White Yoga Mat Excellent Yoga

Around the world Yoga is considered a fantastic way to stay fit and healthful. And, if it has been around for centuries, only recently caught the fancy yoga American. It is a well balanced workout designed to tone and strengthen muscles while it increases flexibility. Yoga is also a fantastic way to save weight and a renewed energy and vitality. As you start involved yoga or Pilates, you also notice the need for a basic Yoga or Pilates equipment and accessories. White Yoga Mat Excellent Yoga mats help balance and coordination. Most people are not properly aligned. Accordingly, we do a lot of what we do asymmetrically. For those who want balance and a sense of symmetry a yoga mat is a must. Again, we strongly urge a rug handwoven yoga. But, for those who sorts dynamic and vigorous as Power yoga sticky mat well to consider. Yoga Straps The strap Yoga is very beneficial for beginners. They are either made from cotton or nylon and let you enter your members, you could not reach. They also help you hold the pose longer. Yoga Straps are particularly useful in bound poses when your hands do not reach the other asanas or where you need to keep both feet, but can not reach them. Yoga blocks Yoga blocks are also called yoga bricks and are useful in performing a variety of yoga postures. Yoga helps to block the execution of installation and offer many other benefits. Some of the benefits of yoga blocks are that they grant stability and support for proper alignment, they also reduce the space between the body and the ground. Cushions Yoga Cushions Yoga helps practitioners to renovate a proper alignment of the spine so that the posture is stable, straight and comfortable. Yoga cushions are also beneficial for pregnant women and people improving from surgery. With more cushions yoga poses can be performed comfortably as you sit on a chair or using a chair to keep up balance while standing. For bonus support or cushioning, cushions yoga are also used over a yoga mat or yoga chair height. yoga balls Yoga balls are a versatile accessory for many postures. Made from durable vinyl, they help to achieve balance and support de rigueur for the asanas. Yoga Balls effective way to increase your flexibility, improve range of motion and balance, and tone muscles. In addendum, they also help the body shape and relieve stress.

Cambodia's Kep: Sleepy seaside town begins to stir (AP)

KOH TONSAY, Cambodia – Ask for the crab. In black peppercorn sauce.

The proprietor of the thatched-roof and bamboo-walled island restaurant will acknowledge the order in sign language and broken English. She’ll shuffle across the seaside grass over to the dock where the crab cages sit, steeping in the Gulf of Thailand’s tepid waters.

She’ll return with a bucket of crustaceans and fry them in an iron wok over a charcoal fire in her open-air kitchen, searing them in a sauce made largely from sweet, fiery Kampot peppercorns. She’ll bring you a heap of steaming seafood, pepper sauce, paper napkins and beer to the shaded picnic tables. You’ll eat the crab — soft-shells and all — sucking the sauce from your fingers, drinking the beer to blunt the fiery pepper and thank the stars that few people have discovered the culinary and aesthetic pleasures of this southern coastal region.

While Cambodia’s Angkor Wat temples are its biggest tourist draw, beach-bound tourists — particularly those looking for more than the backpacker-on-a-shoestring itinerary — are waking up to the unexplored beauty that this muggy country has to offer. The low-key beach town of Kep and the riverside village of Kampot, a three-hour drive south of the capital Phnom Penh, offer rough edges but simple charms, along with nearby islands like Koh Tonsay, where the crab in peppercorn is served.

The Kep-area beaches also offer alternatives to better-known regional beach resorts like Thailand’s Phuket and even Cambodia’s own Sihanoukville. Sihanoukville was a favorite of jet-setters (Jackie Kennedy visited in the ’60s) before the country was beset by the horrors of wars, coups and the Khmer Rouge. These days, Sihanoukville’s luxury resorts have plenty of attitude, having been rediscovered by growing numbers of nouveau-riche Cambodians and others. Sleepy Kep, in contrast, seems to attract a clientele that spurns Sihanoukville’s swagger.

The town of Kep consists of a collection of modest residences and hotels tucked into the foliage off crumbling pavement and dusty roads, along with rows of motley shacks and several grand villas, many of which still show the ravages inflicted by the Khmer Rouge who sneered at Kep’s bourgeois trappings. Kep Beach is mostly a stretch of rocky sand directly under the main road, though that doesn’t stop the locals from swimming along the stony promenade. Notable local landmarks include an unusual nude statue of a fisherman’s wife and a monstrous statue of a crab. The 16-room Beach House hotel and its tiny swimming pool hides just above the beach in the tropical hillside foliage, offering sweeping views of the gulf.

Bending around the promontory to the west and north is Kep’s main drag, the Crab Market: a line of bamboo and thatch shacks where you can find crab, fish, prawns and squid, not to mention laundry service, tourist trinkets, boat rides, motos (mopeds), cold beer, cheap drugs, Internet connections, massage services and just about anything else you can imagine. The circus mix of locals, backpackers and proper tourists is a prime spot for people-watching.

Farther up the coast are Kep’s nicer accommodations. Inland and up in the hills, there’s the Veranda, with a wooden restaurant and bar on a slope with a vista of stunning sunsets over the water. Waterside, Knai Bang Chatt has the swankiest lodgings in town with an emerald infinity swimming pool and stylish, modernist building. The hotel’s Sailing Club next door has a dining room perched on piers over the water and a small sandy beach where you can sip vodka tonics while the waves lap your toes. Kep Malibu Estates, despite the unusual name, is also perched inland, its swimming pool and grassy yard up a dusty road past rundown shacks and the disconcerting sight of impoverished farm families tending ragged plantings and staring blankly at passing tourists.

For many, the islands just off of Kep are the real draw. Phu Quoc is the largest, but it belongs to Vietnam and it’s some distance away. For that reason, Koh Tonsay — translated as “Rabbit Island” — is arguably the most popular. Like many things in Cambodia, getting there is not entirely for the faint-hearted. Most hotels have connections with boat operators, or you can arrange a boat ride at one of the Crab Market shacks. The skinny boats, built mainly for fishing, are powered by crate-sized outboard engines with propeller shafts the length of a small tree. Their narrow width means they pitch and yaw more than most people feel comfortable with. That said, they move fast, and the 30-minute ride to Koh Tonsay (about $10) takes you out into a bay past poetic scenes of fishermen tending lines and seine nets.

The island reportedly was used at one point as a prison colony by the country’s long-ruling monarch, Norodom Sihanouk. Today, however, its dense interior foliage keeps most visitors limited to the crystalline waters that slosh the whitish sands on its north side, where simple wood platforms are dotted with hammocks and thatched roofs. Just inland are the open-air kitchens and shacks of the half-dozen families who cater to tourists. For overnight stays, many families rent bungalows that are nothing more than enclosed shacks with wooden sleeping platforms and mosquito nets.

For most visitors, lounging on the beach platforms, alternating between swimming in the bathwater sea and drowsy contemplation of swaying palms is the most activity one can muster. Occasionally, wiry, naked-to-the-waist Cambodian men shimmying high into tree canopies, hacking at bushel-sized bunches of coconuts with machetes and letting the green fruit thud to the ground, spooking unsuspecting tourists. For less than a dollar, they’ll trim off the husks for you, lop a hole into the top and pop a straw in it for the freshest coconut milk you could possibly hope for.

But when hunger truly strikes, it’s best to find crab. The size of golf balls, these crustaceans are caught by traditional hook and lines, and left in cages in the water until mealtime. For less than $5, the cook/hostess prepares a mound of the animals, cooked in oil and peppercorns of the Kampot — a once-famous Cambodian agriculture export — and beer for two. The instinct is to equate crab with lobster, use your teeth to dismantle the shell and suck the meat out. But the shells are so soft, you realize it takes less effort to just eat the crab, meat, shell and all. With pepper sauce tingling on your tongue and cold beer washing it down, gorge yourself on Kep’s finest culinary offering — and enjoy a place while it remains untrampled by the crowds.

____

If You Go…

KEP AND KOH TONSAY, CAMBODIA: http://bit.ly/9WqOPt

TIMING: The best time to visit Cambodia is in the rainy reason (roughly late September through February), when the daytime temperatures aren’t sweltering. The rains, while heavy, are brief in their duration and awe-inspiring in their intensity. This is considered high season for many hotels and other tourist services.

GETTING THERE: Fly to one of Southeast Asia’s hubs — like Bangkok or Singapore — then take a budget carrier — Air Asia, Silk Air, Dragon Air, Jet Star, to name a few — to Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh. Regular bus service between Phnom Penh and Kep is cheap (around $7; http://www.ppsoryatransport.com) but getting tickets and finding the right departure point in Phnom Penh’s chaotic streets can be difficult, so best to ask your hotel or a travel agent for help. Renting a taxi to make the three-hour drive is also possible. Cost varies depending on whether you use a private car ($20-35 a day; http://www.lyna-carrental.com/) or a shared taxi or car ($40 and very subject to change with no notice)

ACCOMMODATIONS IN KEP:

_Knai Bang Chatt: http://www.knaibangchatt.com. Located waterside, about a minute by moto or tuk-tuk (motorized rickshaw) from the Crab Market. Rates $150-$350 high season, $110-$225 low season.

_Veranda Natural Resort: http://www.veranda-resort.com/index.php. Located inland, up a steep hill at end of dirt road, about three minutes by moto or tuk-tuk from Crab Market. Rooms and bungalows $40-$210, high season,; $35-$195, low season.

_Kep Malibu Estates: http://www.malibuestatesbungalows.com/. Located inland, up a short dirt road, about three minutes by moto or tuk-tuk from the Crab Market. Rooms or bungalows, $35-$120, high season, $30-$80, low season. Camping is also available.

The Beach House: http://www.thebeachhousekep.com/. Located on a steep hill overlooking Kep Beach, 3 minutes by moto or tuk-tuk from Crab Market. Rooms $40-$55.

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Cambodia’s Kep: Sleepy seaside town begins to stir (AP)

Out to scare you: Haunted attractions, theme parks (AP)

NEW YORK – If you’re too old for trick-or-treating but still love getting spooked on Halloween, it’s time to trade in the superhero costume for a ticket to a haunted house or theme park.

But attractions like Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights and Atlanta’s Netherworld Haunted House are not for the faint of heart. You’ll be trapped in creepy mazes, disoriented by strobe lights and fog, and confronted by crazed monsters. Experiences like these are not recommended for kids under 13, but even some grown-ups may not be able to handle them. If watching a Stephen King movie keeps you up all night, or you’re prone to panic attacks in small spaces, better stick to apple-picking or the child-friendly “Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party” at Walt Disney World.

On the other hand, if you love the tingle of terror that comes with a really creepy horror movie, this is your kind of fun.

David Mandt, spokesman for the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, noted that a number of parks have added new elements to their Halloween events this year: “They’re figuring out new ways to scare the daylights out of you.”

Mandt said this year’s Halloween offerings include a number of behind-the-scenes tours, including, at Busch Gardens Williamsburg in Virginia, “All-Access Insider,” “Eerie Insider” and “Monster Stomp Revamped Insider” tours for the park’s Howl-O-Scream, http://www.howloscream.com. The tours include cast introductions, front-of-the-line access to a haunted house and a chance to have your makeup done like one of the performers.

Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, which was a real prison until 1971 and today is a National Historic Landmark, hosts an annual Halloween event called Terror Behind the Walls. The attraction also offers an after-dark VIP tour, where you get an hourlong flashlight-guided tour of cellblocks, including Al Capone’s cell, isolation cells, and Death Row; http://www.terrorbehindthewalls.com.

Knott’s Berry Farm, a theme park in Buena Park, Calif., boasts one of the oldest Halloween theme park events in the country, dating to 1973. when “it was a few decorations and a few employees putting on some masks,” said spokeswoman Jennifer Blazey. The event, now called Knott’s Berry Farm Haunt, has grown dramatically. This year it features 13 mazes (including “Terror of London” with foggy streets and Jack the Ripper), three “scare zones,” 1,000 monster-actors, and seven live shows ranging from improv comedy to a hypnotist. While Knott’s does not release attendance figures, Blazey said the month that the Haunt runs makes more money for the company than any other time of year.

And while Knott’s does have a weekend daytime event for ages 3 to 11, with a costume party and trick-or-treating, the after-7 p.m. Haunt is for ages 13 and up; http://haunt.knotts.com/ for dates and tickets.

Universal Orlando in Florida began its Halloween attraction as “a tiny little experimental event with one haunted house over one weekend” in 1991, according to Jim Timon, senior vice president of entertainment. This year, hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the country are expected for the park’s 20th annual Halloween Horror Nights, with eight haunted houses, six scare zones and 1,000 “scareactors” in the park. The content is newly created each year for the Horror Nights, with original story lines and characters. This year’s characters include an evil master named Fear who drives all the other monsters’ diabolical deeds. Details about the back stories in the park attractions can be found on Universal’s website; fans can then see them come to life in the park.

Timon said the costumes, stories and sets are so rich, realistic and detailed that they are “film-quality. We could literally make our own new movies from these characters. The lighting, the special effects, the visuals — we do everything we can to suspend your disbelief and take away your illusion of control.”

One of Universal’s haunted houses this year is called Legendary Truth, an estate home with a history of murders that have resulted in paranormal activity. Timon said the house has an unusual set-up in which visitors trigger the special effects themselves. “People are used to us scaring them,” he said. “When they are the ones triggering the effects by how they are interacting with the haunted house, that’s even scarier. It’s a cool trick when they eventually realize, ‘I’m the one causing this.’”

A note to Harry Potter fans: Universal Orlando consists of two parks. Halloween Horror Nights takes place at Universal Studios Florida, not at its sister park, Islands of Adventure, where The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is located.

Universal Studios Hollywood theme park in Los Angeles has its own Halloween Horror Nights, which are mostly themed on horror films like “A Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Friday the 13th.” For a new maze this year unrelated to the movies, Universal created an original graphic novella, “Vampyre: Castle of the Undead,” which can be seen online. The park also created a new scare zone haunted by La Llorona, based on a Latin American legend of a crying woman who drowned her children in anger over her philandering husband.

Details and tickets for Universal parks on either coasts can be found at http://www.HalloweenHorrorNights.com.

Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, Ill., is also counting two decades of Halloween events with the 20th season of “Fright Fest.” The park’s new “Saw Live” haunted house is themed on the “Saw” movie series, with props, characters and scenes from the films. For younger children, the park has spook-free zones. Details at http://bit.ly/cVcqyq.

Netherworld Haunted House in Atlanta — http://www.fearworld.com — ranks No. 1 on a list of top scariest attractions compiled by Larry Kirchner, editor of Hauntworld Magazine, an online industry publication. Netherworld promises that visitors will find themselves fleeing flying gargoyles, escaping from a house where the floors crack open and furniture comes to life, and trying to avoid capture by a mad scientist known as the Mangler, whose victims meet their fate in a drowning tank, flesh compactor and acid room.

“When you go through a haunted house on the level of Netherworld, you’re totally immersed in an environment as detailed as a movie,” Kirchner said.

But he added that there’s a major difference between watching a movie and visiting a haunted house. “When you see a horror movie, you’re sitting in a theater seat 100 feet away from a screen and nothing is going to shake your seat or fall in your face. In a haunted house, you’re living in the horror movie,” Kirchner said.

He added that part of what makes haunted houses so compelling is that they are also “unscripted live shows” that change every night depending on how the actors interact with guests, so no two visits will be exactly alike. The complete list of Kirchner’s 13 favorite Halloween attractions is at http://www.hauntworld.com.

Another list of Halloween bests comes from Haunted Attraction Magazine, which lists “Must-See Haunted Houses” at http://www.hauntedattraction.com, starting with House of Shock in New Orleans. Others in the Haunted Attraction top 10 are Kevin McCurdy’s Haunted Mansion in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., Scarehouse in Pittsburgh; Dead Acres in Columbus, Ohio; House of Torment, Austin, Texas; Fear Itself, Mishawaka, Ind.; Dent School House, Cincinnati; Nightmare on 13th, Salt Lake City; Wisconsin Feargrounds, Waukesha, Wis.; and Blood Manor, New York City.

But how do the creators make these experiences so scary? Timon, from Universal, said one of the fundamentals at the Orlando park is disorientation. Strobe lights and ultraviolet lights dilate your eyes; maze-like corridors and darkness make it hard for you to figure out where you’re going; mirrors make you think someone is next to you when they’re actually some distance away.

“People are terrified of losing control,” Timon said. “So we love taking away that control.”

Another technique is distracting guests with an elaborate scene, like a gory body on a gurney. “You’re focused on it because it’s really elaborate, so you’re not paying attention to the four people who are sneaking up on you,” Timon said.

Just remember at all of these attractions, actors are trained to invade your space without ever touching or harming you, so you’re always safe even when you’re scared out of your wits.

It’s terror “as a form of entertainment,” said Timon. “People like the scare, but they know they’re in a safe environment.”

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Out to scare you: Haunted attractions, theme parks (AP)

Today Mongolian nomads on motorcycles not horses (AP)

CHIFENG, China – It’s no longer about the armed warriors, Genghis Khan and the robed nomads prancing through lush greenery on horseback.

In China’s barely populated Inner Mongolian grasslands, what had defined Mongolian culture for outsiders have long been swapped for leather outfits, motorbikes, cell phones and tourism.

Five hours outside Inner Mongolia’s southeastern city of Chifeng and deep in the grasslands, I chanced upon a local couple riding a mule-pulled cart on a quiet road, heading toward their coal-heated yurt. The old woman said she loves watching drama shows on TV, gesturing toward the dish propped up against her roof. On the freeway nearby, cars and buses seem to be the only other form of transportation, with horse-riding existing mostly for tourists.

The old storybook nomad life has dwindled, with most nomads now farming, living in compact brick huts, tending to tourists, or working in nearby cities. Desertification, too, is real and apparent, as you drive past yellowing grass where little livestock roams and sparse green shoots struggling through dried, gritty earth. The few who have maintained a nomadic lifestyle only camp on the grass during the wetter June to September months, making those the best times for travelers seeking an authentic glimpse of the old ways.

But while nomadic pastoral life is fading, echoes of it can still be found in some of the grasslands in southeastern Inner Mongolia. Windmills and nodding sunflowers dot endless expanses of rolling green fields, and there isn’t a clearer blue sky to be found in all of China — although the view is occasionally interrupted by power lines or neon-yellow tour buses that honk relentlessly to prod the cows and sheep to the side.

On my trip to the region, I saw a lanky young nomad zip up a steep grassy hill on a motorcycle to herd his sheep. Looking like James Dean in his dark shades and black leather jacket, he leaned against the squeaking door of his yurt and let me and a traveling companion crouch inside.

With luck and patience, visitors may find a nomad farther inland who has room in his yurt for crashing overnight. Real yurts are unfussy versions of tourist yurt accommodations, with dusty, unpretentious exteriors and claustrophobic interiors packed with dishes, pots, a bed, an odd chair or two, and many small furry pets (like hamsters). Other elements of this simple Mongolian home, which matches the low-key culture, might include a dangling light bulb, a communal spread for the bed, and some simple kitschy decorations, along with the quiet cold.

Those staying in tourist accommodations miss out on an integral component of the grassland: cow dung. To get from the main road to a nomad’s home, we selectively tiptoed over (and sometimes into) piles of cow dung, one of two main “banks,” or income generators in Inner Mongolia (the other is wind power). Dried cow dung used to be the main source of fuel and heat for the chilly climate, and the amount of cow dung in a household is a measuring stick for diligence when it comes to a female candidate for marriage, as it demonstrates her ability to bring in fuel for the family.

The ubiquitous milk ads and sheer roadside cattle count point to beef and dairy production as agricultural mainstays. Upon arriving in Chifeng on the first day, we devoured a bowl of beef (meat, marrow, or joint) noodle soup. The small alley markets on Changqing Street offer a variety of fresh and pricey Mongolian beef jerky, sampled, weighed and wrapped on the spot. After sundown, the night market in Chifeng offers a smorgasbord of knick-knacks and necessities, from beef kebabs and toys to underwear and sheets, stretching many blocks. (Chifeng is the Chinese name for the city Mongolians call Ulanhad; both mean “Red Mountain,” a reference to the mountain that abuts the city.)

Sensitive palates may not love the distinct gaminess of the local beef, so some visitors may prefer Mongolian lamb, which is known for its excellent flavor. Some say it’s the quality of the air and grass, while others point to the traditional slaughtering method. In light of the Mongols’ emphasis on an animal’s spirit, rather than slitting the throat and waiting for the animal to bleed to death, the nomad reaches inside the animal and snaps the spine, a technique that is said to kill the creature in 30 seconds. The meat comes out tender and flavorful enough that it needs no sauce or spice. Lamb-eating used to be a mark of aristocracy, unaffordable among ordinary nomads. The price of a fresh whole lamb is still hefty today, and nomads say they don’t eat it too often.

Something else for visitors to experience in the region is the Arshihaty granite forest in the Hexigten Global Geopark. Temperatures plummet on the windy mountaintop, where chilly visitors will find vendors renting much-needed green military jackets reminiscent of the Red Army’s Lenin coat. The Arshihaty boasts wide views of rocky green mountains and natural stone columns molded by the wind into shapes of eagles, snakes, warriors, warrior’s beds, turtles and castles — sure to inspire your imagination on the drive back.

___

If You Go…

INNER MONGOLIA: Two English-language websites offering information about tour groups and companies in Inner Mongolia are http://bit.ly/auvu0E and http://bit.ly/d3tQwP. Some of the best trip-planning websites are in Chinese; automated online translation services like Google Translator may be able to help you navigate them: http://bit.ly/amQHkG and http://bit.ly/9Ijjw6 and http://bit.ly/c6lXQC. For individual guides and drivers, try http://kaifeng.cncn.com/fuwu/74288147333 or http://huhehaote.cncn.com/fuwu/7310114376.

GETTING THERE: Train trips from Beijing to Chifeng take anywhere from six to 10 hours. The cheapest, slowest train costs about $19 (124 yuan). To go from Chifeng to the grasslands, most visitors hire a driver or join a tour. Drivers run about $30 (200 yuan) a day.

ACCOMMODATIONS: A tourist yurt costs $7.50-$30 (50-200 yuan) nightly, depending on the time of year, with June-August more expensive then other months. If you can find a real nomad to host you, the cost might run $7.50-$15 (50-100 yuan).

HEXIGTEN GLOBAL GEOPARK: http://www.globalgeopark.org/publish/portal1/tab133/info270.htm

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Today Mongolian nomads on motorcycles not horses (AP)

AC hopes `Boardwalk Empire' brings the tourists (AP)

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – What “The Sopranos” did for a pork store in northern New Jersey and “Sex and the City” did for a Manhattan cupcake shop, Atlantic City is hoping “Boardwalk Empire” does for the seaside gambling resort.

Nothing is too trivial to become a tourist trap as long as it appears in a hit TV show. “Sopranos” fans packed tour buses to visit spots like the pork store and a strip club, and girls-night-out devotees planned trips around watering holes and shoe stores featured in “Sex and the City.”

Now, with “Boardwalk Empire,” the HBO series set in Prohibition-era Atlantic City, the resort is ready for its close-up. And with critics hailing the series as perhaps the best of the fall TV season, the 12-episode series could keep Atlantic City in the nation’s consciousness far longer and better than any ad could.

“It’s an hour-long commercial for Atlantic City, top-of-the mind awareness,” said Don Marrandino, eastern regional president of Harrah’s Entertainment Inc., which owns four of Atlantic City’s 11 casinos. “People will want to come here and see it for themselves, and we need to take full advantage of that.”

The attention comes not a moment too soon for the nation’s second-largest gambling resort. Atlantic City is in the fourth straight year of a revenue decline brought on by competition from casinos in neighboring states, as well as a continuing poor economy that has people less willing to risk their cash at the tables and slot machines.

Its revenues, after hitting a high of $5.2 billion in 2006, fell to $3.9 billion by the end of last year and nearly 9,000 casino workers have lost their jobs since then.

Two casinos were sold this year for pennies on the dollar, and a third is widely believed to be in danger of closing, having stopped making mortgage payments more than a year ago.

In this context, the free publicity from a smash hit TV show is a godsend. Jeff Vasser, president of the Atlantic City Convention & Visitors Authority, says the resort has a golden opportunity to cash in.

“I don’t think HBO can do anything more than it already has done to promote this show, so there will be no excuse for us to say, `If only they had done this or that,’ ” he said.

The show centers on the exploits of Enoch “Nucky” Thompson, the Steve Buscemi character based on the real-life Enoch “Nucky” Johnson, Atlantic City’s political and rackets boss during Prohibition.

For 30 years, until he was finally sent to prison in 1941 for tax evasion, Johnson dominated Atlantic City — then one of the nation’s leading resorts. He controlled not only the Republican political machine that had a stranglehold on government, but also made sure illegal liquor, prostitution and gambling operations flourished under the protection of paid-off officials.

The show’s first episode, which aired last Sunday, introduces us to Nucky and his network of vice as he cements alliances with organized crime to make sure that Atlantic City stayed wet while the rest of the nation was officially dry. But it also showed his compassionate side, handling out cash to down-and-out families whose political loyalties were then secured for years.

In the spirit of Nucky Johnson, Atlantic City is trying to wring every last dollar out of the show with a slew of 1920s-themed promotions. Nearly 30 restaurants are offering are offering two or three-course meals priced at $19.20. Caesars Atlantic City is offering 1,920 hotel rooms for $19.20 a night. Bars are whipping up whiskey-laced “Boardwalk Empire” cocktails like “The Nucky” (whiskey, grapefruit juice, tonic water and grenadine over ice, topped by an orange wedge), and “The Boardwalk Boss” (whiskey, wet vermouth and apple brandy with a lemon peel garnish). A full list of what’s available where is at http://www.atlanticcitynj.com under the heading “take the Empire restaurant tour.”

For that same $19.20, Resorts Atlantic City offers hot lather straight-razor shaves just like the one Nucky enjoys in the show.

Harrah’s and Canadian Club whiskey (featured in the show) are sending marketing e-mails to their 40-million-member marketing list. Even Bloomingdale’s has a mock 115-foot boardwalk promoting the show at its flagship Manhattan store.

The main problem with getting fans of the show to come to Atlantic City is that “Boardwalk Empire” was actually shot on a fabricated set in New York City, with the ocean added in via computer graphics. And aside from Boardwalk Hall and a tiny handful of old hotels, not much from Nucky’s era has survived along the real-life Boardwalk.

The Fralinger’s salt water taffy sign, a local landmark, was shown in the first episode. Vasser hopes other present-day Atlantic City icons also will be featured, so they can be included into marketing efforts. One idea is a Prohibition Tour of local sites in Atlantic City that figured prominently in the illegal liquor trade of Nucky’s day.

Pinky Kravitz, a local radio show host and tireless promoter of Atlantic City, suggests recreating the show’s set on the actual Boardwalk.

“That will give people something to visit, where they can have their pictures taken and make them feel connected not only to the show but to Atlantic City,” he said.

But because Nucky is no longer handing out fistfuls of $100 bills, someone would have to pay for it.

“Pinky’s idea is a good one,” Vasser said, “and he wants HBO to pay for it, which makes it a great one.”

Tobe Becker, an HBO spokeswoman, said the network “will consider any and all ideas” to promote the show, but said it is too early to say whether Kravitz’s suggestion is practical.

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AC hopes `Boardwalk Empire’ brings the tourists (AP)

Anyone for a picnic at the old cemetery? (AP)

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Atop an oak-shaded hill at Mount Hope Cemetery, an epitaph chiseled in Latin on Col. Nathaniel Rochester’s headstone whispers on the wind: “If you seek his monument, look around you.”

Mount Hope, America’s oldest municipal park-garden graveyard, is a refuge not only for the departed. Curious souls still tramp through the 196-acre arboretum by the tens of thousands each year, among them picnickers, bird watchers, joggers and history buffs.

In the Romantic era of Wordsworth and Beethoven, the Victorian vogue of mourning embraced a love of nature and artistry. So-called “rural cemeteries” a few miles out of town were a sublime departure from the austere colonial churchyards with morbid funerary where the dead typically ended up.

Some 200 were established in the three decades before the Civil War, beginning with Mount Auburn near Boston in 1831. They’re invariably hemmed in now by urban sprawl, forerunners of large-scale city parks and the grid-pattern cemeteries that predominate to this day.

Carved out of wilderness on New York’s western frontier in 1838, Mount Hope’s heavily wooded Old Grounds are a jumble of glacier-carved ridges, ravines and meadows.

Cobbled carriage paths twist and tumble past Greek-style mausoleums, a Florentine fountain and a Gothic Revival chapel, stone terraces fringed with wildflowers, and ornate bronze, marble and granite sculptures of pet dogs, winged angels and Celtic crosses.

And don’t forget the permanent residents — 350,000 at last count, and growing by 300 or so each year.

Among the best-known: Civil rights crusader Frederick Douglass, suffragist Susan B. Anthony, anthropology pioneer Lewis Henry Morgan, and William Warfield, fondly eulogized in 2002 for his gravelly rendition of “Ol’ Man River” in the musical “Show Boat.”

Around every curve lie tales of heroism, ingenuity, intrigue and tragedy: A dentist, Josephus Requa, who invented the first machine gun; Gen. George Washington’s drummer boy; an Arctic explorer with the U.S. Army forced to resort to cannibalism; George Selden, creator of the first gasoline-powered automobile.

Regular visitors and newcomers alike are drawn in by Mount Hope’s topography, architecture, personalized ornamentation and fabled denizens. Perhaps above all, they treasure the almost mystical hush.

“I look at the beauty, the architecture and the stones and I remember all those buried here that made the city — made history what it is — as people,” said Joyce Wiedrich, 58, a nurse who gets a daily glimpse of Mount Hope from a nearby hospital and loves rambling the grounds on fall weekends. “I don’t get morose or just think of death when I come here. I think of the life that surrounds this place.”

Consecrated a year into Queen Victoria’s reign, Mount Hope began as a 54-acre cemetery 1 1/2 miles from downtown, where overburdened burial grounds were proving a health hazard and an obstacle to expansion. Today, bustling neighborhoods and the University of Rochester campus press all along its perimeter in this city of 208,000 on Lake Ontario’s southern shore.

Under towering oaks 200 to 300 years old, the heart of Mount Hope “is maybe the only place in Rochester that still looks like the 19th century,” said Dennis Carr, a college library researcher. “It brings history alive — a paradox in a cemetery — but you feel connected to great events and people who did great things.”

The Rochesterville settlement Col. Rochester established along the Genesee River gorge in 1811 was already a boom town when he died in 1831. Twenty years later, a Main Street burial ground had to make way for the city’s first hospital and his body was moved to its serene perch on Rochester Hill.

When the leaves have fallen, allowing glimpses of the city, cemetery aficionados gather at the city founder’s large family plot. “We put our cheese and crackers on top of the tombstones, drink wine and have a nice time,” said Oregon-born author Richard Reisem.

Mount Hope served as Reisem’s local park when he took a job as a Kodak speechwriter. “I had never seen anything like it in my life — it was just astounding!” said Reisem, 80, one of whose books, “Buried Treasures in Mount Hope Cemetery,” is a field guide with 500 mini-biographies of his favorite inhabitants.

Carr, who with Reisem has led guided walking tours at Mount Hope since the 1970s, spotted Kurt Vonnegut on a 1994 pilgrimage to honor fellow POW Edward Crone Jr., the role model for Billy Pilgrim in “Slaughterhouse Five.” Vonnegut later wrote that “he didn’t feel the Second World War had ended for him until he had come here and visited the grave of his friend,” Carr said.

The rural cemetery movement, which sprouted at Pere LaChaise near Paris in 1804, spread to England before crossing the Atlantic.

Four private rural cemeteries — Mount Auburn in Cambridge, Mass., Laurel Hill in Philadelphia, Green-Wood in Brooklyn and Spring Grove in Cincinnati — are national historic landmarks. Within the next year, Mount Hope will try to claim that top-tier designation as a rare rural cemetery run by a municipality.

That cemetery model — selectively planted and pruned but meant to look as if it spontaneously arose from nature — mirrored the spirit of the times, a new Age of Romanticism.

“You’ve moved from the colonial-era Protestant idea of predestination,” where cemeteries are grim and neglected, to “a much more optimistic view of the afterlife” reflected in loved ones being laid to rest in lilac groves under simple limestone tablets adorned with Scripture or soulful verse, Carr said.

Mount Hope’s public ownership made it a striking example of cemeteries suited to a more egalitarian age, opening its gates to all religions, races and social classes. Lot holders had free rein over the design and appearance of the individual gravesites.

As the industrial economy took hold after the Civil War, cemetery layouts were turned over to professional superintendents and the free-for-all approach began to be seen as garish and disorganized. The centrally managed landscape-lawn model was popularized by Adolph Strauch at Spring Grove.

“He got rid of private-lot fencing, all the extraneous visualization like cast-iron animals, wire benches and trellises,” said the 733-acre Cincinnati cemetery’s historian, Phil Nuxhall. “Can you have any type of monument or flora on a private family lot here? The answer is no. It has to be harmonious with the surroundings.”

In recent times, rural cemeteries have come full circle in capturing the public’s imagination.

“They start out as contemplative places to honor the dead and equally as parklike spaces that could be accessed by any level of society,” Carr said. While that cemetery style faded away — “they were looked upon sometimes as a waste of space” — they’ve benefited from a newfound appreciation for conserving the past.

“Maybe 30 to 40 years old,” Carr said, “people started to look at them as cultural resources akin to a museum. They’re a constant in a constantly changing world.”

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If You Go…

MOUNT HOPE CEMETERY: 1133 Mount Hope Ave., Rochester, N.Y., http://bit.ly/axstBe

MOUNT AUBURN CEMETERY: 580 Mount Auburn St., Cambridge, Mass., http://www.mountauburn.org/

LAUREL HILL CEMETERY: 3822 Ridge Ave., Philadelphia, http://www.thelaurelhillcemetery.org

GREEN-WOOD CEMETERY: 500 25th St., Brooklyn, N.Y., http://www.green-wood.com/

SPRING GROVE CEMETERY: 4521 Spring Grove Ave., Cincinnati; http://www.springgrove.org

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Anyone for a picnic at the old cemetery? (AP)