Xanthorrhoea () is a genus of about 30 species of flowering plants endemic to Australia. Species are known by the name grass tree.

Description

All species in the genus are perennials and have a secondary thickening meristem in the stem. Many, but not all, species develop an above ground stem. The stem may take up to twenty years to emerge. Plants begin as a crown of rigid grass-like leaves, the caudex slowly growing beneath. The main stem or branches continue to develop beneath the crown. This is rough-surfaced, built from accumulated leaf-bases around the secondarily thickened trunk. The trunk is sometimes unbranched, some species will branch if the growing point is damaged, and others naturally grow numerous branches.

Flowers are borne on a long spike above a bare section called a scape; the total length can be over three to four metres long in some species. Flowering occurs in a distinct period, which varies for each species, and often stimulated by bushfire. Fires will burn the leaves and blacken the trunk, but the plant survives as the dead leaves around the stem serve as insulation against the heat of a wildfire.

The rate of growth of Xanthorrhoea is slow. Some species  grow slowly (0.8–6 cm in height per year), but increase their rate of growth in response to season and rainfall.
After the initial establishment phase, the rate of growth varies widely from species to species. Thus, while a five-metre-tall member of the fastest-growing Xanthorrhoea may be 200 years old, a member of a more slowly growing species of equal height may have aged to 600 years.

Taxonomy
Xanthorrhoea is allied to the family Asphodelaceae as monotypic subfamily Xanthorrhoeoideae. The Xanthorrhoeoideae are monocots, part of order Asparagales.

A reference to its yellow resin, Xanthorrhoea literally means "yellow flow" in Ancient Greek. Smith named it in 1798, from  ('yellow, golden') and  ('flowing, flow').
The invalid Acoroides ('Acorus-like') was a temporary designation in Solander's manuscript from his voyage with Cook, originally not meant for publication.

Common names for Xanthorrhoea include grasstree, grass gum-tree (for its resin-yielding species), kangaroo tail and blackboy.

In the South West, the Noongar name balga is used for X. preissii.  In South Australia, Xanthorrhoea is commonly known as yakka''', also spelled yacca and yacka, a name probably from a South Australian Aboriginal language, mostly likely Kaurna.

The name grasstree is applied to many other plants.Kingia and Dasypogon are unrelated Australian plants with a similar growth habit to Xanthorrhoea. Both genera have at times been confused with xanthorrhoeas and misnamed as "grasstrees".  Some plant classification systems such as Cronquist have included a wide range of other genera in the same family as Xanthorrhoea.  However, later anatomical and phylogenetic research has supported the view of Dahlgren who regarded Xanthorrhoea as the sole member of his family Xanthorrhoeaceae sensu stricto, which is now treated as the subfamily Xanthorrhoeoideae.

 Diversity and distribution

The genus is endemic to Australia, occurring in all national states and territories. Some species have a restricted range, others are widely distributed.
According to the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families,  the following species are accepted:

Habitat
Grasstrees grow in coastal heaths, and wet and dry forests of Australia. They are drought and frost tolerant. The grass tree mainly occurs in soils that are very free draining and consequently low in nutrients. It survives in the poorest soils, with a shallow root system, enabling it easily access nutrients from decaying litter, while storing all the food reserves in its stem.

Ecology
The grass tree has developed adaptations that help it better suit the environment where it occurs. If a fire breaks out, the grass tree has a special physiological adaptation called thermal insulation that helps protect the plant. The grass tree holds its thick, dead leaves around its stem which serves as insulation, and helps to protect the plant against the heat of the fire.

They need fire to clear away dead leaves and promote flowering, as these slow-growing trees were among the first flowering plants to evolve.
Grass trees have developed a structural adaptation which helps the grass tree take advantage of soil fertilized with ash after fire, producing a flowering stalk in the aftermath.

The grass tree forms a mycorrhizal relationship with fungi deep in its root system, wherein fungi live in a mutually beneficial relationship with the grass tree roots. The fungus increases the tree root's access to water and nutrients and therefore increases tree growth especially in poor conditions. The grass tree also suffers from a condition known as phytophthora dieback. Phytophthora cinnamomi is a discrete soil borne pathogen that attacks and destroys vascular root systems, causing hosts to perish through lack of nutrients and water. It is spread through infected plants and the movement of contaminated soil and gravel. The leaves of the grass tree are hosts to another fungi, Pseudodactylaria xanthorrhoeae.

CultivationXanthorrhoea may be cultivated, as seed is easily collected and germinated. While they do grow slowly, quite attractive plants with short trunks (10 cm) and leaf crowns up to 1.5 m (to the top of the leaves) can be achieved in 10 years. The slow growth rate means that it can take 30 years to achieve a specimen with a significant trunk. Most Xanthorrhoea sold in nurseries are established plants taken from bushland. Nurseries charge high prices for the plants. However, there is a very low survival rate for nursery-purchased plants (mainly due to over watering),  which may take several years to die. The most successful examples of transplanting have been where a substantial amount of soil, greater than one cubic metre, has been taken with the plants.

The genus Xanthorrhoea, more commonly known as the grass tree, is an iconic plant that epitomizes the Australian bush in its ability to live in poor nutrient soils and respond to wildfire.

Commonly grown species for the garden include Xanthorrhoea australis, X. malacophylla and X. preissii.

 Uses Xanthorrhoea is important to the Aboriginal peoples. It is a highly valued resource with many uses. The flowering spike may be utilised as the lightweight handle of a composite spear with a hardwood sharp shaft inserted into the end. It is also soaked in water and the nectar from the flowers gives a sweet-tasting drink.
In the bush the flowers could reveal directions, since flowers on the warmer, sunnier side – usually north – of the spike often open before the flowers on the cooler side facing away from the sun.

The resin from Xanthorrhoea plants is used in spear-making and is an invaluable adhesive for Aboriginal people, often used to patch up leaky coolamons (water containers) and even yidaki (didgeridoos). The dried flower stalk scape was also used to generate fire by the hand drill friction method.

Resin collected from the plant was used in Australia until the mid-twentieth century for the following purposes:
Burnt as an incense in churches.
A base component for a varnish used on furniture and in dwellings.
A polish and a coating used on metal surfaces including stoves, tin cans used for storing meat and "brass instruments."
A component used in industrial processes associated with "sizing paper, in soap making, perfumery and in manufacturing early gramophone records."

 Gallery

References

External links

 Xanthorrhoea australis - R.Br. Plants For A Future
 Xanthorrhoea Information Page Monica Pawlan

 Xanthorrhoea, Australian Plant Name Index (APNI)

Bush Heritage Australia(2016). Grass Trees. Retrieved from http://www.bushheritage.org.au/species/grass-trees
Parks Victoria. Grass Trees: Xanthorrhoea australis Xanthorrhoea minor''

Asparagales of Australia
Australian Aboriginal bushcraft
Bushfood
Asphodelaceae genera

Xanthorrhoea


DCC-interacting protein 13-beta is a protein that in humans is encoded by the APPL2 gene.

Model organisms

Model organisms have been used in the study of APPL2 function. A conditional knockout mouse line, called Appl2tm1a(KOMP)Wtsi was generated as part of the International Knockout Mouse Consortium program — a high-throughput mutagenesis project to generate and distribute animal models of disease to interested scientists — at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.

Male and female animals underwent a standardized phenotypic screen to determine the effects of deletion. Twenty three tests were carried out on mutant mice, but no significant abnormalities were observed.

References

External links

Further reading

Genes mutated in mice

APPL2


Peter Camenzind, published in 1904, was the first novel by Hermann Hesse. It contains a number of themes that were to preoccupy the author in many of his later works, most notably the individual's search for a unique spiritual and physical identity amidst the backdrops of nature and modern civilization, and the role of art in the formation of personal identity.

Plot
The novel begins with the phrase, "In the beginning was the myth.  God, in his search for self-expression, invested the souls of Hindus, Greeks, and Germans with poetic shapes and continues to invest each child's soul with poetry every day."  The novel is purely poetical, and its protagonist in time aspires to become a poet who invests the lives of men with reality in its most beautiful of forms.  Peter Camenzind easily reminds one of Hesse's other protagonists, i.e. Siddhartha, Goldmund, and Harry Haller.  Like them, he suffers deeply and undergoes many intellectual, physical, and spiritual journeys.  In the course of his many journeys, he will come to experience the diverse landscapes of Germany, Italy, France, and Switzerland, as well as the wide range of emotions that humans exhibit at different stages in their lives.  In a later stage of his life, he will embody the ideal of St. Francis as he cares for a crippled man, from whom he gains as much as he gives.

Peter Camenzind, as a youth, leaves his mountain village with a great ambition to experience the world and to become one of its denizens.  Having experienced the loss of his mother at an early age, and with a desire to leave behind a callous father, he heads to university.  As he progresses through his studies, he meets and falls in love with the painter, Erminia Aglietti and becomes a close friend to a young pianist named Richard.  Greatly saddened because of the latter's death, he takes up wandering to soak up the diverse experiences of life.

Ever faced with the vicissitudes of life, he continually takes up alcohol as a means to confront the harshness and inexplicable strangeness of life.  He also meets and falls in love with Elizabeth, even though she will later marry another man.  However, his journey through Italy changes him in many respects and enhances his ability to love life and see beauty within all things.  Only when he becomes friends with Boppi, a man with a physical disability, does he truly experience what it means to love another human being.  In time, he comes to see in Boppi a wonderful reflection of humanity in its noblest form, and the two forge an indelible friendship.  After Boppi dies, Peter Camenzind returns to his village and takes care of his aging father, even as he plans out the completion of his life's great work.

See also

Bildungsroman

References

 Hesse, Hermann. Peter Camenzind  Translated by Michael Roloff.  New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, Inc., 1969.

1904 German novels
Novels by Hermann Hesse
German bildungsromans
1904 debut novels

Peter Camenzind


Marita Helena Ulvskog (born 4 September 1951) is a Swedish politician who served as Member of the European Parliament from 2009 until 2019. She is a member of the Social Democrats, part of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats.

Early career
Ulvskog is a trained journalist and she worked for several years on the Journal of the Swedish Trade Union Confederation.

Member of the Swedish Parliament, 1998–2009
Ulvskog was a member of the Parliament of Sweden from 1998 to 2009. During that time, she was the Minister for Civil Service Affairs from 1994 to 1996 and Minister for Culture in the minority government led by Prime Minister Göran Persson from 1996 to 2004. She also served as the party secretary of the Social Democrats from 2004 to 2009.

Member of the European Parliament, 2009–2019
On 30 September 2008 it was revealed that Ulvskog would lead the Social Democrats in the 2009 European Parliament election although she during the 90's was involved in the critical debate on EU. She was elected with the strong support of personal votes and now serves as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP).

In Parliament, Ulvskog served as vice chair of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs from 2014 until 2019. She was also a member of the Committee on Transport and Tourism. From 2009 until 2014, she served on the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy.

In addition to her committee assignments, Ulvskog serves ad a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on Western Sahara and the European Parliament Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of Animals.

Ulvskog was one of the four vice presidents of the Party of European Socialists, under the leadership of chairman Sergei Stanishev.

Other activities
 Olof Palme International Center, Chair of the Board (2017-2018)

References

External links
Marita Ulvskog at the Riksdag website

1951 births
Living people
People from Luleå Municipality
Sommar (radio program) hosts
Swedish feminists
Swedish Ministers for Culture
Swedish Ministers for Gender Equality
Swedish Social Democratic Party MEPs
Women members of the Riksdag
Women government ministers of Sweden
Members of the Riksdag 1998–2002
Members of the Riksdag 2002–2006
Members of the Riksdag 2006–2010
MEPs for Sweden 2009–2014
MEPs for Sweden 2014–2019
21st-century women MEPs for Sweden
21st-century Swedish women politicians
Socialist feminists

Marita Ulvskog


Mohamed Zouari () (Sfax, 1967 - 15 December 2016) was a Tunisian aerospace engineer working for The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing. He was assassinated in his hometown of Sfax on December 15, 2016  when he was shot dead in a drive-by shooting that has been widely attributed to the Mossad.

Biography
Born and raised in Sfax, Mohamed Zouari was one of the followers of the Islamic political party Ennahdha. He left Tunisia in 1991 to Syria to escape the wave of political repression by the Zine El Abidine Ben Ali regime.

Having gained knowledge of aeronautics and of the design of drones, he joined the ranks of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the Hamas armed wing, where he supervised its unmanned aircraft manufacturing program, Ababeel1. The unmanned aircraft developed in this program were first used on the battlefield during the Gaza war of 2014. Zouari returned to Tunisia after the Tunisian Revolution.

Assassination

On December 15, 2016, after getting in his car and just about to drive away, a truck drove up and blocked the way. Two shooters opened fire with silenced firearms, firing about twenty shots. Zouari was mortally wounded, as three bullet hits to the chest turned out to be fatal. After the assassination, the surveillance system of a restaurant near the place of the assassination had its video recordings erased by an unknown external party.

Hamas confirmed Mohamed Zouari's membership of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades and the role he played in the development of the Ababil drone in a statement released on its website on December 17, 2016. It also accused Israel of being behind the assassination and promised to avenge Zouari.

The Tunisian Government announced that it will prosecute, both nationally and abroad, any person involved in Zouari's assassination.

Asked about the assassination, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said that Israel would continue to defend its interests.

See also
 Nidal Fat'hi Rabah Farahat
 Operation Wooden Leg
 Khalil al-Wazir
 Salah Khalaf

References

1967 births
2016 deaths
Deaths by firearm in Tunisia
People from Sfax
Tunisian inventors
Assassinated Tunisian people
Hamas military members
Assassinated Hamas members
People killed in Mossad operations
Israel–Tunisia military relations
Assassinations in Tunisia

Mohamed Zouari


Grover S. Resinger (October 20, 1915 – January 11, 1986) was an American coach in Major League Baseball during the 1960s and 1970s. Previously, he was a minor league third baseman and manager. A native of St. Louis, Missouri, the 5'9" (175 cm), 160-pound (73 kg) Resinger batted and threw right-handed.

As a player, Resinger peaked at the Class A1 level (equivalent to Double-A today) with the Little Rock Travelers (1941 and 1946) of the Southern Association. He began his managerial career in 1947 as skipper (and third baseman) of the Pensacola Fliers of the Class B Southeastern League, but he was released as manager on June 14 with a 28–31 record. He remained in the league, but strictly as a third baseman, with the Meridian, Mississippi, Peps through 1949. During his 11-year minor league playing career, Resinger batted over .300 six times.

After spending the 1950s out of organized baseball, Resinger returned to the game in 1960 as a coach with the Houston Buffaloes of the Triple-A American Association. He then joined the St. Louis Cardinals organization in 1961 as a manager in their farm system. His 1962 Billings Mustangs won the Pioneer League championship. In 1963–64 he managed the Tulsa Oilers of the Double-A Texas League (winning the 1963 TL title) and in 1965 he was the pilot of the Jacksonville Suns of the Triple-A International League. His minor league managing record was 420 wins, 395 losses (.515).

At age 50, Resinger was promoted to his first big-league coaching assignment with the 1966 Atlanta Braves, although he resigned on August 10 upon the firing of manager Bobby Bragan. He returned to the majors as the third-base coach of the Chicago White Sox (1967–68) and Detroit Tigers (1969–70). In his final MLB assignment, he was the bench coach for Dick Williams with the California Angels in 1975–76.

Resinger was a colorful figure who promoted a fiery, hustling brand of play. In the waning days of his Detroit tenure, in September 1970, he bemoaned a listless performance on the field, saying: "You know, when country-club teams like the Red Sox and Tigers get together, they should play baseball one day, polo the next, golf the next, and sail boats the fourth day."

Grover Resinger died in St. Louis at age 70.

References

 Creamer, Robert, Sports Illustrated, September 21, 1970.
 Duxbury, John, ed., The Baseball Register. St. Louis: The Sporting News, 1968.

External links

 Retrosheet: Coach's page

1915 births
1986 deaths
Atlanta Braves coaches
Baseball players from St. Louis
Billings Mustangs managers
California Angels coaches
California Angels scouts
Charleroi Tigers players
Chattanooga Lookouts players
Chicago White Sox coaches
Detroit Tigers coaches
Gadsden Pilots players
Greensburg Trojans players
Jackson Generals (KITTY League) players
Little Rock Travelers players
Major League Baseball bench coaches
Major League Baseball third base coaches
Meridian Millers players
Meridian Peps players
Minor league baseball managers
New York Yankees scouts
Pensacola Fliers players
St. Louis Cardinals scouts
Selma Cloverleafs players
Shreveport Sports players
Vicksburg Billies players

Grover Resinger


An intelligence officer is a person employed to collect and or analyze information (known as "intelligence") which is of use to the organization.

The word officer is a working title, not a  rank. It is used in the same way a "police officer" can be a sergeant, or in the military, where non-commissioned staff may serve as intelligence officers.

Organizations which employ intelligence officers include armed forces, police, and customs agencies. Mainly, though, the term is used by government intelligence agencies like MI5 and MI6.

Intelligence officer


Bromoethane, also known as ethyl bromide, is a chemical compound of the haloalkanes group. It is abbreviated by chemists as EtBr (which is also used as an abbreviation for ethidium bromide).  This volatile compound has an ether-like odor.

Preparation
The preparation of EtBr stands as a model for the synthesis of bromoalkanes in general. It is usually prepared by the addition of hydrogen bromide to ethene:
H2C=CH2 + HBr → H3C-CH2Br

Bromoethane is inexpensive and would rarely be prepared in the laboratory. A laboratory synthesis includes reacting ethanol with a mixture of hydrobromic and sulfuric acids. An alternate route involves refluxing ethanol with phosphorus and bromine; phosphorus tribromide is generated in situ.

Uses
In organic synthesis, EtBr is the synthetic equivalent of the ethyl carbocation (Et+) synthon. In reality, such a cation is not actually formed.  For example, carboxylates salts are converted to ethyl esters, carbanions to ethylated derivatives, thiourea into ethylisothiouronium salts, and amines into ethylamines.

Safety
Short chain monohalocarbons in general are potentially dangerous alkylating agents. Bromides are better alkylating agents than chlorides, thus exposure to them should be minimized. EtBr is classified by the State of California as carcinogenic and a reproductive toxin.

References

External links
 International Chemical Safety Card 1378
 NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards
 IARC Monograph: "Bromoethane"

Bromoalkanes
Ethylating agents
IARC Group 3 carcinogens

Bromoethane


Buttercups are a large genus of flowering plants called Ranunculus. It has yellow, shiny petals, and grows wild in many places. It is poisonous to eat for humans and cattle, but when dry the poison is not active.

Types of buttercup
There are about 200 to 600 species in this one genus. They mostly have yellow or sometimes white flowers. Buttercups include a wide variety of flower types, grouped by a plant naming system in the genus Ranunculus. Among them are the Meadow Buttercup (Ranunculus acris), Goldilocks Buttercup (R. auricomus), Creeping Buttercup (R. repens), Large White Buttercup (R. platanifolius), Celery-leaved Buttercup (R. sceleratus), Corn Buttercup (R. arvensis), Bulbous Buttercup (R. bulbosus) and Glacial Buttercup (R. glacialis).

Lesser Celandine (R. ficaria), Lesser Spearwort (R. flammula), and Greater Spearwort (R. lingua) also belong to the buttercup family.

Plants of the commonly named buttercup family grow in many different variations but most can be identified by their yellow cupped flowers and free-growing habit. The plants often climb or sprawl, with leaves arranged in spirals. Some may contain leaves without stipules and flowers with many stamens.

Molecular investigation of the genus shows that Ranunculus is not monophyletic. Proposals are under way to split up the genus.

Folklore and Pop Culture
 Highlights shining on the reflective petals of the buttercup can be seen in the images at left and above.
People sometimes hold a fresh buttercup flower under the chin of a friend or family member. If a yellow reflection from the flower's shiny petals can be seen under the chin, the person is said to "like butter". This custom is still taught to young children and shows how buttercup petals reflect light.

Some other plants and people are named buttercup, based on the name of the yellow wild flower. These include a type of pumpkin, and the girl's name Buttercup.

"Build Me Up Buttercup" was the name of a popular song by The Foundations during the 1960s.  A song called "Buttercup" was released by Jack Stauber in 2017. A cartoon character from The Powerpuff Girls television series was also named Buttercup. Buttercups and their poisonous effect are used as a theme in the PC game Undertale.

Michael Avenatti, the lawyer of adult movie star "Stormy Daniels" (real name: Stephanie Clifford) against US President Donald Trump's ex lawyer and "fixer" Michael Cohen used on 29 July 2018 the phrase "You better buckle up buttercup" in a tweet addressing Donald Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani, which soon became the hashtag #BuckleUpButtercup.

References

Flowers
Ranunculales

Buttercup


Vinnie Monks is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by comedian Bobby Davro. He made his first appearance on 8 October 2007. It was announced on 19 July 2008 that Davro quit the show to do other projects. He made his final appearance on 1 December 2008.

Storylines
Vinnie is first seen in Walford after he knocks over Shirley Carter (Linda Henry) with his car when she is on her way to court. Vinnie offers to take her to hospital but she wants to be in court for her son, Deano Wicks (Matt Di Angelo). Vinnie goes with her and then takes Shirley to hospital and later offers a lift home along with Shirley's friend, Heather Trott (Cheryl Ferguson). When they get home, Vinnie gives his phone number and address to Shirley and tells her to telephone him if she needs anything. Shirley pretends to be more injured than she really is, telling Heather, "where there's blame, there's a claim". Vinnie goes on to work Shirley's shift at The Queen Victoria public house, so she can get her normal wages even though she is unable to work due to a neck injury, but Vinnie withholds her wages unless she agrees to go on a date with him. Shirley refuses, but Vinnie gives her the money anyway along with his phone number. He turns up again a few weeks later when Heather phones him and, although Shirley isn't impressed at first, he wins her over with a bottle of wine and they go on a date.

It is later revealed that Vinnie has a daughter named Hayley, although Heather thinks Vinnie is having an affair when she hears him talking to her on the phone. Shirley breaks up with Vinnie but they decide to get back together. Vinnie waits for Shirley at the underground station but her watch breaks and she turns up late, and he had got on the train before she arrived. He returns in April 2008 as he realises that he is in love with Shirley. He spends all his money on a deposit on a flat in Walford and begs Shirley to move in with him, forcing her to choose between him and current love interest Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden). When Phil shows no inclination of taking things further, a reluctant Shirley agrees to Vinnie's proposal and they begin living together. Over the next few months, Vinnie gets a job as a taxi driver at the firm run by Pat Evans (Pam St Clement) and helps organise a Best of British day at the pub when Shirley is left in charge.

Despite all this, however, things begin to deteriorate in his relationship with Shirley. Over the next few months, Shirley finds herself more in love with Phil and less in love with Vinnie. She spends less time with him, constantly going clubbing with Heather, and when Vinnie tries to be romantic by booking them a holiday, Shirley retaliates by taking Heather in his place. After she forgets his birthday, Vinnie finally confronts her, resulting in Shirley revealing her true feelings for Phil. This leads to the end of their romance as Vinnie throws Shirley out of the flat, making her homeless. He later relents and gives her the keys to the flat, moving in instead with his mates Garry Hobbs (Ricky Groves) and Minty Peterson (Cliff Parisi). The following month, Vinnie returns from a holiday with Garry and Minty to find that his son Callum Monks (Elliott Jordan) has arrived in Walford and is squatting in their flat. During their conversation, it is revealed that Vinnie had lost touch with Callum over the years due to his extramarital affair which caused the breakdown of his marriage to Callum's mother. Vinnie and Callum put their differences behind them and Vinnie allows Callum to stay.

Vinnie soon begins to feel that his life in Walford is pointless, so when an old friend offers him the chance to travel across the world in a vintage car, he immediately accepts the offer. Seeing that his ex-girlfriend Shirley is now down on her luck as Phil has a new girlfriend, Suzy Branning (Maggie O'Neill), he invites Shirley to come along with him. The couple rekindle their relationship and make their exit from Walford on 1 December 2008. However, prior to them leaving, Vinnie learns that the night before Phil and Shirley had had a one-night stand. With this thought weighing him down Vinnie stops the car just outside Walford and tells Shirley to return to Albert Square as by staying with him she'd only be settling for second best. As Shirley makes her way back home, Vinnie is last seen driving off alone to catch a ferry to France.

On 6 March 2009, before departing for good from the Square, Callum mentions that he is on his way to visit Vinnie. It is then revealed that Vinnie and Callum are living in Southend. In January 2012, Shirley contacts him after Phil is imprisoned and he agrees to send some work to The Arches.

Character creation and development

Background and casting
Vinnie Monks was introduced by the executive producer of EastEnders, Diederick Santer. The character, described as "a loveable rogue", was brought in as a love interest for the character Shirley Carter (played by Linda Henry) in October 2007.

The role was given to Bobby Davro, known to the British audience as a 1980s comic, impressionist, and a 1990s children's TV presenter. Davro has revealed that he auditioned for the role on the advice of actress Barbara Windsor, who plays landlady Peggy Mitchell: "It's through her really that I got this chance." Bobby Davro was said to be "chuffed" when he got the part. He has commented: "EastEnders is a high-profile show, but I'm already used to the attention which being on telly brings […] I love the part and I'm learning. I'm still trying not to look straight at the camera, that's the entertainer in me! Everyone has just been fantastic […] This is so exciting for me. I want to go in and really work hard and see myself get better […] I've never really acted before…I'm enjoying learning the trade."

Davro is one of several comedians or comic actors to be given a role in EastEnders, a tradition that goes back to 1987, when comedian Mike Reid was cast as Frank Butcher. The casting of a comedian in a dramatic role was highly controversial at the time, but over the years the wisdom of that decision was proved, as Frank became one of the show's most popular and iconic characters. Other comic actors featured in EastEnders include Barbara Windsor (known for her roles in Carry On films) as Peggy Mitchell, and entertainer Shane Richie, who played Alfie Moon. Vinnie has been described as a "chip off the old block" from former characters such as Frank and Alfie, with reports even claiming that he is being used as Alfie's replacement. Davro has commented on the comparison between his character and Shane Richie's character, Alfie: "Shane and I are big pals, we go back 20 years. We have the same sort of background and that's probably why comparisons are being made. I don't like that idea because Shane was such a good asset to the show. It puts a lot of pressure on me […] If [Vinnie] could be half as successful as Alfie Moon then I'd be well chuffed […] [Shane Richie] gave me some great advice…he told me to listen to the other actors and to learn your lines properly. That has helped so far…"

Personality
Vinnie has been described as "a cheeky chap", a charmer, with a lot of old-fashioned values; the sort of person who would not do anyone an injustice. Davro has said "he's a very sensitive bloke is Vinnie, He's a bit scared of commitment, scared of getting hurt [...] I model him on a friend of mine, David, and also on Vince from [the BBC sitcom] Just Good Friends."

Departure
Davro quit the show in July 2008, saying he wanted to pursue other projects. He reportedly said he wished to appear in the show from time to time, saying "I have had a fantastic year with EastEnders and made lots of friends. I hope to be back at some point." However, in December 2009, it was reported that Davro had quit because he found the role boring, saying "I wish it could have been longer. But the writers didn't develop him as much as I wanted and I got bored."

References

External links

EastEnders characters
Fictional taxi drivers
Television characters introduced in 2007
British male characters in television

Vinnie Monks


Postal is a 2007 action comedy film co-written and directed by Uwe Boll, and starring Zack Ward, Dave Foley, Chris Coppola, Jackie Tohn, J.K. Simmons, Verne Troyer, Larry Thomas, David Huddleston and Seymour Cassel.

Like some of Boll's previous films including House of the Dead and Alone in the Dark, Postal is a film adaptation of a video game, in this case, Postal, though this film draws more heavily from the video game's sequel, Postal 2. Also like Boll's predecessors, it was a critical and commercial failure, grossing less than 1% of its budget.

Plot
The film begins with a prologue, showing Asif and Nabi, a fictional portrayal of two of the Flight 11 hijackers during the 9/11 attacks, debating the number of virgins they get as a reward for carrying out the attacks. After a long debate, they decide to call Osama bin Laden, their leader, to find out the exact amount. Osama tells them that there "are not enough virgins to go around", and upon hearing this, the two hijackers abandon the attack in dismay and happily change their flight path to the Bahamas. At this moment, however, the passengers of the plane storm the cockpit and attempt to retake the plane (this was based on what happened on Flight 93, one of the other hijacked aircraft during 9/11). In the struggle, the terrorists try and reason with the passengers, but to no avail, and ultimately, the plane inadvertently flies into the North tower of the World Trade Center.

Five years later, in the town of Paradise, Arizona (a ghost town in real life), where the volatile Postal Dude, after being mocked at a job interview, kicked out of his local unemployment office and discovering that his morbidly obese wife is cheating on him with various and skinny townsmen, is more than a little angry and is desperate to get enough cash to finally leave his dead-end town. He decides to team up with his Uncle Dave, a slovenly con artist turned doomsday cult leader who owes the US government over a million dollars in back-taxes. With the help of Uncle Dave's right-hand man Richie and an army of big-breasted, scantily clad cult members, the Dude devises a plan to hijack a shipment of 2,000 Krotchy Dolls, a rare, sought-after plush toy resembling a giant scrotum. Uncle Dave plans to sell them online, where their prices have reached as high as $4,000 a doll.

Unbeknownst to them, Osama bin Laden and his group of Al-Qaeda terrorists, who had been secretly hiding in Paradise since the 9/11 attacks, under the watchful eye of bin Laden's best friend President George W. Bush, are after the same shipment, but for entirely different reasons. Hoping to outdo the catastrophe of 9/11, they plan to instill the dolls with Avian influenza and distribute them to unsuspecting American children. The two groups meet at the shipment's destination, German-themed amusement park called Little Germany. A fight between Postal creator Vince Desi and Postal director and park owner Uwe Boll (which ends with Boll being shot in the genitals, confessing "I hate video games"), sparks a massive shootout between the cult, the terrorists and the police, resulting in the deaths of dozens of innocent children. The Dude and the cult are able to get away with both the shipment and the park's opening day guest, Verne Troyer, pursued by Al-Qaeda, the police and a mob of angry citizens.

Upon returning to their compound, which has been overtaken by the terrorists, the Dude, Uncle Dave and the rest covertly sneak into the compound's underground bunker, where Richie reveals that he must now fulfill the prophecy foretold in Uncle Dave's fictional Bible: to bring about the extinction of the human race. As per Uncle Dave's Bible, the event initiating the apocalypse is the rape of a "tiny entertainer" by a thousand monkeys. After Verne Troyer is quickly thrown into a pit of chimpanzees, Richie shoots and kills Uncle Dave, then imprisons the Dude. The Dude manages to escape the compound with a plethora of weapons, deciding to wage a one-man war against al-Qaeda, his uncle's murderer, his cheating wife, the police and the many people who want him dead. On the way to his trailer (where he plans to blow up his spouse), he meets up with an attractive young barista, Faith, who joins forces with him after an explosive gunfight followed later by the Dude's heartfelt but futile monologue about war. The two of them then proceed to kill all the terrorists, all the bloodthirsty townspeople, the remains of the now-mad cult, his wife, and her multiple lovers. In the midst of the shootout, bin Laden is wounded but escapes to a payphone, where he calls Bush for help. Bush sends a helicopter to save him and plans for the two to rendezvous.

Having won their war, the Dude, his dog Champ and the barista drive away in a stolen police car. They casually turn on the radio, only to learn that Bush has blamed the day's shootouts and explosions on China and India, and has been "forced to destroy both countries with extreme nuclear force". The United States then launches thirty nuclear missiles at China and India each. In retaliation, China and India launch thirty nuclear missiles each as well towards America, all missiles are scheduled to hit their targets in under two minutes.

The film's final shot features Bush and bin Laden skipping through a field together, hand-in-hand. As mushroom clouds explode on the horizon, bin Laden laughs and says, "Georgie, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship". At that moment, all of the nuclear missiles hit, and the country, and possibly the world is destroyed.

Cast

Production
According to Uwe Boll, the German fan club for Postal contacted him, offering the possibility of the game being adapted into a film. Intrigued by the game's premise and blatant political incorrectness, Boll contacted Running with Scissors president Vince Desiderio, who sold him the rights under the condition that he would be involved with the script and the production. Supposedly, Desiderio and Postal 2 director Steve Wik pitched a much grittier, darker version of the Postal story, but Boll rejected it, fully intent on turning it into a comedy in order to use the film as a platform for political satire as well as "revenge" against the people who have protested his movies. Boll ended up writing the script with assistant director Bryan C. Knight, who had worked on all of Boll's previous video game adaptations. In an interview for Nathan Rabin's book My Year of Flops, Dave Foley said that Boll did want to make a serious statement about how a cult of heroism had surrounded people who were murdered in the 9/11 attacks, and that he and Boll agreed that being the victim of terrorism makes people victims, not heroes. Foley added that he tried to talk Boll out of including the notorious 9/11 sequence that opens the film where two Al Qaeda hijackers plan to call off their attack when Osama Bin Laden informs them that they will not receive anywhere near 72 virgins for their services, only to have passengers break into the cockpit and accidentally fly the plane into the World Trade Center because the film would have no chance of appearing on many (or any) screens in the U.S.

Postal filmed from September 13 to October 30, 2006, in Cloverdale and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Release

Box office

Worldwide
The 114-minute director's cut of Postal premiered at Montreal's Fantasia Festival on July 21, 2007. The film made its way along several more United States and European film festivals until finally receiving a limited release in Germany on October 18. It opened at #27 in the German box office, taking in $79,353 from 48 screens and banked $142,761 in its entire run. In Italy, it ended its box office run after two weeks with $3,980. As of August 31, 2008, it has grossed a total of $146,741 worldwide.

North America
Despite Boll's announcement that Postal would be given a wide release on October 12, 2007, it was delayed until May 23, 2008. Additionally, on 16 May, theater distributors pulled out of their deal for a wide release of 1,500 screens to a limited release of only four screens. Said Boll of the change, "Theatrical distributors are boycotting Postal because of its political content. We were prepared to open on 1,500 screens all across America on May 23rd. Any multiplex in the U.S. should have space for us, but they're afraid... We have even tried to buy a few screens in New York City and Los Angeles, and they won't let us even rent the theaters! I urge independent exhibitors to contact us and book 'Postal'! Audiences have been expecting the film and I don't think exhibitors should censor what gets played in U.S. theaters."

On May 20, the screen count increased to 12 screens. By release, it had grown to 21.

Postal opened one day after Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which led to video promotions from Boll, jokingly claiming that his film would "destroy" the other film at the box office. A number of Internet promos were made featuring Troyer dressed as Indiana Jones, proclaiming Postal superiority.

Home media

Postal received its North American DVD release on August 26, 2008, in both 102-minute unrated and 100-minute rated versions, as well as a 102-minute unrated Blu-ray release. Both versions feature the film's trailer, a promotional spot featuring Verne Troyer's Indiana Jones, a featurette detailing the filming of the Little Germany scene, footage of Boll's infamous "Raging Boll" boxing matches and an audio commentary by Boll. Some editions come with the full version of Postal 2 (Share the Pain edition) on a bonus disc.

The 118-minute director's cut was released on September 26, 2008, in Germany. It was planned for a North American release on Blu-ray for November 25, 2008, and on DVD for January 6, 2009, but both of these releases were delayed indefinitely. The director's cut is cropped from the original 1.85:1 aspect ratio into 2.35:1.

The film has also been released in Australia as an 89-minute cut with no special features, bearing an MA15+ rating.

Critical reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of  based on  reviews, with an average score of . The site's critics consensus reads: "An attempt at political satire that lacks any wit or relevance, Postal is nonetheless one of Uwe Boll's more successful films – for what it's worth." Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 22 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".

Jeremy Knox of Film Threat gave the film 3 out of 5 stars and stated, "It's such an insanely fun ride that most of its flaws are forgivable." Peter Hartlaub of the San Francisco Chronicle gave the film 2.5 out of 5 stars and stated, "Not only less than horrible, but actually occasionally enjoyable." Nathan Rabin of AV Club gave the film 2 out of 5 stars and stated, "A provocation first, an insult second, a publicity stunt third, and a film a distant fourth." Dennis Harvey of Variety gave the film 2 out of 5 stars and stated, "This anything-goes exercise isn't dull -- one just wishes the outrageousness were more consistently funny."

Maitland McDonagh of TV Guide gave the film 2 out of 5 stars and stated, "Postals touches of wit are lost in the flying body parts, gross-out gags, and the full frontal spectacle of Foley's no-longer-private parts." Michael Harris of The Globe and Mail gave the film 1 star out of 5 and stated, "What Boll gives us is a boring beating over the head." Kyle Smith of the New York Post gave the film 1 out of 5 stars and stated, "At last: Uwe Boll has made his first intentionally funny film." Aaron Hillis of The Village Voice gave the film 1 out of 5 stars and stated, "Manages to be as toothless as he (Boll) is tasteless. Poorly framed, tone-deaf, and nonsensical (yet still Boll's best!)" Nathan Lee of The New York Times gave the film 0.5 out of 5 stars and stated, "Infantile, irreverent and boorish to the max, Postal explodes with bad attitude and lousy filmmaking." Elizabeth Weitzman of the Daily News gave the film 0 out of 5 stars and stated, "Where Boll's movies were once amusingly atrocious, Postal is so aggressively tasteless and knowingly idiotic, there's just no fun to be had."

Accolades
The film was nominated for three Golden Raspberry Awards: Worst Supporting Actor (Boll as himself), Worst Supporting Actor (Troyer as himself), and Worst Director (Boll). The film ended up winning Worst Director.

Despite critical condemnation, Postal won two awards at the Hoboken International Film Festival: Best Director and the festival's top prize, Best of Festival.

Cancelled sequel
Boll stated shortly after the film's production that he would most likely make a Postal 2, even if it went direct-to-video. In a 2012 interview, Vince Desi commented that they "are in talks at present regarding another movie". On August 28, 2013, Boll announced he was funding production of Postal 2 through Kickstarter. The project was canceled on October 5 due to lack of funding.

See also
 List of films based on video games

References

External links

2000s American films
2000s Canadian films
2000s English-language films
2000s satirical films
2007 action comedy films
2007 comedy films
2007 films
American action comedy films
American satirical films
Canadian action comedy films
Canadian satirical films
Cultural depictions of George W. Bush
Cultural depictions of Osama bin Laden
English-language Canadian films
English-language German films
Films about nuclear war and weapons
Films based on the September 11 attacks
Films directed by Uwe Boll
Films set in Paradise, Arizona
Films shot in Vancouver
German action comedy films
Golden Raspberry Award winning films
Live-action films based on video games
Postal (franchise)
2000s German films

Postal (film)


Equalization is a step in property taxation to bring a uniformity to tax assessment levels across different geographical areas or classes of properties.  Equalization is usually in the form of a uniform percentage of increase or decrease to each area or class of property.

Attempts at explicit equalization in tax assessments date back at least as early as 1799.

See also
 Fair market value

References

Evaluation methods
Equalization
Tax law

Property tax equalization


The Wind in the Willows is a children's novel by the British novelist Kenneth Grahame, first published in 1908. It details the story of Mole, Ratty, and Badger as they try to help Mr. Toad, after he becomes obsessed with motorcars and gets into trouble. It also details short stories about them that are disconnected from the main narrative. The novel was based on bedtime stories Grahame told his son Alastair. It has been adapted numerous times for both stage and screen.

The Wind in the Willows received negative reviews upon its initial release, but it has since become a classic of British literature. It was listed at No. 16 in the BBC's survey The Big Read and has been adapted multiple times in different media.

Background

In 1899, at age 40, Kenneth Grahame married Elspeth Thomson, the daughter of Robert William Thomson. The next year they had their only child, a boy named Alastair (nicknamed "Mouse"). He was born premature, blind in one eye, and plagued by health problems throughout his life. When Alastair was about four years old, Grahame would tell him bedtime stories, some of which were about a toad, and on his frequent boating holidays without his family he would write further tales of Toad, Mole, Ratty, and Badger in letters to Alastair.

In 1908, Grahame took early retirement from his position as secretary of the Bank of England. He moved with his wife and son to an old farmhouse in Blewbury, Berkshire. There, he used the bedtime stories he had told Alastair as a basis for the manuscript of The Wind in the Willows. Some of Grahame's other books include The Golden Age, The Reluctant Dragon, Dream Days, Pagan Papers, The Riverbank,  Bertie's Escapade, Duck's Ditty, and The Open Road.

Plot summary
With the arrival of spring and fine weather outside, the good-natured Mole loses patience with spring cleaning, exclaiming, Hang spring cleaning! He leaves behind his underground home and comes up at the bank of the river, which he has never seen before. Here he meets Rat, a water vole, who takes Mole for a ride in his rowing boat. They get along well and spend many more days boating, with "Ratty" teaching Mole the ways of the river, with the two friends living together in Ratty's riverside home.

One summer day, Rat and Mole disembark near the grand Toad Hall and pay a visit to Toad. Toad is rich, jovial, friendly, and kindhearted, but sometimes arrogant and rash; he regularly becomes obsessed with current fads, only to abandon them abruptly. His current craze is his horse-drawn caravan. When a passing car scares his horse and causes the caravan to overturn into a ditch, Toad's craze for caravan travel is immediately replaced by an obsession with motorcars.

Mole goes to the Wild Wood on a snowy winter's day, hoping to meet the elusive but virtuous and wise Badger. He gets lost in the woods, succumbs to fright, and hides among the sheltering roots of a tree. Rat finds him as snow begins to fall in earnest. Attempting to find their way home, Mole barks his shin on the boot scraper on Badger's doorstep. Badger welcomes Rat and Mole to his large, cosy underground home, providing them with hot food, dry clothes, and reassuring conversation. Badger learns from his visitors that Toad has crashed seven cars, has been in hospital three times, and has spent a fortune on fines.

With the arrival of spring, the three of them put Toad under house arrest with themselves as the guards, but Toad pretends to be sick and tricks Ratty to leave so he can escape. Badger and Mole continue to live in Toad Hall in the hope that Toad may return. Toad orders lunch at The Red Lion Inn and then sees a motorcar pull into the courtyard. Taking the car, he drives it recklessly, is caught by the police, and is sent to prison for 20 years.

In prison, Toad gains the sympathy of the gaoler's daughter, who helps him to escape disguised as a washerwoman. After a long series of misadventures, he returns to the hole of the Water Rat. Rat hauls Toad inside and informs him that Toad Hall has been taken over by weasels, stoats, and ferrets from the Wild Wood, who have driven out Mole and Badger. Armed to the teeth, Badger, Rat, Mole, and Toad enter through the tunnel and pounce upon the unsuspecting Wild-Wooders who are holding a celebratory party. Having driven away the intruders, Toad holds a banquet to mark his return, during which he behaves both quietly and humbly. He makes up for his earlier excesses by seeking out and compensating those he has wronged, and the four friends live happily ever after.

In addition to the main narrative, the book contains several independent short stories featuring Rat and Mole such as an encounter with the wild god Pan while searching for Otter's son Portly and Ratty's meeting with a Sea Rat. These appear for the most part between the chapters chronicling Toad's adventures, and they are often omitted from abridgements and dramatisations.

Main characters
Mole: known as "Moley" to his friends. An independent, timid, genial, thoughtful, home-loving animal and the first character introduced in the story. Discontent with spring cleaning in his secluded home, he ventures into the outside world. Initially intimidated by the hectic lifestyle of the riverbank, he eventually adapts with the support of his new friend Rat. He has a spontaneous intelligence moment with his trickery against the Wild Wooders before the battle to retake Toad Hall.
Rat: known as "Ratty" to his friends (though actually a water vole), he is astute, charming, and affable. He enjoys a life of leisure; when not spending time on the river, he composes doggerel. Ratty loves the river and befriends Mole. He can be very unsettled about subjects and endeavours outside his preferred routine, but is persistently loyal and does the right thing when needed, such as when he risks his life to save Mole in the Wild Wood, and helps rid Toad Hall of the unruly weasels. Ratty is the free and easy sort, as well as a dreamer, and he has a poetic thought process, finding deeper meaning, beauty, and intensity in situations others may see through more practical eyes.
Mr. Toad: known as "Toady" to his friends, the wealthy scion of Toad Hall who inherited his wealth from his late father. He is gregarious and well-meaning, but as a fixated control freak, he is sometimes inclined to boast lavishly and make outrageous outbursts when held back by another character, regardless of their intentions with him. He is prone to obsessions (such as punting, houseboats, and horse-drawn caravans) but gets dissatisfied with each of these activities and drops them fairly quickly, finally settling on motorcars. His motoring craze degenerates into a sort of addiction that lands him in the hospital a few times, subjects him to expensive fines for his unlawfully erratic driving, and eventually gets him imprisoned for theft, dangerous-driving, and severe impertinence to the police. Two chapters of the book chronicle his daring escape from prison.
Mr. Badger: a firm but considerate animal, Badger embodies the "wise hermit" figure. A friend of Toad's deceased father, he is strict with the immature Toad, yet hopes that his good qualities will prevail through his shortcomings. He lives in a vast underground sett, part of which incorporates the remains of a buried Roman settlement. A fearless and powerful fighter, Badger helps clear the Wild-Wooders from Toad Hall with his large stick.

Supporting characters
 Otter and Portly: a good friend of Ratty with a stereotypical "Cockney costermonger" character, Otter is confident, respected and headstrong. Portly is his young son.
 The weasels, ferrets, and stoats: the story's main antagonists. They plot to take over Toad Hall. Although they are unnamed, the leader is referred to as "Chief Weasel".
 Pan: a gentle and wise god of the wild who makes a single, anomalous appearance in Chapter 7, "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn", when he helps Portly and looks after him until Ratty and Mole find him.
 The Gaoler's Daughter: the only major human character, she embodies the youth perspective toward the situation faced by Toad whilst he is incarcerated in prison; a "good, kind, clever girl", she helps Toad escape.
 The Wayfarer: a vagabond seafaring rat, who also makes a single appearance in Chapter 9, "Wayfarers All". Ratty briefly contemplates accompanying him on his adventures, before Mole convinces him otherwise.
 Squirrels and rabbits, who are generally good-natured (although rabbits are described as "a mixed lot").
 Inhabitants of the Wild Wood: weasels, stoats, and foxes who are described by Ratty as "All-right in a way but well, you can't really trust them".
The Engine Driver: An unnamed man who drives a steam engine on the railway. When Toad is in his washerwoman disguise and unable to purchase a ticket to the station nearest to Toad Hall, the driver takes sympathy upon hearing Toad's false tale of woe and gives him a free ride on the engine, with the promise that he wash a few of the driver's clothes. During the journey, the driver becomes aware that Toad isn't really a washerwoman, upon sighting a single engine that is following them and carrying officials of the law who try to get his attention. Once Toad confesses his actions, the driver thinks he should turn Toad in, but not having a fancy for motorcars nor being ordered about on his own engine, he allows Toad to escape after the train has passed through a tunnel.
 The Barge Woman: An unnamed woman who owns a barge. Like the Engine Driver, she is briefly fooled by Toad's washerwoman disguise and offers Toad a ride, with the promise that he wash her clothes. Upon realising that he is actually a toad, she throws him off the barge and into a river flowing by. Toad gets infuriated and decides to take revenge by leaving the river and stealing the horse of the barge woman.

Editions

The original publication of the book was plain text, with a frontispiece illustrated by Graham Robertson, but many illustrated, comic, and annotated versions have been published over the years. Notable illustrators include Paul Bransom (1913), Nancy Barnhart (1922), Wyndham Payne (1927), Ernest H. Shepard (1931), Arthur Rackham (1940), Richard Cuffari (1966), Tasha Tudor (1966), Michael Hague (1980), Scott McKowen (2005), and Robert Ingpen (2007).

 The 1927 edition illustrated by Wyndham Payne was noted for its use of a distinctive colour of yellow, described by some cultural commentators as canary yellow.
 The most popular illustrations are probably by E. H. Shepard, originally published in 1931, and believed to be authorised as Grahame was pleased with the initial sketches, although he did not live to see the completed work.
 The Wind in the Willows was the last work illustrated by Arthur Rackham. The book with his illustrations was issued posthumously in a limited edition by the Folio Society with 16 colour plates in 1940 in the US. It was not issued with the Rackham illustrations in the UK until 1950.
 The Folio Society 2006 edition featured 85 illustrations, 35 in colour, by Charles van Sandwyk. A fancier centenary edition was produced two years later.
 Michel Plessix created a Wind in the Willows watercolour comic album series, which helped to introduce the stories to France. They have been translated into English by Cinebook Ltd.
 Patrick Benson re-illustrated the story in 1994 and HarperCollins published it in 1994 together with the William Horwood sequels The Willows in Winter, Toad Triumphant and The Willows and Beyond. It was published in the US in 1995 by St. Martin's Press.
 Inga Moore's edition, abridged and illustrated by her, is arranged so that a featured line of the text also serves as a caption to a picture.
 Barnes & Noble Classics featured an introduction by Gardner McFall in 2007. New York,
 Egmont Press produced a 100th Anniversary paperback edition, with Shepard's illustrations, in 2008.
 Belknap Press, a division of Harvard University Press, published Seth Lerer's annotated edition in 2009.
 W. W. Norton published Annie Gauger's and Brian Jacques's annotated edition in 2009.
 Jamie Hendry Productions published a special edition of the novel in 2015 and donated it to schools in Plymouth and Salford to celebrate the World Premiere of the musical version of The Wind in the Willows by Julian Fellowes, George Stiles, and Anthony Drewe.
 IDW Publishing published an illustrated edition of the novel in 2016. The hardcover novel features illustrations from Eisner Award-winning artist David Petersen, who is best known for creating and drawing the comic series Mouse Guard.
 Simon & Schuster published a lavishly illustrated edition in 2017. Illustrator Sebastian Meschenmoser created more than 100 expressive watercolor vignettes and a dozen lush oil paintings.

Reception
A number of publishers rejected the manuscript. It was published in the UK by Methuen and Co., and later in the US by Scribner. The critics, who were hoping for a third volume in the style of Grahame's earlier works, The Golden Age and Dream Days, generally gave negative reviews. The public loved it, however, and within a few years it sold in such numbers that many reprints were required. In 1909, then US President Theodore Roosevelt wrote to Grahame to tell that he had "read it and reread it, and have come to accept the characters as old friends".

In The Enchanted Places, Christopher Robin Milne wrote of The Wind in the Willows:

Adaptations

Stage
 Toad of Toad Hall by A. A. Milne, produced in 1929 when the novel was in its 31st printing.
 Wind in the Willows, a 1985 Tony-nominated Broadway musical with book by Jane Iredale, lyrics by Roger McGough and music by William P. Perry, starring Nathan Lane
The Wind in the Willows by Alan Bennett, which premiered in December 1990 at the National Theatre in London.
Mr. Toad's Mad Adventures by Vera Morris
Wind in the Willows (UK National Tour) by Ian Billings
 The Wind in the Willows, two stage adaptations – a full musical adaptation and a small-scale, shorter, stage play version – by David Gooderson
 The Wind in the Willows, a musical theatre adaption by Scot Copeland and Paul Carrol Binkley.
 The Wind in the Willows by George Stiles, Anthony Drewe and Julian Fellowes which opened at Theatre Royal Plymouth in October 2016 before playing at The Lowry, Salford, and then later the London Palladium in the West End.
The Wind in the Willows (musical play) adapted by Michael Whitmore for Quantum Theatre, music by Gideon Escott, Lyrics by Jessica Selous touring 2019
 The Wind in the Willows, opera for children in two acts by Elena Kats-Chernin (music) and Jens Luckwaldt (libretto, with English translation by Benjamin Gordon), commissioned by Staatstheater Kassel, world premiere 2 July 2021.
The Wind in the Willows (a musical in two acts) adapted by Andrew Gordon for Olympia Family Theater, music by Bruce Whitney, lyrics by Daven Tillinghast, Andrew Gordon, and Bruce Whitney, premiered 2012.
The Wind in the Willows, a musical theatre adaption by Douglas Post

Theatrical films
 The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, a 1949 animated adaptation produced by Walt Disney Productions for RKO Radio Pictures, narrated by Basil Rathbone. One half of the animated feature was based on the unrelated short story, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
 The Wind in the Willows, a 1996 live-action film written and directed by Terry Jones starring Steve Coogan as Mole, Eric Idle as Rat, and Jones as Mr. Toad.

Television
 Toad of Toad Hall, the first live action telecast of the novel. Adapted by Michael Barry for BBC Television and transmitted live in 1946. The film featured (in alphabetical order) Julia Braddock as Marigold, Kenneth More as Mr. Badger, Jack Newmark as Mole, Andrew Osborn as Water Rat, Jon Pertwee as the Judge, Alan Reid as Mr. Toad, John Thomas and Victor Woolf as Alfred the Horse, Madoline Thomas as Mother, and an uncredited Pat Pleasanse as various rats, weasels, and mice.
 The Wind in the Willows, a 1969 TV series adaptation of the story produced by Anglia Television, told by still illustrations by artist John Worsley. The story was adapted, produced, and narrated by Paul Honeyman and directed by John Salway.
 The Reluctant Dragon & Mr. Toad Show, a 1970–1971 TV series produced by Rankin/Bass Productions and animated overseas by Mushi Production in Tokyo, Japan, based on both The Reluctant Dragon and The Wind in the Willows.
 The Wind in the Willows, a 1983 animated TV film version with stop-motion animated puppets, produced by Cosgrove Hall Films.
 The Wind in the Willows, a 1984–1990 TV series following the 1983 film, using the same sets and characters in mostly original stories but also including some chapters from the book that were omitted in the film, notably "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn". The cast included David Jason, Sir Michael Hordern, Peter Sallis, Richard Pearson, and Ian Carmichael. This series then had another TV movie made entitled A Tale of Two Toads and then a spin off series entitled Oh, Mr. Toad.
 The Wind in the Willows, a 1985/1987 animated musical TV film version for television, produced by Rankin/Bass Productions with animation by Wang Film Productions (also known as Cuckoo's Nest Studios) in Taiwan. This version was very faithful to the book and featured a number of original songs, including the title, "Wind in the Willows", performed by folk singer Judy Collins. Voice actors included Eddie Bracken as Mole, Jose Ferrer as Badger, Roddy McDowell as Ratty, and Charles Nelson Reilly as Toad.
 Wind in the Willows, a 1988 animated made-for-TV film by Burbank Films Australia and adapted by Leonard Lee.
 The Adventures of Mole, first part of a 1995 animated made-for-TV film produced by Martin Gates with a cast including Hugh Laurie as Toad, Richard Briers and Peter Davison as Ratty and Mole respectively, and Paul Eddington as Badger. This part ends shortly after the visit to Badger at his home and the story is continued in The Adventures of Toad.
 The Wind in the Willows, a 1995 animated TV film adaptation narrated by Vanessa Redgrave (in the live action scenes) with a cast led by Michael Palin and Alan Bennett as Ratty and Mole, Rik Mayall as Toad, and Michael Gambon as Badger; followed by an adaptation of The Willows in Winter produced by the now defunct TVC (Television Cartoons) in London.
 The Wind in the Willows, a 1999 Czech animated made-for-TV series.
 The Wind in the Willows, another live-action TV film in 2006 with Lee Ingleby as Mole, Mark Gatiss as Ratty, Matt Lucas as Toad, Bob Hoskins as Badger, and also featuring Imelda Staunton, Anna Maxwell Martin, Mary Walsh, and Michael Murphy.

Unproduced
 In 2003, Guillermo del Toro was working on an adaptation for Disney. It was to mix live action with CG animation, and the director explained why he had to leave the helm. "It was a beautiful book, and then I went to meet with the executives and they said, 'Could you give Toad a skateboard and make him say, "radical dude" things?' and that's when I said, 'It's been a pleasure ...

Web series
 In 2014, Classic Alice took the titular character on a 6 episode reimagining of The Wind in the Willows. Reid Cox played Toad, and Kate Hackett and Tony Noto served as loose Badger, Ratty, and Mole characters.

Radio
The BBC has broadcast a number of radio productions of the story. Dramatisations include:
 Eight episodes from 4 to 14 April 1955, BBC Home Service. With Richard Goolden, Frank Duncan, Olaf Pooley, and Mary O'Farrell.
 Episodes from 27 September to 15 November 1965, BBC Home Service, with Leonard Maguire, David Steuart, and Douglas Murchie.
 Single 90 minute play, dramatised by A.A. Milne under the name Toad of Toad Hall, on 21 April 1973, BBC Radio 4, with Derek Smith, Bernard Cribbins, Richard Goolden, and Cyril Luckham.
 Six episodes from 28 April to 9 June 1983, BBC Schools Radio, Living Language series. With Paul Darrow as Badger.
 Six episodes, dramatised by John Scotney, from 13 February to 20 March 1994, BBC Radio 5, with Martin Jarvis, Timothy Bateson, Willie Rushton, George Baker, and Dinsdale Landen.
 Single two-hour play, dramatised by Alan Bennett, on 27 August 1994, BBC Radio 4.

Abridged readings include:
 Ten-part reading by Alan Bennett from 31 July to 11 August 1989, BBC Radio 4.
 Twelve-part reading by Bernard Cribbins from 22 December 1983 to 6 January 1984, BBC channel unknown.
 Three-hour reading by June Whitfield, Nigel Anthony, James Saxon, and Nigel Lambert; Puffin audiobook, 1996.

Other presentation formats:
 Kenneth Williams did a version of the book for radio.
 In 2002 Paul Oakenfold produced a trance soundtrack for the story, aired on the Galaxy FM show Urban Soundtracks. These mixes blended classic stories with a mixture of dance and contemporary music.
 In 2013 Andrew Gordon produced a full-cast audio adaptation of his stage play, available on Audible and on CD.

Sequels and alternative versions
 Jan Needle's Wild Wood was published in 1981 with illustrations by William Rushton (). It is a re-telling of the story of The Wind in the Willows from the point of view of the working-class inhabitants of the Wild Wood. For them, money is short and employment hard to find. They have a very different perspective on the wealthy, easy, careless lifestyle of Toad and his friends.
 Dixon Scott's A Fresh Wind in the Willows, illustrated by Jonathon Coudrille, was published by Heinemann/Quixote in England in 1983 and Dell Yearling in the United States in 1987.
 William Horwood created several sequels to The Wind in the Willows: The Willows in Winter, Toad Triumphant, The Willows and Beyond, and The Willows at Christmas (1999). These books include some of the same incidents as Scott's sequel, including a climax in which Toad steals a Bleriot monoplane.
 Jacqueline Kelly's sequel Return to the Willows was published in 2012.
 Kij Johnson published The River Bank in 2017. If Wild Wood reimagined Grahame's work through a shift of class, Johnson's work may be said to do the same thing through shift of gender.
 Daniel Mallory Ortberg included the story "Some of Us Had Been Threatening Our Friend Mr. Toad," which blends Wind in the Willows with the Donald Barthelme short story "Some of Us Had Been Threatening Our Friend Colby," in his 2018 collection The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror. In Ortberg's retelling, Toad's friends are abusive and use the guise of "rescuing" their friend to justify violence and manipulation.
 Frederick Thurber's In the Wake of the Willows was published in 2019. It is the New World version of the original, recounting the adventures of the same set of characters, and their children, who lived on a coastal estuary in southern New England.
 Dina Gregory released an all-female adaptation on Audible in 2020. The story sticks very closely to the original, but with Lady Toad, Mistress Badger, Miss Water Rat, and Mrs Mole.

Awards
 Mr. Toad was voted Number 38 among the 100 Best Characters in Fiction Since 1900 by Book magazine in their March/April 2002 issue.

Inspiration
Mapledurham House in Oxfordshire was an inspiration for Toad Hall, although Hardwick House and Fawley Court also make this claim.

The village of Lerryn in Cornwall claims to be the setting for the book.

Simon Winchester suggested that the character of Ratty was based on Frederick Furnivall, a keen oarsman and acquaintance of Grahame. However, Grahame himself said that this character was inspired by his good friend, the writer Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch. Grahame wrote this in a signed copy he gave to Quiller-Couch's daughter, Foy Felicia.

The Scotsman and Oban Times suggested  was inspired by the Crinan Canal, because Grahame spent some of his childhood in Ardrishaig.

There is a proposal that the idea for the story arose when its author saw a water vole beside the River Pang in Berkshire, southern England. A 29 hectare extension to the nature reserve at Moor Copse, near Tidmarsh Berkshire, was acquired in January 2007 by the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust.

Peter Ackroyd in his book, Thames: sacred river, asserts that "Quarry Wood, bordering on the river [Thames] at Cookham Dean, is the original of [the] 'Wild Wood'..."

In popular culture

Music
 The first album by the psychedelic rock group Pink Floyd, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967), was named by the founding member Syd Barrett after Chapter 7 of The Wind in the Willows. However, the songs on the album are not directly related to the contents of the book.
 Chapter 7 was the basis for the name and lyrics of "Piper at the Gates of Dawn", a song by the Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison from his 1997 album The Healing Game.
 The song "The Wicker Man" by the British progressive metal band Iron Maiden also includes the phrase.
 The British extreme metal band Cradle of Filth released a special edition of its album Thornography called Harder, Darker, Faster: Thornography Deluxe; on the song "Snake-Eyed and the Venomous", a pun is made in the lyrics "... all vipers at the gates of dawn" referring to Chapter 7 of the book.
 The song "Power Flower" on Stevie Wonder's 1979 album Stevie Wonder's Journey Through "The Secret Life of Plants", co-written with Michael Sembello, mentions "the piper at the gates of dawning".
 In 1991, Tower of Power included an instrumental entitled "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride" on the album Monster on a Leash.
 Wind in the Willows is a fantasy for flute, oboe, clarinet, and bassoon, narrated by John Frith (2007).
 The Dutch composer Johan de Meij wrote a music piece for concert band in four movements, named after and based on The Wind in the Willows.
 The Edinburgh-based record label Song, by Toad Records takes its name from a passage in The Wind in the Willows.
 English composer John Rutter wrote a setting of The Wind in the Willows for narrator, SATB chorus, and chamber orchestra.
 The American post-hardcore band La Dispute adapted the first chapter of the book into the song "Seven" on their EP Here, Hear II.
 The song "Sweet Amarillo", written by Donna Weiss and performed by Old Crow Medicine Show, mentions The Wind in the Willows.

Adventure rides
 Mr. Toad's Wild Ride is the name of a ride at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, and a former attraction at Disney's Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Florida, inspired by Toad's motorcar adventure. It is the only ride with an alternative Latin title, given as the inscription on Toad's Hall: Toadi Acceleratio Semper Absurda ("Toad's Ever-Absurd Acceleration"). After the removal of the ride from the Magic Kingdom, a statue of Toad was added to the cemetery outside the Haunted Mansion attraction in the same park.

Other
 In 2016, the historian Adrian Greenwood was tortured and murdered in his home by a thief intent on finding a rare 1908 first edition print of which he was in possession. The book was later recovered as part of the criminal investigation. The crime was the subject of a Channel 4 documentary entitled Catching a Killer: The Wind in the Willows Murder.
 In The Simpsons 1998 episode "Lisa Gets an 'A' (season 10, episode 7; AABF03), Lisa neglects to complete her Wind in the Willows reading homework and subsequently has to cheat on a pop-quiz.
 In Rugrats 1992 episode "The Santa Experience (season 2, episode 14), Chaz mentions that he had the lead role in a Wind in the Willows play in school when they were kids. Drew remarks that Chaz just played a tree.
In Downton Abbey, series 2, episode 2, the Dowager Countess learns that her granddaughter, Lady Edith Crowley, has volunteered to drive a tractor for a local farmer during the war, to which the Dowager Countess says, "You're a lady. Not Toad of Toad Hall!"

See also

References

Further reading
  tells how the stories evolved from bedtime stories (and letters, in his absence) for his son Alastair, then known as "Mouse".

External links

Online editions

  illustrated by Paul Bransom (1913)

  Adapted in 10 parts. Site also contains teaching resources and episode transcripts.

1908 British novels
1908 children's books
20th-century British children's literature
British children's novels
British novels adapted into films
Pan (god)
Culture associated with the River Thames
Fictional badgers
Children's books about frogs
Children's novels about mice and rats
Fictional moles
Fictional otters
Children's novels about rabbits and hares
Children's books about squirrels
Fictional weasels
Novels about friendship
Novels set in Berkshire
Novels set in England
Novels set in Oxfordshire
Books illustrated by E. H. Shepard
Books illustrated by Arthur Rackham
Methuen Publishing books
Works by Kenneth Grahame
Children's novels about animals

The Wind in the Willows


The first School of Naval Architecture opened in 1811 in Portsmouth. The school was principally established to offer a deeper study of the principles of ship design than had traditionally been retained through the apprenticeship model. To this end, students were taught mathematics, science, drawing, history, geography and literature. In 1816, it joined the Royal Naval College at Portsmouth to become the Royal Naval College and the School for Naval Architecture. Political lobbying forced its closure in 1837.  Divisions within the Navy had long been felt between those who saw educational pathways as key to progression within the Royal Navy and those who regarded family connections and patronage as the best means of advancement. Of the first School's closure, Reverend Joseph Woolley observed "that establishment produced men of accomplished skill and power in the application of sound theoretical principals to their professional work; but because they were treated with suspicion and dislike by the uneducated members of the profession, who unfortunately had too much influence at head quarters: the old cry of want of experience was raised  against them, and the value of their services, were for many years--the best years of their lives--lost to the country."

This position changed shortly after Woolley made his remarks in March 1862, when in 1864, the Royal School of Naval Architecture or Royal School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering was founded in South Kensington to train naval architects.  It was founded by Woolley, who had been Principal of the short-lived School of Mathematics and Naval Construction in Portsmouth (1848–1853). In 1873 the School moved to the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, then in 1967 to University College London.  Many of its graduates entered the Royal Corps of Naval Constructors.

The title FRSNA is an abbreviation for Fellow of the Royal School of Naval Architecture.

References

1864 establishments in England
Naval architecture
Training establishments of the Royal Navy
Marine engineering organizations

Royal School of Naval Architecture


A quinaria (plural: quinariae) is a Roman unit of area, roughly equal to  .  Its primary use was to measure the cross-sectional area of pipes in Roman water distribution systems.  A "one quinaria" pipe is  in diameter.

In Roman times, there was considerable ambiguity regarding the origin of the name, and the actual value of a quinaria.  According to Frontinus:

...Those who refer (the quinaria) to Vitruvius and the plumbers, declare that it was so named from the fact that a flat sheet of lead 5 digits wide, made up into a round pipe, forms this ajutage. But this is indefinite, because the plate, when made up into a round shape, will be extended on the exterior surface and contracted on the interior surface. The most probable explanation is that the quinaria received its name from having a diameter of 5/4 of a digit...

In other words, Vitruvius claimed that the name was derived from a pipe created from a flat sheet of lead "5 digits wide", roughly , but Frontinus contested the definitiveness of this because the exterior circumference of the resulting pipe would be larger than the interior circumference.  According to Frontinus, the name and value is derived from a pipe having a diameter of "5/4 of a digit".  Using Vitruvius' standard, the value of a quinaria is , and the resulting pipe would have a diameter of .

The importance of this measure was that water taxes in ancient Rome were based on the size of the supply pipe.

See also
 Ancient Roman weights and measures
 Water theft#Roman period

Notes and references

External links
The Quinaria, part of the Encyclopædia Romana

Units of area
Human-based units of measurement
Ancient Roman units of measurement

Quinaria


Helophilus hybridus is a hoverfly.
It is a  Palearctic species.

Description
For terms see Morphology of Diptera

Wing length 8·5-11·25 mm. Femorae 3 top 1/4 or less yellow. Tibiae 3 pale on basal 1/4 or less. Males tergite 2 large yellow spotsreach the hind margin over their full width. The larva is illustrated by Hartley (1961). See references for determination

Distribution
Palearctic Fennoscandia South to North France. Ireland East through North Europe and Central Europe (including the Alps) East into Russia and on through the Russian Far East and Siberia to the Pacific coast. Mongolia. Nearctic from Alaska to Nova Scotia and South to Utah.

Biology
Habitat: wetlands non-eutrophic pools in fen, poor fen, deciduous woodland and dune slacks, cutover valley bog, fen carr, taiga. Flowers visited include white umbellifers, Calluna vulgaris, Cirsium, Convolvulus, Crataegus, Echium, Euphorbia, Limonium, Lycopus, Mentha aquatica, Menyanthes, Narthecium, Parnassia palustris, Plantago, Pulicaria, Rosa, Rubus, Salix repens, Salix, Senecio, Sorbus, Succisa, Taraxacum, Valeriana.
The flight period is early May to early September.

References

External links

 External images

Diptera of Europe
Eristalini
Insects described in 1846
Articles containing video clips
Taxa named by Hermann Loew
Hoverflies of North America

Helophilus hybridus


A current sheet is an electric current that is confined to a surface, rather than being spread through a volume of space.  Current sheets feature in magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), the study of the behavior of electrically conductive fluids: if there is an electric current through part of the volume of such a fluid, magnetic forces tend to expel it from the fluid, compressing the current into thin layers that pass through the volume.

The largest occurring current sheet in the Solar System is the so-called Heliospheric current sheet, which is about 10,000 km thick, and extends from the Sun and out beyond the orbit of Pluto.

In astrophysical plasmas such as the solar corona, current sheets theoretically might have an aspect ratio (breadth divided by thickness) as high as 100,000:1.  By contrast, the pages of most books have an aspect ratio close to 2000:1.  Because current sheets are so thin in comparison to their size, they are often treated as if they have zero thickness; this is a result of the simplifying assumptions of ideal MHD.  In reality, no current sheet may be infinitely thin because that would require infinitely fast motion of the charge carriers whose motion causes the current.

Current sheets in plasmas store energy by increasing the energy density of the magnetic field.  Many plasma instabilities arise near strong current sheets, which are prone to collapse, causing magnetic reconnection and rapidly releasing the stored energy.   This process is the cause of solar flares and is one reason for the difficulty of magnetic confinement fusion, which requires strong electric currents in a hot plasma.

Magnetic field of an infinite current sheet
An infinite current sheet can be modelled as an infinite number of parallel wires all carrying the same current. Assuming each wire carries current I, and there are N wires per unit length, the magnetic field can be derived using Ampère's law:

R is a rectangular loop surrounding the current sheet, perpendicular to the plane and perpendicular to the wires. In the two sides perpendicular to the sheet,  since . In the other two sides, , so if S is one parallel side of the rectangular loop of dimensions L × W, the integral simplifies to:

Since B is constant due to the chosen path, it can be pulled out of the integral:

The integral is evaluated:

Solving for B, plugging in for Ienc (total current enclosed in path R) as I×N×L, and simplifying:

Notably, the magnetic field strength of an infinite current sheet does not depend on the distance from it.

The direction of B can be found via the right-hand rule.

Harris sheet
A well-known one-dimensional current sheet equilibrium is the Harris sheet, which is a stationary solution to the Maxwell-Vlasov system. The magnetic field profile of a Harris sheet along  is given by

where  is the asymptotic magnetic field strength and  provides the thickness of the current sheet. The current density is given by

The plasma pressure is given by

where  is the asymptotic pressure.

See also
List of plasma (physics) articles

Notes

Plasma physics

Current sheet


British country clothing or English country clothing is the traditional attire worn by men and women in rural Britain; it is the choice of clothing when taking part in outdoor sports such as equestrian pursuits, shooting or fishing and during general outdoor activity, such as walking, picnicking, or gardening. It is also worn at events such as horse races, country weddings, beer festivals and country fairs.

The form of dress although worn throughout Britain is mostly associated with England and is sometimes considered a historical form of dress or national costume, often worn to represent the English gentleman and lady. It is still considered countryside leisure wear and due to the durable, practical, comfortable and fashionable style, some people choose to use elements of country clothing for general usage in Britain.

History
During the 19th and early 20th centuries, what is regarded as traditional country clothing was a popular choice for wealthy people living in the British countryside as well as those who travelled there for leisure. Members of the British upper classes would go to the countryside for sporting events organized by the owners of English country houses if they did not own a country house themselves, and therefore they required practical and durable clothing. Today many of the original tailors who produced some of the first country style clothing still exist; and some have been granted a royal warrant; where it was once basic and usually just worn in the country, the popularity of the style has led to productions on the high street, as well as variations in the colours used as opposed to just natural.

Many elements of British country clothing have even been used by designers to develop styles which are suitable for everyday use; today people also choose to use elements of country clothing mixed with modern designs such as a tweed jacket with a denim trouser. It has also been influential in the development of preppy and Ivy League styles of dress in the United States and Canada.

Country attire

Headwear
The flat cap, Irish walking hat, deerstalker and trilby hat are some traditional forms of headwear used in the country. But some people will sometimes choose a non-traditional style of hat, depending on weather conditions, social circumstances and the activity. The flat cap is often made of tweed or cotton, whilst a trilby hat is traditionally made from felt material. For a trilby hat, a feather attached pin on the side is a traditional accessory for both men and women which can also optionally be attached a jacket lapel.

Footwear
Footwear usually depends on the activity in which the wearer is taking part; the weather and conditions underfoot; and the social circumstances. Some of the most common forms of footwear are natural rubber wellington boots and leather country boots which protect the wearer from mud and water on the ground. When wearing a tweed suit, leather brogues are usually a choice of footwear; however, this also depends on the activity or event.

Jackets and coats

English country jackets usually include waxed and quilted jackets. The traditional style is dark olive green with a brown corduroy collar which is based on the original colour palette used when they were first produced, which also included navy as opposed to dark olive green. A gilet is also a popular style of country jacket. Tweed jackets and coats are also worn to protect against weather due to the durability of the material. Fleece jackets and gilets have also become part of country attire in Britain.

Tweed suits and sports jackets
The material tweed has long been associated with the British countryside; when Prince Albert purchased the Balmoral estate he designed the Balmoral tweed long before he laid the first bricks of Balmoral Castle. Tweed uses natural colours to blend into the natural environment; Prince Albert designed the Balmoral Tweed to resemble the granite mountains of Aberdeenshire for stalking. Original country styles include a Norfolk jacket and tweed breeks.

Tweed suits, normally consisting of a jacket, waistcoat and trousers (or skirt) have been an icon of the English country gentleman and lady since the 1840s when Catherine, Lady Dunmore began to provide for the British aristocracy and landed gentry; it soon proved popular as it provided a practical but also smart-casual style. Today tweed suits remain popular, with some choosing the style for business as well as pleasure. However, people very rarely wear the full three piece when outdoors, usually only at events; the suit is traditionally worn with a Tattersall or Gingham shirt and optionally a tie or neck scarf for women. Some also choose to wear a knitwear sweater or jumper for warmth and to remain casual.

Popularity
The popularity of country clothing surges periodically as a result of television period dramas such as Downton Abbey and the earlier All Creatures Great and Small, plus frequent photography releases of celebrities featured wearing the country style. This has included members of the British royal family, such as King Charles III, who wear traditional British country clothing when attending racing events and when at royal estates such as Balmoral and Highgrove. The boost in popularity has led to modernized variations of country clothing being produced to attract younger consumers; such designs, such as those by Dolce & Gabbana, have even taken inspiration from Queen Elizabeth II. Other designers, such as Ralph Lauren, have stated their love for country clothing and have based some of their designs on the style. In 2006, retailers in New York reported a boom in demand for the waxed country jacket featured by Dame Helen Mirren in her portrayal of Elizabeth II in The Queen (2006).

In popular culture
English country clothing has featured in many media works, usually when scenes are filmed in the countryside or in an English garden.

Film
The Queen (2006)
What a Girl Wants (2003)

Literature
Elly Griffiths' Ruth Galloway series, especially The Ghost Fields (2014)

Television
Countryfile
Spring, Autumn and Winterwatch
Downton Abbey
Last of the Summer Wine
The Vicar of Dibley
To The Manor Born

All Creatures Great and Small

See also
 Tracht - Worn in Bavaria, Austria and South Tyrol
 Teba jacket - Worn in Great Britain, Spain, France and Austria
 Sloane Ranger

References

Clothing by function
English culture
Culture of the United Kingdom
British clothing
English clothing

British country clothing


Berrima Post Office is a heritage-listed post office at Argyle Street, Berrima, Wingecarribee Shire, New South Wales, Australia. It was built in 1886 by R. N. Matthews. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.

History

Berrima is the second oldest European settlement in Wingecarribee Shire and the oldest continuing settlement in the shire. The first town settlement in the district was in 1821 at Bong Bong, 8 km south-east of Berrima on the Wingecarribee River.

The site of Berrima was selected by Surveyor General Sir Thomas Mitchell in 1829 on a visit planning the route for a new road alignment from Sydney to replace the old Argyle Road, which had proven unsatisfactory due to a steep hill climb over the Mittagong Range and river crossing at Bong Bong. In 1830 Mitchell instructed Robert Hoddle to mark out the town based on a plan Mitchell's office prepared, along the lines of a traditional English village (with a central market place and as many blocks as possible facing onto the Wingecarribee River), and using the local Aboriginal name. The new line of road came through the town. Berrima was to be established as the commercial and administrative centre for the County of Camden.

Following the approval of Governor Bourke in 1831, the period 1824 to 1841 saw significant flourishing development as mail coaches changed their route to this new line of road. Early town lots were sold in 1833, predominantly to inn keepers and around Market Square, including the first town Lot sales to Bryan McMahon.

Governor Bourke designated Berrima as a place for a courthouse and gaol to serve the southern part of the state. With construction of the gaol from 1835 to 1839 and its courthouse in 1838 to serve the southern part of the state the town flourished into the 1840s as mail coaches called, public buildings including churches in 1849 and 1851, establishment of many hotels and coaching houses to service local resident needs and passing trades, persons and commercial travellers. Its 1841 population was 249, with 37 houses completed and 7 more in construction. Research has indicated there were some 13 hotels or grog houses in Berrima at the one time in the early days before the coming of the Southern Railway to the Moss Vale area, which by-passed Berrima.

There is some doubt about the early days of the Berrima Post Office. Apparently the Berrima Office was moved from Bong Bong in June, 1838.

A post office was opened at Bong Bong at least as early as 23 December 1829. John Lowe, Clerk to the Chamber of Magistrates, was given the responsibility of looking after the post office.

Between 1830 and 1837 a number of people filled the job as postmaster. Records state that James Higgins was appointed postmaster at Berrima 1 June 1838. It would appear that the office was moved from Bong Bong to Berrima on that date.

There is very little known of the Berrima Post Office from about 1840 to 1860.

The 1851 census showed the number of buildings remained the same, but the population had dropped to 192. During the 1850s Berrima experienced another boom period after the discovery of gold. When the Great Southern Railway bypassed Berrima in 1867, the town again began to decline as Mittagong, Moss Vale and Bowral developed. Berrima remained virtually unchanged for the next 100 years, preserving the town as an almost intact colonial village.

On 6 September 1858 the Berrima telegraph station was opened and in 1860 a building was bought for use as the telegraph station. At this time the Postal Department and Telegraph Department had no connection at all with one another.

The Berrima Post Office occupied several premises until the 1880s. In 1883 the post office was located in the Glad Tidings building. The telegraph office was nearby.

The telegraph business was now being carried on over a telephone line probably to Moss Vale. This was strongly objected to by the residents for the reason that the telephone system was then in its infancy and shouting into the receiver was necessary. Anyone handy to the post office could hear every word.

In June 1881 a petition was received from Berrima residents asking for the provision of a new post office. It was suggested that an ideal site would be land owned by the Government, where the old Toll Bar used to be. It was also pointed out that the Commercial Bank authorities were about to build a new bank nearly opposite the site.

The Postal Department approved the erection of a new post office on the old Toll Bar site, but finance was not available and the matter was shelved. As a result of further resident agitation and the dilapidated condition of the then post office building, the tender of R. N. Matthews & Sons was accepted 22 April 1886 for 777 pounds.

The Berrima Post Office was erected on the earlier "Old Tollhouse" or Tollbar site. The postmaster was moved into the new office on 17 August 1887.

It was not until 1890 that the block of ground, being Lot 19 of Section 2, was transferred to the Postmaster-General.

Because of the decline of revenue, Berrima was made a semi-official office and Mrs C. Reynolds took charge of it on 9 January 1909.

On 1 March 1912 she was succeeded by Mrs B. Walker.

A weatherboard wing was added  1930s.

In 1988, a new building was constructed at the rear of the post office. The post office was restored at that time, with internal modifications made.

In late 2019, the Post Office (store) moved out of the building to a new location next to the general store, located 200m north and opposite the gaol.

Description
Berrima Post Office is a painted brick building with stone foundations. It has a corrugated iron roof and features a verandah to the front of the building.

It was reported to be in good physical condition at the time of its heritage listing, with low archaeological potential.

Heritage listing
The Post Office is located on the site of the earlier "Old Tollbar". The post office is situated on a prominent corner site in the town of Berrima. It makes an important contribution to the historic precinct of Berrima.

Berrima Post Office was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.

See also

References

Bibliography

Attribution

New South Wales State Heritage Register
Berrima, New South Wales
Post office buildings in New South Wales
Articles incorporating text from the New South Wales State Heritage Register
1887 establishments in Australia
Government buildings completed in 1887

Berrima Post Office