Peter Grimes is an opera by Benjamin Britten.  It was first performed in 1945.  It is generally thought to be the most important British opera of the 20th century.  It is about a community in a small fishing village in the east of England in the 1820s.  Peter Grimes is a fisherman who feels that the people do not want to have anything to do with him.  He wants to make lots of money so that he can marry and get people's respect.  In his obsession with catching as much fish as possible he is cruel to the boys who help him (his apprentices), and they die.  At the end of the opera Grimes drowns himself.

Britten wrote the main part (Peter Grimes) for his life partner Peter Pears to sing.

There are three acts, and the opera starts with a prologue and ends with an epilogue.  Some of the scenes are joined by continuous music, and some of this is often played separately in concerts.  This music is known as the Four Sea Interludes.

History of its composition

When World War II started Britten and Pears went to America to avoid the war.  In 1941 Britten started to feel homesick because he read an article by E.M.Forster about George Crabbe, a poet who had lived in the same part of England that Britten came from.  Britten started to realize that, in order to compose well, he had to go back to his own country.  Britten and Pears returned to England in 1942.

The conductor Sergei Koussevitzky asked Britten to write an opera based on a poem by George Crabbe.  The poem, called "The Borough", was about the story of Peter Grimes.  The village in the poem was fictitious, but it was very much like Aldeburgh where Britten later made his home.  Britten asked Montagu Slater to write the libretto based on the story of  Crabbe's poem.

The opera was first performed at Sadler's Wells Theatre in London on 7 June 1945 by the company which later became English National Opera.  The conductor was Reginald Goodall.   Pears sang the title role.

The first American performance was in 1946 at Tanglewood conducted by Koussevitzky's pupil, Leonard Bernstein.  Britten dedicated it to Koussevitsky's wife.

Roles

Synopsis

Prologue
The first young boy who was an apprentice to Peter Grimes has already been killed.  He was at sea for three days without water to drink.  An inquest is being held to decide whether Grimes is guilty of the boy's death.  The people all seem to think he is guilty.  The judge decides that the boy's death was an accident.  However, he says to Grimes that he should not get another apprentice.  Grimes is very angry at being told this.  Ellen Orford, a school teacher, comforts him.  In their beautiful duet Ellen and Peter sing at first in different keys, but finally sing together in the same key.

Act 1
The scenery shows the Moot Hall, the Boar Inn (the village pub) and the church.  People are saying "Good morning" to one another, especially the Slave Master who says it many times.  The fishermen start work mending their nets.  Keene tells Grimes that he has found another apprentice for him.  He is a poor boy who lives in the workhouse.  Nobody wants Grimes to have another apprentice.  Hobson, the cart man, refuses to fetch him.  But Ellen supports Peter.  She sings to the crowd: "Let her among you without fault cast the first stone" (meaning: "You all have faults so do not criticize").  Hobson goes off to get the boy.  A terrible storm is coming.

The scene now changes to The Boar Inn.  It is very noisy inside.  Bob Boles gets drunk and wants to make love to the landlady's nieces.  The storm is still raging outside.  Grimes comes in.  People are shocked, but Grimes does not notice.  He sings and song about human fate: "Now the Great Bear and Pleiades".  The tune is in the orchestra in canon while Grimes sings very simple lines of music.  People are embarrassed, so they start to sing a round: "Old Joe has gone fishing".  It has three tunes and has seven counts in a bar.  The boy is brought in and Grimes takes him off in spite of the storm.

Act 2
The opening of the next act is peaceful.  It is Sunday morning.  People are in church, and now again we hear the singing coming from the church.  Ellen talks to the boy.  She is horrified to see he has a bruise on his neck.  Grimes says it was an accident.  He gets annoyed that Ellen is worried about the boy and runs off with him.  The people of the village have noticed and march up to Grimes's hut.  The scene ends with a peaceful contrast: a duet sung by the two nieces.

The orchestra play a beautiful passacaglia which links to the next scene.  Grimes is accusing the boy of "telling stories".  Then he starts to feels guilty about the first boy's death.  He hears the villagers coming and tells the boy they have to go fishing.  He pushes him out onto the rocks and the boy falls to his death.  When the villagers arrive at the hut they find it empty.

Act 3
Act 3 opens with music describing moonlight at night.  People are dancing in the Moot Hall.  People are very merry.   Mrs. Sedley tries to tell people that Grimes is a murderer, but they do not listen.  People then start to leave, saying "Goodnight" to one another (especially the Rector).  Balstrode is walking with Ellen.  He tells her that Grimes's boat is in, but Grimes cannot be found.  A boy's jersey has been washed up on the shore.  Ellen sings an aria "Embroidery in childhood was a luxury of idleness".  It is a moment of stillness in the drama.

A short interlude based on one chord leads to the next scene in which people are looking for Grimes.  Grimes drags himself onto the shore.  He seems to have gone mad.  We hear a foghorn (played by an off-stage tuba) as he sings.  Balstrode tells Grimes that he should go out to sea in his boat and sink it.

Epilogue

The opera ends with an epilogue in which the scene is the same as the beginning of the opera.  Someone says that a boat has been seen sinking out to sea, but no one is interested.  The people have forgotten Grimes, and continue their lives without him.

Discography
 1958: Peter Pears (Peter Grimes), Claire Watson (Ellen Orford), James Pease (Balstrode), Jean Watson (Auntie); Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Benjamin Britten - (Decca)
 1978: Jon Vickers (Peter Grimes), Heather Harper (Ellen Orford), Jonathan Summers (Balstrode), Elizabeth Bainbridge (Auntie); Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Colin Davis - (Philips)
 1992: Anthony Rolfe Johnson (Peter Grimes), Felicity Lott (Ellen Orford), Thomas Allen (Balstrode), Patricia Payne (Auntie); Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Bernard Haitink - (EMI Classics)

Sources
 The New Kobbe's Opera Book, ed. Earl of Harewood and Antony Peattie;  London 2000;

Compositions by Benjamin Britten
1940s operas

Peter Grimes


A picture frame is usually a rectangular or oval shaped object designed to hold, protect and display a painting, drawing, or photograph. Most picture frames are made of wood or metal, and may have a glass cover. Some can be attached to walls, while others can stand up on a flat surface. The frames can be works of art themselves.

Art

Picture frame


Marianna Martines, also Marianne von Martinez (4 May 1744 – 13 December 1812), was a composer, pianist, and singer of the classical period, based in Vienna, Austria who knew Mozart and Haydn.

Background

Marianna Martines's paternal grandfather was a Spanish soldier who had settled in Naples. Her father, Nicolo Martines, grew up there and for a time pursued a career as a soldier. He later changed careers, serving in Vienna as Maestro di Camera (major-domo) at the papal nuncio; that is, the Pope's embassy to the Austrian Empire. For service to the Empire, Marianna's brother Joseph in 1774 acquired a patent of nobility, hence the "von" in the family surname.

In his youth in Italy, Nicolo had befriended the poet Pietro Trapassi, who wrote under the name Metastasio. The latter had risen in eminence, to the point that in 1730 he was called to Vienna to serve as the Poet Laureate of the Empire. Metastasio resided with the Martines family for the entire rest of his life (from about 1734 to 1782). His presence would prove crucial to Marianne's career.

The Martines family lived in an apartment in a large building on the Michaelerplatz in Vienna, "a stately building still standing in the Kohlmarkt", the so-called "Altes Michaelerhaus". As was common in the days before elevators, the floors of the building corresponded to the social class of the inhabitants. On the lowest floor were the rooms of the dowager princess of the wealthy Esterházy family. The Martines family were on the third floor. Another resident of the middle floors was Nicola Porpora, a well-known Italian singing teacher and composer. At the very top, in a cold and leaky attic room, lived a struggling young composer, Joseph Haydn, who was trying to make his way as a freelance musician.  The lives of all of these people ultimately came to be connected, in part through Marianna Martines.

She was born into this home in 1744. Though baptized Anna Catherina, she chose to go by the name Marianna.

Metastasio, the family friend, made it a practice to help out with the raising and careers of the Martines children; for instance, at one point he helped Giuseppe obtain an important job as custodian of the Imperial Library. In the case of Marianna, he noticed her precocious talents early, and thus came to oversee her education, musical and otherwise.

He first arranged for her to take keyboard lessons from Haydn, whom Metastasio had met as a result of their living in the same building. These lessons began when Marianna was aged seven, and lasted until she was ten. When she turned ten, Marianna began singing lessons with Porpora, who had also met Haydn and taken him on as his assistant; Haydn played the harpsichord while Porpora taught Marianne.

Soon after Marianna began her music lessons she demonstrated a talent for composition, so she began still further lessons with Johann Adolph Hasse and the Imperial court composer Giuseppe Bonno.

Metastasio also saw to it that Marianna received a thorough general education, which far surpassed what was considered standard for women of her social class at that time. She was a native speaker of both Italian and German, and in an autobiographical letter to Padre Martini indicated that she had good command of French. The musicologist Charles Burney, visiting Vienna, found that she also could speak English.

Career as performer and composer

Already as a child Martines was good enough to perform before the Imperial court, where according to the Helene Wessely, she "attracted attention with her beautiful voice and her keyboard playing." The adult Marianna was frequently asked to perform before the Empress Maria Theresa.

A number of the works that Martines composed are set for solo voice, and her biographers (Godt, Wessely) conjecture that the first singer of these works was their composer.  If so, they constitute further evidence for her ability, as the music shows a "predilection for coloratura passages, leaps over wide intervals and trills indicat[ing] that she herself must have been an excellent singer." (Wessely).

Martines wrote a number of secular cantatas and two oratorios to Italian texts.  These texts are, naturally enough, the work of her mentor Metastasio.

Surviving compositions include four masses, six motets, and three litanies for choir. She wrote in the Italian style, as was typical for the early Classical period in Vienna.  Her harpsichord performance practice was compared to the style of C.P.E. Bach.  Martines's compositions were well regarded in her time, and some scholars have suggested that Mozart modeled his 1768 Mass, V. 139, after the "Christe" of Martines's Mass No. 1 in D major.  The Michaelerkirche (St. Michael's Church, next door to the Martines home), saw a performance of her third mass in 1761.  Her fourth mass was completed in 1765.

Later life

Martines's name and music were known throughout Europe, and she was admitted to the Accademia Filarmonica of Bologna in 1773, the first woman to gain admission.

Her Italian oratorio Isacco figura del redentore was premiered by massive forces in concerts (17 and 19 March 1782) of the Tonkünstler-Societät, a long-standing series that also performed large-scale works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Handel. The vocal soloists included Caterina Cavalieri and Ludwig Fischer.

Martines and her sister, neither of whom ever married, looked after their family friend Metastasio until his death in 1782. Metastasio left his estate to the Martines family; Marianna received 20,000 florins, Metastasio's harpsichord, and his music library.  Marianna and her sister hosted musical soirees at their home.  These weekly musical events attracted many distinguished guests, including Haydn and Irish tenor Michael Kelly. Mozart also was a frequent guest at the soirees and composed four-hand piano sonatas to perform with Marianne.

Though she was an active and highly accomplished performer and composer she never sought an appointed position; it would have been unacceptable for a woman in her social class to seek such employment.

Her last known public appearance was on 23 March 1808, attending a performance of Haydn's oratorio Die Schöpfung conducted by Salieri, in tribute to the composer.  She died on 13 December 1812 and was buried in St. Marx's Cemetery.

List of surviving works

2 oratorios; 4 masses; 6 motets; psalm cantatas; secular cantatas; 3 keyboard sonatas, 3 keyboard concertos; and 1 symphony.

Several of her pieces have been published in recent years.  The three keyboard sonatas (in E Major, G Major and A Major) are available through Hildegard Publishing.  Many works are also available through Furore-Verlag, a German publisher that specializes in works by women composers.  They offer many first publications, including: the Keyboard Concerto in A; Dixit Dominus for Soli, Choir and Orchestra; In Exitu Israel de Agypto, Psalm for Soli, Choir and Orchestra; Laudate Pueri Dominum, Psalm 112, for SATB choir and orchestra; the Fourth Mass.

Discography
Marianna Martines: Psalm Cantatas. Elke Mascha Blankenburg, Koch Schwann B000001SOK, 1995.  Compact disc.
Marianna Martines: "Il primo amore". concertos and cantatas. Núria Rial, DHM 2011 Compact disc.
selections
on 18th Century Woman Composers. Barbara Harbach, fortepiano. Gasparo Records: B000025YJJ, 1995.  Compact Disc.
on Haydn, Martines and Auenbrugger. Monica Jakuc Leverett, fortepiano. Titanic, B000001I7X, 1993.  Compact disc.
on Woman Composers and the Men in Their Lives. Leanne Rees, Fleur de Son, B0000479BH, 2000.  Compact disc.
on Spanish Piano Concertos. Concerto for piano and orchestra in A major, Melani Mestre, conductor & piano. Hänssler, CD HC20016, 2021. Compact Disc.

Notes

References
Godt, Irving, "Marianna in Italy: The International Reputation of Marianna Martines," The Journal of Musicology, vol. XII/4, 1995, pp. 538–561.
Godt, Irving, "Marianna in Vienna: A Martines Chronology", The Journal of Musicology, vol. XVI/1, 1998, pp. 136–58.
 Godt, Irving (John A. Rice, ed.), Marianna Martines: A Woman Composer in the Vienna of Mozart and Haydn (Rochester, NY, University of Rochester Press, 2010)  (Eastman Studies in Music).
Harer, Ingeborg, "Martines, Marianna von", Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2004), Personenteil vol. 11, 1188–89.
Jackson, Barbara Garvey.  "Musical Women of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries." In Women and Music: A History, ed. Karin Pendle, 54–94. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991.
Neuls-Bates, Carol, ed.  Women in Music.  Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1996.
Pendle, Karin.  "Marianne von Martinez." In Historical Anthology of Music by Women, ed. James Briscoe, 88–89.  Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987.
Pohl, Carl Ferdinand (1871) Denkschrift aus Anlass des hundert-jährigen Bestehens der Tonkünstler-societät, im Jahre 1862 reorganisirt als "Haydn", Witwen und Waisen-Versorgungs-Verein der Tonkünstler in Wien.  Vienna.
Wessely, Helene.  "Martinez, Marianne von," Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 27 January 2007)

External links

 Marianne Martinez Biography Encyclopedia of world biography

Austrian Classical-period composers
Austrian women composers
Pupils of Joseph Haydn
Pupils of Nicola Porpora
Pupils of Metastasio
1744 births
1812 deaths
Austrian people of Spanish descent
Austrian classical pianists
Austrian women pianists
18th-century Austrian women singers
18th-century keyboardists
Musicians from Vienna
19th-century women composers
19th-century women pianists

Marianna Martines


In humans, the respiratory tract is the parts of the body that help with respiration (getting oxygen into the body and getting rid of carbon dioxide).

Structure
The respiratory tract is divided into two sections: the upper airways and the lower airways.  These two sections are separated by the vocal cords.

Upper airways

The nose and nasal cavity
The upper respiratory tract starts with the nose and the nasal cavity.  When a person breathes in through the nose, the air goes into the nasal cavity.  The nasal cavity is lined with mucous and little hairs called cilia.  These help filter things like dust out of the air a person breathes.  The nasal cavity also warms the air.

The pharynx

Next is the pharynx.  The pharynx is a common pathway for air and food.  When a person breathes in, air goes through the pharynx on its way to the lungs.  When a person eats, food passes through the pharynx on its way to the digestive system.  There are three parts to the pharynx:
 The nasopharynx ends around the uvula.
 The oropharynx goes from the uvula to the base of the tongue.
 The laryngopharynx (or hypopharynx) ends by splitting off into two tubes.  These are the trachea and the esophagus.  The trachea is in the front of the throat, and carries air toward the lungs.  The esophagus is in the back of the throat, and carries food toward the digestive system.

The larynx

The next part of the upper airways is the larynx.  The larynx is sometimes called the "voice box" because it has the vocal cords in it, making it possible to speak.  The larynx also protects the trachea.  Important parts of the larynx include:
 The epiglottis: This is a leaf-shaped piece of cartilage which drops to protect the trachea when a person swallows food.  This keeps the food from going down the trachea and into the lungs.
 The thyroid cartilage (Adam's apple)
 The vocal cords

The vocal cords mark the end of the upper airways.

Lower airways

The larynx continues
The larynx continues in the lower airways.  Important parts of the larynx that are in the lower airways include:
 The cricoid cartilage: This is a ring of cartilage which anchors the trachea.  The trachea begins at the cricoid cartilage.
 The trachea: This is a tube made of smooth muscle which brings air to the lungs.  Because it is made of muscle, the trachea needs cartilage, which is stronger than muscle, to protect it.  After the cricoid cartilage, many C-shaped pieces of cartilage surround the trachea to protect it and anchor it.

The bronchi
The trachea then splits into the two main bronchi.  This split happens at a place called the carina, which is behind the middle of the sternum (breastbone).  The bronchi are two tubes which carry air into the lungs.  The main bronchi then split into smaller and smaller bronchi, which reach out into all the parts of the lungs like tree branches.  Finally, the smallest bronchi, called bronchioles, end in the alveoli.

Function

The airways' job is to bring air to the lungs, so it can get to the alveoli.  At the alveoli, a very important process called "gas exchange" takes place.  Oxygen from the air breathed into the lungs goes into the blood.  The blood can then carry oxygen to every part of the body through the bloodstream.  During gas exchange, carbon dioxide goes from the blood into the lungs, so it can be breathed out.  If this exchange of gases did not happen, the body would not get enough oxygen to stay alive, and would also get poisoned by carbon dioxide.

Related pages
 Respiratory system
 Respiration
 Gas exchange
 Breathing

References

Anatomy of the respiratory system

Respiratory tract


Fireproofing is making a part or a structure resist a fire, while still keeping the function it was designed for. Fireproofing is a passive fire protection measure. There are different levels of certifications; higher levels of certification mean that a part or a structure can withstand a fire longer.

Safety
Firefighting

Fireproofing


Jorge Manrique (c. 1440 – 1479) was a major Spanish poet, whose main work, the Coplas a la muerte de su padre (Stanzas about the Death of his Father), is still read today. He was a supporter of the great Spanish queen, Isabel I of Castile, and actively participated on her side in the civil war that broke out against her half-brother, Enrique IV, when the latter attempted to make his daughter, Juana, crown princess. Jorge died in 1479 during an attempt to take the castle of Garcimuñoz after Isabel gained the crown.

Manrique were one of major Spanish aristocratic families of the Jewish converso descent. See, Norman Roth, "Conversos, Inquisition, and the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain", Madison, WI: The University of Wisconcin Press, 1995, p. 333. Jorge Manrique was a great-nephew of Iñigo López de Mendoza (marquess of Santillana), a descendant of Pero López de Ayala, chancellor of Castile, and a nephew of Gómez Manrique, corregidor of Toledo, all important poets of the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. He was, therefore, a member of a noble family of great consequence.

1440 births
1479 deaths
Spanish poets

Jorge Manrique


Sir Michael John Gambon CBE (19 October 1940 – 27 September 2023) was an Irish-born British actor with a career that spaned nearly five decades and included a variety of roles in movie, television and theatre.

Early life
Gambon was born on 19 October 1940 in Dublin during World War II. His father, Edward Gambon, was an engineer and his mother, Mary (née Hoare), was a seamstress. His father decided to seek work in the rebuilding of London, and so the family moved to Mornington Crescent in north London, when Gambon was five. His father had him made a British citizen — a decision that would later allow Michael to receive an actual, rather than honorary, knighthood and CBE. (although, under the British Nationality Act 1981 anyone born in Ireland before 1949 can still register as a British subject and, after five years' UK residence, as a British citizen).

Raised a strict Catholic, he attended St Aloysius Boys' School in Somers Town and served at the altar. He then moved to St Aloysius' College in Hornsey Lane, Highgate, London, whose former pupils included Peter Sellers. He later attended a school in Kent, before leaving with no qualifications at fifteen. He then gained an apprenticeship with Vickers Armstrong as a toolmaker. By the time he was 21 he was a fully qualified engineer. He kept the job for a further year – acquiring a fascination and passion for collecting antique guns, clocks and watches, as well as classic cars.

Early acting career
Aged 19, he joined the Unity Theatre in Kings Cross. Five years later he wrote a letter to Michael MacLiammoir, the Irish theatre impresario who ran Dublin's Gate Theatre. It was accompanied by a CV describing a rich and wholly imaginary theatre career – and he was taken on.

Gambon made his professional stage début in the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin's 1962 production of Othello, playing "Second Gentleman", followed by a European tour. A year later, cheekily auditioning with the opening soliloquy from Richard III, he caught the eye of star-maker Laurence Olivier who was recruiting promising spear-carriers for his new National Theatre Company. Gambon, along with Robert Stephens, Derek Jacobi and Frank Finlay, was hired as one of the 'to be renowned' and played any number of small roles.  The company initially performed at the Old Vic, their first production being Hamlet, directed by Olivier and starring Peter O'Toole. He played for four years in many NT productions, including named roles in The Recruiting Officer and The Royal Hunt of the Sun, working with directors William Gaskill and John Dexter.

Work in the theatre
After three years at the Old Vic, Olivier advised Gambon to gain experience in provincial rep. In 1967, he left the NT for the Birmingham Repertory Company which was to give him his first crack at the title roles in Othello (his favourite), Macbeth and Coriolanus.

His rise to stardom began in 1974 when Eric Thompson cast him as the melancholy vet in Alan Ayckbourn's The Norman Conquests at Greenwich. A speedy transfer to the West End established him as a brilliant comic actor, squatting at a crowded dining table on a tiny chair and sublimely agonising over a choice between black or white coffee.

Back at the National, now on the South Bank, his next turning point was Peter Hall's premiere staging of Harold Pinter's Betrayal, an unexpectedly subtle performance — a production photograph shows him embracing Penelope Wilton with sensitive hands and long slim fingers (the touch of a master clock-maker). He is also one of the few actors to have mastered the harsh demands of the vast Olivier Theatre. As Simon Callow once said: "Gambon's 'iron lungs and overwhelming charisma are able to command a sort of operatic full-throatedness which triumphs over hard walls and long distances."

This was to serve him in good stead in John Dexter's masterly staging of The Life of Galileo in 1980, the first Brecht to become a popular success. Hall called him 'unsentimental, dangerous and immensely powerful', even the Sunday Times' curmudgeonly critic of the day called his performance 'a decisive step in the direction of great tragedy...great acting', while fellow actors paid him the rare compliment of applauding him in the dressing room on the first night.

From the first Ralph Richardson dubbed him The Great Gambon, an accolade which stuck, outshining his 1990 CBE, even the later knighthood, although Gambon dismisses it as a circus slogan. But as Sheridan Morley perceptively remarked in 2000, when reviewing Cressida: 'Gambon's eccentricity on stage now begins to rival that of his great mentor Richardson'. Also like Richardson, interviews are rarely given and raise more questions than they answer. Gambon is a very private person, a 'non-starry star' as Ayckbourn called him. Off-stage he prefers to back out of the limelight, an unpretentious guy sharing laughs with his fellow cast and crew.

While he has won screen acclaim, no-one who saw his ravaged King Lear at Stratford, while still in his early forties, will forget his superb double act with a red-nosed Antony Sher as the Fool sitting on his master's knee like a ventriloquist's doll. There were also notable appearances in Old Times at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, and as Volpone and the brutal sergeant in Pinter's Mountain Language.

David Hare's Skylight, with Lia Williams, which opened to rave reviews at the National in 1995, transferred first to Wyndhams Theatre and then on to Broadway for a four-month run which left him in a state of advanced exhaustion. "Skylight was ten times as hard to play as anything I've ever done" he told Michael Owen in the Evening Standard. "I had a great time in New York but couldn't wait to get back".

Gambon is almost the only leading actor not to grace Yasmina Reza's ART at Wyndham's. But together with Simon Russell Beale and Alan Bates he gave a deliciously droll radio account of the role of Marc. And for the RSC he shared Reza's two-hander The Unexpected Man with Eileen Atkins, first at The Pit in the Barbican and then at the Duchess Theatre, a production also intended for New York but finally delayed by other commitments.

In 2001, he portrayed what he described as "a physically repulsive'' Davies in Patrick Marber's revival of Pinter's The Caretaker, but he found the rehearsal period an unhappy experience, and felt that he had let down the author. A year later, playing opposite Daniel Craig, he portrayed the father of a series of cloned sons in Caryl Churchill's A Number at the Royal Court, notable for a recumbent moment when he smoked a cigarette, the brightly lit spiral of smoke rising against a black backdrop, an effect which he dreamed up during rehearsals.

In 2004, he finally achieved a life-long ambition to play Sir John Falstaff, in Nicholas Hytner's National Theatre production of Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2, co-starring with Matthew Macfadyen as Prince Hal.

Screen success and acceptance
He made his movie debut in the Laurence Olivier Othello in 1965. He then played romantic leads, notably in the early 1970s BBC television series, The Borderers, in which he was swashbuckling Gavin Ker. As a result, Gambon was asked by James Bond producer Cubby Broccoli to audition for the role in 1970, to replace George Lazenby. His craggy looks soon made him into a character actor, although he won critical acclaim as Galileo in John Dexter's production of The Life of Galileo by Brecht at the National Theatre in 1980. But it was not until Dennis Potter's The Singing Detective (1986) that he became a household name. After this success, for which he won a BAFTA, his work includes movies such as The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover which also starred Helen Mirren.

In 1992, he portrayed a psychotic general in the Barry Levinson movie Toys and he also starred as Georges Simenon's detective Inspector Jules Maigret in an ITV adaptation of Simenon's series of books. He starred as Fyodor Dostoevsky in the Hungarian director Károly Makk's movie The Gambler (1997) about the writing of Fyodor Dostoevsky's novella The Gambler.

Recent career
In recent years, movies such as Dancing at Lughnasa (1998) and Plunkett & Macleane (1998), as well as television appearances in series such as Wives and Daughters (1999) (for which he won another BAFTA), a made-for-TV adaptation of Samuel Beckett's Endgame (2001) and Perfect Strangers (2001) have revealed a talent for comedy. In 2004, he appeared in five movies, including Wes Anderson's quirky comedy The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou; the British gangster flick Layer Cake; theatrical drama Being Julia; and CGI action fantasy Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.

Perhaps his most significant role in 2004, however, was Albus Dumbledore, Hogwarts' headmaster in the third installment of J. K. Rowling's franchise, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, taking over from fellow Irish actor Richard Harris, who had died of Hodgkins disease. (Harris had also played Maigret on television four years before Gambon took that role.) Gambon reprised the role of Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which was released in November 2005 in the UK and U.S. He returned to the role again in the fifth movie, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which was released in 2007. He will once again return to portray Dumbledore in movie the sixth Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Gambon admits not having read the Harry Potter novels and says that this is because he does not want to be upset by an extremely large change or death in the books.  Similarly, he has also stated in an interview that, when playing Dumbledore, "I don't have to play anyone really. I just stick on a beard and play me, so it's no great feat. I never ease into a role – every part I play is just a variant of my own personality. I'm not really a character actor at all..."

In an Ironic twist, Gambon also played a British spy in "The Good Shepherd" (2006). His codename was "The headmaster".

Most recently, he was Joe in Beckett's Eh Joe, giving two performances a night at the Duke of York's Theatre in London. He currently does the voice over to the new Guinness ads with the penguins. In 2007 he played major roles in Stephen Poliakoff's Joe's Palace, and the five-part adaptation of Mrs Gaskell's Cranford novels, both for BBC TV.

Personal life
Gambon married Anne Miller when he was 22, but has always been secretive about his personal life. The couple live together in a country house in Kent. Gambon was invested by Prince Charles as a Knight Bachelor on 17 July 1998 for services to drama (Queen Elizabeth II's approval for the award was notified in the 1998 New Year Honours List) and his wife thus became Lady Gambon. The couple have a son, Fergus, who appears as an expert on the BBC's Antiques Roadshow.

Gambon is a qualified amateur pilot, and his love of cars led to his appearance on the BBC's Top Gear programme. Gambon raced the Suzuki Liana and was driving so aggressively that it was launched into the air on the last corner of his timed lap. The final corner of the Dunsfold Park track has been named "Gambon" in his honour. He reappeared on the programme on the 4 June 2006, and set a time in the Chevrolet Lacetti of 1:50.3, a significant improvement on his previous time of 1:55. He clipped his  namesake  corner the second time, and when asked why by Jeremy Clarkson, replied that 'I dunno - I just do not like it'.

In February 2015, Gambon spoke for the first time of the "frightening memory loss" that had forced him to retire from the stage after 50 years. He said he has taken the "heartbreaking" decision to stop after finding he could no longer remember his lines.

Gambon died on 27 September 2023, aged 82, after suffering from pneumonia.

Filmography

Cinema and television

Theatre

Othello (Second Gentleman), Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, professional debut 1962, followed by a European tour
Hamlet, National Theatre at the Old Vic, 1963
Saint Joan, National/Old Vic, 1963
The Recruiting Officer (Coster Permain), National/Old Vic, 1963
Andorra, National/Old Vic, 1964
Philoctetes, National/Old Vic, 1964
Othello, National/Old Vic, 1964
The Royal Hunt of the Sun (Diego), Chichester Festival and National/Old Vic, 1964
The Crucible (Herrick), National/Old Vic, 1965
Mother Courage and Her Children (Eilif), National/Old Vic, 1965
Love for Love (Snap), National/Old Vic, 1965, also tour to Russia and Germany
Juno and the Paycock (Jerry Devine), National/Old Vic, 1966
The Storm, National/Old Vic, 1966
Events While Guarding the Bofors Gun (Flynn), Birmingham Rep, 1967
A Severed Head (Palmer Anderson), Birmingham Rep, 1967
The Doctor's Dilemma (Patric Cullen), Birmingham Rep, 1967
Saint Joan (Cauchon), Birmingham Rep, 1967
Peer Gynt (The Button Moulder), Birmingham Rep, 1968
Othello (title role), Birmingham Rep, 1968
Macbeth, The Forum Theatre, Billingham, 1968
In Celebration (Andrew), Liverpool Playhouse, 1969
Coriolanus (title role), Liverpool Playhouse, 1969
The Plebeians Rehearse the Uprising (Wiebe), RSC Aldwych Theatre, 1970
Major Barbara (Charles Lomax), RSC Aldwych Theatre, 1970
Henry VIII (Surrey), RSC Aldwych Theatre, 1971
When Thou Art King (Hotspur), RSC Roundhouse, 1971
The Brass Hat (Guy Holden), Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford, 1972
Not Drowning But Waving (Robin), Greenwich Theatre, 1973
The Norman Conquests trilogy (Tom), Greenwich Theatre, 1974
The Norman Conquests (Tom), Globe Theatre, London 1975
The Zoo Story (Gerry), Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park lunchtime production, 1975
Otherwise Engaged (Simon), Queen's Theatre, 1976 (replacing Alan Bates)
Just Between Ourselves (Neil), Queen's Theatre, 1977
Alice's Boys (Bertie), Savoy Theatre, London, 1978
Betrayal (Jerry), National Theatre, 1978
Close of Play (Henry), National Lyttelton Theatre, 1979
Richard III (taking over as Buckingham), National, 1980
Othello (Roderigo), National, 1980
Sisterly Feelings (Patrick), National, 1980
The Life of Galileo (title role), National Olivier Theatre, 1980
King Lear (title role) RSC Stratford,1982; Barbican Theatre, 1983
Antony and Cleopatra (Antony), RSC Stratford, 1982; Barbican, 1983
Tales from Hollywood (Ödön von Horváth), National, 1983
Old Times (Deeley), Theatre Royal Haymarket, 1985
A Chorus of Disapproval (Dafyd ap Llewellyn), National Olivier, 1985
Tons of Money (Sprules), National Lyttelton, 1986
A View from the Bridge (Eddie Carbone), National Cottesloe Theatre, 1987
A Small Family Business (Jack McCracken), National Olivier, 1987
Mountain Language (Sergeant), National Lyttelton, 1988
Uncle Vanya (title role), Vaudeville Theatre, 1988
Veterans' Day (Walter Kercelik), Theatre Royal Haymarket, 1989
Man of the Moment (Douglas Beechey), Globe Theatre, London, 1990
Othello (title role), Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, 1991
Taking Steps, Stephen Joseph, Scarborough, 1981
Volpone (title role), National Olivier, 1995
Skylight (Tom Sergeant), National Cottesloe, 1995
Skylight (Tom Sergeant), Broadway, 1996
Tom and Clem (Tom Driberg), Aldwych Theatre, 1997
The Unexpected Man (The Man), RSC The Pit, Barbican, 1998
Cressida (John Shank), The Almeida Theatre at the Albery, 2000
The Caretaker (Davies), Comedy Theatre, 2001
A Number (The Father), Royal Court Theatre, 2002
Endgame (Hamm), Albery Theatre, 2004
Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry IV, Part 2 (Sir John Falstaff), National Olivier, 2005
Celebration (play) Pinter staged reading (Lambert), Gate Theatre, Dublin/Albery, 2005
Eh Joe (Joe), Duke of York's Theatre, 2006

Sources

Who's Who in the Theatre, Fourteenth edition, Pitman (1967) for National Theatre at the Old Vic playbills
Who's Who in the Theatre, Seventeenth edition, Gale (1981)  for Michael Gambon's own CV up to 1980
Giant of the Stage: A Profile of Michael Gambon by John Thaxter, The Stage newspaper, (16 November, 2000)
Gambon: A Life in Acting by Mel Gussow, Nick Hern Books (2004)
Theatre Record and Theatre Record annual indexes 1981-2007

References

Other websites

Biography  at Tiscali UK

1940 births
2023 deaths
Actors from Dublin
BAFTA Award winning actors
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
Irish movie actors
Irish radio actors
Irish stage actors
Irish television actors
Irish voice actors
Knights Bachelor
Laurence Olivier Award winners
Screen Actors Guild Award winners

Michael Gambon


An ultra-low-emission vehicle (ULEV) is a motor vehicle that emits extremely low levels of motor vehicle emissions compared to other vehicles. In some jurisdictions it is defined in law; low and ultra low emission vehicles may be given tax or other advantages, while high emission vehicles may suffer restrictions or additional taxation.

In California

California defines a ULEV as a vehicle that has been verified by the California Air Resources Board  (CARB), United States to emit 50% less polluting emissions than the average for new cars released in that model year.
Under LEV II regulations, the Tier I and TLEV classifications were removed for 2004. The ULEV is one of a number of designations given by the CARB to signify the level of emissions that car-buyers can expect their new vehicle to produce and forms part of a whole range of designations, listed here in order of decreasing emissions:

TLEV (transitional low-emission vehicle)
The least stringent emissions standard in California. California phased-out TLEVs in 2004.

LEV (low-emission vehicle)
The minimum standard for all new cars sold in California as of 2004.

ULEV (ultra-low-emission vehicle)

SULEV (super-ultra-low-emission vehicle)
SULEV emissions are 90% cleaner than the average new model year car.

PZEV (partial-zero-emission vehicle)
A PZEV meets SULEV tailpipe emission standards, but has no evaporative emissions (i.e., no unburned fuel leaves the fuel system). A PZEV has a 15-year / 150,000-mile warranty on its emission control components.

AT PZEV (advanced technology partial-zero-emission vehicle)
An AT PZEV meets the PZEV requirements but also meets some of the necessary conditions of a ZEV. AT PZEV include dedicated compressed natural gas vehicles and hybrid vehicles with engine emissions that meet PZEV standards.

ZEV (zero-emissions vehicle)
A ZEV has no tailpipe emissions. These include  battery electric vehicles and hydrogen vehicles (fuel cell vehicles).

See also
Low-emission vehicle
United States emission standards

External links

California Air Resources Board
DriveClean.ca.gov
Glossary of Terms

Vehicle emission controls

ja:低公害車#超低公害車・無公害車

Ultra-low-emission vehicle


The Blues Brothers (Elwood Blues and Joliet "Jake" Blues) are fictional characters which became well known from the TV show Saturday Night Live.

Elwood Blues was first played by Dan Aykroyd, in his radio program on Blues music. Jake Blues was played by John Belushi.

In 1980, Aykroyd and Belushi starred in the movie called The Blues Brothers, playing again the same characters from TV.  Unfortunately, Belushi died only two years later, due to a drug overdose.  A sequel called Blues Brothers 2000 (1998) starred John Goodman as new partner to Dan Aykroyd but it was not as successful as the first movie.

Both movies were made by Universal Pictures.

The Blues Brothers (1980)
The movie version of the popular characters was directed by John Landis.

Plot summary
Jake and Elwood are sent off by Sister Mary Stigmata of the orphanage to raise money. The money is needed to pay taxes, otherwise the orphanage will be shut down. They try to do this by getting their band back together again.

Actors
John Belushi - 'Joliet' Jake Blues
Dan Aykroyd - Elwood Blues
James Brown - Reverend Big Black
Cab Calloway - Curtis
Ray Charles - himself
Aretha Franklin - Mrs. Murphy
Steve Cropper - Steve 'The Colonel' Cropper
Donald Dunn - Donald 'Duck' Dunn
Murphy Dunne - Murph
Willie Hall - Willie 'Too Short' Hall
Tom Malone - Tom 'Bones' Malone
Lou Marini - 'Blue Lou' Marini
Matt Murphy - Matt 'Guitar' Murphy
Alan Rubin - Mr. Fabulous
Carrie Fisher - Mystery woman

Story
"Joliet" Jake Blues is released from jail. His brother, Elwood, picks him up in a former police car. They go to the orphanage they grew up in, since Jake promised the orphanage Mother Superior (nicknamed "The Penguin"). There they find out that the orphanage is in need of money, for taxes. Jake and Elwood are sent off to earn it, but in a legal manner. From the start they are under continuous attention of the police. But Elwood does not mind; they wreck a complete shopping mall (Dixie Square Mall in Harvey, Illinois) in a police chase. They arrive at Elwood's apartment, which is located directly next to an elevated railway. After a night's sleep the apartment is blown up by a mystery woman, right at the moment of a police raid.

The brothers have to find their former band members. They find "Bones" Malone and some others playing Latin music in a nightclub, as "Murph and the Magic Tones". Mr. Fabulous is maitre d' at a chic restaurant "Chez Paul". They convince him to join by ordering expensive bottles of champagne, and by acting like pigs, offending the other guests. They find Matt 'Guitar' Murphy and Blue Lou working in a diner. The place is run by Matt's wife, and she does not want them to join the band. Aretha Franklin, playing Matt's wife makes this clear in the song "Think!", but they go anyway. The next stop is Ray's Music Exchange, run by Ray Charles. Ray nearly shoots a boy who wants to steal a guitar (considering Ray is blind, that's amazing!). They sign an IOU for the equipment.

On the way to find the other members, they spoil a march of the Neo Nazi American Socialist White People Party. The marching members are forced to jump off a bridge into a pond to save themselves. When the brothers try to call their booking agent, the payphone is torched by the mystery woman. Fortunately they survive, and find a couple of dollars change. The Neo Nazis in the meantime find out Elwood's address (which is faked: 1060 West Addison in Chicago is Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs).

The Blues Brothers end up in a Country & Western club, Bob's Country Bunker. They steal the gig of the Good Ole Boys. When Elwood asks "What kinds of music do you usually play here?", the answer is: "Why we have both kinds-Country and Western!". They are protected from beer bottles by wire as they try their first song, but the audience go crazy. So they decide to do "Rawhide", and "Stand By Your Man", along with some other songs. At the end of the performance they owe the owner $100 (the beertab). They run from him and from the real Good Ole Boys. On the run, the Good Ole Boys' camper is wrecked by a police car in pursuit.

They blackmail Maury (their agent) into booking the Palace Hotel Ballroom with 5,000 seats. All kids in the neighborhood help in selling the tickets. Elwood and Jake end up in a gas-station that is out of gas, and the gig starts without them. Cab Calloway sings the opening song "Minnie the Moocher". Both the police and the Good Ole Boys find out where the gig is. When the brothers finally arrive, they sabotage the Good Ole Boys' car. They do two songs, Sweet Home, Chicago, and Come On. They are offered a record contract, and are paid $10,000 in advance.

They flee through a tunnel, being shot at by the mystery woman. She turns out to be Jake's ex-bride, whom he stood up at their wedding. Jake begs for their lives, and even takes off his sunglasses! They seem to fall in love all over again, but Jake leaves her behind.

In a crazy car chase the Good Ole Boys end up in a lake, hundreds of police cars are wrecked and the Neo Nazis cannot brake on an unfinished bridge. The Brothers succeed in getting to the tax office, pursued by police, special units, choppers and the army. They are arrested right after paying the taxes. Back in jail, the band plays their final song, Jailhouse Rock.

Blues Brothers 2000
Despite the name, this sequel (second story following on from the first) came out in 1998.

DVD edition
A twenty-fifth anniversary edition DVD came out on August 30, 2005.

References

1980 crime movies
1980 comedy movies
1980s criminal comedy movies
1980s musical movies
1980s road movies
American buddy movies
American criminal comedy movies
American musical comedy movies
American road movies
Chase movies
English-language movies
Movies set in Chicago
Movies shot in Chicago
Works about brothers
Universal Pictures movies
Movies directed by John Landis
United States National Film Registry movies
Cult movies

The Blues Brothers


The Fair Deal was a set of proposals put forward by U.S. President Harry S. Truman to Congress in 1945 and in his January 1949 State of the Union address. More generally, the term characterizes the entire domestic agenda of the Truman administration, from 1945 to 1953. It offered new proposals to continue New Deal liberalism, but with a conservative coalition controlling Congress, only a few of its major initiatives became law and then only if they had considerable GOP support. As Richard Neustadt concludes, the most important proposals were aid to education, national health insurance, the Fair Employment Practices Commission, and repeal of the Taft–Hartley Act. They were all debated at length, then voted down. Nevertheless, enough smaller and less controversial items passed that liberals could claim some success.

Philosophy
A liberal Democrat of the Midwestern populist tradition, Truman was determined to both continue the legacy of the New Deal and to make Franklin Roosevelt's proposed Economic Bill of Rights a reality, while making his own mark on social policy.

In a scholarly article published in 1972, historian Alonzo Hamby argued that the Fair Deal reflected the "vital center" approach to liberalism which rejected totalitarianism, was suspicious of excessive concentrations of government power, and honored the New Deal as an effort to achieve a "democratic socialist society." Solidly based upon the New Deal tradition in its advocacy of wide-ranging social legislation, the Fair Deal differed enough to claim a separate identity. The Depression did not return after the war and the Fair Deal had to contend with prosperity and an optimistic future. The Fair Dealers thought in terms of abundance rather than depression scarcity. Economist Leon Keyserling argued that the liberal task was to spread the benefits of abundance throughout society by stimulating economic growth. Agriculture Secretary Charles F. Brannan wanted to unleash the benefits of agricultural abundance and to encourage the development of an urban-rural Democratic coalition. However, the Brannan Plan was defeated by strong conservative opposition in Congress and by his unrealistic confidence in the possibility uniting urban labor and farm owners who distrusted rural insurgency. The Korean War made military spending the nation's priority and killed almost the whole Fair Deal but did encourage the pursuit of economic growth.

Nevertheless, some of the Fair Deal's progressive policies were enacted piecemeal by legislation during Truman's time in office, and further enactments continued under the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations, culminating in the sweeping tide of progressive legislation under Lyndon Johnson's Great Society agenda.

1945 Proposals

In September 1945, Truman addressed Congress and presented a 21-point program of domestic legislation outlining a series of proposed actions in the fields of economic development and social welfare. The measures that Truman proposed to Congress included:

 Major improvements in the coverage and adequacy of the unemployment compensation system.
 Substantial increases in the minimum wage, together with broader coverage.
 The maintenance and extension of price controls to keep down the cost of living in the transition to a peacetime economy.
 A pragmatic approach towards drafting legislation eliminating wartime agencies and wartime controls, taking legal difficulties into account.
 Legislation to ensure full employment.
 Legislation to make the Fair Employment Practice Committee permanent.
 The maintenance of relations with both industry and unions.
 The extension of the United States Employment Service to provide jobs for demobilized military personnel.
 Increased aid to farmers.
 The removal of the restrictions on eligibility for voluntary enlistment and allowing the armed forces to enlist a greater number of volunteers.
 The enactment of broad and comprehensive housing legislation.
 The establishment of a single Federal research agency.
 A major revision of the taxation system.
 The encouragement of surplus-property disposal.
 Greater levels of assistance to small businesses.
 Improvements in federal aid to war veterans.
 A major expansion of public works, conserving and building up natural resources.
 The encouragement of post-war reconstruction and settling the obligations of the Lend-Lease Act.
 The introduction of a decent pay scale for all Federal Government employees—executive, legislative, and judicial.
 The promotion of the sale of ships to remove the uncertainty regarding the disposal of America's large surplus tonnage following the end of hostilities.
 Legislation to bring about the acquisition and retention of stockpiles of materials necessary for meeting the defense needs of the nation.

Finally, Truman announced that he would soon "communicate with the Congress recommending a national health program to provide adequate medical care for all Americans and to protect them from financial loss and hardships resulting from illness and accident."  (See the Healthcare section below.)

Truman did not send proposed legislation to Congress; he expected Congress to draft the bills. Many of these proposed reforms, however, were never realized due to the opposition of the conservative majority in Congress, further solidified after the Republicans took control of both houses in the 1946 midterm elections. Despite these setbacks, Truman's proposals to Congress became more and more abundant over the course of his presidency, and by 1948 a legislative program that was more comprehensive came to be known as the "Fair Deal".

1949 Proposals
In his 1949 State of the Union address to Congress on January 5, 1949, Truman stated that "Every segment of our population, and every individual, has a right to expect from his government a fair deal." The proposed measures included:
 federal aid to education,
 a large tax cut for low-income earners
 the abolition of poll taxes
 an anti-lynching law
 a permanent Fair Employment Practices Commission
 a farm aid program
 increased public housing
 an immigration bill
 new TVA-style public works projects
 the establishment of a new Department of Welfare
 the repeal of the Taft–Hartley Act, regulating the activities of labor unions
 an increase in the minimum wage from 40 to 75 cents an hour
 national health insurance
 expanded Social Security coverage, and
 a $4 billion tax increase to reduce the national debt and finance these programs.

Despite a mixed record of legislative success, the Fair Deal remains significant in establishing the call for universal health care as a rallying cry for the Democratic Party. Lyndon B. Johnson credited Truman's unfulfilled program as influencing Great Society measures such as Medicare that Johnson successfully pushed through Congress during the 1960s.

Opposition and progress
The Fair Deal reforms helped to transform the United States from a wartime economy to a peacetime economy. In the context of postwar reconstruction and the Cold War, the Fair Deal sought to preserve and extend the liberal tradition of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal. However, the Fair Deal faced much opposition from the many conservative politicians who wanted a reduced role of the federal government. During these postwar years, the nation enjoyed a return to prosperity not seen since before the Great Depression, and support for conservative politicians grew.

The Fair Deal faced opposition by a coalition of conservative Republicans and predominantly southern conservative Democrats. However, despite strong opposition, there were elements of Truman's agenda that did win congressional approval, such as the public housing subsidies cosponsored by Republican Robert A. Taft under the 1949 National Housing Act, which funded slum clearance and the construction of 810,000 units of low-income housing over a period of six years.

Truman was also helped by the election of a Democratic Congress in 1948. According to Eric Leif Davin, the 1949–50 Congress 'was the most liberal Congress since 1938 and produced more "New-Deal-Fair Deal" legislation than any Congress between 1938 and Johnson's Great Society of the mid-1960s." As noted by one study

"This was the Congress that reformed the Displaced Persons Act, increased the minimum wage, doubled the hospital construction program, authorized the National Science Foundation and the rural telephone program, suspended the 'sliding scale' on price supports, extended the soil conservation program, provided new grants for planning state and local public works and plugged the long-standing merger loophole in the Clayton Act…Moreover, as protector, as defender, wielder of the veto against encroachments on the liberal preserve, Truman left a record of considerable success – an aspect of the Fair Deal not to be discounted."

Although Truman was unable to implement his Fair Deal program in its entirety, a great deal of social and economic progress took place in the late forties and early fifties. A census report confirmed that gains in housing, education, living standards, and income under the Truman administration were unparalleled in American history. The minimum wage had also been increased while Social Security benefits had been doubled, and 8 million veterans had attended college by the end of the Truman administration as a result of the G.I. Bill, which subsidized the businesses, training, education, and housing of millions of returning veterans.

Millions of homes had been financed through previous government programs, and a start was made in slum clearance. Poverty was also significantly reduced, with one estimate suggesting that the percentage of Americans living in poverty had fallen from 33% of the population in 1949 to 28% by 1952. Incomes had risen faster than prices, which meant that real living standards were considerably higher than seven years earlier. Progress had also been made in civil rights, with the desegregation of both the federal civil Service and the armed forces and the creation of the Commission on Civil Rights. In fact, according to one historian, Truman had "done more than any President since Lincoln to awaken American conscience to the issues of civil rights".

Legislation and programs

Note: This listing contains reforms drawn up by the Truman Administration together with reforms drawn up by individual Congressmen. The latter have been included because it is arguable that the progressive nature of these reforms (such as the Water Pollution Law, which was partly a Republican initiative) was compatible with the liberalism of the Fair Deal.

Civil Rights

As Senator, Truman had not supported the nascent Civil Rights Movement. In a 1947 speech to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which marked the first time a sitting President had ever addressed the group, Truman said "Every man should have the right to a decent home, the right to an education, the right to adequate medical care, the right to a worthwhile job, the right to an equal share in the making of public decisions through the ballot, and the right to a fair trial in a fair court."

As President, he put forward many civil rights programs but they were met with a lot of resistance by southern Democrats. All his legislative proposals were blocked. However, he used presidential executive orders to end discrimination in the armed forces and denied government contracts to firms with racially discriminatory practices. He also named African Americans to federal posts. Except for nondiscrimination provisions of the Housing Act of 1949, Truman had to be content with civil rights' gains achieved by executive order or through the federal courts. Vaughan argues that by continuing appeals to Congress for civil rights legislation, Truman helped reverse the long acceptance of segregation and discrimination by establishing integration as a moral principle.

Healthcare
On November 19, 1945, Truman spent a Special Message to Congress recommending the adoption and funding of "a comprehensive and modern health program for the Nation, consisting of five major parts":
 Construction of hospitals and related facilities
 Expansion of public health, maternal, and child care services
 Medical education and research
 Prepayment of medical costs through a compulsory national health insurance program, covering medical, hospital, nursing, and laboratory services
 Protection against loss of wages through sickness and disability through a national disability insurance program

On the same day, New York Senator Robert F. Wagner introduced S. 1606, known as the Wagner-Murray-Dingell Bill, containing legislative provisions to enact Truman's national health program into law.  After intense debates in Congress, the bill failed to pass.

However, a number of other public-health initiatives were enacted during Truman's presidency:
A bill was signed which authorized Federal agencies to provide minor medical and dental services to employees (1945).
The National Mental Health Act (1946) authorized federal support for mental health research and treatment programs.
The Water Pollution Law (1948) provided funds for sewage treatment system and pollution research while empowering the Justice Department to file suit against polluters.
The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (1947) introduced regulations on the use of pesticide in food production.
The Hill-Burton Act (Hospital Survey and Construction Act) (1946) established a federal program of financial assistance for the modernization and construction of hospital facilities. The program brought national standards and financing to local hospitals, and raised standards of medical care throughout the United States during the course of the 1950s and 1960s. While the legislation favored middle-class communities because it required local financial contributions, it channeled federal funds to poor communities, thus raising hospital standards and equity in access to quality care. The program required hospitals assisted by federal funding to provide emergency treatment to the uninsured and a reasonable volume of free or reduced cost care to poor Americans.
The Hospital Survey and Construction Amendments of 1949 raised the amount of federal funding available and raised the federal share of hospital construction to two-thirds. These amendments made it possible for less-wealthy communities to benefit from the Hill-Burton Act of 1946.
A program was established to fund payments to medical vendors for care of aged persons on low incomes (1950).
Funding was authorized for research and demonstration relating to the coordination, utilization, and development of hospital services.
Grants to states for cancer control were introduced (1947).
The Omnibus Medical Research Act (1950) authorized the establishment of the Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness and the transmutation of the Experimental Biology and medical Institute into the much larger Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases. The legislation also empowered the Surgeon General to establish additional institutes when he felt that they were necessary, and also to 'conduct and support research and research training relating to other diseases and groups of diseases.'
The Atomic Energy Commission was directed by Congress to investigate the application of atomic research to cancer therapies, providing some $5 million for this purpose (1950).
A Clinical and Laboratory Research Center was established (1947).
The research construction provisions of the Appropriations Act for FY 1948 provided funds "for the acquisition of a site, and the preparation of plans, specifications, and drawings, for additional research buildings and a 600-bed clinical research hospital and necessary accessory buildings related thereto to be used in general medical research ...."
The National Heart Act (1948) authorized the National Heart Institute to assist, conduct, and foster research, provide training, and to provide help to the states in the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of heart disease.
The National Institute of Dental Research was authorized by the National Dental Research Act (1948) to "conduct, assist, and foster dental research; provide training; and cooperate with the states in the prevention and control of dental diseases."
A National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases was established (1950).
A National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness was established (1950).
The Durham-Humphrey Amendment (1951) defined "the kinds of drugs that cannot be safely used without medical supervision and restricts their sale to prescription by a licensed practitioner."

Welfare
Under Truman, many adjustments were made to the social welfare system, although one of his key aims, to extend Social Security coverage to 25 million Americans, was never accomplished. Despite this, 10 million received Social Security coverage.
The Federal Railroad Disability Insurance program was enacted (1946).
The Social Security Act was amended (1950) to provide a new category of state aid to the totally and permanently disabled.
Throughout 1950, more than thirty major changes were made to Social Security. Compulsory coverage was extended to residents of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, federal employees not covered by federal pensions, domestic servants, most self-employed workers, and agricultural workers. State and local government workers were provided with the option of joining the system. Survivor's benefits were increased and expanded, and Social Security benefits were increased significantly for current beneficiaries by 77.5%. Changes were also made to increase the progressivity of benefits. Another amendment granted wage credits toward all Social Security benefits for military service performed between September 1940 and July 1947.
The Aid to Families with Dependent Children program was expanded to include support for caregivers (1950).
Grants to states for public assistance to needy individuals, those who were totally and permanently disabled, and also to maternal and child welfare services, were broadened and increased.
The Displaced Persons Act admitted individuals who were victims of persecution by the Nazi government.
The admissions numbers for displaced persons were doubled to 400,000 (1950).
Federal financial participation of public assistance payments was increased (1946).
Compulsory contribution to Social Security was expanded (in principle) to all dependent employees and workers (1946).
The Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA) was amended in 1946 to permit states where employees made contributions under the unemployment insurance program to use some or all of these contributions for the payment of disability benefits.
The Social Security Act was amended in 1946 to provide survivor benefits to the dependents of World War II veterans who died within three years of having been discharged from the military. The amendments considered veterans of the Second World War to be fully insured under Social Security for purposes of survivor benefits, even if they had not completed the required number of quarters of covered employment under Social Security.
The Civil Service Retirement Act was amended (1948) to provide protection for the survivors of Federal employees.
The Civil Service Retirement Act of 1930 was amended (1945) to provide retirement credit, in computing length of service, to persons who left Government service to enter the armed forces.
The Internal Revenue Code and the Social Security Act were amended (1945) in order to extend coverage to all employees of the Bonneville Power Administration who were not covered under the Federal Civil Service Retirement Act and therefore had no retirement protection.
The Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act and Railroad Retirement Act amendments (1946) established monthly survivor benefits and sickness and maternity benefits for railroad employees. The Social Security Act was also amended by the provision making wages in railroad employment applicable for survivor benefits under the old-age and survivors insurance program.
The Social Security Act was amended (1946) to provide coverage to private maritime employees under State unemployment insurance, monthly benefits under old age and survivors insurance for survivors of certain World War II veterans, and temporary unemployment benefits to seamen with wartime Federal employment. Permission was given to States, with employee contributions under their unemployment insurance laws, to use such funds for temporary disability insurance benefits. There would also be greater Federal sharing in public assistance payments for a specified period, and larger grants were to be provided for maternal and child health and child welfare, as well as the extension of these programs to the Virgin Islands.
A bill was approved (1947) which extended to July 1949 the time in which income from nursing service and agricultural labor could be disregarded in making old age assistance payments.
A law as passed (1947) under which certain aged recipients of assistance could continue, until July 1949, to care for the sick or work for wages on a farm without having such wages jeopardize their assistance payment.
The Railroad Retirement Act was amended (1948) to increase certain survivor and retirement benefits.
A law was passed (1948) which raised railroad pensions by 20%, yet reduced taxes on payrolls.
A law was passed (1948) which increased certain benefits payable under the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers Compensation Act.
A law was approved (1949) which authorized appropriations for the Federal Security Administrator to meet the emergency needs of crippled children for fiscal year 1949, in addition to funds authorized under the Social Security Act.
Increases in Social Security benefits were authorized (1948).
An act for the rehabilitation of the Navajo and Hopi tribes of Indians was approved (1950), which included a provision to increase the Federal participation in public assistance payments.
The Social Security Act of 1950 increased welfare benefits, extended the coverage of Social Security to elderly Americans, and raised the minimum wage. These benefits appealed to both middle-class and working-class Americans. Farm and domestic employees and nonfarm self-employed persons came to be covered for first time under the Social Security Old-Age Insurance pension program. As a result of these changes, an additional 10.5 million Americans were covered by Social Security. According to one historian the 1950 act "was almost as significant as the original 1935 legislation."
In September 1950, benefits began to be paid to dependent husbands, dependent widowers, wives under the age of sixty-five with children in their care, and divorced wives.
A law was signed (1952) which increased sickness and unemployment benefits for railroad workers by 30% to 60%, and was financed by a payroll levy on the railroads.
The Social Security Act was amended (1952) to extend for another year "the time within which State Governments could make agreements that were retroactive to January 1, 1951, for old-age and survivors insurance coverage of State and local Government employees".
The Federal Property and Administrative Services Act (1949) provided the Federal Security Administrator with the authority to dispose of surplus Federal property to nonprofit or tax-supported educational institutions for health or educational purposes.
The Social Security Act of 1952 increased benefits under the old-age and survivors insurance program, extended the period of wage credits for military service through December 31, 1953, liberalized the retirement test and raised the retirement test from $50 to $75 a month. The legislation also changed, for a two-year period, the grant formula for public assistance payments in order to make additional funds available to the States.
Social Security coverage was extended to farm workers (1951).
Unemployment coverage was extended.
A bill was passed (1952) which raised Social Security benefits by 12.5%.

Labor
A centerpiece of the Fair Deal—the repeal of the Taft–Hartley Act — failed to pass. As Plotke notes, "By the early 1950s repeal of Taft–Hartley was only a symbolic Democratic platform statement."
A new Fair Labor Standards Act established a 75-cent-an-hour minimum wage.
The Employment Act of 1946 created a clear legal obligation on the part of the federal government to use all practical means 'to promote maximum employment, production, and purchasing power.' The Act also established "the basic core of machinery for such economic planning – the Council of Economic Advisers working directly for the President, and the joint Committee on the Economic report in Congress." Under the Employment Act, within two decades following its passage, swift measures taken by the Federal Reserve authorities and by the administration in charge held in check four recessions, those of 1948–49, 1953–54, 1957–58, and 1960–61.
The Office of Economic Stabilization was re-established (1946) in an effort to control rising prices.
The Federal Employees Pay Act (1946) brought about a 14% increase in the base pay of most Government workers whose positions were subjected to the Classification Act of 1923.
The Fair Labor Standards Amendments of 1949 introduced various provisions designed to "assure the health, efficiency and general well-being of workers."
The Federal Employees' Compensation Act Amendments of 1949 broadened the coverage of the act while increasing benefits.
The Wagner-Peyser Act was extended to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
Moderate tax relief for low-income earners was passed by Congress.
The first code of federal regulations for mine safety was authorized by Congress (1947).
The Federal Coal Mine Safety Act of 1952 provided for annual inspections in certain underground coal mines, and provided the Bureau with limited enforcement authority, including the power to issue violation notices and imminent danger withdrawal orders. The Act also authorized the assessment of civil penalties against mine operators for refusing to give inspectors access to mine property or for noncompliance with withdrawal orders, although no provision was made for monetary penalties for noncompliance with the safety provisions.
Child labor was finally prohibited through an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act(1949).
The number of employees covered by the federal minimum wage was increased.
The Judiciary and Judicial Procedure Act of 1948 prohibited employers from intimidating, discharging, threatening to discharge, or coercing permanent employees for serving jury duty.
 A previous Railway Labour Act was amended by a law effective January the 10th 1951, "to permit carriers and employees covered by the act to bargain collectively for a union shop and check-off of union dues."
 A law of January the 10th 1951, as noted by one study, "authorized deductions pursuant to the written consent of seamen, to be held in trust for the establishment of benefits for the sole use of seamen or their families for the purpose of providing medical and hospital care, retirement or survivors' pensions, life insurance, unemployment benefits, and sickness or disability benefits."
The McGuire Act (1952) strengthened fair trade laws by enabling manufacturers to extend price maintenance even to retailers "who refused to sign contracts."

Education
As Donaldson notes, the major proposal for large-scale federal aid to education "died quickly, mostly over whether aid should be given to private schools."
The National School Lunch and Milk Act (1946) established school lunch programs across the United States, with the purpose of safeguarding "the health and well-being of the nation's children and to encourage the consumption of agricultural abundance". This legislation introduced the provision of commodity donations and federal grants for non-profit milk and lunches in private and public schools. The program had the strong support of conservative Congressmen from rural districts.
The George-Barden Act (1946) expanded federal support for vocational education.
The Fulbright Program was established (1946), becoming one of the "world's largest and most respected cooperative educational programs for the interchange of graduate students, teachers, and scholars."
The National Science Foundation was established to support education and research in science.
The School Construction Act (Public Law 815) authorized a 3-year program "calling for the construction of critically needed school facilities in those school districts overburdened by Federal activities."
The Federal Impacted Areas Aid Program (1950) authorized federal aid to school districts in which "large numbers of federal employees and tax-exempt federal property create either a substantial increase in public school enrollments or a significant reduction in local property tax revenues."
Long-term low-interest loans to colleges for dormitory construction were authorized (1950).
Following the outbreak of the Korean War aid was provided for current expenses and for the construction of additional school facilities in districts which had become centers of wartime activity and were overwhelmed by the arrival of military personnel and their families.
$96.5 million was appropriated for school construction under P.L. 81-815 (1950).
The federal government funded scholarships and loans for nursing students and provided aid to medical schools in order to meet the growing need for caregivers.
$23 million was appropriated for school operating expenses under P.L. 81-874 (1950).

Housing
During the Truman years, the role of the federal government in the field of housing provision was extended, with one major reform in particular (the Housing Act of 1949) passed with the support of the conservative senator Robert A. Taft.
The Housing Act of 1949 was a major legislative accomplishment stemming from the collaboration of the Fair Deal supporters with conservative leader Senator Taft. This led to the allocation of federal funds to go towards 800,000 units of public housing.
The Federal Housing and Rent Act (1947) was passed to encourage the construction of new rental housing in cities.
The Housing and Rent Act (1949) extended federal rent control authority.
The Farmers Home Administration was established (1946) to assist self-help rural housing groups as well as to make grants and loans for the repair and construction of rural homes.
More money was provided for farm housing.
The Federal Housing Administration's mortgage insurance programs were liberalized, authorizing a program of limited technical research and setting up a new program for guaranteeing a minimum yield on direct investments in housing.
The Housing Act of 1950 enlarged and liberalized the loan guarantee privileges of Second World War veterans by administering a direct loan program for those veterans who were unable to acquire private home financing. The legislation also authorized a program of mortgage insurance for co-operative housing projects, a program of technical aid, and a new program of mortgage insurance for low-priced new rural housing.
The Housing and Home Finance Agency was established (1947), promising co-ordination of the principal nonfarm housing functions of the federal government.
Rent controls were extended (1951) to cover previously exempted categories.
Funds were provided for slum clearance and urban renewal.
Appropriations for the Farmer's Home Administration were increased (1950).

Veterans
Veterans benefits were non-controversial, and won support from left and right.
The Veterans' regulations were amended (1945) to provide increased rates of pension for certain service-incurred disabilities, generally on a parity with rates payable for similar disabilities under the World War I Veterans' Act, 1924, as amended.
The Veteran's Readjustment Assistance Act (1952) included provisions for unemployment compensation for veterans under a uniform Federal formula.
Legislation was approved (1952) which increased veteran's compensation and pension rates.
A law was signed (1949), which extended for one year to June 1950 reconversion and unemployment benefits for seamen provided by Title XIII of the Social Security Act.
$3.7 billion was spent of GI benefits from 1945 to 1949.
The Social Security Act was amended (1952) to grant wage credits toward Social Security benefits for each month of military service after July 1947 and before January 1954.
Laws were enacting permitting the payment to veterans of retroactive benefits during hospitalization, while a time extension was enacted for filling in certain cases claiming benefit and compensation.

Agriculture
Dean shows that the major Fair Deal initiative, the "Brannan Plan" proposed by Secretary of Agriculture Brannan, failed in Congress because Truman delayed too long in presenting it before Congress and it lost initiative and because he never consulted with top leaders in farm legislation. A separate Anderson Act was signed in 1949 that had more in common with the Republican-sponsored Agricultural Act of 1948 than Secretary Brannan's plan did.<ref>Virgil W. Dean, "Charles F. Brannan and the rise and fall of Truman's 'Fair Deal' for farmers," Agricultural History, Winter 1995, Vol. 69 Issue 1, pp 28–53</ref>
A Conservation of Wildlife Act was passed (1946) to protect wildlife resources.
The Farmers Commodity Credit Corporation Charter Act (1948) stabilized, supported and protected farm incomes and prices, assisted in maintaining adequate supplies, and facilitated an orderly distribution of commodities.
The Agricultural Act (1948) introduced a more flexible system of price supports.
The Agricultural Act (1949) maintained price supports at 90% of parity. The Act also made certain donated commodities acquired through price-support operations by the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) available for distribution to local public welfare organizations serving poor Americans, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and school lunch programs. It also authorized the CCC "to pay for added processing, packaging, and handling costs for foods acquired under price support so that recipient outlets could more fully use them".
The Disaster Loan Act (1949) made farmers who experienced severe crop losses due to natural disasters eligible for special low-interest loans.
A loan program was authorized (1949) for expanding and improving rural telephone facilities.
The REA and soil-conservation programs were expanded.

Federal reclamation and power projects
Truman's Fair Deal reclamation program called for expanded public distribution of federally produced electric power and endorsed restrictions on the amount of land an owner could irrigate from federal water projects. Lobbying efforts by privately owned power companies prevented the spread of public utilities. Political pressure and conflicts with the Budget Bureau and the Army Corps of Engineers kept the Bureau of Reclamation from enforcing the excess land law.
Rural electrification and public power were extended.
New conservation projects were initiated.
Funds for the Tennessee Valley Authority were significantly increased.
Funds were provided for western land reclamation.
Funds were provided for hydroelectric power stations.
Flood control developments were expanded.
Some money was spent on public works.
Appropriations for the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Rural Electrification Administration were increased (1950).
Funding for the Reclamation Bureau's hydroelectric, water control, and irrigation projects in the west was increased.

See also
Economic Bill of Rights – proposed by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1944
New Deal – Franklin Roosevelt's signature program of economic reforms during the Great Depression
The New Freedom – President Wilson's proposed tariff, business, and banking reforms
New Nationalism – Proposed by ex-President Theodore Roosevelt during his 1912 run for office as a Progressive Party candidate; included provision for a national health service
Square Deal – President Theodore Roosevelt's proposals to conserve national resources, control corporate excesses, and protect consumers

References

Further reading
Donovan, Robert J. Conflict and Crisis: The Presidency of Harry S. Truman, 1945–1948 (1977); Tumultuous Years: 1949–1953 (1982) detailed 2-vol political history

Hamby, Alonzo L. Man of the People: A Life of Harry S Truman (1995)
Smith, Jason Scott. "The Fair Deal" in Daniel S. Margolies, ed. A Companion to Harry S. Truman'' (2012) pp 210–21; excerpt and text search; 630pp

United States presidential domestic programs
United States economic policy
Presidency of Harry S. Truman
Liberalism in the United States
New Deal

Fair Deal


Kojiki or Furukotofumi (), also called in English the Records of Ancient Matters, is the oldest book known in Japan. It was written 712 CE, and dedicated to Empress Gemmei. The Kojiki is a book about Japanese mythology (Shinto), legends, songs, genealogies, oral traditions, and semi-historical accounts down to 641 BCE. The book mixes the legends of first emperor of Japan and several others with stories about the gods. Therefore, it is difficult to know which parts of the Kojiki are real and which parts are legend. According to legend, all the emperors of Japan are descended from Amaterasu, the sun goddess.

The Kojiki is written in Chinese, but the way the Japanese wrote it is by using the pronunciation of the Chinese characters and not the meanings of them.  In other words, a person who can read Chinese will not be able to read the Kojiki unless they also know how to speak Japanese. It includes many Japanese names and some phrases.

Sections
The Kojiki is divided into three parts: the , the  and the .

The Kamitsumaki, also known as the , includes the preface of the Kojiki. It is about the first gods in the mythology of Japan, Izanagi and Izanami. These are the gods who created the world. This volume also tells of the births of various gods of the kamiyo period, or Age of the Gods. The Kamitsumaki also describes the legends about the creation of Japan. It describes how Ninigi-no-Mikoto, grandson of Amaterasu, came down from heaven to Kyūshū and became the ancestor of the Japanese royal line. According to this legend, he is considered the great-grandfather of Emperor Jimmu.

The Nakatsumaki begins with the story of Jimmu, the first Emperor, and how he conquered Japan. The volume ends with the 15th emperor, Ōjin. Not much is written about the reigns of the second through the ninth emperors; only their names and the names of their various descendants are mentioned, as well as a few other details. There is no mention of their achievements. Many of the stories in this volume are mythological, and there is no evidence to suggest that they are historically accurate. Recent studies support the opinion that these emperors were invented to push Jimmu's reign further back to the year 660 BC.

The Shimotsumaki recounts the 16th to the 33rd emperors. Unlike the other two volumes, this one does not contain many references to the gods. Interactions between the human world and the gods are very prominent in the first and second volumes, but not in this volume. Information about the 24th to the 33rd emperors is largely missing as well.

Related pages
 Nihon Odai Ichiran
 Nihon Shoki

References

Other websites

 The Internet Sacred Text Archive - An online version of Basil Hall Chamberlain's translation of Kojiki (1919).

8th century in Japan
Japanese mythology
Shinto
8th-century books
712

Kojiki


Japanese food includes the many different styles of cooking in Japan. Every region in Japan has its own tradition about cooking. Foods eaten in Japan also reflect the history of the cultural exchange between Japan and other culture. Since the modern times, the influence of the West inspired Japanese culinary tradition to invent new dishes, some of which have become popular not only inside Japan but also outside. However, most of the culinary traditions of Japan commonly think that seasonality is important.

Examples

Soya beans
Soya beans are a very important ingredient in Japanese cooking; it is used in soya sauce, natto, miso and tofu. Soya milk is also used as a drink. One example of a dish with soya beans in it, is tofu. Tofu is made from pressing soybeans into cubes and then boiling them. Tofu is often in soups and stews. Deep fried tofu is also used in many popular Japanese dishes, for example as kitsune udon and inari sushi.

Noodles

Noodles (like in most Asian foods) are used often in Japanese foods. The dishes usually come originally from China; nevertheless they have reached a unique development in Japan.
Ramen (egg noodles with soup, vegetables and meat or fish)
Udon (Thick noodles with soup that can be with tofu, meat or vegetables. For the hot dish, noodles and soup are usually served together in the same bowl. For the cold dish, noodles and soup are usually served in different dishes)
 Soba (Thin noodles with soy-sause-based soup. In hot dishes, noodles and soup are usually served together in the same bowl. For cold dishes, the noodles and soup are usually served in different bowls)
 Yakisoba (Stir fry vegetables and/or meat with egg noodles and a soy based sauce)
 Sōmen (Very thin white noodles made of wheat flour)
 Sōmin champurū (Okinawan very thin noodles that are stirred and fried with green onions and pork meat)

Seafood

Japan is surrounded by the ocean so there is a rich variety of seafood which is an important part of Japanese cooking.
Sushi (cooked rice with raw fish, vegetables or other seafood)
Sashimi (sliced raw fish)
Yakizakana (cooked whole fish)
Asari no miso shiru (miso soup with small mussels called "asari")

Meat
Japanese people did not eat meat until the Europeans first came. Fish was the most common food.
Yakiniku (fried slices of beef with a sweet and spicy sauce- originally Korean)
Nikujaga (beef, potatoes and usually carrots cooked in mentsuyu – a soy sauce based sauce)
Yakitori (bits of chicken staked with soy based sauce)
Shabu shabu is meat (or other protein-based food) and vegetables boiled in a simple broth flavored with seaweed and/or fish. Each piece of meat is put in the broth for a short time.
Botan nabe
Gyūdon (Rice bowl made with thin beef and sauce on top)

Wasabi
Wasabi is Japanese horseradish. It is often a green paste used with sashimi and sushi. Wasabi is also used with many other Japanese foods.
Wasabi is sold as a paste or in powder form. Wasabi powder has to be mixed with water to be turned into a paste. Wasabi has a strong, very spicy (hot) taste.

Sashimi
Sashimi is very thinly cut raw seafood. Many different kinds of fresh fish and other seafood are served raw in Japanese dishes. Sashimi is one of them. It is almost the same as sushi, but it has no vinegar rice. When the slices of fish are put on small pieces of rice they are called "Nigiri Sushi".
Sashimi is artistically arranged and put on the plate on top of shredded daikon and shiso leaves. The fish pieces are dipped into soya sauce before being eaten.

Seaweed
Seaweed has been a very important part of Japanese dishes for a long time. Today, many different types of seaweed are used in soups, seasonings and other forms of Japanese cooking. These are the three seaweeds used the most:
Kombu (large type of seaweed)
Wakame (sold in dried form, and then put in water before people use it in their foods)
Nori (thin, dried seaweed sheets, used in sushi)

Tofu

Tofu is a popular traditional dish in Japanese and has become popular in Asia and the rest of the world.

References

"Japanese Food" Japan-Guide.com, Gourmet Navigator, Eat-Japan.com < >
Yoshizuka, S "Japanese Food " About.com (13/04/10)
"Japanese Food" Japan-Guide.com, Gourmet Navigator, Eat-Japan.com (13/04/10)

Japanese food


Lamponeia () or Lamponia (Λαμπωνία), also known as Lamponium or Lamponion (Λαμπώνιον), was an Aeolian city on the southern coast of the Troad region of Anatolia. Its archaeological remains have been located above the village of Kozlu in the district of Ayvacık in Çanakkale Province in Turkey. The site was first visited by Platon de Tchiatcheff in 1849, and later surveyed and identified as Lamponeia by Joseph Thacher Clarke, the excavator of nearby Assos, in 1882, and by Walther Judeich in 1896.

History
Lamponeia is located at an altitude of 565 m on the long crest of a mountain which runs SW-NE for a length of 3 km in parallel with a narrow valley to the north which connected Assos to the cities of the middle Skamander valley. To the south it overlooks all sea traffic along the southern coast of the Troad. The settlement itself is 800 m in length and is protected by a 7 m thick circuit wall of rough masonry and boulders which dates to the 6th century BCE. Its strategic location controlling traffic to and from Assos to the west perhaps explains why it was captured by the Persian commander Otanes in 512 BCE.

Strabo, drawing on the mid-5th century BCE historian Hellanicus of Lesbos, considered Lamponeia to be an Aeolian Greek settlement in origin and a secondary foundation of Assos. In the 5th century BCE the city was a member of the Delian League and paid Athens a modest tribute of 1,000 drachmas (on one occasion in 430//29 1,400 drachmas) as part of the Hellespontine district. In the late 5th and early 4th century BCE the city minted bronze coinage, but thereafter disappears from the historical record. It is possible that soon after the city was incorporated into Assos and the site above Kozlu abandoned. Late Roman and middle Byzantine period finds suggest that the site was reoccupied in this period, perhaps as a defensive measure against piracy and brigandage.

References

Bibliography
 J. M. Cook, The Troad: An Archaeological and Topographical Study (Oxford, 1973) 261–4.
 S. Mitchell, 'Lamponeia' in M. H. Hansen and T. H. Nielsen (eds), An Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis (Oxford, 2004) no. 783.

Archaeological sites in the Marmara Region
Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Turkey
Ruins in Turkey
Cities in ancient Troad
Former populated places in Turkey
Geography of Çanakkale Province
History of Çanakkale Province
Tourist attractions in Çanakkale Province
Populated places in ancient Troad
Greek city-states
Members of the Delian League

Lamponeia