is a Japanese shōjo manga by Kyoko Hikawa. It was published by Hakusensha in LaLa from 1993 to 2003 and collected in 14 tankōbon volumes. It is licensed in North America by Viz Media. The story follows a high schoolgirl who is sent to a medieval-like fantasy world after encountering an explosive paper bag.

Story
Noriko, an ordinary schoolgirl, has slipped into a mysterious world of magic and flying dragons, which is in chaos due to the ancient foresaying of The Awakening. Every kingdom in the world is in search for the Awakening as they believe that it has the power to control the Sky Demon, the most destructive monster. Noriko meets Izark, the lonesome warrior, and accompanies him. Izark was born with a mysterious power that makes people hate him and causes him to travel alone. He came here in order to change his fate by trying to kill the Awakening only to find out that the Awakening is Noriko. As she travels with him, it's hard for them to talk as they speak different languages.

Izark realizes that Noriko knows nothing at all about her being the Awakening and can't leave her alone in the middle of nowhere. He decides to take her to his old and only friend Gaya. During the journey to Gaya's place, he is struck by a mysterious illness: the sign of his physical transformation to the Sky Demon, as he turns out to be the Sky Demon in human form. Noriko has no clue about his illness as well as his frustration with her, but tries her best to nurse him. Rachef, the young ruler of Rienca, sends his best warrior Keimos to search for the Awakening. Finally Keimos catches up with them, and he and Izark start to duel in which Izark won.

The story continues on about Izark and his transformations, and his growing love for clueless Noriko. Noriko also realizes her feelings for Izark and a battle between Light and Dark commences as Rachef, Leader of Rienka, tries to take over.

Characters

Protagonists

A wandering swordsman who helps people in need (with payment, of course). He is the reincarnation of the greatest evil, the Sky Demon. He is much stronger than the average person. He can jump higher, run faster, and also summon fire and wind. Ever since he was small, Izark was shunned by his mother, who called him a monster and rejected having given birth to him, which in turn results in his insecurity about being the Sky Demon and does not easily trust others. Noriko was the first person to really open up to him, as she did not know of his being. He quickly comes to care for Noriko, and the feeling soon turns into undeniable love, but because he believes himself to be an abomination, he hides his feelings because he thinks he can only hurt Noriko.

High school student. She is an ordinary, slightly unconfident girl, who was transported to a strange world by a bomb explosion. Izark was the first person she met and taught her to speak his language. Noriko did not know that she was The Awakening, who was wanted by many countries. Many neighboring countries believed that by capturing The Awakening, they could also control the Sky Demon. Noriko falls in love with Izark quite early into the story.

Izark's friend. In the past, she was a soldier of the Gray Bird tribe, which was forced to disband. She taught Izark swordplay, allowing him to control his inner demon better. Izark trusts Gaya to look after Noriko for a short period in the manga. She has a twin sister named Zena.
Barago
Initially a guardian of Lord Nada, whose primary source of entertainment is to gather strong men and make them fight. Barago is ordered by Lord Nada to fight Izark and gauge Izark's strength. Barago loses, and seeing the ills of his ways, became Izark's friend and helped Izark to escape from Zago. He likes to tease Izark and Noriko.
Jeida De Girene
An ex-leader who is persecuted for his opinions. He and his sons were jailed by Lord Nada and tries to escape from Zago. While hiding in Gaya's house, he and his sons, Rontarna and Koriki were caught by Zago's soldiers.
Agol Dena Ofa
He became a mercenary soldier of Rienka in order to earn money to heal his daughter's blindness. He was ordered by Rachef to search for The Awakening. Noriko met him while trying to escape from miscreants. He suspected Noriko and Izark as The Awakening and the Sky Demon, respectively, but decided to leave Rachef and not turn them in.
Geena Haas
She is Agol's daughter. Although she is blind, she can see the future through her guardian stone, a precious item of her deceased mother. She is an exceptionally powerful Seer, despite the fact that she is a young girl. Her father had asked her to investigate Noriko and Izark's history, but the images Geena received were always unclear or frightening.
Irktule
Known as Irk, he is the morning mist tree spirit, who asked for Noriko's help in restoring the forest where he lived. Then he and his villagers help Noriko and Izark in their journey. He usually can only be seen by Noriko.
Doros
A mistreated chimo breeder who works for Rachef. He realizes that he is deceived by Rachef and betrays Rachef, helping Noriko to escape. He keeps the two chimos that Rachef spared.

Antagonists

Arrogant, but powerful swordsman. When he is defeated by Izark, his mind is consumed with revenge, as he cannot accept being inferior to any man. He would have been killed by Izark had Rachef not interfered and taken him out of the battle to safety. He accepts Rachef's help in making him stronger and uses moonstones to achieve this. Through the power of the darkness, he becomes a monster when fighting seriously, but in the end he is consumed by the same darkness and dies.

Leader of Rienka. When Keimos is defeated by Izark, Rachef brings Keimos to safety and grants Keimos power, enough to be considered Izark's equal. He has an incredibly dark childhood. He greatly resented his mother and purposefully killed her by pushing her off a flight of stairs. Witnesses to the event believe that it was an accident. Tazasheena reminds him of his mother and therefore, Rachef dislikes her, as well.
Tazasheena
A beautiful but wicked woman who replaces Zena as Mokumen's prophetess. She betrays Mokumen as its appearance disgusts her. She wants to live a life of luxury by Rachef's side. She does not like to be ignored or put down by Rachef and his Seer. Noriko learns that she is The Awakening from Tazasheena.
Goriya
Rachef's prophet who discovers that Izark and Noriko are the Sky Demon and Awakening

Reception
In 2004, the manga won the 35th annual Seiun Award for best science fiction comic.

References

External links
 Official Viz From Far Away webpage

1993 manga
Hakusensha manga
Isekai anime and manga
Romance anime and manga
Shōjo manga
Supernatural anime and manga
Viz Media manga

From Far Away


Thom Keyes (1949–1995) was a writer, of science fiction and screenplays. He is mainly remembered as the writer of the Space: 1999 episode "The Taybor."

He was born in the US but raised in Britain. He married Regina von Kesslann. He wrote stories for Science Fantasy and New Worlds magazines. His first novel was All Night Stand, followed by Second Coming and The Battle of Disneyland.

External links

English science fiction writers
1949 births
1995 deaths
20th-century English novelists
American emigrants to England

Thom Keyes


The Story of Us is a 1999 Universal Pictures movie. Rob Reiner directed the movie and also acted in it.

Cast
Bruce Willis as Ben Jordan
Michelle Pfeiffer as Katie Jordan
Rita Wilson as Rachel Krogan
Rob Reiner as Stan Krogan
Julie Hagerty as Liza
Tim Matheson as Marty
Lucy Webb as Joanie Kirby
Bill Kirchenbauer as Eddie Kirby
Red Buttons as Arnie Jordan
Jayne Meadows as Dot
Tom Poston as Harry
Betty White as Lillian Jordan
Voices
Jennifer Hale (speaking) and Liz Callaway (singing) as Cinderella
Christopher Daniel Barnes (speaking) and James Horner (singing) as Prince Charming
Jim Cummings as The King
Kath Soucie as The Queen
April Winchell as Lydia Pearson the Train Lady
Frank Welker as Lucifer
Jack Angel as Tasmanian Devil
Bill Farmer as Elmer Fudd
Emma Taylor-Isherwood as Mona Parker
Carole Jeghers as Mrs. Parker

1999 comedy-drama movies
American comedy-drama movies
Movies directed by Rob Reiner
Universal Pictures movies

The Story of Us (movie)


Sorrowful Jones, also known as Damon Runyon's Sorrowful Jones, is a 1949 American comedy-drama film directed by Sidney Lanfield. The film stars Lucille Ball and Bob Hope.

Sorrowful Jones was a remake of a 1934 Shirley Temple film, Little Miss Marker. In the film, a young girl is left with the notoriously cheap Sorrowful Jones (Hope) as a marker for a bet. When her father does not return, he learns that caring for a child interferes with his free-wheeling lifestyle. Lucille Ball plays a nightclub singer who is dating Sorrowful's boss. Ball's singing voice is provided by Annette Warren, who also sang for her in Fancy Pants and later provided the singing voice for Ava Gardner in Show Boat.

Plot

Sorrowful Jones is a New York bookie who hides his operation behind a trap door in a Broadway barber shop. He suffers from a financial setback when a horse named Dreamy Joe, owned by gangster Big Steve Holloway, unexpectedly wins a race. Jones has to pay all the many customers betting on the horse to win, which empties his pockets completely.

When visiting a nightclub, Jones learns that the race was fixed by Big Steve, who tells him about giving the horse a "speedball." Big Steve has informed all the bookies in his circle of friends about the fixed race and demands a sum of $1,000 from each one in exchange for this information.

Before the next race, Jones gets information that Dreamy Joe will lose but still takes bets on the horse from his customers. He even takes bets with marker payment from gambler Orville Smith, who leaves his daughter Martha Jane, four years old, as collateral for the bet.

Things get even more complicated when Orville is killed by one of Big Steve's goons, Once Over Sam. The reason is that Orville overhears a phone call involving Big Steve, where he reveals that the race is fixed. Because of Orville's demise, Jones is forced to take care of Martha Jane and brings her home with him. The next day Jones gets help from his ex-girlfriend, burlesque performer Gladys O'Neill, to take care of the little girl.

Big Steve visits Jones and tells him he is quitting the race-fixing business since the racing commission is investigating him. Big Steve plans to make one final race before he gets out of the game, where he is fixing the race so that Dreamy Joe will win. He also transfers the horse's ownership to Martha Jane, unaware that the girl is Orville's daughter. After the race, Big Steve will kill the horse by giving it a too high dose of "speedball".

Jones tries to find Martha Jane's mother but finds out that she is dead. Gladys suggests that Jones give all of Dreamy Joe's winnings to Martha Jane to help her survive, or she will contact the police and tell them about Jones' operation. She does not know Big Steve's plan to fix the race.

Big Steve discovers that Martha Jane is Orville's daughter, so Jones must hide her to protect her from getting killed. When hiding on a fire escape landing, Martha Jane falls down and is seriously injured. While in a coma, the little girl calls out for Dreamy Joe.

To save Martha Jane and wake her up, Jones and his partner Regret steal the horse from Big Steve at the race track. They take it into the hospital room where Martha Jane lies. Martha Jane wakes up, and the police discover that Big Steve is responsible for Orville's murder.

After Big Steve is arrested, Jones proposes to Gladys. The police want Martha Jane to be placed in an orphanage, but Jones and Gladys, who have married, decide to adopt the girl. They go away on their honeymoon together with their newly adopted daughter.

Cast
 Bob Hope as Sorrowful Jones
 Lucille Ball as Gladys
 Bruce Cabot as Big Steve
 William Demarest as Regret
 Mary Jane Saunders as Martha Jane

References

External links

1949 films
Films directed by Sidney Lanfield
1940s English-language films
American black-and-white films
Paramount Pictures films
1949 comedy films
Films about gambling
American horse racing films
Remakes of American films
American comedy films
Films scored by Robert Emmett Dolan
1940s American films

Sorrowful Jones


Leroy Michael McGuirk (December 13, 1910 – September 9, 1988) was an American amateur and professional wrestler, and wrestling promoter. He was involved in professional wrestling for more than fifty years. As one of the longest surviving members of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), he was affiliated with the promotion from 1949 to 1982, where he was a one-time NWA World Junior Heavyweight Champion.

Early life
He was born in Garvin, Oklahoma. He suffered the loss of his father before he was twelve and had to endure the loss of sight in one of his eyes due to a swimming mishap. McGuirk overcame many adversities to persevere in wrestling. He started wrestling at Tulsa Central High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma and competed at Oklahoma A&M from 1928 to 1932 under coach Edward C. Gallagher.

McGuirk would lose in the quarterfinals of the 1930 NCAA Tournament. He would bounce back the next year to claim the 155-pound title at the 1931 NCAA Tournament. A year later, McGuirk competed in the 1932 NCAA Tournament at 174-pounds, where he finished as the NCAA runner-up. He finished his collegiate career as a two-time NCAA All-American.

Professional career
After graduation from college, McGuirk went to work for Sam Avey. On March 5, 1934, he beat Hugh Nichols in Tulsa for the NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship. He was also endorsed by the National Wrestling Association.

Championship runs
McGuirk enjoyed several runs as champion. On May 16, 1938, McGuirk beat Danny McShain to capture his second world light heavyweight title. The National Wrestling Association had a 190-pound title (later raised to 200) that was known as the World Junior Heavyweight Championship. McGuirk won this title on June 19, 1939, from John Swenski.

Between Tulsa and Hollywood, McGuirk dominated the Junior Heavyweight division, but at least three other Junior Heavyweight Champions were recognized at the time. On December 28, 1949, McGuirk unified the National Wrestling Association World Junior Heavyweight Championship with the National Wrestling Alliance's version by defeating Billy Goelz in Des Moines.

Leroy McGuirk is credited as the longest male single's champion of all time.  He captured the National Wrestling Association World Junior Heavyweight Title on 6-19-1939 and had to vacate the title on 2-7-1950, for a title run of 3886 days (10yr-7m-19d).

Automobile accident
On February 7, 1950, McGuirk's career came to an end. In Little Rock, Arkansas, McGuirk was being driven to a restaurant by his wrestling pupil, Robert "Bob" Clay. In an attempt to prevent a collision, Clay locked the car's brakes, and McGuirk was thrown against the front windshield. McGuirk's tinted glasses were shattered and the side of the glasses covering his good eye were fractured, blinding McGuirk permanently. This led to another Oklahoman, Danny Hodge, rising to prominence in the Junior Heavyweight field, and who by 1960, became the principal headliner for McGuirk.

Booking and promoting
After the accident, Avey kept McGuirk as a partner. McGuirk became second vice-president of the NWA from September 1950 to August 1956, and from August 1959 to August 1960. Between 1957 and 1958, McGuirk was made an honorary vice-president. One of McGuirk's first challenges as vice-president was to reconcile the promotional war that occurred between women's wrestling promoters Billy Wolfe and his ex-wife Mildred Burke. McGuirk aligned himself with Burke and hoped to resolve the dispute at the September 1953 NWA meeting in Chicago.

By 1953, McGuirk was the primary booker for the junior heavyweight champion, while coordinating talent from southwestern Missouri to Little Rock, across Oklahoma, and into parts of Texas. Despite being the booker, McGuirk also took on the opportunity to train promising wrestlers. One of his most promising was eventual NWA World Heavyweight Champion Dick Hutton. In the May 10, 1953 edition of the Tulsa Daily World, McGuirk said "He has a fine chance to get into the big money brackets. He has a lot to learn, but has the natural qualifications, and I won't be surprised at anything he may accomplish." Hutton did not disappoint, as he beat Lou Thesz on November 14, 1957, at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

Avey and McGuirk's actual territory covered most of Oklahoma and Arkansas. Said territory also included Joplin and Springfield, Missouri, Shreveport, Louisiana, plus Wichita Falls, and Tyler, Texas. On January 4, 1958, McGuirk took over the entire business after Avey retired. Avey left wrestling to concentrate on his role as senior vice president of the Farmers and Merchants State Bank. One of the biggest issues McGuirk faced was the tension that occurred due to sporadic visits by world champion Buddy Rogers in the early 1960s. Many felt that the bigger promoters were locked in for visits by Rogers while territories such as McGuirk's, Jim Crockett in Charlotte, Karl Sarpolis in Amarillo, and Cowboy Luttrall in Tampa, to name a few, were perceived as the non-essential territories.

Bill Watts

McGuirk had many people who worked for him as matchmaker: Leo Voss, Sam Menacker, Rip Tyler, Wayne Martin, and George Scott. Of all those people, Cowboy Bill Watts played a big part in McGuirk's promotion, both positively and negatively. His first real connection to McGuirk was in 1968, when McGuirk submitted the only vote in favor of passing the NWA Championship to him. McGuirk and Watts worked together to promote Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana in the late 1970s. On July 22, 1978, their joint promotion of a wrestling show at the Louisiana Superdome drew an estimated 31,000 fans and a gate of $140,000. A dispute between the two in August 1979 strained their friendship. While Watts incorporated Mid-South Sports Inc. and had agreements Jim Barnett, Eddie Graham, Fritz Von Erich, and Vincent J. McMahon that made the promotion thrive. McGuirk became desperate and hoped that George Scott would help keep the territory afloat.

On February 23, 1981, Watts filed documents to bring Mid-South to Tulsa. Matters worsened as seven wrestlers went on strike on August 21. Their grievance  which turned out not to be true, was that McGuirk had not paid them for the previous weeks work.  McGuirk felt Watts and others he had trusted in his circle had betrayed him.   Despite turning to Amarillo for wrestling talent, McGuirk saw the writing on the wall.

In 1982, McGuirk ceased operations and left the city open for Bill Watts and Mid-South Wrestling to take over. McGuirk's daughter, Michael Kathleen, known in World Wrestling Federation WWF and now know as World Wrestling Entertainment WWE professional wrestling as Mike McGuirk, married B. Brian Blair, a wrestler for Mid-South. Both eventually worked for the World Wrestling Federation: Blair as one half of the tag team The Killer Bees, and Mike McGuirk as an in-ring announcer.

Honors
McGuirk was inducted into the Oklahoma Athletic Hall of Fame in 1977. He is also a member of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame. Of his charitable work, McGuirk is best known for working with Ed Lewis. They were responsible for instituting the NWA "Leader Dogs for the Blind" annual charity function.

He died on September 9, 1988, in Claremore.

Championships and accomplishments
Central States Wrestling
NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
Class of 2004
National Wrestling Alliance
NWA Hall of Fame (2015)
National Wrestling Association
NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship (3 times)
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
Class of 2014
Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 1996)

References

External links

1910 births
1988 deaths
20th-century American male actors
American male professional wrestlers
American male sport wrestlers
American blind people
Central High School (Tulsa, Oklahoma) alumni
Oklahoma State Cowboys wrestlers
Oklahoma State University alumni
People from Garvin, Oklahoma
Professional wrestlers from Oklahoma
Professional wrestling promoters
Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum
Sportspeople from Tulsa, Oklahoma
20th-century professional wrestlers
NWA World Junior Heavyweight Champions

Leroy McGuirk


In many Western Christian traditions, Midnight Mass is the first liturgy of Christmastide that is celebrated on the night of Christmas Eve, traditionally beginning at midnight when Christmas Eve gives way to Christmas Day. This popular Christmas custom is a jubilant celebration of the mass or service of worship in honour of the Nativity of Jesus; even many of those Christian denominations that do not regularly employ the word mass uniquely use the term "Midnight Mass" for their Christmas Eve liturgy as it includes the celebration of Holy Communion.

History

The tradition of a midnight Vigil on the eve of Christmas began in the East, and was observed in the late fourth century in Jerusalem by a Christian woman named Egeria on the night of January 5. The tradition reached the Western world in the year 430 under Pope Sixtus III in the Basilica of St Mary Major.

By the twelfth century, the practice of midnight Mass had become more widespread as all priests had been granted the faculty of celebrating three Masses on Christmas Day (previously reserved to the Pope), provided the three different propers were celebrated at their appropriate times of midnight, dawn and day.

Traditions

Roman Catholicism
Roman Catholics have traditionally celebrated Midnight Mass with church services beginning at midnight. Since 2009 the Vatican has conducted a liturgically similar Christmas Eve Mass earlier in the day, first at 10:00 pm, designated a Mass during the Night, then subsequently earlier in the evening.

In Splendoribus Sanctorum is used for the Communion chant during traditional Catholic midnight mass.

Lutheranism

Lutherans often observe midnight Mass in addition to Christmas Vespers and Matins. In his famous work, Cérémonies et coutumes religieuses de tous les peuples du monde, Bernard Picart describes the Lutheran Midnight Mass:

Anglicanism

Churches of the Anglican Communion also traditionally celebrate Midnight Communion for Christmas at 11 or 11:30 pm.

Methodism

Methodist observations vary as many hold services at 11 p.m. which involve the ringing of church bells when the stroke of midnight is reached.

Presbyterianism

The Church of Scotland observes a service just before midnight which involves the singing of carols, although it does not include Mass and is called a Watchnight service (held elsewhere on New Year's Eve).

Eastern Christian traditions

While Midnight Mass is not observed in Eastern traditions, All-Night Vigil is common on Christmas Eve and involves the celebration of Matins, the hour which is traditionally observed at midnight.

See also

 Misa de Gallo, a version of the Midnight Mass in many Spanish-speaking countries
 Pasterka, a Midnight Mass celebrated in Poland
 Plygain, a Welsh service of worship taking place on Christmas morning
 Watchnight service, a service of worship observed on New Year's Eve
 Messe de minuit pour Noël H.9 by Marc-Antoine Charpentier

References

Nativity of Jesus in worship and liturgy
Mass (liturgy)
Anglican liturgy
Catholic liturgy
Lutheran liturgy and worship

Midnight Mass


The Blues Brothers Band Live in Montreux is an album by The Blues Brothers band. It was released  in 1990 on the heels of the band's reunion tour and it's the first album recorded by the band after the death of founding member John Belushi and the only one that doesn't feature Dan Aykroyd. Drummer Steve Jordan and keyboardist Paul Shaffer weren't available to play, and were replaced respectively by Danny Gottlieb and Leon Pendarvis. Vocals duties were assigned to Eddie Floyd and Larry Thurston, who had been previously recruited by Matt Murphy for his short-lived solo outfit Matt "Guitar" Murphy Band. As with most other records by the band, the album was recorded live. Along with regular numbers from the Blues Brothers repertoire, it features material never performed before by the band like "Hold On, I'm Comin'", (which, in its original rendition by Sam & Dave, was part of the Blues Brothers film soundtrack), "In the Midnight Hour", "The Thrill Is Gone", and two Eddie Floyd signature tunes, "Knock on Wood" and "Raise Your Hand". The album was produced by Tom Malone.

Track listing
 "Hold On, I'm Comin'"
 "In the Midnight Hour"
 "She Caught the Katy"
 "The Thrill Is Gone"
 "Can't Turn You Loose"
 "Sweet Home Chicago"
 "Knock on Wood"
 "Raise Your Hand"
 "Peter Gunn Theme"
 "Soul Finger"
 "Hey Bartender"
 "Soul Man"
 "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" (not on L.P and Cassette)
 "Green Onions" (not on L.P.and Cassette)

Credits
Eddie Floyd – lead vocals
Larry Thurston – lead vocals
Steve "The Colonel" Cropper – guitar
Donald "Duck" Dunn – bass guitar
Lou "Blue Lou" Marini – tenor saxophone, alto saxophone
Matt "Guitar" Murphy – lead guitar
Alan "Mr. Fabulous" Rubin – trumpet
Tom Malone – trombone
Danny Gottlieb – drums
Leon Pendarvis – keyboards, piano, background vocals, music director

1990 live albums
The Blues Brothers albums


James Leslie Findlay (30 April 1868 – 19 September 1952) was a Scottish architect and soldier.

James Leslie Findlay was the younger son of John Ritchie Findlay and Susan Leslie. He practiced as an architect in Edinburgh between 1885 and 1915. Initially apprenticed to A G Sydney Mitchell, he went into partnership with James Bow Dunn in 1894. The Dunn & Findlay partnership's most notable building is probably The Scotsman building in Edinburgh's North Bridge, begun in 1898, now The Scotsman Hotel.

Findlay served in the Great War, reaching the rank of Lt Colonel, commanding the First Lowland Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery in France. Invalided out of the Army he did not resume his architectural career, but retired to the house in Craigellachie, Banffshire, that he had built for himself and his family.

He died on 19 September 1952.

Many papers and drawings of the Dunn & Findlay partnership are held by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland in Edinburgh.

References
"James Leslie Findlay", The Dictionary of Scottish Architects retrieved 30 December 2015.

Further reading
Braidwood, Niall C 1988  Dunn and Findlay and The Scotsman Building RIBA Dissertation 1988

1868 births
1952 deaths
Architects from Edinburgh
British Army personnel of World War I
Royal Artillery officers
James
Scottish company founders
19th-century Scottish businesspeople
20th-century Scottish businesspeople

James Leslie Findlay


James Matthew Ragen, Sr. (August 9, 1880 – August 15, 1946) was an Irish businessman and co-founder of the Chicago-based street gang and political club Ragen's Colts.

Biography
After taking control of the social organization Ragen's Athletic and Benevolent Association with his brother Frank Ragen in the late 1890s, later known as Ragen's Colts, Ragen would soon become involved in the gang's usual activities including political intimidation, labor slugging and particularly bootlegging during Prohibition. A veteran of Chicago's "circulation wars" during the 1910s, Ragen would work under Moses Annenberg with other future Chicago mobsters such as Maurice Enright, Walter Stevens and Peter Gentleman in "bootjacking" or forcing downtown newspaper stands to sell Chicago American.

By the early 1930s, Ragen had begun overseeing the day to day office operations for the Nationwide News Service (then known as the General News Service), the sole distributors of racetrack and other gambling results nationwide, under the control of Moses Annenberg. An invaluable source of revenue for legal and illegal gambling alike, the organization was highly sought after among organized crime leaders throughout the decade. Faced with pressure from the Chicago Outfit and the Roosevelt administration, who sought to charge Annenberg with anti-trust and income tax evasion charges Annenberg was eventually forced by Democratic political opponents to sell the National News Service to Ragen on November 15, 1939.

Ragen however, continued to fend off strong arm tactics of Tony Accardo, Murray Humphreys and Jake Guzik in their attempts to pressure Ragen to sell to the Chicago Outfit. After initial attempts to intimidate Ragen failed, the syndicate began a rival news service based in California, Trans-American Publishing, under the control of Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel (where bookies were forced to pay up to a daily $100 subscription fee). Another competing syndicate news service, Dan Serritella's Blue Scratch Sheet, was also established in Chicago, however, it soon went out of business. The failure of these news services convinced syndicate leaders to take the National News Service by force.

Fearing for his life, Ragen confided in the spring of 1946 in his friend, newspaper reporter and syndicated columnist, Drew Pearson. Pearson took the information he received from Ragen related to the activities and the structure of organized crime in Chicago to his friend, U.S. Attorney General Tom C. Clark and asked Clark for FBI protection for Ragen. In the years that followed, Pearson reported several times on the events leading to Ragen's death and in Pearson's October 26, 1963 column titled, "'Songbird' Was Murdered"   he reports that Tom C. Clark had assigned twelve FBI agents provide protection to Ragen in 1946 while they interrogated him in Chicago. After the FBI fact checked Ragen's statements to them, Tom Clark confirmed to Pearson that the facts learned from Ragen were true and the top echelon of the Chicago mob "led to very high places." The names of seemingly respected politicians and businessmen revealed by Ragen to the FBI were words familiar to every Chicago household and some believed they had reformed, but Pearson wrote,
"Yet they still controlled the mob." Pearson added that Tom C. Clark's Justice Department had no federal jurisdiction to prosecute the suspects Ragen named and after completing their questioning of Ragen and verifying his claims, the FBI withdrew their protection of him.

Pearson wrote in his diary:
"The FBI interviewed Ragen at great length. They brought back a multitude of tips, leads, and evidence. Tom Clark told me afterward that it led to very high places. J. Edgar Hoover intimated the same thing. He said the people Ragen pointed to had now reformed. I learned later that it pointed to the Hilton hotel chain; Henry Crown, the big Jewish financier in Chicago; and Walter Annenberg, publisher of the Philadelphia Inquirer."

While driving down State Street, Ragen was ambushed at Pershing Road and was seriously wounded in the arms and legs by a shotgun blast from syndicate gunman on June 24, 1946. Taken to a nearby hospital, Ragen signed an affidavit identifying the gunman before his death on August 15, following a mysteriously administered dose of mercury. The affidavit was lost however when State Attorney William Touhy was unable to prosecute against those named by Ragen.

See also
 List of organized crime killings in Illinois

References

Further reading
English, T.J. Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster. New York: HarperCollins, 2005.
Fox, Stephen. Blood and Power: Organized Crime in Twentieth-Century America. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1989.
Kelly, Robert J. Encyclopedia of Organized Crime in the United States. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2000.
Sifakis, Carl. The Mafia Encyclopedia. New York: Da Capo Press, 2005.
Sifakis, Carl. The Encyclopedia of American Crime. New York: Facts on File Inc., 2001.
Cohen, Andrew. The Racketeer's Progress: Chicago and the Struggle for the Modern American Economy, 1900-1940. Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Denton, Sally and Morris, Roger. The Money and the Power: The Making of Las Vegas and Its Hold on America, 1947-2000. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001.
Enright, Laura L. Chicago's Most Wanted: The Top Ten Book of Murderous Mobsters, Midway Monsters, and Windy City Oddities. Dulles, Virginia: Potomac Books Inc., 2005.
Fried, Albert. The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Gangster in America. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1980.
Moldea, Dan E. Interference: How Organized Crime Influences Professional Football. New York: William Morrow, 1989.
Reppetto, Thomas A. American Mafia: A History of Its Rise to Power. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 2004.
Scott, Peter Dale. Deep Politics and the Death of JFK. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.

External links
The History of the Race Wire Service - Part Three: Ragen and McBride and the End of the Race Wire by Allan May

1880 births
1946 deaths
American gangsters of Irish descent
American gangsters
People murdered by the Chicago Outfit
Businesspeople from Chicago
American crime bosses
Murdered American gangsters
People murdered in Illinois
Male murder victims
Deaths by firearm in Illinois
Gangsters from Chicago
20th-century American businesspeople
Irish emigrants to the United States

James Ragen


International Exchange Bank, more commonly known as iBank, was one of the largest banks in the Philippines, ranking within the top twenty in terms of assets.  It was acquired by the larger Union Bank of the Philippines in mid-2006. Integration of the iBank brand into the UnionBank brand was completed in mid-2008.

History
iBank was founded as a commercial bank on August 17, 1995, starting operations on September 25 of that year.  It grew rapidly largely due to its consumer-oriented services which proved to be popular at the time.  It was one of the many banks formed during the 1990s, when the administration of Fidel V. Ramos and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas governor Gabriel Singson encouraged the formation of more banks, a policy since reversed today.

On September 22, 2003, iBank joined MegaLink and unveiled its iDeal ATM card.  At the time of its launch, the iDeal card was revolutionary in the sense that it was the first ATM card to come with value-added benefits, such as shopping discounts.

The bank listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange on December 6, 2004, under the ticker symbol IBNK.

iBank was acquired by Union Bank of the Philippines on June 5, 2006 that saw 98.86% of all iBank shares being sold in a block sale, catapulting UnionBank to become the seventh-largest bank in the Philippines in terms of assets.

In a well-attended event, employees and stockholders gathered on September 25, 2010 to commemorate the bank's 15th anniversary at the Makati Sports Club.  The reunion is unprecedented in the banking industry in the country, where close to 600 employees organized to hold a program that rivals any other gathering by any existing bank as of September 2010; considering that the company was consolidated four years ago.

Ownership
Union Bank of the Philippines: 98.86%
Others (includes public stock): 1.14%

See also

List of banks in the Philippines
MegaLink
Union Bank of the Philippines

External links
International Exchange Bank website (courtesy of the Wayback Machine)

Companies based in Makati
Defunct banks of the Philippines
Banks established in 1995
Banks disestablished in 2007
2007 disestablishments in the Philippines

International Exchange Bank


Carroll Dawson is an American former assistant coach and general manager in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He worked for the Houston Rockets franchise for 27 years before retiring in 2007.

College playing career
A native of Alba, Texas, Dawson played collegiate basketball at Paris Junior College, where he attained the nickname, "Big Orange" and at Baylor University, during the late 1950s and early 1960s.  In 1960, the 6'5" center earned All-Southwest Conference honors, after averaging 16.4 points per game for the Baylor Bears.

Career biography
After his college career, he was drafted into the Army, and stationed at Fort Knox, as a tank commander. From 1973 to 1977, he then served as Baylor's men's basketball head coach.  He then worked as a scout for the NFL's Dallas Cowboys, and as a salesman for Converse shoes, before becoming an assistant coach for the Houston Rockets in 1979.

In 1989, Dawson was struck by lightning, during a golf outing, and over the next few years, his vision became progressively worse.  Unable to continue his coaching duties, Dawson moved to the Rockets' front office, becoming general manager in 1996.  Dawson's career with The Rockets lasted 27 years. Among his most notable accomplishments as the general manager of the Rockets, were his selection of Yao Ming in the 2002 NBA draft, and his seven-player trade to acquire NBA scoring champ Tracy McGrady, in 2004.

After announcing Daryl Morey as his successor, the Rockets honored Dawson by hanging a banner with the initials "CD" in the rafters of the Toyota Center, during a game with the Phoenix Suns.

Head coaching record

References

External links
 Career retrospective at NBA.com

American men's basketball players
Basketball coaches from Texas
Basketball players from Texas
Baylor Bears men's basketball coaches
Baylor Bears men's basketball players
Centers (basketball)
Dallas Cowboys scouts
Houston Rockets assistant coaches
Houston Rockets general managers
Living people
Paris Dragons basketball players
People from Rains County, Texas
People from Wood County, Texas
1938 births

Carroll Dawson


The Double Dream of Spring (also known as Doppio Sogno di Primavera, 1915) is a painting by the Italian metaphysical painter Giorgio de Chirico.

The painting depicts apparently related but separate scenes. The scene on the left shows a statue of a man in a frock-coat from behind. The statue appears to be staring contemplatively into an open sky. The two scenes are separated in the middle by a wooden beam, perhaps part of an easel. Near the base of the beam is a blueprint drawing of an interior, in which large arches and a window open onto a landscape including the stick-like figures of two men meeting, and distant mountains. The scene on the right appears to be looking down on the same landscape from a slightly different angle. Above the landscape is the shape of the head of a tailor's dummy.

Similar dummies appear many times in de Chirico's work (cf. The Seer). This time the dummy's head looms over the landscape like a hot air balloon.

The title was used by John Ashbery for his 1970 book of poems.

Sources
Museum of Modern Art

Paintings by Giorgio de Chirico
Paintings in the Museum of Modern Art (New York City)
1915 paintings

The Double Dream of Spring


Mimosa was a science fiction fanzine edited by Richard Lynch and Nicki Lynch. It won six Hugo Awards for Best Fanzine (in 1992, 1993, 1994, 1997, 1998 and 2003) and was nominated a total of 14 times (1991-2004). The headquarters was in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

Published from 1982 until 2003, Mimosa focused on discussions of the history and impact of science fiction fandom. Contributors included Forrest J Ackerman, Ron Bennett, John Berry, Vin¢ Clarke, Sharon N. Farber, Dave Kyle, Mike Resnick, Bob Shaw, Harry Warner, Jr., Ted White and Walt Willis.

Illustrators
The cartoonists and illustrators who contributed to Mimosa included Sheryl Birkhead, Kurt Erichsen, Debbie Hughes, Julia Morgan-Scott, Peggy Ranson, Stu Shiffman, Dan Steffan, Steve Stiles, Charlie Williams and Kip Williams. Covers by Hugo Award for Best Fan Artist winners included Brad W. Foster, Ian Gunn, Teddy Harvia and Joe Mayhew.

Issues 1-16 were produced via mimeograph, while issues 17-30 were printed commercially. The two-volume A Mimosa Fanthology collected the best from the first 27 issues.

The last article in the final issue (#30) of Mimosa (August 2003), "Footprints in the Sand" by Michael A. Burstein, is one of several articles published during the late 1990s and early 2000s pondering the possibility of science fiction fandom's eventual death.

References

External links
Mimosa issues

1982 establishments in Maryland
2003 disestablishments in Maryland
Defunct science fiction magazines published in the United States
Hugo Award-winning works
Magazines established in 1982
Magazines disestablished in 2003
Magazines published in Maryland
Science fiction fanzines

Mimosa (magazine)


Abraham Jacob van der Aa (7 December 1792 – 21 March 1857) was a Dutch writer best known for his dictionaries, one of notable people and the other of notable places in the Netherlands.

He was born in Amsterdam in 1792. His father was a lawyer. From the ages of 6 to 12, he visited the dayschool in Amstelveen. After that, he was sent to the boarding school of J.E. van Iterson in Aarlanderveen but only stayed there for a year. After a short stay at the Latin school in Leiden, where his parents lived at that time, he was sent to the Seminarium in Lingen, Germany to study the "dead languages".

After his return in 1810, he went to medical school in Leiden, but had to leave after his father's death. He later did his mandatory military service until 1817. At that point, he tried to open a bookshop in Leuven, but this was not a success so he became a teacher in the Dutch language. After 1839, he moved to Gorinchem, where he wrote several reference works, including a gazetteer and a biographical dictionary, Biographisch woordenboek der Nederlanden.

The Aardrijkskundig Woordenboek der Nederlanden (Geographical dictionary of the Netherlands) was a 14-volume gazetteer, published between 1839 and 1851. It was written with the help of many regional historians and other geographers. It covers the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and the former Dutch colonies. Until his death in 1857 from undisclosed causes at age 64 in Gorinchem he continued working on his "biographic dictionary".

Works

 Aardrijkskundig Woordenboek van Noord-Brabant (Breda, 1832);
 Herinneringen uit het gebied der geschiedenis (Amsterdam 1835);
 Nieuwe herinneringen (Amsterdam 1837);
 Geschied- en aardrijkskundige beschrijving van het koninkrijk der Nederlanden en het groothertogdom Luxemburg (Gorinchem 1841);
 Nieuw biographisch, anthologisch en critisch woordenboek van Nederlandsche dichters (Amsterdam 1844-1846);
 Geschiedkundig beschrijving van Breda (Gorinchem 1845);
 Nederlandsch Oost-Indië (Amsterdam en Breda 1846-'57), 4 delen;
 Beschrijving van den Krimpener en den Loopikerwaard, Schoonh. 1847;
 Nederland, handboekje voor reizigers, Amsterdam 1849;
 Lotgevallen van Willem Heenvliet, Amsterdam 1851;
 Biographisch Woordenboek. der Nederlanden, Haarlem 1852-'78;
 Beknopt Aardrijkskundig Woordenboek der Nederlanden, Gorinchem 1851-'54;
 Bloemlezing uit [Van Effen's] Spectator, in Klassiek en Letterkundig Pantheon 1855, 2 delen;
 Parelen uit de lettervruchten van Nederl. dichteressen, Amsterdam 1856;
 Ons Vaderland en zijne bewoners, Amsterdam 1855-'57.

References

External links

List of online volumes of the Geographical Dictionary of the Netherlands 1839-1851

1792 births
1857 deaths
19th-century Dutch writers
19th-century Dutch male writers
Dutch lexicographers
Dutch literary historians
Writers from Amsterdam
19th-century lexicographers

Abraham Jacob van der Aa


Persoonia nutans, commonly known as the nodding geebung, is a plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to part of the Sydney region in New South Wales. It is an erect to spreading shrub with linear leaves and yellow flowers on down-turned pedicels.

Description
Persoonia nutans is an erect to spreading shrub that typically grows to a height of  and has smooth bark and young branchlets with greyish hairs. The leaves are arranged alternately, linear,  long and  wide with the edges curved downwards. The flowers are arranged in leaf axils or on the ends of branches in groups of up to forty on a rachis up to  long that grows into a leafy shoot after flowering, each flower on a downturned pedicel  long with a leaf at its base. The tepals are yellow,  long and glabrous. Flowering mainly occurs from November to April and the fruit is a green drupe with purple markings.

Taxonomy
Persoonia nutans was first formally described in 1810 by Robert Brown in Transactions of the Linnean Society of London. Brown collected his specimens from near Port Jackson and near Richmond and the Nepean River. In 1991 Peter Weston and Lawrie Johnson designated the Richmond specimens as the lectotype.

Distribution and habitat
Nodding geebung grows in woodland and forest on the Cumberland Plain between Sydney and the Blue Mountains and between Richmond in the north and Macquarie Fields in the south.

Conservation status
Persoonia nutans is listed as "endangered" under the Australian Government Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and the New South Wales Government Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 and a recovery plan has been prepared. The main threats to the species are loss of habitat due to land clearing, inappropriate fire regimes, habitat degradation and rubbish dumping.

References

Flora of New South Wales
nutans
Plants described in 1810
Taxa named by Robert Brown (botanist, born 1773)

Persoonia nutans


Aminul Islam (1973 – April 2012) was a Bangladeshi trade unionist (someone who organises trade unions). He was murdered in 2012.

Work
Islam was a former garment worker and was president of the Ashulia and Savar Bangladesh Garment & Industrial Workers Federation.
Also he was the leader of Bangladesh Center of Worker Solidarity. It has advocated for improved working conditions and higher wages.  In 2010, the organization led protested to push for a larger increase in the minimum wage for garment workers. Islam and other protester were arrested for that.

Islam had recently been working to organize workers in factories, which belonged to the Shanta Group. The company produces clothing for multiple American companies, like Tommy Hilfiger, Nike, and Ralph Lauren.  He had also assisted ABC News, for an interview with the survivors of a recent factory fire in Bangladesh.

References

1973 births
2012 deaths
Bangladeshi people
Trade unionists

Aminul Islam (trade unionist)


The scarce blue-tailed damselfly or small bluetail (Ischnura pumilio) is a member of the damselfly family Coenagrionidae.

The species occurs throughout Europe except in the north. To the east it occurs from Asia Minor to SiberiaTo the south the range extends to Morocco, the Azores and Madeira'
The typical male has a black abdomen with a bright blue spot on tail (segments 8 and 9). It is very similar to the blue-tailed damselfly, Ischnura elegans but on that species the blue spot is mostly on segment 8. Females undergo a change of colour as they mature. The immature female is bright orange, the aurantiaca phase, but matures to a greenish-brown.

References

Ischnura
Damselflies of Europe
Articles containing video clips
Insects described in 1825

Scarce blue-tailed damselfly


In navigation, the word bearing is used for different methods that try to find out the angle between an object used for this purpose, and a reference direction. There are different systems of reference that can be used for this. A system of reference that is commonly used is that of Cardinal directions, as they can be found with a compass. The direction a ship is pointed can also be the reference.

Points that can easily be determined, and that move very little, can be taken as reference. Such points include stars, mountains, the sun, and beacons. Beacons come in the form of lighthouses on the coast, but also as electric beacons or other sea marks on the open sea.

Bearings can be measured different ways. Optical bearings rely on visual information, other systems rely on radar for tools.

Navigation

Bearing (navigation)


The Borland–Clifford House, also known as the Clifford House, is a historic Carpenter Gothic house located at 339 Ralston Street in Reno, Washoe County, Nevada. The house is one of the few extant houses in Reno which were built in the 19th century.

History
Built in 1885 by James Borland, it remained in his ownership until 1902. It 1907 it was bought by O. J. Clifford and it remained in his family until 1984 and is still in private ownership. On March 7, 1983, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places as the Clifford House. On June 24, 2008, additional documentation was added to include Borland's name in the listing title.

Location
The house was one of the first houses to be built in the Reno's Western Addition Neighborhood. It has been moved several times, to places including Ralston, 4th street, Arlington Avenue, and Plumb Lane.

In 2018, the house was disassembled and moved to downtown Reno.

Ownership
In 2018, the house was purchased by Jacobs Entertainment for 720,000 dollars. The company later sold the house to Archie Granata for 10 dollars.

References

Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Nevada
Carpenter Gothic architecture in Nevada
Houses completed in 1885
National Register of Historic Places in Reno, Nevada
Houses in Reno, Nevada
Carpenter Gothic houses in the United States

Borland–Clifford House


Shaded Red was a Christian alternative rock band from Denver, Colorado, in the United States. It was formed in 1993 by brothers Jamie Roberts (vocals and guitar) and Jonathan Roberts (guitars, bass, trumpet, piano). In 1997 they released their debut self-titled album through Cadence. On January 17, 1998, the band was struck by tragedy when their van hit a patch of black ice returning from a concert. Drummer Chris Yeoman was killed and Jon Roberts was left with a shattered pelvis. It was at this time the band considered calling it quits but decided to press on instead.

In 1999, the band released their second album, Red Revolution. The album was a moderate success and features a remake of the Benny Hester song "When God Ran". The band has since broken up, and brothers Jamie and Jonathan currently reside in Los Angeles.

Discography
 Shaded Red (1997)
 Caught
 Collide
 Let It Out
 Faker
 Found Someone
 Something
 Falling For You
 Dreamin
 Fear Not
 Far Away
 Sunk
 Use Me
 Love, Peace and Joy (1997) Christmas compilation
 Silent Night
 Angels
 Red Revolution (1999)
 Revolution
 Hello
 Innocence
 Wait
 When God Ran
 About My Love
 Slow Suicide
 One Year
 Touch
 Rat Race
 Endless Summer Days
 Tonight

References

External links
Article on the band
Bio on Christianmusic.com

Alternative rock groups from Colorado
Musical groups established in 1993
Musical groups disestablished in 2000
American Christian rock groups
1993 establishments in Colorado

Shaded Red


Perkūnas (, , Old Prussian: Perkūns, Perkunos, Yotvingian: Parkuns, Latgalian: Pārkiuņs)  was the common Baltic god of thunder, and the second most important deity in the Baltic pantheon after Dievas. In both Lithuanian and Latvian mythology, he is documented as the god of sky, thunder, lightning, storms, rain, fire, war, law, order, fertility, mountains, and oak trees.

Etymology

The name continues PIE *, cognate to *, a word for "oak", "fir" or "wooded mountain". The Proto-Baltic name *Perkūnas can be reconstructed with certainty. Slavic Perun is a related god, but not an etymologically precise match.  Finnish Perkele, a name of Ukko, is considered a loan from Baltic.

Another connection is that of terpikeraunos, an epithet of Zeus meaning "who enjoys lightning".

Perkūnas in written sources
Most information about Perkūnas comes from folklore songs, legends, and fairy tales. Because most of them were collected rather late in the 19th century, they represent only some fragments of the whole mythology. Lithuanian Perkūnas has many alternative onomatopoeic names, like Dundulis, Dindutis, Dūdų senis, Tarškulis, Tarškutis, Blizgulis, etc.

The earliest attestation of Perkūnas seems to be in the Ruthenian translation of the Chronicle of John Malalas (1261) where it speaks about the worship of "Перкоунови рекше громоу", and in the Livonian Rhymed Chronicle (around 1290) which mentions the idol Perkūnė.

In the Constitutiones Synodales (1530) Perkūnas is mentioned in a list of gods before the god of hell Pikuls and is identified with the Roman Jove (Jupiter). In the Sudovian Book Perkūnas (Parkuns) is mentioned in connection with a ritual involving a goat. In Christian compositions, Perkūnas is a malicious spirit, a demon, as in the Chronicle of John Malalas or in the 15th century writings of Polish chronicler Jan Długosz.

Representation in mythology

Perkūnas is the god of lightning and thunder and storms. In a triad of gods Perkūnas symbolizes the creative forces (including vegetative), courage, success, the top of the world, the sky, rain, thunder, heavenly fire (lightning) and celestial elements, while Potrimpo is involved with the seas, ground, crops, and cereals and Velnias/Patulas, with hell, and death. As a heavenly (atmospheric) deity Perkūnas, apparently, is the assistant and executor of Dievas's will. However, Perkūnas tends to surpass Dievas, deus otiosus, because he can be actually seen and has defined mythological functions.

In the Latvian dainas, the functions of Pērkons and Dievs can occasionally merge: Pērkons is called Pērkona tēvs ('Father or God of Thunder') or Dieviņš, a diminutive form of Dievs.

Weapons and vehicle
Perkūnas is pictured as middle-aged, armed with an axe and arrows, riding a two-wheeled chariot harnessed with goats, like Thor or Celtic Taranis.

In other accounts, the thunder god is described as driving a fiery chariot through the skies with swift horses, or riding a fiery horse.

Perkūnas' family relations
In songs about a "heavenly wedding" Saulė (the Sun) cheats on Perkūnas with Mėnulis (the Moon); Perkūnas splits Mėnulis in half with a sword. According to another, more popular, version, Mėnulis cheats on the Sun with Aušrinė (the morning star) just after the wedding, and Perkūnas punishes it. However, it does not learn and repeats the adultery and is punished again every month. Other explanations say it is why the Sun shines during the day and the Moon at night. Though divorced, both want to see their daughter Žemyna (the Earth).

In other songs Perkūnas, on the way to the wedding of Aušra (dawn; the daughter of the Sun), strikes a golden oak. The oak is a tree of the thunder god in the Baltic mythology. Lithuanian Perkūno ąžuolas or  Latvian Pērkona ozols ("oak of Perkūnas") is mentioned in a source dated to the first half of the 19th century.

Other myths say that Perkūnas and one Laumė or Vaiva (rainbow) were supposed to get married on Thursday, but the bride was kidnapped by Velnias (the devil) and Perkūnas has hunted Velnias ever since.

Some myths mention four sons of Perkūnas (Latvian: Perkona dēli; Lithuanian: Perkūno sūnūs), who, apparently, are connected with the four seasons or with the four directions of the world (east, west, south and north). Sometimes there are seven or nine Perkūnai referred to as brothers. It is said in Lithuanian "Perkūnų yra daug" ("there are many thunders").

In some myths Perkūnas expels his wife (and in some cases his children too) and remains in the sky by himself. Some myths offer a very different story: Dievas lifts Perkūnas from the earth into the sky. Perkūnas has stones in the sky (which rumble during storms) - the motive connected to Indo-European mythology. Perkūnas dwells on high hills or mountains: compare Lithuanian toponymy of Perkūnkalnis, "mountain of Perkūnas", or Griausmo kalnas, "mountain of rumble."

In most myths, however, Perkūnas's wife is Žemyna.

Perkūnas and Velnias

An important function of Perkūnas is to fight Velnias (in Latvian, Velns). He is sometimes considered the antithesis of Perkūnas and is the god of the underworld and death. Christianity considers "Velnias" akin to their "devil", though this is not in line with ancient beliefs.

Perkūnas pursues his opponent, Velns, for picaroon or theft of fertility and cattle. Velnias hides in trees, under stones, or turns into various animals: a black cat, dog, pig, goat, lamb, pike, cow (compare to the Latvian representations of jods a creature with the cow hoofs) or a person.

Perkūnas pursues an opponent in the sky on a chariot, made from stone and fire (Lithuanian ugnies ratai). Sometimes the chariot is made from red iron. It is harnessed by a pair (less often four or three) of red and white (or black and white) horses (sometimes goats). Compare the Lithuanian deity of horses and chariots Ratainyčia (Ratainicza mentioned in Lasick's works; from Lithuanian ratai - "wheel"). It is a mythologized image of a chariot of Didieji Grįžulo Ratai ("Grand Wheels of Grįžulas" (Ursa Major). It agrees with Samogitian representations, in which Perkūnas is a horseman on a fiery horse. On his heavenly chariot Perkūnas appears in the shape of a gray-haired old man with a big beard of many colors, in white and black clothes, holding a goat on a cord in one hand and a horn or an axe in the other.

Perkūnas possesses many weapons. They include an axe or sledgehammer, stones, a sword, lightning bolts, a bow and arrows, a club, and an iron or fiery knife. Perkūnas is the creator of the weapons (Akmeninis kalvis, "the stone smith") or he is helped by the heavenly smith Televelis (Kalvelis).

An opponent of Perkūnas hides itself in the hollow of a tree or a stone (attributes of Perkūnas). The culmination of Perkūnas' hunt for his opponent is a thunder-storm; it not only clears the ground of evil spirits, but returns the stolen cattle or weapons.

Perkūnas is also connected to Thursday. Thursday is the day of the Thunderer in many traditions: compare Polabian Peräune-dǻn ("day of Perun"), Lithuanian Perkūno diena. Perkūnas is associated with the Roman god Jupiter in early sources. Thursday is a day of thunder-storms and rains, and also of weddings.

Prussian Perkūns

Simon Grunau (around 1520) describes a Prussian banner with Perkūns on it. The god is represented as an angry middle aged man with a twisted black beard, topped with a flame. It stands between young Patrimpas and old Patulas. Perkūns maintains the same central position in the description of the sacred oak in Romowe sanctuary. In front of the oak, the eternal fire (symbol of Perkūns) was burned. Special priests served at the sanctuary. Old Prussians would try to appeal to the god by prayers. Perkunatete was the mother of Perkūns.

Latvian Pērkons

Pērkons was strongly associated with Dievs, though the two were clearly different. The people sacrificed black calves, goats, and roosters to Pērkons, especially during droughts. The surrounding peoples came to these sacrifices to eat and drink together, after pouring beer onto the ground or into the fire for him. The Latvians also sacrificed cooked food before meals to Pērkons, in order to prevent thunderstorms, during which honeycombs were placed into fires to disperse the clouds.

Pērkons' family included sons that symbolized various aspects of thunderstorms (such as thunder, lightning, lightning strikes) and daughters that symbolized various kinds of rain.

Pērkons appeared on a golden horse, wielding a sword, iron club, golden whip and a knife.  Ancient Latvians wore tiny axes on their clothing in his honor.

In modern culture
Perkunas is occasionally mentioned in the novels of Harry Turtledove. He provides an important macguffin in The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump (1993) and is the patron god of one of the armies in Gunpowder Empire (2003).

Günter Grass, in his second novel Dog Years (1963), alludes to Perkūnas ("Perkunos") as a symbol of the dark human energies unleashed by the rise of Nazism in Germany in the 1930s.

The fictional parallel to Nazi Germany in the 1966 alternate history novel The Gate of Time by Philip José Farmer is called Perkunisha, named after Perkūnas.

The Lithuanian folk music group Kūlgrinda released a 2003 album titled Perkūno Giesmės, meaning "Hymns of Perkūnas".

Saule, Pērkons, Daugava is a Latvian choir song composed by Mārtiņš Brauns, based on a 1916 poem by Rainis.

In August 2023 a tottem pole carved with the writing "Perkunas 2023" appeared above the white cliffs of Dover in the South of England, UK. To date no one has claimed ownership of the piece and the public are still no wiser as to how it got there.

See also
Hercynian Forest
Indra
Perkwunos
Perun
Thunaer
List of Lithuanian gods and mythological figures

References

Further reading
 Nijolė Laurinkienė. Senovės lietuvių dievas Perkūnas (Perkūnas - The God of Ancient Lithuanians). Lietuvos literatūros ir tautosakos institutas: 1996, Vilnius.

 Tuite, Kevin. "Lightning, Sacrifice, and Possession in the Traditional Religions of the Caucasus (Continued from Anthropos 99.2004: 143-159)." Anthropos, vol. 99, no. 2, 2004, pp. 481–497. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40466394. Accessed 28 Apr. 2020.

External links

 ausis.gf.vu.lt
 crwflags.com
 lituanus.org
 druidry.org

Baltic gods
Sky and weather gods
Thunder gods
Rain deities
Lithuanian gods
Latvian gods
Prussian gods
Jovian deities

Perkūnas


Reverie is a historic Greek Revival mansion built circa 1858 in Marion, Perry County, Alabama. It now serves as a residence and also historic house museum. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a contributing property to the West Marion Historic District and was recorded by the Historic American Buildings Survey. It is featured in Ralph Hammond's Antebellum Mansions of Alabama, Gregory Hatcher's Reverie Mansion and Gardens, and Jennifer Hale's Historic Plantations of Alabama's Black Belt.

History

The property on which Reverie sits was sold on February 9, 1858, for $4,000, a large sum in that day, to Joseph Thompson Whitsitt, a planter (according to the census) and railroad investor. Wartime financial reverses led Mr. Whitsitt to sell the mansion on November 28, 1862, for $10,000 to Edward Kenworthy Carlisle, a wealthy cotton broker who also owned one of the finest mansions in Alabama, Kenworthy Hall, located only a few miles away.

Carlisle shortly sold the house again on April 28, 1863, to David Scott, a merchant and  cotton, grist, and saw mill operator and manufacturer. Scott died on August 9, 1868, and left a will recording the furnishings of the mansion at that time. Harrison H. Hurt, son of a prominent merchant and planter, bought the mansion in 1871 at auction for $4,650. Mr. Hurt's daughter Nellie married Dr. R.C. Hanna and the mansion became known as the Hurt-Hanna House.

After Mrs. Hanna's death in 1944, the house was sold to Dr. William T. Weissinger, who in the course of a distinguished career had been General Douglas MacArthur's physician in the army. Mrs. Weissinger first named the house Reverie which it has remained ever since. Since Dr. Weissinger's death in 1971, the house has been owned by a number of families, each of which maintained it as a residence.

While the house was owned by David Scott in the 1860s, Union troops occupied the town of Marion and used the house as their headquarters. Some markings of these troops can be found in the attic.

Architecture

Four white Doric columns of brick, covered with stucco, give this Greek Revival mansion its monumental appearance. The house features a massive frieze board with dentil moldings which surrounds the entire home. Board siding and double hung paned windows are all original. A cupola or belvedere with classical balustrade sits atop the low-hipped roof and there is also a balcony above the entrance.

The mansion is a standard four-room over four-room house with a spacious central hall and grand, unsupported staircase, but also has two story cabinet rooms on the east and west sides. These flanking rooms were unusual at the time and, together with the portico, made the design quite distinctive. Two outbuildings survive: the original kitchen, now connected to the house, and a brick smokehouse.

The interior of the Mansion includes elaborate plaster moldings and medallions, original to house, along with inlaid flooring of oak and mahogany which was added later. The ceiling height downstairs is 14' and upstairs 13' with original heart pine floors in most areas.

In the garden, a Wisteria arbor is thought to predate the construction of the house by several decades and may be the oldest surviving Wisteria in Alabama. There is also a boxwood parterre (knot garden or maze) which was probably put in sometime after the turn of the 19th century and was restored in recent decades.

Gallery

References

Further reading

Houses in Perry County, Alabama
Greek Revival houses in Alabama
Houses completed in 1858
1850s architecture in the United States
Historic district contributing properties in Alabama
National Register of Historic Places in Perry County, Alabama
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Alabama
Marion, Alabama

Reverie (Marion, Alabama)


St. Margaret's Church, Lee, is a Church of England parish church in Lee, London. It was built between 1839 and 1841 in a simple early Victorian style (to a design by Norwich architect John Brown), replacing an earlier church which had been built on the foundations of the older mediaeval church nearby dating to around 1120.  It is Anglican and is located on the south side of Lee Terrace/Belmont Hill, in Lee Green, south-east London.

Extensive and lavish interior decoration was carried out between the years of 1875 and 1900.

By 1980 it had fallen into dilapidation and an extensive 20-year restoration programme was carried out. On completion of the restoration, the church is one of the best preserved examples of a decorated gothic revivalist interior in London.

Between 1813 and 1830 there had been an attempt to rebuild the medieval church, involving the architect Joseph Gwilt. This failed when it became clear that the foundations of the old church were incapable of supporting a new building. The ruins of the original building are in the medieval churchyard on the north side of Lee Terrace. The tomb of Edmond Halley (1656–1742), from 1720 England's second Astronomer Royal and the discoverer of the periodicity of Halley's Comet is in the churchyard, one of three Astronomers Royal buried at St. Margaret's (Nathaniel Bliss and John Pond are the others). Also notable is the tomb of Sir Samuel Fludyer, 1st Baronet and his family. James Annesley, a celebrated claimant to the Earldom of Anglesey, was buried in the churchyard in an unmarked grave.

Graves in the churchyard around the current church include one for wealthy builder William Webster (1819 –1888) , his wife, and chemical engineer son, William who lived at nearby Wyberton House on Lee Terrace.

References

External links

The Church's Parish Website
Current Church
Parish History
Craftsmen and Women
Old Church Yard
Gallery of interior features

19th-century Church of England church buildings
Lee
Churches completed in 1841
Lee
Victorian architecture in England
Lee, London
Grade II* listed buildings in the London Borough of Lewisham
Grade II* listed churches in London

St Margaret's, Lee


Dimorphodontidae (or dimorphodontids) is a group of early "rhamphorhynchoid" pterosaurs named after Dimorphodon, that lived in the Late Triassic to Early Jurassic. While fossils that can be definitively referred to the group are rare, dimorphodontids may have had a broad distribution, with fossils known from the UK, the southwest United States, and possibly Antarctica.

Dimorphodontidae was named in 1870 by Harry Govier Seeley (as "Dimorphodontae"), with Dimorphodon as the only known member. In 2003, David Unwin defined a clade Dimorphodontidae, as the group consisting of the last common ancestor of Dimorphodon macronyx and Peteinosaurus zambellii, and all its descendants. However, later studies found that Dimorphodon may not be closely related to Peteinosaurus, so this definition of Dimorphodontidae would therefore be superfluous.

In 2014, Brian Andres and colleagues defined another clade, Dimorphodontia, as a replacement for Dimorphodontidae. Dimorphodontia would include all pterosaurs more closely related to Dimorphodon than to Pterodactylus. According to the analysis published by Andres et al., Dimorphodontia is also a small group, including only Dimorphodon and Parapsicephalus.

In 2018, a close relative of Dimorphodon was described from the Late Triassic of North America by Britt and colleagues, and was named Caelestiventus. This discovery expanded the geographic, temporal and also the ecological range of dimorphodontids, as it was discovered in the Late Triassic Nugget Sandstone in Utah, which was a desert at the time. Britt and colleagues also redefined Dimorphodontidae as the least inclusive clade containing Dimorphodon macronyx and Caelestiventus hanseni.

References

Pterosaurs
Taxa named by Harry Seeley
Prehistoric reptile families

Dimorphodontidae


Brian Chikwava is a Zimbabwean writer and musician. His short story "Seventh Street Alchemy" was awarded the 2004 Caine Prize for African writing in English; Chikwava became the first Zimbabwean to do so. He has been a Charles Pick fellow at the University of East Anglia, and lives in London. He continues to write in England and put out an album titled Jacaranda Skits.

Background
Brian Chikwava was born in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, in 1971. He went to boarding-school in Bulawayo, going on to study civil engineering at Bristol University.  He settled in London in 2004.

Writing
Chikwava won the fifth Caine Prize for African Writing in 2004 with his short story "Seventh Street Alchemy" (which was published in Writing Still, Weaver Press, Harare, 2003), the first Zimbabwean to win the prize. Making the award, the chair of the judges, Alvaro Ribeiro, described the story as: "A very strong narrative in which Brian Chikwava of Zimbabwe claims the English language as his own, and English with African characteristics.... A triumph for the long tradition of Zimbabwe writing in the face of Zimbabwe's uncertain future!"

His first novel Harare North was published in 2009 through Jonathan Cape. Reviews were generally positive, with Mary Fitzgerald of the New Statesman writing that "in bringing to life the plight of those often marginalised by mainstream society, [Chikwava] has opened up a bleak, yet urgently important, social landscape". She also praises his "wit and suggestiveness", something that Tod Wodicka, author of All Shall Be Well, agrees with, writing that "page by page, line by line, [Chikwava] has created a perfectly original and true narrative voice...full of surprises, delicious little tics, and real fire-in-the-belly creativity...but importantly, the voice comes off as effortless, and therefore true… it's a major accomplishment".

Trevor Lewis of The Sunday Times wrote that "Chikwava has created a compelling protagonist, whose back-to-front English and spiky argot throw up sly, acidly comic observations", while Margaret Busby wrote in The Independent: "Chikwava has the talent to find lightness and comedy in the darkest desperation, drawing humour even out of wretchedness...occasionally among novelists one comes across a voice so distinctive...that it grips in an unforgettable way. For me, Chikwava looks set to be in that category. From first page to last, the vernacular narrative of Harare North is arresting, haunting, exciting, funny."

Speaking about Zimbabwe and the reception he believed his book would receive, Chikwava said: "the Zimbabwe I knew no longer exists. The book will be published there but no one will buy it. No one buys books now. They are no longer a priority".

He also took part in the Bush Theatre's 2011 project Sixty Six Books for which he wrote a piece based upon a book of the King James Bible

References

Further reading
KOCIEJOWSKI, Marius. God's Zoo: Artists, Exiles, Londoners (Carcanet, 2014), contains a biographical chapter "A Tree Grows in Brixton - Brian Chikwawa's Dark Adventure in 'Harare North'".

External links
 "Brian Chikwava's top ten works by writers who had a score to settle with society", The Guardian, 2 September 2004.

Zimbabwean writers
Zimbabwean musicians
Zimbabwean emigrants to the United Kingdom
Living people
Caine Prize winners
21st-century novelists
Year of birth missing (living people)

Brian Chikwava


Bank of Taizhou (TZB; simplified Chinese 台州银行) is a city commercial bank headquartered in Taizhou, Zhejiang Province - China. On 9 September 2010, it was officially renamed as Bank of Taizhou from the original name of Taizhou City Commercial Bank(simplified Chinese 台州市商业银行).

The Bank was founded on March 13, 2002, by an amalgamation of eight local credit unions with a registered capital of RMB 300 million and is the first non-state-controlled city commercial bank in China. Together with its predecessor organisation Yinzuo Urban Credit Union, Bank of Taizhou has a continuous history of 25 years.
By the end of 2011, for TZB, the whole deposit balance was total assets stood at 57.192 billion RMB growing 18% from the previous year. The total loan portfolio was 26.78 billion RMB and the total number of loan clients was close to 60.000. The NPL ratio was 0.30%, slightly up from the previous year.

The KPMG research study "China's City Commercial Bank: Opportunity knocks?" (2007) ranked TZB on place 12 out of China's Top 100 city commercial banks.  In 2008, TZB was awarded with the 3rd place in the "Comprehensive competitiveness rank of national city commercial banks" by the Chinese finance magazine "The Banker".

Organization
By the end of June 2016, TZB has 10 branches, 7 VTB (Village and Township Bank) and over 100 sub-branches. The branches are located in all districts of Zhejiang province. Bank of Taizhou is now operating on a nationwide basis, using its subsidiary VTBs to reach more distant locations. The VTBs are located Shenzhen Futian, Beijing Shunyi and Jiangxi Ganzhou, Chongqing Yubei and Chongqing Qianjiang as well as in Zhejiang Lishui Jingning and Zhejiang Taizhou Sanmen. The total number of employees in TZB is close to 10000.

Business areas
TZB is focused on SME finance designed for most micro & small enterprises which could not get loan from Bank before and also has a big micro lending operation. The bank was the first partner bank in the China Development Bank Microfinance Project starting in 2005.

By the end of September 2011, TZB has more than 62,000 clients that have loans outstanding, average loan amount was 436,200 RMB, among which loans under 1 million RMB took up 92.68% of loan number and 55.93% of loan outstanding.

Corporate culture

The Corporate spirit of TZB is "hardworking, practical, innovative".
The service culture of the Bank is as what it says in its logo:"simple, convenient, efficient" ().
Unlike many state owned banks, TZB has a very stable management team with most senior and middle managers working in the bank for close to 20 years. This gives the bank a very strong corporate culture and risk culture.

External links
 The Bank of Taizhou Official Homepage(Chinese)

Literature
 KPMG "Chinas Commercial Banks: Opportunity knocks?"
 The Banker
 China Development Bank

Banks of China
Companies based in Taizhou, Zhejiang
Microfinance organizations

Bank of Taizhou


Marie Anne de Vichy-Chamrond, marquise du Deffand (25 September 1696 – 23 September 1780) was a French hostess and patron of the arts.

Life
Madame du Deffand was born at the Château de Chamrond, in Ligny-en-Brionnais, a village near Charolles (département of Saône-et-Loire) of a noble family. Educated at a Benedictine convent in Paris, she showed great intelligence and a skeptical, cynical turn of mind. The abbess of the convent, alarmed at the freedom of her views, arranged for Jean Baptiste Massillon to visit and reason with her, but he accomplished nothing. At twenty-one years of age and without consulting her, her parents married her to her kinsman, Jean Baptiste de la Lande, marquis du Deffand. The marriage was an unhappy one and the couple separated in 1722.

Madame du Deffand is said by Horace Walpole (in a letter to Thomas Gray) to have been for a short time the mistress of the regent, the duke of Orléans. She appeared in her earlier days to be incapable of any strong attachment, but her intelligence, her cynicism, and her esprit made her the centre of attraction of a brilliant circle. In 1721 she began a friendship with Voltaire, but their regular correspondence dates only from 1736. She spent much time at Sceaux, at the court of the duchesse du Maine, where she contracted a close friendship with the president, Hénault. In Paris she attended the Club de l'Entresol and was the rival of Mme Geoffrin, but the members of her salon were drawn from aristocratic society more than from literary circles. There were exceptions: Voltaire, Montesquieu, Fontenelle, and Madame de Staal-Delaunay were among the habitués. When Hénault introduced D'Alembert, Madame du Deffand was captivated by him. She tolerated the encyclopaedists only for his sake.

In 1752 she retired from Paris, intending to remain in the country, but she was persuaded by her friends to return. She had taken up residence in 1747 in apartments in the Convent of Saint-Joseph in the rue Saint-Dominique, which had a separate entrance from the street. When she lost her sight in 1754, she engaged Mademoiselle de Lespinasse to help her in entertaining. This lady's wit made some of the guests, including D'Alembert, prefer her society to that of Madame du Deffand, and Mademoiselle de Lespinasse received visitors for an hour before her patron appeared. When this was discovered, Mademoiselle de Lespinasse was dismissed (1764), and the salon broke up, for she took with her D'Alembert, Turgot, and the literary clique. From this time Madame du Deffand very rarely received any literary visitors. The principal friendships of her later years were with the duchesse de Choiseul and with Horace Walpole, the latter becoming the strongest and longest-lasting of all her attachments. In this period, she developed qualities of style and eloquence of which her earlier writings had given little promise. In the opinion of Sainte-Beuve the prose of her letters ranks with that of Voltaire as the best of that classical epoch, without excepting any even of the great writers.

Walpole refused at first to acknowledge the closeness of their intimacy from an exaggerated fear of the ridicule attaching to her age, but he paid several visits to Paris expressly for the purpose of enjoying her society, and maintained a close and most interesting correspondence with her for fifteen years. On her death, she left her dog, Tonton, to the care of Walpole, who also was entrusted with her papers. Of her innumerable witty sayings the best known is her remark on the cardinal de Polignac's account of St Denis's miraculous walk of two miles with his head in his hands--Il n'y a que le premier pas qui coûte (The distance doesn't matter; it is only the first step that is the most difficult.).

Correspondence
The  of Madame du Deffand with D'Alembert, Hénault, Montesquieu, and others was published in Paris (2 vols.) in 1809. Letters of the marquise du Deffand to the Hon. Horace Walpole, afterwards earl of Orford, from the year 1766 to the year 1780 (4vols.), edited, with a biographical sketch, by Miss Mary Berry, were published in London from the originals at Strawberry Hill in 1810.

The standard edition of her letters is in the Yale Edition of Horace Walpole's Correspondence, vols. 9–10, edited by Wilmarth S. Lewis. Other papers of Mme du Deffand obtained at the breaking up of Walpole's collection are in private hands. Mme du Deffand returned many of Walpole's letters at his request, and subsequently destroyed those she received from him. Those in his possession appear to have been destroyed after his death by Miss Berry, who printed fragments from them as footnotes to the edition of 1810. The correspondence between Walpole and Madame du Deffand thus remains one-sided, but seven of Walpole's letters to her were printed for the first time in the edition (1903) of his correspondence by Mrs Paget Toynbee, who discovered a quantity of her unedited letters. See Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du lundi, vols. i. and xiv.; and the notice by Lescure in his edition of the correspondence.

Notes

References

 Le Marquis du Deffand et sa famille, Bulletin de la Société des sciences historiques et naturelles de l'Yonne, 94:77-116

External links

1696 births
1780 deaths
People from Saône-et-Loire
French marchionesses
French salon-holders
French letter writers
Women letter writers
Blind royalty and nobility
18th-century French women writers
18th-century letter writers
French blind people

Madame du Deffand


The King's Head Theatre, founded in 1970 by Dan Crawford, is an off-West End venue in London.  It is the oldest operating pub theatre in the UK. In 2021, Mark Ravenhill became Artistic Director and the theatre focusses on producing LGBTQ+ work, work that is joyful, irreverent, colourful and queer.

Background
The small theatre is located in the back room behind the bar at the King's Head pub on Upper Street, in the London Borough of Islington. The theatre is housed in a Victorian building, but a public house, originally known as The King's Head Tavern, has been on the same site, opposite St Mary's Church, since 1543. The theatre was previously used as an old boxing ring and pool hall.  The theatre's reconstruction in 2007–2008 increased both the stage size and seating capacity, with the addition of new seating.

Dan Crawford ran the venue for 35 years until his death in 2005. His wife and long-serving associate artistic director Stephanie Sinclaire took over with help from those who had worked with Crawford. She mounted 20 galas in the first year at the theatre with the help of Caroline Smith and longtime supporters such as Maureen Lipman, Sir John Mortimer, Linda Marlowe, Sharon D Clarke, Clive Rowe, Janie Dee and others and pulled the theatre out of debt. In 2007, Sinclaire was joined by the Tony Award-winning New York producer, Steven M. Levy, who has been serving as the company's Executive Producer. Levy and Sinclaire got the theatre producing for a year and presented several musical and play premieres.

The atmosphere Crawford created in 1970 was intended to be enjoyed by an interesting, cosmopolitan and cultural audience, but noise complaints have limited the music from its previous 7 nights a week. Crawford disagreed with the introduction of decimal currency; for over twenty years after decimalisation of the pound (1971), the bar continued to show prices and charge for drinks in pre-decimal currency. However, the current management decided to introduce computerised tills, while keeping the antique till as the main focal point in the pub.

History 1970–2005
The King's Head has presented a wide array of productions: musicals, stand-up comedy, revues, contemporary forgotten classics, and new work by both new and established playwrights.  Under the Crawfords' leadership The King's Head has won multiple awards and numerous productions have transferred to mainstream West End and Broadway theatres, including Mr Cinders, Wonderful Town starring Maureen Lipman and Tom Stoppard's Artist Descending a Staircase. In the five years after his death, productions have included the world stage premiere of Leonard Bernstein's Peter Pan, directed by Stephanie Sinclaire, which transferred to the Lobero Theatre in California. Fucking Men also ran at the theatre for nine months in the late night slot as well as the main time slot before Steven Levy transferred it to The Arts Theatre.

A documentary about the theatre, The King's Head: A Maverick in London (2006) was produced by Dragonfly Films and Xi Pictures and co-directed by Stephanie Sinclaire and Jason Figgis. It ran on SkyARTS World for three years.

In 2002, Dan & Stephanie won the Queen's Golden Jubilee Award for their contribution to the Arts and the Trainee Resident Director Scheme they started won the Royal Anniversary Trust Award.

2010 - 2020
In March 2010, Opera Up Close founded by Adam Spreadbury-Maher and Robin Norton-Hale became resident company of the theatre. Spreadbury-Maher was also appointed Artistic Director in the same year. In October 2010, it was announced that the theatre would become "London's Little Opera House", the first new opera house in London for over 40 years. The first opera performed was an adaption of Rossini's Barber of Seville (or Salisbury) set in the times of Jane Austen. Also in October 2010, Mark Ravenhill became associate director, and Jonathan Miller joined existing patrons Joanna Lumley, Janie Dee, Tom Stoppard and Alan Parker.

The theatre continued to have multiple transfers and awards. In 2011 the theatre wins an Olivier Award for Best New Opera Performance for Opera Up Close's La Bohemè, and the following year Vieux Carre by Tennessee Williams receives its UK premiere before transferring to the West End. Other notable productions which premiered at Kings Head Theatre include Shock Treatment, the sequel to The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Trainspotting, the Edinburgh Festival and touring hit which has had over 900 performances.

In the period before the Covid-19 pandemic, the theatre started to build its reputation for producing LGBTQ+ work, with notable titles including 5 Guys Chillin and Kevin Elyot's Coming Clean.

Adam Spreadbury-Maher stepped down in 2020.

2021 Onwards
In 2021, Mark Ravenhill was appointed Artistic Director of the theatre. The theatre celebrated its 50th anniversary with KHT50: Barstools to Broadway - a week of work bringing together highlights from the past 50 years and featuring work from Timberlake Wartenbaker, Audrey Sheffield, Dame Harriet Walter, Gemma Whelan, Tom Stoppard, Stephen Jeffreys, Annabel Arden, Tim Luscombe, Bryony Lavery, Abigail Anderson, Victoria Wood, Annabel Leventon, Bill Russel & Janet Hood.

The theatre renews its focus on showcasing LGBTQ+ work, work that is joyful, irreverent, colourful and queer. In an interview Ravenhill stated "I'm excited to move forward the LGBTQ+ work of the King's Head Theatre. Historically, the stories of gay men have tended to dominate and while we will continue to tell some of those stories, I'm looking forward to exploring the full spectrum of experiences symbolised by the rainbow flag. We want to be the home for a new wave of diverse queer theatre makers."

References

External links

 The King's Head Theatre site
 Dan Crawford, Obituary Guardian article
 Review of the King's Head Theatre Pub
 Betwixt – The Musical

Pub theatres in London
Theatres in the London Borough of Islington
1970 establishments in England
Buildings and structures in Islington

King's Head Theatre


Orton Caswell "Cas" Walker (March 23, 1902 – September 25, 1998), was a Tennessee businessman, politician, and personality on television and radio.  Walker founded a successful chain of small grocery stores that grew to include several dozen stores scattered throughout the Knoxville, Tennessee vicinity as well as parts of Virginia and Kentucky.  From 1941 through 1971, Walker served on the Knoxville city council where he became legendary for his uncompromising political stances and his vehement opposition to what he claimed was a corrupt elitism in the city's government.  The Cas Walker Farm and Home Hour, a local variety show sponsored by Walker, ran in various radio and television formats between 1929 and 1983 and helped launch the careers of entertainer Dolly Parton and the Everly Brothers.

Early life

Walker was born to a working-class family in Sevier County, Tennessee in 1902.  He quit school at the age of 14 and spent several years working at different jobs around the region, namely at the Champion Fibre Company in North Carolina and later at various coal mines in Kentucky.  In 1924, he returned to East Tennessee where he established the first Cas Walker's Cash Store in Knoxville with money he had saved.

Walker's stores had a simple rural atmosphere that was popular with the city's working class whites and African-Americans.  He used his radio show and other innovative methods— such as scattering coupons from airplanes— to advertise his store's weekly specials.  By the mid-1950s, Walker's chain had grown to include 27 stores that generated a gross annual revenue of $60 million.

Politics

Walker was first elected to the Knoxville city council in 1941.  He was elected mayor in 1946, but after a few weeks of tumultuous meetings and the firing of its own city manager, the city council managed to oust Walker in a recall election. He also served as acting mayor in 1959.  Walker was reelected to the city council the following and remained until voluntarily retiring in 1971.  He continued to be a force in Knoxville politics into the 1980s.

As a politician, Walker successfully portrayed himself as a champion of small farmers and the working class.  This image was enhanced in 1956 when Life Magazine published a photograph of Walker preparing to punch fellow city councilman J. S. Cooper after the two had engaged in a heated debate over property assessments.  In his self-published newsletter, The Watchdog, Walker blasted political opponents and raged against tax increases.  He also used The Watchdog to launch controversial attacks against his business competitors.  In the 1960s, he unsuccessfully opposed plans to fluoridate Knoxville's water supply and played a pivotal role in derailing attempts to consolidate the governments of Knoxville and Knox County.  Walker's political mentor-turned-rival, George Dempster, once said, "If I ordered a whole carload of SOB's and they just sent Cas, I'd sign for the shipment."

Walker continued distributing The Watchdog until the early 1980s, when a libel suit forced it out of publication.  During the same period, Walker's influence helped defeat a second attempt to merge the Knoxville and Knox County governments.

Radio and television

In 1929, Walker created a variety show known as the Farm and Home Hour to help promote his cash stores.  The show initially aired as a radio program on WROL-AM and later on WIVK-AM.  In 1953, the show adopted a television format for WROL-TV (now WATE-TV) and aired on various local channels until 1983.  The show featured artists such as Roy Acuff, Jimmy Martin, Bill Monroe, Carl Smith, Carl Butler, Jim Nabors, and Chet Atkins.  The show also helped launch the careers of Dolly Parton, who first performed on the program in 1956 at the age of 10, and the Everly Brothers, who were regulars on the show in the mid-1950s.

References

External links
The Cas Walker Farm and Home Hour — IMDB
Museum of Appalachia — photos of Cas Walker in 1990
Life photograph of 1956 fracas between Walker and J.S. Cooper
Video: "Cas Walker Warning to Thugs"

People from Sevier County, Tennessee
1902 births
1998 deaths
Politicians from Knoxville, Tennessee
Mayors of Knoxville, Tennessee
Businesspeople from Tennessee
Tennessee city council members
American grocers
20th-century American businesspeople
20th-century American politicians

Cas Walker