One of two remaining women being held in a Haitian jail is back home in Idaho..Charisa Coulter arrived home in Boise to a large crowd of family and friends.she had not seen her family since the massive earthquake in Haiti.Coulter was part of a church group that traveled to Haiti to help orphans impacted by the earthquake.Authorities accused the group of trying to smuggle a group of orphans into the Dominican Republic.Coulter says she is grateful to be back…and hopes the final person is released soon.CHARISA COULTER says: “I’m exhausted, so I’m probably going to go to bed. I haven’t had a goodnight’s rest in several months. so that’s what I am going to do first. (What was the last thing you said to Laura after, when you guys were separated?) I told her I loved her, and that it’s just a matter of time before she’s here.”All but one person in the group has been released.Laura Silsby is still being held in Haiti.

Bryan Saunders, Arts & Entertainment Staff
Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)

Written by Ann-Marie MacDonald
Directed by Marianne Copithorne
Starring Andrea Jorawsky, Robert Markus, Karyn Mott, Darren Paul, Tatyana Rac, and Sarah Sharkey
Runs November 26–December 5. no show Sunday.
Tickets $5-20 at the Timms box office or at tixonthesquare.ca

What would happen if two of Shakespeare’s most well-known tragedies, Othello and Romeo and Juliet, were rewritten as comedies? perhaps they were even intended to be comedies all along!

This concept is the doctoral thesis of PhD student Constance Ledbelly — one of the characters in Ann-Marie MacDonald’s play Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) — but she’s struggling to find the evidence to prove it. that is, until she tumbles down, down, down into a wastebasket and finds herself magically dropped into Othello’s Cyprus and, later, into Romeo and Juliet’s Verona. in quick time, Constance bumps into the kooky characters from these plays and support for her theory starts to pile up.

According to Karyn Mott (Juliet), audiences will be rolling out of their seats with laughter when they see how some of Shakespeare’s most well-known characters have been transformed.

“They’re heightened to a different extent than they are in the original play,” she laughs, pointing out that the character archetypes aren’t really “transformed,” per se, just exaggerated to the point of ridiculousness.
Juliet, for example, becomes just your stereotypical melodramatic 14-year-old girl, where every tiny decision is live-or-die — more often the latter, as it turns out.

“Juliet tries to kill herself a lot,” Mott deadpans. “She tries real hard.”

Sarah Sharkey, who’s making her Studio Theatre debut in the role of Desdemona, notes that her character is the opposite.

“My archetype is a raging, bullish, warrior princess,” she chuckles.

“Another interesting thing is that in Othello and in Romeo and Juliet, our two characters would never meet,” Mott points out. “And, in this play, [...] our archetypes go head-to-head.”

The result, of course, of two over-the-top characters meeting is something even more over-the-top, but Sharkey says the production manages to walk the line between being a satire and being a valentine.

“I think it’s very much both,” she says. “I mean, to make fun of something is quite endearing. People love to laugh. So, to parody something is essentially to love it, to give it an homage — it’s kind of like a roast.

“Our goal was to make this the funniest journey we possibly could,” Sharkey continues. “So, anyone who will sit down and watch it will enjoy the pure comedy of it all: there are SNL kind of moments; there are YouTube comedy clip moments [...] there are also these elements of Die Hard. It’s very fast-paced; there’s a lot of action and stage fighting to it.”

“And there are a lot of surprises,” Mott offers.

“Yes, be prepared for surprises,” Sharkey menaces, before breaking down into laughter.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Dozens of tearful mourners clungto each other in the gray autumn chill yesterday asTottenville High School senior Janine Brawer was laid torest in Ocean View Cemetery, Oakwood.

some 1,600 people attended her wake over the weekend.

Ms. Brawer, 17, of Eltingville, died Thursday withoutregaining consciousness after she was struck by a car onNov. 13 as she crossed a dangerous stretch of Luten Avenueafter an early school dismissal.

Rabbi Lester Polonsky of Temple Israel, Randall Manor, ledfamily and friends in prayer at Ms. Brawer’s graveside,with her father and mother, Sandy and Robin, sobbing in atight embrace afterward.

Rabbi Polonsky said he had counseled Ms. Brawer’sloved ones to, in the days ahead, “surround themselveswith friends and family, to try to look beyond the tragedyof her death and to look at her life and the special bond oflove they shared.” he advised her fellow students”to look to each other for strength.”

Earlier, Ms. Brawer’s father and her brother, Seth,gave moving eulogies at a service in the Bedell-PizzoFuneral Home, Tottenville.

Calling Ms. Brawer “my princess,” Sandy Brawersaid her “loss is a hurt which has no boundaries.”He said his daughter was “high-spirited, determined andcaring,” and recalled how she would call for him fromher crib just to say, “I love you, Daddy.”

Seth Brawer called his sister his “companion andpartner in crime” and said he was proud of her”courageous” decision to be an organ donor, a wishthat tragically came to pass all too soon.

“Every brother should be blessed with a sister likeJanine,” he said.

Ms. Brawer, a straight-A student with a flair for the arts,was involved with her school’s “Sing”production. the program, which was held last weekend, wasdedicated to her memory.

Ms. Brawer suffered head and internal injuries after beingstruck by a car driven by a Tottenville student who hadstopped to let her cross Luten. that car was struck frombehind by another car, also driven by a Tottenville student,and the force of the impact pushed the first car into Ms.Brawer. No charges have been filed.

Judy L. Randall is a news reporter for the Advance. Shemay be reached at randall@siadvance.com.

GM Said to see No Saab Bids as Board Nears Shutdown (Update1)

Nov. 25 (Bloomberg) — General Motors co. doesn’t expect tofind new bidders for Saab and may shut the bankrupt unit afterKoenigsegg Group AB canceled a planned acquisition, peoplefamiliar with the matter said.

Saab’s future will be decided at a Dec. 1 GM board meeting,said the people, who asked not to be identified because thetalks are private. while directors might opt to keep Saab, asthey did with the Opel division this month, GM has a contingencyplan that calls for winding down the brand, the people said.

“They should just get rid of it,” said Tom Stallkamp,industrial partner at buyout firm Ripplewood Holdings LLC, whichwas part of an unsuccessful bid for Opel in Germany. Saab”really doesn’t matter in terms of technology, and there is nosynergy like there was with Opel.”

Closing Saab instead of selling would still help GM achievethe goal of trimming U.S. brands to four from eight whileworking to return to profit after a U.S.-backed bankruptcy. AKoenigsegg sale would have protected jobs at Saab while wrappingup GM’s affiliation with the brand by year’s end.

The collapse of that accord yesterday marked the thirdbrand sale to falter since GM’s July 10 exit from Chapter 11. GMbacked out of the Opel sale to a group led by MagnaInternational Inc., and Penske Automotive Group Inc. withdrew inSeptember from a plan to buy Saturn.

Contingency Plan

GM’s Saab contingency plan is modeled on its blueprint forSaturn, one of the people said. Saab owners would continue to becovered by GM warranties and be assigned to a new dealership forservice, the person said.

“We will take the next several days to assess thesituation and will advise on the next steps next week,” ChiefExecutive Officer Fritz Henderson said in a statement. “We’reobviously very disappointed with the decision to pull out.”

Earlier today, Beijing Automotive Industry Holding co.,which in September agreed to take a minority stake in theinvestment team set up by Koenigsegg to take over Saab, said ina statement it will “cautiously” reconsider plans to buy astake.

Expected Transaction

Saab had expected the transaction with Koenigsegg Group toclose by the end of this month, pumping in fresh funds tofinance a ramp-up of production of older models and productionof new car types.

The investment group includes Koenigsegg Automotive, makerof the $1.2 million CCXR sports car; China’s Beijing AutomotiveIndustry Holding co.; and Baard Eker, a Norwegian entrepreneur.The team is led by Augie Fabela II, an American who co-foundedRussian mobile-phone operator OAO VimpelCom.

“We’re extremely disappointed. It’s like a plane crash,”Eker said. “Our deadline was Nov. 30 and at one week away werealized that we had so far to go that we weren’t going to makeit, so unfortunately we had to call it a day.”

GM began getting indications of a possible snag over theweekend, and Koenigsegg Group’s board decided on Nov. 23 to backaway, one of the people said.

Koenigsegg Group had sought to obtain in advance all 400million euros ($600 million) of financing approved by theEuropean Investment Bank, while the lender planned to disbursethe funds in tranches, another person said. Rainer Schlitt, abank spokesman in Luxembourg, couldn’t be reached yesterday.

‘End of the Road’

“That’s it, goodnight, goodbye,” said Stephen Pope,chief global strategist for Cantor Fitzgerald in London. “Saabhas reached the end of the road, there’s nothing left in thetank.”

Saab traces its roots to aircraft company Svenska AeroplanAB, founded in 1937 to secure production of Swedish warplanes,and is based in Trollhaettan, a cradle of the country’s 19th-century industrialization. GM bought one half of Saab in 1990and took full ownership a decade later.

Posting losses in most of its years under GM, Saab hadplanned to become profitable by 2012 with annual sales of100,000 cars, according to Christian von Koenigsegg, one of theinvestors in the acquisition group.

Saab got Swedish court protection in February after GM saidit was cutting ties. Koenigsegg won the bidding for the unit inJune, and the European Investment Bank approved a 400 million-euro ($600 million) loan for Saab on Oct. 21 after an initialdelay. Saab had about 4,100 employees as of August.

Koenigsegg’s rivals for Saab included U.S. billionaire IraRennert’s Renco Group Inc. and Merbanco Inc., a group ofinvestors from Wyoming, a person familiar with the process saidat the time.

An aide to Rennert said yesterday that the billionairewouldn’t comment on Koenigsegg’s exit, and a voice-mail messageleft with Merbanco President Chris Johnston wasn’t returned.

At Saab’s peak of popularity in the 1980s, it appealed tobuyers who sought a European brand mixing safety, reliabilityand innovation. while Ford Motor co.’s Volvo championedpracticality, Saab peddled its aviation heritage withturbocharged engines and fighter-jet design elements.

Plunging demand and Saab’s losses made the unit a candidatefor disposal as GM slid toward bankruptcy. U.S. sales slumped 62percent this year through October, with just 513 deliveries lastmonth, and the European total plunged 59 percent. As of Nov. 15,Saab planned to reduce its U.S. dealership body by 37 percent,cutting 81 of 218 dealers.

Inventory Levels

“I don’t think that the inventory levels on Saab are veryhigh, so I would expect that dealers would get no new productsand the company wouldn’t have to heavily discount them to selloff the remaining stock,” said Eric Ibara, director of residualconsulting for Kelley Blue Book in Irvine, California.

Saab was among four U.S. brands GM planned to unload aspart of its restructuring to focus on Chevrolet, Buick, GMC andCadillac. The Swedish unit has been unprofitable for most of thetwo decades GM has owned it.

GM dropped Pontiac, had the Saturn deal fail and agreed tosell the Hummer sport-utility vehicle brand to China’s SichuanTengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery co., pending regulatoryapproval.

“You feel sorry for the guys at GM, because they just needto get Saab, Saturn and Hummer off their plate,” saidRipplewood’s Stallkamp, a former Chrysler Corp. executive.”Suddenly GM has all these leftovers when what they really needto do is start cooking a whole new meal.”

To contact the reporters on this story:Jeff Green in Southfield, Michigan, at Jgreen16@bloomberg.net;Niklas Magnusson in Stockholm at nmagnusson1@bloomberg.net;Katie Merx in Southfield, Michigan, at kmerx@bloomberg.net;

Last Updated: November 25, 2009 01:02 EST

We have all spent evenings with families whose children have taken the occasion to act out in the worst possible ways.

With dad, and often mom as well, working during the day, parenting is limited to a short period in the morning, dinner and a stretch of the evening.

Sometimes, keeping the children up results in children not getting enough sleep and in their developing bad sleep habits.

Common sleep problems include frequent awakening, talking during sleep, waking up crying, feeling sleepy during the day, having nightmares, bed-wetting, grinding teeth and waking early. While these may have deeper emotional causes, there are a number of steps parents can take to avoid or ease these problems.

Most important is to begin parenting with consistent routines for going to bed. Pick a bedtime that allows sufficient sleep, establish a routine of getting ready for bed and ready for sleep, and stick to it.

How much sleep do children need? Newborns sleep almost 16 hours a day, spreading it around in naps between feedings. At 2 months of age, infants sleep more at night than during the day. Between 4 and 6 months, infants begin to sleep through the night.

Toddlers younger than 5 need 11 to 13 hours, including a daytime nap. Children beginning school need 10 to 11 hours. And though your adolescent wont admit it, he will function best on eight or nine hours sleep each night.

Dont just send children to bed. Allow a winding-down quiet time, at least 20 minutes reading books or listening to quiet music. No TV.

Establish a routine: changing the diaper, going to the bathroom, shower and brushing teeth, etc.

Put children to bed awake so they learn how to fall asleep in bed by themselves. After the stories and the teeth are brushed, say goodnight, turn off the light and leave the room.

Make sure the sleeping quarters are quiet, dark and not too hot or cold.

Put infants on their backs to sleep.

If your child gets up, dont reward him but calmly and immediately lead him back to bed.

Tell him if he stays in bed, the door will remain open, but if he gets up, it will be shut (not locked) for from three to five minutes. Calmly put your child back to bed each time he gets out.

When he stays in bed for five minutes, open the door and praise him for doing a good job of staying in bed before saying goodnight.

Avoid using the childs bed as a place of punishment or play.

Making a natural sleep time a part of your childs routine will give him the energy to handle the problems he will meet the following day.

Sally Robinson is a clinical professor of pediatrics at UTMB Childrens Hospital, and Keith Bly is an assistant professor of pediatrics in the UTMB Childrens Emergency Room. This column isnt intended to replace the advice of a physician.

“Thank you and goodnight!” As I said those words to the screaming fans on the last night of the Nolans tour on Tuesday in Belfast I was a total wreck.

I’d gone beyond a few quiet tears and was sobbing down the microphone. I’m sure some of the audience must have thought me and my sisters had gone stark, staring mad, we were so emotional.

But the last couple of months have been truly amazing for all of us.

With a combined age of pushing 200, kids, grandkids, cellulite and (if we’re honest) the odd (well-disguised) grey hair, just being back on stage has been incredible for us.

In the years since we were touring in the 70s and 80s, me and my sisters have faced our share of personal battles – dealing with loss, cancer, marriage breakdown and weight issues.

But we’re not unusual in that.

There are few women who get to their mid-40s without having their share of heartache to deal with. And at times you feel that all that crap is going to beat you. But women are nothing if not fighters. You know the old saying: “Put a woman in hot water and she’ll just get stronger.”

And coming out for this tour, stronger and more confident than ever before, has proved that to us.

I’m 45 next year, a mum of three who spends a lot of her time propping up an ironing board, pairing socks and emptying the bins.

And for years – after my marriage broke down and my weight shot up – I could never have dreamed of returning to performing.

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That’s why going back on the road with my sisters was so important to me. Thank you so much to everyone who came to see us and made us feel so special.

And thank you too to my sisters – Maureen, Linda and Bernie. They were there for me in the tough times of my life and again during the moments of sheer brilliance on tour.

And having Ray and my boys along with me was fantastic too – being so close to true family makes anything seem possible.

There has been a lot written about the fallout between my sisters, Anne and Denise, and the four of us who went on tour.

Things have been said that I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forgive. But the situation has taught me the real meaning of “family” – those people who love you, support you and are there for you every step of the way.

Because someone who judges, criticises or makes you feel bad is not true family even if they are a blood relative.

Try to remember that when you’re beating yourself up about who to invite for Christmas dinner!

And thank you again to my real true loving family – and goodnight!

/ if you missed us there is a Live DVD of the whole show which is out NOW.

Stella Dimitroff, 6
My mum is perfect. Kind of. When I go to bed she gives me lots of hugs and kisses and she’s really kind to me. She lets me have lots of treats. Sometimes she lets me watch films upstairs in my brother Bruno’s room and eat popcorn and hot chocolate. Sometimes we only get the popcorn because we spill the hot chocolate. Sometimes when she doesn’t be nice to me she’s not perfect, but most of the time she is.

Sebastian Dimitroff, 11
A perfect mother lets you have sweets every week. She lets you have sleepovers, which mine sometimes does. She has good smiles. She gives you pocket money. I know some mothers that don’t give pocket money. She cooks lovely meals. She lets you see your friends. She kisses you goodnight. She takes you out to places like restaurants. She takes you on holiday. She has a good sense of humour.

If there is one reason why she’s not perfect it is because she argues a lot. You have to be patient. She is not always.

I would love to have a pet but my mum won’t allow it. She has to help with your homework. My mum doesn’t really do that. And she doesn’t really give us a lot of time to watch telly.

My mum is very good at Hallowe’en. But she always has the same costume. She is always Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean.

Justine Roberts, 42, founder of Mumsnet
My mother worked and raised three kids with the minimum of fuss and I always thought of her as somebody to be proud of, even though I vividly remember being the last person to be picked up from ballet. I always saw my mother as an excellent role model.

Good mothers are the ones who know they are the grown-ups in the relationship. My mum made the minimum of drama about her own life and we didn’t feel we had to parent her. Mums who are a pain in the bum are the ones who want their kids to give them advice.

I remember being very keen to get my mother’s approval, partly because it was quite hard to get. If I came second she was usually pretty interested in who came first. She said she was wary of us becoming big-headed. I think that’s a generational thing and the complete opposite of the way we parent today, where children are used to unconditional praise. But I certainly don’t get easily knocked back.

You resort to your own parents’ approach in times of stress but I try to be a little bit more positive.

Looking for perfection can only come back to haunt you. If you are looking for perfection in your children they will be looking for perfection from their mother. We do well to remember that we can only be good enough and that children can only be good enough.

Pinky Lilani, 54, food writer and founder of the Asian Women of Achievement Awards
I grew up in Calcutta and moved to England in 1978. After my father died my mother moved in 2006 to America to live with my brother. I talk to her every day. She knows everything that I am doing.

She was 80 last year and is just phenomenal. When we were growing up I never heard her raise her voice. Very calm, very gentle. She would always tell me when I was being over the top. She was always trying to slow me down but I just carried on regardless.

She is a very good judge of character and would always say if she didn’t think someone was what they appeared to be. But she would never tell us what to do. She never commanded us to do anything. She didn’t interfere. I think I give much more advice to my children.

She was not critical as a person. That’s the key to having great influence. I have dedicated my new book to her.

Pamela Hilleard, 68
I had an extraordinarily problematic childhood. My parents had twins before me and one of them was electrocuted in an accident. I was named after the dead girl and was a replacement twin. I felt all of my life that I didn’t quite measure up to what my parents wanted.

My mother died nearly two years ago and only since then have I become entirely me as a person. They didn’t approve of me becoming a journalist and they didn’t approve of my husband. My father was a terrible disciplinarian and my mother used to make the threat: “Wait till your father gets home.”

Even now, at 68, I feel that I would have loved my parents to have approved of me. How ridiculous is that? All my life I wanted their love and approval and I don’t think I ever got either.

I didn’t want to have children but my husband said “You will regret it”. I too had twins, which led to huge jealousy from my parents. I didn’t feel I could let them be in my parents’ charge. Totally irrational, but I think I felt that one of them might have an accident.

I was a lousy mother because I had had no proper instruction in good mothering and no proper role model. I had a full-time job as a fashion editor and employed a live-in nanny. I saw my children for the minimum amount of time — Saturday afternoons. I was really dreadful. My husband was mother and father to them.

The perfect mother for me would have loved me unconditionally. I did love my children but I had a very poor way of showing it. I adore my grandchildren.

My grandson calls me “Mad Grandma” because I am so determined that he’s going to love me to bits.

Matthew Bolton, 26, community organiser
No one is perfect and there comes a point in your late teens when you realise that they are only human. But I am lucky to have a near-perfect mother. My parents divorced when I was 5. I lived with my mum and she put great effort into making sure that the divorce didn’t affect my relationship with her or my dad too badly.

She is compassionate and generous and courageous. She had a liberal approach with some boundaries. As a teenager I was very independent and would sometimes go walkabout and not see her for a week. But I was very much supported and if anything went wrong there was always a safe place to return to.