BBC NEWS | Business | Iranian exporters fear sanctions Mr. Razi Miri Speaks Out

BBC NEWS | Business | Iranian exporters fear sanctions: "She says Iran should have nuclear technology, but she also hopes the company can avoid going out of business.

These are worries shared by those working in Iran's most traditional export, Persian carpets, a sector that was also weighed down by US sanctions until recently.

Razi Miri who runs Miri Carpets employs 6,000 people in his export business in the bazaar.

He has pioneered the weaving of new carpets using old designs reviving traditional methods of dying and weaving, but the product is again too expensive for the local market.

Mr Miri, who has just returned from a carpet expo in Germany, says the problems in getting visas for some countries already make it difficult for him to do business, though it could get worse.

¿Exporting is something special," he says.

"We have to have good relations with other countries if we want to export."

Violent revolution

Mr Miri believes sanctions simply will not have the intended effect because exporters will always find a way round them.


Locals cannot afford Persian carpets

"Sanctions can be a very serious problem for exporters in our country," he says, adding that "it doesn't mean they can stop Iran 100% in terms of business; they can make problems for us but [they cannot stop us] completely".

The message from Iran's exporters is that sanctions that would curb Iran's non oil exports would not alter government policy, but it would remove the livelihood of ordinary Iranians.

Some abroad might say that would force the Iranian people to topple their government, but after one violent revolution a quarter of a century ago there is little appetite here for another."

George W. O'Bannon

George W. O'Bannon: "George W. O'Bannon
George W. O'Bannon, director of Pitt's Office of International Student Services from 1968 to 1975, died of lymphoma Oct. 2, 2000, in Tucson, Ariz. He was 64.
In 1971, O'Bannon organized an exchange program between Pitt and Afghanistan's University of Kabul, with funding from the U.S. State Department.

An authority on oriental rugs, particularly those of Central Asian nomadic tribes, O'Bannon left the University to open O'Bannon Oriental Carpets in Pittsburgh. At about that same time, he published the first of several books he wrote or edited, "The Turkoman Carpet," a seminal work in its field.

O'Bannon and his family relocated to Harrisburg in 1979 and to Philadelphia in 1983. After the death of his wife, Helen, in 1988, O'Bannon concentrated on his career as a writer, guest curator and speaker on oriental rugs. He retired to Arizona in 1993.

He is survived by four sons and three daughters-in-law: Patrick and Pia Deinhardt of Philadelphia; Colin of Columbus, Ohio; Sean and Nancy of Boca Raton, Fla., and Casey and Susan of Philadelphia; two grandchildren; and his longtime companion, Arlene Cooper of New York City.

Memorial contributions may be sent to the George W. O'Bannon Memorial Fund, c/o Niloo Paydar, Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1200 W. 38th St., Indianapolis, Ind. 45208-4196.n

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©2000 University of Pittsburgh "

Person of the Week: Helen O'Bannon

Person of the Week: Helen O'Bannon: "Helen O'Bannon
Week of May 7, 2001

Helen Bohen O'Bannon, Wellesley class of 1961, is a fine example of the women who fought to expand women's sphere in the 1970s.

O'Bannon did not start out to change the world. Born in Ridgewood, New Jersey, in 1939, Helen Bohen majored in economics at Wellesley. While getting a master's degree at Stanford, Bohen met and married George O'Bannon, a political science student. After gaining his master’s degree, George O'Bannon took a job in Washington, DC. Helen, a homemaker, worked part-time as an economic researcher and analyst for several government agencies. After two years as associate director of the Peace Corps in Afghanistan, George O'Bannon moved his family to Pittsburgh. While he served as director of international student services at the University of Pittsburgh, Helen taught economics at Robert Morris College.

In 1972 O'Bannon learned that her mother was dying of cancer. "I realized," she later said, "that I was very much dependent upon George as a provider, that even though I had my own career it was very much second to what he was doing, and I realized that anything could happen to him at any time."

Trying to figure out how to be more self-sufficient, O'Bannon started looking for a career path and applied for securities jobs. She met unabashed discrimination, most notably at Merrill, Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith. One of the questions on the entrance exam for their broker trainee program was "When you fight with your wife, which of you usually wins?" Another asked, "When you meet a woman, what interests you the most about her?" The choices included "her beauty" and "her intellect." O'Bannon chose "intellect," not the correct choice, "beauty." Her rejection letter said in part, "Dear Mr. O'Bannon: We're sorry we can't take more young men like you." Incensed at this shabby and patently discriminatory treatment of women, O'Bannon decided to sue, prompting a class-action law suit. Although Merrill Lynch successfully used delaying tactics for several years, in 1976 the courts decided in her favor. Merrill Lynch was assessed a judgment of nearly $4 million, most of it restitution to women who had been denied sales jobs and other positions. Perhaps more importantly, the decision prompted other brokerage firms to treat women more equitably.

While waiting for the court's decision, O'Bannon prepared an economics text, Money and Banking: Theory, Policy, and Institutions (Harper and Row, 1975). She took doctoral courses at the University of Pittsburgh School of Business. And in 1973 O'Bannon began a three-year term as an associate dean at the Carnegie Institute, the engineering school of Carnegie-Mellon University, where she was responsible for budget and financial affairs. She strove to make the university – and the engineering profession in general – more accessible to women.

In December 1975 O'Bannon was named a member of Pennsylvania's Public Utility Commission. Although consumer and environmental groups had supported her appointment, O'Bannon said she did not feel she was an advocate for any one point of view. In addition to regulating gas, electric power, and telephone companies, the Public Utility Commission monitored over 4300 transportation companies.

A change in administration did not end O’Bannon’s public service. In 1979 O’Bannon became Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Public Welfare, responsible for the management of one of the state’s largest agencies. The Department of Public Welfare controlled income-maintenance and medical-assistance programs, institutional and community programs for the mentally ill and mentally retarded, social-service programs for children and families, and programs for the disabled. O’Bannon had a special sympathy for those under her care. When she was nine, the insurance company her father had worked for – at which he worked his way from office boy to vice president – declared bankruptcy. Since he did not find other steady employment, and her mother was confined to their home with multiple sclerosis, the family had lived from one Social Security check to the next.

After O'Bannon become Secretary of Public Welfare, she and her family moved to Harrisburg. George O'Bannon became a dealer in oriental rugs, a passion he had developed while they were in Afghanistan in the late 1960s. The O'Bannons practiced what they called a "syncopated internal-external parent system," in which one parent was most available to the children, and the other had an outside job. Categorizing her life as "a random walk through careers," Helen O'Bannon acknowledged that it would not have been possible without the support of her husband and friends.

In 1983 O’Bannon returned to academia, becoming vice president of the University of Pennsylvania, the first woman to hold this position. President Sheldon Hackney called her "a risk taker who had exceptional management skills." "Helen could analyze and grasp issues with astounding speed," he said. "She was never deterred by the challenges, stepping in where others fear to tread. On top of that, she had a wonderful sense of humor." She established the university’s first internal auditing system, a capital-budgeting process, and a facilities-management system.

Helen O‘Bannon remained a loyal Wellesley alumna. She received the Alumnae Achievement Award in 1980. And from 1982 to 1985 she served as President of the Alumnae Association.

O’Bannon was diagnosed with cancer shortly after she became vice president at the University of Pennsylvania. She continued to work until shortly before her death on October 19, 1988. She was survived by her husband, George, and her four sons -- Patrick, Colin, Casey and Sean. The Class of 1961 established a Wellesley scholarship fund in her honor.

"There's a piece of paper that I always carry around with me that defines success," Helen O'Bannon once said. "It's a quotation from Harry Emerson Fosdick. 'To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to endure the betrayal of false friends; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you lived. This is to have succeeded.'"

Written by Wilma Slaight"

News from Arkansas State University

News from Arkansas State University: "Dr. Douglas Boyd to present public
lecture, sponsored by Heritage Studies

Feb. 6, 2006 -- A public lecture, “Digital Archives, Oral History and The Civil Rights Movement” will be presented by the Heritage Studies Ph.D. Program Thursday, Feb. 9, at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro.

The public lecture will be given by Dr. Douglas A. Boyd, program manager for the Kentucky Oral History Commission, a program of the Kentucky Historical Society. The lecture, which is free and open to the public, will be held at 4 p.m. in the ASU Museum.

Boyd holds a Ph.D. in folklore from Indiana University. He has served as the senior archivist for the oral history and folklife collections at the Kentucky Historical Society, where he managed an archive of over 8,000 interviews.

In addition to his public sector and academic experience, Boyd has a background in recording studio production, specializing in digital audio restoration. He has designed the Civil Rights portion of the Kentucky Oral History Project’s online digital media database. This provides easy internet access to more than 200 hours of audio content, 15 hours of video content, and at least 10,000 pages of electronic oral history transcriptions, all of which are full-text searchable.

Boyd’s interests are not limited to the technological applications of oral history, but also include the intellectual components. He has recently submitted, for publication, a completed book manuscript, which focuses on the dynamics between oral history and public memory. He has co-authored “The Stars of Ballymenone” with folklorist Henry Glassie to be published by Indiana University Press in the spring.

The lecture will be held in Room 157 of the ASU Museum.
"

Farewell to Fantasy / Pioneer Berkeley label sold to Concord Records

Farewell to Fantasy / Pioneer Berkeley label sold to Concord Records: "Farewell to Fantasy
Pioneer Berkeley label sold to Concord Records
Carolyn Said, Chronicle Staff Writer

Saturday, December 4, 2004
Some of the greatest names in jazz and blues are now under new management.

Berkeley's Fantasy Inc., a 55-year-old record label that won fame and fortune recording Creedence Clearwater Revival and owns a catalog rich with jazz and soul icons, has been sold to Concord Records Inc., a Beverly Hills company started in the Bay Area.

The sales price was $83 million, according to Billboard magazine.

The combined company, to be called Concord Music Group Inc., owns the rights to a dream team of musicians.

Fantasy's extensive catalog includes Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans, John Coltrane and the Modern Jazz Quartet, as well as Ella Fitzgerald, Joe Pass, Oscar Peterson, Sarah Vaughan and Count Basie.

In the soul arena, its artists include Isaac Hayes, Johnnie Taylor, the Dramatics, the Staple Singers, and Albert King. Concord artists include Charlie Byrd, Rosemary Clooney, Herb Ellis, Stan Getz, Gene Harris, Tito Puente and Mel Torme.

Concord Music Group will operate out of both Berkeley and Beverly Hills. Although the landmark Fantasy Building at 10th and Parker Streets in Berkeley was not included in the sale, Concord will rent office space there and will use the Fantasy Recording Studios, according to Terri Hinte, Fantasy spokeswoman.

Hinte said there undoubtedly will be some workforce shifts, but not for a few months. Fantasy has 80 employees; Concord has about 40.

Fantasy's owners are Chairman Saul Zaentz, 83, an Oscar-winning film producer; President Ralph Kaffel; Al Bendich, vice president and legal counsel; and Frank Noonan, vice president of finance. All four have been with the company for decades. The latter three will stay with the new firm for several months as consultants. Zaentz has focused on his film work for almost 30 years and has not been involved in Fantasy's day-to-day operations.

Concord, which scored a platinum hit this year with Ray Charles' final recording, "Genius Loves Company" (in conjunction with Starbucks' Hear Music), is owned by Normal Lear's entertainment holding company, Act II Communications Holding LP. The 31-year-old label focuses on jazz, traditional pop and adult contemporary formats.

"I'm convinced my grown-up children are getting a good home," said San Francisco's Orrin Keepnews, 81, who oversaw Fantasy's jazz program in the 1970s after having sold it the catalog of Riverside Records, a company he ran in New York in the 1950s and 1960s.

"Concord, as far as I can see, is a rarity these days, a very vigorous and committed record label. I'll enjoy seeing what (they) can do to verify the continuing life and viability of a number of artists I worked with 40 years ago: Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans, Sonny Rollins and McCoy Tyner," said Keepnews, now a Grammy-winning independent record producer.

Fantasy's revenue comes from reissues in its stable. It does not sign new artists. According to Billboard, Fantasy's 2003 sales were $22 million, half of that in the United States, while Concord's revenue was $20 million, including $13 million in the United States.

Both Fantasy and Concord have deep roots in the Bay Area.

Fantasy Records was founded in 1949 in an alley off San Francisco's Market Street by hipster brothers Max and Sol Weiss. Its first artist "was an Oakland pianist named Dave Brubeck," according to the company's Web site. It went on to record Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker, Cal Tjader, Odetta, comic Lenny Bruce, and beat poets Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Allen Ginsberg.

Zaentz joined the company as a salesman in 1955. A dozen years later, he assembled a group of investors to buy the label, which was heavily concentrated on jazz recordings. According to published reports, the price was $325,000.

The single rock group then signed with Fantasy was an El Cerrito garage band called the Golliwogs. It was led by a Fantasy shipping clerk named John Fogerty, who had started it in junior high school. After rechristening themselves Creedence Clearwater Revival, the quartet recorded a string of gold and platinum records and million-selling singles, including "Suzie Q," "Proud Mary" and "Bad Moon Rising." In 1970, they outsold the Beatles.

Creedence was "a lightning strike," Zaentz told The Chronicle in 1970. "If we ever find another group that sells half as much, we'll be delirious."

With the money pouring in from Creedence, Fantasy expanded by steadily buying up outstanding independent jazz labels, including Prestige, Stax, Specialty, Milestone, Riverside and Takoma.

Concord Records grew out of the Concord Jazz Festival. Both are named after the Contra Costa County town where they originated, then a sleepy little suburb.

Local businessman Carl Jefferson, a successful Lincoln-Mercury dealer with a passion for jazz, started the Concord Summer Music Festival in 1969.

Guitarists Herb Ellis and Joe Pass, who performed at an early festival, suggested to Jefferson he fund and produce a record. The Concord Jazz label was the result. Jefferson started the record company in 1973 in a former seafood restaurant next to his car dealership.

Jefferson, who died in 1995, was the motivating force behind construction of the Concord Pavilion (now The Chronicle Pavilion), the first large-scale outdoor concert venue of its kind in the West.

Jefferson's music philosophy was simple: He recorded what he liked. Under Jefferson's hand-picked successor, Glen Barros, who took over in 1995, Concord branched out from jazz, adding pop and blues artists, Latin jazz, salsa, Afro- Cuban and Brazilian music. It partnered with Chick Corea's Stretch Records and the smooth jazz label Peak Records, according to its Web site. In 2001, it started Playboy Jazz in conjunction with Hugh Hefner's Playboy Enterprises.

Concord has issued more than 1,000 albums. Its current roster of artists includes Karrin Allyson, Patti Austin, Peter Cincotti, Michael Feinstein, Nnenna Freelon, Robben Ford, Marian McPartland, Barry Manilow, Ozomatli, Eddie Palmieri, Poncho Sanchez and Curtis Stigers.

Act III, owned by Lear and Hal Gaba, bought Concord in 1999 and moved its corporate headquarters to Beverly Hills in 2002. Barros is still the president and chief executive officer, titles he will retain at the merged company, Concord Music Group.

The Concord-Fantasy deal was brokered by Tailwind Capital Partners, a private equity firm headquartered in New York and San Francisco.

The sale encompasses only Fantasy's music business. It does not affect Zaentz's film business, which has produced acclaimed adaptations of literary works such as "The English Patient" and "Amadeus" and also does post- production sound. Zaentz, who owned the film rights to J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings," was an executive producer on Peter Jackson's movie trilogy.

Creedence's Fogerty and Zaentz had a famous falling out. In 1985, Zaentz threatened to sue Fogerty for defamation of character after he wrote a song called "Zanz Kant Danz" with lyrics that said of the title character, "Watch him or he'll rob you blind."

In 1988, Fantasy sued Fogerty, claiming he'd plagiarized his own 1970 single "Run Through the Jungle," exclusively owned by Fantasy, to write his 1984 hit, "The Old Man Down the Road." A San Francisco jury ruled in favor of Fogerty.

More recently, Fogerty complained about Fantasy's selling his Vietnam War protest song "Fortunate Son" for use in Wrangler jean commercials, which stripped out his message about phony patriotism, using lines that sound like a paean to flag-waving.

Chronicle senior pop music critic Joel Selvin contributed to this story.E-mail Carolyn Said at csaid@sfchronicle.com."

Farewell to Fantasy / Pioneer Berkeley label sold to Concord Records

Farewell to Fantasy / Pioneer Berkeley label sold to Concord Records: "Farewell to Fantasy
Pioneer Berkeley label sold to Concord Records
Carolyn Said, Chronicle Staff Writer

Saturday, December 4, 2004
Some of the greatest names in jazz and blues are now under new management.

Berkeley's Fantasy Inc., a 55-year-old record label that won fame and fortune recording Creedence Clearwater Revival and owns a catalog rich with jazz and soul icons, has been sold to Concord Records Inc., a Beverly Hills company started in the Bay Area.

The sales price was $83 million, according to Billboard magazine.

The combined company, to be called Concord Music Group Inc., owns the rights to a dream team of musicians.

Fantasy's extensive catalog includes Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans, John Coltrane and the Modern Jazz Quartet, as well as Ella Fitzgerald, Joe Pass, Oscar Peterson, Sarah Vaughan and Count Basie.

In the soul arena, its artists include Isaac Hayes, Johnnie Taylor, the Dramatics, the Staple Singers, and Albert King. Concord artists include Charlie Byrd, Rosemary Clooney, Herb Ellis, Stan Getz, Gene Harris, Tito Puente and Mel Torme.

Concord Music Group will operate out of both Berkeley and Beverly Hills. Although the landmark Fantasy Building at 10th and Parker Streets in Berkeley was not included in the sale, Concord will rent office space there and will use the Fantasy Recording Studios, according to Terri Hinte, Fantasy spokeswoman.

Hinte said there undoubtedly will be some workforce shifts, but not for a few months. Fantasy has 80 employees; Concord has about 40.

Fantasy's owners are Chairman Saul Zaentz, 83, an Oscar-winning film producer; President Ralph Kaffel; Al Bendich, vice president and legal counsel; and Frank Noonan, vice president of finance. All four have been with the company for decades. The latter three will stay with the new firm for several months as consultants. Zaentz has focused on his film work for almost 30 years and has not been involved in Fantasy's day-to-day operations.

Concord, which scored a platinum hit this year with Ray Charles' final recording, "Genius Loves Company" (in conjunction with Starbucks' Hear Music), is owned by Normal Lear's entertainment holding company, Act II Communications Holding LP. The 31-year-old label focuses on jazz, traditional pop and adult contemporary formats.

"I'm convinced my grown-up children are getting a good home," said San Francisco's Orrin Keepnews, 81, who oversaw Fantasy's jazz program in the 1970s after having sold it the catalog of Riverside Records, a company he ran in New York in the 1950s and 1960s.

"Concord, as far as I can see, is a rarity these days, a very vigorous and committed record label. I'll enjoy seeing what (they) can do to verify the continuing life and viability of a number of artists I worked with 40 years ago: Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans, Sonny Rollins and McCoy Tyner," said Keepnews, now a Grammy-winning independent record producer.

Fantasy's revenue comes from reissues in its stable. It does not sign new artists. According to Billboard, Fantasy's 2003 sales were $22 million, half of that in the United States, while Concord's revenue was $20 million, including $13 million in the United States.

Both Fantasy and Concord have deep roots in the Bay Area.

Fantasy Records was founded in 1949 in an alley off San Francisco's Market Street by hipster brothers Max and Sol Weiss. Its first artist "was an Oakland pianist named Dave Brubeck," according to the company's Web site. It went on to record Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker, Cal Tjader, Odetta, comic Lenny Bruce, and beat poets Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Allen Ginsberg.

Zaentz joined the company as a salesman in 1955. A dozen years later, he assembled a group of investors to buy the label, which was heavily concentrated on jazz recordings. According to published reports, the price was $325,000.

The single rock group then signed with Fantasy was an El Cerrito garage band called the Golliwogs. It was led by a Fantasy shipping clerk named John Fogerty, who had started it in junior high school. After rechristening themselves Creedence Clearwater Revival, the quartet recorded a string of gold and platinum records and million-selling singles, including "Suzie Q," "Proud Mary" and "Bad Moon Rising." In 1970, they outsold the Beatles.

Creedence was "a lightning strike," Zaentz told The Chronicle in 1970. "If we ever find another group that sells half as much, we'll be delirious."

With the money pouring in from Creedence, Fantasy expanded by steadily buying up outstanding independent jazz labels, including Prestige, Stax, Specialty, Milestone, Riverside and Takoma.

Concord Records grew out of the Concord Jazz Festival. Both are named after the Contra Costa County town where they originated, then a sleepy little suburb.

Local businessman Carl Jefferson, a successful Lincoln-Mercury dealer with a passion for jazz, started the Concord Summer Music Festival in 1969.

Guitarists Herb Ellis and Joe Pass, who performed at an early festival, suggested to Jefferson he fund and produce a record. The Concord Jazz label was the result. Jefferson started the record company in 1973 in a former seafood restaurant next to his car dealership.

Jefferson, who died in 1995, was the motivating force behind construction of the Concord Pavilion (now The Chronicle Pavilion), the first large-scale outdoor concert venue of its kind in the West.

Jefferson's music philosophy was simple: He recorded what he liked. Under Jefferson's hand-picked successor, Glen Barros, who took over in 1995, Concord branched out from jazz, adding pop and blues artists, Latin jazz, salsa, Afro- Cuban and Brazilian music. It partnered with Chick Corea's Stretch Records and the smooth jazz label Peak Records, according to its Web site. In 2001, it started Playboy Jazz in conjunction with Hugh Hefner's Playboy Enterprises.

Concord has issued more than 1,000 albums. Its current roster of artists includes Karrin Allyson, Patti Austin, Peter Cincotti, Michael Feinstein, Nnenna Freelon, Robben Ford, Marian McPartland, Barry Manilow, Ozomatli, Eddie Palmieri, Poncho Sanchez and Curtis Stigers.

Act III, owned by Lear and Hal Gaba, bought Concord in 1999 and moved its corporate headquarters to Beverly Hills in 2002. Barros is still the president and chief executive officer, titles he will retain at the merged company, Concord Music Group.

The Concord-Fantasy deal was brokered by Tailwind Capital Partners, a private equity firm headquartered in New York and San Francisco.

The sale encompasses only Fantasy's music business. It does not affect Zaentz's film business, which has produced acclaimed adaptations of literary works such as "The English Patient" and "Amadeus" and also does post- production sound. Zaentz, who owned the film rights to J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings," was an executive producer on Peter Jackson's movie trilogy.

Creedence's Fogerty and Zaentz had a famous falling out. In 1985, Zaentz threatened to sue Fogerty for defamation of character after he wrote a song called "Zanz Kant Danz" with lyrics that said of the title character, "Watch him or he'll rob you blind."

In 1988, Fantasy sued Fogerty, claiming he'd plagiarized his own 1970 single "Run Through the Jungle," exclusively owned by Fantasy, to write his 1984 hit, "The Old Man Down the Road." A San Francisco jury ruled in favor of Fogerty.

More recently, Fogerty complained about Fantasy's selling his Vietnam War protest song "Fortunate Son" for use in Wrangler jean commercials, which stripped out his message about phony patriotism, using lines that sound like a paean to flag-waving.

Chronicle senior pop music critic Joel Selvin contributed to this story.E-mail Carolyn Said at csaid@sfchronicle.com."

The Times Herald - News - 02/05/2006 - Campaign manager takes a Swann dive

The Times Herald - News - 02/05/2006 - Campaign manager takes a Swann dive: "Campaign manager takes a Swann dive
By: MARGARET GIBBONS, Times Herald Staff02/05/2006
Email to a friendPost a CommentPrinter-friendly
It was bad enough when Republican gubernatorial hopeful Bill Scranton's now-ousted campaign manager, James Seif of Blue Bell, called Scranton rival Lynn Swann "the rich white guy in the race."

(Swann, a former Pittsburgh Steelers star and former television sports commentator, is black.)
But then Seif went on to compound his boneheadedness when he tried explaining what he meant. Seif said Swann is the insider candidate while Scranton is the "insurgent."
Just great.
When the public hears the word "insurgent" these days, they think of suicide bombers or those who plant roadside bombs.
Is it any wonder that Seif got tossed?"