Norman Clifford Louis O'Neill  (19 February 1937 – 3 March 2008) was a cricketer who played for New South Wales and Australia. A right-handed batsman known for his back foot strokeplay, O'Neill made his state debut aged 18, before progressing to Test selection aged 21 in late 1958. Early in his career, O'Neill was one of the foremost batsmen in the Australian team, scoring three Test centuries and topping the run-scoring aggregates on a 1959–60 tour of the Indian subcontinent which helped Australia win its last Test and series on Pakistani soil for 39 years, as well as another series in India. His career peaked in 1960–61 when he scored 181 in the Tied Test against the West Indies, and at the end of the series, had a career average of 58.25.

O'Neill's performances on the 1961 tour of England saw him named as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year. Thereafter his form was less formidable, characterised by nervousness and fidgeting at the start of his innings. Persistent knee problems, as well as a controversial media attack on the legality of West Indian bowler Charlie Griffith, saw him dropped from the Australian team after 1965. O'Neill also bowled occasional leg spin and was regarded as one of the finest fielders of his era. He later became a cricket commentator and his son Mark O'Neill also played cricket at state level.

He was inducted into the Australian Hall of Fame by the CA in 2018.

Early years
The son of a builder, O'Neill was born in Carlton, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales. He had no cricketing associations on his father's side of the family, but his maternal uncle, Ron Campion, played for the Glebe club in Sydney Grade Cricket. Campion trained for cricket near the O'Neill family home, at Bexley Oval. O'Neill accompanied his uncle to cricket from the age of seven and was given batting practice at the end of each session. At Bexley Primary school, O'Neill was denied a chance to play cricket as the school did not field a team. Moving on to Kogarah Intermediate High School, O'Neill played cricket in defiance of a teacher who recommended that he take up athletics. As a teenager, O'Neill idolised Keith Miller after his uncle took him to the Sydney Cricket Ground: O'Neill saw Miller play that day and was impressed with the way he hit the ball off the back foot.

Under his uncle's guidance, O'Neill joined the St George Cricket Club, in the Sydney Grade competition. He steadily moved up through the grades and broke into the first grade side at the age of 16. Sensing his potential, the club's selectors informed him that regardless of form, he would play the full season, which allowed him to be uninhibited in his batting. He made 108 in seven innings. The next season, he was out 12 times leg before wicket in 15 innings, and run out in the other three. O'Neill attributed his failures to over-aggressiveness and resolved to improve his patience. In the second match of the new season, the 17-year-old O'Neill made his first century. With all five state selectors onlooking, he made 28 in the next match and was called into the state squad.

Shield debut

O'Neill made his debut for New South Wales at the age of 18 against South Australia during the 1955–56 season. His lack of contribution was highlighted against the backdrop of his team's crushing innings victory: O'Neill failed to score a run or take a wicket. New South Wales bowled first and had South Australia at 6/49 when Miller introduced O'Neill's occasional leg spin, presumably to ease the debutant's nerves by bringing him into the game. The home team struck 18 from three overs. O'Neill was listed to bat in the lower middle order but after the top order had made a big start, Miller brought O'Neill up. He came in against the second new ball and was clean bowled. O'Neill was dropped and did not play another match for the season, but had gained invaluable experience.

O'Neill steadily rose in the 1956–57 season. At the start of the season, with many players still on international duty during the closing stages of the tour to England and the subsequent stopover in the Indian subcontinent, O'Neill was recalled and made 60 and 63 not out against Queensland at the start of the season. This saw him retain his place when the Test players returned. After making a pair of single-figures scored, he made a sequence of three 60s against South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia, He was rewarded with selection in the one-off match between Ray Lindwall's XI and Neil Harvey's XI, which doubled as a national selection trial, before making his first ton (127) against South Australia. He ended the season with 567 runs at 43.61, and earned selection for a non-Test tour of New Zealand under Ian Craig, in a team composed mainly of young players. He made 102 not out in the only "Test" match that he played, helping to set up a ten-wicket win. heading the tour averages with 218 runs at 72.66. Despite this, he was overlooked for the 1957–58 Test tour of South Africa. It was regarded as one of the most controversial decisions of the decade.

O'Neill responded during the 1957–58 Sheffield Shield season weakened by the absence of the Test players, aggregating 1,005 runs at 83.75 and taking 26 wickets at 20.42 with his leg spinners, thus topping the national bowling and batting averages. Prior to the season, he had never taken a first-class wicket. In the opening match of the summer, he took 3/74 against Queensland. He then took a total of 5/51 scored 33 and 48 not out in a six-wicket win over Western Australia before taking 3/52 and adding two fifties in the return match. He then broke through for his first century of the season, scoring 114 and taking 3/44 in a ten-wicket win over South Australia. However, he reached more productive levels in the second half of the season.

This comprised 175 against Victoria, 74 and 48 against Queensland, 125 and 23* against South Australia and 233 against Victoria. His 233 was made in little over four hours and featured 38 fours. It was the first time that a New South Welshman (let alone a twenty-year-old) had scored 1,000 in a Shield season. Bradman and Bill Ponsford were the only others before him. He added 12 wickets in the final four matches, including 2/50 and 4/40 in the match against Queensland. O'Neill's performances played a large part in his state's fifth consecutive title.

These performances led former Test leg spinner Bill O'Reilly to compare him to Bradman and former Test opening batsman Jack Fingleton to lament his non-selection for the South African tour and its reflection on the plight of Australian cricket.

At the time, his employers refused to make allowances for him to play sport, forcing him to begin work at six in the morning. As a result, he considered moving to South Australia, where a grocery magnate offered him employment and financial incentives. However, he stayed after state officials intervened, with Sir Ronald Irish, the Australian chairman of Rothmans, providing him with a job in Sydney. At the time, O'Neill had another offer. Having represented his state in baseball and been nominated in the All-Australian team in 1957, he was approached by the New York Yankees, having had experience at a pitcher and short stop. O'Neill was offered a fee more than 25 times that for a single Test match, as well as travel costs and accommodation, to trial with the Yankees. He agreed, but Irish dissuaded him less than a week before his scheduled departure.

Test debut
Identified as a future Test prospect, he was selected in a Western Australia Combined XI for a match against the touring England cricket team at the start of the 1958–59 season in Perth. Prior to the match, O'Neill was hounded by the media. The tourists decided to test him with short-pitched bowling, especially Fred Trueman. O'Neill decided to abstain from hooking, while attacking the spin of Jim Laker with a series of sweep shots. After four and a half hours of uncharacteristic restraint, he compiled 104 with an emphasis on off side play. He took a total of 2/67, removing Fred Trueman and Arthur Milton.

He scored 85 against Western Australia and then made 84 not out for New South Wales against England. He was selected for an Australian XI, which played the tourists in a dress rehearsal before the Tests. He made one and two as Australia were crushed by 345 runs.

Nevertheless, O'Neill was selected to make his debut in the five-Test series against England, playing in all of the matches. The First Test in Brisbane was a low scoring match described by Australian captain Richie Benaud as producing "some of the slowest and worst cricket imaginable", O'Neill made 34 in Australia's first innings of 186 to help secure a lead of 52. He then top-scored with an unbeaten 71 in the second innings, guiding Australia to an eight-wicket victory. O'Neill scored 71 of the last 89 runs scored while he was at the crease, refusing to be dried up by the England's usage of leg theory. It enlivened a match plagued by time-wasting, and best remembered for a depressingly slow innings by England's Trevor Bailey, who scored 68 from 426 balls in seven and a half hours. England captain Peter May described O'Neill's innings as "sparkling" and said that it made "everything which had gone before look even more wretched". Retired English player Ian Peebles, writing in the Sunday Times, said "Although O'Neill is in the very early stages of his career, it is already something of an occasion when he comes to the wicket, and one can sense the expectancy of the crowd and the heightened tension of the opposition". Wisden opined that O'Neill had "saved a game that had been tortuous for days". For his part, O'Neill said that the dour play was "unbelievable" and that he was "just about falling to sleep" in the field.

He struck 77 in the rain-affected drawn Third Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground and followed this with 56 in the Fourth Test in Adelaide. Despite making a duck in the Fifth Test, he ended the series as the second highest runscorer with 282 at 56.40 as Australia took the series 4–0. He bowled two overs without success. Outside the Tests, O'Neill scored 155 and 128 against Victoria and Western Australia respectively as New South Wales completed their sixth successive Sheffield Shield win.

Career peak

The following season O'Neill was Australia's leading batsman during the 1959–60 tour to Pakistan and India, where he was a part of the last Australian team to win a Test on Pakistani soil for 39 years. After a quiet match in the First Test eight-wicket win in Dacca in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), in which he scored two and 26 not out, O'Neill played a key role in the victory in the Second Test in Lahore that was to Australia's last in Pakistan until 1998. O'Neill made his maiden Test century of 134 in the first innings to give Australia a 245-run lead. He then took his maiden Test wicket in Pakistan's second innings, that of Shujauddin. This left Australia chasing a target of 122 in the last two hours on the final day. The chase was on schedule with O'Neill partnering Neil Harvey when the Pakistanis began wasting time to prevent an Australian victory. This was implemented by swapping fielders very slowly when the left and right-handed combination of Harvey and O'Neill took a single, and overs began taking seven minutes instead of three. To counter this, Harvey deliberately backed away when a ball was aimed at the stumps and threw away his wicket by letting himself be bowled for 37. This allowed Benaud to come in and bat with O'Neill so that the two right-handed batsmen would give no opportunity to waste time by switching the field. Benaud then threatened Pakistani captain Imtiaz Ahmed with a formal complaint over the time-wasting, and proceedings returned to their normal pace. Australia made the target with a few minutes to spare, with O'Neill on 43. O'Neill failed to make double figures in the final Test, which was drawn, but ended the series with 218 runs at 72.66. In another tour match, against the President's XI, O'Neill scored an unbeaten 52 in a low-scoring match as Australia stumbled to their target of 116 with only three wickets in hand.

O'Neill's performances in Pakistan was such that the parents in one cricket-following Karachi family named their new son Anil for its resemblance to O'Neill. Anil Dalpat went on to become the first Hindu to represent Pakistan, playing nine Tests in the 1980s as a wicketkeeper.

On the five-Test Indian series which followed, O'Neill started slowly, aggregating 60 runs in the first two Tests, which were shared 1–1. He returned to form with a leg-side dominated 163 in a high-scoring draw in the Third Test at Brabourne Stadium in Bombay. After scoring 40 in an innings victory in the Fourth Test in Madras, Australia needed a draw in the Fifth Test in Calcutta with four players injured or ill, while Benaud had a dislocated spinning finger. O'Neill scored 113 in the first innings to help a depleted team take a 137-run first innings lead and prevent India from squaring the series. He was Australia's leading scorer in the Tests, with 376 runs at 62.66. He also made his highest first-class score of 284, against an Indian President's XI in Ahmedabad. He was the top scorer for the whole subcontinental Test tour, with 594 runs in eight matches at 66.00.

He returned to Australia and played in one match for New South Wales at the end of the 1959–60 season, scoring 175 as his state defeated Western Australia and won a seventh Shield in a row. Prior to the following Australian summer, O'Neill was part of an International Cavaliers team that toured South Africa. He scored 133 runs at 21.83.

In the lead-up to the 1960–61 home Tests series against the West Indies, O'Neill scored 156 not to set up an innings win for his state over the tourists. He then struck 181 in the first innings of the opening match at Brisbane, his highest Test score. The innings prompted teammate Bob Simpson to say "if God gave me an hour to watch someone I'd seen, I'd request to see Norman O'Neill. He had the style." Australia took a first innings lead and O'Neill made 26 in the second innings as Australia collapsed towards a likely defeat before recovering; the match ended in the first Tied Test in history. This was the peak of O'Neill's career. Having played 14 Tests, he was averaging 67.68 with the bat.

He then struck 114 as his state defeated the tourists by an innings, and he made 40 and a duck as the Australians took the series lead in the Second Test. He made 70 and 71 in the Third Test loss in Sydney, one of the few players able to combat Lance Gibbs effectively, top-scoring in the first innings and second top-scoring in the second innings. He then made 65 in the second innings in the Fourth Test at Adelaide, where Australia held on by one wicket for a draw. He contributed 48 in the second innings of the Fifth Test as Australia appeared headed for a series victory. However, a late collapse ensued, and Australia scraped home by two wickets to take the series 2–1. O'Neill ended the series with 522 runs at 52.20. O'Neill gained attention during the summer for frequently losing his wicket by impulsively sweeping. This was attributed to the dominance of his bottom hand, which saw his bat swinging across the line of flight of the ball. Despite the criticism, he was at the peak of his international career, having made 1398 runs at 58.35 in his first 18 Tests.

Wisden Cricketer of the Year
O'Neill was selected for the tour of England in 1961, and he warmed up by scoring centuries in consecutive matches against Tasmania for the Australian squad. During the English summer, O'Neill scored 1981 runs at 60.03, narrowly missing becoming only the fourth post-war player after Don Bradman, Neil Harvey and Bill Lawry to make 2,000 runs in an Ashes tour.

In the third match against Yorkshire, which was O'Neill's second for the tour, he scored an unbeaten 100 marked by his cover driving. He followed this with a 74 against Lancashire before a 124 two matches later against Glamorgan, which was described by Wisden as the best of the season. He scored 73 against Gloucestershire and made 122 on his first appearance at Lord's, against the Marylebone Cricket Club, in what was effectively a dress rehearsal for the Tests. Australia went on to win by 63 runs. In the next match against Sussex, O'Neill was carried from the ground after suffering a knee injury, and after failing to bat in either innings, it appeared he would be sidelined for a substantial period.

However, he recovered to be selected for the First Test at Edgbaston, just five days later. He made 82 as Australia scored 9/516 declared and took a 321-run first innings lead, but England could not be dismissed in the second innings and salvaged a draw. He continued his form with an unbeaten 104 against Kent between the Tests.

The "Battle of the Ridge" in the Second Test at Lord's—the home of cricket—was an unhappy one for O'Neill. On an erratic pitch with a visible ridge that caused uneven bounce, O'Neill made one and a duck as an Australia scraped home by five wickets in a low-scoring match.

He returned to the county matches and scored 162 against Lancashire, before scoring 27 and 19 as England squared the series in the Third Test at Headingley. O'Neill then scored 142 against Northamptonshire, but the hosts were able to tie the scores when stumps were drawn with four wickets in hand.

After rectifying a technical fault, O'Neill made 67 in the second innings of the Fourth Test at Old Trafford with the series tied at 1–1, helping Australia take a narrow victory to retain the Ashes. Heading into the final Test, O'Neill had a consistent run, scoring three fifties in four innings. He made his first century against England in the Fifth Test at The Oval with 117 as Australia drew the match to take the series. He did so after being given a "lucky coin" by a spectator and being dropped at second slip when he was on 19. He scored 324 runs at 40.50 in the Tests and was subsequently named as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year for 1962. Following the Tests, O'Neill added four half-centuries in five innings in a consistent run towards the close of the tour. He left English soil with 138 against Minor Counties, in a non-first-class match. In all first-class matches, he made seven centuries, and his run aggregate was second only to Lawry, who made 2,019 runs.

International decline

After this tour, his form began to decline, as he became prone to uncertain and fidgety starts to his innings, which earned him the nickname "Nervous Norm". A persistent knee injury increasingly troubled him and was to end his career. The 1961–62 Australian team was purely domestic with no touring Test team, and New South Wales completed their ninth Sheffield Shield title in a row, O'Neill had a poor season, scoring only 377 runs at 25.13, passing fifty only twice.

The 1962–63 home Ashes series was Australia's first Test matches in 18 months. After an unproductive season last year, O'Neill started the new summer with 15 and 2/30 for a Western Australia Combined XI against Ted Dexter's Englishmen. His victims with the ball were Dexter and batsman Tom Graveney. He then made his first century in over a year, scoring 131 against Western Australia for his state. O'Neill completed his preparation for the Tests by helping New South Wales to defeat Dexter's men by an innings. He scored 143 and took 2/36, removing Graveney and leading batsman Colin Cowdrey.

O'Neill made 56 in the First Test drawn at Brisbane but failed to pass 20 in the next two matches, which were shared by the two teams. After his wife made him a pair of "lucky lemon socks", he scored 100 in the first innings of the drawn Fourth Test in Adelaide, which turned out to be his last Test century with fifteen Tests before the end of his career. With Alan Davidson injured during the match, O'Neill was required to bowl substantially, conceding 49 runs in what was his most expensive performance to date. He scored 73 in the Fifth Test in Sydney to finish the series with 310 runs at 34.44, substantially below his career average of 53.8 prior to the series. He also took two wickets, one in each of the Third and Fifth Tests, removing Fred Titmus and Dexter respectively. Outside the Tests, O'Neill struggled and passed 25 once in eight other non-Test innings. This was a 93 against arch-rivals Victoria, which was not enough to prevent defeat. Victoria went on to win the Sheffield Shield and end New South Wales' nine-year winning streak.

At the end of the season, he embarked on a tour with the International Cavaliers, which toured Africa, mostly playing against provincial teams. He played in seven matches and had a productive series, scoring 541 runs at 41.54 including a century and four fifties. He also bowled more frequently than usual taking seven wickets at 53.29.

The following season in 1963–64, O'Neill started poorly, passing 12 only once in his first six innings. However, he was retained for the team for the First Test against South Africa in Brisbane, where he scored 82 and 19 not out in a drawn match. He continued his resurgence with 36 and 61 not out the following fixture against Victoria, but was injured during the second innings and forced to retire hurt. This meant that he missed the Second Test, which Australia won by eight wickets. O'Neill returned and scored half centuries in each of the next two Tests. He also took two wickets to end the series with 285 runs at 40.71 and three wickets at 32.33. He added a further two half-centuries in the remaining Shield matches.

O'Neill retained his place for the 1964 tour to England, and scored a century against Western Australia for the touring squad before departing for the northern hemisphere. After failing to pass 16 in his first two outings, he struck form against Glamorgan, scoring 65 and an unbeaten 109. He then added 151 and 17 not out, leading the way as the Australians defeated the MCC by nine wickets in a dress rehearsal for the Tests. However, O'Neill scored 98 in the first four innings of the opening two Tests and was forced out of the Third Test with a knee injury, the only non-draw of the series, which Australia won. Nevertheless, he passed 50 in each of the four tour matches during this period, including a 134 against Yorkshire and 90 against Northamptonshire.

O'Neill returned for the final two Tests and ended the series with only 156 runs at 31.20 in five Tests without passing fifty and going wicketless. He added another century against Kent and two further fifties in the closing stages of the English summer.

His 1964–65 tour of the subcontinent on the way back to Australia was even worse, a far cry from his leading role in the previous tour to the subcontinent. After making 40 and 0 in the First Test win in Madras, he was unable to bat either innings in the Second Test in Bombay after being hospitalised due to persistent vomiting, injury as Australia ceded their series lead. He missed the remainder of the series, the Third Test in Calcutta and a one-off Test in Pakistan. Upon his return home, he has a shortened domestic season before Australia left for the West Indies. In five domestic matches, he scored 357 runs at 59.50, including a 133 not against South Australia.

O'Neill started the 1964–65 tour of the West Indies strongly, scoring a century in the first match against Jamaica. He was often injured during the tour, but was at his most productive with the bat since the last series against the Caribbean team four years earlier. He made many starts, passing 20 in six of his seven Test innings, but was unable to convert them into big scores. In the First Test, O'Neill was struck on the hand by Wes Hall and was sent to hospital for X-rays after a break was suspected. During the Second Test, it was the turn of Charlie Griffith to send O'Neill to hospital, after hitting him on the forearm and causing a large bruise. His 51 and 74* in the Fourth Test at Bridgetown, Barbados, the last Test of his career, was the only time he passed 50 for the series. He ended with 266 runs at 44.33, missing the Fifth Test due to a broken hand. He managed a healthy return with the ball, taking nine of his 17 Test wickets in the series with an average of 25.55. This included his Test best of 4/41 with his leg-spin in the Second Test in Port of Spain, Trinidad. In this match, he cleaned up the hosts' tail in the first innings, removing Jackie Hendriks, Wes Hall, Charlie Griffith and Lance Gibbs.

At the end of the tour, O'Neill garnered controversy by writing outspoken newspaper columns accusing opposition pace spearhead Charlie Griffith of chucking. He was one of several Australians who took exception to Griffith's bowling action, and he put his name to a series of feature articles in Sydney's Daily Mirror. These labelled Griffith as "an obvious chucker", saying the hosts had been "wrong to play" him. O'Neill stated that "If he is allowed to continue throwing, he could kill someone". O'Neill also expressed his desire to not have to face bowling that he deemed to be illegal. When the Daily Mirror syndicated the columns, London's Daily Mail ignored an embargo and printed the pieces while the Australians were on their homeward flight, putting O'Neill in breach of his tour contract, which forbade players from commenting in the media during tours.

The West Indies lodged an official complaint with Australia, and the Australian Cricket Board replied that it deplored the published comments, although noting that as O'Neill's touring contract had expired at the end of the tour, the point was moot. Nevertheless, the ACB changed its stance on players' writing, so that they could no longer comment on a tour until three months after its conclusion. The event is often perceived to have been a factor in O'Neill's eventual departure from the national scene.

Outside the Tests, O'Neill performed strongly in three matches against regional teams, scoring centuries in each of them. He scored 125, 125, and 101 in his only three innings, against Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados.

Retirement

The following season, O'Neill was overlooked for selection in all five Tests against the touring England team. Returning to New South Wales, he scored 473 runs at 39.42, including two centuries.

O'Neill was omitted from the squad that toured South Africa in 1966–67, ending his Test career. He continued his Shield career while his former teammates were on the other side of the Indian Ocean, compiling 741 runs at 74.10 in a strong season. He started the season with 117 against Western Australia, before scoring a pair of 78s in the return match, helping his team to a tense 13-run win. He then scored 128 and 22 not out against Victoria and finished his season with 160 and 80 against South Australia, scoring a majority of his team's first innings score.

As a result, he was selected for an Australian Second XI to tour New Zealand. He scored 69 runs at 17.25 in two international matches and made his last first-class century, scoring 101 and 58 not out against Auckland.

O'Neill retired upon his return to Australia due to a knee injury. He left a reputation as a highly entertaining batsman who did not manage to fulfil his early promise. "A disappointment he was, perhaps, but his cricket will be recalled when those of lesser gifts are forgotten", opined the writer EW Swanton.

In 61 matches for New South Wales, he scored 5419 runs at 52.61. He compiled 3879 runs at 61.57 for St George in grade competition before transferring to Sutherland in the 1965–66 club. He scored 168 on his new club's first day in the competition.

A cigarette salesman by trade, he became a commentator in retirement. He married Gwen Wallace, a track and field athlete who won relay gold for Australia at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games. They had two sons and a daughter. Their eldest child Mark O'Neill represented New South Wales and Western Australia in the 1980s. O'Neill also co-owned a racehorse with Richie Benaud, Barry Jarman and Ray Steele, named Pall Mallan, and it won a race in 1961.

On 3 March 2008, O'Neill died in Erina, New South Wales, due to the effects of throat cancer. He was 71.

Style

Standing six feet tall, O'Neill was compared to Don Bradman upon his entry into Test cricket. At his best, he was a dynamic stroke maker who was a crowd favourite because of his ability to score at a high pace, in particular with his power off the back foot. He was noted for his nimble footwork, which he used to negate spin bowling; however, this slowed in his later career as he put on weight. O'Neill particularly liked to sweep the slower bowlers. He often put too much emphasis on his right hand, allowing a large space between his hands on the bat handle, and then turning his right shoulder too square towards the bowler. The renowned English batsman and captain Wally Hammond said that O'Neill was the best all-round batsman he had seen since World War II. O'Neill's tall build, strength and good looks also drew comparison to his boyhood idol Keith Miller. Despite the comparisons to Bradman, O'Neill was much taller and broader, and was often impetuous whereas Bradman was known for his patience and lack of rashness. O'Neill was also criticised for hitting across the line early in his innings.

O'Neill was highly regarded for his style and entertainment values. Teammate Alan Davidson said "once set he was the most exhilarating player you'd ever want to see—he was dynamite. He'd play attacking shots off balls other people would only think of defending. He had wonderful skill and technique. His shots off the back foot down the ground off fast bowlers—you can't really describe how good they were." His captain for Australia and New South Wales, Richie Benaud said that he was "one of the greatest entertainers we've had in Australian cricket". O'Neill's style led the British writer EW Swanton to say "the art of batting, he reminded us, was not dead, merely inexplicably dormant". Wisden opined that "A high innings by O'Neill is a thing of masterful beauty. His stroking is delectable, immense in its power."

Later in his career, O'Neill became a nervous and superstitious batsman, particular at the start of an innings. He wrote "batting is a lonely business" in his 1964 autobiography Ins and Outs, opining that he sometimes found first-class cricket to be "depressing and lonely".

He was regarded as an excellent fieldsman at cover, with a powerful and accurate throw, described by Wisden as a "dream throw" honed from a junior career as a baseballer. He was named as utility player in the 1957 All Australian baseball team, and his ability was such that he was approached by Major League Baseball scouts. Before the retirement of Neil Harvey, he and O'Neill fielded in tandem in the covers and the pair were regarded as the finest fielding combination of the time.

Test match performance

References

Notes

External links

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2008 deaths
Australia Test cricketers
Australian baseball players
Australian Cricket Hall of Fame inductees
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Sportsmen from New South Wales

Norm O'Neill


The X class are a class of mainline diesel locomotives built by Clyde Engineering, Granville and Rosewater for the Victorian Railways between 1966 and 1976.

History

In preparation for the opening of the standard gauge line between Melbourne and Albury, the Victorian Railways had purchased a further eight S class locomotives, with the last of these entering service in 1961. But from that date traffic had increased, with a 20% increase in train miles being run by the end of the financial year by the middle of 1965, so the fleet was being stretched beyond reasonable capabilities.

Standard gauge trains at the time were typically rostered for a single S class locomotive, which could deliver approximately 1,800 hp. When one wasn't available, two T class locomotives (each delivering approximately 950 hp) could be and were used in lieu. This strategy could not, however, be a long-term solution as the T class had been designed for branch-line work and were restricted to 60 mph (96.6 km/h) rather than the 70 mph (112.6 km/h) top-speed of the S class, and the two T class units weighed roughly 24 tonnes (26.5 short tons) more than the single S unit - both major detriments to efficiency. On 23 July 1965, the Chief Mechanical Engineer, Mr Galletly, wrote that there was a need for an additional six 1,800 hp engines, which would allow the T class to be shifted back to their originally-intended duties. The plan at the time was to allocate two of the new engines to Standard Gauge operations, and the other four to Broad Gauge.

Tenders for contract 62902 were closed on 1 September 1965, with reviews completed nine days later. Three offers had been received; from English Electric, Goninan and Clyde Engineering. Clyde's proposal was viewed most favourably by the VR, as they offered the fastest delivery timeframe and a lower total cost of ownership by designing the new units to share many components not only with the S class but also (though to a lesser extent) the B class, both of which had also been designed and built by Clyde.

First Series - X31 to X36
Clyde's draft design was in general terms for an extended version of a fourth-order "low-nose" T class body (deliveries of which had commenced in early 1964), but based on the mechanical platform of the S class. After the tender had been won, three revisions were made (the major changes being the placement of the battery box) before the final design was approved as general arrangement drawing 2409983C.

As had been specified in the original tender documents, and despite external appearances, the driver's cabin was configured with a single set of controls positioned facing the long end of the hood (which was referred to as the Number 1 end). Driving with the Number 2 (short) end leading would technically be possible, though strongly discouraged as the driver would be sitting on the opposite side of the cabin to that expected by the positioning of trackside signals and signage while also having his back to the brake controls and speedometer.

The first batch of six were built in 1966 by Clyde at Granville in New South Wales with the model designation G16C and using GM EMD 16-567E engines, which would produce 1,810 hp for traction. The choice of the hood-style body made inspection and maintenance access to the engine and many of the other power-train components much easier compared to "streamline" units like the B and S classes, which could be inspected from within the body but required almost-complete disassembly to remove or exchange larger parts. After assembly and initial testing, each unit ran at least one trial trip on the Main North line to Broadmeadow, near Newcastle, before being marshalled into freight trains for delivery to and hand-over at Albury. All six units entered service by the end of 1966.

In keeping with the original plan, four of the six were to be converted to broad gauge operation on a rotating basis. Locomotive X31, however, was continually affected by a manufacturing issue with its pneumatically-operated Automatic Staff Exchanging equipment (which was of a new design) and so was excluded from the conversion rotation until the problem was finally resolved in the mid-1980s at Newport Workshops - though by this time the use of automatic-exchange equipment in Victoria was rapidly declining.

Otherwise, they hauled passenger and freight services throughout Victoria. On the broad gauge, they operated with the ten broad gauge S Class locomotives, with typical assignments being freight service to Adelaide, and associated passenger workings like The Overland and The Vinelander. However, it was rare for them to venture out to Gippsland until the late 1970s, and the Bendigo line was near-exclusively run with B class locomotives for sake of operational simplicity.

X33 was involved in a very serious head-on collision near Broadford loop only a few months after delivery, on 5 January 1967. It returned to Sydney for rebuilding by Clyde Engineering. However, X35 suffered much further when it fell off a bridge near Glenorchy in 1971, following a high-speed crash with a loaded gravel truck. The frame was permanently warped, making it "almost impossible" to properly align the engine and generator units. Not much later it was involved in a side-swipe that gouged a side of the body.

Second Series - X37 to X44
Only a few years after the delivery of X36, a further traffic increase meant additional engines were needed. Clyde Engineering was the only company to submit a tender for the contract (63420) by the closing date of 30 April 1969.

The tender was essentially for an upgraded version of the X Class, this time with at least 2,000 hp and, for the first time, crew comfort was taken into consideration with a maximum noise specification applied to the new design. The new engines were priced at a little under $300,000.

Shortly before the contract closed, two of the S class fleet were destroyed in the Violet Town rail accident. Victorian Railways spoke to Clyde about rebuilding those two engines from scratch, and the cost for rebuilding each would have been around $377,000 each - considerably more than the new order for X engines. So the contract for six additional engines was extended to eight instead. Paperwork shows X37 and X38 as rebuilds, but this was only for accounting purposes and no recycled components were included in those or other engines when first delivered.

The final production engine was fitted with the newly developed EMD 16-645E engine in place of the 16-567 (same shell but with larger pistons and other components), called the G26C design and rated at 2,200 hp. Externally the engines were similar to their predecessors but the larger engine spun at a higher rate (900 rpm versus the original 835 rpm), so larger radiator grilles were provided for heat dissipation. However, the radiator elements themselves were identical to the first order. The eight new engines were delivered across 1969–1970, and as before, the class was built in Clyde, tested around Sydney then delivered to Melbourne. On 14 August 2017 Seymour Railway Heritage Centre acquired class leader X31, link to article X37 for preservation purposes.

Third Series - X45 to X54
A third tender closed on 20 February 1974, for an additional eight or ten locomotives, this time rated for 2,200 hp. The specifications were similar to the as-delivered X37-X44, but with upgraded braking equipment. The reasoning for the order was that, as well as traffic increases (now up to 13.5 million train miles per year), the earlier diesel-electric locomotives were coming due for major overhauls, with no spare motive power to fill the gaps in the rosters (with all steam long-since gone).

Two offers were received for contract 64002 - one from Comeng, offering the standard ALCO locomotive constructed in with the engine block imported from the US, and Clyde Engineering offered more-or-less a repeat of the previous order for X locomotives, but this time constructed at the then-under-construction Rosewater, South Australia plant. The offers were designed for an order of either eight or ten locomotives.

Aside from the standard purchase order, the tendering companies were requested to offer alternative payment plans, including the rather novel option of leasing the locomotives for 25 years from the manufacturer, rather than outright purchase. This and other options ended up being more expensive than the traditional model (with payments during construction).

ALCO's offer totalled about $3.75 million against Clyde's $3.95 million, but this offer was rejected on grounds of much higher maintenance and running costs (based on NSW and SA experiences with ALCO engines), expecting between double and triple the cost per locomotive mile, as well as the need to purchase a separate set of spares for a new ALCO fleet at around $400,000.

The final agreement with Clyde was made out at a little under $4 million for ten locomotives, plus another $50,000 for spare parts.

During the contract negotiation stage, the VR was pushed by the AFULE to develop a new locomotive cab design intended only for single-end running; attempts to fit the previous X order with bidirectional running proved to be failures on account of driver discomfort. The new cab design allowed only for short-end-leading operation on the mainline, and to improve visibility the short-end nose was cut down to an angled profile similar to the last orders of the T class locomotive. Additionally, the engines were fitted with the upgraded AR10 alternator.

The ten new engines were delivered through 1975 on the broad gauge via the Main Western line. When the first, X45, arrived in Melbourne, it was named Edgar H Brownbill.

This series of engines were normally used on the interstate runs, where multiple engines were required so back-to-back formations overcame the single-end handicaps. In addition, about half the class spent extended periods on standard gauge, and they were the first Victorian Railways class of engine allowed to run in revenue service from Albury to Sydney from December 1982.

Modifications to the class
Following the 1969 Violet Town rail accident, the class were fitted with vigilance control systems. These engines could be identified by dimples on the cab roof. Around the same time the engine exhaust arrangement was modified. In the early 1980s they began working interstate to Adelaide and Sydney. Engines involved with interstate traffic were fitted with radios, and these engines had their builders plates removed and the cabside space utilised for "radio equipped" stickers.

By 20 July 1988, engines 33, 36-37, 39, 44, 46, 48-49 and 51-54 had all been fitted with cab air conditioning.

V/Line era
The class was gradually repainted from 1983 as the V/Line logo and colour scheme was introduced. During the following decade, air-conditioning units for the driver cabins were added to some engines, above the long-end nose and next to the cab end.

In August 1994 X35 was withdrawn following a major engine failure, and stored at South Dynon Locomotive Depot. In 1995 V/Line was split into two entities, V/Line Passenger and V/line Freight, with the freight side of the business taking the entire X fleet.

V/Line Freight, Freight Victoria, Freight Australia
V/Line Freight operated rather smoothly from 1995 to May 1999 when the entire business was sold off to a private entity, Freight Victoria. By this stage, only engines 33, 34, 36, 38, 43, 45 and 49 had been repainted in the V/Line Freight colour scheme (a slight modification on the previous V/line design), so X47 became the first to wear the green and yellow Freight Victoria colours in that month. Within a year, the business had been renamed Freight Australia, and the logos on engines were modified to reflect this.

X35 was purchased by the Seymour Railway Heritage Centre in 1998 for preservation, but transferred back to Freight Australia a few years later, for rebuilding as XR551. The condition of the transfer was that when X31 was to be retired, it would pass to Seymour for preservation.

Between 1997 and 1999, engines X47 and X49 had their short-end hoods rebuilt to allow for driver-only operation. The most noticeable difference is the wider windscreen windows.

Between 2001 and 2005, Freight Australia rebuilt six locomotives, fitting them with refurbished engines from G class locomotives, enlarged radiators, and modified cabs. These locomotives have subsequently been renumbered as the XR class.

Pacific National era
In 2004, Freight Australia was sold to Pacific National. All but two of the X fleet passed to Pacific National with the business in August 2004, these going to CRT Group and in June 2005 to QR National.

X36 had been planned for conversion to XR556, but this was cancelled when it was realised that the XR program wasn't much cheaper than simply buying new engines (the same as the B-to-A program in the mid-1980s). As a result, this and the remaining 1st- and 2nd-series X fleet saw reduced use and many class members were stored at Dynon.

Mid-2008 saw a number of 3rd-series engines transferred to New South Wales for grain traffic. X36 went along as well, and was normally based at Parkes and used as a trailing unit on the Manildra Group grain shuttle trains serving Manildra Mill (often between two 48 Class). It was scrapped in May 2015.

X31 was finally withdrawn from revenue services in 2009, and per the agreement laid out earlier, in January 2010, X31 was transferred to the Seymour Railway Heritage Centre. It has been returned to service and been hired to El Zorro and subsequently Qube. The class are now employed hauling freight services in New South Wales and Victoria.

In 2015, X45, X46 and X52 were sold to Ettamogah Rail Hub and X47 and X51 to SCT Logistics.

Status table

First Order

Second Order

Third Order

See also
Victorian XR class (diesel)
Victorian XRB class (diesel)

References

External links
 Railpage - X37 transferred to Seymour Railway Heritage Centre for Preservation

Clyde Engineering locomotives
Co-Co locomotives
Pacific National diesel locomotives
Railway locomotives introduced in 1966
X class
Standard gauge locomotives of Australia
Broad gauge locomotives in Australia
Diesel-electric locomotives of Australia

Victorian Railways X class (diesel)


Brian Reade is a journalist and author who writes a weekly opinion column for the Daily Mirror. He was born in Wavertree and grew up in Huyton.

He began his journalism career working on the Reading Evening Post in 1980 and became a columnist on the Liverpool Echo in 1990 before moving to the Mirror in 1994.

In 2001 he was named Columnist of the Year at the British Press Awards and was Highly Commended in the same category in 2014. In 2004 he won Sports Columnist of the Year and in 2013 he was awarded the Cudlipp Award for Journalistic Excellence after two decades campaigning for justice for the Hillsborough families. In 2018 The Press Awards named Reade Feature Writer of The Year.

In the aftermath of the 2004 US election in which George W Bush was re-elected for a further term, he penned a damning indictment of Bush and the US electorate, God Help America.

In 2007, a column in the Daily Mirror by Reade which likened Lord Green and his organisation MigrationWatch UK to the Ku Klux Klan and the Nazi Party led to Green successfully suing for costs and damages.

In 2008, he became a presenter on radio station City Talk 105.9 and released his first book, entitled 43 Years with the Same Bird, documenting his life spent following Liverpool F.C.

In 2011, he released a book investigating corruption in football, An Epic Swindle, which made The Sunday Times best-seller list. In 2021 Reade wrote a third book Diamonds In The Mud about working-class heroes, with all the proceeds going to The Casa social justice hub in Liverpool.

Notes

Living people
British male journalists
Journalists from Liverpool
1957 births
British republicans

Brian Reade


Jerry Angelo Brooks (born December 16, 1965), commonly known by his stage name J. B. Smoove, is an American actor, comedian and writer.  After beginning his career in 1995 on Def Comedy Jam, he was a writer and performer on NBC's Saturday Night Live (2003–06). He is best known for his starring roles on HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm (2007–present) and the CBS sitcom The Millers (2013–15). He also portrayed a fictionalized version of himself on the BET improv-comedy reality television parody Real Husbands of Hollywood (2013–16).

Early life
Smoove was born in Plymouth, North Carolina, to parents Elizabeth and Floyd Brooks. From the time he was three years old, he grew up in Mount Vernon, New York. He spent a significant amount of time with his mother and extended maternal family in the Plymouth area, which he has said inspired much of his pursuit of comedy and comedy style. In Mount Vernon, he grew up in the Levister Towers housing projects with his two younger brothers. Smoove's father died from diabetes when Smoove was 15 years old.

In 1983, Smoove graduated from Mount Vernon High School. He attended Norfolk State University in Virginia, studying engineering and graphic design.

Smoove worked as a perfume formulator and sold fire extinguishers door-to-door.

Career

Smoove has had recurring roles on Everybody Hates Chris and Saturday Night Live. On SNL, he worked as a writer (and had bit roles in sketches, including playing Jimmy "JJ" Walker in a parody of the 1970s sitcom Good Times) and was a recipient of the 2007 Writers Guild of America award for Best Comedy/Variety Series (Including Talk). He was on Saturday Night Live for three years.

Smoove has been a regular cast member on the HBO comedy Curb Your Enthusiasm since its sixth season in 2007, playing Leon Black. Smoove got the role of Leon on Curb Your Enthusiasm after his stint on SNL. Although he was at that time based on the East Coast, he was in Los Angeles for his friend, music producer Oji Pierce's funeral, so was able to audition for Curb Your Enthusiasm.  Smoove wrote a book as his Curb Your Enthusiasm character, Leon, which was released on October 10, 2017.

He had a major role for seasons two and three on the FOX network sitcom 'Til Death with Brad Garrett and Joely Fisher. In June 2008, he taped several episodes of The Gong Show with Dave Attell as one of the celebrity judges. Smoove was also a cast member on the short-lived sketch comedy program Cedric the Entertainer Presents. He hosted the standup comedy series Russell Simmons Presents: Stand-Up at The El Rey on Comedy Central in July 2010 and also appeared on an episode of The Simpsons titled "Angry Dad: The Movie" in February 2011. Also in 2011, he starred in the American Dad! episode "The Worst Stan" and appeared in an episode of Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil called "Dude, Where's My Wade".

In 2012, his first televised comedy special, JB Smoove: That's How I Dooz It, premiered on Comedy Central. The DVD of the special was released April 3, 2012. In 2013, Smoove voiced Hackus in The Smurfs 2. Smoove appeared in Movie 43 in the segment "The Proposition" alongside Anna Faris and Chris Pratt. He was the substitute co-host of the New York City morning talk show Good Day New York with Rosanna Scotto on April 9, 2012. He had a cameo as a grave digger in the episode of Louie entitled "Barney/Never". He also played a supporting role in Season 4, Episode 7 "The Vapora Sport" in the American sitcom The League on FX.  He plays Wheelchair Guy, with whom the main characters have recurring comedic run-ins. He plays one of the "Replacers" for Call of Duty: Black Ops II. He was in the show Real Husbands of Hollywood, where he played a fictionalized version of himself.

Smoove hosts a talk show on the MSG Network called Four Courses With JB Smoove. He provides the voice of Dr. Ray De Angelo Harris, host of the Chakra Attack radio show in the video game Grand Theft Auto V. Smoove appeared in the 2013 film Dealin' with Idiots as Coach Ted. In 2013, he became a regular cast member of the CBS comedy The Millers, playing the character Ray.

In the summer of 2014, Smoove hosted the eighth season of the NBC reality series Last Comic Standing.

In July 2016, Smoove appeared on comedian Jerry Seinfeld's web series, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.

In 2017, Smoove played Santa in Sia's music video, "Santa's Coming for Us".

In 2019, Smoove attended the final dinner service of  Hell's Kitchen'''s eighteenth season Hell's Kitchen: Rookies vs. Veterans as a chef's table guest in the blue kitchen that was run by runner-up Mia Castro. He appeared as a guest judge on the first season of the FOX reality singing competition The Masked Singer. He also voiced Frank in Harley Quinn beginning in 2019, as well as playing Julius Dell in the Marvel Studios film Spider-Man: Far From Home and its 2021 sequel Spider-Man: No Way Home.

In 2020, Smoove starred in Mapleworth Murders opposite Paula Pell and John Lutz for Quibi.  Smoove won the 2021 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Actor in a Short Form Comedy or Drama Series for his role.

In April 2021, Smoove, alongside his cohost Miles Grose, created May I Elaborate? Daily Wisdom from JB Smoove, a podcast on the Team Coco podcast network. Beginning in the fall of 2021, Smoove had a recurring role as the titular Caesar in multiple commercials for the Caesars Sportsbook mobile app, appearing alongside Patton Oswalt, Halle Berry, Vince Vaughn, and the Manning family.

 Volunteering
Smoove serves on the board of directors of the Boys & Girls Club of Mount Vernon. On November 7, 2017, he emceed the Boys and Girls Clubs Future Leaders Gala at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, CA.

 Personal life
In 2007, Smoove married singer Shahidah Omar. They live together in Los Angeles. He has an adult daughter from a previous relationship. He shortened his name, Jerry Brooks, to "J. B." and added "Smoove" as his last name when he began performing stand-up comedy. He is a fan of the New York Knicks, New York Yankees and the New York Jets.

In 2019, Smoove played for the "Home" roster during the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game at the Bojangles' Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina. The roster was made up of celebrities with Carolina roots.

He has been vegan since 2018.

 Comedy specials

 JB Smoove: That's How I Dooz It'' (2012)

Filmography

Films

Television

Video games

References

External links

May I Elaborate? Daily Wisdom from JB Smoove – podcast

1965 births
Living people
Actors from Mount Vernon, New York
African-American male actors
African-American stand-up comedians
American male film actors
American male television actors
American male television writers
American male voice actors
American stand-up comedians
American television writers
Comedians from New York (state)
Male actors from New York (state)
Male actors from North Carolina
MSG Network people
Norfolk State University alumni
People from Plymouth, North Carolina
Screenwriters from New York (state)
Screenwriters from North Carolina
Writers from Mount Vernon, New York
20th-century American comedians
21st-century American comedians
20th-century American male actors
21st-century American male actors
20th-century African-American people
21st-century African-American people
Mount Vernon High School (New York) alumni

J. B. Smoove


Delgadillo's Snow Cap Drive-In is a historic small restaurant and roadside attraction along a part of what used to be Route 66 in Seligman, Arizona USA. The drive-in was built in 1953 by a man who lived in the town, Juan Delgadillo (May 17, 1916 - June 2, 2004).  Delgadillo had very little money, so he built the restaurant mostly from scrap lumber he found at the nearby Santa Fe Railroad yard.

Delgadillo thought of a fun way to bring attention to his new restaurant.  He cut the roof off of a 1936 Chevrolet, put paint, horns and emblems from other cars all over it and placed an artificial Christmas tree in the rear of the car.

Delgadillo's had a sense of humor which could be seen both on his car and on his menu.  That menu still has such choices as a "cheeseburger with cheese" and "dead chicken."  "Juan's Garden" at the rear of the restaurant is just as funny.  That is the place Mr. Delgadillo kept his collection of old cars and other strange things.    Even the building itself has strange and funny things written on it. Hand-painted signs in the parking area warn drivers that they are "parking at their own risk."  A neon sign in the window tells people, "Sorry, we're open."  The door which leads inside has two knobs, one on the right and one on the left.  The knob on the right is fake; the one on the left opens the door.  Delgadillo would have fun with his customers by asking, for example, if they wanted cheese on their cheeseburgers.

While learning about the history of Route 66 for the 2006 Disney/Pixar motion picture Cars, John Lasseter met Delgadillo's brother, Seligman barber and Route 66 expert, Angel Delgadillo, who told him how traffic through the town almost completely went away on the day that nearby Interstate 40 opened.

Since Delgadillo's death in 2004, the Snow Cap has been run by his sons John-Michael and Robert.  They both work the counter and play with the customers like their father did.  The walls around the counter area itself are covered with business cards from all over the world.

Author Michael Wallis covers the history of the Snow Cap in his book, Route 66:  The Mother Road.

Gallery

References

Buildings and structures in Arizona
American fast food restaurants
1953 establishments in the United States
20th-century establishments in Arizona

Delgadillo's Snow Cap Drive-In


Slides or sliders are a type of light footwear that are characterized by having a loose heel that holds on to the foot from the front. Like flip-flops, they are typically employed in casual situations, in addition to being a unisex footgear worn by both sexes. Sliders are distinguished from flip-flops by their vamp strap which does not separate the big toe from the rest of the toes.

Description
Slides can be high-heeled, flat-heeled or somewhere in between, and may cover nearly the entire foot from ankle to toe, or may have only one or two narrow straps. They usually include a single strap or a sequence of straps across the toes and the lower half of the foot to hold the shoe on the foot. The term is descriptive in that this shoe is easy to 'slide' on and off the foot when the wearer wants to do so. Slides do not have a "Y" shaped strap, like the flip-flop. They generally consist of a sole and a simple upper strap, the latter having the purpose of keeping them attached to the foot. Their uppers can be smooth and continuous or have fasteners, such as buckles or Velcro. Unlike slippers and mules, which are closed at the front, slide shoes are never closed at the front, they leave the toes visible and in the open air.

They can be made with any type of material, from leather to fabric, through natural fibers to synthetic materials. They are mainly used at the beach or at the swimming pool. Slides are still designed to be light and comfortable, and to make the foot breathe easier when it's hot, just like flip flops.

Health
Slippers can cause damage to the feet if they are made of sponges or materials on which sufficient checks have not been carried out, particularly if the wearer is allergic to certain types of fabrics. Some studies show that frequent use seems to be the cause of a wide range of injuries and illnesses, such as cracks or fissures in the heels, plantar fasciitis, muscle inflammation or low back pain. This happens because most people tend to tighten their toes to maintain better support and the pressure of the toes adds stress to the ankle area and the entire foot in general.

History
Slides can be traced back to Ancient Rome. They are often thought to come from as far back as Ancient Egypt or Ancient Greece, but there is a lack of documentation to further prove that. The popularity of slides in the United States started in the late 1960s, when vibrant, colorful aesthetics, such as cheery flower motifs, were followed. Across the world in Germany the brand Birkenstock created the first fitness slide, a simple design made from contoured cork with a single buckled leather strap. Another German company, Adidas invented the well-known Adilette pool slide.

Use
In Latino, South Asian, and West Asian cultures, flip flops and slides are commonly used as corporal punishment by parents for disobedience or bad behavior, especially when there is recurrence (see also slippering). Techniques include the parent throwing the slide at their children as a missile or projectile modality.

Flip-flops are also widely used as a flyswatter because they are objects that are hard enough, flat and close at hand to be worn on the feet, and because of their flexibility they allow for striking blows to quickly kill insects without losing sight of them.

Fashion
High fashion designers such as Prada, Nike, Gucci, Burberry, Walk London and Marc Jacobs have included them in their collection.  The different designs and ideas that come from the designers are expansive. Crafting slides from premium grade leathers and suedes, feathers to using floral patterns, faux fur lining and regal pearls being attached or used as the main design behind slides. Nike Benassi JDI is a popular slide shoe for men and women.

Gallery

See also
 Hnyat-phanat (Burmese)
 Sandal
 Slipper
 Flip-flops

References

Sandals
1960s fashion
2000s fashion
2010s fashion
2020s fashion
Australian fashion
Australian clothing
Shoes

Slide (footwear)


The Evangelical Reformed Churches in Brazil (in Portuguese the Igrejas Evangélicas Reformadas no Brasil) is a Reformed church in the country of Brazil, a member of the World Communion of Reformed Churches.

Origin
In 1911 the first Dutch immigrants came to Brazil. Under the leadership of Leendert Verschor and Jacob C Voorsluys. A church was established in Paraná in Carambei. Later additional churches were established in Castrolanda and Arapoti. Some years later contact with the Christian Reformed Church, Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (Liberated), the Presbyterian Church of Brazil and the Buenos Aires Presbytery of the Reformed Churches in Argentina, they decided to organize the Evangelical Reformed Church in Brazil in September 14, 1933.

On February 18, 1962 they decided to separate from the Buenos Aires Presbytery of the Reformed Church in Argentina. The church has 10 congregations and 3,000 members, it adheres to the Apostles Creed, Nicene Creed, Athanasian Creed, Heidelberg Catechism and the Belgic Confession.

References

External links
Official website

Protestantism in Brazil
Reformed denominations in South America
Members of the World Communion of Reformed Churches

Evangelical Reformed Churches in Brazil


Transcription may mean:

Transcription (linguistics), the conversion of spoken words into written language.  Also the conversion of handwriting, or a photograph of text into pure text
Transcription (genetics), the process of copying DNA to RNA by an enzyme called RNA polymerase (RNAP)
Transcription (music), either notating an unnotated piece, common in ethnomusicology, or rewriting a piece, either simply recopying (as for clarity), or as an arrangement for another instrument
Medical transcription, documentation of patients medical records
Piano transcription, a piece of music played on one or more pianos that is an approximation of a source piece of music
in computer speech recognition, transcription is the process of having a speech recognition system/software listen to prerecorded voice and then make it insert the recognizable words into a document for later correction

Related pages
Transcript (disambiguation)

Transcription


Edward Lincoln Abel (17 November 1860 – 5 December 1926) was an American politician. Between 1913 and 1915 he served as Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota.

Life
Edward Abel was born in Springfield, Illinois. He studied law and after his admission to the bar he practiced as an attorney. He settled in Bridgewater, South Dakota and continued his work as a lawyer. In addition he was engaged in agricultural pursuits such as farming and ranching and in the banking business. Politically he joined the Republican Party and became city attorney, alderman and mayor of Bridgewater. He was also President of the Board of Education. Between 1903 and 1906 he held a seat in the State Senate. Since 1907 he resided in Huron, South Dakota where he also occupied some local political offices. In 1907 he became president of the City National Bank.

In 1912 Edward Abel was elected to the office of the Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota. He served in this position between 1913 and 1915 when his term ended. In this function he was the deputy of Governor Frank M. Byrne and he presided over the State Senate. After the end of his term he did not hold any other political offices. He died on 5 December 1926 in Long Beach, California.

External links

 The Political Graveyard

1860 births
1926 deaths
Politicians from Springfield, Illinois
People from McCook County, South Dakota
Illinois lawyers
South Dakota lawyers
School board members in South Dakota
Lieutenant Governors of South Dakota
Republican Party South Dakota state senators
People from Huron, South Dakota
19th-century American lawyers

Edward Lincoln Abel


A haundbaw is a foul gesture in the game of fitbaw, one of thay players uses his haund to contact the baw. The resulting penalisation is usually a free-kick awarded to the opposing fitbaw team unless in the penalty box where they may be awarded a penalty. This excludes the goalkeeper.

Aw thay rules depend on whether or no the referee sees it as a "deliberate haundbaw".

Laws o association fitbaw
Association fitbaw terminologie

Haundbaw (gestur)


ccMixter is a produsage community music site that promotes remix culture and makes samples, remixes, and a cappella tracks licensed under Creative Commons available for download and re-use in creative works. Visitors are able to listen to, sample, mash-up, or interact with music in a variety of ways including the download and use of tracks and samples in their own remixes. Most sampling or mash-up web sites on the Internet stipulate that users forgo their rights to the new song once it is created. By contrast, the material on ccMixter.org is generally licensed to be used in any arena, not just the ccMixter site or a specific contest. The ccMixter site contains over 10,000 samples from a wide range of recording artists, including high-profile artists such as Beastie Boys and David Byrne.

As a cultural phenomenon, ccMixter represents a direct response to what some say is the increasingly litigious attitude of organizations like the RIAA—one which prevents artists from appropriating elements of others' work for creative reuse in their own.

The site originated as a project of Creative Commons, with the idea being conceived of and developed by Neeru Paharia (then Assistant Director of Creative Commons) as a "Friendster for music" with the intent of exposing the genealogy of remixed music. The vision was both to create a body of openly licensed music, and to motivate artists to share by exposing how their work was being used by other artists in their remixes. Paharia hired Victor Stone (a developer and musician) to build the website, who then became the site's administrator, and project lead. In 2009 Creative Commons licensed the name 'ccMixter' and transferred operations to ArtisTech Media, a company run by members of the ccMixter community. The project maintains close organizational ties to independent minded, open music labels such as Magnatune and BBE. The site runs on ccHost, an award-winning open source multimedia content management system that is able to keep track of how content is being remixed.

In February 2009, Victor Stone, project lead of ccMixter, posted a "memoir" detailing the history and philosophy of the first four years of operations at the site.

Calls for remixes
ccMixter began in 2004 as the host of the Wired CD remix contest. That was followed by several other remix contests where prizes included recording contracts.

In 2007 ccMixter eschewed remix contests, in part, due to concerns in the member community that the site was losing its focus on open music. Instead major artists such as DJ Vadim, Bucky Jonson (The Black Eyed Peas' live backing band) and Trifonic have contributed the solo studio tracks (stems) to entire albums making them available under Creative Commons licenses that allowed remixes. In addition there have been "calls for remixes" by members that post a cappellas, looking to create albums from remixes such Colin Mutchler, Brad Sucks, Tamara Barnett-Herrin (aka Calendar Girl) and Shannon Hurley.

Transfer of operations
In May 2008, Creative Commons posted a Request for Proposals to take over the stewardship and operations of ccMixter. The RFP received broad coverage including Boing Boing, AdAge, and Wired.

On October 28, 2009, the fifth anniversary of the first upload to ccMixter, Creative Commons announced a transfer of operations to ArtisTech Media, a net label owned and operated by members of the ccMixter community.

Notable artists
Tamara Barnett-Herrin (Calendar Girl)
Brad Sucks
Bucky Jonson (The Black Eyed Peas' live backing band)
DJ Vadim
Fort Minor
Kristin Hersh
Shannon Hurley
Emily Richards (Snowflake)

References

External links

Hip hop websites
Creative Commons-licensed websites
Open content projects
Internet properties established in 2004
American music websites

CcMixter


Wilhelm Resetarits (21 December 1948 – 24 April 2022), better known as Willi Resetarits and Ostbahn Kurti, was an Austrian singer, comedian and human rights activist.

Biography
Resetarits was born in Stinatz in the Austrian state of Burgenland. His family moved to Vienna when he was three. He studied sports and English studies intending to become a teacher, but his successful career as a musician intervened.

1970s
In 1969 Resetarits joined the political rock band Schmetterlinge (Butterflies). They participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 1977 in London with the song "Boom-Boom-Boomerang", which came in next-to-last place in Eurovision voting.

In the mid-1980s, together with his colleague Günter Brödl he developed his alter ego Dr. Kurt Ostbahn, an excessive personality with an intense stage presence, which turned out to be very successful. The name was created in the mid-1970s, when Günter Brödl was asked during a radio show what American musicians like Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes would call themselves if they were from Vienna. He answered Ostbahn Kurti & die Chefpartie, which a decade later became the name of Willi Resetarits and his band. Resetarits also introduced the musical form of Favorit'n'Blues, a Viennese form of rhythm and blues. After Günter Brödl died unexpectedly in 2000, Dr. Kurt Ostbahn went on a final commemoration tour and then announced in December 2003 that he would let his alter ego retire.

However, after the "official" retirement of Dr. Kurt Ostbahn after the last concert on 31 December 2003, there were 4 other appearances as Dr. Kurt Ostbahn: 10 and 11 October 2010 - initially announced as CD box presentation - two memorial concerts around the 10th anniversary of Brödls death. On 27 and 28 August 2011, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the infamous "Ostbahn XI" open-air concert. In all four concerts, Resetarits/Ostbahn was joined on stage by a selection of musicians from his two bands, "Chefpartie" and "Kombo".

From 1995 to 1998 Trost und Rat von und mit Dr. Kurt Ostbahn (Solace and advice by and with Kurt Ostbahn, Ph.D.) was a very popular weekly radio show in Vienna, which verified Resetarits as an extraordinary entertainer. In 2006 the broadcast carried on, this time featuring Willi Resetarits instead of Dr. Kurt Ostbahn.

Even after the retirement of his alter ego Ostbahn Kurti/Dr. Kurt Ostbahn, Resetarits was very successful with very different music productions. In 2006 he was on tour with the Kurdish singer Sivan Perwer presenting World music and together with the Xtra Combo Resetarits interpreted a wild mixture of Croatian Folk music, Wienerlieder (traditional Viennese ballads), Jazz and Blues as Stubnblues.

Resetarits was a human rights activist and one of the founders of the humanitarian organisations Asyl in Not and SOS Mitmensch. He was also one of the founders and chairman of the Integration House Vienna.

He has made frequent appearances on Austrian TV and in film productions.

Lukas Resetarits (cabaret artist and actor on TV) and Peter Resetarits (TV host at ORF) are his brothers. Karin Resetarits, a present member of the European Parliament, is his divorced sister-in-law.

Awards
 1996: Nestroy-Ring
 1998: Bruno Kreisky Award for Human Rights
 2000: Josef-Felder-Prize für Gemeinwohl und Zivilcourage (Germany)
 2003: Karl Renner-Prize

References

External links
 Official site (in German)

1948 births
2022 deaths
Accidental deaths in Austria
Accidental deaths from falls
20th-century Austrian male singers
21st-century Austrian male singers
Austrian comedians
Austrian cabaret performers
Austrian human rights activists
Austrian people of Croatian descent
People from Güssing District
Wienerlied
Recipients of the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art

Willi Resetarits


Louis J. Weichmann (September 29, 1842 – June 5, 1902) was an American clerk who was one of the chief witnesses for the prosecution in the trial following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Previously, he had been also a suspect in the conspiracy because of his association with Mary Surratt's family.

Early life
Weichmann was born in Baltimore, the son of German immigrants. The family surname was originally Wiechmann, but as in the case of many who emigrated to the United States, the name underwent several phonetic spelling changes. His father Johann was a Lutheran, and his mother Maria was a Catholic. Johann Weichmann was a tailor by trade, and he moved with his wife and their five children first from the vicinity of Baltimore to Washington D.C., and later to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Louis claims to have attended Central High School in the autobiographical work mentioned below. Central High School records show Louis Weichmann was a member of the 36th graduating class. He was admitted July 1856 and left in Sept. 1858 with a Partial Course Diploma. He wrote in his autobiographical work, A True History of the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln and of the Conspiracy of 1865, that he desired to pursue a career as a pharmacist, but, at the behest of his mother, he reluctantly agreed to study for the Roman Catholic priesthood. At the age of seventeen, he entered the seminary at St. Charles College in Ellicott City, Maryland. There, he met and befriended a fellow seminarian, John Surratt. This friendship was to later have profound consequences for both of them.

In 1862, a year after the outbreak of the American Civil War, both Weichmann and Surratt left the seminary without becoming priests. Weichmann went to Washington, D.C., where he taught school for two years at St. Matthew's Institute for Boys. After leaving this position in 1864, he became a clerk in the Department of War, headed by Secretary Edwin Stanton. Surratt had in the meantime become a courier and agent for the Confederacy, working out of Union territory. As a result of his earlier friendship with Surratt, Weichmann took lodgings in the boarding house of Surratt's mother, Mary Surratt, in Washington, D.C. This brought him into contact with the major conspirators involved in Abraham Lincoln's assassination. According to Weichmann's testimony at the trial of the conspirators, John Wilkes Booth, David Herold, Lewis Payne, George Atzerodt, John Surratt, and others continually met at Mary Surratt's boarding house prior to the assassination.

Weichmann testified that on the day President Lincoln was shot, April 14, 1865, he accompanied Mary Surratt to her other property in Surrattsville, (now Clinton, Maryland), where she delivered items that Booth later retrieved hours after the assassination. He further testified that Mary Surratt met with Booth no fewer than three times on that fateful day. Samuel Mudd, the doctor who treated Booth's broken leg on the night Lincoln was killed, and claimed to have no knowledge of the conspiracy, was linked by Weichmann's testimony to the events for which he was tried and found guilty as well. Augustus Howell, a blockade runner who worked with John Surratt, claimed during the trial that Weichmann provided the Confederates with classified information obtained by his position at the War Department. He supposedly hoped to obtain a better job from the Confederate government at Richmond in exchange for his services; however, these accusations were never substantiated.

Later life
In his later years Weichmann moved to Anderson, Indiana, where he opened a business school. One of his brothers, a Catholic priest, and two of his sisters had moved and settled there. Because of some lingering doubt as to the truth and motives of his testimony, Weichmann became a controversial and somewhat ostracized figure by many people. That Mary Surratt was the first woman tried and executed for a capital crime by the federal government caused a backlash against him. There also were strong anti-Catholic elements that attempted to link Lincoln's death to a Catholic conspiracy.

Partially because of this, he swore out an affidavit, shortly before his death, reaffirming that all his testimony concerning Abraham Lincoln's assassination was completely true. He died a few days later in Anderson, and is buried there at St. Mary's Cemetery. Despite his using the spelling Weichmann at the conspiracy trial, in all his official correspondence and as the author of his book, the original family spelling of Wiechmann appears on his tombstone.

References

Bibliography

Weichmann, Louis J. A True History of the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln and of the Conspiracy of 1865 (1975)

External links
 muddresearch.com

1842 births
1902 deaths
American people of German descent
American prisoners and detainees
Clerks
People associated with the assassination of Abraham Lincoln
People of Maryland in the American Civil War
People from Anderson, Indiana
People from Baltimore
People from Philadelphia
People from Washington, D.C.
Prisoners and detainees of the United States military
St. Charles College alumni
Catholics from Maryland
Central High School (Philadelphia) alumni

Louis J. Weichmann


Jeffrey Tonja Hurd (born May 25, 1964) is a former American football linebacker in the National Football League (NFL) for the Dallas Cowboys. He also was a member of the Dallas Texans in the Arena Football League (AFL). He played college football at the Kansas State University.

Early years
Hurd attended Lincoln College Preparatory Academy, in Kansas City, Missouri, where he participated in football, basketball, and baseball. He received Kansas City prep athlete of the year honors as a senior.

He accepted a football scholarship from Kansas State University. He was a reserve linebacker in his first two seasons. As a junior, he was named a starter at defensive end, registering 62 tackles and 4 sacks. As a senior, he was moved to defensive tackle, posting 57 tackles and 5 sacks.

He pitched for the baseball team as a freshman, compiling an 0-1 record with a 3.5 ERA.

Professional career

Dallas Cowboys
Hurd was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Dallas Cowboys after the 1987 NFL Draft and was moved to linebacker. He was waived on August 17.

After the NFLPA strike was declared on the third week of the 1987 season, those contests were canceled (reducing the 16 game season to 15) and the NFL decided that the games would be played with replacement players. He was re-signed to be a part of the Dallas replacement team that was given the mock name "Rhinestone Cowboys" by the media. He was a backup at right outside linebacker behind Chris Duliban. He was released on October 26, at the end of the strike. He was re-signed for the last 2 games.

In 1988, he injured his left knee and was placed on the injured reserve list. In 1989, he was switched to defensive end and was placed on the injured reserve list with a right knee injury on August 28. He wasn't re-signed after the season.

Dallas Texans (AFL)
In 1990, he signed with the Dallas Texans of the Arena Football League. He had 12 tackles and 1.5 sacks. In 1991, he collected 32 tackles, 4 fumble recoveries and 3 blocked kicks.

References

1964 births
Living people
Players of American football from Monroe, Louisiana
American football linebackers
Kansas State Wildcats football players
Kansas State Wildcats baseball players
Dallas Cowboys players
Dallas Texans (Arena) players
National Football League replacement players

Jeff Hurd


The Grand 1894 Opera House in Galveston, Texas is currently operated as a not-for-profit performing arts theatre. The Romanesque Revival style Opera House is located at 2020 Post Office Street in Galveston's Historic Downtown Cultural Arts District. It was named "The Official Opera House of Texas" in 1993 by the 73rd Texas Legislature. It has a seating capacity of 1,040.

History

In 1894, Henry Greenwall (often spelled Greenwald) raised $100,000 for construction of The Grand Opera House and Hotel in Galveston. It opened on January 3, 1895 with a live performance of the play, The Daughters of Eve.

The Grand has stood through notable hurricanes, including the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, Galveston Hurricane of 1915, Hurricane Carla, and Hurricane Ike. The Grand began as a major, live performing arts theatre but after passing through a Vaudeville phase, it slowly evolved into a movie house. The movie house closed in 1974 and was purchased the same year by the Galveston County Cultural Arts Council. They transformed the movie house back into a theatre and then renovated and restored it to its former beauty. The restoration included volunteer efforts and support from private foundations. The theatre was listed in the National Register of Historic Places as "1894 Grand Opera House" in 1974. The Galveston County Cultural Arts Council owned the Opera House until 1986, when it became a stand-alone organization known as 1894, Inc. Maureen M. Patton is The Grand's Executive Director, having served as Director under the Arts Council beginning in 1981. Hurricane Ike hit Galveston Island on September 13, 2008, but The Grand was reopened on January 3, 2009 on its 114th anniversary. All of the damage that the hurricane and the flood had caused was repaired with only 92 days of construction.

Notable Performers

Sarah Bernhardt
Ignace Paderewski
Anna Pavlova
John Philip Sousa
Madame Modjeska
Cloris Leachman
Otis Skinner
George M. Cohan
William Jennings Bryan
Lillian Russell
Maude Adams
The Marx Brothers
George Burns and Gracie Allen
Dorothy Kirsten
Helen Hayes
Lionel Hampton
Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gormé
Hal Holbrook
Vienna Choir Boys
Ray Charles
Willie Nelson
Lyle Lovett
Liza Minnelli
The Oak Ridge Boys
James Earl Jones
Tony Bennett
Marilyn Horne
Itzhak Perlman
Johnny Mathis
Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers
Paul Anka
Bernadette Peters
Tommy Tune
The Beach Boys

The Grand also has been the presenter of several premieres: Red White & Tuna and Tuna Does Vegas, two of four comedic plays written and performed by Greater Tuna creators, Jaston Williams and Joe Sears; and ANN, a one-woman play about the life of Texas Governor Ann Richards, written and performed by Holland Taylor.

The music video for the Mötley Crüe song "Without You" was filmed at the Grand on January 15, 1990 after their stop in Houston the previous night.

Architecture

"When it opened in 1895, the 70' x 37' x 69' stage was the largest in the state of Texas and one of the largest in the country... Even today, a stage whisper can be heard without a microphone, and no seat is more than 70 feet from the stage."

The Grand has been through natural disasters, such as fires and hurricanes, as well as neglect during its time as a movie house. It has been rebuilt and remodeled more than once, such as during the devastating Galveston Hurricane of 1900, when its rear wall and roof caved in.

The front wall of the building is made of red stone, brick, and terra cotta; the large, glass doors are framed by a carved, Romanesque style stone arch. Inside, the glass box office sits in between the two sets of doors. The carpet is a historic pattern of colors found in the decorative curtain and stenciling of roses and scrolls on the ceiling and boxes. The floors are marble tile, and the walls are wainscot. The banisters and railings are of long leaf red-heart pine, like the wainscot. A large, bronze statue of a woman holding a torch stands on the newel post on The Grand staircase. Inside the theater auditorium, red, velvet curtains frame the stage and eight opera boxes. Blue velour lines the chairs. The stage curtain (originally painted by architect Frank Cox) is a replication of the original, depicting "Sappho and Companions".

See also

National Register of Historic Places listings in Galveston County, Texas
Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks in Galveston County

References

Galveston County Cultural Arts Council, comp. Galveston Arts! Presents Live Onstage At The 1894 Grand Opera House. N.p.: n.p., 1984. Print.
Patton, Maureen. "The Grand 1894 Opera House." Telephone interview. 29 Jan. 2015.
Card, Terry. "The Grand 1894 Opera House: A History Full of Surprises." Island Guide Magazine. N.p., 13 Jan. 2015. Web. 22 June 2015. <http://galvestonislandguide.com/the-grand-1894-opera-house-a-history-full-of-surprises/>.
Evans, Everett. "Hal Holbrook's Twain Improves with Age." Houston Chronicle. Hearst Newspapers, LLC., 20 Feb. 2015. Web. 22 June 2015. <http://www.houstonchronicle.com/entertainment/arts-theater/article/Hal-Holbrook-s-Twain-improves-with-age-6092480.php#/0>.
Sheward, David. "Holland Taylor's 'Ann' Extends Run to September - April 1, 2013 - NewYork.com." NewYork.com. NewYork.com, 01 Apr. 2013. Web. 22 June 2015. <http://t.newyork.com/articles/broadway/holland-taylors-ann-extends-run-to-september-36173/>.
BWW Special Coverage. "BWW Flashback: ANN, Starring Holland Taylor, Closes on Broadway Today." BroadwayWorld.com. Wisdom Digital Media, 30 June 2013. Web. 22 June 2015. <http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/BWW-Flashback-ANN-Starring-Holland-Taylor-Closes-on-Broadway-Today-20130630>.
Stewart, Zachary. "Holland Taylor on Ann Richards, Moose Murders, and Tom Hanks." Theater Mania. TheaterMania.com, Inc., 21 Feb. 2013. Web. 22 June 2015. <http://www.theatermania.com/new-york-city-theater/news/02-2013/holland-taylor-on-ann-richards-moose-murders-and-t_64403.html>.
Faires, Robert. "Ann, Taylor-made." The Austin Chronicle. Austin Chronicle Corp., 29 Apr. 2011. Web. 22 June 2015. <http://www.austinchronicle.com/arts/2011-04-29/ann-taylor-made/>.
Schwartz, Eileen. "Straight Talk." Texas Monthly. Emmis Publishing, L.P., Sept. 2002. Web. 22 June 2015. <http://www.texasmonthly.com/story/straight-talk-8>.
Wardlaw, Molly. "Downtown Galveston." Texas Monthly. Emmis Publishing, L.P., June 2008. Web. 22 June 2015. <http://www.texasmonthly.com/story/downtown-galveston>.
Szatmary, Peter. "Maureen McGovern Returns to Galveston's Grand 1894 Opera House, May 2." Playbill. Playbill, Inc., 30 Apr. 1998. Web. 22 June 2015. <http://www.playbill.com/news/article/maureen-mcgovern-returns-to-galvestons-grand-1894-opera-house-may-2-75028/print>.
Wood, Roger. "Grand by Design." Texas Highways. Texas Department of Transportation, Mar. 2015. Web. 22 June 2015. <http://www.texashighways.com/culture-lifestyle/item/7775-grand-by-design>.

External links

More history and photos

Concert halls in Texas
Culture of Galveston, Texas
National Register of Historic Places in Galveston County, Texas
Tourist attractions in Galveston, Texas
Buildings and structures in Galveston, Texas
Theatres completed in 1895
Music venues completed in 1895
Opera houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Texas
Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks

Grand 1894 Opera House


Patrick Dupond (14 March 1959 – 5 March 2021) was a French ballet dancer and artistic director.

He made a name for himself in 1976 when he won the gold medal at the Varna International Ballet Competition in Bulgaria. A virtuoso dancer, he was named danseur étoile of the Paris Opera Ballet in 1980 and met with considerable success in France, which did not prevent him from having an international career. He worked with eminent dancers such as Rudolf Nureyev, Maurice Béjart and Alvin Ailey, and in 1990 he became dance director of the Paris Opera Ballet, succeeding Nureyev. He left this position in 1995, then the Paris Opera in 1997, dismissed, in his words, for "his insubordination and indiscipline". Subsequently, he appeared on various occasions on television sets as a contestant or juror for shows (for example: Danse avec les stars) while continuing to perform on stage.

Early life and training
Dupond's father left the family early. Patrick Dupond spent a simple and modest childhood with his mother and her partner. In order to channel her son's energy, his mother decided to enroll him in a football club and then in judo classes, but he quickly abandoned these activities. He discovered his vocation by watching a ballet class, and his mother enrolled him in a dance class. His abilities were quickly noticed, and his dance teacher advised him to take classes at a higher level. At the end of 1967, his parents met by chance Tessa Beaumont and , a former dancer at the Paris Opera Ballet. The latter immediately sensed the young dancer's talent and agreed to take over his training. In May 1968, he had to temporarily stop his school activities and dance classes. When he returned to school, he was the victim of ostracism from his classmates because of his status as a young dancer.

He was admitted to the Paris Opera Ballet in 1969, at the age of ten, for the three-month preparation course. He then passed the entrance test to the dance school and did all his training as a classical dancer there, while continuing to take private lessons with Bozzoni every evening. He continued to study with  but his main teacher remained Bozzoni. He was also a pupil at the lycée Racine in Paris.

Paris Opera Ballet and international career
On 14 March 1975, Dupond became a member of the Paris Opera Ballet, at age 16. He won the gold medal at the Varna International Ballet Competition in Bulgaria, with Albrecht's variation from the second act of Giselle and Siegfried's variation from the third act of Swan Lake, the solo from the Lander's Études, Basilio's variation from Don Quixote, a variation from Le Corsaire, and finally a contemporary choreography created by him. In December of the same year, he was named coryphée.

From then on, his career took off. He created various title roles and continued his training as a soloist. He had the opportunity to dance both at the Opera and on international stages. In December 1978, following the internal promotion contest, he was appointed premier danseur. He then danced for choreographers such as Rudolf Nureyev, Alvin Ailey and Maurice Béjart. He was named danseur étoile, the highest rank in the company, on 30 August 1980, at age 21. His ballet partners included , Françoise Legrée, Monique Loudières, Sylvie Guillem, Isabelle Guérin and Marie-Claude Pietragalla.

Dupond was appointed artistic director of the  in 1988. At the age of 31, Pierre Bergé appointed him the Director of Dance of the Paris Opera Ballet, a position he held from 1990 to 1995.

Choreographers such as John Neumeier, Roland Petit, Yury Grigorovich, Alwin Nikolais and Twyla Tharp gave him leading roles. He also acted and danced in several films and created the group "Dupond et ses Stars", with Sylvie Guillem, Monique Loudières, Fanny Gaida, Manuel Legris, Jean-Marie Didière and the pianist/conductor Elizabeth Cooper, for a world tour of two years.

Later career

In 1997, he was asked to be a member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival. His absence was not accepted by the general management of the Paris Opera, who thanked him. Dupond was nevertheless offered a contract as a guest danseur étoile, a proposal he refused, preferring to go to court. His application was rejected by the  Prud'hommes.

In January 2000, he was the victim of a serious car accident which forced him to both rehabilitate physically and relearn to dance. He went through a period of depression and alcoholism, from which he eventually recovered. He then resumed his training with the help of his teacher Max Bozzoni. He returned to the stage in a musical theatre in 2000: L'air de Paris at the Espace Pierre Cardin, with Manon Landowski as his partner.

Since 2004, he was a regular teacher at the dance school of Leïla Da Rocha and performs in Soissons and Saint-Quentin, Aisne. In August 2017, he announced the opening of an international dance school in Bordeaux with Leïla Da Rocha. Offering two three-year courses for young people aged 10 to 20, the school will aim to prepare young dancers to "bridge the gap between the conservatory and the opera, with local companies as well as national and international".

In 2018 and 2019, he was a member of the jury for the show Danse avec les stars.

Death

He died on 5 March 2021, a few days before his 62nd birthday, as a result of a "devastating illness", according to those close to him.

Role creations and company premieres
 1976 : Nana (Roland Petit), Mahler Lieder (Oscar Araiz)
 1977 : Les Quatre Saisons (Kenneth MacMillan), Le Chant de la terre (Kenneth MacMillan)
 1978 : Métaboles (Kenneth MacMillan)
 1979 : Relâche and Sonatine bureaucratique (Moses Pendleton), Parade (after Léonide Massine), Variations (Violette Verdy), Diachronies (Janine Charrat)
 1980 : Le Fantôme de l'Opéra (Roland Petit), Vaslaw (John Neumeier), Schéma (Alwin Nikolais)
 1981 : Le Bal masqué (), La Fille mal gardée (Heinz Spoerli's version), Le Songe d'une nuit d'été (John Neumeier), Romeo and Juliet' (John Cranko)
 1983 : Au bord du précipice (Alvin Ailey)
 1985 : Arlequin magicien par amour (Ivo Cramer), Carnaval (Michel Fokine), Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (George Balanchine), No Man's Land (Rudi van Dantzig), Romeo and Juliet (Rudolf Nureyev), Angel Food (Michael Clark)
 1986 : Salomé (Maurice Béjart)
 1987 : Soon (Daniel Esralow)
 1988 : Le Martyre de saint Sébastien (Bob Wilson), Demago Megalo (Patrick Dupond), Faits et gestes (Ulysses Dove), Les Illuminations (Thierry Malandain)
 1989 : Vespers (Ulysses Dove), Bad Blood (Ulysses Dove), Rouge Poisson (Pierre Darde), Petrouchka (after Michel Fokine), Idmen ()
 1992 : Push Comes to the Shove (Twyla Tharp), Grand Pas (Twyla Tharp), Dances at a Gathering (Jerome Robbins), Le Tricorne (Léonide Massine), Retours de scène (Odile Duboc)
 1993/1994 : Giselle (Mats Ek), The Nutcracker (John Neumeier), Déjà Vu (Murray Louis), Till Eulenspiegel (Vaslav Nijinsky), Camera obscura (Roland Petit)
 1995 :  (), Kurozuka (Maurice Béjart)
 1996 : The Four Seasons (Jerome Robbins), A Suite of Dances (Jerome Robbins), Ninth Symphony (Maurice Béjart)

 Filmography
 Television
 1978 : Il était un musicien : Monsieur Stravinski, by Roger Hanin : Nijinski (danseur étoile)
 1994 : Danse avec la vie, by  : Franck Veaujour (danseur étoile)
 1996 : Patrick Dupond le talent insolent, by Luc Riolon, France 2
 2001 :  : the minstrel
 2005 : La Ferme Célébrités (season 2) on TF1
 2005 : Celebrity Dancing sur TF1 : jury
 2007 - 2008 : La France a un incroyable talent : juré, saison 2 et 3 sur M6
 2014 - 2017 : Prodiges on France 2 : juré, catégorie danse
 2018 – 2020  : Danse avec les stars : juré, saison 9 et 10 on TF1

 Cinema
 1990: Dancing Machine, by Gilles Béhat : Chico
 1999 : , by Bernie Bonvoisin : the cop

 Publication
Dupond wrote an autobiography titled Étoile and published by Fayard in 2000 .

 Awards
 1988 : Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
 1990 : Ordre national du Mérite
 1997 : Legion of Honour.

 References

 External links

Sa biographie, sur lInternet Archive

French male dancers
French choreographers
Dancers from Paris
Paris Opera Ballet dancers
Modern dance
Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
Commanders of the Ordre national du Mérite
Commanders of the Legion of Honour
1959 births
2021 deaths
Deaths from lung cancer in France
Bisexual men
Bisexual artists
La France a un incroyable talent

Patrick Dupond


An A unit, in railroad terminology, is a diesel locomotive (or more rarely an electric locomotive) equipped with a driving cab and a control system to control other locomotives in a multiple unit, and therefore able to be the lead unit in a consist of several locomotives controlled from a single position. This terminology is generally used in North America, since only there was it commonplace to build B units—cabless locomotive units which normally could not lead a train.

Typical features
Typical driving cab features, and therefore A unit features, include windshields, rectangular side windows, crew seats, heating, and sometimes, radios, air conditioning and toilets. B units always lack all of these features, except that some EMD F-units have an extra porthole-style side window(s) for a hostler (an employee permitted to move a locomotive in a yard only — not on the road).

Terminology
This terminology has fallen out of use for newer locomotives, since it only really applied to the cab unit style of locomotive. Thus, the term cab unit is used only when an A unit has a carbody design. Hood unit "road switcher" types were generally equipped with driving cabs and the term "A unit" was not generally applied to them, although the rare cabless road switchers were still called B units.

Conversions
In some cases, A units were converted to B units. If the unit had been involved in a collision which damaged the cab, it was sometimes more cost-effective to rebuild the unit without the cab. In rarer cases, B units were converted to A units. The Chicago and North Western Railway converted several E8B units purchased from the Union Pacific Railroad. The cabs on the rebuilt units were referred to as "Crandall Cabs." The BNSF also experimented with a single GP60B to make it a "A unit" by using an Ex-UP SD40-2 cab on a GP60B frame and body, also  required to move was the Dynamic blister from the front of the unit to the middle of the unit to make room for the cab.

References

 Pinkepank, Jerry A. (1973). The Second Diesel Spotter's Guide. Kalmbach Books. Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 66-22894.

Diesel locomotives
Rail technologies

A unit


A predator trap is a natural hazard where prey animals become trapped or incapacitated, and the attracted predators suffer the same fate. More predators, scavengers, insects and birds become attracted to this mounting accumulation of carrion, until a wide variety of animals are caught and ultimately killed by the hazard. This may happen many times over. Typically, the number of lured predators will greatly outnumber the prey, thus providing the name.

A famous example is the La Brea Tar Pits site, where predators were attracted to struggling animals that had become entrapped in tar. It has been speculated that the mudstone deposits at the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry may have been a predator trap, with dinosaurs becoming trapped in mud as they approached the floodpond. The Gobi Desert dinosaur death traps may have been sauropod footprints that have been filled with a mixture of thick mud and sandstone in the former wetland.

The "Valley of Death" near the Kikhpinych volcano in Russia forms a predator trap every spring when it fills with poisonous volcanic gases, initially killing birds which then attract larger predators, which also succumb to the gas.

References

Geological hazards
Predation

Predator trap