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Week 1, 2006
THE BEST SELLERS (recent popular articles):
1) AUDIO/On the Media: Quel revolt! [Emission radio avec transcription, cette fois-ci sur les violences urbaines en France.]
2) AUDIO/On the Media: Wal-Mart Warriors [Emission radio avec transcription, cette fois-ci sur un documentaire sur les méfaits des hypermarchés Wal-Mart.]
3) Slate: The global failures index [Un indicateur économique méconnu : le nombre de faillites d'entreprises.]

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THE REGULARS: Summary
4) Le texte plus abordable de la semaine/Scholastic: Rent-a-Tree [Sauver un arbre en louant votre sapin de Noël.]
5) The Puzzler: A 52 Card Conundrum [Un casse-tête.]
6) Smart Money/10 Things They Won't Tell You: Caterers [10 secrets des traiteurs que votre traiteur ne vous dira jamais.]
7) AUDIO/On the Media: In So Many Words [Emission radio avec transcription, cette fois-ci sur les mots de l'année 2005 annoncés par un dico américain.]

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1) AUDIO/On the Media: Quel revolt! [Emission radio avec transcription, cette fois-ci sur les violences urbaines en France.]
http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/transcripts_111105_revolt.html

"QUEL REVOLT!"

November 11, 2005

BOB GARFIELD: From WNYC in New York, this is NPR's On the Media. I'm Bob Garfield.

DALJIT DHALIWAL: And I'm Daljit Dhaliwal, sitting in for Brooke Gladstone. For the past two weeks, the growing tally of burnt-out cars in France, like a war zone body count, has been repeated in the media like a mantra. The riots began in the Paris suburbs but then spread throughout France and initiated copycat attacks in Germany and Belgium. The anger is blamed on the deaths of two Parisian youths who died while being chased by police. Susan Caskie has been looking at the coverage from around the world for The Week magazine and she joins me now. Susan, welcome back to OTM.

SUSAN CASKIE: Thank you. It's nice to be here.

DALJIT DHALIWAL: Well, let's start with the coverage in France. How were French papers reacting to the violence at the beginning of the week, and how did the coverage actually evolve?

SUSAN CASKIE: There was very little commentary initially, it was all news coverage. And then when the commentary started to come out, it focused on the political ramifications of the riots. Le Figaro, Liberation and Le Monde were talking about the rivalry between the Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin, and the Interior Minister, Nicolas Sarkozy. So it really seemed like they were treating it as just another kind of kind of theater on which this political rivalry could play out. One commentary in a German paper, in the Frankfurter Rundschau, took the French media to task. A commentary there said, "It is as if the intra-party quarrel over who should succeed Chirac were really more significant than the socio-political catastrophe, the material and moral misery that has found symbolic expression in flaming cars." And then we started seeing French commentary about international commentary, so still not so much French commentary about what was happening but about how it was negatively affecting France's image.

DALJIT DHALIWAL: So by the end of the week, was the French press tackling the problems?

SUSAN CASKIE: Yes. They seem now to have really awakened to the fact that this is an enormous crisis, that it reaches deeply into French society. There was a commentary in the Charente Libre, which is a newspaper out of Cognac, where the commentator Jacques Guyon said, "We've been blind. We must open our eyes." And then he went on to say, "We have believed that repeating, 'liberte, equality, fraternity' often enough would integrate our immigrants. But that is not the case."

DALJIT DHALIWAL: And what about other European countries, how did they cover it?

SUSAN CASKIE: One thing that I found that was very interesting was that countries that have large immigrant populations, but not Muslim immigrants, are just as nervous about the prospect of rioting or of unrest as the countries with Muslim populations. And I think in the U.S. coverage, it tended to focus on oh, these are Muslim immigrants and it's the big clash of civilizations. But in Europe they're really not seeing it that way. There are editorials in Estonian newspapers talking about the Russian minority, which is a very large minority there, and they've had lots of trouble [LAUGHS] integrating the Russians into Estonia. And they're taking the French model as an example and saying look, look what happens when you ignore your minority.

DALJIT DHALIWAL: And in the Muslim world, how did it play out there?

SUSAN CASKIE: Well, there's quite a diversity of opinion in the Muslim world, which is interesting. It was more diverse, really, than the European reactions. In Algeria, papers are concentrating mostly on criticizing the security measures that are now being taken, the state of emergency that's been called in France. Liberte, which is from the capital, and also Le Quotidien D'Oran -- they are criticizing the resurrection of a French law from 1955. It allows enormous crackdowns. It allows police to fire on rioters if they need to. And this was last done when France was at war with Algeria, and so the Algerian papers are saying this is an outrage and you're treating these French citizens, who are no longer Algerian, you're treating them the way you treated us back in the colonial period, and it's going to backfire. But then over in other Muslim countries, in Iran-- there are fewer Iranian immigrants in France, so Iran is really looking at this as an outsider-- Iran had the harshest criticisms of France in the entire Muslim world that I saw, lots of calls for boycotts saying "In the name of God, the compassionate, the merciful, France will be struck down for its response," things like that.

DALJIT DHALIWAL: Okay. What about the United States, Susan? There we tended to see two dueling narratives that seemed to divide along party lines. From the right, the riots were seen as part of the clash of civilizations and at one point it was even called the Ramadan offensive. And then the left, the rioters were seen as a disenfranchised population fighting for liberty, fraternity and equality. Is this what you observed as well?

SUSAN CASKIE: In the U.S. press, definitely there was that split. And it's very different from the European press because Europe is not splitting in a left/right way that way. The Washington Post had an editorial saying this isn't terrorism, this is venting. They're venting frustration at years of high unemployment and racism. And that was really the main thesis, that it's not about jihadis, it's not about an Islamist ideology. It has very little to do with Islam; it's about unemployment. And then you go over to some papers on the right. The Chicago Sun-Times ran a column by Mark Steyn. He said, "No, no, no. This is the first skirmish in the Eurabian civil war."

DALJIT DHALIWAL: Thanks very much, Susan.

SUSAN CASKIE: Thanks. It's good to be here.

DALJIT DHALIWAL: Susan Caskie rounds up the world's papers for The Week.

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2) AUDIO/On the Media: Wal-Mart Warriors [Emission radio avec transcription, cette fois-ci sur un documentaire sur les méfaits des hypermarchés Wal-Mart.]
http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/transcripts_111105_walmart.html

"WAL-MART WARRIORS"
November 11, 2005

BOB GARFIELD: This is On the Media. I'm Bob Garfield.

DALJIT DHALIWAL: And I'm Daljit Dhaliwal. Being the world's largest retailer and North America's largest private employer has advantages and disadvantages. At Wal-Mart, everyday low prices have also translated into everyday bad publicity. For years it has been accused of destroying Main Street, exploiting employees, and raping the labor markets of the developing world. With the premiere this week of an anti-WalMart documentary film, the company's PR challenges are going to the next level, and so too is the PR response, a war room staffed with political operatives and public relations specialists to get out good news and confront the bad. Apart from the short-term urgency, says Steven Greenhouse, workplace and labor reporter for the New York Times, the goal is to win the hearts and minds of middle-class consumers the company is increasingly anxious to win over. And he joins us now. Steven, welcome to the show.

STEVEN GREENHOUSE: Happy to be here.

DALJIT DHALIWAL: Okay. Well, let's talk about some of these people who are in the political war room. Who are the heavy-hitters behind Wal-Mart's makeover?

STEVEN GREENHOUSE: There are some very heavy hitters, including one of the heaviest of all, Michael Deaver, who was one of Ronald Reagan's key image advisors, and then there's Leslie Dach, who was a media advisor to Bill Clinton, and Jonathan Adashek, who was head of national delegate strategy for the Kerry campaign. They've hired the Edelman public relations firm, one of the most respected public relations firms in the country, and they have many other operatives from Republican campaigns and Democratic campaigns. I think in ways what Wal-Mart's doing is it's often viewed as a red-state company and is hiring some blue-staters to help them especially with the opposition they face in blue states and, you know, some of the bluest of cities, like L.A., Chicago and New York. And they're hoping that some of these Democratic operatives will have ties to Democrats and labor unions.

DALJIT DHALIWAL: So why is Wal-Mart going down this route?

STEVEN GREENHOUSE: For many years Wal-Mart was growing slowly and the cultural lead, the news media did not pay much attention to them. And now Wal-Mart's getting criticized by a movie, by several groups supported by unions that are seeking to pound Wal-Mart very hard to pressure Wal-Mart to improve its wages and benefits. The largest class action employment lawsuit in American history is pending against Wal-Mart, and the lawsuit alleges that Wal-Mart discriminated against women in promotions and pay, more than one and a half million women, and Wal-Mart's very, very worried that the lawsuit could alienate a lot of its customer base and discourage some consumers from shopping at Wal-Mart.

DALJIT DHALIWAL: And you wrote about an internal Wal-Mart memo leaked to the New York Times a few weeks ago detailing the company's plans to aggressively keep down employee health benefits while minimizing damage to the company's reputation. Now, that was a particularly high-profile embarrassment. Given this, do you see their P.R. effort then as a charm offensive or are they really talking about making more substantive changes to their business practices?

STEVEN GREENHOUSE: I would think it's mainly a charm offensive, and this memo makes very clear that they're extremely image-conscious. And I think if you read the memo closely, it appears that they're trying to improve their image on the cheap. They say they're increasing their benefits but they plan to pare their benefits spending by about a billion dollars over the next few years, or they hope to, at least.

DALJIT DHALIWAL: And they're also offering things like journalism scholarships. What's that about?

STEVEN GREENHOUSE: I think that's very smart of them. About a year ago they decided, "we're going to go out into the public forum and we're going to improve our image and we're going to give money to many African-American groups, to Hispanic groups" and, miracle of miracles, they're also sponsoring these journalism fellowships.

DALJIT DHALIWAL: There was a recent article in the New York Times which said that Wal-Mart had taken a page essentially out of the political playbook and that it was chasing the swing voter.

STEVEN GREENHOUSE: Wal-Mart realizes that it has many very loyal consumers. You know, 80, 85 percent of the American people shop at Wal-Mart each year. It also realizes that there are naysayers, liberals, you know, folks who live in New York City or Vermont who just aren't going to shop at Wal-Mart. But Wal-Mart also realizes that there's a group of swing shoppers, or swing voters, who could perhaps be swayed to stop shopping at Wal-Mart if they see these negative movies, read these negative articles. Wal-Mart hired McKinsey and Company, the consulting firm, and McKinsey found that somewhere between two and eight percent of shoppers have decided to stop shopping at the company because they've been affected by negative information about Wal-Mart.

DALJIT DHALIWAL: Well, one place where the company did get a lot of brownie points was the way in which they swung into action with their Katrina relief efforts. It's no secret that Wal-Mart has legions of critics, but are they getting credit where credit is due?

STEVEN GREENHOUSE: I think Wal-Mart did a marvelous job on Katrina. CEO Lee Scott is brilliant at distribution and logistics. Someone wrote an article saying that Lee Scott should have been hired as head of FEMA. Wal-Mart certainly did a better job than FEMA in getting important materials out to its stores when FEMA lagged behind, and Wal-Mart really then tried to milk that to get some good publicity.

DALJIT DHALIWAL: And you've also written that Wal-Mart has these designs on the middle-class urban taste-makers, so to speak, and that is a consumer base that's different from the one that they've built their business around essentially. How has this changed their message then and their ads, and also their image?

STEVEN GREENHOUSE: Wal-Mart traditionally focused on the low-income shopper, especially in the South. And it's seeing that income, wages for the bottom half of American society, is not growing very rapidly. The top half has been doing better in terms of earnings. And Wal-Mart sees Target and Neiman-Marcus and Saks doing better than Wal-Mart in terms of comparable store sales and it says, hey, we want some of that, we want more of that. So it's moving upscale and it's going after a more sophisticated market, people who read papers like the Washington Post and the New York Times and BusinessWeek and see negative stories about Wal-Mart.

DALJIT DHALIWAL: Steven, thanks very much for joining us on the program.

STEVEN GREENHOUSE: Thank you very much. Happy to be here.

DALJIT DHALIWAL: Steven Greenhouse is a labor and workplace reporter for the New York Times.

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3) Slate: The global failures index [Un indicateur économique méconnu : le nombre de faillites d'entreprises.]
http://www.slate.com/id/2131571/

Obscure Economic Indicator: The Global Failures Index
The bad news: It's going way up in 2006.
By Daniel Gross
Posted Monday, Dec. 5, 2005, at 5:18 PM ET

Rosy economic news is everywhere these days. Last week, the Commerce Department reported that the gross domestic product rose at a 4.3 percent annual rate in the third quarter. There was a nice jobs report on Friday. The folks at CNBC are busting out the "Dow 11,000" hats again (though the "Dow 36,000" Windbreakers remain in deep storage). And the next few weeks will bring sunny forecasts for 2006—not whether the economy and stock market will rise, but by how much.

But one often-overlooked source suggests dark times ahead for the U.S. economy. The source is Euler Hermes, a France-based company that may sound like a fashion house but is far, far less glamorous. It provides credit insurance to businesses. As such, Euler Hermes is the Michelin Guide of business failure. Its researchers constantly scan the globe for the latest in bankruptcy and liquidation to compile the Global Failures Index. And lately Euler Hermes doesn't like what it's seeing in the United States. The firm predicts that in 2006, U.S. business failures will rise for the first time in the 21st century.

The last four years have been traumatic times for the U.S. economy—a stock market crash, the attacks of Sept. 11, a brief recession, a war, and a spike in commodity and energy prices. But American businesses have weathered them all quite well, thanks in large part to low interest rates. Contrary to what one might expect, and despite scores of high-profile bankruptcies, the number of business failures—businesses filing for either Chapter 7 or Chapter 11—has fallen in each of the last four years. U.S. business failures fell from 39,885 in 2001 to 34,167 in 2004, according to Euler Hermes. And through the first half of 2005, when 16,799 businesses failed, corporate fiascoes were running at their lowest annual rate for 25 years.

Bankruptcies in ailing industries like airlines and the technology sectors may have garnered big headlines. But Dan North, chief economist at Euler Hermes, notes that business failure numbers are correlated with two factors: low interest rates and GDP growth. And for much of the last two decades, with interest rates generally falling and recessions rare, the macroeconomic climate has been favorably disposed toward business survival.

But now, North believes that both trends are working against American businesses large and small. First, interest rates have been rising. The Federal Reserve has increased the federal funds rate from 1 percent in 2004 to 4 percent today and shows no sign of stopping. Long-term rates on instruments like mortgages and government bonds have been rising, albeit at a slower rate. Just as lower interest rates can extend the life of a struggling business—refinancing helps companies, not just strapped homeowners—a climate of rising rates can cut them short. If you're financing a startup on credit cards, the margin for error declines when the interest rate goes from 16 percent to 20 percent.

Second, North believes the pace of GDP growth will slow, which will lead to business failures. When the economy has been growing at a steady clip, businesses tend to invest and build up their infrastructures to accommodate continued robust growth. When growth fails to materialize as expected, they can easily get caught short, with too much capacity, too many employees, and too much debt. "In a way, the fact that GDP growth was 4.3 percent in the third quarter works against us," said North. The more sharply the brakes are applied, the more people go crashing into the dashboard.

From the perspective of business failures, the United States will be worse off than the rest of the world next year. While Euler Hermes expects business failures to rise 3 percent in the U.S. in 2006, the Global Failure Index is expected to rise just 1 percent. (Word to the wise: Avoid investing in that Slovakian chain of photo shops your brother-in-law is touting. Euler Hermes expects business failures to rise 24 percent next year in Slovakia.)

Of course, the rise in failures isn't necessarily a bad sign for the economy at large. The U.S. economy runs on a variety of fuels, the most powerful of which is our collective capacity for risk-taking. As North notes, "Good times make people feel like they're very strong and able to start businesses and take risks." Remember 1999, when everybody was somehow involved in a dot-com startup? U.S. businesses have a high mortality rate precisely because of the widespread tendency to entrepreneurship. So many businesses fail because so many are created. Ohio State University Professor H.G. Parsa found that about 60 percent of restaurants failed in three years, for example. If Euler Hermes is correct, the increase in the rate of business failures will surely prove difficult for owners, employees, and creditors. But we should probably be more worried if the economy grew at 3 percent, interest rates rose—and business failures continued to drop. It would mean Americans had stopped trying to get rich.

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4) Le texte plus abordable de la semaine/Scholastic: Rent-a-Tree [Sauver un arbre en louant votre sapin de Noël.]
http://teacher.scholastic.com/scholasticnews/

Rent-a-Tree
By Gail Hennessey

Why chop down a new Christmas tree when you can rent one? A new program in San Francisco, California, provides an environmentally friendly new way to celebrate the holiday. Alexis Harte, of the San Francisco Department of Environment, told Scholastic News Online that was inspired by the sight of discarded trees by the side of the road after last year's holiday season. He wondered: Why should we throw away Christmas trees when we could plant them to beautify neighborhood streets? "Holidays like Christmas can become anything you want," said Harte. "You can use the holiday to help your community. Getting a tree and giving it to your community keeps the Christmas spirit alive all throughout the year."

The rented trees aren't the usual triangle-shaped evergreens. The seven- to nine-foot trees are fruitless olive, Brisbane boxes, and primrose. And they're in pots. With a narrow trunk and few branches, the young trees look like they belong in a Charlie Brown special. "People with rented trees got very creative and had the imagination to see beyond what a normal Christmas tree normally looks like," said Harte.

The program met with an enthusiastic response. The 100 rental trees sold out quickly, at $90 apiece (including delivery, lights, and pickup). Friends of the Urban Forest, a nonprofit group, were responsible for dropping off and picking up the trees. "Instead of seeing a cut and dead horizontal tree on the sidewalk after the holidays, you can see a vertical tree growing on the sidewalk for many years to come," said Kelly Quirke of Friends of the Urban Forest.

Happy holidays—from Scholastic News Online!

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6) Smart Money/10 Things They Won't Tell You: Caterers [10 secrets des traiteurs que votre traiteur ne vous dira jamais.]
http://www.smartmoney.com/10things/

10 Things Your Caterer Won't Tell You
By Nancy Nall Derringer Published: May 10, 2005

1. "Did I mention this is my first time?"
As any stressed-out host can attest, planning a social event of any scale is hard work, be it a small cocktail party or a formal wedding. With the time constraints of daily life — those related to work, family and other commitments — ever increasing, more and more people are now handing over part of the job to someone else. By some industry estimates, there are now more than 30,000 specialty caterers doing business in the U.S.

But that figure leaves out smaller operators who may not be listed in phone books and professional directories, a group International Caterers Association President Linda West describes as "selling sandwiches out of the back of the Volvo," which could include thousands more outfits. Anyone can call himself a caterer, and that means a huge disparity in the level of service, skill, cleanliness and general professionalism you might find out there. The best way to choose a caterer you can trust? Word of mouth, West says. Talk to people in your area whose opinions you trust; even better, ask anyone who has held a catered event that you've enjoyed. And when speaking to a potential caterer, be sure to request at least three references — and call them.

2. "You could probably do this a whole lot cheaper."
Most full-service caterers like to handle everything from the food and the alcohol to the coat check. They say this makes things easier on the host, but it's also more profitable for them. There are some easy ways to save money though — starting with buying your own liquor. Some caterers charge above-retail prices on alcohol; if you buy it yourself, you'll pay roughly half their price. Even if your caterer then charges you a $2 to $5 corkage fee per bottle, the savings can still be significant — especially if your retailer accepts returns of unopened bottles, which many do. A word of caution: Liquor laws differ by jurisdiction; in some areas it's illegal to provide your own alcohol at a catered event, so check first.

You can also save big by renting your own supplies — if your caterer will allow it — such as tables, chairs or dishware. You'll save on the markup, which can be as much as 30%, and you can still ask your caterer to handle the setup.

Finally, be flexible about the date. If you hold your event on a Friday, Sunday or even midweek, you can save up to 15%, says Michael Roman, president of Catersource, a support and education organization for caterers.

3. "You may not want to know what's in my secret recipe."
We knew a caterer in Indiana, who has since passed away, who was famous for his sweet-and-sour meatballs. People begged him for the recipe, but he kept it closely guarded. And for good reason: The meatballs came frozen from a restaurant-supply house, and the sauce was doctored with such secret ingredients as grape jelly.

Ingredients can become a sticking point with caterers and their dishes, many of which include surprising — and not always healthy — additions. If you have any special requests such as vegetarian dishes, be sure to let your caterer know, and ask to review lists of ingredients.

Food allergies are a more serious concern. Fort Wayne, Ind., catering chef Marla Cohen recalls a four-year-old at one event who was allergic to peanuts and touched a plate that had held chicken satay: "Her bottom lip swelled up just like that." Cohen called an ambulance and the child was fine, but anaphylactic shock can kill. Most people with allergies know what foods to avoid. But if any of your guests has such a condition, it's vital to tell your caterer; some troublesome ingredients — like peanut oil — may be hidden in preparations.

4. "That staggering drunk wants another round? No problem!"
Alcohol gets any good party flowing, but serving it in your home presents potentially dangerous situations. Liquor concerns "are a very hot issue in catering today," says Catersource's Michael Roman, who adds that hosts often expect bartenders to cross the line by serving minors or to keep serving guests who've already had too much to drink.

Serving underage or obviously drunk guests is illegal, and if something goes wrong, you're the one who could be held liable. "This is something that's up to everyone to enforce," Roman says. "The host should back up the bartender." Such situations require diplomacy and finesse, so ask for experienced bartenders — and ask the caterer to keep a watchful eye. Linda West, the head of the catering association and owner of Houston-based Mélange Catering & Special Events, hands out taxi vouchers to anyone whose level of impairment seems questionable. The vouchers include next-day returns so guests can pick up their cars — sober.

An added safeguard: While you may pay much more for it, if you do purchase the alcohol through your caterer, you are generally covered by the caterer's liability insurance.

5. "This spread will easily serve 50...dieting models."
A host's worst nightmare is running out of food. Dallas event planner Jennifer Fenimore recently handled a wedding where she was promised food for 50. Forty-two guests showed up, and they still ran short. "I wish I had known what the caterer considered a portion size," she says. "The only thing that didn't run out was the mashed-potato martini bar" — a station featuring mashed potatoes in martini glasses, with a variety of toppings — "and that's only because we had the wrong size of martini glasses. They were too small."

Experienced caterers know that some groups eat more than others, but they should never run short. If you expect your guests to be served a full lunch, be sure to tell your caterer. If a finger-food buffet will serve as a light meal at your reception, make that clear too. On the flip side, if your budget is limited, don't skimp on portion size. Former Chicago caterer Adrienne Battin once had a client who was expecting 18 for lunch and wanted her to serve a buffet with just 18 shrimp. "I told her that I wasn't going to stand there like a police officer and tell anyone who took two to put one back," Battin says. "If you can't afford shrimp, don't serve it."

But even the best-laid plans can be disrupted by the unexpected snafu. Battin once handled a home wedding reception where the portable ovens she'd brought couldn't run without shorting out the host's electrical system. A neighbor was nice enough to lend his portable generators, but without them the entrée might have been Chinese takeout.

Experienced caterers schedule walk-throughs when they're planning to cook at an unfamiliar facility and carry such unusual kitchen equipment as socket testers and oven thermometers. If your caterer doesn't ask to see your facility first, request that he pay a visit — or consider going with another outfit.

7. "Your leftovers will feed my family for a week."
You paid for that food, and it's yours, even the leftovers. Just as in a restaurant, it's your right to have all the leftovers returned to you, wrapped for takeout. But it isn't unheard of for some caterers to quietly take doggie bags of their own.

"At one company I worked for, the cleanup people walked off with the leftovers," says Battin, whose client had been expecting to find food in her refrigerator the following morning. It was probably a misunderstanding, but it cost her company, which then had to compensate the client.

Of course, you may not want the leftovers. Newlyweds, for instance, may be leaving on their honeymoon the day after their reception and don't particularly want to come home to two-week-old food. If none of your relatives or guests are interested in taking home slightly wilted hors d'oeuvres, consider gifting them to your caterer — Battin says she often parcels them out to service captains, security guards and other support staff as an extra gratuity of sorts. Another option: Ask your caterer if he works with an organization that accepts leftovers for the needy.

8. "I hope you like piercings. My waiters have more holes in their head than a block of Swiss cheese."
Food service attracts a wide range of workers, from career professionals to moonlighting artists. And while it may be cool for artists to sport pierced eyebrows on their own time, you have a right not to have to look at them at your event. If you don't want to see piercings, for example, or green hair or tattoos on your servers, tell your caterer up front. In turn, it's the caterer's right to accept or not accept a job based on those requests.

You can be as specific as you like: Roman of Catersource says he once had a hostess ask him not to use any waitresses who were well-endowed. "She said, 'My husband and I are having problems,'" Roman recalls. He complied with the request. "Don't be afraid to ask for something — anything is negotiable," he says. (Not entirely true: Race and ethnicity are off-limits.)

You're free to dictate a dress code for the servers, too, within reason, though any special outfits — if you're throwing a costume party, for example, or a corporate event and want the servers to wear T-shirts with logos — are your responsibility. Otherwise, simple all-black, all-white or black-and-white attire is considered standard.

9. "You say 'budget'; I say 'guesstimate.'"
Many a host has spent hours on end fine-tuning the menu, shaving costs here and there to fit a strict budget, only to be surprised by the bill at the end. That's because many caterers neglect to calculate tax and gratuity charges in their estimates, add-ons that can easily boost a final bill by as much as 25%. "If I say I can pay $100 [per guest], I don't want to get a bill for $125," says Linda Cauiola, an event planner in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Tax and gratuity figures can vary widely; you can expect to pay as much as 22% for the latter. Ask whom it will cover: Often the gratuity may include wait staff, security guards, captains and any other service people employed by your caterer. You're not required to tip more on top of it, but you may want to: It's not uncommon, for example, to give a little extra to captains or the wait staff. (Valet parkers are tipped at the guest's discretion.)

But to avoid any surprises, tell your caterer you want to see an inclusive budget, and ask specifically about tax, gratuity and any potential extra charges. "If they get quiet, you have a problem," Cauiola says.

10. "Of course your event will be unique. But we're pricing chicken Kiev to move this week."
All hosts want their party to be memorable, and for the right reasons — not because theirs was the last in a long line of mini-quiche and vegetable-plate receptions this season. "I tell banquet managers all the time, I don't want the same thing they're serving at Company Y's function," Cauiola says. "But it happens — because they're lazy."

Caterers should keep up with trends but also have original ideas that can work within your budget. One result of the recent explosion of home-entertaining TV shows, books and magazines has been an increase in creative ideas and widespread availability of gourmet ingredients, often at reasonable prices.

So there's no excuse anymore for banquet-style chicken cordon bleu.

To ensure that your event is unique, Cauiola advises micromanaging: Check and recheck menus and event orders, ask questions, even peek into chafing dishes before guests arrive to make sure the salmon you requested is there and cooked the way you want it. "You have to be able to trust your caterer," she says. "My clients don't want a refund or an apology. They want their dinner to go well."

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7) AUDIO/On the Media: In So Many Words [Emission radio avec transcription, cette fois-ci sur les mots de l'année 2005 annoncés par un dico américain.]
http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/transcripts_121605_words.html

IN SO MANY WORDS

December 16, 2005

BOB GARFIELD: Have you ever encountered a lifehack? Do you know what it means to be squicked? These were all runners-up for the coveted distinction of the New Oxford American Dictionary's 2005 Word of the Year. Those and a bunch of other neologisms you've never heard of will be included in the next online update of the dictionary due out early next year. Erin McKean is the New Oxford American editor-in-chief, and she joins me now to explain the difference between an IDP and an IED. Erin, welcome to OTM.

ERIN McKEAN:: [LAUGHS] Thank you.

BOB GARFIELD: Erin, the New Oxford American Word of the Year 2005, I'm happy to report, is one very near and dear to the soul of this radio program. Drumroll, please. The word is -

ERIN McKEAN:: Podcast. I'm really happy to think that maybe in a very meta way, people are hearing that "podcast" is the word of the year on a podcast. That would be really cool, wouldn't it?

BOB GARFIELD: Tell me, according to the New Oxford American Dictionary, what's a podcast and how it wound up as Word of the Year.

ERIN McKEAN:: We define a podcast as a digital recording of a radio broadcast or a similar program made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player. I really wanted to put "podcast" into the print edition that came out earlier this year, but we just didn't have enough evidence for it. And then about oh, three weeks after our print deadline, the word just blew up. It was everywhere. And so when it came time to choose the Word of the Year, I was a staunch advocate for "podcast." And now everybody and their uncle has a podcast.

BOB GARFIELD: Okay, thank you, fine, sure. Devalue what we do.

ERIN McKEAN:: [LAUGHS]

BOB GARFIELD: So has technology always been a driving force behind bringing new words into the lexicon?

ERIN McKEAN:: It's hard to say whether technology is really the driving force, or whether it's some kind of observer paradox in that it's very easy for us to find technology words. Because where do people discuss technology? They do it on the Internet. And the Internet's very easy to search. Words that don't get talked about on the Internet are harder to find. Now, that doesn't mean we aren't looking for them. It just means that we have a lot of evidence from the technology arena and less evidence about, say, terms of cat breeding or surfer talk or stuff like that.

BOB GARFIELD: Erin, have you ever been squicked by something? And what question have I just asked, because I actually have no idea?

ERIN McKEAN:: [LAUGHS] You have just asked whether I have been immediately revolted by something.

BOB GARFIELD: Where does this come from? It sounds kind of like surfer parlance.

ERIN McKEAN:: I actually cannot say on the radio where this word came from, because somebody sent me a link to a Usenet newsgroup called alt.tasteless, which should give you an idea of why I can't talk about the etymology of this word on the radio. But, you know, Google is out there and it will be a friend to you if you want to find out.

BOB GARFIELD: All right. Well, I'd like to tell you that I just don't even - [OVERTALK]

ERIN McKEAN:: [LAUGHS]

BOB GARFIELD: - want to know. But - [OVERTALK]

ERIN McKEAN:: You don't want to know -

BOB GARFIELD: - I really, really do. [OVERLAPPING VOICES]

ERIN McKEAN:: - believe me!

BOB GARFIELD: So as soon as we're done with this, I'm going to - [BOTH AT ONCE]

ERIN McKEAN:: [LAUGHING]

BOB GARFIELD: In journalism circles, a hack is a pejorative term, but what about a lifehack? Where does that come from?

ERIN McKEAN:: Computer geeks think of hacks as generally good things. They make stuff work in a better way, possibly not the way the original manufacturers intended, whereas non-computer people see the word "hacker" and they have very negative connotations. So a lifehack is any kind of little trick that you use to make something work more efficiently or to do something more effectively. For instance, a very simple lifehack is to pick one place for your keys and never put them anywhere other than that.

BOB GARFIELD: It's a solution to a persistent problem. [OVERTALK]

ERIN McKEAN:: It's kind of like a very geeky kind of "Hints from Heloise."

BOB GARFIELD: [LAUGHS] Okay. [LAUGHS] Erin, after World War II, the acronym "DP" for "displaced persons" was very popular and quickly became, as many descriptives do, offensive to those who had emigrated here to escape persecution because it became stigmatized. What is an IDP and when did that shorthand creep into the language?

ERIN McKEAN:: IDP is actually pretty old. We have citations from the thirties. But it came to prominence this past year when there was that big controversy over whether you could tell people who had been affected by Hurricane Katrina, whether you could call them evacuees or refugees. And both of those terms became stigmatized. And so IDP, which is much more bureaucratic, was used instead.

BOB GARFIELD: And it stands for?

ERIN McKEAN:: Internally displaced person.

BOB GARFIELD: Now, we promised an explanation of the difference between IDP and IED. Erin, what's IED?

ERIN McKEAN:: An improvised explosive device. IED is a word that really owes its place on this list to the war in Iraq.

BOB GARFIELD: One more question. If I were to throw an iPod in Times Square, am I likely to hit someone who knows what in the world "reggaeton" is?

ERIN McKEAN:: I'm pretty sure you would be able, depending on your aim. It's a Latin-American dance music which is getting a lot of play here, and it combines elements of reggae with hip-hop and rap. It's pretty catchy, I have to say.

BOB GARFIELD: Thank you very much for joining us.

ERIN McKEAN:: Oh, you're very welcome. Thank you.

BOB GARFIELD: Erin McKean is the editor-in-chief of the New Oxford American Dictionary where, in its 2006 updated version online, you'll find all the words we just talked about and, no doubt, quite a few more. [REGGAETON MUSIC UP AND UNDER]

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8) Toronto Sun: Advice on buying gifts for your gal [Conseils aux hommes sur les cadeaux à choisir et ceux à éviter pour la femme de leur vie.]

http://torontosun.com/Lifestyle/2005/12/24/1366899-sun.html
Better watch out!
Guys, some advice on buying gifts for your special gal

By VALERIE GIBSON, TORONTO SUN

Are you a bad gift giver?

Does your partner or family cringe when they open your present on Christmas morning? You're not alone. Although tomorrow morning will find many folks overcome with joy, pleasure and surprise at their gifts, just as many will be horrified at what they unwrap. Maybe even annoyed and even hurt. Especially women.

I don't want to make guys nervous, but the reason for that is because, far from thinking "it's the thought that counts," there's a lot more to it. So, for men, here's the goods on How a Woman Really Sees Her Gift.

Women see a gift from their partner as an indication not just to the extent of a partner's thoughtfulness, but how much that partner cares about them. They judge that by how much effort their guy has put into finding out their personal details, needs and preferences. They'll then immediately work out from all this where the relationship is at present and where it's going. Betcha didn't know all that was wrapped up in that small package, did you? It's enough to send attached males to the drinks cupboard first thing tomorrow.

Men, on the other hand, are far more sanguine and easygoing about the gifts they get. They don't see gift giving as a pyschology or relationship test but, to be fair, maybe that's because most women are usually pretty good at getting them exactly what they want.

However, for guys who want to know if the gift they bought is okay and will be well received, here's a list of items you've probably bought your beloved and here's why they won't work. But don't panic! There's still all day today to dash out and set things right! Or face the consequences.

PERFUME

I know men think it's the ideal gift to give their partner, but do you know which one is her favourite? She'll expect you to as women see perfume as an extension of themselves -- very personal. If you don't know, then she'll say you didn't care enough to find out. Also beware getting her cheap stuff from a drugstore. Again the "don't care enough."

UNDIES

Yeah, yeah, I know you'd like to see her in those sk*mpy th*ngs and br*s with n*pple cutouts but unless she's clearly indicated she's into p*rnstar outfits, she'll hate them. Good quality, pretty lingerie is good but bad if it's the wrong size. Too small or too big? Both will offend.

SLIPPERS AND GLOVES

B-o-r-i-n-g and that's what she'll think you're saying about her with this gift, especially if they're the sensible kind. Ditto slippers with animal faces. It helps a lot if the slippers are sexy with a heel and maybe some sparkles on them and that the gloves are expensive and cashmere-lined.

CLOTHING

They'd better be the right size buddy or you're in deep doo-doo. Too large and she'll think you think she's fat; too small and she'll think you want her thinner. Women prefer to buy their own clothing so better to give a gift card for a sizeable amount at their favourite fashion store.

APPLIANCES

Here's hoping this isn't your choice for her, unless she specifically asked for something. It's a rare woman who thinks a kitchen or work appliance is a loving, thoughtful gift, even if it makes life easier for her. I know -- hard for a guy to understand, but take it from a woman who knows. Also, take my word for it, oven mitts suck.

S*X TOYS, BOOKS, VIDEOS AND GAMES

You have to have a really good s*x life together to give these to a woman -- a really good s*x life where such stuff is already in play. If not, she'll think you feel your s*x life isn't good enough and needs spicing up. In other words, she may feel threatened and demeaned. If she shrieks with joy at the unwrapping, you're in for a truly festive season!

THINGS NEVER EVER TO GIVE TO A WOMAN UNLESS YOU WANT A FIGHT OR A DIVORCE

Sports items, game tickets, diet books, a fitness membership, power tools, beer fridge, car cleaning kit, shaver, ice scraper or padded toilet seat.

GIFTS THAT WOMEN LOVE

Spa certificates, books, DVDs and CDs, the latest cellphone, BlackBerry, laptop, cruise tickets and good jewelry -- especially good jewelry.

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9) New York Magazine: Sometimes a candle is more than a candle [Comment le même cadeau peut avoir une signification différente selon l'identité du destinataire. DOORMAN=portier de son immeuble d'habitation ; SECRET SANTA=Père Noël secret, coutume dans les bureaux de faire un tirage au sort parmi le personnel pour désigner qui va offrir un cadeau à qui, l'identité de son bienfaiteur restant secret jusqu'à la remise des cadeaux.]

http://www.nymag.com/guides/holidays/gifts/2005/11529/index.html
Gifts: Sometimes a Candle Is More Than a Candle
An innocent gift can send all kinds of messages, depending on whom you’re giving it to. The meaning of presents, unwrapped.

By Adam Sternbergh

Scented candle
Doorman: Sometimes the lobby smells a little funky.
Grandmother: Sometimes your house smells a little grandma-y.
Boss: Only 7-Eleven was open on the way to the holiday office party.
Secret Santa: I hope you like it—it’s the same one I got from Curt in the IT department last year.
Girlfriend/ boyfriend of two weeks: I think we should break up.
Girlfriend/ boyfriend of six months: I think we should have broken up five and a half months ago.

Gift certificate
Doorman: Thanks for a great year!
Grandmother: Please make sure to get yourself something I’ll like when I eventually inherit it.
Boss: All this downsizing must be so stressful. I hope this makes you feel better.
Secret Santa: No, I couldn’t think of anything to get for you either.
Girlfriend/ boyfriend of two weeks: I wanted to get you something, but I’m not sure yet what you like.
Girlfriend/ boyfriend of six months: I still haven’t figured out what kind of things you like, and I’ve stopped trying.

Expensive Scotch
Doorman: Happy holidays, and if I ever smell booze on your breath I’ll report you immediately.
Grandmother: Just put it in the cabinet where I can find it when I visit.
Boss: At our last client lunch, I noticed your fondness for this brand.
Secret Santa: Hey, Santa, welcome to the office party. Maybe later you can ride my sleigh.
Girlfriend/ boyfriend of two weeks: Let’s get cozy and sip this together.
Girlfriend/ boyfriend of six months: Let’s use this to get through dinner with my family.

The must-have handbag of the season
Doorman: I’ve recently come into a large amount of illicit money that I need to dispose of quickly.
Grandmother: That handbag you’ve been using is sooo 1957.
Boss: I’m hoping this will go a long way toward helping you overlook certain accounting discrepancies.
Secret Santa: My friend, you have hit the Secret Santa jackpot.
Girlfriend/ boyfriend of two weeks: What do you mean, “slow things down”?
Girlfriend/ boyfriend of six months: Happy holidays, and I’m very sorry about that weekend in Denver with my administrative assistant.

Gloves
Doorman: I wanted to show my appreciation, but with a personal touch.
Grandmother: I know you knit them for me, Grandma, but they look so much better on you.
Boss: Please feel free to exchange these for something you really want.
Secret Santa: You can exchange yours, too, though be warned: I adhered strictly to the $10-or-less limit.
Girlfriend/ boyfriend of two weeks: I really like where this relationship is going.
Girlfriend/ boyfriend of six months: I really like where this relationship has stalled.

Puppy
Doorman: I’m not really familiar with the concept of boundaries.
Grandmother: I’m very sorry I haven’t phoned you since 2003.
Boss: I like to think of our office as one big family, with you as my mother.
Secret Santa: My sister-in-law was giving them away, free.
Girlfriend/ boyfriend of two weeks: I’m already picking out china patterns.
Girlfriend/ boyfriend of six months: When you play with it, I secretly imagine you’re caring for our baby.

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10) The Economist: German bad loans [Les banques allemandes commencent à profiter de crédits en contentieux.]

http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=4237722
German bad loans

Augean stables
Jul 28th 2005 | FRANKFURT
From The Economist print edition

How local banks are learning the value of smelly business

GERMANY'S property and equity bubbles were never as inflated as Japan's, but they have nevertheless cast a pall over the German banking system. Now German banks are learning from the Japanese, among others, how to get the mass of non-performing loans off their balance sheets, and turn a pretty penny in the process. Shinsei Bank, the successor of Japan's defunct Long-Term Credit Bank (LTCB), recently formed a joint-venture with WestLB and Nord/LB, two publicly owned Landesbanken, to do just that.

Shinsei Bank's most visible shareholder is J.C. Flowers, an American fund manager that invests in distressed debt. In just five years, J.C. Flowers was able to transform financially crippled LTCB into one of Japan's most successful big banks.

For Shinsei's German venture, called SGK, the German banks will each put in €200m-worth ($240m) of bad loans and rely on J.C. Flowers to extract their residual value. With most dicey loans, there is either real-estate collateral to be seized or partial repayment to be negotiated with the borrower. As long as the gains from either outstrip the purchase price, the fund's investors are happy. This is work that the banks cannot or will not do themselves: calling in loans, managing property and severing relationships with customers is not their natural business.

J.C. Flowers was not the first American investment fund to enter the German bad-loan market, but it has been the first to offer German banks a share of the spoils. If Germany's competition authorities agree, SGK hopes to offer its platform to the entire public banking sector, which holds about a third of the estimated €300 billion of non-performing loans in the country's banking system. There are billions of profits to be made, especially by funds that can borrow up to three times their capital.

That kind of calculation has attracted many opportunistic investors to Germany. The market leader is Lone Star, of Dallas, Texas, which has bought loans with a face value totalling some €6 billion from German banks. That includes a €3.6 billion portfolio of real-estate loans from HypoVereinsbank and, partially in partnership with Merrill Lynch, an investment bank, €2.8 billion in loans from Dresdner Bank, part of the Allianz insurance group. Both of these big German banks needed to improve their capital position by getting uncertain risks off their balance sheet.

Dresdner Bank created a special institutional restructuring unit in 2002 to get rid of €35 billion of assets including unwanted foreign subsidiaries and bad loans. It hired a team from Sweden, which had performed a similar exercise after the Swedish banking crisis of 1992. After five years, the unit has nearly finished its task.

Dresdner has no plans to offer its loan-workout platform to banks with similar problems—a strange decision, given that its parent Allianz could make good money, like Lone Star and Goldman Sachs, an investment bank, by investing in the bad-loan business. These two firms clearly see a long-term future for the market in Germany. In June Lone Star bought Mitteleuropäische Handelsbank to allow it to handle live loans as well as non-performing ones—lending requires a banking licence. Goldman Sachs also gained a full banking licence by buying Delmora, the remains of two insolvent German banks.

J.C. Flowers is still looking for a German licence: in 2003 it tried to buy the troubled Bankgesellschaft Berlin, but its bid was rejected. Now it is interested in AHBR, a mortgage bank. Its joint-venture with Nord/LB and WestLB could provide another solution, however: SGK itself may apply for a banking licence in a year or two if business takes off.

Investors in bad loans are often seen as vultures, and they have certainly enjoyed rich pickings in Germany. Yet German bankers have been slow to develop an alternative. Deutsche Bank, for example, has preferred to deal in more liquid single-name debt, such as Eurotunnel. Or it has “fronted”—acted as a bank for non-bank loan investors.

The normally dozy co-operative banks, ironically, have had their own workout solution since 1987 in the form of Bankaktiengesellschaft (BAG) Hamm. BAG Hamm is a reservoir of troubled loans, but it is a cost centre rather than a source of profit. The savings banks considered using this platform too, until SGK looked likely to embrace the entire public banking sector. Nevertheless, the savings banks in eastern Germany, where the bad-loan problem is acute, have suggested creating their own “bad” bank.

The concept that loan values can vary from par (100%) to zero has obviously taken hold, and it is changing the relationship between companies and banks. Last December KarstadtQuelle, a troubled retail and mail-order group, borrowed €1.75 billion from a syndicate of banks. The debt immediately appeared in the secondary market, at a hefty discount. The message is probably a healthy one: even in Germany, a company's relationship with its bankers has become a matter of hours, not years.

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11) Reuters: India's Bangalore to change name [Encore une ville indienne qui change de nom.]

http://news.yahoo.com
India's Bangalore to change name to bean town
Mon Dec 12,10:32 AM ET

BANGALORE (Reuters) - Bangalore, long known as India's Garden City and now a global technology hub, is set to change its name to Bengalooru, reverting to a centuries-old title that means "the town of boiled beans".

The city of 6.5 million, capital of southern Karnataka state, is the latest to drop a colonial name British rulers found easier to pronounce than the original. The financial centre of Bombay has become Mumbai, the southern city of Madras is now Chennai, and Calcutta is Kolkata.

"The decision has been taken. Most likely it will be from November, 2006," a spokesman for state Chief Minister Dharam Singh said on Monday.

Bangalore houses more than 1,500 technology and office service companies that account for a third of India's $17-billion (9.6 billion pounds) software and office service industry.

The original name of Bangalore is said to be derived from "benda kalooru", or boiled beans, because a king exhausted during a forest hunt in the 14th century was fed boiled beans by a villager where the city now stands.

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That was the case for sophomore Ali Huffstetler, who said she "luuuvs" the slow-paced softness of her upstate South Carolina magnolia mouth but wants to be able to turn it on and off depending on her audience. "I went to New Hampshire to visit one of my best friends and all they kept saying was, 'Will you please talk, can you just talk for me?'" Huffstetler said. "I felt like a little puppet show."
Across the fast-growing South, accents are under assault, and not just from the modern-day Henry Higginses of academia. There's the flood of transplants from other regions, notions of Southern upward mobility that require dropping the drawl, and stereotypes that "y'alls" and "suhs" signal low status or lack of intelligence.

But is the Southern accent really disappearing? That depends what accent you mean. The South, because of its rural, isolated past, boasts a diversity of dialects, from Appalachian twangs in several states to Elizabethan lilts in Virginia to Cajun accents in Louisiana to African-influenced Gullah accents on the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina.

One accent that has been all but wiped out is the slow juleps-in-the-moonlight drawl favored by Hollywood portrayals of the South. To find that so-called plantation accent in most parts of the region nowadays requires a trip to the video store. "The Rhett-and-Scarlett accent, that is disappearing, no doubt about it," said Bill Kretzschmar, a linguist at the University of Georgia and editor of the American Linguistic Atlas, which tracks speech patterns. "Blame it on the boll weevil," he said, referring to the cotton pest. "That accent from plantation areas, which was never the whole South, has been in decline for a long time. The economic basis of that culture started going away at the turn of the last century," when the bugs nearly wiped out the South's cotton economy.

Even as the stereotypical Southern accent gets rarer, other speech patterns take its place, and they're not any less Southern. The Upland South accent, a faster-paced dialect native to the Appalachian mountains, is said to be spreading just as fast as the plantation drawl disappears. "The one constant about language is, it's always changing," Kretzschmar said. "The Southern accent is not going anywhere. But you have all kinds of mixtures and changes."

For a long-term study on whether the Southern accent is disappearing, University of Georgia linguists went to Roswell, Ga., an Atlanta suburb that is just the kind of transient place that leads to the death of indigenous dialects. It's packed with strip malls and subdivisions with no cotton patches or peach trees in sight. "I don't hear it," 21-year-old Roswell native Amanda Locher said of the accent. She's never lived outside the South, but even Northern newcomers question her Southernness. "People tell me I sound like I'm from up North. To hear a true Southern accent, you'd have to go deeper south than here." Adam Mach, a 25-year-old tire shop worker who moved to the Atlanta suburbs from Lafayette, La., has got a noticeable Louisiana lilt. But he said his accent seldom makes conversation because the area is such a melting pot of newcomers. "Everybody I meet's not from here," he shrugged.

North Carolina State University linguist Walt Wolfram said it's a misconception among Southerners that Yankee newcomers are stamping out traditional speech. More likely, he said, is that newcomers pick up local speech patterns. "When people move here and don't think they've changed at all, they go home and people say, 'Wow. You've turned Southern.' They pick up enough to be identified as Southern. So it's still there, still strongly identified with the South," Wolfram said.

But that doesn't mean that population change in the South isn't chipping away at old-timey dialects, especially in cities. Wolfram said the "dearest feature" of the Southern accent - the vowel shift where one-syllable words like "air" come out in two syllables, "ay-ah" - is certainly vanishing. Other aspects - such as double-modal constructions like "might could" - are still pervasive.

Kretzschmar, who has recorded Roswell speakers for three years, said his suburban Atlanta studies have backed up his suspicion that the Southern accent is morphing along with the urbanizing South.
"It's not really disappearing, but the circumstances of living make it different," he said. "People don't have connections with their neighbors to maintain their way of speech. "The circumstances of how people get together and talk in the cities have changed; they're not constantly talking to people who talk just like them. But in the South outside the cities, you have a lot of similarities."

Georgia-bred humorist Roy Blount Jr. understands that people with strong Southern accents are often perceived as "slow and dimwitted." But he thinks it's "sort of a shame" that people should feel the need to soften or even lose their accents. "My father, who was a surely intelligent man, would say `cain't'. He wouldn't say `can't.' And, `There ain't no way, just there ain't no way.' You don't want to say, `There isn't any way.' That just spoils the whole thing," Blount said. "I just think that there's a certain eloquence in Southern vernacular that I wouldn't want to lose touch with ... you ought to sound like where you come from."

But never fear. There are still plenty of professions that thrive on a good Southern twang - from preachers to football coaches to a certain breed of courtroom litigators. And South Carolina's Tobolski, an Indiana native who came south eight years ago, can help there, too. As a private coach she has even taught a politician she wouldn't name how to ratchet up his Southern accent to make him appear more folksy before certain crowds - a technique she calls "code switching." "He didn't want to lose his dialect entirely. He just wanted to be able to adapt." "I don't think that any regional accent is going to be eliminated," she said. "There's still people who want to hang on to how they sound. That's who they are. That's their identity. And that goes from New Jersey to Minnesota to Wyoming to Georgia."
---
EDITOR'S NOTE - Kristen Wyatt reported this story from Roswell, Ga.; Greg Bluestein in Atlanta and Allen G. Breed in Raleigh, N.C., also contributed to this report.

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http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/1128teenbuzz-ON.html
What's the buzz? Teens don't want to hear it
New York Times News Service
Nov. 28, 2005 07:12 PM

BARRY, Wales - Though he did not know it at the time, the idea came to Howard Stapleton when he was 12 and visiting a factory with his father, a manufacturing executive in London. Opening the door to a room where workers were using high-frequency welding equipment, he found he could not bear to go inside.
"The noise!" he complained.
"What noise?" the grownups asked.

Now 39, Stapleton has taken the lesson he learned that day - that children can hear sounds at higher frequencies than adults can - to fashion a novel device that he hopes will provide a solution to the eternal problem of obstreperous teenagers who hang around outside stores and cause trouble.

The device, called the Mosquito ("It's small and annoying," Stapleton said), emits a high-frequency pulsing sound that, he says, can be heard by most people younger than 20 and almost no one older than 30. The sound is designed to so irritate young people that after several minutes, they cannot stand it and go away.
So far, the Mosquito has been road-tested in only one place, at the entrance to the Spar convenience store in this town in South Wales. Like birds perched on telephone wires, surly teenagers used to plant themselves on the railings just outside the door, smoking, drinking, shouting rude words at customers and making regular disruptive forays inside.

"On the low end of the scale, it would be intimidating for customers," said Robert Gough, who, with his parents, owns the store. "On the high end, they'd be in the shop fighting, stealing and assaulting the staff." Gough (pronounced GUFF) planned to install a sound system that would blast classical music into the parking lot, another method known to horrify hang-out youths into dispersing, but never got around to it. But last month, Stapleton gave him a Mosquito for a free trial. The results were almost instantaneous. It was as if someone had used anti-teenager spray around the entrance, the way you might spray your sofas to keep pets off. Where disaffected youths used to congregate, now there is no one.
At first, members of the usual crowd tried to gather as normal, repeatedly going inside the store with their fingers in their ears and "begging me to turn it off," Gough said. But he held firm and neatly avoided possible aggressive confrontations: "I told them it was to keep birds away because of the bird flu epidemic."

A trip to Spar here in Barry confirmed the strange truth of the phenomenon. The Mosquito is positioned just outside the door. Although this reporter could not hear anything, being too old, several young people attested to the fact that yes, there was a noise, and yes, it was extremely annoying.

"It's loud and squeaky and it just goes through you," said Jodie Evans, 15, who was shopping at the store even though she was supposed to be in school. "It gets inside you."

Miss Evans and a 12-year-old friend who did not want to be interviewed were once part of a regular gang of loiterers, said Gough's father, Philip. "That little girl used to be a right pain, shouting abuse and bad language," he said of the 12-year-old. "Now she'll just come in, do her shopping and go."

Robert Gough, who said he could hear the noise even though he is 34, described it as "a pulsating chirp," the sort you might hear if you suffered from tinnitus. By way of demonstration, he emitted a batlike squeak that was indeed bothersome.
Stapleton, a security consultant whose experience in installing store alarms and the like alerted him to the gravity of the loitering problem, studied other teenage-repellents as part of his research. Some shops, for example, use "zit lamps," which drive teenagers away by casting a blue light onto their spotty skin, accentuating any whiteheads and other blemishes.

Using his children as guinea pigs, he tried a number of different noise and frequency levels, testing a single-toned unit before settling on a pulsating tone which, he said, is more unbearable, and which can be broadcast at 75 decibels, within government auditory-safety limits. "I didn't want to make it hurt," Stapleton said. "It just has to nag at them."

The device has not yet been tested by hearing experts.

Andrew King, a professor of neurophysiology at Oxford University, said in an e-mail interview that while the ability to hear high frequencies deteriorates with age, the change happens so gradually that many non-teenagers might well hear the Mosquito's noise. "Unless the store owners wish to sell their goods only to senior citizens," he wrote, "I doubt that this would work."

Stapleton argues, though, that it doesn't matter if people in their 20s and 30s can hear the Mosquito, since they are unlikely to be hanging out in front of stores, anyway.

It is too early to predict the device's future. Since an article about it appeared in The Grocer, a British trade magazine, Stapleton has become modestly famous, answering inquiries from hundreds of people and filling orders for dozens of the devices, not only in stores but also in places like railroad yards. He appeared recently on Richard & Judy, an Oprah-esque afternoon talk show, where the device successfully vexed all but one of the members of a girls' choir.

He is considering introducing a much louder unit that can be switched on in emergencies with a panic button. It would be most useful when youths swarm into stores and begin stealing en masse, a phenomenon known in Britain as steaming. The idea would be to blast them with such an unacceptably loud, high noise - a noise inaudible to older shoppers - that they would immediately leave.
"It's very difficult to shoplift," Stapleton said, "when you have your fingers in your ears."