like sales representative may order certain item by mistake but still company will send the delivery which may cost extra for company. 3. Project Charter- Project title- Wireless data entry system Start date of project-01/01/2011 Finish date of project-01/06/1011 Budget- Available budget for project is $100,000 Project Manager- Om Ghimire, 0401782576, [emailprotected] Objective of the project- Wireless data entry system and its use in Grand Wine Limited is to decrease the loss of time between sending and receiving data from sales representatives (who collect data from various retailers) to head supply office for the required shipment of the needed product on time. This application can be effective in the incensement of orders because there is high risk of loss of data or chances of human error in old data entry system. Delivery speed, accuracy of order, available stock including satisfaction of customer can be main objective and out come of the project. There is high necessity of coping with other emerging companies for Grand Wine Limited by increasing its capacity and ability with advancement of technology use. Success Measures- . Project completes with in 01/06/2011 . Project completes with given budget that is $100,000 . Stake holder of this project is satisfied at the end of project . Increment of sales of Grand Wine Limited by implementation of this system .customer satisfied Roles- Approach- .Surveying about the use of remote data entry system .Develop software to check if the some information in data entry is missing .Analyse the appropriate pay back period of Grand Wine Limited with reduced cost. .Train customer service staffs about the use of remote data entry system and device. Sign-off- In this all above stakeholders should sign in the respected part in the table. Comments- As a project manager I will allocate all the resource available according to need of project, so I will need all staffs working as my guidelines. Om Ghimire Part B- Scope Management 1.1 preliminary scope statements- Title of project- wireless data entry system Date: 01/01/2011 Prepared by: Om Ghimire, PM, 0401782576, [emailprotected] Justification of project- The wireless data entry system implementation project for Grand Wine Limited will save lots of money and time of the company. After completion of this project the company will definitely increase its income or sales because the sales representatives will be able to order the required stock in shortest amount of time for delivery. The budget of this project that is $100,000 has least time of pay back period. Requirements: 1. Server- For the implementation of this project, the remote server is required in head office for data storage and transfer. 2. Application- For the use of server we might require data entry software or application in our server as well as data entry devices. 3. Hardware- As hardware we will need some computers as well as wireless data entry devices. 4.Security- As wireless technology is with high risk about security system, we need some security mechanism to monitor our system as well as data 5.Ulternate power supply and back up or disaster recovery plan- Computerized data entry system needs continuous power supply, so we need a alternate power supply incase of power failure and we need back up of data in case of system failure. Project Deliverables Deliverables related to Project management- business case study, project charter, contract, scope statement, work breakdown structure, scheduling, budgeting, presentation of final project, report for project, report of lessons-learned, including any other resources or documents required for project management. Deliverables related to Product: like hardware, software, research and reports, etc 1. research or survey- research or survey can help to acknowledge the features and contents of project 2. Resources- All necessary information on use of wireless device and wireless data entry system should be available for stakeholders. 3. Testing: Before the launch of the system testing of the system will help to identify the problems and bugs reported to system. 4. Analysis of various wireless data entry devices available in the market. 5. Expenditure on products: Wireless data entry system should invest around its half of budget available to products like device, software, etc. Project Success- Wireless Data Entry system project for Grand Wine Limited will be considered a successful project if the project is completed with $100,000 and with in 6 month that is before 01/16/2011 with the minimum pay back period that is with in 2 years. In the mean time if the project goes little longer or with little more budget and still the project outcome is good (good payback period) the project will be considered a successful project.

Charlotte Smiths On Being Cautioned against Walking on an Headland Ove

Charlotte Smith's "On Being Cautioned against Walking on an Headland Overlooking the Sea, Because it was Frequented by a Lunatic" â€Å"On Being Cautioned against Walking on an Headland Overlooking the Sea, Because it was Frequented by a Lunatic,† Charlotte Smith’s sonnet, comments on the poet’s feelings toward this lunatic and the thought process he instigates in her mind. By using different syntax to describe her two characters, Smith draws the attention of the reader to the message in the sonnet instead of the scene on the surface. The structure of the English sonnet also lends to the poem’s power, giving Smith a perfect avenue to deliver her message. The poem begins by describing the lunatic as a man with very animal tendencies, â€Å"with starting pace† and â€Å"with wide and hollow eyes† (lines 2-3) These characteristics alone give the reader a vivid image of how this man acts, and immediately sets low expectations for his character in a social and intellectual sense. His primitivism shows as â€Å"his cold bed upon the mountain turf† (6) is mentioned, furthering the image of a wildly sav...

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†?