The Great San Bernardino Birthday Party & Other Excursions is an album by American fingerstyle guitarist and composer John Fahey, released in 1966. The cover simply labels the album Guitar Vol. 4 (it was his fourth release on his own Takoma label, but his fifth album) while the liner notes label it The Great San Bernardino Birthday Party & Other Excursions. The title never appeared on the record labels themselves. It marked the beginning of Fahey's interest in his recording of experimental soundscapes and sound effects. Despite Fahey's distaste for the 1960s counterculture, it is his release most often referred to as psychedelic.

History
The album begins Fahey's interest in soundscapes and sound effects, using backward tapes and dissonance. Richie Unterberger, in his Allmusic review, stated: "Edited together from several pieces, the 19-minute "The Great San Bernardino Birthday Party" anticipated elements of psychedelia with its nervy improvisations and odd guitar tunings." Fahey himself called it "a histrionic, disorganised outpouring of blather" although he had kind things to say of some of the other songs. Unterberger also states "Despite Fahey's curmudgeonly dismissal of the record several decades later, it's an important, if uneven, effort that ultimately endures as one of the highlights of his discography."

Fahey, ED Denson and Barry Hansen assembled the record shortly after the release of The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death from both new music and parts that had been on tape for years.

Alan Wilson, who appears on this recording and was a member of the band Canned Heat, had once assisted Fahey in his UCLA master's thesis on the music of Charley Patton. Fahey and Wilson duet on "Sail Away Ladies"; this version of the tune displays an eastern influence, with Wilson playing the South Indian veena. This track became a lifelong favourite of the British DJ John Peel, whose championing of Fahey's music on his influential BBC radio shows helped the guitarist gain an audience outside the United States. Peel included "Sail Away Ladies" in his 1999 Peelenium, a personal selection from 100 years of recorded music.

Reception

Music critic Glenn Astarita, writing for All About Jazz about the album's reissue, said that "despite the inferior audio quality on some of these tracks, it is always a joy to hear this great musician reinvent previously explored terrain. Here, we are provided with a snapshot of a period in music when The Beatles were hot, and the dawning of the psychedelic age was upon us. Simply put, John Fahey pushed the acoustic guitar to its limits via his trail blazing applications and investigative spirit..."
In his retrospective review for AllMusic, music critic Richie Unterberger referred to the album as a "hodgepodge of tracks" but also stated, "Nevertheless, it stands as his most, well, far-out work, and one of his most innovative... The six briefer pieces that comprised the rest of the record also broke ground with their unsettling moods and dissonances..."

Despite his disdain for hippies and the 1960s hippie culture, then and later in life, The Great San Bernardino Birthday Party & Other Excursions was marked as psychedelic despite Fahey's remonstrances. Kevin Hainey of Exclaim! called it one of the "Eleven Sturdy Pillars of Psych-Folk" and "...this is the only [one] that blatantly flirts with psychedelia. It's also the only to enlist other musicians, adding occasional flute, organ and veena to Fahey's most 'out there' early excursions." In his 1998 story for The Wire, Edwin Pouncey referred to it as "tinged with an enduring hippy mystique."

Reissues
 The Great San Bernardino Birthday Party & Other Excursions was reissued on CD in 2000 by Takoma Records.

Track listing
Times are from the original 1966 LP release.

Side one
 "The Great San Bernardino Birthday Party"  (Fahey) – 19:00
 "Knott's Berry Farm Molly"  (Fahey) – 4:30

Side two
 "Will the Circle Be Unbroken"  (Traditional) – 5:40
 "Guitar Excursions into the Unknown"  (Fahey) – 3:30
 "900 Miles"  (Traditional) – 4:00
 "Sail Away Ladies"  (Traditional) – 6:00
 "Oh Come, Oh Come Emanuel"  (Traditional) – 1:55

Personnel
John Fahey – guitar
Alan "Blind Owl" Wilson – veena
R. Anthony Lee – organ
Nancy McClean – flute
Production notes
ED Denson – producer, engineer
John Fahey – producer, engineer
Barry Hansen – reissue producer
Chris Strachwitz – engineer (listed only on original 1966 release)
Bill Meyer – reissue liner notes
David Goines – cover design

References

External links
Original liner notes.

1966 albums
John Fahey (musician) albums
Takoma Records albums
Albums produced by John Fahey (musician)


The Black-tailed rattlesnake (Crotalus Molossus) is a species of venomous Pit vipers, found in southwestern United States of America and Mexico. There are currently three subspecies recognized.

Description
Most Black-tailed rattlesnakes grow to the length of . They can be as long as . Females are said to be larger than males.

The Black-tailed rattlesnake is olive green, yellow, brown, or black in color. They are called the "Black-tailed rattlesnake" because of their tail which is the color of black. Like other rattlesnakes the Black-tailed rattlesnake has a rattle on the end of its tail, but its rattle is weak and can be broken. They can shed their skin several times a year.

Common Names
The Black-tailed rattlesnake is also called the "Green rattler", the "Dog-faced rattlesnake", and the "Mountain Diamondback".

Where they live
The Black-tailed rattlesnake is found in southwestern United States of America and Mexico. In the U.S.A it is found in Arizona, New Mexico, and west and central Texas, in Mexico it is found in Oaxaca. It is also found on islands of the Gulf of California, like San Estèban Island and Tiburòn Island.

Behavior
In the spring and fall the Black-tailed rattlesnake are diurnal, in the summer they are nocturnal so they can avoid the heat, and in the winter they hibernate in other animals dens. Even though they are okay climbers and good swimmers they are terrestrial. They live in grasslands, deserts, mountain areas, and forests.

Feeding
Like all rattlesnakes they are carnivores and eat rodents, other small mammals, birds, and small reptiles.

Reproduction
The Black-tailed rattlesnakes mate in the spring, once they have mated the male stays with the female to stop other males from mating with her. It is in the summer that the female gives birth to her young, the young stay with their mother for around a day or two before leaving by their selves. A female usually mates every year and has 10-12 young at a time. They live for around 15–20 years.

Subspecies
 San Esteban Island Black-tailed Rattlesnake, Crotalus Molossus Estebanensis
 Mexican Black-tailed Rattlesnake, Crotalus Molossus Nigrescens
 Oaxacan Black-tailed Rattlesnake, Crotalus Molossus Oaxacus

References

Vipers
Snakes of North America

Black-tailed rattlesnake


The First Japanese Embassy to Europe (Japanese:第1回遣欧使節, also 開市開港延期交渉使節団) was sent to Europe by the Tokugawa shogunate in 1862. The head of the mission was Takenouchi Yasunori, governor of Shimotsuke Province (present-day Tochigi Prefecture). The head of the mission staff was Shibata Takenaka Sadataro. Fukuzawa Yukichi was a member of the mission, acting as one of the two translators. The mission numbered 40 men.

Despite the name, it is more accurately the third Japanese embassy to Europe, being preceded by the Tenshō embassy (1582–1590) and the expedition led by Hasekura Tsunenaga between 1613 and 1620.

Itinerary
Leaving Shinagawa, Tokyo on 21 January 1862, the mission was sent in order to learn about Western civilization, ratify treaties, and delay the opening of cities and harbours to foreign trade. Negotiations were held in France, the UK, the Netherlands, Prussia, Russia, and finally Portugal. The mission eventually returned to Tokyo on 30 January 1863.

The members of the mission were extensively photographed by Nadar.

In London, the Mission visited the 1862 World Fair. Five years later, Japan would formally participate to the 1867 World Fair in Paris.

The mission was concluded by the London Protocol, signed on 6 June 1862, which recognized that Japan needed time to "overcome the opposition now existing" (meaning the anti-foreign sentiment shared by the population and the Imperial Court), and accepted the postponement of the opening of Osaka, Hyogo, Edo, and Niigata by five years, to 1 January 1868.

See also

 Japanese Embassy to the United States (1860)
 Second Japanese Embassy to Europe (1863)
 Iwakura Mission
 France–Japan relations (19th century)

References

Bibliography
Shin Jinbutsu Ōrai-sha, eds.: Ikokujin no Mita Bakumatsu–Meiji Japan, Aizō-ban (異国人の見た幕末・明治JAPAN 愛蔵版: Bakumatsu and Meiji Japan in the Eyes of Foreigners, Enthusiasts' Edition). Tokyo, 2005.  (ISBN ),  (ISBN )
Medzini, Meron French Policy in Japan Harvard University Press 1971,

External links
 First Embassy to Europe (Japanese)

Foreign relations of the Tokugawa shogunate
1862 in Japan
Japanese embassies to the West

First Japanese Embassy to Europe (1862)


The Denel Y3 AGL is a South African-manufactured automatic grenade launcher

currently manufactured by Denel Land Systems. Originally developed by Aram Ltd as the AS88 as a support weapon for infantry, the patent rights were purchased and modified by Vektor, which later became a division of Denel Ltd. Further enhancements included rate of fire upgrade and the addition of a ballistics computer, with final qualification testing taking place in 1998, and operational testing in 2002. The Y3 was launched during the 2003 United Kingdom Defence Systems & Equipment (DSEi) International Exhibition.

Design details

Operating mechanism and features
The launcher fires 40x53mm high velocity, medium trajectory calibre grenades at a rate of 360 to 425 rounds per minute. Operating via the long-recoil principle, the Y3 fires from an open breech (minimising the opportunity for grenade cook-off within the magazine) when in counter-recoil.
Whilst all moving assemblies are buffered to reduce recoil and vibration, the unit lacks a conventional feed-lever mechanism. The feed direction and ammunition box mountings may be changed in-field without additional components, and are also able to be dual-loaded: enabling selection of two different types of 40mm rounds on the fly.

It can be mounted on vehicles or used with a ground-mount tripod. Manned by a team of three, the AGL is normally fired using a manual trigger; on a vehicle, this can be replaced with a firing solenoid. Due to its low recoil force and lightweight breech block, can be used on light-weight aircraft.

Functional description
The belt-linked grenades are fed from the magazine into position above the barrel. There the grenade is extracted from the belt and
pushed downwards, to align with the barrel. Empty cartridge cases are ejected through an opening at the bottom of the AGL

Electronic sight
Due to the parabolic trajectory path of the 40mm grenades used, it is possible to use the Y3 against a target that is out of the user's direct sight (such as over cover or obstacles, or around corners; up to an elevation of 60 degrees). This indirect fire mode is, however, only realistically feasible during combat situations if the coordinates of its target are already known (for instance, calculated from a forward observation post); as otherwise the unit acts as a mortar (albeit with a relatively smaller lethal radius). The linked electronic ballistic computer [known as the 'LobSight'] can also be used to reinforce this 'electronic' sight line. By calculating the position, direction, and the angle required for the AGL to hit a given target, the LobSight greatly assists aim modification: providing optimum grenade impact and ammunition usage. If this data is unknown, the AGL may still be used to lay down suppressive fire against possible enemy locations but, again, at a reduced accuracy unless a laser sight or aiming scope is added.

Ammunition
The 40mm Y3 AGL can fire a wide range of "high velocity" 40×53mm 40mm grenades linked in belts of 20 or 32. The 40×53mm type grenade is also used by other automatic grenade launchers such as the Mk 19 and Mk 47 Striker and are more powerful than the 40×46mm round used in hand-held launchers.

High Explosive (HE) Grenades
Designed primarily for use against vehicles and personnel (with a casualty radius of 5m)

High Explosive; Dual Purpose (HEDP) Grenades
Whilst this round has some armour-piercing capability (penetrating cleanly through 50mm of armour plating, or 350mm of concrete), it is mainly designed for use against armoured vehicles and fortifications.

Practice (P) Grenades
This grenade, whilst not 'live', produces a flash and smoke on firing; intended for realistic simulations and training.

Target Practice Tracer (TPT) Grenade
Although similar to the Practice round, this round also produces a visible light trail similar to other tracer ammunition.

Target Practice (TP) Grenade
This round is inert, although possessing the same ballistic properties as the HE and HEDP rounds. Also used during simulated exercises.

Accessories
A transport case, weapon and sight harness, ammunition harness and tripod, cradle and toolkit harness are supplied with the weapon; along with a toolkit, aiming light and post. Further customisation via tactical and covert accessories may also be retrofitted.

Users

 – Peshmerga

See also
 Comparison of automatic grenade launchers

Comparable weapons
 Heckler & Koch GMG – 40 mm calibre automatic grenade launcher
 XM174 grenade launcher – 40 mm calibre automatic grenade launcher
 AGS-17 – 30 mm calibre automatic grenade launcher
 Mk 19 grenade launcher – 40 mm automatic grenade launcher

References

Automatic grenade launchers
40×53mm grenade launchers
Post–Cold War weapons of South Africa
Grenade launchers of South Africa
Denel
Military equipment introduced in the 2000s

Denel Y3 AGL


Pál Prónay de Tótpróna et Blatnicza (November 2, 1874 – 1947 or 1948) was a Hungarian reactionary and paramilitary commander in the years following the First World War. He is considered to have been the most brutal of the Hungarian National Army officers who led the White Terror that followed Hungary's brief 1919 Communist coup d'état.

Background
The Hungarian people considered themselves humiliated and dismembered by the victors of the First World War. The Entente Powers stripped away two-thirds of the nation's territory and awarded them to Hungary's neighbors. With the lands went one-third of the country's Hungarian-speaking nationals.

Humiliation was inflamed by political instability. The first post-war attempt at a democratic government, under prime minister Mihály Károlyi, floundered and was overthrown in March 1919 by a Communist coup. Its leader, Béla Kun, had Jewish roots and Soviet training. Popular at first, Kun's so-called Hungarian Soviet Republic quickly lost the approval of the people, principally because of its failed economic policies, its inept military efforts to reclaim lost Hungarian lands from Czechoslovakia and Romania, and the Red Terror, in which Bolshevik-style gangs of young leather-clad thugs beat and murdered hundreds of the regime's "bourgeois" or counter-revolutionary opponents.

The National Army
Prónay was born in 1874 to an old and distinguished aristocratic family in the town of Romhány, Nógrád County, in northern Hungary. He attended the Lahne Military Institute, but advanced slowly in his officer's career, in part because he was abusive and violent toward his own men.

An alternative government struggled to form in the south of Hungary and secure the approval of the Entente powers; military affairs were placed in the hands of the former commander of the Austro-Hungarian fleet, Admiral Miklos Horthy, who forged a counter-revolutionary force and called it the National Army.

After Kun's coup d'état, Prónay considered emigrating, but instead he traveled to Szeged in the south, where he joined Horthy, taking command of the admiral's bodyguards. He was one of the first officers to join Horthy. He also began a close association with Gyula Gömbös, the right-wing politician and future prime minister.

In the summer of 1919, Prónay formed the first partisan militia of what would later be called the "White Guard." As the National Army moved through the countryside and gathered momentum, Prónay and other officers began a two-year campaign of anti-Communist reprisals which are now known as the White Terror. Their goals were to exact revenge for the Communists' transgressions – and to frighten a restless and volatile population into submitting to the counter-revolutionary government's control. Prónay also sought to "restore the traditional good relations between the landlords and estate servants," which in essence meant enforcing obedience by the Hungarian servant class.

The White Terror
Prónay's name is essentially synonymous with the cruelty of the worst White Terror reprisals. He selected his targets from among Communists, Social Democrats (Hungary's second Marxist political party), peasants, and Jews, whom many in the National Army blamed wholesale for the failed and bloody Communist coup d'état because 55–75% of its leaders were Jewish. Unlike some agents of terror, Prónay never saw any need to disguise or mitigate his acts of torture and humiliation, and in his later writings, he described them with undimmed relish. His unit kidnapped and blackmailed Jewish merchants and hacked off the breasts of peasant and Jewish women. They slashed off the ears of their victims to keep as trophies, and fed the boiler of the battalion's armored train with the bodies of their prisoners, some of them alive.

Prónay and his men liked to bring a demonic creativity to their humiliations. They sprinkled powdered sugar onto the battered and swollen faces of the men they bludgeoned, so as to attract hundreds of flies; they fastened leashes of string to their prisoners' genitals and then whipped them to run in circles; and they tied their victims into stables and forced them eat hay.

Although technically soldiers in the National Army, Prónay's men did not follow the standard chain of command. Prónay demanded, and received, suicidal loyalty to himself; soldiers were expected to follow the most brutal orders without hesitation, and those who had no stomach for these activities were expunged from the unit.

The Soviet Republic collapsed in August 1919, as the invading Romanian army (supported by French occupational troops) reached the Hungarian capital, Budapest. Kun and his allies fled, and the White Terror intensified.

The savagery of the White Terror cannot be blamed on Prónay alone. Other commanders, notably Iván Héjjas, Gyula Ostenburg-Moravek and Anton Lehár, led similar squadrons and committed similar brutalities. But Prónay seems to have outdone these colleagues in both fanaticism and cruelty.

In November 1919, Romanian troops withdrew. When Horthy and the National Army consolidated their control over the capital and the nation, Prónay installed his unit in Hotel Britannia, where the group grew to battalion level. The program of vicious attacks continued; their plan included a citywide pogrom until Horthy put a stop to it. In his diary, Prónay reported that Horthy

End of Prónay's career
After the establishment of the Kingdom of Hungary, the terror continued. But tolerance for the reactionary violence was waning in the corridors of power. The White Guard units, particularly Prónay's, were increasingly difficult to control, behaving less like army units and more like self-serving renegade gangs. Their savagery was outraging Hungary's upper class, and drawing negative international press; it may also have hardened the feelings of the Entente powers toward Hungary at a crucial moment, just before the ratification of the Trianon Treaty.

Nevertheless, it was at least another year before the terror died down. In the summer of 1920, Horthy's government took measures to rein in and eventually disperse the reactionary battalions. Prónay managed to undermine these anti-White Guard measures, but only for a short time.

After Prónay's men were implicated in the murder of a Budapest policeman in November 1920, his bosses' permissiveness declined sharply. The following summer, Pronay was put on trial for extorting a wealthy Jewish politician, and for "insulting the President of the Parliament" by trying to cover up the extortion. Found guilty on both charges, Prónay was now a liability and an embarrassment. His command was revoked, and he was denounced as a common criminal on the floor of the Hungarian parliament.

After serving short sentences, Prónay tried to convince Horthy to restore his battalion command. The regent turned him down. Furious with his former patron, whom he now condemned as a useless windbag, Prónay moved to the Austrian border, where he continued his atrocities, and proclaimed himself Supreme Leader of a buffer state, the Banat of Leitha. Finally, in the fall of 1921, Prónay joined in the second failed attempt to oust Horthy and restore the Habsburg Charles IV, to the throne. Horthy at last permanently severed his ties with Prónay.

The Prónay Battalion lingered for a few months more under the command of a junior officer, but the government officially dissolved the unit in January 1922 and expelled its members from the army.

Prónay entered politics as a member of the government's right-wing opposition. In the 1930s, he sought and failed to emulate the Nazis by generating a Hungarian fascist mass movement. In 1932, he was charged with incitement, sentenced to six months in prison and stripped of his rank of lieutenant colonel.

In October 1944, as Budapest descended into chaos at the end of the Second World War, 69-year-old Prónay assembled a death squad and resumed his hunt for the old objects of his hatred, Hungarian Jews. He vanished in the war's final weeks, and was formerly believed to have fallen during the siege of Budapest. Opening of the Soviet archives revealed that Prónay was captured on 20 March 1945; held as a POW; sentenced by the Soviet authorities to twenty years forced labour on charges of sabotage and espionage; and died in the Gulag in 1947/8.

Notes

Sources
 Magyar életrajzi lexikon (in Hungarian)

Written by Pál Prónay

Bodó und Fogarassy: Original diary in the archive of the National Security Service in Budapest, very difficult access for scholars. Text selected by Prónay for the public in the 1930s and 1940s.

1. volume: lost

Accessible: written with the typewriter and handwritten additions und photo-illustrations.

2. volume: End of Oktober 1918 bis August 31, 1922

3. volume: Subsequently, until the end of 1922

4. volume: Fogarassy supposes existence, but never found.

Accessible for the public:

Selection of his memoirs
Pál Prónay, A hatában a Halál kaszál (übersetzt mit "Death mows at the border"), with preface and notes of Agnes Szabó and Ervin Pamlényi, Budapest 1963, especially about the White Terror

Short English selections: Béla Bodó, Prónay, The Carl Beck Papers in Russian and East European Studies, Nr. 2101, Pittsburgh 2011, S. 1 ff im gesamten Text verteilt

German summary of his texts about the Lajtabánság:
Lászlo Fogarassy, Paul Prónays Erinnerungen an das 'Lajta-Banat', in: Burgenländische Heimatblätter, 52. Jahrgang, Heft 1, Eisenstadt 1990

About Pál Prónay

Béla Bodó, Prónay, The Carl Beck Papers in Russian and East European Studies, Nr. 2101, Pittsburgh 2011

Lászlo Fogarassy, Paul Prónays Erinnerungen an das 'Lajta-Banat', in: Burgenländische Heimatblätter, 52. Jahrgang, Heft 1, Eisenstadt 1990

External links
 Info (ungarisch) über Prónay im Magyar életrajzi lexikon

Bodó-article (en): http://carlbeckpapers.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/cbp

Botlik-monograph English: http://www.hungarianhistory.com/lib/austria/The_Fate_of.pdf

Fogarassy-Artikel (German): http://www.zobodat.at/pdf/Burgenlaendische-Heimatblaetter_52_0001-0010.pdf

1874 births
1950s deaths
Counter-revolutionaries
History of Budapest
Hungarian monarchists
Hungarian people of the Hungarian–Romanian War
Hungarian Nazis
Hungarian mass murderers
Hungarian soldiers
Holocaust perpetrators in Hungary
Hungarian people who died in prison custody
Military history of Hungary
People from Nógrád County
Politicide perpetrators
Nazis who died in prison custody
Prisoners and detainees of Hungary
Prisoners who died in Soviet detention
Year of death missing

Pál Prónay


Monk's-Hood is a medieval mystery novel by Ellis Peters, set in December 1138. It is the third novel in The Cadfael Chronicles. It was first published in 1980 (1980 in literature).

It was adapted for television in 1994 by Central for ITV.

Gervase Bonel dies from monkshood oil put in his food. Brother Cadfael made the oil. Who used it as poison? Cadfael assesses the motives of Bonel's family and household staff, including his Welsh natural son and his stepson, and deals with Bonel's widow who was once Cadfael's sweetheart long ago. The sergeant views the case differently from Cadfael.

This novel received the Silver Dagger Award in 1980 from the UK's Crime Writers Association. The author was commended by one reviewer for her ability to draw characters who are distinctly medieval, "not modern men and women masquerading in medieval garb," while dealing with fine points of medieval Welsh law. Another reviewer missed the lively character of the second novel, Hugh Beringar, wishing him to be more involved in this plot, yet saying "Peters does wonders with the medieval scene and with complex character relationships."

Plot summary
In early December 1138, Abbot Heribert of Shrewsbury Abbey is summoned to a Legatine council in London and his authority is suspended. The Abbey's business is also postponed, with one exception: Gervase Bonel, who has ceded his manorial estate at Mallilie to the Abbey in return for a small house where his needs in retirement will be provided, is allowed to move his household before the charter is signed. All expect that Heribert or his successor will complete the agreement after the council.

Prior Robert is left in charge of the Abbey. He receives gifts meant for the Abbot, including a fat partridge which he shares with Bonel, having his cook send a portion with dinner. Bonel is taken ill immediately after eating it. Brother Cadfael the herbalist and Brother Edmund the infirmarer run to his aid but cannot save him. Cadfael recognises Bonel's widow as Richildis Vaughan, to whom he was informally betrothed over 40 years earlier. He realises that the sauce in which the partridge was served was poisoned by a liniment he made. Its active ingredient is monkshood (Wolfsbane), deadly if ingested.

The murder is reported to Shrewsbury Castle. Sheriff Prestcote sends the unsubtle Sergeant Will Warden to investigate. As Prior Robert ate the other half of the partridge without ill effects, suspicion falls on Bonel's household. Richildis was never alone with the partridge. Aelfric, who carried the dishes from the kitchen, bears a grudge as Bonel deprived him of free status and made him a villein. Neither the maid, Aldith, nor Meurig, an illegitimate son of Bonel who is apprenticed to Richildis' son-in-law master carpenter Martin Bellecote, have any apparent motive. Edwin Gurney, Richildis' son from her first marriage, was present at part of the meal, but stormed out after a quarrel before Bonel ate the partridge. He and Meurig had come separately from the Abbey's infirmary, where Meurig used the monkshood oil to massage his great uncle, the aged Brother Rhys. Edwin's motive for murdering Bonel is plain to the sergeant. Because the charter with the Abbey is not completed, Edwin will inherit Mallilie.

Warden fails to find Edwin. Late that night Edwin and his same-age nephew, Edwy Bellecote, meet Cadfael in his workshop. By pretending that Bonel was attacked with a sword or dagger, Cadfael establishes that Edwin does not know how Bonel died and is innocent of poisoning him. He disguises Edwin in a monk's habit and conceals him in one of the Abbey's barns. Cadfael suggests that Warden search for the vial which the murderer used to carry the oil. Warden reports that Edwin was seen to throw something glittery into the River Severn. Cadfael questions Edwin, who says that he threw a carved wooden reliquary, a gift intended for Bonel, into the river after their quarrel.

That night, Cadfael visits Richildis to ask if there are other legitimate heirs. If Edwin does not inherit, Mallilie would revert to Bonel's overlord. Richildis reminisces about her former relations with Cadfael. Brother Jerome, Prior Robert's sanctimonious clerk, is eavesdropping outside the door. At Chapter, Jerome betrays Cadfael's and Richildis' former relationship. Prior Robert forbids Cadfael, who is bound by his vow of obedience, to leave the Abbey's precincts.

The same morning, Edwin is discovered in the barn by Abbey servants, and flees on Bonel's fine horse. The boy on the horse is captured after a chase lasting all day. Summoned to give spiritual comfort to the boy, Cadfael finds Edwy Bellecote, who distracted the authorities while Edwin escaped. Deputy Sheriff Hugh Beringar allows Edwy to return to his family on parole. Cadfael sends his assistant, Brother Mark, to search around Bonel's house for any bottle which might have held the poison. Mark finds it in a place where Edwin Gurney could not have thrown it, further proving his innocence to Cadfael.

The Abbey's steward at Mallilie sends word that a brother at a remote sheepfold at Rhydycroesau in Wales has fallen ill. Cadfael realises that Mallilie's location near or within Wales alters motives. Before departing to tend the sick brother, he questions the aged Brother Rhys, uncle to Meurig's mother, about local customs around Mallilie. Beringar is absent, searching for the reliquary which Edwin threw into the river, and Cadfael does not confide his discoveries to the sceptical Sergeant Warden.

At Rhydycroesau, the ailing brother soon recovers. Cadfael visits the manor at Mallilie and then kinfolk of Brother Rhys. At the house of Rhys's brother-in-law, Ifor ap Morgan, he discovers Edwin in hiding. Sergeant Warden follows Cadfael from Mallilie, and takes Edwin into custody. Cadfael now has one chance to get justice for Gervase Bonel, at the Commote court at Llansilin the next day.

At the court, Meurig makes his claim for Mallilie, producing written proof of his paternity. The manor lies within Wales; under Welsh law, a recognised son, born in or out of wedlock, has an over-riding claim to his father's property. Cadfael intervenes, stating that Meurig cannot inherit as he murdered Bonel. He produces the vial and challenges Meurig to display his scrip (linen pouch) to show where the strongly scented oil leaked into it. Meurig flees. Cadfael asks the court to send word of Meurig's guilt to Shrewsbury and returns to Rhydycroesau.

As Cadfael expects, Meurig is waiting for him armed with a knife. Meurig does not take his revenge on Cadfael, but instead confesses to Bonel's murder. He knew from an early age that he would inherit Mallilie under Welsh law, but Bonel's agreement to hand it to Shrewsbury Abbey would put it out of reach. Wanting to gain the manor before the charter was signed, he took some of Cadfael's rubbing oil from the infirmary. Having overheard Aldith say that the partridge was a gift for Bonel, he added the oil to the sauce while briefly alone in the kitchen of Bonel's house. After Warden left the house to search for Edwin, he threw the vial out of the window of the house. Not wanting to take a life for a life, Cadfael tells him his penance is to live a long life, doing as much good as he can. He directs Meurig to escape on the horse at the sheepfold.

Three days after Christmas, Cadfael returns to Shrewsbury to find the monks eagerly awaiting Abbot Heribert's return. When Heribert arrives, he says he has returned as a humble brother to end his days there. He then dashes Prior Robert's hopes of succeeding him by introducing Radulfus, their new Abbot appointed by the Legatine Council. The new abbot lets Edwin declare Aelfric free, but the steward will run Mallilie until Edwin is of age to inherit it. Cadfael is content that Edwin and his mother will move there, and depart from his life.

Characters
Brother Cadfael: Herbalist monk at Shrewsbury Abbey, a skill he learned over time, along with "medicining". His past before becoming a Benedictine monk includes his story of the one time he considered marrying. As he once expected, she has children and grandchildren, who he meets in his new life. He is age 58 in this story.
Abbot Heribert: Head of the Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul for eleven years. He is a gentle and peaceful man. When King Stephen reclaimed Shrewsbury Castle and Shropshire for his own in summer, Heribert did not act quickly enough to officially recognise Stephen as King, earning some bad feeling from the King. Heribert is called to a Legatine Council, at which he anticipates rebuke and perhaps a change in his status at the Abbey – to return as Abbot or a simple monk. Introduced in A Morbid Taste for Bones. Real historical person.
Prior Robert Pennant: Priest and monk at the Abbey. He is ambitious, patrician, and devoted to the rules. He often "looks down his long patrician nose" at others. He is 51 years old, with little change in his appearance in ten years – tall, silvery haired. He expects to be named replacement for Heribert, but never says so, though he moves into the Abbot's lodging rather quickly. He wrote a book on Saint Winifred, the saint specially honoured at the Abbey, with a reliquary and her own altar, as told in A Morbid Taste for Bones. Real historical person.
Brother Jerome: Clerk to Prior Robert. He is one to curry favour with the Prior, doing tasks for him as requested or anticipated. Like all the monks in titled positions, he was first named in A Morbid Taste for Bones.
Brother Richard: Sub-prior. He is an easygoing man, who takes over the Prior's duties while Heribert is away. Introduced in A Morbid Taste for Bones.
Brother Petrus: Cook for the Abbot's house. He prepared the fat partridge in spiced wine sauce, and was the first suspect to be cleared.  Petrus was attached to Heribert, and spared no dislike for Prior Robert.
Brother Edmund: Infirmarer, in charge of the Abbey's hospital.
Brother Mark: A novice recently assigned to Cadfael as his assistant in the herbarium. He is about 18 years old. He was mentioned by description, not by name, at the end of A Morbid Taste for Bones. Now he is becoming more at ease with life, his vocation in the monastery and with Cadfael. He lived with an uncle who did not like him, and sent him to the monastery at age 16. Young as he is, his talents and insights lead Cadfael to think that Mark will be a monk and also train to be a priest.
Alberic of Ostia: Benedictine monk and Cardinal-bishop of Ostia, legate come from Rome to show papal approval of King Stephen as sovereign of England, and convene a legatine council in London to reorganise the local church, including election of a new archbishop for Canterbury. He is a real historical person and the council did occur.
Gervase Bonel: Second husband of the widowed Richildis, stepfather to her son. He is the lord of Mallilie manor in the north of the county with tenants, and long widowed with no legitimate children when he married for the second time. He wants to give over his manor to the Abbey in return for a messuage at the Abbey plus meals, linen, clothing, and stabling for a horse provided. Moves house before the final charter is signed, a week after Heribert left for London. He is a man of angry and provocative temper, who dies from poison in his food.
Richildis, Mistress Bonel: Wife of Gervase Bonel these three years and mother of married daughter Sibil and much younger son Edwin. In her teens (42 years earlier) as Richildis Vaughan, she was secretly engaged to Cadfael, who took up the cross for the Crusade, so she married Eward Gurney, a carpenter and father to her two children. She was widowed five years earlier. When she remarried, her second husband, lacking a legitimate heir, promised to leave his manor to his stepson. She is the same age as Cadfael, 58 years old, who recognises her on first sight. She agrees with Cadfael that in her second marriage she had married "out of her kind", from tradespeople to lord of a manor.
Aelfric: Man servant to the Bonel household. He came to the herbarium to get herbs for cooking when the monk's hood ointment was handed out, and normally fetches the family meal from the Abbot's kitchen. He was born free, forced by lawsuit to villein status by Bonel. He is about 25 years old.
Aldith: Serving girl to the Bonel household. She is distant kin to Richildis, who took her in two years earlier when the girl was orphaned. She prepares meals, keeps the Abbey-provided meals warm enough. She is a pretty young woman. She likes Aelfric.
Edwin Gurney: The brown-eyed son of Richildis and her first husband. He is at odds with his stepfather. He is training with his brother-in-law, carpenter Martin Bellecote, and friends with Meurig. He is 17 years younger than his sister, and 14 years old as this story unfolds. He is presumed guilty by the sergeant sent to start the investigation.
Brother Rhys: Older monk of Welsh birth and still speaks the language, with kin connected to the Bonel household, and originally from the area near Mallilie. His grand nephew Meurig gives him a massage with the ointment of ground root of monk's hood in oil, a true kindness. In Wales, his family history is Rhys ap Griffith (Rhys, son of Griffith), and he is near 80 years old. Introduced in A Morbid Taste for Bones.
Meurig: Young man 24 or 25 years old, born to a Welsh mother and English father. He is journeyman to a master carpenter in town (Martin Bellecote). Prior to the story he worked at Mallilie manor. His late mother was niece to Brother Rhys, and worked at Mallilie. He considers his kin to be his Welsh side. His father was Gervase Bonel, thus his "by-blow" or natural son.
Gilbert Prestcote: Sheriff of Shropshire. He dispatched a sergeant to hear the story at Bonel's death. Introduced in One Corpse Too Many.
Sibil Bellecote: Wife of Martin, daughter of Richildis and Eward Gurney. She has four children: son Edwy, 14; daughter Alys, age 11; son Thomas, age 8; daughter Diota, age 4. She is about 32 years old
Martin Bellecote: Master carpenter in Shrewsbury. He trained under Eward Gurney, is married to his daughter Sibil, and father to their four children. He is in his late thirties.
Edwy Bellecote: Son of Martin and Sibil Bellecote, born 4 months before his uncle Edwin Gurney. He is 14 years old, with brown hair and hazel eyes. He and his uncle were raised together as friends, look much alike, and are great partners in play and in work.
Hugh Beringar: Recently appointed Deputy Sheriff of Shropshire by King Stephen. He already has Cadfael's respect. He is a young nobleman with manors in the north of the shire at Maesbury. He enters the case when the Sheriff is away to visit King Stephen for the Christmas feast. Cadfael says of Hugh, that he is "a decent, fair-minded man who'll not tolerate injustice." He finds the wood reliquary. He is about 23 years old. Introduced in One Corpse Too Many.
Sergeant William Warden: Officer of the law sent by Sheriff Prestcote when Bonel was found murdered. He is a diligent officer, but rather more interested in closing a case than finding full justice, and a bit pompous.
Lay Brothers Barnabas and Simon: Two men living at an Abbey sheepfold near Rhydycroesau, by Oswestry. Barnabas fell ill; Simon sought help by sending a message via the steward from the Abbey now at Mallilie, a nearby manor.
Cynfrith ap Rhys: A first cousin of Brother Rhys, but much younger, perhaps by 20 years. Brother of Owain ap Rhys. He is pleased to receive the greetings of his cousin from Cadfael.
Ifor ap Morgan: Brother-in-law of Brother Rhys and grandfather to Meurig. Cadfael visits him while nearby at the sheepfold, to relay greetings from Rhys. He finds more than Ifor at his home.
Owain ap Rhys: Brother to Cynfrith, cousin of Brother Rhys. He has dealings in the Welsh court regarding his property boundaries while Cadfael is yet aiding Barnabas and Simon.
Father Radulfus: Introduced to the monks by Heribert as both return from the Legatine Council three days after the Christmas feast, just as Cadfael returns from Rhydycroesau. The Council selected Radulfus as the next Abbot. This is a very brief introduction; he is tall, hair still dark around his tonsure. Based on the real abbot who succeeded Heribert.

Title
There is a bit of word play in the book's title in English, Monk's Hood. First is what seems the most direct meaning, the ground up root of the plant in the liniment that gets used as a poison in food, the plant having the common name from the appearance of its flower. It refers to another plot element as well, the monk's hood that briefly hides the untonsured head of the innocent boy who is the number one suspect for the sergeant.  Last, it is the symbol of the monk's robe with its hood that Cadfael wears all the time.

The author does make a point of using herbs and medicinal plants of that era, accurately. One book discusses the series from the perspective of the herbs. In an interview in 1993, Peters said she used Culpepper and an untitled book from the 15th century for information on the herbs, and typical medicines. Herbs play a supporting role in most of the novels, but "In Monk's Hood, of course, that was the poison. I haven't done much with herbs that have mixed properties—either beneficial or poisonous, depending on their use. I'd like to get back to using herbs more in my plots. I haven't used them so much in the last few books."

Background and setting in history
Although the characters and events in the novel are invented, Heribert and Radulfus were real abbots of Shrewsbury Abbey, and Radulfus really did replace Heribert in 1138. There really was a legatine conference in Westminster in 1138 led by Alberic of Ostia, a Benedictine monk and cardinal-bishop of Ostia, sent by the Pope to recognise King Stephen and to elect a new archbishop for Canterbury. Prior Robert Pennant is also a real person, who eventually succeeded Radulfus in 1148.

The places named in the story are real, including Shrewsbury Abbey, Shrewsbury Castle, the river Severn that winds around the town and separates the Abbey from the town proper. Oswestry and the nearby village of Rhydycroesau are real. The latter strides the modern border between England and Wales. Llansilin was the town where court was held for the commote of Cynllaith. Croesau Bach (cy) was then in Wales, and is now part of Shropshire (as described in Welsh Wikipedia). Cadfael describes his own home in Wales as "The vale of Conwy is my native place, near by Trefriw." The chase of the sergeant's men to capture the boy on the fine horse went from the ford at Uffington, through Atcham, Cound and Cressage, ending in the woods near Acton, all real places and quite a ride. Meurig left traces of himself as he followed out his penance to live. There was a message from the monastery at Beddgelert where he left the horse to be returned to Rhydycroesau; his written confession sent from Penllyn (now split between Llanystumdwy and Criccieth in Gwynedd) via Bangor on account of the heavy snows around the Christmas feast, sent by coastal ship east to Chester, then by land to the Sheriff of Shrewsbury. Cadfael wonders, will he travel up to one of the ports Clynnog or Caergybi to take ship for Ireland, or stay in Wales. The start of the route follows Cadfael's initial advice for him to cross the mountains west from their encounter in the sheep barn to reach Gwynedd where he is not known. Then he can make his decisions where to proceed, having made his confession and sent the written copy in a way his whereabouts could not be traced, and all guilt is removed from those remaining in Shrewsbury.

The plant monkshood is truly poisonous in all its parts, though its flowers are attractive, with the upper petals in a shape reminiscent of the hood worn by the Benedictine monks.

This is one of the five Cadfael books (in the series of twenty Chronicles) in which Cadfael's Welsh background, with his knowledge of the language, and the customs and laws of Wales, are important to the plot. Lands along the border of England and Wales were sometimes subject to cases in English courts under English law, or courts under Welsh law (the laws of Hywel Dda), as the claimants preferred. In the situation of the son of a Welsh mother, acknowledged by his non-Welsh father in writing, the Welsh court offered the best promise of a resolution in his favour, to inherit the land where he was born. English courts did not recognise him as a son to his father, the lord of that manor, Mallilie.

Although Cadfael has withdrawn from most worldly concerns by entering the Benedictine order, he retains a shrewd appreciation of Welsh customs and character, and his fluency in the Welsh language.

The book highlights the degree to which family and blood relationships were important in the Middle Ages; the dead man Bonel, his wife's family, his natural son, a host of smallholders in Wales, and the aged Brother Rhys in Shrewsbury Abbey are connected by blood or marriage. The motive for murder was love of the land, the land where he was born, for the son of a Welsh mother.

Reviews and awards
Kirkus Reviews finds it superior entertainment but misses a character from the prior novel:

Brother Cadfael, worldly-wise and gentle herbalist at the 12th-century Shrewsbury Abbey, returns for a third adventure—which takes place after King Stephen's victory in the recent civil war. ... So, with the help of faithful apprentice Mark and old chum Hugh Beringer, Cadfael follows a series of hard-won clues to the Welsh border and there, in a daring confrontation, tags the true culprit. As before, Peters does wonders with the medieval scene and with complex character relationships; unfortunately, however, lively Hugh Beringar (a major presence in One Corpse Too Many) makes only a brief appearance here, so this is slightly less sprightly than its predecessors. Still—superior entertainment for historically inclined mystery fans. Pub Date: 14 May 1981 Publisher: Morrow

Mystery author, librarian and medieval historian Dean James finds Ellis to be strong in her ability to draw characters who are distinctly medieval, not modern. Cadfael can be trusted by the reader to "have the wisdom and compassion to do everything within his power to set the disordered situation to rights."

Peters offers her readers a view of medieval England during a particular time in its history, but she also provides a fascinating introduction to medieval culture and intellectual life as well. Many of the books in the series present various medieval ideas which are quite different from modern thinking, but Peters explains them easily. integrating them into the plots of her novels. For example, in The Sanctuary Sparrow (Morrow, 1984), the jongleur Liliwin seeks sanctuary from his pursuers in the abbey church. The Pilgrim of Hate (Morrow, 1985) involves miracles and a pilgrimage; Monks-Hood (Morrow, 1981) explores some thorny points in medieval Welsh law. Two recent novels in the series address more complex issues: The Heretic's Apprentice (Mysterious Press, 1989) deals with heresy and its suppressions by the Church, and The Potter's Field (Mysterious Press, 1990) uses the medieval concept of the wheel of fate.

The characters ... are recognizably different; they are distinctly medieval in what they do and how they think. These are not modern men and women masquerading in medieval garb. Peters [is]... to be celebrated for [her]... achievement... in bringing the Middle Ages vividly to life in ... crime fiction. Lovers of medieval myster[ies] can read Peters... and enjoy them for their differences and revel in the vast panorama of life in Medieval England.

Monk's Hood won an award from the Crime Writers' Association in 1980, the CWA Silver Dagger award.

Publication history
Monk's Hood was first published in the UK by Macmillan in August 1980,  / 9780333294109 (UK edition). The US hardback edition was published in April 1981. Two large print editions were issued in June 1982 and January 1998.

Nine paperback editions were issued in the US and the UK, the first in 1982, and the most recent in April 2010 by Sphere.

Fifteen audio book editions have been issued on cassette and CD. Chivers issued the first in September 1990; the most recent is from ISIS in April 2012.

The novel has been published in French, German, Italian, Dutch, and Portuguese, listed at Goodreads. It was also published in Danish.

French: Le capuchon du moine (Frère Cadfael, #3), Published 2001 by 10/18, Mass Market Paperback, 287 pages  (9782264033369)
German:  Bruder Cadfael und das Mönchskraut, Ein mittelalterlicher Kriminalroman Published 2002 by Heyne, 254 pages, Eva Malsch (Übersetzerin)  (9783453186644)
Italian:  Il cappuccio del monaco, Paperback, Published 1 January 1992 by Tea, 204 pages  (9788878192256)
Dutch:  Het gemene gewas, Paperback, Published 1995 by De Boekerij, 213 pages, Pieter Janssens (Translator)  (9789022508398)
Portuguese: Justiça à Moda Antiga [Old Fashioned Justice], Paperback, Published 1984 by Europa-América
Danish: Stedsønnen fra Mallilie [Stepson from Mallilie], by Ellis Peters, (Translator or narrator) Søren Elung Jensen 2000 Copenhagen Danmarks Blindebibliotek (audiobook, OCLC 473817503)

Adaptations

Radio
Monk's Hood was the third Cadfael book to be adapted for BBC Radio, in sequence with the publication of the novels. The radio adaptation was written by Bert Coules, and starred Philip Madoc as Brother Cadfael and Geoffrey Whitehead as Prior Robert. It was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1991, in five parts:
 Troubled Times
 The Inheritance
 Hunted
 Mallilie
 Judgement

It has since been re-broadcast on BBC Radio 7, then BBC Radio 4 Extra, and released as an audio book (and reviewed).

Television

The book was the fourth to be adapted for television by Central and Carlton Media for distribution worldwide, in 1994. It was out of sequence as two later books in the series preceded it on the screen. The "Cadfael" television series eventually extended to thirteen episodes, all of which starred Sir Derek Jacobi as the sleuthing monk. The series was filmed mostly in Hungary.

The television adaptation for Monk's Hood stuck fairly closely to the original novel. Although several Welsh actors appeared, Jacobi retained an educated English accent.

References

External links

 The Crime Writers Association
 Mystery Scene Magazine's official website

1980 British novels
British mystery novels
Novels by Edith Pargeter
Novels set in Shropshire
Fiction set in the 1130s
Novels set in the 12th century
Macmillan Publishers books

Monk's Hood


The Academia de Bellas Artes or Academy of Fine Arts of Seville was an institution for the instruction of students into the diverse arts. It was founded on January 1, 1660, upon the encouragement of Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, its first president. Murillo was able to also obtain the support of Juan de Valdés Leal, the second president and the younger Francisco de Herrera for this association, and the first meeting was attended by Herrera, Murillo, Valdés Leal, Sebastian Llanos y Valdes, Pedro Honorio de Palencia, Cornelio Schut, Ignacio de Iriarte, Matias de Arteaga, Matias de Carbajal, Antonio de Lejalde, Juan de Arenas, Juan Martinez, Pedro Ramirez, Bernabé de Ayala, Carlos de Negron, Pedro de Medina, Bernardo Arias Maldonado, Diego Diaz, Antonio de Zarzoza, Juan Lopez Carrasco, Pedro de Camprobin, Martin de Atienza, Alonso Perez de Herrera.

"The duties of the presidents, who revolved their position on alternate weeks, were to direct the progress of the pupils, resolve their doubts and settle their disputes, impose fines and preserve order in the school, and select new members entitled them to the rank of academician. The expenses of coal candle models and other items were defrayed by a monthly subscription of six reales, paid by each member; while students were liberally admitted for the purposes of study, on the payment of whatever fee they could afford.

The students had to profess their orthodoxy by stating "Praised be the most holy Eucharist and the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady". In school, conversation on subjects irrelevant to the subjects of the school was prohibited, and the offender was fined if he persevered in it, after the president had rung his bell twice. Swearing, profane language, and offences
against good manners were also fined.

After a brief dip in students, by 1673, the academy had 43 members. The academy was not successful in fostering students that ever matched in eminence those of the academy's founders. This Sevillian Academy predated the Academia Real de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid.

References

Art schools in Spain
Education in Seville
Culture in Seville

Academia de Bellas Artes (Seville)


Multiwavelength optical networking (MONET), is a method for communicating digital information using lasers over optical fiber.  The method provides the next level of communication networks after SONET optical networks. MONET optical networks provide an even greater bandwidth capacity. This new method employs wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) technology for transporting large amounts of telephone and data traffic and  allow for interoperability between equipment from different vendors.

First developed by the secretive National Security Agency as author James Bamford points out in his book, "Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency".  It was also discussed at the 1996 Military Communications Conference.

References
Multiwavelength Optical Networking Consortium (broken)
Multiwavelength Optical Networks - A layered Approach by Thomas E. Stern and Krishna Bala
Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency by James Bamford
Military Communications Conference, 1996

Synchronous optical networking
Fiber-optic communications
Network protocols

Multiwavelength optical networking


Neapolitan Turk () is a 1953 Italian comedy film directed by Mario Mattoli and starring Totò.

Plot
The film is based on a play by the famous Neapolitan writer Eduardo Scarpetta, father of Eduardo and Peppino De Filippo and Titina De Filippo The story is set in Naples and Sorrento in the second half of 1800. The thief Felice Sciosciammocca (the surname in Naples means "one who is always with her mouth open in astonishment"; Felice means "Happy") together with the bandit Faina ("Weasel") escapes from prison and meets with a Turkish eunuch that he should go to Sorrento for a job. Don Felice kidnaps him and steals his letter of recommendation to get into the house of a rich businessman, so that gains a bit of money for him and for his accomplice. The man who had called the Turkish is the rich grocer Don Pasquale, being jealous of his wife and young daughter, betrothed to Don Carluccio holding a dowry, is to host the Turk and immediately test some suspicion. In fact, the Turk rather than look like an eunuch protector proves to be a great womanizer and causes the sympathy of all the girls in the town and the wrath of the young. Don Felice, forgetting appears Faina, have fun in monitoring the wife and daughter of Pasquale and Don Carluccio appears more and more restless by the net waste of his betrothed. In the following days Don Felice will be met with the Honourable MP Cocchetelli who had recommended the real Turk to Don Pasquale, but cannot reveal the truth because Don Felice surprised him with a girl who was not his wife. On the day of the wedding, don Carluccio, after an engagement party gone wrong, stormed into the house of Don Pasquale to beat him, but Don Felice intervenes and gives the marching orders to the bully who runs away scared. All thank Don Felice, who reveals his identity and claims to have done all this misunderstanding and funny situations to entertain the audience watching him from a theater.

Cast
 Totò as Felice Sciosciammocca
 Ignazio Balsamo as Luigi
 Isa Barzizza as Giulietta
 Primarosa Battistella as Lisetta
 Liana Billi as Giuliana
 Carlo Campanini as Don Pasquale
 Anna Campori as Concettella
 Mario Castellani as L'onorevole Cocchetelli
 Dino Curcio as Michele
 Christiane Dury as Marion
 Franca Faldini as Angelica
 Amedeo Girard as Ignazio
 Aldo Giuffrè as Faina

References

External links

1953 films
1953 comedy films
1950s Italian-language films
Italian films based on plays
Films based on works by Eduardo Scarpetta
Films directed by Mario Mattoli
Films set in Naples
Films set in Sorrento
Films with screenplays by Ruggero Maccari
Italian comedy films
1950s Italian films

Neapolitan Turk


Lottovoittaja UKK Turhapuro is a Finnish 1976 comedy film written by Spede Pasanen and directed by Ere Kokkonen. It is the third film in the Uuno Turhapuro series. The film's title translates to "Lottery winner UKK Turhapuro", UKK being an apparent reference to former President of Finland Urho Kekkonen.

Plot

It is the first anniversary of Uuno (Vesa-Matti Loiri) and Elisabet (Marjatta Raita). Uuno has placed a bet with his friend Härski-Hartikainen (Spede Pasanen) a year ago, that if Uuno can take just one year of marriage with Elisabet, Hartikainen will treat him a festive dinner. However, Hartikainen buys a lottery ticket for Uuno, who agrees to deduct it from his debt – and the festive dinner is reduced to a can of milk and half a sausage. As it happens, Uuno becomes the lottery winner of 1.5 million marks, only to soon realize he doesn't own a single penny yet. Mister Tossavainen (Seppo Laine) arrives and offers to finance Uuno before he actually gets the jackpot. Thus, Uuno gets to live a rich live on credit. He buys a raccoon fur, leopard swimming trunks and a couple of Mercedes-Benzes. Women begin to fancy Uuno and so does his father-in-law (Tapio Hämäläinen). As time goes by it is revealed, though, that Uuno is not actually a lottery winner, and so he has to escape the anger of others to Härski's car repair shop.

External links

1976 films
Spede Pasanen
Finnish black-and-white films
1970s Finnish-language films

Lottovoittaja UKK Turhapuro


Hotel Esplanade was a luxury hotel with 400 rooms, which once stood on Berlin's busy transport and nightlife hub Potsdamer Platz. During its colorful and turbulent history it went from being one of the German capital's most luxurious and celebrated hotels to a bombed-out ruin lost in the wastelands alongside the Berlin Wall. A section of it still survives today, albeit as a fragment incorporated into the soaring modern complex of the Sony Center. Wilhelm II is said to have spent many evenings at the hotel entertaining guests, although no women were allowed at these dining parties. The hotel was visited in the 1920s by movie stars such as Charlie Chaplin and Greta Garbo.

Construction and design

The hotel was built between 1907 and 1908 by the Fürstengruppe (Hohenlohe, Fürstenberg und Henckel von Donnersmarck) in accordance with the plans of Otto Rehnig, architect of the nearby and similarly fated Hotel Excelsior. When it opened in 1908 the construction cost an unprecedented 23 million marks (ℳ). The architectural style, with its richly ornamented sandstone façade, was that of the Belle Epoque, and the interior palatial design incorporated elements from the Neo-Baroque and Neo-Rococo. The hotel accommodated numerous magnificent halls, amongst these was the Kaisersaal (the emperor's hall). It was here that Kaiser Wilhelm II held an exclusive men's evening. One of the most celebrated aspects of the hotel was a 1600 m2 garden designed by garden architect Willi Wendt, which lay in the inner courtyard.

In the "Golden Twenties", the Esplanade became the scene of popular tea and dancing afternoons, which were regularly broadcast on the radio. Stars like Charlie Chaplin and Greta Garbo stayed here.

Once destroyed and twice revived

In the winter of 1944/45 90% of the Esplanade was destroyed in bombing raids that crushed the once thriving hub of Potsdamer Platz. The sections that did manage to survive relatively unscathed were the Kaisersaal and the breakfast hall, as well as the stairwell and wash rooms. After the war they were restored and together formed part of the original "Esplanade Hall Building". The ceiling of the Palm Courtyard was restored and one of the other halls, the Silver Hall, was redesigned with its walls and ceiling decorated with silver and pillars adorned with abstract figures and patterns. And so, amidst what was then a rubble-strewn wilderness, the revived Esplanade became a hive of public activity once more.  During the 1950s it was used variously as a restaurant and for fancy dress dances and carnival balls, and then later also for fashion shows.

However, in 1961 the Berlin Wall was erected only a short distance away. As a consequence the lively programme of festivities was promptly curtailed.

Nevertheless, although now adrift from the rest of the city it was, with police permission, still accessible and so began a third lease of life as a popular set for films and television programmes. The interior can be seen in such international films as Cabaret (1972) and Wings of Desire (1987).

The preservation of historical monuments

After the fall of the wall in 1989 the remaining part of the hotel was safeguarded as a listed historical monument. However, when the resurrection of Potsdamer Platz was underway and the first plans for the new Sony Center were drawn up, this factor was not considered; the Kaisersaal stood in the way and was therefore earmarked for demolition. In 1993 a plan was developed to move the Kaisersaal 75 metres (246 feet) and integrated into the Center itself. This was carried out in March 1996 at a cost of 75 million marks. The Breakfast Hall was dismantled into 500 pieces and then later put back together again; this can be found today in FREDERICK'S.

References

Berlin Hotel Esplanade
Hotels in Berlin
Berlin Hotel Esplanade
Berlin Hotel Esplanade
Buildings and structures in Mitte
Buildings and structures in Berlin destroyed during World War II
1908 establishments in Germany

Hotel Esplanade Berlin


George Edmund Byron Bettesworth (1785 – 16 May 1808) was a British Naval Officer. During his service he participated in a notable single ship action, and had been wounded 24 times.

HMS Phoebe

At an early age he went to sea as midshipman under Captain Robert Barlow, who commanded the frigate HMS Phoebe. While with Phoebe Bettesworth participated in two notable single ship actions. On 21 December 1797 Phoebe captured the French 36-gun frigate Nérëide. Then on 19 February 1801, she captured the 38-gun Africaine, which was crowded with the 400 soldiers she was carrying to Egypt. In the battle, Phoebe had one man killed and 14 wounded. The French had some 200 men killed, and 143 wounded, many of them critically. The high casualty count was due to the soldiers remaining on deck as a point of honor, even though they could not contribute to the battle.

HMS Centaur and HMS Curieux

Bettesworth remained with Phoebe until January 1804 when was he was promoted to lieutenant on HMS Centaur. On 4 February 1804 he took part in a cutting out expedition that captured the 16-gun French privateer Curieux at Fort Royal harbour, Martinique. Bettesworth received a slight wound in this engagement. The Royal Navy took Curieux into service as the sloop-of-war HMS Curieux. After her first commander, Robert Carhew Reynolds, died of the wounds he had received during her capture,  Bettesworth then became her commander.

While captain of the Curieux, Bettesworth one day took her jolly boat in shore, together with the purser, who played his violin. A local black came out of the undergrowth on shore and held up a pair of fowl, indicating that he sought to sell them. Bettesworth took the bait and had his men row to the shore. The moment the boat touched the beach, a squadron of cavalry burst from the undergrowth. Their gunfire wounded Bettesworth in the thigh, causing substantial loss of blood, and broke the coxswain's arm. At Bettesworth's urging, the crew of his boat got it off the beach and rowed back to Curieux. On the way back Bettesworth wanted to open a bottle of champagne, but the purser broke it in his nervousness.

On 8 February 1805, Curieux chased the French 16-gun privateer Dame Ernouf for twelve hours before being able to bring her to action. After forty minutes of hard fighting the Frenchman, which had a larger crew than Curieux, maneuvered to attempt a boarding. Bettesworth turned with the result that the French vessel got stuck in a position where Curieux could rake her deck. Unable to fight back, the Dame Ernouff struck. Curieux suffered five killed and four wounded, including Bettesworth, whom a musket ball had hit in the head. The Frenchman had 30 killed and 40 wounded. The French recaptured Dame Ernouf shortly thereafter, but the British then recaptured her again too.

That same year (1805) he brought home from Antigua despatches from Admiral Nelson, apprising the government of Admiral Villeneuve's homeward flight from the West Indies. On the way Bettesworth spotted the French fleet and alerted the Admiralty. His information led to Rear Admiral Robert Calder's interception of the Franco-Spanish fleet at the Battle of Finisterre.  For his services, Lord Barham promoted Bettesworth to Post-Captain.

HMS Crocodile

In July 1806, he became captain of the 22-gun  , on the Guernsey station, and later Halifax, Nova Scotia. While with Crocodile, Bettesworth was involved in an unsuccessful claim for salvage rights to the American vessel Walker. A French privateer had captured Walker, but her crew has subsequently recaptured their ship when Crocodile came on the scene and escorted her to Halifax. For this service, Crocodile claimed salvage rights. The court did not agree.

HMS Tartar

In October 1807, Bettesworth took command of the 32-gun frigate HMS Tartar. That month his cousin, the poet Lord Byron, wrote:

"Next January ... I am going to sea for four or five months with my cousin, Captain Bettesworth, who commands the Tartar, the finest frigate in the navy ... We are going probably to the Mediterranean or to the West Indies, or to the devil; and if there is a possibility of taking me to the latter, Bettesworth will do it, for he has received four-and-twenty wounds in different places, and at this moment possesses a letter from the late Lord Nelson stating that Bettesworth is the only officer in the navy who had more wounds than himself."

The promised voyage never took place and on 16 May 1808 Bettesworth died in the Battle of Alvøen . Tartar was watching some vessels outside Bergen and decided to cut some of them off from the protecting gunboats. However, Tartar became becalmed amid the rocks, which enabled the schooner Odin and five gunboats to attack. Their first shots killed Bettesworth, and in all Tartar lost two dead and seven wounded before she could escape. Tartar did manage to sink one gunboat.

Personal

Bettesworth had married Lady Hannah Althea Grey, the second daughter of General Charles Grey, 1st Earl Grey and Elizabeth Grey, on 24 August 1807, while he was captain on Crocodile. After Bettesworth's death, she married Edward Ellice, a merchant, on 30 October 1809. She died on 28 July 1832.

Betteworth's body was buried at Howick, Northumberland, in the vault of the Grey family, on 27 May 1808. Major Trevanion, "a brother of Captain Bettesworth" and probably his natural brother as he was born John Bettesworth, was chief mourner. (Byron's grandmother was a Miss Trevanion; John Bettesworth's paternal grandmother was a Trevanion, through whom he inherited the Caerhays estate.)

Sources

Brenton, Edward Pelham (1823) The naval history of Great Britain, from the year MDCCLXXXIII. to MDCCCXXXVI. (London: C. Rice).
Rose, Hugh James, Henry John Rose, Thomas Wright (1857) A new general biographical dictionary, Volume 4. (London: T. Fellowes).
Southey, Thomas (1827) Chronological history of the West Indies, Vol. 3. (London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green).
Stewart, James, Nova Scotia. Vice-Admiralty Court (1814) Reports of cases, argued and determined in the court of vice-admiralty: at Halifax, in Nova-Scotia, from the commencement of the war, in 1803, to the end of the year 1813, in the time of Alexander Croke. (London : J. Butterworth).
Winfield, Rif. British Warships in the Age of Sail, 1793-1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing, 2nd edition, 2008. .

1808 deaths
1785 births
Royal Navy officers
Royal Navy personnel of the Napoleonic Wars
British military personnel killed in action in the Napoleonic Wars

George Edmund Byron Bettesworth


A relative atomic mass (also called atomic weight; symbol: Ar) is a measure of how heavy atoms are. It is the ratio of the average mass per atom of an element from a given sample to 1/12 the mass of a carbon-12 atom. In other words, a relative atomic mass tells you the number of times an average atom of an element from a given sample is heavier than one-twelfth of an atom of carbon-12. The word relative in relative atomic mass refers to this scaling relative to carbon-12. Relative atomic mass values are ratios; relative atomic mass is a dimensionless quantity. Relative atomic mass is the same as atomic weight, which is the older term.

The number of protons an atom has determines what element it is. However, most elements in nature consist of atoms with different numbers of neutrons. An atom of an element with a certain number of neutrons is called an isotope. For example, the element thallium has two common isotopes: thallium-203 and thallium-205. Both isotopes of thallium have 81 protons, but thallium-205 has 124 neutrons, 2 more than thallium-203, which has 122. Each isotope has its own mass, called its isotopic mass. A relative isotopic mass is the mass of an isotope relative to 1/12 the mass of a carbon-12 atom. The relative isotopic mass of an isotope is roughly the same as its mass number, which is the number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus. Like relative atomic mass values, relative isotopic mass values are ratios with no units.

We can find the relative atomic mass of a sample of an element by working out the abundance-weighted mean of the relative isotopic masses. For example, if a sample of thallium is made up of 30% thallium-203 and 70% thallium-205,

Two samples of an element that consists of more than one isotope, collected from two widely spaced sources on Earth, are expected to have slightly different relative atomic masses. This is because the proportions of each isotope are slightly different at different locations.

A standard atomic weight is the mean value of relative atomic masses of a number of normal samples of the element. Standard atomic weight values are published at regular intervals by the Commission on Isotopic Abundances and Atomic Weights of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). The standard atomic weight for each element is on the periodic table.

Often, the term relative atomic mass is used to mean standard atomic weight. This is not quite correct, because relative atomic mass is a less specific term that refers to individual samples. Individual samples of an element could have a relative atomic mass different to the standard atomic weight for the element. For example, a sample from another planet could have a relative atomic mass very different to the standard Earth-based value.

Relative atomic mass is not the same as:
 atomic mass (symbol: ma), which is the mass of a single atom, commonly expressed in unified atomic mass units
 mass number (symbol: A), which is the sum of the number of protons and the number of neutrons in the nucleus of an atom
 atomic number (symbol: Z), which is the number of protons in the nucleus of an atom.

References

Other websites

Chemistry
Nuclear physics

Relative atomic mass


Adam G. Ciongoli (born 1968) is a government and private lawyer, and was the Counselor to United States Attorney General John Ashcroft during the September 11, 2001 attacks and in the period that followed.

According to an October 2002 profile in Legal Times, Ciongoli grew up in Burlington, Vermont, the son of A. Kenneth Ciongoli, a neurologist and chairman of the National Italian American Foundation.  Ciongoli attended the University of Pennsylvania, and graduated from Georgetown University Law Center in 1995. He began his legal career as a clerk for then-Judge Samuel Alito. on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Newark, New Jersey.  After his clerkship, Ciongoli went to work for Kenneth Starr, Paul Cappuccio and other noted Republican lawyers in the Washington, DC office of Kirkland & Ellis. In 1999, he succeeded his friend and former Kirkland colleague, Paul Clement as the chief counsel to the United States Senate Constitution Subcommittee, which was chaired by then-Senator John Ashcroft.

After an unusual re-election defeat, Ashcroft was appointed Attorney General by President-elect George W. Bush, and took Ciongoli to the Justice Department with him.  Ciongoli played a prominent role as the Attorney General's legal advisor, including participation in formulating the Patriot Act, and drafting the administration's order authorizing military commissions to try suspected terrorists and writing the subsequent regulations. In 2003, the White House Chief of Staff, Andy Card, named  Ciongoli as the administration's chief liaison to the Independent 9/11 Commission; Some Democratic members of the Commission criticized Ciongoli for restricting the Commission's access to key people and documents.

After leaving the Justice Department later that year, Mr. Ciongoli became a senior vice president and general counsel at Time Warner Europe.

When his former boss, Judge Alito was nominated to the United States Supreme Court, Ciongoli played an active role in preparing Alito for his confirmation hearings and in publicly advocating the nomination.   In a surprising move, Ciongoli then left his lucrative corporate job to become one of the newly confirmed Justice Alito's law clerks.  Justice Alito officiated Mr. Ciongoli's marriage in June 2006.
Mr. Ciongoli went on to be general counsel of a number of well-known public companies post-clerkship, including Willis Group Holdings plc (2007-2012). Lincoln Financial Group (2012-2015), and since July 2015 General Counsel of the Campbell Soup Company.

See also
List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 8)

References

1968 births
Living people
United States Department of Justice lawyers
United States Senate lawyers
People from Burlington, Vermont
University of Pennsylvania alumni
Georgetown University Law Center alumni
Law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States
Lawyers from Washington, D.C.
People associated with Kirkland & Ellis

Adam G. Ciongoli


Hot rods are typically American cars that might be old, classic, or modern and that have been rebuilt or modified with large engines optimized for speed and acceleration. One definition is: "a car that's been stripped down, souped up and made to go much faster." However, there is no definition of the term that is universally accepted and the term is attached to a wide range of vehicles. Most often they are individually designed and constructed using components from many makes of old or new cars, and are most prevalent in the United States and Canada. Many are intended for exhibition rather than for racing or everyday driving.

The origin of the term "hot rod" is unclear. Some say that the term "hot" refers to the vehicle's being stolen. Other origin stories include replacing the engine's camshaft or "rod" with a higher performance version. According to the Hot Rod Industry Alliance (HRIA), the term changes in meaning over the years, but "hot rodding has less to do with the vehicle and more to do with an attitude and lifestyle". For example, hot rods were favorites for greasers.

The term has broadened to apply to other items that are modified for a particular purpose, such as "hot-rodded amplifier".

Etymology
There are various theories about the origin of the term "hot rod". The common theme is that "hot" related to "hotting up" a car, which means modifying it for greater performance. With regards to the word "rod", one theory is that it means roadster, a lightweight 2-door car which was often used as the basis for early hot rods. Another theory is that "rod" refers to camshaft, a part of the engine which was often upgraded in order to increase power output.

In the early days, a car modified for increased performance was called a "gow job". This term morphed into the hot rod in the early to late 1940s.

The term "hot rod" has had various uses in relation to performance cars. For example, the Ontario Ministry of the Environment in its vehicle emissions regulations refers to a hot rod as any motorized vehicle that has a replacement engine differing from the factory original.

History

1920s to 1945
The predecessors to the hotrod were the modified cars used in the Prohibition era by bootleggers to evade revenue agents and other law enforcement.

Hot rods first appeared in the late 1930s in southern California, where people raced modified cars on dry lake beds northeast of Los Angeles, under the rules of the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA), among other groups. This gained popularity after World War II, particularly in California, because many returning soldiers had received technical training. The first hot rods were old cars (most often Fords, typically 1910s-1920s Model Ts, 1928–31 Model As, or 1932-34 Model Bs), modified to reduce weight. Engine swaps often involved fitting the Ford flathead V8 engine (known as the "flatty") into a different car, for example, the common practice in the 1940s of installing the "60 horse" version into a Jeep chassis.

Typical modifications were removal of convertible tops, hoods, bumpers, windshields, and/or fenders; channeling the body; and modifying the engine by tuning and/or replacing with a more powerful type. Wheels and tires were changed for improved traction and handling. Hot rods built before 1945 commonly used '35 Ford wire-spoke wheels.

1945 to 1960

After World War II, many small military airports throughout the country were either abandoned or rarely used, allowing hot rodders across the country to race on marked courses. Originally, drag racing had tracks as long as  or more, and included up to four lanes of racing simultaneously. As some hot rodders also raced on the street, a need arose for an organization to promote safety, and to provide venues for safe racing. The National Hot Rod Association was founded in 1951, to take drag racing off the streets and into controlled environments.

In the '50s and '60s, the Ford flathead V8 was supplanted by the Chrysler FirePower engine (known as the "early hemi"). Many hot rods would upgrade the brakes from mechanical to hydraulic ("juice") and headlights from bulb to sealed-beam. A typical mid-1950s to early 1960s custom Deuce was fenderless and steeply chopped, powered by a Ford or Mercury flathead, with an Edelbrock intake manifold, Harman and Collins magneto, and Halibrand quick-change differential. Front suspension hairpins were adapted from sprint cars, such as the Kurtis Krafts.

As hot rodding became more popular, magazines and associations catering to hot rodders were started, such as the magazine Hot Rod, founded in 1948.

1960 to present

As automobiles offered by the major automakers began increasing performance, the lure of hot rods began to wane. With the advent of the muscle car, it was now possible to purchase a high-performance car straight from the showroom.

However, the 1973 Oil Crisis caused car manufacturers to focus on fuel efficiency over performance, which led to a resurgence of interest in hot rodding. As the focus shifted away from racing, the modified cars became known as "street rods". The National Street Rod Association (NSRA) was formed and began hosting events.

By the 1970s, the  small-block Chevy V8 was the most common choice of engine for hot rods. Another popular engine choice is the Ford Windsor engine. During the 1980s, many car manufacturers were reducing the displacements of their engines, thus making it harder for hot rod builders to obtain large displacement engines. Instead, engine builders had to modify the smaller engines (such as using non-standard crankshafts and pistons) to obtain larger displacement. While current production V8s tended to be the most frequent candidates, this also applied to others. In the mid-1980s, as stock engine sizes diminished, rodders discovered the  aluminum-block Buick or Oldsmobile V8 could be modified for substantially greater displacement, with mainly wrecking yard parts. This trend was not limited to American cars; Volkswagen enthusiasts similarly stretched stock 1600cc engines to over two liters.

In modern culture

There is still a vibrant hot rod culture worldwide, especially in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Sweden. The hot rod community has now been subdivided into two main groups: street rodders and hot rodders.

Lifestyle

There is a contemporary movement of traditional hot rod builders, car clubs and artists who have returned to the roots of hot rodding as a lifestyle. This includes a new breed of traditional hot rod builders, artists, and styles, as well as classic style car clubs. Events like GreaseOrama feature traditional hot rods and the greaser lifestyle. Magazines like Ol' Skool Rodz, Gears and Gals, and Rat-Rods and Rust Queens cover events and people.

In popular culture

Author Tom Wolfe was one of the first to recognize the importance of hot rodding in popular culture and brought it to mainstream attention in his book The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby.

There are magazines that feature traditional hot rods, including Hot Rod, Car Craft, Rod and Custom, and Popular Hot Rodding. There are also television shows such as My Classic Car, Horsepower TV, American Hot Rod, Fast and Loud, and Chop Cut Rebuild.

Particularly during the early 1960s, a genre of "hot rod music" rose to mainstream popularity. Hot rod music was largely a product of a number of surf music groups running out of ideas for new surfing songs and simultaneously shifting their lyrical focus toward hot rods. Hot rod music would prove to be the second phase in a progression known as the California Sound, which would mature into more complex topics as the decade passed. Hot rods were used as the theme of Lightning Rod, a Rocky Mountain Construction roller coaster at Dollywood.

In Sweden and Finland

Locals in these countries, influenced by American culture, have created a local hot rod culture which is vibrant in Sweden and Finland where enthusiasts gather at meetings such as Power Big Meet and clubs like Wheels and Wings in Varberg, Sweden have established themselves in Hot Rod culture. Since there is very little "vintage tin" the hot rods in Sweden are generally made with a home made chassis (usually a Model T or A replica), with a Jaguar (or Volvo 240) rear axle, a small-block V8, and fiberglass tub, but some have been built using for instance a Volvo Duett chassis. Because the Swedish regulations required a crash test even for custom-built passenger cars between 1969 and 1982, the Duett option was preferred, since it was considered a rebodied Duett rather than a new vehicle. Some 1950s and 1960s cars are also hot rodded, like Morris Minor, Ford Anglia, Volvo Amazon, Ford Cortina, '57 Chevy, to name but a few. These are known as custom cars (sometimes spelled Kustom).

Gallery

See also

 Automotive restoration
 Custom car
 Cutdown
 Flame job
 Hot hatch
 Import scene
 Kustom
 Lead sled
 Lowrider
 Muscle car
 Plymouth Prowler - a modern take on the hot rod
 Pro Street
 Rat rod
 Stock car
 Three window coupe - one of the classic styles
 Tuner
 Volksrod
 Crate engine

References

External links
 List of Hot rod (www.historicvehicle.org)
 Automotive Museum (www.petersen.org)

Modified vehicles
Kustom Kulture
Visual arts media
Car culture
Youth culture in the United States

Hot rod


François Cheng (; born 30 August 1929) is a Chinese-born French academician, writer, poet, and calligrapher. He is the author of essays, novels, collections of poetry and books on art written in the French language, and the translator of some of the great French poets into Chinese.

Biography
Born in Nanchang, Jiangxi in 1929, Cheng traveled to France in 1948 at the age of nineteen. In his 2002 speech to the Académie française, Cheng said,
"I became a Frenchman in law, mind and heart more than thirty years ago [...] especially from that moment when I resolutely went over to the French language, making it the weapon, or the soul, of my creative work. This language, how can I say everything that I owe to it? It is so intimately bound up with the way I live and my inner life that it has proved to be the emblem of my destiny."

Cheng's first works were academic studies about Chinese poetry and painting. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, he worked with the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan on studying and translating texts from the classical Chinese canon. These exchanges informed Lacan's late teaching on psychoanalytic interpretation. Later he began to write poems in French, before finally turning to the writing of novels.

Cheng won the 1998 Prix Femina for his novel Le Dit de Tianyi ("The Tale of Tianyi") (Albin Michel, Paris, 1998). In 2002 he was elected to the Académie française, the first person of Asian origin to be so honored. Since 2008, he has been a member of the Fondation Chirac's honour committee.

Marriage and family
Cheng married a painter who was also a Chinese national. They became French citizens and had a family. Their daughter Anne Cheng, born in Paris in 1955, also became an academic and sinologist.

Bibliography
Analyse formelle de l'œuvre poétique d'un auteur des Tang : Zhang Ruoxu (1970)
Le Pousse-pousse, by Lao She, (translation, 1973)
L'Écriture poétique chinoise (1977)
Vide et plein: le langage pictural chinois (1979)
L'espace du rêve: mille ans de peinture chinoise (1980)
Sept poètes français (1983)
Henri Michaux, sa vie, son œuvre (1984)
Chu Ta : le génie du trait (1986)
Some Reflections on Chinese Poetic Language and its Relation to Chinese Cosmology dans The Vitality of the Lyric Voice (1986)
The Reciprocity of Subject and Object in Chinese Poetic Language dans Poetics East and West (1988)
De l'arbre et du rocher (1989)
Entre source et nuage, Voix de poètes dans la Chine d'hier et d'aujourd'hui (1990)
Saisons à vie (1993)
Trente-six poèmes d'amour (1997)
Quand les pierres font signe (1997) (with Fabienne Verdier)
Le Dit de Tianyi (1998, Prix Femina)
Shitao : la saveur du monde (1998, Prix André Malraux)
Cantos toscans (1999)
D'où jaillit le chant (2000)
Double chant (2000, Prix Roger Caillois)
Et le souffle devient signe (2001)
Qui dira notre nuit (2001)
L'éternité n'est pas de trop, Albin Michel, (2002)
Le Dialogue, Une passion pour la langue française, Desclée de Brouwer, (2002)
Le Long d'un amour, Arfuyen, (2003)
Le Livre du vide médian, Albin Michel, (2004)
Que nos instants soient d'accueil, with Francis Herth (2005)
À l'orient de tout, Gallimard, (2005)
Cinq méditations sur la beauté, Albin Michel, (2006)
L'un vers l'autre. En voyage avec Victor Segalen, Albin Michel, (2008)
Quand reviennent les âmes errantes, Albin Michel, (2012)
Cinq méditations sur la mort – autrement dit sur la vie – Broché (2013)
Une longue route pour m'unir au chant français, Albin Michel, (2022)

See also
Chinese diaspora in France

References

External links
 Biography on the Académie française website

1929 births
Living people
People from Nanchang
Members of the Académie Française
Chinese emigrants to France
20th-century Chinese poets
Nanjing University alumni
École pratique des hautes études alumni
Prix Femina winners
20th-century French male writers
20th-century French poets
21st-century French poets
21st-century French male writers
French translators
Officers of the Legion of Honour
Audiobook narrators
Chevaliers of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques
Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
French male non-fiction writers
Naturalized citizens of France
University of Nanking alumni
French-language writers from China

François Cheng


Phillip "Pip" Pyle (4 April 1950 – 28 August 2006) was an English-born drummer from Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, who later resided in France. He is best known for his work in the Canterbury scene bands Gong, Hatfield and the North and National Health.

Biography
Pyle joined Phil Miller, a friend from kindergarten, and Phil's brother Steve, in forming Bruno's Blues Band, which rapidly evolved into Delivery. However, Pyle left the band in 1970 after arguing with singer Carol Grimes. He briefly played in blues band Chicken Shack and Steve Hillage's band Khan.

In 1971, drummer Robert Wyatt asked Pyle to play instead of him on one track of Daevid Allen's solo album Banana Moon. From this, Pyle joined Allen in Gong. While only in the band for eight months, Pyle played on both Camembert Électrique and Continental Circus. Pyle was replaced by Laurie Allan, but rejoined Gong in 1989.

In 1972, Pyle worked with Paul Jones (who had been singing with Manfred Mann) and with British singer Bridget St John, before founding Hatfield and the North with the Miller brothers and Richard Sinclair in 1972. Steve Miller was soon replaced by Dave Sinclair (Richard's cousin, from the band Caravan) before finalizing on the lineup of Pyle, Phil Miller, Richard Sinclair and keyboardist Dave Stewart. Hatfield and the North was released in 1974, while a second album, The Rotters' Club, followed the next year. As well as drumming, Pyle wrote many of the band's lyrics.

Following Hatfield, Pyle joined Miller and Stewart in National Health as well as playing in other projects, including Soft Heap with Hugh Hopper, Elton Dean and Alan Gowen. He also played on Neil's Heavy Concept Album (1984), a spin-off from the television series The Young Ones with which Stewart was involved.

In 1984, Pyle met Sophia Domancich and the two had a relationship until 1990. Pyle also started his own band, Pip Pyle's Equip'Out, including Domancich. Equip'Out released Equip'Out, Up! and Instants. He released one solo album, Seven Year Itch, in 1998 with guests including Miller, Sinclair, Stewart, Dean (saxello), Hopper (bass), Jakko Jakszyk, Barbara Gaskin, John Greaves (vocals), François Ovide, Fred T. Baker (bass), Paul Rogers (double bass), Lydia Domancich (piano, Sophia's sister) and Didier Malherbe (alto sax). Pyle also played in Miller's band In Cahoots from 1982 to 2001, appearing on Cutting Both Ways, Split Seconds, Live 86-89, Live in Japan, Recent Discoveries, Parallel and Out of the Blue.

His last projects were his group Bash!, featuring the French guitarist Patrice Meyer, Fred Baker on bass and Alex Maguire on keyboards, and a Hatfield and the North reunion (also with Maguire). Bash! released the live album Belle Illusion (Cuneiform Records), but only played five live shows in total (including Progman Cometh), finding it difficult to attract interest from venues.

In 2005 Pyle joined Phil Miller and Richard Sinclair in a re-formation of Hatfield and the North, with Alex Maguire handling the keyboards. On 29 January, all three were reunited for the first time in fifteen years when Pyle sat in with the Richard Sinclair Band for a few old numbers ("Above And Below", "Share It", "Halfway Between Heaven And Earth" and "Didn't Matter Anyway") during a gig at Whitstable's Horsebridge Arts Centre. The rejuvenated Hatfield made its official live debut on 18 March 2005 at the Mean Fiddler in London, and a brief tour of Europe followed in June. More international touring followed in 2005-06, including dates in Japan, Mexico, the US and Europe. On 26 August 2006 Pyle played his last gig in Feerwerd (Groningen), Netherlands.

He died in Paris on 28 August 2006.

Solo Discography
 1986: L'Équipe Out (52e Rue Est)
 1991: Equip' Out Up! (NTI Music 3 TMR 301)
 1998: 7 Year Itch (Voiceprint VP198CD)
 1999: Pip Pyle's Equipe Out (Voiceprint VP213CD) (re-issue of 1st album)
 2004: Belle Illusion (Cuneiform Rune 193) (partially recorded at Progman Cometh)
 2004: Instants (Hux 062)

Chronology
1966 - 1971 Delivery
1971 - 1971 Chicken Shack
1971 - 1971 Khan
1971 - 1971 Gong
1972 - 1975 Hatfield and the North
1975 - 1976 The Weightwatchers (with Elton Dean and Keith Tippett)
1977 - 1983 National Health
1977 - 1988 Soft Heap
1980 - 1981 Rapid Eye Movement
1982 - 2002 In Cahoots
1984 - 1995 Pip Pyle's Equip'Out
1989 - 1996 Gong reformed
1991 - 1996 Short Wave
1998 - 2006 Absolute Zero
2002 - 2006 Pip Pyle's Bash!
2005 - 2006 Hatfield and the North reformed

Filmography
 2015: Romantic Warriors III: Canterbury Tales (DVD)

References

External links
Official website
Calyx biography and chronology
Interview with Pip Pyle

Obituary in The Independent
Obituary by Dave Stewart of Hatfield and the North

1950 births
2006 deaths
Canterbury scene
Chicken Shack members
Delivery (band) members
English expatriates in France
English rock drummers
Gong (band) members
Hatfield and the North members
In Cahoots members
Khan (band) members
British male drummers
National Health members
People from Sawbridgeworth
People educated at Newport Free Grammar School
20th-century British male musicians
20th-century British musicians

Pip Pyle