MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – Three people were shot Sunday night and Miami Beach Police are searching for a dark SUV that they said fled the area after the shooting.
As of midnight Sunday, Washington Avenue was still shut down between 6th and 9th Streets as detectives combed through evidence. MBPD said around 8:41 p.m., they received several 911 calls about a shooting along the 700 block of Washington Avenue. Officers responded and found a man wounded in front of The Licking restaurant at 754 Washington Avenue. Two other victims were located.
On the street, detectives discovered at least two different types of casings, which police said leads them to believe that there was an exchange of gunfire.
One man is in stable condition and the other is listed in critical condition at Jackson Memorial Hospital, according to Ernesto Rodriguez, spokesman for the Miami Beach Police Department.
A third victim, a female, was grazed by a bullet and was transported to Mount Sinai and is in stable condition, according to Rodriguez.
“Detectives are looking for a dark SUV, possibly a Jaguar, with tinted windows that fled the scene occupied by three Black male subjects,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez said there were witnesses, but investigators will also be using technology. “We have license plate readers throughout the city and city surveillance cameras as well. That’s all the information that detectives are going through to see what transpired moments before this shooting, where thankfully everyone is expected to survive.”
Anyone with information that could help police is asked to call Miami-Dade Crimestoppers at (305) 471-8477.
Home » Features » Did You Know? » The Port neighborhood’s sense of community began in the Caribbean, before The Port existed
Monday, February 1, 2021
Squirrel Brand Park at Broadway and Boardman streets, is where the Cambridge Historical Society’s self-guided walking tour of The Port begins. (Photo: Cambridge Historical Society)
One thing you need to know about The Port is that the neighborhood has historically had a strong community.
“The Port’s greatest strength has always been in the ability of its families and institutions to work together to nurture their children and help them become good citizens, caring neighbors and successful in their chosen careers,” Sarah Boyer, former oral historian for the City of Cambridge, said in her “We Are the Port.”
To understand why The Port has this reputation, we need to talk about why immigrants began coming to this neighborhood from the Caribbean. And to understand this history, we need to talk about Brattle Street in West Cambridge. Many of the Loyalists – people loyal to the British Crown during the American Revolution – on Brattle Street made their fortunes from family-owned plantations, often worked by enslaved people, in the Caribbean.
Established trade routes are a big reason Caribbean immigrants came to The Port; those well-established routes between the Caribbean, New York, Boston and Nova Scotia later became migratory routes.
But why did people leave their homes in the Caribbean? The simple answer: economics. The Caribbean economy was based mostly on the sugar industry, and between 1840 and 1900 sugar prices plummeted as cane sugar from Brazil and Cuba flooded the market and beet sugar from Europe combined to drive prices down. On the islands where the sugar industry survived, it was only because of the oppressiveness of colonial rule, which affected the working and middle classes. Limited upward mobility, fewer chances for a good education and plummeting sugar prices drove many Caribbean people to choose immigration as an option.
But how does all of this explain why The Port has historically had such a strong community? Caribbean immigrants knew just how important community was to economic and social mobility, especially for future generations. They knew the church was important, not only for religious and spiritual purposes, but for networking and community service. Work and education were very important to the Caribbean community as well. And the fact that many people could work in the same neighborhood in which they lived allowed them to emphasize the importance of education to their children. It gave them the flexibility to make sure their kids got to school on time.
You can see these important institutions from the past, present and future in the neighborhood today – they’ve inspired a self-guided walking tour that takes you to places of worship, education, outreach and community engagement, and places of work.
Take your own walking tour of The Port with this resource from the Cambridge Historical Society website.
About the Cambridge Historical Society
We engage with our city to explore how the past influences the present to shape a better future. We strive to be the most relevant and responsive historical voice in Cambridge. We do that by recognizing that every person in our city knows something about Cambridge’s history, and their knowledge matters. We support people in sharing history with each other – and weaving their knowledge together – by offering them the floor, the mic, the platform. We shed light where historical perspectives are needed. We listen to our community. We live by the ideal that history belongs to everyone.
Our theme for 2021 is “How Does Cambridge Mend?” Make history with us at cambridgehistory.org.
Marian Darlington-Hope and Joe Galusha are authors of ”Caribbean Community in The Port,“ a self-guided walking tour prepared for the Cambridge Historical Society.
Please consider making a financial contribution to maintain, expand and improve Cambridge Day.
Please consider making a financial contribution to maintain, expand and improve Cambridge Day.
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PORT ARANSAS, Texas — A major house fire was reported in Port Aransas around 4:00 a.m. on Sunday on the 3700 block of Pelican Point.
Crews from Port Aransas, Nueces County ESD 1, ESD 2, Corpus Christi Fire Department, Ingleside Volunteer Fire Department, Rockport-Fulton and the Portland Fire Department came in to help battle the blaze for several hours until they brought it under control.
This incident is currently under investigation. We will provide more information as it becomes available.
CHANGBAISHAN, China — A phalanx of skiers formed at the bottom of the slopes at the Wanda Changbaishan resort, clutching their poles close to their sides as they waited as long as 20 minutes at peak times to hop onto the lifts. Not far from it, there was another queue for the magic carpet ferrying up not a line of children, but mostly adults who were about to take their first shaky snowplows in the nursery.
Not exactly blessed with the most ideal conditions for the sport, China ranks far down the list of global ski destinations. Its mountains lack the exciting steep drops seen in Europe, the waist-deep powder days in Japan, and temperatures in the northeast, where most of China’s ski resorts are clustered, are harsh. They hover around minus 10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit) in the day and dip to minus 30 degrees Celsius (22 degrees Fahrenheit) or below at night — also meaning that for much of the season, there is little natural snowfall.
But, no matter. With just a year to go before the Beijing Winter Olympics begins on Feb. 4, 2022, and the COVID-19 pandemic keeping the populace within the nation’s borders, skiing and other snow sports have reached a fever pitch.
Pushed heavily by the government, the Chinese are picking up skis and snowboards and heading for the slopes in record numbers. By 2022, the ski market is expected to be $3.97 billion, a nearly fivefold increase from 2015, according to a 2019 report by the EU SME Centre. Grand investments have been made into improving resort facilities and accessibility — linking key areas like Chongli, the site of next year’s games, by high-speed rail to downtown Beijing in under an hour — and providing subsidized lessons and equipment for students across large swathes of the country.
Unsurprisingly, brands are trying to position themselves for the expected avalanche of opportunity.
The magic carpet at the Silk Road ski resort in Xinjiang. Zhang Xiuke/AP
In December, Prada for the first time organized a ski trip for a number of its VIPs in China, taking place over three days at the Wanda Changbaishan resort. Among them, Linda Li, a TV anchor and former model, who remarked how she’d never seen such energy for skiing before in China.
“I remember when I was skiing 10 years ago in Megève, France,” she said. “I was the only Chinese there and skiing was not very popular in China back then. But this time, I really felt people’s enthusiasm for skiing in Changbaishan.”
A skier like Li, who can carve gracefully down the mountain, is not so common on China’s slopes. Although lines for the green runs in China are formidable, advanced skiers can have their pick of mostly empty black pistes.
As to be expected with an entire nation picking up snow sports nearly from scratch, wipe-outs are common and slope etiquette can be wanting. According to the Ski Industry White Book, the number of domestic skiers in 2019 totaled 13.05 million, of which 72 percent are first-timers. When it comes to après, it is hot pot over hot chocolate.
“As a holiday lifestyle, it’s really just starting,” said Sandy Ip, who runs The Ski Project, a high-end multibrand snow apparel retailer that opened its newest location at the resort to host next year’s games. With stores also in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Niseko, and Bangkok, The Ski Project focuses on carrying more niche brands like Goldbergh and Perfect Moment. “It used to be the really hardcore Chinese skiier that goes to Xinjiang or Yabuli [in Harbin province] to ski for one week. They don’t care about what to eat or where they stay. It’s no longer about that.”
“In the past, the Chinese were either really good Olympian-level because they were part of a sports team or you just don’t ski at all,” said Ip. “This year is the year that everyone is going skiing, the growing middle class. It’s particularly this year.”
Prada ski pop-up at SKP-South Beijing. Courtesy Photo
China’s ski resorts are located most notably in Hebei province, which encircles Beijing, as well as in the northernmost reaches of the country in Jilin and Heilongjiang. There’s also some skiing out west in Sichuan. Further out, Xinjiang provides China’s best natural snow in places such as Koktokay, although realistically hitting Japan — in a typical year — is more easily accessible to the majority of Chinese urban dwellers than is Xinjiang.
Snowboarding brand Burton was a relatively early mover in the space. The company started selling in China in 2003, biding its time and building up relationships to prepare for the explosion of the market.
“That day is finally here with a vengeance,” said Craig Smith, Burton China chief executive officer. “Our business this season to next season will be up 90 percent.”
Now in charge of 10 Burton stores across the country, he stated that their network could grow to a “couple dozen or a couple hundred in the next five years, depending on how well we do in educating the market.”
Smith, who witnessed the expansion of the Japanese market pegged to the Nagano 1998 Winter Olympics, believes there are a lot of similarities to Beijing 2022.
“The growth that Burton saw from Japan from 1997 to 2000 — sales tripled in those three years — just exponential growth at that time,” said Smith. “It’s that same customer, the twentysomething that has access to the financial resources for the sport, because it is expensive.”
The Burton Beijing store. Courtesy Photo
While on one end of the spectrum there are brands like Burton, The North Face, and Anta Sports-owned Arc’teryx that underscore performance, there are others that emphasize more of a fashion proposition, including nonendemic brands trying the market. For instance, Mackage, the Montreal outerwear brand famous for its figure-hugging down parkas, rolled out its ski line in China for the first time in November.
“We treated this year as a small test with very strong sell-throughs,” said Eran Elfassy and Elisa Dahan, the cofounders of Mackage, adding that they “anticipate to at least quadruple our investment with an expansion into men’s.”
“There is a strong appetite for novelty, lighter colors, superior tailoring for flattering silhouettes which has been our brand’s strong suit,” the founders noted about China. Top sellers tend to be their signature styles, indicating that “the need to still have brand recognition on the slopes is just as strong,” they said.
The fashion statement element is also a strong driver at Fusalp. The Annecy, France-headquartered brand is a heritage outfitter to the French national ski team but perhaps taking a page from Moncler, which has seen huge success with its frequent designer collaborations, believes the bigger opportunity lies in city and après.
Fusalp CEO Alexandre Fauvet shared that around two-thirds of the company’s sales in China come from ready-to-wear versus true technical products, compared to an even split in the U.S. and Europe. Even with the benefit of time, he doesn’t believe that the ratio of sales in China will evolve to match Western markets.
A line outside the Moncler store in Shanghai’s iAPM mall. The brand will host its Genius project in China this year, the first time it has hosted it outside of Europe.
China’s natural landscape may have its limits, Fauvet acknowledged, but he said it matters less than one might expect in cultivating a passionate culture around snow sports.
“I give you the example of the U.K., which doesn’t have any mountains, or very few in Scotland, but they are fantastic skiers, even in competition,” he said.
In the same way that most avid British skiers head to nearby France, Switzerland or Italy to ski rather than their own country, he believes that Chinese are likely to pick up the snow vacation. Initial learning and also warming up for each season can be facilitated on local mountains but Chinese will easily adapt to heading abroad for time in the snow.
“I myself would be in Europe or Japan usually to ski right now,” said The Ski Project’s Ip, “but it’s such an emerging sport there will always be beginners that will want to learn locally.”
Once international travel resumes, Smith said, Japan, with its unparalleled snow and proximity to China, will be critical in connecting with the Chinese snow enthusiast. South Korea, which hosted the Pyeongchang 2018 games, will also have a role to play, but Smith believes to a lesser degree, as well as traditional ski outposts in the U.S. and Europe.
“For Korea, they’ll go for the secondary factor. They go over for the food and culture and shopping first and might tack on some time in the mountains,” he said.
Convinced that this is merely the start of a long-lasting lifestyle around the snow, Smith said, “It’ll be up to us to ensure the trend continues but the Olympics are going to be a huge promotion for the snow industry, and the huge investments at the resorts in China are unfathomable in size.”
After almost 80 years of history in Port Neches, the chemical plant that has been the premier upstream chemical producer for more than one company through the years has settled into its new role with Indorama Ventures.
Thailand-based Indorama Ventures wrapped up its $2 billion acquisition of the Port Neches plant and five other facilities from Huntsman Corp. last January.
Since then, staff and administration have completed a turnaround, started establishing what Indorama’s role in the community will be and adapted to a global pandemic all at once.
Chad Anderson, an 18-year veteran with the plant, is Indorama’s vice president of manufacturing and acting site director for the company’s new Gulf Coast assets. He said that has meant exploring where the facility fits with its new corporate family, but mostly it’s been capitalizing on what has come before.
“It’s a question of what you have to do right, and that falls down to being responsible and abiding by our environmental permits, keeping employees and clients happy and maintaining our civil engagement,” he said.
Changing hands
Under Huntsman, Port Neches was still a major focus in terms of products and resources, but that position was starting to make less sense as the company started to head toward making more specific and proprietary products directly for clients.
The basic building blocks for production created in Port Neches were still important for those products, but complete ownership of their production was quickly becoming less of priority.
“Due to the sheer volume, Port Neches became a crown site, but it was about as far upstream as you could get,” Anderson said.
The company started selling off base chemical production in 2007. It eventually started marketing its upstream production assets, the plants and units that made the most basic products usually sold at wholesale, as a package.
That’s where Indorama — one of the largest producers of consumer-level plastics and synthetic materials in the world — stepped in.
Indorama previously set an initiative in 2019 to increase its Integrated Oxides and Derivatives (IOD) segments, which not only meant an aggressive investment in some of the basic materials used in its products, but that companies like Huntsman would still be purchasing chemicals like propylene oxide for their own more specialized products.
“I see this as (Indorama’s) most strategic and ambitious deal as we set our goals and aspirations at the turn of this decade and as we groom ourselves into a global, diversified chemicals company with multiple integrated and related earning streams,” Aloke Lohia, group CEO of Indorama Ventures, said at the time of the deal’s closure.
Along with Port Neches, Indorama acquired plants in Dayton and Chocolate Bayou, as well as facilities in India and Australia. The Gulf Coast assets joined a plant that Indorama was already in the process of restarting in Lake Charles, Louisiana, after it lay dormant for 15 years.
Anderson said that the company had assets like the Lake Charles facility and its plant in Clear Lake that could make olefines and amines or oxides and glycol, but the new assets — and specifically Port Neches — offered the kind of scale and broad flexibility to meet changing demands while still making the kind of products that will always have a place in the market.
“It’s about who you want to be when you grow up,” Anderson said. “We have vertical integration and the ability to share technology and ideas to sell to the merchant market or grow the surfactants and amines lines.”
The Port Neches plant also still has the nation’s largest individual unit producing MTBE, a fuel additive banned in the United States but still exported to South American and Asian countries.
The Port Neches plant can make 1.6 billion pounds of MTBE every year and regularly sends shipments between 25,000 and 300,000 barrels overseas, according to the company.
The MTBE business was briefly disrupted in November 2019 after the neighboring TPC Group plant ignited in a months-long fire, which engulfed storage tanks at the TPC site used to store the product for Huntsman at the time.
Anderson said market demands for MTBE seem to be growing in Asia, but South America is still a major client for shipments of the additive, keeping the product high on the priority list going into the future.
“I see it as beginning to be even more important, especially as we see economies start to recover and fuel demand rises,” he said.
Local impacts
The sheer size of the Port Neches plant gives it an outsized role in Gulf Coast chemical production, but the same goes for its impact on local labor.
Anderson said that it currently employees about 600 direct employees across all departments, and retains 300 to 500 contractors at any given time.
Those hundreds of employees are represented by four local union chapters from the United Steelworkers Union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, and Pipefitters Local 195.
Its relationship with Port Neches’ USW local is particularly critical after TPC Group’s layoffs that followed the November 2019 TPC explosion significantly reduced membership.
Indorama has been hiring since the turnaround more than a year ago, including some who departed neighboring TPC, but site manager Kim Hoyt said most of the team is still about the same.
Hoyt, who has spent more than 20 year at the site through multiple owners, said the retention through the ownership transition wasn’t that surprising, considering the plant’s connection with the community.
“This has always been the kind of place where the people that work here also live in the community,” she said.
The company estimated that the facility covered $127 million in local salaries and benefits in 2019.
She said that deep connection is why administrators are trying to carry over the community engagement and philanthropy people came to expect from staff at the facility when it was under a different name.
Workers got to contribute to the kind of aid the plant has rendered in the past during disasters in a different way during the global pandemic, personally converting units in the plant to produce hand sanitizer for distribution to schools and public facilities across the region.
Hoyt said it was a change of pace from the products they usually make, which are used in countless essential goods, but their origins in Port Neches are often lost along the way.
Anderson said the company moved about 30,000 gallons of the sanitizer during the early months of the pandemic and still has some in storage in case of a resurgence.
“It was really an amazing feat when you think about it,” he said. “There are many instances when we could produce a product like that in around two weeks. It was a spectacular use of resources for the good of the country.”
The facility has continued to retain an environmental steward to manage its 1,100 acres of natural habitat that has been used to foster wildlife such as the black mallard.
Growth
Anderson said one of the things that attracted Indorama to the Port Neches facility was its potential for growth.
The site has about 2,800 acres, 1,000 of which have already been developed. Space remains available for new units, namely toward the Groves and Port Arthur boundaries of the facility, if and when the company decides it’s needed.
That likelihood is apparently growing as Indorama continues to integrate its new and old properties.
Anderson said its facilities such as Dayton are able to meet the specialty needs of companies as their product bases and market demands change, but Port Neches is where Indorama will look when it sees a need to build capacity.
“We’ll be looking for downstream adjacency, and that usually comes from embracing innovations and understanding the businesses of buyers,” he said. “You want to be able to build something when you need it, and we have that option available here.”
“There were just probably at least 30 people, they looked like young adults early 20s running out of this town house, which is across from us, and jumping in cars,” Sanborn said. “And there was a guy standing there going ‘go go go’ and there must’ve been a dozen cars that left speeding out of the parking lot.”
Authorities are working a scene at an apartment complex in northwest Roanoke.
As of 6:15 a.m., crime scene tape is up surrounding a silver compact car that’s next to an apartment building at Afton Gardens Apartments off Hunt Avenue.
Officers have the driver’s side door of the car propped open and are taking photos of the inside of the car.
10 News reporter Shayne Dwyer is at the scene working to get more information. Officers at the apartment complex have said information must come from the command center, and 10 News has put a request in for more details.
Stick with 10 News as this breaking news story develops.
We're working to learn more about a police presence at Afton Gardens Apartments in northwest Roanoke(WSLS)
We're working to learn more about a police presence at Afton Gardens Apartments in northwest Roanoke(WSLS)
WEYMOUTH, MASS. (WHDH) - A large police presence could be seen gathering outside of the scene of a reported shooting in Weymouth on Sunday morning.
Officers and a SWAT team could be seen outside of The Mastlight apartments after officers responded to a reported shooting around 3:30 a.m.
Officers tell 7NEWS the incident started out as a shooting and witnesses said at least one person was seen being taken away in an ambulance.
No additional information was immediately released.
Swat teams have cleared in South Weymouth after an early morning shooting. We’re told the Norfolk county district attorney is on his way with an update. @7News
The Port Townsend City Council will consider authorizing the city manager to execute a three-year lease with Gabriel Tonan Golf Shop, Inc. when it meets at 6:30 p.m. Monday.
To view the meeting live, go to www.cityofpt.us/city council/page/agendas minutesvideos. To join the meeting, go to www.join webinar.com and enter the webinar ID 578-066-435. To listen only, call 360-390-5064 and use access code 942-105-283#.
Submit public comment emails to be read aloud (up to three minutes per person) to [email protected]
The council will hear a special presentation regarding the Fort Worden PDA transition, consider amending water rates, consider authorizing negotiation of a pool management contract and approve council committee assignments.
Collaborative group
The Intergovernmental Collaborative Group will meet at 5 p.m. Thursday.
The group is composed of members of four entities: Jefferson County Commission, Port Townsend City Council, the Port of Port Townsend and Jefferson County Public Utility District.
To view the meeting live go to www.co.jefferson.wa.us and follow the links under “Quick Links: Videos of Meetings-Streaming Live.” To listen only, call 1-253-215-8782 and enter access code 862 6904 3651 and password 911887.
The three Jefferson County commissioners will consider an agreement concerning a mental health navigator grant when they meet at 9 a.m. Monday.
To view the meeting live go to www.co.jefferson.wa.us and follow the links under “Quick Links: Videos of Meetings-Streaming Live.” To listen only call 1-646-749-3122 and enter access code 661-198-069#. Public comment can be emailed to [email protected]
Commissioners will hear an update on COVID-19 from Dr. Tom Locke at 9:45 a.m. and discuss litigation during an executive session at 11 a.m.
Items on the consent agenda include cancellation of uncollectible personal property taxes, an extension of the bidding for the Port Hadlock water reclamation facility and a payment of $100,000 for engagement in Strait ecosystem recovery.
Port Townsend schools
The Port Townsend School Board will meet in regular session at 5:30 p.m. Thursday.
To join the meeting, go to ptschoolsoct15 or listen by calling 1-253-215-8782. The meeting ID is 814 8463 2097. The passcode is 599673.
No agenda was available as of Saturday.
The Port Townsend School Board will interview candidates for superintendent in executive sessions at 4 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and at 6 p.m. Thursday.
Each candidate will be introduced on Zoom between 3 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. on the day of their interview, view the introductions at us02web.zoom.us, enter meeting ID: 858 8653 5858
The board will meet in a joint executive session with the Chimacum School District Board of Directors at 7:30 a.m. Saturday to discuss, and possibly act on, the superintendent finalists.
Chimacum schools
The Chimacum School Board will interview candidates for superintendent in executive sessions at 6 p.m. Monday and Wednesday and at 4 p.m. Thursday.
Each candidate will be introduced on Zoom between 3 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. on the day of their interview, view the introductions at us02web.zoom.us, enter meeting ID: 858 8653 5858
The board will meet in a joint executive session with the Port Townsend School District Board of Directors at 7:30 a.m. Saturday to discuss, and possibly act on, the superintendent finalists.
Quilcene schools
The Quilcene School Board will conduct book study and a bond/levy discussion during a work/study session at 6 p.m. Wednesday.
For links to the online meeting, email Jami Sukert at [email protected]
The agenda was not available Saturday, but should be posted at https://ift.tt/39y7TaO Board-Agenda.html before the meeting.
Public Utility District
Jefferson County Public Utility District commissioners will hear a presentation on dashboard updates from Moss Adams at 5 p.m. Tuesday.
To join the meeting, go to https://zoom.us/j/94343 431849 or call 360-379-5833.
Fire District 3
Clallam County Fire District No. 3 commissioners will consider a training officer proposal when they meet at 1 p.m. Tuesday.
To join the meeting via Zoom, go to firedistrict3 feb2. To listen only, call 1-877-853-5247 toll-free. The meeting ID is 861 5593 8700. The password is 910993.
Commissioners also will consider an interlocal maintenance agreement, hear an update on grants and discuss 2020 financial statements.
The district covers the east side of Clallam County with a small portion in Jefferson County.
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Maverick is a 3-year-old shorthair tabby. He was living with 2-year-old Casanova in the homes of an ailing elderly woman who could no longer care for them. They are super shy and would be happiest if they could stay together as a pair. Photo from Summit County Animal Control and Shelter
The following animals are available for adoption at the Summit County Animal Shelter. Call the shelter at 970-668-3230 with questions. The most recent list of animals available for adoption can be found via their website.
Casanova is a 2-year-old shorthair tabby. He was living with 3-year-old Maverick in the homes of an ailing elderly woman who could no longer care for them. They are super shy and would be happiest if they could stay together as a pair. Photo from Summit County Animal Control and Shelter
Cats
BEAUREGARD, 3 years, domestic longhair, black, neutered male
CASANOVA, 2 years, domestic shorthair, brown tabby, neutered male
CLEO, 9 years, domestic longhair, black and white, spayed female
COCO, 2 years, domestic shorthair, chocolate, spayed female
MAVERICK, 3 years, domestic shorthair, orange tabby, neutered male
STEWIE, 5 months, domestic shorthair, gray tabby, neutered male
Emily is a 4-year-old, 46 pount, pitbull mix. She was transferred here all the way from Texas to find her forever family. Photo from Summit County Animal Control and Shelter
Dogs
DJANGO, 1 year 3 months, pointer and pit bull terrier mix, tan and brown, neutered male
ELVIS, 1 year 1 month, English pointer, tan and white, neutered male
EMILY, 4 years, pit bull terrier mix, black and white, spayed female
HURRICANE, 10 months, Labrador retriever and German shepherd mix, black, neutered male
JACK, 1 year 7 months, Australian cattle dog and Australian Kelpie mix, tan, neutered male
LACY, 8 months, Australian shepherd mix, white and tan, spayed female
RANDALL, 2 years, German shepherd mix, black and tan, neutered male
RIP Henry Aaron. Mr. Aaron was a champion for human rights, a generous donator, and from all reports an unimpeachable gentleman. 2020 has cost us 10 former Hall of Fame players. Hammering Hank was a baseball GOAT.
The February issue of Wine Spectator is worth buying. It has over 500 wines rated 90 points. Most can be had under $25, a valuable tool for those who wish to increase the scope of their wine menu without placing too much at risk. I prefer not to tout other reviewers, but in this particular case, I would be remiss in my obligation to inform.
Let’s explore Vintage Port. First a brief tutorial. Unlike most other wine, a Vintage Port is not produced every year. This designation is decided by a producer choosing to “declare a vintage” because they consider the wine which were produced in a given harvest year meet the criteria. The regulating body for the Port trade, IVDP, evaluates a sample of the wine. If it approves the producer’s decision, the wine can be bottled, following specific criteria, then sold as Vintage Port. These are specific to a particular producer and does not reach across the entire production of any vintage year. History tells us that most producers are extremely careful with their “Declarations.” Most declare 3, or occasionally 4, per decade. Those who wish to read the broad brush can go here: https://vintageportsite.com/about-vintage-port/declaration-of-a-vintage. As a point of general information, the following Taylor Fladgate vintages are considered generally excellent: 1994, 96 McD under $200; 2000, 2003, 2007, 96 McD, under $80; ready 2027, 2011, 2016 and 2017. Of these, 1992, best, and ‘94 are ready to drink and still available around $225. Those who want to cellar look for the 2017, but be advised you get little price appreciation until the 20-year window, in most cases. Note the price on 2007 opposed to 1994.
Be very careful of the hype around top rated Vintage Port. Almost without exception, after great flack, they are initially way overpriced. As an example, the highly touted 2017 came in at $83 then rose to a high of $203 in November, 2017, dropped to $75 by June, 2019 and resides at $98 in December, 2020, where it is a very fair value. There are no deals on cases yet. Too many bought the hype. Most are selling around $1300/12. As a point of interest according to Roger Voss, a Port but not portly winophile, the last time there were two generally declared Vintage Ports was 1872-73 by 16 producers. By comparison, ‘63 and ‘71 respectively declared in 2016-17. And the good news keeps on coming as 2018 is looking like an unheard of three-year Port hat trick. Symington, owner of Graham’s, Dow’s, Warre’s and Cockburn, declared six single quintas (country villa or estate, Spain) in 2018; Ferreira 100 points Voss; Sogrape, which owns Sandeman, Offley and Ferriera, plus Quinta do Vesuvio and Dow,Senoria da Ribiera, also declared with others to follow. I’m guessing the patient purchaser will find some excellent bargains in 2016. Keep your eyes peeled.
The reviews on the 2016 were effusive. In the June 2018 Robb Report there was an article titled, “A sneak peek at the greatest Vintage Port of the Century”. These reviews drove prices through the roof. Croft Vt Port came in at $419, and by Jan 2017 was $83; current price $94.I’m not casting aspersions, just delivering a caveat. As 2018 rest on shelves, likely most of their prices will also decline.
Big Buckaroos who enjoy Port will be aware of Quinto do Noval Nacional VT. Port. Through diligent search I located a “wrinkle in the force.” The perfect score 2003 under $900/bottle just entered its window. Those who move quickly can buy it under $700. The 2016 and ‘17 are priced $1,000 and need at least 12 in the cellar. Do not confuse with the Quinta do Noval Touriga Nacional which, although they show a vintage on the label, aren’t declared wine. These consistently rate 90-91 McD are findable around $30-40 and are lovely. Quinta Noval Silval is another very fine look at Port for beginners. Try to find 2014 or earlier under $100.
Keira Knightley has been making worthwhile arguments about sex scenes in movies. Speaking on the Chanel Connects podcast, she suggested she might never again shoot such a sequence for a male director. “I don’t have an absolute ban, but I kind of do with men,” she said. “I don’t want it to be those horrible sex scenes where you’re all greased up and everybody is grunting.”
There are two intertwined arguments here. The more serious addresses the potential for film-makers to misuse women on set. “I feel very uncomfortable now trying to portray the male gaze,” Knightley said. The second, more aesthetically inclined strand is to do with the perennial wretchedness of humping sequences in mainstream movies. The clutched sheets. The flickering candles. The screeching saxophones.
No, this is not to suggest sex scenes are “unnecessary” – the favourite adjective of prudes who like to pretend they are not prudes – or that the medium is inherently ill-suited to the carnal. It’s just that too many film-makers having been doing it wrong for too many decades.
The role of intimacy co-ordinators – hired to ensure that actors are comfortable in sex scenes – has increased
Given what we now know – and should have always suspected – about the industry, no sane person will be raising an eyebrow at Knightley’s declaration. For decades, vulnerable actors have been bullied out of comfort zones. The most notorious example was the “butter incident” in Bernardo Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris. Much misinformation has bubbled since the film opened in 1972. The rape scene between Maria Schneider and Marlon Brando was entirely “simulated”, but it seems the female star, then just 19, was deliberately kept unaware that butter would be used as a lubricant.
“I wanted her reaction as a girl, not as an actress,” Bertolucci said later. “I wanted her to react humiliated.” That sort of sexist manipulation was taken for granted.
More than 40 years later, Abdellatif Kechiche, director of Blue Is the Warmest Colour, was criticised for his behaviour on the set of that sexually explicit lesbian romance. “We wanted to give everything we have,” Adèle Exarchopoulos, co-star of the film, explained. “But sometimes there was a kind of manipulation, which was hard to handle.” When Léa Seydoux, who played Exarchopoulos’s lover, was asked if she would work with Kechiche again, she replied “never”.
Both actors continued to praise the film itself, but, by December of 2019, the winner of the 2013 Palme d’Or at Cannes had vanished from most critics’ “best of the decade” list.
Critical shift
The arrival of the #MeToo movement in 2017 accelerated that critical shift. In the succeeding years, the role of intimacy co-ordinators – hired to ensure that actors are comfortable in sex scenes – increased on film and TV sets. Ita O’Brien, who performed that task on Normal People, had been making the case for years. “Everything shifted on the dime, and everything that I was calling for then was welcomed,” she said about the #MeToo aftermath.
A scene from Normal People, the production of which featured input from an intimacy co-ordinator. Photograph: Enda Bowe
O’Brien’s work with directors Lenny Abrahamson and Hettie Macdonald on the adaptation of Sally Rooney’s novel helped create sex scenes charged with emotion, awkwardness and excitement. Far from constraining creativity, the new arrangements, by providing discernible limits, free film-makers from moral and creative tensions. They can feel more confident in depicting explicit acts. They no longer need to show fingernails digging suggestively into satin pillow cases. Fewer edits are required of trains powering into tunnels. No longer need anybody close the relevant scene with a montage of gushing oil wells.
Lord save us from the empty cardigan who tells us films were more erotic when directors were allowed to show only – to paraphrase Cole Porter – a glimpse of stocking. But, infuriating though it is to relate, that unavoidable bore is not entirely wrong. The sexual liberations of the 1960s were not total. Film-makers were still hemmed in by restrictions. The Old Chap could be seen in repose, but, away from speciality cinemas in Soho or Times Square, he was not permitted to stand proud.
You know the type of thing. The saxophones blared. Curtains billowed at the moment of completion. Hair was thrown back towards padded headboards. Even the much-praised sex scene in Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now is layered with coyness: the pretty flute, the cuts to post-coital grooming. We have never fully escaped from audio-visual euphemism.
Team America: World Police - a rare occasion when film-makers got it right
The best sex scene ever might be the puppet copulation in Team America: World Police. All the cliches mentioned above – perfected in action cinema of the 1980s and 1990s – are employed as the couple clunk and clack their way towards varnished satisfaction. As a summation of every cinematic evasion about the sexual act it is close to perfect. The more explicit version on the DVD then (ahem) fills in the missing gaps.
We will never entirely escape the coy, cheesy depiction of sexual intercourse referenced in Team America. Repression will be with us forever. But the arrival of intimacy co-ordinators and the work done in increasing awareness by troupers such as Keira Knightley may make the creation of such sequences safer for actors. We can hope.
In the real world, jumping cars almost always ends in tears, bent frames, and imploded suspension components, but in Hollywood it’s usually an excellent way to add an exclamation mark to a chase scene.
Hundreds of on-screen pursuits have give their stunt drivers the chance to get just a little airborne, and there are a handful out there cool enough – or is that weird enough? – to be singled out for a little extra recognition.
Here’s our take on the most impressive, and occasionally also the strangest, automotive flight plans ever captured on film.
The Transporter (2002)
The Car: 1995 BMW 735i
The Stunt: Jason Statham jumps from an overpass onto a moving car carrier
Why It’s So Cool: The most compelling aspect of the car stunts in The Transporter have to do with just how big the E38 BMW that Jason Statham’s character wheels around truly is. The 7 Series’ girth is further accented by the tiny European streets that frame the movie’s opening bank robbery escape scene, which means it’s only logical that the most impressive aspect of the sequence is also about forcing big things into tiny places.
With the rear wheels spinning and his mental timer ticking, Statham launches the 735i off a tiny overpass and lands it in the only free space available on the moving car carrier below. Thus, the Transporter is transported, and the audience has been clued in to what kind of thrills they can expect from the remainder of the movie.
The Man With The Golden Gun (1974)
The Car: 1974 AMC Hornet X
The Stunt: A corkscrew jump across a river in a truly terrible car
Why It’s So Cool Weird: First things first: they actually executed a full barrel-roll jump in perhaps the least-suited automobile for such a stunt one could find in 1974. The victim of a product placement deal with AMC, James Bond’s producers apparently decided to torpedo the cool factor of the amazing, no-camera-trickery corkscrew (executed by stunt driver Loren ‘Bumps’ Williams) by dubbing over a slide-whistle sound effect that gave the entire effort the gravitas of a Looney Tunes production.
We’re still waiting for the Alfred R. Broccoli Special Edition version of The Man With The Golden Gun that gets all George Lucas in its revisions to what should have been a celebrated scene rather than a moment of ridicule.
The Rookie (1990)
The Car: 1990 Mercedes-Benz 500 SL
The Stunt: Top-down Clint Eastwood blasts through a wall of windows while jumping a Mercedes-Benz roadster from the upper storey of an exploding warehouse onto the rooftop of another building, before crashing through a skylight
Why It’s So Cool: Everything about the sentence you just read above this explains why this jump is cool, but it’s worth pointing out The Rookie was all about stretching the limits of an audience’s suspension of disbelief, especially regarding the imperviousness of the two leads to gunfire. Eastwood and his partner (played by Charlie Sheen) are completely unscathed by their multi-glass smash, and Clint even gets to drop the forgotten Mercedes-Benz tagline ‘Engineered like no other car’ as they pick themselves up out of the wreckage.
Speed (1994)
The Car: 1966 GMC TDH 5303
The Stunt: A city bus jumps from one portion of an incomplete highway to another with Sandra Bullock at the wheel
Why It’s So Cool: Depending on who you believe, the bus hump from Speed was either a resounding success or a barely-contained tragedy. Although there was no danger of the GMC hauler falling into a death-chasm (that section of highway was actually in place, and was digitally-removed in post-production), the stunt coordinator had underestimated just how well the bus would take to the sky.
At its highest arc the front of the TDH 5303 reached 20 feet from the road surface, and it managed to clear a full 109 feet in the air. This wreaked havoc with camera placement (parts of the bus weren’t even in frame), and the design of the 15-degree ramp (where the front ‘kicker’ portion dropped flat as soon as the front wheels cleared it) gave the bus a bit of a ‘747’ landing profile, but it remains an unforgettable capsule of ’90s cinema.
Taxi (1998)
The Car(s): A pair of 1992 Mercedes-Benz 500Es
The Stunt: The two Benzes are tricked into jumping from one section of an incomplete elevated roadway to another, stranding a gang of bank robbers
Why It’s So Cool: The second ‘Oops, there’s a gap in the highway’ stunt on our list stands as the thrilling conclusion to a chase between a hopped-up Peugeot driven by the film’s anti-hero and a bunch of bad dudes through much of Marseille and the surrounding countryside.
By braking at the last moment, the Peugeot driver (played by Samy Nacieri) manages to maroon the not-so-lucky 500E sedans on a hundred-foot segment of sky-high asphalt, where they can be later retrieved by police helicopter. It’s an inspired bit of direction from Gérard Pirès in a pioneering French movie that stood apart from other action fare from the same decade.
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)
The Car: 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California
The Stunt: A glorious ode to the freedom of valets set to the Star Wars soundtrack, and a second plunge to doom by a replica of the very same car later in the film
Why It’s So Cool: John Hughes decided to make real every single sports car owner’s fears about the habits of out-of-sight valets when he had a pair of carefree Chicago parkers go on a fantasy tear around town in Bueller’s best friend Cameron’s dad’s 250 GT California (which included more than a little air time).
A few story beats later, while trying to roll-back the car’s odometer on a jack, Cam kicks the Ferrari to death by knocking it, wheels spinning, through the glass wall of its ultra-bougie suburban garage. Two iconic jump scenes in one movie are just a part of what has made Ferris Bueller’s Day Off an indelible classic.
Gone In 60 Seconds (1974)
The Car: 1971 Ford Mustang (called a ’73 on-screen)
The Stunt: A 40-minute car chase culminates in a 128-foot jump after a 90-foot downhill plunge at full speed
Why It’s So Cool: Director and star H.B. Halicki did all of his own driving during the filming of one of the ’70s’ most unusual action films, and that means he was at the wheel when a 1971 Ford Mustang his character was driving got launched 30 feet into the air and landed nearly 130 feet later, compacting his own vertebrae but becoming even more of a legend in the process. Amazingly, only two cars were used while filming the chase and both survived the shoot, with the fully-caged jump car occasionally turning up in museums across the U.S.
Hooper (1978)
The Car: 1978 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am
The Stunt: That Trans Am? It has a rocket strapped to it, and it’s going to jump across a collapsed bridge — or is it?
Why It’s So Cool Weird: Yeah, yeah, so it does make the jump. But this is one of the stranger entries on our list, in that the jump takes place in a movie about an aging stuntman, that is directed by an actual stuntman, about a younger stuntman being pressured into doing a jump that’s way too dangerous because it involves a rocket engine attached to a Firebird. It’s like a meta-commentary how audiences are complicit in pushing film crews to take greater and greater risks to keep us all enterta — aw, c’mon, man just let me see that really sweet jump!
Speed Zone (1989)
The Car: 1985 Lamborghini Countach 5000 QV
The Stunt: A Countach is skipped across a pond like a flat stone
Why It’s So Cool: Every single auto enthusiast has, at one point in their life, looked at a body of water and thought ‘If I was going fast enough, I could definitely skip across this lake/river/pond/canal/deep ocean channel and just keep on driving when I hit the shore.’ And every single one of them has been wrong.
2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)
The Car: 1969 Chevrolet Camaro Yenko
The Stunt: Jumping from shore to ship to crash into Cole Hauser’s fleeing yacht
Why It’s So Cool Weird: We didn’t really need a boat in this movie. It’s not called 2 Float 2 Furious. After a whole bunch of really fun driving stunts, having a street racing film climax with a Camaro launched into a flying bridge felt more than a little out of place.
It took no less than nine Camaros to make the stunt a reality, including one that was repeatedly dunked in the drink over and over by a tow cable to try and see how far it would actually launch from a pier, and then using a crane on a set to simulate the actual impact on the back half of a faux-yacht shot against a green screen. Dom probably could have done it in one take.
An important question as we watch our nation tear itself apart over cultural and political differences.
In Bismarck, Rep. Terry Jones, a member of the Bastiat Caucus, has introduced a bill requiring "American" as the first choice on any government form requesting racial information.
It's a stupid proposal. "American" is not a race. Not only would that option undermine the usefulness of the information being collected — racial data is important for everything from health to economic policy — but Americans are a very diverse group.
To be an American is to be, well, just about any race you could imagine.
This may surprise you, given how often our country is portrayed as the home of xenophobes and bigots, no country on Earth takes in more immigrants than the United States.
Our education institutions push a curriculum that is long on America's many faults and fumbles and short on its virtues and aspirations. With its left-wing bent and desire to appeal to foreign markets, the entertainment industry treats patriotism like something distasteful. There is a political movement, centered on the historically inaccurate 1619 Project published by The New York Times, which asks you to believe that slavery was and still is America's defining characteristic.
From that perspective, I can understand what Jones was trying to do in a very clumsy and tone-deaf manner.
Being an American is a great thing.
More than any other, our nation remains a destination for millions from every corner of the world who want to find opportunity and prosperity, and freedom.
Yet many busy themselves drawing a box around Americanism so they can claim it only for themselves. This attitude is the root of much of the anti-immigration sentiment the Trump movement was built on, but it's hardly a uniquely right wing point of view.
One of the less thoughtful responses I got after my recent interview with Fargo-based Black activist Wess Philome was from a person, apparently of Native American heritage, objecting to my use of the term "our country" in the interview.
"What do you mean 'our country' Port?" this person wrote. "Go back to Europe."
It's impossible for me to "go back" to a place I've never been to. None of us gets to choose where we are born. I was born in the United States, like most of you were.
But too many people want to define "American" as meaning only people who look like them.
It's a corrosive attitude.
Given our nation's long history of taking in immigrants, one might also say it's un-American.
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