Sunday Business Post

West Cork residence has streak of the poet Sunday Business Post West Cork residence has streak of the poet View Gallery. Built as a hotel in the late 1800s, Grove House was popular with artists and writers. A home which was once an artist's retreat frequented by George Bernard Shaw offers a respite for the creative ...

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West Cork residence has streak of the poet - Sunday Business Post

I see that my colleagues are referring to the new online Encyclopedia of Libertarianism as a Wikipedia for libertarianism. I suppose thats sort of true, in that its an online encyclopedia. But its not exactly Hayekian, as Jimmy Wales describes Wikipedia. That is, it didnt emerge spontaneously from the actions of hundreds of thousands of contributors. Instead, editors Ronald Hamowy, Jason Kuznicki, and Aaron Steelman drew up a list of topics and sought the best scholars to write on each one people like Alan Charles Kors, Bryan Caplan, Deirdre McCloskey, George H. Smith, Israel Kirzner, James Buchanan, Joan Kennedy Taylor, Jeremy Shearmur, Leda Cosmides and John Tooby, Norman Barry, Richard Epstein, Randy Barnett, and Vernon L. Smith, along with many Cato Institute experts. In that regard its more like the Encyclopedia Britannica of libertarianism, a guide to important topics by top scholars in the relevant field.

The Britannica over the years has published articles byAlbert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Marie Curie, Leon Trotsky, Harry Houdini, George Bernard Shaw, Bertrand Russell, Milton Friedman, Simon Baron Cohen, and Desmond Tutu. They may have slipped a bit when they published articles by Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Lee Iacocca. And particularly when they chose to me to write their entry on libertarianism.

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Is the Encyclopedia of Libertarianism like Wikipedia? - Cato Institute (blog)

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George Bernard Shaw, the third and youngest child, and only son, of George Carr Shaw (18151885) and Lucinda Gurly (18301913),was born on 26th July 1856 at 3 Upper Synge Street (later 33 Synge Street), Dublin. Shaw's father, a corn merchant, was also an alcoholic and therefore there was very little money to spend on George's education. George went to local schools but never went to university and was largely self-taught.

Shaw began work on 26th October 1871, when he was fifteen, as a junior clerk in a Dublin estate agency run by two brothers, Charles Uniacke and Thomas Courtney Townshend, at a salary of 18 a year. He later recalled that he worked in " a stuffy little den counting another man's money I enter and enter, and add and add, and take money and give change, and fill cheques and stamp receipts". He added that it was a "damnable waste of human life". According to his biographer, Stanley Weintraub: "While he performed his drudgery so conscientiously over fifteen months that his wages rose to 24." His parents moved to London and Shaw joined them in March 1876.

Shaw hoped to become a writer and during the next seven years wrote five unsuccessful novels. He was more successful with his journalism and contributed to Pall Mall Gazette. Shaw got on well with the newspaper's campaigning editor, William Stead, who attempted to use the power of the popular press to obtain social reform.

In 1882 Shaw heard Henry George lecture on land nationalization. This had a profound effect on Shaw and helped to develop his ideas on socialism. Shaw now joined the Social Democratic Federation and its leader, H. H. Hyndman, introduced him to the works of Karl Marx. Shaw was convinced by the economic theories in Das Kapital but was aware that it would have little impact on the working class. He later wrote that although the book had been written for the working man, "Marx never got hold of him for a moment. It was the revolting sons of the bourgeois itself - Lassalle, Marx, Liebknecht, Morris, Hyndman, Bax, all like myself, crossed with squirearchy - that painted the flag red. The middle and upper classes are the revolutionary element in society; the proletariat is the conservative element."

Shaw became an active member of the Social Democratic Federation (SDF), and became friends with others in the movement including William Morris, Eleanor Marx, Annie Besant, Walter Crane, Edward Aveling and Belfort Bax. In May 1884 Shaw joined the Fabian Society and the following year, the Socialist League, an organisation that had been formed by Morris and Marx after a dispute with H. H. Hyndman, the leader of the SDF.

George Bernard Shaw gave lectures on socialism on street corners and helped distribute political literature. On 13th November he took part in a demonstration in London that resulted in the Bloody Sunday Riot. However, he always felt uncomfortable with trade union members and preferred debate to action.

By 1886, Shaw tended to concentrate his efforts on the work that he did with the Fabian Society. The society that included Edward Carpenter, Annie Besant, Walter Crane, Sidney Webb and Beatrice Webb believed that capitalism had created an unjust and inefficient society. They agreed that the ultimate aim of the group should be to reconstruct "society in accordance with the highest moral possibilities". As Shaw pointed out: "Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not."

The Fabian Society rejected the revolutionary socialism of the Social Democratic Federation and were concerned with helping society to move to a socialist society "as painless and effective as possible". This is reflected in the fact that the group was named after the Roman General, Quintus Fabius Maximus, who advocated the weakening the opposition by harassing operations rather than becoming involved in pitched battles.

The Fabian group was a "fact-finding and fact-dispensing body" and they produced a series of pamphlets on a wide variety of different social issues. Many of these were written by Shaw including The Fabian Manifesto (1884), The True Radical Programme (1887), Fabian Election Manifesto (1892), The Impossibilities of Anarchism (1893), Fabianism and the Empire (1900) and Socialism for Millionaires (1901). Max Beerbohm, who did not share Shaw's socialist beliefs, described him as "the most brilliant and remarkable journalist in London."

Frank Harris appointed Shaw as drama critics for The Fortnightly Review. He also published long articles by Shaw including Socialism and Superior Brains. Harris described Shaw as "thin as a rail, with a long, bony, bearded face. His untrimmed beard was reddish, though his hair was fairer. He was dressed carelessly in tweeds... His entrance into the room, his abrupt movements - as jerky as the ever-changing mind - his perfect unconstraint, his devilish look, all showed a man very conscious of his ability, very direct, very sharply decisive."

Shaw supported women's rights, and in 1891 wrote: "Unless woman repudiates her womanliness, her duty to her husband, to her children, to society, to the law, and to everyone but herself, she cannot emancipate herself. It is false to say that woman is now directly the slave of man: she is the immediate slave of duty; and as man's path to freedom is strewn with the wreckage of the duties and ideals he has trampled on, so must hers be."

Beatrice Webb wrote in her diary: "Bernard Shaw is a marvellously smart witty fellow with a crank for not making money. I have never known a man use his pen in such a workmanlike fashion or acquire such a thoroughly technical knowledge of any subject upon which he gives an opinion. As to his character, I do not understand it. He has been for twelve years a devoted propagandist, hammering away at the ordinary routine of Fabian Executive work with as much persistence as Graham Wallas or Sidney (Webb). He is an excellent friend - at least to men - but beyond this I know nothing.... Adored by many women, he is a born philanderer. A vegetarian, fastidious but unconventional in his clothes, six foot in height with a lithe, broad-chested figure and laughing blue eyes. Above all a brilliant talker, and, therefore, a delightful companion."

Edith Nesbit was one of the many women who he tried to seduce. She wrote to a friend: "George Bernard Shaw... has a fund of dry Irish humour that is simply irresistible. He is a clever writer and speaker - is the grossest flatterer I ever met, is horribly untrustworthy as he repeats everything he hears, and does not always stick to the truth, and is very plain like a long corpse with dead white face - sandy sleek hair, and a loathsome small straggly beard, and yet is one of the most fascinating men I ever met."

Jack Grein was the founder of Independent Theatre. According to his biographer, John P. Wearing: "Grein's major achievement was establishing the Independent Theatre in London in 1891.... Grein endeavoured to stage plays of high literary and artistic value rejected by the commercial theatre or suppressed by the censor (whom the Independent Theatre circumvented by being a subscription society)." A great admirer of Henrik Ibsen his first production was Ghosts.

The following year Grein met Shaw. During a walk in Hammersmith Grein said he was disappointed that he had not discovered any good British playwrights. Shaw replied that he had written a play "that you'll never have the courage to produce". Grein asked to see the play. He later recalled: "I spent a long and attentive evening in sorting and deciphering it. I had never had a doubt as to my acceptance... But I could very well understand how little chance that play would have had with the average theatre manager."

Widower's Houses opened at the Royalty Theatre in Dean Street, Soho on 9th December, 1892. Michael Holroyd, the author of Bernard Shaw (1998), points out: "The novelty of Widowers' Houses lay in the anti-romantic use to which Shaw put theatrical clich. When the father discovers his daughter in the arms of a stranger, he omits to horsewhip him, but pitches into negotiations over the marriage - and these negotiations reveal a naked money-for-social-position bargin." According to Holroyd: "At the end of the performance, Shaw hurried before the curtain to make a speech and was acclaimed with hisses. At the second and final performance, a matinee on 13th December, he again climbed on to the stage and, there being no critics present, was applauded."

This was followed by other plays by Ibsen including The Wild Duck, Rosmersholm and The Master Builder. Shaw later wrote: "The Independent Theatre is an excellent institution, simply because it is independent. The disparagers ask what it is independent of.... It is, of course, independent of commercial success.... If Mr Grein had not taken the dramatic critics of London and put them in a row before Ghosts and The Wild Duck, with a small but inquisitive and influential body of enthusiasts behind them, we should be far less advanced today than we are."

In his pamphlets George Bernard Shaw argued in favour of equality of income and advocated the equitable division of land and capital. Shaw believed that "property was theft" and believed like Karl Marx that capitalism was deeply flawed and was unlikely to last. However, unlike Marx, Shaw favoured gradualism over revolution. In a pamphlet, that he wrote in 1897 Shaw predicted that socialism "will come by prosaic installments of public regulation and public administration enacted by ordinary parliaments, vestries, municipalities, parish councils, school boards, etc."

Shaw worked closely with Sidney Webb in trying to establish a new political party that was committed to obtaining socialism through parliamentary elections. This view was expressed in their Fabian Society pamphlet A Plan on Campaign for Labour.

In 1893 Shaw was one of the Fabian Society delegates that attended the conference in Bradford that led to the formation of the Independent Labour Party. Three years later Shaw produced a report for the Trade Union Congress (TUC) that suggested a political party that had strong links with the trade union movement.

In 1894 Frank Harris was sacked by Frederick Chapman, the owner of the The Fortnightly Review, for publishing an article by Charles Malato, an anarchist who praised political murder as "propaganda by deed". Harris now purchased The Saturday Review and once again appointed Shaw as his drama critic on a salary of 6 a week. Shaw later commented that was "not bad pay in those days" and added that Harris was "the very man for me, and I the very man for him". Shaw's hostile reviews led to some managements withdrawing their free seats. Some of the book reviewers were so severe that publishers cancelled their advertisements. Harris was forced to sell the journal for financial reasons in 1898. Michael Holroyd has argued: "There had been a number of libel cases and rumours of blackmail - later put down by Shaw to Harris's innocence of English business methods."

In January 1896 Beatrice Webb invited Shaw and Charlotte Payne-Townshend to their rented home in the village of Stratford St Andrew in Suffolk. Shaw took a strong liking to Charlotte. He wrote to Janet Achurch: "Instead of going to bed at ten, we go out and stroll about among the trees for a while. She, being also Irish, does not succumb to my arts as the unsuspecting and literal Englishwoman does; but we get on together all the better, repairing bicycles, talking philosophy and religion... or, when we are in a mischievous or sentimental humor, philandering shamelessly and outrageously." Beatrice wrote: "They were constant companions, pedaling round the country all day, sitting up late at night talking."

Shaw told Ellen Terry: "Kissing in the evening among the trees was very pleasant, but she knows the value of her unencumbered independence, having suffered a good deal from family bonds and conventionality before the death of her mother and the marriage of her sister left her free... The idea of tying herself up again by a marriage before she knows anything - before she has exploited her freedom and money power to the utmost."

When they returned to London she sent an affectionate letter to Shaw. He replied: "Don't fall in love: be your own, not mine or anyone else's.... From the moment that you can't do without me, you're lost... Never fear: if we want one another we shall find it out. All I know is that you made the autumn very happy, and that I shall always be fond of you for that."

Michael Holroyd has pointed out in his book, Bernard Shaw (1998): "Charlotte had an apprehension of sexual intercourse... Over the next eighteen months they seem to have found together a habit of careful sexual experience, reducing for her the risk of conception and preserving for him his subliminal illusions... Charlotte soon made herself almost indispensable to Shaw. She learnt to read his shorthand and to type, took dictation and helped him prepare his plays for the press."

Beatrice Webb recorded in her diary that Charlotte Payne-Townshend was clearly in love with George Bernard Shaw but she did not believe that he felt the same way: "I see no sign on his side of the growth of any genuine and steadfast affection." In July 1897 Charlotte proposed marriage. He rejected the idea because he was poor and she was rich and people might consider him a "fortune-hunter". He told Ellen Terry that the proposal was like an "earthquake" and "with shuddering horror and wildly asked the fare to Australia". Charlotte decided to leave Shaw and went to live in Italy.

In April 1898 Shaw had an accident. According to Shaw his left foot swelled up "to the size of a church bell". He wrote to Charlotte complaining that he was unable to walk. When she heard the news she travelled back to visit him at his home in Fitzroy Square. Soon after she arrived on 1st May she arranged for him to go into hospital. Shaw had an operation that scraped the necrosed bone clean.

Shaw's biographer, Stanley Weintraub, has pointed out: "In the conditions of non-care in which he lived at 29 Fitzroy Square with his mother (the Shaws had moved again on 5 March 1887), an unhealed foot injury required Shaw's hospitalization. On 1 June 1898, while on crutches and recuperating from surgery for necrosis of the bone, Shaw married his informal nurse, Charlotte Frances Payne-Townshend, at the office of the registrar at 15 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden. He was nearly forty-two; the bride, a wealthy Irishwoman born at Londonderry on 20 January 1857, thus a half-year younger than her husband, resided in some style at 10 Adelphi Terrace, London, overlooking the Embankment." Shaw later told Wilfrid Scawen Blunt: "I thought I was dead, for it would not heal, and Charlotte had me at her mercy. I should never have married if I had thought I should get well."

On 27th February 1900 the Fabian Society joined with the Independent Labour Party, the Social Democratic Federation and trade union leaders to form the Labour Representation Committee (LRC). The LRC put up fifteen candidates in the 1900 General Election and between them they won 62,698 votes. Two of the candidates, Keir Hardie and Richard Bell won seats in the House of Commons. The party did even better in the 1906 election with twenty nine successful candidates. Later that year the LRC decided to change its name to the Labour Party.

George Bernard Shaw wrote several plays with political themes during this period. These plays dealt with issues such as poverty and women's rights and implied that socialism could help solve the problems created by capitalism. Max Beerbohm was a great supporter of the work of Shaw. Although he did not share Shaw's socialist beliefs, but considered him a great playwright. He was especially complimentary about Man and Superman (1902), which he considered to be his "masterpiece so far". He described it as the "most complete expression of the most distinct personality in current literature".

Beerbohm also liked John Bull's Other Island (1904): "Mr Shaw, it is insisted, cannot draw life: he can only distort it. All his characters are but so many incarnations of himself. Above all, he cannot write plays. He has no dramatic instinct, no theatrical technique... That theory might have held water in the days before Mr Shaw's plays were acted. Indeed, I was in the habit of propounding it myself... When I saw John Bull's Other Island I found that as a piece of theatrical construction it was perfect... to deny that he is a dramatist merely because he chooses for the most part, to get drama out of contrasted types of character and thought, without action, and without appeal to the emotions, seems to me both unjust and absurd. His technique is peculiar because his purpose is peculiar. But it is not the less technique."

Major Barbara was first performed on 28th November 1905. The play completely divided the critics. Desmond MacCarthy told his readers: "Mr Shaw has written the first play with religious passion for its theme and has made it real. That is a triumph no criticism can lessen." The Sunday Times said that Shaw was "the most original English dramatist of the day". However, The Morning Post described the play as a work of "deliberate perversity" without any "straightforward intelligible purpose". Whereas The Clarion claimed it was an "audacious propagandist drama".

In 1912 Shaw began work on his play Pygmalion. His biographer, Stanley Weintraub, pointes out: "Although Shaw claimed that he had written a didactic play about phonetics, and its anti-heroic protagonist, Henry Higgins, is indeed a speech professional, what playgoers saw was a high comedy about love and class, about a cockney flower-girl from Covent Garden educated to pass as a lady, and the repercussions of the experiment... The First World War began as Pygmalion was nearing its hundredth sell-out performance, and gave Shaw an excuse to wind down the production."

Like many socialists, George Bernard Shaw opposed Britain's involvement in the First World War. He created a great deal of controversy with his provocative pamphlet, Common Sense About the War, which appeared on 14th November 1914 as a supplement to the New Statesman. It sold more than 75,000 copies before the end of the year and as a result he became a well-known international figure. However, given the patriotic mood of the country, his pamphlet created a great deal of hostility. Some of his anti-war speeches were banned from the newspapers, and he was expelled from the Dramatists' Club.

Kingsley Martin was one of those who went to hear Shaw speak at an anti-war meeting: "He made an indelible impression on me at this first meeting. I cannot recall what he spoke about. It mattered little. It was George Bernard Shaw you remembered; his physical magnificence, splendid bearing, superb elocution, unexpected Irish brogue, and continuous wit were the chief memories of his speech. He would give his nose a thoughtful twitch between his thumb and finger while the audience laughed. He was one of the best speakers I ever heard."

Shaw's status as a playwright continued to grow after the war and plays such as Heartbreak House (1919), Back to Methuselah (1921), Saint Joan (1923), The Apple Cart (1929) and Too True to be Good (1932) were favourably received by the critics and 1925 he was awarded the Nobel prize for literature. Cyril Joad was one of those who believed Shaw was a genius: "Shaw became for me a kind of god. I considered that he was not only the greatest English writer of his time (I still think that), but the greatest English writer of all time (and I am not sure that I don't still think that too). Performances of his plays put me almost beside myself with intellectual excitement."

Shaw continued to write books and pamphlets on political and social issues. This included The Crime of Imprisonment (1922) and Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism (1928). Charlotte's support of her husband was vitally important to his career. As Stanley Weintraub has pointed out: "Childless, they indulged in surrogate sons and daughters whose children often went to school on quiet Shavian largess. Granville Barker and Lillah McCarthy had their Royal Court and Savoy seasons underwritten by G.B.S., who lost, unconcernedly, all his investment."

In 1928 Frank Harris wrote to Shaw asking if he could write his biography. Shaw replied: "Abstain from such a desperate enterprise... I will not have you write my life on any terms." Harris was convinced that the royalties of the proposed book would solve his financial problems. In 1929 he wrote: "You are honoured and famous and rich - I lie here crippled and condemned and poor."

Eventually, Shaw agreed to cooperate with Harris in order to help him provide for his wife. Shaw told a friend that he had to agree because "frank and Nellie... were in rather desperate circumstances." Shaw warned Harris: "The truth is I have a horror of biographers... If there is one expression in this book of yours that cannot be read at a confirmation class, you are lost for ever. "

Shaw sent Harris contradictory accounts of his life. He told Harris that he was "a born philanderer". On another occasion he attempted to explain why he had little experience of sexual relationships. In 1930 he wrote to Harris: "If you have any doubts as to my normal virility, dismiss them from your mind. I was not impotent; I was not sterile; I was not homosexual; and I was extremely susceptible, though not promiscuously."

Frank Harris died of heart failure on 26th August 1931. Shaw sent Nellie a cheque and she arranged to send him the galley-proofs. The book was then rewritten by Shaw: "I have had to fill in the prosaic facts in Frank's best style, and fit them to his comments as best I could; for I have most scrupulously preserved all his sallies at my expense.... You may, however, depend on it that the book is not any the worse for my doctoring." George Bernard Shaw was published in 1932.

During the Blitz, the Shaws, now in their middle eighties, moved out of London. Shaw was a strong opponent of Britain's involvement in the Second World War, which he described "fundamentally not merely maniacal but nonsensical". He wrote very little but he did find the energy to produce Everybody's Political What's What (1944).

Max Beerbohm did over forty caricatures of George Bernard Shaw during his lifetime. He did not find Shaw's appearance attractive. He mentioned his pallid pitted skin and red hair like seaweed. "The back of his neck was especially bleak; very long, untenanted, and dead white". He admitted that Shaw's political views did not help: "My admiration for his genius has during fifty years and more been marred for me by dissent from almost any view that he holds about anything."

Charlotte Payne-Townshend Shaw, who had suffered from osteitis deformans for many years, died aged eighty-six on 12th September 1943. Shaw continued to write and his last play, Why She Would Not, was completed on 23rd July, 1950, three days before Shaw's ninety-fourth birthday.

George Bernard Shaw had a fall on 10th September 1950, while pruning trees. He was taken to hospital where it was discovered that he had fractured his hip. Bedridden, he developed kidney failure and died on 2nd November.

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George Bernard Shaw - Spartacus Educational

President Trump finds himself increasingly isolated after his comments on the clashes in Charlottesville, Va. I'm Davan Maharaj, editor-in-chief of the Los Angeles Times. Here are some story lines I don't want you to miss today.

TOP STORIES

All the President's Mentors Versus Trump

Americas top military officers, corporate executives, Republican leaders in Congress, the two living GOP ex-presidents and foreign leaders previously friendly to President Trump sent a message: Racial bigotry and extremism must be condemned. Some mentioned Trump by name; others didnt. But coming after the presidents comments suggesting an equivalence between neo-Nazi groups and their opponents, and the ensuing wave of criticism, the intent was clear. Vice President Mike Pence said hes cutting short his South American trip for meetings with Trump. To help weather the storm, Trump appointed Hope Hicks as interim communications director, the fourth (or is it fifth?) in just over 200 days.

When the CEO President Becomes Toxic to CEOs

Much of Americas corporate elite once stood by Trump, even as his refugee ban, withdrawal from the Paris climate accord and other policies made them uncomfortable. Not so with Trumps remarks on the clashes in Charlottesville, Va. So many executives had resigned from Trumps economic advisory and manufacturing councils that the president tweeted he was disbanding them. (See what the CEOs said before they left.) But some members pushed back on that idea. The head of JPMorgan Chase & Co. said the economic advisory council had already decided to end on its own. Columnist Michael Hiltzik poses the question: Does this mark a true turning point?

More From the Charlottesville Aftermath

-- America's far right stole the spotlight. Now comes the backlash.

-- President Trump says the alt-left was partly to blame for the violence at Charlottesville. Wait: What's the alt-left?

-- President Obama, whose tweet of a Nelson Mandela quote over the weekend became the most-liked tweet ever, often spoke about race relations in the U.S. Here are some of his words.

-- They tried to kill my child to shut her up. Well, guess what you just magnified her: Heather Heyers mother memorializes her daughter, who was killed when a car rammed into a crowd Saturday.

Evan Vucci / Associated Press

Mourners observe a moment of silence during the memorial service for Heather Heyer outside the Paramount Theater in Charlottesville, Va.

Mourners observe a moment of silence during the memorial service for Heather Heyer outside the Paramount Theater in Charlottesville, Va. (Evan Vucci / Associated Press)

The Golden States Confederate Gray Past

While much of the debate over Confederate monuments is focused on the South, California has been grappling with the issue for years too. Though it was a Union state, public sentiment was hardly unanimous. Southern California in particular was a hotbed of support for the Confederacy. This weeks events brought about the swift removal of at least two memorials a marker commemorating Confederate veterans buried at Hollywood Forever Cemetery and a plaque honoring Confederate President Jefferson Davis in downtown San Diego.

The New Urban Warfare: Pilots in Nevada, Missiles in a Syrian City

To see the latest evolution of warfare in the Middle East, a trip to Syria is not required; its playing out at Nevadas Creech Air Force Base, where most U.S. Predator and Reaper drone pilots are based. From there, they control airborne vehicles in Raqqah, Islamic States self-declared capital and one of its last urban strongholds, and routinely launch missiles at militants with U.S.-backed forces nearby. The Pentagon calls these danger-close distances, and the practice began only last year. Its risky for the soldiers and, some say, civilians too.

Preparing for the Eclipse-alypse?

When the sun, the moon and the Earth line up just right, a total solar eclipse will sweep across a swath of the United States on Monday. With its wide-open spaces, Idaho Falls, Idaho, is considered the optimal place to watch the roughly two-minute spectacle (as long as you have the proper protective spectacles). Thats been great for hotel business, but some residents have more apocalyptic visions of hundreds of thousands of people descending on their town of 50,000. Theyre telling us to have four days of water stored, prepare for power outages and even gas has already gone up 20 cents a gallon in the last week, says one.

MUST-WATCH VIDEO

-- An L.A. resident says historical monuments, like the Confederate monument removed from Hollywood Forever Cemetery, need to be preserved and used as teachable moments.

-- The first day of school at L.A. Unifieds all-boys school in South L.A.

-- Hamilton creators tell fans: History is now; history is you.

CALIFORNIA

-- Officials in Northern California are pushing back against planned rallies in the region this month that they say will attract white nationalists.

-- The states campaign watchdog agency is poised to open the spigot for large political contributions that would help a Democratic state senator fend off a recall campaign.

-- At least one expanse of protected land in California is now safe from the Trump administrations plan to eliminate or shrink some national monuments: the Sand to Snow National Monument east of Los Angeles.

-- The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is testing airport-style body scanners aimed at detecting guns and explosives at subway stations in L.A.

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

-- We dont engage in burning things to the ground. We point to things that are on fire and say, Do you think that should be on fire? : Stephen Colbert discusses the tone of his late-night political commentary and more.

-- Why is the conversation about director Kathryn Bigelows film Detroit, about a race-charged incident of police brutality, only barely above a whisper?

-- The quartet you won't forget: Iron Fist, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Daredevil team up in Marvel's The Defenders on Netflix.

-- Trump got you down? Jimmy Kimmel has a novel idea: Let's make America Great Britain again.

CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD

She was painted by Salvador Dali, admired by George Bernard Shaw, praised by critics, damned by censors and loved by audiences. Her name became an entry in the dictionary and is evoked by the line Come up and see me sometime! On this date in 1893, Mae West was born. A friend of mine once wrote that I was 'self-enchanted but never self-deceiving,' and I hope that was always true.

NATION-WORLD

-- The Trump administration backed away from causing an immediate crisis in healthcare marketplaces and agreed to continue making payments to insurance companies.

-- Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions ripped Chicago for its defiant sanctuary city stance against turning over local prisoners for deportation.

-- A Muslim American radio host is accusing the operator of the Daily Stormer website of defaming him. Meanwhile, the fate of the notorious neo-Nazi site is up in the air.

-- Humanitarian groups fear aid is being diverted to a terrorist group after militants took over a Syrian province.

-- Tijuana's big growth industry? Barbershops, with 100 opening in three years.

BUSINESS

-- The USC Village development officially opens today: It has beds for 2,500 undergraduates, and will bring a Trader Joes and Target to South L.A.

-- Conservative protesters have postponed plans to gather outside Googles offices this weekend.

SPORTS

-- Last nights Dodgers victory wasnt the home debut Yu Darvish envisioned. But columnist Dylan Hernandez writes, on this team, it was enough.

-- In just six seasons, Los Angeles Sparks star Nneka Ogwumike already has amassed a careers worth of accomplishments. Can she give the WNBA a higher profile?

OPINION

-- Hate speech is loathsome, but trying to silence it is dangerous.

-- Take it from former NFL player Nate Jackson: For pain, pot is better than opioids.

WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING

-- A chilling documentary on the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. (Vice)

-- On the effect of firearms on the streets and the exercise of free speech. (The Atlantic)

-- See where Confederate symbols are most concentrated with these maps. (Politico)

ONLY IN L.A.

He has cooked sold-out pop-up dinners for 50 guests a night, started a culinary events company and has starred on a TV chef competition show. Up next: a YouTube channel with recipes, how-to videos and restaurant reports. Well, that and beginning his junior year at Palos Verdes Peninsula High School. Meet Holden Dahlerbruch, who should have plenty to say when it comes time to write his college entrance essays.

Please send comments and ideas to Davan Maharaj.

If you like this newsletter, please share it with friends.

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Today: All the President's Mentors Versus Trump - LA Times - Los Angeles Times

A SHAW THING: While countless theater fans have enjoyed the musical My Fair Lady over the decades, some may be unaware that its based on a play by George Bernard Shaw. Starting next Wednesday, J-Town Playhouse will present that play, Pygmalion, at the AACIs Max and Gianna Glassman Family Center in Jerusalem. The director, Yardena Buxner, stuck closely to Shaws version, but she made Eliza a very strong character, producer Jennifer Fleischer tells Haaretz. Shes captivating throughout the entire show. Its what I love about it, adds Fleischer, a professional archaeologist who grew up in Connecticut and moved to Israel in late 2015. Shiri Berzack will portray Eliza Doolittle, while Nachum Hackett will play the part of Prof. Henry Higgins. Fleischer is part of a team of three producers with Layla Schwartz and Aviella Shapiro, who have replaced J-Towns longtime producer Rafi Poch, who left at the end of 2016. The show runs through September 7. For tickets call (02) 561-1181, ext. 311.

CAPTURING THE VOICES OF 48: With Israels 70th birthday approaching next year, Belgian-born Nomi Schlosser felt the urgency to collect stories from the 1948 generation. Since November, she has interviewed 70 such people for her project, entitled The Youth of 1948, and still wants to do another 50. This is something that cannot wait to be done, she says. I just lost a person who is 100 before I could interview her. Schlosser says her project differs from other documentaries because it gets into the personal little story that is not in the history books, which she feels people connect to more. People she met included a former neighbor of Menachem Begin and a couple married 70 years who met on an Etzel underground mission. Her subjects include native English speakers Ruth Stern, Hoshana HaCohen and Zippy Porath. The project has become a full-time mission for the playwright-director, so she has launched a crowdfunding campaign on Jewcer to help complete the project. For more information, visit Theyouthof1948project.com.

NEW IMMIGRANTS TOUCH DOWN: The latest group flight of 233 immigrants from North America touched down at Ben-Gurion International Airport on Tuesday, among them 70 young adults planning to join the Israel Defense Forces. With the second Nefesh BNefesh charter flight of the summer, Israel is gaining several medical professionals, future lone soldiers and individuals committed to reinvigorating the countrys periphery, along with hundreds of other dynamic Olim, the immigrant support organization announced. NbN noted the flight was facilitated in cooperation with Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael, the Immigrant Absorption Ministry, the Jewish Agency, JNF-USA and Tzofim-Garin Tzabar. The group included 26 medical professionals. There were 20 families in all, with 64 children. Todays Olim, all from diverse communities and backgrounds, are Israels 21st century pioneers, helping to build the country, using their individual strengths and talents, said Rabbi Yehoshua Fass, NbNs co-founder and executive director.

Rank and File was compiled by Steven Klein.Have an idea about an item for Rank and File? Email us at:column@haaretz.co.il

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Rank and File: 'Pygmalion' in Jerusalem and Interviewing the 'Youth of 1948' - Haaretz

Since training at art school, Martin Creed has won a Turner prize for his piece featuring a light being turned on and off in an empty room and choreographed a ballet for Sadlers Wells. Now he talks to Nick Clark about his latest challenge a month-long run of his live show Words and Music at the Edinburgh International Festival.

As a Turner prize-winning artist, why take a stage show to Edinburgh as part of the international festival?

Ive felt, in live shows, theres a chance to mix things up, which feels more true to me and true to life. In a live show, theres a chance to mix up words, pictures and music. What I do is not art and its not performance art.

How would you describe Words and Music?

Its probably a mixture of theatre, cabaret, music gig, all sorts of things. I would think of it like inviting a load of people around to your house to show them what youve been thinkingabout.

You say no two shows are the same. Isthatdaunting, trying to constantly evolvethe work live?

Aye, its really scary. But you can respond to fear in different ways. When I think it hasnt gone well, its because I feel I havent been willing to fail. When you dont give a shit youreprobably at your best.

Youve never done a month in Edinburgh, why now?

Its a chance to work. Ive been working more and more on mixing words and music. Partly through films. Doing this isaway of working onideas that may end up in other works.

How did you construct thisshow?

I didnt really need anything. Theres a big screen and I could have done it without it. AndIcould have done it without amplification.

Were there themes you wanted to tackle?

The main point was to think out loud and work without prejudice and do it freshly. Iwork a lot on the day, writing ideas. The main themes are to try to talk about communicating. The other theme is borders: country borders, whats going on in the world, refugees. But also the personal borders between you and everyone else. Its all about being there in theroom.

Around the first major survey of your work at the Hayward Gallery in 2014, you talked of being influenced by Samuel Beckett. Inwhat way?

I got into Beckett at art school. I loved it. He always goes back to basics Its about the difficulty of living and trying to get along. Life is hard. Beckett inspired me to look at things inadifferent way. His work is very involved inthe process of living and working.

Is that reflected in your work?

If my work is about anything its about trying and showing the trying. The reason I do live work is because when I did sculpture or painting at art school, I thought the finished product was just the tip of the iceberg. The bit on the wall was the leftovers, the sediment at the bottom of the glass. I prefer the process ofdrinking the wine.

Did you do performance while studying atthe Slade School of Fine Art?

I dont like the word performance todescribe it, though thats the word they used. Its live action with people. Maybe thats not a good way to talk about it either. Everything is live action. A painting is live action because the people who see it are alive. Seeing it is a live theatrical experience as much as anything else.

So is it all art?

I wouldnt call any of it art just because its toodifficult a word.

What is your relationship with theatre?

In dramatic plays for the first five minutes its often weird because they speak in an odd way, then people suspend their disbelief and theyre in it. I cant do that. To me its about trying to keep it real. Theres always great danger in that, not believing in it enough, the fantasy.

So do you not go to the theatre?

I do go, depending whats on. Shakespeares about the best. I get bored with a lot of theatre but I dont tend to with Shakespeare. When I was growing up in a suburb of Glasgow, I used to go to the Citizens Theatre and it was free to get in, or at least very cheap. I used to see alot of George Bernard Shaw as well. I felt I saw alot of theatre growing up, as well as weird artstuff. It must have had an effect.

What about the Edinburgh festivals?

I never came to the Edinburgh festivals growing up. The first time I enjoyed Edinburgh was when I came here to do the ballet at the Traverse Theatre in 2010. We did nine performances. I loved doing multiple performances and going to see things. Nothing is ever finished, its working towards somethingelse.

Do you get asked to do set design, like fellow Turner prize-winner Anish Kapoor did last year for English National Opera?

I have been asked. I was asked by Sadlers Wells to do something like that but it led to the work in which I choreographed the ballet. It began by them contacting me as a visual artist. I wanted to work with the dancers.

Your Work No 227, the light turning on and off in an empty room, which won the Turner Prize, feels theatrical. Is it?

Aye. Ive always thought all that is, is a really stupid experiment with a theatrical device. The lights going on and off, wherever you look in the room you see the work. Its also like music as its all around you. It was an experiment. After I did it, I just liked it.

Part of the Edinburgh International Festival, Words and Music is at the Studio until August 27

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Martin Creed: 'When you don't give a shit, you're at your best' - The Stage

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Nate Cheeseman playing Macbeth acts in a scene from the Shakespeare classic "Macbeth'' Aug. 8 at Pioneer Park during the 45th annual Shakespeare in the Parks performance.

Shakespeare in the Parks "Macbeth" will be performed in Anaconda and Butte.

Nate Cheeseman playing Macbeth acts in a scene from the Shakespeare classic "Macbeth'' Aug. 8 at Pioneer Park during the 45th annual Shakespeare in the Parks performance.

Shakespeare in the Parks "Macbeth" will be performed in Anaconda and Butte.

Shakespeare in the Parks will present four free performances this month in southwest Montana.

Noting its 45th season, it features productions of Shakespeare's Macbeth, directed by Kevin Asselin, and George Bernard's Shaw's You Never Can Tell, directed by William Brown.

The company features 10 professional actors selected from national auditions who tour without technical assistance to bring live theater to mostly rural communities. This summer, 66 percent of the communities reached by the troupe have populations of 5,000 or fewer.

Friday, Aug. 11 Deer Lodge, You Never Can Tell, 6 p.m., Old Prison grounds

Monday, Aug. 14 -- Anaconda, Macbeth, 6 p.m., Washoe Park

Monday, Aug. 28 Whitehall, You Never Can Tell, 6 p.m., 206 Yellowstone Road

Tuesday, Aug. 29 Butte, Macbeth, 6 p.m., Original Mine

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Four Shakespeare performances this month in southwest Montana ... - Montana Standard

When: 8 p.m. Thursday-Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, through Sept. 10.

Where: Kiki & David Gindler Performing Arts Center. 110 E. Broadway, Glendale. (Allow time to find parking; note, some public lots post 3-hour limits.)

Tickets: $30-$34.

Length: 2 hrs. and 45 mins., including intermission.

Suitability: Teens and adults.

Information: 818-506-1983, http://www.antaeus.org.

Its remarkable that theatermakers have kept Shakespeares works alive for some 400 years. Its as remarkable that his works can still feel fresh and relevant, done the right way.

And it can be a thrill to see a sizable portion of the citys best actors taking on his roles.

Still, the story, language and subtext must come to life with clarity and purpose. Otherwise, why bother putting on this play?

Rob Clare directs Antaeus Theatre Companys As You Like It, at the Kiki & David Gindler Performing Arts Center through Sept. 10.

What was his concept, his point of view here? Costuming might indicate that the era of his setting is timeless. Other than that, its hard to glean any purpose. And so the flaws in Shakespeares comedy of forgiveness show up glaringly.

It begins as Duke Senior (Bernard K. Addison) has been usurped of his throne by his brother, Duke Frederick (John DeMita), and has retreated to the Forest of Arden. Frederick, however, allows Seniors daughter, Rosalind (Julia Davis), to remain at court with his own daughter, Celia (Abigail Marks).

Meanwhile, two other brothers, the elder Oliver (Daniel Dorr) and younger Orlando (Daisuke Tsuji), sons of Fredericks late friend, live in constant conflict.

Orlando and Rosalind fall in love while at court. Angering Frederick, Orlando must flee to Arden; Rosalind is, coincidentally, simultaneously banished. She and Celia leave for Arden, taking the court jester Touchstone (Adam J. Smith). Rosalind and Celia disguise themselves, Rosalind as a young man, Celia as a shepherdess.

They encounter Jaques (Tony Amendola), the thoughtful observer and cynical commentator on even the happiest of lives in the Forest.

They also encounter shepherd Silvius (Adam Meyer), who pines for the uninterested shepherdess Phebe (Erin Pineda), who falls in love with the disguised Rosalind. William (Ben Atkinson) is smitten with goatherdess Audrey (Elyse Mirto), but so is Touchstone.

Orlando fails to recognize Rosalind but feels a strange connection to the young man she masquerades as. Meantime, Oliver and the disguised Celia fall in love.

Had this play been written today, critics would shred it. In the middle of this idyllic setting, Shakespeare provides a wrestling match. Just as weve started to figure out the characters and their relationships, in wanders Audrey in Act III, Scene 3, and here comes Phebe at Act III, Scene 5. They look like afterthoughts, hastily scribbled in to make a nice quartet of lovers for the big finale.

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At the plays end, the four couples marry, whether well-suited to each other or not.

If any of this bothers you, and you seek a plausible explanation for how the playwright of Hamlet could also have penned this one, heed George Bernard Shaw, who wrote of this play that Shakespeare was probably pandering to popular tastes here.

Where Shakespeares other plays delve into psychology and rely for plot points on human behavior and reactions, Shaw wrote that this one went straight for masses-pleasing superficiality, throwing it in the face of the public with the phrase As You Like It.

Still, it has its charms and glories. Memorable characters abound, as do metaphors and similies and perhaps thats the better explanation for the title. Shakespeare promotes pastoral living, kindness to all and gender equality.

So in some productions, it can be a rich, happy tale of love and forgiveness and peace of heart. With no apparent driving force, as here, its just a lot of words.

(This production is double cast; the Acorns cast was reviewed.)

Dany Margolies is a Los Angeles-based writer.

Rating: 1 star

When: 8 p.m. Thursday-Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, through Sept. 10.

Where: Kiki & David Gindler Performing Arts Center. 110 E. Broadway, Glendale. (Allow time to find parking; note, some public lots post 3-hour limits.)

Tickets: $30-$34.

Length: 2 hrs. and 45 mins., including intermission.

Suitability: Teens and adults.

Information: 818-506-1983, http://www.antaeus.org.

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Antaeus Theatre's 'As You Like It' isn't the way we like it - LA Daily News

It had bangs and whimpering sounds, bullies and victims, politics and personal issues. It ended with a chef serving appetizers to the audience.

Yes, with the world premiere of "Raging Skillet" at TheaterWorks, the 2016-17 Connecticut theater season is officially over.

Please note that the 2017-18 season is already upon us, with "Finding Neverland" at The Bushnell earlier this month and "Small Mouth Sounds" opening its national tour at the Long Wharf Theatre Aug. 30. Then there are the theaters that operate only in summertime, or on a spring to fall timeline. Let's deal with those in our year-end wrap-up a few months from now.

Shows can rise and fall on their own merits, but a season especially at theaters that cater to a subscriber base is a special unit. How it holds together, how its elements balance and complement, deserves attention and respect.

Carol Rosegg

Sarah Ruhls mysteriously meditative Scenes from Court Life at the Yale Repertory Theatre analyzed the rise of the Bush boys George and Jeb.

Sarah Ruhls mysteriously meditative Scenes from Court Life at the Yale Repertory Theatre analyzed the rise of the Bush boys George and Jeb. (Carol Rosegg)

The season just past began with the promise of deep sociopolitical discourse. The regional theaters had planned and announced their 2016-17 programming plans while the national election was heating up. Many titles directly addressed concepts of leadership. Sarah Ruhl's mysteriously meditative "Scenes from Court Life," at the Yale Repertory Theatre analyzed the rise of the Bush boys George and Jeb. The Long Wharf gamely staged "Other People's Money," a mainstream corporate-takeover melodrama that Trump publicly praised back in the '80s. Hartford Stage at first announced that it was going to do George Bernard Shaw's "Joan of Arc," which doubtless would have had people thinking about Hillary Clinton, then did Shaw's "Heartbreak House" instead, dressing up the show's stereotypical businessman villain to look just like our new president.

T. Charles Erickson

Clifton Duncan and Elise Taylor starred in August Wilson's drama The Piano Lesson at Hartford Stage.

Clifton Duncan and Elise Taylor starred in August Wilson's drama The Piano Lesson at Hartford Stage. (T. Charles Erickson)

The election also caused a dive in attendance in October and November as people were glued to their TV sets, podcasts and who's-winning statistics. It's unfortunate that two of the shows that were hardest hit "The Piano Lesson" at Hartford Stage and "Seven Guitars" at Yale Rep were by August Wilson, whose rhythmic and affectionate real-world insights into the human condition (including how we react to stress and greed) might have helped a few people get through the winter. The Wilson plays had been smartly programmed or so it seemed so as to presage the release of the film version of "Fences."

Lanny Nagler

Sunset Baby, starring Tony Todd, hit a sweet spot with its talk of confusion, self-reliance and revolution at TheaterWorks.

Sunset Baby, starring Tony Todd, hit a sweet spot with its talk of confusion, self-reliance and revolution at TheaterWorks. (Lanny Nagler)

"Smart People" at Long Wharf was considered a cutting-edge contemporary drama just months before the Long Wharf decided to stage it. But its depictions of how racism had (and mostly hadn't) changed following the election of Barack Obama felt already dated, overtaken by more recent current events. On the other hand, "Sunset Baby" at TheaterWorks hit a sweet spot with its talk of confusion, self-reliance and revolution.

Hartford Stage's season was a nice mix of large-cast, small-cast, funny, sad, traditional and modern. Elizabeth Williamson, putting on her director hat for the first time since joining the theater five years ago, took Caryl Churchill's "Cloud 9" to places it hasn't been, staging it as a sort of '70s music hall fantasia.

T. Charles Erickson

Steve Martin's Meteor Shower showed bright promise at Long Wharf and indeed is headed to Broadway.

Steve Martin's Meteor Shower showed bright promise at Long Wharf and indeed is headed to Broadway. (T. Charles Erickson)

Yale Rep's 50th anniversary season was smart and tough. On paper, I would say that Long Wharf threatened to have the most exciting, challenging season. But two world premieres the family drama "Napoli, Brooklyn" and the Adam Gopnik/David Shire musical "The Most Beautiful Room in New York" arrived uncertain and unready, and the aforementioned "Smart People" fell rather flat. Steve Martin's "Meteor Shower" was a popular hit that showed bright promise (and is indeed Broadway-bound) despite its inability to match its expressionistic tendencies to its onslaught of feuding-couple gags.

When looking back at where expectations were largely met, the small, scrappy Playhouse on Park springs to mind. The West Hartford theater did musicals that were within the reach of its modest resources "Little Shop of Horrors" and "[title of show] (though I didn't care for the latter)." It also introduced audiences to plays that had become popular around the country but hadn't hit Connecticut yet, whether it was the purposely dumb door-slamming delight "Unnecessary Farce" or the tender romance "Last Train to Nibroc."

Seven Angels Theatre helped two newish shows, Charles Messina's "A Room of My Own" and the jaunty J.C. Johnson-scored musical "Trav'lin," continue to find themselves, and also offered Seven Angels founder Semina DeLaurentis daffily impersonating Gracie Allen.

T. Charles Erickson

Brian Dennehy came to Long Wharf for Samuel Beckett's Endgame.

Brian Dennehy came to Long Wharf for Samuel Beckett's Endgame. (T. Charles Erickson)

This was the season when Bill Raymond gave his final performances as Scrooge in "A Christmas Carol." Long Wharf offered Brian Dennehy and Reg E. Cathey in an "Endgame" that gave Beckett purists pause but had its intended impact nonetheless. Name stars also flocked to TheaterWorks, where Richard Dreyfuss played a whimsical, weary Albert Einstein in Mark St. Germain's "Relativity," followed by the gruff Tony Todd in "Sunset Baby."

Lanny Nagler

Richard Dreyfyuss portrayed Albert Einstein in Mark St. Germain's play "Relativity" at TheaterWorks.

Richard Dreyfyuss portrayed Albert Einstein in Mark St. Germain's play "Relativity" at TheaterWorks. (Lanny Nagler)

Among the state's presentation houses, The Bushnell gets high marks for bringing excellent tours of the sensitive musicals "If/Then" and "Fun Home" to Hartford. These shows will soon be easily found at small theaters and college stages, but not on this scale. The "American in Paris" tour was dazzling, too. The Waterbury Palace was the first in the state to host Jack O'Brien's colorful new production of "The Sound of Music." Foxwoods Resort Casino offered a Broadway season for the first time.

There are some theaters where the fall to spring season is the same thing as their academic school year. I was impressed with some of the versatile student performers at UConn's Connecticut Repertory Theatre, especially in the timely revival of "Waiting for Lefty" (coupled with a contemporary corporate drama by UConn alum Levi Alpert) and the musical "Shrek," which CT Rep made timely by having Lord Farquaad resemble a certain orange-haired commander in chief.

Wesleyan faculty (namely Ron Jenkins and Neely Bruce) and students created a modernist theatrical pageant with Indonesian clowning about injustices delivered upon the spice islands of the East Indies. For me, the most visceral and affecting theater experiences of the season may have been at the Yale School of Drama, where "Blood Wedding" gave me recurring nightmares about demons on swings, and "Bulgaria! Revolt!" activated my hay fever and caused me to flee the theater red-faced and wheezing.

Lanny Nagler

Christiane Noll starred in TheaterWorks triumphant Next to Normal.

Christiane Noll starred in TheaterWorks triumphant Next to Normal. (Lanny Nagler)

When the 2016-17 season began, it was primed to investigate head-on some specific social causes and historic figures. Yet the shows that really stayed with me this from this wild, varied season were not the ones that tried to explain Trump or Bush or Albert Einstein or the American military. They were the human-sized productions like "Sunset Baby," TheaterWorks' triumphant production of the musical "Next to Normal" or Amy Herzog's riveting Yale Rep premiere "Mary Jane" and sure, let's throw "Endgame" in there which all just showed anxious people coping.

John Woike/Courant file photo

Andrew Long, center, played the Trump-like character of Boss Mangan in Heartbreak House at Hartford Stage.

Andrew Long, center, played the Trump-like character of Boss Mangan in Heartbreak House at Hartford Stage. (John Woike/Courant file photo)

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A Powerful, Poignant 2016-17 Season From Connecticut's Theaters - CTNow

PUERTO PRINCESA Theres nothing like a sports tournament to remind us that playwright George Bernard Shaw was not kidding that youth could be wasted on the young.

And yet, why not? It is the best time to dream, make good choices, heed the advice of teachers and stay away from bad habits.

This was evident at the recent 2017 Asian Junior Boxing Championships in this busy city, a tourism magnet with so much to offer the adventurous traveler. Fighters, aged 15 to 16 years old and from 18 countries, came to start or continue the journey to possible Olympic success and beyond.

Many probably started very young, notably the rugged yet polished Kazakhstan fighters. The youthful boxers won six of the 13 gold medals and showed the results of their lessons from a boxing academy at home.

Across all weight categories, the Kazakhs scored punches in the midsection as well as the head, rarely throwing wild or errant shots.

There were also recent boxing converts like Filipino gold medalist Kenneth Dela Pea, a smiling 16-year-old prodigy from boxing breeding ground General Santos City. Just before he entered the ring against his opponent from Kazakhstan, Dela Pea confirmed that he was hardly a year into the sport but has since worked on his Olympic dream.

Boxing association secretary general Ed Picson, who oversaw preparations and staging of the tournament, explained that the task ahead is to continue nurturing Dela Pea and 15-year-old John Vincent Pangga, another Filipino who won gold.

You cant keep them in the juniors forever because they will get older, Picson said. The sooner they can be honed for future tournaments, the better because we will have an ample supply of boxing talent.

The young generation of boxers in the tournament probably amused their elders as they were mostly hooked on their mobile phones and gadgets in between fights. But make no mistake about it: These fighters are more than willing to sacrifice for their dreams to shine for their countries.

For example, international boxers (the term amateur has been dropped from usage when talking about non-professional boxing) have to maintain their weight for at least a week to remain qualified to fight. For young boys still growing up, thats a major sacrifice.

Youth need not be wasted as long as it is a time well spent and sports can definitely help along the way.

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Youth is never really wasted - Inquirer.net