mimblr.com

CHABAD CENTER OF SHARON — 162 North Main St. Sharon; Tel: 781-784-4269, Fax: 781-784-8346, www.chabadofsharon. Rabbi Chaim H. Wolosow. Morning services: weekday - 7:30 a.m., Sunday - 8:30 a.m., Saturday - 9:30 a.m. Evening services: Sunday through Thursday - 8:30 p.m. Evening service times for Friday and Saturday evenings change weekly.
CONGREGATION ETZ CHAIM —74 Billings Street, 781-784-7204, www.etzchaimsharon.org, Rabbi Nisson Dov Miller. Shacharis: Monday & Thursday—6:05 a.m., Tuesday, Wednesday, & Friday—6:15 a.m., Shabbos—9 a.m., Sunday—8 a.m. Mincha/Maariv: 20 minutes before sunset. Daf yomi: Monday through Thursday—8:20 p.m., Friday—immediately after shacharis, Shabbos—1 ½ hours before sunset, Sunday—7 a.m.
CONGREGATION KLAL YISRAEL , 9 Dunbar St., Sharon, 781-784-0004, www.klal.org. Rabbi Terry Greenstein, spiritual leader. Fri., May 23:  Shabbat Service led by Rabbi Dan Kaplan, 8 p.m. Fri., May 30:  Shabbat Service; Hey Class Graduation, Teacher Appreciation, 7:30 p.m. Sat., May 31:  Shabbat Service, Adult B’nai Mitzvah, 7 p.m. Fri., June 6:  Shavuot Seder and Potluck Dinner, 6:30 p.m. Sat., June 7:  Shabbat Service, Bat Mitzvah of Lydia Utter, 10 a.m.; Cafe Klal, 7 p.m. Fri., June 13:  Shabbat Service, 8 p.m. Sat., June 14:  Shabbat Service, Bat Mitzvah of Morgan Blatchford, 10 a.m. Fri., June 20:  Shabbat Service, 7:30 p.m. Sat., June 21:  Shabbat Service, Bat Mitzvah of Savannah Horton, 10 a.m.
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH — 2 South Main St., Sharon, 781-784-3553. Rev. Wendy Kiefer-O’Brien, pastor. May 25- 9:30 a.m. Sunday School for junior/senior high and adults, 10:30 a.m. Worship - nursery care provided, Sunday School for pre-school through grade 6 during worship, Sermon: "Peace on Earth", by Rev. Wendy Kiefer-O’Brien, Scriptures: Romans 12:14-21, Traits of a Christian , Matthew 5:9, Blessed Are the Peacemakers. Monday: 5:15 p.m. Music Academy. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: 3 p.m. Chinese School. Thursday: 7:30 p.m. Choir practice. Friday: 7:45 p.m. Greenland Fellowship and AWANA children’s program

wickedlocal.com

I’ve mostly stopped complaining about or even marveling at the continued success of Dancing With the Stars, which crowns its sixth champion tonight (ABC, 9 PM), preceded by a repeat of last night’s final performance show). People clearly enjoy watching the once-famous or famous-only-to-a-subgroup (Cristian de la Fuente and Jason Taylor would qualify here) learning how to perform ballroom dances, and the formula isn’t showing much wear and tear, possibly because the amateur dancers aren’t around long enough for us to get tired of them, and the show (unlike American Idol) wisely downplays the role of its judges.
DWTS has a long history of “surprising” outcomes, where the dancer perceived as the leader all season long is nipped at the wire (Mario Lopez grumbles about it to this day). More notably, there has not been a female winner since Kelly Monaco in Season One, an oversight attributed to both the traditional male leadership role in ballroom dancing and to the desire of the female audience for the show to keep the hot male celebs on as long as possible. But this might be the season that ends the streak: Kristi Yamaguchi has been so far and away the best that it’s hard to imagine there are enough Miami Dolphins fans out there to stop her. Besides, she’s an athlete too, and that’s been as helpful as merely being a guy.
American Idol (Fox, 8 PM): David Archuleta vs. David Cook: the elfin balladeer against the haircut-challenged grunge knockoff. The final performance show of the season is always highlighted, if that’s the right word, by the revelation of the winners’ single, which is usually something icky-sweet enough to make Mister Rogers’ teeth rot out of his head, even as he is spinning in his grave.
NCIS (CBS, 8 PM): Word is that a series regular dies in tonight’s two-hour finale, and there’s a further complication near the conclusion. Another death? I haven’t recovered yet from last night’s House, which had me, um, dealing with the sudden flare-up of a medical condition that causes my eyes to water uncontrollably.

film.com

Derrick Farley, a 29-year-old Army sergeant stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C., has seen many people die. He served in Iraq for three year-long tours of duty with only six-month breaks between them. He remembers driving trucks along the dirt roads of Tikrit, ever alert for telltale signs of a sniper or the sudden blast of a hidden roadside bomb. His vehicle, he said, was hit 13 times.
After he returned home from his last tour, it was often the less tense moments from Iraq that ran through his mind. For months, he had nightmares during which he screamed out in Arabic as he relived run-ins with detainees. At times, the sound of shots ringing out from the firing range at Fort Bragg would launch him right back onto the roads of Iraq.
Farley is far from alone: A Rand study released last month said 20 percent of the approximately 1.6 million U.S. military personnel who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan suffer from symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.
But recently Farley has found a way to quell the symptoms of PTSD. Instead of allowing his mind to flash back to the roadside carnage, the truck driver pictures himself sitting on a yoga mat at the District’s Walter Reed Army Medical Center, taking deep, relaxing breaths.
The techniques Farley learned there from yoga teacher Robin Carnes help him to realize that he’s "actually here on Fort Bragg and not in Iraq," he explained by phone from the base.
‘They’re Not as Angry’
The Specialized Care Program at Walter Reed focuses on helping service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan leave their wartime experiences behind.
Yoga, Carnes said, has become a large part of that effort.
In conjunction with a team of psychologists, a physical therapist, two nurses, a social worker and a general internist, Carnes has worked with hundreds of service members.

washingtonpost.com

Finally, the underwhelming season 6 of Dancing With the Stars is almost over. Wait. No, I can’t say that. What I meant was, finally, we got our first and probably only glimpse of DANCMSTR, the greatest vanity plate in the whole world, all season! The Man With the Golden Ten delivered by far the most entertaining segment of the night, cuddling with Cristián while dancing as ”the girl,” getting inappropriately felt up by Marissa, and canoodling with Kym in the back of his stretch limo. Actually, speaking of high-intensity TV segments featuring limos, Tom Bergeron ripping on that silly bloke Bachelor Matt was pretty awesome, too. ”So she gets a diamond ring, and you get a green card? That’s how that works?” Guess so!
For the semifinals, Kristi, Cristián, Jason, and Marissa each performed one standard ballroom dance and one Latin one, but this week fate determined which dances those would be. Ha. ”Fate.” The idea of the producers assuming I’d actually believe those choices were truly random is completely laughable, but not as funny as the dance-drawing method itself. Everyone pulled a mini disco ball (which then separated into halves, like a plastic egg full of jelly beans) from a super-duper giant disco ball. (We have at long last been let in on the secret of what disco balls look like inside. Red.) Here’s how the final four’s performances turned out:
Kristi Yamaguchi and Mark: 57 out of a possible 60 points Kristi continues to dance way, way better than anyone else but still land within one point of the others on the useless judges’ useless leaderboard. DANCMSTR gave her two dances — the ”too hectic” tango and the ”little bit stiff” jive — the same scores he gave Jason, Marissa, and Cristián for much lesser routines. Carrie Ann pointed out Mark’s difficult choreography for the jive but said the partners were ”just a hair out of sync.” I wonder if Mark did tone down the choreo, would Kristi be able to relax and add that performance element the judges always say is lacking? Or should she dance the most complicated routines she can, because she’s that capable? Hmmm. Discuss.

ew.com

COMPILED BY ANGELA GRAYSON
‘Trowel and Error’— 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. today . Presentations by Rosina Newton (’Schmorganic: Why and How to Go Natural in the Garden’), David Meeker (’Heirloom Veggies for Hot Southern Climates’) and Paula Middleton (’Landscape Treats for Your Eyes and Table’). Mayfield Park, 3505 W. 35th St. Free, $5 donation requested. 453-7074.
Austin Butterfly Forum Field Trip — 9 a.m. to noon Sunday . Val Bugh and Dan Hardy lead participants looking for butterflies, insects and spiders. Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, 4801 La Crosse Ave. $7. 345-6935, www.austinbutterflies.org.
‘Roses to Know and Grow in Central Texas’ — 2 p.m. Sunday. Learn about roses that do well in our climate and how to care for them. It’s About Thyme Garden Center, 11726 Manchaca Road. Free. 280-1192, www.itsaboutthyme.com.
Round Rock Community Garden Club ‘All About Tomatoes’ — 9:15 a.m. Monday. Wendy Odium, the ‘Tomato Queen,’ lectures. Baca Center, 301 W. Bagdad Ave., Building 2, Round Rock. Free. 218-5499.
Bromeliad Society of Austin — 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. R.L. Frasier presents ‘Succulent Bromeliads/Hardy Hechtias of Mexico.’ Zilker Botanical Garden, 2220 Barton Springs Road. Free. 933-1867.
Austin Bonsai Society — 7 to 9:30 p.m. Wednesday. Bill Boytim discusses and demonstrates how to improve your trees by air layering and grafting. Zilker Botanical Garden, 2220 Barton Springs Road. Free. 266-2655.
Bamboo Logic Seminar — 10 a.m. to noon April 12. Topics will include bamboo horticulture, growth habits and rates and species types; problem-solving for the invasive (’running’) bamboos; and landscape applications for non-invasive (’clumping’) bamboos. Casa de Luz, 1701 Toomey Road. $15 includes seminar, tour and handouts. 350-8505, www.bamboo-logic.com.
Cherrywood Plant and Book Swap — 9 a.m. April 12. Trade plants that are well-suited for propagation and/or transplanting in Austin. Bring books to share with neighbors. Cherrywood Green, Cherrywood Road and East 34th Street. Free. 478-2358.

statesman.com

Beetle Bailey may be well-loved, but he’s what the Pentagon calls “legacy technology” — a laugh-delivery system left over from an era before today’s joint, net-centric military and its wired, Web-savvy service members. Ink-on-paper cartoons, like many legacy systems, still are useful, but you’ll find few new-generation military gagsmiths in your newspaper. Now, of course, they’re online.
For the cost of a domain name and some computer gear, military cartoonists can deliver jokes and characters tailored to an audience of fellow service members who’ll laugh at things that might produce blank stares from civilians.
Take 1st Lt. Ken Dahl, star of “Air Force Blues,” available online at http://www.afblues.com. The fictional F-15 aviator wears an “I’m a fighter pilot” T-shirt for days when his flight suit is in the wash. His most hated enemy: The MQ-1 Predator, which deigns to do an Eagle’s work.
Dahl and “Blues” are the work of Staff Sgt. Austin May, a public affairs specialist at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas.
“What I like best about it is, it’s not being done right now,” May said of drawing an Air Force Web comic. “A lot of people have done them in the past, and they’ve had great success with them, but this niche wasn’t being filled.”
May first forayed into the Web comic world with “AWACker,” based on his experience as an E-3 aircrew member at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska; the comic still can be seen at http://www.chairforce.com. His new comic is more inclusive of the whole Air Force and is similar in its Web presence to the popular gamer comic “Penny Arcade,” complete with loyal forum-goers.
“Air Force Blues” and “Penny Arcade” inspired another military Web comic, “Anchors Away,” drawn by a Navy F/A-18 Hornet pilot, Lt. Cmdr. Tim Lockhart — in fact, Lockhart credits May for coming up with the “Anchors” name. Online at http://www.navycomic.com, “Anchors Away” takes its inspiration from Lockhart’s daily life in the Navy and from readers’ e-mailed suggestions.

armytimes.com

The Mellow Mushroom has teamed up with the Lowcountry Environmental Education Program (LEEP) to bring the first in a series of Earth-friendly themed art shows. The first show, titled “Earth: The Beautiful and Controversial” will have an opening reception at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
The show will feature a collection of works from eight local artists. Music will be provided by Mirage Quartet, a local jazz group, and there will be a silent auction, with proceeds going directly to LEEP.
LEEP is an environmental non-profit that provides opportunities for students of all ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds to explore South Carolina’s natural environment through experiential learning. The Mellow Mushroom is at 309 King St.
For information on the events, call Jonah Jeter at 327-0346. To find out more about LEEP, Visit their Web site at
The Broad Street Merchants’ Association is collaborating with the Harbour Club and The Charleston County School of the Arts Music Program to host the second annual Southern Light-Plein Air Paint Out.
The event will begin with the artists’ signing of the canvases May 28, then painting around town that afternoon, May 29 and May 30, and on the morning of May 31. Local and national artists will be participating in this paint out. However, this event is open to all artists. Anyone interested in registering should do so before May 25.
For more information about Southern Light-Plein Air Paint Out, or to request a registration and/or a workshop package, contact Julie Sweat at the Edward Dare Gallery at 853-5002 or via e-mail at
The Spencer Art Gallery II has just announced the opening of “Coastal Impressions,” an exhibit of new oil paintings by Charleston artist Lisa Willits. There will be a reception for the artist featuring her works Friday from 5 to 8 p.m. at the gallery, 57 Broad Street.

charleston.net

Goldfein, at the time commander of the Air Warfare Center at Nellis Air Force Base and now the vice director of the Pentagon’s Joint Staff, was found to have gone to great lengths to see the contract awarded to SMS, while senior Air Force leaders socialized with the company’s partners. According to the report, Goldfein even arranged for President Bush to videotape a testimonial that was included in the SMS contract proposal.
The report offers a searing, blow-by-blow account of how a relatively mundane Air Force contract spun out of control, highlighting conflicts of interest in the selection process, officers stacking the deck in favor of friends, and others influencing a system designed to eliminate such favoritism in spending taxpayer dollars.
“The investigation found that the December 2005 award to SMS was tainted with improper influence, irregular procurement practices, and preferential treatment,” according to a redacted copy of the report, which is scheduled for release this week. “Lower priced offers from qualified vendors and capabilities in-house were bypassed in an apparent effort to obtain services from (redacted), president of SMS, who had a long-standing relationship with senior Air Force officers and members of the Thunderbirds.”
Goldfein and four other officers whose names have not been released have received administrative punishments for the episode, and investigators are continuing to look at the contracting processes at Nellis Air Force Base amid “irregularities” and “systemic weaknesses” that plagued the unit.
Goldfein declined to comment, and a Nellis spokeswoman said Thursday that base officials aren’t commenting. Similarly, an e-mail from the Review-Journal seeking reaction from a Thunderbirds spokeswoman went unanswered. The crack aerial team is scheduled to perform this weekend in Wilmington, N.C.
Goldfein told investigators he “never interfered with the evaluation or selection process and never directed anyone to do or not do anything.” Other members of the selection team said the process was “fixed” from the beginning.

lvrj.com

If you keep your eye to the sky this weekend chances are your going to see some unique aircraft flying over the skies of Panama City.
The Tyndall Gulf Coast Salute will feature the latest hi-tech aircraft the Air Force has to offer, as well as some that have been gracing the skies for over the last half century.
B-25 Pilot Jim Terry said, "when you get in the airplane it’s like going back to 1942 the air plane is just as it was then has the exact same engines it had then the same equipment and makes the same god awful racket."
"The reason we get to do this is because of the veterans World War II that flew all these planes all those years ago. They call them the greatest generation and they truly were the greatest generation, and that was the best America had to offer 65 years ago and it’s just amazing to us that they actually flew machines like this in combat."
Now, the B-25 is a flying museum, so everyone can see and appreciate what that generation did to fight for our freedom.
If you would like to catch a ride on the Pacific Prowler you can go to Precision Air, next to the Panama City Bay County International Terminal on Sunday from 10:00 a.m - 2:00 p.m. Rides are on sale as part of a fundraiser to help restore the B-25.

wmbb.com

In its second twofer of the season Survivor: Micronesia — Fans vs. Favorites (Thursdays at 8 pm/ET on CBS) said goodbye to a pair of fans last Wednesday when Kathleen Sleckman and Tracy Hughes-Wolf saw their dreams of a million-dollar prize slip away. Although she was a tough competitor, Tracy’s strong alliance with two of the show’s weakest players kept her scrambling for position. Meanwhile, Kathy’s fondness for the favorites never wavered, but the rigors of the game zapped her motivation, and in a move that has secured her a spot in Survivor history, she chose to quit the show. TVGuide.com caught up with both women to discuss their exits and find out just what went wrong.
TVGuide.com: Kathy, when did you start feeling that you were ready to leave?
Kathy Sleckman: That would have been when the natives took us in on the boat.
TVGuide.com: Right from the beginning, eh?
Kathy: [Laughs] Well, I can’t say right from the beginning. It was a whole combination of things. The tribe I was put on [was very difficult]. If I had not made friends with Chet and Tracy, I do not know what I would have done. We were completely separated and put in a box and prejudged before the game ever began. It was a struggle from day one to even give this game a shot like I wanted to. Mother Nature kicked my butt horribly and I just started going to a bad place mentally. [It was as if Jonathan] Penner’s knee infection got into my brain.
TVGuide.com: Was the reality of the show that far off from what you expected?
Kathy: Yes. When you are watching it on TV, you see it rain for 10 seconds, not realizing it’s 8 to 10 hours of constant pummeling. The physical part, as far as keeping my strength up, was good. Mentally, it just blew me away.

seattlepi.nwsource.com