Old Comedy (archaia) is the first period of the ancient Greek comedy, according to the canonical division by the Alexandrian grammarians. The most important Old Comic playwright is Aristophanes – whose works, with their daring political commentary and abundance of sexual innuendo, effectively and by 'de facto' define the genre today. It is important to note that the only extant plays of Old Comedy are credited to Aristophanes. There are only fragments and 'testimonia' of all other Old Comedy playwrights and plays.

Origins and history
The Greek word for comedy (kōmōidía) derives from the words for 'revel' and 'song' (kōmos and ōdē) and according to Aristotle comic drama actually developed from song. The first official comedy at the City Dionysia was not staged until 487/6 BC, by which time tragedy had already been long established there. The first comedy at the Lenaia was staged later still, only about 20 years before the performance there of The Acharnians, the first of Aristophanes' surviving plays. According to Aristotle, comedy was slow to gain official acceptance because nobody took it seriously, yet only 60 years after comedy first appeared at the City Dionysia, Aristophanes observed that producing comedies was the most difficult work of all. Competition at the Dionysian festivals needed dramatic conventions for plays to be judged, but it also fuelled innovations. Developments were quite rapid and Aristotle could distinguish between 'old' and 'new' comedy by 330 BC.

The origins of the Old Comedy were traced by Aristotle to the komos or celebratory festival processions of ancient Greece, and the phallic songs that accompanied them. Although the earliest Athenian comedy, from the 480s to 440s BC, is almost entirely lost, it is clear that comedy had already crystallised into a highly structured form, with the chorus playing a central role.  The most important poets of the period were Magnes, whose work survives only in a few fragments of dubious authenticity, and Cratinus, who took the prize at the City Dionysia probably sometime around 450 BC. Although no complete plays by Cratinus are preserved, they are known through hundreds of fragments: he was noted in antiquity both for a mastery of plot and for the obscene vehemence of his attacks on Pericles.

Aristophanes and his contemporaries

Aristophanes satirized and lampooned the most prominent personalities and institutions of his time, as can be seen, for example, in his scurrilous portrayal of Socrates in The Clouds, and in his racy anti-war farce Lysistrata. Aristophanes was only one of a large number of comic poets, however, working in Athens in the late 5th century BC; his biggest rivals were Hermippus and Eupolis. Classical literary criticism placed Aristophanes somewhere between the harshness of Cratinus and the smoothness of Eupolis.

All the Old Comedy writers worked within a highly structured format – parodos, agon, and parabasis – which paradoxically offered maximum scope for improvisatory flights of fancy. Song, dance, costume, and chorus all played important roles, as did the parody of the 'senior' drama, tragedy. Possibly due to the influence of tragedy was the important role of a heroic figure in Aristophanic comedy: as Northrop Frye put it, "In Aristophanes there is usually a central figure who constructs his (or her) own society in the teeth of strong opposition". The diminished role of the protagonist (and chorus) in his latest works marks a point of transition to the Middle comedy.

The trend from Old Comedy to New Comedy saw a move away from highly topical concerns with real individuals and local issues towards generalized situations and stock characters. This was partly due to the internationalization of cultural perspectives during and after the Peloponnesian War. For ancient commentators such as Plutarch  and Aristotle,  New Comedy was a more sophisticated form of drama than Old Comedy. However, Old Comedy was in fact a complex and sophisticated dramatic form incorporating many approaches to humour and entertainment. In Aristophanes' early plays, the genre appears to have developed around a complex set of dramatic conventions, and these were only gradually simplified and abandoned.

The City Dionysia and the Lenaia were celebrated in honour of Dionysus, the god of wine and ecstasy. (Euripides' play The Bacchae offers the best insight into fifth century ideas about this god.) Old Comedy can be understood as a celebration of the exuberant sense of release inherent in his worship. It was more interested in finding targets for satire than in any kind of advocacy. During the City Dionysia, a statue of the god was brought to the theatre from a temple outside the city, and it remained in the theatre throughout the festival, overseeing the plays like a privileged member of the audience. In The Frogs, the god appears also as a dramatic character, and he enters the theatre ludicrously disguised as Hercules. He observes to the audience that every time he is on hand to hear a joke from a comic dramatist like Phrynichus (one of Aristophanes' rivals) he ages by more than a year. This scene opens the play, and it is a reminder to the audience that nobody is above mockery in Old Comedy—not even its patron god and its practitioners. Gods, artists, politicians and ordinary citizens were legitimate targets; comedy was a kind of licensed buffoonery, and there was no legal redress for anyone who was slandered in a play. There were certain limits to the scope of the satire, but they are not easily defined. Impiety could be punished in fifth century Athens, but the absurdities implicit in the traditional religion were open to ridicule. The polis was not allowed to be slandered, but as stated in the biography section of this article, that could depend on who was in the audience and which festival was involved.

For convenience, Old Comedy, as represented by Aristophanes' early plays, is analysed below in terms of three broad characteristics—topicality, festivity and complexity. Dramatic structure contributes to the complexity of Aristophanes' plays. However, it is associated with poetic rhythms and meters that have little relevance to English translations and it is therefore treated in a separate section.

Topicality
Old Comedy's emphasis on real personalities and local issues makes the plays difficult to appreciate today without the aid of scholarly commentaries—see for example articles on The Knights, The Wasps and Peace for lists of topical references. The topicality of the plays had unique consequences for both the writing and the production of the plays in ancient Athens.
 Individual masks: All actors in classical Athens wore masks, but whereas in tragedy and New Comedy these identified stereotypical characters, in Old Comedy the masks were often caricatures of real people. Perhaps Socrates attracted a lot of attention in Old Comedy because his face lent itself easily to caricature by mask-makers. In The Knights we are told that the mask makers were too afraid to make a caricature of Cleon (there represented as a Paphlagonian slave) but we are assured that the audience is clever enough to identify him anyway.
 The real scene of action: Since Old Comedy makes numerous references to people in the audience, the theatre itself was the real scene of action and theatrical illusion was treated as something of a joke. In The Acharnians, for example, the Pnyx is just a few steps from the hero's front door, and in Peace Olympus is separated from Athens by a few moments' supposed flight on a dung beetle. The audience is sometimes drawn or even dragged into the action. When the hero in Peace returns to Athens from his flight to Olympus, he tells the audience that they looked like rascals when seen from the heavens, and seen up close they look even worse. In The Acharnians the hero confronts the archon basileus, sitting in the front row, and demands to be awarded first prize for a drinking competition, which is a none too subtle way for Aristophanes to request first prize for the drama competition.
 Self-mocking theatre: Frequent parodying of tragedy is an aspect of Old Comedy that modern audiences find difficult to understand. But the Lenaia and City Dionysia included performances of both comedies and tragedies, and thus references to tragedy were highly topical and immediately relevant to the original audience. The comic dramatist also poked fun at comic poets and he even ridiculed himself. It is possible, as indicated earlier, that Aristophanes mocked his own baldness. In The Clouds, the Chorus compares him to an unwed, young mother and in The Acharnians the Chorus mockingly depicts him as Athens' greatest weapon in the war against Sparta.
 Political theatre: The Lenaia and City Dionysia were state-sponsored, religious festivals, and though the latter was the more prestigious of the two, both were occasions for official pomp and circumstance. The ceremonies for the Lenaia were overseen by the archon basileus and by officials of the Eleusinian mysteries. The City Dionysia was overseen by the archon eponymos and the priest of Dionysus. Opening ceremonies for the City Dionysia featured, in addition to the ceremonial arrival of the god, a parade in full armour of the sons of warriors who died fighting for the polis and, until the end of the Peloponnesian War, a presentation of annual tribute from subject states. Religious and political issues were topics that could hardly be ignored in such a setting and the plays often treat them quite seriously. Even jokes can be serious when the topic is politics—especially in wartime. The butts of the most savage jokes are opportunists who prey on the gullibility of their fellow citizens, including oracle-mongers, the exponents of new religious practices, war-profiteers and political fanatics. In The Acharnians, for example, Lamachus is represented as a crazed militarist whose preparations for war are hilariously compared to the hero's preparations for a dinner party. Cleon emerges from numerous similes and metaphors in The Knights as a protean form of comic evil, clinging to political power by every possible means for as long as he can, yet the play also includes simple hymns invoking Poseidon and Athena, and it ends with visions of a miraculously transformed Demos (i.e. the morally reformed citizenry of Athens). Imaginative visions of a return to peaceful activities resulting from peace with Sparta, and a plea for leniency for citizens suspected of complicity in an oligarchic revolt are other examples of a serious purpose behind the plays.
 Teasing and taunting: A festival audience presented the comic dramatist with a wide range of targets, not just political or religious ones—anyone known to the audience could be mocked for any reason, such as diseases, physical deformities, ugliness, family misfortunes, bad manners, perversions, dishonesty, cowardice in battle, and clumsiness. Foreigners, a conspicuous presence in imperial Athens, particularly at the City Dionysia, often appear in the plays comically mispronouncing Attic words—these include Spartans (Lysistrata), Scythians (Thesmophoriazusae), Persians, Boeotians and Megarians (The Acharnians).

Festivity
The Lenaia and City Dionysia were religious festivals, but they resembled a gala rather than a church service.
 Dirty jokes: A relaxation in standards of behaviour was permitted and the holiday spirit included bawdy irreverence towards both men and gods. Old Comedy is rich in obscenities and the crude jokes are often very detailed and difficult to understand without expert commentary, as when the Chorus in The Acharnians places a curse on Antimachus, a choregus accused of niggardly conduct, wishing upon him a night-time mugging as he returns home from some drunken party and envisioning him, as he stoops down to pick up a rock in the darkness, accidentally picking up a fresh turd instead. He is then envisioned hurling the turd at his attacker, missing and accidentally hitting Cratinus, a lyric poet not admired by Aristophanes. This was particularly funny because the curse was sung (or chanted) in choreographed style by a Chorus of 24 grown men who were otherwise known to the audience as respectable citizens.
 The musical extravaganza: The Chorus was vital to the success of a play in Old Comedy long after it had lost its relevance for tragedy. Technically, the competition in the dramatic festivals was not between poets but between choruses. In fact eight of Aristophanes' eleven surviving plays are named after the Chorus. In Aristophanes' time, the Chorus in tragedy was relatively small (twelve members) and its role had been reduced to that of an awkwardly placed commentator, but in Old Comedy the Chorus was large (numbering 24), it was actively involved in the plot, its entry into the action was frequently spectacular, its movements were practised with military precision and sometimes it was involved in choreographed skirmishes with the actors. The expenditure on costumes, training and maintenance of a Chorus was considerable, and perhaps many people in the original audience enjoyed comedy mainly for the spectacle and music. The chorus gradually lost its significance as New Comedy began to develop.
 Obvious costumes: Consistent with the holiday spirit, much of the humour in Old Comedy is slapstick buffoonery and dirty jokes that do not require the audience's careful attention, often relying on visual cues. Actors playing male roles appear to have worn tights over grotesque padding, with a prodigious, leather phallus barely concealed by a short tunic. Female characters were played by men but were easily recognized in long, saffron tunics. Sometimes the visual cues are deliberately confused for comic effect, as in The Frogs, where Dionysus arrives on stage in a saffron tunic, the buskin boots of a tragic actor and a lion skin cloak that usually characterized Heracles—an absurd outfit that provokes the character Heracles (as no doubt it provoked the audience) to guffaws of helpless mirth.
 The farcical anti-climax: The holiday spirit might also have been responsible for an aspect of the comic plot that can seem bewildering to modern audiences. The major confrontation (agon) between the 'good' and 'bad' characters in a play is often resolved decisively in favour of the former long before the end of the play. The rest of the play deals with farcical consequences in a succession of loosely connected scenes. The farcical anti-climax has been explained in a variety of ways, depending on the particular play. In The Wasps, for instance, it has been thought to indicate a gradual change in the main character's perspective as the lessons of the agon are slowly absorbed. In The Acharnians, it has been explained in terms of a unifying theme that underlies the episodes, demonstrating the practical benefits that come with wisdom. But the early release of dramatic tension is consistent with the holiday meanings in Old Comedy and it allows the audience to relax in uncomplicated enjoyment of the spectacle, the music, jokes and celebrations that characterize the remainder of the play. The celebration of the hero's victory often concludes in a sexual conquest and sometimes it takes the form of a wedding, thus providing the action with a joyous sense of closure.

Later influence/parallels
Horace claimed a formative role for the Old Comedy in the making of Roman satire.

The Old Comedy subsequently influenced later European writers such as Ben Jonson, Racine, and Goethe. Also, François Rabelais, Miguel de Cervantes, Jonathan Swift, and Voltaire may have derived elements from it. Western writers took particular inspiration from Aristophanes' disguising of political attacks as buffoonery. Old Comedy displays similarities to modern-day political satires such as Dr. Strangelove (1964) and the televised buffoonery of Monty Python and Saturday Night Live.

George Bernard Shaw was profoundly influenced by Aristophanian comedy-writing. According to Robert R. Speckhard, "like Shaw, Aristophanes wrote comedies of ideas, and, though one finds no evidence that Shaw is indebted to Aristophanes, it is clear that in facing much the same dramatic problem that Aristophanes faced, Shaw came up with much the same solution. Because the comic  machinery is easier to spot in Aristophanes (where there is no attempt, as in Shaw, to disguise it with any surface realism), what Aristophanes has done becomes a helpful point of reference from which to study what Shaw has done."

See also
Comic opera
Crates (comic poet)
Onomasti komodein

References

Further reading

Barrett, David and Alan Sommerstein (eds)(2003) The Birds and Other plays Penguin Classics
 Mastromarco, Giuseppe (1994) Introduzione a Aristofane (Sesta edizione: Roma-Bari 2004).
 Dobrov, Gregory W., ed. 1995. Beyond Aristophanes: Transition and Diversity in Greek Comedy. American Classical Studies 38. Atlanta: Scholars Press.
 Ehrenberg, Victor. 1962. The People of Aristophanes: A Sociology of Old Attic Comedy. 3d ed. New York: Schocken.
 Harvey, David, and John Wilkins, eds. 2000. The Rivals of Aristophanes: Studies in Athenian Old Comedy. London: Duckworth and the Classical Press of Wales.
 Henderson, Jeffrey. 1993. Problems in Greek Literary History: The Case of Aristophanes' Clouds. In Nomodeiktes: Greek Studies in Honor of Martin Ostwald. Edited by Ralph M. Rosen and Joseph Farrell, 591–601. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press.
 Rosen, Ralph M. 2015. "Aischrology in Old Comedy and the Question of 'Ritual Obscenity'" In Ancient Obscenities: Their Nature and Use in the Ancient Greek and Roman Worlds. Edited by Dutsch, D. and A. Suter, 71-90. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
 Rosen, Ralph M. 1988. Old Comedy and the Iambographic Tradition. American Classical Studies 19. Atlanta: Scholars Press.
 Rothwell, Kenneth S., Jr. 2007. Nature, Culture, and the Origins of Greek Comedy: A Study of Animal Choruses. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
 Rusten, Jeffrey. 2006. "Who "Invented" Comedy? The Ancient Candidates for the Origins of Comedy and the Visual Evidence." American Journal of Philology 127.1: 37–66.
 Sifakis, Grigoris M. 2006. "From Mythological Parody to Political Satire: Some Stages in the Evolution of Old Comedy." Classica et Mediaevalia 57:19–48.
 Sommerstein, Alan. 2011. "Hinc Omnis Pendet?: Old Comedy and Roman Satire." Classical World 105.1: 25-38.

Ancient Greek comedy
Greek political satire

Old Comedy


Alfredo González Flores served as President of Costa Rica from 1914 to 1917. He was unable to complete his presidential mandate following a coup d'état on 27 January 1917, led by Federico Tinoco, his secretary for War and the Navy.

Early life
González was born in Heredia, Costa Rica on 15 June 1877 as the son of Domingo González Pérez and Elemberta Flores. He graduated from the Costa Rica Grammar School in 1896 and obtained his law degree in 1903.

Political years
He was called to the Presidency on 8 May 1914 by the Congress, as part of a pact between the two major political parties, the Republican Party and the Duranista party, after none of the three competing parties managed to secure an absolute majority.

During his administration, he founded the Normal School of Heredia (1915, of which he also was President of the Board), the National Electricity Cabinet and the International Bank of Costa Rica (now the National Bank of Costa Rica). He also created the Agricultural Credit Meetings, which led to a resurgence of economic, commercial and industrial activity in the country. He established the General Depots, the system of direct taxation and the Charity Tax Law. He governed during World War I, a time when he endured serious financial consequences.
At a time when banks refused to facilitate credit for the Executive Branch, he created the International Bank, which had the ability to issue currency. From that moment, the State competed with private institutions.

On 27 January 1917, his own Secretary of the Army and Navy, Federico Tinoco, overthrew him. González followed the advice of his other ministers and left the country for the United States. He later worked for the recognition of the country's rights in different international forums. After returning to the country, he played an important role in the politics of Heredia.

He was considered an authority in financial matters and a precursor of modern democracy. He was declared a national hero on 23 July 1954. He died in Heredia on 28 December 1962.

Legacy
Alfredo was a precursor of modern democracy in Costa Rica. He was declared a national hero and is known for his wise financial decisions in government. He co-founded the largest commercial bank in Costa Rica and his face is currently found on the front of the 5,000 colon bank note.

References

External links

1877 births
1962 deaths
Presidents of Costa Rica
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People from Heredia Province
Costa Rican liberals
20th-century Costa Rican politicians

Alfredo González Flores


Henry "Orator" Hunt (6 November 1773 – 13 February 1835) was a British radical speaker and agitator remembered as a pioneer of working-class radicalism and an important influence on the later Chartist movement. He advocated parliamentary reform and the repeal of the Corn Laws. He was the first member of parliament to advocate for women's suffrage; in 1832 he presented a petition to parliament from a woman asking for the right to vote.

Background
Hunt was born on 6 November 1773 in Upavon, Wiltshire.

Career

Hunt became a prosperous farmer. He was first drawn into radical politics during the Napoleonic Wars, becoming a supporter of Francis Burdett.  His talent for public speaking became noted in the electoral politics of Bristol, where he denounced the complacency of both the Whigs and the Tories, and proclaimed himself a supporter of democratic radicalism.  It was thanks to his particular talents that a new programme beyond the narrow politics of the day made steady progress in the difficult years that followed the conclusion of the war with France.

Orator

After his rousing speeches at mass meetings held in Spa Fields in London in 1816, Hunt became known as the "Orator", a nickname attributed to Robert Southey.  He embraced a programme that included annual parliaments and universal suffrage, promoted openly and with none of the conspiratorial element of the old Jacobin clubs.  The tactic he most favoured was that of 'mass pressure', which he felt, if given enough weight, could achieve reform without insurrection.

His efforts at mass politics had the effect of radicalising large sections of the community unrepresented in Parliament, although the direct success of these efforts was limited.

Peterloo

Hunt was invited by the Patriotic Union Society, formed by the Manchester Observer, to be one of the scheduled speakers at a rally in Manchester on 16 August 1819, which turned into the Peterloo massacre. Arrested for high treason and convicted of the lesser charge of seditious conspiracy, he was sentenced to a term of 30 months at Ilchester Gaol. For the establishment, Hunt believed in some concepts that could threaten the profits of the business establishment: equal rights, universal suffrage, parliamentary reform, and an end to child labour.

The debacle at Peterloo, caused by an over-reaction of the local Manchester authorities, added greatly to his prestige. Moral force was not sufficient in itself, and physical force entailed too great a risk. Although urged to do so after Peterloo, Hunt refused to give his approval to schemes for a full-scale insurrection. Thereby momentum was lost, as more desperate souls turned to worn out cloak-and-dagger schemes, which surfaced in the Cato Street conspiracy.

While in prison for his role at Peterloo, Hunt turned to writing to disseminate his message, through a variety of forms including an autobiography. After his release he attempted to recover some of his lost fortune through new business ventures in London, which included the production and marketing of a roasted corn Breakfast Powder, the "most salubrious and nourishing Beverage that can be substituted for the use of Tea and Coffee, which are always exciting, and frequently the most irritating to the Stomach and Bowels."  He also made shoe-blacking bottles, which carried the slogan "Equal Laws, Equal Rights, Annual Parliaments, Universal Suffrage, and the Ballot."  Synthetic coal, intended specifically for the French market, was another of his schemes.  After the July Revolution in 1830 he sent samples to Gilbert du Motier, marquis de La Fayette and other political heroes, along with fraternal greetings.

Parliament

Business interests notwithstanding, he still found time for practical politics, fighting battles over a whole range of issues, and always pushing for reform and accountability. In 1830 he became a member of Parliament for Preston defeating the future British Prime Minister Edward Stanley, but was defeated when standing for re-election in 1833.  As a consistent champion of the working classes, a term he used with increasing frequency, he opposed the Whigs, both old and new, and the Reform Act 1832, which he believed did not go far enough in the extension of the franchise.  He gave speeches addressed to the "Working Classes and no other", urging them to press for full equal rights.  In 1832 he presented the first petition in support of women's suffrage to Parliament. It was received however with much ribald laughter and antagonism. Also in that year, he petitioned parliament on behalf of the radical preacher John Ward, who had been imprisoned for blasphemy.

In his opposition to the Reform Bill, Hunt revived the Great Northern Union, a pressure group he set up some years before, intended to unite the northern industrial workers behind a platform of full democratic reform; and it is in this specifically that his influence on Chartism can be detected.

Death

Hunt's health declined during 1834, and in early 1835 he suffered a severe stroke at Alresford, Hampshire, where he died on 13 February 1835. He was buried at Parham Park, Sussex.

Legacy

A monument to Hunt was erected in 1842 by "the working people", in Every Street, Manchester, in Scholefield's Chapel Yard. A "spiral"  march was held on the anniversary of Peterloo, from Piccadilly around the town past the Peterloo site, down to Deansgate and through Ancoats to the monument. The monument's stonework deteriorated, and it was demolished in 1888.

In popular culture

In Mike Leigh's 2018 film Peterloo, Hunt is portrayed by Rory Kinnear.

See also

 Peterloo Massacre

References

Belchem, John. "Orator" Hunt: Henry Hunt and English Working-Class Radicalism. Clarendon, 1985. . Republished by Breviary Stuff Publications, 2012. .

 Memoirs of Henry Hunt, Esq. Written by himself in his Majesty's Jail at Ilchester, three volumes, 1820–1822
 Addresses to the Radical Reformers of England, Ireland and Scotland 1820–1822, Henry Hunt
 Addresses from Henry Hunt, Esq. M.P. to the Radical Reformers of England, Ireland and Scotland, on the measures of the Whig Ministers since they have been in place and power, 1–13, 1831–1832
 The Preston Cock's Reply to the Kensington Dunghill, 1831
 The Casualties of Peterloo, Bush, Michael, 2006

External links

 Guide to the Henry Hunt Papers MS 563 1760-1838 at the University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center

1773 births
1835 deaths
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies
UK MPs 1830–1831
UK MPs 1831–1832
Politicians from Wiltshire
British radicals

Henry Hunt (politician)


George Grieve (1748–1809), or Greive (as he latterly spelled it), was the persecutor of Madame Du Barry.

Grieve was the son of Richard Grieve, an attorney, of Alnwick, and Elizabeth Davidson. Both Richard and the grandfather, Ralph, a merchant, had been prominent at Alnwick in political contests, and George's elder brother, Davidson Richard, was high sheriff of Northumberland in 1788. Grieve, on coming of age, had to go to law with the corporation to take up his freedom, their plea being that his father, who had died in 1765 at the age of eighty-four, had been temporarily disfranchised at the time of George's birth.

In 1774, he took an active part in defeating the Duke of Northumberland's attempt to nominate both of the members for the county, and in 1778 he headed a mob in levelling the fences of a portion of the moor which the corporation had presented to the duke's agent. About 1780, having wasted his patrimony, he emigrated to America, where he became acquainted with Washington and other founders of the republic. He is said to have been sent on a mission to Holland, and about 1783 he took up his abode at Paris. He probably represented America in revolutionary demonstrations, and in the winter of 1792, during Madame Du Barry's visit to London in search of her stolen diamonds, he took lodgings at an inn at Louveciennes, won over two of her servants to the side of the revolution, held a club in her house, and procured an order for seals to be placed on her papers and valuables.

On her return in March 1793 he drew up a list of 'suspects' for arrest, her name being the first, and on 1 July he escorted the municipality to the bar of the convention, where authority to apprehend her was obtained. A petition from the villagers having effected her release, he published on 31 July a virulent pamphlet entitled 'L'égalité controuvée ou petite histoire … de la Du Barry.' He signed himself 'Greive, défendeur officieux des braves sans-culottes de Louveciennes, ami de Franklin et de Marat, factieux et anarchiste de premier ordre, et désorganisateur du despotisme dans les deux hémisphères depuis vingt ans.'

On 22 September he obtained a fresh order for her arrest, and escorted her part of the way to Paris in the carriage, but a petition again secured her release. On 19 Nov. she was once more apprehended. Grieve, who had wormed her secrets out of her two faithless servants, superintended the search for her jewels, concealed in dungheaps; he got up the case against her, and was himself one of the witnesses. He may have been urged on by Marat, who had invited him to dinner the very day of his assassination, but he was apparently infected with the mania of delation, for he denounced the Jacobin ex-priest Roux as Charlotte Corday's accomplice, on the ground of having seen him 'look furious' when calling on Marat. This denunciation, however, had no effect.

On Robespierre's fall Grieve was arrested at Amiens, and was taken to Versailles, where twenty-two depositions were taken against him, but the prosecution was dropped. Returning to America, he resided at Alexandria, Virginia, and published in 1796 a translation of Chastellux's 'Travels.' He eventually settled at Brussels, where he died 22 February 1809, the register describing him as a native of 'Newcastel, Amérique.' He appears to have been unmarried, and to have broken off all intercourse with his kindred. Vatel, who had examined some of his manuscripts in the National Archives, Paris, testifies to his thorough mastery of French, and his pamphlet, the copy of which in the French National Library contains autograph corrections, bespeaks a familiarity with the classics.

References

1748 births
1809 deaths
18th-century English people
18th-century American people
19th-century English people
19th-century American people
French Revolution
People from Alnwick
Date of birth unknown
Date of death unknown

George Grieve


Brian Guebert (born December 19, 1981) is a Canadian Football League defensive end who last played for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

High school years
Guebert went to Lutheran Collegiate Bible Institute in Outlook, Saskatchewan. His team won the six-man Saskatchewan High School Provincial Football Championship in 1998.  He was selected as the Defensive MVP in the 1999 Can-Am Bowl, and was chosen as the Outstanding Defensive Lineman in the 1999 Saskatchewan Senior Bowl.

Junior football
Guebert played with the Saskatoon Hilltops, and he won the Canadian Junior Football League championship in 2001, 2002, and 2003.  In both 2002 and 2003, Guebert was picked as the Prairie Football Conference Outstanding Defensive Lineman.  He was also chosen as the Hilltops' Outstanding Lineman in 2002 and their Outstanding Graduate in 2003.

University
After his time with the Hilltops, Guebert moved on to play university football with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies.  He was picked as a Canada West All-Star in 2004, and both a Canada West All-Star and First Team All-Canadian in 2006.  His team played in the Vanier Cup in 2004, 2005, and 2006.

Guebert is a member of the 2004–05 Huskie Athletics All Academic 1st Team and 2004–05 CIS Academic All-Canadian Team.

CFL
Guebert went to training camp with the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 2003, playing in one exhibition game against Winnipeg.

Guebert was signed as a free agent with Winnipeg on May 30, 2007 and was a good special teams player. He was let go following the 2008 season.

Other websites
Blue Bombers profile

1981 births
Living people
Canadian football
Sportspeople from Saskatoon
Winnipeg Blue Bombers players

Brian Guebert


Ice creestals are solit ice exhibitin atomic ordering on various lenth scales an include hexagonal columns, hexagonal plates, dendritic crystals, an diamond dust. The hugely symmetric shapes are due tae depositional growth, namely, direct deposition o watter vapour onto the ice crystal. Dependin on environmental temperature an humidity, ice crystals can develop frae the initial hexagonal prism intae numerous symmetric shapes. Possible shapes for ice crystals are columns, needles, plates an dendrites. If the crystal migrates intae regions wi different environmental conditions, the growth pattern mey chynge, an the final crystal mey show mixed patterns. Ice crystals tend tae faw wi thair major axis aligned alang the horizontal, an are sicweys visible in polarimetric wather radar signatures wi enhanced (positive) differential reflectivity values. Electrification o ice crystals can induce alignments different frae the horizontal. Electrified ice crystals are an aw well detectable bi polarimetric wather radars.

Watter ice

Ice creestals


Travis Alan Wood (born February 6, 1987) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Cincinnati Reds, Chicago Cubs, Kansas City Royals, and San Diego Padres.

Amateur career
Born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas, Wood attended Bryant High School where he starred in baseball and football. At the Babe Ruth World Series, Wood tossed a no-hitter, striking out 17, and at Bryant, Wood received All-State honors in each of his three seasons at the school. During his junior season, Wood also led Bryant to a state championship, and was Arkansas Gatorade Player of the Year in 2004 and 2005.

Professional career

Minor leagues
The Cincinnati Reds selected Wood 60th overall in the 2005 Major League Baseball draft out of Bryant High School. He chose not to attend college and went straight to professional baseball. Wood's first season as a professional was split between the Reds' Rookie Class teams, the Gulf Coast League Reds and the Billings Mustangs. He went a combined 2–0 with a 1.29 ERA in 14 games, including 11 starts. Wood held batters to a .166 batting average, struck out 67, and pitched  innings, including  scoreless over his first six appearances.

Wood spent all of 2006 with the Class-A Dayton Dragons. He started 27 games and compiled a 10–5 record and a 3.66 ERA. Wood fanned 133 batters and held opponents to a .215 batting average. He was named Midwest League Pitcher of the Week for May 15–21, going 2–0 in 10.1 innings, striking out 13, and allowing one earned. Wood allowed only two runs in 26 innings pitched, while striking out 14 in his final four starts of the season.

Wood was placed on the disabled list on July 10 and stayed there until September 14. In 12 starts for the Sarasota Reds of the Class A-Advanced Florida State League, he went 3–2 with a 4.86 ERA. In 46.1 innings, Wood allowed 49 hits and 27 walks, striking out 54, and opponents batted .268 off him. Wood began the 2008 season in Sarasota, and went 3–4 with a 2.70 ERA in nine starts. He held batters to a .222 average while with the team. He earned Pitcher of the Week of the Florida State League for the week of 4/28-5/4, going 2–0 with a 1.38 ERA in 13 innings over the stretch, allowing two runs and striking out nine. Wood earned a promotion to the Chattanooga Lookouts of the Class AA Southern League on May 25. He struggled in 17 starts, going 4–9 with a 7.09 ERA. In 80 innings, Wood allowed 91 hits, 67 runs (63 earned), nine home runs, walked 48 and fanned 58.

Wood started the 2009 season with the Carolina Mudcats, the Reds new Southern League affiliate. That time around, he improved drastically over his previous season in Double-A. Wood pitched 119 innings over 19 starts, going 9–3 with a 1.21 ERA. Allowing just 16 earned runs on 78 hits and 37 walks, he also stuck out 103 batters and hitters batted only .189 off the lefty. Earning a call-up to the Louisville Bats of the Class AAA International League, Wood went 4–2 in 48.2 innings for the Bats. He allowed 43 hits over eight starts, walking 16 and striking out 32. The Reds added Wood to their 40-man roster after the 2009 season to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft. Wood was one of the last players cut from the Reds' roster in Spring Training, and was one of many competing for the Reds' fifth starter spot. In a crowded race featuring veterans Mike Lincoln and Justin Lehr, young arms Micah Owings and Matt Maloney, and prospects Sam LeCure, Aroldis Chapman, and Mike Leake, Wood came down to the last two but was cut in favor of Leake. He started the season in Louisville.

Cincinnati Reds

2010
On June 30, Wood was called up from Triple-A Louisville replacing Daniel Ray Herrera on the Reds active roster  Wood made his major league debut on July 1, 2010, versus the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field, getting a no decision in an eventual 3–2 Reds victory.

In his third career start, versus the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park on July 10, 2010, Wood flirted with a perfect game, pitching eight flawless innings before surrendering a double to Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz in the bottom of the ninth inning. Regardless, Wood actually could not have finished the perfect game in the ninth inning, because Phillies ace Roy Halladay, who himself had thrown a perfect game earlier in the 2010 season, also was pitching a shutout through nine innings. Wood exited after nine innings of one-hit ball, and the Reds would later lose the game 1–0 in 11 innings, with Ruiz scoring the winning run. Wood hit his first career home run on September 4, 2010, off St. Louis Cardinals' Adam Wainwright. Wood finished the 2010 season 5–4 with a 3.51 ERA in 17 starts.

2011
Wood went 6–6 with a 4.84 ERA in 22 games (18 starts) during the 2011 season.

Chicago Cubs

On December 21, 2011, Wood was traded to the Chicago Cubs, along with outfielder Dave Sappelt and a minor league second baseman Ronald Torreyes in exchange for left-handed reliever Sean Marshall. Wood was called up to the major league club in early May 2012 after Chris Volstad was demoted to Iowa because of his 0–6 start. Wood went 6–13 with a 4.27 ERA in his first year as a Cub.

On May 19, 2013, Wood became the first Cub since Mordecai Brown to start a season with 9 straight quality starts. On May 30, 2013, Wood hit his first career grand slam off of Jake Peavy in an 8–3 victory over the Chicago White Sox. On July 6, 2013, Wood was named to his first All-Star selection.

In 2014, Wood hit his 9th career homerun off of St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright. Wood struggled in 2014, with a 5.03 ERA in 31 starts. After struggling in the rotation to start the 2015 season, Wood was moved to the bullpen. Wood fared much better as a reliever, posting a 2.95 ERA and 4 saves in relief. Overall, he finished the season with a 3.84 ERA in 54 games (9 starts). Working out of the bullpen in 2016, Wood posted a 4–0 record with a 2.95 ERA in 77 appearances. In Game 2 of the NLDS, Wood hit a home run off of Giants' reliever George Kontos. He became the second relief pitcher to homer in a postseason game, after Rosy Ryan in Game 3 of the 1924 World Series. Wood won a World Series ring with the Cubs.

Kansas City Royals
On February 15, 2017, Wood signed a two-year, $12 million contract with the Kansas City Royals. The contract includes a mutual option for the 2019 season. Wood competed in spring training for a rotation spot but was ultimately moved to the bullpen to begin the season. At the beginning of July, Wood was moved to the starting rotation. Wood's overall numbers for the Royals were disappointing, sporting a career worst 6.91 ERA in 31 total appearances for the Royals.

San Diego Padres
On July 24, 2017, the Royals traded Wood, Matt Strahm, and Esteury Ruiz to the San Diego Padres for Trevor Cahill, Ryan Buchter, and Brandon Maurer. Wood was designated for assignment by the Padres on December 17, 2017, and released on December 20.

Detroit Tigers
On January 29, 2018, Wood signed a minor league contract with the Detroit Tigers. However, Wood tore his ACL in spring training and the Tigers released him on March 8.

Pitching style
Wood has an expansive pitch repertoire, throwing six pitches with regularity. He has three fastballs — a four-seamer at 89–92 mph, a two-seamer at 88–91, and a cutter at 87–90. He also throws two breaking balls — a slider (80–83) and a curveball (71–75) – and, finally, a changeup at 78–81. Wood's pitches to left-handed hitters are most often four-seamers, cutters, and sliders, with an occasional curveball. To right-handers, he throws the four-seamer, two-seamer, cutter, and changeup.

Personal life
Wood and his wife, Brittany, reside in Alexander, Arkansas with their daughter and son.

References

External links

1987 births
Living people
Cincinnati Reds players
Chicago Cubs players
Kansas City Royals players
San Diego Padres players
Gulf Coast Reds players
Billings Mustangs players
Dayton Dragons players
Sarasota Reds players
Chattanooga Lookouts players
Carolina Mudcats players
Louisville Bats players
Iowa Cubs players
Major League Baseball pitchers
Baseball players from Little Rock, Arkansas
National League All-Stars
People from Bryant, Arkansas

Travis Wood


Joe M. Rodgers (November 12, 1933 – February 2, 2009) was an American construction company executive and political operative who served as the United States Ambassador to France.

Early life
Rodgers was born on November 12, 1933, in Bay Minette, Alabama. He was raised in Montgomery, Alabama, where he graduated from Sidney Lanier High School. He attended the University of Alabama, where he was awarded a bachelor's degree in civil engineering in 1956. He served in the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey Corps from 1956 to 1958, where he became a lieutenant.

Business career
Rodgers had worked as sales manager for Dixie Concrete Pipe and went out on his own, starting a construction firm in 1966. Having been given a ticket and a house share for the 1968 Masters Tournament at the Augusta National Golf Club, Rodgers ended up sharing a home with Thomas Frist, a doctor from Nashville, Tennessee, who had just started a private hospital company called Hospital Corporation of America. The two built a connection while walking the golf course and Frist offered Rodgers a contract to build a hospital in Erin, Tennessee, for HCA. By 1970, Rodgers had built 19 hospitals for Hospital Corporation of America and had built 200 for the company by 1979, generating $120 million in revenue that year.

His firm took on a project in April 1972 to complete the building of the National Life and Accident Insurance Company's Opryland USA complex which had been scheduled to open on May 19, but had been delayed due to a strike by workers at another construction firm. Rodgers and his subcontractors crossed the picket lines and were able to earn a bonus for completing the project two days early, which was accomplished by working on shifts around the clock. The $50,000 bonus was turned over to local Boy and Girl Scout groups.

Rodgers sold a majority stake in his construction company after a 1977 heart attack and shifted into real estate development. Projects he developed included Vanderbilt Plaza and the Third National Bank building (which has since been renamed the Fifth Third Center), both in downtown Nashville. He started American Constructors in 1979, which built Nashville's Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, the Schermerhorn Symphony Center and the Wildhorse Saloon.

In 1987, Rodgers was described by The New York Times as "a leading candidate to head the Department of Commerce" to succeed Malcolm Baldrige Jr., a post that ultimately went to William Verity Jr.

Rodgers was named to serve as chairman and acting CEO of Berlitz International, following the mysterious death of former part-owner Robert Maxwell in 1991. He also served as a director of several major corporations and was active in a number of local civic, charitable and religious organizations.

Politics
During the 1976 Republican presidential primaries, Rodgers was an early supporter of Ronald Reagan's unsuccessful effort against President Gerald Ford and was finance chairman for Reagan's Tennessee primary campaign. He served as the Republican National Committee's finance chairman  from 1978 to 1980, raising $75 million during his tenure. After Reagan was elected President in 1980, he named Rodgers to serve on the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. In 1984, building on his continued efforts raising funds for Republican candidates, he was the finance chief for Reagan's 1984 re-election campaign.

Rogers was fundraising co-chair for Fred Thompson's 2008 presidential campaign bid.

Ambassador to France
In recognition of his efforts, Reagan named him in 1985 to a four-year term as the United States Ambassador to France. Rodgers had never been a diplomat and spoke no French, and spent six hours a day for a four-month period studying the language. Rodgers undertook a fundraising campaign to collect $500,000 to be used towards fixing up the ambassador's residence, raising $100,000 towards this goal by September 1985 after writing to 250 U.S. companies for donations. He and his wife resided in the official residence in Paris, where they would serve GooGoo Clusters, a hometown Nashville delicacy, to their diplomatic guests.

Rodgers accompanied President of France François Mitterrand on a Seine riverboat ride to the Île aux Cygnes where they unveiled a renovated replica of the Statue of Liberty, as part of ceremonies marking the centennial of the French gift to the United States. Rodgers represented the United States at ceremonies on June 6, 1986, to mark the 42nd anniversary of the Normandy Landings.

Mitterrand recognized Rodgers with the rank of Grand Officier of the Legion of Honor.

Personal life and death
Rogers resided in Nashville, Tennessee.

Rodgers died of cancer on February 2, 2009, in Nashville, at age 75. He was survived by his wife, Helen Martin "Honey" Rodgers, to whom he had been married for 52 years, as well as a daughter, a son and eight grandchildren.

References

External links

1933 births
2009 deaths
People from Bay Minette, Alabama
Politicians from Montgomery, Alabama
Diplomats from Nashville, Tennessee
Ambassadors of the United States to France
Sidney Lanier High School alumni
United States Coast and Geodetic Survey Corps officers
University of Alabama alumni
Deaths from cancer in Tennessee

Joe M. Rodgers


Alexander Kasimovich Kazembek ( or ; Azerbaijani: Aleksandr Kazımbəy or Mirzə Kazım-bəy; Persian: میرزا کاظم بیگ Mirzâ Kâzem Beg) (22 July 1802 – 27 November 1870), born Muhammad Ali Kazim-bey (Azerbaijani: Məhəmməd Əli Kazımbəy), was an orientalist, historian and philologist. He was the great-grandfather and namesake of the Mladorossi founder Alexander Kazembek.

The Cambridge History of Russia refers to him as "a Dagestani Persian of Shi'i origin", whereas the Archival Collections of Columbia University Libraries refers to his great-grandson as born "into an old noble family of Persian (Azeri) origin". Robert P. Geraci refers to Kasimovich Kazembek as "an Azeri who converted to Christianity", whereas Brill's Christian-Muslim Relations series refers to him as born "to a prominent Iranian family from the Caucasus", whose father was an "Azerbaijani Muslim cleric". Historian and political scientist Zaur Gasimov refers to him as "Russian Orientalist of Azerbaijani origin".

Background
Alexander Kazembek's grandfather had settled in Derbent during the campaigns of Nader Shah (1736-1747), the Shah of Afsharid Iran. There, he had become the paymaster general of the Derbent Khanate. Kazembek's father, a Muslim cleric known by the name of Mirza Mohammad Qasim (also known as Hajji Kazim), was born in Derbent when the city had been taken by the Quba Khanate. On his way back from pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj), he settled in Rasht in Gilan Province after marrying the daughter of the town's governor.

Life
Kazembek was born in Rasht in 1802. He was born in a time of political upheaval as Russia was expanding into Iran's territories in the Caucasus. His childhood thus coincided with the Russo-Persian War (1804-1813). During this war, Derbent was annexed by the Russians. Kazembek's family stayed in Rasht until 1811, when they moved back to Derbent. There, Kazembek's father was appointed chief judge by the Tsarist authorities. However, in 1820, Mirza Mohammad Qasim was charged with espionage on behalf of Persia, deprived of his religious title and exiled to Astrakhan along with his wife.

Kazembek completed his studies in Islam and, already fluent in Azerbaijani and Persian, also excelled in Russian, Turkish and Arabic. At the age of 17, he wrote his first book named Topics in Grammar of the Arabic Language (originally in Arabic). His father wanted him to become a Muslim scholar and was going to send him away to Persia and Arabia to master Islamic studies.

Religious views
While residing in Derbent, young Kazembek often met with Scottish Presbyterian missionaries. They would have long discussions during which he, then a devout Muslim, would try to "undeceive" his opponents. However, these discussions led to Kazembek's frequent inquiries about the principles of Christianity. He started studying Hebrew and English in order to have access to more information on this subject. In 1821, Kazembek visited his father in Astrakhan to arrange his own enrollment into foreign Islamic schools. There, he once again came across missionaries from the Edinburgh (later Scottish) Missionary Society.

Two members of that group, Dr Robert Ross MD and Mr MacPherson, who knew him as Mahommed Ali, instructed Kazembek daily in the truths of the Gospel. Living at the Mission House, he swayed from the ill treatment which his father subjected him to on account of his new belief. For, to be baptised, the emperor's permission had to be granted, because the Greek Church wanted him to be baptised in their way, but the missionaries appealed to the emperor. So, the service was held in the Mission Chapel, which was crowded with Persians, Tartars, Russians, Armenians, English, French and Germans and conducted in three languages, namely Persian, Turkish and English. While not all understood the service, the congregation showed lively interest in the sacred services of the day.

Kazembek, who maintained his steadfastness in the faith, received instructions from the Russian government that he was expected to enter Russian service, because he had become a Christian. In this, he complied and asked to go to St Petersburg to the College of Foreign Affairs, but this was not to be, as the Government placed all those such as Kazembek far away from any further influence of Christian teaching.

Despite this fact, Kazembek was later one of the few European scholars who strongly disagreed with the view that Islam was an obstacle to social development—a stance which was common among Westerners in the nineteenth century.

Career as a historian
Kazembek was an author of several historical books. He wrote Assab as-Sayyar (Seven Planets) on the history of the Crimean khans from 1466 to 1737 (in Turkish) and The Study of the Uyghur on Ancient Uyghurs in 1841. He also translated Muhammad Avabi's Darband-nameh (17th century book on the history of Daghestan) into English and published it in 1850. His biggest historical work was Báb and the Bábis: Religious and Political Unrest in Persia in 1848-1852, which he published in 1865. His other works were mostly focused on Islamic studies: Concordance of the Koran (1859), Muridism and Shamil (1859), History of Islam (1860), etc.

Career as a philologist
Kazembek started his career as a linguist by translating Christian books into Oriental languages. In addition to the languages he already knew, he learned French, German and Tatar. In 1825, he received an invitation to complete his bachelor's degree in London. However the Russian government refused to let him out of the country, fearing that Kazembek would choose to stay and work in England upon graduation. Instead by Imperial decree he was appointed as a teacher of the Tatar language in Omsk, thus being held away from his academic instructors. He never made it to Omsk as, while staying in Kazan due to an illness, Kazembek met historian Karl Fuchs and was invited by him to pass an academic test to determine Kazembek's eligibility to teach Arabic and Persian at Kazan University. The test was passed and Kazembek was hired as a senior teacher. In 1828, he was chosen to be a member of the Royal Asiatic Society and became head of the newly established Faculty of Turkic languages at Kazan University. In 1831, he attained a master's degree after writing an academic essay called Views on the History and Vocabulary of the Arabic Language (in Persian). In 1835 he was admitted to the Russian Academy of Sciences as a Corresponding Member. In 1837, he earned a Ph.D. degree at Kazan University. In 1839, he wrote a detailed work called Grammar of the Turco-Tatar language (at that time, most Turkic languages were regarded as dialects of one single language unit often referred to as 'Tatar' or 'Turco-Tatar'), where he compared Ottoman Turkish, Azerbaijani and various dialects of Tatar in terms of their phonology, morphology, and syntax and for which he received the Demidov Prize. The second edition of this book was published in 1846 and incorporated the author's latest research in the field. It became popular in Western Europe, being the richest academic source on the Turkic languages at that time, and was used in universities as a primary reference book until 1921, when Jean Deny published his Grammar of the Turkish language (Ottoman dialect).

In 1849, Kazembek was transferred to St. Petersburg University, which by his initiative was reorganized into the main Russian post-secondary institution for studying Oriental languages. In 1855, he became dean of the newly formed faculty. In 1863, he secured the establishment of the Department of Oriental History. He organized internships for students who showed interest in field studies of Oriental cultures. In 1854, he published another linguistic work named Study Manual for Turkish Language Courses, which included several reading materials typed in various scripts, and a Russian-Turkish dictionary of 6,700 words (the richest one at the time). That same year, he also published The Explanation of the Russian Words Similar to Those in Oriental Languages, a major work on loanwords in the Russian language.

In 1868, Kazembek initiated an academic movement aimed at studying the linguistics, ethnography, numismatics, and epigraphy of Turkestan. Unfortunately, with his death, this idea was mostly abandoned.

Other works
 Resaleh-ye haqiqat-nameh
 Resaleh-ye Mohammad Ali be qazi-e Khiveh
 Resaleh dar javab-e Eshbat-e nobovvat-e khasse-ye Molla Mohammad Reza Hamedani

References

Azerbaijani philologists
Russian philologists
Iranian Azerbaijanis
Linguists from Iran
Linguists from the Russian Empire
Azerbaijani orientalists
Russian orientalists
Demidov Prize laureates
Corresponding members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences
Kazan Federal University alumni
Academic staff of Kazan Federal University
Academic staff of Saint Petersburg State University
Converts to Protestantism from Shia Islam
Russian former Muslims
Muslims from the Russian Empire
Azerbaijani former Shia Muslims
Iranian former Shia Muslims
Russian Presbyterians
Presbyterians from the Russian Empire
Azerbaijani Presbyterians
Iranian Presbyterians
Russian people of Iranian descent
1802 births
1870 deaths
People from Rasht
Iranian orientalists
19th-century Iranian people
19th-century Persian-language writers

Alexander Kasimovich Kazembek


In music, alternate bass is a performance technique on many instruments where the bass alternates between two notes, most often the root and the fifth of a triad or chord. The perfect fifth is often, but not always, played below the root, transposed down an octave creating a fourth interval. The alternation between the root note and the fifth scale degree below it creates the characteristic sound of the alternate bass.

On the guitar and bass guitar this is accomplished with the right hand alternating between two or more strings, often the bottom two on the guitar. In the following example in the C major chord C is located on the fifth string while G is located on the adjacent sixth (lowest) string and in the F major chord F is located on the adjacent fourth string:

Alternate bass lines are also used on the double bass in country music, bluegrass music and related genres.

On the Stradella bass system commonly found on accordions, the left-hand bass-note buttons are arranged according to the circle of fifths. The bass button for the fifth is directly above the bass button for the root.

See also
Accompaniment

Accompaniment
Rhythm section

Alternate bass


Friederike Grün (14 June 1836 – January 1917) was a German operatic soprano who had an active career during the latter half of the 19th century. Possessing a powerful voice with a wide vocal range, she sang a broad repertoire that encompassed Italian, French, and German opera. High points from her stage repertoire included the title heroine in Vincenzo Bellini's Norma, Agathe in Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischütz, Leonore in Fidelio, Rachel in Fromental Halévy's La Juive, and Valentine in Giacomo Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots. She is best remembered today for portraying several roles in the first complete presentation of Richard Wagner's The Ring Cycle at the very first Bayreuth Festival in 1876.

Biography
Born in Mannheim, Grün studied singing in her native city with Hofkapellmeister Vincenz Lachner. She began her career as a member of the opera chorus at the Nationaltheater Mannheim in 1857. In the early 1860s, she began appearing as a soloist at the house. In 1862, she was committed to the Oper Frankfurt and from 1863–1864 she sang at the Oper der Stadt Köln. She was a member of the opera house in Kassel in 1864–1866 and she was a principal artist at the Berlin State Opera from 1866–1869.

After further studies with Francesco Lamperti in Milan, Grün sang at the Staatsoper Stuttgart from 1870–1871. In 1872, she gave successful performances at the Vienna State Opera and the Nationaltheater Mannheim. In 1873 she was committed to the Teatro Comunale di Bologna where she portrayed Elisabeth in the Italian premiere of Wagner's Tannhäuser. After further appearances in Frankfurt and Mannheim, Grün was committed to the opera house in Coburg from 1875–1877.

Richard Wagner had heard Grün perform in operas in Frankfurt and Mannheim and admired her abilities. He invited her to take part in the inaugural Bayreuth Festival in 1876 in the first presentation of the complete Ring Cycle. She premiered the role of the third Norn in Götterdämmerung on August 17, 1876 and portrayed the role of Fricka in Die Walküre on August 14, 1876. The following year she sang in concerts in London under Wagner's baton.

Grün retired from the stage in 1877 after marrying the Imperial Russian Baron, pianist and composer Login Sadler. However she still continued to perform in concerts under the name of Friederike Grün-Sadler, having a particular triumph in Riga in 1888. The couple lived together in Saint Petersburg for many years. Grün died during a trip home to Mannheim in 1917.

References

1836 births
1917 deaths
German operatic sopranos
Musicians from Mannheim
Singers from Saint Petersburg
Russian people of German descent
19th-century German women opera singers

Friederike Grün


Château-Gontier-sur-Mayenne is a commune of 16,776 people (2017). It is found in the region Pays de la Loire in the Mayenne department in the northwest of France. The municipality was created on 1 January 2019 and consists of the former communes of Château-Gontier (the seat), Azé and Saint-Fort.

References

2019 establishments in France
Communes in Mayenne
Subprefectures in France

Château-Gontier-sur-Mayenne


Benito Armando Archundia Téllez (born March 21, 1966) is a Mexican former football referee. He is known in Mexico as Armando Archundia, but appears as Benito Archundia in FIFA records. He has been a professional referee since 1985 and has had his FIFA referee permission since 1993. His first fixture as an international referee was the 1994 match between USA and Greece.

Archundia is the all-time leader in appearances at the FIFA World Cup, being one of only two referees who have been appointed for 8 matches, the other being Joël Quiniou. He also shares the record for the most matches officiated in a single World Cup (5 in 2006). The only others who have achieved this feat are Horacio Elizondo in 2006, and Ravshan Irmatov in 2010.

In addition, he has supervised the final of the FIFA Club World Cup twice, in 2005 and 2009.

He originally planned to retire at the end of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, but decided to continue for at least another year. He was the referee in the grand opening of the Estadio Omnilife, which featured Guadalajara vs Manchester United.

In addition to working as a professional referee, Archundia is a lawyer and economist.

World Cup

World Cup 2006
Archundia made his first World Cup appearance in the 2006 FIFA World Cup and refereed a total of five matches, equaling the most matches by an individual referee (along with Argentina's Horacio Elizondo). His final game was the semi-final between Germany and Italy. In general he was one of the most respected and proficient referees at the 2006 World Cup, and give out an average of only 3 cards per game (the lowest of any referee at the competition).

World Cup 2010
His second World Cup appearance was in the 2010 FIFA World Cup and refereed a total of three matches. His final game was the third place play-off between Germany and Uruguay.

Notes

References

External links

1966 births
Living people
Sportspeople from the State of Mexico
Mexican football referees
20th-century Mexican lawyers
20th-century Mexican economists
Copa América referees
2010 FIFA World Cup referees
2006 FIFA World Cup referees
CONCACAF Gold Cup referees
CONCACAF Champions Cup referees
21st-century Mexican lawyers

Benito Archundia


"Pilot" is the first episode of the first season of the period drama television series The Americans. It originally aired on FX in the United States on January 30, 2013. The episode was written by series creator Joe Weisberg and directed by Gavin O'Connor.

In 1981, shortly after the inauguration of President Ronald Reagan, Philip and Elizabeth Jennings (Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell) are undercover Soviet intelligence agents from the secretive Directorate S of the KGB sent to the U.S. 15 years ago to work deep cover in Washington, D.C. Their assumed identities are a married couple who run a travel agency, and even their own children Paige (Holly Taylor) and Henry (Keidrich Sellati) do not know their secret.

Reviews for the episode were largely positive. Critics commented on the lead performances of Russell, Rhys, and Noah Emmerich. In the United States, the series premiere achieved a viewership of 3.22 million.

Plot
In a cocktail bar, Elizabeth Jennings (Keri Russell), disguised as a sex worker, talks to an FBI bureaucrat. She takes him to a hotel room where she seduces him for information. Subsequently, Nikolai Timoshev (David Vadim), a KGB operative who has defected to the United States, is being watched by Philip Jennings (Matthew Rhys), Elizabeth's husband, and Rob (Chase Coleman). They stand in an alley waiting for Timoshev. As Timoshev approaches them, he realizes it's a setup and he runs, with Philip and Rob in pursuit. Philip captures him, but not before Rob is stabbed by Timoshev. Elizabeth picks the three of them up in a car and they drop Rob off at a nearby hospital, but miss the ship that would return Timoshev to Russia.

At the FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich) meets his new counter-intelligence partner, Chris Amador (Maximiliano Hernández). Their supervisor, Agent Mark Bartholomew (Michael Gaston), informs them that Timoshev failed to arrive. Meanwhile, Philip hides Timoshev in the trunk of his car in his garage, tied up and gagged. Philip threatens to kill him if he makes any noise. Philip then leaves the garage and goes into his home where Elizabeth and their two children, Paige (Holly Taylor) and Henry (Keidrich Sellati), get ready for school. In a flashback, a young Elizabeth is practicing fighting moves with her trainer. Timoshev takes over for the trainer. He and Elizabeth practice. Timoshev gets aggressive and eventually rapes her. Back in the present day, Philip, in disguise, meets with Martha Hanson (Alison Wright), a woman who works in Agent Bartholomew's office. Philip probes her for information on Timoshev, to which she reveals that the FBI have the car description and license plate number used for the kidnapping and that it was carried out by two men and a woman. Later, Philip tells Elizabeth everything the FBI have on them.

The Jenningses go next door to meet their new neighbors, who happen to be Stan and his family. Stan tells them that he works in counter-intelligence. Later, debating whether or not Stan moving next door is a coincidence, Elizabeth tells Philip that they have to get rid of Timoshev as soon as they can. Philip disagrees, and during their argument he suggests they defect to America by giving Timoshev to the FBI. Elizabeth immediately rejects this idea. In another flashback, Philip and Elizabeth are introduced for the first time and are given their orders. In the present day, Philip, while jogging, calls the hospital where Rob was dropped off. He is informed that he died. Later, Stan asks Philip to lend him jumper cables. Philip takes him to his garage and Stan notices the Jennings' car is the same type used in the kidnapping, albeit with Virginia license plates.

Later, Philip removes Timoshev from the trunk of the car in order to take him to Stan. Elizabeth attacks Timoshev, attempting to kill him despite his apology for hurting her. Philip asks how he hurt her and when neither of them replies, he breaks Timoshev's neck. Philip and Elizabeth pour acid on the body and dump it in a wastewater pool at an abandoned factory. They then have sex in their car. Philip (in disguise) visits the man who came on to his daughter in a shoe shop earlier, and almost kills him with a barbecue grill, leaving him with a warning. The next day, Elizabeth goes to see General Viktor Zhukov (Olek Krupa), who questions her about the failed mission. When Zhukov asks for an update on Philip's loyalty, based on Elizabeth's earlier reports, she dismisses them, covering for Philip and taking responsibility for the mission's failure. In a final flashback, Philip and Elizabeth have just moved to the States. Philip tries to get close to her, but she rejects him. In the final scene, Stan breaks into the Jennings' garage and checks their trunk. Finding nothing, he leaves. Philip hides nearby with a silenced firearm in his hands.

Production
Filming began for the first season in November 2012 in the New York City area. The production used location shots to simulate a dramatic setting of Washington, D.C. Early filming was delayed by flooding caused by Hurricane Sandy.

Conception

The Americans was created by Joe Weisberg, a former CIA officer. Despite its spy setting, Weisberg sought out to tell the story about a marriage. "The Americans is at its core a marriage story. International relations is just an allegory for the human relations. Sometimes, when you're struggling in your marriage or with your kid, it feels like life or death. For Philip and Elizabeth, it often is." Executive producer Joel Fields described the series as working different levels of reality: the fictional world of the marriage between Philip and Elizabeth, and the real world involving the characters' experiences during the Cold War.

Working at the CIA, which Weisberg later described as a mistake, has helped develop several storylines in the series, basing some plot lines on real-life stories, and integrating several things he learned in his training, such as dead drops and communication protocols. Weisberg was fascinated by stories he had heard from agents who served abroad as spies, while raising their families. He was interested in bringing that concept to television, with the idea of a family of spies, rather than just one person.

Weisberg was partially influenced by the events of the Illegals Program to write a pilot script for the series. Weisberg's research material included notes on the KGB's Cold War left by Vasili Mitrokhin and conversations with some of his former colleagues at the CIA. He stated that, unlike the circumstances involving the 2010 Russian spy ring, he had opted to set the story in the early 1980s because "a modern day [setting] didn't seem like a good idea", adding, "People were both shocked and simultaneously shrugged at the [2010] scandal because it didn't seem like we were really enemies with Russia anymore. An obvious way to remedy that for television was to stick it back in the Cold War. At first, the '70s appealed to me just because I loved the hair and the music. But can you think of a better time than the '80s with Ronald Reagan yelling about the evil empire?"

Development
After reading Weisberg's novel, An Ordinary Spy, executive producer Graham Yost discovered that Weisberg had also written a pilot for a possible spy series. Yost read the pilot and discovered that it was "annoyingly good", which led to the beginning of motions to develop the show. Shooting of the pilot began in May 2012 and lasted until mid-June. Filming began for the first season in November 2012 in the New York City area. The production used location shots to simulate a dramatic setting of Washington, D.C. Early filming was delayed by flooding caused by Hurricane Sandy.

Casting
Former Felicity star Russell spoke about the decision to work on another television series: "I thought the pilot script was just so interesting. It was so far from a procedural. And [originally,] I didn't know that I wanted to do it. I always say no to everything. I never want to do anything. [Laughs.] But I just couldn't stop thinking about it. I read it...and I kept trying to figure it out, because it's so not clear. It's still not clear to me. But there's so many different levels to it."

Rhys spoke about what attracted him to the role of Philip: "He's a sort of gift of a part in that he's very sort of layered and multi-faceted. And when you meet him, he's at this great turning point in his life where everything's changing for him. You just get to do everything. You get to do the kung fu, and you get to do the emotional scenes, you get to do the disguises. It's the full package for an actor. It's a dream."

Emmerich was initially hesitant about taking a role in the series. He explained: "The truth is, from the very beginning, I thought, "I don't want to do a TV show where I carry a gun or a badge. I'm done with guns and badges. I just don't want to do that anymore." When I first read it I thought, "Yeah, it's really interesting and really good, but I don't want to be an FBI guy." His friend, Gavin O'Connor, who directed the episode, convinced him to take a closer look at the role. Emmerich stated that he responded to the aspect of marriage and family. "It was really interesting, and it was really intelligent and unusual, and it stood out from the pack."

Reception

Ratings
In its original American broadcast, "Pilot" was seen by an estimated 3.22 million household viewers and gained a 1.2 ratings share among adults aged 18–49, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Reviews
The episode received largely positive reviews from critics. On the review aggregator website Metacritic, "Pilot" scored 77 out of 100 based on 35 reviews. Many critics commended the plot and performance of the leads. Rob Brunner of Entertainment Weekly described it as "an absorbing spy thriller" while David Hinkley of the New York Daily News praised the pace, noting that "It's a premise that requires as much clever dramatic footwork as you might expect, and creator Joe Weisberg, a former CIA agent, handles the challenge". Verne Gay of Newsday called it a "smart newcomer with a pair of leads that turns The Americans into a likely winner" and gave it a grade of an A−.

Gail Pennington, television critic for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch gave The Americans a rating of three out of four stars. In her review of the debut episode, Pennington stated "The Americans isn't just a heart-pounding action drama; by presenting heroes that are also villains, it also confronts viewers with TV's deepest moral dilemma since The Sopranos". Said Glenn Garvin of The Miami Herald about the lead characters: "If the Russians had agents this convincing the Cold War might have turned out differently".

A few reviewers had criticisms for the series. Kyle Smith of the New York Post said of the pilot episode that "The Americans at the moment seems to fall uneasily between the methodical and the campy". Hank Stuever of The Washington Post observed that "The Americans struggles to crack a certain code; the concept is tantalizing, but the follow-through lacks the momentum that gets viewers to commit".  He described it, however, as "another well-made, provocative TV drama" and suggested that it "could benefit from having the finite boundaries of being a miniseries rather than launching itself into the ambitious realm of an ongoing series."

References

External links

 "Pilot" at TV Guide

The Americans (season 1) episodes
2013 American television episodes
Americans, The
Television episodes written by Joe Weisberg
Television episodes set in Maryland

Pilot (The Americans)


Thomas Abernethy (1803 – 13 April 1860) was a Scottish seafarer, gunner in the Royal Navy, and polar explorer. Because he was neither an officer nor a gentleman, he was little mentioned in the books written by the leaders of the expeditions he went on, but was praised in what was written. In 1857, he was awarded the Arctic Medal for his service as an able seaman on the 1824–25 voyage of HMS Hecla, the first of his five expeditions for which participants were eligible for the award. He was in parties that, for their time, reached the furthest north, the furthest south (twice), and the nearest to the South Magnetic Pole. In 1831, along with James Clark Ross's team of six, Abernethy was in the first party ever to reach the North Magnetic Pole.

Early and personal life
Thomas Abernethy was born in 1803 at Longside in northeast Scotland. While he was a child, his family moved to Peterhead, a nearby port. His parents were James Abernethy, a stonemason, and Isabella Robertson. Thomas had an elder sister, Ann, who was born in 1801, and twin brothers, James and William, who were both born in 1816. Thomas went to sea at the age of ten and when he was about twelve he was apprenticed as a merchant seaman on the sloop Friends. He travelled to the West Indies and twice to Newfoundland. In 1819, he became a greenhand on the maiden voyage of the Peterhead whaling ship Hannibal, which hunted bowhead whales around the eastern coast of Greenland, and in its third season sailed into the Davis Strait on the western coast, where ice conditions can be much heavier. In 1829, Abernethy married Barbara Fiddes, the daughter of a ship's carpenter, and they lived at Deptford, southeast London, near the Royal Naval docks. They had no children.

Abernethy was nearly six feet tall and well built – there are no known photographs or portraits of him. He had dark hair and a ruddy complexion. In 1829, John Ross described him as "decidedly the best-looking man in the ship" and he thought that men of his appearance were best able to endure cold. Clements Markham described him as "a handsome man with a well-knit frame, and was resourceful and thoroughly reliable."

Arctic with Parry, 1824–1827

Northwest Passage

Sir William Parry is known for many Arctic naval expeditions, particularly in trying to discover a route for a Northwest Passage through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.
For his third attempt, in 1824, Parry took the vessels , under Henry Hoppner and , with Parry himself in command, and Abernethy signed on as one of the 75-strong Hecla crew. He was an able seaman, just one rank above ordinary seaman in the Royal Navy. Leaving London in May 1824, the expedition reached Lancaster Sound, but they had to winter at the Brodeur Peninsula in the northwest part of Baffin Island, due to ice. Several shore parties explored the region, but there is no record of Abernethy's involvement. When free of ice, they voyaged down Prince Regent Inlet, but Fury became wrecked (at Fury Beach) and Hecla, with both crews, returned to London in October 1825. Abernethy was paid off and left the navy to again become a merchant seaman. He was awarded an Arctic Medal for his service when it was instituted in 1857.

Towards North Pole

In 1827 Parry again took , this time in an attempt to reach the North Pole using small boats and sledges. Second in command was James Clark Ross
and assistant surgeon was Robert McCormick. Abernethy took part, now promoted to the rank of gunnery petty officer. Departing London in March 1827, they sailed to Spitsbergen where they found a safe anchorage at Sorgfjorden, Ny-Friesland, in the far north. Abernethy participated in the expedition north, but, beset by difficulties, they turned back at 82°45′ N – a record for furthest north that stood for almost fifty years. On the expedition's return Abernethy was enlisted in the Royal Navy on a permanent basis.

Arctic, with John Ross, 1829–1833

Northwest Passage

In 1829, Sir John Ross led another Northwest Passage expedition and appointed Abernethy as second mate to join the crew of Victory, a sailing ship and steam paddle steamer of 30 horsepower. James Clark Ross, Ross's nephew, was second-in-command. By October they had reached Prince Regent Inlet and then far south into the Gulf of Boothia where they anchored for the winter at Felix Harbour.

They formed good relations with the local Inuit who drew knowledgeable maps of the region which showed that there was no seaway to the west from where they were, or any further south in the Gulf although there was a narrow strait to the north (Bellot Strait). Following the guidance of the Inuit they experimented with dog sledges and were able to cross the Boothia Peninsula. A small party led by James Ross, including Abernethy, explored northwards but were unable to locate Bellot Strait. Again James Ross chose Abernethy for a westward expedition starting on 17 May 1830, crossing the Boothia Peninsula and the sea ice of James Ross Strait to King William Island, reaching a point at the north of the island which Ross named after Abernethy. They went a way down the northwest coast of the island and then, 200 miles in a direct line from their ship, they returned on 13 June – after a journey of one month they looked like "human skeletons". Abernethy was on another sledging expedition to the south confirming that there was no way out from the Gulf of Boothia in that direction. Only by September could Victory head north but they only got a few miles before they were frozen in again for the next winter.

North Magnetic Pole

On 15 May 1831 Abernethy was on James Ross's team of six which attempted to reach the North Magnetic Pole. They were equipped with a dip circle and on 1 July they reached  where the angle of dip was 89°59′. For two days they retested using different observers at slightly different locations attaining an average 89°59′28″ so discovering a slight daily change in the position of the magnetic pole. This was the first time the magnetic pole had been reached and, inevitably, they erected the Union Jack. Ross decided to explore a few miles further north before turning back so he chose Abernethy as his sole companion. On returning to the ship Ross named an island they passed after Abernethy. In 21 days they had travelled about 300 miles and the map they had been able to draw remained the standard for over 100 years.

By late August 1831 Victory was free of ice but immediately became trapped again. Through the winter they hunted for food – as well as catching seals Abernethy was good at shooting hares and grouse so  becoming called "the gamekeeper". By May 1832 they realised there was little hope of the ship becoming free of the ice that year so they left Victory using their own small boats/sledges hoping to find Furys boats, abandoned by Parry in 1825.

Return home

A three-strong advance party, including Abernethy, located the scene of Furys wreckage and the entire expedition was able to use the  stores and boats left there and build a substantial shelter, "Somerset House". In July Prince Regent Inlet cleared of ice but by August they found Lancaster Sound completely blocked so they had to return to Fury Beach for the next winter in Somerset House. On 14 August 1833 Abernethy spotted an open lead in the sea ice and so they set off rowing at 4:00 next morning, eventually reaching Cape York (the cape at the northwest point of the Brodeur Peninsula). At Navy Board Inlet, after a spell of 20 hours continuous rowing, a distant sail was spotted so the men rowed on but the ship sailed out of reach. They then spotted a second ship, also sailing away, but they were spotted and rescued by the Hull whaler Isabella. The captain told them they had been given up for dead two years previously "not by them alone, but by all England". By the time they reached Hull, where they received a civic reception, they had been away for four years and 149 days – Abernethy was paid £329:14:8d in back pay at double rates.  John Ross wrote of Abernethy "I have no hesitation in recommending him strongly to the Admiralty ..." so they promoted him to HMS Seringapatam. By now James Ross regarded him as an essential member of any future expedition.

Antarctica with James Ross, 1839–1843

Ross Sea, 1839–1841
With James Ross in command of the ships  and , three-mast barques, Abernethy set off on a scientific expedition to Antarctica in 1839, supported by the Royal Society. Joseph Hooker, later Sir Joseph but then a young naturalist, took part but because it was a naval expedition he had to be appointed as assistant surgeon. Throughout the expedition a major aim was to take magnetic readings at various ports of call starting with Madeira, Tenerife, Cape Verde, Trinidad, St Helena, Cape Town, and the Crozet and Kerguelen islands. In a storm the boatswain was swept off Erebus so two boats were launched to rescue him, unsuccessfully. Abernethy was in command of one boat but, just as it got back to Erebus, the other boat  was hit by a wave and all four crew were washed overboard. Abernethy cast off again and was able to rescue them.

When they reached Hobart they learned that the Wilkes expedition and D'Urville expedition had  already sighted Antarctica so Ross decided to explore a different unknown region. McCormick (from Parry's north polar days) who was ships' surgeon and Abernethy became close associates – and in New Zealand the pair collected natural history specimens.  Ross chose 170°E as the longitude to follow south and this turned out to be the future usual route for Antarctic voyages. The ships headed into what became known as the Ross Sea reaching pack ice at 66°55′S in January 1840 – they then forced their way into the pack ice, the first time this had been attempted. Amundsen wrote "Few people of the present day are capable of rightly appreciating this heroic deed, this brilliant proof of human courage and energy ... These men were heroes ...", and Scott wrote "... all must concede that it deserves to rank among the most brilliant and famous [Antarctic expeditions] that have been made. ... few things could have looked more hopeless than an attack upon the great ice-bound region"  They then emerged into open sea at 69°15′S and, sailing further south hoping to reach the South Magnetic Pole, they spotted land and mountains which they named Victoria Land and the Admiralty Range, and cleared Cape Adare. With Abernethy as coxswain their first boat reached a coastal island, Possession Island, but they did not reach the Antarctic mainland. Onward, they crossed the latitude of Weddel's record of furthest south and landed on Franklin Island.

Soon, in the distance, they spotted what McCormick described as "a stupendous volcanic mountain in a high state of activity" and, getting closer, "a dense column of black smoke, intermingled with flashes of red flame". Hooker wrote of "a sight so surpassing everything that can be imagined". Ross named it Mount Erebus, after his ship and the nearby mountain became Mount Terror.

Sailing east they reached a 200-foot ice cliff which they called the Great Southern Barrier, now the Ross Ice Shelf, and followed it so reaching 78°4′S. By depth sounding adjacent to the ice they determined the ice was floating and was therefore 1000 feet thick. At a low point in the ice cliffs they could see from the masthead "an enormous plain of frosted silver" and they were certain there was no open sea further south. After following the barrier for over 250 miles and with the Antarctic winter approaching they returned to the west but, near Mount Erebus, could not get ashore. They were 160 miles from the south magnetic pole – 700 miles nearer than anyone had been before. After passing Cape Adare, they again succeeded in breaking through the pack ice and reached Tasmania on 6 April 1841 to be greeted by John Franklin and crowds of well-wishers. As it happens Erebus and Terror were the last vessels to navigate the Ross Sea using only sail.

Weddell Sea, 1841–1843

For more magnetic readings, they left for Sydney in July 1841 continuing to New Zealand's Bay of Islands.  In November they set sail south,
this time heading south along 146°W hoping to again reach the Ross Ice Shelf. This time they became trapped in the pack ice and it took 58 days to reach through 800 miles of pack to open water. They sighted what became Edward VII Land and, reaching their new furthest south of 78°9′S, they again saw the Ice Shelf. With the sea beginning to freeze solid, Ross headed north and set course for the Falkland Islands. The two ships became pinched between two barrier icebergs and collided several times with both ships severely damaged and facing capsize. Terror managed to sail clear but Erebus was trapped with the only means of to escape being to "stern board" (sailing stern first) with Abernethy as ice-master. Abernethy "one of the most experienced icemen of our day – ever vigilant and on the watch" was able to guide them through a gap hardly wider than the ship. At last, after rounding Cape Horn, they reached East Falkland in April 1842 and refitted the ships. For more magnetic readings they sailed for Cape Horn, arriving in September but it was too early in the season to head south again so they took extended readings and then returned to the Falkland Islands, setting off on 17 December down 55°W aiming to reach the Antarctic coast at 40°W through the Weddell Sea. This time they failed to penetrate any distance into the pack ice so they retreated, heading for the Cape of Good Hope arriving in April 1843, and sailing home via St Helena, Ascension Island and Rio de Janeiro. They arrived back in England on 23 September 1843, after which Abernethy has been briefly lost to history.

Searches for John Franklin's lost expedition party

With James Ross, 1848–1849

In 1845 Sir John Franklin commanded an expedition along with Francis Crozier who had been on Ross's Antarctic expedition, again using Erebus and Terror, and again trying to find a Northwest Passage. In what became known as Franklin's lost expedition, both ships were eventually lost and 129 men were to die but Abernethy had not been included in the vast crew. By 1847 fears developed over what had happened so in 1848 three expeditions set off to search for Franklin, the main one commanded by James Ross in , with  Robert McClure, Francis McClintock and Abernethy as icemaster; and . The ships were accompanied by steam pinnaces. The ice was exceptionally bad in Lancaster Sound but they were able to winter at Port Leopold. Early next season they carefully checked in Peel Sound by sledge, not realising this had actually been Franklin's route, and returned to Enterprise after 500 miles and 39 days. Ross presumed Franklin had got beyond Melville Island from where he would try and escape south to a region covered by one of the other search expeditions. Only by 28 August 1849 after they had sawed a two-mile canal could their ship be freed from the ice but to the west they found continuous ice. Although trapped, the ships drifted east for 250 miles at about 10 miles per day from where, starting on 24 September, they headed home.

With John Ross, 1850–1851

The Admiralty offered rewards for finding (or even hearing news of) Franklin so
the 73-year-old John Ross set off with Felix, a steam schooner, with Abernethy as master of the vessel.
At this time he was describing Abernethy as "my old shipmate". Ross sought Abernethy's advice about crew which led to many of Abernethy's relatives being signed on.
Felix left Ayr on 20 May 1850 but at Loch Ryan in a near mutiny many of the crew had gone ashore and got drunk so Ross had to leave eight of them behind,
including Abernethy himself. A letter from Ross to the Hudson's Bay Company
and a report in the Shipping Gazette were bitterly critical of Abernethy,
blaming him for instigating the whole thing. All the same, Felix set sail with Abernethy again on board.

Meeting other search ships off Cape York (the cape on the northwest coast of Greenland), it was found that translations of different local Inuit accounts variously said that nearby Franklin's party had not been seen at all or that everyone had been murdered. At the later official Admiralty Board of Enquiry Abernethy said he had never believed the murder story. Ross credited Abernethy and Charles Phillips with finding the graves of three of Franklin's men near the shore of Beechey Island at the entrance to Wellington Channel although Phillips later said he had been called to the scene. Ross wintered  on Cornwallis Island and next year searched the island and Wellington Channel. Again Ross found Abernethy drunk and his spirit allowance was stopped – later in an open letter to the Nautical Standard and Steam Navigation Gazette Ross said he had lost all confidence in Abernethy due to his insubordination and intemperance. In August 1851 when the ice melted they returned home with Ross saying "we parted good friends at last".

With Edward Inglefield, 1852

In 1852, succumbing to public pressure, the Admiralty dispatched five search vessels on a new expedition and Lady Franklin funded a sixth vessel, her own steam yacht Isabel, a two-masted brigantine, under Edward Inglefield. Abernethy was ice master and second in command of Isabel. Contrary to instructions Inglefield explored around Baffin Bay and reached Wolstenholme Bay, near Cape York, where Franklin and his men had supposedly been murdered. However, they found nothing suspicious buried in the cairn that had been said to be their burial place.
Sailing on north they reached Smith Sound and discovered it provided a hitherto unknown entrance to the Arctic Ocean. On 29 August, with a heavy swell, thick fog, and ice forming, on Abernethy's advice that they  only had four or five days before they would be trapped, they turned to the south and reached Beechey Island to leave surplus stores for the ships there. They left earlier on the same day that McCormick arrived – in his book McCormick wrote of his disappointment about having missed his "old shipmate and friend at both the Poles, Abernethy." After surviving severe storms they abandoned the thought of overwintering and in ferocious weather returned home in November 1852.

Death, assessments and legacy

For most of Abernethy's married life he had been away at sea. In 1854 his wife Barbara died, aged 44, with her husband at her side, and Abernethy returned to live in Peterhead. In 1857 he married Rebecca Young but he was only to live for another three years. He died of "ulcersation of the stomach" on 13 April 1860 and his wife erected a gravestone in Peterhead Old Kirkyard. The local newspaper carried a very brief death notice.

According to Alex Buchan, Abernethy's biographer, in the 19th century Royal Naval officers were almost always from the landed gentry and they had purchased their commissions. Certain of their superiority, they wrote accounts of their expeditions keeping the credit for themselves. Indeed, at the end of an expedition, commanders often required any records kept by the crew to be given to them for inclusion at their discretion in the official report. Possibly because of this Abernethy left no written records. According to Sir Joseph Hooker, a distinguished scientist, concerning crewmen, "And where have you seen or heard that their services are in the least appreciated? The Admiralty have not as much as sent a letter of thanks to the men".

Although Abernethy has largely disappeared from history his contributions were sufficiently outstanding for accounts to have been left of him, even though he was neither an officer nor a gentleman. Sir Clements Markham, who had been president of the Royal Geographical Society and who had known Abernethy well, wrote in 1921 "The gunner of the Erebus must not be left out, as he was a very exceptional character and had very wide Arctic experience ... Abernethy was a splendid seaman". In 1828 Sir John Ross had described him as "the most steady and active, as well as the most powerful man in the ship".

Three capes were named after Abernethy: in Wolstenholme Fjord in Baffin Bay, on King William Island, and on an island west of Ellesmere Island. In 1983 Abernethy Flats on James Ross Island was also given his name. His gravestone still stands and in 2016 his biography was published.

Notes

References

Citations

Works cited

Further reading

External links

1803 births
1860 deaths
Explorers of the Arctic
19th-century explorers
Scottish polar explorers
19th-century Scottish people
People from Peterhead
Explorers of Antarctica
19th-century Royal Navy personnel
Royal Navy sailors
Recipients of the Polar Medal

Thomas Abernethy (explorer)


Pieter Antonie Ouwens  (14 February 1849, Amsterdam – 5 March 1922, Buitenzorg) was a Dutch scientist. He was Director of the Java Zoological Museum and Botanical Gardens. He is best known for writing the first formal description of the Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis) in 1912.

Family
Ouwens was the child of Pieter Anthonis Ouwens, accountant in Amsterdam, and Caroline Reiniera Nagels. He studied at the Royal Military Academy in Breda from 1867. In 1871, he became lieutenant at the Infantry in the Dutch East Indies. In 1883 he was promoted to captain. In January 1879 he married Johanna Vosmaer at Banda Aceh. They divorced a month after the birth of their only child in 1882 in Salatiga. Ouwens then married Jeanne Dikkers in December 1883 in Purworejo. He married again in 1902 with Anna Josephina Soesman.

Komodo dragon
Ouwens became curator of the Zoological Museum in Buitenzorg. (Buitenzorg is now called Bogor). Lieutenant Jacques Karel Henri van Steyn van Hensbroek was the first Westerner to see Komodo dragons. Hensbroek sent a photo and a skin of a Komodo dragon to Ouwens. He then sent a collector to Komodo who returned to Java with two adults and a young lizard. Ouwens named the species Varanus komodoensis in a publication of 1912. Ouwens became Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau and died in Buitenzorg in 1922.

References

1849 births
1922 deaths
Dutch military people
Dutch biologists
People from Amsterdam
Zoologists

Peter Ouwens


Halil Gür (born 14 February 1951, in Karakese)  is a Turkish-born Dutch writer who made his debut with his novel 'Crazy Mustafa and other stories' in 1984. He was the pioneer of a large group of Dutch writers from non-western cultures. The fact that this novel also was a sales success and won several prizes, such as the E. du Perron prize, made of Halil Gür, to cite Kader Abdolah: "a pioneer to whom other authors of non-Dutch origin have a lot to be thankful for." Abdelkader Benali wrote in the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad; "I discovered Halil Gür and that was a true present for me. How he writes about his childhood is beautiful and touching; everyone should read it." Abdelkader Benali composed a book with a collection of Dutch literature for children "The Dutch literature for children in 100 and a few stories" (Prometheus, 2009) where he included two stories of Halil Gür.

Today Gür is a full-time author, writing for children, youth and adults. A poet and a story teller, he often performs at literary manifestations and reads from his own work at schools and libraries. He also gives poetry workshops at schools. In 1995 he performed at the "Night of poetry" and the daily television news (NOS-journaal) reported about him as the highlight of the evening.

The publisher Prometheus has put one of Halil's stories in the collection of stories "The desire to home. Most beautiful story's of nostalgia from the world literature". Halil Gür gets a lot of response and recognition of readers and critics, he's children books got several literal prizes.

References
Graeme Dunphy, "Migrant, Emigrant, Immigrant: Recent Developments in Turkish-Dutch Literature", Neophilologus, 85 (2001) 1-23.

1951 births
Living people
Dutch male writers
Dutch people of Turkish descent
Turkish emigrants to the Netherlands
People from Karakese
Writers from Amsterdam

Halil Gür


Sverdrup Pass () is a mountain pass in central Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada.

On 27 May 2013, researchers from the University of Alberta found samples of 400-year-old bryophytes that were still alive and viable. The specimens were found in an area vacated by the retreating Teardrop Glacier, near Sverdrup Pass. The bryophytes had most likely been buried under ice during the Little Ice Age.

References

Arctic Cordillera
Mountain passes of Qikiqtaaluk Region
Ellesmere Island

Sverdrup Pass