The Montana Standard from Butte, Montana • 17

uEtq sEisss: ESsigSiS 5 isinpyadioaliSi; The Montana Standard Butte, Friday, December 1, 2006 CI Story of Irish Potato Famine needs to be told WASHINGTON Platform shoes could be the eighth archifectural wonder. They are remarkable examples of design but, like most of the seven fabled monuments of the ancient world, surely these extravagant pillars of footwear cannot last. However exhilarating the shoe's concept, those wearers who equate inches with power must finally acknowledge the obvious: Platform defies function. velvet platform shoes stands out in the display. The exaggerated soles of these i chopines are sculpted like inverted ocean liners, with small, ordinary lace-up booties on top.

They were not mere fashion statements. Chopines were designed to elevate Venetian women literally above the floodwaters and i garbage, and metaphorically above the lowly stature previously attached to their sex. "It's like walking on stilts," says Washington podiatrist Arnold Ravick, of "falling off a hill. You're up so high that the center of gravity and balance is off. It's much harder to walk." Common sense would consign such footwear to historical oblivion.

But the wobblies, in fact, have endured a long time. "Walking Art" traces the first elevated shoe to 16th-century Venice. A pair of 12-inch burgundy What Is the Irish Potato Famine? Is there a simple answer to this question? I was a little stunned when this question came in. I hope teachers still touch on the Irish Potato Famine in lessons on immigration in grade and high school. Like the Peloponnesian War, the Irish Potato Famine is an event in history not discussed nearly enough.

What follows is the simple explanation. There are numerous political, cultural and social The Washington P-sr Montana Standard SMS drivers surrounding the famine I'm not going to touch on them all. The population of Ireland in 1841 numbered 8.2 million. It numbered 6.5 million "VC 13 by 1851, and famine is the reason. The famine began with a blight of the potato crop that left acre upon acre of Irish farmland covered with black rot.

The potato blight fungus phytophthora infestans attacked potatoes and made them rotten and inedible. The blight struck in 1845. The Irish planted more potatoes than ever in the Christopher spring of 1846, figuring the blight would not strike again. But there was worse failure in 1846 Bennett Friday, December 1,2005 With the click of a mouse, you can change his Jlggy, his booty, the background, lighting and his posse, but Minneapolis-based Dancing Paul, at www.danclngpaul.com, Is no threat to any of the dancers we know. Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Senice '1 f3 h'- -i i 'i.

mil ii and even worse still in 1847, when the suffering reached its climax. The year is sometimes referred to as Black '47. There also was famine in Scotland and Belgium, but nothing like in Ireland. And as harvests across Europe failed, the price of food soared. Subsistence-level Irish farmers found their food stores rotting in their cellars.

The crops they relied on to pay the rent to their British and Irish Protestant landlords were destroyed. Peasants, who ate the rotten produce because they had no choice, grew sick, and entire villages were consumed with cholera and typhus. Parish priests, desperate to provide for their congregations, were forced to forsake buying coffins in order to feed starving families, with the dead going unburied or buried only in the clothes they wore when they died. Oddly enough, massive quantities of food were still exported from Ireland to England, in beef, mutton and other meats. Those who weren't evicted and didn't die often emigrated to the U.S., Britain and Australia, often on board rotting, overcrowded "coffin ships," in which almost a third of the passengers died before reaching their final port.

There's so much more we could say about the Irish Potato Famine, but space doesn't allow more of an explanation. As always, check your local library and local bookstore for more information on the Irish Potato Famine. You won't be disappointed. Is cockflghtlng still legal anywhere In the United States? Do you really want to know? This just sounds like an awful, awful pastime. Who wants to watch two roosters kick each other to death? Unbelievably, Louisiana and New Mexico have not yet banned cock fighting.

The practice of cockfighting is a tradition that goes back many centuries, and is difficult to completely stamp out. The event is held surreptitiously at shady venues worldwide. The birds are raised for nothing more than to fight, are tormented to be more aggressive and are pumped full of drugs to increase their endurance. Stimulants, hormones and blood-clotting drugs are just a few of the additives used to induce the birds into blood lust. One, or both, of the birds usually dies in a cockfight.

The roosters have knives or sharp steel projections called gaffs attached to their legs, near their spurs. The birds peck and maim one another with their beaks and weapons, and fights are held in a pit, offering no chance for escape. Birds in a flock will battle to determine pecking order, but rarely to the death. Only birds provoked to fight will provoke the serious injuries seen in cock fighting. As in all endeavors, money drives the wheel.

Spectators at cock fights bet large sums, and the owner of a winning rooster often reaps a huge profit. Christopher Bennett is the assistant city editor and columnist for the Journal Times of Racine, Wis. Dim lose sleep. Send your questions to at askqjournaltimes.com or call (262) 631-1758. This week's winners: 1 St: Mo wrctftv TTie new lifelike FEZ dispenser taken to a new level." 2nd: Snickerdoodle wrote: "I told you I only like the green 3rd: Don F.

wrote "Who needs a paintball gun with a mouth like mine! CAN YOU WRITE A WACKY CAPTION? Send yours to Wacky Photo Captions: 25 W. Granite, Butte, MT 59701, or submit it at www.mtstandard. comtgif by noon Wednesday. WE ARE SPENDING OUR Cf W'f I ANNIVERSARY IN THE fe'll iVZi I ROMANTIC LITTLE CHAT I FC .5 t. ROOM WHERE WE JL I jjvy METX yj 1 I i fT iil I i a Iv 1 I f1 301 S.

Arizona 782-1306 Mon-Fri 9am to 5:30 pm Sat 9-5 GHtCeitificateS AvaiiiBE! TlMixfed'Gro Of Men's 1 tv 'Introductdry--: Special" rlX, A Tony Lama TLX Lacer 1 i Work Boots Insulated Boots n.ii'i Valued To $195 122 SATURDAY Women's ds Foamtread Slippers if II women nusiwr 1 0 0:30 am 5:30 pm $17 To 29n Walking-Work Shoes' I MERCURY STREET MEDICAL Tamarack Square $6995 (Black-Stone-Whete) Women's Propet Slip-On Walking Shoes M095 Tr $CQ9S PJ7fJ KXT TO Corral West) ijF.iSmrr 3703 Harrison Butte, Montana (N-M-W-EW Widths Sizes 5 to 12) 1 1 1 Fast, Fnendiy Healthcare without an Appointment (406) 494- 3768.