Chase Cameron Utley (born December 17, 1978), nicknamed "the Man" and "Silver Fox",  is an American former professional baseball second baseman who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for 16 seasons, primarily for the Philadelphia Phillies. He also played for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He is a six-time All-Star, won a World Series with the Phillies in 2008, and was chosen as the second baseman on the Sports Illustrated All-Decade Team for the 2000s.
He batted left-handed and threw right-handed.

After becoming a permanent fixture as the Phillies' second baseman, Utley demonstrated versatility, spending some time at first base as well. As his fielding improved, he and shortstop Jimmy Rollins were regarded as one of the best middle-infield combinations in the NL until Rollins was traded to the Dodgers in the winter of 2014. Utley was considered by fans to be a team leader of the Phillies, alongside Rollins and Ryan Howard, and he has been noted for his leadership qualities with the Dodgers. Utley was known for his quiet understated demeanor, instead setting an example for teammates with his exhaustive preparation in the video room and the batting cage. He has been criticized by some former players for an overly aggressive baserunning style.

Utley's seven career World Series home runs are the most for a second baseman, and he shares the record of five home runs in a single World Series with Reggie Jackson and George Springer.

Early life
Utley was born in Pasadena, California, and was raised in Long Beach, California, with his younger sister, Taylor Ann. He is the son of David and Terrell Utley.

Amateur career
Utley played baseball at Long Beach Polytechnic High School, alongside former MLB player, Milton Bradley and at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) for the UCLA Bruins. In high school, his coach said that Utley had "the fastest hands he had ever seen on a high school player." He hit over .500 his senior year, with a slugging percentage of over 1.000, struck out just twice in 80 at bats, and earned high school All-American honors. He also set a school single-season record with 14 home runs Utley was drafted in the second round of the 1997 Major League Baseball draft by the Los Angeles Dodgers with the 76th pick, but turned down a $850,000 offer by the Dodgers to attend UCLA. A star shortstop in high school, the Bruins instead moved him to second base because his arm strength was more of a liability at shortstop. He hit .382 with 22 home runs as a junior at UCLA in 2000 while leading the Bruins to the NCAA Super Regionals. He was selected to the All-Pac-10 team and the Sporting News and National Collegiate Baseball Writers first team All-American teams.

While at UCLA, Utley played collegiate summer baseball for the Brewster Whitecaps of the Cape Cod Baseball League in 1998, and returned to the league in 1999 to play for the Cotuit Kettleers where he was named a league all-star.

Early career
Utley was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in the first round (15th pick) of the 2000 amateur draft. At the time, the team's scouting director claimed he was a combination of Jeff Kent and Adam Kennedy. He signed on July 29, 2000, for a $1,780,000 signing bonus.

Utley played for the Phillies' farm system with the Batavia Muckdogs of the Class A-Short Season New York–Penn League in 2000, the Clearwater Phillies of the Class A-Advanced Florida State League in 2001, and the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons of the Class AAA International League in 2002 and 2003. He was selected to the All-Star Futures Game in 2001 and made the International League post-season all-star team in 2003.

Major leagues

Philadelphia Phillies

2003–05: Early career
Utley made his major league debut on April 4, 2003, as a pinch hitter against the Pittsburgh Pirates. He was struck out swinging by Jeff Suppan in his first at-bat. In his first major league start, on April 24 against the Colorado Rockies, Utley recorded his first major league hit, a grand slam off Aaron Cook. He was optioned back to the minors on April 30 recalled by the Phillies again in August 2003, to replace Plácido Polanco at second base (Polanco was moved to third to compensate for the loss of third baseman David Bell to the disabled list). Utley scored the final game winning RBI in Phillies history at Veterans Stadium, on September 27, 2003. Utley recorded the final at-bat at Veterans Stadium by grounding into a game-ending double play on September 28, 2003. In 43 games, he had a .239 batting average.

By the end of 2004, it became evident to management that Utley was the team's future second baseman (Utley often credits Tom Gresh for helping him improve his hitting). However, a roster spot was not permanently available; his path to the majors was effectively blocked by Polanco. Despite out-playing Polanco for much of the season, he remained on the bench despite Phillies fans and media commentators questioning why he was not playing more. He played in 94 games for the Phillies in 2004 (which included 13 at first base) and hit .266 with 13 homers and 57 RBI.

In June 2005, the Phillies traded Polanco to the Tigers for pitcher Ugueth Urbina and infielder Ramón Martínez. As a full-time starter Utley hit .291 with 28 homers and 105 RBI and also stole 16 bases. He was selected by the Philadelphia chapter of the Baseball Writers' Association of America as the co-recipient of the 2005 Mike Schmidt Most Valuable Player Award.

2006
Utley was a member of Team USA in the 2006 World Baseball Classic, and was selected by fans to start at second base for the National League at the 2006 Major League Baseball All-Star Game at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. In November, he traveled to Japan with other major league stars to compete against Japanese All-Stars in an exhibition tournament.

During the 2006 season, Utley maintained a 35-game hitting streak—the second-longest streak in Phillies history behind teammate Jimmy Rollins, who hit for 38 straight games between 2005 and 2006 (36 games in 2005 and two in 2006). Utley tied Luis Castillo, who had a 35-game hitting streak in 2002, for the longest hitting streak by a second baseman. Utley's streak was also the longest for a purely left-handed hitter since Tommy Holmes' 37-game streak in 1945. As a result, Utley was named the National League Player of the Month for July 2006.

On September 24, Utley hit two home runs in a 10–7 win over the Florida Marlins. It was his seventh multi-home run game of the 2006 season, tying a franchise record set in 1968 and tied by Ryan Howard in 2006. Utley combined with Jimmy Rollins in 2006 to become the first pair of middle infielders in National League history to hit 25 home runs each in the same season; Utley hit 32, while Rollins hit 25. He later received the Silver Slugger Award for being the best hitting second baseman in the National League.
He also batted .309 in 2006 with 32 homers and 102 RBI.

2007

On January 21, 2007, the day after his wedding, Utley signed a 7-year, $85 million contract extension with the Phillies.

After starting the season hot, Utley was again selected by the fans to be the starting second baseman in the 2007 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, which was his second All-Star selection. However, on July 26, Utley was hit by a pitch thrown by Washington Nationals pitcher John Lannan; he broke the fourth metacarpal bone in his right hand. "I'll be back. Don't worry, guys," Utley said after the game. "It's a break, but not that bad of a break. I definitely expect to be back ... this season." He had successful surgery on his hand, but as a result of the surgery, he was placed on the 15-day disabled list. Utley returned to the lineup on August 27, hit a home run and an RBI double, went 3 for 5, and drew a curtain call from the hometown crowd.

Utley finished the season with a .332 batting average, 22 home runs, 103 RBIs and 48 doubles (second in the National League). He helped the Phillies to their first playoff appearance in fourteen seasons as the team capped a dramatic comeback by clinching the National League East division title on the final day of the regular season. Utley's offensive performance also earned him a Silver Slugger Award for the second consecutive season. He had two hits in 11 at-bats as the Phillies were swept in three games by the Colorado Rockies in the 2007 National League Division Series.

2008

Through the month of April, Utley hit a league-leading 11 home runs – including seven in the seven games from April 17–23. He completed a streak of five consecutive games with a home run, and hit .360 (good for fifth in the National League) in 111 at-bats on his way to becoming the National League's Player of the Month. His five-game home run streak tied the Phillies franchise record, shared by Bobby Abreu (May 8–12, 2005), Mike Schmidt (June 6–10, 1979) and Dick Allen (May 27 – June 1, 1969).

Though his bat cooled a bit in May (his monthly average was .259), Utley still hit eight more home runs in the month, breaking the Phillies franchise record for home runs before June – Cy Williams (1923) and Ryan Howard (2006) shared the previous mark of 18 – and knocked in 26 RBIs. When Howard hit his 15th home run on May 30, he and Utley became the first pair of Phillies to hit 15 home runs each before June. On May 13, 2008, Utley received an unexpected accolade from lifelong baseball fan (and 43rd US President) George W. Bush, who stated in an interview with politico.com that Utley would be the first position player he would select if he were an MLB team owner. He was also selected by Fitness Magazine as one of the 25 "fittest guys in the country."

On June 1, Utley hit his Major League-leading 20th home run and drove in his National League-leading 50th run as part of a comeback win against the Florida Marlins that propelled the Phillies back into first place in the National League East; the 1-for-2 performance capped a productive week for Utley that earned him the National League Player of the Week Award, his fifth, for the first time since April 23–29, 2007. The next night, Utley hit another home run for another streak of five games with a longball amidst a span of eight games with seven home runs (May 25–June 2). Utley hit the first in a set of back-to-back-to-back Philadelphia home runs in a 20–2 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on June 13, along with Ryan Howard and Pat Burrell. It was the seventh time that the Phillies had hit three consecutive home runs, the first time since May 18, 2004, and the fourth occurrence by any team in the 2008 season.

Utley went a career-long 0-for-24 in the midst of a 1-for-29 slump, during which the Phillies lost a season-high six in a row. On the 21st, Utley was benched for the first time this season, ending his streak of 101 consecutive games played. On the 25th, Utley broke out of his skid with a 4-for-5 performance – his first four-hit game of the season – in a 4–0 shutout over the Oakland Athletics. Utley was also selected to start his third consecutive All-Star game.

Postseason
At the end of the 2008 regular season, with 33 home runs, 104 RBI, and a team-high 177 hits, Utley helped the Phillies into the 2008 playoffs, and win their first National League pennant since 1993 and first World Series title since 1980 (the second ever World Series title for the team). Utley batted 3 for 18 (.167) in the World Series, but hit two home runs and walked five times as well. During the seventh inning of Game 5, Utley faked a throw to first, then threw Jason Bartlett out at home for the third out in a play later described as having saved the Series for the Phillies. The fans voted his fake and throw to home plate in Game 5 as the "This Year in Baseball Awards" Postseason Moment of the Year. Sports Talk Philly highlighted this play as they named Utley as Number 6 on the list of the 25 greatest Phillies.

Following the ensuing World Series parade on October 31, 2008, culminating in a celebration at Citizens Bank Park, Utley came up to the microphone after being introduced by Harry Kalas and said to the fans in the stadium: "World champions. World fucking champions!" As he said this, his teammate Jayson Werth jumped up in roaring approval. The Philadelphia crowd erupted in prolonged cheers. The expletive was broadcast live on multiple Philadelphia television stations, which had not placed the celebration on tape delay.

Utley underwent hip surgery in November 2008.

2009

In 2009, he was named #6 on the Sporting News''' list of the 50 greatest current players in baseball. A panel of 100 baseball people, many of them members of the Baseball Hall of Fame and winners of major baseball awards, was polled to arrive at the list.

He was the starter at second base for the National League All-Star team.

In 2009 Utley led the majors in hit by pitch, with 24. Utley also had a perfect stolen-base percentage in 2009, with 23 steals, setting a record for most steals in a single season without being caught.

Postseason
On October 28, Utley drew a two-out walk in the first inning of Game 1 of the 2009 World Series, setting a record for reaching base in consecutive postseason games (26). Utley hit two home runs in his next two at-bats, the first World Series game played in the new Yankee Stadium. With both home runs coming against left-hander CC Sabathia, Utley joined Babe Ruth as the second left-handed batter to hit two home runs in a World Series game against a left-handed pitcher. On November 1, Utley hit another home run against Sabathia in Game 4, and one day later, Utley hit two home runs in Game 5, giving him a total of five for the series, tying Reggie Jackson for the most home runs in a World Series. After the season, Utley was named the winner of the National League's Silver Slugger at second base for the fourth consecutive season. As of the 2021 World Series, Utley is the only player with two home runs in a November game.

In December, Sports Illustrated named Utley as the second baseman on its MLB All-Decade Team.

2010
On June 29, Utley was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a sprained thumb. He was voted into the All-Star Game as the starter at second base (for the fifth consecutive year), but was unable to play due to injury. He won a Fielding Bible Award for his statistically based defensive excellence during the year.

2011

Utley finished the 2011 regular season having scored 54 runs, hitting safely 103 times (including 21 doubles, 6 triples, and 11 home runs), with a .259 batting average. This drop-off in performance coincided with the onset prior to the season of chronic knee problems. These conditions included patellar tendinitis, chondromalacia, and bone inflammation.

2012
During spring training, Utley left camp in mid-March to meet with a specialist regarding treatment of conditions in both knees, including cartilage damage.
Utley began the season on the 15-day Disabled list. He was reactivated on June 27. In his first game of the season, Utley went 3 for 5 with a solo home run in his first at bat. He finished 2012 with numbers very similar to 2011, hitting .256 with 11 home runs and 45 RBI.

2013
Utley said that his knee was feeling great prior to the 2013 Grapefruit League games. On Opening Day, against the Atlanta Braves, he hit his 200th career home run. In 131 games of the 2013 season, Utley batted .284 with 18 homers and 69 runs batted in.

On August 7, 2013 it was announced that Utley and the Phillies had agreed on a two-year, $27 million contract extension with multiple vesting options.

2014
Utley had a slow start to spring training. He was hitting only .175 (10 for 57), including 1 double and 3 RBIs with just two games remaining. Utley remained confident for the 2014 season. "For younger guys, I think results make you feel better," Utley said. "But as you go, you realize they're not quite as important this time of year. Physically, I feel good. Early in the spring, I felt pretty decent at the plate. There were some times in the middle when I felt a little uncomfortable and a little out of sorts. The last four or five days, I've started to feel a little more comfortable at the dish. For a guy that has done this for a few years, your game plan for Spring training is different than it would be during the regular season." Despite a poor spring training, over the first two weeks of the season, he was "the hottest hitter in baseball", and as of April 13, possessed a 1.314 on-base plus slugging (OPS) average.

On May 25, Utley was the last out of Josh Beckett's no hitter when he struck out looking against the Los Angeles Dodgers right hander.

On July 6, MLB announced that Utley was voted in by the fans to start at second base in All-Star Game, which took place at Target Field in Minneapolis.

2015
In 249 at bats for the Phillies in 2015, he batted .217/.284/.333.

Los Angeles Dodgers

2015
On August 19, 2015, Utley was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers in exchange for Darnell Sweeney and John Richy. In his first game as a Dodger, Utley impressed with his aggressive baserunning, an area in which the Dodgers had struggled most of the season. On August 30, Utley was the final out of a no-hitter for the second time in as many years, this time against the Cubs' Jake Arrieta. As a Dodger, he was in 34 games and hit .202/.291/.363 with three homers and nine RBIs in 124 at bats. He also played three games at third base, the first time he had played there in the majors.

On October 10, 2015, during the second game of the 2015 National League Division Series, Utley slid into Rubén Tejada of the New York Mets in an attempt to break up what might have been an inning-ending double play, fracturing Tejada's right fibula in the collision. Utley was ruled safe by the umpires after a video review. The Dodgers, who were losing 2-1 at the time of the incident, rallied to win the game 5-2. Major League Baseball suspended Utley for two games for his conduct "in violation of Official Baseball Rule 5.09 (a) (13), which is designed to protect fielders from precisely this type of rolling block that occurs away from the base." Utley appealed the suspension and remained active for the rest of the Dodgers post-season games. MLB subsequently dropped Utley's suspension on March 6, 2016, with Chief Baseball Officer Joe Torre stating "There wasn't anything clear-cut to say that play violated a rule."

2016

After the season, the Dodgers declined his 2016 option, making him a free agent. In December, he re-signed with the Dodgers on a one-year, $7 million, contract.

On May 28, 2016, in a regular season game against the New York Mets, Utley hit a solo home run and a grand slam, after he was thrown at by Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard in the third inning in an apparent retaliation for Utley's slide on Rubén Tejada during the 2015 NLDS. He scored his 1,000th career run on June 22 against the Washington Nationals. On July 6, during a 14-inning 6-4 loss to the Baltimore Orioles, Utley had a career-high six hits and became the third-oldest player to accomplish such a feat. He was honored with the 2016 Roy Campanella Award. He appeared in 138 games in 2016, hitting .252/.319/.396 with 14 homers and 52 RBIs.

In Game 4 of the 2016 NLDS against the Washington Nationals, Utley hit a two-out RBI single in the bottom of the eighth inning to break a 5-5 tie and lead the Dodgers to an eventual 6-5 win. The Dodgers went on to eliminate the Nationals in five games.

2017
In February 2017, Utley signed a one-year, $2 million, contract to return to the Dodgers. He recorded his 1,000th career RBI with a double off Neftalí Feliz of the Kansas City Royals on July 7. On September 16, Utley recorded his 400th career double in a game against the Washington Nationals In 2017, he batted .236/.324/.405 in 309 at bats with eight home runs and 34 RBIs in 127 games played.

In the 2017 post-season, he was hitless in 15 at-bats, with five strikeouts, two walks and two hit by pitches. In Game 6 Utley was the oldest to score a go-ahead run in a World Series elimination game since Enos Slaughter in 1957.

2018
On February 17, 2018, Utley re-signed with the Dodgers for two years and $2 million. Utley was hit by a pitch on April 18 for the 200th time in his career, becoming the eighth player all-time to be hit by 200 career pitches.

On July 13, Utley announced his intention to retire after the conclusion of the 2018 season. His final MLB game was on September 30, 2018, where at San Francisco he struck out against Steven Okert in his only at-bat.

Utley was left off of the Dodgers' postseason roster, but continued to travel and practice with the team as they lost the 2018 World Series to the Boston Red Sox four games to one.

Personal life
Utley met his wife, Jennifer, while they were undergrads at UCLA. They married in January 2007 and have two children. During Utley's playing career, the family lived in Sausalito, California, during the offseason. In 2022, the family relocated to London after Utley was named MLB's "ambassador to Europe", tasked with "[promoting baseball] in Europe and in particular the United Kingdom".

Utley and his wife are avid animal lovers, having raised over $45,000 for the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Utley appeared on behalf of PETA in their "Adopt Don't Buy" video, encouraging people to find companion animals at shelters. He and his wife are vocal proponents of rescue dogs and are particularly fond of pit bulls.

His batter introductory music in Philadelphia and in Los Angeles was the song "Kashmir" by Led Zeppelin. On team charter flights, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts noted that Utley "has the really pressed white shirts, the European-cut pants, the black shoes and the hair. He reminds you of James Bond."

Utley has made several appearances as himself in the show It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia'', including alongside teammate Ryan Howard on the 2010 episode "The Gang Gets Stranded in the Woods", a 2013 episode where Utley responded to a letter written by Mac from the show years earlier, and the 2023 episode "The Gang Gets Cursed" where Mac finally meets him in person.

See also

 List of Major League Baseball annual runs scored leaders
 List of Major League Baseball career assists as a second baseman leaders
 List of Major League Baseball career games played as a second baseman leaders
 List of Major League Baseball career hit by pitch leaders
 List of Major League Baseball career home run leaders
 List of Major League Baseball career putouts as a second baseman leaders
 List of Major League Baseball career runs scored leaders
 List of people from Pasadena, California
 List of Philadelphia Phillies award winners and league leaders
 List of University of California, Los Angeles people

References

External links

Chase Utley at Baseball Almanac

1978 births
2006 World Baseball Classic players
All-American college baseball players
American expatriates in England
Baseball players from Pasadena, California
Batavia Muckdogs players
Brewster Whitecaps players
Clearwater Phillies players
Clearwater Threshers players
Cotuit Kettleers players
Lehigh Valley IronPigs players
Living people
Long Beach Polytechnic High School alumni
Los Angeles Dodgers players
Major League Baseball first basemen
Major League Baseball second basemen
National League All-Stars
Philadelphia Phillies players
Reading Fightin Phils players
Reading Phillies players
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons players
Silver Slugger Award winners
UCLA Bruins baseball players
World Baseball Classic players of the United States

Chase Utley


Bird's Opening is a chess opening characterised by the move: 1. f4.

Bird's is a flank opening. White's strategic ideas involve control of the e5-square. This offers some attacking chances at the expense of slightly weakening his own centre. The opening is rarely played by expert players. It is named after Henry Bird, a 19th century English player.

Chess openings

Bird's Opening


Wild Geese II is a 1985 British action-thriller film directed by Peter Hunt, based on the 1982 novel The Square Circle by Daniel Carney, in which a group of mercenaries are hired to spring Rudolf Hess from Spandau Prison in Berlin. The film is a sequel to the 1978 film The Wild Geese, which was also produced by Euan Lloyd and adapted from a novel by Carney. Richard Burton, who starred in the first film as Colonel Allen Faulkner, was planning to reprise his role, but died days before filming began. Faulkner is replaced by his brother played by Edward Fox as one of the mercenaries. No characters from the original are featured in the sequel.

Plot
Africa, 1977
Veteran mercenary Allen Faulkner trains and then leads a group of 50 hired soldiers in an attempt to rescue deposed President Julius Limbani. After initially being successful the mission begins to fall apart; double-crossed and caught in the open, Faulkner's men are strafed and napalmed by an enemy plane. With what few men remain Faulkner looks to escape the country in an old Dakota aeroplane. With only his best friend Rafer Janders left to board the plane, Janders is shot in the leg and can't catch the taxiing plane. As the hordes of ferocious Simbas are virtually upon him, Janders calls for Faulkner to kill him, which he regretfully does.

London, 1982
As the only surviving Nazi leader in captivity, Rudolf Hess has secrets that could destroy the careers of prominent political figures, secrets an international news network will pay any price to get.

As Alex Faulkner arrives for a meeting, Robert McCann is arguing with Michael Lukas about the delay of a planned rescue of Rudolf Hess.

Faulkner is escorted into the office; there he meets network executives Michael and Kathy Lukas, who ask him to free Hess - a request which he refuses. He does recommend John Haddad as a substitute. As this is happening, former Lebanese American soldier turned mercenary Haddad avoids Palestinian hitmen in London. Later Kathy and Michael hire Haddad to free Hess and get him safely out of West Berlin.

When Haddad arrives in West Berlin he stakes out the outside of Spandau Prison as a jogger while being spied on. He drafts plans of the outside of the prison including guard towers and entrances. The next day Haddad joins a construction team and sneaks away to get into the prison guard entrance. Carefully eluding the guards by studying their timed patrols he drafts floor plans of the hallways and cell blocks.

When he leaves the prison with the construction crew, Haddad is abducted by Karl Stroebling who is a Nazi but works for the Soviet Union. Stroebling and his thugs smother Haddad with a plastic bag over his head to torture him into disclosing details about his mission. Haddad escapes by overpowering the thugs and rolls across the street, barely missing being run over by an oncoming truck as the police arrive and witness the incident.

While recovering in hospital, Haddad is visited by British Colonel Reed-Henry. Reed-Henry questions Haddad but to no avail; he leaves Haddad but suspects he is there to rescue Hess. Haddad leaves the hospital and, with Kathy, goes to Bavaria to plan the mission without interference from Stroebling.

Haddad enlists his old mercenary comrade Faulkner to watch his back. Faulkner, a former British Army officer, is working as an assassin and is an expert marksman. As romance between Haddad and Kathy blossoms, the trio returns to West Berlin to find that Reed-Henry will help Haddad release Hess. Reed-Henry claims that the British secretly want to get rid of Hess because the old man's presence is a reason for the Soviets to have military in the British sector. Once again, Stroebling's thug's attempt to kill Haddad, but this time Faulkner helps him kill all but one of them.

Meeting with Reed-Henry to discuss his plan, Haddad agrees to hand over Hess to the colonel in exchange for help from Regimental Sergeant Major James Murphy. Murphy, an ex-warden at Spandau prison, informs Haddad of the prison routine and helps make the mercenaries look like British Royal Military Police. Stroebling offers to remove a contract on Haddad's life in exchange for Hess and the death of Faulkner. Haddad refuses and Stroebling leaves, frustrated.

The plan is finalised, with the news network, Reed-Henry and Stroebling each believing they will receive Hess. Part of the plan involves a staged traffic accident, so Haddad employs fairground wall of death rider Pierre to perform the deliberate crash.

Attempting to force Haddad into a vulnerable position using blackmail, Stroebling kidnaps Kathy. In exchange for guaranteeing her safety, Haddad must have a member of Stroebling's gang Patrick Hourigan join the rescue group.

Haddad and Faulkner are now joined by Kathy's brother and Lebanese mercenaries Joseph and Jamil. The group, including Hourigan, are trained by Murphy. During one of Faulkner's fever spells, Hourigan substitutes Faulkner's medication with LSD tablets causing hallucinations.

After the training is finished, Hourigan taunts Murphy about an IRA ambush he participated in. Murphy shoots Hourigan dead, putting Haddad in a dilemma over Kathy's safety. Haddad enlists his final team members, Arab businessman Mustapha El Ali and his employees, to take a couple of minor parts in the rescue. To appease Stroebling, Haddad offers Michael as extra insurance.

Haddad must rescue Michael and Kathy from the clutches of Stroebling. Michael creates a diversion for him and Kathy to escape but is killed during the struggle when the guard retrieves his handgun and shoots him. Moments later Haddad kills the guards and rescues Kathy. The plan goes ahead as scheduled but Pierre is killed in the staged accident.

Hess is sedated with an anaesthetic, switched with the look-alike corpse from the other ambulance and placed into a waiting jeep. At the rendezvous point at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Reed-Henry tries to intercept Hess, but discovers that he has been duped into killing Stroebling disguised as a guard.

Kathy, Haddad and Faulkner take a drugged Hess to and from a football game. Together with the Austrian fans, they travel to an East German airport to flee to Vienna. They succeed by killing a curious East German customs officer.

Reed-Henry confesses to his Russian superiors that Hess has escaped with his rescuers and is nowhere to be found. He accepts execution by being shot with his own pistol.

Epilogue
Haddad, and Kathy and Faulkner take Hess to a hotel in Vienna, Austria. He overhears Kathy talking on the phone to McCann about the rescue and Michael's death.

Hess, knowing that he is being exploited, tells Kathy, Haddad and Faulkner that he has no desire to be a part of modern society. He has regrets about the millions of deaths. Haddad and Faulkner try to talk him into accepting his freedom, but he insists on going back to Spandau to live out the rest of his life. The following day Haddad, Kathy and Faulkner take Hess to the French embassy where he turns himself in. An article of a newspaper in the following days tells a story about a false rumour of Hess's escape.

Cast
 Scott Glenn - John Haddad
 Barbara Carrera - Kathy Lukas
 Edward Fox - Alex Faulkner
 Laurence Olivier - Rudolf Hess
 Robert Webber - Robert McCann
 Kenneth Haigh - Colonel Reed-Henry
 Stratford Johns - Mustapha El Ali
 John Terry - Michael Lukas
 Robert Freitag - Karl Stroebling
 Ingrid Pitt - Hooker
 Patrick Stewart - Russian general
 Paul Antrim - RSM. Murphy
 Derek Thompson - Patrick Hourigan
 Michael N. Harbour - Ilya, KGB man
 David Lumsden - Joseph
 Malcolm Jamieson - Pierre
 Billy Boyle - Devenish
 Richard Burton - Allen Faulkner (archive footage)
 Richard Harris - Rafer Janders (archive footage)
 Winston Ntshona - Julius Limbani (archive footage)
 Brook Williams - Private Samuels (archive footage)
 Glyn Baker - Private Esposito (archive footage)

Production
The original film had not been particularly popular in the US but performed better around the world. In April 1984 Richard Burton and Scott Glenn were announced as stars. Roger Moore was asked to reprise his role from the first film, but did not like the sequel's script. Lewis Collins claimed he was originally signed to play Haddad due to a contract with producer Euan Lloyd but the role went to the American Scott Glenn.

Burton said after making the film he intended "to retire again for at least six months". In August 1984, a week before filming was to begin, Burton died of an intracerebral haemorrhage at his home in Geneva. Producer Euan Lloyd had just visited him: "He looked tan and healthy and had just passed his physical examination for the film after a nice holiday in Switzerland". Burton was replaced by Edward Fox.

In January 1985, Thorn EMI split the cost of a five-picture £38 million slate of films they had made, including Dream Child, A Passage to India, Morons from Outer Space, The Holcroft Covenant and Wild Geese 2.

The film opens with a dedication to the previous film's lead actor Richard Burton, followed by a brief summary of that film.

Then-77-year-old Laurence Olivier, who portrayed Rudolf Hess, was in poor health during filming requiring a nurse to accompany him during production. He was also beginning to suffer with memory problems. Edward Fox recalled him labouring for hours on his one long speech. Ingrid Pitt, who acted in the film but didn't have any scenes with him, did have dinner with Olivier during the production and described him as "very old and frail by this time but very gallant". Hess's son Wolf Rudiger Hess said afterwards that Olivier's likeness of his father was "uncannily accurate".

Patrick Stewart appears in a small role as a Russian general. By his own admission, he only took the role to pay for much needed home repairs. He felt his appearance was the biggest embarrassment of his career.

Notes

External links

 Patrick Stewart talks about Wild Geese II

1985 films
British action adventure films
1985 action thriller films
British action thriller films
Films set in Berlin
Films set in London
Films set in Vienna
Films directed by Peter R. Hunt
Films with screenplays by Reginald Rose
Films scored by Roy Budd
Films shot in Berlin
Films set in 1977
Films set in 1982
EMI Films films
Australian action adventure films
Films set in East Germany
Films set in West Germany
1980s English-language films
1980s British films

Wild Geese II


Muzquizopteryx is a genus of nyctosaurid pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Late Cretaceous period (early Coniacian stage) of what is now Coahuila, Mexico.

Discovery and naming

In the 1990s, José Martínez Vásquez, a worker at the chalk quarry of El Rosario, uncovered a skeleton of a pterosaur. This he handed to a quarry official, who had it bricked in on the face of an office wall as a decorative piece. After its unique scientific value had been recognized in 2002, the specimen was acquired by the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Subsequently, it was studied by a combined team of the University of Karlsruhe and the Desert Museum and scientifically reported in 2004.

In 2006, the type species Muzquizopteryx coahuilensis was named and described by  Eberhard Frey, Marie-Céline Buchy, Wolfgang Stinnesbeck, Arturo González-González and Alfredo di Stefano. The generic name is derived from the Múzquiz district and a Greek πτέρυξ, pteryx, "wing". The specific name is derived from the state of Coahuila.

Muzquizopteryx is based on holotype UNAM IGM 8621, found in the El Rosario layers, early Coniacian-aged rocks. It consists of a nearly complete, articulated skeleton that includes soft tissue remains, among them long fossilised tendons along both sides of both lower arms. The specimen represents an adult individual.

In 2012, a second specimen was reported, MUDE CPC-494, again uncovered by a quarry worker, perhaps at the same site, and sold to a private collector. It was later acquired by the Museo del Desierto Saltillo. It consists of the right upper wing of a subadult individual, with about 81% of the length of the holotype. As its provenance probably consists of slightly older layers from the late Turonian and the remains are limited, it was referred to a Muzquizopteryx sp.

Description

Muzquizopteryx was relatively small for a pterodactyloid pterosaur, with a wingspan of around . It had an elongated head with a convex upper profile, ending at the back of the head in a backward pointing short rounded crest. The jaws were toothless. The arms were very robust with the humerus featuring a large hatchet-shaped deltopectoral crest, indicating a strong wing musculature. The pteroid bone was long and pointed towards the neck, supporting a flight membrane.

Classification
Muzquizopteryx was by its describers assigned to the Nyctosauridae. It would then be the oldest known member of the group and the smallest known; indeed the smallest adult Late Cretaceous pterosaur discovered until 2006. As Nyctosaurus is sometimes included with the Pteranodontidae, Muzquizopteryx too might be considered a member of that group under some classifications.

Below is a cladogram showing the results of a phylogenetic analysis first presented by Andres and colleagues in 2014, and updated with additional data by Longrich and colleagues in 2018. They found Muzquizopteryx within the family Nyctosauridae.

See also
 List of pterosaur genera
 Timeline of pterosaur research

References

Pteranodontians
Late Cretaceous pterosaurs of North America
Fossil taxa described in 2006

Muzquizopteryx


Daniel Hopfer ( in Kaufbeuren – 1536 in Augsburg) was a German artist who is widely believed to have been the first to use etching in printmaking, at the end of the fifteenth century.  He also worked in woodcut. Although his etchings were widely ignored by art historians for years, more recent scholarship is crediting him and his work with "single-handedly establishing the salability of etchings" and introducing the print publisher business model.

Unlike most later prints, etched on copper plates, Hopfer's printed etching continued to use the iron plates he was used to working with in steel plate armour, the material he was trained in, and with which he continued to work.

Life
The son of Bartholomäus Hopfer, a painter, and his wife Anna Sendlerin, Daniel moved to Augsburg early in his life, and acquired citizenship there in 1493.

In 1497 he married Justina Grimm, sister of the Augsburg publisher, physician and druggist Sigismund Grimm. The couple had three sons, Jörg, Hieronymus and Lambert, the last two of whom carried on their father's profession of etching, Hieronymus in Nuremberg and Lambert in Augsburg. The two sons of Jörg, Georg and Daniel (junior), also became distinguished etchers, patronised by no less than the Emperor Maximilian II, whose successor, Rudolf II, raised Georg to the nobility.

Daniel was trained as an etcher of armour. There are only two proven examples of his own work on armour: a shield from 1536 now in the Royal Armoury museum (La Real Armería) of the Royal Palace of Madrid and a sword in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum of Nuremberg. An Augsburg horse armour in the German Historical Museum, Berlin, dating to between 1512 and 1515, is decorated with motifs from Hopfer's etchings and woodcuts, but this is no evidence that Hopfer himself worked on it.

The etching of metals with acid was known in Europe from at least 1400, but the elaborate decoration of armour, in Germany anyway, was an art probably imported from Italy around the end of the 15th century—little earlier than the birth of etching as a printmaking technique. Although the first extant dated etchings are the three by Albrecht Dürer of 1515, and despite the fact that none of his works are dated, stylistic evidence suggests that Daniel Hopfer was using this technology as early as 1500. It is often thought that Hopfer taught Dürer the technique.The Hopfers prospered in Augsburg, and by 1505 Daniel owned a house in the city centre. He sat on the committee of the Augsburg guild of smiths, which at this time included painters and etchers, probably because these crafts were uniquely connected in the town, one of Europe's principal manufacturing places of arms and armour.

Daniel died in Augsburg in 1536. His achievement was widely recognized during his time, and in 1590 he was posthumously named as the inventor of the art of etching in the imperial patent of nobility bestowed upon his grandson Georg.

Works
Daniel Hopfer's early etchings were done in line-work, but he and his sons soon developed more sophisticated techniques, referred to by armour historians as the Hopfer style. Applied to prints, this produced silhouetted designs on a black ground, doubtless by multiple bitings of the plates. The technically demanding procedure seems to have been both delicate and labour-intensive, and no other artists are known to have used this exact method.  Their plates were all iron, rather than the copper that the Italians later introduced once appropriate acids had been discovered. Iron plates had to be handled carefully to be kept free of rust, which could develop quickly from even a fingerprint.

None of the Hopfer family was a trained artist, or a natural draughtsman: their designs show a certain naïveté that never gained an artistic following. But the extraordinary diversity of the Hopfers' works have made them collectors' items. From religious prints to designs for goldsmiths, secular subjects such as peasants, military figures (especially Landsknechts), portraits of contemporary worthies, mytholological and folkloric themes, the sheer range of the Hopfers' productions are both remarkable and unique, designed to appeal to a clientele far wider than the metalsmiths who bought his patterns to create their wares. However, the Hopfer family did not hesitate to plagiarize the work of their contemporaries: of Daniel's 230 known prints, 14 are copies of other masters, mainly Mantegna, whilst only a minority of Hieronymus' 82 plates are his original work—no fewer than 21 are copies of Dürer's works, and around 30 others are copies from Jacopo de' Barbari, Raimondi and Altdorfer among others.

In the next century, a distant relative of the Hopfers, David Funck (1642–1705), a bookseller of Nuremberg, acquired 230 of the Hopfers' iron plates, and reprinted these under the title Operae Hopferianae, adding a somewhat crudely scratched number, known as the Funck number, to each one, thus creating a second state of the hitherto unretouched plates.

A further print run of 92 plates was made in 1802 by the publishers C. W. Silberberg of Frankfurt under the title Opera Hopferiana. The quality of the prints is a tribute to the care with which the Hopfer family maintained these rust-prone plates, many of which are now in the Berlin print cabinet.

Gallery

References

Sources
 Daniel Hopfer von Kaufbeuren, Meister zu Augsburg 1493-1536. Ed. Eyssen: Dissertation, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität, Heidelberg, 1904
 Hollstein's German Engravings Etchings and Woodcuts 1400-1700. Vol. XV. A.L. Van Gendt B.V., Blaricum, 1986.
 The Renaissance Print 1470-1550. David Landau and Peter Parchall. Yale University Press, 1994.

External links

German printmakers
1470s births
1536 deaths
Armourers
15th-century German artists
16th-century German artists
Medieval artisans

Daniel Hopfer


Buffalopox is caused by buffalopox virus (BPXV); it is a Poxviridae for which the natural host is buffalo. It mainly infects buffalo but has been known to infect cows and humans.  It is classified in the Orthopoxvirus (OPV) genus and the subfamily Chordopoxvirinae. The appearance of buffalopox follows a pattern and is described as emerging and re-emerging, it commonly occurs in sporadic and epidemic forms in domestic and commercial farm settings.

Epidemiology

The first recorded incidence of buffalopox occurred in India in 1934. Since then many outbreaks have occurred in many parts of the world including Pakistan, Egypt, Nepal, and Bangladesh. While the disease was characterized in 1934, the agent causing the disease was not identified until 1977 when researchers, Singh and Singh, were able to isolate and characterize the virus. In buffaloes the disease is mainly reported in the young and old.  BPXV can be spread by sand flies and midges, and transmission studies showed that in addition to infecting buffaloes and cows the virus can also infect guinea pigs and suckling mice. Between 2006 and 2008, there were four outbreaks in domestic buffaloes in India. The buffaloes presented with lesions on the udder, teats, limbs, around the ear, and hindquarters which was indicative of a generalized infection.  In this case, there was a reduction of milk yield of about 30-35% which was followed by mastitis that was a consequence of a secondary bacterial infection.  The milk attendants developed lesions on their chest, lower abdomen, fingers, hands, forearms, legs, scapular region, feet, and forehead and also presented with a fever, lymphadenopathy, and general malaise. There is also some evidence of milk attendants spreading the virus between buffalo and from buffalo to cows.

Symptoms

In the mild form, lesions occur localized on the udder, teats, and inguinal region, over the parotid, and the base and inner surface of the ear and eyes. In the severe form, the lesions are generalized. The severe form is now rare, and the disease is mainly mild.  The result is high morbidity and productivity loss. When the virus infects milk animals it causes mastitis which reduces milk yield and the working capacity of draft animals. The mastitis occurs in approximately fifty percent of the infected animals; in severe cases, the reduction in milk production can be permanent. The incubation time in animals is about 2–4 days and in humans it is 3–19 days.

Structure

Structurally BPXV looks like other OPVs and especially Vaccinia Virus (VACV).  Studies have shown that the virus particle is brick shaped and measures 280-330 nm by 200-250 nm in size.  Before maturation the particle appears oval or spherical and may or may not have a central core.  Research has shown that, depending on the specific strain of the virus it can yield between 19 and 26 polypeptides, some of which are glycoproteins.

Implications

Humans in close contact with buffaloes are susceptible to buffalopox; with the cessation of the smallpox vaccine in 1980, humans do not develop an antibody titer against the Poxviridae, and as a result have become even more susceptible to viruses like buffalopox.  In humans the virus causes lesions that are mainly confined to the hands, forehead, face, buttocks, and legs, and occasionally lymphadenopathy.  Human-to-human transmission has not been reported.  Milking of infected animals is one of the major modes of spread, thus the main people in danger of contracting the disease are veterinarians, milk attendants, and other people who are in close proximity of the infected animals.  There have also been recent reports of nosocomial infections in burn patients and paramedical staff.

References

Poxviruses
Bovine diseases
Animal viral diseases
Virus-related cutaneous conditions

Buffalopox


Kató Havas  (5 November 1920 – 31 December 2018) was a Hungarian classical violinist and a teacher of both the violin and viola who developed the "New Approach to violin playing" to help prevent physical injuries and eliminate stage fright related to playing the violin or viola. Through the teaching of the New Approach, Kató Havas realized that the release of physical tensions eliminated also mental tension. In her book Stage Fright Kató Havas analyzes the physical, mental and social causes of it and gives practical answers and exercises.

Early life and education
Kató Havas was born in Târgu Secuiesc, Romania and became a child prodigy of the violin. Introduced to the instrument at the age of five, she gave her first professional recital at seven. Impressed by her playing, her compatriot Emil Telmányi arranged for her to study at the Royal Academy of Music in Budapest with Imre Waldbauer, the first violinist of the Waldbauer-Kerpely Quartet, where she received the traditional training.

Her musical education took place at a time when Waldbauer, Ernő Dohnányi, Bartók and Kodály were active in Hungary. Havas also claims Hungarian gypsy violin players had a profound influence on her later development of the New Approach.

Career
At the age of eighteen she made her debut in America at Carnegie Hall and was acclaimed by the critics.

In the early sixties, a series of articles about her method by Noel Hale, F.R.A.M., appeared in The Strad. "I was privileged", wrote Hale, "to witness the teaching of a method of violin playing entirely new to me, which I believe is capable of revolutionizing the technique of playing… writing as a personal witness, I must say that I have been amazed at the results of this unusual approach." These articles started a heated debate.

In 1961, her first book, A New Approach to Violin Playing, was published, with a laudatory foreword by violin virtuoso Yehudi Menuhin.

Havas was invited to lecture at Oxford University, gave talks and demonstrations on television, as well as a series of lecture demonstrations in Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and many European countries. She travelled extensively in the United States, giving workshops on the application of the new approach to violin and viola playing. She founded and directed the Purbeck Music Festival in Dorset, the Roehampton Music Festival in London and the International Festival in Oxford where she was based and approached by players from all over the world.

In 1992 the American String Teachers Association (ASTA) conferred upon her its prestigious Isaac Stern International Award in recognition of her "unparalleled achievements".

In 2002 Havas was appointed OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) by Queen Elizabeth II, in the Queen's Birthday Honours, "for services to music". She died in December 2018 at the age of 98.

Publications
 A New Approach to Violin Playing – 1961
 The Twelve Lesson Course in a New Approach to Violin Playing – 1964
 The Violin and I – An Autobiographical Account with Seven Years of Controversial Correspondence over the New Approach – 1968
 Stage Fright – Its Causes and Cures with Special Reference to Violin Playing – 1973
 Freedom to Play, Alexander Broude, 1981
 A New Approach on the Causes and Cures of Physical Injuries in Violin and Viola Playing, teaching video, 1991

Her books A New Approach, The Twelve Lesson Course and Stage Fright have been translated into Chinese, Czech, Dutch, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Swedish. Havas's method has also inspired publications such as The Cellist's Inner Voice, a book by cello player and teacher at the Royal Manchester College of Music (later becoming the Royal Northern College of Music) Ian Bewley, on the application of the New Approach principles to cello playing.

References

 Intervista con Kató Havas, in 'A tutto arco', (official magazine of ESTA – European String Teacher's Association – Italia), Year I Number I, May 2008

Bibliography
 A New Approach to Violin Playing, Kató Havas, Bosworth & Co., 1961
 The Twelve Lesson Course in a New Approach to Violin Playing, Kató Havas, Bosworth & Co., 1964
 The Violin and I – An Autobiographical Account with Seven Years of Controversial Correspondence over the New Approach, Kató Havas, Bosworth & Co., 1968
 Stage Fright – Its Causes and Cures with Special Reference to Violin Playing, Kató Havas, Bosworth & Co., 1973
 A New Approach on the Causes and Cures of Physical Injuries in Violin and Viola Playing, teaching video, Kató Havas, Lakeland Home music, 1991
 The Cellist's Inner Voice, by Ian Bewley, Da Capo Press, 1994
 A comparison of violin playing techniques: Kato Havas, Paul Rolland, and Shinichi Suzuki. Perkins, Marianne Murray, 1995. Reston, VA, American String Teachers Association.
 Il Violino Nella Storia, by Enzo Porta, EDT, 2000.

External links
 Kató Havas Official website.
  Videos of Kató Havas at ESTA Italy.
 Videos of Kató Havas workshop.

1920 births
2018 deaths
Hungarian classical violinists
Hungarian women violinists
Officers of the Order of the British Empire
People from Târgu Secuiesc
Romanian violinists
Romanian women violinists
Violin pedagogues
Women classical violinists
Romanian women music educators
Romanian emigrants to Hungary
Hungarian women music educators
Hungarian music educators

Kató Havas


Anthony Murphy (born 1956 in Buenos Aires) is an Argentinian-born English painter, with strong Irish connections. He exhibits regularly in Mayfair, London and Dublin, Ireland.

Murphy was a child-actor who played the eponymous hero in the British television serial, Tom Brown's Schooldays (1971). He won an Emmy Award for 'Best Lead Actor in a Miniseries' for his role as Tom Brown. The programme itself won 'Best Miniseries' after it was screened by PBS in 1973. Despite the critical acclaim, this was the only time he worked as an actor.

Murphy studied Philosophy, Psychology and Physiology at New College, Oxford, from 1975-1978. He then married his first wife and moved to Ireland, working as a potter and an aerial photographer. But after four years he divorced, and returned to school to study law. Despite lacking passion for the law, Murphy pursued a career as a corporate lawyer, first in England then in Paris, France. In Paris he met and married his second wife. Murphy began to paint "to relieve the boredom of corporate law." Murphy's first painting exhibition in 1991 in London was a success, and his colorful Gauguin-esque paintings became highly desirable.

In 1992, Murphy relocated from Paris to a large country house near Carcassonne in the south of France to paint full-time.

His work is mainly in oil and pastel; he is known predominantly for his French and Irish scenes and his skill as a colourist. A retrospective of his work was shown in London in 2016. He currently has his studio in France and exhibits regularly.

References

External links

Anthony Murphy's Online Gallery

Alumni of New College, Oxford
Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie Primetime Emmy Award winners
English male television actors
Living people
1956 births
English painters

Anthony Murphy (artist)


Net-poetry is a development of net.art, involving poetry. This kind of experimental art was born in several different cities and countries around 1995.

Short history
Net-poetry was born in the context of net-art and digital art avant-garde in various countries in the early 90s. It is generally accepted that the simple publication of poems, visual poems or art images in a web site can not be considered Net-poetry, which is connected with the concept of "network", openness, and interactivity.

Poetry hypertext and interactive environments online
Some pioneer artists created different kind of net-poetry, as interactive environment on line including animated text and digital poetry: Ana Maria Uribe, Reiner Strasser (interactive video-sound poetry), Jim Andrews (vispo.com), Ted Warnell aka Poem by Nari (warnell.com).
Other artists intend net-poetry as interactive hypertext poetry/narration that can be adapted for Internet, examples being Deena Larsen (Marble Spring, interactive poetry hypertext in CD ROM, 1993, Disappearing Rein, 1999), Robert Kendall (Frame Work, 1999, a Study in Shades, 2000), Mendi Obadike (Keeping Up Appearances, a hypertextimonial, 2001) and others.

Karenina.it (1998) was an Italian and international net-poetry project, conceived as a virtual happening and online network of experimental poets and artists who were active online in the 90s. Participants included historical performance artists, visual poets, theorists, sound poets, literary and art critics, such as Mirella Bentivoglio, Tomaso Binga,  Julien Blaine, Caterina Davinio, founder of the project, Marco Maria Gazzano, Philadelpho Menezes, Eugenio Miccini, Massimo Mori, Francesco Muzzioli, Clemente Padin, Lamberto Pignotti and new media artists. Karenina.it collaborated in participative projects in the context of the Venice Biennale.

Net-poetry at the 49th Venice Biennale, 2001
A net-poetry event (the online happening "Parallel-Action-Bunker") was featured in the Biennale di Venezia in 2001. It was produced and curated by the digital artist and poet Caterina Davinio in the context of Bunker Poetico, a collaborative installation by the artist Marco Nereo Rotelli which involved 1,000 international poets.
The virtual happening "Azione-Parellala-Bunker" (Parallel Action-Bunker) was held online contemporaneously with real performances at Orsogrill delle Artiglierie, a real space of the Venice Biennale. With this event, a relationship was created between real and virtual poetry events – a new connective and collective network of poetry, based on communication, and similar to some events and happenings organized by Fluxus, e-mail art and relational art.

Other net-poetry events
Other net-poetry events, created by Davinio in collaboration with an open network of international artists and poets, were:
Global Poetry (21–27 March 2002): a multi-located event with simultaneous performances, screenings and poetry readings in Italia, USA, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Russia, Germany, France and other countries. 122 poets and artists were involved and websites and video documents were created. In October 2003 this project was published on the official website of the 50th Venice Biennale, in the context of the online exhibition BlogWork-The NetWork is the ArtWork (project curated by ASAC, Venice). "Global Poetry" was also included in the Rhizome Net.art database (NYC – USA).
GATES (July 4 – December 31, 2003): a net-poetry event created by Caterina Davinio and dedicated to Pierre Restany. 150 international artists were involved in a multi-located performance, with installations, screenings and poetry readings in Italy, USA, Brazil, Venezuela, Uruguay, Russia, Germany, France, Spain, Japan, Morocco, and other countries. In October 2003, GATES was featured in the official website of the 50th Venice Biennale, in the online project BlogWork-The NetWork is the ArtWork (50th Venice Biennale – ASAC).
Virtual Island: a net-poetry happening online, created by Caterina Davinio in 2005; it was included in Isola della Poesia, a collateral exhibition of the 51st Venice Biennale. 500 poets were involved. Isola della poesia was a real installation by the artist and architect Marco Nereo Rotelli on San Secondo Island, in Venice. This event in Venice was curated by the art critic Achille Bonito Oliva. The real installation had a simultaneous virtual space online called Virtual Island, created by Caterina Davinio in collaboration with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, where poets from around the world could write poems during the Venice Biennale. The participants included emerging and established poets, such as Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Fernanda Pivano, Adunis. The opening of the exhibition "Isola della poesia" - with poetry readings by international poets - was organized on board of the ship "Il Doge", which navigated in the Venice Lagoon during the Venice Biennale opening (video document).
 The First Poetry Space Shuttle Landing on Second Life, in the 2009 Venice Biennale, first interactive poetry installation in the virtual world Second Life, involving interactive spaces on YouTube, Facebook, and web sites.
 Network Poetico, poetry readings from around the world using a Skype video call connected with San Servolo Island, in the context of the 2009 Venice Biennale.

See also
Concrete poetry
Digital poetry
Fluxus
Happening
Net.art
New media Poetry
Performance poetry

References

Sources
Caterina Davinio, Techno-Poesia e realtà virtuali (Techno-Poetry and Virtual Realities), essay (Italian-English). Preface by Eugenio Miccini. Collection: Achivio della poesia del '900. Mantova (I), Sometti Publisher, 2002.
AAVV, Atti del Convegno Scritture/Realtà, Milano, Milanocosa, 2002.
Marco Nereo Rotelli, Bunker poetico, La poesia come opera, 49ma Esposizione internazionale d'arte La Biennale di Venezia, Porretta Terme (BO), I Quaderni del Battello Ebbro, 2001.
49ma Esposizione internazionale d'arte Platea dell'umanità, La Biennale di Venezia, catalogue, Electa 2001
La Biennale di Venezia, 51ma esposizione internazionale d'arte, Partecipazioni nazionali - Eventi nell'ambito, catalogo Marsilio,
"Infos Brésil", 15 nov. - 15 déc. 2003
Caterina Davinio, "Net-Performance: Processes and Visible Form", in "Doc(k)s", Ajaccio, France, 2004. ISSN Doc(k)s 0396/3004, commission paritaire 52 841
Caterina Davinio, Paint from Nature, net-art performance dedicated to the Twin Tower attack. In "Doc(k)s", paper and CD,  Ajaccio, France, 2001. ISSN Doc(k)s 0396/3004, commission paritaire 52 841
"Premio Oscar Signorini 2003", interview by Silvia Venuti, in: "D'Ars", anno 43, n. 175–176, Milan, Dec. 2003.
Virtual Mercury House. Planetary & Interplanetary Events, e-book, and book with DVD, parallel English translation, Rome, Polìmata, 2012,
 Caterina Davinio, Rumors & Motors. Concetti di poesia - Concepts of Poetry, digital poetry, illustrated, color, with critiques by: Jorge Luiz Antonio, Francesco Muzzioli, Lamberto Pignotti, Italian-English text, and partially in Portuguese, Campanotto Publisher, Pasian di Prato (UD) 2016.
 Caterina Davinio, Big Splash Network Poetico, catalog of the poetry installation at the Royal Palace of Naples, Fermenti Publisher, Rome 2015

Web sources
 Isola della Poesia - La Repubblica News (it)
  Techno-Poesia (Portuguese)
 Techno-Poesia (En)
 Karenina.it (En)
 RCCS Techno-Poetry Review
 Karenina.it (It)

External links
 Poetry
 Poetry of the Day
 Parallel Action-Bunker
 Global Poetry
 Gates
 Virtual Island
 Jim Andrews
 Ted Warnell
 Agricola de Cologne (media art, curatorial project, database)
 Reiner Strasser
 Jason Nelson Digital Poetry and Net Art Oddities
 Yes we are
 Untitledocument

Poetry movements
Italian poetry
Italian literary movements
20th-century Italian literature

es:Ciberpoesía

Net-poetry


The Sunday Press was a weekly newspaper published in Ireland from 1949 until 1995. It was launched by Éamon de Valera's Irish Press group following the defeat of his Fianna Fáil party in the 1948 Irish general election. Like its sister newspaper, the daily The Irish Press, politically the paper loyally supported Fianna Fáil.

The future Taoiseach Seán Lemass was the managing editor of the Irish Press who spearheaded the launch of the Sunday paper, with the first editor Colonel Matt Feehan. Many of the Irish Press journalists contributed to the paper. 'When I open the pages, I duck' was Brendan Behan's description of reading The Sunday Press, for the habit of published memoirs of veterans (usually those aligned to Fianna Fáil) of the Irish War of Independence.

It soon built up a large readership, and overtook its main competitor the Sunday Independent, which tended to support Fine Gael. At its peak The Sunday Press sold up to 475,000 copies every week, and had a readership of over one million, around one third of the Irish population.

Like the Evening Press, the paper's readership held up better over the years than that of the flagship title in the group, The Irish Press, and it might have survived as a stand-alone title had it been sold. However, with the collapse of the Irish Press Newspapers group in May 1995, all three titles ceased publication immediately. The launch of Ireland on Sunday in 1997 was initially interpreted by many observers as an attempt to appeal to the former readership of The Sunday Press, seen as generally rural, fairly conservative Catholic, and with a traditional Irish nationalist political outlook.

When Christmas Day fell on Sunday in 1949, 1955, 1960, 1966, 1977, 1983, 1988 and 1994 the paper came out on the Saturday.

Vincent Jennings at the age of 31 became editor of The Sunday Press in 1968, serving until December 1986, when he became manager of the Irish Press Group.
Journalists who worked at the press include Stephen Collins served as political editor his father Willie Collins was deputy editor and
Michael Carwood became sports editor of The Sunday Press in 1988 until its closure in 1995.

Digital archive
The Sunday Press from 1978 to 1989 was added to the Irish Newspaper Archives in September 2020.

References

1949 establishments in Ireland
1995 disestablishments in Ireland
Defunct newspapers published in Ireland
Irish republican newspapers
Newspapers established in 1949
Newspapers published in the Republic of Ireland
Publications disestablished in 1995
Press

The Sunday Press


Isaac Allerton ( 15601659) was born in England. In 1620, he travelled on the Mayflower with his wife, three children and apprentice John Hooke.

Allerton belonged to the religion which was not allowed in England. In 1614 he and his family moved to Leiden Netherlands where he worked as a tailor. He married and had three children.

The Mayflower voyage

The Allerton family and John Hooke, left Plymouth, England on 16 September 1620. There were 102 passengers and 30–40 crew. On 19 November 1620, the Mayflower spotted land. They had intended to go to Virginia Colony but the ship was damaged so they landed at Cape Cod on 21 November. They wrote the Mayflower Compact, which made rules on how they would live and treat each other. Allerton signed the document.

In Plymouth Colony
In the first year many people died from the cold weather and hunger including Allerton's wife and his apprentice. Allerton worked with Plymouth Governors to help save the colony.

Starting in 1626, Allerton made many trips back and forth to England. The Mayflower passengers owed money to people in England who had helped pay for their voyage. Allerton was supposed to go to England and pay off some of this debt. Some of the people did not think that he was honest with the money. On one of his trips back from England, in 1630, Allerton came back without some of the supplies which they very much needed.

In 1634, another sickness came to Plymouth Colony which caused many people to die including Allerton's second wife Fear.

Allerton died in 1659 in New Haven, Connecticut. His first wife, Mary died in 1621 and was buried in Cole's Hill Burial Ground, Plymouth. The burial place of his second wife, Fear is unknown.

References

1580s births
1659 deaths
Mayflower passengers

Isaac Allerton


Jan Nepomuk Neruda (Czech: [ˈjan ˈnɛpomuk ˈnɛruda]; 10 July 1834 – 22 August 1891) was a Czech journalist, writer, poet and art critic; one of the most prominent representatives of Czech Realism and a member of the "May School".

Early life

Jan Neruda was born in Prague, Bohemia. He was son of a small grocer who lived in the Malá Strana district. They lived in Újezd Street and from 1836 to 1838, they lived in Zásmuky, where Jan's father was born. When he was four, they moved to Ostruhová Street (now called  in his honor), where they owned a house known as "U Dvou Slunců" (At the Two Suns).

His studies began in 1845 at the local Grammar school then, in 1850, continued at the Academic Grammar School in Clementinum. His favourite writers at the time were Heine, Byron, Shakespeare, Karel Hynek Mácha and Václav Bolemír Nebeský.

After graduation he tried to study law, but he failed. He worked as a clerk for a short time, but was unhappy, so he decided to study philosophy and philology at Charles University. He then worked as a teacher until 1860, when he became a freelance journalist and writer.

He started his career at Národní listy (National Sheets). Later, he worked for Obrazy života (Pictures of Life) and  (Time). He also contributed to  (Blossoms) and Lumír.

He became the de facto leader of a generation of writers that included Karolina Světlá, Vítězslav Hálek, Adolf Heyduk and Karel Sabina; devoted to continuing the legacy of Karel Hynek Mácha. They published their works in the literary almanac Máj.

By 1871, various groups had labeled Neruda as a "Traitor to the Nation", so he decided to spend some time away; visiting Italy, Greece, France, Germany, Hungary and Egypt. He kept detailed records of these journeys, which provide an interesting testimony to his life and times, with various insights that prove him to be a good observer.

From 1883 to his death he lived on Vladislavova Street 1382/14 in New Town, Prague.

Personal life
Neruda was a loner and an introvert, although he was a friend of composer Bedřich Smetana.

Neruda never married, but he had close relationships with Anna Holinová and Karolína Světlá.

Holinová was his first love. Many of his poems were meant for her. Through her father, Neruda was able to meet Božena Němcová and Karel Jaromír Erben, famous Czech nationalist writers.

His second love was Světlá, a married woman who was also a writer. They supported each other emotionally with their works. She also supported him financially. When he found himself deeply in debt, she sold a precious brooch and lent him the money. Unfortunately her husband, ,  found out about it and forced him to give up the relationship. He also had to give him all the letters they had written to each other. These letters became the source for the movie called Příběh lásky a cti (The Story of Love and Honor). Throughout his life, the poet had been in material need, although he was an extremely prolific and respected journalist. Once a week, for example, he wrote a column for the National Papers, worked as a theater officer and literary critic, and edited several popular science journals.

He had a close relationship with his mother. Her death in 1869 greatly affected him and brought a sadder tone to his works.

Career

In his work, Neruda supported the Czech National Revival and promoted Czech nationalism. He participated in all the central cultural and political struggles of his generation, and gained a reputation as a sensitive critic. Neruda became, along with Vítězslav Hálek, one of the most prominent representatives of the new literary trends.

Death

Beginning in 1880, he suffered from a swelling  of his veins, which contributed to a number of diseases that afflicted him for the rest of his life. In the  winter of 1888, he shattered his kneecap when he slipped on some ice. From that time on, he relied on messengers to deliver his articles to Národní listy.

He died on August 22, 1891, from an  inflammation of his digestive tract caused by intestinal cancer.

He was buried at Vyšehrad Cemetery in Prague. His funeral became the occasion for an expression of Czech nationalist sentiment.

Works

Poetry
Hřbitovní kvítí ("Graveyard Flowers") - His first poetry. It was published in 1858. The entire book is pessimistic, skeptical and hopeless. Verses are growing out of disappointment with contemporary life, societies, the inactivity of the Nation, resistance of the set morality. There is also a social issue, dealing with poverty. He does not trust love or people. Feelings of loneliness, fervor.
Knihy veršů ("Books of Verses") - published in 1867. He moderates his pessimism, finds the point of his life - at work and sacrifice to the whole Nation. It shows love for his parents.This book is much more readable than other books, the poems are of good quality. Even here we find his gloomy social ballads. This book consists of three parts: 1. Kniha veršů výpravných ("Book of Narrative Verses"), 2. Kniha veršů lyrických a smíšených ("Book of Lyrical and Mixed Verses") 3. Kniha veršů časových a příležitostných ("Book of Time and Occasional Verses").
Písně kosmické ("Cosmic songs") - published in 1878. In this books he is again discovering the meaning of his life, trying to be optimistic, responding to the development of science and technology. It celebrates cosmic bodies and human desire for knowledge. There is a materialistic understanding of the world. This work expresses feelings of the Generation called Májovci.
Balady a romance ("Ballads and Romances)" - published between 1878 and 1883. He confuses ballads with romances so that they often sound like the opposites. The ballads often process national themes from the Bible or old legends, and the subject of mother-son relationships appears. Some of the favourite ballads or romances are for example Romance štědrovečerní ("Christmas Romance"), Romance o Karlu IV. ("Romance about Charles IV."), Balada česká ("Czech Ballad") or Balada o duši K. H. Borovského ("Ballad about the soul of K. H. Borovský").
Prosté motivy ("Plain Themes / Simple Motifs") - published in 1883. This is his intimate diary. Natural theme is really important here. The human life coincides with a cycle of seasons. Spring = youth, summer = maturity, autumn = old age, winter = death. He describes this period.
Zpěvy páteční ("Friday Songs") - published in 1896. This is his top work. This book came out after his death, prepared by Jaroslav Vrchlický. The life of the nation is compared to the Great Fate, showing the belief that the resurrection will come. It speaks of great love for the nation and reflects on national history - it turns to Hussitism. Parts of this book are V zemi kalichu ("In the country of the cup"), Anděl strážný ("Guardian angel"), Ecce homo and Láska ("Love").

Prose
Arabesky - This is his first book of prose, published in 1864. This is a set of short stories, whose core consists of stories from the late 1850s and early 1860s. In the forefront of these short stories there is no plot, but descriptive characteristics, reflection and dialogue. Significant is humor, irony, sarcasm. In the foreground there are peculiar figurines that are captured in contrast to the environment they are included in. These are people from the periphery that society has eliminated. Neruda uncovers their sad and tragic moments, presenting them as full-fledged, emotionally rich. This puts them in opposition to prejudice and a time of conventional view. Neruda uses his own experiences and familiar environments, gives readers only cuts from the lives of characters. Stories Měla Gusto!  and Za půl hodiny ("Within half an hour") when sexual and erotic motifs appear at that time, they were added after Neruda's death.
Různí lidé ("Different People") - Studies and pictures of the nature and fate of the people he met abroad.
Trhani - A novel about railroad workers.
Pražské obrázky ("Pictures of Prague") - This book captures the lives of the poor.
Povídky malostránské ("Tales of the Lesser Quarter") - This is his best-known prose work, published in 1877. He created the picture of Prague's Lesser Quarter before 1848 on the basis of his own memories. Neruda's stories take the reader to its streets and yards, shops, churches, houses, and restaurants. It shows typical figures of Czech Bourgeoisie. With humor depicting their qualities, he criticizes local life. It uses the form of a novelistically integrated story, sometimes its narrative consists of a series of tiny shots of everyday life. Heroes are precisely characterized, each with a different expression. It was translated into English in 1957 by the novelist and mystery writer Ellis Peters.
Praha ("Prague")

Theatre plays
Ženich z hladu ("Groom from hunger")
Prodaná láska ("Sold love")
Merenda nestřídmých
Francesca di Rimini
Žena miluje srdnatost
Já to nejsem ("It's not me")

Feuilletons
Žerty hravé a dravé ("Playful and predatory jokes")
Studie krátké a kratší ("Short and shorter studies")
Menší cesty ("Smaller trips")
Obrazy z ciziny ("Pictures from abroad")

Journalism
Obrazy z ciziny ("Pictures from abroad")
Rodinná kronika ("Family chronicle")

Legacy

After his death, Ostruhová Street, which was the setting for many of his stories, was renamed  in his honor.
The Chilean poet, Ricardo Eliecer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto, adopted the pseudonym Pablo Neruda, to express his admiration.
Andrew J. Feustel took a copy of Cosmic Songs with him on space shuttle mission STS-125.
Jan Neruda Grammar School is named for him.
Statue of Jan Neruda, Prague
1875 Neruda (1969 QQ), a main-belt asteroid discovered in 1969 by Luboš Kohoutek is named in his honor.
The Neruda crater on Mercury is named in honor of both him and fellow Czech, classical composer Johann Baptist Georg Neruda.

References

External links

 Jan Neruda at Wikipedia (Czech)

1834 births
1891 deaths
Writers from Prague
Czech humorists
Czech journalists
Czech poets
Czech male poets
19th-century Czech musicians
19th-century journalists
Male journalists
19th-century poets
19th-century Czech writers
Burials at Vyšehrad Cemetery

Jan Neruda


Wilfrid Backhouse Alexander (4 February 1885 – 18 December 1965) was an English ornithologist and entomologist. He was a brother of Horace Alexander and Christopher James Alexander.

Alexander was born at Croydon in Surrey, England in 1885, and was introduced to natural history by his two uncles, James and Albert Crosfield. He was educated at Bootham School in York and Tonbridge School in Kent, and went on to study Natural Science at Cambridge University. During this time his main interest was botany, graduating in 1909 with first class honours.

Career
After graduation he stayed in Cambridge for a short time working as assistant superintendent of the Cambridge University Museum of Zoology and assistant demonstrator in Zoology and Comparative Anatomy for Cambridge University. In 1911, he took a job with the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries as an assistant naturalist on an international exploration of the North Sea, but in August that year, he obtained the appointment of Assistant at the Western Australian Museum. He moved to Australia in early 1912 to take up the position, which he held for three years before being made Keeper of Biology at the museum.

Australia
He made a number of expeditions to collect material for the museum including the Percy Sladen Trust Expedition to the Abrolhos Islands in 1913. He became Honorary Secretary of and co-editor of the journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia in 1914. In 1916, the museum was under severe financial pressure and Alexander was granted leave without pay to take up a position as science abstractor to the Advisory Council of Science and Industry in Melbourne. He held this position until 1919, when he returned to the Western Australian Museum for a short time. During this period he also acted as librarian to the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union, which he became vice-president of from 1923–25. He was also editor of the union's journal, Emu, from 1924–25.

In 1920 the Commonwealth Prickly Pear Board was formed with the purpose of finding a way to control the several species of Opuntia that were taking over vast areas of subtropical eastern Australia and W. B. Alexander was appointed biologist to the board. The project took him on visits to North and South America in search of a suitable insect agent and in 1924 he was promoted to Officer-in-charge. The result of these overseas investigations was the highly successful use of Cactoblastis moths in controlling the Opuntia species in Australia and also arousing his interest in oceanic birds. So when he left Australia in 1926 he spent most of the year at the American Museum of Natural History preparing the book Birds of the Ocean (1928), a forerunner of later field guides, before returning to England.

Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology
He had no regular employment from 1926 until he was appointed superintendent of the Marine Biological Association's Tees Estuary survey in 1929. Then in 1930 he was appointed Director of the Oxford Bird Census which developed into the Oxford University Research in Economic Ornithology in 1931, then an Institute of Field Ornithology, funded by the newly formed British Trust for Ornithology in 1933. In 1938, it was officially recognized by Oxford University as the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology. In 1945 he retired as director and became the Institute's librarian, remaining so until 1955. The donation of his personal collection of bird books had provided the original nucleus of the library, and it was named after him in 1947.

He was awarded the Tucker Medal of the British Trust for Ornithology in 1955 and the Union Medal of the British Ornithologists' Union in 1959.

He spent his retirement in Parkstone, Dorset, southern England, where he died on 8 December 1965.

References

Further reading
 J. Duncan Wood, Horace Alexander: Birds and Binoculars
 Bright Sparcs Biographical entry
 Adams, J.K., 1966. Obituary. Wilfred Backhouse Alexander, 1885–1965. Ibis, 108 (2), pp. 288–289.
 Lack, D., 1966. W. B. Alexander. Nature, 209 (5925), pp. 759–760.
 Lack, D., Wilfred Backhouse Alexander 1885–1965. Oxford Ornithological Society Report for 1965, pp. 2–5.
 Nicholson, E.M., 1966. Obituary. Wilfred Backhouse Alexander (1885–1965). British Birds, 59, pp. 125–128.
 Serventy, D.L., 1967. Obituary W. B. Alexander, M.A. The Western Australian Naturalist, 10 (6), pp. 139–148.

1885 births
1965 deaths
People from Croydon
People educated at Bootham School
Alumni of the University of Cambridge
Academics of the University of Oxford
English entomologists
English ornithologists
English curators
English librarians
People associated with the American Museum of Natural History
20th-century British zoologists
Edward Grey Institute people

Wilfred Backhouse Alexander


WPHM (1380 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station in Port Huron, Michigan. The station broadcasts a News/Talk/Sports radio format.  It is owned by Radio First with studios on Huron Avenue in Downtown Port Huron.

WPHM is powered at 5,000 watts.  To protect other stations on 1380 AM from interference, it uses a directional antenna with a seven-tower array.  The signal covers much of The Thumb area of Michigan.  The transmitter is on Range Road in St. Clair, Michigan, near the St. Clair River.

Programming includes a local morning talk show with syndicated news and sports programs the rest of the day. Local newscasts are branded as coming from the Blue Water News Network.

Most hours begin with an update from ABC News Radio. The station is also a partial affiliate of Fox Sports Radio. Play by play sports coverage includes the Detroit Tigers, Detroit Lions, Detroit Pistons, Detroit Red Wings, and Michigan State Spartans.

Programming
Weekdays on WPHM begin with a live and local morning drive time information and talk show, hosted by Paul Miller with local news from Caleb Gordon.  The rest of the station's lineup is syndicated talk programs and play-by-play sports.  They include The Brian Kilmeade Show, The Chad Benson Show, The Tom Sullivan Show, Our American Stories with Lee Habeeb, Fox Sports Radio, Coast to Coast AM with George Noory, and This Morning, America's First News with Gordon Deal.

Weekends feature shows on home repair, technology, law, religion and the outdoors.  Weekend syndicated shows include At Home with Gary Sullivan, Bill Handel on the Law and Rich DeMuro on Tech.   Most hours begin with an update from ABC News Radio. WPHM is also an affiliate of Bloomberg Radio, Brownfield Ag News, Fox Sports Radio, the Michigan News Network, Michigan State Spartans, and all four Detroit professional sports teams.

History

WTTH
The station signed on the air on .  Its original call sign was WTTH, which stood for The Times Herald, the name of Port Huron's only daily newspaper.  It was originally powered at 1,000 watts.

The newspaper operated the station from its debut until 1970, when it was sold to Enterform, Inc.  That name derived from the words ENTERtainment and inFORMation.  The station continued to operate from the original WTTH studio location in the newspaper building after the sale to Enterform, which boasted a large front area originally used for performing live radio programs.  It also once hosted Paul Harvey doing his national news program at this remote location.

1380 becomes WPHM
Following its acquisition by Enterform in 1970, WTTH's call letters were changed to WPHM, to more accurately reflect the station's commitment to community service. In 1978, Enterform moved the studio to the newly remodeled and outfitted location at 2379 Military Street, and updated the studio-transmitter audio link from the old telephone line to a microwave system.  In 1986, Enterform sold WPHM to Hanson Communications.

Though much of WPHM's history did not involve a co-owned FM station to enhance its profitability, it didn't need one.  Somewhat unusual for a market this size was that two AM stations dominated the radio landscape, both with programming that included highly competitive news departments.  Its advantage over longtime crosstown rival WHLS (a single tower 1000 watt "Local" station) was its powerful "Regional" signal of 5,000 watts, boasting seven towers (six-tower parallelogram daytime, 4 towers inline at night), able to reach listeners north of Port Huron, known as the Thumb area.  For this reason, the station was billed for years as "The Big Station in Michigan's Thumb".

WPHM had maintained a longtime agreement with the ABC radio network and the Associated Press, which gave the station the tools it needed to be a strong local news competitor against WHLS and sister station WSAQ.  It was that, a highly talented sales force, and longtime morning personality John Hill (who retired in 2002 before his death in 2012) that established WPHM as a force to be reckoned with in St. Clair County.  WPHM was also the first in the market (even among its Detroit counterparts) to invest in hard-disk computer-based on-air technology in the early 1990s.

WPHM for decades now has used a jingle package originally produced for WABC in New York by JAM Creative Productions. "Information Radio 1380 WPHM" is sung in place of "News Talk Radio 77 WABC" during these jingles. WABC-themed news and weather beds are also utilized by WPHM,  part of the original JAM creative package.

WPHM gains an FM sister: B96.9
Despite WPHM's success on its own, Hanson Communications still aspired to buy or build a local FM property.  That opportunity finally presented itself in June 1992, when Hanson acquired CHR-formatted WBTI 96.9 FM, licensed to the city of Lexington, north of Port Huron.  The station had been on the air for less than a year.  The FCC approved the $350,000 sale to Hanson from Martz Communications a month later.  WBTI was then moved to WPHM's offices at 2379 Military Street in Port Huron.

As further proof of how dominant WPHM was over its new FM sister, WPHM outbilled WBTI 10 to 1 in 1993.

Into the 1990s and the new millennium
In 1997, Hanson Communications began negotiations with David Barr, owner and president of Barr/Schremp Communications in Marine City, about 12 miles south of Port Huron.  Barr, who was operating syndicated talk-formatted WIFN (now WHLX), wanted to leave the Detroit radio business and pursue other radio opportunities north of Detroit in Traverse City.

Hanson Communications purchased WIFN the following year and, after a brief period of simulcasting WIFN with WBTI, replaced its talk format with one of classic country, provided by ABC/SMN's "Real Country" satellite-based format in Dallas, increasing its portfolio to three stations. Hanson then vacated WIFN's (then WHYT-AM) studio from its co-located transmitter facility at 5300 Marine City Highway and moved programming operations to 2379 Military Street as well.

Lee Hanson died Thursday, November 12, 2015.

Liggett and the creation of Radio First

In early 2000, Robert Liggett, owner of Big Boy Restaurants and former owner of several Central Michigan radio stations entered into an agreement to purchase Hanson Communications of Port Huron. Liggett also approached WPHM's crosstown competitor Wismer Broadcasting, whose owner and founder died in 1999. By the end of 2000, Liggett received all necessary FCC approvals to buy both Hanson Communications and Wismer Broadcasting. All five stations, including WPHM, became a part of Liggett Communications. For about a year WPHM continued to use the old Hanson studio at 2379 Military Street, which is now home to a Coldwell Banker office and Hanson's Pro Music. Wismer's facilities at 808 Huron Avenue were expanded and now house the studios and offices for all five stations. 1380 WPHM, 96.9 WBTI, 107.1 WSAQ, 1590 WHLX, and 1450 WHLS are collectively known as Radio First.

WPHM goes all talk
Not long before WPHM changed hands, it gradually moved from its longtime format of adult contemporary and talk to all news and talk. WPHM was one of the first radio stations to pick up syndicated personality Sean Hannity in early 2002. Hannity started his national broadcast on ABC Radio Networks on September 10, 2001, one day before the September 11 attacks.

Morning personality John Hill retired from the station in August 2002 upon completing 35 years of service.  Hill later died in 2012. Taking his place would be Paul Miller who started his radio career in Port Huron at WPHM before leaving for other markets. Paul Miller was hired as morning show host in late 2002 and continues to serve the station morning show host weekdays 6 to 10am.

Other conservative personalities filled much of the station's schedule during first decade of the 21st century. For a short period WPHM also carried ESPN Radio nights and weekends. Longtime apolitical fixtures of WPHM's programming were psychologist Dr. Joy Browne, personal finance consultant Dave Ramsey, and overnight personality Joey Reynolds. Browne and Reynolds were distributed WOR Radio Network until it folded in 2012, causing WPHM to replace Dr. Joy Browne with Dennis Miller in the afternoons and Joey Reynolds with Coast to Coast AM overnights.

Flip to sports-talk
Starting in January 2015, WPHM started airing NBC Sports Radio from Westwood One on the weekends.  The affiliation was extended to  weekdays later that year. Sports Director Dennis Stuckey was also given his own talk show in January 2015 immediately following the WPHM Morning Show from 10am to noon weekdays.

Stuckey's show was moved to 3 to 5pm in 2016, and then again to 5 to 7pm in 2018. As of June 2021, Stuckey was no longer with Radio First and had started his own local sports website.

Back to news-talk
Longtime news director Bill Gilmer retired in August 2017, after nearly 40 years in broadcasting. As of 2018, Caleb Gordon has assumed both news and programming duties for WPHM.

In January 2018 the station dropped many of its sports-talk shows and returned news-talk programming. The station also begin positioning itself as News, Talk, and Sports 1380 WPHM.

Added to the station's schedule would be Hugh Hewitt, The Tom Sullivan Show, and Dave Ramsey. Coast to Coast AM, which continued during the station's brief sport-talk stint, remained in the overnight hours. Some NBC Sports Radio programs continued to be heard evenings and weekends until
Westwood One announced the discontinuation of NBC Sports Radio effective January 1, 2019. Programming from SB Nation Radio would take the place of NBC Sports weekends, while the Markley and Van Camp show from Compass Media Networks would be heard weekday evenings.

One of the longest running spoken word programs on WPHM abruptly came to an end in 2022 with the cancellation of First Light with Michael Toscano distributed by Westwood One. Taking the early morning time slot in First Light's place would be This Morning with Gordon Deal from Compass Media Networks.

Also in 2022, WPHM revamped its weekend lineup to add more specialty talk shows from Premiere Networks including Bill Handel, Leo Laporte, and Gary Sullivan. Michigan-based travel talk show Behind the Mitten returned in August and the station also picked up the nationally syndicated Sterling on Sunday show. Additional weekend programming would come from  Fox Sports Radio.

In January 2023, WPHM officially dropped Hugh Hewitt, Ken Coleman, and Dave Ramsey in favor of Brian Kilmeade and Chad Benson. The changes took effect January 16, nearly five years from the date in which Hewitt and Ramsey's show were added to WPHM. Kilmeade's show, distributed by Fox News Radio will air live from 10am to Noon. Benson's show, originating from KTAR on Radio America will air from Noon-3pm.

Also in 2023, WPHM added additional hours of Fox Sports Radio including The Odd Couple hosted by Chris Broussard and Rob Parker weekday evenings, displacing the Markley, VanCamp, and Robbins show. The station also expanded Brian Kilmeade's existing weekday show by an hour, and added a weekend version of Kilmeade's show.

Notable Events
As WTTH, the station played a critical role in alerting the public to the 1953 Sarnia tornado. On March 21, 1953, a tornado developed near Smiths Creek and traveled northeast towards Port Huron. Announcer Robin Busse, who had kept listeners informed of the storm as it developed, witnessed the tornado pass within 200 yards of WTTH's Dove Road transmitter site. He is credited with saving numerous lives as the tornado approached the cities of Port Huron and crossed the St. Clair River into Sarnia, Ontario. WTTH was knocked off the air due to the tornado, as were competitors WHLS and CHOK.

In August 2019, a comment made by a candidate for Marysville, Michigan city council during a "Meet the Candidates" forum hosted by WPHM made national and international news. Jean Cramer was asked about how to grow the city's population and stated she wished to, "Keep Marysville a white community as much as possible." Audio of the exchange, which also included remarks about interracial marriage and immigrants was picked up by outlets including CNN, Washington Post, and New York Times. Cramer would later end her campaign yet still earned 180 votes.

In December 2020, delegates of the electoral college were to convene in the Michigan State Capitol to certify the presidential election in Michigan for Joseph Biden. 81st district State Representative Gary Eisen was interviewed on WPHM the morning of December 14 and vaguely described as a "Hail Mary" effort regarding a plan to prevent electors from casting a vote. When asked if he can assure the public that it will be a safe day in Lansing, and that nobody would get hurt, Eisen replied, "No. I don't know. Because what we're doing today is uncharted." Eisen's comments made statewide and national news, being picked up by outlets such as the Detroit Free Press, Detroit News, and television stations including WILX and CNBC. Eisen would later be stripped of his committee assignments.

WPHM celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2022. Former staffers were interviewed and shared their stories about the station during the morning show. Podcasts were also posted to the station's website. On December 6, 75 years from when the station first went on the air, an anniversary party was held at a local restaurant, in which the station received a proclamation from the city and gave away commemorative keepsakes.

Engineering
Originally WTTH was a 1000 watt station broadcasting at 1360 kHz daytime only from a site near 32nd Street and Dove Road in Port Huron Township. The original construction permit was issued by the FCC on March 27, 1947. In December of that year, the station was granted extended hours of operation until 2am.

The frequency of WTTH changed September 7, 1949 to the present day 1380 kHz using a directional three tower antenna array at the Dove Road site. It would remain there until December 1961 when a construction permit was filed to move the station south to St. Clair Township with a seven tower array and a power boost to 5,000 watts. The Times Herald sold the station to Enterform in 1967 which was then followed by a call sign change to WPHM.

WPHM-AM's current array is located south of the city of Marysville in Saint Clair Twp. off Range Road, located behind a Mobil gas station. The building housing the transmitter equipment is painted with the old WPHM logo.  Through much of its early history, the transmitter building was staffed during hours of operation (at that time 6am to 11pm) by FCC licensed engineering personnel, which was a Federal Communications Commission requirement at that time for AM stations with complicated directional antenna systems.  While there, the engineering staff would also perform other duties, such as set-up the long tape loops between two reel recorders to provide a "profanity delay" during call-in shows (before the advent of digital delay equipment), log exact times of commercial play to the program log, and take transmitter readings.  The transmitter building was no longer staffed after the studio moved to Military Street in 1978, due to the installation of a new remote control system, and by that time, relaxed FCC rules regarding directional antenna system operator presence.

The seven-tower antenna system was more complicated than most AM stations, which required  of #10 copper wire and over a mile of  copper strap to be buried under the field as a "ground" system. The original transmitter was a Collins 21E, which was 3 connected cabinets approximately 10 feet wide, with the heavy power transformer located separately in the back room.  This transmitter was 100% vacuum tube design.  Then in 1980, a new, smaller, and more efficient Collins "Power Rock" transmitter was installed as the main, and the original 21E remained as the backup.  The new transmitter was mostly solid-state design, with vacuum tubes in the power output section.  Also by 1980, the microwave STL system had been upgraded to a stereo pair, partially for redundancy but also in preparation for AM Stereo broadcasting, which never fully materialized in the industry, and was not adopted by WPHM.

Chief engineering staff included George Carroll, from the WTTH days until his retirement in 1982 (d.1991), and David Huston from 1975 until 1987, who after the station's sale to Hanson, moved to northern Michigan to build a house and work with WAIR and WMJZ in Petoskey and Gaylord.  Other part-time engineers worked at the transmitter building until the remote control was installed.  Eric Hanson, son of Hanson Communications President Lee C. Hanson, served as chief engineer in the latter half of Hanson's ownership.

In 2007, the Collins "Power Rock" failed, causing WPHM to be off the air for nearly a week as a new solid state transmitter was ordered. A Harris Corporation 5 kW DAX was installed as the main transmitter for WPHM. The Collins 21E was scrapped to make room to the new transmitter. The Power Rock was later repaired and is on stand-by as the station's backup. Current engineering staff includes Craig Bowman and Sean Richardson.

References

Michiguide.com - WPHM History

External links

PHM
News and talk radio stations in the United States
Port Huron, Michigan
St. Clair County, Michigan
Radio stations established in 1947
1947 establishments in Michigan

WPHM