The West Wing is an American television drama created by Aaron Sorkin that was originally shown from September 22, 1999 to May 14, 2006. The series is set in the West Wing of the White House—where the Oval Office and offices of presidential staff are—during the fictional presidency of Josiah Bartlet (played by Martin Sheen).

It first aired on NBC in 1999, and has been shown on many networks in several other countries. The series ended its seven years on television on May 14, 2006.

The show received positive reviews from critics, political science teachers, and former White House workers. In total, The West Wing won three Golden Globe Awards and 27 Emmy Awards, including the award for Outstanding Drama Series, which it won four times in a row from 2000 through 2003. The show's ratings were lower in later years, series creator Aaron Sorkin (who wrote or co-wrote 85 of the first 88 episodes) left the show after the fourth season. It was still popular with viewers who have a high-income.

Crew
The series was created by Aaron Sorkin. Sorkin served as executive producer for the first episode with director Thomas Schlamme and John Wells. Kristin Harms and Llewellyn Wells were producers for the first episode. Michael Hissrich acted as a co-producer.

The first season proper saw the return of all of the pilot production team along with the addition of Ron Osborn and Jeff Reno as consulting producers and Rick Cleveland as a second co-producer with Robert W. Glass as an associate producer. Glass left the production team after only five episodes. Osborn and Reno departed after nine episodes. Paul Redford served as a story editor throughout the first season. Lawrence O'Donnell, Jr. worked as executive story editor for the second half of the season.

With the second season Kevin Falls became a co-executive producer. Cleveland left the production team and Redford and O'Donnell were promoted to co-producer. Peter Parnell, and Patrick Caddell became co-producers and Julie Herlocker and Mindy Kanaskie became associate producers. O'Donnell was promoted again to producer five episodes into the season and Hissrich joined him twelve episodes into the season.

The third season saw the departure of Parnell, Caddell, and Herlocker and the temporary absence of O'Donnell. Director Christopher Misiano became a supervising producer and Patrick Ward came aboard as an associate producer. Redford was promoted to producer. With the thirteenth episode of the third season director Alex Graves became an additional supervising producer and Eli Attie joined the writing staff as a story editor.

The fourth season marked the temporary departure of Hissrich. Misiano and Graves became co-executive producers alongside Falls. Attie was promoted to executive story editor and Debora Cahn became a staff writer. The fourteenth episode of the season saw Redford promoted to supervising producer and Kanaskie, Ward and Attie promoted to co-producers.

The fifth season saw the departure of both Sorkin and Schlamme as executive producers. Schlamme remained attached to the series as an executive consultant. John Wells remained the sole executive producer and showrunner. Co-executive producer Kevin Falls also left the show. O'Donnell rejoined the production team as a consulting producer. Wells also added Carol Flint, Alexa Junge, Peter Noah and John Sacret Young as consulting producers. Andrew Stearn came aboard as a producer and Attie was promoted to producer. Cahn became story editor and Josh Singer replaced her as staff writer. With the tenth episode Flint, Junge, Noah and Sacret Young became supervising producers.

With the sixth season Misiano and Graves were promoted to executive producers. Redford and Junge left the production team and Dylan K. Massin became a co-producer. Cahn was promoted to executive story editor and Singer replaced her as story editor. Lauren Schmidt filled the staff writer role. The fourth episode saw the departure of original crew member Llewellyn Wells. Debora Cahn was promoted to co-producer with the fourteenth episode.

The seventh season saw Noah and O'Donnell promoted again, this time becoming additional executive producers. Attie became a supervising producer. Hissrich returned to his role as producer for the final season.

Cast
The West Wing employed a broad ensemble cast to portray the many positions involved in the daily work of the federal government. The President, the First Lady, and the President's senior staff and advisors form the core cast. Many secondary characters, appearing intermittently, complement storylines that generally revolve around this core group.

Each of the main actors made about $75,000 an episode, with Sheen's most recently confirmed salary being $300,000. Rob Lowe also had a six-figure salary, reported to be $100,000, because his character originally was supposed to have a more central role. Disparities in cast salaries led to very public contract disputes, particularly by Janney, Schiff, Spencer, and Whitford. During contract negotiations in 2001, the four were threatened with breach of contract suits by Warner Bros. However, by banding together, they were able to persuade the studio to more than double their salaries. Two years later, the four again demanded a doubling of their salaries, a few months after Warner Bros. had signed new licensing deals with NBC and Bravo.

John Spencer, who played Leo McGarry, died from a heart attack on December 16, 2005 — about a year after his character experienced a nearly fatal heart attack on the show. A brief memorial message from Martin Sheen ran before "Running Mates", the first new episode that aired after Spencer's death. The loss of Spencer's character was addressed by the series beginning with the episode "Election Day", which aired on April 2, 2006.

Different performers had been originally considered for many of the roles. Bradley Whitford states in an interview on the Season 1 DVD that he was originally cast as Sam, though the character of Josh was the role Whitford had wanted and for which he had auditioned. In addition, Josh's character had been written specifically for him by Aaron Sorkin. In the same interview, Janel Moloney states that she had originally auditioned for the role of C.J., and that the role she eventually received, Donna, was not meant to be a recurring character. Other actors who were seriously considered included Alan Alda and Sidney Poitier for the President, Judd Hirsch for Leo, Eugene Levy for Toby, and CCH Pounder for C.J.

Plot
The West Wing, like many serial dramas, stretches storylines over several episodes or entire seasons. In addition to these larger storylines, each episode also contains smaller arcs which usually begin and end within an episode.

Most episodes follow President Bartlet and his staff through particular legislative or political issues. Plots can range from behind-closed-doors negotiating with Congress ("Five Votes Down") to personal issues like sex ("Pilot", "Take out the Trash Day") and personal drug use (a major plotline throughout the first and second seasons). The typical episode loosely follows the president and his staff through their day, generally following several plots connected by some idea or theme. A large, fully connected set of the White House allows the producers to create shots with very few cuts and long, continuous master shots of staff members walking and talking through the hallways. These "walk and talks" became a trademark of the show. The final two seasons presented a narrative change, with the focus of the show divided between plots in the West Wing with President Bartlet and his remaining senior staffers and plots revolving around the rest of the main cast on the campaign trail for the 2006 election.

In the first season, the administration is in the middle of its first year and is still having trouble settling in and making progress on legislative issues.
The second season brings scandal as the White House is rocked by allegations of criminal conduct and the President must decide whether he will run for a second term.
The third and fourth seasons take an in-depth look at the campaign trail and the specter of both foreign and domestic terrorism.
In the fifth season, the president begins to encounter more issues on the foreign front, while at home he must face off with the newly elected Speaker of the House over the future of the federal budget.
The sixth season chronicles the quest to replace Bartlet in the next election, following the primary campaigns of several candidates from both parties, while the President himself attempts to build his legacy, but finds his ability to govern compromised by his illness.
In the seventh season, the president must face a leak of confidential information about a secret NASA program from inside the White House, while the Democratic and Republican candidates battle to replace him in the general election.

Development

The series developed following the success of 1995 theatrical film The American President, for which Aaron Sorkin wrote the screenplay, and Martin Sheen played the White House Chief of Staff. Sorkin used some of the same research he had done for The American President a suggestion from a friend to create The West Wing.

According to the DVD commentary, Sorkin intended to center the show on Sam Seaborn and the other senior staff with the president in an unseen or a secondary role. However, Bartlet's screen time gradually increased, and his role expanded as the series progressed. Positive critical and public reaction to Sheen's performance raised his character's profile, decreasing Lowe's perceived significance. In addition, according to Sorkin, the storylines began to focus less on Sam and more on Josh Lyman, the deputy chief of staff. This shift is one of the reasons for Lowe's eventual departure from the show in the fourth season.
For the first four seasons, Sorkin wrote almost every episode of the series, occasionally reusing plot elements, episode titles, character names, and actors from his previous work, Sports Night, a sitcom in which he began to develop his signature dialogue style of rhythmic, snappy, and intellectual banter. Fellow executive producer and director Thomas Schlamme championed the "walk and talk," a continuous shot tracking in front of the characters as they walk from one place to another that became part of The West Wing's signature visual style. Sorkin's hectic writing schedule often led to cost overruns and schedule slips, and he opted to leave the show after the fourth season, following increasing personal problems, including an arrest for possession of illegal drugs. Thomas Schlamme also left the show after the fourth season. John Wells, the remaining executive producer, took the helm after their departure.

The show aired its series finale on Sunday, May 14, 2006. It had suffered a significant ratings fall after being placed in the same timeslot as ABC's Top 20 hit Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, and CBS' Top 30 hit Cold Case.

Critical reactions
The West Wing offers a rare glimpse into the inner workings of the White House, and the show's legitimacy, political slant, and film merits have generated considerable discussion.

Realism
The West Wing is not completely accurate in its portrayal of the actual West Wing; however, former White House staffers agree that the show "captures the feel [of the West Wing], shorn of a thousand undramatic details."

Former White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers as well as expert pollster Patrick Caddell served as consultants for the show from the beginning, helping writers and actors depict the West Wing accurately. Other former White House staffers, such as Peggy Noonan and Gene Sperling, have served as consultants for brief periods.

A documentary special in the third season compared the show's depiction of the West Wing to the real thing. Many former West Wing denizens applauded the show's depiction of the West Wing, including advisor David Gergen, Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Chief of Staff Leon Panetta, Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, and former Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton.

While critics often praised The West Wing for its writing, others faulted the show as unrealistically optimistic. A large part of this criticism came from the perceived naiveté of the characters. Television critic Heather Havrilesky asked "What rock did these morally pure creatures crawl out from under and, more important, how do you go from innocent millipede to White House staffer without becoming soiled or disillusioned by the dirty realities of politics along the way?"

Social impact
Despite acclaim for the veracity of the series, Sorkin believed, "our responsibility is to captivate you for however long we've asked for your attention." Former White House aide Matthew Miller noted that Sorkin "captivates viewers by making the human side of politics more real than life — or at least more real than the picture we get from the news." Miller also noted that by portraying politicians with empathy, the show created a "subversive competitor" to the cynical views of politics in media. In the essay "The West Wing and the West Wing", author Myron Levine agreed, stating that the series "presents an essentially positive view of public service and a healthy corrective to anti-Washington stereotypes and public cynicism."

Dr. Staci L. Beavers, associate professor of political science at California State University, San Marcos, wrote a short essay, The West Wing as a Pedagogical Tool, concerning the viability of The West Wing as a teaching tool. She concluded, "While the series' purpose is for-profit entertainment, The West Wing presents great pedagogical potential." The West Wing, in her opinion, gave greater depth to the political process usually espoused only in stilted talking points on shows like Face the Nation and Meet the Press. However, the merits of a particular argument may be obscured by the viewer's opinion of the character. Beavers also noted that characters with opposing viewpoints were often set up to be "bad people" in the viewer's eyes. These characters were assigned undesirable characteristics having nothing to do with their political opinions, such as being romantically involved with a main character's love interest. In Beavers's opinion, a critical analysis of the show's political views can present a worthwhile learning experience to the viewer.

One of the stranger impacts of the show occurred on January 31, 2006, when The West Wing was said to have played a hand in defeating Tony Blair's government in the British House of Commons, during the so called "West Wing Plot". The plan was allegedly hatched after a Conservative Member of Parliament watched the episode, "A Good Day", in which Democrats block a bill aimed at limiting stem cell research, by hiding in an office until the Republican Speaker calls the vote.

"The Left Wing"
The West Wing was sometimes called "The Left Wing" by detractors because of its portrayal of an ideal liberal administration and its alleged demonization of conservatives. Chris Lehmann, senior editor of Washington Post Bookworld, characterized the show as a revisionist look at the Clinton presidency: an attempt to solidify the Clinton legacy and to make America forget the Whitewater and Lewinsky scandals. On the other hand, some Republicans have admired the show since its inception, before even the departure of Sorkin and the show's resulting shift toward the center. In his 2001 article "Real Liberals versus the West Wing", Mackubin Thomas Owens wrote,

Journalist Matthew Miller wrote, "although the show indeed has a liberal bias on issues, it presents a truer, more human picture of the people behind the headlines than most of today's Washington journalists."

Filming techniques and reactions
In its first season, The West Wing attracted critical attention in the television community with a record nine Emmy wins. The show has been praised for its high production values and repeatedly recognized for its cinematic achievements. With a budget of $6 million per episode, many consider each week's show to be a small feature film. However, many in the television community believe that the true genius of the show was Sorkin's rapid-fire and witty scripts.

The West Wing is noted for developing the "walk-and-talk"—long Steadicam tracking shots showing characters walking down hallways while involved in long conversations. In a typical "walk-and-talk" shot, the camera leads two characters down a hallway as they speak to each other. One of these characters generally breaks off and the remaining character is then joined by another character, who initiates another conversation as they continue walking. These "walk-and-talks" create a dynamic feel for what would otherwise be long expository dialogue, and have become a staple for dialogue-intensive television show scenes.

Awards
In its first year, The West Wing received nine Emmys, a record for most won by a series in a single season. The show also received the Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series in 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2003, tying Hill Street Blues and L.A. Law for most won in this category. Each of its seven seasons was nominated for the award. The West Wing ranks 8th all-time in number of Emmy Awards won by a show.

The show shares the Emmy Award record for most acting nominations by regular cast members for a single show in one year. (Both Hill Street Blues and L.A. Law also hold that record). For the 2001–2002 season nine cast members were nominated for Emmys. Allison Janney, John Spencer and Stockard Channing each won an Emmy (for Lead Actress, Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress). The others nominated were Martin Sheen (for Lead Actor), Richard Schiff, Dule Hill and Bradley Whitford (for Supporting Actor), and Janel Moloney and Mary-Louise Parker (for Supporting Actress). In that same year, Mark Harmon, Tim Matheson and Ron Silver were each nominated in the Guest Actor category (but none won the award). This gave the show an Emmy Award record for most acting nominations total (including guest performer category) in a single year, with 12 acting nominations.

Twenty Emmys were awarded to writers, actors, and crew members. Allison Janney is the record holder for most wins by a cast member, with a total of four Emmys.

In addition to its Emmys, the show won two Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards, in 2000 and 2001, for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. Martin Sheen is the only cast member to have won a Golden Globe, and he and Allison Janney are the only cast members to win a SAG award (for best actor and best actress). In both 1999 and 2000, The West Wing was awarded the Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting.

This table shows award wins by cast members:

W.G. "Snuffy" Walden received an Emmy Award for Main Title Theme Music in 2000 for "The West Wing Opening Theme".

Many cast members have been Emmy-nominated for their work on The West Wing but have not won, including Martin Sheen—who was nominated each year for all seven seasons of the series without receiving the award—as well as Janel Moloney, who was nominated twice, and Dulé Hill, Rob Lowe, and Mary-Louise Parker, who were all nominated once. Matthew Perry, Oliver Platt, Ron Silver, Tim Matheson, and Mark Harmon have also received Emmy nominations for guest starring on the show.

Exploration of real world issues
The West Wing often features extensive discussion of current or recent political issues. After the real-world election of Republican President George W. Bush in 2000, many wondered whether the liberal show could retain its relevance and topicality. However, by exploring many of the same issues facing the Bush administration from a Democratic point of view, the show continued to appeal to a broad audience of both Democrats and Republicans.

In its second season episode "The Midterms", President Bartlet admonishes fictional radio host Dr. Jenna Jacobs for her views regarding homosexuality at a private gathering at the White House. Dr. Jacobs is a caricature of radio personality Dr. Laura Schlessinger, who strongly disapproves of homosexuality.  Many of the president's biblical references in his comments to Dr. Jacobs appear to have come from an open letter to Dr. Schlessinger, circulated online in early May 2000.

The Bartlet administration experiences a scandal during the second and third seasons that has been compared to the Monica Lewinsky affair. President Bartlet was diagnosed with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS) in 1992. The scandal centers around President Bartlet's nondisclosure of his illness to the electorate during the election. He is investigated by an opposition Congress for defrauding the public and eventually accepts Congressional censure. Multiple sclerosis advocacy groups have praised the show for its accurate portrayal of the symptoms of MS and stressing that it is not fatal. The National MS Society commented:

Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, the start of the third season was postponed for a week, as were most American television premieres that year. A script for a special episode was quickly written and began filming on September 21. The episode "Isaac and Ishmael" aired on October 3 and addresses the sobering reality of terrorism in America and the wider world, albeit with no specific reference to September 11. While "Isaac and Ishmael" received mixed critical reviews, it illustrated the show's flexibility in addressing current events. The cast of the show state during the opening of the episode that it is not part of The West Wing continuity.

While the September 11 attacks do not occur in The West Wing continuity, the country does enter into a variation of the War on Terrorism. The war begins during the show's third season, when a plot to blow up the Golden Gate Bridge was uncovered; in response, the President orders the assassination of terrorist leader Abdul ibn Shareef. This storyline draws similarities to the real-world U.S. invasion of Afghanistan as well as U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia, as it brings the Middle East to the forefront of U.S. foreign relations and elevated terrorism as a serious threat in The West Wing universe. In Seasons 3, 4 and 5, the fictional Bahji terror group seems to act as a fictional stand-in for the real world Al Qaeda, but in Seasons 6 and 7, characters mention Al Qaeda itself as a threat, despite no clearly stated history of Al Qaeda terror attacks in The West Wing continuity (although Nancy McNally does refer to Osama Bin Laden as a potential threat at the beginning of Season 2.)

In the middle of the fourth season, Bartlet's White House is confronted with the genocide in the fictional African country of Equatorial Kundu which was compared to the Rwandan Genocide of 1994. The result was new foreign policy doctrine for Bartlet Administration and military intervention to stop the violence, which came after much hesitation and reluctance to call the conflict a genocide. In reality, the Clinton Administration didn't intervene in Rwanda, making series events look like a moral imperative.

In the sixth and seventh seasons, The West Wing explores a leak of top-secret information by a senior staffer at the White House. This leak has been compared to the events surrounding the Valerie Plame affair. In the storyline, the International Space Station is damaged and can no longer produce oxygen for the astronauts to breathe. With no other methods of rescue available, the president is reminded of the existence of a top-secret military space shuttle. Following the president's inaction, the shuttle story is leaked to a White House reporter, Greg Brock (analogous to Judith Miller), who prints the story in The New York Times. Brock will not reveal his source and goes to jail for failing to do so, as did Miller. In order to stop the investigation, in which authorities suspect Chief of Staff C.J. Cregg, Toby Ziegler admits leaking the information, and the President is forced to dismiss him. In comparison, the Plame affair resulted in the arrest and conviction of Lewis Libby, the vice president's chief of staff. However, Libby was convicted of perjury in testimony to a grand jury. No one was convicted for "blowing the cover" of Plame. (Richard Armitage, an official in the Bush State Department, acknowledged leaking information about Plame to reporters but was never charged with a crime.) Libby's two and a half year prison sentence was later commuted by President Bush, though the other facet of his sentence ($250,000 fine) stands until Libby's appeals were to be considered.

Other issues explored in The West Wing include:
North Korean and Iranian nuclear ambitions
Strained relations and a state of brinksmanship between India and Pakistan
Legislation of the Central American Free Trade Agreement
The formation of the Minuteman Project
Peacemaking and terrorism in Israel, West Bank and the Gaza Strip, including the deaths of 3 Americans in the attack on a diplomatic convoy in the Gaza Strip and a peace negotiation at Camp David, similar to the Camp David 2000 Summit.
The genocide in Darfur, Sudan
AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa
The Northern Ireland peace process
War on Drugs and conflict in Colombia
Controversy over Intelligent design in schools
Brinksmanship and potential conflict between the People's Republic of China and Republic of China over Taiwan's political status (including a situation similar to the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis when the PRC holds military exercises in response to the ROC's first democratic elections)
A hate crime murder, similar to the death of Matthew Shepard
A federal government shutdown
The 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (referred to directly, along with the fictional Marriage Recognition and Sanctity of Marriage Acts)
Anthrax attacks against the Bartlet Administration
A mysterious nuclear detonation in the Indian Ocean, similar to the Vela Incident
A bombing of apartment blocks in Moscow, leading to allegation that the Russian President orchestrated the attacks
Federal funding for the arts.
The Isla Perejil crisis, involving Morocco and Spain in 2002, is portrayed in the fifth season episode Disaster Relief, in which Greece and Albania vie for the control of a deserted islet, inhabited only by goats (as Perejil is).

The West Wing universe

Domestic
All contemporary domestic government officials in The West Wing universe have been fictional. President Bartlet has made three appointments to the fictional Supreme Court and maintains a full cabinet, although the names and terms of all members have not been revealed. Some cabinet members, such as the Secretary of Defense, appear more often than others. Many other government officials, such as mayors, governors, judges, representatives, and senators, have been mentioned and seen as well.

Fictional locations inside the United States have been created to loosely represent certain places:

San Andreo
San Andreo is a fictional California city. It is near San Diego. It has 42,000 people. The San Andreo Nuclear Generating Station is there.

A near meltdown at the nuclear plant becomes the focus of an October surprise for Republican nominee Senator Arnold Vinick during the 2006 presidential election, due to Vinick's strong pro-nuclear stance and revelations of his active lobbying for the construction of the plant. This was seen to be a key factor in Vinick's narrow defeat in the election by Democratic nominee Congressman Matt Santos.

Hartsfield's Landing
Hartsfield's Landing is a fictional town in New Hampshire. It is stated to be a very small community of only 63 people, of whom 42 are registered voters, that votes at one minute past midnight on the day of the New Hampshire primary, hours before the rest of the state, and has accurately predicted the winner of every presidential election since William Howard Taft in 1908. It is based on the true New Hampshire communities of Hart's Location and Dixville Notch, which in real life do vote before the rest of the state during the primaries, and also loosely upon the concept of "bellwether states" in US presidential elections.

Kennison State University
Kennison State is a fictional university in Iowa that was used as the setting of a bombing in the beginning of the fourth season.

Foreign
While several real-world leaders exist in the show's universe, most foreign countries have fictional rulers. Real people mentioned in The West Wing include Muammar al-Gaddafi, Yasser Arafat, Fidel Castro, Queen Elizabeth II, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, King Carl Gustaf, Thabo Mbeki and Osama bin Laden. However, when a peace accord was worked out between Israel and the Palestinian Authority at the start of the show's sixth season, the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority was the fictional Nizar Farad, not Arafat. (By that time in the real world, Arafat was dead and a successor, Rawhi Fattuh, had been elected.)

Entire countries are invented as composite pictures that epitomize many of the problems that plague real nations in certain areas of the world:

Qumar
Qumar, a fictional oil-rich, terrorist-sponsoring Middle Eastern state, is repeatedly a source of trouble for the Bartlet administration. According to maps on the show, Qumar is in southern Iran, directly across the important Strait of Hormuz. After the September 11 attacks, it became the main venue for the show's terrorism subplots.

Jabal Nafusah (also the name of a real-life Libyan city) seems to be the largest city and the capital, according to maps shown of the country. Qumar is an absolute monarchy, ruled by a sultan and his family. The country is a former British protectorate. The nation was first introduced in the third season where it was mentioned as a close ally of the United States. Qumar continues on the show to be a U.S. ally, though the sultan and other officials were extremely troubled by the Bartlet administration's assassination of Defense Minister Abdul ibn Shareef, and a bombing campaign and invasion that followed Zoey Bartlet's abduction by Qumari extremists (ostensibly in retaliation for Shareef's murder). As a result of the air strikes, gas pipelines were damaged, leading to economic troubles for the country and its European allies.

During the final season episode "The Cold", a situation room map shows the Persian Gulf clearly, but omits Qumar.

Equatorial Kundu
Equatorial Kundu is a fictional African nation blighted by AIDS and a civil war resembling the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

When Kundu was first mentioned in season 2, it is led by President Nimbala who is executed by the end of the episode. In January 2003 of the series' timeline ("Inauguration, Part I"), the Arkutu-run government of President Nzele (described as a "sadistic madman") begins an ethnic cleansing campaign against the Induye in Bitanga, killing 200 people. The violence soon spreads outside Bitanga and into the countryside. In President Josiah Bartlet's second inaugural address ("Inauguration Over There"), he announces the new Bartlet Doctrine for the use of force: America shall intervene whenever there are humanitarian interests at stake. With that new doctrine, Bartlet sends a brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division, the 101st Airborne Division, and a Marine Expeditionary Unit, a force of 11,000 troops in total, to Kundu ("The California 47th"). As of the episode "Twenty Five," US forces are still operating in Kundu.

In its original appearance, Kundu's location is somewhat ambiguous. President Nimbala and his aide appear to speak Setswana, a Bantu language spoken in South Africa and Botswana, which would imply a Southern African setting. The Season 4 appearance seems to more firmly place the country in West Africa, near to the Ivory Coast and Ghana. Its capital city is Bitanga, which contains a major airport, TV station and a radio station.

Presidential elections

Fictional timeline
In general, The West Wing attempts to create an alternative reality, in which there is a subtly different set of historical truths in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. In particular, the show tries to suggest that the last "real" president in its timeline is Richard Nixon, and to chart the careers of its principal players in the light of that decision.  Nevertheless, there are occasions in which more contemporary presidents are implied.

However, through timeline analysis, it can be assumed that while Richard Nixon was the last President to hold a real-life presidential term, Ronald Reagan was the last real-life President. These are the Presidents and their terms in the West Wing universe:
 Richard Nixon (R - 1969-1974)
 Gerald Ford (R - 1974-1975)
 Jimmy Carter (D - 1975-1979)
 Ronald Reagan (R - 1979-1987)
 D. Wire Newman (D - 1987-1991)
 Owen Lassiter (R - 1991-1999)
 Josiah "Jed" Bartlet (D - 1999-2007)
 Glen Allen Walken (R - May 8-10, 2003)
 Matt Santos (D - 2007-2015)

Skewed from reality
Fictional Presidents who served between Nixon and Bartlet include one-term Democrat D. Wire Newman (James Cromwell) and two-term Republican Owen Lassiter.

Leo McGarry is mentioned as being Labor Secretary in the administration that was in office in 1993 and 1995. In the first season, an outgoing Supreme Court Justice tells President Bartlet that he had been wanting to retire for 5 years, but waited "for a Democrat." The season four episode "Debate Camp" features a flashback to the days just before Bartlet's inauguration, as Donna Moss meets with her Republican predecessor, Jeff Johnson, who makes it clear that the outgoing Republican administration has been in office for eight years. In season six Leo says that the Republicans have been "out of power for eight years", and Republicans at their convention say "eight (years) is enough".

The passage of time on the show relative to that of the real world is somewhat ambiguous when marked by events of shorter duration (e.g., votes, campaigns). Sorkin has noted in a DVD commentary track for the second season episode "18th and Potomac" that he has tried to avoid tying The West Wing to a specific period of time. Despite this, real years are occasionally mentioned, usually in the context of elections and President Bartlet's two-term administration.

The show's presidential elections are held in 2002 and 2006, which are the years of the midterm elections in reality. The election timeline in The West Wing matches up with that of the real world until early in the sixth season, when it appears that a year is lost. For example, the filing deadline for the New Hampshire primary, which would normally fall in January 2006, appears in an episode airing in January 2005.

In an interview, John Wells stated that the series began one and a half years into Bartlet's first term and that the election to replace Bartlet was being held at the correct time.

In the season 5 episode "Access", it is mentioned that the Casey Creek crisis occurred during Bartlet's first term, and network footage of the crisis carries the date of November 2001.

1998 presidential election
Bartlet's first campaign for president is never significantly explored in the series. Bartlet won the election with 48% of the popular vote, 48 million votes, and a 303–235 margin in the Electoral College. Bartlet faced three debates with his Republican opponent, who is assumed to be Lewis D. Eisenhower, the Vice President under Owen Lassiter and an immediate relative to former President Dwight D. Eisenhower. It is mentioned that Bartlet won the third and final debate, which was held eight days before election day in St. Louis, Missouri, and that this helped swing a close election in his favor. Josh Lyman said in the days prior to the election "Bartlet was punching brick walls" as the result seemed too close to call, before the result broke his way. Leo McGarry said the same thing in "Bartlet for America" when he said "It was eight days to go, and we were too close to call".

The campaign for the Democratic nomination is extensively addressed. In the episodes "In the Shadow of Two Gunmen" and "Bartlet for America", flashbacks are used to tell how Bartlet defeated Texas Senator John Hoynes (Tim Matheson) and Washington Senator William Wiley for the Democratic nomination. The flashbacks also reveal how Leo McGarry persuaded Bartlet, who was then governor of New Hampshire, to run for president and how Bartlet ultimately selected John Hoynes as his choice as running mate.

2002 presidential election
The West Wing's 2002 presidential election pits Bartlet and Vice President John Hoynes against Florida Governor Robert Ritchie (James Brolin) and his running mate, Jeff Heston. Bartlet faces no known opposition for renomination, though Democratic Senator Stackhouse does launch a brief independent campaign for the presidency. Ritchie, not originally expected to contend for the nomination, emerges from a field of seven other Republican candidates by appealing to the party's conservative base with simple, "homey" sound bites.

Bartlet's staff contemplates replacing Vice President John Hoynes on the ticket with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Percy Fitzwallace (John Amos), among others. After it is clear that Ritchie will be the Republican nominee, Bartlet dismisses the idea, declaring that he wants Hoynes in the number two spot because of "four words," which he writes down and hands to his staffers to read: "Because I could die."

Throughout the season it is anticipated that the race will be close, but a stellar performance by Bartlet in the sole debate between the candidates helps give Bartlet a landslide victory in both the popular and electoral vote.

2006 presidential election
A speed-up in The West Wing's timeline, in part due to the expiration of many cast members' contracts and a desire to continue the program with lower production costs, resulted in the omission of the 2004 midterm elections and an election during the seventh season. The sixth season extensively details the Democratic and Republican primaries. The seventh season covers the lead-up to the general election, the election, and the transition to a new administration. The timeline slows down to concentrate on the general election race. The election, normally held in November, takes place across two episodes originally broadcast on April 2 and April 9, 2006.

Congressman Matt Santos (D-TX) (Jimmy Smits) is nominated on the fourth ballot at the Democratic National Convention, during the sixth season finale. Santos was planning to leave Congress before being recruited to run for the presidency by Josh Lyman. Santos polled in the low single digits in the Iowa caucus and was virtually out of the running in the New Hampshire primary before a last-ditch direct television appeal vaults him to a third-place finish with 19% of the vote. Josh Lyman, Santos's campaign manager, convinces Leo McGarry to become Santos' running mate.

Senator Arnold Vinick (R-CA) (Alan Alda) secures the Republican nomination, defeating Glen Allen Walken (John Goodman) and the Reverend Don Butler (Don S. Davis), among others. Initially, Vinick wants Butler to become his running mate. However, Butler does not want to be considered because of Vinick's stance on abortion. Instead, West Virginia Governor Ray Sullivan (Brett Cullen) is chosen as Vinick's running mate. Vinick is portrayed throughout the sixth season as virtually unbeatable because of his popularity in California, a typically Democratic state, his moderate views, and his wide crossover appeal. Vinick, however, faces difficulty with the pro-life members of his party as a pro-choice candidate, and criticism for his support of nuclear power following a serious accident at a Californian nuclear power station.

On the evening of the election, Leo McGarry suffers a massive heart attack and is pronounced dead at the hospital, with the polls still open on the West Coast. The Santos campaign releases the information immediately, while Arnold Vinick refuses to use Leo's death as a "stepstool" to the presidency. Santos emerges as the winner in his home state of Texas, while Vinick wins his home state of California. The election comes down to Nevada, where both candidates need a victory to secure the presidency. Vinick tells his staff repeatedly that he will not allow his campaign to demand a recount of the votes if Santos is declared the winner. Josh Lyman is seen giving Santos the same advice, although the Santos campaign does send a team of lawyers down to Nevada. Santos is pronounced the winner of the election, having won Nevada by 30,000 votes, with an electoral margin of 272–266.

Santos organizes his administration, choosing Josh Lyman as Chief of Staff, who in turn calls on former colleague Sam Seaborn to be Deputy Chief of Staff. In need of experienced cabinet members, Santos taps Arnold Vinick as Secretary of State, believing the senior statesman to be one of the best strategists available and respected by foreign leaders.

President Bartlet's final act as President of the United States is pardoning Toby Ziegler. The series ends with Bartlet returning to New Hampshire. Having said his goodbyes to his closest staff, former President Bartlet tells President Santos, "Make me proud, Mr. President", to which Santos responds, "I'll do my best, Mr. President."

According to executive producer Lawrence O'Donnell, Jr., the writers originally intended for Vinick to win the election. However, the death of Spencer forced him and his colleagues to consider the emotional strain that would result from having Santos lose both his running mate and the election. It was eventually decided that the last episodes would be rescripted by John Wells. Other statements from John Wells, however, have contradicted O'Donnell's claims about a previously planned Vinick victory. The script showing Santos winning was written long before the death of John Spencer. In 2008 O'Donnell stated to camera "We actually planned at the outset for Jimmy Smits to win, that was our .. just .. plan of how this was all going to work, but the Vinick character came on so strong in the show, and was so effective, it became a real contest ... and it became a real contest in the West Wing writer's room."

Similarities to 2008 U.S. presidential election
Similarities between the fictional 2006 election and the real-life 2008 U.S. presidential election have been noted in the media: young minority Democratic candidate (Matthew Santos on the show, Barack Obama in real life) has a gruelling but successful primary campaign against a more experienced candidate (Bob Russell on the show, Hillary Clinton in real life) and chooses an experienced Washington insider as his running mate (Leo McGarry on the show, Joe Biden in real life), whereas the Republican contest is determined early in the primary season with an aging maverick senator of a Western state being the nominee (Arnold Vinick on the show, John McCain in real life), defeating an ordained minister as the closest competitor (Reverend Butler on the show, Mike Huckabee in real life), and then selecting a socially conservative running mate from a small Republican state (West Virginia Governor Ray Sullivan on the show, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin in real life).

Writer Eli Attie called David Axelrod to talk about Obama after Obama's 2004 Democratic National Convention speech and says that he "drew inspiration from [Obama] in drawing [the Santos] character," while actor Jimmy Smits says that Obama "was one of the people that I looked to draw upon." Writer and producer Lawrence O'Donnell says that he partly modeled Vinick after McCain. Obama's Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, is said to be the basis of the Josh Lyman character, who became Santos' Chief of Staff.

References

Other websites
Official websites
United States: Warner Bros
United Kingdom: More4 (Channel Four) and Warner Bros
Japan: NHK Official Homepage of The West Wing - Season 1 , Season 2 , Season 3 , and Season 4
Canada: CTV
Sweden: SVT
Netherlands: RTL4
Norway: NRK

General
The West Wing Transcripts or Fan Transcribed Scripts
The West Wing Episode Guide
The West Wing Episode Guide with consumer ratings
The West Wing Wiki
White House Museum: "The West Wing of The West Wing" with layout, pictures, and reviews comparing the TV West Wing to the real West Wing

1999 American television series debuts
2006 American television series endings
1990s American drama television series
1990s American workplace television series
2000s American drama television series
2000s American workplace television series
American workplace drama television series
Golden Globe Award winning programs
NBC network shows
Peabody Award winners
Television series set in Washington, D.C.
Emmy Award winning programs
English-language television programs
American political drama television series

The West Wing


Eutin () is the district capital of Eastern Holstein county. It is  in the north German state of Schleswig-Holstein. As of 2015, about 17,000 people lived in the town.

History
The name Eutin (originally Utin) is Slavic. Its meaning is not clear. It probably came from the personal name "Uta". The Slavic Obotrites tribe settled eastern Holstein in the 7th/8th centuries A.D. and built a castle on Pheasant Island in the lake now called the Großer Eutiner See.

Dutch settlers came to live in Utin in the twelfth century. In 1156 Eutin became a market town.  It later became the seat of the Prince-Bishopric of Lübeck because Lübeck itself was an imperial free city.  When the bishopric was secularized in 1803, Eutin became part of the Duchy of Oldenburg. In the Greater Hamburg Act of 1937, Eutin passed from the Free State of Oldenburg to the Prussian Province of Schleswig-Holstein. After World War II, it became part of the modern Bundesland of Schleswig-Holstein.

Culture
Eutin is birthplace of composer Carl Maria von Weber. To honor him, an open-air theater () was built in the park of Eutin Castle in 1951. Operas are performed there in July and August during the Eutin Opera Summer Festival (). The seating capacity of this open-air venue is about 2000. The festival includes music students in Eutin aand students from the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. Lawrence is a twin city with Eutin.

Eutin has an annual Blues Festival (Bluesfest Eutin) at the beginning of summer. Local musicians, as well as up and coming blues artists from around the world, come to play at this three-day outdoor blues festival. The festival is in the market place in the center of town. Admission is free.

Geography and economy
Eutin is surrounded by lakes of the Holsteinische Schweiz, including the Großer Eutiner See, Kleiner Eutiner See, Kellersee and Ukleisee. There are forests around the lakes. Popular activities on these lakes include boating, canoeing, rowing, swimming, and fishing.

Schleswig-Holstein, particularly Eutin, has many rapeseed fields. They produce biofuel. Wind turbines are also a common in this rural region.

International relations

Eutin is twinned with:

 Nykøbing Falster, Denmark
 Putbus auf Rügen, Germany
 Lawrence, Kansas, US

Each summer, Lawrence and Eutin have an exchange program. High-school students from Lawrence and college students from the University of Kansas have some weeks in Eutin. German students from Eutin come to Lawrence to study. The University of Kansas also created an internship exchange program with Eutin.

References

Other websites

Official website
Website of the Eutin Opera Summer Festival
View of Eutin from a live webcam on top of the Water Tower.

Towns in Schleswig-Holstein

Eutin


Bory Tucholskie National Park () is a national park in Poland, created on July 1, 1996. It covers an area of  of forests, lakes, meadows and peatlands. The park is in the northern part of Poland, in Chojnice County in Pomeranian Voivodeship, in the heart of the Tuchola Forest, the largest woodland in Poland. It is surrounded by a larger protected area called Zaborski Landscape Park. The park forms the core of the Tuchola Forest Biosphere Reserve, designated by UNESCO in 2010.

Area
The first proposal stipulated that the national park would cover 130 square kilometres, but after discussions with local authorities it was decided that the borders would cover only the area of the so-called Seven Lakes Stream (Struga Siedmiu Jezior). The land incorporated into the national park belonged to the state (not to private individuals). Forests, meadows, and peatlands had been part of Forest Preserve Rytel and the lakes had been administered by the State Agency of Agricultural Land.

Features

The area of the Tuchola Forest was shaped by the Scandinavian Glacier; for the most part, it is covered by sandy plains. These plains are diversified by dunes and lakes. The lakes are long and narrow, creating channels, of which the longest is 17 km. The soil in the park is of poor quality.

There are more than 20 lakes in the park, some of them are pristine, of crystal-clear waters (e.g., Gacno Wielkie and Male, Nierybno, Gluche). Around 25 species of fish can be found here as well as European beavers.

The national park is a heaven for birds — there are 144 species, including crane and eagle owl. The symbol of the park — the wood grouse — until recently was common in the area, especially in the Forest District of Klosnowo. Now, authorities of the national park, plan to reintroduce this bird. A particularly important part of fauna are bats: several species thrive in the park.

Tourism
Most important tourist centers of Tuchola Forest are by the Charzykowskie and Karsinskie lakes. In recent years agro-tourism has become popular, e.g., in the village of Swornegacie. The Brda river is a kayaking trail.

Charzykowy is famous as the birthplace of Polish inland yachting. Lake Charzykowy offers good yachting conditions in summer and winter. There are bicycle trails that let tourists get acquainted with Tuchola Forest's attractions. Moreover, the Tuchola Forest is crossed by walking trails — among them the Kaszubski Trail from Chojnice to Wiela.

References

 Website of the Tuchola Forest Biosphere Reserve (in Polish)

Bibliography
Begni, Gerard (2002). Observing Our Environment From Space. Lisse: Swets and Zeitlinger.
(1997). "Environmental Protection Improves, Says Zelichowski." Poland News Bulletin. January 13.

National parks of Poland
Protected areas established in 1996
Parks in Pomeranian Voivodeship
1996 establishments in Poland

Bory Tucholskie National Park


Provence is a region in southern France. It lies. Historically, it is limited by the river Rhône to the west, and the border with Italy to the east. It makes up the biggest part of the modern administrative region Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. In the past, the capitals were Arles, Aix-en-Provence and Avignon. Today, the regional capital is Marseille. Other important cities (prefectures) are Digne-les-Bains, Gap, Nice and Toulon.

Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

Provence


The original Labyrinth was an elaborate structure designed and built by the legendary Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos.

Its function was to hold the Minotaur, which was eventually killed by the hero Theseus. Daedalus had so cleverly made the Labyrinth that he could barely escape it after he built it.

Pliny's Natural History mentions four ancient labyrinths: the Cretan labyrinth, an Egyptian labyrinth, a Lemnian labyrinth, and an Italian labyrinth.

Greek mythology
Buildings and structures

Labyrinth


The Gryphon is a fictional character devised by Lewis Carroll in the popular 1865 book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. True to the conventional view of a griffin, he has the head, talons, and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion.

Role and personality
The Gryphon appears to be somewhat overbearing and dismissive of the obsessions and dismays of other characters, such as the Mock Turtle's sorrow and the Queen of Hearts' executions, neither of which (according to the Gryphon) have any basis in fact. He speaks with a slightly ungrammatical Cockney-like accent and makes demands of the Mock Turtle, which are obeyed despite the latter creature's implicit objections. In addition, he is prone to making cough-like sounds written as "Hjckrrh!", which seem to have little meaning and may be involuntary.

In Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the Gryphon features with the Mock Turtle in Chapter 9, "The Mock Turtle's Story", Chapter 10, "The Lobster Quadrille", and briefly at the start of Chapter 11, "Who Stole the Tarts?". The Gryphon was ordered by the Queen to take Alice to meet the Mock Turtle; this he did, and stayed with them for a long time, demanding that the Mock Turtle tell its history, as well as several poems. The two creatures go on to explain certain features of their world which are apparently nonsense to Alice, before Alice and the Gryphon are summoned to a criminal trial, leaving the Mock Turtle behind.

In other media

Films
 The Gryphon appeared in the 1931 Alice in Wonderland, played by Charles Silvern.
 The Gryphon appeared in the 1933 Alice in Wonderland, played by William Austin.

 The Gryphon was to be featured in Disney's 1951 Alice in Wonderland, but the part was deleted. However, he and the Mock Turtle appeared in a Jell-O commercial.
 The Gryphon appeared in the 1966 Alice in Wonderland TV film, played by Malcolm Muggeridge.
 The Gryphon appeared in the 1972 Alice in Wonderland film, played by Spike Milligan.
 The Gryphon appeared in the 1985 Alice in Wonderland movie, played by Sid Caesar.
 The Gryphon appeared in Dreamchild, performed by Ron Mueck and voiced by Fulton Mackay.
 The Gryphon appeared in the 1999 Alice in Wonderland TV film voiced by Donald Sinden. The Gryphon was operated by David Alan Barclay, Adrian Getley, and Robert Tygner.
 In the 2010 Alice in Wonderland film, the Gryphon appeared as an "in memoriam" drawing on the wall of the Red Queen's palace, having been killed by the Jabberwocky.

Video games
 Gryphon appeared in the video game American McGee's Alice, voiced by Andrew Chaikin. Gryphon is portrayed as a noble creature that tries to help Alice and is killed by the Jabberwocky.  He is later revived after Alice defeats the Queen of Hearts. In the sequel Alice Madness Returns, he died by unknown means (possibly from being consumed by the Ruin) which his friend the Mock Turtle made a ship named "HMS Gryphon" in memory. Alice then meets with the Mock Turle to escort her to Deluded Depths to see the Walrus and Carpenter, the transport was successful but at the cost getting the ship destroyed by Shipwreck Sharks.
Gryphon appeared in the Sunsoft's 2006 mobile game . Depending on the player's choice, Gryphon is found in the forest by the Queen of Hearts' castle and helps Ariko (the "Alice" of the game) by giving her a ride on his back. In the game, the snake tail is Gryphon's "head" while the avian head is his rear. While the eagle head is animalistic, the snake tail is capable of speech and talks to Ariko in a fatherly manner.

Others
 In the anime and manga series Pandora Hearts, Gryphon is a chain for Xai Vessalius who is also similar to the Gryphon in the book.

References

Lewis Carroll characters
Griffins
Literary characters introduced in 1865
Fantasy creatures

Gryphon (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)


Weiser Antiquarian Books is the oldest occult bookstore in the United States. It specialises in books on Aleister Crowley and his circle, magic, mysticism, eastern religions and alternative spirituality. Its earlier New York incarnation, The Weiser Bookshop, was described by Leslie A. Shepherd as "perhaps the most famous occult bookstore in the U.S."

Early years
The original Samuel Weiser Bookstore was started in New York City's famous "Book Row" area by Samuel Weiser in 1926. It moved several times within the "Book Row" before relocating to 117 4th Avenue, where it remained for a number of decades. To start with, Samuel Weiser Books sold general used books but placed special emphasis on the occult and comparative religion. In 1949, Samuel Weiser was joined by his brother Ben who had worked with him for a few years in the 1930s. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, they increased Weiser Books' specialist focus on the occult at a time when many bookstores refused to handle such subjects.

One of the customers of the shop was Karl Germer, successor to Aleister Crowley as head of the Ordo Templi Orientis. After Crowley's death, most of his papers and other possessions were shipped to Germer, including the unbound sheets of the 1937 edition of his book The Equinox of the Gods. In 1955, Germer sold the sheets to Samuel Weiser, who had them bound up in maroon cloth and sold through the shop. This was probably one of the first books to be published by Samuel Weiser – although it retained the original O.T.O. title page and imprint. Germer also sold Weiser a collection of the First Edition of Crowley's masterwork on the tarot, The Book of Thoth. Despite being leather bound, printed on handmade paper, and in an edition of only 200 copies signed by Crowley himself, interest in "the Beast" was low at the time and – for nearly two decades –  copies could be purchased from the shop for $50 or less. (As of 2009, they command thousands of dollars.)

Rising rents and urban change forced many of the bookstores out of "Book Row." A number moved into the adjacent Broadway, with Weiser, whose stock had now grown to over a hundred thousand volumes, taking a premises at 845 Broadway. The new building had a huge basement, which the Weiser brothers crammed with books on all manner of subjects. After a heart attack forced Samuel Weiser into semi-retirement, Ben Weiser was joined by Samuel's son Donald.

The 1960s onwards
Samuel Weiser had begun publishing in the mid-1950s, and through the late 1950s produced a small number of books under the Occult Research Press imprint before starting to publish under his own name. The development of the 1960s "counter-culture," and the growth of popular interest in esotericism and Eastern religious and mystical traditions, allowed Ben and Donald Weiser to expand the company's publishing activities. They recruited many contemporary authors, such as Israel Regardie, who were customers.  The shop's stock also provided them with rare and out-of-print books that they could reprint.

The late 1960s saw the bookstore go through another move, this time into two floors at 734 Broadway, not far from Astor Place. The move gave Donald Weiser, who now ran the business with the assistance of Fred Mendel, the chance to further increase their specialisation. In addition to used and rare books on the occult, Weiser Books – or "The Weiser Bookstore," as it was then known – also stocked new domestic and imported titles. The publishing side of the business was also expanded, and moved into its own premises at 625 Broadway.

By the early 1980s, the costs of maintaining a number of businesses in New York City had grown increasingly difficult to sustain, and Donald Weiser moved Samuel Weiser Publishing and the new book distribution wing of the company to York, Maine.

In 1985, he also moved the specialist rare books section of the company – now named "Weiser Antiquarian Books" – to York, where it shared a two-storey warehouse with the publishing company's distribution centre. Much to the dismay of its many New York city customers, soaring city rents brought about the closure of the Broadway store in the early 1990s. Its huge stock of books was packed into shipping containers and moved to the new location in Maine, to be added to the stock of Weiser Antiquarian Books.

In the year 2000, Donald Weiser sold the publishing division of the company. Its new owners renamed it Red Wheel / Weiser but kept its York premises until 2006, when they moved the publishing company's editorial department to San Francisco and its marketing department to Newburyport, Massachusetts.

In 2005, Donald Weiser retired, and Weiser Antiquarian Books was purchased by its then-director Marilyn Rinn, and Australian writer and bookseller, Keith Richmond. The following year, they moved the company to its current premises in Cape Neddick Maine: a one-time art gallery for American artist Walt Kuhn, which had more recently been the headquarters of Samuel Weiser Publishing. In 2007, they also began publishing under the Teitan Press imprint, which was founded by Martin P. Starr and Frank Winston.

Catalogs
For decades, the Weiser Bookstore issued printed catalogs that listed anywhere between a few hundred and several thousand items, with basic descriptions of the book's author, title, condition and price. The advent of the internet brought an end to these printed catalogs, and for some years, Weiser Antiquarian Books only listed its books on various internet book-sites and directly on its own website.

In January 2006, Weiser Antiquarian Books began issuing a new series of online catalogs. Most of these catalogs are devoted to a specific author or theme. A large number have been devoted to the works of Aleister Crowley (in whom the store specialises), as well as authors including Dion Fortune, Israel Regardie, John Dee and Austin Osman Spare. In a number of cases – such as their catalogs on Jack Parsons, Marcelo Ramos Motta and Kenneth Grant – these are the first bookseller catalogs devoted specifically to these authors. Other catalogs have been devoted to specific journals – notably The Occult Review, The Inner Light, and Ambix – and subjects such as alchemy, spiritualism, Hermetica, Hermetic Qabalah,  magick, The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and Rosicrucianism. Others have been devoted to books from specific collections: for example, those of Helen Parsons Smith, Ray Burlingame, Edward Noel FitzGerald and Jean Michaud, or to collections of documents such as the Karl Germer / Reea Leffingwell correspondence or the C. F. Russell / Sydney Hamilton French / G∴B∴G∴ archive.

The catalogs contain bibliographical, historical and biographical information about the books offered for sale, and often detail previously unpublished manuscript and other material. They are often cited by researchers in online and printed publications. At the request of customers and researchers, the older catalogs are now kept in an online archive.

Weiser Antiquarian Books is now primarily an internet retailer, and does not maintain an open shop, but is open to established customers by prior appointment.

References

External links

Occult markets
Esotericism
Independent bookstores of the United States

Weiser Antiquarian Books


Wicked Sciences is an Australian television series. It takes place in Sandy Bay. It tells the story of two teenagers who suddenly become science geniuses.

Story
Toby Johnson is a normal student of Sandy Bay High School, juggling between school and the normal life of a teenager. Elizabeth Hawke is the teacher's pet. Nobody like her in the high school and she likes nobody, excepted Tony. She has liked Tony from her childhood. One day, Toby and her were in the laboratory of the school. They were hit by a strange blue ray and they become sciences geniuses. But they do not know why. The normal life of Sandy Bay is changed by the two geniuses.

Details on the story

On the first school day at Sandy Bay High School, Toby and his best friend Russel met a new student, Dina Demeris. They quickly became friends. During science class, they were chatting. When they got caught, Dina was the one who was going to be punished, but Toby said that it was his fault. He was to be punished with Russ. The teacher, Mr. Tesslar showed the students the fossils he found during the summer. He started to scan them with a machine and asked who wanted to finish the work. Elizabeth accepted. That evening, Russ, Toby and Elizabeth were in the science laboratory. Toby and Russ had to clean the aquarium, and Elizabeth was scanning the stones. Russ had a bad idea. He tried to use his mouth to change the water. He ran to the restrooms and Toby and Elizabeth cleaned the ground. A frog got out of the aquarium and jumped on the keyboard of the machine. The device scanned a strange blue stone and made a blue ray which hit Toby and Elizabeth.

Main characters
Toby Johnson: Toby is a regular student, but he is also a science genius. He tried to tell his adventure to Mr.Tesslar, but decided to keep it a secret. He has a crush on Bianca.
Russel 'Russ' Skinner: Russel is the best friend of Toby. He is afraid of Garth.
Dina Demeris:
Elizabeth Hawke:
Garth King:
Verity McGuire:
Sacha Johnson:

Other websites

Children's television series
English-language television programs

Wicked Science


The Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives Section Unit (MFAA) was a program established by the Allies in 1943 to help protect cultural property in war areas during and after World War II. The group of approximately 400 service members and civilians worked with military forces to safeguard historic and cultural monuments from war damage, and as the conflict came to a close, to find and return works of art and other items of cultural importance that had been stolen by the Nazis or hidden for safekeeping. Spurred by the Roberts Commission, MFAA branches were established within the Civil Affairs and Military Government Sections of Allied armies.

Some of them are portrayed and honored in the 2014 film The Monuments Men.

Many of the men and women of the MFAA, also known as "Monuments Men", went on to have prolific careers. Largely art historians and museum personnel, many of the American members of the group had formative roles in the growth of the United States' most prominent cultural institutions, including the National Gallery of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and the New York City Ballet. Members from other allied powers, such as the United Kingdom and France, also found post-war success in museums and other institutions across the world.

Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art, a US non-profit founded by American author and philanthropist Robert M. Edsel was created with the stated mission of preserving the legacy of those who served in the MFAA. The Foundation seeks to further the mission of the MFAA by recovering Nazi looted artworks, documents, and other cultural objects and returning them to their rightful owners. Monuments men and women have worked directly with the Foundation, including Harry L. Ettlinger and Motoko Fujishiro Huthwaite.

Formation
Even before the U.S. entered World War II, art professionals and organizations such as the American Defense Harvard Group and the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) were working to identify and protect European art and monuments in harm's way or in danger of Nazi plundering. The groups sought a national organization affiliated with the military which would have the same goal. Francis Henry Taylor, director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, took their concerns to Washington, D.C. Their efforts ultimately led to the establishment by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the "American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas" on June 23, 1943.

What began as a brain trust of the art world's finest during the war became a group of 345 men and women from 13 countries that comprised the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Section unit. They spent 1945 seeking out more than 1,000 troves containing an estimated 5 million pieces of artwork and cultural items stolen from wealthy Jews, museums, universities, and religious institutions. For six years after the surrender, a smaller group of about 60 Monuments Men continued scouring Europe as art detectives.

Commonly referred to as the Roberts Commission after its chairman, Supreme Court Justice Owen J. Roberts, the group was charged with promoting the preservation of cultural properties in war areas, including the European, Mediterranean, and Far Eastern Theaters of Operations, providing that this mission did not interfere with military operations. Headquartered at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., the Commission drew up lists of and reports on European cultural treasures and provided them to military units, in hopes that these monuments would be protected whenever possible.

The Commission helped establish the MFAA branch within the Civil Affairs and Military Government Sections of the Allied armies, led by Major L. Bancel LaFarge. After the war, the Roberts Commission helped the MFAA and Allied Forces return Nazi-confiscated artworks to rightful owners. It also promoted public awareness of looted cultural works. The group was dissolved in June 1946, when the State Department took over its duties and functions.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower facilitated the work of the MFAA by forbidding looting, destruction, and billeting in structures of cultural significance. He also repeatedly ordered his forces to assist the MFAA as much as possible. This was the first time in history an army attempted to fight a war and at the same time reduce damage to cultural monuments and property.

War operations
As Allied Forces made their way through Europe, liberating Nazi-occupied territories, Monuments Men were present in very small numbers at the front lines. Lacking handbooks, resources, or supervision – even precedent for their work – this initial handful of officers relied on their museum training and overall resourcefulness to perform their tasks. They worked in the field under the Operations Branch of SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force, Europe, commanded by Eisenhower), and were actively involved in battle preparations. In preparing to take Florence, which was used by the Nazis as a supply distribution center due to its central location in Italy, Allied troops relied on aerial photographs provided by the MFAA which were marked with monuments of cultural importance so that pilots could avoid damaging such sites during bombings.

When damage to monuments did occur, MFAA personnel worked to assess it and buy time for the eventual restoration work that would follow. Monuments officer Deane Keller had a prominent role in saving the Campo Santo in Pisa after a mortar round started a fire that melted the lead roof, which then bled down the iconic 14th century fresco-covered walls. Keller led a team of Italian and American troops and restorers in recovering the remaining fragments of the frescoes and in building a temporary roof to protect the structure from further damage. Restoration of the frescoes continues even today.

Countless other monuments, churches, and works of art were saved or protected by personnel of the MFAA section, whose dedication to their work would frequently draw them ahead of battle lines. Entering liberated towns and cities ahead of ground troops, Monuments Men worked quickly to assess damage and make temporary repairs before moving on with Allied Armies as they conquered Nazi territory.

Two monuments officers were killed in Europe, both near the front lines of the Allied advance into Germany. Captain Walter Huchthausen, an American scholar and architect attached to the U.S. 9th Army, fell to small arms fire in April 1945 somewhere north of Essen and east of Aachen, Germany. Major Ronald Edmond Balfour, a British scholar attached to the Canadian First Army, died from a shell-burst in March 1945 while operating beyond the Allied front line in Cleves, Germany.

Art repositories
American and allied forces in Europe discovered hidden caches of priceless treasures. While many were the product of looting by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, others had been legitimately evacuated from museums, churches, public buildings, and elsewhere for safekeeping. Monuments Men oversaw the safeguarding, cataloguing, removal and packing of all works from all these repositories.

In Italy, museum officials had sent their holdings to various countryside locations such as the Tuscan villa of Montegufoni, which housed some of the Florentine collections.  As Allied forces advanced through Italy, the German army retreated north, stealing paintings and sculptures from these repositories as they fled. As German forces neared the Austrian border, they were forced to store most of their loot in various hiding places, such as a castle at Sand in Taufers and a jail cell in San Leonardo.

Beginning in late March 1945, Allied forces began discovering these hidden repositories in what became the "greatest treasure hunt in history". In Germany alone, U.S. forces found about 1,500 repositories of art and cultural objects looted from institutions and individuals across Europe, as well as German and Austrian museum collections that had been evacuated for safekeeping.  Soviet forces also made discoveries, such as treasures from the extraordinary Dresden Transport Museum. Hundreds of the artifacts were surrendered by, or had their locations reported by, SS General Karl Wolff as part of Operation Sunrise, his secret negotiation with the Office of Strategic Services. These included the contents of the Uffizi and Pitti palaces and paintings by Titian and Botticelli.

Some of the repositories discovered by Monuments Men in Germany, Austria, and Italy were:
 Berchtesgaden, Germany: The 101st Airborne Division, known as the "Screaming Eagles", found more than 1,000 paintings and sculptures stolen by German Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring. The cache had been transferred from his country estate, Carinhall, and moved to Berchtesgaden in April 1945.
 Bernterode, Germany: Americans found four coffins containing the remains of Germany's greatest leaders, including those of Frederick the Great (Frederick II of Prussia) and field marshal Paul Von Hindenburg.  Also found in the mine were 271 paintings, including court portraits from the Prussian Sanssouci palace in Potsdam, Germany, which had been hidden behind a locked door and a brick wall nearly five feet thick. The site was originally used as an ammunition and military supply complex manned by hundreds of slave laborers.
 Merkers, Germany: The Kaiserode mine at Merkers was discovered by the U.S. 3rd Army under General George S. Patton in April 1945. Reichsbank gold, along with 400 paintings from the Berlin museums and numerous other crates of treasures were also discovered.  Discoveries also included gold and personal belongings from Nazi concentration camp victims.
 Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany: Over 6,000 items stolen by the ERR (Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg, Alfred Rosenberg's task force that handled the "legalized" looting of Jews) from private collectors in France were found here, including furniture, jewelry (see Nazi gold), paintings and other belongings. Monuments Man Capt. James Rorimer oversaw the evacuation of the repository, which also held ERR documents.
 Altaussee, Austria: This extensive complex of salt mines served as a huge repository for art stolen by the Nazis, but it also contained holdings from Austrian collections. More than 6,500 paintings alone were discovered at Altaussee. The contents included: Belgian-owned treasures such as Michelangelo's Madonna of Bruges stolen from the Church of Our Lady in Bruges, and Jan van Eyck's Ghent Altarpiece stolen from Saint Bavo Cathedral in Ghent; Vermeer's The Astronomer and The Art of Painting which were to be focal points of Hitler's Führermuseum in Linz, Austria; and paintings from the Capodimonte Museum in Naples, Italy that had been stolen by the Hermann Göring Tank Division (Fallschirm-Panzer Division 1 Hermann Göring) at Monte Cassino in Italy.
 San Leonardo, Italy:  In the jail cell of this far northern town, Allied officials discovered paintings from the Uffizi that had been hurriedly unloaded by retreating German troops.  Among the masterpieces were paintings by Sandro Botticelli, Filippo Lippi and Giovanni Bellini.

Restitution
In addition to preserving and cataloguing stolen and displaced treasures, MFAA efforts established pathways for restitution; initially, this took place in the form of return to a rightful owner, when identified.

Central Collecting Points
Centralized collection depots began being established in the immediate aftermath of the war.  In early May 1945, Lt. Col. Geoffrey Webb, British MFAA chief at Eisenhower's headquarters, proposed that U.S. forces quickly prepare buildings in Germany so that they might receive large shipments of artworks and other cultural property found in the numerous repositories. Eisenhower directed his subordinates to immediately begin preparing such buildings, ordering that art objects were to be handled only by MFAA personnel. Suitable locations with little damage and adequate storage space were difficult to find.

The first Central Collecting Point (CCP), the Marburg Central Collecting Point, opened in the wake of Germany's unconditional surrender. Shortly after U.S. forces established two other CCP within the U.S. Zone in Germany: Munich Central Collecting Point and Wiesbaden. Secondary collecting points were also established in various German towns, including: Bad Wildungen, Bamberg, Bremen, Goslar, Heilbronn, Nuremberg, Oberammergau, Vornbach, and Würzburg. One of the more critical of these secondary collecting points was the Offenbach Archival Depot, where officials processed millions of Nazi-looted books, archives, manuscripts, Jewish objects such as Torah scrolls, and property seized from Masonic lodges.

In summer 1945, Capt. Walter Farmer became the Wiesbaden Collecting Point's first director. When his superiors ordered that he send to the U.S. 202 German-owned paintings in his custody, Farmer and 35 others who were in charge of the Wiesbaden collection point gathered to draw up what has become known as the Wiesbaden manifesto on 7 November 1945, declaring "We wish to state that, from our own knowledge, no historical grievance will rankle so long or be the cause of so much justified bitterness as the removal for any reason of a part of the heritage of any nation even if that heritage may be interpreted as a prize of war." Among the co-signers was Lt. Charles Percy Parkhurst of the U.S. Navy.

Once an object arrived at a collecting point, it was recorded, photographed, studied, and sometimes conserved so that it could be returned to its country of origin as soon as possible. Some objects were easily identifiable and could be quickly returned, such as the Veit Stoss Altar of Veit Stoss from St. Mary's Basilica in Kraków, which had been discovered in the Nuremberg Castle. Others, such as unmarked paintings or library collections, were much more difficult to process.
Among the facilities were:
 Marburg Central Collecting Point: Monuments officer Walker Hancock established at the end of World War II the first Collecting Point for art depots in central Germany with the help of German institutions. After one year, in the middle of August 1946, the institution was dissolved and the remaining objects were moved to Wiesbaden.
 Munich Central Collecting Point:  Monuments officer Lt. Craig Hugh Smyth established the Munich CCP in July 1945. He converted the former Führerbau, which housed Hitler's office, into a functional art depot complete with photography studios and conservation labs. This facility primarily housed art stolen by the ERR from private collections and Hitler's collection found at Altaussee.
 Wiesbaden Central Collecting Point: Monuments officer Capt. Walter Farmer helped establish this facility in July 1945. Art from the Berlin museums and other items found in the mines at Merkers were processed here. Museum collections stored at Siegen and Grasleben also were sent to Wiesbaden.
 Offenbach Archival Depot: Established in July 1945 in the I.G. Farben building on the Main River just outside Frankfurt, Offenbach primarily served as an archival depot. Because the OCP housed the largest collection of Jewish cultural property in the world, including the entire holdings of the Rothschild Library in Frankfurt and cultural objects from Masonic lodges, restitutions were complicated. Identification of the millions of books, religious objects and other materials was tedious. Many of the owners had become victims of the Holocaust leaving no one alive to pursue claims. The facility was closed in 1948 and its remaining unclaimed items were transferred to Wiesbaden.

Occupation of Japan
As the war neared its end in Japan in 1945, Monuments Men George Stout and Major Laurence Sickman recommended creating an MFAA division there. Consequently, the Arts and Monuments Division of the Civil Information and Education Section of GHQ of the Supreme Command of the Allied Powers in Tokyo was established. Stout was the Chief of the Division from about August 1945 until the middle of 1946.

Langdon Warner, archaeologist and curator of Oriental art at Harvard's Fogg Museum, advised the MFAA Section in Japan from April to September 1946. Other members included Howard Hollis,  Lt. Col. Harold Gould Henderson, Lt. Sherman Lee, and Lt. Patrick Lennox Tierney.

MFAA personnel

The American museum establishment led the efforts to create the MFAA section. Its members included museum directors, curators, and art historians, as well as those who aspired to join their ranks. Many major museums employed one or more MFAA officers before or after the war, including the National Gallery of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Toledo Museum of Art, and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

Many other Monuments Men were or became professors at esteemed universities such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, New York University, Williams College, and Columbia University, among others. Paul J. Sachs' famous "Museum Course" at Harvard had educated dozens of future museum personnel in the decades preceding World War II. S. Lane Faison's passion for art history was passed on to hundreds of students and future museum leaders at Williams College in the 1960s and 1970s, some of whom are currently directors at major United States museums.

Upon returning home from service overseas, many former MFAA personnel led the creation or improvement of some of the leading cultural institutions in the United States. MFAA personnel became founders, presidents, and members of cultural institutions such as the New York City Ballet, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, the American Association of Museums, the American Association of Museum Directors, the Archaeological Institute of America, the Society of Architectural Historians, the American Society of Landscape Architects, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as respected artists, architects, musicians, and archivists.

Several portraits of British Monuments Men and Women are in the permanent collection of National Portrait Gallery, London.

Awards

 2007 National Humanities Medal, was awarded to the Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art on behalf of the US.
 2009 honorary Doctor of Fine Arts, by MassArt
 On May 19, 2014, the United States House of Representatives voted to pass the Monuments Men Recognition Act of 2013, a bill that would award the Monuments Men a Congressional Gold Medal "in recognition of their heroic role in the preservation, protection, and restitution of monuments, works of art, and artifacts of cultural importance during and following" World War II. Representatives praised the Monuments Men for preserving cultural heritage. The award was given after several years of tireless work on the part of the Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art, and its founder Robert M. Edsel.

2014 film

The Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program is the subject of the 2014  Sony Pictures and 20th Century Fox film The Monuments Men. The film, which stars George Clooney, Matt Damon, Jean Dujardin, Cate Blanchett, and John Goodman, is based on Robert M. Edsel's New York Times best-selling 2007 book Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History.

See also
 Art repatriation
 Art theft and looting during World War II
 Counterintelligence Corps

References
Notes

Bibliography
 Albergoni, Attilio. La Guerra dell'Arte Edited by Navarra editore - Soprintendenza ai Beni Culturali e Ambientali Regione Siciliana Palermo - Palermo 2017
 Bell, H. E. and Jenkinson, Hilary. Italian Archives During the War and at Its Close. Edited by the British Committee on the Preservation and Restitution of Works of Art, Archives and Other Material in Enemy Hands. London: HMSO 1947.
 Boi, Marta M. Guerra e beni culturali, Giardini editore (Pisa,1986)
 Coccoli, Carlotta. "Repertorio dei fondi dell'Archivio Centrale dello Stato relativi alla tutela dei monumenti italiani dalle offese belliche nella seconda guerra mondiale" in Treccani, Gian Paolo (a cura di), Monumenti alla guerra. Città, danni bellici e ricostruzione nel secondo dopoguerra, Milano, Franco Angeli Storia Urbana, pp. 303–329.
 Coccoli, Carlotta. "Il destino del patrimonio artistico bresciano durante la seconda guerra mondiale", in Civiltà Bresciana, anno XIX, n. 2, giugno 2010, pp. 127–148.
 Coccoli, Carlotta. "'First Aid and Repairs' il ruolo degli Alleati nella salvaguardia dei monumenti italiani", in 'ANATKH n. 62/2011, pp. 13–23.
 Coccoli, Carlotta. "Danni bellici e restauro dei monumenti italiani: orientamenti di lettura", in Coccoli, Carlotta and Venezia, Marsilio (eds.) Guerra, monumenti, ricostruzione. Architetture e centri storici italiani nel secondo conflitto mondiale, a cura di Lorenzo de Stefani(2011_, pp. 685–688
 Edsel, Robert M. Rescuing Da Vinci: Hitler and the Nazis Stole Europe's Great Art, America and her Allies Recovered It (Dallas, 2006)
 Edsel, Robert M. Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History. Preface Publishing, 2009.
 Edsel, Robert M. Saving Italy: The Race to Rescue a Nation's Treasures from the Nazis. W. W. Norton & Company, 2013.
 Edsel, Robert M. The Greatest Treasure Hunt in History: the Story of the Monuments Men Scholastic Inc, 2019.
 "Fifty war-damaged monuments of Italy", Istituto poligrafico dello Stato, (Roma, 1946)
 Jelusić, Marko. "Ein Zufluchtsort für weltbekannte Kunst. Bad Wildungen als Bergungsdepot für das Landesmuseum und das Kestner-Museum Hannover während des Zweiten Weltkrieges". Hannoversche Geschichtsblätter 65 (2011). 111-134.
 Kurtz, Michael J. America and the Return of Nazi Contraband (Cambridge, 2006)
 O'Connor, Anne-Marie. (2012). The Lady in Gold, The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt's Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, .
 Paolucci, Stefano. I Monuments Men ai Colli Albani. La protezione dei beni culturali in tempo di guerra. Vicende e documenti (1943-1948). Passamonti Editore, 2020. .
 Paolucci, Stefano. I "Monuments Men" ai Colli Albani: la protezione dei beni culturali in tempo di guerra. Vicende e documenti (1943-1948), in "Bollettino della Unione Storia ed Arte", s. III, n. 11, gennaio-dicembre 2016, pp. 35-74.
 Paolucci, Stefano. Il capitano Deane Keller: un "Monuments Man" ai Castelli Romani, in "Castelli Romani", LVI, n. 3, maggio-giugno 2016, pp. 79-85.
 Rasch, Marco (2021). Das Marburger Staatsarchiv als Central Collecting Point. Mit Beiträgen von Tanja Bernsau, Susanne Dörler, Sonja Feßel, Iris Lauterbach und Katrin Marx-Jaskulski. Begleitband zur gleichnamigen Ausstellung im Hessischen Staatsarchiv, Marburg, Schriften des Hessischen Staatsarchivs 39.
 Roberts Commission, Report on the American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas (Washington, 1946)
 Simpson, Elizabeth (ed.) The Spoils of War. World War II and its Aftermath: The Loss, Reappearance, and Recovery of Cultural Property (New York, 1997).
 United States War Department. "Civil Affairs Information Guide: Field Protection of Objects of Art and Archives". War Department Pamphlet Nr. 31-103.
 United States War Department. "Preservation and Use of Key Records in Germany". War Department Pamphlet Nr. 31-123.

Further reading
 Coccoli, Carlotta (2017) Monumenti violati. Danni bellici e riparazioni in Italia nel 1943-1945: il ruolo degli Alleati, Nardini
 Dagnini Brey, Ilaria (2010) The Venus Fixers: The Remarkable Story of the Allied Soldiers Who Saved Italy's Art During World War II, Picador
 Eckert, Astrid M. (2012). The Struggle for the Files: The Western Allies and the Return of German Archives after the Second World War. New York, Cambridge University Press, ch. I.
 Flanner, Janet (1947) Men and Monuments. New York: Harper. (Reissued as paperback 1990: ).;

External links

 Roberts Commission Records, U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
  Records Concerning the Central Collecting Points, U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
 Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art
 Offenbach Archival Depot, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
  Nazi-era Provenance Internet Portal, American Alliance of Museums
  The Rape of Europa, 2006 PBS film, aired November 24, 2008 PBS (Oregon Public Broadcasting)
 World War II "Monuments Men" Archival Collections at the Archives of American Art, Online exhibition, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution

 Voices of the Monuments Men: oral history interviews.
 Webcast presentation about Saving Italy on May 9, 2013, at the Pritzker Military Library

1943 establishments in the United States
Art and cultural repatriation
Art and cultural repatriation after World War II
Civil affairs of the United States military
Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage
Heritage organizations
Restitution


François-Joseph Gossec (born Vergnies, 17 January 1734 — 16 February, 1829) was a South Netherlands composer.  He was born in what is now Belgium, but worked in France during his long life.  People hardly ever hear his music now except for one very popular piece of dance music called Tambourin.  He was famous in France in his time and had a lot of influence on French music.

Life and Work
Gossec's family were small farmers.  When Gossec was young he worked as a cowherd (someone who looks after cows).  He showed a lot of talent and became a choir-boy in the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Antwerp.

In 1751 he went to Paris.  The composer Jean-Philippe Rameau was very impressed by him and got him jobs playing the violin and double bass in his private orchestra.  He heard a lot of music by German composers and started to write music of his own.  His symphony in D was one of the first works in France to use clarinets which had only just been invented.  He composed many  operas as well as instrumental works.

In 1762 Gossec became the conductor of a private theatre of the Prince of Condé at Chantilly.  A lot of German and Bohemian wind players at that time went to Paris, and Gossec gave them jobs in his orchestra.

Gossec wrote a lot of music for the French Revolution.  When the Paris Conservatoire was opened in 1795 he became a teacher of composition there.

Gossec composed lots of different kinds of music.  His music for instruments was very successful.  He wrote operas which suited the taste of French people at the time, but he did not have a good sense of drama and the words of his operas were uninteresting.  He was an important man in the history of music because he organized a lot of musical events in Paris.  He was made a chevalier of the Legion of Honour.  A lot of composers  went to his funeral.

1734 births
1829 deaths
Belgian composers
Classical era composers
Legion of Honour
People from Hainaut (province)

François-Joseph Gossec


Narasimha, according to Hinduism, was the fourth avatar of Vishnu. In this form, Vishnu had the body of a man, but he had a head of a lion. This avatar of Vishnu is also a symbol of great strength.

The Hindu scriptures tell this story about Narashimha. There was a demon (a daitya) named Hiranyakashipu. He was against all gods. But, his son named Prahlad used to worship the gods, especially Vishnu. Hiranyakashipu was not happy at his son and wanted to burn him to death. Hiranyakashipu also wanted to kill everyone who worshipped the gods and make everyone worship him instead. Vishnu became Narasimha, and protected Prahlad and other people who worshipped the gods by stopping Hiranyakashipu. Brahma had granted Hiranyakashipu a boon that kept him safe so that he could not be killed by a human, animal or deva. He also could not be killed in the day or night, or inside or outside of his palace. This made Hiranyakashipu believe that no one could kill him. When he wanted to kill his son for worshiping Vishnu, Vishnu came to earth incarnated as a half-man, half-lion creature (neither man nor human). This way Vishnu killed Hiranyakashipu in the twilight (neither day, nor night) and on the porch of the palace (neither inside, nor outside), without disrupting the boon given to him by Brahma. Now, Narasimha Jayanti is celebrated across the world.

Hinduism
Hindu mythology

Narasimha


Plaza Romania is a shopping mall in Bucharest, Romania. The construction, based on an uncompleted hunger circus abandoned after the fall of Nicolae Ceaușescu, has three distinguishable parts — a central structure with a dome  in diameter, and two new and complex wing structures.  The centre has two functional sections — a mall and a hypermarket — which can be operated independently, according to operation conditions.  The site also includes an open-air carpark and an indoor carpark.

The entire structure has four floors: the basement, which contains the carpark and leisure areas; the ground floor, which contains department stores, the Hypermarket, and retail stores; the first floor, which contains retail stores, leisure areas, and cinemas; and the second floor, which contains more retail shops and cinemas, as well as a bowling alley, a fitness centre and a food court.

On August 29, 2009, a tribute to Michael Jackson was given at Plaza Romania with many dancers. This would have been his 51st birthday.

References

External links
Official website

Shopping malls in Bucharest

Plaza Romania


Westwood Memorial Park Cemetery is a cemetery in the Westwood Village of Los Angeles. It is located at 1218 Glendon Avenue in Westwood.

History
The cemetery was founded as Sunset Cemetery in 1905, but had been used for burials since the 1880s and was renamed with current name in 1926.

Although it is the resting place of some of the entertainment industry's greatest names, it also contains the graves of many uncelebrated people. For example, when Marilyn Monroe died in 1962, Joe DiMaggio, responsible for Monroe's arrangements, chose Westwood not because of its celebrities but because it was the resting place of Monroe's mother's friend, Grace Goddard, and Goddard's aunt, Ana Lower, both of whom had cared for Monroe as a child.

Cemeteries in the United States
Los Angeles

Westwood Memorial Park Cemetery


The coat o airms o Guatemala comprises:
 A wreath o Bay Laurel branches, the seembol for veectory;
 The Resplendent Quetzal, a bird that seembolizes liberty;
 A scroll on which is written LIBERTAD 15 DE SEPTIEMBRE DE 1821 (15 September 1821 is the date o Central Americae's unthirldom frae Spain);
 Twa crossed Remington rifles wi bayonets indicatin Guatemala's willinness tae defend itsel bi force if need be;
 Twa crossed swords, representin honour.

The emblem wis designed bi the Swiss airtist an engraver Jean-Baptiste Frener, who lived in Guatemala frae 1854 till his daith in 1897.

The coat o airms an aa appears on the Banner o Guatemala. The quetzal previously appeared in the banner o Los Altos, Central Americae in the 1830s.

Freemit airtins
 Guatemala - Coat of Arms at Flags of the World

Guatemala
Naitional seembols o Guatemala

Coat o airms o Guatemala


The bank vole (Myodes glareolus) is a small, type of vole with red-brown fur with some grey patches, its body is around 100 millimeters (3.9 in) long in length and the tail is around 50 millimeters long. They weigh around 20 to 35 grams, they have blunt noses and have small eyes and ears.

Where it lives
The Bank vole lives in woodlands, oak woods, farmlands, hedgerows, and grasslands in Europe (except for the north and south) and east, north, and central Asia.

Behavior
The Bank Vole is active during both, day and night, but they rest a lot to stop themselves from getting tired. They make their nests under logs, in tree holes, or sometimes underground. In the autumn they store food for the winter.

Feeding
Bank voles are omnivorous, meaning that they eat other animals and plants. They eat insects, snails, grass, seeds, fungi, leaves and fruit, like raspberry and hazelnut. They have also been known to eat the bodies of dead animals.

Lives
Baby Bank voles are born in nests made of grass, moss and feathers. The nests are built above ground, usually in trees. When the babies are born they have no fur and are blind. They live on their mothers milk for the first few weeks of their life. A mother Bank vole has an average of six babies at a time, and can have five litters in a season. A baby Bank vole born in spring will be old enough to breed by the time fall comes. A Bank vole lives for an average of 18 to 20 months.

Predators
Some predators of the Bank vole are the Barn owls, the Tawny owls, the fox, the weasel, and the stoat.

Rodents
Mammals of Europe
Mammals of Asia

Bank vole