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• Beukes revisits America in Broken Monsters high school students

• A shaved salsa that needs no tomatoes, no chopping

• 2015 Audi A3: Big luxury in a pleasantly small package

• Why you’re not too young for hip replacement surgery

• Smartphone camera makers see next opportunity in cars

inside

LEARN ARABIC • Learn commonly

used Arabic wordsand their meanings

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The Hundred-Foot Journey: Visually brilliant, lacks drama

SAVING SAVING COBZACOBZA

At his home in central Romania with the hens and turkeys wandering in the courtyard, Vasile Nica welcomes visitors who have come to hear him play a unique string instrument that is facing oblivion.

2 COVER STORYPLUS | SUNDAY 10 AUGUST 2014

SavingSavingRomania’sRomania’scobza from cobza from playingplayingits last notesits last notes

By Isabelle Wesselingh

At his home in central Romania with hens and turkeys wandering in the courtyard, Vasile Nica welcomes visitors who have come to hear him play a unique stringed

instrument that is facing oblivion.Under the shade of an apple tree with coffee and

cakes laid out on the table, Nica starts to pluck his 80-year-old wooden cobza with a goose quill.

At 73, he is one of the last traditional players of the “Romanian oud”. It is a long journey over potholed roads through the hilly countryside to find the musician in his native village of Barboi.

“When I have the cobza in my arms, I feel happy, I feel like my soul is expanding. I don’t need food, I don’t need anything anymore,” says Nica in his dark suit and spotless white shirt, eyes sparkling with delight.

With violinist Marian Ilie, they sing about love, the forests of their homeland, or they improvise songs inspired by their guests.

But the cobza is in danger of playing its last notes as few masters of the instrument remain, and Romanian music lovers are working to save this integral part of the country’s cultural heritage.

A Romanian cousin of the oud and the lute, the cobza consists of a half-pear shaped resonance box with pegs placed on a neck bent back at an angle.

It can be found painted on the walls of the 16th-century Unesco-listed monasteries in the Bucovina region as well as in frescoes at the National Museum of Arts in Bucharest.

“In the 19th century, it was unthinkable in cer-tain parts of Romania to have a wedding, a chris-tening or a party without a cobza,” Florin Iordan, a Romanian ethnomusicologist at the National Peasant Museum, said.

Small bands of “lautari” — professional musi-cians or troubadours — would come to play and sing, and they usually had a violin, a flute and a cobza.

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The talent of Romanian lautari has been much admired by expert foreign visitors, including noted US ethnomusicologist Robert Garfias.

PLUS | SUNDAY 10 AUGUST 2014

Talented troubadoursMany “lautari” were Roma enslaved in rich

urban families. When they were freed, some settled in the countryside playing their music in the villages.

The talent of Romanian lautari has been much admired by expert foreign visitors, including noted US ethnomusicologist Robert Garfias.

And in 1847 Hungarian pianist and com-poser Franz Liszt was stunned to see Barbu Lautarul, a Romanian lautar, perfectly repro-duce with his cobza one of his improvisations.

Lautari learn to play the cobza from older masters.

Nica, a true “lautar”, learned from an old Roma, Nea Costica, who lived in his village. He paid for the lessons with a sheep.

He then started to live like a professional musician, travelling across the country to play the cobza at weddings, celebrations and even funerals.

But the cobza has being going out of fashion.“It was gradually replaced by other instru-

ments seen as more modern, such as the dulci-mer (tambal), the accordion and the electronic organ,” Speranta Radulescu, a well-known ethnomusicologists in Europe, said.

“When I started my career, I met cobza players that were still living from their music but most of them died and no one took over,” she adds.

The cobza may soon be found only in museums.

“None of my children or grandchildren have learnt to play,” laments Nica.

But Ilie, his accompanying violinist, whose family has been playing music for generations, is convinced that the cobza and its music are not fading away.

“This music has such a beauty and authen-ticity that it cannot die,” he says.

An endangered treasureAs a first step to save the instrument,

Speranta Radulescu and Florin Iordan have crisscrossed Romania to record the last cobza players still alive.

Thanks to them, Constantin Negel, who died five years ago, played in front of hundreds of people at the Cite de la Musique in Paris in 2003.

Young Romanians have also rediscovered the beauty of this unique instrument.

Iordan and his wife Beatrice, both cobza players in their 30s, founded a band of ancient music, “Trei Parale”, with three other friends. They play across Europe.

“Today music has become something com-mercial but the cobza represents to me the sincerity of the past, when people in the coun-tryside used to sing and play music just for the pleasure of it,” Beatrice says.

“This instrument that is now neglected has an incredible musical heritage,” Florin adds.

Bogdan Simion, a literature student at the University of Bucharest, also believes in the renaissance of the cobza. He has collected about 40 of them and learned to play from older masters.

This year, he organised concerts in one of the most famous clubs in the Romanian capi-tal, Control. Dozens of young people clapped and danced to the sound of the cobza.

“Young people need a past to build a present and a future,” Radulescu believes. “The cobza will bring them back to the world of their grandparents, a world full of treasures.”

AFP

Vasile Nica plays a cobza at his place in Barboi village.

Beatrice Iordan, wife of Florin Iordan, ethnomusicologist at the Museum of the Romanian Peasant in Bucharest, plays cobza with their daughter.

PLUS | SUNDAY 10 AUGUST 20144 COMMUNITY / MARKETPLACE

McDonald’s Qatar introduces new ‘Chicken Burger Deluxe Sandwich’

McDonald’s Qatar announced the launch of the new Chicken Burger Deluxe Sandwich to its

menu for a limited time only. The new chicken burger deluxe sandwich fea-tures aromatic 100 percent pure halal breaded chicken patty dressed with freshly cut lettuce, slice of cheese, tomato, and a superfluous creamy may-onnaise on a freshly baked bun.

The new Chicken Burger Deluxe sandwich is now available at all McDonald’s restaurants across Qatar.

“The launch of the novelty sandwich is part of McDonald’s commitment to offer the best quality and wider menu options to its customers. All products served at all McDonald’s restaurants in the Middle East are Halal, inspected and approved by local authorities and Halal officers at the countries of export, and customs officials at the port of entry. All meat used in McDonald’s restaurants can be traced back to a trusted supplier that shares its dedication to the highest quality standards,” a statement said.

The Peninsula

Madi brings Nashi Argan hair treatment products to Qatar

Madi International has announced the launch of the Nashi Argan products in Qatar. The intro-

duction of Nashi Argan Hair Products in Qatar follows the success of the product in other parts of the Gulf and across the globe. Madi International had launched the Nashi Argan hair care products in Kuwait in October 2012 and in the UAE in October last year, as part of its agree-ment with Landoll, which covers UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, KSA, Bahrain, Oman, Jordan, Syria and Iraq.

Argan Oil is produced from an Argan nut in the Argan tree, which only grows in Southwestern Morocco. Argan oil is full of vitamins & antioxidants and is commonly used as a moisturizer for the body and is a great hair treatment.

Maher Makarem, General Manager of Madi International, Qatar, said: “We are happy to bring Nashi Argan - the organic 100 percent Argan oil option to Qatar. Nashi Argan provides the purest form of Argan Oil with its Argan Oil col-lection of products. Every single collec-tion from Nashi Argan has been made to suit women’s needs through its simplic-ity, efficacy and smoothness to the hair. Madi International is renowned to bring world-class innovation to the region, and this introduction in Qatar is part of our efforts to cap its success with an amaz-ing product.”

The Peninsula

Northwestern University in Qatar (NU-Q) led a panel dis-cussion this week in Montreal,

Canada at the 2014 Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) annual conference. The panel deliberated the findings of the locally-based study con-ducted across six nations earlier this year by NU-Q, in partnership with Doha Film Institute, on entertainment use in the Middle East.

The panel included leading industry scholar from NU-Q Justin D. Martin, Assistant Professor in Residence, as well as CEO and Dean of NU-Q, Everette E Dennis. Two additional internation-ally renowned panel members took part: Shibley Telhami, author of The World Through Arab Eyes and Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland, US; and Noha Mellor, Professor of Media, at the University of Bedfordshire, UK, author on Arab media and former News Producer for Danish Broadcasting and the BBC World Service.

The discussion covered the study of one of the largest examinations to

date of entertainment media use in the Arab world, representing over 6,000 respondents, conducted via face-to-face interviews in nationally repre-sentative samples of Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The panel explored entertainment preferences, attitudes toward government regula-tion of entertainment media, and the role of digital content and social media in entertainment choices.

“We feel privileged to be part of this prestigious event and to provide an opportunity to discuss an important study, as the first of its kind in the Middle East region, with such a diverse audience of leading international jour-nalist and mass communication profes-sionals. As scholars and educators in Qatar, we strive to bring the story of the Middle East to the wider world and this research provides a base of knowl-edge for executives across all sectors, including entertainment, sport, and children’s programming,” comments Dennis of Northwestern University in Qatar.

The overall findings from the

massive, pan-Arab study show high region-wide concern about cultural preservation and support for media regulation, but also a general embrace of international content. The survey revealed 65% of residents in six Arab countries want more content portray-ing their own culture and history, while an equal number (66%) say people ben-efit from watching content from dif-ferent parts of the world. Over 70% region-wide want greater regulation of romantic and violent content.

In addition to presenting the ‘Entertainment Media Use in the Middle East’ six-nation survey, Klaus Schoenbach, Associate Dean for Research, Susan Dunn, Senior Lecturer, Liz Lance, Research Administrator at NU-Q, Janet Key, Assistant Professor and Amy Sanders, Associate Professor also presented at AEJMC on the top-ics of ‘Intermedia Agenda-setting in a Multimedia Environment,’ ‘Digital Advantage,’ ‘Qatar on the World Stage,’ ‘The Challenges of Scholastic Journalism in International Settings,’ and ‘Academic Freedom and Social Media’ respectively.

The Peninsula

Qatar-based research in spotlight at global journalists and mass media meet

Crowdfunding campaign launched for film set in Qatar and Philippines

RenderFarm Productions in col-laboration with Qatar-based DT Talents & Events and Film

Director Jan Xavier Pacle have one ultimate goal: To create quality films that would help contribute to the ris-ing Qatari film industry, as well as to give the Philippine Independent film sector a boost. The main reason why the 26-year-old Pacle embarks on a new project intended for film festivals and international release.

Recently, the young Filipino film-maker took to global crowdfunding website Indiegogo to fund his latest film ‘Remembering Ada’ - a story of a long lost love centred on a man and a woman from ‘different worlds’.

“It is a love story based on a small notebook with writings no one under-stands,” said Pacle. A fan of Egyptian hieroglyphics, Pacle has once created a secret alphabet when he was in grade school - this inspired him to make a movie about someone who dis-covered a journal written in a ‘mys-terious language’.

Set across two countries, the film is expected to showcase over 56 loca-tions in Qatar and in the Philippines. Hundreds of extras are needed. Actors to play the lead roles, and the crew will fly in from the Philippines. The

team has been sourcing for additional shooting equipment, and scouts for a better and more experienced staff to work on post-production. Pacle admits this film would be his most expensive project to date.

Although almost 80 percent of the film is being funded by private local investors, “there are still lots of things crucial to the progress of the project that we need to purchase or rent,” said the film’s producer Sky Gonzales. “I would like to invite all readers to check our online cam-paign and pledge any amount. We just need a little more help to realise this project,” added Gonzales.

Jan Xavier Pacle has created several full-length and short films screened at festivals worldwide, including The Doha Tribeca Film Festival and the Festival de Cannes in France. His past works include: Finding Faith, I Love You Ma’am, Angel in June, After Seven, and A Shout From Within.

The Peninsula

5BOOK PLUS | SUNDAY 10 AUGUST 2014

By Ed Stoddard

South Africa’s Lauren Beukes returns to urban America and the hunt for a serial killer in her new novel, Broken

Monsters.Her previous best-seller, The Shining

Girls, followed a time-travelling drifter from the Depression era who stalked women in Chicago as he jumped from decade to decade.

In Broken Monsters, a killer with a macabre sense of ‘art’ who puts together part-human, part-animal bodies terrorises Detroit, a city in the throes of post-industrial decay.

The novel’s cast of characters includes a stressed-out female detec-tive, her rebellious teenage daugh-ter and a blogger on the prowl for a career-boosting scoop.

Beukes spoke by phone from her Cape Town base about her work and future plans.

It is still relatively rare for a nov-elist from Africa to set his work out-side of the continent, but, of course, many non-Africans have used this region as their backdrop. Do you think you are part of a new trend of African writers?

Yes, I think there are other writers like Sarah Lotz who are doing this. I don’t see why African writers should be restricted, and I think the world is ours to play with.

Why the specific settings of Detroit and Chicago?

Because it’s my sneaky way of writ-ing about Johannesburg. They are stand-ins for Johannesburg.

How so?Well, Chicago is a shining city, which

has terrible corruption and crime rates. So a shining city with segrega-tion and crime and corruption and all the political themes that I’m interested in but on a much broader canvas. And then Detroit is my way of writing about (the Johannesburg inner-city district of) Hillbrow again, which, of course, is the setting for my novel Zoo City. It’s a place that people look at from the outside and judge as a ruined blight upon our society and a symbol of eve-rything that has gone wrong with this country and a warning of where we might be heading. And, of course, both Hillbrow and Detroit are those things, and they have massive problems, and there are boarded up buildings, and there is desperate poverty. But what I’m interested in is the people who live there and the stories and the life and the spark that is in these places.

America has a never-ending fasci-nation with serial killers, apparent in the popularity of TV shows such as Criminal Minds and Dexter. But you seem to have breathed new literary life into the genre. Do you have more serial killers up your sleeve?

I might be done with serial killers. I’m probably not done with murder. But I’ve spent a lot of time trying to write very real serial killers who are not glamorous or cool but loathsome and violent and awful, the way serial killers really are. And writing from that perspective is fairly hideous. So I don’t know if I would readily go back there. I am pitching a horror comic, but that is just going to be like high camp. But also scary.

Your first two novels were set in South Africa. Any plans to come back home with your writing?

Oh, definitely. One of the char-acters in the horror comic that I’m pitching is South African. And two out of the four pitches that I just sent to my editor are set in South Africa. I’d love to do a sequel to Zoo City, for example.

MRC and Leonardo DiCaprio’s production company Appian Way have bought the TV rights to The Shining Girls. Has any-one expressed interest in bringing Broken Monsters to life on the screen, big or small?

My film agent is shopping it around at the moment, and there is quite a lot of interest. Reuters

By Iman Amrani

The undying reign of vampire films looks set to continue as Universal Pictures acquires

the movie rights to Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles series of 13 novels.

Rice’s son Christopher is also involved, with the deal including the screenplay he adapted from his mother’s book Tale of the Body Thief. Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, producers of the recent Transformers

and Star Trek movies, will oversee the series.

It follows an impressive number of vampire book series that have been adapted for film or television over the past decade, trying to cater to an audience whose thirst is seemingly insatiable. The flurry of vampire flicks include the Twilight saga, 30 Days of Night (2007) and Van Helsing (2004), as well as the forthcoming Dracula Untold movie. The television series The Vampire Diaries and True Blood have also had

strong followings in recent years.Rice’s debut novel in the series,

Interview With the Vampire, was adapted into a dramatically gothic film directed by Neil Jordan in 1994, starring Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and a young Kirsten Dunst – it grossed $224m globally.

However, in 2002, Rice’s book Queen of the Damned, also part of the Vampire Chronicles, was adapted into a film starring Aaliyah and Stuart Townsend. It has become something of a cult hit in the wake of Aaliyah’s

death, but the film underperformed at the box office and has a measly 17 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Universal is investing heavily in the supernatural genre at the moment, and recently embarked on a project with Kurtzman and Chris Morgan to breathe new life into classic movie characters such as Dracula, the Mummy and Frankenstein’s monster. The Mummy is up first, with a film scheduled for release on April 22, 2016.

The Guardian

Universal buys rights to Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles book series

Beukes revisits America in Broken Monsters

PLUS | SUNDAY 10 AUGUST 20146 FOOD

By J M Hirsch

We generally assume two things about salsa that we shouldn’t.

First, that it must involve tomatoes. Second, that the ingredients should

be chopped. Because while chopped tomato salsas are delicious, you don’t want those to be your only experience. There are so many other delicious ways to enjoy fresh salsa.

To prove the point, I offer this shaved grapefruit and corn salsa that gets its bite from jalapeno chilies and red radishes. The shaving — best done by a man-doline, though a food processor also could be used — produces a salsa that manages to be both substantial and light. The paper-thin slices of onion also better absorb the other flavors.

Lime juice and vinegar are the traditional sources of acid in many salsas (in addition to the tomatoes), but this version gets all it needs from the grapefruit juice. A hit of sugar and the corn add the perfect sweet balance to the heat and acidity, and a bit of garlic ties it all together.

Though this salsa is perfect with chips for scoop-ing, also consider spooning it over grilled fish, such as salmon.

Grapefruit and Corn Summer SalsaThis recipe calls for using a mandoline to shave

the vegetables paper thin. If you don’t have one, you can use a food processor fitted with the slicing blade, though the vegetables will not be cut as thinly.

Start to finish: 10 minutesServings: 6

Ingredients

1 small red onion4 medium red radishes4 cloves garlic

1/2 jalapeno pepper, ribs and seeds discarded1 large ruby red grapefruit1 ear corn1 teaspoon sugarSalt and ground black pepper

Method:Use a mandoline to shave the onion, radishes, gar-

lic and jalapeno into a medium bowl. Take great care when shaving the garlic cloves. Toss well.

Slice off the top and bottom of the grapefruit, then set the grapefruit on one of its flat sides on a cutting board. Carefully cut down the sides of the grapefruit, working in strips, to slice off the skin and white pith, removing as little of the grapefruit flesh as possible. Try not to press the grapefruit while doing this; you don’t want to press the juices out.

Hold the peeled grapefruit in one hand over the bowl, then use a paring knife to carefully cut out the grapefruit segments. It is fine if the segments don’t hold together while doing this. When all of the seg-ments are removed, squeeze the membranes of the grapefruit to add as much juice as possible to the bowl, then discard. Mix gently.

Cut the kernels from the ear of corn. To do this, stand the ear on its wide end and saw back and forth down the length of the cob. Add the kernels to the bowl, then mix. Add the sugar, mix, then season with salt and pepper. The salsa can be served immediately, or refrigerated. If chilled, let warm to room tempera-ture for 30 minutes before serving.

Nutrition information per serving: 45 calories; 5 calo-ries from fat (11 percent of total calories); 0 g fat (0 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 0 mg cholesterol; 11 g carbo-hydrate; 1 g fiber; 6 g sugar; 1 g protein; 85 mg sodium.

AP

A shaved salsa that needs no tomatoes, no chopping

WHEELS 7

By Warren Brown

This stunningly beautiful town, bounded by three bodies of water, has been our family’s summer vacation spot for five

years. We always drive — choosing a car small enough to easily navigate Newport’s narrow streets, powerful enough to safely get us through the mayhem of Interstate 95, and comfort-able enough to hold three people and a large chocolate Labrador.

Past trips have required compromise in the choice of automobiles. Small often lacked needed power. Powerful enough often proved too large. And because Newport is a stylish place, there always was the matter of the swank factor — a car luxurious enough to fit in, but not so overwhelming in presentation that it reeked of trying too hard.

This year’s driving choice was easy — the compact Audi A3 2.0T Quattro sedan, all new for 2015. The car replaces the A3 hatchback, which had been a pleasure to drive but had the persona of an overpriced economy car.

The cost of the new A3 sedan remains dear for middle-income wal-lets, starting at $29,900 for the “base” Premium model and moving up to $38,350 for the top-of-the-line A3 Prestige. We happily muddled in the middle with the all-wheel-drive A3 Premium Plus, which has a starting price of $32,900.

It was a good choice. The car came with an optional 2-litre, turbocharged (forced air) in-line four-cylinder gaso-line engine that delivered impressive power (220 horsepower, 258 pound-feet of torque) and almost reasonable fuel economy — 24 miles per gallon in the

city and 33 on the highway.I would have called those mileage

numbers “good” for a small luxury sedan. But the turbocharged engine requires premium patrol, which cost as much as $4.22 a gallon when we visited these parts in late July.

But it was a small sacrifice given the nature of the A3 sedan’s remark-able performance. The car was a sheer joy to drive — wonderfully responsive in high-speed highway traffic, easy to

manoeuvre on congested streets.I would’ve preferred that the A3

used for this journey had also come with a backup camera and blind-side warning system. Those advanced safety technologies would have been useful on some of this town’s streets, packed with cars, bicyclists and pedestrians gener-ated by the recently concluded 2014 Newport Music Festival. But as often is the case with automotive pricing, you have to spend more to get those

available safety items.Still, the A3 remains a pretty good

deal for people shopping for luxury on a budget. The car has one of the most well conceived and rendered interi-ors of any automobile in any class — attractive in its simplicity, outfitted with high-quality materials, ergonomi-cally sensible. It is a good place to be in on a long drive, even with a large dog.

The A3 sedan also is deceptively fast. At times I looked at the A3’s speed-ometer and was surprised to find that I was running at 80 mph. I usually “feel” that kind of speed as a car moves against the wind, or “hear” it in terms of a whining or straining engine. But none of those cues were evident in the A3’s smooth, quiet, seemingly effortless performance.

I looked at the speedometer and slowed down, which required moving over to the right lane on I-95. Like it or not, legal or not, going slower than 80 on that highway, especially in the left or middle lanes, is often going too slow. I yielded to substantially faster traffic.

I suffered no loss of ego in conced-ing to faster drivers. Confidence is knowing you can go faster in response to necessity or will. During a nearly 1,000-mile drive here from our home in Virginia, I developed maximum con-fidence in the Audi A3 sedan. It is not hyperbole to claim that I fell in love with the little car.

It did everything I wanted it to do exactly when I wanted it to do it. It was a control freak’s motorized dream. Notice to the BMW 2-series, Cadillac ATS, Infiniti G-class sedan and Mercedes-Benz CLA: Your Audi com-petition has arrived and is quite willing and able to snatch market share.

WP-Bloomberg

2015 Audi A3: Big luxury in a pleasantly small package


Nuts & BoltsBottom line: The 2015 Audi A3 sedan is one of the best small luxury cars available.

Hint: Audi could make this one even more attractive by installing a rearview backup camera and blind-side warning system as standard equipment on all A3 models. That would raise production costs. But here’s betting it also would reduce marketing costs and increase sales.

Ride, acceleration and handling: Good marks in all three. Its all-wheel-drive system inspires driver confidence in foul weather on slippery roads, especially in curves.

Head-turning quotient: The A3 has a stately, attractive exterior that bespeaks affluence with class. The car’s interior is one of the best in the business at any price.

Body style/layout: The sedan is all-new for 2015. It replaces the A3 hatchback and is available in three trim levels — “base” front-wheel-drive Premium; mid-level all-wheel-drive Premium Plus and top-grade Prestige. Soon to be added to the lineup are an A3 convertible, a diesel-fueled A3 and an S3 high-performance model.

Engines/transmission: The 2015 Audi A3 sedan comes standard with a turbo-charged 1.8-liter in-line four-cylinder gasoline engine developing 170 horsepower and 200 pound-feet of torque. The 2-liter version in this week’s sample car is available as an option. Both engines transmit power via a six-speed automatic transmission that also can be operated manually.

Capacities: Seating is for five people. Cargo capacity with all seats in place is a scant 10 cubic feet. A fold-down feature in the 60-40 split rear seats allows for carriage of longer items. The fuel tank holds 14.5 gallons of gasoline. Premium-grade fuel is required.

Mileage: I averaged 33 miles per gallon on the highway. I’m still shocked.Safety: Standard equipment includes ventilated front and solid rear disc brakes,

four-wheel anti-lock brake protection, emergency braking assistance, and electronic brake-force distribution.

Pricing: The all-wheel-drive 2015 Audi A3 Premium Plus sedan starts at $32,900 in US. Price as tested is $37,545, including $3,750 in “upgrades” (Bang & Olufsen premium sound system, 18-inch-diameter wheels, onboard navigation and other items).

PLUS | SUNDAY 10 AUGUST 2014 ENTERTAINMENT8 9

HOLLYWOOD NEWS BOLLYWOOD NEWS

capturing the natural beauty of France and the mundane life of the characters, in all its simplicity.

The food shots, the scenic locales and the flawlessly moving camera work that captures the characters in their stride injects an adrenaline boost to the viewing experience.

The humour and rant is so stere-otype, yet fresh in its approach.

While the title as well as the setting makes a good allegory for the narra-tion that is so typical of Director Lasse Hallstrom, the theme of the film as well as certain scenes remind you of his earlier film Chocolat, which was released in 2000.

The only drawback is that while plot is sugary sweet and engaging, the nar-rative lacks drama. IANS

By Troy Ribeiro

Based on the novel by Richard C Morais and adapted by Steven Knight, The Hundred-Foot Journey is a charmingly

frothy fable about an immigrant fam-ily and their endeavour to blend in a foreign land.

The film trails restaurateur Kadam’s Family from Mumbai. During a political unrest, their restaurant is destroyed, his wife is killed and they are forced to migrate. They seek asylum in London. And since their business was not doing well in the UK, they decide to shift base “anywhere in Europe”.

It is while driving through the coun-tryside of France in a worn out van, they have an accident and they stumble upon a local, Marguerite, who takes them over to her place in the quaint village of Saint- Antonin-Noble-Val.

En route, a dilapidated property that once was a restaurant catches the patriarch’s eye. He decides this is where he would want his family to settle and open their new restaurant — Maison Mumbai.

His three older children — Hassan, Mansoor, and Aesha, — coax him to reconsider his decision citing that the French don’t like Indian Cuisine and that there is an elite Michelin Star restaurant diagonally opposite their property, literally hundred-feet away.

But Kadam is adamant. So as a last resort, Hassan tells his father to speak to his dead wife, to that he retorts, “She said the brakes failed for a reason.”

That seals their fate.The Kadam’s set up their garish

looking restaurant against all odds only to find their prodigy — Chef Hassan — has a different set of goals. And it is his journey to achieve his goal that forms the crux of the film.

Om Puri as the father is his usual self, sputtering and fuming portray-ing a beleaguered patriarch’s inner life. Helen Mirren as Madame Mallory, the snooty French woman and owner of the Michelin Star restaurant, excels too.

But it is Manish Dayal as Hassan and Charlotte Le Bon as Marguerite, who outshine the seniors.

The onscreen chemistry between both the couples — Helen and Om and Manish and Charlotte — is the life of the film.

It is the evolution of Puri and Mirren’s characters; from adversar-ies of personal and nationalistic pride, to respectful rivals who share com-mon characteristics, which represents the films message that multicultural harmony can be achieved through an embracement of cultures, with food being the binding factor.

Cinematographer Linus Sandgren’s photography is a visual delight,

Sandler wins dispute with former nanny

Actor Adam Sandler has won a legal dispute against his former nanny Deanne McDonald, who accused him of slavery and criminal activ-

ity in 2009.McDonald, who was awarded $80,000 in damages in 2010 after she

accused the 50 First Dates star of treating her like a slave, has been ordered to repay the money she received for breaching their confiden-tiality agreement, reports contactmusic.com.

The 47-year-old actor’s production company HP Productions hired Deanne in 2009, but she successfully took them to court after her employ-ment ended the next year.

She secured $48,000 in damages and $32,000 for legal fees before agreeing to never speak about the case again.

But last year, McDonald attempted to terminate and rescind the set-tlement agreement by suing HP and Scott Sandler, Adam’s brother who co-runs the company, for more money.

Adam, who has two daughters, Sadie, eight, and Sunny, six, with wife Jackie Sandler, and his company says the new lawsuit violated a clause in the previous settlement, by repudiating it, disclosing confidential information and threatening to sue.

She has been ordered to return the money and restrained from filing another lawsuit, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Akshay’s Entertainment is reasonably entertainingBy Subhash K Jha

Film: EntertainmentCast: Junior, Akshay Kumar, Tamannah, Mithun Chakraborty,

Krushna AbhishekDirector: Sajid-Farhad

The canine-hero’s name in the list of actors in the credit titles comes first because that’s how Akshay Kumar wants it.

This film tells you to love animals. It’s a simple straightforward premise structured around a comical plot about a gold-digger wastrel whose father leaves his billions to his dog.

Playing the predatory retriever with an evil glint in his eye and wicked smirk on his face, Akshay Kumar has a ball in the film. He does a wickedly amiable mean act trying to poison, electrocute and drown the canine. Admittedly, the characters on screen seem to enjoy themselves more than the audience. Not that we don’t share their enjoyment.

For a large part of the narration, Entertainment is fun to watch. The script is deftly and devilishly put together.

If only writer-turned-co-director Sajid-Farhad did not trip over the cascade of word-play, the going would have been much more pleasing.

Lamentably every character speaks in a tumble of puns and word play, some of them painfully plodding and self-conscious.

The character played by the comically vibrant Krushna Abhishek crams in actors’ names in every sentence. This would have been infuriatingly obtrusive in a film of a more serious nature. No such calamity befalls Entertainment.

The biggest USP of the reasonably entertaining Entertainment is that it never makes the mistake of taking itself too seriously.

In the hilarious opening, where in a product-endorsement spoof with Riteish Deshmukh, Akshay establishes his character as a rogue and a charlatan, the film hops skips and jumps through hilarious hoopla, sometime generating a reluctant laughter in the audience, at other times leaving you a little numbed by the fatuous flavour of the farce.

In one sequence, where the leading lady Tammannah’s father Mithun Chakraborty (singularly unfunny) advises his daughter to marry the dog since husbands become “dogs” after marriage anyway.

Some scenes walk on thick ice, quite literally. The moral turning-point for Akshay’s character vis-a-vis the canine happens in a scene spread out on a dangerously thin ice-bed. It defines what the film tries to achieve given its flimsy premise and nebulous moral ground.

Holding the film from falling apart is Akshay Kumar. Sporting and sometimes sparkling with his comic timing, he helps the audience to over the serious silliness of some of the material in the second-half where, in a style of cat-and-mouse game of Home Alone and Dunston Checks In, Akshay gets even with two bumbling comic villains played with anarchic gusto by Prakash Raj and Sonu Sood.

Here is where the narration needed to exercise more temperance. Here is where Entertainment errs. It doles out too much of the farci-cal garnish that tends to tarnish the innocence of the relationship between Dog and Man.

A blend of the mischievous and the mirthful Entertainment is a green-lit blues-chaser which tends to get carried away with its fun of mood. The gags flow non-stop, accommodating a hefty amount of playing-time to letting the characters grow into precocious over-grown brats.

In one sequence, when Akshay Kumar gets to know his father’s bil-lions have gone to the dog, he rolls on the floor and wails like a baby.

Dare any other A-lister actor do that. And yes, most of Akshay Kumar’s chemistry is with his canine

co-star, an imperturbable retriever who seems resigned to being thrown in the middle of a plot which he cannot make sense of. We second that emotion.

Tamannah has precious-little to do, and she does it not so well.IANS

Paris earns £1.6m from four nights’ work?

Socialite Paris Hilton earned a whopping £1.6m (approximately $27,00,000) for working as a DJ just for four nights.

The 33-year-old hotel chain heiress has been roped in to play superstar DJ, and provide a soundtrack to tourists and revellers in Ibiza, reports dailystar.co.uk.

“She’s making 1.6 million from the four nights — £207,000 an hour,” a source told The Sun newspaper.

However, the source said Hilton may go unnoticed as the star spinning tracks behind the decks, as she has earlier been accused of just turning up, pressing the play button and then posing all night.

“The crowds do seem to enjoy it, but most are too off their faces to care,” the source added.

Paris will stay in an exclusive luxury resort on party-fuelled Balearic Island for over a month. Her cushy job only requires a couple of hours every Wednesday night when she ventures to one of Ibaz’s biggest clubs to host a foam party.

Aniston wants to age naturally

Actress Jennifer Aniston believes in ageing gracefully and she’s glad her beau Justin Theroux agrees. She says he would “put a gun” to her

head if she ever went under the knife or took injections to look younger.“I think, what I have been witness to, is seeing women trying to stay

ageless with what they are doing to themselves,” she said in an interview, reports people.com.

“I am grateful to learn from their mistakes, because I am not inject-ing (anything) into my face. I see them and my heart breaks. I think, ‘Oh God, if you only know how much older you look.’ They are trying to stop the clock and all you can see is an insecure person who won’t let themselves just age.

“I also have a fiancé who will put a gun to my head if I touch my face in any way,” she added.

The 45-year-old thus plans to age naturally.“I also understand that age is kind of awesome. I am fortunate enough

to know women like Gloria Steinem, who I think is one of the most stun-ning women on the planet, and doesn’t touch her face.

“Diane Keaton, Annette Bening, all of these fabulous fearless women who are flawless, they embrace it. You know to each their own, I don’t judge it if you do it, but sometimes I wish I could beg the people I know, who I am very near and dear to, to not touch their face,” she said.


Om Puri cooks dinner for Helen Mirren

Veteran actor Om Puri, who shot with Helen Mirren in the French town of Albi for Swedish director Lasse Hallstrom’s The Hundred Foot Journey, says he was very impressed by the location and his lovely

leading lady — and even went down on his knees for her.“I rented my own apartment in Albi where I did my own cooking. When

Helen Mirren arrived for shooting, I invited her home for dinner along with the rest of the crew. I cooked an Indian meal for them. When she arrived, I fell on my knees in front of her and confessed I was a fan. Helen laughed, made me stand up, hugged me and said she also admired my work,” Om told IANS on the phone from Albi.

Om is simply bowled over by Mirren and is ecially impressed by her gener-ous spirit.

“She is such a great actress and so devoid of any vanity. I had a great time shooting with her. The one saving grace of my troubled life is that when I start to work I forget all my problems,” he said.

As for his own experience during the shoot, Om said: “I was so happy to be here in Albi. It was so peaceful and beautiful. I’m very proud of what we achieved in this film. I think my country will be proud of me.”

“That at my age I get such pivotal roles in international projects proves I must have done something right,” he added.

Agenices

The Hundred-The Hundred-Foot Journey:Foot Journey: Visually brilliant, Visually brilliant, lacks drama lacks drama

LAWPLUS | SUNDAY 10 AUGUST 201410

© GRAPHIC NEWSSources: UBS World Ultra Wealth Report, Bloomberg, WorkPermit.com

Austria: $10 million in localinvestments. EU passport with

visa-free access to 168 countries

Cyprus: $3.4 million.Access to 151 countries

In a legal challenge, 1,469 rich Chinese – who had applied for Canadiancitizenship under the now defunct Immigrant Investor Programme – are

suing the Canadian government for $5 million each in compensation

High net worth individuals(HNWs with net assets ofUS$30 million and above)

Australia: $4.6 million(A$5m in government bonds)

UK: $3.1 million (£2.5m).Access to 87 countries

Malta: $844,350 (€650,000)fee, plus $680,300 (€500,000)

on property and government bonds.Visa-free access to 163 countries

Portugal: $1.3 million (€1m),creation of at least 10 jobs

and purchase of €500,000 in property

Republic of Ireland: $680,300(€500,000) investment in

Irish economy

Spain: $680,300 (€500,000)in property or $2.7m (€2m)

in government bonds

United States: $500,000investment for four years under

EB5 Green Card programme.Citizenship after five years

Greece: $340,125 (€250,000)in property

Switzerland: $278,425-$1.1mannual lump sum tax.

No guarantee of citizenship

Antigua & Barbuda: $250,000.Access to 130 countries

St Kitts & Nevis: $250,000.Access to 131 countries plus

no direct personal taxation

North AmericaHNW wealth:$9.68 trillionHNWs: 70,485

Europe$7.68 trillionHNWs: 58,065

199,235HNW individuals

own wealthtotalling

$27,775bn

Asia$6.59 trillionHNWs: 44,505

Latin America$2.11 trillion HNWs: 14,150

Middle East$880 billion HNWs: 5,300

Oceania$485 billion HNWs: 3,955

Africa$350 billion HNWs: 2,775

PRICE OF A PASSPORTCanada: “Millionaire” scheme,

in which $733,000 (C$800,000)secured residency, ended FebruaryCh

ines

e su

per r

ich

sue

Cana

da

HEALTH / FITNESS 11

Diabetic? Eat pistachios daily for super health

Love pistachios? You have another rea-son to have these tree nuts if your sugar levels are high as eating pistachios may

reduce vascular response to stress in type 2 diabetes.

“In adults with diabetes, two servings of pis-tachios per day lowered vascular constriction during stress and improved neural control of the heart,” said Sheila G West, a professor of biobehavioral health and nutritional sciences at Pennsylvania State University.

Although nuts are high in fat, they contain good fats, fibre, potassium and antioxidants.

“Given the high risk of heart disease in people with diabetes, nuts are an important component of a heart healthy diet in this popu-lation,” West added.

During the investigation on patients with type 2 diabetes about the effects of pistachios, researchers randomised patients to one of two test diets. Diets included a standard heart-healthy diet — 27 percent fat and seven per-cent saturated fat — and a diet containing two servings per day of pistachios — about 3 ounces or 20 percent of calories from pistachio nuts.

The typical research participant consumed about 150 pistachio nuts per day.

The pistachio diet contained 33 percent fat and 7 percent saturated fat.

“After the pistachio diet, blood vessels remained more relaxed and open during the stress tests,” West said.

They found that systolic blood pressure dur-ing sleep was particularly affected by pistachios.

“Average sleep blood pressure was reduced by about four points and this would be expected to lower workload on the heart,” West noted.

The researchers also recorded improvements in heart rate variability, a measure of how well the nervous system controls heart function.

The results appeared in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Pulses provide easy-to-cook weight loss recipe: Study

One full serving a day of beans, peas, chickpeas or lentils can increase full-ness, which may lead to less food crav-

ings and more weight loss, says a study.“People felt 31 percent fuller after eating on

average 160 grams of dietary pulses compared with a control diet,” said John Sievenpiper from St Michael’s Hospital in Canada.

Pulses have a low glycemic index (meaning that they are foods that break down slowly) and can be used to reduce or displace animal protein as well as “bad” fats such as trans fat in a dish or meal.

Around 90 percent of weight loss interven-tions fail, resulting in weight regain, which may be due in part to hunger and food cravings, Sievenpiper noted.

Knowing which foods make people feel fuller longer may help them lose weight and keep it off.

The findings that pulses make people feel fuller was true across various age categories and Body Mass Indexes (BMI).

Sievenpiper’s systematic review and meta-analysis included nine clinical trials involving 126 participants out of more than 2,000 papers screened. The study appeared in the journal Obesity. Agencies

By Eric Niiler

I first felt it while walking with my wife in downtown Bethesda, Maryland, a few years ago. A throb in my right hip that never seemed to go away, caus-

ing a limp, which triggered other problems (trouble sleeping, lower back pain). After years of cycling, skiing and other sports, I shrugged off the pain as an old pulled groin muscle reawakening itself just to be ornery.

But when a friend suggested I get it checked out, I wasn’t prepared for the diagnosis: osteoarthritis, degeneration of the cartilage in my hip joint.

Joint degeneration? That’s something for old guys with canes and shuffleboards, I thought. I was a reasonably fit dude who did a hundred-mile ride on my 45th birth-day and commuted to work 11 miles each way.

My doctor at the time, Matthew Parker, himself an accomplished competitive cyclist, said the cartilage between my hip’s ball and socket was slowly disap-pearing, while bony growths prevented the joint from moving smoothly. While there are many causes of arthritis, in my case the culprit was femoral acetabular impingement, an abnormality in the way the ball of the femur (thighbone) and the acetabulum (hip socket) fit together. The impingement causes friction in the joint and the hip to “jam” in front when bending forward. Over the years, it wore down the cartilage between ball and socket, caus-ing pain when I drove a car, rode a bike or slept.

Parker knows about osteoarthritis, the most common form of arthritis. He had two hip replacements in his early 50s, recovered and still competes on his bike.

He figured it was better to get his hips done then and enjoy life instead of waiting until the arthritis made everyday activity nearly impossible. Some studies show that arthritis patients are at greater risk for weight gain and the conditions that accompany it, such as diabetes and high blood pressure. Yet the idea of surgery

(my first), and installing a plastic/ceramic/metal contraption into my body wasn’t sitting well.

I poured myself into research. It turns out that more and more people in their 40s, 50s and early 60s are getting their hips replaced, unwilling to live with pain and give up activity.

Overall, the annual number of total and partial hip replacements jumped 56 per-cent, from 263,000 to 411,000, between 1998 and 2011, according to the latest fig-ures compiled by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. The portion of patients ages 45 to 64 having this proce-dure jumped from 27 percent in 1998 to 42 percent in 2011.

I wrote about the trend of younger hip replacement patients in a 2011 Washington Post article. After interview-ing each of nearly a dozen Washington-area surgeons, the question would always come up about my own condition.

“You’ll be back,” said one doc. “Sooner or later, you’ll give me a call.”

I remained anxious. Apart from the risks of surgery itself, there was also fear about uncertainty down the road. Since a hip implant lasts only 15 to 20 years, I’d probably need a second one. Surgeons told me that these “revisions” are more difficult to perform because they have to remove the metal stem of the first implant from bone that has grown around it, the blood loss is greater, the risk of infection is higher and recovery takes longer. Not a pleasant scenario.

I shifted to a strategy of delay. For nearly a year, I went to a physical therapist who gave me daily exercises to strengthen muscles around my hip joint, pulling it back into alignment and reducing the pain somewhat. I figured that if I delayed long enough, researchers would invent an implant that would last longer.

After PT, I took up yoga, finding relief in movements and positions that improved my posture as well as my flexibility. After three years of down dogs, eagle and child poses, I still wasn’t getting better.

Undeterred by constant pain, last

winter I worked as a weekend ski instruc-tor at Liberty Mountain in Carroll Valley, Pennsylvania. With a shot of painkilling cortisone injected into the hip socket, I was able to teach both kids and adults how to make it down the First Class begin-ner hill. The cortisone’s effects lasted about six weeks. Then it was back to gobbling handfuls of anti-inflammatory agents, which provided temporary relief.

By February, tired of waking up sore, tired of complaining to my family and friends, and now 51, I gave in.

I arrived at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda at 5:30 on the morning of April 30. I was tense and nervous the week before. I fought with the scheduler to be orthopedist Christopher Cannova’s first patient that day. I had read studies that showed a slight improvement in surgeries performed first thing in the morning, when the surgeon and his team is most alert. The anesthesiologist started an IV drip, my mouth went dry, then drowsiness and blankness. The only thing I remember was curling into a ball, I think when they moved me onto the surgical table. In talking to Cannova later, I was able to reconstruct what happened for the next 90 minutes.

After making a five-inch incision on the right front of my hip, he pulled aside, rather than cut, the muscles overlaying the joint. This anterior (as opposed to poste-rior) approach has become more wide-spread in recent years as doctors have found that patients recover faster this way.

He then cut the femoral head (the ball) and removed the arthritic growths as well as the socket. A cup and plastic liner was inserted into the hip joint. A metal implant with a ball on top was inserted into the leg bone. Where bone was previously grinding on bone, now there is a smooth-sliding ceramic-plastic interface.

I was under the knife for only 60 min-utes. Anesthesia and other preparations took 30 minutes, according to my doctor. The recovery takes months.

That night in my hospital room, a thera-pist came to get me out of bed and shuffle my feet. Physical therapy — on a walker, then on crutches — began the second day. By the third day, I was discharged from the hospital and began therapy at home.

Nearly three months after the opera-tion, I’m able to walk, swim and ride a bike (for short periods) without lingering pain. I’m also sleeping through the night, which is one big reason I did this in the first place.

I’m still using a cane (no shuffleboard) and icing my leg a few hours a day. I’ve already had one setback caused by too much activity. But I’m getting stronger every day. Except for some muscle sore-ness, that pain in my hip is gone. Years of anxiety have evaporated.

With any luck, I’ll be on top of the beginner hill this coming winter, waiting to guide down the next class of skiers. WP-Bloomberg

Why you’re not too young for hip replacement surgery


TECHNOLOGYPLUS | SUNDAY 10 AUGUST 201412

By Hyunjoo Jin

South Korean smartphone camera makers are tapping the surging yet more technologically demanding market for vehicle cameras to dull the impact of slowing growth in global

handset sales.High-end cars can carry as many as eight cameras

to visually aid parking or trigger emergency brakes. That number could reach 12 when cameras replace side-view mirrors, according to Mcnex Co Ltd, a phone camera supplier of Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Korea’s biggest car camera maker.

As the technology reaches mid- and lower-end cars, the market for vehicle cameras could grow seven-fold from 2011 to nearly $6.6bn in 2018, said Techno Systems Research.

That amount can only rise with regulation such as compulsory rear cameras in the United States from 2018 to stop drivers backing into pedestrians. Also adding to demand will be the spread of camera-laden self-driving vehicles like those of Google Inc.

“We expect the vehicle camera market to expe-rience explosive growth,” Lee Hyo-cheol, a princi-pal research engineer at Korean auto parts maker Hyundai Mobis Co Ltd, said.

But cameras have to be far more robust for cars than phones. They must withstand tests that include days of submersion in water and 1,000 hours of tem-peratures shifting within seconds between minus 40 degrees and plus 85 degrees Celsius.

“Vehicle cameras are completely different from mobile cameras in terms of specifications,” Lee said. Phone camera makers have had to face a steep learn-ing curve, he said.

Cameras for cars are priced around $32 each compared with $4 for phones, according to Mcnex, which earned 19 percent of revenue last year from car cameras versus 2 percent in 2007. Prices could fall, however, as volume grows.

About 83 million car cameras are likely to be sold in 2020, five times more than in 2012, said researcher IHS Automotive. By comparison, shipments of smart-phones — which generally feature two cameras — will

likely grow 6 percent in 2018 from 39 percent last year, according to researcher IDC.

From Apple to BMWHyundai Mobis buys from compatriot phone and

car camera makers Mcnex, LG Innotek Co Ltd, and Sekonix Co Ltd. It installs them into systems designed to aid parking, for instance, which it then sells to sister carmakers Hyundai Motor Co and Kia Motors Corp. Hyundai’s top-end car Genesis sports five cameras, including cameras that sense whether the vehicle is veering out of lane.

LG Innotek, better known for the cameras in Apple Inc’s iPhone, started making vehicle cameras last year and is in talks to supply luxury carmaker BMW, said a person familiar with the matter.

LG Innotek declined to comment. A BMW Korea spokeswoman said LG Innotek is among companies it is in talks with.

Sekonix, which sells lenses to leading phone maker Samsung, already supplies Hyundai Motor and General Motors Co through Hyundai Mobis and Delphi Automotive PLC, respectively.

This quarter it will see its lenses in cars from Volkswagen AG and subsidiary Audi through parts maker Gentex Corp, said a Sekonix official who was not authorised to speak to media and so declined to be identified. Audi said Gentex was a customer of Sekonix but could not confirm parts from Gentex featured Sekonix products.

Adding ComplexityThe market for vehicle cameras, largely limited to

high-end models, is already crowded - particularly for suppliers of the complete cameras comprising lens, image sensor and circuitry.

Panasonic Corp and Sony Corp lead in parking cameras, according to IHS, and Continental AG, Robert Bosch GmbH and Autoliv Inc dominate front cameras.

“It is very difficult to enter the automotive cam-era market from supplying mobile phone cameras, especially the complicated front camera market,” IHS senior analyst Helena Perslow said by email.

Continental and Robert Bosch also install soft-ware for their front cameras to trigger brakes when ‘seeing’ an obstacle, for instance, adding a layer of complexity.

Further back in the supply chain, smartphone lens makers Haesung Optics Co Ltd and Kolen Co Ltd are also on the verge of branching out.

Haesung has started looking for its first customer for parking camera lenses, said an official who was not authorised to talk to the media.

Kolen, however, is not yet marketing lenses it developed for cars because there is so much compe-tition that Kolen’s entry could trigger a price war, said an official who also declined to be identified.

“The existing players will not sit still if we enter the market.” Reuters

Smartphone camera makers see next opportunity in cars

A researcher demonstrates an all around view system at Hyundai Mobis Research Centre in Yongin

Low-tech tech tipsBy Hayley Tsukayama

Supporting a tech habit is expen-sive, but you can always save some dough on the accesso-

ries. Here are three cheap, easy tech accessories you can make with things that are likely already in your house.

— Binder clips are kind of the heroes of the DIY tech accessory world, but there’s a brilliant method to turn two of them into a really simple stand for your smartphone. First, take two clips. Then, bend the end of one wing into a “J” to act as

the stop for your stand. Finally, posi-tion the second binder clip so that it fits around the bottom of the clip with the bent wing. You should end up with a contraption that has one long flat edge. The bent wing should be in front, and another should lie at just the right angle to prop up your smartphone. (I first saw this from a friend, but he credited his genius to Lifehacker.com, where there is also

a helpful video.)— A big rubber band can act as

a holding case for your tablet or e-reader. You’ll need a pretty sturdy rubber band, such as the kind they use in gardening. Just loop the rub-ber band diagonally across the back of the tablet, and you can slide your hand underneath to keep a good grip on your gadget.

— Have an old membership or

credit card hanging around? Cut off the bits with the personal informa-tion, cut two notches at 45-degree angles into each end and — voila! — you have your own earbud holder.

— A reader recommended taking a picture of a ruler to set as your lockscreen picture, so you have a quick measuring tool on hand at all times. Yes, you may have to futz a bit with the photo to make sure that it matches up against your real ruler. But, all in all, it’s a pretty ingenious recommendation.

WP-Bloomberg

COMICS & MORE 13

Hoy en la HistoriaAugust 10, 2009

1628: The Swedish warship Vasa sank just 20 minutes into her maiden voyage. The ship was raised in 1961 and is now a popular tourist attraction1809: Ecuador struck its first blow for independence from Spain1909: Leo Fender, pioneer of the electric guitar, was born in Anaheim, California1999: Islamic militants declared an independent state in the southern Russian region of Dagestan

The WWF revealed that 350 new species, including a flying frog and the world’s smallest deer, had been discovered in the Eastern Himalayas in the previous decade

Picture: Associated Press © GRAPHIC NEWS

ALL IN THE MIND Can you find the hidden words? They may be horizontal,vertical, diagonal, forwards or backwards.

ALARM CLOCK, ANALOG, ATOMIC CLOCK, BALANCE WHEEL,CARRIAGE CLOCK, CHRONOMETER, CUCKOO CLOCK, DIAL,DIGITAL, ESCAPEMENT, FACE, GRANDFATHER CLOCK,HAIRSPRING, HANDS, HOUR, HOURGLASS, MINUTE, MOVEMENT, PENDULUM, POCKET WATCH, SANDGLASS, SECOND, STOPWATCH, SUNDIAL, TIME, TIMEPIECE, TIMER, WALL CLOCK, WATCH, WATER CLOCK, WRISTWATCH.

LEARN ARABIC

Baby Blue by Jerry Scott and Rick Kirkman

Zits by Jerry Scott & Jim Borgman

Hagar The Horrible by Chris Browne

Courtesy

I send you my warm condolences Ouqaddimou laka taçaziyya al�arra

I'm very sad Ana �azeen �iddan

Be patient �abbir nafsak

Congratulations on this happy occasion Ouhanni'ouka bilçeedi saçeed

Happy birthday Çeed meelad saçeed

Good luck ��an saçeedan

God bless you Allah ya�meek

Congratulations on your success Ouhanni'ouka bina�a�ik

Note: ç = ‘a’ as in ‘agh’ when surprised


HYPER SUDOKU

CROSSWORD

CROSSWORDS

YESTERDAY’S ANSWER

How to play Hyper Sudoku:A Hyper Sudoku

Puzzle is solved

by filling the

numbers from 1

to 9 into the blank

cells. A Hyper

Sudoku has

unlike Sudoku

13 regions

(four regions

overlap with the

nine standard

regions). In all

regions the numbers from 1 to 9 can appear

only once. Otherwise, a Hyper Sudoku is

solved like a normal Sudoku.

ACROSS 1 Pen denizen

4 Go ballistic?

7 In

13 Employee insurance plan, for short

14 Makeup of one of the homes of the Three Little Pigs

16 Isn’t piglike

17 One putting out feelers

18 Wacko

19 Rug fibers

20 Commencement, e.g.

22 John who wrote “The French Lieutenant’s Woman”

24 Formerly

25 People for whom “tena koe” means “hello”

27 401(k) employer matching contributions, e.g.

29 Card

30 Like CH3CO2H

31 Nicktoons character

34 Rigans, e.g.

38 Onetime Mideast org.

39 Cheese selection

40 Quite familiar

41 Some records

43 To-do

45 PC file suffix

46 Rustic poems

47 Make some travel plans

49 On

51 Holy ___

52 Ready for publication

55 Trypanosome carrier

58 Red Cross letters

59 Guideposts

61 Cager who retired in 2011

62 Jumps

64 Gad about

66 Part of the Australian coat of arms

67 Hosts

68 Her “birthday” is Oct. 4, 2011

69 Louis XIV, e.g.

70 Much of Mauritania

71 Acid

72 Head-to-head contact, for short?

DOWN 1 Mojo

2 ___ vincit amor

3 [ ]

4 Cobbler’s tool

5 Skyline sights

6 O’Brien’s Team ___

7 Say so

8 [ ]

9 Eats

10 Malay for “human”

11 Fray

12 Bookends on shelves?

15 Some bedcovers … or, literally, what the four unclued answers are

21 The Emerald Isle

23 Harvard University Press’s ___ Classical Library

26 [ ]

28 Killed, as a test

30 Bygone hoops org.

31 Muslim mystic

32 Accountant’s stamp

33 MS. recipients

35 [ ]

36 Fleet vehicle

37 Stride

40 Iowa’s state tree

42 Do in, so to speak

44 El Al hub city

47 ___ Capital

48 Athletic supporters?

50 Black Sea port

52 Cries uncle

53 President whose initials “stink”

54 Tobacco holder

55 Several Peters

56 Aegean island

57 Furnish

60 Labor

63 Rustic locale

65 Prefix with century

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

13 14 15 16

17 18 19

20 21 22 23 24

25 26 27 28

29 30

31 32 33 34 35 36 37

38 39 40

41 42 43 44 45

46 47 48

49 50 51

52 53 54 55 56 57

58 59 60 61

62 63 64 65 66

67 68 69

70 71 72

A H E A D G P A A S S O CV A L S E A R T T U L L YO B E L I Z O O R H O D AW A C G E E P O I W G NI N T E N D N A P O L IN E R D S H A P E A N O DG R O G E R R E T R E

A M A C D R O M S H YE A R R O W N O F E E FA L G A R I T O R U S ER U N N I N G O N E M P T YS P E E D S B E A T E NH I T S I M A G E F A R MO N I T L I B R A I K E AT E C S K A S E M A E O N

How to play Kakuro:The kakuro grid, unlike in sudoku, can be of any size. It has rows and columns, and dark cells like in a crossword. And, just like in a crossword, some of the dark cells will contain numbers. Some cells will contain two numbers.However, in a crossword the numbers reference clues. In a kakuro, the numbers are all you get! They denote the total of the digits in the row or column referenced by the number.Within each collection of cells - called a run

- any of the numbers 1 to 9 may be used but, like sudoku, each number may only be used once.

YESTERDAY’S ANSWER

14

EASY SUDOKUCartoon Arts International / The New York Times Syndicate

Easy Sudoku PuzzlesPlace a digit from 1 to 9 in each empty cell so everyrow, every column and every 3x3 box contains allthe digits 1 to 9.


CINEMA / TV LISTINGS 15

TEL: 444933989 444517001SHOWING AT VILLAGGIO & CITY CENTER

13:00 Test Case

14:20 NASA's Greatest

Missions

15:10 Primal

Connections

16:00 Freaks Of

Nature

16:50 Human Body:

Ultimate

Machine

17:40 Stem Cell

Universe

With Stephen

Hawking

18:30 Freaks Of

Nature

19:20 The Future Of...

20:10 Mars: The

Quest For Life

21:00 How The Earth

Works

21:50 Human Cloning

23:30 What's That

About?

12:10 The Office

12:40 Absolutely

Fabulous

13:10 Eastenders

13:40 Doctors

14:10 Emma

15:05 A Farmer's Life

For Me

15:55 Absolutely

Fabulous

16:25 The Weakest

Link

17:10 Keeping Up

Appearances

17:40 Doctors

18:10 Casualty

19:00 Silk

19:50 Ashes To

Ashes

23:10 Extras

23:40 Live At The

Apollo

01:25 Casualty

02:15 Extras

16:30 North America

18:20 Treehouse

Masters

19:15 Africa's Super

Seven

20:10 Gangland Killers

21:05 Wildest

Indochina

22:00 Africa's Super

Seven

22:55 Gangland Killers

23:50 Untamed &

Uncut

13:00 Better Off Ted

15:00 Men At Work

16:30 Two And A

Half Men

18:00 The Neighbors

18:30 New Girl

19:00 Dads

19:30 Men At Work

20:00 Welcome To

The Family

20:30 Crazy Ones

21:00 The Daily

Show With

Jon Stewart

22:00 Saturday Night

Live

12:45 Rise Of The

Guardians

14:30 MIA And The

Migoo

16:00 Jelly T

18:00 Barbie And

The Magic Of

Pegasus

20:00 Kong Return To

The Jungle

23:30 Jelly T

12:00 Fred 2: Night Of

The Living Fred

14:00 Norbit

15:45 The Holiday

18:00 Ghostbusters

20:00 Clear History

22:00 Me, Myself And

Irene

13:00 Megastructures

14:00 Is It Real?

15:00 Wild Case Files

17:00 The '90s: The

Decade That

Connected Us

19:00 Wild Case Files

21:00 The '90s: The

Decade That

Connected Us

23:00 Ancient

Secrets: Witch

Hunter's Bible

14:00 Once Upon

A Time In

Wonderland

15:00 Drop Dead Diva

16:00 Emmerdale

16:30 Coronation Street

17:00 Ellen DeGeneres

Show

18:00 Once Upon

A Time In

Wonderland

19:00 Rake

20:00 Sleepy Hollow

21:00 Warehouse 13

22:00 Grimm

23:00 House Of

Cards

11:00 The Woman In

The Fifth

13:00 All Is Lost

15:00 Centre Place

17:00 Atlas Shrugged

18:45 Beautiful

Creatures

21:00 Cloud Atlas

00:00 Maniac

01:30 Atlas Shrugged

03:15 Beautiful

Creatures

13:00 Sky Force

16:30 Oz The Great

And Powerful

18:45 The Mortal

Instruments:

City Of Bones

21:00 G.I. Joe:

Retaliation

23:00 The East

12:00 Pavitra Rishta

12:30 Kumkum Bhagya

13:00 Do Dil Bandhe Ek

Dori Se

13:30 Ek Mutthi Aasmaan

14:00 Citrus TV

14:30 Jodha Akbar

15:00 Kasamh Se

16:00 Hum Paanch

17:00 Teenovation

17:30 Bollywood

Business

18:00 Sapne Suhane

Ladakpan Ke

18:30 Ek Mutthi Aasmaan

19:00 Jamai Raja

19:30 Jodha Akbar

20:00 Pavitra Rishta

20:30 Kumkum Bhagya

21:00 Qubool Hai

21:30 Aur Pyaar Hogaya

22:00 Doli Armaano Ki

22:30 Sapne Suhane

Ladakpan Ke

13:00 The Adventures

Of Disney Fairies

14:10 Sabrina: Secrets

Of A Teenage

Witch

14:35 Mako Mermaids

15:00 Teen Beach

Movie

16:35 Sabrina: Secrets

Of A Teenage

Witch

18:10 Liv And Maddie

18:30 I Didn't Do It

18:55 Mako Mermaids

20:05 Austin & Ally

20:30 Jessie

20:50 Dog With A Blog

21:15 Mako Mermaids

21:40 Austin & Ally

22:00 Good Luck

Charlie

22:25 A.N.T. Farm

22:50 Shake It Up

23:10 Wolfblood

13:00 How Stuff's Made

13:30 What's That

About?

14:20 Mythbusters

15:10 Rocket City

Rednecks

15:35 Rocket City

Rednecks

16:00 X-Machines

16:50 Meteorite Men

17:40 Mars: The Quest

For Life

18:30 Primal

Connections

19:45 How Stuff's Made

20:10 Mythbusters

21:00 Sci-Fi Saved My

Life

21:50 Superhuman

Showdown

22:40 What's That

About?

23:30 NASA's Greatest

Missions

NOVO

1Suniya Fi Masr (2D/Arabic)

– 10.00am, 12.15, 2.30, 4.45, 7.00, 9.15 & 11.30pm

2

Lucy (2D/Action)

– 10.00am, 12.00noon, 2.00, 4.00, 6.00, 8.00, 10.00pm & 12.00midnight

3

Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes (Adventure)

3D – 11.00am, 4.00 & 9.00pm 2D – 1.30, 6.30 & 11.30pm

4

Earth To Echo (2D/Adventure)

– 10.30am, 12.30, 2.30, 4.30, 6.30, 8.30 & 10.30pmThe Purge: Anarchy (2D/Thriller) – 12.20am

5

Barbie And The Secret Door (2D/Adventure)

– 10.40am, 12.20, 2.00, 3.40 & 5.20pmKick (2D/Hindi/Action) – 7.00 & 10.00pm

6

Planes: Fire & Rescue (2D/Animation)

– 10.00, 11.45am, 1.30 & 3.15pmIt's Entertainment (2D/Hindi) – 5.30, 8.15 & 11.00pm

7

Earth To Echo (2D/Adventure)

– 10.00am, 1.40, 5.20 & 9.00pmA Long Way Down (2D/Comedy)

– 11.50am, 3.30, 7.10 & 10.50pm

8

Transformers: Age Of Extinction (2D/Action)

– 11.00am, 4.15 & 9.30pmLucy (2D/Action) – 2.30, 7.45pm & 12.20am

9Transformers: Age Of Extinction (IMAX 3D/Action)

– 12.30, 3.30, 6.30, 9.30pm & 12.30am

10Lucy (2D/Action)

– 10.45am, 12.45, 2.45, 4.45, 6.45, 8.45, 10.45pm & 12.30am

MALL

1

Kick (2D/Hindi) – 2.00pm

Jigarthanda (2D/Tamil) – 4.45pm

Transformers: Age Of Extinction (3D/Action) – 7.45pm

Vikramadithyan (2D/Malayalam) – 10.45pm

2

Earth To Echo (2D/Adventure) – 2.15pm

Planes: Fire & Rescue (3D/Animation) – 4.00pm

Suniya Fi Masr (2D/Arabic) – 6.00pm

Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes (3D/Action)

– 8.00pm

Transformers: Age Of Extinction (3D/Action) – 10.30pm

3

A Long Way Down (2D/Comedy) – 2.15pm

Lucy (2D/Action) – 4.15 & 9.00pm

Vikramadithyan (2D/Malayalam) – 6.00pm

Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes (2D/Animation)

– 11.00pm

LANDMARK

1

Vikramadithyan (2D/Malayalam) – 2.00 & 8.00pm

Jigarthanda (2D/Tamil) – 5.00pm


2





– 9.00pm

A Long Way Down (2D/Comedy) – 11.30pm

3


Lucy (2D/Action) – 3.45 & 11.30pm


– 5.30 & 8.30pm

ROYAL

PLAZA

1

Earth To Echo (2D/Adventure) – 2.00 & 3.45pm


– 5.15 & 8.15pm

Lucy (2D/Action) – 11.30pm

2


It's Entertainment (2D/Hindi) – 4.00 & 11.15pm



3

A Long Way Down (2D/Comedy) – 2.30 & 4.30pm


– 6.30 & 11.00pm

Lucy (2D/Action) – 9.00pm


PLUS | SUNDAY 10 AUGUST 2014 POTPOURRI16

Editor-In-Chief Khalid Al Sayed Acting Managing Editor Hussain Ahmad Editorial Office The Peninsula Tel: 4455 7741, E-mail: [email protected] / [email protected]

IN FOCUS

Shoumoukh Towers on C-Ring Road.

by Oscar Rialubin

Send your photos to [email protected]. Mention where the photo was taken.

If you want your events featured here, mail details to [email protected]

Events in Qatar

Alif by Sabah ArbilliWhen: Till September 17Where: InterContinental Doha The City What: Specifically created for Ramadan and Eid, Arbilli uses his gift for calligraphy art to create this collection of works centred around Alif – the first letter of Arabic alphabet and the first letter in the revelation of the Quran. The exhibit will remain on display in the lobby area of the hotel. Free entry

Trapeze Exhibition and Acquisitions Program When: August 15; 10am-10pm Where: Katara Art Studios - Bldg 19 What: The exhibition features the work of Qatari artists and their efforts to achieve a balance between reviving the heritage and traditions and preserve the cultural and popular memory, between their aspirations as artists yearning for the future enlightened by their country rising to the top ranks in various fields. The exhibition is a panorama of arts as all Qatari artists of different creativity areas are invited to participate in Trapeze and present their artworks, and the organizing committee will select some of the most exceptional woks.Free entry

Building Our Collection: An Insight Into Museum Art Collecting When: Till August 30Where: Museum Of Islamic Art What: The exhibition looks at why MIA collects Islamic art, and how the museum’s collecting practices shape our understanding of Islamic art through artistic and cultural connections between different regions of the Islamic world. The majority of featured objects have never before been on display.Free entry

Splash & Dash When: Till August 31Where: Aspire Zone What: Aspire will make two of its best facilities available for the community from July 2 until August 31, every Sunday and Wednesday from 7:30pm until 11pm. Aspire Dome Swimming Pool and the Indoor Athletics Track will host swimming and running open sessions. The online registration is open until August 31.Tickets required (more info at www.aspirezone.qa)

California insurer pays out in buckets

A California insurer has paid a $21,000 court settlement in more

than a dozen buckets of coins to an elderly man who alleged an employee assaulted him when he tried to buy insurance, the Los Angeles Times reported.

It took eight representatives of Rancho Cucamonga-based Adriana’s Insurance to deliver 16 to 18 buckets of hard currency to the lawyer repre-senting 76-year-old Andres Carrasco, who sued the company in 2012, the Times reported.

His attorney, Antonio Gallo, told the newspaper the retired bus driver “feels like he is disrespected.”

Carrasco reached a settlement with the company and expected to be paid by July 25, but the company told Gallo they would not issue a check, the Times reported.

Gallo, who initially thought the delivery of quarters, nickels, dimes, and pennies was a joke, added: “It’s unfortunate that a business like that would use some of these tactics”.

Adriana’s Insurance and Gallo

did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The coins were sent to a bank for counting, the newspaper said.

Interrupting lawyer gets rare sanction

A federal judge in Iowa meted out an unusual punishment

to a lawyer for repeatedly raising objections and interrupting deposi-tions: She must produce a training video showing why such tactics are inappropriate.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, her law firm objected to the ruling.

US District Judge Mark Bennett issued the “outside-the-box sanction” last week to Chicago-based attorney June Ghezzi, a partner at the inter-national law firm Jones Day.

Bennett wrote that during pre-trial depositions in a lawsuit in which Ghezzi was defending Abbott Laboratories, she “proliferated hun-dreds of unnecessary objections and interruptions” that appeared to coach witnesses on how to answer questions and delayed the proceedings.

Bennett said that rather than

issuing a monetary fine against Ghezzi, he wanted to take a stand against “obstructive deposition prac-tices” that are common and that some litigators are even taught to use.

With that goal in mind, Bennett ordered Ghezzi to write and pro-duce a training video that “provides specific steps lawyers must take to comply” with the rationale of his opinion. He said the video must address the impropriety of lawyers vaguely objecting to the form of ques-tions, coaching witnesses and exces-sively interrupting. Bennett said the video could point out those jurisdic-tions that specifically allow “form objections.”

He said Jones Day would have to make the video available to all of its lawyers who appear in US state or federal courts or who work in prac-tices where other lawyers do. Bennett said his order must be complied with within 90 days, but that he would sus-pend it if it is appealed.

Jones Day attorney Dan Reidy said in a statement that the firm plans to appeal. He said Ghezzi’s conduct “was appropriate and violated no rule of law or of the court,” and he noted that the plaintiffs’ lawyer didn’t com-plain at the time.

Agencies

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