A snorkeler off the coast of California found more than she bargained for on the ocean floor Sunday, when she saw the large eyes of an 18-foot fish staring back at her. It turned out to be a dead oarfish, a mysterious creature known to live in waters thousands of feet deep.
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Several gay couples in New Jersey are expected to gather late Sunday to wed in ceremonies to be held shortly after midnight.
The last-minute weddings were planned after the state Supreme Court last week refused to delay a lower court order for the state to begin recognizing same-sex marriages at 12:01 a.m. Monday.
Gov. Chris Christie's administration has a pending appeal, but justices said they would not hold up marriages while they consider it. The justices said they did not think the state's arguments were likely to prevail and that delaying the lower court's order would hurt couples who would not become eligible for certain federal benefits until they could legally marry in New Jersey.
Newark Mayor Cory Booker and Lambertville Mayor David DelVecchio both plan to lead ceremonies for gay couples at 12:01 a.m. Monday.
Hoboken, Collingswood and a handful of other towns opened municipal offices Saturday to accept applications for marriage licenses from same-sex couples.
Activists still were working Saturday to line up judges who could waive the three-day waiting period for same-sex couples who want to exchange vows first thing Monday. Under state law, couples normally must wait 72 hours after applying for a marriage license before they can tie the knot.
Garden State Equality executive director Troy Stevenson said the effort to get couples hitched without the waiting period was a "work in progress." He didn't have specific details on how many judges were available to consider couples' waivers during the weekend, but he said many marriages will be held across the state at 12:01 a.m. Monday.
Officials noted that state law says couples married legally elsewhere can wed in New Jersey without a waiting period — a provision that appears to apply to many New Jersey couples.
Many same-sex couples began scrambling to plan their weddings shortly after the state Supreme Court issued its unexpected decision Friday. They reached out to florists, photographers, catering firms, banquet halls and other wedding-related businesses to see what was available on short notice.
Justin Jordan, a photographer who shoots many weddings in southern New Jersey, said he's heard from "numerous couples" since Friday.
"Many people have been waiting anxiously for the chance to get married, and now that they have the chance to do it, they're jumping at the opportunity," Jordan said. "But they're also realizing everything that goes with a wedding, like getting a photographer or video person, buying flowers, arranging for food ... it's a daunting task when you have months to plan, let alone a few days."
Among those seeking their licenses Saturday morning were Hoboken residents Paul Somerville and Allen Kratz, who have been together since 1985. They were previously married in Oregon in 2004, only to have the union nullified by the state's supreme court. They also have been part of a domestic partnership in 2006 and a civil union in 2008, both through the city of Hoboken.
The couple said they will receive their license on Tuesday and plan to wed Thursday in a private ceremony. Kratz told The Jersey Journal that it's wonderful to be able to marry his longtime partner.
"Civil rights always come too early for those in a comfortable position of power and never soon enough for those who have been denied life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," Kratz said.
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File-This Aug. 23, 2013 file photo shows Santa Fe County Commissioner Liz Stefonics, left, and Linda Siegle, a lobbyist for Equality New Mexico, holding hands after they were married in the Santa Fe County Commission Chambers, in Santa Fe, N.M. Siegle was first in line to get a marriage license with her partner of 22 years when the Santa Fe County clerk started in late August to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples. Now she’s waiting to see whether New Mexico’s highest court will legalize gay marriage in all 33 counties statewide. (AP Photo/The Albuquerque Journal, Eddie Moore,FILE) THE SANTA FE NEW MEXICAN OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT: EDDIE MOORE/THE ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL
File-This Aug. 23, 2013 file photo shows Santa Fe County Commissioner Liz Stefonics, left, and Linda Siegle, a lobbyist for Equality New Mexico, holding hands after they were married in the Santa Fe County Commission Chambers, in Santa Fe, N.M. Siegle was first in line to get a marriage license with her partner of 22 years when the Santa Fe County clerk started in late August to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples. Now she’s waiting to see whether New Mexico’s highest court will legalize gay marriage in all 33 counties statewide. (AP Photo/The Albuquerque Journal, Eddie Moore,FILE) THE SANTA FE NEW MEXICAN OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT: EDDIE MOORE/THE ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL
FILE - This undated file image provided by Lambda Legal shows plaintiffs Beverly Sevcik, 73, right, and Mary Baranovich, 76. A gay rights advocacy group is appealing a federal judge’s ruling that upheld Nevada’s constitutional ban against same-sex marriage. The appeal filed Friday, Oct. 18, 2013, by Lambda Legal on behalf of eight Nevada couples, including Baranovich and Sevcik, asks the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to overturn a decision last year by U.S. District Judge Robert Jones in Reno. (AP Photo/Lambda Legal, File)
FILE - In this Thursday, Feb. 22, 2007 file photograph, Lambertville Mayor David Del Vecchio performs a civil union ceremony for Beth Asaro, left, and Joanne Schailey, right, at the Lambertville Municipal Court just after 12 a.m., in Lambertville, NJ. On Friday, Oct. 18, 2013, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled, same-sex marriages will begin within days in New Jersey after the state's highest court ruled unanimously Friday to uphold a lower-court order that gay weddings must start Monday and to deny a delay that was sought by Gov. Chris Christie's administration. Asaro and Schailey plan to be married at 12:01 Monday morning. ( AP photo/Mel Evans)
Same-sex marriages can begin within days in New Jersey after the state's highest court ruled unanimously Friday to uphold an order that they must start Monday and to deny a delay that had been sought by Gov. Chris Christie's administration.
The ruling puts New Jersey on the cusp of becoming the 14th state — and the third most populous among them — to allow same-sex marriage. The advocacy group Freedom to Marry said that as of Monday, one-third of Americans will live in a place where same-sex marriage is legal.
"The state has advanced a number of arguments, but none of them overcome this reality: Same-sex couples who cannot marry are not treated equally under the law today," the court said in an opinion by Chief Justice Stuart Rabner. "The harm to them is real, not abstract or speculative."
A judge on a lower court had ruled last month that New Jersey must recognize same-sex marriage and set Monday as the date to allow weddings. Christie, a Republican who is considered a possible 2016 presidential candidate, appealed the decision and asked for the start date to be put on hold while the state appeals.
A spokesman for Christie said that he will comply with the ruling, though he doesn't like it.
"While the governor firmly believes that this determination should be made by all the people of the State of New Jersey, he has instructed the Department of Health to cooperate with all municipalities in effectuating the order," spokesman Michael Drewniak said in a statement.
Same-sex marriage is being debated elsewhere. Oregon has begun recognizing same-sex weddings performed out of state, and it is likely that voters will get a chance next year to repeal the state's constitutional ban on gay marriage. The Hawaii Legislature also soon could take up a bill to legalize same-sex unions, while a similar measure has passed the Illinois Senate but not the House. Lawsuits challenging gay marriage bans also are pending in several states, including Michigan, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
New Jersey's top court agreed last week to take up the appeal of the lower-court ruling. Oral arguments are expected Jan. 6 or 7.
In Friday's opinion, Rabner wrote that the state has not shown that it is likely to prevail in the case, though it did present some reasons not to marriage to move forward now.
"But when a party presents a clear case of unequal treatment, and asks the court to vindicate constitutionally protected rights, a court may not sidestep its obligation to rule for an indefinite amount of time," he wrote. "Under these circumstances, courts do not have the option to defer."
Rabner also rejected the state's argument that it was in the public interest not to allow marriages until the court has had more time to rule fully on the issue.
"We can find no public interest in depriving a group of New Jersey residents of their constitutional right to equal protection while the appeals process unfolds," he wrote.
For those opposed to gay marriage, denying the request to delay was troubling.
"In what universe does it make sense to let the question at hand be answered before it's asked or argued?" Len Deo, president of the New Jersey Family Policy Council, said in a letter Friday to members.
On Thursday, some communities started accepting applications for marriage licenses from same-sex couples so that they would pass the 72-hour waiting period by 12:01 a.m. Monday.
Several communities, including Asbury Park, Lambertville and Newark — where Cory Booker, who was elected Wednesday to the U.S. Senate, is mayor — are holding ceremonies for multiple couples then.
"It's a great day to be gay in New Jersey," said Amy Quinn, a member of the city council in Asbury Park who is planning to marry Heather Jensen, her partner of 10 years, on Monday.
The court did not address the question of what would happen to the status of same-sex marriages entered into next week if it later decides that the state does not have to grant the marriages.
Whether gay couples should have the right to marry in New Jersey has been the subject of a battle in the state's courts and Legislature for a decade. There has been a flurry of movements in both venues since June, when the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated key parts of a federal law that prevented the federal government from recognizing same-sex unions.
Since then, gay rights advocates have asked New Jersey judges to force the state to recognize same-sex marriage, arguing that the current policy of civil unions but not marriage licenses amounts to denying them federal protections such as Social Security survivor benefits and the right to file tax returns jointly.
Since July, gay rights groups have also engaged in an intense campaign aimed at persuading lawmakers to override Christie's 2012 veto of a bill that would have allowed gay marriage. To get an override, the Legislature must act by Jan. 14.
Sheila Oliver, speaker of the state Assembly, issued a statement blaming Christie for not having gay marriage sooner in New Jersey.
"It's a shame it took this long to get to this point and that it took a court fight for same-sex couples to gain equal rights," she said. "New Jersey could have had marriage equality already if it wasn't for Gov. Christie, who has done everything he could to prevent this from happening, including wasting money and time continuing this court battle."
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Mulvihill reported from Haddonfield, N.J. Contributed to this report were Associated Press writers Samantha Henry in Newark, Mark Sherman in Washington and David Crary in New York.
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-10-18-Gay%20Marriage-NJ/id-106d480bb0ed4ec4bb885f41a9a77d71Good morning from Washington, D.C., your nation's capital, where we are now into Day 15 of your government's shutdown and counting down to your government's looming default on its debt.
Yes, we all wish we were still in bed with the pillow over our head. (Even, we imagine, former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who told The Wall Street Journal that military readiness is being damaged by the budget standoff.)
Dire? There is little argument, except from the most ardent default-is-no-big-deal fringe.
Chinese leaders, grasping the opportunity handed them, in a weekend commentary in their state-run news agency advised a "befuddled world to start considering building a de-Americanized world."
Even the much publicized White House garden has taken a hit from Washington inaction, its veggies literally rotting on the vine. Insert metaphor here.
But, dear readers, the buzz-phrase for Tuesday: "Congressional leaders near agreement on framework for a bipartisan deal."
Here's how The New York Times characterized the situation:
WASHINGTON — While Republican senators prepared to meet on Tuesday morning to hear from their leadership about a potential deal with Democrats that could reopen the government and lift the threat of an American default by raising the debt ceiling, House Republicans tempered their demands to scale back President Obama's health care law, announcing that they would soon vote on a proposal meant to counteract a less conservative plan coming from the Senate.
The current statutory limit on total debt issued by the Treasury is just under $16.7 trillion. The No Budget, No Pay Act of 2013 (Public Law 113-3) suspended the debt ceiling from February 4, 2013, through May 18, 2013. The act also specified that the amount of borrowing that occurred during that period should be added to the previous debt limit of $16.394 trillion. On May 19, the limit was reset to reflect the cumulative borrowing through May 18 and now stands at $16.699 trillion.
Because the No Budget, No Pay Act provided no additional borrowing authority above the amount of debt that had already been issued as of May 18, the Treasury has no room under the newly established limit to increase total borrowing. Therefore, to avoid a breach of that limit, the Treasury has begun employing its well-established toolbox of so-called extraordinary measures to allow continued borrowing for a limited time. As it reported in May, CBO projects that those measures will be exhausted in either October or November of this year.
As Congress continues to work on its "framework for a bipartisan deal," here are a few other stories we're watching:
The information is from senior intelligence officials and from top-secret documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. A key finding: Each day, the Washington Post reports, the NSA collects contacts from an estimated 500,000 buddy lists on live-chat services as well as from the inbox displays of Web-based e-mail accounts.
Tourists visit the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2013, in New York. The Statue of Liberty reopened to the public after the state of New York agreed to shoulder the costs of running the site during the partial federal government shutdown. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
Tourists visit the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2013, in New York. The Statue of Liberty reopened to the public after the state of New York agreed to shoulder the costs of running the site during the partial federal government shutdown. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
This image provided by the National Park service shows Arizona Governor Jan Brewer holding a check for $426,500 dollars presented to her by the town of Tusayan, Ariz., as partial payment to the park, Saturday Oct. 12, 2013 at Grand Canyon National Park, Ariz. Also shown, from left, Grand Canyon National Park Superintendent Dave Uberuaga; Brewer; Tusayan, Ariz., Mayor Greg Bryan and Tusayan Councilman, Craig Sanderson, rear. The National Park Service announced that it has entered into an agreement with the State of Arizona that will allow Grand Canyon National Park to re-open and temporarily operate during the government shutdown. (AP Photo/ National Park Service, Michael Quinn)
Jackson Blendowski, 6, of New Hampshire, peers up at the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2013, in New York. The Statue of Liberty reopened to the public after the state of New York agreed to shoulder the costs of running the site during the partial federal government shutdown. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
WASHINGTON (AP) — As congressional leaders raced to seal a deal that would reopen the government, lawmakers from both parties jabbed at one another Wednesday over who was to blame for the most high-profile casualties of the 16-day shutdown: the national parks.
At a House hearing, members of Congress focused on the World War II Memorial on the National Mall, where veterans were initially denied access after the government closed on Oct. 1. A crowd that included Republican lawmakers converged on the memorial Sunday, pushing past barriers to protest the site's closure.
The memorial and other national park units have become a political symbol as lawmakers bicker over blame for the park closings.
Republicans say many parks and open-air monuments did not need to be closed, but Democrats said the GOP had only itself to blame for the shutdown, after Republicans demanded that measures to defund the new health care law be included in bills to keep the government open.
Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., held up a mirror at the hearing and invited Republicans to look at it to find the cause of the shutdown.
Governors in at least five states have reopened national parks such as the Grand Canyon and Statue of Liberty in recent days, but Republicans say the measures were too little, too late.
Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., said the National Park Service appears to have intentionally made the shutdown "as painful and visible as possible."
Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis denied that, saying that turning away visitors "is not in our DNA."
Jarvis called the agreements with governors that have allowed some parks to reopen "a practical and temporary solution that will lessen the pain for some businesses and communities — a Band-Aid until Congress passes an appropriations bill."
Jarvis, who appeared at the hearing only after being issued a subpoena, urged Congress to reopen the government so his agency can reopen all 401 national park units.
Republicans, including Hastings and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said the Park Service acted in a political and provocative manner when it set up barricades at open-air monuments such as the World War II Memorial and placed traffic cones along highway viewing areas outside Mount Rushmore and other parks.
Hastings heads the House Natural Resources Committee, while Issa leads the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The committees held the joint hearing.
Jarvis defended placement of barricades at the World War II Memorial and other sites, saying that all but a dozen park service employees who work at the National Mall have been furloughed. Given the limited staff resources during the shutdown, "prudent and practical steps were taken to secure life and property at these national icons where security has become increasingly complex in a post-9/11 world," he said.
Contrary to the assertion of several Republican lawmakers, Jarvis said the Park Service allowed veterans and their families to visit the World War II Memorial.
"We know that visits of America's World War II veterans to the memorial are pilgrimages that many of them will only make once," he said. "Throughout the shutdown, we have worked diligently to try and ensure that no Honor Flight group, veteran, or their family has been turned away from visiting the veterans' memorials."
An organization called the Honor Flight Network brings World War II veterans to Washington.
Other visitors also are allowed at the memorial under an exception that allows First Amendment activities, Jarvis said.
Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., was not impressed. He said Jarvis's decision to set up barricades at the Lincoln and World War II memorials was "wrong" and mean-spirited.
"You besmirched (the Park Service's) reputation and soured relations with Congress," Lamborn told Jarvis. "In my opinion you have failed."
Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., denounced Lamborn's comment and called Jarvis an "exemplary" public servant. Connolly called the hearing a "theater of the absurd" and "an audacious attempt by the majority to deflect responsibility and blame for the real-world consequences of a government shutdown."
GOP Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah, along with former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, were among those at the World War II Memorial on Sunday. Cruz, Lee and other tea party-backed lawmakers refused to keep the government operating unless President Barack Obama agreed to defund the nation's health care overhaul.
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Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-10-16-Shutdown-National%20Parks/id-5573dd33bc4c4d9387da516034ae0486WARSAW – The Polish film Ida, directed by Paweł Pawlikowski, was awarded the Grand Prix of the 29th Warsaw International Film Festival, which drew to a close in the Polish capital on Saturday.
The movie was awarded for “the superb combination of script, directing, cinematography, acting and music,” from which “comes a beautiful and delicate film that portrays a post-war Polish society, trying to get past its demons,” said the international jury, which named Zaza Urushadze best director for the Estonian/Georgian co-production Mandariinid (Tangerines).
Uljana Kim and Roberts Vinovskis, the producers of the Lithuanian/Latvian film Losejas (The Gambler), directed by Ignas Jonynas, picked up the Special Jury Prize.
The jury of the 1-2 competition, in which directors’ first and second features competed, gave ex-aequo awards to the Romanian film Cainele Japonez (The Japanese Dog), directed by Tudor Cristian Jurgiu, and Otchuzhdenie (Alienation) by Bulgarian director Milko Lazarov.
Soy Mucho Mejor Que Vos (Much Better Than You) by Chilean director Ché Sandoval won in the Free Spirit competition.
The U.S. film Dirty Wars, directed by Richard Rowley, was awarded as the best documentary, and the animated film Pandy (Pandas) by Czech director Matúš Vizár collected the best short film award.
The 9th edition of CentEast Market, which showcased recently completed films and works in progress from Central and Eastern Europe, ran as part of the festival on Oct. 18-19.
KIRKUK, Iraq (Reuters) - A bomb exploded near a mosque in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk on Tuesday, killing eight Sunni worshippers after the first prayer of the Muslim Feast of Sacrifice, or Eid al-Adha, police and medical sources said.
Insurgents usually intensify their attacks during religious holidays in Iraq, and security officials expect more violence over the coming days.
More than 6,000 people have been killed in bloodshed so far this year as Sunni Islamist and other insurgents regain ground and momentum in an onslaught against Iraq's Shi'ite-led government.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Tuesday's attack.
"I was on my way home nearby when I heard the explosion. I ran back to see what had happened and there were many killed and wounded people," said Ibrahim Mohammed. "There is drilling work on one of the mosque pillars and the bomb was placed there".
Fifteen people were wounded in the blast, said authorities.
Forced underground in 2007, al Qaeda's Iraqi wing has been reinvigorated by the civil war in neighboring Syria and growing resentment among the country's Sunni minority towards the Shi'ite-led government.
A raid by government security forces on a Sunni protest camp in April touched off a backlash by militants that still continues.
"These attacks, the latest in an upsurge of bombings, are particularly despicable as they hit Iraqis at a time when they extend their hands to the needy and the suffering on the occasion of Eid Al-Adha," said the spokesman for the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
(Reporting by Mustafa Mahmoud; Writing by Suadad al-Salhy; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
21 hours ago
Frazer Harrison / Getty Images file
Actor Charlie Hunnam, who currently stars on "Sons of Anarchy."
Universal Pictures and Focus Features haven't yet resorted to posting a woman-seeking-man personal ad on Craigslist. But in the wake of Charlie Hunnam's abrupt departure from "Fifty Shades of Grey" — after what sources say was increasing conflict with the high-profile film's creative team — the studio is left to scramble desperately for another actor to star opposite Dakota Johnson in the role of billionaire S&M fan Christian Grey so the project can meet a looming Nov. 1 start date.
PHOTOS: Stars Misaligned: Charlie Hunnam Quits 'Fifty Shades' and 15 Other Casting Near-Misses
Universal chairman Donna Langley, producers Michael De Luca and Dana Brunetti, director Sam Taylor-Johnson and author EL James are said to have drafted a list of four men they want to read for the role. Although the list is being kept under NSA-level secrecy, THR.com revealed Oct. 13 that British TV stars Jamie Dornan, 31, and Christian Cooke, 26, are among the targets. Both actors came close to capturing the part the first time around but lost to Hunnam because the "Sons of Anarchy" star is a bigger name. ("True Blood's" Alexander Skarsgard also is being considered.)
Getty Images file
Actor Jamie Dornan.
Dornan could be emerging as a front-runner. Born in Northern Ireland, he's a former Calvin Klein model, dated Keira Knightley for two years and played Sheriff Graham on the first season of ABC's "Once Upon a Time." According to a source, Dornan was contacted by Langley even before Hunnam officially dropped out Oct. 12. But a Dornan confidant says no overtures had been made at press time to the actor, who stars in British series "The Fall," on which he plays a killer terrorizing Belfast. The fact that Dornan's wife, actress-singer Amelia Warner, is pregnant also could complicate matters.
PHOTOS: Top 10 Fan Favorites for the Cast of 'Fifty Shades of Grey'
The last thing Universal wants is another actor to emerge as its "Fifty Shades" protagonist only to waffle. The studio is reeling over Hunnam's exit less than three weeks before the start of production. Sources say his discomfort with the hoopla around the project had been mounting for at least four weeks before he bailed, which officially was blamed on his "Sons" schedule not allowing him time to prepare (the FX series wraps production Oct. 22). After signing Sept. 2, Hunnam faced a public frenzy on social media sites, where fans of the book congregated to fawn over and complain about his casting. Universal was forced to hire bodyguards for the actor at a recent "Sons" premiere, and two appearances to promote the show were canceled — one at Goulet Motosports in Hawkesbury, Ontario, on Sept. 14, and one at Rocky's Harley-Davidson in London, Ontario, on Oct. 13.
In addition, Hunnam, who also is a writer (he penned the gothic horror screenplay "Vlad" for Brad Pitt's Plan B and Summit Entertainment), is said to have submitted his own very detailed script notes on Kelly Marcel's adaptation of the runaway best-seller. The notes were well received, according to sources, but that only led to Hunnam seeking further script approval, which was denied. "That's Charlie, that's who he is. He's particular," says one source.
STORY: Charlie Hunnam Drops Out of 'Fifty Shades of Grey' Movie
According to another source, Hunnam, who was to be paid about $125,000 for the film, began butting heads with the creative team, including Taylor-Johnson. The conflict reached a fever pitch in early October, though everyone involved thought the issues had been resolved. But the discord spiked again Oct. 11. Hunnam's team at CAA and Brillstein Entertainment Partners strongly advised him to stay on the project for fear that his exit would embarrass Langley — new to the chairman job — and burn a bridge with one of the major studios. That same day, Universal hired writer Patrick Marber — no stranger to taboo sex themes with his Oscar-nominated screenplay "Notes on a Scandal" — to do a polish and bolster the characters. But by then, Hunnam, whose heart it seems never was in the project, had decided to decamp. The next morning, the studio announced his departure, and James tweeted, "I wish Charlie all the best." Universal and CAA declined comment.
Hunnam isn't the first actor to have doubts about playing the dungeon-loving Christian Grey. James' first choice, Robert Pattinson, never engaged with producers. Garrett Hedlund was heavily courted this summer and even received an informal offer, but the "Tron: Legacy" star passed in July because he couldn't connect with the character. Now he is in Australia to shoot the Angelina Jolie-directed "Unbroken."
EXCLUSIVE: 'Fifty Shades' Movie Hires Writer for Script Work
Fortunately for Universal, its leading lady, Johnson, 24, remains firmly in place, ready to take on the virgin-turned-sexpert Anastasia Steele, a role that has greater dimension than the Grey character. But with the clock ticking, the start of production likely will need to be pushed back at least a week. Still, the studio says it remains committed to making its Aug. 1, 2014, release date.
For her part, the ever-involved James (she has approval rights on cast) is in Los Angeles the week of Oct. 14 as the hunt for a new Christian Grey continues. As the author writes no fewer than 44 times in "Fifty Shades": "Oh my."
Borys Kit contributed to this report.
Powered by Clover Trail+ processors, these are very interesting budget tabletsTraditional PC maker Dell has released two new Android tablets, and starting today at their web shopping portal you can pick up the Dell Venue 7 for $150, or the Dell Venue 8 for $180.
Other than the screen size, the tablets are identical. Under the hood you have an Intel ATOM Z2580 processor, which is the high-end Clover Trail+ version that features Hyperthreading and VTx technology. This is paired with 2GB of RAM, and Intel HD graphics adapter, support for 802.11 b/g/n wireless and Bluetooth 4.0. The screen resolution is a mild 1200 x 800 on both the 7-inch Venue 7 and 8-inch Venue 8, and both tablets will ship with Android 4.2.2.
On paper, they appear to be solid consumer-grade offerings, which should have excellent battery life thanks to the Intel CPU. We've ordered one, and we'll have a look ourselves. At $150, it's certainly worth a good long look as the holiday shopping season approaches.
For more details and ordering information, see the source links.
Source: Dell. Thanks, Heath!
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A woman places labels on Old Crow bourbon bottles sometime in the early 1900s.
Starter: Hello. Is that whiskey you're drinking?
Let me tell you about the debt that whiskey drinkers owe to women. Fred Minnick, a writer for the beverage industry, says so in his new book, Whiskey Women: The Untold Story of How Women Saved Bourbon, Scotch and Irish Whiskey.
Explainer: Women have played vital roles in the history of whiskey in America, Fred says. In the 19th century, "sex-selling saloon women created the greatest demand for American whiskey, peddling more than $2 million in booze in New York in 1857, while teetotaler temperance ladies fought to keep their cheating husbands from entering the brothels and saloons. The men blamed the whiskey; the wives fought for Prohibition."
Impressive Depth: You know all about Carrie Nation and the Women's Christian Temperance Movement, which led the charge for passage of the 18th Amendment and the National Prohibition Act of 1920.
But some women also led the battle cry to repeal Prohibition. Several historians have written about this, including Kenneth D. Rose in American Women and the Repeal of Prohibition and Daniel Okrent in Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition.
And now Fred. He says that Pauline Morton Sabin and her Women's Organization for National Prohibition Reform converted a bunch of erstwhile WCTU members into so-called "Repeal Women," who proclaimed that Prohibition favored the bootleggers and was disrespectful of the Constitution. Fred says, "Many politicians, most notably New York governor Herbert Lehman, credited Sabin for changing America's mind about Prohibition."
Quotes You Can Quote: Over the years, women have made their marks on Maker's Mark and other notable brands. Fred says that "without Marjorie 'Marge' Samuels inventing the red wax and the curvy bottle for Maker's Mark, bourbon packaging would still predominantly feature animals and old men. Samuels' design transformed the entire liquor industry."
Closer: This all reminds me of a memorable Walker Percy essay on bourbon in which the Southern semiotician writes about standing around with a couple of guys and knocking back two or three shots and the moment at which all three men said at once: "Where are the women?"
Maybe Fred's book answers the question: At least some of the women were busy saving bourbon from oblivion.
Ok, sure, I'll have a Shirley Temple.
What is The Protojournalist? New-school storytelling, old-school reporting. @NPRtpj
This 2013 photo provided by the San Francisco Ballet shows, from left, Dores Andre, Sasha De Sola, Joan Boada and Wan Ting Zhao, in Wheeldon's "Cinderella." (AP Photo/San Francisco Ballet, Erik Tomasson)
This 2013 photo provided by the San Francisco Ballet shows, from left, Dores Andre, Sasha De Sola, Joan Boada and Wan Ting Zhao, in Wheeldon's "Cinderella." (AP Photo/San Francisco Ballet, Erik Tomasson)
This 2013 photo provided by the San Francisco Ballet shows Maria Kochetkova in Wheeldon's "Cinderella." (AP Photo/San Francisco Ballet, Erik Tomasson)
NEW YORK (AP) — Sure, "Cinderella" is a fairy tale. But still, wouldn't it feel just a tad more realistic if Cinderella and her Prince had a bit more time to get to know each other before falling madly in love? That meeting at the ball has always seemed a little, well, rushed.
That's just one of the intriguing variations that popular choreographer Christopher Wheeldon has made in his new "Cinderella," which hits New York's Lincoln Center next week, via the San Francisco Ballet. Here, Cinderella and the prince get to know each other a little before they even get to the ball, and Wheeldon gets to play up the parallels in their lives.
"I was interested in the idea that they have similar circumstances," says Wheeldon. "They meet and recognize similar qualities in each other. She's trapped in this familial environment that is vitriolic, whereas he's feeling trapped with his responsibilities. All he wants is to fall in love and be a normal guy. I thought of the royal princes today in the UK."
Just how the two meet before the ball, and who each think the other is, is better saved for the viewing. But it's not the only change Wheeldon has made to the most familiar ballet version: Frederick Ashton's, for the Royal Ballet in 1948. Wheeldon notes that he's based his version not on the lighter (and more familiar) Perrault version of the tale, but the later — and darker — Brothers Grimm version. As for the prince-Cinderella early meeting, he took that from the 19th-century Rossini opera. (The music, though, will be familiar to many: Wheeldon uses the well-known Prokofiev score.)
The 40-year-old British choreographer is one of the busiest in the business. Just this week, it was announced he'd be directing a new stage musical aimed at Broadway, "An American in Paris," based on the Oscar-winning film (a premiere is planned for December 2014 in Paris, with an eye to Broadway in 2015.) Wheeldon has the role of artistic associate at the Royal Ballet in London, but he's best known for his many works for New York City Ballet, where he also was a dancer.
"Cinderella," though, is from neither New York nor London. A joint production of the San Francisco Ballet, with which Wheeldon also has a long association, and the Dutch National Ballet, it premiered in Amsterdam last December and played in San Francisco in May, where it earned largely glowing reviews and sold out its run.
"Oh my gosh, standing room was five deep," says Helgi Tomasson, director of the San Francisco troupe. He attributes the popularity to several factors: enthusiasm for Wheeldon's work, advance word of its highly colorful and distinctive look, and, of course, the universally known story.
Indeed, it's a reality these days that the name "Cinderella" — or "Swan Lake," or "Nutcracker" — can fill a huge theater with eager families, and company directors need to consider the economics of the situation, particularly when creating a full-length production with elaborate sets and costumes. Still, say both Wheeldon and Tomasson, there's enough that's new and different about this "Cinderella" to more than justify a new version of the old tale.
"We all know Ashton's, but Chris wanted this one to be different," Tomasson says, "and he succeeded. Visually it's stunning to look at. The choreography is beautiful. And there's a real sense of magic in these changes that happen right before your eyes."
He's referring to the noted sets, which include, among many things, a tree that transforms into Cinderella's chariot to take her to the ball. That tree is connected to a central force of the story: Cinderella's late mother.
"The tree grows at Cinderella's mother's grave," Wheeldon says. "It becomes the magical essence of Cinderella's love for her mother." Also stemming from that tree are four "Fates," who together serve as a Fairy Godmother.
And what of the choreography? Principal dancer Sarah Van Patten, who plays Cinderella and, in other performances, one of the ugly stepsisters, says it feels "organic."
"You feel like you can breathe with the movement," she says. "It really comes across when the choreography makes you feel light."
"It's really stunning to watch," she adds of the entire production. "Even when I'm dancing it, I'm thinking, 'Wow, this is impressive.'"
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Online:
www.sfballet.org
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-10-18-Dance-Cinderella/id-906bcb3f599b4308ab2632c4cf2b24f2The Thursday deadline for raising the federal debt limit is fast approaching, but the government is still shut down. Host Michel Martin asks Sudeep Reddy of The Wall Street Journal and Time magazine's Rana Foroohar, if the U.S. is in a debt crisis.
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MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
This is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. I'm Michel Martin. You might've been hearing the name Malala Yousafzai. She is the Pakistani teenager who was shot at point-blank range by Taliban extremists a year ago because she dared to speak up about her desire to go to school. She has made a remarkable recovery. She is in the U.S. now. I spoke with her a few days ago and we'll bring you a portion of that conversation a little later in the program.
But first, back to pressing matters in this country's politics. The United States is just days away from being unable to pay all of its bills and most government functions are still shut down. There are hints that an agreement is near, but either way, we were wondering if we are in a debt crisis now. Joining us to talk about this are Wall Street Journal economics reporter Sudeep Reddy. Also with us, Rana Foroohar. She's Time magazine's assistant managing editor for economics. Welcome back to both of you. Thank you both so much for speaking with us.
SUDEEP REDDY: Hi, Michel.
RANA FOROOHAR: Thank you.
MARTIN: Sudeep, as we are speaking to you now, we are fast approaching the deadline where Congress has to decide whether to hike the $16.7 trillion debt limit or the nation could - technically, the nation would be in default. So what would happen if this is not raised?
REDDY: If it's not raised, the United States will stop paying some of its bills and financial markets will probably go into the closest thing to panic we've seen since 2008. You're already seeing signs of that. Markets are preparing for a catastrophe. They're worried about a much more serious crisis than anything we've faced. And they're hoping that this will get resolved at the last minute as it usually does, but they're not betting anymore entirely that it will.
MARTIN: Rana, could you - now, obviously, you're in New York, which is, you know, a financial center, you know, of the country and one assumes that there's kind of a lot of awareness about that, but on practical terms, what will most people experience? Will people have - will people feel this actually in their own wallets? Rana?
FOROOHAR: Oh, I'm sorry. I was having trouble hearing you. Yeah, they will certainly feel it in their own wallets. And as a matter of fact, they already have. You can see consumer confidence has gone down. Business confidence is down, which means that companies are not spending, that has a dampening effect on employment. There are already estimates that the shutdown, so far, has shaved something like .3 percent off of growth this quarter. Of course, the situation gets more and more dire and the prognostications become more dire about what the result would be in terms of higher unemployment if we were to go over the debt ceiling and actually have a default. Now I do think that we have to caveat all of this by saying, though, that Thursday is not necessarily, you know, the cliff and once you're over it that's the end, you have another Lehman Brothers style event.
This is something that will roll out over days and weeks. There's actually a cushion of money in the Treasury. And so the Treasury does have a few more days after Thursday to pay bills. But of course every day you go over that debt ceiling, markets get more and more jittery. And you can see that in stock futures' prices.
MARTIN: Rana, stick with me here for a minute. There are those who argue that this is just the kind of tough love the economy needs. It's just like maxing out your own credit card. And if you've maxed out your own credit card, you just have to stop spending. Just stop charging. Is that - is that an appropriate analogy?
FOROOHAR: Well, you know, that's said in sort of two ways - I mean, on the one hand, people say, well, we've got to get our deficit in order, we've got this debt problem. The debt and the deficit are not even by a long shot our biggest economic problems right now. And what's ironic is that the deficit has actually been shrinking recently because of the sequester and because of all the fiscal cuts we've had from the last time we were in this situation in August of 2011.
I do think that you're probably going to have to see a stronger negative market signal in order for politicians to start to really feel the pressure and get their acts together and come towards a deal. I think it's interesting that that hasn't happened yet - and part of the issue here is that there is just a huge existential divide between Wall Street and Washington. You know, Wall Street cannot believe that there is this group of Republican politicians that are willing to sacrifice the economy for political gain. That's just something that the Street has a really hard time sort of coming to grips with. And I think you can see that psychic disconnect in the fact that we haven't seen more of a market reaction so far.
MARTIN: Sudeep, do you want to talk a little bit more about that, since you talk to a lot of these political folks all the time?
REDDY: They actually bring up the credit card analogy quite a bit. They feel like the United States government should be run like a family budget. That misses some very important facts. Primarily, that the United States government is the largest, most powerful government in the world and can borrow for a very long time. And people actually want to lend the U.S. government money. It is a safe haven in a crisis. Whenever you see any hint of fear in the market you see investors flooding into United States debt because that's the last thing you can trust in a crisis.
And that's one reason why you actually have interest rates go down in a crisis instead of - for the United States - instead of going up as you might see in some other countries. When you're the safe haven currency, you can borrow a lot longer. You have a lot more flexibility. The credit card analogy is useful to a point. If you've maxed out your credit card, if you've gone too far, if you feel like you could end up in bankruptcy down the road - you should start getting yourself on a payment plan. That's what these last three years have really been about. Talking about the longer run budget to try to maybe deal with the problems that we'll face a decade from now. But Rana's exactly right. The problem we have today is really weak economic growth. If we don't do something about that then whatever we do 10 years from now won't really matter.
MARTIN: If you're just joining us, we're talking about where we stand with the debt limit and also, you know, by extension, the government shutdown. Both of those issues seem to be wrapped up in the current kind of political discussions. Our guests are Sudeep Reddy. Wall Street Journal economics reporter. And Time magazine assistant managing editor for economics, Rana Foroohar.
Sudeep, Rana talked about kind of an existentialist distance between Wall Street - and I would say, by extension, kind of the business community and kind of the world of mainstream economics and the political leadership - at least the political leadership that's very invested in this fight. Do you see that as being true? I mean, why do you think that there's such a disconnect? I mean, traditionally people associated - at least in this era - the Republican party as being the party more closely tied to business and their priorities...
REDDY: That certainly has...
MARTIN: So why do you think that there's this disconnect?
REDDY: That certainly has traditionally been the case. What you're seeing today, and what you've been seeing since 2008, because of this incredibly weak economy - the weakest since the Great Depression, the slowest recovery we've had since World War II - people are looking at our government, at our economy and they see an existential threat to the nation. They are fighting this fight over the size and shape of government. And that's what the Tea party is all about.
That's what this new Republican base is all about. They see this as a fight to save the economy and save the country. And that's why they're so invested in it and saying, let's not look at the short-term gains of Wall Street, let's look at the big picture. What is too easy to forget - and nobody in America loves Wall Street unless you're around it and making money from it - what most people are seeing when they see Wall Street is they see lots of greed, they see lots of people making more money than they should be. And the lesson of 2008 though is that the financial system is the underpinning of the economy. And you saw these votes in 2008 where lawmakers would reject that premise and we're still dealing with the consequences. Billions of people's lives have been altered because of that decision and those decisions in 2008. And there is that disconnect. If you don't accept that the financial system is the underpinning of our economy then lots of bad things will happen.
MARTIN: Rana, there's also a school of thought that you should spend more during the time of recession, more. That the government should be spending more...
FOROOHAR: Yeah.
MARTIN: ...When their economy is slowing in order to stimulate that - that's kind of the, you know, operating economic philosophy in a number of other governments, you know, right now.
FOROOHAR: Sure.
MARTIN: To try to address this ongoing kind of economic stagnation. Does that point of view have any currency at all?
FOROOHAR: Oh, absolutely.
MARTIN: With the people you talk to, and why is it that it doesn't seem to have more force right now?
FOROOHAR: Well, it's a function of our partisan politics. I mean, if you looked at it, you know, particularly if you're sort of a liberal economist, that's absolutely the right way to look at things. That you want to spend. You want government to be a push - a sort of a push factor in the economy rather than a headwind. You know, if you stripped out all of the fiscal cutbacks in the government as part of the economy, you'd already be in a more robust recovery. Government, instead of helping, is actually hurting economy. So you can absolutely make that argument. The problem is that, you know, as we've seen time and time again over the last three years, we're in a situation where we're not having a discussion really about what's best for the economy.
We're having a very partisan, localized, political fight in Washington. And it really has nothing to do with what the best steps are for the economy. And I think it's fascinating - actually the point that Sudeep touched on - about how the Republican party is not necessarily the party of business anymore. I mean, when I talk to business leaders - CEOs around the country - their agenda is in some ways very much a left-leaning agenda. They want investment into infrastructure and education. They want the government to get over it and, you know, get Washington rolling again and stop having these every six months, every three months, debacles that cut our growth.
MARTIN: Sudeep, final thought from you. You know, there's been a lot of talk about how the recession in these past years - or at least the economic stagnation over the last couple of years has changed American families. It's changed people's thinking about what their priorities are. Some of their fiscal priorities - the way they spend money. Is there any sign that this current situation is kind of changing the way political leaders are thinking about the economy?
REDDY: Unfortunately, it's leading lawmakers to be more short-term in their thinking instead of long-term in their thinking. When you see this much pain and this much economic devastation around the country, the natural reaction is to want to do something immediately to help. That's one reason you have these battles about what can we do right now. If you talk to any economist who's dealing with countries around the world, they will always say the holy grail is coming up with structural changes. With coming up with changes to an economy that might take affect years down the line, maybe a decade down the line, but provide those very important signals of what's going to happen down the road and provide a stronger underpinning for the economy.
We've moved away from that because we are obviously in two-year election cycles and people are focused on that. And the pain is so severe, it's so raw, that it's leading people - lawmakers and their constituents - to think about what can we do right now and kind of push aside what you might be able to do that would be even more helpful down the line. If we had this discussion a few years ago, we'd obviously be better off.
MARTIN: Wall Street Journal economics reporter Sudeep Reddy was speaking just now. He was kind enough to join us in our Washington, D.C. studios. With us from the Time magazine studios in New York, Rana Foroohar. Assistant managing editor for economics for Time magazine. Thank you both so much for speaking with us.
REDDY: Thanks, Michel.
FOROOHAR: Thanks for having me.
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Illustration by Robert Neubecker
What makes you who you are genetically? The easy answer is your family. The longer answer begins with the fact that all humans have two parents (at least for now), and usually four distinct grandparents (there are unfortunate exceptions). Genetically you are a recombination of four separate individuals. But that does not mean you have an equal contribution from four separate individuals. Humans normally carry 23 pairs of chromosomes: 22 autosomal pairs and one pair of sex chromosomes, either two copies of the X for a female or an X and a Y in the case of males. By Mendel’s law of segregation you receive one copy of each pair from your mother (via the egg), and one copy from your father (via the sperm). This means exactly half of your genome derives from each parent.
Things begin to get more complicated going back two generations. One might think that of the 44 autosomal chromosomes you would receive 11 from each of the four grandparents. (For simplicity we’ll leave the sex chromosomes out for now. If you are a female, you receive one X from each parent, while if you are a male you receive an X from your mother and a Y from your father, who got it from his father.) But while the proportion of one’s inheritance from parents is fixed by exact necessity, the fraction from grandparents is governed by chance. For each of the chromosomes you inherit from a given parent, you have a 50 percent chance of gaining a copy from your grandfather and a 50 percent chance of gaining a copy from your grandmother. The laws of independent probability imply that there is a 1-1,048 chance that all of your maternal or paternal chromosomes could come from just one grandparent! What’s more, genetic recombination means that chromosomes aren’t purely from one grandparent or the other; during the cell divisions that produce sperm and eggs, chromosomes exchange segments and become hybrids. You almost certainly have different genetic contributions from your four grandparents.
But this is not just abstract theorizing. Imagine that you could know that 22 percent of the genome of your child derives from your mother, and 28 percent from your father. Also imagine that you know that 23 percent of the genome of your child derives from your partner’s mother, and 27 percent derives from your partner’s father. And you could know exactly how closely your child is related to each of its uncles and aunts. This isn’t imaginary science fiction, it is science fact.
Last year, I sent a sample of my then 2-month-old daughter’s genetic material to the firm 23andMe and received her results. As it happens I already had the genotype of my daughter’s mother, father, all her uncles and aunts, and all four of her grandparents. In other words, her full pedigree was already available when her results came back, and she was easily slotted into the bigger genomic family photo album. Not only do I know which proportions of her ancestry derived from each grandparent, I know which regions of her genome derive from each of her grandparents. For example, one grandmother is half Norwegian, so genealogically my daughter isone-eighth Norwegian. But I quickly calculated using diverse data sets of various nationalities that genomically she is somewhat more than one-eighth Norwegian. This is reasonable as 28 percent of her ancestry, according to how her DNA analysis matches up with the DNA of the rest of the family, happens to come from her half Norwegian grandmother.
One might think these sorts of facts are useful only for the sake of satisfying curiosity, but sometimes theoretical knowledge can be put to practical use. Last spring my wife asked our pediatrician about testing my daughter for a treatable autosomal dominant condition which I happen to exhibit. The physician’s reaction was straightforwardly paternalistic. She would not authorize the test because she believed our daughter was too young. This did not sit well with my wife. The mutated gene which causes my condition has been well characterized. My wife went home and quickly used one of 23andMe’s features to find out if my daughter inherited a copy of the gene through me from my mother or my father. My mother is affected by the same ailment as I am, while my father is not. The happy ending is that my daughter almost certainly does not have the condition, because she inherited that genetic region from my father. The bigger moral of the story is that decentralized genetic information can allow persistence to pay off.
All of this is a consequence of the fact that I have an obsession with genetics. But it is also contingent on the fact that for less than $500, you can send in a kit and receive back a record of 1 million genetic variants in short order. This would have been unfathomable just 10 years ago. Out of 3 billion base pairs in the entire human genome, 1 million may not seem like much, but the ones tested were chosen because they vary across the population, and they represent a substantial proportion of the variable genome. Much of the information is banal, trivial, and redundant. My eyes are dark brown, and those of my wife are blue. Therefore, you will not be surprised to learn that a quick check on variants that code for eye color predicts that my daughter will shake out to have a light brown shade (as a matter of fact her eyes are light brown or hazel).
A New York City police officer stands in front of the Victoria's Secret Herald Square store in midtown Manhattan, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2013, in New York. A security guard on the lookout for shoplifters searched two teenage girls as they left the lingerie shop Thursday afternoon, and discovered one of them was carrying what appeared to be a fetus in her bag, police said. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
A New York City police officer stands in front of the Victoria's Secret Herald Square store in midtown Manhattan, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2013, in New York. A security guard on the lookout for shoplifters searched two teenage girls as they left the lingerie shop Thursday afternoon, and discovered one of them was carrying what appeared to be a fetus in her bag, police said. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
Pedestrians pass by the Victoria's Secret Herald Square store in midtown Manhattan, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2013, in New York. A security guard on the lookout for shoplifters searched two teenage girls as they left the lingerie shop Thursday afternoon, and discovered one of them was carrying what appeared to be a fetus in her bag, police said. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
NEW YORK (AP) — A security guard on the lookout for shoplifters searched two teenage girls as they left a Manhattan lingerie shop Thursday afternoon and discovered one of them was carrying a fetus in her bag, police said.
The 17-year-old girls were shopping at a Victoria's Secret store in midtown Manhattan, said police, who were called to the scene after a guard noticed a strong odor coming from one of the bags and found the fetus. One of the girls told detectives she was carrying the human remains because she had delivered a day earlier and didn't know what to do, authorities said. It wasn't clear whether the fetus was alive or dead when delivered.
The girls were arrested on charges of petit larceny and criminal possession of stolen property, police said. The teen thought to have given birth was hospitalized, and the other was questioned by police. The medical examiner's office was performing an autopsy on the remains. More serious charges could follow, depending on the cause of death.
The person who answered the phone at the home of the girl believed to have given birth had no comment. No phone number was available at the address provided by police for the second teen.
The store remained open for business and was filled with customers from around the world. An NYPD crime scene unit spent a few hours gathering evidence inside the store before leaving shortly before 5 p.m. A single marked police car remained at the front entrance that faces Herald Square at 34th Street.
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-10-17-Teenage%20Girls-Human%20Remains/id-336f1a1c8f3d45859b452a7fb982386dCover of Afterlife with Archie #1.
Ready for your fair share of Halloween shakes and shivers, kiddies? Look no further than Afterlife with Archie, a new ongoing comic series that melds our eternal fascination with all things zombie apocalypse and one of the most enduring and successful comic icons of all time, Archie Andrews — and yes, it is actually scary.
That's right, the perma-teenagers in happy-go-lucky Riverdale find their comforting and idealized existence invaded by ... undead hordes. Can these archetypal clean-cut kids survive? Here's the setup:
Reggie Mantle runs over Jughead's fluffy pup Hot Dog. (Of course Reggie started it!) Jughead takes Hot Dog to Sabrina the teen witch, who using the Necronomicon and channeling Pet Sematary, brings him back to life. (And messes it up, 'cause that's what she does!) Hot Dog bites Jughead, who ends up consuming victims at the Halloween Dance. (He is always hungry!)
Meanwhile sexy nurse Betty and even more sexy Vampirella — or "Vampironica," as Betty calls her, after Veronica calls Betty "Florence Nightinghag" — are too busy sniping at each other over costume choices to notice. (Naturally!)
What follows is a five-story arc called "Escape from Riverdale" that will see the surviving members of the gang leave home for the first time in 72 years. Terrific pop-culture horror references (or reverences) in dialogue and art are on every page, plus a dark humor that conjures classic Tales from the Crypt.
This new macabre monthly masterpiece is penned by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, who cut his teeth on horror fare and Archie comics. You might know him as the writer of the upcoming Carrie remake, or for his comic adaptation of Stephen King's The Stand. Less well known — but perhaps more relevant — is his graduate school play, originally called Archie Loves Nathan, in which Archie became college roommates with a real-life monster, Nathan Leopold (of Leopold and Loeb infamy). Afterlife is drawn by Francesco Francavilla, known for his dramatically-lit, moody creations, notably in Detective Comics. This creative combo alone put Afterlife on several most anticipated comics lists; in fact, the first issue sold out in five hours.
While Afterlife marks a lot of firsts for Archie Comics — first horror book, first teen rating — it really is the latest in a chain of successful innovations that's kept Archie on top of the mass market heap, with 2 billion comics sold in several different languages.
Did I just hear a record scratch in the minds of legions of comics readers who find the only thing enduring about Archie Andrews is his eternal squareness? Feeling smug, are you? But consider: in hairstyles, clothes, technology (there will be blood texting), Archie isn't as static as you remember.
Yes, Archie Comics keeps its core titles pristine, but it's also kept up with the times, introducing the out-and-proud character Kevin Keller along with audience-expanding mashups and alternative storylines like Archie Gets Married and Afterlife with Archie.
Remember too, your younger self had different sensibilities. 60% of Archie readers are tween girls, average starting age: nine. Since I happen to know a 9-year-old girl, Lilah, who loves Archie, I asked her what gives. "It's fun to read when I have nothing to do. Jughead is funny and all he thinks about is eating. And I like dogs. So Hot Dog is my favorite."
Dear reader, you know what I had to do. Don't hate me, don't try this at home — and don't come after me, Crypt-Keeper! But I had to ask: What did she think of Afterlife? "I really, really liked it. It was a cliffhanger. I did have a nightmare about zombies but that's just cause I read it a second time at night and it was dark so it was more scary."
Which leads me to a last reason you need to read this book if an Archie horror title wasn't on your list. The kids are going find and consume it. Why not do it together?
