Mexican-American War (i would prefer either domestic or personal level Essay

Mexican-American War (i would prefer either domestic or personal level of analysis ) - Essay Example As such, the move undermined the Mexican population. The master plan focused on the region occupied by the freehold and yeoman farmers. The eventual impact ignited a political hiccup associated to slavery and inhuman practices. Although other levels of analysis can be applied, I believe that the Mexican American war is best explained through a domestic level of analysis. In the year 1898, a conflict between Spain and the United States of America ignited an armed battle between the two countries. Americans managed to gain access into the Latin America, as well as the Western Pacific, by the end of the war. The events resulted in a great territorial expansion from the American authority. The military involvement in the war signified a historical event. As such, America’s image portrayed a self-centered institution operating on self-interest. Additionally, the events attracted the world’s attention as the media documented the details of the entire war. America advanced about 525,000 square miles into the Mexican territory. The incident led to the signing of a treaty agreement that marked the end of the war. The treaty signing redefined American from a national state to a transcontinental state. As such, both parties engaged in diplomatic settlement scheme to end the war. Other documentation of the treaty revealed the onset of colonialism. The colonialism feature paved way for a commercial assumption and resource expropriation (Lynn, 2013). The impact of colonialism in Mexico resulted in obdurate legal disputes over the vast land. These occasions prompted the advent of different theories to explain the superiority of the involved states. Significant changes defined other perceptions of the colonialism. The onset of communication advancement, development of the transport industry resulted in national pride. The Mexicans believed that the American move served a divine ordination in the vast Mexico territory. The Mexican-American war served as an indicator

Final self-seessment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Final self-seessment - Essay Example (paragraph 1)† The novelty of the four-year colleges have made so many people ignore the two-year colleges. Informed by this reason and bearing in mind that community level colleges are equally producing successful students, I sought to answer the aforementioned question in my essay. The second bit of developing my essay was coming up with an enthymeme. My enthymeme was basically a statement with the claim, issue, and evidences to be discussed. It is more or less like a thesis statement but tailored particularly to expound on the Q@I. Written on the first paragraph of my essay, the enthymeme was â€Å"The community colleges are suitable alternatives to traditional four-year colleges and universities because in addition to being affordable, community colleges give students better opportunities for growth and self-discovery.† This statement helped me keep focus and structure my essay from one paragraph to the other. For example, in the second paragraph of my essay I needed to discuss the issue of affordability of community colleges as stated in my enthymeme. Therefore, my claim here was that community colleges are better than traditional four year colleges because lesser school fees are needed. To add support to my claim, I had to provide evidence. My evide nce was derived from Liz Addison’s article â€Å"Two Year are Better than Four† where she sympathizes with a poor students who fails to realize the opportunities community colleges offer. The decision to quote Liz Addison in my work was important to add on the credibility or rather appeal to the ethos of my readers. Counterargument is the other important part of any piece of persuasive writing. This represents a different point of view which critics my peg on dispute the argument presented in the rest of the paper. There is no doubt that it would be a lie to claim that two-year colleges do not have their own misgivings.

Sherlock Holmes And Christopher Boone English Language Essay

Sherlock Holmes And Christopher Boone English Language Essay In Mark Haddons short-story, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Christopher Boone, the protagonist has suggested several times that he, doing some detective work himself, is very much like Sir Arthur Conan Doyles famous character, Sherlock Holmes. Based on the protagonists strange behaviour and thoughts, many people think that he has some kind of mental illness. And, as he is so much like Sherlock Holmes, who is a rather peculiar figure himself, we can enlist the main similarities and differences between the two fictional characters. As of Holmes character, I chose to pick the BBC adaptation of 2010 and 2012, because it is much closer in time and setting than that of the original stories. But, before starting the list, lets see what the main syndromes of Asperger are, the assumed mental illness of Christopher. The severity of Asperger can vary from mild to severe. They usually do not tolerate well any changes and often have obsessive routines. They generally have a special interest, in which they are really good. At young age, these symptoms can lead to rigidity, but later in adulthood it actually might result in a sumptuous carrier. Especially if we considerate their ability to learn social skills as others can learn how to ride a bike. But, at least at the beginning, they cannot always read body language and other non-verbal language and cannot measure proper body space and they often avoid gaze. They appear to be especially sensitive to particular sounds, touch, light, to which other people are not. This causes a very strange and odd behaviour sometimes. As a result, their mates will often see them an outsider and mock them for this. It will not help to ease this situation the fact that people who suffer from Aspergers syndrome have an innate naivety and a normal IQ, but have extraordin ary skill in a particular area. In terms of their use of language, they seem to develop like everyone else. However, they often have a larger amount of vocabulary than others of their age, and also they are really straightforward in their choice of words. In other cases, they might encounter some hardships in language usage in social environment.  [1]   Now that we have seen the main symptoms of Asperger, we can go on to the examples from Haddons work and how much they actually apply for its protagonist, Christopher. Parallelled to this, we will see the similarities and occasional differences between him and Sherlock Holmes. Some scientists even presume that Holmes has many symptoms of Asperger, thus was the first character (although fictional), who suffered from this kind of mental illness, even thought it was described first in 1944 and acknowledged only in 1994.  [2]  Others think that Doyle, due to his medical studies, may have known some of these symptoms.  [3]   First of all, as we have seen, the main characteristic of this illness is being antisocial. In the short-story, Christopher does not seem to know many people, nor does he desire to. His most important contact is with his father, with whom he lives and who understand him and is able to deal with his sons illness, on the contrary to his own mother. His mother wrote Christopher this, how she could not cope with the strange behavior of his son, but how patient was his father usually with him. After his father he mentions especially a lot Siobhan, the school-psychiatrist, who helps him and tries to teach him about social contacts. Moreover, she is one of the few who can draw Christopher out from his usual uncommunicative state. Similarly to the role of Siobhan in the boys life, Dr. Watson constantly tries to keep Holmes from hurting others feelings, and in general tries to get him to behave in a socially acceptable manner. In some way, he is the normal counterpart of Holmes abnormal life.   [4]   Lestrade: [à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦] Weve found Rachel. Sherlock Holmes: Who is she? Lestrade: Jennifer Wilsons only daughter. [à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦] Sherlock Holmes: You need to bring Rachel in. You need to question her.  I  need to question her. Lestrade: Shes dead. Sherlock Holmes: Excellent! Sherlock Holmes: How, when and why? Is there a connection? There  has  to be. Lestrade: Well, I doubt it, since shes been dead for fourteen years. Technically she was never alive. Rachel was Jennifer Wilsons stillborn daughter, fourteen years ago. Sherlock Holmes: No, thats thats not right. How Why would she do that?  Why? [à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦] John Watson: You said that the victims all took the poison themselves, that he  makes  them take it. Well, maybe he I dont know, talks to them? Maybe he used the death of her daughter somehow. Sherlock Holmes: Yeah, but that was  ages  ago. Why would she still be upset? (John stares at him. Sherlock hesitates as he realises that everyone in the flat has stopped what theyre doing and has fallen silent. He glances around the room and then looks awkwardly at John.) Sherlock Holmes: Not good? John Watson: Bit  not good, yeah. When Christopher talks to other people, for example Mrs. Alexander, he states that it is difficult for him to converse with them, because he does not know them, thus does not trust them; and also because chatting with someone is not easy for them. But, interestingly, the boy occasionally can overcome his difficulties and for some time can maintain a normal conversation with the old lady. Parallelly, Sherlock does not seem to have many friends, but still is more social than Christopher, he does not have a problem with talking to anyone. Even though both of them seem to encounter difficulties at the area of social contacts, the also both try to improve their skills. In the short-story we often read that Christopher says or does something just because he is told that is the proper thing to say or do. For example, when Ed Boone, his father prepares him some meal, we read: And I said, Thank you for supper, because that is being polite.  [5]   In BBC Sherlock, in the episode Scandal in Belgravia at the Christmas party, Holmes jabbers a long and quite rude monologue about Mollys especially coquettish looks, with which she wishes to seduce a secret boyfriend. When it turns out it is actually Sherlock with whom Molly is in love with, thus humiliating Molly in front of the whole room, Holmes finally apologies. For a brief moment we can see Watsons face, which is clearly surprised by Sherlocks apology. From this scene we can see how he tries to redeem the insulting things he said out loud. In connection with this antisocial behavior, people who have this illness, tend to have some problem with emotions and their recognition. At the very beginning of his book, Christopher shows us some drawings of smileys. He says he can understand happiness and sadness, but not the other facial expressions which indicate more complex emotions.  [6]  It seems he is somehow insensitive to most kind of emotions. It especially shows in his choice of words and straightforwardness: And Mrs. Alexander said, Your mother, before she died, was very good friends with Mr. Shears. And I said, I know. And she said, No, Christopher. I m not sure that you do. I mean that they were very good friends. Very, very good friends. I thought about this for a while and said, Do you mean that they were doing sex? And Mrs. Alexander said, Yes, Christopher. That is what I mean. It seems that even death does not really bother him. This characteristic is found in Sherlock Holmes, too. In fact, this is his one of his most famous features: being the man of logic and not that of emotions. For example in the morgue, in the same episode of BBC Sherlock, the Holmes brothers see a family on Christmas Eve who probably lost a relative and they are, of course, devastated. But they just watch them, saying: Sherlock Holmes: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¾Look at them. They all care so much. Do you ever wonder if theres something wrong with us?   Mycroft Holmes: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¾All lives end. All hearts are broken. Caring is not an advantage, Sherlock.  [7]   Moreover, in The Hounds of Baskerville where Holmes deliberately poisons his only friend, and when Watson questions him about it, he does not seem to be very bothered about the matter. John Watson: So you got it wrong. Sherlock Holmes: No. John Watson: You were wrong. It wasnt in the sugar. You got it  wrong. Sherlock Holmes: A bit. It wont happen again.  [8]   It is very important to note that on the contrary of Christopher, Sherlock can actually pretend any kind of emotion just to get some information, he easily manipulates anyone without a bit of regret. Sherlock Holmes: Mrs Monkford? (She turns to him tearfully.) Mrs. Monkford: Yes. Mrs. Monkford: Sorry, but Ive already spoken with two policemen. John Watson: No, were not from the police; were (Sherlock holds his hand out to her, his voice tearful and tremulous.) Sherlock Holmes: Sherlock Holmes. Very old friend of your husbands. We, um (As she shakes his hand, he looks down as if fighting back his tears.) Sherlock Holmes: we grew up together. Mrs. Monkford: Im sorry, who? I dont think he ever mentioned you. Sherlock Holmes (still tearful): Oh, he  must  have done. This is this is horrible, isnt it? Sherlock Holmes: I mean, I just cant believe it. I only saw him the other day. Same old Ian not a care in the world. (He smiles tearfully at her.) Mrs. Monkford: Sorry, but my husband has been depressed for months. Who  are  you? Sherlock Holmes: Really strange that he hired a car. Why would he do that? Its a bit suspicious, isnt it? (By now he has tears running down his cheeks.) Mrs. Monkford: No, it isnt. He forgot to renew the tax on the car, thats all. Sherlock Holmes: Oh, well, that was Ian! That was Ian all over! Mrs. Monkford: No it wasnt. (Instantly Sherlocks fake persona drops and he looks at her intensely.) Sherlock Holmes: Wasnt it? Interesting. In general, Holmes is quite rude to everyone, including Watson, and also, he sees himself as the only normal human being in the world. Here are two very good example of this from the first episode of the series, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¾A Study in Pink: Sherlock Holmes: Took me less than an hour to find the right skip. John Watson: Pink. You got  all  that because you realised the case would be pink? Sherlock Holmes: Well, it  had  to be pink, obviously. John Watson (to himself): Why didnt  I  think of that? Sherlock Holmes: Because youre an idiot. (John looks across to him, startled) Sherlock Holmes: No, no, no, dont look like that. Practically everyone is. And elsewhere: Sherlock Holmes: Anderson, dont talk out loud. You lower the I.Q. of the whole street.  [9]  (A Study in Pink) This feature shares also Christopher, when he talks about his schoolmates and he states that he is the only normal among them. Both of them are aware of their special skills, therefore both of them are quite proud, almost arrogant. Christopher, without any trace of modesty, is a hundred per-cent sure he will get his A-level in maths. Holmes, too, is always sure he will solve the case, and when he makes an error, he is quite reluctant to admit it (see the The Hounds of Baskerville conversation above). They both has their special area of interest, although Christophers is much narrower (only maths) than Holmes, which includes everything from biology and chemistry to observation and deduction. They both tend to shut down when they occupy themselves with their work, they do not eat or speak for long hours, in some extreme cases, even for days. However, unlike Sherlock, Christopher has a range of special rules which tend to interfere with his everyday life, for example the quality of the day is based on how many red or yellow cars he sees on the way to school; or he cannot eat his meal if they touched each other on his plate. They do not only tend to shock people with their lack of emotion, but also with their actual behaviour, thus both of them being outsiders in some way. For example, at the beginning of the story, Christopher hugs the dead, bloody dog. That is surely something most normal people would not do. Similarly, at the beginning of The Hounds of Baskerville, Sherlock suddenly appears at the door, covered in blood, nearly giving poor Watson a heart attack. He explains he could not come home earlier because not a taxi would take him, so he had to travel on the metro. Also, at the beginning of The Blind Banker, Holmes meets his old acquaintance from the university. This man briefly mentions what an outsider was Sherlock even at that time, due to his extraordinary skills. Sebastian: We were at uni together. This guy here had a trick he used to do. Sherlock Holmes: Its not a trick. Sebastian: He could look at you and tell you your whole life story. John Watson: Yes, Ive seen him do it. Sebastian: Put the wind up everybody. We hated him. The description mentioned as one of them symptoms the sensitivity of touch, light or smell which others are not even aware of. Christopher does not like to be touched by anyone, even his own parents. Sherlock does not have any of this problem, but he does share the special ability to observe and remember people and characteristics which other people do not even see. When Christopher meets someone, he tends to mention the colour of his shoes, which is completely irrelevant, but still important to him. In the series, this ability of Holmes is illustrated by fancy texts which appear on the screen when he is observing someone, or he has many, rather inapprehensible monologues where he explains his deductions to the others. It is really interesting how similar is the way they both save their memories. Christopher describes it as a DVD, which he can rewatch again and again with the same accuracy, and Holmes has a mind palace where he can wander around and find the appropriate information. As a curiosity, both the short-story and the series mention the deerstalker, one of the most famous symbols of Sherlock Holmes, but in these works this hat does not seem to get as much attention as all the other adaptations of the Sherlock Holmes stories. Christopher writes: In the original Sherlock Holmes stories Sherlock Holmes is never described as wearing a deerstalker hat, which is what he is always wearing in pictures and cartoons. The deerstalker hat was invented by a ma n called Sidney Paget, who did the illustrations for the original books. And in the series, at the beginning of The Reichenbach Fall: Sherlock Holmes: Why is it always the hat photograph? [] Sherlock Holmes: What sort of hat is it anyway? [] Sherlock Holmes: Is it a cap? Why has it got two fronts? John Watson: Its a deerstalker.  [] Sherlock Holmes: You stalk a deer with a hat? What are you gonna do throw it? [] Sherlock Holmes: Some sort of death frisbee? [] Sherlock Holmes: Its got flaps ear flaps. Its an  ear  hat, John. [] John Watson: [] this isnt a deerstalker now; its a Sherlock Holmes hat.   As we can see, there are many similarities and differences between these two characters. But in general we can say that the detective is much more functional and effective than Christopher, only a little peculiar. Sources: Albrecht: Albrecht, Karl Ph. D.: Did Sherlock Holmes Have Asperger Syndrome? Published in October 13, 2011. From: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brainsnacks/201110/did-sherlock-holmes-have-asperger-syndrome-0 Haddon: Haddon, Mark: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Doubleplay, London, 2003. I used the page numbers from the copy found on this site: https://sites.google.com/site/janoskenyeres/readingliterarytexts 2012-11-02 17:50 Kirby: Kirby, Barbara L.: What is Aperger Syndrome? 2001. From: http://scholar.google.hu/scholar?q=what+is+asperger+syndromebtnG=hl=huas_sdt=0 2012-11-16 09:58 Sanders: Sanders, Lisa M.D.: Hidden Clues. Published: December 6, 2009, New York. From: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/magazine/06diagnosis-t.html?pagewanted=all 2012-11-16 11:34 Sherlock. Created by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat. BBC, 2010 and 2012. Verhees: Verhees, Ingrid: From Hero and Zero to Butch and Sundance: On the Evolution of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson Throughout a Century of Adaptation. MA thesis, 2011, Universiteit Utrecht. From:http://igitur-archive.library.uu.nl/student-theses/2011-0919-201519/From%20Hero%20and%20Zero%20to%20Butch%20and%20Sundance%20-%20On%20the%20Evolution%20of%20Sherlock%20Holmes%20and%20Dr.%20Watson%20Throughout%20a%20Century%20of%20Adaptation.pdf 2012-11-16 14:22 Transcription of the series: Sherlock transcription: http://arianedevere.livejournal.com/tag/transcript 2012-11-16 19:11 Imdb: http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0036861/quotes 2012-11-16 17:59

Duddy Kravitz - Following A Dream :: essays papers

Duddy Kravitz - Following A Dream Reach for the stars, is a common phrase many children hear in their life, whether by parents or role models in their lives. If a person puts their mind to a task at hand they can accomplish it most of the time, but when the goal is achieved and the path is taken to achieve the goal is crowded with hate and lies, the question arises; was it all worth it? In Mordecai Richler^s novel, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Duddy Kravitz, his uncle Benjy and Jerry Dingleman (The Boy Wonder), are all able to achieve their life long dreams, but we must examine if their sacrifices were worthy of the prize. Benjy strived his entire life to create a profitable business, raise a family, and make his father, Simcha, proud to be his father. Now, Benjy was able to make his business grow and become beneficial to all that were close to him. He was able to provide his nephew, Lennie, with a University education to help him on his way to becoming a doctor, and also gave Duddy a job working at his factory. These sound like descent things to do for your own family, however when Duddy worked for Benjy he never treated him with respect. This treatment towards Duddy did not help Benjy^s reputation with Duddy, who already thought Benjy favoured Lennie. As well, sending Lennie to University was a very thoughtful and expensive thing to do for him, but according to Duddy, ^Lennie never wanted to be a doctor^ You forced him!^(241). This idea of Lennie never wanting to be a doctor was evident when he ran away from school. Lennie could not take the pressure put on him by Benjy, but he wanted to make Benjy proud and by doing so almost got kicked out of school and ruined his life. The reason that Benjy was doing all this for his nephews was because he could not have any children, with his wife due to complications. Benjy started out doing something nice but ended up trying to live his life through his brothers. In the end Benjy attains cancer and is sinking towards death with no one to inherit his life long achievement, his factory. No one will take over his business in the family because Lennie is too busy, Max-his brother- is too uninformed about it and Duddy has a certain disliking for him. Duddy had lost his respect for Benjy due to the fact that Benjy always ridiculed him. Benjy made his father Simcha believe

Why Looks Are the Last Bastion of Discrimination

Why looks are the last bastion of discrimination In the 19th century, many American cities banned public appearances by â€Å"unsightly† individuals. A Chicago ordinance was typical: â€Å"Any person who is diseased, maimed, mutilated, or in any way deformed, so as to be an unsightly or disgusting subject . . . shall not . . . expose himself to public view, under the penalty of a fine of $1 for each offense. † Although the government is no longer in the business of enforcing such discrimination, it still allows businesses, schools and other organizations to indulge their own prejudices.Over the past half-century, the United States has expanded protections against discrimination to include race, religion, sex, age, disability and, in a growing number of jurisdictions, sexual orientation. Yet bias based on appearance remains perfectly permissible in all but one state and six cities and counties. Across the rest of the country, looks are the last bastion of acceptable bigo try. We all know that appearance matters, but the price of prejudice can be steeper than we often assume.In Texas in 1994, an obese woman was rejected for a job as a bus driver when a company doctor assumed she was not up to the task after watching her, in his words, â€Å"waddling down the hall. † He did not perform any agility tests to determine whether she was, as the company would later claim, unfit to evacuate the bus in the event of an accident. In New Jersey in 2005, one of the Borgata Hotel Casino's â€Å"Borgata babe† cocktail waitresses went from a Size 4 to a Size 6 because of a thyroid condition.When the waitress, whose contract required her to keep an â€Å"an hourglass figure† that was â€Å"height and weight appropriate,† requested a larger uniform, she was turned down. â€Å"Borgata babes don't go up in size,† she was told. (Unless, the waitress noted, they have breast implants, which the casino happily accommodated with paid medica l leave and a bigger bustier. ) And in California in 2001, Jennifer Portnick, a 240-pound aerobics instructor, was denied a franchise by Jazzercise, a national fitness chain.Jazzercise explained that its image demanded instructors who are â€Å"fit† and â€Å"toned. † But Portnick was both: She worked out six days a week, taught back-to-back classes and had no shortage of willing students. Such cases are common. In a survey by the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, 62 percent of its overweight female members and 42 percent of its overweight male members said they had been turned down for a job because of their weight. And it isn't just weight that's at issue; it's appearance overall.According to a national poll by the Employment Law Alliance in 2005, 16 percent of workers reported being victims of appearance discrimination more generally — a figure comparable to the percentage who in other surveys say they have experienced sex or race discrimination . Conventional wisdom holds that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but most beholders tend to agree on what is beautiful. A number of researchers have independently found that, when people are asked to rate an individual's attractiveness, their responses are quite consistent, even across race, sex, age, class and cultural background.Facial symmetry and unblemished skin are universally admired. Men get a bump for height, women are favored if they have hourglass figures, and racial minorities get points for light skin color, European facial characteristics and conventionally â€Å"white† hairstyles. Yale's Kelly Brownell and Rebecca Puhl and Harvard's Nancy Etcoff have each reviewed hundreds of studies on the impact of appearance. Etcoff finds that unattractive people are less likely than their attractive peers to be viewed as intelligent, likable and good.Brownell and Puhl have documented that overweight individuals consistently suffer disadvantages at school, at work and beyond. Among the key findings of a quarter-century's worth of research: Unattractive people are less likely to be hired and promoted, and they earn lower salaries, even in fields in which looks have no obvious relationship to professional duties. (In one study, economists Jeff Biddle and Daniel Hamermesh estimated that for lawyers, such prejudice can translate to a pay cut of as much as 12 percent. When researchers ask people to evaluate written essays, the same material receives lower ratings for ideas, style and creativity when an accompanying photograph shows a less attractive author. Good-looking professors get better course evaluations from students; teachers in turn rate good-looking students as more intelligent. Not even justice is blind. In studies that simulate legal proceedings, unattractive plaintiffs receive lower damage awards. And in a study released this month, Stephen Ceci and Justin Gunnell, two researchers at Cornell University, gave tudents case studies involving real criminal defendants and asked them to come to a verdict and a punishment for each. The students gave unattractive defendants prison sentences that were, on average, 22 months longer than those they gave to attractive defendants. Just like racial or gender discrimination, discrimination based on irrelevant physical characteristics reinforces invidious stereotypes and undermines equal-opportunity principles based on merit and performance.And when grooming choices come into play, such bias can also restrict personal freedom. Consider Nikki Youngblood, a lesbian who in 2001 was denied a photo in her Tampa high school yearbook because she would not pose in a scoop-necked dress. Youngblood was â€Å"not a rebellious kid,† her lawyer explained. â€Å"She simply wanted to appear in her yearbook as herself, not as a fluffed-up stereotype of what school administrators thought she should look like. † Furthermore, many grooming codes sexualize the workplace and jeopardize em ployees' health.The weight restrictions at the Borgata, for example, reportedly contributed to eating disorders among its waitresses. Appearance-related bias also exacerbates disadvantages based on gender, race, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation and class. Prevailing beauty standards penalize people who lack the time and money to invest in their appearance. And weight discrimination, in particular, imposes special costs on people who live in communities with shortages of healthy food options and exercise facilities.So why not simply ban discrimination based on appearance? Employers often argue that attractiveness is job-related; their workers' appearance, they say, can affect the company's image and its profitability. In this way, the Borgata blamed its weight limits on market demands. Customers, according to a spokesperson, like being served by an attractive waitress. The same assumption presumably motivated the L'Oreal executive who was sued for sex discrimination in 2003 after a llegedly ordering a store manager to fire a salesperson who was not â€Å"hot† enough.Such practices can violate the law if they disproportionately exclude groups protected by civil rights statutes — hence the sex discrimination suit. Abercrombie & Fitch's notorious efforts to project what it called a â€Å"classic American† look led to a race discrimination settlement on behalf of minority jobseekers who said they were turned down for positions on the sales floor. But unless the victims of appearance bias belong to groups already protected by civil rights laws, they have no legal remedy.As the history of civil rights legislation suggests, customer preferences should not be a defense for prejudice. During the early civil rights era, employers in the South often argued that hiring African Americans would be financially ruinous; white customers, they said, would take their business elsewhere. In rejecting this logic, Congress and the courts recognized that custome r preferences often reflect and reinforce precisely the attitudes that society is seeking to eliminate.Over the decades, we've seen that the most effective way of combating prejudice is to deprive people of the option to indulge it. Similarly, during the 1960s and 1970s, major airlines argued that the male business travelers who dominated their customer ranks preferred attractive female flight attendants. According to the airlines, that made sex a bona fide occupational qualification and exempted them from anti-discrimination requirements. But the courts reasoned that only if sexual allure were the â€Å"essence† of a job should employers be allowed to select workers on that basis.Since airplanes were not flying bordellos, it was time to start hiring men. Opponents of a ban on appearance-based discrimination also warn that it would trivialize other, more serious forms of bias. After all, if the goal is a level playing field, why draw the line at looks? â€Å"By the time you' ve finished preventing discrimination against the ugly, the short, the skinny, the bald, the knobbly-kneed, the flat-chested, and the stupid,† Andrew Sullivan wrote in the London Sunday Times in 1999, â€Å"you're living in a totalitarian state. Yet intelligence and civility are generally related to job performance in a way that appearance isn't. We also have enough experience with prohibitions on appearance discrimination to challenge opponents' arguments. Already, one state (Michigan) and six local jurisdictions (the District of Columbia; Howard County, Md. ; San Francisco; Santa Cruz, Calif. ; Madison, Wis. ; and Urbana, Ill. ) have banned such discrimination. Some of these laws date back to the 1970s and 1980s, while ome are more recent; some cover height and weight only, while others cover looks broadly; but all make exceptions for reasonable business needs. Such bans have not produced a barrage of loony litigation or an erosion of support for civil rights remedies gener ally. These cities and counties each receive between zero and nine complaints a year, while the entire state of Michigan totals about 30, with fewer than one a year ending up in court.Although the laws are unevenly enforced, they have had a positive effect by publicizing and remedying the worst abuses. Because Portnick, the aerobics instructor turned away by Jazzercise, lived in San Francisco, she was able to bring a claim against the company. After a wave of sympathetic media coverage, Jazzercise changed its policy. This is not to overstate the power of legal remedies. Given the stigma attached to unattractiveness, few will want to claim that status in public litigation.And in the vast majority of cases, the cost of filing suit and the difficulty of proving discrimination are likely to be prohibitive. But stricter anti-discrimination laws could play a modest role in advancing healthier and more inclusive ideals of attractiveness. At the very least, such laws could reflect our princ iples of equal opportunity and raise our collective consciousness when we fall short. [email  protected] edu Deborah L. Rhode is a Stanford University law professor and the author of â€Å"The Beauty Bias: The Injustice of Appearance in Life and Law. â€Å"

A Murdur Is Announced

A Murder Is Announced A Murder Is Announced is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in June 1950 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in the same month. The UK edition retailed at eight shillings and sixpence (8/6) and the US edition at $2. 50. ] The novel features her detective Miss Marple and is considered a crime novel classic. The book was heavily promoted upon publication in 1950 as being Christie's fiftieth book, although in truth this figure could only be arrived at by counting in both UK and US short story collections.Plot summary A strange notice appears in the morning paper of a perfectly ordinary small English village, Chipping Cleghorn: â€Å"A murder is announced and will take place on Friday, October 29th, at Little Paddocks, at 6:30 p. m. Friends accept this, the only intimation. † This apparently comes as a great surprise to Letitia Blacklock, the owner of Little Paddocks, as she has no idea w hat the notice means; she didn't place it and none of her companions knows more than she. Miss Blacklock decides to take it in her stride and prepares herself to have guests that evening.Naturally, the villagers are intrigued by this notice, and several of them appear on the doorstep with awkward reasons but a definite interest. As the clock strikes 6:30, the lights go out and a door swings open, revealing a man with a blinding torch. In a heavily accented voice, the man demands they â€Å"Stick 'em up! † Most of the guests do so, believing it to be part of a game. The game ends when shots are fired into the room. The door slams shut, and panic takes hold: in short order, it's discovered that the fuses are blown, the gunman has been shot, and Ms.Blacklock's ear is bleeding, apparently from a bullet's near-miss. The most curious thing of all is the gunman: he is recognized by Dora Bunner (an old friend of Letitia's, affectionately known as â€Å"Bunny,† who lives at Lit tle Paddocks as her companion) as Rudi Scherz, the receptionist at a local spa, who had asked Letitia for money just a few short days ago. The police are called in. All clues suggest that the case is merely a strange suicide or accidental death, but Inspector Craddock is uneasy about both possibilities.As luck would have it, Miss Marple is a guest at the very same spa where Rudi Scherz was employed. Craddock is advised to involve her in the case, and the two commence working together. At the spa, it emerges that Rudi has a criminal background, but petty theft and forgery rather than any more serious crime. His girlfriend, a waitress at the spa, however, reveals that he had been paid to appear as the holdup man; he believed it was all â€Å"a silly English joke†, and was clearly not planning on being shot at. With this new knowledge, Craddock returns to Chipping Cleghorn.Miss Marple, not uncoincidentally, is the godmother of the local vicar's wife, and decides to stay with her . The first step is to establish a motive for Scherz's attack on Miss Blacklock. This presents a problem: Letitia has no known enemies. She worked for a successful financier (Randall Goedler) and has done quite well for herself but is not herself wealthy. She does not lead a lavish life and, aside from her house, she has only enough to live on. However, she may shortly come into a great deal of money; Randall Goedler's estate passed to his wife, Belle, when he died.Belle is frail, and is now very near death. When Belle dies, Miss Blacklock inherits everything. If, however, she predeceases Belle, the estate goes to the mysterious â€Å"Pip† and â€Å"Emma†, children of Randall's estranged sister, Sonia. No one knows where these two are, much less what they look like. Inspector Craddock discovers oil on the hinges of a door into the parlour (where the shooting took place) thought to be unused, and Bunny mentions that until quite recently there had been a table placed aga inst the door.Inspector Craddock travels to Scotland to meet Belle; she mentions that Letitia had a beloved sister, Charlotte, who was born with a goiter. Their father, an old-fashioned doctor, tried unsuccessfully to treat Charlotte, but she only withdrew further into herself as her goiter got worse. Their father died shortly before World War II, and Letitia gave up her job with Goedler and took her sister to Switzerland for the necessary surgery to repair the defect. The two sisters waited out the war in the Swiss countryside, but before it was over, Charlotte died very suddenly.Letitia returned to England shortly thereafter. Miss Marple takes tea with Bunny during her shopping trip with Letitia, and Bunny reveals several details about the case: she talks about the recently oiled door she found with the Inspector; she's sure that Patrick Simmons, a young cousin of Letitia's who, with his sister Julia, is also staying at Little Paddocks, is not as he appears; and, most tellingly, s he's absolutely positive there was a different lamp in the room on the night of the murder (the one with the shepherdess and not with the shepherd) than there was now.Their tete-a-tete is interrupted, however, as Letitia arrives, and she and Bunny resume their shopping. That evening, Letitia arranges a birthday party for Bunny, complete with almost everyone who was at the house when Rudy Scherz was kills; and she asks Mitzi to make her special cake, which Patrick has nicknamed â€Å"Delicious Death†. This was while post-war austerity rationing was in effect — butter and eggs were hard to come by even in a rural community, and the chocolate and raisins used in the cake were very difficult to get.A box of chocolates is also a present. Bunny loves chocolate but it gives her a headachek and she can't find the aspirin she bought. She takes some of Letitia's aspirin instead, lies down for a nap – and dies. Miss Marple visits Ms. Blacklock, who mourns Bunny and starts crying. Miss Marple asks to see photo albums which might contain pictures of Sonia Goedler, Pip and Emma's mother, but all photos of Sonia were taken out of the albums recently, although they were in place before the death of Rudi Scherz.Through deduction and re-enactment, Misses Hinchliffe and Murgatroyd (two spinster farmers who were also present at the time of the Scherz murder) figure out that Miss Murgatroyd could see who was in the room as she was standing behind the door when it swung open; she couldn't have seen Rudi as he was on the other side of the opened door, but she could see whose faces were illuminated by the torch beam. The two women conclude that the person who wasn't in the room (and therefore not seen by Miss Murgatroyd) could have sneaked out of the room when the lights went out and come around behind Rudi, and shot at him—and Miss Blacklock.Just as she remembers the one person not in the room, the stationmaster calls to notify them that a dog has just ar rived. As Miss Hinchliffe pulls away in her car, Miss Murgatroyd runs into the driveway, shouting â€Å"She wasn't there! † She is murdered while Miss Hinchliffe is away, and so does not reveal whom she did not see. Miss Hinchliffe returns and meets Miss Marple. They discover Murgatroyd's body, and a distraught Hinchliffe informs Miss Marple of Murgatroyd's cryptic statement. At Little Paddocks, Letitia receives a letter from the real Julia Simmons in Perth.She confronts â€Å"Julia† with the letter, and â€Å"Julia† reveals that she is actually Sonia's daughter, Emma Stamfordis, masquerading as Julia so that she could attempt to gain a portion of the inheritance from Letitia and let the real Julia spend time pursuing an acting career. Julia/Emma insists she is uninvolved in the assassination attempt—she was a crack shot during the French Resistance and would not have missed at that range, even in the dark—nor did she wish to prevent Letitia from i nheriting Randall Goedler's estate.She had intended to ingratiate herself with Letitia and try to obtain a portion of the money, and once the murder took place, had no choice but to continue the masquerade. Phillipa Haymes (a boarder at Little Paddocks and a young widow) sneaks into the kitchen to speak to Julia/Emma, but Julia/Emma sends her away before finding out what Phillipa had to say. That night, the vicar's cat, Tiglath Pileser, knocks over a glass of water onto a frayed electrical cord, which causes the fuses to blow, and the final clue falls into place for Miss Marple.Inspector Craddock gathers everyone at Little Paddocks and launches the final inquest, which is interrupted by Mitzi, Letitia's foreign â€Å"lady-help†, crying out that she saw Letitia commit the murder. The inspector does not believe her, and continues with his questioning. The inspector continues, and quickly insinuates that Edmund Swettenham who, with his widowed mother, was also present at the sho oting, is in fact Pip. However, Phillipa comes forward and confesses that she is in fact Pip; Inspector Craddock then accuses Edmund of wanting to marry a rich wife in Phillipa by murdering Letitia.Edmund denies this and as he does so, a terrified scream is heard from the kitchen. Everyone rushes to the kitchen and discovers Miss Blacklock attempting to drown Mitzi in the sink. Miss Blacklock is arrested by a local constable who has been hiding in the kitchen with Miss Marple, who imitates Dora Bunner's voice to make Ms. Blacklock break down. Miss Marple explains it quite simply: it wasn't Charlotte who died in Switzerland, but Letitia.Charlotte, aware that Letitia was in line to inherit a fortune, posed as Letitia and returned to England; few people knew Charlotte, as she had been a recluse before leaving England, and a slight change in Letitia's appearance could be explained away to casual acquaintances by her time abroad during the war. She only needed to avoid people who knew Le titia well, such as Belle Goedler, and to always cover her throat with strings of pearls or beads to hide the scars from her goiter surgery. Bunny was one of the few people who remembered Charlotte as Charlotte, but by then, Charlotte was so lonely that she allowed her old chool friend to move in. However, Rudi Scherz could have ruined everything: he worked at the Swiss hospital where Charlotte had been treated and could therefore identify Charlotte as herself. This is why Letitia/Charlotte hired him to come to Chipping Cleghorn and â€Å"hold up† a room full of guests: she blew the fuse by pouring water from a vase of flowers onto the frayed cord of a lamp, slipped out the second door, stood behind Rudi, and shot him. She then nicked her ear with a pair of nail scissors and rejoined the others, playing the part of perplexed host.Bunny became the next target because she, too, could reveal too much. Bunny had an eye for detail, but was prone to slip-ups: on several occasions, she referred to Ms. Blacklock as â€Å"Lotty† (short for â€Å"Charlotte†) instead of â€Å"Letty† (short for â€Å"Letitia†), and her conversation with Miss Marple in the cafe proved fatal. Miss Murgatroyd, the final victim, was also killed for guessing too much and for coming to the realization that Letitia/Charlotte was the one person, beside herself, whose face was not illuminated by Rudi Scherz's torch.Mitzi and Edmund had been persuaded by Miss Marple to play parts in tripping Charlotte Blacklock up; Miss Marple's plans were almost brought down when Phillipa admitted to being Pip, but Inspector Craddock thought fast enough to turn around and claim Edmund was after Phillipa's money. In the end, Phillipa/Pip and Julia/Emma inherit the Goedler fortune; Edmund and Phillipa/Pip get married and return to Chipping Cleghorn to live. Characters in â€Å"A Murder is Announced† * Miss Jane Marple * Inspector Dermot Craddock Letitia Blacklock, lady of th e house, in her early/mid 60s * Dora Bunner, her elderly fluttery childhood friend, usually known by her nickname, â€Å"Bunny† * Patrick and Julia Simmons, Miss Blacklock's spoiled and foolish young cousins (who call her Aunt) * Mitzi, Miss Blacklock's foreign housekeeper and cook, a young refugee * Phillipa Haymes, a young widowed paying guest/gardener with a young son at boarding school * Colonel Archie Easterbrook, blustery old colonel just returned from India * Laura Easterbrook, his considerably younger, glamorous wife * Mrs Swettenham, elderly lady who dotes on her son Edmund Swettenham, cynical young writer * Miss Hinchcliffe, efficient lady farmer * Miss Amy Murgatroyd, her pleasant but giggly companion * Belle Goedler, dying widow of Letitia's former wealthy employer * Diane `Bunch? Harmon, wife of the local vicar * Julian Harmon, the vicar * Tiglath Pileser, the vicarage cat * Rudi Scherz, a young man of Swiss extraction, the receptionist at a local spa * Myrna Har ris, girlfriend of the latter, waitress at local spa * Chief Constable George Rydesdale, Craddock's superior