| Why the old shoe retailers are on their uppers
When John Sears set up a small shoe manufacturing business in a Northampton workshop in 1891 he could have had no idea of the monster his business would become. His humble enterprise went on to become the kernel of Sears, the vast conglomerate that encompassed ship building, the Selfridges department store, William Hill bookmakers and the Mappin & Webb jewellery chain. At its zenith in the 1980s, Sears's footwear division - the grandly titled British Shoe Corporation (BSC) - accounted for one in four pairs of shoes sold in Britain. The BSC's Saxone, Freeman Hardy & Willis, Dolcis, Trueform and Manfield chains were staples of every British high street. Their combined 2,000 branches specialised in selling comfortable, sensible, fairly priced footwear to families from Newquay to Newcastle.
Q&A with WEC vice president Peter Dropick
World Extreme Cagefighting made tremendous strides in 2007 in its first full year under the ownership of Zuffa, which is also the parent company of the UFC. Under Zuffa's guidance, the WEC upgraded its television deal from HDNet's reach of six million homes to Versus, which is currently available in 77 million. The promotion also imported several stars from the ill-fated World Fighting Alliance, a fight organization Zuffa acquired select assets from in December 2006. .
Recession–Who Cares?
Firms Increasingly Add Part-Time Workers; Spending Power Lags." The US, where consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of the economy compared to a little more than half in Japan, is even more vulnerable to a downturn in personal consumption. What is this fixation on growth anyway? As a general rule of biological survival, any creature or entity that depends on perpetual growth is well worth avoiding, lest you be eaten alive. As Bill McKibben argues in his book Deep Economy, the "cult of growth" has led to global warming, ghastly levels of pollution, and diminishing resources. Tumors grow, at least until they kill their hosts; economies ought to be sustainable. Apocalypse aside, the mantra of growth has deceived us for far too long. What it translates into is: Don't worry about the relative size of your slice, just concentrate on growing the pie! Now, with a recession threatening even more suffering for those who are already struggling, may be the perfect time to get out the pie-cutter again.
May 2006
A glance across the landscape shows how conditions are ripe for the birth of this new industry. Renewable energy is now part of the curriculum of both vocational tech schools on the Cape, at Cape Cod Community College, the Massachusetts Maritime Academy and the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth.The people who would build and maintain offshore wind turbines and the wide array of renewable technologies won't have to come from elsewhere -- they're already here. More importantly, these same people won't be leaving Cape Cod and New England for brighter opportunities elsewhere, as they've done for years. Political conditions are favorable as well. The state's Renewable Portfolio Standard mandates at least 2 percent of electricity from renewable sources this year, and the mandate grows a half-percentage point annually.
dear prudence
Our father rejected us for his gold-digger wife. Is there anything we can do?posted Jan. 24, 2008Conduct UnbecomingPolitical correctness is over the top at my job. What can I do about it?posted Jan. 17, 2008Dogs of WarsWhen pooches and partnerships don't quite mix.posted Jan. 10, 2008Hairy SituationMy future mother-in-law wants to laser off my body hair. How do I get out of this?posted Jan. 3, 2008Oh, the Letters You WriteWhich Dear Prudence columns most riled and inspired you.Emily Yoffeposted Dec. 27, 2007Search for more dear prudence articlesSubscribe to the dear prudence RSS feedView our complete dear prudence archive .
On the road again: Barrie and Linda Mann visit Graceland
Elvis has not left the building, at least not here in Graceland, his home in Memphis, TN when he was alive and entertaining the world with his music. Our trip has taken us to Memphis and we have decided to spend a day and visit Graceland. There are many things that a visitor to Memphis can enjoy. For example you can tour the Gibson Guitar factory, or stroll down Beale Street the home of the Blues, you can visit several museums such as the Memphis Pink Palace something that is a must see if you haven't seen it before, or the Mississippi River Museum plus a few more. But if you are to be in Memphis for just a short time and if you've heard of Elvis Presley (who hasn't?) then you must visit Graceland. Entering the ticket concourse the first thing you are faced with is making the decision on what tour you should take.
Jamestown: Contradiction in black and white
The settlement of Jamestown can be viewed as the beginning of a wonderful experiment in democracy in America or as the expansion of one of the world's greatest injustices.
Most historians view it as a bit of both.
Jamestown's pursuit of tobacco created wealth and allowed a nearly hopeless settlement to thrive. At the same time, the colony's need for tobacco labor allowed slavery to flourish, bringing suffering to countless Africans in what would become America.
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Pat's Beside the Point
Ohio State president Gordon Gee recently sent a note to his colleague at the University of Georgia, president Michael Adams. The note arrived shortly after Adams, the holder of two postgraduate degrees from OSU, had proposed a college football playoff system. ‘‘I told him we were going to take his degree away,’’ Gee said Thursday before speaking at the Akron Roundtable at Tangier. Gee's quip had a strong element of seriousness to it -- because Gee is dead set against a Division I football playoff and will do all he can to oppose it. ‘‘They will have to drag a college football playoff system out of my cold, dead hands,’’ Gee said. The words sound harsh, but Gee, a humorous, gregarious intellectual who always sports a bow tie, states his position matter-of-factly.
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