| Get ready for the sound of music
At the tender age of 14, Megan Crampsey and Emma Wyper, both pupils at St Luke's High School in Barrhead, would both consider themselves fairly experienced performers. Megan, who took up viola when she was in primary four, plays with a variety of quartets and orchestras, while drummer Emma loves performing samba, rock and blues numbers with her percussion group at school concerts and events. Nonetheless, they admit the thought of their forthcoming performance with their school choir at the Glasgow Music Festival, in just over a week, has them feeling a bit jittery. It will be the second time the group, formed by music teacher Mari Bett four years ago, will take part in the city's annual event for amateur musicians. But, says Megan, taking to the stage at Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall - where they will perform a version of Happy Ending by Brit-winner Mika - is still more than enough to get the heart thumping.
The Blotter
The circumstances of the 3:15 p.m. incident were nearly identical to the city's first robbery of 2008 of the same bank on January 10. In both midday crimes, a small-statured black male wearing dark clothing and a face-concealing black bandanna displayed a handgun and demanded cash. No injuries were reported in either incident. Late Wednesday night, police charged Diedre Lynn Blackburn, 45, and her 16 year-old son with aggravated robbery. Blackburn was booked into the Williamson County jail awaiting a Thursday bond hearing. The juvenile is being held at the Williamson County Juvenile Justice Center. Police credit several alert citizens for noting suspicious activity nearby and acting quickly to give police accurate descriptions of the suspects and an associated vehicle.
Best evidence yet of caffeine-miscarriage link
Women in early pregnancy who drink a cup and a half of coffee every day are at greater risk of miscarriage than those who stay away from caffeine, according to a Kaiser Permanente study out of Oakland. The study, published today in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, is one of the largest to look at the connection between caffeine and miscarriage, and the first to interview women about their caffeine habits before they've actually suffered a miscarriage. While there has been much research into caffeine and miscarriage - some of it dating back to the 1960s - no studies have been definitive, and the effect of caffeine, and coffee in particular, on miscarriage has been a subject of controversy. But the Kaiser study, said doctors who were not involved in the research, makes a fairly solid case against drinking coffee, or any kind of caffeinated beverage, early in pregnancy.
Family, friends mourn woman killed in fire
Stacey, who was single, was a bridesmaid and gave the speech at her sister's wedding about five years ago. Her sense of humor shone through then more than ever. "She was so timid going into it and so worried and shy," Wendy Johnson said. "But then she got up to the give the speech, and it was just so beautiful, and she wouldn't sit down and stop telling stories. She had all these funny stories. You just gave her a microphone, and she was suddenly on stage." Stacey's mother is staying at her eldest daughter's house while investigators are assessing damage to the Fort Hill home. Johnson said she's still trying to figure out a way to tell her 3-year-old twins, Stacey's niece and nephew, about their aunt. "The first thing they always ask is 'Where's Stacey? Where's Stacey?" she said.
Other Fug Fixes
Check out the archives of "New York Fugging City," our weekly column for New York magazine online. Periodically, we chime in on the "If These Clothes Could Talk" section in the print edition of In Touch weekly. New! We contributed a piece to New York Look -- New York magazine's new publication -- about the deep devotion of Anna Wintour to man-candy tennis ace Roger Federer. .
Like their playoff-bound Mustangs, the University of Western Ontario ...
With a history dating back 125 years and a place of prominence as one of Canada's top Universities, the University of Western Ontario is a place of tradition and excellence. However, it is also a thoroughly modern school providing near campus-wide WiFi , promoting the use of RSS feeds, Podcasting and blogs among faculty and students. The embracing of technology can lead to other issues though, one of these being SPAM. �Out of a daily average of about 96,000 emails, about 85,000 were spam.� Explains Eric Cartman, System Administrator at Western. Eric and the rest of Western's IT team was already familiar with a couple of Roaring Penguin's products. �We'd been using SpamAssassin and [Roaring Penguin's] MimeDefang with success but were spending hours whitelisting, blacklisting, and tweaking settings trying to serve the diverse and changing needs of our users.
Police hunt killer after British student is found butchered and part ...
Police in Italy were today picking up vital clues in their hunt for a killer who slashed the throat of a British student murdered on a study year abroad. Former public school girl Meredith Kercher was discovered semi-naked in a pool of blood hours after she had left a party. A mattress or duvet had been used to conceal the body of the 21-year-old postgraduate exchange student. Detectives were looking for the murder weapon, possibly a knife or a screwdriver, Italian agency Ansa reported. The brown-eyed brunette was found by police yesterday afternoon in the house she shared with three other female students close to the centre of the picturesque city of Perugia. The door to her bedroom had been locked from the inside. Miss Kercher, who may have been dating an Italian man, had been in the Umbrian city for only three months after completing her undergraduate degree course at Leeds University.
MEITUS: Events of typical week waylay 10-year plan
No one noticed, but pssst, I could pass for at least 55. Oh, wait, I am 55. * I had to catch all those sitcom reunions on the Today show which ate up time, and made me late to work. First, they had Happy Days, then One Day at a Time, then Murphy Brown, then my very favorite, Knots Landing. They asked each of the actors what they were doing these days, and I loved the Murphy Brown actor, who said "topiary," and made sculpting movements with his hand, getting a laugh. He was a lot more impressive than the actors who clearly had a rather thin resume. I'm guessing that those were the ones who didn't have a 10-year plan. When she's not working on a 10-year plan, Marty Meitus is the Food editor. meitusm@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5229 .
Police corruption case dies
The usually loquacious Brauti, the lawyer who filed a two-metre high stack of briefs in his Charter of Rights motion to have the charges dropped for "unreasonable delay," which was accepted by Nordheimer, was almost at a loss for words. "These men dedicated themselves to the justice system," he said later. "They certainly deserved better prosecution." During a party afterwards, Brauti said all the officers were furious that some 200 cases their squad investigated were tossed from the courts after they were charged. "They can't believe that drug dealers got a free walk while police officers and their families were put through a decade of hell," said Brauti. The six went to court yesterday, expecting that only the charges against Benoit, whose part in the alleged scandal was minor, would be dropped.
Office romances: Is love a cubicle away?
Plenty of people spend valuable time browsing chat rooms and Web sites in search of love.
Visiting a popular night spot is another way singles can meet the perfect mate.
Then there's meeting your significant other in the cubicle across from you.
It makes sense.
Working together often translates into sharing the same interests, and there's ample time to get acquainted during coffee breaks.
As a supervisor for a telemarketing company in Tahlequah, Stephanie Lee once dated an employee.
"It was a casual relationship," Lee, 29, said. "Co-workers knew we were together, but we didn't go around kissing each other in front of everyone."
She said her boyfriend had grown on her over time and that the two had been friends before intensifying their relationship.
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