Charlie Connelly (born 22 August 1970, London, England) is an author of popular non-fiction books. In addition to being a writer, Connelly also appears as a presenter on radio and television shows.

Overview

Connelly's writing exhibits a self-deprecating humour and love of eccentricity that echoes the style of Bill Bryson. Similarly, Connelly shares with several other writers a fascination with subject-matter that had not previously been a feature of traditional travel writing.

Connelly began his career as a writer of books relating to sporting events, most commonly football. His breakthrough 2002 book, Stamping Grounds, was his fifth, and followed the Liechtenstein national football team in their unsuccessful campaign to qualify for the 2002 FIFA World Cup. His 2004 follow-up, Attention All Shipping, which was his first to deviate from football as its topic, has been listed as a best-seller and selected as Book of the Week by the UK radio station BBC Radio 4. Attention All Shipping was Connelly's first book not to take football as its central subject: again seeking out unusual destinations, he travels to each area mentioned in the Shipping Forecast made famous on BBC Radio 4.

In 2007, Connelly released his seventh book, In Search of Elvis, which again focused on travel and the impression left by entertainer Elvis Presley. Connelly's eighth book, And Did Those Feet: Walking Through 2000 Years Of British And Irish History, followed in 2008 in which Connelly undertook some notable journeys from history on foot and was again a BBC Radio 4 "Book of the Week", read by Martin Freeman. Our Man in Hibernia, published in 2010, detailed Connelly's move to Ireland and his search for his Irish roots. His tenth book, Bring Me Sunshine, which examines the history of the weather and weather forecasting, appeared in September 2012. Bring Me Sunshine was also a BBC Radio 4 "Book of the Week", read by the actor Stephen Mangan.

On the Radcliffe & Maconie show on BBC 6 Music in December 2013, Bernard Sumner announced that he had engaged Connelly to co-write his autobiography. In 2016, Connelly collaborated with the twenty-times champion jockey Tony McCoy on his autobiography Winner: My Racing Life, which was shortlisted for Autobiography of the Year at the 2016 British Sports Book Awards.

Connelly's work has also appeared in The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Times, the Scotsman and the Herald. Since May 2017, he has been the literary correspondent of The New European. Connelly was also a presenter on the BBC One television programme Holiday and has lectured at the Royal Geographical Society. He co-presented the first three series of the BBC Radio 4 programme Traveller's Tree with Fi Glover, has appeared on Excess Baggage and Loose Ends and has made documentaries for BBC Radio 4 on subjects ranging from the poetry of Noël Coward to the cricket coach Alfred Gover.

In August 2008, Attention All Shipping was voted the second greatest audiobook in a public vote organised by The Guardian newspaper and Waterstone's bookshops, finishing behind The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

In October 2014, Connelly premiered a one-man show based on Attention All Shipping with a sold-out performance at the Cutty Sark Studio Theatre.

Bibliography

 1998 – I Just Can't Help Believing: The Relegation Experience
 1999 – London Fields: A Journey Through Football's Metroland
 2000 – Spirit High and Passion Pure: A Journey Through European Football
 2001 – Many Miles... a Season in the Life of Charlton Athletic
 2002 – Stamping Grounds: Liechtenstein's Quest for the World Cup
 2004 – Attention All Shipping: A Journey Round the Shipping Forecast
 2007 – In Search of Elvis: A Journey to Find the Man Beneath the Jumpsuit
 2009 – And Did Those Feet: Walking Through 2000 Years Of British And Irish History
 2010 – Our Man In Hibernia: Ireland, The Irish And Me
 2012 – Bring Me Sunshine: A Windswept, Rain-Soaked, Sun-Kissed, Snow-Capped Guide To Our Weather
 2014 – Chapter and Verse: Joy Division, New Order and Me by Bernard Sumner (co-writer)
 2014 – The Forgotten Soldier
 2014 – Elk Stopped Play, And Other Tales From Wisden's Cricket Round The World (Editor)
 2015 - Constance Street
 2016 - Gilbert: The Last Years of W.G. Grace
 2016 - Winner: My Racing Life by Tony McCoy (co-writer)
 2019 - Last Train to Hilversum: A journey in search of the magic of radio
 2020 - The Channel

References

External links
 Charlie Connelly.com – Official website
 Biography page on literary agency website
 Essex Book Festival Interview
 Irish Times interview
 Interview for The Creative Life

1970 births
Alumni of the University of Essex
British sportswriters
British ukulele players
English humorists
English people of Irish descent
English radio presenters
English television presenters
English travel writers
Living people
People educated at Eltham College

Charlie Connelly


The Alliance of American Football (AAF) was a professional American football minor league. The AAF consisted of eight centrally owned and operated teams in the southern and western United States, seven of which were located in metropolitan areas with at least one major professional sports franchise.

Founded by Charlie Ebersol and Bill Polian in 2018, the AAF began play on February 9, 2019. The league was scheduled to have a 10-week regular season and conclude with a championship game on April 27. After eight weeks of play, however, the league's football operations were suspended by controlling owner Thomas Dundon on April 2. Two days later, the AAF allowed players to leave their contracts to sign with NFL teams. The AAF filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on April 17, 2019, with the league's sole season left incomplete.

The AAF positioned itself as an "upper-level minor league" serving as a transition between the college game and the NFL.

History
Charlie Ebersol, son of former NBC executive and XFL co-founder Dick Ebersol, was inspired to create the AAF in late 2016 after producing the documentary This Was the XFL for ESPN Films' 30 for 30 series; upon researching and examining the history of the XFL, he came to the conclusion that the concept was viable but that the finished product was both poorly executed and, from an on-field standpoint, bad football. He began developing the AAF in February 2017, about the same time that word had come out about XFL co-founder Vince McMahon possibly reviving the old XFL brand (which McMahon would indeed do in 2020). Exhibits in a lawsuit filed by Robert Vanech, who claimed to have co-founded the AAF, state that Ebersol had originally approached McMahon about relaunching the XFL but was unable to come to an agreement, as Ebersol wanted control of the XFL brand and was willing to pay $50 million for the trademark, which McMahon was unwilling to sell. In December 2018, two months before the AAF season began, Charlie Ebersol asked Vince McMahon about merging the AAF with the XFL. McMahon turned him down.

The league was formally organized on February 6, 2018 as an interlocked web of five Delaware limited liability companies:  Legendary Field Exhibitions, AAF Players, AAF Properties, LFE 2, and We Are Realtime, LLC.  Each in turn was controlled by Ebersol through his own entity as manager, Ebersol Sports Media Group, Inc., while minority investors held stakes in one or more of the LLC entities.

The AAF was announced on March 20, 2018. Ebersol sought to focus on creating a solid football product in the hopes that it would attract fans. He hired a team of experienced football players, coaches and executives to prepare the league for launch. The AAF was overseen by former NFL general manager Bill Polian, former Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu, and executive J. K. McKay. Advisers also include former Steelers receiver Hines Ward, former New York Giants and Oakland Raiders defensive end Justin Tuck, retired referee and current Fox NFL rules analyst Mike Pereira, and Ebersol's father, Dick Ebersol.

Ebersol attended the first XFL game in Las Vegas in 2001, and remembered how disappointed his father was by the poor quality of play. To ensure professional-level football at launch, the AAF set out to hire coaches with professional football coaching and championship experience. On April 7, 2018, the first team, Orlando, was announced with its coach Steve Spurrier. By June 2018, the league had announced its eight inaugural teams and their cities.

On July 30, 2018, the Alliance announced the league had signed 100 players. In August 2018, the league held the Alliance Scouting Combine at three locations and four dates: August 4, 2018, in Los Angeles, California; August 18 in Houston, Texas; and August 25–26 in Atlanta, Georgia. By August 24, 2018, 205 players were signed. These dates provided an opportunity for players cut at the NFL roster deadline, and each player signed a non-guaranteed three-year contract worth a total of $250,000 ($70,000 in 2019; $80,000 in 2020; $100,000 in 2021), with performance-based and fan-interaction incentives allowing for players to earn more.

In July 2018, Starter, through G-III Sports, which manufactured NFL jerseys and apparel in the 1980s and 1990s, was named the official on-field apparel and game-day uniform supplier for the AAF, marking a return for the brand to professional football after an almost 20-year absence. On September 20, the league announced four eastern inaugural franchises' names and logos. The four western teams' logos and names were revealed five days later.

Inaugural season

On October 16, 2018, the Alliance announced its schedule (indicating the day and location, but not the time, of each game) which had two games each on Saturday and on Sunday most weekends. Quarterback skills training camps were held at the Alamodome in San Antonio on November 12 through 14. On November 27, the league held a four-round "Protect or Pick" quarterback draft in the Esports Arena at Luxor Las Vegas and broadcast on CBS Sports Network.

The AAF began its inaugural, 10-week season on February 9, 2019. The first points in AAF regular season history were scored by kicker Younghoe Koo of the Atlanta Legends, who made a 38-yard field goal against the Orlando Apollos. The first touchdown came in the same game with Orlando quarterback Garrett Gilbert connecting with Jalin Marshall for a 16-yard score. The first shutout was recorded by the Birmingham Iron when they defeated the Memphis Express, 26–0, in Week 1. The first onside conversion (see Rules section, below) was attempted during Week 3, with Atlanta successfully completing a 48-yard pass against Birmingham. The first safety was registered by Atlanta against the Arizona Hotshots in Week 4. The first overtime game occurred in Week 7, with Memphis defeating Birmingham.

A four-team playoff was to be capped with the league's championship game, initially scheduled to be held at Sam Boyd Stadium near Las Vegas. After Dundon took over league operations, he moved the game to the Ford Center at the Star in Frisco, Texas.

Cessation of operations
On April 2, 2019, the AAF suspended all football operations, on orders from AAF chairman Tom Dundon. League co-founder Bill Polian stated:

Players found out about the suspension through the Internet before their coaches confirmed the news. Players were evicted from the hotels where their teams were being housed—with some being personally charged for unpaid hotel bills—and required to pay their own way home; they also lost their health insurance and were forced to cover their own medical bills from injuries sustained during play. League employees were notified via an April 2 letter from the AAF board, which did not give a reason for ending the season, that their jobs were terminated as of April 3 with no severance. Ebersol and Dundon refused public comment; Ebersol would eventually speak out on April 17, stating that he had been advised not to speak by his attorneys. He insisted that the money he raised was there and had been vetted up until immediately before the season, claimed that reports of players being saddled with hotel and medical bills were either fake news or fraudulent charges, and could not ensure that all those owed money would be paid.

On April 4, the AAF announced through their official Twitter account that players were eligible to leave their contracts to sign with NFL teams. The contracts that players had originally signed included a stipulation that they could leave to sign with NFL teams at the conclusion of an AAF season. The league did not issue any public statement until April 6, when the AAF.com website was updated with a statement, which read in part:

At the time its football operations were suspended, the AAF had played eight weeks out of a scheduled ten-week regular season.

Bankruptcy liquidation
On April 17, Ebersol Sports Media Group, Inc. and the five AAF operating entities filed for joint Chapter 7 bankruptcy (liquidation) in Texas' Eastern District. In the filing, the league claimed assets of $11.3 million, liabilities of $48.3 million, and approximately $536,000 in cash. The AAF counted its player contracts among its assets in the bankruptcy filing, blocking players from joining the Canadian Football League. This block was lifted a day after the bankruptcy filing.

The league's uniforms and equipment were stored in a lot in San Antonio, Texas and eventually auctioned off in July 2019. Former Arena Football League commissioner Jerry Kurz made the winning bid at $455,000, beating out bids from (among others) the revived XFL. Subsequently, the perpetually postponed Major League Football claimed it had entered into an agreement to purchase the equipment for $400,000.

Teams

Rules
Ebersol deliberately avoided making radical changes to the rules of the game so as to make it recognizable to the U.S. public. He stated that he used the average length of a feature film, slightly over two hours, as the basis for a typical fan's attention span.

 Teams had 52 players on each roster, with some selected by a territorial draft. The territory assigned to a team consisted of at least five colleges plus designated professional teams, one Canadian Football League, and four NFL teams (players from colleges outside the AAF footprint being allocated based on their most recent professional team). Only one quarterback could be taken from their region.
 For the inaugural season, a quarterbacks-only "Protect or Pick" draft was conducted in November 2018 in which teams could retain their allocated quarterback or select an unprotected quarterback from another team.
 Telecasts featured no television timeouts and 60 percent fewer "full-screen commercials," with the league aiming for an approximate real-time game length of 150 minutes, down from just over 180 in the NFL. In turn, the AAF aimed to charge more money for the remaining commercial slots, also alluding to product placement opportunities that did not interrupt the game telecast.
 There were no extra point kicks; teams had to attempt two-point conversions after a touchdown.
 Defenses were forbidden from advancing ("rushing") more than five players on or across the line of scrimmage, and no defensive player could cross the line of scrimmage from more than two yards outside the offensive tackles. The "illegal defense" penalty for violating these rules was a 15-yard penalty.
 There were no kickoffs; possession at the start of each half, and after touchdowns and field goals, began on a team's own 25-yard line, in line with the NFL touchbacks. After a safety, the scoring team received possession at their own 35-yard line.
 In lieu of an onside kick, a team could keep possession of the ball by attempting an "onside conversion", a scrimmage play from their own 28-yard line and gaining at least 12 yards (essentially, a fourth-and-12 play). A team was not allowed to attempt such a play after a field goal or touchdown unless it was trailing by 17 or more points, or during the final two minutes of the first half, or during the final five minutes of the second half. The onside conversion play was also available after any safety, played from the 18-yard line.
 The play clock ran only 35 seconds, five seconds shorter than in the NFL, but still longer than the CFL's 20 seconds, timed from the spotting of the football. (The league originally proposed a 30-second play clock, but Ebersol concluded it would negatively impact the quality of play.)
 Players could not throw the football into the stands or hand it off to a spectator following a touchdown. While other leagues (particularly the NCAA) have similar rules in place using rationale based on sportsmanship, the primary motivation for the AAF rule appears to be economic as its footballs (manufactured by Wilson Sporting Goods and marked with distinctive red, blue, and white stripes) contain expensive tracking technology. The penalty for such behavior was unsportsmanlike conduct, a 15-yard penalty, and if it is determined to be deliberate, a fine can be assessed to the offending player. Other touchdown celebrations are generally tolerated.
 Trent Richardson of the Birmingham Iron was penalized during the first week of AAF play, when a ball he spiked after scoring a touchdown bounced into the stands. AAF officials later determined that Richardson's actions were accidental and did not assess the fine, also apologizing for the penalty.
 There were no automatic instant replay reviews of scoring plays or turnovers as there are in the NFL. Each team was given two coach's challenges, which they could use at any time outside the two-minute warning, and received a third if both challenges were successful. After the two-minute warning in each half and during overtime, the replay booth had sole authority to call for a replay review.
 Outside organizations handled head-safety protocols.
 In the event of a tie at the end of regulation, a single overtime period would be played, under the high school football rules of the "Kansas Playoff." Each team would begin on their opponent's 10-yard line and be given one possession (four downs) to score, with no field goals allowed. Had a score remained tied after each team was given their possession, the game would end in a tie. Both teams would be given one timeout per overtime possession. The coin toss winner could choose to possess first or defer. Had the AAF reached the postseason, accounts differed on what system would be used; early reports had repeated rounds of the Kansas Playoff played until a winner was determined, but later reports stated that the AAF would use sudden death (golden point), which had been abolished at all other levels of football by the time of the AAF's debut.
 Playoffs would have consisted of four teams, the top two teams from each conference.
 Officiating crews had eight members on the field, similar to NCAA Division I football, instead of the standard seven-official system used in the NFL and CFL (the eighth officiating member was the center judge). AAF officiating also had a ninth member, called a sky judge, an off-the-field official who reviews every play using technology like a booth review. The sky judge could call or take away penalties missed or made by the field officials.

Business
The Alliance operated as a single entity, with all teams owned and operated by the league, under the name Legendary Field Exhibitions LLC. Some of the investors in the AAF included Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, The Chernin Group (which owns Barstool Sports), Jared Allen, Slow Ventures, Adrian Fenty, Charles King's M Ventures, and Keith Rabois. Long-term plans were for the AAF to sell franchises to individual owners.

MGM Resorts International made an investment in the AAF tech platform, and entered a three-year sponsorship agreement to become the league's official sports betting sponsor and exclusive gaming partner. The deal marked the first time any sports organization had sold exclusive in-game betting rights to a sportsbook. Scott Butera, MGM's director of interactive gaming (the division that signed an agreement with the AAF), was formerly the commissioner of the Arena Football League before his 2018 ouster. Under the terms of the agreement, MGM Resorts International owned all rights to the tech platform in the event the league ceases operations, preventing an investor from buying the league solely for access to the technology. Gambling functions were never implemented on the league's app, and many planned features for the app never materialized due to technical glitches and impracticality.

The league also had player bonuses and scholarships, with player bonuses based on performance and fan interaction, players were to earn a year's scholarship in post-secondary education for each season of play. Players got three-year, non-guaranteed contracts worth $250,000 plus health insurance with an escape clause to go to the NFL. The three-year contract was believed to be purposely targeting the XFL to prevent second-tier professional players from signing with the XFL if they played in the AAF in 2019. XFL commissioner Oliver Luck stated that he did not believe that such a clause would hold up in court after the AAF collapsed, and that the XFL would be willing to sign AAF players. The league also has an incentive system that pays members of a team's offensive and defensive units for statistical achievements and also pays players to perform community service; the exact details of this incentive system were not yet finalized at the start of the 2019 season. Players are assigned to each team by way of a centralized process that is largely a trade secret. The league showed willingness to offer more money to marquee players; Landry Jones noted that Ebersol had personally promised a salary of over $1,000,000 to Jones if he played for the San Antonio Commanders; when Jones pressed Ebersol on when he would be paid, Ebersol became evasive, leading Jones to reject the offer. Matt McGloin likewise turned down the AAF, both because of his skepticism over the league and the birth of his child. For the fans, in addition to a fantasy league built into mobile broadcasts, there were low ticket prices (each team have a $35/game sideline seat option) and inexpensive food at games. When the league abruptly folded, the league left players to personally pay outstanding bills for their own hotels, as well as their transportation home and even their medical bills from injuries sustained during play.

The AAF coaching salaries varied by title, with $500,000 for head coaches, $200–250,000 for coordinators, and $75–150,000 for position coaches. Each AAF team employed between 11 and 13 total coaches, putting the total coaching staff expenditures at around $2 million per staff and $16 million for the entire league.

Dundon investment
On February 18, 2019, the league announced that Tom Dundon, whose other holdings include the Carolina Hurricanes of the National Hockey League (NHL) and TopGolf, agreed to invest $250 million into the league. He was also named the new chairman of the AAF, and Dundon reportedly received a majority stake in the league in exchange for his investment. Dundon's investment was initially reported to be due to the league being in danger of not making payroll. It was later reported that the payroll issue was due to a glitch in the league's changing of payroll companies, and that Dundon's investment had already been planned. Dundon later backtracked on his previous claim of a $250 million investment, noting that he had not actually delivered a $250 million lump sum to the league. Dundon planned on incrementally investing in the league, using $250 million as a theoretical maximum based on if the league were to "aggressively expand," and reserved the right to pull out of the league at any time. At the time of the reported April 2 suspension, Dundon had invested an estimated $70 million into the AAF. He had drastically reduced unnecessary expenses and mostly abandoned the technology platform by the end of the league's operations in a desperate attempt to keep the league financially viable.

Ebersol had admitted prior to the start of the season that, on numerous occasions, the AAF had come dangerously close to folding before its first game due to various unstated complications. When asked whether some of the AAF's initial investors had dropped out, Ebersol declined to answer. After the league suspended operations, it was revealed that one of the league's major investors, former Minnesota Vikings minority owner Reggie Fowler, had indeed pulled his funding after the inaugural game, necessitating the abrupt sale to Dundon. It came out in late April that Fowler's funds had been frozen by the Department of Justice, after Fowler's indictment on charges of money laundering for cryptocurrency exchanges. He was later sentenced to over six years in prison.

In early March 2019, it was revealed by Bill Polian that the AAF and National Football League were in informal discussions about a system where players under contract to NFL teams could be loaned to AAF teams. The idea would have been for NFL teams to assign their third-string quarterback and other players from the bottom half of their roster and practice squads to the AAF to gain more playing time in a similar system to what used to be in place during the existence of NFL Europe. This would have in effect made the AAF an official developmental league of the NFL. Dundon sought a change in the NFL's collective bargaining agreement to protect AAF players who may get injured and miss NFL playing time by ensuring the players still earned a salary from the NFL during their recovery. In late March, Dundon stated that, in reference to the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) and its reluctance to cooperate out of concern for injuries, if they are "not going to give us young players, we can't be a development league". He added that the AAF was looking at its options, including discontinuing the league if the NFLPA wasn't willing to work with the league. Profootballtalk.com reported shortly thereafter, citing unnamed sources, that if Dundon's demands were not met, he was willing to end his investment before the season ended, possibly as soon as after Week 8, which would cut off the league's cash flow and force it to immediately fold with the playoffs and championship left unplayed. As Week 8 passed, Dundon reiterated his stance on April 1, stating he was still willing to pull his funding before the next week's game.

Ultimately, the AAF lost an estimated $88 million overall, earning only $12 million in revenue against its $100 million expenses.

Legal matters
In late February 2019, a lawsuit by a venture capitalist in Los Angeles became public, as the AAF issued a statement denying a claim by Robert Vanech that the league was his idea and that he had a handshake agreement with Charlie Ebersol; Vanech is seeking financial damages and 50 percent ownership of the league.

Also in late February, the league revealed that it had been unable to secure a league-wide worker's compensation insurance policy prior to the start of the season, forcing the Orlando Apollos to move its practice operations to Kingsland, Georgia, and commute to Orlando for games, as Florida does not consider professional athletes to be eligible for worker's compensation.

In April 2019, after the league suspended football operations, two players—punter Colton Schmidt of the Birmingham Iron and linebacker Reggie Northrup of the Orlando Apollos—filed a class action lawsuit in California, claiming that they were misled about the financial viability of the league and that the league entered contracts with players in bad faith.

Also in April, two former front-office league employees filed a class action lawsuit in California, claiming that the league violated the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988, which requires large companies to give at least a 60-day advanced notice before large layoffs.

Reggie Fowler was arrested April 30, 2019, on charges related to operating a massive cryptocurrency scam in 2018, the funds for which were used to fund his AAF investments.

In November 2022, the trustees handling the AAF bankruptcy filed a lawsuit against Dundon seeking the remainder of the $250 million investment he had publicly promised, alleging he owed the $184 million debt to the league. Dundon countersued Ebersol for the $70 million he had previously invested.

Key people

Executives
 Charlie Ebersol, co-founder and CEO
 Bill Polian, co-founder and Head of Football
 J. K. McKay, Head of Football Operations
 Troy Polamalu, Head of Player Relations
 Hines Ward, Head of Football Development
 Tom Veit, Head of Business Operations
 Mike Pereira, Officiating Consultant
 Dean Blandino, Officiating Consultant
 Player Engagement Board Of Advisors
 Jared Allen
 Justin Tuck
Source:

Board of directors
 Tom Dundon, chairman
 Dick Ebersol (ousted midseason)
 Keith Rabois

Media
As part of its formation, the AAF announced broadcast deals with CBS Sports; opening day (consisting of two regionally-televised games) was scheduled for CBS, as well as a playoff semifinal and the championship game. The telecasts made extensive use of on-field microphones (with head coaches and quarterbacks also miked), and Skycams (with two deployed for each game, with one along the sideline, as opposed to having more than one high camera). Half of the games broadcast each week were produced off-site from Sneaky Big Studios in Scottsdale, Arizona: graphics (which were provided by CBS), Skycam operations, and commentary were performed remotely from the Scottsdale site, as well as studio coverage for all games (via a virtual studio). Ebersol did not disclose whether or not the league was buying the airtime or receiving the airtime for free as part of a partnership agreement. After the season ended, it was confirmed that the AAF had resorted to buying airtime and was unlikely to be able to extract a rights fee from any of its partners for its foreseeable future, a factor in Dundon's decision to withdraw his investment. CBS broadcast an ad for the league during its coverage of Super Bowl LIII.

CBS Sports Network aired one game per week, and was scheduled to air one of the playoff games. In addition to local stations, TNT was announced as broadcasting two games per season (one regular season and a playoff game which later was expanded to include three regular season games) while NFL Network aired two weekly games. Turner's B/R Live streamed one game a week, and the league's mobile app offered an alternate "AAF Raw" feed for most games (excluding those carried by CBSSN), which featured no commentary or graphics. Integrated fantasy games were available through the AAF site and app as well.

CBSSN's game of the week was called by Ben Holden, Adam Archuleta, and John Schriffen. NFL Network's broadcast team for week one consisted of Dan Hellie on play-by-play and Marvin Lewis on color commentary. TNT's broadcast team consisted of Brian Anderson on play-by-play, Lewis on color commentary, and Maurice Jones-Drew as sideline reporter. The league did not use set announcer pairings, rotating numerous hosts (several of them from CBS's NFL and college football crews) on both play-by-play and color commentary, depending on availability.

Sirius XM Radio, a satellite radio service, carried a select Game of the Week. Additionally, teams made broadcast deals with local radio affiliates.

Reception

Critics
The AAF received mixed to positive reviews opening night. Profootballtalk.com, in a mostly positive review, praised the league's television product and choice of markets that would embrace the league, singling out the live look-ins at the replay booth during coach's challenges as an innovation that could transfer to the NFL's television broadcasts. The on-field level of play was somewhat less well-received, being compared to NFL preseason levels, with numerous offensive miscues. SB Nation had a similar assessment, criticizing the game play as "much worse than... most of major college football," while at the same time noting that the league's innovations were largely successful in making games more interesting. In an admittedly incomplete review, Peter King stated that although he would not yet draw any "major conclusions" about the league, he liked some of the rule changes but feared the overtime process would be a gimmick.

Viewership
Overnight Nielsen Ratings stated that the league-opening regionally televised games on CBS were the highest rated telecast of the night in the key demographic, drawing more viewers than an NBA game on ABC in the same time slot. In overall viewers, both the AAF and NBA lost to a rerun of America's Got Talent: The Champions on NBC. The NFL Network telecast that week secured 640,000 viewers. With these comparatively strong initial viewership statistics, the Week 2 ratings were highly anticipated in the interest of developing trended data. In Week 2, the afternoon and evening games on Saturday, February 16, reportedly attracted 1,018,000 and 425,000 viewers, respectively, in addition to the Sunday evening game on February 17 drawing 424,000 viewers.  Week 3's NFL Network games drew 491,000 and 515,000 viewers, benefiting in part due to a counterprogramming effort against the 91st Academy Awards. Week 4's ratings were largely consistent with those of week 2, with the two NFL Network games that week securing ratings of 404,000 and 450,000 viewers, comparable to college basketball and NHL telecasts on the other sports networks. The disparity between the afternoon and evening games is consistent due to increased competition during primetime hours and the higher market penetration of CBS and TNT compared to NFL Network and CBS Sports Network, the latter of which does not register a rating in the Nielsens.

In March 2019, building upon these ratings successes, both CBS and TNT added games to their packages; Turner Sports shifted two additional Saturday afternoon games from B/R Live to TNT (with B/R Live streaming a Skycam-only feed of the games as a companion), while CBS announced that it would shift two games from CBS Sports Network to broadcast television, including a regular season game on April 6, 2019 (in the afternoon prior to CBS's broadcast of the 2019 NCAA Final Four), and one of the conference championship games. However, due to the suspension of football operations, these games were left unplayed.

Notable players
The following lists notable AAF players:
Daniel Brunskill (offensive lineman)
Nick Folk (kicker)
Garrett Gilbert (quarterback)
Younghoe Koo (kicker)
D'Ernest Johnson (running back)
Greg Ward (running back)

References

Further reading

External links

 Official website (archived, 16 Dec 2018)

2018 establishments in the United States
Sports leagues established in 2018
American football leagues in the United States
Professional sports leagues in the United States
Minor and developmental leagues in professional sports
Sports leagues disestablished in 2019
2019 disestablishments in the United States
Companies that filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2019
Companies that have filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy

Alliance of American Football


Mary Clarke (; died 1705) was an English gentlewoman who is remembered as a  prolific letter writer. She married Edward Clarke on 13 April 1675 and had eleven children with him. Whilst he spent time in London as a Member of Parliament, she ran the family estate at Chipley in Somerset and raised their children. Clarke corresponded frequently with her husband by letter and also exchanged messages with the philosopher John Locke.

Early life
Mary Clarke was born in Somerset to father Samuel and mother Elizabeth Jepp () in the 1650s. Both her parents died when she was young and she was brought up by her maternal grandmother, Elizabeth Baber. When Baber died in 1672, Clarke inherited lands worth £400 (equivalent to £ in ).

Career
Mary Jepp married Edward Clarke on 13 April 1675. They had eleven children, three of whom died in infancy; the eight who lived to adulthood were called Edward (Ward), Elizabeth (Betty), Anne (Nanny), John (Jack), Mary (Molly), Jepp, Samuel (Sammy) and Jane (Jenny) respectively. The Clarkes first lived in London, then moved to the Chipley Park estate in Chipley, Somerset, where they rebuilt the manor house. Edward Clarke became Member of Parliament for Taunton in 1690 and spent most of his time in London when Parliament was sitting, leaving Mary Clarke to bring up the children and run the estate. Following his involvement in organising the Great Recoinage of 1696, her husband became unpopular locally since he was held responsible for the resulting hardship and his local enemies circulated rumours. This forced him to stay in London for his own safety as Clarke endeavoured to clear his name in Taunton.

Clarke was a committed letter writer and communicated prolifically with her husband. Many letters are held by the Somerset Archives and Local Studies. Her witty letters show a keen mind which was engaged with the social and political issues of the time, as well as matters of personal interest such as farming and estate management. Much was written about their children, discussing their studies, health and progress in life. As the children matured, the parents wrote to each other about their various plans; for example, they discussed the logistics of Betty's marriage and Jack's ambitions to become a merchant (he would later be apprenticed to Benjamin Furly). Hundreds of letters have survived, others were lost or destroyed.

The Clarkes also wrote to John Locke, who was a friend of Edward and a cousin of Mary; Locke had previously suggested that Clarke marry his friend Sir William Pelham. His replies in their three-way discussions concerning the education of Edward Junior were later published in 1693 as Some Thoughts Concerning Education. The communications included almost 400 letters later published in the Correspondence of John Locke. Some Thoughts Concerning Education was concerned solely with the upbringing of young men, but Locke also wrote privately to the Clarkes about young women and their daughter Elizabeth became a favourite of his. Mary Clarke's practical concerns sometimes clashed with Locke's idealistic view of parenting, for example she used servants to help with childcare despite him declaring it would be better not to and she was unable to find the time to read Latin to her son for two hours every day. He believed that every child could be moulded in the same way, but Edward appeared slow-witted and one of his tutors asked to be released, saying he had taught him as much as was possible. Clarke was concerned, writing to Locke that Edward seemed "a sort of downe right honest Blockheaded boy". Locke believed in home education and recommended a Huguenot tutor, however after employing a series of tutors the Clarkes decided to send their children to schools.

Death and legacy
Clarke died at Chipley on 10 January 1705. She was buried on 8 February in Chew Magna.

References

1705 deaths
Women letter writers
17th-century English businesswomen
17th-century English businesspeople
18th-century English businesswomen
18th-century English businesspeople
People from Somerset
Housewives
Date of birth uncertain
17th-century letter writers
18th-century letter writers
Social philosophers
17th-century English philosophers
English women philosophers

Mary Clarke (letter writer)


The Williamson Red Birds were a Mountain State League baseball team based in Williamson, West Virginia, United States that played from 1939 to 1942. They were affiliated with the St. Louis Cardinals.

They made the playoffs every year they existed, winning the league championship in 1940, under Harrison Wickel.

The team was previously named the Williamson Colts from 1937 to 1938. The Class-D team was managed by Nat Hickey in both years of its existence. Under his leadership, the team made the playoffs both seasons, finishing third both years, but it did not win a league championship either time.

Walter Sessi and, most notably, baseball Hall of Famer Stan Musial played for the team.

Notable alumni

Baseball Hall of Fame Alumni

 Stan Musial (1938-1939)

MLB alumni

 Ken Holcombe (1939)

 Del Rice (1941-1942) MLB All-Star

Hal Rice (1941-1942)

 Walter Sessi (1937, 1939) Inducted, 1969

References

External links
Baseball Reference

Baseball teams established in 1937
Baseball teams disestablished in 1942
St. Louis Cardinals minor league affiliates
Mountain State League teams
Defunct minor league baseball teams
Professional baseball teams in West Virginia
1937 establishments in West Virginia
1942 disestablishments in West Virginia
Mingo County, West Virginia
Defunct baseball teams in West Virginia

Williamson Red Birds


The Spanish-Portuguese War between 1735-1737 was fought over the Banda Oriental, roughly present-day Uruguay.

At that time, this part of South-America was sparsely populated and was on the border between Portuguese Colonial Brazil and the Spanish Governorate of the Río de la Plata. Spain claimed the area based on the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494, but Portugal had founded the first city there, the Sacramento Colony, in 1680. Spain had taken the city twice, in 1681 and in 1705, but had had to give it back to the Portuguese by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713.

The following years saw an expansion of the Portuguese settlements around the Sacramento Colony, in a radius of up to 120 km. As a reaction, capitán general of Río de la Plata Bruno Mauricio de Zabala had founded Montevideo on December 24, 1726 to prevent further expansion. But the Portuguese trade made the Spanish suffer, as they were still compelled to trade with Spain over the Viceroyalty of Peru, who imposed heavy taxes. Spain considered the Portuguese presence illegitimate and their trade contraband.

In March 1734, the new capitán general of Río de la Plata, Miguel de Salcedo y Sierraalta, received orders from Madrid to reduce the action radius of the Sacramento Colony to "a gunshot", say two kilometers. He sent an ultimatum to António Pedro de Vasconcelos, the Portuguese governor of the colony, who stalled for time.

In 1735 tensions raised between Spain and Portugal and Spanish ships under Alzaybar captured several Portuguese vessels. On April 19, Prime minister José Patiño ordered Salcedo to attack Sacramento.

Salcedo gathered 1500 men and marched slowly on Sacramento, wasting much time attacking minor targets along the road. He was supported by 4,000 Guaraní warriors who came from the Jesuit Reductions. The siege started on October 14, 1735.

By that time Vasconcelos had prepared the defense with a garrison of about 900 men, and sent a messenger to Rio de Janeiro to ask for reinforcements. José da Silva Pais sent six Portuguese ships, which arrived on January 6 followed by 12 more ships a few days later. The Spanish had tried to impose a naval blockade, but the Portuguese had more ships and gained naval superiority.

In 1736 and 1737 more ships were sent from Spain and Portugal and an occasional confrontation between a few ships occurred. But Spain couldn't gain the upper hand and on September 6, 1736, the Portuguese even lay siege to Montevideo, but withdrew when Salcedo sent a relief force of 200 men.

On March 16, 1737 under influence of France, Great Britain and the Dutch Republic, a treaty was signed. In September the siege was lifted and the Spanish withdrew their forces and Miguel de Salcedo was disposed as governor of Buenos Aires.

The war was local and involved only a couple of thousand men on each side.

Ships involved

Portugal

Spain

Notes

References
Robert Southey, History of Brazil (1819)

External links
Guerras entre España y Portugal en la cuenca del Río de la Plata (Spanish)

18th century in Spain
1730s in Spain
1730s in Portugal
1735 in Spain
1735 in Portugal
1737 in Spain
1737 in Portugal
Military history of Uruguay
Wars involving Spain
Wars involving Portugal
18th century in Portugal
18th century in Uruguay
1730s conflicts
Portugal–Spain military relations
Portuguese colonization of the Americas
1730s in South America
1735 in South America
1736 in South America
1737 in South America

Spanish–Portuguese War (1735–1737)


Tara Strohmeier is a retired actress who appeared in memorable B-movies in the 1970s, many of them made for drive-in theater business and have since acquired large cult followings.

Her biggest roles were in The Great Texas Dynamite Chase (1976), as the sister of the late Claudia Jennings, and Van Nuys Boulevard (1979) playing a sexy car-hop, "Wanda", who falls in love with a hot-rodder named "Chooch" (played by David Hayward).

She also played "Jill McBain" in Joe Dante's Hollywood Boulevard (1976), and appeared in three films by Jonathan Kaplan: The Student Teachers (1973), Truck Turner (1974) and 11th Victim (1979). Her other film credits include Dirty O'Neil (1974), Candy Stripe Nurses (1974), Cover Girl Models (1975), the John Landis cult-comedy The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977), and Malibu Beach (1978).

Retired from acting, Tara lives in Orange County, California with her two sons.

References

External links

Living people
American film actresses
20th-century American actresses
Year of birth missing (living people)
21st-century American women

Tara Strohmeier


Uncle Dynamite is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on 22 October 1948 by Herbert Jenkins, London and in the United States on 29 November 1948 by Didier & Co., New York. It features the mischievous Uncle Fred, who had previously appeared in Uncle Fred in the Springtime (1939).

Plot
Frederick Altamont Cornwallis Twistleton, fifth Earl of Ickenham, known to all as Uncle Fred, is on the loose once again (Lady Ickenham having decamped for a wedding in Trinidad), and Reginald ("Pongo") Twistleton, his long-suffering nephew, has every right to be petrified.

Uncle Fred has just arrived at Ashenden Manor, Ashenden Oakshott, Hampshire. Ashenden Manor is the home of Sir Aylmer Bostock, Pongo's future father-in-law. Pongo is already in residence and has committed two rank floaters: accidentally smashing a whatnot from Sir Aylmer's collection of African curios, and (in the course of demonstrating how Brazilian natives kill birds with rude slings) smashing a coveted bust of his host.

Pongo's solution is to replace the busted bust with another one, abstracted from Ickenham Hall. But unknown to him, the replacement bust was fashioned by his former fiancée Sally Painter, and conceals valuable jewellery that a friend of hers was planning to smuggle through New York Customs.

Sally tries to replace the bust with another of Sir Aylmer she sculpted (but had had returned to her, after an unfortunate incident relating to her brother Otis' publication of Sir Aylmer's memoirs), but this comes to naught, and both busts end up in Sir Aylmer's collection room.

Uncle Fred is unruffled by this setback and decides to infiltrate the house as an imposter. Having met Bill Oakshott (an unassuming young man who is the actual owner of Ashenden Manor, but who shrinks from confronting and displacing his bombastic, overbearing uncle Sir Aylmer) on the train, Uncle Fred contrives to get invited to the house—under the name of Major Brabazon-Plank.  Unfortunately, the local Constable, Harold Potter, happens to have grown up with Major Plank (and also happens to remember arresting Uncle Fred and Pongo at the dog races under the names of Edwin Smith and George Robinson). Potter, intimately tied to the household through his fiancée, the housemaid Elsie Bean, becomes suspicious, and watches the house.

Uncle Fred's tasks are: to snatch the bust for Sally Painter; get Sir Aylmer to drop his suit against Otis, so that Sally will not lose the money she invested in his firm; convince Pongo that Hermione Bostock is not the proper wife for him and that Sally is; restore Bill Oakshott to his place as head of his family home and unite him with Hermione, whom he has loved for years; and convince Constable Potter not only to not arrest him, but indeed to quit the force so he and Elsie Bean may live happily ever after. Complications arise, including the arrival of the real Major Brabazon-Plank— but his menace is neutralized because of his horror of judging the Bonnie Babies competition at the Ashenden Oakshott Fête, an honor for which Uncle Fred, as the ersatz Major, has volunteered.

Bill Oakshott finds inspiration in the dominant hero of Ethel M. Dell's The Way of an Eagle.

Main characters
 Frederick Twistleton, Lord Ickenham — "Uncle Fred", Pongo's well-intentioned meddling uncle who aims to "spread sweetness and light"
 Reginald "Pongo" Twistleton — Lord Ickenham's nervous nephew and Drones Club member, engaged to Hermione
 William "Bill" Oakshott — Diffident owner of Ashenden Manor, Sir Aylmer's nephew, and Pongo's childhood friend who is in love with Hermione
 Sir Aylmer Bostock — Bill's overbearing uncle, a former colonial governor about to stand for Parliament
 Lady Emily Bostock — Polite wife of Sir Aylmer and mother of their daughter Hermione
 Hermione Bostock — Forceful novelist who writes under the name Gwynneth Gould and is engaged to Pongo
 Sally Painter — American sculptress and ex-fiancée of Pongo who still has feelings for him and regards Lord Ickenham as an uncle
 Otis Painter — Sally's brother, head of Meriday House, publisher of Sir Aylmer Bostock's memoirs
 Major Brabazon-Plank — Explorer who led a recent expedition to the Lower Amazon, which included Bill, and who went to school with Lord Ickenham and Sir Aylmer
 Elsie Bean — Gregarious housemaid at Ashenden Manor
 Harold Potter — Vigilant police constable engaged to Elsie

Style

Wodehouse obtains a humorous effect by using patterns of word formation in varied ways, such as when the prefix "de-" is added to a proper name, which occurs when Pongo brings the house-maid Elsie Bean out of a cupboard in chapter 9: "His manner as he de-Beaned the cupboard was somewhat distrait." In chapter 8, a character separates "hobnob" into its constituent elements: "It all depended on what you meant by the expression [i.e. hobnob]. To offer a housemaid a cigarrette is not hobbing. Nor, when you light it for her, does that constitute nobbing." A non-standard modification to a word occurs in chapter 13, when the word glimp is used as a back-formation of the word "glimpse" by the policeman Harold Potter: "I just caught sight of her for a minute as she legged it away, like as it might have been a glimp."

Ambiguities in language can lead to comedic cross-talk, such as when confusion is caused by two different meanings of the word "by" in chapter 13:
"I was assaulted by the duck pond.""By the duck pond?" Sir Aylmer asked, his eyes widening."Yes, sir.""How the devil can you be assaulted by a duck pond?"Constable Potter saw where the misunderstanding had arisen. The English language is full of these pitfalls."When I say 'by the duck pond,' I didn't mean 'by the duck pond,' I meant 'by the duck pond.' That is to say," proceeded Constable Potter, speaking just in time, "'near' or 'adjacent to', in fact 'on the edge of'."

Incongruity between descriptions of a particular situation is used for comedic effect, as in chapter 1: "From the penny-in-the-slot machine at the far end to the shed where the porter kept his brooms and buckets the platform was dark with what practically amounted to a sea of humanity. At least forty persons must have been present." Foreign loan words are fairly frequent in Wodehouse's stories, sometimes in incongruous contexts, such as "mésalliance" being used to describe a convict's sister marrying a policeman (chapter 3.5).

Formal language is frequently juxtaposed with colloquial expressions in Wodehouse's stories. This occurs in chapter 5: "There is an expression in common use which might have been invented to describe the enterprising peer in moments such as this: the expression 'boomps-a-daisy.' You could look askance at his methods, you could shake your head at him in disapproval and click your tongue in reproof, but you could not deny that he was boomps-a-daisy." Some of Wodehouse's older, more dignified male characters have humorously inappropriate, discourteous nicknames from their years at school, such as Sir Aylmer "Mugsy" Bostock, Major "Bimbo" Brabazon-Plank, and Frederick Altamont Cornwallis "Barmy" Twistleton, Lord Ickenham.

The stylistic device of the "enumeration" is used with a carefully planned anticlimax at the end in chapter 6: "Now slept the crimson petal and the white, and in the silent garden of Ashenden Manor nothing stirred save shy creatures of the night such as owls, mice, rats, gnats, bats and Constable Potter."

Vivid imagery involving exaggerated similes and metaphors is frequently used in Wodehouse's stories, for example in chapter 3: "A sticky moisture had begun to bedew his brow, as if he had entered the hot room of some Turkish bath of the soul." In chapter 2, an exaggerated synonym is used for comic effect when Lord Ickenham asks "What have you been doing, Bill Oakshott, to merit this reception—nay, this durbar?"

Wodehouse uses clichés out of place or in unusual ways for humorous effect. An example occurs in chapter 6: "Sometimes in our wanderings about the world we meet men of whom it is said that they have passed through the furnace. Of Sir Aylmer it would be more correct to say that he had passed through the frigidaire." Variations on Shakespearean quotations often appear in Wodehouse's stories, as in chapter 6 when Lord Ickenham greets Bill Oakshott with "Well met by moonlight, proud Oakshott."

Publication history
The first UK edition dust jacket was illustrated by Frank Ford. The first US edition dust jacket was illustrated by Hal McIntosh, and illustrations by McIntosh were included throughout the book.

A condensed version of the story was published in one issue of Liberty in April 1949, with illustrations by Hal McIntosh. A condensed version was also published in one issue of the Toronto Star Weekly on 30 April 1949.

The story was included in the 1983 collection The World of Uncle Fred, published by Hutchinson, London.

Adaptations

Uncle Dynamite was adapted for television as a 60 minute episode of the NBC anthology series The Philco Television Playhouse. The episode first aired on 29 January 1950, and starred Arthur Treacher.

The story was adapted for BBC Radio 4 in six parts in 1994. The events of "Uncle Fred Flits By" were adapted in the first part as an introduction to the novel. The cast included Richard Briers as Uncle Fred, Hugh Grant as Pongo, Paul Eddington as the narrator, Simon Treves as Bill Oakshott, Charles Gray as Sir Aylmer Bostock, Josephine Tewson as Lady Bostock, Chris Emmett as Harold Potter, Teresa Gallagher as Elsie Bean, Susie Brann as Sally, Mary Chater as Hermione Bostock, Toby Longworth as Otis, and Donald Hewlett as Major Brabazon-Plank.

See also
 A list of stories featuring Uncle Fred and Pongo

References
Notes

Sources

External links
The Russian Wodehouse Society's page, with a list of characters

Novels by P. G. Wodehouse
English novels
1948 British novels
Herbert Jenkins books
Novels set in Hampshire
British comedy novels

Uncle Dynamite


Zoilus ( Zoilos; c. 400320 BC) was a Greek grammarian and literary critic from Amphipolis in Eastern Macedonia, then known as Thrace. He took the name Homeromastix (Ὁμηρομάστιξ "Homer whipper"; gen.: Ὁμηρομάστιγος) later in life.

Biography
According to Vitruvius (vii., preface), Zoilus lived during the age of Ptolemy Philadelphus, by whom he was crucified as the punishment of his criticisms on the king; but this account should probably be rejected as a fiction based on Zoilus' reputation. Vitruvius goes on to state that Zoilus also may have been stoned at Chios or thrown alive upon a funeral pyre at Smyrna. Either way Vitruvius felt it was just as well since he deserved to be dead for slandering an author who could not defend himself. Zoilus appears to have been at one time a follower of Isocrates, but subsequently a pupil of Polycrates, whom he heard at Athens, where he was a teacher of rhetoric.

Zoilus was chiefly known for the acerbity of his attacks on Homer, chiefly directed against the fabulous element in the Homeric poems. Zoilus also wrote responses to works by Isocrates and Plato, who had attacked the style of Lysias of which he approved.

However, the Homeric Question led to his name becoming a byword for harsh and malignant criticism: in antiquity he gained the name "Homeromastix", "scourge of Homer"; in the modern period, Cervantes calls Zoilus a "slanderer" in the preface to Don Quixote and there is also a (now disused) proverb, "Every poet has his Zoilus." Since his writings do not survive, it is impossible to know whether this caricature is justified.

See also
 Zoilism
 -mastix

Notes

References
Ancient Library

Ancient Greek grammarians
Homeric scholars
Ancient Amphipolitans
4th-century BC Greek people
400s BC births
320 BC deaths

Zoilus


Shaun Casey (born January 7, 1954) is a former model active from the mid-1970s through the mid-1980s. By 1987 she had given up modeling for all but a few favorite clients.

In the late 1970s, Casey was associated with hairstylist, John Sahag, who created a stir by cutting her hair extremely short and bleaching it white for a Helmut Newton cover of Vogue Paris.

Shaun Casey was the Estée Lauder girl from 1979 to 1984. She was one of Calvin Klein's first models. Klein custom designed her wedding dress to her first husband. Her first advertisement in 1979 called "Grand Cafe Colors." Others were 1981's "The Great American Desert," 1982's "Perfectly Natural Liquid Makeup," 1982's "Country Manor Colors," 1983's "Greek Island Colors," and 1983's Polished Performance Liquid Makeup."  Shaun Casey graced six Harper's Bazaar covers, eight Glamour covers, one French Vogue cover, a few Italian Bazaar covers, one British Vogue cover, and is known as one of the first super models.

Casey also had a cameo in the 1977 Woody Allen romantic comedy Annie Hall.

Casey described modeling as "a grind, it's just like any other job" and said of her pictures, "Gosh, I wish I looked like that every day."

Shaun Casey was married to actor Roger Wilson from 1978 to 1983.

References

External links

American female models
Living people
1954 births
Place of birth missing (living people)
21st-century American women

Shaun Casey


Paul S. Cutter, also known as Paul Sjeklocha born on October 9, 1937, in Iowa, USA, is an American publisher who was convicted by a US court of selling arms to Iran. He was described by The New York Times in 1987 as "a former American diplomatic official who had worked for the United States Information Agency in Moscow and served for 11 years as a researcher and translator for the Central Intelligence Agency".

Career
In the 1960s Cutter worked for the United States Information Agency in Moscow, and subsequently worked for the Central Intelligence Agency for 11 years as analyst and translator. Sjeklocha told a former employer that in the 1970s he had worked for the CIA in Moscow helping dissidents to leave the country. In 1976 Cutter was detained in Yugoslavia on suspicion of spying for the US Government, and held for four and a half years.

In 1982 Sjeklocha visited Israel as a journalist on a tour sponsored by JINSA in which ex-Defense Intelligence Agency chief Eugene F. Tighe also participated. Sjeklocha became a member of JINSA's Board of Advisors the following year. According to JINSA, the two were added to the tour at the request of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. The tour met Defense Minister Ariel Sharon and other Israeli defense personnel, and produced generally favourable coverage of Israel, with some of Sjeklocha's work re-published in the Pentagon's "Current News" newsletter. Harry V. Martin, a former editor of one of Sjeklocha's magazines, Military Electronics/Countermeasures, told Knight-Ridder in 1985 that Sjeklocha had returned from the tour with a scheme to sell weapons captured by Israel in Lebanon, telling the editor that he had been asked to be the agent for the sale. The editor protested that Sjeklocha's European Defense Associates was a publishing company and not an arms dealership, and despite Sjeklocha having an array of photographs of the captured arms, that was the last the editor knew of it. The scheme (apparently without Sjeklocha's involvement) later became Operation Tipped Kettle, with the arms sold to the US at minimal cost (essentially shipping and handling fees) for supply to the Nicaraguan Contras.

In December 1983 Cutter joined forces with Colonel Ralph Mark Broman, Paris chief of the Office of Defense Cooperation until July 31, 1984, becoming manager of European Defense Associates' Paris branch in March and chairman and 50% shareholder of the company in August. Cutter also made Broman editor of two of his magazines. Two arms dealers told The New York Times in 1987 that potential deals with Iran were discussed with Broman in his office before his retirement.

In August 1985 Sjeklocha, owner and President of European Defense Associates, was one of seven charged with conspiracy to sell arms to Iran, including 1,104 TOW anti-tank missiles and 10 F-4 engines. Sjeklocha, the company, and one other person were convicted in December 1985, while the remaining five were acquitted on the grounds that Sjeklocha had led them to believe he was acting with government sanction. According to the Orlando Sentinel, "Several of those defendants contended that Cutter claimed to be a U.S. intelligence officer who had secret approval from the Pentagon and the government`s Office of Defense Cooperation in Paris to arrange the weapons shipments. They also said Cutter had close ties to Israeli defense officials." Sjeklocha was sentenced to five years in prison.

Books
 (with Igor Mead) Unofficial Art in the Soviet Union, University of California Press, 1967

References

External links
 US v Sjeklocha (1997 appeal)
 Paul S. Cutter - autobiography

1937 births
Living people
Arms traders
Iran–Contra affair
People of the Central Intelligence Agency

Paul S. Cutter


(Dutch: engineer-office for shipbuilding), usually contracted to IvS, was a Dutch dummy company set up in The Hague and funded by the  after World War I in order to maintain and develop German submarine know-how and to circumvent the limitations set by the Treaty of Versailles. The company designed several submarine types for paying countries, including the Soviet S-class submarine, as well as the prototypes for the German Type II submarines and Type VII submarines.

The company was a joint venture by the German shipyards AG Vulcan Stettin (located in Stettin and Hamburg), the Krupp-owned Germaniawerft in Kiel, and AG Weser in Bremen. Design work was carried out at the facilities of these companies in Germany.

Background information
At the time of IvS, the Germans were bound by the Treaty of Versailles, signed in 1919. This treaty, among other terms, demanded that all German U-boats be destroyed or given to other nations. Thus the Reichsmarine was left without a submarine capability, and IvS was created to work around these restrictions. The work of the company was a major factor in the foundation of the Kriegsmarine of World War II.

Submarine sales
IvS first designed two submarines based on the World War I UB III of the Kaiserliche Marine. Both  were built by the Fijenoord shipyard in Rotterdam in 1927 and sold to Turkey, which named them TCG Birinci İnönü  and İkinci İnönü.  They were followed by the Submarino E-1 built in 1930 by the Echevarrieta y Larrinaga shipyard in Cádiz, Spain, initially for the Spanish Navy, but mainly as a prototype of the German Type I submarine.  However, the Spanish lost interest in the E-1, and it was also sold to Turkey in 1935 as the TCG Gür.

The E-1 also attracted the attention of the Soviet Navy; with significant modifications the E-1 became the E-2 project.  Construction of the first two prototypes started in December 1934 at the Baltic Shipyard in Leningrad, using German diesel engines and electric batteries.  They were followed by the third prototype in April 1935.  With further modifications to use less-expensive Soviet equipment, full production began in 1936 of the Soviet S-class submarines. In 1945 the Soviet submarine S-13 was responsible for the sinking of the German military transport Wilhelm Gustloff and the General von Steuben with heavy losses of life.

From 1927 to 1933 four IvS-designed submarines were built by Crichton-Vulcan Oy in Turku, Finland. One of these, CV 707 (later the Finnish Navy Vesikko), was the prototype of the German Type II submarine, while three larger Vetehinen-class submarines served as the prototypes for the Type VII.  A fifth IvS design was the small submarine Saukko, built in Helsinki by the Sandvikens Skeppsdocka och Mekaniska Verkstad shipyard, and originally planned to be deployed in Lake Ladoga.

The contracts were worded in such a way that IvS employees (many of whom were former Kaiserliche Marine and Reichsmarine personnel) were involved with crew training and selection, and were also allowed to take part in submarine service trials. The Germans - who were, at the time, tightly restricted from using submarines themselves - thus gained first-hand knowledge of how their prototypes worked in practice.

Later projects
In 1933, the Reichsmarine established a training school in Kiel for U-boat crews, called the Unterseebootsabwehrschule ("Submarine Defence School").  This program provided for a small fleet of eight 500-tonne submarines, later doubled to sixteen.

Later plans for an actual U-boat fleet included designs for submarines referred to as "Experimental Motor Boats". Deutsche Werke in Kiel was selected to build the new submarines, and a new U-boat base was to be built at Kiel-Dietrichsdorf.  Submarine components were gathered there surreptitiously, in preparation for the order to begin production. The following submarine types were initially planned:

 1934 – two large (800-tonne) and two small (250-tonne) U-boats.
 1935 – four small U-boats.
 1936 – two large and six small U-boats.
 1937 – two large and six small U-boats.

From then on more boats were built, leading up to wartime production.

Coastal defense ships

The company also designed the Finnish Navy coastal defense ships Väinämöinen and Ilmarinen in the late 1920s.  Both ships were also built by Crichton-Vulcan Oy, entering service in 1932 and 1934, respectively.

Battlecruisers

The IvS was also involved in designing plans for a Royal Netherlands Navy project to build battlecruisers. Battlecruisers were deemed by some to be essential for the defense of the Dutch East Indies against possible Japanese expansion, especially as the Netherlands lacked any large surface ships. The designs were heavily influenced by the German  and the final design was similar to the IvS design, because the Germans were expected to at least furnish the gun turrets for these ships, as constructing them was beyond Dutch capabilities. In the end, political disagreements delayed the decision-making process and none of the projected ships were laid down, as on May 10, 1940 the Germans invaded the Netherlands.

References

 Dutch Export Submarines - Ingenieurskantoor voor Scheepsbouw
 Williamson, G Wolf Pack — The Story of the U-boat in World War II Osprey Publishing Ltd, 2005
 Teitler, Prof. Dr. G De strijd om de slagkruisers 1938–1940 De Bataafsche Leeuw, 1984

External links

 Submarine Vesikko - The IvS project 1931-33 in Finland

Defunct marine engineering companies of the Netherlands
Germany–Netherlands relations
Dutch companies established in 1922
Defence companies of the Netherlands
Front companies of the Reichsmarine

NV Ingenieurskantoor voor Scheepsbouw


Barbara Kolb (born February 10, 1939) is an American composer. Her music uses sound masses and often creates vertical structures through simultaneous rhythmic or melodic units (motifs or figures). Kolb's musical style can be identified by her use of colorful textures, impressionistic touch, and atonal vocabulary, with influences stemming from literary and visual arts. She was the first American woman composer to win the Rome Prize.

Life and music
Kolb was born in Hartford, Connecticut. She received her B.M. (cum laude, 1961) and M.M. degrees (1964) from the Hartt College of Music (now The Hartt School) at the University of Hartford, where she studied with Arnold Franchetti, Lukas Foss and Gunther Schuller. Following her graduation, Kolb relocated to Vienna, Austria, from 1966 to 1967 with a Fulbright Fellowship grant. She was the first female American composer to win the Rome Prize [Prix de Rome], in 1969. From 1979 to 1982, Kolb served as the artistic director of contemporary music at the Third Street Music School Settlement, where she presented the "Music New to New York" concert series. Additionally, she has had a professional teaching career teaching at Rhode Island College and Eastman School of Music as a visiting professor in composition. A selection of Kolb's compositions were featured at the Kennedy Center, performed by the "Theatre Chamber Players" as part of the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. However, Kolb was not only known as a composer; she was also proficient at the clarinet.

Her compositions include All in Good Time (1993), commissioned for the 150th Anniversary of the New York Philharmonic, and Voyants (1991), a concerto for piano and chamber orchestra dedicated to the memory of Aaron Copland. Voyants was most recently performed by Kathleen Supové with the Rhode Island College Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Dr. Edward Markward on October 16, 2006 in Providence, RI. Discs devoted solely to Kolb's music have been released to the general public by CRI and New World Records. Her orchestral composition All in Good Time was recorded by the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Carlos Kalmar, along with works by John Corigliano, Aaron Jay Kernis, John Harbison and Michael Hersch on a CD released by Cedille Records in the summer of 2006. Her music is published exclusively by Boosey and Hawkes.

Selected compositions
 Millefoglie, for chamber orchestra and computer generated tape
 Extremes, duo for flute and cello
 Chromatic Fantasy, for narrator and six instruments
 Solitaire, for piano and two-channel tape and vibraphone
 Looking for Claudio for solo guitar and tape (1975)
 Cavatina for violin or viola solo (1983, revised 1985)
 Related Characters for viola and piano (1982)
 Umbrian Colors for violin and guitar (1986)
 Virgin Mother Creatrix a cappella choral work inspired by the mysticism of Hildegard von Bingen

Discography
All Barbara Kolb discs

 Barbara Kolb: Millefoglie and Other Works (1992). Music Today and Nouvel Ensemble Moderne. Includes Kolb's Millefoglie for orchestra & tape (1985), Extremes for cello & flute (1989), Chromatic Fantasy for narrator and six instruments (1979), and Solitaire for piano and pre-recorded tape (1971) (New World Records 80422-2).
 Barbara Kolb: Soundings and Other Works (1990). Ensemble InterContemporain conducted by Arthur Tamayo; Igor Kipnis, harpsichord; Jay Gottlieb, piano, etc.; includes Kolb's Soundings (1971–72), Toccata (1971), Apello (1976), Looking for Claudio (1975), and Spring River Flowers Moon Night (1974–75) (Composers Recordings Inc. CD 576, available from New World Records).

Others

Related Characters – featuring Bill Perconti, James March, and Iowa Brass Quintet – includes Kolb's Related Characters for alto saxophone and piano (1982) (Centaur).
American Orchestra Works – featuring the Grant Park Orchestra conducted by Carlos Kalmar – includes Kolb's All in Good Time (1993) (Cedille).

Bibliography
 Julie C. Dunbar: Women, Music, Culture. An introduction (London: Routledge, 2011).

References

External links
Barbara Kolb's page on the American Music Center's Online Library
Barbara Kolb's page on the Boosey & Hawkes website
Barbara Kolb's page on the Boston Modern Orchestra Project website
A short essay written by Barbara Kolb in response to the question, "When did first you know that you would be a composer and what is the earliest work that you still acknowledge?" from July 2001, published on NewMusicBox

1939 births
20th-century American composers
20th-century American women musicians
20th-century classical composers
20th-century women composers
21st-century American composers
21st-century American women musicians
21st-century classical composers
21st-century women composers
American classical composers
American women classical composers
American women in electronic music
Living people
Musicians from Hartford, Connecticut
University of Hartford Hartt School alumni

Barbara Kolb


Henry Dinwoodey Moyle (April 22, 1889 – September 18, 1963) was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles  and the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).

Early life
Moyle was born in Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, to politician James Moyle and his wife Alice Dinwoodey. He studied at the University of Utah and served as an LDS Church missionary in Switzerland and in Germany. During World War I, Moyle served in the US military.

Moyle continued his studies at the University of Chicago and Harvard Law School. He was also a student at the School of Mines in Freiberg, Saxony. In 1920, Moyle was appointed to the position of United States attorney for the state of Utah.

Employment
Moyle was for many years a lawyer and a part-time member of the University of Utah faculty. He was also a businessman involved in various railroad, trucking, oil, insurance and finance businesses. During World War II, he was the director of the Petroleum Industries Council.

LDS Church Service
From 1927 to 1937, Moyle was the president of the LDS Church's Cottonwood Stake, located in the south-east suburbs of Salt Lake City. He also served as chairman of the church's Welfare Committee.

Apostle and member of the First Presidency
Moyle was ordained an apostle and member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on April 10, 1947. Moyle served as Second Counselor in the First Presidency to church president David O. McKay from June 12, 1959, to October 12, 1961, when he was called as First Counselor. He was First Counselor in the First Presidency until his death.

Moyle was a successful cattleman and originated the idea of the church establishing a cattle ranch in Florida. He was convinced that Florida's climate would prove ideal for raising cattle, as the key to success in that industry is growing grass. The church bought the original  tract in 1950, and over 50 years, the ranch grew to more than . Deseret Cattle and Citrus Ranch, which is east of Orlando, is today the world's largest beef ranch, and the land is worth an estimated $858 million.

Moyle spearheaded much of the church's building program in the early 1960s. He believed that the Church Office Building, the headquarters of the LDS Church, should have been twice its size. He was also convinced that by building larger meetinghouses, the church would attract more converts. Moyle convinced McKay not to publish an account of church spending as was customary in order to hide the extent of the budget deficit caused by spending on buildings. By 1962, the deficit had reach $32 million. His optimistic building programs placed a considerable financial strain upon the church and McKay eventually relieved Moyle from many of his administrative responsibilities.

The controversial "baseball baptism" program was Moyle's idea to increase baptisms in order to fill the church meetinghouses. Missionaries would encourage young men to join sports leagues and used baptism as a prerequisite. Under this approach, large numbers of young men were baptized but very few were ever active in the church. The rush to baptize was accompanied with the establishment of baptism quotas for missionaries and memorized missionary discussions which were to be delivered verbatim to potential converts. The rest of the apostles were largely opposed to these changes, which led to Moyle being relieved of his responsibilities in the missionary department.

Moyle died of heart disease in Deer Park, Florida, aged 74, and was buried at Salt Lake City Cemetery.

Family
In 1920, Moyle married Clara Alberta Wright in the Salt Lake Temple; they were the parents of six children. One of his sons, Henry D. Moyle, Jr., was the first president of the French East Mission (based in Geneva, Switzerland) starting in 1961.

See also
Alvin R. Dyer

References

Sources
Arnold K. Garr, et al., Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint History, p. 801.

External links

 Working the Divine Miracle, by Richard D. Poll

1889 births
1963 deaths
20th-century American lawyers
20th-century Mormon missionaries
American Mormon missionaries in Germany
American Mormon missionaries in Switzerland
American general authorities (LDS Church)
American military personnel of World War I
Apostles (LDS Church)
Burials at Salt Lake City Cemetery
Counselors in the First Presidency (LDS Church)
Harvard Law School alumni
Latter Day Saints from Utah
Lawyers from Salt Lake City
Military personnel from Utah
Religious leaders from Salt Lake City
United States Attorneys for the District of Utah
University of Chicago alumni
University of Utah alumni
University of Utah faculty
Utah Democrats

Henry D. Moyle


Johnny Leonard Roosevelt "Pepper" Martin (February 29, 1904 – March 5, 1965) was an American professional baseball player and minor league manager. He was known as the "Wild Horse of the Osage" because of his daring, aggressive baserunning abilities. Martin played in Major League Baseball as a third baseman and an outfielder for the St. Louis Cardinals during the 1930s and early 1940s. He was best known for his heroics during the 1931 World Series, in which he was the catalyst in a Cardinals' upset victory over the Philadelphia Athletics.

Martin was an integral member of the Cardinals' teams of the 1930s that became known as the Gashouse Gang for their roguish behavior and practical jokes. Early in his career, he was labeled by some contemporary press reports as the next Ty Cobb because of his spirited, hustling style of play. However, because his headlong attitude on the playing field took a physical toll on his body, he never lived up to those initial expectations. After the end of his playing career, he continued his career in baseball as a successful minor league baseball manager.

Baseball career

Early career
Born in Temple, Oklahoma, Martin moved to Oklahoma City with his parents at the age of six where he grew up playing baseball. He began his professional baseball career at the age of 19 when he signed to play as a shortstop in the Oklahoma State League for a team in Guthrie, Oklahoma. When the league folded in 1924, his contract was sold to the Greenville Hunters of the East Texas League. In 1925, he posted a .340 batting average in 98 games for the Hunters and his contract was acquired by the St. Louis Cardinals to play for their Western Association affiliate, the Fort Smith Twins. He continued to post batting averages above the .300 mark. In 1927, Martin hit for a .306 average in 147 games with the Houston Buffaloes, earning him a promotion to the major leagues.

After spending five years in the minor leagues, Martin made his major league debut with the Cardinals on April 16, 1928 at the age of 24. He posted a .308 batting average in 39 games as a utility player, helping the Cardinals win the National League pennant. Martin made one appearance as a pinch runner in the 1928 World Series, when the Cardinals lost in four straight games to the New York Yankees. Despite his respectable batting average, Martin was sent back to the Houston Buffaloes in January 1929 where he hit for a .298 batting average. The following season, he was promoted to the Rochester Red Wings where his offensive statistics improved with 20 home runs, a .363 batting average and a .631 slugging percentage, helping the Red Wings win the 1930 International League title. The Red Wings then defeated the Louisville Colonels of the American Association to win the Junior World Series.

Martin's performance earned him a return to the major leagues with the Cardinals in 1931. When veteran center fielder Taylor Douthit went into a hitting slump, Martin replaced him and played well enough that Cardinals' president, Branch Rickey, traded Douthit to the Cincinnati Reds in June. Martin impressed observers with his hustle in the outfield as well as on the base paths where he often slid into bases head-first. He ended the year with a .300 batting average along with seven home runs and 75 runs batted in to help the Cardinals clinch the 1931 National League pennant by 13 games over the New York Giants.

World Series star
The 1931 World Series was a rematch of the previous year's participants, pitting the Cardinals against the Philadelphia Athletics. Led by Connie Mack, the Athletics had won the previous two World Series and were heavily favored to win for a third consecutive year. They featured a lineup that included five future National Baseball Hall of Fame members in Mickey Cochrane, Jimmie Foxx, Lefty Grove, Waite Hoyt and Al Simmons.

In Game 1 held at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, Martin had three hits, including a double, a stolen base and drove in one run in a 6-2 loss to the ace of the Athletics staff, 31-game winning pitcher Lefty Grove. Martin proved to be the difference in Game 2 in what was otherwise a tight pitching duel between Bill Hallahan of the Cardinals and George Earnshaw for the Athletics. He scored the first run of the game in the second inning by stretching a single into a double when the ball was mishandled in the outfield, stealing third base, and then scoring on a sacrifice fly. Martin added another run in the seventh inning when he hit a single, stole second base, took third base on a fielder's choice, and then scored on a squeeze bunt. Those would be the only runs of the game as Hallahan pitched a three-hit shutout to even the series at one win apiece.

The series then moved to Shibe Park in Philadelphia for Game 3, where Martin had two hits, including a double and scored twice in a 5-2 Cardinals' victory over Grove. In Game 4, he produced the only two hits by the Cardinals as they lost to Earnshaw, 3-0. Martin almost single-handedly provided the offense for the Cardinals in Game 5, driving home four runs with two singles, a home run and a sacrifice fly, as the Cardinals triumphed 5-1. Although he was held hitless in the final two games of the series, he made an impressive catch to extinguish an Athletics two-run rally in the ninth inning of Game 7 to end the game and clinch the world championship for the Cardinals.

He set a then record 12 hits in the series, including four doubles, a home run, five stolen bases and five runs batted in. Martin's .500 series batting average may have made the difference in the series outcome, as without him the Cardinals batted just .205 as a team. During the series, Martin was asked how he had learned to run so fast; he replied, "I grew up in Oklahoma, and once you start runnin' out there there ain't nothin' to stop you". Longtime major league manager, John McGraw, described Martin's performance as "the greatest individual performance in the history of the World Series." In December, he was selected as male athlete of the year by the Associated Press.

Later career
Martin experienced an injury-plagued season in 1932, missing several weeks when he dislocated his shoulder in April and missed a month and a half when he broke a finger in July while sliding into home plate. In August, Cardinals manager Gabby Street converted Martin into a third baseman in an attempt to fill the gap left by the injured Sparky Adams. Martin was not a naturally gifted third baseman, often fielding balls after having stopped them with his chest. He ended the season with a .238 batting average with four home runs and 34 runs batted in as the Cardinals fell to seventh place in the National League.

Having rebounded from his injuries, in 1933 Martin was leading the league in hitting with a .363 batting average in the middle of June, earning him a starting role as the third baseman for the National League team in the inaugural Major League Baseball All-Star Game held on July 6, 1933. Now hitting as the Cardinals' leadoff hitter, he finished the season ranked sixth in the league with a career-high .316 average and led the league with 122 runs scored and 26 stolen bases. Martin ranked tenth in the league with a .456 slugging percentage, and he had a career-high .387 on-base percentage along with 36 doubles, 12 triples and eight home runs as the Cardinals improved to a fifth-place finish. He came in fifth place in the voting results for the 1933 National League Most Valuable Player Award.

Martin's batting average dropped to .289 in 1934, but he once again led the league in stolen bases as the Cardinals rallied from seven games behind the New York Giants in early September to win the National League pennant on the last day of the season. He made an appearance as a relief pitcher on August 19, allowing one hit in two innings pitched. In a memorable 1934 World Series against the Detroit Tigers, the Cardinals were down 3 games to 2, before rebounding to win the final two games. The series was highlighted by several rough plays on the base paths that culminated in Game 7, when Joe Medwick made a rough slide into Tigers' third baseman Marv Owen. The following inning, outraged Detroit fans pelted Medwick with debris when he assumed his defensive position in the outfield. The disturbance wasn't quelled until the umpires appealed to Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, who had Medwick removed from the game. Martin ended the series with 11 hits for a .355 average, stole two bases and scored eight runs in the series. He experienced difficulties in the field, committing 3 errors in Game 4 and setting a World Series record with four errors overall. While in a St. Louis hospital in December 1934, for a minor operation on his left arm, Martin insisted that he be entertained by a cowboy musical group that he had hired. He created such a disturbance among the other patients that the hospital staff moved him to an isolated wing. Martin, along with Cardinals teammates such as Leo Durocher, Dizzy Dean and Joe Medwick among others, became known as the 1934 Gashouse Gang due to their boisterous activities on and off the field. He played the guitar in a hillbilly band composed of Cardinals players named The Mudcat Band.

Although Martin had a good year offensively in 1935, he continued to struggle defensively at third base. In the midst of a tight pennant race in July, he committed three costly errors in a loss to the New York Giants, and ended the year with 30 errors. He was hitting for a .333 average by mid-season to earn the starting third baseman's position in the 1935 All-Star Game. For the season, he hit for a .299 average with nine home runs and 54 runs batted in. In October, Martin underwent surgery again, this time on his right arm. In January 1936, Branch Rickey asked Martin to curtail his extra-curricular activities. Already well known as a hunting and fishing enthusiast, Martin had taken up the hobby of midget car racing and was also playing in football and basketball games during the winter months. He also became the vice-president and general manager of an Oklahoma City ice hockey team.

Martin moved back to the outfield, playing as the Cardinals' right fielder in 1936 as the Cardinals battled the New York Giants for the National League title before settling for second place. He responded with a good year offensively, hitting for a .309 average with career-highs in home runs (11) and in runs batted in (76). Martin also led the National League in stolen bases with 23. He continued to hit well by 1937, although he was relegated to a part-time role, as his spirited, headlong style of play took its toll on his body. At the beginning of the 1939 season, he was named as the Cardinals' team captain, taking the job from Leo Durocher, who had been traded to the Brooklyn Dodgers. He experienced a resurgence, leading the team with a .340 batting average in June before a sprained wrist put him out of action for two weeks. He ended the season with a .306 batting average in 88 games, helping the Cardinals to finish second in the National League. Martin hit for a respectable .316 average in 1940 before the Cardinals named him as the player-manager of the Sacramento Solons of the Pacific Coast League in October.

Martin led Sacramento to a second-place finish in 1941 before leading them to their first Pacific Coast League championship in 38 years in 1942. He then became a player-manager for the Rochester Red Wings in 1943. When professional baseball experienced a shortage of players during World War II, Martin returned to the major leagues in 1944 with the Cardinals at the age of 40. In 40 games with the Cardinals, he posted a .279 batting average and an impressive .386 on-base percentage to help the Cardinals clinch the 1944 National League pennant. Martin did not appear in the 1944 World Series, playing his final major league game on October 1, 1944.

Career statistics
In a 13-year major league career, Martin played in 1,189 games, accumulating 1,227 hits in 4,117 at bats for a .298 career batting average along with 756 runs, 270 doubles, 75 triples, .443 slugging percentage, 59 home runs, 501 runs batted in, 146 stolen bases, 369 bases on balls and an on-base percentage of .358. He retired with a .973 career fielding percentage in 613 games as an outfielder and a .927 fielding percentage in 429 games as a third baseman. A four-time All-Star, Martin's World Series career batting average of .418 (23-for-55) is still a series record, and he is tied for 10th with seven World Series stolen bases. He led the National League three times in stolen bases and once in runs scored. On May 5, 1933, Martin hit for the cycle in a game against the Philadelphia Phillies at the Baker Bowl.

Managerial career

After the end of his major league career, Martin returned to the minor leagues, serving as a player-manager with the San Diego Padres of the Pacific Coast League in 1945 and 1946 before becoming the player-manager for the Greenville Spinners of the South Atlantic League in 1947. His fiery, competitive nature was still evident in July 1945 when it was reported that he had punched one of his players for not performing to his standards. While managing the Miami Sun Sox of the Florida International League in 1949, he was fined and suspended for the remainder of the season for choking an umpire. In August 1951, he made news again when he was arrested after a Sun Sox game when he went into the stands to punch a spectator in Lakeland, Florida.

When the Sun Sox released him, Martin was hired to manage the Miami Beach Flamingos of the Florida International League in 1952. Despite leading them to a 103-49 record, the Flamingos finished the season one game behind his former team, the Sun Sox. In 1953, he became the manager of the Fort Lauderdale Lions and led them to the Florida International League title. After spending the 1954 season as the manager for the Portsmouth Merrimacs, Martin was named as a coach for the Chicago Cubs in September 1955. Stan Hack was fired as the Cubs manager when they finished in last place in the 1956 season, and the new Cubs manager, Bob Scheffing, asked for Martin's resignation along with the rest of the coaching staff. Martin returned to the minor leagues once again where he became a player-coach for the Tulsa Oilers, playing his final game at the age of 54. He took his final field assignment as the manager of the Miami Marlins in 1959.

Later life
Before his death, Martin served briefly as the athletic director of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary at McAlester, Oklahoma. He died on March 5, 1965, after suffering a heart attack. His wife, Ruby, survived him by over four decades, dying just after her 99th birthday in 2009.

Martin was inducted into the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame in 1992 and was enshrined into the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame in 2017.

See also

List of Major League Baseball players to hit for the cycle
List of Major League Baseball annual runs scored leaders
List of Major League Baseball annual stolen base leaders
List of Major League Baseball players who spent their entire career with one franchise

References

Sources

Further reading

Pepper Martin's Sour Dough Biscuits Recipe

External links
, or Retrosheet
Photo of Martin behind the wheel of his midget race car

1904 births
1965 deaths
Ardmore Snappers players
Brooklyn Dodgers scouts
Chicago Cubs coaches
Fort Smith Twins players
Greenville Hunters players
Greenville Spinners players
Henryetta Hens players
Houston Buffaloes players
Major League Baseball outfielders
Major League Baseball third basemen
Miami Sun Sox players
National League All-Stars
National League stolen base champions
People from Cotton County, Oklahoma
Portsmouth Merrimacs players
Rochester Red Wings managers
Rochester Red Wings players
Sacramento Solons managers
Sacramento Solons players
St. Louis Cardinals players
San Diego Padres (minor league) players
Baseball players from Oklahoma City
Syracuse Stars (minor league baseball) players
Tulsa Oilers (baseball) players

Pepper Martin


Violectra is the name of a range of electric violins, violas and cellos designed, developed and hand made by David Bruce Johnson, a Canadian violin maker settled in Birmingham, England. These instruments are played by Nigel Kennedy, Richard Tognetti, Stephen Nachmanovitch, Leila Josefowicz and many more professional players worldwide.

Previously, Violectra was the trade name of an electric violin produced by Barcus-Berry with the pitch equivalent of an acoustic tenor violin, sometimes called baritone violin. It is tuned an octave below normal violin, i.e. between viola and cello. It was developed in USA by Barcus-Berry in the early 1960s. Jean-Luc Ponty, Michał Urbaniak and Elek Bacsik were among the first jazz violinists to play it. Fiddler Vassar Clements brought the instrument into the progressive bluegrass scene, and Urban Blitz into a rock music context.

The first recording known of with it is by the maker himself John Berry on a 1963 demonstration album.

However, in common parlance amongst musicians, a violectra is an electric violin with a C string added so that it can play the full range of the violin or viola.

External links
 http://www.violectra.co.uk

Amplified instruments
Violins

Violectra


Carl von Perbandt (12 May 1832 – 6 April 1911) was  German landscape painter and member of the Düsseldorf school of painting. He travelled to the United States in 1870 and spent most of his career in Northern California where he lived from 1876 until 1903. Many of his paintings were destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. However, the Oakland Museum and the Crocker Art Museum hold two of his landscapes and several more are held in private collections.

Life and career
Perbandt was born into an aristocratic German-speaking family in Langendorf, East Prussia. He studied painting under Andreas Achenbach and Carl Friedrich Lessing at the Düsseldorf Academy, although his determination to become an artist and his refusal to pursue a military career displeased his family. In 1859 he married Maria Treusch von Buttlar-Brandenfels. The couple had two sons, Conradin and Martin. After he served in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, Perbandt and his family went to live on his brother's  estate in Falkenhorst, East Prussia. Shortly thereafter he left Prussia "under a cloud", leaving his wife and children behind. He went first to the east coast of the United States where he was based in New York City and is known to have produced landscape paintings of scenes in New Jersey, Vermont, and Ulster County, New York.

In 1876 Perbandt moved to Northern California. He travelled and painted with Jules Tavernier in Monterey and eventually settled in San Francisco in 1877 where at times he shared a studio with Henry Raschen (1854-1937). Raschen was born in Prussia but had emigrated with his family to California when he was a boy. Perbandt and Raschen also travelled together "living the bohemian life" and painting scenes in Northern California, particularly Sonoma, Humboldt, and Mendocino counties. For a while, they lived in Fort Ross among the Pomo Indians and shared a studio there.

In his later years in San Francisco he continued to produce panoramic views of the city and the Golden Gate. After Perbandt's wife died in 1903, he returned to Prussia and lived there until his death in 1911. Many of the paintings he left behind in San Francisco were lost in the 1906 earthquake. Perbandt's younger sister, Lina von Perbandt (1836–1884) was also a landscape painter.

Gallery

References

External links
Mount Tamalpais from Greenbrae (Crocker Art Museum)

1832 births
1911 deaths
19th-century German painters
German landscape painters
German male painters
Kunstakademie Düsseldorf alumni
19th-century German male artists
Düsseldorf school of painting

Carl von Perbandt


Dudley Vivian Peyton-Ward  (8 October 1893 – 6 July 1976) was a Royal Navy officer who served in both the First World War and during and after the Second World War.

Life
Peyton-Ward was best known for his work as Naval Liaison Officer to RAF Coastal Command. The work he performed in this capacity was of utmost importance to the smooth functioning of Coastal Command operations, tactics and weapons (see: Coastal Command weapon development. Among other things, he personally championed and facilitated the increased use of Very Long Range aircraft, such as the Consolidated B-24 Liberator. These aircraft allowed continual air cover over the Atlantic and closed the notorious Mid-Atlantic gap, where Axis U-boats could freely operate against Allied convoys.

It was said of him that he was the only person of lower than Air Marshal rank whose portrait appeared in the mess at Coastal Command.

After the war he wrote an eight-volume internal history for the Royal Navy, entitled The R.A.F. in the Maritime War, a copy of which resides at The National Archives in Kew, London. The preface to the British Official history of the RAF in the Second World (a supplemental work to the History of the Second World War) says "Our debt is especially heavy to the Air Historical Branch: to its narrators—among them Captain D. V. Peyton-Ward, C.B.E., R.N. (retd.), perhaps more than any".

Life
In May 1914 he was his sub-Lieutenancy was confirmed.
While a Lieutenant he was mentioned in dispatches in 1917 for "recognition of their services in submarines in enemy waters" during the First World War.

In 1944, he was named as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
After the war he was named officer of the American Legion of Merit for his contribution to the Allied cause during the war.

References

Hendrie, Andrew. The Cinderella Service: RAF Coastal Command 1939–1945. Pen & Sword Aviation. 2006. .

1893 births
1976 deaths
Royal Navy officers
Royal Navy personnel of World War II
Royal Navy personnel of World War I
British military writers
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
Recipients of the Legion of Merit

D. V. Peyton-Ward