Findcate

When her teenage “daughters” on the United States team get all giggly and goofy in their dorm at the Athletes’ Village, America’s swimming mom is tempted to tell them to pipe down and chill out. “Then I have to remind myself that I was once them,” Dara Torres says.

Everybody else does, though, and more than a few skeptics find it odd that a woman in a speed race can be faster than she was when she was half her age. Torres knew there would be whispers about her doping when she made her comeback, seven years after she won five medals in Sydney. So she volunteered for Project Believe, a rigorous US Anti-Doping Agency program that subjects Torres to frequent testing.

It also has made her a figure of fascination, if not awe, among her younger teammates, most of whom weren’t alive when Torres competed in her first Games. “She’s like a cool mom who wants to hang out and bond with the team,” says Christine Magnuson.

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Editor’s note: The Hampton Union is periodically publishing book reviews this summer by Marston School students.

The humorous tale of “Clarice Bean Spells Trouble.” Tuesday’s hectic everyday life continues in book 2 in the Clarice Bean series created by Lauren Child.

Clarice Bean’s a horrible speller, and her rather annoying teacher, Mrs. Wilberton, has arranged for her to take part in a spelling bee. Clarice Bean is dreading it.

Fortunately, a school play is also about to happen at her school, and, with the help of her drama teacher, Czarina, Clarice Bean might be able to make her part interesting. Clarice Bean and her best friend, Betty Moody, are thrilled to take part in the performance.

But for Clarice Bean, everyday is an adventure, from getting in big trouble from Mrs. Wilberton (and the principal) to getting into a fight with Carl Wrenbury, to tolerating her younger brother, Minal Cricket, who can be quite an “earwig” (as Clarice Bean would put it).

Find out the answers to all these questions in “Clarice Bean.”

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Children’s librarian Judith Flint was getting ready for the monthly book discussion group for 8- and 9-year-olds on “Love That Dog” when police showed up.

They weren’t kidding around: Five state police detectives wanted to seize Kimball Public Library’s public access computers as they frantically searched for a 12-year-old girl, acting on a tip that she sometimes used the terminals.

Flint demanded a search warrant, touching off a confrontation that pitted the privacy rights of library patrons against the rights of police on official business.

“It’s one of the most difficult situations a library can face,” said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, deputy director of intellectual freedom issues for the American Library Association.

Investigators did obtain a warrant about eight hours later, but the June 26 standoff in the 105-year-old, red brick library on Main Street frustrated police and had fellow librarians cheering Flint.

But the investigation of Brooke Bennett’s disappearance wasn’t a Patriot Act case.

“We had to balance out the fact that we had information that we thought was true that Brooke Bennett used those computers to communicate on her MySpace account,” said Col. James Baker, director of the Vermont State Police. “We had to balance that out with protecting the civil liberties of everybody else, and this was not an easy decision to make.”

Brooke, from Braintree, vanished the day before the June 26 confrontation in the children’s section of the tiny library. Investigators went to the library chasing a lead that she had used the computers there to arrange a rendezvous.

Brooke was found dead July 2. An uncle, convicted sex offender Michael Jacques, has since been charged with kidnapping her. Authorities say Jacques had gotten into her MySpace account and altered postings to make investigators believe she had run off with someone she met online.

Flint was firm in her confrontation with the police.

Cybersecurity expert Fred H. Cate, a law professor at Indiana University, said the librarians acted appropriately.

A new Vermont law that requires libraries to demand court orders in such situations took effect July 1, but it wasn’t in place that June day. The library’s policy was to require one.

The librarians did agree to shut down the computers so no one could tamper with them, which had been a concern to police.

Once in police hands, how broadly could police dig into the computer hard drives without violating the privacy of other library patrons?

Baker wouldn’t discuss what information was gleaned from the computers or what state police did with information about other people, except to say the scope of the warrant was restricted to the missing girl investigation.

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The Howells recently announced they are having a retirement closing sale for Mud In Your Eye Pottery. They plan to close the business by Aug. 15 and move to Mexico, where Frank plans to open a small teaching studio.

The Howells opened Mud In Your Eye in 1971 in Los Gatos, Calif., before eventually moving it to Harris Avenue in Fairhaven during Ski to Sea weekend in 1996. Cate Howell believes it is the largest store of U.S.-made stoneware and porcelain pottery on the West Coast, with 200 different products and thousands of items on the shelves. They currently have 75 different artists bringing in products, and the Howells have worked with more than 500 artists over the years. The store also has a 600- square-foot studio where many of the products are made.

Mud In Your Eye Pottery is credited with helping rejuvenate the Fairhaven shopping district. When it opened at the west side of Fairhaven 12 years ago, that was an empty part of town that didn’t draw many people. Across the street, where Harris Square sits today, was an empty field.

The Howells have tried to sell the business for several years but without success. Cate Howell said they had trouble finding the right owner: Those with a strong art background didn’t want to devote the time required toward the retail side, while those with more of a business background were intimidated by the idea of selecting work that would sell.

Still, it’s been hard on longtime customers. On Thursday morning a steady stream of them came in to give Cate Howell a hug, asking about her plans.

As for making a mark on Fairhaven, Howell said they’ve been pleased with how things have turned out.

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In the past few months the young singer/songwriter has scrapped the recording sessions on her debut album, acquired a new band, moved house, seen the end of a long-term relationship and joined one of the coolest bands of the year.

But if anyone is capable of taking things in their stride it’s Le Bon, who is so laid back she should be prescribed on the NHS as a cure for stress.

When we met for a cup of tea in Cardiff Bay’s stylish Cantina Bar I was keen to find out how her debut album was coming along.

But rather than being a setback for Le Bon, that aborted effort has spurred her on and, earlier this week, she released her debut EP Edrych Yn Llygaid Ceffyl Benthyg, a five-track Welsh language offering of woozy, bluesy alt-folk.

“Recording the EP was a chemical reaction to the first attempt at the album going nowhere,” she says, distractingly picking up a red cushion, placing it on her lap and stroking it like Blofeld’s cat.

“It was quite an impromptu gathering at a friend’s parents’ house in Cardiff but, obviously, Gruff is a really talented songwriter with real musical integrity, so that was quite nerve-wracking.”

Since then Rhys has offered Le Bon numerous to-die-for platforms, including the support slot on his solo tour and a guest vocal on I Lust U, the first single from Stainless Style, the debut album from Rhys’ superb side project Neon Neon.

That inclusivity has extended to Le Bon joining the Neon Neon band as a bassist and backing vocalist for their upcoming summer tour, which lessens the rush for her to find a new home.

Le Bon has uprooted from her Cardiff base following the end of a long-term relationship and is currently bunking with her parents back in West Wales.

Her changing love life has also sunk a new seam of inspiration which has impacted on an album, which has the very loose working title of Pet Deaths.

But far from seeming emotionally delicate about the situation, Le Bon’s perspective is in serene check.

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Lopsided haircuts made popular by 1980s pop stars not only risk making those sporting them look silly but also go against the evolutionary process itself, according to a professor of mathematics.

Now Prof Marcus du Sautoy, of Oxford University, says that as well as being in questionable taste some of the more bizarre haircuts of the 1980s actually run counter to the path of evolution.

Over the centuries people have developed to find symmetry attractive but the decade remembered for yuppies, mullets and ra-ra skirts saw a host of stars choosing daring asymmetrical haircuts, which flies in the face of nature’s rules of attraction.

Prof du Sautoy, author of Finding Moonshine, a book about symmetry, will single out asymmetrical haircuts for particular criticism as the worst of the Eighties excesses at the Cheltenham Science Festival, which is sponsored by The Daily Telegraph.

Mike Score, the lead singer of Flock of Seagulls and a former hairdresser, had a lopsided hairstyle that has been copied, and parodied many times, most notably in a flashback episode of the American television sitcom Friends and his hair style has also been referred to in movies such as Pulp Fiction and The Wedding Singer.

But these go against nature’s key message that symmetry is beautiful, so the decade will never be stylish, concludes Prof du Sautoy.

“As a student in the 80s I was never attracted to the music of the likes of Flock of Seagulls or Human League. Now I know why. The maths just says all that asymmetry just adds up to a fashion disaster. In the natural world, symmetry is always an indicator of something significant it is there to attract attention’, says Prof du Sautoy.

This indicator of beauty is more than skin deep. ‘What this symmetry is really indicating’, he says. ‘Is that the individual has a good genetic heritage and is therefore a ‘good’ mate’.

Research at the University of Stirling shows that symmetry transcends racial and national boundaries: a lopsided face is less attractive to both Hadza hunter gatherers in Tanzania and Britons.

Whether or not an asymmetrical haircut can detract from natural facial symmetry has not been researched, but the message from nature is clear, he concludes: Eighties fashion should be consigned to history.

Make-up artists work with shadow and light to achieve facial symmetry as clients old and young alike ask to have the appearance of their eyes accentuated and cheeks to look flushed. Women’s lips are perhaps the least even or symmetrical aspect of the face and to create the appearance of fuller, symmetrical lips, the tools of our trade are lip pencils, lipsticks and glosses.”

Prof du Sautoy will be in discussion with TV Presenter and author Nicky Hambleton-Jones in the event entitled Beautiful Beings, at the Cheltenham Science Festival.

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“Chelsea Football Club can confirm we have terminated Henk ten Cate’s contract today,” the club announced on its website.

“As a result of the team management changes at Chelsea, and in the light of any forthcoming appointment, it was clear this was the correct decision for all parties.

“Everybody at Chelsea would like to thank Henk for his contribution since coming to the club last year.”

The Dutchman, who had a contract until 2010, was quoted by Dutch media only two days ago as saying he had been assured that his position was safe.

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A little more rugged and world-weary but still as handsome as when we were first introduced to him in The Raiders of the Lost Ark, Professor Henry “Indiana” Jones is back in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Now a card-carrying member of the AARP, things run a little more slowly and the over the hill jokes are a must. I was hoping that the film would capture the magic of the previous three, but alas, it did not.

indy.jpgMutt finds Indy on his way to London and tells him that Professor Oxley (John Hurt), a former classmate of Indy’s and friend of Mutt’s family, has gone missing down in South America on his search for a crystal skull. Mutt’s mom is down there and told her if she was in trouble to find Indy to help. Intrigued, Indy and Mutt venture down to Peru to find the two.

A college town chase scene ensues, followed later by a fun romp/chase through the jungles (reminiscent of the Endor speeder bike scene from Return of the Jedi). These are the elements most like the old Indy films.

While everyone, even myself, anticipated another Indiana Jones film after Last Crusade, I’m wondering now if the franchise was better left alone. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was, by far, my favorite film – with a far better story and a chemistry between Ford and Sean Connery that far surpasses the chemistry between Ford and LaBeouf.

It’s still a great popcorn flick, but so far Iron Man is the tops of my list of 2008 summer movies.

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John Terry’s bravery has brought him concussion, broken bones and painful wounds, but nothing as painful as the emotional trauma he suffered last night when, having stepped up to take the penalty that would have won the Champions League final, the Chelsea captain slipped and shot wide, off a post. As the tears flowed stronger than the Russian downpour, he looked inconsolable. He was a man in grief.

Avram Grant, the Chelsea first-team coach, has a perspective on life because of the traumas his family suffered in the Holocaust, but even he was struggling to find the words to ease the pain of Terry, who was white with shock.

It is hard enough for any player to miss a penalty, but the pain can only have been heightened for Terry, brought through at Chelsea, their captain, their leader and a man who had been deeply hurt by three semi-final failures in the Champions League.

The sympathy will only heighten at the revelation that Terry was not meant to be among Chelsea’s first five takers and would not have been had Didier Drogba not been sent off for his gentle but idiotic slap of Nemanja Vidic, the Manchester United defender, in the second half of extra time.

“He was not supposed to be in the first five,” Henk ten Cate, the Chelsea assistant manager, said. “John stepped up when he wasn’t supposed to. It’s unbelievable it happens to him. He slipped. We practised penalties so much all last week and he was very confident. We were all very confident. Penalties is a lottery and we got the short straw.”

We associate the English with a woeful lack of nerve when it comes to penalty shoot-outs, but it appears that it is only in the national colours. Liverpool won the Champions League in Istanbul in 2005 from the spot and there was a high quality last night, including from those Englishmen such as Michael Carrick, Lampard, Owen Hargreaves and Ashley Cole.

Indeed, the only miss before Terry’s left ankle turned over, Beckham-style, and he slipped as he took the kick had been, remarkably, from Cristiano Ronaldo with United’s third effort. It was an awful penalty, his stuttering run confusing himself rather than Petr Cech. The Chelsea goalkeeper held his nerve and Ronaldo’s shot was saved by the Czech Republic player, diving to his right.

Edwin van der Sar knew that he had to pull off something special and he thought he had done so with Chelsea’s fourth, from Ashley Cole. “I had been close to one or two, especially that one,” he said. But it was not skill that thwarted Terry. “It is our luck that he slipped,” Van der Sar said. Sir Alex Ferguson, the United manager, felt a rush of good vibes at that moment. “The slip from Terry gave us an opening and I felt from there we were going to win it,” he said.

Anderson scored United’s first in sudden death, Salomon Kalou struck back for Chelsea. Then Ryan Giggs, on the night he broke Sir Bobby Charlton’s record of appearances, stroked his home to leave Nicolas Anelka needing to score to keep his team in it.

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Jupiter in Capricorn expands everything he touches, and today, shaking hands with the Taurus sun, our sense of well-being grows to the degree that we’re aligned with what it is we’re aiming toward. Sometimes meaningful accomplishment is a matter of goal-setting, but today it’s about asking for more. So where can you ask for more?

ARIES (March 21-April 19). There are those who love to provoke you — they can’t help themselves. You’re so much fun when you’re bothered. Decide not to take offense or get ruffled and they’ll stop. All they want is your attention anyhow.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20). The best help you can get comes from someone whose own interests coincide with your perfectly. Find the one who, by helping you out, is actually helping himself immensely.

GEMINI (May 21-June 21). Keeping the peace is easy when you understand the needs, wants, limits and talents of those around you. So getting along is mostly a matter of paying attention, and being curious about others — easy for you!

CANCER (June 22-July 22). If you are in a position where you need to move quickly to obtain or change something, you’ll wind up paying too much. The most patient person holds all of the power.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). Part of you is thinking about the future of a relationship as you make decisions. You’re generous because it feels right to you, but also because you want the other person to be as loyal as you are.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAY (MAY 12). Relationships grow closer this year. The enduring love of your supporters will be highlighted as you adventure on together. You’ll also have fun with new characters who are introduced to your inner circle. A business risk or a daring move on the job results in more money by June. Travel sparks your imagination in October. Cancer and Scorpio adore you. Your lucky numbers are: 4, 2, 1, 44 and 17.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). Work is demanding. The prize goes to the person who cares the most, or at least pretends to care the most. Higher-ups need validation and respect. They’ll look for it in your eyes.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23). Some of your core needs are not being met. It’s time to find new resources. When those close see that you’re serious about making a change, they just might step up with a new energy and eagerness.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21). You’re a private person, especially when it comes to your creativity. However, this is no time to hide out. Show and share what you can do.

A life lived on purpose is a magnet for love. This is especially true for Capricorns who are deeply fulfilled by identifying their calling, then pursuing that to the ends of the earth. He is doing this — fabulous! My concern is, Capricorns can approach finding a mate with ambition equal to climbing a K2, which can be problematic (and disappointing). Love flourishes in an atmosphere of lighthearted play.

However, he does have innate skills useful in a soul mate strategy. Just as every ambitious Capricorn envisions a picture of what success looks like before they achieve it, intentionality precedes manifestation. So just as your son masterfully intends his life achievements into being, I’d suggest he picture his life partner, write it down, followed by the other thing Capricorn does best — hold out for the best. And don’t forget to trust that love is in the stars.

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