Sun Valley Online | Photos & Video | Arts, Music & Entertainment ...

Gail Severn Gallery artist Theodore Waddell, will have an artist chat on Saturday, February 18 at 10:00 am at Gail Severn Gallery. ?Come walk the gallery with Theodore as he discusses and fields questions about his latest work.

Idaho and Montana Rancher Theodore Waddell is an internationally recognized artist that has spent more than 50 years painting and sculpting his beloved western landscape full of horses, cattle and sheep - the icons of his life.

Waddell?s first exposure to painting was watching his father complete Paint by Numbers paintings.? He used small brushes and very small containers of paint.? This is the exact opposite of Theodore?s paintings. Waddell uses paint by the gallon, and he modifies brushes and trowels normally used for asphalt roofing. A gallery owner once joked that he should sell his paintings by the pound. Theodore?s love of the medium is evident even in his work on paper.

Waddell fills his canvases with endless combinations of colors, washes and sometimes wax. His impasto way of painting gives life to his canvases. The horses feel as though they could jump off the surface. Theodore walks the line of abstraction and realism while incorporating drawing as a fundamental armature.?

He is truly in love with painting - it is not just a means to an end.

In 1962 Waddell spent a year in New York, after being accepted for a Max Beckman Scholarship to the Brooklyn Museum of Art.? He was inspired by many of the great abstract expressionists and their influence can still be seen in his work today.? The marriage of abstraction, impressionism and realism blend in a magical combination in Waddell?s hands, challenging the common perception that all western American art is created in a realistic style.

Waddell?s work is featured in more than 50 Museum collections worldwide. ?

Museums across the country have been mounting solo exhibitions honoring Waddell?s illustrious career. Theodore?s ?Abstract Angus?, a major exhibition of more than 26 paintings and work on paper will open at the Denver Art Museum, May 20th, 2012 and run till the 18th of November.? One of the highlights of the exhibition will be an eight by thirty foot painting completed specifically for the show.? In addition to private and corporate collections, Waddell?s paintings are included in many U.S. State department buildings and US embassies in Europe and Asia.

Source: http://www.sunvalleyonline.com/2012/02/17/artist-chat-featuring-theodore-waddell-at-gail-severn-gallery

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Amnesty: Libyan militias commit war crimes

Armed militias now rule much of Libya, Amnesty International said Wednesday, accusing them of torturing detainees deemed loyal to the ousted regime of Moammar Gadhafi and driving entire neighborhoods and towns into exile.

Amnesty International quoted detainees as saying "They had been suspended in contorted positions; beaten for hours with whips, cables, plastic hoses, metal chains and bars, and wooden sticks and given electric shocks with live wires and taser-like electroshock weapons."

At least 12 detainees had died since September after torture, Amnesty said. "Their bodies were covered in bruises, wounds and cuts and some had had nails pulled off," the group said.

The report is a fresh blow to Libya's new government, the National Transitional Council, which helped lead the anti-Gadhafi uprising that broke out one year ago this week and spiraled into a brutal, eight-month civil war.

Since the war's end with the capture and killing of Gadhafi last October, the NTC has struggled to extend its control over the vast desert nation. It has largely failed to rein in the hundreds of brigades that fought in the war, many of which now run their own detention centers for those accused of links to Gadhafi's regime.

Amnesty said it visited 11 detention camps in central and western Libya in January and February, and found evidence of torture and abuse at all but one.

"Nobody is holding these militias responsible," Donatella Rovera, senior crisis response adviser at Amnesty International, told The Associated Press by telephone from Jordan on Wednesday, a day after she left Libya.

The U.N.'s top human rights official, and Amnesty International, have urged Libya's government to take control of all makeshift prisons to prevent further atrocities against detainees.

"There's torture, extrajudicial executions, rape of both men and women," U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said on Jan. 27.

Some 2,400 detainees remain held in centers controlled by the new Libyan government, but the militias are holding uncounted thousands more prisoners, Amnesty said. Most are in and around Tripoli and Misrata, the coastal city that saw some of the war's most brutal fighting, it said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross reported that from March to December 2011 it had visited over 8,500 detainees in some 60 detention centers.

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Amnesty International's delegation witnessed detainees being beaten and threatened with death at a detention center in Misrata.

In a Tripoli detention center, they found severely tortured detainees who interrogators tried to conceal, the group reported. It spoke to detainees held in and around Tripoli, Gharyan, Misrata, Sirte and Zawiya.

The humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders suspended its work in prisons in Misrata in late January because it said torture was so rampant that some detainees were brought for care only to make them fit for further interrogation and abuse.

Rovera accused the Tripoli-based national government of "a lack of political will. They're not willing to recognize the scale of the problem. It is way, way beyond individual cases. It's an irresponsible attitude," she said.

The militias were one of the keys to the rebellion that toppled Gadhafi's 42-year rule last year, but they are maintaining their independence from the National Transitional Council.

Hundreds of Libyan militias commemorated the anniversary of the anti-Gadhafi uprising this week by allying into a new unified military council.

Thousands of fighters from across western Libya held a mass parade in Tripoli on Tuesday, showing off heavy machine guns and rocket launchers and firing rifles in the air, an outburst that appeared intended as a warning to anyone who might stage attacks during the anniversary.

Some of the militia reprisals are against dark-skinned Libyans and African contract workers who the Gadhafis had brought in for jobs ranging from construction to security and riot control, leading to attacks on so-called "mercenaries" during the uprising.

"African migrants and refugees are also being targeted and revenge attacks are being carried out," Amnesty said. "Entire communities have been forcibly displaced and authorities have done nothing to investigate the abuses and hold those responsible to account."

The violence took on an ethnic twist. "It's hunting down 'the other,'" Rovera told the AP. "They're wreaking havoc in the community."

Amnesty said that militias from Misrata "drove out the entire population of Tawargha, some 30,000 people, and looted and burned down their homes in revenge for crimes some Tawargha are accused of having committed during the conflict."

"Thousands of members of the Mashashya tribe were similarly forced out of their village by militias from Zintan, in the Nafusa Mountains. These and other communities remain displaced in makeshift camps around the country," Amnesty said.

Amnesty called for Western pressure on the Libyan government and militias.

Rovera said that from the United States to Europe, "There are a lot of countries and governments seeking contracts in Libya, so there's no shortage of contacts" that the West can use.

Europe, the U.S. and NATO "should tell them things as they are ? the time for 'wait and see' has run out," Rovera told the AP.

___

Online:

www.amnestyusa.org

http://www.amnestyusa.org/research/reports/militias-threaten-hope-for-new-libya

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46404916/ns/us_news/

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Video: Stocks Flirt with 13,000

Discussing the upward trend in the market and whether the Dow is within 14,000 striking range, with Rebecca Patterson, JPMorgan Asset Management; Mike Holland, Holland & Company; and Michael Farr, Farr, Miller & Washington.

Related Links:

Business & financial news headlines from msnbc.com

Top of page

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/46421460/

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Afghan govt asks for headscarves, less make-up on TV (Reuters)

KABUL (Reuters) ? An Afghan government request that female television presenters don headscarves and avoid heavy make-up angered journalists on Tuesday, who said the move was proof authorities expected the Taliban to regain a share of power.

Afghan and U.S. officials have been seeking peace negotiations with the Islamist group ousted over a decade ago as a means to ensure stability after foreign combat troops leave, though the talks are in a very fragile state.

In a letter distributed to media, the Ministry of Culture and Information said it had received complaints from members of parliament and families that female news presenters were not observing Islamic and cultural ethics.

"All female news presenters must avoid heavy make-up and wear a headscarf," Minister Sayed Makhdoom Rahin told Reuters by telephone, adding this applied to state and private TV stations.

The ministry's plea came as a surprise to some Afghan media. All female anchors appear with their heads covered, sparking suggestions the directive was designed to impress the Taliban by pandering to their ultra-conservative views.

"Since we are at the beginning of serious peace and reconciliation talks, the government wants to show they are like the Taliban," said Zarghoona Roshan, a radio journalist for 10 years before she joined media development group Nai.

"The request itself is useless," Roshan added, adjusting her two-toned black and grey headscarf. Nai, which also tracks media infringements, estimates there are around 120 female TV presenters across the country.

Nai's executive director Abdul Mujeeb Khalvatgar said the government had been piling pressure over the past year to restrict content and "keep the public away from the facts they need.

"We have concerns, fears, that this pressure is the beginning of media limitation and this is because of the Taliban. They are paving the way for them," he said.

Khalvatgar cited numerous examples of pressure on the press over the last year, including throwing acid on a veteran Afghan journalist and preventing a Turkish soap opera from being aired.

While Afghan women have gained back basic rights in education, voting and work since the Taliban was toppled in 2001, their plight remains severe and future uncertain as Afghan and U.S. officials seek to negotiate with the hardline group.

As the 2014 deadline looms for foreign combat troops to return home, some activists in and outside Afghanistan fear that women's rights may be sacrificed in the scramble to ensure the West leaves behind a relatively stable and peaceful state.

U.S. officials said last week they wanted to accelerate the talks so peace negotiations can be announced at a NATO summit in May. The Taliban's announcement last month that it was opening a political office in Qatar was seen as a prelude to peace talks.

(Additional reporting by Hamid Shalizi; Editing by Ron Popeski)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/oddlyenough/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120215/od_nm/us_afghanistan_headscarves_tv

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Inside Matthew McConaughey's Tony New Texan Estate - Celebrity ...

--> Wednesday, February 15, 2012, by Sarah Firshein Photos via Zillow Blog

Chilled-out ?ber-celebrity Matthew McConaughey has reportedly scooped up a nine-acre estate near Austin. The 10,000-square-foot Spanish Med-style mansion was built in 1997 in the style of midcentury architect Addizon Mizner, has seven bedrooms, eight bathrooms, a carved wood staircase, a two-island kitchen, tiled floors throughout, an elevator, verandas, terraces, pergolas, a courtyard with a water fountain, a stone guesthouse with its own covered porch, and seven boat slips on the lake. According to a tipster, that McConaughey has already moved with his supermodel fianc?e Camila Alves has not deterred neighborhood soccer moms, many of whom have been jogging by the house in hopes of catching the actor doing yoga, say, shirtless on the front lawn. (As he's known to do these days.) About what he paid: the property was originally listed for close to $7M but it had been PriceChopped to some $4M by Nov. 2010 and then taken off the market last month?it's likely that it closed for somewhere near the low end of the spectrum.

? Your Mama Hears... [The Real Estalker]

Source: http://curbed.com/archives/2012/02/15/inside-matthew-mcconaugheys-tony-new-texan-estate.php

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What is difference between Mortgage Insurance and Homeowners ...

Thanks.
So are you saying that with the mortgage insurance?if I die?my house is paid for. My wife can live in it and not pay mortgage?

Chosen Answer:

Mortgage life insurance is limited life insurance that pays off the loan balance if you die.

Private mortgage insurance (PMI) or FHA mortgage insurance protects the lender if the borrower defaults on the loan.

Homeowner insurance consists of liability and property protection.

Totally different things. Which kind are you talking about?
by: rotflol
on: 20th September 08

Source: http://unoccupied-propertyinsurance.com/what-is-difference-between-mortgage-insurance-and-homeowners-insurance/

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Pop queen Whitney Houston dies on eve of Grammys (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? Whitney Houston, who ruled as pop music's queen until her majestic voice was ravaged by drug use and her regal image was tarnished by erratic behavior and a tumultuous marriage to singer Bobby Brown, has died on the eve of the Grammy Awards she once reigned. She was 48.

Beverly Hills police Lt. Mark Rosen said Houston was pronounced dead Saturday afternoon in her room on the fourth floor of the Beverly Hilton. "There were no obvious signs of any criminal intent," Rosen said.

A Los Angeles County coroner's official said early Sunday that her body had been taken to a morgue. Houston's publicist, Kristen Foster, said the cause of death was unknown.

Rosen said police received a 911 call from hotel security about Houston. Paramedics who were already at the hotel because of a Grammy party were not able to resuscitate her, he said.

Houston's death came on the night before music's biggest showcase, the Grammys. She will be remembered Sunday in a tribute by Jennifer Hudson, organizers said.

Her longtime mentor, Clive Davis, went ahead with his annual concert at the same hotel where her body was found. He dedicated the evening to her and asked for a moment of silence as a photo of the singer, hands wide open, looking to the sky, appeared on the screen.

Houston was supposed to appear at the gala, and Davis had told The Associated Press that she would perhaps perform: "It's her favorite night of the year ... (so) who knows by the end of the evening," he said.

Houston had been at rehearsals for the show Thursday, coaching singers Brandy and Monica, according to a person who was at the event but was not authorized to speak publicly about it. The person said Houston looked disheveled, was sweating profusely and liquor and cigarettes could be smelled on her breath.

Two days ago, she performed at a pre-Grammy party with singer Kelly Price. Singer Kenny Lattimore hosted the event, and said Houston sang the gospel classic "Jesus Loves Me" with Price, her voice registering softly, not with the same power it had at its height.

Lattimore said Houston was gregarious and was in a good mood, surrounded by friends and family, including daughter Bobbi Kristina.

"She just seemed like she was having a great night that night," said Lattimore, who said he was in shock over her death.

Aretha Franklin, her godmother, also said she was stunned.

"I just can't talk about it now," Franklin said in a short statement. "It's so stunning and unbelievable. I couldn't believe what I was reading coming across the TV screen."

The Rev. Al Sharpton said he would call for a national prayer Sunday morning during a service at Second Baptist Church in Los Angeles.

"The morning of the Grammys, the world should pause and pray for the memory of a gifted songbird," Sharpton said in a statement.

In a statement, Recording Academy President and CEO Neil Portnow said Houston "was one of the world's greatest pop singers of all time who leaves behind a robust musical soundtrack spanning the past three decades."

At her peak, Houston was the golden girl of the music industry. From the mid-1980s to the late 1990s, she was one of the world's best-selling artists. She wowed audiences with effortless, powerful and peerless vocals rooted in the black church but made palatable to the masses with a pop sheen.

Her success carried her beyond music to movies, where she starred in hits like "The Bodyguard" and "Waiting to Exhale."

She had the perfect voice and the perfect image: a gorgeous singer who had sex appeal but was never overtly sexual, who maintained perfect poise.

She influenced a generation of younger singers, from Christina Aguilera to Mariah Carey, who when she first came out sounded so much like Houston that many thought it was Houston.

But by the end of her career, Houston became a stunning cautionary tale of the toll of drug use. Her album sales plummeted and the hits stopped coming; her once serene image was shattered by a wild demeanor and bizarre public appearances. She confessed to abusing cocaine, marijuana and pills, and her once pristine voice became raspy and hoarse, unable to hit the high notes as she had during her prime.

"The biggest devil is me. I'm either my best friend or my worst enemy," Houston told ABC's Diane Sawyer in an infamous 2002 interview with then-husband Brown by her side.

It was a tragic fall for a superstar who was one of the top-selling artists in pop music history, with more than 55 million records sold in the United States alone.

She seemed to be born into greatness. In addition to being Franklin's goddaughter, she was the daughter of gospel singer Cissy Houston and the cousin of 1960s pop diva Dionne Warwick.

Houston first started singing in the church as a child. In her teens, she sang backup for Chaka Khan, Jermaine Jackson and others, in addition to modeling. It was around that time when music mogul Clive Davis first heard Houston perform.

"The time that I first saw her singing in her mother's act in a club ... it was such a stunning impact," Davis told "Good Morning America."

"To hear this young girl breathe such fire into this song. I mean, it really sent the proverbial tingles up my spine," he added.

Before long, the rest of the country would feel it, too. Houston made her album debut in 1985 with "Whitney Houston," which sold millions and spawned hit after hit. "Saving All My Love for You" brought her her first Grammy, for best female pop vocal. "How Will I Know," "You Give Good Love" and "The Greatest Love of All" also became hit singles.

Another multiplatinum album, "Whitney," came out in 1987 and included hits like "Where Do Broken Hearts Go" and "I Wanna Dance With Somebody."

The New York Times wrote that Houston "possesses one of her generation's most powerful gospel-trained voices, but she eschews many of the churchier mannerisms of her forerunners. She uses ornamental gospel phrasing only sparingly, and instead of projecting an earthy, tearful vulnerability, communicates cool self-assurance and strength, building pop ballads to majestic, sustained peaks of intensity."

Her decision not to follow the more soulful inflections of singers like Franklin drew criticism by some who saw her as playing down her black roots to go pop and reach white audiences. The criticism would become a constant refrain through much of her career. She was even booed during the "Soul Train Awards" in 1989.

"Sometimes it gets down to that, you know?" she told Katie Couric in 1996. "You're not black enough for them. I don't know. You're not R&B enough. You're very pop. The white audience has taken you away from them."

Some saw her 1992 marriage to former New Edition member and soul crooner Bobby Brown as an attempt to respond to those critics. It seemed to be an odd union; she was seen as pop's pure princess while he had a bad-boy image and already had children of his own. (The couple had one daughter, Bobbi Kristina, born in 1993.) Over the years, he would be arrested several times, on charges including DUI and failure to pay child support.

But Houston said their true personalities were not as far apart as people may have believed.

"When you love, you love. I mean, do you stop loving somebody because you have different images? You know, Bobby and I basically come from the same place," she told Rolling Stone in 1993. "You see somebody, and you deal with their image, that's their image. It's part of them, it's not the whole picture. I am not always in a sequined gown. I am nobody's angel. I can get down and dirty. I can get raunchy."

Brown was getting ready to perform at a New Edition reunion tour in Southaven, Miss., as news spread about Houston's death. The group went ahead with its performance, though Brown appeared overcome with emotion when his voice cracked at the beginning of a ballad and he left the stage.

Before his departure, he told the sell-out crowd: "First of all, I want to tell you that I love you all. Second, I would like to say, I love you, Whitney. The hardest thing for me to do is to come on this stage."

Brown said he decided to perform because fans had shown their loyalty to the group for more than 25 years. During an intermission, one of Houston's early hits, "You Give Good Love," played over the speakers. Fans stood up and began singing along.

It would take several years for the public to see the "down and dirty" side of Houston. Her moving 1991 rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" at the Super Bowl, amid the first Gulf War, set a new standard and once again reaffirmed her as America's sweetheart.

In 1992, she became a star in the acting world with "The Bodyguard." Despite mixed reviews, the story of a singer (Houston) guarded by a former Secret Service agent (Kevin Costner) was an international success.

It also gave her perhaps her most memorable hit: a searing, stunning rendition of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You," which sat atop the charts for weeks. It was Grammy's record of the year and best female pop vocal, and the "Bodyguard" soundtrack was named album of the year.

She returned to the big screen in 1995-96 with "Waiting to Exhale" and "The Preacher's Wife." Both spawned soundtrack albums, and another hit studio album, "My Love Is Your Love," in 1998, brought her a Grammy for best female R&B vocal for the cut "It's Not Right But It's Okay."

But during these career and personal highs, Houston was using drugs. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2009, she said by the time "The Preacher's Wife" was released, "(doing drugs) was an everyday thing. ... I would do my work, but after I did my work, for a whole year or two, it was every day. ... I wasn't happy by that point in time. I was losing myself."

In the interview, Houston blamed her rocky marriage to Brown, which included a charge of domestic abuse against Brown in 1993. They divorced in 2007.

Houston would go to rehab twice before she would declare herself drug-free to Winfrey in 2009. But in the interim, there were missed concert dates, a stop at an airport due to drugs, and public meltdowns.

She was so startlingly thin during a 2001 Michael Jackson tribute concert that rumors spread she had died the next day. Her crude behavior and jittery appearance on Brown's reality show, "Being Bobby Brown," was an example of her sad decline. Her Sawyer interview, where she declared "crack is whack," was often parodied. She dropped out of the spotlight for a few years.

Houston staged what seemed to be a successful comeback with the 2009 album "I Look To You." The album debuted on the top of the charts, and would eventually go platinum.

Things soon fell apart. A concert to promote the album on "Good Morning America" went awry as Houston's voice sounded ragged and off-key. She blamed an interview with Winfrey for straining her voice.

A world tour launched overseas, however, only confirmed suspicions that Houston had lost her treasured gift, as she failed to hit notes and left many fans unimpressed; some walked out. Canceled concert dates raised speculation that she may have been abusing drugs, but she denied those claims and said she was in great shape, blaming illness for cancellations.

Houston was to make her return to film in the remake of the classic movie "Sparkle." Filming on the movie, which stars former "American Idol" winner Jordin Sparks, recently wrapped.

Simon Cowell told CNN's Piers Morgan on Saturday night that he had been considering Houston as a possible judge on the U.S. version of his talent competition, "The X Factor."

"She would have been the ultimate, ultimate mentor to any contestant coming on the show," Cowell said.

___

Associated Press writers Andrew Dalton in Los Angeles and Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tenn., contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120212/ap_en_mu/us_obit_whitney_houston

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JFK intern recounts long-ago affair in new book

In this Feb. 10, 2012 photo, Mimi Alford, author of "Once Upon a Secret: My Affair with President John F. Kennedy and its Aftermath," poses for a photograph, in New York. In her book, she writes of her first encounter as a naive teenager, and her ?varied and fun? sex life with Kennedy, who she always called Mr. President. (AP Photo/Tina Fineberg)

In this Feb. 10, 2012 photo, Mimi Alford, author of "Once Upon a Secret: My Affair with President John F. Kennedy and its Aftermath," poses for a photograph, in New York. In her book, she writes of her first encounter as a naive teenager, and her ?varied and fun? sex life with Kennedy, who she always called Mr. President. (AP Photo/Tina Fineberg)

In this Feb. 10, 2012 photo, Mimi Alford, author of "Once Upon a Secret: My Affair with President John F. Kennedy and its Aftermath," poses for a photograph, in New York. In her book, she writes of her first encounter as a naive teenager, and her ?varied and fun? sex life with Kennedy, who she always called Mr. President. (AP Photo/Tina Fineberg)

In this Feb. 10, 2012 photo, Mimi Alford, author of "Once Upon a Secret: My Affair with President John F. Kennedy and its Aftermath," poses for a photograph, in New York. In her book, she writes of her first encounter as a naive teenager, and her ?varied and fun? sex life with Kennedy, who she always called Mr. President. (AP Photo/Tina Fineberg)

In this Feb. 10, 2012 photo, Mimi Alford, author of "Once Upon a Secret: My Affair with President John F. Kennedy and its Aftermath," poses for a photograph, in New York. In her book, she writes of her first encounter as a naive teenager, and her ?varied and fun? sex life with Kennedy, who she always called Mr. President. (AP Photo/Tina Fineberg)

(AP) ? Mimi Alford was terrified in 1998 when the Monica Lewinsky scandal turned the word "intern" into a dirty joke, exposing an affair with a president. Her decades-old secret about her trysts with John F. Kennedy was still safe then.

Outed in a 2003 biography and a New York newspaper account , Alford has learned to tell her story and not be ashamed of it ? from the moment she said Kennedy seduced her on her fourth day working at the White House until the affair ended shortly before his death.

In "Once Upon a Secret: My Affair with President John F. Kennedy and its Aftermath," published last week by Random House, she writes of her first encounter as a na?ve teenager, her "varied and fun" sex life with Kennedy, whom she always called Mr. President.

She was 19 and had no sexual experience when she first went to bed with Kennedy in his wife, Jacqueline's bedroom. It was June 1962.

"Short of screaming," she writes, "I doubt I could have done anything to thwart his intentions."

Nor did she want to thwart his intentions.

"I wouldn't describe what happened that night as making love," she writes. "But I wouldn't call it nonconsensual, either." Addressing people who have questioned the encounter, she said, "I don't consider it was rape. I have never considered it rape because I was willing."

The relationship continued, even after Alford had become engaged while attending college in suburban Boston, until Kennedy's 1963 assassination, she wrote.

The two raced rubber ducks in the bathtub; they had multiple sexual encounters, though he never kissed her; when he called her at her college dorm, he would use the code name Michael Carter, she wrote.

Her account seems "quite credible," said Robert Dallek, whose Kennedy biography made a passing reference to a college sophomore who was a favorite of the president's.

"This is how he operated," Dallek said. "He was a compulsive womanizer."

A lawyer for the Kennedy family did not respond to requests for comment over the weekend.

Writing the book was liberating, Alford said an interview last week in her publisher's midtown offices. Now 68, Alford was slim and elegant in a gray knit dress, gray pageboy hairstyle and pearl earrings.

She was Marion "Mimi" Beardsley when she arrived at the White House press office the summer after her freshman year at Wheaton College in Massachusetts, then an all-girls school.

The affair began during her summer internship and continued when she returned to Wheaton in the fall, she wrote. It continued while she dated and until a few months after her engagement to Tony Fahnestock, a senior at Williams. She was deep into wedding preparations when Kennedy was shot.

Overcome with grief, she confessed the affair to her fianc?. He told her never to breathe a word of it. She promised, fearful that the only alternative was to break off the engagement, and she largely kept the promise, telling only a trusted few. It took years for her to see the connection between her silence about the relationship and "the emotional shutting down" that had blighted much of her life.

"I needed to look at the secret and then look at the impact of having kept the secret for so long," she said.

Mimi and Tony Fahnestock divorced in 1991 and he died in 1993. Alford married again in 2005, to Dick Alford. Her two daughters from her marriage to Fahnestock are in their 40s, are mothers themselves and have supported her decision to write of her experience, she said.

The book took several years and multiple drafts. Alford supplemented her memory with research at the Kennedy Library, where she found her name on passenger logs from plane trips with Kennedy's entourage.

The story she tells is not always flattering to Kennedy or to Alford herself.

She felt no guilt, she wrote, with regard to the first lady, whom she never met.

"I do now," she said.

But at the time, "it wasn't as if I was trying to replace her or that the president was trying to replace her. I think I just went along. And so I didn't feel guilty. It's kind of embarrassing to say that."

Alford knows that readers may judge her harshly; "it doesn't frighten me," she said.

She describes Kennedy as "a kind and thoughtful man." And then, she tells stories of what she calls his darker side.

She says Kennedy once asked her to "take care of" his aide Dave Powers, who had served as the go-between facilitating the affair; she performed oral sex on Powers while Kennedy watched. The president later apologized to both of them.

On another occasion, she wrote, he asked her to do the same for his brother Teddy. She refused.

Then there was a party with a "fast Hollywood crowd" at Bing Crosby's house in Palm Springs, Calif., that she attended with the president. A guest offered yellow pills that she believed were poppers, or amyl nitrate, a drug often used to enhance sexual pleasure.

Kennedy asked her if she wanted to try one and she said no, but she said he popped the capsule and held it under her nose anyway.

"Within minutes of inhaling the powder, my heart started racing and my hands began to tremble," she writes. "This was a new sensation, and it frightened me. I panicked and ran crying from the room, praying that it would end soon."

Alford debated whether to share episodes like this, taking them out of the book and putting them back in. If she had excluded them, she said, "it would have felt like I was not telling the whole story."

When the affair with Kennedy was revealed in 2003 ? the Daily News of New York published her name ? Alford spent a few days holed up in her apartment with the media camped outside. Then they left and she started going to work and going grocery shopping again.

After interviews to promote "Once Upon a Secret," she expects to return to her quiet life once more.

"It's sort of like closing a chapter on that 18 months," she said, "and closing a chapter on keeping secrets."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-02-13-JFK%20Intern/id-1b9aea3533e2427095da5d0621ba2dbd

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What was Whitney Houston's best song?

By Gael Fashingbauer Cooper

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Singing superstar Whitney Houston has died at age 48, her publicist reported Saturday. Few details on the cause or circumstances of the singer's death were immediately available, though her life was troubled by drug use.

Whatever the facts of her death, fans are left with memories of some of the most stunning and powerful songs ever recorded by a female artist.

Here are some of the songs we will remember Houston by.

"Didn't We Almost Have It All?"

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"So Emotional"

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"How Will I Know?"

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"Greatest Love of All"

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"I Wanna Dance With Somebody"

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"Saving All My Love For You"

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"I Will Always Love You"

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And her famed version of the national anthem from the 1991 Super Bowl

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Take our poll and tell us which Whitney Houston song is your favorite. Remember Houston on our Facebook page.

What is your favorite Whitney Houston song?

Related content:

"I Will Always Love You"

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54.3%

(18,182 votes)

National anthem from 1991 Super Bowl

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14%

(4,676 votes)

"Greatest Love of All"

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11.1%

(3,698 votes)

"I Wanna Dance With Somebody"

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5.6%

(1,866 votes)

"Saving All My Love For You"

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4.8%

(1,620 votes)

"Didn't We Almost Have It All?"

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3.6%

(1,192 votes)

Other (please share in the comments)

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3.1%

(1,021 votes)

"How Will I Know?"

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2.6%

(861 votes)

"So Emotional"

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1%

(350 votes)

Source: http://entertainment.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/11/10384917-what-was-whitney-houstons-best-song

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A Couple of Smart Skiing Safety Practices to Remember This ...

There are millions of people who really like to ski. There aren?t too many things that can measure up to the enjoyment of rushing down the slopes and feeling the wind on your face. For many people, just staying up all the way down is a major accomplishment. That is why effective skiing safety tips are so important. This article talks about four safety tips you can use while you are skiing so that you can be safe and return to the slopes one day.

Millions of people around the world love getting away to enjoy their favorite skiing sport. Your family and friends will enjoy the scenes of nature on the mountain while relaxing and watching nature take it?s course. If you?ve been there, this is old news for you. If you?ve been there and done that you know just how risky it can be. After all the goal is to return having had fun and avoided injury. This article discusses a few important skiing safety tips that you should be aware of so you?ll always be able to enjoy this fabulous recreation.

Take lessons if you are new to the sport.

It?s important that you know your ability and remain completely honest about it. This information is important for your ski instructor to know in reality as opposed to perception. The reason this is important is so you?ll be able to benefit as much as possible from your instructor. Exaggerating your skills can put you in a situation that you don?t know how to handle. If you are asked to turn a certain way and you really don?t know what you are doing but you try it anyway you could end up injured. So even though it may not seem important, you should take it seriously because of the possibility for injury to yourself or others.

Pro ski shops near the mountain are lucrative investments when it comes to preparedness and area information from terrain to weather and then some.

Most trails and slopes are rated at any resort you might visit. These ratings were assigned by the ski pros at each particular location, and they do know what they?re talking about. It?s important for you to be familiar with the rating systems and avoid those above your skill level. Do not attempt a trail beyond your skill level. It is your responsibility to remember that you are likely not alone and the safety of those around you depends on your choices.

It is recommended that you get a buddy for skiing in desolate areas. If you don?t have someone else with you when you have an accident, this can put you in a dangerous situation. When you have a ski buddy, both of you can monitor the other as you are skiing. If you are in an desolate area, you really should get your plan together before you ski. Plan to meet your buddy at a specific point if you become separated. Most likely your cell phones will not work in the wilderness. You may want to consider a radio instead. In addition, you can tote tiny GPS devices and map out the coordinate of places to meet. No matter what, be sure to plan for possible scenarios.

You will no doubt run into those rude ski bunnies who just don?t care about the safety of others. There is however a code of ethics for skiers too that has a goal of keeping everyone as safe as possible. The special times are on the trails that are more narrow than others, and they can present special challenges when the mountain is crowded. It?s times like this when we need to be courteous and alert at all times.

It is not hard to have complete fun under any circumstance on the mountain. No doubt safety and implementation of proper methods is what makes this all possible for any age. Skiing is a fun activity enjoyed by many regardless of the inherent risk of injury. Safety first is important to keep you coming back for more.

Although thousands of people in the world have been enjoying the luxury of the ski slopes for years, it is still an activity that should be handled seriously because of its ability to inflict harm. This is why you must spend a few minutes brushing up on safety tips while you are becoming knowledgeable about skiing. It is not that hard to be knowledgeable about ski safety, and it might safe your or another person?s life.

Audrey likes writing about outdoors matters for web sites such as AlpineSkiingOnline.com, where you can go look at their collection of great snow sport gear manufacturers.

Source: http://articlesquadron.com/recreation-sports/a-couple-of-smart-skiing-safety-practices-to-remember-this-season

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