Woman at a Window is an 1822 oil painting by the German Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich. This painting is currently located in Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin. The painting depicts an interior with a woman, seen from behind, peering out an opened window. Beyond the window, the masts of ships are visible. The woman in the piece is Friedrich's wife Caroline and the view from the window is from his studio overlooking the Elbe river in Dresden. Friedrich submitted his work to be exhibited at the Dresden Academy, however he did not complete the piece in time to be in the main exhibition.

This painting employs the motif of the Rückenfigur, or a figure seen from behind, which is commonly associated with Friedrich who notoriously made use of this compositional device in many of his pieces. The Rückenfigur serves as a surrogate for the viewer to experience what they are witnessing. In this painting, the viewer is invited to look beyond the interior into the external world, as the woman does, experiencing her sense of yearning.

Artist and model
Caspar David Friedrich was born in a harbor town known as Greifswald in Pomerania in 1774, many years before Germany's cities and states were unified. During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Germany remained economically and politically weak but grew in the intellectual and spiritual sense. The emergence of Romanticism fostered a shift from the material world to the natural world evident in the German Romantic movement spanning Friedrich's lifetime. Primarily working in Dresden, Friedrich established his spiritual artistic style, creating landscapes that "looked inwards as well as outwards."

Also in Dresden, Friedrich met his wife Caroline Bommer, whom he married in 1818. Friedrich paints his wife Caroline in Woman at a Window, four years after their marriage, in their Dresden apartment overlooking the Elbe. Caroline appears as a figure in numerous works by Friedrich, such as Sisters, The Chalk Cliff on Rügen and On the Sailing Boat. Friedrich's artwork had long included figures, but after his marriage it placed a new emphasis on domesticity.

Influences

During the year 1816, Friedrich experienced what he described as a "crisis" in his artistic style, with his primary focus being on seascapes, which lacked vibrancy and formality. In the subsequent years, Friedrich's style was heavily influenced by changes in his social life, including his marriage to Caroline Bommer in 1818, after which he placed new emphasis on figures in his artwork. Friedrich's work at the time may also have been influenced by the younger artists that he became acquainted with in Dresden, including Georg Friedrich Kersting, Carl Gustav Carus, and Johan Christian Dahl. In particular, Dahl had a significant influence on Friedrich's work; the two artists were closely connected, sharing a house together in Dresden. During the time of their friendship, Friedrich's focus on landscapes and use of vibrant colors and looser brushstrokes were notable.

Prior to his execution of Woman at a Window, Friedrich created a sepia sketch of his view from the window of his Dresden studio. Beginning with his sketch View from the Artist's Atelier in 1806, Friedrich established his craft at portraying a view through an opened window, through which he represents the juxtaposition "between interior and exterior as a play between self and world, consciousness and nature." Friedrich's refined use of the window motif serves to represent both the artist's viewpoint and the view from the window itself.

Composition
The composition of this painting follows an orthogonal layout, with receding vertical and horizontal planes that create a symmetrical interior. The geometric lines created by the floorboards, shutters, molding, and window sill define the symmetrical nature of the piece, converging to the view outside the window. The symmetrical interior is interrupted by the woman's slightly leaning posture, which is paralleled in the masts of the ships on the Elbe. Within the bare room, there are two bottles visible to the right of the woman on the shelf. The central figure is a woman seen from behind wearing a modest green dress, a technique Friedrich often employed, known as the Rückenfigur. Friedrich in many of his works has a similar scene, where a figure (usually seen from behind) contemplates the nature that appears in front of them, leaving their reaction unspecified for the painting's viewer. In this particular painting, the woman stands in a middle-class interior, looking out an opened window, fragmenting the view. The woman gazes at the ships swaying on the Elbe river and the poplars on the distant shore, inviting the viewer to do the same. Friedrich depicts a woman in silent contemplation, evoking a sense of longing and uncertainty.

Interpretations and analysis
The central figure, Friedrich's wife Caroline, has an informal stance, creating the impression that Friedrich observed and captured the scene at a precise moment in time. The woman's posture reflects an intimate moment in Friedrich's domestic sphere. As she observes the view from the artist's studio she appears relaxed and reserved. The simplicity of the domestic space leads the viewer's gaze to the view beyond the window to the masts of the ships gliding on the Elbe and the greenery in the distance. Friedrich mirrors the canvas's form with the rectangular window within the piece. The painting itself can be seen as a window through which the viewer can see this scene, reflecting the same action as the woman within the piece. She peers outside the window into a different sphere, just as the viewer does when observing this painting. Just as the woman in this painting has an obscured view, the spectator is also "in a position of exile from, and longing for, what we can always only partially see." Often in his landscapes, Friedrich employs symmetry in relation to the central figure; the symmetry emerges from this figure symbolizing their interconnectedness and spiritual experience with the landscape. However, in this painting, the central figure is separated from the landscape; the spiritual connection comes from her prayer-like posture and the form of a cross in the window pane above her head. The woman's highly symmetrical domestic space is contrasted with the asymmetrical world beyond the window, emphasized through the viewer's fragmented view of the ships and the poplars on the banks of the river.

One scholar contradicts the commonly agreed upon idea that the lines of the floorboards and shutters converge on the central point of the painting, observing instead that if one follows the lines, they will converge on a point just left to the direct center of the image. This off-centered convergence point is indicative of the viewpoint in which Friedrich observed the scene of his wife in front of the window and painted in this piece. It is argued in this interpretation that the piece "involves looking at symmetry from an angle," which coincides with Friedrich's goal to portray subjectivity as the individual's experience of a frame of reference.

Friedrich often inserts implicit religious motifs in his works, which can also be seen carefully integrated into the composition of Woman at a Window. The cross-like form of the window pane above the woman's head serves as a Christian symbol which is in between the world beyond the window pane, symbolizing the spiritual world, and the interior in which the woman stands, representing the earthly world. Beyond the cross-like form of the window frame, the masts of ships floating on the river also can serve as a religious motif, symbolizing and eliciting a desire to travel beyond the known horizons to discover knew places or spiritual enlightenment. Friedrich uses the ship as a symbol implicitly in his work The Stages of Life, where he depicts five ships as the different stages of one's life, mirroring the forms of the five figures on the shoreline. For Friedrich, the ship often was a "symbol of man's hopes and of the passage from life to death."

See also
List of works by Caspar David Friedrich

References

External links

Paintings in the Alte Nationalgalerie
Paintings by Caspar David Friedrich
1822 paintings

Woman at a Window


Hurricane Ernesto was a very damaging hurricane during the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season. The storm moved across Haiti and Dominican Republic as a minor hurricane. Then, the storm moved over Florida while a tropical storm. It later struck North Carolina, when the storm was almost a hurricane. It killed eleven people. The total damage from Ernesto was $500 million (2006 USD).

2006 Atlantic hurricane season
Category 1 Atlantic hurricanes
Hurricanes in the United States
2006 in the United States
2000s in Haiti
2000s in the Dominican Republic
2000s in Florida
2000s in North Carolina

Hurricane Ernesto


Escott Graves Meredith Reid, CC (January 21, 1905 –  September 28, 1999), was a Canadian diplomat who helped shape the United Nations and NATO, author, international public servant and academic administrator.

Early life and education

Born in Campbellford, Ontario, he was the son of Shropshire native and Anglican minister Rev. Alfred John Reid (1861–1957), by his wife Morna Irvine Meredith (1871–1962), the youngest daughter of Edmund Allen Meredith and a god-daughter of George Irvine. His Meredith grandfather had served as Deputy Under-Secretary of Canada, and Reid later occupied his very same offices at Parliament Hill.

He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Trinity College, in the University of Toronto in 1927. A Rhodes scholar, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1929 and a Master of Arts degree in 1935 from Christ Church, Oxford. Though academic jobs were scarce in 1930, he had won a Rockefeller Fellowship which enabled him to study the Canadian party and electoral systems in general and Saskatchewan's in particular.

At Oxford he had met and married Ruth Herriot, of Winnipeg, and they had three children: Patrick Reid; Morna Reid; and Tim Reid (b. 1936), a Canadian educator, civil servant, and executive.

Public life and career

Turning down a position to teach at Harvard University, from 1932 to 1938, he was the first full-time National Secretary for the Canadian Institute of International Affairs (CIIA), today known as the Canadian International Council (CIC). He was active in the League for Social Reconstruction, an association of left-wing intellectuals founded in Montreal and Toronto in the winter of 1931–1932. He also joined the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, the new social-democratic political party that took shape in 1932–1933. His left-wing views and his conviction that Canada should maintain neutrality in a renewed European war put him at odds with many CIIA members, and essentially made it necessary for him to find a new career path. From 1937 to 1938, he was the acting Professor of Government and Political Science at Dalhousie University.

In 1939, he joined the Canadian Foreign Service and held positions in Washington, London, San Francisco and Ottawa, working on the creation of the United Nations. He was an important member of that extraordinary generation of public servants who helped give Canadian statecraft in the 1940s and 1950s its reputation for excellence.

He accompanied Minister of Trade and Commerce James MacKinnon on a tour of Latin America in 1941 which established trade agreements with several nations. From 1946 to 1949 he was Lester B. Pearson's chief aide, and instrumental in devising the idea of a collective security alliance of Western democracies, which culminated in NATO.

In 1947, he was appointed Assistant Under-Secretary for External Affairs and was Deputy Under-Secretary from 1948 to 1952. He was a member of the Canadian delegation to the founding conference of the United Nations in San Francisco in 1945. From 1952 to 1957, he was the High Commissioner for Canada to India and from 1958 to 1962 he was Ambassador to West Germany. From 1962 to 1965, he was Director of the South-Asia and Middle East Department of the World Bank. From 1965 to 1969, he was the first Principal of Glendon College, York University.

Retirement and legacy

Reid spent a large part of his retirement at the farm he and his wife owned at Wakefield, Quebec. From 1973 to 1989 he published seven books, all rooted in his personal experience while dealing with subjects of evident public interest. They included works about the World Bank, the founding of the United Nations, the making of the North Atlantic Treaty, the Hungarian and Suez crises of 1956, his years in India and his friendship with Jawaharlal Nehru, and, finally, his autobiography, 'Radical Mandarin', which is how he referred to himself.

Though he was thought by some to have been 'arrogant, given to excess, and a naïve liberal idealist', Reid's vital contributions helped to shape some of the 20th century's most important international developments. During his service, Canadian diplomacy was at the forefront of the recognised world leaders, a status that declined rapidly after his departure. In 1971, Reid was made a Companion of the Order of Canada "for his services as a diplomat, international public servant and educator". In 1993, he received the Pearson Medal of Peace for his work as a public servant. He died in Ottawa on, September 28, 1999.

Bibliography
The Future of the World Bank (1965)
Strengthening the World Bank (1973)
Time of Fear and Hope: The Making of the North Atlantic Treaty 1947–49 (1977)
Envoy to Nehru (1981)
On Duty: A Canadian at the Making of the United Nations, 1945–46 (1983)
Hungary and Suez 1956: A View From New Delhi (1987)
Radical Mandarin: The Memoirs of Escott Reid (1989)

References

The Passion of Escott Reid – A Canadian Template for Modern Diplomacy?

 Greg Donaghy and Stéphane Roussel, editors. Escott Reid: Diplomat and Scholar. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2004.
 Timothy Escott Reid's entry in the International Who's Who, 2004

External links

 Pearson Medal of Peace – Escott Reid
 Order of Canada Citation

1905 births
1999 deaths
Canadian Anglicans
Canadian non-fiction writers
Canadian university and college chief executives
Companions of the Order of Canada
People from Northumberland County, Ontario
Canadian Rhodes Scholars
University of Toronto alumni
Trinity College (Canada) alumni
World Bank people
Rockefeller Fellows
Ambassadors of Canada to West Germany
High Commissioners of Canada to India
20th-century non-fiction writers
Academic staff of Glendon College

Escott Reid


A clown is a person who performs comedy and arts in a state of open-mindedness using physical comedy, typically while wearing distinct makeup or costuming and reversing folkway-norms. Clowns have a varied tradition with significant variations in costume and performance. The most recognisable clowns are those that commonly perform in the circus, characterized by colorful wigs, red noses, and oversized shoes. However, clowns have also played roles in theater and folklore, like the court jesters of the Middle Ages and the jesters and ritual clowns of various indigenous cultures. Their performances can elicit a range of emotions, from humor and laughter to fear and discomfort, reflecting complex societal and psychological dimensions. Through the centuries, clowns have continued to play significant roles in society, evolving alongside changing cultural norms and artistic expressions.

History
The most ancient clowns have been found in the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt, around 2400 BC. Unlike court jesters, clowns have traditionally served a socio-religious and psychological role, and traditionally the roles of priest and clown have been held by the same persons.
Peter Berger writes, "It seems plausible that folly and fools, like religion and magic, meet some deeply rooted needs in human society." For this reason, clowning is often considered an important part of training as a physical performance discipline, partly because tricky subject matter can be dealt with, but also because it requires a high level of risk and play in the performer.

In anthropology, the term clown has been extended to comparable jester or fool characters in non-Western cultures. A society in which such clowns have an important position are termed clown societies, and a clown character involved in a religious or ritual capacity is known as a ritual clown.

A Heyoka is an individual in Lakota and Dakota culture cultures who lives outside the constraints of normal cultural roles, playing the role of a backwards clown by doing everything in reverse. The Heyoka role is sometimes best filled by a Winkte.

Many native tribes have a history of clowning. The Canadian clowning method developed by Richard Pochinko and furthered by his former apprentice, Sue Morrison, combines European and Native American clowning techniques. In this tradition, masks are made of clay while the creator's eyes are closed. A mask is made for each direction of the medicine wheel. During this process, the clown creates a personal mythology that explores their personal experiences.

The circus clown tradition developed out of earlier comedic roles in theatre or Varieté shows during the 19th to mid 20th centuries. This recognizable character features outlandish costumes, distinctive makeup, colorful wigs, exaggerated footwear, and colorful clothing, with the style generally being designed to entertain large audiences.

The first mainstream clown role was portrayed by Joseph Grimaldi (who also created the traditional whiteface make-up design). In the early 1800s, he expanded the role of Clown in the harlequinade that formed part of British pantomimes, notably at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and the Sadler's Wells and Covent Garden theatres. He became so dominant on the London comic stage that harlequinade Clowns became known as "Joey", and both the nickname and Grimaldi's whiteface make-up design are still used by other clowns.

The comedy that clowns perform is usually in the role of a fool whose everyday actions and tasks become extraordinary—and for whom the ridiculous, for a short while, becomes ordinary. This style of comedy has a long history in many countries and cultures across the world. Some writers have argued that due to the widespread use of such comedy and its long history it is a need that is part of the human condition.

The modern clowning school of comedy in the 21st century diverged from white-face clown tradition, with more of an emphasis on personal vulnerability and heightened sexuality.

Origin
The clown character developed out of the zanni rustic fool characters of the early modern commedia dell'arte, which were themselves directly based on the rustic fool characters of ancient Greek and Roman theatre. Rustic buffoon characters in Classical Greek theater were known as sklêro-paiktês (from paizein: to play (like a child)) or deikeliktas, besides other generic terms for rustic or peasant. In Roman theater, a term for clown was fossor, literally digger; labourer.

The English word clown was first recorded c. 1560 (as clowne, cloyne) in the generic meaning rustic, boor, peasant. The origin of the word is uncertain, perhaps from a Scandinavian word cognate with clumsy. It is in this sense that Clown is used as the name of fool characters in Shakespeare's Othello and The Winter's Tale. The sense of clown as referring to a professional or habitual fool or jester developed soon after 1600, based on Elizabethan rustic fool characters such as Shakespeare's.

The harlequinade developed in England in the 17th century, inspired by Arlecchino and the commedia dell'arte. It was here that Clown came into use as the given name of a stock character. Originally a foil for Harlequin's slyness and adroit nature, Clown was a buffoon or bumpkin fool who resembled less a jester than a comical idiot. He was a lower class character dressed in tattered servants' garb.

The now-classical features of the clown character were developed in the early 1800s by Joseph Grimaldi, who played Clown in Charles Dibdin's 1800 pantomime Peter Wilkins: or Harlequin in the Flying World at Sadler's Wells Theatre, where Grimaldi built the character up into the central figure of the harlequinade.

Modern circuses

The circus clown developed in the 19th century. The modern circus derives from Philip Astley's London riding school, which opened in 1768. Astley added a clown to his shows to amuse the spectators between equestrian sequences. American comedian George L. Fox became known for his clown role, directly inspired by Grimaldi, in the 1860s.
Tom Belling senior (1843–1900) developed the red clown or Auguste (Dummer August) character c. 1870, acting as a foil for the more sophisticated white clown. Belling worked for Circus Renz in Vienna. Belling's costume became the template for the modern stock character of circus or children's clown, based on a lower class or hobo character, with red nose, white makeup around the eyes and mouth, and oversized clothes and shoes. The clown character as developed by the late 19th century is reflected in Ruggero Leoncavallo's 1892 opera Pagliacci (Clowns).
Belling's Auguste character was further popularized by Nicolai Poliakoff's Coco in the 1920s to 1930s.

The English word clown was borrowed, along with the circus clown act, by many other languages, such as French clown, Russian (and other Slavic languages) кло́ун, Greek κλόουν, Danish/Norwegian klovn, Romanian clovn etc.

Italian retains Pagliaccio, a Commedia dell'arte zanni character, and derivations of the Italian term are found in other Romance languages, such as French Paillasse, Spanish payaso, Catalan/Galician pallasso, Portuguese palhaço, Greek παλιάτσος, Turkish palyaço, German Pajass (via French) Yiddish פּאַיאַץ (payats), Russian пая́ц, Romanian paiață.

20th-century North America
In the early 20th century, with the disappearance of the rustic simpleton or village idiot character of everyday experience, North American circuses developed characters such as the tramp or hobo. Examples include Marceline Orbes, who performed at the Hippodrome Theater (1905), Charlie Chaplin's The Tramp (1914), and Emmett Kelly's Weary Willie based on hobos of the Depression era. Another influential tramp character was played by Otto Griebling during the 1930s to 1950s. Red Skelton's Dodo the Clown in The Clown (1953), depicts the circus clown as a tragicomic stock character, "a funny man with a drinking problem".

In the United States, Bozo the Clown was an influential Auguste character since the late 1950s. The Bozo Show premiered in 1960 and appeared nationally on cable television in 1978. McDonald's derived its mascot clown, Ronald McDonald, from the Bozo character in the 1960s. Willard Scott, who had played Bozo during 1959–1962, performed as the mascot in 1963 television spots. The McDonald's trademark application for the character dates to 1967.

Based on the Bozo template, the US custom of birthday clown, private contractors who offer to perform as clowns at children's parties, developed in the 1960s to 1970s. The strong association of the (Bozo-derived) clown character with children's entertainment as it has developed since the 1960s also gave rise to Clown Care or hospital clowning in children's hospitals by the mid-1980s. Clowns of America International (established 1984) and World Clown Association (established 1987) are associations of semi-professionals and professional performers.

The shift of the Auguste or red clown character from his role as a foil for the white in circus or pantomime shows to a Bozo-derived standalone character in children's entertainment by the 1980s also gave rise to the evil clown character, with the attraction of clowns for small children being based in their fundamentally threatening or frightening nature. The fear of clowns, particularly circus clowns, has become known by the term "coulrophobia."

Types

There are different types of clowns portrayed around the world. They include

 Auguste
 Blackface
 Buffoon
 Harlequin
 Jester
 Mime artist
 Pierrot
 Pueblo
 Rodeo clown
 Tramp
 Whiteface

Circus

Pierrot and Harlequin

The classical pairing of the White Clown with Auguste in modern tradition
has a precedent in the pairing of Pierrot and Harlequin in the Commedia dell'arte.
Originally, Harlequin's role was that of a light-hearted, nimble and astute servant, paired with the sterner and melancholic Pierrot.

In the 18th-century English Harlequinade, Harlequin was now paired with Clown.
As developed by Joseph Grimaldi around 1800, Clown became the mischievous and brutish foil for the more sophisticated Harlequin, who became more of a romantic character. The most influential such pair in Victorian England were the Payne Brothers, active during the 1860s and 1870s.

White and Auguste

The white clown, or clown blanc in French, is a sophisticated character, as opposed to the clumsy Auguste. The two types are also distinguished as the sad clown (blanc) and happy clown (Auguste).

The Auguste face base makeup color is a variation of pink, red, or tan rather than white. Features are exaggerated in size, and are typically red and black in color. The mouth is thickly outlined with white (called the muzzle) as are the eyes. Appropriate to the character, the Auguste can be dressed in either well-fitted garb or a costume that does not fit – oversize or too small, either is appropriate. Bold colors, large prints or patterns, and suspenders often characterize Auguste costumes.

The Auguste character-type is often an anarchist, a joker, or a fool. He is clever and has much lower status than the whiteface. Classically the whiteface character instructs the Auguste character to perform his bidding. The Auguste has a hard time performing a given task, which leads to funny situations. Sometimes the Auguste plays the role of an anarchist and purposefully has trouble following the whiteface's directions. Sometimes the Auguste is confused or is foolish and makes errors less deliberately.

The contra-auguste plays the role of the mediator between the white clown and the Auguste character. He has a lower status than the white clown but a higher status than the Auguste. He aspires to be more like the white clown and often mimics everything the white clown does to try to gain approval. If there is a contra-auguste character, he often is instructed by the whiteface to correct the Auguste when he is doing something wrong.

There are two major types of clowns with whiteface makeup:
The classic white clown is derived from the Pierrot character. His makeup is white, usually with facial features such as eyebrows emphasized in black. He is the more intelligent and sophisticated clown, contrasting with the rude or grotesque Auguste types. Francesco Caroli and Glenn "Frosty" Little are examples of this type. The second type of whiteface is the buffoonish clown of the Bozo type, known as Comedy or Grotesque Whiteface. This type has grotesquely emphasized features, especially a red nose and red mouth, often with partial (mostly red) hair.
In the comedic partnership of Abbott and Costello, Bud Abbot would have been the classic whiteface and Lou Costello the comedy whiteface or Auguste.

Traditionally, the whiteface clown uses clown white makeup to cover the entire face and neck, leaving none of the underlying natural skin visible. In the European whiteface makeup, the ears are painted red.

Whiteface makeup was originally designed by Joseph Grimaldi in 1801. He began by painting a white base over his face, neck and chest before adding red triangles on the cheeks, thick eyebrows and large red lips set in a mischievous grin. Grimaldi's design is used by many modern clowns. According to Grimaldi's biographer Andrew McConnell Stott, it was one of the most important theatrical designs of the 1800s.

America's first great whiteface clown was stage star George "G.L." Fox. Inspired by Grimaldi, Fox popularised the Humpty Dumpty stories throughout the U.S. in the 1860s.

Scary and Evil

The scary clown, also known as the evil clown or killer clown, is a subversion of the traditional comic clown character, in which the playful trope is instead depicted in a more disturbing nature through the use of horror elements and dark humor. The character can be seen as playing on the sense of unease felt by those with coulrophobia, the fear of clowns. The modern archetype of the evil clown was popularized by DC Comics character the Joker starting in 1940 and again by Pennywise in Stephen King's novel IT, which introduced the fear of an evil clown to a modern audience. In the novel, the eponymous character is a pan-dimensional monster which feeds mainly on children by luring them in the form of a clown, named "Pennywise", and then assuming the shape of whatever the victim fears the most.

Character
The character clown adopts an eccentric character of some type, such as a butcher, a baker, a policeman, a housewife or hobo. Prime examples of this type of clown are the circus tramps Otto Griebling and Emmett Kelly. Red Skelton, Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Rowan Atkinson and Sacha Baron Cohen would all fit the definition of a character clown.

The character clown makeup is a comic slant on the standard human face. Their makeup starts with a flesh tone base and may make use of anything from glasses, mustaches and beards to freckles, warts, big ears or strange haircuts.

The most prevalent character clown in the American circus is the hobo, tramp or bum clown. There are subtle differences in the American character clown types. The primary differences among these clown types is attitude. According to American circus expert Hovey Burgess, they are:
 The Hobo: Migratory and finds work where he travels. Down on his luck but maintains a positive attitude.
 The Tramp: Migratory and does not work where he travels. Down on his luck and depressed about his situation.
 The Bum: Non-migratory and non-working.

Organizations
The World Clown Association is a worldwide organization for clowns, jugglers, magicians, and face painters. It holds an annual convention, mainly in the United States.

Clowns of America International is a Minnesota-based non-profit clown arts membership organization which aims "to share, educate, and act as a gathering place for serious minded amateurs, semiprofessionals, and professional clowns".

Clowns International is a British clowning organisation dating back to the 1940s. It is responsible for the Clown Egg Register.

Terminology

Roles and skills
In the circus, a clown might perform other circus roles or skills. Clowns may perform such skills as tightrope, juggling, unicycling, Master of Ceremonies, or ride an animal. Clowns may also "sit in" with the orchestra. Other circus performers may also temporarily stand in for a clown and perform their skills in clown costume.

Frameworks
Frameworks are the general outline of an act that clowns use to help them build out an act. Frameworks can be loose, including only a general beginning and ending to the act, leaving it up to the clown's creativity to fill in the rest, or at the other extreme a fully developed script that allows very little room for creativity.

Shows are the overall production that a clown is a part of, it may or may not include elements other than clowning, such as in a circus show. In a circus context, clown shows are typically made up of some combination of entrées, side dishes, clown stops, track gags, gags and bits.

Gags, bits and business
 Business – the individual motions the clown uses, often used to express the clown's character.
 Gag – very short piece of clown comedy that, when repeated within a bit or routine, may become a running gag. Gags are, loosely, the jokes clowns play on each other. A gag may have a beginning, a middle, and an end – or may not. Gags can also refer to the prop stunts/tricks or the stunts that clowns use, such as a squirting flower.
 Bit – the clown's sketch or routine, made up of one or more gags either worked out and timed before going on stage, or impromptu bits composed of familiar improvisational material

Menu
 Entrée — clowning acts lasting 5–10 minutes. Typically made up of various gags and bits, usually within a clowning framework. Entrées almost always end with a blow-off — the comedic ending of a show segment, bit, gag, stunt, or routine.
 Side dish — shorter feature act. Side dishes are essentially shorter versions of the entrée, typically lasting 1–3 minutes. Typically made up of various gags and bits, side dishes are usually within a clowning framework. Side dishes almost always end with a blow-off.

Interludes
Clown Stops or interludes are the brief appearances of clowns in a circus while the props and rigging are changed. These are typically made up of a few gags or several bits. Clown stops will always have a beginning, a middle, and an end to them, invariably culminating in a blow-off. These are also called reprises or run-ins by many, and in today's circus they are an art form in themselves. Originally they were bits of business usually parodying the preceding act. If for instance there had been a tightrope walker the reprise would involve two chairs with a piece of rope between and the clown trying to imitate the artiste by trying to walk between them, with the resulting falls and cascades bringing laughter from the audience. Today, interludes are far more complex, and in many modern shows the clowning is a thread that links the whole show together.

Prop stunts
Among the more well-known clown stunts are: squirting flower; the too-many-clowns-coming-out-of-a-tiny-car stunt; doing just about anything with a rubber chicken, tripping over one's own feet (or an air pocket or imaginary blemish in the floor), or riding any number of ridiculous vehicles or clown bicycles. Individual prop stunts are generally considered individual bits.

Gallery

See also
 List of clowns
 Bouffon
 Clown car

Notes

References

Bibliography

External links
 Quotes by and about Clowns
Collection: "Clowns" from the University of Michigan Museum of Art

Comedy

Entertainment occupations
Performing arts
Stock characters
Articles containing video clips

Clown


Hallbjorn Halftroll or Hallbjorn Ulfsson was an early ninth century Norwegian hersir. He was the father of Ketil Trout of Hrafnista. He is mentioned in the Ketils saga hœngs as well as Egils saga and the Landnámabók. He was Norwegian-Sami.

References

9th-century Norwegian people
Norwegian Sámi people

Hallbjorn Halftroll


KRCG (channel 13) is a television station licensed to Jefferson City, Missouri, United States, serving as the CBS affiliate for the Columbia–Jefferson City market. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station maintains studios and transmitter facilities on US 54 in the nearby town of New Bloomfield.

History
The station was founded on February 13, 1955, and was owned by the Jefferson City News Tribune. The paper's publisher, Betty Goshorn Weldon, named the station in honor of her late father, Robert C. Goshorn, who had long wanted to bring a television station to the area. Ms. Weldon inherited the paper on his death in 1953 and took over his dream. She thus became one of the first women to own and operate a television station.

KRCG has always been a CBS affiliate, although it had shared some ABC programming with KOMU-TV (channel 8) until KCBJ-TV (channel 17, now KMIZ-TV) signed on in 1971. It is the only station in Mid-Missouri to have never changed its affiliation. KOMU and KMIZ have switched their networks twice (first in 1982, then reverting to their original networks in 1986). During the late 1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network.

In 1961, the News Tribune bought KMOS-TV (channel 6) in Sedalia, operating it as a full-time satellite station for the western portion of the market. However, later in the decade, KMOS began breaking away from KRCG to produce its own newscasts at 6 and 10 p.m. KRCG operated KMOS at a relatively low power level, and shied away from selling KMOS to another commercial owner. By this time, the Columbia–Jefferson City area was just barely big enough to support a third full network affiliate. With this in mind, KRCG and KOMU feared that if KMOS was sold, the station could potentially become a full-power ABC affiliate.

In 1967, KRCG and KMOS were sold to Kansas City Southern Industries. In 1978, Kansas City Southern donated KMOS to Central Missouri State University (now the University of Central Missouri) in Warrensburg. At that time, KMOS was converted to a stand-alone PBS member station. KRCG then signed on a Sedalia translator, K11OJ. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, KRCG carried some Fox programming on late night weekends. In 1985, Kansas City Southern sold the station to Price Communications. In 1988, KRCG was sold to Mel Wheeler, Inc., which owned the station until March 2005, when KRCG was purchased by Barrington Broadcasting. During the Wheeler years, KRCG gained a secondary affiliation with the United Paramount Network (UPN). On February 28, 2013, Barrington Broadcasting announced the sale of its entire group, including KRCG, to Sinclair Broadcast Group. The sale was completed on November 25.

In August 2014, KRCG launched its first digital subchannel, broadcasting GetTV programming on channel 13.2.

News operation
KRCG spent most of its history as a distant runner-up to KOMU. It traditionally dominated Jefferson City and the southern half of the market, while KOMU led the way in the northern half. At the turn of the millennium, this pattern had progressed to the extent that the two cities were a single market in name only. In November 2006, however, KRCG's 10 p.m. newscast took first place in the market—the first time in memory that long-dominant KOMU had lost any timeslot. As of the February 2011 sweeps, KRCG remains first at 10 p.m.

On May 9, 2016, KRCG began broadcasting from a remodeled studio. With the remodel, KRCG became the final news operation in the Columbia–Jefferson City market to broadcast its news in high definition.

Technical information

Subchannels
The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Analog-to-digital conversion
KRCG shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 13, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition VHF channel 12. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 13.

On June 29, 2022, KRCG completed the channel move from VHF channel 12 to UHF channel 29.

Out of market coverage
Until 2010, KRCG operated an analog translator, K11OJ (channel 11) in Sedalia, located within the Kansas City market. That translator has long been shut down, and the station files associated with that translator were deleted by the FCC no later than March 2014.

See also
 KMOS-TV (former KRCG satellite, now a PBS member station)

References

External links
Official website

CBS network affiliates
Comet (TV network) affiliates
Charge! (TV network) affiliates
TBD (TV network) affiliates
Sinclair Broadcast Group
Television channels and stations established in 1955
RCG
1955 establishments in Missouri

KRCG


The World Scrabble Championship (WSC) is played to determine the world champion in competitive English-language Scrabble. It was held in every odd year from 1991 to 2013; from 2013 onwards, it became an annual event.

The most successful player in world championship history is Nigel Richards from New Zealand, who won a record five titles between 2007 and 2019.

History
Sponsorship of the World Scrabble Championship (WSC) formerly alternated between Hasbro and Mattel, the North American and global owners of the Scrabble trademark, respectively. However, after Hasbro declined to sponsor WSC 2005, Mattel has organized and sponsored all championships. Mind Sports International (MSI) began sponsoring the event in 2013 after successfully organizing their own major Scrabble tournament in Prague in 2012. As of 2018, it has been sponsored by Mindsports Academy.

On May 17, 2013, Mattel announced that the event would be renamed the Scrabble Champions Tournament, and the tournament would be held annually as part of Mind Sports International's Prague Mind Sports Festival. MSI introduced a 'Last Chance Qualifier' tournament, giving players a last opportunity to qualify for 5 places in the main event if they failed to achieve a place on their national team. A four-way knockout stage was introduced for the top four finishers, which consisted of a best-of-3 semi-final followed by a best-of-5 final. Nigel Richards became World Champion here, making him the first player to defend his world title.

In 2014 the Scrabble Champions Tournament continued in London, but it became an open event, with all players invited to compete. A quarter-final stage was added, meaning that the top 8 progressed to the knockout stages. Craig Beevers won the event, making him the first British World Scrabble Champion since Mark Nyman in 1993.

In 2015, following cancellation of the SCT, Mattel and MSI agreed to allow WESPA to organize the 2015 WESPA Championship (WESPAC). It was held in Perth, Australia and followed the invitational format of pre-MSI WSC events. 130 players qualified to play. Wellington Jighere of Nigeria emerged as WESPA Champion after beating Lewis Mackay 4–0 in the final.

In 2016, the tournament was split into two divisions based on players' rankings. MSI also hosted world championships in other languages, including French, German, Spanish and Catalan, alongside the French Duplicate Championship.

The 2017 MSI World Championships followed the same format as the 2016 event. This was won by Australian David Eldar.

The 2017 WESPA Championship was held in Nairobi and the best-of-7 final was won by Akshay Bhandarkar of Bahrain who defeated Moses Peter of Nigeria 4-3.

The 2018 World Scrabble Championship was organised by Mindsports Academy. The main event was held in Torquay, Devon, but the best-of-5 final was held in London to celebrate the game's 70th anniversary. The event was won by Nigel Richards.

In 2019 Nigel Richards went on to defend his title (and win his fifth championship) against David Eldar at the Riviera International Centre in Torquay.

Since 2015, WESPA Championships (WESPAC) have been held every two years. The 2015 event was an official World Scrabble Championship, but since 2017 the WESPAC events have been denied permission from Mattel and/or Hasbro to be official World Championships.

List of finals

See also
World Youth Scrabble Championships
List of world championships in mind sports

References

World Scrabble Championships
Recurring events established in 1991
Biennial events
Scrabble competitions

World Scrabble Championship


Motion blindness (also called Akinetopsia)  is a medical condition (although not a medical condition that is not currently recognized by the World Health Organization) in which a person cannot see objects that are moving even though they can see the objects that do not move. The condition seems to be very rare, and related to the nerves. It may also be psychological. There is currently no treatment for this condition. A lot of information about this condition comes from different case studies done between 1913 and 2003. Most of what is known is from a single patient, called LM. LM was a 43 year old woman who was treated in a hospital in 1978, after she had suffered a stroke.

Currently, motion blindness is thought to be caused by a change to the regions of the brain that are responsible for sight. This change is usually a result of damage done to the brain, and affects the way the brain "decodes" visual information. It is possible that only "visual" motion processing is affected because this is done in a separate area of the brain, which is different from the area that does motion processing in general. The same can happen to the perception of color, that is the patient can have a form of color blindness, which is known as achromatopsia. Unlike most other forms of color blindness, which are caused by changes in the eye, this one is caused by changes in the brain.

Characteristics
People who suffer from motion blindness have normal vision: They can see different objects sharply, can tell the distance between them (that one is farther away than the other) and they see the different colors the objects might have. This applies to shapes, objects and faces.  They do not, however, see the objects move. Besides simple perception, akinetopsia also disturbs motoric tasks which rely on visual perception, such as reaching for objects and catching objects. When doing tasks, feedback of one's own motion appears to be important.

Patients with akinetopsia have problems with many tasks in their daily life. One patient, LM, described pouring a cup of tea or coffee difficult "because the fluid appeared to be frozen, like a glacier". She did not know when to stop pouring, because she could not perceive the movement of the fluid rising. LM and other patients have also complained of having trouble following conversations, because lip movements and changing facial expressions were missed. LM stated she felt insecure when more than two people were walking around in a room: "people were suddenly here or there but I have not seen them moving". LM and others have described crossing the street and driving cars to also be of great difficulty.

Causes
Currently, three conditions are known that cause motion blindness:
Damage done to the brain, in the posterior of the visual cortex. LM's brain was damaged on both sides, in a symmetrical way.
The condition can be simulated with transcranial magnetic stimulation of the area known as V5 of the visual cortex, in healthy people. The effect is temporary and will only last for a short time
People suffering from Alzheimer's disease may also suffer from motion blindness. This could add to their marked disorientation. While Pelak and Hoyt have recorded an Alzheimer's case study, there has not been much research done on the subject as of yet.

References

Vision

Motion blindness


Masonic Child Identification Programs (CHIP) are a charitable initiative by North American Masonic lodges to aid in the identification and recovery of missing children. CHIP programs are supported monetarily at the Grand Lodge level, and are staffed by volunteers from subordinate lodges as well as law enforcement and dental professionals.

The CHIP programs allow parents the opportunity to create a kit of identifying materials for their child, free of charge. The kit contains a fingerprint card, a physical description, a VHS tape, computer disk, or DVD of the child, a dental imprint, and a DNA sample.  The purpose of the kit is to provide critical information to the public and to law enforcement in the event that a child is reported missing. The program has been lauded by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

The VHS tape or DVD, besides a video capturing appearance and voice, includes data tailored to the child's age group that can assist in finding children who might be missing for reasons besides abduction.

The Masonic Child ID Program has been referenced by state and local law enforcement agencies as their model for establishing this service. The difference between Masonic CHIP and others is that municipal and law enforcement agencies typically place all data that is collected (including fingerprints) into a database. The Masonic Child ID Program operates with strict confidentiality, with all data on portable computers being removed from systems immediately after the DVD data has been written. If the DVD or VHS tape is lost, a parent or guardian must attend another Masonic Child ID event to obtain a new copy.

References

External links
MasoniCHIP National website

Child safety
Freemasonry

Masonic Child Identification Programs


The Five Corners Historic District is a historic district encompassing the central district of the village of South Williamstown, Massachusetts.  It is centered at the junction of Cold Spring, Green River, New Ashford.  The junction has been a prominent center in the area since 1760.  Prominent buildings in the district include the South Center School, the Store at Five Corners, and the Second Congregational Church.  The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.

Description and history
Williamstown was laid out as a township in 1739 and incorporated in 1765.  Its early development was centered in the modern town center to the north, and the southern part of the town was not laid out until 1765.  South Williamstown, now Five Corners, was formed out of the junction of four large parcels of land, and developed in the late 18th century as a stop on the main north-south stagecoach route (today United States Route 7). By the turn of the 19th century the village had a tavern, store, and cemetery, and the first church was built in 1808.  The area remained agricultural through the 19th-century, having been bypassed by railroad construction and significant industrial activity.

The district consists of about  of land, centered on the junction of Route 7, Massachusetts Route 43, and Sloan Road, a local road serving the area west of the village.  The area's slow pace of development and relative isolation has resulted in the accumulation of an architecturally diverse set of buildings, most of which are residential.  Many of them are vernacular interpretations of popular 19th-century styles, with versions of the Federal and Greek Revival periods predominant.  Significant non-residential buildings include the Second Congregational Church, a Gothic Revival structure built in 1875, the Sloan Tavern, built c. 1770 and later restyled in the Greek Revival, and the 1868 South Center School.

See also
National Register of Historic Places listings in Berkshire County, Massachusetts

References

Historic districts in Berkshire County, Massachusetts
National Register of Historic Places in Berkshire County, Massachusetts
Williamstown, Massachusetts
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts

Five Corners Historic District


Ruben Bailey (born September 27, 1969, Atlanta, Georgia), professionally known by his stage name Big Rube, is an American spoken word artist, rapper and hip hop producer. He is a first-generation member of the Dungeon Family and of Society of Soul. He is known for his spoken word intros and interludes on many albums by fellow members and affiliates of the Dungeon Family, including Outkast, Goodie Mob, Killer Mike, Future, Witchdoctor and Bubba Sparxxx. He has also contributed his spoken word poetry to Russell Simmons' Def Poetry Jam and the motion picture ATL. He appears on the Outkast songs "13th Floor/Growing Old" and "Liberation" as well as the CeeLo Green's song "Scrap Metal".

In 1996, he appeared on the Red Hot Organization's compilation CD, America Is Dying Slowly, alongside Biz Markie, Coolio and Fat Joe, among many other prominent hip hop artists. The CD, meant to raise awareness of the AIDS epidemic among African American men, was heralded as "a masterpiece" by The Source magazine.

In later years, Big Rube has made a couple of appearances on recent albums by members of the Dungeon Family. He appeared on the song "General Patton" on Big Boi's 2010 solo debut Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty and on the intro track "The Future Is Now" on Future's debut Pluto. Rube also appeared on the 2013 reunion album from the Goodie Mob, Age Against the Machine.

On rare occasions, Rube appears on non-Dungeon Family related projects. He has appeared on Lina's 2005 album The Inner Beauty Movement, on Rapsody's 2012 debut The Idea of Beautiful, on Denzel Curry's double EP 32 Zel/Planet Shrooms, and on two songs ("Establishing Shot" and "'Til The Lights Go Out") from Toronto rapper The Mighty Rhino's 2018 album We Will No Longer Retreat Into Darkness (this latter song also featuring Witchdoctor), as well as on albums by Truth Hurts, CunninLynguists, Jarren Benton, and Memphis rap group Eightball & MJG. Big Rube was featured on The Internet's record Hive Mind, with the track "It Gets Better (With Time)". Most recently, Big Rube appeared on Spillage Village's 2020 album Spilligion on the tracks "Spill Vill" and "Hapi", and on Grip's 2021 album I Died for This!? on the track "Enem3?".

Discography
 Brainchild (1995)

See also

References

African-American male rappers
American male rappers
Dungeon Family members
Living people
Rappers from Atlanta
1971 births
21st-century American rappers
Society of Soul members

Big Rube


Otto Brass (21 December 1875 – 13 November 1950) was a German communist politician and anti-fascist activist.

Born in Wermelskirchen in the Rhine Province, Brass became a file maker.  In 1903, he became an administrator of the Remscheid workers' health insurance fund, then was appointed the business manager of the local socialist newspaper.  He became active in the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), but due to his opposition to World War I, in 1917, he joined the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD) split.  He was active in the Workers' and Soldiers' Council movement.

In 1919, Brass was elected to the Weimar National Assembly, then serving in the Reichstag.  He supported strikes in February and April 1919, while cautioning moderation.  He was a founding member of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), serving on its central committee, although he resigned from that in February 1921.  He then opposed the March Action uprising, and so was expelled from the KPD at the start of 1922.  He joined up with the Communist Working Group, and followed it in rejoining the USPD, which in turn then rejoined the SPD.

Brass lost his seat in the Reichstag in 1924, and became a publisher in Berlin.  He was a leading member of the German Popular Front, and anti-Nazi group, in the 1930s, but was arrested in 1938 and spent the entirety of World War II in Brandenburg Prison.  After the war, he rejoined the KPD and lived in East Berlin, serving on the executive of the Free German Trade Union Federation.

References

1875 births
1950 deaths
People from Wermelskirchen
People from the Rhine Province
Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians
Independent Social Democratic Party politicians
Communist Party of Germany politicians
Communist Working Group (Germany) politicians
Socialist Unity Party of Germany politicians
Members of the Weimar National Assembly
Members of the Reichstag 1920–1924
Free German Trade Union Federation members

Otto Brass


An additive identity is a special number inside of a set of numbers. In order for a number to be an additive identity, it has to be able to add to any other number in the set and equal that number. In math terms, that would be written as "n+x=n", where x is the additive identity, and n is any other number in the set.

The best-known example of an additive identity is the number 0.

Algebra

Additive identity


In signal processing, particularly image processing, total variation denoising, also known as total variation regularization or total variation filtering, is a noise removal process (filter). It is based on the principle that signals with excessive and possibly spurious detail have high total variation, that is, the integral of the image gradient magnitude is high. According to this principle, reducing the total variation of the signal—subject to it being a close match to the original signal—removes unwanted detail whilst preserving important details such as edges. The concept was pioneered by L. I. Rudin, S. Osher, and E. Fatemi in 1992 and so is today known as the ROF model.

This noise removal technique has advantages over simple techniques such as linear smoothing or median filtering which reduce noise but at the same time smooth away edges to a greater or lesser degree. By contrast, total variation denoising is a remarkably effective edge-preserving filter, i.e., simultaneously preserving edges whilst smoothing away noise in flat regions, even at low signal-to-noise ratios.

1D signal series

For a digital signal , we can, for example, define the total variation as

Given an input signal , the goal of total variation denoising is to find an approximation, call it , that has smaller total variation than  but is "close" to . One measure of closeness is the sum of square errors:

So the total-variation denoising problem amounts to minimizing the following discrete functional over the signal :

By differentiating this functional with respect to , we can derive a corresponding Euler–Lagrange equation, that can be numerically integrated with the original signal  as initial condition. This was the original approach. Alternatively, since this is a convex functional, techniques from convex optimization can be used to minimize it and find the solution .

Regularization properties
The regularization  parameter  plays a critical role in the denoising process. When , there is no smoothing and the result is the same as minimizing the sum of squares. As , however, the total variation term plays an increasingly strong role, which forces the result to have smaller total variation, at the expense of being less like the input (noisy) signal. Thus, the choice of regularization parameter is critical to achieving just the right amount of noise removal.

2D signal images
We now consider 2D signals y, such as images.
The total-variation norm proposed by the 1992 article is

and is isotropic and not differentiable.  A variation that is sometimes used, since it may sometimes be easier to minimize, is an anisotropic version

The standard total-variation denoising problem is still of the form

where E is the 2D L2 norm.  In contrast to the 1D case, solving this denoising is non-trivial.  A recent algorithm that solves this is known as the primal dual method.

Due in part to much research in compressed sensing in the mid-2000s, there are many algorithms, such as the split-Bregman method, that solve variants of this problem.

Rudin–Osher–Fatemi PDE
Suppose that we are given a noisy image  and wish to compute a denoised image  over a 2D space. ROF showed that the minimization problem we are looking to solve is:

where  is the set of functions with bounded variation over the domain ,  is the total variation over the domain, and  is a penalty term. When  is smooth, the total variation is equivalent to the integral of the gradient magnitude:

where  is the Euclidean norm. Then the objective function of the minimization problem becomes:From this functional, the Euler-Lagrange equation for minimization – assuming no time-dependence – gives us the nonlinear elliptic partial differential equation:
For some numerical algorithms, it is preferable to instead solve the time-dependent version of the ROF equation:

Applications
The Rudin–Osher–Fatemi model was a pivotal component in producing the first image of a black hole.

See also

 Anisotropic diffusion
 Bounded variation
 Basis pursuit denoising
 Chambolle-Pock algorithm
 Digital image processing
 Lasso (statistics)
 Noise reduction
 Non-local means
 Signal processing
 Total variation

References

External links

TVDIP: Full-featured Matlab 1D total variation denoising implementation.
Efficient Primal-Dual Total Variation
TV-L1 image denoising algorithm in Matlab

Nonlinear filters
Signal processing
Image processing
Partial differential equations

Total variation denoising


Manoranjan Bhattacharya (1903–1939 in Faridpur),  wrote Bengali children's literature.

Early life

Manoranjan studied in Hindu School & Presidency College, Calcutta. He earned a first-class first in Economics and Political Science followed by an M.A. & B.L. Degree. He served as a professor at Ripon College, Calcutta.

Literary works

Manoranjan was a very special student from his very early childhood. He mastered Sanskrit Panini Grammar at an early age at his village School at Faridpur (now in Bangladesh) learning on his own. The Sanskrit College, Calcutta, in those days, used to hold Debate Competition on different subjects, depending on age and study-levels from Schools and Colleges boys. The main condition of the competition was that the students will have to speak strictly in Sanskrit only. The lowest category was "All Bengal Class-X" . While studying in Class VIII Manoranjan had a strong desire to join this debate competition at All Bengal Class-X level. He approached the Head Master of his School (Krishnanagar Collegiate School) to nominate his name as a competitor.
The head Master was very much doubtful looking at Manoranjan's age. But after long persuasion, Manoranjan managed to get an approval and an invitation from the Sanskrit College authority to take part in the competition, finally winning it.

As a student, Manoranjan contributed poems to various magazines. He switched to literature for youngsters after Ramdhanu was born (1928).

His father, District Magistrate Bishweshwar Bhattacharya, founded the teen periodical, Ramdhanu ('The Rainbow'). For eight years until his untimely demise, he took over editorship from Bishweshwar. His teen detective fiction, starring the Japanese sleuth Hukakasi, deviated from the prevalent sensational, melodramatic style, and was admired by the likes of Premendra Mitra and Satyajit Ray.

Manoranjan filled the pages of Ramdhanu with school stories, humorous tales, poems and informative articles. He penned a series of humorous pseudo-mythological sketches, later labelled Nutan Puraan. Other story anthologies include Chaayer Dhnowaa, Haashyo O Rahashyo, Apriloshyo Prothom Dibawshey (co-authored with Shibram Chakraborty). His major works, including three Hukakashi novels and five short stories, a translation of The Channings were anthologized in Manoranjan Bhattacharya's Chhotoder Omnibus.

Author and younger brother Kshitindranarayan followed him as editor of Ramdhanu.

Blog
The Manoranjan Museum blog displays the original illustrations accompanying Manoranjan Bhattacharya's writings, as they appeared in Ramdhanu and other periodicals.

References

Sources
Samsad Bangali Charitabhidhan, the Bengali Biographical Dictionary published by Sahitya Samsad, Kolkata (1976)

External links
Manoranjan Museum blog

1903 births
1939 deaths
Bangladeshi children's writers
Bengali-language writers
Presidency University, Kolkata alumni

Manoranjan Bhattacharya (writer)


is a Japanese supermarket chain operated by . The company was acquired by H2O Retailing in 2014, making it a wholly owned subsidiary, to raise its profile in the Kansai region.

It operates the Qanat department stores as well as separate Izumiya grocery stores mainly in Kansai region.  It also issues the Izumiya Club Cards, the Izumiya credit cards (VISA/MasterCard/JCB) and the Izumiya ETC cards.

The first Izumiya department store vested abroad is in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, China.

References

External links

Supermarkets of Japan
Companies based in Osaka Prefecture
Japanese supermarkets

Izumiya