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Show Thursday, February 12, 2009 OREM TIMES Page 3 An adorable 'Ugly Duckling' I 1 hose Danes are a pesky and contradictory contra-dictory but loveable lot. Living for two J years in the constitutional con-stitutional monarchy of Denmark Den-mark (I bet you can guess why), I observed a people who were at once bizarre but also strangely familiar. A small country on a peninsula penin-sula and string of islands that juts up from Germany and is the gateway to Baltic Sea, the Danes number about 5 million people, are known for their fine Scandinavian furniture designs, storyteller Hans Christian Andersen, and the best pastry on the planet. Yes it really is better than snooty French pastry. Once a world naval power around 1500, the geography of Denmark shrunk in ensuing centuries mostly because the country got clobbered in wars and therefore lost territory to Sweden, Germany and others. oth-ers. Hitler invaded the neutral country during World War II, an action that spawned an active Danish resistance movement, and the rescue of all the Danish Jews across the channel to Sweden. That history is probably why the Danes quietly mock the Germans when they come up to their beaches for summer sum-mer vacations, while old German Ger-man pillboxes and fortifications fortifica-tions from the war still litter parts of the Danish coast. It also probably explains a bit of the tangible Danish inferiority complex. The language of Denmark Danish is a Germanic-based Germanic-based tongue and a tough Cartoonist Continued from Page 1 Schlock Mercenary, which revolves around the exploits of a diverse group of human and alien space mercenaries including the title character, a green blob "carbosilicate amorph" named Sergeant Schlock who favors large handheld hand-held laser weaponry evolved from Tayler's childhood doodling doo-dling and daydreaming. "It's like a blend of Buck Rogers strips and maybe Bloom County, only not quite so blatantly political," he said. Tayler, and his wife Sandra, a published children's author and science fiction fan in her own right, have labored during the past eight years to transform trans-form the hobby into a profitable, profit-able, home-based business. The Web site currently generates gen-erates anywhere from 20,000 to 45,000 visits per day, and while Tayler makes some money mon-ey from online advertisements, what really makes the business work is sales from the site's store of Schlock Mercenary books and other merchandise. Self -publishing, which Sandra compared to "soloing Mt. Everest" Ever-est" without Sherpas or climbing climb-ing guides, has allowed them to print the books relatively inexpensively and then turn around and sell them at a handsome hand-some profit. "Books are 80 percent of our . gross," she said. Sandra acts as her husband's business manager, tackling Print Continued from Page I of Web sites each focused narrowly on a particular town will present news from all local lo-cal schools, community groups, churches and local governments, govern-ments, and will feature a social marketplace with discussion forums fo-rums highlighting local people and issues. The consolidation of printed information from the weeklies into the Daily Herald is part wn pjCOi Let Vs insure .y, Jrl tr ,Jfsfl .1 M ; Michael Rigert THE QUILL & THE SWORD nut to crack. The grammar is much more simplified that English, but the pronunciation pro-nunciation (you speak from the back of your throat) will make even the most experienced ex-perienced linguist (or IDS Church missionary) cry. They have about three more vowels than we do in English, and I remember wishing with all my heart during the first few months I had been sent stateside, or at least to an English-speaking country any where but DK. The first night in my first area, Hjorring, my companion and I went to visit ah eternal investigatorpart member family known in the mission as "hygge monsters," or basically, basi-cally, folks who liked to chat and socialize but weren't really re-ally interested in our message. In retrospect, that could probably prob-ably be said of 99.5 percent of the Danes. The wife asked if we were editing, proofreading and shipping ship-ping merchandise to fans. They attend comic book and science fiction conventions around the country and get a nearly steady stream of fan e-mails. At one science fiction, a passerby picked up a flier about Tayler's cartoon at his booth, "put it back down, and bought $80 worth of books," he said. Two fans have even fabricated fab-ricated their own costumes based on characters in Schlock Mercenary, including one who appeared in his alter Schlock Mercenary ego on ABC TV's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" The two parents split their daily schedules up between running the business, and caring car-ing for their four children ages 5 to 13. But the couple says it was a long and painful road to bring Tayler's intellectual property to where it is today. In 2004, Tayler and his family, after much prayer and consideration, consider-ation, took a literal leap of faith, quit his six-figure project of an ongoing strategy to strengthen the company's core daily product while reducing costs associated with production produc-tion and mailing numerous small titles, said Herald president presi-dent and publisher Rona Rahlf . "This will greatly simplify our sales programs as well as strengthen the local news identity iden-tity of the Herald," Rahlf said. "Rather than breaking up news and advertising across several papers, everything will be in one place." Advertisers will benefit from Your Health U rm hr 1( YOU CAN'T, YOU VOW SEE, UTrt FELLA E PON'T Sounds like mj f -. to Jrtis? A Rf"'T WWN OO OCICXOOJCAL STUFF LIKE J JTf ?? tZ "Zj ' ' CAtl to , -1NTERSPECJATEP WORKPLACES" Kina Of fjn. ..,. ,.t I WW WNI WE'RE A CRACK COMPANY OF J TP'' ' V- trW ' SPACE MERCENARIES. WE PO I I ! ' OMMMNOUS ' ;H L PISTIL WRTINS PEOPLE' ANP J If , , MMMMMM l?V Ufa "BREAKING TH1N6S ' fl Ij ; J jf4 and Life insurance thirsty ("torstig") which to me sounded like Thursday ("tirsdag"). I said something like, 'Oh, you want us to come back on Thursday? in Danish. They all got a good laugh at my expense; I had no clue what any of them were saying. That was a humbling initiation. Danes are largely an atheistic athe-istic lot. They have a state Lutheran church that everyone every-one is a member of and pays taxes to (unless you opt out), but no one actually attends. The pews are empty on all but Christmas Eve mass, Easter, weddings, and baby baptisms. The government is a liberal, socialistic, welfare state affair (the direction the U.S. is headed). The Danes brag about their cradle-to-the grave free medical health care system and pension benefits, but what they won't tell you is that they pay close to a 50 percent per-cent income tax and there are often long waits for simple surgical procedures. Don't even get me started on their vices. Copenhagen (the enchantingly beautiful capital city) and Amsterdam, Netherlands, are two of the original pornography capitals of the post-war 20th century. Where we have candy and gum at our check out lines at grocery and convenience stores, they have soft- and hard-core pornography magazines maga-zines displayed for all the children to see. You also have to be careful in the summer because people will sunbathe in nothing but their birthday suits on the beaches and in city parks. manager job with Novell to pursue penciling, inking and publishing his webcomic full time. "It was Sept. 22," Sandra said. "It was 'Talk Like A Pirate Pi-rate Day.'" Tayler said the jump to complete, safety net -free self-employment self-employment was "terrifying." He would hole up in his office working grueling 80- to 100-hour 100-hour weeks with little to no time for his family. "The price of going full time was four years of my life," Tayler said. But the highly motivated, self-taught cartoonist continued contin-ued to refine his craft and his site's free content business model (all of Schlock Mercenary Merce-nary can be viewed for free on his Web site) and fans began to take notice. Slowly the family's sacrifices began to reap results and generate the income they needed to pay the bills, and reduce re-duce Tayler's weekly hours to more palatable 40 to 50 hours. Now enjoying a certain greater audience reach than they currently have in the North County weeklies, she said. Combined circulation of the five weeklies is about 5,800, but about one-third of those subscribers also subscribe to the Dairy Herald, which means redundant re-dundant costs in newsprint, handling han-dling and mailing, Rahlf said. The company will continue to mail advertising to all non-subscribing non-subscribing households in Utah Valley through Savvy Shopper Deals (formerly known as Central Cen-tral Utah Quality Buys). , 0 0 They love their Danish beer (Carlberg or Tuborg are the preferred labels), smoke like chimneys, and many teens and adults love to get sloshed out their skulls, especially on weekends. But for all their problems, there is much to admire about Denmark and the Danes. Their land is a fairy tale-like and picturesque mixture of flower-covered fields, rolling hills, and panoramic beaches. Renaissance era castles dot the countryside and Copenhagen, Copen-hagen, including the one featured in Shakespeare's "Hamlet." Danes are friendly and jovial, jo-vial, and love to have friends and guests visit. They adore Americans and love to test out their English on you at every opportunity. Danish cuisine (mostly Danish meat balls, potatoes with brown gravy, and pickled red cabbage) is to-die-for, and they love Christmas Christ-mas so much, they celebrate Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and Second Christmas Day. Despite our differences, part of my heart lies in Denmark. I feel a kinship with them that is difficult to explain. My family heritage isn't Danish, but I feel like I've been adopted into their land. I've been back to visit once with my wife since the mission, but somehow my soul continues to ache for Denmark. That feeling never subsides. I Michael Rigert is the editor of the Orem Times. He can be reached for comment at mrigertheraldextra.com. Howard Tayler amount of business success and also making time for himself and his family, Tayler said he's realized where his true priorities lie. While he has a passion for sci-fi and his Schlock Mercenary business, "if it doesn't get in the way of (family). If it does, it's not worth it " "That's what saved me," he sai(J. Sandra agrees. "We make sure Daddy gets to go to all the school plays," she said. But that doesn't mean Tayler Tay-ler can't be found at his artist haunt away from home the Dragon's Keep comic book store in Provo where the scl fifantasy milieu really gets his creative juices flowing. And when he having a bad day, he reminds himself of the tough times he's conquered with his determination, a pencil, pen-cil, pen and a PC. "I walk down the street and think 'I'm e-famous,'" Tayler says half -jokingly. Other weekly newspapers owned by the Herald in Springville, Spanish Fork, Pay-son Pay-son and Sanpete County are not affected by the announcement. announce-ment. The Herald purchased the North County weeklies in 1999 from Brett Bezzant of Pleasant Grove. At the time, the newspaper news-paper group was known as New Utah. That purchase was followed by the purchase of the Orem Geneva Times in 2000. The paper was renamed Orem Times in 2007. if Plan Continued from Page 1 City Council and city staff. Larsen presented an update on Orem's emergency management manage-ment program at the meeting! He said that any state, local, or county government receiving receiv-ing federal funds is required to comply with the National Response Plan mandated three years ago by Congress and administered ad-ministered by the Department of Homeland Security. The city is required to have its own plan based on an all-hazards all-hazards model, meaning that the plan must not be limited to one type of disaster, such as earthquake or flooding, but must apply to all emergencies. Phases of emergency management, manage-ment, including mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery are to be addressed in the plan. Orem has been focusing on preparedness and response, and is close to finalizing its plan within the next few months, Larsen said. The information infor-mation will be available on the city's Web site. One aspect of the National Response Plan is known as the National Incident Management System or NIMS and is defined as "a comprehensive national approach to incident management manage-ment that is applicable at all jurisdictions ju-risdictions and across all functional func-tional disciplines," according to council meeting handouts. Larsen said NIMS is based on the Incident Command System, Sys-tem, which is used every day by his department. The city's executive staff, managers, and first responders have all been through the required training to become compliant. NIMS governs all aspects of incident response, including the work of volunteer groups, such as the city's Community Emergency Response Teams, NorthCounty NEWSPAPERS 399 E. State St. Pleasant Grove Home delivery 375-5103 Delivery by 6 a.m. Mon-Fri 7 a.m. Sat-Sun For missing papers, call by 9:30 a.m.; t Sf SUBSCRIPTIONS New subscriptions, restarts, delivery or billing information, call 375-5103 weekdays week-days from 6 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. SUBSCRIPTION PROGRAMS Per Year: $124.80 $130.00 $10 40 $52.00 $91.00 $36.40 Daily & Sunday Thur. Fri, Sal. Sun & Holidays Thursday Only Mon Sal Sunday Only Thur, Sun & Holidays Holiday delivery includes delivery the weeks of Easter, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Pioneer Day, Labor Day. Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Mike Rigert 443-3265 Orem, Vineyard mrigert heraldextra .com Volume 135 Issue 59 Orem Times an edition of the Daily Herald Eawxi. USPS 411-700 i tft'yritiei srtfjwrix'i'f) E State St , Pleasant Grove. U'.an 84063 Perorxafe rjostau: xseti at lsar (yojti. Urar 84062 ai i at additional mailing offices Porruter:SenJaorJre5sci-iai!)r..!oUrytt Cxiy!ievvsijaoirs,PO Bu 7,AmercanFork, Utah 84003-000 PjhlistK)tThursuayiDL(Purtri. t.t,p,arionj l Enterprises, Inc Member: Audit Bureau of Circulations North Count) Newspapers s3 jPI j Pf"! Ff Fflf" feVM.wc &l I I nnlnlal In 756-7669 FAX' 756-274 SkLlEJEjlI ILlId AS part of our expansion expan-sion program our company com-pany is looking (or pt work. Account managers manag-ers and sales reps. $2500mo it you are interested in-terested and need more info contact hope-jose2002 hope-jose2002 yahoo com WE are currently looking look-ing for good account representatives in the states. Kindly respond to this ad for more details de-tails on the this job. You can get more info at nowarts.robertgmail. com claMifieJt brinf refulu-373-6450 -$Sutol$ 'iMfo I Al I j or CERT, neighborhood-based volunteer groups trained to help with emergency response, and block captains, who are appointed and trained to help identify neighborhood needs in an emergency.. The NIMS requirements are established so that everyone in the nation can "be on the same page and speak the same language" in emergency response, re-sponse, without, for example, using radio codes that would not be understood outside a particular locale. Consequently, Consequent-ly, responders sent from Orem to assist with hurricanes in the southern United States would understand the terminology used. "The language is the same nation-wide," Larsen said. Orem's emergency management manage-ment personnel have been working the past couple of years to write the city's plan, and have broken the city down according to the LDS Church stakes and wards, Larsen said, because the boundaries are already in place. The other churches and religions in the city have been contacted, and understand and are "OK" with that action, he said. "Many of our block captains are not members of the LDS Church," Larsen said. CERT members and block captains need to be dovetailed into the city's emergency management man-agement program, and need to be trained to be NIMS compliant, compli-ant, Larsen said. Block captains have been added, CERT members have been contacted and offered refresher re-fresher courses, and city organizations orga-nizations particularly public safety are being "brought up to speed" on the CERT and block captain programs. Training Train-ing is ongoing. "We are making progress," said Larsen. "Is it 100 percent there? No. But we are making progress." Phone: 756-7669 Fax: 756-5274 DAILY HERALD FUBLI8BIHO CO. "f7fr". Jennette Esplin 756 7669 Classifieds, Obituaries, Celebrations, Legals Kira Johnson 344 2558 North County Coordinator kjohnsonheraldextra.com Megan Carleton 344 2570 Project Coordinator, DesignerCopy Editor Allison Davies 344 2570 DesignerCopy Editor ALPINE duplex 2BD full basement garage No pets 435-668-3390 STEEL Buildings 1 Recession Discounted Some below Cost to Site Call for Availability www scg-grp com Source 0UL 801-303-0561 756-5001 686 E 110 Sooth, 1. Am. Fork - Aerom inm OoU't On Business 30! 374-0395 305 North Freedom Blvd. Prow Actum rrctf ftmUir i . a t. i L m ft |