Longboat Key is a town in Manatee and Sarasota counties along the central west coast of the U.S. state of Florida, located on and coterminous with the barrier island of the same name. Longboat Key is south of Anna Maria Island, between Sarasota Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.  It is almost equally divided between the Manatee and Sarasota counties. The town of Longboat Key was incorporated in 1955 and is part of the Bradenton-Sarasota-Venice, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. The town's population was 6,888 at the 2010 census, which decreased from 7,603 at the 2000 census. It increased to 7,505 in the 2020 census.

History

Early history

Longboat Key was originally inhabited by Native Americans. The area of what is now Longboat Key was scouted by Juan de Añasco who was the first known European to explore the key and Hernando De Soto's as his scout. He spent about two months attempting to find a landing site, and he was also most likely the first European man to see and explore Sarasota Bay, Boca Ceiga Bay and the Manatee River. According to local legend, he believed the Indians were hostile. When the party reached land on the island, the Indians fled leaving their Longboat in a bayou. Pirate Jean Lafitte was said to have been shipwrecked near or on Longboat Key.

Prior to 1842, Cuban and Spanish fishermen along with some squatters resided on the island. A fishing camp and a trading post for Native Americans existed in the northern part of the key located in what is presently the Longboat Village. At the time, the area was referred to on maps as "Saraxola" and "Zarazote".

There is little known about the island after 1848 and until the 1880s, because a hurricane hit the area and destroyed most of Longboat Key. The only thing known is that Charles Abbe had a plantation at an unknown location on the island where citrus and pineapples were grown.

Late 1800s and early 1900s

The first people of European descent to claim land on the island were Colin and Rowlin W. Witt, claiming  on the north end of the island in 1882. Several others would claim land on the island during the late 1800s, but none of them are known to have lived on the island permanently.

In 1884, Thomas Mann claimed  on the key. He and his family moved there in 1888, becoming the first known permanent residents on the key. His home was located somewhere on the north end of the key.

Mann was a carpenter by trade who was originally from Indiana and later moved to Minnesota. During the American Civil War he served the Union under the 7th Minnesota Infantry Regiment. Mann and his family moved to what is known today as Bradenton in 1872. He left because of either a local yellow fever epidemic or prejudice against him from being from the Northern United States. Mann died in 1908 in nearby Cortez. His son, James, claimed  south of his father's land in 1891.

With a passage being dug in 1895 from Sarasota Bay to Tampa Bay, steamships and paddle boats could access the island. Soon, a mail service was established that brought residents mail from Cortez. Thomas Mann sold his land in 1898 to May and June Pointevesant of Ocean Springs, Mississippi.

Longboat Key's first post office was established in 1907 at Byron Corey's pier at the southern end of the island, where he owned  of land beginning in 1903. Corey also served as Longboat Key's first postmaster. The post office on the sound end lasted until 1921, when it was destroyed by a hurricane.

During the 1910s, the key saw a surge in development and changes to it. The Pointevesants sold their land to Rufus Perry Jordan and Annie Jordan in May 1911. Rufus laid out a community named Longbeach, filling the plat in November 1911. During 1913, another subdivision named Shore Acres that covered 170 acres of land was developed at the "narrowest" part of the island, and was finished by the next year. Another community was also started at about the same time, named Island Beach, located south of it. Longbeach gained its own post office in 1914. During the early 1900s and prior to the 1921 hurricane, Longboat Key had a significant farming presence, with local residents growing a variety of products. A 1912 Sarasota Times headline read: "From a lonely Key, it is now a center of trucking and fruit growing."

1920s

In 1921, the key lost most of its agricultural land and buildings during a hurricane. That same year, the island was split between two counties, Sarasota and Manatee.

Starting in 1923, John Ringling purchased a large amount of land on Longboat Key. In February 1926, Ringling entered a contract to develop a luxury hotel named the Ritz-Carlton on the south side of the island. The hotel was to have 200+ rooms, docking facilities and a railroad leading to it to bring guests there. The hotel began construction in March 1926, with a completion date before December 15, 1926 as specified in the contract. An 18-hole golf course would be built next to the hotel as well. Ringling found himself preoccupied with other financial interests, and during that year the Florida land boom began to slow down as well. In November he ordered construction to be stopped on the hotel, and later claimed he would resume construction, but never did.

There were no roads that led to the key until 1929, when a bridge was built to St. Armands. A bridge across Longboat Pass was built in April 1929 and would exist until March 1932.

1930s and 1940s

Starting in 1935, a former Chicago insurance agent named Gordon Whitney started buying up property to construct a series of cottages on the northern end of the island. The area was given the name of Whitney Beach. Whitney intended to have the cottages serve as part of a resort.

In 1936, for the first time, telephone services was brought to the southern part of the island.

In 1937, John Ringling North, the head of the estate of John Ringling, who had died in 1936, announced that Martin Sweeney had an interest in finishing the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. Sweeney said the hotel would have two 18 hole golf courses, an airport, a club and facilities for fishing, along with 235 rooms when completed. However, these plans would never transpire and the hotel remained in its then-current state.

By 1939 or 1940, telephone services was brought to the North End. Longboat Key got its first newspaper, Gulf Gale, in 1941; it would run until 1944.

In World War II, Longboat Key had a bombing range. In 1942, it was used by B-26 planes, and from 1943 to 1945 by P-40 and P-51 planes. The range was used between 8am and 5pm, which meant that residents on the northern side of the island could not go south of it until after its training sessions.

1950s to the present

On November 13, 1955, the town was incorporated by a 186–13 vote at a meeting in a fire station. The meeting itself lasted for 3 hours and 10 minutes in total. Reasons for supporting incorporation included that Longboat Key could have more say in its governmental affairs. It is also believed that the placement of a segregated beach for African-Americans on the island was a motivator behind incorporating it. By incorporating the entire key, they could somehow avoid the placement of the beach altogether. Residents also held meetings protesting the beach's placement. Significant arguments against incorporation were that property taxes would go up. After doing the incorporation vote, Will LePage was elected as the first mayor, along with the first eight members of the Board of Aldermen. At the time, only about a third of Longboat Key was developed, and roughly 215 people lived on the key. When the town was incorporated, it changed its name from Longbeach to Longboat Key.

In 1959 the Arvida Corporation created by Arthur Vining Davis purchased 2,000 acres, which included the southern half of Longboat Key, a majority of Lido Key, along with Bird, Otter and Coon Keys, at a price of $13.5 million. It was expected that the population would be increased by 12,000 extra residents. Some of the land purchased would come from John Ringling North, and on his Longboat Key land included the unfinished Ritz-Carlton Hotel. There was a proposal in 1962 by a Sarasota realtor to finish its construction and make it into a convention site for Sarasota. However, Arvida had no interest in either selling or attempting to finish the hotel. The hotel was torn down between December 1963 and January 1964. Debris from the demolished hotel would be used as fill for the city's civic center and City Island.

President George W. Bush arrived on Longboat Key on September 10, 2001, the day before the September 11 attacks, to read to second graders in a campaign at the Emma E. Booker School in Sarasota.

Government

The town of Longboat Key has a commission-manager form of government.

The United States Postal Service operates a post office on Longboat Key, with the entire island having the ZIP code of 34228. The post office was established on October 10, 1907, as "Longbeach", and was located in the community of that name on the north end of the key. On February 1, 1958, the name of the Longbeach post office was changed to Longboat Key. There was also another post office named "Longboat" established on March 27, 1914, in the Sarasota County portion of the key, but it was discontinued on January 14, 1922, and its functions were assumed by the Sarasota post office.

The quasi-governmental form of the condominium association exists in one of its most complex forms in and on Longboat Key, consisting of the Federation of Longboat Key Condominiums.

Longboat Key is served by two newspapers published year-round, the Longboat Observer and the Longboat Key News.

Currently, Longboat Key is located within two Florida counties, Manatee County in the north and Sarasota County in the south. There have been calls for the Florida Legislature to pursue an initiative to create a 68th county, "Longboat Key County," to simplify governance of the island. Neither of these initiatives is likely to be passed, however.  As of February 2019, Longboat Key officials had not started any comprehensive effort to put Longboat in one county or the other. Officials did, however, ask state legislators to request the Florida Legislature's OPPAGA perform an analysis of the potential benefits and drawbacks of moving into only one county.

In recent years, it has been suggested to declare Longboat Key a national seashore, a public land operated by the National Park Service.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which  is land and , or 74.19%, of which is water.

Longboat Key is located north of St. Armands Key, with its circle of shopping and dining, and Lido Key, and south of Bradenton Beach, Holmes Beach, and Anna Maria, which are located on the adjacent Anna Maria Island. The nearby cities of Sarasota and Bradenton and the Sarasota–Bradenton International Airport rounds out Longboat Key's varied list of geographic amenities. State Road 789 (Gulf of Mexico Drive) runs the length of the island, with ancillary boulevards branching off to residential neighborhoods. From some locations one can see both Sarasota Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.

At other points the island widens and accommodates various homes owned by both singly and in condominiums, hotels, and sports clubs. Some Longboat Key residents are "snowbirds", who vacation at or own second homes on Longboat Key, and are present only during the winter months. Others are homesteaders, utilizing the various homestead exemptions provided to Florida citizens who own and occupy their principal residences within the state, as set forth under the Florida Constitution.

Most of the Gulf side of Longboat Key consists of beaches. The southernmost area of the key is mostly part of the Longboat Key Club.

Jewfish Key
Jewfish Key is an island that covers  located within city limits. The island is only accessible via boat and the eastern part of the key is a nature reserve. Electricity is provided via underwater cables and there are no landline phone lines to the key. Residents of the island get water from wells and use septic tanks.

Until the 1930s, Jewfish Key was two islands: Pickett Key to the north and Fisherman's Key located to the south. When the US Army Corps of Engineers dredged the Intracoastal Waterway they needed a place to deposit the spoil; and the two owners (whose last names were Jordan and Zeisse) allowed for the spoil to be placed in order to make a single island in exchange for a deed to this now one island and "a case of whisky". The island's name comes from when local fishermen started calling the island Jewfish Key because they caught large amounts of Goliath groupers or Jewfish there.

Real estate

Much of the land area of Longboat Key is occupied by either single-family homes or condominium apartments. Most of the condominium associations co-own common elements, which consist of pools, tennis courts, sites with water views and access to beaches. Almost the entire land area of Longboat Key is now occupied. The remaining older, singly owned houses are as much as 45 years old, annexed to comparatively small parcels, again an outgrowth of the ½ acre limitation on homestead property area within municipalities as set forth in the Florida Constitution. In the last few years, these properties have been purchased by new owners who sought to and did demolish them in order build small, ornate homes worth much more, many being valued to amounts on the order of as much as a few million dollars. A peculiar outgrowth of the unlimited-in-value homestead exemption for principal residences from forced sales was provided to homesteaders under the Florida Constitution. This diverse mix of homes owned both singly and in condominiums line the many cul-de-sacs and boulevards branching off main roads towards both the bay and the gulf, with the length of the island served by Gulf of Mexico Drive.

Water

A perennial problem for Longboaters was water quantity and quality. Salinity and sedimentary factors threatened the availability of portable water to island residents, visitors, and businesses. This problem was alleviated sufficiently when the Governing Board of the Southwest Florida Water Management District approved a connection to Sarasota County's water supply, augmenting the existing connection to that of Manatee County.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 7,603 people, 4,280 households, and 2,846 families residing in the town. The population density was . There were 8,834 housing units at an average density of .

The racial makeup of the town was 99.24% White, 0.07% African American, 0.08% Native American, 0.43% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.01% from other races, and 0.16% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 0.67% of the population.

There were 4,280 households, out of which 3.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 64.3% were married couples living together, 1.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.5% were non-families. 30.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 21.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.78 and the average family size was 2.11. In the town, the population was spread out, with 2.6% under the age of 18, 0.9% from 18 to 24, 5.7% from 25 to 44, 32.4% from 45 to 64, and 58.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 68 years. For every 100 females, there were 86.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 86.7 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $290,251, and the median income for a family was $307,983. Males had a median income of $261,157 versus $230,104 for females. The per capita income for the town was $280,963. About 0.4% of families and 0.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 0.9% of those under age 18 and 1.0% of those age 65 or over.

Notable people

 Al Arbour, four-time Stanley Cup-winning former coach of the New York Islanders
 Marilyn Bendell, impressionist painter
 Lou Bender, basketball player with Columbia Lions and trial attorney
 Nick Bollettieri, founded Bradenton's Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy
 Vern Buchanan, automobile dealer and member of the United States House of Representatives for Florida's 16th congressional district, which includes Longboat Key
 Frank Swift Chase, post-impressionist painter
 Marcella Hazan, Italian cooking instructor and cookbook author
 Harber H. Hall (1920–2020), member of the Illinois Senate from 1973 to 1979. He resided in Longboat Key during his retirement.
 Al Hirshberg, Boston-based sportswriter
 Nathan J. Kaplan, Illinois jurist and politician
 Jesse W. Markham, economist
 Charlie Maxwell, baseball player for Detroit Tigers, Boston Red Sox, Baltimore Orioles and Chicago White Sox
 Peter Mellor (born 1947), English-born American footballer and coach
 Ed Miracle, artist
 Frank Mockler, 47th Governor of American Samoa
 Ronna Romney, former Michigan Republican politician and sister-in-law to Governor Mitt Romney
 Reb Wickersham, racing driver

See also

 Rufus P. Jordan House

References

External links

 Town of Longboat Key official website
 Longboat Key Center for the Arts
 Longboat Key Historical Society
 Longboat Key Chamber of Commerce

Populated coastal places in Florida on the Gulf of Mexico
Towns in Manatee County, Florida
Towns in Sarasota County, Florida
1882 establishments in Florida

Longboat Key, Florida


Enigma (formerly ECO and Katana) is a large private superyacht. According to Power and Motoryacht magazine, she is owned by Aidan Barclay, son of the British media tycoon David Barclay, who recently purchased the Telegraph newspaper. She was sold after her former owner, Larry Ellison, took delivery of Rising Sun, the 6th largest private yacht in the world. Measuring slightly more than 244 feet (or around 75 metres) long, Enigma was launched in 1991 and originally christened ECO by its former owner, Mexican mogul Emilio Azcárraga, founder and former CEO of TV and media conglomerate Televisa. Enigma is renowned for her design, including a pyramidal superstructure surrounded by convex windows and an agile design that enables her to achieve a maximum speed of 36 knots. The yacht has nine luxurious suites and the rear deck was originally designed to carry a Maule turboprop floatplane.

She was built by German shipbuilder Blohm & Voss and designed by Martin Francis.

Enigma is powered by two Deutz AG BV16M628 diesel engines each producing 5,000 horsepower and one GE LM1600 gas turbine producing 18,500 horsepower. Each engine drives its own water jet drive.  Because of the amount of fuel consumed when using the turbine engine for full speed cruising, the owner also commissioned a fuel tanker to provide refueling capabilities mid-journey.

References

External links

For a brief blurb, see number 34

Ships built in Hamburg
Motor yachts
1991 ships

Enigma (yacht)


A home computer is the name given to early personal computers made in the 1970s and 1980s that could be plugged into a television set. They were used for playing video games and doing school work and were usually owned by teenagers. At that time, most adults did not own a computer at all.

Typically, home computers can produce colored graphics, have several sound channels and a keyboard. They use a tape recorder or floppy disk drive to load and store programs. Optionally, home computers may be used with a printer, a game cartridge, a modem, joysticks and a mouse. Many of them display an interactive BASIC prompt at start-up.

Home computers were made possible through the introduction of the microprocessor in the early 1970s. It made computers small, affordable, reliable and power efficient enough that they could be used in homes.

In contrast to home computers, computers used by businesses were either bulky minicomputers or gigantic mainframes. Those computers came with much more memory, with hard disks, one or more computer terminals and a proper operating system.  However, such machines needed a lot of space, were very noisy and also were far too expensive for private consumers at the time.

Makers of home computers
 Commodore
 Atari
 Apple (popular in the US)
 Tandy (popular in the US)
 Sinclair Research Ltd (popular in Europe)
 Amstrad (popular in Europe)
 ASCII Corporation and Microsoft (creators of the MSX, popular in the East Asia and Southeast Asia)
 North Star Computers (active in the US)
 Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (Altair 8800)
Electronics
Computer science

Home computer


Gonesse is a commune. It is in Île-de-France in the Val-d'Oise department in north-central France. In 2019, 26,106 people lived there.

The commune is in the northeastern suburbs of Paris,  from the center. It is directly north of Le Bourget Airport, and it is six kilometres (four miles) south-west of Charles de Gaulle International Airport.

Today, Gonesse is known for the crash of the Concorde, on  July 25, 2000. The plane crashed into a hotel, killing four people on the ground, as well the passengers and crew of the airplane.

Communes in Val-d'Oise

Gonesse


Named after a famous lighter company the "Ronson" flamethrower was developed for mechanized applications during World War II and used by the Canadian Army and the United States Marine Corps.

The Ronson was developed by the British Petroleum Warfare Department in 1940. Having insufficient range it was passed over for British use but taken up by the Canadians for development. The "Ronson" was considered sufficient for use in the production of the "Wasp MkIIC" flamethrower variant of the Universal Carrier.

From there it came to the attention of the United States. V Amphibious Corps placed an order for 20 units followed by another for 10.  These were given to Col. Unmacht of the Chemical Warfare Service CENPAC, at Schofield Barracks, Territory Hawaii. Seabees under his command installed the Ronson units in 24 M3 Stuarts for the Battle of Saipan.  Those tanks were nicknamed "Satans". Col Unmachts men used the Ronson to develop USMC M4 Shermans with Navy Mark 1 flamethrowers. These tanks were used in the Battle of Iwo Jima.  Col Unmacht's Flamethrower Group would also install Ronsons in the first generation coaxial flame tanks designated CWS-POA-H5 (Chemical Warfare Service-Pacific Ocean Area-Hawaii).

See also
 List of flamethrowers

Notes

References

Flamethrowers of the United Kingdom
World War II weapons of the United States
World War II military equipment of Canada
Vehicle weapons

Ronson flamethrower


The Joondalup line is a major public transport railway line in Perth, Western Australia. It runs through Perth's northern suburbs. The line was established in 1992 where is extended north to Joondalup. In 1993, it was extended to Currambine and farther extended in 2004 to Clarkson. A new station was completed in 2005 at Greenwood. The line will be later connected with the new Mandurah railway line late in 2007, allowing passengers to ride in the same train to Mandurah without changing at Perth station to transfer between trains.

Australian railways

Joondalup line


The Christogram IHS is a monogram symbolizing Jesus Christ.

From Greek it is an abbreviation of the name ΙΗΣΟΥΣ (Jesus).

In Eastern Orthodox Church the Christogram is composed with letters X, P, I and X arranged into the cross. They are the first letters of one from two words in Greek language: Christ and Jesus Christ.

In the Western culture there exist the compositions: "IHS" and also "IHC" being the first letters (iota-eta-sigma) of the name Jesus in Greek alphabet: ΙΗΣΟΥΣ (Ίησοῦς or ΙΗϹΟΥϹ with lunated sigma). The abbreviation in form "IHS" appeared in first time on the coins of Justinian II on the turn of the 7th and 8th centuries.

The order of Jesuits, in other words the Society of Jesus (Societas Iesu), adopted IHS as its fixed emblem - the symbol in 17th century. There appeared also Latin interpretations of the abbreviation IHS, among others:
 Iesus Humilis Societas - Humble Society of Jesus,
 Iesus Hominum Salvator - Jesus, Savior of men,
and also:
 In hoc signo vinces- By this sign you shall conquer.

These developed inscriptions were most likely formed because in the Middle Ages people mistakenly read the letter E as H.

According to a legend, this inscription with the cross was seen by emperor Constantine the Great in his sleep before the battle against Maxentius in 312 on the Ponte Milvio.

Commentators unfriendly to the Catholic Church sometimes interpret the abbreviation IHS as derived from the solar idols of the Egyptian mythology: Isis, Horus and Seth. Nevertheless, present scientific knowledge does not confirm such interpretations.

References

Jesus
Christian symbols

Christogram IHS


The smothering vine (unofficial name) is an introduced vine from India of the cucumber family. Its fruits (unripe green or ripe bright red) can be eaten, as can anything else of the plant. It is a very aggressive plant, quickly smothering any other plant it is growing on, covering electricity poles, and so forth.

In Tonga it is usually called a vine, as the plant is too new to have a local name. The English name is Scarlet gourd or Ivy gourd.

It is wildly spreaded now on Tongatapu, but has not yet reached to Vavaʻu.

Vaine fakafulutāmakiaʻi/en


Puccini for Beginners is a 2006 American romantic comedy film written and directed by Maria Maggenti and starring Elizabeth Reaser, Gretchen Mol, and Justin Kirk. The film debuted at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, and was released to DVD in the United States on July 3, 2007.

Plot
The story begins with Samantha (Julianne Nicholson) breaking up with Allegra (Elizabeth Reaser), a lesbian author who has had relationship problems in the past. Allegra meets a man named Philip (Justin Kirk) at a party, with whom she feels a connection. The next day, she meets Grace (Gretchen Mol), Philip's ex-girlfriend, although Allegra does not know about it. Allegra and Philip begin seeing each other, and Philip leaves Grace for good. Allegra sees Grace outside of a movie theater and Grace cries about her boyfriend leaving her. Allegra goes on a date with Philip, but she leaves after thoughts in her mind tell her it is wrong to be with a guy.

Allegra goes back and forth on dates with Philip and Grace. After several more dates, Grace shows Allegra a picture of her ex-boyfriend, and she learns that Philip and Grace were together. Philip and Grace go out for dinner, where they reveal to each other that they are seeing someone else. Meanwhile, Allegra caters at a party, which turns out to be Samantha's engagement party. Philip and Grace show up at the party, and they both discover that they have been seeing the same woman. In the end, Allegra is back with Samantha and never sees Philip and Grace again.

Cast
 Elizabeth Reaser as Allegra
 Gretchen Mol as Grace
 Justin Kirk as Philip
 Julianne Nicholson as Samantha
 Jennifer Dundas as Molly
 Tina Benko as Nell
 Kate Simses as Vivian
 Brian Letscher as Jeff
 Will Bozarth as Jimmy
 Ken Barnett as Scott

References

External links

2006 films
2006 romantic comedy films
2000s English-language films
American screwball comedy films
American LGBT-related films
Female bisexuality in film
Lesbian-related films
LGBT-related romantic comedy films
2000s American films

Puccini for Beginners


Marjorie Morningstar is a 1955 novel by Herman Wouk about a woman who wants to become an actress. Marjorie Morningstar has been called "the first Jewish novel that was popular and successful, not merely to a Jewish audience but to a general one". In 1958, the book was the basis for a Hollywood movie starring Natalie Wood, also titled Marjorie Morningstar.

Plot
Marjorie Morgenstern, born 1916, is a Jewish girl in New York City in the 1930s. She is bright, beautiful, and popular. Her father is a prosperous businessman who has recently moved his family from a poorer, ethnically Jewish neighborhood in the Bronx to Manhattan's Upper West Side. Her mother hopes that the change of neighborhood will help Marjorie marry a man with a brighter future.

Marjorie aspires to become an actress, using Marjorie Morningstar as a stage name. (Morningstar is the word-to-word translation of "Morgenstern" from the original German.) She begins with her school's (Hunter College) production of The Mikado and lands the title role. As a result, she meets Marsha Zelenko, who becomes her best friend (for a while). Marsha encourages Marjorie in her quest and helps her get a job as a drama counselor at the summer camp where Marsha teaches arts and crafts. That summer, Marsha persuades Marjorie to accompany her on an excursion to South Wind, an exclusive resort with a staff of professional entertainers. TMarjorie meets Noel Airman, an older man who has won some fame as a composer, as well as Wally Wronken, a younger man who hopes to become a playwright.

Marjorie idolizes Noel, who can sing, dance, compose, and speak several languages. They begin a relationship that determines the next four years of her life. He tells her that he has no interest in marrying or fitting in with the middle-class life that he tells her she will want. Having changed his birth name from Saul to Noel to escape his Jewish origins, he mocks her Jewish observances (such as her unwillingness to eat bacon) and taunts her for her 'Mosaic' unwillingness to engage in premarital sex. Noel tells Marjorie that she is a "Shirley": a typical, well-brought-up New York Jewish girl who will want a stable husband and family while he is embarking on an artistic career.

Over the course of the novel, neither Noel nor Marjorie finds professional success in the theater. Marjorie accepts that she will not succeed as a professional actress, and she spends more of her time reading and working. Noel takes and quits stable writing and editing jobs, blaming Marjorie for motivating him to take jobs that do not suit him and for his unhappiness. He flees New York in a panic rather than marry Marjorie, saying that he will not succeed as a writer and will return to studying philosophy. Having entered a sexual relationship with him, Marjorie is convinced that her only hope is to marry Noel. She decides that the best way to persuade him to marry her is to wait a year and then pursue him to Paris.

However, en route to France, Marjorie meets a mysterious man named Mike Eden aboard the Queen Mary. She enjoys his company, he treats her well and speaks respectfully of her religious traditions, and he helps her locate Noel. In Paris, Noel tells her how happy he is to see her, but does not notice when she is hungry or hurt. He tells her that in his year in Paris he has not enrolled in school to study philosophy and that he will return to the U.S. to take another stable writing job. He offers to marry her, but Marjorie has realized that life with Noel will not make her happy and that it would be possible for her to fall in love with someone else.

She returns to New York free of her infatuation with Noel, and quickly marries, no longer caring whether Noel would describe her as a "Shirley". The novel concludes with an epilogue in the form of an entry in the diary of Wally Wronken, the only character who did manage to have a successful artistic career. Wally idolized Marjorie as a young man, and he meets her again 15 years after she marries when she has happily settled into a role as a religious suburban wife and mother. Wally recalls the bright-eyed girl he once knew and marvels at how ordinary Marjorie seems at 39.

The character name Airman is a translation to English of the Yiddish word luftmensch. The critic Dan Vogel writes that Wouk casts Noel as a "rasha" or bad or Satanic figure for leading Majorie in a descent from violating traditional Jewish laws of kashrut or kosher laws to violating traditional values of sexual morality.

Reception
Marjorie Morningstar spent at least 37 weeks on The New York Times''' bestseller list, for months in the number one position.

The novel was controversial among Jewish writers and religious figures as well as among secular intellectuals. In particular, the depiction of New York Jews was criticized by Leslie Fiedler and Norman Podhoretz,. Podhoretz was critical of Marjorie's return to traditional Jewish values at the end of the novel and considered her shallow for not realizing that many customs and traditions "die of their own irrelevance". New York Times reviewer William H. Hudson enjoyed the novel and observed that "a reaffirmation of traditional values, a submission to wisdom of the older generation and of authority and a reacceptance of individual responsibility" was a cornerstone of most of Wouk's fiction and a reflection of the author's acceptance of traditional religious Judaism.

Wouk's fictional depiction of a bar-mitzva was a particular target of criticism. In 1959 in This Is My God, Wouk commented: I did my best to portray a bar-mitzva with accuracy and with affection. I thought I succeeded pretty well, for my pains I encountered the most bitter and violent objections from some fellow Jews. I had, they asserted, made a sacred occasion seem comical. There were comic touches in the picture, of course, but I believe these lay in the folkway as it exists, not in the imagination of the writer. With time these criticisms have abated, and two extracts from Marjorie Morningstar have been included in a reader titled The Rise of American Jewish Literature''.

References

External links
 Slate article
 Jewish Ideas Daily article

1955 American novels
Novels by Herman Wouk
American novels adapted into films
Doubleday (publisher) books
Novels set in New York City
Novels set in Paris
Novels set in Columbia University
Jewish American novels

Marjorie Morningstar (novel)


Krondorf is a locality in the Barossa Valley in South Australia. The name of the village is derived from the German for Crown's village.

Prior to 1918, the name of the locality may have been Kronsdorf. In 1918, it was changed to Kabminye (an Australian Aboriginal word for stars) when many Australian placenames were changed to sound less German. An alternate name that was proposed instead of Kabminye was Blennerhassett, in honour of Lady Galway, wife of the Governor of South Australia and daughter of Sir Roland Blennerhassett. It was changed back to Krondorf in 1975.

Krondorf (or Kronsdorf) was first settled in 1847 by Germans from nearby Bethany. The Zum Kripplein Christi Lutheran church was built in 1864 and closed in 1955. The church has been renovated by the owners of Charles Melton Wines, a local winery, to provide bed-and-breakfast accommodation.

References

Towns in South Australia
Barossa Valley

Krondorf, South Australia


baca'

洗(布類)

baca' sa, mibaca' tu dawa, zikuc, caykaw nu zuma a tuutuud. iayaw mibaca' kita paylima, ayza sa mibaca' kami saungay ku baca'-kikay.

baca'en
baca'en 去洗/ bace'en ku zikuc ni Kacaw.

mabaca'
mabaca' 被洗/ mabaca' ni Lala' ku tuper nu maku.

mibaca'
mibaca'  在洗/ amana ka kasic mibaca' tu zikuc nu mita.

mibaca'ay
mibaca'ay 在洗的/ u mibaca'ay ku kawaw nu maku i padekuwan.

pibaca'i
pibacai' 去洗/ pibaca'i tu zikuc nu misu!

u sulit nu Amilika
Laundry is the washing of clothing and linens. Laundry processes are often done in a room reserved for that purpose; in an individual home this is referred to as a laundry room or utility room. An apartment building or student hall of residence may have a shared laundry facility such as a tvättstuga. A stand-alone business is referred to as a laundrette (laundromat). The material that is being washed, or has been laundered, is also generally referred to as laundry.

namakayniay a nasulitan nasakamuan atu natinengan
撒奇萊雅族語詞典

原住民族委員會線上字詞典

baca'


</noinclude>

On April 30, 2019, a mass shooting occurred at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The shooting, which occurred on the last day of classes for the spring semester, sent six people to the hospital, two of whom were dead upon arrival, and left three others in critical condition. The shooting occurred inside a classroom in the Woodford A. Kennedy Building while students were giving a final presentation. The perpetrator, a former UNCC student named Trystan Andrew Terrell, was arrested shortly afterwards. In September 2019, he pleaded guilty to the murders and was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

Events
The shooting occurred during the last day of classes for the spring semester, at around 5:40 p.m. local time, according to university officials. Around that time, the gunman entered Room 236 in the Kennedy Building, where approximately 60 students enrolled in "Science, Technology, & Society," a liberal studies course on the anthropology and philosophy of science, were delivering their final group presentations. The classroom, with a level floor and 14 separate tables, was designed to accommodate approximately 100 students, and had both a front and a rear entrance, according to survivor Rami Al-Ramadhan, who had been seated towards the front of the room. The course instructor was anthropology professor Adam Johnson.

The first presentation began at around 5:33 p.m., with each group having been assigned to produce a 10-minute video on their chosen topic. According to Johnson, who had been seated at a table taking notes and who did not hear a door open, the gunman then "burst into" the classroom from the left of the room and opened fire with a pistol. According to Al-Ramadhan, the gunman opened the front door and smiled before firing his weapon at random, showing no other reaction. As the classroom emptied in panic, Johnson quickly moved towards the other door and held it open to allow his students to exit. Pausing to help a student who had fallen, he led some of his students to an anthropology department office  in Barnard Hall, located to the east of the Kennedy Building. They barricaded themselves inside the office, after which the anthropology department chair called 911. Other students who escaped took shelter in Prospector Hall, to the north of Kennedy, while others sheltered in their vehicles or in their residences. As the gunman continued firing, student Riley Howell tackled him and knocked him to the floor while yelling "go, go, go!" to his classmates, according to Al-Ramadhan. Howell, whose actions gave other students time to escape the room without injury, was shot at least three times, with the final bullet, which killed him, entering his jawbone by his right ear and traveling into his brain. The gunman subsequently told police detectives that Howell's tackling him had caused him to stop firing. After the gunman had emptied his gun, he "...laid the gun down, and sat on the ground," according to Johnson. The gunman then responded to a victim who had asked him to stop shooting, stating "I'm done."

UNC Charlotte police logged the initial report of the shooting at 5:43 p.m. At 5:50 p.m., UNC Charlotte's Office of Emergency Management alerted students via Niner Alerts on Twitter, saying "Shots reported near Kennedy. Run, Hide, Fight. Secure yourself immediately." At the time the shooting was reported, UNC Charlotte police chief Jeff Baker and around 14 of his officers were reviewing security plans for a Waka Flocka Flame concert scheduled to be held on campus that evening; according to Baker, "when we heard this call come out we all converged [on the Kennedy Building] almost immediately." UNC Charlotte Police Sergeant Richard Gundacker was the first of the officers to enter the building. According to an affidavit submitted to a magistrate, Gundacker entered Room 236 and yelled to the survivors to identify the gunman, who then identified himself. Gundacker, who prior to joining the UNC Charlotte Police had retired from the New York City Police Department (1995–2015) in 2015 as a detective, was able to disarm the gunman, recovering the Glock pistol he had used along with multiple gun magazines in a black leather bag.

Charlotte Fire Department crews arrived on scene at 5:45 p.m. from nearby Fire Station 27 and immediately began caring for gunshot patients. More than 75 Charlotte Fire Department personnel converged on the scene in less than 15 minutes including more than 15 Special Tactical Unit (PAC) fire personnel. Ambulances from Mecklenburg EMS Agency (MEDIC) arrived on the scene by 5:55 p.m. along with additional law enforcement resources. The gunman was arrested by 5:44 p.m. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department SWAT in conjunction with Charlotte Fire Department Special Tactical Units had secured buildings on campus by 6:35 p.m., with the suspected gunman identified as a male student at UNCC at 6:55 p.m. Governor Roy Cooper was briefed about the shooting by 7:11 p.m. By 7:30 p.m., the gunman, by then identified as Trystan A. Terrell, had been brought to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Jail, with the CMPD declaring the campus secure at 7:40 p.m. UNC Charlotte remained on lockdown until around 10:51 p.m. UNC Charlotte Police Department, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Office of Emergency Management established a family reunification center at the Harris Teeter in University City.

Victims

There were six victims of the shooting, all current students. The two students who were killed were 19-year-old Ellis Parlier and 21-year-old Riley Howell. The others injured were 19-year-old Drew Pescaro, 20-year-old Sean DeHart, 20-year-old Rami Al-Ramadhan, and 23-year old Emily Houpt. The four wounded students were hospitalized, and three underwent surgery. Al-Ramadhan was hit by two bullets, one grazing an arm and another hitting his stomach; Pescaro was hit by a bullet entered his back about an inch from his spine and pierced his abdomen, just missing his stomach and liver.

Parlier was from Midland and was a graduate of Central Academy of Technology and Arts. Howell was from Waynesville and was a graduate of T. C. Roberson High School, where he had run cross country and played on the soccer team. Howell was an environmental studies major at UNC Charlotte. Per his family, he dreamt of becoming a firefighter and put off military school for college. Al-Ramadhan is an international student from Saihat who is studying engineering. Al-Ramadhan's family in Saudi Arabia was notified of the shooting. DeHart graduated from Cardinal Gibbons Catholic High School in Raleigh. Pescaro, from Apex, is a graduate of Middle Creek High School in Cary, and is studying communications at UNC Charlotte. He is a sportswriter for the student newspaper, a video assistant for the football team, and co-host of the UNCC sports talk show Fans with Attitude. Houpt, a native of Charlotte, is a global studies major at UNC Charlotte and a former intern at The Worlds Affairs Council of Charlotte.

Howell, who was a Reserve Officer Training Corps cadet, was buried with full military honors and an honor guard on May 5. Over 1,000 people attended Howell's funeral at Lake Junaluska, near his hometown of Waynesville. Howell was also posthumously awarded the ROTC Medal for Heroism and the Congressional Medal of Honor Society's Citizen Honors Award, as well as a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star which were presented to his family. In December 2019, the publication Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - The Visual Dictionary included "Jedi Master and historian Ri-Lee Howell."

Chancellor Phillip Dubois said the university would award Howell and Parlier "degrees in memoriam" at the spring commencement, with a special presentation ceremony for Houpt, who was expected to recover sufficiently enough to personally attend.

Perpetrator
Trystan Andrew Terrell (born June 6, 1996) is a former history undergraduate at UNC Charlotte who had withdrawn from the university on February 14, 2019. Born in Texas and a registered voter in Mecklenburg County, he had no prior criminal record in either North Carolina or in Texas. UNC Charlotte police said they had not noted him as a potential threat prior to the shooting. He was inactive on social media networks, and had legally purchased the handgun he allegedly used.

Terrell moved to North Carolina with his family in 2014, according to his grandfather Paul Rold of Arlington, Texas. He spent his high school years in a middle-class neighborhood in Mansfield, Texas, where he attended Mansfield High School.  According to Rold, Terrell and his father Craig, who had taken a job as an auditor for the Charlotte city government, had moved to Charlotte for a fresh start and new surroundings. His mother Robyn Ann, who lived in Mansfield from 1999 until her death from breast cancer in December 2011, had worked as a paraprofessional educator with the Mansfield school district. Terrell's former neighbors said he was devastated by his mother's death, and that the family moved because Terrell wanted a change of scenery. He has an older sister who resides in Baltimore.

Rold described his grandson as autistic and socially reserved. He said Terrell dreamed of working in South America, and taught himself French and Portuguese with the aid of a language learning program Rold had bought for him. According to Rold, his grandson never showed any interest in firearms or other weapons, and that Terrell's actions were those of "someone foreign to me. This is not in his DNA." He further said his grandson was critical of American gun culture, saying it was too easy for people to obtain firearms in the United States, and that his grandson had specifically referenced New Zealand's crackdown on guns following the Christchurch mosque shootings. Rold described his grandson as "not bubbly and effervescent, rather shy, quiet, studious, not athletic," though he had tried to introduce his grandson to baseball and golf, with no success. Rold said he blamed lax gun laws for making firearms too easy to obtain, and that if his grandson "had not been able to secure a weapon, this would never have happened." He did not believe his grandson had a mental illness which would have disposed him to commit violence, "but then I'm not a psychologist. You would never have believed this could have happened, that he would have done something like this."

From the fall of 2015 through the spring of 2018, Terrell was enrolled at Central Piedmont Community College where he studied for an associate degree in science. Transferring to UNC Charlotte in the fall of 2018, he enrolled in three university courses for the 2019 spring semester, including Johnson's, and attended classes in the room where he  committed the shooting. According to Johnson, between enrolling in and withdrawing from his course, Terrell "engaged with the course material" and "asked questions about the lessons, answered questions that I pose to the class. It was completely typical." Cooper Creech, a former classmate in the same course, said Terrell rarely spoke in the classroom, but would "blurt out statements" and sometimes seemed oddly angry.  After Terrell left his course, Johnson said that he subsequently met him on campus and "conveyed that it was a shame that [he] had to leave the course", but that he understood the importance of students needing to prioritize. According to Johnson, that was his last encounter with him prior to the shooting. Nick Brooks, a student who was taking a study break outside the Kennedy Building when he saw Terrell enter, recognized him from commuting on the Lynx Blue Line light rail; Brooks heard the sound of gunshots seconds later. He further said he had encountered Terrell at his NoDa apartment complex outside the school, recalling "He was in the elevator and the doors were closing and he was just staring at me. You could tell something was up with him. It's like he had no emotions." According to David Spano, the university's director of counseling and psychological services, though his office had a team to monitor "students of concern," Terrell had not been monitored at any point before he withdrew from the university.

Investigation
After being taken into custody, Terrell told reporters he "just went into a classroom and shot the guys". He then reportedly made a full confession to investigators, saying he had planned an attack for some months. In subsequent statements requesting search warrants from a court, lead investigator Detective Brian Koll of the CMPD wrote Terrell "stated he had been planning this shooting for several months and described to detectives where and how he obtained the firearm, research he had conducted on mass shootings, and how he chose this location." In his confession, Terrell reportedly referenced the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, which police sources said he had "researched" at length. According to the same sources, he had gone to a shooting range to practice and had "at least 10 magazines." Dressed in black, he took the light rail to campus on the day of the shooting, carrying a backpack; CMPD investigators intended to review available security footage along the line. Terrell told investigators that he had entered the Kennedy Building with the intention of shooting others; before attacking, he loaded his weapon in a restroom near the classroom. He reportedly chose his victims at random with no specific target intended. According to police search warrants, he informed investigators he had used his Samsung cell phone to record a video of the shooting.

Terrell was charged with two counts of murder, four counts of attempted first-degree murder, four counts of assault with a deadly weapon intending to kill, one count of having a gun on education property, and one count of discharging a firearm on education property. Police searched his third-floor apartment at the Novel NoDa apartment complex in the 400 block of E. 36th Street in NoDa around 8:00 p.m. on April 30., recovering a laptop, paper targets, three handgun magazines, six boxes of ammunition, and a magazine loader. As of May 1, investigators were unable to determine any motive for his actions, according to CMPD Police Chief Kerr Putney, who said investigators did not believe anyone else had been involved in the shooting.

Guilty plea and sentence
Terrell was formally indicted by a 16-member grand jury on May 6, 2019. On September 19, 2019, Terrell pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder, four counts of attempted first degree murder and discharging a firearm on educational property; four assault charges were dropped.

In court, Terrell's defense attorneys testified Terrell had been experiencing stress from student debt and being unable to find employment, and that his autism had caused him to obsess and "panic" about his situation. Terrell had selected UNC Charlotte as he was familiar with the campus and was frustrated about being in debt to the university. Terrell apologized to the families of the victims, saying he had "made a mistake." As part of a plea bargain reached with the Mecklenburg County district attorney, he avoided the death penalty and was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.

Terrell has since been moved to Central Prison.

Aftermath
UNC Charlotte canceled all remaining scheduled university activities for the evening of April 30 and canceled all final examinations, which had been scheduled through Sunday, May 5. All other pending final exams and projects were made optional. In the wake of the shooting, the Waka Flocka Flame concert originally scheduled to take place at the Jerry Richardson Stadium on campus later that evening was canceled. On May 1, approximately 7,500 people attended an on-campus vigil. Many students sought on-campus counseling following the shooting, with university officials saying they were identifying local resources for students as they left campus for the summer holidays, and that they would continue to monitor students returning for the fall semester for any signs of trauma. Enhanced security measures were implemented for spring commencement ceremonies, including walk-through and handheld metal detectors and inspecting bags.

To honor the victims and survivors of the shooting, UNC Charlotte developed "Niner Nation Remembers," a permanent online memorial and archive. The university further formed a 14-member Remembrance Commission. Headed by Emily Zimmern, a past president and CEO of the Levine Museum of the New South, the Commission included faculty, staff, alumni, and student body representatives along with leaders in the greater Charlotte community, Reed Parlier's uncle, and two current members of the university staff and faculty who had been at Virginia Tech at the time of the 2007 shooting. Among the commission's objectives was deciding how best to memorialize the shooting and its victims, along with deciding the future of the Kennedy Building, which after the shooting and subsequent investigation was kept open for university personnel. According to Dubois, the commission would begin by seeking input from the victims' families, along with holding public sessions with the UNC Charlotte and the greater Charlotte community.

At the graduation following the shooting, the UNCC Commencement Brass Band played a section of Frank Ticheli's "An American Elegy," a piece written about the Columbine High School Shooting. The two students who were killed received honorary diplomas.

On May 7, a group of UNC Charlotte students presented a list of demands at a meeting of the Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners, which included the implementation of a "school exit program" for students who drop out of Charlotte-Mecklenburg high schools, including exit interviews and job assistance. The group  also called for a county-wide task force dedicated to studying and preventing gun violence, local government investment in gun violence research, and changes to gun laws, such as limits placed on ammunition purchased at one time. The Remembrance Commission held its first meeting on May 29, and Dubois announced the following day that Kennedy 236, where the shooting had occurred, would "not be used for any purpose" in the 2019–20 academic year; its long-term future would be decided at a later date after recommendations from the Remembrance Commission. Dubois further said additional safety training would be offered in the fall 2019 semester, and that the university's internal review on the shooting was "well underway," along with plans for an external review.

On May 20, one of the victims of the shooting, Riley Howell, who had died while attempting to tackle the shooter, was given a tribute by LucasFilm. As an avid fan with deep knowledge of the Star Wars lore, he was re-imagined in canon as a Star Wars character, referenced as Jedi Master and historian Ri-Lee Howell in the visual dictionary for The Rise of Skywalker film.

Response
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper ordered that all North Carolina flags at state buildings and facilities be lowered to half-staff through sunset on May 3, 2019, in honor of the victims.

Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles stated on Twitter, "My thoughts are with the families of those who lost their lives, those injured, the entire UNCC community and the courageous first responders who sprang into action to help others."

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte announced that prayer services honoring the victims would be held at St. Thomas Aquinas Church and St. Gabriel Church. St. Thomas Aquinas Church donated 1,700 candles for the campus vigil.

Lucasfilm honored Riley Howell, a student who died at the shooting, by naming a Jedi after him in its book Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - The Visual Dictionary. The book credits "Ri-Lee Howell" with collecting "many of the earliest accounts of exploration and codifications of The Force."

See also

 Gun violence in the United States
 List of mass shootings in the United States in 2019
 List of school-related attacks
 List of school shootings in the United States

References

2019 in North Carolina
2019 mass shootings in the United States
2019 murders in the United States
April 2019 crimes in the United States
April 2019 events in the United States
Attacks in the United States in 2019
Deaths by firearm in North Carolina
Mass shootings in North Carolina
Mass shootings in the United States
Mass shootings involving Glock pistols
Murder in North Carolina
School shootings in North Carolina
University and college killings in the United States
University and college shootings in the United States
University of North Carolina at Charlotte

2019 University of North Carolina at Charlotte shooting


The U.S. Army Veterinary Corps is a staff corps (non-combat specialty branch) of the U.S. Army Medical Department (AMEDD) consisting of commissioned veterinary officers and Health Professions Scholarship Program (HPSP) veterinary students. It was established by an Act of Congress on 3 June 1916. Recognition of the need for veterinary expertise had been evolving since 1776 when General Washington directed that a "regiment of horse with a farrier" be raised. It has evolved to include sanitary food inspectors and animal healthcare specialists.

The Veterinary Corps is supported by warrant officer and enlisted AMEDD personnel. Warrant officers (640A) are the core of its Food Inspection service. Enlisted personnel can serve as Food Inspection Specialists (68R) and Animal Care Specialists (68T); enlisted collar insignia lacks the 'V' and is the same as that worn by medics. Enlisted Army Animal Care Specialists (68Ts) are not the same as credentialed veterinary technicians and technologists, because the civilian role is the equivalent of the U.K.'s Registered Veterinary Nurse (RVN) and requires a formal license with an accredited 2, 4, or 6-year college degree.

The U.S. Army Veterinary Service is currently composed of more than 700 veterinarians, 80 warrant officers, and 1800 enlisted soldiers in both the active duty and in the Army Reserves. The Chief of the Veterinary Corps is a Colonel. The Veterinary Service employs an additional 400 civilians.

Mission
The US Army Veterinary Corps' mission is to protect the Warfighter and support the National Military Strategy. They accomplish this by providing veterinary public health capabilities through veterinary medical and surgical care, food safety and defense, and biomedical research and development. In addition, Veterinary Corps Officers provide military veterinary expertise in response to natural disasters and other emergencies. While the current mission statement does not include the performance of stability and reconstruction operations, Veterinary Corps personnel are involved in these missions.

The US Army Veterinary Corps provides food safety and security inspections for all of the Armed Services. They also are responsible for providing care to Military Working Dogs, ceremonial horses, working animals of many Department of Homeland Security organizations, and pets owned by service members. They also contribute their skills in the development of life saving medical products that protect all service members.

Enlistment
 The Health Professions Scholarship Program (HPSP) allows qualified recipients to earn a full-tuition scholarship, plus a monthly allowance, to attend an accredited veterinarian school in the United States.
 Direct Commissioning is offered to all graduates of accredited schools of veterinary medicine in the United States who are U.S. citizens. The maximum age is 42 at time of accession.
 Students commissioned through the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) may apply for an Educational Delay to attend veterinary school.

Advanced degrees
Officers may apply for Long Term Health Education and Training programs leading to advanced degrees and board eligibility and certification. Programs run from 1–3 years and include training at either military or civilian institutions. Full pay and allowances continue during training. Residency programs include:

 Veterinary pathology
 Laboratory animal medicine
 Epidemiology Investigative Services (EIS) Fellowship at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
 PhD in physiology, pharmacology, toxicology, microbiology, pathology, or public health.
 Master's Degree in internal medicine, surgery, radiology, food animal/preventive medicine, emergency medicine, public health, food technology, or human animal bond.

Association of Retired Enlisted Veterinary Personnel

The Association of Retired Enlisted Veterinary Personnel (AREVP) was founded in 1989. Initially, members were Retired Army Enlisted Veterinary Personnel but later, any personnel, active or retired, from Army or Air Force, could be admitted, provided they had completed Veterinary Service Training in Animal Care or Food Inspection.

References

Veterinary professions
Military medical organizations of the United States
Branches of the United States Army
Military veterinary services
Veterinary medicine in the United States

United States Army Veterinary Corps


River's End  is a 1930 American Pre-Code Western film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Charles Bickford and Evalyn Knapp. Bickford plays two roles, a Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) sergeant and the man he is after. The film is the second of three adaptations of the bestselling novel The River's End by James Oliver Curwood, the others being released in 1920 and 1940.

Plot
In remote northern Canada, Sergeant Conniston (Bickford) seeks to capture escaped convicted murderer Keith (also played by Bickford). He is accompanied by O'Toole (J. Farrell MacDonald), a guide who is constantly drunk. When he finally catches his quarry, he is shocked to find that they look exactly alike.

On their way back to the RCMP post, however, their sled overturns. Keith takes Conniston's gun and sled and leaves the policeman and his guide to die in the snow. Keith starts to feel guilty about what he has done. He turns back and takes the men to an emergency cabin. In spite of this, Conniston dies of a frozen lung.

After talking to Keith for a while, O'Toole becomes convinced of his innocence. He coaches Keith so that he can pass himself off as the sergeant. O'Toole is not well enough to travel, so Keith goes to the RCMP post alone.

Once he arrives, Keith tells McDowell (David Torrence), the post commanding officer, that it was Keith who died. McDowell then informs him that Keith was innocent; the real murderer confessed. Worried that he will be accused of Conniston's murder if his true identity is discovered, Keith plans to escape across the border.

There are complications. Miriam (Evalyn Knapp), McDowell's daughter, had been Conniston's girl, but she decided to break up with him. Keith is very much attracted to her, and proves to be much more romantic than Conniston. Miriam finds herself falling in love with him. Mickey (Frank Coghlan, Jr.), O'Toole's young son, had adopted Conniston as a substitute father. He eventually realizes that Keith is not the sergeant, but Keith manages to persuade him to keep his secret.

Keith goes to see McDowell to ask for his daughter's hand in marriage, only to discover that a jealous rival had made inquiries. Conniston, it turns out, was married. McDowell orders him to leave the base in disgrace. Before he goes, he confesses the truth to Miriam. Then, refusing to sneak away, Keith braves a beating from a gauntlet of angry Mounties and boards a ship, accompanied by Mickey. At the last
minute, Miriam boards as well.

Cast
 Charles Bickford as Keith and Sergeant Conniston
 Evalyn Knapp as Miriam
 J. Farrell MacDonald as O'Toole
 ZaSu Pitts as Louise
 Walter McGrail as Martin
 David Torrence as McDowell
 Frank Coghlan, Jr. as Mickey
 Tom Santschi as Shotwell

Preservation status
 The Library of Congress holds a copy of this film in their collection.

References

External links

1930 films
American black-and-white films
Remakes of American films
American Western (genre) films
1930 Western (genre) films
Films based on American novels
Films directed by Michael Curtiz
Royal Canadian Mounted Police in fiction
Sound film remakes of silent films
Warner Bros. films
Films based on novels by James Oliver Curwood
1930s English-language films
1930s American films

River's End (1930 film)


Terrance Michael "T. M." Wright (September 9, 1947 – October 31, 2015) was an American author best known as a writer of horror fiction, speculative fiction, and poetry.  He wrote more than 25 novels as well as novellas and short stories, over 40 years. His novels were translated into many different languages around the world. His works were reviewed by Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Booklist, and many genre magazines.

Life and career
Wright's first publication was the non-fiction study of unidentified flying objects, entitled The Intelligent Man's Guide to Flying Saucers in 1968 for AS Barnes.  Strange Seed had five foreign editions.

His seventh novel, A Manhattan Ghost Story, has had 14 foreign editions and was optioned to be filmed in the 1980s.  A screenplay was written by Ronald Bass for which he was paid two million US dollars, a record-breaking amount for an adaptation of a novel to the screen. The option was taken over by Robert Lawrence Productions in 1991, and then exercised in 1993.  Many actors and directors have been attached to the project over the years including Wayne Wang, Julia Roberts, and Sharon Stone (who received five million US dollars because of her pay or play contract). As of 2015, the film is in development at Touchstone Pictures.

Wright's fiction appeared in several magazines including Twilight Zone Magazine, PostScripts, Cemetery Dance, Flesh and Blood Magazine, UpState,  and Brutarian.

Wright had painted book covers and he created illustrations for magazines including Brutarian.  He did the artwork for his own book covers of two foreign editions of Cold House (German and Italian language editions), The Eyes of the Carp from Cemetery Dance Publications in 2005, Blue Canoe from PS Publishing, Sleepeasy (from Leisure Books), and his collection Bone Soup from Cemetery Dance Publications.

In 2004, T. M. Wright was the judge for the inaugural Anubis Awards by Jeff Schwaner (owner of Broken Umbrella Press).  He spent the last years of his life in a Corning, New York nursing home living with Parkinson's disease. Has wife, Roxane A. White-Wright lives in Corning, also. T.M. Wright died October 31, 2015, according to PalMac in Memoriam Facebook Page.

Selected bibliography

Novels and novellas
The Woman Next Door (Playboy Press, 1981 and Tor Books, 1990)
The Playground (Tor Books, 1982)
Carlisle Street (1983)
The Island (1988)
The Place (1989)
The School (1990)
Boundaries (1990)
The Last Vampire (1991)
Little Boy Lost (1992)
Cold House (Catalyst Press, 2003) (featuring an introduction by Jack Ketchum)
The House on Orchid Street (2003)
Visiting the Edge (2004) (a collection)
The Eyes of the Carp (Cemetery Dance Publications, 2005) (a novella)
I Am the Bird (2006) (a novella)
Blue Canoe (2008)
Sally Pinup (2010) (a novella)

Ryerson Biergarten series
Series of novels featuring a detective named Ryerson Biergarten:
The Changing (as F. W. Armstrong) (Tor Books, 1985)
The Devouring (as F. W. Armstrong) (Tor Books, 1987)
Goodlow's Ghosts (1992)
The Ascending (1994)
Sleepeasy (Victor Gollancz 1993, Leisure, 2001) (connected, but not a direct sequel)

Strange Seed series
Strange Seed (Everest House, NYC, 1978) (revised in 2005 for a limited hardcover re-release by Etwisted Publishing)
Nursery Tale (Playboy Press, 1982)
Children of the Island (Jove, 1983)
The People of the Dark  (1984)
Erthmun / Laughing Man (1995/2005) (originally released as Erthmun in 1995)

A Manhattan Ghost Story series
A Manhattan Ghost Story (1984, revised for Telos Publishing Ltd. in 2006)
The Waiting Room (1986)
A Spider on My Tongue (Nyx Books, 2006)

Short stories
"His Mother's Eyes," published in Twilight Zone Magazine, June, 1988) and The Sterling Web (Winter, 1991)
"The House Under the Street" AKA "A World Without Toys," Upstate magazine (October 26, 1986), Shadows #10, edited by Charles L. Grant (Doubleday, 1987), The Year's Best Fantasy: First Annual Collection, edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling (St. Martin's Press, 1988), Demons and Dreams, edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling (Legend, 1989)
"Circularity," Cemetery Dance (#37, 2002)
"The Marybell Women," Cemetery Dance (#47, 2003)
"The Screamers at the Window," Shivers IV (anthology) edited by Richard Chizmar (May 2006, Cemetery Dance Publications)
"Murder Victim," Midnight Premiere (anthology) edited by Tom Piccirilli (June 2007, Cemetery Dance Publications)
"Rainy Day People" Postscripts #10 (2007)
"Fog Boy," Darkness on the Edge: Tales Inspired by the Songs of Bruce Springsteen (anthology) edited by Harrison Howe (2010, PS Publishing)
"A Moment at the House" The New and Perfect Man/Postscripts #24/25 (2011)

Chapbooks
"The People on the Island" (Bandersnatch Books, 2010)
unnamed release (Bandersnatch Books, 2010)
unnamed release (Bandersnatch Books, 2010)

Short story collections
Bone Soup (a collection of short stories, art, poems, and revised version of the novel Cold House) (Cemetery Dance Publications, scheduled 2010) Featuring:
Cold House (a revised version of the novel of the same name)
"The People on the Island"
"His Mother's Eyes"
"Rainy Day People"
"Tower Man"
poems
artwork
and more...

Non-fiction
The Intelligent Man's Guide to Flying Saucers (AS Barnes, 1968)

Other publications
"Stuff of Horror, or Gray Matter All Over the Inside of Your Skull",  article for American Fantasy (Summer, 1987)
By Reason of Darkness (2004), by William P. Simmons (contains an afterword by T. M. Wright)

Interviews
"A Conversation with T. M. Wright," interview by Douglas A. Anderson for 2AM (Summer, 1989)
"Tall Tales from a Master," interview by Susan M. Burdorf for The Sterling Web (Winter, 1991)
"A Conversation with T. M. Wright" interview by William P. Simmons for Cemetery Dance (#37, 2002)
"An Interview with T. M. Wright" interview by James R. Beach for Dark Discoveries #9 (Winter, 2007)
"An Interview with T. M. Wright" interview by Scott Colbert for Talkbacker.com website, October, 2013
"Interview with T. M. Wright" interview by Matt Cardin at Demon Muse (May 2010). Republished at The Teeming Brain (June 2014)

References

External links
 Bibliography on FanasticFiction.co.uk
 Bibliography on T. M. Wright official homepage. Archived from the original on 2009-10-06

1947 births
2015 deaths
20th-century American novelists
21st-century American novelists
American horror writers
American illustrators
American male novelists
American male short story writers
Horror artists
People from Honeoye, New York
20th-century American short story writers
21st-century American short story writers
20th-century American male writers
21st-century American male writers

T. M. Wright


Gori shola is a locale in Ooty famous for its water reservoir. It is located off the road from Ooty to Doddabetta amidst the Doddabetta forests. It is a tourist spot in the town, which provides a pleasing look of the surroundings from the top of the reservoir.

Dargah
A Dargah has been built on top of a hill in Gori shola. It is the final resting place of a saint called Hazrath Peer Syed Hassan Shah. The Dargah, which is several decades old, has gained popularity over the years and is now a popular pilgrimage centre among Muslims in and around the Nilgiris district. A popular festival called the urs Hazrath Peer Syed Hassan Shah Khadri is celebrated in the Dargah annually.

Littering concerns
Gori shola has had problems with people littering discarded items like cigarette packets, liquor bottles and plastic bottles and lighting bon-fires in the area. Graffiti inside the pump house and  on the walls of the reservoir has been placed by vandals. This has been a concern for local residents and environmentalists, since the area adjoins a reserve forest and a water body.

See also
 Government Rose Garden, Ooty
 Government Botanical Gardens, Udagamandalam
 Ooty Lake
 Ooty Golf Course
 Stone House, Ooty
 Ooty Radio Telescope
 Mariamman temple, Ooty
 St. Stephen's Church, Ooty

References

Tourist attractions in Ooty
Tourist attractions in Nilgiris district
Geography of Ooty

Gori shola


Webbers Falls is a town in southeastern Muskogee County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 616 at the 2010 census, a decline of 14.9 percent from the figure of 724 recorded in 2000.

The name comes from a seven-foot waterfall in the Arkansas River  named in honor of Walter Webber, a Cherokee chief who established a trading post here in 1818. He was a leader among the Western Cherokee, also called "Old Settlers". They had a treaty with the United States government by 1828, which helped settle some conflicts with the Osage people, who had been forced to give up land to the Cherokee.

In the late 1830s and 1840, the mass of thousands of Cherokee from the Southeast were forcibly moved into Indian Territory as a result of the US policy of Indian Removal.

History
Webber had settled here with some of the first Cherokee to go to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River; it was then considered part of Arkansas Territory. Having acquired a small fleet of keelboats, he was able to stock the post with goods from other parts of the United States, so he opened a trading post and a portage service, as well as building a house. Of mixed-race Cherokee-European descent, Webber was married to a full-blood Cherokee. They had adopted many American ways and outfitted their house in European-American style. When English-speaking visitors came, one of their African-American slaves and domestic servants would translate. Webber also built a salt works, leasing the land for the latter from the Cherokee government, which held it communally as a tribe. In the early years when Webber was in the territory, there was considerable conflict with the Osage people, who were forced by the United States government to give up some of their territory to the Cherokee, in a Treaty of 1828.

Webber was among the early leaders of the Cherokee in this area, one of their representatives when meeting with US agents and going to Washington, DC for meetings. The Western Cherokee resisted sharing their territory with immigrants to be resettled from the Southeast, as the US government proposed in 1834. They finally agreed that year, in exchange for an increased amount of land and annuities.

In the late 1830s and 1840, the mass of thousands of Cherokee from the Southeast were forcibly moved into Indian Territory as a result of the US policy of Indian Removal. According to the Webbers Falls Historical Museum, this is the second-oldest town in the former Indian Territory.

Joseph Vann, a/k/a "Rich Joe" Vann, was among the thousands of Cherokee emigrants forced from Georgia during Indian Removal.  He settled nearby and established a plantation, where he worked some of his more than 200 slaves he brought with him. At his direction, slaves built a house here that was a replica of his former antebellum mansion in Georgia, the Chief Vann House. This area was within the reservation of the Cherokee Nation.

A post office opened at Webbers Falls in 1856.

1842 Slave Revolt

On November 15, 1842, more than 25 slaves revolted in the largest action and escape in Cherokee territory. Mostly from Joseph Vann's and his father's plantations, the slaves locked masters and overseers in houses and cabins, stole guns and ammunition, horses and mules, food, and other supplies, then started traveling south. Their goal was to reach Mexico, where they knew slavery had been abolished. They picked up about 10 slaves in Creek territory along the way, and later freed a family of eight slaves from two slavecatchers, killing the latter.

After the first pursuers returned for reinforcements, the Cherokee National Council ordered about 87 men of the Cherokee Militia, under Captain John Drew, to apprehend the fugitives. The militia caught up with the fleeing slaves north of the Red River on November 28. The militia returned the fugitives to Tahlequah on December 8. Five were executed for having killed two slavecatchers they encountered to free a fugitive slave family from the Choctaw reservation. Vann put his surviving slaves to work as laborers and coal stokers on his steamboats.

Civil War
Cherokee Confederate General Stand Watie established a headquarters at Webbers Falls during the Civil War. In 1863, Union troops tried to capture Watie, but failed. Before leaving, they burned the town, including Vann's antebellum home.

20th century
In 1907, Brewer's Academy opened as the first school. Named for Oliver Hazard Perry Brewer, a local politician who had served as the Cherokee Nation's Superintendent of Education in 1870 and 1876, and as the Board of Education President in 1881.

The town suffered a major fire that destroyed much of the business district in 1911. It was rebuilt in the following year, with the new structures mostly constructed of brick. These still stand.

The town got a rail line to Warner, Oklahoma in 1911 courtesy of the Webbers Falls, Shawnee and Western Railroad.   That railway, which connected to the Midland Valley Railroad at Warner, ceased operations in 1914, was reorganized as the Webbers Falls Railroad in 1916, but was dismantled by 1918.

Construction in 1970 of the Webbers Falls Lock and Dam created Webbers Falls Reservoir and Robert S. Kerr Lock and Dam, created the Robert S. Kerr Reservoir, both part of the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System (MKARNS), operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It has boosted the local economy by attracting outdoor enthusiasts for recreation opportunities. The town population increased 57 percent between 1980 and 2000, from 461 to 726. However, the population declined significantly by 2010.

21st century
The I-40 Bridge Disaster happened on May 26, 2002; a barge collided with a bridge support near Webbers Falls, causing a 580-foot section of the I-40 bridge to plunge into the Robert S. Kerr Reservoir on the Arkansas River. Automobiles and semi-trucks fell into the water, killing 14 people (including a three-year-old girl) and two horses. The bridge was repaired within two months, and reopened to traffic on July 29, 2002.

On May 22, 2019, two barges loaded with fertilizer broke loose from Muskogee County and were heading to Webbers Falls Lake. They were part of a tow that had been docked along the river because of the extremely high water level and the speed of the current. On the morning of May 23, 2019, the barges got stuck on some rocks and were later secured but, at around 10:40 AM the barges were on the loose after a helicopter attempted to safely secure the barges and around noon that same day hit the dam, which caused minor damage to the structure, but destroyed flood gates 7,8,and 9. The barges suffered major damage as they overturned and dumped their cargo into the flood, then sank to the base of the dam. Since the lake level had to be lowered significantly before the mangled barges could be removed, the flood gates could not be safely removed and the damaged gates repaired. This restricted traffic through the McClellan–Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System until late October 2019.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which  is land and 0.26% is water.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 726 people, 288 households, and 209 families residing in the town. The population density was . There were 364 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 69.56% White, 0.28% African American, 24.79% Native American, 1.38% from other races, and 3.99% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.48% of the population.

There were 288 households, out of which 33.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.5% were married couples living together, 15.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27.4% were non-families. 24.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.52 and the average family size was 2.89.

In the town, the population was spread out, with 28.2% under the age of 18, 9.0% from 18 to 24, 24.5% from 25 to 44, 21.9% from 45 to 64, and 16.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females, there were 86.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 86.1 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $19,300, and the median income for a family was $22,955. Males had a median income of $22,813 versus $17,031 for females. The per capita income for the town was $10,684. About 22.0% of families and 26.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 40.9% of those under age 18 and 14.9% of those age 65 or over.

Notable people
 Stand Watie, Confederate General, retired here after the Civil War until his death in 1870.
 Joseph "Rich Joe" Vann", (1798-1844) early Cherokee settler and operator of a steamboat business, who died in 1844 when his steamboat, Lucy Walker, exploded on the Mississippi River.

Notes

References

Further reading
 Marguerite McFadden, "The Saga of 'Rich Joe' Vann," The Chronicles of Oklahoma 61 (Spring 1983).
 Marguerite McFadden, "Webbers Falls: Noted Historic Site in Muskogee County," The Chronicles of Oklahoma 51 (Spring 1973).

External links
 The I-40 Bridge Disaster
 http://www.city-data.com/city/Webbers-Falls-Oklahoma.html
 https://www.travelok.com/listings/view.profile/id.8431 Webbers Falls Historical Museum

Towns in Muskogee County, Oklahoma
Towns in Oklahoma
Populated places within the Cherokee Nation reservation
Oklahoma populated places on the Arkansas River
Populated places established in 1818

Webbers Falls, Oklahoma


Church Village Halt railway station was a small halt on the Llantrisant and Taff Vale Junction Railway. The station was just south of the crossroads in the village on the road to Efail Isaf.

The station consisted of a single platform and station buildings to the immediate west of Station Road, which crossed the railway on a small bridge. To the immediate east of the bridge were sidings and a tramway to Taff Llantwit colliery. A signal box operated the sidings at the site.

Modern day
The site of the station is now covered with housing development. The area of the sidings to the east of the station is open ground used for keeping animals. No trace remains of the tramway and colliery being built over in 2006–2007 with modern housing, though even before this little trace existed.

References

External links

Disused railway stations in Rhondda Cynon Taf
Former Taff Vale Railway stations
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1887
Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1952

Church Village Halt railway station


Ralahyne is a heritage-listed villa at 40 Enderley Road, Clayfield, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by George Henry Male Addison and built in 1888 and extended in 1904 to a design by Hall and Dods. It is also known as East View, Huntington, and Koojarewon. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.

History
This single storeyed timber residence was built in 1888 for Robert Gray, the then under colonial secretary. It was designed by prominent architect George HM Addison and replaced a small four-roomed house on the site.

The 8 acre (3.2 hectare) property was called "East View" until 1892 then Koojarewon until 1900 and then Huntington. Gray became Commissioner of Railways in 1889 and died in 1902.

The property was bought by Ada Laird who lived there with her husband until 1907. In 1904 the Lairds engaged the firm of Hall & Dods to undertake alterations and additions to the house valued at over £1000. Huntington was sold to Annie Millar in 1907 and renamed Nowranie. The Millars lived there until 1918 when it was sold to Ruby Winten. In 1920 the property was bought by Henrietta Watson who renamed it Ralahyne. It remained in the Watson family until 1985 when it was sold to the present owners. The property has been subdivided several times.

Description
Ralahyne is a single-storey timber building with a hipped roof of corrugated iron. The house is built side onto the street, with the front facade facing eastward across the grounds.

The southern elevation, which faces the street, consists of a long servants' wing which joins the dining room at the eastern end. The dining room is marked by a faceted projected bay. The eastern, or front elevation, is dominated by a wide verandah which features cast-iron balustrading and frieze panels. Twin bays, discernible only by their faceted hips in the roofline, project onto the verandah.

The northern elevation has two faceted projecting bays, one on either end, joined by a verandah similar to that along the front. At the western, or rear elevation, the ends of the northern and service wings are linked by a verandah enclosed with shutters to form a large ballroom which has a domed ceiling and skylights. This forms a shallow courtyard, the remnant of a much deeper one which once existed.

Timber ceilings are found in most rooms, the dining room featuring a coffered example with moulded beams. The drawing room has a carrara marble fireplace and two fluted columns which mark the beginning of the projecting bay. Substantial cedar joinery, including mantelpieces, is found throughout.

Heritage listing
Ralahyne was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992 having satisfied the following criteria.

The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history.

As an expression of the confidence in the 1880s boom and the future of its owner in the public service.

The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places.

As an example of the large houses built on the hills to the northeast of the city and of the increasing use of timber and iron for these houses.

The place is important because of its aesthetic significance.

As a showcase for the design possibilities of timber, both in external features and interior decoration.

The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period.

As a showcase for the design possibilities of timber, both in external features and interior decoration.

The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history.

For its association with architects GHM Addison and Robin Dods.

References

Attribution

External links

Queensland Heritage Register
Clayfield, Queensland
Houses in Queensland
Articles incorporating text from the Queensland Heritage Register
Houses completed in 1888

Ralahyne


Fazil Abdulovich Iskander (Russian: Фази́ль Абду́лович Исканде́р; Abkhazian: Фазиль Абдул-иҧа Искандер; 6 March 1929 – 31 July 2016) was a Soviet and Russian writer and poet in the former Soviet Union. He wrote about life in the Caucasus.

He wrote various stories, most famously "Zashita Chika", which features a crafty and likable young boy named "Chik." His most popular books are the picaresque novel Sandro of Chegem and its sequel The Gospel According to Chegem.

reference

1929 births
2016 deaths
Russian poets
Soviet writers

Fazil Iskander


The Curonian (Courish) Spit (; ; ; ) is a  long, thin, curved sand-dune spit that separates the Curonian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea. Its southern portion lies within Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, and its northern within southwestern Klaipėda County, Lithuania. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site shared by Lithuania and Russia.

Geography

The Curonian Spit stretches from the Sambia Peninsula on the south to its northern tip next to a narrow strait, across which is the port city of Klaipėda on the mainland of Lithuania. The northern  long stretch of the Curonian Spit peninsula belongs to Klaipėda County, Lithuania, while the rest is part of the Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia. The width of the spit varies from a minimum of  in Russia (near the village of Lesnoy) to a maximum of  in Lithuania (just north of Nida).

Geologic history
The Curonian Spit was formed about 3rd millennium BC. A glacial moraine served as its foundation; winds and sea currents later contributed enough sand to raise and keep the formation above sea level.

The existence of this narrow shoal is inherently threatened by the natural processes that govern shoreline features. It depends on a dynamic balance between sand transport and deposition. It is geologically speaking ephemeral coast element. The most likely development is that the shallow bay inside the Curonian Spit will eventually fill up with sediment, thus creating new land.

Human history

Mythology

According to folk etymology for the name of Neringa Municipality, there was a giantess girl named Neringa, who formed the Curonian Spit and helped fishermen.

The Medieval period
From c. 800 to 1016, the Spit was the location of Kaup, a major pagan trading centre which has not been excavated yet. The Teutonic Knights occupied the area in the 13th century, building their castles at Memel (1252), Neuhausen (1283), and at Rossitten (1372). After the Thirteen Years' War (1454–1466), the spit became part of a Polish fief held by the Teutonic Knights. The spit may have been the home of the last living speaker of now-extinct Old Prussian, one of the Baltic languages.

Kursenieki habitation

Significant human impacts on the area began in the 16th century. From the 18th century, it was part of the Kingdom of Prussia. Deforestation of the spit due to overgrazing, timber harvesting, and building of boats for the Battle of Gross-Jägersdorf in 1757 led to the dunes taking over the spit and burying entire villages. Alarmed by these problems, the Prussian government sponsored large-scale revegetation and reforestation efforts, which started in 1825.   Owing to these efforts, much of the spit is now covered with forests.

In the 19th century the Curonian Spit was inhabited primarily by Kursenieki, with a significant German minority in the south and a Lithuanian minority in the north. The population of Kursenieki eventually dwindled due to assimilation and other reasons; it is close to non-existent these days.

Artists' colony

From the late 19th century, the dune landscape around Nidden (Nida) became popular with landscape and animal painters from the Kunstakademie Königsberg arts school. The local inn of Herman Blode was the nucleus of the expressionist artists' colony (Künstlerkolonie Nidden). Lovis Corinth stayed here in 1890, followed by artists such as Max Pechstein, Alfred Lichtwark, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, and Alfred Partikel. Painters from Königsberg such as Julius Freymuth visited the area, as did poets like Ernst Wiechert and Carl Zuckmayer. Other guests included Ernst Kirchner, and Franz Domscheit.

20th century

From 1901 to 1946 the village of Rossitten, now Rybachy, became the site of the Rossitten Bird Observatory, founded by German ornithologist Johannes Thienemann there because of the Spit's importance as a bird migration corridor.

After World War I, Nidden, together with the northern half of the Curonian Spit became part of the Klaipėda Region according to the 1919 Treaty of Versailles and was annexed by Lithuania in 1923. Officially renamed Nida, the village nevertheless remained a German-majority settlement – the border with the remaining East Prussian half of the Spit lay only a few kilometres to the south.

In 1929 Nobel Prize-winning writer Thomas Mann visited Nida while on holiday in nearby Rauschen and decided to have a summer house erected on a hill above the Lagoon, mocked as Uncle Tom's Cabin (Onkel Toms Hütte) by locals. He and his family spent the summers of 1930–1932 in the thatched cottage; parts of the novel Joseph and His Brothers (Joseph und seine Brüder) were written here. Threatened by the Nazis, Mann left Germany after Hitler's Machtergreifung in 1933 and never returned to Nida. After the Klaipėda Region was again annexed by Nazi Germany in 1939, his house was seized at the behest of Hermann Göring and served as a recreation home for Luftwaffe officers.

Following World War II, the German-occupied Lithuanian part of the spit was restored to Lithuania, while the remainder fell to Russia. The German population was expelled after the war by the occupying Soviet forces in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement. Like elsewhere in present-day Kaliningrad Oblast, the assimilation of the territory and colonization by Russian settlers was completed by changing the historic German toponyms to Russian ones throughout the Russian-controlled part of the Spit.

Today
After the breakup of the Soviet Union, tourism flourished; many Germans, mostly the descendants of the inhabitants of the area, choose the Curonian Spit (especially Nida, as no visas are needed for Germans in Lithuania) as their holiday destination.
In 2019 the making of Curonian Lagoon Boats' Weathervanes was inscribed into The Intangible Cultural Heritage Inventory of Lithuania as a form of folk art, traditional craftsmanship or agricultural activities.

Kursenieki

While today the Kursenieki, also known as Kuršininkai, are a nearly extinct Baltic ethnic group living along the Curonian Spit, in 1649 Kuršininkai settlement spanned from Memel (Klaipėda) to Gdańsk. The Kuršininkai were eventually assimilated by the Germans, except along the Curonian Spit where some still live. The Kuršininkai were considered Latvians until after World War I, when Latvia gained independence from the Russian Empire, a consideration based on linguistic arguments. This was the rationale for Latvian claims over the Curonian Spit, Memel and other territories of Prussia, which would be later dropped.

Current state

The Curonian Spit is home to the highest moving (drifting) sand dunes in Europe. Their average height is , but some attain a height of . Several ecological communities are present on and near the Spit, from its outer beaches to dune ridges, wetlands, meadows, and forests. Its location on the East Atlantic Flyway means it is frequently visited by migratory waterfowl. Between 10 and 20 million birds fly over the feature during spring and fall migrations, and many pause to rest or breed there.

Both the Russian and Lithuanian parts of the spit are national parks.

The settlements of the Curonian Spit (from north to south) are:

 Smiltynė
 Alksnynė
 Juodkrantė
 Pervalka
 Preila
 Nida
 Morskoe
 Rybachy
 Lesnoy

The first six are on the Lithuanian side, while the last three are on the Russian side. The Russian side of the Curonian Spit belongs to Zelenogradsky District of the Kaliningrad Oblast, while the Lithuanian side is partitioned among Klaipėda city municipality and Neringa municipality in Klaipėda County.

There is a single road that traverses the whole length of the Curonian Spit. Car ferries provide a transportation link between Smiltynė, located on the spit, and the port town of Klaipėda.

Since 2000, the Curonian Spit has been on  UNESCO's World Heritage List under cultural criteria "V" ("an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement, land-use, or sea-use which is representative of a culture [...], or human interaction with the environment especially when it has become vulnerable under the impact of irreversible change").

As of March 2012, there was a demand to tear down a number of homes on the Curonian Spit.  These homes are owned by people who were given permits to build by corrupt local government officials. The demand to tear the homes down is based on the fact that the Spit is a UN World Heritage Site and the only structures that were to be allowed outside official settlements were fishing shacks.

Tourism

The largest town on the spit is Nida in Lithuania, a holiday resort, mostly frequented by Lithuanian and German tourists.

Parnidis dune and sundial

Parnidis sand dune, subjected to drift by harsh winds, is rising up to  above sea level. Local residents believe that the name Parnidis comes from the phrase meaning "passed across Nida", because this wind-blown dune has several times passed through the village of Nida. Scientists estimated that each person climbing or descending on the steep dune slopes moves several tons of sand, so hikers are allowed to climb only in designated paths.

There is a granite sundial built on Parnidis dune in 1995 that accurately shows the time. The sundial was rebuilt in 2011 following storm damage. The sundial is a stone pillar  high and weighing . It consists in small steps covered with granite slabs, carved with hour and half-hour notches, as well as one notch for each month, and four additional notches for solstices and equinoxes. From the astronomical point of view Parnidis dune is an ideal place for the sundial in Lithuania.

Environmental concerns

There are environmental concerns related to the Curonian Spit, which is often promoted as a refuge of clean nature.

Due to the importance of tourism and fishing for the regional economy, pollution of sea and coastlines may have disastrous effects for the area as the unique nature and the economy would be damaged.

The construction of an offshore drilling facility (the Kravtsovskoye (D-6) oilfield) in the territorial waters of Russia,  from the coastline of the Curonian Spit raised concerns over possible oil spills. Between 2002 and 2005 local environmentalists in Kaliningrad Oblast and Lithuania protested against Lukoil's plans to exploit the oilfield, objecting to the possible great damage to the environment and tourism (a vital source of income in the area) in case of oil leakage. These concerns did not engender support in the government of Russia. They were, however, supported by the government of Lithuania. The oilfield is about  from the boundary of Lithuanian territorial waters; the prevailing northward currents means that the Lithuanian coastlines would receive much potential damage in case of leakage. Opposition to the operation of D-6 met little international support, and the oil platform was opened in 2004. During the first decade of the 21st century the two states agreed to a joint environmental impact assessment of the D-6 project, including plans for oil spill mitigation. The assessment and mitigation project had not been completed as of 2010.

Another concern is that increased tourism destroys the very nature that attracts it. For this reason, protective measures have been taken, such as banning tourists from hiking in certain areas of the spit.

Natural hazards are more dangerous in the Curonian Spit than elsewhere in Lithuania or the Kaliningrad Oblast. For example, storms tend to be stronger there. Due to the importance of trees in preventing soil erosion, forest fires that happen in summer are more dangerous to the ecology.

See also
 Kuršių Nerija National Park
 Curonian Spit National Park (Russia)
 Vecekrugas dune
 Vistula Spit

References

External links

 UNESCO World Heritage Site Curonian Spit
 Kursiu Nerija National Park (in Lithuania)
 National Park Kurshskaya Kosa (in Russia)
 Rybachy Biological Station, Russian Academy of Sciences
 Curonian Spit at Natural Heritage Protection Fund

Spits of the Baltic Sea
Landforms of Lithuania
Landmarks in Lithuania
World Heritage Sites in Lithuania
World Heritage Sites in Russia
Spits of Russia
Landforms of Kaliningrad Oblast
Borders of Russia
Beaches of Russia
Dunes of Russia

Curonian Spit