The CHICAGO CUBS~~~~are In The World Series !!

Y  E  S  !!!!!!!!!!!!

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 I just need to see you; even if for five-minutes----------------
said nobody-----ever...............................................................

I Just Need To See You........

Kenmore swimmer’s dreams synch up with reality in Rio

Kenmore swimmer’s dreams synch up with reality in Rio

 

 

Anita Alvarez, of Kenmore, and her synchronized swimming partner Mariya Koroleva compete in Olympic qualifications on March 3 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The women return to that pool on Sunday.
Getty Images file photo

RIO DE JANEIRO – Kenmore’s Anita Alvarez didn’t arrive in Brazil until Thursday. The problem wasn’t the color of the water in the pools, but the sheer lack of them. So Alvarez, the pride of the Tonawanda Aquettes, spent the last two weeks training for her first Olympics in Puerto Rico.
Alvarez and her Olympic duet partner, Mariya Koroleva, spent eight hours a day polishing their routine. Natalie Vega, a Puerto Rican native who lived for a time in Western New York and swam with the Aquettes, invited her American friends to her home for an Opening Ceremonies party on Aug. 5.
They came dressed for the occasion, wearing the official outfits that had been provided to the USA athletes to march in the Ceremonies.
“Yeah, we were all dressed up,” Alvarez said Friday in a synchro press session. “We were watching and eating. Then the USA came on and everybody in the room started cheering.”

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Vega’s family rewound the broadcast. They told Alvarez and Koroleva to step outside and march back into the house as if they were part of the American team following Michael Phelps into the stadium in Rio.
“We have a video of it,” Alvarez said. “It’s really funny. It was a little sad that we weren’t there and didn’t get to experience all of it. But it was also exciting because it made me feel at home. I’ve been watching the Ceremonies at home all my life.”
It began to seem real at that moment, too. Alvarez was really going to the Olympics. The nerves and the emotions started kicking in. Koroleva, who had competed in London, did her best to prepare Anita for the real thing.
“I experienced the Pan-American Games last summer, which is like a mini-Olympics,” she said. “I had a little idea about what it was going to be, but I knew it was going to be 10 times bigger – and it is.
“It was exciting, just walking around the village and seeing all the Rio 2016 signs and the athletes. Every time you turn your head, there’s another amazing athlete walking by you. It’s been an amazing experience. I get goose bumps thinking about it.”
Soon after arriving, she and Koroleva checked out the Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre, where they will compete in the synchro duet preliminaries on Sunday.
They looked at the dive pool, which had turned green on Tuesday and ignited a flurry of reaction on social media.
“We saw the dive pool was green,” Alvarez said. “We didn’t know ours was turning green, too. It’s on its way. Well, it’s ... it’s not blue, but it’s not green. It’s kind of in the middle.”
But what if she and Koroleva are in the middle of their duet, underwater, and the water is so green they can barely see each other?
“For our routines, it’s important to see each other,” Alvarez said. “When we’re spinning and turning around, it’s really important to spot the walls and we’re supposed to stay close to each other as we swim.
“But we’ve trained these routines so much we could do them with our eyes closed. We could do them in our sleep. We have all the muscle memory that we need. We both know we’re ready physically.”
The question is how prepared they’ll be mentally and emotionally. As Koroleva said, you don’t know what to expect at the Games until you’ve experienced it. “People can tell you,” Koroleva said, “but it’s a whole different animal.”
They have the added burden of representing the U.S. at a time when synchronized swim is in decline in America. They’re the only competitors here. The U.S., which won gold or silver in every Games from 1984-1996, hasn’t medaled since 2004. They haven’t qualified for the two events in the last two Games.
It’s not often you hear an Olympian admit that there’s no chance of winning a medal. But synchro judges have preconceived notions of routines, based on reputation, and it’s difficult to sway them. The Russians have won the gold medal in team and duet in four straight Olympics.
“I wouldn’t say we’re going for a medal,” Koroleva said, “but we definitely have ranking goals. There’s a couple of countries right ahead of us that we’d like to pass. Since we started competing in January, we’ve been inching closer and closer to the competitors right ahead of us.
“So that’s what we’re hoping to do, to overtake one or two pairs. And for us, that would be a great accomplishment.”
Koroleva and her duet partner finished 11th in London. She and Alvarez were seventh in Olympic qualifying. Moving up to fifth in Rio – in the same pool where they qualified for the Olympics early this year – would represent a significant step forward for the American squad.
For Alvarez, simply being here is a dream. She grew up watching the Olympics on TV and followed in the footsteps of her mother, Karen, a synchro All-American at Arizona who coaches the Aquettes and will be in Rio, along with Anita’s father, brother and grandmother.
Alvarez said she’s been touched by the support from people back in Western New York, by every imaginable method of communication. “It’s been crazy and overwhelming,” she said, “but I’m excited to go out there and represent Western New York and Buffalo.”
“We’ve competed in this pool before. But it looks totally different. The set-up is different, volunteers everywhere, cameras, other athletes. It’s huge, and every time I walk into the pool I get butterflies in my stomach. But it’s cool, and I’m excited to see what it feels like when we walk out on the big competition day on Sunday.”
email: jsullivan@buffnews.com

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12 men who helped shape the Netherlands into what it is today

12 men who helped shape the Netherlands into what it is today Life & Culture August 8, 2016    




Erasmus by Hans Holbein the Younger 

They’ve given their names to schools, to squares and to streets – every Dutch town seems to have a Hugo de Grootstraat, for example – but who are the men behind the name plates? Here’s a quick profile of 12 masters of war, learning and thought who helped shape the Netherlands into the country it is today.

Willibrordus Willibrordus (658- 739), a Northumbrian priest, is the most famous missionary to come to the Netherlands. Called the ‘apostle of the Low Countries’, he had no success whatsoever converting the stubborn Friesians to Christianity. It wasn’t until the end of his life when he had settled in Utrecht that cohorts of missionaries sent into Frisian territory managed to convert some – but not all – Frisians. 


Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus (1466 – 1536) was a priest, philosopher, writer and humanist whose best-known work is In Praise of Folly (1509), a satire on the follies of mankind, the vanity and frippery of bishops and princes of the church included. The book paved the way for the Reformation. Erasmus was an educational reformist as well: he disapproved of corporal punishment and thought the study of the Latin and Greek texts would teach children all the moral values they needed. 

Charles V Charles V (1500- 1558), Holy Roman Emperor, king of Spain and regent of the Low Countries (the area that now covers the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium) decided to turn the 17 provinces into an administrative union in an effort to make some of the bits of his vast empire a bit more manageable. This is seen as a first step towards Dutch nationhood. 

William of Orange William of Orange (1533-1584) is regarded as the ‘father of the fatherland’. His revolt against fiercely catholic Philip the Second of Spain who was tightening his religious and financial grip on the Netherlands started the Eighty Years’ War which eventually led to the independent United Provinces in 1581. Philip put a price on his head and French Catholic Balthasar Gérard took him up on it. In 1584 he shot William in the Prinsenhof in Delft where the bullet holes in the wall can still be seen. 


Hugo de Groot Hugo de Groot (1583-1645) was a lawyer and theologian.



He wrote his book De Jere Belli ac Pacis (On the law of War and Peace) in exile having famously fled his native country concealed in a book chest after his religious work got him in trouble with the authorities. That publication earned him the title of ‘father of international law’. 

Rembrandt van Rijn Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), the Netherland’s finest painter and ongoing source of income for the Dutch tourist industry, was born a miller’s son. Apprenticed to Pieter Lastman, Rembrandt began a career that would yield some 280 etchings and 300 paintings, although the exact number of paintings remains a bone of contention. Rembrandt is best-known for his use of clair-obscur and rendering of rich textures. He is, possibly, best-loved for his self-portraits which give us an impression of the man. 


Michiel de Ruyter Michiel de Ruyter (1607 – 1676) went from being an unruly rope maker’s apprentice to becoming the saviour of the Dutch republic.




After a successful career at sea he was made lieutenant-admiral of the fleet in 1665 to fight the Brits in three consecutive Anglo-Dutch wars. In a daring feat he attacked- and clobbered- the British fleet at Chatham in 1667, securing an advantageous peace for the Dutch. 


Baruch Spinoza Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) was a philosopher and mathematician. His magnum opus is Ethica in which he proposed his radical theory that god equals nature. This flew in the face of conventional religious beliefs as did his contention that the Thora – Spinoza was a Sephardic Jew – and the Bible were the work of man, not God. His works were banned and Spinoza had to rely on his skills as a lens cutter and the kindness of friends to survive until his death from tuberculosis in 1677. 


Willem I In 1813, when the  Napoleonic empire collapsed Willem I (1772 – 1843) became the first sovereign king of the Netherlands. In 1815 Austria handed Willem Belgium as well, much to the Belgians’ disgruntlement. Willem governed with an iron hand. His motto was ‘The old times will soon live again’, and he set about promoting trade, infrastructure and industry, not forgetting to pocket some of the proceeds himself. When he decided Dutch should become the first language of the realm, the French speaking Belgians started a revolt which ended in the independence of Belgium in 1839 and a curtailment of his power through the inclusion of ministerial responsibility in the constitution. A humiliated Willem I then abdicated in favour of his son Willem II. 

Multatuli (Eduard Douwes Dekker) After a largely unsuccessful career int the Dutch East Indies Multatuli (1820-1887) published the book he is most famous for: Max Havelaar or the Koffieveilingen van de Nederlandsche handelsmaatschappij (Max Havelaar or the Coffee Auctions of a Dutch Trading Company).



In it he criticised the dire treatment of the local Javanese population by the Dutch ‘robber state on the sea between East Friesland and the Scheld’. The book ‘sent a shiver’ through the country but did little to help the Javanese. It did put Multatuli on the map as a writer, however. Max Havelaar went on to the be name of a Dutch fair trade organisation. 

Cornelis Lely Engineer and waterworks minister Cornelis Lely (1854 -1929) is the father of the Zuiderzeewerken, a project to increase the amount of  fertile agricultural land and protect the surrounding country from floods. The unruly Zuiderzee was turned into what is now the IJsselmeer, Waddenzee and various polders. The best-known feature of the Zuiderzeewerken is the Afsluidijk, literally the closing-off dyke.  Lely launched his plan in 1891 (many earlier plans had come to nought) but had to wait until 1920 to see the first steps towards the realisation of the project. He died in 1929 and never saw the completion of the Afsluitdijk in 1932. 

Willem Drees Labour prime minister Willem Drees (1887-1988) introduced the ‘Emergency help for the elderly’, a precursor of the 1956 state pension law, in the  Netherlands in 1948, having seen at first hand the misery of the crisis of the 1930s.  It earned him the nickname ‘Vadertje ( little father) Drees’ and the undying gratitude of the nation. Drees was renowned for his frugality. The best-known (but perhaps apocryphal) story is about Mrs Drees offering a visiting American diplomat a cup of tea and a humble Maria biscuit. It convinced him that here was a man who wouldn’t squander what Marshall help he was given. Drees is regarded as one of the architects of the welfare state. When he died at 101 years of age he had been a recipient of the state pension he had established for 36 years.

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Chicago’s Deadliest Day 24 JULY 1915

Chicago’s Deadliest Day

July 24, 2015 By Christopher Klein

Eastland Ship Being Righted After Disaster. (Credit: Jun Fujita/Chicago History Museum/Getty Images)

On July 24, 1915, nearly 900 people died when SS Eastland capsized in the Chicago River. It was a particularly astounding loss of life considering that, unlike in most deadly shipwrecks, the calamity occurred only 19 feet from shore in the middle of a metropolis. On the anniversary of the SS Eastland catastrophe, look back at the deadliest disaster in Chicago history.

S.S. Eastland

Even the falling drizzle couldn’t dampen the soaring spirits of the crowd who gathered on the banks of the Chicago River on July 24, 1915. Employees of the Western Electric Company, the country’s only telephone manufacturer, savored a rare Saturday off and looked forward to a day of fun with family and friends at the company’s annual summer excursion to Michigan City, Indiana. Not wanting to miss a single enjoyable moment, passengers with picnic baskets and baby carriages in tow began to board SS Eastland, the first of five vessels chartered by Western Electric, at the early hour of 6:30 a.m.
Women in long summer dresses and men in three-piece suits chuckled and joked as the slender steamship occasionally rocked from side to side during the hour-long boarding in what felt like a preview of the roller coaster and other stomach-dipping amusements that awaited them on the other side of Lake Michigan. Deep below deck, however, Eastland’s crew knew the listing was no laughing matter. “The Speed Queen of the Lakes” may have been one of the Midwest’s fleetest ships, but it was hardly the safest. The ballast system, which was designed to keep the steamer on an even keel, suffered from repeated malfunctions, and at least twice before—in 1904 and 1907—the vessel nearly capsized. “Eastland’s owners were aware of stability problems that needed to be repaired but planned to postpone them until after the sailing season ended in 1915 because of the expense,” says Michael McCarthy, author of “Ashes Under Water: The SS Eastland and the Shipwreck That Shook America.”

S.S. Eastland lying on its side after capsizing. (Credit Chicago Tribune historical photo/TNS via Getty Images)

The required addition of lifeboats on the top deck in the wake of the 1912 sinking of Titanic and a recent 500-passenger capacity increase authorized by inspectors only compounded the steamship’s stability problems. With its three decks packed to its new 2,500-person limit, Eastland began to creep away from its berth at 7:30 a.m., but as its stern swung into the Chicago River, the ship’s listing from side to side turned violent.
“Look out, she’s tipping!” cried warehouse workers along the river. Dishes and bottles crashed to the floor. Panic along with the Chicago River gushing through gangways and portholes swept across the decks. Frightened passengers and crew jumped to the dock as the last line holding Eastland to the wharf snapped like a whip.
For those on board the steamer, the world suddenly turned sideways.

A rescue worker leaps into the Chicago River. (Credit: Chicago History Museum/Getty Images)

Eastland rolled onto its port side and rested partially submerged in less than 20 feet of water. “It lay like a toy boat of tin wrecked in a gutter,” reported the Chicago Tribune. The unfortunate passengers who happened to be on the port side were crushed by the hundreds of people, deck chairs and other furniture that suddenly fell on top of them. “The entire crowd of men, women and children came slipping and sliding and sprawling down with a mass of lunch boxes, milk bottles, chairs—rubbish of every sort—on top of them,” said passenger George Goyette. “They came down in a floundering, screaming mass.” As the enclosed decks filled with water and debris, the mob of humanity who tried to scale the staircase to the promenade deck, now turned sideways, turned the lone escape path into a deathtrap.
Screams mixed with gurgles as survivors struggled to stay afloat in the filthy river, a toxic cocktail of raw sewage and detritus from Chicago’s stockyards. Few passengers knew how to swim, and even those who did were weighed down by their water-logged dresses and heavy suits. Rescue boats scrambled to the scene as welders ran with torches in hand to the crippled steamer. Hearing the muffled cries of the desperate passengers pounding on the metal hull, the welders began to cut rectangular escape hatches when Eastland’s horrified captain, Harry Pedersen, incredibly protested that they were “ruining his ship.” “The captain showed more regard for the company property than the people inside,” McCarthy says.

Chicago fireman Leonard Olson rescuing a child. (Credit: Jun Fujita/Chicago History Museum/Getty Images)

As doctors tried to force water out of victims’ lungs with pulmotors, rescue workers hoisted lifeless bodies found by divers working in the dark holds of the ship. In all, the Eastland tragedy claimed 844 victims, including more than 50 infants. In just mere minutes, the capsizing wiped out 22 entire families.
Pedersen, the ship’s engineer and four of its owners stood trial for the disaster, but a federal judge changed the original charges from criminal negligence and manslaughter to conspiracy to operate an unsafe ship. As McCarthy notes, the owners may have been negligent, but there certainly was no conspiracy. Represented by the legendary Clarence Darrow—who was in the “valley of his career” according to McCarthy after accusations of bribing jurors on an earlier case—the six men were all found not guilty. No one was ever held criminally responsible for the disaster, and a civil trial that dragged on for more than two decades ultimately provided little money to victims’ families. “I don’t believe justice was done,” McCarthy says. “The Eastland story offers an example of how important it is to bring charges against people who have endangered lives and how careful you must be to pin the charges on them.”

Chicago Examiner front page, July 25, 1915.

Although the Eastland disaster was the deadliest in Windy City history—claiming seven times the lives as the official death toll from the Great Chicago Fire—it quickly faded from public memory. McCarthy attributes this in part to the lower economic status of the victims as well as the timing. “This happened just before the U.S. entered World War I, and the world-changing events eclipsed so much else of what was going on,” he says while adding, “It is remarkable that something so catastrophic wouldn’t be better remembered.”

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