Artificial turf is a surface of synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass, used in sports arenas, residential lawns and commercial applications that traditionally use grass. It is much more durable than grass and easily maintained without irrigation or trimming, although periodic cleaning is required. Stadiums that are substantially covered and/or at high latitudes often use artificial turf, as they typically lack enough sunlight for photosynthesis and substitutes for solar radiation are prohibitively expensive and energy-intensive. Disadvantages include increased risk of injury especially when used in athletic competition, as well as health and environmental concerns about the petroleum and toxic chemicals used in its manufacture.

Artificial turf first gained substantial attention in 1966, when ChemGrass was installed in the year-old Astrodome, developed by Monsanto and rebranded as AstroTurf, now a generic trademark (registered to a new owner) for any artificial turf.

The first-generation system of shortpile fibers without infill of the 1960s has largely been replaced by two more. The second features longer fibers and sand infill and the third adds recycled crumb rubber to the sand. Compared to earlier systems, modern artificial turf more closely resembles grass in appearance and is also considered safer for athletic competition. However, it is still not widely considered to equal to grass. Sports clubs, leagues, unions and individual athletes have frequently spoken out and campaigned against it, while local governments have enacted and enforced laws restricting and/or banning its use.

History
David Chaney, who moved to Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1960 and later served as Dean of the North Carolina State University College of Textiles, headed the team of Research Triangle Park researchers who created the first notable artificial turf. That accomplishment led Sports Illustrated to declare Chaney as the man "responsible for indoor major league baseball and millions of welcome mats."

Artificial turf was first installed in 1964 on a recreation area at the Moses Brown School in Providence, Rhode Island. The material came to public prominence in 1966, when AstroTurf was installed in the Astrodome in Houston, Texas. The state-of-the-art indoor stadium had attempted to use natural grass during its initial season in 1965, but this failed miserably and the field conditions were grossly inadequate during the second half of the season, with the dead grass painted green. Due to a limited supply of the new artificial grass, only the infield was installed before the Houston Astros' home opener in April 1966; the outfield was installed in early summer during an extended Astros road trip and first used after the All-Star Break in July.

The use of AstroTurf and similar surfaces became widespread in the U.S. and Canada in the early 1970s, installed in both indoor and outdoor stadiums used for baseball and football. More than 11,000 artificial turf playing fields have been installed nationally. More than 1,200 were installed in the U.S. in 2013 alone, according to the industry group the Synthetic Turf Council.

Sports applications

Baseball

Artificial turf was first used in Major League Baseball in the Houston Astrodome in 1966, replacing the grass field used when the stadium opened a year earlier. Even though the grass was specifically bred for indoor use, the dome's semi-transparent Lucite ceiling panels, which had been painted white to cut down on glare that bothered the players, did not pass enough sunlight to support the grass. For most of the 1965 season, the Astros played on green-painted dirt and dead grass.

The solution was to install a new type of artificial grass on the field, ChemGrass, which became known as AstroTurf. Given its early use, the term astroturf has since been genericized as a term for any artificial turf. Because the supply of AstroTurf was still low, only a limited amount was available for the first home game. There was not enough for the entire outfield, but there was enough to cover the traditional grass portion of the infield. The outfield remained painted dirt until after the All-Star Break. The team was sent on an extended road trip before the break, and on 19 July 1966, the installation of the outfield portion of AstroTurf was completed.

The Chicago White Sox became the first team to install artificial turf in an outdoor stadium, as they used it only in the infield and adjacent foul territory at Comiskey Park from 1969 through 1975. Artificial turf was later installed in other new multi-purpose stadiums such as Pittsburgh's Three Rivers Stadium, Philadelphia's Veterans Stadium, and Cincinnati's Riverfront Stadium. Early AstroTurf baseball fields used the traditional all-dirt path, but starting in 1970 with Cincinnati's Riverfront Stadium, teams began using the "base cutout" layout on the diamond, with the only dirt being on the pitcher's mound, batter's circle, and in a five-sided diamond-shaped "sliding box" around each base. With this layout, a painted arc would indicate where the edge of the outfield grass would normally be, to assist fielders in positioning themselves properly. The last stadium in MLB to use this configuration was Rogers Centre in Toronto, when they switched to an all-dirt infield (but keeping the artificial turf) for the 2016 season.

The biggest difference in play on artificial turf was that the ball bounced higher than on real grass and also traveled faster, causing infielders to play farther back than they would normally so that they would have sufficient time to react. The ball also had a truer bounce than on grass so that on long throws fielders could deliberately bounce the ball in front of the player they were throwing to, with the certainty that it would travel in a straight line and not be deflected to the right or left. The biggest impact on the game of "turf", as it came to be called, was on the bodies of the players. The artificial surface, which was generally placed over a concrete base, had much less give to it than a traditional dirt and grass field did, which caused more wear-and-tear on knees, ankles, feet, and the lower back, possibly even shortening the careers of those players who played a significant portion of their games on artificial surfaces. Players also complained that the turf was much hotter than grass, sometimes causing the metal spikes to burn their feet or plastic ones to melt. These factors eventually provoked a number of stadiums, such as the Kansas City Royals' Kauffman Stadium, to switch from artificial turf back to natural grass.

In 2000, St. Petersburg's Tropicana Field became the first MLB field to use a third-generation artificial surface, FieldTurf. All other remaining artificial turf stadiums were either converted to third-generation surfaces or were replaced entirely by new natural grass stadiums. In a span of 13 years, between 1992 and 2005, the National League went from having half of its teams using artificial turf to all of them playing on natural grass. With the replacement of Minneapolis's Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome by Target Field in 2010, only two MLB stadiums used artificial turf from 2010 through 2018: Tropicana Field and Toronto's Rogers Centre. This number grew to three when the Arizona Diamondbacks switched Chase Field to artificial turf for the 2019 season; the stadium had grass from its opening in 1998 until 2018, but the difficulty of maintaining the grass in the stadium, which has a retractable roof and is located in a desert city, was cited as the reason for the switch. In 2020, Miami's Marlins Park (now loanDepot Park) also switched to artificial turf for similar reasons, while the Texas Rangers' new Globe Life Field was opened with an artificial surface, as it is also a retractable roof ballpark in a hot weather city; this puts the number of teams using synthetic turf in MLB at five as of 2023.

American football
The first professional American football team to play on artificial turf was the Houston Oilers, then part of the American Football League, who moved into the Astrodome in 1968, which had installed AstroTurf two years prior. In 1969, the University of Pennsylvania's Franklin Field in Philadelphia, at the time also home field of the Philadelphia Eagles, switched from grass to AstroTurf, making it the first National Football League stadium to use artificial turf.

In 2002, CenturyLink Field, originally planned to have a natural grass field, was instead surfaced with FieldTurf upon positive reaction from the Seattle Seahawks when they played on the surface at their temporary home of Husky Stadium during the 2000 and 2001 seasons. This would be the first of a leaguewide trend taking place over the next several seasons that would not only result in teams already using artificial surfaces for their fields switching to the new FieldTurf or other similar surfaces but would also see several teams playing on grass adopt a new surface. (The Indianapolis Colts' RCA Dome and the St. Louis Rams' Edward Jones Dome were the last two stadiums in the NFL to replace their first-generation AstroTurf surfaces for next-generation ones after the 2004 season). For example, after a three-year experiment with a natural surface, Giants Stadium went to FieldTurf for 2003, while M&T Bank Stadium added its own artificial surface the same year (it has since been removed and replaced with a natural surface, which the stadium had before installing the turf). Later examples include Paul Brown Stadium (now Paycor Stadium), which went from grass to turf in 2004; Gillette Stadium, which made the switch in 2006; and NRG Stadium, which did so in 2015. As of 2021, 14 NFL fields out of 30 are artificial.
NFL players overwhelmingly prefer natural grass over synthetic surfaces, according to a league survey conducted in 2010. When asked, "Which surface do you think is more likely to shorten your career?", 90% responded artificial turf.

Following receiver Odell Beckham Jr.'s injury during Super Bowl LVI, other NFL players started calling for turf to be banned since the site of the game, SoFi Stadium, was a turf field.

Arena football is played indoors on the older short-pile artificial turf.

Canadian football
The first professional Canadian football stadium to use artificial turf was Empire Stadium in Vancouver, British Columbia, then home of the Canadian Football League's BC Lions, which installed 3M TartanTurf in 1970. Today, eight of the nine stadiums in the CFL currently use artificial turf, largely because of the harsh weather conditions in the latter-half of the season. The only one that does not is BMO Field in Toronto, which initially had an artificial pitch and has been shared by the CFL's Toronto Argonauts since 2016 (part of the endzones at that stadium are covered with artificial turf). The first stadium to use the next-generation surface was Ottawa's Frank Clair Stadium (now TD Place Stadium), which the Ottawa Renegades used when they began play in 2002. The Saskatchewan Roughriders' Taylor Field was the only major professional sports venue in North America to use a second-generation artificial playing surface, Omniturf, which was used from 1988 to 2000, followed by AstroTurf from 2000 to 2007 and FieldTurf from 2007 to its 2016 closure.

Cricket
Some cricket pitches are made of synthetic grass or of a hybrid of mostly natural and some artificial grass, with these "hybrid pitches" having been implemented across several parts of the United Kingdom and Australia. The first synthetic turf cricket field in the USA was opened in Fremont, California in 2016.

Field hockey

The introduction of synthetic surfaces has significantly changed the sport of field hockey. Since being introduced in the 1970s, competitions in western countries are now mostly played on artificial surfaces. This has increased the speed of the game considerably and changed the shape of hockey sticks to allow for different techniques, such as reverse stick trapping and hitting.

Field hockey artificial turf differs from artificial turf for other sports, in that it does not try to reproduce a grass feel, being made of shorter fibers. This allows the improvement in speed brought by earlier artificial turfs to be retained. This development is problematic for areas which cannot afford to build an extra artificial field for hockey alone. The International Hockey Federation and manufacturers are driving research in order to produce new fields that will be suitable for a variety of sports.

The use of artificial turf in conjunction with changes in the game's rules (e.g., the removal of offside, introduction of rolling substitutes and the self-pass, and to the interpretation of obstruction) have contributed significantly to change the nature of the game, greatly increasing the speed and intensity of play as well as placing far greater demands on the conditioning of the players.

Association football

Some association football clubs in Europe installed synthetic surfaces in the 1980s, which were called "plastic pitches" (often derisively) in countries such as England. There, four professional club venues had adopted them; QPR's Loftus Road (1981-1988), Luton Town's Kenilworth Road (1985-1991), Oldham Athletic's Boundary Park (1986-1991) and Preston North End's Deepdale (1986-1994). QPR had been the first team to install an artificial pitch at their stadium in 1981, but were the first to remove it when they did so in 1988. Artificial pitches were banned from top-flight (then First Division) football in 1991, forcing Oldham Athletic to remove their artificial pitch after their promotion to the First Division in 1991, while then top-flight Luton Town also removed their artificial pitch at the same time. The last Football League team to have an artificial pitch in England was Preston North End, who removed their pitch in 1994 after eight years in use.

Artificial turf gained a bad reputation globally, with fans and especially with players. The first-generation artificial turf surfaces were carpet-like in their look and feel, and thus, a far harder surface than grass and soon became known as an unforgiving playing surface that was prone to cause more injuries, and in particular, more serious joint injuries, than would comparatively be suffered on a grass surface. This turf was also regarded as aesthetically unappealing to many fans.

In 1981, London football club Queens Park Rangers dug up its grass pitch and installed an artificial one. Others followed, and by the mid-1980s there were four artificial surfaces in operation in the English league. They soon became a national joke: the ball pinged round like it was made of rubber, the players kept losing their footing, and anyone who fell over risked carpet burns. Unsurprisingly, fans complained that the football was awful to watch and, one by one, the clubs returned to natural grass.

In the 1990s, many North American soccer clubs also removed their artificial surfaces and re-installed grass, while others moved to new stadiums with state-of-the-art grass surfaces that were designed to withstand cold temperatures where the climate demanded it. The use of artificial turf was later banned by FIFA, UEFA and by many domestic football associations, though, in recent years, both governing bodies have expressed resurrected interest in the use of artificial surfaces in competition, provided that they are FIFA Recommended. UEFA has now been heavily involved in programs to test artificial turf, with tests made in several grounds meeting with FIFA approval. A team of UEFA, FIFA and German company Polytan conducted tests in the Stadion Salzburg Wals-Siezenheim in Salzburg, Austria which had matches played on it in UEFA Euro 2008. It is the second FIFA 2 Star approved artificial turf in a European domestic top flight, after Dutch club Heracles Almelo received the FIFA certificate in August 2005. The tests were approved.

FIFA originally launched its FIFA Quality Concept in February 2001. UEFA announced that starting from the 2005–06 season, approved artificial surfaces were to be permitted in their competitions.

A full international fixture for the 2008 European Championships was played on 17 October 2007 between England and Russia on an artificial surface, which was installed to counteract adverse weather conditions, at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow. It was one of the first full international games to be played on such a surface approved by FIFA and UEFA. The latter ordered the 2008 European Champions League final hosted in the same stadium in May 2008 to place on grass, so a temporary natural grass field was installed just for the final.

UEFA stressed that artificial turf should only be considered an option where climatic conditions necessitate. One Desso "hybrid grass" product incorporates both natural grass and artificial elements.

In June 2009, following a match played at Estadio Ricardo Saprissa in Costa Rica, American national team manager Bob Bradley called on FIFA to "have some courage" and ban artificial surfaces.

FIFA designated a star system for artificial turf fields that have undergone a series of tests that examine quality and performance based on a two star system. Recommended two-star fields may be used for FIFA Final Round Competitions as well as for UEFA Europa League and Champions League matches. There are currently 130 FIFA Recommended 2-Star installations in the world.

In 2009, FIFA launched the Preferred Producer Initiative to improve the quality of artificial football turf at each stage of the life cycle (manufacturing, installation and maintenance). Currently, there are five manufacturers that were selected by FIFA: Act Global, Limonta, Desso, GreenFields, and Edel Grass. These firms have made quality guarantees directly to FIFA and have agreed to increased research and development.

In 2010, Estadio Omnilife with an artificial turf opened in Guadalajara to be the new home of Chivas, one of the most popular teams in Mexico. The owner of Chivas, Jorge Vergara, defended the reasoning behind using artificial turf because the stadium was designed to be "environment friendly and as such, having grass would result [in] using too much water." Some players criticized the field, saying its harder surface caused many injuries. When Johan Cruyff became the adviser of the team, he recommended the switch to natural grass, which the team did in 2012.

In November 2011, it was reported that a number of English football clubs were interested in using artificial pitches again on economic grounds. As of January 2020, artificial pitches are not permitted in the Premier League or Football League but are permitted in the National League and lower divisions. Bromley are an example of an English football club who currently use a third-generation artificial pitch. In 2018, Sutton United were close to achieving promotion to the Football League and the debate in England about artificial pitches resurfaced again. It was reported that, if Sutton won promotion, they would subsequently be demoted two leagues if they refused to replace their pitch with natural grass. After Harrogate Town's promotion to the Football League in 2020, the club was obliged to install a natural grass pitch at Wetherby Road; and after winning promotion in 2021 Sutton Utd were also obliged to tear up their artificial pitch and replace it with grass, at a cost of more than £500,000. Artificial pitches are permitted in all rounds of the FA Cup competition.

The first stadium to use artificial turf in Brazil was Atlético Paranaense's Arena da Baixada in 2016. In 2020, the administration of Allianz Parque, home of Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras, started the implementation of the second artificial pitch in the country.

2015 Women's World Cup controversy
The 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup took place entirely on artificial surfaces, as the event was played in Canada, where almost all of the country's stadiums use artificial turf due to climate issues.  This plan garnered criticism from players and fans, some believing the artificial surfaces make players more susceptible to injuries. Over fifty of the female athletes protested against the use of artificial turf on the basis of gender discrimination.

Australia winger Caitlin Foord said that after playing 90 minutes there was no difference to her post-match recovery – a view shared by the rest of the squad. The squad spent much time preparing on the surface and had no problems with its use in Winnipeg. "We've been training on [artificial] turf pretty much all year so I think we're kind of used to it in that way ... I think grass or turf you can still pull up sore after a game so it's definitely about getting the recovery in and getting it right", Foord said.

The 2012 Women's World Player of the Year, Abby Wambach, noted "The men would strike, playing on artificial turf."

The controversial issue of gender equality and an equal playing field for all has sparked debate in many countries around the world. A lawsuit was filed on 1 October 2014 in an Ontario tribunal court by a group of women's international soccer players against FIFA and the Canadian Soccer Association and specifically points out that in 1994 FIFA spent $2 million to plant natural grass over artificial turf in New Jersey and Detroit.

Various celebrities showed their support for the women soccer players in defense of their lawsuit, including actor Tom Hanks, NBA player Kobe Bryant and U.S. men's soccer team keeper Tim Howard. Even with the possibility of boycotts, FIFA's head of women's competitions, Tatjana Haenni, made it clear that "we play on artificial turf and there's no Plan B."

Rugby union
Rugby union also uses artificial surfaces at a professional level. Infill fields are used by English Premiership Rugby teams Gloucester, Newcastle Falcons, Saracens F.C. and the now defunct Worcester Warriors, as well as United Rugby Championship teams Cardiff, Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors. Some fields, including Twickenham Stadium, have incorporated a hybrid field, with grass and synthetic fibers used on the surface. This allows for the field to be much more hard wearing, making it less susceptible to weather conditions and frequent use.

Tennis

Carpet has been used as a surface for indoor tennis courts for decades, though the first carpets used were more similar to home carpets than a synthetic grass. After the introduction of AstroTurf, it came to be used for tennis courts, both indoor and outdoor, though only a small minority of courts use the surface. Both infill and non-infill versions are used, and are typically considered medium-fast to fast surfaces under the International Tennis Federation's classification scheme. A distinct form found in tennis is an "artificial clay" surface, which seeks to simulate a clay court by using a very short pile carpet with an infill of the same loose aggregate used for clay courts that rises above the carpet fibers.

Tennis courts such as Wimbledon are considering using an artificial hybrid grass to replace their natural lawn courts. Such systems incorporate synthetic fibers into natural grass to create a more durable surface on which to play. Such hybrid surfaces are currently used for some association football stadiums, including Wembley Stadium.

Golf

Synthetic turf can also be used in the golf industry, such as on driving ranges, putting greens and even in some circumstances tee boxes. For low budget courses, particularly those catering to casual golfers, synthetic putting greens offer the advantage of being a relatively cheap alternative to installing and maintaining grass greens, but are much more similar to real grass in appearance and feel compared to sand greens which are the traditional alternative surface. Because of the vast areas of golf courses and the damage from clubs during shots, it is not feasible to surface fairways with artificial turf.

Motor racing
Artificial grass is used to line the perimeter of some sections of some motor circuits, and offers less grip than some other surfaces. It can pose an obstacle to drivers if it gets caught on their car.

Other applications

Landscaping

Since the early 1990s, the use of synthetic grass in the more arid western states of the United States has moved beyond athletic fields to residential and commercial landscaping. New water saving programs, as of 2019, which grant rebates for turf removal, do not accept artificial turf as replacement and require a minimum of plants.

The use of artificial grass for convenience sometimes faces opposition: Legislation frequently seeks to preserve natural gardens and fully water permeable surfaces, therefore restricting the use of hardscape and plantless areas, including artificial turf. In several locations in different countries, homeowners have been fined, ordered to remove artificial turf and/or had to defend themselves in courts. Many of these restrictions can be found in local bylaws and ordinances. These not always applied in a consistent manner, especially in municipalities that utilize a complaint-based model for enforcing local laws.

Sunlight reflections from nearby windows can cause artificial turf to melt. This can be avoided by adding perforated vinyl privacy window film adhesive to the outside of the window causing the reflection.

Airports
Artificial turf has been used at airports. Here it provides several advantages over natural turf – it does not support wildlife, it has high visual contrast with runways in all seasons, it reduces foreign object damage (FOD) since the surface has no rocks or clumps, and it drains well.

Some artificial turf systems allow for the integration of fiber-optic fibers into the turf. This would allow for runway lighting to be embedded in artificial landing surfaces for aircraft (or lighting or advertisements to be directly embedded in a playing surface).

Tanks for octopuses
Artificial turf is commonly used for tanks containing octopusses, in particular the Giant Pacific octopus since it is a reliable way to prevent the octopusses from escaping their tank, as they prevent the suction cups on the tentacles from getting a tight seal.

Environmental and safety concerns

Environmental footprint
The first major academic review of the environmental and health risks and benefits of artificial turf was published in 2014; it was followed by extensive research on possible risks to human health, but holistic analyses of the environmental footprint of artificial turf compared with natural turf only began to emerge in the 2020s, and frameworks to support informed policymaking were still lacking. Evaluating the relative environmental footprints of natural and artificial turf is complex, with outcomes depending on a wide range of factors, including (to give the example of a sports field):

 what ecosystem services are lost by converting a site to a sports pitch
 how resource-intensive is the landscaping work and transport of materials to create a pitch
 whether input materials are recycled and whether these are recycled again at the end of the pitch's life
 how resource-intensive and damaging maintenance is (whether through water, fertiliser, weed-killer, reapplication of rubber crumb, snow-clearing, etc.)
 how intensively the facility is used, for how long, and whether surface type can reduce the overall number of pitches required

Artificial turf has been shown to contribute to global warming by absorbing significantly more radiation than living turf and, to a lesser extent, by displacing living plants that could sequester carbon dioxide through photosynthesis; a study at New Mexico State University found that in that environment, water-cooling of artificial turf can demand as much water as natural turf. However, a 2022 study that used real-world data to model a ten-year-life-cycle environmental footprint for a new natural-turf soccer field compared with an artificial-turf field found that the natural-turf field contributed twice as much to global warming as the artificial one (largely due to a more resource-intensive construction phase), while finding that the artificial turf would likely cause more pollution of other kinds. It promoted improvements to usual practice such as the substitution of cork for rubber in artificial pitches and more drought-resistant grasses and electric mowing in natural ones. In 2021, a Zurich University of Applied Sciences study for the City of Zürich, using local data on extant pitches, found that, per hour of use, natural turf had the lowest environmental footprint, followed by artificial turf with no infill, and then artificial turf using an infill (e.g. granulated rubber). However, because it could tolerate more hours of use, unfilled artificial turf often had the lowest environmental footprint in practice, by reducing the total number of pitches required. The study recommended optimising the use of existing pitches before building new ones, and choosing the best surface for the likely intensity of use. Another suggestion is the introduction of green roofs to offset the conversion of grassland to artificial turf.

Pollution and associated health risks

Some artificial turf uses infill such as silicon sand, but much uses granulated rubber, referred to as "crumb rubber". Granulated rubber can be made from recycled car tires and may carry heavy metals, PFAS chemicals, and other chemicals of environmental concern. The synthetic fibers of artificial turf are also subject to degradation. Thus chemicals from artificial turfs leach into the environment, and artificial turf is a source of  microplastics pollution and rubber pollution in air, fresh-water, sea and soil environments. In Norway, Sweden, and at least some other places, the rubber granulate from artificial turf infill constitutes the second largest source of microplastics in the environment after the tire and road wear particles that make up a large portion of the fine road debris. As early as 2007, Environment and Human Health, Inc., a lobby-group, proposed a moratorium on the use of ground-up rubber tires in fields and playgrounds based on health concerns; in September 2022, the European Commission made a draft proposal to restrict the use of microplastic granules as infill in sports fields.

What is less clear is how likely this pollution is in practice to harm humans or other organisms and whether these environmental costs outweigh the benefits of artificial turf, with many scientific papers and government agencies (such as the United States Environmental Protection Agency) calling for more research. A 2018 study published in Water, Air, & Soil Pollution analyzed the chemicals found in samples of tire crumbs, some used to install school athletic fields, and identified 92 chemicals only about half of which had ever been studied for their health effects and some of which are known to be carcinogenic or irritants. It stated "caution would argue against use of these materials where human exposure is likely, and this is especially true for playgrounds and athletic playing fields where young people may be affected". Conversely, a 2017 study in Sports Medicine argued that "regular physical activity during adolescence and early adulthood helps prevent cancer later in life. Restricting the use or availability of all-weather year-round synthetic fields and thereby potentially reducing exercise could, in the long run, actually increase cancer incidence, as well as cardiovascular disease and other chronic illnesses."

The possibility that carcinogenic substances in artificial turf could increase risks of human cancer (the artificial turf–cancer hypothesis) gained a particularly high profile in the first decades of the twenty-first century and attracted extensive study, with scientific reports around 2020 finding cancer-risks in modern artificial turf negligible. But concerns have extended to other human-health risks, such as endocrine disruption that might affect early puberty, obesity, and children's attention spans. Potential harm to fish and earthworm populations has also been shown.

A study for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection analyzed lead and other metals in dust kicked into the air by physical activity on five artificial turf fields. The results suggest that even low levels of activity on the field can cause particulate matter containing these chemicals to get into the air where it can be inhaled and be harmful. The authors state that since no level of lead exposure is considered safe for children, "only a comprehensive mandated testing of fields can provide assurance that no health hazard on these fields exists from lead or other metals used in their construction and maintenance."

Kinesiological health risks
A number of health and safety concerns have been raised about artificial turf. Friction between skin and older generations of artificial turf can cause abrasions and/or burns to a much greater extent than natural grass.  Artificial turf tends to retain heat from the sun and can be much hotter than natural grass with prolonged exposure to the sun.

There is some evidence that periodic disinfection of artificial turf is required as pathogens are not broken down by natural processes in the same manner as natural grass. Despite this, a 2006 study suggests certain microbial life is less active in artificial turf.

There is evidence showing higher rates of player injury on artificial turf. By November 1971, the injury toll on first-generation artificial turf had reached a threshold that resulted in congressional hearings by the House subcommittee on commerce and finance. In a study performed by the National Football League Injury and Safety Panel, published in the October 2012 issue of the American Journal of Sports Medicine, Elliott B. Hershman et al. reviewed injury data from NFL games played between 2000 and 2009, finding that "the injury rate of knee sprains as a whole was 22% higher on FieldTurf than on natural grass. While MCL sprains did not occur at a rate significantly higher than on grass, rates of ACL sprains were 67% higher on FieldTurf." Metatarsophalangeal joint sprain, known as "turf toe" when the big toe is involved, is named from the injury being associated with playing sports on rigid surfaces such as artificial turf and is a fairly common injury among professional American football players. Artificial turf is a harder surface than grass and does not have much "give" when forces are placed on it.

See also
 International Association for Sports Surface Sciences
 List of college football stadiums with non-traditional field colors
 Poly-Turf
 The Flying Grass Carpet

References

Gardening aids
Plastics applications
Water conservation

Artificial turf


William Sherwin (–) was an English engraver, one of the first to work with mezzotints.

Life
He was the son of William Sherwin (1607–1687?), the nonconformist minister, and was born at Wallington, Hertfordshire, where his father was rector around 1645. On his print of his father, dated 1672, he styles himself engraver to the king by patent. He married Elizabeth Pride, great-niece and ward of George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, whose heir-at-law she eventually became, and there exists a pedigree of the Moncks of Potheridge engraved by Sherwin expressly to show his wife's claim to that position.

Works
Between 1670 and 1711 he engraved in the line style a number of portraits. These comprise large plates of Charles II, Catherine of Braganza, Prince Rupert, Baron Gerard of Brandon, the Duchess of Cleveland, and Slingsby Bethel. He also made small ones prefixed to books. He engraved the title to John Reynolds's 'Triumphes of God's Revenge against Murder,' 1670, several of the plates in Francis Sandford's History of the Coronation of James II, 1687, and the portraits of Dr. William Sermon, prefixed to his works.

Sherwin was one of the first workers in mezzotint, a technique he learned from Prince Rupert. He dedicated to the Prince a pair of large portraits of Charles II and his queen engraved by the method; the former of these is dated 1669, the earliest found on an English mezzotint. Among his other mezzotint plates are portraits of the Duke of Albemarle, Elizabeth Monck, Duchess of Albemarle, Adrian Beverland, and a number of royal personages. Sherwin seems to have worked mainly from his own drawings.

References

Attribution

1645 births
1709 deaths
English engravers

William Sherwin (engraver)


Chris Renaud (born December 1966) is an American designer, storyboard artist, director, producer and voice actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for the 2006 animated short No Time for Nuts, which featured the character Scrat from the computer-animated Ice Age films. His most popular work is the Despicable Me franchise, including Despicable Me and Despicable Me 2, which he co-directed with Pierre Coffin. Along with Coffin, he also co-created and lent his voice to the Minions from Despicable Me.

Life and career
Chris Renaud was born in 1966 in Baltimore. At age 15, he moved to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania when his father, who worked for Bethlehem Steel, was transferred to their corporate headquarters. Renaud has said he had mixed feelings with the move, saying it upset him but it was also one of the best things in his life because it showed him "that there was a great, big world out there". He was the artist for the high school yearbooks and newspaper and had aspirations of creating comic books. He graduated Parkland High School in Allentown, Pennsylvania in 1985 and attended Baum School of Art in Allentown, where he received a $1,000 scholarship.

After graduating from Syracuse University with an illustration degree in 1989,  Renaud began work as a graphic designer in the sports entertainment industry. He has created logos and mascots for NFL Properties, the NBA, and Foot Locker. After working as a designer and illustrator for a variety of publications and agencies, Chris began drawing and writing comic books. Working for both Marvel Comics and DC Comics, his projects included illustrating Marvel's Starfleet Academy and pitching the story concept that evolved into Batman: Cataclysm which depicted a devastating earthquake hitting Gotham City. This yearlong tale across all Batman-related comics resulted in increased sales and visibility for the renowned character and set up the acclaimed "No Man's Land" storyline that followed.

As the production designer on the Disney Channel's The Book of Pooh, Renaud transitioned into the world of children's television. Since that groundbreaking project, he has been able to design virtual sets and puppet characters for Bear in the Big Blue House, LazyTown, Curious Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation. With It's a Big Big World, which aired from 2006 to 2010 on PBS, he took the lead in visual development and design of every aspect of this Emmy-nominated children's program.

Renaud worked for Blue Sky Studios as a story artist on the films Robots, Ice Age: The Meltdown, and the Dr. Seuss adaptation Horton Hears a Who!. He wrote and co-directed the animated short No Time for Nuts, which received an Annie Award and a 2007 Oscar nomination for animated short film. It was also included in the Animation Show of Shows in 2006.

Renaud moved to Paris to work for Illumination Entertainment. While directing Despicable Me (2010), Renaud, along with his directing partner Pierre Coffin, began to develop Gru's famous henchmen, the Minions. Initially, there were discussions about making the creatures robots. Then Renaud hit upon the notion that they could be mole people and slapped goggles on them. "I did a very rough, ugly, little sketch combining some elements into a mole person and sent it to Pierre, who then discussed it with Eric Guillon, who was the art director and final designer of the Minions, and they took some of those ideas and together we came up with what the Minions look like". The more the filmmakers worked on the little guys, the more yellow and more cylindrical they became. "Eric continued to refine the idea and made [the Minions] closer to children. He made them funnier and simpler and a brighter color". Among the inspirations for the Minions were the Oompa-Loompas from Willy Wonka and the Jawas from Star Wars, as well as silent screen stars Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin, and Warner Bros. cartoon characters.

In a four-picture directing deal, he directed Despicable Me (2010), Dr. Seuss' The Lorax (2012), Despicable Me 2 (2013), and The Secret Life of Pets (2016), in which two pet dogs, Max and Duke, have to put their quarrels behind when they find out that a bunny, Snowball, is building an army of abandoned pets to take revenge on all pet owners and their pets. Renaud signed a new contract with Illumination Entertainment in 2013, saying: "I love working with Illumination. They've given me an unparalleled opportunity to keep directing one movie after another. Very often animation directors make one movie and then spend the next five years developing another one. But I'm in the unique position of being able to keep working and keep making movies... So I feel very fortunate."

In a 2012 interview, he mentioned that he read Dr. Seuss books as a child, which influenced his work with films such as The Lorax. When asked if he would shift towards live-action movies, he said that he has thought about it and it may happen in the future but he feels comfortable with animation for now.

Renaud executive-produced Despicable Me 3 in 2017.

Personal life
Renaud has lived since 2008–2009 in Paris, France with his wife, Lauren, and their two children, John and Kiely.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

DC Comics profile
Interviews
2007 interview with animatedviews.com
2012 interview with boxoffice.com

1966 births
Living people
Syracuse University alumni
Animators from Maryland
American graphic designers
Illumination (company) people
Blue Sky Studios people
American animated film directors
American storyboard artists
People from Baltimore
People from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Parkland High School (Pennsylvania) alumni

Chris Renaud


Maria Lucette Rådström, (born 3 December 1974) is a Swedish journalist and television presenter. She has worked for TV4 since 1998, she started her career at ZTV as a presenter for Efter plugget along with Mårten Andersson between 1997 and 1998. She has presented the New Year's Eve celebrations at TV4 along with Rickard Sjöberg in 1998, and  Josefin Crafoord in 2005. In 1999 Rådström participated as a "tracking dog" in the game show På rymmen along with Hasse Aro.

Lucette Rådström has also presented the kids show Lattjo Lajban on TV4 with Tobbe Blom, and in 2002 she competed in Gladiatorerna in a special celebrity edition.

References

External links

Living people
1974 births
Place of birth missing (living people)
Swedish television personalities
Swedish women television presenters
Swedish women journalists
20th-century Swedish journalists
21st-century Swedish journalists

Lucette Rådström


Escape to Athena is a 1979 British adventure comedy war film directed by George P. Cosmatos. It stars Roger Moore, Telly Savalas, David Niven, Stefanie Powers, Claudia Cardinale, Richard Roundtree, Sonny Bono and Elliott Gould. The film is set during the Second World War on a German-occupied Greek island. The music was composed by Lalo Schifrin. It was filmed on location on the island of Rhodes.

Plot
In 1944, Allied prisoners at a POW camp on an unnamed Greek island are forced to excavate ancient artifacts. The camp Commandant, Major Otto Hecht, a former Austrian antiques dealer, is sending some of the valuable pieces to his sister living in Switzerland. However the prisoners have discovered that they will be sent to other camps once the finds run out, so they arrange to keep "discovering" the same pieces. While Hecht is content to sit out the war, the SS Commandant of the nearby town, Major Volkmann, brutally enforces discipline, including reprisal executions of civilians.

Resistance to the Germans is led by Zeno, a former monk, and his few fighters. They use the local brothel, run by his girlfriend, as an undercover headquarters. Zeno, who is in contact with Allied Headquarters, is ordered to break the prisoners out of their camp and use them to help liberate the town and capture the nearby U-boat refuelling depot.

Two captured USO artists, Charlie and Dottie, perform a concert as cover, while the Resistance takes over the camp. With the choice of being killed by Zeno or helping them, Hecht joins forces with the Allies, helping them eradicate Volkmann's troops as well as capturing the fuel depot. After completing the mission, Charlie asks Zeno to lead him and two other prisoners, Judson and Rotelli, up to the monastery on Mount Athena to steal Byzantine treasures kept there by the monks. However Zeno tells Charlie that the treasures belong to the Greek people.

Zeno now receives word from Allied intelligence that the planned invasion of the islands has been brought forward, and so the German garrison in the monastery atop Mount Athena must be neutralised. Without revealing the whole truth, Zeno tells Charlie, Rotelli and Judson that in return for helping liberate the monks from the Germans, whatever they find there would be theirs.

However, on climbing to the monastery, the group discover a heavily armed garrison. Zeno uses gas to knock out most of the soldiers, but not before their commander orders a V-2 rocket launch to destroy the invasion fleet. Judson knocks out the control room with grenades, but one of the Germans survives long enough to activate the base's self-destruct mechanism. Not realising the danger immediately, Charlie and Rotelli scour the monastery for the treasure, while Judson frees the monks. Zeno finds the self-destruct clock, but he cannot deactivate it. Zeno, the monks and the Americans escape the monastery before it explodes. Searching for treasure until the last minute, Charlie escapes the explosion with the only treasure the Germans left behind — tin plates adorned with Hitler's face.

During the victory celebration in the village, Hecht, Charlie, and Dottie plan after the war to capitalise on treasures Hecht has already looted, by making copies to sell to Americans. Professor Blake learns from one of the freed monks that their treasure — Byzantine plates made of gold — is safe, having been hidden in the brothel the entire time.

The final scene cuts to the modern day, by which time Zeno's former headquarters have been turned into a state museum housing the treasures of Mount Athena.

Cast
 Roger Moore as Major Otto Hecht: an Austrian who is the Wehrmacht commandant of the POW camp, a former antiques dealer
 Telly Savalas as Zeno: the head of the Greek island's resistance movement
 David Niven as Professor Blake: senior British officer amongst the prisoners and a well-known archaeologist
 Stefanie Powers as Dottie Del Mar: an American USO artist (in fact, stripper), who was shot down with Charlie and detained in the POW camp
 Elliott Gould as Charlie Dane: an American comedian, USO performer and professional partner of Dottie
 Claudia Cardinale as Eleana: a local madame, girlfriend of Zeno
 Richard Roundtree as Sgt. Nat Judson: African-American POW and amateur magician
 Sonny Bono as Bruno Rotelli: an Italian POW, professional chef
 Anthony Valentine as Maj. Volkmann: SS officer, town commandant and Hecht's rival
 Siegfried Rauch as Lt. Braun: SS officer under Volkmann's command
 Richard Wren as Capt. Reistoffer: Volkmann's adjutant
 Michael Sheard as Sgt. Mann: Hecht's senior camp NCO
 Philip Locke as Colonel Vogel
 Steve Ubels as Capt. Lantz
 Paul Picerni as Zeno's Man
 Paul Stassino as Zeno's Man
William Holden makes an uncredited cameo as an American sergeant, commenting that he has not escaped as he has a comfortable life as a prisoner.

Production
The film was based on a script by Dick Lochte who was a former Playboy PR executive.

The film was financed by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment, who had previously made The Eagle Has Landed. That was produced by the team of David Niven Jr and Jack Wiener, and had been successful, so ITC agreed to finance two more films from the same team, Escape to Athena and Green Ice. Grade gave the job of directing to George Cosmatos who had just made The Cassandra Crossing for ITC and who Grade felt "would make a great action movie and as "action" was in vogue again I was confident we were on to a winner."

In October 1977 ITC announced what was then known as The Athena Boodle as part of a $97 million slate of movies Lew Grade was making which also included The Legend of the Lone Ranger, Movie Movie (then called Double Feature), The Boys from Brazil, Raise the Titanic, The Golden Gate from the Alistair MacLean novel (never made), Love and Bullets, The Muppet Movie and Road to the Fountain of Youth with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope (which was never made). Grade's first five films had been made in partnership with General Cinema Corp, but Grade would finance this slate himself. The film was also known as The Athena Crisis.

Filming began in Greece on 21 February 1978. The bulk of the film was shot on the island of Rhodes.

David Niven agreed to be in the film because his son produced it and he liked the idea of returning to Rhodes, where he had made The Guns of Navarone.

William Holden was visiting his girlfriend Stefanie Powers during filming and was persuaded to make a cameo in the prison camp scene, presumably reprising his role as Stalag 17 escapee Sergeant Sefton.

According to stuntman Vic Armstrong, the crew hated the director so much they stole his hat and nailed it to a mast. Armstrong directed the motorcycle chase which he says took two weeks.

Reception
Producer Jack Wiener said during the shoot that the film cost $10 million and needed to make $30 million at the box office to recoup its cost.

The film was partly financed and produced by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment. Grade had wanted an action film and felt it "did not live up to expectations of the script" turning out to be "a broad comedy with action-adventure sequences and the combination just didn't work." Grade thought "the first eighty minutes were a failure because of these different elements but the last forty, action-packed minutes were wonderful. If only the emphasis had been on action throughout the film would have been a hit. Unfortunately it wasn't. Still, with the pre-sales I'd made we didn't lose nearly as much as we might have". David Niven Jr said "we had a lot of fun on that picture, I just wish it had been more successful."

According to a number of sources, this film's motorcycle chase scene is, as one critic said, "one of the most memorable motorcycle chase scenes in cinematic history".

Another says: "Film is an uneven mix of comedy and military action, but includes a stand out motorcycle chase. During a battle with the resistance, SS Major Volkmann escapes on a motorcycle with Charlie (played by Elliott Gould) chasing after him on a motorcycle with sidecar down narrow village streets. Impressive motorcycle stuntwork featuring some excellent jumps". Author Mark Hinchliff of Motorbike Writer ranks the chase in Escape to Athena as 3rd, only after those in The Great Escape (1st) and Skyfall (2nd).

See also
Kelly's Heroes (1970)
Inside Out (1975)

References

External links

1970s adventure films
1970s war films
1979 films
British war films
Films about Greek resistance
Films directed by George P. Cosmatos
Films set in 1944
Films set in Axis-occupied Greece
Films set on islands
ITC Entertainment films
War adventure films
World War II prisoner of war films
Films shot in Greece
Films shot in Rhodes
Films scored by Lalo Schifrin
Films with screenplays by Edward Anhalt
1970s English-language films
1970s British films

Escape to Athena


Spathiphyllum, generally known as peace liliy, is a genus of 50-60  species of the flowering plants. They are native to America and South East Asia. Because of their decorative leaves, and long-lasting flowers, several of them are popular houseplants. They belong to the Araceae. Even though they are called lillies, they are not closely related to the true liliy family, Lillaceae. They are perennial, and grow from bulbs, same as the true lilies.

Common houseplant
Spathiphyllum is commonly grown as a houseplant. There are many cultivars. As houseplants, they are said to have an air-cleaning effect. They are very toxic to cats and dogs, but only milly toxic to humans and other animals. Spathiphyllum species contain Calcium oxalate, which may cause skin irritations, a burning sensation  and difficulty swallowing. They are not as toxic as the true lilies.

Araceae

Spathiphyllum


Fork Factory Brook is a 135-acre (55 ha) historic site, open space reserve, and agricultural reserve located in Medfield, Massachusetts. The reserve, managed by the land conservation non-profit organization The Trustees of Reservations, is notable for its wetlands, ledges, 300-year-old hayfields, and ruins of a 19th-century pitchfork mill for which the property is named. Fork Factory Brook offers  of trails and former woods roads available for hiking, horseback riding, mountain biking, and cross country skiing. The property is part of a larger area of protected open space including the abutting Rocky Woods preserve, also managed by The Trustees of Reservations.

Terrain and History

Hayfields on the property formerly belonged to Long Acre Farm, whose agricultural history spanned 300 years. The farm grew crops and maintained livestock;produced rope from hemp, flax, and wool; made butter and cheese; and produced candles and boots with animal byproducts. Fields on the property are currently maintained to produce hay.

A succession of mills were operated on the property, beginning in 1771 when Joshua Morse built a grist mill along Mill Brook. Henry Partridge bought two mills on Mill Brook in the early 19th century and modified them to produce high quality iron products. Partridge capitalized on local farming interests by producing metal farm implements, most notably the pitchfork for which the property is named. The mills ran for twenty years after which they saw a brief revival as a paper cutting enterprise near the end of the American Civil War. In 1927 the mills, defunct at the time, were torn down when the town widened its main street; only the stone raceway and earthen dam remain; they are located at the south end of the Fork Factory Brook reservation.

The original acreage was a gift of Pliny Jewell, Jr. and Mrs. Barrett Williams in 1966 in memory of their parents. Additional lands were purchased and donated in 1978 and 1985.

Recreation
A network of trails span the property and connect with the abutting Rocky Woods reservation. Trails pass along the borders of hayfields and the wetlands of Mill Brook, over rocky knolls, and to the pitchfork mill ruins. Fork Factory Brook shares a trailhead parking lot with Rocky Woods, located on Hartford Street in Medfield.

Fork Factory Book is within two miles of both the  Bay Circuit Trail system and the Charles River Link Trail.

References

External links

Map of Rocky Woods and Fork Factory Brook
Rocky Woods Reservation is adjacent
Bay Circuit Trail

The Trustees of Reservations
Protected areas of Norfolk County, Massachusetts
Bay Circuit Trail
Open space reserves of Massachusetts
Protected areas established in 1966
1966 establishments in Massachusetts

Fork Factory Brook


James Harrison "Babe" McCarthy (October 1, 1923 – March 17, 1975), was an American professional and collegiate basketball coach.  McCarthy was originally from Baldwyn, Mississippi. McCarthy may best be remembered for Mississippi State's appearance in the 1963 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament when his all-white team sneaked out of town in order to face Loyola University Chicago, which had four black starters.

In March 1975, McCarthy died as a result of colon cancer.

Early life
McCarthy was from Baldwyn, Mississippi, and played high school basketball at Tupelo Junior High School.  After high school he attended Mississippi State University where he was a member of Sigma Pi fraternity.  He did not play college basketball.  He served in the Air Force and then began coaching high school basketball at his alma mater in 1947.  He was recalled to the Air Force for the Korean War and coached an Air Force team in Memphis, Tennessee, to third place in an Air Force tournament.  After the Air Force he officiated SEC games before becoming the Mississippi State coach in 1955.

College career
McCarthy first came to fame for his 10-year stint at Mississippi State, where his teams won 169 games, lost 85, and won four Southeastern Conference (SEC) titles (three outright, one shared). While coaching at MSU he was named SEC Coach of the year three times. When he left Mississippi State he was the school's all-time leader in wins but has since been passed by Richard Williams and Rick Stansbury.

McCarthy may best be remembered for his team crossing the color line in the segregated South of the 1960s. Even before it was certain that Mississippi State would face Loyola and their four black starters, racist elements in the Mississippi media got into the act. On Thursday, March 7, 1963, the Jackson Daily News printed a picture of Loyola's starters to show that four of them were African Americans. As a caption to the picture, Daily News editor Jimmy Ward wrote that "readers may desire to clip the photo of the Loyola team and mail it today to the board of trustees of the institution of higher learning" to prevent the game from taking place.  At the time, a longstanding state policy barred college teams at state schools from playing games against racially integrated teams.  The Bulldogs had been forced to turn down three previous NCAA Tournament bids for this reason, including when they won their first two outright SEC titles in school history.

The editorials were in response to the decision by Mississippi State President Dean W. Colvard's March 2, 1963, to accept the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament as outright SEC champions.  The College Board of Mississippi met on March 9, 1963, and upheld Colvard's decision. But on March 13, just a day before the team was scheduled to travel to East Lansing, state senator Billy Mitts and former state senator B. W. Lawson sought and obtained a temporary injunction against the team leaving the state.

While sheriffs were on their way to Starkville, Mississippi, to serve the injunction, the team was participating in a pep rally the night before their departure, where effigies of state senators Mitts and Lawson were hung. The team's original plan was to leave Starkville at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday morning. But learning that sheriffs would be expected to arrive in town at 11:30 p.m. Wednesday night, MSU put their sophisticated contingency plan into effect.

McCarthy, the athletic director, and the assistant athletic director drove to Memphis, and then flew to Nashville. The team itself sent the freshman squad to the airport as scheduled-posing as the varsity team. The real varsity team hid in a dorm on campus. The next morning, they boarded a private plane at the airport and flew to Nashville to meet the coach and team officials. From Nashville, the whole group took a commercial flight to the game at East Lansing, Michigan. These events were chronicled in the DVD One Night in March produced by Starkville-based Broadcast Media Group

McCarthy Gymnasium on the campus of MSU was named for him in 1975.

McCarthy later coached the George Washington University's men's basketball team, going 9–18 with the Colonials in 1966–1967.

Head coaching record

College

ABA career
In the American Basketball Association, McCarthy coached the New Orleans Buccaneers from 1967 to 1970, the Memphis Pros from 1970 to 1972, the Dallas Chaparrals for the 1972–73 season, and the Kentucky Colonels in the 1973–1974 season. He was named ABA coach of the year for the 73–74 season. In the 1967–68 season he led the team to victories over the Denver Rockets and Dallas Chaparrals before losing the finals in seven games to the Pittsburgh Pipers. He was named ABA coach of the year in 1969 and 1974. He was the first ABA coach to win 200 games.

Babe-isms
McCarthy was known as "Ol' Magnolia Mouth" (or just "Magnolia Mouth") for his cement-thick Mississippi accent and short, funny phrases called Babe-isms. A few of the more famous and often used Babe-isms were:

Boy, I gotta tell you, you gotta come out at 'em like a bitin' sow.

My old pappy used to tell me the sun don't shine on the same dog's butt every day.

Why panic at five in the mornin' because it's still dark out?

Now, let's cloud up and rain all over 'em.

References

External links

 Basketball-reference.com

1923 births
1975 deaths
United States Air Force personnel of the Korean War
Basketball coaches from Mississippi
Dallas Chaparrals head coaches
George Washington Revolutionaries men's basketball coaches
Kentucky Colonels coaches
Memphis Sounds coaches
Military personnel from Mississippi
Mississippi State Bulldogs men's basketball coaches
Mississippi State University alumni
New Orleans Buccaneers coaches
People from Baldwyn, Mississippi
 deaths from cancer in Mississippi
Deaths from colorectal cancer

Babe McCarthy


The 2018 World Series was the 114th edition of the World Series and featured the American League champion Red Sox and the National League champion Los Angeles Dodgers. The Series was televised in the United States on Fox.

This was the second World Series match-up between the two teams, after the Red Sox defeated the Brooklyn Robins (later known as the Dodgers) in five games in 1916.

The Red Sox beat the Dodgers in five games to win their fourth World Series title in 15 years dating back to 2004, and their ninth in franchise history.  Steve Pearce won the World Series Most Valuable Player Award, while Alex Cora became the fifth first-season manager, and first manager from Puerto Rico, to win the World Series.

The Series was notable for its third game which lasted 18 innings, a new World Series record.

References

World
World Series

2018 World Series


The Siege of Mecca: The Forgotten Uprising in Islam's Holiest Shrine and the Birth of Al Qaeda is a 2007 book by Wall Street Journal correspondent Yaroslav Trofimov about the 1979 Grand Mosque seizure in Mecca.

Hundreds of Islamic radicals led by Saudi preacher Juhayman al-Otaybi invaded the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Islam's holiest shrine, on Nov. 20, 1979. The intruders included men from all over the Muslim world and a handful of American converts. Tens of thousands of worshipers were trapped inside the compound. The battle for the shrine lasted two weeks, causing hundreds of deaths and ending only after the intervention of Saudi National Guard and French Special Forces.

Yaroslav Trofimov's book provides the first detailed account of this siege. The book is based on interviews with surviving participants and eyewitnesses, including former terrorist supporters of Juhayman al-Otaybi, as well as hundreds of declassified U.S., British and French government documents.

References
Publishers Weekly review of Siege of Mecca
Siege of Mecca website
Jerusalem Post review of The Siege of Mecca

2007 non-fiction books
History books about Saudi Arabia
Books about al-Qaeda
Doubleday (publisher) books
History of Mecca

The Siege of Mecca


Anton Ažbe (30 May 1862 – 5/6 August 1905) was a Slovene painter and teacher of painting. He painted in the realist style. Less than 30 of his paintings and drawings survive. The National Gallery of Slovenia in Ljubljana holds most of his works. He was most famous for his private painting school which he opened in Munich in 1892. Many foreign students came to study with him including Alexej von Jawlensky and Wassily Kandinsky.

Life and career
Anton Ažbe and his twin brother Alois were born to a peasant family in Dolenčice, a small village in Slovenia. Their father died of tuberculosis when the boys were seven years old. Their mother had a very bad mental illness. She could not look after the farm or take care of the boys. A guardian took care of them. Anton had very poor health. He did not grow like a healthy child. He remained very short all his life. He also had problems with his spine and his legs. His guardian sent him to Klagenfurt as an apprentice to a merchant. After five years Ažbe ran away. He went to Ljubljana. In Ljubljana he met the painter Janez Wolf. He helped Wolf paint frescos in churches.

In 1880 Wolf helped Ažbe get into the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Ažbe studied for there for two years, but he did not like the academy's teaching method. He thought it was old-fashioned. In 1884 he moved to the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. The Munich academy was much more modern. Ažbe did very well there. His teachers, Gabriel von Hackl and Ludwig von Löfftz, admired his work. The academy gave him a scholarship. He and his friend Ferdo Vesel, another art student, earned extra money by selling their drawings and paintings. They also earned money by helping other students with their painting and drawing assignments.

Ažbe finished his studies at the Munich academy in 1891. By that time he was already known for his portrait painting. His paintings were shown in art exhibitions at the Glaspalast. The Glaspalast was a large glass and iron exhibition building in the old botanical garden of Munich. It was modeled after the Crystal Palace in London. In 1892, Ferdo Vesel encouraged Ažbe to give private lessons to art students in Munich. He started with seven students who rented a room for their lessons, but the number grew very fast. Soon Ažbe was able to rent a building on 16 Georgenstrasse for the school. He also had his own studio on that street. The door to the school had a sign that said "Nur fest!" ("Be bold!"). The school became very famous. It specialised in painting nudes and portraits. Famous artists who studied at Ažbe's school included Alexej von Jawlensky and Wassily Kandinsky.

Ažbe did all the teaching at the school by himself. This left little time for his own painting. In his later years Kandinsky wrote about his old teacher's generosity and kindness. Ažbe often gave free lessons to students who could not afford to pay. Ažbe died from cancer in 1905 at the age of 43.  His obituary in a Munich newspaper described him as a man of great modesty and one of the city's "most original and best-known artistic personalities."

Gallery

References

Other websites
Anton Ažbe collection at the National Gallery of Slovenia

1862 births
1905 deaths
Painters from Europe
Slovenian artists

Anton Ažbe


Colegio Cesar Chavez, 1973–1983: A Chicano Struggle for Educational Self-Determination (), written by Carlos Maldonado, is the only book-length study of Colegio Cesar Chavez. Maldonado was professor of Chicano Education Program at Eastern Washington University.

This work began as Maldonado's doctoral dissertation called "The Longest Running Death in History" which was written at University of Oregon . The dissertation was later expanded into the full-length book published by Garland Publishers in 2000. In this work Maldonado claims that due to its geographical location in the Pacific Northwest and the time of its founding, Colegio Cesar Chavez occupies a unique niche in the history of the Chicano Movement. Maldonado writes that the Mexican American community in Oregon and all of the Pacific Northwest is small in comparison to that of other states in the Western United States, making the small farming community of Mount Angel, Oregon an unlikely place for a Chicano institution. Additionally, Maldonado writes that Colegio Cesar Chavez was one of the few educational organizations named after Cesar Chavez during his lifetime. During its decade-long existence Colegio Cesar Chavez was the only fully accredited and independent Chicano and Latino college in the United States.

See also

Cesar Chavez
United Farm Workers

External links
 Maldonado obituary
 Chicano Education Program at Eastern Washington University

Mexican-American history
Hispanic and Latino American culture
Cesar Chavez

Colegio Cesar Chavez, 1973–1983 (book)


Krunoslav "Kićo" Slabinac (28 March 1944 – 13 November 2020) was a Croatian pop singer. His specialties were the songs nowadays inspired by folk music of Slavonia region of Croatia, and the uses of traditional instruments such as the tamburica.

In the 1960s Slabinac was a member of several rock'n'roll bands. He then opted for a solo career as a pop singer and moved to Zagreb. While performing in a club, he was noticed by Nikica Kalogjera who gave him a chance to appear as a newcomer at the 1969 Split Festival. A year later, in 1970, Slabinac won the first prize at the Opatija Festival. He represented Yugoslavia at the Eurovision Song Contest 1971 with "Tvoj dječak je tužan", placing 14th.

Slabinac's song "Zbog jedne divne crne žene" was a huge hit which solidified his status as a singer. However, in the 1970s, legal troubles and time spent abroad set back his career. After his return from the United States, Slabinac focused on folk music, although he remained active in the pop music scene.

His song "Letaj mi" became an evergreen in Macedonia, particularly because it was sung in Macedonian on the festival "MakFest" in 1989.

He died on 13 November 2020 in Zagreb, following a long and complicated illness.

Discography
 1971 – Tvoj dječak je tužan
 1975 – Hej bećari
 1978 – Pusti noćas svoje kose
 1979 – Seoska sam lola
 1984 – Krunoslav Slabinac
 1984 – Christmas with Kićo
 1985 – Stani suzo
 1986 – Da l' se sjećaš
 1987 – Oj, garava, garava
 1988 – Tiho, tiho uspomeno
 1991 – Za tebe
 1995 – Ako zora ne svane
 1995 – Sve najbolje
 2006 – Zlatna kolekcija
 2008 – Dignite čaše svatovi
 2015 – 50 originalnih pjesama

References

External links

 Krunoslav Kićo Slabinac

1944 births
2020 deaths
Croatian pop singers
20th-century Croatian male singers
Yugoslav male singers
Eurovision Song Contest entrants for Yugoslavia
Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 1971
People from Osijek
21st-century Croatian male singers
Burials at Mirogoj Cemetery

Kićo Slabinac


Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Addis Ababa Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya. On 10 March 2019, the Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft crashed six minutes after takeoff near the town of Bishoftu, Oromia Region, killing all 157 passengers and crew aboard. The cause of the accident is currently unknown and under investigation.

Notable people killed in the crash were Nigerian-Canadian writer Pius Adesanmi and Italian politician Sebastiano Tusa.

As of January 2019, 350 aircraft of this model have been produced, and one other has crashed, Lion Air Flight 610 in Indonesia in October 2018. Following the accident, the Boeing 737 MAX 8 model was grounded by various airlines and government regulators worldwide.

References

2019 in Africa
Aviation accidents and incidents in 2019
2010s disasters in Africa
21st century in Ethiopia
March 2019 events

Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302


Stephen Dwain "Steve" Wood (born 1963 in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American bishop. He is currently serving as the first bishop of the Diocese of the Carolinas, a diocese of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), as well as rector of St. Andrew's Anglican Church in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.

Early life and career
Wood was born in Cleveland, Ohio and grew up in Wickliffe, Ohio. He received his B.A. from Cleveland State University in 1986 and his M.Div. from Virginia Theological Seminary in 1991, after which he was ordained to the priesthood of the Episcopal Church. Wood served at Episcopal churches in Ohio until being called in 2000 as rector of St. Andrew's, Mount Pleasant, which was then a parish of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina.

Under Wood's leadership, St. Andrews was described as "one of the Lowcountry's biggest church success stories", growing to a membership of more than 3,000 and planting new churches in Goose Creek, downtown Charleston, and the Park Circle area of North Charleston. In 2006, Wood was one of three finalists in the election for Bishop of South Carolina; ultimately Mark Lawrence was elected. In 2010, St. Andrew's voted by a large margin to leave the Episcopal Church and affiliate with the Anglican Church in North America.

Episcopacy
Shortly after joining ACNA, Wood became involved with efforts to create the Diocese of the Carolinas, which was formed with 14 congregations with an average Sunday attendance of over 2,700. He served as vicar general of the diocese while in formation and, in 2012, he was elected to serve as its first bishop. Wood was consecrated on August 25, 2012, at St. Andrew's by Archbishop Robert Duncan. Co-consecrators included Archbishop-elect Stanley Ntagali of Uganda and Bishops Roger Ames, John Guernsey, and Alphonza Gadsden.

Notes

External links
Diocese of the Carolinas
Treading Grain blog

Living people
Bishops of the Anglican Church in North America
Religious leaders from Cleveland
1963 births
People from Wickliffe, Ohio
Anglican realignment people

Steve Wood (bishop)


Gioul is a tables game for two players that is common in the Levant and may have originated in Turkey. The set up and play are as in Greek Plakoto, blocking is as in Moultezim and doublets are very powerful as in the game of Gul Bara.

Overview
Gioul is a game of contrary movement, that is, the players play in opposite directions around the board. It is also a running game in which opposing men may not hit or pinned, but must bypass one another.

Rules
The following rules are based on Jacoby and Crawford (1970), except where stated:

Each player sets up 15 piece pieces or men on the opponent's Ace point. Each player rolls a die for the first move and the one with the highest score wins.

That player re-rolls to begin the game. Thereafter the winner of a game leads to the next.

In turn, each player advances two pieces around the board towards the opponent's starting point, each move corresponding to one of the numbers on the dice. Alternatively one piece may be moved by the combined total on the dice, provided the intermediate point is open. To be open a point must be unoccupied by any opposing men. One man on a point blocks it to the opponent. Six points in a row occupied by the same player constitute a prime.

The distinctive feature of Gioul is the role of the doublets. On rolling a doublet, the player plays the number rolled 4 times. Then the player plays the next higher number 4 times and so on until four 6's have been played. Only then does the turn pass to the opponent. If the player is unable to make use of a throw, the turn ends and the rest of the moves are forfeited to the opponent who then plays them out as far as possible, before then rolling again for his or her turn.

Bearing off is executed in the standard way once all pieces have reached the home table. The winner is the first player to bear off all 15 pieces, earning 1 point. If this is achieved before the opponent has borne off any pieces, the game is worth 2 points.

References

Literature
 Jacoby, Oswald and John R. Crawford (1970). The Backgammon Book. NY: Viking. p. 213.
 Obolensky, Prince Alexis and Ted James (1969). Backgammon: The Action Game. London: Allen. p. 168.
 Parlett, David (1999). The Oxford History of Board Games. Oxford: OUP.
 Tzannes, Nicolaos and Basil Tzannes (1977). Backgammon Games and Strategies. South Brunswick: Barnes. p. 247.

External links
Backgammon Galore - Gioul (rules in English)

Tables games
Culture of Greece

Gioul


Fred Aldrich (December 23, 1904 – January 25, 1979) was an American character actor of both film and television. Born in New York. He would break into the film industry in 1939, appearing in two films that year in small roles: My Son Is Guilty, and the notable, Confessions of a Nazi Spy, which starred Edward G. Robinson and George Sanders. In the course of his thirty-year career he would appear in over 170 films, in small and bit roles. With the advent of television, Aldrich would work in that medium as well, making his first small screen appearance on I Love Lucy, on which he would appear multiple times over the life of the series.

Over the course of his film career he would appear in such notable films as: Kitty Foyle (1940), starring Ginger Rogers and Dennis Morgan; 1945's The Picture of Dorian Gray, starring George Sanders; Tycoon (1947), starring John Wayne and Laraine Day; A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, with Bing Crosby and Rhonda Fleming; Young Man with a Horn, starring Kirk Douglas, Lauren Bacall, and Doris Day; the Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn vehicle, Pat and Mike (1952); again with Paul Newman in 1956's Somebody Up There Likes Me; The Last Angry Man, starring Paul Muni; with Rock Hudson and Doris Day in Lover Come Back (1961); the spy spoof, Our Man Flint (1966), starring James Coburn; and 1967's A Big Hand for the Little Lady, starring Henry Fonda, Joanne Woodward, and Jason Robards.

Aldrich made an appearance to the 1956 film The Conqueror, which starred John Wayne and Susan Hayward. His television credits include appearances on such shows as The Rifleman, Have Gun - Will Travel, Bat Masterson, The Untouchables, Gunsmoke, Rawhide, and Perry Mason. Aldrich died on January 25, 1979, in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 74.

References

External links

American male film actors
Male actors from New York City
1904 births
1979 deaths
American male television actors
20th-century American male actors
Western (genre) television actors

Fred Aldrich


Regnum Christi, officially the Regnum Christi Federation (Latin: Regnum Christi Foederationis) is an international Catholic Federation. It is made up of lay Catholics, as well as the religious congregation of the Legionaries of Christ (seminarians and priests), and the Societies of Apostolic Life of the Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi, and the Lay Consecrated Men of Regnum Christi. The statutes of the Regnum Christi Federation were approved by the Holy See on May 31, 2019, after an extensive investigation and discernment on the part of the Holy See who led Regnum Christi and all of its federated institutions through a deep reformation and renewal process that began in 2009. Regnum Christi is dedicated to promoting the Catholic faith and evangelization.  Their motto is "Thy Kingdom Come."

It was founded by Marcial Maciel, who led it until 2005. In 2006, Maciel was investigated by the Holy See and suspended from his ministry, initially over breaches of celibacy, and following public revelations later confirmed as sustained, over sexual abuse of minors. Maciel died in 2008, aged 87. After Maciel's death, and following more revelations, Pope Benedict XVI ordered an apostolic visitation of the Legion of Christ 2009. At the conclusion of that visitation, Cardinal Velasio De Paolis was delegated to conduct a visitation of Regnum Christi.  This investigation and reform of the Legionaries of Christ led to a reevaluation of the statutes of Regnum Christi that were written in 2004, and a deep reflection on the nature of Regnum Christi as a whole.  Members from all states in life participated in that reflection, as individuals and in groups, under the guidance of officials from the Holy See. A greater, fuller, and more nuanced vision of Regnum Christi emerged in that process, culminating in the 2019 statutes.

Spirituality

The spirituality of Regnum Christi is Christ-centered, springing from a personal experience of Christ's love and overflowing in an ongoing and ever-deepening relationship with him. It is presented in number 12 of the statutes: "Our spirituality is centered above all on Jesus Christ and born from experiencing his love. We seek to respond to our Friend and Lord with a personal, real, passionate and faithful love. Through the action of the Holy Spirit, we are sons and daughters in the Son who becomes the center, standard and model of our life. We learn to encounter him in the Gospel, the Eucharist, the cross and our neighbor."

Activities of its members
Regnum Christi members live their mission through their Christian witness and through apostolic work. Number 8 of the Statutes of the Regnum Christi Federation explains this as "To fulfill our mission, we seek to make present the mystery of Christ who goes out to people, reveals the love of his heart to them, gathers them together and forms them as apostles and Christian leaders, sends them out and accompanies them as they collaborate in the evangelization of people and of society."  Their mission is carried out through various programs, apostolates, and institutions, including youth work, schools , Mission Youth Missions, retreats, and other works in parishes or dioceses.

As of 2023, there were just over 20,000 members in more than 30 countries.

The 5 Elements of Life in Regnum Christi
Regnum Christi members of all vocations live their Christian faith actively, with enthusiasm and love. It's a call that helps members live their baptismal commitments and fulfill the mission of being salt & light in the world.

All Regnum Christi members develop this way of life in their team life, spiritual life, apostolate, formation, and personal accompaniment.

Team Life
Modeled on the first Christian communities, Regnum Christi members gather as communities of apostles to pray, to evangelize, and to support and encourage each other in the living of their Christian vocation. Team life provides a nucleus of spiritual friendship, a community that is there to share the gifts and challenges of daily life with each other, and a group of like-minded apostles who work together to bring the light of the Gospel to those around them.

Spiritual Life
The core of a Regnum Christi member's life is to know Christ's love, love him deeply in return, and share that love with others. All members share a common mission and spirituality, which each one lives according to their identity and specific vocation.

Apostolate
The mission of a Regnum Christi member covers all aspects of life. It begins with the foundation of building their own relationship with God, living their God-given vocation and state in life as their personal path to holiness, and then impacting the world around them through a life lived in union with God that reaches out to others in evangelization, service, and apostolate.

Formation
Integral formation is formation in the spiritual, human, intellectual, and apostolic areas of our lives. It allows us to form a strong and rich Catholic worldview, develop our capacity to go deeper in our relationship with Christ and to "always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you for the reason for your hope" (1 Peter 3:15).

Personal Accompaniment
Regnum Christi sees personal accompaniment as essential in following Christ. Members seek to accompany each other as Christ accompanied people in the Gospel, person-to-person, discerning and following the path of holiness together. Personal accompaniment can be natural and spontaneous, as in friendships, or more formal and intentional, as in Spiritual Direction.

Different Types of Membership
Among the members of Regnum Christi, there are lay members, both single and married, priests and brothers who are members of the religious congregation of the Legionaries of Christ, and lay consecrated men and women who each have their own pontifically recognized society for apostolic life.

Lay Members
The lay members of Regnum Christi embrace a vocation from God to live their baptismal commitments in the midst of today's world, according to the charism of Regnum Christi, in a dynamic relationship of love with Jesus Christ.  Their mission is to make the Kingdom of Christ present in today's world so that all people have the chance to encounter Christ and experience his love. Lay Regnum Christi members make Christ's kingdom present in the world and transform daily realities with the light of the Gospel, especially in their family, professional, and social lives. The Rule of Life for lay members of Regnum Christi was approved by the Holy See in 2019.

Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi
The Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi  are a Society of Apostolic Life and part of the Regnum Christi Federation that is made up of lay women who dedicate their lives fully to Christ through the evangelical vows of poverty, chastity and obedience lived within international communities. They live consecrated life in the Church within the lay state, being "in the world but not of the world". Their mission is to make present the mystery of Christ who goes out to people, reveals his love to them, gathers them together and forms them as apostles and Christian leaders, sending them out to evangelize people and society. They collaborate with Regnum Christi and the Church, accompanying thousands through formation of seminarians, lay leaders, teachers, students, young people and parents; preaching, offering spiritual direction, and leading courses, pilgrimages, missions and retreats in over 15 countries around the world.

The Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi was founded on 8 December 1969 in Mexico when three women, Margarita Estrada, Guadalupe Magaña, and Graciela Magaña, made private vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. For a long time the government of the Consecrated Women was under the Legionaries of Christ. However, after an apostolic visitation, Cardinal Velasio de Paolis decided that they would be better served by their own internal government. On 17 May 2012, Gloria Rodriguez was named the new leader after consulting the members. On November 25, 2018, they were approved by the Holy See, who established the Consecrated Women and the Lay Consecrated Men of Regnum Christi as Societies of Apostolic Life.

The Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi share their spirituality with the rest of Regnum Christi but live it out in their own particular way.

Lay Consecrated Men of Regnum Christi
The Lay Consecrated Men of Regnum Christi are part of the Regnum Christi Federation made up of lay men who dedicate themselves full-time to apostolate. They live consecrated life in the Church within the lay state. They live and spread the good news of being apostles in the social and professional world.

They were formed on April 13, 1975 by Marcial Maciel with Álvaro Corcuera (who later became the general director of the Legionaries of Christ and Regnum Christi) as one of the founding members. For a long time the government of the consecrated men was under the Legionaries of Christ. However, after an apostolic visitation, Card. Velasio de Paolis decided that they would be better served by their own internal government. On May 17, 2012 Jorge Lopez was named the new leader after consulting the members. The same decree named Matthew Reinhart the director of North America and Europe.

The consecrated men share their spirituality with the rest of Regnum Christi but live it out in their own particular way.

Legionaries of Christ
The Legionaries of Christ are a Catholic religious congregation made up of priests and brothers (seminarians). They are part of the Regnum Christi Federation. The mission of the Legionaries of Christ is to form apostles, Christian leaders at the service of the Church. Driven by the desire of Jesus' heart to set the world ablaze, the religious priests of the Legionaries of Christ support each other and work in communion with other Regnum Christi members in their mission to form apostles, people who let the love of Christ the King transform their hearts, their families and their world.

ECyD

ECYD is the Regnum Christi Charism lived by adolescents. ECYD is an acronym for Encounters, Convictions, Your Decisions. Members make a pledge of friendship with Christ and with each other, to transform the world for Christ. It is a way of learning how to live in a Christian community: ECYD teammates live communion in Christ, and guided by him, journey together towards heaven. Through prayer, an adolescent discovers God's presence in their heart, hears him and dialogues with him, seeks to know his will and receives strength to follow it. Through apostolate, adolescents are invited to give of themselves generously, to go out and meet the most needy and distanced from God. Being an apostle is more than an attitude; it is the way of living as a Christian in the world. In ECYD, formation is understood as a path of encounters which bring adolescents to know, accept and master themselves; to discover in Christ the full meaning of their lives, and to develop their leadership as apostles. Accompaniment is personal attention offered on both an individual and group level in the varied circumstances of the adolescents' lives. ECYD mentors guide and walk alongside the adolescents in their search for happiness and the fullness of their calling.

History
The first draft of the statutes for Regnum Christi was written and promulgated in 1959. On November 25, 2004 a revised set of statutes was approved. These statutes define the goals, spirituality, and structure of Regnum Christi. In a November 21, 2011 letter, Cardinal Velasio de Paolis asked the consecrated in Regnum Christi to edit their core set of norms, and took force away from a more extensive set of norms. He set up a small commission to revise them. This process led to the founding of the Societies of Apostolic Life of the Consecrated Women and Lay Consecrated Men, each with their own autonomous governance. The approved configuration of the Regnum Christi Federation in 2019 included the Legionaries of Christ as members of Regnum Christi for the first time.

The Regnum Christi Federation is governed collegially at the general and territorial levels by a college made up of members of the Legionaries of Christ, the Consecrated Women, Lay Consecrated Men, and lay members.

Sexual abuse scandal

The Legion of Christ and Regnum Christi have received criticism both from members within the Catholic Church and without.

On May 1, 2010 the Vatican issued a statement condemning Maciel as "immoral" and acknowledging that Maciel had committed "true crimes". Pope Benedict also said he would appoint a delegate to reform the Legionaries' charism, spirituality and constitutions. Pope Francis proceeded to revolutionize the Legion of Christ.  Under the guidance of Cardinal Velasio De Paolis, the congregation announced the order's complete restructuring at its Extraordinary General Chapter in Rome in January 2014.

In the early 2000s, 77 former students the Regnum Christi run high school in Wakefeild, RI made a plea to the Vatican to close the school citing psychological anguish, rigid schedules, manipulation, emotional abuse, and isolation from families as they were forced to live like nuns. The women have made their experiences public on a blog titled "49 Weeks a Year" as this was the amount of time they would be expected to spend at the boarding school, spending only 3 weeks with their families.

A Vatican led investigation into the history of the Legionaries of Life and Regnum Christi that spanned 10 years from 2009-2019 led to sweeping reforms and a firm commitment to renewal and the eradication of sexual abuse in the organization. Codes of conduct are established for Legionaries of Christ, Consecrated Men and Women, and for lay members who have contact with minors through Regnum Christi. Procedures for prevention and immediate action are also in place so that any and all allegations are received, dealt with, and reported to the proper authorities. These policies and procedures are subject to the standards of accreditation of Praesidium, a specialized external third-party institution, ensuring the most demanding criteria in the creation of safe environments is met.

References

External links

Regnum Christi Sites
Official Site of Regnum Christi
Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi
Lay Consecrated Men of Regnum Christi
Legionaries of Christ

Catholic spirituality
Legion of Christ

Regnum Christi


Face to Face (;  ) is a 1967 Italian/Spanish international co-production Spaghetti Western film co-written and directed by Sergio Sollima and produced by Alberto Grimaldi. The film stars Gian Maria Volonté, Tomas Milian and William Berger, and features a musical score by Ennio Morricone. It is the second of Sollima's three Westerns, following The Big Gundown and predating Run, Man, Run, a sequel to the former. Milian stars in a lead role in all three films.

The film portrays the unlikely partnership of Professor Fletcher (Volonté), a university lecturer, and "Beauregard" Bennet (Milian), a wanted outlaw, and a series of events that results in an exchange of their moral values, culminating in Fletcher taking control of Bennet's bandit gang. Frequently interpreted as a parable based on the rise of European fascism, the story and themes of Face to Face were based on Sollima's wartime experiences, and his personal beliefs on the role of environments and societies in the shaping of a person's character.

A major success at the European box office, Face to Face has received praise from critics and scholars of the Spaghetti Western genre for its story and acting, although some criticism has been leveled at the execution of Fletcher's character arc. Sollima considered it to be one of the best and most personal of the films he directed.

Plot
During the American Civil War, Brad Fletcher retires from his position as History Professor at Boston University due to tuberculosis and retreats to Texas. The sexually repressed Fletcher is a well-meaning, albeit conceited, liberal who opposes violence and human suffering. While taking a siesta, a stagecoach carrying several lawmen and Solomon "Beauregard" Bennet, a captured criminal, stops by Fletcher's hotel. When Fletcher tries to give Bennet a drink of water, he is taken hostage, and they escape on the stagecoach before becoming lost in the desert. Under Bennet's instructions, Fletcher takes him to a hideout in the forest, where Bennet recovers from his wounds. During this time, Fletcher learns from Bennet how to fire a revolver.

Charley Siringo, a mysterious outlaw, encounters Fletcher and Bennet, convincing the latter to reform his gang, "Bennet's Raiders". Bennet agrees, and he convinces Fletcher to return to Boston. While staying in a hotel in Purgatory City, awaiting an Eastbound train, Fletcher finds Bennet again, who has been hired by businessman Williams to dispatch Sam Taylor's gun-fighting gang; in exchange, Aaron Chase, a Raider, will be freed from prison. A gunfight between Bennet and the gunmen ensues, and Fletcher saves Bennet's life by killing one of them. Later, as Fletcher prepares to board his train, he decides to follow Bennet and Aaron; they are soon joined by fellow Raiders Vance and Jason.

Bennet and Fletcher ride to the de Winton Plantation to visit and recruit another Raider, the Southern gentleman Maximillian de Winton. Siringo returns and proves his loyalty by killing a sheriff attempting to capture Bennet and the gang. Bennet's Raiders ride to their main hideout of Puerto de Fuego, an anarchist community of outsiders and desperados. When Bennet and the other Raiders leave to partake in a train robbery, Fletcher accosts Maria, Vance's girlfriend, and they begin an affair.

Vance confronts Maria and Fletcher; the latter subsequently kills him in self-defense. Later, Fletcher suggests to Maria and the Raiders that they rob the Willow Creek Bank, disguising themselves as ordinary citizens to lower the chances of gunplay. After testing Fletcher's ruthlessness with a mock duel, Bennet agrees to the plan. The robbery runs smoothly until a peasant boy recognises Bennet and blows his cover. Siringo, revealing himself as an undercover Pinkerton agent, captures Bennet and aids the local authorities in killing Jason, Maximillian and Aaron. Fletcher and Maria return to Puerto del Fuego with the stolen money, but Maria dies from wounds sustained in the battle. Driven to madness by Maria's death and Siringo's betrayal, Fletcher declares leadership of Bennet's Raiders, turning Puerto del Fuego into a fascist state fuelled by money, violence and fear.

In Silvertown, a vigilante posse is organized to eliminate Bennet's Raiders, as they are cutting a swathe through their profits. Siringo and Bennet, who has lost his passion for violence as a result of his friendship with Fletcher and the death of the peasant boy during the robbery, refuse to lead the vigilantes, but Zachary Shawn, a former, jailed member of the Raiders, agrees. The next morning, Bennet escapes from his prison cell and rides to Puerto del Fuego, where he finds many innocent people massacred.

As Fletcher attempts to take the other refugees across a desert, one of the transport wagons breaks down, and the people on board are forced to travel on foot. Upon being separated, the group is wiped out by Zachary's vigilantes. Bennet meets Fletcher and the others just as the vigilantes prepare to attack. As the refugees escape, Fletcher and Bennet prepare to hold Zachary's gang off. Siringo arrives to stop the posse, killing Zachary and a vigilante to prevent further bloodshed, and confronts Bennet and Fletcher alone. Fletcher, angry at Siringo for his betrayal of the Raiders and the people of Puerto del Fuego, prepares to kill him, but he is shot by Bennet. Expressing regret over his unfulfilled plans for Bennet's Raiders, Fletcher dies. Bennet allows Siringo to execute him, but Siringo, noticing Bennet's desire for redemption, shoots the face of the vigilante's corpse, creating a "fake" Bennet to present to the authorities. Confused but thankful, Bennet rides off to start a new life with the refugees.

Cast

Gian Maria Volonté as Professor Brad Fletcher
Tomas Milian as Solomon "Beauregard" (Beau) Bennet
William Berger as Charley "Chas" A. Siringo
Jolanda Modio as Maria
Carole André as Annie
Gianni Rizzo as Williams
Lidya Alfonsi as Belle de Winton
Ángel del Pozo as Maximilian de Winton
Aldo Sanbrell as Zachary Shawn
Nello Pazzafini as Vance
José Torres as Aaron Chase
Linda Veras as Cathy, Fletcher's Mistress
Antonio Casas as Leading Citizen of Puerto del Fuego
Frank Braña as Jason
Guy Heron as Sheriff at de Winton Plantation
Rossella D'Aquino as Sally, Purgatory City Hotel Maid
Giovanni Ivan Scratuglia as Taylor Henchman
 Lorenzo Robledo as Wallace
 Francisco Sanz as Rusty Rogers

Release
Face to Face was released in November 1967.

Reception
A contemporary review, reviewing a 102-minute version of the film in the Monthly Film Bulletin noted that the "script is so tediously predictable that interest fades well before the halfway mark" stating that "some very obvious cuts [...] may be partly to blame".

References

Bibliography

External links

Face to Face at the Spaghetti Western Database

1967 films
1960s buddy films
1967 Western (genre) films
Films scored by Ennio Morricone
Films directed by Sergio Sollima
Films produced by Alberto Grimaldi
1960s Italian-language films
Italian buddy films
Spaghetti Western films
Films with screenplays by Sergio Donati
Films shot in Almería
1960s Italian films

Face to Face (1967 film)