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Ugly (Sugababes song)

2005 single by Sugababes

"Ugly" is a song by British girl group Sugababes from their fourth studio album, Taller in More Ways (2005). Written and produced by Dallas Austin, inspiration for the song was conceptualised in the midst of reading negative comments about members of the band. The song released on 5 December 2005 in the United Kingdom as the second single from the album. "Ugly" is a midtempo pop rock and R&B ballad that contains lyrics about personality and body-image issues. It received comparisons to "Unpretty" by girl group TLC and "Beautiful" by Christina Aguilera. Ugly is the band's final single released under the second line up of Sugababes, after original member Mutya Buena departed the group on 21 December 2005. "Ugly" garnered positive reviews from music critics, many of whom praised the emotional and empowering concept behind it. The song peaked at number three on the UK Singles Chart. It achieved international commercial success, where it reached the top five in Denmark and New Zealand, and the top-ten the Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, the Netherlands and Norway. The song's accompanying music video is set in a warehouse in New York City, and features people of different ages and races showcasing their talents. The Sugababes have performed the song at the V Festival in both 2006 and 2008, and at the Indig02 in London, all of which received positive reviews from critics. "Ugly" has been used in schools within Wales to promote diversity and eliminate prejudice. ## Background and development "Ugly" was written and produced by Dallas Austin for the Sugababes' fourth studio album, Taller in More Ways. Paul Sheehy, Doug Harms, Graham Marsh and Ian Rossiter served as the assistant recording engineers for the song. "Ugly" was mixed by Jeremy Wheatley for 365 Artists at TwentyOne Studio, London. Tony Reyes provided the accompanying guitar and bass guitar for the track, while the drums and keys were provided by Austin. "Ugly" was recorded at DARP Studios, at Atlanta & Home Recordings, London. During an interview with Jess Cartner-Morley of The Guardian, the Sugababes revealed that Austin wrote the song after reading "the cuttings file he was sent about the band". Keisha Buchanan, one of the group's members, elaborated upon this: "All the rubbish and nasty stuff that's been written about us, calling us the Sugalumps, that sort of thing." The title of the song's parent album, Taller in More Ways, was inspired by a line in "Ugly", which reads: "I grew taller than them in more ways / But there'll always be one who will say / Something bad to make them feel great". ## Composition and theme "Ugly" is a midtempo pop rock and R&B ballad that has a length of three minutes and fifty-three seconds. The song was composed in the key of C major using common time with a tempo of 117 beats per minute. The Sugababes' vocal range on the song span from the lower note of G₃ to the higher note of E₅. Instrumentation consists of a guitar, bass guitar, drums and keys. Nick Southall of Stylus Magazine noted that the song incorporates acoustic guitars "buoyed by peripheral detail". K. Ross Hoffman of Allmusic described "Ugly" as a "towering ballad" with romantic and body-image issues. The song received numerous comparisons to "Unpretty" by American girl group TLC, another track composed by Austin. Group member Heidi Range compared the song's lyrics to "Beautiful", a song performed by American recording artist Christina Aguilera. Harry Rubenstein of The Jerusalem Post also noted that the song is reminiscent of both "Unpretty" and "Beautiful". The lyrical content makes reference to feeling ugly from having different eyes and hair, in addition to being shorter than other people. ## Release and response "Ugly" was released as a CD single in the United Kingdom on 5 December 2005, containing the radio edit of the song, and "Come Together". The extended play version of "Ugly" was released on the same day and contains the album version of the song, a B-side titled "Future Shokk!", a Desert Eagle Discs remix, and a Suga Shaker Vocal Mix. On 9 December 2005, "Ugly" was released as a CD single in Germany, which contains the same tracks on the extended play release, in addition to the single's music video. In Australia, Island Records released the song as a CD single on 16 January 2006. "Ugly" garnered generally positive reviews from music critics. Phil Udell of Hot Press regarded it as a "classy, catchy pop tune with a human heart". Peter Robinson of The Observer felt that the track was one of the album's standouts, stating that it "immediately hits on the Sugababes' core values", which according to him are "cool, but so unswervingly radio-friendly that it would hardly be out of place as this year's Children in Need single". Talia Kraines of BBC described "Ugly" as a "ballad full of true Sugababes attitude". K. Ross Hoffman of AllMusic considered the track as an "aptly pitched inspirational mini-epic", and a writer for The Liverpool Daily Post & Echo characterised it as an "empowering anthem". Nick Southall of Stylus Magazine called it "vastly superior self-help pop" and "lovingly produced". However, Ben Hogwood of musicOMH thought the song was unconvincing, while Alex Roginski of Sydney Morning Herald criticized the songwriting as "flat". ## Chart performance "Ugly" entered the UK Singles Chart at number three on 11 December 2005 ― for the week ending dated 17 December 2005 ― with sales of 21,107, becoming the Sugababes' second consecutive top-three single. The song spent four weeks in the chart's top-ten and 15 weeks on the chart overall. "Ugly" has sold 170,000 copies in the UK and ranks as the group's seventh best-selling single in the country. "Ugly" debuted and peaked at number seven on the Irish Singles Chart, becoming the Sugababes' second consecutive top-ten single in Ireland. The song peaked at number four in Denmark, becoming the Sugababes' fourth top-five single in the country. "Ugly" also reached number seven in Hungary and the Netherlands, earning the Sugababes their second consecutive top-ten single in both countries. "Ugly" also became a commercial success in many other European countries. The single number eight in the Czech Republic and Finland, and number nine in Norway. In Belgium, the song reached numbers eight and 13 on the Wallonia Ultratip and Flanders Ultratop charts, respectively. "Ugly" attained top-twenty positions in Austria, Sweden and Switzerland; it charted at number 26 in Germany and number 68 in Slovakia. "Ugly" also achieved success outside of Europe. In New Zealand, it entered the chart at number seven and peaked at number five two weeks later, becoming the Sugababes' second consecutive top-five single in the country. It remained in the chart for 16 weeks. In Australia, "Ugly" debuted at number 16 and peaked at number 13 on its fourth week on the chart, becoming their second-best performing single in the country. ## Music video The accompanying music video for "Ugly" was directed by Toby Tremlett and filmed on 1 November 2005. It is set in a warehouse in New York City that is used for people who are taking part in an audition. It begins with a yellow taxi driving on a New York City road with apartment complexes. As the song begins, Buena sings her verse while looking into a mirror, and other people in the warehouse begin to hold up signs of the song's lyrics. During the chorus, they begin to showcase their talents such as dancing and juggling. Buchanan's chorus features her sitting on a staircase; during this part, a child holds up a sign reading "short" while a woman carries a sign saying "loneliness". As Range sings the bridge, she is leaning on a wall in the warehouse while more people begin dancing. When Sugababes sing the chorus again, they dance with the people who also begin to show other talents, including instrumentation and magic tricks. As the video ends, a row of people hold up signs containing one word from the song's lyrics, "people are all the same", and then another message "don't be afraid to be you", with Buchanan, Buena and Range holding each letter of the last word. ## Live performances and school usage Sugababes performed "Ugly" at the V Festival in 2006 as part of a set list, which included "Hole in the Head", "Red Dress" and "Push the Button". In 2008, they performed the song at the same event in the JJB Champion Arena, as part of a set list which included Push the Button and About You Now. The performance received positive reviews, with a reviewer from MTV UK calling it "a highlight of our festival in the JJB Arena". In August 2007, former group member Mutya Buena, who left the band shortly following the single's release, performed the song at the V Festival in Chelmsford. On 18 September 2007, Sugababes performed an acoustic version of "Ugly" at the Indig02 as part of a set list, which included such songs as "Freak Like Me", "Round Round", "In the Middle", "Red Dress" and "Too Lost In You". Nick Levine of Digital Spy felt the performance "proves that no member's a slacker in the trilling department". In March 2006, it was announced by The Commission for Racial Equality Croeso initiative that the Sugababes would take part in supporting diversity and opposing injustice in Wales. The group allowed all schools located in Wales to use "Ugly" as part of an assembly, in which the schools can use the same resources provided by the Croeso initiative. ## Track listings and formats - CD single 1. "Ugly" (Radio Edit) - 3:02 2. "Come Together" - 3:52 - CD maxi 1. "Ugly" (Album Version) - 3:50 2. "Future Shokk!" - 4:05 3. "Ugly" (The Desert Eagle Discs Remix) - 4:13 4. "Ugly" (Suga Shaker Vocal Mix) - 5:42 ## Credits and personnel - Songwriting – Dallas Austin - Production – Dallas Austin - Mixing – Jeremy Wheatley, Richard Edgeler - Steve Barney - drums on "Come Together" (track 2) - Engineering – Rick Sheppard - Engineering (assistant recording) – Doug Harms, Graham Marsh (producer), Ian Rossiter, Paul Sheehy Guitar - Instruments – Dallas Austin, Tony Reyes ## Charts ### Weekly charts ### Year-end charts ## Certifications ## Release history

Norman Yardley

English cricketer

Norman Walter Dransfield Yardley (19 March 1915 – 3 October 1989) was an English cricketer who played for Cambridge University, Yorkshire County Cricket Club and England, as a right-handed batsman and occasional bowler. An amateur, he captained Yorkshire from 1948 to 1955 and England on fourteen occasions between 1947 and 1950, winning four Tests, losing seven and drawing three. Yardley was named Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1948 and in his obituary in Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, he was described as Yorkshire's finest amateur since Stanley Jackson. Yardley played schoolboy cricket at St Peter's, York. A highly talented all-round sportsman, he went to St John's College, Cambridge, and won Blues at cricket, squash, Rugby fives and field hockey. In the university matches, he scored 90 in his second year, 101 in his third and was captain for his final year. He made his Yorkshire debut in 1936 and played for the county until 1955, when he retired as a player. He made his Test match debut against South Africa in 1939 and after the Second World War was chosen as vice-captain to Wally Hammond on the 1946—47 tour of Australia where he captained England in the fifth Test. He followed Hammond as skipper in 1947, and captained England intermittently until 1950 when his business commitments allowed. In 1948 he succeeded to the Yorkshire leadership when Brian Sellers resigned. Yardley remained in the position until 1955, during a time when Yorkshire had several difficult players in their dressing room. Under Yardley, Yorkshire were joint champions in 1949 but subsequently on a number of occasions, too often for the liking of supporters, finished second to Surrey in the County Championship. He served as a Test match selector between 1951 and 1954, acting as chairman of selectors in 1952. He was President of Yorkshire C.C.C. from 1981 to 1983, when he resigned after becoming involved in controversy over the decision to release Geoffrey Boycott in 1983. He died after a stroke in 1989. ## Early life Yardley was born in Royston, near Barnsley, on 19 March 1915 to a family with no real background in cricket. He was sent to St Peter's, York, where he made a good impression as a cricketer, being in the school team for five years from 1930 and captain in his final two years. In 1933, his first season in charge, he scored 973 runs at an average of 88.45, scoring three centuries in consecutive innings. He headed the bowling averages, with 40 wickets at 11.90 runs per wicket. His form that season saw him selected for the match between Young Amateurs and Young Professionals at Lord's Cricket Ground, in which Yardley scored 189 in his first representative match, playing against his future England team-mate Denis Compton. In 1934, Yardley played in two further representative matches at Lord's, for The Rest against Lord's Schools, and for Public Schools against The Army, making 117, the first century in the fixture for Public Schools, and 63. Wisden Cricketers' Almanack later cited these successes as a demonstration of his ability to perform well on important occasions. While still at school, he came to the attention of Yorkshire County Cricket Club, playing for the Yorkshire Colts side and receiving coaching from George Hirst. He played for Yorkshire Second XI once in 1932, twice in 1933 and twice in 1934. ## First-class cricketer ### University Cricketer Leaving St Peter's School, Yardley went to St John's College, Cambridge University, where he immediately began to show all-round ability at sports. He won the North of England Squash Championships every year between 1934 and 1939, and won his Blue in hockey, squash, and Rugby fives. However, his main distinction came from cricket, where he was a Blue in each his four years at Cambridge. He played for the University team in his first year, the 1935 season, making ten first-class appearances without much success. His Wisden obituary noted that "class rather than performance guaranteed his place." He made his first-class debut against Sussex, scoring a duck in his first innings and 24 runs in the second. He passed fifty on just one occasion that season, scoring 319 runs at an average of 16.78, and bowled 69 balls without taking a wicket. Nevertheless, he played in the University Match, scoring just 19 and 36. In the following season, Yardley improved considerably, becoming a dominant force in University Cricket according to Wisden. His maiden first-class century came in a narrow Cambridge victory over the Army, and he scored a second against Surrey, remaining not out for 116 in a total of 359. Bowling much more regularly, his maiden wickets in first-class cricket came in a performance of four wickets for 45 against Yorkshire, including the wicket of Len Hutton. Yardley topped the Cambridge batting averages and played an effective innings of 90 in the University Match. This display impressed Stanley Jackson, an influential former Yorkshire amateur cricketer, and he urged the Yorkshire selectors to include Yardley in the first team. Yardley was still appearing in the county second team at this stage, but at the end of August, he made his debut for the Yorkshire first eleven, appearing in the County Championship match against Derbyshire. He scored 12 in his only innings and took a wicket. He played in a further seven matches for Yorkshire, scoring 309 runs in ten innings with a highest score of 89 against Hampshire, with further fifties against Surrey and Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). In all first-class cricket that season, Yardley scored 1,017 runs at an average of 37.66 and took 12 wickets at an average of 26.08. Yardley continued to make progress in his batting in 1937. For Cambridge, he scored fifties against the Army and Surrey. Against Hampshire he took four for 47 and five for 41, and when Cambridge collapsed to 35 for six chasing a victory target of 141, he scored 64 not out to take the side to a win. Playing Sussex, he scored a century and took four for 36, while in the University match, he scored 101 in two and a half hours. Yardley's form saw him selected for the Gentlemen against the Players at Lord's, although he scored only 7 and 4, and when he joined Yorkshire after the Cambridge season, he made his first century for the county against Surrey, as well as three other fifties. His overall first-class figures were 1,472 runs at an average of 33.45 and 31 wickets at an average of 21.87. He was picked for the winter MCC tour of India, under the captaincy of Lord Tennyson, where he scored 519 runs at an average 25.95 but only took one wicket. No official Tests were played on the tour, but Yardley played in the representative matches which took place, scoring 96 in the first game, but his highest score in four other innings was 31. Honours continued to come Yardley's way in the 1938 season. He was chosen to captain Cambridge in his final season in the team; although his side did not win a match, Yardley enjoyed some personal success. Among his fifties were innings of 67 against the touring Australian team and 61 in the University Match. He was included in different representative sides; he was selected in a Test trial, playing for the Rest, and played a second game against the Australians for the Gentlemen of England, although he did not pass fifty in either match. For the Gentlemen against the Players, Yardley scored 88. He did not make the full England side but was twelfth man in two Tests against Australia. His highest innings of the season was 97 for Yorkshire against Gloucestershire, and in all first-class matches, Yardley accumulated 1,217 runs at an average of 31.20 and took 22 wickets at 35.45. ### Test debut and war service By this stage, Yorkshire regarded Yardley as the heir to Brian Sellers as captain, and the England Test selectors also began to prepare him to assume the England captaincy. At the end of the 1938 season, Yardley was chosen to tour South Africa with MCC as vice-captain to Wally Hammond. He made a good start to the tour, scoring centuries in his first two innings, both surpassing his previous highest score. Wisden noted that he made a good impression on spectators in these early matches. In his fourth match, he captained the MCC in Hammond's absence for the first time. When Len Hutton was injured in a tour match and missed the first Test, Yardey made his debut but scored just seven runs in a total of 422 and did not bat in the second innings. Hutton returned for the second match, and the successes of other batsmen meant that Yardley was not required in the other Tests on the tour. However, he scored a third century when he captained the MCC against Border. Having built up a reputation as one of the best amateur cricketers in England, Yardley played three early season matches for the MCC, but he was selected for neither the Gentlemen nor for England that year. He played his first full season for Yorkshire, scoring centuries against Cambridge, Warwickshire and Sussex; in total, he scored 1,086 runs at an average of 27.84 and took 17 wickets. War brought first-class cricket to an end in 1939, and Yardley joined the first battalion of the Green Howards, along with his Yorkshire team-mate Hedley Verity. After training in Omagh, Northern Ireland, where he played several cricket matches with Verity, he served in India, Iran, Syria, Egypt, Sicily, Italy and Iraq. In January 1944, he was wounded in Italy, rejoining the First Battalion in Iraq on his recovery to become an instructor, before being demobilised at the end of the war. ## Career after the war ### Tour to Australia in 1946–47 When County cricket resumed in England in 1946, Yorkshire won the County Championship. Yardley scored 788 runs at an average of 23.17, with just one century, for Yorkshire against Nottinghamshire. With the ball, he was used less frequently than before the war and took only nine wickets. He was not selected for any Test matches, but appeared for England in a Test trial and scored 39 and 11. He also played twice for the MCC and represented the Gentlemen against the Players, making 29 and a duck in a heavy defeat for the amateurs. Critics regarded his season as unsuccessful, but he was chosen as vice-captain to Hammond on the tour to Australia that winter, continuing his pre-war role. It was intended that Yardley would appear lower down in the batting order, batting with a substantial total accumulated by the previous batsmen. However, the frailties of the England batting meant he often appeared in a crisis and had to rebuild several innings. Bill Bowes, the Yorkshire and England bowler who covered the tour as a journalist, was impressed by Yardley's approach, noting that he did not back away from the fast bowlers, who frequently bowled bouncers at him: "In fact, Yardley played cricket with a determination we had never seen in Yorkshire or in his days at the university." He made the greatest impression as a bowler, surprising commentators with his effectiveness. He did not bowl in the first six matches, but in his first over of the tour dismissed Arthur Morris who had already scored a century. From that point, he was used effectively to break up partnerships. In the Tests, he removed Donald Bradman in three successive innings, while in the third Test, he took two wickets, including Bradman, in two deliveries. Bowes believed the natural length of Yardley's bowling was perfect for Australian pitches—he was not skilful enough to alter the length at which he bowled so his bowling in other conditions was less effective. The Australian reporter Clif Cary wrote "It was always amusing to watch the Englishmen when Yardley took a wicket. The first time they seemed fairly amused, but when he was regularly breaking partnerships, their enthusiasm knew no bounds, and it is said that in Melbourne after he had obtained Bradman's wicket for the third time, Yardley blushed profusely when one excited team-mate slapped him on the back and shouted "Well, bowled, Spofforth". In the Tests, Yardley's only scores over fifty, his first in Test cricket, came in the third Test, where he scored 61 and 53 not out. In England's first innings, he helped his side to recover from a batting collapse, surviving for two hours. His second innings lasted 89 minutes and helped England to avoid defeat for the first time in the series. In the same match, Yardley bowled more overs than he had done previously on the whole tour, following injuries to Bill Voce and Bill Edrich, two of England's main bowlers. Bowling leg theory with a fielders concentrated on the leg side, Yardley managed to move the ball off the seam. He dismissed Bradman twice in the match, having figures of three for 67 in the second innings and taking five wickets in the match. This was the first time that an England player had scored fifty runs in both innings and taken five wickets in a Test. Yardley also had substantial bowling workload in the fourth Test, delivering 31 overs in Australia's first innings to take three for 101. When Hammond did not play in the final Test, Yardley became captain, doing so courageously according to Wisden, which also pointed out that Yardley used field placing more effectively than Hammond. In the series, Yardley scored 252 runs at an average of 32.50, His ten wickets at an average of 37.20 placed him first in the series bowling averages. He played in the drawn Test on the short tour to New Zealand which followed, opening the batting scoring 22 and taking a wicket. ### England captain Yardley enjoyed his most successful season with the bat in the 1947 season, scoring 1,906 runs at an average of 44.32 with five centuries; his bowling took eleven wickets. Following Hammond's retirement immediately after the 1946–47 tour, Yardley captained England against South Africa throughout the season. In the first Test, he made his highest Test score. England were unexpectedly made to follow on in the face of a large South African total; when Yardley came to the crease in the second innings, England looked likely to be defeated at 170 for four, still 155 runs behind the tourists. Yardley scored 99, being caught in the slips just before reaching his century, but his batting had helped to save the game and earned praise from Wisden for "batting soundly".He eventually became the first test captain to be dismissed for 99 in a test innings Yardley and Denis Compton added 237, which was a record partnership for the fifth wicket in England and remains, in August 2010, England's best fifth wicket stand against South Africa. Yardley's only other score over fifty in the series came in the drawn fifth Test when he scored 59. However, he scored 41 in just over an hour in helpful conditions for fast bowlers in the third Test and 36 on a difficult pitch in the fourth Test. Yardley scored 273 runs at an average of 39.00 in the series. In contrast to his efforts in Australia, he bowled just six overs in the series without taking a wicket. England won the second, third and fourth Tests to win the series, helped by a negative approach from the tourists. Yardley captained the Gentlemen against the Players for the first time, at Lord's and Scarborough, and captained The Rest against Middlesex, the County Champions. His batting and captaincy in the season earned him selection as one of Wisden's Cricketers of the Year. ### Playing the Invincibles Following Brian Sellers resignation, Yardley was appointed Yorkshire captain at the start of the 1948 season. With his England commitments and other absences, he only played in 12 County Championship matches. He had not toured the West Indies with MCC in 1947–48, when Gubby Allen captained the side. However, Yardley resumed his leadership of England when Australia, captained by Bradman, toured the country without losing a match. Yardley led the MCC in an early match against the tourists, and captained England in a Test trial, but only played three other games, all for Yorkshire, before the first Test, with a top score of 46. In the first Test, England were bowled out for 165 after Yardley won the toss and batted in difficult conditions. Wisden did not blame Yardley for the collapse as England did not bat well. He then set defensive fields to keep down Australia's scoring rate, taking a wicket himself with his fourth ball as part of figures of two for 32. The Australian batsmen found it difficult to score quickly against the negative tactics but still established a lead of 344. Yardley batted an hour in the second innings to score 22 but Australia recorded an eight wicket win. Before the second Test, Yardley played for Yorkshire against the Australians, and although unsuccessful with the bat, took two for nine with the ball, his first wickets of the season for his county. England adopted an aggressive strategy in the second Test, but could not avoid a second defeat. Yardley frequently changed his bowlers to unsettle the Australians in their first innings, and took two for 35 himself as England briefly held the advantage. However, the lower order batsmen mounted a recovery, Yardley being criticised for his reluctance to bowl Doug Wright. The England captain then arrested a batting collapse by adding 87 with Denis Compton, scoring 44 himself, but Australia led by 135 on first innings. Yardley took two wickets in two balls in Australia's second innings, narrowly missing a hat-trick when Keith Miller only just got his bat down on the ball to avoid being bowled, and had figures of two for 36, but Australia scored 460 for seven and bowled England out for 186. In between Tests, Yardley scored his only century of the season, but his contributions to the third Test were minimal. He scored 22 and bowled four wicketless overs. However, the home side fought back in the match, for which Len Hutton was dropped. England scored 363 and bowled out Australia for 221. They scored 174 for three before declaring, but rain intervened to prevent Yardley pushing for a win. England maintained their newly confident approach, being on top for most of the fourth Test. Yardley's men scored 496 and achieved a first innings lead of 38, Yardley contributing two wickets. England increased their lead by 365 before Yardley declared. He kept the team batting for five minutes on the last day, allowing him to use the heavy roller to quicken the break-up of the pitch. Australia had to score 404 in 345 minutes, a target considered unlikely as such a large total had never been made to win a Test match. In addition, the pitch was difficult to bat on by now and the spinners could turn the ball sharply. However, England made several errors: Godfrey Evans, the England wicket-keeper had a bad day and missed some stumping chances; three catches were dropped by fielders, and England's only specialist spinner, Jim Laker, bowled poorly. Consequently, Yardley was forced to use Denis Compton's bowling. Compton was not a specialist bowler and although he caused problems for the batsmen, Bill Bowes believed the selectors were mistaken in expecting him to be as effective as a front line spinner. Yardley seemed unsure of the best course of action as Bradman and Arthur Morris added 301 runs for the second wicket; he resorted to using the very occasional leg spin of Hutton, who was hit for 30 runs in four overs, although Yardley himself dropped a catch from Hutton's bowling. The pitch conditions were unfavourable for the faster bowlers, but the ineffectiveness of the spinners forced Yardley to take the new ball. Australia won by seven wickets; the spectators were unhappy with the inadequate English bowling and the absence of a suitable bowler to exploit the pitch on the last day. Bowes later criticised Yardley for allowing Australia to score quickly enough to win; he believed that Yardley used Hutton's bowling to encourage the tourists to take risks against lesser bowling to keep up with required rate of scoring, but he miscalculated in using such bowling for too long. Wisden also stated that England should have won the match. Around this time, and particularly after the fourth Test defeat, critics suggested that Walter Robins, one of the selectors, should captain England to bring a more attacking approach to the job. However, Robins' age counted against him; the selectors were satisfied with Yardley's captaincy in what were difficult circumstances, and retained him for the final Test. In that match, he failed twice with the bat, scoring 7 and 9 as England were humiliated, bowled out for 52 and 188 to lose by an innings. England lost the series 4–0. Yardley managed 150 runs at an average of 16.66, not passing fifty in a single innings. However, he once again topped the England bowling averages, taking nine wickets at an average of 22.66. Bowes believed that the pressure of captaincy had affected Yardley's batting. Bowes also cast doubt on Yardley's future, stating that other commitments may have prevented his continuing to play cricket much longer. Yardley's only other representative appearance in 1948 was as captain of the Gentlemen against the Players at Lords, where he scored 61. In the whole season, he scored 1,061 runs at an average of 29.47 and 14 wickets at an average of 35.14—he took just five wickets outside of the Tests. ### Captain of Yorkshire Yardley was unavailable to captain the MCC tour of South Africa in the winter of 1948–49, which was led by George Mann. Mann did well enough to retain the position for two Tests in the 1949 season; Freddie Brown captained the other two and Yardley did not play for England that year. In all first-class matches that season, he scored 1,612 runs at an average of 37.48 and took 22 wickets at an average of 33.86. He did not score a century in the County Championship, but passed three figures for Yorkshire against the New Zealand touring team and for the North against the South in a festival match. His only representative game outside of festival matches was for the Gentlemen against the Players at Lord's; Mann was appointed captain for the game. That season, Yorkshire shared the County Championship with Middlesex, the only time Yorkshire won the competition during Yardley's leadership. Yardley's batting form dipped in the 1950 season. He scored 1,082 runs at an average of 24.59, the final time he reached four figures in a season. With the ball he took 19 wickets at an average of 32.10. Yorkshire finished third in the County Championship behind joint winners Lancashire and Surrey. It took seven matches for Yardley to reach fifty runs in an innings, but he hit centuries against Surrey, Somerset and Scotland in the second half of the season. The West Indies toured England and Yardley resumed the England captaincy; he also captained MCC against the tourists and England against The Rest in a Test trial. However, neither Yardley nor Mann, the two likeliest candidates, were able to accept the captaincy of the MCC side in Australia that winter. The selectors spent much of the season assessing other players. Although Yardley represented the Gentlemen against the Players, the side was led by Brown, who scored a century and was appointed captain of the touring side. Brown also assumed the captaincy of England for the final Test against West Indies and Yardley was left out of the team. In the three Tests he played, Yardley scored 108 runs at an average of 18.00 with a top score of 41. He won the first Test but lost the next two, West Indies' first Test wins in England; the final Test was also lost by Brown. Following this series, Yardley did not play any more Tests, although his name was mentioned as a potential captain in 1953 before Hutton was appointed as England's first professional captain of the twentieth century. At the time, Yardley was still considered the best amateur candidate. In 20 Tests, Yardley scored 812 runs at an average of 25.37 and four fifties. With the ball, he took 21 wickets at an average of 33.66. On the fourteen occasions he was captain, he won four times, lost seven and drew three. Yorkshire finished second in the County Championship to Warwickshire in the 1951 season and second to Surrey in the 1952 season. However, in following season, Yorkshire dropped to equal twelfth, their worst ever finish at that time. In the following two seasons, the team were again runners up, Surrey winning on both occasions. Yardley scored more than 850 runs in each season, but only managed two more centuries. These were 183 not out against Hampshire in 1951, the highest innings of his career, and an unbeaten score of exactly 100 against Gloucestershire in his final season. His batting average was generally between 24 and 31, except in 1953 when in matches in England he averaged 36.53. Yardley used himself as a bowler more often in 1951 and 1952, delivering more overs than any other time in his career in the latter year. He took 32 and 43 wickets respectively in each season, his highest two season totals, and taking five wickets in an innings on three occasions, having only done so twice before. However, he bowled less often during his final three seasons, with a subsequent drop in his tally of wickets. His only representative cricket, apart from annual matches at the Scarborough Festival for the Gentlemen against the Players and occasionally for T. N. Pearce's XI, was the Gentlemen v Players match at Lord's in 1954. Judgements were mixed on Yardley's performance as Yorkshire's captain. His record would have been considered good at any other county, but not by the standards set by previous Yorkshire sides. Critics felt that Yorkshire should have won the Championship with the players available. Contemporaries believed him to be the best captain in the country tactically, taking reasonable chances without too many risks and judging players strengths and weakness. Trevor Bailey, who played against him for Essex and under him for England, wrote that he thought him "an outstanding tactician and an expert on wicket behaviour. He was unquestionably one of the best captains I have ever played with or against. It has been said that he was too nice to lead Yorkshire, but I cannot think of anybody I have preferred playing under." Alan Gibson believed that unlike some county captains, Yardley was worth his place in the side on cricketing ability. However, he seemed unable to extract the best from his players. Jim Kilburn noted that he used orthodox tactics, even when a different approach was called for, while other critics believed that he was shocked by the attitude of some difficult players in the side. Neither Yardley nor Hutton, his senior professional, were disciplinarians in the dressing room and kept apart from others. Both were frequently absent, playing in representative matches. This may have inflamed the situation, leading to accusations that some players were out of control. Yardley disliked confrontation, and Ray Illingworth, who played under him, described him as too nice to stand up to his players. But Bob Appleyard, another of his former players, gives Yardley credit for recognising his potential and encouraging him to become a spinner, and believes that he and Hutton made a formidable pair of tacticians. Generally, he was popular with his players. Between 1951 and 1954, Yardley served as a Test selector, serving as chairman in 1952 at the time when Hutton was chosen as England captain. Following the 1955 season, aged 40 and increasingly bothered by lumbago, Yardley retired from the team. He ended his first-class career with 18,173 runs at an average of 31.17, and 279 wickets at an average of 30.48. Wisden later described him as "the finest Yorkshire amateur since F. S. Jackson". ## Style and technique Yardley had a good technique for batting. He possessed a fluent, attractive style, and his height allowed him to reach the ball and drive more comfortably than most. His best shots were on the leg side, using his strong wrists to turn the ball away when it was aimed towards his legs. Yardley performed best when his side was in difficulty, and he could play attacking or defensive innings depending on the situation. He bowled intelligently, leading to greater rewards than his gentle style led opponents to expect, but remained a reluctant bowler who was surprised by his own success. He was a good fielder in positions close to the batsmen. ## Career after cricket Yardley worked as a wine merchant outside cricket. After his retirement from playing he worked as a cricket journalist and served as an expert summariser on Test Match Special from 1956 until 1969, as well as in 1973. According to David Frith, the only time he was moved to express severe disapproval was when Brian Close was dismissed after a poor shot in the Fourth Test in 1961 at Old Trafford; this was part of a final-day England collapse that handed Australia the match and a 2–1 series win after the hosts had been on course for victory and the series lead. Trevor Bailey, who was a colleague in the commentary box for the later part of Yardley's time with Test Match Special, wrote: "I always considered Norman Yardley to be an ideal summariser: accurate, informative and very sensible, and able to explain not only what happened but also the reasons why. His knowledge about pitches, tactics and the technicalities of the game was exceptional... Articulate, expert, and possessing considerable charge [sic], I thought his interpretation of events on the field and his post-session summaries were sound, balanced and never less than fair." He served on the Yorkshire Cricket Committee, and from 1981, he was Yorkshire President. However, he became involved in the controversy surrounding Geoffrey Boycott, to whom the committee had decided not to give a new contract. Yardley resigned early in 1984 after a vote of no confidence, dismayed by the attitude of Boycott's supporters. Anthony Woodhouse wrote in his history of Yorkshire: "he conducted affairs in a fair and unbiased manner. Alas, he should never have been burdened with the politics of Yorkshire cricket in the 1980s." He died at Lodge Moor, Sheffield on 3 October 1989 following a stroke.

B'Day

2006 studio album by Beyoncé

B'Day is the second studio album by American singer Beyoncé. It was released on September 1, 2006, by Columbia Records, Music World Entertainment and Sony Urban Music. Originally set to be released in 2004, B'Day was planned as a follow-up to Beyoncé's solo debut Dangerously in Love (2003); however, it was delayed to accommodate the recording of Destiny's Child's final studio album Destiny Fulfilled (2004) and Beyoncé's starring role in the 2006 film Dreamgirls. While on vacation after filming Dreamgirls, Beyoncé began contacting various producers and rented Sony Music Studios, completing the album within two weeks. Most of the lyrical content of the album was inspired by Beyoncé's role in the film, with its musical style ranging from 1970s–1980s funk influences and balladry to urban contemporary elements such as hip hop and R&B. Live instrumentation was employed in recording most of the tracks as part of Beyoncé's vision of creating a record using live instruments. Upon its release, B'Day received generally favorable reviews from music critics, who directed most of the acclaim towards its sonic quality and Beyoncé's vocal performance. A commercial success, the album debuted atop the US Billboard 200, selling over 541,000 copies in its first week. Among numerous additional accolades, it won Best Contemporary R&B Album at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards (2007). B'Day Anthology Video Album, which featured 13 music videos to accompany the album's tracks, was released alongside the album's Deluxe Edition reissue in April 2007. B'Day has been certified quintuple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and, as of 2013, has sold over eight million copies worldwide. B'Day produced six singles. "Déjà Vu" peaked at number four on the US Billboard Hot 100, while "Ring the Alarm" became Beyoncé's highest-debuting single at the time but broke her string of top-ten singles after peaking at number 11. "Irreplaceable" became her fourth Billboard Hot 100 number-one, while "Beautiful Liar" peaked at number three; both singles achieved widespread international success. "Get Me Bodied" was released exclusively in the United States, while "Green Light" was released internationally; neither replicated the success of their predecessors. To further promote B'Day, Beyoncé embarked on her second solo concert tour The Beyoncé Experience (2007); a live album titled The Beyoncé Experience Live was also released. ## Background and development Between March 2002 and March 2003, Beyoncé had productive studio sessions while recording her debut solo studio album Dangerously in Love, recording up to 45 songs. After the release of Dangerously in Love in June 2003, Beyoncé had planned to produce a follow-up album using several of the leftover tracks. However, on January 7, 2004, a spokesperson for her record label Columbia Records announced that Beyoncé had put her plans on hold in order to concentrate on the recording of Destiny Fulfilled, the final studio album by Destiny's Child, and to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the Super Bowl XXXVIII in Houston, Texas, which was a childhood dream of hers. Furthermore, she starred as Xania in the 2006 comedy-mystery film The Pink Panther, which was filmed in 2004. She also spent the following two years promoting Destiny Fulfilled and Destiny's Child's first greatest hits album \#1's (2005), embarking on their final world tour Destiny Fulfilled... and Lovin' It; the group would disband in 2006. Beyoncé originally recorded "Check on It" for The Pink Panther soundtrack; although its soundtrack inclusion was cancelled, it was released as the second single from \#1's in December 2005 and became Beyoncé's third solo US Billboard Hot 100 number-one single, later appearing as a bonus track on the international editions of B'Day. In late 2005, Beyoncé decided to postpone the recording of her second studio album because she had landed the lead role in Dreamgirls, a film adaptation of the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical of the same name (1981). As she wanted to focus on one project at a time, Beyoncé decided to wait until the film was completed before returning to the recording studio. Beyoncé later told Billboard: "I'm not going to write for the album until I finish doing the movie." ## Recording and production While having a month-long vacation after filming Dreamgirls, Beyoncé went to the studio to start working on B'Day. She said: "[When filming ended] I had so many things bottled up, so many emotions, so many ideas", prompting her to begin working without telling her father and then-manager Mathew Knowles. Beyoncé kept the recording somewhat quiet, telling only her artists and repertoire executive Max Gousse, and the team of producers they contacted to collaborate with on the album. She began working with songwriters and producers Rich Harrison, Rodney Jerkins, Sean Garrett, Cameron Wallace, the Neptunes, Norwegian production duo Stargate, and American hip hop producer and rapper Swizz Beatz. Two female songwriters, who helped structure the album, were also a part of the team–Beyoncé's cousin Angela Beyincé, who had previously contributed to Dangerously in Love, and up-and-coming songwriter Makeba Riddick, who made her way onto the team after writing "Déjà Vu", the lead single off the album. Beyoncé rented the Sony Music Studios in New York City, and was influenced by her now-husband Jay-Z's method of collaborating with multiple record producers; she used four recording studios simultaneously. She booked Harrison, Jerkins and Garrett, each with a room to work in. During the sessions, Beyoncé would move from studio to studio to check her producers' progress, later claiming this fostered "healthy competition" among producers. When Beyoncé conceived a potential song, she would tell the group who would deliberate, and after three hours the song would be created. While Beyoncé and the team brainstormed the lyrics, other collaborators such as the Neptunes, Jerkins and Swizz Beatz would simultaneously produce the tracks. They would sometimes spend up to 14 hours a day in the studios during the recording process. Beyoncé arranged, co-wrote and co-produced all of the songs on the album. Riddick, in an interview with MTV News, recounted her experience in the production: > [Beyoncé] had multiple producers in Sony Studios. She booked out the whole studio and she had the biggest and best producers in there. She would have us in one room, we would start collaborating with one producer, then she would go and start something else with another producer. We would bounce around to the different rooms and work with the different producers. It was definitely a factory type of process. B'Day was completed within three weeks, ahead of the originally scheduled six weeks. Swizz Beatz co-produced four songs for the album, the most from a single producer in the team. Beyoncé recorded three songs a day, finishing recording within two weeks in April 2006. Aside from the Sony Music Studios, additional recording locations included Great Divide Studios in Aspen, Colorado, where "Freakum Dress" was recorded, and Los Angeles recording studios Lair Studios, where "Irreplaceable" was recorded, Henson Recording Studios, where bonus track "Check on It" was recorded, and Record Plant, where "Kitty Kat" and "Green Light were recorded and "Déjà Vu" was assisted. 25 songs were produced for the album; ten of the tracks were selected for the standard edition track listing, and were mastered in early July by Brian "Big Bass" Gardner at the Bernie Grundman Mastering in Los Angeles. ## Music and lyrics Many of the themes and musical styles of B'Day were inspired by Beyoncé's role in Dreamgirls. The plot of the film revolves around "The Dreams", a fictional 1960s group of three female singers who attempt success in the mainstream music industry with the help of their manager Curtis Taylor, Jr. (portrayed by Jamie Foxx). Beyoncé portrays Deena Jones, the lead singer of the group and the wife of Taylor, and is emotionally abused by him. Because of her role, Beyoncé was inspired to produce an album with an overriding theme of feminism and female empowerment. On the hidden track "Encore for the Fans", Beyoncé said: "Because I was so inspired by Deena, I wrote songs that were saying all the things I wish she would have said in the film." B'Day was influenced by a variety of American genres, and, like Dangerously in Love (2003), incorporated urban contemporary elements such as contemporary R&B and hip hop. Some songs showcase 1970s and 1980s styles, achieved through record sampling. "Suga Mama", which employs blues-guitar samples from Jake Wade and the Soul Searchers' "Searching for Soul", contains a 1970s funk and 1980s go-go-influenced melody. "Upgrade U" uses a sample from Betty Wright's 1968 song "Girls Can't Do What the Guys Do". "Resentment" used Curtis Mayfield's "Think" from the 1972 Super Fly soundtrack. "Déjà Vu" has 1970s influence, "Green Light" has a classic groove, and "Get Me Bodied" features twang, a musical style that originated from Texas. Beyoncé crafted most songs on B'Day through live instrumentation and diverse techniques. This is evident on "Déjà Vu", which utilizes bass guitar, conga, hi-hat, horns and the 808 drum; it also features rap vocals by Jay-Z. In an interview with MTV, Beyoncé said: "When I recorded 'Déjà Vu' [...] I knew that even before I started working on my album, I wanted to add live instruments to all of my songs..." Lyrically, the song details a woman being constantly reminded of a past lover, shown in the lines: "Is it because I'm missing you that I'm having déjà vu?" "Get Me Bodied" is a moderate R&B and bounce track, which displays influences of dance-pop, dancehall, and funk. Lyrically, it speaks about a female protagonist going out and dressing up suitably to leave a lasting impression and get what she's looking for. The third track "Suga Mama" is a moderate R&B and soul track displaying influences of the 1960s, as well as 1970s funk and rock, also containing limited elements of the 1980s go-go, while more closely resembling live music than Beyoncé's previous recordings. Lyrically, it features the female protagonist offering up the keys to her house and car, and her credit card just to keep her love interest and his "good loving" at home, presumably so that he can listen to her collection of old soul records. Those interpretations are shown in the lines: "It's so good to the point that I'll do anything just to keep you home ... Tell me what you want me to buy, my accountant's waiting on the phone ..." The protagonist also sees the man as a sexual object, asking him to sit on her lap and "take it off while I watch you perform". "Upgrade U", which features Jay-Z, speaks about a woman offering luxuries to a man in order to upgrade his lifestyle and reputation, similar to the concept of "Suga Mama". Musically, it's a hip hop track with influences of pop, soul and R&B. The album's fifth track and second single "Ring the Alarm", which is an R&B song incorporating elements of punk rock, is noted for the use of a siren in its melody and "shows a harder edge to Beyoncé's sound". Lyrically, it features Beyoncé as the female protagonist impersonating a threatened woman involved in a love triangle and is unwilling to allow another woman to profit from all the efforts she put on to make her lover a better man. "Kitty Kat" is a hip hop-influenced smooth R&B track speaking about the female protagonist who feels that her love interest has underestimated her. "Freakum Dress" features a crescendo using a two-note riff and galloping beats. The song "advises women who have partners with straying eyes to put on sexy dresses and grind on other guys in the club to regain their affections." Meanwhile, the use of the "uh-huh huh huh" vocals and brassy stabs in the R&B-funk break-up song "Green Light" is a direct echo to Beyoncé's single "Crazy in Love" (2003), according to Peter Robinson of The Guardian. "Irreplaceable" is a midtempo ballad with pop and R&B influences, and speaks of a breakdown of a woman's relationship with a man after she discovers his infidelity. The standard edition's closing track "Resentment" is a soul and soft rock ballad about a gritty, agitated goodbye, which adds a "different kind of overwrought drama". "Beautiful Liar", the opening track of the Deluxe Edition reissue of B'Day, is an R&B-pop duet with Shakira. Lyrically, it speaks about two women who chose not to end a friendship because of a man who had cheated both of them; its main theme is female independence. "Welcome to Hollywood" is Beyoncé's solo version of Jay-Z's song "Hollywood", on which she was featured. It's a disco-influenced R&B track which lyrically details tiredness celebrities sometimes feel. "Flaws and All" is an R&B and trip hop track on which Beyoncé shows appreciation for her love interest, who sees through all of her flaws and loves her unconditionally. "Still in Love (Kissing You)", which was later replaced by "If", is a cover of Des'ree's pop ballad "Kissing You". "If" is a ballad on which a female protagonist expresses disappointment with her love interest's mistreatment of her. "World Wide Woman" is an uptempo R&B track on which Beyoncé calls herself "a world wide woman", a play on term World Wide Web. The Deluxe Edition also includes "Listen", which previously appeared in Dreamgirls and its accompanying soundtrack. A soul-R&B ballad, it was declared a song on which Deena Jones is exclaiming: "You don't know who I am, and I know I do" by its co-writer Anne Preven. ## Title and packaging B'Day was titled as a reference to Beyoncé's birthday. The album's cover artwork was revealed on July 18, 2006, and features Beyoncé looking into the distance, wearing a golden low-cut dress and small golden hoop earrings, with a dark eye liner and her hair piled high on her head. The cover artwork for the Deluxe Edition is the same as the cover artwork used for single "Déjà Vu" and B'Day Anthology Video Album, and features Beyoncé with a 1960s-inspired hairstyle and similar makeup as on the standard edition cover artwork, wearing a white and black top and golden hoop earrings. The booklet of the Deluxe Edition is highly similar to the standard edition one, also featuring some new images. Images for both covers and booklets were photographed by Max Vadukul. ## Release and promotion In collaboration with Sony Urban Music and Music World Entertainment, B'Day was internationally released by Columbia Records on September 4, 2006, Beyoncé's 25th birthday, and in the United States the following day. Exclusively at Walmart, B'Day was packaged with a bonus DVD titled BET Presents Beyoncé (2006), which featured BET and performance highlights, and music videos from her solo career. To promote B'Day, Beyoncé appeared on various television and award shows from mid-2006 until mid-2007. She performed the album's lead single "Déjà Vu" with Jay-Z at the BET Awards 2006 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on June 27, 2006. At the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards on August 31, she performed "Ring the Alarm" wearing a flowing trench coat, a corset and hotpants; the performance referenced Janet Jackson's "Rhythm Nation" routine. On September 5, Beyoncé made an appearance on Total Request Live. In an episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show which aired the same day, Beyoncé performed "Déjà Vu" and "Irreplaceable". She performed "Déjà Vu" at the Fashion Rocks on September 8, and, along with "Crazy in Love", "Green Light", "Ring the Alarm" and "Irreplaceable", during an episode of Good Morning America which aired the same day. She also performed "Déjà Vu" on The Tyra Banks Show on September 15. Promoting B'Day in the United Kingdom, Beyoncé performed "Irreplaceable", "Ring the Alarm" and "Crazy in Love" on Popworld on October 27. Beyoncé opened the 2006 World Music Awards on November 15 with the performance of "Déjà Vu" and "Ring the Alarm", performing "Irreplaceable" later during the show. She performed "Irreplaceable" at the American Music Awards of 2006 on November 21, and, along with "Listen", on Today on December 4. Seven months after the release of B'Day, an expanded double-disc reissue, subtitled Deluxe Edition, was released in the US on April 3, 2007. In addition to the original track listing, the Deluxe Edition featured five new songs, including "Beautiful Liar", a duet with Colombian singer Shakira. "Amor Gitano", a Spanish-language flamenco-pop duet with Mexican singer Alejandro Fernández, served as a soundtrack for Telemundo's telenovela El Zorro, and was included in the Deluxe Edition bonus disc alongside Spanish re-recordings of "Listen" ("Oye"), "Irreplaceable" ("Irreemplazable") and "Beautiful Liar" ("Bello Embustero"). The idea of recording songs in a foreign language emanated from her experience when Destiny's Child performed "Quisiera Ser" with Alejandro Sanz at the 44th Annual Grammy Awards (2002). Beyoncé worked with producer Rudy Pérez for the recordings in order to retain the same feeling of the English versions of the songs into the Spanish translation. The bonus disc was later released as the standalone extended play (EP) Irreemplazable. B'Day Anthology Video Album was released simultaneously with the Deluxe Edition and featured 13 music videos, including the director's cut of the performance version of "Listen" and the extended mix of "Get Me Bodied". Most of the videos were accompaniments for the uptempo songs on B'Day; which featured retro stylization, use of color and black hair styles, as Beyoncé thought it would create a resemblance between herself and the character she played in Dreamgirls, Deena Jones. The shooting of the videos was completed in two weeks; they were directed by Jake Nava, Anthony Mandler, Melina Matsoukas, Cliff Watts, Ray Kay, Sophie Muller, Diane Martel and Beyoncé herself. Initially, the DVD was available exclusively at Walmart, but was later released to other retailers. The Spanish songs were not included on international editions of the Deluxe Edition and were replaced by B'Day Anthology Video Album as the bonus DVD. Beyoncé promoted the Deluxe Edition of B'Day in April 2007 by performing the Spanglish version of "Irreplaceable" and "Green Light" on Today on April 2, and "Beautiful Liar" on an episode of The Early Show which aired on April 6. She performed "Get Me Bodied" at the BET Awards 2007 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on June 26, wearing a gold robot gear, which she wittled down to sleek lamé gold pants and a matching bra top. As she continued singing, her younger sister Solange and former Destiny's Child bandmate Michelle Williams appeared onstage as her backup dancers; a few moments later, Beyoncé introduced her former Destiny's Child bandmate Kelly Rowland, who performed her song "Like This" with Eve. After Rowland's performance, Beyoncé, Solange and Williams appeared onstage with Rowland to complete the Destiny's Child reunion. In mid-2006, Beyoncé looked for an all-female band for her tour The Beyoncé Experience (2007) to promote the album. She held an audition for keyboard players, bassists, guitarists, horn players, percussionists and drummers around the world. Beyoncé named the band Suga Mama, after the album track "Suga Mama". Although the band only consisted of women, both male and female backup dancers performed onstage. As well as singing songs from B'Day, Beyoncé also performed songs from Dangerously in Love, and gave a medley of Destiny's Child songs. She embarked on the tour in Japan on April 10, 2007 and concluded it in Tapei, Taiwan on November 12. During the Los Angeles show on September 2, Jay-Z and Destiny's Child bandmates Rowland and Williams made guest appearances. Footage from this show was filmed and released on November 20 as a live album titled The Beyoncé Experience Live. ## Singles "Déjà Vu", featuring Jay-Z, was released as the lead single from B'Day on June 24, 2006, to mixed critical reception. A commercial success, it peaked at number four on the US Billboard Hot 100 and atop US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, being certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Internationally, it peaked atop the UK Singles Chart, while reaching the top ten in 11 countries. The song and its Freemasons club mix received three nominations at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards (2007). The accompanying music video for "Déjà Vu", directed by Sophie Muller, was a subject of controversy due to its sexually suggestive content. "Ring the Alarm" was released as the second single from B'Day exclusively in the United States on September 10, 2006. The song received mixed reviews from the music critics, who noticed it was different from Beyoncé's earlier works; while some commended her willingness to take risks, others were polarized about her aggressive vocals. Commercially, it became her highest-debuting single, opening at number 12 on the US Billboard Hot 100. However, it peaked at number 11, becoming Beyoncé's first solo single not to peak within the top ten. The song was nominated for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards. Its accompanying music video, Beyoncé's second consecutive to be directed by Muller, remakes a scene from the 1992 film Basic Instinct, and was choreographed by then-16-year-old Teyana Taylor. "Irreplaceable" was released as the second international and third overall single from B'Day on October 23, 2006. It received widespread critical acclaim, with some critics calling it the best track on the album. It was a commercial success, peaking atop the US Billboard Hot 100 and spending ten weeks atop the chart. Internationally, it reached the summit in Australia, Hungary, Ireland and New Zealand. It was ranked atop the 2007 year-end Billboard Hot 100, and was the tenth best-selling digital single of 2007 worldwide, having sold over four million copies worldwide by the end of the year. At the 50th Annual Grammy Awards (2008), "Irreplaceable" was nominated for the Grammy Award for Record of the Year. The song was ranked at number 25 on the 2000s decade-end Billboard Hot 100. Its Anthony Mandler-directed accompanying music video features the debut performance of the Suga Mamas, Beyoncé's all-female band. After leaking onto the Internet in early February 2007, "Beautiful Liar", a duet with Shakira, was released as the sole single from the Deluxe Edition and the fourth single from B'Day on February 12. The song registered the largest ever upward movement on the US Billboard Hot 100 at the time, when it leaped 91 places from number 94 to number three in its second week, which became its peak position. Internationally, it peaked atop the European Hot 100 Singles and on charts in Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Venezuela. Critically acclaimed, it was nominated for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards. Its accompanying music video, directed by Jake Nava, features Beyoncé and Shakira dancing against different backgrounds, either together or separately. "Get Me Bodied" was released as the fifth single from B'Day on July 10, 2007, exclusively in the US. It originally peaked at number 68 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in August, becoming Beyoncé's lowest-peaking single on the chart at the time. However, as a video of a woman named Deborah Cohen and her doctors dancing to "Get Me Bodied" before she underwent a double mastectomy was posted onto YouTube and went viral in 2013, the song found a new peak position at number 46 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song's 1960s-influenced accompanying music video was directed by Mandler and features Beyoncé's sister Solange and former Destiny's Child bandmates Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams. "Green Light" was released as the fourth and final international single from B'Day on July 27, 2007. It was originally planned to be released as the second single for the international markets, but Columbia Records opted for "Irreplaceable" instead. The remix extended play (EP) titled Green Light: Freemasons EP was released for digital download simultaneously with the single. The single was also planned to be released physically in the United Kingdom, but the plans were cancelled last-minute, which resulted with it not obtaining a higher peak than number 12 on the UK Singles Chart. Beyoncé co-directed the song's accompanying music video with Melina Matsoukas; the video features the second appearance by the Suga Mamas. Although they were not released as singles, "Upgrade U", "Kitty Kat" and "Freakum Dress" appeared on several Billboard charts. "Upgrade U", featuring Jay-Z, was released as a promotional single in the United States on November 27, 2006, and reached numbers 59 and 11 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, respectively. "Kitty Kat" peaked at number 66 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. "Freakum Dress", which was cited as a possible second single from B'Day in June 2006, peaked at number 25 on the US Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles and at number 16 on the US Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles. In 2020, "Freakum Dress" went viral on TikTok and Instagram as part of the "Freakum Dress Challenge", appearing on many videos created by users of the platforms. ## Critical reception B'Day received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 70, based on 23 reviews. Jody Rosen, writing for Entertainment Weekly, commented that the album's songs "arrive in huge gusts of rhythm and emotion, with Beyoncé's voice rippling over clattery beats". Jonah Weiner of Blender commented that "sweaty up-tempo numbers prove the best platform for Beyoncé's rapperly phrasing and pipe-flaunting fireballs". Andy Kellman of AllMusic felt that, despite "no songs with the smooth elegance" of "Me, Myself and I" or "Be with You", the album is "lean in a beneficial way". The Boston Globe's Sarah Rodman commented that the production team helped Beyoncé "focus on edgier, up-tempo tracks that take her sweet soprano to new places". Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian felt that, "apart from a few pop-R&B space-fillers, there's not much to dislike about B'Day". Robert Christgau from MSN Music said "on most of [the songs] she's wronged yet still in control because she's got so much money" and felt that Beyoncé "earns her props" if "opulence can signify liberation in this grotesquely materialistic time, as in hip-hop it can". In a mixed review, Jon Pareles of The New York Times found the album "tense, high-strung and obsessive", and said that it was neither "ingratiating or seductive". Richard Cromelin of the Los Angeles Times observed that Beyoncé "heads into a new, more challenging terrain", but "some of the experiments don't click". Although he found the album "solid", Mike Joseph of PopMatters said that "aside from its relatively short running time, it sounds suspiciously under produced". Brian Hiatt of Rolling Stone averred that "while the mostly up-tempo disc never lacks for energy, some of the more beat-driven tracks feel harmonically and melodically undercooked, with hooks that don't live up to 'Crazy in Love' or the best Destiny's Child hits". Priya Elan of NME cited only "Freakum Dress" and "Ring the Alarm" as highlights and criticized that "too many tracks sound like updated versions of former glories", with no song on-par with "Crazy in Love". ## Accolades ### Awards and nominations \|- ! scope="row"\| 2007 \| Grammy Award \| Best Contemporary R&B Album \| rowspan="4"\| B'Day \| \| \|- ! scope="row"\| 2007 \| NAACP Image Award \| Outstanding Album \| \| \|- ! scope="row"\| 2007 \| Soul Train Music Award \| Best R&B/Soul Album – Female \| \| \|- ! scope="row"\| 2007 \| American Music Award \| Favorite Soul/R&B Album \| \| ### Listings ## Commercial performance Despite an average commercial performance of the album's first two singles, "Déjà Vu" and "Ring the Alarm", B'Day debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 on September 23, 2006, selling over 541,000 units in its first week. B'Day scored Beyoncé's highest debut-week album sales, until it was surpassed by her self-titled fifth studio album (2013), which sold 617,213 digital copies in its first three days. The album gave Beyoncé her second number-one debut on the chart following Dangerously in Love (2003), which was noted by Keith Caulfield of Billboard, surmising that perhaps "its handsome debut was generated by goodwill earned from the performance of her smash first album Dangerously in Love". B'Day fell to number three in its second week, and to number six the following week, falling out of the top ten in its fourth week at number 11. After seven weeks of being outside the top ten, B'Day reached number nine on the chart dated December 2, due to the success of its single "Irreplaceable", which helped the album regain its strength. It climbed to number six the following week, becoming the week's "greatest gainer", before exiting the top ten again. By the end of 2006, the album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and became the 38th best-selling album of that year in the United States. B'Day re-entered the top ten again at number six on the chart dated January 27, 2007, while Dreamgirls: Music from the Motion Picture was at the top. It remained within the top ten the following week at number ten, before falling to number 13 on the chart dated February 10. The RIAA re-certified B'Day triple platinum on April 16, combining the sales from the standard and Deluxe Edition releases. On the Billboard 200 chart dated April 21, B'Day jumped from number 69 to number six due to the release of its Deluxe Edition, gaining 903% in sales and becoming the week's "greatest gainer". It remained within the top ten the following week at number seven, before falling to number 13 on the chart dated May 5. The album has spent a total of 74 weeks on the Billboard 200. It became the 11th best-selling album of 2007 in the US. As of August 2022, the album has sold 5 million copies in the country. Internationally, B'Day was met with similar success. In Canada, it reached number two on the Canadian Albums Chart, staying at the position for two weeks. It was certified platinum by the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA). On Oricon Albums Chart in Japan, the standard edition of the album debuted and peaked at number four, selling 72,921 copies in its first week, while the Deluxe Edition debuted at number nine with first-week sales of 17,519 copies, and peaked at number five in its second week on the chart, selling 23,153 copies that week. The standard edition was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) for shipments of 250,000 copies in Japan, while the Deluxe Edition was certified gold for shipments of 100,000 copies. The album's standard edition peaked at number six on Top 100 Mexico, while its Deluxe Edition peaked at number nine. It was certified gold by the Mexican Association of Producers of Phonograms and Videograms (AMPROFON) for shipments of 50,000 copies in Mexico. Across Oceania, it had the same reception, debuting at number eight in both Australia and New Zealand the same week, on September 11, 2006. B'Day remained on the charts for 20 and 25 weeks, respectively, and was certified platinum by both the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) and the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ). In the United Kingdom, B'Day debuted at numbers three and one on the UK Albums Charts and UK R&B Albums Chart, respectively, on September 11, 2006, selling 35,012 copies in its first week. Its Deluxe Edition peaked at numbers eight and three on the UK Albums Chart and UK R&B Albums Chart, respectively, on April 29, 2007. The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) certified the standard edition platinum for shipping 300,000 units, and the Deluxe Edition gold for shipping 100,000 units. As of July 3, 2011, B'Day has sold 385,078 copies in the United Kingdom. Throughout Europe, the album peaked at number three on the European Top 100 Albums, while reaching the top ten in Denmark, Flanders, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland. It was certified platinum in Europe by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) for sales of one million copies within the continent. As of 2013, B'Day has sold eight million copies worldwide. ## Controversies B'Day was a subject of various controversies. The music video for its lead single "Déjà Vu" caused controversy due to its sexually suggestive content. A news article published by Hindustan Times reported that a particular scene in the video is suggestive of oral sex. Natalie Y. Moore of In These Times echoed the latter's commentary, writing that the video showcases Beyoncé "strutting her sexuality", and that in Jay-Z's scenes it "looks as if any minute now she'll give him fellatio". The video later appeared on Yahoo! Music News' list "Real Turkeys: The Worst Videos of All Time", which pointed to the negative fan reaction and stated: "It's probably the least horrific video listed ... but as far as Beyoncé videos go, it is a stinker." According to an MTV News staff report, as of July 2006, over two thousand people had signed an online petition addressed to Beyoncé's record label Columbia Records, demanding a reshoot for the video. By the end of August 2006, over five thousand additional fans had signed it. The petition requested the video to be taped again because it was considered to be "an underwhelming representation of the talent and quality of previous music-video projects of Ms. Beyoncé". Included in the list of offenses towards the video were "a lack of theme, dizzying editing, over-the-top wardrobe choices, and unacceptable interactions" between Beyoncé and Jay-Z. Beyoncé's dance moves were also called into question by the petition, qualifying them as "erratic, confusing and alarming at times". Additionally, fans complained about sexual theme depicted in the video, describing that some scenes as "unacceptable interactions [between Beyoncé and Jay-Z]" while also complaining of a "non-existent sexual chemistry" between the two. The lyrics of "Ring the Alarm" were rumored to be about Barbadian singer Rihanna's relationship with rapper and Beyoncé's now-husband Jay-Z. According to a media speculation, Beyoncé, Rihanna and Jay-Z were part of a love triangle in 2006. It was rumored that Jay-Z had always been faithful to Beyoncé until he met Rihanna, whose popularity grew considerably during that year, who tempted Jay-Z to be in a romantic relationship with her while he was still with Beyoncé. As commented by Tom Breihan of The Village Voice, Beyoncé took advantage of "[people's] sympathy and unleash[ed] a burst of public rage in the form of ['Ring the Alarm']". In an interview for Seventeen, she, however, clarified that the lyrics had no connection with Rihanna, before adding that she was unaware of the rumors that had been circulating. Concerned that someone was trying to sabotage the release of B'Day, her father and manager Mathew Knowles released an official statement: > It is apparent that there is a consistent plan by some to create chaos around Beyoncé's B'Day album release on September 4 in the US. First, it was a petition against the single, 'Déjà Vu', then a rumor regarding conflict between Beyoncé and Rihanna, seizures caused by the 'Ring the Alarm' video, putting out a single to compete with LeToya's album and now to add to all the ridiculous rumors, is my plan to postpone the release of her 'B'Day' album. What will be next? Beyoncé's cut off all her hair? Dyed it green? Maybe she's singing the songs in reverse with some hidden subliminal message! The cover artwork for the single "Ring the Alarm" fueled controversy after Beyoncé used alligators during the photo shoot. Beyoncé revealed that using the alligators and taping their mouths shut was her idea. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), an animal rights organization which had previously confronted her after she had used furs for her fashion line's clothing design, contacted a biologist who later wrote a letter to her, stating: "As a specialist in reptile biology and welfare, I'm concerned about your posing with a terrified baby alligator for your new album cover. Humans and alligators are not natural bedfellows, and the two should not mix at events such as photo shoots. In my view, doing so is arguably abusive to an animal." Controversy also arose over the writing credits on "Irreplaceable". Ne-Yo, who co-wrote the song, told MTV: "Apparently Beyoncé was at a show somewhere and right before the song came on she said, 'I wrote this for all my ladies' and then the song came on ... The song is a co-write. I wrote the lyrics, I wrote all the lyrics. Beyoncé helped me with the melodies and the harmonies and the vocal arrangement and that makes it a co-write. Meaning my contribution and her contribution made that song what it is." In 2011, Ne-Yo said that he wrote the song for himself, but thought that it would suit Beyoncé better, and later regretted giving the song to her. Some of Beyoncé's fans read Ne-Yo's remark as disrespectful towards her. However, he clarified his comment later through Twitter, writing: "I said I originally wrote the song for me. ... Once I realized how the song comes across if sung by a guy, that's when I decided to give it away." In 2007, Beyoncé appeared on billboards and newspapers across Australia holding an antiquated cigarette holder. Taken from the back cover artwork of B'Day, the image provoked response from an anti-smoking group, stating that she did not need to add the cigarette holder "to make herself appear more sophisticated". The same year, three weeks after their release, the Deluxe Edition of B'Day and the B'Day Anthology Video Album were temporarily ceased for retail in stores. A copyright infringement lawsuit was filed due to breach of contract of using "Still in Love (Kissing You)", a cover version of British singer Des'ree's original song "Kissing You". Not intended for the album's inclusion, Des'ree's deal also stipulated that the title of the song was not to be altered, and a music video was not to be made. After the infringement case, the song was removed from the reissue of the Deluxe Edition, and was replaced by "If". The lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice in October 2007. ## Impact and legacy According to an editor of web publication The Boombox in an article published on September 4, 2016, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the release of B'Day, the album was a "monumental moment for music fans worldwide and would elevate Beyoncé from princess-in-waiting to a full-fledged queen in the musical landscape". The editor also called the album Beyoncé's "most liberating body of work and its impact still echoes ten years later." In an article published by Revolt on the same day, B'Day was called Beyoncé's "first REAL visual album", as she would later release two "visual albums" Beyoncé (2013) and Lemonade (2016), and as almost every song from B'Day had an accompanying music video, which was "something we hadn't seen before". The same day, website EST. 1997 published an article about B'Day as well, and wrote that the album's singles became "essential parts" of pop culture, also writing that "Get Me Bodied" is "now cemented as one of those songs that gets played by a DJ to get the crowd dancing at a wedding". The website also wrote an article about B'Day Anthology Video Album on April 3, 2017, the tenth anniversary of its release, also calling it Beyoncé's first "visual album" and stating that it "laid the groundwork for Beyoncé to become the pioneering visual artist she is revered to as today." Billboard published "Beyoncé's Best Fashion Moments from Her Decade-Old 'B'Day Anthology Video Album'" on the same day, the list in which editor Da'Shan Smith commented on ten best outfits Beyoncé wore in the music videos, stating: "The project has delivered audiences some of the singer's most iconic looks. In every frame she appears in, Beyoncé oozes a radiant confidence, wearing stunning outfits and costumes to match." Vibe published a list in which Smith ranked all thirteen music videos from the worst to the best, stating: "B'Day Video Anthology Album must be heralded as an important pop culture artifact. As expressed before, it's the birther of Beyoncé's passion for providing fans visual sequences they need to tell an album's story. Imagine a B'Day without its Anthology—although the go-go and funk infused tracks already made an impression upon audio listens only, the visuals made the record pop to life." ## Track listing Retailer-exclusive bonus tracks - Digital standard Walmart edition includes "Déjà Vu (The Remix)" (featuring Jay-Z). - Standard Circuit City edition includes "Back Up". "Back Up" is written by B. Knowles, Jerkins, LaShawn Daniels, Delisha Thomas, Fred Jerkins III, Anesha Birchett, Antea Birchett and Beyincé, and produced by Darkchild and B. Knowles. - International standard iTunes Store pre-order and New Zealand iTunes Store editions include "Lost Yo Mind". "Lost Yo Mind" is written by B. Knowles, Dean and Garrett, and produced by Swizz Beatz, B. Knowles and Garrett. - Best Buy exclusive Deluxe Edition includes "First Time" as a hidden track. "First Time" is written by B. Knowles, Williams and Chad Hugo, and produced by The Neptunes and B. Knowles. Notes - Some standard edition digital releases of B'Day do not include the album's hidden tracks. - "If" replaced "Still in Love (Kissing You)" on all Deluxe Edition releases, following a copyright infringement lawsuit. "Still in Love (Kissing You)" was removed entirely from DVD releases. "Still in Love (Kissing You)" is written by B. Knowles, Desree Weekes and Timothy Atack, and produced by Knowles and Nellee Hooper. - signifies an additional producer - signifies a co-producer - signifies a vocal producer Sample credits - "Suga Mama" contains a sample from "Searching for Soul" by Jake Wade and the Soul Searchers. - "Upgrade U" contains a sample from "Girls Can't Do What the Guys Do" by Betty Wright. - "Resentment" contains a sample from "Think" by Curtis Mayfield. ## Personnel Credits are adapted from the deluxe edition liner notes of B'Day. - Jason Agel – engineering assistance (track 5) - Omar Al-Musfi – Arabic percussion (track 1) - Roberto Almodovar – engineering (track 1) - Allen "Al Geez" Arthur – horns (track 12) - April Baldwin – A&R administration - Aureo Baqueiro – vocal direction (track 18) - Reyli Barba – songwriting (track 18) - Robert Becker – viola (track 15) - Andres Bermudez – engineering (track 18), engineering assistance (track 5) - Angela Beyince – songwriting (tracks 6, 9, 10, 16 and 17) - Beyoncé – executive production, mixing (track 12), production (all tracks), songwriting (all tracks), vocal production (tracks 14 and 17), vocals (all tracks) - Amund Bjørklund – songwriting (track 2) - Tim Blacksmith – management - Aaron Brougher – A&R coordination - Denyse Buffum – viola (track 15) - Bun B – songwriting (track 17), vocals (track 17) - Eduardo "Visitante" Cabra – additional production (tracks 1 and 19), programming (track 1), remix production (track 19) - David Campbell – string arrangement (track 15), string conducting (track 15) - Roberto Cani – violin (track 15) - Tim Carmon – keyboards (track 15) - Sean Carrington – guitar (track 16) - Jim Caruana – engineering (tracks 1–4, 6–14 and 17) - Gustavo Celis – engineering (track 1), mixing (track 1) - Olgui Chirino – vocal production (track 1) - Fusako Chubachi – art direction, design - Willie Clarke – songwriting (track 6) - Andrew Coleman – engineering assistance (tracks 3 and 4) - Larry Corbett – cello (track 15) - Tom Coyne – mastering (tracks 1, 5, 7, 8 and 19) - Jasmin Cruz – backing vocals (track 18) - Scott Cutler – songwriting (track 15) - Danny D. – management - LaShawn Daniels – songwriting (track 16) - Mario Deleon – violin (track 15) - Ian Dench – songwriting (tracks 1 and 19) - Robert "LB" Dorsey – engineering assistance (tracks 5, 7 and 8) - Andrew Duckles – viola (track 15) - Bruce Dukov – violin concertmastering (track 15) - Nathan East – bass (track 15) - Paco "El Sevillano" – gypsy chanting (track 18) - Alejandro Fernández – vocals (track 18) - Jaime Flores – songwriting (track 18) - Paul Forat – A&R - Brian "Big Bass" Gardner – mastering (tracks 2–4, 6 and 9–17) - Sean Garrett – production (tracks 9, 13), songwriting (tracks 3, 6, 9, 13, 16 and 17) - Amanda Ghost – songwriting (tracks 1 and 19) - Jason Goldstein – mixing (tracks 2–4, 6 and 9–14) - Aaron "Goody" Goode – horns (track 12) - Erwin Gorostiza – art direction - Max Gousse – A&R - Alan Grunfeld – violin (track 15) - Rich Harrison – mixing (tracks 10 and 11), production (tracks 10 and 11), songwriting (tracks 10 and 11) - Geraldo Hilera – violin (track 15) - Jean-Marie Horvat – mixing (tracks 1, 5, 7, 8 and 16) - Dabling "Hobby Boy" Howard – engineering (track 15) - Ty Hunter – styling - ILoveDust – logo design - Jun Ishizeki – engineering (track 12) - Eric Jackson – guitars (track 15) - Quincy S. Jackson – marketing - Jay-Z – songwriting (tracks 4–6 and 12), vocals (tracks 5, 6 and 12) - Nathan Jenkins – engineering (track 17) - Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins – horn arrangement (track 12), instrumentation (track 12), mixing (track 12), production (tracks 12 and 16), songwriting (track 12) - James Johnson – bass (track 15) - Jon Jon – bass (track 12), production assistance (track 12) - Ronald Judge – horns (track 12) - Suzie Katayama – cello (track 15) - Gimel "Young Guru" Keaton – engineering (track 5) - Hannah Khoury – viola (track 1), violin (track 1) - Kimberly Kimble – hair styling - Rob Kinelski – engineering assistance (tracks 1–4, 6 and 9–14) - Julia Knapp – A&R operation - Mathew Knowles – A&R, executive production, management - Solange Knowles – songwriting (tracks 6, 7 and 9) - Tina Knowles – styling - Henry Krieger – songwriting (track 15) - Ricky Lawson – drums (track 15) - Jolie Levine – music contracting (track 15) - Espen Lind – guitar (track 2), songwriting (track 2) - Dave "D-Lo" Lopez – engineering assistance (tracks 14 and 18), mixing assistance (track 18), Pro Tools editing (track 14) - Riley Mackin – engineering assistance (track 15) - Manny Marroquin – mixing (track 15) - Harvey Mason Jr. – percussion (track 15) - Curtis Mayfield – songwriting (track 14) - Vlado Meller – mastering (track 18) - Chuck Middleton – songwriting (track 11) - Colin Miller – digital prep engineering (tracks 7 and 8), mixing assistance (track 1), Pro Tools prep (track 16) - Walter W. "Lil Walt" Millsap III – engineering (track 14), instrumentation (track 14), Pro Tools editing (track 14), production (track 14), songwriting (track 14) - MK – songwriting (track 6) - Mo Horns – horns (track 16) - Naser Musa – oud (track 1) - Candice "G.G." Nelson – instrumentation (track 14), production (track 14), songwriting (track 14) - The Neptunes – production (tracks 3 and 4) - Sara Parkins – violin (track 15) - Dave "Hard Drive" Pensado – mixing (track 17) - Rudy Pérez – arrangement (track 18), backing vocals (track 18), keyboards (track 18), production (track 18), programming (track 18), Spanish guitar (track 18), vocal direction (track 18), vocal production (track 1) - Clay Perry – engineering (track 18), keyboards (track 18), Pro Tools editing (track 18), programming (track 18) - Denaun Porter – programming (track 1) - Anne Preven – songwriting (track 15) - Keli Nicole Price – songwriting (track 12) - Boujemaa Razgui – ney (track 1) - Clarence Reid – songwriting (track 6) - Aaron Renner – engineering (track 15) - Geoff Rice – engineering (track 2) - Michele Richards – violin (track 15) - Makeba Riddick – songwriting (tracks 4, 6, 9–12 and 16) - Jared Robbins – engineering assistance (track 15) - Jamie Rosenberg – engineering assistance (track 10) - Kareem Roustom – additional string arrangement (track 1), violin arrangement (track 1) - Shakira – arrangement (track 1), production (tracks 1 and 19), violin arrangement (track 1), remix production (track 19), vocal production (track 1), vocals (tracks 1 and 19) - Haim Shtrum – violin (track 15) - Dexter Simmons – mixing (track 17) - Slim Thug – songwriting (track 17), vocals (track 17) - Daniel Smith – cello (track 15) - Chris Spilfogel – engineering (track 15) - Stargate – arrangement (track 1), engineering (track 1), instrumentation (tracks 1, 2 and 8), production (tracks 1, 2, 8 and 19), programming (track 1), songwriting (tracks 1, 2, 8 and 19), strings (track 8), string arrangement (track 8) - David Stearns – engineering assistance (track 1) - Swizz Beatz – additional production (track 6), mixing (tracks 9 and 13), production (tracks 9, 13 and 17), songwriting (tracks 9, 13 and 17) - Shaffer "Ne-Yo" Smith – production (tracks 2, 7 and 8), songwriting (tracks 2, 5, 7 and 8) - Chris Spilfogel – engineering (track 15) - Syience – production (track 5), songwriting (track 5) - Shea Taylor – production (track 7), songwriting (track 7) - Delisha Thomas – songwriting (track 12) - Michael Tocci – engineering (track 7) - Rene Luis Toledo – Spanish guitar (track 18) - Steve Tolle – mixing assistance (tracks 2–4, 6, 9–11, 13 and 14) - Francesca Tolot – make-up - The Underdogs – production (track 15) - Max Vadukul – photography - Jeff Villanueva – engineering (tracks 12 and 16) - Rommel Nino Villanueva – engineering (track 15) - Cameron Wallace – production (track 6) - Bruce Weeden – mixing (track 18) - John Weston – engineering (track 1), string digital editing (track 1) - Pharrell Williams – songwriting (tracks 3 and 4) - John Wittenburg – violin (track 15) - Shane Woodley – engineering (track 7), engineering assistance (track 18) - Kenneth Yerke – violin (track 15) ## Charts ### Weekly charts ### Year-end charts ### Decade-end charts ### All-time charts ## Certifications \|- ! scope="row"\| Romania (UPFR) \| Gold \| \|- ## Release history ## See also - B'Day Anthology Video Album - Beyoncé discography - List of Billboard 200 number-one albums of 2006 - List of Billboard number-one R&B albums of 2006 - List of Billboard number-one R&B albums of 2007 - List of number-one albums of 2006 (Canada) - List of UK R&B Albums Chart number ones of 2006

Merrion v. Jicarilla Apache Tribe

Merrion v. Jicarilla Apache Tribe, 455 U.S. 130 (1982), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States holding that an Indian tribe has the authority to impose taxes on non-Indians that are conducting business on the reservation as an inherent power under their tribal sovereignty. ## Background ### History The Jicarilla Apache Tribe is a Native American (Indian) tribe in northwestern New Mexico on a reservation of 742,315 acres (3,004.04 km²; 1,159.867 sq mi). The reservation was established by an Executive Order of President Grover Cleveland in 1887 and clarified by the Executive Orders of Presidents Theodore Roosevelt in 1907 and William Howard Taft in 1912. The tribe adopted a formal constitution under the provisions of the Indian Reorganization Act, et seq. that provided for the taxation of members of the tribe and non-members of the tribe doing business on the reservation. If the tribe enacted a such tax ordinance on non-members, the ordinance had to be approved by the Secretary of the Interior. Beginning in 1953, the tribe entered into agreements with oil companies, including the plaintiffs Merrion and Bayless, to provide oil and gas leases. The leases were approved by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs (now the Bureau of Indian Affairs, or BIA) in accordance with . As was the usual practice at the time, the oil companies negotiated directly with BIA, who then presented the contracts to the tribal council. While the oil and gas was from reservation land, Merrion paid severance taxes to the state of New Mexico under the provisions of , where Congress had authorized such taxation in 1927. The leases provided for royalties to be paid to the tribe, but the BIA was lax in collecting them. In 1973, tribal attorneys wrote to the BIA to demand the collection of royalties, and after a year delay, the BIA would only state that they were "looking into it." In 1976, the BIA approved a tribal ordinance that also provided for a severance tax. This tax was set at 29 cents (U.S.) per barrel of oil and at 5 cents per million British thermal units (BTU) for natural gas. ### District court Merrion did not want to pay a severance tax to both New Mexico and the tribe, and filed suit in the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico, along with such major companies as Atlantic Richfield (now part of BP), Getty Oil, Gulf Oil, and Phillips Petroleum (now ConocoPhillips), among others. The case was not filed until 15 days before the severance tax was due. In the hearing on the temporary injunction on June 17, 1977, Merrion argued that the tribe's severance tax was unconstitutional, violating both the Commerce clause and Equal protection clause, and that it was both taxation without representation and double taxation. In addition, the plaintiffs argued against the entire concept of tribal sovereignty, stating that it had been a "legal fiction for decades." U.S. District Judge H. Vearle Payne granted the temporary injunction and set the hearing on the permanent injunction for August 29, 1977. The oil companies showed up with approximately 40-50 attorneys, compared to 2 or 3 lawyers for the tribe. Both sides made essentially the same arguments as for the temporary injunction. Following the hearing, District court ruled that the tribe's tax violated the Commerce clause of the Constitution and that only state and local authorities had the ability to tax mineral rights on Indian reservations. The court then issued a permanent injunction prohibiting the collection of the tax by the tribe. ### Circuit court The case then went to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. The western states of Utah, New Mexico, Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming filed amici curiae briefs in support of the oil companies, while the Navajo Nation, the Arapahoe Nation, the Shoshone Indian Tribe, the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes, the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation, and the National Congress of American Indians all filed briefs in support of the Jacrilla tribe. The case was heard on May 29, 1979 by a three-judge panel consisting of Chief Judge Oliver Seth and Circuit Judges William Holloway, Jr. and Monroe G. McKay. The arguments were the same as at the district court level, with the oil companies stating that tribal sovereignty did not apply to taxation of non-Indians conducting business on the reservation. In an unusual move, no written decision was issued, and the attorneys were told to reargue the case en banc. McKay stated that as he recalls, he and Holloway were in disagreement with Seth, who favored a limited view of the tribe's authority to tax the oil companies. On September 12, 1979, the case was reheard before the entire panel. Following that hearing, in a 5-2 decision, the Tenth Circuit reversed the District Court, holding that the tribe had the inherent power under their tribal sovereignty to impose taxes on the reservation. The court also held that the tax did not violate the Commerce Clause nor place an undue burden on the oil companies. ## Opinion of the Court ### Initial arguments The oil companies immediately appealed and the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari to hear the case. This appeal came shortly after the Supreme Court had decided Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe, , which had stated that an Indian tribe did not have the authority to try a non-Indian for a crime committed on the reservation. The Oliphant case was a major blow against tribal sovereignty, and was a case used by the oil companies in their briefs. The oil companies argued that Oliphant, currently limited to criminal cases, should be expanded to civil matters as well. The attorneys for the tribe argued that this case was no different than Washington v. Confederated Tribes of Colville Indian Reservation, , which stated that tribes had the authority to impose a cigarette tax on both tribal members and non-Indians alike. Amici briefs were filed by Montana, North Dakota, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico, Washington (state), the Mountain States Legal Foundation, the Salt River Project Agricultural Improvement and Power District, Shell Oil, and Westmoreland Resources in support of the oil companies. The Council of Energy Resource Tribes and the Navajo Nation filed briefs supporting the tribe. Arguing for Mellion and Bayless was Jason W. Kellahin, for Amoco and Marathon Oil was John R. Cooney (originally a separate case, but which was consolidated with this case), for the tribe was Robert J. Nordhaus, and on behalf of the tribe for the Solicitor General was Louis F. Claiborne. Kellahin argued that tribal sovereignty only extended to members of the tribe, citing both Oliphant and Montana v. United States, , both cases involving the jurisdiction of a tribal court over non-Indians. Kellahin stated that those cases that allowed a tribe to tax non-Indians were not due to tribal sovereignty, but were connected with the authority of the tribe to regulate who could enter the reservation, in the same manner as a landlord controlled their property. Cooney argued that the tax was a violation of the Commerce Clause, in that Congress divested the tribes of that authority when they enacted granting the states the right to impose a severance tax on reservation lands. Nordhaus, in arguing for the tribe, pointed out that there was first, no Congressional preemption of the tribal authority to tax, and that second, taxation was an inherent power of tribal sovereignty. Claiborne first distinguished Montana, noting that it dealt with non-Indians on fee land owned by non-Indians that happened to be within the boundaries of the reservation, something that was completely unrelated to the current case. ### Re-argument Following the oral argument, the Chief Justice assigned Justice John Paul Stevens to write the majority opinion and Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. asked Justice Thurgood Marshall to write the minority or dissenting opinion, based on the initial count of the justices' views. Since Justice Potter Stewart did not participate in the case, it would take a 5-3 vote to overturn the decision of the Circuit Court. Stevens circulated a memorandum stating that his decision would be to invalidate the tax - Chief Justice Warren Burger and Justice William Rehnquist immediately stated they would join his opinion. Justice Byron White stated that he would wait and see what the dissent said, and then indicated he would join the dissent in part. It also appeared that Justice Harry Blackmun was also going to write a separate dissent, but he also stated that he would wait to see Marshall's opinion. At this point, the tribe had the votes to win on a 4-4 vote, but the Court was close to being adjourned for the summer recess. On July 3, 1981, the Court notified the parties to reargue the case on November 4, 1981. In the meantime, the Court had changed. Justice Stewart retired, and President Ronald Reagan had appointed Sandra Day O'Connor to replace him. During the re-argument, Kellahin began with the fact the New Mexico was acquired via the Treaty of Guadalupe Hildalgo and that neither Spain or Mexico recognized Indian title and claimed that the tax was a veiled attempt to increase royalty payments. Cooney argued that there was no authority in statute for the Secretary of the Interior to approve a tribal tax and that the 1927 statute preempted the tribes authority in favor of the states being empowered to apply a severance tax on reservations. Nordhaus stated that the argument about the Treaty of Guadalupe Hildalgo did not apply, since no branch of the federal government had ever differentiated between these tribes and other tribes. The case was then submitted to the court. ### Majority opinion Justice Thurgood Marshall delivered the opinion of the court. Marshall noted that the tribe had a properly formed constitution, approved by the Secretary of the Interior, and that it included that the tribal council may impose taxes on non-members doing business on the reservation. He noted that the tribe had executed oil and gas leases for about 69% of the reservation and that the leases provided for royalties to be paid to the tribe. Marshall further noted that the tribe followed the proper process to enact a severance tax, obtaining the approval of the BIA as part of the process. The first argument of the oil companies that the power to tax only arose from the power of the tribe to exclude persons from the reservation. Marshall disagreed, stating that the power to tax is an inherent attribute of a tribe's sovereignty. Tribal government includes the need to provide for services, not only to the tribe, but to anyone doing business on the reservation. He noted that the oil companies benefited from police protection and other governmental services. Citing Colville, he stated that the tribe's interest in raising "revenues for essential governmental programs . . . is strongest when the revenues are derived from value generated on the reservation by activities involving the Tribes and when the taxpayer is the recipient of tribal services." Marshall noted that Congress was able to remove this power, but had not done so, and had acknowledged in 1879 the power of the Cherokee Nation to tax non-Indians. Marshall further noted the oil companies' arguments that a lease would prevent a governmental body from later imposing a tax would denigrate tribal sovereignty, and that tribal sovereignty was not limited by contractual arrangements. Only the Federal government has the authority to limit the powers of a tribal government, and a non-Indian's consent is not needed (by contract or otherwise) to exercise its sovereignty, to the contrary, the tribe may set conditions and limits on the non-Indian as a matter of right. "To presume that a sovereign forever waives the right to exercise one of its sovereign powers unless it expressly reserves the right to exercise that power in a commercial agreement turns the concept of sovereignty on its head." Marshall then addressed the Commerce Clause issues, and the argument of the Solicitor General that the section of the Commerce Clause that dealt directly with Indians applied rather than the argument of the oil companies that the section dealing with interstate commerce applied. First, Marshall noted that the case history of the Indian Commerce Clause was to protect the tribes from state infringement, not to approve of Indian trade without constitutional restraint. He saw of no reason to begin now, especially since he did not find that the tribe's severance tax did not have negative implications on interstate commerce. In a 6–3 decision, Marshall found that the tribe had the right to impose such a tax on non-Indians. ### Dissent Justice John Paul Stevens, joined by Chief Justice Burger and Justice Rehnquist, dissented from the majority opinion. Stevens noted that over its own members, a tribe has virtually unlimited sovereignty. Over non-Indians, a tribe had no power, but many tribes were granted the authority to exclude non-Indians from their reservations. Stevens also noted that the various statutes that were passed in regards to mineral rights and leases were silent as to the authority of a tribe to impose taxes. Therefore, authority must come from one of three sources, federal statutes, treaties, and inherent tribal sovereignty. He noted that in matters involving their own members, the tribe could act in manners that the federal government could not, such as discriminating against females in citizenship cases (citing Santa Clara Pueblo v. Martinez, ). Tribal authority over non-members was always severely limited, in both a civil and criminal context, and he viewed both Oliphant and Montana as controlling in this area also. He viewed the authority to tax as merely an adjunct to the tribe's right to exclude individuals from the reservation. Since the leases were entered into by the tribe voluntarily, the tribe cannot enact later taxes without the consent of the oil companies. Stevens would have reversed the Circuit Court. ## Subsequent developments Almost immediately after the decision, the BIA, on directions from Assistant Secretary of the Interior Kenneth Smith, proposed federal regulations that would have severely limited the ability of the tribes to impose severance taxes. Following numerous complaints from the tribes, the BIA abandoned that plan. The Jicarilla tribe has also purchased the Palmer Oil Company, becoming the first Indian tribe to have 100% ownership of an oil production firm. The case is a landmark case in Native American case law, having been cited in approximately 400 law review articles as of July 2010. Almost all tribes that have mineral deposits now impose a severance tax, based on the Merrion decision and has been used as the basis for subsequent decisions supporting tribal taxing authority. Numerous books also mention the case, whether in regards to tribal sovereignty or taxation. ## See also - Cotton Petroleum Corp. v. New Mexico (1989)

Goronwy ap Tudur Hen

Welsh aristocrat and soldier

Goronwy ap Tudur Hen (died 1331), also known as Goronwy ap Tudur or Goronwy Fychan, was a Welsh aristocrat and Lord of Penmynydd. He was a member of the Tudor family of Penmynydd, Anglesey, North Wales, and a direct ancestor of Owen Tudor and thereby the Royal House of Tudor. He was a soldier for the English crown, who fought in the First War of Scottish Independence, including in the English invasion which led to the Battle of Bannockburn. He remained loyal to King Edward II of England until the king's death, and was both a yeoman and forester of Snowdon. After his death in 1331, his body was interred in Llanfaes Friary, near Bangor, Gwynedd. ## Ancestry and family Goronwy ap Tudur Hen was one of three sons of Welsh noble Tudur Hen (English: Tudur the Elder) and Anghared fil Ithel Fychan, alongside Madog ap Tudur Hen and Hywel ap Tudur Hen. Tudor Hen had first been in service to Llywelyn ap Gruffudd (also known as Llywelyn the Last), the King of Gwynedd, but retained his titles under the conquest of Wales by King Edward I of England. But during the rebellion of Madog ap Llywelyn, Tudur acted as his steward. After the rebellion failed, Tudur pledged his loyalty to Edward. Utilising the more advantageous property laws of England, Tudur saw to it that his lands were passed seamlessly upon his death in 1311 into the hands of Goronwy. ## Service to the English crown Goronwy ap Tudur Hen was Lord of Penmynydd and a soldier in the service of the English crown. He joined King Edward II of England for his invasion of Scotland in 1314 as part of the First War of Scottish Independence, which included service at the Battle of Bannockburn in June of that year. In 1316, a rebellion took place in Glamorgan under the leadership of Llywelyn Bren, at the same time Edward was campaigning in Scotland. Despite this, there was little concern that it would spread to North Wales, with the royal officials instead concerned with the threat of invasion from Ireland. Some 1,500 troops were summoned from the area to support the King, and among those leading those troops were Iorweth ap Gruffudd, Gruffudd Llwyd and his cousin Goronwy ap Tudur Hen. After these troops, under the command of Gruffudd Llwyd, moved to Chester, they were dismissed on 4 August 1316 to return to North Wales in order to protect the area from the Irish threat. Goronwy and his troops were again summoned into the King's service to retake Berwick in 1319, after Scottish forces had taken it a year earlier. The majority of the forces from Wales came from the southern Marcher Lords, but Goronwy, Gruffudd Llwyd and Hywel ap Gruffudd ap Geruath led those from the northern part of the country. Around the same time, as a yeoman of the king, Goronwy was made forester of Snowdon. He remained loyal to Edward II, but following the king's death, he resumed service to Edward III. Goronwy married Gwerfyl ferch Madog, daughter of Madog ap Iorwerth, 3rd Baron of Hendwr. Goronwy and Gwerfyl had three sons, Tudur, Hywel, and Gruffydd. Goronwy was interred after his death in the west wall of the Franciscan Llanfaes Friary near Bangor, Gwynedd on 11 December 1331. His father had overseen the reconstruction efforts of the friary, and in 1311 was the first of the family to be placed there following his death. Other members of the family were placed there following death, until some were moved following the Dissolution of the Monasteries under the Church of England imposed by King Henry VIII of England, with Goronwy's being moved to St Gredifael's Church, Penmynydd, where his tomb lies. ## Legacy Goronwy's eldest son Hywel ap Goronwy joined the priesthood, and became a canon of Bangor Cathedral. In 1357, Hywel became the Archdeacon of Anglesey. Gruffydd drowned in 1344. Goronwy ap Tudur Hen was one of the direct ancestors of the Royal House of Tudor. His son, Tudur ap Goronwy, became a knight in the service of Edward III, and was the grandfather of Owain ap Maredudd ap Tudur (through his son, Maredudd ap Tudur, grandson to Goronwy ap Tudur Hen). Owain Anglicised his name, becoming Owen Tudor, and was himself the grandfather of King Henry VII of England, the founder of the House of Tudor. ### Lineage

Vic Fontaine

Fictional character from TV series ''Star Trek: DS9''

Vic Fontaine is a fictional character who appeared in the sixth and seventh seasons of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Portrayed by James Darren, he is a holographic representation of a 1960s-era Las Vegas Rat Pack–style singer and entertainer, as part of a program run in the holosuites at Quark's bar. The character was developed from an idea by executive producer Ira Steven Behr, who had sought to introduce a character of that type during the fourth season to be played by Frank Sinatra, Jr. After Sinatra turned down the role, it was considered during the following season, to be played by Steve Lawrence, but once again was not used. Darren landed the role after Behr met him at a memorabilia show in North Hollywood and had him invited to audition. The character made his first appearance in the episode "His Way", and returned later in the sixth season in "Tears of the Prophets" and throughout the seventh season. Fontaine represented a source of romantic advice for the crew, helping to get Odo (René Auberjonois) and Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor) together as well as aiding Quark (Armin Shimerman) and Julian Bashir (Alexander Siddig) to move on from their love of Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell). He also helps Nog (Aron Eisenberg) to recover from the loss of his leg in "It's Only a Paper Moon". Returning the favor in "Badda-Bing Badda-Bang", the crew help Fontaine get his bar back after it is taken over by the American Mafia. The crew return to the bar one final time in the series finale, "What You Leave Behind", for the celebration party following the victory over the Dominion. Episodes such as "His Way" and "It's Only a Paper Moon" were praised, and "Badda-Bing Badda-Bang" was compared to the famed 1960's Ocean's 11. The character itself was praised by critics, who specifically said that the premise should not have worked but did, due to both the writing and Darren's performances. ## Concept and development Executive producer Ira Steven Behr had long sought to introduce a Rat Pack-style character to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine since the fourth season, as he was a lifelong fan of 1960s-era Las Vegas and the music of that period. The initial idea was that the character would be someone who could give out romantic advice, and that it would not appear in every episode but only as and when it was needed. In preparation, Behr and Robert Hewitt Wolfe wrote a scene in order to flesh out the character, while Behr immediately had a performer in mind to play the new character: Frank Sinatra, Jr., a known fan of Star Trek. Casting director Ron Surma got in touch with Sinatra, who thought that it would be a funny idea. Sinatra wanted to play an alien and not the singer character they had in mind, so the idea was shelved for the time being. During the production of the fifth season episode "A Simple Investigation", it was decided to insert the scene that Behr and Wolfe had previously created. Behr mused at the time that while Sinatra might not want to portray the character, perhaps someone similar to Steve Lawrence would. Behr named the character Vic Fontaine, a combination of two names he had been planning to use for some time. Some time later, Behr noticed a similarity in naming between the new character and one from the 1972 film The Godfather. But Lawrence was unavailable and the scene proved too long to be included in the episode, so once again the idea was put on hold. Behr was unsure how to write the character into the show until it became apparent that it could be included as part of the relationship between Odo and Kira Nerys in the episode "Children of Time". Rather than film an individual scene, he decided that an entire 1960s-era Las Vegas themed episode should be created, resulting in the production of "His Way". ### "His Way" Several people were interviewed for the part, including Tom Jones, Robert Goulet, and Jerry Vale. Meanwhile, Behr and a friend attended a memorabilia show at the Beverly Garland Hotel in North Hollywood, where James Darren was signing autographs. Darren had not wanted to attend the event, but had been convinced otherwise. Behr thought he was so charming that he wanted to talk to him about the role on the spot, but his friend talked him out of it as he was worried that Darren would think he was insane. Surma got in touch with Darren at Behr's prompting. Darren initially rejected the role three times, thinking that a real singer playing a role as a singer, is too "on the nose". Darren's agent eventually convinced him to actually read the script. He loved playing the character while reading it ten times to absorb the personality enough to avoid having to memorize lines. He later called it a "dream come true". Darren came in for casting and began talking about knowing where to source the appropriate tuxedos, and that he could wear a pair of Dean Martin's shoes that he owned. During the course of the meeting, Behr became convinced that Darren was already performing the Fontaine piece, having moved into it seamlessly in conversation. Darren had deliberately avoiding simply reading the script at rehearsal, as he disliked doing cold reads; instead, he was intentionally improvising lines that he thought that the character would say. Yet he did so in a way that he recalls prompting Behr to say, "Man, it's funny, I wrote a line just like that for Vic." After Darren left, Behr excitedly told the other writers how good he was, but that perhaps they should still see other actors. Producer Hans Beimler replied, "Are you out of your mind? What are you talking about? Vic Fontaine was just in the room. There's no question, there's no question! He's the guy!" Darren was subsequently hired for the role. He thought that Fontaine was a combination of Martin and Frank Sinatra, and found that a mention by the character to traveling with that duo to Vegas in the "His Way" script caused him to think about the past, as he had travelled with Sinatra, Jr. and Nancy Sinatra in Sinatra's private plane to Las Vegas to see Sinatra and Martin play at the Sands Hotel and Casino on several occasions. At the time, Darren was unsure whether it was to be a recurring role or not, but had enjoyed the experience. Fontaine is in the final episode of the season, "Tears of the Prophets", and several episodes throughout season seven. ## Appearances Vic Fontaine is first introduced in the episode "His Way" as a romantically insightful hologram who, uniquely for holodeck characters, is aware that he's a hologram. He forms part of a new Rat Pack-style Las Vegas bar program owned by Doctor Julian Bashir (Alexander Siddig). Several of the main crew are present for his performance of "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You". Afterwards, Odo (René Auberjonois) seeks some advice in private from Fontaine about his feelings for Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor). The hologram helps Odo practice with another hologram that looks like Kira but does not act correctly, but Odo finds that when the real version returns to the station that they can barely interact. Fontaine transfers himself into Kira's meditation holo-program and invites her to dinner; curious, she accepts. Fontaine invites Odo back to his program, saying that the holo-Kira now acts exactly like her. The two get together in the holodeck and the date goes well until Odo reveals that he thinks that the real Kira is actually a hologram. The ruse revealed, both look accusingly at Fontaine and leave. But once outside on the promenade, the duo begin to argue, resulting in Odo kissing Kira. During the second appearance of the character in "Tears of the Prophets", Bashir and Quark (Armin Shimerman) run Fontaine's program in an attempt to cheer themselves up after realising that they will never have a chance with Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell) because of her relationship with Worf (Michael Dorn). The hologram advises them to move on with their lives. In the first episode of the seventh season, "Image in the Sand", Worf is mourning the death of Jadzia. He goes to Fontaine and asks him to sing the Frank Sinatra song "All the Way". Fontaine sings the song reluctantly, and partway through, Worf begins to destroy the bar in his grief-stricken rage. At the start of "The Siege of AR-558", Fontaine auditions Rom (Max Grodénchik) as a new lounge singer. He does not get the job. Later, while the Federation troops are under siege by the Jem'Hadar, Bashir plays Fontaine's recording of "I'll Be Seeing You" over a sound system to raise morale. As a result of him losing his leg during the siege, in "It's Only a Paper Moon", Nog (Aron Eisenberg) keeps playing that song in private upon his return to Deep Space Nine. He goes to the holosuite to play the Fontaine program, and begins to rely on it, effectively moving into the holosuite permanently. Ezri Dax (Nicole de Boer), the station's counselor, has concerns with Nog living in a fictional world and speaks to Fontaine, who explains that he has a plan to rectify the situation. Fontaine convinces Nog that the bar is in trouble and he needs some help with the accounts; the Ferengi uses his business knowledge to help the hologram. Fontaine befriends Nog and after a while tries to convince him to return to the outside world following prompting by Ezri. Nog refuses to leave, resulting in Fontaine shutting down his program and refusing to let it restart. Fontaine appears to Nog in an otherwise empty holosuite, and Nog confesses that his injury has made him fear death and the ongoing war with the Dominion. Fontaine counsels Nog, who feels strong enough to leave the holosuite and return to duty. Shortly after he resumes his role back on the station, Nog returns to Fontaine to inform him that he has convinced Quark to leave the program running continuously to allow Vic to have a life of his own. A possible Mirror Universe version of Vic Fontaine appears in "The Emperor's New Cloak". This version of Fontaine appears to be human (no explanation for this is given), and is shot dead during a phaser battle. In "Badda-Bing Badda-Bang", as part of a story programmed into the "Vic Fontaine" holodeck setting, Fontaine is forced out of his club by the American Mafia, who turn it into a casino. The rest of the crew want Fontaine's bar back the way it was, and are faced with either resetting the program and losing the hologram's memory of the crew, or playing along with the story and returning the bar to Vic. So Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) leads a team to steal the casino's takings. Upon their success, the program restores the bar to the way it was, and Fontaine celebrates by singing "The Best Is Yet to Come" to the crew. During the finale of Deep Space Nine, "What You Leave Behind", Quark passes the time during the attack on Cardassia Prime by playing Go Fish with Fontaine. Later, after the victory and the defeat of the Dominion, the crew return to Vic's bar for a celebratory party. ## Reception The character of Vic Fontaine was received with mixed reviews by both critics and the public. While Keith DeCandido disliked the idea of the Fontaine program in his review of "His Way" for Tor.com, saying that "It's silly, it's frivolous, it raises all kinds of ethical conundrums that the show never shows the remotest interest in investigating", he said that he enjoyed Darren's performance, which caused him to smile every time Darren spoke. Zack Handlen praised the 1960s scenes in "His Way" for The A.V. Club, saying that it "isn't as entirely ridiculous as it sounds, and the fact that it works even remotely is a testament to the actors and the script". Charlie Jane Anders described Fontaine as a "less cool Guinan" in her criticism of "Badda-Bing Badda-Bang". The episode was included in her list of the worst holodeck-related episodes of the Star Trek franchise, but added that she was a fan of "It's Only a Paper Moon". That episode was ranked as the third best of the series by Gem Wheeler for Den of Geek, who called Fontaine the "ideal holographic host" on the show. The character was named the sixth best thing about Deep Space Nine in a list of highlights by TrekToday in 2015. In 2020, ScreenRant ranked Vic Fontaine the tenth best holodeck character of the Star Trek franchise.

2014 24 Hours of Le Mans

82th 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race

The 82nd 24 Hours of Le Mans (French: 82^e 24 Heures du Mans) was an 24-hour automobile endurance racing event for teams of three drivers entering Le Mans Prototype and Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance cars held from 11 to 15 June 2014 at the Circuit de la Sarthe close to Le Mans, France. It was the 82nd running of the event, as organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) since . The race was the third round and the premier event of the 2014 FIA World Endurance Championship, with half of the race's fifty-five entries contesting the championship. Approximately 263,000 spectators attended the event, the largest crowd since . The race was won by an Audi R18 e-tron quattro driven by Swiss Marcel Fässler, German André Lotterer, and Frenchman Benoît Tréluyer, who previously won Le Mans as a trio in and . This victory was Audi's thirteenth since the company debuted at the race in 1999. The Audi team took the lead after a Toyota TS040 Hybrid came to a stop after leading half the race distance, but were challenged by Porsche when two Audi cars required turbocharger replacements. The second of Tom Kristensen, Marc Gené and Lucas di Grassi finished in second place, three laps behind the race winners, while Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi and Nicolas Lapierre's No. 8 Toyota recovered from an accident in the first hour to finish in third place. The (Le Mans Prototype 1-Lightweight) LMP1-L category was won by the Rebellion Racing Rebellion-Toyota of Nick Heidfeld, Mathias Beche, and Nico Prost, the sole finisher in the class. The Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class finished with the Jota Sport Zytek-Nissan of Simon Dolan, Oliver Turvey, and Harry Tincknell ahead of the TDS Racing Ligier-Nissan by less than a lap's distance. The AF Corse team fielding a Ferrari 458 Italia GT2 won the Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Professional (LMGTE Pro) category with drivers Gianmaria Bruni, Giancarlo Fisichella, and Toni Vilander, while the Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Amateur (LMGTE Am) category was won by Aston Martin Racing's trio of Danish drivers: David Heinemeier Hansson, Kristian Poulsen, and Nicki Thiim. The result meant Davidson, Lapierre and Buemi remained the Drivers' Championship leaders with 80 points while Fässler, Tréluyer and Lotterer's victory enabled them to move into second on 60 points and di Grassi and Kristensen remained in third place but a further six points behind. Mathias Beche, Nicolas Prost and Nick Heidfeld remained in fourth position on 42 points and Gené's second-place finish moved him to fifth place. Toyota remained the leaders of the Manufacturers' Championship, but their advantage over Audi was now a single point while Porsche maintained third position with five races left in the season. ## Schedule and pre-championship standings The 2014 Le Mans schedule was moved forward one week to avoid conflicts with other major motorsports series. It was the 82nd running of the event, and the third of eight scheduled rounds of the 2014 FIA World Endurance Championship. Before the race Toyota drivers Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi and Nicolas Lapierre led the Drivers' Championship with 50 points, 16 ahead of their teammates Alexander Wurz, Stéphane Sarrazin and Kazuki Nakajima and a further 16 in front of Loïc Duval, Lucas di Grassi and Tom Kristensen. Mathias Beche, Nicolas Prost and Nick Heidfeld were fourth on 18 points and Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Mark Webber stood in fifth place with 15.5 points. Toyota were leading the Manufacturers' Championship with 84 points, 48 ahead of their rival Porsche in second; the third-placed Manufacturer Audi had scored 28 points. Toyota had so far dominated the championship, winning the season's previous two races. Wurz, Sarrazin and Nakajima along with Duval, di Grassi and Kristensen had finished in second once and Bernhard, Hartley, Webber along with Wurz, Sarrazin and Nakajima had both secured third-place podium finishes. ## Circuit and regulation changes Following the death of Allan Simonsen during the 2013 race, the ACO announced improvements to several sections of the circuit. Tertre Rouge was re-profiled and new barriers and tire walls were added at the corner's exit onto the Mulsanne Straight. Run-off areas in the Corvette corners were expanded, and Tecpro barriers were added behind the tire walls at the start of the Porsche corners. Large kerbs were added to the paved run-off at the second Ford chicane to deter cars from cutting the corner. A new safety system was implemented, which allowed for the intervention of safety vehicles on a particular section of the circuit without the need for neutralising the entire race with safety cars. The system, termed a slow zone, requires cars to slow and maintain a speed of 60 km/h (37 mph) within a specific zone. Speeds within the zones were monitored by GPS systems that were required on every car. In conjunction with the slow zone procedure an onboard marshalling system warned drivers of the location of slow zones. New regulations required rookies, as well as drivers who have not competed at Le Mans in the past five years, to participate in a half-day simulator training course. The course includes examples of night and wet racing at Le Mans, as well as the new safety car and slow zone procedures. ## Entries ### Automatic invitations Automatic entry invitations were earned by teams that won their class in the previous running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, or have won Le Mans-based series such as the American Le Mans Series (ALMS), European Le Mans Series (ELMS) and Asian Le Mans Series (ASLMS). Some second-place finishers were also granted automatic invitations in certain series. As with the 2013 race, the ALMS was given two designated entries rather than entries for each class. All current FIA World Endurance Championship (FIA WEC) full-season entries also automatically earned invitations. As automatic invitations were granted to teams, the teams were allowed to change their cars from the previous year to the next, but are not allowed to change their category. However, automatic invitations in the two GTE categories were able to be swapped between the two based on the driver line-ups chosen by these teams. On 20 December 2013, the ACO published its initial list of automatic invitations. Muscle Milk Pickett Racing and Team Endurance Challenge did not take up their automatic entries; Risi Competizione also turned down its invitation, but later submitted a request for another car and was granted a reserve entry. ### Garage 56 The ACO continued the Garage 56 concept, started in 2012. Garage 56 allows a 56th entry to the race, using the rigours of the 24 Hours of Le Mans to test new technology. The ACO announced during 2013 that the Nissan Motor Company's Nismo division had been granted the Garage 56 entry for 2014. Nissan unveiled the car, known as the ZEOD RC, during the 2013 24 Hours of Le Mans weekend. The ZEOD RC was designed by Ben Bowlby, who created the 2012 Garage 56 entry DeltaWing with backing from Nissan. The ZEOD RC utilized a hybrid electric drivetrain with lithium ion battery packs in a chassis similar in design to the DeltaWing. The car featured a turbocharged three-cylinder internal combustion engine and two electric drive motors. Nissan planned to attempt a full lap of the Circuit de la Sarthe under all-electric power, a goal achieved during the pre-race warm-up session. ### Entry list In conjunction with the announcement of entries for the 2014 FIA WEC and the 2014 ELMS, the ACO announced the full list of invitations for Le Mans, plus ten reserves. In addition to the 31 guaranteed entries from the WEC, thirteen entries came from the ELMS, five from the IMSA SportsCar Championship, and two from the ASLMS, while the rest of the field was filled with one-off entries competing only at Le Mans. Following the publication of the invitations, several teams withdrew their entries. SRT Motorsports announced that its Vipers would be withdrawn, citing concentration on the United SportsCar Championship, and bringing the manufacturers in the Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Professional (LMGTE Pro) category down to four. JMW Motorsports' and Team Taisan's Ferrari cars were promoted to the race entry as a result. On 28 April 2014, the ACO released a revised entry list that confirmed the withdrawal of Millennium Racing's two entries, Craft Racing, and two additional Aston Martin Racing entries. Larbre Compétition, Caterham Racing, Pegasus Racing and second entries of IMSA Performance Matmut and Prospeed Competition were promoted from the reserves to the race entry. Lotus withdrew its new LMP1-L class prototype due to a delay in completion of the car, leaving only Rebellion Racing cars in the category. Millennium Racing, which had previously withdrawn due to a delay in funding, had one entry reinstated. A week later Strakka Racing withdrew its Strakka Dome S103 after an accident in testing damaged the car, which had been planned to debut in the LMP2 category. Krohn Racing, who had initially withdrawn its joint entry with Risi Competizione from the reserve list, replaced the Strakka. The day before the start of scrutineering, Millennium Racing was unable to secure its funding and was forced to withdraw for the second time. No replacement was found. ## Testing and practice A test day was held on 1 June, two weeks prior to the race, and allowed but did not require all entrants for the race to participate in eight hours of track time divided into two sessions. Krohn Racing did not attend the test due to lack of preparation, while Prospeed Competition's second car was also not entered. Millennium Racing had its race entry plus a second car entered for the test but did not arrive. AF Corse brought an additional Ferrari to allow more testing for drivers, bringing the total cars for the day to 54. Toyota set the pace of the day with a three minutes and 23.014 seconds lap recorded by Buemi in the second session, followed by Nakajima in the No. 7 Toyota in second. The No. 3 Audi of Marco Bonanomi was within a second of the top time. The fastest Porsche of Neel Jani was over a second and a half behind Buemi's lap. Roman Rusinov led the LMP2 class for G-Drive Racing with a three minutes and 37.795 seconds lap time ahead of Karun Chandhok's No. 48 Murphy Prototypes and Signatech Alpine. The LMGTE Pro category was led by Frédéric Makowiecki's Porsche with a three minutes and 57.260 seconds time, while the team's second car was damaged beyond repair early in the session after becoming airborne in the gravel traps of the Ford chicane. Paolo Ruberti's 8 Star Motorsports Ferrari was the fastest in LMGTE Am, and the second fastest amongst all LMGTE runners, with a three minutes and 57.403 seconds lap. After the test several prototype teams, including all Audi, Porsche, and Toyota cars participated in an unofficial test on the shorter Bugatti Circuit the following day to ensure car components were working efficiently before the race. Official practice was held on 11 June with the full 54-car field on track for four hours. Toyota led from the start once again, with Davidson claiming the fastest time of the session with a three minutes and 23.652 seconds lap, just ahead of the No. 2 Audi. Porsche's fastest laps were nearly three seconds off the pace. Early in the session, the No. 1 Audi of Loïc Duval spun and became airborne in the Porsche Curves, impacting catch fencing above the barriers and destroying the car. Duval was able to climb from the car but was not cleared for the rest of the week while Audi was forced to bring in a spare chassis to replace the vehicle. He was replaced by Jota Sport driver Marc Gené with Oliver Turvey taking over the Spaniard's seat at the British team. OAK Racing's Ligier JS P2, making its racing debut, led the LMP2 category with a three minutes and 40.611 seconds lap time. In LMGTE, an Am class car led the field with Nicki Thiim's Aston Martin recording a three minutes and 57.015 seconds lap time, ahead of the LMGTE Pro AF Corse Ferrari by thirteen thousandths of a second. The experimental Nissan ZEOD RC was the only car not to set a lap time in the session after suffering mechanical failures on its first lap. A second stoppage was necessitated after Erik Maris crashed into the barrier at the first Mulsanne chicane and the session ended early when Frankie Montecalvo impacted the wall at the second chicane and debris was scattered across the track. ## Qualifying The first qualifying session of three to determine the race's starting order through the fastest lap times set by each team's quickest driver began late Wednesday night under clear weather, as Porsche led the time sheets early on with a flying lap from Jani in the No. 14 entry, followed by Hartley's three minutes and 23.157 seconds time a few laps later to top the session. The two Toyota cars stood two seconds back by the end of the session, although the No. 7 car suffered an oil leak and stopped on the side of the circuit, while the two participating Audi R18 e-tron quattro cars were three seconds adrift of the Porsche vehicles. Olivier Pla carried OAK Racing's Morgan to provisional pole in LMP2 with a time of three minutes 38.843 seconds ahead of the Signatech Alpine and KCMG Oreca. Nicolas Minassian in the No. 37 SMP Racing Oreca-Nissan caused a red flag for half an hour early in the session after crashing in the Porsche Curves. The Pro class of LMGTE was led by Gianmaria Bruni's AF Corse Ferrari, setting a pace of three minutes and 54.754 seconds. Aston Martin, Porsche, and Corvette all had cars within two seconds of the Ferrari. Aston Martin's second entry, driven by Fernando Rees, crashed at the Porsche Curves, forcing the session to be ended half an hour earlier than planned in order to repair the barriers. The Aston Martin would later be withdrawn from the race due to the damage to the car. At the premature end of the session, Andrea Bertolini's SMP Ferrari was at the top of the timing charts for LMGTE Am with a three minutes and 56.787 seconds lap time, followed by the No. 61 AF Corse Ferrari and Dempsey Porsche. Thursday's first qualifying session saw more stoppages for crashes. James Calado crashed his AF Corse Ferrari in the Porsche Curves, necessitating a half-hour red flag. This was followed by the No. 1 Audi, making some of its first laps since its accident on Wednesday, spinning at Indianapolis corner and damaging the car's bodywork. While driver di Grassi attempted to return to the pit lane he swerved in front of Leo Roussel's Pegasus Morgan, causing the LMP2 car to dart off the track and crash at the pit entrance. At the same time, Bret Curtis in the No. 79 Prospeed Porsche spun at the entrance to the Dunlop Chicane and impacted the wall, knocking Curtis unconscious. Curtis was transported to the local hospital for a check-up and was not cleared for the remainder of the race meeting. Following clean-up of the circuit qualifying resumed with fifteen minutes left in the session, and improvements were made by nearly every hybrid and non-hybrid car in LMP1. Kazuki Nakajima improved provisional pole position with a three minutes and 22.589 seconds lap, followed by the Porsche entries of Romain Dumas and Bernhard. The fastest Audi was fourth after a lap from Oliver Jarvis. Tristan Gommendy gave the débuting Ligier of TDS Racing provisional pole in LMP2 after displacing the Murphy Oreca on the last lap of the session, setting a time of three minutes and 38.094 seconds. In LMGTE Pro, Corvette led the session but did not improve on AF Corse's lap time from the first qualification session. Similarly the No. 61 AF Corse Ferrari came within two-tenths of a second of besting SMP's lead time in LMGTE Am. With the multiple stoppages in qualifying, the third session was expanded by half an hour in order to give teams more time on the circuit. Fifteen minutes into the session Nakajima set a new fastest time of three minutes and 21.789 seconds and would hold the top of the time charts to take Toyota's first pole position at Le Mans since . Dumas improved the No. 14 Porsche's time to sit alongside the Toyota on the front row of the grid. Audi was not able to improve on their times from the second qualifying session, and settled for fifth, sixth, and seventh places on the grid. The No. 12 Rebellion, driven by Beche, won out over its sister car in the non-hybrid LMP1-L category but eight seconds off the overall pole position. In LMP2, OAK Racing and the Jota Zytek traded provisional pole before Gommendy reclaimed the top spot for TDS Racing and Ligier with a three minutes and 37.609 seconds lap time. Bruni improved on his own provisional pole time in LMGTE Pro with a three minutes and 53.700 seconds, extending the class lead by over a second from the No. 73 Corvette in second and sole Aston Martin in third. Sam Bird earned AF Corse a second pole position by improving LMGTE Am's top time by two seconds with a three minutes and 54.665 seconds and setting the second fastest time of all LMGTE cars combined. Aston Martin's two entries were second and third in the class, yet a full second behind the Ferrari. The Nissan ZEOD RC of Lucas Ordóñez, after earlier woes in the week, set a three minutes and 50.185 seconds lap time to place 27th overall in qualifying. The slow zone procedure was used for the first time in the third qualifying session, after Montecalvo spun the 8 Star Ferrari into the gravel in the Porsche Curves. The slow zone was required once more to finish the session after Chandhok crashed the Murphy Oreca at Indianapolis. Both slow zones prevented qualifying times from being improved in the final hour of the session. ### Post-qualifying Prospeed nominated Sebastien Crubile as a replacement for Curtis, but the ACO did not allow him to participate due to a lack of laps taken under night conditions. The team elected continue as a two-driver operation, but were forced to switch to the LMGTE Pro category due to no longer meeting the LMGTE Am driver ranking requirements. Calado was injured from his second qualifying session crash and was not cleared to participate in the race and was replaced by Pierre Kaffer. ### Qualifying results Pole position winners in each class are indicated in bold and by a The fastest time set by each entry is denoted in gray. ## Warm-up The cars took to the track on Saturday morning for a 45-minute warm-up session in dry and sunny weather. The No. 8 Toyota driven by Buemi set the fastest time with a late lap of three minutes and 23.731 seconds. The sister Toyota of Lapierre was third-fastest having been separated from his teammate by Lotterer who recorded the second-quickest overall time. The other two Audi entrants of Filipe Albuquerque and Marcel Fässler rounded out the top five. The fastest LMP2 lap was set by Pierre Thiriet with a time of three minutes and 40.263 seconds. Jan Magnussen, driving the No. 73 Chevrolet Corvette, was the quickest driver in LMGTE Pro with the No. 95 Aston Martin driven by Thiim the fastest of the LMGTE Am drivers. Maurizio Mediani made contact with Shinji Nakano's car but both vehicles sustained only minor damage. Mika Salo crashed his AF Corse Ferrari in a collision with the barriers at the entry to the Porsche Curves, possibly caused by a rear puncture, but the car was not heavily damaged. ## Race The weather at the start was dry and sunny. The air temperature throughout the race ranged from 12.5–25 °C (54.5–77.0 °F) with a track temperature between 15.5–47 °C (59.9–116.6 °F). Approximately 243,000 spectators attended the event, the largest crowd since . The race began with a rolling start at 15:00 Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00), with two-time Formula One World Champion Fernando Alonso having the honour of waving the French Tricolour to start the race. The 54-car field was led by Wurz's Toyota, who maintained the position for most of the opening hours, followed by Lapierre in the second Toyota and the trio of Audi cars driven by Lotterer, Bonanomi and Kristensen; the two Porsche entries of Bernhard and Jani fell back from the leaders. The experimental Nissan ZEOD RC driven by Wolfgang Reip came to a rest on the side of the circuit at the Porsche Curves on the sixth lap after suffering a failure related to its gearbox, and became the first retirement of the race after a request by the team to recover the car was rejected by the ACO. Meanwhile, Lapierre fell from second place after spinning exiting a Mulsanne chicane and bringing out the race's first slow zone procedure. Rain fell across parts of the circuit in the second hour of the race and several cars were caught out by the change in conditions. The KCMG Oreca-Nissan driven by Richard Bradley, which had been trading the LMP2 lead with Jota Sport, hydroplaned into the first Mulsanne chicane and impacted the tire barriers heavily, while further up the Mulsanne Straight several contenders in multiple classes were involved in a heavy accident. A group of LMGTE cars as well as the No. 3 Audi were slow on the course when they were approached by the No. 8 Toyota of Lapierre at a high speed. Aquaplaning under braking, Lapierre spun amongst the group of cars and impacted the barriers head on. This was followed by Bird in the LMGTE Am-leading AF Corse Ferrari who drove into the rear of Bonanomi. The accident led to a safety car intervention, during which Lapierre was able to limp the Toyota back to the pit lane for repairs that lasted for nearly an hour. Bonanomi and Bird were unable to get their cars moving again and retired. Bradley was able to drive back to the pit lane for repairs and kept second place in LMP2. Rain returned to the circuit only fifteen minutes after the race resumed green flag conditions and more chaos ensued; Chandhok of Murphy Prototypes and Michael Munemann of Greaves Motorsport collected one another while spinning exiting Tertre Rouge corner, bringing out the safety cars for the second time. As the rain tapered off and racing resumed once more, the remaining Toyota and pursuing Porsche cars were now on different pit stop sequences, allowing Bernhard and later Hartley to briefly take the overall race lead before Sarrazin in the No. 7 reclaimed the top spot by the fourth hour. Further down the field changes in lead were also happening in other categories. Wet weather tyre strategy from the Dempsey-Proton Porsche failed to pay off as the No. 98 Aston Martin took command in LMGTE Am from the slower Porsche. After the damaged KCMG car relinquished the lead in LMP2, Franck Mailleux's No. 34 Race Performance Oreca and Signatech driver Paul-Loup Chatin traded off the category lead before later being joined by the No. 35 OAK Ligier driven by Alex Brundle. The LMGTE Pro lead became a multi-car battle between representatives of each of the four manufacturers, with the lead sometimes changing several times per lap. The Porsche 919 Hybrid also suffered its first major problems as the No. 14 of Marc Lieb went to the garage with fuel pressure problems, dropping the car to 51st place before it recovered to sixth. As night fell on the circuit, Toyota's lead extended to over a minute from the two remaining Audi entrants, while the OAK Ligier took over the LMP2 lead and ran away to nearly three minutes over the duelling Race Performance Oreca and Signatech Alpine. LMGTE Pro continued to be a close battle between Giancarlo Fisichella in the No. 51 Ferrari, Darren Turner's No. 97 Aston Martin, and No. 74 Corvette driven by Richard Westbrook, with the trio following one another nose to tail for a multitude of laps. The second Corvette dropped off the leading pace after problems with the car's air jack system required a lengthy pit stop. The No. 98 and No. 95 Aston Martin vehicles continued to hold sway over the LMGTE Am class, but around midnight Pedro Lamy relinquished the lead the No. 98 car had held for 86 consecutive laps when he came to the pit lane with smoke from the bonnet as the power steering system on the car failed. The No. 1 Audi of Kristensen was forced to the garage to replace failed fuel injectors after the race passed half distance, while Lieb Porsche's No. 14 car was forced to return to the pit lane on solely electrical power after suffering a second fuel pressure problem. As Nakajima drove the No. 7 Toyota into its ninth hour in the race lead, the car lost drive shortly after the Arnage corner and came to a stop alongside the barriers. An FIA-mandated piece of monitoring equipment had failed within the car and melted a wiring loom and was not able to be repaired by Nakajima, forcing Toyota to abandon the former race-leading car. The No. 2 Audi became the new leader ahead of the No. 20 Porsche and the recovering No. 1 Audi by three laps. Over an hour after taking the race lead, Fässler, driving the No. 2 Audi, was forced to replace a failing turbocharger, sitting idle for twenty minutes and falling to third. Audi's No. 1 car took over the top spot after passing the No. 20 Porsche and the ailing No. 2, eventually extending its lead to one lap over the Porsche. Further down the field the No. 74 Corvette was forced to drop out of the lead battle in LMGTE Pro as the alternator belt on the car failed, requiring a visit to the garage that lost the car three laps. The No. 72 SMP Racing Ferrari of Viktor Shaytar had a crash in the Porsche Curves which damaged the safety barriers alongside the track and forced the retirement of the Ferrari. The safety car was deployed for two laps to move necessary equipment to the damaged area for repairs, while a slow zone was used after the safety car period for half an hour while the repairs were undertaken. After green flag racing resumed, the OAK Ligier of Mark Shulzhitskiy leading LMP2 was forced to the garage with engine and brake issues, eventually resuming at a slower pace. The second place TDS Ligier driven by Gommendy was also hindered after a suspension failure required repairs, and Simon Dolan's Jota Zytek improved to within a lap of the top two in class. The No. 97 Aston Martin driven by Bruno Senna, after continuing its close battle with Bruni in the No. 51 Ferrari, succumbed to the same power steering failure that had hit the No. 98 sister car. Ferrari now enjoyed a two lap lead over Richard Lietz in the No. 92 Porsche who inherited second in class. Nearly 21 hours into the race, Kristensen's No. 1 Audi slowed on course on several laps. After eventually returning to the garage Audi were forced to perform their second turbocharger replacement of the race as the No. 1 was hampered by the same issue that had stopped the No. 2's lead. This promoted Bernhard in the No. 20 Porsche to the race lead with the No. 2 Audi driven by Lotterer only a minute and a half behind the leader. Porsche's lead lasted only an hour though as it too slowed on the course suffering from a broken anti-roll bar and was forced to the garage where it was eventually abandoned. The No. 14 Porsche of Lieb came to the garage half an hour later with gearbox issues after slowing at Mulsanne corner but returned to the race in the final half-hour. The shake-up in LMP1 promoted the No. 2 Audi to the race lead, three laps ahead of di Grassi's No. 1 Audi and followed by Davidson's No. 8 Toyota, still recovering from its accident in the opening hours of the race. The attrition amongst LMP1 cars also allowed the No. 12 Rebellion Racing, the sole remaining LMP1-L car in the race, into fourth place overall. The ailing OAK Ligier of Brundle was also forced to abandon the LMP2 lead after being caught by the faster TDS Ligier of Gommendy and Harry Tincknell's Jota Zytek, before eventually having a lengthy stop for more work on the troubled engine which dropped them from contention. The No. 2 Audi, driven by Fässler, Benoît Tréluyer, and Lotterer, was able to maintain the race lead without trouble for the final two hours of the race, taking the trio's third race win in four years, and Audi's thirteenth overall. Porsche was able to repair the No. 14 car enough to return it to the track for the final lap, settling for eleventh place overall. The battle in LMP2 continued into the last hour, as the Jota Zytek was able to overhaul the TDS Ligier and hold on for the class win and fifth place overall. The win was the first for Jota Sport and its drivers Dolan, Turvey, and Tincknell. Nissan powered the top five finishers in the class. In the LMGTE Pro category, the No. 73 Corvette was able to come back against the No. 92 Porsche to claim second in class, but no one was able to challenge the lead of the AF Corse Ferrari for the remainder of the race. The No. 95 Aston Martin, which had been Allan Simonsen's entry when he was killed in an accident at Le Mans the previous year, was undaunted in LMGTE Am and maintained the first-place position it had held for 205 consecutive laps. Proton Competition came in second in the class, two laps adrift of the Aston Martin. There were eight lead changes in the race; four cars reached the front of the field. The No. 7 Toyota led three times for a total of 207 laps, more than any other car. The No. 2 Audi led twice in the race for a total of 73 laps. ## Post-race The top three finishers of each category appeared on the podium to collect their trophies and in a later press conference. All three of the No. 2 Audi drivers felt their turbocharger problem would have cost them the victory, with Lotterer saying, "When we had the turbo problem we were very disappointed because it's impossible to come back from that. We were a bit unlucky, but at Le Mans you never know what is going to happen and the team motivated me again – they did a great job." Fässler added the team attempted to pressure Toyota but they were unable to catch the Japanese manufacturer: "But this time everyone had problems. We had to be flat out and have no penalties – it isn't easy to do that when you are pushing." Tréluyer stated that winning Le Mans was "emotional" and praised the engineers strategy. He felt their approach was like their victory: "We concentrated on our own race and took the car through until morning. It was the car which had the least bad luck that won." Kristensen stated he was not unhappy to finish in second and that while his team would have liked to have had their "little fairy tale" it was still a good result. Di Grassi said it had been "a difficult race" for his team but hoped to return to Le Mans in the future while Gené revealed that did not expect a strong result but that second was "like a fairytale for me." Buemi and Davidson were disappointed to achieve a third-place podium finish with Davidson saying Toyota had to learn from their mistake and make progress. Both drivers added that their focus would be on the championship. Lapierre accepted that his early race crash affected his team's ambitions of winning the race, stating he was unable to see anything because of low visibility, and did not expect to get the car back to the pit lane with the heavy damage it sustained: "We crossed our fingers that the car would hold together to the end, and after this we can be pleased with what we accomplished." Wolfgang Ullrich, the head of Audi Motorsport, expressed his respect for Porsche, saying the German company and Toyota were strong competitors and Ullrich held a belief that Audi would succeed despite of strenuous prerequisites for the season. He stated the event was "of the kind you can only experience at Le Mans" with the deciding factors being that the Audi R18 e-tron quattro drove consistently fast for the entire duration of the race and said the victory was placed among the German company's greatest wins because of the constant changing factors for all the competing teams. The result meant Davidson, Lapierre and Wurz remained at the top of the Drivers' Championship with 80 points while Fässler, Tréluyer and Lotterer's victory enabled them to move into second on 60 points and di Grassi and Kristensen were still in third place but a further six points behind. Beche, Prost and Heidfeld remained in fourth position on 42 points and Gené's second-place finish allowed him to round out the top five with 36 points. Toyota remained the leaders of the Manufacturers' Championship on 115 points, but their advantage over Audi had been reduced to one point while Porsche maintained third position with five races left in the season. ## Race results Class winners are denoted in bold and by the symbol . ## Standings after the race - Note: Only the top five positions are included for the Drivers' Championship standings.

Gasketball

Gasketball is a basketball-themed puzzle video game for the iPad by Mikengreg, an independent development team of Michael Boxleiter and Greg Wohlwend. Players flick basketballs through 2D physics puzzles into the hoop in single-player, local multiplayer, and asynchronous HORSE-style online multiplayer modes. The game is free-to-play with in-app purchases. Development began in mid 2011 following Mikengreg's successful Solipskier. They were able to live from the earnings for Gasketball's two year development at their previous salary, which afforded them the stability to try new avenues and reject prototypes, though they worked 100-hour weeks. Towards the end of their development, they ran out of money and lived on the couches of friends. It was released on August 9, 2012, and the game did not reach their desired conversion rate at the time of launch. The game received "generally favorable" reviews, according to video game review score aggregator Metacritic. Pocket Gamer gave the game their silver award, and Tim Rogers of Kotaku named Gasketball his 2012 game of the year, calling it "the beginning of the hardcore social game genre". ## Gameplay In Gasketball, players flick basketballs through 2D physics puzzles (with flippers, portals, circular saw blades, and gravity switches) into a basketball hoop. Some puzzles include banking the basketball shot off multiple surfaces before making the basket. In the HORSE-style games, the player must match the exact setup of the opponent's shot, such as hitting the floor before entering the hoop. In the campaign, players get more points for making the shot without retrying, and have five attempts to make the hoop before moving to the next level shamefully. Players are awarded medals for the quality of their performance at the end of each chapter. Gold medals unlock new modes of play in the chapter. Every chapter has a unique theme, such as a construction site or outer space. The game has local two-player multiplayer with a divided iPad screen, and asynchronous online multiplayer where players construct levels for their opponents to complete. Players spin a wheel at the beginning of their turn to determine how many hazards they get to place via drag and drop. A few of the items are unlocked at first, and more are available with progress through the game or in-app purchases. Gasketball uses a colorful palette and features a cranky robot, who provides a tutorial and resets the ball. It was released as free-to-play with the tutorial unlocked, and four to five chapters available as additional paid downloads. ## Development Gasketball was developed and produced by Mikengreg, an Iowa-based two-man team: Michael Boxleiter and Greg Wohlwend. After releasing their first game, the sport-inspired Solipskier for iPhone and iPad, Boxleiter and Wohlwend lived off the profits for two years while working on Gasketball, paying themselves their same salaries from their Adobe Flash development days but having the security to try new ideas. Wohlwend made somewhat more income due to other collaborations, such as Puzzlejuice with Asher Vollmer, but shared his income with Boxleiter. Development began in mid 2011. Even though Solipskier was successful, the duo did not have a following comparable to indie developers like Team Meat and thus did not feel pressured to meet high expectations. Instead, their pressure was internal. Wohlwend said he worked 100-hour weeks with no weekends or vacations while living on the Solipskier funds. When they ran out of money, Boxleiter borrowed money from his parents, and eventually they both went homeless, living on the couches of friends. In making Gasketball, Boxleiter and Wohlwend felt that their game quality had been improving over time, though designing for a million-person audience was "daunting" and Wohlwend questioned whether he could even recreate Solipskier's success. The former game was designed in fits of creativity while the latter had no such moments, and took longer to produce. They discarded "everything" multiple times during their prototyping process with the understanding that anything less than what they wanted would lead to a subpar end result. Boxleiter had difficulty accepting praise towards the end of development, considering the weight of having to leave the industry if the many 100-hour weeks did not pan out in an accepted product. Mikengreg first announced the game on March 1, 2012, and it was later released for iPad on August 9, 2012. Mikengreg decided to release the game as free-to-play for the base game with in-app purchases for the extended content. Wohlwend saw that a quarter of the top-grossing games on iOS used in-app purchases (albeit with predatory practices) and felt that they could follow the model with a more ethical strategy: free to play, but pay once to unlock forever. Wohlwend later remarked that, "So far, humanity is proving to us that we can't have it both ways." They were told by friends that the purchase function was too hidden, which they later fixed. Journalists had noted the difficulty in purchasing the full version as well. Gasketball had been downloaded 200,000 times in its August 2012 launch week and was briefly ranked near the top of an iTunes top downloads ranking, though it did not break the top 200 grossing chart. The game's conversion rate from its free-to-play base package to the paid version was 0.67%—lower than their goal of at least 2% of an estimated five million downloads. The paid addition includes 100 additional levels and 10 new objects. ## Reception The game received "generally favorable" reviews, according to video game review score aggregator Metacritic. Reviewers noted the game's character and creative vision. Pocket Gamer gave the game their silver award. Gasketball was Tim Rogers of Kotaku's 2012 game of the year. Edge noted Mikengreg's deft ability with simple sound effects, citing their previous work with Solipskier. They praised the "sweet and personable" art design and the mix of "freewheeling creativity with arcade precision". Edge also praised the addition of the "decent" single-player campaign alongside the multiplayer. Pocket Gamer's Harry Slater called the single-player "entertaining" but felt the asynchronous multiplayer was the highlight. TouchArcade's Brad Nicholson called the game a cross between Amazing Alex and NBA Jam. While he found some puzzle designs imbalanced, Nicholson also felt that the interactions between the flipper and portal hazards were "surprisingly solid" and noted the game's lighthearted "welcome playground sort of feel" even as the easy learning curve reached Rube Goldberg-like complexity. Tim Rogers of Kotaku called Gasketball the "inverse Rube Goldberg" and "the beginning of the hardcore social game genre, of asynchronous gameplay as meaningful as FPS deathmatches".

Songs from the Black Hole

Unfinished album by Weezer

Songs from the Black Hole is an unfinished album by the American rock band Weezer, recorded between 1994 and 1996. Intended to follow Weezer's 1994 self-titled debut album, it was to be a rock opera that expressed the songwriter Rivers Cuomo's mixed feelings about rock-and-roll success. Its characters were to be voiced by members of Weezer, plus the guest vocalists Rachel Haden (of That Dog and the Rentals) and Joan Wasser (of the Dambuilders). Cuomo recorded demos for Songs from the Black Hole over Christmas 1994, and Weezer held recording sessions over the following year. In late 1995, Cuomo enrolled at Harvard University, where his songwriting became darker and more confessional. The Black Hole concept was abandoned, and Weezer's second album became Pinkerton (1996), including some songs once intended for Songs from the Black Hole. Two tracks, "I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams" and "Devotion", were released as Pinkerton B-sides. Demos, lyrics and sheet music were released on Cuomo's compilations Alone (2007), Alone II (2008) and Alone III (2011), and on the 2010 Pinkerton reissue. The songs received positive reviews, and Rolling Stone described Songs from the Black Hole as a "lost mythical masterpiece". ## Background Weezer's self-titled debut album was released in May 1994. It was certified platinum in January 1995 for sales of over one million. The songwriter, Rivers Cuomo, said the success "stirred up a lot of mixed feelings in me – 'Yay, I'm happy' as well as 'I'm not sure this is the life I want to lead'." He developed an inferiority complex about rock music, feeling his songs were "simplistic and silly", and wanted to write "complex, intense, beautiful" music instead. Touring with Weezer, Cuomo listened to the operas Aida (1871) and Madama Butterfly (1904), the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar (1970), and the musical Les Misérables (1980). Inspired by how these works married music and narrative, he wrote a rock opera to explore his feelings about relationships, fame, and life as a touring musician. ## Concept Songs From the Black Hole was to be a science-fiction rock opera with tracks that segued seamlessly, ending with a coda that revisited the album's major musical themes. The characters were to be voiced by Cuomo, the guitarist Brian Bell, the bassist Matt Sharp, and the Weezer collaborator Karl Koch, along with the guest vocalists Rachel Haden (of That Dog and the Rentals) and Joan Wasser (of the Dambuilders). In 2126, the spaceship Betsy II embarks on a galaxy-wide mission. The crew members Wuan (Bell) and Dondó (Sharp) are in high spirits, but the captain, Jonas (Cuomo), has mixed feelings. The ship's robot, M1 (Koch), urges the crew to stay focused on their objective. Jonas becomes involved in a love triangle with the "good girl" Laurel (Haden), and the ship's cook, the "bad girl" Maria (Wasser), with whom he fathers a child. When the Betsy II reaches its destination, Jonas is disillusioned and longs to return to a simpler life. Cuomo conceived the story as a metaphor for his conflicted feelings about touring in a successful rock band. The ship's name, Betsy II, was taken from Weezer's first tour bus, nicknamed Betsy. M1 represents Weezer's management and record label; Wuan and Dondó represent the part of Cuomo that was excited about success; Jonas represents his doubts and longing; Laurel and Maria represent his relationships with women. ## Recording and abandonment Cuomo recorded demos for Songs from the Black Hole on an 8-track recorder at his family home in Connecticut over Christmas 1994. Most of the songs already existed and were rewritten to fit the Songs for the Black Hole concept. Cuomo performed every part himself, pitch-shifting his voice for the female characters. To add a science fiction element to Weezer's sound, he used synthesizers including an Electrocomp 101 he had recently purchased from a pawn shop in rural Connecticut. By February, he had completed an initial track list. While Weezer was on tour in Europe later that month, Sharp returned to America due to a family emergency, leaving the band stranded in Hamburg for a week. Cuomo and Weezer's drummer, Patrick Wilson, rented a studio and recorded additional demos, including a version of "Blast Off!" using a vocoder for the robot character of M1. In March 1995, Cuomo, who was born with one leg shorter than the other, had extensive surgery to lengthen his leg followed by months of painful physical therapy. This affected his songwriting, as he would spend long periods hospitalized under the influence of painkillers. According to Cuomo, around this time the rock opera concept "started to feel too whimsical for where I was emotionally, going through the pain of the procedure ... I went to a more serious and dark place." Recording began in August 1995 in New York City's Electric Lady Studios, where Weezer had recorded their debut album, but the sessions were not productive. Further sessions were held in September and October, and Weezer recorded versions of "Blast Off!", "Longtime Sunshine", "I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams", "Tired of Sex" and "Getchoo". Weezer had not yet abandoned Songs from the Black Hole, but the songs were recorded, according to Koch, with "no story, no theatrics, no characters". At the end of 1995, wanting to "escape the limelight", Cuomo enrolled at Harvard University to study classical composition. Still recovering from surgery, Cuomo became isolated and his songwriting became darker. Koch described it as "more visceral and exposed, less playful". In January 1996, Weezer restarted recording in Los Angeles at Sound City Studios with new material. The Songs from the Black Hole tracks "Superfriend", "She's Had a Girl" and "Dude, We're Finally Landing" were recorded, but shelved. By May 1996, Cuomo had settled on a new direction for Weezer's second album, expressing his loneliness and frustration at Harvard, and Songs from the Black Hole was abandoned. The decision was influenced by that year's release of Return of the Rentals, the debut album by Sharp's band the Rentals, as Cuomo felt it shared many musical and lyrical themes. Weezer's second album became Pinkerton'''', released on September 24, 1996. It includes "Tired of Sex", "Getchoo" and "No Other One": songs written before Songs from the Black Hole was conceived, rewritten to fit the Black Hole concept, and finally rewritten again for Pinkerton. In June 1996, Weezer recorded the Songs from the Black Hole tracks "I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams" (with Haden on vocals) and "Devotion" as B-sides for the Pinkerton singles "The Good Life" and "El Scorcho". ## Demo releases In 1998, Cuomo discussed releasing a compilation of his demos with Weezer's record label Geffen Records, including Songs from the Black Hole tracks, but the label feared it would "dilute" the Weezer brand. Fans petitioned to have Songs from the Black Hole released. In 2007, after further negotiation with Geffen, Cuomo released Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo, a compilation of his demos recorded from 1992 to 2007. It includes five Songs From the Black Hole demos: "Longtime Sunshine", "Blast Off!", "Who You Callin' Bitch?", "Dude, We're Finally Landing" and "Superfriend". In 2008, Cuomo released Alone II, which includes "Oh Jonas", "Please Remember" and "Come to My Pod". In 2010, Geffen released an expanded reissue of Pinkerton, including Cuomo's demo of "You Won't Get With Me Tonight" and a version of "Longtime Sunshine" recorded at Electric Lady Studios in August 1995. In 2011, Cuomo released Alone III: The Pinkerton Years, including a "Suite from the Black Hole" comprising "Oh No, This Is Not For Me", "Tired of Sex", "She's Had a Girl", "What is This I Find?", "Now I Finally See" and "Longtime Sunshine". Alone III was sold exclusively with a book, The Pinkerton Diaries, which collects Cuomo's writing from the era, including Songs from the Black Hole lyrics and sheet music. ## Legacy Reviewing Alone, the Pitchfork critic Jason Crock felt that the Songs from the Black Hole demo "Blast Off!" was the "crown jewel", writing: "It is such a fleeting rush of distortion-driven joy that the edges of the supposed dialogue are entirely blurred, and are hardly essential to enjoy it." He described it as "at least" on par with the "stellar" Pinkerton B-sides once intended for Songs from the Black Hole. Reviewing Alone II, Crock wrote that its Songs from the Black Hole demos were "goofy, off-the-cuff, and charming". In 2007, Rolling Stone included Songs from the Black Hole on its list of rock music's lost "mythical masterpieces". Complex included it on its 2012 list of "50 unreleased albums we'd kill to hear", writing that most of Weezer's best material came from the era. In 2014, NME included it on its list of "25 unreleased albums we'd really love to hear", but wrote that Pinkerton was "not exactly the worst second prize". Vice wrote that Songs from the Black Hole "deserves to be ahead of most records in every Weezer fan's collection", declaring it better than most of Weezer's output since. In 2017, the Stereogum writer Pranav Trewn speculated about how Weezer releasing Songs from the Black Hole instead of Pinkerton might have influenced music: "It’s perhaps the greatest 'what if?' in modern music ... What rock looks like both on the radio and in the underground would be enormously different if not for the varying shades [Weezer] popularized." ## Track lists Cuomo compiled two Songs from the Black Hole track lists: the first in February 1995 and the other in late 1995. ### Track list 1 ### Track list 2

Who's That Girl (soundtrack)

Who's That Girl is the first soundtrack album by American singer and songwriter Madonna. It was released on July 21, 1987, by Sire Records to promote the film of the same name. It also contains songs by her label mates Scritti Politti, Duncan Faure, Club Nouveau, Coati Mundi and Michael Davidson. The soundtrack is credited as a Madonna album, despite her only performing four of the nine tracks on the album. After the commercial success of the film Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), in which she co-starred, Madonna wanted to act in another comedy film titled Slammer, about a woman named Nikki Finn who was falsely accused of homicide. However, due to the critical and commercial failure of her adventure film Shanghai Surprise (1986), Warner Bros. was initially reluctant to greenlight the project but later agreed. Madonna began working on the soundtrack in December 1986, and contacted Patrick Leonard and Stephen Bray, who had worked as producers on her third studio album True Blue (1986). She felt that an uptempo song and a downtempo song were needed for the album. Leonard composed the music for the uptempo song, with Madonna providing the melody and lyrics. The singer named the track "Who's That Girl" and, believing this to be a better title than Slammer, changed the name of the film to the same. Together, Madonna and Leonard also developed the downtempo ballad "The Look of Love". Two more songs were composed for the film with Bray, the first being the dance track "Causing a Commotion", and the other being "Can't Stop", a track inspired by Sixties Motown and the group Martha and the Vandellas. After its release, the Who's That Girl soundtrack received a mostly negative response from critics. Some reviews described the album as plain and incomplete, although the title track and "The Look of Love" were praised as its highlights. The soundtrack was a commercial success, reaching the top ten of the album charts of the United States, Austria, Canada, France, New Zealand, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, while topping the charts of Argentina, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, and the European Album chart. The album went on to sell 6 million copies worldwide. Three of the Madonna tracks were released as singles. The title track became her sixth number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100, making her the first artist to accumulate six number one singles in the 1980s and the first female performer to get that many number ones as a solo act. "Causing a Commotion" was released as the second single and reached number two on the Hot 100. "The Look of Love" was a European market only release, reaching the top ten in the United Kingdom. Another track, "Turn It Up," was a promotional release in the United States, reaching number 15 on the dance charts. Who's That Girl received a further promotion from the successful Who's That Girl World Tour. ## Background The 1985 comedy film Desperately Seeking Susan, in which Madonna co-starred, was a commercial success, prompting her to take further interest in acting. For her next screen project, she picked another comedy film initially titled Slammer, but later named Who's That Girl. Madonna played the character of Nikki Finn, a young woman accused of homicide who insisted that she was innocent. Released on parole, she was determined to clear her name. Along with a character named Loudon Trott (played by Griffin Dunne), she gets caught up in 36 hours of high adventure, culminating in a scene where Nikki interrupts a wedding to reveal the identity of the real murderer. Regarding the character Nikki, Madonna commented, > "I had a lot in common with Nikki. She's courageous and sweet and funny and misjudged. But she clears her name in the end, and that's always good to do. I'm continuously doing that with the public. I liked Nikki's tough side and her sweet side. The toughness is only a mask for the vulnerability she feels." However, in the light of the bad publicity surrounding Madonna and her then-husband Sean Penn, coupled with the fact that their comedy film Shanghai Surprise had failed commercially, she had to fight hard to persuade Warner Bros. to greenlight the project. She also wanted her close friend James Foley to direct the film, proclaiming him to be a "genius". Foley had previously directed the music videos of her songs "Live to Tell", "Papa Don't Preach" and "True Blue". ## Development Having some specific ideas in her mind about the music of the film, Madonna contacted Patrick Leonard and Stephen Bray, who had helped to write and produce her third studio album True Blue in 1986. Madonna explained to them that she needed an uptempo song and a downtempo song. Madonna came to the recording studio one Thursday, and Leonard handed her a cassette of a recording of the chorus, which he had just finished working on. Madonna went to the backroom and completed the melody and the lyrics of the song, while Leonard worked on the other parts of it. After finishing the lyrics, Madonna decided to name the song "Who's That Girl", and changed the title of Slammer to the same, considering it to be a better name. In Fred Bronson's book The Billboard Book of Number 1 Hits, Leonard explained that the song was recorded in one day with Madonna recording her vocals only once. Additional guitar and percussion tracks were added later. The downtempo song was developed on the following day, with Madonna writing the lyrics and Leonard composing the melody. Named "The Look of Love", the song contains the line "Nowhere to run, no place to hide. From the look of love, from the eyes of pride". Madonna was inspired by the look that actor James Stewart gave actress Grace Kelly in the 1954 film Rear Window. Madonna said: "I can't describe it, but that is the way I want someone to look at me when he loves me. It's the purest look of love and adoration. Like surrender. It's devastating." After "The Look of Love", Madonna went on to develop two further songs with Bray as the producer. The first was called "Causing a Commotion", and was inspired by Penn and the couple's often tumultuous relationship. Madonna felt that her marriage to Penn was on the verge of breaking up, due to Penn's abusive and violent nature. In a Rolling Stone article dated September 10, 1987, Madonna spoke about Penn's impact on her life and the song: "I don't like violence. I never condone hitting anyone, and I never thought that any violence should have taken place. But on the other hand, I understood Sean's anger, and believe me, I have wanted to hit him many times. I never would you know, because I realize that it would just make things worse. [...] I felt like he was 'Causing a Commotion' to purposefully distract me. I wrote this song and vented my frustration in it." ## Composition The title track is composed in Madonna's typical style—mixing a drum machine, bubbling bass synth line, and the sound of stringed instruments. According to Rikky Rooksby, author of The Complete Guide to the Music of Madonna, the three parts of the song, namely the bridge, where Madonna sings "what can help me now", the chorus and the verse flow together in a coherent manner, with the chorus incorporating a haunting effect. The song epitomized Madonna's interest in Hispanic culture that continued after the release of her 1987 single "La Isla Bonita". Leonard and Madonna had added Spanish phrases in the chorus, over the trumpets of the second verse, and also in the added instrumental break in the middle. "Who's That Girl" also makes use of the sonic effect brought about by the combination of multiple vocal lines, which had been previously used by groups like The Beach Boys in their singles "God Only Knows" (1966) and "I Get Around" (1964) as well as R.E.M.'s singles "Fall on Me" (1986) and "Near Wild Heaven" (1991). "Who's That Girl" employs this effect on the last chorus where three or four different vocal hooks are intertwined. The second track "Causing a Commotion" has a danceable, up-tempo groove. The musical arrangement consists of a number of hooks interpolating with each other. It begins with the chorus, where Madonna sings the line "I've got the moves baby, You've got the motions, If we got together we be causing a commotion." The verses are accompanied by a four-note descending bassline and interjecting staccato chords. The lyrics make reference to Madonna's 1985 single "Into the Groove" and have three parts to the vocal harmony. According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Walt Disney Music Company, the song is set in the time signature of common time with a tempo of 192 beats per minute. It is composed in the key of B major with Madonna's voice spanning from the high-note of C₃ to B₅. The song has a basic sequence of B–Fm7–B–F₉–B₆ as its chord progression. "The Look of Love" starts off with a low bass synth line and a slow backing track. It is followed by the sound of percussion and a high register note, contrasting with the bassline. The song continues in this way until the last verse, which is backed by the sound of an acoustic guitar. A two-part vocal is found in the line "Nowhere to run, no place to hide". Rooksby felt that Madonna's voice sounded "expressive" when she sings the line "From the look of love" and utters the word "look" over the D minor chord present underneath. The word is sung in a higher note of the musical scale, thus giving an impression of the suspension like the quality of the minor ninth chord, dissociating it from the harmony of the other notes. The song is set in the time signature of common time, with a moderate tempo of 80 beats per minute. It is composed in the key of D minor, with Madonna's voice spanning the notes C₅ to B₃. "The Look of Love" has a basic sequence of C–Dm–Fm–B as its chord progression. "Can't Stop" has a high pitched keyboard sound embedded in between the sound of a drum machine and clarinet. The lyrics essentially refer to the idea that "I want my man and I am going to get him whatever". Rooksby noticed that the instrumental break in the song repeats the chorus, with a synth line added on the top. He felt that "Can't Stop", at 4:45 length, was a good example of the division of Madonna's songs between dance music—where the length is important—and the requirement of classic pop songs, which can vary from two minutes to four minutes. J. Randy Taraborrelli, in his book Madonna: An Intimate Biography, described Faure's song "24 Hours" as a slow track that fails to build up momentum. Joe Brown from The Washington Post described Davidson's "Turn it Up" as consisting of a slow background synth, that transforms into a rapidly progressing beat, with Davidson's singing reminiscent of the Beastie Boys. ## Promotion ### Tour Madonna performed "Who's That Girl", "Causing a Commotion," and "The Look of Love" on her 1987 Who's That Girl World Tour. It was her second concert tour, promoting True Blue and the soundtrack. Madonna trained herself physically with aerobics, jogging and weight-lifting, to cope with the choreography and the dance routines. For the costumes, she collaborated with designer Marlene Stewart, expanding on the idea of bringing her music video characters to life on stage. The stage was huge, with four video screens, multimedia projectors and a flight of stairs in the middle. Leonard became the music director and encouraged Madonna to go with the idea of rearranging her older songs and presenting them in a new format. The show consisted of seven costume changes, with song-and-dance routines with an encore consisting of the title song "Who's That Girl" and "Holiday". The tour also addressed social causes like AIDS, during "Papa Don't Preach". Who's That Girl tour was critically appreciated and was a commercial success, grossing a total of US \$25 million, with Madonna playing in front of 1.5 million people over the course of the tour. According to Pollstar, it was the second top female concert tour of 1987, behind Tina Turner's Break Every Rule Tour. ### Singles "Who's That Girl" was released as the lead single from the soundtrack, on June 30, 1987. A latin pop influenced song, it became Madonna's sixth single to top the Billboard Hot 100 chart, making her the first artist to accumulate six number-one singles in the 1980s, and the first female performer to get that many number-ones as a solo act. It also reached the top the charts in United Kingdom, Canada, Netherlands, Ireland and Belgium. In the music video Madonna did not portray her film character Nikki Finn, instead she continued with her Hispanic look from the "La Isla Bonita" music video. This time she appeared dressed boyishly in a wide-brimmed Spanish hat and bolero jacket—a combination which would later become a fashion trend. "Who's That Girl" was nominated for "Best Song From A Motion Picture" at the 1988 Grammy Awards and "Best Original Song" at the 1988 Golden Globe Awards. The album's second single, "Causing a Commotion", was released on August 25, 1987. It was criticized by music reviewers for being a sub-standard Madonna single, but enjoyed commercial success, reaching the top ten in New Zealand, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. In the United States, the single quickly climbed up the chart, ultimately peaking at number two in the week of October 24, 1987, the same week Michael Jackson's "Bad" advanced to the pole position. It remained in second position for three weeks, before descending from the chart. "Causing a Commotion" reached the top of the Hot Dance Club Play chart. The third song released from the album was the European single, "The Look of Love". In the United Kingdom, "The Look of Love" was released on December 12, 1987, and entered the UK Singles Chart at number 15. The next week, it reached a peak of nine on the chart, her first single to miss the top five since "Lucky Star" (1984). "Turn It Up" was released as a single prior to its inclusion in the album in 1987. Described by Joe Brown of The Washington Post as "gratingly banal" and its singer as "one of Madonna's photogenic protegés", the song was a success on the Dance Club charts of Billboard, peaking at number 15. ## Critical reception The soundtrack album was not well received by music critics, some of whom went on comment that the title track is the record's highlight. Jim Farber from Entertainment Weekly gave a negative review, though Noah Robischon from the same magazine complimented the title track, saying that Madonna had "pushed synergy over the borderline." Bill Lamb from About.com said that the songs were not among Madonna's best music. Taraborrelli commented that "the soundtrack was once again the reminder of Madonna's power and status as one of the most important singers of the 80s, because it was only her songs which gained prominence, albeit not being her best, though 'The Look of Love' is an exotic ballad." Author Mary Cross, in her biography Madonna: A Biography said that "the soundtrack slips up because of the film." Allen Metz and Carol Benson, authors of The Madonna Companion: Two Decades of Commentary, said that "Who's That Girl has done what it was released for, put money in Warner's pockets, but [adds] nothing in Madonna's catalogue". Stephen Thomas Erlewine noted in his review for Allmusic that "In the strictest sense [the record] isn't a Madonna album — it's a soundtrack album", adding that it features "competent but uninspiring dance-pop by [various artists]". David Denby from New York magazine commented that "there's nothing absolutely wrong with the soundtrack. But it's just that it has the misfortune of being associated with such an unfortunate movie, that the album actually does not hold up to you well." He added that "The Look of Love" was a hidden gem in Madonna's catalogue. Don Shewey from Rolling Stone commented that "although essentially a Madonna album, the soundtrack does not boast a truly memorable song, rather there is the inclusion of the failed Warner artist songs, like the Coati Mundi song 'El Coco Loco' and Duncan Faure's uncannily Beatles-esque '24 Hours'. For most buyers though this album is the new Madonna album." Robert Christgau gave the album a (C–) and said "From Scritti Politti and Coati Mundi you expect trickier spin, but they're outsiders, and outsiders times soundtrack equals contract work. For her own movie, though, the decade's purest pop icon should do better than sloppy seconds. Or neat seconds—worse still." Ed Blank from Pittsburgh Press commented: "It feels like the sole purpose to create the soundtrack was to show it in the film." Jay Boyar from Orlando Sentinel praised the songs on the soundtrack, claiming that "Madonna brings forth a heart-breaking warmth in 'The Look of Love' and a club stomping feel with 'Causing a Commotion'. With the movie's fate being sealed, luckily for her Madonna can sing." Gyan Singh from The Miami Herald, while reviewing the film, said that the "Only solace of the movie is the soundtrack, the songs—especially those by Madonna—are actually good." Don McLeese from Chicago Sun-Times, while reviewing Madonna's Who's That Girl World Tour, said that "the soundtrack's songs sound good live". Larry Geller from The Advocate gave a positive review, saying that "Who's That Girl will be the soundtrack album of the summer." Stephen Holden from The New York Times gave an equally positive review, saying that the "soundtrack album is full of engaging pop fluff. One of the hottest singles of the year, Madonna's bilingual title song has the buoyant bounce of an acrobat doing somersaults on a trampoline. 'The Look of Love' is as memorable a ballad as [Madonna's 1986 single] 'Live to Tell', and '24 Hours', sung by Duncan Faure, skillfully fuses Beatles-styled vocals with 80's synthesizer-pop underpinnings." Daniel Brogan from Chicago Tribune said that "since this soundtrack isn't really a Madonna album, this is no surprise that it appears as incomplete." ## Commercial performance After its release, the album debuted on the Billboard 200 at number forty-six on August 15, 1987, the same week that the title song "Who's That Girl" reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100. In the week ending September 12, 1987, the record reached its peak position at number seven. It remained on the chart for twenty-eight weeks, and was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipments of one million copies across the United States. In Canada, the album debuted at eighty-five on the RPM Albums Chart, on August 1, 1987. After seven weeks, the soundtrack climbed to its peak of four on the chart. The soundtrack was placed at position thirty-seven, on the RPM Top 100 Albums for 1987 chart and was present on the chart for thirty weeks. In the United Kingdom, the album debuted and peaked at number four on the UK Albums Chart on August 1, 1987, becoming the highest debut of the week. It fell out one place the next week, where it stayed for other three weeks. Who's That Girl was present on the chart for twenty-five weeks and ended as the most popular original soundtrack album of 1987 in the country. The soundtrack was certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for shipments of 300,000 copies across the United Kingdom. The album was less successful in Australia, where it debuted and peaked at number twenty-four. It entered the New Zealand Album chart at twelve on September 6, 1987. After two weeks, the album reached its peak at number six. In Austria, Who's That Girl became the best selling debut of the week, charting at number seven, on August 15, 1987, ultimately reaching number five. By August 1, 1987 Who's That Girl sold 140,000 albums and 65,000 singles in Italy in few weeks. In Spain, the soundtrack was released in August and reached sales of 57,049 units by November of the same year. It was later certified with platinum from PROMUSICAE for shipments of 100,000 copies. In Germany, Who's That Girl debuted at the top of the charts, remaining there for two weeks and earning a gold certification from BVMI. The album also reached the top of the charts on the European Top 100 Albums chart. Who's That Girl also reached the top-ten of the charts in France, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. ## Recognition Cash Box editor Kerry Day ranked Who's That Girl as the second-best album of 1987. In the Encyclopedia of World Biography (1998), authors explained that in this era, unlike the movie, which was "largely ignored", both the soundtrack and tour enjoyed commercial success. Nigel Hunter from Billboard, in a report by the British Phonographic Industry, called it as an "easy winner as the most popular original soundtrack album in 1987" along with Dirty Dancing. Hunter lumped both records among the "new trend for soundtrack albums of mixing new, specially recorded material with older hits". ## Track listing ## Personnel - Madonna – lyrics, vocals, producer, background vocals - Duncan Faure – vocals - Club Nouveau – vocals - Michael Davidson – vocals - Scritti Politti – vocals - Coati Mundi – vocals - Patrick Leonard – lyricist, producer - Stephen Bray – lyricist, producer - Michael Barbiero – additional production, audio mixing - Steve Thompson – additional production, audio mixing - Shep Pettibone – additional production, audio mixing - Junior Vasquez – mixing engineer, audio editing - Donna De Lory – background vocals - Niki Haris – background vocals - David Agent – producer, mixing - Hubert Eaves III – producer, guitars - Denzil Foster – lyricist - David Gamson – sound trigger - Green Gartside – vocals, lyricist - Jay King – guitars - Stock, Aitken & Waterman – lyrics, producer, background vocals - Greg Ladanyi – inlay design, cover art, assistant engineer - Michael Vail Blum – engineer ## Charts ### Weekly charts ### Monthly charts ### Year-end charts ## Certifications and sales ## See also - List of European number-one hits of 1987 - List of number-one hits of 1987 (Germany)

Dr. Holbrook's Military School

School in Briarcliff Manor, New York (1864–1915)

Dr. Holbrook's Military School was a military academy and boarding school for boys. The school was located in the town of Ossining and overlooked the Hudson River. After the 1906 annexation of Scarborough by the village of Briarcliff Manor, Holbrook's became part of the village within Ossining. The school was founded in 1864 as Mr. Tracy's School. In 1866, after David A. Holbrook purchased the school, it became known as Dr. Holbrook's Military School. The school ran until 1915, after which it was used in World War I as a field hospital and headquarters to a New York Guard regiment. From 1919 until at least 1927, the school served as the Teachers College Country Club. ## History Saint Denis Institute was said to have occupied the land prior to the school. It was founded in 1864 as Mr. Tracy's School, a seminary for young women on a 10-acre (4.0 ha) estate. In 1866, Reverend David A. Holbrook, PhD, purchased the school, turned it into a boys' school, and enlarged it to 25 acres (10 ha). It had 60 students. After Holbrook's death in December 1898, Dr. Holbrook's sons Dudley and Henry became involved with running the school. They were joined in 1899 by their brother Dwight, and ran the school until its closure as Holbrook's Preparatory School for Boys. When it closed in 1915 the school had 80 students. Shortly after the school's closure, in 1917, events in World War I led the New York Guard's First Provisional Regiment (1,500 men operating under Colonel John B. Rose) to guard the Croton Aqueduct. Captain Charles W. Baldwin, Chaplain of the regiment and Rector of Saint Mary's Episcopal Church in Scarborough and also in present-day Briarcliff Manor, arranged a deal with V. Everit Macy, then the owner of the school estate, for free use of the campus and buildings until three months after the war's end. The regiment, originally headquartered at Pines Bridge Inn on Croton Lake, moved its headquarters to the Holbrook Military Academy, and the academic building at the school became Field Hospital No. 2 of the Atlantic Division of the American Red Cross. The ground floor of the west wing and the mess hall on the first floor was turned into a large, well-heated office with glass-partitioned private offices, and equipped with typewriters and mimeograph machines. The new regimental office had strong contrast with their Pines Bridge Inn office, it having been drafty, dirt-floored and poorly-lit. The site opened for their use on October 8, 1918, and the regiment fully demobilized on February 1, 1919. A reunion was held at the former school grounds for many of the troops from March 23 to 25, 1919. In June 1919, V. Everit Macy gave the property, buildings, and \$7,500 for remodeling to the Teachers College Country Club; Macy was chairman of the college's board of trustees at the time. The club was founded on October 4, 1919, and initially used a building called Hill Cottage, which it outgrew shortly thereafter. The club opened there on September 1, 1919, and existed there until at least 1927. Presidents included Henry C. Pearson (1919–21), Jesse C. Williams (1921–23), Walter H. Eddy (1923–25), and Edward S. Evanden (1925). Walter W. Law gave the club's members (which numbered 200 in 1920) the right to use Briarcliff Manor's 9-hole golf course, the present-day Trump National Golf Club. ## Curricula In 1903 the school consisted of six forms, the first two making up the lower school and the remaining four making up the upper school; in the upper school students chose from three curricula: classical, Latin-scientific, or English-scientific. Students received grades for deportment, application, spelling, declamation and composition, church attendance, and skill at military drill, as well as in classes where they learned arithmetic, algebra, French, Latin, German, and Greek. Sports included baseball, football, tennis, hockey, track, athletics, and golf. The school issued a merit roll every four weeks, where students were ranked on conduct, lessons and attendance. ## Notable people George Whipple, a physician and pathologist, was a teacher at the school for a year before he started work at Johns Hopkins University. Composer and organist Fannie Morris Spencer was also a teacher. Notable students include Donn Barber, an architect, Nelson Doubleday, a publisher, Edward Avery McIlhenny, a businessman, explorer, and conservationist, John Avery McIlhenny, a businessman, soldier, politician, and public servant, Harold Medina, a lawyer, teacher and judge, and John W. Norton, a muralist and easel artist. ## See also - Briarcliff Manor, New York

Northallerton

Town in North Yorkshire, England

Northallerton (/nɔːrˈθælərtən/ nor-THAL-ər-tən) is a market town and civil parish near the River Wiske, North Yorkshire, England. It is an administrative centre of the North Yorkshire District and has served as the county town of the North Riding of Yorkshire from 1889 to 1974 and of North Yorkshire from 1974 to 2023. The town lies in the Vale of Mowbray and at the northern end of the Vale of York. It had a population of 16,832 in the 2011 census, an increase from 15,741 in 2001. Northallerton is made up of four wards: North, Broomfield, Romanby and Central. There has been a settlement at Northallerton since Roman times; however its growth in importance began in the 11th century when King William II gifted land to the Bishop of Durham. Under the Bishop's authority Northallerton became an important religious centre. Later, it was a focus for much conflict between the English and the Scots, most notably the Battle of the Standard, fought nearby in 1138, which saw losses of as many as 12,000 men. In later years trade and transport became more important. The surrounding area was discovered to have large phosphorus reserves. These brought industry to Northallerton due to the easy trade routes. Lying on the main route between Edinburgh and London, it became an important stopping point for coaches travelling the route, eventually superseded by the growth of the railways in the 19th century. Lying in the centre of a large rural area, Northallerton was established as a market town in 1200 by Royal Charter, and there is still a market in the town today. It continues to be a major retail centre for the local area. As the administrative centre for the county of North Yorkshire, the council, and several other associated public sector organisations have their headquarters in the town. ## History ### Origins and early history Due to the proximity of the Roman road, entrenchments and relics it seems that the earliest settlement at Northallerton was some form of Roman military station. There is evidence that the Romans had a signal station on Castle Hills just to the west of the town as part of the imperial Roman postal system and a path connecting Hadrian's Wall with Eboracum (York) ran through what is now the neighbouring village of Brompton. The first church was set up by St Paulinus of York on the site of the present All Saints Parish Church sometime in the early 7th century. It was made from wood and nothing survives of it. In 855 a stone church was built on the same site; fragments of stone have been found during restoration work which provide strong evidence of this Angle church. It was believed that an Anglo-Saxon town known as Alvertune then developed. In Pierre de Langtoft's history of King Alfred he writes that in 865 it was the site of a number of battles between King Elfrid and his brother Alfred on one side and five Danish kings and a similar number of earls. Later, in the 10th century, Danes settled at Romanby and Brompton. A fine example of English stonecarving from the period, the Brompton Hogbacks, can be found in Brompton Parish Church. In the Domesday Survey, Norman scribes named the settlement Alvertune, Aluertune and Alretone and there is a reference to the Alvertune wapentac, an area almost identical to the Allertonshire wapentake of the North Riding, which was named after the town. The origin of the town's name is uncertain, though it is believed that the name derives from a derivation of the name Aelfere, Aelfereton translates as the farm belonging to Aelfere or even of King Alfred. Alternatively it may be referring to the Alder trees which grew nearby. The prefix of North was added in the 12th century to differentiate from the parish of Allerton Mauleverer, 25 miles (40 kilometres) to the south. Its position on a major route way brought death and destruction to the town on many occasions. In 1069, in an attempt to quell rebellion in the north, the area between the Ouse and the Tyne was laid waste by the armies of William the Conqueror. The town of Northallerton was almost totally destroyed or depopulated. Just a few years later it is described in the Domesday Book as modo est in manu regis et wastum est (put down as waste). ### Battle of the Standard On 22 August 1138, English forces repelled a Scottish army on Cowton Moor in Brompton parish, around 2 mi (3 km) north of the town. This was the first major battle between the Scots and the English since the Norman conquest and one of the two major battles in the civil war between King Stephen and Empress Matilda. The English forces were summoned by Archbishop Thurstan of York, who had gathered local militia and baronial armies from Yorkshire and the North Midlands. They arrayed themselves round a chariot with a ship's mast carrying the consecrated banners of St Peter of York, St John of Beverley, St Wilfrid of Ripon and St Cuthbert of Durham, it was this standard-bearing chariot that gave the battle its name. The Scottish army was led by King David I of Scotland. King David had entered England in support of his niece, Empress Matilda, who was viewed as the rightful heiress to the English throne usurped by King Stephen. With Stephen fighting rebel barons in the south, the Scottish armies had already taken Cumberland and Northumberland, the city of Carlisle and the royal castle at Bamburgh. Finding the English in a defensive position on a hill, David elected to force a battle counting on his superior numbers, 16,000 Scots against 10,000 Englishmen. Repeated attacks by native Scots failed against the onslaught from the English archers, with losses of up to 12,000 Scots. A subsequent attack by mounted knights met initial success but fell back due to lack of infantry support. The battle ended when David's reserve deserted, forcing him to retreat. The English elected not to pursue, and despite their great losses the Scots were able to regroup in sufficient number to besiege and capture Wark Castle. The victory by the English ensured the safety of Northern England. ### Religious importance Shortly after his accession William Rufus gave the town, with the lands adjacent, to the see of Durham, and, under the patronage of the bishops of that diocese, it grew in importance, and became an episcopal residence. In 1130 a castle was built on the west side of the town adjacent to North Beck by Bishop Rufus and was expanded in 1142 after William Cumin seized the Bishopric of Durham in 1141. The castle was further expanded in 1173 by Hugh Pudsey and garrisoned by a group of Flemish soldiers, an act which enraged King Henry II who ordered that it be razed to the ground in 1177. A more substantial fortified palace surrounded by a moat was built on the same site in 1199, replacing the traditional motte-and-bailey castle. The palace became an important administrative centre for the bishops' lands in Yorkshire and served as a major residence for the bishops and their staff. The palace lay on the main road from York to Durham and was a regular stopping place for royalty and other dignitaries. The palace fell into ruin by 1658 and the site is now a cemetery. In 1318, the town was destroyed by the Scots, under Sir James Douglas following the Capture of Berwick upon Tweed. A Carmelite priory was founded in 1354, but was demolished soon after the dissolution of the monasteries in 1538. The site passed to various people and was used for arable farming before a workhouse was built on the site in 1857. Subsequently, the Friarage Hospital, which takes its name from the friary, was built. Following development of the site in 2006, archaeologists uncovered the remains of eight monks along with other artefacts. ### Coaching and rail In the golden age of coaching, Northallerton had four coaching inns along the High Street serving passengers and horses travelling on several routes to the north. With the arrival of the railway in 1841 the town maintained its importance as a communications centre. The line from London to Edinburgh via York and Newcastle passes through the town, as does the line linking the industrial West Riding with the port and steel town of Middlesbrough. It is now served by Northallerton railway station. The Northallerton railway station to Ripon rail line was closed to passengers on 6 March 1967 and to goods on 5 September 1969 as part of the wider Beeching cuts, despite a vigorous campaign by locals, including the (nearby city of Ripon)'s MP. ### Legal history A house of correction opened in 1783 on East Road – it became HM Prison Northallerton, which served (at different times) as an adult prison, a Young Offender Institution, and a military prison. The prison closed in 2013 and is now partially demolished. It once had the world's largest treadmill. As of February 2021, the site of the former prison has two retail outlets, 'Iceland' and 'Lidl' situated on it. The Quarter Sessions for the area were held in the town from the 17th century in various buildings including the Tollbooth, the Guild Hall and Vine House, but eventually a courthouse was built in East Road in 1875 as part of the prison complex. This later moved to the town's Racecourse Lane, and remains the area's magistrates' court. When the Poor Law union system was introduced, a workhouse was established in the town to serve the three parishes in the area. This building is now part of the Friarage Hospital. When in 1856 the North Riding Constabulary was founded, one of the last county forces to be formed, Northallerton was selected as its headquarters, operating initially from premises in East Road. The Thirsk Road drill hall was opened in 1911, just before the First World War. ### Present day Today Northallerton's main commercial function is a mixture of light industry, technology and service sectors, together with commercial and agricultural services, such as the regular livestock auction market and the production of high-grade manure. The headquarters of North Yorkshire County Council (County Hall) and Hambleton District Council (the Civic Centre) are both located in Northallerton; these serve many parishes in the area. The RPA (Rural Payments Agency) was based here until its closure in 2014. The town also houses the headquarters of North Yorkshire Police (Alverton Court) and North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service at the former RPA building. The nearby base at RAF Leeming is a major source of employment and income in the area. ### Expansion David Wilson Homes, Yorkshire (East) Division submitted a planning application for the construction of 283 dwellings on the former York Trailers site (on Yafforth Road). This was approved on 14 May 2014, with construction expected to finish early 2019. Hambleton District Council have plans to build 900 homes, a neighbourhood shopping centre, extra care facilities and a primary school, including sports pitches and allotments, as part of a North Northallerton development scheme. The scheme also includes a bridge crossing the Northallerton to Middlesbrough railway line between the A167 Darlington Road and A684 Stokesley Road. ## Governance ### Parish The ancient parish of Northallerton covered a wide area. It included the townships and chapelries of Romanby, Brompton and Deighton, and the detached part of High Worsall on the River Tees. All of these places became separate civil parishes in the 19th century. The parish council of Northallerton has exercised its right to be known as the town council. There are 12 town councillors, elected in four wards. The council is based at Northallerton Town Hall. ### Local In 1889 the County of York, North Riding administrative county was formed. In 1894 it was divided into municipal boroughs, urban districts and rural districts. Following a review of local government in 1974, the North Riding was abolished as an administrative county. The district council of Hambleton was then formed from the merger of the Northallerton Urban District with Bedale Rural District, Easingwold Rural District, Northallerton Rural District, Thirsk Rural District and Croft Rural District. This became part of the non-metropolitan county of North Yorkshire. Policing in the town remains the responsibility of North Yorkshire Police and firefighting the responsibility of North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service. The fire station at Northallerton is a "Day Crewed" station which operates from 08:00 to 18:00 each day and on call outside these hours. The town has been twinned with Ormesson-sur-Marne, a suburb of Paris, France since 1994. ### Parliament Northallerton was formerly a parliamentary borough. Its first representatives were John le Clerk and Stephen Maunsell, who were elected to the parliament of King Edward I in 1298, but for some reason or other no subsequent return was made until 1640, when the privilege was again resumed by order of the House of Commons. From 1640 to 1885, the town formed the parliamentary borough of Northallerton, returning two Members of Parliament (MPs) until the Great Reform Act of 1832. Under the Act, boundaries were extended to include neighbouring Brompton and Romanby and representation was reduced to a single member. In 1885 the constituency was abolished and was absorbed into the Richmond division of the North Riding. The serving member for the Richmond constituency is the current Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak of the Conservative Party, who has held the seat since 2015 when he succeeded former party leader and Foreign Secretary William Hague. In modern times it has been an ultra-safe seat for the Conservative Party, which has held it since 1929. ## Geography ### Distance to other places ### Topography Northallerton lies north of the Vale of York, just south of County Durham and in the Vale of Mowbray. To the west lie the Pennines, a range of hills which rises to around 2,000 ft (610 m), and to the east lie the North York Moors which rise to around 1,500 ft (460 m). The proximity of these hills is significant in the climatology of the area. To the west of the town runs the River Wiske which is a tributary of the River Swale. In turn it has Brompton Beck, Turker Beck, Willow Beck and North Beck as tributaries, all of them flowing through the town. Although small in nature these have been the focus of flash flooding in the town and in Brompton village in recent years. ### Climate According to the Köppen classification the British Isles experience a maritime climate characterised by relatively cool summers and mild winters. Compared with other parts of the country, the Vale of York is slightly warmer and sunnier in the summer and colder and frostier in the winter. Owing to its inland position, and sheltered by the Pennines to the west, North Yorkshire is one of the driest counties in the UK, receiving, on average, around 600 mm (24 in) of rain per year. The mean annual daily duration of bright sunshine is three hours and 42 minutes. There are two distinct local weather phenomena. The first is marked downslope lee wind caused by the proximity of the Pennines to the west, leading to super geostrophic winds which can reach in excess of 60 KT (70 mph), most commonly in winter and spring. In the winter, the presence of a subsidence inversion between the Pennines and the North York Moors can allow dense, persistent fog to form, sometimes lasting for several days. The nearest official Met Office weather station to Northallerton is Leeming, about 5 mi (8 km) to the west. Temperature extremes have ranged from 38.8 °C (101.8 °F) during July 2022, (making Leeming the northernmost place in the UK to exceed 38 °C (100 °F), down to −17.9 °C (−0.2 °F) during December 2010. The new 1981–2010 (as opposed to 1971–2000) averages from the Met Office show how the climate of Leeming has changed dramatically compared with most places in the UK. The average April maximum temperature is only 12.3 °C, compared with 14.1 °C previously. The average yearly temperature has decreased to 9.45 °C compared to 9.55 °C previously and in contrast most places of the UK have become warmer. The days have become cooler and the nights warmer. Winters have become much milder, summers cooler. Leeming now gets an additional 44.7 mm of rain per year, although also 62.3 more hours of sunshine. The climate of Leeming has generally lost its characteristics of being drier and with more seasonal variation, compared with the rest of the UK. Leeming recorded its warmest December temperature on record in 2015. ## Demography According to the United Kingdom Census 2001, the town of Northallerton had a total resident population of 15,741 or 18.5% of the total of Hambleton District. This figure, combined with an area of 23.1 square kilometres (8.9 sq mi), provides Northallerton with a population density figure of 674 inhabitants per square kilometre (1,750/sq mi). This is higher than the average population density of England (at 380/km² or 984/sq mi). There are 8,203 females and 7,538 males, which works out for every 100 females there are 91.9 males. The place of birth of the town's residents was 98.5% United Kingdom, 0.35% Ireland, 0.37% from other European Union countries, and 0.75% from elsewhere in the world. Compared with the average demography of England, Northallerton has low proportions of people born outside the United Kingdom and ethnic minorities, and above average numbers of people over 65 years of age. This table summarises the population changes in the town since 1801: the population grew in the early 19th century and again in the 20th century. In particular, between 1961 and 1991 the population more than doubled. The fall in population between 1851 and 1871 has been attributed to the collapse in coaching as the railways became popular. ## Education There are six primary schools in Northallerton, a secondary school and a Technology College. After completing primary education children move on to the Northallerton School, a secondary school and sixth form. In addition further adult learning courses are run at the college through the learndirect and Nextstep schemes. The college also runs courses through a Learn Direct centre at the Young Offender's Institute which is close to the college. In addition there a number of privately run infant and day care nursery schools in Northallerton. ### Northallerton School Northallerton School's roots can be traced as far back as 1322. Originally sited near the Parish Church, its initial role was to train boys in grammar and song. Parts of the old school building can be seen adjacent to All Saints' Church near the north end of High Street. The school flourished in the 17th century under the mastership of Thomas Smelt, and notable alumni of that period include - John Radcliffe (1652–1714), founder of Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital and physician to William of Orange. - Theologians George Hickes and Thomas Burnet. - Historiographer royal Thomas Rymer, doctor to King William of Orange. The school struggled in the 19th century and almost closed at the start of the 20th century, with the number of pupils in single figures. However, following the Education Act 1902 the North Riding Education Committee resolved to build and restructure the grammar school. To that end a new school was built near the Thirsk Road, opening in 1909 with 104 pupils, half of whom were girls, the first time that they had been admitted. The school expanded throughout the 20th century. Following the Education Act 1944, the school entry was based on the Eleven plus exam with all fees and charges being abolished. In 1973 the grammar school merged with the Secondary Modern Allertonshire School, which had opened in 1941, with the Allertonshire site taking pupils aged 11–14 and the grammar school site ages 14–18. By 1976 the comprehensive system was adopted and in 1994 the grammar school was renamed Northallerton College to better reflect the school's role in the community. In 2015 Northallerton College merged with Allertonshire School to become a full secondary school, with years 7 to 13 being educated at the Grammar School Lane site as of September 2018. ## Economy The economic activity of residents aged 16–74 was 44.3% in full-time employment, 15% in part-time employment, 6.8% self-employed, 2.5% unemployed, 2.6% students with jobs, 4.7% students without jobs, 15.8% retired, 6.5% looking after home or family, 5.3% permanently sick or disabled, and 3.1% economically inactive for other reasons. The average price of a house in Northallerton for the 12-month period ending July 2008 was £209,082 compared to £200,433 for North Yorkshire and the national average of £178,364. ### Authorities and services As the county town of North Yorkshire, the town's county hall is the administrative headquarters for North Yorkshire County Council. The headquarters of Hambleton District Council is also located in the town at Stonecross. The North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service has its headquarters on East Road while the North Yorkshire Police force is also located in Northallerton at Alverton Court – the latter moved from Newby Wiske in 2017. Other major employers include the Friarage Hospital which employs around 1,400 staff. ### Agriculture Being the centre of a large rural area it is the focus of agriculture with several businesses servicing the needs of farming. The auction mart regularly holds livestock auctions. ### Trade The town is a market centre for the area and also draws traders from further afield to its two annual fairs (formerly four). Cattle drovers bringing cattle, horses and sheep from Northumbria and Scotland regularly came to the town. The original cattle market was by the church, but sheep were sold on High Street until the early part of the 20th century. With the arrival of the railway the mart was built close to the station, but this later closed and today the cattle market is held in Applegarth Court. ### Retail Within the town, three of the four major UK supermarkets can be found – Tesco, Sainsbury's and a small Asda near the town centre. There is also an M&S Simply Food close to the high street. The northern part of Northallerton is a developing area in retail with a Wickes, Topps Tiles and the town's industrial estate and business parks. Homebase ceased trading in May 2015 due to being unprofitable, and B&Q ceased trading in 2016 at the end of the lease, also due to not being profitable. The long High Street provides a wide variety of shops, restaurants, pubs and cafes. There are national retailers such as Costa Coffee, Caffè Nero, Pandora, Fat Face, Wilko (which occupies the former Woolworth's premises), Waterstones, O2, EE and Vodafone alongside local independent or regional retailers Betty's tearooms, Lewis & Cooper, Barker's department store and Boyes. The oldest extant Indian restaurant in the town is the Lion of Asia, which is located on the High Street, having been in business in Northallerton for over 30 years. On 15 November 2018, planning permission was granted for a £17 million project featuring retail, residential, leisure and office space as well as a large public square to transform the former Northallerton Prison site. ## Transport ### Road Two main A roads pass through the town: the A684 runs approximately east–west through the town and acts as a link between the A1(M) motorway at Leeming Bar and the A19 at Osmotherley; the A167 runs approximately north–south between the A1(M) at Darlington and the A168 at Topcliffe. In addition the A168 runs from Wetherby via Thirsk to Northallerton. Northallerton was built around the old Roman Dere Street, and thereafter remained a major stopping point on the coach routes between Scotland and London. Coaching operations declined in the mid 19th century after the railway was introduced to the town in 1841. ### Rail Northallerton railway station which is operated by TransPennine Express lies on the East Coast Main Line between Scotland and London Kings Cross. The line also splinters off to Middlesbrough in the town. Nearby Leeming Bar is on the heritage Wensleydale Railway (which runs to Redmire) and can be reached by the Dales & District bus service between the stations. It is hoped that eventually passenger trains could connect with the Settle & Carlisle line at Garsdale, and that the section of line near Northallerton known as the South Curve can be upgraded to allow trains from the Wensleydale line to run into Northallerton and avoid reversing onto the main line. Limited goods, engineering and excursion trains use the North Curve. ### Air The nearest airport is Teesside International Airport approximately 15 mi (24 km) north of the town, lying just to the east of Darlington. ## Sport ### Football codes Northallerton Town FC play in the Northern League, the second oldest football league in the world. Formed sometime before 1895 they have been known as both Northallerton and Northallerton Alliance before settling on their current name. They are the most southerly based team in the league. The team played in many minor leagues before joining the Northern League Division Two on its formation in 1982. In 1994 the club was declared financially insolvent and closed down, but were rescued by local businessmen in time for the 1994–95 season. The club has never actually played in Northallerton, playing at the Bluestone Ground near County Hall in Romanby until 1974, then moving to its current location at the Regency Stadium on the outskirts of Romanby. The brothers Michael Dawson (Tottenham Hotspur defender), Andy Dawson (Hull City defender) and Kevin Dawson (Worksop Town defender) all started their football career at Northallerton Town. Northallerton Rugby Union Football Club play at Brompton Lodge on the outskirts of Brompton. The team play in the second division of the Yorkshire League. The recently formed rugby league club Northallerton Stallions has reached agreement with the rugby union club to play at their Brompton Lodge facilities. ### Cricket Cricket in Northallerton dates back to 1812, although the first recorded match played by Northallerton Cricket Club was in the early 1860s. The club was one of the six founder member teams of the North Yorkshire Cricket League which was formed in 1893. They later went on to join the Thirsk & District Senior League in 1911, winning their first title in 1914. Subsequently, known as the York Senior League, Northallerton won the championship a further eight times. In 1949, the club moved from its ground adjacent to County Hall to its current location at the end of Farndale Avenue in Romanby. In 1965 a two tier pavilion was built at a cost of £6,500 and was opened with match against a Yorkshire XI which included Geoffrey Boycott. The club currently fields three teams. The first team plays in division 2 of the North Yorkshire & South Durham Cricket League whilst the second team plays in division 4. The third team currently plays in the Darlington and District Cricket League. ### Aquatic Northallerton has a leisure centre which is home to NASC (Northallerton Amateur Swimming Club) and Hambleton Seals Water Polo, who both play in competitive galas and matches. NASC recently came third in their moors league division which is an achievement for the club as they have not finished that high for a very long time. Hambleton Seals Water Polo are a newly formed team which aims to attract local children to a quite small, yet fun sport. ## Media There is a major television and radio transmitter at Bilsdale Moor, 8 mi (13 km) east of the town, which broadcasts local news and television programmes from BBC North East and Cumbria and ITV Tyne Tees, National Radio (Radio 1–4), BBC Tees, commercial radio stations Classic FM, Heart North East, TFM and Capital North East, Smooth North East and other local radio stations. It also transmits various digital television channels. BBC local radio station that broadcast to the town is BBC Radio York on 104.3 FM. On 11 June 2007 Northallerton got its own radio station. Minster Northallerton, which was owned by the Local Radio Company. It broadcast on the frequencies 103.5 MHz and 102.3 MHz but later became part of Star Radio North East. After further changes, the Minster frequencies now carry Greatest Hits Radio York and North Yorkshire. The town is served by two local newspapers, North Yorkshire editions of the daily Northern Echo and the weekly Darlington & Stockton Times both published by Newsquest. The Northallerton, Thirsk & Bedale Times published by Johnston Press was discontinued in 2009. ## Culture ### Gallery The landscape photographer Joe Cornish has a gallery in the town which displays his work and that of other photographers, and runs workshops on landscape photography. ### Cinema There was a cinema in Northallerton from 1939 until 1995. The Lyric, in the High Street, opened in October 1939 and also served as a theatre, with a capacity of 1,000 seats. It fell into disrepair and eventually closed in June 1995. The building was then bought by the New Life Baptist Church and converted to a place of worship. ### Theatre More recently The Forum, a multi-use arts and community centre, has staged a number of theatre productions and concerts. Having been built and run by Hambleton District Council, the Forum was taken over by a new registered charity in August 2012. Since mid 2011, with support from Cine Yorkshire, a project run by the National Media Museum, the Forum has been host to the latest digital cinema projection equipment and is showing mainstream films on a weekly basis – as well as live broadcasts from National Theatre Live and the Royal Opera House. ## Public services ### Emergency services North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust guides primary care services (general practitioners, dentists, opticians and pharmacists) in the town, directly provides adult social care and services in the community such as health visiting and physiotherapy and also funds hospital care and other specialist treatments. The town is served by two GP surgeries: Mayford House Surgery and Mowbray House Surgery. The Friarage Hospital serves the local community, providing 281 beds. In 2007 it underwent a £21 million programme of refurbishment and new development. It has close ties with the Ministry of Defence and acts in partnership with the MoD to provide medical care to military personnel. A number of military doctors, nurses and support staff are employed at the Friarage. The Rutson Rehabilitation Centre, run by the North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust provides specialist support for stroke victims. It was due to close in spring 2008, as the building which opened in 1877 is not up to modern standards. However, the move has been delayed due to lack of space at the Friarage. Following merger of Tees East and North Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust with the South Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust and the West Yorkshire metropolitan Ambulance Service NHS Trust in July 2006 the Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust is responsible for the provision of statutory emergency medical services in the town. ### Utilities Mains water and sewerage services are provided by Yorkshire Water. Drinking water is supplied from Bullamoor Reservoir (a system of four covered concrete cisterns on the hillside east of the town) which are fed with water from the River Ure via Thornton Steward Reservoir. Until around 2006, Northallerton received its water from Cod Beck Reservoir near Osmotherley. The storage at Bullamoor was doubled in 2006 in anticipation of the closure of Cod Beck Water Treatment Works; Bullamoor Reservoir is also the primary source of water for Thirsk. Sewerage is processed at Northallerton and Romanby Sewage Treatment Works, both in Romanby, which discharge into Willow Beck, a tributary of the River Wiske. ## Popular culture In the 1945 film The Way to the Stars, the Golden Lion Hotel in Northallerton's High Street was used as the pub. Its exterior is little changed today. ## Notable people ## Arms ## See also - Parliamentary borough of Northallerton - Railways in Northallerton - Beverley - Wakefield

Battle off Endau

Battle of the Malayan Campaign in World War II

The Battle off Endau was a Second World War battle that took place off Endau town on 26–27 January 1942. Part of the Battle of Malaya, it was the first notable naval engagement since the sinking of the battleship Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser Repulse on 10 December 1941, and the last effort by the Royal Navy to intercept Japanese convoy shipping around the Malay Peninsula. A Japanese convoy approaching Endau was detected by reconnaissance aircraft on 26 January and was ineffectually attacked multiple times by Allied aircraft as it was landing its troops. The Allies suffered heavy casualties, while the Japanese lost only a single aircraft. The Royal Navy committed two destroyers later that day to break up the Japanese landings, despite the much larger Japanese escort force. Sailing under the cover of darkness, they were able to locate the convoy anchored there without being detected, but could not find the troopships in the darkness. The ships attempted to disengage, but were fired upon by the convoy's escorts and one destroyer was sunk in the early morning hours of 27 January. ## Background The sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse in the opening stages of the Malayan Campaign left the task of intercepting Japanese convoys in the Gulf of Siam to the submarines of the Royal Netherlands Navy as the surface ships were occupied escorting Allied convoys to and from Ceylon and the Dutch East Indies. The Dutch recorded their first success when the troopship Awazisan Maru was sunk off Kota Bharu on 12 December 1941, probably by . On 24 December, sank the destroyer Sagiri off the coast of Kuching, Borneo. Several other vessels were also damaged or sunk during the early weeks, but losses were high for the Dutch submarines and they could do little to stem the Japanese advance. ## Endau An amphibious landing at Mersing was originally planned by the Japanese to sever the lines of communication between the British forces and Singapore, but the Southern Expeditionary Army Group decided to land the rest of the 18th Division at Singora instead, believing that the Allied defences at Mersing were too formidable. Although ground forces captured Endau on 21 January, they lacked the strength to break through the Australian defences at Sungei-Mersing. On 20 January 1942, a convoy of eleven troopships departed Cam Ranh Bay, Indochina, to unload ground forces at Singora, of which two would proceed to Endau. The two transports, Kansai Maru and Canberra Maru, were carrying troops of the 96th Airfield Battalion, assigned to bring the airfields of Kahang and Kluang into operation. They were escorted by the 1st Escort Unit, which was formed around Torpedo Squadron 3, which consisted of the light cruiser Sendai, flagship of Rear-Admiral Shintarō Hashimoto, and six Fubuki-class destroyers, Fubuki, Hatsuyuki, Shirayuki, Asagiri, Amagiri, and Yūgiri. The squadron was augmented with the five W-1-class minesweepers of the 1st Minesweeper Division, three CH-4-class submarine chasers of the 11th Submarine Chaser Division, and four converted patrol boats. ### Air attacks Malaya Command anticipated that the Japanese force would soon be reinforced by a naval convoy, a suspicion confirmed on 26 January when two Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Lockheed Hudson aircraft sighted them 20 miles (32 km) north of Endau. Although they spotted the Japanese convoy at 07:45, their radio transmissions were jammed, and news did not reach higher command until they landed in Singapore at 09:20. The RAF decided to attack the convoy with all available aircraft. The attack had to be delayed until that afternoon, however, to allow the crews of the Vickers Vildebeest and Fairey Albacore torpedo bombers of No. 36 Squadron RAF and No. 100 Squadron RAF to rest after their night missions. The decision to use the elderly Vildebeest biplanes against the ships in daylight came as a shock to the pilots, who had been restricted to the relative safety of night sorties following the first day of the invasion. The first air attack was carried out by the Vildebeests of Nos. 36 and 100 Squadrons and the Hudsons of Nos. 1 and 8 Squadron RAAF. Twelve Vildebeests and nine Hudson bombers took off from Singapore in the early afternoon of 26 January, with a fighter escort composed of twelve Brewster F2A Buffalos and nine Hawker Hurricanes. The Japanese landings on Endau had been in progress for over four hours by the time the planes arrived at 15:00. The Japanese naval force had air cover consisting of 19 Nakajima Ki-27s from the 1st and 11th Squadrons and a single Nakajima Ki-44 fighter. Despite heavy opposition, the two transports were bombed, and men and equipment on the beach were strafed. Five Vildebeests were lost in the attack, including the commanding officer of No. 100 Squadron, while one Ki-27 was shot down. A second wave set off from Singapore at 16:15, consisting of seven Vildebeests and three Albacores of No. 36 Squadron and two Vildebeests of No. 100 Squadron. They arrived over Endau at 17:30, but their escort of seven Hurricanes and four Buffalos were late and the British biplanes were set upon by ten Ki-27s and two Ki-44s before their escorts could reach them. Five Vildebeests, two Albacores and one Hurricane were lost from this wave. Of the 72 aircrew from Nos. 36 and 100 Squadrons who participated in the raids, 27 were killed, seven were wounded and two were captured. The returning pilots were congratulated by Air Vice-Marshal Paul Maltby, who promised them that further daylight attacks were unnecessary. A third raid, consisting of six unescorted Hudsons of No. 62 Squadron RAF, flying from Palembang, Sumatra, attacked shortly afterwards, losing two of their number, with their entire crews, to six Ki-27s. A fourth raid, made up of five Bristol Blenheims of No. 27 Squadron RAF, set off from Palembang later in the day, but had only got as far as Singapore by sunset, so aborted the mission. Despite claims to have scored multiple hits on both transports and a cruiser, neither the transports, nor any of their escorts were damaged; the former were hit by splinters that killed 8 and wounded 18, but Sendai and the smaller ships were untouched. ### Naval battle Rear-Admiral Ernest Spooner, commander of naval forces at Singapore, ordered his only combat-ready warships, the elderly destroyers HMS Thanet and , to attack the shipping off Endau later that night. Commander William Moran was captain of Vampire while Thanet was under the command of Lieutenant Commander Bernard Davies. The destroyers departed Singapore at 16:30 with Moran in charge of the two ships and headed north. Initial intelligence reports assessed the Japanese strength defending the convoy as a dozen destroyers, but this was revised downward to a pair of destroyers at 22:55, based on inaccurate reporting by surviving RAF aircrew. The 1st Escort Unit was prepared for a surface attack based on an incorrect intelligence report that two British light cruisers were at sea and Hashimoto oriented his ships' patrol sectors to the north. Moran led his ships between the Seribuat Archipelago and the coast of Johor in brilliant moonlight and then altered course northeast to search the area north of the archipelago. When dark clouds obscured the moon at 01:51, he turned southwestwards at a speed of 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) for Endau, keeping Tioman Island behind him to ensure that his ships were not silhouetted against the horizon. At 02:37, Vampire saw a Japanese destroyer (probably Amagiri), but was not spotted in return and the Allied ships continued on their course. Three minutes later, they located another Japanese ship (the minesweeper W-4) dead ahead at point-blank range. Moran decided to attack, as discovery was inevitable at such short range, and increased his speed to 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph), simultaneously firing two of his three torpedoes at a distance of 600 metres (660 yd). One torpedo missed ahead by 15–20 yards (14–18 m) and the other passed underneath the minesweeper. W-4, in the middle patrol zone, was trying to identify the two destroyers when Moran attacked, but failed to alert any other Japanese ships to the Allied presence in their midst for 20 minutes before giving a location six nautical miles (11 km; 6.9 mi) away. W-4 did not return fire and Moran resumed his search for the transports, reducing his speed again to 15 knots to reduce the visibility of his wakes. A half-hour later, with shallow water approaching, and no transports spotted, the Allied destroyers altered course to the north to clear the shallows and increased speed to 25 knots at 03:13 before turning southeast by east. At 03:18, Vampire sighted the destroyer Shirayuki off the port bow and another ship astern. Vampire and Thanet made minor course adjustments to fire their torpedoes at Shirayuki at a range of 1,500 yards (1,400 m) – one from Vampire and all four of Thanet's – but all missed as Shirayuki, having spotted the Allied ships at the same time, altered course to come behind the Allied destroyers and then signalled to confirm their identities. Not receiving a reply, the Japanese ship illuminated the Allied ships with her searchlight and finally opened fire at 03:31 despite the smoke screen being laid by both ships. Moran ordered both his ships to return fire with their four-inch guns while retiring southeast at maximum speed. Thanet only fired three volleys from her guns before she was hit in the engine room. The hit fractured both the main and auxiliary steam lines to the engines, causing the ship to go dead in the water and lose all electrical power. Constantly making small changes of course to throw off Japanese gun layers, neither ship hit any Japanese ships during the battle. Allied and Japanese accounts of the gunnery action are difficult to reconcile, particularly as neither of the Allied destroyers recorded any times after firing their torpedoes at 03:18. Shirayuki fired 18 rounds at Vampire at a range of 4,500 yards (4,100 m) before the muzzle blast from her rear gun mounts tripped the circuit breakers in her main electrical switchboard, causing complete electrical failure throughout the ship. While electrical service was restored within two minutes, the ship had a series of smaller electrical failures that bedeviled her for the next 15 minutes. When she resumed firing, Vampire was no longer visible and Shirayuki targeted Thanet instead at a range of 3,050 metres (10,010 ft), firing 82 rounds at her. Yugiri opened fire at 03:38 at Thanet 4,500 yards (4,100 m) away and both ships observed their target slowing down at 03:45. At that same time, Yugiri radioed Hashimoto that "The enemy is two destroyers" so she had spotted Vampire as she fled, although Yugiri lost sight of Vampire 10 minutes later. Sendai, Fubuki, Asagiri, Amagiri, Hatsuyuki and W-1 all subsequently opened fire, mostly at Thanet, although Vampire reported being under fire for a considerable time. All told, the Japanese ships fired 469 rounds at the Allied destroyers, failing to hit Vampire even once. Shirayuki reported that Thanet had sunk at 04:18 and rescued an officer and 30 ratings from the water; another officer and 11 ratings died in the battle. The Japanese did not pursue and Vampire reached Singapore at 10:00 that morning. ## Aftermath Shirayuki handed over the rescued seamen to troops on Endau the following day. They were never seen again, but are believed to have been executed in retaliation for losses sustained by the Japanese in an ambush by the Australian 2/18th Battalion, which occurred south of Mersing about the same time as the naval action off Endau. Davies, four other officers, and 61 ratings from Thanet managed to reach shore and made their way to Singapore, together with shot down aircrew. The Japanese were able to finish landing their troops, which may have contributed to the impression of significant forces in front of the Australian defenders and their subsequent withdrawal. The heavy losses suffered by the Allied aircraft and aircrew virtually eliminated their ability to influence the subsequent ground battles. Moran's report on Japanese incompetence at night fighting was the most important result of the battle. Since few details about the subsequent night combats off Java survived, Moran's assessment influenced Allied thinking about the IJN until the stunning victory during the nighttime Battle of Savo Island in August flipped the Allied beliefs about the Japanese ability at night fighting on their heads.

Tropical Storm Colin (2016)

Atlantic tropical storm in 2016

Tropical Storm Colin was the earliest third named storm in the Atlantic basin on record for four years, until it was surpassed by Tropical Storm Cristobal in 2020. An atypical, poorly organized tropical cyclone, Colin developed from a low pressure area over the Gulf of Mexico near the northern coast of the Yucatán Peninsula late on June 5, 2016. Moving northward, the depression strengthened into a tropical storm about eight hours after its formation. On June 6, Colin curved to the north-northeast and intensified slightly to winds of 50 mph (80 km/h). Strong wind shear prevented further strengthening and resulted in the system maintaining a disheveled appearance on satellite imagery. Later, the storm began accelerating to the northeast. Early on June 7, Colin made landfall in rural Taylor County, Florida, still at peak intensity. The system rapidly crossed northern Florida and emerged into the Atlantic Ocean several hours later. By late on June 7, Colin transitioned into an extratropical cyclone offshore North Carolina before being absorbed by a frontal boundary the following day. Upon the development of Colin on June 5, a tropical storm warning was issued for much of the west coast of Florida, followed by tropical storm warnings and watches on Atlantic coast from Central Florida to North Carolina later on June 5 and June 6. Governor of Florida Rick Scott declared a state of emergency, while schools and colleges closed in several counties. The storm produced heavy rainfall over portions of Florida, resulting in flooding in some areas, especially Hillsborough and Pinellas counties. There, the freshwater flooding was compounded by coastal flooding from high tides. Winds caused over 93,300 power outages throughout the state. The storm spawned two tornadoes, one of which knocked down trees and damaged several cars and homes in Jacksonville. Four fatalities occurred in the Florida Panhandle due to drowning. Heavy rainfall was also observed in portions of Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Two additional drowning deaths occurred in Georgia. Damage throughout the East Coast reached \$1.04 million (2016 USD). ## Meteorological history The National Hurricane Center (NHC) issued a Tropical Weather Outlook (TWO) over the Gulf of Mexico and northern Yucatán Peninsula on June 1. The Two indicated the probability of the development of a low pressure area, which would have a 20% chance of becoming a tropical cyclone in the next five days. By June 3, a concentrated area of showers and thunderstorms developed in the western Caribbean Sea, resulting in an increasing probability of tropical cyclogenesis within 48 hours. Despite land interaction with the Yucatán Peninsula and unfavorably strong wind shear, the system reached an 80% chance of developing in the next 48 hours by early on June 5. It then moved inland over the Yucatán Peninsula, but continued to organize. After entering the Gulf of Mexico, the system developed a well-defined circulation, according to surface data and satellite imagery. Thus, the NHC upgraded it to on Tropical Depression Three at 12:00 UTC on June 5, while located just north of the Yucatán Peninsula. The northward-moving depression was lopsided, with the circulation being well to the west of an elongated band of deep convection. Later that day, after a reconnaissance aircraft observed tropical storm force winds, the cyclone was upgraded to Tropical Storm Colin at 18:00 UTC. Colin became the earliest third tropical storm in the Atlantic basin, exceeding the previous record set by Tropical Storm Three on June 12, 1887. Despite the intensification, the storm remained poorly organized due to strong wind shear, with the low-level center being indistinguishable on infrared satellite imagery. Early on June 6, data from surface observations, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and a reconnaissance aircraft flight suggested that two small-scale circulations existed. Shortly thereafter, NHC noted that the "satellite presentation of Colin does not resemble that of a classical tropical cyclone", as convection and strong winds were displaced well east of the center, primarily due to wind shear. The storm began accelerating to the northeast late on June 6 due to a mid- to upper-level trough over the Midwestern United States. Despite this, Colin was able to reach its peak intensity at 00:00 UTC on June 7, with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (80 km/h) and a minimum atmospheric pressure of 1,001 mbar (29.6 inHg). Two hours later, the cyclone made landfall in Keaton Beach, Florida, at peak intensity. Continuing rapidly northeastward, Colin quickly crossed North Florida and southern Georgia, reaching the Atlantic Ocean before 09:00 UTC. The storm appeared to be "not very tropical", though large areas of deep convection continued to exist to the east and southeast of the center. At 12:00 UTC on June 7, the system had frontal features and thus transitioned into an extratropical cyclone, just off the Carolinas coast. ## Preparations Upon the development of Colin at 15:00 UTC on June 5, a tropical storm warning was issued on the west coast of Florida from Englewood to Indian Pass. Six hours later, a tropical storm watch was put into effect from the Flagler–Volusia county line on the east coast to Altamaha Sound in Georgia. Early on June 6, the tropical storm watch was upgraded to a tropical storm warning, which was extended southward to the Sebastian Inlet. Simultaneously, a new tropical storm watch was issued from Altamaha Sound to the South Santee River in South Carolina. The tropical storm watch was upgraded to a tropical storm warning by 18:00 UTC on June 6. After three hours, the tropical storm warning was extended northward to Oregon Inlet in North Carolina. At 09:00 UTC on June 7, the tropical storm warning on the Gulf Coast of Florida and the East Coast of the United States south of Altamaha Sound, Georgia, was discontinued. Three hours later, the tropical storm warning was canceled south of Surf City, North Carolina. By 18:00 UTC on June 7, the remaining portion of the tropical storm warning was discontinued. On June 6, Governor of Florida Rick Scott declared a state of emergency for 34 counties and also prepared to deploy 6,000 Florida National Guard members, if necessary. All campuses of Seminole State College and University of Central Florida were closed on June 6, while the University of South Florida closed all three of its campuses after 3:00 p.m. EST. The Sunshine Skyway Bridge, which spans across Tampa Bay, was closed on June 6 due to high winds. In Manatee County, an elementary school in Holmes Beach closed for one day. School students in Pasco County were released early on June 6. Boat ramps in Levy County were closed, while schools in Cedar Key and Yankeetown had an early release day on June 6. Sandbags were available in several counties, including Alachua, Bradford, Citrus, Hernando, Highlands, Hillsborough, Lake, Manatee, Marion, Pasco, Pinellas, St. Johns, and Volusia. In coastal Georgia, Liberty County schools, Armstrong State University, Savannah Technical College, closed early on June 6. The health departments in Bryan, Camden, Chatham, Effingham, Glynn, Liberty, Long, and McIntosh counties were also closed earlier than normal on that day. Military personnel and civilian employees at Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield were ordered not to return until after the storm safely passed. ## Impact The storm brought heavy rainfall and flooding to western Cuba, particularly Pinar del Río Province, where some locations recorded more than 7.9 inches (200 mm) of precipitation in 24 hours. San Juan y Martínez saw the highest total with 8.7 inches (220 mm). In low-lying and flood prone communities, authorities remained alert to the possibility of evacuations due to rivers beginning to overflow. Several roads were left impassable, while crops were damaged in some areas. Approximately 84,000 acres (34,000 hectares) of crops were flooded. Additionally, water service was disrupted and more than 6,770 customers lost electricity. Three homes in Old Havana suffered major damage and several others were impacted following multiple landslides. Heavy rainfall was largely seen as beneficial; multiple reservoirs received much-needed rain and their overall capacity reached 50 percent. ### Florida The storm brought heavy rainfall to some areas of Florida, particularly North Florida and the Tampa Bay Area. Precipitation peaked at 17.54 in (446 mm) in Seminole in Pinellas County. Tropical storm force wind gusts were observed at several locations, though few locations reported sustained tropical storm force winds. At the New Smyrna Beach Municipal Airport, a sustained winds speed of 52 mph (84 km/h) was recorded, while a wind tower at the Kennedy Space Center observed a wind gust of 66 mph (106 km/h). Other strong wind gusts included 57 mph (92 km/h) in Bradenton and 63 mph (101 km/h) in Jacksonville. At the Tampa International Airport, there were 29 flight delays and 2 cancellations, while the Orlando International Airport reported sixty-four flight arrival and departure delays, as well as four cancellations. The heavy precipitation resulted in scattered reports of flooding throughout North and Central Florida. Many roads and intersections in at least a few counties were closed due to flooding, including in Alachua, Bradford, Hernando, Hillsborough, Pinellas, and St. Johns counties. Water entered a few businesses in Tampa at South Manhattan Avenue and El Prado Boulevard. In Pinellas County, a mobile home park in Clearwater was flooded, while water entered some homes in St. Pete Beach. Floodwaters overwhelmed the sewage system, forcing the city to pump partially treated sewage into Tampa Bay. Heavy rainfall in St. Petersburg resulted in water entering the hallway at St. Petersburg High School while school was in session. Overall, damage in the Tampa Bay area total \$10,000. The south fork of Black Creek, located in Clay County, rose from 0.5 ft (0.15 m) to about 13.8 ft (4.2 m), but remained below flood stage. In St. Johns County, two sinkholes formed on the roads, while a culvert was washed out. Some areas were also impacted by storm surge and abnormally high tides. In Cedar Key, seven businesses and thirteen homes were flooded, while roads were inundated at the Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuge. At least three people drowned along the Florida Panhandle due to rip currents, and a fourth remains missing but is presumed dead. Power outages were reported throughout Central and North Florida, with over 93,300 customers losing electricity, including about 9,500 power outages between Tampa and Temple Terrace. In several counties, such as Alachua, Bradford, Duval, Flagler, Hardee, Martin, Orange, Putnam, and St. Lucie, impact was primarily limited to falling trees, which blocked roads, knocked down some power lines, or left generally minor damage to homes and vehicles. A few tornadoes and waterspouts were spawned during a storm. A waterspout was spotted offshore Lee County near Bonita Springs and Estero. An EF1 tornado on the Enhanced Fujita scale touched down near Jacksonville. The tornado snapped a number of pine and hardwood trees, while causing roof damage to some homes. At a Publix distribution center, three empty trucks were overturned. A possible tornado in Alachua County in the vicinity of Hawthorne toppled some trees and damaged a home. ### Georgia and the Carolinas In Georgia, two swimmers went missing while boating St. Andrew Sound. After a United States Coast Guard helicopter search of an over 1,150 sq mi (3,000 km²) area, the bodies of both of them were located. The storm left wind damage in Glynn County. Five trees fell onto roads, while one tree each was reported striking a power line, a shed, and a vehicle. Several roads in Liberty County were washed out due to flooding, where 4.32 in (110 mm) of precipitation was observed at Hinesville. Further west in Thomasville, 5.27 in (134 mm) of rain fell on June 7, about 1.33 in (34 mm) above the city's monthly rainfall for June. In South Carolina, several roads were washed out in Jasper County and downtown Charleston. In North Carolina, rainfall in Dare County inundated portions of Highway 12 and nearby side roads, as well as adjacent low-lying areas. Similar impact occurred in Carteret County, where rainfall totals generally ranged from 2 to 4 in (51 to 102 mm). ## See also - Tropical cyclones in 2016 - List of Florida hurricanes (2000–present) - Other tropical cyclones named Colin - Tropical Storm Alberto (2006) – took a similar path - Tropical Storm Barry (2007) - Tropical Storm Andrea (2013) - Hurricane Hermine (2016) – Category 1 hurricane that took the same path just less than 3 months later - Tropical Storm Philippe (2017) – similar storm that had a poorly organized structure in late October 2017

Dreams and Nightmares

Dreams and Nightmares is the debut studio album by American rapper Meek Mill, released on October 30, 2012, by Maybach Music Group and Warner Bros. Records. Mill intended for it to be authentic and more cohesive than his mixtapes, having a stronger connection through both vocals and beats. The album features guest appearances from Kirko Bangz, Rick Ross, Nas, John Legend, Drake, Wale, and Mary J. Blige, among others. Production was primarily handled by Jahlil Beats and Boi-1da, alongside the likes of Tone the Beat Bully and Key Wane. The recording took place from January to September 2012, including sessions in a studio bus on the Club Paradise Tour. Sessions were also held in Los Angeles and Miami, and multiple recordings were included on Mill's ninth mixtape, Dreamchasers 2 (2012). The dreams represent Mill making money as a performer, while the nightmares are based on coming up from his neighbourhood. "Amen" was released as the lead single in June 2012, followed by "Burn" and "Young & Gettin' It" later that year, before "Believe It" in early 2013. Music videos were produced for all of the releases, while the lead single and "Young & Gettin' It" both charted on the US Billboard Hot 100. Mill embarked on the Dreamchasers Tour for further promotion in August 2012, performing at 16 cities in the United States. Dreams and Nightmares received generally positive reviews from music critics, who mostly commended Mill's development into mainstream rap. Some praised his rapping, while a few critics highlighted the dreams theme. The album was named to 2012 year-end lists by multiple publications, including Rap Radar and The Source. Dreams and Nightmares debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, selling 165,000 copies in the first week in the US. It has since been certified gold in the country by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The album reached numbers six and five on the Canadian Albums and UK R&B Albums charts, respectively. In November 2022, Mill held a 10th anniversary concert at the Wells Fargo Center, beginning with footage throughout his career and featuring appearances from the likes of Fabulous, Fivio Foreign, and Rick Ross. ## Background and recording In late January 2012, Mill announced his debut album to Hot 97 host Angie Martinez, with a release planned for the summer of 2012. The following month, Mill revealed the album's title to be Dreams and Nightmares in a vlog. Mill released his ninth mixtape Dreamchasers 2 on May 7, 2012, in the lead-up to Dreams and Nightmares. That same month, Mill declared backstage to MTV News to expect from the album "quality music and you're gonna get the real me", explaining it would not "be all over the place" like his mixtapes. He elaborated that he was going to establish a connection, trying to "perfect my craft a little more", assuring his flows blend better with the beats and these have more clarity. Mill was hopeful to include guest appearances from fellow rappers French Montana and Rick Ross, yet still insisted some features would be a surprise. In a May 2012 interview for The Juice, he added that the rappers featured would depend on how the unfinished tracks felt: "If I have a song that sounds like it fits Nicki Minaj the best or it fits T.I. the best, that's the people I would sort of lean towards getting on them songs. But it depends on how the songs fit the person." Dreams and Nightmares features production on numerous tracks from record producer Jahlil Beats, who was first introduced to Mill via Myspace. He had previously contributed to Mill's Flamers 2: Hottest In Tha City (2009) and Dreamchasers 2, becoming a frequent collaborator of the rapper. Jahlil Beats said of collaborating that their chemistry "was destined to happen", emphasizing how well his drums and Mill's flow blend together. Jamaician-Canadian record producer Boi-1da produced the tracks "Traumatized" and "Tony Story Pt. 2", while production was also contributed by the likes of Tone the Beat Bully, Young Shun, Infamous, The-Agency, and Key Wane. In early August 2012, Hip-Hop Wired reported that the album's release date was postponed from August 28 to late October 2012. That same month, Mill implored to Wild 94.9 that he desired to stay true to hip hop and have a "classic album" comparable to the likes of Nas' Illmatic (1994), Jay-Z's Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life (1998), and 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Tryin (2003). Nas voiced his approval of Mill, "I got my eyes on him. He's the next one to take this shit over." In early October 2012, Mill shared the track list for Dreams and Nightmares, which showed the two bonus tracks. Around the same time, Mill revealed that major musical acts like Nas, Rick Ross, John Legend, and Mary J. Blige were set to be featured. He also announced an appearance from fellow rapper and Maybach signee Wale, who described Mill as being in a "special moment" when wanting to make history. At the end of October 2012, Mill was detained by the Philadelphia Police Department on his way to the album's listening party. The department could not disclose the reasoning, though he was angry at having to share handcuffs with the Rolex watch on his wrist for the cover art. Mill explained the conception of Dreams and Nightmares, detailing that the dreams represent "being on tour and television, gettin' paid for doing what I love to do", while "the nightmares was just makin' it to this point, the hard work and bein' in the streets". He elaborated that there was darker incidents during his younger years in Philadelphia, alluding to acts he considered bad and unspecified violence. In January 2012, the recording process for the album began. This continued as Mill embarked on the Dreamchasers Tour and promoted Dreamchasers 2, releasing some of the recordings on the mixtape. As him and fellow rapper Nipsey Hussle listened to beats from American-Jamaican musician Sean Kingston in the studio, Mill came up with song lyrics. American record producer Spiff brought in a batch of 80 beats, while Jahlil Beats noted Mill's high level of energy that culminates in "some crossover records" and "a few fast records". In May 2012, Mill stated that he was recording between two and three songs a day in a studio he had recently installed on his bus for Canadian musician Drake's Club Paradise Tour. The rapper said that although none of the tracks had been made final for Dreams and Nightmares, his collaboration "Maybach Curtains" with Nas had a possibility of appearing. Footage of the rappers in a Los Angeles studio that same month showed him playing two tracks from the album that Nas appreciated, including "Maybach Curtains". In July 2012, the track was leaked to the internet. A month prior, Mill was joined in his recording bus by major rap acts like Wale, French Montana, and J. Cole. Rick Ross gave studio advice to Mill of making the tracks feel perfect and part of a cohesive record; he responded by freestyling and telling fellow rapper the Game it was "that feeling". In early September 2012, Mill relocated to a Miami studio for the final recording sessions, including the title track "Dreams and Nightmares". ## Music and lyrics Dreams and Nightmares is a hip hop album, incorporating elements of orchestral and pop music. The album frequently utilizes piano, which The A.V. Club's Evan Rytlewski called "a softer template" than Mill's mixtapes. Jordan Sargent of Pitchfork described Dreams and Nightmares as "distinct in both voice and sound", observing it is "tense and dramatic" through the variations of piano and Mill's rapping. Some reviews considered the music to be formulaic; PopMatters' Matthew Fiander said Mill aims for commercial success over creativity and is accompanied by "the machinations of Maybach [like] overdone beats". David Jeffries from AllMusic depicted the album as disorganized with less care than a mixtape, yet thought that "sliced off into little bits, this is the glittery gangster feeling" to be expected for Maybach. Multiple publications noted Mill's loud delivery, with Fiander and the staff of XXL believing that he yells throughout. Mill summarized Dreams and Nightmares: "The dream part is me living as an artist making money touring across the world, and nightmares touches on everything that it took for me to make it from the streets." The album features Mill reflecting on his earlier struggles in life, showing how he became credible and juxtaposing these with his current situation. He tells his story of reaching triumph from the struggles, including crime, drug dealing, and growing up in a rough urban area. Mill expresses a desire for money and disregard for the associated fame, albeit acknowledging his wealth is tainted by how it was earnt. He also boasts of his lifestyle, while maintaining his dedication and grit. The rapper ventures between dreams and nightmares, which are represented by his successes and inner demons, respectively. ## Songs Dreams and Nightmares begins with the title track, which relies on piano stabs and strings. The track has a beat switch in the middle to transition from the dreams to the nightmares portion; Mill changes from celebrating victory to rapping angrily about issues in his past. "In God We Trust" features a maximalist beat, over which Mill raps forcefully about killing a man. "Young & Gettin' It" contains elements of club and usage of Auto-Tune, with lyrics about the strength to sell drugs from Mill and a hook from fellow rapper Kirko Bangz. Soul elements, hallow chimes, and filtered moans back Mill hypothesizing a conversation warning his father's murderer he will kill him on "Traumatized", expressing loss and regret. "Believe It" begins with Rick Ross referencing Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber, before Mill touches on struggle and triumph. Rick Ross appears on the next track "Maybach Curtains", alongside Nas' guest verse and crooning from Legend. The track features pop and R&B elements, and Mill recalls drug dealing. "Amen" maintains these elements and has a gospel beat, alongside Mill and Drake discussing sexual exploitation and excessive wealth. On "Young Kings", Mill recalls the pressure of drug dealing, as well as lamenting his father's death and expressing "fuck fame" to focus on his money. "Lay Up" is a pop slow jam that sees him reference admiration of his status, featuring Wale showing off to women and an appearance from Rick Ross. "Tony Story Pt. 2" serves as a sequel to the track from Mill's 2011 mixtape Dreamchasers and utilizes windshield wipers as percussion, with the rapper telling the story of gunplay leading into the tragedy of death. "Who You're Around" features Mill meditating on damaged personal friendships, joined by Blige on the chorus. On "Polo & Shell Tops", Mill raps about resorting to selling crack cocaine to earn money and get revenge on others. "Rich & Famous" is a pop track, which includes Mill speaking of material wealth and spending time with a woman. On "Real Niggas Come First", Mill reminisces on drug dealing. "Burn" is an up-tempo number, which sees Mill and fellow rapper Big Sean perform back and forth. "Freak Show" is a club number set in a similar tempo, featuring rapper 2 Chainz and DJ Sam Sneaker, with a refrain referencing fellatio. ## Release and promotion At the start of October 2012, Mill shared the cover art for the album. The artwork uses Mill's gold Rolex watch for symbolizing dreams, alongside handcuffs for nightmares. Complex named the album cover the 18th best of 2012. At the 2012 BET Hip Hop Awards, Mill performed "Amen" and "Young & Gettin' It". During the months leading up to October, Mill played the album for Jay-Z and appreciated the feedback from someone of his status, getting along well with him personally. In mid-October 2012, Mill and Rick Ross previewed it at Electric Lady Studios in NYC for rappers such as Jay-Z, Will Smith, and Wale, as well as singers Estelle and The-Dream. Mill declared that he was staying true to his early days with "In God We Trust", delivering "that hard street shit" unlike much of mainstream rap. At the premiere, Rick Ross said about Mill: "I'm proud of my homie. Everything he has accomplished, he earned himself." On October 19, 2012, Mill premiered "Maybach Curtains". The next week, he appeared on MTV's weekly show RapFix Live to promote Dreams and Nightmares, performing his scrapped second verse from the song. Hours before his appearance, the album leaked online and Mill responded by telling host Sway Calloway, "I ain't tripping. If people wanna buy your album, they're gonna buy your album whether it's gonna leak or not." Dreams and Nightmares was released on October 30, 2012, through Mill's labels Maybach and Warner Bros. The deluxe version was released simultaneously, featuring "Burn" and "Freak Show". A day after the album's release, Mill held a release party in Atlanta, arriving on time after being detained. On January 27, 2013, a music video for the title track was released, documenting Mill's career up to Dreams and Nightmares. ### Singles "Amen" was released for digital download and streaming as the lead single from Dreams and Nightmares on June 19, 2012, by Maybach and Warner Bros. A month earlier, the song had been included on Dreamchasers 2. The song's music video was released on June 15, 2012, interspersing footage of Mill and Drake partying late at night with clips of the Club Paradise Tour. "Amen" reached number 57 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and it was later certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for pushing 500,000 certified units in the United States in July 2015. "Burn" was released to download and streaming formats in the US as the second single on September 11, 2012, through Mill's labels. Like "Amen", the song was first released on the mixtape. An accompanying music video premiered on October 10, 2012, which features Mill and Big Sean accompanied by models and exploding cars inside a warehouse. The song topped the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart. "Burn" was awarded a gold certification from the RIAA for amassing 500,000 certified units in the US in May 2019. On September 19, 2012, "Young & Gettin' It" was released as the third single from Dreams and Nightmares and the first one not from the mixtape. The song's music video was debuted on September 28, showing Mill and Kirko Bangz partying on a yacht, before changing to Miami. "Young & Gettin' It" reached number 95 on the Billboard Hot 100, and it was certified gold by the RIAA for shelving 500,000 certified units in July 2017. On February 19, 2013, "Believe It" was sent to US urban contemporary radio stations as the album's fourth and final single by Maybach and Warner Bros. An accompanying music video premiered on March 24, beginning with Mill and Rick Ross making a business transaction in the desert and then partying in Las Vegas. The song peaked at number 22 on the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart. ### Concerts In late June 2012, Mill announced his Dreamchasers Tour to promote Dreams and Nightmares, performing at 16 cities across the US. Mill subsequently shared its poster alongside footage of him engaging in activities like performing and driving fast vehicles, accompanied by a list of accolades and the opening caption "Dream chasing is an occupation". Tickets were made available on June 30, 2012, via Ticketmaster and Live Nation. Mill posted "All Access" footage in August, showing him and his team riding around on vehicles such as dirt bikes and all-terrain vehicles. The tour kicked off at the Fillmore Auditorium in Denver, Colorado on August 2, 2012, while it finished 25 days later at Irving Plaza in New York City (NYC). DJ sets by DJ Drama and Casey Veggies were included on the Dreamchasers Tour, as well as cameos from rappers like Yo Gotti, Bow Wow, Ace Hood, Waka Flocka Flame, and T.I. At the end of October 2022, Mill announced a 10th anniversary concert on Instagram, billed as "Meek Mill + Friends: Dreams and Nightmares Ten Year Anniversary". Mill also revealed a promotional poster and that it was set to take place at the Wells Fargo Center in his hometown of Philadelphia on November 26, coinciding with Thanksgiving in the US. Tickets for the event went on sale via the venue's website at 10 a.m. in early November 2022, although the rapper did not disclose any of the guests initially. The musical direction was handled by Gil Smith II. Prior to Mill appearing at the Wells Fargo Center, footage played from the early days of his career with the "nappy braids that locked", then his Flamers mixtapes, the release of Dreams and Nightmares, and finally the icon he had widely become. "Friends" in the concert's title was represented by the rappers that joined Mill, including Fabulous, Fivio Foreign, Jim Jones, and A Boogie wit da Hoodie. Mill performed a few tracks from his recently released mixtape Flamers 5, as well as popular album tracks such as "1942 Flows" (2017) and "Respect the Game" (2018). He ended rumours of tensions with Rick Ross by bringing him out to perform "I'm a Boss" (2011), while Mill accompanied the rapper as he performed his own tracks. Mill finished the event by performing "Dreams and Nightmares", telling the crowd he appreciated their support from his time at the bottom and he raps for Philadelphia. ## Critical reception Dreams and Nightmares was met with generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 69, based on 17 reviews. Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave it 6.0 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus. AllMusic's Jeffries asserted that the album succeeds in the themes of both dreams and nightmares, finalizing it "is still satisfying and a step forward" for an album release after mixtapes, "slicked up and pimped out in a way that's entirely Maybach". Similarly, Sargent from Pitchfork celebrated the record's transition to the mainstream after Mill's mixtapes for being "distinct in both voice and sound" as it shows his strengths, highlighting his emotion and themes. The staff of XXL declared that "Dreams and Nightmares doesn't break new grounds in hip-hop", serving as a release for Mill to gain respect "on the verge of universal acceptance" like Rick Ross and Wale similarly did. Marcus J. Moore of BBC Music thought Mill's character of "a decent wordsmith with a gruff disposition" seemed obvious and the album "won't break new ground" in hip hop, feeling somewhat underwhelmed by the compositions and lyrics, yet observing "a respectable effort that ... moves him beyond illicit history". Edwin Ortiz from HipHopDX said the album proves that "Mill needs more time before he can rightfully call himself the lieutenant of the MMG army", concluding it is "a dream that could be forgotten by mid-day". Rytlewski was less enthusiastic in The A.V. Club, seeing the album as another addition to the "already distinguished discography" of Mill's mixtapes and appearances on Maybach compilations. He grudgingly acknowledged the responsibility of following standards for debuts through the likes of "sweeping themes" and reflective lyricism, concluding Mill's execution is competent and the conventional focus only takes him backwards. ### Accolades Dreams and Nightmares appeared on year-end lists for 2012 of multiple publications. Rap Radar listed the album as the seventh best of the year; Paul "Big Homie" Duong believed that Mill continued the success of his Dreamchasers mixtapes and tells "the prison walls to the hall of fame storyline" to a top level, concluding "this is what dreams are truly made of". The Source named Dreams and Nightmares as the 18th best album of 2012, while journalist Chris Morris picked it as the 10th best hip hop album for North Country Public Radio. The record was named the 15th best hip hop album of the year by Spin. For the 2014 issue of XXL that celebrated 40 years of hip hop, it was listed as one of the five best albums of 2012. ## Commercial performance Dreams and Nightmares debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200, selling 165,000 units and becoming the highest debut of the week. It was held off the top spot by singer Taylor Swift's Red, while the opening sales were only 1,000 apart from Wale's 2011 album Ambition that reached the same position. HipHopDX had predicted that Dreams and Nightmares would reach the top three of the chart, estimating 175,000 to 200,000 first-week sales. It entered the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart at number one. In its second tracking week, the album sold 41,000 copies, reaching 206,000 units in the US. By July 2015, it had amassed 414,000 units. In May 2016, Dreams and Nightmares was awarded a gold certification from the RIAA for reaching 500,000 certified units in the US. Despite not being released as a single, the title track was certified double platinum by the RIAA for amassing 2,000,000 certified units in the country three years later. The album experience lesser success in Canada, peaking at number six on the Canadian Albums Chart. In the United Kingdom, it reached number five on the UK R&B Albums Chart. ## Track listing Credits adapted from the album's liner notes. Notes - signifies a co-producer Sample credits''' - "Amen" contains an interpolation of "Minute by Minute", written by Lester Abrams and Michael McDonald, and performed by The Doobie Brothers - "Freak Show" contains a sample from "Slob on My Knob", written by Jordan Houston and Paul Beauregard, and performed by Tear Da Club Up Thugs ## Personnel Credits adapted from the album's liner notes. - Jeremih – uncredited vocals (7) - Finis "KY White" – mixing (1, 2, 7, 14) - Fabian Marasciullo – mixing (14) - Chris Athens – mastering (3) - Justin Smith – mastering (3) ## Charts ### Weekly charts ### Year-end charts ## Certifications ## See also - 2012 in hip hop music - Dreamchasers 2 - List of Billboard'' number-one R&B/Hip-Hop albums of 2012

Friend or Foe (SpongeBob SquarePants)

"Friend or Foe" is the first episode of the fifth season of the American animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants, and the 81st episode overall. It was written by Casey Alexander, Zeus Cervas, Mike Mitchell, Steven Banks, and Tim Hill, and the animation was directed by supervising director Alan Smart and Tom Yasumi; Alexander, Cervas and Mitchell also functioned as storyboard directors. The episode originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on April 13, 2007. In the episode, Mr. Krabs reveals to SpongeBob that he and his business rival Plankton were actually best friends during their childhood. Through a series of flashbacks, Mr. Krabs tells the story of how that friendship deteriorated, the cause of their rivalry, why Mr. Krabs is obsessed with money, why Plankton became the villain he is today, and how the Krabby Patty sandwich was created in the process. The episode received positive reviews upon release, and was released on DVD on April 17, 2007. ## Plot ### Patchy the Pirate Subplot Patchy and Potty are working at a restaurant called "Poop Deck," hoping to becoming just like SpongeBob. After an argument with Potty, Patchy ends their friendship and goes home. He compares himself and Potty to Mr. Krabs and Plankton, starting the SpongeBob plot. Later, Potty appears to Patchy and tells him that he is now assistant manager because of his "fancy book smarts". When Patchy realizes the food he cooks tastes bad, Potty tells him that he needs to practice his cooking skills. After a montage of training, Patchy makes his first burger, but discovers it tastes terrible and throws it away. Patchy shrugs and says that SpongeBob's first patty probably didn't go so well. However, Potty shows SpongeBob making his first patty perfectly. After another argument with Potty, Patchy starts throwing patties at him, with one eventually hitting Mr. Pirateson, the Owner of Poop Deck. Patchy then tells the viewers to watch the rest of the SpongeBob episode while he watches Potty get fired, just as Mr. Pirateson forcefully calls Patchy into his office. After the episode is over, both Patty and Potty are fired. When Patchy finds out that he's been replaced by a gorilla, he calls it a "smelly, hairy fleabag", to which the gorilla fiercely responds to by throwing patties at him. ### Main Plot After yet another attack at the Krusty Krab by Plankton, SpongeBob asks Mr. Krabs why they hate each other. Mr. Krabs tells his side of the story in a series of flashbacks. In the flashback, Mr. Krabs and Plankton were best friends from birth, and did everything together. Both were outcasts and ridiculed by a particular circle of bullies, with Plankton being viewed as a nerd for his intelligence and Mr. Krabs being extremely poor. One day, Mr. Krabs finds a penny at the carnival, which he spends on a balloon for Plankton. Later, they get enough money to buy a burger from Stinky's Burgers, which, despite having horrible food and being located in a landfill, is very popular among the local children. When Stinky refuses to serve them equally, saying that "freaks" like them are bad for business, Plankton and Krabs decide to go into the burger business themselves, creating their own burger that no one wants to try. They find out that the local health department closed Stinky's, so the two open "Plabs Burgers" at the dump, which the children are now forced to eat at, despite it being even worse than Stinky's. Plankton states that they should use the burgers to rule over the children, while Mr. Krabs argues that they should care about satisfying the customers rather than power. After an argument, Krabs is ejected into a dump pile, telling Plankton that he will one day regret this. Back at the Krusty Krab, Plankton disagrees with Mr. Krabs' story and tells SpongeBob his own version. His story is the same as Mr. Krabs', except that their roles during the argument are reversed, with Krabs wanting to control the money of the children and Plankton being launched into the dump pile. Plankton and Krabs begin arguing about the story until Karen arrives and tells the real story: The restaurant initially has no customers, with only Old Man Jenkins trying the burger. After eating it, he collapses, having been poisoned by the patty. Krabs and Plankton accuse each other of tainting the patty. They fight over the recipe, eventually tearing it in two, with Plankton storming out to pursue his own career in food. However, during the struggle, a shelf was knocked down, dumping various ingredients and creating a new patty recipe that Krabs was left with. The two go their separate ways, each trying to open their own establishment. Mr. Krabs' Krabby Patty becomes a success, while Plankton's Chum Burger is horrible, making him to promise to steal the formula and have his revenge. After hearing the story, Plankton and Krabs begin to make amends, until Plankton takes the formula from Krabs' pocket. Then the two start chasing each other as the episode ends. ## Production "Friend or Foe" is a special episode written by Casey Alexander, Zeus Cervas, Mike Mitchell, Steven Banks and Tim Hill, with Alan Smart and Tom Yasumi serving as animation directors. Alexander, Cervas and Mitchell also function as storyboard directors. It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on April 13, 2007, with a TV-Y7 parental rating. On April 2, 2007, Nickelodeon released a preview clip of the episode on TurboNick. Immediately following the episode's on-air premiere, "Friend or Foe" was streamed on TurboNick. On April 5, Nick.com launched an online game themed to the special episode called "Friend or Foe Trash Bash." Tom Ascheim, executive vice president and general manager for Nickelodeon Television, said "We are always looking for new ways to tell stories and go beyond the traditional platforms of presenting them to our audience[...] "'Friend or Foe?' reveals the great back story of the long-standing feud between Mr. Krabs vs. Plankton and we're offering kids an interactive opportunity to get involved in the story and spirited contest by rooting for one or the other." As part of the special programming event, Nickelodeon held "The Friend or Foe-Down", a convergent contest where two teams of children meet a series of challenges before the episode's premiere. Team Krabs and Team Plankton each consisted of three children led by team captains and hosts Alexandra Gizela and Jordan Carlos. Each team was infiltrated by a "foe" who is secretly working for the other team, as they partake in a series of "funny and messy" physical group challenges refereed by Tom Kenny as Patchy the Pirate. Team Krabs were the winners. The episode was later released on the DVD of the same name on April 17, 2007. The DVD featured six other episodes, including "The Original Fry Cook", "Night Light", "Rise and Shine", "Waiting", "Fungus Among Us" and "Spy Buddies", and the original uncut animatic for "Friend or Foe" and special Plankton and Mr. Krabs photo gallery as bonus features. It was also released on the SpongeBob SquarePants: Season 5, Vol. 1 DVD on September 4, 2007. On September 22, 2009, "Friend or Foe" was released on the SpongeBob SquarePants: The First 100 Episodes DVD, alongside all the episodes of seasons one through five. ## Marketing In 2007, Nickelodeon partnered with Stride Rite Corporation to co-sponsor the SpongeBob SquarePants Friend or Foe? network event on Nickelodeon on Friday, April 13. Stride Rite utilized Nickelodeon as the exclusive marketing platform for its SuperBall footwear line, in support of the SpongeBob event. Stride Rite vice president Phil Risinger said "SpongeBob SquarePants Friend or Foe? not only gives the stride rite brand exposure during the highest rated kids' television show, but creates awareness for SuperBall with kids during our peak spring season." Nickelodeon announced a strategic partnership with Kajeet. Advertising and promotional elements of the partnership include sponsorship of a number of Nickelodeon's big television events, starting with this episode. To support the SpongeBob SquarePants Friend or Foe? television event, Kajeet and Nickelodeon launched exclusive mobile content related to the episode. Kajeet was also the exclusive sponsor of "Trash Bash". ## Reception "Friend or Foe" received mostly positive reviews. Paul Mavis of DVD Talk was positive towards the episode specifically on the live action scenes, writing "Patchy and Potty are always funny, so it's great to see them slinging hamburgers in honor of their idol, SpongeBob. I particularly liked the gorilla at the end, whipping burgers at Patchy ('You got me right in the buns!')." Mavis also praised the episode calling it "brilliant" because "[Mr.] Krabs and Plankton are strong enough characters, with their own mythology, that they can sustain their very own episode with only a cameo from SpongeBob." He also said the episode is "[...]hilarious (I love the fact that it's a barely disguised version of Rashomon), with an especially funny look at Krabs, Plankton, and even SpongeBob, as babies." David Packard of DVD Verdict said that the live action scenes "add to the silliness." He also said "It's a nice change of pace to see Plankton and Krabs as chums pre-Chum Bucket and finding out what led to their friendship's eventual demise. Viewers also get to see Mr. Krabs introduced to 'the love of his life' as he develops the secret formula to the Krabby Patty that Bikini Bottom's residents know and love today." On the DVD, Patrick Cossel of Blogcritics said "Children and adults will laugh out loud at the crazy slapstick antics of the one who lives under the sea." He added that "This release is sure to be huge hit for SpongeBob fans everywhere." Lesley Aeschliman of Yahoo! Voices was negative on the episode saying "'Friend of Foe?' just felt like a regular episode that really had no reason to be hyped a special."

The Chase (Desperate Housewives)

"The Chase" is the sixteenth episode of the sixth season of the American comedy-drama series, Desperate Housewives, and the 127th overall episode of the series. It originally aired on ABC in the United States on February 28, 2010. In the episode, Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) gets a break from the children when one of them catches chickenpox, Lynette (Felicity Huffman) forgets her daughter's birthday, and Katherine (Dana Delany) continues to explore her feelings of lesbianism. The episode was written by John Pardee and Joey Murphy, and directed by Larry Shaw. It included the third in a string of guest appearances by Julie Benz, a former stripper who serves as a romantic interest for Katherine. The pairing marked the first lesbian relationship in Desperate Housewives. "The Chase" also marked the first appearance of Samuel Page, who plays a mysterious man named Sam Allen who takes an unusually strong interest in Bree (Marcia Cross). "The Chase" received generally mixed to negative reviews. According to Nielsen Media Research, the episode was seen by 10.89 million viewers, making it the second lowest rated Desperate Housewives episode at the time. Viewership for "The Chase" suffered due to competition from the 2010 Winter Olympics closing ceremony. ## Plot ### Back story Desperate Housewives focuses on the lives of several residents in the suburban neighborhood of Wisteria Lane. In recent episodes, Susan Mayer (Teri Hatcher) has encouraged a stripper Robin Gallagher (Julie Benz) to quit her job and turn her life around. Robin briefly lived with Susan but moved out after Susan became jealous of Robin living in the same house as her husband, Mike Delfino (James Denton). Robin moved in with Katherine Mayfair (Dana Delany) and revealed she was a lesbian, prompting the heterosexual Katherine to start developing romantic feelings for Robin. Lynette (Felicity Huffman) is pregnant, despite being a middle-aged career woman and already having four children. This has caused strain for Lynette and her husband, Tom Scavo (Doug Savant). Bree (Marcia Cross) is the ambitious owner of a catering company, and her son Andrew (Shawn Pyfrom) works as her personal assistant. Angie (Drea de Matteo) and Nick Bolen (Jeffrey Nordling) recently moved onto Wisteria Lane to escape circumstances in their old home in New York City that are yet to be fully explained. Gabrielle and her husband Carlos Solis (Ricardo Antonio Chavira) overheard the Bolens arguing about their circumstances, and have grown concerned about their niece Ana (Maiara Walsh) dating the Bolens' son, Danny (Beau Mirchoff). As a result, they convinced Ana to leave Danny and pursue her modeling career in New York City, but Danny has secretly gone into the city to find her. ### Episode Still struggling with her growing feelings of lesbianism, Katherine has a dream in which she seduces Robin. Katherine's therapist suggests she stop living with Robin because she is interfering with her recovery. Later, while celebrating Robin's new job, she accidentally spills champagne on her top and takes it off, causing Katherine to blurt out that she wants her to leave because she has feelings for her. Robin agrees to leave, but Katherine follows her upstairs, and they end up in bed together. Celia Solis (Daniella Baltodano), one of the Solis' daughters, comes down with chickenpox. Since Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) has never had the illness, she is forced to leave the house. She stays with neighbors Bob (Tuc Watkins) and Lee (Kevin Rahm), and she enjoys partying and drinking with them so much she tries to prolong her visit. During a party, Gabrielle accidentally stumbles into a nursery, and learns Bob and Lee have been trying to adopt a baby. With a new appreciation for her children, Gabrielle returns home. Distracted by her pregnancy, Lynette and Tom are horrified to realize they have forgotten their daughter Penny's (Kendall Applegate) birthday. Lynette tries to organize a last-minute party, but mistakenly has the wrong name written on her cake. Penny runs away and checks into a hotel room, where Lynette tracks her and apologizes. Penny said she is jealous of her unborn sister, but Lynette jokes the women will outnumber the men in the family when the baby is born. One of Bree's employees, Tad (Eric Ian Colton), keeps making major mistakes, but Andrew defends him. Later, a mysterious man named Sam Allen (Samuel Page) visits Bree, insisting he understands her values and wants to work for her. Although initially hesitant, Bree is impressed and hires him. Later, Andrew gets upset when Bree plans to fire Tad, and Sam correctly assesses that Andrew is having an affair with him. Later, Sam hints to Bree that Andrew should be let go, then secretly drinks coffee from Andrew's "World's Greatest Son" mug. Susan forced her elderly neighbor Roy (Orson Bean) to propose to his girlfriend Karen (Kathryn Joosten), and he does so after Karen indicates she wants to get married. Later, however, Roy laments to Susan about being put in the situation, and fears he will start lusting after other women now that he is engaged. Later, Karen learns she may have lung cancer. Roy tells Susan he is marrying Karen because he now realizes he does not want to lose Karen, and is sure she will beat the cancer. Danny Bolen leaves a note claiming to be camping with his friend Eddie (Josh Zuckerman), but Angie runs into Eddie at a grocery store and realizes Danny has actually run off to New York City seeking Ana. Fearing a man from their past named Patrick will find Danny, Angie and Nick head to New York to find him. ## Production "The Chase" was written by John Pardee and Joey Murphy, and directed by Larry Shaw. It originally aired on ABC in the United States on February 28, 2010, and was broadcast on CTV in Canada the same day. The episode introduced the character Sam Allen, a mysterious man who starts working for Bree and takes what appears to be an unusually strong interest in her. The character, who is set to appear in several episodes, is played by Samuel Page, an actor best known as the husband of Christina Hendricks' character Joan Holloway in the AMC drama series Mad Men. "The Chase" marked the third in a string of at least four guest appearances by actress Julie Benz as Robin Gallagher, a former stripper seeking a new life. Benz joined the show soon after her departure as a regular cast member from the Showtime drama series Dexter, where her character Rita Morgan was killed in the fourth season finale, "The Getaway". "The Chase" continued an ongoing storyline of Katherine Mayfair exploring her sexuality. Actress Dana Delany praised the subplot. She said she did not know if the character would become a lesbian permanently, because the story lines change so often in Desperate Housewives, but that series creator Marc Cherry "is interested in playing the complexity of that". Delany compared Katherine's new realizations to that of actress Meredith Baxter, who realized she was a lesbian late in her life after entering into a relationship with a woman. Delany said she believed her character would be taken by surprise by the new feelings she is experiencing: "I think that she’s still so emotionally vulnerable from getting out of the loony bin, and I think she and Robin connect on a kind of wounded, emotional level. And I think if anything, she’s feeling this kind of emotional solace with her, and that draws her to Robin in a physical way, and that’s confusing to her." ## Reception In its original American broadcast, "The Chase" was seen by 10.89 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. Among viewers between ages 18 and 49, it received a 3.6 rating/9 share, which at the time was the lowest rating for an individual episode of Desperate Housewives in series history. This continued a downward trend in the ratings for the show: each of the previous three episodes had been the lowest rated in series history until the airing of the next episode in the subsequent week. "The Chase" dropped in viewership three percent from the previous episode, "Lovely". Like that episode, "The Chase" suffered in the ratings partially due to competition from the NBC broadcast of the 2010 Winter Olympics, which drew an estimated 21.3 million viewers. Desperate Housewives was also outperformed by the CBS reality series Undercover Boss which, in its fourth episode, drew 15.15 million viewers. The episode received generally mixed to negative reviews. Entertainment Weekly writer Tanner Stransky was highly critical of the episode, describing the Gabrielle story as predictable, the Susan subplot as boring and the overall Bolen story arc as too slow in developing. Stransky also felt the Katherine and Robin pairing was unbelievable, and questioned whether the show's audiences of families and midwesterners would respond well to a lesbian pairing. Gael Fashingbauer Cooper of MSNBC praised Longoria for turning what he said could have been a gloomy story into "a gleeful fantasy". Cooper said the character was fun and funny but ultimately heartfelt and caring. Conversely, Cooper said the subplots involving the other housewives were "all pretty standard, and dreary, stuff". Los Angeles Times writer Gerrick Kennedy said he liked the Robin character's charm and chemistry with Katherine, and said their story arc "has already grown infinitely more interesting than the Angie Bolen mystery". He said the relationship made more sense for Katherine than her previous subplots involving her romance with Mike and her mental breakdown following their break-up. Isabelle Carreau of TV Squad said she was glad the episode was centered on the supporting cast, particularly praising the attention to Bob and Lee, but she said that did not like the direction the Andrew character had taken, and felt the relationship between Katherine and Robin had evolved too fast.

Electric Chapel

"Electric Chapel" is a song recorded by American singer Lady Gaga for her second studio album, Born This Way (2011). Written and produced by Gaga and DJ White Shadow, the recording premiered on Facebook gaming app FarmVille, as did the album's fifth single, "Marry the Night". Gaga revealed on Twitter that "Electric Chapel" was written in Australia and finished on her tour bus in Europe. She recorded it channeling the vocals of bands like Duran Duran, and singers Cher and Billy Idol. "Electric Chapel" is an electronic rock and glam metal song that incorporates elements of 80s pop music and heavy metal in its composition. Critics praised the track, with Dan Martin from NME comparing it to the work of Madonna; other reviewers noted the rock and sci-fi musical elements associated in it. "Electric Chapel" reached number 23 on Billboard's Dance/Electronic Digital Songs chart and number 144 on the South Korean International Download Chart. It was performed on Gaga's Born This Way Ball tour (2012–2013), where she sang it while standing inside a set piece that had the song's name written on top. ## Background and composition "Electric Chapel" was first previewed when a one-minute portion of its instrumental was used for Gaga's Transmission Gagavision 44 video. With the title's track being displayed on a paper during the end of the clip, it additionally made an appearance in the music video for "Judas" (2011). Subsequently, Gaga revealed on Twitter that the song was written in Australia and finished on her tour bus in Europe. Describing the recording's lyrical themes as delving on "needing to feel safe to find love", it was theorized by a writer from Take 40 Australia to be inspired by the singer's 2009 live performance on Australia's The Chapel arena. Like the opening track of Born This Way—"Marry the Night"—the song made its debut on a special edition of social network game FarmVille, called GagaVille and released on May 18, 2011. "Electric Chapel" has been compared to the work of Madonna, with NME's Dan Martin saying that "if you'd ever wondered what that Madonna doing the soundtrack to Blade Runner might have sounded like... then wonder no more." Genre-wise, Brian Hiatt of Rolling Stone referred "Electric Chapel" to as an electro rock recording, while Robbie Daw of Idolator dubbed the song as being of the pop metal genre, attesting that unlike fellow song from Born This Way, "Heavy Metal Lover", "Electric Chapel" possesses an actual metal-edge. Gaga recorded the chorus a number of times, channeling the vocals of bands like Duran Duran, and singers Cher and Billy Idol. Inspired by 1980s music, the track incorporates a spoken word section, which Gaga wanted to sound like The B-52's song "Rock Lobster" (1978). She explained to Brian Hiatt of Rolling Stone that when she "say[s] 'electric chapel,' something needs to occur... It needs to be more fantasy. You should see the empress of the Vatican unicorn planet appear and soar across the nightclub." Writing for music website Beats Per Minute, Brent Koepp described the song as "Iron Maiden meets 80s pop". According to the sheet music published by Musicnotes.com, "Electric Chapel" has a time signature of common time, and a pop-rock tempo of 128 beats per minute. The song is composed in the key of A minor with Gaga's vocals ranging from E₃ to C₅. It also has a basic sequence of Am–Dm–Am–Dm–F serving as its chord progression. "Electric Chapel" was later remixed by Irish indie rock band Two Door Cinema Club; this version was included on the singer's second remix album titled Born This Way: The Remix (2011). Gaga unveiled the remix during a cover shoot for Elle magazine. A reviewer from BBC Music complimented the remix, saying that "Two Door Cinema Club almost make 'Electric Chapel' sound like a collaboration between Gaga and Hot Chip". ## Reception Overall, "Electric Chapel" received positive reviews from music critics. Robbie Daw from Idolator felt that "Electric Chapel" surpassed the released singles from Born This Way in craftsmanship and praised the "hard rock ominous guitar riffs", calling them a tease. Vocally, he found Gaga was channeling Lita Ford and dubbed the track as one of the album's strongest compositions. Caryn Ganz of Spin wrote that "Electric Chapel" "pairs divine diva thump with a Van Halen guitar solo." NME writer Dan Martin published a review on the song, confessing that "perhaps ['Electric Chapel'] nails the record's blood-and-chrome aesthetics most effectively of all." In another review, Martin compared its opening riffs to Opus III's 1983 song "It's a Fine Day", with him further likening the recording to science fiction music. Kerri Mason from Billboard described the track as a "technicolor wedding" with a "fat guitar riff". Bradley Stern from MuuMuse praised the cut, feeling that "Gaga takes Born This Way to new levels of pop-dom on cuts like the jagged 'Electric Chapel' and 'Heavy Metal Lover'". Ann Powers from NPR noticed the influence of Duran Duran in the track, while believing Gaga to imagine "Electric Chapel" as an output from "an electric guitar-wielding girl group". Jody Rosen from Rolling Stone did reviewed Born This Way track-wise, observing that in "Electric Chapel" Gaga wrote about hoping for a monogamous relationship, with heavy guitar riffs and metal solo being characteristics of the record. In an article in GQ about 10 detrimental things on Born This Way, a writer from the magazine listed the track's lyrics as "reek[ing] of a lack of ideas, not a distortion of form. Sing words. It's easy". "Electric Chapel" debuted and peaked at number 23 on Billboard's Dance/Electronic Digital Songs chart on the issue dated June 11, 2011, spending one week on the chart. It also made an appearance at number 144 on the South Korean International Download Chart. ## Live performances Gaga performed "Electric Chapel" on her Born This Way Ball tour (2012–2013). The track was included during the tour's third segment, where Gaga performed "The Queen" and "You and I", before transcending into "Electric Chapel" and "Americano" from Born This Way. The singer was present inside a glass set piece onstage, referred by her as an electric chapel. Sean Sennett from The Australian complimented the performance of the song, saying that "by the time 'Electric Chapel' has rolled around the band are shredding like a glorious 80s LA metal act". Kwaak Je-yup from The Korea Times gave positive feedback to Gaga for singing live during the tour, but found her voice cracked during "Electric Chapel". ## Credits and personnel ### Recording and management - Recorded at Officine Meccaniche in Milan, Italy - Mixed at Setai Recording Studio (Miami Beach) - Mastered at Oasis Mastering (Burbank, California) - Published by Stefani Germanotta P/K/A Lady Gaga (BMI) Sony/ATV Songs, LLC/ House of Gaga Publishing, LLC / GloJoe Music Inc. (BMI) - Maxwell and Carter Publishing, LLC (ASCAP), administered by Universal Music Publishing Group and Maxwell and Carter Publishing, LLC (BMI) administered by Universal Music Publishing Group. ### Personnel - Lady Gaga – vocals, songwriter, producer - DJ White Shadow – drum programming, keyboards - Brian Gaynor – keyboards, bass - Kareem "Jesus" Devlin Byrne – guitars - Dave Russell – recording, mixing - Gene Grimaldi – audio mastering - Philip Knight – assistant ## Charts

Final Fantasy Type-0 HD

2015 video game

Final Fantasy Type-0 HD (Japanese: ファイナルファンタジー零式 HD, Hepburn: Fainaru Fantajī Reishiki HD) is an action role-playing game developed by Square Enix and HexaDrive, and published by Square Enix for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and later for Windows via Steam. It was released worldwide in March 2015, while the Steam port was released in August. Type-0 HD is a high-definition remaster of the Japan-exclusive PlayStation Portable game Final Fantasy Type-0, a spin-off from the main Final Fantasy series and part of the Fabula Nova Crystallis subseries, a set of games sharing a common mythos. The story focuses on Class Zero, a group of fourteen students from the Dominion of Rubrum who must fight the neighboring Militesi Empire when they launch an assault on the other Crystal States of Orience. In doing so, the group become entangled in both the efforts to push back and defeat the forces of Militesi, and the secret behind the war and the existence of the crystals. After Type-0 received a 2011 Japan-only release on PSP, Type-0 HD began development in mid-2012 as part of a move to promote the next generation of gaming consoles, and gave the opportunity for multiple changes to refine the experience for players. Outside of updated graphics and an expanded color palette, Type-0 HD is largely identical to the original PSP version, although the original's multiplayer functionality was dropped, and additional difficulty levels were implemented. Type-0 HD reached high positions in international sales charts, and has sold over one million copies worldwide as of October 2015. It received praise for its story and battle system, while criticisms have focused on its HD upgrade and localization. ## Gameplay Final Fantasy Type-0 HD is an action role-playing video game that utilizes a real-time battle system similar to Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. The player controls Class Zero, an elite fighting force of fourteen students from Rubrum's Akademeia. Outside mission environments and Akademeia (Class Zero's home base), Class Zero navigates Orience through a scaled-down world map. The world can be navigated on foot, using chocobos (recurring galliform birds in the Final Fantasy series) or via an airship. Type-0 HD is split into missions with free periods in between. During these free periods between missions, players can explore Akademeia, breed chocobos for personal use, and complete side quests for characters in Akademeia and liberated towns. During missions, three members of Class Zero can be selected for missions while the others are kept in reserve in case a player character dies. The lead character can be swapped at any time, with the other two being controlled by the game's artificial intelligence. During certain story missions, players take part in real-time strategy battles on the world map. During combat missions, players gain experience points and increase their experience level as they defeat enemies, as well as obtaining Phantoma from defeated enemies, used to upgrade the characters' magic skills. Each character has access to summoned monsters called Eidolons (War Gods (軍神, Gunshin) in the original Japanese), which are summoned for limited periods at the cost of a character's total health. While the core gameplay remains the same, multiple adjustments were made to existing systems. The HD version features four difficulty levels as opposed to the original's three, including an "easy" option. The original game's multiplayer elements were removed during optimization for consoles, and types of magic and accessories previously only available in multiplayer were incorporated into the single-player campaign. A feature unique to Type-0 HD is the support personnel (SP) system: when activated, AI-controlled support characters take the place of normal party members. SP points earned in battle can be used to purchase special items. Additional character costumes made included through the original's demos and downloadable content were included in Type-0 HD as unlockables, along with costumes unique to the HD version. ## Development During the production of Final Fantasy Type-0, the development team explored the possibility of a high-definition port of the game. The idea never went beyond experimentation as the team was focused on keeping the game as a portable experience. The team also experimented with a sequel on eighth generation consoles, but production was halted when the development team were transferred to Final Fantasy XV. After some time working on XV, original director Hajime Tabata decided to develop Type-0 HD for eighth-generation consoles. The game began development in mid-2012, around the same time XV was shifted onto PlayStation 4 (PS4) and Xbox One. Tabata came on board in July of that year as director and producer, though his involvement was fairly minor due to his directing duties for XV. The main development was handled by HexaDrive, who had previously collaborated successfully with Square Enix on The 3rd Birthday, and had developed the high-definition remasters of Ōkami and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. The remaster was intended as an incentive for Final Fantasy players in both Japan and the west to purchase eighth generation consoles before XV's release. The original plan was for a port to both the seventh generation PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles, and eighth generation consoles. After the PS4 proved popular at the 2013 Tokyo Game Show, and as Tabata had no development experience with seventh generation console hardware, the team focused on the eighth generation versions. According to art director Yusuke Naora, moving from the PlayStation Portable to eighth-generation hardware proved hard for the team. Despite early claims, no version of Type-0 HD was developed for the PlayStation Vita. According to Tabata, this was due to difficulties in porting between console and Vita development environments, and his wish for a playing experience he could only envision on home consoles. HexaDrive handled the 2D screen displays, world map features and lip synching, while Square Enix handled the 3D graphics, such as character models in cutscenes. Lighting effects and in-game assets were improved and updated for HD consoles using the DirectX 11 technology utilized for XV. Alongside this, a large proportion of the upgrade was done using HexaDrive's in-house engine HexaDrive Engine 2.0. While originally meant to have a cursory role compared to the DirectX 11 elements, it ended up being used far more than anticipated. The resolution was increased from the original game's 480x272 pixels to the 1920x1080 required. Despite all these changes, the team took care that the lighting and shadow effects remained faithful to the look of the original, as updating too much of the game's visual style would fundamentally alter the experience. Due to scheduling, there was sometimes pressure on the HexaDrive team and they experienced difficulties with the hardware as it was their first time developing for eighth-generation consoles. Updating the lighting effects alone took a whole year of development to finish. While updating the characters' appearance, the team were forced to focus on the main characters due to production deadlines, consequently doing less work on NPCs such as Kurasame. For the main characters' gameplay models, the team adapted the models used in the original cutscenes, as they were more detailed than the original gameplay models due to a higher polygon count. Tabata wanted the main characters to remain as true as possible to their original appearances, but due to the cutscene models appearing older than the original gameplay models, they needed adjusting so they better reflected the original models. The team also adjusted the characters' appearances slightly to make them more "charming". Visual optimization was still going on during the game's reveal, with the team needing to create special screenshots of Type-0's characters operating inside the production environments of XV. Ultimately, these visuals gave the team a guide for what the final game should look like, reducing the amount of trial and error. No new gameplay content was added to Type-0 HD. The team instead focused on upgrading the graphics, adjusting existing gameplay for home consoles, and including a lower difficulty level. The latter was due to complaints from players that the original game was too difficult. While carrying over the original's multiplayer functions was considered, it would have lengthened the estimated development time by another year. Since Tabata's priority was to bring the game to fans worldwide, the multiplayer and associated elements were either removed or incorporated into the single-player campaign. Tabata also decided against creation of a demo or an international version for this reason. As a substitute for the multiplayer, the team strengthened and improved the original single-player Academy Assistance function. As with the original, the team used the names of developers from both the core team and other Square Enix departments for the NPCs. While the main story remained unchanged, a secret cutscene teasing future Type games was commissioned. Created by Square Enix's CGI movie subsidiary Visual Works, it was based on some of Tabata's early ideas for Type-0. A small piece of the cutscene was shown privately to attendees of Square Enix's 25th anniversary commemoration event for the Final Fantasy series. Hiroki Chiba, writer for Type-0, returned to write the scene. In the cutscene, a fatally wounded samurai warrior resembling main protagonist Ace is saved from death by a fire spirit. At Tabata's suggestion, Naora expanded the color palette to increase the game's realism and tie in with XV's art style. The original idea was to change the original red hue to a golden one to match the redone logo, but the graphics looked too dark on the large screen even with the adjustment, so blue tones were added to brighten up the scenery. Additional bass sounds were added to the sound effects, as the original platform's speaker system had previously limited the range and strength of sounds. The original camera behavior needed to be developed from scratch, as the camera angles used in the original looked out of place on the large screen. During the run-up to release, the team made modifications to the camera after receiving negative comments during demonstrations, addressing scenery collisions and the visibility of player and enemy characters during active gameplay. Because of these modifications, character speed and movement could be increased and improved. By December 2014, the game was in its final stages of development and undergoing debugging. ### Music The original soundtrack for Type-0 by Takeharu Ishimoto, who also composed the music for Before Crisis, Crisis Core and The World Ends with You. Ishimoto rearranged, remixed and re-recorded the soundtrack for Type-0 HD. This was due to the original soundtrack was composed within the limits of PSP hardware, making it unsuitable for the new console release. Because of a restricted budget, he did the bulk of the work himself. One of the changes he made was making the choral sound more prominent. In addition, he composed a new battle theme and recorded an English version of "Colorful - Falling in Love", the track for Type-0's alternate ending. The lyrics were translated by SAWA, a singer who had worked on The World Ends with You. The English version was made for the overseas version of the game, but was included in the remastered soundtrack's commercial release. Type-0's original theme song, "Zero" by Japanese rock band Bump of Chicken, was used again for Type-0 HD. While a translated version was considered for the localization, the team, with permission from the band, decided to use the original song and add subtitles for the song lyrics. For the additional ending and credits of Type-0 HD, a new song titled "Utakata" (泡沫, lit. "Transience") was commissioned by Tabata. Ishimoto created five different songs, with "Utakata" being Tabata's final choice. As Tabata wanted the song to have a Japanese style, Ishimoto wrote the lyrics in archaic Japanese, though he originally wanted to write the lyrics in English. It was created and recorded by a four-person team: Ishimoto composed the music, while singer Chris Ito wrote and sang the lyrics. The other two, T\$UYO\$HI and ZAX, were former members of alternate rock band Pay Money to My Pain and performed on bass guitar, and drums respectively. The song was first heard in the final Japanese trailer for Type-0 HD. A commercial Blu-ray release for Type-0 HD's soundtrack, Final Fantasy Type-0 HD Original Soundtrack, was released on March 25, 2015. It includes the entire soundtrack, the newly composed tracks, tracks from Final Fantasy Agito and ten bonus MP3 tracks selected by Ishimoto from his previous work as a "Best of Collection". The Blu-ray album reached \#189 in the Oricon charts, and remained in the charts for one week. The album, and music in general, have received positive comments from music critics and reviewers of the game. ## Release Type-0 HD was released on March 17, 19 and 20, 2015 for North America, Japan and Europe respectively. It came with both English and Japanese voice tracks for all regions. The game included a demo of Final Fantasy XV, titled Final Fantasy XV: Episode Duscae. The demo was only available in limited quantities: it was exclusive to physical first-print editions, and came with the digital edition for two months after release. The collector's edition, available through Square Enix's online store and at Amazon.com, came with a special CD featuring tracks from Type-0 and Agito, a calendar featuring official artwork, a Vermillion Peristylium ID card, a set of five cards modeled after those used by Ace in battle, and a cadet scarf. Limited editions of the game were produced for North America and Europe, for sale at selected high street and online stores. A PlayStation 4 hardware bundle was also produced for Japan, featuring a copy of the game and download code for the XV demo along with a console themed after the game. A port to Windows via Valve's Steam platform was developed. This port was created in response to fan demands for a PC version. In contrast to the console version, the PC port allowed graphic adjustments, and included fixes for camera control and motion blur issues raised by players and reviewers after release. The port was released on August 18 the same year. As part of the promotion for the port, Final Fantasy-themed pre-order gifts for use in Dota 2 were created. It was the first Final Fantasy title to be rated M for Mature by the Entertainment Software Rating Board for its North American release. For the western release, a collector's edition similar to that released in Japan was created, which included the card replicas and soundtrack selection. In addition, it included an English translation of the game's prequel manga, a steelbook holding the game disc and soundtrack selection featuring the logo and kanji artwork, and an 80-page artbook with a foreword written by Tabata. The winners of a separate special sweepstake received a themed PS4 or Xbox One, along with promotional artwork posters specific to each console, a Play Arts Kai mini-figurine of Ace, and a gold Vermillion Bird pin. Runners-up received individual pieces from the sweepstake excluding the consoles. To promote Type-0 HD in North America, a trailer for the game was shown in cinemas prior to some of the season's big film releases, such as The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1. A shortened version of the trailer was released online. To further promote the game upon release, Square Enix offered the Japanese thriller Battle Royale as a free rental for Xbox One in the weekend following the game's release. After its initial release, a patch was released to fix issues similar to those fixed in the PC port. At release, the PC version suffered from graphics problems, crashes, and had its graphics locked. ### Localization An international version was reported to be in the works by Tabata in the Ultimania guide for Type-0. He later commented that the main reasons for the original version not coming west was the flagging PSP market and the uncertainty of the Vita, making a port impractical. The name Type-0 was originally trademarked by Square Enix in Europe in December 2010, along with a logo. In an interview with GameSpot in November 2012, Tabata said that Square Enix was "taking a clean slate in terms of [their] plans", stating that if there was demand, a western release would be considered. In the same month, an alleged voice actor for the game said that English voice recording for the game was completed in late 2011. In 2014, Orion Acaba, the English voice actor for Nine, revealed that the voice recording eventually used in Type-0 HD was completed in 2012. According to another English voice actor, Cristina Vee, the game was codenamed Yellow P during the recording process. During an interview with USGamer in September 2013, Tabata, commenting on both Type-0 and its prequel Agito, was hopeful for a western release: he said that the planned western release of Agito and the reaction of the fan community to both games had become a deciding factor, and that while the project had not been officially green-lit, it was in its final stages of preparation. He also clarified at the time that the game would not make the transition onto mobile devices or the PS3 as an HD Remaster. A localization was officially decided upon in early 2014, when a survey taken by Square Enix Europe found that a large number of fans wanted the game to be released overseas. The localization was announced when Type-0 HD was officially revealed by Square Enix at E3 2014. An official English version for the Vita was momentarily announced by the official "PlayStation Blog", but was clarified as "erroneous" less than an hour later. ## Reception ### Critical reception IGN's Meghan Sullivan found the portrayal of the cadets' involvement in the war "incredibly moving" and was intrigued by the story's focus on war, but found the need to understand Orience's lore and mythology made the ending convoluted. Becky Cunningham of GamesRadar was fascinated by the game's setting and the questions it posed about morality and memory, finding the story worth experiencing. Alexa Ray Corriea, writing for GameSpot, generally enjoyed the story despite noting the main plot becoming complicated quickly, but stated that the ending introduced too many new story elements for comfort. Michael Damiani of GameTrailers found the overall story enjoyable, but gaps in story and character development, along with the need to replay the game to get the full story, "[leaves] you full of questions and doubt from beginning to end". Eurogamer's Chris Schilling was similarly critical of the need to understand terms unfamiliar to series newcomers. He also disliked the length of cutscenes, and the jarring change from grim imagery to lighter subjects like chocobo breeding. Tom Sykes of Official Xbox Magazine said that the setting and story's superficial similarities to the later Harry Potter books improved the story after the confusing opening. Game Informer's Matt Miller said that the story started strongly, but was made less enjoyable when it began focusing on the game's overarching narrative and said the abundance of characters had a negative impact on their characterization. RPGFan's Stephen Meyerink, despite saying the game had "goofy faces and silly moments", found the story and themes engaging. Samuel Roberts of PC Gamer was less positive, feeling that the story and characters reminded him too much of poor-quality anime series. Sullivan generally enjoyed the combat and called it the game's best feature, while finding the real-time strategy segments an unpleasant hangover from the game's original form. Cunningham found it enjoyable mastering each of Class Zero's fighting styles despite difficulty spikes, but noted some gameplay elements such as stopping to use certain items detracted from her enjoyment of combat. Famitsu echoed many of its points of praise for the original, generally saying that both veterans of the original and newcomers would finding it "equally enjoyable", and were pleased with the change from a portable platform to home consoles. Sykes said the game "excels in its combat, which is fast-paced, complex, and tough". Damiani found the battles "a welcomed change" compared to previous Final Fantasy titles, but disliked other aspects such as the lock-on mechanic. Miller enjoyed exploring the characters' battle abilities, but found the high-speed detracted from the experience and considered the real-time strategy elements, boss fights and other systems poorly developed. Schilling also found the combat mechanics "sharp and satisfying", generally praising the combat mechanics. He was critical of the lengthy tutorials at the beginning of the game, and disappointed that the gameplay segments between missions did not impact the characters' combat ability as in the Persona series. Meyerink generally enjoyed the combat and various side activities, while faulting the game for inadequate introduction of gameplay elements. Corriea called the combat "marvellous", saying it handled it and the customization options better than many other games in its genre. Roberts enjoyed the combat, but found the RPG gameplay outside it to be far weaker. The limited optional gameplay segments between combat segments, offering opportunities for character development and side-quests, were also generally praised. A point of criticism shared by western reviewers with the original version was the camera control. Famitsu, in contrast, again praised the camera movement. Corriea was mixed about the game's HD upgrade, stating that while the background were "gorgeous" and the main characters moved fluidly and expressed emotion properly, NPCs or characters unimportant to the stories did not receive the same attention as the main cast. Schilling was disappointed with the result, frequently citing scenery and character behavior that looked out of place on the big screen. Miller said that the game's visuals were "dominated by muddy textures and frequent loading", while he negatively noted the removal of the original's multiplayer. Damiani praised the upgrades for the main characters, but noted multiple inconsistencies in both the environments and cutscenes. Famitsu found the graphics "dramatically beautiful", but found it strange seeing the original environments on a large screen. Meyerink said that, while not hard on the eyes, the upgrades were well below what he expected. Sullivan praised the lighting and shading effects, but shared Corriea's criticism of NPCs and noted low-quality environmental textures, saying she was "so bored by most environments that [she] stopped caring about them halfway through the story". The localized dialogue also received mixed to negative reactions, with multiple reviewers faulting the English voice actors' performances. Opinions on the PC port were mixed: Meyerink marked it as an improvement of the ports of the XIII games while acknowledging issues with the graphics and controls, while Roberts was not impressed by its performance. ### Sales In Japan, Type-0 HD reached the top of the sales charts in its debut week, selling 93,000: the PS4 version accounted for roughly 92,000, while the Xbox One version sold roughly 1,000. Type-0 HD, together with Resident Evil: Revelations 2, provoked a rise in sales for the PS4 while other console sales remained consistent, but it ultimately performed poorly, selling through only 59.59% of its shipment. It had sold over 128,000 units in Japan by August 2015, being the 26th best-selling video game during that period. In Western territories, demand was notably higher due to the original version not being released outside Japan. In the UK, Type-0 HD reached second place in the gaming charts behind Battlefield Hardline, while it reached tenth place in the North American charts for March. As of October 2015, Type-0 HD had sold over one million copies worldwide, making a solid contribution to Square Enix's fiscal income for the year and the company's catalog of eighth-generation console games.

Markelle Fultz

American basketball player (born 1998)

Markelle N'Gai Fultz (born May 29, 1998) is an American professional basketball player for the Orlando Magic of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Washington Huskies before being selected by the Philadelphia 76ers with the first overall pick in the 2017 NBA draft. During his single season (2016–17) with the Huskies, Fultz played point guard and shooting guard. Despite Washington's relatively disappointing year, he was named a third-team All-American and first-team All-Pac-12. He began his NBA career with the 76ers before being traded to the Magic in 2019. Unable to recreate his offensive prowess he had in college to the NBA, due to a shoulder injury called thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS), he is considered by many to be a draft bust. ## Early life Fultz was born on May 29, 1998, in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, the younger of two children. His father abandoned the family, so he relied heavily on his mother, Ebony. Impassioned by basketball, Fultz was mentored in his early years by a local instructor named Keith Williams. In 2012, he began attending DeMatha Catholic High, an all-boys prep school as well as basketball powerhouse. He had shown promise on the DeMatha Stags' freshman team; but as a sophomore, the 5-foot-9-inch (1.75 m) guard was cut from the varsity roster. He was overlooked due to his awkward gait, having the appearance of "Bambi"; as assistant coach Cory McCrae explained, "He was long and lanky, and he’d walk and his knees would be hurting". However, Fultz outplayed the competition at the junior varsity level, making it apparent that he did not belong there. Assistant coach Raphael Chillious of the Washington Huskies was the first to notice Fultz's potential, describing him as an athlete with the makings of an NBA All-Star-caliber player if he continued to grow. At the start of his junior season, Fultz stood 6 feet 3 inches (1.91 m). As a starter for DeMatha's varsity team, he averaged 16.8 points, 7.9 rebounds, and 4.3 assists per game and was named the Player of the Year in the highly-competitive Washington Catholic Athletic Conference. Among the highlights of his junior campaign were the game-winning foul shots he made in a 16-point performance while being guarded by Jayson Tatum of Chaminade and the triple-double he posted in a matchup against Roselle Catholic at the Hoophall Classic. His recruiting stature abruptly soared during this season, with Rivals.com ranking him number 24 in the Class of 2016 and over 20 college programs offering him scholarships. On August 21, 2015, Fultz committed to the University of Washington. As a senior, he averaged 19.1 points and 8.8 rebounds per game where he concluded his high school career as he recorded the Stags' single-season record for assists with 278 and led the team to their second consecutive conference championship. At the McDonald's All-American Game on March 31, 2016, Fultz tallied 10 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists. At the Jordan Brand Classic come April, Fultz accumulated 19 points in a 131–117 East team victory. During the summer, he was selected to Team USA's FIBA Americas Under-18 roster. With Fultz as its leading scorer, the team progressed to the gold medal championship game; and in dominant fashion, Fultz posted 23 points and earned the tournament's MVP award for his performance. By the end of his senior year, Fultz was rated as a five-star recruit considered a top-ten recruit in the 2016 class. He was ranked as the third best point guard in the 2016 high school class and number three overall by Scout.com, number five by Rivals.com, and number seven by ESPN. At DeMatha, Fultz was a basketball teammate and friend of Chase Young, who was later named the 2020 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year after being selected by the Washington Football Team second overall in the 2020 NFL Draft. ### College prospect info ## College career The Washington Huskies were fully expecting to open the 2016–17 season with Dejounte Murray and Marquese Chriss; instead, however, both freshmen were selected in the first round of the 2016 NBA draft. Fultz said of the anticipated scenario if they had stayed: "I think we would be No. 1 in the country. We would have gone to the (NCAA) tournament and won". Without any proven talent and only one returning starter, Fultz took charge as a team leader and primary scorer. As the starting point guard, he debuted in a 98–90 home game loss to the Yale Bulldogs in which he posted 30 points. Although the Huskies finished with a disappointing 9–22 record, Fultz enjoyed one of the best freshman seasons in all Pac-12 Conference history. In 25 games that season, his 23.2 point average was the highest mark in the Pac-12 in 20 years and second in Huskies history behind Bob Houbregs' 25.6 points per game in 1952–1953. Fultz also led the team in minutes played with 35.7 per game as well as assists with 5.7 per game and was second in rebounds with 5.9 per game. By the time Pac-12 honors were awarded, Fultz—‌the lone Husky selected—‌was named to the First-team All-Pac-12 and Third-team All-American. A player who "jumps off the page athletically and possesses creative scoring instincts and playmaking skills", the consensus among sports analysts was that Fultz would be the first overall pick in the 2017 NBA draft. ## Professional career ### Philadelphia 76ers (2017–2019) Fultz was selected as the first overall pick in the 2017 NBA draft by the Philadelphia 76ers, who then finalized his four-year rookie contract on July 8. The 76ers, after years of mediocrity, had lofty expectations of returning to the playoffs for the first time since 2012; such were the high hopes that rested on their new core consisting of Fultz, Joel Embiid, and Ben Simmons. In his first regular season game, on October 18, the rookie posted 10 points, 3 rebounds, and 1 assist in 18 minutes of play coming off the bench. It was not long, however, before a shoulder injury—termed a "scapular muscle imbalance"—so ravaged his shooting that he shot only 33 percent from the field and attempted zero three-pointers in four games. In response, the 76ers decided to sit Fultz indefinitely until he recovered. Debate ensued between sports analysts and the organization over how much his shooting woes were of physical versus psychological origin. Fultz himself later clarified: "What happened [...] was an injury. Let me get that straight. It was an injury that happened that didn’t allow me to go through the certain paths that I needed to, to shoot the ball." During his hiatus, Fultz's basic shooting mechanics appeared to change under a trainer from outside the 76ers organization; this and his lengthy recovery period taken were heavily scrutinized. The team's president of basketball operations, Bryan Colangelo, suggested that the rookie might very well sit for the remainder of the season; but on March 26, 2018, it was announced that Fultz would return to the hardwood for an upcoming game against the Denver Nuggets. Despite some missteps, such as one air ball shot and some shots blocked, Fultz put up 10 points and 8 assists in 14 minutes of playing time. On April 11, at the age of 19 and 317 days, Fultz became the youngest player in NBA history at the time to record a triple-double, putting up 13 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists in a 130–95 win over the Milwaukee Bucks, a record that was later broken by LaMelo Ball. For the 2018–19 season, head coach Brett Brown named Fultz the starting shooting guard over veteran JJ Redick. Fifteen games into the season, however, Fultz lost the position to Jimmy Butler, whom the 76ers acquired in a trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Conflicting statements regarding Fultz's health and poor production continued to be sources of conflict and drama for the team. On November 20, 2018, his agent Raymond Brothers announced Fultz would not participate in practice or games until a shoulder injury was evaluated; his ailment was later described as thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS), the neurogenic type of the disorder which “affects nerves between the neck and shoulder resulting in abnormal functional movement and range of motion, thus severely limiting Markelle’s ability to shoot a basketball”. ### Orlando Magic (2019–present) On February 7, 2019, Fultz was traded to the Orlando Magic in exchange for Jonathon Simmons, an Oklahoma City Thunder first-round pick, and a Cleveland Cavaliers second round pick. Magic coach Steve Clifford later stated in March that he did not anticipate Fultz returning to play during the season, stressing that his shoulder injury was indeed "very serious." Fultz made his Magic debut on October 23, 2019, putting up 12 points, six assists, and two steals in a 94–85 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. On December 27, 2020, Fultz put up 26 points in a 120–113 win over the Washington Wizards. On January 6, 2021, Fultz suffered a torn ACL against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first quarter and missed the remainder of the 2020–21 season. Fultz resumed playing on February 28, 2022, against the Indiana Pacers. On April 10, Fultz put up a career-high 15 assists in a 125–111 win over the Miami Heat. On March 18, 2023, Fultz recorded a career-high 28 points and recorded four steals during a 113–108 win over the Los Angeles Clippers . ## Career statistics ### NBA #### Regular season \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2017–18 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Philadelphia \| 14 \|\| 0 \|\| 18.1 \|\| .405 \|\| .000 \|\| .476 \|\| 3.1 \|\| 3.8 \|\| .9 \|\| .3 \|\| 7.1 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2018–19 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Philadelphia \| 19 \|\| 15 \|\| 22.5 \|\| .419 \|\| .286 \|\| .568 \|\| 3.7 \|\| 3.1 \|\| .9 \|\| .3 \|\| 8.2 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2019–20 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Orlando \| 72 \|\| 60 \|\| 27.7 \|\| .465 \|\| .267 \|\| .730 \|\| 3.3 \|\| 5.1 \|\| 1.3 \|\| .2 \|\| 12.1 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2020–21 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Orlando \| 8 \|\| 8 \|\| 26.9 \|\| .394 \|\| .250 \|\| .895 \|\| 3.1 \|\| 5.4 \|\| 1.0 \|\| .3 \|\| 12.9 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2021–22 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Orlando \| 18 \|\| 3 \|\| 20.0 \|\| .474 \|\| .235 \|\| .806 \|\| 2.7 \|\| 5.5 \|\| 1.1 \|\| .3 \|\| 10.8 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2022–23 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Orlando \| 60 \|\| 60 \|\| 29.6 \|\| .514 \|\| .310 \|\| .783 \|\| 3.9 \|\| 5.7 \|\| 1.5 \|\| .4 \|\| 14.0 \|- class="sortbottom" \| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"\| Career \| 191 \|\| 146 \|\| 26.3 \|\| .472 \|\| .278 \|\| .734 \|\| 3.5 \|\| 5.0 \|\| 1.2 \|\| .3 \|\| 11.8 #### Playoffs \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2018 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Philadelphia \| 3 \|\| 0 \|\| 7.7 \|\| .143 \|\| – \|\| .750 \|\| 1.0 \|\| 1.7 \|\| .7 \|\| .0 \|\| 1.7 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2020 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Orlando \| 5 \|\| 5 \|\| 29.4 \|\| .400 \|\| .375 \|\| .857 \|\| 2.2 \|\| 5.2 \|\| 1.0 \|\| .6 \|\| 12.0 \|- class"sortbottom" \| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"\| Career \| 8 \|\| 5 \|\| 21.3 \|\| .373 \|\| .375 \|\| .818 \|\| 1.8 \|\| 3.9 \|\| .9 \|\| .4 \|\| 8.1 ### College \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2016–17 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Washington \| 25 \|\| 25 \|\| 35.7 \|\| .476 \|\| .413 \|\| .649 \|\| 5.7 \|\| 5.9 \|\| 1.6 \|\| 1.2 \|\| 23.2

General Aircraft Hotspur

British military glider of the Second World War

The General Aircraft GAL.48 Hotspur was a military glider designed and built by the British company General Aircraft Ltd during World War II. When the British airborne establishment was formed in 1940 by order of Prime Minister Winston Churchill, it was decided that gliders would be used to transport airborne troops into battle. General Aircraft Ltd were given a contract by the Ministry of Aircraft Production in June 1940 to design and produce an initial glider for use by the airborne establishment, which resulted in the Hotspur. Conceived as an "assault" glider which necessitated a compact design and no more than eight troops carried, tactical philosophy soon favoured larger numbers of troops being sent into battle aboard gliders. Due to this, the Hotspur was mainly relegated to training where it did excel and it became the basic trainer for the glider schools that were formed. The Hotspur was named after Sir Henry Percy, a significant captain during the Anglo-Scottish wars who was also known as "Hotspur". ## Development ### Operational requirements The German military had pioneered using airborne formations, conducting several successful airborne operations during the Battle of France in 1940, including the Battle of Fort Eben-Emael. Impressed by the success of German airborne operations, the Allied governments decided to form their own airborne formations. This decision would eventually lead to the creation of two British airborne divisions, as well as a number of smaller units. The British airborne establishment began development on 22 June 1940, when the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, directed the War Office in a memorandum to investigate the possibility of creating a corps of 5,000 parachute troops. When the equipment to be used by the airborne forces was under development, War Office officials decided that gliders would be an integral component, to transport troops and heavy equipment. On 21 June 1940 the Central Landing Establishment was formed at Ringway airfield near Manchester; although tasked primarily with training parachute troops, it was also directed to investigate using gliders to transport troops into battle. It had been decided that the Royal Air Force and the Army would cooperate in forming the airborne establishment, and as such Squadron Leader L. A. Strange and Major J.F. Rock were tasked with gathering potential glider pilots and forming a glider unit; this was achieved by searching for members of the armed forces who had pre-war experience of flying gliders, or were interested in learning to do so. The two officers and their newly formed unit were provided with four obsolete Armstrong Whitworth Whitley bombers and a small number of Tiger Moth and Avro 504 biplanes for towing purposes. As this unit was in the process of being formed, in June the Ministry of Aircraft Production contracted General Aircraft Ltd to design and produce an initial glider type for use by the airborne establishment. It would be used for both assault and training purposes, and would be capable of transporting eight airborne troops. The glider had to be capable of a long approach during landing, due to the prevailing belief at the time that gliders would have to be released a considerable distance from the target and glide in to ensure the sound of the towing aircraft did not alert the enemy. It therefore had to be aerodynamically stable, but also cheap and easy to construct as it would only be used once. The Hotspur was intended to have an operational range of 100 miles (160 km) when released at high altitude, although in practice this was reduced to 80 miles (130 km) when released from a height of 20,000 feet (6,100 m). ## Design The GAL.48 was primarily designed by F.F. Crocombe (team leader) to the Air Ministry specification X.10/40, and was to be similar in design to the German DFS 230 assault glider which had been used in the Battle of the Netherlands. The first prototype of the glider, designated GAL.48 and which would receive the service name Hotspur Mk I, flew in November, only four months after General Aircraft Ltd had been given the requirement for the glider. An initial order of 400 Hotspurs was placed with General Aircraft Ltd in September by the Ministry of Aircraft Production, nearly two months before the prototype first flew. The Hotspur Mark I was constructed from wood and was designed to accommodate eight fully armed airborne troops. Its wingspan was 62 feet (18.90 m) and it was 39 feet 3.5 inches (11.98 m) in length. With a full load (approximately 1,880 pounds (850 kg)), it weighed approximately 3,600 pounds (1,600 kg). The Mk I was distinguished from its other variants by the addition of cabin portholes along its fuselage, and hooks on the nose and tail to allow multiple Hotspurs to be towed together. The two pilots, and later the pilot and instructor when the Hotspurs were used as training gliders, sat in tandem in the cockpit. It had a jettisonable undercarriage, and its unusual fuselage functioned like a lid; once the Hotspur had landed, the troops inside would throw off the top half of the fuselage and then climb out of the lower half, much like leaving a small boat. A total of 18 Hotspur Mk Is were produced, 10 by GAl and eight by Slingsby Aircraft. The first operational Hotspur arrived at the Central Landing Establishment between February and April 1941, with 15 being delivered by 22 August. Towing trials began in February 1941 with a Boulton & Paul Overstrand bomber. ### Further development Even as the initial 400 gliders were being produced, several problems with the Hotspur's design were uncovered, the primary one being that the glider did not carry sufficient troops. Although it had been designed to transport eight airborne troops and a cargo of 1,880 pounds (850 kg), this was found to be inadequate. Tactically it was believed that airborne troops should be landed in groups far larger than eight, and the number of aircraft therefore required to tow the gliders needed to land larger groups would be unfeasible; there were also concerns that the gliders would have to be towed in tandem if used operationally, which would be extremely difficult during nighttime and through cloud formations. Its disappointing glide ratio was also a contributing factor to reevaluate the assault glider concept. Due to the limitations inherent in the Hotspur design, the decision was made to continue with the development of several other types of gliders, including a 15-seater which would become the Airspeed Horsa and a tank-carrying glider, which would become the General Aircraft Hamilcar. The Hotspur remained in production primarily as a training aircraft and as a "stop-gap" in case the other programmes failed. Three variants on the original Hotspur Mk I were created. The first was the heavily modified Mk II (Specification X.22/40 and X.23/40), which was redesigned partially to address changes in operational requirements and also to bolster the ground handling of the initial series of aircraft. In operations, rather than releasing the glider from a long distance away and allowing it to glide gently to the ground, it was decided that the towing aircraft would approach the landing zone and only then release the glider, requiring a more robust glider. The Hotspur Mk I wings had also shown considerable flex and the type had proved difficult to handle on the ground. In order to reduce stresses on the airframe, the fuselage was strengthened and wings were "shortened" by over eight ft each, resulting in a wingspan of 45 feet 10+3⁄4 inches (13.99 m) with the tips made square-cut and ailerons moved from the end of the wings to an inset position. While maintaining its original all-wood construction and overall fuselage and empennage dimensions, the Mk II incorporated a modified fuselage which included altering the cockpit enclosure and a "deeper" canopy. Instead of using the "lid" (where the two pilots still boarded via the hinged perspex canopy), two side doors were added from which troops would enter and depart. The seating was re-arranged, and a braking parachute added to the rear. Its other dimensions remained the same, with a length of 39 feet 3.5 inches (11.98 m) and a gross weight of approximately 3,600 pounds (1,600 kg), with eight airborne troops and 1,880 pounds (850 kg) of equipment. A total of 50 of the early-production Mk IIs were modified into trainers as the Mark III, by adding dual controls and instruments for the student pilot and an externally braced tailplane. The third variant of the Hotspur was the GAL.48B "Twin Hotspur", which did not progress past the prototype phase. The Twin Hotspur was a 1942 attempt to create a glider capable of carrying 15 airborne troops as an interim glider until production of the Horsa reached sufficient levels. It was created by connecting two Hotspur fuselages together, using a constant-chord centre wing section of 12 feet (3.66 m) length, and a constant-chord tailplane. Two pilots sat tandem-style in the port fuselage. In August 1942, the sole "Twin Hotspur" prototype (MP486) underwent testing, towed behind an Armstrong Whitworth Whitley tug. The project was abandoned before production could begin, primarily because the glider's flight characteristics were criticised by its pilots. ### Production When Hotspur production ended in early 1943, a total of 1,015 gliders had been produced. The primary sub-contractor, Harris Lebus was responsible for 996 Mk IIs and Mk IIIs while the parent company produced only 10 Mk Is and a single Mk II prototype. Slingsby was the only other sub-contractor involved in production with eight Mk Is completed. ## Operational history Due to changing operational requirements, no Hotspurs were used in combat operations, and were instead exclusively used for training purposes; it was the glider in which all pilots belonging to the Glider Pilot Regiment received their initial instruction. Although relatively heavy with a high sink rate, the Hotspur exhibited good flying characteristics and could even be flown aerobatically, allowing novice pilots to quickly gain proficiency. The first glider pilots were curiously named "glider coxswains". Glider pilots first trained at an Elementary Flying Training School on de Havilland Tiger Moths or Miles Magisters before converting to glider training. At the Glider Schools, a Hotspur MK III was first employed for dual instruction with the rear seats weighted for ballast and only the instructor and student aboard. The gliders were usually towed by Hawker Hector or Hawker Audax biplanes (later Miles Master and Westland Lysander "tugs") during training. From 8 to 11 dual-instruction flights usually preceded the student's first solo flight. At Operational Training Glider Schools, the flights were made with troops instead of ballast in Hotspur MK IIs. Release at high altitudes and night-flying was also part of the training. A total of 250 Hotspurs were retained for operational use if they were required, but the rest were used as training gliders. In 1942, 22 Hotspur Mk IIs were sent to Canada, eventually six were redeployed to the United States Navy and one to the United States Army Air Forces. In the build-up to Operation Overlord in early 1944, a scheme was considered in which Hotspurs would have been used to transport cargo and equipment. A Canadian fighter squadron – 401 Squadron – was selected for trials, the intention was to enable faster redeployment of fighter squadrons by using gliders to carry spare pilots, ground crew and essential supplies. The squadron operated the Supermarine Spitfire IX, some of which were modified to tow gliders by means of a tow-point attached to the tail wheel; some pilots were trained to fly the Hotspur, including fighter ace Don C. Laubman. The Spitfires were found to be reasonably effective as glider tugs, although their engines were prone to overheating because the glider's maximum tow speed was 160 miles per hour (260 km/h), comparatively slow for a Spitfire. Despite this, the scheme was judged to be practical, although it never saw operational use. At war's end, the type was retired and few Hotspurs were preserved for display. ## Variants Hotspur Mk I Single prototype, production run of 18 aircraft Hotspur Mk II Production series, modified with reduced wingspan, inset ailerons, new seating arrangement, deeper cockpit canopy, side doors, braking parachute; fuselage strengthened Hotspur Mk III Production series, dual controls and instruments, external tailplane bracing Twin Hotspur Two standard Hotspur fuselages and outer wing panels joined together with common centre section and tailplane; single prototype made. This variant did not enter series production. ## Operators Canada - Royal Canadian Air Force United Kingdom - British Army - Royal Air Force United States - United States Army Air Forces - United States Navy ## Survivors and replicas A Hotspur Mark II (HH268) replica is on display at the Museum of Army Flying in Hampshire, England. The front fuselage of a Hotspur was preserved at the Parachute Regiment And Airborne Forces Museum in Aldershot prior to the museum's 2007 closing, in anticipation of a move to the Imperial War Museum Duxford. ## Specifications (Hotspur Mk II) ## See also

Shamrock Hotel

Former hotel in Texas, USA

The Shamrock was a hotel constructed between 1946 and 1949 by wildcatter Glenn McCarthy southwest of downtown Houston, Texas next to the Texas Medical Center. It was the largest hotel built in the United States during the 1940s. The grand opening of the Shamrock is still cited as one of the biggest social events ever held in Houston. Sold to Hilton Hotels in 1955 and operated for over three decades as the Shamrock Hilton, the facility endured financial struggles throughout its history. In 1985, Hilton Hotels donated the building to the Texas Medical Center and the structure was demolished on June 1, 1987. ## Design and construction Designed by Fort Worth architect Wyatt C. Hedrick, the eighteen-story building with a green tile pitched roof and 1,100 rooms was conceived by McCarthy as a city-sized hotel scaled for conventions with a resort atmosphere. The hotel was located in a suburban area three miles (5 km) southwest of downtown Houston at the acute southwest corner of Main Street and Bellaire Boulevard (West Holcombe Boulevard after 1963). At the time, this was on the fringes of countryside and was meant to be the first phase of a much larger indoor shopping and entertainment complex called McCarthy Center, anchored alongside the planned Texas Medical Center. At the hotel's north side was a five-story building containing a 1,000-car garage and 25,000-square-foot (2,300 m²) exhibition hall. To the south was the hotel's lavishly landscaped garden designed by Ralph Ellis Gunn, a terrace and an immense swimming pool measuring 165 (50m) by 142 feet (43 m) described as the world's biggest outdoor pool, which accommodated exhibition water skiing and featured a 3-story-high diving platform with an open spiral staircase. Construction was completed for about \$21,000,000 (equivalent to over \$200,000,000 in 2007). Politician and entrepreneur Jesse H. Jones privately warned McCarthy that business travelers would be reluctant to stay at a hotel three miles south from downtown Houston. Hotel industry executives flatly warned McCarthy the project would not be profitable. He publicly replied, "I went into the oil business in 1933 when everybody said I was a damn fool. Now they're saying it again about my hotel." The 5,000-square-foot (460 m²) lobby was paneled in burled mahogany with added trim heavily influenced by Art Deco, a design movement which had been popular during the 1920s and 30s. McCarthy ordered furnishings and decor in 63 shades of green, a nod to his ancestral Ireland. Hedrick's architectural firm reportedly had been the third-largest in the U.S., however his conservative design for the building's exterior along with its lavish interiors by Robert D. Harrell of Los Angeles drew wide criticism, notably from Frank Lloyd Wright who while being shown the completed facility before it opened, pointed at the lobby ceiling and said to Fay Jones, "That, young man, is an example of the effects of venereal disease on architecture." Wright also called the Shamrock "an imitation Rockefeller Center" (which had been completed ten years earlier). McCarthy claimed the decor represented "the best of all periods." Time magazine described it as "eclectic." The building's structural design has since been characterized as "more robust and sturdy than sleek and futuristic." ## Historic grand opening The hotel opened with fireworks displays on St. Patrick’s Day 1949. Two thousand Houstonians paid \$42 a person to have dinner at what was widely publicized as “Houston’s biggest party" which cost an estimated one million dollars. The party was attended by over 150 Hollywood celebrities including Ginger Rogers, Hedda Hopper, Robert Preston and Errol Flynn along with noted Los Angeles business executives and reporters, some of whom were flown in to Houston International Airport on a customized Boeing 307 Stratoliner airplane which McCarthy had bought only days earlier from Howard Hughes. Many more were brought in by train on a chartered Santa Fe Super Chief. With a crowd estimated at 50,000 gathering outside the hotel, newspaper boys dressed in black tie handed out commemorative editions of the Houston Post as guests arrived that evening. The party became very overcrowded, with three thousand people milling in the hotel's public areas, a thousand more than had been foreseen. Houston mayor Oscar F. Holcombe and his wife sat in a hallway for two hours after his chair was stolen. "It was the worst mob scene I have ever witnessed," Holcombe said later. The festivities became so raucous that a radio broadcast from the hotel by actress, singer and World War II pinup girl Dorothy Lamour was cut off by the network; assuming he was off-air, NBC audio engineer Raoul Murphy uttered an expletive heard live nationwide and dead air greeted the audience for a very long twenty seconds. Due to the numerous broadcast difficulties, Lamour reportedly fled the stage in tears. The Houston Chronicle'''s society editor wrote that the event was "bedlam in diamonds". Life called it "...the most dazzling exhibition of evening dresses and big names ever seen in Texas. Everyone had to concede it was quite a party and quite a hotel." The grand opening of the Shamrock is still cited as one of the biggest social events in Houston’s history. ## Operation The Shamrock initially had a staff of 1,200 managed by George Lindholm, who had been recruited from the socially prominent Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York. There were 23 different employee uniforms. Guests signed the register in "grass-hued" green ink and their luggage was carried by bellhops wearing emerald green, lemon trimmed uniforms past a portrait of McCarthy in the elevator lobby to air-conditioned, green-hued rooms each with generously framed abstract art on the walls, push-button radios (including recorded music from an elaborate in-house system through which an operator played extended-length phonographic records) and television, all somewhat rare amenities for a hotel at the time. Over a third of the rooms had kitchenettes. Celebrity singers (including Lamour) performed in the hotel's nightclub, called the Emerald Room. From 1949 to 1953 the Shamrock hosted a network radio program called Saturday at the Shamrock carried by the American Broadcasting Company, then the only nationally broadcast scripted radio program produced outside New York or Los Angeles. However the Shamrock soon began experiencing persistent problems with occupancy rates and was seldom if ever full. McCarthy had spent lavishly, then borrowed heavily against his assets (including the hotel) to leverage a series of risky investments and his cash reserves quickly dwindled. Within a year Lindholm quietly resigned. In 1952 McCarthy defaulted on a loan and the hotel was acquired by Equitable Life Assurance Society. That same year author Edna Ferber described the Shamrock as the "Conquistador" in her novel Giant'' (and it was later briefly featured in the 1956 film adaptation directed by George Stevens). Despite financial troubles the resort-like Shamrock with its restaurants, bars and swank shops had become a popular gathering place for local society and was characterized as "Houston's Riviera" during the early 1950s. The Shamrock's private and sleek Cork Club was noted as the site of many oil deals (and reportedly, fist fights), along with performances by singer Frank Sinatra. In 1953 singer Patty Andrews of the Andrews Sisters launched her brief solo career in the hotel's still somewhat fashionable Emerald Room nightclub. ### Shamrock Hilton In 1954 the Hilton Hotels Corporation assumed management of the hotel and bought the property at a discount from its construction costs in 1955 but also struggled to find a profitable model for the huge facility, later shown to be isolated from both downtown Houston and its growing system of freeways. Moreover, the Shamrock was overwhelmed by competition from many much smaller, cheaper and automobile-friendly motels. A low two-story "lanai" wing in the form of a motel was added next to the swimming pool in 1957. Meanwhile, affluent suburban home buyers bypassed the area and the planned shopping and entertainment center was never built (although McCarthy's concept influenced the successful Houston Galleria which opened near an intersection of freeways on the city's west side in 1970). In about 1965 the first Trader Vic's restaurant in Texas was launched at the Shamrock where it did business until after 1985. The hotel remained popular for Houston social events such as debutante balls, barbecues and business meetings, continuing operations as the Shamrock Hilton until 1986, by which time even its local reputation had long since faded. ## Demolition During a severe local recession in 1985 the 36-year-old hotel, still the second largest in Houston but by then in need of extensive refurbishing and refitting, was in effect donated to the Texas Medical Center. In March 1986 a protest rally was held by historic preservationists including McCarthy and the hotel opened its last annual St. Patrick's Day party to the public. That evening, some people who had been at the opening night party in 1949 reportedly attended a semi-formal event in the hotel's Emerald Room. A few employees had been with the hotel since its first year of operation. The building was demolished 1 June 1987 (McCarthy died 18 months later) and the land was paved over as a surface parking lot, which it remains as of 2-16-2020. The Institute of Biosciences and Technology, a component of the Texas A&M Health Science Center, has since been built on part of the site and, along with fountains and some landscaping on the northeast grounds, the hotel's multi-story parking garage was retained; however, the trademark green roof tiles were removed. The street in front of the former building was renamed from Shamrock Drive. ## Residents - Maxine Mesinger and her family ## Programs/Menus ## See also - History of Houston - Architecture of Houston

Hurricane Allen

Category 5 Atlantic hurricane in 1980

Hurricane Allen was a rare and extremely powerful Cape Verde hurricane that affected the Caribbean, eastern and northern Mexico, and southern Texas in August 1980. The first named storm and second tropical cyclone of the 1980 Atlantic hurricane season, it was the fifth most intense Atlantic hurricane on record in terms of barometric pressure, behind Hurricane Rita, the 1935 Labor Day hurricane, Hurricane Gilbert, and Hurricane Wilma. It was one of the few hurricanes to reach Category 5 status on the Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale on three occasions, and spent more time as a Category 5 than all but two other Atlantic hurricanes. Allen is the only hurricane in the recorded history of the Atlantic basin to achieve sustained winds of 190 mph (310 km/h), thus making it the strongest Atlantic hurricane by wind speed. Until Hurricane Patricia in 2015, these were also the highest sustained winds in the Western Hemisphere. Hurricane Allen was also the second strongest tropical cyclone to hit the Gulf of Mexico, with the strongest being Hurricane Rita. Throughout its life, Allen moved through the deep tropics on a westerly to northwesterly course through the tropical Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, and Gulf of Mexico before making its final landfall near the United States–Mexico border. At peak strength, it passed near Haiti, causing hundreds of deaths and heavy damage. After crossing the Gulf of Mexico, Allen weakened as it struck the lower Texas coast, causing high winds, a significant storm surge, and heavy rainfall, which caused damage to southern Texas. Overall, Allen killed at least 269 people and left \$1.57 billion in damages (1980 US dollars), mostly within the United States and Haiti. Because of its impact, the name Allen was retired from the six-year revolving list of Atlantic tropical cyclone names in 1981 and the name was replaced by Andrew. The name Andrew, though, was subsequently retired after the 1992 season's Hurricane Andrew. The remnants of the storm caused a brief lapse in the heat wave of 1980 in places like Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, which had recorded 69 days of 100 °F (38 °C) heat. ## Meteorological history Allen was an early Cape Verde-type hurricane which originated from a tropical wave that previously moved off the African coastline on July 30. The system developed as it moved westward, becoming a tropical depression on August 1. However, the National Hurricane Center did not initiate advisories on Allen until almost 24 hours later, when it was centered 1,300 mi (2,100 km) east of the Windward Islands. Early on August 2, as the depression moved towards the Caribbean, it had intensified and became the first named storm of the season. The National Hurricane Center noted that conditions appeared favorable for further intensification. However, it was also noted that a large cold-low north of Puerto Rico was producing strong westerly wind shear, which would cause Allen to possibly encounter unfavorable conditions within 72 hours. Although slower forward movement was anticipated, Allen remained at generally the same westward pace, between 17 and 23 mph (27 and 37 km/h). By August 3, the National Hurricane Center retracted predictions of less favorable conditions from the cold-low north of Puerto Rico, since that weather system was weakening and moving westward. At 1600 UTC on August 3, the National Hurricane Center upgraded Allen to hurricane status, as an Air Force plane recorded winds of 100 mph (160 km/h). However, in post-analysis, it was discovered that Allen had been a hurricane since 0000 UTC on August 3. Shortly after the upgrade, Allen began a period of rapid deepening, and intensified into a major hurricane at 0000 UTC August 4, while roughly 38 mi (61 km) northwest of Bridgetown, Barbados. Six hours later, Allen passed only 8 mi (13 km) south of St. Lucia at 0600 UTC. Although the National Hurricane Center noted that conditions favored slow strengthening, Allen continued to rapidly intensify, and became a Category 4 hurricane only two hours after that advisory. Later on August 4, the National Hurricane Center noted a barometric pressure of 946 mbar (946 hPa; 27.9 inHg), and that it would not drop significantly within 24 hours. Shortly before 0000 UTC on August 5, the minimum pressure decreased to 924 mbar (924 hPa; 27.3 inHg), which was noted as equivalent to Hurricane David in the previous season. By August 5, Allen intensified into a Category 5 hurricane while south of Puerto Rico. This made Allen the earliest Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic on record, but was later surpassed by Hurricane Emily which reached that intensity on July 16, 2005. During this time, Allen attained a central pressure of 911 mbar (911 hPa; 26.9 inHg), which was the lowest pressure on record in the eastern Caribbean sea until Hurricane Maria of 2017, which peaked at 908 mbar (908 hPa; 26.8 inHg). Hence, the barometric pressure dropped by 35 mbar (35 hPa; 1.0 inHg) less than 10 hours after the National Hurricane Center stated that the pressure would not decrease significantly within the time of 24 hours. The eye passed between Hispaniola and Jamaica as a Category 4 hurricane. After friction with the mountains of Haiti and Jamaica had caused it to weaken, Allen intensified back to a Category 5 hurricane, retaining this intensity for over a day. It then moved past the islands of Cayman Brac and Little Cayman causing moderate damage on Cayman Brac with winds near 135 mph. The storm then moved between Cuba and the Yucatán Peninsula, reaching its peak intensity of 190 mph (310 km/h) and a minimum pressure of 899 mbar (899 hPa; 26.5 inHg) while crossing the Yucatán Channel. During Allen's trek through the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, its center of circulation never crossed over land despite its close passage to various islands in and around the Caribbean sea. Allen again weakened to a Category 4 storm due to friction with Mexico and an eyewall replacement cycle, but restrengthened into a Category 5 hurricane for a third time as it moved over the open waters of the Gulf of Mexico, keeping this intensity for nearly a full day and with a pressure drop to 909 mbar (909 hPa; 26.8 inHg), the lowest pressure ever recorded in the western Gulf of Mexico. In the day prior to landfall, a dry air mass in the western Gulf of Mexico caused the storm to weaken substantially. Allen made landfall August 10 around noon local time on South Padre Island near Port Isabel, Texas as a Category 3 storm with maximum sustained winds of 115 mph (185 km/h) and a pressure of 945 mbar (945 hPa; 27.9 inHg). Landfall on the mainland was along the sparsely populated Texas coast somewhere between Laguna Vista and Port Mansfield. It became extratropical on August 11. ## Preparations As Allen approached the Caribbean Sea, gale warnings and a hurricane watch were issued for the islands of Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Dominica, Grenada, Martinique, and Guadeloupe during the daylight hours of August 3. Gale warnings were in effect for Antigua from 11 am on August 3 until 11 am on August 4. Hurricane warnings were raised for Barbados, St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Martinique, and Dominica from the early afternoon of August 3 until the late morning of August 4. As Allen moved into the Caribbean sea, hurricane watches were issued for southeastern sections of the Dominican Republic and the southwestern peninsula of Haiti from 11 am on August 4 until the morning of August 5. Gale warnings were then in effect for the southern Dominican Republic from the night of August 4 into the night of August 5, while southern Haiti maintained the warnings from the night of August 4 into the morning of August 5. The hurricane watch was issued for Jamaica during the morning hours of August 5, while hurricane warnings were raised for the southwest peninsula of Haiti from the late morning of August 5 into the morning of August 6. Hurricane warnings went into effect for Jamaica from around noon on August 5 until late in the afternoon of August 6. The Cayman Islands saw hurricane watches issued from the afternoon of August 5 into the morning of August 6 before the watches were upgraded to hurricane warnings from the morning until late afternoon of August 6. As Allen approached the Gulf of Mexico, hurricane warnings were raised for the northeast Yucatán peninsula of Mexico from the afternoon of August 6 into the morning of August 8. Gale warnings were in effect for the Florida Keys from the evening of August 6 into the early morning of August 8. As Allen approached its final landfall, the northeast Mexican coast and Texas coast were placed under a hurricane watch from the morning of August 8 until the morning of August 9 for Mexico and the afternoon of August 9 for Texas. Hurricane warnings were posted for the Texas coast during the afternoon of August 8, and were lowered north of Freeport, Texas during the afternoon of August 9 and south of Freeport during the afternoon of August 10. Gale warnings and a hurricane watch were issued for the Louisiana coast from Vermilion Bay westward from the afternoon of August 8 into the afternoon of August 9. Hurricane warnings were in effect for northeast Mexico from the early afternoon of August 9 into the late afternoon of August 10. Hurricane warnings were downgraded to gale warnings between High Island, Texas and Freeport, Texas between the late afternoon of August 9 and the late afternoon of August 10. Hurricane watches were dropped for the Louisiana coast during the late afternoon of August 9. Hurricane warnings were downgraded to gale warnings for the lower Texas coast south of Freeport from the late afternoon of August 10 into the early morning of August 11. ## Impact Allen caused just over \$1 billion (1980 USD) in damages and killed at least 269 people throughout its course (including indirect deaths). ### Caribbean islands In Barbados, preliminary damages were estimated to be \$1.5 million (1980 USD). About 500 houses were either damaged or destroyed. No deaths were reported. St. Lucia sustained catastrophic damage from the strong category 3 hurricane. Sustained winds of 90 knots (170 km/h) and a sea level pressure as low as 967 millibars (28.6 inHg) were reported at Hewanorra. Eighteen people lost their lives as a result of the storm's passage. One death in Guadeloupe was attributed to Allen. In Martinique, damage was extensive as the storm passed 50 miles (80 km) south of the island. Waves 6 metres (20 ft) high battered the coast of the island during the storm. In the central Caribbean, Cayman Brac was hit by winds in excess of 115 mph (185 km/h) which caused considerable property damage. A coral reef at Discovery Bay, Jamaica was devastated by the wave action from the storm. Offshore Jamaica, greater numbers of smaller-sized Damselfishes was witnessed in the wake of Allen. Eight deaths in Jamaica were attributed to Allen. Damage was very significant along the northeast coast, where the hurricane made its closest approach to the island and created a 12 metres (39 ft) storm surge. Three deaths were attributed to Allen in Cuba. Extensive damage occurred in Haiti due to high winds and flash flooding. Total costs for that country were estimated to be at more than \$400 million (1980 USD). Roughly 60% of the nation's coffee crop was destroyed. In all, 220 people were killed and 835,000 were left homeless. In Port-au-Prince, 41 deaths were caused by tin roofs flying off and around 1200 were made homeless by flooding. Another 140 people were reported dead from flooding. ### Mexico Areas of northeastern Mexico saw heavy rains with the passage of Allen, with the highest totals exceeding 7 inches (180 mm). The hurricane earlier brushed the Yucatán Peninsula. As Allen only affected sparsely populated regions of Mexico, there were no reports of significant damage. ### United States In Texas, the storm surge was reported as high as 12 feet (3.7 m) at Port Mansfield, though it may have been higher elsewhere along the Texas coast. A peak wind gust of 129 mph (208 km/h) was also measured at Port Mansfield. Tropical storm-force winds in Corpus Christi, Texas blew roof gravel through the city, which led to substantial glass breakage to the 18-story Guarantee Bank Building and a 12-story wing of Spohn hospital. The storm caused seven deaths in Texas and 17 in Louisiana (most resulting from the crash of a helicopter evacuating workers from an offshore platform). Allen spawned several tornadoes in Texas. One tornado caused \$100 million in damage when it hit Austin, Texas, making it the costliest tropical cyclone-spawned tornado in recorded history. Overall, however, the storm caused limited damage in the United States due to its suddenly diminished power and because its highest tides and winds hit a sparsely-populated portion of the Texas coast. Allen dumped 10 to 20 inches (250 to 510 mm) of rain in south Texas, ending a summer-long drought during the Heat Wave of 1980. ## Retirement and records Because of the destruction and extreme death tolls, the name Allen was retired from the Atlantic tropic storms list by the World Meteorological Organization in the spring of 1981, and will never again be used for a future Atlantic hurricane. It was replaced with Andrew. When Allen reached Category 5 intensity on August 5, it became the earliest Category 5 storm ever recorded. This record stood until Hurricane Emily surpassed it on July 16, 2005. Allen is one of three Atlantic hurricanes to reach Category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale on three occasions, the others being Hurricane Ivan and Hurricane Isabel. Allen also produced the fifth-lowest minimum pressure ever recorded in the Atlantic basin at 899 mbar (hPa) and was the strongest known hurricane in the basin, in terms of pressure, since 1935. Until then, it was the second strongest hurricane by pressure in the Atlantic Basin, but was since pushed down to fifth, and no hurricane has achieved 190 miles per hour (310 km/h) winds in this basin since then. It remains the most intense storm ever in August. Allen spent nearly 3 days as a Category 5 storm, initially the longest stretch of any previous Atlantic hurricane on record. However, a reanalysis of the 1932 Cuba hurricane showed that it spent 3 hours longer at Category 5 intensity than Allen, and Hurricane Irma in 2017 also spent slightly more time as a Category 5 hurricane than Allen. Five typhoons have spent longer as Category 5 storms, including most recently Karen and Nancy in the early 1960s. ## See also - List of Category 5 Atlantic hurricanes - Hurricane Carla (1961) – Category 4 hurricane that took a similar path. - Hurricane Beulah (1967) – Category 5 hurricane that took a similar path. - Hurricane Emily (2005) – Category 5 hurricane that took a similar path. - Hurricane Harvey (2017) – Category 4 hurricane that took a similar path. - Hurricane Wilma (2005) - Category 5 hurricane that was the strongest in the Atlantic Ocean in terms of barometric pressure.

Northern mockingbird

Species of bird

The northern mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) is a mockingbird commonly found in North America. This bird is mainly a permanent resident, but northern birds may move south during harsh weather. This species has rarely been observed in Europe. This species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae as Turdus polyglottos. The northern mockingbird is known for its mimicking ability, as reflected by the meaning of its scientific name, "many-tongued mimic". The northern mockingbird has gray to brown upper feathers and a paler belly. Its tail and wings have white patches which are visible in flight. The northern mockingbird is an omnivore, eating both insects and fruits. It is often found in open areas and forest edges but forages in grassy land. The northern mockingbird breeds in southeastern Canada, the United States, northern Mexico, the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands and the Greater Antilles. It is replaced farther south by its closest living relative, the tropical mockingbird. The Socorro mockingbird, an endangered species, is also closely related, contrary to previous opinion. The northern mockingbird is listed as of least concern according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The northern mockingbird is known for its intelligence. A 2009 study showed that the bird was able to recognize individual humans, particularly noting those who had previously been intruders or threats. Also birds recognize their breeding spots and return to areas in which they had greatest success in previous years. Urban birds are more likely to demonstrate this behavior. The mockingbird is influential in United States culture, being the state bird of five states, appearing in book titles, songs and lullabies, and making other appearances in popular culture. ## Taxonomy Swedish zoologist Carl Linnaeus first described this species in his Systema Naturae in 1758 as Turdus polyglottos. Its current genus name, Mimus is Latin for "mimic" and the specific polyglottos, is from Ancient Greek poluglottos, "harmonious", from polus, "many", and glossa, "tongue", representing its outstanding ability to mimic various sounds. The northern mockingbird is considered to be conspecific with the tropical mockingbird (Mimus gilvus). This species is categorized as the northern mockingbird as the closest living relative to M. gilvus. ### Subspecies There are three recognized subspecies for the northern mockingbird. There have been proposed races from the Bahamas and Haiti placed under the orpheus section. - M. p. polyglottos (Linnaeus, 1758): generally found in the eastern portion of North America ranging from Nova Scotia to Nebraska, to as far south as Texas and Florida. - M. p. leucopterus, the western mockingbird, (Vigors, 1839): generally found in the western portion of North America ranging from northwestern Nebraska and western Texas to the Pacific Coast, and south to Mexico (the Isthmus of Tehuantepec), and Socorro Island. It is larger than M. p. polyglottos and has a slightly shorter tail, upperparts are more buff and paler, underparts have a stronger buff pigment. - M. p. orpheus (Linnaeus, 1758) from the Bahamas to the Greater Antilles, also the Cayman and Virgin Islands. Similar to M. m. polyglottos except smaller, a paler shade of gray on its back, and underparts with practically little, if any buff at all. ## Description The northern mockingbird is a medium-sized mimid that has long legs and tail. Males and females look alike. Its upper parts are colored gray, while its underparts have a white or whitish-gray color. It has parallel wing bars on the half of the wings connected near the white patch giving it a distinctive appearance in flight. The black central rectrices and typical white lateral rectrices are also noticeable in flight. The iris is usually a light green-yellow or a yellow, but there have been instances of an orange color. The bill is black with a brownish black appearance at the base. The juvenile appearance is marked by its streaks on its back, distinguished spots and streaks on its chest, and a gray or grayish-green iris. Northern mockingbirds measure from 20.5 to 28 cm (8.1 to 11.0 in) including a tail almost as long as its body. The wingspan can range from 31–38 cm (12–15 in) and body mass is from 40–58 g (1.4–2.0 oz). Males tend to be slightly larger than females. Among standard measurements, the wing chord is 10 to 12 cm (3.9 to 4.7 in), the tail is 10 to 13.4 cm (3.9 to 5.3 in), the culmen is 1.6 to 1.9 cm (0.63 to 0.75 in) and the tarsus is 2.9 to 3.4 cm (1.1 to 1.3 in). The northern mockingbird's lifespan is observed to be up to 8 years, but captive birds can live up to 20 years. ## Distribution and habitat The mockingbird's breeding range is from Maritime provinces of Canada westwards to British Columbia, practically the entire Continental United States south of the northern Plains states and Pacific northwest, the Greater Antilles, and the majority of Mexico to eastern Oaxaca and Veracruz. The mockingbird is generally a year-round resident of its range, but the birds that live in the northern portion of its range have been noted farther south during the winter season. Sightings of the mockingbird have also been recorded in Hawaii (where it was introduced in the 1920s), southeastern Alaska, and three times as transatlantic vagrants in Britain, most recently in Exmouth, Devon, UK in February and March 2021. The mockingbird is thought to be at least partly migratory in the northern portions of its range, but the migratory behavior is not well understood. In the 19th century, the range of the mockingbird expanded northward towards provinces such as Nova Scotia and Ontario and states such as Massachusetts, although the sightings were sporadic. Within the first five decades of the 20th century, regions that received an influx of mockingbirds were Maine, Vermont, Ohio, Iowa, and New York. In western states such as California, the population was restricted to the Lower Sonoran regions but by the 1970s the mockingbird was residential in most counties. Islands that saw introductions of the mockingbird include Bermuda (in which it failed), Barbados, St. Helena, Socorro Island, the Cayman Islands and Tahiti. The mockingbird's habitat varies by location, but it prefers open areas with sparse vegetation. In the eastern regions, suburban and urban areas such as parks and gardens are frequent residential areas. It has an affinity for mowed lawns with shrubs within proximity for shade and nesting. In western regions, desert scrub and chaparral are among its preferred habitats. When foraging for food, it prefers short grass. This bird does not nest in densely forested areas, and generally resides in the same habitats year round. ## Behavior ### Diet The northern mockingbird is an omnivore. The birds' diet consists of arthropods (such as spiders, grasshoppers, ants, beetles, and caterpillars), earthworms, berries, fruits, seeds, and occasionally small crustaceans and lizards. Mockingbirds can drink from puddles, river and lake edges, or dew and rain droplets that amass onto plants. Adult mockingbirds also have been seen drinking sap from the cuts on recently pruned trees. Its diet heavily consists of animal prey during the breeding season, but takes a drastic shift to fruits during the fall and winter. The drive for fruits amid winter has been noted for the geographic expansion of the mockingbird, and in particular, the fruit of Rosa multiflora, a favorite of the birds, is a possible link. Mockingbirds also eat garden fruits such as tomatoes, apples, and berries (like blackberries, raspberries, other bramble fruits, holly berries, mulberries, and dogwood), as well as grapes and figs. These birds forage on the ground or in vegetation; they also fly down from a perch to capture food. While foraging, they frequently spread their wings in a peculiar two-step motion to display the white patches. There is disagreement among ornithologists over the purpose of this behavior, with hypotheses ranging from deceleration to intimidation of predators or prey. ### Breeding Both the male and female of the species reach sexual maturity after one year of life. The breeding season occurs in the spring and early summer. The males arrive before the beginning of the season to establish their territories. They may demonstrate or contest the edges of a territory using a boundary dance in which males, typically on the ground, face each other and hop side to side, sometimes fighting, until one flies away. The males use a series of courtship displays to attract the females to their sites. They run around the area either to showcase their territory to the females or to pursue the females. The males also engage in flight to showcase their wings. They sing and call as they perform all of these displays. The species can remain monogamous for many years, but incidents of polygyny and bigamy have been reported to occur during a single bird's lifetime. Both the male and female are involved in the nest building. The male does most of the work, while the female perches on the shrub or tree where the nest is being built to watch for predators. The nest is built approximately three to ten feet above the ground. The outer part of the nest is composed of twigs, while the inner part is lined with grasses, dead leaves, moss, or artificial fibers. The eggs are a light blue or greenish color and speckled with dots. The female lays three to five eggs, and she incubates them for nearly two weeks. Once the eggs are hatched, both the male and female will feed the chicks. The birds aggressively defend their nests and surrounding areas against other birds and animals. When a predator is persistent, mockingbirds from neighboring territories may be summoned by distinct calls to join the defense. Other birds may gather to watch as the mockingbirds drive away the intruder. In addition to harassing domestic cats and dogs that they consider a threat, mockingbirds will at times target humans. The birds are bold, and will attack much larger birds, even hawks. One incident in Tulsa, Oklahoma involving a postal carrier resulted in the distribution of a warning letter to residents. The northern mockingbird pairs hatch about two to four broods a year. In one breeding attempt, the northern mockingbird lays an average of four eggs. They are pale blue or greenish white with red or brown blotches, and measure about 25 by 18 millimetres (0.98 by 0.71 in).They hatch after about 11 to 14 days of incubation by the female. After about 10 to 15 days of life, the offspring become independent. #### Sexual selection Northern mockingbirds are famous for their song repertoires. Studies have shown that males sing songs at the beginning of breeding season to attract females. Unmated males sing songs in more directions and sing more bouts than mated males. In addition, unmated males perform more flight displays than mated males. The mockingbirds usually nest several times during one breeding season. Depending on the stage of breeding and the mating status, a male mockingbird will vary his song production. The unmated male keeps close track of this change. He sings in one direction when he perceives a chance to lure a female from the nest of the mated male. Unmated males are also more likely to use elevated perches to make their songs audible farther away. Though the mockingbirds are socially monogamous, mated males have been known to sing to attract additional mates. An observational study by Logan demonstrates that the female is continuously evaluating the quality of the male and his territory. The assessment is usually triggered by the arrival of a new male in a neighboring territory at the beginning of a new breeding season. In those cases, the mated female is constantly seen flying over both the original and the new male's territory, evaluating the qualities of both territories and exchanging calls with both males. The social mate displays aggressive behaviors towards the female, while the new male shows less aggression and sings softer songs. At the same time, both the mated male and the new male will fly over other territories to attract other females as well. Separation, mate switching and extra-pair matings do occur in northern mockingbirds. #### Sex allocation Northern mockingbirds adjust the sex ratio of their offspring according to the food availability and population density. Male offspring usually require more parental investment. There is therefore a bias for bearing the costlier sex at the beginning of a breeding season when the food is abundant. Local resource competition predicts that the parents have to share the resources with offspring that remain at the natal site after maturation. In passerine birds, like the northern mockingbird, females are more likely to disperse than males. Hence, it is adaptive to produce more dispersive sex than philopatric sex when the population density is high and the competition for local resources is intense. Since northern mockingbirds are abundant in urban environments, it is possible that the pollution and contamination in cities might affect sexual hormones and therefore play a role in offspring sex ratio. #### Mating Northern mockingbirds are socially monogamous. The sexes look alike except that the male is slightly larger than the female. Mutual mate choice is exhibited in northern mockingbirds. Both males and females prefer mates that are more aggressive towards intruders, and so exhibit greater parental investment. However, males are more defensive of their nests than females. In a population where male breeding adults outnumber female breeding adults, females have more freedom in choosing their mates. In these cases, these female breeders have the option of changing mates within a breeding season if the first male does not provide a high level of parental care, which includes feeding and nest defense. High nesting success is associated with highly aggressive males attacking intruders in the territory, and so these males are preferred by females. #### Parental care Northern mockingbirds are altricial, meaning that, when hatched, they are born relatively immobile and defenseless and therefore require nourishment for a certain duration from their parents. The young have a survival bottleneck at the nestling stage because there are higher levels of nestling predation than egg predation. The levels of belligerence exhibited by parents therefore increase once eggs hatch but there is no increase during the egg stage. A recent study shows that both food availability and temperature affect the parental incubation of the eggs in northern mockingbirds. Increasing food availability provides the females with more time to care for the nest and perform self-maintenance. Increasing temperature, however, reduces the time the females spend at the nest and there is increased energy cost to cool the eggs. The incubation behavior is a trade-off among various environmental factors. Mockingbird nests are also often parasitized by cowbirds. The parents are found to reject parasitic eggs at an intermediate rate. A recent study has shown that foreign eggs are more likely to be rejected from a nest later in the breeding season than from earlier in a breeding season. Early nesting hosts may not have learned the pattern and coloration of their first clutch yet, so are less likely to reject foreign eggs. There is also a seasonal threshold in terms of the overlap between the breeding seasons of the northern mockingbirds and their parasites. If the breeding season of the parasites starts later, there is less likelihood of parasitism. Hence, it pays the hosts to have relatively lower sensitivity to parasitic eggs. #### Ontogeny A laboratory observation of 38 mockingbird nestlings and fledglings (thirty-five and three, respectively) recorded the behavioral development of young mockingbirds. Notable milestones, including the eyes opening, soft vocalizations, begging, and preening, began within the first six days of life. Variation in begging and more compact movements such as perching, fear crouching, and stretching appeared by the ninth day. Wing-flashing, bathing, flight, and leaving the nest happened within seventeen days (nest leaving occurred within 11 to 13 days). Improvements of flight, walking and self-feeding took place within forty days. Agonistic behavior increased during the juvenile stages, to the extent that one of two siblings living in the same area was likely killed by the other. ### Song and calls Although many species of bird imitate the vocalizations of other birds, the northern mockingbird is the species best known in North America for doing so. Among the vocalizations it imitates are songs of the Carolina wren, northern cardinal, tufted titmouse, eastern towhee, house sparrow, wood thrush, and eastern bluebird, calls of the northern flicker and great crested flycatcher, jeers and pumphandles of the blue jay, and alarms, chups, and chirrs of the American robin. It imitates not only birds, but also other animals such as cats, dogs, frogs, and crickets and sounds from artificial items such as unoiled wheels and even car alarms. As convincing as these imitations may be to humans, they often fail to fool other birds, such as the Florida scrub-jay. The northern mockingbird's mimicry is likely to serve as a form of sexual selection through which competition between males and female choice influence a bird's song repertoire size. A 2013 study attempted to determine model selection in vocal mimics, and the data suggested that mimicry in the mockingbird resulted from the bird being genetically predisposed to learning vocalizations with acoustic characteristics such as an enlarged auditory template. Both male and female mockingbirds sing, with the latter being generally quieter and less vocal. Male commencement of singing is in late January to February and continues into the summer and the establishing of territory into the fall. Frequency in female singing is more sporadic, as it sings less often in the summer and fall, and only sings when the male is away from the territory. The mockingbird also possesses a large song repertoire that ranges from 43 to 203 song types and the size varies by region. Repertoire sizes ranged from 14 to 150 types in Texas, and two studies of mockingbirds in Florida rounded estimates to 134 and 200, approximately. It continually expands its repertoire during its life, though it pales in comparison to mimids such as the brown thrasher. There are four recognized calls for the mockingbird: the nest relief call, hew call, chat or chatburst, and the begging call. The hew call is mainly used by both sexes for potential nest predators, conspecific chasing, and various interactions between mates. The differences between chats and chatbursts are frequency of use, as chats are year-round, and chatbursts occur in the fall. Another difference is that chatbursts appear to be used in territorial defense in the fall, and the chats are used by either sex when disturbed. The nest relief and begging calls are only used by the males. ## Predation and threats Adult mockingbirds can fall victim to birds of prey such as the great horned owl, screech owl and sharp-shinned hawk, though their tenacious behavior makes them less likely to be captured. Scrub-jays also have killed and eaten mockingbirds. Snakes rarely capture incubating females. Fledgelings have been prey to domestic cats, red-tailed hawks, and crows. Eggs and nestlings are consumed by blue jays, fish crows and American crows, red-tailed hawks, swallow-tailed kites, snakes, squirrels, and cats. Blowfly larvae and Haemoproteus have been found in Florida and Arizona populations, respectively. Winter storms limit the expansion of mockingbirds in their range. The storms have played a role in the declining of the populations in Ohio (where it has since recovered), Michigan, Minnesota and likely in Quebec. Dry seasons also affect the mockingbird populations in Arizona. ## Intelligence In a paper published in 2009, researchers found that mockingbirds were able to recall an individual human who, earlier in the study, had approached and threatened the mockingbirds' nest. Researchers had one participant stand near a mockingbird nest and touch it, while others avoided the nest. Later, the mockingbirds recognized the intruder and exhibited defensive behavior, while ignoring the other individuals. ### Adaptation to urban habitats The northern mockingbird is a species that is found in both urban and rural habitats. There are now more northern mockingbirds living in urban habitats than non-urban environments, so they are consequently known as an urban-positive species. Biologists have long questioned how northern mockingbirds adapt to a novel environment in cities, and whether they fall into the typical ecological traps that are common for urban-dwelling birds. A comparative study between an urban dwelling population and a rural dwelling one shows that the apparent survival is higher for individuals in the urban habitats. Lower food availability and travel costs may account for the higher mortality rate in rural habitats. Urban birds are more likely to return to the nest where they had successfully bred the previous year and avoid those where breeding success was low. One explanation for this phenomenon is that urban environments are more predictable than non-urban ones, as the site fidelity among urban birds prevents them from falling into ecological traps. Mockingbirds are also able to utilize artificial lighting in order to feed nestlings in urban areas such as residential neighborhoods into the night, in contrast to those that do not nest near those areas. The adaptation of the mockingbird in urban habitats has led it to become more susceptible to lead poisoning in Baltimore and Washington, D.C. populations. ## In culture This bird features in the title and central metaphor of the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. In that novel, mockingbirds are portrayed as innocent and generous, and two of the major characters, Atticus Finch and Miss Maudie, say it is a sin to kill a mockingbird because "they don't do one thing for us but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us." The song of the northern mockingbird inspired many American folk songs of the mid-19th century, such as "Listen to the Mocking Bird". Thomas Jefferson had several pet mockingbirds, including a bird named "Dick". In the fictional Neighborhood of Make-Believe on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, one of King Friday's "pets" is a wooden northern mockingbird on a stick, which he refers to by the scientific name Mimus polyglottos. 1951: Patti Page, a popular vocalist, recorded "Mockin' Bird Hill". Sold in 10" 78 RPM format. The song reached \#2 on Billboard ranking and reflected gentle postwar values of the period. ## State bird The northern mockingbird is the state bird of Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas, and previously the state bird of South Carolina. ## See also - List of birds of Puerto Rico

Better Call Saul (season 3)

Third season of the AMC crime drama television series

The third season of the American television drama series Better Call Saul premiered on April 10, 2017, and concluded on June 19, 2017. The ten-episode season was broadcast on Monday nights in the United States on AMC. A spin-off of Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul was created by Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould, both of whom also worked on Breaking Bad. The third season immediately follows the events of the second season, which take place in late 2002. The year is 2003 by the third season's conclusion. Bob Odenkirk reprises his role as Jimmy McGill, a lawyer who is engaged in a feud with his brother Chuck (Michael McKean), an attorney who believes Jimmy is unfit to be a lawyer and plots to have him disbarred. Jonathan Banks also reprises his role as Mike Ehrmantraut, who begins a partnership with Gustavo Fring (Giancarlo Esposito), while Nacho Varga (Michael Mando) is plotting to murder their rival, Hector Salamanca (Mark Margolis). The third season of Better Call Saul received acclaim from critics, particularly for McKean's performance as Chuck, and the character development of Jimmy McGill, and eight nominations for the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Drama Series. ## Production ### Development In March 2016, AMC announced that Better Call Saul was renewed for a 10-episode third season which premiered April 10, 2017. Early in the writing stages, series co-creator and co-showrunner Vince Gilligan left the writers room to focus on new projects. This resulted in Peter Gould, who also created and developed the show, becoming the sole showrunner, a transition that had been planned since the series' beginning. ### Casting The third season of Better Call Saul features the return of several of the original cast from Breaking Bad, most notably Giancarlo Esposito (Gus Fring), who returned in the second episode "Witness". In a Q&A with AMC, Esposito expressed excitement on his return into the Breaking Bad universe, saying, > "I'm extremely excited. I'm over the moon. I love this family of filmmakers a great deal. I know Better Call Saul is a little bit of a different show than Breaking Bad was and I love the success it's had. It has such wonderful talent in the show. Bob Odenkirk is just stellar. Obviously the opportunity to tell some of the backstory of Gus and how he rose to power and how he came to be is always something I've wanted to explore in a very subtle way in the right venue." He also distinguished Better Call Saul's version of Gus from Breaking Bad's version, describing his character as "a little fresher, a little less jaded. The time period alone takes us to a time where his look may be little bit different. I wanted him to be little more hopeful, a little more energetic, maybe not as definitive in some of his actions because he's a Gus that we've never met before." All of the main cast members returned for this season. Bob Odenkirk returns as Jimmy McGill, Jonathan Banks returns as Mike Ehrmantraut, Rhea Seehorn returns as Kim Wexler, Patrick Fabian returns as Howard Hamlin, Michael Mando returns as Nacho Varga, and Michael McKean returns as Chuck McGill, Jimmy's elder brother. This was the first season of Better Call Saul to feature Giancarlo Esposito as a member of the main cast. ### Filming Better Call Saul is set and filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the same location as its predecessor. In the first scene from the first episode, Jimmy is hiding his real identity under his Gene Takavic alias while working at a Cinnabon in a shopping mall in Omaha, Nebraska. The Cinnabon scenes in Better Call Saul are set in Omaha, but filmed at the Cottonwood Mall in Albuquerque, New Mexico. ## Cast and characters ### Main - Bob Odenkirk as Jimmy McGill, a lawyer who is involved in a feud with his brother Chuck. In the present, he manages a Cinnabon store in Omaha under the alias Gene Takavic. - Jonathan Banks as Mike Ehrmantraut, a former Philadelphia police officer, who is engaged in a feud with the Salamancas after they threatened his family. - Rhea Seehorn as Kim Wexler, a lawyer and Jimmy's close friend and lover, who also co-founds a law firm with him. - Patrick Fabian as Howard Hamlin, Chuck's law partner at Hamlin, Hamlin & McGill (HHM) and Jimmy's arch rival. - Michael Mando as Nacho Varga, a member of the Salamanca drug ring, who secretly works with Mike in taking down Hector. - Giancarlo Esposito as Gus Fring, a methamphetamine distributor who uses his fast food restaurant chain Los Pollos Hermanos as a front. - Michael McKean as Chuck McGill, Jimmy's elder brother, who allegedly suffers from electromagnetic hypersensitivity, compelling him to avoid sources of electricity. ### Recurring - Mark Margolis as Hector Salamanca, Tuco's uncle and the leader of the Salamanca drug ring. - Jeremiah Bitsui as Victor, Gus's henchman, reprising his role from Breaking Bad. - Kerry Condon as Stacey Ehrmantraut, Mike's widowed daughter-in-law and the mother of Kaylee Ehrmantraut. - Tina Parker as Francesca Liddy, Saul's secretary, reprising her role from Breaking Bad. - Omar Maskati as Omar, Jimmy's assistant at Davis & Main. - Vincent Fuentes as Arturo, a criminal associate of Hector Salamanca. - Rex Linn as Kevin Wachtell, chairman of Mesa Verde Bank and Trust and a client of HHM and Kim. - Cara Pifko as Paige Novick, senior legal counsel for Mesa Verde Bank and Trust and a friend of Kim. - Ann Cusack as Rebecca Bois, Chuck's ex-wife. - Tamara Tunie as Anita, a support group member. - Manuel Uriza as Ximenez Lecerda, an associate of Hector Salamanca. - Josh Fadem as Camera Guy, a film student who helps Jimmy on various projects. - Hayley Holmes as Drama Girl, a film student who helps Jimmy on various projects. - Julian Bonfiglio as Sound Guy, a film student who helps Jimmy on various projects. - Brandon K. Hampton as Ernesto, Chuck's assistant who works at HHM. - Jean Effron as Irene, an elderly client of Jimmy McGill overcharged by Sandpiper Crossing. - Joe DeRosa as Dr. Caldera, a veterinarian who serves as Mike's liaison to the criminal underworld. - Juan Carlos Cantu as Manuel Varga, Nacho's father who is the owner of a car restoration shop. ### Guest stars - Max Arciniega as Domingo "Krazy-8" Molina, reprising his role from Breaking Bad. - Ray Campbell as Tyrus, reprising his role from Breaking Bad. - Laura Fraser as Lydia Rodarte-Quayle, reprising her role from Breaking Bad. - Lavell Crawford as Huell Babineaux, reprising his role from Breaking Bad. - Steven Bauer as Don Eladio Vuente, reprising his role from Breaking Bad. - Kimberly Hebert Gregory as Kyra Hay, a deputy district attorney. - Brendan Fehr as Bauer, a military captain. - John Getz as chairman, a lawyer and a member of the New Mexico Bar Association. - Mel Rodriguez as Marco Pasternak, Jimmy's friend from Cicero, Illinois. - Clea DuVall as Dr. Lara Cruz, Chuck's doctor. - Javier Grajeda as Juan Bolsa, a high-level member of the Juárez drug cartel that includes the Salamancas and Gus Fring, reprising his role from Breaking Bad. - Mark Proksch as Daniel "Pryce" Wormald, a seller of pharmaceuticals and small-time drug dealer. - Jessie Ennis as Erin Brill, an employee at Davis & Main. ## Episodes ## Reception ### Critical response The third season of Better Call Saul, much like the previous two, received universal acclaim, particularly for McKean's performance as Chuck, and the character development of Jimmy McGill. On Rotten Tomatoes, the third season has an approval rating of 98% based on 175 reviews, with an average rating of 8.78/10. The site's critical consensus is: "Better Call Saul shows no signs of slipping in season 3, as the introduction of more familiar faces causes the inevitable transformation of its lead to pick up exciting speed." On the review aggregator website Metacritic, the season has a score of 87 out of 100 based on 18 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Terri Schwartz of IGN rated the third season 9.1/10, praising Jimmy's character development saying: "Better Call Saul was better than it's ever been in Season 3." Verne Gay of Newsday gave it an "A+" grade and wrote, "Based on the first two episodes, Saul is making a case that it could be even better than Breaking Bad." #### Critics' top ten list ### Ratings ## Accolades ## Significance ### Chuck's arc Jimmy tries to make amends with Chuck in the season finale "Lantern", but Chuck coldly cuts ties with Jimmy, telling him that "he never really mattered all that much to him". After Chuck forces Jimmy away, his EHS symptoms begin to re-emerge, and he becomes obsessed with disabling all electronic devices in his home to the point of tearing walls open to remove the wiring. He eventually reaches a breaking point and knocks a gas lantern over, setting fire to his house. After this scene, there was much speculation as to what happened to Chuck after the fire started. Showrunner Peter Gould said, "I don't want to define anything more than what's on screen". Michael McKean, who played Chuck, told Vulture: "I got a call on my cell from Peter [Gould] [and] Vince [Gilligan]. I said, 'If this is the death call, I'm going to pull over.' And that's what I did. I pulled into the parking lot of the bookstore and I called them back and they told me what they had planned. They told me they had laughed about what I had said, but they had to deliver it". When asked if his character was dead, McKean said: "I am. I know they want to bring me in for some flashbacks this coming season, but that's kind of beside the point". As revealed in the fourth season's premiere, Howard notifies Jimmy and Kim about the fire, and they arrive at the scene just in time to see Chuck's body being taken away. ## Home media The third season was released on Blu-ray and DVD in region 1 on January 16, 2018. The set contains all 10 episodes, plus audio commentaries for every episode and several behind-the-scenes featurettes. ## International broadcast Outside the U.S. in certain international markets, season 3 was released on Netflix with episodes available the day after the episodes were broadcast on AMC. ## Related media ### Talking Saul Talking Saul is a live aftershow hosted by Chris Hardwick, which features guests discussing episodes of Better Call Saul. These episodes discussed the third-season premiere and finale episodes of Better Call Saul. ### Los Pollos Hermanos Employee Training AMC released a series of ten short videos on YouTube and their social media accounts during season three as Los Pollos Hermanos Employee Training, combining live-action shots featuring Esposito as Gus along with animated segments, presented as employee training videos for Gus's Los Pollos Hermanos restaurant workers. The series won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Short Form Comedy or Drama Series in 2017. ### No Picnic On June 19, 2017, the night of Saul's season finale, fans were able to access the three-minute short film No Picnic, which feature the Kettlemans, who were not seen since the first season. The short, directed by Saul associate producer Jenn Carroll and written by the show's writers' assistant Ariel Levine, shows the Kettleman family organizing a picnic close to family patriarch Craig, who is seen picking up roadside litter with his fellow inmates as part of his prison sentence. Fans were originally able to access No Picnic through Los Pollos Hermanos Employee Training, which directed fans to participate in a bingo trivia game on the show's digital and social platforms. The video was unlockable on June 12, 2017, but could not be viewed until a week later.

Carmarthenshire

County in Wales

Carmarthenshire (/kərˈmɑːrðənʃər, -ʃɪər/; Welsh: Sir Gaerfyrddin or informally Sir Gâr) is a county in the south-west of Wales. The three largest towns are Llanelli, Carmarthen and Ammanford. Carmarthen is the county town and administrative centre. The county is known as the "Garden of Wales" and is also home to the National Botanic Garden of Wales. Carmarthenshire has been inhabited since prehistoric times. The county town was founded by the Romans, and the region was part of the Kingdom of Deheubarth in the High Middle Ages. After invasion by the Normans in the 12th and 13th centuries it was subjugated, along with other parts of Wales, by Edward I of England. There was further unrest in the early 15th century, when the Welsh rebelled under Owain Glyndŵr, and during the English Civil War. Carmarthenshire is mainly an agricultural county, apart from the southeastern part which was once heavily industrialised with coal mining, steel-making and tin-plating. In the north of the county, the woollen industry was very important in the 18th century. The economy depends on agriculture, forestry, fishing and tourism. West Wales was identified in 2014 as the worst-performing region in the United Kingdom along with the South Wales Valleys with the decline in its industrial base, and the low profitability of the livestock sector. Carmarthenshire, as a tourist destination, offers a wide range of outdoor activities. Much of the coast is fairly flat; it includes the Millennium Coastal Park, which extends for ten miles to the west of Llanelli; the National Wetlands Centre; a championship golf course; and the harbours of Burry Port and Pembrey. The sandy beaches at Llansteffan and Pendine are further west. Carmarthenshire has a number of medieval castles, hillforts and standing stones. The Dylan Thomas Boathouse is at Laugharne. ## History Stone tools found in Coygan Cave, near Laugharne indicate the presence of hominins, probably neanderthals, at least 40,000 years ago, though, as in the rest of the British Isles, continuous habitation by modern humans is not known before the end of the Younger Dryas, around 11,500 years BP. Before the Romans arrived in Britain, the land now forming the county of Carmarthenshire was part of the kingdom of the Demetae who gave their name to the county of Dyfed; it contained one of their chief settlements, Moridunum, now known as Carmarthen. The Romans established two forts in South Wales, one at Caerwent to control the southeast of the country, and one at Carmarthen to control the southwest. The fort at Carmarthen dates from around 75 AD, and there is a Roman amphitheatre nearby, so this probably makes Carmarthen the oldest continually occupied town in Wales. Carmarthenshire has its early roots in the region formerly known as Ystrad Tywi ("Vale of [the river] Tywi") and part of the Kingdom of Deheubarth during the High Middle Ages, with the court at Dinefwr. After the Normans had subjugated England they tried to subdue Wales. Carmarthenshire was disputed between the Normans and the Welsh lords and many of the castles built around this time, first of wood and then stone, changed hands several times. Following the Conquest of Wales by Edward I, the region was reorganized by the Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284 into Carmarthenshire. Edward I made Carmarthen the capital of this new county, establishing his courts of chancery and his exchequer there, and holding the Court of Great Sessions in Wales in the town. The Normans transformed Carmarthen into an international trading port, the only staple port in Wales. Merchants imported food and French wines and exported wool, pelts, leather, lead and tin. In the late medieval period the county's fortunes varied, as good and bad harvests occurred, increased taxes were levied by England, there were episodes of plague, and recruitment for wars removed the young men. Carmarthen was particularly susceptible to plague as it was brought in by flea-infested rats on board ships from southern France. In 1405, Owain Glyndŵr captured Carmarthen Castle and several other strongholds in the neighbourhood. However, when his support dwindled, the principal men of the county returned their allegiance to King Henry V. During the English Civil War, Parliamentary forces under Colonel Roland Laugharne besieged and captured Carmarthen Castle but later abandoned the cause, and joined the Royalists. In 1648, Carmarthen Castle was recaptured by the Parliamentarians, and Oliver Cromwell ordered it to be slighted. The first industrial canal in Wales was built in 1768 to convey coal from the Gwendraeth Valley to the coast, and the following year, the earliest tramroad bridge was on the tramroad built alongside the canal. During the Napoleonic Wars (1799–1815) there was increased demand for coal, iron and agricultural goods, and the county prospered. The landscape changed as much woodland was cleared to make way for more food production, and mills, power stations, mines and factories sprang up between Llanelli and Pembrey. Carmarthenshire was at the centre of the Rebecca Riots around 1840, when local farmers and agricultural workers dressed as women and rebelled against higher taxes and tolls. On 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, Carmarthenshire joined Cardiganshire and Pembrokeshire in the new county of Dyfed; Carmarthenshire was divided into three districts: Carmarthen, Llanelli and Dinefwr. Twenty-two years later this amalgamation was reversed when, under the Local Government (Wales) Act 1994, the original county boundaries were reinstated. ## Geography The county is bounded to the north by Ceredigion, to the east by Powys (historic county Brecknockshire), Neath Port Talbot (historic county Glamorgan) and Swansea (also Glamorgan), to the south by the Bristol Channel and to the west by Pembrokeshire. Much of the county is upland and hilly. The Black Mountain range dominates the east of the county, with the lower foothills of the Cambrian Mountains to the north across the valley of the River Towy. The south coast contains many fishing villages and sandy beaches. The highest point (county top) is the minor summit of Fan Foel, height 781 metres (2,562 ft), which is a subsidiary top of the higher mountain of Fan Brycheiniog, height 802.5 metres (2,633 ft) (the higher summit, as its name suggests, is actually across the border in Brecknockshire/Powys). Carmarthenshire is the largest historic county by area in Wales. The county is drained by several important rivers which flow southwards into the Bristol Channel, especially the River Towy, and its several tributaries, such as the River Cothi. The Towy is the longest river flowing entirely within Wales. Other rivers include the Loughor (which forms the eastern boundary with Glamorgan), the River Gwendraeth and the River Taf. The River Teifi forms much of the border between Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion, and there are a number of towns in the Teifi Valley which have communities living on either side of the river and hence in different counties. Carmarthenshire has a long coastline which is deeply cut by the estuaries of the Loughor in the east and the Gwendraeth, Tywi and Taf, which enter the sea on the east side of Carmarthen Bay. The coastline includes notable beaches such as Pendine Sands and Cefn Sidan sands, and large areas of foreshore are uncovered at low tide along the Loughor and Towy estuaries. The principal towns in the county are Ammanford, Burry Port, Carmarthen, Kidwelly, Llanelli, Llandeilo, Newcastle Emlyn, Llandovery, St Clears, and Whitland. The principal industries are agriculture, forestry, fishing and tourism. Although Llanelli is by far the largest town in the county, the county town remains Carmarthen, mainly due to its central location. Carmarthenshire is predominantly an agricultural county, with only the southeastern area having any significant amount of industry. The best agricultural land is in the broad Tywi Valley, especially its lower reaches. With its fertile land and agricultural produce, Carmarthenshire is known as the "Garden of Wales". The lowest bridge over the river is at Carmarthen, and the Towi Estuary cuts the southwesterly part of the county, including Llansteffan and Laugharne, off from the more urban southeastern region. This area is also bypassed by the main communication routes into Pembrokeshire. A passenger ferry service used to connect Ferryside with Llansteffan until the early part of the twentieth century. ## Economy Agriculture and forestry are the main sources of income over most of the county of Carmarthenshire. On improved pastures, dairying is important and in the past, the presence of the railway enabled milk to be transported to the urban areas of England. The creamery at Whitland is now closed but milk processing still takes place at Newcastle Emlyn where mozzarella cheese is made. On upland pastures and marginal land, livestock rearing of cattle and sheep is the main agricultural activity. The estuaries of the Loughor and Towy provide pickings for the cockle industry. Llanelli, Ammanford and the upper parts of the Gwendraeth Valley are situated on the South Wales Coalfield. The opencast mining activities in this region have now ceased but the old mining settlements with terraced housing remain, often centred on their nonconformist chapels. Kidwelly had a tin-plating industry in the eighteenth century, with Llanelli following not long after, so that by the end of the nineteenth century, Llanelli was the world-centre of the industry. There is little trace of these industrial activities today. Llanelli and Burry Port served at one time for the export of coal, but trade declined, as it did from the ports of Kidwelly and Carmarthen as their estuaries silted up. Country towns in the more agricultural part of the county still hold regular markets where livestock is traded. In the north of the county, in and around the Teifi Valley, there was a thriving woollen industry in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Here water-power provided the energy to drive the looms and other machinery at the mills. The village of Dre-fach Felindre at one time contained twenty-four mills and was known as the "Huddersfield of Wales". The demand for woollen cloth declined in the twentieth century and so did the industry. In 2014, West Wales was identified as the worst-performing region in the United Kingdom along with the South Wales Valleys. The gross value added economic indicator showed a figure of £14,763 per head in these regions, as compared with a GVA of £22,986 for Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan. The Welsh Assembly Government is aware of this, and helped by government initiatives and local actions, opportunities for farmers to diversify have emerged. These include farm tourism, rural crafts, specialist food shops, farmers' markets and added-value food products. In 2015, in an attempt to boost the local economy, Carmarthenshire County Council produced a fifteen-year plan that highlighted six projects which it hoped would create five thousand new jobs. The sectors involved would be in the "creative industries, tourism, agri-food, advanced manufacturing, energy and environment, and financial and professional services". ## Local government Carmarthenshire became an administrative county with a county council taking over functions from the Quarter Sessions under the Local Government Act 1888. Under the Local Government Act 1972, the administrative county of Carmarthenshire was abolished on 1 April 1974 and the area of Carmarthenshire became three districts within the new county of Dyfed : Carmarthen, Dinefwr and Llanelli. Under the Local Government (Wales) Act 1994, Dyfed was abolished on 1 April 1996 and Carmarthenshire was re-established as a county. The three districts united to form a unitary authority which had the same boundaries as the traditional county of Carmarthenshire. In 2003, the Clynderwen community council area was transferred to the administrative county of Pembrokeshire. ## Demography and the Welsh language Prior to the Industrial Revolution, Carmarthen and Wrexham were the two most populous towns in Wales. In 1931, the county's population was 171,445 and in 1951, 164,800. At the census in 2011, Carmarthenshire had a population of 183,777. Population levels have thus dipped and then increased again over the course of eighty years. The population density in Carmarthenshire is 0.8 persons per hectare compared to 1.5 per hectare in Wales as a whole. Carmarthenshire was the most populous of the five historic counties of Wales to remain majority Welsh-speaking throughout the 20th century. According to the 1911 Census, 84.9 per cent of the county's population were Welsh-speaking (compared with 43.5 per cent in all of Wales), with 20.5 per cent of Carmarthenshire's overall population being monolingual Welsh-speakers. In 1931, 82.3 per cent could speak Welsh and in 1951, 75.2 per cent. By the 2001 census, 50.3 per cent of people living in Carmarthenshire could speak Welsh, with 39 per cent being able to read and write the language as well. The 2011 census showed a further decline, with 43.9 per cent speaking Welsh, making it a minority language in the county for the first time. However, the 2011 census also showed that 3,000 more people could understand spoken Welsh than in 2001 and that 60% of 5-14-year-olds could speak Welsh (a 5% increase since 2001). A decade later, the 2021 census, showed further decrease, to 39.9% Welsh speakers -- the largest percentage drop in all of Wales. ## Landmarks With its strategic location and history, the county is rich in archaeological remains such as forts, earthworks and standing stones. Carn Goch is one of the most impressive Iron Age forts and stands on a hilltop near Llandeilo. The Bronze Age is represented by chambered cairns and standing stones on Mynydd Llangyndeyrn, near Llangyndeyrn. Castles that can be easily accessed include Carreg Cennen, Dinefwr, Kidwelly, Laugharne, Llansteffan and Newcastle Emlyn Castle. There are the ruinous remains of Talley Abbey, and the coastal village of Laugharne is for ever associated with Dylan Thomas. Stately homes in the county include Aberglasney House and Gardens, Golden Grove and Newton House. There are plenty of opportunities in the county for hiking, observing wildlife and admiring the scenery. These include Brechfa Forest, the Pembrey Country Park, the Millennium Coastal Park at Llanelli, the WWT Llanelli Wetlands Centre and the Carmel National Nature Reserve. There are large stretches of golden sands and the Wales Coast Path now provides a continuous walking route around the whole of Wales. The National Botanic Garden of Wales displays plants from Wales and from all around the world, and the Carmarthenshire County Museum, the National Wool Museum, the Parc Howard Museum, the Pendine Museum of Speed and the West Wales Museum of Childhood all provide opportunities to delve into the past. Dylan Thomas Boathouse where the author wrote many of his works can be visited, as can the Roman-worked Dolaucothi Gold Mines. ## Sports and leisure Activities available in the county include rambling, cycling, fishing, kayaking, canoeing, sailing, horse riding, caving, abseiling and coasteering. Carmarthen Town A.F.C. plays in the Cymru Premier. They won the Welsh Football League Cup in the 1995–96 season, and since then have won the Welsh Cup once and the Welsh League Cup twice. Llanelli Town A.F.C. play in the Welsh Football League Division Two. The club won the Welsh premier league and Loosemores challenge cup in 2008 and won the Welsh Cup in 2011, but after experiencing financial difficulties, were wound up and reformed under the present title in 2013. Scarlets is the regional professional rugby union team that plays in the Pro14, they play their home matches at their ground, Parc y Scarlets. Honours include winning the 2003/04 and 2016/17 Pro12. Llanelli RFC is a semi-professional rugby union team that play in the Welsh Premier Division, also playing home matches at Parc y Scarlets. Among many honours, they have been WRU Challenge Cup winners on fourteen occasions and frequently taken part in the Heineken Cup. West Wales Raiders, based in Llanelli, represent the county in Rugby league. Some sporting venues utilise disused industrial sites. Ffos Las racecourse was built on the site of an open cast coal mine after mining operations ceased. Opened in 2009, it was the first racecourse built in the United Kingdom for eighty years and has regular race-days. Machynys is a championship golf course opened in 2005 and built as part of the Llanelli Waterside regeneration plan. Pembrey Circuit is a motor racing circuit near Pembrey village, considered the home of Welsh motorsport, providing racing for cars, motorcycles, karts and trucks. It was opened in 1989 on a former airfield, is popular for testing and has hosted many events including the British Touring Car Championship twice. The 2018 Tour of Britain cycling race started at Pembrey on 2 September 2018. ## Transport ### Rail Carmarthenshire is served by the main line railway service operated by Transport for Wales Rail which links London Paddington, Cardiff Central and Swansea to southwest Wales. The main hub is Carmarthen railway station where some services from the east terminate. The line continues westwards with several branches which serve Pembroke Dock, Milford Haven and Fishguard Harbour (for the ferry to Rosslare Europort and connecting trains to Dublin Connolly). The Heart of Wales Line takes a scenic route through mid-Wales and links Llanelli with Craven Arms, from where passengers can travel on the Welsh Marches Line to Shrewsbury. Two heritage railways, the Gwili Railway and the Teifi Valley Railway, use the track of the Carmarthen and Cardigan Railway that at one time ran from Carmarthen to Newcastle Emlyn, but did not reach Cardigan. ### Road The A40, A48, A484 and A485 converge on Carmarthen. The M4 route that links South Wales with London, terminates at junction 49, the Pont Abraham services, to continue northwest as the dual carriageway A48, and to finish with its junction with the A40 in Carmarthen. Llanelli is linked to M4 junction 48 by the A4138. The A40 links Carmarthen to Llandeilo, Llandovery and Brecon to the east, and with St Clears, Whitland and Haverfordwest to the west. The A484 links Llanelli with Carmarthen by a coastal route and continues northwards to Cardigan, and via the A486 and A487 to Aberystwyth, and the A485 links Carmarthen to Lampeter. ### Bus Bus services run between the main towns within the county and are operated by First Cymru under their "Western Welsh" or "Cymru Clipper" livery. Bus services from Carmarthenshire are also run to Cardiff. A bus service known as "fflecsi Bwcabus" (formerly just "Bwcabus") operates in the north of the county, offering customised transport to rural dwellers. ## Cuisine Carmarthenshire has rich, fertile farmland and a productive coast with estuaries providing a range of foods that motivate many home cooks and chefs. ## See also - List of Lord Lieutenants of Carmarthenshire - Custos Rotulorum of Carmarthenshire - List of High Sheriffs of Carmarthenshire - Carmarthenshire (UK Parliament constituency) for a list of MPs - List of places in Carmarthenshire for an alphabetical list of towns and villages. - Scheduled Monuments in Carmarthenshire - List of schools in Carmarthenshire - People from Carmarthenshire for a list of notable people from the county.

A Collection: Greatest Hits...and More

A Collection: Greatest Hits...and More is the third greatest hits album recorded by American vocalist Barbra Streisand. It was released on October 3, 1989 by Columbia Records. The compilation features ten songs from Streisand's career, dating from 1975 to 1988, plus two previously unreleased songs: "We're Not Makin' Love Anymore" was released as the album's lead single on September 14, 1989, and "Someone That I Used to Love" was distributed as the second and final one in 1989. Both singles charted on several record charts internationally. The compilation was executively produced by Streisand, Charles Koppelman, and Peter Matz. A Collection: Greatest Hits...and More was criticized by critics for being yet another greatest hits album from Streisand. Commercially, it reached number 26 on the Billboard 200 in the United States and topped the charts in both Norway and Sweden. It would later be certified for significant sales in eight countries, including in the United States where 2,000,000 copies were shipped. ## Development and songs In 1989, Barbra Streisand began devoting most of her time towards directing the 1991 film adaptation of Pat Conroy's 1986 novel The Prince of Tides. Due to her tight schedule and limited availability, Columbia Records approached Streisand on releasing another greatest hits album, since she had been in a similar situation during the distribution of her prior compilation release, Memories (1981). A Collection: Greatest Hits...and More was released as a compact disc (CD) in the United States on October 3, 1989 by Columbia Records. The compilation was executively produced by Streisand, Charles Koppelman, and Peter Matz. It was reissued in select European territories in 1997 by Columbia's worldwide label, CBS Records International. A Collection: Greatest Hits...and More contains various songs from Streisand's catalog as far back as 1975's "By the Way", which was noted as Streisand's first songwriting credit in her entire career. Additionally, it contains the title track from The Main Event (1979) and three tracks from 1980's Guilty ("Woman in Love", "What Kind of Fool", and "Guilty"). From Memories, "Comin' In and Out of Your Life" and "Memory" were included and so were "The Way He Makes Me Feel" (1983), "Somewhere" (1985), and "All I Ask of You" (1988). In addition to the ten aforementioned songs, Streisand recorded two new tracks for the album: "We're Not Makin' Love Anymore" and "Someone That I Used to Love". "We're Not Makin' Love Anymore" was written by Michael Bolton and Diane Warren and produced by Narada Michael Walden. It was released as a single on September 14, 1989 in four formats: 7", 12", cassette, and CD. The single peaked at number ten on Adult Contemporary chart in the United States and at number 17 on the similar chart in Canada. It also charted in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom at positions 89 and 85, respectively. An official music video was created for the single and debuted live on Entertainment Tonight on September 14; it serves as the third music video from her entire career. "Someone That I Used to Love" was distributed as the album's second and final single in late 1989. Like its predecessor, it entered several international record charts. On the United States' Adult Contemporary chart, it peaked at number 25 and in the Netherlands, it reached number 86. ## Critical reception Music critics noted the recycling of older tracks on the compilation album. William Ruhlmann from AllMusic considered A Collection: Greatest Hits...and More to be "an odd compilation" and found it to make "no apparent sense". He claimed that its appeal was likely aimed at Streisand's fan base due to the upcoming holiday season: "many Streisand fans must have received it as a present for Christmas in 1989, which was probably the idea". Allison J. Waldman, author of The Barbra Streisand Scrapbook, described the album as "uninspired" and considered that to be the main reason for its lackluster commercial success. ## Commercial performance The compilation album debuted on the Billboard 200 at number 80 on October 21, 1989; it was the week's third highest debut following Tracy Chapman's Crossroads and Linda Ronstadt's Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind. On November 18 it peaked at number 26 on the chart; it spent a total of 25 weeks on the Billboard 200. For shipments of 500,000 copies, the collection was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America on November 29, 1989. It would later be certified 2× platinum on September 27, 1994. On Canada's chart, compiled by RPM, it debuted at number 65 on the week ending November 11, 1989. It eventually peaked at number 59 and was certified 2× platinum for shipments 200,000 units. At first, A Collection: Greatest Hits...and More only charted in select European territories due to its limited release; in the Netherlands, it peaked at number 10 and in the United Kingdom it peaked at number 22. In the Oceanic regions, it peaked at numbers 22 and 40 in Australia and New Zealand, respectively. When the album was reissued in 1997 in several European countries, it charted on the album charts in Belgium, Norway, and Sweden. It reached the number one spot on the charts in the two latter countries, topping the charts for three consecutive weeks in Norway and four consecutive weeks in Sweden. On the Wallonia version of the Ultratop chart in Belgium, it peaked at number 49. Following the release of Streisand's album Guilty Pleasures in 2005, A Collection: Greatest Hits...and More was ranked at number 83 on the PROMUSICAE chart in Spain. Despite not charting in either Finland or France, the album received platinum certifications in both territories. ## Track listing ## Personnel Credits adapted from the liner notes of the standard edition of A Collection: Greatest Hits...and More. - Barbra Streisand – lead vocalist, executive producer - John Arrias – supervisor - Nancy Donald – art direction - Bob Esty – producer (track 6) - David Foster – producer (track 12) - Albhy Galuten – producer (tracks 2, 5, 9) - Barry Gibb – producer (tracks 2, 5, 9) - Bernie Grundman – mastering - Dave Grusin – producer (track 11) - Rupert Holmes – producer (track 8) - Jay Landers – A&R for Columbia Records - Jeffrey Lesser – producer (track 8) - Michael Masser – producer (track 7) - Sheila Metzner – photography - Phil Ramone – producer (tracks 3, 11) - Karl Richardson – producer (tracks 2, 5, 9) - Kim Skalecki – production coordinator - Narada Michael Walden – producer (track 1) - Andrew Lloyd Webber – producer (tracks 4, 10) ## Charts ## Certifications and sales ## See also - List of number-one albums in Norway - List of number-one singles and albums in Sweden

Carancahua Bay

American bay

Carancahua Bay is a northern extension of Matagorda Bay located in Jackson and Matagorda counties in Texas, United States. It is oriented from the southeast to the northwest but meanders as it reaches the north to the confluence with Carancahua Creek. Generally slender, it is only about 1 mile (1.6 km) in width north of its circular mouth. The bay serves as a nursery for shrimp and as an ecosystem for diverse species of birds and fish. Shrimp farms have been established inland to circumvent restrictions on the bay. The area close to shore is prone to flooding, and can sometimes accumulate large populations of mosquitos. As a consequence, no major settlements have been founded on the bay. However, the small communities of Port Alto and Carancahua have been established on the western and eastern shores, respectively. ## History The name Carancahua derives from the term that formerly referred to the Karankawa Indians, who resided on its shores. Texas' Spanish Royal Governor, Martín de Alarcón was the first documented European to tour the bay while exploring Matagorda Bay with Tejas guides in 1718. During the expedition, two Karankawa Indians were spotted near the bay going about their daily lives and were frightened at the sight of Alarcón and his men. They quickly swam across the bay despite the guides' signal to them that Alarcón meant no harm. The next day, the Indians came ashore from a sixteen-passenger canoe (which could hold 4 men, 4 women and 8 children) and notified the Tejas guide that they wished for Alarcón and his men to leave. As a peace offering, Alarcón presented the Indians with tobacco and clothing on behalf of the Spanish crown, which they accepted. In exchange, the Indians offered Alarcón dried fish, and directed him toward the former French fort of St. Louis, believing Alarcón wanted to establish a colony on the bay. Alarcón declared the bay for Spain, but did not establish a permanent settlement. Only a handful of settlements have been established on the bay. The town of Carancahua first formed as a small collection of cabins that were used in the 1880s as a stop for mail between Texana and Matagorda. However, the bay's propensity for flooding and malaria prevented growth. In fact, the bay was notorious for its swarms of mosquitos that would fly from the Colorado River delta, and documented by a late 19th-century rancher: > A fairly strong easterly wind had been blowing for three days; on the evening of the third day, the mosquitos arrived, flying high, about fifty feet, and looking like a cloud of mist over Carancahua Bay. At the ranch, they set everything on fire that had blood in it, and all work was suspended by unanimous consent...little or nothing was done for nearly five days; by this time the main body had passed, though plenty remained to make everything uncomfortable for about two weeks. This migration was from east to west and the line was about three miles wide. Approximately 50 people lived at Carancahua in 1915, but the population dwindled to 25 in the next decade. The town remains a community, but the current population is unknown. Across the bay, a settlement of about ten permanent residents, initially known as Persimmon Point, was renamed Port Alto in 1939. The town grew, attracting retirees and vacationers who contributed to a peak summer population of 205 in 1961. Hurricane Carla destroyed the town in September 1961, but it was rebuilt five years later. In 1970, a beachfront was constructed along the shoreline as the listed population reached 170 people. The 2000 census reported that 45 people lived in the town. The original Schicke Point was home to a small ranching and farm operation. The name derives from an original resident of the point (Clarence Schicke) who came from Illinois as a game hunter and fisherman for local restaurants. After Hurricane Carla destroyed the ranch home and operations, C. Schicke turned to commercial fishing and building small cabins in the area. Schicke Point is located near the mouth of Carancahua Bay at Carancahua Pass and is a location attractive to sports fishermen. The village has approximately 90 residents, including legendary anglers Roy Cross (1924-2009), Otto Mendel (1913-2008), and fishing spoon expert Robert Cross. Cape Carancahua is a gated residential community, located on the bay's northern shore. ## Features The bay has two extensions near its mouth with Matagorda Bay at Carancahua Pass, including Redfish Lake to the southwest and Salt Lake, just above the former. On the bay's eastern shore, the mouth is headed by Schicke Point, which curves north to the Schicke Point Community, where several private piers are located. About one mile (1.6 km) inland from the community's shoreline are the Piper Lakes. North from the Schicke Point community, the El Campo Club community is found, with several residences on a straight line along the coast with docks stretched into the water. Further north, the bay takes a sharp turn to the west past a swampy area then heads north and becomes more slender as it passes from Calhoun into Jackson County. The shoreline continues north and passes several oil wells to the town of Carancahua, where a few piers are scattered along the shore. Just north of the town, a small inlet is formed, at the base of which, the Fivemile Draw is found, surrounded by swamps. To the north, several docks line the shore and continue until the bay winds to the west to a large swamp. Past the swamp, the width of the bay shrinks and continues southward along the shore of the Cape Carancahua community, surrounded by water on three sides. Past the cape, the bay turns to the north and is crossed by Texas State Highway 35. It then heads west and north again, while gradually becoming narrower until it reaches the marsh at the mouth of Carancahua Creek. The East and West Carancahua Creeks, which merge before their confluence, feed the bay. West Carancahua Creek runs 28 miles (45 km) south from its source near White Hall to meet with East Carancahua Creek, which runs southwest for 32 miles (51 km) from its source in southern Wharton County. Both streams are intermittent in their upper reaches. The western shore mimics the shape of the east. As it moves south of the Carancahua Creek mouth, Weedhaven is formed, south of which, the shore counters Cape Carancahua and heads northeast past several oil wells to a sharp point. The shoreline continues directly south until it reaches a large swamp. Past the swamp is the town of Port Alto, where several docks and piers are located. ## Ecosystem Carancahua Bay is protected by the State of Texas and locally by the 300-member Carancahua Bay Protection Association. It is a nursery bay for shrimp, and is a habitat for shellfish including oysters. Finfish such as the redfish and black drum are commonly caught from the bay by recreational fishermen. Birds common to the bay include the wood ibis, roseate spoonbill, snowy egret, great-tailed grackle, Louisiana heron, willet, black-necked stilt, crested caracara and the black vulture. During a 2004 assessment of Texas waterways, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality found higher than normal levels of bacteria at the mouth of Carancahua Creek and alkaline pH levels, symptomatic of algal bloom. The issues discovered by the Commission were common in the water bodies examined for the study, and they noted that such issues would be addressed. ## Industry The bay is off limits to shrimping due to its legal status as a nursery, however shrimp farms have been established and approved along its shores. The harvest of shellfish, particularly oysters, is heavily regulated, but allowed at certain times and places. Whereas the main Matagorda Bay is an approved area for shellfish production, Carancahua Bay is divided between restricted and conditionally approved areas. The Texas Department of State Health Services described the areas conditionally approved as being from the mouth of the bay to a "beige house" on the eastern shore and cutoff across to a "grey barn" on the western shore, save for a small sliver of water that includes most of the shoreline of Port Alto, which is restricted. All areas north of the diagonal line are restricted as well. Several oil and natural gas wells are scattered throughout the shoreline and a few are included in the waters of Carancahua Bay. The most notable include the wells of the Appling Field segment, a mile offshore from Port Alto, which is believed to contain 33 billion cubic feet (0.93 billion cubic meters) of natural gas. The field was first discovered in the 1950s, but later abandoned. Brigham Exploration is working with Royale Energy to develop ten reserves in the area, spotted during a seismic survey.

Mangrove whipray

Species of cartilaginous fish

The mangrove whipray (Urogymnus granulatus) or whitetail stingray, is a species of stingray in the family Dasyatidae. It is widely distributed in the Indo-Pacific region from the Red Sea to northern Australia and Micronesia. A benthic inhabitant of shallow inshore waters, juvenile mangrove whiprays favor mangrove and estuarine habitats, while adults favor sandy to rocky areas in lagoons and coral reefs. This species can be identified by its thick, oval pectoral fin disc that is dark gray above with numerous white flecks, and by its relatively short, whip-like tail that is white past the stinging spine. It grows up to 1.4 m (4.6 ft) across. Solitary in nature, the mangrove whipray preys mainly on small, bottom-dwelling bony fishes and invertebrates. It is, like other stingrays, aplacental viviparous, with the females nourishing their unborn young via histotroph ("uterine milk"). The mangrove whipray is caught for its meat, skin, and cartilage across much of its range. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed it as Vulnerable globally and as Endangered in Southeast Asia, where its population has declined substantially due to intensive artisanal and commercial fisheries as well as widespread habitat degradation. In particular, juvenile rays have been disproportionately targeted by fishers and affected by the large-scale destruction of mangrove forests. ## Taxonomy Australian zoologist William John Macleay published the first scientific account of the mangrove whipray, a brief description of an immature female 86 cm (34 in) long caught off Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, in an 1883 volume of Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales. He named it Trygon granulata, as he noted that the specimen's head and back were "covered with small granules". In 1928, Gilbert Percy Whitley moved this species to the genus Himantura. It is, however, now considered to be in the genus Urogymnus. ## Description The pectoral fin disc of the mangrove whipray is very thick and oval in shape, measuring 0.9–1.0 times as wide as long. The anterior margins of the disc are nearly straight and converge at a broad angle on the snout tip. The medium-sized, widely spaced eyes are immediately followed by the spiracles. Between the long, thin nostrils is a short, broad curtain of skin with a finely fringed posterior margin. The lower jaw is bow-shaped, and there are 0–5 papillae across the floor of the mouth. The teeth are arranged in a quincunx pattern and number 40–50 rows in the upper jaw and 38–50 rows in the lower jaw. There are five pairs of gill slits beneath the disc. The pelvic fins are small and narrow. The tail is thick at the base and measures 1.5–2 times longer than the disc width. One or two dorsally positioned serrated stinging spines are located in the first third of the tail. Past the sting, the tail becomes thin and whip-like, without fin folds. The upper surface of the body and tail are roughened by tiny dermal denticles, which become larger towards the midline of the back and tail. In addition, one or two irregular rows of thorns are present along the dorsal midline from the head to the sting. The mangrove whipray is dark brown to gray above with many white dots and flecks, which become denser with increasing size. The dark coloration is due to a layer of mucus, without which the body is light orange-gray. The underside is white with small dark spots towards the disc margin. The tail abruptly becomes white past the sting. This species grows to 1.4 m (4.6 ft) across and over 3.5 m (11 ft) long. ## Distribution and habitat Although uncommon, the mangrove whipray seems to be widely distributed in the Indo-Pacific; it has been reported from the Red Sea, South Asia including the Maldives and the Andaman Islands, the Gulf of Thailand, the Malay Archipelago (except Sumatra), New Guinea and northern Australia, and various islands including Guam, Fiji, the Solomon Islands, and Micronesia. This bottom-dwelling species typically inhabits shallow water close to shore, though adults have also been recorded offshore to at least a depth of 85 m (279 ft). Juvenile rays frequent brackish habitats such as mangroves and estuaries. By contrast, adults prefer areas of sand, sand and rock rubble, or hard bottom, and are often found in lagoons or on coral reefs. ## Biology and ecology Unlike many of its relatives, the mangrove whipray is reportedly solitary in nature. It is relatively inactive during the day, often resting half-buried in sand or atop coral heads, and actively forages for food at night. The electroreceptive ampullae of Lorenzini of this species have a sensitivity of 4 nV/cm and an effective range of 25 cm (10 in), enabling it to locate buried prey. Juveniles feed mainly on small crustaceans, including prawns and crabs. Adults prey on small benthic bony fishes, including rabbitfishes, gobies, blennies, wrasses, and damselfishes, as well as invertebrates, including peanut worms, crabs, octopuses, and bivalves. As in all stingrays, the mangrove whipray is aplacental viviparous, with the developing embryos being sustained by nutrient-rich histotroph ("uterine milk") produced by the mother. The newborns measure 14–28 cm (5.5–11.0 in) across, and males reach sexual maturity at 55–65 cm (22–26 in) across. Known parasites of this species include the tapeworm Rhinebothrium himanturi, and another undescribed species in the same genus. ## Human interactions The mangrove whipray is capable of injuring a human with its venomous sting. It is occasionally caught in tangle nets and bottom trawls, and to a lesser extent on longlines; it is marketed for its meat, skin, and cartilage. Because of its inshore habitat preferences, this naturally uncommon species is highly susceptible to intensive artisanal and commercial fishing occurring across much of its range. In Southeast Asia, immature rays have been particularly affected by local fishing, as well as by habitat degradation from the widespread loss of mangrove forests. Additionally, the numbers of this species in the Arafura Sea have dropped significantly due to an Indonesian gillnet fishery targeting wedgefishes (Rhynchobatus), which involves over 600 vessels and has been increasingly operating illegally in Australian waters. These factors have led to an inferred decline of the Southeast Asian population by over 50%, leading the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to give it a regional assessment of Endangered. The mangrove whipray is minimally threatened off northern Australia, where it is caught incidentally by the Northern Prawn Fishery (NPF) but only in small numbers following the mandatory adoption of Turtle Exclusion Devices (TEDs). As a result, the IUCN assessment for the Australian population is Least Concern. Globally, the IUCN has listed this species as Vulnerable.

Bush coconut

Edible gall made by a genus of insects

The bush coconut, or bloodwood apple, is an Australian bush tucker food. It is an insect gall with both plant and animal components: an adult female scale insect and her offspring (of genus Cystococcus) live in a gall induced on a bloodwood eucalypt tree (Corymbia). Bush coconuts can vary from golf ball to tennis ball size. They have a hard and lumpy outer layer. The inner layer is a white flesh that contains the female insect and her offspring. There are three known species of Cystococcus responsible for forming the bush coconut: Cystococcus pomiformis, Cystococcus echiniformis and Cystococcus campanidorsalis. C. pomiformis is the most common species. The bush coconut is found in Western Australia, the Northern Territory, Queensland and New South Wales. The bush coconut is picked from the host tree and cracked open to allow the flesh and scale insects to be eaten. Both have a high protein content and are used as a food source by humans and other animals. The name ‘bush coconut’ is derived from the white flesh of the inner layer, which is similar in appearance to that of a coconut, and the taste of the flesh has been said to have a coconut flavour. The bush coconut has been depicted in Indigenous Australian dreaming and used as inspiration in their artwork. ## Discovery The bush coconut was not mentioned in early documents about Aboriginal insect foods and is considered one of the lesser known bush tucker foods eaten by Aboriginals. The bush coconut was first described by Walter Wilson Froggatt in 1893 as Brachyscelis pomiformis. Froggatt collected material from north-western Australia and listed two locations in his original description of the species: Torrens Creek, North Queensland and Barrier Ranges, North Western Australia. Froggatt noted Aborigines ate both the insect and soft flesh of the young gall. The species identified by Froggatt has been revised several times from Brachyscelis pomiformis to Apiomorpha pomiformis, Ascelis pomiformis and finally to Cystococcus pomiformis. Australian entomologist Claude Fuller briefly described another species of insect inducing the bush coconut, Cystococcus echiniformis, in 1897. Fuller provided a more detailed description along with line drawings of the adult female and its gall in 1899. Some scientists considered C. pomiformis and C. echiniformis to be of the genus Ascelis. This was, however, rejected in 1986 by P. J. Gullan and A. F. Cockburn who found that Ascelis and Cystococcus are closely related but distinct genera. They identified what they suspected as a third species in a paper published in 1986. This species was then named and formally described as C. campanidorsalis in 2015 by Semple et al. Bush coconuts are found on many different species of bloodwood eucalypts (Corymbia) across Australia. ## Description The bush coconut is an insect gall. It is a combination of plant and animal: an adult female scale insect lives in a gall induced on a Corymbia, the bloodwood eucalypt. ### Scale insect The insect inducing the gall is a coccid in the genus Cystococcus. Three species have been identified: C. pomiformis and C. campanidorsalis and C. echiniformis. The most common species is C. pomiformis. The live coccid is a yellow-green colour. #### Female The female Cystococcus has no legs, wings or antennae and has been described as ‘grub-like’. Females grow up to 4 cm long. The body is elliptical to sub-spherical in shape and yellow-green in colour. The female scale insect lives within the fleshy interior of the gall. The female's anus is non-functional. Females are generally soft-bodied although sclerotisation produces a hard dorsal 'button' and ventral pore plates. The button is used to plug the gall entrance and it is also the site where mating occurs. The shape of the button distinguishes the species of Cystococcus. This allows the female to be identified without opening the gall. C. pomiformis has a convex-shaped button that varies from broad and dome-shaped to pointy and conical, C. campanidorsalis has a bell-shaped button and C. echiniformis has a concave-shaped button. Another distinguishing feature of the female scale insects is the pattern of their ventral pore-plates. Pore plates are an olfactory (smell) sense organ found in insects. In Cystoccocus, each pore plate of the adult female is composed of pores that are clustered together and surrounded by a sclerotised cuticle to form the plate. The pore plates function to produce a white, powdery wax when the insect is living. The function of this wax is unknown. C. echiniformis has unpatterned clustering of pore plates. The pore plates on C. campanidorsalis are clearly separated by transverse bands. C. pomiformis have pore plates that cluster around the vulva and are not clearly separated into transverse bands of sclerotisation. The names of the three species of scale insect inducing bush coconuts reflect observable features. The name campanidorsalis comes from the bell-shaped button, with campana meaning bell in Latin, and that it is located dorsal rather than caudal. Pomiformis means ‘apple-like’ in Latin and refers to the shape and size of the gall C. pomiformis induces. Echiniformis is a Latin word meaning shaped like a hedgehog and may refer to the knobbled shape and uneven texture of the gall induced by C. echiniformis. #### Male It is difficult to distinguish different species of adult males within the genus Cystococcus. Adult male bodies are up to 9.5 mm long and they have an elongated abdomen which is likely an adaptation to enable mating through the gall entrance. Males have purple wings that allow the transport of the immature female offspring out of the gall. Each gall holds between 1700 and 4600 males. ### Gall The bush coconut gall is an abnormal growth of plant tissue that occurs on the leaves, twigs or branches of the host tree. Bush coconut galls have an uneven surface and variable shape but they are generally spherical and have the appearance of a small fruit. The size of the galls varies within and between species, generally ranging from that of a golf ball to a tennis ball. The gall produced by C. pomiformis has the largest average size. The bush coconut gall has a hard outer layer and a soft, fleshy inside layer that lines the cavity housing the adult female scale insect. The outer layer has surface texture ranging from smooth to lumpy and knobbled. The inner layer is a milky white flesh up to 1 cm in depth. The white flesh and cross-sectional appearance contribute to the name 'bush coconut' because they are similar in appearance to a coconut. The white flesh is also said to have a coconut-like taste. In mature galls, the female insect is attached to the inner wall at a thin attachment point with a small hole to the exterior. The female insect and her offspring feed off the fleshy layer. The appearance of the galls differs slightly between species. C. campanidorsalis induce galls of diameter 18–28 mm and the gall surface usually has a loose, flaky outer layer that has colour ranging from light to dark brown. C. echiniformis induces galls with diameter of 16–49 mm. The surface texture varies from smooth to rough and the colour is generally cream-brown but changes to grey or black as the female insect ages and dies. C. pomiformis usually induce galls that have an uneven and lumpy surface with diameter 13–90 mm. The gall surface is usually pale and creamy-brown in colour when the insect is alive, but darkens and the surface becomes knobbled when the insect dies. The most common host plant is the desert bloodwood, Co. terminalis, giving the bush coconut the alternative name of ‘bloodwood apple’. The bush coconut gall has two leaf-life projections which may function to camouflage it from animals, including cockatoos and parrots, who may feed on the scale insect. Bush coconuts are usually found in clusters on small, young branches of the host tree. The lifespan of the bush coconut is 18 to 26 weeks. ## Ecology The formation of the bush coconut gall is the result of a symbiotic relationship between the host and the female scale insect. The inside flesh of the bush coconut provides protection for the female scale insect, as well as nourishment for her and her offspring. Reproduction occurs when a male coccid inserts its abdomen through a small hole in the gall to mate with the female. Reproduction involves a process known as sexual dichronism, in which the adult female controls the sex allocation of her offspring in order to produce males and females at different times. The adult female gives birth to the male offspring first. The males feed on the flesh of the bush coconut and develop into winged adults. Once the males have almost matured within the gall, female offspring are produced. When the mother dies, the immature wingless female offspring are transported out of the maternal gall on their male brothers' elongated abdomens and deposited onto a host tree to start the cycle again. The males then fly off to find mates. ## Distribution and habitat The bush coconut is commonly found in the savannah woodlands and dry sclerophyll forests of northern and central Australia, but populations have been found in Queensland, Western Australia and New South Wales. Bush coconuts are also found in the popular tourist destination, Alice Springs Desert Park in the Northern Territory. C. pomiformis has been found in north Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland. Host trees include Co. cliftoniana, Co. collina, Co. deserticola, Co. dichromophloia, Co. drysdalensis, Co. erythrophloia, Co. hamersleyana, Co. intermedia and Co. terminalis. C. echiniformis is found in north Western Australia, the Northern Territory, west Queensland and far-north-west New South Wales. Host trees include Co. chippendalei, Co. clarksoniana, Co. foelscheana, Co. greeniana, Co. lenziana, Co. polycarpa, Co. ptychocarpa and Co. terminalis. C. campanidorsalis was first found in central Brisbane in 2015. The only known host tree is Co. trachyphloia. ## Cultivation and use Bush coconuts are often collected during the cold season, usually in April or May, while they still contain the living insect. They are picked from the host tree and then cracked open with a rock or other hard object. The gall may be softened by placing it on hot ashes. The flesh lining of the gall is scraped out and the insect and flesh are consumed. The bush coconut is a food source for Indigenous Australians and also for birds and other insects. The insect has a sweet, juicy taste and high water content. The water inside the insect is known as the bush coconut juice. The galls provide shelter for arthropods including tree crickets, ants and spiders. ## Nutrition Bush coconuts provide a good source of protein to the diet. A research study of the nutrition of the bush coconut from Cystococcus pomiformis living in a gall on the Corymbia opaca found both male and female insects have high protein content and high gross energy. The range of gross energy was 15.12 to 25.13 MJ/kg for females and 22.56 to 26.87 MJ/kg for males. The lining of the gall, in comparison, has lower gross energy with a range of 14.15 to 16.67 MJ/kg. ## Cultural significance The bush coconut is known to the Arrernte of Central Australia, the Gija of Western Australia, and the Warumungu and Warlpiri of Northern Territory, each with their own names for the food source. ## See also - Mulga apple - Another gall used as bush tucker.

Wet Hot Demonic Summer

"Wet Hot Demonic Summer" is the second season premiere of the American animated television series Ugly Americans, and the fifteenth overall episode of the series. It originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on June 30, 2011. In the episode, Leonard Powers is about to retire as the Wizard of Social Services and give the job to his apprentice, Lionel, whom he abandoned fifty years prior. Meanwhile, Twayne Boneraper and Callie Maggotbone must infiltrate the compound where the wizards hold the initiation ritual, but their complicated strategy involves building a summer camp with Mark Lilly as the head counselor. The episode was written by Daniel Powell and directed by Aaron Augenblick. Powell was inspired to write the episode after reading a critic's review of the series; the critic referred to Leonard as having "omnipotence", which spurred an idea involving the character having to take responsibility. "Wet Hot Demonic Summer" parodies the Harry Potter series, particularly the character design of Lionel. The Harry Potter elements were planned nine months in advance to coincide with the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, which premiered two weeks after the episode aired. "Wet Hot Demonic Summer" received generally positive reviews from television critics; several commentators praised its cultural references and claimed that it showed similar quality to that of the series' first season. According to Nielsen Media Research, "Wet Hot Demonic Summer" was watched by 1.14 million viewers in its original airing and attracted less viewers than the series' pilot episode. ## Plot Leonard Powers, the Wizard of Social Services, is about to retire and takes his apprentice to Mount Magic to complete the initiation ceremony. For a wizard to retire, they must hatch their apprentice from an egg and train them for fifty years. However, Leonard abandoned his apprentice, the Harry Potter-like Lionel, in Chinatown and did not contact him until the ceremony. Later, it is revealed that to become a wizard, the apprentices must be circumcised. Meanwhile, the demons—the wizard's enemies—are ready to attack Mount Magic, but a force field is keeping them out. Since Leonard still needs to sign his retirement forms, demons Twayne Boneraper and Callie Maggotbone decide to use Mark Lilly to lead them to Leonard. To get Mark to come along, they elect him as the camp leader for a summer camp (originally a mining camp) that they build nearby. Mark brings his students from the Department of Integration to the camp, and the devil, Aldermach, brings several demons to act like the camp's visitors. The department's police officer, Frank Grimes, also comes along, but runs away to live with bears as he thinks the camp is infested by vermin. Mark's students and his roommate, the zombie Randall, begin to mine in an old silver mine. However, they get trapped inside, but Doug the koala begins to dig them out. At Mount Magic, Lionel is upset because Leonard abandoned him, and goes outside to the balcony, where he spots Callie swimming in the lake while wearing a bikini, and he declares that "she will be mine". Mark arrives at the lake and sees Leonard from the balcony and tells him that he forgot to sign his retirement forms. Leonard explains how to come to the secret entrance to Mark, which the demons hear. Later, Mark meets Leonard and Lionel at the entrance, where he signs his forms and is ready to retire. Moments later, when initiation ceremony begins at Mount Magic, the demons invade the compound and a battle between wizards and demons commences, while Lionel runs away to be with Callie, who, being the camp's "sexy counselor", has sex with him before Mark interrupts. Grimes arrives with his army of bears and soon thereafter, Doug arrives in a hole that he dug; the hole collapses the floor and all the demons and bears are consumed by it. As the battle ends, the sun goes down and it is too late for Lionel to be circumcised and take over as the Wizard of Social Services, so Leonard continues to work and begins to raise a new egg. ## Production "Wet Hot Demonic Summer" was written by Daniel Powell and directed by Aaron Augenblick. Series creator Devin Clark said that they planned on giving it a summer theme since they knew it would air in the summer. Clark further elaborated on the decision to incorporate summer and Harry Potter themes into the episode, stating: "We went, 'alright, those are two little nuggets of ideas we can incorporate into that.' We can't be as relevant to pop culture as some other shows, but it just means we have a little more of a challenge of making jokes that are a little more evergreen and poking fun of the genre in a much broader spectrum." Screenwriter Powell explained that it is difficult for the series to do "topical stuff" as it takes up to nine months to complete an episode, but they were aware of the fact that the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 would premiere shortly after the episode was set to air. "So it would seem like we were hyper-topical, even though we had a good nine months advance notice", he said. Powell said that they included famous wizards from many other sources, including The Lord of the Rings and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. In an interview with Charles Webb of MTV, Clark elaborated: "We make it a hodgepodge of the wizard references and obviously the main one is, and the most prominent one and the one that's most relevant to pop culture is the Harry Potter spoof that we've thrown in there. The episode explores Leonard's background and that he is "essentially a deadbeat dad". In an interview with Matt Barone of the magazine Complex, Powell revealed that he was inspired to write the episode after reading a critic's review which referred to Leonard as "basically [having] omnipotence" as he is able to conjure any magic he wants, but is too lazy to take advantage of his powers. The review spurred an idea for an episode where Leonard would be responsible for dealing with a kid. Powell called the episode's mythology "very bizarre and surreal", but said that they tried to keep the core themes relatable, such as Leonard's relationship with his estranged son. The same day as the episode's original broadcast, a deleted scene from "Wet Hot Demonic Summer" was made available on the official Ugly Americans website. In the half-minute clip, Grimes is shown settling into living his life as a bear. ## Reception The episode originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on June 30, 2011, following the Futurama episode "Ghost in the Machines". According to Nielsen Media Research, "Wet Hot Demonic Summer" was watched by 1.14 million viewers, compared to the 1.92 million who watched Futurama. The episode also acquired a 0.5 rating among viewers between the ages of 18 and 49. This means that 0.5% of all 18- to 49-year-olds viewed the episode. It dropped in viewership compared to the series' pilot episode, which attracted 2.10 million viewers and acquired a 1.1 rating. "Wet Demonic Summer" also marked a drop in ratings compared to the first season finale, "The Manbirds", which received a 0.7 rating. "Wet Hot Demonic Summer" received generally positive reviews from critics. David Hinckley of New York Daily News rated it four out of five stars and commented that although it may not make sense to some viewers, it is "equally possible they will keep watching anyway because the jokes work so well all by themselves". Hinckley went on to remark that "Ugly Americans packs a lot into 21 or 22 minutes. Happily, its often droll and deadpan style makes it easy to watch even if some of the references are whizzing by unappreciated". RedEye critic Curt Wagner rated it three stars out of four and wrote that it includes "visual pizzazz", cultural references and "so-fast-you'll-miss-them jokes" that it might require multiple viewings. Wagner, however, meant that this was a rather positive feature, writing: "For example, you might be laughing so hard at what just happened that you miss a fun line..." Lastly, Wagner observed that "Ugly Americans can be gross and bizarre, but everything makes sense in the world that it has created". Josh Harrison of Ology deemed the episode a "good sign" that the second season will be "just as good, if not better" than the first season. He said, "The way it all works together in this episode ... is subtle and surprising but nevertheless convincing evidence that there's method to the madness. Ugly Americans knows when to play this card; at all other junctures, it's got the right instinct when it shows us yet more madness." Harrison praised the battle scene between the wizards and the demons, calling it "one of the best single sequences in the series so far". In contrast, The Standard-Times critic Kevin McDonough was more critical regarding the episode, noting that it "tries a tad too hard". McDonough commented: "The efforts to meld 1980s summer-camp fantasy comedies with the Harry Potter movies are more odd than amusing. Then again, that pretty much sums up Ugly Americans itself."

The Phone Message

"The Phone Message" is the ninth episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld, and the fourth of the show's second season. The episode concerns protagonist Jerry Seinfeld (Jerry Seinfeld) dating a woman who likes a commercial for cotton Dockers he dislikes. Meanwhile, his friend George Costanza (Jason Alexander) leaves an obnoxious message on the answering machine of his girlfriend, and goes to great lengths to prevent her from hearing it. Written by series co-creators Seinfeld and Larry David and directed by Tom Cherones, the episode was produced to replace a script by staff writer Larry Charles. Charles had written an episode called "The Bet," revolving around Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) buying a handgun. The script's gun content was deemed too provocative and, in little time, Seinfeld and David wrote "The Phone Message" to fill the production void. Though the episode was met with positive critical responses, its initial broadcast on February 13, 1991, was watched by an underwhelming audience of 13 million viewers, causing NBC to put the show on a two-month hiatus. ## Plot George is excited when he learns that he and Jerry are having dates on the same night. Both of their dates go well up to the point that they have to say goodnight. George's date Carol (Tory Polone) asks George to come up to her place for some coffee, but George tells her that he can't drink coffee at night because it "keeps [him] up." Once she leaves his car, he realizes he made a mistake as "coffee" is a euphemism for sex. Jerry's date Donna (Gretchen German) remarks that she likes a cotton Dockers commercial that Jerry absolutely hates, and with that ends his interest in her. George decides to call Carol, but gets her answering machine. He leaves her an extremely long, obnoxious message and is concerned that she will think he is an idiot. Jerry's friend Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) tells George that something similar happened to her brother-in-law, who took care of the problem by secretly switching the tape. Jerry advises George to wait a few days for Carol to call back; George agrees, but continues to leave increasingly angry — and eventually almost hostile — messages on her machine. When he discovers she was out of town, he decides to go through with the plan of changing the tape. Frustrated by his inability to use an answering machine, George convinces Jerry to go with him. They decide to wait for Carol outside her apartment, and George will distract her while Jerry changes the tape. They succeed, but, just as they are about to leave Carol's apartment, she tells George that she had already heard the messages and found them funny, adding that she "loves jokes like that." ## Production ### "The Bet" Staff writer Larry Charles had written a script for an episode titled "The Bet." In the episode, which was also known as "The Gun," Elaine would bet against Jerry on the ease of buying a handgun to protect herself. The episode's subplot revolved around Jerry's neighbor Kramer returning from a vacation in Puerto Rico, claiming he had sex with a stewardess on his flight home. George and Jerry would remain skeptical and make a bet with him; eventually, George, Jerry and Elaine would go to the airport to check if Kramer was telling the truth. In writing "The Bet," Charles had attempted to make a "funny, dark-themed" episode. Sets for the episode were built. Bobbi Jo Lathan was cast as flight attendant Lucy Merrit and Ernie Sabella was cast as gun salesman Mo Korn, who was described in the script as "overweight, greasy, slow and low-key." However, during the read-through of the episode, it was negatively received by cast and crew members; both Alexander and director Tom Cherones felt the episode's gun content was too provocative. When she read a scene that referenced the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and William McKinley, Louis-Dreyfus turned to Alexander and stated, "I'm not gonna do this." Though they did not want to, the cast started rehearsing. After 20 minutes they convinced Cherones to talk to Charles. On his way to Charles' office, Cherones bumped into NBC executive Glenn Padnick, with whom he talked to Charles, eventually agreeing not to film the episode. Commenting on the episode, Charles stated "You know, it would have been an interesting show, but we couldn't solve the funny problem of it. It never seemed to quite be as funny as it should be and, because of that, the balance was off and the darkness kind of enveloped it, and it could never really emerge from that darkness and become what it should have been. So, it was disappointing but also understandable." Both Lathan and Sabella were given roles in later episodes; Lathan appeared as Patti in the season three episode "The Stranded," while Sabella was cast as the "greasy naked guy" in "The Subway," also for the show's third season. ### "The Phone Message" Series co-creator Larry David co-wrote the episode with Seinfeld in two days, as they had little time to write the script due to the cancellation of "The Bet." George's storyline was largely based on David's personal experiences of leaving phone messages to women that would cause the end of a relationship. David had previously written a sketch for Saturday Night Live regarding a man who went into his girlfriend's house to erase her answering machine. The sketch was never produced, allowing David to use its storyline for the Seinfeld episode. Jerry's storyline was based on Seinfeld's own predicaments, as he extremely disliked the cotton Dockers commercial discussed in the episode. A few changes were made to the first few drafts of the script. Additional dialogue between George and Jerry regarding dates during the 1850s was removed for timing purposes. During his date with Donna, Jerry would mention his remark about ponies in the earlier episode "The Pony Remark," but this was later changed to a remark about leaving a note when committing suicide. Initially, Kramer's first name was revealed in the episode; though the information was removed from the eventual script, the idea of revealing Kramer's first name would be further exploited in the season six episode "The Switch." Gretchen German was cast as Jerry's date Donna. Gina Hecht, who would go on to portray George's psychiatrist Dana Foley during the show's fourth season, also auditioned for the part. Tory Polone, who portrayed George's date Carol, had previously appeared in the 1989 television films When We Were Young and Sparks. The episode was first read by the cast on Friday, December 14, 1990. Table reads usually took place on Wednesdays, but the read-through of "The Bet" had been held on December 12. Directed by Cherones, as were all other episodes of the second season, "The Phone Message" was filmed in front of a live audience on December 19, 1990. Jerry's stand-up routine had been filmed one day earlier. ## Reception The episode was first broadcast in the United States on February 13, 1991, on NBC. "The Phone Message" received a Nielsen rating of 9.7 and an audience share of 15, indicating that 9.7% of American households watched the episode, and that 15% of all televisions in use at the time were tuned into it. Nielsen Media Research also estimated that approximately 13 million American viewers watched the episode, making it the 59th most-watched show of the week it was broadcast in. Disappointed with the ratings, as earlier episodes had averaged between 19 and 22 million viewers each, the network put the show on a two-month hiatus. When the series returned in its original timeslot behind Cheers, its high ratings and increasing popularity led NBC to order the full season. "The Phone Message" gained positive responses from critics. Jerry's dumping Donna because she likes the commercial has been frequently cited as an example of how the show's central characters would often break up with people for "fantastically insignificant reasons." In a 1998 article, the staff of South Carolina newspaper The State cited "The Phone Message" as "the first episode that made an impression on [them]," referring to Seinfeld as "the comedic version of Hill Street Blues." Entertainment Weekly critics Mike Flaherty and Mary Kaye Schilling graded the episode with a B+, calling it "the first of two consecutive and classic George angst-fests, as Jason Alexander—master of frantic venom—begins to make the character his own."

Steve Palacios

American soccer player

Steve Cisneros Palacios (born May 20, 1993) is an American retired soccer player who played as a midfielder. A native of San Clemente, California, he played on the varsity team at San Clemente High School. As a senior, Palacios helped the Tritons to the first CIF Southern Section championship in team history and was named the All-Orange County Player of the Year by the Orange County Register. He played college soccer at Cal Poly, appearing in 66 games over four years with the Mustangs. While in college, Palacios played summer seasons with Orange County Blue Star and Ventura County Fusion. In 2014, his second season with the Fusion, he helped the team finish as winners of the Premier Development League's Southwest Division. After spending the 2015 season as a practice player for LA Galaxy II, Palacios signed with United Soccer League club Portland Timbers 2 in 2016. He made two appearances in his lone season as a professional before ending his career. After retiring from professional soccer, Palacios enlisted in the United States Army. He was part of the Army team at the 2019 Armed Forces Men's Soccer Championship and scored the winning goal in the championship match. Palacios then competed at the 2019 Military World Games as part of the United States Armed Forces team. ## Early life and youth career Steve Cisneros Palacios was born on May 20, 1993, in San Clemente, California, the second of three sons to Alfredo and Paula Palacios. All three boys played soccer, and Steve trained with his older brother's teams while he was growing up. He attended San Clemente High School and played four years of varsity soccer for the Tritons. Palacios ended his high school career sitting second all-time in both goals and assists at San Clemente, and as a senior in 2011, helped the Tritons to their first-ever CIF Southern Section title. Following that title, he was named as the All-Orange County Player of the Year by the Orange County Register and earned a First Team All-CIF Southern Section nod. Palacios played his youth soccer with United FC, a youth development club in San Juan Capistrano, California. He earned selections to the California Olympic Development Program (ODP) and playied alongside Zinedine Zidane at the Adidas ESP camp. He represented California South at the 2010 United States Youth Soccer Association ODP Championships. Palacios also spent time with Chivas USA, playing for their academy at the 2010 SUM U-17 Cup. Ranked as the number 76 recruit nationally by College Soccer News, he committed to play college soccer at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, part of a recruiting class that also included Matt LaGrassa, Chase Minter, and Keegan Smith. While in high school, Palacios earned multiple call-ups to camps for the United States men's national under-18 soccer team. He made his first camp appearance in October 2009, earning the call in part due to his performance at the Adidas ESP camp. Palacios also appeared at a camp in February 2011 that included friendly matches against three Major League Soccer teams. Additionally, prior to enrolling at Cal Poly, Palacios went on trial in the Netherlands with SC Heerenveen. ## College and amateur career After being an unused substitute in the first seven games of his freshman season, Palacios made his Cal Poly Mustangs' debut on September 25, 2011, coming off the bench in a 3–1 defeat against the Denver Pioneers. He earned his first collegiate start three days later, playing 48 minutes as the Mustangs upset the no. 7 UC Irvine Anteaters by a 1–0 scoreline. Although he played in just 10 games as a freshman, Palacios carved out a reliable role as a sophomore and appeared 18 times. He was one of the primary corner kick takers for Cal Poly, helping the team qualify for the Big West Conference Men's Soccer Tournament for the first time in two years. As a junior, Palacios appeared in a career-high 20 games for the Mustangs and tallied the first two assists of his collegiate career. The first of those came on September 5, 2013, in a 3–0 victory over the sixth-ranked UCLA Bruins, the highest-ranked team that Cal Poly had ever beaten. He assisted Chase Minter for the first goal of the game in the 11th minute. Palacios followed that up as a senior with his first career goals, scoring twice in 18 appearances. He was the only senior on the Mustangs roster, although 10 other lettermen returned as well. His two goals came in back-to-back games, helping the Mustangs defeat the NC State Wolfpack on August 31, 2014, and the Northern Illinois Huskies on September 5. Palacios ended his college career having tallied two goals and two assists in 66 appearances across four years at Cal Poly. ### Summer leagues Following his freshman season at Cal Poly, Palacios played in the Premier Development League (PDL) with Orange County Blue Star. He made eight appearances during the 2012 PDL season and scored one goal as the club finished in seventh place in the Southwest Division. During the following two summer seasons, 2013 and 2014, Palacios remained in the PDL and played with Ventura County Fusion. He led the team in appearances in 2013, as he was the only player to appear in every match of the season. Palacios totaled two goals and two assists from 14 games in league play, appeared in both of the Fusion's matches in the 2013 U.S. Open Cup, and came off the bench in the playoffs against Victoria Highlanders. He returned to Ventura County in 2014 and played eight times in all competitions as the Fusion won the PDL's Southwest Division. In Palacios' final game with the club, against Kitsap Pumas in the Western Conference playoffs, he picked up a red card in extra time as Ventura County was eliminated in penalties. ## Club career Following his time at Cal Poly, Palacios was eligible to be selected in the 2015 MLS SuperDraft but went undrafted. He signed with United Soccer League (USL) club LA Galaxy II as a practice player and spent the 2015 season in that role. Although Palacios was given the number 51 shirt by the team, he was not eligible to make league appearances and played his only game for the club in a postseason friendly against Sacramento Republic on November 14. ### Portland Timbers 2 On March 24, 2016, Palacios signed with fellow USL club Portland Timbers 2. He made his club and professional debut over two months later, replacing Terrell Lowe in stoppage time of a 1–0 victory against Seattle Sounders FC 2. Palacios made just one more appearance for T2: coming off the bench against Swope Park Rangers on June 4. He finished his lone season in Portland, and subsequently wrapped up his professional career, with just the two games played. ## Military career After ending his professional soccer career, Palacios enlisted in the United States Army as a specialist in 2017. While assigned to Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, he was chosen to represent the Army team at the 2019 Armed Forces Men's Soccer Championship. In the championship match against the United States Air Force team, Palacios scored the winning goal in second half stoppage time, giving Army a 2–1 victory and their first tournament title since 2015. At the conclusion of the tournament, he was selected to the United States Armed Forces team to compete at the 2019 Military World Games. Palacios and the United States were eliminated in the group stage at the games, losing all three matches. During his time in the Army, Palacios also served at Fort Drum in Le Ray, New York, before his enlistment ended and he transitioned to service in the California Army National Guard. ## Coaching career While still an active soccer player, Palacios began coaching. He ran youth soccer camps while at Cal Poly, and during his time with LA Galaxy II, he was on the staff of the San Clemente Surf youth club. In 2022, Palacios served as an assistant coach for the boys' team at San Clemente High School, his alma mater. ## Personal life Palacios is the second of three children in his family, alongside brothers Kevin and Oscar. He graduated from Cal Poly with a Bachelor of Science in recreation, parks, and tourism administration, then earned a Master of Business Administration from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in 2020. Palacios is married to Blake Zerboni, the twin sister of professional soccer player McCall Zerboni. Blake is also from San Clemente and played college soccer at UCLA. ## Career statistics ## Honors Ventura County Fusion - PDL Western Conference – Southwest Division: 2014 United States military - Armed Forces Sports Men's Soccer Championship: 2019 ## See also - All-time Portland Timbers 2 roster - List of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo people

Another Body Murdered

"Another Body Murdered" is a 1993 single by Faith No More and Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E., taken from the soundtrack album for the film Judgment Night. The brainchild of Cypress Hill's manager, Happy Walters, the soundtrack paired rock and hip-hop acts on each of its songs; Faith No More sought out the American-Samoan Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E. after becoming interested in Samoan a capella singing. Charting in several countries, including Ireland, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, "Another Body Murdered" has received mixed reactions from music critics, with some seeing it as a harbinger of later acts such as Korn or Limp Bizkit, and others comparing it unfavourably to Public Enemy and Anthrax's earlier crossover single "Bring the Noise". ## Production The 1993 film Judgment Night featured a soundtrack album composed entirely of collaborations between hip-hop and rock acts; the soundtrack was the brainchild of Cypress Hill manager Happy Walters. He was inspired to create the pairings based on several influences in the early 1990s―the emergence of Rage Against the Machine's rap-influenced rock sound, and the success of Cypress Hill opening for a Pearl Jam concert in Seattle. Following the release of their 1992 album Angel Dust, Faith No More received several offers to appear on compilation albums, with bass player Billy Gould feeling that the Judgment Night offer sounded unique, described it as "something that we could do that’s kind of cool". Gould and singer Mike Patton requested to work with the American Samoan group Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E. after becoming interested in Samoan a capella music, and were impressed by the latter group's instrumentation. Faith No More's guitar player at the time, Jim Martin, did not wish to participate, so Gould provided the guitar parts for the single, with Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E. providing bass guitar. During the music video shoot for the single, the band staged an intervention for keyboard player Roddy Bottum, who had been dealing with a heroin addiction at the time; Bottum successfully quit the drug after attending rehab as a result. ## Release "Another Body Murdered" was released as a single in September 1993. It subsequently charted in several countries, including Ireland, where it spent four weeks in the Irish Singles Chart, reaching a peak position of 13; New Zealand, where it reached number 41 during a two-week chart run; and the United Kingdom, reaching a high point of number 26 during its three weeks in the UK Singles Chart. ## Reception "Another Body Murdered" has been described by Jeremy Allen of The Guardian as a "grim dog-eat-dog tale of foul play" that serves to showcase Mike Patton's versatile vocal range. Writing for The A.V. Club, Sean O'Neal described the song as having "a chest-puffing, smack-talking energy that’s undeniable". O'Neal cited it as an influence on later bands such as Korn or Limp Bizkit, stating "you can definitely hear the ground being laid for the scores of bands who would strip Faith No More of all its oddball eccentricity, then regurgitate only its meatiest chunks". A contemporary review in Spin magazine by Mark Blackwell was unfavourable towards the release, finding it to be overly derivative of the earlier Anthrax and Public Enemy collaboration "Bring the Noise", writing that "it's a concept that wears thin fast". ## Track list All songs written by Billy Gould, Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E., Mike Bordin, Mike Patton and Roddy Bottum, except where specified ## Charts

Fortress of Klis

Medieval fortress in Klis, Croatia

The Klis Fortress (Croatian: Tvrđava Klis) is a medieval fortress situated above a village bearing the same name, near Split, Croatia. From its origin as a small stronghold built by the ancient Illyrian tribe Dalmatae, becoming a royal castle that was the seat of many Croatian kings, to its final development as a large fortress during the Ottoman wars in Europe, Klis Fortress has guarded the frontier, being lost and re-conquered several times throughout its more-than-two-thousand-year-long history. Due to its location on a pass that separates the mountains Mosor and Kozjak, the fortress served as a major source of defense in Dalmatia, especially against the Ottoman advance, and has been a key crossroad between the Mediterranean belt and the Balkan rear. ## Importance Since Duke Mislav of the Duchy of Croatia made Klis Fortress the seat of his throne in the middle of the 9th century, the fortress served as the seat of many Croatia's rulers. The reign of his successor, Duke Trpimir I, the founder of the Croatian royal House of Trpimirović, is significant for spreading Christianity in the Duchy of Croatia. He largely expanded the Klis Fortress, and in Rižinice, in the valley under the fortress, he built a church and the first Benedictine monastery in Croatia. During the reign of the first Croatian king, Tomislav, Klis and Biograd na Moru were his chief residences. In March 1242 at Klis Fortress, Tatars who were a constituent segment of the Mongol army under the leadership of Kadan suffered a major defeat while in pursuit of the Hungarian army led by King Béla IV. After their defeat by Croatian forces, the Mongols retreated, and Béla IV rewarded many Croatian towns and nobles with "substantial riches". During the Late Middle Ages, the fortress was governed by Croatian nobility, amongst whom Paul I Šubić of Bribir was the most significant. During his reign, the House of Šubić controlled most of modern-day Croatia and Bosnia. Excluding the brief possession by the forces of Bosnian King, Tvrtko I, the fortress remained in Hungaro-Croatian hands for the next several hundred years, until the 16th century. Klis Fortress is probably best known for its defense against the Ottoman invasion of Europe in the early 16th century. Croatian captain Petar Kružić led the defense of the fortress against a Turkish invasion and siege that lasted for more than two and a half decades. During this defense, as Kružić and his soldiers fought without allies against the Turks, the military faction of Uskoks was formed, which later became famous as an elite Croatian militant sect. Ultimately, the defenders were defeated and the fortress was occupied by the Ottomans in 1537. After more than a century under Ottoman rule, in 1669, Klis Fortress was besieged and seized by the Republic of Venice, thus moving the border between Christian and Muslim Europe further east and helping to contribute to the decline of the Ottoman Empire. The Venetians restored and enlarged the fortress, but it was taken by the Austrians after Napoleon extinguished the republic itself in 1797. Today, Klis Fortress contains a museum where visitors to this historic military structure can see an array of arms, armor, and traditional uniforms. ## Location The fortress is located above a village bearing the same name, 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) from the Adriatic Sea, on a pass that separates the mountains Mosor and Kozjak, at the altitude of 360 metres (1,180 ft), northeast of Split in Croatia. Owing to its strategic position, the fortress is regarded as one of the region's most important fortifications. Perched on an isolated rocky eminence, inaccessible on three sides, the fortress overlooks Split, the ancient Roman settlement of Salona, Solin, Kaštela and Trogir, and most of the central Dalmatian islands. Historically, the fortress has controlled access to and from Bosnia, Dalmatia and inland Croatia. The importance of such a position was felt by every army that invaded, or held possession of this part of Croatia. Klis Fortress was a point against which their attacks were always directed, and it has been remarkable for the many sieges it withstood. It has been of major strategic value in Croatia throughout history. ## History ### Ancient stronghold of Illyrians and Romans The ancient Illyrian tribe of Dalmatae, which held a stronghold on this spot, were the first known inhabitants who lived on the site of what is today Klis Fortress. They were defeated several times, and in the year 9 AD, finally annexed by Romans. Today's Klis Fortress was known to the Romans by the name of "Andetrium" or "Anderium", and in later times "Clausura", which is the origin of later "Clissa" and modern "Klis". To the Romans, Klis became famous for its celebrated siege by Augustus, at the time of the Illyrian revolt in Dalmatia. The road that lead from Klis to Salona was called "Via Gabiniana" or "Via Gabinia", which according to an inscription found at Salona, appears to have been made by Tiberius. Southeast of the fortress, the traces of a Roman camp are still visible, as well as an inscription carved on a rock; both which are supposed to be contemporary with the siege under Tiberius. The description of this siege during the Illyrian Wars demonstrates that this place was strong and unreachable in those times. ### Migration period and the arrival of the Croats After the fall of the Roman Empire, Barbarians plundered the region around Klis. First it was ruled by Odoacer, and then by the Theodoric the Great, after he eliminated Odoacer, and set up an Ostrogothic Kingdom. After Justinian I fought an almost continual war for forty years to recover the old Roman Empire, he seized Dalmatia, and Klis was from 537, a part of Byzantine Empire. The name of Klis (Kleisa or Kleisoura) was first described in chapter 29 of Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus' De Administrando Imperio. While describing the Roman settlement of Salona, Constantine VII speaks of the stronghold, which may have been designed or improved, to prevent attacks on the coastal cities and roads by Slavs. Salona, the capital of the province of Dalmatia was sacked and destroyed in 614 by Avars and Slavs. The population fled to Diocletian's walled palace of Split, which was able to resist the invaders. Thereafter, Split rose quickly in importance as one of Dalmatia's major cities. In the 7th century the Avars were driven out by a second wave of Croats, on the invitation of Emperor Heraclius, in order to counter the Avar threat to the Byzantine Empire. ### Royal Castle From the early 7th century on, Klis was an important Croat stronghold, and later, one of the seats of many Croatia's rulers. In the 9th century, Croatian duke Mislav of the Duchy of Croatia, from 835 to 845, made the castle of Klis seat of his throne. Despite Frankish overlordship, the Franks had almost no role in Croatia in the period from the 820s through 840s. After Mislav's death, starting with Duke Trpimir I, Klis was ruled by royal members of the House of Trpimirović, who were at first Dukes of the Croatian Duchy (dux Croatorum), and afterwards Kings of the Croatian Kingdom (rex Croatorum). They developed the early Roman stronghold into their capital. Relations with the Byzantines greatly improved under the Croatian duke Trpimir I, who moved the dux's main residence from Nin to Klis. The reign of Mislav's successor Trpimir I, is significant for spreading Christianity in the medieval Croatian state, and for the first mention of the name "Croats" in domestic documents. On 4 March, in 852, Trpimir I issued a "Charter in Biaći" (Latin: in loco Byaci dicitur) in Latin, confirming Mislav's donations to the Archbishopric in Split. In this document Trpimir I named himself; "By the mercy of God, Duke of Croats" (Latin: Dux Chroatorum iuvatus munere divino), and his realm as the "Realm of the Croats" (Latin: Regnum Chroatorum). In the same document Trpimir I mentioned Klis as his property — seat. Under Klis, in Rižinice, the duke Trpimir built a church and the first Benedictine monastery in Croatia, which is known from the discovery of a stone fragment on a gable arch from an altar screen, inscribed with the duke's name and title. > (Latin ... pro duce Trepimero ... – English... for Duke Trpimir ...) Archaeological excavations found that a church dedicated to Saint Vitus was founded in the 10th century by a certain Croatian king, along with his wife, Queen Domaslava, which got destroyed during Ottoman conquests in the 16th century. A controversial Saxon theologian of the mid-9th century, Gottschalk of Orbais, spent some time at Trpimir's court between 846 and 848. His work "De Trina deitate" is an important source of information for Trpimir's reign. Gottschalk was a witness to the battle between Trpimir and Byzantine strategos, when Trpimir was victorious. During the reign of Croatian king Tomislav, who had no permanent capital, the castle of Klis along with Biograd, were his chief residences. ### Knights Templar From the early 12th century, and after the decay of the native Croatian royal family of Trpimirović, the castle of Klis was mainly governed by Croatian nobility, under the supremacy of Hungarian kings. The Kingdom of Croatia and the Kingdom of Hungary were, from 1102, in a personal union of two kingdoms, united under the Hungarian king. Andrew II of Hungary was extremely favorably disposed towards the Templars. During his participation in the Fifth Crusade, he appointed Pontius de Cruce, Master of the Order in the Hungarian Kingdom, as a regent in Croatia and Dalmatia. After his return in 1219, in recognition of the great logistical and financial support which the Order had given him during the campaign, he granted the Order the estate of Gacka. Even before his departure from the city of Split in 1217, he had made over to the Templars the castle of Klis (Clissa), a strategic point in the hinterland of Split (Spalato), which controlled the approaches to the town. The king Andrew was reluctant to entrust the castle of Klis to any of the local magnates, knowing what great harm could come from that castle. It was the king's will that Split receive the castle of Klis for the defense of their city. The city of Split showed little interest in the royal favors, so the king entrusted Klis into Templars hands. Shortly after this, the Templars lost Klis, and, in exchange, the king gave them the coastal town of Šibenik (Sebenico). ### Mongol siege Tatars under the leadership of Kadan experienced a major failure in March 1242 at Klis Fortress, when they were hunting for Béla IV of Hungary. The Tatars believed that the king was in the Klis Fortress, and so they began to attack from all sides, launching arrows and hurling spears. However, the natural defenses of the fortress gave protection, and the Tatars could cause only limited harm. They dismounted from their horses and began to creep up hand over hand to higher ground. But the fortress defenders hurled huge stones at them, and managed to kill a great number. This setback only made the Tatars more ferocious, and they came right up to the great walls and fought hand to hand. They looted the houses in the outskirt of the fortress and took away much plunder, but failed to take Klis altogether. Upon learning that the king was not there, they abandoned their attack, and ascending their mounts rode off in the direction of Trogir, a number of them turning off toward Split. The Mongols attacked the Dalmatian cities for the next few years but eventually withdrew without major success, as the mountainous terrain and distance were not suitable for their style of warfare. They pursued Béla IV from town to town in Dalmatia. The Croatian nobility and Dalmatian towns such as Trogir and Rab helped Béla IV to escape. After this failure, the Mongols retreated and Béla IV rewarded the Croatian towns and nobility. Only the city of Split did not help Béla IV in his escape. Some historians claim that the mountainous terrain of Croatian Dalmatia was fatal for the Mongols, because they suffered great losses when attacked by the Croats from ambushes in mountain passes. Other historians claim that the death of Ögedei Khan (Croatian: Ogotaj) was the only reason for retreat. Much of Croatia was plundered by the Mongols, but without any major military success. Saint Margaret (January 27, 1242 – January 18, 1271), a daughter of Béla IV and Maria Laskarina, was born in Klis Fortress during the Mongol invasion of Hungary-Croatia. ### Šubić's rule The weakening of royal authority under Stephen V of Hungary allowed the House of Šubić to regain their former role in Dalmatia. In 1274, Stjepko Šubić of Bribir died, and Paul I Šubić of Bribir succeeded him as the family elder. Soon, Ladislaus IV of Hungary, recognizing the balance of power in Dalmatia, named Paul I as Ban of Croatia and Dalmatia. Ladislaus IV died in 1290 leaving no sons, and a civil war between rival candidates, pro-Hungarian Andrew III of Hungary, and pro-Croatian Charles Martel of Anjou, started. Charles Martel's father Charles II of Naples, awarded all Croatia from Gvozd Mountain (Croatian: Petrova Gora) to the river Neretva mouth hereditary to Paul I Šubić of Bribir. Thus, Charles converted Paul's personal position as Ban into a hereditary one for the Šubić family. All the other nobles in this region, were to be vassals of Paul Šubić. In response, Andrew III in 1293 issued a similar charter for Paul Šubić. During this struggle over the throne, George I Šubić of Bribir, Ban Paul's brother went to Italy, visiting the pope and the Naples court. In August 1300, George I returned to Split, bringing Charles Robert with him. Paul Šubić accompanied Charles Robert (later known as Charles I of Hungary) to Zagreb, where he was recognized as king; then they proceeded to Esztergom, where, in 1301, the Archbishop of Esztergom crowned him as King of Hungary and Croatia. Paul I Šubić, Ban of Croatia and Dalmatia, became Lord of all of Bosnia in 1299. Although supporting the king, Paul I continued to act independently, and ruled over a large portion of modern-day Croatia and Bosnia. He appointed his brothers as commissars of Dalmatian cities, and gave Split to his brother Mladen I Šubić, and Šibenik, Nin, Trogir and Omiš to his brother George I Šubić. After George I Šubić died in 1302, his brother Mladen I Šubić ruled as a Bosnian Ban over Bosnia from Klis Fortress, until he was killed in a battle during 1304. Then, Šubić gave the Klis Fortress to his son Mladen II Šubić, who ruled over Bosnia like his uncle Mladen I. George II Šubić and his son, Mladen III Šubić, ruled over Klis Fortress until the late 14th century. During summer-long festivities in Klis Fortress, open to the whole population, Mladen III Šubić gave his sister's Jelena Šubić hand in marriage to Vladislaus of Bosnia, from the House of Kotromanić. Jelena Šubić gave birth to the first Bosnian King, Tvrtko I, who later inherited the fortress. ### Petar Kružić and Uskoks Owing to its location, Klis Fortress was an important defensive position during the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans. The fortress stands along the route by which the Ottomans could penetrate the mountain barrier separating the coastal lowlands from around Split, from Turkish-held Bosnia. The Croat feudal lord Petar Kružić gathered together a garrison composed of Croat refugees, who used the base at Klis both to hold the Turks at bay, and to engage in marauding and piracy against coastal shipping. Although nominally accepting the sovereignty of the Habsburg king Ferdinand who had obtained the Croatian crown in 1527, Kružić and his freebooting Uskoks were a law unto themselves. When a large Turkish force threatened the fortress, Kružić appealed to Ferdinand I for help, but the Emperor's attention was diverted by a Turkish invasion into Slavonia. For more than two and half decades, Captain Kružić, also called (Prince of Klis), defended the fortress against the Turkish invasion. Kružić led the defense of Klis, and with his soldiers fought almost alone against the Ottomans, as they hurled army after army against the fortress. No troops would come from the Hungarian king, as they were defeated by the Ottomans at the Battle of Mohács in 1526, and the Venetians baulked at sending any help. Only the popes were willing to provide some men and money. ### Final Ottoman siege Pope Paul III claimed some rights in Klis, and in September, 1536, there was talk in the Curia of strengthening the defenses of the fortress. The Pope notified Ferdinand that he was willing to share the costs of maintaining a proper garrison in Klis. Ferdinand I did send aid to Klis and was apparently hopeful of holding the fortress, when the Turks again laid siege to it. Ferdinand I recruited men from Trieste and elsewhere in the Habsburg lands, and Pope Paul III sent soldiers from Ancona. There were about 3,000 infantry in the reinforcements, which made a sizeable relief force, that were commanded by Petar Kružić, Niccolo dalla Torre, and a papal commissioner Jacomo Dalmoro d'Arbe. On March 9, 1537, they disembarked near Klis, at a place called S. Girolamo, with fourteen pieces of artillery. After Ibrahim's death, Suleiman the Magnificent sent 8,000 men under the command of Murat-beg Tardić (Amurat Vaivoda), a Croatian renegade who had been born in Šibenik, to go and lay siege to Klis fortress (Clissa), and fight against Petar Kružić. An initial encounter of the Christian relief force with the Turks was indecisive, but, on March 12, they were overwhelmed by the arrival of a great number of Turks. The attempts to relieve the citadel ended in farce. Badly-drilled reinforcements sent by the Habsburgs fled in fear of the Turks, and their attempts to re-board their boats at Solin bay caused many vessels to sink. Niccolo dalla Torre and the papal commissioner managed to escape. Kružić himself – who had left the fortress to make contact with the reinforcements was captured and executed: the sight of his head on a stick was too much for the remaining defenders of Klis, who were now willing to give up the fortress in return for safe passage north. After Petar Kružić's death, and with a lack of water supplies, the Klis defenders finally surrendered to the Ottomans in exchange for their freedom, on March 12, 1537. Many of the citizens fled the town, while the Uskoci retreated to the city of Senj, where they continued fighting the Turkish invaders. ### Sanjak centre of Ottoman Bosnia During the Ottoman wars in Europe, Klis Fortress was, for a century, an administrative centre or sanjak (Kilis Sancağı) of the Bosnia Eyalet. On April 7, 1596, Split noblemen Ivan Alberti and Nikola Cindro, along with Uskoci, Poljičani, and Kaštelani irregulars, organized an occupation of Klis. Assisted by dissident elements of the Turkish garrison, they succeeded. Bey Mustafa responded by bringing more than 10,000 soldiers under the fortress. General Ivan Lenković, leading 1,000 Uskoci, came in relief of the 1,500 Klis defenders. During the battle, Ivan Lenković and his men retreated after he was wounded in battle, and the fortress was lost to the Turks, on May 31. Nevertheless, this temporary relief resounded in Europe and among the local population. From the well-fortified position in the Klis Fortress, the Turks were a constant threat to the Venetians and to the local Croatian population in the surrounding area. In 1647, after the Turkish success at Novigrad, the Turks were said to have 30,000 troops ready to attack Split. The Signoria send off two thousand soldiers with munitions and provisions to the threatened area. Although Split and Zadar were strong fortresses, they were clearly in danger. #### The Klis mosque / church The Ottomans built a stone mosque with a dome and a minaret on the foundations of an earlier Old Croatian Catholic chapel inside the Klis fortress shortly after they had conquered it. It is a simple constructed square with the octagonal stone roof, designed primarily for military/religious use by the garrisons stationed inside the fortress. After the Venetians had conquered the fortress from the Ottomans, they destroyed the minaret and converted the mosque into a Roman Catholic church, dedicated to St. Vitus (Croatian: Crkva St. Vida). The building has been in that use ever since. It is one of three preserved Ottoman mosques on the territory of Croatia, the other two being in towns of Drniš and Đakovo. ### Venetian domination In 1420, the Anjou contender Ladislaus of Naples was defeated and forced to sail away for Naples. Upon his departure he sold his "rights" to Dalmatia to the Venetian Republic for the relatively meager sum of 100,000 ducats. However, Klis and Klis Fortress remained parts of the Kingdom of Croatia. From that time, the Venetians were eager to take control over Klis, as the fortress was one of the region's most important strategic points. The Venetians fought for decades before they finally managed to re-take Klis. During the Candian War (1645–1669), the Venetians in Dalmatia enjoyed the support of the local population, particularly the Morlachs (Morlacchi). Venetian commander Leonardo Foscolo seized several forts, retook Novigrad, temporarily captured the Knin Fortress, and managed to compel the garrison of Klis Fortress to surrender. At the same time, a month-long siege of the Šibenik Fortress by the Ottomans in August and September failed. From 1669, Klis Fortress was in the possession of the Venetians, and it remained so until the fall of the Venetian state. The Venetians restored and enlarged the fortress during their rule. After another, the seventh war with the Turks from 1714 to 1718, the Venetians were able to advance up to the present Bosnian/Croatian border, taking in the whole Sinjsko Polje and Imotski. Thereafter the Turkish menace was laid to rest and Venice had no serious challenge to its authority in Dalmatia, until Napoleon extinguished the republic itself in 1797. The border between Christian and Muslim Europe had been moved further east, and the fortress lost its main strategic importance. Subsequently, Klis was taken by the Austrians. The last military occupation of Klis Fortress was by Axis powers during World War II. ## Architecture Klis Fortress is one of the most valuable surviving examples of defensive architecture in Dalmatia. The fortress is a remarkably comprehensive structure with three long rectangular defensive lines, consisting of three defensive stone walls, which are surrounding a central strongpoint, the "Položaj maggiore" at its eastern, highest end. "Položaj maggiore" or "Grand position" is a mixed Croatian-Italian term, dating from the time when Leonardo Foscolo captured the fortress for the Venetians in 1648. At that time, a village started to spread below the ramparts. The structures of the fortress are mostly irregular, as they were constructed to suit the natural topography. On the hills around Klis, there are several small towers, built by the Turks to keep the fortress under surveillance. ### Fortress outskirts The Klis Fortress rises on a bare cliff divided into two parts. The first, lower part is on the west, out topped by Mount Greben from the north. The second, higher part is on the east, and includes the Tower "Oprah", whose name most likely refers to a specific part in the defense. In this section which was not topped by any side, was located the flat of the Commander. The only entrance into the fortress is from the western side. On the southwest side of the fortress, and below it was a resort (part of the modern village of Klis) called "borgo" or "suburbium", surrounded by double walls with 100–200 towers. A similar but smaller resort (also part of modern village of Klis) existed below Mount Greben on a plateau called Megdan. This included lazarettoes and quarantines which were in Turkish times called "nazanama". There were also many inns for travellers, which were used for isolation during epidemics. Thus, the coastal towns, primarily the city of Split was protected from epidemics that came from Bosnia. Near the fortress, there were several sources of drinking water, and the closest was the "Holy Biblical Magi" whose importance was invaluable during long sieges. ### Present appearance The fortress was built into the south face of a rocky mass, and is barely discernible from the distance as a man-made structure. The defensive capabilities of the fortress have been tested through history in many military operations. During the centuries of its use, the structure served various armies and has undergone a number of renovations, to keep up with the development of arms. The original appearance of the fortress is no longer known, due to the structural changes undertaken by Croatian nobility, Turks, Venetians and Austrians. The present day aspect of a mostly stone fortress dates back to the restructuring work carried out by the Venetians in the 17th century. #### First defensive line Many buildings of the Klis Fortress which are from 17th through 19th centuries are partially or entirely preserved. The Fortress actually consists of three parts, enclosed by walls with separate entrances. The first main entrance was built by the Austrians in the early 19th century, on the place of an earlier Venetian entrance. Left of the entrance there is a fortification erected by the Venetians in the early 18th century. Also, near the main entrance there is a "position Avanzato" built in 1648, which was repeatedly renewed afterwards. On the ground floor of the fortification there is a narrow over-vaulted corridor, which is called a Casemate. #### Second defensive line The second entrance which was significantly damaged in the siege of 1648, leads to the former medieval part of the fortress previously ruled by a Croatian nobility. After 1648, Venetians fully restored the second entrance, but its present appearance was made by the Austrians during the early 19th century. Along the northern wall near the second entrance, there is fortress-tower called "Oprah", the most important medieval fortification of the western part of the fortress. It was mentioned for the first time in 1355, but later the Venetians made the lower crown on it. Nearby of the entrance are artillery barracks, built by the Austrians in the first half of the 19th century. In 1931 its upper floor was ruined, so now only the ground floor remains. #### Third defensive line The third entrance leads to the former medieval part built in the early Middle Ages. The Venetians renewed it several times after conquest in 1648, and the last upgrade was in 1763. Within this part of the fortress there is the side tower, built during the 18th century, and completed in 1763. Following is a repository of weapons built in the mid-17th century and old powder magazine from the 18th century. "House of Dux" later called governor's residence was rebuilt in the mid-17th century on the foundations of the oldest buildings from the period of Croatian kings. Austrians repaired this building, and there were placed commandments unity of the fortress and Engineering. On the top point of the fortress there was a "New gunpowder storage", built in the early 19th century. The oldest remaining building with the dome is a former square-shaped Turkish mosque, which has been converted into a Catholic church in the meantime. There used to be three Altars, dedicated to St. Vid, Virgin Mary and St. Barbara, but today the church has no inventory. In the church there is a Baroque stone sink from the 17th century, which served as a baptistery, where there is engraved the year of 1658. West of the church is the bastion of Bembo, the largest artillery position in the third defense line and in the whole fortress. It has wide holes for guns, and was built in the mid-17th century on the site of former Kružić's tower, and the defensive positions of Speranza. ## Present day The Klis Fortress has been developed as a visitor attraction by the "Kliški uskoci" re-enactment association in Klis with the aid of the conservation department of the Ministry of Culture in Split. Visitors to the historic military structure can see an array of arms, armor, and traditional uniforms in a building which was formerly an Austrian armory. Klis is remembered in a Croatian byword based on the resistance of Klis and the strength of its people: It is difficult for Klis because it is on the rock and it is difficult for the rock because Klis is on it. ## In popular culture The fortress was used in a 1972 historical film Eagle in a Cage, portraying Saint Helena. Klis was also used as a location for the fictional city of Meereen in the HBO series Game of Thrones. ## Gallery ## See also - Historical Unit Kliški uskoci - List of castles in Croatia - List of rulers of Croatia - Timeline of Croatian history - Siege of Klis - Battle of Klis (1596)

Human uses of animals

Overview of humans' uses of animals

Human uses of animals (non-human species) include both practical uses, such as the production of food and clothing, and symbolic uses, such as in art, literature, mythology, and religion. All of these are elements of culture, broadly understood. Animals used in these ways include fish, crustaceans, insects, molluscs, mammals and birds. Economically, animals provide meat, whether farmed or hunted, and until the arrival of mechanised transport, terrestrial mammals provided a large part of the power used for work and transport. Animals serve as models in biological research, such as in genetics, and in drug testing. Many species are kept as pets, the most popular being mammals, especially dogs and cats. These are often anthropomorphised. Animals such as horses and deer are among the earliest subjects of art, being found in the Upper Paleolithic cave paintings such as at Lascaux. Major artists such as Albrecht Dürer, George Stubbs and Edwin Landseer are known for their portraits of animals. Animals further play a wide variety of roles in literature, film, mythology, and religion. ## Context Culture consists of the social behaviour and norms found in human societies and transmitted through social learning. Cultural universals in all human societies include expressive forms like art, music, dance, ritual, religion, and technologies like tool usage, cooking, shelter, and clothing. The concept of material culture covers physical expressions such as technology, architecture and art, whereas immaterial culture includes principles of social organization, mythology, philosophy, literature, and science. Anthropology has traditionally studied the roles of non-human animals in human culture in two opposed ways: as physical resources that humans used; and as symbols or concepts through totemism and animism. More recently, anthropologists have also seen other animals as participants in human social interactions. This article describes the roles played by other animals in human culture, so defined, both practical and symbolic. ## Practical uses ### As food The human population exploits a large number of non-human animal species for food, both of domesticated livestock species in animal husbandry and, mainly at sea, by hunting wild species. Marine fish of many species, such as herring, cod, tuna, mackerel and anchovy, are caught and killed commercially, and can form an important part of the human diet, including protein and fatty acids. Commercial fish farms concentrate on a smaller number of species, including salmon and carp. Invertebrates including cephalopods like squid and octopus; crustaceans such as prawns, crabs, and lobsters; and bivalve or gastropod molluscs such as clams, oysters, cockles, and whelks are all hunted or farmed for food. Non-human mammals form a large part of the livestock raised for meat across the world. They include (2011) around 1.4 billion cattle, 1.2 billion sheep, 1 billion domestic pigs, and (1985) over 700 million rabbits. ### For clothing and textiles Textiles from the most utilitarian to the most luxurious are often made from non-human animal fibres such as wool, camel hair, angora, cashmere, and mohair. Hunter-gatherers have used non-human animal sinews as lashings and bindings. Leather from cattle, pigs and other species is widely used to make shoes, handbags, belts and many other items. Other animals have been hunted and farmed for their fur, to make items such as coats and hats, again ranging from simply warm and practical to the most elegant and expensive. Snakes and other reptiles are traded in the tens of thousands each year to meet the demand for exotic leather; some of this trade is legal and sustainable, some of it is illegal and unsustainable, but for many species we lack sufficient data to assess whether all trade is legal and sustainable Dyestuffs including carmine (cochineal), shellac, and kermes have been made from the bodies of insects. In classical times, Tyrian purple was taken from sea snails such as Stramonita haemastoma (Muricidae) for the clothing of royalty, as recorded by Aristotle and Pliny the Elder. ### For work and transport Working domestic animals including cattle, horses, yaks, camels, and elephants have been used for work and transport from the origins of agriculture, their numbers declining with the arrival of mechanized transport and agricultural machinery. In 2004 they still provided some 80% of the power for the mainly small farms in the third world, and some 20% of the world's transport, again mainly in rural areas. In mountainous regions unsuitable for wheeled vehicles, pack animals continue to transport goods. Police, military and immigration/customs personnel exploit dogs and horses to perform a variety of tasks, which cannot be done by humans. In some cases, smart rats have been used. ### In science Animals such as the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, the zebrafish, the chicken and the house mouse, serve a major role in science as experimental models, being exploited both in fundamental biological research, such as in genetics, and in the development of new medicines, which must be tested exhaustively to demonstrate their safety. Millions of non-human mammals, especially mice and rats, are used in experiments each year. A knockout mouse is a genetically modified mouse with an inactivated gene, replaced or disrupted with an artificial piece of DNA. They enable the study of sequenced genes whose functions are unknown. ### In medicine Vaccines have been made using other animals since their discovery by Edward Jenner in the 18th century. He noted that inoculation with live cowpox afforded protection against the more dangerous smallpox. In the 19th century, Louis Pasteur developed an attenuated (weakened) vaccine for rabies. In the 20th century, vaccines for the viral diseases mumps and polio were developed using animal cells grown in vitro. An increasing variety of drugs are based on toxins and other molecules of animal origin. The cancer drug Yondelis was isolated from the tunicate Ecteinascidia turbinata. One of dozens of toxins made by the predatory cone snail Conus geographus is used as Prialt in pain relief. Different non-human animals unwillingly help humans with creating medicine that can treat certain human diseases. For example, the anticoagulant properties of snake venom are key to potential medical use. These toxins can be used to treat heart disease, pulmonary embolism, and many other diseases, all of which may originate from blood clots. ### In hunting Non-human animals, and products made from them, are used to assist in hunting. Humans have used hunting dogs to help chase down animals such as deer, wolves, and foxes; birds of prey from eagles to small falcons are used in falconry, hunting birds or mammals; and tethered cormorants have been used to catch fish. Dendrobatid poison dart frogs, especially those in the genus Phyllobates, secrete toxins such as Pumiliotoxin 251D and Allopumiliotoxin 267A powerful enough to be used to poison the tips of blowpipe darts. ### As pets A wide variety of animals are used as pets, from invertebrates such as tarantulas and octopuses, insects including praying mantises, reptiles such as snakes and chameleons, and birds including canaries, parakeets and parrots. However, non-human mammals are the most popular pets in the Western world, with the most utilized species being dogs, cats, and rabbits. For example, in America in 2012 there were some 78 million dogs, 86 million cats, and 3.5 million rabbits. Anthropomorphism, the attribution of human traits to non-human animals, is an important aspect of the way that humans relate to other animals such as pets. There is a tension between the role of other animals as companions to humans, and their existence as individuals with rights of their own; ignoring those rights is a form of speciesism. ### For sport A wide variety of both terrestrial and aquatic non-human animals are hunted for sport. The aquatic animals most often hunted for sport are fish, including many species from large marine predators such as sharks and tuna, to freshwater fish such as trout and carp. Birds such as partridges, pheasants and ducks, and mammals such as deer and wild boar, are among the terrestrial game animals most often hunted for sport and for food. ## Symbolic uses ### In art Non-human animals, often mammals but including fish and insects among other groups, have been the subjects of art from the earliest times, both historical, as in Ancient Egypt, and prehistoric, as in the cave paintings at Lascaux and other sites in the Dordogne, France and elsewhere. Famous images of other animals include Albrecht Dürer's 1515 woodcut The Rhinoceros, and George Stubbs's c. 1762 horse portrait Whistlejacket. ### In literature and film Animals as varied as bees, beetles, mice, foxes, crocodiles and elephants play a wide variety of roles in literature and film, from Aesop's Fables of the classical era to Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories and Beatrix Potter's "little books" starting with the 1901 Tale of Peter Rabbit. A genre of films, Big bug movies, has been based on oversized insects, including the pioneering 1954 Them!, featuring giant ants mutated by radiation, and the 1957 films The Deadly Mantis and Beginning of the End, this last complete with giant locusts and "atrocious" special effects. Birds have occasionally featured in film, as in Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 The Birds, loosely based on Daphne du Maurier's story of the same name, which tells the tale of sudden attacks on humans by violent flocks of birds. Ken Loach's admired 1969 Kes, based on Barry Hines's 1968 novel A Kestrel for a Knave, tells a story of a boy coming of age by training a kestrel. ### In video games Animals feature in many different roles in video games, ranging from background NPCs and basic enemies to the protagonist of a game, as in the 2022 game Stray. Animals are considered crucial to creating a believable video game setting. Virtual pet video games, such as the Nintendogs series and the mobile game Neko Atsume, are a popular type of game where you care for a fictional pet, usually a dog or cat. In 2019, a Twitter account named Can You Pet the Dog? was created to document whether the dog and cat NPCs in a game can be petted. ### In mythology and religion Animals including many insects and non-human mammals feature in mythology and religion. Among the insects, in both Japan and Europe, as far back as ancient Greece and Rome, a butterfly was seen as the personification of a human's soul, both while they were alive and after their death. The scarab beetle was sacred in ancient Egypt, while the praying mantis was considered a god in southern African Khoi and San tradition for their praying posture. Among the mammals, cattle, deer, horses, lions, bats bears, and wolves (including werewolves), are the subjects of myths and worship. Reptiles too, such as the crocodile, have been worshipped as gods in cultures including ancient Egypt and Hinduism. Of the twelve signs of the Western zodiac, six, namely Aries (ram), Taurus (bull), Cancer (crab), Leo (lion), Scorpio (scorpion) and Pisces (fish) are animals, while two others, Sagittarius (horse/human) and Capricorn (fish/goat) are hybrid animals; the name zodiac indeed means a circle of animals. All twelve signs of the Chinese zodiac are animals. In Christianity the Bible has a variety of animal symbols, the Lamb is a famous title of Jesus. In the New Testament the Gospels Mark, Luke and John have animal symbols: "Mark is a lion, Luke is a bull and John is an eagle". ## See also - Animal–industrial complex - Commodity status of animals - Veganism

A Thousand Splendid Suns

2007 novel by Khalid Hosseini

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a 2007 novel by Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini, following the huge success of his bestselling 2003 debut The Kite Runner. Mariam, an illegitimate teenager from Herat, is forced to marry a shoemaker from Kabul after a family tragedy. Laila, born a generation later, lives a relatively privileged life, but her life intersects with Mariam's when a similar tragedy forces her to accept a marriage proposal from Mariam's husband. Hosseini has remarked that he regards the novel as a "mother-daughter story" in contrast to The Kite Runner, which he considers a "father-son story". It continues some of the themes used in his previous work, such as familial dynamics, but instead focusing primarily on female characters and their roles in contemporary Afghan society. A Thousand Splendid Suns was released on May 22, 2007, and received favorable widespread critical acclaim from Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and Booklist, and became a number one New York Times Best Seller for fifteen weeks following its release. During its first week on sale, it sold over one million copies. Columbia Pictures purchased film rights in 2007, and a theatrical adaptation of the book premiered on February 1, 2017, at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, California. ## Creation ### Title The title of the book comes from a line in Josephine Davis' translation of the poem "Kabul", by the 17th-century Iranian poet Saib Tabrizi: "Every street of Kabul is enthralling to the eye Through the bazaars, caravans of Egypt pass One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs And the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls" Hosseini explained "I was searching for English translations of poems about Kabul, for use in a scene where a character bemoans leaving his beloved city, when I found this particular verse. I realized that I had found not only the right line for the scene, but also an evocative title in the phrase 'a thousand splendid suns,' which appears in the next-to-last stanza." ### Inspiration When asked what led him to write a novel centered on two Afghan women, Hosseini responded: > "I had been entertaining the idea of writing a story of Afghan women for some time after I'd finished writing The Kite Runner. That first novel was a male-dominated story. All the major characters, except perhaps for Amir's wife Soraya, were men. There was a whole facet of Afghan society which I hadn't touched on in The Kite Runner, an entire landscape that I felt was fertile with story ideas...In the spring of 2003, I went to Kabul, and I recall seeing these burqa-clad women sitting at street corners, with four, five, six children, begging for change. I remember watching them walking in pairs up the street, trailed by their children in ragged clothes, and wondering how life had brought them to that point...I spoke to many of those women in Kabul. Their life stories were truly heartbreaking...When I began writing A Thousand Splendid Suns, I found myself thinking about those resilient women over and over. Though no one woman that I met in Kabul inspired either Laila or Mariam, their voices, faces, and their incredible stories of survival were always with me, and a good part of my inspiration for this novel came from their collective spirit." ### Writing Hosseini disclosed that in some ways, A Thousand Splendid Suns was more difficult to write than his first novel, The Kite Runner. He noted the anticipation for his second book when writing it, compared to The Kite Runner wherein "no one was waiting for it." He also found his second novel to be more "ambitious" than the first due to its larger cast of characters; its dual focus on Mariam and Laila; and its covering a multi-generational-period of nearly forty-five-years in total. However, he found the novel easier to write once he had begun, noting "as I began to write, as the story picked up the pace and I found myself immersed in the world of Mariam and Laila, these apprehensions vanished on their own. The developing story captured me and enabled me to tune out the background noise and get on with the business of inhabiting the world I was creating." The characters "took on a life of their own" at this point and "became very real for [him]". Similar to The Kite Runner, the manuscript had to be extensively revised; with Hosseini ultimately rewriting the book five times before it was complete. The novel's anticipated release was first announced in October 2006, when it was described as a story about "family, friendship, faith and the salvation to be found in love". ## Plot On the outskirts of Herat, Mariam lives with her embittered mother, Nana, in a secluded hut. Born as a result of an extra-marital liaison between her mother and Jalil, a wealthy local businessman, the family lives outside of the city in order to avoid confronting Jalil's three wives and nine legitimate children. Nana resents Jalil for his mistreatment of her and his deceptive attitude towards Mariam, whom he visits every Thursday. On her fifteenth birthday, Mariam asks her father to take her to see Pinocchio at a cinema he owns and to introduce her to her siblings. Jalil promises to do so but when he does not come to pick her up, Mariam travels to Herat herself, against the wishes of her mother. When she arrives at her father's home, she is informed he is away on a business trip. After spending the night on the street outside Jalil's home, Mariam discovers that Jalil had been home the entire time. Heartbroken, Mariam returns home to find that Nana has hanged herself. Mariam is temporarily moved into Jalil's house, to the displeasure of his wives. They pressure Jalil to remove Mariam from their household. Jalil arranges for Mariam to marry Rasheed, a widowed shoemaker from Kabul thirty years her senior, and move to Kabul. Rasheed is initially kind to Mariam, but over the course of seven miscarriages, their relationship sours and he becomes increasingly abusive toward Mariam, angered by her inability to provide him a son. Meanwhile, Mariam's young neighbor Laila grows up close to her father, an educated school teacher, but worries about her mother, who is deeply depressed following the death of her two sons fighting for the Mujahideen against the Soviets. Laila is close friends with Tariq, a local Pashtun boy with one leg, and a romance develops between them as they grow up. When Laila is fourteen, Afghanistan enters a civil war, and Kabul is bombarded by frequent rocket attacks. Tariq's family decide to leave the city, and while saying their good-byes, he and Laila have sex in a moment of passion. Shortly afterwards, Laila's family decide to also escape the city, but before they can, a rocket hits their home, killing Laila's parents and severely injuring Laila. Laila is taken in by Mariam and Rasheed, and as she recovers from her injuries, Rasheed begins courting her, to Mariam's dismay. One day, a man arrives at Rasheed's home to inform Laila that Tariq and his family died in a bomb blast on their way to Pakistan. Realizing that she is pregnant with Tariq's child, Laila agrees to marry Rasheed, convincing Rasheed that the child is his. Laila gives birth to a daughter, whom she names Aziza. Mariam initially treats Laila coldly, avoiding contact with her and Aziza. They eventually become friends, bonding over Rasheed's abuse of both of them after Aziza's birth. They form a close mother-daughter-like bond, weathering Rasheed's abuse and raising Aziza. One spring, Mariam and Laila attempt to escape from Rasheed, but are caught by the local police and returned to Rasheed. Rasheed punishes the two of them by beating them and nearly starving them to death. The Taliban rise to power in Kabul and impose harsh rules on the local population, severely curtailing women's rights. Laila is forced to give birth to a son, Zalmai, via a Caesarian section without anaesthesia due to the local women's hospital being stripped of its supplies. Laila and Mariam struggle with raising Zalmai, whom Rasheed dotes on and favours over Aziza. During a drought, Rasheed's workshop burns down, and he is forced to take other jobs, worsening his mood and the abuse. Due to a lack of food, Rasheed forces Laila to send Aziza to an orphanage and refuses to accompany her to visit Aziza. Laila endures beatings from Taliban for travelling alone to visit Aziza. One day, Tariq suddenly shows up on Laila's doorstep and reunites with Laila, much to her shock and joy. Tariq explains to Laila the events that lead him back to Kabul, and Laila realizes that Rasheed paid the man to lie to her about Tariq's death to convince her to marry him. Laila and Mariam agree to attempt to escape again, this time with Tariq's help. However, when Rasheed returns home from work, Zalmai informs Rasheed that Laila had a male visitor. Enraged, Rasheed begins a vicious beating and attempts to strangle Laila to death. To save Laila, Mariam kills Rasheed with a shovel. Stricken by guilt and knowing the authorities would be after them, Mariam decides to turn herself in to draw attention away from Laila and Tariq's escape with the children. Confessing the murder to the Taliban, Mariam is sentenced to public execution, and complies peacefully, glad that she has experienced true love and joy during the years she spent with Laila and the children. Laila and Tariq successfully escape Afghanistan with the children and move to Murree, Pakistan, where they get married. After the fall of the Taliban, they decide to return to Kabul to be present for the rebuilding of Afghan society. They stop en route to Herat, where Laila visits the village where Mariam was raised. She meets with the son of a kindly mullah who taught Mariam, who gives her a box Jalil had entrusted to the family to give to Mariam, should she return to Herat. The box contains a videotape of Pinocchio, a sack of money, and a letter in which Jalil expresses his regret and love for Mariam, wishing he had fought for her and raised her as his legitimate child. The family return to Kabul and use the money to repair the orphanage Aziza had stayed in, and Laila works there as a teacher. She becomes pregnant with her third child, whom she intends to name Mariam if it is a girl. ## Characters ### Major Characters - Mariam, an ethnic Tajik born in Herat in 1959. The illegitimate child of Jalil and Nana, his housekeeper, she suffers shame throughout her life due to the circumstances of her birth, and is forced to marry a much older shoemaker and move to Kabul after her mother's death. Hosseini describes Mariam as "isolated in every sense of the word. She is a woman who is detached from the day-to-day norms of human existence. Really, she just wants a connection with another human being". Despite initially resenting Laila, she becomes a "friend and a doting alternative mother" to her through the "common hardship" of being married to the "abusive, psychologically imposing" Rasheed. Mariam kills Rasheed while defending Laila, for which she is publicly executed by the Taliban. - Laila, an ethnic Tajik born in Kabul in 1978. The only surviving child of Hakim and Fariba after her older brothers die in the Afghan-Soviet War, she is raised by educated parents who educate her, first at school and later at home when Kabul becomes too dangerous. Compared to Mariam, Hosseini noted she "had a much more fulfilling relationship with her father, her [girlfriends] and her childhood friend, Tariq. She expected to finish school and is looking for personal fulfillment. These are two very different representations of women". Laila's life becomes tied with Mariam's when she is forced to marry Rasheed in order to protect herself and her unborn child after the death of her parents and supposed death of Tariq. This initially causes resentment from Mariam, who "[feels] her territory infringed upon". Despite this, "Laila becomes her daughter for all practical purposes" on account of the struggles and abuse they both experience during their marriage. At the end of the novel, Laila returns to Kabul becomes a schoolteacher at an orphanage. - Rasheed, an ethnic Pashtun from Kabul who works as a shoemaker. During his first marriage, Rasheed sired a son who tragically died to drowning; it is suggested in the novel that this happened as a result of Rasheed being drunk while caring for him. Rasheed is deeply misogynistic, often subjecting his wives and 'daughter' Aziza to frequent physical, mental and emotional abuse. In spite of his horrific behavior toward women, Rasheed shows genuine love toward his son Zalmai, whom he dotes greatly. After suffering years of experiencing domestic abuse, Mariam bludgeons Rasheed to death with a shovel while he attempts to strangle Laila to death. Hosseini hoped to make a multi-layered character with Rasheed, noting "Rasheed's the embodiment of the patriarchal, tribal character. In writing him, I didn't want to write him as an irredeemable villain. He is a reprehensible person, but there are moments of humanity, such as his love for his son." Hosseini identified an encounter with an Afghan man who "had a very sweet, subservient wife" and had not yet informed her that he was planning to marry again" as an inspiration for the character. - Tariq, an ethnic Pashtun born in Kabul in 1976 who grew up with Laila. He lost a leg to a landmine at the age of five. He and Laila evolve from close friends to lovers shortly before he flees Kabul with his family. As a refugee in Pakistan, Tariq suffers many tragedies: his father passes away from illness in the refugee camps, and Tariq ends up with a seven year prison sentence for inadvertently participating in drug trafficking. While imprisoned, Tariq's mother dies of exposure. After being freed from prison Tariq gains stable employment from a relative of a prisoner he befriended. Soon after gaining stable employment, Tariq reunites with Laila in Kabul. After Rasheed's death, Tariq and Laila leave for Pakistan and marry. Following the fall of the Taliban Tariq returns to Kabul with Laila, expecting to have a third child. ### Supporting Characters - Nana, an ethnic Tajik from a village outside Herat. Initially betrothed to a local boy in her village, Nana's life trajectory greatly changes after "the jinn enters her body" shortly before marriage, causing her to have a seizure. The incident leaves her unmarriageable, and she eventually becomes a house servant for Jalil. She has an affair with Jalil, leading to the birth of her daughter Mariam. The scandal of the affair brings dishonour upon Jalil's wives and legitimate children, causing him to remove Nana and Mariam from his household and relocate them. This treatment causes Nana to become deeply bitter toward Jalil and his family. Embittered by the tragedies of her life, Nana often mentally and emotionally abuses Mariam, blaming her for her life's misfortune. After Mariam leaves the family home for the first time on her own to find Jalil on her fifteenth birthday, Nana hangs herself, believing that Mariam abandoned her. - Mullah Faizullah, a local Sufi imam who teaches Mariam the Qur'an and supports her and Nana. He is one of the few people in Mariam's life who brings her comfort and joy, though they lose contact after Mariam is forced to marry Rasheed and move to Kabul. He dies of natural causes in 1989. - Jalil, a local businessman in Herat who has three wives and nine (later ten) legitimate children, in addition to Mariam. While doting on Mariam, Jalil's reluctance to treat her like his legitimate children ultimately brings the both of them tragedy: his actions indirectly cause Mariam to lose her mother, and his decision to send Mariam away creates a permanent schism between the two that is never resolved. Before his death, he expresses deep regret for his treatment of Mariam, through a letter and various keepsakes that would have been given to her if she had ever returned to Herat. Mariam never receives these items; instead, Laila receives them in her stead after visiting Mariam's hometown. - Hakim, Laila's father, a university educated man from Panjshir who works first as a teacher and then at a factory after the war. He is progressive and wishes for Laila to be educated and make her own decisions in life, going against traditional cultural values by urging Laila to prioritize her education over marriage. Initially in a loving marriage, Hakim's relationship with his wife Fariba sours after the loss of their sons and Hakim's lack of traditional masculinity. In spite of this, Hakim remains dedicated to Fariba, refusing to abandon her and leave Kabul even as many of their friends and neighbours do. He is killed in a rocket explosion alongside his wife Fariba, shortly after he manages to convince her to flee the city due to increasingly intense conflict. - Fariba, Laila's mother, originally from Panjshir. She briefly meets Mariam when she first arrives in Kabul, and is depicted as a cheerful woman. Her disposition is permanently changed after her two sons, Ahmad and Noor, leave their home to fight and are later killed in the Afghan-Soviet war: Fariba becomes deeply depressed and obsessed with the loss of her sons. This obsession blots out her relationship with her husband, with whom she often fights and treats poorly, and her relationship with her daughter, whom she often neglects. Fariba's obsession with her deceased sons causes her and her remaining family to remain in Kabul long after many of their friends and neighbours flee from the constant danger in the city. She is later killed in a rocket explosion alongside her husband Hakim, shortly after he manages to convince her to flee the city due to increasingly intense conflict. - Hasina, one of Laila's childhood friends. She has a close relationship with Laila, often teasing her. Hasina leaves Kabul after she is betrothed to one of her cousins, who plans on marrying her and moving them to Germany. - Giti, one of Laila's childhood friends. She has a close relationship with Laila, with whom she feels comfortable gushing about boys to. Giti is tragically killed when a stray rocket hits her, blowing her body into bits. - Aziza, the illegitimate daughter of Laila and Tariq, born in 1993 in Kabul. When Laila learns of Tariq's alleged death, she marries Rasheed in order to hide Aziza's illegitimacy. Aziza's birth marks Laila's fall from favour with Rasheed and leads to the friendship between Mariam and Laila. During a famine, Aziza temporary is placed into an orphanage so she can be fed. - Zalmai, the legitimate son of Laila and Rasheed, born in 1997 in Kabul. Laila initially considers aborting him due to him being Rasheed's biological child. Zalmai idolises his father despite his abuse of Laila and Mariam. Zalmai remains unaware that Mariam killed Rasheed and is led to believe he has left Kabul. Zalmai does not initlally respect Tariq, but by the end of the novel, appears to be accepting him as a father figure. ## Analysis ### Family When asked about common themes in The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, Hosseini replied: > "Both novels are multigenerational, and so the relationship between parent and child, with all of its manifest complexities and contradictions, is a prominent theme. I did not intend this, but I am keenly interested, it appears, in the way parents and children love, disappoint, and in the end honor each other. In one way, the two novels are corollaries: The Kite Runner was a father-son story, and A Thousand Splendid Suns can be seen as a mother-daughter story." He considers both novels to be "love stories" in the sense love "draws characters out of their isolation, that gives them the strength to transcend their own limitations, to expose their vulnerabilities, and to perform devastating acts of self-sacrifice". ### Women in Afghanistan Hosseini visited Afghanistan in 2003, and "heard so many stories about what happened to women, the tragedies that they had endured, the difficulties, the gender-based violence that they had suffered, the discrimination, the being barred from active life during the Taliban, having their movement restricted, being banned essentially from practicing their legal, social rights, political rights". This motivated him to write a novel centered on two Afghan women. The Washington Post critic Jonathan Yardley suggested that "the central theme of A Thousand Splendid Suns is the place of women in Afghan society", pointing to a passage in which Mariam's mother states, "learn this now and learn it well, my daughter: like a compass needle that points north, a man's accusing finger always finds a woman. Always. You remember that, Mariam." In the book, both Mariam and Laila are forced into accepting marriage to Rasheed, who requires them to wear a burqa long before it is implemented by law under the Taliban. He later becomes increasingly abusive. A Riverhead Trades Weekly review states that the novel consistently shows the "patriarchal despotism where women are agonizingly dependent on fathers, husbands and especially sons, the bearing of male children being their sole path to social status." ## Reception In the first week following its release, A Thousand Splendid Suns sold over one million copies, becoming a number-one New York Times bestseller for fifteen weeks. Time magazine's Lev Grossman placed it at number three in the Top 10 Fiction Books of 2007, and praised it as a "dense, rich, pressure-packed guide to enduring the unendurable." Jonathan Yardley said in the Washington Post "Book World", "Just in case you're wondering whether Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns is as good as The Kite Runner, here's the answer: No. It's better." A Thousand Splendid Suns received significant praise from reviewers, with Publishers Weekly calling it "a powerful, harrowing depiction of Afghanistan" and USA Today describing the prose as "achingly beautiful". Lisa See of The New York Times attributed the book's success to Hosseini "[understanding] the power of emotion as few other popular writers do". Natasha Walter from The Guardian wrote, "Hosseini is skilled at telling a certain kind of story, in which events that may seem unbearable - violence, misery and abuse - are made readable. He doesn't gloss over the horrors his characters live through, but something about his direct, explanatory style and the sense that you are moving towards a redemptive ending makes the whole narrative, for all its tragedies, slip down rather easily." Cathleen Medwick gave the novel a highly positive review in O, the Oprah Magazine: > "Love may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you consider the war-ravaged landscape of Afghanistan. But that is the emotion—subterranean, powerful, beautiful, illicit, and infinitely patient—that suffuses the pages of Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns. As in his best-selling first novel, The Kite Runner, Hosseini movingly examines the connections between unlikely friends, the fissures that open up between parents and children, the intransigence of quiet hearts." The New York Times writer Michiko Kakutani wrote a more critical review, describing the opening as "heavy-handed" and early events in the novel as "soap-opera-ish". Despite these objections, she concluded, "Gradually, however, Mr. Hosseini's instinctive storytelling skills take over, mowing down the reader's objections through sheer momentum and will. He succeeds in making the emotional reality of Mariam and Laila's lives tangible to us, and by conjuring their day-to-day routines, he is able to give us a sense of what daily life was like in Kabul — both before and during the harsh reign of the Taliban." Similarly, Yvonne Zipp of The Christian Science Monitor concluded that A Thousand Splendid Suns was ultimately "a little shaky as a work of literature". The depictions of the lead female characters, Mariam and Laila, were praised by several commentators. John Freeman from The Houston Chronicle found them "enormously winning" while Carol Memmott from USA Today further described them as "stunningly heroic characters whose spirits somehow grasp the dimmest rays of hope". Medwick summed up the portrayals: "Mariam, branded as a harami, or bastard, and forced into an abusive marriage at the age of fifteen, and Laila, a beauty groomed for success but shrouded almost beyond recognition by repressive sharia law and the husband she and Mariam share. The story, epic in scope and spanning three decades, follows these two indomitable women whose fortunes mirror those of their beloved and battered country—'nothing pretty to look at, but still standing'—and who find in each other the strength they need to survive." Jennifer Reese from Entertainment Weekly dubbed Rasheed "one of the most repulsive males in recent literature". Lisa See wrote that, with the exception of Tariq, "the male characters seem either unrelentingly evil or pathetically weak" and opined, "If a woman wrote these things about her male characters, she would probably be labeled a man-hater." On November 5, 2019, the BBC News listed A Thousand Splendid Suns on its list of the 100 most inspiring novels. ## Adaptations Columbia Pictures owns the movie rights to the novel. Steven Zaillian finished writing the first draft of the screenplay in 2009 and was also slated to direct; Scott Rudin had signed on as a producer. In May 2013, studios confirmed a tentative release date of 2015, although as of 2022 the film remains unproduced. The first theatrical adaptation of the novel premiered in San Francisco, California, on February 1, 2017. It is co-produced by the American Conservatory Theater and Theatre Calgary. The theatrical adaptation condenses the novel for length, beginning with the deaths of Hakim and Fariba and telling earlier sections (such as Mariam's childhood and Laila and Tariq's romance) through flashbacks. A television limited series adaptation of the novel is in works by One Community. An opera adaptation of the novel, composed by Sheila Silver, was commissioned by Seattle Opera and premiered on February 25, 2023.

Briarcliff High School

Briarcliff High School (BHS) is a public secondary school in Briarcliff Manor, New York that serves students in grades 9–12. It is the only high school in the Briarcliff Manor Union Free School District, sharing its campus with Briarcliff Middle School. As of 2021, the principal is Diana Blank and the assistant principal is Daniel Goldberg. Briarcliff is noted for outstanding student achievement, testing scores and accomplishments, including a highly regarded science research program, world language and performing arts programs, University in the High School and Advanced Placement courses, and graduation and college attendance rates. The school has an 11:1 student–teacher ratio, and nearly every student has at least grade-level proficiency in mathematics and English. The student body primarily consists of graduates from Briarcliff Middle School. Additionally, students graduating from Pocantico Hills Central School have the option to attend high school either at Briarcliff High School, Pleasantville High School, or Sleepy Hollow High School. The majority, 75 percent in 2013, attend Briarcliff High School. Students from Pocantico Hills as well as other districts pay a tuition fee to attend. In 2015, Newsweek ranked the high school 31st-best in the country. The school was founded in 1928 at the Grade School building adjacent to Law Memorial Park. In 1971, the school moved to its current facility on the east border of the village. ## History From 1865 until 1918, Briarcliff Manor served students up to the ninth grade. Before 1918, Briarcliff students who wanted to proceed to high school would attend the nearby Ossining High School. After 1918, Briarcliff introduced an advanced curriculum for high school students. In 1923, four students were the first in a Briarcliff school to receive high school diplomas. In 1928, with the entrance of additional high school students, an extension was added to the Spanish Renaissance-style Grade School for use as Briarcliff High School. The building was located adjacent to the Walter W. Law Memorial Park. The enlarged school accepted students from Croton, Hawthorne, North White Plains, Valhalla, and as far as Granite Springs. The high school newspaper, The Briarcliff Bulletin, was founded in 1948. As Briarcliff's student population expanded, the need for more school facilities became apparent. In 1950, students from kindergarten to fifth grade were moved to the new Todd Elementary School. In spite of the newly empty space in the Grade School building, the high school population's continued growth necessitated the construction of a new structure. Efforts were delayed until the 1960s, when the village government made plans to purchase 55 acres (22 ha) of the Choate estate. Pace University, however, purchased the entire estate, and it remains its Pleasantville campus. The Briarcliff Manor Board of Education took the matter to court and succeeded, and Pace sold 35 acres (14 ha) to the village, which bought eight additional acres. The new site was completed in 1968, and the current high school building opened in 1971. In the 1980s, as school enrollment declined and costs increased, the Grade School building was leased to Pace University and the remaining students in that building (grades six through eight) occupied a portion of the new High School building. In 1988, a plan for a larger village and school meeting and performance area was initiated. A new auditorium was completed in 1998. After a bond vote in 2001, the current Briarcliff Middle School was constructed in the early 2000s adjoining the high school. In the summer and fall of 2011, several renovations took place, affecting primarily the high school. All front-facing windows of the high school were replaced with energy-efficient windows, and a permanent-storage building was constructed on the northeast side to store auditorium and maintenance supplies. In addition, many of the computers in the school were replaced with thin client computers. In 2013, the school's cardiovascular and weight lifting center was improved with more machines and equipment, increased space, new flat screen televisions, and other additions. In 2013 and 2014, the school's fields on the property were remediated due to the use of contaminated fill. The football field was completed with artificial turf, as well as the track and artificial turf baseball field; an artificial turf hockey field was to be completed by Labor Day. The lower soccer field will be reconstructed after the fall 2014 soccer season. Work on the softball field was finished in fall 2013. A security plan is to be submitted to the New York State Education Department; it includes plans to upgrade the main entrance doors and construct vestibules and greeter stations. ## Enrollment As of 2014, the school had 587 students, including 81 from the Pocantico Hills Central School, comprising 13.8 percent of the student body. Students in the graduating class of 2013 had a 100 percent graduation rate and a 99 percent college placement rate. 99 percent of those students graduated with a Regents diploma, 50 percent with Advanced Designation with Honors, 21 percent with Advanced Designation, and 3 percent obtained Regents with Honors. 24 percent graduated with a standard Regents diploma and 1 percent with a local diploma. ## Theater and music Briarcliff High School hosts several theatrical and musical groups. School groups include the Fall Drama, the Spring Musical, Jazz Band, Pep Band, Camerata, Clifftones, Overtones, Chamber Orchestra, and Garage Orchestra. The high school prides itself on its arts curricula, and produces musicals and dramatic productions at the school auditorium, which was built in 1998 and seats 500. In 2010, it was renamed for former Superintendent Frances G. Wills. The auditorium has hosted other Briarcliff shows and events, including the Centennial Variety Show from April 26–27, 2002, arranged by the nine-member Briarcliff Manor Centennial Committee for the village's centennial celebration. The school was the first US high school to perform the British musical The Hired Man, from March 7–9, 2014. The school is known for its annual musicals, which often sell out. The school also reaches out to professionals who volunteer their time; the assistant director at the Studio Theater (also the son of Frances G. Wills) ran a workshop on proper casting and auditions for the students and arranged for Children of Eden creator Stephen Schwartz to visit the school during its 2002 production of his musical. Briarcliff is often recognized at the annual awards ceremony at the Helen Hayes Youth Theatre in Nyack, ceremonies which are held in early June with awards in numerous categories, modeled after the Tony Award. Their 2002 performance of Children of Eden earned ten nominations and three awards, for overall production, actor in a lead role, and director. The school spent \$23,000 on the production to pay for royalties, stipends for teachers acting as choreographers, musical directors and rehearsal accompanists, and for external workers to help students improve the production's lighting, sets and sound. For their 2003 production of Footloose, the school's musical director Kathleen Donovan-Warren rented multicolored stage lighting and hired an electric guitarist as one of three professional musicians who played along with the student orchestra. There was a tradition in the musicals for the superintendent to have a cameo in the show, up until around 1999. ## Sports Besides intramural sports, Briarcliff High School has junior varsity and varsity teams in sixteen sports, playing under the name Briarcliff Bears. The baseball team won the state championship in 1998, and the section 1 championship each year from 2001 to 2003, led by flamethrower Bob Blevins. In 2010 they made it back to the section finals, led by seniors James Lombardi and Danny Collins. This sparked two state final runs in 2011 and 2012, led by slugger John Fussell. Boys' Basketball was a Class B powerhouse from 06 to 08, winning the section championship in 06–07 over Woodlands. In 07-08 they were heavy favorites but lost in the section finals to North Salem. They reclaimed the Class B crown in 2016, defeating Putnam Valley. In 2010, the girls soccer team became nationally ranked by ESPN as a top-50 national team. ## Academics Along with classrooms, a writing lab, and a library, the school has an open room called the Maresca, where students study surrounded by teacher's offices. The school offers courses in five languages: Spanish, Latin, French, Conversational Italian, and Mandarin Chinese. Through the district's affiliation with the Board of Cooperative Educational Services, students have the option for vocational education at the Tech Center at Yorktown, a program in Yorktown Heights. Briarcliff High School's electives include: ## School ranking Briarcliff High School is 31st out of 1,259 schools in the 2015 U.S. News & World Report rankings for New York, and 212th out of about 21,000 schools nationally. In the 2014 U.S. News & World Report, the school was 31st out of about 1,100 schools in the rankings for New York, and 156th out of about 19,400 schools nationally. In the 2013 report, the school was 31st out of about 1,100 schools in New York, and 170th out of about 21,000 schools nationally. Newsweek ranked the school 31st nationally in 2015, 17th nationally in 2014, 106th nationally, 20th in New York, and 28th in New England in 2013, 96th nationally and 17th in New York in 2005, and in 2000, Newsweek ranked the school 42nd-best in the country. Briarcliff's school district, the Briarcliff Manor Union Free School District, is rated as the fifth-wealthiest school district in the United States and the third-wealthiest in New York. Briarcliff High School students greatly exceed averages on New York State Assessment tests, with almost 100% of Briarcliff students having recorded passing grades. ## Alumni Notable alumni of Briarcliff High School include Michael Azerrad, an author; Clifford Carter, a musician; John Hersey, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and journalist who grew up in Briarcliff and attended the public schools; Brice Marden, a minimalist painter who grew up in the village and is a 1965 graduate of Briarcliff High School; Tom Ortenberg, the CEO of Open Road Films and the former president of Lionsgate Films; Jen Sincero, New York Times bestselling author, graduated in 1983; Ali Vitali, a journalist and author; and minor league baseball player Bobby Blevins, who grew up in the village and graduated from Briarcliff High School in 2003. ## See also - Education in New York

There's a Riot Goin' On

There's a Riot Goin' On is the fifth studio album by American funk and soul band Sly and the Family Stone. It was recorded from 1970 to 1971 at Record Plant Studios in Sausalito, California and released later that year on November 1 by Epic Records. The recording was dominated by band frontman/songwriter Sly Stone during a period of escalated drug use and intra-group tension. With the album, Sly and the Family Stone departed from the optimistic sound of their previous music and explored a darker, more challenging sound featuring edgy funk rhythms, primitive drum machine, extensive overdubbing, and a dense mix. Conceptually and lyrically, There's a Riot Goin' On embraced apathy, pessimism, and disillusionment with both Stone's fame and 1960s counterculture amid a turbulent political climate in the United States at the turn of the 1970s, influenced by the decline of the civil rights movement and the rise of the Black Power movement. The album's title was originally planned to be Africa Talks to You, but it changed in response to Marvin Gaye's album What's Going On (1971), released six months before Riot. A commercial success, There's a Riot Goin' On topped the Billboard Pop Album and Soul Album charts, while its lead single "Family Affair" reached number-one on the Pop Singles chart. The album was eventually certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales of at least one million copies in the US. Originally released to mixed reviews, the album has since been praised as one of the greatest and most influential recordings of all time, having impacted the funk, jazz-funk, and hip hop genres in particular. It ranks frequently and highly in many publications' best-album lists, including Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", on which it placed 99th in 2003 and 82nd in 2020. ## Background Having achieved great success with their 1969 album Stand! and performance at Woodstock, Sly & the Family Stone were due to have submitted an album of new recordings to Epic Records by 1970. However, Sly Stone missed several recording deadlines, worrying CBS executive Clive Davis, and a Greatest Hits album was released in an eighteen-month stretch during which the band released no new material, except for the single "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)". Relationships within the band were deteriorating, with friction between the Stone brothers and bassist Larry Graham. Epic executives requested more product from the band, and the Black Panther Party, with which Stone had become associated, was demanding he make his music more militant and reflective of the black power movement, that he replace drummer Greg Errico and saxophonist Jerry Martini with black instrumentalists, and replace manager David Kapralik. After moving to Los Angeles, California in late 1969 Stone and his bandmates began to use cocaine and PCP heavily rather than recording music. During this time Sly & the Family Stone released only one single, "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" / "Everybody Is a Star", issued in December 1969. Although "Star" was a positive song in the vein of their previous hit "Everyday People" (1968), "Thank You" featured a darker political theme. By 1970, Stone had become erratic and moody, missing nearly a third of the band's concert dates. He hired streetwise friends Hamp "Bubba" Banks and J.B. Brown as his personal managers, and they enlisted gangsters Edward "Eddie Chin" Elliott and Mafioso J.R. Valtrano as his bodyguards. Stone assigned these individuals to handle his business dealings, find drugs and protect him from those he considered enemies, among them his own bandmates and staff. A rift developed between Sly and the rest of the band, which led to drummer Gregg Errico's departure in early 1971. Speculation arose as to the release of new studio material. In a December 24, 1970 article for Rolling Stone magazine, journalist Jon Landau wrote: > The man from Epic tells me that Sly hasn't recorded much lately. His last album of new material was released well over a year ago and even 'Thank You', his last single, is old by now. Greatest Hits was released only as a last resort in order to get something salable into the record stores. It was a necessary release and stands as the final record of the first chapter in Sly & the Family Stone's career. Whatever the reasons for his recording abstinence, I hope it ends soon so that he can get back to making new music and we can get back to listening to it. Stone's intention of a darker, more conceptual work was influenced by drug use and the events that writer Miles Marshall Lewis called "the death of the sixties"; political assassinations, police brutality, the decline of the civil rights movement and social disillusionment. According to The Austin Chronicle, "slowed down, [Sly's] quest for post-stardom identity mirrored black America's quest for post-Sixties purpose." ## Recording and production Sly Stone mostly worked on There's a Riot Goin' On alone in a studio that he had built for himself at The Plant Studios, also known as The Record Plant, in Sausalito, California, or at his home studio in the loft of his Bel Air mansion. He would often lie down in the bed and record his vocals with a wireless microphone system. According to the other Family Stone members, most of the album was performed by him alone, overdubbing and sometimes using a drum machine to lay down beats, namely the Maestro Rhythm King MRK-2, which featured preset rhythms. Stone felt that the rhythm box made unrealistic sounds if used as designed, so he resorted to overdubbing the drum sounds manually, contributing to the dense mix. Other band members contributed by overdubbing alone with Sly instead of playing together as before. For "Family Affair" and some other tracks Stone enlisted several other musicians including Billy Preston, Ike Turner, and Bobby Womack instead of his bandmates, and several female vocalists mostly omitted from the final mix. The album's muddy, gritty sound was due in part to this overdubbing and erasing and mixing techniques nearly drowned out undubbed sounds. Miles Marshall Lewis stated, "Never before on a Sly and the Family Stone album were songs open to so much interpretation, and even more so, dripping with cynicism. On the other hand you can hardly hear what he's saying for most of the album. Like Radiohead's Kid A (2000) or even the Rolling Stones' Exile on Main St. (1972) more recent to the time, a murkiness in the mix of the record inhibits complete comprehension of the words." In the fall of 1971 Stone delivered the final mixes to the CBS Records offices, relieving the worried Davis. CBS issued "Family Affair" as the first single, the band's first in nearly two years. A somber, electric piano-based record sung by Sly (in a low, relaxed tone) and sister Rose Stone, it became their fourth and final number-one pop hit. It is one of the earliest hit recordings to use a drum machine – a slightly earlier Sly Stone production, Little Sister's "Somebody's Watching You", was also among the first. ## Music and lyrics The album departs from the optimistic psychedelic soul sound of the group's 1960s records, instead embracing a darker sound featuring filtered drum-machine tracks. Songs such as "Luv 'n Haight", "Thank You for Talking to Me Africa", and "Spaced Cowboy" are characterized by edgier, unrelenting grooves with rhythmic sounds resembling murmuring noises. Conceptually, Riot embraces apathy as a source for deriving rhythmic and emotional energy, departing from the more welcoming sentiments of songs like "Dance to the Music" (1968). As The New York Times writer Jon Pareles explains, it was "about turning away from the post-1960s turbulence of the Nixon presidency and withdrawing into music as a hazy refuge", exemplified in the opening track "Luv n' Haight" and its declaration of "Feel so good inside myself, don't want to move". "Luv n' Haight" is satirically titled as a reference to the Haight-Ashbury scene, while the music and lyrics express disillusionment with the 1960s counterculture. BBC Music's Stevie Chick cites the track, with its "desperate call-and-response set to fiercely combative lick", as an example of Riot's "dark" and "troubled" funk. "Africa Talks to You" is a nine-minute funk jam written in response to the backlash Sly Stone received from estranged fans and friends, record industry associates, and the media. According to biographer Eddie Santiago, the lyrics cynically portray "fame and its cold retrogression into perceived insanity", with a chorus that reflects "Sly's feelings on being cut down in his prime like a tree in the forest." The album's title track is silent and listed as zero minutes and zero seconds long. For many years it was speculated that this cryptic track listing and the title of the album referred to a July 27, 1970, riot in Chicago for which Sly & the Family Stone had been blamed. The band was to play a free show in Grant Park but the crowd became restless before the band began and started rioting. Over a hundred people were injured, including several police officers, and the reason given to the press was that the band was late and/or refused to perform. The original LP jacket featured a photo collage with a picture of the band-shell in Grant Park overlaid with a photo of a police car. However, in 1997 Sly Stone said that the "There's a Riot Goin' On" track had no running time simply because "I felt there should be no riots." The closing track "Thank You for Talking to Me Africa" is a slow reworking of Sly and the Family Stone's 1969 "Thank You" single. The result is described by AllMusic's Matthew Greenwald as a blues- and gospel-influenced examination of urban tension and the end of the 1960s. He goes on to say it is "perhaps the most frightening recording from the dawn of the 1970s, capturing all of the drama, ennui, and hedonism of the decade to come with almost a clairvoyant feel." ## Artwork The original cover art for Riot featured a red, white, and black American flag with suns in place of the stars. No other text or titles appear on the cover, although Epic executives added a "Featuring the Hit Single 'Family Affair'" sticker to the LP for commercial viability and identification purposes. Family Stone A&R director Steve Paley took the photograph. Three of the custom flags were created: one for Sly, one for Epic Records, and one for Paley. In an interview with Jonathan Dakss, Stone explained the album cover's concept, stating "I wanted the flag to truly represent people of all colors. I wanted the color black because it is the absence of color. I wanted the color white because it is the combination of all colors. And I wanted the color red because it represents the one thing that all people have in common: blood. I wanted suns instead of stars because stars to me imply searching, like you search for your star. And there are already too many stars in this world. But the sun, that's something that is always there, looking right at you. Betsy Ross did the best she could with what she had. I thought I could do better." The outer album sleeve features a photo collage, by artist Lynn Ames, depicting American cultural images of the early 1970s. Featured on this collage were color photos and black & whites of the Family Stone, the Capitol, a grinning boy in plaid pants, the American flag with a peace sign in place of the stars, the Marina City twin towers of Chicago, a Department of Public Works caution sign, a piece of the Gettysburg Address, the tail end of a gas guzzler, drummer Buddy Miles, the Lincoln Memorial, soul musician Bobby Womack, a bulldog, several anonymous smiling faces, and Sly's pit bull, Gun. ## Reception and legacy There's a Riot Goin' On was met with a divided response from professional critics and general listeners, who found its production and lyrical content particularly challenging. Reviewing in November 1971 for the Los Angeles Times, Robert Hilburn disapproved of the Family Stone's stylistic change from "soulflavored" songs such as "Everyday People" and "Hot Fun in the Summertime", while saying that "there is little on the album that is worth your attention". Fellow critic Greil Marcus called the record "Muzak with its finger on the trigger." Others were more overt in their praise. Rolling Stone reviewer Vince Aletti wrote that, "At first I hated it for its weakness and its lack of energy and I still dislike these qualities. But then I began to respect the album's honesty". Aletti cited it as "one of the most important fucking albums this year" and "the new urban music... not about dancing to the music, in the streets. It's about disintegration, getting fucked up, nodding, maybe dying. There are flashes of euphoria, ironic laughter, even some bright stretches but mostly it's just junkie death, oddly unoppressive and almost attractive in its effortlessness". A columnist for Hit Parader magazine gave Riot a favorable review, and stated that the album has "a lot that makes Sly the in-person rave that he is." In The Village Voice, Robert Christgau concluded that "what's expressed is the bitterest ghetto pessimism", backed by "subtle production techniques and jarring song compositions", while declaring Riot to be "one of those rare albums whose whole actually does exceed the sum of its parts". There's a Riot Goin' On was included on several music publications' "End of the Year" lists and critics' polls, including The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop albums list at number seven. The album achieved commercial success with two hit singles and reaching number-one on the Billboard Pop Albums and Soul Albums chart. It later came to be viewed by critics as one of the greatest and most influential albums. Christgau wrote in 2007 that the "temptations and contradictions" of commercial stardom consumed Sly Stone and resulted in "the prophetic 1971" album, "its taped-over murk presaging Exile on Main St., its drum-machine beats throwing knuckleballs at [Miles Davis] and [James Brown], it was darker than the Velvet Underground and Nico and funkier than shit, yet somehow it produced two smash hits, including the stark, deep 'Family Affair'." AllMusic described the album as "funk at its deepest and most impenetrable," stating that "what makes Riot so remarkable is that it's hard not to get drawn in with him, as you're seduced by the narcotic grooves, seductive vocals slurs, leering electric pianos, and crawling guitars." Zeth Lundy of PopMatters deemed it "a challenging listen, at times rambling, incoherent, dissonant, and just plain uncomfortable" with "some episodic moments of pop greatness to be found". Lundy went on to discuss its radical departure from the band's past music: > [It] sank their previously burgeoning idealism at a time when social disillusionment was all the rage. Sly had found something else to take him higher and, as a result, Riot is a record very much informed by drugs, paranoia, and a sort of halfhearted malcontent ... listening to it isn't exactly a pleasurable experience. It's significant in the annals of pop and soul because it is blunt and unflinching, because it reflects personal and cultural crises in a manner unbecoming for pop records at the time. Riot can be classified as avant-soul only after being recognized as a soul nightmare—the 'nightmare', so to speak, being a reflection of an unfortunate and uncompromised reality, not a glossed-over pop-music approximation of reality. There's a Riot Goin' On has been considered one of the first instances of the funk music later popularized by George Clinton and Funkadelic, the Ohio Players, and similar acts. The album, as well as the follow-ups Fresh and Small Talk, are considered among the first and best examples of the matured version of funk music, after prototypical instances of the sound in Sly & the Family Stone's 1960s work. Riot's sound also helped inspire Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock to crossover to jazz-funk. It was called "a masterpiece of darkly psychedelic funk" by AllMusic contributor Steve Huey, and "a phenomenal, dirty, psychedelic funk album" by Drowned in Sound journalist Jon Falcone, who said it soundtracked the political and social turbulence that opened the 1970s. Paul Grimstad from Brooklyn Rail regarded it as a "frigid yet weirdly intimate" avant-pop record. In 1994 There's a Riot Going On was ranked number 14 in Colin Larkin's Top 50 Soul Albums. Larkin described the album as "unlike anything heard before in black music". A 2003 article for Rolling Stone commented; "Sly and the Family Stone created a musical utopia: an interracial group of men and women who blended funk, rock and positive vibes... Sly Stone ultimately discovered that his utopia had a ghetto, and he brilliantly tore the whole thing down on There's a Riot Goin' On, which does not refute the joy of his earlier music." In addition to being featured near the top of several major publications' "best album" lists, Riot was also ranked at number 99 on Rolling Stone's 2003 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, maintaining the rating in a 2012 revised list, one of four Sly & the Family Stone entries to be included on the list; it is the second highest of the band's entries, preceded by Greatest Hits (#60), and followed by Stand! (#118) and Fresh (#186). In the 2020 updated list, the album was raised to number 82 and became the highest ranked of the three Sly & The Family Stone entries, ahead of Stand! (#119) & Greatest Hits (#343). Pitchfork named it the fourth best album of the 1970s. Riot's songs have been extensively covered and sampled. Artists who have covered or reworked its songs include Iggy Pop, John Legend, Lalah Hathaway, Ultramagnetic MC's, De La Soul, Beastie Boys and Gwen Guthrie. Dave Rosen of Ink Blot magazine said that the album sounds unique, ironically in view of its vast influence; "Sly employed the unconventional (and possibly entirely original) technique of mixing live drums with what was at the time a primitive drum machine ... The introspective, yet political lyrics, the hard and dirty funk grooves, the inspirational, yet depressing songs—all of these elements would come to influence not only peers like Marvin Gaye and James Brown, but two generations of rappers and funkateers who paid homage to Sly's vision by making his samples and beats an essential backbone of their own innovations. Sly's Riot is still goin' on." In a book on the album for the 331⁄3 series, Miles Marshall Lewis described it as "one of the most powerful and haunting albums to inspire the hip hop movement." The singer Bilal names it among his 25 favorite albums, appreciating the drum machine sounds in particular. ## Track listing All tracks written, produced and arranged by Sylvester "Sly Stone" Stewart for Stone Flower Productions. - Sides one and two were combined as tracks 1–12 on CD reissues. ## Personnel ### Musicians - Sly Stone – arrangements, drums, drum programming, keyboard programming, synthesizers, guitar, bass, keyboards, vocals - Rose Stone – vocals, keyboards - Billy Preston – keyboards - Jerry Martini – tenor saxophone - Cynthia Robinson – trumpet - Freddie Stone – guitar - Ike Turner – guitar - Bobby Womack – guitar - Larry Graham – bass, backing vocals - Greg Errico – drums - Gerry Gibson – drums - Little Sister – backing vocals ### Production - Sly Stone – producer - Engineers - Chris Hinshaw - Jack Ashkinazy - James Conniff - James Greene - Robert Gratts - Willie Greer - Rich Tilles - Artwork (collage, cover design) - Lynn Ames - John Berg - Photography (reissue) - Debbie King - Don Hunstein - Fred Lombardi - Howard R. Cohen - Joey Franklin - Linda Tyler - Lynn Ames - Ray Gaspard - Steve Paley - Sylvester Stewart ## Charts ### Weekly charts ### Year-end charts ### Singles ## See also - List of Billboard 200 number-one albums of 1971 - List of Billboard 200 R&B number-one albums of 1972

West Coast Shit

2020 song by Pop Smoke featuring Tyga and Quavo

"West Coast Shit" is a song by American rapper Pop Smoke, featuring fellow American rappers Tyga and Quavo, from the former of the three's posthumous debut studio album, Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon (2020). The song was written by the artists alongside producers Mustard, and Bongo ByTheWay. Mustard passed the song onto Pop Smoke for him to put on the album. "West Coast Shit" interpolates the lyrics of Too Short's "Shake That Monkey". In the lyrics of the song, Pop Smoke and Tyga rap about the wonders of the West Coast. The song received generally mixed reviews from music critics, with a number of them criticizing the song's production. In the United States, the song reached number 65 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 37 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, while it further peaked at number 48 on the Canadian Hot 100. ## Background and recording The night after the Off-White show in Paris during Paris Fashion Week, Pop Smoke could not sleep, and he and his team went to a recording studio at 11 p.m. Quavo and Mustard were in the next room, which they entered to start talking to them. Mustard then played a couple of songs, and "West Coast Shit" was one of the first that Pop Smoke made with him. Pop Smoke was very excited because it was the first time he met Mustard. Quavo called Mustard and told him to meet him in Paris, with the two playing different types of West Coast beats. Quavo said Pop Smoke was a New York drill rapper and didn't properly know how to rap on that kind of music. Quavo told Pop Smoke his voice was amazing, and that he could rap on anything. Pop Smoke said: "No, man. I'm going to sound like 50 Cent. I want to sound like Pop [Smoke]." Quavo responded with: "That's what I want you to sound like." "West Coast Shit" was originally supposed to be Mustard's song. Record executive Steven Victor asked Mustard if they could put it on Pop Smoke's album, and he agreed. When they were listening to the track, Victor thought it would be a good idea to add Tyga because he and Pop Smoke were friends that would talk to each other all the time. Tyga was also in Paris, but he didn't show up to the studio because he got drunk and fell asleep. Victor sent the song to him later down the line and told him to record his part; Tyga recorded the part and sent it back to Victor. Tyga explained a song like "West Coast Shit" is his type of music, which is why he wanted to join. Pop Smoke and his team were trying to find takeout food late at night, and then they made the track. Upon the release of Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon, fans of Pop Smoke criticized Tyga's appearance on the song, as well as Karol G's appearance on "Enjoy Yourself". Tyga shared attached screenshots of tweets on his Twitter account from February 2020, showing Pop Smoke asking him for a verse and asking for Karol G to be featured on the album as well. ## Writing and composition The song was written by Pop Smoke, known as Bashar Jackson, alongside Quavo, Tyga, Mustard, and BongoByTheWay, who have the respective real names of Quavious Marshall, Michael Stevenson, Dijon McFarlane, and Uforo Ebong. The track was produced by Mustard and Bongo ByTheWay. "West Coast Shit" prominently interpolates the lyrics of Too Short's 2003 single, "Shake That Monkey", standing as one of several tracks from Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon to utilize early 2000s songs. Slant Magazine's Charles Lyons-Burt said that "West Coast Shit" contains a "minimalist piano and snare combination". M.T. Richards, for Consequence of Sound, observed that Pop Smoke and Tyga rap about the miracles of the West Coast. Quavo raps: "Look, Pop Smoke, I'm on some west coast shit (Pop Smoke), In New York, I got a west coast bitch (West coast), Huncho on that west coast shit (Woo), Left wrist, both wrists, and some bricks (Woo)." ## Release and reception On July 3, 2020, "West Coast Shit" was released as the 11th track on Pop Smoke's debut posthumous studio album Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon. Roisin O'Connor of The Independent wrote that the song feels "paper-thin" when following "The Woo". A.D. Amorosi of Variety described "West Coast Shit" as a "so-so track". David Crone of AllMusic opined Tyga "squeez[es] his way ahead of the Quavo [and] Pop [Smoke]" throughout the whole song. Alphonse Pierre of Pitchfork called the song a "wannabe Cali-strip-club anthem". Lyons-Burt said the song's "production feels mournful rather than charged". Hannah Giorgis of The Atlantic commented the song is a "rare misfire, pushing Pop [Smoke] so far into commercial-sounding production that it overtakes his strongest sensibilities". Wongo Okon of Uproxx wrote that Pop Smoke "looks to appeal to the West Coast". Gary Suarez of Entertainment Weekly said Pop Smoke stands out on the song, and described it as an "inexplicably slight Mustard-helmed" track. Richards cited the song as a "bustling, cross-regional groove-athon". Following the release of Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon, "West Coast Shit" debuted and peaked at number 65 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The song simultaneously peaked at number 37 on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and number 48 on the Canadian Hot 100. It further charted at number 153 in France. ## Credits and personnel Credits adapted from Tidal. - Pop Smoke – vocals, songwriter - Quavo – vocals, songwriter - Tyga – vocals, songwriter - Mustard – production, programming, songwriter - Bongo ByTheWay – production, programming, songwriter - Jess Jackson – mastering engineer, mixing engineer - Rose Adams – assistant mixing engineer - Sage Skofield – assistant mixing engineer - Sean Solymar – assistant mixing engineer ## Charts

1962 FA Charity Shield

Football match

The 1962 FA Charity Shield was the 40th FA Charity Shield, an annual football match played between the winners of the previous season's Football League and FA Cup competitions. The match took place on 11 August 1962 at Portman Road in Ipswich, and was played between 1961–62 Football League champions Ipswich Town and 1961–62 FA Cup winners Tottenham Hotspur. Watched by a crowd of 20,067, the match ended in a 5–1 victory for Tottenham Hotspur. This was Ipswich's first appearance in the Charity Shield while Tottenham Hotspur were making their fourth, having last competed for the trophy the previous season. Tottenham's Jimmy Greaves opened the scoring and Bobby Smith doubled his team's advantage before half time. Greaves scored a second 13 minutes into the second half, and late goals from John White and Terry Medwin came either side of a Roy Stephenson consolation goal for Ipswich. ## Pre-match The FA Charity Shield was founded in 1908 as a successor to the Sheriff of London Charity Shield. It was a contest between the respective champions of the Football League and Southern League, and then by 1913 teams of amateur and professional players. In 1921, it was played by the Football League champions and FA Cup winners for the first time. Ipswich had won the league in the previous season, three points clear of Burnley and losing just twice at home at Portman Road throughout the season. Despite being promoted from the Second Division the previous season, they went on to win back-to-back league titles. Ray Crawford was the previous season's league top scorer, with 33 goals in 41 matches. Ipswich were managed by former Tottenham player Alf Ramsey, and had defeated the London club twice in the league the previous season. Tottenham Hotspur had beaten Burnley 3–1 at Wembley in the FA Cup final three months earlier. The club finished third in the league, four points behind Ipswich. Jimmy Greaves was Tottenham's top scorer the previous season, scoring 29 goals in 28 games. Ipswich had never featured in a Charity Shield match in their history. Tottenham had appeared four times, the most recent visit being in the previous year where they defeated a Football Association representative team 3–2. As of 2022, Ipswich have not played in a Charity Shield match since 1978 where they lost to Nottingham Forest 5–0, while Tottenham have competed for the title four times, losing once and sharing the trophy three times, most recently drawing 0–0 with London rivals Arsenal in the 1991 FA Charity Shield. ## Match ### Summary The match kicked off in sunny, breezy conditions, at 3 p.m. at Portman Road in front of a crowd of 20,067 and was refereed by Ken Dagnall. Ipswich were in charge early on in the match and saw an early chance from Crawford go wide as he failed to convert Jimmy Leadbetter's cross. Ipswich's Inside forwards were covering a lot of ground in both attack and defence, and this soon took its toll as Tottenham remained patient and took the lead through Greaves in the 36th minute. Peter Baker's pass to Bobby Smith was flicked into space for Greaves to run on and shoot past Ipswich's goalkeeper Roy Bailey. Five minutes later Smith's backheel from a Greaves pass deceived Ipswich defender Andy Nelson, and Smith doubled Tottenham's lead, who went in 2–0 at half-time. The second half saw Tottenham's veteran defensive midfielder Danny Blanchflower move up the pitch and provided space for his forwards, with John White's pass allowing Greaves to slip the ball past Bailey for 3–0. An injury to Ipswich defender Larry Carberry left the East Anglian club even weaker; Greaves beat five players only to slice his shot wide of the target after side-stepping Bailey. With less than ten minutes remaining, White headed in from a Terry Medwin pass. Roy Stephenson scored a late consolation goal for Ipswich but Medwin completed Tottenham's scoring, with a shot following a pass from Greaves to end the match 5–1. ### Details ## Post-match The trophy was presented to the Tottenham captain Blanchflower by Graham Doggart, the chairman of the Football Association. Remarking on the willingness of the Tottenham players to move out of position, their manager Bill Nicholson said: "there is no guarantee we shall ever do the same thing twice or stick to any particular pattern". Ramsey was not unduly moved by the result, noting that new signing Bobby Blackwood had been left out as the Charity Shield was "an honour match for the team which won the championship last season". Ipswich went on to finish 17th in the 1962–63 season while Tottenham finished runners-up behind Everton. Tottenham Hotspur were beaten in third round of the 1962–63 FA Cup by Burnley; Ipswich lost 3–1 to Leicester City in the fourth round. ## See also - 1961–62 Football League - 1961–62 FA Cup

Bristol Bus Boycott

1963 protest against racial discrimination on public buses in Bristol, UK

The Bristol Bus Boycott of 1963 arose from the refusal of the Bristol Omnibus Company to employ Black or Asian bus crews in the city of Bristol, England. In line with many other British cities at the time, there was widespread racial discrimination in housing and employment against so-called "Coloureds". An organisation founded by Roy Hackett and led by youth worker Paul Stephenson as the spokesperson of the group which included Owen Henry, Audley Evans, Prince Brown and Guy Bailey and the West Indian Development Council, the boycott of the company's buses by Bristolians lasted for four months until the company backed down and overturned their discriminative colour bar policy. The boycott drew national attention to racial discrimination in Britain and the campaign was supported by national politicians, with interventions being made by church groups and the High Commissioner for Trinidad and Tobago. The Bristol Bus Boycott was considered by some to have been influential in the passing of the Race Relations Act 1965 which made "racial discrimination unlawful in public places" and the Race Relations Act 1968, which extended the provisions to employment and housing. ## Background Bristol in the early 1960s had an estimated 3,000 residents of West Indian origin, some of whom had served in the British military during the Second World War and some who had emigrated to the UK more recently. A large number of West Indians lived in the area around City Road in St Pauls, suffered discrimination in housing and employment and some encountered violence from Teddy Boy gangs of white youths. The community set up their own churches and associations, including the West Indian Association, which began to act as a representative body. One of their foremost grievances was the colour bar operated by the Bristol Omnibus Company, which had been a nationalised company owned by the UK Government since 1950 and operated through the Transport Holding Company. Although there was a reported labour shortage on the buses, black prospective employees were refused employment offers as bus crews, although they were employed in lower paid positions in workshops and in canteens. The Bristol Evening Post and the Western Daily Press ran series on the colour bar, which was blamed by company management on the Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU), which represented bus workers. Local union officials denied that there was any colour bar but in 1955 the Passenger Group of the TGWU had passed a resolution that "coloured" workers should not be employed as bus crews. Andrew Hake, curator of the Bristol Industrial Mission, recalled that "The TGWU in the city had said that if one black man steps on the platform as a conductor, every wheel will stop". Some white conductresses expressed concern for their safety if they were crewed with black men. Another of the bus workers' concerns, apart from racism, was that a new competitive source of labour could reduce their earnings. Pay was low and workers relied on overtime to get a good wage. One shop steward said, "people were fearful of an influx of people from elsewhere (on the grounds it) would be reducing their earnings potential". ## The dispute ### Boycott Four young West Indian men, Roy Hackett, Owen Henry, Audley Evans and Prince Brown, formed an action group, later to be called the West Indian Development Council. They were unhappy with the lack of progress in fighting discrimination by the West Indian Association. Owen Henry had met Paul Stephenson, whose father was from West Africa, and who had been to college. The group decided that the articulate Stephenson would be their spokesman. Stephenson set up a test case to prove the colour bar existed by arranging an interview with the bus company for Guy Bailey, a young warehouseman and Boys' Brigade officer. When Stephenson told the company that Bailey was West Indian, the interview was cancelled. Inspired by the refusal of Rosa Parks to give up her seat on a bus in Alabama and the ensuing Montgomery bus boycott in the United States in 1955, the activists decided on a bus boycott in Bristol. Their action was announced at a press conference on 29 April 1963. The following day, they claimed that none of the city's West Indians were using the buses and that many white people supported them. In an editorial, the Bristol Evening Post pointed out that the TGWU opposed the apartheid system in South Africa and asked what trade union leaders were doing to counteract racism in their own ranks. When reporters questioned the bus company about the boycott, the general manager, Ian Patey, said > The advent of coloured crews would mean a gradual falling off of white staff. It is true that London Transport employ a large coloured staff. They even have recruiting offices in Jamaica and they subsidise the fares to Britain of their new coloured employees. As a result of this, the amount of white labour dwindles steadily on the London Underground. You won't get a white man in London to admit it, but which of them will join a service where they may find themselves working under a coloured foreman? ... I understand that in London, coloured men have become arrogant and rude, after they have been employed for some months. ### Support Students from Bristol University held a protest march to the bus station and the local headquarters of the TGWU on 1 May, which attracted heckling from bus crews as they passed through the city centre, according to the local press. Local MP Tony Benn contacted then Labour Opposition leader Harold Wilson, who spoke out against the colour bar at an Anti-Apartheid Movement rally in London. On 2 May, local Labour Party Alderman Henry Hennessey spoke of the apparent collusion between bus company management and the TGWU over the colour bar. On 3 May, the ruling Labour Group on the city council threatened him with expulsion, despite his honourable service of over forty years. Tony Benn, Fenner Brockway and former cricketer Learie Constantine also condemned the bus company. Constantine was then serving as High Commissioner for Trinidad and Tobago. Constantine wrote letters to the bus company and Stephenson and spoke out against the colour bar to reporters when he attended the cricket match between the West Indies and Gloucestershire at the County Ground, which took place from 4 to 7 May. The West Indies team refused to publicly support the boycott, saying that sport and politics did not mix. During the game, local members of the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination (CARD) distributed leaflets urging spectators to support the action. The local branch of the TGWU refused to meet with a delegation from the West Indian Development Council and an increasingly bitter war of words was fought out in the local media. Ron Nethercott, South West Regional Secretary of the union, persuaded a local black TGWU member, Bill Smith, to sign a statement which called for quiet negotiation to solve the dispute. It condemned Stephenson for causing potential harm to the city's Black and Asian population. Nethercott launched an attack on Stephenson in the Daily Herald newspaper, calling him dishonest and irresponsible. This led to a libel case in the High Court, which awarded Stephenson damages and costs in December 1963. The Bristol Council of Churches launched a mediation attempt, saying > We seriously regret that what may prove an extended racial conflict arising from this issue has apparently been deliberately created by a small group of West Indians professing to be representative. We also deplore the apparent fact that social and economic fears on the part of some white people should have placed the Bristol Bus Company in a position where it is most difficult to fulfil the Christian ideal of race relations. This in turn was criticised by Robert Davison, an official at the Jamaican High Commission, who stated that it was "nonsense to describe a group of West Indians as unrepresentative when no representative West Indian body existed". At a May Day rally, held on Sunday 6 May in Eastville, Bristol Trades Council members publicly criticised the TGWU. On the same day Paul Stephenson had organised a demonstration march to St Mary Redcliffe church but there was a poor turnout. Some local West Indians said they should not ripple the water and according to Roy Hackett, they may have feared victimisation. The dispute led to what has been described as one of the largest mailbags that the Bristol Evening Post had ever received, with contributors writing in support of both sides of the issue. ### Resolution The union, the city Labour establishment and the Bishop of Bristol, Oliver Stratford Tomkins, ignored Stephenson and tried to work with Bill Smith of the TGWU to resolve the dispute. Learie Constantine continued with his support for the campaign, meeting with the Lord Mayor of Bristol and Frank Cousins, leader of the Transport and General Workers Union. He went to the Bristol Omnibus Company's parent, the Transport Holding Company and persuaded them to send officials to talk with the union. The company chairman told Constantine that racial discrimination was not company policy. Negotiations between the bus company and the union continued for several months until a mass meeting of 500 bus workers agreed on 27 August to end the colour bar. On 28 August 1963, Ian Patey announced that there would be no more discrimination in employing bus crews. It was on the same day that Martin Luther King made his famous "I Have a Dream" speech at the March in Washington. On 17 September, Raghbir Singh, a Sikh, became Bristol's first non-White bus conductor. A few days later two Jamaican and two Pakistani men joined him. ## Aftermath In 1965, the United Kingdom Parliament passed a Race Relations Act, which made "racial discrimination unlawful in public places". This was followed by the Race Relations Act 1968 which extended the provisions to housing and employment. The enactment of this legislation has been cited by some as having been influenced by the Bristol bus boycott. Robert Verkaik, Legal Affairs Correspondent for The Independent newspaper, said "Few doubt that without Mr Stephenson's efforts it would have been difficult for Harold Wilson's Labour government to bring in Britain's first anti-discrimination laws." In 2003, as part of Black History Month, BBC Radio 4 broadcast a programme about the boycott. Unite, the successor to the Transport and General Workers Union, issued an apology in February 2013. Laurence Faircloth, the union's South West secretary said of the union's stance at the time, "It was completely unacceptable. I can well accept the sense of injustice and pain that has been felt because [of] what happened in Bristol all those years ago". ### Recognition In the 2009 New Year Honours, Stephenson was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), for his part in organising the bus boycott ("for services to Equal Opportunities and to Community Relations in Bristol.") Bailey and Hackett were also awarded OBEs. ### Deaths Roy Hackett died in 2022, at the age of 93. ## See also - Racial segregation in the United Kingdom - Anti-discrimination law - Civil and political rights - Montgomery bus boycott - 1957 Alexandra Bus Boycott - Asquith Xavier—a British Railways employee who ended a colour bar at London stations by becoming the first non-white guard

King Charles Spaniel

The King Charles Spaniel (also known as the English Toy Spaniel) is a small dog breed of the spaniel type. In 1903, the Kennel Club combined four separate toy spaniel breeds under this single title. The other varieties merged into this breed were the Blenheim, Ruby and Prince Charles Spaniels, each of which contributed one of the four colours available in the breed. Thought to have originated in East Asia, toy spaniels were first seen in Europe during the 16th century. They became linked with English royalty in the time of Queen Mary I and were made famous by their association with King Charles II. Members of the breed were owned by Queen Victoria (Dash) and her great-granddaughter Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia. The King Charles Spaniel and the other types of toy spaniels were crossbred with the Pug in the early 19th century to reduce the size of the nose, as was the style of the day. The 20th century saw attempts to restore lines of King Charles Spaniels to the breed of Charles II's time. These included the unsuccessful Toy Trawler Spaniel and the now popular Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. The Cavalier is slightly larger, with a flat head and a longer nose, while the King Charles is smaller, with a domed head and a flat face. Historically the breeds that were merged into the King Charles Spaniel were used for hunting; due to their stature they were not well suited. They have kept their hunting instincts, but do not exhibit high energy and are better suited to being lapdogs. The modern breed is prone to several health problems, including cardiac conditions and a range of eye problems. ## History The King Charles Spaniel may share a common ancestry with the Pekingese and Japanese Chin. The red and white variety of toy spaniel was first seen in paintings by Titian, including the Venus of Urbino (1538), where a small dog is used as a symbol of female seductiveness. Further paintings featuring these toy spaniels were created by Palma Vecchio and Paolo Veronese during the 16th century. These dogs already had high domed heads with short noses, although the muzzles were more pointed than they are today. These Italian toy spaniels may have been crossed with local small dogs such as the Maltese and also with imported Chinese dogs. The Papillon is the continental descendant of similar toy-sized spaniels. The earliest recorded appearance of a toy spaniel in England was in a painting of Queen Mary I and King Philip. Mary, Queen of Scots, was also fond of small toy dogs, including spaniels, showing the fondness of the British royalty for these types of dogs before Charles II. King Henry III of France owned a number of small spaniels, which were called Damarets. Although one of the translations of John Caius' 1570 Latin work De Canibus Britannicis talks of "a new type of Spaniel brought out of France, rare, strange, and hard to get", this was an addition in a later translation, and was not in the original text. Caius did discuss the "Spainel-gentle, or Comforter" though, which he classified as a delicate thoroughbred. This spaniel was thought to originate from Malta and was sought out only as a lapdog for "daintie dames". Captain John Saris may have brought back examples of toy spaniels from his voyage to Japan in 1613, a theory proposed by Commodore Matthew C. Perry during his expeditions to Japan on behalf of the United States in the mid-19th century. He noted that dogs were a common gift and thought that the earlier voyage of Captain Saris introduced a Japanese type of spaniel into England. ### 17th century and Charles II In the 17th century, toy spaniels began to feature in paintings by Dutch artists such as Caspar Netscher and Peter Paul Rubens. Spanish artists, including Juan de Valdés Leal and Diego Velázquez, also depicted them; in the Spanish works, the dogs were tricolour, black and white or entirely white. French naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon would later describe these types of dogs as crosses between spaniels and Pugs. King Charles II of England was very fond of the toy spaniel, which is why the dogs now carry his name, although there is no evidence that the modern breeds are descended from his particular dogs. He is credited with causing an increase in popularity of the breed during this period. Samuel Pepys' diary describes how the spaniels were allowed to roam anywhere in Whitehall Palace, including during state occasions. In an entry dated 4 September 1667, describing a council meeting, Pepys wrote, "All I observed there was the silliness of the King, playing with his dog all the while and not minding the business." Charles' sister Princess Henrietta was painted by Pierre Mignard holding a small red and white toy-sized spaniel. Judith Blunt-Lytton, 16th Baroness Wentworth, writing in her 1911 work Toy Dogs and Their Ancestors, theorised that after Henrietta's death at the age of 26 in 1670, Charles took her dogs for himself. ### After Charles II Toy spaniels continued to be popular in the British court during the reign of King James II, through that of Queen Anne. Popular types included those of the white and red variety. Following the Glorious Revolution in 1688 and the reign of King William III and Queen Mary II, the Pug was introduced into Britain which would eventually lead to drastic physical changes to the King Charles Spaniel. Comparisons between needlework pictures of English toy spaniels and the continental variety show that changes had already begun to take place in the English types by 1736, with a shorter nose being featured and the breed overall moving away from the one seen in earlier works by Anthony van Dyck during the 17th century. English toy spaniels remained popular enough during the 18th century to be featured frequently in literature and in art. On Rover, a Lady's Spaniel, Jonathan Swift's satire of Ambrose Philips's poem to the daughter of the Lord Lieutenant, describes the features of an English toy, specifying a "forehead large and high" among other physical characteristics of the breeds. Toy spaniels and Pugs were featured in both group portraits and satirical works by William Hogarth. Toy spaniels were still popular with the upper classes as ladies' dogs, despite the introduction of the Pug; both Thomas Gainsborough's portrait of Queen Charlotte from 1781 and George Romney's 1782 Lady Hamilton as Nature feature toy spaniels with their mistresses. The toy spaniels of this century weighed as little as 5 pounds (2.3 kg), although they were thought to be the dog breed most prone to becoming overweight, or "fattened". ### 19th century and the Blenheim Spaniel The varieties of toy spaniel were occasionally used in hunting, as the Sportsman's Repository reported in 1830 of the Blenheim Spaniel: "Twenty years ago, His Grace the Duke of Marlborough was reputed to possess the smallest and best breed of cockers in Britain; they were invariably red–and–white, with very long ears, short noses, and black eyes." During this period, the term "cocker" was not used to describe a Cocker Spaniel, but rather a type of small spaniel used to hunt woodcock. The Duke's residence, Blenheim Palace, gave its name to the Blenheim Spaniel. The Sportsman's Repository explains that toy spaniels are able to hunt, albeit not for a full day or in difficult terrain: "The very delicate and small, or 'carpet spaniels,' have exquisite nose, and will hunt truly and pleasantly, but are neither fit for a long day or thorny covert." This idea was supported by Vero Shaw in his 1881 work The Illustrated Book of the Dog, and by Thomas Brown in 1829 who wrote, "He is seldom used for field–sports, from his diminutive size, being easily tired, and is too short in the legs to get through swampy ground." During the 19th century, the Maltese was still considered to be a type of spaniel, and thought to be the parent breed of toy spaniels, including both the King Charles and Blenheim varieties. The breeds of toy spaniel often rivalled the Pug in popularity as lapdogs for ladies. The disadvantage of the breeds of toy spaniel was that their long coats required constant grooming. By 1830, the toy spaniel had changed somewhat from the dogs of Charles II's day. William Youatt in his 1845 study, The Dog, was not enamoured of the changes: "The King Charles's breed of the present day is materially altered for the worse. The muzzle is almost as short, and the forehead as ugly and prominent as the veriest bull-dog. The eye is increased to double its former size, and has an expression of stupidity with which the character of the dog too accurately corresponds." Youatt did concede that the breed's long ears, coat and colouring were attractive. Due to the fashion of the period, the toy spaniels were crossed with Pugs to reduce the size of their noses and then selectively bred to reduce it further. By doing this, the dog's sense of smell was impaired, and according to 19th century writers, this caused the varieties of toy spaniel to be removed from participation in field sports. Blunt-Lytton proposed that the red and white Blenheim Spaniels always had the shorter nose now seen in the modern King Charles. From the 16th century, it was the fashion for ladies to carry small toy-sized spaniels as they travelled around town. These dogs were called "Comforters" and given the species biological classification of Canis consolator by 19th-century dog writers. By the 1830s, this practice was no longer in vogue, and these types of spaniels were becoming rarer. "Comforter" was given as a generic term to lapdogs, including the Maltese, the English Toy and Continental Toy Spaniels, the latter of which was similar to the modern Phalène. It was once believed that the dogs possessed some power of healing: in 1607 Edward Topsell repeated Caius' observation that "these little dogs are good to asswage the sickness of stomach, being oftentimes thereunto applied as a plaister preservative, or bourne in the bosum of the diseased and weak person, which effect is performed by their moderate heat." By the 1840s, "Comforter" had dropped out of use, and the breed had returned to being called Toy Spaniels. The first written occurrence of a ruby coloured toy spaniel was a dog named Dandy, owned by a Mr Garwood in 1875. The dogs continued to be popular with royalty. In 1896, Otto von Bismarck purchased a King Charles Spaniel from an American kennel for \$1,000. The dog weighed less than 2 pounds (0.9 kg), and had been disqualified from the Westminster Kennel Club the previous year on account of its weight. The average price was lower than that paid by Bismarck. In 1899, the price ranged between \$50 and \$200 for a King Charles or Blenheim, with the Ruby and Prince Charles Spaniel ranging between \$50 and \$150. Anne Brontë's "Flossy," given to her by the Robinson children when she left her governorship of them, was a King Charles Spaniel. ### Conformation showing and the 20th century In 1903, the Kennel Club attempted to amalgamate the King James (black and tan), Prince Charles (tricolour), Blenheim and Ruby spaniels into a single breed called the Toy Spaniel. The Toy Spaniel Club, which oversaw those separate breeds, strongly objected, and the argument was only resolved following the intervention of King Edward VII, who made it clear that he preferred the name "King Charles Spaniel". In 1904, the American Kennel Club followed suit, combining the four breeds into a single breed known as the English Toy Spaniel. The Japanese Spaniel was also considered a type of toy spaniel, but was not merged into the new breed and was recognised as a breed in its own right. Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia owned a King Charles Spaniel at the time of the shooting of the Romanov family on 17 July 1918. Eight days later, Nicholas Sokolov of the White Forces found a clearing where he believed the bodies of the Romanov family had been burnt, and discovered the corpse of a King Charles Spaniel at the site. In 1920s, the Duchess of Marlborough bred so many King Charles Spaniels at Blenheim Palace that her husband moved out and later evicted the Duchess herself. Blunt-Lytton documented her attempts in the early 20th century to re-breed the 18th-century type of King Charles Spaniel as seen in the portraits of King Charles II. She used the Toy Trawler Spaniel, a curly haired, mostly black, small to medium-sized spaniel, and cross-bred these dogs with a variety of other breeds, including Blenheim Spaniels and Cocker Spaniels, in unsuccessful attempts to reproduce the earlier style. The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel originated from a competition held by American Roswell Eldridge in 1926. He offered a prize fund for the best male and female dogs of "Blenheim Spaniels of the old type, as shown in pictures of Charles II of England's time, long face, no stop, flat skull, not inclined to be domed, with spot in centre of skull." Breeders entered what they considered to be sub-par King Charles Spaniels. Although Eldridge did not live to see the new breed created, several breeders banded together and created the first breed club for the new Cavalier King Charles Spaniel in 1928, with the Kennel Club initially listing the new breed as "King Charles Spaniels, Cavalier type". In 1945, the Kennel Club recognised the new breed in its own right. The American Kennel Club did not recognise the Cavalier until 1997. Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, continued the connection between royalty and the King Charles Spaniel, attending Princess Anne's tenth birthday party with her dog Rolly in 1960. Elizabeth II has also owned King Charles Spaniels in addition to the dogs most frequently associated with her, the Pembroke Welsh Corgi. In 2008, the BBC documentary Pedigree Dogs Exposed was critical of the breeding of a variety of pedigree breeds including the King Charles Spaniel. The show highlighted issues involving syringomyelia in both the King Charles and Cavalier breeds. Mark Evans, the chief veterinary advisor for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), said, "Dog shows using current breed standards as the main judging criteria actively encourage both the intentional breeding of deformed and disabled dogs and the inbreeding of closely related animals"; this opinion was seconded by the Scottish SPCA. Following the programme, the RSPCA ended its sponsorship of the annual Crufts dog show, and the BBC declined to broadcast the event. The King Charles Spaniel is less popular than the Cavalier in both the UK and the US. In 2010, the Cavalier was the 23rd most popular breed, according to registration figures collected by the American Kennel Club, while the English Toy Spaniel was the 126th. In the UK, according to the Kennel Club, the Cavalier is the most popular breed in the Toy Group, with 8,154 puppies registered in 2010, compared to 199 registrations for King Charles Spaniels. Due to the low number of registrations, the King Charles was identified as a Vulnerable Native Breed by the Kennel Club in 2003 in an effort to help promote the breed. ## Description The King Charles has large dark eyes, a short nose, a high domed head and a line of black skin around the mouth. On average, it stands 9 to 11 inches (23 to 28 cm) at the withers, with a small but compact body. The breed has a traditionally docked tail, except in the UK and some other European Countries where docking and cropping has been illegal since 2006. Cropping of ears has been illegal in the UK for over 100 years. It has the long pendulous ears typical of a spaniel and its coat comes in four varieties, trait it shares with its offshoot, the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. The four sets of markings reflect the four former breeds from which the modern breed was derived. Black and tan markings are known as "King Charles", while "Prince Charles" is tricoloured, "Blenheim" is red and white, and "Ruby" is a single-coloured solid rich red. The "King Charles" black and tan markings typically consist of a black coat with mahogany/tan markings on the face, legs and chest and under the tail. The tricoloured "Prince Charles" is mostly white with black patches and mahogany/tan markings in similar locations to the "King Charles". The "Blenheim" has a white coat with red patches, and should have a distinctive red spot in the center of the skull. King Charles Spaniels are often mistaken for Cavalier King Charles Spaniels. There are several significant differences between the two breeds, the principal being the size. While the Cavalier weighs on average between 13 and 18 pounds (5.9 and 8.2 kg), the King Charles is smaller at 8 to 14 pounds (3.6 to 6.4 kg). In addition, their facial features, while similar, are distinguishable: the Cavalier's ears are set higher and its skull is flat, while the King Charles' is domed. Finally, the muzzle length of the King Charles tends to be shorter than the typical muzzle on a Cavalier. The American Kennel Club has two classes, English Toy Spaniel (B/PC) (Blenheim and Prince Charles) and English Toy Spaniel (R/KC), while in the UK, the Kennel Club places the breed in a single class. Under the Fédération Cynologique Internationale groups, the King Charles is placed in the English Toy Spaniel section within the Companion and Toy Dog Group, along with the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. ## Temperament The King Charles is a friendly breed, to the extent that it is not typically as suitable as a watchdog as some breeds, though it may still bark to warn its owners of an approaching visitor. It is not a high energy breed, and enjoys the company of family members, being primarily a lapdog. Although able to bond well with children and tolerant of them, it will not accept rough handling. It prefers not to be left alone for long periods. Known as one of the quietest toy breeds, it is suitable for apartment living. The breed can tolerate other pets well, although the King Charles still has the hunting instincts of its ancestors and may not always be friendly towards smaller animals. It is intelligent enough to be used for obedience work and, due to its stable temperament, it can be a successful therapy dog for hospitals and nursing homes. ## Health A natural bobtail can be found in some members of the breed, which is not a mutation of the T-box gene, and so is allowed under conformation show rules. Health-related research on the breed has been limited, with no major studies conducted in Britain. However, it has been included in studies outside the UK, including by the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals (OFA) in the United States. The King Charles Spaniel has a number of eye and respiratory system disorders common to brachycephalic dogs, and endocrine and metabolic diseases common to small breeds, as well as specific breed-associated health conditions. The average lifespan is 10 to 12 years, and the breed should be able to reproduce naturally. ### Eye and heart conditions The eye problems associated with the King Charles Spaniel include cataracts, corneal dystrophy, distichia, entropion, microphthalmia, optic disc drusen, and keratitis. Compared to other breeds, the King Charles Spaniel has an increased risk of distichia (where extra eyelashes or hairs cause irritation to the eye). Inheritance is suspected in the other conditions, with ages of onset ranging from six months for cataracts to two to five years for corneal dystrophy. Heart conditions related to the King Charles Spaniel include mitral valve disease, in which the mitral valve degrades, causing blood to flow backwards through the chambers of the heart and eventually leading to congestive heart failure. Patent ductus arteriosus, where blood is channelled back from the heart into the lungs, is also seen and can lead to heart failure. Both of these conditions present with similar symptoms and are inheritable. The OFA conducted a survey on cardiac disease, where of 105 breeds, the King Charles Spaniel was found to be 7th worst, with 2.1% of 189 dogs affected. ### Other common issues Being a brachycephalic breed, King Charles Spaniels can be sensitive to anesthesia. This is because in brachycephalic dogs, there is additional tissue in the throat directly behind the mouth and nasal cavity, known as the pharynx, and anesthesia acts as a muscle relaxant causing this tissue to obstruct the dogs' narrow airways. These narrow airways can decrease the dogs' ability to exercise properly and increase their susceptibility to heat stroke. Other congenital and hereditary disorders found in the King Charles Spaniel are hanging tongue, where a neurological defect prevents the tongue from retracting into the mouth; diabetes mellitus, which may be associated with cataracts; cleft palate and umbilical hernia. The English Toy Spaniel Club of America recommends that umbilical hernias be corrected only if other surgery is required, due to the risk of surgery in brachycephalic breeds. In another study conducted by the OFA, the King Charles Spaniel was the 38th worst of 99 breeds for patella luxation; of 75 animals tested, 4% were found to have the ailment. However, surveys conducted by the Finnish breed club between 1988 and 2007 found that the occurrences were higher in some years, ranging from 5.3% to 50%. There are several breed traits which may cause concern as health issues. They include skull issues such as an open fontanelle, where in young dogs there is a soft spot in the skull; it is common in dogs under a year old. A complication from that condition is hydrocephalus, also known as water on the brain. This condition may cause neurological symptoms that require the dog to be euthanised. Fused toes, where two or more of the dog's toes are fused together, may seem to be a health issue but this breed trait is not a cause for concern. ## Urban myth An urban legend claims that Charles II issued a special decree granting King Charles Spaniels permission to enter any establishment in the UK, overriding "no dog except guide dogs" rules. A variant of this myth relates specifically to the Houses of Parliament. This myth is sometimes instead applied to the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. The UK Parliament website states: "Contrary to popular rumour, there is no Act of Parliament referring to King Charles spaniels being allowed anywhere in the Palace of Westminster. We are often asked this question and have thoroughly researched it." Similarly, there is no proof of any such law covering the wider UK. A spokesman for the Kennel Club said: "This law has been quoted from time to time. It is alleged in books that King Charles made this decree but our research hasn't tracked it down." ## See also - Cavalier King Charles Spaniel - Toy dog

Chris Candido Memorial Tag Team Tournament

Sports competition

The Chris Candido Memorial Tag Team Tournament was a professional wrestling tag team single-elimination tournament held by the Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) promotion in 2005. It was held to honor the TNA wrestler Chris Candido, who died in April 2005 as a result of acute pneumonia. It is the only edition held as of 2023 despite it being announced as an annual event. The competition began and concluded on August 16, 2005 at the tapings of TNA's television program TNA Impact!. It was broadcast from the August 19 to September 9 episodes of Impact!. It was known by various names: 2005 Chris Candido Memorial Tag Team Tournament, The Chris Candido Memorial Tag Team Tournament, and The Chris Candido Cup Tournament. The concept of the tournament was to have eight teams consisting of one veteran wrestler and one rookie wrestler competing against each other to gain entry into a Four Way Elimination Tag Team match for the NWA World Tag Team Championship at TNA's Unbreakable PPV event on September 11. The tournament featured sixteen TNA wrestlers: Abyss, Shark Boy, Alex Shelley, Sean Waltman, B.G. James, Cassidy Reilly, Chris Sabin, Shocker, Kip James, Petey Williams, Konnan, Lance Hoyt, Mikey Batts, Simon Diamond, Ron Killings, and Sonjay Dutt. The tournament was well-received overall. James Caldwell of the Pro Wrestling Torch wrote in his review of the matches that they were "solid" and "effective in telling the story." Caldwell approved of the teaming of Shelley and Waltman, feeling that they were a "natural fit." ## Background Chris Candido was an American professional wrestler who wrestled for TNA starting in 2005. At TNA's Lockdown PPV event on April 24, 2005, Candido teamed with Lance Hoyt to face Apolo and Sonny Siaki in a Six Sides of Steel Cage match. During the encounter, Candido suffered an injury which was later diagnosed as a dislocated ankle, broken tibia, and a broken fibula which required surgery. Candido had an operation on April 25 to have a plate, screws, and pins placed in his ankle to fix the problem with him being sidelined from competing for two to three months in order to heal. However, Candido hoped to be fully recovered in six to eight weeks. On April 28, Candido was rushed to the hospital after he collapsed, where he died a short time later. The cause of death was released by Candido's brother Johnny Candido as a blood clot due to the surgery a few days prior. TNA released a public statement on April 29, regarding the subject. TNA paid tribute to Candido on the April 29 episode of TNA's television program TNA Impact! as well as at TNA's Hard Justice PPV event on May 15. The April 29 episode of Impact! opened and ended with a memorial to Candido. At Hard Justice, a ten-bell salute was held while a photo of Candido, a pair of boots, and one-half of the NWA World Tag Team Championship positioned on a steel chair sat in the center of the ring. A portion of the Lockdown DVD sale profits were donated by TNA to the Chris Candido Memorial Fund. TNA originally planned to remove Candido's match from the DVD, but were given the blessing of his family to include it on the publication. A tribute to Candido was included on the DVD by TNA. The tournament was announced in August 2005 by TNA editor Bill Banks. He revealed the official name for the competition, the "2005 Chris Candido Memorial Tag Team Tournament", and that TNA were planning on it being an annual contest. Banks also announced the format of the tournament involved veteran wrestlers teaming with young wrestlers in order to compete. The idea behind the contest was explained on the August 19 episode of Impact! prior to the opening bout of the tournament. The tournament was set up in a way to mimic Candido's role at the time of his death. Prior to his death, the veteran Candido was managing the young tag team of The Naturals (Andy Douglas and Chase Stevens). Candido managed the team to winning the NWA World Tag Team Championship from America's Most Wanted (Chris Harris and James Storm; AMW) on the April 29 episode of Impact!, which had been taped on April 25 prior to his death. In the tournament, eight tag teams were determined at random, with one veteran wrestler being placed with a younger wrestler from the company. The competition was also referred to as the "Chris Candido Memorial Cup Tournament". The teams chosen at random were Abyss (veteran) and Shark Boy (young), Alex Shelley (young) and Sean Waltman (veteran), B.G. James (veteran) and Cassidy Reilly (young), Chris Sabin (young) and Shocker (veteran), Kip James (veteran) and Petey Williams (young), Konnan (veteran) and Lance Hoyt (young), Mikey Batts (young) and Simon Diamond (veteran), and last of all Ron Killings (veteran) and Sonjay Dutt (young). On the August 26 episode of Impact!, NWA Championship Committee member Larry Zbyszko announced that a Four Way Elimination Tag Team match for the NWA World Tag Team Championship was planned for TNA's Unbreakable PPV event on September 11, in which The Naturals would defend against AMW, Team Canada (A-1 and Eric Young), and the winners of the Chris Candido Memorial Tag Team Tournament. ## Tournament The Chris Candido Memorial Tag Team Tournament featured seven matches involving different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in the scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match. The tournament consisted of three rounds: the quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals. All three rounds were broadcast on Impact!. All three rounds were taped on August 16 and aired on the August 19, August 26, September 2, and September 9 episodes of Impact!. Quarterfinals The first two matches of the quarterfinals took place on the August 19 episode of Impact!. The team of Chris Sabin and Shocker were pitted against the team of Mikey Batts and Simon Diamond in the first. Sabin and Shocker won the bout after Sabin slammed Batts back-first into the mat with his signature Cradle Shock maneuver and followed with the pin at 7 minutes and 1 second. In the second, the team of B.G. James and Cassidy Reilly fought the team of Ron Killings and Sonjay Dutt. Dutt won the match at 4 minutes and 14 seconds for his team after a 450° aerial splash onto Reilly and the pin. The last two were held on the August 26 episode of Impact!. The team of Alex Shelley and Sean Waltman faced Abyss and Shark Boy in a bout lasting 4 minutes and 10 seconds. Shelley pinned Shark Boy after slamming him face-first into the mat with his signature Shellshock maneuver. The second encounter was between the team of Lance Hoyt and Konnan and the team of Kip James and Petey Williams. The team of Hoyt and Konnan won the bout after Hoyt pinned Kip following a boot to the face at 6 minutes and 49 seconds. Semifinals The semifinals were held on the September 2 episode of Impact!. Shelley and Waltman defeated the team of Hoyt and Konnan in the first semifinal match at 4 minutes and 22 seconds. During the match, Hoyt hit Waltman with a boot to the face and went for the pin, but the referee was distracted by Kip James who came down to ringside. Hoyt went to get the referee, giving Waltman the ability to hit him in the groin and follow-up by slamming him face-first into the mat with his signature X-Factor maneuver. In the second semifinal match, Sabin and Shocker defeated Dutt and Killings at 7 minutes and 49 seconds. During the contest, Sabin accidentally hit his teammate Shocker in the face. This led to some confusion in the match, allowing Killings to get a near-fall on Sabin. This was later resolved, with Sabin getting the pin on Dutt via la magistral. Finals The final round occurred on the September 9 episode of Impact!, with Sabin and Shocker versus Shelley and Waltman. This contest lasted 7 minutes and 20 seconds. Sabin and Shelley started off the match, with Shelley dominating Sabin with mat submission holds. The wrestling left the ring as Waltman performed a somersault splash to the ringside area onto Shocker and Sabin. Later, Sabin ascended to the top-rope to perform a dropkick onto Shelley, to only have Shelley dodge out of the way, resulting in Sabin hitting his partner Shocker instead. After checking on Shocker, Sabin turned around and was met with a kick to the jaw from Shelley. Sabin left the ring after this due to a legitimate injury. With Shocker left and the referee attending to other matters, Waltman hit Shocker in the groin and followed by performing his X-Factor maneuver to gain the pinfall victory and to win the tournament. With Shelley and Waltman's victory, they became the first winners of the expected annual tournament. They also gained entry into the Four Way Elimination Tag Team match for the NWA World Tag Team Championship scheduled for Unbreakable. Tournament bracket ## Reception James Caldwell of the Pro Wrestling Torch felt that Chris Sabin and Shocker versus Simon Diamond and Mikey Batts was "solid wrestling" and a "nice opening match" for the tournament. When it came to the second match of the tournament, B.G. James and Cassidy Reilly versus Ron Killings and Sonjay Dutt, Caldwell felt that James and Killings "undermined the spirit of the Candido tournament" by dancing mid-way through their encounter. Caldwell commented on the pairing of Alex Shelley and Sean Waltman for the tournament, saying they were a "natural fit working together" and expressing hope that they would be a permanent fixture after the tournament concluded. Regarding the semifinal matches, Caldwell thought Sabin and Shocker versus Dutt and Killings was a "solid match with a nice mini-storyline involving Sabin and Shocker having a miscommunication before settling their differences to win the match." As for the finals, Caldwell stated that Shelley and Waltman versus Sabin and Shocker was a "standard tag match" but it was "effective in telling the story of Waltman and Shelley doing whatever it takes to win while Shocker and Sabin continued to have differences that finally caused Shocker to go off." Caldwell concluded by saying that "Waltman and Shelley have impressed as a legit tag team since their first round match in the tournament," going on to say that he hoped for a Waltman and Shelley victory at Unbreakable to "give the tag division a fresh team to build around." ## Aftermath Chris Sabin's jaw was broken in the final round match. Sabin needed serious medical assistance afterwards backstage due to excessive bleeding from the mouth. Sabin had to cancel an August 19 Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG) appearance as a result. Shelley was also injured while taking part in the tournament. He suffered a legitimate back injury, but ended up appearing at the PWG show that Sabin was forced to miss. There, he aggravated the injury further, forcing him to miss two Ring of Honor shows for which he was scheduled. At Unbreakable, The Naturals (Andy Douglas and Chase Stevens) defeated the teams of Alex Shelley and Johnny Candido, America's Most Wanted (Chris Harris and James Storm), and Team Canada (A-1 and Eric Young) to remain champions in a Four Way Elimination Tag Team match. Johnny was a replacement for Waltman who missed the event due to undisclosed reasons. Shelley began the bout alone, until Johnny, who was in attendance along with several of Candido's family members, jumped the railing to join Shelley as his tag team partner by taking a tag from Shelley. A bit later, Douglas kicked Candido in the crotch and pinned him with a roll-up pin, thus eliminating Shelley and Candido from the contest. Waltman was not used again by TNA until their Final Resolution PPV event on January 15, 2006. There, Waltman defeated Raven in a Raven's Rules match, forcing Raven to leave TNA in the storyline. Waltman was not used by the company due to management being angered by his failure to participate at Unbreakable. Despite him not showing up to the event, Waltman was in Orlando and dressed to compete, but did not arrive at the arena in time.

253 Mathilde

Asteroid

Mathilde (minor planet designation: 253 Mathilde) is an asteroid in the intermediate asteroid belt, approximately 50 kilometers in diameter, that was discovered by Austrian astronomer Johann Palisa at Vienna Observatory on 12 November 1885. It has a relatively elliptical orbit that requires more than four years to circle the Sun. This tumbling asteroid has an unusually slow rate of rotation, requiring 17.4 days to complete a 360° revolution about its axis. It is a primitive C-type asteroid, which means the surface has a high proportion of carbon; giving it a dark surface that reflects only 4% of the light that falls on it. Mathilde was visited by the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft during June 1997, on its way to asteroid 433 Eros. During the little flyby, the spacecraft imaged a hemisphere of the asteroid, revealing many large craters that had gouged out depressions in the surface. It was the first carbonaceous asteroid to be explored and, until 21 Lutetia was visited in 2010, it was the largest asteroid to be visited by a spacecraft. ## Observation history In 1880, Johann Palisa, the director of the Austrian Naval Observatory , was offered a position as an assistant at the newly completed Vienna Observatory. Although the job represented a demotion for Johann, it gave him access to the new 27-inch (690 mm) refractor, the largest telescope in the world at that time. By this point Johann had already discovered 27 asteroids, and he would employ the Vienna 27-inch (690 mm) and 12-inch (300 mm) instruments to find an additional 94 asteroids before he retired. Among his discoveries was the asteroid 253 Mathilde, found on November 12, 1885. The initial orbital elements of the asteroid were then computed by V. A. Lebeuf, another Austrian astronomer working at the Paris Observatory. The name of the asteroid was suggested by Lebeuf, after Mathilde, the wife of Moritz Loewy—who was the vice director of the observatory in Paris. In 1995, ground-based observations determined that Mathilde is a C-type asteroid. It was also found to have an unusually long period of rotation of 418 hours. On June 27, 1997, the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft passed within 1,212 km of Mathilde while moving at a velocity of 9.93 km/s. This close approach allowed the spacecraft to capture over 500 images of the surface, and provided data for more accurate determinations of the asteroid's dimensions and mass (based on gravitational perturbation of the spacecraft). However, only one hemisphere of Mathilde was imaged during the fly-by. This was only the third asteroid to be imaged from a nearby distance, following 951 Gaspra and 243 Ida. ## Characteristics Mathilde is very dark, with an albedo comparable to fresh asphalt, and is thought to share the same composition as CI1 or CM2 carbonaceous chondrite meteorites, with a surface dominated by phyllosilicate minerals. The asteroid has a number of extremely large craters, with the individual craters being named for coal fields and basins around the world. The two largest craters, Ishikari (29.3 km) and Karoo (33.4 km), are as wide as the asteroid's average radius. The impacts appear to have spalled large volumes off the asteroid, as suggested by the angular edges of the craters. Uniformity in brightness and colour were visible in the craters and there was no appearance of layering, so the asteroid's interior must be very homogeneous. There are indications of material movement along the downslope direction. The density measured by NEAR Shoemaker, 1,300 kg/m³, is less than half that of a typical carbonaceous chondrite; this may indicate that the asteroid is very loosely packed rubble pile. The same is true of several C-type asteroids studied by ground-based telescopes equipped with adaptive optics systems (45 Eugenia, 90 Antiope, 87 Sylvia and 121 Hermione). Up to 50% of the interior volume of Mathilde consists of open space. However, the existence of a 20-km-long scarp may indicate that the asteroid does have some structural strength, so it could contain some large internal components. The low interior density is an inefficient transmitter of impact shock through the asteroid, which also helps to preserve the surface features to a high degree. Mathilde's orbit is eccentric, taking it to the outer reaches of the belt. Nonetheless, the orbit lies entirely between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter; it does not cross the planetary orbits. It also has one of the slowest rotation periods of the known asteroids—most asteroids have a rotation period in the range of 2–24 hours. Because of the slow rotation rate, NEAR Shoemaker was sadly only able to photograph 60% of the asteroid's surface. The slow rate of rotation may be accounted for by a satellite orbiting the asteroid, but a search of the NEAR images revealed none larger than 10 km in diameter out to 20 times the radius of Mathilde. ## See also - List of craters on 253 Mathilde

One Night Stand (2007)

World Wrestling Entertainment pay-per-view event

The 2007 One Night Stand was the third annual One Night Stand professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw, SmackDown!, and ECW brand divisions. The event took place on June 3, 2007, at the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida. While the previous two years' events were held primarily as reunion shows for Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) alumni, the 2007 event was promoted as a WWE event with wrestlers from all three brands participating as following WrestleMania 23, brand-exclusive PPVs were discontinued. It was the final event to announce each individual brand as co-promoters of the PPV during the introductory graphics. The main match on the Raw brand was John Cena versus The Great Khali in a Pinfalls Count Anywhere match for the WWE Championship. Cena won the match and retained the WWE Championship after pinning Khali following an FU off a crane onto the arena floor. The featured match on the SmackDown! brand was Edge versus Batista in a Steel Cage match for the World Heavyweight Championship, which Edge won after escaping the cage. The primary match on the ECW brand was Vince McMahon versus Bobby Lashley in a Street Fight for the ECW World Championship, which Lashley won by pinfall after performing a spear. The featured matches on the undercard included Rob Van Dam versus Randy Orton in a Stretcher match and a Ladder match for the World Tag Team Championship between The Hardys (Matt and Jeff) and The World's Greatest Tag Team (Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas). ## Production ### Background One Night Stand was an annual pay-per-view (PPV), produced every June by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) since 2005. The event was originally produced as a reunion show for wrestlers from the former Extreme Championship Wrestling promotion and featured hardcore-based matches, before WWE established a third brand dubbed ECW in 2006. While the first two years' events were promoted as a reunion show for Extreme Championship Wrestling and included the "ECW" initials affixed to the event's name, the 2007 event was promoted as a WWE event and featured wrestlers from the promotion's Raw, SmackDown!, and ECW brands. The third event in the One Night Stand chronology, it was scheduled to be held on June 3, 2007, at the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida. Although no longer promoted as a reunion show, it still continued the theme of featuring hardcore-based matches. ### Storylines The main feud heading into the event on the Raw brand, was between WWE Champion John Cena and The Great Khali. This was a rematch of their encounter at Judgment Day, the pay-per-view two weeks before One Night Stand. At the event, Cena defeated Khali by forcing him to submit to the STFU. When Khali submitted to the STFU, however, his feet were underneath the bottom rope, meaning Cena should have broken the submission hold. Referee Mike Chioda was focusing on Khali's arm and did not see Khali's feet underneath the bottom rope. The following night on Raw, believing he should not have lost the match, Khali challenged Cena to a Falls Count Anywhere match. After Cena's acceptance, Khali Chokeslammed Cena. Heading into One Night Stand, Khali Chokebombed Cena again to win a non-title match against Cena on the June 2 episode of Saturday Night's Main Event XXXIV. The predominant feud on the SmackDown! brand heading into the pay-per-view was between Edge and Batista, with the two battling over the World Heavyweight Championship. The two fought each other at Judgment Day for the title, and Edge won the bout with a school boy pin. On the May 25 episode of SmackDown!, General manager Theodore Long announced that Edge would defend the World Heavyweight Championship in a Steel Cage match at One Night Stand. Batista won a Fatal Four-Way match against Finlay, Kane, and Mark Henry to face Edge at the pay-per-view. Batista was a guest on Edge's talk show The Cutting Edge on the June 1 episode of SmackDown!. Towards the end of the segment, Batista punched Edge and sent him to the floor. The following night, on Saturday Night's Main Event XXXIV, Batista and Chris Benoit defeated Edge and Montel Vontavious Porter (MVP) in a tag team match. During the match, Edge walked out, leaving MVP on his own against Batista and Benoit. Benoit gained the pinfall after performing a flying headbutt on MVP. The other primary feud featured on the One Night Stand card consisted of both Raw and ECW superstars. ECW's Bobby Lashley battled Raw's Vince McMahon for the ECW World Championship. Lashley faced Team McMahon (ECW World Champion Vince McMahon, Shane, and Umaga) in a 3-on-1 tag team Handicap match at Judgment Day, with the ECW World Championship on the line. Lashley won the match, pinning Shane after a Dominator powerslam. After the match, however, Vince declared that Lashley had not won the title and that he was still the ECW World Champion, as he had not been pinned. In the match, Lashley could have won the title, but not a member of Team McMahon. The following night, on the May 21 edition of Raw, Lashley was put into a Gauntlet match by Vince McMahon, with the stipulation that if he won all four of the matches in the gauntlet, he would face Vince at One Night Stand. Lashley won all four matches, defeating Chris Masters, Viscera, Umaga and Shane McMahon in succession. As a result, Lashley gained a title shot at One Night Stand in a Street Fight. On the May 28 edition of Raw, Lashley teamed with WWE Champion John Cena to take on Umaga, Shane McMahon and The Great Khali in a Handicap match. Shane won the match, pinning Lashley after an elbow drop. Vince was scheduled to face Lashley in an arm wrestling contest on the June 2 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event XXXIV. Moments before the contest began, however, Vince booked Mark Henry as Lashley's opponent instead. During the contest, Vince attacked Lashley, hitting him with a steel chair. ## Event Before the event went live on pay-per-view, Santino Marella defeated Chris Masters in a dark match. ### Preliminary matches The first match that aired was a Stretcher match between Randy Orton and Rob Van Dam. The match went back and forth before Van Dam attempted to perform a Somersault Plancha onto Orton, but Orton moved out of the way. Orton put Van Dam on the stretcher and tried to wheel him across the finishing line. Van Dam, however, managed to kick Orton in the head and put him onto the stretcher. Van Dam wheeled the stretcher over the line for the win. After the match, Orton attacked Van Dam, executing an Elevated DDT off the barricade onto the arena floor. Van Dam was then carried out of the arena on the stretcher. The next match was CM Punk and The ECW Originals (Tommy Dreamer and The Sandman) against the New Breed (Elijah Burke, Matt Striker and Marcus Cor Von) in a Tables match. Towards the end, Cor Von looked to Alpha Bomb Punk through a table, but Sandman hit Cor Von with a Singapore cane. With Burke on the table, Punk suplexed Striker off the top rope and through the table and Burke to win. The third match was The Hardys (Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy) against The World's Greatest Tag Team (Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas) in a Ladder match for the World Tag Team Championship. The Hardys had the advantage for most of the match, but as Jeff was climbing the ladder to try and grab the belts, Benjamin botched a springboard attempt. Benjamin kicked the ladder from underneath Jeff, however, to gain control. The Hardys regained the advantage by pushing the ladder as The World's Greatest Tag Team were climbing it, causing Benjamin to fall to the floor. Jeff Swanton bombed Haas as Matt climbed the ladder to get the belts and win. Next on the card was Mark Henry versus Kane in a Lumberjack match with twelve lumberjacks at ringside; Chris Benoit, Val Venis, Santino Marella, Balls Mahoney, Stevie Richards, The Miz, Kevin Thorn, Chris Masters, Johnny Nitro, Chavo Guerrero Jr., Kenny Dykstra and Carlito. Kane chokeslamed Henry towards the end of the contest and attempted to pin Henry. Chavo Guerrero and Kenny Dykstra interfered, however, and attacked Kane. Kane fought back and chokeslammed Dykstra, but Henry locked Kane in a bear hug. The referee stopped the contest after Kane (kayfabe) passed out. This marked the final PPV appearance of Chris Benoit as he died later in the month. ### Main event matches The next match was Vince McMahon (accompanied by Shane McMahon and Umaga) against Bobby Lashley in a Street Fight for the ECW World Championship. Shane and Umaga interfered in the match, helping Vince gain the advantage. Shane performed a flying elbow drop, sending Lashley through the announce table at ringside. Back inside the ring, as Umaga was holding a trash can in front of Lashley's face in the corner, Shane attempted to execute the Coast-to-Coast dropkick; however, Lashley moved away, and Shane dropkicked the trash can into Umaga's face. Team McMahon kept the upper hand, as Umaga performed a Samoan Drop onto Lashley, which was followed by a spear from Vince. Lashley, however, gained the upper hand by hitting Vince several times with a steel chair. Lashley performed a spear on Shane and followed with a spear to Vince before pinning Vince to gain the victory and become the new ECW World Champion. A Pudding match was next, as Candice Michelle faced WWE Women's Champion Melina (in a non-title match). Candice forced Melina to submit by holding her head under the pudding. The next match was Edge against Batista in a Steel Cage match for the World Heavyweight Championship, which could be won by pinfall, submission, or escaping the cage. During the first few minutes of the contest, Edge attempted to escape the cage many times but Batista stopped him and gained the advantage after a suplex to Edge off the top rope. Edge gained the upper hand late in the contest, performing a spear to Batista, but didn't get the pinfall. Batista regained the advantage and attempted the Batista Bomb, but Edge reversed the move. Edge climbed over the top of the cage while Batista crawled towards the door. Edge's feet hit the arena floor first, and he was declared the winner and retained his title. The main event was a Falls Count Anywhere match for the WWE Championship, as John Cena defended against The Great Khali. Khali had control for most of the contest, performing a spin kick and a leg drop onto Cena. The contest went into the crowd, as Khali hit Cena with a television monitor. Cena gained the advantage, swinging the boom camera by the crew set into Khali. Cena attempted to perform the FU, but Khali blocked it with his elbow. Khali regained the upper hand, scoop slamming Cena onto a crane. Cena fought back while on the crane and performed an FU to Khali off the crane onto the arena floor. Cena got the pinfall and the victory. ## Aftermath A storyline involving Vince McMahon's "death" began the following night on Raw. He appeared traumatized from losing the ECW World Championship, acting strangely as a result. This behavior continued in McMahon's appearances on all brands and culminated in a segment on the June 11 edition of Raw with McMahon entering a limousine moments before it exploded. On the June 25 edition of Raw, Vince McMahon revealed that his death was part of a storyline, and that Chris Benoit and his family were legitimately dead. The show, originally scheduled to be a three-hour special dedicated to McMahon's "death," was dedicated to Benoit and highlighted matches throughout his career. The WWE Draft also took place on Raw and resulted in The Great Khali being drafted to SmackDown!, thus ending his feud with John Cena. Bobby Lashley was drafted to Raw and was forced to relinquish his ECW World Championship. Lashley, along with King Booker, Randy Orton and Mick Foley entered a feud with John Cena. On the June 18 episode of Raw, all men began cutting promos on how they deserved to be the number one contender to the WWE Championship. On the June 8 episode of SmackDown!, Vince McMahon announced that Edge would be defending the World Heavyweight Championship against Batista in a "Last Chance" match at Vengeance: Night of Champions. On the June 22 episode of SmackDown!, Batista and Ric Flair defeated Edge and Montel Vontavious Porter (MVP). Midway through the match, Flair and MVP brawled outside the ring, leaving Edge on his own against Batista. Batista gained the pinfall after hitting Edge with a Batista Bomb. As part of the WWE Draft, Chris Benoit was drafted from SmackDown! to ECW. In his debut on the ECW brand, Benoit teamed up with CM Punk in a tag team match against Elijah Burke and Marcus Cor Von, in which Benoit and Punk won. On the June 19 episode of ECW, an ECW qualifying match was held in which it would determine the opponents for Vengeance for the vacant ECW World Championship. The first qualifying match saw Benoit defeat Elijah Burke by submission and thus for advancing to the Vengeance finals. That same night, CM Punk went on to defeat Marcus Cor Von to advanced to the finals. At Vengeance, Benoit was replaced by Johnny Nitro, after he withdrew from the match for "personal reasons". Nitro defeated Punk to win the ECW World Championship. This was the last One Night Stand ever to be in 4:3 format until January 2008 when it went to high definition. ## Results

Engineer Special Brigade

Amphibious forces of the United States Army

Engineer Special Brigades were amphibious forces of the United States Army developed during World War II. Initially designated engineer amphibian brigades, they were redesignated engineer special brigades in 1943. The 1st, 5th, and 6th Engineer Special Brigades were assigned to the European Theater of Operations. The 1st Engineer Special Brigade participated in the landings in Sicily and Italy before joining the 5th and 6th Engineer Special Brigades for the invasion of Normandy. The 2nd, 3rd and 4th Engineer Special Brigades were assigned to the Southwest Pacific Area, and participated in the campaigns in the Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Leyte, Luzon, the Southern Philippines and Borneo campaign. The 1st Engineer Special Brigade fought in both theaters of the war, participating in the Okinawa campaign near the end of the war. The 2nd Engineer Special Brigade remained active after the war, and served in the Korean War before being inactivated in 1955. ## Concept At the onset of direct American involvement in World War II, it became apparent that the United States would need a large strategic and tactical amphibious warfare capability. In 1941, the amphibious forces were divided into two corps: one in the Atlantic, and one in the Pacific. Both were combined United States Army and United States Marine Corps commands, administered by the United States Navy. The Amphibious Corps, Atlantic Fleet, consisted of the 1st Infantry Division and the 1st Marine Division, while the Amphibious Corps, Pacific Fleet, consisted of the 3rd Infantry Division and the 2nd Marine Division. In April 1942, the United States and United Kingdom agreed on plans for an emergency invasion of Northwest Europe in the late northern summer of 1942 (Operation Sledgehammer) that would be conducted in the event of signs that the Soviet Union was on the brink of collapse, or that the Germans were withdrawing from Western Europe, possibly due to an internal coup or collapse. This would be followed by a full-scale crossing of the English Channel in mid-1943 (Operation Roundup). These were envisaged as shore-to-shore operations. The US Navy's policy at this time of only taking volunteers meant that it was short of manpower, and those personnel it had available were mainly allocated warships and the amphibious ships required for ship-to-shore operations. This meant that the landing craft for Sledgehammer would have to be operated by the British and the US Army. ## Amphibious Training Center The Joint Staff then considered the issue of amphibious warfare training. Very large scale operations were contemplated in both Europe and the Pacific, which the Army would have to conduct. To have the Marines carry out all amphibious operations was impractical, as there were limitations on its size, and joint Army-Marine amphibious operations would involve problems of coordination in view of their different organization, doctrine and procedures. The Joint Staff planners therefore felt that the Army should conduct amphibious training. This meant that the Army would have to establish its own amphibious training establishment. The Joint Staff hoped to have twelve Army divisions (eleven infantry and one armored) trained in amphibious warfare by 1 February 1943. Another two infantry divisions and one armored division would receive training overseas. This did not include the 1st, 3rd and 9th Infantry Divisions, which were already undergoing training, the 3rd on the West Coast and the 1st and 9th on the East coast. In addition, the Army would train enough boat crews to move eight divisions. These would also be available by 1 February 1943. The Joint Staff intended to create three amphibious training centers. The plan was to train four divisions at Camp Edwards, Massachusetts, six at Camp Carrabelle, Florida, and two at Fort Lewis, Washington. It was intended that training at Camp Edwards would be conducted between July and November 1942. The Army Ground Forces was given responsibility for the development of amphibious warfare doctrine and the conduct of unit training. The Army activated its Amphibious Training Center at Camp Edwards on 22 May 1942, with Colonel Frank A. Keating, the chief of staff of the 2nd Infantry Division, assigned to command it. It became active on 15 June 1942. The 45th Infantry Division underwent training at Camp Edwards from 15 July to 20 August 1942. Training concluded with major amphibious maneuvers from 17 to 19 August, during which the division conducted a shore-to-shore operation, embarking from Washburn Island, Massachusetts, and crossing Vineyard Sound to land on Martha's Vineyard, about 6 miles (9.7 km) away. It was followed by the 36th Infantry Division, which arrived on 22 August, and completed its training on 3 October. The final three days saw a repeat of the shore-to-shore exercise the 45th had conducted. The Amphibious Training Center moved to Camp Carrabelle in October 1942. The first formation to undergo training there was the 38th Infantry Division, which commenced its amphibious warfare training there on 23 November 1942. The final shore-to-shore amphibious maneuver was conducted on 17 to 19 December, but performance was not considered satisfactory by the Amphibious Training Center staff, and it was repeated on 28 to 30 December. Camp Carrabelle was renamed Camp Gordon Johnston 13 January 1943. The 28th Infantry Division commenced training on 28 January 1943, and conducted its landing exercise on 7 to 9 March. This was the last division to be trained by the Amphibious Training Center, although three separate battalions, the 81st Chemical Battalion, 61st Medical Battalion and 462nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion, received training there in May 1943. On 10 March 1943, the Chief of Staff of the United States Army, General George Marshall, and the Commander-in-Chief, United States Fleet, Admiral Ernest King, entered into an agreement that amphibious training would henceforth be a Navy responsibility. The Army Ground Forces was relieved of responsibility for the Amphibious Training Center on 16 March, and it was closed on 10 June. ## Engineer Amphibian Command In addition to training combat units in amphibious warfare, the Army also had to train personnel in the operation and maintenance of landing craft. Operating the necessary landing craft was estimated to require 48,000 men, organized into 18 boat operating regiments and seven boat maintenance battalions. Each boat regiment had three battalions, each of three boat companies. It was agreed with the British that boat units deploying to the UK would receive their initial training in the US, and final training in the UK. A consequence was the amphibian engineers' adoption of the British Combined Operations shoulder patch, but with the colors switched to gold on blue. The War Department also authorized the wearing of a pocket patch showing a scarlet seahorse on a white background, these being the colors of the United States Army Corps of Engineers. The Engineer Amphibian Command was created on 10 June 1942 at Camp Edwards, Massachusetts under the command of Colonel Daniel Noce, with Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Trudeau as his chief of staff. Noce was answerable to Brigadier General Clarence Sturdevant, the Assistant Chief of Engineers for training. Additional training facilities were established at Cape Cod. The beach south of Buzzards Bay was selected for shore facilities, and Washburn Island was leased as a training site. Some \$1.6 million was spent on dredging and the construction of roads, camps, piers and utilities. Noce and Trudeau considered how the boat units would operate in combat, and noted the importance of well-trained shore parties to load and unload the boats, and establish supply dumps on the far shore. Since combat engineers were not specifically trained for the task, and would in any case have their hands full dealing with obstacles and fortifications, they felt that a permanent organization was required. They drew up a structure for an engineer shore regiment that would combine the functions of a Navy beach party and the Marine Corps shore party. About half the size of a boat regiment, a shore regiment would consist of three battalions, each with a near shore company and two far shore companies. Each shore regiment would be grouped with a boat regiment, a boat maintenance battalion, and support units to form an engineer amphibian brigade capable of moving an entire infantry division. The proposed organization was approved, and authority was granted to form eight engineer amphibian brigades. The table of organization and equipment for an engineer amphibian brigade provided for 349 officers, 20 warrant officers, and 6,814 enlisted men. The Army searched its personnel records for men with appropriate marine experience. Arrangements were made to train ships' carpenters and marine mechanics at the Gray Marine Motor Company in Michigan, Higgins Industries in Louisiana, and Evinrude Outboard Motors and the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company in Wisconsin. In all, 3,368 personnel were trained by these companies. Another 1,481 were trained at the Army Ordnance School at Aberdeen, Maryland, the Naval Operating Base at Toledo, Ohio, and the Army Motor School at Fort Holabird, Maryland. The majority, some 33,627 men, were trained at schools run by the Engineer Amphibian Command. Instructors were obtained from the British Army, Royal Navy, and the United States Coast Guard, Marine Corps and Coast and Geodetic Survey. Of the 37,651 enlisted men assigned between 10 June 1942 and 31 December 1943, 20,244 came from replacement centers, 11,898 from reception centers and 5,509 from other units; of the 2,899 officers, 634 came from other units, 825 from the Officer Reserve Corps, 965 from Officer Candidate Schools, and 475 through direct commissioning from civilian life. The Engineer Amphibian Command estimated that it required 1,000 36-foot (11 m) landing craft and 225 50-foot (15 m) tank lighters, but it was soon discovered that this exceeded the number available. The Navy agreed to turn over 300 36-foot craft from new production in June and July. Initially the Engineer Amphibian Command used whatever landing craft were available: the 36-foot landing craft, personnel (LCP); landing craft, ramp (LCR); landing craft, personnel (ramp) (LCP(R)); and landing craft, vehicle (LCV); and a small number of the 50-foot landing craft, mechanized (LCM). Some were petrol-, and some diesel-powered. The 36-foot boats were later superseded by the landing craft, vehicle, personnel (LCVP), which combined their attributes. The shortage of landing craft meant that enough were available for only one boat battalion at a time. The practice of allocating the boats to one battalion at a time, while the only way that all battalions could be trained, annoyed the Amphibious Training Center, as it meant that its ground units were always training with inexperienced boat crews. Tests were carried out with the newly-developed DUKW, and it was decided that each brigade should be equipped with three of them. An important organizational change as a result of experience with training occurred on 5 September, when Noce decided to group the boat and shore engineers into three boat and shore regiments, each with one boat and one shore battalion. Each boat and shore regiment could work with one of the three infantry regiments in an infantry division. While the Navy was still willing to allow the Army to operate landing craft, it reserved the right to operate ocean-going landing ships. A dispute arose over which category the larger 105-foot (32 m) Landing craft, tank (LCT) belonged to. The LCT was powered by the same Gray marine diesel engine as the LCVP and LCM, so no special training was required to operate or maintain it. The Engineer Amphibian Command was informed on 21 May 1942 that the Navy had agreed that the Army could operate LCTs, but the British then decided that the LCT was a landing ship after all, and on 29 June the Navy announced that it would be operating the LCTs. This came as a blow to the Engineer Amphibian Command, as it meant that it was dependent on the Navy to transport its larger pieces of equipment like the D8 bulldozer. The Navy also announced that it would take over the operation of all landing craft as soon as possible. The reason for this was that Sledgehammer had been abandoned in favor of an invasion of French Northwest Africa (Operation Torch), a ship-to-shore operation, and plans for the 1943 cross-Channel invasion operation were scaled back on 1 July from twelve to eight divisions. The number of engineer amphibian brigades was cut from eight to five; on 17 August it was reduced to just three. Given the additional time, the Navy now believed that it could train all boat crews, but the absorption of the engineer amphibian brigades into the Navy was precluded by the fact that they contained draftees, which the Navy was still refusing to accept. Uncertainty about the future became acute as the year wore on, as Camp Edwards was unsuitable for boat operations in winter. The Amphibious Training Center moved to Camp Carrabelle, Florida in October, taking the 2nd Engineer Amphibian Brigade with it, but left the 3rd Engineer Amphibian Brigade at Camp Edwards. Up to this point, all plans had revolved around operations in Europe, as the war against Germany had priority, although in planning for amphibious training for twelve divisions, the War Department had also been providing for operations in the Pacific. In the wake of the US victory in the Battle of Midway in June 1942, plans were advanced for offensive operations in the Pacific, particularly in the Solomon Islands. Amphibious operations in the Southwest Pacific Area (SWPA) depended on the availability of landing craft. The Navy intended to ship only 60 per month to the theater, as they had to be sent deckloaded on ships bound for Australia, as they were too large to fit into ships' holds. Trudeau proposed shipping them as components. In this way hundreds could be carried in a ship's hold. They could be assembled in Australia by the 411th Base Shop Battalion. The decision to ship the 2nd Engineer Amphibian Brigade to Australia freed accommodation at Camp Carrabelle for the 3rd Engineer Amphibian Brigade, although it meant that yet another cycle of training would be conducted with inexperienced boat crews. On 27 November, General Douglas MacArthur asked for two more brigades. He also recommended that their name be changed from "amphibian" to "special". Voluntary enlistment in the Navy of men aged 18 to 37 ended on 5 December 1942; henceforth men in this age group could be obtained only through the draft. This cleared the way for absorption of the Army boat crews into the Navy. On 8 March 1943, the War and Navy Departments agreed that landing craft should be operated by the Navy, but exempted the three engineer special brigades allocated to SWPA. The 4th Engineer Special Brigade completed its training at Camp Edwards in August 1943, and then moved to Camp Gordon Johnston, where it conducted joint training with the 4th Infantry Division. After it departed for Australia in December 1943, the Engineer Amphibian Command provided instruction to replacement crews before being disbanded in April 1944. ## 1st Engineer Special Brigade The 1st Engineer Amphibian Brigade was activated at Camp Edwards on 15 June 1942. Some 2,269 men were transferred from existing units, the 37th Engineer Combat Regiment providing the nucleus of the boat regiment, and the 87th Engineer Heavy Ponton Battalion that of the shore regiment. Brigadier General Henry C. Wolfe was assigned as commanding general on 7 July 1942. The brigade trained until 15 July, when it was assigned to the Amphibious Training Command. The brigade was pulled from the Amphibious Training Center early and sent to England to participate in Operation Sledgehammer, departing from the New York Port of Embarkation on 5 August, and arriving on 17 August. Elements of the brigade participated in the Operation Torch. The 531st Shore Regiment and 286th Signal Company acted as the shore party for the 1st Infantry Division, while the 2nd Battalion, 591st Engineer Boat Regiment was reorganized as a shore battalion, and operated in support of Combat Command B, 1st Armored Division. Brigade headquarters departed Glasgow on 24 November, and landed in North Africa on 6 December. Wolfe became chief engineer at the Services of Supply on 22 February and Colonel R. L. Brown of the 531st Engineer Shore Regiment acted as commander. Wolfe rejoined the brigade on 22 March 1943, but on 25 May he became S-3 at Allied Force Headquarters, and was replaced by Colonel Eugene M. Caffey. On 10 May 1943, the brigade was redesignated the 1st Engineer Special Brigade. The 591st Boat Regiment was detached, as was the 561st Boat Maintenance Company, which remained in England working on Navy landing craft, but the 36th and 540th Engineer Combat Regiments were attached for the 10 July Allied invasion of Sicily (Operation Husky), bringing the strength of the brigade to over 20,000. The brigade then participated in the Allied invasion of Italy at Salerno (Operation Avalanche) on 9 September. In November 1943, the headquarters of the 1st Engineer Special Brigade, along with the 531st Shore Regiment, 261st Medical Battalion, 286th Signal Company, 262nd Amphibian Truck Battalion and 3497th Ordnance Medium Automotive Maintenance Company, returned to England to participate in the invasion of Normandy (Operation Overlord). This nucleus of 3,346 men was built up to a strength of 15,000 men for Overlord. During Exercise Tiger, a rehearsal for the Normandy operation on 28 April, German E-Boats attacked a convoy of landing ships, tank (LSTs) of the XI Amphibious Force carrying troops of the brigade. Two LSTs were sunk, and the brigade lost 413 men dead and 16 wounded. The exercise was observed by Lieutenant General Omar N. Bradley, who, unaware of the sinking of the LSTs, blamed the resulting poor performance of the brigade on Caffey, and had him temporarily replaced for the Normandy landings by Brigadier General James E. Wharton. The brigade participated in the D-Day landing on Utah Beach, and operated as Utah Beach Command until 23 October 1944, and then as the Utah District of the Normandy Base Section until 7 December 1944. Under the command of Colonel Benjamin B. Talley, the brigade headquarters returned to England, and embarked for the United States on 23 December. It arrived at Fort Dix, New Jersey, on 30 December. After four weeks leave, it reassembled at Fort Lewis, Washington. Part of the brigade headquarters went by air to Leyte to join the XXIV Corps for the invasion of Okinawa, while the rest traveled directly to Okinawa on the USS Achernar. The brigade was in charge of unloading on Okinawa from 9 April to 31 May. It then prepared for the invasion of Japan. This did not occur due to the end of the war, and the brigade landed in Korea on 12 September 1945. Its final commander was Colonel Robert J. Kasper, who assumed command on 1 November 1945. The brigade was inactivated in Korea on 18 February 1946. On 30 September 1986, the brigade was reformed at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, as the 1st Engineer Brigade, and was assigned to the United States Army Training and Doctrine Command. ### Organization for the landing in Normandy - Brigade Headquarters - 531st Engineer Shore Regiment - 24th Amphibian Truck Battalion - 462nd Amphibian Truck Company - 478th Amphibian Truck Company - 479th Amphibian Truck Company - 306th Quartermaster Battalion - 556th Quartermaster Railhead Company - 562nd Quartermaster Railhead Company - 3939th Quartermaster Gas Supply Co - 191st Ordnance Battalion - 3497th Ordnance Medium Automotive Maintenance Company - 625th Ordnance Ammunition Company - 161st Ordnance Platoon - 577th Quartermaster Battalion - 363rd Quartermaster Service Company - 3207th Quartermaster Service Company - 4144th Quartermaster Service Company - 261st Medical Battalion (Amphibious) - 449th Military Police Company - 286th Joint Assault Signal Company - 33rd Chemical Decontamination Company Source: ### Campaign credits - World War II - Sicily - Naples-Foggia - Normandy (with arrowhead) - Northern France - Ryukyus Source: ## 2nd Engineer Special Brigade The 2nd Engineer Amphibian Brigade was activated at Camp Edwards on 20 June 1942, with the 532nd Engineer Shore Regiment and 592nd Engineer Boat Regiment assigned. Colonel William F. Heavey, who was appointed its commander on 6 August 1942, and was promoted to brigadier general on 10 September, led the brigade for the rest of the war. It quickly expanded to 6,000 men, but lost 1,500 in September to the 540th Shore Regiment. On 1 October, the brigade was reorganized; the 532nd and 592nd became engineer amphibian regiments and the 542nd Engineer Amphibian Regiment was formed. The brigade, less the 542nd Engineer Amphibian Regiment, moved by rail to Camp Carrabelle on 15 October. On 7 November, the brigade moved to Fort Ord, California, where it was joined by the 542nd Engineer Amphibian Regiment the following day. In January and February 1943, the brigade embarked from the San Francisco Port of Embarkation on a series of vessels bound for Australia. In Australia, the brigade was based at Cairns, although its headquarters was co-located with that of I Corps in Rockhampton, 600 miles (970 km) away. The brigade helped the 411th Base Shop Battalion establish a landing craft construction facility, which produced its first finished LCVP on 7 April. In May, elements of the brigade began moving to New Guinea. A detachment of ten LCMs of the 592nd Engineer Amphibian Regiment went to Port Moresby, where it moved supplies to the Lakekamu River. They were followed by detachments of the 532nd and 542nd, which moved to Milne Bay, Oro Bay and Samarai. On 30 June, the brigade participated in its first amphibious operation, the landing at Nassau Bay. On 4 July, the brigade was renamed the 2nd Engineer Special Brigade, and its three regiments became engineer boat and shore regiments. The 2nd Engineer Special Brigade trained at Cairns with the Australian 9th Division in June and July 1943. The 532nd Engineer Boat and Shore Regiment then moved to New Guinea, and landed part of the 9th Division at Red Beach near Lae on 4 September. On 22 September, it landed elements of the 9th Division at Scarlet Beach near Finschhafen. On 11 October, four Japanese barges attempted to land on Scarlet Beach. They were defeated by men of the 532nd Engineer Boat and Shore Regiment, including Private Junior Van Noy, who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. Over the next few months, units of the 2nd Engineer Special Brigade participated in the landings at Arawe, Long Island, Saidor, Sio, Los Negros, Talasea, Hollandia, Wakde and Biak. On 20 October 1944 it participated in the amphibious assault on Leyte in the Philippines. Over the following months it participated in a series of amphibious operations to liberate the Philippines. Nine of the 2nd Engineer Special Brigade's units were awarded Presidential Unit Citations. The 2nd Engineer Special Brigade arrived back in San Francisco on 16 December 1945, and returned to Fort Ord. It later moved to Fort Worden, Washington, where it was stationed when the Korean War broke out in June 1950. The brigade moved to Yokohama, Japan, and participated in the landing at Inchon in September 1950. Afterwards it operated the ports of Suyong and Ulsan. The brigade was redesignated as the 2nd Amphibious Support Brigade on 26 June 1952. In December 1953 it moved to Camp McGill in Japan, where it was inactivated on 24 June 1955. The brigade was reactivated at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, on 13 November 1956, and inactivated at Fort Story, Virginia, on 25 August 1965. It was reactivated as the 2nd Engineer Brigade at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, on 16 September 2011. Although no longer an amphibian brigade, it wore the World War II-era seahorse emblem until inactivated there on 15 May 2015. ### World War II organization - Brigade Headquarters - 532nd Engineer Boat and Shore Regiment - 542nd Engineer Boat and Shore Regiment - 592nd Engineer Boat and Shore Regiment - 562nd Engineer Boat Maintenance Battalion - 1458th Engineer Maintenance Company - 1459th Engineer Maintenance Company - 1460th Engineer Maintenance Company - 1570th Engineer Heavy Equipment Shop Company - 1762nd Engineer Parts Supply Platoon - 262nd Medical Battalion - 162nd Ordnance Maintenance Company - 189th Quartermaster Gas Supply Company - 287th Signal Company - 695th Truck Company - 3498th Ordnance Medium Maintenance Company - 5204th Transportation Corps Amphibious Truck Company - Medical Detachment, 2nd Engineer Special Brigade - Support Battery (Provisional) 2nd Engineer Special Brigade - 416th Army Service Forces Band Source: ### Campaign credits - World War II - New Guinea - Leyte (with arrowhead) - Korean War - UN Defensive - UN Offensive - CCF Intervention - First UN Counteroffensive - CCF Spring Offensive - UN Summer-Fall Offensive Source: ## 3rd Engineer Special Brigade Commanded for almost the entire war by Colonel David Ayres Depue Ogden, who was promoted to brigadier general on 18 September 1942, the 3rd Engineer Amphibian Brigade was activated at Camp Edwards on 6 August 1942 with the 533rd Engineer Shore Regiment and 593rd Engineer Boat Regiment assigned. On 9 November they became engineer amphibian regiments, and the 543rd Engineer Amphibian Regiment was assigned to the brigade. The brigade moved to Camp Gordon Johnston by rail in November. In April 1943 it relocated to Fort Ord, where it prepared to move to Australia. Due to shipping shortages and changes in priorities, this took six months. The brigade was redesignated the 3rd Engineer Special Brigade on 25 May 1943, and the amphibian regiments became engineer boats and shore regiments. The first unit of the brigade to reach New Guinea was the 563rd Engineer Boat Maintenance Battalion, which arrived at Milne Bay on 14 October 1943; the rest of the brigade followed in December 1943 and January 1944. The brigade became widely scattered, and never operated as a single unit, but Ogden retained control using a special radio net. It participated in the landings at Talasea, Aitape, Lingayen, and Borneo and Mindanao. The brigade returned to the United States on 20 December 1945, and was inactivated two days later. ### World War II organization - Brigade Headquarters - Medical Detachment - 533rd Engineer Boat and Shore Regiment - 543rd Engineer Boat and Shore Regiment - 593rd Engineer Boat and Shore Regiment - 563rd Engineer Boat Maintenance Battalion - HQ and HQ Detachment - 1461st Engineer Maintenance Company - 1462nd Engineer Maintenance Company - 1463rd Engineer Maintenance Company - 1571st Engineer Heavy Equipment Shop Company - 1763rd Engineer Parts Supply Platoon - 263rd Medical Battalion - 163rd Ordnance Maintenance Company - 198th Quartermaster Gasoline Supply Company - 288th Signal Company - 693rd Truck Company - 3499th Ordnance Medium Maintenance Company - 417th Army Service Forces Band Source: ### Campaign honors - World War II - New Guinea Source: ## 4th Engineer Special Brigade The 4th Engineer Amphibian Brigade was activated at Fort Devens on 1 February 1943, with the 534th, 544th and 594th Engineer Amphibian Regiments assigned. The brigade moved to Camp Edwards, where it was redesignated the 4th Engineer Special Brigade on 10 May, with the three regiments becoming engineer boat and shore regiments. The brigade moved to Camp Gordon Johnston in September 1943, and then staged at Camp Stoneman, California, on 21 April 1944, before departing the San Francisco Port of Embarkation for New Guinea on 28 April. Its commanding general throughout its lifetime was Colonel Henry Hutchings, Jr., who was promoted to brigadier general on 15 January 1944. The 4th Engineer Amphibian Brigade arrived at Oro Bay on 18 May 1944, where its headquarters opened on 23 May. Most of the rest of the brigade arrived in the area over the next few weeks, and participated in amphibious training with the 31st Infantry Division. The Boat Battalion of the 534th Engineer Boat and Shore Regiment was sent to the Bulimba Boat Yards in Brisbane, where it was engaged in assembling landing craft. It participated in the assaults on Morotai in the Netherlands East Indies on 15 September 1944, and Lingayen Gulf on Luzon in the Philippines on 9 January 1945. It was inactivated in Japan on 15 April 1946. ### World War II organization - Brigade Headquarters - Medical Detachment - 534th Engineer Boat and Shore Regiment - 544th Engineer Boat and Shore Regiment - 594th Engineer Boat and Shore Regiment - 564th Engineer Boat Maintenance Battalion - 264th Medical Battalion - 164th Ordnance Maintenance Company - 199th Quartermaster Gasoline Supply Company - 289th Signal Company - 694th Truck Company - 3492nd Ordnance Medium Maintenance Company - 4th Engineer Amphibian Brigade Band (August 1945 became 434th Army Service Forces Band attached to Sixth Army) Source: ### Campaign honors - World War II: - New Guinea - Luzon Source: ## 5th Engineer Special Brigade The 336th Engineer General Service Regiment was activated at Camp Rucker, Alabama, on 25 July 1942, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel William D. Bridges. On 7 April 1943, it was redesignated the 1119th Engineer Combat Group, with its 1st and 2nd Battalions becoming the 336th and 234th Engineer Combat Battalions respectively. The 1119th Engineer Combat Group moved to Fort Pierce, Florida, on 15 April, where the 348th Engineer Combat Battalion was assigned as the third battalion of the group on 21 April. The group moved to Camp Pickett, Virginia, on 16 June. The 234th Engineer Combat Battalion was detached on 15 August, and replaced by the 37th Engineer Combat Battalion on 22 August. The group staged for overseas movement at Camp Myles Standish, Massachusetts. It left the Boston Port of Embarkation on 21 October, and arrived in the UK on 1 November. It was redesignated the 5th Engineer Special Brigade on 12 November 1943 at Swansea, Wales. The following day, Colonel William M. Hoge assumed command of the brigade. Unlike the brigades in the Pacific, those in the European Theater had no boat units, although they did have additional service units to handle cargo over the beaches. When Hoge stepped up to command the provisional Special Brigade Group, he was replaced by Colonel Doswell Gullatt. For the invasion of Normandy, the brigade had a strength of 6,756 men. It landed on Omaha Beach, where it was responsible for the eastern beaches, Easy Red, Fox Green and Fox Red. Gullatt was hospitalized due to illness in July 1944, and Bridges assumed command on 31 July. The brigade operated Omaha Beach until it was closed on 19 November 1944. On 4 January 1945, the brigade was transferred to the Seine Section of Paris, where it supervised construction activities. It returned to the United States on 11 July 1945, and was inactivated at Camp Gordon Johnston on 20 October of that year. ### Units assigned on D-Day, 6 June 1944 - Brigade Headquarters - 37th Engineer Combat Battalion - 336th Engineer Combat Battalion - 348th Engineer Combat Battalion - 61st Medical Battalion - 391st Medical Collection Company - 392nd Medical Collection Company - 395th Medical Collection Company - 643rd Medical Clearing Company - 210th Military Police Company - 30th Chemical Decontamination Company - 294th Joint Assault Signal Company - 251st Ordnance Battalion - 616th Ordnance Ammunition Company - 3566th Ordnance Medium Automotive Maintenance Company - 26th Bomb Disposal Squad - 4042nd Quartermaster Truck Company - 533rd Quartermaster Battalion - 4141st Quartermaster Service Company - 4142nd Quartermaster Service Company - 4143rd Quartermaster Service Company - 131st Quartermaster Battalion (Mobile) - 453rd Amphibian Truck Company - 458th Amphibian Truck Company - 459th Amphibian Truck Company - 619th Quartermaster Battalion - 97th Quartermaster Railhead Company - 559th Quartermaster Railhead Company - Co. A, 203rd Quartermaster Gas Supply Battalion Source: ### Campaign honors - World War II - Normandy - Northern France - Ardennes-Alsace - Central Europe Source: ## 6th Engineer Special Brigade The 146th Engineer Combat Regiment was activated at Camp Swift, Texas, on 25 January 1943. On 1 April 1943 it was redesignated the 1116th Engineer Combat Group. The group moved to Fort Pierce, Florida, for amphibious training on 16 August, and then to Camp Pickett, Virginia, on 10 October. It staged at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, before departing the New York Port of Embarkation on 8 January 1944. It arrived in the UK on 17 January, where it was redesignated the 6th Engineer Special Brigade on 15 May. The brigade participated in the invasion of Normandy, operating the western end of Omaha Beach, the Charlie, Dog and Easy Green beaches. The brigade lost its commander, Colonel Paul W. Thompson, who was seriously wounded on D-Day, and he was replaced by Colonel Timothy L. Mulligan. It operated Omaha Beach until it was closed on 19 November. The brigade then became responsible for the security of the western coast of the Cotentin Peninsula. On 29 December the brigade was assigned to the Advance Section (ADSEC), where it was responsible for construction and road maintenance. On 28 March 1945, it was made responsible for coal mining. On 14 July the brigade headquarters, without any troops, embarked at Le Havre for the United States. The brigade arrived in the United States on 23 July 1945, and was inactivated at Camp Gordon Johnston on 20 October. ### Units assigned on D-Day, 6 June 1944 - Brigade Headquarters - 147th Engineer Combat Battalion - 149th Engineer Combat Battalion - 203rd Engineer Combat Battalion - 60th Medical Battalion - 453rd Medical Collection Company - 499th Medical Collection Company - 500th Medical Collection Company - 634th Medical Clearing Company - 214th Military Police Company - 31st Chemical Decontamination Company - 293rd Joint Assault Signal Company - 74th Ordnance Battalion - 618th Ordnance Ammunition Company - 3565th Ordnance Medium Automotive Maintenance Company - 538th Quartermaster Battalion - 967th Quartermaster Service Company - 3204th Quartermaster Service Company - 3205th Quartermaster Service Company - 280th Quartermaster Battalion - 460th Amphibian Truck Company - 461st Amphibian Truck Company - 463rd Amphibian Truck Company - 95th Quartermaster Battalion (Mobile) - 88th Quartermaster Railhead Company - 555th Quartermaster Railhead Company - 3820th Gas Supply Company Source: ### Campaign honors - World War II - Normandy - Northern France - Rhineland - Central Europe Source: ## Other amphibian units ### Provisional Engineer Special Brigade Group The Provisional Engineer Special Brigade Group was formed at Penllergaer, England, on 17 February 1944 to control Omaha Beach. It was commanded by Brigadier General William M. Hoge. Its main components were the 5th and 6th Engineer Special Brigades, and the 11th Port. For the D-Day landing it had a strength of 30,000 men. On 26 June it became the Omaha Beach Command. ### 540th Engineer Combat Group The 540th Engineer Shore Regiment was activated at Camp Edwards on 11 September 1942, and was rushed to Europe to participate in Operation Torch. The 3rd Battalion was inactivated at Camp Edwards on 3 October; thereafter it had only two battalions. It staged at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, and departed the New York Port of Embarkation and the Hampton Roads Port of Embarkation on 23 October 1942. It was redesignated the 540th Engineer Combat Regiment on 25 October 1942, and assaulted French Northwest Africa on 8 November. It subsequently participated in the assault landings at Licata, Sicily, on 9 July 1943, at Salerno and Anzio in Italy on 9 September 1943 and 22 January 1944 respectively, and the invasion of Southern France on 15 August 1944. It was redesignated the 540th Engineer Combat Group on 15 February 1945, with its 1st and 2nd Battalions becoming the 2832nd and 2833rd Engineer Combat Battalions. It was inactivated on 25 October 1945. The 2832nd Engineer Combat Battalion returned to Camp Kilmer on 13 November 1945, where it was disbanded two days later. The 2833rd Engineer Combat Battalion returned to Camp Kilmer on 26 November 1945, and was disbanded on the following day. ### 411th Engineer Special Shop Battalion The 411th Engineer Base Shop Battalion was formed at Camp Edwards on 17 August 1942. A composite platoon from the battalion went to England with the 1st Engineer Amphibian Brigade. It departed the San Francisco Port of Embarkation on 17 January 1943, and arrived in Australia on 30 January. It moved to Cairns where it operated an assembly plant for LCVPs. On 5 June 1944 it moved to Milne Bay, where it operated a facility that assembled the larger LCMs. It was redesignated the 411th Engineer Special Shop Battalion on 1 November 1944. On 16 December it moved to Batangas in the Philippines, where a new LCM assembly plant was established. It returned to the San Francisco Port of Embarkation on 4 February 1946, and was inactivated at Camp Stoneman, California, two days later. ### 692nd Engineer Special Shop Battalion The 692nd Engineer Base Shop Battalion was formed at Camp Edwards on 15 May 1943. It was redesignated the 692nd Special Shop Battalion on 12 August. It departed the New Orleans Port of Embarkation on 10 February 1944, and arrived at Milne Bay on 25 February, where it assisted the 411th Engineer Base Shop Battalion in the operation of the LCM assembly plant there. It followed it to Batangas on 17 June 1945. It returned to the Los Angeles Port of Embarkation on 25 January 1945, and was inactivated at Camp Anza, California, two days later.

The Witch Way

Lancashire bus route

The Witch Way is the branding for long-standing English bus route X43, which runs between Burnley and Manchester. The service is currently operated by The Burnley Bus Company. The route has operated continuously since 1948. It was previously operated by Ribble Motor Services, Stagecoach North West and Burnley & Pendle, while GM Buses briefly competed with Stagecoach on the route. During its history it has served several places no longer on the present route, including Bury and the Trafford Centre. The service was rebranded as The Witch Way in 2005 to coincide with the introduction of new vehicles. It had previously been branded as The X43 and before then was unbranded. Between 1982 and 1986 the route was known as Timesaver, with buses carrying dedicated liveries. ## History Route X43 was introduced between Colne and Manchester by Ribble Motor Services in 1948, replacing another route between Burnley and Manchester. In the early 1950s it was extended to start from Skipton. In 1978, the route was rerouted to use the new M66 motorway, bypassing Bury. Some journeys continued to serve the traditional route, as route number 743. Ribble Motor Services was privatised in 1986 in a management buyout. In April 1989 it was sold to Stagecoach. In 1992, in response to competition on route 192, GM Buses used its Charterplan coaching subsidiary to compete with route X43 between Manchester and Burnley. The competition ended in 1994 following Stagecoach's withdrawal from route 192. Stagecoach went on to acquire the southern half of GM Buses in February 1996. For a short time in the late 1990s, the route operated through to Keighley, this ceased in 1999. In 1998 the route was extended south of Manchester to the Trafford Centre. A further change in 2000 saw the northern end of route X43 rerouted to avoid Barnoldswick, prompting some criticism from local residents. Stagecoach's operations in the Burnley area were sold to the Blazefield Group on 15 April 2001 and rebranded as Burnley & Pendle. In June 2001 one X43 journey in each direction was extended through to Skipton and Hawes on summer Sundays. This proved relatively successful, and the single-deck coach initially used was replaced by a double-decker. It continued to operate into 2003, but was withdrawn at the end of September. Fares on the route increased by 30% in the two years up to August 2004, prompting some passengers to abandon the route in favour of a car-sharing scheme. Despite this, the route saw an average of 12% yearly growth between 2001 and 2004. In August 2005, the route was upgraded with new vehicles and rebranded as The Witch Way. The service frequency was increased to every 20 minutes, with a Saturday frequency of every 30 minutes and a Sunday frequency of one bus per hour, while the extension to the Trafford Centre was withdrawn. The section of route between Nelson and Colne was also abandoned, prompting criticism from local councillors, although the parallel "Mainline" routes 20-29 were increased in frequency to partially replace these journeys. Blazefield was sold to Transdev in January 2006. During the first six months after the new vehicles were introduced, passenger numbers on the remaining section of route increased by 24.1%, with total passenger numbers up by 16.1%. The route was shortlisted for a UK Bus Award in October 2006, going on to win the Viacom Outdoor Bus Marketing Campaign of the Year award. In October 2011, the Witch Way services underwent a revamp with an increase in journeys between Burnley and Manchester, running every 15 minutes Monday-Saturday daytime, but with a reduction between Nelson and Manchester to every 30 minutes Monday-Saturday daytime. Route X44, which differed from the regular route by additionally serving Edenfield, was also withdrawn from service. On 1 May 2016 the route saw several changes. Faster buses were introduced at peak time between Manchester and Burnley, and the route was extended twice an hour beyond Burnley to Skipton via the M65 and Colne. Nelson, however, is no longer served by off-peak X43 buses, although services remain during peak hours. A Sunday extension of the route to Grassington was introduced; these services had already operated, but had previously used route number 872. In May 2020, it was announced that the X43 would be curtailed to Burnley. A new service, branded Pendle Wizz, was introduced between Burnley and Skipton, following the same route as the X43. In April 2023, Pendle Wizz was replaced by the introduction of service M6 – an expansion to Burnley's Mainline bus network. ## Route description Route X43 currently runs between Burnley and Manchester, serving the intermediate communities of Rawtenstall and Prestwich. The service makes use of both the M60 and M66 motorways, and connects two notable educational establishments: Alder Grange Community and Technology School and Burnley College. Another point of interest on the route is the Singing Ringing Tree near Burnley. ## Vehicles and marketing Route X43 was initially served with a mixture of double-deck Leyland Titans and single-deck Leyland Tigers. In the early 1960s these were replaced by new Leyland Leopards. From 1974 coaches were used on the route, with Leyland Leopards again the preferred choice. In 1982 a small number were branded for the route, using the name Timesaver and the tagline Regular Motorway service. In 1984 the route was converted to double-deck operation using new Leyland Olympians painted in a unique white and blue livery with Timesaver branding. Four Leyland Tiger coaches in a yellow and red livery also using the Timesaver name, arrived a year later. The route branding was replaced by Stagecoach's corporate image of white with red, orange and blue stripes following their takeover of Ribble Motor Services in 1989. Stagecoach would rebrand the X43 and introduce a new set of Leyland Olympians in response to the competition from Charterplan in 1992. The route was marketed as The Mancunian, with the Olympians carrying the name alongside Stagecoach corporate livery. New Dennis Javelins were later introduced to replace the Olympians. The route was briefly operated with articulated coaches in 1996, but this proved short-lived owing to restrictions on their use in Rawtenstall, with services returning to Javelin operation. The Javelins were transferred away from the route shortly prior to Stagecoach's sale of the operation to Transdev, and the service was briefly operated with 15-year-old Leyland Olympians. In July 2001 a fleet of 15 new Plaxton President bodied Volvo B7TLs, which were specified with features that were unusual to ordinary buses at the time such as CCTV cameras, were introduced to the route. In August 2005, the route was again re-launched alongside its new brand identity – "The Witch Way" – with 16 new Wright Eclipse Gemini bodied Volvo B7TLs entering service. These buses carried a red, grey and black livery dedicatedly branded for the route and were installed with high-specification interiors, including coach-style leather seats. They were also each named after the Pendle witches from the 17th century. Coinciding with the high-specification nature, the service was advertised with the slogan "business class as standard". On the 1st November 2013, new vehicles were introduced to the route, in the form of 15 Wright Gemini bodied Volvo B9TLs. These buses carried a new two-tone gunmetal-grey coloured livery, dedicatedly branded for the route. Additionally, the new vehicles debuted the introduction of free WiFi, which allows passengers to connect to the internet during their journey. On the 13th December 2020, a brand new fleet of 14 Alexander Dennis Enviro400 MMC double-deck vehicles were introduced to the route. These buses are fitted to the company's Sky Class specification, and are dedicatedly branded for the route in a two-tone orange and black livery. Features include free WiFi, USB and wireless charging, group seating with tables, individual seating upstairs, an on-board library and audio-visual next stop announcements, voiced by Coronation Street star Jennie McAlpine. ## Variants There has been five alternative routes similar to route X43 operated in the past. When route X43 was diverted away from Bury in 1978, some journeys continued to serve the town. These were numbered 743 and were operated by Ribble Motor Services with a mixture of coaches and buses. Route X43's infrequent extension to Skipton was also transferred onto route 743. The route was withdrawn in 1985 due to a fall in passenger numbers which coincided with the rebranding of the main route as Timesaver. Route X53 took a different route between Burnley and Rawtenstall, via Water and Waterfoot in the upper Irwell Valley. In the early 1960s these journeys were 4-hourly and started/ended at Burnley. By the 1970s frequency had declined to a southbound morning and northbound evening peak working, but it survived to be renumbered 753 when X43 became 743. It was withdrawn along with the 743. A variation of the route operating via the Rossendale Valley between Rawtenstall and Burnley was introduced in 2002, taking the number X45. It was operated with route branded Volvo B10M coaches, but was cancelled after a year because of low patronage. In early 2002, route X43 journeys which extended beyond Manchester to the Trafford Centre were renumbered to X42 to distinguish them from the short workings. This pattern continued until the August 2005 rebranding, when the extension was withdrawn. The most recent variation was route X44, which ran until October 2011. It ran via Edenfield between Rawtenstall and the M66 motorway. This allowed commuters and shoppers to travel to/from Manchester with the service running several journeys during the day Mondays to Saturdays. The service was partly replaced by route X8, which ran between Burnley, Rawtenstall and Manchester via Bacup, and First Greater Manchester's route X35, which was extended from Stubbins. ## Accidents In November 1999, a bus travelling on the route from Manchester to Barnoldswick was involved in a crash with a car travelling in the opposite direction in Earby. Four passengers and the car driver suffered minor injuries. In September 2006, the driver of an X43 on the M60 motorway fell unconscious while the vehicle was moving. Irene King, a 47-year-old passenger, was able to take over control of the bus to prevent a serious accident. She won several awards for this action, including an award for Outstanding Bravery at the 2006 Pride of Britain Awards, a Vodafone Life Savers Award, a Royal Humane Society Testimonial on Vellum, a Chief Constable's Commendation. In October 2020, a blue SUV pulled out from a side in front of an X43 travelling along the A682 near Clowbridge Reservoir. Three passengers and the driver of the car suffered minor injuries. The driver of the bus was shaken but unhurt. The accident was recorded on the dashcam of a vehicle travelling in the opposite direction to the bus.

2005–06 South-West Indian Ocean cyclone season

Cyclone season in the Southwest Indian Ocean

The 2005–06 South-West Indian Ocean cyclone season was the fifth least-active on record. The Météo-France office on the island of Réunion tracked 13 tropical disturbances, of which six intensified into a moderate tropical storm. Three of these systems proceeded to attain tropical cyclone status – reaching 10 minute maximum sustained winds of at least 120 km/h (75 mph). The American-based Joint Typhoon Warning Center also tracked eight storms in the basin. Activity was below normal due to a powerful Walker circulation, which increased convection over the neighboring Australian basin, but suppressed activity in the western Indian Ocean. As a result, most of the storms developed near or entered from the Australian basin, crossing 90°E to enter the South-West Indian Ocean. A series of four short-lived systems occurred from September to November in the northeastern portion of the basin. These were followed by the first named storm – Alvin – which was renamed after it crossed from the Australian region as Tropical Cyclone Bertie in late November. After another short-lived disturbance in late December, there was a tropical disturbance in the Mozambique Channel in January that killed 26 people when it brought heavy rainfall to Mozambique. Later in the month, Tropical Cyclone Boloetse took an erratic track across Madagascar, killing six people when it brushed the island's southwest coast. In February, there was a small, short-lived unnamed tropical storm that presented difficulties to warning agencies in determining its structure. Intense Tropical Cyclone Carina was the strongest system of the season, attaining peak 10 minute winds of 205 km/h (127 mph) in the open waters of the eastern portion of the basin. Sprawling Tropical Storm Diwa brought six months' worth of rainfall to the drought-ridden island of Réunion, reaching 2,943 mm (115.9 in) in the mountainous peaks. The rains led to flooding and landslides that killed 10 people directly or indirectly. Two of the deaths occurred when a saturated cliff collapsed onto a coastal road. The final storm, Elia, dissipated on April 17 after previously entering from the Australian basin. ## Seasonal summary Météo-France's meteorological office in Réunion (MFR) – the official Regional Specialized Meteorological Center for the South-West Indian Ocean – tracked and named all tropical cyclones from the east coast of Africa to 90° E, and south of the equator. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC), which is a joint United States Navy – United States Air Force task force that issues tropical cyclone warnings for the region, also issued advisories for storms during the season. There were 13 tropical disturbances in the season that were monitored by the MFR. Since the agency began operations in the early 1990s, this season had the second-fewest disturbances that received warning, only behind the 2000–01 season. Since the advent of satellite imagery in 1967, this season was the fifth least-active in terms of storm days and the number of cyclones. There were six systems that attained the intensity of a moderate tropical storm, which has 10 minute sustained winds of at least 65 km/h (40 mph), below the average of nine. There were 30 days in which a moderate tropical storm was active, less than the average of 48. Three tropical storms attained tropical cyclone status, or 10 minute winds of at least 120 km/h (75 mph), and there were 10 days in which these systems were active; this is half the average of 20 days, continuing the trend since the 2000–01 season of fewer stronger systems. The season was very similar to the 1998–99 season; both had late starts for the first named storm, drought conditions over much of the basin, and low activity. The third named storm, Carina, did not occur until late February, which at the time was the latest such date since naming began in 1960. In general, storms in the season formed in the basin's periphery or north of the Mascarene Islands. No systems developed in the Mozambique Channel, an unusual occurrence. The overall lack of activity was due to a strong Walker circulation over Indonesia, which increased convection over the Australian region, but suppressed convection over the Indian Ocean. The Intertropical Convergence Zone – typically a major contributor to tropical cyclogenesis – was rarely active. Conditions became generally more favorable in February and March, when four of the six tropical storms occurred. The general lack of thunderstorms over the basin caused drought-like conditions. Pierrefonds Airport on Réunion recorded just 18 mm (0.71 in) of rainfall from November to January, a record minimum. The island also recorded its third-highest average atmospheric pressure from November to April. ## Systems ### Intense Tropical Cyclone Bertie–Alvin In the middle of November, a westerly wind burst produced an area of convection southwest of Sumatra, which spawned a circulation at 2o S on November 16. Two days later, the BoM classified the system as a tropical low to the north of the Cocos Islands. The low moved southwestward, quickly intensifying, prompting the BoM to name it Bertie. The storm moved southwestward and intensified due to favorable water temperatures and atmospheric conditions, reaching winds of 185 km/h (115 mph) on November 22 while just east of 90o E. The track shifted nearly due south, and the eye moved along the dividing line between the Australian and south-west Indian Ocean basins. Early on November 24, the cyclone crossed 90o E and was renamed Alvin; at the time, the system was beginning to weaken due to cooler waters from upwelling and increased wind shear. The MFR estimated peak 10 minute winds of 175 km/h (109 mph) within the basin, making it an intense tropical cyclone; it was the third consecutive year in which there was a November storm of such intensity. The JTWC, which designated Alvin as Tropical Cyclone 03S, estimated 1 minute winds of 195 km/h (121 mph). A building ridge to the south turned the storm to the west-northwest. By November 25, the increased wind shear had exposed the circulation from the convection, indicative of rapid weakening, and on that day Alvin was downgraded below tropical cyclone status. On the next day, the storm weakened to tropical depression status after nearly all of the convection was gone, prompting the JTWC to cease issuing advisories. The residual circulation remained well-defined with only temporary increases in convection. The MFR stopped issuing warnings on December 3, after Alvin had passed south of Diego Garcia, although the circulation continued westward and was still visible north of Madagascar on December 10. ### Tropical Disturbance 07 The Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) produced an area of convection northeast of Madagascar on December 29, which had an association circulation. On January 1, the system moved across northern Madagascar and subsequently entered the Mozambique Channel. It continued quickly to the southwest, passing north of Europa Island, and was classified as Tropical Disturbance 7 late on January 3. It continued intensifying and organizing until moving ashore Mozambique near Vilankulo, and the system nearly attained tropical depression stage. The system followed the country's coastline, bending southward toward the capital Maputo. On January 7, the disturbance moved offshore, but the system soon moved back overland and dissipated later that day over Swaziland. The system brought heavy rainfall to Inhambane Province, reaching 162 mm (6.4 in) in Inhambane. The rains resulted in flooding but also alleviated drought conditions in Mozambique. The rains also caused the Mutamba River to exceed its banks in Inhambane, flooding roads up to a meter (3.3 ft) deep and halting traffic. Across Mozambique, 26 people died due to the floods. ### Tropical Cyclone Boloetse A pulse in the monsoon spawned an area of convection from the Seychelles westward. A circulation was evident by January 20, signalling its formation as a tropical disturbance. Poor inflow from the trade winds prevented any initial organization as the system tracked southeastward. A ridge steered the disturbance to the southwest on January 23, bringing it just southeast of Tromelin Island. With light wind shear, the system developed a small area of convection over a well-defined circulation. Early on January 25, the MFR upgraded the disturbance to a tropical depression, and the JTWC classified it as Tropical Cyclone 09S. Later that day, the MFR upgraded it to a moderate tropical storm, giving it the name Boloetse. After a brief period of strengthening, the storm weakened due to increased shear and diurnal cooling. The track shifted to the south-southwest, paralleling Madagascar to the east. Steered between ridges to the east and west, Boloetse stalled and turned to the west-northwest. Late on January 27, the MFR downgraded the storm to a tropical depression, and late the next day, the circulation struck eastern Madagascar just north of Mananjary. The circulation had been weak during the approach to land, although there was a large increase in convection at the time of landfall. The circulation became difficult to locate over land, and the JTWC briefly halted issuing advisories on January 29. On the next day, the circulation emerged westward into the Mozambique Channel, where low wind shear and good outflow allowed for restrengthening. By late on January 31, the system had reorganized into a moderate tropical storm. On the next day, the JTWC reissued advisories on Boloetse as the storm was just 170 km (110 mi) east of the Mozambique coast. Weak steering from the ridge to the southeast caused the storm to meander in the area of favorable conditions. By late on February 2, Boloetse attain tropical cyclone status, developing an eye in the center of the organizing convection. An approaching trough caused the storm to accelerate southeastward, bringing it northeast of Europa Island. Late on February 3, the JTWC estimated peak 1 minute winds of 185 km/h (115 mph), while the MFR estimated 10 minute winds of 155 km/h (96 mph). An eyewall replacement cycle and increased wind shear caused Boloetse to weaken, and on February 4, the cyclone passed within 20 km (12 mi) of southwestern Madagascar. The storm accelerated and weakened, transitioning into an extratropical cyclone on February 5. The remnant system was absorbed by the approaching trough two days later. Along much of its path, the storm dropped heavy rainfall. The formative stages of Boloetse spread rainfall to Mauritius, where Vacoas recorded 175 mm (6.9 in) of rainfall over 24 hours. In eastern Madagascar, the storm dropped 133 mm (5.2 in) in Mahanoro over 18 hours. The storm deluged coastal Mozambique with over 100 mm (3.9 in) of rainfall, causing river levels to increase in Inhambane Province. Europa Island recorded 136 mm (5.4 in) of rainfall over just six hours. The cyclone still maintained much of its intensity during its final approach to southwestern Madagascar, bringing estimated wind gusts of 200 km/h (120 mph) to the coast. Toliara recorded wind gusts of 145 km/h (90 mph). In addition, heavy rainfall flooded two villages. Boloetse killed six people across southern Madagascar, while leaving 6,500 people homeless. ### Severe Tropical Storm 09 On February 15, a broad low-pressure area developed east of Madagascar. Over the next few days, the system dropped heavy rainfall to the Mascarene Islands. St. Brandon recorded 229 mm (9.0 in) of rainfall over 24 hours, and Plaisance Airport on Mauritius recorded 177 mm (7.0 in) of rainfall in 48 hours. The heaviest precipitation occurred on Réunion in a short amount of time, with 1-in-50 year rainfall rates. A station in the capital Saint-Denis recorded 376 mm (14.8 in) in just three hours, and over 48 hours, Le Brûlé recorded 1,274 mm (50.2 in) of precipitation. A weak low-pressure area began organizing within the trough on February 17, organizing enough to be classified as Tropical Disturbance 09 the next day just off the eastern coast of Madagascar. A small system, it developed a concentrated area of convection just 200 km (120 mi) in diameter, which followed a powerful hot tower that spurred development. The structure rapidly organized, and by February 19, there was an eye-like feature in the center of the thunderstorms. At 18:00 UTC that day, the JTWC classified it as Tropical Cyclone 12S, and the MFR upgraded it to a moderate tropical storm. Forecasters initially assessed the structure as akin to a mesoscale convective vortex, which is a small and short-lived system, and there was also uncertainty whether the winds were at the surface. As a result, there was a disagreement between the MFR, which estimated peak 10 minute winds of 95 km/h (59 mph), and the Meteorological Service of Mauritius, which assessed a much weaker storm. The latter agency is responsible for officially naming systems, and as a result, the severe tropical storm was unnamed. Moving southeastward in the flow of the trough, the small storm began weakening on February 20 due to strong northwesterly wind shear, which caused the convection to dwindle over the circulation. That day, the storm passed just 80 km (50 mi) north of Mauritius, by which time the center was exposed and the intensity had dropped to tropical depression status. It turned back to the northwest, steered by the low-level trade winds and following its previous path. Late on February 20, the JTWC discontinued advisories, and three days later, the circulation dissipated off the east coast of Madagascar. ### Intense Tropical Cyclone Carina An active phase of the Madden–Julian oscillation increased convection across the northeastern periphery of the basin, and the ITCZ produced a distinct low-pressure area on February 21 to the east of Diego Garcia. The convective structure organized, aided by good outflow and moderate but lessening wind shear. A ridge to its southeast steered the nascent system slowly to the southwest into an area of increasingly favorable conditions. On February 22, the system was classified as Tropical Disturbance 10. The next day, the Mauritius Meteorological Service named the disturbance Carina while it was still an intensifying system. Also on February 23, the JTWC initiated warnings on the storm as Tropical Cyclone 14S. On the next day, the MFR upgraded Carina to a moderate tropical storm. The storm stalled on February 25 due to weakness in the ridge, and on the same day, the JTWC upgraded the storm to the equivalent of hurricane status with 1 minute winds of 120 km/h (75 mph). By that time, an eye had developed within the center of increasingly organized convection, and the MFR upgraded Carina to tropical cyclone status on February 26. Continued favorable conditions, including minimal wind shear and powerful outflow, allowed Carina to intensify further while progressing slowly southwestward. Late on February 27, the MFR upgraded the storm to an intense tropical cyclone, and the eye reached a diameter of 70 km (43 mi). Based on the storm's presentation on satellite imagery, the MFR estimated peak 10 minute winds of 205 km/h (127 mph) on February 28. On the same day, the JTWC estimated peak 1 minute winds of 240 km/h (150 mph). Unfavorable conditions – cooler waters and stronger wind shear – caused Carina's structure to rapidly degrade after the peak intensity. By March 2, the storm weakened below tropical cyclone status, and soon after the circulation became exposed from the convection, prompting the JTWC to discontinue advisories. Carina stalled that day when it reached a col between two ridges; as a result, the track shifted to the northeast and later northwest due to the building influence of the ridge to the southeast. Environmental conditions prevented significant convection to regenerate, and the circulation of Carina turned westward across the Indian Ocean without redevelopment. It turned back to the southwest, passing near St. Brandon on March 10. The MFR stopped tracking Carina on the next day, and the circulation dissipated on March 13 to the southeast of Madagascar. ### Severe Tropical Storm Diwa In the beginning of March, the monsoon was active to the northeast of Madagascar, the first time during the season that such active convection persisted northeast of the island. The broad system had two foci of low pressure; one was located northeast of Madagascar near St. Brandon, and the other was to its south closer to Réunion. The structure resembled a monsoon depression, but as the two low-pressure areas consolidated, they became more distinct. On March 2, the system that would become Diwa originated out of the southern low, and both systems continued to interact until Diwa absorbed the other disturbance. The wind field was large and asymmetrical, ranging 2,000 km (1,200 mi) in diameter, and there was little convection near the centers. Despite the lack of organization, the Meteorological Service of Mauritius named the system Tropical Storm Diwa on March 3 due to the threat to the Mascarene Islands, as well as the presence of gale-force winds. The structure slowly evolved into that of a tropical cyclone as the convection concentrated. On March 4, Diwa passed northwest of Réunion, still disorganized with much of the convection to the south. That day, the JTWC initiated advisories on the system as Tropical Cyclone 16S. The storm continued slowly to the southwest at first, until it turned to the southeast on March 6 while rounding the ridge. Despite accelerating into an area of cooler waters, Diwa's structure became much more like a tropical cyclone on March 8. The MFR estimated peak 10 minute winds of 110 km/h (68 mph), making it a severe tropical storm, and the JTWC estimated peak 1 minute winds of 100 km/h (62 mph). Diwa quickly transitioned into an extratropical cyclone as it interacted with a cold front to the south, completing the transition by March 9. The circulation gradually lost its definition, dissipating on March 11. The formative stages of Diwa brought heavy rainfall, reaching 193 mm (7.6 in) over 48 hours, to St. Brandon, as well as gale-force winds, with gusts to 120 km/h (75 mph). Along Mauritius, winds reached 126 km/h (78 mph), along with 495 mm (19.5 in) of rainfall at a station in the southeastern portion of the island. Gale-force winds affected Réunion for nearly three days, due to the storm's lopsided structure, and gusts peaked at 194 km/h (121 mph) along the coast. Diwa dropped the equivalent of six months' worth of rainfall, peaking at 2,943 mm (115.9 in) at Grand-Îlet over four days, which approached the record totals set by Cyclone Hyacinthe in 1980, making it the 6th wettest tropical system in history. The volcanic peak Commerson's Crater recorded 1,474 mm (58.0 in) over 24 hours, while coastal areas just 15 km (9.3 mi) away recorded 188 mm (7.4 in) of rainfall over the same time. The storm caused power outages on the island, and three people died due to using a generator inside their home during the storm. One person drowned during the floods, and four people drowned in residual flooding accidents on the island in the weeks after the storm. The floods wrecked several homes during river flooding and caused several landslides, some of which occurred two weeks after the storm due to saturated grounds. On March 24, a cliff collapsed onto a coastal road, killing two people and severely injuring two others; the road was reopened three months later. In addition to the damaging effects, the rainfall also alleviated drought conditions. ### Moderate Tropical Storm Elia At the end of March, an active phase of the Madden–Julian oscillation caused an increase in convection over the northeastern portion of the basin. A low-pressure area formed on April 1 in the neighboring Australian basin, although the system soon after moved northwestward to cross 90o E. The low meandered for several days, unable to intensify much due to insufficient moisture in the region. On April 6, the MFR designated the system as Tropical Disturbance 13, although the agency discontinued advisories on the next day. On April 7, the low crossed back into the Australian basin, only to turn to the southwest on April 10, steered by a ridge to the southeast. During this time, the system passed about 185 km (115 mi) northwest of the Cocos Islands. On April 12, the JTWC designated the system as Tropical Cyclone 12S. On the same day, the system intensified into a tropical depression, after the convective structure improved amid favoring conditions. Early on April 13, the depression crossed 90o E into the south-west Indian Ocean. By that time, the system had good outflow to the south, although lack of moisture prevented significant development. Late on April 13, the MFR upgraded the system to Moderate Tropical Storm Elia, assessing peak 10 minute winds of 75 km/h (47 mph). The JTWC meanwhile estimated 1 minute winds of 95 km/h (59 mph). Increasing wind shear and cooler waters resulted in diminished intensity of the convection, causing Elia to weaken. The MFR downgraded the storm to tropical depression status on April 15 after the circulation became exposed. On the same day, the JTWC discontinued advisories. The circulation dissipated on April 17, signaling the end of the season. ### Other systems The first four disturbances in the season developed in the northeastern portion of the basin in association with a near-equatorial trough, but failed to develop due to wind shear. At the beginning of September 2005, the ITCZ was active in the northeastern portion of the basin, accompanied by a small circulation and scattered convection. Located in the presence of strong wind shear, the circulation was exposed from the convection, a sign of unfavorable conditions. However, warm waters fueled an increase in convection, and the MFR classified the system as Tropical Disturbance 1 on September 5. That day, the JTWC issued a TCFA, but continued shear caused weakening as the disturbance tracked southeastward. By September 8, the MFR had discontinued advisories on the system, after the circulation had become exposed. After turning to the west-northwest, the circulation began dissipating on September 12. The second disturbance was first classified by the MFR on October 12 about 1,575 km (979 mi) east of Diego Garcia. The system had enough of a circulation and associated convection, and proceeded southwestward for its duration. After the convection consolidated more and developed curved rainbands, the MFR upgraded the system to a 55 km/h (34 mph) tropical depression on October 14. This period of organization occurred during a brief decrease in wind shear. At 12:00 UTC on October 14, the JTWC classified the system as Tropical Cyclone 01S, estimating peak 1 minute winds of 75 km/h (47 mph). Increasingly unfavorable conditions caused the convection to diminish. Late on October 15, both the JTWC and MFR discontinued advisories due to the increasing disorganization of the disturbance. The circulation remained well-organized but devoid of convection, and the MFR last monitored the center on October 21. Tropical Depression Three formed on November 6 while east-southeast of Diego Garcia; it moved generally southward, reaching peak winds of 55 km/h (34 mph) before dissipating on November 8. Simultaneous to the depression was Tropical Depression Four, which entered the basin on November 7 from the Australian region, and was also classified by the JTWC as Tropical Cyclone 02S with winds of 65 km/h (40 mph). The depression was weakening at the time, and both the JTWC and MFR discontinued advisories on November 8. On December 21, the BoM began monitoring a tropical low in the western portion of the Australian basin, which had moved eastward from the south-west Indian Ocean basin. The system moved southwestward and later to the southwest, once again crossing 90o E and causing the MFR to designate it Tropical Depression 6. At the time, the circulation was partially exposed from the convection, although it organized over the next day. This spurred the JTWC to designate it as Tropical Cyclone 04S on December 24 with winds of 65 km/h (40 mph). As with other systems in the season, strong shear caused the system to weaken; the JTWC discontinued advisories on December 25, and the MFR followed suit the next day. However, the system continued to the southwest, reorganizing enough on December 27 for the MFR to reissue advisories. Shear again weakened the convection, and the MFR discontinued advisories again on December 29 while the system was a short distance west-northwest of Rodrigues. Tropical Disturbance 12 briefly was classified by the MFR on March 4, located 620 km (390 mi) north of the developing Tropical Storm Diwa. The disturbance moved quickly to the southeast around Diwa's circulation, and was ultimately absorbed by the larger storm. ## Storm names A tropical disturbance is named when it reaches moderate tropical storm strength. If a tropical disturbance reaches moderate tropical storm status west of 55°E, then the Sub-regional Tropical Cyclone Advisory Centre in Madagascar assigns the appropriate name to the storm. If a tropical disturbance reaches moderate tropical storm status between 55°E and 90°E, then the Sub-regional Tropical Cyclone Advisory Centre in Mauritius assigns the appropriate name to the storm. A new annual list is used every year so no names are retired. ## See also - List of Southern Hemisphere tropical cyclone seasons - Tropical cyclones in 2005 and 2006 - Atlantic hurricane seasons: 2005, 2006 - Pacific hurricane seasons: 2005, 2006 - Pacific typhoon seasons: 2005, 2006 - North Indian Ocean cyclone seasons: 2005, 2006

Gaara

Fictional character from Naruto

Gaara of the Desert (我愛羅) is a character in the Naruto manga and anime series created by Masashi Kishimoto. Originally debuting as an antagonist, Gaara is a shinobi affiliated with Sunagakure and is the son of Sunagakure's leader, the Fourth Kazekage. He was born as a demon's host as part of his father's intention to have a weapon to restore their village. However, a combination of being ostracized by the Sunagakure villagers, his early inability to control the Tailed Beast, and the notion that his deceased mother called him her curse on the village caused Gaara to become a ruthless killer who believes his own purpose is to kill his enemies. Only after meeting Naruto Uzumaki does Gaara earn a change of perspective, as he eventually becomes Sunagakure's Fifth Kazekage (五代目風影, Godaime Kazekage) and gains acceptance by his people. Gaara has appeared in several pieces of Naruto media, including two of the featured films in the series, the third original video animation, and several video games. Gaara was created a foil to the series' eponymous character, Naruto Uzumaki, as the two were born through similar circumstances, but develop vastly different personalities due to a troubled upbringing. His designs and name underwent major changes in the making of his final one which also was modified in later arcs to give Gaara a design that is easier to draw. In the Japanese version of the series, Gaara is voiced by Akira Ishida while Liam O'Brien voices him in the English dub. Numerous anime and manga publications have commented on Gaara's character. Multiple series called Naruto's fight against Gaara the high point of the entire series due to their similarities and Gaara's role in the aftermath as he attempts to redeem himself. Among the Naruto reader base, Gaara has been popular, placing high in several popularity polls and always making it to the top ten characters. Numerous pieces of merchandise have been released in Gaara's likeness, including plush dolls, key chains, and action figures. ## Creation and conception Naruto author Masashi Kishimoto created Gaara as a foil to the series' protagonist, Naruto Uzumaki. Naruto and he have a similar background: he was rejected by his peers and fellow villagers for being the host of One-Tailed beast, Shukaku, a situation that Kishimoto describes as "very much like Naruto's". Gaara's development from this state into a highly withdrawn, sadistic character was intended to induce sympathy for him from readers, as it was contrasted against Naruto's development into a cheerful troublemaker. Additionally, his design was designed to look like the Tanuki since Kishimoto thought that it would make him a good rival for Naruto's Nine-Tailed Demon Fox since several parts from the Shukaku were considered by Kishimoto to be opposite ones from the Demon Fox. Gaara's backstory became one of Kishimoto's favorite stories from Part I; Kishimoto had to revise his illustrations in such chapters as he wanted readers to understand more of Gaara's mental state. The character was originally going to be called Kotarou Fuuma, but Kishimoto's editor highly refused to give him that name. As a result, he was given the name Gaara why he felt more suitable to the fact he always uses sand. By 2013, Kishimoto stated he still did not understand why such name was discarded. Nevertheless, he refrained from giving him a complete name like Gaara Yuzawa. Another early name was a younger child named "Kumomaru" but was avoided by Kishimoto. However, after multiple changes, he became Gaara. Due to his importance in the manga as a result of being Naruto's foil, Kishimoto added the kanji for "love" in his head to complement his name (part of Gaara's name can be read as "love"). Gaara's initial attire, along with the costumes of his siblings, was difficult for Kishimoto to draw on a weekly basis. Because of this, Kishimoto gave the three of them simpler costumes towards the end of Part I; Gaara received an outfit with an upright collar. In addition to being easier to draw, it was used to demonstrate the change in relationship between Gaara and Naruto following their previous fight. Kishimoto cites The Matrix, one of his favorite movies, as an inspiration for Gaara's new costume, and he considers it to be his favorite costume of the three siblings. For Part II, there was a scene where an antagonist Deidara was sitting on Gaara's body. This shot was inspired by Akira, a manga by Katsuhiro Otomo that Kishimoto was a fan of. In the Japanese version of Naruto's animated versions Akira Ishida voices Gaara. Liam O'Brien takes his place for the English dub. The Western actor, before being selected to voice Gaara, had already heard about the series' popularity. O'Brien went for an early audition in Los Angeles with hopes of doing Gaara's voice but failed it. However, Brien later went through another audition and got Gaara's role. ## Appearances ### In Naruto Before he was born, Gaara's father, the 4th Kazekage Rasa, had Chiyo make Gaara into the Jinchuriki for the tailed beast Shukaku the One Tail (一尾の守鶴, Ichibi no Shukaku, English TV: "Shukaku the Sand Spirit") while he was still in his mother's womb before she died giving birth to him. Though believed at the time to be Shukaku's power in action, Gaara can manipulate sand, which subconsciously protects him. Rasa intended to use Gaara as the village's personal weapon, but Shukaku's bloodlust proved too much for Gaara as he suffered night terrors brought about by the tailed beast's influence. With Gaara's sand adding to his inability to control Shukaku, the boy became feared to the point his father decided to have him assassinated. Gaara had the belief that he could only rely upon himself and Shukaku, after Yashamaru, the only person who he thought loved him, tried to kill him, on the order of his father; he felt he had to kill others to confirm the value of his own existence. He thus became narcissistic, even permanently scarring his left temple with the kanji for "love" (愛, ai) for his new drive. Gaara first appears in the series when he is sent to Konohagakure, an allied ninja village, to take part in the Chunin Exams alongside his older siblings Kankuro and Temari. In truth, he is sent in order to infiltrate Konohagakure in preparation for an invasion by Sunagakure and its ally, Otogakure. There, he and Kankuro and Temari easily pass both the first and second phases. In the third phase, Gaara is set to fight against Rock Lee. Lee is able to pass Gaara's defenses, who, enraged, breaks Lee's arm and leg, claiming victory. Sasuke Uchiha gives Gaara the first injury he has ever received, causing Gaara to suffer a mental breakdown and nearly manifest his Tailed-Beast powers. This begins the invasion, with his older siblings carrying him off. Both Sasuke and Naruto Uzumaki confront him, with the latter defeating him. Later, Sunagakure sends Gaara to help prevent Sasuke from defecting to Otogakure, which had become an enemy of Sunagakure once it was revealed that Orochimaru had murdered Rasa prior to the attack. While helps Lee fight Orochimaru's servant Kimimaro, Gaara is unable to prevent Sasuke from leaving Konoha. He makes amends with the many characters he had alienated, apologizing to those he hurt and improving his relationship with his family. At the same time, Gaara's fundamental characteristic becomes the desire to protect as many people as he can, as in doing so he believes, like Naruto, he will be able to find true strength. This culminates in his replacing his father as the Fifth Kazekage during Part II of the series. In Part II of the series, three years after his mission, Deidara, a member of the criminal organization Akatsuki, is sent to Sunagakure to capture Gaara. Gaara fights Deidara to protect the village, but is defeated. The members of the Akatsuki then kidnap him and extract Shukaku from his body. Gaara dies in the process but an elder from the village named Chiyo sacrifices her own life to revive him. Sometime later, he attends the Five Kage Summit, and the Akatsuki's leader, Tobi, breaks into the meeting and announces the Fourth Great Ninja War, to capture the last two Tailed-Beasts. Gaara later joins the new Shinobi Alliance as its field commander to protect Naruto and Killer Bee, using Naruto's philosophy of love against the Akatsuki's philosophy of hatred to unite the army, which had nearly imploded from internal strife. On the second day of the war, Gaara encounters his reanimated father. Rasa reveals the truth to Gaara: that Yashamaru's final action was his doing, and that Gaara's mother always loved him, and Gaara is moved to tears after learning his mother's will is the force behind his sand. Rasa recognizes his son has surpassed him and entrusts Sunagakure to him after being defeated. Gaara later defeats and seals the revived Second Mizukage, and joins the other Kage to fight Madara Uchiha, who was reanimated by Kabuto, nearly getting killed as a result. Later healed by Tsunade, Gaara moves to assist in the battle against the Ten-Tails. Before Shukaku is absorbed by the Gedo Statue again, Gaara makes his peace with the tailed beast, thanking it for ensuring that he would meet Naruto. Gaara helps rescue Naruto and briefly holds off Madara before Naruto is successfully revived. Once the Infinite Tsukiyomi is activated, Gaara is caught in the illusion before being freed by Naruto and Sasuke. By the series epilogue, having the Hidden Leaf Village's Nara Clan as in-laws through Temari, Gaara remains active as the Kazekage. ### In other media Gaara has made several appearances outside of the Naruto anime and manga. He is present in the second and sixth Naruto feature films, Naruto the Movie 2: Legend of the Stone of Gelel and Naruto Shippuden the Movie: The Will of Fire. In the former, he protects the Land of Wind from an assault by Haido, the antagonist of the film, and later battles the lightning user Ranke, one of Haido's subordinates, and defeats her, while in the latter, he temporarily becomes enemies of Konohagakure as they are the prime suspect of a pitfall attack on him while he is about to attend a meeting with Tsunade, in reality being done by a missing nin, Hiruko, and briefly battles Naruto, although after the confusion is cleared, he allies himself with them again. Gaara is also present in the third original video animation released in the series, in which he participates in a tournament of various characters from across the series. In Boruto: Naruto the Movie, Gaara has adopted a child named Shinki. Gaara and the other Kage attend the Chunin exam in Konoha before they engage in combat against Momoshiki and Kinshiki in a rescue mission led by Sasuke after Naruto was kidnapped. This role is retitled in the Naruto manga sequel, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations. Naruto video games commonly feature Gaara, including the Clash of Ninja and Ultimate Ninja series. In some games, he uses his Shukaku form for combat, as well as other moves not seen in the anime or manga. Naruto Shippūden: Gekitou Ninja Taisen EX marks the first appearance of Gaara in his Part II appearance in a video game. Gaara also appears in light novels from the series. He makes a cameo in Kakashi's Story alongside the other Kage. In Shikamaru Hiden he joins his sister Temari and Naruto in the search for the missing Shikamaru Nara whom Gaara values due to his close relationship with Temari. In Sakura's Hiden, Gaara assists the Konohagakure ninja upon their news that a man resembling Sasuke Uchiha is planning to attack the village. In Konoha Hiden, Gaara visits Konohagakure to see the wedding of Naruto and Hinata Hyuga. He also appears as the protagonist of Gaara Hiden which follows his works as the Fifth Kazekage while dealing with his sister's wedding with Shikamaru. ## Reception Gaara has ranked highly in the popularity polls for the series, continuously placing in the top ten. The last such poll was in 2011, in which Gaara was in 4th place. Several pieces of Gaara merchandise have been released; including key chains, plush dolls and action figures of his Part I and Part II appearance. AnimeCentral listed him as eighth best villain in anime with comments focused on how flashbacks made him a tragic character and at the same time similar to Naruto Uzumaki. Additionally, his fight against Rock Lee was listed as the second best one in anime for exchanges in moves and its conclusion. In 2014, IGN listed him as the third best Naruto character when the series ended. Anime and manga publications have mostly praised Gaara's character. IGN noted that Gaara was an "anti-Naruto", possessing a "dark, solemn character" as opposed to Naruto's continuous cheer and excitement. In another review, IGN also called Gaara's background "emotional" and "a tad creepy" due to the disparity between the development of Naruto's and Gaara's personalities. Anime News Network celebrated the "depth and emotion" that Naruto's and Gaara's similarities added to the plot, and commented that "nowhere in the entire series run does Naruto shine brighter than in the peak period of his battle against Gaara". They also complimented Kishimoto's visual presentation of Gaara in the manga, referring to "chilling [glimpses] of Gaara's crazed, exposed face". Mania Entertainment noted that Gaara and Sasuke's first fight shows how the former has a "fragile" psyche despite his violent attitude. His backstory was also praised by Mania Entertainment since it includes "a ton of legitimate emotion" allowing viewers from the series to understand more Gaara's personality. DVD Talk writer Todd Douglass Jr. enjoyed the similarities between Gaara and Naruto as well as the former's state after being defeated by the latter. His return to aid the Konohagakure ninjas to fight has been praised by Holly Ellingwood from Active Anime who was mostly focused on Gaara's change of hearts. Liam O'Brien, Gaara's voice actor in the English dubbed version of the anime, has been praised. IGN noted that he did an "excellent job" of making Gaara sound terrifying to the viewer, and Anime News Network noted him as one of the best voice actors in the series. Akira Ishida was also noted to be one of the most famous actors from Naruto due to his experience in the 1990s before the anime's release as well as the several characterizations he gave to Gaara. Gaara's promotion to leader from Sunagakure in Part II of the series was deemed as the most surprising development in the series by Briana Lawrence from Mania Entertainment. UK Anime Network's Kevin Leathers stated that while in the first part of the series, Gaara was a fearsome villain, in the following one he became "much more three-dimensional." Similarly, Douglass Jr. praised Gaara's development in later episodes from Naruto: Shippuden owing to his relationship's expansion with Naruto. His fight against Deidara has also received positive response, with critics praising the revisit of Gaara's popular moves and the strategy both fighters employed. On the other hand, Jason Thompson from Anime News Network noted that, while Gaara had developed ever since his introduction in Part I, it felt wrong that Gaara was accepted as the new Kazekage due to his previous wishes to kill people. During the last episodes of Part II's adaptation, Amy McNulty, also from Anime News Network, enjoyed how Gaara was handled as a comic relief alongside other recurring character. Nevertheless, she found important how Gaara now thought of Naruto as a friend rather than as a hero in contrast to the early story arcs of Part II.

Djibouti at the 2012 Summer Paralympics

Djibouti made its Paralympic Games début at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, United Kingdom, from August 29 to September 9. The country was represented by a single athlete in middle distance running, their first Paralympian. Houssein Omar Hassan did poorly in his heat due to an ankle injury, and did not win a medal. Despite not winning a medal, he was cheered on by the crowd as he ran alone on the track for two laps. ## Background Djibouti débuted in the Paralympics during these 2012 Games. The event was held from August 29 to September 9. The country had one athlete compete, in the men's 1500 meters T46. ## Athletics Houssein Omar Hassan, a right arm amputee, competed in the men's 1,500 metres T46 (a category for athletes with disabilities affecting the upper limbs or torso). Since he was the only Djiboutian athlete, he was the flagbearer during the opening ceremonies. Hassan suffered an ankle injury early in the race, but was determined to finish. He was cheered home by the London crowd as he finished seven minutes behind every other athlete; he ran more than two laps alone on the track after every other athlete had crossed the finish line. Hassan finished with a season best time of 11:23.50. Hassan said, "I thought of stopping, but I kept going because I wanted to finish." ## See also - Summer Paralympic disability classification - Djibouti at the Paralympics - Djibouti at the 2012 Summer Olympics

Death in Bloom

"Death in Bloom" is the seventeenth episode of the second season of the American animated television series Adventure Time. The episode was written and storyboarded by Jesse Moynihan and Cole Sanchez, from a story by Mark Banker, Kent Osborne, Patrick McHale, and series creator Pendleton Ward. It originally aired on Cartoon Network on February 28, 2011. The episode guest stars Miguel Ferrer as Death; Ferrer would later reprise his role in the fourth season episode "Sons of Mars". The series follows the adventures of Finn (voiced by Jeremy Shada), a human boy, and his best friend and adoptive brother Jake (voiced by John DiMaggio), a dog with magical powers to change shape and grow and shrink at will. In this episode, Finn and Jake make a trip to the Land of the Dead after killing Princess Bubblegum's (voiced by Hynden Walch) plant when they were instructed to take care of it. After Jake's memory is wiped and Finn loses a musical duel against Death (voiced by Ferrer), the two are nearly killed until a lucky coincidence causes Death to spare them. Originally, the episode was supposed to revolve around the duo trying to get the plant back, lest Princess Bubblegum turn into a man. In addition, the episode originally was supposed to feature a mysterious rabbit that guided Finn and Jake through the Underworld; this character was later cut. The episode was watched by 1.981 million people and received largely positive critical attention. Many critics applauded Ferrer's voice acting work, and Matt Fowler of IGN singled the episode out as an example of the comedic darkening of Adventure Time. ## Plot While spending time with Finn and Jake, Princess Bubblegum realizes that she needs to leave for a science convention in the Veggie Village. She entrusts the two with guarding her Princess Plant. However, when she departs, Finn and Jake party too hard with the plant, killing it. They then decide on a way to journey into the Land of the Dead and to reclaim the flower's soul from Death himself. For an unspecified price, Peppermint Butler (voiced by Steve Little) teaches the two how to get into the Underworld, and he instructs Finn and Jake also to tell Death that he said hello. Once in the Land of the Death, Finn and Jake are nearly eaten by conscious skeletons, who crave flesh. While evading these monsters, Jake jumps into the "River of Forgetfulness" and loses his memory. Finn drags Jake all the way to Death's castle. Once inside, Death reveals that he will return the flower's soul if Finn can beat him in a musical showdown. Finn choose to play jingle bells, whereas Death plays drums and sings death metal. Jake, the now-impartial judge due to his memory loss, rules that Death wins. Because Finn and Jake lost the contest, Death decides to kill them. Before he dies, however, Finn tells Death that Peppermint Butler says hello; Death—revealed to be an acquaintance of Peppermint Butler—suddenly relents and tells the two that they can have "anything [they] want." Death then returns Princess Plant's soul as well as Jake's memory before zapping Finn and Jake to the Candy Kingdom. Bubblegum returns, only to eat part of the plant, causing her hair to change. Peppermint Butler then asks for his payment: he wants both Finn and Jake's flesh, much to their horror. ## Production "Death in Bloom" was written and storyboarded by Jesse Moynihan and Cole Sanchez, from a story by Mark Banker, Kent Osborne, Patrick McHale, and series creator Pendleton Ward. The episode was directed by Larry Leichliter, with Pat McHale and Sanchez serving as creative co-directors and Nick Jennings serving as art director. Both Ward and fellow series storyboard artist Tom Herpich helped Moynihan and Sanchez clean up their story. One scene, in which Finn and Jake hide from the skeletons only to have Jake's flatulence alert them to their presence, was supposed to be storyboarded by Ward. However, he was extremely tired and offered Herpich \$100—the amount Ward would have earned had he done it—to storyboard the scene instead. The episode features an extremely long pan showing much of the Land of the Dead, which was designed by Moynihan. In the episode's storyboard, the pan takes up 7 pages; regarding this length, Moynihan later noted on his personal website that initially he "wanted to really go over the top and make it like 15 pages but 7 pages felt right". Moynihan's original pan was redesigned by background designer Dan "Ghostshrimp" James, who also did some of the other backgrounds for the episode. Other backgrounds were done by Chris Tsirgiotis, who, according to Moynihan, was doing his "best Ghostshrimp impression"; Tsirgiotis himself later noted that, "Matching Ghostshrimp’s drawing style is pretty tricky. It looks simple at first glance, but it’s actually very sophisticated and nuanced." The scene wherein Peppermint Butler teaches Finn and Jake to enter the land of the dead by crossing their eyes and staring at a corner was inspired by a story that Moynihan's father told him when he was younger. According to the artist, his father told him that if you "concentrate really hard enough", you would "walk into another dimension". Moynihan recalled the story when he was storyboarding, and worked it into the episode. The climax featuring Death and Finn engaging in a musical competition was specifically written so as to not be "corny". According to Ward, scenes featuring contests were often avoided because they were "the easiest traps to fall into when you're writing an outline". For "Death in Bloom", the writing staff realized that a contest would work towards the story's strengths. In original drafts of the episode, Finn and Jake were guided through the Land of the Dead by a mysterious rabbit. While working on the episode, Sanchez continually felt that the rabbit was misplaced in the episode. Eventually, the writers and series staff began to agree with Sanchez, and when it came time to revise the episode, the rabbit was cut. The rabbit's role was later partially replaced by an ominous talking skull that tries to get Jake to drink from the "River of Forgetfulness". According to storyboard artist Rebecca Sugar, a rough draft for the original ending featured Princess Bubblegum becoming a man without the Princess Plant. Moynihan later noted that the writers were being a "little reckless" when it was pitched, and Ward joked that he had to step in and be "quality control" to prevent the idea from making it into the final episode. Death was voiced by Miguel Ferrer. Ferrer would later reprise his role in the fourth-season episode "Sons of Mars", and several subsequent episodes after that. Death's look was designed by Moynihan, who admitted on his personal website that he was somewhat intimidated with the task of redesigning such an iconic character. Moynihan deliberately avoided the stereotypical depiction of death with a robe and a sickle, instead choosing to experiment with both a "Japanese cosmic alien thing" and a "Jodorowsky/Holy Mountain inspired" design. The latter design won out, although Moynihan later changed the character's head into a horse skull. The design for the character was then finalized by Phil Rynda, who was the series' lead character designer at the time. ## Reception "Death in Bloom" first aired on Cartoon Network on October 11, 2010. The episode was viewed by 1.981 million viewers and scored a Nielsen rating of 1.2/2 percent. This means it was seen by 1.2 percent of all households and 2 percent of all households watching television at the time of the episode's airing. The episode first saw physical release as part of the 2013 Fionna and Cake DVD, which included 16 episodes from the series' first three seasons. It was later re-released as part of the complete second season DVD in June 2013. Tyler Foster of DVD Talk wrote highly of the episode, and highlighted it as a stand-out of the second season. He applauded the way in which the series reinvented the idea of the Underworld, noting that its presentation was "hilarious in and of itself". In addition, he was complimentary towards Ferrer's performance as Death; in a review of the Fionna and Cake DVD, Foster referred to the actor's work as "hilarious" in the episode, and in a review of the second season, he wrote that "if 'Miguel Ferrer as Death' isn't a perfect four-word tease pitch for the show's genius, I don't know what is." Matt Fowler of IGN cited the episode as a season highlight, writing that the episode's best part is when "Finn has a 'death metal-off' with Death". He also noted that the episode is important to the series as a whole, as it is one of the many second season entries that marks a "darkening effect" upon the series; he specifically cited the scene wherein Peppermint Butler demands Finn and Jake's flesh as payment. ## Explanatory notes

United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1998

The United Kingdom competed in the Eurovision Song Contest 1998. In addition, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was also the host broadcaster and staged the event at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham on 9 May 1998 after the nation won the competition in with the song "Love Shine a Light" performed by Katrina and the Waves. The BBC organised a public selection to select its entry for the contest, The Great British Song Contest 1998. Eight songs competed over two rounds, with four songs selected through a radio-broadcast semi-final advancing to the televised final round, held on 15 March 1998, where viewers selected the winning entry through televoting. Imaani received the most votes and was selected to represent the UK in the contest with the song "Where Are You?". Imaani performed 16th at the international contest, and at the close of the voting process the UK finished in second place with 166 points, the nation's 15th second-place finish since its debut. ## Background Prior to the 1998 contest, the United Kingdom had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 40 times since their first entry in 1957 and had competed in all but two editions of the contest. Before this year's event, the UK had won the contest five times: in 1967 with the song "Puppet on a String" performed by Sandie Shaw, in 1969 with the song "Boom Bang-a-Bang" performed by Lulu, in 1976 with the song "Save Your Kisses for Me" performed by Brotherhood of Man, in 1981 with the song "Making Your Mind Up" performed by Bucks Fizz, and in 1997 with the song "Love Shine a Light" performed by Katrina and the Waves. The nation had also finished in second place on 14 occasions, more than any other country. Per the rules of the 1998 contest, as the previous year's winning country and contest hosts, the UK was given an automatic place in the competition, with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) subsequently included on the European Broadcasting Union's (EBU) list of the 25 countries that had signed up to partake in the contest. The BBC opted to select its chosen entry for the contest through a national final entitled The Great British Song Contest 1998. ## Before Eurovision ### The Great British Song Contest 1998 The BBC organised a public selection process to determine its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 1998. The Great British Song Contest was organised for the third time, following the same format used the previous year: after a public submission process, eight songs were selected to compete in a semi-final broadcast on BBC Radio 2, where listeners would choose four entries via televoting to progress to a final on BBC One. A second round of public voting during the televised broadcast would determine the winning song that would represent the UK at Eurovision. More than 800 songs were submitted to the competition and following several rounds of shortlisting from these songs, the eight semi-finalists were determined. #### Semi-final The eight songs which featured in the semi-final were previewed on the Radio 2 shows Wake Up to Wogan and The Ken Bruce Show between 2 and 5 February 1998, with two songs being played each day on both programmes. The semi-final was then held on 6 February, hosted by Ken Bruce and Terry Wogan. Once all songs had been played, listeners were invited to phone in and vote for their favourites from 9–10am. The result was announced at the end of the broadcast; the qualifying songs were announced in alphabetical order by title. #### Final Each of the finalists featured on weekly editions of The National Lottery Draw on BBC One, with one act appearing each week over a period of four weeks: Kitt appeared on the 21 February 1998 broadcast; Alberta on 28 February 1998; Imaani on 7 March 1998; and The Collective on 14 March 1998. A free promotional CD featuring extracts of the four finalists was also released and made available in high street record shops, while the four finalists and the previous year's winning act Katrina Leskanich performed live at London's G-A-Y nightclub on 14 March 1998. Between the semi-final and the final, Kitt changed her stage name to Sapphire. The final was held on 15 March 1998, broadcast on BBC One and presented by Wogan. The broadcast featured the same performances of the acts as those featured on The National Lottery Draw, with Wogan providing live links between songs and short pre-recorded introductions by the songwriters of each song preceding each performance. Other segments of the broadcast included behind-the-scenes footage featuring Ulrika Jonsson at Birmingham's National Indoor Arena, the venue for the then-upcoming Eurovision Song Contest, an interview with Leskanich hosted by Jonsson and clips during the end credits of previous UK winning Eurovision performances. Following a brief recap of the participating acts, a one-hour voting window was opened for viewers to vote through telephone at a cost of 10p per call and via the internet; the results were subsequently announced by Wogan on 21 March 1998 during that evening's National Lottery Draw on BBC One, with the top three acts announced in reverse order along with the number of votes received. 2.66 million viewers watched the Great British Song Contest final and the National Lottery Draw which featured the results attracted an audience of 9.81 million. ### Promotion Ahead of the contest, Imaani made several appearances on UK television programmes to promote her entry to the British public. Imaani performed her Eurovision song on the BBC's children's programmes Blue Peter on 23 March 1998, Live & Kicking on both 28 March 1998 and 11 April 1998, and Fully Booked on 3 May 1998, while she also appeared on the BBC's music chart show Top of the Pops on both 8 and 22 May 1998. BBC Radio 2 also produced a radio documentary, titled Going for a Song, broadcast 9 May 1998, the day of the Eurovision final, which followed Imaani's preparations for the Eurovision Song Contest. "Where Are You?" was released in the formats of both CD and cassette on 9 March 1998, featuring an additional ballad mix of the song. The song peaked at number 15 on the UK Singles Chart, while it also charted on the Netherlands' Mega Top 100 and Belgium's Ultratop chart. ## At Eurovision As the winners of the previous year's event, the UK was given the chance to host the Eurovision Song Contest in 1998, with the BBC selecting the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham as the venue of the contest, held on 9 May 1998. Following confirmation of the 25-country participant list, the running order for the contest was decided by a draw held on 13 November 1997; the UK was assigned position 16, following and preceding . Imaani took part in technical rehearsals at the venue on 5 and 7 May 1998, followed by dress rehearsals on 8 and 9 May. Ahead of the contest, the UK were considered one of the favourites among bookmakers to win the contest for a second time, featuring alongside the entries from , , and the . The contest was hosted by Wogan and Jonsson and was broadcast in the UK on television and radio, with Wogan also providing commentary for BBC One and Bruce doing likewise on BBC Radio 2. Imaani performed alongside the BBC Concert Orchestra, which was conducted by James McMillan for her performance. At the end of the contest, the UK finished in second place, receiving a total of 166 points. The result gave the UK its 15th second-place finish in its competitive history, which remains a contest record as of 2022. The United Kingdom would achieve another second place in . ### Voting The same voting system in use since 1975 was again implemented for the contest, with each country providing 1–8, 10 and 12 points to their 10 highest-ranking songs, with countries not allowed to vote for themselves. For the first time however, the contest results were determined predominantly by public voting via telephone, following a successful trial among five countries the previous year; an eight-member back-up jury was also assembled in case technical failures rendered the telephone votes invalid. A total of 407,167 valid votes were registered in the UK in total during the five-minute voting window, which determined the UK's points; the BBC subsequently published a full breakdown of the votes cast for each country after the Eurovision Song Contest. Bruce was also appointed the spokesperson and announced the results of the UK vote during the broadcast.

Pittsburgh Town

Song performed by Pete Seeger

"Pittsburgh Town", sometimes titled as "Pittsburgh" or "Pittsburgh is a Great Old Town", is a folk song written by Woody Guthrie and originally recorded by Pete Seeger. The song was written during a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania stop on an Almanac Singers' tour; both Seeger and Guthrie were members of the band at this time. The song speaks of the labor and environmental problems that the city was facing in 1941, when the song was written. In the time since, environmental legislation has reduced the pollution problem that plagued Pittsburgh; because of this, the song's mentions of pollution in Pittsburgh have been sometimes been replaced with verses extolling the city. ## Creation There are several stories behind the origin of the song. Several historians trace "Pittsburgh Town" to the Almanac Singers' 1941 national tour. According to the liner notes of Pete Seeger's American Industrial Ballads, originally released in 1956, on July 7, 1941, the group recorded fourteen songs for a small record label in New Jersey. The \$250 that they were paid was used to purchase a 1932 Buick in which they traveled on their subsequent tour. While stopped in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the group decided to play for steel workers who were in the process of unionizing. They played two nights of concerts in a steel patch, spending the night there in a cockroach-infested hotel. During the second concert, Woody Guthrie impulsively started to improvise lyrics to the tune of the folk song "Crawdad Hole". The song's entire body came out of this jam session. Millard Lampell continued improving and created the second verse of the song from that point. The liner notes of Seeger's Songs of Struggle and Protest, 1930–50 tell a different story of the song's creation; they state that Guthrie wrote the song while airborne on a flight into Pittsburgh. While looking out the window at the smoky skies, he quickly jotted down the lyrics. ## Lyrics and themes The song's verses alternate between ones that speak of the environmental problems of Pittsburgh and ones that speak of its labor problems. The first verse refers to Pittsburgh as a "smoky ol' town", and the third complains that the speaker does nothing more than "cough and choke" because of the steel industry's output. The smoke was an ever-present part of life in Pittsburgh at the time of the song's writing; steel mills on the banks of the city's three rivers made the sky glow red and continually released smoke. Modern environmentalist reviewers of the song believe that the pollution-oriented verses show that the song was written to protest the environmental conditions in which workers were forced to live. The second and fourth verses focus on the labor disputes that the city was experiencing at the time. The second verse uses a pun on the name of Jones and Laughlin Steel to ask what the company stole from its workers ("What did Jones and Laughlin steal?"), while the fourth and final verse ends with the statement that all of the mill workers are "joining up with the CIO." ## Recordings and adaptations The song has been covered by several artists and community groups. Pete Seeger Released a studio version on his 1956 album American Industrial Ballads and a live version of the song on his 1964 album Songs of Struggle and Protest, 1930–50. Both versions by Seeger feature him singing and playing the banjo without any additional accompaniment. In the live version, the crowd's clapping and singing along can be heard. Folk bands in the Pittsburgh area, such as the NewLanders, have both recorded and performed Seeger's version of the song. Composer Paul Hindemith's Pittsburgh Symphony, written in 1958 for the 200th anniversary of the city's founding, quotes the melody of Pittsburgh Town, named "Pittsburgh Is a Great Old Town" by the composer, in the final movement. Gunther Schuller described the use of the tune in the symphony in his review as "the ultimate in paucity of imagination and tastelessness." However, Stephen Luttmann felt that Schuller's criticism misses the point of why Hindemith decided to the motif. In 1959, Vivien Richman released an adaptation of the song on her album Vivien Richman Sings Folk Songs of West Pennsylvania; her version of the song includes several additional verses about the landscape and geography of the region. The song has also been covered by students at Pittsburgh Public Schools, using verses that are less political than the original Guthrie composition and closer to the Richman version than the Seeger version. The change in verses was partly because by the middle of the 1950s, enforcement of the Smoke Control Ordinance of 1941 cleaned up the air. Lyrics about the smokiness of the town were replaced with the line "Pittsburgh Town is a Great Old Town."

Capture of Tiberias (1918)

Part of the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I

The Capture of Tiberias took place on 25 September 1918 during the Battle of Sharon which together with the Battle of Nablus formed the set piece Battle of Megiddo fought between 19 and 25 September in the last months of the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of the First World War. During the cavalry phase of the Battle of Sharon the Desert Mounted Corps occupied the Esdraelon Plain (also known as the Jezreel Valley and the plain of Armageddon) 40–50 miles (64–80 km) behind the front line in the Judean Hills. One squadron from each of the 3rd and 4th Light Horse Brigades Australian Mounted Division attacked and captured Tiberias (on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee also known as Lake Tiberias), along with the Yildirim Army Group's Ottoman and German garrison. The Tiberias garrison formed part of a rearguard stretching to Samakh and on to Deraa which was intended to cover the retreat of three Ottoman armies. They were set up to delay the advance of the Desert Mounted Corps of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) after the British Empire infantry victories at the Battle of Tulkarm, Battle of Tabsor during the Battle of Sharon. These and other battles fought during the Battle of Nablus including the Third Transjordan attack, also part of the Battle of Megiddo, forced the retreat of the Ottoman Fourth, Seventh and Eighth Armies north towards Damascus. Tiberias was captured by two squadrons of light horse, one from the 3rd Light Horse Brigade supported by armoured cars, and one from the 4th Light Horse Brigade after fighting the Battle of Samakh. The two squadrons converged on the town from the north–west and south respectively and took 100 prisoners. The remainder of the garrison retreated northwards to form a rearguard at Lake Hule with the survivors from the Samakh garrison. The next day the Australian Mounted Division and the 5th Cavalry Division pursued the Ottoman forces towards Damascus, paralleling the pursuit on the inland route begun by the 4th Cavalry Division a day earlier. ## Background Following the First Transjordan and the Second Transjordan attacks in March–April and April–May 1918, by the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF), which had been responsible for the Sinai and Palestine Campaign since March 1916, its commander General Edmund Allenby ordered the occupation of the Jordan Valley. He also ordered the front line be extended across the Judean Hills to the Mediterranean. Most of the British infantry and Yeomanry cavalry regiments were redeployed to the Western Front to counter Ludendorff's German spring offensive and were replaced by British Indian Army infantry and cavalry. As part of re-organisation and training, these newly arrived soldiers carried out a series of attacks on sections of the Ottoman front line during the summer months. These attacks were aimed at pushing the front line to more advantageous positions in preparation for a major attack, and to acclimatise the newly arrived infantry. It was not until the middle of September that the consolidated force was ready for large-scale operations. On 19 September, the XXI Corps commanded by Lieutenant General Edward Bulfin had, with the support of a creeping barrage, broken through the Ottoman front line to begin the Battle of Sharon. In the afternoon the XX Corps commanded by Lieutenant General Philip Chetwode was then ordered to begin the Battle of Nablus, supported by an artillery barrage. These infantry attacks by both the XX and XXI Corps, known as the Battle of Megiddo, continued until midday on 21 September, when a successful flanking attack by the XXI Corps, combined with the XX Corps assault, forced the Seventh and Eighth Armies to disengage. The Seventh Army retreated from the Nablus area towards the Jordan River, crossing at the Jisr ed Damieh bridge before the rearguard at Nablus was captured. The Desert Mounted Corps commanded by Lieutenant General Harry Chauvel advanced through the gap created by the XXI Corps infantry during the morning of 19 September to continue the Battle of Megiddo, almost encircling the Ottoman forces fighting in the Judean Hills, capturing Nazareth, Haifa, Afulah and Beisan, Jenin and Samakh before advancing to Tiberias. During this time, Chaytor's Force commanded by Major General Edward Chaytor captured part of the retreating Ottoman and German column at the capture of Jisr ed Damieh bridge to cut off this line of retreat across the Jordan River. To the east of the river, as the Fourth Army began its retreat, Chaytor's Force advanced to capture Es Salt on 23 September. Amman was captured on 25 September during the Second Battle of Amman where a strong Fourth Army rearguard was defeated on 25 September. Tiberias is one of the Four Holy Cities of the Jews; the others being Jerusalem, Hebron and Safed. It is situated on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, and is separated by a narrow plain from the Nazareth hills to the west. Tiberias was the seat of a Kaimmakam (district) within the Ottoman sanjak (prefecture) of Acre and had a population of about 8,600, including 7,000 Jews, many of whom were German-speaking immigrants from Poland. There were also 1,400 Muslims and 200 Christians living in the town, which was surrounded by ancient walls. At this time Tiberias was connected to southern Palestine via Nazareth by metalled roads and by an alternative route to Afulah via Beisan, which was also suitable for wheeled vehicles. The main road north from Tiberias to Damascus crossed the Jordan River at the bridge at Jisr Benat Yakub. During the unsuccessful attack of the 5th Cavalry Division on Nazareth in the early morning of 20 September, the commander of the Yildirim Army Group commanding three Ottoman armies, Generalleutnant (comparable to a British Major General) Otto Liman von Sanders escaped to Damascus, travelling via Tiberias, Samakh and Deraa. He alerted the garrisons he passed to the advance of the EEF and ordered the establishment of a rearguard line. The line was to run from Deraa down the Yarmuk River Valley, across the Jordan River and west to Samakh, around the shore of the Sea of Galilee to Tiberias and northwards to Lake Huleh. Two main roads and the railway lines to Damascus, would be protected and time gained for the development of the defence of Damascus, if the garrisons were not defeated. Von Sanders and three senior Yildirim Army Group staff officers reached Tiberias during the afternoon of 20 September. After the Ottoman and German garrison was captured at the Battle of Samakh in the early morning of 25 September, strong light horse patrols advanced eastwards from Samakh up the Yarmuk valley. The patrols found that every bridge over the Jordan River was in Ottoman hands and strongly guarded. One railway bridge was defended by 30 Ottoman troops with 60 German troops in a redoubt. The rugged Ain en Nimr mountain, 1,800 feet (550 m) above the Sea of Galilee and less than 2 miles (3.2 km) from its southern shore, was occupied by 500 Ottoman infantry supported by one artillery piece. Major General Henry Hodgson, commanding the Australian Mounted Division, ordered the light horse patrols back to Samakh and pushed westwards towards Tiberias. ## Prelude Early in the afternoon of 25 September, the Australian Mounted Division, less the 4th Light Horse Brigade which was at Samakh, departed Afulah. A regiment of the 3rd Light Horse Brigade, supported by two armoured cars from the 12th Light Armoured Motor Battery, was ordered to reconnoitre Tiberias, ahead of the division. The division concentrated at Kafr Kanna also known as Cana, about 5 miles (8.0 km) east of Nazareth at about 22:00. Meanwhile, a squadron of the 12th Light Horse Regiment of the 4th Light Horse Brigade advanced from Samakh along the shore of the Sea of Galilee towards Tiberias. ## Battle A squadron of the 8th Light Horse Regiment of the 3rd Light Horse Brigade, commanded by Major Lachlan Macpherson, left Nazareth at 05:00 on 25 September. They led the advance towards Tiberias along the main road, while troopers from the 10th Light Horse Regiment, also of the 3rd Light Horse Brigade, were ordered to the top of Mount Tabor. From this height, they could observe Macpherson's squadron and report on its progress to their brigade commander by heliograph. When Macpherson's squadron reached the high ground an Ottoman patrol saw the light horsemen, but before they could alert the Tiberias garrison, they were quickly cut off and captured. By the time a squadron of the 12th Light Horse Regiment advancing from Semakh, reached the outskirts of Tiberias at 11:30, all approaches were held by squadrons of the 3rd Light Horse Brigade. A troop with a Hotchkiss gun was ordered to the shore of the Sea of Galilee to the north of Tiberias, where they cut the garrison's only line of retreat. Supported by two armoured cars of the Light Armoured Motor Battery, Macpherson decided to attack Tiberias without waiting for the rest of his brigade. While one of his troops rode into the town, the armoured cars closed in from the west, the squadron from the 8th Light Horse Regiment attacked from the north–west, and the squadron from the 12th Light Horse Regiment attacked from the south–west. During this coordinated attack the 12th Light Horse Regiment troops captured a machine gun post at the gallop. The town and 100 members of the Tiberias garrison were captured by 15:00, including 20 Germans and 13 machine guns. The rest of Brigadier General Lachlan Wilson's 3rd Light Horse Brigade and Brigadier General William Grant's 4th Light Horse Brigade, arrived to occupy Tiberias, ending Liman von Sanders' attempt to delay the pursuit by the EEF. ## Aftermath As the rest of the 3rd Light Horse Brigade advanced to Tiberias, their left flank moved over the site of the 1187 AD Battle of Hattin. On 26 September, the 3rd Light Horse Brigade camped to the north of Tiberias, at Medjel on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. A squadron of the 9th Light Horse Regiment rode out at 12:30 to investigate reports of a considerable enemy force at Safed. By the time they arrived at 18:00, the force had withdrawn. Meanwhile, the 8th Light Horse Regiment restored order in the town and established guards on stores of grain while the remainder of the brigade rested after their night-time advance. The loss of Tiberias ended Liman von Sanders' plans for a rearguard line extending from the Yarmuk via the Sea of Galilee and on to Lake Huleh. The remnants of the Tiberias and Samakh garrisons established a strong rearguard south of Lake Huleh, at Jisr Benat Yakub which was attacked and captured during the pursuit to Damascus. Shortly after midnight on 26/27 September, Allenby issued orders for Chauvel's Desert Mounted Corps to continue the pursuit. The Australian Mounted Division in the Tiberias area, followed by the 5th Cavalry Division at Nazareth, were to advance along the main road to Damascus 90 miles (140 km) away, around the northern end of the Sea of Galilee via Quneitra. At 06:00 on 27 September, the 4th Light Horse Brigade left the village and arrived at Tiberias two hours later. They then received two days' supplies and one day's iron ration, which were to last until after breakfast on 29 September. At 10:00, they began the pursuit to Damascus.

A303 road

Trunk road in southern England

The A303 is a trunk road in southern England, running between Basingstoke in Hampshire and Honiton in Devon via Stonehenge. Connecting the M3 and the A30, it is part of one of the main routes from London to Devon and Cornwall. It is a primary A road throughout its length, passing through five counties. The road has evolved from historical routes, some of which are thousands of years old, including the Harrow Way and the Fosse Way. The modern route was first laid out in the early 19th century as the New Direct Road, a faster coaching route from London to Exeter. It was initially in demand but fell into disuse as railways became popular from the 1840s onwards. It was not thought of as a significant through route when roads were initially numbered, but was revived as a major road in 1933, eventually becoming a trunk road in 1958. Since then, the A303 has gradually been upgraded to modern standards, though there are still several unimproved parts with longstanding plans to fix them. As a primary route to southwestern England, the A303 is frequently congested on its single carriageway sections. It passes through the Stonehenge World Heritage Site and the Blackdown Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and attempts to upgrade the road in those areas have been controversial. In particular, the Stonehenge tunnel, which would see the A303 rerouted underground, has been proposed and delayed several times. Nevertheless, the road remains a popular alternative to motorway driving. ## Route The A303 is about 93 miles (150 km) long. It starts at the M3 motorway south of Basingstoke at Junction 8, as a dual carriageway. It heads south west, crossing the A34 near Bullington before passing south of Andover. The road then passes by Solstice Park and Bulford Camp before bypassing Amesbury and entering the Stonehenge World Heritage Site. The route then becomes single carriageway before passing Stonehenge itself. The presence of the road through a World Heritage Site has been controversial for decades. As part of long-term plans, the A344 road which once joined the A303 at Stonehenge has been removed. After Winterbourne Stoke the route once again becomes dual carriageway from Yarnbury Castle and across the Wylye valley, meeting the A36 at Deptford. There is then another section of single carriageway road, coming out of the valley and up to the crest of the Great Ridge, before a further section of dual two lane road down from the hill crest near Berwick St Leonard. On reaching the valley, it reverts again to single carriageway and through the village of Chicklade, before following the terrain over to Mere, where it runs north of the town as another dual carriageway bypass. Continuing west, it passes south of Wincanton and then north of Sparkford to a roundabout where the road reverts once more to single carriageway. The road then bypasses Ilchester and RNAS Yeovilton and widens to dual carriageway again. Between Ilchester and Shores Bridge (over the River Parrett, east of South Petherton) the road follows the course of the Roman Fosse Way. At Yeovilton the road becomes dual two lane again, and connects with the A37 which joins it until it reaches the end of the bypass. This final section of dual carriageway ends at South Petherton. It runs north of Ilminster as a three-lane road where it meets the A358, providing access to the M5 motorway. The A303 is of a lower standard west of Ilminster. It passes through the Blackdown Hills as a narrow road following the contours of the land, with the exception of a dual-carriageway bypass of Marsh. The end of the A303 is reached where it joins the A30, which enters as a side road and continues as the main route forward for Honiton and Exeter. The A303 roughly parallels the West of England line, which competes for long-distance traffic. Although the A303 as a whole is designed to be part of a route from London to Exeter, a popular alternative is to take the M4 motorway to Bristol, followed by the M5. This is a high-quality motorway route throughout, but a considerably longer distance. ## History ### Early history Parts of the A303, such as the section past Stonehenge, have been a right of way for people, wagons, and later motor vehicles for millennia. Portions of it follow the Harrow Way, an ancient trackway across Wessex that is one of Britain's oldest roads, reportedly being used as long ago as 3,000 BC. Other sections run on part of the Fosse Way, a Roman road between Exeter and Lincoln constructed around 49 AD. A section of the A303 around Weyhill, west of Andover, runs alongside a ditch thought to be constructed during the Bronze Age. Several historic roads converged at Weyhill, which is believed to have hosted a popular market since the Middle Ages, eventually becoming one of the most important in England by the 19th century. The market closed in the 1950s. ### 19th century The modern course of the A303 was designed in the early 19th century as the "New Direct Road" by William Hanning, chief engineer of the Ilminster Turnpike Trust, in order to improve coaching traffic to southwest England. Russells of Exeter began a coach service along it, though they quickly reverted to the older coaching route further south (now part of the A30). Along with engineer Goldsworthy Gurney, Hanning attempted to design a steam-powered coach that could be run along the New Direct Road. After an experimental round trip to Bath, he invested £10,000 in steam carriages. Sir Charles Dance bought three carriages for trips between Cheltenham and Gloucester, but traditional horse-operated stagecoach operators sabotaged the route and Hanning's carriages did not gain widespread adoption. Nevertheless, the New Direct Road became increasingly used as a coaching route between London and Exeter in the 1820s. Ann Nelson's "Exeter Telegraph", a coach from London to Devon via the New Direct Road, could travel from Piccadilly to Devonport in a little over 21 hours. It remained a popular coaching route until the arrival of railways in the 1840s. The widespread adoption of railways during railway mania caused coaching services to dry up. Along with many other turnpike routes, the New Direct Road fell into disrepair during the 19th century owing to a lack of funds and available staff. By the turn of the 20th century, it had become little more than a rough track in places, making it difficult to drive on. ### 20th century Road designations were first allocated by the Ministry of Transport in the early 1920s, but the New Direct Road was not initially considered a major through route. Instead, the older coaching road further south via Salisbury and Yeovil was determined to be the main road. Maps produced by companies independent to the Ordnance Survey, the Government's official mapping body, marked the New Direct Road as a "class I" route anyway. The A303 was created on 1 April 1933 as the "Alternative London – Exeter route" after the Ministry of Transport realised the New Direct Road was still useful as a major road for motor traffic. The route created a long bypass for sections of the A30 that ran south of it. In 1958, the Ministry of Transport upgraded the A303 to trunk road status. It believed it was easier to upgrade than the parallel A30 as it passed through fewer towns. Initial improvements to the road in the 1960s included widening small sections to 3 lanes (forming the so-called suicide lane) or to dual carriageway; but nothing more than 2 miles (3.2 km). Andover and Amesbury were bypassed in 1969, while general improvements to the road, including additional dualling, took place throughout the 1970s. In 1971, the Environment Secretary, Peter Walker announced the entire length of the A303 would be upgraded as part of a new roads programme that would deliver 1,000 new miles of motorway by 1980. A bypass of Marsh was opened in 1976; it was (and remains) the only dual carriageway upgrade of the A303 through the Blackdown Hills. By the mid-1980s, the A303 had been extended from its original fork by Micheldever Station, next to the A30, eastwards to meet the M3 motorway, and was a completely uninterrupted dual carriageway westwards as far as Amesbury. Ilminster was bypassed around this time; however the new road was built as single carriageway with 3 lanes, which caused a serious safety hazard leading to several fatal accidents. ### 21st century In 2014, the A303 was one of several routes earmarked for improvement by the Government, who planned to spend £15 billion on upgrades nationwide. The Prime Minister, David Cameron, said the road "held parts of our country back". In 2017, the Government approved plans for a 1.8 miles (2.9 km) tunnel to replace the section of the road near Stonehenge. The tunnel would pass the historic site at a greater distance than the current stretch of overground road. The scheme was reiterated in the 2020 budget. The proposals continued to attract opposition over their environmental impact, and protesters were successful in a July 2021 judicial review, with the judge ruling that the Transport Secretary's decision to proceed with the tunnel was "unlawful". ## Traffic Since the 1950s, the A303 has been criticised for being inadequate for the level of traffic along it. In 1959, it was reported that a typical queue for holiday traffic along the road could be as much as 15 miles (24 km). In 2017, over 35 miles (56 km) of the road west of Amesbury remains single carriageway, interrupted by various sections of dual carriageway. The switches between the latter to the former act as bottlenecks and are major sources of congestion along the route. Upgrading the remaining sections of road is difficult due to environmental concerns; in 1986, an upgrade of the A303 in Hampshire caused public outcry after the work destroyed the remains of an Iron Age settlement, and consequently, £100,000 was spent on emergency rescue excavation work. The A303 is particularly congested during the Summer solstice (around 21 June), when Stonehenge forms a major part of festivities. During the so-called "Battle of Stonehenge" on 1 June 1985, where 520 people clashed violently with police, roadblocks were set up over a 10-mile (16 km) radius around the site. A convoy of trucks managed to break through a block at Cholderton, leading to increased violence. Conflicts were repeated for several years in the 1980s; in 1988 a van overturned on the A303 after leaving a clash with police at Stonehenge, killing one passenger and injuring ten others. As well as Stonehenge, the A303 is part of one of the main routes from London to the Glastonbury Festival. During the weekend of the festival in late June, the road is generally gridlocked as people drive towards or away from the festival grounds in Pilton. The Government's Road Investment Strategy has committed to upgrading all the remaining single carriage sections of the A303 as far as Ilminster. Highways England have made numerous proposals to improve the road, and it is currently identified under several Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects. ## Future ### Stonehenge improvements The most controversial upgrade of the A303 has been improvement to the road through the Stonehenge World Heritage Site, where it remains a congested single carriageway road. There were minor improvements in the 1960s, including closing the road for a month in 1967 for levelling and resurfacing. A proposal to fully dual the A303 past Stonehenge was announced in the mid-1970s, but was criticised as being "an environmental disaster" and comparable to driving a dual carriageway through Westminster Abbey. A more comprehensive solution was discussed in 1989's Roads for Prosperity programme, which included upgrading the road to dual carriageway and bypassing Winterborne Stoke. In 1993, the Minister for Roads, Kenneth Carlisle, announced plans for either a 0.5-kilometre (0.31 mi) tunnel or a diversion of the A303 a mile from Stonehenge, costing £44 million and £22 million respectively. Although the new Labour government cancelled many road schemes after coming to power in 1997, there was still general support for a tunnel at Stonehenge. In 2003, 7.7 miles (12.4 km) of improvements, including the proposed 1.3-mile (2.1 km) road tunnel bored under land adjacent to Stonehenge, were announced by the Secretary of State for Transport as part of a package of road improvements. A public enquiry into whether the plans were adequate was announced; it concluded that they were, despite protests from charities and landowners that the tunnel should be longer. Two years later, it was announced that there was to be a review of the options for Stonehenge, starting in January 2006, as costs had doubled. The government cancelled the whole scheme at the end of 2007 owing to excessive environmental constraints. After decades of debate, the A303's junction with the A344, just east of Stonehenge, was closed in 2013 as part of improvements to visitor facilities. During this work, a roadside monument was moved to the visitor centre; the stone monument is to Captain Eustace Loraine and Staff-Sergeant Richard Wilson, killed in July 1912 in the first fatal accident of the recently formed Royal Flying Corps. In 2016, the Stonehenge tunnel was revived by the Government, who awarded a £17.5m design contract to build a 1.8-mile (2.9 km) tunnel. Local residents were pleased with the news, but a survey suggested 90% still preferred a diversion away from the stones instead. The plan was finalised the following year as part of a £2 billion programme. Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said the improvements would "transform" the A303 and would be important for removing congestion. In November 2020, the plans were confirmed again in a report by Transport Secretary Andrew Stephenson, and endorsed by Highways England. Though the Government said it had carefully listened to all opinions on the tunnel, the decision to proceed was condemned by environmental campaigners. In July 2021, the tunnel proposals were overturned in the High Court of Justice. A hearing concluded that transport secretary Grant Shapps had "acted irrationally and unlawfully" by backing the project and failed to properly assess the environmental impacts of each asset on the Stonehenge World Heritage Site as required by planning law. Campaigners for the Stonehenge Alliance welcomed the decision, but Historic England expressed frustration over the "missed opportunity to remove the intrusive sight and sound of traffic past the iconic monument". The village of Winterbourne Stoke is immediately west of the World Heritage Site, and proposals to improve the A303 in this area have generally added a bypass for it in the plans. There have also been proposals to build a bypass as a standalone project, without requiring the improvements around Stonehenge. ### A303/A358 South Petherton to M5 Taunton In November 2004, plans to improve the route through the Blackdown Hills (an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) were abandoned in favour of upgrading the A358 from Ilminster to the M5 motorway at Taunton to reduce traffic west of Ilminster. The scheme was the subject of a public consultation in March 2007, and incorporated plans to widen the Ilminster bypass from South Petherton to a dual two-lane road. The plans were shelved in 2009 when it was concluded that the dualling could not be funded from the Regional Funding Allocation for the South West. In 2016, the plans were revived by Highways England, with a final decision expected to be announced the following year. In 2019, the preferred route of the A358 upgrade was revealed, and in 2020 the government confirmed funding for the A358 scheme and dualling of the A303 between Sparkford and Podimore. ### Other schemes A number of other schemes for the remaining below-standard parts of the A303 were considered in the 1990s, including improvements west of Ilminster towards Marsh, and the single-carriageway section around Yeovilton. These proposals were all cancelled in 1998. The schemes were later remitted to the London to South West and South Wales Multi-Modal Study (SWARMMS), and the conclusion of the report was that all of the schemes east of Ilminster should go ahead; and to avoid building a dual carriageway through the Blackdown Hills the A358 should be upgraded to the M5 at Taunton. In 2009, none were considered to be regional priorities, so no other improvements were likely to be funded in the short term. In 2016, Devon County Council announced they would self-fund improvements to the A303 between Ilminster and Honiton, which was not included in Highways England's list. The council put together three proposals for alternative routes, with the aim of securing £170 million of Government funding once a preferred route is chosen. Plans to improve the A303 between Sparkford and Ilchester by upgrading three miles of single carriageway to high-quality dual carriageway were approved by the government in February 2021. Work began on this section that October. ## Cultural references Kula Shaker performed their first impromptu gig at the Glastonbury Festival, which can be reached via the A303. The road was the inspiration for the song "303" on their debut album K. The road was also mentioned in the Levellers' song "Battle of the Beanfield", about the attack by police on travellers celebrating the Solstice at Stonehenge (1 June 1985): "Down the '303 at the end of the road, Flashing lights, exclusion zones". Prior to the broadcast of Series 15 of Top Gear in 2010, the cast of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May were spotted and recorded driving along the A303 in what appeared to be house cars. The video was recorded and put on YouTube. In 2011, BBC Four broadcast the documentary A303 Highway to the Sun. The writer Tom Fort drove the length of the A303 in a Morris Traveller, making various stops. The following year, he published a book with the same title; it covers the history of the road, and British road planning, together with landscape, history and general travel writing. During research, one interviewee recommended using the A303 to reach southwest England, adding it was "less boring than the motorway, and you've always got Stonehenge". The programme was praised for its eclecticism and enthusiasm for what could have been a tedious subject. ## Junctions and landmarks There are a wide variety of junctions on the A303. These range from motorway-style free-flowing junctions such as that with the A36 near Wylye, to simple forks on the single carriageway sections. Some junctions, such as the Countess Roundabout with the A345 near Amesbury, and the Podimore roundabout with the A37, are known congestion hotspots because they are insufficient to cope with traffic. Other former junctions, such as the A344 near Stonehenge, have been removed in order to help traffic flow and avoid congestion and accidents.

Good Charlotte (album)

Good Charlotte is the debut studio album by American rock band Good Charlotte, released on September 26, 2000 through Epic and Daylight Records. Despite receiving favorable reviews, the album undersold expectations, charting at number 185 on the Billboard 200. The album's first single, "Little Things" reached the top 30 on the Mainstream Top 40 and the Alternative Songs charts. The band formed in 1996 with twin brothers Joel on vocals and Benji Madden on guitar, along with Billy Martin on guitar, Paul Thomas on bass and Aaron Escolopio on drums. A demo of "Little Things" received airplay from two radio stations and by early 2000, Good Charlotte had signed to Epic Records. Recording sessions with producer Don Gilmore for the debut album took place in four studios in California and New York. A music video for "Little Things" started getting airplay in November 2000. In March 2001, "Little Things" was released as a single, which was followed by a music video for "The Motivation Proclamation". Between March and May 2001, the group went on tour with MxPx and appeared at HFStival, where a music video for "Festival Song" was filmed. After this, Escolopio left the group and was replaced by Nate Foutz of Vroom. Foutz remained with the group for six weeks before Dusty Bill replaced him. The group participated in Warped Tour between June and August. Also in August, "The Motivation Proclamation" was released as a single and was followed by "Festival Song" in 2002. The album was subsequently certified silver in the UK and gold in the US. ## Background The band Good Charlotte was formed in Waldorf, Maryland, in 1995, after identical twin brothers Joel (vocals) and Benji Madden (guitar) had seen a Beastie Boys show. Following the brothers' graduation in 1997, instead of going to college they worked full-time on the band. The Madden brothers focused on getting the band signed, reading books and magazines that would aid them to achieve this goal. They made promotional packages and sent them to record labels. Joel Madden learned that the girl he took to homecoming was a sister of bassist Paul Thomas. Thomas met the brothers and was unimpressed with their performance skills. Soon afterwards, the brothers recruited their fellow high-school pupil Aaron Escolopio as a drummer and began playing clubs in the D.C. metro area. The Madden brothers moved to Annapolis, Maryland, and performed acoustic shows. Guitarist Billy Martin went to one of these shows at the insistence of Jimi HaHa of Jimmie's Chicken Shack. Martin became friends with the Madden brothers and let them move in with him after they were evicted from their apartment. Martin joined Good Charlotte after the trio learned they had a shared interest in the Australian rock band Silverchair and the break up of Martin's band Overflow. They wrote new songs, and recorded and performed demos. The band began building a following by performing at HFStival in 1998, and support slots for Blink-182, Lit and Bad Religion. In 1999, Good Charlotte opened for Save Ferris in Philadelphia. After the performance, they left a demo of "Little Things" that soon got airplay on local radio station Y100. Benji Madden was certain of the song's potential hit status with its high-school theme and the reality of its lyrics. A Sony Music employee passed the band's demo to regional promotion manager Mike Martinovich, who was impressed by the group's writing ability and the autobiographical nature of the songs. He contacted talent manager Steve Feinberg, who flew to Annapolis to watch the group perform and later began working with them. Around the same time, WHFS also began playing the demo. As the track became a hit in the area, record labels began showing interest in Good Charlotte. By the end of 1999, the band went on an east-coast tour with Lit. Representatives from several major labels attended the New York City show of the tour. Starting in 2000, the band became a full-time touring act, performing support slots for Lit, Goldfinger, Sum 41 and Mest. Following a showcase in New York City, the band met with people in the music industry. Within a week, everyone that saw the performance wanted to sign them. David Massey, executive vice president of A&R at Epic Records, signed the band to the label in May 2000. ## Recording and composition Good Charlotte was recorded mainly at Encore Studios in Los Angeles, California, and was produced by Don Gilmore who also acted as engineer and was assisted by Mauricio Iragorri and engineer Bob Jackson. Additional engineering was done by John Ewing Jr. The band wanted to work with Gilmore as they liked his work on Eve 6's self-titled album (1998). Drums and bass were recorded at NRG Studios in Los Angeles with assistance from Matt Griffen in May 2000. Guitar and vocals were recorded in June with assistance from Paul Oliveira at Battery Studios in New York City. Martin, Thomas and Escolopio sang additional vocals on "Little Things" while HaHa contributed additional vocals on "The Motivation Proclamation". Vocals were recorded with assistance from Pete Novack at Larrabee West, Los Angeles. Gilmore mixed most of the songs except "Little Things", "Change" and "Seasons" at Encore Studios. He mixed "Little Things" at Battery Studios. "Change", "Seasons" and "Thank You Mom" were mixed by Tom Lord-Alge at South Beach Studios in Miami, Florida. Vlado Meller mastered all of the tracks except for "Little Things" at Sony Music Studios in New York City. "Little Things" was mastered by Ted Jensen at Sterling Sound in New York City. Musically, the album has been described as pop punk, drawing comparisons to Green Day, Smash Mouth, Eve 6 and Lit. All of the songs on Good Charlotte were written by the Madden brothers. Josh Ian wrote additional lyrics for "Seasons" and "Let Me Go". Throughout the release are references to religion and God, who the group go as far to give acknowledgement to in the album's booklet. "Little Things" makes reference to the Madden brothers' upbringing with their parents. One of the lines mentions their father abandoning them, which made Joel Madden uncomfortable. Benji Madden reasoned it worked within the context of the song. "Waldorfworldwide" is about the brothers' ambition and frustration; according to Joel Madden it was written when they had no money. According to Martin, "The Motivation Proclamation" talks about "breaking out of a cycle if you're depressed on something ... getting over it and going on". Joel Madden wrote "Festival Song", which is about attending HFStival, a festival he grew up with. The album's hidden track "Thank You Mom" is a tribute to the brothers' mother, who raised them after their father left, reminiscing on childhood memories. ## Release Good Charlotte was released on September 26, 2000, through Epic and Daylight Records. The Japanese edition included "The Click", a cover of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark's "If You Leave" and a live, acoustic version of "The Motivation Proclamation" as bonus tracks. Sales of the album did not meet the label's expectations and the group were nearly dropped from Epic. In October and November 2000, the group embarked on a US tour with Fenix TX, and another with MxPx that lasted until the end of the year. Also in November 2000, a music video for "Little Things" began receiving airplay on MTV. The video was filmed in Canada and was directed by Nigel Dick It depicts the band as troublemakers in high school; Joel Madden breaks into the principal's office and talks into a microphone addressing "Waldorf High School". The principal finds out and is angry with the band. He follows the microphone cable into the gym to find out who is causing trouble. The group are shown walking down a halfway and performing on a golf cart. Singer Mandy Moore, who appears as Madden's girlfriend in the video, is then seen. The clip ends with an impromptu concert in the gym. In December, Good Charlotte appeared at HFSmas, the winter edition of HFStival. On March 1, 2001, "Little Things" was released as a single in Australia. The CD version includes "The Click" and "Thank You Mom" as extra tracks. Despite the lack of success of "Little Things", Epic allowed the band to make a video for "The Motivation Proclamation". The video was directed by Marc Webb; it depicts the band members lying on the ground, waking up one-by-one and beginning to playing together. Scenes from Undergrads are shown being played on a television. Between March and May 2001, the group supported MxPx on their headlining US tour. In April, the video for "The Motivation Proclamation" received airplay on video outlets. While on the MxPx tour, Good Charlotte was consistently selling 3,000 copies per week. As a result, the group wanted to make a live music video. At the end of May, the group performed at HFStival. During their set, a music video for "Festival Song" was filmed; it was directed by Webb. The video is a mini-documentary about the day. Members of Mest, New Found Glory and Linkin Park appear in the video. Sometime afterwards, Escolopio left the group to join his brother's band Wakefield. He was replaced by Nate Foutz of Vroom, who left the group after six weeks because Vroom signed a major label deal. Two days before the band went on tour, Dusty Bill was hired to play drums. The band gave him a copy of Good Charlotte and the following day, began practicing with him. Between June and August 2001, Good Charlotte appeared on the Warped Tour. Between tour performances, the group performed at Y100 FEZtival. On August 6, 2001, "The Motivation Proclamation" was released as a single. Following this, the band supported Blink-182 on their US tour before embarking on a tour of Australia in October. The group closed the year with a US headlining tour called the Uniting the States Tour, with support from Mest, the Movielife, and Midtown. In 2002, "Festival Song" was released as a single. In September 2004, the album was reissued as a two-CD package with The Young and the Hopeless (2002). It was reissued again in January 2010 in a box set alongside The Young and the Hopeless, The Chronicles of Life and Death (2004) and Good Morning Revival (2007). ## Reception ### Critical reception AllMusic reviewer William Ruhlmann said, "The beats come fast and furious, the simple guitar chords noisily fill the middle range, and the vocals are sung with snotty belligerence". He also said the lyrics touch upon "standard-issue stuff" with the only oddity being "an occasionally expressed religious interest". Chart Attack wrote that the group sounds "so much like a cross between Eve 6 and Lit that it's frightening". The website said Good Charlotte is "energized with angsty teenage punk, and though the lyrics are cynical, the music is peppy and autobiographical". David Hiltbrand of Entertainment Weekly said "crosscurrents of anger and optimism" appear throughout the album, and that the band has an "astringent punk style" combined with "crafty pop underpinnings". Melodic writer Johan Wippsson praised Gilmore's "very nice" production and called the record a "very nice punk-pop album with no really bad song". His only complaint was the lyrics, which he found to be a "little bit to [sic] teenaged" at times. Steve Schwadron of Ink 19 wrote that the lyrics seemed "very simplistic, and the music isn’t much more complicated", and apart from being "good party music", he does not "get much out of Good Charlotte". The Morning Call reviewer Joe Warminsky said the group "spares nothing in its effort" to join its contemporaries "of lame pop-rock bands that populate non-hip-hop radio". He said the album "wears thin quickly" and that most of the songs are "just plain shameless". ### Commercial performance and legacy Good Charlotte charted at number one on the Catalog Albums chart, number 13 on the Heatseekers Albums chart and number 185 on the Billboard 200. It also reached number 12 in New Zealand and number 194 in the UK. It was later certified silver in the UK and gold in the US. "Little Things" charted in the US at number 23 on both the Mainstream Top 40 and Alternative Songs charts. The album charted in Australia at number 61. "The Motivation Proclamation" charted in Australia at number 67. Two tracks were remixed for inclusion on the band's Greatest Remixes (2008) compilation: "Waldorfworldwide" (retitled "Los Angeles World Wide"; by JNR SNCHZ) and "Little Things" (by Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy). "Little Things", "The Motivation Proclamation" and "Festival Song" were included on the band's Greatest Hits (2010) compilation. Rolling Stone ranked the album at number 46 on their list of the 50 Greatest Pop-Punk Albums. In 2016, Benji Madden said of the album; "We were young and excited kids who were full of dreams and still trying to figure out our musical identity". Later that year, Joel Madden said; "[W]e didn’t over-think the pre-chorus, we didn’t think how we could make the bridge bigger, we wrote the songs until they were done. It’s more raw; the hope, the vibe and the spirit of that hopefulness has returned to the music." Jenna McDougall of Tonight Alive has expressed admiration for the album. ## Track listing All songs written by Benji and Joel Madden. Additional lyrics on "Let Me Go" and "Seasons" by Josh Ian. ## Personnel Personnel per booklet. Good Charlotte - Joel Madden – lead vocals - Benji Madden – guitars, backing vocals - Billy Martin – guitars, additional vocals (track 1) - Paul Thomas – bass guitar, additional vocals (track 1) - Aaron Escolopio – drums, percussion, additional vocals (track 1) Additional musicians - Jimi HaHa – additional vocals (track 3) Production - Don Gilmore – producer, recording, engineer, mixing (except tracks 7 and 13) - Tom Lord-Alge – mixing (tracks 7 and 13) - Bob Jackson – assistant engineer - John Ewing Jr. – additional engineer, Pro Tools - Matt Griffen – assistant - Paul Oliveira – assistant - Pete Novack – assistant - Mauricio Iragorri – assistant - Vlado Meller – mastering (except track 1) - Ted Jensen – mastering (track 1) - Kid Vicious – art concept - Frank Harkins – art direction - Julian Peploe – art direction - Maja Blazejewska – design - Topper – cover tattoo - Rafael Fuchs – photography ## Charts and certifications ### Weekly charts ### Year-end charts ### Certifications

Lance Bass

American singer and actor

James Lance Bass (/bæs/; born May 4, 1979) is an American singer, dancer, actor, podcaster, film and television producer. He grew up in Mississippi and rose to fame as the bass singer for the American pop boy band NSYNC. NSYNC's success led Bass to work in film and television. He starred in the 2001 film On the Line, which his company, Bacon & Eggs, also produced. Bass later formed a second production company, Lance Bass Productions, as well as a now-defunct music management company, Free Lance Entertainment, a joint venture with Mercury Records. After completion of NSYNC's PopOdyssey Tour, Bass moved to Star City, Russia, in a much publicized pursuit of a space tourism seat on a Soyuz space capsule. Bass was certified by both NASA and the Russian Space Program after several months of cosmonaut training and planned to join the TMA-1 mission to the International Space Station. However, after his financial sponsors backed out, Bass was denied a seat on the mission. In July 2006, Bass came out as gay in a cover story for People magazine. He was awarded the Human Rights Campaign Visibility Award in October 2006 and released an autobiography, Out of Sync, in October 2007, which debuted on the New York Times Best Seller list. ## Early life and education James Lance Bass was born in Laurel, Mississippi, to James Irvin Bass Jr., a medical technologist, and Diane (née Pulliam), a middle school mathematics, English, and career discovery teacher. Along with his older sister, Stacy, Bass grew up in adjacent Ellisville, Mississippi, and was raised as a Southern Baptist. Bass has described his family as devoutly Christian and conservative and has said that his childhood was "extremely happy". As a young boy, Bass developed an interest in space, and at age 9 traveled to Cape Canaveral, Florida, with his father to watch his first live Space Shuttle launch. Of this experience, Bass said, "I was certain from then on that my future was to be involved with space." Shortly after, Bass attended space camp in Titusville, Florida, and aspired to attend college and study engineering, with the hope that he would one day work for NASA. When Bass was 11 years old, his father was transferred to a different hospital, and the family moved to Clinton, Mississippi. Bass began singing in his Baptist church choir and was encouraged to audition for local performance groups by his childhood best friend, Darren Dale, the youngest child of former longtime Mississippi Insurance Commissioner George Dale. Bass joined the Mississippi Show Stoppers, a statewide music group sponsored by the Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Museum, and the Attaché Show Choir, a national-award-winning competitive show choir group at Clinton High School. He was also a member of a seven-man vocal group named Seven Card Stud, which competed at state fairs and performed at several social and political events for Senator Trent Lott. At Clinton High School, Bass was elected vice president of his junior class and has said that he performed well in math and science. However, Bass later said that his primary focus during high school was singing, and when reflecting on it, he remembers "hardly anything" about academia. ## Career ### Music Bass's music career has consisted primarily of his singing with NSYNC and running a small management company. #### NSYNC In 1995, during his junior year of high school, Bass received a call from Justin Timberlake and his mother, Lynn Harless, who asked Bass if he would be interested in auditioning for the pop group NSYNC after the group's original bass singer, Jason Galasso, had quit. Timberlake's vocal coach (who had worked with Bass during his time as a Mississippi Show Stopper) recommended Bass as a replacement. Bass was accepted into the group after auditioning in front of the other bandmembers, and soon left school to move to Orlando, Florida and rehearse full-time. Bass has said that he did not know how to dance before he joined NSYNC, and therefore found much of the group's choreography difficult to learn. According to an episode of VH1's Driven, Jan Bolz, president of BMG's German division, offered NSYNC a recording contract under the condition that they replace Bass, whose dancing, he felt, "wasn't at the same level as all the others." However, Chris Kirkpatrick (who formed the band) refused to accept the contract without Bass, and the group's manager, Johnny Wright, convinced Bolz that Bass's dancing would quickly improve. Bolz conceded, and the group soon moved to Munich, Germany to record their first album with BMG. NSYNC began extensive touring in Europe, and Bass's mother quit her job to tour with the group as a chaperone, as Bass was still a minor. After gaining significant notability in Europe, NSYNC was signed to the American record label RCA in 1997. The group's first single, "I Want You Back" began receiving major radio play in the United States, and NSYNC soon found themselves becoming an "overnight sensation", a period which Bass describes in his autobiography as "the death of my own innocence". Along with increasing fame and recognition in the United States the band also experienced a highly publicized legal battle with Pearlman, due to what the group believed were illicit business practices on his part. NSYNC sued Pearlman and his record company, Trans Continental, for defrauding the group of more than 50% of their earnings, rather than his original promise of receiving only one-sixth of the profits. The group threatened to leave and sign with Jive Records, which prompted Pearlman and RCA to countersue NSYNC for \$150 million US, citing breach of contract. The injunction was thrown out of court and, after winning back their earnings, NSYNC signed with Jive. In March 2000, NSYNC released No Strings Attached, which became the fastest-selling record of all time, selling 1.1 million copies in its first day of release. In 2001, the group followed up with their Celebrity album, which scored the second highest first-week album sales ever, trumped only by the group's previous album. NSYNC went on to sell over 56 million records worldwide. In 2002, the group announced that they would be taking a "hiatus", during which Timberlake began to record solo material. NSync has not recorded new material since, and Bass has stated that he feels the group has officially disbanded. In 2007, Bass said he had faith Timberlake would return after six months off to record another album with NSYNC, and that he felt betrayed by Timberlake's 2004 decision to pursue his solo career instead. Bass has also said he has little hope for a reunion since Timberlake has "made it clear that he wouldn't be interested in discussing another album any time soon." Despite these statements, Bass has denied that he harbors any ill feelings towards Timberlake, saying: "At that time ... it did feel like betrayal. I felt heartbroken. All these emotions went through me. Today, I'm really happy, and Justin and I are really great friends. I don't hate him at all. And I understand what he was going through, and it was as hard for him as it was for any of us." #### Free Lance Entertainment In 2000, Bass formed a music management company named Free Lance Entertainment, which was a joint venture with Mercury Nashville, a division of Mercury Records. Vowing to keep the company "a strictly family-run operation", Bass employed his parents and sister as talent scouts, and he recruited childhood friend and aspiring country singer Meredith Edwards for the company's first release. Edwards began touring with NSYNC as an opening act in the fall of 2000, and Bass teamed up with MTV to hold a nationwide talent search for more artists later that year. However, Free Lance soon folded after disappointing sales of Edwards's debut album, Reach. ### Acting #### Film, television, and theater Bass guest-starred on The WB drama series 7th Heaven, playing Rick Palmer, a love interest for Beverley Mitchell's character, Lucy. The following year, while NSYNC was in the midst of recording Celebrity, Bass received his first starring role in the 2001 motion picture On The Line. Bass played Kevin, a man who falls in love with a woman on a Chicago train and begins a search to find her again. The film was produced by Bass's production company, A Happy Place (later renamed Bacon & Eggs), and it featured appearances by Jerry Stiller, Al Green, Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora, former WWE wrestler Chyna, and Bass's bandmates Timberlake, Kirkpatrick and Fatone, the latter in a major role. The film also featured a soundtrack which included previously unreleased songs by NSYNC and Britney Spears. Bass collaborated with Joey Fatone, Mandy Moore, Christian Burns and True Vibe (as the "On The Line Allstars") for the film's theme song, "On The Line". Despite heavy marketing towards NSYNC teen fans, the film was a commercial failure, grossing only US\$4.2 million domestically despite its \$10-million budget. The film, along with Bass's acting, was also poorly received by critics. Bass later said he felt the film's success was greatly hindered by its release date, which came one week after the World Trade Center attacks of September 11, 2001. In his 2007 autobiography, Bass wrote, "That was it – our film was finished ... once the country went to war, there was no way our film was going to be on anyone's top-priority list." After On The Line, Bass appeared in Zoolander and Wes Craven's Cursed as himself, and he played a wedding singer in I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. Bass has also lent his voice to several animated television programs, such as Robot Chicken and Disney's Kim Possible, Handy Manny and Higglytown Heroes. In the video game realm, Bass voiced the Final Fantasy VII character Sephiroth in Kingdom Hearts. On August 14, 2007, Bass began a six-month stint playing Corny Collins in the Broadway musical Hairspray, coinciding with the play's five-year stage anniversary. He ended his run in Hairspray on January 6, 2008. Bass made an appearance in the 2008 film Tropic Thunder. As a guest star in the 2013 Gravity Falls episode "Boyz Crazy", Bass plays in the boy band, Sev'ral Timez (which is a parody of NSYNC). In 2014, Bass guest starred on an episode of the Comedy Central series Review, in which he visited space along with the show's lead character. In 2015, Bass joined season two of The Meredith Vieira Show as a full-time contributing panelist. Bass and his mother competed in 2017 with other duos in the FOX reality cooking series My Kitchen Rules, and were the runners-up. In 2020, Lance appeared with friend Joey Fatone on Meredith Veiera's syndicated program, 25 Words or Less (season 1, episodes 121–123). In April 2021, Bass became a panelist for the new TV series Unicorn Hunters, a business investment show where he and other judges determine whether or not to invest in start-ups and other companies with high valuation potential. ### Dancing with the Stars Bass was a contestant on season 7 of Dancing with the Stars and was paired with swing dance champ Lacey Schwimmer. Bass and Schwimmer reached the grand finale in competition with Brooke Burke partnering with Derek Hough and Warren Sapp partnering with Kym Johnson. Lance Bass finished in third place with the title going to Burke. ### Production In January 2001, Bass formed his first film production company, A Happy Place, with film producers Rich Hull, Wendy Thorlakson and Joe Anderson. The company was geared towards family-friendly films and received the Movieguide award for "Excellence in Family-Oriented Programming" for its first feature film, On the Line. After On The Line, A Happy Place changed its name to Bacon & Eggs and produced its second feature film, Lovewrecked, in 2005. The film debuted on ABC Family in January 2007, starring Amanda Bynes, Chris Carmack, and Jamie-Lynn Sigler, with Bass in a minor role. This too received mostly negative reviews. Bass later formed a separate production company named Lance Bass Productions. On May 14, 2007, Brian Graden announced that Lance Bass Productions would be working with the Logo network in executive producing a reality television show about the music business. It was reported that the show will focus on the creation and development of an all-gay boy band. To date no such project has been developed or aired. In 2008, Bass co-produced The Grand, and Bass' company is reported to be developing a music docudrama about the life of rock bands on tour. In October 2011, Bass debuted his own boy band called Heart2Heart. In August 2013, Bass became an executive producer of the documentary film Kidnapped for Christ along with Mike C. Manning. The film sheds light on controversial behavior modification methods used on children, sent there by their parents, at an Evangelical Christian reform school in the Dominican Republic. The film was sold to Showtime, to be released on television July 10, 2014. ### Radio Bass hosted Dirty Pop with Lance Bass, a daily evening drive time radio show focusing on pop culture and entertainment news on OutQ, an LGBT-geared station on Sirius XM. Bass was also the host of the weekly "Pop2Kountdown" on Pop2K, which counts down the 30 biggest hits from that week from a different year in the 2000s. ### Podcast On January 3, 2023, Bass released the trailer for his podcast, Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. The first episode aired on January 9, 2023, in which he interviewed former bandmate JC Chasez of NSYNC. In February, he began releasing episodes for another podcast, The Last Soviet, describing the story of Sergei Krikalev's time on the Mir space station during the collapse of the Soviet Union as well as Bass's own experience training at Star City. ## Personal life Bass dated actress Danielle Fishel of TV's Boy Meets World throughout 1999 and 2000. Fishel said she was heavily invested in the relationship, commenting that she was "so in love" with Bass. Bass ended the relationship after one year and continued to exclusively date women until he was 22. In his autobiography, Bass documents two gay relationships that predated media speculation; one with someone from Miami, Florida named Jesse, with whom Bass lived for two years, and another with an Idaho native named Joe. Bass began dating Amazing Race winner Reichen Lehmkuhl in early 2006, a courtship that garnered tabloid coverage and led to Bass's decision to come out. Bass described his relationship with Lehmkuhl as "very stable"; however, the couple split up several months later. Shortly after his split with Lehmkuhl, Bass briefly dated Brazilian model and LXTV host Pedro Andrade. From August 2007 to March 2008, Bass dated New York-based hairdresser Ben Thigpen. After a year and a half of dating, Bass became engaged to Michael Turchin in September 2013. Bass and Turchin married on December 20, 2014, in Los Angeles. In a 2006 interview, Bass said he has Attention-Deficit Disorder. Bass's favorite music bands are Aerosmith, the Goo Goo Dolls, and Journey, and his favorite actress is Lucille Ball, whom he grew up watching on I Love Lucy re-runs. He is a self-described "huge Dr. Seuss fan", devoting an entire room in his Jackson, Mississippi, estate to Seuss memorabilia. Bass has said he is a Christian and that he regularly attends church, though he considers himself to be non-denominational. He is the godfather of former bandmate and best friend Joey Fatone's daughters, Briahna and Kloey. ### Sexual orientation Bass came out as gay in a cover story for People magazine on July 26, 2006. There had been considerable media speculation about his orientation due to numerous paparazzi snapshots of him at gay bars and nightclubs, most notably during the preceding Independence Day weekend in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Celebrity gossip blogger Perez Hilton had also been posting items on his website about Bass's orientation since September 2005, and New York gossip column Page Six ran a blurb on July 12, 2006, that reported a sighting of Bass at a gay bar with his then-boyfriend, Lehmkuhl. Bass's publicist, Ken Sunshine, chose to release the story exclusively to People magazine, who bumped actor Johnny Depp off that week's cover in favor of Bass. In his coming out interview, Bass stated, > The thing is, I'm not ashamed – that's the one thing I want to say. I don't think it's wrong, I'm not devastated going through this. I'm more liberated and happy than I've been my whole life. I'm just happy. Bass's announcement received a large amount of media attention. The American public's reaction was generally positive, with Bass receiving "overwhelming support" from many teenagers and young adults who grew up listening to 'N Sync. However, Bass received criticism from the LGBT community when he referred to himself and his friends as "straight-acting" in his People interview, stating, "I call them the SAGs – the straight-acting gays. We're just normal, typical guys. I love to watch football and drink beer." This comment angered some members of the LGBT community, who believed that Bass not only implied that effeminate gay men were not 'normal', but further enforced unneeded stereotypes. In a 2007 interview with The Advocate, Bass called his comment a "mistake" and noted that he was unaware of the negative implications surrounding the term. Bass stated, "Every community is hard to please. Our community is very fickle. It's a touchy community because it's the last civil rights movement we have left here in America. So when someone new like myself comes along and says off-the-mark things, yeah, I can see how people would get pissed." Bass found himself in the midst of further controversy later that year when he, along with then-boyfriend Reichen Lehmkuhl, was awarded 2006 Human Rights Campaign Visibility Award on October 7, 2006. The Washington Blade printed a guest editorial from a longtime HRC supporter who claimed that neither recipient had done enough to deserve the award and that The Human Rights Campaign was simply capitalizing on Bass's fame to sell tickets. The Human Rights Campaign stood by Bass and defended his award, responding to critics by saying, "Bass is the biggest music star since Melissa Etheridge to come out, and maybe some people think HRC should just ignore these moments of cultural significance, but his declaration did initiate a positive, national conversation that continues today." ### Marriage and family Bass began dating painter and actor Michael Turchin in January 2011 and they became engaged in September 2013. They married on December 20, 2014, at the Park Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles. Former NSYNC bandmates Joey Fatone, Chris Kirkpatrick and JC Chasez were in attendance; Justin Timberlake, who was then headlining his The 20/20 Experience World Tour, was not present. The ceremonial event was filmed and televised in a special E! presentation: Lance Loves Michael: The Lance Bass Wedding that aired on February 5, 2015. Bass and Turchin were the first same-sex couple to exchange vows on cable television. After four years of marriage, the couple decided to extend their family and have a child with the help of a surrogate. In March 2020, Bass announced the couple had lost a baby via the surrogate having a miscarriage at eight weeks. It had been the couple's ninth surrogacy attempt. In June 2021, Bass announced they were expecting twins by early November. Their son and daughter were born in mid-October. ### Space tourism plans In February 2002, Lena Banks, a space advocate and founder/producer of Think Tank Ink Productions, contacted Bass to propose his involvement in her Youngest Person in Space project. Banks took her longtime associate David Krieff of Destiny Productions on board and through a series of events in August 2002, Bass entered cosmonaut training in Star City, Russia. Bass was considered as the host of a U.S. version of a space competition show, The Big Mission, that had been successful in Denmark; contestants would go through rigorous training and vie for a seat on a Russian Soyuz space capsule. Instead of a game show, the producers decided to shoot a documentary of a celebrity training and going into space, intending to air it on a major network. A colleague mentioned Banks' space project to a friend, whose daughter shouted out, "Lance Bass wants to go into space!" The girl, who was an NSYNC fan, learned of Bass' lifelong dream of space travel when she read of it online via an MTV forum. Banks spoke to Bass's management who went to him with the proposal. "At first he thought we were joking," Banks remarks. "I assured him it was for real; he accepted and we moved forward with the project." To be admitted into training, Bass had to go through strenuous physicals that may have saved his life. It was discovered he had cardiac arrhythmia, and he agreed to undergo heart surgery to correct it. In 1999, he had collapsed after a concert because of his condition. After several months of training, Bass received cosmonaut certification and went on to Houston's Johnson Space Center (JSC) to take part in astronaut training. He was scheduled to fly into space on the Soyuz TMA-1 mission that was to be launched on October 30, 2002. The capsule was to fly to the International Space Station and land in a desert in Kazakhstan. But the original deal to air the documentary about Bass fell through in mid-2002. Bass's camp turned to MTV, who agreed to sponsor the trip but then backed out over "payment, insurance, and indemnification issues." Shortly after, all of Bass's other sponsorships fell through, including one sponsor who pulled out because they worried about the their brand being tarnished if Bass were to die on the mission. Bass was eventually rejected from the program, and was replaced on the flight by Russian cosmonauts Yury Lonchakov and Sergei Zalyotin and Belgium's Frank De Winne. #### Space advocacy In 2003, Bass began serving as World Space Week's Youth Spokesman. Bass has said that he believes young people becoming more interested in space exploration "will help the future of our planet". From 2003 to 2005, Bass spent World Space Week traveling to American high schools speaking with students about space exploration and encouraging them to explore careers in science and mathematics. Bass is a member of the National Space Society, a non-profit educational space advocacy organization founded by Wernher von Braun. Bass has served on the National Space Society's board of governors since October 2004, alongside other space advocates such as actor Tom Hanks and author and futurist Sir Arthur C. Clarke. In a 2007 interview with GQ magazine, Bass said he "absolutely" still intends on going to space, and that he hopes to work on a space documentary. Bass has also retained fluency in Russian, which he was required to learn during his training. ### Autobiography Following public response surrounding his coming out, Bass announced that he was releasing an autobiography. The book, entitled Out of Sync, was published on October 23, 2007. It was co-written by The New York Times best-selling biographer Marc Eliot, who also wrote the book's introduction, and was published by Simon Spotlight Entertainment, a division of Simon & Schuster. The 208-page book covers what Bass describes as "the first chapter" in his life, from his childhood growing up in rural Mississippi, to his efforts to obtain a seat on a Russian space capsule and the proceeding financial issues he had with his sponsors, and culminating with Bass's decision to go public with his sexuality. The book includes details about boyfriends that he kept from family and friends. He recounts NSYNC's 2002 decision to go on an "extended hiatus". Bass said Justin Timberlake was the sole reason NSYNC did not get back together. Out of Sync debuted on the New York Times Best Seller list for the week of November 11, 2007. ### Philanthropy and causes Bass has been involved with a number of charities. In 2001, he founded The Lance Bass Foundation, a non-profit organization that was designed to meet the health needs of low-income children. In 2003, Bass donated \$30,000 US to establish the Amber Pulliam Special Education Endowment at the University of Southern Mississippi. Named for his younger cousin, Amber Pulliam, who has Down syndrome, it serves financial aid students from Mississippi's Pine Belt who plan a career in special education. After 2005's Hurricane Katrina, Bass launched "uBid For Hurricane Relief", a celebrity auction to benefit victims of the hurricane, with uBid.com. Proceeds from the auction were split between the Child Welfare League of America, The Brett Favre Fourward Foundation, and Ashton Kutcher's RockWorks Foundation. Many of Bass's family members in Mississippi were directly affected by the hurricane. That same year, Bass appeared on an episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition with a donation to a Russian woman to save a camp for disabled children in Russia. Bass is a member of the Environmental Media Association's board of directors. He has also been involved with Animal Avengers, Shannon Elizabeth's animal rescue organization. He has two dogs which he adopted from a rescue shelter, both of whom he posed with in a PETA ad urging people to adopt rather than buy animals. In August 2007, Bass wrote a guest commentary for LOGO's "Visible Vote '08" blog, in which he expressed support for gay marriage. In September 2007, Bass participated in a series of GLAAD television advertisements promoting tolerance for the LGBT community. Bass has also been involved in fundraising for the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network. ## Discography ### NSYNC - 'N Sync (1997) - No Strings Attached (2000) - Celebrity (2001) ## Filmography ### Film ### Television ### Video games

Washington & Jefferson College

Private liberal arts college in Washington, Pennsylvania

Washington & Jefferson College (W&J College or W&J) is a private liberal arts college in Washington, Pennsylvania. The college traces its origin to three log cabin colleges in Washington County established by three Presbyterian missionaries to the American frontier in the 1780s: John McMillan, Thaddeus Dod, and Joseph Smith. These early schools eventually grew into two competing academies, with Jefferson College located in Canonsburg and Washington College located in Washington. The two colleges merged in 1865 to form Washington & Jefferson College. The 60 acre (0.2 km²) campus has more than 40 buildings, with the oldest dating to 1793. The college's academic emphasis is on the liberal arts and the sciences, with a focus on preparing students for graduate and professional schools. Campus activities include various religious, political, and general interest clubs, as well as academic and professional-themed organizations. The college has a strong history of competing literary societies, dating back before the union of Jefferson and Washington Colleges. Students operate a college radio station, a campus newspaper, and a literary journal. The athletic program competes in NCAA Division III. A large majority of students participate in intramural athletics. Nearly all students live on campus and roughly one third are members of fraternities or sororities. A number of noteworthy alumni have attended the college or its predecessor institutions, including James G. Blaine, William Holmes McGuffey, Joseph Ruggles Wilson (the father of President Woodrow Wilson), and Pete Henry. ## History ### Early history and the academies Washington & Jefferson College traces its origin to three log cabin colleges established by three frontier clergymen in the 1780s: John McMillan, Thaddeus Dod, and Joseph Smith. The three men, all graduates from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), came to present-day Washington County to plant churches and spread Presbyterianism to what was then the American frontier beyond the Appalachian Mountains. John McMillan, the most prominent of the three founders because of his strong personality and longevity, came to the area in 1775 and built his log cabin college in 1780 near his church in Chartiers. Thaddeus Dod, known as a keen scholar, built his log cabin college in Lower Ten Mile in 1781. Joseph Smith taught classical studies in his college, called "The Study," at Buffalo. Washington Academy was chartered by the Pennsylvania General Assembly on September 24, 1787. The first members of the board of trustees included Reverends Dod and Smith. After a difficult search for a headmaster, in which the trustees consulted Benjamin Franklin, the trustees unanimously selected Thaddeus Dod, considered to be the best scholar in western Pennsylvania. Amid financial difficulties and unrest from the Whiskey Rebellion, the academy held no classes from 1791 to 1796. In 1792, the academy secured four lots at Wheeling and Lincoln street from William Hoge and began construction on the stone Academy Building. During the Whiskey Rebellion, portions of David Bradford's militia camped on a hillside that would later become home to the unified Washington & Jefferson College. In October 1792, after a year's delay from its official incorporation resulting from "trouble with Indians," McMillan was chosen as the headmaster and Canonsburg was chosen as the location for the "Canonsburg Academy." At a subsequent unknown date, McMillan transferred his students from the log cabin to Canonsburg Academy. Canonsburg Academy was chartered by the General Assembly on March 11, 1794, thus placing it firmly ahead of its sister school, Washington Academy, which was without a faculty, students, or facilities. On January 15, 1802, with McMillan as president of the board, the General Assembly finally granted a charter for "a college at Canonsburgh." ### Jefferson College and Washington College In 1802, Canonsburg Academy was reconstituted as Jefferson College, with John McMillan serving as the first President of the board of trustees. In 1806, Matthew Brown petitioned the Pennsylvania General Assembly to grant Washington Academy a charter, allowing it to be re-christened as Washington College. At various times over the next 60 years, the various parties within the two colleges pursued unification with each other, but the question of where the unified college would be located thwarted those efforts. In 1817, a disagreement over a perceived agreement for unification erupted into "The College War" and threatened the existence of both colleges. In the ensuing years, both colleges began to undertake risky financial moves, especially over-selling scholarships. Thanks to the leadership of Matthew Brown, Jefferson College was in a stronger position to weather the financial storm for a longer period. Desperate for funds, Washington College accepted an offer from the Synod of Wheeling to take control of the college, a move that was supposed to stabilize the finances for a period of time. However, Washington College then undertook another series of risky financial moves that crippled its finances. ### Unification of the colleges Following the Civil War, both colleges were short on students and on funds, causing them to join as Washington & Jefferson College in 1865. The charter provided for the college to operate at both Canonsburg and Washington, a position that caused significant difficulty for the administration trying to rescue the college amid ill feelings over the unification. Jonathan Edwards, a pastor from Baltimore who had been president of Hanover College, was elected the first president of the unified Washington & Jefferson College on April 4, 1866. Edwards immediately encountered significant challenges, including the difficulties of administering a college across two campuses, as well as old prejudices and hard feelings among those still loyal to either Jefferson College or Washington College. Edwards resigned in 1869, as the two-campus arrangement was declared a failure and all operations were consolidated in Washington. Before the merger could be completed, Canonsburg residents and Jefferson College partisans filed a lawsuit, known as the Pennsylvania College Cases, sought to overturn the consolidation plan. Leadership of the college during this time fell to Samuel J. Wilson, a local pastor, and James I. Brownson, who had earlier been interim president of Washington College. By 1871, the United States Supreme Court upheld the consolidation, allowing the newly configured college to proceed. ### History since unification George P. Hays, who had assumed the presidency amid the court battle and the unification controversy, led the newly unified college until 1881. His successor, James D. Moffat, led the college through a period of growth where the college constructed the Old Gym, Hays Hall, Thompson Memorial Library, and Thistle Physics Building, as well as purchasing the land known as the "old fair ground," now used for Cameron Stadium. Towards the end of his term, Moffat personally paid for the 1912 renovations of McMillan Hall. In 1914, Frederick W. Hinitt was elected president. His tenure was dominated by the United States' entry into World War I, with an enrollment drop of 50%. William E. Slemmons, a college trustee and adjunct professor, succeeded Hinitt and served as interim president from May 1918 to June 1919. After the war ended in 1919, Samuel Charles Black took over and helped to stabilize the enrollment. While on a honeymoon tour of national parks, Black became ill and died. His successor, Simon Strousse Baker, was well liked by the college's trustees and by "many a townsman", but the student body felt that Baker was "autocratic" and held an "unfriendly attitude toward the student body as individuals." Baker defended himself, saying that the perceived ill-will towards students was unintentional and a misunderstanding. Nonetheless, the student body held a strike and general walkout in 1931, prompting Baker to resign. Baker's successor, Ralph Cooper Hutchison, was much more popular with the student body. In an effort to strengthen the college's science department, Hutchison extended and expanded the southern portion of the campus, adding the Lazear Chemistry Hall and purchasing McIlvane Hall. When World War II broke out, the campus was opened to the Army Administration School, where hundreds of soldiers received their "training in classifications." Hutchison resigned in 1945 to take the presidency of his alma mater, Lafayette College. James Herbert Case, Jr., who was president from 1946 to 1950, constructed several new dormitories to handle the influx of veterans under the G.I. Bill. In 1950, Boyd Crumrine Patterson assumed the presidency and oversaw curriculum revisions and the construction of a number of buildings, including the Henry Memorial Center, 10 Greek housing units in the center of campus, the U. Grant Miller Library, the Student Center, the Commons, and two new dormitories. His fundraising abilities grew the college's endowment expanded from \$2.3 million to nearly \$11 million. Patterson retired in 1970, the same year that the trustees authorized the admission of women as undergraduate students. Howard J. Burnett took office as president that year and hired the college's first female faculty members and the first female dean. The college also adopted a new academic calendar to include intersession and expanded its academic programs to include the Entrepreneurial Studies Program, the Freshman Forum, and several cooperative international education programs. Student enrollment grew from 830 in 1970 to 1,100 in 1998. Burnett retired as president in 1998. Under Burnett's successor, Brian C. Mitchell, who served as president from 1998 to 2004, the college experienced a growth in construction and an effort to improve relations with the neighboring communities. In 2004, Tori Haring-Smith became the first woman to serve as president of Washington & Jefferson, undertaking an effort to improve the science curriculum and to construct the Swanson Science Center. After 13 years of service, Haring-Smith retired from her position on June 30, 2017. John C. Knapp was named Haring-Smith's successor on April 21, 2017, and became the college's 13th president on August 1, 2017. ## Academics As a liberal arts college, Washington & Jefferson College focuses exclusively on undergraduate education. It is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. The college's teaching environment reflects the liberal arts tradition of small group instruction by maintaining an average class size of 17 and a student/faculty ratio of 12:1. 85% of faculty have terminal degrees and no classes are taught by teaching assistants. The college has a strong science program, with 35% of students majoring in one of the scientific departments. Within those areas, all 32 professors hold terminal degrees. The most frequent class size is between 10 and 19 students. The college has a focus on preparing students for graduate school and professional programs. Across all disciplines, 85% to 90% of students who apply to such programs receive offers of admission. Among students who apply to medical school or related health graduate programs, 90% of students gain admission. Approximately 11% of all current W&J alumni are physicians and engineers, making the college third in the nation per capita for producing doctors and scientific researchers. Among students who apply to law school, approximately 90% of students gain admission. The college recently added The English Language Institute which is a pre-academic program designed to equip multi-lingual learners with the English and academic skills to be prepared for undergraduate study. ### Admission and rankings Admission to Washington & Jefferson College is classified as "more selective" by both the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education and U.S. News & World Report. The Princeton Review gave Washington & Jefferson an "Admissions Selectivity Rating" of 92. The college extends offers of admission to 38.2% of all applicants. Of all matriculating students, the average high school GPA is 3.34 and 38% are in the top 10% of their high school class. The interquartile range for SAT scores in math and reasoning skills are 510–610 and 520–620, respectively. In 2009, the college developed an SAT-optional admissions program. In the 2019 U.S. News & World Report college rankings, Washington & Jefferson is ranked \#103 of all liberal arts colleges in the nation, placing it within "Tier 1." In Forbes Magazine's List of America's Best Colleges for 2010, the college was ranked \#100 out of the nation's institutions of higher education. The Washington Monthly ranked the college \#132 among all American liberal arts colleges in terms of social mobility, research, and community service. The rankings listed the college as \#30 in the nation in terms of Federal Work-Study Program money spent of community service. As president of the college, Tori Haring-Smith has specifically criticized the U.S. News & World Report rankings system, noting that the "financial resources" portion of the rankings formula favors colleges that have higher tuition, even without providing any educational benefits, saying that this has harmed the college's ranking because it charged \$5,000 to \$7,000 less in tuition that its peer institutions. She also questioned the "peer assessment" portion of the rankings and suggested that college presidents are rarely aware of educational improvements in their peer institutions; she noted that Washington & Jefferson College's ranking has remained the same for a number of years, even while the college made significant improvements in terms of its acceptance rates and overall selectivity, the addition of academic programs, and the construction of additional buildings. Haring-Smith's criticism of the rankings spurred Bob Morse, the founder of the U.S. College Rankings system to respond to the criticisms directly in an article. She has signed the "Presidents Letter," a nationwide movement asking fellow college presidents to decline participation in the U.S. News & World Report reputation survey, a subjective evaluation where college administrators score their competition. ### Curriculum The curriculum is centered on the traditional liberal arts education and pre-professional classes. All first-semester freshmen must complete the "First Year Seminar" class, which introduces new students to a variety of lectures, concerts, plays, and trips to museums or galleries based on a different course theme selected each year. In addition to completing an academic major, students must satisfy the college-wide general education requirements, which include classes in the arts, humanities, natural sciences and mathematics, foreign languages, cultural diversity, and academic skills classes including writing, oral communication, quantitative reasoning. Students may choose to complete an academic minor, participate in interdepartmental concentrations, or to focus on an intra-departmental emphasis. Additionally, all students must complete a physical education requirement, amounting to one full semester class, making W&J one of the few liberal arts colleges without a physical education major to have such a requirement. The college maintains a number of combined degree programs, allowing students to attend graduate or professional school in lieu of senior year. The college follows the 4–1–4 academic calendar, which includes a four-month fall term, a three-week Intersession term in January, followed by a four-month spring term. During the Intersession term, students have the choice of studying abroad, completing an external internship, or taking a specially-designed Intersession course. These Intersession courses are more focused than regular courses and provide professors with an opportunity to teach non-traditional subjects. Past Intersession courses have included "Emerging Diseases: Global and Local" in the biology department, "Corporate Failures, Frauds, and Scandals" in the business department, and "Vampires and Other Bloodsuckers" in the English department, "Holocaust Survivor Narratives" in the German department, and "Alternative Radio" in the communications department. At various times, the faculty organizes an "Integrated Semester," where professors organize regular departmental courses, specialized projects, and public events dealing with a common interdisciplinary theme. Students participating in more than two designed courses receive a transcript designation noting their participation in the program. Past themes have included "Integrated Semester on Asia," "The Importance of Place," "Integrated Semester on the Spanish-Speaking World." Students can also pursue international education through 30 pre-approved programs in over 20 countries. While W&J has not had a Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) program since 1991, the college has a relationship with the University of Pittsburgh's Army and Air Force ROTC programs, allowing W&J students to prepare for an active or reserve commission following graduation. Members of the National Guard of the United States may take online classes to earn an associate's degree in Information Technology Leadership or a certificate in Information Management and Security. Students may undertake externships to gain experiential learning experience in their chosen field. The Franklin Internship Awards, established in 2006 by Ellis Hyman, provide upperclassmen with financial assistance to take an unpaid internship. The college's Magellan Project is a series of programs that provide support and financing for research and independent study projects. Past Magellan Projects have allowed students to study the Invasion of Normandy, Mexican transportation systems, and to volunteer at medical missions in the Dominican Republic. In 2010, the Magellan Project received the Heiskell Award from the Institute of International Education in recognition of the college's progressive approach to study abroad. In the 2010–2011 school year, 58% of W&J students studied abroad. ## Campus The campus of Washington & Jefferson College is located in the city of Washington and the East Washington Borough, small-town communities about 30 miles (48 km) south of Pittsburgh. The 60-acre (24 ha) campus is home to more than 40 academic, administrative, recreational, and residential buildings. The northern edge of campus is bound by East Walnut Street, the western edge by South College Street, the southern edge by East Maiden Street, and the eastern edge by South Wade. Portions of the campus extend into the East Washington Historic District. Four historic gates mark four traditional entrances to campus at East Maiden Street, Wheeling Street, South College Street, and Beau Street. In 1947, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission installed a historical marker noting the historic importance of the college. The oldest surviving building is McMillan Hall, which dates to 1793 and is the oldest college building west of the Allegheny Mountains. The main academic building is Old Main, which is topped with two prominent towers. The Old Gym houses a modern exercise facility. McIlvaine Hall, which was originally home to a female seminary, was demolished in 2008 and replaced by the Swanson Science Center. Davis Memorial Hall was once a dormitory and private house. The Thistle Physics Building, the Lazear Chemistry Hall, and the Dieter-Porter Life Sciences Building all cater to the scientific curriculum. The Burnett Center and its sister building, the Technology Center, were built in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The first dormitory on campus was Hays Hall. Wade House, Carriage House, and Whitworth House are Victorian homes housing older students. The recently constructed Chestnut Street Housing complex provides housing for the college's Greek organizations. The Presidents' Row is a cluster of ten buildings in the center of campus, several of which are dedicated to theme housing. Two sister dormitories, New Residence Hall and Bica-Ross Hall, feature suite-style living arrangements. Mellon Hall houses female freshman, and Upperclass Hall houses male freshmen. Other dormitories include Alexander Hall, Beau Hall, Marshall Hall, North Hall, and Penn House. The college administration utilizes several buildings, including the Admissions House, the Alumni House, and the President's House, which are all modified Victorian homes. The U. Grant Miller Library is the modern library; its predecessor, Thompson Hall, is now used for administrative purposes. The Hub, The Commons, and the Rossin Campus Center provide recreational and dining facilities for students. The athletic and intramural teams utilize Cameron Stadium for football and track. The Henry Memorial Center is used for basketball, wrestling, swimming, and volleyball. Other athletic facilities include Brooks Park, Ross Memorial Park and Alexandre Stadium, and the Janet L. Swanson Tennis Courts. ### Popular culture Washington & Jefferson is the setting for the Netflix programs The Chair and Mindhunter. ## Student body As of fall 2021, the student body totaled 1,156 undergraduate students. The student body is highly residential, with 98% of students residing in campus housing. The number of transfer students joining the student body each year is relatively low, compared to other institutions. Approximately 18% of the student body receives federal Pell Grants. Prior to entering college, 82% of the student body attended public high schools. Roughly 86% of the each freshman class returns to the college for their sophomore year. The overall graduation rate is 70% About 25 to 30% of each incoming class is the first in their family to attend college. The male to female ratio is 54% to 46%. Like the population of Pennsylvania and the United States as a whole, the largest ethnic group at the college is White American, making up about 82% of the student population. Roughly 10% of the student population does not specify their ethnicity. Other ethnicities, including African American, Asian American, Native American, and Hispanic Americans collectively comprise about 6% of the student body. International students make up 2.05% of the student body. In 2006, Men's Fitness named W&J the "14th Fittest College in America," a ranking that weighed the college's fitness offerings and the student body's culture of fitness and behavior. In 2009, the college was named to the President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, in recognition of the student body's commitment to community service. The college's spends 22% of its Federal Work-Study Program funds on community service projects. The college has joined the YES Prep School IMPACT Partnership Program to provide support to low-income students from the YES Prep Public Schools. ## Student life ### Student housing The college offers "Theme Community Living," where students with common interests live in a single living unit. Past themes have included the "Intensive Study," the "Service Leadership Community," the "International House," "Music House," the "WashPA Radio Theme Community" for students who participate in the WNJR college radio station, and the "Pet House". Students proposing a theme community must develop an educational plan centered on the theme. The college does not typically allow students to live in off-campus housing. The Pet House, which allows students to bring their pets to campus, has been located in Monroe Hall in Presidents' Row. Not all types of pets are permitted, only permits students to bring cats, small dogs, small birds, hamsters, gerbils, guinea pigs, and fish. Further, students may only bring pets that they have owned for over one year and be over the age of one and one half, to avoid the problem of impulse purchases and abandonment of pets. The college began the pet house program in 2006, and is one of a dozen schools nationwide to have such a program. The Pet House has been profiled in The New York Times, the USA Today, Observer-Reporter, and KDKA. Several old Victorian houses, named Whitworth Hall and Wade Hall, are used as women's dorms and are slightly isolated from the other dormitories. Many students are also housed in the Greek houses on Chestnut Street, all of the Greek organizations on campus occupy houses owned by the college. The college's dining services has made efforts to use locally grown foods. There are three dining venues on campus, The Commons Café, G&T's Grill and X'Prez'O, which are managed by Bon Apetit Management Company. ### Clubs Students may organize new clubs by presenting a constitution and a list of members to the college administration and the student government for approval. This approval process does not authorize any club to act on behalf of the college, nor does approval indicate any the college's agreement with the club's purpose. The college recognizes over 70 student clubs on campus. A number of student clubs are dedicated to encouraging interest is a specific academic discipline, including the "W&J Denominators" mathematics club, the Society of Physics Students, and the Pre-Health Professions Society. Others are organized along ethnic and cultural lines, including the Black Student Union and the Asian Culture Association. Both major American political parties have chapters at the college, in the form of the "W&J College Democrats" and the Young Republicans. Some clubs take the form of non-varsity athletic teams, including the Men's Rugby Club, the Women's Rugby Club, the Equestrian Club, Men's Volleyball Club and the Ultimate Frisbee Club. Several clubs create volunteer opportunities though Big Brothers/Big Sisters and the United Way. Many religious faiths are represented, including the Hillel Society, Newman Club, and the Student Christian Association, as well as an Interfaith Leadership Club which organizes interfaith events. Many other clubs encourage interests in various academic and non-academic activities, including the Green Club (the college's environmental club), the Outdoors Club, and others which are mainly inactive like the Bottega Art Club, the Franklin Literary Society, and the Chess Club. ### Student media Student media offerings at Washington & Jefferson College include a college newspaper, a college radio station, a yearbook, and a student-edited literary journal. All students, regardless of academic major, are eligible to contribute to these media organizations. Founded in 1909, the Red & Black student newspaper has a weekly circulation of 1,250 copies. The student staff handles all aspects of the production, including writing, editing, graphic design, layout, and advertising sales. The Red & Black features local and national news, student opinion, and college athletics coverage. During the 1860s, students published a satirical newspaper called The Bogus Tract. The college radio station, WNJR broadcasts on the FM broadcast band. Assisted by a faculty advisor from the Department of Theater and Communication, the student-run studio broadcasts in a freeform format with both nationally syndicated programs and Pittsburgh-based independent programs. Student on-air personalities produce radio programs including music, news, talk, and sports. It serves the Pittsburgh Designated Market Area, reaching north to the northern Pittsburgh suburbs, east to Monessen, south to Waynesburg and west to the West Virginia Panhandle. The Wooden Tooth Review is a student-edited literary journal, featuring short fiction and poetry submitted by members of the student body. The editorial board is organized as a recognized student club, with a faculty advisor. The journal was founded in 1999, with V. Penelope Pelizzon, Coordinator of Creative Writing, serving as the first faculty advisor. The college's yearbook, Pandora, is produced annually by a student staff. ### Literary societies The history of literary societies at Washington & Jefferson College dates back to the 1797, when the Franklin Literary Society and the Philo Literary Society were founded at Canonsburg Academy. Two other literary societies were founded at Washington College, the Union Literary Society in 1809 and the Washington Literary Society in 1814. Typical early activities include the presentation of dialogues, translations of passages from Greek or Latin classics, and extemporaneous speaking. Later, the literary societies began to present declamations. Each society maintained independent libraries for the use of their members, each of which rivaled the holdings of their respective colleges. These four college literary societies had intense rivalries with each other, competing in "contests", which pitted select society members against another in "compositions, speaking select orations and debating", with the trustees selecting the victor. Because the two colleges never met each other in athletic contests, these literary competitions were the main outlet for their rivalry. In the years after the union of the two colleges, these four literary societies merged with the Franklin Literary Society, which survives today. ### Art scene Washington & Jefferson College is home to a vibrant student art and musical scene. The artistic center of campus is the Olin Fine Arts Center, with an art gallery and a 486-seat auditorium. On the academic side, the Department of Art offers majors in studio art and art education, as well as a concentration in graphic design. The Department of Music offers majors and minors in music. The Department of Theatre and Communications offers a major and minor in theatre. Current musical organizations include the W&J Wind Ensemble, the W&J Jazz Ensemble, the W&J Choir and the Camerata Singers. Former musical organizations include the Banjo, Mandolin & Guitar Club and the College Band. Every year since 2003, the Theatre and Communication Department has produced the Winter Tales series, an annual production of one-act plays written by members of the W&J community, students, alumni, faculty, administration, and staff, and produced by the W&J Student Theater Company. In addition to student-produced art and music, the college provides a number of opportunities to view art and music from the larger art community. The college holds a collection of paintings by distinguished regional artist Malcolm Parcell, which are displayed in several locations on campus. The most prominent location is the Malcolm Parcell Room in The Commons, which is part of the student dining area. The W&J Arts Series is an annual collection of musicians, singers, and other artistic performers appearing at the Olin Fine Arts Center. Past shows have included Di Wu, Habib Koité, Chris Potter, The Aquila Theatre Company presenting The Invisible Man, Eroica Trio, Oni Buchanan, Tommy Sands, Cavani String Quartet, Sergio and Odar Assad, and Sandip Burman. In 1999, billionaire W&J alum and well-known opera philanthropist Alberto Vilar sponsored the Vilar Distinguished Artist Series, which brought a number of world-class classical performers to perform at the Olin Fine Arts Center at no cost to students. During its run, the Vilar Distinguished Artist Series hosted, among others, Lorin Maazel conducting the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, conductor Valery Gergiev conducting the Kirov Orchestra, Camerata Salzburg with Murray Periaha, St. Petersburg Classic Ballet, Vienna State Opera Ballet, Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra, Susan Graham, Jennifer Larmore, Samuel Ramey, Barbara Bonney, Katia and Marielle Labèque, Angelika Kirchschlager, Simon Keenlyside, Gil Shaham, and Jessye Norman. In 2003, amid Vilar's falling fortunes during the stock market decreases in 2001 and 2002, the Vilar Distinguished Artist Series went on a temporary hiatus. Vilar's 2005 indictment for financial fraud ended any possibility of reviving the arts series. In Fall 2003, the W&J Arts Series, the college's other art series, was expanded to partially compensate for the loss. The Student Government Association organizes the annual Fall Concert and Spring Concert, which bring popular musical acts to campus. Past Spring and Fall concerts have included Cobra Starship, Girl Talk, N.E.R.D. New Found Glory, Saves the Day, and local favorite The Clarks. ### Greek life With 43% of women and 40% of men of the student body participating in Greek life, fraternities and sororities play a significant role in student life at W&J. The Princeton Review named Washington & Jefferson College 12th on their 2010 list of "Major Frat and Sorority Scene" in the United States. As of 2022, the Office of Fraternity & Sorority Life recognized 4 fraternities, Alpha Tau Omega, Beta Theta Pi, Delta Tau Delta, and Phi Kappa Psi, and four sororities, Delta Gamma, Kappa Alpha Theta, Kappa Kappa Gamma, and Pi Beta Phi. The fraternities are governed by a local Interfraternal Council and the sororities are governed by a local Panhellenic Council, while the Greek Judiciary manages broad policy violations at the chapter-level. All Greek organizations occupy College-owned houses on Chestnut Street on campus. All members of fraternities and sororities must pay the \$100 "Greek Membership Fee", a levy designed to fund leadership seminars and other educational events for Greeks. Two national fraternities were founded at Jefferson College, Phi Gamma Delta in 1848 and Phi Kappa Psi in 1852. Together, they are collectively known as the Jefferson Duo. A third fraternity was founded at Jefferson College, Kappa Phi Lambda, but it dissolved after a decade of existence amid a dispute between chapters. In 1874, a fourth fraternity was founded at W&J, the short-lived Phi Delta Kappa. The new fraternity grew to several chapters before falling apart in 1880. ## Athletics ### Intercollegiate W&J competes in 23 intercollegiate athletics at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III level. As of the 2009–10 academic year, the Presidents have won more than 108 Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) championships, 40 students were selected as conference Most Valuable Player, more than 300 athletes were awarded First Team All-Conference recognition, 75 received All-American honors, and 25 achieved Academic All-American status. During the 2005–2006 season, 34 percent of the student body played varsity-level athletics. The football team has been very successful, winning 18 out of the last 21 PAC Championships and advancing to the NCAA Division III playoffs 17 times. W&J played to a 0–0 tie in the 1922 Rose Bowl against the California Golden Bears and were named to a share of the national championship by the Boand System. The men's ice hockey team won the 2008 College Hockey Mid America Conference championship, a Division I regional league of the American Collegiate Hockey Association. W&J also fields teams in field hockey, wrestling, baseball, softball, and volleyball, as well as men's and women's cross country running, soccer, tennis, water polo, basketball, swimming and diving, golf, lacrosse, and track & field W&J's baseball team plays at the all-turf Ross Memorial Ballpark, a site selected to host the 2015 and 2016 NCAA D-III regional tournament. Under the leadership of Coach Jeff Mountain, the Presidents have produced three All-Americans: Shaun Pfeill (3B, 2007); Sam Mann (P/1B; 2007) and Eddie Nogay (Pitcher; 2013). Nogay of Weirton, WV is the school's all-time wins leader with a career record of 28–2. Josh Staniscia of Franklin Regional H.S. is the school's all-time hits leader, with 251 career hits from 2011 to 2014. Frank Quirin (2008–2010) is the all-time home run leader with 22 career dingers. ### Intramural The intramural sports program is one of the most consistently popular activities at Washington & Jefferson College, providing non-varsity and recreational athletic activities for all students, faculty, and staff of the college. Vicki Staton, a former varsity women's basketball and volleyball coach, manages the intramural program. In 2002, 60% of students participated in intramural sports. In 2006, more than 40% of the student body participated in intramural athletics. In 2007, the intramural activities included 3-on-3 basketball, billiards, bowling, flag football, kickball, tennis, ultimate frisbee, volleyball, wallyball, ping pong, and Texas hold 'em. Intramural champions win a T-shirt celebrating their victory. While the varsity athletics program was struggling during the 1930s, intramural participation topped 84% of the student population. During that time, the management of intramural activities was transferred to the athletic department, allowing the intramural program to use the college's varsity facilities. In the 1930s and 1940s, groups of students competed for the "Big Cup," a trophy given to the most outstanding team, as judged by a cross-sport point system. ## Traditions One of the oldest traditions at Washington & Jefferson College was the "Freshman Rules," a system of rules and restrictions on freshmen. Failure by freshmen to follow these rules would subject them to beatings by upperclassmen or other punishments doled out by the "Freshman Court." During the 1870s and 1880s, the students engaged in organized athletic competitions, pitting the freshman versus sophomore classes in the "Olympic Games" that involved elaborate opening ceremonies and the smoking of a "Pipe of Peace." Another form of physical contest between the freshman and sophomore classes were the annual "color rush," where the teams fought over control over strips of fabric, the "pole rush," where the teams battled to raise a flag up a flagpole, and the "cane rush" where the teams fought over control over a ceremonial cane. These contests generally devolved into outright gang violence. The college cheer, Whichi Coax, is so pervasive in college history and culture that in addition to being shouted during academic ceremonies and football games, it is also used as a salutation in correspondence between alumni. The college's fight song, "Good Ole W&J" is sung to the tune of "99 Bottles of Beer" and makes fun of a number of rival colleges, including the University of Pittsburgh, but was modified sometime before 1958 to laud Washington Female Seminary. For a large portion of the college's history, there was no official alma mater, but there were a number of other tradition hymns and songs. ### Symbols of the college The college's coat of arms features a two-part shield based on the coats of arms of the Jefferson and Washington families. The top portion, showing two towers, representing Washington College and Jefferson College, and three stars, representing the McMillan, Dod, and Smith log cabins. The lower portion, showing a saltire, is adapted from Jefferson's coat of arms and the colors, red and black, is taken from the Washington coat of arms. The coat of arms may appear with a banner underneath showing the college motto. The design was adopted in 1902 in celebration of Jefferson College's centennial. It was designed by Rev. Harry B. King, class of 1891. Upon its adoption, it was described as "a happy combination, and makes a very neat appearance when worn as a pin or button." The college seal displays two brick towers, with one labeled "1802," representing Jefferson College, and the other labeled "1806," representing Washington College. The union of the two colleges is represented by a bridge between the two towers, with Roman numerals reading 1865, the year of union. Banners hanging from the towers show the college motto of "Juncta Juvant." The creation of the seal is unknown, with the first known use occurring during the 1902 centennial celebration of Jefferson College's founding. The seal is used in official documents, including diplomas and certificates. The college's current logo features a stylized version of the two towers of Old Main, symbolizing the 1865 unification of Washington College and Jefferson College. The logo may be displayed in several versions: with the entire name of the college, the shortened form of "W&J", or without any text. Prior to the adoption of this logo, the college's graphic identity consisted of a variety of conflicting logos and type styles. ## Relations with the city of Washington Relations between the city of Washington, Pennsylvania and Washington & Jefferson College span over two centuries, dating to the founding of both the city and the college in the 1780s. The relationship between the town and college was strong enough that the citizens of Washington offered a \$50,000 donation in 1869 to the college in a successful attempt to lure the trustees to select Washington over nearby Canonsburg as the consolidated location of the college. The relationship encountered challenges the 20th century, with disagreements arising between the college and residential neighborhoods as the college pursued an expansion plan. Preservationists unsuccessfully attempted to pass laws prohibiting the college from demolishing certain buildings that were listed on the East Washington Historic District. Local preservationists also unsuccessfully tried to block the demolition of Hays Hall, which had been condemned. In the 1990s, the city of Washington made several unsuccessful attempts to challenge the college's tax-exempt status. In 1993, Washington appealed the Washington County Board of Assessment's determination that the college was exempt from the city's property tax. That case went to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the college. In response, the Pennsylvania General Assembly passed a new law clarifying that colleges were exempt from taxation, including from local property taxes. Separately, the city of Washington passed an ordinance that levied a municipal "service fee" against the college students, which was ruled to be illegal and was struck down. In the late 1990s, the college and town created the Blueprint for Collaboration, a plan with detailed goals and benchmarks for the future to help the college and the city work together on economic development, environmental protection, and historic preservation. ## Notable alumni As of 2009, Washington & Jefferson College had about 12,000 living alumni. Before the union of the two colleges, Washington College graduated 872 men and Jefferson College graduated 1,936 men. These alumni include James G. Blaine, who served in Congress as Speaker of the House, U.S. Senator from Maine, two-time United States Secretary of State and the Republican nominee for the 1884 presidential election. Other graduates have held high federal positions, including United States Secretary of the Treasury Benjamin Bristow and United States Attorney General Henry Stanbery, who successfully defended Andrew Johnson during his impeachment trial. As a U.S. Congressman, Clarence Long was a key figure in directing funds to Operation Cyclone, the CIA's effort to arm the mujahideen in the Soviet–Afghan War. James A. Beaver served as Governor of Pennsylvania and as acting president of the Pennsylvania State University; he is the namesake of Beaver Stadium.Blake Ragsdale Van Leer, was the fifth president of Georgia Tech and first president to allow women to enroll there. He also had a prominent military career. William Holmes McGuffey authored the McGuffey Readers'', which are among the most popular and influential books in history. Thaddeus Dod's student, Jacob Lindley, was the first president of Ohio University. Astronaut and test pilot Joseph A. Walker became the first person to enter space twice. Other graduates have gone on to success in professional athletics, including Buddy Jeannette, a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, and Pete Henry, a member of both the College and Pro Football Hall of Fame. Roger Goodell has served as the Commissioner of the NFL since 2006. Among graduates who entered the medical field, Jonathan Letterman is recognized as the "Father of Battlefield Medicine." William Passavant is recognized as a saint within the Lutheran Church. James McGready, who studied with Joseph Smith and John McMillan was a leading revivalist in the Second Great Awakening. Successful graduates in the business realm include Richard Clark, President and CEO of Merck, John S. Reed, the former chairman of Citigroup and the New York Stock Exchange.

The Gruffalo

Book by Julia Donaldson

The Gruffalo is a British children's picture book by author Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler. It tells the story of a mouse taking a walk in the woods and deceiving different predators, including the Gruffalo. The Gruffalo was first published in 1999 in the United Kingdom by Macmillan Children's Books. It is about 700 words long and is written in rhyming couplets featuring repetitive verse. It is an example of a trickster story and was inspired by a Chinese folk tale called "The Fox that Borrows the Terror of a Tiger". The Gruffalo has sold over 13.5 million copies and has won several prizes for children's literature including the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize. It has been adapted into plays and an Oscar-nominated animated film. The book has inspired a range of merchandise, a commemorative coin, a theme park ride in Chessington World of Adventures, and a series of woodland trails. In 2004, The Gruffalo was followed by a sequel—The Gruffalo's Child—also written by Donaldson and illustrated by Scheffler. ## Context ### Author and illustrator Julia Donaldson is an author of children's books, the most famous of which being The Gruffalo. Before writing The Gruffalo, Donaldson had a background in drama and performance. She studied drama at the University of Bristol and then busked in Europe and the United States. She began her career as a writer by writing children's songs for television programmes. In 1993, one of her songs that she sang and performed with her husband—"A Squash and Squeeze", about an elderly lady with a small house—was turned into a book, published by Methuen and illustrated by Axel Scheffler. Scheffler was born and grew up in Germany before moving to the UK to study art. He first worked with Donaldson on A Squash and Squeeze, published in 1993. ### Creating the book In an interview in the book The Way We Write (2006), Donaldson writes that although "It can take months or years for the germination of a book ... writing The Gruffalo probably took two weeks, with all the rewriting". She said that writing the second half of the book was difficult and almost forced her to stop altogether. Donaldson said that she had admired Scheffler's illustrations for A Squash and Squeeze, and when her publisher did not suggest he would also be illustrating The Gruffalo, she sent him the text of the book herself. Scheffler showed the text to Macmillan, who were his publisher at the time and subsequently published the book. ## Plot A mouse walks through a wood and encounters three predators—first a fox, then an owl, and finally a snake. Each of these animals invites the mouse into their home for a meal, the implication being that they intend to eat the mouse. The mouse declines each offer, telling the predators that it plans to dine with a "gruffalo". The mouse then describes the gruffalo's frightening features, such as "terrible tusks, terrible claws, and terrible teeth in his terrible jaws". The mouse tells each predator that they are the gruffalo's favourite food. Frightened that the gruffalo might eat them, each animal flees. Convinced the Gruffalo is fictional, the mouse says: Silly old fox/owl/snake, doesn't he know? There's no such thing as a Gruffalo! After getting rid of the last animal, the mouse is shocked to encounter a real Gruffalo, which has all the features the mouse thought that it was inventing. The Gruffalo threatens to eat the mouse. Instead, the mouse insists that they themselves are the scariest animal in the wood. Laughing, the Gruffalo agrees to follow the mouse. The two walk through the wood, encountering each of the three predators again. Each predator is terrified by the sight of the Gruffalo and escapes to their home, but the Gruffalo believes that they are actually scared of the mouse. Exploiting this, the mouse threatens to eat the Gruffalo in a “Gruffalo crumble”. The Gruffalo flees, leaving the mouse to eat a nut in peace. ## Themes ### Trickery The Gruffalo is an example of a trickster story—a genre which has examples in traditions including Chinese West African folklore, Native American stories, Russian fairy tales, and Bornean folk tales. In every example, the story features a trickster—a character who is neither good nor bad—fooling another character by making them think something beneficial to the trickster. In The Gruffalo, the mouse is the trickster. It lies, is assertive, does not make it clear to the audience what it is thinking, and uses humour to get away with its deception. Michael Burke writes that deception occurs when the mouse tells the Gruffalo that everyone is afraid of it, seemingly proves that assertion when the predators run away from it, and then says that its favourite food is "Gruffalo crumble". Burke writes that this trickery requires a theory of mind, with which the mouse in the story can understand the Gruffalo's "intentions, his beliefs, desires, emotions and knowledge". In an article on the language of power in picture books, Brittany A. Stone writes that the mouse uses deception to trick the predators; when they invite mouse for a meal it appears to be a simple invitation, but mouse notices their true intention and gains control of the situation. In an article for the Royal Society, Sergio Castellano and Paolo Cermelli write that The Gruffalo is about "the 'irrational' nature of fear" which makes people succumb to deception. From an evolutionary perspective, they say that The Gruffalo is about the methods of deception used by prey against their predators, such as when caterpillars inflate themselves to resemble a snake. Burke writes that the mouse in the story is a quick thinker and demonstrates a reaction to the fight-or-flight response when presented with danger. ### Humour In an article titled "Humour and the locus of control in 'The Gruffalo'", Betsie van der Westhuizen identifies the following types of humour used in The Gruffalo: "humour with regard to the narrative aspects, humour with regard to the poetic aspects, visual humour and humour and the performing arts". She writes that the most common use of humour in the story is incongruity, arising from the sense that "everything is not as it should be". Some examples include the mouse averting the predators and the unusual descriptions of food, such as "owl ice cream" and "scrambled snake". She writes that there are different experiences of humour among different ages of children who read The Gruffalo: three to five year olds will appreciate the elements of surprise and repetition in the story; six to eight year olds will enjoy the rhyme and rhythm of the text and the story's hyperbole. As for visual representations of humour, van der Westhuizen writes that an example occurs when the mouse scares away the snake, accompanied by fragmented images of the imaginary gruffalo's features, then immediately afterwards comes across the real Gruffalo. Mice often feature as the main character in stories for children, and one key characteristic of the animal in this context is humour. Both Ghassan Fadhil Radhi and van der Westhuizen write that children relate to the character of the mouse who triumphs in difficult situations, along with the humour that is a key element of many mouse stories. ### Chinese folk tale Donaldson has said that the story of The Gruffalo was inspired by a Chinese folk tale known as "The Fox that Borrows the Terror of a Tiger" (狐假虎威).The folk tale is about a hungry tiger who tries to catch a fox. The fox is clever and tells the tiger that God has made the fox king of all animals. Whilst accompanying the fox, the tiger notices that other animals run away in fear. Not realising that they are actually running away from the tiger, the tiger believes that fox is indeed a feared king. Donaldson was originally going to have the beast in her book be a tiger, but was unable to think of rhymes for "tiger" so instead invented a new word—"gruffalo". The Taiwanese translator of The Gruffalo recommended the book for publication in Taiwanese because he noticed the story bore resemblance to the traditional tale. Teachers have used this translated book to demonstrate a modern retelling of the Chinese folk tale. In an article on the traditional Chinese translation of The Gruffalo in Taiwan, Chen-Wei Yu writes that the "resourcefulness" of the mouse in Donaldson's story represents a Western association with "individual autonomy" and "self-achievement", whereas the fox in the original fable is to be looked down upon because it does not accept its correct place in society nor an individual's obligation to others. This latter interpretation of the story has led the phrase "The Fox that Borrows the Terror of a Tiger" to mean someone who makes use of another person's power for their own gain. ## Writing style The Gruffalo is a short children's story around 700 words long. It is intended to be read aloud as it is written for a target audience of children who do not know or are learning how to read. It is written in rhyming couplets in primarily dactylic tetrameter. This is a relatively uncommon metre, consisting of one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables, for instance: The rhythm of the text is broken at key points in the story. For example, when the mouse announces that he is going to meet the gruffalo "here, by the rocks", the pause on the word "here" lets the reader know the importance of the location and makes them more likely to remember it when the mouse and Gruffalo return there later in the story. The rhythm is broken again after the mouse fools the predators and sees the Gruffalo for the first time, saying "Oh, help! Oh, no! It's a gruffalo". To create a satisfying rhyming scheme for the story, Donaldson tried a few different names for the creature that would eventually become the Gruffalo. > So I had my plot, but I couldn't get any good couplet, like 'Silly old fox! You ought to know, you really should, / There aren't any tigers in this wood.' Something like that just didn't seem very strong. So then I thought if the mouse were going to meet some made-up creature, it would be much easier for me to write about it. I have just looked at my notes, and see that at first I thought the creature could be a 'snargle' or 'stroog' or 'tiglophant' (I must have been thinking at one stage of having it a cross between a tiger and an elephant). Then I finally thought of the lines, 'Silly old fox! Doesn't he know, / There's no such thing as a gruffalo?' I thought the word had to have three syllables, and end in 'o', and would sound fierce with 'gr' at the beginning, so gruffalo came. In Burke's view, the name is "fittingly crafted by the author". The use of the Gr sound at the start of the name evokes negativity, harshness and discomfort, owing to the fact that it is a common consonant cluster in words with that connotation (for example: growl, groan, grumble). The first syllable in the name—gruff—is shared with the other children's literary characters of the Three Billy Goats Gruff. The sound of the word "Gruffalo" is used to emphasise the first time the Gruffalo is seen in the story: the mouse begins saying the sentence "Silly old snake, doesn't he know, there's no such thing as a Gruffal ...", then the reader turns the page to see the picture of the Gruffalo and the mouse finishes it's sentence with an the exclamation "Oh!". Burke writes that this exclamation works particularly well when the text is read out loud. Van der Westhuizen writes that there is some "very subtle wordplay/manipulation of spelling" when the real Gruffalo is first introduced to make him "more specific, more substantial": from that point on in the text, "Gruffalo" is spelled with a capital 'G'; up until in the story, it was spelled with a lower case 'g'. There is typographic variation in the text, in that the Gruffalo's and predator's dialogue is written in italic font whereas the mouse's dialogue is not. The text contains a mixture of predictable rhymes (such as mouse-house and wood-good) and unpredictable rhymes (such as toowhoo-flew). It utilises alliteration from the very start (such as "deep, dark woods" in the opening line), which gives more emphasis to the descriptions and helps children remember them easier. The word "terrible" is repeated as an adjective to describe the Gruffalo's features (for example "terrible tusks", "terrible claws"), which Burke writes may remind readers of Where the Wild Things Are—another children's book to use the word. The Gruffalo mainly uses concrete nouns (such as "lake" and "wood") rather than abstract nouns. ## Illustrations ### The Gruffalo When writing the story, Donaldson did not have an exact vision of what the Gruffalo would look like. She said that she imagined he would be "more weird and less furry" than Scheffler's final illustrations. She read the story in schools prior to the book being published and invited the children to draw the Gruffalo, which resulted in creatures which she described as looking "more like aliens and less like cuddly animals". In early sketches for the book, the Gruffalo was depicted as being humanoid, troll-like, and wearing a T-shirt and trousers. The book's editor, Alison Green, said that they instead decided that the Gruffalo would look more like a woodland creature and predator, and Donaldson said the resulting illustration is "more natural looking". Scheffler's depiction of the creature relied on the physical descriptions within the text with along with features which aren't mentioned, such as a pair of bovine horns. He created a version of the character which is cuddly and furry but still scary. Donaldson describes the Gruffalo's appearance as a "mixture of scary but stupid". Burke writes that the image of the Gruffalo has become "iconic". When the Gruffalo first appears in the story, he takes up a large part of the visual space on the page with strong, contrasting colours. He appears menacing with his arms raised in an attack stance, claws extended, and a drooling tongue. The mouse in comparison looks threatened, but the humorous grin of the Gruffalo—who looks directly at the audience rather than the mouse—alongside the playfulness of the text implies that the creature is less scary than he appears. As the story progresses, the Gruffalo gradually appears less menacing and more frightened. Throughout the nine visual depictions of the Gruffalo in the book, he becomes, as Burke writes, more "buffoon-like". In the penultimate picture of the Gruffalo, he holds his hand to his neck area which makes him look uncomfortable. The final picture is of the Gruffalo is him running away. ### Setting The Gruffalo is set in a forest. Scheffler was inspired by the forests in Hamburg when drawing rough initial sketches for the book. The setting contains a footpath, stream, lake, mushrooms and other wildlife. He depicts the "deep dark wood" with deep green and brown tones and dark outlines. The darkness of the hues add to the feeling of suspense when reading the story. Burke writes that the trees and tree roots are "reminiscent of the Gruffalo itself, it is as if the forest has in part spawned the creature, and they serve in the story to foreshadow what is to come". Throughout the book, the setting doesn't change—the illustrations at the end of the book are a mirror image of the forest at the beginning. ## Publication history The Gruffalo was published by Macmillan in 1999—a year after its completion. An audiobook version, narrated by Imelda Staunton, was released in 2002 and a jigsaw book version was published in 2004. The "Gruffalo song" was released with the audiobook on a musical CD with other songs from Donaldson's books. Scheffler and Donaldson continued to work together in an author-illustrator partnership and as of 2022 have created over 20 best-selling books. In 2019, 20 years after the publication of The Gruffalo, over 13.5 million copies had been sold. It has been translated into more than 100 languages, including Cornish, multiple dialects of Scots and Latin. The sequel to the book by Donaldson and Scheffler—The Gruffalo's Child—was published in 2004. It tells the story of the Gruffalo's daughter discovering the mouse after hearing stories about it from her father. Allusions to the Gruffalo character appear in several other books by Donaldson and Scheffler. ## Adaptations ### Film The book has been adapted into a 30 minute animated film, which was broadcast on BBC One in the UK on 25 December 2009. This version features Robbie Coltrane in the title role, James Corden as the mouse, Helena Bonham Carter as the mother squirrel narrator, John Hurt as the Owl, Tom Wilkinson as the Fox and Rob Brydon as the Snake. The production was animated at Studio Soi in Germany and produced through Magic Light Pictures. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Film (Animated) in 2011. The film was nominated for a BAFTA in 2010. ### Theatre The Gruffalo has been adapted for the stage by Tall Stories theatre company, premiering in 2001. The production has toured the West End, Broadway, and Sydney Opera House. A review in The Scotsman says that the play "develops Donaldson's words with perfect understanding". A review in British Theatre praises the "dynamic movements in all the scenes", including fourth wall breaks, but writes that the musical numbers and scenery are not as inspiring. The Gruffalo has also been adapted for the stage by Dutch theatre company Meneer Monster. ## Legacy A range of official The Gruffalo merchandise includes clothing, accessories, games, and soft toys. A Gruffalo Woodland Trail was opened on 31 March 2012 at the Dean Heritage Centre in the Forest of Dean. The trail depicts scenes and characters from the book carved by chainsaw artists. Other Gruffalo-themed woodland walks and trails have been established in Great Britain, including those at Kilmardinny Loch in Bearsden, Mount Vernon Park in Glasgow, Ardkinglas in Argyll, Whinlatter Forest Park in Cumbria, and several locations managed by Forestry England. In 2017, Chessington World of Adventures opened The Gruffalo River Ride Adventure after securing a licensing deal with the studio Magic Light Pictures, which created The Gruffalo film. This ride replaced the park's Bubbleworks Ride. Another ride based on Donaldson's book, and Magic Light Picture's film, Room on the Broom was also opened. Sterling silver, gold, and UK 50p commemorative coins featuring "The Gruffalo" were issued in 2019 to mark the 20th anniversary of the book's publication. The coins were not introduced into general circulation, but were sold through the Royal Mint website. The 50p coins sold out within a day of being released. The same year, characters from the book featured on a series of UK postage stamps issued by the Royal Mail. ### Awards The Gruffalo won the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize and Blue Peter Book Award's Best Book to Read Aloud. In November 2009 the book was voted "best bedtime story" by listeners of BBC Radio 2. In a 2010 survey by UK charity Booktime, the book came first in a list of children's favourite books.

Licancabur

Stratovolcano on the border between Bolivia and Chile

Licancabur () is a stratovolcano on the border between Bolivia and Chile, south of the Sairecabur volcano and west of Juriques. Part of the Andean Central Volcanic Zone, it has a prominent, 5,916-metre (19,409 ft)-high cone. A 400-metre (1,300 ft) summit crater containing Licancabur Lake, a crater lake which is among the highest lakes in the world, caps the volcano. Three stages of lava flows emanate from the edifice. Licancabur formed atop of Pleistocene ignimbrites and has been active during the Holocene, after the ice ages. Although no historic eruptions of the volcano are known, lava flows extending into Laguna Verde have been dated to 13,240 ± 100 BP. The volcano has primarily erupted andesite, with small amounts of dacite and basaltic andesite. Its climate is cold, dry and very sunny, with high levels of ultraviolet radiation. Licancabur is not covered by glaciers. Cushion plants and shrubs form the vegetation lower on its slopes. Chinchillas were formerly hunted on the volcano. Licancabur is considered a holy mountain by the Atacameno people, which consider it a relative of Cerro Quimal mountain in northern Chile. Archeological sites have been found on its slopes and in the summit crater, which was possibly a prehistoric watchtower. ## Name "Licancabur" derives from the Kunza words used by the Atacameño people to refer to the volcano: lican ("people", or pueblo) and cábur ("mountain"); thus, "mountain of the people". It is also known as "Volcan de Atacama" and "Licancaur". The border between Bolivia and Chile, defined by the 1904 Treaty of Peace and Friendship, crosses the volcano. ## Geography and geology ### General setting Off the western coast of South America, the Nazca Plate subducts into the Peru-Chile Trench beneath the South American Plate. The Andean Volcanic Belt consists of three main volcanic zones: the Northern Volcanic Zone (from 2° N to 5° S), the Central Volcanic Zone (16° to 28° S) and the Southern Volcanic Zone (33° to 46° S). These volcanic zones are separated by gaps without volcanic activity, where the subducting plate is shallower. These shallower zones have been attributed to the high speed of the plate collision, the young age of the subducting oceanic lithosphere and the curvature of the subducting plate. The most plausible theory is that variations in buoyancy of a subducting plate creates a flat subduction zone. The Cocos, Juan Fernandez and Nazca Ridges are associated with such volcanic gaps where they collide with the oceanic trench. The subduction of spreading ridges can also diminish volcanism, as observed at the Chile Rise further south. The buoyancy of these crustal structures may hinder subduction, reducing water supply to the mantle and inducing the formation of melts. Not all volcanism in Chile is relative to subduction of the Nazca Plate; the Chile Ridge exhibits submarine volcanism, and volcanism in the Austral Volcanic Zone is triggered by the Antarctic Plate subducting beneath the South American Plate. As of 2016, one hundred ninety-eight South American volcanoes were on the Global Volcanism Program's list of volcanoes with Holocene activity. ### Local setting Licancabur is part of the Central Volcanic Zone and is situated at the western edge of the Altiplano. Among the active volcanoes of the region are Putana (erupted at the end of the 19th century), Llullaillaco (1868) and Lascar (1993). Other stratovolcanoes are Tacora, Nevados de Payachata, Isluga, Tata Sabaya, Ollague, Tocorpuri, Sairecabur and Socompa. The Central Volcanic Zone has more than 1,100 volcanic centres—many older than the Pleistocene, since the area's prevailing arid climate prevented substantial erosion. During the Miocene, the area around Licancabur was the site of major ignimbrite-forming eruptions. Llano de Chajnantor (southeast of Licancabur) is the site of several observatories, including the Llano de Chajnantor Observatory. Licancabur is a 5,916-metre (19,409 ft)-high symmetrical cone. The cone rises 1,500 metres (4,900 ft) above the surrounding terrain, covering a base diameter of 9 cubic kilometres (2.2 cu mi). The volcano has a total volume of 35 cubic kilometres (8.4 cu mi), with mean slopes of the cone being about 30°. The volcano has erupted blocky lava flows, with thicknesses ranging from 50 to 10 metres (164 to 33 ft); younger lava flows are thinner. Young lava flows on the western sides of the volcano are 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) long; older flows extend 15 kilometres (9.3 mi). Some old lava flows reach Laguna Verde, and 12-kilometre (7.5 mi)-long pyroclastic flow deposits have been found. There are no glacial cirques on the volcano. The volcano's eastern and western flanks have distinct appearances, since it formed on a basement which dips towards the Salar de Atacama. West of Licancabur are deposits stemming from debris avalanche activity, including blocks 10 metres (33 ft) wide. #### Crater and lake The top of the mountain features a 400-metre (1,300 ft)-wide crater which contains an elliptical lake. The lake is 90 metres (300 ft) below the crater rim, it has a length of 85 metres (280 ft) and a depth of 1.5–3.0 metres (5–10 ft). Fed by snowfall, it is one of the highest lakes in the world. Based on its relative lack of salt deposits, in 1955 researchers postulated that the lake spilled through a 9.1-metre (30 ft) notch in the crater's southwestern rim when the climate was wetter. Excess water now leaves through seepage, keeping salt levels low. There are other lakes (usually frozen) at similar altitudes in the Andes. #### Neighbouring volcanoes Licancabur is just south of Sairecabur, a group of volcanoes which rises to 5,800 metres (19,000 ft) and is an apparent source of recent volcanic activity. East of Licancabur is its companion volcano, Juriques. It is 5,710-metre (18,730 ft) high and has a large—1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi)—deep crater. West–east alignments of volcanoes like Licancabur and Juriques are common in the region, due to tectonic influences. Araral, Cerro Cabana, Cerro Canapa, Cerros de Tocorpuri, Cerro Linzor, Inacaliri, Inca, Jardin, Putana, Volcan Tatio and Zapaleri are other volcanoes in the neighbourhood of Licancabur. One hundred and ninety kilometres (120 miles) southeast, volcanoes continue with Tocol, the Purico Complex and the 6,723-metre (22,057 ft)-high Llullaillaco. Volcanoes in the Puna de Atacama formed during the Pliocene on Tertiary dacitic, liparitic and rhyolitic ignimbrites. These rocks have a light colour, due to the rhyolite. Licancabur grew over the 1.35-million-year-old Purico, the La Pacana and 1.09±0.56-million-year-old Chaxas ignimbrites. ### Composition Licancabur has erupted primarily andesite, but basaltic andesite and dacite have also been found. The rocks are dark and grey-coloured. Basaltic andesite is present in the older lavas, and dacite in the more-recent ones. Although the rocks have a seriate texture, the groundmass is hyalopilitic. Phenocrysts include amphibole, clinopyroxene, hornblende, orthopyroxene, plagioclase and titanomagnetite; olivine is found in andesite, and biotite in dacites. Plagioclase is the most common. The amount of phenocrysts in Licancabur's rocks is smaller than that in other Central Volcanic Zone volcanoes, such as Lascar. Clots of crystals with diameters of 2–3 millimetres (0.079–0.118 in) or larger have also been found. They contain glass, microliths and phenocrysts, and have a composition similar to phenocrysts. The clots probably formed from the aggregation of phenocrysts and their subsequent growth; some phenocrysts in the rocks formed when the clots broke apart. The temperature of Licancabur's pre-eruption magma determined the composition of the rocks; it ranges from 930 ± 20 °C (1,706 ± 36 °F) for dacite to 860 to 1,060 ± 20 °C (1,580 to 1,940 ± 36 °F) for andesite. Isotope ratios are typical of Central Volcanic Zone volcanoes. There are differences in the elemental composition of andesites and dacites, with the latter resembling adakites more than the former. Antisana (in the Northern Volcanic Zone) and El Negrillar (in the Central Volcanic Zone) are two other volcanoes which have erupted adakites or adakite-like lavas. Based on its composition, it is assumed that the magma at Licancabur formed from the partial melting of the oceanic crust subducted at the Peru-Chile Trench after metamorphosis. This magma melted part of the mantle wedge above the subducting plate, mixing with the melt products. Further contamination by crustal Tonalite-Trondhjemite-Granodiorite-like rocks from the Archean, crystal fractionation and magma mixing further up in the crust then yielded the Licancabur magmas. The younger lavas may have formed from the mixing of dacite with the magmas forming the older lavas. Some inclusions in Licancabur rocks seem to have originated as wall rocks of the magma chamber. Xenoliths containing gabbro are also found. Unlike neighbouring volcanoes, such as Saciel at Sairecabur (further north) and Tocol (further south), there appear to be no sulfur deposits on Licancabur. ## Climate and ecosystem The region's climate has been dry since the Tertiary. The area around Licancabur is dominated by year-round high pressure caused by the South Pacific High, giving it a very sunny climate. Because of the lack of moisture, the energy from solar radiation is dissipated primarily by wind. In the Llano de Chajnantor area, wind generally reaches its maximum strength during the day. Its prevailing direction is from the west, except in summer when winds are more variable. Because of the area's tropical location (where the ozone layer is thinner) and high altitude, it receives a large amount of ultraviolet (UV) radiation. The world's highest level of UV radiation (UV index of 43.3\>) was reported from Licancabur, although the high irradiation might have caused measurement artifacts. Air temperatures obtained at the lake in Licancabur's crater range from 5 to −40 °C (41 to −40 °F). According to observers in 1955, temperatures at the Licancabur summit were always below freezing, sometimes falling below −18 °C (0 °F). At Llano de Chajnantor, southeast of Licancabur, weather records indicate that maximum temperatures range from −15 to 15 °C (5 to 59 °F). Average precipitation on Licancabur is estimated at 360 millimetres (14 in) per year, but snowfall probably exceeded 4,300 millimetres (14 ft) in 1955. Snow has been recorded at Llano de Chajnantor when in summer easterly winds transport moisture from the Amazon to the area. Licancabur has no persistent snowpack; snow deposited by storms usually disappears within a few days. In sheltered areas, however, it can persist for months, and a 1985 map shows a persistent snow/ice cover at the summit. The elevation of the snow line at Licancabur is estimated to be 6,190 metres (20,310 ft). Licancabur is part of the Eduardo Avaroa Andean Fauna National Reserve. Vegetation at lower altitudes is typical of a high tropical desert climate. Three biozones have been described in the region: an Andean zone from 3,850 to 4,200 metres (12,630 to 13,780 ft), with cushion plants and tussock grass; a Puna zone from 3,100 to 3,800 metres (10,200 to 12,500 ft), and a pre-Puna zone from 2,700 to 3,100 metres (8,900 to 10,200 ft) with thorny shrubs. In oases and river valleys of the depression between the pre-Cordillera and the Andes, shrubs such as Atriplex grow; however, the surrounding Atacama Desert is mostly devoid of plant life. At higher altitudes, meltwater from snow supports more life on Licancabur than on similar mountains. Chinchillas (in 1955), grasses, tola bushes, butterflies, flies and lizards are found at elevations reaching 4,900 metres (16,000 ft) above sea level. Life further down the mountain could be supported by the fertilizing effect of dust from volcanic rocks. Polylepis incana might have been more prevalent at Licancabur during wetter times, and is now more common in Bolivia. The upper parts of the mountain had been avoided by hunters, and after some attempts at high elevations during the 1920s chinchilla hunting disappeared from the area. ## Eruptive history Licancabur formed as three units, all of which feature lava flows; the last one also includes pyroclastic deposits. The bulk of the cone was formed by the second unit. The emplacement of the second unit was preceded by the injection of basic magma into the magma chamber. The oldest flows crop out on the western and northern sides of the volcano and are partially covered by more-recent flows from Licancabur and flows from Sairecabur. The neighbouring Juriques dates to the Pleistocene. Flows from both volcanoes appear to be pre-glacial. The older lavas have compositions similar to shoshonite and to old Sairecabur lavas, and tend to be more basic than recent lavas. Weak explosive activity left pyroclastic deposits on the volcano. Licancabur formed primarily after the late glacial period, between 12,000 and 10,000 years ago. Flank lava flows are its youngest feature: They were not affected by glaciation, and some have levees and ridges. Lava flows reaching Laguna Verde have been radiocarbon dated to 13,240 ± 100 BP, and 13,270 ± 100 years old lacustrine sediments have been buried by flows. The volcano has not erupted during recorded history, and the state of Inca ruins indicates that eruptions during the last millennium are improbable, Bubbling and water temperatures of 14 °C (57 °F) have been observed in the crater lake of Licancabur, which may remain liquid due to geothermal heating. Renewed activity would most likely consist of the emission of lava and pyroclastic flows either from the crater or the flanks. ## Human settlement Despite being lower than many neighbouring mountains, Licancabur stands out from other volcanoes in the region and is well-known. The Atacameno people worshiped it, and other high mountains are still considered sacred. Licancabur was considered divine, and attempts to climb it were discouraged and sometimes met by force; climbing it supposedly brought misfortune. It is said that Licancabur would punish people who climbed it, and the was considered divine retribution for an attempt to climb the mountain that year. The volcano is the mate of Quimal in the Cordillera Domeyko; at the solstices, the mountains overshadow one another. According to local myth, this copulation fertilizes the earth. Another legend mentions that a legless Inka king lived on Licancabur's summit; he was carried around in a litter and sometimes the carriers died from exhaustion and were buried with treasures. There is a story about Inkas hiding gold and silver in the crater lake; the wares disappeared and supposedly turned the lake bitter and emerald-green. Licancabur is considered "male" and a mountain of fire, in contrast to San Pedro (considered a mountain of water). According to legend, a golden object (most commonly a guanaco) was offered as tribute in the summit crater; human sacrifices have been reported on the volcano. Between 1,500 and 1,000 years ago, people were buried in San Pedro de Atacama in a posture facing the volcano and the Pukará de Quitor fortress in Chile is also oriented towards the mountain. In 1953, climbers found three buildings on one side on Licancabur. They were built in the pirca style, where stones are fitted together without mortar. A woodpile was found between two of the buildings, which were described as two dwellings and a fireplace. There is a ceremonial platform on the top of Licancabur. Wood was also scattered around its crater. With the summit's panoramic view, which includes Calama and pass routes from Argentina, Licancabur may have been a watchtower for the Atacamenos. Its watchtower function may have been coordinated with fortresses in the area such as Lasana, Turi and a settlement identified in 1955 at Quebrada de Chaxas (northwest of the volcano). The settlement at Licancabur had a central courtyard, surrounded by buildings, and ceramics found there resemble these of Pukará de Quitor and Toconao Oriente. A tambo reportedly existed at the volcano, and its construction is indicative of the influence the Inca state had over the region. Other archeological findings on Andean mountains were made on Acamarachi and Pular (where ceremonial platforms were found), Cerro Colorado, Juriques, Llullaillaco, Miniques and Quimal. Sites had pirca structures and firewood, and some may have been part of a signaling system. Many were in use during the Inca civilization, and on Quimal artifacts correlative to the Spanish period have been found. Aconcagua, Coropuna, Chachani, El Plomo, El Toro, Llullaillaco, Mercedario and Picchu Picchu are other mountains with Inca sanctuaries. The area around Licancabur was first settled by the Atacameno people, presumably because of the water in local canyons. The Incas, under Yawar Waqaq, were followed by the Spanish during the early 16th century in the region; both were looking for yareta and chinchillas. ## Climbing Unlike neighbouring mountains, Licancabur is difficult to climb; its upper part slopes steeply, and the ground is loose and prone to landslides. Some of the instability may be due to earthquakes, snow, wind or geothermal effects (resulting in thermal stress), and it frustrated an attempt of an engineer at Chuquicamata to climb the mountain in the 1920s. Ascent from the Bolivian side takes six hours plus half that time for the descent and requires caution during winter, although the mountain can be climbed during any month. Rumours about a "staircase", later probably obliterated by landslides and rockfalls, were reported in 1955. In 1953, a road climbed to 4,300 metres (14,000 ft). The first recorded ascent of the volcano was in 1884 by Severo Titicocha, who was accompanied by Juan Santelices (a delegate of the Chilean government) in an 1886 ascent. Landmines have been reported from the Chilean side. ## See also - List of volcanoes in Bolivia - List of volcanoes in Chile - List of Andean peaks with known pre-Columbian ascents ## General sources - NASA Licancabur Expedition: Exploring the Highest Lakes on Earth

HMS Rodney (29)

Nelson-class battleship

HMS Rodney was one of two Nelson-class battleships built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1920s. The ship entered service in 1928, and spent her peacetime career with the Atlantic and Home Fleets, sometimes serving as a flagship when her sister ship, Nelson, was being refitted. During the early stages of the Second World War, she searched for German commerce raiders, participated in the Norwegian Campaign, and escorted convoys in the Atlantic Ocean. Rodney played a major role in the sinking of the German battleship Bismarck in mid-1941. After a brief refit in the United States, she escorted convoys to Malta and supported the Allied invasion of French Algeria during Operation Torch in late 1942. The ship covered the invasions of Sicily (Operation Husky) and Italy (Operation Baytown) in mid-1943. During the Normandy landings in June 1944, Rodney provided naval gunfire support and continued to do so for several following offensives near the French city of Caen. The ship escorted one convoy through the Arctic to the Soviet Union in late 1944. In poor condition from extremely heavy use and a lack of refits, she was reduced to reserve in late 1945 and was scrapped in 1948. ## Background and description The Nelson-class battleship was essentially a smaller, 23-knot (43 km/h; 26 mph) battleship version of the G3 battlecruiser which had been cancelled for exceeding the constraints of the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty. The design, which had been approved six months after the treaty was signed, had a main armament of 16-inch (406 mm) guns to match the firepower of the American Colorado and Japanese Nagato classes in the battleline in a ship displacing no more than 35,000 long tons (36,000 t). Rodney had a length between perpendiculars of 660 feet (201.2 m) and an overall length of 710 feet 3 inches (216.5 m), a beam of 106 feet (32.3 m), and a draught of 30 feet 2 inches (9.2 m) at standard load. She displaced 33,730 long tons (34,270 t) at standard load and 37,430 long tons (38,030 t) at deep load. Her crew numbered 1,361 officers and ratings when serving as a flagship and 1,314 as a private ship. The ship was powered by two sets of Brown-Curtis geared steam turbines, each driving one shaft, using steam from eight Admiralty 3-drum boilers. The turbines were rated at 45,000 shaft horsepower (34,000 kW) and intended to give the ship a maximum speed of 23 knots. During her sea trials on 7 September 1927, Rodney reached a top speed of 23.8 knots (44.1 km/h; 27.4 mph) from 45,614 shp (34,014 kW). The ship carried enough fuel oil to give her a range of 7,000 nautical miles (13,000 km; 8,100 mi) at a cruising speed of 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph). ### Armament and fire control The main battery of the Nelson-class ships consisted of nine breech-loading (BL) 16-inch (406 mm) guns in three triple-gun turrets forward of the superstructure. Designated 'A', 'B' and 'X' from front to rear, 'B' turret superfired over the others. Their secondary armament consisted of a dozen BL 6-inch (152 mm) Mk XXII guns in twin-gun turrets aft of the superstructure, three turrets on each broadside. Their anti-aircraft (AA) armament consisted of six quick-firing (QF) 4.7-inch (120 mm) Mk VIII guns in unshielded single mounts and eight QF 2-pounder (40-millimetre (1.6 in)) guns in single mounts. The ships were fitted with two submerged 24.5-inch (622 mm) torpedo tubes, one on each broadside, angled 10° off the centreline. The Nelsons were built with two fire-control directors fitted with 15-foot (4.6 m) rangefinders. One was mounted above the bridge and the other was at the aft end of the superstructure. Each turret was also fitted with a 41-foot (12.5 m) rangefinder. The secondary armament was controlled by four directors equipped with 12-foot (3.7 m) rangefinders. One pair were mounted on each side of the main director on the bridge roof and the others were abreast the aft main director. The anti-aircraft directors were situated on a tower abaft the main-armament director with a 12-foot high-angle rangefinder in the middle of the tower. A pair of torpedo-control directors with 15-foot rangefinders were positioned abreast the funnel. ### Protection The ships' waterline belt consisted of Krupp cemented armour (KC) that was 14 inches (356 mm) thick between the main gun barbettes and thinned to 13 inches (330 mm) over the engine and boiler rooms as well as the six-inch magazines, but did not reach either the bow or the stern. To improve its ability to deflect plunging fire, its upper edge was inclined 18° outward. The ends of the armoured citadel were closed off by transverse bulkheads of non-cemented armour 8 and 12 inches (203 and 305 mm) thick at the forward end and 4 and 10 inches (102 and 254 mm) thick at the aft end. The faces of the main-gun turrets were protected by 16-inch of KC armour while the turret sides were 9 to 11 inches (229 to 279 mm) thick and the roof armour plates measured 7.25 inches (184 mm) in thickness. The KC armour of the barbettes ranged in thickness from 12 to 15 inches (305 to 381 mm). The top of the armoured citadel of the Nelson-class ships was protected by an armoured deck that rested on the top of the belt armour. Its non-cemented armour plates ranged in thickness from 6.25 inches (159 mm) over the main-gun magazines to 3.75 inches (95 mm) over the propulsion machinery spaces and the secondary magazines. Aft of the citadel was an armoured deck 4.25 inches (108 mm) thick at the level of the lower edge of the belt armour that extended almost to the end of the stern to cover the steering gear. The conning tower's KC armour was 12 to 14 inches (305 to 356 mm) thick with a 6.5-inch (170 mm) roof. The secondary-gun turrets were protected by 1–1.5 inches (25–38 mm) of non-cemented armour. Underwater protection for the Nelsons was provided by a double bottom 5 feet (1.5 m) deep and a torpedo protection system. It consisted of an empty outer watertight compartment and an inner water-filled compartment. They had a total depth of 12 feet (3.7 m) and were backed by a torpedo bulkhead 1.5 inches thick. ### Design deficiencies The Nelson class was an innovative design, but limited by the constraints of the Washington Naval Treaty. The decision to use 16-inch guns combined with the 35,000-ton displacement limit made saving weight the primary concern of designers. The Director of Naval Construction, Eustace Tennyson d'Eyncourt, informed the ship's designer, Edward Attwood, "In order to keep the displacement to 35,000 tons, everything is to be cut down to a minimum." The emphasis on saving weight resulted in deficiencies which affected the performance of Rodney during the Second World War. The design compromises had less negative consequences for Nelson because that ship underwent a number of refits immediately before and during the war. Naval architect and historian David K. Brown stated, "It seems likely that in the quest for weight saving, the structure was not quite strong enough." Unlike Nelson, which exceeded the design specification for machinery weight, the lighter machinery of Rodney resulted in chronic problems. The ship's endurance declined substantially in the decade after her launch; in her 1941 action against Bismarck, Rodney was nearly forced to abandon the pursuit because of a lack of fuel. British designers cited the poor endurance of the ship when establishing the endurance requirements for the battleship Vanguard. Throughout the war Rodney was plagued with leaks as a result of panting, and the ship required repairs because of serious leaks in 1940, 1941 and 1944. During one storm, the leaking was severe enough to overwhelm a 50-ton pump. Leaks, defective riveting, and other problems continued to affect Rodney even after a 1941 refit in Boston, Massachusetts. By 1943 officials concluded that she required a complete modernization to extend her service life. The ship never received the necessary upgrades and as a result was unfit for service by the end of 1944. ### Modifications The high-angle directors and rangefinder and their platform were replaced by a new circular platform for the High Angle Control System (HACS) Mk I director by March 1930. By July 1932, the single two-pounder guns and the starboard torpedo director were removed and replaced by a single octuple two-pounder "pom-pom" mount on the starboard side of the funnel and a 9-foot (2.7 m) rangefinder was added at the rear of the bridge roof. The port side mount was installed several years later in the position occupied by the port torpedo director and anti-aircraft directors for both mounts were added to the bridge structure. In 1934–1935, Rodney was fitted with a pair of quadruple mounts for Vickers 0.5 in (12.7 mm) AA machineguns that were positioned on the forward superstructure. The ship was fitted with an aircraft catapult on the roof of 'X' turret and a collapsible crane abreast the bridge was also added in 1937 to hoist the aircraft in and out of the water. A floatplane version of the Fairey Swordfish torpedo bomber was first used aboard, but it was soon replaced by a Supermarine Walrus amphibian. In October 1938 another octuple "pom-pom" mount was added on the quarterdeck and a prototype Type 79Y early-warning radar system was installed on Rodney's masthead. She was the first battleship to be so equipped. During a brief refit in HM Dockyard, Rosyth, Scotland, from 24 August to 10 September 1940, the Type 79Y radar was upgraded to a Type 279 system and two 20-millimetre (0.8 in) Oerlikon light AA guns were installed on the roof of 'B' turret. While Rodney was refitting in the Boston Navy Yard in the United States in June–August 1941, the Oerlikons were replaced by a quadruple two-pounder mount and a pair of octuple two-pounder mounts were fitted in lieu of the aft six-inch gunnery directors. In addition a full suite of radars were added. A Type 281 radar replaced the Type 279, a Type 271 surface-search radar was installed as was a Type 284 gunnery radar on the roof of the forward main-gun director. The ship's light AA armament was heavily reinforced during a refit in February–May 1942 with seventeen 20 mm Oerlikons in single mounts added to turret roofs, the superstructure and the decks. The quadruple 0.5-inch mounts were replaced with Mk III "pom-pom" directors and three additional Mk IIIs were installed to control the aft octuple two-pounder mounts, all of which were fitted with Type 282 fire-control radars. The HACS Mk I was replaced by a Mk III director and four barrage (anti-aircraft) directors with Type 283 radars were added for the main guns. In addition her radar suite was upgraded: the Type 271 radar was replaced by a Type 273 system, a Type 291 early-warning radar was added and a Type 285 fire-control radar was installed on the roof of the HACS director. While under repair at Rosyth in August–September, four additional Oerlikons were added on the quarterdeck. In May 1943 gun shields were added to the 4.7-inch guns and the catapult on the roof of 'X' turret was removed. Many more Oerlikons were installed during this brief refit, specifically 36 more single mounts and 5 twin mounts, which gave Rodney a total of 67 weapons in 57 single and 5 twin mounts. In preparation for her role providing naval gunfire support during the Normandy landings, two more Oerlikons were added as was a Type 650 radio jammer in January–March 1944. These additions increased the ship's deep displacement to 43,100 long tons (43,800 t) and her crew to 1,631–1,650 men. ## Construction and career Rodney, named for Admiral Lord George Rodney, was the sixth ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy. Given the yard number 904, she was laid down on 28 December 1922 as part of the 1922 Naval Programme at Cammell Laird's shipyard in Birkenhead and was launched on 17 December 1925 by Princess Mary, Viscountess Lascelles, after three attempts at cracking the bottle of Imperial Burgundy. She was completed and her trials began in August 1927 and she was commissioned on 7 December under the command of Captain Henry Kitson. The ship cost £7,617,799. The Nelson-class ships received several nicknames: Rodnol and Nelsol after the Royal Fleet Auxiliary oil tankers with a prominent amidships superstructure and names ending in "ol", The Queen's Mansions after a resemblance between her superstructure and the Queen Anne's Mansions block of flats, the pair of boot, the ugly sisters and the Cherry Tree class as they were cut-down by the Washington Naval Treaty. Rodney's trials resumed after she was formally commissioned and continued until she entered service on 28 March 1928. The ship was assigned to the 2nd Battle Squadron of the Atlantic Fleet (renamed as Home Fleet in March 1932) and remained so, aside from refits or repairs, until 1941. On 21 April, Kitson was relieved by Captain Francis Tottenham. The following month she headed north to Invergordon, Scotland, to join the rest of the Atlantic Fleet in the annual exercises. Rodney returned to the south in August, where she was the Royal Guardship during Cowes Week where the ship hosted King George V and Queen Mary of Teck on 11 August. The battleship then sailed to HM Dockyard, Devonport, to participate in a charity fund-raising Navy Week which saw 67,000 visitors come to the dockyard. Rodney had some work done on her hull in Glasgow's Gladstone Dock in early October. At the beginning of 1929, the Atlantic and Mediterranean Fleets combined for their annual fleet manoeuvres in the Mediterranean Sea. While visiting Torquay, Devon, for a fleet rendezvous in July, Rodney was ordered to go to the assistance of two submarines that had collided off Milford Haven, Wales, on 9 July. Ordered to steam at full speed, the ship arrived at Pembroke Dock the following morning to load rescue and salvage equipment. Delayed for a day by weather too bad for diving, she arrived at the site the following evening but it was too late for any survivors of H47 and Rodney set sail for HM Dockyard, Portsmouth. The ship's propulsion machinery was proving troublesome by this time and she was docked there in late September for a refit that took the rest of the year. Captain Andrew Cunningham, later First Sea Lord, relieved Tottenham on 15 December. Aside from the usual schedule of exercises, 1930 saw Rodney visit Portrush, Northern Ireland in June, which named a street after the battleship and a voyage to Iceland to commemorate the thousandth year of the Icelandic Parliament. Cunningham was relieved by Captain Roger Bellairs on 16 December. In mid-September 1931, the crew of Rodney took part in the Invergordon Mutiny when they refused orders to go to sea for an exercise, although they relented after several days when the Admiralty reduced the severity of the pay cuts that prompted the mutiny. Unhappy with how Bellairs had handled the crew during the mutiny, the Admiralty ordered that he was to be relieved by Captain John Tovey on 12 April 1932. After Nelson ran aground while leaving Portsmouth in January 1934, Rodney became the temporary fleet flagship when Admiral Lord William Boyle, commander of the Home Fleet, hoisted his flag aboard her for the winter cruise to the British West Indies. The fleet visited two Norwegian ports before returning home. Captain Wilfred Custance relieved Tovey on 31 August. The 1935 winter cruise saw the ship return to the West Indies, before visiting the Azores and then Gibraltar between 15 January and 17 March. The ship participated in King George V's Silver Jubilee Fleet Review at Spithead on 16 July and then again served as the Royal Guardship during Cowes Week. Captain William Whitworth replaced Custance on 21 February 1936 and he was relieved in his turn by Captain Ronald Halifax on 25 July. Some of Rodney's crew travelled to London to participate in King George VI's Coronation on 12 May 1937 and the ship took part in the Fleet Review at Spithead on 20 May. She again became the temporary fleet flagship when Nelson began a lengthy refit the following month and Admiral Sir Roger Backhouse hoisted his flag aboard her. Rodney visited Oslo, Norway, in July. Nelson's refit ended in February 1938 and the sisters made a port visit to Lisbon, Portugal that same month. Captain Edward Syfret relieved Whitworth on 16 August, shortly before Rodney began her annual short refit in September. After the completion of her post-refit trials in January 1939, Rear-Admiral Lancelot Holland hoisted his flag aboard the ship as the commander of the 2nd Battle Squadron. She fired a 21-gun salute in honour of the French President Albert Lebrun's arrival in Dover in March for talks with the British government. As the Home Fleet was assembling in Scapa Flow when tensions with Germany rose in August, Rodney developed steering problems and had to proceed to Rosyth for repairs and a bottom cleaning. ### Second World War #### 1939 When Great Britain declared war on Nazi Germany on 3 September 1939, Rodney and the bulk of the Home Fleet were patrolling the waters between Iceland, Norway and Scotland for German blockade runners and then did much the same off the Norwegian coast from 6 to 10 September. The Home Fleet was already at sea when the submarine Spearfish, on patrol in the Heligoland Bight, was badly damaged by German depth charges on 24 September. Unable to submerge, she requested assistance and the fleet responded with two destroyers escorting her home and the balance of the fleet providing cover. The Germans spotted the bulk of the Home Fleet and it was attacked by five bombers from the first group of Bomber Wing 30 (I./KG 30). Rodney's radar provided timely warning and the aircraft inflicted no damage on the British ships. The following month the ship was part of the covering force for an iron ore convoy from Narvik, Norway. Syfret was relieved by Captain Frederick Dalrymple-Hamilton on 21 November. Following the sinking of the armed merchant cruiser Rawalpindi two days later by the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau off Iceland, Rodney and the rest of the Home Fleet were sent to look for them but heavy weather allowed the German battleships to evade their pursuers and return to Germany. The battleship developed serious problems with her rudder on 29 November and was forced to return to Liverpool, steering only with her engines, for repairs that lasted until 31 December. #### 1940 With Nelson damaged by a mine on 4 December, Rodney served as the temporary fleet flagship until her sister's return in August. She mostly spent January and February 1940 at anchor with occasional missions to provide cover from commerce raiders for convoys. During one such sortie on 21 February in heavy weather, her steering problems resurfaced and forced her return to Greenock, Scotland. Six days later, the ship was visited by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth during their morale-boosting tour of Scottish shipyards. The Prime Minister Winston Churchill boarded Rodney for a voyage to Scapa Flow on 7 to 8 March. Despite the danger of aerial attack by the Luftwaffe, most of the Home Fleet was now based there; Rodney was near-missed during an attack on 16 March. Receiving word that the Royal Air Force (RAF) had attacked north-bound German warships in the North Sea on 7 April, Admiral Sir Charles Forbes, Commander-in-chief Home Fleet, ordered most of his ships to put to sea that evening. Rodney was hit by a 500-kilogram (1,102 lb) bomb on 9 April off the south-western coast of Norway. The bomb broke up after hitting the corner of a armoured 4.7-inch ready ammunition box on the upper deck aft of the funnel; its fragments penetrated through several decks before bouncing off the four-inch armoured deck and started a small fire in the galley. Three men were wounded by the bomb and another fifteen suffered electrical burns when water being used to fight the fire poured onto a junction box. The crew made temporary repairs and the ship remained at sea until she dropped anchor at Scapa Flow on 17 April. Upon receiving notice that German ships had been spotted in the Norwegian Sea on 9 June, Forbes ordered the Home Fleet, including Rodney, to sea to protect troop convoys evacuating Allied forces from Norway. Nelson returned from the dockyard on 24 July and reassumed her role as the Home Fleet flagship. Rodney was transferred from Scapa Flow to Rosyth on 23 August with orders to attack the German invasion fleet in the English Channel when Operation Sealion began. She returned to Scapa on 4 November to begin convoy escort duty. After the armed merchant cruiser Jervis Bay was sunk the following day by the heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer, the sisters were deployed to the Iceland–Faeroes gap to block any attempts by the German cruiser to return home. The following month Rodney was detailed to rendezvous with Convoy HX 93 from Halifax, Nova Scotia, and escort it home. The ship encountered a strong storm with gale-force winds from 6 to 8 December that caused leaks in her hull plating with a moderate amount of flooding. Repairs at Rosyth began on 18 December that included structural reinforcement of the hull plating and general reinforcement of the forward hull structure. #### 1941 After finishing her refit on 13 January 1941, Rodney joined the hunt for Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, without success and then escorted Convoy HX 108 from 12 to 23 February. On 16 March, the ship spotted the latter battleship while escorting Convoy HX 114 in the North Atlantic; Gneisenau was rescuing survivors from the independently steaming 1,831-gross register ton (GRT) reefer ship, , when Rodney steamed over the horizon, silhouetted against the setting sun. Partially hidden behind the burning merchant ship, the gunnery officer estimated that the intermittently visible German ship was 15 or 16 nmi (28 or 30 km; 17 or 18 mi) away, close to maximum range for Rodney's guns. Dalyrmple-Hamilton declined to pursue Gneisenau when she turned away at her top speed of 31 knots (57 km/h; 36 mph) and was able to rescue 27 survivors and 2 dead seamen from one lifeboat before returning to her convoy. Troop Convoy TC 10 departed Halifax on 10 April with a strong escort that included Rodney. While steaming in the River Clyde on 19 April, the battleship accidentally rammed and sank the trawler Topaze; only four survivors could be rescued by nearby destroyers. #### Bismarck On 22 May 1941, Rodney and four destroyers were part of the escort for the ocean liner as she set sail for Halifax. The battleship was scheduled to continue onwards to Boston for repairs and a refit. To this end, the ship carried some of the materials, such as boiler tubes and three octuple "pom-pom" mounts intended for use in her refit; other cargo included three or four crates of the Elgin Marbles. She also carried 521 military passengers bound for Halifax, as well as an American assistant naval attaché conveying important documents back to the United States. Britannic was taking civilians to Canada and would be bringing Canadian troops and airmen back to Britain. After Bismarck sank the battlecruiser Hood during the Battle of Denmark Strait on the morning of 24 May, Rodney was ordered by the Admiralty to join in the pursuit of the German ship, leaving the destroyer Eskimo to escort Britannic and taking Somali, Mashona and Tartar with her in the search. After the heavy cruiser Suffolk radioed that she had lost radar contact with the Bismarck at 04:01 on the morning of 25 May, Dalrymple-Hamilton, after consulting his senior officers and the American attaché, decided that the German ship was probably heading for Brest and so set course to the east to head her off, at some stages reaching twenty-two knots, which exceeded her then theoretical maximum speed by two knots (3.7 km/h; 2.3 mph), although this caused several mechanical failures. Later that morning, Admiral Sir John Tovey in the battleship King George V ordered all ships to head north west due to a misinterpreted signal from the Admiralty but Dalrymple-Hamilton knew that his ship was too slow to catch up to Bismarck if she was headed in that direction and disregarded Tovey's order. The Admiralty informed Dalrymple-Hamilton that they believed that Bismarck was probably headed to Brest or Saint Nazaire at 11:40. The captain subsequently altered course further south east to cover the approaches to Spanish ports where the German ship might intern herself but this was countermanded by an Admiralty order to turn north east at 14:30. Dalrymple-Hamilton continued south east for several more hours before he decided to obey the order at 16:20; during this time Bismarck passed his position just under the horizon, about 25 nmi (46 km; 29 mi) away. Not having spotted the German ship by 21:00, Dalrymple-Hamilton decided to turn south-east again, heading directly for Brest. Bismarck was spotted by a RAF Consolidated PBY Catalina flying boat at 10:35 on 26 May and the two battleships were able to join up as Tovey had realised his mistake and doubled back. Despite the heavy weather, the aircraft carrier Ark Royal launched her first attack, by 14 Swordfish torpedo bombers, against the German ship that afternoon. The pilots mistook the light cruiser Sheffield for the Bismarck and attacked, although the cruiser was able to evade the six of eleven torpedoes dropped that did not detonate when they hit the sea due to faulty magnetic detonators. Around dusk, Ark Royal launched an attack by 15 Swordfish, whose torpedoes had been fitted with contact detonators. Despite the heavy anti-aircraft fire, the Swordfish hit Bismarck with three torpedoes. Two of them struck forward of the aft gun turrets and caused no significant damage; the last struck the stern, disabled the battleship's steering and caused her to significantly reduce speed. That evening Tovey detached Mashona and Somali to refuel and had Rodney fall in behind King George V for the battle against Bismarck. Although his ships could catch the German ship that night now that her steering had been disabled and her engines damaged, Tovey decided to reduce speed to save fuel and wait until dawn to allow his ships the maximum amount of time in which to sink the German ship. Rodney spotted Bismarck at 08:44 on 27 May, one minute after King George V and was the first to open fire at a range of 23,400 yd (21,400 m) three minutes later with Bismarck replying at 08:49. The initial salvos from both ships were off but Rodney straddled her opponent with her third salvo and hit her twice with her fourth at 09:02, knocking out the forward superfiring turret, disabling the lower turret and severely damaging her bridge. In her turn, Bismarck scored no hits, although she managed to damage Rodney with shell splinters before her forward guns were knocked out. As the British ship manoeuvred to bring 'X' turret to bear while closing the distance, she exposed herself to fire from Bismarck's aft turrets, which only managed to straddle Rodney. As the range diminished, she began to fire torpedoes, although shock waves from near misses caused the door for her starboard tube to jam at 09:23. At 09:31, the ship blew off the left barrel of the Bismarck's lower aft gun turret and started a fire inside the turret that forced its evacuation. Around this time the combined fire from Rodney, King George V and the heavy cruisers Norfolk and Dorsetshire knocked out all of Bismarck's main guns. Rodney closed to point-blank range and continued to engage, starting to fire full broadsides into Bismarck on a virtually flat trajectory, and added three more torpedoes at a range of 3,000 yd (2,700 m) beginning at 09:51; one of these malfunctioned but another may have struck Bismarck. According to the naval historian Ludovic Kennedy, who was present at the battle in Tartar, "if true, [this is] the only instance in history of one battleship torpedoing another." Rodney fired 378 sixteen-inch shells and 706 six-inch shells during the battle before Dalrymple-Hamilton ordered cease fire around 10:16, while Dorsetshire was then ordered to finish Bismarck off with torpedoes. Ironically, Rodney's own main guns firing at low elevation had damaged her more extensively than had Bismarck. Deck plates around the main-gun turrets had been depressed by the effects of the guns' muzzle blast, and some of the structural members supporting them had cracked or buckled. Piping, urinals and water mains had broken, while the shock of firing had loosened rivets and bolts in the hull plating, flooding various compartments. One gun in 'A' turret permanently broke down during the battle and two others in 'B' turret were temporarily disabled. Rodney and King George V, running short on fuel, were ordered home and were ineffectually attacked by a pair of Luftwaffe bombers the next day. The former ship arrived at Greenock to replenish her ammunition, fuel and supplies on 29 May and departed for Halifax on 4 June together with the ocean liner , escorted by four destroyers. Rodney continued to the Boston Navy Yard for the delayed repairs to her propulsion machinery and her self-inflicted damage from the battle where she arrived on 12 June. Since the repairs took several months to complete, Rodney's crew was furloughed to local Civilian Conservation Corps camps for a fortnight. During the refit, Dalrymple-Hamilton was relieved by Captain James Rivett-Carnac and Rodney departed Boston for Bermuda on 20 August to work up. The ship arrived in Gibraltar on 24 September to join Force H. #### Force H and subsequent operations Rodney departed Gibraltar later that day to join her sister in escorting a convoy to Malta in Operation Halberd. During the operation the ship accidentally shot down a Fleet Air Arm Fairey Fulmar fighter and Nelson was torpedoed. She was initially able to keep up with the convoy, but had to turn back on 28 September 1941, followed shortly afterwards by Rodney and Prince of Wales. With Nelson forced to return home for repairs, Vice-Admiral James Somerville transferred his flag to Rodney on 30 September. The ship's tenure with Force H was brief, with her only mission escorting two carriers flying off fighters for Malta from 16 to 19 October. On 30 October, she was ordered to return home to replace the departing Prince of Wales in the Home Fleet in case the battleship Tirpitz attempted to break out into the North Atlantic. Departing on 2 November, she arrived at Loch Ewe, Scotland, six days later, but only remained there for a few hours to off-load her passengers and re-provision before departing for Hvalfjord, Iceland, where she arrived on 12 November. The highlight of Rodney's initial stay in Iceland was a visit by the movie star, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., who was also stationed there aboard an American battleship. The ship was transferred to Scapa Flow in late December, but was ordered back to Hvalfjord in mid-January 1942 where she was briefly used as a target ship for United States Army Air Force aviators. #### 1942 Rodney was ordered to proceed to Birkenhead for a refit on 10 February and then sailed to Liverpool, where she remained until 5 May, when the ship was ordered to return to Scapa to begin working up with Nelson. The sisters began escorting Convoy WS 19, loaded with troops bound for Egypt or Burma, on 4 June. They continued as far south as the coast of Portuguese Angola before turning back on 26 June. The following day, Rodney's steering began malfunctioning despite repair attempts. The sisters reached Freetown, Sierra Leone, on 1 July where the ship docked for repairs. Departing on 17 July, the sisters headed home, although Rodney's steering problems soon resurfaced. The ship arrived at Scapa on 26 July where she began cleaning her boilers and requested assistance from Rosyth Dockyard to fix her steering gear. She departed Scapa on 2 August with orders for convoy escort duties, but was soon diverted to become part of the close escort for Convoy WS 21S, bound for Malta as part of Operation Pedestal. Vice-Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser, second-in-command of the Home Fleet, was aboard the ship to gain experience in integrating carrier and convoy operations and was not flying his flag. Rodney rendezvoused with the convoy two days later and was assigned to Force Z which would turn back before the convoy passed through the Sicilian Narrows. Italian spies in Algeciras, Francoist Spain, spotted the convoy as it passed through the Strait of Gibraltar on 10 August and Italian reconnaissance aircraft located it the following morning. The opened what would be many Axis attacks on the convoy and its escorts, by sinking the carrier Eagle that afternoon. Later that evening, the battleship was attacked by two bombers that near missed with two bombs and a torpedo. The ship was able to comb the tracks between two torpedoes dropped by Italian aircraft at 07:45 on 12 August. Her gunners claimed an Italian bomber at 12:17. Twenty minutes later, Rodney opened fire with her main guns on a wave of approaching Italian torpedo bombers, hoping to knock some of them down with shell splashes, which "frightened us, our escort and [the] Italians". The ship was near missed many times that afternoon and her steering gear began acting up around 14:00, but the engineers were able to keep it semi-operational. At 18:42, Rodney was attacked by Junkers Ju 87 "Stuka" dive bombers flown by the Regia Aeronautica's 102nd Dive Domber Group. Although the ship shot down one of her attackers, one armour-piecing bomb bounced off the roof of 'X' turret, wounding four Royal Marines manning the Oerlikons there, and two others detonated near by as the ship was trying to evade the bombs. The evasive manoeuvres worsened Rodney's steering problems and issues with her boilers began after Force Z turned back that evening which limited the ship to 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph). They arrived at Gibraltar on 14 August and temporary repairs were made. Rodney departed Gibraltar to rejoin the Home Fleet at Scapa two days later, but her problems worsened during the voyage as heavy weather further stressed the steering motors and exacerbated her many leaks. The ship was sent to Rosyth for repairs on 22 August. With her repairs completed on 16 September, Rodney arrived back at Scapa on 23 September but almost immediately set sail for Loch Cairnbawn where the British had created a replica of the defences around Tirpitz. The battleship was to serve as a target for frogmen training to use Chariot manned torpedoes to deliver and attach limpet mines to her hull in preparation for Operation Title. Rodney returned to Scapa on 29 September where she spent most of October training in preparation for the invasion of Northwest Africa scheduled for the following month. Churchill visited the ship on 10 October and thanked the crew for their efforts during Pedestal. Rodney set sail for Gibraltar on 23 October and rejoined Force H upon her arrival. Force H was to provide distant cover for the landings at Algiers and Oran, French Algeria, in case either the Vichy French Navy or the Regia Marina (Royal Italian Navy) attempted to intervene. If that did not happen, Rodney was to support the Centre Naval Task Force at Oran on 8 November. Other ships had dealt with the warships in Oran's port of Mers-el-Kebir but the four 194-millimetre (7.6 in) coast-defence guns of Fort du Santon overlooking the harbour were still shooting at the British ships. Rodney fired 16 shells from her main guns before she was forced to disengage in response to a reported submarine but the French chose not to return fire. The ship resumed firing later that afternoon, again without reply. The following morning the French guns opened fire as the battleship closed the range, nearly hitting her. Rodney moved further out to sea and resumed her bombardment with the aid of a land-based spotter. Her shelling thus far had not had much effect on the fort as its guns began bombarding approaching American troops. At their request, the battleship resumed firing at the fort despite the presence of nearby troops and the French capitulated shortly afterwards. #### 1943 Rodney remained in the Mediterranean until she departed for Devonport on 7 May 1943 to begin a brief refit that lasted until 28 May. The ship arrived at Scapa on 3 June to begin training for the invasion of Sicily (Operation Husky) and then rejoined Force H. She saw no combat during the landings, although there were many air raids while she was berthed in Grand Harbour, Malta. On 31 August Rodney joined her sister in bombarding coast-defence guns near Reggio di Calabria in preparation for the Allied crossing of the Strait of Messina from Sicily (Operation Baytown) on 3 September, blowing up an ammunition dump during her shoot. Force H provided support for the landings at Salerno (Operation Avalanche) on 9 September with the battleship only using her anti-aircraft guns. Captain Robert FitzRoy relieved Rivett-Carnac on 25 September. The ship arrived back in the UK on 5 November where she rejoined the Home Fleet. While at sea with the French battleship Richelieu to conduct a night gunnery exercise on 29 December, Rodney suffered weather damage during a severe storm that caused extensive flooding forward. #### 1944 and the Normandy Landings The ship departed Scapa on 16 January 1944 to begin repairs in Rosyth. Little effort was made to repair the persistent steering and boiler problems as efforts focused on making her seaworthy again. They were completed on 28 March, and Rodney steamed back to Scapa, where she arrived on 1 April. The ship spent most of the next few months conducting gunnery training, mostly shore bombardment but also anti-aircraft shoots and practice defending herself against attacks by E-boats. Although she was initially in reserve for the Normandy landings (Operation Overlord), Rodney did engage coast-defence guns near Le Havre with two armour-piercing 16-inch shells on 6 June. The ship was ordered forward to support operations off Sword Beach that night and accidentally rammed and sank LCT 427, killing all 13 crewmen, in the darkness and congested waters off the Isle of Wight. Soon afterwards, another LCT rammed Rodney's bow, tearing a 9 ft-long (2.7 m) hole in her hull plates and crumpling the bow of the landing craft. After reaching her assigned position, the ship engaged targets north of Caen, possibly belonging to the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend which was attacking British and Canadian troops near there. During her day's shooting Rodney expended 99 sixteen- and 132 six-inch shells. That night the ship moved to the waters off Juno Beach to avoid attacks by German light forces. Returning to Sword Beach on 8 June, she bombarded German troops and vehicles near Caen. The following morning Rodney began engaging targets in Caen proper, beginning the gradual devastation of the city, including the destruction of the spire of the Church of Saint-Pierre. That day the ship also fired at coast-defence guns at Houlgate and Benerville-sur-Mer. After an ineffectual air raid on the ships off Sword Beach that afternoon, Rodney withdrew to replenish her ammunition at Milford Haven. The ship was kept in reserve until 18 June when her sister struck a mine and had to withdraw. A severe storm began the following day and caused all operations to cease. A LCT took shelter in the lee of the battleship for the duration of the storm and a trawler collided with Rodney on 21 June but was not seriously damaged. On the night of 23/24 June, the ship was ineffectually attacked twice by Junkers Ju 88 bombers; her gunners claiming one aircraft. Firing for the first time since her return, Rodney's guns began bombarding targets during Operation Epsom, which began on the 26th. These included a sporadic, 30-hour operation firing an occasional shell 22 miles (35 km) inland, to prevent a Panzer division from crossing a bridge. The ship also provided fire support during Operation Windsor, a partially successful Canadian assault on Carpiquet and its airfield west of Caen on 4 to 5 July, and Operation Charnwood, a frontal assault on Caen proper on 8 to 9 July. Some of the targets engaged were normally beyond the maximum range of Rodney's guns, but oil was pumped to one side to give the ship a temporary list which acted to increase the guns' elevation and range. After the end of Charnwood, the ship was withdrawn as Allied forces drove deeper into France. She had expended at total of 519 sixteen- and 454 six-inch shells during her sojourn off the Norman coast. Long-range artillery on the German-occupied island of Alderney was disrupting Allied operations off the north west corner of the Cotentin Peninsula after the landings in Normandy. Rodney was tasked to eliminate the problem and bombarded Batterie Blücher on 12 August, taking up a position on the other side of the Cap de la Hague to avoid return fire. She fired 75 sixteen-inch shells at the artillery position, believing that three of the four guns had been damaged. Postwar analysis showed that although 40 shells had fallen within 200-metre (660 ft) of the center of the battery, only one gun had actually been damaged and it was back in service by November. The other three guns resumed shooting at Allied ships by 30 August. #### Post Invasion After a fortnight in Portland, the ship arrived in Devonport on 27 August for repairs that were originally scheduled to last for a month or more. Her dockyard time was curtailed and Rodney was ordered north. She arrived in Scapa on 15 September and sailed the following day to escort Convoy JW 60 bound for Murmansk. The escorts dropped anchor at Vaenga on 23 September after an uneventful passage. Admiral Arseny Golovko visited the ship three days later to coordinate arrangements for defending the convoys. Rodney rendezvoused with the returning convoy RA 60 on 28 September. German submarines were able to sink two ships of the convoy against the loss of one of their own and the ship arrived at Scapa on 5 October. She became the Home Fleet flagship four days later when Admiral Sir Henry Moore hoisted his flag aboard her. Rodney generally remained at Scapa for the next year, the tedium relieved by a visit by King George VI, Queen Elizabeth and their daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret, in late September 1945. The ship steamed south in mid-November, bound for Portsmouth where Moore would transfer his flag to her sister. She arrived at Rosyth on 2 December where she was docked in No. 3 dry dock from 8 December until 1 March 1948; during this time, Rodney's condition was surveyed and her leaks were patched. She was transferred to BISCO early that year for disposal and the ship was allocated to Thos. W. Ward on 26 March to be scrapped at Inverkeithing.

This Little Wiggy

"This Little Wiggy" is the eighteenth episode of the ninth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 22, 1998. It was written by Dan Greaney and directed by Neil Affleck. The episode sees Ralph Wiggum becoming friends with Bart. Phil Hartman guest stars as recurring character Troy McClure. ## Plot At a science museum the family is visiting, Bart runs into Ralph Wiggum, who is in the process of being pushed into a giant ear by Kearney, Jimbo, Nelson, and Dolph. When Ralph is freed by a museum employee, Marge and Chief Wiggum are there to meet him. Marge observes that Ralph has a vivid imagination and learns that he has no friends to play with; she arranges a play-date for Ralph to spend time with a horrified Bart, who fears that being seen with Ralph will damage his reputation. During their play-date, Bart and Ralph walk into Ralph's father's closet, consisting of various police utilities and records before Wiggum, initially forbidding them to enter the closet, allows them to play with the items. Bart then sees Wiggum toss aside a police master key capable of opening any door in Springfield. Bart and Ralph thus steal the key and decide to enter several closed stores at night. After encountering Nelson and his gang, the boys go to a condemned penitentiary. When Ralph objects because he is afraid, the bullies leave, but not before tossing the key into the penitentiary. Ralph and Bart enter the prison to retrieve the key, and in the process stumble onto a room housing an old electric chair. After testing out the chair, the two flee when an elderly guard approaches. At the Simpsons' home, Bart and Ralph discover that the penitentiary will once again be used by the town, and remember that they forgot to disable the power. Unaware that the power is now active, Mayor Quimby straps himself into the electric chair in a publicity attempt. After failing to call the penitentiary, Ralph then tells Bart that Lisa can probably figure out a way to warn the Mayor. She decides to launch a model rocket with a warning message attached and aims it toward the penitentiary. However, the rocket is blown off-course and crashes through Mr. Burns' office window. As Quimby is getting electrocuted by the chair, Mr. Burns reads the note and disables the penitentiary's power, barely saving Quimby from getting killed. In the aftermath, the Simpsons praise Ralph, and Lisa graciously lets him get the kudos for her achievement. As Ralph smiles, a leprechaun visible only to him tells him he did well, and then tells him it's time for him to burn down the Simpsons' house. Ralph keeps smiling and nods. ## Production Show runner Mike Scully had pitched an idea to Dan Greaney on Marge forcing Bart to become Ralph Wiggum's friend. Scully gave the idea to Greaney due to his ability to write Ralph's lines and actions well, and his overall liking of the character. This episode was the second to focus on Ralph, after the fourth-season episode "I Love Lisa". Despite this, in 2007, producer J. Stewart Burns did not believe Ralph had an episode with a plot centered on him. The robot that was introduced early in the episode was influenced by Greaney's experiences working with a USA Today themed robot. While at a baseball game with the robot, the robot led the stadium in singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game". The robot was not well-received, and the spectators threw objects at it. The robot's operator had to stay close to the robot during the baseball game, and was also teased and bothered in the same way as the operator in the episode. Episode director Neil Affleck was praised by the staff for his directing in this episode. In the scene where Chief Wiggum falls on his back in his bedroom, unable to roll over or get back up, Affleck decided to act out the scene for the staff to showcase how Affleck envisioned Chief Wiggum's predicament. Affleck was also praised for his ability to create three new elaborate settings in the episode: the science museum, the Springfield penitentiary, and the large toy store. The episode originally did not involve Lisa helping Ralph and Bart to brainstorm an idea to alert the penitentiary. The original scene, which Greaney cites as one of his favorite scenes in the show, despite never actually being in the show, involved Bart, Ralph, and Homer trying to make a plan to save Mayor Quimby. ## Reception In its original broadcast, "This Little Wiggy" finished 27th in ratings for the week of March 16–22, 1998, with a Nielsen rating of 9.1, equivalent to approximately 8.9 million viewing households. It was the second highest-rated show on the Fox network that week, following Ally McBeal. The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, enjoyed the episode, remarking: "Marvellous fun as Bart comes to realize there's more to Ralph, or at least his daddy, than he realised."

Devil Pray

"Devil Pray" is a song recorded by American singer and songwriter Madonna for her thirteenth studio album, Rebel Heart (2015). It was written and produced by Madonna, Avicii, DJ Dahi, and Michael Diamond (BloodPop), with additional writing by Arash Pournouri, Carl Falk, Rami Yacoub, and Savan Kotecha. During the early stages of the album, Madonna was encouraged by her manager to work with Avicii and his team of songwriters. Together, they worked on seven songs and "Devil Pray" was composed after Madonna desired to talk about her experiences with drugs and quest for spirituality. Lyrically, the song deals with themes of drug addiction, sin, temptation, and the desire for salvation. "Devil Pray" is a techno-folk song, which combines elements of country-pop and has similarities with Madonna's own single "Don't Tell Me", Avicii's previous work and The Animals' version of the traditional folk song "The House of the Rising Sun". The song received high praise from critics for its musical elements, while also being highlighted for its self-conscious lyrics. However, there was some criticism towards the list of drugs used in the chorus. Following its release as a pre-ordered song from Rebel Heart, the song charted in many European territories, reaching the top-25 in Finland, Greece, Hungary and Lebanon. Madonna performed the song for the first time on the Italian TV show Che tempo che fa, wearing a black robe and various rosaries, and on her 2015–16 Rebel Heart Tour. ## Background and release Madonna and Avicii first met in 2012 when the singer appeared on the Ultra Music Festival to premiere a remix of her single "Girl Gone Wild", produced by the DJ. Later, while developing her then-upcoming album, Madonna's manager Guy Oseary suggested the singer to work with Avicii's songwriting team; the singer accepted since she was a fan of Avicii's work. On March 7, 2014, the singer posted a picture of herself on her Instagram account with the caption, "Doing some house work before heading to the studio with Avicii." A week later, she posted photos with Avicii and his team of songwriters, claiming that they did "so many great songs". In an interview with David Blaine for Interview, Madonna said of the song: > It's about how people take drugs to connect to God or to a higher level of consciousness. I keep saying, 'Plugging into the matrix'. If you get high, you can do that, which is why a lot of people drop acid or do drugs, because they want to get closer to God. But there's going to be a short circuit, and that's the illusion of drugs, because they give you the illusion of getting closer to God, but ultimately they kill you. They destroy you. I mean, I tried everything once, but as soon as I was high, I spent my time drinking tons of water to get it out of my system. As soon as I was high, I was obsessed with flushing it out of me. I was like, 'OK, I'm done now'. In the same interview, she said the song was not written to anyone in particular and that she was merely sharing her experiences. Rolling Stone published an article in which Madonna advocated "intense personal exploration" over drug use. While being asked if "Devil Pray" could run the risk of being misunderstood as a song encouraging drugs, Madonna replied: "I'm certainly not judging people who take drugs or saying 'don't do drugs', however, I'm saying you can do all of these things to connect to a higher level, but ultimately you're going to be lost. People who are getting high are instinctively also trying to connect to a higher level of consciousness, but are doing it in a way that will not sustain them." The demo version of "Devil Pray" leaked onto the Internet in December 2014, alongside 12 other demos from the upcoming album. Following this Madonna released the album, titled Rebel Heart, for pre-order on December 20, 2014. When ordered, the first six tracks were automatically downloaded, including "Devil Pray". Madonna stated that the songs were meant to be "an early Christmas gift" and added that she would prefer her fans hear the completed versions of some of the songs instead of the incomplete tracks that were circulating. ## Recording and composition "Devil Pray" was written and produced by Madonna, Avicii, DJ Dahi and Michael Diamonds, with additional writing done by Savan Kotecha, Carl Falk, Rami Yacoub and Arash Pournouri. Avicii and Falk were also responsible for providing keyboards and programming, with Falk also providing guitars. Additional recording and mixing was done by Angie Teo, while Demacio "Demo" Castellon was the song's engineer and mixer. "Devil Pray" has been described as a "moody mid-tempo semi-acoustic pop", techno-folk, "lite-EDM" and "acoustic guitar-with-electro-cowboy" song with a "woozy" house beat about overcoming addiction, with a more "country-tinged" and "folksy" style in comparison to other tracks on the album. Critics found similarities between the song and Madonna's own single "Don't Tell Me" (2000) for its "country-pop elements" and the traditional folk song "The House of the Rising Sun", due to its "bluesy-vibe". "Devil Pray" brings Madonna "as a devoted disciple, drawn to a darker kind of prayer", as noted by The Quietus's Amy Pettifer, and its story deals with sin, temptation and deliverance. The song starts with hand claps and guitar, "whose country edge is [...] characteristic of Swedish producer Avicii's own output", claimed Pettifer. The chorus contains "an intoned, warning list of narcotic distractions" that "offer brief relief", as she sings, "And we can do drugs, and we can smoke weed, and we can drink whiskey / Yeah, we can get high, and we can get stoned / And we can sniff glue, and we can do E, and we can drop acid." During the second verse, Madonna "seems to understand her own spiritual plight when she sings [...], 'Mother Mary, can't you [help] me? / 'Cause I've gone astray / All the angels that were around me / Have all flown away'," before warning, "Lucifer is near". Later, she advises that although providing brief relief, the use of those drugs will not provide any positive effect on the user, warning, "Yeah, we can run and we can hide / But we won't find the answers" and invite them to "get help" for making the "devil pray". Then, a "pitched down" voice joins in a "plea for [her] soul to be saved". As she sings, "Ooh, save my soul, save my soul, save my / Devil's here to fool ya", a "bed of throaty, orgasmic samples rises in the mix", and "a hundred tiny Madonna-voices in coital abyss." ## Critical reception "Devil Pray" received mostly positive response from music critics. While noting that the song "reaches back smartly, not only to the hoe-down pop of [her single] 'Don't Tell Me', but to the subject matter, and bluesy gait of 'The House of the Rising Sun'", Jim Farber of New York Daily News praised "[t]he addition of a pulsing house beat [that] gives it yet another lure." Bernard Zuel of Sydney Morning Herald also found similarities in "Devil Pray" with both songs, defining it as an "acoustic guitar-with-electro-cowboy" song, whose melody "doesn't attempt to hide its familiarity with 'House of the Rising Sun'." The Huffington Post's Matthew Jacobs pointed out that Madonna evoked "the more traditional dance palate for which she is known." Jamieson Cox of Time enthusiastically wrote that the song "could fit in neatly on the radio beside this year's British house-pop crossovers and Avicii's own 'Hey Brother'." Kathy Iandoli of Idolator praised Avicii and Blood Diamonds for "becom[ing] a divine pair for ['Devil Pray'] where you can hear both of their styles woven into the beat." Andy Gill of The Independent found that "Devil Pray" recalled "the career-apex achievements of 'Like a Prayer', while Gavin Haynes of NME opined that the song is "reminiscent of Lady Gaga's crazed 2013 dance tune 'Aura'." Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic picked it as one of Rebel Heart's best songs, calling it "an expert evocation of her folktronica Y2K." Caryn Ganz of Rolling Stone agreed, noting that "Avicii helps Madonna revive the strums-and-beats vibe of 2000's Music." Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine went further, calling it "her best song in 15 years". He continued praising "Devil Pray" for "reimagin[ing] The Animals as a folktronica band with witch-house tendencies... Her ruminations on salvation and the existential pitfalls of sniffing glue [that] rid[es] an unexpected low-end groove." Annie Zaleski of The A.V. Club also saw the song as a highlight, describing it as a "gospel-tinged, acoustic-guitar irresistible plea for salvation and divine guidance in the face of temptations such as drugs." Sasha Geffen of Consequence of Sound considered "Devil Pray" one of Madonna's best release in years and its chorus as "one of her strongest in decades". She praised "Madonna's voice [which] is pitch-shifted into a ghostly echo — and unlike those 'Bitch' beats, the production slides in perfectly. It's one hell of a song about getting fucked up on every molecule imaginable, but it's also heavy with the longing for self-purification and direction." The New York Times also shared this view, noting that the song "showcase[s] some of Madonna's best singing in years." Saeed Saeed of The National felt that the song was similar to The Animals' version of "The House of the Rising Sun" and praised it for being a better country–dance song than Madonna's cover of Don McLean's "American Pie". However, there were some criticism directed at the list of drugs used in the chorus of "Devil Pray". Chris Richards from The Washington Post criticized the fact that the "lyrics on Rebel Heart feel almost violently resistant to wisdom", citing the menu of intoxicants used in the chorus and asking, "Which one will best help us forget that this is happening?" Andrew Unterberger of Spin also wrote about the "laundry list of intoxicants" referenced in the song, noting that it "makes 'Devil Pray' sound like a mid-80s PSA." Jessica Hopper of Pitchfork Media went on to criticize the list for being "a strange, tender, comical thing, [...] but ultimately, it's a boring stadium-throb lite-EDM song about seeking sobriety and/or big-G, God. It's also a Madonna-doing-Madonna cliche [sic], which is too often the downfall of Rebel Heart." Alexis Petridis of The Guardian was negative about "Devil Pray"'s production, claiming that "[it's] a pretty transparent attempt by Avicii to come up with something along the lines of his hit 'Wake Me Up'." ## Chart performance "Devil Pray" charted in many European territories after its release along with the other album's five tracks, on December 20, 2014. The song reached the top-ten in Greece and Hungary, peaking at numbers 9 and 10, respectively, while in Finland, Lebanon and Sweden, "Devil Pray" managed to reach the top-twenty, reaching numbers 16, 18 and 14. In Spain, the song reached number 50 and was the album's lowest charting song, while in France, "Devil Pray" was the third highest charting song, after "Living for Love" and "Ghosttown", the album's first and second single respectively, and peaked at number 62 with over 800 downloads. ## Live performances On March 1, 2015, Madonna performed the song for the first time on Italian TV show, Che tempo che fa, along with "Ghosttown", the album's second single. An episode featuring her appearance was aired on March 8. For the performance of "Devil Pray", Madonna wore "an extravagant black robe and various rosaries." A writer for Yahoo! noticed that both performances were warmly received by the audience, while Lionel Nicaise appreciated that Madonna put more emphasis on the melodies and her vocals during the performance, rather than costumes and stage props. Bianca Grace of Idolator noted that the performance "will have you repenting your weekend sins, as the singer emotionally sings the tune." "Devil Pray" was performed on Madonna's 2015–16 Rebel Heart Tour. Following the Last Supper-themed mashup performance of "Holy Water" and "Vogue", Madonna climbed down to the center stage to perform "Devil Pray"; during the performance she straddled one of her male dancers, who was dressed as a priest, and engaged in a dance-off with other dancers. Jordan Zivitz from the Montreal Gazette said that she found the performance to be "challenging". Previous to this the song was also used for promotional videos related to the tour's rehearsals and dancer interviews. The performance of "Devil Pray" at the March 19–20, 2016 shows in Sydney's Allphones Arena was recorded and released in Madonna's fifth live album, Rebel Heart Tour. ## Credits and personnel ### Management - Webo Girl Publishing, Inc. (ASCAP) / EMI Blackwood Music Inc. (BMI) / EMI Music Publishing Scandinavia AB (STIM) / Sony/ATV Songs LLC (BMI) - Sony/ATV Scandinavia AB (STIM) / Team 2101 Songs (ASCAP) / Rami Productions AB (ASCAP) / Kobalt Songs Music Publishing - Sony/ATV Sonata and Dahi Productions (SESAC) / Michael Tucker Music (ASCAP) c/o Kobalt Songs Music Publishing / These Are Songs of Pulse (ASCAP) / OWSLA Trax (ASCAP) ### Personnel - Madonna – vocals, songwriter, producer - Avicii – songwriter, producer, keyboards, programming - DJ Dahi – songwriter, producer - Jimmy Austin – songwriter - Blood Diamonds – songwriter, producer - Arash Pournouri – songwriter - Carl Falk – songwriter, keyboards, guitars, programming - Rami Yacoub – songwriter - Savan Kotecha – songwriter - Demacio "Demo" Castellon – engineer, mixer - Nick Rowe – engineer - Angie Teo – additional recording, additional mixing Personnel adapted from Madonna official website. ## Charts

Derek Kraus

American racing driver

Derek K. Kraus (born September 1, 2001) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes part-time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, driving the No. 20 Chevrolet Silverado for Young's Motorsports and the No. 7 Chevrolet Silverado for Spire Motorsports, as well as part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 10 Chevrolet Camaro for Kaulig Racing. He is also Kaulig and Legacy Motor Club's simulator driver. He has also previously competed in the ARCA Menards Series and ARCA Menards Series East and West. He won the 2019 West Series championship (when the series was known as the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West) and is also a former NASCAR Next member. ## Racing career ### Early years Kraus started racing in go-karts and bandoleros. He won the GSR Kartway championship in 2012 and 2013. Kraus also competed in bandoleros at State Park Speedway in 2013 and won the track championship. In 2014, he won the State Park and state bandeleros championships. He later moved up to Midwest trucks and super late models (SLMs). He began the 2015 season by competing in seven Super Late Model races in Florida's New Smyrna Speedway. He began racing in the American Ethanol SuperTruck Series in 2015; he became the youngest driver to win a feature at Rockford Speedway at age 13. Additionally, Kraus won his first SLM race a few days before he turned fourteen. He also competed full-time in the Midwest Truck Series, he won that series' 2015 championship. In 2016, he competed in the ARCA Midwest Tour, finishing fourth in the standings and surpassing Matt Kenseth as the youngest driver to win a race in the series. ### NASCAR #### 2017: K&N Pro Series In January 2017, it was announced that Kraus would drive full-time in the 2017 NASCAR K&N Pro Series West for Bill McAnally Racing (BMR), driving the team's No. 19 Toyota Camry. The announcement came after Kraus tested for the team at Kern County Raceway Park earlier that year. Kraus made his debut for BMR in a NASCAR K&N Pro Series East race at New Smyrna Speedway in February, where he finished third. He set career-best finishes in the West Series of second at Kern County, Spokane County Raceway, and Colorado National Speedway. He won the pole at Iowa Speedway, his first combination race between the K&N Pro Series East and West. Kraus led for an extended period at Meridian Speedway in Idaho and won the season's final race at Kern County for his first win, beating teammate and series champion Todd Gilliland. He also won the K&N West Rookie of the Year award in 2017. #### 2018: K&N contender, Truck debut Kraus began 2018 by competing in the Winter Showdown late model race at Kern County. He won the season-opening 2018 K&N Pro Series West race at Kern County after making contact with race leader Kevin Harvick on the final restart, giving the lead to teammate Cole Rouse in the process. Kraus later passed the fellow BMR driver while both were running in lapped traffic, taking the win. Kraus then won the pole in both races at the series' doubleheader at Tucson Speedway, finishing fourth and eleventh in the first and second races respectively. In May 2018, Kraus was named to the 2018 NASCAR Next class. At Douglas County Speedway, Kraus won his third career race, leading teammate Hailie Deegan to a 1-2 finish for BMR. At Evergreen Speedway, Kraus won the pole and led a majority of the race but ran out of fuel in the closing stages of the race, losing to Derek Thorn. In the series' next race, a combination race with the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East at Gateway Motorsports Park, Kraus passed Rouse on the final restart to secure his third victory of the season. At the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Dirt Track, he led 31 laps but spun in the later stages and retired from the race, dropping to 17th in the classification order. At Meridian Speedway, Kraus led the first 189 laps before slowing to avoid a spinning lapped car in a late caution, leading to a third-place finish. For the final West race of the season, the tour returned to Kern County Raceway, and Kraus won after a late-race restart. He finished the season-long points tally in fourth, behind Thorn, Ryan Partridge and Rouse. Kraus' racing schedule with BMR expanded in 2018 to include a foray into the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East. After finishing fourth in the season opener at New Smyrna Speedway, Kraus finished 24th in the next race at Bristol Motor Speedway. He then won the pole at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in July. It was later announced that Kraus would join DGR-Crosley for the last two East races on the calendar. In his first race with DGR, he again claimed the pole at New Hampshire. Kraus raced against Brandon McReynolds for the lead on the final restart, finishing in second. He would end the season with a third-place finish in the season finale at Dover. On November 6, 2018, Kraus announced that he would make his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series debut at ISM Raceway that Friday, driving the No. 19 Toyota Tundra for Bill McAnally Racing. He both qualified for and finished the race in the eighth position. #### 2019: K&N championship, part-time in Trucks Kraus returned to BMR for a third West season in 2019. He also planned to run some K&N East races. Kraus began 2019 by winning the New Smyrna 175 K&N East race. After finishing sixth at Bristol, Kraus was three points out of the championship points lead. Addressing his unclear K&N East schedule, Kraus commented, "If we're leading, we're going to race three." Kraus competed in the third and fourth races in South Boston, winning the second race in the doubleheader. Kraus was leading the East Series championship in July, and team owner Bill McAnally reaffirmed the team's commitment to run full-time in the East as long as Kraus was at the top of the standings. After a ninth-place finish at Watkins Glen International, Kraus and BMR were more than ten points out of the lead and subsequently withdrew from the second race at Bristol, conceding the East Series championship. In the West Series, Kraus began the season at the Dirt Track at Las Vegas with a sixth-place finish. He qualified second and was leading the field until getting shuffled back with around 30 laps remaining. He later won both races at Tucson Speedway's doubleheader event, leading all 100 laps in the first race. At Colorado, Kraus ran up front until a broken sway bar hindered his car's performance, dropping him down to the back of the top-five. After returning to the lead, Deegan collided with him on the final lap, resulting in Kraus finishing eighth after having spun out. Before the next K&N West race at Sonoma, Kraus ran a one-off Trans-Am Series race at the California road course, a race in which he would go on to win the pole and score the overall victory. At Douglas County Speedway, Kraus won the pole and led every lap en route to the win. His next win of the season was at Meridian Speedway, where he led 100 laps after racing Jagger Jones for the victory throughout the event and colliding with him late in the race, spinning Jones out. Kraus won again by leading every lap from the pole at Kern County, his fourth straight victory at the track. Kraus' position in points enabled him to clinch the K&N West championship simply by starting the final race at ISM Raceway, where he finished third and was crowned champion of the series. Kraus and BMR also re-upped for four Truck Series events in 2019, at Martinsville and Dover in the early portion of the season and Las Vegas and ISM in the latter portion of the season. After finishing 18th at Martinsville, he equalled his best finish for the series with an eighth at Dover. At Las Vegas, Kraus's truck had transmission problems, relegating him to a 27th-place finish. After winning the K&N West championship, BMR added a fifth Truck Series race for Kraus at Homestead-Miami Speedway. #### 2020–2022: Full-time in the Truck Series On January 13, 2020, Bill McAnally Racing announced the formation of McAnally-Hilgemann Racing, a partnership with businessman and fellow Stratford native Bill Hilgemann, to field the No. 19 Tundra full-time in the Truck Series for Kraus. He began the season at Daytona International Speedway with a career-best fourth-place finish. At Darlington, Kraus nearly scored his first career win, finishing second to Ben Rhodes in an overtime finish. Kraus returned to the team in 2021, but had a new crew chief in Matt Noyce, who moved over from ThorSport Racing No. 99 truck of Ben Rhodes. His previous crew chief, Kevin Bellicourt, left McAnally to crew chief the No. 77 Spire Motorsports car in the Cup Series. #### 2023–present On December 6, 2022, McAnally-Hilgemann Racing announced that Kraus would be replaced in the No. 19 truck by former ThorSport Racing driver Christian Eckes for 2023. On February 1, 2023, it was announced that Kraus would drive the Young's Motorsports No. 20 truck in the season-opener at Daytona with the possibility of running more races for the team if sponsorship is found. On March 21, it was announced that Kraus would make his Xfinity Series debut in the Xfinity Series race at Richmond in the No. 10 car for Kaulig Racing and would run a part-time schedule for the rest of the year in that car. On July 26, Kaulig announced that Kraus would drive their No. 16 Cup Series car in practice and qualifying at Richmond in place of A. J. Allmendinger who would compete in the Xfinity Series race at Road America on the same day. He was chosen to fill in for Allmendinger as he is the team's simulator driver. Kraus also did some simulator driving for Legacy Motor Club in 2023. ## Personal life Kraus attended Stratford High School and was on the school's wrestling team and also played football his freshman year. He graduated high school in 2020 and missed his graduation ceremony, which was rescheduled to July due to COVID-19, to race in the truck race at Kansas on the same day. After that, he moved from Wisconsin to Charlotte, North Carolina, where most NASCAR teams are based. His father, Mark, raced super late models in the 2000s. ## Motorsports career results ### Career summary ### NASCAR (key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. \* – Most laps led.) #### Cup Series #### Xfinity Series #### Craftsman Truck Series ^\* Season still in progress ¹ Ineligible for series points #### K&N Pro Series East ### ARCA Menards Series (key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. \* – Most laps led.) #### ARCA Menards Series West

Rebecca Lee Crumpler

American physician

Rebecca Lee Crumpler, born Rebecca Davis, (February 8, 1831 – March 9, 1895), was an American physician, nurse and author. After studying at the New England Female Medical College, in 1864 she became the first African American woman to become a doctor of medicine in the United States. Crumpler was also one of the first female physician authors in the nineteenth century. In 1883, she published A Book of Medical Discourses. The book has two parts that cover the prevention and cure of infantile bowel complaints, and the life and growth of human beings. Dedicated to nurses and mothers, it focuses on maternal and pediatric medical care and was among the first publications written by an African American on the subject of medicine. Crumpler graduated from medical college at a time when very few African Americans were permitted to attend medical college or publish books. Crumpler first practiced medicine in Boston, primarily serving poor women and children. After the American Civil War ended in 1865, she moved to Richmond, Virginia, believing treating women and children was an ideal way to perform missionary work. Crumpler worked for the Freedmen's Bureau to provide medical care for freedmen and freedwomen. Crumpler was subject to "intense racism" and sexism while practicing medicine. During this time, many men believed that a nearly immutable difference in average brain size between men and women explained the difference in social, political, and intellectual attainment. Because of this, many male physicians did not respect Rebecca Lee Crumpler, and would not approve her prescriptions for patients or listen to her medical opinions. Crumpler later moved back to Boston, where she continued to treat women and children. The Rebecca Lee Pre-Health Society at Syracuse University and the Rebecca Lee Society, one of the first medical societies for African American women, were named after her. Her Joy Street house in Beacon Hill is a stop on the Boston Women's Heritage Trail. ## Early life and education In 1831, Rebecca Lee Crumpler was born Rebecca Davis in Christiana, Delaware to Matilda Webber and Absolum Davis. She was raised in Pennsylvania by her aunt who cared for ill townspeople. Her aunt acted as the doctor in her community and had a huge influence on Crumpler's decision to pursue a career in medicine. Crumpler moved to Charlestown, Massachusetts in 1852, where she worked as a nurse before applying and becoming accepted into the New England Female Medical College. Rebecca Lee Crumpler was the only African American student at the school. ## Education ### Nursing and medical school From 1855 to 1864, Crumpler was employed as a nurse. She was accepted into the New England Female Medical College in 1860. She won a tuition award from the Wade Scholarship Fund, established by a bequest from local businessman John Wade of Woburn. In the mid-19th century, it was rare for women or black men to be admitted to medical school. In 1860, due to the heavy demands of medical care for American Civil War veterans, opportunities increased for women physicians and doctors. Due to her talent, Crumpler was given a recommendation to attend the school by her supervising physician when she was a medical apprentice. That year, there were 54,543 physicians in the United States, 300 of whom were women. None of them were African Americans, making Rebecca Lee Crumpler the first and only African American physician in her class. Crumpler graduated from New England Female Medical College in 1864 after having completed three years of coursework, a thesis, and final oral examinations in February 1864. On March 1, 1864, the school's board of trustees named her a Doctor of Medicine. Married to Wyatt Lee at that time, she was identified as Mrs. Rebecca Lee by the school, where she was the only African American graduate. She was the country's first African American woman to become a formally-trained physician. ### Physician Crumpler first practiced medicine in Boston and primarily cared for poor African American women and children. After the end of the American Civil War (1861–1865), she moved to Richmond, Virginia, believing it to be an ideal way to provide missionary service, as well as to gain more experience learning about diseases that affected women and children. She said of that time, "During my stay there nearly every hour was improved in that sphere of labor. The last quarter of the year 1866, I was enabled... to have access each day to a very large number of the indigent, and others of different classes, in a population of over 30,000 colored." Crumpler worked for the Freedmen's Bureau to provide medical care to freedmen and freedwomen who were denied care by white physicians. At the Freedmen's Bureau, she worked under the assistant commissioner, Orlando Brown. Subject to intense racism by both the administration and other physicians, she had difficulty getting prescriptions filled and was ignored by male physicians. Some people heckled that the M.D. behind her name stood for "Mule Driver". Crumpler moved to 67 Joy Street in Boston, a predominantly African American community in Beacon Hill. She practiced medicine and treated children without much concern for the parents' ability to pay. Her house is on the Boston Women's Heritage Trail. ### Education In 1860, bearing letters of recommendation from her physician-employers, Crumpler was accepted into the elite West Newton English and Classical School in Massachusetts, where she was a "special student in mathematics." Crumpler taught in Wilmington beginning in 1874 and in New Castle, Delaware beginning in 1876. ### A Book of Medical Discourses In 1883, Crumpler published A Book of Medical Discourses from the notes she kept over the course of her medical career. Dedicated to nurses and mothers, it focused on the medical care of women and children. Her main desire in presenting this book was to emphasize the "possibilities of prevention." Therefore, she recommended that women should study the mechanisms of human structure before becoming a nurse in order to better enable themselves to protect life. However, Crumpler stated that most nurses did not agree with this and tended to forget that for every ailment, there was a cause and it was within their power to remove it. Although her primary focus was on the health of women and children, which seemed to be influenced by homeopathy, Crumpler recommended courses of treatment without stating that the treatment was homeopathic. She did not mention that medicine could be harmful, but stated the conventional amount of standard medicine usage. Her medical book is divided into two sections: in the first part she focuses on preventing and mitigating intestinal problems that can occur around the teething period until the child is about five years of age; the second part mainly focused on the following areas: "life and growth of beings", the beginning of womanhood and the prevention and cure of most of the "distressing complaints" of both sexes. Although the book was focused on medical advice, Crumpler also ties in autobiographical details that contain political, social, and moral commentary. Specifically in the first chapter, Crumpler gave non-medical advice concerning what age and how a woman should enter into marriage. The chapter also contained advice for both men and women on how to ensure a happy marriage. Crumpler describes the progression of experiences that led her to study and practice medicine in her book: > It may be well to state here that, having been reared by a kind aunt in Pennsylvania, whose usefulness with the sick was continually sought, I early conceived a liking for, and sought every opportunity to relieve the sufferings of others. Later in life I devoted my time, when best I could, to nursing as a business, serving under different doctors for a period of eight years; most of the time at my adopted home in Charlestown, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. From these doctors I received letters commending me to the faculty of the New England Female Medical College, whence, four years afterward, I received the degree of Doctress of Medicine. At the time, many writings and books by African American authors had prefaces and introductions written in the style of white male writings to give them authentication. Crumpler introduced her own text, and justifying her work based on her own authority. ## Personal life While living in Charlestown, Rebecca Davis married Wyatt Lee, a Virginia native who was formerly enslaved. They were married on April 19, 1859. This was Wyatt's second, and her first, marriage. A year later Wyatt's son, Albert, died at age 7. This tragedy may have motivated Rebecca to begin her study of nursing for the next eight years. Rebecca was a medical student when her husband died of tuberculosis on April 18, 1863. He is buried at Mount Hope Cemetery in Boston. Dr. Rebecca Lee married Arthur Crumpler in Saint John, New Brunswick on May 24, 1865. Arthur was formerly enslaved and escaped bondage from Southampton County, Virginia. Born in 1824, he was the son of Samuel Crumpler, who was enslaved by Benjamin Crumpler. Arthur lived on the neighboring estate of a large landowner, Robert Adams, with his mother and siblings. When Adams died, his family was sold and nine-year-old Arthur was kept by Robert Adams' son, John Adams of Smithfield, Virginia after Arthur won a wrestling contest with John on the day of the estate auction. Except for one sister, he never found out the whereabouts of the people who continued enslaving and "purchased" his family members. He served with the Union Army at Fort Monroe, Virginia as a blacksmith, based upon his training and experience. He went to Massachusetts in 1862 and was taken in by Nathaniel Allen, founder of the West Newton English and Classical School, also called the Allen School. On July 16, 2020, a ceremony was held at the Fairview Cemetery to dedicate a gravestone in memory of Rebecca Lee Crumpler and her husband Arthur. The granite stone was the result of a fundraising appeal spearheaded by Vicky Gall, president of the Friends of the Hyde Park Library (Hyde Park Library). Rebecca and Arthur Crumpler were active members of the Twelfth Baptist Church, where Arthur was a trustee. They had a home at 20 Garden Street in Boston. Their daughter Lizzie Sinclair Crumpler was born in mid-December 1870, but as no other records have been found, it is believed the child did not survive infancy. For instance, Crumpler and her husband Arthur lived in Hyde Park, Massachusetts in 1880, but they did not have a child living with them at that time. Crumpler spoke at a funeral service for Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner upon his death in 1874. She read a poem that she had written for him, where "she touchingly alluded to his love for the gifted Emerson." By 1880, the Crumplers moved to Hyde Park, Boston. Although no photographs or other images of Crumpler survive, a Boston Globe article described her as "a very pleasant and intellectual woman and an indefatigable church worker. Dr. Crumpler is 59 or 60 years of age, tall and straight, with light brown skin and gray hair." About marriage, she said the secret to a successful marriage "is to continue in the careful routine of the courting days, till it becomes well understood between the two." Rebecca Crumpler died on March 9, 1895, in Fairview, Massachusetts, while still residing in Hyde Park. Arthur died in May, 1910, and they are both buried at the nearby Fairview Cemetery. Rebecca and Arthur Crumpler were buried in unmarked graves for 125 years, until 2020, when they received granite headstones for their gravesite from donations. On July 16, 2020, a ceremony was held at the Fairview Cemetery to dedicate a gravestone in memory of Rebecca Lee Crumpler and her husband Arthur. The granite stone was the result of a fundraising appeal spearheaded by Vicky Gall, president of the Friends of the Hyde Park Library. ## Legacy The Rebecca Lee Society, one of the first medical societies for African American women, was named in Crumpler's honor. Her home on Joy Street is a stop on the Boston Women's Heritage Trail. In 2019, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam declared March 30 (National Doctors Day) the Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler Day. At Syracuse University there is a pre-health club named "The Rebecca Lee Pre-Health Society." This club encourages people of diverse backgrounds to pursue health professions. They offer mentors, workshops, and resources to help members succeed. ## See also - List of African American firsts - List of Boston University people

Heparin-induced thrombocytopenia

Low platelet count due to heparin, associated with a risk of thrombosis

Heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) is the development of thrombocytopenia (a low platelet count), due to the administration of various forms of heparin, an anticoagulant. HIT predisposes to thrombosis (the abnormal formation of blood clots inside a blood vessel). When thrombosis is identified the condition is called heparin-induced thrombocytopenia and thrombosis (HITT). HIT is caused by the formation of abnormal antibodies that activate platelets, which release microparticles that activate thrombin, leading to thrombosis. If someone receiving heparin develops new or worsening thrombosis, or if the platelet count falls, HIT can be confirmed with specific blood tests. The treatment of HIT requires stopping heparin treatment, and both protection from thrombosis and choice of an agent that will not reduce the platelet count any further. Several alternatives are available for this purpose; mainly used are danaparoid, fondaparinux, argatroban, and bivalirudin. While heparin was discovered in the 1930s, HIT was not reported until the 1960s. ## Signs and symptoms Heparin may be used for both prevention and the treatment of thrombosis. It exists in two main forms: an "unfractionated" form that can be injected under the skin (subcutaneously) or through an intravenous infusion, and a "low molecular weight" form that is generally given subcutaneously. Commonly used low molecular weight heparins are enoxaparin, dalteparin, nadroparin and tinzaparin. In HIT, the platelet count in the blood falls below the normal range, a condition called thrombocytopenia. However, it is generally not low enough to lead to an increased risk of bleeding. Most people with HIT, therefore, do not experience any symptoms. Typically, the platelet count falls 5–14 days after heparin is first given; if someone has received heparin in the previous three months, the fall in platelet count may occur sooner, sometimes within a day. The most common symptom of HIT is enlargement or extension of a previously diagnosed blood clot, or the development of a new blood clot elsewhere in the body. This may take the form of clots either in arteries or veins, causing arterial or venous thrombosis, respectively. Examples of arterial thrombosis are stroke, myocardial infarction ("heart attack"), and acute leg ischemia. Venous thrombosis may occur in the leg or arm in the form of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and in the lung in the form of a pulmonary embolism (PE); the latter usually originates in the leg, but migrates to the lung. In those receiving heparin through an intravenous infusion, a complex of symptoms ("systemic reaction") may occur when the infusion is started. These include fever, chills, high blood pressure, a fast heart rate, shortness of breath, and chest pain. This happens in about a quarter of people with HIT. Others may develop a skin rash consisting of red spots. ## Mechanism The administration of heparin can cause the development of HIT antibodies, suggesting heparin may act as a hapten, thus may be targeted by the immune system. In HIT, the immune system forms antibodies against heparin when it is bound to a protein called platelet factor 4 (PF4). These antibodies are usually of the IgG class and their development usually takes about five days. However, those who have been exposed to heparin in the last few months may still have circulating IgG, as IgG-type antibodies generally continue to be produced even when their precipitant has been removed. This is similar to immunity against certain microorganisms, with the difference that the HIT antibody does not persist more than three months. HIT antibodies have been found in individuals with thrombocytopenia and thrombosis who had no prior exposure to heparin, but the majority are found in people who are receiving heparin. The IgG antibodies form a complex with heparin and PF4 in the bloodstream. The tail of the antibody then binds to the FcγIIa receptor, a protein on the surface of the platelet. This results in platelet activation and the formation of platelet microparticles, which initiate the formation of blood clots; the platelet count falls as a result, leading to thrombocytopenia. In addition, the reticuloendothelial system (mostly the spleen) removes the antibody-coated platelets, further contributing to the thrombocytopenia. Formation of PF4-heparin antibodies is common in people receiving heparin, but only a proportion of these develop thrombocytopenia or thrombosis. This has been referred to as an "iceberg phenomenon". ## Diagnosis HIT may be suspected if blood tests show a falling platelet count in someone receiving heparin, even if the heparin has already been discontinued. Professional guidelines recommend that people receiving heparin have a complete blood count (which includes a platelet count) on a regular basis while receiving heparin. However, not all people with a falling platelet count while receiving heparin turn out to have HIT. The timing, severity of the thrombocytopenia, the occurrence of new thrombosis, and the presence of alternative explanations, all determine the likelihood that HIT is present. A commonly used score to predict the likelihood of HIT is the "4 Ts" score introduced in 2003. A score of 0–8 points is generated; if the score is 0–3, HIT is unlikely. A score of 4–5 indicates intermediate probability, while a score of 6–8 makes it highly likely. Those with a high score may need to be treated with an alternative drug, while more sensitive and specific tests for HIT are performed, while those with a low score can safely continue receiving heparin, as the likelihood that they have HIT is extremely low. In an analysis of the reliability of the 4T score, a low score had a negative predictive value of 0.998, while an intermediate score had a positive predictive value of 0.14 and a high score a positive predictive value of 0.64; intermediate and high scores, therefore, warrant further investigation. The first screening test in someone suspected of having HIT is aimed at detecting antibodies against heparin-PF4 complexes. This may be with a laboratory test of the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay type. This ELISA test, however, detects all circulating antibodies that bind heparin-PF4 complexes, and may also falsely identify antibodies that do not cause HIT. Therefore, those with a positive ELISA are tested further with a functional assay. This test uses platelets and serum from the patient; the platelets are washed and mixed with serum and heparin. The sample is then tested for the release of serotonin, a marker of platelet activation. If this serotonin release assay (SRA) shows high serotonin release, the diagnosis of HIT is confirmed. The SRA test is difficult to perform and is usually only done in regional laboratories. If someone has been diagnosed with HIT, some recommend routine Doppler sonography of the leg veins to identify deep vein thromboses, as this is very common in HIT. ## Treatment Given the fact that HIT predisposes strongly to new episodes of thrombosis, simply discontinuing the heparin administration is insufficient. Generally, an alternative anticoagulant is needed to suppress the thrombotic tendency while the generation of antibodies stops and the platelet count recovers. To make matters more complicated, the other most commonly used anticoagulant, warfarin, should not be used in HIT until the platelet count is at least 150 × 10⁹/L because a very high risk of warfarin necrosis exists in people with HIT who have low platelet counts. Warfarin necrosis is the development of skin gangrene in those receiving warfarin or a similar vitamin K inhibitor. If the patient was receiving warfarin at the time when HIT is diagnosed, the activity of warfarin is reversed with vitamin K. Transfusing platelets is discouraged, as a theoretical risk indicates that this may worsen the risk of thrombosis; the platelet count is rarely low enough to be the principal cause of significant hemorrhage. Various nonheparin agents are used as alternatives to heparin therapy to provide anticoagulation in those with strongly suspected or proven HIT: danaparoid, fondaparinux, bivalirudin, and argatroban. Not all agents are available in all countries, and not all are approved for this specific use. For instance, argatroban is only recently licensed in the United Kingdom, and danaparoid is not available in the United States. Fondaparinux, a factor Xa inhibitor, is commonly used off label for HIT treatment in the United States. According to a systematic review, people with HIT treated with lepirudin showed a relative risk reduction of clinical outcome (death, amputation, etc.) to be 0.52 and 0.42 when compared to patient controls. In addition, people treated with argatroban for HIT showed a relative risk reduction of the above clinical outcomes to be 0.20 and 0.18. Lepirudin production stopped on May 31, 2012. ## Epidemiology Up to 8% of patients receiving heparin are at risk to develop HIT antibodies, but only 1–5% on heparin will progress to develop HIT with thrombocytopenia and subsequently one-third of them may develop arterial or venous thrombosis. After vascular surgery, 34% of patients receiving heparin developed HIT antibodies without clinical symptoms. The exact number of cases of HIT in the general population is unknown. What is known is that women receiving heparin after a recent surgical procedure, particularly cardiothoracic surgery, have a higher risk, while the risk is very low in women just before and after giving birth. Some studies have shown that HIT is less common in those receiving low molecular weight heparin. ## History While heparin was introduced for clinical use in the late 1930s, new thrombosis in people treated with heparin was not described until 1957, when vascular surgeons reported the association. The fact that this phenomenon occurred together with thrombocytopenia was reported in 1969; prior to this time, platelet counts were not routinely performed. A 1973 report established HIT as a diagnosis, as well as suggesting that its features were the result of an immune process. Initially, various theories existed about the exact cause of the low platelets in HIT. Gradually, evidence accumulated on the exact underlying mechanism. In 1984–1986, John G. Kelton and colleagues at McMaster University Medical School developed the laboratory tests that could be used to confirm or exclude heparin-induced thrombocytopenia. Treatment was initially limited to aspirin and warfarin, but the 1990s saw the introduction of a number of agents that could provide anticoagulation without a risk of recurrent HIT. Older terminology distinguishes between two forms of heparin-induced thrombocytopenia: type 1 (mild, nonimmune mediated and self-limiting fall in platelet count) and type 2, the form described above. Currently, the term HIT is used without a modifier to describe the immune-mediated severe form. In 2021 a condition resembling HIT but without heparin exposure was described to explain unusual post-vaccination embolic and thrombotic events after the Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. It is a rare adverse event (1:1 million to 1:100,000) resulting from COVID-19 vaccines (particularly adenoviral vector vaccines). This is also known as Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome or TTS.

The Other Woman (2014 film)

2014 film by Nick Cassavetes

The Other Woman is a 2014 American romantic comedy film directed by Nick Cassavetes, written by Melissa Stack, and starring Cameron Diaz, Leslie Mann, Kate Upton, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Nicki Minaj, Taylor Kinney, and Don Johnson. The film follows three women—Carly (Diaz), Kate (Mann), and Amber (Upton)—who are all romantically involved with the same man (Coster-Waldau). After finding out about each other, the trio take their revenge on him. Development of The Other Woman began in January 2012, when 20th Century Fox hired Stack to write the script, based on the original idea from 1996 comedy The First Wives Club. Casting was done between November 2012 and June 2013. Filming began on April 29, 2013, in locations including Manhattan, Long Island, the Hamptons, Dockers Waterside Restaurant on Dune Road in Quogue, and the Bahamas, and it concluded on August 27 that year. Aaron Zigman composed the score and LBI Productions produced the film. The film was released on April 25, 2014, in the United States, and distributed worldwide by 20th Century Fox. The film received mostly negative reviews from critics, but was a box office success, grossing \$196.7 million worldwide. ## Plot Carly Whitten (Cameron Diaz), a New York attorney, is dating handsome and charismatic businessman Mark King (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), with whom she has been having sex for two months. Carly plans to introduce Mark to her father Frank (Don Johnson) over dinner, only for Mark to cancel on them and go out of town because of a "flood" at his Connecticut home. Encouraged by Frank, Carly dresses up in a sexy plumber's outfit and heads to Mark's house to seduce him. However, she is horrified to be met at the door by Mark's wife Kate (Leslie Mann), whom she had assumed to be Mark's housekeeper. Thrown for a loop by this revelation, Carly flees in embarrassment and shock. The next day, Kate shows up at Carly's law firm, having found her contact details in Mark's phone book. Carly admits to a panicked Kate that Mark has been cheating on her, but assures her she had no idea Mark was married. Initially annoyed by her constant presence at her apartment or work, Carly begins to warm up to Kate after a wild sleepover and a boozy heart-to-heart. Kate discovers that Mark is seeing yet another woman, who she thinks is Carly secretly continuing her previous relationship with Mark. Confronting Carly about this, they argue before realizing that Mark is seeing a third woman as both Carly and Kate have been refusing sex with him. Carly and Kate follow Mark to the Hamptons, where they stay at the house of Kate's brother Phil (Taylor Kinney), who is immediately attracted to Carly. The duo spies on Mark and find him with his mistress Amber (Kate Upton), a beautiful swimsuit supermodel, on the beach. When Mark leaves for the gym, they inform Amber that Mark has been cheating on all of them. All three women decide to get revenge on him together. Kate spikes his smoothies with estrogen pills to swell his nipples, has their dog licking his toothbrush before soaking it in their toilet, and adds hair-removal cream to his shampoo. Carly spikes his water with a laxative to give him heavy diarrhea. Amber uses an ugly drag queen sexual partner against him. While carrying out the various pranks, they discover Mark has been embezzling money from various startup companies his workplace helps to develop. Meanwhile, Carly begins to connect romantically and feel a bond with Phil. The women's camaraderie begins to fall apart when Kate finds herself still in love with Mark after caving in and having sex with him. Carly exposes Mark's fraud before texting him, upsetting Kate and Amber. However, Kate later realizes that Mark hasn’t changed after he catches a cold and suspects he has an STD (since Carly claimed she has one to avoid sleeping with him again) and he tries tricking her into taking medication for it too. Later, Mark goes to the Bahamas on a supposed business trip and Kate decides to follow and expose him. When she arrives she is surprised to find Carly and Amber waiting for her. They explain that Mark has set up Kate as the owner of the companies he defrauded, which, if his fraud is discovered, would result in Kate going to prison rather than him. She also finds out he has been seeing yet another woman, someone he has met on this trip. This, and the possibility of facing prison, motivates her to take action, with the help of Carly's legal expertise. Amber confides to Carly that she is seeing someone else too. When Mark returns from the trip, he visits Carly at her office. He is locked in a conference room by her assistant and friend Lydia (Nicki Minaj) and is stunned to see his wife, his girlfriend, and his summer fling sitting there all together. They proceed to confront him with his infidelities and embezzlement. With Carly as her attorney, Kate presents divorce papers and a list of their assets. She reveals how she, named CEO by Mark, has returned all of his embezzled money to the companies from which he stole it, saving them both from jail time as well as bankrupting Mark, much to his shock and hysterical outrage. Mark's business partner Nick (David Thornton) then fires him and acknowledges Kate's work. Everyone watches in amusement as a furious Mark accidentally smashes into an empty room's glass paneling, drastically hurting his nose and ripping his coat, and exits to find his car being towed for being near the red zone before receiving a departing punch in the face from Frank as payback. Some time later, Carly, Kate, and Amber happily toast to their friendship, promising to never sleep with the same man ever again. In the postscript, Carly and Phil move in together and Carly becomes pregnant with Phil's child. Kate takes over Mark's job with Nick and becomes CEO of several successful companies, making big profits under her honest leadership. Frank is revealed as the man Amber is dating and the two travel the world together. ## Cast - Cameron Diaz as Carly Whitten, an attorney in New York City who finds out that her boyfriend Mark is already married and has another girlfriend - Leslie Mann as Kate Hampton, a business-educated housewife in Connecticut who discovers that her husband Mark is cheating on her with two women - Kate Upton as Amber, an Amazon swimsuit supermodel living in The Hamptons and Mark's second girlfriend who believes that Mark is in the process of divorcing his wife - Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Mark King, a wealthy businessman who is cheating by sleeping with his wife Kate and two girlfriends, Carly and Amber, at the same time, as well as embezzling from his own company - Taylor Kinney as Phil Hampton, Kate's younger brother who becomes romantically involved with Carly - Nicki Minaj as Lydia, Carly's confidante and assistant - Don Johnson as Frank Whitten, Carly's father who dates women half his age - David Thornton as Nick, Mark's earlier business partner - Victor Cruz as Fernando, a limousine driver Carly hired - Olivia Culpo as Raven-Haired Beauty, one of Mark's conquests in the Caribbean - Radio Man (Craig Castaldo) as himself ## Production ### Development On January 16, 2012, it was announced that 2007 Black Listed screenwriter Melissa Stack was hired by 20th Century Fox to write an untitled female revenge comedy, which Julie Yorn would produce through LBI Productions. The film's script was described as the original idea from the 1996 film The First Wives Club, but with younger leads. The film's title was revealed to be The Other Woman on November 13. In January of the following year, Nick Cassavetes signed on to direct the film. ### Casting In November 2012, Cameron Diaz was in talks for the lead role. Diaz's representative also revealed that actress Kristen Wiig was under consideration for the wife role. In March 2013, Leslie Mann and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau were in talks to join the film, and Diaz was confirmed for her role. The following month, Kate Upton, Taylor Kinney, and Nicki Minaj, in her feature film debut, joined the film. Don Johnson was cast in June as Diaz's character's father. ### Filming In March 2013, the shooting was set to begin late-spring or early summer 2013 in New York City. Later it was told that the production would begin in May 2013. Principal photography began on April 29, 2013, and filming was completed by August 27, 2013. Much of the filming took place in parts of New York, including Long Island, The Hamptons, and Westhampton Beach. From July 18 to 23, filming took place in New Providence, where Nassau, The Bahamas, was used as the filming location. The Atlantis Paradise Island was also used as the shooting location. Isola Trattoria and Crudo Bar at Mondrian Hotel in SoHo, Manhattan, was used for the scene in which the women meet for a celebration toast at the end of the film. ### Music The Other Woman's music was composed by Aaron Zigman, who was reportedly set to score the film on May 31, 2013. The film featured songs from various artists including Etta James, Ester Dean, Morcheeba, Cyndi Lauper, Britt Nicole, Patty Griffin, Lorde, Keyshia Cole and Iggy Azalea. ## Release On March 31, 2014, the film had a world premiere in Amsterdam; the next day, on April 1, it had a UK premiere at the Curzon Mayfair Cinema in London. The film later had a US premiere on April 21 in Westwood, California. On March 25, 2014, Fox appealed the R-rating, which Motion Picture Association of America gave the film for sexual references. The studio wanted a PG-13 rating. On April 9, the MPAA's rating appeals board took back the R and gave the film a PG-13; the sources confirmed that there were no changes made to get the film PG-13. The Other Woman was released on April 25 in the United States. ### Box office The Other Woman opened at number 1 in North America on April 25, 2014, in 3,205 theaters debuting atop the weekend box office with earnings of \$24.7 million across the three days. The film grossed \$83.9 million in the United States and Canada and \$112.8 million in other territories for a total worldwide gross of \$196.7 million, against a production budget of \$40 million. ### Home media The Other Woman was released on DVD and Blu-ray on July 29, 2014. The Blu-ray edition features a gag reel, giggle fits, a gallery and deleted scenes. In the United States, the film has grossed \$9,592,336 from DVD sales and \$4,163,463 from Blu-ray sales, making a total of \$13,755,799. ## Reception ### Critical response As of June 2020, The Other Woman holds a 25% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 164 reviews with an average rating of 4.24/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The Other Woman definitely boasts a talented pedigree, but all that skill is never fully brought to bear on a story that settles for cheap laughs instead of reaching its empowering potential." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 39 out of 100 based on reviews from 35 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale. Justin Chang of Variety said, "Beneath the wobbly pratfalls and the scatological setpieces, there's no denying the film's mean-spirited kick, or its more-than-passing interest in what makes its women tick." The Hollywood Reporter's critic Todd McCarthy said: "It would have helped if director Nick Cassavetes had something resembling a sure hand at comedy." Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of The A.V. Club gave the film grade C−, saying "All of a sudden, a spotted Great Dane squats in the middle of a Manhattan apartment and out plop several gleaming, glistening CGI turds. It's one of those cases where a Hollywood movie inadvertently summarizes itself in a single shot." Michael Phillips of Chicago Tribune gave the film two and a half stars out of four, saying "Line to line, it's fresher than any number of guy-centric "Hangover"-spawned affairs, despite director Cassavetes' lack of flair for slapstick." The Boston Globe's Ty Burr gave the film one out of four stars and said, "It's 'The First Wives Club' rewritten for younger, less demanding audiences, or a '9 to 5' with absolutely nothing at stake." Stephanie Zacharek of The Village Voice said, "The Other Woman doesn't give these actresses much to do except look ridiculous, if not sneaky and conniving." Michael Sragow of Orange County Register gave the film grade C, saying that the film is "a coarse, rickety comedy." Richard Corliss wrote for Time magazine that "All three women are less watchable and amusing than Nicki Minaj as Carly's legal assistant Lydia." Film critic Stephen Holden of The New York Times said that the film is "so dumb, lazy, clumsily assembled and unoriginal, it could crush any actor forced to execute its leaden slapstick gags and mouth its crude, humorless dialogue." James Berardinelli of ReelViews wondered, "Has it come to this for director Nick Cassavetes?", comparing his career negatively to that of his father, John Cassavetes. Berardinelli elaborated, "what a comedown to find him in charge of such an unfocused, unfunny, scatologically-obsessed 'comedy.'" Christy Lemire of RogerEbert.Com gave the film two out of four stars and said, "While "The Other Woman" raises some thoughtful questions about independence, identity and the importance of sisterhood, ultimately it would rather poop on them and then throw them through a window in hopes of the getting the big laugh." Wesley Morris of Grantland said, "No one knows which takes are funny and which aren't. More than once, all three women, especially poor Upton, are caught looking like they don't know what they're doing." Bilge Ebiri of the magazine New York said, "You can't shake the feeling that in a just world, all these women – even Kate Upton – would have better material than this." Connie Ogle of The Miami Herald gave the film three out of four stars and called the film a "goofy, ridiculous, with more gross-out humor than is strictly necessary but still funny. It falls into the category of Girlfriend Films – as in, go with your girlfriends and leave your date/partner/spouse at home with the PlayStation or the NBA playoffs." Colin Covert of Star Tribune gave the film three out of four stars, saying "It's an escapist women's empowerment comedy like many others, but elevated by the simple virtue of being, for most of its length, very, very funny." Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post gave the film one and a half stars out of four, saying "A movie as generic and forgettable as the sofa-size art on its characters' walls." Linda Holmes wrote for NPR, calling the film "a conceptually odious, stupid-to-the-bone enterprise ..." Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times advised guys to "Step away from the vehicle, because The Other Woman is out of control and intent on running down a certain kind of male." ### Accolades

Sexual Healing (South Park)

"Sexual Healing" is the fourteenth season premiere of the American animated television series South Park, and the 196th overall episode of the series. It originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on March 17, 2010, and on Comedy Central UK on March 19, 2010. The title of the episode is derived from the song of the same name by soul singer Marvin Gaye. In the episode, the sex scandal of golf pro Tiger Woods has the media and public frantic to determine why rich and successful men would suddenly crave sex with multiple partners. Meanwhile, schools are screened for the condition and Kyle, Kenny and Butters are diagnosed with sexual addiction. Written and directed by series co-creator Trey Parker, it was rated TV-MA L in the United States. "Sexual Healing" parodies several elements of the Woods scandal, including alleged fights with his wife Elin Nordegren, which are portrayed as part of a new Tiger Woods PGA Tour video game played by Cartman, Stan, and Kenny. In addition to mocking Woods himself, the script parodied the large amount of media attention surrounding the scandal, and suggested because it is natural for men to crave sex, Woods's actions can be understood, although not condoned. The episode parodies several celebrities who have experienced real-life sexual scandals, including Bill Clinton, David Letterman, Charlie Sheen, David Duchovny and Ben Roethlisberger. The treatment these celebrities received is portrayed as ineffective and ridiculous, suggesting celebrities should not have to undergo insincere acts of public apology for their sexual transgressions. "Sexual Healing" received generally mixed reviews from critics. According to Nielsen Media Research, "Sexual Healing" was seen by 3.7 million households, making it the most watched South Park premiere since "Rainforest Shmainforest" in 1999, and helping make March 17 the most-watched night of the year for Comedy Central to that point. Shortly after the episode aired, Internet rumors spread that EA Sports planned to sue South Park creators Parker and Matt Stone over their portrayal in the episode. EA Sports specifically denied the claims. ## Plot The new edition of the Tiger Woods PGA Tour series of video games incorporates elements of the alleged physical altercations Woods had with his wife regarding his extramarital affairs, and resembles a fighting game more than a golf simulation. Cartman, Stan, Kyle and Kenny become big fans of the game. Meanwhile, scientists at the Center for Disease Control determine that sex addiction is a disease reaching epidemic proportions. They decide to screen schoolchildren for the disease, and Kenny, Kyle, and Butters are diagnosed as sex addicts. Kenny is killed after attempting autoerotic asphyxiation while in a Batman suit, while Kyle and Butters are sent to attend a therapy session for sex addicts consisting of Michael Douglas, Michael Jordan, Ben Roethlisberger, David Duchovny, Charlie Sheen, David Letterman, Bill Clinton, Billy Bob Thornton, Kobe Bryant, Eliot Spitzer, and Tiger Woods. When performing an experiment on chimpanzees, the CDC determines that money is somehow responsible for infecting males with sexual addiction. Because an image of Independence Hall appears on the back of a \$100 bill, they believe the origins of the disorder can somehow be traced there. They submit their findings to President Barack Obama, who believes that a virus for sex addiction had previously been brought to Earth by extraterrestrials. He accompanies a SWAT team on their raid on Independence Hall in search of the "wizard alien" that is responsible for the sex addiction epidemic. When one member of the team suggests that the mission is irrational and that sex addiction is simply an inherent part of the male ego, he is ordered by Obama to be hauled away. Because Kyle also feels sex addiction is not a disease, but rather a natural male desire that can be kept under control with the proper discipline, others suggest he is somehow immune from the "spell" of the wizard alien. He is brought to Independence Hall along with Butters and both are given rifles by the SWAT team. The hauled-off SWAT member, gagged and bound in an alien wizard costume, stumbles into the room. On orders from the SWAT team, Kyle and Butters shoot the costumed officer dead and the "spell" is suddenly lifted. Woods announces he is cured of his sex addiction, and the next incarnation of his video game once again focuses on golf. Cartman and Stan reject the new game, with Stan proclaiming that "golf is stupid again." ## Production and themes "Sexual Healing", the South Park fourteenth season premiere, was written and directed by series co-founder Trey Parker and was rated TV-MA-L in the United States. It originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on March 17, 2010, and in the United Kingdom on March 19. A teaser clip of the episode called "All the Temptations" featuring a parody of Woods's February 2010 televised public apology was featured on the official South Park website, South Park Studios, and drew 62,000 viewers on the first day. Before the episode aired, several news outlets incorrectly reported the episode's title was "All the Temptations" due to the clip. The episode satirized the sex scandal surrounding golf pro Tiger Woods, who had admitted to cheating on his wife Elin Nordegren with multiple partners. The Woods scandal had been one of the biggest media stories in the months since South Park's thirteenth season ended in November 2009. Series co-creator Matt Stone said the scandal provided so much material for satire that an entire season could have been dedicated to it, and the media storm surrounding Woods meant they had even less to worry about the delicacy of their parody. Stone said he was simultaneously fascinated and disgusted by Woods's public apology, so the writers were sure to include it in the episode. The script to "Sexual Healing" was not finished until after March 12, five days before the episode aired. This was in keeping with a continued practice from previous South Park seasons, in which Parker and Stone write and produce their episodes within the week before their broadcast dates in order to harness energy for the final product and keep the material fresh.. In an early image of the episode released to the press, Woods is seen at his apology press conference, with Cartman standing beside him. During the production of the episode, the writers decided to incorporate the Tiger Woods scenes as part of the video game that the boys, including Cartman, are playing. "Sexual Healing" parodied several real-life elements of the scandal, including Nordegren's discovery of Woods's infidelity by reading text messages on his cellular phone, and Woods's loss of commercial endorsements as a result of his infidelity. The episode also parodies the alleged fight that was reported between Woods and Nordegren on Thanksgiving in which Nordegren attacked Woods's car with a golf club and caused him to crash into a fire hydrant. "Sexual Healing" also included a version of the public apology Woods delivered in February 2010, which was closely covered and examined by the mainstream media. The episode aired only a few days after Woods publicly announced he would return to golf at the 2010 Masters Tournament in April. The shock and confusion with which the male characters in "Sexual Healing" react to the Woods scandal, and the extreme measures they undertake to learn why rich and successful men crave sex, served as a parody to the wide media attention and analysis the scandal received. The episode puts forward a pragmatic explanation that it is natural for men to crave sex, so although Woods's actions cannot be condoned, they can at least be understood for what they are. This point of view particularly conveyed in the speech of one SWAT team member near the end of the episode, who is ostracized, imprisoned and unknowingly shot to death by Kyle and Butters after expressing his common sense views. The episode suggests men of normal financial means would likely be tempted by infidelity and sexual affairs if they had enough fame and money to obtain them easily. "Sexual Healing" suggests celebrities involved in sexual scandals should not be forced to undergo rehabilitation and public acts of contrition. The scene in which the celebrities start shaking and dancing, proclaiming "Look, the sex addiction is leaving my body!", demonstrates the insincerity and ridiculousness of these public steps. The episode also mocked the measures used to diagnose and treat sexual addiction in the United States. This is particularly prevalent when Kenny, Kyle and Butters are misdiagnosed with sexual addiction based on an inaccurate test of simply presenting an image of a naked woman to them and testing whether they could identify a handkerchief in the woman's hand and specify its color. The rehabilitation courses themselves are also mocked as ineffective and unnecessary, particularly because the most important lesson taught in them is how to avoid getting caught. ## Current affairs references Several celebrities who had experienced well publicized sexual scandals or affairs were featured in a sexual addiction rehabilitation class "Sexual Healing". Among them were former U.S. President Bill Clinton, night talk show host David Letterman, NFL quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, former New York governor Eliot Spitzer, basketball players Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, and actors Charlie Sheen, David Duchovny, Michael Douglas and Billy Bob Thornton. While discussing how to avoid getting caught, Roethlisberger says, "Don't screw girls in the public bathrooms", a reference to his March 2010 sex scandal in Milledgeville, Georgia. Clinton suggests not putting cigars into any woman's vagina, a reference to his alleged sexual act with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky during the Lewinsky scandal. David Letterman says, "When they ask you for money, pay them", a reference to the October 2009 scandal in which CBS producer Joe Halderman attempted to blackmail Letterman with information about his sexual affairs. When a doctor explains auto-erotic asphyxiation to Kenny, Kyle and Butters, he refers to the deaths of actor David Carradine and INXS singer Michael Hutchence (the latter of whom's death was actually ruled a suicide, rather than by auto-erotic asphyxiation). After it is explained to Kenny that auto-erotic asphyxiation often involves wearing a costume of some type, he dons a costume of Batman, the DC Comics fictional superhero, and subsequently dies in the outfit. The title of the episode is derived from the song of the same name by soul singer Marvin Gaye. A version of the song, sung by series co-creator Trey Parker, is featured at the end of the episode, when the celebrities claim the sexual addiction has left their bodies. The angry and violent confrontations between Woods and Nordegren are portrayed not as reality within the episode, but as simulated elements of the newest Tiger Woods PGA Tour video game installment by EA Sports. Scientists from the Center for Disease Control, a federal agency under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, conduct experiments on chimpanzees in "Sexual Healing" to discover why celebrities crave sex with multiple women. The ending where President Obama is addressing a crowd at the United States Capitol is a reference to the ending of Deep Impact. ## Reception In its original American broadcast on March 17, 2010, "Sexual Healing" was watched by 3.7 million viewers, according to the Nielsen Media Research, making it the most watched South Park debut since the third season premiere "Rainforest Shmainforest" in 1999. The day it aired, "Sexual Healing" was the highest-rated show in all of television among men between ages 18 and 34, and was the highest rated cable show among adults between ages 18 and 49. March 17 ranked as the most-watched night of the year for Comedy Central. "Sexual Healing" drew a 2.6 overall rating, a 2.4 rating among adults between ages 18 and 49, a 5.2 rating among men between ages 18 and 34, and a 6.9 rating among men between ages 18 and 24. "Sexual Healing" aired before the series premiere of the animated comedy series Ugly Americans, which drew 2.1 million viewers. The network was also the highest-rated and most-watched overall television network among men between ages 18 and 24, and the highest-rated and most-watched cable network among adults between ages 18 and 49 and men between ages 18 and 34. "Sexual Healing" received generally mixed reviews. Bill Harris of the Toronto Sun praised the timeliness of the episode, which he said has kept South Park relevant throughout its 14 seasons. Harris complimented the episode for addressing the larger issue of how sexual acts among celebrities are dissected and analyzed by the media and public. MTV News praised the Woods parody, which they said was particularly timely because of the golf pro's recent announcement to return to golf. It said, "It was on-the-nose while still being clever, which is a balance that the makers of "South Park" have mastered brilliantly." Bill Brownstein, from the Canwest News Service, called it "an absolutely blistering and timely satire" on Woods and sexual addiction. A CNN review called the Woods satire "brilliant" and a strong improvement over the previous season's "Dead Celebrities", which also included several cameos of celebrity parodies. The review also found the ending of the episode, with Stan and Cartman growing bored with their video game once it focused on golf rather than sex scandals and fighting, to be a "pretty hilarious gag". Ryan Waxon, of The Cowl, said "Sexual Healing" stood out from other Woods jokes and proved Parker and Stone "can do satire like nobody else". He particularly praised the Woods video game and the subplot with Butters trying to learn about women's pubic hair, claiming, "Butters’ low intelligence and complete innocence make for some the greatest moments that the show has to offer." Entertainment Weekly television reviewer Ken Tucker said the episode was "rather short on laugh-out-loud funniness", but included several clever ideas, including the Tiger Woods video game, the satire of the media attention to the Woods scandal, and "one of the best Kenny death scenes ever". Newsweek writer Joshua Alston said the Woods parody "didn't manage to be terribly funny or insightful", and suggested the speed at which South Park writers can produce a topical episode just days before its broadcast is actually a detriment to the show. Alston said, "Whereas once the show's creators swiftly turned around topical episodes because they could, now the South Park team is expected to seize on the news." Ramsey Isler of IGN found much of the episode's humor mediocre, in particular the rehabilitation of the celebrities and the CDC studies of the chimpanzees. Isler said he enjoyed Kenny's death and Butters' obsession with "bush", but felt the theme of the episode was too obvious and less clever than previous South Park episodes. The A.V. Club writer Zack Handlen appreciated the timeliness and relevance of the subject matter, but felt "the satirical target here wasn't meaty enough to warrant a full episode, and the developing plot just felt too half-assed". Handlen said some individual jokes were funny, but the episode as a whole was too one-note and redundant. Carlos Delgado of iF Magazine said the Woods scandal was several months old, so the episode felt stale and old news. Delgado felt the alien infection theory was too random and lazy, and the idea that men would cheat on their wives if they had more money and opportunity was offensive, but not entirely untrue. Within days of the episode's original broadcast, rumors began to spread throughout the Internet that EA Sports planned to sue Parker and Stone over their portrayal of the Tiger Woods PGA Tour video game in "Sexual Healing". The rumor began with a March 21 post on the blog Daily Informer, which quoted an unnamed EA Sports source who said the episode had "a few copyright infringements in there that I’m sure will be dealt with accordingly". The claims quickly spread to other blogs and websites, but EA Sports specifically denied the rumor, claiming, "The reports that EA Sports is planning to sue the creators of 'South Park' are completely false." ## Home media "Sexual Healing", along with the thirteen other episodes from South Park's fourteenth season, were released on a three-disc DVD set and two-disc Blu-ray set in the United States on April 26, 2011.

Black Lab

American alternative rock band

Black Lab is an alternative rock band founded by Paul Durham in Berkeley, California and currently based in Los Angeles and Montana. They released their debut album on Geffen Records, entitled Your Body Above Me, and scored two rock radio hits in the US, "Wash It Away" and "Time Ago". After leaving Geffen in 1999, the band signed to Epic Records, contributing a track to Sony's Spider-Man before leaving the label. Since 2003, the band has independently released nine full-length albums, an EP, and a live concert DVD/CD set. Passion Leaves a Trace, released in 2007, featured the single "Mine Again" and gained significant exposure through internet media outlets and a film trailer. "This Night" was used as the theme song for the season six trailer for FX's The Shield, and was featured in House and Banshee. Paul Durham and Andy Ellis are currently the core members. The band works with Secret Road Music Services to make the band's music available for licensing. ## History ### Your Body Above Me (1995–1999) Twin Falls, Idaho native Paul Durham's singing career began when he was offered a spot singing in a local youth choir. After graduating from Oberlin College, Durham supported himself as a substitute teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area while fronting his acoustic band, Durham. Durham did not have any official releases, but some of their recorded material was released in 2004 as part of Paul Durham's solo album Ten Million Years. Paul Durham disbanded this band in 1995, signed to Geffen Records in 1996 after attracting attention from a number of labels, and joined bassist Geoff Stanfield, guitarist Michael Belfer and drummer Michael Urbano to form Black Lab. The name is an amalgamation of two of the band's influences, Black Sabbath and Stereolab. Their debut album, Your Body Above Me, co-produced by David Bianco and the band, was released on October 21, 1997 in the United States. Two singles from the album charted in the U.S., the power ballad "Time Ago" and the alternative rock hit "Wash It Away"; the album also featured the PJ Harvey co-write "All the Money in the World". The LP peaked on Billboard's Heatseekers charts at No. 19 in 1998, and sales of the album eventually topped 120,000. Reviews of Your Body Above Me noted the album's dark, melodic modern rock sound, and were generally positive. The Washington Post called Your Body Above Me "moodily sumptuous", Guitar Player described the music as having "drama and rhythmic urgency", and Allmusic noted the album's "brooding yet propulsive sound that's actually quite intriguing". The band subsequently toured with Fuel, Days of the New, Cracker, and Our Lady Peace, and were called "The American U2" by the San Francisco Chronicle. Black Lab songs were featured on soundtracks to Can't Hardly Wait, Varsity Blues, Permanent Midnight, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the song "Wash It Away" was also included on a charity album, Live in the X Lounge. Just as momentum was building on their debut, however, Geffen went out of business after being subsumed by Universal; dissatisfied with the new label arrangement, Durham moved to Los Angeles, and the band broke up in 1999. ### See the Sun (2000–2005) In 2000, Paul Durham re-formed Black Lab with an alternate lineup after Epic Records expressed an interest in releasing a second album from the band. The band was quiet until 2002, which saw the release of "Learn to Crawl" on the Spider-Man soundtrack, with a band consisting of Paul Durham, Andy Ellis, bassist Eve Hill and drummer Scotty Coogan. The electronic-flavored result was described as "tightly spun, highly melodic rock" by Rolling Stone. After a series of delays, Black Lab asked to be released from Epic; legal problems with the record label ensued, but the band won the rights to the master recordings of the material they had been working on. While searching for a new label, the band self-released a six-song EP in 2003, first online and then on CD, which featured "Learn to Crawl" and the single "See the Sun". However, the planned second full-length, called See the Sun, wouldn't see light until 2005, after the band decided on an independent release. See the Sun did not receive any mainstream press coverage, but online reviews noted the band's turn toward increasing use of keyboards and synthesizers to introduce and underlay tracks, describing it as "startling, but in a good way". The band benefited heavily from promotion from online rock site Alternative Addiction, who included the track "Lonely Boy" on one of its compilations, regularly reports on the band's music, and places them in heavy rotation on its internet radio station. After leaving the major labels, Black Lab essentially ceased touring, fearing that a self-booked and promoted national tour would not be cost-effective. They maintained a relationship with fans via their website and MP3 of the Month Club, through which users were able to subscribe to monthly tracks of new content, such as soundtrack songs, unreleased works, and insights into the band's songwriting process. ### Passion Leaves a Trace and other projects (2006–2009) Early in 2006, Durham and a few of his old friends reacquainted to record as a side project, called Cake or Death. This band, featuring Kristin Kelly, Joshua Leavitt and Olya Mokina, have recorded one full-length self-titled LP. At the end of October 2006, Paul also announced that a special "Director's Cut" edition of Your Body Above Me was being released. The rerelease contained two songs originally recorded for the album, extended cuts of several songs, new liner notes and photos. A third Black Lab album, entitled Passion Leaves a Trace, was released on January 16, 2007. The track "This Night" was featured on the promotional advertisement for the sixth series of The Shield; tracks from this album were also featured in CBS's Numb3rs, ABC's 6 Degrees and the films The Benchwarmers and Lovewrecked. The song was also featured in the television series House M.D. in season 7 episode 16, and the Season 2 finale of Cinemax's Banshee. The band attracted media attention in March 2007 through the campaign "Bum Rush the Charts", in which one of their songs was promoted through podcasting and blogging. The aim of this was to harness independent media and music to promote unsigned bands and to raise money for a scholarship fund. As a result of this effort, on March 22, 2007, the single "Mine Again" was purchased over 14,000 times in the United States. The iTunes charts represent a weekly average of purchases, not just “a snapshot of the previous 24 hours’ worth of sales,” as a spokesman for Apple reported in The Washington Post about the campaign. “Mine Again,” however, still cracked the top 100 songs on the U.S. chart at No. 99, and peaked at No. 11 on the U.S. rock chart. The campaign had a significant international impact, selling songs in every country in which iTunes has stores and pushing "Mine Again" to No. 53 on the Canadian chart (#10 rock), No. 15 in the Netherlands (#2 rock), and No. 73 in Germany (#12 rock), among others. The song broached the iTunes rock charts in eleven additional countries as well. Songs from the album also became popular on the PMC Top10 podcast, with three of them reaching the site's year-end Top 10: "Mine Again" (#8), "Broken Heart" (#6), and "Hole in My Heart" (#5). In June 2007, Black Lab released its second album of the year, Technologie. It is described as an album of electronica, techno-rock and remixes. It features remixes of previously released songs, several songs released on movie soundtracks and brand new material, including the band's cover of the Transformers theme song. In 2009, the band released Give Us Sugar, a compilation of assorted rarities from throughout their career including non-LP B-sides and songs previously exclusive to movie soundtracks. It was intended to be released as a limited edition of only 250 autographed copies, but the number of pre-orders far surpassed that limit, forcing the band to change the publishing and distribution approach. ### Two Strangers, Unplugged, A Raven Has My Heart, Live at the Mercury Lounge, A New World (2010–present) On October 19, Black Lab released Two Strangers. Two Strangers introduces orchestrations and pianos by Jonathan Grand on several tracks, cello by Jesse Ahmann and Banjo by Paul Bohak, on track 11. In November 2011, Black Lab released their first acoustic album which features unplugged versions of 13 previously released Black Lab songs, as well as 3 new songs. In April 2014, Black Lab released A Raven Has My Heart. This is the first Black Lab album to be crowd-funded on Kickstarter. The funding was successful, raising over \$75,000 and resulting in live performances in Los Angeles and New York City in August 2014 (recorded and released on a DVD/2-CD set). In November 2016, Black Lab released A New World. The album includes "The Road," featured in Season 3 Episode 6 of Banshee. In May 2020, Black Lab released the single "In a Moment". In December 2022, Black Lab released their rendition of Christmas carol "What Child is This." The song credits Black Lab and Paul Durham, respectively. ## Band members ### Current members - Paul Durham – lead vocals, guitar, Pro Tools (1995–present) - Andy Ellis – guitar, keyboards, programming (2000–present) - Brian Paturalski - bass, guitar, programming - Isaac Carpenter - drums, percussion - Deej Hofer - Alex Kemp ### Former members - Michael Belfer – guitar (1996–1999, died 2022) - Geoff Stanfield – bass guitar (1996–1999) - Bryan Head – drums, percussion (1997–1999) - Eve Hill – bass guitar (2000–2003) - Scotty Coogan – drums, percussion (2000–2003) - Michael Urbano – drums, percussion (1996–1997) - Josh Freese - drums, percussion (1999) (Recorded only 3 songs with the band, one of which was released on Give Us Sugar) ## Discography - Your Body Above Me (1997) - See the Sun (2005) - Passion Leaves a Trace (2007) - Two Strangers (2010) - A Raven Has My Heart (2014) - A New World (2016) ## Photos

No. 86 Wing RAAF

No. 86 Wing is a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) transport and air-to-air refuelling wing. Coming under the control of Air Mobility Group, it is headquartered at RAAF Base Amberley, Queensland. The wing comprises No. 33 Squadron, operating Airbus KC-30 tanker-transports, No. 36 Squadron, operating Boeing C-17 Globemaster III heavy transports, and the Australian Army's 68 Ground Liaison Section. Its aircraft support Australian military and humanitarian operations worldwide. Formed in the last year of World War II to undertake ground attack missions with de Havilland Mosquitos and Bristol Beaufighters in the South West Pacific theatre, No. 86 Wing was reorganised in 1946 as a transport formation headquartered at RAAF Station Schofields, New South Wales, flying Douglas C-47 Dakotas. It relocated to RAAF Base Richmond, New South Wales, in 1949 and began operating Lockheed C-130 Hercules in 1958. Disbanded in 1964, the wing was re-established at Richmond in 1987, flying Boeing 707 tanker-transports as well as the Hercules. No. 36 Squadron converted to Globemasters in 2006. No. 33 Squadron retired its 707s in 2008, and did not become operational with the KC-30 until 2013. Having previously flown de Havilland Canada DHC-4 Caribous, No. 38 Squadron converted to the King Airs in 2009 and was disbanded in 2018. The Hercules were transferred to No. 84 Wing in 2010. No. 86 Wing headquarters relocated from Richmond to Amberley in January 2012. ## History ### Attack formation (1945–46) Established in March 1945 under the command of Group Captain J.M. Whyte, No. 86 (Attack) Wing comprised two flying units, No. 1 Squadron operating de Havilland Mosquitos and No. 93 Squadron operating Bristol Beaufighters. The wing was initially based on the island of Morotai in the South West Pacific theatre, as part of the Australian First Tactical Air Force. Its order of battle for Operation Oboe Six, the assault on north-west Borneo commencing in June, included Nos. 1 and 93 Squadrons, No. 84 Operational Base Unit, No. 30 Air Stores Park, No. 29 Medical Clearing Station, and No. 1 Repair and Servicing Unit—a total of over 1,400 personnel. Delays getting the aircraft operational at their forward base on Labuan meant that the wing only completed three combat missions before the end of the Pacific War, conducting rocket and machine-gun attacks on targets in Sarawak during August 1945. No. 1 Squadron took part in one operation and No. 93 Squadron in two; each unit lost one aircraft in action. No. 86 Wing was originally to have been augmented by a third combat unit, No. 94 Squadron, flying Mosquitos. Formed in May 1945, the squadron was still undergoing training when the war ended, and it was disbanded at RAAF Station Richmond, New South Wales, in January 1946. In December 1945, shortly after the end of the Pacific War, the commanding officer of No. 93 Squadron, Squadron Leader D.K.M. Gulliver, crashed his Beaufighter on takeoff at Labuan, colliding with two P-51 Mustangs of No. 77 Squadron parked at the airfield; Gulliver and five people on the ground died in the accident, including the then-Officer Commanding No. 86 Wing, Group Captain L.C.M. Holswich. Between January and March 1946, the Beaufighters escorted Mustangs of No. 81 Wing to Japan for service as part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force. In August that year, Nos. 1 and 93 Squadrons disbanded at Narromine, New South Wales. ### Initial transport formation (1946–64) Re-formed at RAAF Station Schofields, New South Wales, in July 1946, No. 86 (Transport) Wing was assigned control of Nos. 36, 37, and 38 Squadrons, flying Douglas C-47 Dakotas. The wing was augmented by No. 386 (Base) Squadron and No. 486 (Maintenance) Squadron, formed in August. The Dakotas initially flew supply missions to the Australian-administered Territory of Papua and New Guinea, as well as three-times weekly courier flights to Japan in support of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force. The latter schedule continued until December 1947, when the service was taken over by Qantas Avro Lancastrians. No. 37 Squadron disbanded in February 1948. In August that year, crews from Nos. 36 and 38 Squadrons departed for Europe to take part in the Berlin Airlift, a commitment that lasted almost a year. The Australians were responsible for delivering over 16 million tons of supplies, and almost 8,000 passengers. No. 386 Squadron disbanded in March 1949 and re-formed as Station Headquarters at Schofields. On 22 June 1949, No. 86 Wing, comprising Nos. 36, 38 and 486 Squadrons, relocated from Schofields to the nearby RAAF Station Richmond. The return of crews from Berlin allowed the wing to release No. 38 Squadron and its Dakotas to participate in the Malayan Emergency, under the control of No. 90 (Composite) Wing, commencing in June 1950. After airlifting more than 17,000 passengers and evacuating over 300 injured troops, the squadron left Malaya in November 1952 and returned to No. 86 Wing at Richmond. A month earlier, the wing's Dakotas had flown supply and observation flights in connection with the British atomic test on Montebello in Western Australia. No. 36 Squadron disbanded at Richmond on 9 March 1953, re-forming the next day from No. 30 Transport Unit at Iwakuni, Japan. Here it was part of No. 91 (Composite) Wing, which controlled the RAAF's units during the Korean War and its immediate aftermath. The squadron returned to Australia and the aegis of No. 86 Wing two years later, when No. 91 Wing disbanded. In 1954, No. 86 Wing relocated to Canberra to help satisfy the Federal government's VIP transport needs. It returned to Richmond four years later, leaving behind its VIP contingent, No. 34 Flight, which in July 1959 was re-formed as No. 34 Squadron and left the control of No. 86 Wing to become an independent unit directly administered by Home Command and tasked by RAAF Canberra. Having earlier augmented its complement of Dakotas with Convair 440 Metropolitans, in December 1958 the wing began operating Lockheed C-130 Hercules medium transports, when No. 36 Squadron took delivery of the first of twelve C-130As. They remained in service for twenty years, clocking up 147,000 accident-free flying hours. The official history of the post-war Air Force described the Hercules as "probably the biggest step-up in aircraft capabilities" the RAAF ever received, considering it roughly four times as effective as the Dakota, taking into account the improvements in payload, range, and speed. When No. 78 (Fighter) Wing and its two CAC Sabre squadrons deployed to RAAF Base Butterworth between October 1958 and February 1959, seven Dakotas were required to ferry the staff and equipment of No. 3 Squadron from Australia to Malaya, compared to two Hercules for No. 77 Squadron. In 1962, Air Movements and Training Flight (AMTF), previously under No. 38 Squadron and responsible for developing and imparting new techniques in aerial transport, came directly under the control of No. 86 Wing headquarters. That December, the Hercules carried troops into a combat zone for the first time, when one of No. 36 Squadron's C-130s joined a Commonwealth airlift from Singapore to Borneo at the beginning of the Konfrontasi between Indonesia and Malaysia; similar missions were undertaken for another five years. No. 38 Squadron received the RAAF's first de Havilland Canada DHC-4 Caribou tactical transports in April 1964, replacing its Dakotas. The first six Caribous were despatched that August to South East Asia for service in the Vietnam War as RAAF Transport Flight Vietnam (RTFV). The same month, No. 86 Wing was disbanded. Because the Caribous were primarily for support of the Australian Army, an overarching wing headquarters for the Caribous and Hercules was now considered inappropriate. No. 486 Squadron was also disbanded and its equipment and staff divided between Nos. 36 and 38 Squadrons, which along with AMTF became independently operating units under the command of Headquarters RAAF Base Richmond. Following the re-establishment at Richmond of No. 37 Squadron in February 1966, flying C-130E Hercules, No. 486 Squadron was re-formed to provide maintenance for both Hercules squadrons. As No. 36 Squadron's tasking was mainly tactical and No. 37 Squadron's strategic (owing to the longer range of its C-130Es), forming the Hercules units into a new wing was not deemed necessary. Still based at Richmond, the Hercules provided long-range transport and medical evacuation services to and from South East Asia during the Vietnam War. No. 36 Squadron's C-130As were replaced by C-130H models in 1978. RTFV was re-formed as No. 35 Squadron in June 1966, and continued to serve in Vietnam until Australian forces were withdrawn in 1972; it was then based in Richmond until 1976, when it relocated to RAAF Base Townsville, Queensland. No. 38 Squadron meanwhile continued to operate Caribous out of Richmond until 1992, when it transferred to RAAF Base Amberley, Queensland. In the Vietnam and post-Vietnam eras, along with their military transport duties, the Hercules and Caribou undertook disaster relief operations throughout Australia and the Pacific. ### Current transport formation (1987–) No. 86 Wing re-formed at Richmond on 2 February 1987, under the newly established Air Lift Group (ALG), which replaced Headquarters RAAF Base Richmond. Commanded by Group Captain G.I. Lumsden, the wing's flying units consisted of No. 33 Squadron, operating Boeing 707 tanker-transports, and Nos. 36 and 37 Squadrons, operating C-130H and C-130E Hercules, respectively; No. 486 Maintenance Squadron and Air Movements Training and Development Unit (AMTDU), which had evolved from AMTF in 1965, were also under its control. No. 486 Squadron was responsible for day-to-day maintenance of the 707s as well as the Hercules. No. 34 Squadron, the VIP transport unit based at RAAF Base Fairbairn in Canberra, and No. 32 Squadron, flying Hawker Siddeley HS 748 air navigation trainers at RAAF Base East Sale in Victoria, became part of No. 86 Wing in June 1988 and July 1989, respectively. In 1992, the Hercules of Nos. 36 and 37 Squadrons clocked up a grand total of 500,000 accident-free flying hours; Lockheed presented No. 86 Wing with a trophy to commemorate the milestone. During 1994–95, the wing was commanded by Group Captain (later Air Chief Marshal) Angus Houston, who in 2005 was appointed Chief of the Defence Force, only the third RAAF officer to be raised to the top position in the Australian armed services. By mid-1996, No. 32 Squadron had been transferred to No. 84 Wing, which was also controlled by ALG. In 1998, No. 86 Wing received the Duke of Gloucester Cup as the most proficient wing in RAAF Air Command. No. 486 Squadron was disbanded in October that year, after transferring its functions to Nos. 36 and 37 Squadrons. By then, Nos. 35 and 38 Squadrons, flying Caribous out of RAAF Bases Townsville and Amberley, respectively, had joined the Hercules squadrons and AMTDU under the aegis of No. 86 Wing, while Nos. 33 and 34 Squadrons had been transferred to No. 84 Wing, now also headquartered at Richmond. Later, AMTDU became part of No. 85 Wing at Richmond. No. 37 Squadron's C-130Es were replaced by C-130J models in 1999. No. 35 Squadron transferred its Caribous to No. 38 Squadron in 2000, and was "formally deactivated" in March 2002. RAAF C-130 operations were concentrated in No. 37 Squadron in November 2006, when No. 36 Squadron transferred its C-130Hs prior to re-equipping with the Boeing C-17 Globemaster III heavy transports and relocating to Amberley. No. 38 Squadron's Caribous were retired at the end of 2009, and replaced by Beech King Air 350 light transports. No. 37 Squadron was transferred to No. 84 Wing in October 2010. The aircraft operated by No. 86 Wing became well known to the general public through their involvement in disaster relief and emergency transport in Australia and the region, along with their participation in overseas peacekeeping efforts. Hercules and 707s were employed by the Federal government to provide air transport during the pilots' dispute that curtailed operations by the two domestic airlines in 1989, evacuated Australian nationals from the Middle East during the first Gulf War in 1990–91, and transported Australian troops to and from Somalia as part of Operation Solace in 1993. Since the end of the Vietnam War, much of the RAAF's transport tasking had been relatively routine in nature, or involved humanitarian relief; the Somalia operation marked the beginning of a shift for No. 86 Wing towards a more combat-ready or "operational" focus. Six Hercules evacuated over 450 civilians from Cambodia following the coup in July 1997. Two detachments from the wing, one of Hercules and one of Caribous, supported INTERFET operations in East Timor between September 1999 and February 2001. Wing operations staff accompanied Hercules of Nos. 36 and 37 Squadrons on relief efforts following the Bali Bombings in October 2002. In February 2003, a rotating detachment of three Hercules deployed to the Persian Gulf to support the Australian contribution to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; over the next seven years they amassed 20,000 operational flying hours. From July 2003 to July 2004, Caribous undertook reconnaissance and transport missions during the Solomon Islands intervention. No. 36 Squadron Hercules took part in Operation Sumatra Assist in the wake of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami. The RAAF's contribution to Operation Papua New Guinea Assist, following Cyclone Guba in November 2007, included a Globemaster, two Hercules, and three Caribous. In September 2008, a Globemaster undertook the type's first aeromedical evacuation in RAAF service, transporting five injured Australian troops to Amberley from Tarin Kowt in Afghanistan. Globemasters, Hercules and King Airs were all employed for flood relief in Queensland and Victoria early in 2011. In February that year, Globemasters and Hercules transported medical staff and equipment to New Zealand to aid victims of the Christchurch earthquake. The following month, a Globemaster flew 23 sorties in Japan supporting relief efforts after the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, while two other Globemasters delivered a water cannon to help contain damage at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. On 1 January 2012, No. 86 Wing headquarters relocated from Richmond to Amberley. ALG was renamed Air Mobility Group on 1 April 2014. No. 86 Wing's current complement is: No. 33 Squadron, which became operational with the Airbus KC-30 tanker-transport after receiving the fourth of its aircraft in March 2013; No. 36 Squadron, which took delivery of its eight and last Globemaster in November 2015; No. 38 Squadron, operating King Airs; and the Australian Army's 68 Ground Liaison Section. All units are based at Amberley, with the exception of No. 38 Squadron, located at Townsville. On 13 October 2017, No. 34 Squadron was transferred from No. 84 Wing to No. 86 Wing. The Governor-General, David Hurley, presented No. 86 Wing with the Queen's Squadron Standard at Amberley on 21 November 2019 to recognise twenty-five years of service.

Me Gusta (Inna song)

"Me Gusta" (English: "I Like") is a song recorded by Romanian singer Inna. Written by Inna and produced by David Ciente, the track was released for digital download and streaming on 14 February 2018 by Roton and Empire Music Management. "Me Gusta" is a Spanish language song, featuring an electronic production and beat drops. A reviewer noted an Asian sound. Lyrically, Inna admires a man's presence and dance abilities. Music critics were positive towards "Me Gusta", praising its production and catchiness, and predicting its commercial success. An accompanying music video for the song was uploaded onto Inna's official YouTube channel on 13 February 2018 to positive response. Shot by Barna Nemethi, it shows Inna performing to the track on streets of Bucharest and Barcelona. Prior to the single's release, Inna sang "Me Gusta" on Romanian radio station Radio ZU. Commercially, it peaked at number 89 in Romania. ## Background and release "Me Gusta" was solely written by Inna, while production was handled by David Ciente. The singer previously worked with Ciente on "Gimme Gimme" (2017) and "Ruleta" (2017). It is a Spanish language song, featuring an electronic production and beat drops; David Moreno of 20 minutos wrote that "Me Gusta" was influenced by Asian music. Lyrically, the track's lyrics revolve around "Inna lik[ing] this guy when he's dancing, and she hasn't felt this way about him for some time, and that his dancing always cheers her up", as noted by a reviewer. "Me Gusta" was digitally made available as a single on 14 February 2018 (Valentine's Day) by Roton and Empire Music Management. Fans and publications originally expected it to be released before "Ruleta", due to a live performance for radio station Radio ZU in April 2017. ## Critical reception Music critics gave generally positive reviews of "Me Gusta". Europa FM pointed out the summery nature and catchiness of the song, while Filip Stan of România TV predicted its commercial success. Jonathan Currinn, writing for CelebMix, praised the track's lyrics: "These lyrics are chant-worthy from start to finish and it makes every single listener wish they could sing this song at the top of their lungs." Kevin Apaza, writing for Direct Lyrics, praised "Me Gusta"'s production, drops and "summery, festive" vibe, but slightly criticized its composition. He further suggested that the track should have been released during the summer season to fit its message. Although he did not entirely enjoy the song at the first listen, Moreno of 20 minutos lauded its sound and the singer's "impertinent" voice and noted the track's "warmth". ## Music video An accompanying music video for "Me Gusta" was uploaded to Inna's official YouTube channel on 13 February 2018. It was filmed in Bucharest, Romania and Barcelona, Spain by Barna Nemethi, whom the singer had previously collaborated with on the visuals for "Good Time" (2014), "Yalla" (2016) and "Ruleta". Marius Apopei and John Perez were credited as the clip's directors of photography, while Anca Buldur and Adonis Enache performed make-up and hair styling. Clothes were procured by RDStyling, including pride platform shoes and an animal print waistcoat. Reviewers gave positive reviews of the clip. Direct Lyrics's Apaza praised its summery vibe and described its plot: "The visual sees the Romanian pop singer spending the day in a coastal town by the port, the beach promenade, and wandering throughout some picturesque streets." Currinn from CelebMix wrote: "Considering the content of the lyrics, we could have only hoped for a full-on choreography dance music video, instead we got Inna's typical sultry and sexy visual where she lets loose and has some fun in front of the camera." Currinn further praised the clip's styling and fashion, and saw it as a response to critics directed at Inna's weight gain. 24 hours after its release, the music video gathered nearly one million views on YouTube, followed by two million in four days. ## Track listing ## Credits and personnel Credits adapted from InfoMusic and YabbMusic. Composing and technical credits - Elena Alexandra Apostoleanu – lead vocals, composer - David Ciente – producer Visual credits - Marius Apopei – director of photography - Anca Buldur – make-up - Adonis Enache – hair styling - Barna Nemethi – music video director - John Perez – director of photography - RDStyling – clothes prosecutor ## Charts ## Release history

William Bliss Baker

American artist (1859–1886)

William Bliss Baker (November 27, 1859 – November 20, 1886) was an American artist who began painting just as the Hudson River School was winding down. Baker began his studies in 1876 at the National Academy of Design, where he studied with Bierstadt and de Haas. He later maintained studios in Clifton Park, New York and New York City, where he painted in oils and watercolors. He completed more than 130 paintings, including several in black and white. At age 26, Baker was just beginning to hit his stride as a landscape painter when he died at his father's house at Hoosick Falls, New York. The New York Times said that his death "deprived America of one of its most promising artists." ## Biography ### Early life and family Baker was born November 27, 1859, in New York City, the son of Yale alumnus Benjamin Franklin Baker (b. 1834) and Harriette Luisa Bayeux (married 1857). Harriette was descended from well-to-do Huguenots who moved from France to New York before the American Revolutionary War. Benjamin's father was Ellis Baker (1793–1873), director of the Albany City Bank, Albany Mutual Insurance Company, and People's Line Steamboats, as well as founder of Albany Rural Cemetery and Albany Hospital. He also operated stagecoach lines from Albany to Boston as well as north and west of Albany. Benjamin served during the American Civil War as a colonel in the 43rd Regiment of the New York State Volunteers. Later, he commanded the Light Division of Sixth Corps (part of the Army of the Potomac) as a Brevet Brigadier General. He was noted for his bravery during the charge at Marye's Heights during the Battle of Fredericksburg. After the war, he joined the Loyal Legion, then served as a member of the New York State Assembly from 1880 to 1882. William's best-known brother was Captain Guy Ellis Baker (b. 1858), who married Louisa Irene Palma Di Cesnola, daughter of Civil War Medal of Honor recipient General Louis Palma di Cesnola. His other brothers included Benjamin Henry (b. 1869), George Clinton (b. 1872), and Ashley Bayeux (b. 1877). Baker spent much of his boyhood in the town of Ballston Spa, and his family discovered and purchased the property where he would build his summer studio, "The Castle", on the shores Ballston Lake. ### Study and career For four years beginning in 1876, Baker studied at the National Academy of Design, where he studied with Albert Bierstadt and Mauritz F. H. de Haas. In 1879, he won the Elliott prize during his first exhibit. In 1885, Baker won the Hallgarten Prize for his Woodland Brook. By 1881, Baker had built a summer studio named "The Castle" on the east side of Ballston Lake in the town of Clifton Park, north of Albany, New York. The studio was designed to have excellent views of the Catskill and Berkshire Mountains, and had excellent natural lighting. The Clifton Park Historic Preservation Commission awarded "The Castle" its Historic Designation plaque, and a "Clifton Park Register of Historic Places" sign also marks the studio property. The home is now a private residence, and it is not open to the public. Baker also had a studio in the Knickerbocker Building in New York City. ### Death Baker was just beginning to hit his stride as a landscape painter in the Realism movement when he died on November 20, 1886 at the age of 26 of a cold at his father's house at Hoosick Falls, New York, after sustaining injuries while ice skating. His final completed work was Meadow Brook. Baker completed over 130 paintings during his career. A contemporary art critic said that his death was "a distinct loss to American art". The New York Times stated that his death "deprived America of one of its most promising artists." Harper's Weekly stated that "[t]he tidings of this young artist's untimely death ... will be received with sincere regret by all those who take an intelligent interest in the growth of native American art." The New York Post wrote that "[t]he young artist was animated by an intense love of nature, which he manifested from his earliest years, and this, aided by his great industry and energy, was among the chief elements of his success in the line of art he had chosen. His untimely death will be deeply regretted by all who take an intelligent interest in American artistic progress." He is buried in a family plot in Albany Rural Cemetery in Menands, New York (see image, right). ## Works Baker was awarded the 1884 Third Hallgarten Prize by the National Academy of Design for A Woodland Brook. Fallen Monarchs, considered to be Baker's masterpiece, was painted in 1886 in the Ballston Lake area. The original is owned by Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, where it hangs in the BYU Museum of Art. A small copy of this painting hangs in the public library in the town of Ballston. His 1883 painting, A Pleasant Day at Lake George hangs in the Adirondack Museum at Blue Mountain Lake, New York. Another of his paintings, Morning After the Snow, sold for \$5,000 in 1887 (the equivalent of about \$109,000 in 2006 dollars). Morning and an additional 129 of his paintings sold at that auction for a combined total of nearly \$15,000 (almost \$360,000 in 2010 dollars). ### Black and white Listed alphabetically by title. - The Brook (date unknown) - Cattle Grazing Near a Stream Through the Pasture (date unknown) - Dark Forest (ca.1880, 24" x 20", oil on canvas) - Morning in the Meadows (ca. 1883) - Snow Scene (date unknown, 12 x 9 inches) - Wood Interior (date unknown, 8 x 11 inches) - Wood Interior (date unknown, 17.5 x 21.5 inches) ### Color Date known: Listed alphabetically by year. Current location listed (if known). - River View (1877) - Deep in the Woods (1880) - Hiding in the Haycocks (1881, housed in the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art) - Landscape: Grez (ca.1882, housed as part of the Horace C. Henry Collection at the Henry Art Gallery at University of Washington) - New York Harbour (1883) - A Pleasant Day at Lake George (1883, housed in the Adirondack Experience: The Museum on Blue Mountain Lake, Blue Mountain Lake, New York) - Silence (1883, 24 x 30 inches) - View of New York Harbor, with Brooklyn Bridge in the Distance (1883) - October Morning (1884) - First Fall of Snow (1884) - First Snow of Winter (1884) - Summer Evening (ca.1884) - Woodland Brook (ca.1884-1885, housed at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in Montréal) - Lake Luzerne (ca.1885) - Morning After the Snow (1885, 57 x 39 inches, housed in the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts, St. Bonaventure University) - Woodland Scene (1885, 38 x 50 inches, housed at the Avery Galleries, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania) - Fallen Monarchs (1886, housed in the Museum of Art at Brigham Young University) - Under the Apple Trees (1886, 36 x 24 inches) - Meadow Brook (ca.1886, 21 x 16 inches, his last completed work) Date unknown: Listed alphabetically by title. - Apple Blossoms (12 x 8 inches) - Apple Blossoms (20 x 12 inches) - Apple Trees (12 x 20 inches) - April Day (23.5 x 14 inches) - April Snow (36 x 20 inches) - Autumn (11.5 x 9.5 inches) - Autumn Forest Landscape - Autumn in Woods - Autumn Leaves (12 x 20 inches) - Autumn Study (20 x 12 inches) - Autumn Trees by Stream - Autumn Woods (22 x 13 inches) - Autumn Woods (20.5 x 12 inches) - Autumn Woods (12.5 x 8.5 inches) - Autumn Woods (22 x 30 inches) - Banks of Schoharie (19.5 x 18.5 inches) - Banks of the Schoharie (14 x 10 inches) - Bed of a Brook (12 x 19 inches) - Bed of Brook (12 x 19 inches) - Bed of Brook Morse Mountain, Adirondacks (12 x 17.5 inches) - Branches of Elm (21 x 29 inches) - Brook and Pasture (20 x 12 inches) - Brook and Woods (12 x 20 inches) - Catskill Clove (12 x 10 inches) - Church Beyond a Meadow - Clump of Trees (11.5 x 19.5 inches) - Clover Field (12.5 x 19 inches) - A Cool Retreat (29 x 22 inches) - Corn Fields and Pasture (12 x 9.5 inches) - Corn Stalks (12 x 20 inches) - Cows Watering in a Pond - Daisies (12 x 20 inches) - Dead Leaves (12.5 x 19.5 inches) - Dried Up (12 x 9.5 inches) - Early Autumn (20 x 28 inches) - Edge of the Creek (19 x 11.5 inches) - Edge of the Woods (17 x 12 inches) - An Elm (12 x 20 inches) - Fallen (A Study) (22.5 x 13.5 inches) - A Forest Glade (12.5 x 10 inches) - Forest Road (12 x 20 inches) - Forest Sunshine (12.5 x 9 inches) - Fort Lee, Hudson River (size unknown inches) - Gathering Chestnuts (12 x 19.5 inches) - Golden Rod (12 x 20 inches) - Harvest Study (12 x 8.5 inches) - Harvest Time (12.5 x 9.5 inches) - Haycocks (11.5 x 9 inches) - A Haze (11.5 x 8 inches) - In the Hayfield (12 x 9 inches) - In the Old Pasture - June (28 x 14 inches) - June Pastures (12 x 19.5 inches) - June Sunshine (22.5 x 15.5 inches) - Landscape (14 x 22 inches) - Landscape (19.5 x 13.5 inches) - Landscape (22.5 x 13 inches) - Landscape with Cattle - Lowlands (12 x 7 inches) - Marine - Meadow and Woodland (12 x 10 inches) - Mossy Stumps (12 x 10 inches) - Mountain Top (20 x 13 inches) - New York Harbor, City Front (19 x 7 inches) - Old Mill Pond (12 x 20 inches) - Opening in Woods (16 x 10 inches) - The Old Orchard (13.5 x 22.5 inches) - Old Stump (12 x 9.5 inches) - Orchard in June (12 x 16 inches) - Outlet of a Lake (19 x 13 inches) - Pasture (20 x 12 inches) - Pasture (18 x 14 inches) - Pasture (12 x 10 inches) - Pasture (12.5 x 10 inches) - Pool and Meadow (12 x 10 inches) - Pool and Upland (12 x 20 inches) - Quiet Pond - A Quiet Pond, Connecticut - Quiet Winter Afternoon - The Roadside (20 x 12 inches) - Rock Study, North Shore, Lake Ontario (18 x 12 inches) - Rocky Pool (10 x 13 inches) - Rough Pasture (12 x 9 inches) - Schoharie Creek (19.75 x 14 inches) - Second Growth Timber (12.5 x 9.5 inches) - The Sentinel (12 x 20 inches) - Shadows in a Pool - Shadows in the Pool (12 x 10 inches) - Shady Pool (12 x 19 inches) - Sheep Pasture (13 x 10.5 inches) - Snarled Roots (18 x 11 inches) - Snow (6.5 x 10.5 inches) - Snow Scene (42 x 30 inches) - Solitude (50 x 38 inches) - Spring Pasture (12.5 x 9.25 inches) - Standing Grass (12 x 10 inches) - Still Pool in the Woods (19.5 x 12 inches) - Study of Autumn Leaves (12 x 10 inches) - Study of Ferns (12 x 10 inches) - Study of Ferns (#2, 12 x 10 inches) - Study of Forest (12 x 20 inches) - Study of Rocks and Fallen Timber (18 x 12 inches) - Study of Snow (14 x 20 inches) - Study of Tree (11.5 x 19.5 inches) - Study of Trees (11.5 x 18 inches) - Study of Trees (5.5 x 12.5 inches) - Study of Woods (10.5 x 13 inches) - Summer Afternoon - Summer Pasture (13 x 6.5 inches) - Summer Woodland (12 x 10 inches) - Sunlight in the Woods (14 x 11.5 inches) - Sunlit Brook (12 x 19 inches) - Sunlit Pastures (15 x 11 inches) - Sunny Brook (19.5 x 12 inches) - Sunrise on New York Harbor - Sunset (12.5 x 9 inches) - Surf (22 x 15 inches) - Surf (22.5 x 14 inches) - Timber Belt (20 x 12 inches) - Tree Top (12 x 20 inches) - Tree Trunks (12 x 20 inches) - Tree Trunks (14 x 12 inches) - Trees and Meadow (12 x 10 inches) - Under the Hill (12 x 9 inches) - Valley of Hudson from Catskills (12 x 10 inches) - Water Fall (12 x 20 inches) - Winter Forest (20 x 12 inches) - Winter Twilight (12 x 9 inches) - Wood Interior (22 x 13.5 inches) - Wood Interior (21 x 15.5 inches) - Wood Interior (22 x 30 inches) - Wood Interior (21 x 29 inches) - Wood Opening (11 x 19.5 inches) - Wooded Glade - Woodland Shade (12.5 x 10 inches) - Woodland Study (12.5 x 8.5 inches) - Woods in June (12 x 10 inches) - Young Cattle (15.5 x 12 inches) - Young Timber (12 x 10 inches) ## Reception and legacy While Baker is relatively unknown to the general public, he was well known to art critics of the day and was considered "one of the leading landscape painters of America". He is considered to be part of the Hudson River School. Baker "rapidly ascended to the head of his profession" by the age of 25. His landscapes were variously described as "characteristic[ally] American" and "true character studies in which varieties of vegetation and the varying influence of light and weather were identified with amazing skill." One critic in 1883 described the black and white work Morning in the Meadows as "brilliant" though perhaps too detailed. Regarding his death, The New York Times said it "deprived America of one of its most promising artists."

All Souls (The X-Files)

"All Souls" is the seventeenth episode of the fifth season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files. The episode originally aired on the Fox network on April 26, 1998. The episode's teleplay was written by Frank Spotnitz and John Shiban, from a story by Dan Angel and Billy Brown; it was directed by Allen Coulter. The episode is a "Monster-of-the-Week" story, a stand-alone plot which is unconnected to the mythology, or overarching fictional history, of The X-Files. "All Souls" received a Nielsen household rating of 8.5 and was watched by 13.44 million viewers in its initial broadcast. It received mixed reviews from television critics. The show centers on FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files. In this episode, the unexplained death of mentally and physically disabled girl prompts Father McCue (Arnie Walters) to ask Scully for her help, but her investigation leads her to a mystery involving Nephilim—children of mortal women and angels. Scully soon learns that Aaron Starkey (Glenn Morshower), a department of social services worker and demon in disguise, is after the girls, in order that the Devil may control their power. The original version of "All Souls" was a simple story about Mulder, Scully, and angels. Shiban and Spotnitz, however, overhauled the idea and added elements extrapolated from the season's earlier "Christmas Carol" and "Emily" two-parter, making "All Souls" the "unofficial third part" of its story arc. The entry also contained several elaborate effects, which were achieved via makeup and CGI. After they viewed the final cut of the installment, Shiban and Spotnitz decided to frame the action around Scully confessing her story to a priest in a confessional. ## Plot In Alexandria, Virginia, sixteen-year-old Dara Kernof (Emily Perkins), a mentally and physically disabled girl who uses a wheelchair, somehow manages to leave her house in the middle of the night, soon after her baptism. Her father, Lance (Eric Keenleyside), eventually finds her outside with her arms raised upwards towards a strange figure. Suddenly, lightning flashes and the figure disappears. When Lance reaches Dara, he realizes she is dead and her eyes have been burned out. Eventually, Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) is contacted by Father McCue (Arnie Walters), who asks if she would be willing to assist the family in figuring out what exactly happened. Soon thereafter, Scully visits the Kernofs and learns that Dara was adopted. Given her severe spinal deformities, Scully is unable to explain how Dara walked, let alone got outside. Lance then tells Scully that he saw a strange figure before her; he confides in her that he thinks the mysterious being was the Devil. While this is going on, a priest named Father Gregory (Jody Racicot) visits a hospital to visit Dara's twin, Paula Koklos (Perkins), but he is stopped by a social worker named Aaron Starkey (Glenn Morshower). That night, Paula dies mysteriously when a man enters her room. Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) soon learns that Paula and Dara were not twins, but rather two of four quadruplets. The agents also learn that Father Gregory was hoping to adopt Paula and they visit the priest. Gregory protests that he is innocent and was simply trying to protect Paula by taking her under his wing. Later, Scully experiences a vision of her daughter Emily (Lauren Diewold). Mulder soon learns the identity of another sister (Perkins), who is troubled and homeless. With Starkey's help, Mulder finds the girl in a rundown part of the city, but the figure from the beginning of the episode kills her before Mulder can get to her. Mulder discovers Father Gregory at the scene and believes that he is the perpetrator of the crimes. Under questioning by Mulder and Scully, Father Gregory insists that he was attempting to ward off the Devil, who was hoping to claim the girls' souls. He is adamant that the fourth and final sister must be located. Later, when the agents have left the room, Starkey enters and asks for the whereabouts of this last girl. Gregory remains silent and soon begins to burn; it is revealed that Starkey is the Devil. That night, the figure from the beginning of the episode presents itself to Scully, revealing that it is a Seraph. This seraph had fathered four nephilim (i.e. the disabled quadruplets) and God sent the angel to earth to return the girls to Heaven. The angel is attempting to outmaneuver the Devil, who hopes to use the girls' souls for his own nefarious plots. Scully and Starkey later find the fourth girl, Roberta Dyer (Perkins) at Gregory's church. However, Scully sees that Starkey has a horned shadow, revealing his true origins. As Scully tries to help Roberta escape, the women are confronted by the Seraph. Scully reluctantly lets go of Roberta's hand, after seeing Emily in place of Roberta, and lets Roberta enter Heaven. ## Production ### Writing The script for "All Souls" was written by John Shiban and Frank Spotnitz, and directed by Allen Coulter. The original genesis for the episode was an idea developed by Dan Angel and Billy Brown, two story board editors for the series that had left after Christmas of 1997. In this incarnation, the plot was radically different; according to Shiban, the story was "about Mulder and Scully and angels, but it never quite worked the way it was originally conceived." Shiban and Spotnitz decided to overhaul the script and feature elements of the earlier "Christmas Carol" and "Emily" story arc, as the writers wanted to include the "very universal" idea of Scully exploring feelings for her deceased daughter. This episode, according to Andy Meisler, thus became the "unofficial third part" in the story. With this episode, Scully dons the role of the believer, whereas Mulder plays the skeptic. This "Mulder-Scully criss-cross" accentuated a major theme for the fifth season. In order to counter some of the darker aspects of the script, Shiban and Spotnitz—on the behest of co-star David Duchovny—added several lines of comic relief, delivered by Mulder. According to Duchvony, "It was in the more straight ahead investigative shows, the creepier, scarier shows, that I would try to make sure that we kept this kind of humanity alive through humor". ### Filming Scenes at "St. John's Church"—the church featured in the episode—were shot in the actual St. Augustine Church in Vancouver, British Columbia. Prior to filming, the script for the episode was approved by the church's local Monseigneur. As a fail-safe, the production crew scouted several other churches in case permissions were rescinded. Special stained glass windows were created that featured an angel ascending into Heaven, to go along with the themes of the episode. The book that Father McCue has about Nephilim was created by assistant art director Vivien Nishi with guidance from Spotnitz. Scenes at Father Gregory's church were filmed in an older boiler room at George Pearson Hospital. This location had previously been used in the earlier fifth season entry "Kitsunegari" as a cafeteria. The production crew initially worried that the building's high windows would bring in too much natural light and so some of the windows were lit up via artificial means. The episode contained several elaborate effects, which were achieved via makeup or CGI. Makeup artist Laverne Basham and hairstylist Anji Bemben were tasked with giving each of the quadruplets, all played by Emily Perkins, a different look. They were also responsible for making Jody Racicot appear older, which proved particularly difficult given that Racicot did not have any hair that they could dye grey and he had "the tightest skin of any thirtysomething guy [they'd] ever seen." The visual effects to create the shifting heads of the Seraphim were created with CGI, which visual effects supervisor Lauri Kailsen-George finalized only "hours before airtime." The scene was created by having actor Tracy Elofson wear a lion mask to track the scene. Then, the different heads were filmed against a green screen and composited. Various light effects were then interlaid to "make it look scary" and more "angelic". After watching a rough cut of the episode, Shiban and Spotnitz decided that they were "far from the end". Feeling that something was missing, the two decided to frame the happenings of the episode with two scenes featuring Scully in a church confessional. Vancouver producer J. P. Finn was chosen to play the priest, due to his "hushed delivery and map-of-Ireland features". Initially, Gillian Anderson had been given the script for these scenes days in advance. On the day of filming, however, she was sent a number of rewrites and subsequently demanded more time to become familiar with the new script, so as to not rush or undermine the emotion she was supposed to put into the scene. The crew ended up shooting a day later. Due to this, Finn never actually filmed with Anderson. In order to make up for the addition of the church scenes, the first cut of the episode had to be trimmed "scene by scene and line by line". ## Broadcast and reception "All Souls" premiered on the Fox network in the United States on April 26, 1998, and was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on February 24, 1999. It earned a Nielsen household rating of 8.5, with a 12 share, meaning that roughly 8.5 percent of all television-equipped households, and 12 percent of households watching television, were tuned in to the episode. It was viewed by 13.44 million viewers. "All Souls" received mixed reviews from television critics. Dave Golder from SFX magazine named the episode's Nephilim as among of the top "10 TV Angels". He applauded the episode's role-switching, allowing Scully to be the believer and Mulder to be the skeptic. Emily VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club wrote positively of the episode and awarded it a "B+". Despite calling the entry "an occasionally too-slow episode", VanDerWerff praised Anderson, lauding her performance as "another [...] potential Emmy tape in a season full of them". Furthermore, she enjoyed the juxtaposition of Scully's skepticism and her religious beliefs, noting that the series could have taken the idea into the realm of irony, but instead played it "with a deathly seriousness" that allowed it to work. Other reviews were more negative. Paula Vitaris from Cinefantastique gave the episode a largely critical review and awarded it one star out of four. Vitaris wrote "with its trip into blatant religiosity, 'All Souls' comes off like a bad episode of Millennium". Furthermore, she was critical of the scenes wherein the Nephilims' souls were taken, noting the excessive religious imagery: "as [Dara's] soul is taken, the camera pans to the right and stops to linger on a telephone pole that forms a cross." Robert Shearman and Lars Pearson, in their book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen, rated the episode one star out of five. The two derided the fact that the episode's killer appears to either be God or an angel commanded by God, along with the fact that the four girls are destined to die because they are disabled and "have no right to live". Furthermore, Shearman and Pearson concluded that, while religious worship is not a passive act, it is treated so in the episode. Ultimately, they concluded that while "looking at death from a different angle is fascinating" it would be explored better "in 'Closure'."

1997 European Grand Prix

Final race of the 1997 Formula One season

The 1997 European Grand Prix (formally the XLII European Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 26 October 1997 at the Circuito Permanente de Jerez, Spain. Originally scheduled as the Grand Prix of Portugal at the Estoril circuit, it was moved when Estoril's management had financial difficulties. It was the 17th and final race of the 1997 FIA Formula One World Championship. The 69-lap race was won by Mika Häkkinen in a McLaren, his first Formula One race victory. His teammate David Coulthard finished second and Williams driver Jacques Villeneuve took third, which was sufficient for him to win the World Championship. Michael Schumacher, driving for Ferrari, had led the championship by a single point ahead of Villeneuve going into the race. During the race, Villeneuve and Schumacher collided while battling for the lead and the resulting damage to Schumacher's car forced him to retire. The blame for the incident was later attributed to Schumacher by the sport's governing body, the FIA, and he was stripped of his second-place finish in the championship. Schumacher's tactics were widely criticised by the media, including publications based in his home country of Germany, and in Ferrari's home country of Italy. Following the race, Williams and McLaren were accused of colluding to decide the finishing order. Villeneuve stated that "it was better to let them through and win the World Championship". The FIA determined there was no evidence to support the claims, and dismissed the accusations. This is the last World Championship Grand Prix to be held in Jerez to date. Häkkinen's victory was the first victory for a Finnish driver in the Formula One World Championship in 12 years since Keke Rosberg won the 1985 Australian Grand Prix. Häkkinen and Coulthard's first and second place finishes ensured the McLaren team scored their first one-two finish since the 1991 Japanese Grand Prix. This was the last race for Gerhard Berger who had won 10 times and had been competing in F1 since 1984 and Ukyo Katayama. This was also the last Grand Prix until the 2009 Australian Grand Prix where slick tyres were used as grooved tyres would be used in the sport from the start of the 1998 season until the end of the 2008 season. This race was also the only time during the 1997 season that Villeneuve stood on the podium without being the race winner, the other seven of eight podiums Villeneuve achieved that season all being wins. ## Background The 1997 European Grand Prix was the final round of the 1997 Formula One World Championship and occurred at the 4.428 km (2.751 mi) Circuito de Jerez on 26 October 1997. Originally scheduled as the Grand Prix of Portugal at the Estoril Circuit, the race was moved to the Jerez Circuit when Estoril's management had financial difficulties. The race was added to the schedule after Japan because engine suppliers Renault did not want their last Formula One race to be in Japan. Heading into the final race of the season, two drivers were still in contention for the World Drivers' Championship. Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher was leading with 78 points; Williams driver Jacques Villeneuve was second with 77 points, one point behind Schumacher. Behind Schumacher and Villeneuve in the Drivers' Championship, Heinz-Harald Frentzen was third on 41 points in the other Williams, with Jean Alesi and David Coulthard on 36 and 30 points respectively. Villeneuve had won two more races than Schumacher during the season, meaning that in the event of a tie on points, the rules stated Villeneuve would be world champion. Villeneuve had to finish the race in a points-scoring position (points were awarded for drivers finishing in sixth place or higher) and ahead of Schumacher to become World Drivers' Champion. Schumacher would be world champion if he finished ahead of Villeneuve, or if Villeneuve failed to score any points by finishing lower than sixth or not completing the race. In the World Constructors' Championship, Williams led with 118 points and Ferrari were second on 100. Williams had therefore clinched the constructors' title before the race, as even if Ferrari finished first and second in the race, thereby taking 16 points, and both Williams cars failed to score a point, they could not beat Williams. Following the Japanese Grand Prix on 12 October, the teams conducted testing sessions at various locations around the world. Williams, Benetton, Sauber, Jordan and McLaren conducted at a test session at the Silverstone Circuit. Williams, Sauber and Jordan tested using 1998-spec cars, in preparation for the 1998 season. Arrows conducted testing at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours circuit, performing wet weather tyre development with tyre suppliers Bridgestone with the circuit flooded to simulate wet weather conditions. Prost conducted testing at Circuit de Catalunya and performed tyre testing for Bridgestone, as well as testing their 1998-specification car. Ferrari remained at the Suzuka Circuit testing an electronic differential used by driver Eddie Irvine at the previous race. ## Practice and qualifying Four practice sessions were held before the Sunday race—two on Friday from 11:00 to 12:00 and 13:00 to 14:00 CEST (UTC+2), and two on Saturday morning held from 09:00 to 09:45 and from 10:15 to 11:00 CEST. In the first two practice sessions, Prost driver Olivier Panis set the fastest time with a lap of 1 minute and 22.735 seconds, one-tenth of a second faster than Arrows driver Damon Hill. Villeneuve and Rubens Barrichello were third and fourth. Mika Häkkinen and Coulthard, set the fifth and eighth-fastest times respectively for McLaren; they were separated by Frentzen and Alesi. Michael Schumacher and Ralf Schumacher completed the top ten. In the final two practice sessions, Coulthard set the fastest lap with a time of 1:20.738; Häkkinen finished with the second-fastest time. The Williams drivers were quicker—Villeneuve in third and Frentzen in sixth. Panis slipped to fourth ahead of Gerhard Berger, their best times one-tenth of a second apart. They were ahead of Stewart driver Jan Magnussen, Shinji Nakano for Prost, Hill and Alesi. The qualifying session was held on Saturday afternoon and lasted one-hour between 13:00 to 14:00 CEST, each driver was allowed up to twelve timed laps, with their fastest lap used to determine their grid position. Cars were timed using a TAG Heuer timing system, which measured to an accuracy of one-thousandth of a second. At the end of the session, the three fastest drivers had all set the same laptime, the first time this had happened in the history of the World Championship. Jacques Villeneuve was first to set a time of 1:21.072, fourteen minutes into the one hour session. A further fourteen minutes later, Michael Schumacher posted an identical time. With nine minutes of the session remaining, Heinz-Harald Frentzen crossed the line, again with a time of 1:21.072. Under the regulations, in the event of drivers setting equal times in qualifying, the order in which the times were set is considered, with the first driver to set the time given precedence. Villeneuve was awarded pole position on the starting grid for the race, with Schumacher second and Frentzen third. Fourth place on the grid went to the reigning World Champion, Hill, in his Arrows, with a time of 1:21.130, 0.058 seconds behind the time of the leading three. Hill had been on course to get pole position but had to slow towards the end of the lap because of yellow flags due to an incident involving Ukyo Katayama's Minardi. Villeneuve's pole position was the last for a Canadian driver in Formula One until Lance Stroll at the 2020 Turkish Grand Prix. ### Qualifying classification ## Warm-up A half an hour warm-up session took place on Sunday morning for teams to set-up their cars for the race later that day. A majority of the teams appeared to use the soft compound tyres except for Jordan who were using the harder tyre compound. Häkkinen lapped fastest with a time of 1:23.016 ahead of Berger in second position and Panis in third. The top ten was completed by Coulthard, Villeneuve, Herbert, Michael Schumacher, Frentzen, Nakano and Hill. There were no incidents during the session. ## Race The race took place in the afternoon, starting at 14:00 CET (UTC+1), in dry and sunny weather. Villeneuve started the race in pole position, with Schumacher in second. Just a few moments before the start of the race, a blue liquid came out of Villeneuve's Williams. However, this did not influence his car during the race. Schumacher's getaway at the start was better than Villeneuve's and he had taken the lead by the time they reached the first corner. Schumacher led 40 of the first 47 laps of the race. Frentzen also got a better start than Villeneuve and overtook him for second position. Under the orders of the Williams team, on lap eight Frentzen let teammate Villeneuve past. On the 12th lap, Pedro Diniz's race ended early when he spun and stalled. Schumacher made his first pit-stop on lap 22 and Villeneuve made his first stop the following lap. Both retained their positions. During the first round of pitstops the McLarens swapped places with Coulthard leading Häkkinen and Frentzen dropped to fifth position behind both of them. The order of the leaders after the second round of pit stops on lap 43 and lap 44 remained the same but with Villeneuve closer to Schumacher. Villeneuve went into lap 48 less than a second behind Schumacher. Partway through the lap he attempted to overtake Schumacher at the sharp, right-hand Dry Sac corner. Braking later than Schumacher, Villeneuve held the inside line and was ahead on the track when Schumacher turned in on him resulting in a collision with his front-right wheel and Villeneuve's left-hand sidepod. ITV's pit lane reporter James Allen has noted that onboard footage shows Schumacher twitching his steering wheel left before turning right into Villeneuve. Martin Brundle, in the commentary box alongside Murray Walker, immediately saw that Schumacher's move had been deliberate, saying, "That didn't work Michael. You hit the wrong part of him, my friend". The right-front wheel of Schumacher's Ferrari hit the left radiator pod of Villeneuve's Williams—unlike the 1994 collision with Hill where Schumacher inflicted damage on Hill's suspension—and caused Schumacher to retire. Villeneuve described the incident after the race "The car felt very strange. The hit was very hard. It was not a small thing." He continued but the damage to the mounts on his car's battery meant he was slower than the cars behind him. At the time of the incident there were 22 laps of the race remaining. The slower pace of Villeneuve's car meant that on the last lap, he had been caught by both McLarens, Häkkinen having regained second place from Coulthard under team orders. After the race Villeneuve stated "I did not fight then. It was better to let them through and win the World Championship. It is a good exchange." Berger in fourth place (in what transpired to be his final Grand Prix) was also catching Villeneuve but he did not pass before crossing the finish line. The final margin between Villeneuve and Berger was 0.116 seconds. Villeneuve later said that had he realised that it was Berger behind him, he would have let him through so that Berger would have finished on the podium in his last race. Third place meant Villeneuve finished ahead of Schumacher in the Drivers' Championship by three points, and became World Champion. Häkkinen's victory was the first of his career. ### Race classification ## Post-race ### Schumacher/Villeneuve collision Before the race at Jerez, the president of the FIA, Max Mosley, had promised to issue penalties to anyone who tried to influence the outcome of the championship. Race stewards reviewed video footage of the collision between Villeneuve and Michael Schumacher and determined that it was "a racing incident" and took no further action against Schumacher. However, Schumacher was subsequently summoned to a disciplinary hearing by the FIA and on 11 November 1997, it was announced that Schumacher would be disqualified from the 1997 World Championship. This meant he lost his second place in the overall standings to Frentzen but he would retain his race victories and other results and would not be fined or face any further punishment in the following season, and Ferrari would remain second in the championship. Max Mosley stated that the panel "concluded that although the actions were deliberate they were not premeditated". Schumacher was also ordered to take part in a road-safety campaign during the 1998 season. Ferrari also escaped unpunished despite Article 123 of the FIA International Sporting Code stating: "The entrant shall be responsible for all acts or omissions on the part of the driver." Under this rule, which has never been invoked for a driving incident, Ferrari could have been punished for failing to control its driver. When questioned on the subject Max Mosley said that the World Council had decided not to invoke Article 123. Another question which the World Council failed to address was whether or not there would be any public sanction against the stewards at Jerez, who had dismissed the Schumacher-Villeneuve incident, which, has been claimed, was a dereliction of their duty. ### Media reaction The German newspapers were among the many from across Europe that criticised Schumacher. Bild blamed Schumacher, saying "he played for high stakes and lost everything – the World Championship and his reputation for fair play. There is no doubt that he wanted to take out Villeneuve." The Frankfurter Allgemeine called him "a kamikaze without honour" and alluded to a "monument [that] is starting to crack because the foundations are faulty". A German television channel polled 63,081 fans and found that 28% no longer felt they could support Schumacher. In Italy Schumacher was widely condemned. The daily newspaper l'Unità felt that Schumacher deserved to be sacked for bringing shame to Italian sport, and said that "Schumacher ought to face charges in a Spanish court for the grave deed he committed". La Repubblica said that "seeing a world title vanish after waiting 18 years is sad enough. But to see it go up in smoke with the move from Michael Schumacher is unfortunately much worse. It's shameful." Gazzetta dello Sport said they would prefer to wait for Ferrari to win a title in circumstances which would not render it "a title to hide". Despite being owned by the Agnelli family, which also controlled Ferrari, La Stampa said "His image as a champion was shattered". In England, Schumacher's manoeuvre against Damon Hill at the 1994 Australian Grand Prix was used as a comparison in many media reports. The Times wrote that Schumacher had "sacrificed his reputation by an act of such cynicism that it lost him the right to any sympathy". The BBC pointed to Schumacher's "history of being involved in controversial collisions", saying the German driver had a "chequered record" and claiming the 1990 Macau Grand Prix and 1991 Nürburgring 430 kilometres as other instances of previous Schumacher controversy. The public broadcaster also posited that the affair "left Formula One's glamorous image in a poor light." The Independent noted that "many observers remain convinced Schumacher and Ferrari, major attractions in the Formula One show, have been given preferential treatment". In 2006, nine years after the incident, The Guardian would cite it as an example of Schumacher's "ruthlessness". In the Australian telecast of the race, former world champion Alan Jones stated that there was “no doubt in [his] mind that Schumacher deliberately drove into the side of him to have him off, à la Damon Hill at Adelaide", while co-commentator Darrell Eastlake said that it was "not the way the world championship should have been decided and viewers around the world would be disappointed with that sort of act" and his "credibility falls away a bit". Ferrari hosted a press conference on the Tuesday after Jerez during which Schumacher admitted that he had made a mistake but said it was a misjudgment rather than a deliberate attempt to take out Villeneuve. "I am human like everyone else and unfortunately I made a mistake", he said. "I don't make many but I did this time." In their respective books on Schumacher, James Allen and Swiss motorsports author Luc Domenjoz have both since expressed the view that Villeneuve went into the corner too fast, and without Schumacher turning into him would have overshot the turn. ### Jerez circuit On 12 December 1997, the World Motorsport Council ruled that the mayor of Jerez, Pedro Pacheco, disrupted the podium ceremony. Originally, the verdict was that no further Formula One races would occur at the track. However, when Mr Pacheco appeared before the WMSC, this ruling was rescinded. The people chosen to present the trophies were dependent on the race order, with Daimler-Benz chairman Jürgen Schrempp only willing to make a presentation to a McLaren-Mercedes driver. As the McLarens of Häkkinen and Coulthard passed Villeneuve's Williams on the last lap, this would have meant he could present either the trophy for first or second position or the winning constructor trophy. There was some confusion due to the late changes in position and whilst the Mayor and the president of the region presented trophies, Schrempp did nothing. FIA president Max Mosley later announced "The disruption caused embarrassment and inconvenience to those presenting the trophies and therefore, no further rounds of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship will be held at the Jerez circuit." As of 2022, this race was the last time that Jerez hosted a Formula One Grand Prix, although it has held many pre-season test days until 2015. ### Collusion allegations On 8 November, The Times newspaper published an article accusing Williams and McLaren of colluding to decide the finishing order at the end of the Grand Prix. The article's claims were based on recordings of the radio transmissions made by the two teams. The FIA World Council rejected the claims when the matter was brought before them. FIA president Max Mosley stated "It is quite clear that the result of the race was not fixed. There was no arrangement between McLaren and Williams that Mika Häkkinen was going to win. They were able to demonstrate very clearly that was not the case." In 2006, Norberto Fontana claimed in an interview with the Argentine newspaper Olé that a few hours before the Grand Prix the Ferrari team director Jean Todt visited the Sauber motorhome and told the Swiss team, which used Ferrari engines at the time, that the Saubers must block Villeneuve if they were in a position to do so in order to help Michael Schumacher win the World Championship. The Sauber team owner and manager at the time, Peter Sauber has however denied these allegations and said "Ferrari never expressed the desire that we should obstruct an opponent of Schumacher on the track." In 2014, David Coulthard gave an interview to Charles Bradley in Autosport where he stated that indeed an agreement between McLaren and Williams was in place: "Ron [Dennis] had made that deal with Frank [Williams], which none of us knew anything about, that if we helped Williams in their quest to beat Ferrari they wouldn't get in the way of helping McLaren. Ron would probably still deny it today. That's what happened, then they asked me to move over." ## Championship standings after the race - Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. Drivers' Championship standings accurate as at final declaration of race results. Michael Schumacher was subsequently disqualified from the championship, although his points and results remain on record. - Bold text indicates the World Champions.

Adventure Time (season 7)

The seventh season of Adventure Time, an American animated television series created by Pendleton Ward, premiered on Cartoon Network on November 2, 2015, and concluded on March 19, 2016, and was produced by Frederator Studios and Cartoon Network Studios. It follows the adventures of Finn, a human boy, and his best friend and adoptive brother Jake, a dog with magical powers to change shape and size at will. Finn and Jake live in the post-apocalyptic Land of Ooo, where they interact with the show's other main characters: Princess Bubblegum, The Ice King, Marceline the Vampire Queen, Lumpy Space Princess, BMO, and Flame Princess. The season was storyboarded and written by Tom Herpich, Steve Wolfhard, Seo Kim, Somvilay Xayaphone, Jesse Moynihan, Adam Muto, Ako Castuera, Sam Alden, Kirsten Lepore, Andres Salaff, Hanna K. Nyström, Luke Pearson, Lyle Partridge, Kris Mukai, Graham Falk, and Kent Osborne. The seventh season of Adventure Time features an eight-episode story-arc, promoted and originally broadcast as the miniseries Stakes, which examines Marceline's backstory and follows Finn, Jake, Bubblegum, and Marceline as they attempt to defeat several newly resurrected vampires. This season also features the stop-motion episode "Bad Jubies", directed by guest animator Kirsten Lepore. The season premiered with the episode "Bonnie & Neddy", which was viewed by 1.07 million viewers (this marked a decrease in ratings from the previous season finale, "Hot Diggity Doom"/"The Comet"). The Stakes miniseries, which aired near the beginning of the season, rated well, with each episode being seen by around 1.8 million viewers. The season concluded with "The Thin Yellow Line", which was watched by 1.15 million viewers; this made it the lowest-rated Adventure Time season finale at the time. Critical reception to the season was largely positive, and the episode "The Hall of Egress" was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Short-format Animation at the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards. At the same event, Herpich and Jason Kolowski each won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation, for their work on "Stakes Part 8: The Dark Cloud" and "Bad Jubies", respectively. "Bad Jubies" won an Annie Award for Best Animated Television/Broadcast Production for Children. Several compilation DVDs that contain episodes from the season have been released, and the full season was released on DVD on July 18, 2017. ## Development ### Concept The series follows the adventures of Finn the Human, a human boy, and his best friend Jake, a dog with magical powers to change shape and size at will. Finn and Jake live in the post-apocalyptic Land of Ooo, wherein they interact with the other major characters, including: Princess Bubblegum, The Ice King, Marceline the Vampire Queen, Lumpy Space Princess, BMO, and Flame Princess. Common storylines revolve around Finn and Jake discovering strange creatures, dealing with the antagonistic but misunderstood Ice King, and battling monsters in order to help others. Multi-episode story arcs for this season include Bubblegum adjusting to life in exile and eventually reclaiming the Candy Kingdom crown, and Marceline coming to terms with her vampiric nature. ### Production On July 25, 2014, the series was renewed for a seventh season. On September 26, 2014, Tom Herpich posted a picture on Tumblr of himself and Steve Wolfhard pitching the season premiere to the Adventure Time crew, suggesting that storyboarding for the season had already commenced. By August 9, 2015, production of the season had been completed and most of the staff's focus had shifted to the eighth season. In regards to the tone of the season, at the 2015 New York Comic Con, Muto said that this season focuses more on telling "simpler stories with the characters". While he contrasted the show's seventh season with its sixthwhich he described as "heady"Muto asserted that the seventh season would not be a "throwback" to the show's earlier seasons, which had been defined by their focus on comedy. Originally, the show's seventh season comprised episodes "Bonnie & Neddy" through "Reboot", for a total of 39. However, when it came time to upload the seventh season onto streaming sites, Cartoon Network chose to end the season with its 26th episode, "The Thin Yellow Line." The network then began counting the remaining 13 episodes (which included "Broke His Crown" through "Reboot") as making up the first portion of season eight, despite their having been produced as part of the seventh. This new episode count was cemented by the release of the complete seventh season DVD on July 18, 2017, which included episodes up until "The Thin Yellow Line". This season's episodes were produced in a process similar to those of the previous seasons. Each episode was outlined in two-to-three pages that contained the necessary plot information. These outlines were then handed to storyboard artists, who created full storyboards. Design and coloring were done at Cartoon Network Studios in Burbank, California, and animation was handled overseas in South Korea by Rough Draft Korea and Saerom Animation. Kirsten Lepore directed the episode "Bad Jubies", which was animated via stop motion, continuing a tradition from the previous two seasons of using a guest animator for an episode. Lepore had previously animated the short stop-motion tag for Frederator Studios, one of the series' production companies. There was a sneak peek of "Bad Jubies" at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival on June 19, 2015, several months before the season's premiere. Storyboard artists for the season included Herpich, Wolfhard, Seo Kim, Somvilay Xayaphone, Jesse Moynihan, Muto, Ako Castuera, Sam Alden, Andres Salaff, Hanna K. Nyström, Luke Pearson, Lyle Partridge, Kris Mukai, Graham Falk, and Kent Osborne. Pearson—a British cartoonist who had worked on the fifth season with Xayaphone—was temporarily hired to storyboard two episodes with Partridge. Similarly, Castuera, who had stepped down from her role as a regular storyboard artist after the fifth season, returned in a temporary role for three episodes with Moynihan. While series creator Pendleton Ward worked on a few outlines for this season, Osborne told IndieWire that Ward did not take an active role in developing stories that were produced after November 2014. Ward had an oversight role and provided occasional input, focusing much of his attention on developing an Adventure Time movie. In February 2015, Ashly Burch was hired to write story outlines for the show. Burch had voiced several characters in the sixth season before becoming a permanent member of the writing staff. She later joked that, because she was a fan of the show prior to being hired, writing for the show was akin to writing fan fiction. ### Miniseries On February 18, 2015, during Cartoon Network's upfront announcing shows for their 2015–16 season, the network announced a special miniseries, which would air as part of season seven. Cartoon Network was encouraged to greenlight the miniseries after the success of the 2014 event series Over the Garden Wall, which was created by Pat McHale, the former creative director of Adventure Time. The eight-episode miniseries, entitled Stakes, follows Finn and Jake as they face a new threat brought about when one of Princess Bubblegum's science projects unleashes the ghosts of Marceline's past. Former storyboard artist Rebecca Sugar returned to write a new song for the miniseries (entitled "Everything Stays") and to voice Marceline's mother. ## Cast The voice actors for the season included: Jeremy Shada (Finn the Human), John DiMaggio (Jake the Dog), Tom Kenny (The Ice King), Hynden Walch (Princess Bubblegum), and Olivia Olson (Marceline the Vampire Queen). Ward provided the voice for several minor characters, including Lumpy Space Princess. Former storyboard artist Niki Yang voices the sentient video game console BMO in English, as well as Jake's girlfriend Lady Rainicorn in Korean. Polly Lou Livingston, a friend of Pendleton Ward's mother, Bettie Ward, voices the small elephant, Tree Trunks. Jessica DiCicco voices Flame Princess, Finn's ex-girlfriend and the sovereign of the Fire Kingdom. Andy Milonakis voices N.E.P.T.R., a sentient robot who makes and throws pies. Several episodes also feature The Lich, the series' principal antagonist. The Lich's demonic form is voiced by Ron Perlman. The Adventure Time cast recorded their lines together to capture more natural-sounding dialogue among the characters. Hynden Walch has described these group sessions as akin to "doing a play reading—a really, really out there play." Guest voices were provided by actors, musicians, artists, and others. Andy Daly returned as the King of Ooo and Paul Scheer as Toronto in the season premiere "Bonnie and Neddy". Daly would go on to be featured in other season seven episodes as well, like "Varmints", "Mama Said", "May I Come In?", "Take Her Back", and "The Dark Cloud". "Bonnie & Neddy" also features supervising director Andres Salaff voicing Neddy. Anne Heche returned to voice the titular character in "Cherry Cream Soda", and storyline writer Jack Pendarvis reprised his role as Root Beer Guy. Pendarvis returned in the episode "Mama Said", with storyboard artist Ako Castuera as the voice of Canyon. The miniseries features Sugar as Marceline's mother, Ava Acres as a young Marceline, Rebecca Romijn as The Empress, Billy Brown as the Vampire King, Paul Williams as the Hierophant, Ron Funches as the Fool, Beau Billingslea as the Moon, and Kyle Kinane as Cloud Dance. "The More You Moe, the Moe You Know" features Chuck McCann reprising his role as Moe, and guest stars Thu Tran as AMO. Paget Brewster and Ron Lynch return in "Summer Showers" and voice Viola and Mr. Pig, respectively. In "Angel Face", Kyla Rae Kowalewski reprises her role as Me-Mow. "Weird Al" Yankovic returns as Banana Man in "President Porpoise is Missing", with James Urbaniak as Vice President Blowfish. Kevin Michael Richardson appears in "Bad Jubies", lending his voice to an automated storm alert and an aggressive storm. In "King's Ransom", storyboard artist Tom Herpich reprises the role of Mr. Fox. Max Charles appears in "Scamps", voicing Hugo the chocolate-dipped marshmallow. "Crossover" features Kumail Nanjiani and James Kyson reprising their roles of Prismo and Big Destiny, respectively; Lou Ferrigno appears in the same episode, playing Bobby, an alternate universe variant of the hero Billy. In "Flute Spell", Jenny Slate voices Huntress Wizard and Steve Agee voices Science Cat. Tunde Adebimpe, the lead singer from the band TV on the Radio, appears in "The Thin Yellow Line", voicing Banana Guard 16. Various other characters are voiced by Tom Kenny, Dee Bradley Baker, Maria Bamford, Steve Little, Kent Osborne, and Melissa Villaseñor. ## Broadcast and reception ### Broadcast As with the sixth season, the seventh season of Adventure Time featured several "bomb weeks", where new episodes debuted each day. During the first of these, which ran from November 2–6, 2015, the episodes "Bonnie & Neddy" through "Football" aired. During the second week-long string of episodes, which ran from November 16–19, 2015, the eight-episode Stakes story-arc was aired as a miniseries. The third and final bomb started on January 11, 2016 with "Angel Face" and ended on January 15 with "King's Ransom". ### Ratings The season debuted on November 2, 2015, with the episode "Bonnie & Neddy". This episode was viewed by 1.07 million viewers and scored a 0.3 Nielsen rating in the 18- to 49-year-old demographic—meaning that it was seen by 0.3 percent of all households aged 18–49 who were watching television at the time. This marked a drop from the previous season finale, which was seen by 1.55 million viewers, and it marked a decrease of over two million viewers when compared with the previous season opener. Nevertheless, the miniseries Stakes saw an uptick in viewers, with the first two episodes scoring a 0.4 Nielsen rating in the 18- to 49-year-old demographic and being watched by 1.87 million viewers. During the week that Stakes aired, Adventure Time was able to hold a 0.4 Nielsen rating in the 18- to 49-year-old demographic and attain viewership numbers over 1.7 million for each episode. The season finale, "The Thin Yellow Line", was watched by 1.15 million viewers and scored a 0.28 Nielsen rating in the 18- to 49-year-old demographic, making it the lowest-rated season finale for the show at the time, and making the season as a whole the first in the series to fail to hit the two-million viewer mark for any episode. ### Reviews and accolades The A.V. Club writer Oliver Sava reviewed all of the episodes, grading each with a different letter grade; Stakes was collectively awarded a B, and the rest of the season received two C's, nine B's, and seven A's. Stakes was met with mostly positive reviews. A wide variety of critics applauded the miniseries for its philosophical musings, with Charlie Jane Anders of io9 arguing that it is a meditation on the concept of change, and Heather Hogan of Autostraddle proposing that the miniseries is a commentary on depression. Many critics also applauded Sugar's song, "Everything Stays". Some critics, however, felt that the miniseries did not live up to expectations. At the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2016, the episode "The Hall of Egress" was nominated for a Short-format Animation. Herpich and Jason Kolowski each won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation, for their work on "Stakes Part 8: The Dark Cloud" and "Bad Jubies", respectively. In late 2016, "Bad Jubies" won an Annie Award for Best Animated Television/Broadcast Production for Children. Kirsten Lepore was nominated for Outstanding Achievement, Directing and Jason Kolowski was nominated for Outstanding Achievement, Production Design for this same episode. ## Episodes ## Home media On January 19, 2016, Warner Home Video released Stakes in its entirety on DVD. The DVD release Card Wars (2016) also contains several seventh-season episodes. These DVD release can be purchased on the Cartoon Network Shop, and the individual episodes can be downloaded from both the iTunes Store and Amazon.com. ### Full season release The full season set was released on DVD on July 18, 2017. The seventh season was not released on Blu-ray in Region 1, making it the first Adventure Time season to not receive this treatment.

TBR1

Protein-coding gene in Homo sapiens

T-box, brain, 1 is a transcription factor protein important in vertebrate embryo development. It is encoded by the TBR1 gene. This gene is also known by several other names: T-Brain 1, TBR-1, TES-56, and MGC141978. TBR1 is a member of the TBR1 subfamily of T-box family transcription factors, which share a common DNA-binding domain. Other members of the TBR1 subfamily include EOMES and TBX21. TBR1 is involved in the differentiation and migration of neurons and is required for normal brain development. TBR1 interacts with various genes and proteins in order to regulate cortical development, specifically within layer VI of the developing six-layered human cortex. Studies show that TBR1 may play a role in major neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). ## Discovery TBR1 was identified in 1995 by the Nina Ireland Laboratory of Developmental Neurobiology Center at the University of California, San Francisco. The gene, initially named TES-56, was found to be largely expressed in the telencephalic vesicles of the developing forebrain of mice. The protein product of TES-56 was discovered to be homologous to the Brachyury protein, a T-box transcription factor, which plays a role in establishing symmetry during embryonic development. Thus, due to its relation to T-box genes (such as Tbx-1, Tbx-2, Tbx-3), TES-56 was renamed TBR1. ## Human TBR1 gene and encoded protein The human TBR1 gene is located on the q arm of the positive strand of chromosome 2. It is 8,954 base pairs in length. TBR1 is one of the three genes that make up the TBR1 subfamily of T-box genes. The two other genes that form the TBR1 subfamily are EOMES (also known as TBR2) and TBX21 (also known as T-BET). TBR1 is also known as T-box Brain Protein, T-Brain 1, and TES-56. The encoded protein consists of 682 amino acid residues and has a predicted molecular weight of 74,053 Da. It is composed of 6 exons. ## Functions Tbr1 is a protein, called a transcription factor, that binds to DNA and regulates the transcription of genes into mRNA. It is expressed in postmitotic projection neurons and is critical for normal brain development. Tbr1 has been shown to be expressed in the developing olfactory bulb. Tbr1 has also been observed in the developing cerebral cortex. Tbr1 has several functions. These include involvement in the developmental process, brain development, neuronal differentiation, axon guidance, and regulation of neurons in the developing neocortex. ### Neuronal differentiation Tbr1, along with Pax6 and Tbr2, has a role in glutamatergic projection neuron differentiation. Glutamatergic neurons make and release in an activity-dependent manner the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate as opposed to the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA. The transition from radial glial cells to postmitotic projection neurons occurs in three steps, each associated with one of the aforementioned transcription factors. The first starts out with the expression of Pax6 in radial glial cells found primarily at the ventricular surface. In the next step, Pax6 is downregulated and Tbr2 is expressed as the cell differentiates into an intermediate progenitor cell. Likewise, in the final step, Tbr2 is extremely downregulated to undetectable levels as Tbr1 signals the transition into a postmitotic projection neuron. ### Modulation of NMDAR In cultured hippocampal neurons, Tbr1 and calcium/calmodulin-dependent serine kinase (CASK) interact with CASK-interacting nucleosome assembly protein (CINAP) to modulate the expression of N-methyl-D-aspartic acid receptor subunit 2b (NR2b) by acting on its promoter region. Tbr1 is a transcriptional regulator of NR1, an essential subunit of NMDA receptors. ### Axon guidance Cells that stop dividing (post-mitotic) and differentiate into neurons early in cortical development are important in laying the groundwork on which other developing neurons can be guided to their proper destination. Tbr1 aids in neuronal migration in the early development of the cerebral cortex. It is largely expressed in post-mitotic neurons of the preplate, which forms a foundation upon which neurons are able to grow and move. As a transcription factor, Tbr1 modulates the expression of RELN, which encodes the Reln protein that forms part of the extracellular matrix of cells. Thus, through regulation of Reln expression, Tbr1 regulates the formation of the matrix through which neurons migrate. Without Tbr1, neurons fail to migrate properly. ## Tissue and cellular distribution Being a transcription factor, a protein that binds to specific DNA sites and thereby regulates the activity of specific genes, Tbr1 is localized in the nucleus where the cell’s DNA is located. Tbr1 is expressed in glutamergic neurons rather than GABAergic neurons. Tbr1 is expressed mainly in early-born postmitotic neurons of the developing cerebral cortex—in particular, the preplate and layer VI neurons. The preplate forms the architectural network of neurons that help developing neurons migrate. Successive migrations of neurons divide the preplate such that its inner cells form the cortical plate while its outer cells form the marginal zone. The cortical plate and the marginal zone eventually develop into six cortical layers, known as the neocortex, present in the mature cerebral cortex. These layers are numbered I-VI with layer VI being the deepest and forming first, while the remaining layers grow outward from it (from V to I). Layers II-VI develop from the cortical plate and layer I forms from the marginal zone. The subplate, intermediate zone, subventricular zone, and ventricular zone are found progressively deeper to these developing cortical layers. High expression of Tbr1 is seen in the marginal zone, cortical plate, and subplate of the developing cortex whereas little expression is seen in the subventricular zone. No Tbr1 expression has been observed in the ventricular zone. Other regions of Tbr1 expression are: the olfactory bulbs and olfactory nuclei, the lateral hypothalamus region, the entopeduncular nucleus, the eminentia thalami. ## Non-human orthologs Orthologs of the human TBR1 gene have been identified in chimpanzee, dog, cow, rat, mouse, and zebrafish. ### Mice In mice, TBR1 has been found to function in development of the brain, eye, immune system, mesoderm, and placenta. It is also involved in glutamatergic neuronal differentiation in the developing mouse brain. It was discovered that Tbr-1 is expressed by postmitotic cortical neurons in mice and in humans. One target gene of TBR1 in the mouse brain is RELN or Reelin. Tbr-1 mutant mice have been found to have reduced RELN expression, resulting in improper neuronal migration, particularly in Cajal-Retzius cells of the marginal zone. Other studies in mice have found that TBR1 is a repressor or Fezf2. It has also been found to negatively regulate corticospinal tract formation. ### Zebrafish Studies in the zebrafish Danio rerio show that TBR1 is highly conserved across species. TBR1 cDNA clones from zebrafish were acquired by screening a zebrafish embryo using a phosphorus labeled probe. The TBR1 found in zebrafish (zf-TBR1) has 83-97% amino acid identity to orthologs in humans (hu-TBR1), xenopus (x-EOMES), and mice (mu-TBR1). The zebrafish TBR1 is only expressed in the forebrain, not in other regions of the zebrafish embryo. ### Lancelets The evolution of TBR1 has been studied in amphioxi, also known as lancelets. A T-box-containing cDNA was isolated in the lancelet Branchiostoma belcheri and found to possess a T-domain orthologous to that of the T-Brain subfamily of T-box genes, specifically TBR1. However, lancelets lack a true brain and no TBR1 transcripts were found in the neural tissue of the lancelet. This suggests that the neuronal role of TBR1 evolved in vertebrates after the lancelet lineage had already diverged from that of vertebrates. ## Gene regulation TBR1 both positively and negatively regulates gene expression in postmitotic neurons. ### Genes regulated by TBR1 Fezf2 is a gene that is regulated by TBR1. Fezf2 expression is observed in layer V of the cerebral cortex. The cerebral cortex is constructed in six layers. Fezf2 expression is restricted to layer V for proper development and migration of neurons of the corticospinal tract, which is derived from layer V neurons and is involved in voluntary muscular control. Recent studies show that TBR1, expressed in layer VI, binds directly to the Fezf2 gene, preventing Fezf2 expression in layer VI. In this manner, TBR1 acts as a transcription repressor of Fezf2. Mutation of TBR1 results in Fezf2 expression in layer VI and malformation of the corticospinal tract. Abnormal activation of TBR1 in layer V eliminates corticospinal tract formation. Bhlhb5 is a gene marker in the mouse brain, which is involved in differentiation of caudal identity in layer V neurons of the developing cortex, and is regulated by TBR1. It is expressed at high levels in caudal regions, but is not generally observed in the frontal cortex. Tbr1 is expressed at very high levels in the frontal cortex and very lower levels in the caudal regions. Using tbr1 null mutants, it was found that Bhlhb5 is up-regulated in the absence of TBR1. This up-regulation of Bhlhb5 led to the conclusion that tbr1 suppresses caudal identity while promoting frontal identity. The gene Auts2 is also regulated by TBR1. The autism susceptibility candidate 2 gene (Auts2) is a marker of frontal identity in the developing cortex and has been linked to mental retardation and autism. Auts2 is a target of the transcription factor, TBR1, in the neocortex. TBR1 is involved in both the binding and activation of the Auts2 gene. ### Co-regulatory proteins Tbr1 forms a complex with CASK and regulates gene expression in cortical development. Tbr1 binds to the guanylate kinase (GK) domain of CASK. It was determined that the C-terminal domain of Tbr1 in crucial and solely capable of this process. Through luciferase reporter assays of neurons in the hippocampus, it was found that increased Tbr1/CASK complex expression results in enhanced promoter activity in genes downstream of TBR1 such as NMDAR subunit 2b (NMDAR2b), glycine transporter, interleukin-7 receptor (IL-7R) and OX-2 genes. NMDAR2b experienced the greatest change in activity. Tbr1 and CASK also play an important role in activation of the RELN gene. One study suggests that CASK acts as a coactivator of TBR1, interacting with CINAP (CASK-interacting nucleosome assembly protein) to form a complex with Tbr1. The Tbr1/CASK/CINAP complex regulates expression of NMDAR2b and RELN, which both play important roles in long-term potentiation. Sox5 is another co-regulatory protein of Tbr1. Sox5 is a marker of layer VI neurons in the neocortex. It aids in the suppression of layer V neuron identity within layer VI cortical neurons through suppression of Fezf2. TBR1 is involved in the downstream regulation of Sox5. Sox5 expression was reduced in Tbr1 null mutants. It has been found that Sox5 interacts with Tbr1 to regulate Fezf2 transcription in layer VI cortical neurons. ### Transcription factors that regulate the expression of Tbr1 Studies suggest that the Af9 protein acts as a repressor of Tbr1 in the upper layers of the six-layer developing cerebral cortex, thereby confining Tbr1 to the lower cortical layers (preplate, subplate, layer VI). This process is regulated through interaction of Af9 with the methyltransferase DOT1L, which methylates histone H3 lysine 79 (H3K79). Af9 association with DOT1L enhances methylation of H3K79 at the TBR1 transcription start site, thereby interfering with RNA polymerase II (RNAPolII) activity and reducing TBR1 expression. Mutants of Af9 experience increased dimethylation of H3K79 and increased TBR1 expression. ## Clinical significance TBR1 has been implicated in alterations in the brain that may lead to Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD). TBR1 expressing mice showed that cholinergic neurons of the basal forebrain (ChBF), the degeneration of which are involved in the development of AD and PD, migrate from the ventral pallium to the subpallium. This was confirmed using TBR1 null mice. In the future, the researchers plan to explore the role of amyloid precursor protein (APP) in neuronal migration and linkage to these diseases. Reduced function of NMDA receptors play a role in schizophrenia. This diminished function of NMDA receptor may be correlated with the reduced expression of the NMDA receptor 2B subunit (NR2b), which has also been linked to schizophrenia. TBR1, in complex with the protein, CINAP, is responsible for regulating transcription of the NR2b gene. It was hypothesized in one 2010 study that reduced TBR1 and CINAP expression may be responsible for the reduced expression of the NR2b subunit observed in brains of postmortem schizophrenics. However, TBR1 and CINAP expression were not significantly reduced in the postmortem brains, suggesting that synthesis and processing of NR2b via TBR1 is not responsible for reduced NR2b expression in schizophrenics. TBR1 expression has been shown to be downregulated by embryonic exposure to cocaine. Prenatal cocaine exposure in a mouse model caused a decrease in both GABA neuron migration from the basal to the dorsal forebrain and radial neuron migration in the dorsal forebrain. This exposure also decreased TBR1 and TBR2 expression. However, further research showed that cocaine exposure only delayed TBR1 expression and did not cause permanent downregulation. Therefore, in models of prenatal cocaine exposure both migration and maturation of these progenitor cells is delayed. TBR1 is also used in immunohistochemical techniques in neurological research. It has been used to identify layer VI developing cortical neurons as well as the prethalamic eminence, pallium, and dorsal forebrain. The presence of TBR1 in stem cells responding to telencephalon injury implicates the normal function of these cells in this region of the brain. Mutations of this gene have also been reported in the tissues of medulloblastoma. Variations in this gene as well as whole gene deletions have been known to cause a disorder involving Autism Spectrum Disorder, Intellectual Disability, Epilepsy with skeletal, nervous system and brain abnormalities. It is extremely rare and as of July 2020, 40 cases have been recorded worldwide, it was first described in 2014. It has Autosomal Dominant presentation and are typically de novo but rare inherited variants have been reported. ## See also - T-box family - TBR2 - TBX21

Kindred of the East

1998 role-playing game book

Kindred of the East is a tabletop role-playing game book and game line released by White Wolf Publishing in February 1998 for use with their horror game Vampire: The Masquerade. It is part of the World of Darkness series, and is the first and main entry in the Year of the Lotus line of Asia-themed books released throughout 1998. The book covers Asia as it is portrayed in the series' setting, with a focus on China, and introduces Asian vampires called kuei-jin as player characters. These subsist on chi, and are created from humans who have done evil during their lives and return to their bodies after death. Following paths of enlightenment in the hopes of attaining a higher state of being, they participate in kuei-jin courts and oppose the demonic Yama Kings who are anticipated to rule the world in the coming sixth age. The game was designed by Robert Hatch, with art direction by Lawrence Snelly, who took visual inspiration from manga. It was supported by a line of supplementary books which further describe kuei-jin society and paths, and was adapted into other media including a short story, comics, and a live-action role-playing game; the kuei-jin were also featured in the video game Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines in 2004. Kindred of the East was generally well received by critics, who liked its gameplay, setting, mood, and artwork, but was criticized as portraying Asian people and cultures in a stereotypical way. ## Overview Kindred of the East is a major rulebook and game line for the tabletop role-playing game Vampire: The Masquerade, where players take the roles of vampires. It covers Asia as it is portrayed in the setting – primarily China – and introduces Asian vampires called kuei-jin or "the hungry dead". While still undead, they differ from the vampires of Vampire: The Masquerade: they do not originate from the biblical Caine – who in the World of Darkness series is reinterpreted as the first vampire – and were instead originally created by the divine August Personage of Jade during the second age, chosen from the most virtuous humans. Their purpose was to protect humanity from the Yama Kings and their demonic followers, but during the third age, they discovered that they could not only sustain themselves through the vital essence (chi) of the world, but also through chi stolen from living beings. As punishment, the August Personage of Jade returned them to their dead bodies from their mortal lives and cut them off from the chi of the world, forcing them to survive on stolen chi. The game is primarily set during the fifth age, in modern times, after the August Personage of Jade has turned away from the world. New kuei-jin are still created – referred to as attaining the second breath – but only from humans who have done evil and are weighed by karmic debts during their lives, and who crawl back from hell. Sometimes they return to someone else's dead body rather than their own, but a new kuei-jin does in any case begin as a zombie-like chih-mei, whose mind is clouded by a hunger for chi and who attacks mortals for it until taken in and taught to control themselves by an older kuei-jin. Led by a storyteller, players create and take the roles of newly-made kuei-jin, and role-play actions whose outcomes are in part determined through character attributes and rolling of dice. The player characters undergo training by the character who saved them from their chih-mei state, and learn about existence as a kuei-jin and their society. After this, they can be introduced to a kuei-jin court – their primary social group – and become part of a blood family (wu), which typically is made up of the players' characters. Kuei-jin follow one of several philosophical paths called dharmas, and the progression thereof is measured in levels, which affect the character's powers and their place in society; their ultimate goal is progressing through their dharma and attaining enlightenment and a higher state of being. The dharmas are based on different virtues, and a character must try to maintain the right balance between yin and yang, and between their rational mind (hun) and the evil spirit they carry within (p'o), to make progress: these include the Devil-Tiger dharma, based on p'o; Resplendent Crane, based on hun; Song of the Shadow, based on yin; Thrashing Dragon, based on yang; and Thousand Whispers, based on balance. Kuei-jin need to absorb chi to survive, which for young kuei-jin often is done by drinking mortals' blood, whereas older kuei-jin may draw it from the environment. Absorbed chi is distilled into black and scarlet varieties, respectively linked to yin and death, and to yang and life. These can be used to fuel various supernatural powers called disciplines, such as fire-breathing, phasing through walls, or flying, which are powerful but affect the chi flow of the environment, and are thus detectable by other kuei-jin. A character's balance between black and scarlet chi will also affect their disposition and appearance. In addition to the Yama Kings and their followers, who are anticipated to rule the world in the coming sixth age, the antagonists and rivals of the game include kuei-jin following heretical dharmas, Cainite vampires, hengeyokai shapeshifters, hsien changelings, ghosts, and demon hunters. ## Production and release Kindred of the East was designed by Robert Hatch, with additional design by Phil Brucato, Jackie Cassada, Mark Cenczyk, and Nicky Rea. It was made after the publisher had kept details on Asian vampires vague since the series began with Vampire: The Masquerade in 1991, having only discussed them as the Cainite bloodlines Gaki and Bushi, which after Kindred of the East were written out of the continuity. The game was written with suggested themes including balance versus imbalance, tradition versus new ways of thinking, the group versus the individual, east versus west, hierarchy, and redemption versus damnation. The lore of Kindred of the East was initially intended to be compatible with Exalted, another of White Wolf Publishing's role-playing games, but the two ended up diverging. The art team included art director and cover artist Lawrence Snelly, logo designer Ash Arnett, calligraphy artist Andy Lee, and several interior artists, who among other sources drew inspiration from manga. After a delay from November 1997, Kindred of the East was published by White Wolf Publishing in February 1998 as the first and main entry in their Year of the Lotus line of Asia-themed World of Darkness books, which introduced Asian supernatural beings to the games in the series, including Hengeyokai: Shapeshifters of the East for Werewolf: The Apocalypse and Land of Eight Million Dreams for Changeling: The Dreaming. Kindred of the East was based on Vampire: The Masquerade, and was published as a supplement that requires the Vampire rulebook to be played, following the model of the publisher's Mummy Second Edition from the year prior. This was done as the game could attract attention in the same way as a new, standalone game, while not being the start of a new line that would require further publisher support. Despite this, the game did receive its own line of supplements, starting with the Kindred of the East Companion book in 1999, which updates the game to bring it in line with the rules of the 1998 Revised Edition of Vampire: The Masquerade, as well as further detailing kuei-jin society and adding new gameplay mechanics and background information. The game was also released in other languages, including Brazilian Portuguese, French, Polish, and Spanish. White Wolf Publishing eventually ended the Kindred of the East narrative in 2004 as part of the Time of Judgment event – a finale to the World of Darkness series – with adventures published in the book World of Darkness: Time of Judgment. Bruce Baugh, one of the writers on the Kindred of the East line, later said that if he had been able to write one more World of Darkness book, it may have been one expanding the Kindred of the East cosmology to make the second breath happen not only to Asian characters. In 2019, White Wolf Publishing retrospectively described Kindred of the East as written from a very Western perspective, and urged people making fan works based on it to be conscious of orientalism and essentialism. ### Books ## Reception Kindred of the East and its supplements were critically well received at release: Dosdediez, Dragão Brasil, and Dragon called it among their favorite World of Darkness games; Casus Belli called it an excellent game that shows the publisher at its best; and Poltergeist recommended it to anyone who wants to play an urban-fantasy role-playing game set in Asia. Retrospectively, Backstab compared it favorably to Kindred of the Ebony Kingdom, a 2003 Vampire: The Masquerade supplement about African vampires. Critics generally liked the gameplay mechanics, with Backstab much preferring them to those of Vampire: The Masquerade, although conceding that they were a bit complicated to use; Magia i Miecz thought that the game may require some modifications to simplify the rules. Dosdediez liked the chi mechanics for adding a unique flavor and opening up possibilities, while Poltergeist considered the risk of using p'o disciplines so unbalanced that they never feel worth using, the dharmas' descriptions too brief to role-play as characters following them, and the p'o archetypes often indistinctive. Sci-Fi Universe liked the game for standing out from Vampire: The Masquerade, finding it to facilitate many new story ideas and role-play opportunities related to intrigue and politics. Casus Belli, Dragon, and SF Site criticized the game for requiring one to learn a lot of terminology and concepts before playing, although the latter thought this was partially mitigated by Kindred of the East Companion. The game's mystical setting and writing were well received for their mood and atmosphere, and for feeling fresh compared to previous World of Darkness games, although Dragão Brasil did not find it dark enough for the series. Rollespilsmagasinet Fønix, while calling the setting coherent and interesting, thought it deviates far too much from what had been established in previous World of Darkness games, whereas Backstab thought it was a better game for the differences. The player characters were mostly well received at release: Dosdediez preferred them to the Cainite vampires of Vampire: The Masquerade for having higher aspirations, while Dragão Brasil considered them potentially too different, although making for interesting allies or antagonists in cross-over play with other World of Darkness games. Casus Belli agreed, and appreciated the kuei-jin's similarities to the wraiths of Wraith: The Oblivion, making the game feel simultaneously new and familiar. Critics generally liked the game's artwork and presentation, with Casus Belli calling it a beautiul and well-designed book, and Dosdediez calling it visually above average for the publisher. The layout, lettering, and printing were also generally well received, although Poltergeist criticized its use of black text on dark backgrounds, making reading at times tiring. The illustrations were well received and considered to match the standards set by previous World of Darkness games, and were described by Dragão Brasil as "exceptional"; Poltergeist also liked the cover art for making the game stand out. The portrayal of Asia and Asian people in the game saw mixed responses. Sci-Fi Universe and SF Site called the game well researched and fascinating, the latter finding it a good platform for exploring Asian cultures and themes of Westernization, while Casus Belli found the descriptions of Asia lacking, and Poltergeist found it absurd to even attempt to describe China and major religions in only a few pages. Dosdediez thought it was nice to finally see coverage of Asia in World of Darkness, but found its use of stereotypes excessive, saying that if a White Wolf Publishing book set in Spain does not feature an entire cast of bullfighters, it makes little sense that meditative and spiritual martial artists would be so prevalent in Kindred of the East. Poltergeist similarly criticized the portrayal of Asian characters as excessively xenophobic, and TheGamer, describing the kuei-jin as stereotypical, wrote in 2019 that unless they were reworked, they did not expect the kuei-jin to return to the series. ### Sales Kindred of the East debuted as the fourth highest-selling tabletop role-playing game in France during the January–February 1998 period, and peaked at number 2 behind Deadlands in March–April 1998, before falling off the top 10 chart by July–August 1998. In Spain, it debuted as the fourth highest-selling new tabletop role-playing game in the December 1999–January 2000 period, and remained on the top 30 chart for an entire year. ## Related media Laws of the East, a Kindred of the East adaptation for the live-action role-playing game Mind's Eye Theatre, was developed by Cynthia Summers and written by Peter Woodworth, and released in 2000. In 1998, video game publisher Activision acquired the rights to develop video games based on Kindred of the East, along with Vampire: The Masquerade and Vampire: The Dark Ages. The kuei-jin were eventually featured in the 2004 video game Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, where Ming Xiao, a kuei-jin woman controlling Los Angeles's Chinatown, is one of the antagonists. Kuei-jin are also featured in the Vampire: The Masquerade tabletop game book Nights of Prophecy (2000), and events involving them are hinted at in Beckett's Jyhad Diary (2018). As of Vampire: The Masquerade's fifth edition (2018), they are no longer officially part of the series' setting. Manga-inspired comics based on the game were published as part of several of the books in the game line. Kevin Andrew Murphy's Kindred of the East short story "The Lotus of Five Petals" was published in 1998 as part of the fiction anthology The Quintessential World of Darkness, which was edited by Anna Branscome and Stewart Wieck.

Jim Umbricht

American baseball player

James Umbricht (September 17, 1930 – April 8, 1964) was an American professional baseball player. A right-handed relief pitcher, he played Major League Baseball (MLB) between 1959 and 1963 for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Houston Colt .45s. Umbricht was born in Chicago but grew up in Georgia. He started his professional career in 1953, making the majors in 1959. Over the next seasons, he alternated between teams, playing for the Pirates and that team's farm system. Umbricht was drafted by the Colt .45s in 1962, and became one of the National League's top relief pitchers. Diagnosed with malignant melanoma in his right leg in March 1963, his comeback to baseball following surgery made national headlines and encouraged research on the disease. He spent the 1963 season as a relief pitcher, sometimes in excruciating pain. Umbricht's health deteriorated soon afterwards and he died within six months, from complications from melanoma in a Houston-area hospital at age 33. His ashes were spread over the construction site of the Astrodome, the future home of the Colt .45s. The team retired Umbricht's jersey number, 32, and wore black armbands for the 1964 season in his honor. ## Early career Umbricht was born in Chicago, and moved with his family to Atlanta in 1946. Aspiring to be a professional baseball player, Umbricht practiced every day on a field by his house and became a multi-sport star at Decatur High School in Decatur, Georgia. He attended the University of Georgia on a scholarship and played on the school's baseball and basketball teams, becoming the captain of both for his senior year. He was named to the All-Southeastern Conference first-team as a shortstop in 1951. After graduating from Georgia, Umbricht participated in a local tryout camp for the Waycross Bears in the Class D Georgia–Florida League, a low-level minor league affiliate in the Milwaukee Braves organization. He made the team, starting his professional baseball career as a pitcher and infielder. In 1953, Umbricht pitched for the Bears in 10 games, starting in eight of them. Umbricht finished with a 4–3 win–loss record and a 2.87 earned run average. Umbricht missed the 1954 and 1955 seasons while serving in the United States Army, but pitched for a military team at Fort Carson in Colorado. After his discharge in 1956, Umbricht played for the Baton Rouge Rebels of the Evangeline League; he had a 15–15 Win–loss record in 32 games as the team finished with a 53–70 record, and led the league with 27 complete games. He was promoted to the Topeka Hawks of the Western League in 1957, and had a 13–8 record with a 3.24 earned run average in 28 games pitched. In 1958 he played for the Atlanta Crackers of the Southern Association. He went 6–10 with a 4.06 earned run average in 55 games, mostly as a relief pitcher. Umbricht was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates organization for Emil Panko prior to the 1959 season. The Pirates assigned Umbricht to their Triple-A affiliate, the Salt Lake City Bees in the Pacific Coast League. While with the Bees, Umbricht had a 14–8 record with a 2.78 earned run average in 47 games, mostly in relief. ## Major League career ### Pittsburgh Pirates On the strength of his performance for the Bees, Umbricht was promoted to the Pirates roster near the end of the 1959 season. He appeared in only one game, a 7–6 loss to the Cincinnati Reds. He pitched seven innings, giving up five earned runs while striking out three. Umbricht left the game in position for the win, as the Pirates were leading 6–5, but reliever Don Gross gave up two earned runs in the ninth inning for the blown save and the loss. Two spots in the starting rotation were available by the time the Pirates started their 1960 season. At the beginning of spring training, Umbricht competed against fellow rookies Bennie Daniels and Joe Gibbon for a place. The Pirates began strongly in spring training, winning 11 in a row at one point. In a game against the Detroit Tigers, Umbricht combined with Daniels to throw a no-hitter. Manager Danny Murtaugh was impressed with Umbricht's pitching and expected him to become the Pirates' fifth starter (a combination of spot starter and reliever) by opening day. He won the spot and in his first start of the season against the Reds on April 17, he gave up six earned runs in 5.1 innings, getting charged with the 11–3 loss. In his next start against the Philadelphia Phillies on April 21, Umbricht had poor control, giving up three runs and walking five batters in 2.1 innings. He made a last-minute start against Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Don Drysdale on May 25, after Pirates starting pitcher Bob Friend had a sore throat and could not play. Umbricht pitched five innings, striking out five batters, but gave up two critical second-inning home runs to Frank Howard and John Roseboro and was charged with the loss. After an off-day and a game postponed because of rain, the Pirates faced the Phillies at home on May 28. After the game went to extra innings, Umbricht pitched the 13th inning. The Pirates won in the later half of the inning, earning Umbricht his first career win. Umbricht continued to struggle in the bullpen and was demoted alongside Daniels on June 27 to the Columbus Jets of the International League as pitchers Tom Cheney and Earl Francis were promoted to the main squad. Between June 27 and September 9, he appeared in 19 games, 15 of them starts, earning an 8–5 record, two shutouts and a 2.50 earned run average. With his strong pitching performance at Columbus, Umbricht was re-promoted to the main roster in early September to help the Pirates in their pennant race. On September 27 against the Reds, he struck out three batters in two innings in relief as the Pirates broke a team record by striking out 19 batters in a 16-inning victory. The Pirates managed to win the National League pennant, but he was not named in the final roster for the World Series, which the Pirates won in seven games. Overall during the 1960 season, Umbricht appeared in 17 games for the Pirates, compiling a 1–2 record with a 5.09 earned run average and 26 strikeouts. He appeared in one game during the 1961 season, pitching three innings in relief during a May 5 loss against the Dodgers. He was demoted alongside outfielder Román Mejías on May 10 as the Pirates had to trim their roster from 28 players to 25 per league rules. Umbricht was sent back to Columbus, where he spent the rest of the 1961 season as a full-time starter. In 22 games, Umbricht had a 9–6 win–loss record with a 2.35 earned run average in 142 innings pitched. ### Houston Colt .45s Umbricht was selected by the Houston Colt .45s with the 35th pick in the 1961 Major League Baseball expansion draft. Umbricht had become friends with Houston's general manager Paul Richards when the two were at Waycross in 1953, and Richards selected Umbricht to give him a better chance of pitching in the majors. With the Colts, Umbricht quickly became one of the best relief pitchers in the National League. Umbricht started the season on the Colts roster, but was demoted to the Oklahoma City 89ers of the American Association to make room for veteran pitcher Don McMahon. He appeared in 23 games for the 89ers, posting a 3–4 win–loss record with a 3.39 earned run average, mostly in relief. He rejoined the Colts roster in the middle of the 1962 season as a relief specialist. He appeared in 34 games that season, earning a 4–0 win–loss record with a solid 2.01 earned run average. He struck out 55 batters while walking only 17. Umbricht threw four pitches, a fastball, curveball, slider and the changeup. He was used primarily as a setup pitcher during his brief tenure with the Colts. According to former teammate and roommate Ken Johnson, Umbricht was used by the Colts mainly to control damage caused by starting pitchers after they were removed from games. In his five-year Major League Baseball career, Umbricht compiled a 9–5 win–loss record, with 133 strikeouts, three saves and a 3.06 earned run average in 88 games. ## Cancer and early death ### Cancer diagnosis and 1963 season At the beginning of spring training for the 1963 season, Umbricht noticed a small black mole in his right leg, near the thigh while on a golf outing with Richards. Umbricht ignored the mole at first, but it grew at a rapid pace. Richards and team trainer Jim Ewell told Umbricht to have it checked by a doctor. A three-inch section of the mole was removed for testing and a doctor confirmed it was a "black mole" tumor that had spread to his groin area. Ewell said Umbricht "had the most wonderful attitude of anyone you'll ever meet". Umbricht's cancer diagnosis shocked baseball and made national headlines. On March 7, Umbricht underwent a six-hour operation using perfusion to remove the tumor from his right leg. The perfusion technique was radical at the time, entering use as a surgical procedure not long before Umbricht's surgery. After a month-long hospital stay, Umbricht and his doctors told the media that he beat the cancer, crediting "early detection and good physical condition", further stating that he "should have five or six good years left" in his baseball career. However, Umbricht learned that the doctors were unsure if the cancer surgery was a success, or even if it had been completely removed from his body. Even if it was, his chance of survival was slim at best. Upon hearing the news, Umbricht decided to keep it a secret outside his immediate family. Umbricht wanted to return to pitch for the Colt .45s and was in uniform by opening day. Manager Harry Craft added Umbricht to the Colts' active list prior to a May 9 game against Cincinnati, telling the Associated Press that the player was "anxious to get back to pitching". He appeared in the sixth inning in a 13–3 loss, giving up four runs, including a home run to Frank Robinson in one inning of work. After the game, Umbricht said he felt "real good" despite the poor performance. The surgery took a toll on his leg: he required over 100 stitches, and blood seeped from the wound while he pitched at times. That year Umbricht posted a 4–3 win–loss record and a 2.61 earned run average in 35 games. He played his last game on September 29, 1963, the final day of the regular season, and picked up the win in relief. By that time, Umbricht's cancer had started to spread throughout his body and he needed to be sedated at times because of the pain. In November, Umbricht learned that the cancer spread to his chest area and was incurable. He was released from his contract on December 16 due to his deteriorating health. The National League allowed the Colts to sign Umbricht to a scout contract given the circumstances, with the proviso that it would become a player contract if he rejoined the active roster. ### Final months and death By early 1964, Umbricht was constantly in and out of hospital for further treatment, but was only given a few months to live. When he was not hospitalized, Umbricht played golf and attended baseball dinners in his honor, often for a "most courageous athlete" award ceremony. Umbricht did not travel to Cocoa Beach for the Colts' spring training camp in late February. He returned to the hospital permanently on March 16, where his health steadily declined after a third operation. During his final hospital stay, the Colts' management, his family and the hospital staff agreed not to release any further details about his illness, though word had leaked that he was dying. He remained optimistic that he would beat the illness until his final days, stating that "everything will be ok" in an interview with United Press International sports editor Milton Richman. Umbricht succumbed to the disease on April 8, 1964. Umbricht's death came on the eve of the Colts' 1964 season, and at his funeral, Manager Harry Craft, coach Lum Harris, and teammates Bob Lillis, Ken Johnson, Dick Farrell, and Russ Kemmerer were the six pallbearers. Kemmerer, who in the off-season was a Methodist preacher, gave the eulogy during the service, and Umbricht's body was cremated. Construction of the Astrodome, the Colts' future ballpark, had begun a few weeks before Umbricht's death. His family decided to spread his ashes on its grounds, so the new ballpark "could be his headstone". After the funeral service, Umbricht's brother Ed flew a plane over the construction site and scattered his ashes. ## Aftermath and legacy The day after Umbricht's death, the Colts decided to honor their teammate by wearing black armbands for the entire 1964 season. Umbricht's uniform number (32) was immediately retired by the team; it was the first time the club retired a uniform number, and only the twelfth time in Major League history a number was retired. In the Colts' opening-day match against the Cincinnati Reds, starting pitcher Ken Johnson dedicated his victory in Umbricht's memory. The Astros' MVP award was also named in his honor. The back of Umbricht's 1964 Topps baseball card was updated to mention his death shortly before printing. The retirement of Umbricht's number received some criticism, however. Former teammate Jimmy Wynn wrote in his autobiography that Walt Bond, a former Astros player who was African-American, died from leukemia while he was still active. His jersey number was not retired by the club after his death, although he appeared in more games for the Astros than Umbricht. (It should be noted, however, that Bond ended his career not with Houston but as a member of the Minnesota Twins.) Journalists criticizing the retirement of numbers sometimes use Umbricht as an example of someone whose number was retired but who is unfamiliar to baseball fans. Umbricht's death from melanoma helped alert the general public about the disease. Former Los Angeles Rams linebacker Jack Pardee credited Umbricht's battle with melanoma for saving his life in 1965. Pardee, a Pro Bowl linebacker, had been ignoring a mole on his armpit. After hearing of Umbricht's battle with cancer, and that his mole was similar to Umbricht's, he went to the team doctor, who diagnosed him with melanoma. Although Pardee's melanoma had also spread throughout his body, he made a complete recovery. ## See also - List of baseball players who died during their careers

Flag of Italy

National flag

The national flag of Italy (Italian: Bandiera d'Italia, ), often referred to in Italian as il Tricolore (; English: the Tricolour), is a tricolour featuring three equally sized vertical pales of green, white and red, national colours of Italy, with the green at the hoist side, as defined by article 12 of the Constitution of the Italian Republic. The Italian law regulates its use and display, protecting its defense and providing for the crime of insulting it; it also prescribes its teaching in Italian schools together with other national symbols of Italy. The Italian Flag Day named Tricolour Day was established by law n. 671 of 31 December 1996, which is held every year on 7 January. This celebration commemorates the first official adoption of the tricolour as a national flag by a sovereign Italian state, the Cispadane Republic, a Napoleonic sister republic of Revolutionary France, which took place in Reggio Emilia on 7 January 1797, on the basis of the events following the French Revolution (1789–1799) which, among its ideals, advocated the national self-determination. The Italian national colours appeared for the first time in Genoa on a tricolour cockade on 21 August 1789, anticipating by seven years the first green, white and red Italian military war flag, which was adopted by the Lombard Legion in Milan on 11 October 1796. After 7 January 1797, popular support for the Italian flag grew steadily, until it became one of the most important symbols of the Italian unification, which culminated on 17 March 1861 with the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, of which the tricolour became the national flag. Following its adoption, the tricolour became one of the most recognisable and defining features of united Italian statehood in the following two centuries of the history of Italy. ## History ### The French Revolution The Italian tricolour, like other tricolour flags, is inspired by the French one, introduced by the revolution in 1790 on French Navy warships, and is symbolic of the renewal perpetrated by the origins of Jacobinism. Shortly after the French revolutionary events, the ideals of social innovation began to spread widely on the basis of the advocacy of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789, including in Italy, and subsequently political innovation with the first patriotic ferments addressed to the national self-determination that later led to the Italian unification on the Italian peninsula. For this reason, the French blue, white and red flag became the first reference of the Italian Jacobins and subsequently a source of inspiration for the creation of an Italian identity flag. On 12 July 1789, two days before the storming of the Bastille, the revolutionary journalist Camille Desmoulins, while hailing the Parisian crowd to revolt, asked the protesters what colour to adopt as a symbol of the French Revolution, proposing green, a symbol hope or the blue of the American Revolution, a symbol of freedom and democracy. The protesters replied "The green! The green! We want green cockades!" Desmoulins then seized a green leaf from the ground and pointed it to the hat as a distinctive sign of the revolutionaries. The green, in the primitive French cockade, was immediately abandoned in favour of blue and red, the ancient colours of Paris, because it was also the colour of the king's brother, Count of Artois, who became monarch after the First Restoration with the name of Charles X of France. The French tricolour cockade was then completed on 17 July 1789 with the addition of white, the colour of the House of Bourbon, in deference to King Louis XVI of France, who still ruled despite the violent revolts that raged in the country; the French monarchy was abolished on 10 August 1792. The first documented use of Italian national colours is dated 21 August 1789. In the historical archives of the Republic of Genoa it is reported that eyewitnesses had seen some demonstrators hanging a red, white and green cockade on their clothes. The Italian gazettes of the time had created confusion about the facts of French Revolution, especially on the replacement of green with blue, reporting that the French tricolour was green, white and red. When the correct information on the chromatic composition of the French tricolour arrived in Italy, the Italian Jacobins decided to keep green instead of blue, because it represented nature and therefore metaphorically, also natural rights, or social equality and freedom, both principles dear to them. The red, white and green cockade then reappeared several years later on 13–14 November 1794 worn by a group of students of the University of Bologna, led by Luigi Zamboni and Giovanni Battista De Rolandis who attempted to plot a popular riot to topple the Catholic government of Bologna, a city which was part of the Papal States at the time. Zamboni and De Rolandis defined themselves as "patriots" and wore tricolour cockades to signal they were inspired by Jacobin revolutionary ideals, but modified them also to distinguish themselves from the French cockade. The red, white and green cockade appeared, after the events of Bologna, during Napoleon's entry into Milan, which took place on 15 May 1796. These cockades, having the typical circular shape, possessed red on the outside, green on an intermediate position, and white on the centre. These ornaments were worn by the rioters even during the religious ceremonies officiated inside the Milan Cathedral as thanks for the arrival of Napoleon, who was seen, at least initially, as a liberator. The tricolour cockades then became one of the official symbols of the Milanese National Guard, which was founded on 20 November 1796, and then spread elsewhere along the Italian peninsula. Later the green, white and red cockade spread to a greater extent, gradually becoming the only ornament used in Italy by the rioters. The patriots began to call it "Italian cockade" making it become one of the symbols of the country. The green, white and red tricolour thus acquired a strong patriotic value, becoming one of the symbols of national awareness, a change that gradually led it to enter the collective imagination of the Italians. ### The Napoleonic era The oldest documented mention of the Italian tricolour flag is linked to Napoleon Bonaparte's first descent into the Italian peninsula. The first territory to be conquered by Napoleon was Piedmont; in the historical archive of the Piedmontese municipality of Cherasco is preserved a document attesting, on 13 May 1796, on the occasion of the Armistice of Cherasco between Napoleon and the Austro-Piedmontese troops, the first mention of the Italian tricolour, referring to municipal banners hoisted on three towers in the historic centre. On the document the term "green" was subsequently crossed and replaced by "blue", the colour that forms – together with white and red – the French flag. With the start of the first campaign in Italy, in many places the Jacobins of the Italian peninsula rose up, contributing, together with the Italian soldiers framed in the Napoleonic army, to the French victories. This renewal was accepted by the Italians despite being linked to the conveniences of Napoleonic France, which had strong imperialist tendencies because the new political situation was seen as better than the previous one. However, this double-threaded link with France was more acceptable than the previous centuries of absolutism. On 11 October 1796, Napoleon communicated to the Directorate the birth of the Lombard Legion, a military unit constituted by the General Administration of Lombardy, a government that was headed by the Transpadane Republic (1796–1797). On this document, with reference to its war flag, which followed the French tricolour and which was proposed to Napoleon by the Milanese patriots, it is reported that this military unit would have had a red, white and green banner, colours formerly used by Milanese National Guard as well as on the cockades. In a ceremony at the Piazza del Duomo on 16 November 1796, a military flag was presented to the Lombard Legion. The Lombard Legion was therefore the first Italian military department to equip itself, as a banner, with a tricolour flag. The first official approval of the Italian flag by the authorities was therefore as a military insignia of the Lombard Legion and not yet as the national flag of a sovereign Italian state. With the succession of Napoleon's military victories and the consequent founding of republics favourable to revolutionary ideals, red, white and green were adopted on military banners as a symbol of social and political innovation in many Italian cities. On 19 June 1796, Bologna was occupied by Napoleon's troops. On 18 October 1796, together with the establishment of the Italian Legion (the military banner of this military unit was composed of a red, white and green tricolour, probably inspired by the similar decision of the Lombard Legion), the wire Napoleonic congregation of magistrates, and deputies of Bologna, decided to create a civic banner of red, white and green, this time released from military use. Following the adoption by the Bolognese congregation, the Italian flag became a political symbol of the struggle for the independence of Italy from foreign powers, supported by its use also in the civil sphere. The first red, white and green national flag of a sovereign Italian state was adopted on 7 January 1797, when the Fourteenth Parliament of the Cispadane Republic (1797), on the proposal of deputy Giuseppe Compagnoni, decreed "to make universal the ... standard or flag of three colours, green, white, and red ...": > [...] From the minutes of the XIV Session of the Cispadan Congress: Reggio Emilia, 7 January 1797, 11 am. Patriotic Hall. The participants are 100, deputies of the populations of Bologna, Ferrara, Modena and Reggio Emilia. Giuseppe Compagnoni also motioned that the standard or Cispadan Flag of three colours, Green, White and Red, should be rendered Universal and that these three colours should also be used in the Cispadan Cockade, which should be worn by everyone. It is decreed. [...] For having proposed the green, white and red tricolour flag, Giuseppe Compagnoni is considered the "father of the Italian flag". The congress decision to adopt a green, white and red tricolour flag was then greeted by a jubilant atmosphere, such was the enthusiasm of the delegates, and by a peal of applause. The adoption of the Italian flag by a sovereign Italian state, the Cispadane Republic, was inspired by this Bolognese banner, linked to a municipal reality and therefore still having a purely local scope, and to the previous military banners of the Lombard Legion and Italian Legion. In particular, the Italian Legion was formed by soldiers coming from Emilia and Romagna. The flag of the Cispadane Republic was a horizontal square with red uppermost and, at the heart of the white fess, an emblem composed of a garland of laurel decorated with a trophy of arms and four arrows, representing the four provinces that formed the Republic. In France, due to the Revolution, the flag went from having a "dynastic" and "military" meaning to a "national" one, and this concept, still unknown in Italy, was transmitted by the French to the Italians. The Cispadane Republic and the Transpadane Republic merged in 1797 into the Cisalpine Republic (1797–1802) and adopted the vertical square tricolour without badge in 1798. Originally the colours of the flag of the Cisalpine Republic were arranged horizontally, with green at the top, but on 11 May 1798, the Grand Council of the newborn State chose, as the national banner, an Italian tricolour with the colours arranged vertically. At the formal celebration of the birth in the new republic, which took place on 9 July in Milan, 300,000 people took part, including ordinary citizens, French soldiers and representatives of the major municipalities of the republic. The event was characterised by a riot of tricolour flags and cockades. On this occasion, Napoleon solemnly gave to the military units of the newborn republic, after having reviewed them, their tricolour banners. The flag of the Cisalpine Republic was maintained until 1802, when it was renamed the Napoleonic Italian Republic (1802–1805), and a new flag was adopted, this time with a red field carrying a green square within a white lozenge; the presidential standard of Italy in use since 14 October 2000 was inspired by this flag. It was during this period that the green, white and red tricolour predominantly penetrated the collective imagination of the Italians, becoming an unequivocal symbol of Italianness. In less than 20 years, the red, white and green flag had acquired its own peculiarity from a simple flag derived from the French one, becoming very famous and known. In 1799, the independent Republic of Lucca came under French influence and horizontally adopted the vertical green, white and red flag, with green at the top; this lasted until 1801. In 1805, Napoleon installed his sister, Elisa Bonaparte Baciocchi, as Princess of Lucca and Piombino. This affair is commemorated in the opening of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace. In the same year, after Napoleon had crowned himself as the first French Emperor, the Italian Republic was transformed into the first Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy (1805–1814), or Italico, under his direct rule. The flag of the Kingdom of Italy was that of the Republic in rectangular form, charged with the golden Napoleonic eagle. This remained in use until the fall of Napoleon in 1814. ### Italian unification #### The revolutions of the 19th century With the fall of Napoleon and the restoration of the absolutist monarchical regimes, the Italian tricolour went underground, becoming the symbol of the patriotic ferments that began to spread in Italy and the symbol which united all the efforts of the Italian people towards freedom and independence. In the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia, a state dependent on the Austrian Empire born after the fall of Napoleon, those who exhibited the Italian tricolour were subject to the death penalty. The Austrians' objective was in fact, quoting the textual words of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria: > [The tricolour was banned to] make people forget that they are Italian. Between 1820 and 1861, a sequence of events led to the independence and unification of Italy (except for Veneto and the province of Mantua, Lazio, Trentino-Alto Adige and Julian March, known as Italia irredenta, which were united with the rest of Italy in 1866 after the Third Italian War of Independence, in 1870 after the capture of Rome, and in 1918 after World War I respectively); this period of Italian history is known as the Risorgimento. The Italian tricolour waved for the first time in the history of the Risorgimento on 11 March 1821 in the Cittadella of Alessandria, during the revolutions of the 1820s, after the oblivion caused by the restoration of the absolutist monarchical regimes. The green, white and red flag reappeared during the revolutions of 1830, mainly due to Ciro Menotti, the patriot who started the rebellion in Italy. Menotti, in particular, argued that the best form of state for a united Italy was the monarchy with a sovereign chosen by a national congress. The main points of this idea were Rome as the capital of Italy and the tricolour flag as a national banner. On 5 February 1831, during the Forlì uprisings, the patriot Teresa Cattani wrapped herself in the tricolour flag during the assault on the building that was the seat of the Legation of Romagna, challenging the shots of the papal soldiers. In 1831, the tricolour was chosen by Giuseppe Mazzini as the emblem of Young Italy. An original flag of Young Italy is kept at the Museum of the Risorgimento and Mazzinian institute in Genoa. From 1833 to 1834, the symbolism of the tricolour spread more and more along the Italian peninsula, starting from northern and central Italy. Mazzini, regarding the reason why the Italian patriots had participated in the uprisings of 1830–1831, said: > Ask those who ran from one point to another to bring together the various districts, to the flag that flew between those riots. That flag was the Italian flag; those first voices were voices of Fatherland and brotherhood. The Italian flag also spread among political exiles, becoming the symbol of the struggle for independence and the claim to have more liberal constitutions. In 1834 the tricolour was adopted by the rioters who tried to invade Savoy, while the tricolour flag of Young Italy was brought to South America in 1835 by Giuseppe Garibaldi during his exile. The Italian flag was also waved during the uprisings of 1837 in Sicily, of 1841 in Abruzzo and of 1843 in Romagna. In 1844, a tricolour of Young Italy accompanied the Bandiera brothers in their failed attempt to raise the population of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The patriots following the two brothers wore a uniform consisting of a blue and green shirt, white trousers, red handguards, a red and green collar, a red leather belt and a cap with an Italian tricolour cockade pinned. Italian tricolours waved, challenging the authorities, who had decreed the ban, also on the occasion of the commemoration of the revolt of the Genoese quarter of Portoria against the Habsburg occupiers during the War of the Austrian Succession. During this event, which took place on 10 December 1847 in Genoa at the square of the santuario della Nostra Signora di Loreto of the Genoese district of Oregina, Il Canto degli Italiani by Goffredo Mameli and Michele Novaro played for the first time in history; it would become the Italian national anthem from 1946. Il Canto degli Italiani, in a verse, quotes the Italian flag: > [...] Let one flag, one hope, gather us all. The hour has struck for us to unite. [...] These verses, which can be read in the second verse, recall the hope that Italy, still divided into the pre-unification states, would be united in a single nation, gathering under a single flag. Starting from this period the strawberry tree plant began to be considered a national symbol of Italy due to the green leaves, white flowers and red berries, which recall the colours of the Italian flag. The strawberry tree is the national tree of Italy. The Italian flag was a symbol of the revolutions of 1848. In March 1848, the Five Days of Milan, an armed insurrection which led to the temporary liberation of the city from Austrian rule, were characterised by a profusion of flags and tricolour cockades. On 20 March, during furious fighting, with the Austrians barricaded in the Castello Sforzesco and within the defensive systems of the city walls, the patriots Luigi Torelli and Scipione Bagaggia managed to climb on the roof of the Milan Cathedral and hoist the Italian flag on the highest spire of the church, the one on which the Madonnina stands. At the moment of the appearance of the tricolour on the spire of the Madonnina, the crowd below greeted the event with a series of enthusiastic "Hurray!" This historic flag is kept inside the Museum of the Risorgimento in Milan. The patriot Luciano Manara then managed to hoist the tricolour, amidst the Austrian artillery shots, on the top of Porta Tosa. The abandonment of the city by the Austrian troops of field marshal Josef Radetzky, on 22 March, determined the immediate establishment of the provisional government of Milan chaired by the podestà Gabrio Casati, who issued a proclamation that read: > Let's get it over with once with any foreign domination in Italy. Embrace this tricolour flag that flies over the country for your valour and swear never to let it tear again. The process of transforming the flag of Italy into one of the Italian national symbols was completed, definitively consolidating itself, during the Milanese uprisings. The following day King Charles Albert of Piedmont-Sardinia assured the provisional government of Milan that his troops, ready to come to his aid by starting the First Italian War of Independence, would use a tricolour defaced with the Savoyan coat of arms superimposed on the white as a war flag. In his proclamation to the Lombard–Venetian people, Charles Albert said: > "In order to show more clearly with exterior signs the commitment to Italian unification, we want that Our troops ... have the Savoy shield placed on the Italian tricolour flag. As the arms, blazoned gules a cross argent, mixed with the white of the flag, it was fimbriated azure, blue being the dynastic colour, although this does not conform to the heraldic rule of tincture. The rectangular civil and state variants were adopted in 1851. A makeshift tricolour consisting of redshirts, green displays and a white sheet was hoisted on the flagpole of the ship that brought Giuseppe Garibaldi back to Italy from South America shortly after the outbreak of the First Italian War of Independence. The patriots who had gathered at the port of Genoa to welcome her return gave Anita Garibaldi, in front of 3,000 people, a tricolour to be given to Giuseppe Garibaldi so that he could plant it on Lombard soil. The Grand Duchy of Tuscany in the act of granting the constitution (17 February 1848) did not change the national banner ("The State retains its flag and its colours") but later granted the Tuscan militias, by decree, the use of a tricolour scarf next to the symbols of the Grand Duchy (25 March 1848). The Grand Duke, following the pressure of the Tuscan patriots, then adopted the tricolour flag also as a state banner and as a military banner for the troops sent to help Charles Albert of Piedmont-Sardinia. Similar measures were adopted by the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza and by the Duchy of Modena and Reggio. The flag of the Constitutional Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, a white field charged with the coats of arms of Castile, Leon, Aragon, Two Sicilies, and Granada, was modified by Ferdinand II through the addition of a red and green border. This flag lasted from 3 April 1848 until 19 May 1849. The Provisional Government of Sicily, which lasted from 12 January 1848 to 15 May 1849 during the Sicilian Revolution, adopted the Italian tricolour, defaced with the trinacria, or triskelion. The Republic of San Marco, proclaimed independent in 1848 by the Austrian Empire, also adopted the tricolour. The flags that they adopted marked the link to Italian independence and unification efforts. The former, the Italian tricolour undefaced, and the latter, charged with the winged lion of St. Mark, from the flag of the Republic of Venice (maritime republic which existed from 697 AD until 1797 AD), on a white canton. A chronicler of the time described the final moments of the subsequent capitulation of the Republic of San Marco by the Austrian troops, which took place on 22 August 1849: > The tricolour flags waved above every work, in every danger, and because the enemy balls not only tore up the silk, but broke the stick, it was immediately found who at great risk was going to replace another. The tricolour flag of 1848 that greeted the expulsion of the Austrians from Venice is kept in the Museum of the Risorgimento and the Venetian 19th century. In 1849, the Roman Republic, formed following the revolt against the Papal State that dethroned the Pope, adopted as its national banner a green, white and red flag with a republican Roman eagle at the tip of the pole. This lasted for four months, while the Papal States of the Church was in abeyance. The Roman Republic resisted until 4 July 1849, when it was capitulated by the French Army. The troops from beyond the Alps, as a last act, entered the municipality of Rome where the last members of the republican assembly not yet captured were barricaded. Their secretary Quirico Filopanti surrendered wearing a tricolour scarf. The tricolour also flew over the barricades of the Ten Days of Brescia, a revolt of the citizens of the Lombard city against the Austrian Empire, and in many other centres such as Varese, Gallarate, Como, Melegnano, Cremona, Monza, Udine, Trento, Verona, Rovigo, Vicenza, Belluno and Padua. This spread throughout the Italian peninsula and demonstrated that the tricolour flag had by then assumed a consolidated symbolism valid throughout the national territory. The iconography of the Italian flag then began to spread not only in the vexillological and military fields, but also in some everyday objects such as scarves and clothing fabrics. This turning point lasted until the failure of revolutions and the end of the First Italian War of Independence (1849), which ended with the defeat of the Piedmont-Sardinian Army of Charles Albert; after this, the ancient flags were restored. Only the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia confirmed the Italian tricolour as the national flag of the state even after the First Italian War of Independence ended. After the defeat in the First Italian War of Independence in 1849, Charles Albert abdicated in favour of his son Victor Emmanuel II. #### From the unification of Italy to the World War I On 14 April 1855, before the departure for the Crimean War, the Italian tricolour flags were solemnly entrusted to the soldiers of the Sardinian Expeditionary Corps in the Crimean War by King Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont-Sardinia with the following farewell sentence: > Soldiers! Here are your flags. Generously explained by the magnanimous Charles Albert, they remind you of the distant homeland and eight centuries of noble traditions. Know how to defend them; bring them back crowned with new glory and your sacrifices will be blessed by present and future generations. One of the Italian flags that participated in the Crimean War is kept in the Royal Armoury of Turin. In 1857, an Italian flag with the pole surmounted by a Phrygian cap and with an archipendulum, a symbol of social balance, was a symbol of the Sapri expedition, or rather the failed attempt to trigger a revolt in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies perpetrated by Carlo Pisacane. In order not to be captured, Pisacane committed suicide, and was reported to be bandaged with the tricolour flag. On 10 January 1859, King Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont-Sardinia, in front of the members of parliament, announced the imminent entry into war of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia against the Austrian Empire: > So move confidently in the victory, and with new laurels adorn your flag, that flag with the three colours and with the chosen youth here from every part of Italy agreed and gathered under her, it shows you that you have the independence of Italy, this just and holy enterprise which will be your war cry When the Second Italian War of Independence (1859) broke out, volunteers from all over Italy were enrolled in the Piedmont-Sardinian army. During the Second Italian War of Independence the cities that were gradually conquered by Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont-Sardinia and Napoleon III of France greeted the two sovereigns as liberators in a riot of flags and tricolour cockades; even the centres about to ask for annexation to the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia through plebiscites underlined their desire to be part of a united Italy with the waving of the tricolour. The Italian flag waved in Lombardy, annexed following the victory of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia in the Second Italian War of Independence, as well as in Tuscany, Emilia, Marche and Umbria, annexed in the following year to the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia through plebiscites, but also in cities that would have had to wait some time before being annexed, such as Rome and Naples. The enthusiasm of the population toward the tricolour grew in addition to the army of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia and the troops of volunteers who participated in the Second Italian War of Independence, the green, white and red flag spread widely available in newly conquered or annexed regions by plebiscites, appearing on house windows, in shop windows and in public places such as hotels and taverns. The tricolour was also the flag of the United Provinces of Central Italy, a short-lived military government established by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia that was formed by a union of the former Grand Duchy of Tuscany, Duchy of Parma, Duchy of Modena, and the Papal Legations, after their monarchs were ousted by popular revolutions. The United Provinces of Central Italy existed from 1859 to 1860, when they were annexed to the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. The tricolour accompanied, although not officially, also the volunteers of the Expedition of the Thousand (1860–1861) led by Giuseppe Garibaldi, whose goal was to conquer the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Garibaldi, in particular, had an absolute deference and respect for the Italian flag. Shortly after the loss of Sicily, on 25 June 1860, trying to limit the damage given the growing participation of the population in the Expedition of the Thousand, King Francis II of the Two Sicilies, decreed that the green, white and red flag was also the official banner of his Kingdom, with the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies coat of arms superimposed on the white. Adopted on 21 June 1860, this lasted until 17 March 1861, when the Two Sicilies was incorporated into the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, after its defeat in the Expedition of the Thousand. Ironically, in the final phase of the Expedition of the Thousand, the tricolour of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies fluttered in antagonism to the tricolour flag of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. Two of the original tricolours that flew on the Lombardo steamship that participated, together with Piedmont, in the Expedition of the Thousand, are preserved, respectively, inside the Central Museum of the Risorgimento at the Vittoriano in Rome and the Museum of the Risorgimento in Palermo. On 17 March 1861, there was the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, a formal act that sanctioned, with a normative act of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, the birth of the unified Kingdom of Italy. On 15 April 1861, the flag of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia was declared the flag of the newly formed Kingdom of Italy. The tricolour therefore continued to be the national flag also of the new State, although not officially recognised by a specific law, but regulated with regard to the shape of military banners. This Italian tricolour, with the armorial bearings of the former Royal House of Savoy, was the first national flag and lasted in that form for 85 years until the birth of the Italian Republic in 1946. The tricolore had a universal, transversal meaning, shared by both monarchists and republicans, progressives and conservatives and Guelphs as well as by the Ghibellines. The tricolour was chosen as the flag of a united Italy also for this reason. After the Unification of Italy, the use of the tricolour became increasingly widespread among the population as the flag and its colours began to appear on the labels of commercial products, school notebooks, the first cars and cigar packages. Even among the aristocrats it was successful; the most important families often had a flag bearer installed on the main façade of their mansions where they placed the Italian tricolour. It then began to appear outside public buildings, schools, judicial offices and post offices. During this period, tricolour bands were introduced for mayors and the jurors of the assize court during this period. Following the Third Italian War of Independence in 1866, Veneto and Friuli were annexed to the Kingdom of Italy; the entry of the Italian Army troops into Venice, which took place on 19 October 1866, was greeted by a profusion of tricolour flags. Since the promulgation of a resolution of its municipal council, dated 5 November 1866, Vicenza is the only city in Italy to have adopted the tricolour flag as its own gonfalon, instead of the civic banner, loaded with the coat of arms of the municipality. The Venetian city decided to patriotically change the nature of its sign shortly before the visit of King Victor Emmanuel II, who arrived in the city for the awarding of the Gold Medal of Military Valour earned by the Venetian municipality with the battle of Monte Berico, fought on 10 June 1848 in the outskirts of the city. The occasion of the Sovereign's visit, Vicenza presented Victor Emmanuel II not with his own banner but, a decision from which his subsequent resolution was to originate, the Italian tricolour. During the battle of Custoza (24 June 1866), part of the Third Italian War of Independence, near Oliosi, today part of the municipality of Castelnuovo del Garda, the soldiers of the 44th regiment of the "Forlì" brigade saved the tricolour war flag from the capture of the Austro-Hungarian Army. In order not to hand over their military banner to the enemy, they tore the drape of the tricolour flag into 13 pieces, divided among those present, and hid those shreds of cloth under the jacket. After the war it was possible to recover 11 of the 13 portions of the cloth and thus reconstruct the flag, named Tricolore di Oliosi. Every year, on the third Sunday in June, the remembrance of the war episode is celebrated in Oliosi. At the military parade on 2 June 2011, held in via dei Fori Imperiali in Rome on the occasion of the celebrations for the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy, the Tricolore di Oliosi was paraded on a cannon carriage along with five other historic Italian flags. Massimo d'Azeglio was among the first to recognize the importance of the tricolour flag as a tool for forming a widespread national awareness. In this regard he declared: "The flag is a privileged symbol in the pedagogy of a nation". Tricolour flags then greeted the Italian Army during the march toward Rome, which ended with the capture of Rome on 20 September 1870, and the annexation of Lazio to the Kingdom of Italy. Rome officially became the capital of Italy on 1 January 1871, while the establishment of the royal court and the Savoy government took place on 6 July of the same year. From this date, the Italian flag flies from the highest flagpole of the Quirinal Palace. The first Italian colony was founded in 1882, the Assab bay, which became the first outpost of the future Italian Eritrea, where the flag of Italy waved in an Italian colony for the first time. Subsequently, the tricolour also waved in the Italian Somaliland, in the Italian Libya, in the Italian concession of Tientsin and in the Italian Islands of the Aegean. In 1897, the Italian flag had its 100th anniversary. The centennial celebration in Reggio Emilia, where the tricolour was created on 7 January 100 years earlier, Giosuè Carducci, who later became the first Italian to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1906, defined the flag as "blessed" and kissed it at the end of the speech. Around 1880 began large waves of Italian diaspora, especially towards the Americans. The tricolour, often carried in the suitcases of migrants, began to wave outside the national borders, especially in the Little Italies that were forming around the world. This bond with the land of origin did not fade with the passing of generations—often still alive in the third or fourth generation. Several years earlier in 1861, U.S. president Abraham Lincoln reviewed some military units that were participating in the American Civil War—among them was a Garibaldi Guard, made up of Italian immigrants, which had as its military banner the tricolour flag. In 1885, the tricolour jersey was introduced for the cyclist who won the title of champion of Italy. Conceptually, this recognition is similar to the placement of a tricolour shield, the scudetto, on the jerseys of the team champion of Italy in football, rugby, volleyball and basketball. The idea of affixing a scudetto on the shirts of the winning sports teams of the respective national championships was Gabriele D'Annunzio. In football, the first sport to use it, it was introduced in 1924. In 1889, in the culinary field, the pizza Margherita was invented, named in honour of Queen Margherita of Savoy, whose main ingredients recall the tricolour flag. Green for the basil, white for the mozzarella and red for the tomato sauce. With the first trade union struggles at the end of the 19th century, the Italian flag began to wave in the hands of the demonstrators during strikes. Even during the struggles perpetrated by the Fasci Siciliani between 1892 and 1894 there was a profusion of Italian flag. They were contrasted by the tricolours of the police sent by the government to quell the trade union revolts. On 25 April 1900, the Italian flag flew in the Franz Josef Land, an archipelago located north of the Russian Empire between the Arctic Ocean and the Kara Sea, an expedition organized in the arctic areas led by explorer Umberto Cagni. On 29 July 1900, King Umberto I of Italy, who succeeded his father Victor Emmanuel II in 1878, was assassinated in Monza at a public ceremony with the streets flagged with tricolours. The king was shot four times by the Italian-American anarchist Gaetano Bresci. Bresci claimed he wanted to avenge the people killed in Milan during the suppression of the riots of May 1898. Umberto I was succeeded by his son Victor Emmanuel III of Italy. ### The two world wars and the interwar period Italy entered World War I in 1915 with the aim of completing national unity, and for this reason, the Italian intervention in World War I is also considered the Fourth Italian War of Independence in a historiographical perspective that identifies in the latter the conclusion of the unification of Italy, whose military actions began during the revolutions of 1848 with the First Italian War of Independence. King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy, the day the Kingdom of Italy entered the war, appeared from the balcony of the Quirinal Palace while waving the tricolour shouting "Long live Italy". Victor Emmanuel III then made an official proclamation shortly before leaving for the Italian war front, which read, in its final part: > Soldiers of land and sea! [...] To us the glory of planting the tricolour of Italy on the sacred boundary that nature placed on the borders of our homeland, to us the glory of finally completing the work with so much heroism begun by our fathers. The tricolour flag was a symbol in both the trenches and in the civil sphere. The colours green, white and red were widely used as a stimulus to the general mobilization and moral sustenance of the civilian population, which was climbing a path that would have led to a very difficult situation, characterized by many deprivations. In the trenches, the tricolour was a fundamental symbol to spur the soldiers, while on the home front it was important for compacting and strengthening civil society. During the flight over Vienna, on 9 August 1918 aerial flyer Gabriele D'Annunzio launched the tricolour leaflet over Vienna with which he exhorted the enemy to surrender and end the war. The Italian troops then entered Trieste in November 1918 following the victory in the battle of Vittorio Veneto, which ended the conflict with the retreat and the definitive defeat of the Austrians. The War Bulletin No. 1267 of 3 November 1918 by General Armando Diaz announced the Bollettino della Vittoria and the Bollettino della Vittoria Navale by few days, read: > Our troops have occupied Trento and landed in Trieste. The tricolour flies over the Buonconsiglio Castle and the San Giusto tower. After World War I, the Italian flag was also a symbol of the Impresa di Fiume, led by D'Annunzio, and a consequence of the so-called "mutilated victory", a term used to describe the dissatisfaction concerning territorial rewards in favour of Italy at the end of World War I, shouted: "raise the flag: wave the tricolour!" During the Italian Regency of Carnaro (1919–1920), a state entity that administered the city of Fiume, now part of modern-day Croatia, D'Annunzio defined the Italian flag "the garment of the eternal nation" and urged the Italians to rebel against those responsible for the defeat of Caporetto by waving the "tricolour across the sky". In particular, Italy, as a peace agreement at the conclusion of World War I, signed the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919) and the Treaty of Rapallo (1920), which allowed the annexation of Trentino Alto-Adige, Julian March, Istria, Kvarner, with the cities of Trieste, Trento, Gorizia, Pola, as well as the Dalmatian city of Zara. The subsequent Treaty of Rome (1924) led to the annexation of the city of Fiume to Italy. The coffin of the Italian Unknown Soldier was placed on the gun carriage of a cannon and wrapped in a tricolour flag during its journey from the Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta, Aquileia to the Altare della Patria in Rome, which took place in 1921 on a railway hearse. This historic flag is kept inside the Central Museum of the Risorgimento at the Vittoriano in Rome. With the March on Rome in 1922, and the establishment of the fascist dictatorship, the Italian flag lost its symbolic uniqueness partly obscured by the iconography of the regime. When it was used, as the symbol of the National Fascist Party, its history was distorted, given that the tricolour was born as a symbol of freedom and civil rights. Despite this supporting role, with the royal decree no 2072 of 24 September 1923 and subsequently with the law no2264 of 24 December 1925, the tricolour officially became the national flag of the Kingdom of Italy. On 31 January 1923, the salute to the flag by the students of Italian schools was instituted by the Ministry of Public Education whereby every Saturday morning, at the end of the lesson, the students paid homage to the flag with the Roman salute and with the performance of patriotic musical pieces. In 1926, the Fascist regime attempted to have the Italian national flag redesigned by having the fasces, the symbol used by the Fascist movement, included on the flag. However, this attempt by the Fascist government to change the Italian flag to incorporate the fasces was stopped by strong opposition to the proposal by Italian monarchists. Afterwards, the Fascist government raised the national tricolour flag along with a Fascist black flag in public ceremonies. In 1926, an Italian flag was first brought to the North Pole by the Norge airship during the expedition led by Umberto Nobile and Roald Amundsen; the tricolours then greeted Italo Balbo in his oceanic seaplane crossings. The Azione Cattolica, which made the Italian flag its banner in 1931, grouped the children of its organization dedicated to children into three categories, which were based on age group and colours of the Italian flag: "green flames", "white flames" and "red flames". In August 1933, the Italian ocean liner SS Rex, which had just won the Blue Riband, arrived in New York City setting the record for Atlantic Ocean crossing in the shortest time (four days) was greeted by the waving of tricolour flags. Trains covered with tricolour flags carried the settlers to the new cities founded after the reclamation of the Pontine Marshes, while on 5 May 1936 there was the solemn flag-raising in Addis Ababa, Italian Ethiopia, which greeted the founding of the Italian Empire. The flag in Addis Ababa was then lowered in November 1941 at the end of the East African campaign, which was fought during World War II. Italy entered World War II on 10 June 1940 with the speech by Benito Mussolini delivered from the main balcony of Palazzo Venezia in Rome; the climate, however, was very different from that which characterized Italy's entry into World War I. The king did not appear on the balcony of the Quirinal Palace waving the flag as he did in 1915. During World War II, the Italian flag came back strongly after the Armistice of Cassibile of 8 September 1943, where it was taken as a symbol by the two sides who faced each other in the Italian Civil War in an attempt to recall the unification of Italy and its cultural tradition. In particular, it was used by the partisans as a symbol of the struggle against tyrants and emblem of the dream of a free Italy. Even the communist partisan brigades, which had the red flag as the official banner, often waved the Italian flag. Tricolour flags were also the official banners of the Italian Partisan Republics and of the National Liberation Committee, as well as their antagonists, the Republicans in an attempt to recall the period of the unification of Italy and its cultural background. The national flag of the short-lived Fascist state in northern Italy, the Italian Social Republic (1943–1945), or "Republic of Salò" as it was commonly known, was identical to the flag of the modern Italian Republic, as both republics used the previous flag of the Kingdom of Italy with the coat of arms of Savoy removed. This flag was somewhat rarely seen, however, while the war flag, charged with a silver/black eagle clutching horizontally placed fascio littorio (literally, bundles of the lictors), was very common in propaganda. Italian fascism derived its name from the fasces, which symbolised imperium, or power and authority, in ancient Rome. Roman legions had carried the aquila, or eagle, as signa militaria. The Italian tricolour was also used for propaganda. The Italian Social Republic, for example, used it on a poster depicting Goffredo Mameli, the author of the lyrics of Il Canto degli Italiani, the national anthem of Italy from 1946, with an unsheathed sword and a tricolour behind him while he launches towards an assault. This poster bears the words "Brothers of Italy / Italy has woken!" and "1849–1944 The spirit of Goffredo Mameli/Defend the Social Republic". On 25 April 1945, the government of Mussolini fell. This event is commemorated by Liberation Day. With the liberation, the tricolour appeared in public places such as the towers of town halls, on bell towers of churches, and in factories. Remembering these events, Francesco Cossiga, at the time president of the Senate of the Republic, in a speech delivered on 28 June 1984, said: > With the tricolour of Italy the homeland was resurrected and republican democracy was established, which today peacefully unites all Italians. In the eastern Italian territories occupied by the Yugoslav partisan militias, the Italian flag was used with a red star in the centre as a model of the flag used by the partisan Garibaldi Brigades initially in the city of Fiume in 1943, then extended to all the territories where the Italian ethnic minority (Istrian Italians and Dalmatian Italians) resided. Having entered Yugoslavia, this flag remained official until 1992, when it was officially replaced by the flag adopted by the Italian state. Following the defeat of Italy in World War II and the Paris Treaties of 1947, Istria, Kvarner and most of Julian March, with the cities of Pola, Fiume and Zara, passed to Yugoslavia, and after the latter's dissolution, to Croatia, causing the Istrian-Dalmatian exodus which led to the emigration of between 230,000 and 350,000 of local ethnic Italians (Istrian Italians and Dalmatian Italians), the others being ethnic Slovenians, ethnic Croatians, and ethnic Istro-Romanians, choosing to maintain Italian citizenship. After World War II, Gorizia was divided in two: one part remained with Italy while the other, which was renamed "Nova Gorica", passed first to Yugoslavia and then to Slovenia. ### Italian Republic On 13 June 1946, the Italian Republic was officially founded and the last king of Italy Umberto II, who succeeded his father Victor Emmanuel III on 9 May 1946, left the country on 13 June into exile. On the same day, the tricolour with the Savoy coat of arms in the centre was lowered from the Quirinal Palace. The Italian flag was modified with the decree of the president of the Council of Ministers No. 1 of 19 June 1946. Compared to the monarchic banner, the Savoy coat of arms was eliminated. This decision was later confirmed in the session of 24 March 1947 by the Constituent Assembly, which decreed the insertion of article 12 of the Italian Constitution, subsequently ratified by the Italian Parliament, which states: > [...] The flag of the Republic is the Italian tricolour: green, white, and red, in three vertical bands of equal dimensions. [...] The members of the Constituent Assembly were deeply moved when they approved this article, and as a sign of joy and respect, stood up and applauded at length shortly after the approval. Shortly before the officialisation of the flag in the constitution, on 7 January 1947, the tricolour turned 150. The role of master of ceremonies that belonged to Giosuè Carducci 50 years earlier was assumed by Luigi Salvatorelli, whose speech, uttered during the Reggio Emilia official celebrations in the presence of Enrico De Nicola, Provisional Head of State, alluded to the delicate phase that post-war Italy was going through with particular reference to the humiliations suffered by the country in World War II: > The tricolour is not lowered, it will not be lowered. It was re-blessed, rededicated by the insurrection of the patriots, by the blood of the partisans and soldiers of Italy fighting against Nazi-fascism in the new liberation struggle. The Republican tricolour was then officially and solemnly delivered to the Italian military corps on 4 November 1947 on the occasion of National Unity and Armed Forces Day. The universally adopted ratio is 2:3, while the war flag is squared (1:1). Each comune also has a gonfalone bearing its coat of arms. On 27 May 1949, a law was passed that described and regulated the way the flag was displayed outside public buildings and during national holidays. During the republican era, the tricolour greeted important events in Italian history. The flag was hoisted at the top of K2 during the Italian expedition in 1954 that led Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli to be the first people to reach the summit of this mountain—the second highest in the world after Mount Everest, and was brought in 2011 to the International Space Station by astronaut Roberto Vittori on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy. A profusion of Italian flags greeted the return of Trieste to Italy in 1954, which took place following the agreements signed between the governments of Italy, the United Kingdom, the United States and Yugoslavia concerning the status of the Free Territory of Trieste, an independent territory situated between northern Italy and Yugoslavia. The territory, under the direct responsibility of the United Nations Security Council in the aftermath of World War II, established on 10 February 1947 by a protocol of the Treaty of Peace with Italy. The Italian naval ensign comprises the national flag defaced with the arms of the Italian Navy; the mercantile marine (and private citizens at sea) use the civil ensign, differenced by the absence of the mural crown and the lion holding open the gospel, bearing the inscription, PAX TIBI MARCE EVANGELISTA MEVS instead of a sword. The shield is quartered, symbolic of the four great thalassocracies of Italy, the repubbliche marinare of Venice (represented by the lion passant, top left), Genoa (top right), Amalfi (bottom left), and Pisa (represented by their respective crosses); the rostrata crown was proposed by Admiral Cavagnari in 1939 to acknowledge the Navy's origins in ancient Rome. The tricolour flag was the official banner of the Italian Trust Administration of Somalia (1950–1960), which was granted on a UN mandate, and which was the first peacekeeping mission of the Italian Army. The tricolour continues to represent Italy in all peacekeeping missions in which the Italian Armed Forces participate. In 1997, on its bicentenary, 7 January was declared Tricolour Day; it is intended as a celebration, though not a public holiday. On 31 December 1996, with the same law that established the Tricolour Day, a celebration held on 7 January of each year in memory of the adoption of the red, white and green flag by the Cispadane Republic (7 January 1797), established a national committee of 20 members that would have the objective of organising the first solemn commemoration of the birth of the Italian flag. Among the events celebrating the bicentenary of the Italian flag, was the longest tricolour in history, which also entered the Guinness World Records at 7,536 square metres (81,120 sq ft) long, 4.8 metres (16 ft) wide and had an area of 7,536 square metres (81,120 sq ft), and paraded in Rome from the Colosseum to the Capitoline Hill. During the celebrations for the 140 years of national unity, on 4 November 2001, in San Martino della Battaglia, during the National Unity and Armed Forces Day, in reference to the tricolour, the former president of the Italian Republic, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, said: > Let us work to ensure that every family, in every home, there is a tricolour to testify the feelings that have united us since the days of the glorious unification of Italy. The tricolour is not a simple state sign, it is a banner of freedom conquered by a people who recognize themselves as united, who find their identity in the principles of brotherhood, equality, justice. In the values of its own history and civilization. In 2003, a state ensign was created specifically for non-military vessels engaged in non-commercial government service whereby the Italian tricolour is defaced with the national coat of arms. Since 1914, the Italian Air Force have also used a roundel of concentric rings in the colours of the tricolour as aircraft marking, substituted, from 1923 to 1943, by encircled fasces. The Frecce Tricolori, officially known as the 313o Gruppo Addestramento Acrobatico, is its aerobatic demonstration team. The law n. 222 of 23 November 2012, concerning "Rules on the acquisition of knowledge and skills in the field of" Citizenship and Constitution "and on the teaching of the Mameli hymn in schools", prescribes the study in schools of the Italian flag and other national symbols of Italy. ## Historical evolution of the flag of Italy ## Description ### Colours The colours of the Italian flag are indicated in article 12 of the Constitution of the Italian Republic, published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale No. 298, extraordinary edition, of 27 December 1947, and came into force on 1 January 1948: - green; - white; - red. If the flag is exposed horizontally, the green part should be placed at the hoist side, with the white one in a central position and the red one outside, while if the banner is exposed vertically the green section should be placed above. ### Chromatic definition The need to precisely define the colours was born from an event that happened at the Justus Lipsius building, seat of the Council of the European Union, of the European Council and of their Secretariat, when an Italian MEP, in 2002, noticed that the colours of the Italian flag were unrecognizable with red, for example, which had a shade that turned towards orange. For this reason the government, following the report of this MEP, decided to specifically define the colours of the Italian national flag. The shades of green, white and red were first specified by these official documents: - circulaire of the Undersecretary of State for the Presidency of the Council of Ministers of 18 September 2002; - circulaire by the State Secretary for the Presidency of the Council of Ministers of 17 January 2003; - - - New documents then replaced the previous ones: - circulaire of the presidency of the Council of Ministers No. EU 3.3.1 / 14545/1 of 2 June 2004; - decree of the president of the Council of Ministers of 14 April 2006, "General provisions relating to ceremonial and precedence among public offices" - - - The chromatic tones of the three colours, on polyester stamina, are enshrined in paragraph 1 of article n. 31 "Colour definition of the colours of the flag of the Republic", of Section V "Flag of Republic, National Anthem, National Feasts and State Funeral", of Chapter II "General provisions relating to ceremonial", of the annex "Presidency of the Council of Ministers – State Ceremonial Department", to the decree of the president of the Council of Ministers of 14 April 2006 "General provisions on ceremonial and precedence between public offices", published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale No. 174 of 28 July 2006. {\| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left" \|- ! colspan=2\|Description \|\| Number \|\| RGB \|\| CMYK \|\| HSV \|\| Hex \|- \|style="background:#008C45"\| \|\| Fern Green \|\| 17-6153 TC \|\| (0, 140, 69) \|\| (100%, 0%, 51%, 45%) \|\| (150°, 100%, 55%) \|\| \#008C45 \|- \|style="background:#F4F5F0"\| \|\| Bright White \|\| 11-0601 TC \|\| (244, 245, 240) \|\| (0%, 0%, 2%, 4%) \|\| (72°, 2%, 96%) \|\| \#F4F5F0 \|- \|style="background:#CD212A"\| \|\| Flame Scarlet \|\| 18-1662 TC \|\| (205, 33, 42) \|\| (0%, 84%, 80%, 20%) \|\| (357°, 84%, 80%) \|\| \#CD212A \|- ## Other official Italian flags ### Standards of most important institutional offices The president of the Italian Republic has an official standard. The current version is based on the square flag of the Napoleonic Italian Republic, on a field of blue, charged with the emblem of Italy in gold. The square shape with a Savoy blue border symbolise the four Italian Armed Forces, namely the Italian Air Force, the Carabinieri, the Italian Army and the Italian Navy, of which the president is the commander. The first version of the standard, adopted in 1965 and used until 1990 was very similar to the current version only without the red, white and green. The emblem was also much larger. This version of the standard was replaced in 1990 by then President Francesco Cossiga. Cossiga's new version of the standard contained the same royal blue background but now with a squared Italian national flag in the centre and no emblem. This version was short lived however as only two years later it was replaced by the 1965 standard, only with a smaller emblem. This version lasted until 2000 from when it was replaced by the current version. After the Republic was proclaimed, the national flag was provisionally adopted as the head of state in place of the royal standard. On the initiative of the Ministry of Defence, a project was prepared in 1965 to adopt a distinct flag. Opportunity suggested the most natural solution was the Italian tricolour defaced with the coat of arms; however, under conditions of poor visibility, this could easily be mistaken for the standard of the president of Mexico, which is also that country's national flag. The standard is kept in the custody of the Commander of the Reggimento Corazzieri of the Arma dei Carabinieri, along with the war flag (assigned to Regiment in 1878). The Italian Constitution does not make provision for a vice-president. However, separate insignia for the president of the Senate, in exercise of duties as acting head of state under Article 86, was created in 1986. This has a white square on the blue field, charged with the arms of the Republic in silver. Distinguishing insignia for former presidents of the Republic was created in 2001; a tricolour in the style of the presidential standard, it is emblazoned with the Cypher of Honour of the president of the Republic. The standard of president of the Council of Ministers of Italy, introduced for the first time in 1927 by Benito Mussolini, in its first form a littorio beam appeared in the middle of the drape. The sign was abolished in 1943, while the current one was defined in 2008 by Silvio Berlusconi. It consists of a blue drapery bordered by two gold-colored borders in the center of which stands the emblem of the Republic. The banner should be exposed to every official engagement of the president and on the vehicles that carry it, however it is almost never used. The main colours are blue and gold, which have always been considered colours linked to the command. ### Naval insignia The naval ensigns are defaced to distinguish themselves from the flag of Mexico: - the naval ensign bears the arms of the Navy: a shield, surmounted by a turreted and rostrum crown, which brings together in four parts the arms of four maritime republics: Republic of Venice (where the Lion of Saint Mark carries the sword), Republic of Genoa, Republic of Pisa and Republic of Amalfi; - the civil ensign bears a coat of arms identical to that of the Navy, but without a crown and in which the lion of Saint Mark carries the book; - the government ensign bears the emblem of the Italian Republic. ## Protocol ### Obligation to exhibit The law, implementing Article 12 of the Constitution and following of Italy's membership of the European Union, lays down the general provisions governing the use and display of the flag of the Italian Republic and the flag of European Union (in its territory). In particular, in public buildings the flag of the Italian Republic, the flag of the European Union and the portrait of the president of the Italian Republic must be displayed in the offices of the most important Italian institutional offices. The flag of Italy must also be displayed outside all schools of all levels, outside university complexes, outside the buildings that host the voting operations, outside the prefectures, police headquarters, palaces of justice and outside the central post offices. The flag of Italy must also be displayed on all public offices on the Tricolour Day (7 January), the Anniversary of the Lateran Treaty (11 February), the Anniversary of the Liberation (25 April), the Labour Day (1 May), the Europe Day (9 May), the Feast of the Italian Republic (2 June), the commemoration of the Four days of Naples (28 September), the feast of the patron saint of Italy (Francis of Assisi, 4 October), United Nations Day (24 October; here the tricolour must fly together with the flag of the United Nations) and National Unity and Armed Forces Day (4 November). When displayed alongside other flags, the flag of Italy takes the position of honour; it is raised first and lowered last. Other national flags should be arranged in alphabetical order. Where two (or more than three) flags appear together, the national flag should be placed to the right (left of the observer); in a display of three flags in line, the national flag occupies the central position. The European flag is also flown from government buildings on a daily basis. In the presence of a foreign visitor belonging to a member state, this takes precedence over the Italian flag. As a sign of mourning, flags flown externally shall be lowered to half-mast; two black ribbons may be attached to those otherwise displayed. ### Exposure mode The tricolour flags displayed must always be in excellent condition, fully extended and must never touch water or land. In no case can figures and writings be written or printed on the cloth. Furthermore, the Italian flag can never be used as a simple drapery or as a fabric in common use (e.g. to cover tables or as curtains). In the event of public mourning the banner can be raised at half-mast and two strips of black velvet can be affixed to the cloth; the latter are instead mandatory when the tricolour participates in funeral ceremonies. In public ceremonies, the tricolour must always parade first. ### Flag-folding There is a precise way to fold the tricolour correctly, by taking into account the three vertical bands of which the banner is composed. The flag must be folded according to the boundaries of the colour bands: first the red band and then the green band must be folded over the white one in order to leave only the latter two colours visible; only subsequently should it be folded further in order to completely cover the red and white with green—the only colour that must be visible at the time of the closure of the cloth. ### Legal protection Article 292 of the Italian Penal Code ("Insult or damage to the flag or other emblem of the State") protects the Italian flag by providing for the crime of insulting it, or other banners bearing the national colours, thus providing: > Anyone who vilifies the national flag or another emblem of the State with insulting expressions is punished with a fine ranging from €1,000 to €5,000. The penalty is increased from €5,000 to €10,000 if the same act is committed in occasion of a public occasion or an official ceremony. > > Anyone who publicly and intentionally destroys, disperses, deteriorates, renders useless or smears the national flag or another emblem of the state is punished with imprisonment for up to two years. > > For the purposes of criminal law, the national flag means the official flag of the state and any other flag bearing the national colours. ## Flag-raising The flag-raising of the tricolour takes place at the first light of dawn, with the flag which is made to slide quickly and resolutely up to the end of the flagpole. In the military sphere, it is announced by trumpet blasts and is performed on the notes of the national anthem. The flagship, which takes place in the evening, is instead slower and more solemn so as not to make it seem a rapid lowering. The tricolour can be exposed also during the night only if the place where it is flying is conveniently illuminated. In the presence of other flags, as well as receiving the most important honour position, it must be hoisted first and lowered last. ## Meaning of colours As the similarity suggests, the Italian tricolour derives from the flag of France, which was born during the French Revolution from the union of white – the colour of the monarchy – with red and blue – the colours of Paris, and which became the symbol of social and political renewal perpetrated by the original Jacobinism. Green, the first Italian tricolour cockades, symbolised natural rights, namely social equality and freedom. After various events it came to 7 January 1797, the date of the adoption of the tricolour flag by the Cispadane Republic, the first Italian sovereign state to make use of it. During the Napoleonic period, the three colours acquired a more idealistic meaning for the population: the green represents hope, the white represents faith and the red represents love. Other less probable conjectures that explain the adoption of the green hypothesise a tribute that Napoleon wanted to give to Corsica, where he was born, or to a possible reference to the verdant Italian landscape. For the adoption of greenery there is also the so-called "Masonic hypothesis": even for Freemasonry, green was the colour of nature, a symbol of human rights, which are naturally inherent in the human being, as much as of the florid Italian landscape. This interpretation, however, is opposed by those who maintain that Freemasonry, as a secret society, did not have such an influence at the time that inspired Italian national colours. Another hypothesis that attempts to explain the meaning of the three Italian national colours would, without historical bases, be that the green is linked to the colour of the meadows and the Mediterranean maquis, the white to that of the snows of the Alps and the red to the blood spilt in the Wars of Italian Independence and Unification. A more religious and philosophical interpretation is that green represents hope, white represents faith, and red represents charity (love), in reference to the three theological virtues. ## Tricolour Day To commemorate the birth of the Italian flag, the Tricolour Day was established on 31 December 1996, which is known in Italian as the Festa del Tricolore. It is celebrated every year on 7 January, with the official celebrations being organised in Reggio nell'Emilia, the city where the first official adoption of the tricolour was declared as a national flag by an Italian sovereign state, the Cispadane Republic, which took place on 7 January 1797. In Reggio nell'Emilia, the Festa del Tricolore is celebrated in Piazza Prampolini, in front of the town hall, in the presence of one of the highest offices of the Italian Republic (the president of the Italian Republic or the president of one of the chambers), who attends the flag-raising on the notes of Il Canto degli Italiani and which renders military honours a reproduction of the flag of the Cispadane Republic. In Rome, at the Quirinal Palace, the ceremonial foresees instead the change of the Guard of honour in solemn form with the deployment and the parade of the Corazzieri Regiment in gala uniform and the Fanfare of the Carabinieri Cavalry Regiment. This solemn rite is carried out only on three other occasions, during the anniversary of the unification of Italy (17 March), the Festa della Repubblica (2 June) and the National Unity and Armed Forces Day (4 November). ## The flag of Italy in museums There are many museums that host at least one historic Italian flag. Located throughout the Italian peninsula, they are mainly located in northern Italy. The most important exhibition space that hosts Italian tricolour flags is found in the architectural complex of the Altare della Patria in Rome. Inside the "Central Museum of the Risorgimento at the Vittoriano", there are about 700 historical flags belonging to the Italian Army, Italian Navy and Italian Air Force departments, as well as the tricolour flag with which it was wrapped in 1921 coffin of the Unknown Soldier on his journey to the Altar of the Patria. The oldest tricolour preserved in the Central Museum of the Risorgimento dates back to 1860: it is one of the original tricolours that flew on the Lombardo steamship which, together with Piedmont steamship, participated in the expedition of the Thousand. The Vittoriano also houses the Flag Memorial (Sacrario delle Bandiere), the museum that collects and preserves disused Italian war flags. Other exhibition spaces that also host historical tricolour flags in Rome include, the Historical Museum of the Carabinieri, the Historical Museum of the Bersaglieri, the Historical Museum of the Infantry, the Historical Museum of the Sardinian Grenadiers, the Historical Museum of the Military engineering, the Historical Museum of the Guardia di Finanza and the Historical Museum of Military Motorization. The Tricolour Flag Museum in Reggio nell'Emilia, the city that saw the birth of the Italian flag in 1797, was founded in 2004. It is located within the town hall of the Emilian city, adjacent to the Sala del Tricolore where documents and memorabilia attributable to the period between the arrival of Napoleon Bonaparte in Reggio (1796) and 1897, the year of the first centenary of the Italian flag are kept. Other exhibition spaces that also host historical tricolour flags in Emilia-Romagna are the Museum of the Risorgimento and of the Resistance in Ferrara, the Civic Museum of the Risorgimento in Modena, the Museum of the Resistance in Montefiorino, the Civic Museum of the Risorgimento in Bologna, the Museum of the Risorgimento in Imola and the Museum of the Risorgimento in Piacenza. The National Museum of the Italian Risorgimento in Turin, the only one of Risorgimento that officially has the title of "national", house a rich collection of tricolours, including some dating back to the revolutions of 1848. Among the relics of the Royal Armory of Turin there is a flag of 1855, a relic in the Crimean War, in which the Russian Empire lost to an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, Britain and Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. In Piedmont, there are also other museums that host Italian flags in their collections: the National Historical Museum of Artillery in Turin, the Historical Museum of the Cavalry in Pinerolo and the Badogliano Historical Museum in Grazzano Badoglio. In Liguria, there is the Museum of the Risorgimento and Mazzinian Institute in Genoa which preserves, among other things, an original flag of the Young Italy, while in La Spezia there is the Naval Technical Museum of the Navy, founded in the 15th century by Amadeus VIII, Duke of Savoy. The Museum of the Risorgimento in Milan houses several tricolours from the Napoleonic era, including a flag of the Lombard Legion dating back to 1797 and delivered to the cohort of hunters on horseback only after the aforementioned ceremony in Piazza del Duomo, Milan, on 6 November 1796. Inside the Milanese museum there is also the tricolour flag dating back to the Five Days of Milan that flew from the Milan Cathedral on 20 March 1848. Near Mantua, in Solferino, is the Museum of the Risorgimento of Solferino and San Martino, which celebrates the 1859 military battle of the same name and which houses many relics of the event, including several tricolour flags. Other exhibition spaces that also host historical tricolour flags in Lombardy include the International Museum of the Red Cross in Castiglione delle Stiviere, the Museum of the Risorgimento in Bergamo, the Museum of the Risorgimento in Brescia, the Museum of the Risorgimento in Como, the Vittoriale degli Italiani in Gardone Riviera, the Museum of the Risorgimento in Mantua, the Museum of the Risorgimento in Pavia and the Museum of the Risorgimento in Voghera. In Venice, the Museum of the Risorgimento and the Venetian 19th century preserves the tricolour flag of 1848 which greeted the expulsion of the Austrians from the city; Venice also hosts the Naval History Museum, which has an importance comparable to the homonymous exhibition space in La Spezia. The description of the Triveneto museums is completed by the Italian War History Museum in Rovereto, dedicated to World War I, which houses many relics, including several tricolour flags; the Historical Museum of Trento, which preserves items dedicated to the Alpini troops, the Museum of the Risorgimento and of the contemporary age in Padua, the Museum of the Risorgimento and of the Resistance in Vicenza. In Trieste, there is the Museum of the Risorgimento and the shrine of Oberdan. In Sardinia, in addition to the Museum of the Risorgimento of the State Archives in Cagliari, there is the Museum of the Risorgimento Duca d'Aosta in Sanluri, set up at the castle of Eleonora D'Arborea, which preserves, among the numerous patriotic and the historical flags, the tricolour that on 3 November 1918 flew first in the Trieste just reconquered by Italy after the victory in World War I. Other exhibition spaces that also host historical tricolour flags in other regions of Italy include the Domus Mazziniana in Pisa, the Marche museum of the Risorgimento and the Resistance in Macerata, the Museum of the Risorgimento in Palermo, which also preserves one of the original tricolour flags belonging to the Lombardo steamship which participated in the Expedition of the Thousand, and the museum of the State Archives in Naples which houses, among other things, twelve of the twenty-one tricolour flags requisitioned by the Bourbon general Carlo Filangieri from the Sicilian patriots of Caltagirone, Catania, Leonforte and Syracuse during the Sicilian revolution of 1848. ## National flags similar to the flag of Italy The Italian national flag belongs to the family of flags derived from the French tricolour, with all the meanings attached, as mentioned, to the ideals of the French Revolution. Due to the common arrangement of the colours, at first sight, it seems that the only difference between the Italian and the Mexican flag is only the coat of arms of Mexico present in the latter; in reality the Italian tricolour uses lighter shades of green and red, and has different proportions than the Mexican flag—those of the Italian flag are equal to 2:3, while the proportions of the Mexican flag are 4:7. The similarity between the two flags posed a serious problem in maritime transport, given that originally the Mexican mercantile flag was devoid of arms and therefore was consequently identical to the Italian Republican tricolour of 1946; to obviate the inconvenience, at the request of the International Maritime Organization, both Italy and Mexico adopted naval flags with different crests. Also due to the Italian layout, the Italian flag is also quite similar to the flag of Ireland, with the exception of orange instead of red (although the shades used for the two colours are very similar) and proportions (2:3 against 1:2). The Hungarian flag has the same colours as the Italian one, but on the Magyar banner the red, white and green tricolour is arranged horizontally. Another banner chromatically similar to the Italian one is the flag of Bulgaria; similarly to the Hungarian flag, the Bulgarian banner has the white, green and red tricolour (starting from the top) in horizontal stripes, and therefore also in this case there is no confusion with the Italian tricolour. Similar to the Hungarian banner is the flag of Iran, but green and red are reversed. In the flag of Madagascar green and red are in horizontal bands while white is in vertical band. The flag of Oman is similar to the Bulgarian banner, while the flag of Tajikistan is similar to the Hungarian banner. Finally, they present other combinations of the three colours, the flags of Madagascar, Suriname, and Burundi. The flag of Suriname has a very specific composition of horizontal tricolor bands: the central red band (loaded with a gold star) and flanked by white and green bands. The flag of Burundi instead has a white Saint Andrew's Cross that divides the cloth into four triangular sections, the upper and lower ones red and the lateral ones green. ## The flag of Italy in the arts ### In the visual arts Famous paintings dating back to the unification of Italy whose subject revolves around the tricolour are Pasquale Sottocorno assaulting the Military Engineering Palace during the Five Days of Milan (1860) by Pietro Bouvier, Charles Albert of Piedmont-Sardinia on the balcony of the Greppi Palace (1848) by Carlo Bossoli, Little patriots (1862) by Gioacchino Toma, Garibaldi lands in Marsala (late 19th century), The departure of the volunteers (1877–1878), The departure of the Garibaldine (1860), The departure of the conscripts in 1866 (1878) The return of the wounded soldier (1854), all by Gerolamo Induno, The first Italian flag brought to Florence (1859) by Francesco Saverio Altamura, The wounded soldier (1865–1870) by Angelo Trezzini, Episode of the Five Days in Piazza Sant'Alessandro by Carlo Stragliati (late 19th century), Fighting at Litta Palace (half 19th century) by Baldassare Verazzi, The brothers are in the field! Remembrance of Venice (1869) by Mosè Bianchi, The breach of Porta Pia (1880) by Carlo Ademollo, On 26 April 1859 (1861) by Odoardo Borrani, and Garibaldi's Burial (1862–64) by Filippo Liardo. The tricolour often recurs in the paintings of Italian painters adhering to futurism. In particular, Giacomo Balla has often used the symbol of the Italian flag in some patriotic works such as Flag Waving, Interventionist Demonstration and Demonstration 20th September. ### In music The first songs on the tricolour started to be composed shortly after its official adoption on 7 January 1797. The most famous popular musical composition written in this period and dedicated to the Italian flag is To the tricolour, which reads: > Tricolour the Insignia and the Standard > new fire awaken us in the heart! > The ringing of the trumpets is a harbinger > of victories, triumphs and valor However, most of the songs dedicated to the Italian flag were written during the unification of Italy. The most famous is The flag of the three colours, sung in all Italian primary schools for decades: > The flag of the three colours > has always been the most beautiful, > we always want that, > we want freedom. > And the yellow and black flag > here he has finished reigning! > The yellow and black flag > here he has finished reigning! > All united in one pact > tight around the flag, > we will shout morning and evening: > long live the three colours! During the battle of Aspromonte (29 August 1862), the notes of The tricolour flag, by an unknown author, rang out; the flag is also mentioned in Garibaldi's hymn, a 1859 song by Luigi Mercantini, which accompanied the Expedition of the Thousand. Other pieces from the unification of Italy celebrating the tricolour are Giuseppe Bertoldi's Liberation of Milan, O Ardent young people by an anonymous author and Luigi Mercantini's War Hymn of 1848–49. The Italian flag is then mentioned in the musical composition The bell of San Giusto and in the piece Faccetta Nera, written by Renato Micheli and set to music by Mario Ruccione in April 1935 on the occasion of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War (1935–1936). The 1961 song The Flag by Domenico Modugno was also dedicated to the flag. In 1965, singer Ivan Della Mea recalled the tricolour as a symbol of national unity in the song 9th May. The song refers to the event organized on 9 May 1965 in memory of the 20eth anniversary of the Liberation of Italy (1943–1945). In March 2007, singer-songwriter Graziano Romani published the album Three colours, inspired by the Italian flag and the occasion in which the tricolour was adopted in his hometown, Reggio Emilia. ### In literature Many romantic poets treated the tricolour flag in their literary works, drawing juxtapositions and symbolisms: > From the Alps to the Strait brothers we are all! > On the open limits, on the destroyed thrones > let's plant our common three colours! > Green hopes it for so many years, > red the joy of having accomplished it, > white the brotherly faith of love. > White is the faith that chains us > red is the joy of our hearts > I'll put a verbena leaf in it > which I myself fed with fresh moods. > We too have our flag > no longer like one day so yellow, so black; > on the white linen of our banner > waving a green laurel wreath: > of our tyrants in cowardly blood > the area of the third colour is tinted. > The three colours of your flag are not three kingdoms but the whole of Italy: > the white Alps, > red the two volcanoes, > green is the grass of the Lombard planes. > Be blessed! Blessed in the immaculate origin, blessed in the way of trials and misfortunes for which immaculate still you proceeded, blessed in battle and victory, now and forever, forever! Do not ramp of eagles and lions, do not surmount predatory beasts, in the holy banner; but the colours of our spring and our country, from Mont Cenis to Etna; the snows of the Alps, the April of the valleys, the flames of the volcanoes. And immediately those colours spoke to generous and kind souls, with the inspirations and effects of the virtues with which the homeland stands and augusts: white, the serene faith in the ideas that make the soul divine in the constancy of the wise; green, the perpetual re-flowering of hope as the fruit of good in the youth of poets; red, the passion and blood of martyrs and heroes. And immediately the people sang to her flag that she was the most beautiful of all and that they always wanted her and with her freedom! ## See also - Cockade of Italy - Flags of Napoleonic Italy - Flags of regions of Italy - List of Italian flags - National symbols of Italy - Sala del Tricolore - Tricolour Day - Tricolour Flag Museum

East Coker (poem)

1940 poem by T. S. Eliot

East Coker is the second poem of T. S. Eliot's 1943 book Four Quartets. It was started as a way for Eliot to get back into writing poetry and was modelled after Burnt Norton. It was finished during early 1940 and printed in the UK in the Easter edition of the 1940 New English Weekly, and in the US in the May 1940 issue of Partisan Review. The title refers to a small community that was directly connected to Eliot's ancestry and was home to a church that was later to house Eliot's ashes. The poem discusses time and disorder within nature that is the result of humanity following only science and not the divine. Leaders are described as materialistic and unable to understand reality. The only way for mankind to find salvation is through pursuing the divine by looking inwards and realizing that humanity is interconnected. Only then can people understand the universe. ## Background In 1939 T. S. Eliot thought that he would be unable to continue writing poetry. In an attempt to see if he could still, he started copying aspects of Burnt Norton and substituted another place: East Coker, a place that Eliot visited in 1937 with the St Michael's Church, where his ashes were later kept. The place held a particular importance to Eliot and his family because Andrew Eliott, Eliot's ancestor, left the town to travel to America in 1669. A plaque dedicated to Eliot and his ashes reads "In my beginning is my end. Of your kindness, pray for the soul of Thomas Stearns Eliot, poet. In my end is my beginning." He managed to complete two sections by February 1940, but finished the rest during that month. John Davy Hayward, Herbert Read and others helped review and edit it. East Coker was published in the March 1940 New English Weekly for its Easter edition. It was later reprinted May and June, and it was published on its own by Faber and Faber in September. With the completion of the poem, Eliot began creating the Four Quartets as a series of four poems based on the same theme with Burnt Norton as the first in the series and East Coker as the second. ## Poem East Coker is described as a poem of late summer, earth, and faith. As in the other poems of the Four Quartets, each of the five sections holds a theme that is common to each of the poems: time, experience, purgation, prayer, and wholeness. The time theme is stated in the first section as 'In my beginning is my end' which, given proper attention, might prove to lead into the eternal moment. The second section discusses disorder within nature, which is opposite to the discussion of order within nature found in the second section of Burnt Norton. Also, rational knowledge itself is described as being inadequate for explaining reality. Those who pursue only reason and science are ignorant. Even our progress is not progress as we continue to repeat the same errors as the past. The third section discusses the rulers of secular society and their flaws. The fourth, which is a formal section, deploys a series of Baroque paradoxes in the context of the Good Friday mass. This past manner is regarded ironically by the poet in the fifth section as he looks back on his period of experimentation in 'the years of l'entre deux guerres''' as 'largely wasted'. He welcomes approaching old age as a new opportunity to find renewal, although it might only be a rediscovery of 'what has been lost and found and lost again'. Despite the poem's doubt and darkness, a note of hope is struck by the first line of the fifth section, 'So here I am in the middle way'. This refers to the first line of Dante's Inferno, 'Midway in our life's journey, I went astray'. Although the descent is predicated on going astray, so also is persevering beyond it into the light. ## Themes East Coker gives a message of hope that the English communities would survive through World War II. In a letter dated 9 February 1940, Eliot stated, "We can have very little hope of contributing to any immediate social change; and we are more disposed to see our hope in modest and local beginnings, than in transforming the whole world at once... We must keep alive aspirations which can remain valid throughout the longest and darkest period of universal calamity and degradation." The poem also relied on the war as a way to connect to Eliot's idea that there was a united humanity. In particular, Stephen Spender claimed that "the war modified [Eliot's] attitude by convincing him that there was a Western cause to be positively defended. And after the war there was a Germany to be brought back within the Western tradition". The poem served as a sort of opposite to the popular idea that The Waste Land served as an expression of disillusionment after World War I, even though Eliot never accepted this interpretation. World War II itself has a direct mention in only a few of Eliot's writings. However, World War II does affect the poem, especially with the disruption caused by the war being reflected within the poem as a disruption of nature and heaven. The poem describes society in ways similar to The Waste Land, especially with its emphasis on death and dying. The place is connected to where Eliot's family originates, and, as such, is also the place where his family will symbolically end. In the second part of the poem, nature is experiencing disorder, and it is suggested that humans too may burn, and also that reason, knowledge, and science cannot save people. The errors of our past become the reasons for war and conflict and we need to become humble in order to escape the destruction. However, darkness consumes the rulers of the world and society. This is, in part, due to Adam's fall, and the resulting concept of original sin. Christ is our savior and we need to seek redemption to overcome our human failings. Eliot states that he has been involved with fighting for humanity and trying to help mankind learn what is important. Only through Christ is man able to be redeemed. In a twist from expectation, Eliot's poem suggests that old men should go out and explore. He warns that people should trade wisdom for pointless experience and argues that men should explore human experience itself. This concept is hinted of in The Waste Land and draws from the ideas within Dante's Convivio. Dante argues that old men are supposed to return to God and describes the process in a way similar to the travels of Odysseus. Unlike Homer's hero, Dante argues that men should not travel in the material world but in the spiritual world. Both Dante and Eliot put forth a similar view to St. Augustine when they focus on internal travels. Through these travels, mankind is able to have faith in salvation and able to see that there is more to the world than darkness. Eliot explains within the poem that we are all interconnected through time and that we must realize this. Only through this realization is mankind able to understand the truth of the universe. This, in turn, would allow humanity to break free from the burden of time. As Russell Kirk explains: "That end, for those who apprehend a reality superior to 'birth, copulation, and death'—a reality transcending the rhythms of physical nature—is to know God and enjoy Him forever." Family and family history also play an important role in the poem. Eliot found information on his family from Sketch of the Eliot Family, which described how Eliot's family lived in East Coker for 200 years. When Andrew Eliott left, he disrupted the family history. Similarly, Eliot broke from his own family when he travelled away from his family, a family that he saw was declining. Within the poem, Eliot emphasizes the need for a journey and the need for inward change. ## Reception East Coker sold almost 12,000 copies during its initial publication. Eliot's response was to claim that its popularity proved that it was a bad poem. Regardless of the truthfulness of the statement, he enjoyed the fact that the poem could inspire people during the war. Upon receiving an essay from a schoolboy analysing East Coker, Eliot wrote a complimentary reply, praising the boy's review despite his interpretation of the poem differing from Eliot's. Eliot's friend, Emily Hale, liked the poem so much that she read the poem to her Smith College students "as if it were a love-letter from God". Early reviews focused on discussing the poem in terms of its content and not its style. In the Southern Review, James Johnson Sweeney, Spring 1941, and Curist Bradford, Winter 1944, discussed paraphrases of the poems and the sources of various passages. However, Andrews Wanning, Spring 1941, stated that Burnt Norton was a better poem than East Coker and that "'Burnt Norton' is a poem of suggestion, 'East Coker' a poem of argument and explanation". Another American critic, Delmore Schwartz, did not appreciate the tone within East Coker'', especially that expressed in the fifth section.

Redbirds–Sounds rivalry

Minor League Baseball rivalry

The Redbirds–Sounds rivalry is a Minor League Baseball rivalry between Tennessee's two Triple-A baseball teams, the Memphis Redbirds and the Nashville Sounds. The teams compete in the West Division of the International League. Their games are played at Memphis' AutoZone Park and Nashville's First Horizon Park. From 2012 to 2015, the rivalry was incorporated into a promotion called the I-40 Cup Series. Separated by an approximately 200-mile (320 km) stretch of Interstate 40, competition between professional baseball teams from Memphis and Nashville began in 1885 in the original Southern League. The cities later fielded teams in the Southern Association and modern Southern League. The rivalry between the Redbirds and Sounds began in 1998 when both teams became members of the Pacific Coast League and continued in 2021 following placement in the Triple-A East, which became the International League in 2022. Through the completion of the 2022 rivalry series, the Sounds lead the 25-year series versus the Redbirds with a win–loss record of 207–181 (). Since the first Redbirds–Sounds game played on May 17, 1998, the Sounds have led the all-time series for all but one day. A Memphis win on August 24, 2000, tied the record at an even 22 games apiece. Nashville won the next day's game and has not again relinquished the lead. ## History ### Previous Memphis and Nashville teams Memphis and Nashville have fielded several professional baseball teams which have competed in the same leagues since the late 19th century. The first meeting between Nashville and Memphis clubs occurred in 1885 when the Memphis Reds, their city's second professional team, played in the original Southern League along with the Nashville Americans, their city's first professional team. In 1886, the Americans faced competition in the Memphis Grays. For the 1887 season, the cities' Southern League entries were the Memphis Browns and Nashville Blues. The Nashville Tigers contended with the Memphis Fever Germs in 1893 and the Memphis Giants/Lambs in 1894. The dual-named Memphis club opposed the Nashville Seraphs in 1895. From 1901 to 1960, the Nashville Vols were members of the Southern Association with the Memphis Egyptians (1901–1908), Turtles (1909–1911), and Chickasaws (1912–1960). Several Negro league teams from the two cities played in the Negro Southern League. The Memphis Red Sox and Nashville White Sox were members of the circuit from 1920 to 1922. In 1926 and from 1930 to 1932 and 1935 to 1936, the Red Sox faced off against the Nashville Elite Giants. The Nashville Cubs competed with the Memphis Blues in 1947 and the Red Sox in 1950. The Nashville Sounds entered the cross-state rivalry in 1978 when they and the Memphis Chicks joined the Double-A Southern League as expansion teams playing in its Western Division. Sounds president Larry Schmittou and Chicks general manager Art Clarkson looked for every opportunity to provoke controversy between the clubs and their fans. The teams regularly figured in the championship playoffs from 1979 to 1981 with the Chicks winning the first half of each season and the Sounds winning the second halves, often finishing first and second ahead of the other. Nashville emerged as champions of the Western Division in 1979 and 1981, while Memphis won in 1980. The 1981 season was particularly heated. Memphis won the first half by three-and-a-half games over second-place Nashville. At the Southern League All-Star Game, held just weeks later in Memphis, Sounds All-Stars Don Mattingly and Jamie Werly were greeted with boos during player introductions. With the Sounds winning the second half, the teams met in the Western Division series for the third consecutive year. In game one of the series in Memphis, a reversed call in the ninth inning in favor of Nashville resulted in a lengthy argument between Memphis coach Ray Crowley and the home plate umpire. Crowely was ejected and Chicks manager Larry Bearnarth played the rest of the game under protest. Memphis fans responded by throwing cups of ice and beer cans at Sounds players who had to be restrained from climbing over the dugout into the stands. The Sounds swept the Chicks, 3–0, to win the division title. The rivalry was interrupted when the Sounds moved to the Triple-A American Association in 1985. Briefly, from 1993 to 1994, the Chicks competed against the Nashville Xpress, a displaced Southern League team who shared a ballpark with the Sounds. ### Redbirds vs. Sounds The Nashville Sounds joined the Triple-A Pacific Coast League (PCL) in 1998 following the disbandment of the American Association after the 1997 campaign. That same season, the Memphis Redbirds were created as a PCL expansion franchise. Owing to their geographic proximity, both clubs were members of the same divisions throughout their PCL membership: the American Conference Eastern Division (1998–2004), American Conference Northern Division (2005–2013), American Conference Southern Division (2014–2018), and American Conference Northern Division (2019–2020). The first game between the Sounds and Redbirds was played on May 17, 1998, at Memphis' Tim McCarver Stadium with 5,382 people in attendance. In the top of the fourth inning, Nashville's Mark Smith hit a single that scored Jeff Patzke and Chad Hermansen to give the Sounds a 2–0 lead. Smith drove in Patzke and Hermansen again in the sixth with a double and later came home on a Freddy García base hit, making the score 5–0. Memphis scored two runs in the eighth inning and one in the ninth but lost to Nashville, 5–3. Sounds starting pitcher Jimmy Anderson earned the win, Redbirds starter Clint Weibl took the loss, and Jeff McCurry was credited with a save. The Sounds won the initial 1998 series against the Redbirds, 10–6. Late in the 1999 season, Nashville and the Oklahoma RedHawks were in a race for the division title, but a 1–3 road trip in Memphis to close the season eliminated the Sounds from playoff contention. The clubs tied the season series, 8–8. An 18–1 Redbirds rout over the Sounds on July 30, 2000, at Nashville's Herschel Greer Stadium is the largest margin of victory between the teams. Memphis scored in every inning but the sixth and eighth while limiting the home team to one run on three hits. Brian Johnson led the Redbirds with five runs batted in (RBIs), and Stubby Clapp went 4–4 at the plate and came around to score four runs. Memphis won the 2000 series, 8–7. In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues, the Redbirds and Sounds were chosen to play in the Minor League Baseball Centennial Game at the new AutoZone Park in Memphis on April 4, 2001. Both teams and the four-man umpiring crew wore early 20th century throwback uniforms. Memphis took a 2–0 lead when Kerry Robinson drove in Keith McDonald and Stubby Clapp on a two-run single in the third inning. Nashville's Humberto Cota tied the game in the seventh with a two-run home run, but Luis Saturria hit a go-ahead leadoff homer in the bottom of the inning to seal the Memphis victory, 3–2, before a home crowd of 15,776. Jason Karnuth was the winning pitcher, Jerry Spradlin earned the save, and Dave Pavlas took the loss. Despite losing the season opener, Nashville won the 2001 series, 10–6, and went on to win the two subsequent seasons, 11–5 and 9–7. Memphis came back to win the 2004 series, 9–7. From August 13 to September 1, 2005, the Redbirds won six consecutive meetings against the Sounds, their longest head-to-head winning streak. By the season's end, the teams had tied the series, 8–8. The Sounds experienced their longest winning streak against the Redbirds when they won nine games in a row from July 4 to August 24, 2006. In the July 15 game played during that stretch, Sounds hurlers Carlos Villanueva (6 IP), Mike Meyers (2 IP), and Alec Zumwalt (1 IP) combined to pitch a no-hitter against the Redbirds at Greer Stadium. The trio, who struck out 11 batters, was aided offensively by a Nelson Cruz RBI single in the first inning and a Brent Abernathy solo home run in the sixth. Nashville won the season series, 10–6, and repeated by winning the 2007 series, 11–5. Memphis won the 2008 schedule, 10–6. In 2009, the American Northern Division title race came down to the last week of competition, with the Redbirds, Sounds, and Iowa Cubs vying for first place. In the end, Memphis won the division, finishing just two games ahead of Nashville. The Sounds, though finishing second, won the rivalry season series, 10–6. Nashville also won the 2010 series, 9–7, but Memphis won 10–6 in 2011. In 2012, the rivalry was incorporated into a promotion between the teams dubbed the I-40 Cup Series. The name referred to the cities being connected by a stretch of Interstate 40. Whichever of the two teams won the most games played between them was declared the winner and received a trophy cup to keep until the next season. The losing team donated game tickets to a charity selected by the winner. In the event of a season series tie, the previous season's winner remained champion. The Sounds won the first I-40 Cup, 9–7. Memphis won the 2013 cup, 9–7, and retained the two subsequent cups by virtue of tying, 8–8, in 2014 and 2015. The trophy cup, friendly wager, and promotional references to the series were discontinued after the 2015 season. Memphis won the 2014 American Southern Division title by just two-and-a-half games over the second-place Sounds. The clubs tied the head-to-head series, 8–8, as they also did in 2015 and 2016. The 2016 Sounds clinched the division title in Memphis with a 5–3 win. With Matt Chapman and Renato Núñez on base, Matt McBride scored the winning run with a three-run homer in the fourth. The most lopsided Sounds win occurred on June 15 of that season, when they defeated the Redbirds, 16–3, at the new First Tennessee Park in Nashville. The Sounds sent 13 batters to the plate in the third inning resulting in 8 runs. The offense was led by Andrew Lambo, who went 5–4 and collected 5 RBI. In 2017, the Redbirds clinched the division in Nashville with a 12–7 victory. This time, the winning run was scored by former Sound Rangel Ravelo via a seventh inning home run. The Redbirds, who finished 22 games ahead of second-place Nashville, won the season series, 8–6. The Redbirds again defeated the Sounds in Memphis to win the 2018 division title, 4–3. Down 3–2 in the bottom of the ninth with two outs and two runners on base, Wilfredo Tovar singled on a ground ball to Dustin Fowler in center field scoring Edmundo Sosa to tie the game. On the same play, a fielding error by Fowler allowed Lane Thomas to advance home for the walk-off win. Nashville again wound up in second place, 11 games out of first, but won the season series, 9–7. The June 26, 2019, game at AutoZone Park is the highest-scoring game in the rivalry's history as the teams combined to score 28 runs. Each Memphis batter had at least one hit; Randy Arozarena led his team with three, and Andrew Knizner drove in four runs. Nashville's Carlos Tocci and Jett Bandy each collected four RBI in the 17–11 Sounds victory. Nashville won the 2019 series, 9–7. The first eight games of the 2020 series were postponed indefinitely because of a delayed start to the season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The season was ultimately cancelled on June 30. Following the 2020 season, Major League Baseball assumed control of Minor League Baseball in a move to increase player salaries, modernize facility standards, and reduce travel. The Redbirds and Sounds were placed in the Southeastern Division of the newly created Triple-A East. In 2021, the teams were initially scheduled to meet 24 times across four 6-game series. However, Opening Day was pushed back a month to temporarily eliminate commercial air travel and give players the opportunity to be vaccinated before the season began. This resulted in the reduction of the 2021 rivalry series to 18 games. The teams played their first head-to-head game in the new league on May 11 at Nashville's renamed First Horizon Park in which the visiting Redbirds defeated the Sounds, 18–6. The 2021 rivalry series resulted in a tie at nine wins each. In 2022, the Triple-A East became known as the International League, the name historically used by the regional circuit prior to the 2021 reorganization, and both teams were realigned into its Western Division. First Horizon Park's single-game attendance record of 12,409 people was set during a game between the Sounds and Redbirds on July 16, 2022. Nashville won the 2022 series, 12–9. The clubs are scheduled to meet 18 times in 2023, with 12 games in Memphis and 6 games in Nashville. Through the first two series of 2023, the Sounds lead, 8–4. ## Records ### Team records Over 23 years of membership in the Pacific Coast League, the Redbirds won more games than the Sounds in both the regular-season and postseason and captured more titles. Nashville, however, has a better regular-season and postseason record after two years in the Triple-A East / International League in addition to having won more titles. Through all 25 seasons of the rivalry, Nashville leads Memphis in regular-season wins, while Memphis leads in postseason wins and titles. ### All-time series records As of the completion of the 2022 rivalry series, Nashville leads the 25-year series with a record of 207–181 (). The Sounds have won 12 season series, the Redbirds have won 6, and the teams have tied in 6 seasons. Nashville's longest season-series winning streak is three consecutive winning seasons (2001–2003), while Memphis has not won any seasons consecutively. The most lopsided seasons occurred in 2002 and 2007 when the Sounds won each by a six-victory margin (11–5). ### Game log \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|1 \| May 17 \|\| Memphis \|\| 5–3 \|\| Sounds (1–0) \|\| Redbirds (0–1) \|\| Sounds (1–0) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|2 \| May 18 \|\| Memphis \|\| 9–7 \|\| Sounds (2–0) \|\| Redbirds (0–2) \|\| Sounds (2–0) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|3 \| May 19 \|\| Memphis \|\| 7–1 \|\| Sounds (3–0) \|\| Redbirds (0–3) \|\| Sounds (3–0) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|4 \| May 20 \|\| Memphis \|\| 6–3 \|\| Sounds (4–0) \|\| Redbirds (0–4) \|\| Sounds (4–0) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|5 \| July 4 \|\| Nashville \|\| 5–4 \|\| Redbirds (1–4) \|\| Sounds (4–1) \|\| Sounds (4–1) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|6 \| July 5 (1) \|\| Nashville \|\| 13–2 (7) \|\| Redbirds (2–4) \|\| Sounds (4–2) \|\| Sounds (4–2) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|7 \| July 5 (2) \|\| Nashville \|\| 7–0 (7) \|\| Sounds (5–2) \|\| Redbirds (2–5) \|\| Sounds (5–2) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|8 \| July 6 \|\| Nashville \|\| 1–0 \|\| Sounds (6–2) \|\| Redbirds (2–6) \|\| Sounds (6–2) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|9 \| August 23 \|\| Memphis \|\| 3–1 \|\| Redbirds (3–6) \|\| Sounds (6–3) \|\| Sounds (6–3) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|10 \| August 24 \|\| Memphis \|\| 4–1 \|\| Sounds (7–3) \|\| Redbirds (3–7) \|\| Sounds (7–3) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|11 \| August 25 \|\| Memphis \|\| 4–2 \|\| Redbirds (4–7) \|\| Sounds (7–4) \|\| Sounds (7–4) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|12 \| August 26 \|\| Memphis \|\| 7–3 \|\| Redbirds (5–7) \|\| Sounds (7–5) \|\| Sounds (7–5) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|13 \| August 31 \|\| Nashville \|\| 8–4 \|\| Redbirds (6–7) \|\| Sounds (7–6) \|\| Sounds (7–6) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|14 \| September 1 \|\| Nashville \|\| 7–5 \|\| Sounds (8–6) \|\| Redbirds (6–8) \|\| Sounds (8–6) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|15 \| September 2 \|\| Nashville \|\| 10–9 \|\| Sounds (9–6) \|\| Redbirds (6–9) \|\| Sounds (9–6) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|16 \| September 3 \|\| Nashville \|\| 3–2 \|\| Sounds (10–6) \|\| Redbirds (6–10) \|\| Sounds (10–6) \|\| \|- \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|17 \| June 4 \|\| Nashville \|\| 6–4 (12) \|\| Sounds (1–0) \|\| Redbirds (0–1) \|\| Sounds (11–6) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|18 \| June 5 \|\| Nashville \|\| 9–7 \|\| Sounds (2–0) \|\| Redbirds (0–2) \|\| Sounds (12–6) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|19 \| June 6 \|\| Nashville \|\| 10–5 \|\| Sounds (3–0) \|\| Redbirds (0–3) \|\| Sounds (13–6) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|20 \| July 15 (1) \|\| Nashville \|\| 4–2 (7) \|\| Redbirds (1–3) \|\| Sounds (3–1) \|\| Sounds (13–7) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|21 \| July 15 (2) \|\| Nashville \|\| 1–0 (7) \|\| Redbirds (2–3) \|\| Sounds (3–2) \|\| Sounds (13–8) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|22 \| July 16 \|\| Nashville \|\| 7–0 \|\| Redbirds (3–3) \|\| Sounds (3–3) \|\| Sounds (13–9) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|23 \| July 17 \|\| Nashville \|\| 11–2 \|\| Sounds (4–3) \|\| Redbirds (3–4) \|\| Sounds (14–9) \|\| \|- style="background:#BBBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#BBBBBB"\|— \| July 18 \|\| Nashville \|\| colspan="4"\| Suspended (rain). Continuation scheduled for July 28 in Memphis. \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|25 \| July 27 \|\| Memphis \|\| 5–4 (11) \|\| Redbirds (4–4) \|\| Sounds (4–4) \|\| Sounds (14–10) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|24 \| July 28 (1) \|\| Nashville \|\| 5–2 \|\| Redbirds (5–4) \|\| Sounds (4–5) \|\| Sounds (14–11) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|26 \| July 28 (2) \|\| Memphis \|\| 15–4 \|\| Sounds (5–5) \|\| Redbirds (5–5) \|\| Sounds (15–11) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|27 \| July 29 \|\| Memphis \|\| 6–1 \|\| Sounds (6–5) \|\| Redbirds (5–6) \|\| Sounds (16–11) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|28 \| July 30 \|\| Memphis \|\| 17–5 \|\| Sounds (7–5) \|\| Redbirds (5–7) \|\| Sounds (17–11) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|29 \| September 3 \|\| Memphis \|\| 9–6 \|\| Sounds (8–5) \|\| Redbirds (5–8) \|\| Sounds (18–11) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|30 \| September 4 \|\| Memphis \|\| 8–5 \|\| Redbirds (6–8) \|\| Sounds (8–6) \|\| Sounds (18–12) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|31 \| September 5 \|\| Memphis \|\| 11–6 \|\| Redbirds (7–8) \|\| Sounds (8–7) \|\| Sounds (18–13) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|32 \| September 6 \|\| Memphis \|\| 2–1 \|\| Redbirds (8–8) \|\| Sounds (8–8) \|\| Sounds (18–14) \|\| \|- \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|33 \| June 26 \|\| Nashville \|\| 10–5 \|\| Redbirds (1–0) \|\| Sounds (0–1) \|\| Sounds (18–15) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|34 \| June 27 \|\| Nashville \|\| 5–0 \|\| Redbirds (2–0) \|\| Sounds (0–2) \|\| Sounds (18–16) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|35 \| June 28 \|\| Nashville \|\| 10–9 (13) \|\| Sounds (1–2) \|\| Redbirds (2–1) \|\| Sounds (19–16) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|36 \| June 29 \|\| Nashville \|\| 4–1 \|\| Sounds (2–2) \|\| Redbirds (2–2) \|\| Sounds (20–16) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|37 \| July 7 \|\| Memphis \|\| 3–0 \|\| Redbirds (3–2) \|\| Sounds (2–3) \|\| Sounds (20–17) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|38 \| July 8 \|\| Memphis \|\| 6–2 \|\| Sounds (3–3) \|\| Redbirds (3–3) \|\| Sounds (21–17) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|39 \| July 9 \|\| Memphis \|\| 7–1 \|\| Sounds (4–3) \|\| Redbirds (3–4) \|\| Sounds (22–17) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|40 \| July 30 \|\| Nashville \|\| 18–1 \|\| Redbirds (4–4) \|\| Sounds (4–4) \|\| Sounds (22–18) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|41 \| July 31 \|\| Nashville \|\| 5–3 \|\| Redbirds (5–4) \|\| Sounds (4–5) \|\| Sounds (22–19) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|42 \| August 1 \|\| Nashville \|\| 4–3 \|\| Redbirds (6–4) \|\| Sounds (4–6) \|\| Sounds (22–20) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|43 \| August 2 \|\| Nashville \|\| 7–2 \|\| Redbirds (7–4) \|\| Sounds (4–7) \|\| Sounds (22–21) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|44 \| August 24 \|\| Memphis \|\| 12–2 \|\| Redbirds (8–4) \|\| Sounds (4–8) \|\| Tie (22–22) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|45 \| August 25 \|\| Memphis \|\| 6–3 \|\| Sounds (5–8) \|\| Redbirds (8–5) \|\| Sounds (23–22) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|46 \| August 26 \|\| Memphis \|\| 11–9 \|\| Sounds (6–8) \|\| Redbirds (8–6) \|\| Sounds (24–22) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|47 \| August 27 \|\| Memphis \|\| 7–5 \|\| Sounds (7–8) \|\| Redbirds (8–7) \|\| Sounds (25–22) \|\| \|- \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|48 \| April 4 \|\| Memphis \|\| 3–2 \|\| Redbirds (1–0) \|\| Sounds (0–1) \|\| Sounds (25–23) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|49 \| May 9 \|\| Memphis \|\| 5–4 \|\| Redbirds (2–0) \|\| Sounds (0–2) \|\| Sounds (25–24) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|50 \| May 10 \|\| Memphis \|\| 3–1 \|\| Sounds (1–2) \|\| Redbirds (2–1) \|\| Sounds (26–24) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|51 \| May 11 \|\| Memphis \|\| 3–1 \|\| Sounds (2–2) \|\| Redbirds (2–2) \|\| Sounds (27–24) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|52 \| May 21 \|\| Nashville \|\| 9–1 \|\| Redbirds (3–2) \|\| Sounds (2–3) \|\| Sounds (27–25) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|53 \| May 22 \|\| Nashville \|\| 2–1 \|\| Sounds (3–3) \|\| Redbirds (3–3) \|\| Sounds (28–25) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|54 \| May 23 \|\| Nashville \|\| 8–7 (10) \|\| Redbirds (4–3) \|\| Sounds (3–4) \|\| Sounds (28–26) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|55 \| May 24 \|\| Nashville \|\| 7–3 \|\| Sounds (4–4) \|\| Redbirds (4–4) \|\| Sounds (29–26) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|56 \| June 18 \|\| Nashville \|\| 7–0 \|\| Sounds (5–4) \|\| Redbirds (4–5) \|\| Sounds (30–26) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|57 \| June 19 \|\| Nashville \|\| 8–6 \|\| Sounds (6–4) \|\| Redbirds (4–6) \|\| Sounds (31–26) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|58 \| June 20 \|\| Nashville \|\| 5–1 \|\| Sounds (7–4) \|\| Redbirds (4–7) \|\| Sounds (32–26) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|59 \| June 21 \|\| Nashville \|\| 10–6 (10) \|\| Redbirds (5–7) \|\| Sounds (7–5) \|\| Sounds (32–27) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|60 \| August 27 \|\| Memphis \|\| 9–2 \|\| Sounds (8–5) \|\| Redbirds (5–8) \|\| Sounds (33–27) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|61 \| August 28 \|\| Memphis \|\| 12–5 \|\| Sounds (9–5) \|\| Redbirds (5–9) \|\| Sounds (34–27) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|62 \| August 29 \|\| Memphis \|\| 4–0 \|\| Redbirds (6–9) \|\| Sounds (9–6) \|\| Sounds (34–28) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|63 \| August 30 \|\| Memphis \|\| 5–3 \|\| Sounds (10–6) \|\| Redbirds (6–10) \|\| Sounds (35–28) \|\| \|- \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|64 \| April 25 \|\| Nashville \|\| 6–4 \|\| Sounds (1–0) \|\| Redbirds (0–1) \|\| Sounds (36–28) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|65 \| April 26 \|\| Nashville \|\| 3–1 \|\| Redbirds (1–1) \|\| Sounds (1–1) \|\| Sounds (36–29) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|66 \| April 27 \|\| Nashville \|\| 6–0 \|\| Redbirds (2–1) \|\| Sounds (1–2) \|\| Sounds (36–30) \|\| \|- style="background:#BBBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#BBBBBB"\|— \| April 28 \|\| Nashville \|\| colspan="4"\| Postponed (rain). Rescheduled for August 23 as part of a doubleheader. \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|67 \| July 11 \|\| Memphis \|\| 9–2 \|\| Sounds (2–2) \|\| Redbirds (2–2) \|\| Sounds (37–30) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|68 \| July 12 \|\| Memphis \|\| 6–1 \|\| Sounds (3–2) \|\| Redbirds (2–3) \|\| Sounds (38–30) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|69 \| July 13 \|\| Memphis \|\| 7–5 \|\| Sounds (4–2) \|\| Redbirds (2–4) \|\| Sounds (39–30) \|\| \|- style="background:#BBBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#BBBBBB"\|— \| July 14 \|\| Memphis \|\| colspan="4"\| Suspended (rain). Continuation scheduled for August 9 as part of a doubleheader. \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|70 \| August 9 (1) \|\| Memphis \|\| 6–5 \|\| Redbirds (3–4) \|\| Sounds (4–3) \|\| Sounds (39–31) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|71 \| August 9 (2) \|\| Memphis \|\| 3–2 (9) \|\| Sounds (5–3) \|\| Redbirds (3–5) \|\| Sounds (40–31) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|72 \| August 10 \|\| Memphis \|\| 8–3 \|\| Sounds (6–3) \|\| Redbirds (3–6) \|\| Sounds (41–31) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|73 \| August 11 \|\| Memphis \|\| 2–1 \|\| Sounds (7–3) \|\| Redbirds (3–7) \|\| Sounds (42–31) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|74 \| August 12 \|\| Memphis \|\| 6–3 \|\| Sounds (8–3) \|\| Redbirds (3–8) \|\| Sounds (43–31) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|75 \| August 22 \|\| Nashville \|\| 3–1 \|\| Redbirds (4–8) \|\| Sounds (8–4) \|\| Sounds (43–32) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|76 \| August 23 (1) \|\| Nashville \|\| 3–2 (7) \|\| Sounds (9–4) \|\| Redbirds (4–9) \|\| Sounds (44–32) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|77 \| August 23 (2) \|\| Nashville \|\| 5–0 (7) \|\| Sounds (10–4) \|\| Redbirds (4–10) \|\| Sounds (45–32) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|78 \| August 24 \|\| Nashville \|\| 7–2 \|\| Redbirds (5–10) \|\| Sounds (10–5) \|\| Sounds (45–33) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|79 \| August 25 \|\| Nashville \|\| 2–1 \|\| Sounds (11–5) \|\| Redbirds (5–11) \|\| Sounds (46–33) \|\| \|- \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|80 \| April 15 \|\| Nashville \|\| 3–2 \|\| Sounds (1–0) \|\| Redbirds (0–1) \|\| Sounds (47–33) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|81 \| April 16 \|\| Nashville \|\| 2–1 (11) \|\| Sounds (2–0) \|\| Redbirds (0–2) \|\| Sounds (48–33) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|82 \| April 17 \|\| Nashville \|\| 5–1 \|\| Sounds (3–0) \|\| Redbirds (0–3) \|\| Sounds (49–33) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|83 \| April 18 \|\| Nashville \|\| 6–2 \|\| Sounds (4–0) \|\| Redbirds (0–4) \|\| Sounds (50–33) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|84 \| May 10 \|\| Memphis \|\| 6–1 \|\| Redbirds (1–4) \|\| Sounds (4–1) \|\| Sounds (50–34) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|85 \| May 11 \|\| Memphis \|\| 10–4 \|\| Redbirds (2–4) \|\| Sounds (4–2) \|\| Sounds (50–35) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|86 \| May 12 \|\| Memphis \|\| 4–3 \|\| Sounds (5–2) \|\| Redbirds (2–5) \|\| Sounds (51–35) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|87 \| May 13 \|\| Memphis \|\| 13–4 \|\| Redbirds (3–5) \|\| Sounds (5–3) \|\| Sounds (51–36) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|88 \| May 19 \|\| Nashville \|\| 3–0 \|\| Sounds (6–3) \|\| Redbirds (3–6) \|\| Sounds (52–36) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|89 \| May 20 \|\| Nashville \|\| 9–2 \|\| Sounds (7–3) \|\| Redbirds (3–7) \|\| Sounds (53–36) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|90 \| May 21 \|\| Nashville \|\| 2–0 \|\| Redbirds (4–7) \|\| Sounds (7–4) \|\| Sounds (53–37) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|91 \| May 22 \|\| Nashville \|\| 2–1 \|\| Sounds (8–4) \|\| Redbirds (4–8) \|\| Sounds (54–37) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|92 \| June 26 \|\| Memphis \|\| 3–2 \|\| Redbirds (5–8) \|\| Sounds (8–5) \|\| Sounds (54–38) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|93 \| June 27 \|\| Memphis \|\| 2–1 (13) \|\| Redbirds (6–8) \|\| Sounds (8–6) \|\| Sounds (54–39) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|94 \| June 28 \|\| Memphis \|\| 3–2 \|\| Sounds (9–6) \|\| Redbirds (6–9) \|\| Sounds (55–39) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|95 \| June 29 \|\| Memphis \|\| 7–4 \|\| Redbirds (7–9) \|\| Sounds (9–7) \|\| Sounds (55–40) \|\| \|- \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|96 \| May 3 \|\| Nashville \|\| 8–7 \|\| Sounds (1–0) \|\| Redbirds (0–1) \|\| Sounds (56–40) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|97 \| May 4 \|\| Nashville \|\| 5–1 \|\| Sounds (2–0) \|\| Redbirds (0–2) \|\| Sounds (57–40) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|98 \| May 5 \|\| Nashville \|\| 11–9 (10) \|\| Redbirds (1–2) \|\| Sounds (2–1) \|\| Sounds (57–41) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|99 \| May 6 \|\| Nashville \|\| 4–2 \|\| Sounds (3–1) \|\| Redbirds (1–3) \|\| Sounds (58–41) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|100 \| July 4 \|\| Memphis \|\| 6–3 \|\| Redbirds (2–3) \|\| Sounds (3–2) \|\| Sounds (58–42) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|101 \| July 5 \|\| Memphis \|\| 2–1 \|\| Sounds (4–2) \|\| Redbirds (2–4) \|\| Sounds (59–42) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|102 \| July 6 \|\| Memphis \|\| 5–4 \|\| Redbirds (3–4) \|\| Sounds (4–3) \|\| Sounds (59–43) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|103 \| July 7 \|\| Memphis \|\| 3–1 (10) \|\| Sounds (5–3) \|\| Redbirds (3–5) \|\| Sounds (60–43) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|104 \| August 13 \|\| Nashville \|\| 6–4 \|\| Redbirds (4–5) \|\| Sounds (5–4) \|\| Sounds (60–44) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|105 \| August 14 (1) \|\| Nashville \|\| 3–1 (7) \|\| Redbirds (5–5) \|\| Sounds (5–5) \|\| Sounds (60–45) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|106 \| August 14 (2) \|\| Nashville \|\| 6–4 (7) \|\| Redbirds (6–5) \|\| Sounds (5–6) \|\| Sounds (60–46) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|107 \| August 15 \|\| Nashville \|\| 11–2 \|\| Redbirds (7–5) \|\| Sounds (5–7) \|\| Sounds (60–47) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|108 \| September 3 \|\| Memphis \|\| 9–8 \|\| Sounds (6–7) \|\| Redbirds (7–6) \|\| Sounds (61–47) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|109 \| September 4 \|\| Memphis \|\| 12–7 \|\| Redbirds (8–6) \|\| Sounds (6–8) \|\| Sounds (61–48) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|110 \| September 5 \|\| Memphis \|\| 9–7 \|\| Redbirds (9–6) \|\| Sounds (6–9) \|\| Sounds (61–49) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|111 \| September 6 \|\| Memphis \|\| 5–0 \|\| Sounds (7–9) \|\| Redbirds (9–7) \|\| Sounds (62–49) \|\| \|- \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|112 \| June 30 \|\| Nashville \|\| 6–3 \|\| Sounds (1–0) \|\| Redbirds (0–1) \|\| Sounds (63–49) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|113 \| July 1 \|\| Nashville \|\| 7–5 \|\| Sounds (2–0) \|\| Redbirds (0–2) \|\| Sounds (64–49) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|114 \| July 2 \|\| Nashville \|\| 6–1 \|\| Redbirds (1–2) \|\| Sounds (2–1) \|\| Sounds (64–50) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|115 \| July 3 \|\| Nashville \|\| 8–7 (10) \|\| Sounds (3–1) \|\| Redbirds (1–3) \|\| Sounds (65–50) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|116 \| July 18 \|\| Nashville \|\| 9–3 \|\| Sounds (4–1) \|\| Redbirds (1–4) \|\| Sounds (66–50) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|117 \| July 19 \|\| Nashville \|\| 5–4 (12) \|\| Sounds (5–1) \|\| Redbirds (1–5) \|\| Sounds (67–50) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|118 \| July 20 \|\| Nashville \|\| 7–6 \|\| Sounds (6–1) \|\| Redbirds (1–6) \|\| Sounds (68–50) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|119 \| July 21 \|\| Nashville \|\| 3–1 (10) \|\| Redbirds (2–6) \|\| Sounds (6–2) \|\| Sounds (68–51) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|120 \| August 12 \|\| Memphis \|\| 8–2 \|\| Sounds (7–2) \|\| Redbirds (2–7) \|\| Sounds (69–51) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|121 \| August 13 \|\| Memphis \|\| 11–2 \|\| Redbirds (3–7) \|\| Sounds (7–3) \|\| Sounds (69–52) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|122 \| August 14 \|\| Memphis \|\| 1–0 \|\| Redbirds (4–7) \|\| Sounds (7–4) \|\| Sounds (69–53) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|123 \| August 15 \|\| Memphis \|\| 5–4 \|\| Redbirds (5–7) \|\| Sounds (7–5) \|\| Sounds (69–54) \|\| \|- style="background:#BBBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#BBBBBB"\|— \| August 29 \|\| Memphis \|\| colspan="4"\| Postponed (rain). Rescheduled for August 31 as part of a doubleheader. \|\| \|- style="background:#BBBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#BBBBBB"\|— \| August 30 \|\| Memphis \|\| colspan="4"\| Postponed (wet grounds). Rescheduled for September 1 as part of a doubleheader. \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|124 \| August 31 (1) \|\| Memphis \|\| 3–0 (7) \|\| Redbirds (6–7) \|\| Sounds (7–6) \|\| Sounds (69–55) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|125 \| August 31 (2) \|\| Memphis \|\| 1–0 (7) \|\| Redbirds (7–7) \|\| Sounds (7–7) \|\| Sounds (69–56) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|126 \|September 1 (1) \|\| Memphis \|\| 1–0 (7) \|\| Redbirds (8–7) \|\| Sounds (7–8) \|\| Sounds (69–57) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|127 \|September 1 (2) \|\| Memphis \|\| 4–3 (7) \|\| Sounds (8–8) \|\| Redbirds (8–8) \|\| Sounds (70–57) \|\| \|- \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|128 \| June 26 \|\| Nashville \|\| 2–1 (10) \|\| Redbirds (1–0) \|\| Sounds (0–1) \|\| Sounds (70–58) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|129 \| June 27 \|\| Nashville \|\| 3–2 \|\| Sounds (1–1) \|\| Redbirds (1–1) \|\| Sounds (71–58) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|130 \| June 28 \|\| Nashville \|\| 11–4 \|\| Redbirds (2–1) \|\| Sounds (1–2) \|\| Sounds (71–59) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|131 \| June 29 \|\| Nashville \|\| 5–1 \|\| Redbirds (3–1) \|\| Sounds (1–3) \|\| Sounds (71–60) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|132 \| July 4 \|\| Memphis \|\| 4–1 \|\| Sounds (2–3) \|\| Redbirds (3–2) \|\| Sounds (72–60) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|133 \| July 5 \|\| Memphis \|\| 3–2 \|\| Sounds (3–3) \|\| Redbirds (3–3) \|\| Sounds (73–60) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|134 \| July 6 \|\| Memphis \|\| 5–3 \|\| Sounds (4–3) \|\| Redbirds (3–4) \|\| Sounds (74–60) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|135 \| July 13 \|\| Nashville \|\| 8–0 \|\| Sounds (5–3) \|\| Redbirds (3–5) \|\| Sounds (75–60) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|136 \| July 14 \|\| Nashville \|\| 8–3 \|\| Sounds (6–3) \|\| Redbirds (3–6) \|\| Sounds (76–60) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|137 \| July 15 \|\| Nashville \|\| 2–0 \|\| Sounds (7–3) \|\| Redbirds (3–7) \|\| Sounds (77–60) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|138 \| July 16 \|\| Nashville \|\| 6–3 \|\| Sounds (8–3) \|\| Redbirds (3–8) \|\| Sounds (78–60) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|139 \| August 23 \|\| Memphis \|\| 5–0 \|\| Sounds (9–3) \|\| Redbirds (3–9) \|\| Sounds (79–60) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|140 \| August 24 \|\| Memphis \|\| 4–2 (12) \|\| Sounds (10–3) \|\| Redbirds (3–10) \|\| Sounds (80–60) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|141 \| August 25 \|\| Memphis \|\| 8–7 \|\| Redbirds (4–10) \|\| Sounds (10–4) \|\| Sounds (80–61) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|142 \| August 26 \|\| Memphis \|\| 2–1 (10) \|\| Redbirds (5–10) \|\| Sounds (10–5) \|\| Sounds (80–62) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|143 \| August 27 \|\| Memphis \|\| 2–0 \|\| Redbirds (6–10) \|\| Sounds (10–6) \|\| Sounds (80–63) \|\| \|- \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|144 \| May 21 \|\| Nashville \|\| 6–5 \|\| Redbirds (1–0) \|\| Sounds (0–1) \|\| Sounds (80–64) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|145 \| May 22 \|\| Nashville \|\| 3–1 \|\| Sounds (1–1) \|\| Redbirds (1–1) \|\| Sounds (81–64) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|146 \| May 23 \|\| Nashville \|\| 8–5 \|\| Redbirds (2–1) \|\| Sounds (1–2) \|\| Sounds (81–65) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|147 \| May 24 \|\| Nashville \|\| 9–5 \|\| Sounds (2–2) \|\| Redbirds (2–2) \|\| Sounds (82–65) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|148 \| June 11 \|\| Memphis \|\| 7–1 \|\| Sounds (3–2) \|\| Redbirds (2–3) \|\| Sounds (83–65) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|149 \| June 12 \|\| Memphis \|\| 2–1 \|\| Redbirds (3–3) \|\| Sounds (3–3) \|\| Sounds (83–66) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|150 \| June 13 \|\| Memphis \|\| 6–5 \|\| Sounds (4–3) \|\| Redbirds (3–4) \|\| Sounds (84–66) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|151 \| June 14 \|\| Memphis \|\| 4–0 \|\| Sounds (5–3) \|\| Redbirds (3–5) \|\| Sounds (85–66) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|152 \| July 12 \|\| Nashville \|\| 7–1 \|\| Sounds (6–3) \|\| Redbirds (3–6) \|\| Sounds (86–66) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|153 \| July 13 \|\| Nashville \|\| 10–5 \|\| Redbirds (4–6) \|\| Sounds (6–4) \|\| Sounds (86–67) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|154 \| July 14 \|\| Nashville \|\| 5–2 \|\| Sounds (7–4) \|\| Redbirds (4–7) \|\| Sounds (87–67) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|155 \| July 15 \|\| Nashville \|\| 2–1 (10) \|\| Sounds (8–4) \|\| Redbirds (4–8) \|\| Sounds (88–67) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|156 \| August 31 \|\| Memphis \|\| 4–3 \|\| Redbirds (5–8) \|\| Sounds (8–5) \|\| Sounds (88–68) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|157 \| September 1 \|\| Memphis \|\| 8–5 \|\| Sounds (9–5) \|\| Redbirds (5–9) \|\| Sounds (89–68) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|158 \| September 2 \|\| Memphis \|\| 5–4 \|\| Sounds (10–5) \|\| Redbirds (5–10) \|\| Sounds (90–68) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|159 \| September 3 \|\| Memphis \|\| 3–1 \|\| Sounds (11–5) \|\| Redbirds (5–11) \|\| Sounds (91–68) \|\| \|- \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|160 \| May 19 \|\| Nashville \|\| 7–3 \|\| Sounds (1–0) \|\| Redbirds (0–1) \|\| Sounds (92–68) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|161 \| May 20 \|\| Nashville \|\| 4–1 \|\| Redbirds (1–1) \|\| Sounds (1–1) \|\| Sounds (92–69) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|162 \| May 21 \|\| Nashville \|\| 7–6 \|\| Redbirds (2–1) \|\| Sounds (1–2) \|\| Sounds (92–70) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|163 \| May 22 \|\| Nashville \|\| 10–2 \|\| Redbirds (3–1) \|\| Sounds (1–3) \|\| Sounds (92–71) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|164 \| May 23 \|\| Memphis \|\| 5–4 \|\| Redbirds (4–1) \|\| Sounds (1–4) \|\| Sounds (92–72) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|165 \| May 24 \|\| Memphis \|\| 11–4 \|\| Sounds (2–4) \|\| Redbirds (4–2) \|\| Sounds (93–72) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|166 \| May 25 \|\| Memphis \|\| 8–7 (12) \|\| Sounds (3–4) \|\| Redbirds (4–3) \|\| Sounds (94–72) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|167 \| May 26 \|\| Memphis \|\| 9–4 \|\| Redbirds (5–3) \|\| Sounds (3–5) \|\| Sounds (94–73) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|168 \| June 21 \|\| Nashville \|\| 8–5 \|\| Sounds (4–5) \|\| Redbirds (5–4) \|\| Sounds (95–73) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|169 \| June 22 \|\| Nashville \|\| 4–1 \|\| Redbirds (6–4) \|\| Sounds (4–6) \|\| Sounds (95–74) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|170 \| June 23 \|\| Nashville \|\| 8–1 \|\| Redbirds (7–4) \|\| Sounds (4–7) \|\| Sounds (95–75) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|171 \| June 24 \|\| Nashville \|\| 8–6 \|\| Redbirds (8–4) \|\| Sounds (4–8) \|\| Sounds (95–76) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|172 \| June 30 \|\| Memphis \|\| 5–4 (10) \|\| Sounds (5–8) \|\| Redbirds (8–5) \|\| Sounds (96–76) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|173 \| July 1 \|\| Memphis \|\| 5–1 \|\| Sounds (6–8) \|\| Redbirds (8–6) \|\| Sounds (97–76) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|174 \| July 2 \|\| Memphis \|\| 3–2 \|\| Redbirds (9–6) \|\| Sounds (6–9) \|\| Sounds (97–77) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|175 \| July 3 \|\| Memphis \|\| 5–1 \|\| Redbirds (10–6) \|\| Sounds (6–10) \|\| Sounds (97–78) \|\| \|- \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|176 \| April 21 \|\| Memphis \|\| 9–1 \|\| Sounds (1–0) \|\| Redbirds (0–1) \|\| Sounds (98–78) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|177 \| April 22 \|\| Memphis \|\| 3–1 \|\| Redbirds (1–1) \|\| Sounds (1–1) \|\| Sounds (98–79) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|178 \| April 23 \|\| Memphis \|\| 7–6 \|\| Sounds (2–1) \|\| Redbirds (1–2) \|\| Sounds (99–79) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|179 \| April 24 \|\| Memphis \|\| 2–1 \|\| Redbirds (2–2) \|\| Sounds (2–2) \|\| Sounds (99–80) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|180 \| June 11 \|\| Nashville \|\| 11–3 \|\| Sounds (3–2) \|\| Redbirds (2–3) \|\| Sounds (100–80) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|181 \| June 12 \|\| Nashville \|\| 5–1 \|\| Sounds (4–2) \|\| Redbirds (2–4) \|\| Sounds (101–80) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|182 \| June 13 \|\| Nashville \|\| 4–3 (10) \|\| Sounds (5–2) \|\| Redbirds (2–5) \|\| Sounds (102–80) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|183 \| June 14 \|\| Nashville \|\| 14–5 \|\| Sounds (6–2) \|\| Redbirds (2–6) \|\| Sounds (103–80) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|184 \| July 20 \|\| Memphis \|\| 7–6 \|\| Sounds (7–2) \|\| Redbirds (2–7) \|\| Sounds (104–80) \|\| \|- style="background:#BBBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#BBBBBB"\|— \| July 21 \|\| Memphis \|\| colspan="4"\| Postponed (rain). Rescheduled for July 22 as part of a doubleheader. \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|185 \| July 22 (1) \|\| Memphis \|\| 1–0 (8) \|\| Sounds (8–2) \|\| Redbirds (2–8) \|\| Sounds (105–80) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|186 \| July 22 (2) \|\| Memphis \|\| 5–1 (7) \|\| Redbirds (3–8) \|\| Sounds (8–3) \|\| Sounds (105–81) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|187 \| July 23 \|\| Memphis \|\| 5–1 \|\| Redbirds (4–8) \|\| Sounds (8–4) \|\| Sounds (105–82) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|188 \| August 31 \|\| Nashville \|\| 6–5 (12) \|\| Sounds (9–4) \|\| Redbirds (4–9) \|\| Sounds (106–82) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|189 \| September 1 \|\| Nashville \|\| 9–1 \|\| Redbirds (5–9) \|\| Sounds (9–5) \|\| Sounds (106–83) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|190 \| September 2 \|\| Nashville \|\| 5–1 \|\| Redbirds (6–9) \|\| Sounds (9–6) \|\| Sounds (106–84) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|191 \| September 3 \|\| Nashville \|\| 7–6 \|\| Sounds (10–6) \|\| Redbirds (6–10) \|\| Sounds (107–84) \|\| \|- \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|192 \| April 29 \|\| Nashville \|\| 4–2 \|\| Sounds (1–0) \|\| Redbirds (0–1) \|\| Sounds (108–84) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|193 \| April 30 \|\| Nashville \|\| 7–4 \|\| Sounds (2–0) \|\| Redbirds (0–2) \|\| Sounds (109–84) \|\| \|- style="background:#BBBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#BBBBBB"\|— \| May 1 \|\| Nashville \|\| colspan="4"\| Postponed (rain). Rescheduled for June 15 as part of a doubleheader. \|\| \|- style="background:#BBBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#BBBBBB"\|— \| May 2 \|\| Nashville \|\| colspan="4"\| Postponed (rain). Rescheduled for June 17 as part of a doubleheader. \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|194 \| June 14 \|\| Nashville \|\| 7–5 \|\| Redbirds (1–2) \|\| Sounds (2–1) \|\| Sounds (109–85) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|195 \| June 15 (1) \|\| Nashville \|\| 2–1 (9) \|\| Redbirds (2–2) \|\| Sounds (2–2) \|\| Sounds (109–86) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|196 \| June 15 (2) \|\| Nashville \|\| 8–3 (7) \|\| Sounds (3–2) \|\| Redbirds (2–3) \|\| Sounds (110–86) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|197 \| June 16 \|\| Nashville \|\| 9–0 \|\| Sounds (4–2) \|\| Redbirds (2–4) \|\| Sounds (111–86) \|\| \|- style="background:#BBBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#BBBBBB"\|— \| June 17 (1) \|\| Nashville \|\| colspan="4"\| Postponed (wet grounds). Rescheduled for June 23 as part of a doubleheader. \|\| \|- style="background:#BBBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#BBBBBB"\|— \| June 17 (2) \|\| Nashville \|\| colspan="4"\| Postponed (wet grounds). Rescheduled for July 9 as part of a doubleheader. \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|198 \| June 22 \|\| Memphis \|\| 6–3 \|\| Sounds (5–2) \|\| Redbirds (2–5) \|\| Sounds (112–86) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|199 \| June 23 (1) \|\| Memphis \|\| 7–1 (7) \|\| Redbirds (3–5) \|\| Sounds (5–3) \|\| Sounds (112–87) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|200 \| June 23 (2) \|\| Memphis \|\| 11–7 (7) \|\| Redbirds (4–5) \|\| Sounds (5–4) \|\| Sounds (112–88) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|201 \| June 24 \|\| Memphis \|\| 7–0 \|\| Sounds (6–4) \|\| Redbirds (4–6) \|\| Sounds (113–88) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|202 \| June 25 \|\| Memphis \|\| 7–6 \|\| Redbirds (5–6) \|\| Sounds (6–5) \|\| Sounds (113–89) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|203 \| July 8 \|\| Memphis \|\| 3–0 \|\| Redbirds (6–6) \|\| Sounds (6–6) \|\| Sounds (113–90) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|204 \| July 9 (1) \|\| Memphis \|\| 6–4 (7) \|\| Sounds (7–6) \|\| Redbirds (6–7) \|\| Sounds (114–90) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|205 \| July 9 (2) \|\| Memphis \|\| 6–5 (7) \|\| Sounds (8–6) \|\| Redbirds (6–8) \|\| Sounds (115–90) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|206 \| July 10 \|\| Memphis \|\| 5–1 \|\| Sounds (9–6) \|\| Redbirds (6–9) \|\| Sounds (116–90) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|207 \| July 11 \|\| Memphis \|\| 5–1 \|\| Redbirds (7–9) \|\| Sounds (9–7) \|\| Sounds (116–91) \|\| \|- \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|208 \| June 17 \|\| Memphis \|\| 1–0 \|\| Redbirds (1–0) \|\| Sounds (0–1) \|\| Sounds (116–92) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|209 \| June 18 \|\| Memphis \|\| 7–6 (10) \|\| Redbirds (2–0) \|\| Sounds (0–2) \|\| Sounds (116–93) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|210 \| June 19 \|\| Memphis \|\| 5–3 \|\| Sounds (1–2) \|\| Redbirds (2–1) \|\| Sounds (117–93) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|211 \| June 20 \|\| Memphis \|\| 5–4 \|\| Redbirds (3–1) \|\| Sounds (1–3) \|\| Sounds (117–94) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|212 \| July 4 \|\| Nashville \|\| 5–4 \|\| Sounds (2–3) \|\| Redbirds (3–2) \|\| Sounds (118–94) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|213 \| July 5 \|\| Nashville \|\| 9–8 \|\| Sounds (3–3) \|\| Redbirds (3–3) \|\| Sounds (119–94) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|214 \| July 6 \|\| Nashville \|\| 6–5 (13) \|\| Redbirds (4–3) \|\| Sounds (3–4) \|\| Sounds (119–95) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|215 \| August 24 \|\| Nashville \|\| 5–4 \|\| Redbirds (5–3) \|\| Sounds (3–5) \|\| Sounds (119–96) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|216 \| August 25 \|\| Nashville \|\| 9–6 \|\| Redbirds (6–3) \|\| Sounds (3–6) \|\| Sounds (119–97) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|217 \| August 26 \|\| Nashville \|\| 7–1 \|\| Sounds (4–6) \|\| Redbirds (6–4) \|\| Sounds (120–97) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|218 \| August 27 \|\| Nashville \|\| 6–3 \|\| Sounds (5–6) \|\| Redbirds (6–5) \|\| Sounds (121–97) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|219 \| August 28 \|\| Nashville \|\| 7–5 \|\| Redbirds (7–5) \|\| Sounds (5–7) \|\| Sounds (121–98) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|220 \| September 2 \|\| Memphis \|\| 7–5 \|\| Redbirds (8–5) \|\| Sounds (5–8) \|\| Sounds (121–99) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|221 \| September 3 \|\| Memphis \|\| 4–1 \|\| Redbirds (9–5) \|\| Sounds (5–9) \|\| Sounds (121–100) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|222 \| September 4 \|\| Memphis \|\| 5–2 \|\| Redbirds (10–5) \|\| Sounds (5–10) \|\| Sounds (121–101) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|223 \| September 5 \|\| Memphis \|\| 10–2 \|\| Sounds (6–10) \|\| Redbirds (10–6) \|\| Sounds (122–101) \|\| \|- \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|224 \| June 11 \|\| Memphis \|\| 10–4 \|\| Sounds (1–0) \|\| Redbirds (0–1) \|\| Sounds (123–101) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|225 \| June 12 \|\| Memphis \|\| 2–0 \|\| Redbirds (1–1) \|\| Sounds (1–1) \|\| Sounds (123–102) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|226 \| June 13 \|\| Memphis \|\| 5–4 \|\| Sounds (2–1) \|\| Redbirds (1–2) \|\| Sounds (124–102) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|227 \| July 4 \|\| Memphis \|\| 6–4 \|\| Sounds (3–1) \|\| Redbirds (1–3) \|\| Sounds (125–102) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|228 \| July 5 \|\| Memphis \|\| 6–1 \|\| Redbirds (2–3) \|\| Sounds (3–2) \|\| Sounds (125–103) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|229 \| July 6 \|\| Memphis \|\| 2–0 \|\| Sounds (4–2) \|\| Redbirds (2–4) \|\| Sounds (126–103) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|230 \| July 7 \|\| Memphis \|\| 5–2 \|\| Sounds (5–2) \|\| Redbirds (2–5) \|\| Sounds (127–103) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|231 \| July 8 \|\| Memphis \|\| 2–0 \|\| Sounds (6–2) \|\| Redbirds (2–6) \|\| Sounds (128–103) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|232 \| July 24 \|\| Nashville \|\| 4–1 \|\| Sounds (7–2) \|\| Redbirds (2–7) \|\| Sounds (129–103) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|233 \| July 25 \|\| Nashville \|\| 7–1 \|\| Sounds (8–2) \|\| Redbirds (2–8) \|\| Sounds (130–103) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|234 \| July 26 \|\| Nashville \|\| 7–3 \|\| Sounds (9–2) \|\| Redbirds (2–9) \|\| Sounds (131–103) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|235 \| July 27 \|\| Nashville \|\| 4–3 (10) \|\| Redbirds (3–9) \|\| Sounds (9–3) \|\| Sounds (131–104) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|236 \| August 31 \|\| Nashville \|\| 5–1 \|\| Redbirds (4–9) \|\| Sounds (9–4) \|\| Sounds (131–105) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|237 \| September 1 \|\| Nashville \|\| 5–4 (10) \|\| Redbirds (5–9) \|\| Sounds (9–5) \|\| Sounds (131–106) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|238 \| September 2 \|\| Nashville \|\| 10–1 \|\| Redbirds (6–9) \|\| Sounds (9–6) \|\| Sounds (131–107) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|239 \| September 3 \|\| Nashville \|\| 2–1 \|\| Redbirds (7–9) \|\| Sounds (9–7) \|\| Sounds (131–108) \|\| \|- \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|240 \| April 25 \|\| Nashville \|\| 5–2 \|\| Sounds (1–0) \|\| Redbirds (0–1) \|\| Sounds (132–108) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|241 \| April 26 \|\| Nashville \|\| 2–1 \|\| Sounds (2–0) \|\| Redbirds (0–2) \|\| Sounds (133–108) \|\| \|- style="background:#BBBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#BBBBBB"\|— \| April 27 \|\| Nashville \|\| colspan="4"\| Postponed (rain). Rescheduled for April 28 as part of a doubleheader. \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|242 \| April 28 (1) \|\| Nashville \|\| 1–0 (7) \|\| Redbirds (1–2) \|\| Sounds (2–1) \|\| Sounds (133–109) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|243 \| April 28 (2) \|\| Nashville \|\| 2–1 (7) \|\| Redbirds (2–2) \|\| Sounds (2–2) \|\| Sounds (133–110) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|244 \| June 6 \|\| Memphis \|\| 2–1 \|\| Sounds (3–2) \|\| Redbirds (2–3) \|\| Sounds (134–110) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|245 \| June 7 \|\| Memphis \|\| 2–1 \|\| Redbirds (3–3) \|\| Sounds (3–3) \|\| Sounds (134–111) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|246 \| June 8 \|\| Memphis \|\| 7–1 \|\| Sounds (4–3) \|\| Redbirds (3–4) \|\| Sounds (135–111) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|247 \| June 9 \|\| Memphis \|\| 5–3 \|\| Sounds (5–3) \|\| Redbirds (3–5) \|\| Sounds (136–111) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|248 \| July 4 \|\| Memphis \|\| 7–0 \|\| Sounds (6–3) \|\| Redbirds (3–6) \|\| Sounds (137–111) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|249 \| July 5 \|\| Memphis \|\| 6–2 \|\| Redbirds (4–6) \|\| Sounds (6–4) \|\| Sounds (137–112) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|250 \| July 6 \|\| Memphis \|\| 7–2 \|\| Redbirds (5–6) \|\| Sounds (6–5) \|\| Sounds (137–113) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|251 \| July 7 \|\| Memphis \|\| 13–3 \|\| Redbirds (6–6) \|\| Sounds (6–6) \|\| Sounds (137–114) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|252 \| July 11 \|\| Nashville \|\| 7–6 \|\| Sounds (7–6) \|\| Redbirds (6–7) \|\| Sounds (138–114) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|253 \| July 12 \|\| Nashville \|\| 6–3 (11) \|\| Redbirds (7–7) \|\| Sounds (7–7) \|\| Sounds (138–115) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|254 \| July 13 \|\| Nashville \|\| 5–4 \|\| Redbirds (8–7) \|\| Sounds (7–8) \|\| Sounds (138–116) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|255 \| July 14 \|\| Nashville \|\| 3–2 \|\| Redbirds (9–7) \|\| Sounds (7–9) \|\| Sounds (138–117) \|\| \|- \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|256 \| April 15 \|\| Nashville \|\| 8–4 \|\| Redbirds (1–0) \|\| Sounds (0–1) \|\| Sounds (138–118) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|257 \| April 16 \|\| Nashville \|\| 7–1 \|\| Redbirds (2–0) \|\| Sounds (0–2) \|\| Sounds (138–119) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|258 \| April 17 \|\| Nashville \|\| 5–4 \|\| Sounds (1–2) \|\| Redbirds (2–1) \|\| Sounds (139–119) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|259 \| April 18 \|\| Nashville \|\| 5–1 \|\| Sounds (2–2) \|\| Redbirds (2–2) \|\| Sounds (140–119) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|260 \| June 5 \|\| Memphis \|\| 7–4 \|\| Redbirds (3–2) \|\| Sounds (2–3) \|\| Sounds (140–120) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|261 \| June 6 \|\| Memphis \|\| 1–0 \|\| Sounds (3–3) \|\| Redbirds (3–3) \|\| Sounds (141–120) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|262 \| June 7 \|\| Memphis \|\| 4–3 \|\| Sounds (4–3) \|\| Redbirds (3–4) \|\| Sounds (142–120) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|263 \| June 8 \|\| Memphis \|\| 9–4 \|\| Redbirds (4–4) \|\| Sounds (4–4) \|\| Sounds (142–121) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|264 \| June 30 \|\| Nashville \|\| 9–4 \|\| Sounds (5–4) \|\| Redbirds (4–5) \|\| Sounds (143–121) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|265 \| July 1 \|\| Nashville \|\| 8–5 \|\| Sounds (6–4) \|\| Redbirds (4–6) \|\| Sounds (144–121) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|266 \| July 2 \|\| Nashville \|\| 5–0 \|\| Sounds (7–4) \|\| Redbirds (4–7) \|\| Sounds (145–121) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|267 \| July 3 \|\| Nashville \|\| 7–5 \|\| Redbirds (5–7) \|\| Sounds (7–5) \|\| Sounds (145–122) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|268 \| July 7 \|\| Memphis \|\| 2–1 \|\| Redbirds (6–7) \|\| Sounds (7–6) \|\| Sounds (145–123) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|269 \| July 8 \|\| Memphis \|\| 4–2 \|\| Sounds (8–6) \|\| Redbirds (6–8) \|\| Sounds (146–123) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|270 \| July 9 \|\| Memphis \|\| 8–1 \|\| Redbirds (7–8) \|\| Sounds (8–7) \|\| Sounds (146–124) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|271 \| July 10 \|\| Memphis \|\| 1–0 \|\| Redbirds (8–8) \|\| Sounds (8–8) \|\| Sounds (146–125) \|\| \|- \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|272 \| June 15 \|\| Nashville \|\| 5–2 \|\| Redbirds (1–0) \|\| Sounds (0–1) \|\| Sounds (146–126) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|273 \| June 16 \|\| Nashville \|\| 7–1 \|\| Sounds (1–1) \|\| Redbirds (1–1) \|\| Sounds (147–126) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|274 \| June 17 \|\| Nashville \|\| 7–5 \|\| Redbirds (2–1) \|\| Sounds (1–2) \|\| Sounds (147–127) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|275 \| June 23 \|\| Memphis \|\| 6–4 \|\| Sounds (2–2) \|\| Redbirds (2–2) \|\| Sounds (148–127) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|276 \| June 24 \|\| Memphis \|\| 9–4 \|\| Redbirds (3–2) \|\| Sounds (2–3) \|\| Sounds (148–128) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|277 \| June 25 \|\| Memphis \|\| 5–0 \|\| Sounds (3–3) \|\| Redbirds (3–3) \|\| Sounds (149–128) \|\| \|- style="background:#BBBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#BBBBBB"\|— \| July 8 \|\| Memphis \|\| colspan="4"\| Postponed (travel issues). Rescheduled for July 9 as part of a doubleheader. \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|278 \| July 9 (1) \|\| Memphis \|\| 3–2 (7) \|\| Sounds (4–3) \|\| Redbirds (3–4) \|\| Sounds (150–128) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|279 \| July 9 (2) \|\| Memphis \|\| 7–3 (7) \|\| Sounds (5–3) \|\| Redbirds (3–5) \|\| Sounds (151–128) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|280 \| July 10 \|\| Memphis \|\| 9–1 \|\| Redbirds (4–5) \|\| Sounds (5–4) \|\| Sounds (151–129) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|281 \| July 11 \|\| Memphis \|\| 5–4 \|\| Redbirds (5–5) \|\| Sounds (5–5) \|\| Sounds (151–130) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|282 \| July 12 \|\| Memphis \|\| 12–3 \|\| Redbirds (6–5) \|\| Sounds (5–6) \|\| Sounds (151–131) \|\| \|- style="background:#BBBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#BBBBBB"\|— \| August 5 \|\| Nashville \|\| colspan="4"\| Suspended (rain). Continuation scheduled for August 6 as part of a doubleheader. \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|283 \| August 6 (1) \|\| Nashville \|\| 8–3 \|\| Sounds (6–6) \|\| Redbirds (6–6) \|\| Sounds (152–131) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|284 \| August 6 (2) \|\| Nashville \|\| 8–0 (7) \|\| Sounds (7–6) \|\| Redbirds (6–7) \|\| Sounds (153–131) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|285 \| August 7 \|\| Nashville \|\| 7–4 \|\| Redbirds (7–7) \|\| Sounds (7–7) \|\| Sounds (153–132) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|286 \| August 8 \|\| Nashville \|\| 4–1 \|\| Sounds (8–7) \|\| Redbirds (7–8) \|\| Sounds (154–132) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|287 \| August 9 \|\| Nashville \|\| 11–2 \|\| Redbirds (8–8) \|\| Sounds (8–8) \|\| Sounds (154–133) \|\| \|- \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|288 \| May 6 \|\| Nashville \|\| 7–6 \|\| Redbirds (1–0) \|\| Sounds (0–1) \|\| Sounds (154–134) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|289 \| May 7 \|\| Nashville \|\| 2–1 \|\| Sounds (1–1) \|\| Redbirds (1–1) \|\| Sounds (155–134) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|290 \| May 8 \|\| Nashville \|\| 3–2 \|\| Sounds (2–1) \|\| Redbirds (1–2) \|\| Sounds (156–134) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|291 \| May 9 \|\| Nashville \|\| 5–0 \|\| Redbirds (2–2) \|\| Sounds (2–2) \|\| Sounds (156–135) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|292 \| June 13 \|\| Nashville \|\| 4–3 \|\| Redbirds (3–2) \|\| Sounds (2–3) \|\| Sounds (156–136) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|293 \| June 14 \|\| Nashville \|\| 7–4 (10) \|\| Redbirds (4–2) \|\| Sounds (2–4) \|\| Sounds (156–137) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|294 \| June 15 \|\| Nashville \|\| 16–3 \|\| Sounds (3–4) \|\| Redbirds (4–3) \|\| Sounds (157–137) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|295 \| June 16 \|\| Nashville \|\| 5–2 \|\| Redbirds (5–3) \|\| Sounds (3–5) \|\| Sounds (157–138) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|296 \| July 4 \|\| Memphis \|\| 2–1 (11) \|\| Redbirds (6–3) \|\| Sounds (3–6) \|\| Sounds (157–139) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|297 \| July 5 \|\| Memphis \|\| 8–2 \|\| Sounds (4–6) \|\| Redbirds (6–4) \|\| Sounds (158–139) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|298 \| July 6 \|\| Memphis \|\| 7–6 \|\| Redbirds (7–4) \|\| Sounds (4–7) \|\| Sounds (158–140) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|299 \| August 24 \|\| Memphis \|\| 3–0 \|\| Sounds (5–7) \|\| Redbirds (7–5) \|\| Sounds (159–140) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|300 \| August 25 \|\| Memphis \|\| 7–6 \|\| Redbirds (8–5) \|\| Sounds (5–8) \|\| Sounds (159–141) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|301 \| August 26 \|\| Memphis \|\| 5–3 \|\| Sounds (6–8) \|\| Redbirds (8–6) \|\| Sounds (160–141) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|302 \| August 27 \|\| Memphis \|\| 2–1 \|\| Sounds (7–8) \|\| Redbirds (8–7) \|\| Sounds (161–141) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|303 \| August 28 \|\| Memphis \|\| 14–4 \|\| Sounds (8–8) \|\| Redbirds (8–8) \|\| Sounds (162–141) \|\| \|- \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|304 \| June 9 \|\| Memphis \|\| 2–1 (10) \|\| Redbirds (1–0) \|\| Sounds (0–1) \|\| Sounds (162–142) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|305 \| June 10 \|\| Memphis \|\| 6–3 \|\| Sounds (1–1) \|\| Redbirds (1–1) \|\| Sounds (163–142) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|306 \| June 11 \|\| Memphis \|\| 10–9 (12) \|\| Redbirds (2–1) \|\| Sounds (1–2) \|\| Sounds (163–143) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|307 \| July 7 \|\| Nashville \|\| 3–2 \|\| Sounds (2–2) \|\| Redbirds (2–2) \|\| Sounds (164–143) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|308 \| July 8 \|\| Nashville \|\| 3–2 \|\| Redbirds (3–2) \|\| Sounds (2–3) \|\| Sounds (164–144) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|309 \| July 9 \|\| Nashville \|\| 2–1 (10) \|\| Redbirds (4–2) \|\| Sounds (2–4) \|\| Sounds (164–145) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|310 \| August 11 \|\| Nashville \|\| 3–1 \|\| Sounds (3–4) \|\| Redbirds (4–3) \|\| Sounds (165–145) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|311 \| August 12 \|\| Nashville \|\| 6–1 \|\| Redbirds (5–3) \|\| Sounds (3–5) \|\| Sounds (165–146) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|312 \| August 13 \|\| Nashville \|\| 12–7 \|\| Redbirds (6–3) \|\| Sounds (3–6) \|\| Sounds (165–147) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|313 \| August 14 \|\| Nashville \|\| 3–1 \|\| Redbirds (7–3) \|\| Sounds (3–7) \|\| Sounds (165–148) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|314 \| August 15 \|\| Memphis \|\| 6–5 \|\| Sounds (4–7) \|\| Redbirds (7–4) \|\| Sounds (166–148) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|315 \| August 16 \|\| Memphis \|\| 3–2 \|\| Redbirds (8–4) \|\| Sounds (4–8) \|\| Sounds (166–149) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|316 \| August 17 \|\| Memphis \|\| 11–8 \|\| Sounds (5–8) \|\| Redbirds (8–5) \|\| Sounds (167–149) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|317 \| August 18 \|\| Memphis \|\| 8–7 \|\| Sounds (6–8) \|\| Redbirds (8–6) \|\| Sounds (168–149) \|\| \|- \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|318 \| May 4 \|\| Nashville \|\| 3–1 \|\| Sounds (1–0) \|\| Redbirds (0–1) \|\| Sounds (169–149) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|319 \| May 5 \|\| Nashville \|\| 4–2 \|\| Sounds (2–0) \|\| Redbirds (0–2) \|\| Sounds (170–149) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|320 \| May 6 \|\| Nashville \|\| 8–2 \|\| Sounds (3–0) \|\| Redbirds (0–3) \|\| Sounds (171–149) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|321 \| May 7 \|\| Nashville \|\| 4–1 \|\| Redbirds (1–3) \|\| Sounds (3–1) \|\| Sounds (171–150) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|322 \| May 12 \|\| Memphis \|\| 8–4 \|\| Sounds (4–1) \|\| Redbirds (1–4) \|\| Sounds (172–150) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|323 \| May 13 \|\| Memphis \|\| 8–3 \|\| Sounds (5–1) \|\| Redbirds (1–5) \|\| Sounds (173–150) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|324 \| May 14 \|\| Memphis \|\| 2–1 \|\| Redbirds (2–5) \|\| Sounds (5–2) \|\| Sounds (173–151) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|325 \| May 15 \|\| Memphis \|\| 7–4 \|\| Sounds (6–2) \|\| Redbirds (2–6) \|\| Sounds (174–151) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|326 \| August 24 \|\| Memphis \|\| 9–3 \|\| Redbirds (3–6) \|\| Sounds (6–3) \|\| Sounds (174–152) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|327 \| August 25 \|\| Memphis \|\| 4–3 \|\| Redbirds (4–6) \|\| Sounds (6–4) \|\| Sounds (174–153) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|328 \| August 26 \|\| Memphis \|\| 7–3 \|\| Sounds (7–4) \|\| Redbirds (4–7) \|\| Sounds (175–153) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|329 \| August 27 \|\| Memphis \|\| 2–0 \|\| Redbirds (5–7) \|\| Sounds (7–5) \|\| Sounds (175–154) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|330 \| August 31 \|\| Nashville \|\| 5–1 \|\| Sounds (8–5) \|\| Redbirds (5–8) \|\| Sounds (176–154) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|331 \| September 1 \|\| Nashville \|\| 8–1 \|\| Redbirds (6–8) \|\| Sounds (8–6) \|\| Sounds (176–155) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|332 \| September 2 \|\| Nashville \|\| 2–1 \|\| Redbirds (7–8) \|\| Sounds (8–7) \|\| Sounds (176–156) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|333 \| September 3 \|\| Nashville \|\| 6–5 \|\| Sounds (9–7) \|\| Redbirds (7–9) \|\| Sounds (177–156) \|\| \|- \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|334 \| May 3 \|\| Nashville \|\| 17–2 \|\| Redbirds (1–0) \|\| Sounds (0–1) \|\| Sounds (177–157) \|\| \|- style="background:#BBBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#BBBBBB"\|— \| May 4 \|\| Nashville \|\| colspan="4"\| Postponed (rain). Rescheduled for May 5 as part of a doubleheader. \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|335 \| May 5 (1) \|\| Nashville \|\| 11–2 (7) \|\| Redbirds (2–0) \|\| Sounds (0–2) \|\| Sounds (177–158) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|336 \| May 5 (2) \|\| Nashville \|\| 7–5 (7) \|\| Sounds (1–2) \|\| Redbirds (2–1) \|\| Sounds (178–158) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|337 \| May 6 \|\| Nashville \|\| 6–5 \|\| Sounds (2–2) \|\| Redbirds (2–2) \|\| Sounds (179–158) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|338 \| May 11 \|\| Memphis \|\| 7–5 \|\| Redbirds (3–2) \|\| Sounds (2–3) \|\| Sounds (179–159) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|339 \| May 12 \|\| Memphis \|\| 7–2 \|\| Redbirds (4–2) \|\| Sounds (2–4) \|\| Sounds (179–160) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|340 \| May 13 \|\| Memphis \|\| 5–3 \|\| Sounds (3–4) \|\| Redbirds (4–3) \|\| Sounds (180–160) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|341 \| May 14 \|\| Memphis \|\| 9–3 \|\| Redbirds (5–3) \|\| Sounds (3–5) \|\| Sounds (180–161) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|342 \| May 21 \|\| Nashville \|\| 4–2 \|\| Redbirds (6–3) \|\| Sounds (3–6) \|\| Sounds (180–162) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|343 \| May 22 \|\| Nashville \|\| 10–0 \|\| Redbirds (7–3) \|\| Sounds (3–7) \|\| Sounds (180–163) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|344 \| May 23 \|\| Nashville \|\| 8–5 \|\| Sounds (4–7) \|\| Redbirds (7–4) \|\| Sounds (181–163) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|345 \| May 24 \|\| Nashville \|\| 10–6 \|\| Sounds (5–7) \|\| Redbirds (7–5) \|\| Sounds (182–163) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|346 \| June 25 \|\| Memphis \|\| 10–4 \|\| Sounds (6–7) \|\| Redbirds (7–6) \|\| Sounds (183–163) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|347 \| June 26 \|\| Memphis \|\| 17–11 \|\| Sounds (7–7) \|\| Redbirds (7–7) \|\| Sounds (184–163) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|348 \| June 27 \|\| Memphis \|\| 3–2 \|\| Sounds (8–7) \|\| Redbirds (7–8) \|\| Sounds (185–163) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|349 \| June 28 \|\| Memphis \|\| 3–1 \|\| Sounds (9–7) \|\| Redbirds (7–9) \|\| Sounds (186–163) \|\| \|- \|- style="background:#BBBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#BBBBBB"\|— \| May 16 \|\| Nashville \|\| colspan="4" rowspan="16" \| Cancelled (COVID-19 pandemic). \|\| rowspan="16"\| \|- style="background:#BBBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#BBBBBB"\|— \| May 17 \|\| Nashville \|- style="background:#BBBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#BBBBBB"\|— \| May 18 \|\| Nashville \|- style="background:#BBBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#BBBBBB"\|— \| May 19 \|\| Nashville \|- style="background:#BBBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#BBBBBB"\|— \| May 26 \|\| Memphis \|- style="background:#BBBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#BBBBBB"\|— \| May 27 \|\| Memphis \|- style="background:#BBBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#BBBBBB"\|— \| May 28 \|\| Memphis \|- style="background:#BBBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#BBBBBB"\|— \| May 29 \|\| Memphis \|- style="background:#BBBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#BBBBBB"\|— \| July 20 \|\| Nashville \|- style="background:#BBBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#BBBBBB"\|— \| July 21 \|\| Nashville \|- style="background:#BBBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#BBBBBB"\|— \| July 22 \|\| Nashville \|- style="background:#BBBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#BBBBBB"\|— \| July 23 \|\| Nashville \|- style="background:#BBBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#BBBBBB"\|— \| September 4 \|\| Memphis \|- style="background:#BBBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#BBBBBB"\|— \| September 5 \|\| Memphis \|- style="background:#BBBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#BBBBBB"\|— \| September 6 \|\| Memphis \|- style="background:#BBBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#BBBBBB"\|— \| September 7 \|\| Memphis \|- \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|350 \| May 11 \|\| Nashville \|\| 18–6 \|\| Redbirds (1–0) \|\| Sounds (0–1) \|\| Sounds (186–164) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|351 \| May 12 \|\| Nashville \|\| 9–6 \|\| Sounds (1–1) \|\| Redbirds (1–1) \|\| Sounds (187–164) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|352 \| May 13 \|\| Nashville \|\| 8–2 \|\| Sounds (2–1) \|\| Redbirds (1–2) \|\| Sounds (188–164) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|353 \| May 14 \|\| Nashville \|\| 9–2 \|\| Redbirds (2–2) \|\| Sounds (2–2) \|\| Sounds (188–165) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|354 \| May 15 \|\| Nashville \|\| 4–3 (10) \|\| Sounds (3–2) \|\| Redbirds (2–3) \|\| Sounds (189–165) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|355 \| May 16 \|\| Nashville \|\| 4–3 \|\| Redbirds (3–3) \|\| Sounds (3–3) \|\| Sounds (189–166) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|356 \| August 17 \|\| Memphis \|\| 5–1 \|\| Redbirds (4–3) \|\| Sounds (3–4) \|\| Sounds (189–167) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|357 \| August 18 \|\| Memphis \|\| 7–6 (10) \|\| Redbirds (5–3) \|\| Sounds (3–5) \|\| Sounds (189–168) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|358 \| August 19 \|\| Memphis \|\| 10–9 (10) \|\| Redbirds (6–3) \|\| Sounds (3–6) \|\| Sounds (189–169) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|359 \| August 20 \|\| Memphis \|\| 5–3 \|\| Sounds (4–6) \|\| Redbirds (6–4) \|\| Sounds (190–169) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|360 \| August 21 \|\| Memphis \|\| 4–3 \|\| Redbirds (7–4) \|\| Sounds (4–7) \|\| Sounds (190–170) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|361 \| August 22 \|\| Memphis \|\| 13–12 \|\| Sounds (5–7) \|\| Redbirds (7–5) \|\| Sounds (191–170) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|362 \| September 7 \|\| Nashville \|\| 9–7 \|\| Sounds (6–7) \|\| Redbirds (7–6) \|\| Sounds (192–170) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|363 \| September 8 \|\| Nashville \|\| 6–4 \|\| Sounds (7–7) \|\| Redbirds (7–7) \|\| Sounds (193–170) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|364 \| September 9 \|\| Nashville \|\| 5–0 \|\| Sounds (8–7) \|\| Redbirds (7–8) \|\| Sounds (194–170) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|365 \| September 10 \|\| Nashville \|\| 8–2 \|\| Sounds (9–7) \|\| Redbirds (7–9) \|\| Sounds (195–170) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|366 \| September 11 \|\| Nashville \|\| 6–5 \|\| Redbirds (8–9) \|\| Sounds (9–8) \|\| Sounds (195–171) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|367 \| September 12 \|\| Nashville \|\| 6–3 \|\| Redbirds (9–9) \|\| Sounds (9–9) \|\| Sounds (195–172) \|\| \|- \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|368 \| June 14 \|\| Memphis \|\| 7–3 \|\| Redbirds (1–0) \|\| Sounds (0–1) \|\| Sounds (195–173) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|369 \| June 15 \|\| Memphis \|\| 8–4 (10) \|\| Sounds (1–1) \|\| Redbirds (1–1) \|\| Sounds (196–173) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|370 \| June 16 \|\| Memphis \|\| 7–6 \|\| Redbirds (2–1) \|\| Sounds (1–2) \|\| Sounds (196–174) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|371 \| June 17 \|\| Memphis \|\| 4–1 \|\| Sounds (2–2) \|\| Redbirds (2–2) \|\| Sounds (197–174) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|372 \| June 18 \|\| Memphis \|\| 5–3 \|\| Sounds (3–2) \|\| Redbirds (2–3) \|\| Sounds (198–174) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|373 \| June 19 \|\| Memphis \|\| 7–6 \|\| Redbirds (3–3) \|\| Sounds (3–3) \|\| Sounds (198–175) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|374 \| July 12 \|\| Nashville \|\| 2–1 \|\| Redbirds (4–3) \|\| Sounds (3–4) \|\| Sounds (198–176) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|375 \| July 13 \|\| Nashville \|\| 3–2 \|\| Redbirds (5–3) \|\| Sounds (3–5) \|\| Sounds (198–177) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|376 \| July 14 \|\| Nashville \|\| 19–4 \|\| Redbirds (6–3) \|\| Sounds (3–6) \|\| Sounds (198–178) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|377 \| July 15 \|\| Nashville \|\| 4–3 (10) \|\| Sounds (4–6) \|\| Redbirds (6–4) \|\| Sounds (199–178) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|378 \| July 16 \|\| Nashville \|\| 10–0 \|\| Redbirds (7–4) \|\| Sounds (4–7) \|\| Sounds (199–179) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|379 \| July 17 \|\| Nashville \|\| 10–8 \|\| Sounds (5–7) \|\| Redbirds (7–5) \|\| Sounds (200–179) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|380 \| August 30 \|\| Nashville \|\| 5–3 \|\| Sounds (6–7) \|\| Redbirds (7–6) \|\| Sounds (201–179) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|381 \| August 31 \|\| Nashville \|\| 9–3 \|\| Redbirds (8–6) \|\| Sounds (6–8) \|\| Sounds (201–180) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|382 \| September 1 \|\| Nashville \|\| 6–5 \|\| Sounds (7–8) \|\| Redbirds (8–7) \|\| Sounds (202–180) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|383 \| September 2 \|\| Nashville \|\| 6–5 \|\| Sounds (8–8) \|\| Redbirds (8–8) \|\| Sounds (203–180) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|384 \| September 3 \|\| Nashville \|\| 4–1 \|\| Sounds (9–8) \|\| Redbirds (8–9) \|\| Sounds (204–180) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|385 \| September 4 \|\| Nashville \|\| 12–4 \|\| Sounds (10–8) \|\| Redbirds (8–10) \|\| Sounds (205–180) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|386 \| September 26 \|\| Nashville \|\| 6–5 (11) \|\| Sounds (11–8) \|\| Redbirds (8–11) \|\| Sounds (206–180) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|387 \| September 27 \|\| Nashville \|\| 9–4 \|\| Sounds (12–8) \|\| Redbirds (8–12) \|\| Sounds (207–180) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|388 \| September 28 \|\| Nashville \|\| 8–3 \|\| Redbirds (9–12) \|\| Sounds (12–9) \|\| Sounds (207–181) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|389 \| April 4 \|\| Memphis \|\| 7–5 \|\| Redbirds (1–0) \|\| Sounds (0–1) \|\| Sounds (207–182) \|\| \|- style="background:#BBBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#BBBBBB"\|— \| April 5 \|\| Memphis \|\| colspan="4"\| Postponed (rain). Rescheduled for April 6 as part of a doubleheader. \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|390 \| April 6 (1) \|\| Memphis \|\| 4–0 (7) \|\| Sounds (1–1) \|\| Redbirds (1–1) \|\| Sounds (208–182) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|391 \| April 6 (2) \|\| Memphis \|\| 2–0 (7) \|\| Redbirds (2–1) \|\| Sounds (1–2) \|\| Sounds (208–183) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|392 \| April 7 \|\| Memphis \|\| 3–0 \|\| Sounds (2–2) \|\| Redbirds (2–2) \|\| Sounds (209–183) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|393 \| April 8 \|\| Memphis \|\| 6–2 \|\| Sounds (3–2) \|\| Redbirds (2–3) \|\| Sounds (210–183) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|394 \| April 9 \|\| Memphis \|\| 6–1 \|\| Redbirds (3–3) \|\| Sounds (3–3) \|\| Sounds (210–184) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|395 \| June 28 \|\| Memphis \|\| 12–4 \|\| Sounds (4–3) \|\| Redbirds (3–4) \|\| Sounds (211–184) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|396 \| June 29 \|\| Memphis \|\| 5–1 \|\| Sounds (5–3) \|\| Redbirds (3–5) \|\| Sounds (212–184) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|397 \| June 30 \|\| Memphis \|\| 6–2 \|\| Sounds (6–3) \|\| Redbirds (3–6) \|\| Sounds (213–184) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|398 \| July 1 \|\| Memphis \|\| 7–5 \|\| Sounds (7–3) \|\| Redbirds (3–7) \|\| Sounds (214–184) \|\| \|- style="background:#FFBBBB;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#FFBBBB"\|399 \| July 2 \|\| Memphis \|\| 9–8 (10) \|\| Redbirds (4–7) \|\| Sounds (7–4) \|\| Sounds (214–185) \|\| \|- style="background:#D0E7FF;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#D0E7FF"\|400 \| July 3 \|\| Memphis \|\| 8–2 \|\| Sounds (8–4) \|\| Redbirds (4–8) \|\| Sounds (215–185) \|\| \|- style="background:#;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#"\|401 \| September 5 \|\| Nashville \|\| — \|\| — \|\| — \|\| — \|\| \|- style="background:#;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#"\|402 \| September 6 \|\| Nashville \|\| — \|\| — \|\| — \|\| — \|\| \|- style="background:#;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#"\|403 \| September 7 \|\| Nashville \|\| — \|\| — \|\| — \|\| — \|\| \|- style="background:#;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#"\|404 \| September 8 \|\| Nashville \|\| — \|\| — \|\| — \|\| — \|\| \|- style="background:#;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#"\|405 \| September 9 \|\| Nashville \|\| — \|\| — \|\| — \|\| — \|\| \|- style="background:#;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; background:#"\|406 \| September 10 \|\| Nashville \|\| — \|\| — \|\| — \|\| — \|\| \|- Notes

Greatest Hits: My Prerogative (video)

Greatest Hits: My Prerogative is the seventh video album by American singer Britney Spears. It was released on November 8, 2004 by Jive Records, accompanying the greatest hits album of the same title. Designed by Jim Swaffield, Greatest Hits: My Prerogative contains all of Spears' music videos from 1998 to 2004, including unreleased material from the shoot of "Outrageous". It also contains alternate versions of the music videos with previously unreleased footage. Greatest Hits: My Prerogative received widespread critical acclaim for its audiovisual quality and towards Spears for being the "ultimate video performer". A commercial success, it debuted at number three on the US Top Music Videos and has been certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). ## Release On August 13, 2004, Spears announced through Jive Records the release of her first greatest hits album, titled Greatest Hits: My Prerogative, for November 16. The video album of the same title would be released simultaneously, featuring Spears' music videos. The release date for both the album and the video was later moved up a week. The video took four months to be assembled, as crews from Jive combed through unedited and unused footage, instrumentals and alternative audio. It provided two menus—one with all of Spears' 1998–2004 music videos, as well as scenes from the unreleased video of "Outrageous", and the other with alternative versions containing unreleased footage for "...Baby One More Time", "(You Drive Me) Crazy", "Oops!... I Did It Again", "Stronger", "Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know", "I'm a Slave 4 U", "Toxic", "Everytime" and "My Prerogative". Among the highlights of the alternative takes were new vocal mixes in "(You Drive Me) Crazy" and "I'm a Slave 4 U", as well as a karaoke version of the nude diamond scene of "Toxic". The video also included hidden footage, such as the third alternative version of "My Prerogative". ## Critical reception Greatest Hits: My Prerogative received widespread critical acclaim upon its release. James Griffiths of The Guardian commented: "Here comes the Queen of Pop in a box so shiny you can see your face in it. Spears is described on the cover as 'the ultimate video performer', and watching the 20 promos contained within, it's difficult to argue. [...] Relentlessly thrusting herself at the camera, compulsively preening amid special FX galas, Britney is the MTV video age in human form." He also complimented the innovations of the menu, but added that "it's not particularly impressive" and "you need to be pretty nifty with your handset to find them." Music Week said: "The DVD version of Spears' high-flying 'best of' set adds bells and whistles to the audio version at only a slight premium pricewise. Twenty promo videos are included, all with top-notch sound and vision". ## Accolades \|- ! scope="row"\| 2005 \| Japan Gold Disc Award \| International Music Videos of the Year \| Greatest Hits: My Prerogative \| \| align="center"\| ## Commercial performance In the United States, Greatest Hits: My Prerogative debuted at number three on the Top Music Videos chart dated November 27, 2004. It spent a total of 22 weeks on the chart. On December 15, the video was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipments of 200,000 copies. In Australia, Greatest Hits: My Prerogative debuted atop of the ARIA Top 40 Music DVD chart dated November 22. It was certified double platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for shipments of 30,000 units. The video was also ranked at number 32 on the ARIA year-end DVD chart for 2005. In Hungary, the video debuted at number two on November 8, 2004. In France, it was certified platinum by the Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique (SNEP), for shipments of 15,000 copies. In Argentina, it was certified double platinum by the Argentine Chamber of Phonograms and Videograms Producers (CAPIF) on December 1, for shipments of 60,000 copies. On May 9, 2005, it was certified gold by the Asociación Mexicana de Productores de Fonogramas y Videogramas (AMPROFON) for shipments of 10,000 copies in Mexico. According to the Associação Brasileira dos Produtores de Discos (ABPD), Greatest Hits: My Prerogative was the world's second best-selling video of 2004. ## Track listing ## Charts ### Weekly charts ### Year-end charts ## Certifications ## Release history

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle

2017 video game

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle is an action-adventure turn-based tactics video game developed by Ubisoft Milan and Ubisoft Paris and published by Ubisoft for the Nintendo Switch video game console. The game is a crossover between Nintendo's Mario and Ubisoft's Rabbids franchise. In Kingdom Battle, the story follows Mario, his friends, and a group of Rabbids who try to save the Mushroom Kingdom from invading Rabbids that accidentally misused a powerful invention and began to wreak havoc. Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle was conceived in 2014 by Ubisoft Milan creative director Davide Soliani and Ubisoft brand producer Xavier Manzanares. The design objectives emphasized the dissonance of both franchises and creating a strategy game that stood out with unique elements. Its visual elements and animation were casual and vibrant, and its music was composed by Grant Kirkhope. Although the game was met with poor reception when it was leaked, primarily due to the use of the Rabbids' franchise and weaponry, it was well received when it was officially announced at E3 2017. The game's critical reception was overall positive, with praise towards its characters and turn-based combat, and mixed responses to its puzzles and level-based combat. In 2018, an expansion pack for the game titled Donkey Kong Adventure was released as downloadable content. A sequel, titled Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, was released on October 20, 2022. ## Gameplay Gameplay follows Mario and a cast of other Mario and Rabbids characters of the player's choosing, including Luigi, Princess Peach, Yoshi, and four other Rabbids dressed up as a respective Mario character with exaggerated personalities. They are guided by a small robot named Beep-0. The campaign story mode is split up into four unique locations, or "worlds", each of which has a linear path to completion. In each world, some puzzles must be completed for progression, or give weapons and collectibles when solved. When a world is completed, Beep-0 learns a new ability to solve puzzles. Two unique weapons can be unlocked by connecting the console to any one of several Amiibo figurines. If the team comes across territory inhabited by enemy Rabbids, a battle will commence. While the goal of each battle is usually to defeat every enemy on the field, some levels have a fixed objective, such as escorting a Toad to the end of the stage. The level is completed if all enemies are defeated or the fixed objective is satisfied; the player loses when all characters run out of health or fail to meet their goal. Before a battle, the player can choose to change their current selection of characters and weaponry; three out of eight playable characters can fight in a battle (Mario and at least one Rabbid being required), and each fighter can be equipped with weapons, each one dealing different amounts of damage or causing certain special effects that hinder the opponent. Battles are turn-based, and each character can perform up to three different options: they can move to a new location, with each character having a set distance they can travel; they can use a weapon, and have two choices of attack that vary per player; or they can use a special effect, with each character having different abilities that vary in function. If a player moves to a location where they are obscured to the enemy, the enemy's accuracy changes based on the cover's effectiveness. Characters also have movement abilities, where they can dash into an enemy to deal damage or be boosted by another character to travel a further distance. Some weapons have special effects; for example, the player can shoot a glob of honey at the enemy to restrict them from moving temporarily, or shoot an ignited bullet to burn an opponent and send them running around in a random direction in panic. Special effects also vary, such as a healing effect that restores some health to other characters, or a hypnosis effect that draws enemies towards the character that used it. Levels are divided into chapters, and each chapter usually contains three levels. When a chapter is completed, characters receive coins and "Skill Orbs", which can also be found by exploring the overworld, with greater rewards earned clearing battles within a certain number of turns with all characters intact. Skill Orbs can be used in each character's skill tree to grant them new abilities or increase stats such as health or movement distance. Coins can be used to purchase new weaponry and items. ## Plot ### Kingdom Battle A young inventor and avid fan of the Mario franchise invents a device known as the SupaMerge, a headset that can merge any two objects into a single entity, with the help of her virtual robot assistant Beep-0. Upon testing it, it successfully merges two items, but overheats. While the inventor is out of the room, a group of Rabbids arrive in their Time Washing Machine and begin to cause chaos and play with her belongings, annoying Beep-0. One of them puts on the SupaMerge and starts causing chaos, merging some of the Rabbids with various items in the room. While having fun with the SupaMerge, its beam accidentally hits the Time Washing Machine and causes it to malfunction, sucking everything in the room into an interdimensional vortex along with a Mario poster. A vortex appears above the Mushroom Kingdom during the unveiling of a large statue of Princess Peach and sucks up everyone, including Mario and his friends. They and the Rabbids are thrown across the Mushroom Kingdom along with the now-gigantic objects from the room. Beep-0, now a physical entity with Rabbid ears and teeth and has gained the ability to speak, discovers that the SupaMerge has fused itself with the Rabbid wearing it, who uncontrollably creates more chaos by accidentally merging some of the Rabbids with more objects. Beep-0 is nearly hit by the now-giant Time Washing Machine, but Mario saves him as it crash-lands near Peach's castle. While the recently merged Rabbids become hostile (due to the SupaMerge's power now being corrupted), Mario and Beep-0 encounter two merged Rabbids who are not: Rabbid Luigi and Rabbid Peach. Aided by a mysterious email contact known only as F.B., who provides them with weapons, abilities, and advice, the four join forces to put a stop to the chaos. As Mario's team travels across the Mushroom Kingdom, defeating and freeing the corrupted Rabbids while also encountering allies like Princess Peach, Luigi, Rabbid Mario, Yoshi, and Rabbid Yoshi, Bowser Jr. comes across the Rabbid fused to the SupaMerge, which he nicknames Spawny, and uses him to cause even more chaos. Resolving to recover Spawny so they can undo the damage he has caused, the team eventually learns that a malevolent entity known as the Megabug is behind the mysterious vortex–presumably created by the SupaMerge–which grows more powerful as they defeat more of the corrupted Rabbids. Mario's group recovers Spawny from Bowser Jr., only for him to get kidnapped by the Megabug, which has now assumed the form of a dragon, and become part of it, making the Megabug gain the abilities of the SupaMerge. The Megabug creates more corrupted Rabbids and merges with Bowser, who had just returned from his vacation, and possess and corrupts him, to create "MegaDragonBowser" and battles the heroes. Mario and his team defeat the Megabug, saving both Bowser and Spawny. As peace returns to the Mushroom Kingdom and all the Rabbids are restored to normal, the group celebrates by replacing the new statue of Princess Peach (which had been destroyed by the vortex) with Rabbid Peach instead. Meanwhile, Beep-0 realizes that F.B. is his future self, Future Beep-0, and uses the Time Washing Machine to help his comrades in the past by sending the same emails, weapons, and abilities that his future self sent to his past self. ### Donkey Kong Adventure During the events of the game, Rabbid Kong, one of the merged Rabbids, fiddles with the Time Washing Machine after some Rabbids attempt to escort him home following his defeat, causing him, Rabbid Peach, and Beep-0 to be transported to the Donkey Kong universe after getting close to the machine when Rabbid Peach decides to charge her phone on it. Spawny and Bowser Jr. see this, with Spawny accidentally and unintentionally firing the SupaMerge energy into the Time Washing Machine before it teleports, causing the washing machine's water and the Rabbids who get sucked in it to be merged with some objects and get corrupted. They are marooned on Donkey Kong Island, and the machine is severely damaged. To get back to the Mushroom Kingdom, the two must find the machine's missing parts and reassemble it. After being attacked by the native islanders, they are saved by Donkey Kong and Rabbid Cranky, who were both transported to the island by the machine during the beginning of the game and agree to help. Rabbid Kong and the corrupted Rabbids crash-land in a temple and Rabbid Kong ends up becoming corrupted by a "Bad Banana", a banana contaminated with the Megabug's energy (created by Spawny's beam) oozing from the Time Washing Machine's water and becomes more powerful, turning him into Mega Rabbid Kong. Seeking revenge against Rabbid Peach for his previous defeat, he starts a banana racketeering operation on the island to create more Bad Bananas to corrupt more Rabbids and takes over the island. The group fights Mega Rabbid Kong's forces of tropical versions of the enemies they fought in the main game, destroy all the Bad Bananas they can find, and defeat a pair of powerful corrupted Rabbids working for Mega Rabbid Kong to obtain the keys to Mega Rabbid Kong's lair. Shortly after arriving, the trio defeat Mega Rabbid Kong in two final battles, the first one in his lair, which is then destroyed by the corrupted water exploding, and then again when they chase him to the coast, draining his powers and undoing the effects of the Megabug and the Bad Bananas on the island, restoring Rabbid Kong and all the Rabbids and bananas on the island. Rabbid Peach and Rabbid Kong make amends and the latter helps them rebuild the Time Washing Machine, sending it, Rabbid Peach, and Beep-0 back to the Mushroom Kingdom. In the post-credits scene, the inventor from the prologue returns and discovers Rabbid Peach's photos of the island, which somehow ended up in her room. ## Development and release As a child, the game's Italian creative director Davide Soliani had always enjoyed playing Mario games. Soliani had met Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of the Mario franchise a handful of times in the past; on one occasion, when Soliani first met Miyamoto at E3 2014, he asked him to sign a copy of a Game Boy Advance remake of Disney's The Jungle Book, which Soliani developed in 2003. After a long run of Rabbids video games developed by Ubisoft meanwhile, Xavier Manzanares, a Ubisoft brand producer, thought about the future of the Rabbids series in 2013. Ubisoft began to talk with Nintendo about ideas for future Rabbids video games, but only really brought the concept of party games like the ones they made prior. Toward the end of the year, Manzanares began to conceptualize games that were not the typical genre they were familiar with. He teamed up with three others to plan a game, including Soliani, who later became the creative director of Kingdom Battle. Without any clear idea, their main goal was to combine the Rabbids and Mario franchises. When Soliani presented thirteen ideas to Manzanares, he abandoned the focus on combining the brands and shifted attention towards the game itself. Because the two franchises were very different from each other, they decided on the turn-based strategy genre because neither franchise had done anything in the field. Manzanares's ultimate goal was to design something surprising, even for Nintendo. According to Soliani, when presenting the idea to Miyamoto, the team worked hard on a prototype for presentation. They refrained from simply a discussion or visuals and concepts because Soliani "really wanted to show stuff instead of just talking". Miyamoto's major concern was giving Mario characters weapons, but he thought that Ubisoft "understands Mario as a character" and put trust in the company when details were fleshed out. The development team was equally apprehensive about featuring firearms in a Mario game; to alleviate this, they took inspiration from films with exaggerated weaponry such as The Fifth Element, which featured plasma-firing arm cannons. Nintendo permitted to let Mario characters use the guns. Early development of the game was tricky for Ubisoft, as they had to juggle using a new game engine, Snowdrop, and a genre and concept they had not officially defined. On multiple occasions, Nintendo directly asked Ubisoft to put more emphasis on the weirdness of the Rabbids; Miyamoto found the characters to be a unique source of humor unexplored in the Mario franchise. Nintendo's ultimate goal was to be surprised in what ways the Rabbids could bring gameplay elements that were not typical in regular Mario games, so they repeatedly asked Ubisoft to surprise them. ### Design Nintendo was always keen on ensuring their games were innovative and stood out. Knowing this, Ubisoft began production by brainstorming unique ideas to set it apart from other strategy games. Considering that many games of the genre were dull in color and slower-paced to emphasize strategy, Ubisoft conceptualized a colorful and fast-paced game, and the company used Nintendo's Mario Kart series as its main point of reference. The action was focused on moving around the battlefield instead of hiding for cover often, said Soliani. To make sure they balanced casual gameplay with the strategy genre, Ubisoft extensively playtested. They made sure the game was accessible and taught the player throughout their playtime. When it came to the level of difficulty, Soliani was surprised to see nine-year-old children pulling off stunts he believed would not work with a younger audience. An underlying goal of Ubisoft was to combine the two franchises to equally represent both. To emphasize a crossover, the company put effort into contrasting the two. Nintendo wanted a game that was built around the intellectual property (IP) of the Mario universe, while also emphasizing the anarchy of the Rabbids, which Nintendo set as a goal from the beginning. For example, Ubisoft wanted Rabbid Peach to not simply be a Rabbid in a Princess Peach costume, but rather to give her a personality that was similar in some ways yet stereotypically contrasting the original character. Rabbid Peach was in the base prototype and Nintendo found it to be a funny concept. While Nintendo gave Ubisoft a lot of open freedom, they made sure that they stayed faithful to the IP. Ubisoft received multiple notes about changes in the animation and looks in the Mario characters; in total, there were about 1,500 animations to fit. ### Music For the game's music, Soliani contracted Grant Kirkhope, a composer who had written the music for numerous critically-acclaimed games such as Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong 64. Like Miyamoto, Soliani was a big fan of his works as he grew up with a Nintendo 64, which contained multiple games with music by him. Kirkhope received an email from Gian Marco, a producer at Ubisoft, in late 2014. It simply mentioned a game he could be interested in composing music for, so he signed a non-disclosure agreement and met with Soliani in Paris, France. Kirkhope believed he was simply working on a new Rabbids video game, as the tentative title at the time was Rabbids Kingdom Battle. He was confused about why a Rabbids game was being kept secret, and when he discovered the game was a crossover with the Mario franchise, he was left in shock; Soliani was worried that Kirkhope was disinterested. Eventually, he agreed to work on the game and built a strong connection with Soliani. It was difficult for Soliani to work with Kirkhope at first due to him having to give feedback to someone he admired. One of Kirkhope's biggest challenges was the quantity: he had to compose in total approximately 2.5 hours of music. Additionally, he and Soliani were located in Los Angeles and Milan, respectively; Kirkhope would sometimes accidentally call Soliani in the middle of the night asking for feedback. ### Release, promotion, and additional content Information on a crossover between the Mario and Raving Rabbids franchises was leaked as early as November 2016, although the title Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle was first leaked in May 2017, before its official announcement during Ubisoft's press conference at E3 2017. Four figurines replicating characters from the game were announced in June. The game was released in North America and PAL territories for the Nintendo Switch on 29 August 2017. It was later released in Japan and other East Asian territories on 18 January 2018, where Nintendo published and distributed the title for Ubisoft. A collector's edition was released, which came with a soundtrack CD, cards, and an exclusive Rabbid Mario figurine. Ubisoft released post-launch downloadable content (DLC) through a season pass, which includes new weapons, solo challenges, cooperative maps, and story-based content. On 26 June 2018, an expansion known as Donkey Kong Adventure was released, which features a new story featuring Rabbid Peach and Beep-0 teaming up with Donkey Kong and Rabbid Cranky to defeat Rabbid Kong, one of the bosses in the game's main storyline. Kingdom Battle was intended to be revealed at E3 2017, but some info was accidentally leaked before then. An image of Mario and Rabbid Peach posing with weapons was leaked. When the concept was met with negative reception, the development team became discouraged and lost morale, which caused Soliani to emphasize a unique experience because of it. Soliani was in a constant state of panic before its full reveal and urged his development team to not get their hopes up. When major details about the game were revealed at E3 2017, Miyamoto came and helped Soliani pitch the game to the audience. Upon seeing the game in full, fans showed curiosity and excitement in it. When Soliani saw the praise, he teared up on stage with excitement and relief, and his reaction became an internet meme. After the conference, Soliani received 37 awards for the performance. When he returned to work, the company's morale was greatly boosted. Ubisoft began to work on the Donkey Kong Adventure DLC shortly after the game's reveal at E3 2017. According to Soliani, the initial plan was to release about 1–2 hours of additional content. After the praise of the game after its reveal, Soliani decided to add as much content as possible, with cutscenes, worlds, and gameplay totaling about half of the base game. After the rework, the DLC was 10 hours in length. Kirkhope wrote an additional 45 minutes of music and the programmers completely redid the gameplay as Soliani wanted the new content to be completely offset from the original game. To advertise the game, the Ubisoft Instagram account was temporarily changed to appear as if it were Rabbid Peach's personal account, with posts and images being made as if they were coming from her perspective. ## Reception ### Critical reviews Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle received "generally favorable" reviews according to review aggregator Metacritic. The game debuted at number two on the UK physical video game sales charts. It was the best-selling physical video game in Australia in the week ending 3 September. It sold 66,692 copies within its first week on sale in Japan, which placed it at number one on the all-format sales chart. By September 2017, Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle became the best-selling game on the Nintendo Switch to have not been wholly published by Nintendo. In June 2021 Ubisoft announced in a press release that the game had been played by 7.5 million players. Most critical reviews opened by reaffirming the ludicrousness of the game's concept; Giant Bomb considered the idea a "bad, late-night message board conversation", and most critics had mixed to negative opinions of the Rabbids franchise as a whole, especially in comparison to the Mario franchise. When the game was released, reviewers were quick to reconsider how in-depth the game was, despite their preconceived notions that the game would be gimmicky or reliant on Rabbids-style humor. Some believed that the game's tone and writing mixed well with the Mario franchise; Wired's Julie Muncy observed that Mario often acts as a straight man to the Rabbids' childish behavior. The cast of new characters introduced in Kingdom Battle received a generally positive response. Rabbid Peach in particular emerged as a popular character with critics and players following an initially divisive reception before the game's release. Chris Bratt from Eurogamer found that the game's characters are an effective representation of its setting and humor; he singled out Rabbid Peach as having given him an initially crass impression from the game's leak, but grew to enjoy her antics when more of the game was shown, a sentiment fellow Eurogamer contributor Jeffrey Matulef shared. Gabe Gurwin of Digital Trends regarded her as the standout of Kingdom Battle's cast, praising her for her humor and entertaining personality and suggesting that she should appear in the crossover video game series Super Smash Bros. Paul Tamburro of Game Revolution stated that she "steals the show" in Kingdom Battles, crediting her with giving the Rabbids mascot a personality. Critics were divided over Ubisoft's decision to center the game's promotional efforts on social media around Rabbid Peach; Kotaku's Gita Jackson found the change creepy due to its attempts to personify brands, and felt that the account mocked women on Instagram. Despite this, she still found the character cute. Writer Laura Kate Dale was more positive and commented that Rabbid Peach "stole the show" in Kingdom Battle, particularly citing her love for taking selfies on her mobile phone as a contributing factor. The game's simplified combat system and structure were revered throughout reviews. Polygon reviewer Russ Frushstick commented that although the game wasn't too bold in appealing to older audiences, it successfully made the tactical roleplaying genre appealing to unfamiliar audiences with its simplistic approach. PCMag considered this to be due to the lack of complex statistics and probability, and rather favored simplistic "coin-flip" chances. The Verge also praised its simplicity, and claimed that it blended well with the Nintendo Switch and its portable functionality due to the structured format. Various sites positively compared gameplay to the XCOM franchise. Puzzles in between the level-based combat received mixed opinions in comparison. Writing for Destructoid, Chris Carter found the space in between levels to be filler rather than a unique exploration feature, only used to hide collectible items. In addition, Jeff Marchiafava of Game Informer found certain collectibles, such as music and concept art, to be lackluster and not worth going out of the way to achieve, although the combat phases more than made up for it. Conversely, GameSpot enjoyed how it helped interconnect the environment to make it "seamless", and although some puzzles could be tedious it helped give a brief distraction once in a while. ### Accolades Kingdom Battle received numerous awards, generally in strategy game categories alongside several other nominations. The game won "Best Strategy Game" at the Game Critics Awards, Gamescom, and The Game Awards 2017, as well as the D.I.C.E. Awards the following year. Additionally, the game won "Best Original Game" at the Game Critics Awards, as well as the "Animation" and "Visual Design" categories at the 2018 Develop Awards. It was also nominated for several other miscellaneous categories, such as best casual game, best family game, and best of show; the game was surpassed only by other first-party games developed solely by Nintendo, being under shadowed by Super Mario Odyssey and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Eurogamer ranked the game fifth on their list of the "Top 50 Games of 2017"; GamesRadar+ ranked it 13th on their list of the 25 best games of 2017; EGMNow ranked it 14th on their list of the 25 Best Games of 2017; Polygon ranked it 33rd on their list of the 50 best games of 2017. The game won the award for "Best Strategy Game" in IGN's Best of 2017 Awards, whereas its other nominations were for "Best Switch Game" and "Best Original Music". ## Legacy In the 2018 fighting game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, three of the Rabbids appear as collectable power-ups ("Spirits"): Rabbid Mario, Rabbid Peach, and Rabbid Kong. Rabbid Peach appears in Just Dance 2018 as the alternative playable mascot for Beyoncé's song "Naughty Girl". Connections forged from Kingdom Battle extend beyond Rabbids references. In January 2019, Kirkhope was asked by Soliani for his contact information on behalf of Nintendo, saying the company loved what Kirkhope had done for the Mario + Rabbids soundtrack and requested his help on an unspecified piece of music. Kirkhope was initially skeptical about the purpose of this offer but accepted it. Upon realizing that he was being asked to arrange music for Banjo and Kazooie's appearance in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, he was excited for the return of the characters. A sequel, Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, was announced at E3 2021 and was released on October 20, 2022 on the Nintendo Switch. ## See also - Rabbids - Rayman

Resident Evil (2002 video game)

2002 video game

Resident Evil is a survival horror video game developed and published by Capcom. Released for the GameCube video game console in 2002, it is a remake of the 1996 PlayStation game Resident Evil, the first installment in the Resident Evil video game series. The story takes place in 1998 near the fictional Midwestern town of Raccoon City where a series of bizarre murders have taken place. The player takes on the role of either Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine, S.T.A.R.S. agents sent in by the city to investigate the murders. Resident Evil was developed over the course of one year and two months as part of an exclusivity deal between Capcom and Nintendo. It was directed by Shinji Mikami, who also designed and directed the original Resident Evil. Mikami decided to produce a remake because he felt that the original had not aged well enough and that the GameCube's capabilities could bring it closer to his original vision. The game retains the same graphical presentation, with 3D models superimposed over pre-rendered backgrounds. However, the quality of the graphics was vastly improved. The remake also features new gameplay mechanics, revised puzzles, additional explorable areas, a revised script, and new story details including an entire subplot cut from the original game. Upon release, Resident Evil received acclaim from video game journalists, who praised its graphics and improved gameplay over the original game. It is often described as one of the best, scariest, and most visually impressive entries in the Resident Evil series. However, the game sold worse than expected, leading Capcom to change the direction of the series to a more action-oriented approach. In 2008, the game was ported to the Wii, featuring a new control system. In 2014, a high-definition remaster was released to critical and commercial success for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox 360, and Xbox One, then later for Nintendo Switch in 2019. ## Gameplay Resident Evil is a survival horror game where the player controls the on-screen character from a third-person perspective to interact with the environment. To advance, the player must explore a mansion and its surrounding areas while avoiding, outsmarting and defeating monsters including zombies and giant spiders. The player can open doors, push certain objects, climb obstacles, and pick up items. When an item is collected, it is stored in an inventory that the player can access at any time. Items in the inventory can be used, examined, and combined to solve puzzles and gain access to areas that were previously inaccessible. The inventory is limited to a certain number of slots, and the player must often move items from the inventory to storage boxes located in certain areas to manage space. Although the player can use firearms to kill monsters, Resident Evil emphasizes evasion over fast-paced combat by providing the player with limited ammunition. The player has a limited amount of health, which decreases when attacked by monsters. Players can regain health by collecting and using herbs, which can be mixed with other herbs to increase their healing effect. Some monsters can also infect the player with a poisoning effect, which gradually depletes the player's health over time until the poison is cured with serum or special herbs. Zombies that are defeated but not beheaded or burned eventually revive and mutate into faster and deadlier forms. The player can control either Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine, each with advantages and disadvantages. For example, Chris can take and deal more damage than Jill, but Jill can carry more items and unlock certain doors with a lock pick. Both characters can equip defensive weapons that can save them from taking damage when seized by an enemy. These defensive weapons include a dagger and a unique special weapon: Jill can use a taser, while Chris can shove stun grenades into zombies' mouths and detonate them with a pistol shot. Defensive weapons are limited and can only be used when the player is grabbed by a monster. The game features an automap to help players navigate the different areas of the game. Additionally, the player can pick up maps of certain sections to reveal unexplored areas. To save their progress, players need to find ink ribbons and use them with a typewriter; the game features a limited supply of ink ribbons, so players cannot save their progress as many times as they want. The story is slightly altered by the character the player chooses to play as, and certain choices the player makes in the game can impact the direction of the game and its ending. Upon completing the game under a certain difficulty setting and time limit, the player may unlock secret costumes for the main characters, bonus weapons, and special difficulty modes. ## Plot On July 24, 1998, a series of bizarre murders occur on the outskirts of the Midwestern town of Raccoon City. The Raccoon City Police Department's Special Tactics And Rescue Service (STARS) are assigned to investigate. After contact with Bravo Team is lost, Alpha Team is sent to investigate their disappearance. Alpha Team locates Bravo Team's crashed helicopter and land at the site, where they are attacked by a pack of monstrous dogs, killing one of the team. After Alpha Team's helicopter pilot, Brad Vickers, panics and takes off alone, the remaining members (Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine, Albert Wesker and Barry Burton) seek refuge in an abandoned mansion, where they split up. The player character (Chris or Jill) finds several members of Bravo Team, including Kenneth J. Sullivan being eaten by a zombie; Richard Aiken, who is either killed by a giant venomous snake or eaten by a shark; Forest Speyer, who is found dead and revived as a zombie; and Bravo Team leader Enrico Marini, who reveals that one of Alpha Team's members is a traitor before being killed by an unseen shooter. Bravo Team survivor Rebecca Chambers joins Chris. The player character learns that a series of illegal experiments were undertaken by a clandestine research team under the authority of a biomedical company Umbrella Corporation. The creatures roaming the mansion and its surrounding areas are the results of these experiments, which have exposed the mansion's personnel and animals to a highly contagious and mutagenic biological agent known as the T-virus. The player character discovers a secret underground laboratory containing Umbrella's experiments. There, they find Jill or Chris in a cell and encounter Wesker programming a Tyrant, a humanoid bioweapon. Wesker reveals that he is a double agent working for Umbrella, and plans to use the Tyrant to kill the STARS members. In the ensuing confrontation, Wesker is apparently killed and the player character defeats the Tyrant. After activating the lab's self-destruct system, the player character reaches the heliport and contacts Brad for extraction. The ending changes depending on the player's actions at key points: in the best ending, the surviving team members escape by helicopter after defeating the Tyrant again; in the worst ending, the mansion remains intact and the player character is the sole survivor. ## Development Resident Evil was developed by Capcom Production Studio 4 and directed by Shinji Mikami, who designed and directed the original Resident Evil for the PlayStation console. The game was part of an exclusivity agreement between Capcom and Nintendo to bring previous and new Resident Evil games to the GameCube. Unlike Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, and Resident Evil – Code: Veronica, which were simply ported to the GameCube, Mikami decided to produce a remake of the original game because he felt its graphics had not aged well, making it hard for new players to appreciate it. Programmer Yasuhiro Anpo also cited the original game's poor localization as another reason for the remake. Mikami and producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi agreed the GameCube would allow them to bring the game closer to the original vision the team had for the series. As Capcom's marketing director Todd Thorson said, the main goal was to "achieve motion picture-quality visuals and create even more suspense and fear than the original". Production started at the beginning of 2001 with a team of only four programmers. Because Resident Evil was one of the first Capcom games developed for the GameCube, the development team had to study the system's performance during the first stages of development. In the process of development, the team wanted to make sure that those who had already played the 1996 version would find things to enjoy in the remake. Initially, the team considered creating the environments with computer graphic animation but then realized that this approach would require too much hardware capacity and processing to achieve realistic graphics. As a result, the graphical style of the remake features 3D models on top of pre-rendered backgrounds like early Resident Evil games. Despite this, the camera is more dynamic and can track the player at varying angles. The backgrounds also make use of particle effects and full motion video layers to simulate effects such as rushing water or swaying tree branches. Creating fear in players was a priority, and many of the game's backgrounds were designed to have a high contrast between dark and light so that enemies could appear unexpectedly. Originally, the developers planned to only upgrade the graphics and tweak the gameplay. However, as the game approached completion, Capcom started making more substantial changes. For example, the inventory was expanded so that players could carry a standard item like Jill's lockpick, while defense items, which were initially included in the main inventory, were introduced to make the game easier than the original. Several new weapons were also added in order to expand the range of approaches to combat. Enemies in the game were rebalanced to accommodate for this. The developers originally planned to make all enemies invisible but the idea was discarded because it would have made the remake very different from the original game. However, they designed the zombies so that they could eventually come back to life after being killed, in the form of more dangerous Crimson Heads. The developers added new areas for the player to explore, changed most of the puzzle designs, and included an additional control scheme whereby players move their characters by pressing the R button of the GameCube controller and steer them with the analog stick. Another addition is a subplot involving the character Lisa Trevor, which was cut from the original game. Instead of using adjectives to describe difficulty levels, Mikami decided to have unique questions so that the player would pick the hard one. In a later interview Kobayashi stated that many of these additions and substantial changes were a deliberate effort to attract veteran players. Capcom auditioned actors to be used as references by the character designers. The faces of the protagonists were based on real people and motion capture was used to animate their models. About 60 percent of the character motions were animated based on the captured data, while the rest was created from scratch. The developers initially struggled to develop a system for computer graphic animation. However, Nintendo provided Capcom with assistance and the problems were eventually solved. Capcom also hired new voice actors and rewrote the game's script to make the plot more convincing. The game was developed over the course of one year and two months. Final development was very intense, as programmers had to work for two straight months with no days off to meet the deadline. Resident Evil was released in March 2002 in Japan, April 2002 in North America, and September 2002 in Europe. ## Reception Upon its release on the GameCube, Resident Evil received critical acclaim. IGN reviewer Matt Casamassina felt that the game is "a triumph as a stand-alone adventure and a major accomplishment as a remake", calling it "the prettiest, most atmospheric and all-around scariest game we've ever played." Similarly, GameSpot reviewer Shane Satterfield described the remake as "one amazing game that clearly stands as the best the series has to offer", while Edge magazine remarked that the game's unforgiving gameplay and technical artistry improve the tension and anxiety that the original offered. The game was widely praised for its graphics. GameSpot credited the attention to detail, realistic gore, volumetric fog, and integration of real-time lighting and shadows with pre-rendered backgrounds, commenting that Capcom had "finally perfected the art of mixing prerendered scenery with ambient animations and polygonal objects, and the result is the most visually impressive video game ever released." IGN highlighted the complex geometry of the character models, stating that "close shots of Chris or Jill look almost photo-realistic." Writing for NGC Magazine, Jes Bickham remarked that, unlike in the original Resident Evil, the contrast between character models and backgrounds is seamless. He also noted that the game is "so visually rich that simply seeing the next area is an experience to be treasured." The game's suspenseful and cinematic atmosphere received praise, with GameRevolution going so far as to say that the game makes the original Resident Evil look like Pong. Resident Evil was also praised for its realistic sound. AllGame reviewer Scott Alan Marriott felt that the game "[creates] a constant sense of dread without relying too much on obvious shock values", while GameSpot highlighted the quality and variety of sound effects, noting that "there seem to be dozens of sound effects for footsteps alone." However, some publications considered the voice acting to be weak due to its exaggerated delivery. Although the game's limiting controls and inventory management were criticized, changes to many aspects of the gameplay were positively viewed. Mike Weigand of GamePro wrote, "It's like playing Resident Evil for the first time." GameSpot remarked that the defensive weapons add a new layer of strategy to the game. However, the controls were criticized for their lack of analog precision, a feature that was previously available in the Nintendo 64 version of Resident Evil 2. Hector Guzman of GameSpy criticized the fact that the original game's "laborious" tank controls, whereby the analog stick moves the player character in the direction they are facing, was not changed, stating that it can cause unnecessary difficulties when players try to evade monsters. IGN's criticism was similar but considered the game's alternative control schemes a welcome addition. GameSpot editors named Resident Evil the best video game of April 2002. At the GameSpot's Best and Worst of 2002 awards, Resident Evil was nominated for Best Story on GameCube, Best Graphics (Technical) on GameCube, and Best Action Adventure Game on GameCube. As of January 2004, 445,176 copies of the game had been sold in the United States. In May 2008, Capcom revealed that a total of 1.35 million copies of the game were sold. ### Legacy Resident Evil is often regarded as one of the greatest and most visually impressive games in the series. According to IGN, the game's graphics "became the new standard by which all future installments in the series would be compared." In 2009, Official Nintendo Magazine ranked the game 43rd in a list of greatest Nintendo games. Digital Spy writer Liam Martin remarked that the game is "the definitive version of a true classic" and that it still looked "fantastic" nearly 13 years after it was first released. Although the game received critical acclaim, it sold worse than expected. As a result, Mikami and Capcom decided that subsequent games in the Resident Evil series would shift away from the survival horror genre and incorporate more action-based elements, starting with Resident Evil 4 in 2005. Before that happened, Capcom developed Resident Evil Zero, a direct prequel using the same graphics engine and released in late 2002. ## Re-release and remaster ### Wii version In December 2008, Resident Evil was ported to the GameCube's successor, the Wii, along with Resident Evil Zero. The port, Resident Evil Archives: Resident Evil, features a control system that supports both the Wii Remote and the GameCube controller. Although Capcom originally had no plans to release the Wii version outside of Japan, arguing that the game would not sell very well, the game was eventually released in North America and Europe in June 2009 due to the commercial success of Resident Evil 5. The Wii version received generally favorable reviews from critics, but some publications criticized it for its outdated controls, lack of new features, and lack of widescreen support. ### HD remaster A high-definition (HD) version, Resident Evil HD Remaster, was released for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox 360, and Xbox One in January 2015. The HD version supports 5.1 surround sound as well as a resolution of 1080p and a widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9. Although the original pre-rendered backgrounds have a 4:3 format, the developers decided against re-rendering them in 16:9 because it would allow players to see more of the environment than intended, reducing the sense of immersion and danger. As a result, the developers added vertical scrolling to the backgrounds, which respond to the movement of the character, to fit the remaster's widescreen aspect ratio. A new control scheme was also included, allowing players to move their character in the direction of the analog stick. The remaster was a commercial success, breaking sales records. It became the PlayStation Network's biggest launch game and Capcom's fastest-selling digital game across North America and Europe. Capcom announced that the remaster exceeded sales of one million copies by April 2015. Its commercial success resulted in Capcom's announcement of a similar edition of Resident Evil Zero in 2015. Critical reception towards the remaster was mostly positive. Several critics noted that some features like the inventory system and the insistence on having to revisit previously explored areas have not aged very well, but generally agreed that the remaster was a solid revival of a classic. The new control scheme was also considered more intuitive and satisfying, especially for new players. As of September 2022, the remaster had sold 3.7 million copies worldwide across all platforms. #### Resident Evil: Origins Collection Resident Evil Zero and Resident Evil became a compilation called Resident Evil: Origins Collection, that was released for the Nintendo Switch on May 21, 2019.

Barbarella (film)

1968 film by Roger Vadim

Barbarella is a 1968 science fiction film directed by Roger Vadim, based on the French comic series of the same name by Jean-Claude Forest. The film stars Jane Fonda as the title character, a space traveler and representative of the United Earth government sent to find scientist Durand Durand, who has created a weapon that could destroy humanity. The supporting cast includes John Phillip Law, Anita Pallenberg, Milo O'Shea, Marcel Marceau, David Hemmings, Ugo Tognazzi, and Claude Dauphin. Having expressed an interest in comics and science fiction, Vadim was hired to direct Barbarella after producer Dino De Laurentiis purchased the film rights to the comic series. Vadim attempted to cast several actresses—Brigitte Bardot and Sophia Loren—in the title role before choosing Fonda, his then-wife. A friend of Vadim's, Terry Southern, wrote the initial screenplay, which changed considerably during filming and led to seven other writers being credited in the final release, including Vadim and Forest, the latter of whom also worked on the film's production design. The film began shooting immediately following the completion of another De Laurentiis comic adaptation, Danger: Diabolik, with both films sharing several cast and crew members. The film was particularly popular in the United Kingdom, where it was the year's second-highest-grossing film. Contemporary film critics praised Barbarella's visuals and cinematography but found its storyline weak after the first few scenes. Although several attempts at sequels, remakes, and other adaptations have been planned, none of these have entered production. ## Plot In an unspecified future, space adventurer Barbarella is sent by the Earth's president to retrieve Durand Durand from the Tau Ceti planetary system. Durand is the inventor of a laser-powered weapon, the positronic ray, which Earth's leaders fear will cause mass destruction. Barbarella crash-lands on Tau Ceti's 16th planet and is knocked unconscious by two children. They bring her to the wreckage of a spaceship, where they bind and attack her using mechanical dolls with razor-sharp teeth. Barbarella is rescued by Mark Hand, the Catchman who patrols the ice looking for errant children. Hand tells her that Durand is in the city of Sogo and offers her a ride to her ship in his ice boat. When Barbarella offers to repay him, Hand asks her to make love to him. Barbarella is confused since Earthlings no longer have intimate physical contact; instead, they take pills "until full rapport is achieved." Hand suggests having sex in his bed instead. Barbarella relents and enjoys it but admits that she understands why sex is considered primitive and distracting on Earth. Barbarella leaves the planet and crashes into a labyrinth inhabited by outcasts exiled from Sogo. She is found by Pygar, a blind angel who has lost the will to fly. Pygar introduces her to Professor Ping, who offers to repair her ship. Pygar flies Barbarella to Sogo, a den of violence and debauchery after she restores his will to fly by having sex with him. Pygar and Barbarella are captured by Sogo's Black Queen and her concierge. The concierge describes the Mathmos: living energy in liquid form, powered by evil thoughts and used as an energy source in Sogo, which sits atop it. Pygar endures a mock crucifixion and Barbarella is placed in a cage, where hundreds of birds prepare to attack her. She is rescued by Dildano, leader of the local underground, who joins in her pursuit of Durand. Dildano gives her an invisible key to the Black Queen's chamber of dreams, where she sleeps. After returning to Sogo, Barbarella is promptly recaptured by the concierge. He places her in the "Exsexsive Machine" which induces fatal sexual pleasure. She outlasts the machine and makes it go haywire. The concierge, shocked at its destruction, reveals himself as Durand Durand. Barbarella is surprised since he is only 25 years old but has aged tremendously—a side-effect of the Mathmos. Durand wants to overthrow the Black Queen and become Sogo's new leader, which requires using his positronic ray and gaining access to the Queen's chamber of dreams. Durand takes Barbarella to the chamber and locks her inside with the invisible key. She sees the Queen, who warns that if two people are in the chamber, the Mathmos will devour them. Durand seizes control of Sogo as Dildano and his rebels begin their attack on the city. The Black Queen retaliates by releasing the Mathmos to destroy Sogo. Because of Barbarella's innocence, the Mathmos form a protective bubble around her and the Black Queen and safely expels them. They find Pygar, who clutches them in his arms and flies off. When Barbarella asks Pygar why he saved a tyrant, he tells her that an angel has no memory of the past. ## Production ### Development and writing Having bought the film rights to Jean-Claude Forest's Barbarella comics, producer Dino De Laurentiis secured a distribution deal in the United States between France's Marianne Productions and Paramount Pictures. He planned to film Danger: Diabolik, a less-expensive feature, to help cover production costs. In 1966 Roger Vadim expressed admiration for comics (particularly Charles Schulz's Peanuts), saying that he liked "the wild humor and impossible exaggeration of comic strips" and wanted to "do something in that style myself in my next film, Barbarella." Vadim saw the film as a chance to "depict a new futuristic morality ... Barbarella has [no] guilt about her body. I want to make something beautiful out of eroticism." His wife, actress Jane Fonda, noted that Vadim was a fan of science fiction; according to the director, "In science fiction, technology is everything ... The characters are so boring—they have no psychology. I want to do this film as though I had arrived on a strange planet with my camera directly on my shoulder—as though I was a reporter doing a newsreel." After Terry Southern finished writing Peter Sellers' dialogue for Casino Royale, he flew to Paris to meet Vadim and Fonda. Southern, who had known Vadim in Paris during the early 1950s, saw writing a science-fiction comedy based on a comic book as a new challenge. He enjoyed writing the script, particularly the opening striptease and the scenes with tiny robotic toys pursuing Barbarella to bite her. Southern enjoyed working with Vadim and Fonda, but he felt that De Laurentiis was intent only on making a cheap film that was not necessarily good. Southern said later, "Vadim wasn't particularly interested in the script, but he was a lot of fun, with a discerning eye for the erotic, grotesque, and the absurd. And Jane Fonda was super in all regards." Southern was surprised to see his screenplay credited to Vadim and several Italian screenwriters in addition to himself. Credited screenwriters included Claude Brulé, Vittorio Bonicelli, Clement Biddle Wood, Brian Degas, Tudor Gates, and Forest; Degas and Gates were hired by De Laurentiis after he was impressed with their work on Danger: Diabolik. Charles B. Griffith later said that he had done uncredited work on the script; the production team "hired fourteen other writers" after Southern "before they got to me. I didn't get credit because I was the last one." According to Griffith, he "rewrote about a quarter of the film that was shot, then re-shot, and I added the concept that there had been thousands of years since violence existed so that Barbarella was very clumsy all through the picture. She shoots herself in the foot and everything. It was pretty ludicrous. The stuff with Claude Dauphin and the suicide room was also part of my contribution to the film." ### Pre-production and casting Several actresses were approached before Jane Fonda was cast as Barbarella: Brigitte Bardot, who was not interested in a sexualized role, and Sophia Loren who was pregnant and felt that she would not fit the role. Fonda was uncertain about the film, but Vadim convinced her by saying that science fiction was a rapidly-evolving genre. Before filming Barbarella, she was the subject of two sex scandals: the first when her nude body was displayed across an eight-story billboard promoting the premiere of Circle of Love in 1965, and the second when several candid nude photos from Vadim's closed set for The Game Is Over were sold to Playboy the following year. According to biographer Thomas Kiernan, the billboard incident made her a sex symbol in the United States. Vadim said he did not want the actress to play Barbarella "tongue in cheek", and he saw the character as "just a lovely, average girl with a terrific space record and a lovely body. I am not going to intellectualise her. Although there is going to be a bit of satire about our morals and our ethics, the picture is going to be more of a spectacle than a cerebral exercise for a few way-out intellectuals." Fonda felt her priority for Barbarella was to "keep her innocent"; the character "is not a vamp and her sexuality is not measured by the rules of our society. She is not being promiscuous but she follows the natural reaction of another type of upbringing. She is not a so-called 'sexually liberated woman' either. That would mean rebellion against something. She is different. She was born free". Fonda personally recommended John Phillip Law as Pygar to Vadim following their work on Hurry Sundown; for the duration of his stay in Rome, the actor lived with Fonda, Vadim and Forest in their rented villa on Appian Way. Law, an avid comic book reader since childhood, read the Forest comics and studied the DC Comics character Hawkman for inspiration. The delayed pre-production of Barbarella allowed Law to film two roles before committing to the film: as Bill Meceita in the Spaghetti Western Death Rides a Horse, and as the title character in Danger: Diabolik. For the role of the Black Queen, Southern recommended model Anita Pallenberg, the then-girlfriend of The Rolling Stones member Brian Jones; Southern had befriended her while working with the band on the film A Clockwork Orange. On the English-language prints of the film, Pallenberg's voice was dubbed by English actress Joan Greenwood. French mime Marcel Marceau had his first speaking role in the film as Professor Ping. Comparing Ping to his stage persona Bip the Clown and Harpo Marx, he said that he did not "forget the lines, but I have trouble organising them. It's a different way of making what's inside come out. It goes from the brain to the vocal chords, and not directly to the body." All costumes in the film, including Fonda's, were designed by French costume designer Jacques Fonteray and manufactured by Sartoria Farani, with Barbarella's costume in the final scenes being, as the credits put it, "inspired by ideas of" fashion designer Paco Rabanne. Barbarella's outfits were Fonteray's interpretation of Forest's vision, combining Orientalist and medieval aesthetics with samurai armors. Forest also worked on the film's production design, and was credited in the film as its "artistic consultant". In a 1985 interview, he said that during production he did not care about his original comic strip and was more interested in the film industry: "The Italian artists were incredible; they could build anything in an extremely short time. I saw all the daily rushes, an incredible amount of film. The choices that were made for the final cut from those images were not the ones I would have liked, but I was not the director. It wasn't my affair." ### Filming According to Law, Barbarella began shooting after production on Danger: Diabolik ended on 18 June 1967; sets such as Valmont's night club in Danger: Diabolik were used in both films. Barbarella was shot at Cinecittà in Rome. To film the striptease titles sequence, Fonda said that the set was turned upward to face the ceiling of the soundstage. A pane of thick glass was laid across the opening of the set, with the camera hung from the rafters above it. Fonda then climbed onto the glass to perform the scene. Other scenes involved hanging Fonda upside down in an enormous vat of oil and dry ice, and her stomach being skinned when being shot through a plastic tube. For the scenes involving the Excessive Pleasure Machine, Fonda and Milo O'Shea were not told of explosions that would happen on set since the prop was rigged with flares and smoke bombs. Fonda explained that "Vadim wanted us to look natural, so he didn't tell us what a big explosion there would be. When the machine blew up, flames and smoke were everywhere, and sparks were running up and down the wires. I was frightened to death, and poor Milo was convinced something had really gone wrong and I was being electrocuted." For the scene involving Barbarella being attacked by hummingbirds, wrens and lovebirds were used as it was illegal to ship hummingbirds overseas. The birds were not behaving as Vadim had expected, which led to him employing a large fan to blow them at Fonda, who had birdseed in her costume. Film critic Roger Ebert, after visiting the set, wrote that the fan led to birds "losing control over natural body functions, so it was all a little messy". Ebert concluded that "After two weeks of this, [Fonda] got a fever and was hospitalized. I can't reveal here how they finally did the scene". The actress later described her discomfort on the film's set. In her autobiography, Fonda said that Vadim began drinking during lunch; his words slurred, and "his decisions about how to shoot scenes often seemed ill-considered". Fonda was bulimic and, at the time, was "a young woman who hated her body...playing a scantily clad, sometimes-naked sexual heroine". Photographer David Hurn echoed Fonda, noting that she was insecure about her appearance during the production's photo shoots. The actress took sick days so the film's insurance policy would cover the cost of a shutdown while the script was edited. Vadim would later state in his memoir that Fonda "didn't enjoy shooting Barbarella", specifically that she "disliked the central character for her lack of principle, her shameless exploitation of her sexuality and her irrelevance to contemporary social and political realities." ### Soundtrack Michel Magne was commissioned to score Barbarella, but his effort was discarded. The film's soundtrack, completed by composer-producers Bob Crewe and Charles Fox, has been described as lounge or exotica. Crewe was known for composing 1960s songs such as the Four Seasons' "Big Girls Don't Cry". Some of the music is credited to the Bob Crewe Generation, a group of session musicians who contributed to the soundtrack. Crewe invited the New York-based group The Glitterhouse, whom he knew through his production work, to provide vocals for the songs. He reflected on the soundtrack in his autobiography, saying that it "clearly needed to have a fun and futuristic approach to it, with sixties-music sensibility". ## Release Barbarella opened in New York on 11 October 1968 and earned \$2.5 million in North American theaters that year. It was the second-most-popular film in general release in the United Kingdom in 1968, after The Jungle Book. The film was shown in Paris that month, and was released in Italy on 18 October. It was released on 25 October throughout France, where it was distributed by Paramount. Barbarella received a "condemned" rating from the National Catholic Office for Motion Pictures, which called the film a "sick, heavy-handed fantasy with nudity and graphic representations of sadism" and criticized the Production Code Administration for approving it. Following the success of Star Wars, Paramount theatrically re-released the film in 1977; for this release, which was referred to in promotional materials as Barbarella: Queen of the Galaxy, the scenes of nudity were removed. ### Home media Despite frequently using the Barbarella: Queen of the Galaxy title and promotional art, home media releases of the film have been of the uncut 1968 version rather than the edited 1977 version. In 1994, the film's LaserDisc presented it in widescreen for the first time on home video. Reviewing this release for Video Watchdog, Tim Lucas noted that the film was presented with an incorrect aspect ratio of 2.47:1, resulting in the cropping of visual information that was present in the earlier pan and scan VHS releases, but noted that "many of Claude Renoir's "psychedelia" images work on video only in this widescreen setting". Barbarella was released on DVD on 22 June 1999, and on Blu-ray in July 2012, with the 1968 theatrical trailer the disc's only bonus feature. According to Charles Taylor of The New York Times, home media releases of the film before the Blu-ray version were "murky". Chris Nashawaty (Entertainment Weekly), Sean Axmaker (Video Librarian) and Glenn Erickson (DVD Talk) called Barbarella's Blu-ray transfer "breathtaking", "superb-looking" and "really good", respectively. ## Reception On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 74% approval rating based on 46 reviews, with an average score of 6.2/10; the site's "critics consensus" reads: "Unevenly paced and thoroughly cheesy, Barbarella is nonetheless full of humor, entertaining visuals, and Jane Fonda's sex appeal". ### Contemporary Some contemporary publications reported that the film's first scenes were enjoyable, but its quality declined thereafter. According to Wendy Michener's review in The Globe and Mail, after the striptease scene "we are plunged back into the mundane, not to say inane world, of the spy thriller with a dreary overlay of futuristic science-fiction" and it "just lies there, with all its psychedelic plastic settings". Barbarella's script and humor were criticized; a reviewer in Variety described the writing as "flat" with only "a few silly-funny lines of dialog" for a "cast that is not particularly adept at comedy". Dan Bates wrote in Film Quarterly that "sharp satiric moments ... are welcome and refreshing but are rather infrequent", and Renata Adler of The New York Times noted that "there is the assumption that just mentioning a thing (sex, politics, religion) makes it funny". Critics praised the film's design and cinematography. Variety's mainly negative review noted "a certain amount of production dash and polish" and, according to Derek Malcolm of The Guardian, "Claude Renoir's limpid colour photography and August Lohman's eye-catching special effects are what save the movie time and again". A Monthly Film Bulletin reviewer wrote that Barbarella's decor is "remarkably faithful to Jean-Claude Forest's originals", noting a "major contribution of Claude Renoir as director of photography" and "Jacques Fonterary's and Paco Rabanne's fantastic costumes". James Price (Sight & Sound) agreed, citing "the inventiveness of the decors and the richness of Claude Renoir's photography". Malcolm and Lohman criticized Barbarella's nature, themes and tone, with Malcolm calling it a "nasty kind of film", "modish to the core" and "essentially just a shrewd piece of exploitation". Lohman suggested the film's humor was "not jokes, but hard-breathing, sadistic thrashings." Bates called it "pure sub-adolescent junk" and "bereft of redeeming social or artistic importance". Michener praised Barbarella as part of "the first female sci-fi". Its shaggy gold rugs, impressionist paintings and spaceship were "unquestionably female in design compared with any of today's projectiles"; Barbarella is "no man-challenging superwoman, but a sweet soft creature who's always willing to please a man who's kind to her". According to Price, "There is a real fascination in its basic idea, which is a happy belief in the survival of sexuality... The idea fascinates, but the execution somehow disappoints (how often one has to say that about Vadim)." Bates' review concluded, "In the year that Stanley Kubrick and Franklin Schaffner finally elevated the science-fiction movie beyond the abyss of the kiddie show, Roger Vadim has knocked it right back down." ### Retrospective Numerous retrospective reviews have discussed Barbarella's plot and design. While stating that Barbarella "hardly ranks with Blood and Roses or Charlotte as one of Vadim's best", Lucas says that "Whatever charm the film still holds is entirely due to its visual imagination and highly over-done, Felliniesque artifice". According to The A.V. Club's Keith Phipps, "Mario Garbuglia keeps throwing inventive visuals and remarkable sets at the heroine" but "the journey itself is an unrelenting trudge". Sean Axmaker of Video Librarian called the film's "set design and wild color triumphing over story and character". Taylor perceived a lack of "plot impetus", suggesting that Vadim may have been "preoccupied with the special effects, though they are [and were] rather cheesy". Kim Newman (Empire) gave Barbarella three stars out of five, calling the film "literally episodic" and writing that the episodes spend "more time on the art direction, the costuming and the psychedelic music track than the plot". About its sexual elements, Brian J. Dillard wrote that the film's gender roles were not "particularly progressive, especially given the running gag about Barbarella getting her first few tastes of physical copulation after a lifetime of 'advanced' virtual sex" in his review on AllMovie. Phipps found the film "a missed opportunity", saying that the source material was part of "an emerging wave of European comics for adults" which "Vadim film[ed] indifferently." David Kehr of the Chicago Reader found the film "ugly" on several levels, particularly its "human values". Newman summarized the film as "cheerful, kitsch and camp", with "a succession of truly amazing fashion creations with all the confidence of a generation that thought sex was, above all, fun". Newman compared the film to 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Wars, writing that Barbarella makes them seem "stuffy" by comparison. Charles Webb's review for MTV said that Barbarella suffers when described as a "camp classic", since there was "so much to like about Fonda's work here and the movie as a whole"; "Fonda brings naivete and sweetness to a part that requires a certain level of comfort going bare onscreen, while the hostile planet Lythion is a parade of inventive and odd ways to imperil our heroine." Similarly, Lucas declared that "Fonda's performance, which the silly persist in finding controversial or compromising, has dated better than 90% of her 'serious' work; without her centrifugal, wide-eyed presence and suspenseful costume changes, one gets the impression that the whole production might spin madly out of control and off the screen". ## Legacy and influence Barbarella and Danger: Diabolik were both part of a minor trend of Italian film adaptations of European comics (known in Italy as fumetti) that emphasized mild sadomasochism and late 1960s fetish gear; aside from these two films, 1968 saw the release of Piero Vivarelli's similarly-themed Satanik. These were followed by Bruno Corbucci's Ms. Stiletto in 1969, and Corrado Farina's Baba Yaga in 1973. The production and costume design of both films also reflected a larger movement of retrofuturism seen in European genre films of the 1960s and 1970s. These include Pasquale Festa Campanile's The Libertine and Check to the Queen, Umberto Lenzi's So Sweet... So Perverse, Tinto Brass' Col cuore in gola, Lucio Fulci's One on Top of the Other and A Lizard in a Woman's Skin, Elio Petri's The 10th Victim, Piero Schivazappa's The Laughing Woman and Radley Metzger's Camille 2000 and The Lickerish Quartet. According to the Los Angeles Times, Barbarella may seem "quaint" to modern audiences but its "imagery has echoed for years in pop culture." Lisa Eisner of The New York Times called Barbarella "the most iconic sex goddess of the '60s." The film's costumes influenced Jean-Paul Gaultier's designs in The Fifth Element, and Gaultier noted Paco Rabanne's metallic dress that was worn by Fonda. Barbarella was later called a cult film. Author Jerry Lembcke noted the film's popularity; it was available in small video stores, and was familiar beyond the film buff community. According to Lembcke, any "doubt about its cult status was dispelled when Entertainment Weekly ranked it number 40 on its list of top 50 cult movies" in 2003. He cited the film's popularity on the internet, with fansites ranging from a Barbarella festival in Sweden to memorabilia sales and reviews. Lembcke writes that the websites focus on the character of Barbarella. Barbarella has influenced popular music, with English new wave band Duran Duran taking its name from the film's antagonist. The group later released a 1984 concert film, Arena (An Absurd Notion), with Milo O'Shea reprising his role from Barbarella. Their 1981 debut album is called Duran Duran and in 1997 they released the song Electric Barbarella, again taking inspiration from the film. The musical duo Matmos took their name from the living lake of slime under the city in the movie. Music videos influenced by Barbarella include Kylie Minogue's "Put Yourself In My Place," Katy Perry's "E.T.", and Ariana Grande's "Break Free". Camille Paglia opined Lady Gaga drew influence from Fonda's performance in the film. ### Proposed sequel, remake and TV series A sequel to Barbarella was planned in November 1968. Producer Robert Evans said that its working title would be Barbarella Goes Down, with the character having undersea adventures. Terry Southern said that he was contacted by de Laurentiis in 1990 to write a sequel "on the cheap ... but with plenty of action and plenty of sex", and possibly starring Fonda's daughter. A new version of Barbarella was proposed in the 2000s, and director Robert Rodriguez was interested in developing a version after the release of Sin City. Universal Pictures planned to produce the film, with Rose McGowan playing Barbarella. Dino and Martha De Laurentiis signed on with writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, who had worked on Casino Royale. When the film's budget exceeded \$80 million, Universal withdrew. According to Rodriguez, he did not want his film to look like Vadim's. He searched for alternate financing when Universal did not meet his budget, and found a studio in Germany which would provide a \$70 million budget. Rodriguez eventually left the project, since using that studio would require a long separation from his family. Joe Gazzam was then approached to write a screenplay, with Robert Luketic directing and Dino and Martha De Laurentiis still credited as producers. Gaumont International Television announced a pilot for a TV series based on the film by Amazon Studios in 2012. The pilot would be written by Purvis and Wade and directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, and the series would be set in Asia. Refn spoke about the show in 2016 where he discussed about having a greater interest on developing The Neon Demon than Barbarella, concluding that "certain things are better left untouched. You don't need to remake everything." On October 11, 2022, Deadline reports that Sydney Sweeney will star as the titular character and will also produce the film. ## See also - List of films based on French-language comics - List of French films of 1968 - List of Italian films of 1968 - List of science fiction films of the 1960s

The Spanish Teacher

"The Spanish Teacher" is the twelfth episode of the third season of the American musical television series Glee, and the fifty-sixth overall. Written by co-creator Ian Brennan and directed by Paris Barclay, the episode aired on Fox in the United States on February 7, 2012. It features special guest star Ricky Martin as a night-school Spanish teacher whom Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison) introduces to McKinley High, and shows several of McKinley's teachers competing for a promotion when a tenured position unexpectedly becomes available. The episode received mixed to positive reviews, and many critics considered Martin to be a highlight. Reaction to the music as a whole was less enthusiastic than for the episode itself, though "La Isla Bonita" and "Don't Wanna Lose You" were given a generally favorable reception. The former song charted on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the Billboard Canadian Hot 100; of the remaining four singles, "Sexy and I Know It" debuted on the Billboard Hot 100, and the other three singles did not chart. Upon its initial airing, this episode was viewed by 7.81 million American viewers and received a 3.3/9 Nielsen rating/share in the 18–49 demographic. The total viewership was down significantly from the special tribute episode, "Michael", which aired the previous week. ## Plot The retirement of a history teacher opens a tenured position at McKinley High. Spanish teacher Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison) and cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) both want the promotion, but anonymous students have registered complaints about the pair. Determined to polish up his language skills, Will goes to night school for a refresher course and meets instructor David Martinez (Ricky Martin), who points out that kids learn better through music. Will assigns a Spanish-themed week to New Directions and David helps by singing "Sexy and I Know It" partially in Spanish. Santana (Naya Rivera) suggests that Will now has a rival and needs to defend his honor. Rachel (Lea Michele) tells Kurt (Chris Colfer) and Mercedes (Amber Riley) that she has accepted Finn's (Cory Monteith) marriage proposal. Kurt later tells Finn that he would be lucky to have Rachel some day, but he believes Finn is considering matrimony because he has given up too early on his own dreams. Mercedes is torn between her feelings for Sam (Chord Overstreet) and her boyfriend Shane (LaMarcus Tinker). Guidance counselor Emma Pillsbury (Jayma Mays) recommends that Mercedes and Sam stop speaking to each other for a week so they can hear what their hearts are telling them. Mercedes sings "Don't Wanna Lose You" and Sam reciprocates by singing a mash-up of "Bamboléo" and "Hero". Sue's position as coach of the Cheerios is challenged by the synchronized swim coach, Roz Washington (NeNe Leakes). Roz is also pursuing the tenured position, and she views herself as a serious competitor for tenure and for replacing Sue on the Cheerios. She believes Sue's coaching style and cheerleading choreography are old-fashioned, and plans to update the team if she becomes the new coach. Sue reveals her desire to become a mother and asks Will to be the sperm donor. When Will's fiancée, Emma, confronts her about this request, Sue admits that she wants Will's capacity for kindness for her child. Emma and Will's relationship becomes strained as he focuses on impressing Principal Figgins (Iqbal Theba) to win tenure, and denigrates her newest set of counseling pamphlets. He is surprised when Coach Beiste (Dot-Marie Jones) enthusiastically praises Emma for her recent pamphlet on genital sanitation, which has just been adopted by the Big Ten football teams. Santana and David duet with "La Isla Bonita" and Will responds with a bilingual rendition of "A Little Less Conversation" while dressed as a matador, which offends Santana. Will accuses her of complaining about him, and she says she did so because of the negative Latin stereotypes he has been perpetuating. She then asks him why he decided to become a Spanish teacher, to which he responds that it was the only open position at the time. Santana tells Will that he shows real passion with the Glee Club and should stick to it. Sue discovers that Cheerios co-captain Becky Jackson (Lauren Potter) was the one who complained about her coaching. Becky believed that Sue had become less focused on the squad, to its detriment, and Sue praises her devotion to the team. Will arranges with Figgins to become the new history teacher, and successfully proposes David to be his replacement as Spanish teacher. Ultimately, Emma is the one who is given tenure. ## Production On November 29, 2011, the day news broke that Ricky Martin had "closed a deal" with Glee to guest star in an early 2012 episode, Martin himself tweeted, "I hear McKinley high has an opening for a Spanish teacher... Maybe I’ll apply. ;o)". It was rumored he would be a recurring character and a romance would begin with recurring character from season 1 April who was rumored to appear in season 3, but this did not happen. He turned out to be only a guest. The episode was written by co-creator Ian Brennan and directed by Paris Barclay, and began filming on January 5, 2012, with Martin in attendance; he had recorded his songs the day before. He finished filming his scenes that week, ending early in the morning of January 7, 2012. The previous episode—the Michael Jackson tribute—had not yet completed, and the two episodes continued in parallel until the final Michael Jackson number was shot on January 13, 2012, the same day that the thirteenth episode commenced filming. One of the songs Martin performs is a Spanglish version of LMFAO's "Sexy and I Know It", as part of a competition with Morrison's character, who sings an Elvis Presley song in Spanish, "A Little Less Conversation. Martin's other musical number, Madonna's "La Isla Bonita", is a duet with Rivera. The two remaining numbers performed in the episode include a mash-up of "Bamboleo" by the Gipsy Kings and "Hero" by Enrique Iglesias, performed by Overstreet with the other New Directions males, and Gloria Estefan's "Don't Wanna Lose You" performed by Riley. The six cover versions have been released as five singles for digital download, with the two-song mash-up in one single. The brief, flashback performance of "La Cucaracha" was not released as a single. Recurring guest stars who appear in the episode include glee club members Sam Evans (Overstreet), Rory Flanagan (Damian McGinty) and Sugar Motta (Vanessa Lengies), Principal Figgins (Theba), synchronized swimming coach Roz Washington (NeNe Leakes), cheerleading co-captain Becky Jackson (Potter), football player Shane Tinsley (Tinker), football coach Shannon Beiste (Jones) and tenured history teacher Mrs. Hagberg (Mary Gillis). ## Reception ### Ratings "The Spanish Teacher" was first broadcast on February 7, 2012, in the United States on Fox. It received a 3.3/9 Nielsen rating/share in the 18–49 demographic, and attracted 7.81 million American viewers during its initial airing, a significant decrease from the 3.7/10 rating/share and 9.07 million viewers of the previous episode, the Michael Jackson tribute "Michael", which was broadcast on January 31, 2012. Viewership also decreased significantly in Canada, where 1.57 million viewers watched the episode on the same day as its American premiere. It was the fifteenth most-viewed show of the week, down five slots and 14% from the 1.84 million viewers who watched "Michael" the previous week. In the United Kingdom, "The Spanish Teacher" first aired on March 15, 2012, and was watched on Sky 1 by 771,000 viewers. Viewership was up over 13% from "Michael", which attracted 682,000 viewers when it aired the week before. In Australia, "The Spanish Teacher" was broadcast on March 2, 2012. It was watched by 564,000 viewers, which made Glee the twelfth most-watched program of the night, up from thirteenth the week before. The viewership was up over 5% from the previous episode, "Michael", which was seen by 535,000 viewers. ### Critical reception "The Spanish Teacher" was given mixed to positive reviews. Emily VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club wrote that "much of this episode felt like a very deliberate throwback to season one, in some very good ways", and IGN's Robert Canning said that "the overarching storylines on Glee have become far more engaging than what we saw in the first half of the season". John Kubicek of BuddyTV stated that the episode "does a lot of things right when it comes to the plot", and Billboard's Rae Votta described the plot as "consistent and well managed, with believable motivation, response and action all around". However, Jen Chaney of The Washington Post wrote that the episode "brought more narrative developments that didn’t make sense", and Rolling Stone's Erica Futterman stated that aside from Martin's scenes, "the rest of the episode found us back in scatterbrained plot territory". Amy Reiter of The Los Angeles Times liked the episode and described it as "the kind that makes you belly-laugh and chortle and snicker despite your better judgment". The introduction of Ricky Martin as David Martinez was welcomed by most reviewers. Futterman wrote that "Ricky Martin carried on the Gwyneth Paltrow tradition of pretty great guest teacher cameos", and TVLine's Michael Slezak said that the episode was good "at least whenever Ricky Martin appeared on screen". VanDerWerff called him "fun and infectious", and Kate Stanhope of TV Guide said he "showed himself to be a guest star with mucho potential". Kubicek, though he said Martin was "great at singing", found him "kind of dull as an actor", and Canning said Martin "felt out of place" in the episode. Although Canning wrote that "the writers did a fine job of incorporating the tenure, Will's terrible Spanish and the songs into the storylines", Will's lack of Spanish skills was questioned by other reviewers. Entertainment Weekly's Joseph Brannigan Lynch said this did not "seem to gel with the passionate Will Schuester I remember from season 1", and Slezak expressed surprise that "he hadn't even mastered the basics of the language!", as did Chaney. Slezak also said Will, as evidenced by his "La Cucaracha" rendition for his class, was "suddenly dumb as the cardboard box that Finn winningly turned into a robot head", and Chaney commented, "Mr. Schuester always seemed a bit more sensitive than this." VanDerWerff wrote of "the weird, dark despair at the heart of Will's plight: He's a high school Spanish teacher, and he mostly is that because he doesn't know what else to do." She added, "I think this was probably the best episode for the character since early season one." Canning stated that "the tension between Will and Emma was a welcome change", and Votta commented on the episode's less dramatic ending with Will's apology and "celebrating Emma's new-found tenure with a dinner" with the conclusion, "sometimes you don't need a big bang to get oomph out of an episode". Chaney, however, was puzzled as to why Emma was given teaching tenure "when she's been working at McKinley as a guidance counselor and handing out absolutely horrifying self-made pamphlets". The scene between Sue and Roz was singled out by many reviewers. Bell wrote that she was "really loving the feisty dynamic" between them, and that it was "about time that Sue had a proper sparring partner". Flandez called Roz "the delightfully colorful synchronized swimming teacher", and said her "scathing remarks were expertly delivered" and that there were "too many good lines to savor". Futterman said Roz reminded her of "what an entertaining spitfire Sue was during season one", and that Sue is "a shadow of [her] former self" as evidenced by the fact that Roz has not been a victim of Sue's "evil planning". Lynch described the encounter as "one of the episode highlights", though he felt that "the writers overdid it a touch" when Sue "barely got in any retorts" against Roz. Reiter called Roz "a great addition to the cast of characters" and Leakes "spot-on" in the role, also hearkening back to the early Sue. Kubicek said he "might like this subplot" if Leakes did not mistake "shouting for acting", and Slezak commented on Roz's "particularly abhorrent assessment of Sue’s reproductive abilities". Votta, however, declared that the show "should never let NeNe go", and said she "delivers some of the best lines ever". Chaney and Slezak thought that Sue should have been fired immediately for requesting sperm donations from New Directions males, while Lynch merely deemed it a possible detriment to her tenure bid. Kubicek thought the pregnancy storyline should move forward "because Sue becoming a mommy has comedic potential written all over it". A "highlight" for Lynch was the scene where Kurt, Mercedes and Rachel were watching Twilight together, not only because the "friendship between Kurt and Mercedes" has been "sadly downplayed", but because it was "nice to see the Glee kids just being kids sometimes". The subsequent conversation between Kurt and Finn in the locker room was described by Canning as "one of the truest moments of the season so far". Votta wrote, "Chris Colfer and Cory Monteith often shine together in scenes, especially one-on-one, and this is no exception." Another duo that reviewers complimented was Mercedes and Sam. Futterman, while she criticized the episode for setting "its scope too wide", credited their storyline as the "only one played out strongly enough through dialogue and song". Votta stated that "Glee is getting more romantic tension mileage out of this duo than you can shake a stick at, and it's delicious, especially with Valentine's around the corner", and Canning noted that their week-long verbal silence "helped build their relationship into something we care more about". Chaney, however, could not see the sense in Mercedes bringing Sam with her "to see Miss Pillsbury to sort out her conflicted feelings for Sam and Shane". ### Music and performances The musical performances received a mixed response from reviewers. Votta said that "the songs were mostly forgettable and generally useless to advancing the plot", and Canning maintained that "the music this week was just okay". Although VanDerWerff called the musical numbers "mostly superfluous", he described many of them as "pretty fun", while Bobby Hankinson of The Houston Chronicle said he "wasn’t incredibly moved by this week’s Spanish-flavored selections". "Sexy and I Know It" was reviewed positively by HuffPost TV's Crystal Bell, who cited Martin's "incredibly sexy performance". Slezak gave the number an enthusiastic "Oh dear God, please yes", "bonus points" and an "A" grade. Chaney declared that "Martin did what he does very well: dance and sing with high intensity", though she wished "they had chosen a better song" and gave it a "B−"; the latter sentiment was echoed by Lynch, who called the song "idiotic" and gave it a slightly lower "C+". Futterman characterized it as a "rousing number that toes the line of being too risque for a high school classroom", though Kubicek thought that having "a teacher grinding with students" was "wildly inappropriate" if "hot and pretty entertaining". MTV's Kevin P. Sullivan, however, called it "one of the most eye-brow-raising musical numbers" in the show's history, "bizarre", and "a Rory-dancing, Finn-flailing fail". VanDerWerff was also critical, and described it as "dumb and stupid and wrong". Slezak stated that "Mercedes' musical moments in Season 3 have been really strong" and that "Don't Wanna Lose You" was "no exception"; he gave it a "B+" grade. Lynch gave an "A–" and wrote, "It's been a treat to hear her develop the softer side of her voice." Chaney said that "the number was fine, just not particularly interesting" and gave it a "C", but Futterman declared that Mercedes "brings a richness and power and commendable Spanish pronunciation to Gloria Estefan's song". Lynch called the "Bamboleo" / "Hero" mash-up "another Samcedes winner" and gave it a "B", and Chaney said it was a "fun choice" that "would have been a fun number" without the "constant" focus on the hipster boots, and graded it "C+". Sullivan agreed that the boots were better not seen, but that "the song actually worked"; he also noted that "Sam can sound a hell of a lot like" Iglesias. Futterman also heard the resemblance between Sam and Iglesias, though she said "the performance lacks the fire and sex appeal of the originals". Raymund Flandez of The Wall Street Journal described it as "the corniest number in several seasons". Futterman called "La Isla Bonita" the "best number of the night". She added that it "mixes slick dance moves and spot-on singing with perhaps a touch too much sexual tension for a student/teacher pairing". Slezak said that "the harmonies were sweet, and the dancing was sexy without crossing the line into disturbing April–October territory" and gave it an "A−". Votta wrote that "the pair don't have any chemistry", but that "they're both very pretty to look at and listen to" and "their interpretation of Latin culture is modern and sexy". Both Chaney and Lynch noted what she called "inexplicably high production values"; the fact that "these two looked great together", danced the merengue "beautifully" and "sounded smooth" drew a "B+" grade from her, while his "B" was given because "the dancing wowed but their voices just didn't connect for me on this empty club version". The two songs performed by Will Schuester received the most negative reviews. Chaney described "La Cucaracha" as "mercifully brief", and Slezak gave it an "F" for being not only "intentionally awful" but "awful-awful". Chaney was more generously inclined toward "A Little Less Conversation". She wrote, "Matthew Morrison managed to give his all to this Spanish-infused Elvis Presley cover, even though he looked pretty ridiculous in that matador outfit", and gave it a "B". Futterman stated that the performance reached "a new low" with the appearance of "Mike and Brittany as his bulls", and Lynch said that the number "was supposed to suck" and "did its job well"; even so, he gave it a "C−". Slezak gave a one-word summation to accompany his "D" grade: "No." ### Chart history Two of the episode's five released singles debuted on the Billboard Hot 100: "Sexy and I Know It" debuted at number 83 and "La Isla Bonita" at number 99. The second of those songs, "La Isla Bonita", also debuted on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100 at number 93, and was the one song from the episode to appear on that chart.

Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam, BWV 7

Church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam (Christ our Lord came to the Jordan), BWV 7, in Leipzig for the Feast of St. John the Baptist and led its first performance on 24 June 1724. It is the third cantata Bach composed for his chorale cantata cycle, the second cantata cycle he started after being appointed Thomaskantor in 1723. The cantata is based on the seven stanzas of Martin Luther's hymn "Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam", about baptism. The first and last stanza of the chorale were used for the outer movements of the cantata, while an unknown librettist paraphrased the inner stanzas of the hymn into the text for the five other movements. The first movement, a chorale fantasia, is followed by a succession of arias alternating with recitatives, leading to a four-part closing chorale. The cantata is scored for three vocal soloists (alto, tenor and bass), a four-part choir, two oboes d'amore, two solo violins, strings and continuo. ## History and words Bach composed Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam for St. John's Day, 24 June 1724, in Leipzig, as the third cantata of his second annual cycle, the chorale cantata cycle, which had begun about two weeks earlier on the first Sunday after Trinity. The cycle was devoted to Lutheran hymns, in the format of his chorale cantatas rendered by retaining their text of the first and last stanza, while a contemporary poet reworded the inner stanzas. The prescribed readings for the feast of the birth of John the Baptist were from the Book of Isaiah, "the voice of a preacher in the desert" (), and from the Gospel of Luke, the birth of John the Baptist and the Benedictus of Zechariah (). Martin Luther's hymn "Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam" (To Jordan came our Lord the Christ) is associated with the feast. Its topic, differing from that of the readings, is baptism, which is treated based on biblical accounts, starting from Christ's baptism by John the Baptist in the river Jordan. The hymn tune is "Es woll uns Gott genädig sein", Zahn No. 7246. Bach used the text of the first stanza of Luther's hymn for the first movement of his cantata, with its chorale melody sung as cantus firmus. The final movement of the cantata is a four-part chorale setting of the seventh stanza, on the hymn tune. The five arias and recitatives between these choral movements are settings of text paraphrased from the hymn's other stanzas. ## Music ### Scoring and structure The cantata in seven movements is scored for three vocal soloists (alto (A), tenor (T) and bass (B)), a four-part choir (SATB), two oboes d'amore (Oa), two solo violins (Vs, the second one only introduced in a later performance), two violins (Vl), viola (Va) and basso continuo (Bc). ### Movements The seven-movement cantata begins with a chorale fantasia and ends, after a sequence of alternating arias and recitatives, with a closing chorale as a four-part setting. Bach increased the number of accompanying instruments for the arias, from only continuo in the second movement, over two solo violins in the central movement of the cantata, to two oboes d'amore and strings in the sixth movement. #### 1 In the opening chorus, "Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam" (Christ our Lord came to the Jordan), the tenor has the melody as a cantus firmus, while the other voices sing free counterpoint. In the first cantata of the chorale cantata cycle, O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, BWV 20, Bach had given the cantus firmus of the chorale tune to the soprano, and in the second, Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein, BWV 2, to the alto. The opening chorus resembles an Italian violin concerto. The musicologist Julian Mincham likens the "solo violin's persistent, rocking, wave-like idea" to the waves of the Jordan River. Alfred Dürr compares the vocal sections, all with the solo violin, to the solo sections of a violin concerto, as opposed to the tutti sections with the orchestra. John Eliot Gardiner interprets the movement as a French overture, "replete with grandiloquent baroque gestures to suggest both the processional entrance of Jesus and the powerful flooding of the River Jordan". Klaus Hofmann notes that the movement combines the old style of motet writing with the new type of solo concerto, and observes that "the main violin solo episodes ... are at first linked to the choral entries, but gradually assume larger proportions and greater independence as the movement progresses". #### 2 The first aria, "Merkt und hört, ihr Menschenkinder" (Mark and hear, you humans), is accompanied by the continuo alone. Mincham observes that a characteristic fast motif of five notes, repeated abundantly in the cello, always flows downward, while Bach usually also inverses motifs, such as in his Inventions. Mincham concludes that it represents the "pouring of the baptismal waters". #### 3 The following recitative is given to the tenor as an Evangelist: "Dies hat Gott klar mit Worten" (This God has clearly provided with words), narrating the biblical command to baptise. #### 4 The central aria is sung by the tenor, accompanied by two violins, marked "solo" in a later performance, "Des Vaters Stimme ließ sich hören" (The Father's voice can be heard). Gardiner notes that the music "describes, through its pair of soaring violins, the circling flight of the Holy Spirit as a dove". Hofmann notes the character of the movement as a gigue, and several appearances of the number 3 as a symbol of the Trinity: it is a trio for voice and two violins, "in triple time – and markedly so: not only is the time signature 3/4, but also the crotchets are each divided into triplets", and in a form of three solo sections as "all variants of a single model that is presented in the opening and concluding ritornellos". Hofmann concludes: "The sequence that this creates – three different forms of the same musical substance – is evidently to be understood as a symbol of the Holy Trinity." #### 5 A recitative for bass, the vox Christi (voice of Christ), "Als Jesus dort nach seinen Leiden" (As Jesus there, after His passion), speaks of Jesus after his passion and resurrection. It is accompanied by the strings, similar to the words of Jesus in Bach's St Matthew Passion. #### 6 The last aria is sung by the alto with rich accompaniment: "Menschen, glaubt doch dieser Gnade" (People, believe this grace now). The two oboes d'amore double the first violin when human beings are requested to accept the grace of God to not "perish in the pit of hell". #### 7 The closing chorale is the final stanza of the hymn, with the instruments playing colla parte: "Das Aug allein das Wasser sieht" (The eye sees only water), a summary of Luther's teaching about baptism. ## Editions In 1851, about a century before the cantata got its BWV number, it was published as No. 7 in the first volume of the Bach-Gesellschaft-Ausgabe. In the New Bach Edition the cantata was included in Series I, Volume 29, Kantaten zum Johannisfest (Cantatas for St. John's Day). Calmus and Breitkopf & Härtel published performance scores. The Breitkopf score translates the cantata's title as Lord Christ of old to Jordan came. ## Recordings A list of recordings is provided on the Bach Cantatas Website. Ensembles playing period instruments in historically informed performance are shown with green background.

Platte Canyon High School hostage crisis

Hostage-taking and shooting in Bailey, Colorado

The Platte Canyon High School hostage crisis was a hostage taking and shooting at Platte Canyon High School in Bailey, Colorado, on September 27, 2006. The gunman, 53-year-old Duane Roger Morrison, took seven female students hostage and sexually assaulted them, later releasing four. When police broke open the classroom's door with explosives, Morrison opened fire with a semi-automatic pistol before shooting hostage Emily Keyes in the head. The other remaining hostages escaped unharmed, and paramedics confirmed that Morrison had committed suicide shortly before police were able to enter the classroom. Keyes was pronounced dead at 4:32 p.m. MDT (23:32 UTC) at Saint Anthony's Hospital in Denver, Colorado after undergoing emergency surgery. ## Details ### Entry and hostage-taking Note: All times are in Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-6 At about 11:40 a.m., Morrison entered the school carrying a .40 S&W caliber Glock 22 pistol, a Smith & Wesson .357-caliber revolver (which wasn't used during the incident), and a backpack, which he claimed contained "three pounds of C-4". A search of the backpack later recovered duct tape, handcuffs, knives, a stun gun, rope, scissors, massage oil, sex toys, and numerous rounds of ammunition, but no explosives. A sixteen-year-old student named Katrina Keller reportedly saw Morrison entering the school before the time specified by police. She stated that she had been walking past a vacant classroom and saw a man inside wearing a hooded sweatshirt, apparently angry. Keller did not report the incident to the school office. Other students reported that they witnessed Morrison sitting in a yellow Jeep in the school parking lot at around 10:45 a.m., almost an hour before he entered the school. Morrison was believed to have been living in the car, camping out near Bailey. Videos taken from security cameras outside show that Morrison was in his Jeep for at least 20 minutes, mingling with students as classes changed, 35 minutes before the siege began. Earlier, Morrison had spoken to a male high school student that day and "asked about the identity of a list of female students." Morrison entered a classroom on the second floor, room 206, where teacher Sandra Smith taught Honors English. When Smith asked him what he was doing in the classroom, he pulled out his handgun and ordered her, all of the male students, and several female students to leave. He ordered the remaining students to line up against the chalkboard at the front of the class. One male student attempted to fight back against this, and when he did so, Morrison fired a single round past all of the lined up students at eye level, which then hit the wall adjacent to the chalkboard. At this time, Smith and the remaining students had left the room, and seven girls were left to continue lining up against the board. He later released one student at approximately 12:15 p.m., before law enforcement arrived at the scene. Over the next several hours, four of the girls held hostage were released one at a time from the room, then escorted out of the building by SWAT and other law enforcement. Park County sheriff Fred Wegener (whose son was in the school building at the time of the incident) informed the media that all seven girls were molested, though he did not know "how much or to what degree." Lynna Long, a 15-year-old sophomore and one of the seven hostages, stated that Morrison lined the girls up facing a chalkboard and then sexually assaulted all of them; Long stated that she knew that the other hostages were being molested because of "the rustling of clothes and elastic being snapped and zippers being opened and closed." During the sexual assaults, Morrison reportedly held his gun to the hostages' heads and threatened to kill them if they did not cooperate. According to the first hostage released, Morrison would systematically take individual hostages from the blackboard and further into the interior of the classroom before sexually assaulting them. ### Negotiations and evacuations A "code white" alert was sounded over the intercom and students were instructed to remain in their classrooms. Negotiations with Morrison began with the goal of allowing the six remaining hostages in the room to be released. Initially, he directly spoke to deputies in the hallway while holding one of the hostages at gunpoint, but later spoke via telephone and used the student hostages as relayers between the negotiators and himself, as he did not want to speak directly with officials. After four of the six girls were released between the hours of 12:35 p.m. and 1:45 p.m., negotiators heightened the intensity of their indirect discussions with Morrison. During this time, 16-year-old junior Emily Keyes, one of the two remaining hostages, managed to send her family a brief text message stating, "I love u guys" in response to a text message ("R U OK?") her father, John-Michael Keyes, had sent using his cell phone after receiving word that an incident was occurring at the high school. When Keyes' father sent the message "Where are you?", he received no response. A total of 800 students from both Platte Canyon High School and the nearby Fitzsimmons Middle School were rapidly evacuated. Morrison's demands were unknown, although police confirmed that his primary concern was a request for the police to back away. All students, except the hostages, were safely evacuated by 12:10 p.m. and by 3:00 p.m. all had been taken to Deer Creek Elementary School. Parents were able to gain little information from authorities, who remained silent regarding the issue while the crisis continued. ### Shooting By the time the four student hostages were released, a bomb squad, SWAT team from Jefferson County, and agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were sent to the scene. Ambulances parked in the end zone of the high school's football field. A 4-mile (6 km) stretch of U.S. Route 285 was closed. At approximately 3:32 p.m., negotiations began to stall. Morrison later explicitly stated that he would stop negotiating at 4:00 p.m. Wegener said that police had chosen to storm the second-floor classroom after the man ended negotiations, stating that "something would happen at 4 p.m." SWAT team members witnessed Morrison assaulting the girls, and Wegener made the decision to save the hostages by force, stating later, "My decision was either wait—[and have the] possibility of having two dead hostages or act and try to save what I feared he would do to them. ... Because I'd want whoever was in my position to do the same thing, and that is to save lives." The police burst through the door at approximately 3:45 p.m. and encountered Morrison and the hostages behind a barricade of desks at a far wall. After using the hostages as human shields against the Jefferson County SWAT team, Morrison shot at the policemen, and then at Emily Keyes, who was trying to run. Morrison shot and critically wounded himself soon thereafter, simultaneously being shot by police, and died at the scene at 3:57 p.m. Keyes was taken by helicopter to a hospital in Denver, where she was pronounced dead at 4:32 p.m. The other hostage survived with no physical injuries. Investigators found no sign of explosives in the man's backpack, but three additional firearms were recovered outside the school campus: a Colt AR-15 rifle found in a clearing adjacent to a river about a mile north of the school, a Browning A-Bolt .270 bolt-action rifle found north of the campus near U.S. Route 285, and a Smith & Wesson Model 29 .44 Magnum revolver found south of the school near a hiking trail. The coroner of Park County, Sharon Morris, confirmed that the body of Morrison (which had four bullet wounds, three non-fatal from police and one fatal shot from his own gun) was still in the second-floor classroom as of 6:00 p.m. An autopsy report later revealed that Morrison suffered two gunshot wounds to the head (including the fatal one fired from his gun), two additional in the right shoulder, and a graze wound to his right hand, while Emily Keyes died of a single gunshot wound to the right side of her head. District officials stated that both the high school and Fitzsimmons Middle School would be closed for September 28 and September 29; a counseling center set up at a local church would open at 7:00 a.m. for students. ## Perpetrator Duane Roger Morrison (July 23, 1953 – September 27, 2006) was eventually identified as the perpetrator of the incident. He was unemployed at the time of the hostage crisis, and had no known connection to Platte Canyon High School or any of the hostages. Initial reports of the gunman described him as a bearded 53-year-old man with a camouflage backpack and a black hooded sweatshirt. Morrison had been imprisoned in 1973 for larceny and possession of marijuana, and was arrested on a separate occasion for obstructing police in Littleton, Colorado. Police announced that a suicide letter written by Morrison to a family member was being analyzed by the FBI. Morrison's family gave the letter to police, who then submitted the document to the FBI Behavioral Unit in Quantico, Virginia. In the 14-page letter, Morrison claimed that he was mentally and physically abused by his father as a child, and had suicidal thoughts since he was 21 years old. On August 15, 2006, about one month prior to the shooting, he pleaded guilty to harassment after leaving a voice message to a local Harley-Davidson dealership on November 22, 2004, after receiving a promotional catalog in his mail; the message contained profanities and a threat to visit their headquarters with an assault rifle. Prior to that, he phoned a similar threatening call. An investigation found that Morrison had purchased a motorcycle from the dealership, but became "extremely dissatisfied" after not receiving certain aftermarket accessories and services promised in his contract, and the dealership reportedly never made any attempt to resolve the dispute. His suicide letter later mentioned the purchase, in which he vaguely claimed that "the matter wasn't over". On May 31, 2005, Morrison filed a report claiming that fifteen of his firearms were stolen from his residence, and later gained \$10,000 from a fictitious insurance claim initiated after the stolen firearms report. Four of the firearms mentioned in his report were among those recovered on or around the school campus; the whereabouts of the remaining 11 firearms currently remain unknown. ## Aftermath Platte Canyon High School reopened a week after the shooting on October 5. Memorials had been erected along the highway leading to the school that carried messages such as "Be Strong" and "Random Acts of Kindness". A number of students prayed in front of the school before the day began and students were given donated teddy bears as they left. Fifty counselors were present during the day for students. Superintendent Dr. James Walpole noted that of 460 high school students, only 10 were absent. The service for Emily Keyes was held on September 30, the day that Governor Bill Owens later declared "Emily Keyes Day". About 5,000 motorcyclists took part in the "Columbine to Canyon Ride", which occurred in memory of the victims of both the Columbine and Platte Canyon shootings. The procession of motorcycles was so long that the first to get to Platte Canyon High School arrived as the final motorcyclists departed from Columbine High School, two riding alongside each other. The efforts initiated toward increased school security had come to a standstill several years after the Columbine High School massacre as federal and state funding toward safety was cut in favor of higher test scores. Although an increase in communication with law enforcement was evident in the Platte Canyon High School shooting, Del Elliot of the University of Colorado noted that "[the vast majority of school districts] are so totally absorbed with CSAP and academic requirements that they aren't spending a lot of time and resources on this issue". By October 11, investigators had conducted 124 interviews and had found 174 pieces of evidence related to the case. They were also investigating the West Nickel Mines School shooting in Pennsylvania, which had occurred five days after the shooting in Bailey. As a result of the September 27 incident, Platte Canyon High School increased its security, leaving only one school entrance unlocked. Park County Sheriff Fred Wegener proposed having a guard there during the school day, but he stated that that particular suggestion was outside the current budget. The non-profit I Love U Guys Foundation was started in 2006 by John-Michael and Ellen Keyes. The Foundation is led by survivors, family members, first responders, and community members with a vested interest in safety, preparedness and reunification in schools. The “I Love U Guys” Foundation serves the lives of students, administrators, public safety experts, families, and first responders through the development and training of school and community safety and family reunification programs. The programs have been implemented by over 30,000 schools, agencies and organizations across the United States, Canada and 11 other countries. All of the programs are available at no cost.

Bon Voyage (Koda Kumi album)

Bon Voyage is the eleventh studio album by Japanese recording artist Kumi Koda. It was released on February 26, 2014, by Rhythm Zone. Bon Voyage is Koda's first album since her 2012 Japonesque, and her longest album in production since her 2008 studio album Kingdom. The album's production was handled by several music producers, such as Joseph Lawrence, Toby Gad, T-Sk, Mats Lie Skare, Figge Bosstrom, Tommy Henriksen, Badur Haberg, and Clarabell. It also features guest appearances from Sean Paul and OVDS. Five different formats were released to promote the album: a standalone CD, a CD and DVD bundle, a CD and Blu-ray bundle, a fan package featuring a live DVD, and a digital release in Japan. Upon the album's release, it was met with favourable reviews from music critics. Critics highlight individual songs for their production and composition, and commended the singles. Bon Voyage became Koda's seventh studio album to reach the top spot on Japan's Oricon Albums Chart, but her first album to not ship over 100,000 units in that region. Because of this, it became her first studio album to fail to achieve a certification by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ). Three singles and one EP were released from the album. Koda promoted the album through her 2014 Bon Voyage concert tour. ## Development and composition Bon Voyage is Koda's first album since her 2012 Japonesque. It is also her longest album in production since her 2008 studio album Kingdom, both of which spanned a total of two years. For the album, Koda's record label Rhythm Zone and its parent company Avex Trax hired several producers, such as Joseph Lawrence, Toby Gad, T-Sk, Mats Lie Skare, Figge Bosstrom, Tommy Henriksen, Badur Haberg, and Clarabell. Producers such as Henriksen and Bosstrom have collaborated with Koda in the past with her albums Kingdom and Universe (2010). Bon Voyage is Koda's second album to be handled primarily with Western producers and composers; Koda's first album handled by Western producers was Japonesque. Western producers and composers carried on working with Koda on her next studio album Walk of My Life (2015). Bon Voyage is a J-pop album with numerous elements of country rock, pop, R&B, electronic dance music, and reggae. It is Koda's first album to emphasize full English language songs; in total, Bon Voyage features nine English, five bilingual (Japanese/English), and two Japanese tracks. Each song from the album is co-written by Koda, including the English, Japanese and interlude tracks. The album includes two interlude tracks; "Introduction: Bon Voyage" and "Interlude: Bon Voyage", both boasting electronic music and sirens noises. EDM elements are used in tracks "Show Me Your Holla", "Crank tha Bass" (featuring OVDS), "LOL", "Go to the Top", "Dreaming On", and "U Know". "Loaded", which features Jamaican rapper and musician Sean Paul, incorporates elements of reggae and dancehall music, as does the following tracks "Winner Girls" and "On Your Side". Tetsuo Hiraga from Hot Shot Discs reviewed the singles "Go to the Top" and "Koishikute", and identified musical elements of electronic dance, dubstep, and 8-bit music in the former, and a pop ballad melody in the latter. Koda's summer EP Summer Trip featured "Lalalalala" and "Touch Down", and Hiraga noted elements of country rock in the former, and R&B in the latter track. ## Release and packaging Bon Voyage was released on February 26, 2014, by Rhythm Zone and Avex Taiwan in five different formats. The stand-alone CD featured the sixteen tracks in a cardboard slipcase, with first press editions including a glossy sticker of Koda. The CD and DVD bundle featured the sixteen tracks and a bonus DVD, including the music videos for: "Show Me Your Holla", "LOL", "Dreaming Now!", "Touch Down", "Lalalalala", and "Koishikute". The DVD also included the making videos for "Show Me Your Holla" and "LOL". The CD and Blu-ray bundle includes the same tracks and videos from the CD and DVD bundle, but features a hologram sticker, one postercard, and a slipcase. A special edition was released on Koda's website, entitled the "Fan Club Edition". This format features the original CD, and a DVD featuring live performances from Koda's Fanclub Live Tour in 2013. The format was housed in an A5-sized digipak. The final format is the digital release, which was released only in Japan. This is Koda's only studio album not to be released worldwide. Visually based on cruise ship members, the five Bon Voyage cover sleeves feature different images all photographed by Kazuyoshi Shimomura. The CD cardboard sleeve has Koda squatting and holding onto a cruise ship steering wheel; the jewel case has Koda holding a life buoy. The CD and DVD cardboard sleeve has a close-up shot of Koda wearing a captain's uniform; the jewel case has Koda posing on top of a life buoy. The Blu-ray cardboard sleeve and jewel case has Koda posing with a pair of binoculars, while the Fan Club edition has a close-up of Koda sitting down holding a cruise ship steering wheel. The digital release uses the CD and DVD close-up shot. The booklet and photo shoot were designed by members of United Lounge Tokyo, and each booklet from the five format features different images of Koda. ## Critical reception Bon Voyage received favourable reviews from music critics. Japako Music's Kirsty H. gave the album a positive review, saying that it "shows Koda Kumi's experiences perfectly". Kirsty praised Koda's "personal songs" and the album's musical variation. On the album's overall sound, she wrote the following: "The album overall is very good and catchy and clearly shows how mature and experienced Koda Kumi is. All of the songs are catchy and this makes the album all the more fun to listen to”. Jaylee and Zero from GK:AD, a sub-site from JPopJRocks.com, awarded the album a B−, calling the dance tracks gems and praising a majority of the album's ballads. Zero highlighted "Imagine" as the album's best track. However, they both were critical toward the composition of the second half of the album. ## Commercial performance Bon Voyage debuted at number one on both the Japanese Daily and Weekly Oricon Albums Chart, with over 46,000 units sold in its first week. It became Koda's sixth studio album to reach the top spot, but became her lowest first week sales since her debut album Affection (2002). It fell to 21 in its second week, shifting over 5,000 units. The album stayed in the top 100 for four weeks, and the overall top 300 for twelve weeks. As of January 2016, Bon Voyage has sold an estimated 59,499 units, making it her first album to not sell over the 100,000 limit. Because of this, it failed to achieve a certification by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ). It was her lowest selling studio album at the time, until her next album Walk Of My Life sold less by May 2015 (with 50,000 units). Bon Voyage reached number five on Japan's Billboard Top Albums Sales. ## Promotion ### Singles "Go to the Top" was released as the album's lead single on October 24, 2012. The song was used as the opening theme song for the Âge–developed anime series Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse. Upon its release, it garnered positive reviews from music critics. Many critics commended the song's composition, lyrical content, and Koda's vocal delivery. Minor criticism was towards the song's musical elements of 8-bit music. "Go to the Top" was successful in Japan, peaking at number one on the Japanese Oricon Singles Chart, Koda's eighth number one single. It also reached number 10 on Billboard's Japan Hot 100 chart, and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) for physical shipments of 100,000 units. The accompanying music video for the single was shot in Tokyo by Tomoe Nakano; it features an animated Koda flying a large robot in a racing circuit with another racer. "Koishikute" was released as the album's second single on December 26, 2012. Upon its release, it garnered positive reviews from music critics. Many critics commended the song's composition, lyrical content, and Koda's vocal delivery; critics had highlighted it as an album stand out, and labelled it a "gem". The single suffered in physical sales in Japan, reaching number seven on the Japanese Oricon Singles Chart and selling over 23,000 units. It remains Koda's lowest selling single since "Hot Stuff" in 2005. However, the song was certified gold by RIAJ for digital sales of 100,000 units. The accompanying music video for the single was shot in Tokyo by Ryuji Seki; it features Koda singing the song in a subway and in a small room. Summer Trip was released as the album's third single and first extended play single on July 31, 2013. The EP consists of four interlude tracks, two album tracks: "Lalalalala" and "Touch Down", and an unreleased track "Is This Trap?". Upon its release, Summer Trip received garnered positive reviews from music critics. Many critics commended the tracks individually for its composition and its song writing. Summer Trip debuted at number six on the Japanese Singles Chart, and sold over 20,000 units. "Lalalalala" charted on Japan's Hot 100 at number 23. This is Koda's lowest selling EP to date, surpassing Gossip Candy (2010) which sold over 84,000 units. Music videos for "Lalalalala" and "Touch Down" were shot in Venice Beach, California. "Dreaming Now!" was released as the album's fourth and final single on November 13, 2013, which was the same day as Koda's 30th birthday. The song was written by Koda in honor of Japan's part in the 2013 Volleyball World Grand Champion Cup for men and women, both of which were held in Japan. Upon its release, it garnered positive reviews from music critics. Many critics commended the tracks composition and labelled it an anthem for the games. Despite out selling both "Koishikute" and Summer Trip with over 26,000 units sold, it charted lower on the Japanese Oricon Singles Chart at number nine. It charted at number 33 on Japan's Hot 100 chart. An accompanying music video for "Dreaming Now!" was shot in Tokyo. ### Concert tour To promote Bon Voyage, Koda went on her 2014 Bon Voyage concert tour. The concert tour went throughout Japan, and carried on the cruise theme from the album. All of the album tracks, apart from "On Your Side" and "Introduction: Bon Voyage", were included on the set list for the tour; "Is This Trap?" from Summer Trip also appeared on the set list. The concert tour was released in two formats; a double-DVD bundle, and a Blu-ray release. The bonus disc on the DVD bundle featured a new track "Money in my Bag" from Walk of My Life, alongside the backdrop visual of "Crank tha Bass" and the documentary of the tour. This material was included on the one disc for Blu-ray. Despite the release, it did not chart on the Oricon DVD and Blu-ray charts. To promote the material from Bon Voyage, remixes of "Crank tha Bass", "Loaded", "Is This Trap?", "Dreaming Now!", "Touch Down", "Winner Girls", and "Lalalalala" were later featured on Koda's eight remix album Koda Kumi Driving Hit's 6 (2014). ## Track listing ## Personnel Credits adapted from the liner notes of Bon Voyage. - Kumi Koda – vocals, background vocals, songwriting - Joseph Lawrence – composer, producer - Toby Gad – composer, producer - Miriam Nervo – composer, songwriting - Olivia Nervo – composer, songwriting - T-SK – composer - Kim Taesung – composer, songwriting - Arama Brown – composer, songwriting - Albi Albertsson – composer, songwriting - Yuka Otsuki – songwriting - Mussashi – composer, producer - Fast Lane – composer - Mat Lie Skare – composer, producer - Jam9 – composer - M.I. – composer - Masaki Iehara – producer - Figge Brostrom – composer, producer - Anna Engh – composer, producer - Sonomi Tameoka – songwriting - UTA – composer, producer - Will Simms – producer - Joanna Levesque – songwriting - Kalis – songwriting, background vocals - Tommy Henriksen – composer, producer - Chioma Eze – composer - Dsign Music – composer(s), producer(s) - Bardur Haberg – composer, producer - Clarabell – composer, producer - Mitsu. J – composer, producer - Kipp Williams – composer, producer - Kyle Shearer – composer, producer - Mocha – songwriting - Bruno Lopez – songwriting - Lo Albringer – songwriting, composer, producer - Martin Wiik – songwriting, composer, producer - Glen Eriksson – songwriting, composer, producer - Reflection Music – producer(s) - Sean Paul – songwriting, guest vocals, background vocals - OVDS – guest vocals, background vocals - Rhythm Zone - management, label - Avex Trax - parent label, management ## Charts ## Sales ## Alternate Versions Crank Tha Bass feat. OVDS 1. Crank Tha Bass feat. OVDS: Found on the album (2014) 2. Crank Tha Bass feat. OVDS [sumijun vs M.A.D Remix]: Found on Koda Kumi Driving Hit's 6 (2014) 3. Crank Tha Bass feat. OVDS [OVDS Remix] : Found on Koda Kumi Driving Hit's 6 (2014) LOADED feat. Sean Paul 1. LOADED feat. Sean Paul: Found on the album (2014) 2. LOADED feat. Sean Paul [ELMER VoVo Remix]: Found on Koda Kumi Driving Hit's 6 (2014) Winner Girls 1. Winner Girls: Found on the album (2014) 2. Winner Girls [Dank-One Glitch-Hop Remix]: Found on Koda Kumi Driving Hit's 6 (2014)

Flag of Nova Scotia

Canadian provincial flag

The flag of Nova Scotia consists of a blue saltire on a white field defaced with the royal arms of Scotland. Adopted in 1929 after a royal warrant was issued, it has been the flag of the province since January 19 of that year. It is a banner of arms modelled after the province's coat of arms. Utilized as a pennant since 1858, it was officially recognized under primary legislation as Nova Scotia's flag in 2013. When flown with the flags of other Canadian provinces and the national flag, it is fourth in the order of precedence. ## History The British first settled in modern-day Nova Scotia after 1621, when James VI and I (King of Scotland and England) conferred the land to William Alexander, 1st Earl of Stirling, via royal charter and gave it the Latin name for "New Scotland". Four years later, the colony was granted its own coat of arms by Charles I, with the emblem first recorded at the Court of the Lord Lyon in Edinburgh on May 28, 1625. Towards the end of that same decade, the Scots established two short-lived settlements there that were ultimately unsuccessful. Sovereignty over the territory subsequently changed hands between the French and the British throughout the 17th century. This continued until 1713, when the Peace of Utrecht saw France permanently relinquish mainland Nova Scotia to the United Kingdom. The flag of Nova Scotia was reportedly first flown on its merchant vessels during the Age of Sail in the 19th century, but vexillologist Whitney Smith opines that these ambiguous accounts are doubtful. The first documented usage of the coat of arms of Nova Scotia as a banner of arms was in June 1858 during a celebratory tribute at a cricket club, as stated by an article in the Acadian Recorder at the time and recounted in the Provincial Flag Act. Nova Scotia later acquiesced to a federation with the other colonies of New Brunswick and the United Province of Canada in 1867 under the British North America Act to form the Dominion of Canada. There was vociferous sentiment against Confederation in some parts of Nova Scotia, with a few of its residents flying flags at half-mast on July 1, 1867. The four provinces comprising the new Dominion were allocated individual coats of arms. However, the College of Arms, the heraldic authority in England, was apparently unaware of the earlier grant of arms to Nova Scotia in 1625. Consequently, Queen Victoria issued a Royal Warrant on May 26 of the following year, conferring a different coat of arms on the new province. This consisted of a salmon and three thistles. The new coat of arms, however, did not become popular in Nova Scotia. As a result, an Order in Council was promulgated by the province's Lieutenant Governor on March 7, 1928, asking for the reinstatement of the 1625 arms. A Royal Warrant was subsequently issued by George V on January 19, 1929, granting the request. It was the first flag in the overseas Commonwealth to be approved by royal charter – thus purportedly making it the oldest flag of a Dominion – and is the oldest provincial flag in Canada. However, it is not the first Canadian provincial flag to be officially adopted, a distinction held by the flag of Quebec, which was approved by the Parliament of Quebec on March 7, 1950, two years after the order in council was announced. In a 2001 online survey conducted by the North American Vexillological Association, Nova Scotia's flag ranked within the top sixth of state, provincial and territorial flags from Canada, the United States, and select current and former territories of the United States. It finished in 12th place out of 72, and placed second among Canadian flags after Quebec. Twelve years later, the flag was officially recognized as the flag of the province under an Act of Legislature. This came about after an eleven-year-old student from Canso uncovered this aberration while conducting research for a school project. Unlike the flags of British Columbia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island – which are also provincial flags that are banner of arms – Nova Scotia's was never recognized as such under a provincial statute. The student contacted the member of the Legislative Assembly representing her electoral district, Jim Boudreau, who consulted with the Legislative Library and other government bodies to ascertain that such a law was not on the books. He consequently introduced the bill that became the Provincial Flag Act after receiving royal assent on May 10, 2013. The student and her family were invited to the House of Assembly that same month in acknowledgment of her efforts. ## Design ### Description The flag of Nova Scotia has an aspect ratio of 1:2. The blazon for the banner of arms – as outlined in the letters patent registering it with the Canadian Heraldic Authority on July 20, 2007 – reads, "Argent a saltire Azure, overall on an escutcheon Or a lion rampant within a double tressure flory-counter-flory Gules". The official colour scheme, according to the website of the Government of Nova Scotia, follows approximately the Pantone Matching System as indicated below. The colour numbers for the flag's white shade are not specified. ### Symbolism The colours and symbols of the flag carry cultural, political, and regional meanings. According to historians Ian McKay and Robin Bates, the Cross of Saint Andrew alludes to divine providence and its part in enabling Scottish immigrants to be "the first among the Nova Scotians". The royal arms epitomise feudal times in Scotland and how this sowed the seeds of the province's constancy as a society. Taken altogether, the saltire and the royal arms signify how Nova Scotia was formerly a colony of the Kingdom of Scotland with the backing of its royal family (the House of Stuart). ### Similarities The Nova Scotian flag has a conspicuous resemblance to both the national flag and the Royal Banner of Scotland. The shield is also identical to the royal arms of Scotland. This is due to Nova Scotia's aforementioned historical connections to the country. The colours of Saint Andrew's Cross were reversed on the province's flag in order to bring about a more distinct contrast with the royal arms, as stated by Whitney Smith. ## Protocol Advice regarding flag etiquette is the responsibility of the province's Protocol Office. When flown together with the flag of Canada and the other provincial and territorial flags, the flag of Nova Scotia is fourth in the order of precedence (after the national flag and, in descending order of precedence, the flags of Ontario and Quebec, and ahead of New Brunswick). Even though Nova Scotia entered into Confederation on the same date as those three provinces (July 1, 1867), it is placed third among the group since its size of population at the time was the third-largest. ## See also - Symbols of Nova Scotia - Coat of arms of Nova Scotia

French battleship Saint Louis

French Navy's Charlemagne class pre-dreadnought battleship

Saint Louis was the last of the three Charlemagne-class pre-dreadnought battleships built for the French Navy in the mid-1890s. She spent most of her career assigned to the Mediterranean Squadron (escadre de la Méditerranée) and usually was chosen to serve as a flagship. The ship was involved in two accidental ramming incidents with two other French warships in her career, one of which sank a submarine. When World War I began, she escorted Allied troop convoys for the first two months. Saint Louis was ordered to the Dardanelles in November 1914 to guard against a sortie into the Mediterranean by the German battlecruiser SMS Goeben. In 1915, she was transferred to the Eastern Mediterranean where she participated in bombarding Turkish positions in Palestine and the Sinai Peninsula. The ship returned to the Dardanelles in May and provided fire support during the Gallipoli Campaign. Saint Louis was transferred to the squadron assigned to prevent any interference by the Greeks with Allied operations on the Salonica front in May 1916, after a lengthy refit in France. The ship was placed in reserve in April 1917 and briefly became a training ship in 1919–20. She was converted to serve as an accommodation hulk in 1920 and listed for disposal as scrap in 1931. Saint Louis did not find a buyer, however, until 1933. ## Design and description Saint Louis was 117.7 metres (386 ft 2 in) long overall and had a beam of 20.3 metres (66 ft 7 in). At deep load, she had a draught of 7.4 metres (24 ft 3 in) forward and 8.4 metres (27 ft 7 in) aft. She displaced 11,275 metric tons (11,097 long tons) at deep load. Her crew consisted of 30 officers and 702 sailors as a private ship, or 41 officers and 744 men as a fleet flagship. The ship used three 4-cylinder vertical triple expansion steam engines, one engine per shaft. Rated at 14,500 PS (10,700 kW), they produced 14,900 metric horsepower (11,000 kW) during the ship's sea trials using steam generated by 20 Belleville water-tube boilers. Saint Louis reached a top speed of 18.5 knots (34.3 km/h; 21.3 mph) on her trials. She carried a maximum of 1,050 tonnes (1,030 long tons) of coal which allowed her to steam for 4,200 miles (3,600 nmi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). Saint Louis carried her main armament of four 40-calibre Canon de 305 mm Modèle 1893 guns in two twin-gun turrets, one each fore and aft. The ship's secondary armament consisted of ten 45-calibre Canon de 138 mm Modèle 1893 guns, eight of which were mounted in individual casemates and the remaining pair in shielded mounts on the forecastle deck amidships. She also carried eight 45-calibre Canon de 100 mm Modèle 1893 guns in shielded mounts on the superstructure. The ship's anti-torpedo boat defences consisted of twenty 40-calibre Canon de 47 mm Modèle 1885 Hotchkiss guns, fitted in platforms on both masts, on the superstructure, and in casemates in the hull. Saint Louis mounted four 450-millimetre (17.7 in) torpedo tubes, two on each broadside. Two of these were submerged, angled 20° from the ship's axis, and the other two were above the waterline. They were provided with twelve Modèle 1892 torpedoes. As was common with ships of her generation, she was built with a plough-shaped ram. The Charlemagne-class ships carried a total of 820.7 tonnes (807.7 long tons) of Harvey armour. They had a complete waterline armour belt that was 3.26 metres (10 ft 8 in) high. The armour belt tapered from its maximum thickness of 400 mm (15.7 in) to a thickness of 110 mm (4.3 in) at its lower edge. The armoured deck was 55 mm (2.2 in) thick on the flat and was reinforced with an additional 35 mm (1.4 in) plate where it angled downwards to meet the armoured belt. The main turrets were protected by 320 mm (12.6 in) of armour and their roofs were 50 mm (2.0 in) thick. Their barbettes were 270 mm (10.6 in) thick. The outer walls of the casemates for the 138.6-millimetre (5.46 in) guns were 55 mm thick and they were protected by transverse bulkheads 150 mm (5.9 in) thick. The conning tower walls were 326 mm (12.8 in) thick and its roof consisted of 50 mm armour plates. Its communications tube was protected by armour plates 200 mm (7.9 in) thick. ## Construction and career Saint Louis, named after King Louis IX, a Catholic saint, was authorised on 30 September 1895 as one of the three Charlemagne-class battleships. The ship was laid down at the Arsenal de Lorient on 25 March 1895 and launched on 2 September 1896. She was commissioned on 1 September 1900 after completing her sea trials at the cost of 26,981,000 francs. Even before Saint Louis was formally commissioned, she participated in a naval review conducted by the President of France, Émile Loubet, at Cherbourg in July 1900. The ship was assigned to the Mediterranean Squadron and arrived in Toulon on 24 September. Saint Louis became the squadron flagship on 1 October and retained that duty until 24 February 1904. She transported Louis André, the Minister of War and Jean de Lanessan, the Minister of Marine on their tours of Corsica and Tunisia later in October. The following year, Saint Louis and the Mediterranean Squadron participated in an international naval review by President Loubet in Toulon with ships from Spain, Italy and Russia. On 25 June 1903, the ship received King Alfonso XIII of Spain aboard while visiting Cartagena. In April 1904, she was one of the ships that escorted President Loubet during his state visit to Italy. Saint Louis visited Morocco in December 1906 and did not return to Toulon until the following month. She became the flagship of the Second Battleship Division on 18 March and then became the flagship of the 4th Division on 17 April 1908. The ship was briefly transferred to the Northern Squadron (escadre du Nord), where she became its flagship, in October 1910, and she participated in a large naval review by President Armand Fallières off Cap Brun on 4 September 1911. Two days later, Saint Louis was struck by the destroyer Poignard during manoeuvers off Hyères. She was relieved as the Northern Squadron flagship on 11 November and began repairs, combined with a refit, at Cherbourg. This was completed in April 1912 and the ship resumed her role as the squadron flagship on 15 April. Less than two months later, she accidentally rammed and sank the submarine Vendémiaire on 8 June in the English Channel off the Casquets, killing all 24 of the submarine's crew. Saint Louis was transferred to the Mediterranean Squadron a few months later and arrived in Toulon on 9 November. She became the flagship of the Second Division of the Third Squadron on 18 March 1913 and then was transferred to the Supplementary Division (division de Complement) and became its flagship on 10 February 1914. ### World War I Together with the older French pre-dreadnoughts, the ship's first mission in the war was to escort troop convoys from North Africa to France. On 23 September, Saint Louis was ordered to Port Said to escort a British convoy carrying troops from India. She remained on escort duties until November when she was ordered to the Dardanelles to guard against a sortie by the German battlecruiser Goeben. The ship remained on station there until January 1915 when she was given a brief refit at Bizerte. Upon its completion, Saint Louis was ordered to the Eastern Mediterranean where she became the flagship of the newly formed Syrian Squadron (escadre de Syrie) on 9 February. These ships were intended to attack Turkish positions and lines of communication in Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and the Sinai Peninsula. Saint Louis participated in the bombardment of Gaza and El Arish in April before she was transferred back to the Dardanelles in May. By this time, however, naval operations were limited to bombarding Turkish positions in support of Allied troops. The ship became the flagship of the Dardanelles Squadron (escadre des Dardanelles) on 26 August until she was relieved for a major refit at Lorient in October. When the refit was completed in May 1916, Saint Louis was ordered to Salonica where she joined the French squadron assigned to prevent any interference by the Greeks with Allied operations in Greece where she arrived on 22 May. She became flagship of the Eastern Naval Division (division navale d'Orient) on 26 October until she was transferred to Bizerte in February 1917. The ship was placed in reserve in April and remained there until January 1919 when she was transferred to Toulon. Saint Louis was disarmed and decommissioned on 8 February and became a training ship for stokers and engineers in Toulon. The ship was condemned on 20 June 1920, although she was converted into an accommodation hulk. Saint Louis listed for disposal on 29 June 1931, but was not purchased, for 600,230 francs, until 24 May 1933.

Butterfly (Kylie Minogue song)

2001 song by Kylie Minogue

"Butterfly" is a song by Australian recording artist Kylie Minogue from her seventh studio album Light Years (2000). The song was written by Minogue and Steve Anderson at Real World Studios, Wiltshire in 1999. Minogue recorded her vocals at Cello Studios, Los Angeles in January 2000 with American DJ Mark Picchiotti, who subsequently produced the track in Chicago. "Butterfly" is a contemporary house, dance-pop, and EDM track that portrays spiritual freedom and joy of life. Although Light Years was not released in the US, "Butterfly" was issued as a promotional single through Blueplate Records and its sublabel Blue2 Records, both of which are owned by Picchiotti. Music critics picked "Butterfly" as an instant standout from the parent album, praising its catchy melody and potential for a hit single. The song peaked at number 14 and spent 12 weeks on the Billboard US Hot Dance Club Play. The track's popularity led to its inclusion on the US edition of Minogue's Fever (2002). Minogue performed the track at London's G-A-Y nightclub (2000) and on her On a Night Like This concert tour (2001), before adding it as a dance interlude in Showgirl: The Homecoming Tour (2006–2007). ## Background and recording Following the commercial disappointment of Impossible Princess (1997), Minogue ended her six-year relationship with Deconstruction Records and signed with Parlophone in June 1999. In an early meeting with Parlophone, Minogue decided to return to her pop roots and believed that the then-upcoming album was a new beginning for her. Before signing with Parlophone, Minogue spent a week with her frequent collaborator Steve Anderson at Real World Studios in Box, Wiltshire, where most of the production of Impossible Princess was completed. "Butterfly" was among the chosen tracks from the session, along with "So Now Goodbye" and "Bittersweet Goodbye". Anderson found that the writing of "Butterfly" was easy; the track, which was composed on a piano, started off as a ballad. By the time they wrote the chorus, Anderson realized the track's potential and made it more upbeat. Anderson recalled: "The Brothers in Rhythm in me leaped in and it all went hands in the air very quickly." He recorded a demo of the track with drums, bass, and Minogue's vocals on it. Through his manager, American DJ Mark Picchiotti received a CD from Parlophone A&R executive Miles Leonard. The disc contains three demo tracks by Minogue for his consideration, including a cover of "Under the Influence of Love" and "Butterfly". He saw the potential of "Butterfly" and agreed to produce it. He flew to Los Angeles to work with Minogue at the Cello Studios from 23–25 January 2000. During the recording, the producer stacked Minogue's vocals to create a thicker sound, and also layered the chorus several times. Picchiotti was pleased with session and with Minogue's performance, saying she was "incredibly professional." He brought the track back to Hutch Studios in Chicago to add the final touches. When Picchiotti submitted the complete song, which includes sitars and strings arrangement, he was encouraged by the label to change the production to a more club-friendly sound. ## Composition and release Music critics identified "Butterfly" as a contemporary house, dance-pop, and electronic dance track. The song contains electronic drums, basslines, cascading synths, and a flute performance by Paul Mertens. "Butterfly" is written in the key of A♭ minor and has a tempo of 132 beats per minute. The track uses the butterfly image to describe the spiritual freedom and joy of life, with lines such as: "You are more than my everything and your love gives me wings — like a butterfly." Picchiotti instructed Minogue's vocals in order to fit the cheerful theme; she can be heard singing harmonies in a light tone of voice in the background. Parlophone included "Butterfly" on Minogue's seventh studio album Light Years (2000). Prior to the album, in May 2000, two remixes of the track were issued as a test pressing in the UK to measure DJ reactions to Minogue's new material. "Butterfly" was considered to be the fourth single from Light Years, but was pulled in favour of the Latin-influenced "Please Stay," which was released in December 2000. Although Light Years was not released in the US, Picchiotti asked permission to release "Butterfly" there via Blueplate Records, an independent label he founded in 1999. He was granted a limited budget and had to commission additional remixes, release and promote the single within six months. Picchiotti produced the Sandstorm Mix, while also picking other remixes and dubs for the single release, including the work by English dance music production group Dillon & Dickins (credited as Illicit) and fellow American DJ E-Smoove. In November 2001, "Butterfly" was released as a promotional single in the US through both Blueplate Records and its sublabel Blue2 Records. The single was issued in two formats in 2001: a twelve-inch single, and a double twelve-inch single. In early 2002, a CD single and a maxi single were issued; the covers of the 2002 releases are taken from the photoshoot for Light Years, which show Minogue wearing nothing but a towel. ## Reception and live performances The single releases were only available via the website of Blueplate Records, with buyers required to contact the label by phone for purchases. "Butterfly" debuted at number 42 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play in September 2001, her first entry since "Confide in Me" (1994). The single peaked at number 14 in October and spent a total of 12 weeks on the chart, her longest run at the time. Due to its popularity, "Butterfly" was included as a bonus track on the US edition of Minogue's eighth studio album Fever (2002), distributed by Capitol Records. Nick Levine of Digital Spy and Nick Smith of musicOMH picked "Butterfly" as one of the standout tracks from Light Years. Michael Dwyer of The Age found Minogue gives a "hardcore Mardi Gras" performance, while Mike Wass of Idolator praised the fluttery and memorable sound. Levine and Wass believed "Butterfly" should have been picked as a single due to its catchy tunes. Marc Andrews, the author of Kylie Song by Song (2022), commended Picchiotti for making the track "not just dancefloor friendly but literally fly!". Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine stated house tracks "On a Night Like This" and "Butterfly" predicted the rise of EDM music and created the template for Minogue's releases over the next 15 years. Minogue performed "Butterfly" in June 2000 at London's G-A-Y nightclub, along with other songs such as "Spinning Around", "Better the Devil You Know" and "Step Back in Time". She went on to perform the track on her sixth concert tour, On a Night Like This (2001), in which she caressed and interacted with a group of shirtless male dancers. Andrews felt the performance transformed the track into "a sexed-up club banger." Muri Assunção of Billboard praised the sensual and entertaining performance, calling it a tribute to "the gay leather fetish fans;" while Mike Gee of The Sydney Morning Herald highlighted it as an energetic and "ass-shaking fun" segment. The Sandstorm Dub of "Butterfly" was used as a dance interlude in Showgirl: The Homecoming Tour (2006–2007). ## Track listings - Maxi CD single 1. "Butterfly" (Radio Mix) – (4:09) 2. "Butterfly" (Sandstorm Mix) – (7:15) 3. "Butterfly" (E-Smoove Mix) – (8:05) 4. "Butterfly" (Illicit Mix) – (7:19) 5. "Butterfly" (Trisco Mix) – (7:50) 6. "Butterfly" (Havoc Mix) – (7:56) 7. "Butterfly" (Craig J. Mix) – (5:41) 8. "Butterfly" (Sandstorm Dub) – (9:03) 9. "Butterfly" (E-Smoove Dub) – (8:06) - CD single 1. "Butterfly" (Sandstorm Mix) – (7:15) 2. "Butterfly" (E-Smoove Mix) – (8:05) 3. "Butterfly" (Illicit Mix) – (7:19) 4. "Butterfly" (Trisco Mix) – (6:37) 5. "Butterfly" (Radio Mix) – (4:09) - 12-inch single 1. "Butterfly" (Sandstorm Vocal Mix) – (7:15) 2. "Butterfly" (E-Smoove Vocal Mix) – (8:05) 3. "Butterfly" (Illicit Mix) – (7:19) 4. "Butterfly" (Trisco Extended Mix) – (7:50) - Double 12-inch single 1. "Butterfly" (Sandstorm Vocal Mix) – (7:15) 2. "Butterfly" (Sandstorm Dub) – (9:03) 3. "Butterfly" (E-Smoove Dub) – (8:06) 4. "Butterfly" (E-Smoove Vocal Mix) – (8:05) ## Personnel Credits are adapted from the liner notes of Light Years: - Kylie Minogue – lead vocals, songwriting - Steve Anderson – songwriting - Mark Picchiotti – production, mixing - Tom Carlisle – mix engineer - Craig J Snider – additional keyboards - Dem Girls – backing vocals - Natural – guitars, additional arrangements - Kraig McCreary – guitars - Resin Rubbers – strings - Paul Mertens – flute - Dave Sears – additional arrangements ## Chart ## Release history

Battle of Salamis

480 BC Greek and Persian naval battle

The Battle of Salamis (/ˈsæləmɪs/ SAL-ə-miss) was a naval battle fought in 480 BC, between an alliance of Greek city-states under Themistocles, and the Persian Empire under King Xerxes. It resulted in a decisive victory for the outnumbered Greeks. The battle was fought in the straits between the mainland and Salamis, an island in the Saronic Gulf near Athens, and marked the high point of the second Persian invasion of Greece. To block the Persian advance, a small force of Greeks blocked the pass of Thermopylae, while an Athenian-dominated Allied navy engaged the Persian fleet in the nearby straits of Artemisium. In the resulting Battle of Thermopylae, the rearguard of the Greek force was annihilated, while in the Battle of Artemisium the Greeks suffered heavy losses and retreated after the loss at Thermopylae. This allowed the Persians to conquer Phocis, Boeotia, Attica and Euboea. The Allies prepared to defend the Isthmus of Corinth while the fleet was withdrawn to nearby Salamis Island. Although heavily outnumbered, the Greeks were persuaded by Athenian general Themistocles to bring the Persian fleet to battle again, in the hope that a victory would prevent naval operations against the Peloponnese. Persian king Xerxes was also eager for a decisive battle. As a result of subterfuge on the part of Themistocles (which included a message directly sent to Xerxes letting him know that much of the Greek fleet was stationed at Salamis), the Persian navy rowed into the Straits of Salamis and tried to block both entrances. In the cramped conditions of the Straits, the great Persian numbers were an active hindrance, as ships struggled to maneuver and became disorganized. Seizing the opportunity, the Greek fleet formed in line and scored a decisive victory. Xerxes retreated to Asia with much of his army, leaving Mardonius to complete the conquest of Greece. The following year the remainder of the Persian army was decisively beaten at the Battle of Plataea and the Persian navy at the Battle of Mycale. The Persians made no further attempts to conquer the Greek mainland. These battles of Salamis and Plataea thus mark a turning point in the course of the Greco-Persian wars as a whole; from then onward, the Greek poleis would take the offensive. ## Background The Greek city-states of Athens and Eretria had supported the unsuccessful Ionian Revolt against the Persian Empire of Darius I in 499-494 BC, led by the satrap of Miletus, Aristagoras. The Persian Empire was still relatively young, and prone to revolts amongst its subject peoples. Moreover, Darius was a usurper, and had spent considerable time extinguishing revolts against his rule. The Ionian revolt threatened the integrity of his empire, and Darius thus vowed to punish those involved (especially those not already part of the empire). Darius also saw the opportunity to expand his empire into the fractious world of Ancient Greece. A preliminary expedition under Mardonius, in 492 BC, to secure the land approaches to Greece ended with the conquest of Thrace and forced Macedon to become a client kingdom of Persia. In 491 BC, Darius sent emissaries to all the Greek city-states, asking for a gift of 'earth and water' in token of their submission to him. Having had a demonstration of his power the previous year, the majority of the Greek cities duly obliged. In Athens, however, the ambassadors were put on trial and then executed; in Sparta, they were simply thrown down a well. This meant that Sparta was also now effectively at war with Persia. Darius thus put together an amphibious task force under Datis and Artaphernes in 490 BC, which attacked Naxos, before receiving the submission of the other Cycladic Islands. The task force then moved on Eretria, which it besieged and destroyed. Finally, it moved to attack Athens, landing at the bay of Marathon, where it was met by a heavily outnumbered Athenian army. At the ensuing Battle of Marathon, the Athenians won a remarkable victory, which resulted in the withdrawal of the Persian army to Asia. Darius therefore began raising a huge new army with which he meant to completely subjugate Greece; however, in 486 BC, his Egyptian subjects revolted, indefinitely postponing any Greek expedition. Darius then died whilst preparing to march on Egypt, and the throne of Persia passed to his son Xerxes I. Xerxes crushed the Egyptian revolt, and very quickly restarted the preparations for the invasion of Greece. Since this was to be a full-scale invasion, it required long-term planning, stock-piling and conscription. Xerxes decided that the Hellespont would be bridged to allow his army to cross to Europe, and that a canal should be dug across the isthmus of Mount Athos (rounding which headland, a Persian fleet had been destroyed in 492 BC). These were both feats of exceptional ambition, which would have been beyond any other contemporary state. By early 480 BC, the preparations were complete, and the army which Xerxes had mustered at Sardis marched towards Europe, crossing the Hellespont on two pontoon bridges. The Athenians had also been preparing for war with the Persians since the mid-480s BC, and in 482 BC the decision was taken, under the guidance of the Athenian politician Themistocles, to build a massive fleet of triremes that would be necessary for the Greeks to fight the Persians. However, the Athenians did not have the manpower to fight on land and sea; and therefore combatting the Persians would require an alliance of Greek city states. In 481 BC, Xerxes sent ambassadors around Greece asking for earth and water, but made the very deliberate omission of Athens and Sparta. Support thus began to coalesce around these two leading states. A congress of city states met at Corinth in late autumn of 481 BC, and a confederate alliance of Greek city-states was formed. It had the power to send envoys asking for assistance and to dispatch troops from the member states to defensive points after joint consultation. This was remarkable for the disjointed Greek world, especially since many of the city-states in attendance were still technically at war with each other. Initially the 'congress' agreed to defend the narrow Vale of Tempe, on the borders of Thessaly, and thereby block Xerxes's advance. However, once there, they were warned by Alexander I of Macedon that the vale could be bypassed through the pass by the modern village of Sarantaporo, and that the army of Xerxes was overwhelming, so the Greeks retreated. Shortly afterwards, they received the news that Xerxes had crossed the Hellespont. A second strategy was therefore adopted by the allies. The route to southern Greece (Boeotia, Attica and the Peloponnese) would require the army of Xerxes to travel through the very narrow pass of Thermopylae. This could easily be blocked by the Greek hoplites, despite the overwhelming numbers of Persians. Furthermore, to prevent the Persians bypassing Thermopylae by sea, the Athenian and allied navies could block the straits of Artemisium. This dual strategy was adopted by the congress. However, the Peloponnesian cities made fall-back plans to defend the Isthmus of Corinth should it come to it, whilst the women and children of Athens had been evacuated en masse to the Peloponnesian city of Troezen. Famously, the much smaller Greek army held the pass of Thermopylae against the Persians for three days before being outflanked by a mountain path. Much of the Greek army retreated, before the Spartans and Thespians who had continued to block the pass were surrounded and killed. The simultaneous Battle of Artemisium was up to that point a stalemate; however, when news of Thermopylae reached them, the Allied fleet also retreated, since holding the straits of Artemisium was now a moot point. ## Prelude The Allied fleet now rowed from Artemisium to Salamis to assist with the final evacuation of Athens. En route Themistocles left inscriptions addressed to the Ionian Greek crews of the Persian fleet on all springs of water that they might stop at, asking them to defect to the Allied cause. Following Thermopylae, the Persian army proceeded to burn and sack the Boeotian cities that had not surrendered, Plataea and Thespiae, before marching on the now evacuated city of Athens. The Allies (mostly Peloponnesian) prepared to defend the Isthmus of Corinth, demolishing the single road that led through it, and building a wall across it. This strategy was flawed, however, unless the Allied fleet was able to prevent the Persian fleet from transporting troops across the Saronic Gulf. In a council-of-war called once the evacuation of Athens was complete, the Corinthian naval commander Adeimantus argued that the fleet should assemble off the coast of the Isthmus in order to achieve such a blockade. However, Themistocles argued in favour of an offensive strategy, aimed at decisively destroying the Persians' naval superiority. He drew on the lessons of Artemisium, pointing out that "battle in close conditions works to our advantage". He eventually won through, and the Allied navy remained off the coast of Salamis. The time-line for Salamis is difficult to establish with any certainty. Herodotus presents the battle as though it occurred directly after the capture of Athens, but nowhere explicitly states as much. If Thermopylae/Artemisium occurred in September, then this may be the case, but it is probably more likely that the Persians spent two or three weeks capturing Athens, refitting the fleet, and resupplying. Clearly though, at some point after capturing Athens, Xerxes held a council of war with the Persian fleet; Herodotus says this occurred at Phalerum. Artemisia, queen of Halicarnassus and commander of its naval squadron in Xerxes's fleet, tried to convince him to wait for the Allies to surrender believing that battle in the straits of Salamis was an unnecessary risk. Nevertheless, Xerxes and his chief advisor Mardonius pressed for an attack. It is difficult to explain exactly what eventually brought about the battle, assuming that neither side simply attacked without forethought. Clearly though, at some point just before the battle, new information began to reach Xerxes of rifts in the allied command; the Peloponnesians wished to evacuate from Salamis while they still could. This alleged rift amongst the Allies may have simply been a ruse, in order to lure the Persians to battle. Alternatively, this change in attitude amongst the Allies (who had waited patiently off the coast of Salamis for at least a week while Athens was captured) may have been in response to Persian offensive maneuvers. Possibly, a Persian army had been sent to march against the Isthmus in order to test the nerve of the fleet. Either way, when Xerxes received this news, he ordered his fleet to go out on patrol off the coast of Salamis, blocking the southern exit. Then, at dusk, he ordered them to withdraw, possibly in order to tempt the Allies into a hasty evacuation. That evening Themistocles attempted what appears to have been a spectacularly successful use of disinformation. He sent a servant, Sicinnus, to Xerxes, with a message proclaiming that Themistocles was "on the king's side and prefers that your affairs prevail, not the Hellenes". Themistocles claimed that the Allied command was in-fighting, that the Peloponnesians were planning to evacuate that very night, and that to gain victory all the Persians needed to do was to block the straits. In performing this subterfuge, Themistocles seems to have been trying to bring about exactly the opposite; to lure the Persian fleet into the Straits. This was exactly the kind of news that Xerxes wanted to hear; that the Athenians might be willing to submit to him, and that he would be able to destroy the rest of the Allied fleet. Xerxes evidently took the bait, and the Persian fleet was sent out that evening to effect this block. Xerxes ordered a throne to be set up on the slopes of Mount Aigaleo (overlooking the straits), in order to watch the battle from a clear vantage point, and so as to record the names of commanders who performed particularly well. According to Herodotus, the Allies spent the evening heatedly debating their course of action. The Peloponnesians were in favour of evacuating, and at this point Themistocles attempted his ruse with Xerxes. It was only when Aristides, the exiled Athenian general arrived that night, followed by some deserters from the Persians, with news of the deployment of the Persian fleet, that the Peloponnesians accepted that they could not escape, and so would fight. However, the Peloponnesians may have been party to Themistocles's stratagem, so serenely did they accept that they would now have to fight at Salamis. The Allied navy was thus able to prepare properly for battle the forthcoming day, whilst the Persians spent the night fruitlessly at sea, searching for the alleged Greek evacuation. The next morning, the Persians rowed into the straits to attack the Greek fleet; it is not clear when, why or how this decision was made, but it is clear that they did take the battle to the Allies. ## The opposing forces ### The Greek fleet Herodotus reports that there were 378 triremes in the Allied fleet, and then breaks the numbers down by city state (as indicated in the table). However, his numbers for the individual contingents only add up to 371. He does not explicitly say that all 378 fought at Salamis ("All of these came to the war providing triremes...The total number of ships...was three hundred and seventy-eight"), and he also says that the Aeginetans "had other manned ships, but they guarded their own land with these and fought at Salamis with the thirty most seaworthy". Thus it has been supposed that the difference between the numbers is accounted for by a garrison of 12 ships left at Aegina. According to Herodotus, two more ships defected from the Persians to the Greeks, one before Artemisium and one before Salamis, so the total complement at Salamis would have been 373 (or 380). According to the Athenian playwright Aeschylus, who actually fought at Salamis, the Greek fleet numbered 310 triremes (the difference being the number of Athenian ships). Ctesias claims that the Athenian fleet numbered only 110 triremes, which ties in with Aeschylus's numbers. According to Hyperides, the Greek fleet numbered only 220. The fleet was effectively under the command of Themistocles, but nominally led by the Spartan nobleman Eurybiades, as had been agreed at the congress in 481 BC. Although Themistocles had tried to claim leadership of the fleet, the other city states with navies objected, and so Sparta (which had no naval tradition) was given command of the fleet as a compromise. ^{Plain numbers represent triremes; those indicated in parentheses are penteconters (fifty-oared galleys)} ### The Achemenid fleet According to Herodotus, the Persian fleet initially numbered 1,207 triremes. However, by his reckoning they lost approximately a third of these ships in a storm off the coast of Magnesia, 200 more in a storm off the coast of Euboea, and at least 50 ships to Allied action at the Battle of Artemisium. Herodotus claims that these losses were replaced in full, but only mentions 120 ships from the Greeks of Thrace and nearby islands as reinforcements. Aeschylus, who fought at Salamis, also claims that he faced 1,207 warships there, of which 207 were "fast ships". Diodorus and Lysias independently claim there were 1,200 ships in the Persian fleet assembled at Doriskos in the spring of 480 BC. The number of 1,207 (for the outset only) is also given by Ephorus, while his teacher Isocrates claims there were 1,300 at Doriskos and 1,200 at Salamis. Ctesias gives another number, 1,000 ships, while Plato, speaking in general terms refers to 1,000 ships and more. Herodotus gives a precise list of the ships of the various nations that composed the Achaemenid fleet: The number 1,207 appears very early in the historical record (472 BC), and the Greeks appear to have genuinely believed they faced that many ships. Because of the consistency in the ancient sources, some modern historians are inclined to accept 1,207 as the size of the initial Persian fleet; others reject this number, with 1,207 being seen as more of a reference to the combined Greek fleet in the Iliad, and generally claim that the Persians could have launched no more than around 600 warships into the Aegean. However, very few appear to accept that there were this many ships at Salamis: most favour a number in the range 600–800. This is also the range given by adding the approximate number of Persian ships after Artemisium (\~550) to the reinforcements (120) quantified by Herodotus. ## Strategic and tactical considerations The overall Persian strategy for the invasion of 480 BC was to overwhelm the Greeks with a massive invasion force, and complete the conquest of Greece in a single campaigning season. In contrast, the Greeks sought to make the best use of their numbers by defending restricted locations and to keep the Persians in the field for as long as possible. Xerxes had obviously not anticipated such resistance, or he would have arrived earlier in the campaigning season (and not waited 4 days at Thermopylae for the Greeks to disperse). Time was now of the essence for the Persians – the huge invasion force could not be reasonably supported indefinitely, nor probably did Xerxes wish to be at the fringe of his empire for so long. Thermopylae had shown that a frontal assault against a well defended Greek position was useless; with the Allies now dug in across the narrow Isthmus, there was little chance of conquering the rest of Greece by land. However, as equally demonstrated by Thermopylae, if the Greeks could be outflanked, their smaller numbers of troops could be destroyed. Such an outflanking of the Isthmus required the use of the Persian navy, and thus the destruction of the Allied navy. Therefore, if Xerxes could destroy the Allied navy, he would be in a strong position to force a Greek surrender; this seemed the only hope of concluding the campaign in that season. In contrast, by avoiding destruction, or as Themistocles hoped, by crippling the Persian fleet, the Greeks could effectively thwart the invasion. However, it was strategically not necessary for the Persians to actually fight this battle at Salamis. According to Herodotus, Queen Artemisia of Caria pointed this out to Xerxes in the run-up to Salamis. Artemisia suggested that fighting at sea was an unnecessary risk, recommending instead: > If you do not hurry to fight at sea, but keep your ships here and stay near land, or even advance into the Peloponnese, then, my lord, you will easily accomplish what you had in mind on coming here. The Hellenes are not able to hold out against you for a long time, but you will scatter them, and they will each flee to their own cities. The Persian fleet was still large enough to both bottle up the Allied navy in the straits of Salamis, and send ships to land troops in the Peloponnese. However, in the final reckoning, both sides were prepared to stake everything on a naval battle, in the hope of decisively altering the course of the war. The Persians were at a tactical advantage, outnumbering the Allies, and also having "better sailing" ships. The "better sailing" that Herodotus mentions was probably due to the superior seamanship of the crews; most of the Athenian ships (and therefore the majority of the fleet) were newly built as according to Themistocles' request to the Athenians to build a fleet of 200 triremes in 483 BC, and had inexperienced crews. Despite the inexperienced crew on the part of the Athenians, these newly constructed triremes would ultimately prove crucial in the forthcoming conflict with Persia. The most common naval tactics in the Mediterranean area at the time were ramming (triremes being equipped with a ram at the bows), or boarding by ship-borne marines (which essentially turned a sea battle into a land one). The Persians and Asiatic Greeks had by this time begun to use a manoeuvre known as diekplous. It is not entirely clear what this was, but it probably involved rowing into gaps between enemy ships and then ramming them in the side. This manoeuvre would have required skilled crews, and therefore the Persians would have been more likely to employ it; the Allies however, developed tactics specifically to counter this. There has been much debate as to the nature of the Allied fleet compared to the Persian fleet. Much of this centres on the suggestion, from Herodotus, that the Allied ships were heavier, and by implication less manoeuvrable. The source of this heaviness is uncertain; possibly the Allied ships were bulkier in construction, or that the ships were waterlogged since they had not been dried out in the winter (though there is no real evidence for either suggestion). Another suggestion is that the heaviness was caused by the weight of fully armored hoplite marines (20 fully armored hoplites would have weighed 2 tons). This 'heaviness', whatever its cause, would further reduce the likelihood of them employing the diekplous. It is therefore probable that the Allies had extra marines on board if their ships were less manoeuvrable, since boarding would then be the main tactic available to them (at the cost of making the ships even heavier). Indeed, Herodotus refers to the Greeks capturing ships at Artemisium, rather than sinking them. It has been suggested that the weight of the Allied ships may also have made them more stable in the winds off the coast of Salamis, and made them less susceptible to ramming (or rather, less liable to sustain damage when rammed). The Persians preferred a battle in the open sea, where they could better utilize their superior seamanship and numbers. For the Greeks, the only realistic hope of a decisive victory was to draw the Persians into a constricted area, where their numbers would count for little. The battle at Artemisium had seen attempts to negate the Persian advantage in numbers, but ultimately the Allies may have realised that they needed an even more constricted channel in order to defeat the Persians. Therefore, by rowing into the Straits of Salamis to attack the Greeks, the Persians were playing into the Allies' hands. It seems probable that the Persians would not have attempted this unless they had been confident of the collapse of the Allied navy, and thus Themistocles's subterfuge appears to have played a key role in tipping the balance in the favor of the Greeks. Salamis was, for the Persians, an unnecessary battle and a strategic mistake. ## The battle The battle of Salamis is not well described by ancient sources, and it is unlikely that anyone (other than perhaps Xerxes) involved in the battle had a clear idea what was happening across the width of the straits. What follows is more of a discussion than a definitive account. ### Dispositions In the Allied fleet, the Athenians were on the left, and on the right were probably the Spartans (although Diodorus says it was the Megareans and Aeginetians); the other contingents were in the center. The Allied fleet probably formed into two ranks, since the straits would have been too narrow for a single line of ships. Herodotus has the Allied fleet in a line running north–south, probably with the northern flank off the coast of modern-day Saint George's Islet (Ayios Georgis), and the southern flank off the coast of Cape Vavari (part of Salamis). Diodorus suggests the Allied fleet was aligned east–west, spanning the straits between Salamis and Mount Aigaleo; however, it is unlikely that the Allies would have rested one of their flanks against Persian occupied territory. It seems relatively certain that the Persian fleet was sent out to block the exit from the Straits the evening before the battle. Herodotus clearly believed that the Persian fleet actually entered the Straits at nightfall, planning to catch the Allies as they fled. However, modern historians have greatly debated this point, with some pointing out the difficulties of maneuvering in this confined space by night, and others accepting Herodotus's version. There are thus two possibilities; that during the night the Persians simply blocked the exit to the Straits, and then entered the straits in daylight; or that they entered the straits and positioned themselves for battle during the night. Regardless of when they attempted it, it seems likely that the Persians pivoted their fleet off the tip of Cape Vavari, so that from an initial east–west alignment (blocking the exit), they came round to a north–south alignment (see diagram). The Persian fleet seems to have been formed into three ranks of ships (according to Aeschylus); with the powerful Phoenician fleet on the right flank next to Mount Aigaleo, the Ionian contingent on the left flank and the other contingents in the centre. Diodorus says that the Egyptian fleet was sent to circumnavigate Salamis, and block the northern exit from the Straits. If Xerxes wanted to trap the Allies completely, this maneuver would have made sense (especially if he was not expecting the Allies to fight). However, Herodotus does not mention this (and possibly alludes to the Egyptian presence in the main battle), leading some modern historians to dismiss it; though again, others accept it as a possibility. Xerxes had also positioned around 400 troops on the island known as Psyttaleia, in the middle of the exit from the straits, in order to kill or capture any Greeks who ended up there (as a result of shipwreck or grounding). ### The opening phase Regardless of what time they entered the straits, the Persians did not move to attack the Allies until daylight. Since they were not planning to flee after all, the Allies would have been able to spend the night preparing for battle, and after a speech by Themistocles, the marines boarded and the ships made ready to sail. According to Herodotus, this was dawn, and as the Allies "were putting out to sea the barbarians immediately attacked them". If the Persians only entered the straits at dawn, then the Allies would have had the time to take up their station in a more orderly fashion. Aeschylus claims that as the Persians approached (possibly implying that they were not already in the Straits at dawn), they heard the Greeks singing their battle hymn (paean) before they saw the Allied fleet: > > O sons of the Greeks, go, Liberate your country, liberate Your children, your women, the seats of your fathers' gods, And the tombs of your forebears: now is the struggle for all things. Herodotus recounts that, according to the Athenians, as the battle began the Corinthians hoisted their sails and began sailing away from the battle, northwards up the straits. However, he also says that other Greeks denied this story. If this did in fact occur, one possible interpretation is that these ships had been a decoy sent to reconnoitre the northern exit from the straits, in case the arrival of the encircling Egyptian detachment was imminent (if indeed this also occurred). Another possibility (not exclusive of the former) is that the departure of the Corinthians triggered the final approach of the Persians, suggesting as it did that the Allied fleet was disintegrating. At any rate, if they indeed ever left, the Corinthians soon returned to the battle. Approaching the Allied fleet in the crowded Straits, the Persians appear to have become disorganised and cramped in the narrow waters. Moreover, it would have become apparent that, far from disintegrating, the Greek fleet was lined up, ready to attack them. However, rather than attacking immediately, the Allies initially appeared to back their ships away as if in fear. According to Plutarch, this was to gain better position, and also in order to gain time until the early morning wind. Herodotus recounts the legend that as the fleet had backed away, they had seen an apparition of a woman, asking them "Madmen, how far will ye yet back your ships?" However, he more plausibly suggests that whilst the Allies were backing water, a single ship shot forward to ram the nearest Persian vessel. The Athenians would claim that this was the ship of the Athenian Ameinias of Pallene; the Aeginetans would claim it as one of their ships. The whole Greek line then followed suit and made straight for the disordered Persian battle line. ### The main battle The details of the rest of the battle are generally sketchy, and no one involved would have had a view of the entire battlefield. Triremes were generally armed with a large ram at the front, with which it was possible to sink an enemy ship, or at least disable it by shearing off the banks of oars on one side. If the initial ramming was not successful, marines boarded the enemy ship and something similar to a land battle ensued. Both sides had marines on their ships for this eventuality; the Greeks with fully armed hoplites; the Persians probably with more lightly armed infantry. Across the battlefield, as the first line of Persian ships was pushed back by the Greeks, they became fouled in the advancing second and third lines of their own ships. On the Greek left, the Persian admiral Ariabignes (a brother of Xerxes) was killed early in the battle; left disorganised and leaderless, the Phoenician squadrons appear to have been pushed back against the coast, many vessels running aground. In the centre, a wedge of Greek ships pushed through the Persians lines, splitting the fleet in two. According to Plutarch, Ariabignes was killed by Ameinias and Socles (Greek: Σωκλής) of Pallene. When Ariabignes attempted to board on their ship, they hit him with their spears, and thrust him into the sea. Plutarch also mentions that it was Artemisia who recognized Ariabignes' body floating among the shipwrecks and brought it back to Xerxes. Herodotus recounts that Artemisia, the Queen of Halicarnassus, and commander of the Carian contingent, found herself pursued by the ship of Ameinias of Pallene. In her desire to escape, she attacked and rammed another Persian vessel, thereby convincing the Athenian captain that the ship was an ally; Ameinias accordingly abandoned the chase. However, Xerxes, looking on, thought that she had successfully attacked an Allied ship, and seeing the poor performance of his other captains commented that "My men have become women, and my women men". The friendly ship she sank was a Calyndian ship and the king of the Calyndians, Damasithymos (Greek: Δαμασίθυμος) was on it. None of the crew of the Calyndian ship survived. The Persian fleet began to retreat towards Phalerum, but according to Herodotus, the Aeginetans ambushed them as they tried to leave the Straits. The remaining Persian ships limped back to the harbour of Phalerum and the shelter of the Persian army. The Athenian general Aristides then took a detachment of men across to Psyttaleia to slaughter the garrison that Xerxes had left there. The exact Persian casualties are not mentioned by Herodotus. However, he writes that the next year, the Persian fleet numbered 300 triremes. The number of losses then depends on the number of ships the Persian had to begin with; something in the range of 200–300 seems likely, based on the above estimates for the size of the Persian fleet. According to Herodotus, the Persians suffered many more casualties than the Greeks because most Persians did not know how to swim. Xerxes, sitting on Mount Aigaleo on his throne, witnessed the carnage. Some ship-wrecked Phoenician captains tried to blame the Ionians for cowardice before the end of the battle. Xerxes, in a foul mood, and having just witnessed an Ionian ship capture an Aeginetan ship, had the Phoenicians beheaded for slandering "more noble men". According to Diodorus, Xerxes "put to death those Phoenicians who were chiefly responsible for beginning the flight, and threatened to visit upon the rest the punishment they deserved", causing the Phoenicians to sail to Asia when night fell. ## Aftermath In the immediate aftermath of Salamis, Xerxes attempted to build a pontoon bridge or causeway across the straits, in order to use his army to attack the Athenians; however, with the Greek fleet now confidently patrolling the straits, this proved futile. Herodotus tells us that Xerxes held a council of war, at which the Persian general Mardonius tried to make light of the defeat: > Sire, be not grieved nor greatly distressed because of what has befallen us. It is not on things of wood that the issue hangs for us, but on men and horses...If then you so desire, let us straightway attack the Peloponnese, or if it pleases you to wait, that also we can do...It is best then that you should do as I have said, but if you have resolved to lead your army away, even then I have another plan. Do not, O king, make the Persians the laughing-stock of the Greeks, for if you have suffered harm, it is by no fault of the Persians. Nor can you say that we have anywhere done less than brave men should, and if Phoenicians and Egyptians and Cyprians and Cilicians have so done, it is not the Persians who have any part in this disaster. Therefore, since the Persians are in no way to blame, be guided by me; if you are resolved not to remain, march homewards with the greater part of your army. It is for me, however, to enslave and deliver Hellas to you with three hundred thousand of your host whom I will choose. Fearing that the Greeks might attack the bridges across the Hellespont and trap his army in Europe, Xerxes resolved to do this, taking the greater part of the army with him. Mardonius handpicked the troops who were to remain with him in Greece, taking the elite infantry units and cavalry, to complete the conquest of Greece. All of the Persian forces abandoned Attica, however, with Mardonius overwintering in Boeotia and Thessaly; the Athenians were thus able to return to their burnt city for the winter. The following year, 479 BC, Mardonius recaptured Athens and led the second Achaemenid destruction of Athens (the Allied army still preferring to guard the Isthmus). However, the Allies, under Spartan leadership, eventually agreed to try to force Mardonius to battle, and marched on Attica. Mardonius retreated to Boeotia to lure the Greeks into open terrain and the two sides eventually met near the city of Plataea (which had been razed the previous year). There, at the Battle of Plataea, the Greek army won a decisive victory, destroying much of the Persian army and ending the invasion of Greece; whilst at the near-simultaneous Battle of Mycale the Allied fleet destroyed much of the remaining Persian fleet. ## Significance The Battle of Salamis marked the turning point in the Greco-Persian wars. After Salamis, the Peloponnese, and by extension Greece as an entity, was safe from conquest; and the Persians suffered a major blow to their prestige and morale (as well as severe material losses). At the following battles of Plataea and Mycale, the threat of conquest was removed, and the Allies were able to go on the counter-offensive. The Greek victory allowed Macedon to revolt against Persian rule; and over the next 30 years, Thrace, the Aegean Islands and finally Ionia would be removed from Persian control by the Allies, or by the Athenian-dominated successor, the Delian League. Salamis started a decisive swing in the balance of power toward the Greeks, which would culminate in an eventual Greek victory, severely reducing Persian power in the Aegean. Like the Battles of Marathon and Thermopylae, Salamis has gained something of a 'legendary' status (unlike, for instance, the more decisive Battle of Plataea), perhaps because of the desperate circumstances and the unlikely odds. A significant number of historians have stated that Salamis is one of the most significant battles in human history (though the same is often stated of Marathon). In a more extreme form of this argument, some historians argue that if the Greeks had lost at Salamis, the ensuing conquest of Greece by the Persians would have effectively stifled the growth of Western Civilization as we know it. This view is based on the premise that much of modern Western society, such as philosophy, science, personal freedom and democracy are rooted in the legacy of Ancient Greece. Thus, this school of thought argues that, given the domination of much of modern history by Western Civilization, Persian domination of Greece might have changed the whole trajectory of human history. The celebrated blossoming of hugely influential Athenian culture occurred only after the Persian wars were won. Militarily, it is difficult to draw many lessons from Salamis, because of the uncertainty about what actually happened. Once again the Allies chose their ground well in order to negate Persian numbers, but this time (unlike Thermopylae) had to rely on the Persians launching an unnecessary attack for their position to count. Since it brought about that attack, perhaps the most important military lesson is to be found in the use of deception by Themistocles to bring about the desired response from the enemy. According to Plutarch, the previously undistinguished Cimon "obtained great repute among the Athenians" due to his courage in battle; this reputation later enabled him to launch his political career. ## Anchorage discovery On March 17, 2017, archaeologists announced that they had uncovered the partially submerged remains of the anchorage used by the Greek warships prior to the Battle of Salamis. The site of the ancient mooring site is on the island of Salamis, at the coastal Ambelaki-Kynosaurus site.

Bonin white-eye

Small songbird endemic to the Bonin Islands of Japan

The Bonin white-eye (Apalopteron familiare) or meguro (メグロ) is a small songbird endemic to the Bonin Islands (Ogasawara Islands) of Japan. It is the only species in the genus Apalopteron. Its taxonomic affinities were a long-standing mystery and it has been placed with the bulbuls, babblers and more recently with the honeyeaters, during which it was known as the Bonin honeyeater. Since 1995 it is known to be a white-eye in the family Zosteropidae, that is closely related to the golden white-eye of the Marianas Islands. The Bonin white-eye has predominately yellow and green plumage and a conspicuous black triangular patch around the eye – the eye is also surrounded by a broken white ring. It was once found on all the major islands of the Bonin Islands but is now restricted to the islands of Hahajima. On that island group it is found in almost all the habitat types, native and human-modified, although it mostly breeds in native forest. Fruit is an important part of the diet, especially mulberries, as well as insects, but flowers, seeds, spiders and reptiles are taken as well. It feeds both in trees and on the ground, as it is more terrestrial than other white-eyes. Pairs of Bonin white-eyes form long-term pair bonds and remain together throughout the year. They nest in a cup-shaped nest into which usually two eggs are laid. Both parents are responsible for incubation and raising the chicks. The arrival of humans in the Bonin Islands resulted in the extinction of many of the native birds of the islands. The Bonin white-eye was affected by the changes that caused those extinctions, and has lost one subspecies and is no longer found on many groups of the Bonin Islands. The species is an important part of the ecology of the Bonin Islands, an important seed disperser for the native plants. It has proven to be somewhat resilient to competition from introduced warbling white-eyes, predation by introduced rats and cats, and habitat loss. The Bonin white-eye is evaluated as being "near threatened" by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. ## Taxonomy The Bonin white-eye was described by Heinrich von Kittlitz in 1830 based on specimens collected on Chichijima in the Bonin Islands. Kittlitz placed the species in the bulbul (family Pycnonotidae) genus Ixos. He gave the species the specific name familiare from the Latin for familiar or friendly, as the species was the first bird that visitors would encounter, much like the house sparrow in Europe. In 1854 Charles Lucien Bonaparte moved it to its own genus, Apalopteron. The name is derived from the Ancient Greek hapalos for delicate and ptilon for feather. Bonaparte also placed it with the Old World babblers, then a subgrouping (Timaliini) of an enlarged Old World warbler family (Sylviidae). Richard Bowdler Sharpe moved it back to the bulbul family in 1882, and placed it in the genus Pycnonotus. It was moved back to the babblers again by Jean Théodore Delacour in 1946, before Herbert Girton Deignan placed it with the Australasian honeyeaters (family Meliphagidae) in 1958, on the basis of tongue structure, bill shape, nest structure and a number of other morphological features. The species remained with the honeyeaters for many decades, although some authors questioned the placement, especially as it was the only honeyeater in the North Pacific and there were no members of that family in the Philippines, the island group between that family's natural range and the Bonin Islands. Finn Salomonsen, writing in 1967, thought that the golden white-eye (Cleptornis marchei) of the Marianas Islands might be a close relative, and the species was then known as the golden honeyeater. Hiroyuki Morioka and Takaharu Sakane also attributed the species to the honeyeaters, but cautioned that this was a provisional placement as the structure of the tongue was not very different from that of babblers. They also noted that it was very similar in diet and habitat preferences to the warbling white-eye, which had been introduced and was coexisting with the Bonin white-eye. The discovery that the golden white-eye was indeed a white-eye and not a honeyeater, based on behavioural observations by H. Douglas Pratt and the genetic research of Charles Sibley and Jon E. Ahlquist, was the impetus for the resolution of the Bonin white-eye's family placement. Sibley came to suspect that this meant that the Bonin white-eye had been similarly misassigned to the honeyeaters. Hiroyoshi Higuchi independently had reached the same conclusion, and so Higuchi and Keisuke Ueda obtained specimens for Sibley, who enlisted Mark S. Springer to analyse them using RNA sequencing. In 1995 they were able to show that it was indeed a white-eye (family Zosteropidae), and closely related to the golden white-eye and the white-eyes of the genus Rukia of Micronesia. The molecular evidence was supported by behavioural similarities to the white-eyes, such as the highly social allopreening and maintaining close contact when roosting. There are two subspecies of Bonin white-eye, the extinct nominate, formerly found in Mukojima and Chichijima, and the southern subspecies, A. f. hahasima, of Hahajima. ## Description The Bonin white-eye is 12 to 14 cm (4.7–5.5 in) long and weighs around 15 g (0.53 oz). The nominate race has a yellow head with a conspicuous triangular black eye-patch which is linked by the thin black line to a black forehead. The white eye-ring is broken by a thin black line through the eye. The are yellow, as are the throat and upper breast. The back and wings are olive-green tinged with grey, and the are tinged with brown. The tail is olive-brown, and the underparts are pale yellow, with a grey wash on the . The iris of the eye is brown, and the bill and legs are dark grey. The sexes are alike, and juveniles look very similar to the adults. The race hahasima is very similar to the nominate race, but the upperparts are tinged in yellowish-green tinge. It also has a slightly larger bill and . Flight in this species is generally slow and direct, with fast sustained flight only being observed in chases between rivals. Aside from the chases, gliding and hopping were more common than flight, and individuals would usually climb trees by climbing branches and hopping; direct flights from the ground to the canopy are rare. The tarsus is long and the toes and claws are strong, especially compared to white-eyes in the genus Zosterops, reflecting its more terrestrial lifestyle. On the ground it hops rather than walks, in the manner of a thrush. ## Distribution and habitat The Bonin white-eye is, at its name suggests, endemic to the Bonin Islands, south of Japan. The species was once found on all the major groups of islands in the chain, including the Mukojima Group, the Chichijima Group and the Hahajima. Presently its habitat is restricted to Hahajima Island and two nearby islands, having become extinct across the rest of its previous range. The species' presence on Chichijima Island has been the subject of debate and dispute. The species has been introduced to Chichijima from Hahajima, so it was assumed that all records related to that introduction, but its natural presence on the island, and subsequent extinction, was subsequently established from early accounts, and a bird from that island was the type specimen for the species. All records of the species in the Chichijima Group are from the main Chichijima Island. On Hahajima, the only island on which its habitat preferences have been studied, the species occupies almost every habitat type. It occupies undisturbed native evergreen and broadleaf forest, dominated by Schima and Ardisia, as well as secondary and disturbed forest and other human modified habitats. The species occupies a wide range of modified habitats during the non-breeding season, but is more localised when breeding, when it is predominantly found in undisturbed native forest with large trees and bamboo, tree ferns and large shrubs. It is much rarer on the windy ridges of the mountains, where the vegetation is short and shrubby. Local fishermen on Hahajima have reported that the species disperses to the smaller islands of the group during the autumn and winter, but these localised movements have not been confirmed. ## Behaviour ### Vocalisations The Bonin white-eye was long thought to be an infrequent songster. Early accounts reported no singing from captive birds, and a report published in 1985 noted that while it did sing, it did so very irregularly. The same report concluded that the species did not use its call for territorial defence. Subsequent research found that the species does indeed sing regularly, but does so very early in the morning, just before dawn, and then only rarely during the rest of the day. The function of the song is considered more likely related to territorial defence. Around 90% of paired and territory-holding males sing, along with some unpaired males, making the morning song a convenient tool to survey the species. The song itself is melodious and has been compared to that of a bunting or a Siberian blue robin, and is a chew-i, chit-chit-pee, chot-chot-pee, ch-ee or tu-ti-ti, ti-titu-tuoo. The species makes a variety of other calls as well. It frequently makes a fe-ee contact call, as well as ch-ee or chit alarm calls, and a scolding kyok call, made when observers came too close to the nest. The male also makes a ze-ze-ze call during courtship feeding. ### Diet and feeding The Bonin white-eye has a diet that includes a range of fruit, flowers and insects. The species feeds in a wide range of niches, both arboreal and terrestrial, and has evolved to do so. Hiroyuki suggested that its morphology and feeding habits evolved in the lack of competition, as the Bonin Islands are species poor in terms of birds. Feeding niches vary somewhat by season, as it feeds less frequently on the ground in the breeding season. Fruit, seeds, flowers and nectar forms around half the diet based on direct observation, with the species observed feeding on 15 species of plant. Endemic mulberries (Morus boninensis) are a favoured food, but a range of fruits and flowers are fed on, both species native to the island and introduced. Among the natives fed on other than mulberries are Rhaphiolepis, Leucaena, and Solanum nigrum. Introduced plants fed on include bananas, papaya, Lantana, Cucurbita moschata (or squash) and Calophyllum inophyllum. The Bonin white-eye does take some nectar but the extent to which it is an important food is unknown; observations on Hahajima showed it fed from flowers far less frequently than the warbling white-eye. In addition to plant food, insect and other invertebrate prey is taken as well. Insects found in the stomachs of Bonin white-eyes include beetles, lacewings, true bugs, and ants. They have also been observed taking caterpillars, crickets, and flies. Non-insect prey includes spiders and even small reptiles. ### Breeding The breeding behaviour of the Bonin white-eye has not been extensively studied. The main breeding season is between March and June with a peak in May. It is thought that the species forms long term pair bonds with partners remaining close throughout the year, as roosting birds typically do so in pairs. They typically place the nest in a fork in a tree (typically Shima, but other trees may be used including introduced species) between 1–12 m (3.3–39.4 ft) off the ground, with the average height being 6 m (20 ft), but in one case a nest has been found in a cavity inside a tree. Both parents are responsible for building the nest, which is a deep and crudely shaped cup. The nest is mostly made from Pandanus fibres, with vines, grasses, pine needles and rootlets woven in, and the outside is lined with dead leaves. Slightly finer material is used to line the inside of the nest. The eggs of the Bonin white-eye measure 19.5–20.5 mm × 15–15.8 mm (0.77–0.81 in × 0.59–0.62 in) and are greenish-blue spotted and blotched with brown. The usual clutch size is around two eggs, which is a small clutch for a Japanese bird. Both parents incubate the eggs for just under two weeks and feed the chicks for a month after fledging. ## Ecology The introduction of warbling white-eyes led to some concerns that it would compete with the Bonin white-eye in a harmful way. Studies of the interactions of the two species has shown that this has not been the case, possibly because of differences in morphology. The Bonin white-eye does show some changes in feeding niches in the presence of the warbling white-eye, feeding lower down in the canopy when the warbling white-eye is present, but its population, food selection, or the size of its chicks have not been affected. Juvenile Bonin white-eyes join warbling white-eyes and brown-eared bulbuls in mixed species feeding flocks in the non-breeding season. Brown-eared bulbuls may sometimes take Bonin white-eye eggs. Warbling white-eyes may have had some effect on the behaviour of Bonin white-eyes, having potentially taught the Bonin white-eye about new foods in the human-altered Bonin Islands. This ability to learn about new foods from the warbling white-eye was shown by establishing food stations on the island baited with a novel food item, tinned peaches. When first presented with the new food item, it was avoided by the Bonin white-eyes. Where Bonin white-eyes could watch warbling white-eyes feeding on the peaches they began to feed on them as well, but where warbling white-eyes were not around and could not be watched they did not do so. The Bonin white-eye is an important seed disperser in the Bonin Islands, helping to maintain healthy forests. The islands have few species of birds, particularly after the loss of several endemic species to extinction since the arrival of humans, such as the Bonin wood pigeon and Bonin thrush. In a study of native and introduced birds on the islands, it was one of the three most important seed dispersers, along with the brown-eared bulbul and warbling white-eye. ## Status and conservation The Bonin white-eye is evaluated as being "near threatened" by the IUCN Red List. The nominate race, of Mukojima and Chichijima is thought to be extinct. Its current status on Chichijima is uncertain, and it was reintroduced there and may have persisted, although a 2003 study of the species found none there. The reasons for its extinction on these two islands are unknown. It is thought that habitat loss, specifically the clearance of primary forest, may be a cause. The species' status on Hahajima seems more secure. It was considered vulnerable, as population estimates put the number of birds on the island at around 4,000. More accurate censusing, which took into account both densities of birds and how they varied by habitat, re-estimated the population at over 15,000. The same study evaluated that the species was not in immediate threat of extinction. On the basis of the study it was downlisted to near threatened in 2013. The species is preyed upon by introduced cats; it is particularly vulnerable due to its tendency to feed on the ground, and its nests are raided by introduced rats. It is also somewhat threatened by the loss of native forest, for agriculture and tourism. Overall however the species is resilient to some degree to habitat modification, introduced predators and competitors, and its population is thought to be stable. It remains listed as near threatened, in spite of the stable population, due to a susceptibility to extreme weather events which could decimate the species. The Bonin white-eye is protected under Japanese law as a National Endangered Species. The Bonin Islands have been designated a National Wildlife Protection Area, in part to help protect this species. Efforts are underway to remove cats and rats from the islands, as well as remove invasive trees and restore native trees. Conservationists have suggested that regular monitoring of the species be started and the feasibility of translocating birds to islands they have been lost from to create more populations and lessen the risk of a single incident wiping the species out. ## See also - List of Special Places of Scenic Beauty, Special Historic Sites and Special Natural Monuments

Orodes I of Parthia

Orodes I (also spelled Urud I; Parthian: 𐭅𐭓𐭅𐭃 Wērōd/Urūd), was king of the Parthian Empire from 80 to 75 BC. He was the son and heir of Gotarzes I (r. 91–87/80 BC). His reign is relatively obscure. His throne may have been usurped in 87–80 BC by his supposed uncle Mithridates III, however, this has found little support in scholarship. Of his military activities, it is known that Orodes I re-established Parthian rule in Elymais in 78 BC, which had been independent since 81/80 BC. Orodes I later lost the throne to the aged Parthian prince Sinatruces, who belonged to a different branch of the royal Arsacid family. ## Name Orōdēs (Ὀρώδης) is the Greek attestation of the Middle Iranian name Wērōd/Urūd (𐭅𐭓𐭅𐭃). The etymology of the name is disputed. The Modern Persian version is Viru (ویرو). ## Biography Orodes was the son and heir of Parthian king Gotarzes I (r. 91–87/80 BC). Rahim M. Shayegan (2011) has suggested that Orodes was one of the figures depicted on the rock relief of Gotarzes I at Mount Behistun. Orodes' mother may have been the Armenian queen Ariazate, who was a daughter of Tigranes the Great (r. 95–55 BC). According to Gholamreza F. Assar (2006), after the death of Gotarzes I in 87 BC, his brother Mithridates III usurped the throne from Orodes. In August/September 80 BC, Mithridates III was dethroned in Babylon, and was shortly afterwards expelled from Susa by Orodes. Mithridates III may have survived this event and managed to flee to the north, where he continued fighting until he died the following year. Other scholars, however, do not support the existence of a Mithridates III ruling in the 80s BC. According to Shayegan, the existence of rival kings such as Mithridates III during this period "repose primarily upon numismatic evidence, may find scant support in the literary and documentary sources, and can be contradicted by a diverging interpretation of the period's coinage." Shayegan deduced that Gotarzes I reigned till his death in c. 80 BC, and was succeeded by Orodes I. Orodes I reigned during a period coined in scholarship as the "Parthian Dark Age," which refers to a period of three decades in the history of Parthian Empire starting from the death (or last years) of Mithridates II (r. 124–91 BC). It is referred to as a "Dark Age" due to the lack of clear information on the events of this period in the empire, except a series of, apparently overlapping, reigns. It is only with the beginning of the reign of Orodes II in c. 57 BC, that the line of Parthian rulers can again be reliably traced. The majority of Orodes I's coins were minted in Ecbatana and Rhagae in central Iran. He is mentioned as king of the Arsacid dynasty in a Babylonian report of the lunar eclipse of 11 April 80 BC. Babylonian chronicles also made mention of his sister-queen, Ispubarza. It is unknown if they were full siblings; marriage with half-siblings was not considered incestuous amongst the members of the Iranian Achaemenid dynasty. It is uncertain if the Parthians continued the same practice of half-sibling marriage, due to lack of convincing documentation. While Orodes I's grandfather, Mithridates II, used the title of King of Kings, it remains uncertain whether he himself used the title or not. It is however certain that he used the titles of Great King and Arsaces. Under Gotarzes I and Orodes I, Babylonian scholars notably wrote cuneiform records in the same method that had been done in era of the Achaemenid Empire. According to Shayegan, this was done to emphasize the association of the Parthians with their Achaemenid predecessors. The kingdom of Elymais in south-western Iran had since 124 BC been under complete Parthian control. However, in 81/80 BC, coins of king Kamnaskires III and his wife Anzaze appears, which indicates that the kingdom had been restored. According to Babylonian sources, Orodes I launched an expedition into Elymais in 78 BC, where he defeated Kamnaskires III. Kamnaskires III was not deposed, however, and continued ruling the kingdom, now as a Parthian vassal. An aged Parthian prince named Sinatruces, who originally resided amongst the Saka of Central Asia, enlisted their aid, and captured the Parthian throne in c. 75 BC, thus succeeding Orodes I. Unlike Orodes I, Sinatruces was not a descendant of Mithridates II. Sinatruces thus ousted the line of Mithridates II with his own; the name of the Arsacid branch established by Sinatruces on the Parthian throne has been coined by the modern historian Marek Jan Olbrycht as the "Sinatrucids", which ruled the Parthian Empire till 12 AD. The Sinatrucid family was notably supported by the Suren clan of Sakastan.

Stop (Spice Girls song)

1998 single by Spice Girls

"Stop" is a song by English girl group the Spice Girls from their second studio album, Spiceworld (1997). The group co-wrote the song with its producers, Paul Wilson and Andy Watkins of the Absolute production duo, during the filming of the film Spice World. "Stop" is a dance-pop song with influences of Motown and blue-eyed soul, and features guitar and brass. Its lyrics are about the group's frustrations with being overworked by their management. The music video, directed by James Brown and filmed in Ireland, features the Spice Girls in a 1950s working-class street playing children's games with young girls. The song received mostly positive reviews for its Motown influences and production. The Spice Girls performed "Stop" in a number of live appearances in Europe and North America including their three tours. Released as the album's third single in March 1998, it peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart behind "It's Like That" by Run-DMC vs Jason Nevins, ending the Spice Girls' streak of consecutive number-one singles on the chart at six, and becoming the group's only single during their original tenure to not reach number one on said chart. It was moderately successful internationally, peaking inside the top 20 on the majority of the charts that it entered. In the United States, "Stop" peaked at number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the group's sixth consecutive top-20 entry on the chart. ## Background and writing In June 1997, the group began shooting scenes for their film Spice World. Simultaneously, Virgin Records started the first marketing meetings for the Spiceworld album's promotional campaign, which was set to be released in November. No songs had been written for the album at this point, so the group had to do all the song-writing and recording at the same time as they were filming the film. Between takes, and at the end of each filming day, the group usually went straight into a mobile recording studio set up in a Winnebago, which followed them between film sets. The schedule was physically arduous with logistical difficulties; Melanie Brown commented in her autobiography: "doing the two full-time jobs at the same time took its toll and within a couple on weeks, exhaustion set in." The concept of "Stop" was mainly penned by Geri Halliwell. She came up with the first lines of the song and recorded them into a dictaphone; the next day she played the tape to Paul Wilson and Andy Watkins—the songwriters and production duo known as Absolute. The duo then worked with the melody and began playing with it. Halliwell commented in her autobiography: > I wanted something with a Motown feel. Mel C[hisholm] eventually finished off the chorus and we had the basis for a song called "Stop". Later, when we had more time, the other girls came in and we helped write the verses and bridges. According to Chisholm, "Stop" is about the group's feelings towards fame and their frustration with their management who they felt was overworking them. These frustrations would culminate with them firing their manager Simon Fuller in November 1997. ## Composition "Stop" is an up-tempo dance-pop song with influences of Motown and blue-eyed soul, and is reminiscent of classic singles by The Supremes or Martha and the Vandellas. It is written in the key of C major, with a time signature set on common time, and moves at a fast tempo of 132 beats per minute. Lyrically, the song calls for a slowing down on the courtship process, and it is particularly addressed to appeal to the young female audience, as the female to female bonds are not threatened. It is constructed in a verse-pre-chorus-chorus form, with a bridge before the third and fourth chorus. It starts with an instrumental introduction, and uses a chord progression of C–B–Am₇–G, that is also used during the verses and the chorus. In the first verse, Halliwell, Chisholm, Bunton, and Beckham sing each one line. The chords change to Dm₁₁–Dm₉–Dm₁₁–Dm₉–Dm₇–Em₇–F major₇–G during the pre-chorus, followed by the chorus. The same pattern occurs leading to the second chorus, the first part of the second verse consists on the repeated use of the words do and ba da, then Bunton and Chisholm sing the rest of the verse. The group then sing the bridge, and end the song repeating the chorus twice. ## Release "Stop" was released in the United Kingdom on 9 March 1998, in two single versions. The first one, a standard CD single, included the track and live versions of "Something Kinda Funny", "Mama", and "Love Thing", taken from the set of concerts the group did in Istanbul in October 1997. The second version, also released in a standard CD single, contained the track, along with the David Morales remix, the Stretch & Vern's Rock & Roll Mix of the song, and a cover version of McFadden & Whitehead's "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now", performed along with American singer Luther Vandross. In the United States, Virgin Records serviced "Stop" to contemporary hit radio on 7 April 1998, then released the single as two CD singles on 3 June 1997. ## Reception ### Critical response "Stop" was generally well received by music critics. For Sylvia Patterson of NME, the song is an "obscenely catchy Motown swinger", she added that it is "the proper pop genius destined to be number one until Japan falls into the sea". Rolling Stone magazine's David Wild called it "a retro, Supremes-lite confection that's as undeniable as it is unoriginal." David Browne of Entertainment Weekly characterised it as a "delicious re-creation of Motown-era bop packed with skipping-down-the-street good vibrations". Larry Flick of Billboard magazine said that it has "a bouncy, Supremes-like retro vibe", and called its hook "irresistible". Flick also praised the David Morales remix of the song, calling it "a vibrant, time-sensitive disco ditty", while Howard Scripps from The Press of Atlantic City called it "an obvious girl-group ditty", and added that it "is another potential hit". Conversely, in a review of Spiceworld, Andy Gill of The Independent, called the album a "perky but charmless parade of pop pastiches", and described "Stop" as a "pseudo-Motown stomp". Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic, commented that the song "consolidates and expands the group's style [...] [adding] stomping, neo-Motown blue-eyed soul in the vein of Culture Club". Erlewine complimented "Stop" in a review of the group's compilation album, saying that it "is as awesome a slice of obligatory British Tamla/Motown as you'll get". Stewart Mason, also from AllMusic, compared it to Bananarama's classic singles, and called it as "a glorious piece of utterly disposable but wonderful disposable pop". Sputnikmusic's Amanda Murray also complimented the track, saying that it a "is a thoroughly enjoyable upbeat song, completely carefree and lively". Music Week described it as an "upbeat, trumpet-led homage to old-school R&B. Very Motown-influenced. [...] an addictive dreamy summer sing-a-long". The Virginian-Pilot said that the horns on the song are "classic soul with a 90s tweak". Music critic Roger Catlin of The Buffalo News described it as "a jaunty Motown beat [...] [with] a progirl message". In a review of the group's Greatest Hits album, Digital Spy's Nick Levine said that "Stop" still sounds "like the best song that Motown never produced". ### Commercial performance "Stop" debuted and peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart with first-week sales of over 115,000 copies, being kept off the top spot by Jason Nevins' remix of Run–D.M.C.'s 1983 single "It's Like That". It ended the streak of the Spice Girls' consecutive chart-toppers at six (from "Wannabe" to "Too Much"). The single was certified Platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) on 14 August 2020 for sales of 600,000 in the UK. "Stop" was moderately successful in the rest of Europe. It reached number six on the Eurochart Hot 100 Singles, peaked inside the top 10 in Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Wallonia, and inside the top 20 in Austria, Flanders, France, and Switzerland. The song was more successful in Oceania. In New Zealand, it debuted on 12 April 1998 at number 13, peaked at number nine, and spent 12 weeks on the chart. In Australia, it debuted on the ARIA Singles Chart at number 11, peaking at number five in its fifth week. It remained on the chart for 22 weeks, and was certified Gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). In April 1998, "Stop" debuted at number 99 on the Canadian RPM singles chart, reaching a peak of number three in its ninth week. In the United States, "Stop" debut at number 36 the Billboard Hot 100 chart dated 20 June 1998. It peaked two weeks later at number 16, becoming the group's sixth consecutive top-20 entry on the chart. "Stop" peaked at number 11 on the Hot 100 Singles Sales chart, but received little support from radio stations, reaching number 70 on the Hot 100 Airplay chart. The song reached number three on the Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales chart, but saw moderate success on other formats, peaking at number 14 on the Hot Dance Club Play chart and at 37 on the Mainstream Top 40 chart. ## Music video The music video for "Stop" was shot on 27 January 1998 in Ireland, and was directed by James Brown. About the concept, Melanie Brown commented: "There wasn't a storyboard for this video—it was more trial and error. It wasn't planned down to the last detail and was quite a free-for-all. It's like everything we do—complete chaos! [...] And we all want to get our bit in, so the director has to be able to encompass us all, plus put his ideas on top of it, and make it all flow. The opening segment, reminiscent of a traditional 1950s working-class street of terraced houses, was filmed at Carnew Street in Dublin, and features scenes of each member of the group knocking on different doors. Then during the first chorus, the group performs a hand-action dance, that was also used during their live performances. The second half of the video, set in the town of Rathdrum, County Wicklow, showed the group interacting with young girls in various activities, such as running around the streets dancing, skipping rope, playing hopscotch, cat's cradle and pat-a-cake, hula hooping, Geri horseback riding, and participating in competitions of various kinds. The locals are depicted as working-class people who attend the local fair or have a drink in the pub. At the end of the video, the group performs at a stage in the local hall in front of an audience of young and old people. The audience applauds after the song is finished. Geri can be seen sticking her tongue out and the video ends. ## Live performances The song was performed several times on television, in both the UK and the US, including An Audience with..., Top of the Pops, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and the Late Show with David Letterman. For their "Stop" performance at the 1998 Brit Awards, the group adopted a Supremes-like look, and appeared on the stage in a 1960-style car. The group performed "Stop" without Halliwell at the annually hosted Pavarotti and Friends charity concert in Modena, Italy, in June 1998. In October 1997, the group performed it as the ninth song of their first live concert at the Abdi Ipekçi Arena in Istanbul, Turkey. The performance was broadcast on Showtime in a pay-per-view concert special titled Spice Girls in Concert: Wild!. However, the VHS and DVD release of the concert, Girl Power! Live in Istanbul, does not include the "Stop" performance. In November 2007, the group performed together for the first time in nearly a decade at the 2007 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, held in Los Angeles, California. The group dressed in military-themed outfits performed "Stop" miming to a backing track, in front of giant glittering lights that spelled out "Spice" in the background. A taped performance of the group lyp-synching the song, while dressed in blue sailor outfits, aired on 17 November 2007 for the Children in Need 2007 marathon. On 8 November 2010, Brown performed "Stop" with the second series' contestants of the Australian edition of The X Factor. The group have performed the song on their four tours, the Spiceworld Tour, the Christmas In Spiceworld Tour, The Return of the Spice Girls Tour and the Spice World – 2019 Tour. It remained in the group's live set after Halliwell's departure at the end of the European leg of the Spiceworld Tour, her parts were taken by Brown. The performance at the tour's final concert can be found on the video album Live at Wembley Stadium, filmed in London on 20 September 1998. For The Return of the Spice Girls Tour, it was performed as the second song from the show's opening segment. The group dressed in tight bronze- and copper-coloured outfits made by Italian fashion designer Roberto Cavalli. Its intro sampled "It's Like That" by Run-DMC vs Jason Nevins, which famously blocked the song from reaching the top position on UK Singles Chart in 1998. ## Cover versions English rock band The Struts recorded a cover of the song as part of their Sunday Service stream series, which took place during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. ## Use in media "Stop" is featured in series 1 episode 1 of BBC comedy Am I Being Unreasonable?, written by and starring Daisy May Cooper and Seline Hizli. ## Track listings - UK CD 1, Australian CD 1, Brazilian CD single, US CD 1 1. "Stop" (Single Edit) – 3:24 2. "Something Kinda Funny" (Live in Istanbul) – 4:43 3. "Mama" (Live in Istanbul) – 5:18 4. "Love Thing" (Live in Istanbul) – 5:06 - UK CD 2, Australian CD 2, European CD single, Japanese CD single 1. "Stop" (Single Edit) – 3:24 2. "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now" (featuring Luther Vandross) – 4:55 3. "Stop" (Morales Remix) – 7:23 4. "Stop" (Stretch 'N' Vern's Rock & Roll Mix) – 9:11 - European 2-track CD single 1. "Stop" (Single Edit) – 3:24 2. "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now" (Featuring Luther Vandross) – 4:55 - US CD 2 1. "Stop" (Single Edit) – 3:24 2. "Stop" (Morales Remix) – 7:23 3. "Stop" (Stretch 'N' Vern's Rock & Roll Mix) – 9:11 4. "Stop" (Morales Dub) – 8:11 - Digital album single 1. "Stop" (Single Edit) – 3:24 2. "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now" (featuring Luther Vandross) – 4:55 3. "Stop" (Morales Remix) – 7:23 4. "Stop" (Stretch 'N' Vern's Rock & Roll Mix) – 9:11 5. "Something Kinda Funny" (Live in Istanbul) – 4:43 6. "Mama" (Live in Istanbul) – 5:18 7. "Love Thing" (Live in Istanbul) – 5:06 - US cassette single 1. "Stop" (Single Edit) – 3:24 2. "Something Kinda Funny" (Live in Istanbul) – 4:43 3. "Stop" (Morales Remix) – 7:23 - UK promotional 12-inch single 1. A1: "Stop" (Morales Remix) – 9:26 2. A2: "Stop" (Stretch 'N' Vern's Rock & Roll Mix) – 10:56 3. B1: "Stop" (Morales Dub) – 8:11 4. B2: "Stop" (Stretch 'N' Vern's Dub) – 11:17 ## Credits and personnel Credits adapted from the liner notes of Spiceworld. ### Management - Published by Windswept Pacific Music Ltd, 19 Music, and BMG Music Publishing Ltd. ### Personnel - Spice Girls – vocals - Absolute – production, all instruments - Jeremy Wheatley – engineering - Mark "Spike" Stent – mixing - Paul "P. Dub" – mixing assistance - Mike Higham – additional programming - Kick Horns – brass - Milton McDonald – guitar ## Charts ### Weekly charts ### Year-end charts ## Certifications ## Release history

Gunnar Degelius

Swedish lichenologist

Gunnar Bror Fritiof Degelius (né Nilsson until 1932; 27 January 1903 – 22 July 1993) was a Swedish lichenologist. Between the publications of his first and final scientific papers, Degelius had a 70-year-long research career. While he was best known for his expertise on the lichen genus Collema, he also wrote important papers on lichen biology and ecology, floristic studies of the Nordic countries and various other areas around the world, and lichen succession. Degelius described 124 new taxa (mostly species), and published about 130 scientific papers. In 1992 he was one of the first to be awarded the Acharius Medal for his lifetime contributions to lichenology. Fifteen species and three genera have been named in honour of Degelius. ## Early life and education Born in Uppsala on 27 January 1903, Degelius spent much of his youth in Mariestad. He was introduced to botany at an early age by his father, Bror Nilsson, who was a pharmacist. By the age of six, Gunnar had a sizeable collection of seed plants, and he collected his first lichen – the dog lichen, Peltigera canina – at age 12. After his family moved to Gothenburg, he met the lichenologists Captain Carl Stenholm and Adolf Hugo Magnusson, both of whom encouraged his early interest in lichens. Degelius attended school with Carl H. Lindroth, who later became a notable entomologist. They shared an early interest in natural history, and they would often go on trips together to collect plants, beetles, and lichens in Mölndal, south of Gothenburg. Degelius matriculated in 1923, the same year he published his first scientific paper (under the name Nilsson) on the lichen Arthonia spadicea. Soon after he began studies at Uppsala University. His professor of systematic botany became aware of Degelius because of his tendency to frequently miss lectures; after he called him into his office for an explanation, it became evident that Degelius already knew the subject matter quite well, having essentially memorized the textbook used for the course, Eduard Strasburger's Lehrbuch der Botanik. Degelius obtained a filosofie kandidat degree in 1927, a filosofie magister in 1929, and a filosofie licentiat in 1933. It was at Uppsala university that Degelius associated with the professor Rutger Sernander at the Växtbiologiska Institutionen (Institute of Botany), from where he graduated in 1935 with a dissertation titled Das ozeanische Element der Strauch-und Laubflechtenflora von Skandinavien ("The oceanic element of the shrub and lichen flora of Scandinavia"). ## Career From 1935 until 1961, Degelius was a docent (an academic appointment below the rank of Professor) in botany at Uppsala University. He worked under the supervision of Professor Gustaf Einar Du Rietz, along with Sten Ahlner, Torsten Hasselrot, and Rolf Santesson – all of whom became notable lichenologists. During this time, Degelius travelled (often with Ahlner and Hasselrot, at least initially) to many locations in Scandinavia to collect lichens. In 1939, he visited the United States and subsequently published two papers on the lichens of Maine, and the lichens of the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, both of which were highly regarded by later researchers. He has been credited for having introduced the lichen terms and in a 1945 publication, referring to previously undescribed asexual propagules he had observed on the lichen Lempholemma cladodes. Degelius returned to Gothenburg in 1955 to take a position at the Gothenburg Botanical Garden. Degelius also lectured about the subject of systematic botany at the University of Gothenburg until his retirement in 1969. After his retirement, Degelius travelled the world, visiting exotic locations on several continents to continue his lichen studies. He collected his last lichen in Estonia in 1991. His private herbarium, which had accumulated more than 50,000 specimens, is now housed at Uppsala University. He described 124 new taxa (mostly species), and published about 130 scientific papers. Although most of these were about lichens, he also published papers on phanerogams, mosses, and non-lichenized fungi. Degelius was also interested in studies on floristics, publishing floras for several Nordic locales as well as other more distant locations. Lichen biology and ecology was another interest, and he published research on the competition between rock-dwelling lichens, discovered a type of diaspore called a lichenized hormocyst, and studied the ecological succession of lichens growing on Fraxinus twigs. Degelius is best known for his work on the genus Collema. His first publication on this group appeared in 1936. In 1954 he published a monograph of the European species, and then 20 years later, a world monograph. Degelius won a Linnean Medal for this work. ## Personal life In her obituary of Degelius, Polish lichenologist Jolanta Miądlikowska described him as belonging "to the group of scholars who are appreciated not only for their knowledge and scientific achievements, but also for 'humanity'". Degelius was described by former student Lars Arvidsson as generous and helpful with his students and colleagues, who often visited his home in Askim (a district of Gothenburg) and made use of his expansive library. He was frequently consulted for assistance with nomenclatural issues or with translating Latin diagnoses. Degelius prided himself on accuracy, and complained about the carelessness of the Latin written by younger colleagues. A former student, Ingvar Kärnefelt, recalled his typical professorial appearance: "Gunnar usually appeared in his slightly old-fashioned "uniform", i.e. a simple blue club blazer, grey trousers, brown and less well matching shoes. He also generally wore Kissinger-style spectacles." For the final 30 years of his life, Degelius lived in a villa in Askim, with his sister and brother-in-law. He had a lichenological library comprising more than 45 metres (148 ft) of shelf space, including original classic works by Carl Linnaeus, Erik Acharius, Elias Magnus Fries, and others. This collection is now kept at the Department of Systematic Botany at Uppsala University. The New Zealander botanist David Galloway, who attended a class of Degelius' in the 1960s, recalled the atmosphere at one of the frequent gatherings there: "Very many will remember the warmly convivial discussion in the spacious book-lined sitting room with candles lit, a bottle of port or punch open on the table, and the cigars circulating. It was a warmly welcoming and special ambience which was very much part of Gunnar ... the celebrated photograph albums of past and present lichenologists would be produced, recent publications would be discussed, minutes would fly past into hours and by midnight when the guests were wilting, Gunnar would just be getting into his stride." Degelius died in Askim on 22 July 1993. At his funeral, a specimen of Degelia atlantica was placed on his coffin by the Norwegian lichenologist Per Magnus Jørgensen. ## Recognition Degelius was among the first recipients of the Acharius Medal in 1992, awarded for his lifetime achievements in lichenology. He was elected an honorary member of the British Lichen Society in 1976. An issue of the scientific journal The Lichenologist was dedicated to him in 1983 on the occasion of his 80th birthday, and an issue of the journal Graphis Scripta (named for a species of lichen) was dedicated to him for his 90th birthday in 1993. ### Eponymy Three genera have been named to honour Gunnar Degelius: Degelia Arv. & D.J.Galloway (1981); Degeliella P.M.Jørg. (2004); and Gudelia Henssen (1995). Degelius has also had several species named after him, including: Arthopyrenia degelii R.C.Harris (1995); Carbonea degelii Alstrup (1994); Chaenotheca degelii Tibell (1983); Lecanora degelii T.Schauer & Brodo (1966); Lecanora gunnarii Motyka (1996); Lecidea degeliana Hertel (1970); Lempholemma degelianum P.M.Jørg. (1998); Leptogium degelii M.Lindstr. (1993); Parmelia degelii Hale (1964); Pertusaria degelii Erichsen (1939); Pseudocyphellaria degelii D.J.Galloway & P.James (1983); Rinodina degeliana Coppins (1983); Squamarina degelii Poelt (1958); Stigmidium degelii R.Sant. (1993); and Verrucaria degelii R.Sant. (1939). ## Selected works A complete listing of Degelius's scientific publications is given in Arvidsson and Galloway's 1999 bibliography. Some of his major works include the following: ## See also - :Category:Taxa named by Gunnar Degelius

E. W. Bastard

English amateur cricketer (1862–1901)

Edward William Bastard (28 February 1862 – 2 April 1901) was an English first-class cricketer who played for Oxford University and Somerset. Bastard was a slow left-arm orthodox bowler, described in his Wisden obituary as Somerset's best bowler during his time with the club. Bastard was also part of the Oxford team often said to be the university's best ever. His first-class career was confined to his university years, when he appeared for both Oxford and Somerset. Close to the top of the bowling averages for both teams in each season, his 62 first-class wickets in 1885 placed him among the 20 most prolific wicket-takers in the country. Somerset's temporary loss of first-class status in 1885 brought a premature end to Bastard's first-class career when he was 23. Although he continued to play for the side in second-class cricket until 1889, by the time Somerset resumed first-class cricket in 1891, Bastard had lost his place following the emergence of Sammy Woods and the acquisitions of Ted Tyler and George Nichols. He died at the age of 39 while engaged in scholastic work in Taunton. ## Early life Edward William Bastard was born in Wilton, a parish just outside Taunton, the second son of Henry Horlock Bastard. He was educated at Sherborne School, and played for the school cricket team. Although he was later known as a bowler, Bastard occasionally opened the batting for the school, as he did against Clifton College in 1881. During his time at Sherborne, he also played some games for Dorset. ## University and county cricket On completion of his studies at Sherborne School, Bastard attended Wadham College, University of Oxford. He played in the Freshmen's Trial in May 1882, and collected four wickets in each innings, conceding just 35 runs from his 29 overs. His side, LML Owen's XI won by 79 runs. He played in two matches against the university's first team during his first year, opening the bowling for both the Freshmen side and the "Next XVI". He made his debut in first-class cricket that June, appearing for the university against the Marylebone Cricket Club. He claimed one wicket during the match, in which the university lost by an innings. Bastard appeared three times in first-class cricket for the university in 1883, and according to Geoffrey Bolton, author of History of the O.U.C.C, "was lucky to be chosen this year" to play in the University match against Cambridge University. Bastard was wicketless against Lancashire, and although he took three wickets in each innings against the MCC, John Foord-Kelcey took more wickets at a better average. Nevertheless, Bastard was preferred for the contest against Cambridge, thus gaining his Blue. Bastard claimed a wicket in each innings of the match, which Cambridge won by seven wickets. Bolton attributes the loss to a combination of the weather and Oxford's loss of the toss, which resulted in Cambridge batting first on a good batting pitch. Rain followed, and when Oxford batted, the pitch was described by Bolton as "really nasty". During the university's summer break, Bastard made his debut for Somerset. His first match for the county was against the MCC in late July. He appeared six further times in 1883, against county opposition, and in all matches that season, collected 52 first-class wickets at an average of 30.20. In 1883, he also made his highest first-class score, making 47 runs during Somerset's second innings against Hampshire. He came in to bat with the score at 86 runs for the loss of seven wickets, and was the last wicket to fall, by which time Somerset had moved to 181, and Bastard had shared a tenth-wicket partnership of 74 with Arnold Fothergill. Even so, Somerset lost the match by seven wickets. Bastard played in all eight of Oxford University's first-class matches in 1884 as part of the team which was described by Altham and Swanton as a remarkable side, and one of Oxford's best ever. The university won seven of the matches, and narrowly lost the other. During the opening match, against the Australians, Bastard was wicketless in the first innings, but took five second innings wickets, his maiden first-class five-wicket haul. Among his wickets was the tourists captain Billy Murdoch, who later that summer scored 211 runs against England in the third Test. Bolton wrote that against the Australians, "Bastard had bowled supremely well," and the performance was Bastard's best for the university during 1884; he collected his wickets steadily and finished as Oxford's second most prolific wicket-taker. He claimed 34 wickets for the side, second only to the 53 taken by Hugh Whitby, although his average of 17.00 ranked him fifth among the bowlers. In the university match that year, he claimed three wickets in each innings. Batting in Oxford's first innings, he and Benjamin Nicholls quickly scored 52 runs, and then bowling in Cambridge's second innings, he and Whitby claimed their opponent's final six wickets for just 17 runs. He returned to play for Somerset during the summer break once again in 1884, playing four matches for the county, during which he claimed 24 wickets: more than double that of the next most prolific Somerset bowler, Charles Winter. His best performance came against Hampshire, against whom he claimed six second innings wickets to help Somerset to their only victory of the season. The following season, Bastard returned to play for Oxford University, along with most of the successful team of the previous year. Despite the availability of almost the same squad, Oxford did not win a single match during 1885. Four of the university's bowlers, Edward Buckland, Herbert Page, Nicholls, and Whitby had an average in excess of 24 in 1885, having averaged below 21 the previous season. The team came to rely upon the bowling of Bastard and Alfred Cochrane, both slow left-arm bowlers. Bastard began the season with a five-wicket haul in the first innings against the MCC, which he followed up with three more wickets in the second. He improved upon this performance in the next match, taking five wickets in each innings against Lancashire to complete his maiden ten-wicket haul in a first-class match, although the northern county won by 50 runs. He was less effective in later matches, claiming four wickets in an innings twice, but more often going wicketless. In the university match, Bastard's last, Oxford were bowled out on the first day for 136, and Cambridge opened a first innings lead of 151; Bastard claimed a solitary wicket from 38.3 overs. Oxford recovered in the second innings and scored 239, of which Bastard contributed 12 runs, leaving Cambridge requiring 89 runs to win, with over a day's play remaining. According to Bolton, Bastard "bowled with great skill on the last morning", and claimed three Cambridge wickets, but was not supported by his fellow bowlers, and Cambridge achieved victory before lunch on the final day. Bastard was Somerset's leading wicket-taker again in 1885, claiming 25 wickets. In his first match for the county that summer, he recorded his second ten-wicket match. Facing Hampshire in Taunton, Bastard claimed eight wickets in the first innings, and a further three in the second as Somerset recorded their only win of the year. His next match for the county was also against Hampshire, this time in Southampton. Somerset could only field nine men in the fixture, and after batting first reached 117. In the Hampshire response, a contemporary match report recorded that Bastard "did a capital performance in the first innings of Hants, taking eight of the ten wickets at a cost of only 59 runs". Despite his performance, Hampshire passed Somerset's total and had a first innings lead of 45 runs. Somerset scored 166 in their second innings, leaving Hampshire requiring 122 to win. Bastard bowled 27 overs in the second innings, but failed to add to his wicket tally, and Hampshire won the match by eight wickets. Bastard's performances during 1885 saw him selected in two games for the Gentlemen during the Scarborough Festival. The team was a young one, as well as three of his Oxford team-mates from that season, Page, Kingsmill Key and Tim O'Brien, there were a number of players from the Cambridge team chosen. Bastard claimed five wickets in the first innings of the match against I Zingari, but failed to take any against the Players. In 1885, his 62 first-class wickets was the eighteenth highest among bowlers in the country. ## Later life Bastard graduated from Oxford in 1885, gaining his B.A. that year, and collecting his M.A. three years later. He continued to play cricket for Somerset, who had by this stage been stripped of their first-class status for three reasons: they had not organised and played enough first-class fixtures during the season, their performances were not what was expected from a first-class county, and they had not succeeded in fielding a full side of eleven players in all their matches. He picked up plenty of wickets, particularly in 1886 and 1887; eleven in a match against Hampshire, with eight in the first innings, fifteen against Devon, and another eight in the first innings against Warwickshire being the highlights. However, the additions of Sammy Woods, Ted Tyler and George Nichols resulted in Bastard bowling less frequently, and he made his final appearance for the county in August 1889 against the MCC. He was not required to bowl in the match, which Somerset won by 9 wickets, thanks to Tyler and Woods. He was described by Wisden Cricketers' Almanack as "the chief bowler in the Somersetshire eleven before the County became first-class." Bastard died in Taunton on 2 April 1901, aged 39, while employed in scholastic work.

Society Hill (Body of Proof)

"Society Hill" is the sixth episode of the first season of the American medical drama Body of Proof. It was originally broadcast in the United States on ABC on April 26, 2011. The episode was directed by Kate Woods and written by Matthew V. Lewis. In the episode, Megan (Dana Delany) investigates the murder of Daphne Zimmer (Mam Smith), who is found dead in her swimming pool, which leads her to a society party after an invite from her mother Joan Hunt (Joanna Cassidy); and Detective Bud Morris (John Carroll Lynch) returns, interrogating Daphne's employees, all who had several reasons to kill her. The episode received mixed to positive reviews, and was watched by 11.80 million viewers, according to Nielsen ratings, on the Tuesday night it aired in the United States. Christine Orlando from TV Fanatic praised guest star Neal Bledsoe and regular cast member Windell Middlebrooks, who plays Curtis Brumfield. Orlando also praised the storyline, adding that it was an "interesting twist", one which she "didn't see coming". ## Plot Magazine editor Daphne Zimmer (Mam Smith), who edits for the Society Fair magazine, is found dead in her swimming pool. Daphne is a friend of Megan's (Dana Delany) mother, Joan Hunt (Joanna Cassidy). At the crime scene, Megan finds evidence to suggest that there was a struggle near the pool, as well as bruising on the Daphne's stomach, which indicates that she died several days ago instead of that morning as was originally believed. At Daphne's workplace, Megan, Detective Bud Morris (John Carroll Lynch), and Peter Dunlop (Nicholas Bishop) tell the employees of Daphne's death. Bud questions Daphne’s employees, Stephen Burnett (Neal Bledsoe) and Lauren Matthews (Nadia Dajani), finding out that one of Daphne's enemies is Colin Lloyd (Robert Walsh), a wealthy man whose career Daphne ruined. Megan examines Daphne’s body, noticing that Daphne has kidney damage. Whilst Dr. Curtis Brumfield (Windell Middlebrooks) is working on maggots found on Daphne’s body, Dr. Ethan Gross (Geoffrey Arend) determines that hair, which was found at the crime scene, is human, and there are traces of arsenic and lead. Megan decides that the only way to confront Colin is to accept her mother's invitation, which she had previously declined, as Colin is attending and after questioning him, she rules him out as a suspect. Curtis confirms that the maggots that he was testing take around two days to mature, so Curtis confirms that Daphne was dead for two days before the body was found. There are also traces of aspirin in them, so either Daphne was taking aspirin or it was being given to her without her knowledge. With the assistance of Dr. Kate Murphy (Jeri Ryan), Ethan determines that the hair is Victorian. Stephen admits to giving her aspirin, though did not realize she was getting sicker because of it, whilst Megan figures out that Daphne was electrocuted. After investigating, the police find out it was Lauren who killed Daphne, killing her after feeling angry about having to compete with interns for a journalism award. She threw Daphne in the pool in a rage when she confronted her, then throwing a space heater in the pool which electrocuted Daphne and killed her, not realizing she had dropped some of her ancestor's hair in the pool, which she kept in a locket. Stephen is released from holding after Lauren is arrested. ## Production "Society Hill" was written by Matthew V. Lewis and directed by Kate Woods, most known for directing Looking for Alibrandi and television series such as Phoenix and its spinoff Janus. Daniel Licht who has worked on the series since its inception, returned to compose the music for the episode. Actress Nadia Dajani (best known for her role in Ned & Stacey) guest starred in the episode as Lauren Matthews. Joanna Cassidy (best known for her role in Six Feet Under) made her first appearance as Joan Hunt, Megan's mother. Cassidy was reportedly originally meant to first appear in the third episode of the first season, "Helping Hand". Series creator Christopher Murphey said of Cassidy's role as Joan, "I get this weird chill when I write scenes for the two of them, it's a wonderful dynamic, I think Megan and her mother have a wonderful back story that we will be basically mining over the first few episode's. You're going to be finding out a lot about Megan". However, even though Cassidy is a recurring cast member, she is credited as being a guest star. Regular cast member Sonja Sohn who plays Detective Samantha Baker, did not appear in this episode and recurring cast members Jeffrey Nordling and Mary Mouser were credited but also did not appear. Some scenes were set in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, such as the murder. "Society Hill", along with the eight episode's from Body of Proof's first season, were released on a two-disc DVD set in the United States on September 20, 2011. The sets included brief audio commentaries from various crew and cast members for several episode's, a preview of season 2 and a 10-minute "featurette" on the making of the show, with commentaries from the medical consultants who helped with the script, as well as a "Contaminated Evidence" blooper reel. ## Reception ### Ratings In its original American broadcast on April 26, 2011, "Society Hill" was seen by 11.8 million viewers, according to Nielsen ratings. Among viewers between ages 18 and 49, it received a 2.2 rating/9 share; a share represents the percentage of households using a television at the time the program is airing. This episode achieved higher viewers than the previous episode, "Dead Man Walking", as well as a significant amount more than the subsequent episode "All in the Family". Body of Proof came seventh in the ratings on Tuesday night, it was outperformed by the ABC's Dancing with the Stars. "Society Hill" was watched by 1.69 million viewers upon its airing on Channel 5 in the United Kingdom. ### Critical response "Society Hill" received mixed reviews. Christine Orlando from TV Fanatic questioned whether in real life, medical examiners "do this much investigation on case", but then further saying, "I always assumed that detectives did the field work but if that were the case on Body of Proof then I suppose we wouldn't have much of a show". She praised Neal Bledsoe's portrayal of Stephen Burkett, saying that he did a "wonderful job of playing a chronic hair puller". She also praised the character of Curtis, stating that he was "adorable". Of the storyline she said, "The actual murder by electrocution was an interesting twist and one I didn't see coming. I was happy to see Bud jump in and read the murderer her rights before she said anything further. That certainly seemed like something a detective should do". She finished in saying that she "enjoyed" the song played at the end of the episode, 'Maybe' by Ingrid Michaelson "was both cheery and melancholy enough to fit the moment". Michelle Carlbert from TV Equals praised the scene in which Megan pulls Colin's hair, calling it one of her "favourite bits", another being when it showed Ethan, Peter, Curtis and Bud going out on a "Boy’s Night" stating it was "awesome" and that she "love(s) it when they show the team bonding like that". She also commented on Megan and Peter's clothes, stating that "Megan looked great in her dress" and Peter in a tux was "whoa".