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It’s a question that has been debated for centuries by theologians, philosophers, and ordinary people. What is the meaning of life? Where did we come from? Why are we here? What will happen when I die? It is impossible to make the best use of our time on Earth unless we know the answers to these questions.
Mormons—a nickname for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—have the answers to all these questions and live their lives accordingly. The answers begin with events that occurred before we were born, and even before the earth was formed. It’s a wonderful story, even more wonderful because it’s true.
God created our spirits long before we were born. As spirits without bodies, but with personalities, character, and most importantly, agency (free will), we lived with God for a time. We can read mentions of that time in the Bible:
Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it (Ecclesiastes 12:7).
We can’t return to a place we’ve never been, so we must have been with God before our births.
Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations (Jeremiah 1:4-5).
This tells us that during the time we lived with God, He came to know us. We decided what sort of person we wanted to be and how much we cared about God’s teachings. There were varying levels of obedience and spirituality there, just as there is on Earth. Jeremiah was so righteous God knew that even the temptations of mortality would not make Jeremiah unworthy, and so God ordained him to be a prophet even before his birth. God knew him that well, and He knew us equally well.
Eventually, we had progressed as far as we could there. To progress further would require a body and the need for faith. To have faith, we would have to leave God’s presence and forget that we had ever known Him. God outlined His plan to us. We would come to earth, born into a family. We’d gain a body, lose our memories except for periodic unexpected remembrances, and have experiences. Some of these experiences would be trials, but God would allow them, knowing how much we can learn from a trial if we allow ourselves to. Throughout our lives, our experiences, good and bad, would help us to become everything God knows we can be.
He sent help, of course. He knew we would not be perfect, and perfection was required by the laws of justice for a return home to God’s presence. He used the laws of mercy to approve a Savior, someone who would voluntarily come to Earth as the Son of God, but also the son of a mortal woman. This would give Him the unique ability to be both mortal and divine. He would have experiences and trials, just as we would, allowing Him to better understand us. He would die only if He was willing to do so, which He was. Jesus Christ volunteered for the role and He was actually the only Being who could. Without His willingness to take our sins on Himself, despite being sinless, we could never return home. We could be saved in no other way but through the atonement of Jesus Christ. When He was resurrected, it broke the bands of death for everyone.
Why are we here, then? We are here to have new experiences, to be tested, to grow, and to find God and Jesus Christ. When we humble ourselves and open our hearts to the idea of faith, we accomplish the most important thing we need to do. Faith will allow us to accept Jesus Christ as our Savior and to become the type of person He asked us to become.
Mortality is not always easy. We have to be sad to appreciate the joy, lonely to appreciate company, and poor to appreciate being reasonably well-off. Every experience can be used to make us stronger and teach us lessons if we are willing to be taught. Mortality is a wonderful gift from God, but we have to choose to face it joyfully and with faith. | English | NL | d67da7a24c3ca97b83e28b7740e9cd113c833c9c6340c7a6ba92110b9992d843 |
For as long as records have been around, legends have been immortalised by defining moments in sport.
In previous centuries these were painted, drawn and saved in various ways for the enjoyment of future generations. In recent years these moments have been captured by high resolution cameras’, enjoyed by millions worldwide.
Over this time much effort has gone into development of the cameras with huge advances in resolution and performance. However, the lighting, an essential component of photography, has been remarkably static. | English | NL | b2acbb95e9dc104b0981bcfffac9cb7f505dff402234aa19294d411acdb33558 |
Kaori Asada (????, born April 16, 1973, in Kyoto, Japan), known by her stage name BONNIE PINK, is a Japanese singer-songwriter. She first appeared on the scene in 1995 with the album Blue Jam. Although it failed to gain her much notice, two years after meeting The Cardigans producer Tore Johansson, BONNIE PINK released Heaven's Kitchen, which gained her good sales and recognition. To date she has released eleven studio albums, as well as several compilations.
She has sung ending themes for several Japanese anime: "It's gonna rain!" for Rurouni Kenshin, "Last Kiss" for Gantz, "Cotton Candy" for Guyver: Bioboosted Armor. "Love is Bubble" is used as the theme song for the Japanese movie Memories of Matsuko (????????), which also casts her.
BONNIE PINK is another of the multi-talented females doing it for themselves; not only a song-writer, she often takes part in the composing process and has proved to have talent in it. Her style is somewhat softer than singers such as Shiina Ringo, but her skill is no less evident. She also has a talent for singing in both English and Japanese with reasonable skill. | English | NL | 34670906c1ea0c3a8b3480b36618696018cad900bdf13cedcc6a504e15a8ec8c |
They are filled with a special atmosphere.
Artist gaël Patin (Patin Gaеl) having not the best eyesight, relying on their imagination depicts objects as if they have anything in common with the world around him, and people and everyday situations are set in the paintings.
Deftly playing with light and shade, emphasizing thus the finest details, he creates very realistic images, like snapshots, reports Cultural studies.
As a child, Gael loved to watch father artist working in the Studio. So he had a thirst for art. In six years, at the insistence of parents, he begins to attend design courses. It was only after moving with his family to France, the boy continued to develop their skills and knowledge in drawing, paying attention to watercolor and oil technique. Trained at the Academy of art in Sardinia, not sharing the views of teachers, he began to study painting. Lost in his own thoughts, having introspective and more and more tending to realism, the future artist began to study the technique of “optical illusion”.
Drawing what he saw, he tried not only to preserve but also to pass on a rich color palette, and the immediacy of optical sensations in his work, sometimes so similar in the pictures. And it is not surprising that, over time, honed his skills, he began to hold solo exhibitions throughout Europe, and his works today are in private collections of European cities.
© 2017 – 2019, z-news.link. All rights reserved. | English | NL | 1dfaa7609ce8dfc6d17206a5c7fc79205e3a094421dc518991ea23fbdce87e79 |
The Rockefellian Keys to Success:
I recently read Ron Chernow’s excellent biography of John D. Rockefeller. He writes that if there was one overarching principle to Rockefeller’s success, it is contained within this maxim of his: “I would rather be my own tyrant than have someone else tyrannize me.”
Rockefeller’s life has many great lessons for us at LegalShield. His most striking quality was self-control, or what we might call self-discipline. He relentlessly improved his will power, training himself to be master of his emotions, desires, and schedule, so that he could direct all his energy towards achieving his goals. He set big goals for himself, and then attacked them with a disciplined, workaday ethic.
Rockefeller understood that if you wish to be your own boss, you have to learn how to boss yourself.
Here were his 6 keys to success:
1. Practice Relentless Persistence
a. He was born in a clapboard house in New York in 1839. His mother was a solid, religious woman, but his father, William Avery Rockefeller, was essentially a snake oil salesman. He was not a good student. But he was known by his friends and classmates as someone who worked hard at everything.
b. He prospected for a job when times were tough. But he found one and obtained a toehold in the world of business, and would use it as a springboard in making his improbable climb from lowly bookkeeper to corporate titan.
2. Cultivate Unassailable Poise and Reserve
a. He had a deep reserve.
b. He held others accountable
c. He adopted a different leadership style than the stereotypical corporate tycoon, cultivating a power that relied not on loud, blustering displays and belligerent table-pounding, but quiet authority. As a young man he had struggled with his temper, but he had trained himself to control it.
d. He was extremely composed in a crisis
3. Check Your Ego
a. “Only fools get swelled up over money.” –John D. Rockefeller
b. Rockefeller keenly understood the way that power and wealth could lead to hubris, and intentionally trained himself not to be guided by ego.
c. Membership in a faith community also aided him in keeping a level head.
4. To Get Wealthy, Have a Purpose Beyond Getting Wealthy
a. “I know of nothing more despicable and pathetic than a man who devotes all the hours of the waking day to the making of money for money’s sake.” –John D. Rockefeller
b. At LegalShield, we call this our “why.” He said, “The man who starts out simply with the idea of getting rich won’t succeed; you must have a larger ambition.”
5. Pay Attention to the Details
a. When it came to appointments, he was religiously punctual. That sounds like our founder, Harland C. Stonecipher, who said, “If you cannot be on time, be early.”
b. He kept his own personal routine: allotting family, faith, and fortune, and sticking to that planned schedule down to the second.
c. In business deals, he always paid his debts and fulfilled his contracts on time.
6. Live Frugally (Even When You Don’t Have To)
a. In looking back on the factors that most shaped the trajectory of his success, Rockefeller believed that one of the most important was his decision to track all of his spending and saving.
b. Rockefeller kept up his thrifty habits throughout his life as well. He would save the paper and string from packages that arrived in the mail, wear out his suits until they had become almost threadbare, and go through the house at night turning off gas lamps that had been left on.
c. The Rockefellers were eager to pass on their frugal ways to their four children, who they understandably worried would grow up to be spoiled adults.
d. In a way, Rockefeller’s frugality wasn’t about money at all — but rather a way to exercise the muscle that had generated his success in the first place and continued to hold it all together: self-mastery.
My name is Jeff Bell, and I am just getting started!
We are LegalShield, and the best is yet to come! | English | NL | a5fdd8182ca8084b3c443df920087ecb8af978cee45b72342bded91d22af4a1b |
I was born into a nominally Catholic household. I’m one of those few lucky Catholic kids that remembers her own baptism. It was when I was 4 and, for me, it was mostly about a pretty dress. That was pretty cool. The rest of it was mostly over my head. The priest wasn’t speaking Latin, but he might as well have been.
Then my parents started working 7 days a week and we stopped going to church. And I didn’t think about it much. Don’t get me wrong, I was never an atheist. I never believed there was NOTHING out there. I couldn’t believe this was all random. I was not an atheist. I was the pagan that tells you that she “prays to the universe.” I was one of a thousand hippie chicks telling you that all things can be true if you believe it. If you walk in love, if your heart is pure, if your intentions are good; it doesn’t matter what you believe or what you do, as long as you don’t hurt anyone. We’re all going to heaven, except maybe really bad people, like Hitler or people like that. And God made a different road for all of us, depending on what works for each of us. I believed in Jesus, but not the Bible. For awhile, I believed that you wanted to behave well because all your ancestors were watching and you wanted to make sure that your grandmother saw what she wanted to see. Then you wouldn’t have to hear about it when you saw her again. I was hugging trees, being guided by spirit animals and communing with spirits. I worshipped the earth and all she stood for. I cast spells, I called corners, I read tarot cards, and I burned candles. I was a witch.
Then it got dark. I was going through life, doing whatever I could to get by, using what I had of a moral compass to try to do what was right. And things just kept coming up. And I just kept getting further and further into some really ugly stuff. And when it got too scary, I left. I thought I was walking out of my broken marriage, and I was. But what I was really walking away from, what God was pushing me away from, were the last things keeping me from Him: my ex-husband, my life, my self, my sin.
Two months later, I was reading a certain Psalm in the middle of the night and I realized the truth of the matter. God was really there, just like it says in the Bible, he made everything that there is to make and we are nothing but one more minuscule thing in a vast creation.
And yet. He still cares about us. More than anything else. He’s watching, he cares, he loves us. And that was it. I was done. Stick a fork in me, I was done. Everything changed. Everything was different. Has it been easy? Did I walk through the last years hand in hand with Jesus on a path of light and love and awesomeness? No. It’s true what they say. When you kick out demons and clean your spiritual house, they come back and they bring their friends. And they say, “cool, you cleaned up the place. It was a real dump before.” So you have to keep kicking them out. I don’t know how long that lasts, they still come back occasionally. But it gets easier because you know what to do: cling to God. And that gets to be more habitual.
And now my sins are not that interesting, relatively speaking. I am less forgiving than I should be. I am less patient than I should be. I should be kinder, more loving, more open about my faith. I could go on. I am not all that God would want me to be. I’m not even all that I would have me be. But compared to where I was just a few short years ago? Yeah, I admit it, I feel pretty good. Safe, secure, well-loved.
But that’s not the dramatic part. Yes, it’s cool. I was a sorceress. I was a slave girl talking to demons, telling the future. I was Rahab in the walls of Jericho with no idea that God was sending his spies all the time. And now, I’m not. I am a woman of faith, following Christ with all my heart. Don’t get me wrong; that’s dramatic. But that’s only about what I did. What’s my testimony? I was stupid and now I’m slightly less stupid? Gee, that’s something to be proud of. What’s really amazing here is what God did.
He pursued me. He put his creation in front of me. He put his word in the world. And he sent his spies to tell me his message.
There was my dad who taught me that there is right and there is wrong and sometimes you don’t understand why. That’s just the way it is. Sometimes it’s just because God said so.
There was my mother who loves Jesus. I didn’t really know what that meant when I was a kid but I knew that I couldn’t question the reality of who Jesus was. There was just no way when she was so certain.
There was a lady up the street who invited me to vacation bible school every year, until the last year I was still young enough to go, and I finally went. It was kinda cool.
There was my roommate in college. A preacher’s daughter, she insisted that I go to Intervarsity with her. If she was going to Improv with me, I was going to bible study with her.
And there were those kids at Intervarsity. They didn’t know me. I wasn’t Christian but when I hit crisis, they prayed for me. They laid hands on me, hugged me and prayed for me like I was one of their own. I was, I just didn’t know it yet.
And there was Pastor Gordon at the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Cheney. He held a 7 week bible study. If you made it through the whole thing, you got $150. I know, I know. Weird, but talk about seeker-friendly! But at the end of that seven weeks, I had $150 and a whole new idea about Jesus and the Bible, and I wanted it. I wanted to get baptized and be one of them. That was about 1995, so clearly I didn’t. My then boyfriend would have…well, I don’t know what he would have done because I didn’t do it and I was too afraid to even bring it up. But I did buy a bible and a whole bunch of other books. And I took enough religion classes that I was 10 credits short of having a second degree.
And there was my favorite religious studies professor. Dr. Kinney was a devout Catholic who was also a Bible scholar. He started answers to my questions with his own questions like: “Are you asking what scholars think or what I believe?” I spent a lot of hours in his office.
And there was the woman who gave me her lawyer’s number and suggested it might be time to get out. She was as pagan as they come. So actively rejecting God that when I came to Jesus, she went straight from “You’re like a sister to me and I would lay down my life for you” to “I can’t trust you.” It took less than a week.
And, finally, there was the man who sent me an early morning email to say that he has hope because he has Jesus and that’s the only reason he’s still here through all the garbage. At that point, I was living in a hotel room with my three kids, 3 weeks away from walking out of my marriage. I was so broken, so tired, I didn’t even have the strength to put my fingers in my ears much less sing Mary Had a Little Lamb. I believe now that that’s when God does his best work in us.
So I started asking questions. And two months later, God changed my heart. Irretrievably. And 13 months after that, I was baptized again in the cold waters off of Alki Beach in West Seattle. This time, there was no pretty dress. But it was still pretty cool. And only the water went over my head.
So, yeah, I have a dramatic testimony. God pursued me for 34 years, 6 months and 2 days, passionately and relentlessly. He allowed me to be broken, allowed everything I thought I knew to be questioned, assaulted, torn down. So that I finally had no logical choice but to stop running the other way and accept the only thing that could possibly be true. | English | NL | a393ead0de05ea0ca0324cbb23f442239cc5c024c42c4acc56f88d4cba980054 |
Drinking Milk Exposes you to High Risk of Parkinson Disease
According to one study, drinking milk can put you at a greater risk of Parkinson's disease. The study that was published in the Journal Neurology found a link between the development of the disease and the contaminants that are found in milk. The research was centered on Japanese-American men that lived in Hawaii in the 80s when the milk contained pesticides from the pineapples. The main objective of the study was to find the aging patterns in the participants. The pineapple debris is commonly fed to the cows in Hawaii. However, the pesticides that were found in the milk are not even used these days. Even then the study supports previous research that the dairy products can increase the risk of Parkinson's disease, as reported by AOL.
The brains of men were studied for this research where it was revealed that the people who drank more than 16 ounces of milk everyday had their nerves compromised in the area affected by Parkinson's disease as compared to the ones who drank less. Since the research was focused on the Americans of Japanese lineage living in Hawaii in their 80s, this study does not particularly raise an alarm for people who consume dairy on a daily basis. It is possible that the milk that these men consumed was contaminated by pesticides in the pineapples. However as of today, that pesticide is not being used anymore, as reported by University Herald.
Robert Abbott, from Shiga University of Medical Science in Japan, and his colleagues used the environmental scandal of 1980s in Hawaii as an opportunity to investigate the link. The pesticide used by the pineapple farmers made its way into the milk supply as its debris was fed to the cows. Coincidently, there was another study around the same time that focused on Japanese-American and their heart disease and involved more than 8,000 people throughout the study period who were followed from their midlife to death. All provided detailed information what they ate and how much milk they drank, reports Time | English | NL | 2e5fe061835b45cbeb8c6ac99bb7445d8232afe7964469585c85c25afb15056f |
Lieutenant, East Yorkshire Regiment
Born: May 11th 1892
Died: September 26th 1915
Age at Death: 23
Killed in action, France, September 26th 1915.
Son of Bernard Cubitt of North Walsham, Norfolk. Bryan took up farming in Norfolk following his time at the College.
A donation to the memorial statue has been made in honour of this soldier by the Tiplady Family.
2nd Lieutenant Bryan Barton Cubitt
Bryan Barton Cubitt was born in 1892 to Bernard and Helen Cubitt. He had a younger sister Helen, born in 1897. The household was completed by a live-in housemaid and cook. They lived at Park Farm, Witton in Norfolk. Bernard Cubitt came from a long line of gentlemen farmers who had lived and farmed the same area of land in Norfolk. Helen Cubitt’s family by contrast came from Goudhurst, Kent and it is perhaps because of that Bryan was educated at Brighton College (Chichester House) from 1906 to 1910. School records indicate that he was a skilled and passionate Cricket player who not only played for the school but also for Norfolk County Cricket Club.
After leaving school he joined his father on the farm and is listed in the 1911 Census as a poultry farmer and ‘employer’. It is clear that the farm was involved in more than just poultry, indeed it was probably predominantly arable so it may be that Bryan Cubitt had started a nascent poultry business, which was a relatively new aspect of farming at the time.
On the outbreak of war Bryan Cubitt received a commission in the 8th battalion East Yorkshire Regiment formed as one of Kitchener’s ‘New Batallions’ on 22 September 1914. After a fairly prolonged period of training, during which it appears that Cubitt was promoted to Lieutenant, the battalion landed at Boulogne on 9th September 1915. It fought its first battle in the failed offensive at Loos, which commenced on the 25th September 1915 and claimed the lives of a significant proportion of the Old Brightonians killed in the war. On the following day Bryan Cubitt lost his life, there is no record of his grave or the actual circumstances of his death but he is commemorated on the Loos memorial.
Source: LEST WE FORGET PROJECT, Brighton College 2014/15 | English | NL | d6496eaacea2964a6bb406bc62c848679de3ce58a014849ac69e3c0785e936f2 |
The Honorable Reynaldo G. Garza, an alumnus of The University of Texas School of Law, was the first Mexican American federal judge when he was appointed by President John F. Kennedy to the Southern District Court in 1961. He served as chief judge of the district from 1974 to 1979.
In 1979, Carter appointed Garza to the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The appointment made him the first Mexican American to sit on that bench. He assumed senior status in 1982 and continued to work until a month before his death in 2004.
Judge Garza’s life and his more than forty years of service as a federal judge have left an indelible impression on the judiciary. He received many honors, including two decorations from Pope Pius XII for his leadership and service to the Catholic Church. Two elementary schools, one in Brownsville and another in McAllen, bear his name.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor became an instant American icon when she became the first Hispanic American and third woman appointed to the US Supreme Court in 2009 by President Obama.
Born in the Bronx, New York City, she graduated summa cum laude with a B.A from Princeton University. She received her J.D. from Yale Law School after serving as an editor at the Yale Law Journal.
After graduation, she served as an assistant district attorney in New York for five years. She entered private practice in 1984, before being nominated to serve on the US District Court for the Southern District of New York by President Bush in 1991.
While serving in that capacity, Justice Sotomayor issued two famous rulings. The first was an injunction against Major League Baseball which ended the 1994 baseball strike. She also ruled to allow the Wall Street Journal to publish Vince Foster’s final note.
In 1997, Bill Clinton nominated her to serve on the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit where she heard more than 3000 appeals and wrote almost four hundred opinions. She had also taught at NYU School of Law and Columbia Law School.
Justice Sotomayor was President Barack Obama’s first nominee to the US Supreme Court.
Judge Frank Howell Seay was the first Native American appointed to the federal bench. His paternal grandfather was a full-blooded Native American, yet he did not discover his Native American heritage until after he was appointed to the federal bench.
Oklahoma has always been his home. He received both his BA (in 1961) and law degree (in 1963) from the University of Oklahoma. After law school, he practiced as a private attorney and worked as an attorney for Seminole County.
In 1967, Judge Seay became the First Assistant district attorney for the 22nd Judicial District of Oklahoma. Only a year later, he was elected Associate Judge of the District Court of Oklahoma for Seminole County where he served for six years. He was elevated to the level of judge in 1974, and held this position until 1979.
In 1979, Judge Seay was appointed to the US District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma by President Carter, becoming the first Native American appointed to a federal court. He served as chief justice of the said court just a year later.
His notable cases include his decision to uphold as constitutional the Oklahoma Right to Work Law, and reverse the rulings that led to the unjust convictions of two men in Pontotoc County, a case depicted in the John Grishman book, The Innocent Man.
Judge Carol Jean Vigil was the first Native American woman to be elected as a state district judge in the US and the first female Native American to be elected a state court judge in New Mexico. She was a member of the Pueblo people.
She received her BA and law degree from the University of New Mexico. She became the first Pueblo woman to be admitted to the New Mexico state bar following her completion of law school. She was sworn in as a New Mexican 1st Judicial District state judge in 1998, becoming the first Native American female judge in New Mexico and the first Native American to be elected a judge of any general jurisdiction court in the United States.
In a tribute to her heritage, Vigil was sworn into office while wearing a black judicial robe decorated with beaded Pueblo Indian symbols that included lightning, clouds, rain and mountains embroidered on her shoulders.
In one of her most notable rulings, Judge Vigil upheld state court jurisdiction over tort claims for personal injury which had been filed by customers of Native American gambling enterprises. The Puebloans of New Mexico opposed her decision, but she was ultimately upheld by the state supreme court.
Judge Deborah Batts became the nation’s first openly LGBT, African American federal judge when was sworn in as a judge for US District Court for the Southern District of New York in 1994.
As a federal judge, Judge Batts had overseen a variety of high-profile cases and hearings. In 1999, she oversaw the indictment of Cheng Yong Wang and Xingqi Fu, charged with attempting to sell the organs of executed Chinese prisoners. She granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss the indictment.
In 2001, she wrote an opinion resolving the issues of the sentencing hearing of Al-Qaeda co-founder Mamdouh Mahmud Salim for the stabbing of a prison guard while Salim awaited trial in the case of the 1998 US embassy bombings.
She was also the judge in a widely publicized 2006 case against EPA Chief Christine Todd Whitman. Whitman was charged for her failure to adequately warn New Yorkers of the health risks involved in returning to their homes after the September 11th terrorist attacks.
In 2011, Judge Batts married Dr. Gwen Lois Zornberg, a lead medical officer epidemiologist for the Food and Drug Administration. A year later, she took senior status.
The Honorable Rives Kistler joined the Oregon Supreme Court as an Associate Justice in August 2003, after serving four years as a judge on the Oregon Court of Appeals. At the time of his appointment, he was the only openly LGBT state Supreme Court justice in the country.
Justice Kistler graduated summa cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 1981. He went into private practice as a litigation associate for Stoel Rives LLP in Portland from 1983 to 1987. He then moved to the Oregon Department of Justice and served as an Assistant Attorney General for 12 years, representing the state in civil and criminal appeals before the state and federal courts.
In addition, Justice Kistler has taught state constitutional law as an adjunct professor at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland. He is a former member and vice-chair of the Oregon Board of Bar Examiners and a former member of the National Association of Attorneys General Working Groups on criminal law, federalism, and free speech; he served as chair of the working group on free speech.
Judge Victoria Kolakowski (born Michael Kolakowski) is the first openly transgender person to serve as a trial judge in the country after being appointed as judge of Alameda County Superior Court in 2011.
Judge Kolakowski graduated from New College of Florida with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Natural Sciences in 1982, and earned master’s degrees in biomedical engineering, electrical engineering, public administration, and divinity. She received a law degree from Louisiana State University.
She began transition in 1989 (her last year in law school) and had sex reassignment surgery in 1991.
In 2010, Judge Kolakowski campaigned for a judgeship on the Superior Court of Alameda County, California, where she was elected with 51% of the vote to her opponent’s 48%. She won by 10,000 votes. Her victory was significant, not only for the transgender community, but also for women, who occupy a small percentage of judgeships. She received California’s Equality and Justice Award.
Kolakowski co-chaired the Transgender Law Center, an organization dedicated to the well-being and protection of transgender individuals. She serves on the California Council of Churches and is a volunteer clergy member at the New Spirit Community Church.
In 2008, Judge Kolakowski married Cynthia Laird, news editor of the Bay Area Reporter. | English | NL | ef5d9b911aff4e4cb0ffa32cc8b920c1330ca7e375d9c119ea282a100172bb42 |
HEARING the doorbell ring, I realized I had dozed off while reading the evening paper. I thought my wife was answering the door until I glanced through my den window and saw her in the backyard. I hurried to the door and peered through the peephole to examine the caller. However, he had already turned away, evidently thinking no one was home. Though unable to see his face, I watched a little boy not more than six years old. His lithe body swayed from side to side in rhythmic movements as he moved smoothly across the lawn.
What I witnessed held me transfixed in wonderment, for I had never seen such a joyful dance. It seemed to be a spontaneous creation, executed as though the dancer had not a care in the world. With arms raised high and turned to the right, he leaned his head in the same direction while standing on one leg. Then he made a complete reversal of movements, repeating the performance until he disappeared. The slow, unbroken rhythm, without song or music, was natural and graceful.
I turned from the door when I heard my wife ask, ``Hello? Are you frozen there?''
Surprised and somewhat embarrassed, I shook off the trance to say, ``I have just been entertained by a most beautiful dance.''
Long before our retirement we gave up dancing, a fine art for which we had no gift.
``You must tell me all about it,'' she replied, jokingly.
And so I did -- even demonstrating an imitation of the dance. However, my somewhat awkward motions lacked the appropriate grace. When I fell against the wall, she could no longer restrain her laughter.
``Shall I turn on the radio and find you some music?'' she wanted to know. I decided to become a partner in the levity, ``No, my dear. Don't you know that unheard music is sweeter?''
She resisted being put down, ``Like music of the spheres which poets try to hear?''
Nevertheless, I continued my swaying and reaching act without noticeable improvement.
Then, out of the blue, with a straight face, she exclaimed, ``I think I'll try that!''
She danced gracefully, like a professional, I thought.
``Now what is the name of this new dance?'' she asked.
``Why, it's called `Little Boy Dancing' as far as I know.''
We never learned why our visitor had rung the doorbell. Perhaps it was simply to brighten our day. | English | NL | 713d0b87dbf4f971ad6ff93ebc11819ff59fe5ee9fbb594fc6ab0d0838233727 |
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In the early 1750s Thomas Polk, along with his parents, brothers and sisters, came down the great trading path from Pennsylvania to settle Anson County in the Royal Colony of North Carolina. He soon acquired land, met and married Susannah Spratt, and settled down to raise a family.
He was elected to the Colonial Assembly several times. He was elected Captain of his Militia company and later Colonel commanding the County Militia.
In 1775, as war clouds gathered, Polk called the meeting which adopted the famed Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, which he read from the courthouse steps. Late in 1775 Polk led the Mecklenburg Militia to suppress active loyalists in South Carolina where his son William was wounded – the first blood spilled south of Lexington, Massachusetts. In 1776 when the Continental Congress called for troops from all of the Colonies to serve under General George Washington to oppose the British Army, Polk was among the first to answer the call and was named Colonel of the Fourth North Carolina Regiment of the Continental Line.
He served with distinction in the battle of Brandywine, organized the evacuation of Philadelphia and spent part of that hard winter at Valley Forge. In 1777, as the British were approaching Philadelphia, Col. Thomas Polk was given the honor of commanding a detachment to move the heavy baggage out of Philadelphia to keep it from falling into British hands. They also carried all of the city’s bells which the British would have melted down and cast as cannons. One of these bells, the Town Bell or State House Bell, came later to be known as the Liberty Bell and has been a symbol of the July 4th 1776 Declaration of Independence ever since.
After the war, until his death in 1793, Polk continued to execute his civic duties and to acquire property, becoming one of the richest men in this part of the state.
Thomas and Susannah Polk are buried together in old Settlers Cemetery in uptown Charlotte, surrounded by their children and grandchildren. | English | NL | eb62d39a29de0092a50ca57eeeb63ae4f97e69ad91b26d2d78ce3261dac68578 |
Jay-Z & Beyoncé
American Music Power Couple
Shawn Corey Carter was born December 4, 1969 and is known professionally as Jay-Z, he is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer, and entrepreneur. Jay-Z is among the most acclaimed musicians of the 21st century, and is one of the most celebrated rappers of all-time. He has received 21 Grammy Awards. He also holds the record for the most number-one albums by a solo artist on the Billboard 200, and has recorded four number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100. The same publication ranked him as the biggest artist of the 2000s, while Rolling Stone named him one of the 100 greatest artists of all-time.
Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter was born on September 4, 1981 and is an American singer, songwriter, performer, and actress. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, Beyoncé performed in various singing and dancing competitions as a child. She rose to fame in the late 1990s as lead singer of the R&B girl-group Destiny's Child and then branching off into a successful solo career.
Throughout her career, Beyoncé has sold over 100 million records worldwide, making her one of the world's best-selling music artists. She has won 22 Grammy Awards and is the most nominated woman in the award's history. She is also the most awarded artist at the MTV Video Music Awards, with 24 wins, including the Video Vanguard Award. | English | NL | d31210056ec655a141713effbc1a66bb9d1106a2faaae0198fb7d36550c4ba15 |
More Lighting Candles than Cursing Darkness
The fundamental things apply
As time goes by.
The unthinkable has happened, and Donald Trump has been elected President. Since it happened, though, we’d better start thinking it. The election succeeded in revealing, and fomenting, a bitterly divided country….
We need a star to steer by in such times, whatever else we do. Maybe everyone needs to hew to their personal star, the gleam of the principles, communities, practices and divinities that mean most to them.
I think of some of the people who could do this. Georg Kuehlewind, his spiritual investigations sparkling through the murk of Soviet-controlled Hungary. Aung San Suu Kyii, deepening her Buddhist practice during decades of house arrest. Emily Dickinson, finding a firmament in a grain of sand despite suffering inner and outer oppressions that kept her pinned to her father’s grounds. Dogen, hounded by doctrinaire sects, opening the grounds of effortless being. I think of Nur Un Nissa Inayat Khan, the Sufi who remained joyous and resourceful under Nazi oppression and imprisonment, all the way through to her murder and beyond.
These are not the most famous and most outward activists, who may also inspire and instruct us in times like these. They are just a few of the countless spiritual adventurers who both overcame the world (John 16;33) and embraced it, in circumstances that would appear impossible.
I urge you to participate in the inner and outer activisms that call to you. Allowing the emotions their full life – grief or anger or fear or confusion or hopelessness – maybe we can still return to actions that spring from our love for this planet. Maybe we can grow more generously curious about those who inhabit it with us and who think, suffer and love differently.
The star I try to steer by is what’s called logos or Word in the Greek texts. It is not love or existence, but the possibility for these and all other graces. It wants incarnation; it wants the planet to flourish. It wants us each to create our common good and common origin, since it is connection, relationship itself.
John the Evangelist dared to set relational meaning (the Word) before everything else. This Word does not belong to any religion, region or people. It is just as Islamic as it is Jewish, just as Buddhist as it is Christian, just as Hindu as it is Shamanic, just as present in the agnostic or atheist as in any of these.
For the next few weeks in the group, we’ll take fresh impetus from the election to dive more curiously into the Prologue to the Gospel of John (John 1:1-14). Here’s the King James version:
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2The same was in the beginning with God. 3All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. 6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. 8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. 9That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. 11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
14And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
Next Tuesday, let’s take a little time to air feelings, insights and experiences about recent political events. Lets share outward and inward strategies. Then we’ll shout out loud and stamp our feet. And then we’ll sigh out loud, maybe more than once. And then we’ll get to work.
All blessings to all, | English | NL | d4c5d08f5b685950349617224b7cb09bcf652c88d3e6f2e34ba4a5e3ace407a8 |
Thoughts from the Early Church
Commentary by John Chrysostom
I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor. (John 14:16)
“If you love me,” said Christ, “keep my commandments.” I have commanded you to love one another and to treat one another as I have treated you. To love me is to obey these commands, to submit to me your beloved.
“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor.” This promise shows once again Christ’s consideration. Because his disciples did not yet know who he was, it was likely that they would greatly miss his companionship, his teaching, his actual physical presence, and be completely disconsolate when he had gone.
Therefore he said: “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor,” meaning another like himself.
They received the Spirit after Christ had purified them by his sacrifice. The Spirit did not come down on them while Christ was still with them, because this sacrifice had not yet been offered.
But when sin had been blotted out and the disciples, sent out to face danger, were preparing themselves for the battle, they needed the Holy Spirit’s coming to encourage them.
If you ask why the Spirit did not come immediately after the resurrection, this was in order to increase their gratitude for receiving him by increasing their desire.
They were troubled by nothing as long as Christ was with them, but when his departure had left them desolate and very much afraid, they would be most eager to receive the Spirit.
“He will remain with you.” Christ said, meaning his presence with you will not be ended by death.
But since there was a danger that hearing of a Counselor might lead them to expect another incarnation and to think they would be able to see the Holy Spirit, he corrected this idea by saying: “The world cannot receive him because it does not see him.”
For he will not be with you in the same way as I am, but will dwell in your very souls, “He will be in you.”
Christ called him the Spirit of truth because the Spirit would help them to understand the types of the old law. By “He will be with you” he meant, “He will be with you as I am with you,” but he also hinted at the difference between them, namely, that the spirit would not suffer as he had done, nor would he ever depart.
“The world cannot receive him because it does not see him.” Does this imply that the Spirit is visible? By no means; Christ is speaking here of knowledge, for he adds: “or know him.”
Sight being the sense by which we perceive things most distinctly, he habitually used this sense to signify knowledge. By “the world” he means here the wicked, thus giving his disciples the consolation of receiving a special gift.
He said that the Spirit was another like himself, that he would not leave them, that he would come to them just as he himself had come, and that he would remain in them.
Yet even this did not drive away their sadness, for they still wanted Christ himself and his companionship. So to satisfy them he said: “I will not leave you orphans; I will come back to you.”
Do not be afraid, for when I promised to send you another counselor I did not mean that I was going to abandon you for ever, nor by saying that he would remain with you did I mean that I would not see you again. Of course I also will come to you; “I will not leave you orphans.”
(Homily 75, 1:PG 59, 403-405)
John Chrysostom (c.347-407) was born at Antioch and studied under Diodore of Tarsus, the leader of the Antiochene school of theology. After a period of great austerity as a hermit, he returned to Antioch where he was ordained deacon in 381 and priest in 386. From 386 to 397 it was his duty to preach in the principal church of the city, and his best homilies, which earned him the title “Chrysostomos” or “the golden-mouthed,” were preached at this time. In 397 Chrysostom became patriarch of Constantinople, where his efforts to reform the court, clergy, and people led to his exile in 404 and finally to his death from the hardships imposed on him. Chrysostom stressed the divinity of Christ against the Arians and his full humanity against the Apollinarians, but he had no speculative bent. He was above all a pastor of souls, and was one of the most attractive personalities of the early Church
**From Saint Louis University | English | NL | 4e75b12b00ee6542b37ca16c4df63da97f6b73f74263ba352fd12bf905c3b559 |
Written by Shelley Tomsett.
Is it worth it?
I would take him to a few shows to get plenty of people’s opinions before thinking about it. There is a lot involved…
- You will have to learn how to “assist” matings, how to assess if a bitch is ready, be prepared for her to growl at and potentially attack your dog if not ready or just not wanting to be mated.
- How to check if the pedigrees match.
- If he or the bitch has anything construction wise that means they shouldn’t be mated together.
- What a good mouth (set of teeth) is like as bad mouths should not be bred from.
- How to advise the bitch owner about mating times and possibly help to sell the pups. You are responsible for those pups too.
- If your dog is an unknown pet it is unlikely to get many matings and may become frustrated having “opened the mind to sex” that he becomes more interested in looking for girls than you. He may run off when off lead if an irresponsible owner has walked an in season bitch. He may howl if there is one in season within a mile of your house. He may start to mark his territory after mating too.
I would advise taking him to a couple of shows and get him assessed as, unless his looks, temperament and breeding are desirable, it is hardly worth it for a couple of matings at £2-300 which is the most a pet can command as a fee once proven. The first mating is often given free to prove the dog or at least not paid for until pups arrive.
If you think it’s worth all that go ahead! | English | NL | c1daca2d18335074da95f0a397a8fcadecb026eb8bc59dacfa80a5a69bc8a718 |
PERU - In the 1980s the Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) was upending the daily life of rural Peru. I was on assignment in the Cusco region during this period, sent with a group to document valuable artwork in remote convents and monasteries to prevent theft. Even though the Urubamba valley was stable there were often military gatherings in the main square of Cusco to put on a show of strength. The scene depicted here is enhanced by the presence of the hat in the center, which strengthens the composition while at the same time juxtaposing the local inhabitant with the often-ineffectual government forces. One wonders what this man was thinking at the time – who was friend and who was foe. | English | NL | b46ff699f99294a50f07d99546639d9f2e605349d035ab4bc066f6395ea7d9d4 |
In a humble cottage at Elstow, near Bedford, three hundred years ago, grew up a boy who was learning to mend the farmers' tools, the house-pots of the villagers, and to become a tinker, while his father travelled round the district on the same work.
John was a queer lad, moody and superstitious, who believed in fiends and hobgoblins, and heard more of grown-up people's talk about religion than was good for him. He called himself a terrible sinner, and thought he was being haunted by demons as a punishment for his sins. At sixteen he was clever with his punch and soldering-iron, popular in the village, good at dancing and playing tip-cat on the green, and at ringing the church bells. Then came the great Civil War, when Cromwell was fighting for the liberty of the people against King Charles, and though only sixteen, John went off to fight on the side of liberty.
During the Civil War he had several narrow escapes from death. Once he was nearly drowned by falling into a creek. On another occasion the soldiers of his company drew lots to settle who should undertake a dangerous attack on a certain city. The lot fell on John among others, but just as he was about to start a fellow-soldier begged to be allowed to take his place, and he consented. In the fighting that followed, his deputy was shot in the head by a musket ball and killed immediately. This deeply affected John, for he felt that he had himself escaped death by a miracle.
When the army was disbanded, John returned to Elstow to help his father at his trade. When he was little more than twenty he married a woman as poor as himself. "We came together as poor as might be," he said afterwards, "not having so much household stuff as a dish or a spoon betwixt us both." His wife, however, brought with her two books that had belonged to her father, who had been a very good man.
Books were rare in those times, and John and his wife were proud of them and read them together. One was called "The Plain Man's Pathway to Heaven," and the other "The Practice of Piety," and they had a powerful effect over John's queer mind. He began to have terrifying visions, and to be very worried about his sins. In those days religion was very narrow, and John soon found himself in a struggle to give up many pleasures that we regard as harmless, but which pious people then thought were evil or worldly. One by one John gave up his old companions and tried to give up other things. One Sunday, while playing tip-cat on the village green by the old market cross, he says that "a voice did suddenly dart from heaven into my soul, which said 'Wilt thou leave thy sins and go to heaven, or have thy sins and go to hell?'" After that he gave up tip-cat.
Later he felt that bell-ringing was wrong. It required a great struggle to give up ringing the bells of Elstow Church, but at last he refused to touch the bell-ropes, hoping that that would bring him peace and a sense of forgiveness. Then another incident occurred that made a deep impression on him.
"One day, as I was standing at a neighbour's shop window, and there cursing and swearing and playing the madman after my usual manner," he says, "she was made to tremble to hear me, and told me that I was the ungodliest fellow for swearing that she had ever heard in all her life, and that I by thus doing was able to spoil all the youth in the whole town, if they but came in my company."
Finding the Peace of God.
The woman's burning words made John stop swearing, and he tried to become good by attending church. He had always been fond of dancing on the village green or in the old moot hall, but now he felt that this was wrong. It cost him a great struggle to give up dancing with the village lasses, but after a time he gave that up, but still did not find peace. He went to church regularly and took to reading his Bible, much to the surprise of his neighbours. He found the historical parts of the old Book easy to read, but he says that "Paul's Epistles, and such-like Scriptures I could not away with." For a time he felt quite pleased with himself at his progress in spiritual matters.
Then came the greatest change of all. One day he saw a few poor old women basking in the sunshine and found that they were talking together about the things of God. As he listened, John discovered that these simple souls had found a new world that so far he had missed, with all his church-going. As the tinker listened to these old souls telling each other how they had found peace and joy in serving the Lord Jesus Christ, he saw in a flash just what was wrong in his life, and he went down on his knees and prayed as never before: "O Lord, I'm a fool, and not able to know truth from error; leave me not to my own blindness." Then he turned to his Bible with new eyes, and soon found joy and peace by repentance, and simply doing the right thing.
There was no doubt about the real change in John Bunyan. As he talked with the women whose words had so impressed him, he found that their new life had its centre in the "meeting-house," called the "little chapel" in a later day. Eagerly he agreed to go to meeting too. Soon Bunyan, through studying his Bible with the help of John Gifford, the minister of the "chapel," became a keen servant of Jesus Christ, fired with a desire to help other people into the great and glorious new life he had found. A ragged and worn copy of Luther's translation of "The Epistles to the Galatians" now fell into his hands, and as he mastered its contents he was led to join the little "Separatists' Church" (dissenting chapel), mostly composed of Baptists. Later he became a deacon, and began to preach the good news of how he had found peace and joy in Christ.
At this time great changes were taking place in England. The government of the country passed out of the hands of Parliament, and a king was again on the throne. The priestly party came into power, and the meeting-houses of the Dissenters were shut up and free worship became a crime. Worship could only be observed in the parish churches, so the "Nonconformists" met for worship in secret—in the depths of the woods, in fields, behind hedges at night. Spies were everywhere, and one after another the Nonconformist preachers were discovered at their work and thrown into prison. This danger never for an instant stopped Bunyan from proclaiming the Gospel, but the authorities thought the poor tinker was not worth shutting up, so for a long time Bunyan preached, often disguised as a carter, wearing a big white smock and wide-awake hat, and carrying a huge whip. He visited barns and other out-of-the-way places, helping the suffering Nonconformists to stand true to their faith in freedom and hope of better times coming.
Arrested, but Defiant.
At last, while conducting worship in a farm-house, after being warned that spies were on his track, Bunyan was seized and cast into prison. At his trial, Bunyan was ordered to "mind his own business of a tinker," but threats and commands to stop preaching alike had no effect on him. He had a long argument with his judges at the Quarter Sessions, and was told that his gift was tinkering and he must keep to it and leave preaching alone.
"If then you do not submit to go to church and to hear Divine Service, and leave your preaching, you must be banished the realm; and if after such a day you shall be found in this realm, you must stretch by the neck for it."
But the dauntless tinker would not be silenced: "If you let me out to-day I will preach again to-morrow, by the help of God," he declared.
So Bunyan faced the horrors and dangers of a filthy prison for the right to worship and serve God with freedom. He was first sent to the old prison on Bedford Bridge, and later to the county gaol. He had to support his wife and four children, though in prison, and made "tagged laces," which were sold by his wife. One of his greatest trials was the separation from his family:
The parting from my wife and children hath often been to me in this place like pulling off the flesh from my bones, especially my poor blind child, who lay nearer my heart than all I had besides."
For twelve years he suffered, although a promise not to preach, and to attend church, would have brought him instant freedom. Yet although he could not preach he could write books that would help forward the fight for freedom for the true Church.
During one long imprisonment he wrote "The Pilgrim's Progress," which has become one of the greatest religious books ever written. It has been a delight and help to Christian people all over the world, and has been translated into many tongues—so that the despised tinker of Bedford gaol, through being imprisoned and persecuted, has become one of the greatest Christian writers in history.
After years of imprisonment, Bunyan was allowed his freedom, and went back to his little Baptist chapel at Bedford and spent the few remaining years of his life in preaching and in helping others, a loyal soldier of Jesus Christ. Our open churches and freedom to worship in our own way is in part due to the heroic tinker and dreamer who would not be silenced.
John Bunyan was born in 1628 (when Parliament presented its Petition of Right that was the first step in the fight for constitutional freedom), and died in 1688 (on the eve of the landing of the Prince of Orange and the dawn of religious toleration in England). He was closely identified with the happenings of his time. He fought on the side of Parliament when 16, and during the Protectorate went through some remarkable religious experiences. After the return of the monarchy and the passing of the Act of Uniformity (1662), he was arrested when leading worship in a farm-house, and spent 12 years in prison. During this period he wrote "Grace Abounding", a remarkable religious autobiography from which we can trace how much personal experience there was behind his "Holy War" and "The Pilgrim's Progress."
From 1672 to his death in 1688 he laboured as a preacher and a writer. In 1675, during a temporary revival of the spirit of persecution, he was thrown into Bedford Gaol on the bridge across the Ouse, and it was during that incarceration that he began writing "The Pilgrim's Progress", that has made his name a household word in English literature. From his early days he was moody and introspective, a seer of visions and a hearer of voices. He went through the whole gamut of religious experience fully and often luridly described in his books. He seemed to think and talk in pictures. He was steeped in his Bible; its figures of speech and rich imagery were accepted in their full literal value, and its language became his very own. He died after exposure to bad weather on a preaching visit to London in 1688.
From Yarns on Christian Pioneers by Ernest H. Hayes. Surrey, England: The Religious Education Press, 1928.
>> More John Bunyan | English | NL | 4ecf19e91d155e0175f131dade3ea1d3d25ee341ccf09c35e25693e7c79b0d23 |
All Saints: Murder on the Mersey - Review by Martha A. Cheves, Author of Stir, Laugh, Repeat; Think With Your Taste Buds; A Book and A Dish
Detective Inspector Andy Ross pulled the unmarked police Mondeo to a halt, its right side wheels pulled up on the pavement outside St. Matthew's Church in Norris Green in an effort to avoid restricting the traffic flow along Brewer Street... There were already two police patrol cars parked on the street, together with another pool car identical to his own which he knew would have brought his assistant, Sergeant Clarissa, (Izzie) Drake and Detective Constable Derek McLennan to the scene... As he neared the scene, Ross could see Dr. Nugent on his knees, his assistant, Francis Lees beside him, both men obviously intent on carrying out their initial examination of the body... "Oh, my God," Ross exclaimed as he drew closer to the scene... "I told you, sir," his sergeant said, quietly. "Yes, but this... this is, well, nothing short of bloody monstrous... the victim, a man in his mid to late fifties, has been almost totally eviscerated... "Who found him, Izzie?" "The poor bloody priest"
Father Gerald Byrne, along with his sister, grew up in Speke Hill, an orphanage that was run by the Roman Catholic Church. He developed a deep interest in theology and the Church which eventually brought him into the priesthood. After years of traveling all over the world it also brought him full circle back to St. Luke's where he would be not only their priest but also the priest of Speke Hill. But, shortly after his arrival the murders started. Bodies are being placed in various cemeteries after being totally disembowel and mutilated.
This book took me down a very winding road! As much as I tried to determine who was carrying out the brutal murders, the harder it was for me to justify my suspicions. And at the end... I was totally surprised. As always, Brian L. Porter has written another book that can't be put down. I can never get enough of his books. He has a Stephen King/Dean Kunze/Jeffrey Deaver frame of mind when he writes putting him right up there in their class of authors. | English | NL | 4abae315e31639cf4ed8a3e22351dedf1e6a0e6f863da525fab470cc3736a6dd |
On the trail of the traditional handicrafts
Following the route of old mills and blacksmiths
Exploring some of Kvarner's picturesque landscapes, following the rivers in the Gorski kotar area, you might come across an old mill. Some of these ancient structures have now been refurbished and are open to the public.
In the past, the Kvarner region was home to many mills, many of which no longer exist. However, the good news is that some of them are being renovated as part of the historical heritage of the local area. One such watermill, locally known as the Gašpar's Mill, is located in the village of Martinovo selo in the municipality of Jelenje in the Grobnik area. The mill is more than 330 years old and is the only one of the 27 ancient mills on Rječina River that has been opened to the public; in addition, it is the place where local people can buy corn and wheat flour. The story about the village is closely related to the mills that used to flourish on the river of Rječina.
Another tourist attraction is located in the village of Dražice, not far from the Gašpar's Mill – it is the old blacksmith's workshop, one of the three that used to exist there. The workshop is 90 years old and is still used to produce various iron items. Over time, the workshop was transformed into a small museum with many items on display, which is why people visit it not only to buy some iron item, but also as a tourist attraction.
Apart from the River Rječina, many mills were in the past located in the Gorski kotar area. The main and the oldest street in Delnice, the Supilo Street, is home to the unique Popović's Mill, which used electricity and is today one of the cultural and tourist sites in the town. The building dates back to 1924; the parts for the mill were transported here all the way from Budapest, and – which is most important – have been preserved in their original form right up to the present day. The mill used to work without interruption until 1960, and three years ago it was renovated and opened to the public. Since then, it was visited by many individual tourists and groups of visitors. Apart from its original purpose, the property can today be hired as an attractive venue for hosting meetings, team building programmes, promotions and celebrations, because it has a capacity of 50 seats. In the summertime, its spacious courtyard provides additional space for the visitors. | English | NL | a7bd063909760dd5417730ddf2f99d62c8f4a8651ba87568ac35399538235f69 |
The Chief Petty Officer’s Mess is directly aft of the Bosun’s Locker and the Forward Enlisted Head. This was the lounge for the fifteen or so Chiefs on board. While smaller than the Enlisted Mess, it is slightly more comfortable. Rather than hard wooden benches, the Chiefs enjoyed cushioned booths surrounding one side of their dinner tables, with straight-backed chairs on the outside edges. A small pantry was located to the starboard side of this space.
Just aft of the Chief’s Mess is an ammunition handling room for 5″/38-cal. Gun Mount 51. To either side of the handling room are the Chief Petty Officer’s quarters. Just as with the enlisted quarters below, the CPOs slept three bunks high. Their bunks, however, were more cushioned and their lockers were all upright.
The Chief Petty Officers were the senior enlisted men on the KIDD. Each division, or group of specialists, contained a chief who served as trouble-shooter, technical expert, father figure, judge, jury, and chaplain to his men. They were a group apart; experienced ex-enlisted men with ten to twenty years of service experience. The wise officer always consulted his chief before making a decision. These men never seemed to have to read the manual to figure out the problem. They just seemed to know the answers by instinct and intuition, drawing on their many years of experience. In essence, you could say that a chief (or CPO, as they were also known) had “been there, done that.”
The mystique of the Chiefs and their mess was enhanced by the fact that few enlisted men were allowed into the chief’s quarters, and those that went, more often than not, were expecting a fierce chewing out. Known as the “Goat Locker” to the rest of the enlisted crew, this was the home of the group traditionally known as the “backbone of the Navy.”
Just aft of the handling room and the Chief’s Quarters lies a small bathroom on the port side. This was the Chief’s Head. While spartan, it still has all of the amenities, featuring a pair of lavatories and toilets, one shower, and one urinal. | English | NL | f022d1c3957029521ba71af6e99a5147fec82b5646b8dee2c8559871b1b16536 |
From the Archives: Archive Open Day 2016
POST BY MAllen
Monday, December 5, 2016 - 14:50
On 29 December the Jesuits in Britain Archives once again opened their doors to give staff and community members a glimpse at some of the treasures held within the Archives as part of The National Archives’ annual Explore Your Archives campaign.
This year we decided to feature some of the items we had showcased in our ‘From the Archives’ blog posts, so that the items could be seen first-hand.
Among the items on display were the relics of St Claude La Colombiere SJ and St Margaret Mary Alacoque. As part of the Year of Mercy relics of these two saints were recently brought to Farm St Church by the Emmanuel Community, so it seemed fitting to share what we hold here.
Visitors were invited to look through a volume of the Farm St Minister’s Log Books. We chose the volume dated 1883-93 since it is in good condition, and this is important to take into account when setting up an archive display. These volumes are a fantastic resource for anyone wanting to know what life in a community was like.
Thomas More’s Omnia Opera (or Complete Works) printed in 1689 was also on display. It has a beautiful frontispiece and portrait of Thomas More at the front, and was featured in a blog post in September to coincide with the exhibition at St John Paul II National Shrine in Washington called God’s Servant First: The Life and Legacy of Thomas More, which is showcasing over 60 artefacts, most of which come from Stonyhurst College.
We displayed two of Fr Augustus Law’s diaries, one which he kept while he was in the Navy, and one he kept during his mission in the Zambezi. All of Fr Law’s journals were kept meticulously and occasionally decorated with illustrations. Also on display was a fork engraved with Law’s initials which was used by him when he was in the Navy.
We took the opportunity to exhibit collections that are currently being worked on, and Lucy, our Archives Assistant, who is working on the Osterley collection picked out a photograph album from the 1920-30s which contains photographs of individuals and groups as well as ephemera such as graduation cards.
Old favourites were displayed too, including the top hat presented to Fr Frederick Copleston (see image in previous post) by Uppsala University, Sweden, to mark his honorary doctorate in theology in June 1983, and a selection of volumes from the Blandyke Papers.
And of course we were able to reveal to staff and community the extensive refurbishments that have recently been completed in the Archives with our new office space and rolling stacks. Many expressed how light and airy (and warm!) the new office is, and how much space has been created by the rolling stacks for our ever-growing collections.
If you are interested in any of the items mentioned above or would like to make an appointment to visit the Jesuits in Britain Archives, please contact us. | English | NL | e36c17094a36a0658c96c65f98765bd92fca6f917c44ec694748fbb78c17bc3f |
WILLIAMS, Lucia 1837-1930
Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 4/25/2015 at 09:22:05
Grundy Resident For 63 Years Died Friday A.M.
Mrs. W. C. Williams Answers Final Summons at Advanced Age
Mrs. W. C. Williams died at her home in Grundy Center at an early hour Friday morning. She was 93 years old in March and had been a continuous resident of Grundy county for 63 years. John Clift is the only person now living who was a resident of this community when Mrs. Williams came here. She lived through a marvelous community development during her long lifetime.
Funeral services were held at the home at four o'clock Monday afternoon and the services were very largely attended. Rev. F. O. Winslow, from Belle Plaine, a former pastor, officiated assisted by Rev. J. B. Bird.
The following obituary prepared by the officiating pastor which was read at the service gives a complete account of the life of this Grundy pioneer:
Lucia M. Champlin was born in Chenaugo county, New York, on March 22, 1837, and quietly passed away from her home in Grundy Center, Iowa, Apr. 18, 1930, at the remarkable age of 93 years and nearly one month. She received her education from a private school near her home. Among her girlhood friends was a young man, W. C. Williams, whom she later married at Elgin, Ill. For a short time they resided in this state and then came to Iowa, more than 60 years ago. Mrs. Williams with her husband became very early settlers of Grundy county and lived on a farm, well known as Hickory Grove, three miles west of Grundy Center. After about five years they came to Grundy Center to live and this has been her home through these many years. Four children were born into their home, Abbie L., Chester, Lavinia and Edna. Mrs. Edna Hayes, the youngest, alone survives, the others passing on into the better land years ago.
Mrs. Williams possessed an unusually keen mind, retaining her mental facil- (graduate of the Grundy Center high) to converse with her and to note her interest in present day affairs. She conducted her own business affairs to the very last, thus rigidly carrying out a life long custom. She was indeed a faithful companion, a true mother and a staunch friend.
Mrs. Williams became a member of the M.E. Church in early life and has always held her church and its interests in tender regard. The passing away of this pioneer soul marks the last of her family, and she will be greatly missed by those who knew and loved her best.
Mrs. Williams retained her health to a remarkable degree for one of her age, and only during these last few weeks was failing strength noticeable. A week ago last Sunday she was unable to leave her bed, and during the days that followed her loved ones feared the end was near. Like the running down of the old clock on the mantle, her life slowly ebbed away, until last Friday morning at one o'clock the silent messenger came and "she was not, for God took her." The tired body is at rest, but the soul took its flight into the better country, the land of perpetual youth and eternal day.
There are left to mourn this loss an only daughter, Mrs. Edna Hayes, of Grundy Center, a granddaughter, Mrs. Florence Boies, and a grandson, Mr. William Raymond, both of California. Friends and neighbors join in kindest sympathy to these dear ones in this hour of sorrow.
Those from a distance who were present at the funeral were William Raymond, Los Angeles; Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Richards, a niece, Clarion; Mrs. Clarence Rusk, a niece, Galt; Mr. and Mrs. Geo. Richards and Mrs. Clifford Campbell, Clarion; Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Shuler, Parkersburg; Rev. and Mrs. Winslow, Belle Plaine; Mr. and Mrs. Geo. Stalker, Albion, Neb.
--The Grundy Register (Grundy Center, Iowa), 24 April 1930, pg 14
Grundy Obituaries maintained by Tammy D. Mount.
WebBBS 4.33 Genealogy Modification Package by WebJourneymen | English | NL | a5c853ce77f1ed51b723025dbe2cde174d62b640ea3f37f09a283e8c820127d4 |
The Space Oddity who went from music to acting and back to music!
This Londoner has been on the scene for over 40 years and is still going strong today. He played saxophone when he was 13 and was influenced by his older brother Terry - who developed a mental illness, was committed to an institution and committed suicide in 1985. That tragedy haunted our Londoner for many years and caused him to write “Jump they Say”. At 16, he started a career as a commercial artist, singing and playing with rock bands in his spare time. By 1966, he had recorded singles with three different groups and decided to set out on his own as a solo act. He is a musical chameleon, was a folksinger, androgyne, alien, decadent blue-eyed soul man, art-rocker and a modern pop star, with each persona spawning a new league of imitators. He used the saying “Everyone finds empathy in a nutty family.”
I’m talking about David Bowie.
He was born David Robert Jones on the 8th January 1947 in London to Margaret Mary Burns (Peggy) and Haywood Stenton Jones (John). Peggy worked as a cinema usherette and John was a promotions officer for Barnardo’s. He took up the saxophone at 13, and when he left Bromley Technical High School to work as a commercial artist three years later, he had started playing in various bands - the Konrads, the King Bees, David Jones and the Buzz. Three of David’s early bands — the King Bees, the Manish Boys (featuring session guitarist Jimmy Page), and Davey Jones and the Lower Third — each recorded a single. He changed his name to David Bowie (after a friend permanently paralysed his left pupil in a knife fight) to avoid confusion with the Monkees' Davy Jones. In 1966, when he was 19, he recorded three singles for Pye Records. The following year he signed with Deram Records, issuing several singles and The World of David Bowie (most of the songs from that album, and others from that time were collected on Images 1966-67).
Then he went out on his own. But after recording an unsuccessful solo album, David left the music world for about two years. This period was to be a mirror image of the rest of his life, which proved to be incredibly experimental for the young artist. For several weeks in 1967 he lived at a Buddhist monastery in Scotland, and in 1968 he started his own mime troupe called Feathers.
Around this time he also met the American-born Angela Barnett. They married on the 20th March 1970, had one son together called Zowie in 1971 and divorced in 1980.
Early in 1969, he returned to music. He signed a deal with Mercury Records and that summer released the single "Space Oddity." David said the song came to him after seeing Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. "I went stoned out of my mind to see the movie and it really freaked me out, especially the trip passage."
The song quickly appealed to the public because the BBC used it during its coverage of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Later the song enjoyed success in the U.S., when it was released in 1972 and climbed to Number 15 on the charts.
The Man Who Sold the World was his next album and it further shot him to stardom. The album gave up a heavier rock sound than anything David had done before and included the song "All the Madmen," about his institutionalised brother, Terry. In addition the album also featured two hits: "Hunky Dory," a tribute to Andy Warhol and Bob Dylan; and "Changes," which came to symbolise David himself. This album hit number 58 in the All Time 1000 Albums list.
In 1972 he released “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars," a concept album about a space-age rock star. This album was followed by others in a similar tone. Rock albums built around a central character and concerned with futuristic themes of Armageddon, gender dysfunction, confusion, as well as more contemporary themes such as the destructiveness of success and fame, and the dangers inherent in star worship.
But just as quickly as David transformed himself into Stardust, he changed again. He leveraged his celebrity and produced albums for Lou Reed and Iggy Pop. In 1973 he disbanded the Spiders, shelved Stardust and announced he was finished with live shows.
In the mid 1970s, David was a heavy drug addict on cocaine and heroin. In 1975, he changed direction and underwent a full-scale makeover. Gone were the outrageous costumes and garish sets. Musically, he released “David Live” and "Young Americans," a soul (or plastic soul as he later referred to it) album. This produced his first number one hit in the US, "Fame." In 1976, he also appeared in his first major film, The Man Who Fell to Earth. With his different-coloured eyes (both were blue, but one was permanently dilated due to the fight) and skeletal frame, he looked the part of an alien. The following year, he released "Station to Station," containing some of the material he had written for the soundtrack to this film (which was not used).
As his drug problem intensified, his behaviour became more erratic. Reports of his insanity started to appear, and he continued to waste away physically. He ran away to Europe, finally settling in Berlin, where he changed musical direction again and recorded three of the most influential albums of all time, an electronic trilogy with Brian Eno "Low, Heroes and Lodger."
Towards the end of the 1970s, he finally kicked his drug habit, and recorded the album many of his fans consider his best, the Japanese-influenced "Scary Monsters." Around this time, he played the Elephant Man on Broadway, to considerable acclaim.
Over the next few years his acting career took off while his musical career dropped off. This finished with his much-admired performance in Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence in 1983.
In 1983, with a new contract with RCA, he recorded "Let's Dance," an album which proved an unexpected huge commercial success, and produced his second number 1 hit single in the US. The tour which followed, "Serious Moonlight," was his most successful ever. Faced with this success on a massive scale, David apparently attempted to repeat the formula in the next two albums. This was less successful and even got critical scorn.
He turned down the role of Max Zorin for the 1985 James Bond film A View to a Kill quoting his lack of enthusiasm for recent Bond villains. And in 1991 he turned down the role of Captain Hook in Hook.
Finally, in the late 1980s, he decided that he didn’t want commercial success or a solo career and formed the hard rock band, Tin Machine, who had a deliberate limited appeal.
By now, his acting career was in decline. After the comparative failure of Labyrinth in1986, the movie industry appeared to have decided that David was not a sufficient name to be a lead actor in a major movie, and since that date, most of his roles have been cameos or glorified cameos. He himself also seems to have lost interest in movie acting. Tin Machine toured extensively and released two albums, with little critical or commercial success.
Over the next decade, David moved back and forth between acting and music, with music getting less attention. Outside of a couple of modest hits, David’s musical career weakened. The albums Tin Machine (1989) and Tin Machine II (1991) proved to be flops, while his much-hyped album Black Tie White Noise (1993), which David described as a wedding gift to his new wife, supermodel Iman Abdulmajid, also struggled to resonate with record buyers.
His son, Duncan (aka Zowie Bowie or Joey), was his best man at this wedding and David commented “you would think that a rock star being married to a super-model would be one of the greatest things in the world. It is.”
The 1990s have been kinder to David than the late 1980s. He released three albums to considerable critical acclaim and reasonable commercial success. In 1995, he renewed his working relationship with Brian Eno to record "Outside." After an initial hostile reaction from the critics, this album has now taken its place with his classic albums.
In 1997, David broke new ground, yet again, with the Internet-only release of his single 'Telling Lies.'
Having completed a world tour in 1997, David Bowie proved himself to be a true music industry survivor.
In 1999, he recorded a duet with Brian Molko on the Placebo track 'Without You I'm Nothing' before he returned back to the studio to record an album.
Oddly enough, the most popular David Bowie creation of late has been Bowie Bonds, financial securities that he himself backed with royalties from his pre-1990 work. He issued the bonds in 1997 and earned $55 million from the sale. The rights to his back catalogue were returned to him when the bonds matured in 2007.
In 2003, David released an album entitled 'Reality.' The Reality Tour began in November 2003 and, after great commercial success, was extended into July 2004. He was performing in Oslo when a lollipop hit him in the eye and a week later he suffered chest pains. In June 2004 he got a major health scare when he suffered a heart attack while onstage in Germany and underwent triple heart bypass surgery. The tour ended when he cancelled the last 15 dates of the tour. He gave up his 50 cigarettes a day smoking habit and made a full recovery.
He went on to work with bands such as Arcade Fire and with the actress Scarlett Johansson on her album Anywhere I Lay My Head (2008), a collection of Tom Waits covers. The reality tour was his last tour to date. .
After recovering, David did not release any new music and little acting. In 2006, he played Tesla in The Prestige (2006) and had a small cameo in the series "Extras" (2005). In 2007, he did a cartoon voice in "SpongeBob SquarePants" (1999) playing Lord Royal Highness. He has not appeared in anything since 2008 and stays home in New York with his wife and daughter.
David Bowie has influenced the course of popular music several times and influenced several generations of musicians. His promotional videos in the 1970s and 80s are regarded as ground-breaking, and as a live concert act, he is regarded as the most theatrical of them all. He said “I re-invented my image so many times that I'm in denial that I was originally an overweight Korean woman.” He added “Freud would have a heyday with me.”
David Bowie, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, was a 2006 recipient of the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. He has performed with (on separate occasions)- Queen, Mick Jagger, Iggy Pop, Al B. Sure!, Tina Turner, Annie Lennox, Nine Inch Nails and Bing Crosby. He appeared in Bing Crosby’s last TV show before his death in 1977 when they sang a duet of “The Little Drummer Boy”.
The Sunday Times list estimated his net worth at $164 million in 2009.
Article by Bob Tallent
Videos chosen by Frazer McMenzie
Copyright © 2012, DPNLIVE – All Rights Reserved | English | NL | 46f2e9d3d8aceb907562af7de98d7f963ce7f164751c36ccb5f3b8eed2407fec |
|Even in our darkest hour, he is there.|
Thomas felt such a peace that he could not find words to describe what he had experienced. It did not matter though, he just knew what was inside him at that moment and he wanted to feel that way forever. He looked around and saw many people crowding around the Galilean, but for that brief moment, this man and Thomas were alone together. He seemed so much like his father, but there was something even so much greater about him than any man that he met before.
|The beauty of summer.|
Just then, Thomas looked over the Galilean’s shoulder and saw several men arguing with one another. From what he could hear, they were trying to convince each other that they themselves were greater than the person standing before them. Thomas heard one man say, “But I am the one that he loves!” Yet another nearby said, “No one else got out of the boat, you were all too afraid!” And yet another responded, “Yes, but did you have the faith to stay afloat?” Each in turn said that they would sit beside the one called “Jesus” in the next kingdom. This confused Thomas as to why they argued and he did not know whom this man Jesus was.
|My good friend Gerry and my son, Will.|
“I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.”
The Galilean spoke for a few minutes more to his followers and to the crowd, all the while sitting next to Thomas. When he was done speaking, he stopped and turned to Thomas to talk with him once more.
|Abby's flower cookie.|
Thomas turned and looked up and saw his father standing behind him, and beside his father was Thomas’ mother smiling and beaming with joy. Thomas could only think now of his father and so he rushed as quickly as his legs could carry him into his father’s arms. He buried his head deeply into his daddy’s shoulder as his father picked him up and swung him around and around.
“Father, I have missed you so much!”
“I too have missed you as well my son.”
Just then both Thomas’ parents looked over to the Galilean named Jesus. Jesus was looking on, watching with a smile on his face.
Jesus now looks over to Thomas’ mother.
“Sarah, you are a good mother and wife. Do not fear when John is away, I am with you always and you too will soon have the counselor that I will send into the world. He will comfort you and give you peace when you are alone and afraid. Turn to me and I will not abandon you, for I am the good shepherd and I will never leave my sheep. Man will one day understand through me that ‘all’ are equal in the eyes of God and have equal worth, men and women alike.”
Jesus now looks over to Thomas.
“Thomas, keep what is in your heart and do not lose the gentleness you have. Look to others and see their needs, and ask me and I will show you what to do.” | English | NL | ce6e8667f679fea2d811a12d8d5bd78eb110ca3af9670fd36200b872c448830f |
As I've noted, we've begun potty training Elliott. It didn't feel like we were making much progress - until yesterday. When I got home from work Katie informed me that Elliott had been wearing underwear all day. She told me that with gentle reminders he frequented the potty and kept a single pair of underwear clean and dry. But we still hadn't had that anticipated breakthrough when he used the potty to dispose of the "brown stuff."
Shortly after I got home, Katie asked Elliott to go use the potty. I watched him march off through the computer room into the bathroom. From a distance I could see him pulling down his little shorts and underwear. The story could have ended there and I would have noted progress. I finished unloading some things from work and began to dawdle at preparing dinner. As I was doing so, Elliott entered the kitchen.
"Daddy, I just pooped on the potty," he said.
I had played this game before. I would now walk back and check the potty only to find no sign of the brown stuff. But I did my fatherly duty, I humored him. I took the hand of the "boy who cried poopy" and made the walk of little expectation. It is the littlest expectations in life that set us up for the biggest surprises, and boy was I surprised. As I inspected the plastic pot nearly six feet below my unbelieving eyes, there they were, two beautiful toddler turds.
I apologize if you are eating and my descriptions decay your appetite, but I feel like the forty-niners must have felt when their long and treacherous journeys to California were rewarded with pans filled with gold nuggets. I must admit, my first instinct when I made the find was to grab the camera. I've been so diligent in documenting the boys' milestones, how could I let comprehensive coverage of this one pass me by? But I remembered that as much as I like to record these events for our sake, there is an audience too. Further, there is always that final litmus test that many husbands are familiar with. I had to ask myself, "If I take this picture and put it on the internet, will my wife kill me?" The answer to that question has deprived you of viewing this forty-niner's gold strike.
Enough on turds. At least until Ian discovers the brown stuff. | English | NL | 26234e3d594658ab08c3b8cf56efc56833c14e710191a8bf28b53d01865d6caa |
Nathan is an enthusiastic and energetic preschool student. He is interested in the people and things in his environment. When we first met Nathan, he was using single symbols to request and label items while eating and during some of his instructional activities. His symbol system was noun-based, and this appeared to restrict his communication. Eager to interact, Nathan would often jump into a situation without being invited or engage in disruptive behaviors to get attention.
When Nathan’s teacher introduced the Universal Core vocabulary, she made sure that there were multiple systems located around the classroom and even on the playground. Nathan’s teacher modeled core words throughout the school day and encouraged but never required Nathan to use the symbols. If Nathan’s behavior was disruptive, his teacher modeled how he could communicate his message in a more appropriate way by using symbols. Nathan listened, watched and learned!
Now, Nathan uses one to three Universal Core symbols at a time to communicate with his teachers and his classmates. This has greatly reduced behavioral challenges. When Nathan becomes impatient, he uses his communication system to say what he wants. As with any student, he doesn’t always get his way, but he knows he has been heard. Nathan enjoys answering questions and making comments during group instruction, and he has now started pointing to symbols on his classmates’ communication system to help them formulate an answer. He also likes to use his communication system to remind his teacher when it is time for his favorite activities. Nathan is reminding us of the power of symbolic communication as his interaction and language skills continue to grow. | English | NL | b9265a3429b52f1270d2bcc2f6086f3ca1fb5afaddfec5a8aa8008e99630ebee |
Some notes on the 50th anniversary of the death of Abbot Wilfrid UpsonOn this day fifty years ago occurred the death of Abbot Wilfrid Upson OSB (1880-1963), the first abbot of Prinknash Abbey near Gloucester, and author of Movies and Monasteries in USA (Gloucester: Prinknash Abbey, 1950), about which I wish to write in today’s blog. As some of you may know, I have been researching the religious applications of film and photography for many years. and am particularly curious about the way these arts were used, interpreted and criticised by clergymen in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Abbot Wilfrid is a little bit unusual in that – as well as making 16mm home movies -he travelled to Hollywood and took an inquisitive interest in the workings of the film industry.
John Henry Neil Upson was born in London on 28 June 1880. His family belonged to a Nonconformist sect, The Countess of Huntingdon’s Connexion, and kept a strict Sunday observance that saw books and toys packed away from Saturday night to Sunday morning. In his late teens he became interested in the Church of England, attending High Anglican services at St Augustine’s, Stepney, where the name of the Pope was included in the prayers. He got involved in youth work, running clubs for boys at the St Frideswide Mission in Poplar as well as travelling to Kent to help with evangelical missions for the hop-pickers in the fields. A large marquee was set up in which they held concerts during the week and, on Sundays, religious services at which he played the harmonium and helped lead prayers. Adopting a classic pre-cinema technique, a large lantern sheet was erected in the middle of a field on which to project devotional images such as the Stations of the Cross.
While Upson was engaged in these activities, a young Anglican medical student named Benjamin Fearnley Carlyle (1874-1955) was struggling to establish a tiny monastic community at a house in the east end of London. ‘Br Aelred’ as Carlyle called himself, was by no means the first Anglican drawn to religious life: the tradition stretches as far back as Nicholas Ferrar’s community at Little Gidding. The 19th century saw a surge of interest in monastic life, spurred on by the Gothic revival in art and architecture, the influence of Romantic literature, and the religious ideals of the Oxford Movement. From around 1845 Anglican Sisterhoods began to rise up under the direction of men such as J.M. Neale and Pusey. The development of religious life for men was later and slower. ‘Father Ignatius of Jesus’ (Ignatius Lyne, 1837-1908) made the first serious attempt in the early 1860s, followed by the Society of St John the Evangelist (‘Cowley Fathers’) in 1865, the Community of the Resurrection (1892), the Society of the Sacred Mission (1893) and the Society of Divine Compassion (1894.)
By 1896 Aelred Carlyle had gathered around him a few sympathetic young Anglo-Catholics at ‘The Priory’ in London’s Isle of Dogs, where an idiosyncratic form of monastic life was combined with pastoral work among the working boys. They had to leave this house in 1898 and over the next few years the community flitted from place to place, gathering and losing members, changing its habit from black to white to Cistercian black and white. In 1906 they returned to Caldey Island, where they had spent a short interlude in 1901-2. This was to remain their home for the next 22 years.
Having joined the Church of England, John Upson gradually felt he had a vocation to the religious life and contacted the Superior of the Society of the Sacred Mission at Kelham Hall in Nottinghamshire. After he failed the Society’s medical, he recalled seeing a magazine called PAX which was being printed at Kelham. This was the magazine of the monks of Caldey, and so he contacted Aelred Carlyle to enquire about joining their community instead. They met for an interview in London, after which Upson arrived on Caldey Island in April 1908.
Carlyle’s vision was influenced by the romantic medievalism of his time, and the community became closely associated with the contemporary Arts and Crafts movement. Work carried out by the monks included painting, woodcarving, sculpture, stained glass manufacture, pottery, calligraphy and metalwork. Br. Wilfrid felt at home on Caldey, and was able to develop his artistic skills with pen and ink sketches and small watercolours. He excelled at other visual media too, organising theatrical productions of medieval Passion Plays during Lent that were performed by the monks as well as local islanders. This took place for many years and became well-known. Writing in Time and Tide magazine, Miss Christopher St. John enthused: ‘Not since Gordon Craig’s Masque of Love have I seen such harmonious grouping and movement . . . the great achievement of the Caldey Passion is that visions are created instead of illusions.’ He was in fact adept at illusions too, as he had learned a number of conjuring tricks and enjoyed entertaining the community with magic shows.
The monastic life led on Caldey Island went far beyond what was generally accepted within the Church of England, combining spartan austerity with observance of the Rule of Saint Benedict, full Roman liturgy involving incense and Gregorian chant in Latin. Tension grew between the community and the Anglican authorities, which eventually led to a parting of the ways: in 1913 almost the entire community converted to Catholicism. Although in some respects this made life much easier, the community was severed from its Anglican friends and benefactors, many of whom felt grieved at the loss of the money they had invested in the unfinished building projects. It soon became apparent that the financial situation was dire.
Aelred Carlyle was ordained priest and returned to Caldey to be blessed as the Benedictine Abbot of Caldey in October 1914. He struggled on for seven years before resigning and moving to Canada where he spent the next thirty years doing missionary work in Vancouver. While the local bishop assumed jurisdiction over the monastery, Wilfrid Upson – who had been ordained priest in 1915 – was appointed Prior. To sort out the financial mess, Pius XI asked the Abbot General of the Cistercians if he could purchase Caldey, as the Benedictines had been offered a home at Prinknash Park near Gloucester. They moved off the island in 1928, floating the wooden refectory tables over the water to the mainland and transferring all their goods to the Tudor mansion of St Peter’s Grange at Prinknash, the former home of the pre-Reformation Abbot of Gloucester Abbey. In 1929 the community joined the Cassinese Congregation of the Primitive Observance. This was, and remains, the largest of the Benedictine congregations with houses all over the world. The peculiar background of Caldey had made the community reluctant to abandon their own ideals and practices, and they were resistant of being absorbed into a highly centralised order. Exhausted by the strain, Fr. Wilfrid resigned as superior and went to act as chaplain to a community of nuns in Westgate-on-Sea.
Monastic life continued to flourish at Prinknash and when the monastery was raised to the status of an abbey in 1937, Wilfrid Upson was elected its first Abbot. The community grew to such a size by the early 1940s that it was necessary to open overflow houses at Bigsweir and Millichope. Plans were also put in motion to start new foundations at Farnborough and Pluscarden, in addition to building a new monastery at Prinknash. Much of the building work was carried out by the monks themselves and Abbot Wilfrid recorded some of these activities in his home movies, which he shot on a 16 mm camera. He took still photographs too, and continued to enjoy sketching and painting. The community were regularly entertained with his film-shows, recording visits to places of interest – such as Lourdes – as well as scenes of monastic life. Arranging the new foundations required him to travel outside the monastery, making site visits, negotiating with lawyers, contractors and benefactors, as well as trying to raise funds from Catholic parishes, guilds and societies. This was particularly challenging in postwar Britain, given the scale of the abbot’s projects, and it seemed sensible to cast his net slightly wider. And so it was that Abbot Wilfrid, accompanied by his subprior Fr. Norbert Cowin, sailed to New York in November 1947 on a fund-raising trip that would last six months, cover some 20,000 miles, and involve two separate visits to Hollywood.
The abbot with matinee idol Tyrone Power (left), swashbuckling hero of The Mark of Zorro (1940), Prince of Foxes (1949) and The Black Rose (1950).
Here, Cecil B. DeMille – director of sits between Abbot Wilfrid (left) and Fr. Norbert (right). DeMille began directing in 1914 and was the first Hollywood director to become a celebrity in his own right. His films include several Biblical epics such as The Ten Commandments (a silent version in 1923 and a very different Technicolour film starring Charlton Heston in 1956), The King of Kings (1927), The Sign of the Cross (1932) and Samson and Delilah (1949.) They also met with Sam Goldwyn and the Warner Brothers, Harry and Jack.
Abbot Wilfrid’s visit was a mixture of religious discussion and film shows, as well as (it must be said) a great deal of socialising, even if this was undertaken for a good cause. Before leaving Hollywood he managed to assemble a seventy-strong audience for a screening of his own colour Kodachrome 16mm film, Abbey Builders of the 20th Century, which was accompanied by a talk on the community’s history.
Abbey Builders had been filmed in 1940, and incorporated footage of some of the great English ruined abbeys – such as Rievaulx and Fountains – which were then juxtaposed with shots of the overcrowding at Prinknash. The abbot was shown discussing with the other monks the need to build a larger monastery, followed by close-ups of some of the monks looking doubtful or asking one another sceptical questions. Other scenes include the laying of the foundation stone, vignettes of daily monastic life that emphasised the manual skills required for the building work, and a lovely sequence where a rainbow breaks over Prinknash – no doubt Abbot Wilfrid really was hoping for a pot of gold at the other end.
Amongst the audience were Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon (right.)
Cinema goers were used to seeing them together, both on the screen and off it, as they were good friends in real life and played a married couple in no fewer than eight films: Blossoms in the Dust (1941), Mrs Miniver (1942), Madame Curie (1943), Mrs Parkington (1944), Julia Misbehaves (1948), That Forsyte Woman (1949), The Miniver Story (1950) and finally Scandal at Scourie (1953.) They were just the sort of screen couple of which the League of Decency could approve – wholesome, virtuous, morally upright, mutually supportive, kind and courageous. Little surprise that the abbot was smiling.
Others who watched the abbot’s film included movie columnist Louella Parsons, Loretta Young (fresh from playing opposite David Niven and Cary Grant in The Bishop’s Wife), Ruth Hussey – who played the photographer in The Philadelphia Story (1941) – and Pat O’Brien, a former altar boy who was cast as a priest in several films, including Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) and Fighting Father Dunne (1948.) Most of these stars were Roman Catholics, either from birth or -like writer Clare Booth Luce, who invited Abbot Wilfrid to her house – adult converts. Luce had been received into the Catholic Church in 1946, two years after losing her young daughter in a car accident, taking to Catholicism with the same zeal she applied to all her work. In 1949 her screenplay Come to the Stable was made into a film, starring Loretta Young and Celeste Holm as two French nuns founding a children’s hospital in the New England town of Bethlehem. Abbot Wilfrid met Loretta Young again before leaving Hollywood when Louella Parsons organised a tea party for the two monks, inviting the actress and her husband producer Tom Lewis, along with Maureen O’ Sullivan, Irene Dunne and Mgr Patrick Concannon of Good Shepherd parish, Beverly Hills. The group may all have appeared highly pious, but their personal lives were often more tangled than those of the characters in their films, and some of Loretta Young’s early films might have brought a blush to the abbot’s cheeks.
The only disappointment at Louella’s tea party was that she had a 35mm projector and the abbot was therefore unable to show the guests any of his 16 mm films. In addition to Abbey Builders he had taken his colour film of a day in the life at Prinknash Abbey, which was titled (after a local saying) As Sure as God’s in Gloucestershire.
The two monks took their leave of Hollywood in March 1948 and spent the next few weeks journeying east, visiting monasteries in Kansas, St Louis, Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington before reaching New York from whence they returned to England. In terms of raising funds the expedition fell short of expectations, but this did not prevent the foundation at Pluscarden going ahead. A special Mass was celebrated at the ruined monastery in Moray on 8 September 1948 to celebrate the return of monastic life to the spot, after almost 400 years. Abbot Wilfrid was there with his camera: | English | NL | 5288d80f9000e092be8328fd7a783821170f5fe0b3ce6ae9c795dd17ea9c057a |
The comic book industry has relied on licensing from other media since its inception. Early comic books were repackaged versions of comic strips. The comic book came into its own as a medium separate from the newspaper strips that spawned the format by the late 30s.
Throughout the medium’s history, comic books were published that featured popular concepts from an comprehensive array of media. This included film, radio, television, novels, short stories, toys, corporate mascots, comedians, animation, comic strips, video games, pop music, opera, theater, and poetry.
In most cases the stories of characters from other media in the comic books were not adaptations. The tales featured new adventures and stories of pre-existing characters. The most successful example of this would be Donald Duck, where the seeds of the Disney short features flourished under the guidance of cartoonists such as Carl Barks and Don Rosa. Creators such as these expanded the core concept well beyond what was achieved in a 7 minute animated short. More typically in media transliteration, the new material retained little inspiration from the source. An example of this it the Gold Key Twilight Zone comic, which used the licensed concept as an umbrella under which to package strange and spooky short stories which featured only the thinnest of connection to Rod Serling's anthology program.
Next stop, up ahead.. a teddy bear with flippers..
Most comic book tie-ins were safe, bland, by-the-numbers adventures that in no way indulged in significant universe building. The comic book series Mr. District Attorney was not conceived as a series of tales to be interpolated between episodes of the long running radio and TV series. This is not to say that these types of books failed to have creative merit, but from the 30s through the 60s a licensed book was often as much a marketing tool as it was an independently successful creative endeavor.
There were certainly many journeymen cartoonists, writers, and artists that made their unique mark on all sorts of comics, including those already mentioned. In other cases, licensed comic books could act as a jumping off point for up and coming creators. The publishers that made most use of these licensed of comics found themselves creating a safe and steady work environment for artists that were better suited for genres outside the ever increasing market share that super heroes held.
By the end of the 1960s Marvel was beginning to pull ahead of DC in market share. Marvel was focused almost exclusively on their energetic and dynamic super hero line of books guided by concepts created earlier in the decade by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko.
Not everything Marvel published did was a roaring success, but books such as Spider-Man and Fantastic Four were gaining new, more mature audiences and resonating with readers well over the age of 12. Due to distribution agreements, Marvel's output was very focused, and was limited in the number of titles a month they could release.
DC during the end of the 1960s had a strong core, and had been experimenting with new ideas. Despite a lot of efforts in a number of genres, none surpassed established successes like Batman and Superman. Their forays in licensing were limited to very few examples. Most notably, Bob Hope and Jerry Lewis both had series through DC/National that ran through the entire decade of the 60s.
The secondary publishers of the late 60s and early 1970s included Harvey, Charlton, Gold Key/Western, Archie, Warren, and several lesser-known entities.
Harvey and Archie were committed to children’s comics which featured well known characters that originated with the publishing imprints. Harvey was home to Caspar, Hot Stuff, Wendy, and Richie Rich. Archie was home to the eponymous all American teen, Betty, Veronica, Sabrina, and Josie and the Pussycats. In the case of these two publishers, the work was often adapted into animation and other media, but the reverse was incredibly rare. One of the few exception was the Archie imprint Spire, which featured Christian themed stories, often delving into biographic tales about such well know born-agains as Watergate figure Chuck Coulson and musician Johnny Cash.
Warren was going after a much older crowd with a line of rough and tumble black and white horror magazines, which included Vampirella, Eerie, and Creepy. There was a very close relationship between Warren and films thanks to their flagship title, Famous Monsters of Filmland. Although they had a mail order arm that sold a wide variety of genre film merchandise, they never published an adaptation of an existing film.
Charlton was a trend follower, and through quantity often compensated for what they lacked in quality. Charlton's motto was to keep the presses running, and they did so by publishing comics from every known genre including western, war, horror, romance, sci-fi, hot rod comics, TV tie-ins, and action heroes. They produced few film adaptations, most notable of which are Gorgo and Konga adapted by Steve Ditko in the 1960s.
© Steve Ditko and Joe Gill
Gold Key/Whitman had something different from these other companies. They inherited the Disney license. This meant they were the one publisher with the ability to easily carry on the decades-long tradition of movie adaptations. Disney ensured their films received adaptations in comics since the mid-1950s through a long-standing agreement with Dell publishing. Most of these adaptations, featuring classics such as Shaggy Dog and National Velvet, were published under the umbrella title Dell Four Color. Some were done as one-shot issues, unattached to a series as is the case with Mary Poppins. As the license moved to Gold Key a slightly different approach was taken. Beginning in 1970, there would be a single series, Walt Disney Showcase, wherein all of the film adaptations would live. The series was not exclusively movie tie-ins, but all of the Disney film comics from 1970 through 1979 were published as a part of this series.
Who are.. what are.. THE BOATNIKS!!!
What other publishers attempted movie adaptations? Although no other publisher had a long term licensing deal with a film distributor, many gave it a shot. In an early non-Disney effort, DC offered up issue 43 of their Showcase Presents anthology to Doctor No in the early 60s. It was a reprint of the UK adaptation of the novel, and marketed here as a film tie-in. The word Bond appears in a word balloon and not even in bold. Barely a blip on the radar, and one of the very few pre-1970 efforts for this type of tie-in.
Can you feel the beat Mr James?
By 1970 there was a serious contender for number one comic company that was looking to expand very, very rapidly once their distribution network allowed for it. The publisher needed material- and fast. They began looking to licensing deals, pubic domain material, reprints form the company's early years, as well as drawing on the creative energy that a bunch of adult comics fans breaking into the industry could bring to the company.
Marvel was expanding quickly, and getting into the movies seemed like a good idea. | English | NL | 4f2305ecf426f6c8e41a194b2766d6ef5edd33d316f64bd7d88b66a4e9dbf75c |
Madison Huntley, a ranger with the Arizona Department of Game and Fish has been called out to the site of the mysterious slaughter of domestic animals on a local ranch. It appears to have been perpetrated by some kind of wild animal, but the tracks leading away from the bodies are not those of any creature she has seen before. The trail ends in the yard of a neighboring house owned by Kaletaka.
Kaletaka is a Hopi Indian, a talented artist who creates metal sculptures of gods who are half-man, half-beast. Lately, he has been feeling strange and awakens in the mornings unable to remember where he was the night before. When Madison comes to question him about the killings, Kaletaka is immediately attracted to her, but reluctant to become involved, because of the danger that a relationship with her could present. Kaletaka senses that a great evil is lurking in the night, and even he cannot be certain if the culprit is himself.
I met Vijaya Schartz at an event almost a year ago, and she recently sent me a copy of her latest e-book novella, Coyote Gorgeous, for review. The story is a hybrid of paranormal romance and romantic suspense combining the heroine's investigation of the mysterious killings of domestic animals on a local ranch with Native American skinwalker legends. I typically enjoy Native American stories, and Coyote Gorgeous was no exception. I love learning about their culture and customs, and I came away from reading this novella feeling as though that knowledge had been enriched. Even though this is a fictional story in which some creative license was taken, Ms. Schartz wove in interesting factual information about a Hopi ritual sacrifice of golden eaglets (I felt pretty much the same way about it as Madison did: barbaric but culturally fascinating) and the skinwalker legends which are very similar to the were-creature legends of other cultures. I found myself intrigued enough by the unusual subject matter to do a little research of my own online. The descriptions of the Southwestern setting were very well done, making them clearly visible in my mind's eye, although I readily admit that it may be easier for me than the average reader since I live in the area that was being depicted. The suspense element was also well written. I got nearly all the way through the story thinking I knew who the "bad guy" was, only to get a surprise twist at the end. I also don't think I've ever read suspense paired with the supernatural in quite the way that it was here, so that was something unique and different for me as a reader too.
I really liked both the hero and heroine. I'm not sure Kaletaka could have been more scrumptious if he tried. He's a sexy Hopi Indian with long dark hair who rides a motorcycle, is an incredibly talented sculptor, and knows his way around a kitchen to boot. All I have to say is, "Yummmm!" Madison was a great match for Kaletaka. She's a spunky lady who is a law enforcement officer of a different sort, a ranger with the Arizona Department of Game and Fish. I love how she deftly handles herself, both in the field (guns included) and against the unwanted advances of her boss/ex-boyfriend, but also knows how to be gentle and feminine. I liked that in spite of her being raised by a father and brother who took her on their hunting trips, that she disdains the practice and instead is an animal lover who has dedicated herself to protecting all creatures. The only thing that would have made these two better for me would have been more exploration of their backstories. Even though they were pretty well-defined characters and there was enough information to build my liking for them, I tend to prefer getting inside the hero and heroine's heads a little more than I was allowed to here. There were also several doubts raised about their cultural backgrounds being incompatible, but that all seemed to magically disappear. Additionally, I felt that the paranormal and suspense elements overshadowed the romance a bit. I would have liked to see a few more romantic scenes, although I must say that the candlelight, "not-a-date" dinner that Kal cooked for Madison was particularly wonderful and probably my favorite scene in the entire novella. Overall, Coyote Gorgeous was a fast-paced, action-packed and enjoyable read. It was my first story by Vijaya Schartz, and has certainly left me open to trying some of her other works in the future.
The Hope Chest Reviews on Facebook | English | NL | b2527b48dcdf7f28515b875bccb2b86d93b5d55d865a691e9642550ac0cf3f80 |
Today we will be looking at David’s concern for others. David has more than he can ask for, and remember in the last chapter, David wanted to build God a house. God said “no”, and David started looking for someone else to help. He asks a guy named Ziba about Saul’s family, if there was any of them left. David is led to Saul’s grandson; Jonathon’s son and he is crippled. David takes him in and says, “you will eat at my table from now on”. What a beautiful picture of how Christ comes to us. We are crippled in sin. He takes us in and feeds us. David could have killed him, that’s what most kings would have done. But David in this scene is a picture of Christ. We all deserve death, but Christ wants to give us life. | English | NL | b355ad128d77eeda239a00e054defe2552e3828fd0193641e989710319cd2066 |
Over the summer I have read and skimmed through seventeen books on repertoire, musicology, pedagogy, and read through almost as many opera scores and song cycles. This has left me with more questions than answers, but has brought me to certain conclusions.
I am disturbed by the pedagogues, many of whom are not singers, but theoreticians related in ways similar to musicologists. I am reminded of the adage that “music should be seen and not heard” so often smirked toward the direction of our academic brethren. There is much voodoo and little common sense. Most alarming are those tomes dedicated to surveying “great singers on singing.” In some cases, it is obvious by the way a singer speaks of her technique just why she has vocal issues.
As to answers to my questions, I have begun a sure process and feel I understand my own vocal direction. I am a beginner in my new fach. I am looking at repertoire which other folks, audience and singer alike already know, but I do not. Music I should have known but never familiarized myself with because I had so much to learn within the bandwidth in which I used to sing. Had you told me that at this point in life I would be best suited to Strauss and Puccini I would have thought you absolutely mad. With confidence my teacher and two coaches have finally convinced me otherwise.
I still have books to read and dissect. The San Francisco Main Library has been a regular haunt as I work through the music stacks and the audio section. I’ve learned what I do not know and must now learn. This is a very good thing.
(c)GoshGusMusic (ascap) 2011 | English | NL | 565ea977769ed432bede1ce2226a21d0ac3d38d7bbd0e549852adb392e5c0d5b |
§ (In the Committee.)
I rise, Sir, for the purpose of submitting a Motion that a Vote of Credit be granted by this House for the sum required beyond the ordinary grants of Parliament towards defraying the expense that may be incurred during the year ending March 31st, 1883, in strengthening Her Majesty's Forces in the Mediterranean. I believe it has been already stated to the House that the Vote of Credit which we propose amounts to £2,300,000, and that it is divided between the Army and the Navy in the proportion of £1,400,000 to the Navy and £900,000 to the Army. But it is well to observe that of that £1,400,000 for the Navy by far the larger part, not very far from the whole, I think, or about £1,200,000, is for Army Service, and consists simply of the estimated amount that will be necessary to meet the charges incurred by the hire of transports to carry Her Majesty's troops from this country to the Mediterranean, and the point to which they may ultimately be destined. As regards the force which this Vote of Credit will enable us to send to the Mediterranean, I may state it roughly in these terms—Of Cavalry there will be 2,400; Infantry, 13,400; Horse and Field Artillery, 1,700; making in all 17,500; but, besides these, there will be garrison Artillery, Engineers, Commissariat Corps, Hospital Corps, and the like, amounting to 3,700 men; and there will be a reserve of about 3,100, to sail at a 1575 later date. Perhaps it may be convenient—for I have not to trouble the Committee with many details of fact—that I should at once mention to the Committee that we intend to move that a provision nearly equal to this sum, and ultimately exceeding it, be made by introducing a proper clause into the Tax Bill of the present year. The sum immediately to be met is, as I have stated, £2,300,000, and it is our intention to provide for it in the manner which has teen adopted on several occasions when the House has found cause to add to the burdens of the country at a time considerably after the commencement of the financial year—that is to say, by making an addition to the Income Tax, which will be charged upon the latter half of the year at double the rate at which it would apply for the whole year. In the present instance, we propose to make an addition of 3d. to the second half-year of the Income Tax of 1882–3, which would be equal to an addition of 1½d. for the tax of the whole year, making the tax of the whole year 6½d. The Committee is aware, of course, that not the whole of the Income Tax can be raised within the year under the present arrangements, greatly improved as they have been since the time when the present Income Tax was first proposed, and when scarcely half the tax, if half, was received in the financial year in and for which it was proposed. I ought to say that the sum intended to be the produce of the financial year of the imposition to which I have referred would be £2,262,000; but that sum is very moderately and safely estimated, and over and above that sum there will be between £500,000 and £600,000, which will not be received until after the present financial year. The Committee will, therefore, observe that the entire financial provision I ask Parliament to make will considerably exceed the charge we ask them to incur. With regard to the general state of the Revenue, I may say that I am not in a condition to submit any alteration of the Estimate to the Committee; but I am in a condition to say that some gain has been made upon the Estimates as far as our experience down to the present date is available, and in these circumstances I shall find myself able to make the grant promised for certain purposes in connection with highways, without asking the House to 1576 disturb the present law as to the tax upon carriages. An imposition of that kind, which must, of course, have some effect in disturbing trade, need not be made at a period when we are asking the House to make a much more considerable and a much more direct addition to the taxation of the country. Having stated so much simply for the sake of clearness, I now must go on to say that, in proposing the Vote of Credit to-night, we look, as the next stage of the proceedings, to bring down a Message from Her Majesty, declaring emergency to exist to-morrow, in order to form the foundation on which we should ask the House to make an addition to the present Vote of men which would be necessary in order to enable us to send a force to the Mediterranean such as I have recently described. In due time, in this series of measures, my noble Friend the Secretary of State for India will also ask the House to give its consent to the action of Indian troops in conformity with the Act of Parliament, and then what will remain for us will be to ask the House to go into Committee on the Tax Bill for the purpose of making the pecuniary provision. That will be the series of steps we shall have to take in order to give effect to the resolution at which Her Majesty's Government have arrived. And now it is necessary to consider what is the state of things in Egypt which this provision is designed to meet. It is a state of things which we must describe, except in the City of Alexandria, as one of lawless military violence. And I am sorry to say that state of military violence is apparently aggravated by cruel and wanton crime. It is not for me to assume the ultimate state of the facts as they may appear when we have before us more full and detailed information; but we have before us certain facts which are as significant as they are happily rare in previous history and experience. That the fortifications of a town should be bombarded is of itself a very grave fact, sure to be attended with serious damage; but that that town itself should, not by the bombardment, but by the action, entirely apart from the bombardment, of those who are in positive possession of the reins of Government, and in the exercise of the powers of Government—that a conflagration should be brought into that town upon the re- 1577 tirement of an army which must have known itself perfectly able to hold the town—nay, must have known that for a time, at least, it could hold that town without risk of attack, and that, with that conflagration, there should be let loose on the town those who were to sack and pillage it—these, I say, are dreadful facts which, if they be made good, and we have no reason at present to doubt they are such as I have described—deserve the appellation of cruel and wanton crime. And now, Sir, we have advanced one step further. The Committee is probably aware that the great town of Alexandria is dependent for its supply of water upon the great work called the Mahmoudieh Canal. The water of that Canal is a matter of almost entire insignificance as far as Her Majesty's Forces are concerned. They are possessed of scientific means and machinery by which their wants can, as we are informed, be adequately and amply supplied. The measures, therefore, that have been taken—some say for contaminating it with salt water, but of that there is some uncertainty—but for cutting off the supply of water, are measures directed not against the comfort only, but also against the very lives of the mass of the population of Alexandria, whose offence can amount to nothing but this—that they are not offering an armed resistance to the forces of the English, and the authority of their lawful Ruler the Khedive. Until within the last few weeks, we looked on those who have established the reign of military violence in Egypt as misguided and ambitious men who had broken the law necessary to bind political society together. More grave charges now come up, and it will be for those who have hereafter to consider what course shall be taken to determine, upon careful investigation, whether we can or cannot pronounce to be mitigated the appearances, now too conclusive of barbarous and brutal conduct, directed to objects at variance with the first impulses of humanity. This being the case, as far as Alexandria is concerned, over the rest of Egypt, the same Military Party is acting in violent opposition to the authority of the lawful Ruler. I am not aware that any charge has ever been made against him. We have never learnt that he has in any way abused his trust so as to deserve to forfeit his 1578 position. We have not the smallest reason to believe that the popular feeling of Egypt is adverse to the continuance of his rule. What we know, so far as our knowledge goes, is that this same rule of violence is put in force, as far as the power of the Military Chiefs can do it, in every part of the country. The Governors in three out of five Provinces have been dismissed because they were not willing to become the tools of the Military Party. It is, in fact, a case in which we see established the essence of civil strife in its most intense and highest form—the lawful Ruler shut up in Alexandria, where he receives, we believe, the willing obedience of the people; but the bulk of the country, for the present in the possession of the Egyptian Army—that Army, whether a willing or unwilling instrument, directed by its ambitious commander for the purpose of achieving the ultimate fruits of rebellion, and apparently for the purpose of setting up some military dictator. It is not within a circle of associations like these that liberty can grow. There have been periods in this history at which it has been charitably believed, even in this country, that the Military Party was the popular Party, and was struggling for the liberties of Egypt. There is not the smallest rag or shred of evidence to support that contention. In truth, military violence and the régime established by military violence, are absolutely incompatible with the growth and the existence of freedom. The Reign of Cromwell was a great Reign; but it did nothing for English freedom, because it was the rule of military force, and it has not left on the Statute Book the record of such triumphs as were achieved by peaceful action under the, in many respects, base and infamous Reign which followed it—the Reign of Charles II. The Reign of Napoleon was a splendid Reign; but, being a reign founded on military power, it did nothing for freedom in France, but tended rather to increase the embarrassments which have continually clogged the succeeding history of a great and noble nation. But, if that be the state of the facts, the question may be asked—"What have we to do with it? Why do we not leave the strong to exercise the rule of strength until in the course of nature, from within the circle of the country itself, and by its own resources, 1579 a just retribution is inflicted?" Well, Sir, that is a question fair and right to answer, because, undoubtedly, the fact that you have great interests in a foreign country, and that those interests are seriously suffering in consequence of its civil war or its anarchy, does not of itself suffice to establish the theory of the right of a stranger to enter into that country by force and undertake to find a solution for its political difficulties. Let me, then, Sir, proceed to answer the question—"What have we to do with the solution of this great difficulty in Egypt?" The Egyptian Question, under its present conditions, lies entirely outside the general question of non-intervention. Circumstances have happened from the direct consequences of which we cannot escape, which we are bound to take into account, and which the present Government have found to be imperatively regulative of their conduct. The question, "What have we to do with the internal concerns of Egypt," if it were to be asked at all, ought to have been asked earlier. We admit that we have undertaken some of the most important functions of government in Egypt by international engagements; and it is not free to you with honour, after once entering into such relations, to say that you will regard those engagements as if they had never been contracted, and will fall back upon your own doctrine that non-intervention in the internal affairs of a foreign country is in general to be approved. [Mr. ASHMEAD-BARTLETT made an observation which did not reach the Gallery.] I wish the hon. Gentleman would contain himself for one moment. It was some years ago that this question was really decided, and the groundwork was laid upon which the action now proposed is founded. It was not difficult to foresee that embarrassments and complications such as are now before us would probably arise from undertaking engagements such as wore formed in Egypt some years ago. I have no doubt that many foresaw them. It is in my own recollection—and I will venture to trouble the Committee by quoting myself—that I did not fail to deliver a warning on the subject. On the 6th of March, 1876, when it was proposed to send a Commissioner to Egypt for the sake of assuming some powers not very fully and clearly defined over Egyptian finances, I said— 1580I should, therefore, wish to know whether, if the proposition for the appointment of such a Commissioner he entertained, the right hon. gentleman means the appointment of a Commissioner who would really have such an effective control over all arrangements and the mode of accounting for these revenues that he could guarantee to us the receipt of the whole that it might he applied to the purpose in view? If this is what it does mean, it appears to me that we are only shifting the difficulty one step further; because in that case our Commissioner is to take into his hands the administration of a very important portion of the government of Egypt; so that the measures which we may think necessary as a matter of prudence to cover the proposal which we are to consider may entail upon us still greater difficulties and mix us up still further with a heavier responsibility for a portion of the internal government of Egypt. (Hear, hear.) When we have begun with one portion of the internal government of Egypt, we may pass on to another. We may come to occupy the entire ground by a series of degrees not difficult to contemplate."—[3 Hansard, ccxxvii., 1426.]Well, Sir, nothing was done at that period to bring about the realization of such anticipations. But, in the year 1879, decisions were taken which supply the real starting-point of the whole of the recent political Correspondence. In 1879 a change was effected in the Supreme Ruler—at least, in the legally Supreme Ruler—of the country at our instance, or nearly at our instance, and the present Ruler, Tewfik Pasha, succeeded one who was compelled to withdraw. Even by the fact of that succession we incurred a great responsibility to the person thus elevated. The Committee will see that unless the person so chosen and so preferred failed in his duty, it became more our duty, and no small amount of obligation, to support him in the exercise of the rule to which we have had a large share in preferring him. But that was not all; because Controllers were appointed by the positive action of the English and French Governments, who became members of a Council in Egypt corresponding with the Cabinet in this country, or, rather, exercising a much larger and wider power than the Cabinet of this country, and invested with a real and substantial control, extending directly to a great part of the Egyptian finances, and virtually, perhaps, extending to the whole of it. Under these circumstances, it was impossible for any Government of England or France to decline advising the Council in the internal affairs of Egypt. You could not say to the Ruler, when he asked your 1581 help and assistance—"It is no affair of ours." You could, but give him the best advice of which the circumstances admitted; and it is by giving that advice, time by time and step by step, that we have arrived at the present position. We have arrived at it by a series of steps which form a chain that cannot be broken. I am not going now to pronounce an opinion as to the wisdom of the original proceeding. After having read to the Committee the sentiments I have myself declared, it will not be supposed I was prejudiced in favour of that policy. I have never been called upon to approve or condemn it. We found it existed as a fact, and we recognized frankly the claims of honour and duty which it appeared to us to impose. And thus we have arrived at the point where we now stand. It is fair to say, however much—and I think it is greatly open to question—we may question on grounds of policy and prudence whether the present embarrassments ought not to have been foreseen, and whether the course taken in 1879 was wise—it is but fair to say—I add my own testimony to the many testimonies forthcoming—that no inconsiderable benefits have been conferred by what was done upon the people of Egypt. It may be that, in certain respects and within very narrow limits, new abuses may have grown up; but it is a fact of a hundred times greater importance that the condition of the cultivator of the soil, which in Egypt was miserable almost beyond belief, has been greatly reformed with the limits—I think it may generally be said, capable of proof—within the limits of something like regular law and order. That being the state of the case which we have had to meet, I will now explain the manner in which we have arrived at our present position. It is not necessary for me to go into the details of that position, for they have been set forth fully in the Papers that are now upon the Table of the House, and, perhaps, with adequate fulness, in a consecutive manner, in the lengthened despatch from Lord Granville, dated July 11th. But the point which I conceive to have been the turning point in this series of transactions was when the long festering military discontent, that had already broken out into occasional acts of aggression and violence, at length reached such a height that in the first place, the military dic- 1582 tators thought fit to summon the Notables, without the consent of the Ruler of the country and in defiance of the law, and then when those Notables, highly to their own honour and with conduct that really gives better promise than any other single occurrence in the whole series of circumstances before us—when those Notables declined to be parties to these proceedings; when those military dictators persevered in the course on which they had entered, and, casting off the mask, determined to govern the country without the consent of the Notables, as well as without the consent of the Khedive. The condition of thorough and violent illegality, hopeless for the people of Egypt, having thus been achieved, and we, feeling ourselves under an obligation to recognize it as a state of things for which it was our duty at least to take part in devising a remedy, it is time that I should endeavour to state to the Committee what the general view we have taken is of the mode in which that remedy ought to be applied. We had to take into account the Sovereignty of the Sultan in Egypt. We had no desire to impart a shock to the fabric of the Ottoman Empire. Some Members of this House appear to think that a general crusade against the Ottoman Empire had been taught by this Government or by some Members of it. Probably where that idea prevails there is hardly anyone who is more in the view of those who entertain it than myself. But I have never taught a crusade of that kind. I have always held, in language perfectly unvarying, that we ought to insist upon the duty of making some acknowledgments with respect to the condition of the subject races in Turkey—of making those acknowledgments in more than mere words when opportunity offers. But I have never ceased steadily to maintain that we were the best friends of Turkey; and if, on a certain occasion, which was the very highest climax to which I ever ascended, I did contemplate the removal of Turkish power from one Province—the Province of Bulgaria—I said then what has proved to be true—namely, that those who then professed themselves the friends of Turkey would lead her to the loss of that Province, and of a good many more also. Well, such has been the teaching of history in this matter; and we have approached the question of the Turkish Sovereignty in Egypt with 1583 this same feeling, that we were earnestly desirous to maintain that Sovereignty within the limits of lawful right. We, therefore, looked first of all to the Turkish Power as the quarter from which intervention would be most desirable, when once the point had been reached which made the intervention of force absolutely necessary. We did all we could to soothe the susceptibilities of the Sultan. We received from him, over and over again, the most gratifying assurances. We cherished, as long as we could, the expectation that to him we might look for the restoration of order in Egypt. We invariably held out to him the Firmans given by himself and his Predecessors as supplying the political basis on which we desired that the Constitution of Egypt should stand. We endeavoured to remove from the minds of himself and his counsellors every trace or shadow of suspicion as to the views and intentions with which we ourselves had entered upon the consideration of the matter; and even so long as up to the day of the bombardment we held firmly by the idea that if the Sultan had recognized the opportunity he had then, possessing, as he did, the knowledge that we and the other Powers of Europe were prepared to give him every countenance and assistance, he had then an opportunity, easier and more effective than ever, of restoring tranquillity to Egypt by the exercise of his authority and the use of his Military Forces. I have no right and no disposition to judge the policy which has been pursued by the Sultan; but, in our opinion, that opportunity appears to have passed away. We are no longer able, viewing the actual condition of Egypt, viewing the confusion and disorder, viewing the continual reports that reach us of pillage and murder in parts of the country where the affording of help is totally impossible—we are no longer able to hope that a remedy for that state of things can be or will be applied by the use of the military power of the Sultan. He has had the case before him, not for weeks only, but for months. There is no reason that I know now why he should arrive at a resolution to which he has been so long and so earnestly pressed and urged, but which he has, up to the present, declined to take; and we are, therefore, reluctantly, but decisively, compelled to turn our view towards other courses. 1584 Sir, next to our desire that the Sovereign of the Ottoman Empire should discharge the first duty of Sovereignty, by bringing about a restoration of order and tranquillity in Egypt, was our desire to make an appeal to the common authority of Europe, and to avoid, above all things, the exhibition of a disposition to a line of isolated action, on grounds which it is needless to question at length—grounds alike of policy and of principle—on the ground of policy, because in that way we felt that we were taking the wisest course for the purpose of avoiding future and entangling complications; and, on the ground of principle, because I believe that it is the just opinion of reflecting men that there is nothing more important for the future of civilization than to make free resort, wherever it can be done, to that authority of united Europe which, when it does speak, does really speak with a weight which causes it to be felt that it has a real title to be heard. It is certainly very difficult to bring that authority to bear, and the history of endeavours to make use of it is a history of partial successes and of partial failures. There was a partial failure to bring it to bear in 1853–4, before the Crimean War, and yet there was also a partial success. There was also another interesting instance that happened many years before, in the case of Greece, when it was impossible to move either Prussia or Austria; but when France, Russia, and England formed a combination, which combination, casting aside every selfish view which any of the Powers singly-might have been tempted to entertain, brought about by a shorter course than might have been expected the establishment of a free Greek Kingdom. Well, for these reasons we laboured hard to bring together the Conference which has been sitting, and is still sitting, at Constantinople; and important good, undoubtedly, we have obtained from that Conference, because we have obtained a solemn appeal to the Sultan to take into his own hands, under conditions approved by civilized Europe, the settlement of the Egyptian Question. But we have obtained more than that. We have obtained the negative result that the Powers themselves are not willing, as a body, to be directly parties either to military action in Europe or to granting a Commission, or, as it is sometimes 1585 termed, a Mandate, to certain of their number to exercise that military action. But we have obtained, I think, to our entire satisfaction, the moral support and concurrence of Europe in the policy which we are pursuing. There has been a universal recognition that a case has arisen where, in the interests of humanity and of the future, force should be employed to put down the military dictatorship in Egypt, and a recognition that, although it unfortunately be true that Turkey has not been found ready to take into her own hands the discharge of the duty appertaining to Sovereignty in that respect, yet that it was a duty which ought to be performed. Of that we have had full and adequate assurance, and it forms an important part of the case on which we stand. On this matter, of course, we have looked in a very special degree to our great neighbour France, not only on account of her power and influence, but because of the close and direct relations in which we were placed with her under the arrangements of 1879. And here the principle of concurrence has obtained something more than moral assent, because as to one important part, at least, of the Egyptian Question—namely, that which concerns the free passage of the Suez Canal—we have succeeded in obtaining the direct and active concurrence of France. France, I believe, so far as the French Government is concerned, holds herself now prepared, along with ourselves, to guarantee the safety and the free use of that great maritime highway. We have no present reason to suppose that France will go further. It is not for me to predict what she will do, or what she may not be prepared to do, in the exercise of her undoubted right; but I should be deceiving the Committee if I held out to them the expectation that we were entitled to look for her naval or military concurrence in operations in Egypt further than with respect to the security and defence of the Suez Canal. Well, now, the defence of the Suez Canal does not, in our view, meet the necessities of the case, or the obligations under which we are bound to the present Khedive of Egypt, or the international arrangements that have been in force now for several years. Perhaps I may, in one single sentence, say with regard to the Khedive that undoubtedly the circumstances of 1586 his accession to power gave him a right to much consideration at our hands, the circumstances of his conduct during the last three or four months of difficulty never surpassed, and of danger to his life most formidable and alarming. His conduct, I think, has been without a single step in deviation from the one direct line of honour and of duty, and has greatly enhanced his claims upon us. But the insecurity of the Canal, it is plain, does not exhibit to us the seat of the disease. The insecurity of the Canal is a symptom only, and the seat of the disease is in the interior of Egypt, in its disturbed and its anarchical condition. We do not feel able to be satisfied that we should fully have discharged our duty without endeavouring to bring to bear adequate means of converting the present interior state of Egypt from anarchy and conflict to a state of peace and order. During the time that yet remains to us we shall still look to the co-operation of the Powers of civilized Europe; if it be in any case open to us. It is with us a policy, and it is with us a duty, to hail such co-operation, not merely as lightening our burden, but as strengthening our title, and as divesting it of an aggressive character. If, therefore, it be available we are prepared and desirous to hail it. If, after having exhausted all chances; if, after having failed with Turkey, and not having succeeded, at any rate, in bringing the full authority and force of the Powers represented at the Conference to bear upon this question—if every other chance is exhausted, we shall not, Sir, shrink from undertaking the duty by the single power of this country. It is, no doubt, a serious charge; but it is a charge which seems to devolve upon us from our duty, and which we believe to be within our means. We believe that it will have the full sanction of all those who are observers of our policy, and we are convinced that we shall be performing a great service to Europe and the world. Well, now, Sir, let me say a few words on the subject of what our action thus far has been. We sent ships to Alexandria in pursuance of a practice well established—that, when there is serious danger to our fellow-subjects—to the subjects of the Government in a foreign country—to endeavour to afford them, at least, the means of refuge through its Naval Force, and that was the main 1587 and the justifying cause why our ships were first sent to Alexandria. The danger increased; the number of those ships was not adequate to that augmented danger, and it was enlarged. I do not suppose the contention will be raised in this House, or, at least, I do not believe it will be widely supported, that these ships ought to have been withdrawn from Egypt. There were practical questions to be considered which would not have permitted us to entertain such a view; but I will not enter into argument until I find we are challenged upon that point of our policy. We believed that our ships were lawfully and rightfully in Alexandrian waters, and, feeling so, that it was our duty to take whatever measure might properly be taken, and might imperatively be called for in the interest of self-defence. With a view to the security of that Fleet, authority was given to interfere with the persistent endeavour to extend and to strengthen the fortifications of Alexandria; and those who have observed what was done on the 11th July may be apt to believe that had the process been allowed to continue for a much longer time, I will not say that it would have been fatal to the British Fleet, but I will say the consequences might have been much more serious. We justify the act of bombardment simply, strictly, and exclusively as an act of self-defence. Such was our object; but the question is raised—What ought to have been our conduct? And the answer given by some is that we ought to have sent with the Fleet a sufficient force for the purpose of preventing conflagration and pillage. I shall be very curious to hear that matter argued out. I should like to know what is meant by a sufficient force. A sufficient force, in the first place, must have been a force adequate, not only to meet in the field, but to drive out of every street and lane in a great city an Egyptian Army which was reported to us, according to the best accounts, to be between 10,000 and 15,000 strong. What would that sufficient force have been? I do not think I overstate it if I put it, for the sake of hypothesis, at 10,000 men; and I want to know in what way the sending of a sufficient force could by any possibility have been made to cohere—even decently to cohere—with our profession that our Fleet was in Alexandrian waters without the 1588 intention of offence, except what might be necessary for its own security. It would have been absolutely to belie our professions if we had sent such a force. It would have meant an invasion of that country; and an assumption of authority to determine the Egyptian Question by our sole action would not only have utterly belied our whole action in reference to the title and object with which we sent our Fleet—not only would it have belied our professions as regards the Power reigning in Egypt, but it would have been grossly disloyal in the face of Europe and of the Conference we had brought together. I want to point out what is the real charge against us, and let us be challenged on that charge if it is thought fit. We had brought together, with great pains and difficulty, the Powers of Europe, the aid of whose endeavours we had invoked to bring Turkey into the field. We had warned the Conference that if they failed to bring Turkey into the field we should still urge on it the consideration of other and effectual measures. Was it possible for men to go further than we had gone? We invest that Conference with a title to our forbearance, at least, from anything that might be in conflict with the policy which had met with the approval of what is undeniably, after all, the highest authority known in the civilized world. To have sent an invading Army to Egypt when the Conference had but recently met, and when it had not been able even to make its application to the Sultan, would, in our opinion, have disentitled us to every claim to respect in the eyes of the Powers of Europe, and it would, in truth, have been a flagrant contradiction to all of our professions. But I am bound to say I go a little further still. I want to know what force of 10,000 men, or of any number of thousands of men, could by any possibility have prevented an army in the occupation of a town from setting fire to it before leaving it? There is no force that could have done it. We should have been acting disloyally towards Europe; and, in addition, I believe it would have been impossible for us, by landing forces after the bombardment, to prevent the deplorable occurrences which took place in Alexandria through the wanton and gratuitous excesses of the Egyptian Army. There are many bombardments known to history; but I doubt very much 1589 if you will find a case in which an army possessed of the town of which the fortifications had been bombarded has retired from that town, setting fire to it in many places, and exposing vast portions of its population—not Englishmen, for they were all gone; not Europeans, for the population was not confined to them; not Christians, because it was not confined to them, but the general population of the town—to all the horrors of sack and pillage. So much, then, as to what we have done. And now I have a word to say about what we intend to do. I only speak of the object with which we shall move. As to the instruments with which we move, I have already said that we look to co-operation as long as a likelihood and prospect of co-operation remain; but the spirit of our action, with co-operation or without co-operation, will be this. We hope to put down that tyranny which now reigns in Egypt, and when that preliminary step may have been achieved—and God grant it may be soon—we hope to promote a settlement of Egyptian affairs, based upon the maintenance of international right, based upon the avoidance of every selfish purpose and design. We shall desire to strengthen the Throne worthily occupied by the present Khedive, if we have reason to believe—and I feel confident we shall have every reason to believe—in the continuance of that worthiness. The hon. Gentleman the Member for Portsmouth (Sir H. Drummond Wolff) has more than once put upon the Paper, within the last few weeks, a sympathetic Question addressed to me, and evidently intended to convoy the suggestion and the hope that in any measures which we might take or share in for the settlement of Egyptian affairs we should not forgot the liberties of the Egyptian people. Sir, I requested the hon. Gentleman to withdraw that Question for the time, and I did so because I was of opinion that to raise any particular question in respect to any particular right or object which it might be proper to hold in view when we come to a settlement might possibly arouse susceptibilities, and give rise to misconstruction. I have to thank the hon. Gentleman for not having put that Question to me at a time when it seemed unreasonable. I can assure the hon. Gentleman it will be a sacred part of our duty to favour equal laws in Egypt, 1590 and, within the limits of reason, to favour popular liberty. We must not be too hasty in our favourable assumptions; yet I, for one, do certainly believe that Egypt is a country which has, not economically, but socially and politically, made great progress; and there is reason to hope that when the incubus which now afflicts her is removed, and a reign of law is substituted for that of military violence, something may be founded there which may give hope for the future—something which may tend to show that the desire for free institutions is not wholly confined to Christian races, but that even in a Mahomedan people, whose circumstances are certainly less favourable to the development of free institutions, a noble thirst may arise for the attainment of those blessings of civilized life which they see have been achieved in so many countries in Europe. Sir, these will be the purposes with which we shall move. It will be premature now to enter into details as to a general re-establishment of the status quo. It is impossible, for example, to form at this time any judgment with reference to maintaining or changing what is called the Control in Egypt; but what I do wish to convey is this—that whether we go to Egypt alone or in partnership we shall not go for selfish objects. Even if it happen that our action be isolated, except for the happy conjunction with France I have already noticed with respect to the Suez Canal—and I venture to think that conjunction may be considered assured—if our action should be isolated, not isolated will be our purpose. Our purpose will be to put down tyranny and to favour law and freedom; and we shall cherish something of the hope that it may yet be given to Egypt, with all her resources, and with the many excellent qualities of her peaceful and peace-loving and laborious people, to achieve in the future, less, perhaps, of glory, but yet possibly more happiness than she did once achieve when, in a far-off and almost forgotten time, she was the wonder of the ancient world.
Motion made, and Question proposed,
That a sum, not exceeding £2,300,000, be granted to Her Majesty, beyond the ordinary Grants of Parliament, towards defraying the Expenses which may be incurred during the year ending on the 31st day of March 1883, in strengthening Her Majesty's Forces in the Mediterranean."—(Mr. Gladstone.)
§ SIR STAFFORD NORTHCOTE
Sir, I must say it has never been my lot to have listened to a speech in this House which has given me more grave reason for consideration than that which we have just heard. I do not for a moment yield to the right hon. Gentleman in my conviction that if England sets herself to work in her single strength to accomplish the objects which, so far as we can understand, the Government are setting before themselves, she will show that she is competent to discharge that duty, and to accomplish the end desired. Of this, at least, I am certain—that if England undertakes that task it will be in the full strength of her sons of all shades of opinion. But I feel that this is a moment at which we require further explanation and fuller consideration than it is possible for us to exercise at the first blush of the statement to which we have just listened. There is much in that statement which has both surprised and, I think, disappointed the House. We find that we are no longer to look for aid either from the Porte—the legitimate Sovereign of Egypt, charged, as the right hon. Gentleman says it should have been, with the execution of the duty of maintaining peace within its own Dominions—nor are we to look for the assistance of any of the Powers of Europe, except in a limited degree. [Mr. GLADSTONE made a gesture of dissent.] Perhaps the right hon. Gentleman will explain.
§ SIR STAFFORD NORTHCOTE
The "hopes and chances of co-operation are not exhausted!" Well, are we to live upon hopes? It seems to me that in those two words we have a clue to a great deal of what has been done. We can now understand that for 12 months, or nearly 12 months, it has been upon hopes and chances that the Government have been proceeding; and I am bound to say that, looking to the position of affairs as it is now represented to us, looking to the conditions under which we are to engage in this enterprize, looking to the enterprize itself, so mistily shadowed forth to us, and looking, at the same time, to the attitude of the other Powers, we require some little consideration before we commit ourselves to a support of the Government in this mat- 1592 ter. I am, and always have been, one of the very last in England to embarrass and weaken the hands of the Executive in a policy of a character involving military operations. If we are persuaded that military operations ought to be undertaken, and will be undertaken, we ought to give the Government our support and strength; but we ought to expect, and we have a right to expect, and it is our duty to demand from the Government, full explanations both as to the grounds on which they are proceeding, the object at which they aim, and, in such degree as is compatible with proper military considerations, full explanation as to the means by which they expect to attain the object in view. But what have been the statements of the right hon. Gentleman? He began by endeavouring, as far as possible, to throw the responsibility for the present state of things in Egypt from himself and his Government upon the Government which preceded him. If I thought I should not weary the Committee I should now be prepared to contend very warmly against the description which the right hon. Gentleman has given of this matter. I contend he has given an entirely erroneous description of the proceedings at the time of the Mission of Sir Stephen Cave.
§ SIR STAFFORD NORTHCOTE
Yes. To whom was the right hon. Gentleman referring when he told us that the groundwork of these proceedings was laid some years ago—in 1876?
§ SIR STAFFORD NORTHCOTE
I entirely dispute the accuracy of the statement of the right hon. Gentleman, and if the right hon. Gentleman will allow me to finish my sentence he will find I am prepared to make good what I state. The right hon. Gentleman stated that the groundwork of these proceedings was laid some years ago; and then he referred to a speech of his made in the year 1876, upon the occasion of Sir Stephen Cave being sent out, as the right hon. Gentleman described it, as a Commissioner with very considerable powers. He then went on to say that nothing serious came of that, and what he was ready to point to was rather the 1593 decisions arrived at in 1879. I entirely dispute that the right hon. Gentleman's description is anything like an abstract of the proceedings of the late Government. I say that Sir Stephen Cave's Mission was one which was of a purely inquiring character; it was to enable us to obtain certain information; and the Control to which the right hon. Gentleman refers was not only originated in 1879, but it was entirely independent of the action of the Government—in fact, it was originally instituted upon the action of the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Ripon (Mr. Goschen) and his Colleagues. When we come to 1879, I wish to point this out to the right hon. Gentleman, if he will give me his attention for a moment—that the decree that was put out in 1879 greatly limited and reduced the powers given to the Controllers by the previous decree, which was the work of the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Ripon (Mr. Goschen) and his Colleagues. They were expressly excluded from the exercise of administrative functions previously given to them, and entirely removed from such a position as the right hon. Gentleman ascribes to them. They were told they were given a consultative voice and powers of investigation, but not such powers as belong to the Cabinet of which the right hon. Gentleman is the head. I am prepared, on the proper occasion, to enter at length into an explanation and defence of the proceedings of the late Government; but I maintain that on the present occasion I ought not to be called upon to do that, because it would be evading altogether the question really at issue. Whether the conduct of the late Government was or was not open to the remarks the right hon. Gentleman has now made, this certainly is to be said—that by his own admission, not only now on the floor of the House, both by himself and of his Colleagues, in State despatches and otherwise, the work we did was good work, that produced a state of things greatly for the benefit of Egypt, and greatly for the advancement of the prosperity of the people of that country. That being so, we have a right to come forward, having left things in that position, and say—"Why, if it was unsatisfactory, did you not alter or reverse it? If, on the other hand, it was satisfactory, why have you made this piece of work out of that which we 1594 left in your hands?" I contend that it will be found, when we come closely to examine these matters, that, to a great extent, the miserable condition to which things have been brought is due, not to the action of the late Government, but rather to the action, if we can call it action, of the present Government. I maintain that, from the beginning of the disturbances occasioned by the Military Party—of whom the right hon. Gentleman has spoken in terms of just indignation—from the beginning of those disturbances the conduct of the Government has been such as not to meet the emergencies of the case, but, on the contrary, to cut away and to embarrass the means of resisting it in the hands of the Khedive. With whom were we to have acted? When the late Government had to deal with a position of considerable difficulty in reference to the change in the position of the late Khedive, his deposition, or rather his forced resignation, at that time the Government of the day acted in cordial co-operation and concert with the Porte, as the Sovereign of the Khedive. But what has been the conduct of the present Government in regard to their relations with the Porte? They tell us they have looked to and desired that the Porte should exercise its Sovereign rights, in order to preserve peace in the Principality of Egypt. But how has the Porte been able to do it? The Government have hung upon its arm continually; they told the Porte that it was bound to exercise its functions; but they embarrassed it by sending troops there, and by taking other measures for the exertion of force. How have they acted in relation with France? I think, if we look at the relations with France, and read the whole story of the negotiations, we shall see that there has been an entire case of the want of a real and effective understanding between them. That is one of the points we put before them. They profess that we are in cordial co-operation with France. But when we ask—"What are you doing here—here is a difficult state of things growing up; what are you going to do?" The Government say—"Do not inquire; we are in cordial co-operation with France; we agree to act together; but, at the same time, we hold ourselves free with regard to any particular action that may be taken." I do not believe that, from first to last, 1595 there was anything that really could have been called an effective understanding with France, or that there was anything like an effective understanding between the two Powers. It was the sort of understanding that existed between the right hon. Gentleman the late Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (Mr. John Bright) and his Colleagues. They agreed to hold together; but they were not agreed upon any effective action. At the date when it was necessary that something should be done they fell apart in toto. I am sorry as to the manner in which the Government have acted throughout this matter. They have, as it seems to me, taken exactly the most foolish and unwise course they could have taken, because they have fallen into the error of dawdling and endeavouring to succeed by their demonstrations. A policy of demonstration and dawdling is a most dangerous one. It may succeed, but it must be judged by results, and when we see what the result in this case has been, I am bound to say that we cannot form the best opinion either as to the wisdom or diplomacy of the Government. I am sorry that I have been forced to explain so much on account of the unnecessary attack which was made by the right hon. Gentleman upon his Predecessors. [Mr. GLADSTONE dissented.] I see that the right hon. Gentleman shakes his head; but he said something which was understood as an attack—and which we understood to be an endeavour to shift on to the Government which preceded him the exclusive responsibility for the position into which things have got. I quite agree with the right hon. Gentleman in the appreciation which he has expressed of the great importance of putting down the military tyranny to which Egypt is subjected; and I am prepared to say with him that the general course, not only of the late Government, but of any Government in this country for a considerable time, has been such as to make it impossible for us to look with indifference on such a state of things. The proceedings with regard to the Control are, after all, but an incident in the general history of our dealings with Egypt. If we look back to the days of the old Capitulations, and the substitution of judicial reform, even down to the time preceding Sir Stephen Cave's Mission, we shall see how the complications 1596 arose in connection with the obligations of Egypt to this country. Our claims on the tribute, for instance, were assigned, not under the late Government, but under a Government of which the right hon. Gentleman was a Member. It was assigned as a security for the debt which was created in 1850 and 1858. When we look at the other interests which England has in Egypt, independent of her great interest in the maintenance of the Suez Canal, we shall see how important it was that Egypt should prosper and be peaceful; that she should be contented and happy. I may say that I think the action which each successive Government has taken with regard to Egypt has been both justifiable and beneficial, and has entailed on us the obligations to which the right hon. Gentleman has adverted. And now I want to ask one or two questions about the present state of things. We have been told that the object of our joint mission is to put down tyranny and reestablish good government in Egypt. All that may be very excellent. But we want to know, as far as it is possible to tell us, what are the steps by which we are about to proceed? We are about to go alone, with, as the right hon. Gentleman says, the sympathy and moral support, at all events, of every Power in Europe, and the aid of France to a limited extent. I think we ought to be told what is the attitude of other Governments, and we ought to have some assurance with regard to France, and as to the extent of the moral support and sympathy which are said to exist. When we see that we are going into an enter-prize of such magnitude and importance, and when we are told that no other nation but one is going to stand by our side, and that one only to a limited extent, we ought to have some evidence to show that we are not acting alone without the assent of these Powers, but that we are acting as a mandatory of them. We are forced to ask these questions, because the Government have not been very ready to tell us all that is going on. And I must say that with reference to the negotiations with the European Powers, and the representations of the Conference, we are left, at a moment like this, in a condition of darkness, which I hope the Government will very speedily terminate. We also want to know, if we are to go alone, 1597 what force is going to be employed, and if any contingent, and if so, what contingent is coming from any other part of the Empire? Are there to be any Indian troops? We have not heard one word about them from the right hon. Gentleman; but the noble Lord the Secretary of State for India, in the early part of the evening, gave Notice of a Motion to show that it is intended to use Her Majesty's Forces, and that some part of the expense is proposed to be charged upon India. I hope we shall be informed with regard to that matter, and how far it is their intention to draw upon the resources of that part of the Empire. I hope that an answer will be given to the Question suggested by my hon. Friend the Member for Guildford (Mr. Onslow)—namely, whether it is intended to charge the expenses of the employment of these troops on the Indian or the British Exchequer? These are all points on which we desire to have information. I do not, at the present moment, desire to express any final opinion on the proposal made to us by the right hon. Gentleman. I think we have a right to ask for a short time to consider the proposal. I hope the right hon. Gentleman does not intend to press us to give a Vote tonight. I am quite sure that whenever we get an explanation such as we want, and have a right to ask for, the House of Commons will approach the question in a spirit worthy of Englishmen, and that there will be no unnecessary delay or embarrassment when we are satisfied that we are right in the course we are pursuing. Before I sit down I should like to ask whether there is any truth in the report which has reached this country that the Conference is already dissolved?
I have not heard, Sir, that there is any truth in that report. I was surprised when I found that the right hon. Gentleman meant to ask for time, because the right hon. Gentleman has already proceeded to make a partial reply to my speech. He entirely misunderstood what I said about Sir Stephen Cave. I quoted my own words, and those words had no reference to Sir Stephen Cave, but to a scheme which was not his, but one which the late Government aired at one time, but which they did not act upon so long as Lord Derby remained at the Foreign Office. I never said or implied that the 1598 functions of the Control were extended. The difference was this. The Control was established upon the authority of the English and French Governments, and, being so established, the Controllers were not dismissable by the Egyptian Rulers without the consent of England and France. A more extraordinary interference with the affairs of a foreign country cannot be conceived. I have made no attempt to exempt the present Government from responsibility for each and every step they have taken, and I defended them upon all the points on which I thought their policy has been challenged. But, I say, follow up those points; try them one by one, and if you follow them up, you will then, in my opinion, come to a certain epoch, which is the true origin of all that has since happened. That is, I apprehend, a perfectly fair method of proceeding. The right hon. Gentleman went so far as to say I made an attack upon the late Government, when I said expressly I was called upon neither to approve nor condemn, and I went out of my way to say that the Control had done good to the people of Egypt, and that is the reward which I receive for such an acknowledgment. Sir, the right hon. Gentleman has taken that course; but if he desires that time should be taken, I shall not resist his proposal, and therefore I will not oppose the Motion to report Progress.
If such a Motion is made I shall not resist it. [An hon. MEMBER: The Indian troops.] The explanation which I have given to-night is a strictly limited one. The proper time for explanations in regard to Indian troops will be when my noble Friend makes his Motion. My explanations tonight have been limited, and I do not attempt to describe the whole of our course on this subject.
§ SIR GEORGE CAMPBELL
said, he had one question to put to the right hon. Gentleman. Was the Vote of Credit now proposed to be strictly limited to the expenses of the troops to be sent from this country? Did it include anything for the expenses of the troops to be sent from India?
In no sense whatever. I stated that in my statement as 1599 clearly as I could. It is entirely for the troops to be sent from this country.
§ SIR GEORGE CAMPBELL
said, there was one more question he should like to ask. For what period had the expenses been calculated which they were now asked to vote? They were told that it was to be a largo expedition; that 20,000 or 23,000 men were to be sent out to Egypt. It must be borne in mind that they were being sent to a very expensive part of the world; and it might be fairly assumed that the sum of £2,300,000, now asked for for military operations in Africa, would not last very long. He should, therefore, be glad to be told for what period the Vote was calculated. It would be a great satisfaction to find that the expedition could be conducted without a further appeal to the Exchequer.
§ MR. CHILDERS
Perhaps I had better answer the question of the hon. Gentleman. The amount required to be taken for the Army—and I have no means at present of checking the details—has been caleulated for the period which those who advise the Government in military matters consider would be sufficient to complete operations. It is designed to cover a period of three months.
§ MR. CHAPLIN
said, he was not going to enter into any open question, or to follow the speech of the right hon. Gentleman the Prime Minister. All he desired was to ask for information on one point. The right hon. Gentleman, in vindicating the course of action of the Government up to the present time, had made a statement to the effect that the terrible state of things in Alexandria was owing to action entirely apart from that of Her Majesty's Navy. Now, was it not the fact that the Government had received a distinct warning from various sources as to the unavoidable result of that course of action? It was not denied that Major Tulloch sent home distinct information to the Government to this effect. Now, who was Major Tulloch? He was a gentleman of unquestionable ability and of great experience, who had lived in Alexandria for a considerable time, and who was sent out by the Government for the purpose of collecting information. Major Tulloch did send home detailed information to the Government on the subject, upon which 1600 the Government might have acted, and by means of which some of the horrible consequences which had ensued might have been avoided. He wanted to know if that was the fact or not; and, if it was the fact, whether the Government would not lay on the Table of the House of Commons whatever information, if there was any, that had been forwarded to them by Major Tulloch? In the despatches which had been laid upon the Table there was information to show that most unquestionably did the British residents in Alexandria call on Her Majesty's Government to provide sufficient means for the protection of life and property. It was also stated that the bombardment of the forts would, in all probability, result in serious danger to the European population, and in regard to which the Government ought to have been prepared. [Mr. GLADSTONE: Will the hon. Gentleman read the despatch?] In one of the despatches it was stated that there was every reason to fear a recurrence of the horrors which had taken place; that the Europeans in Alexandria were absolutely defenceless, and that they had not the means of retiring, as in order to reach the harbour they would have to run the gauntlet of the guns through the streets. The despatch added that when the forts were disabled there would commence a great danger for Europeans. He hoped the right hon. Gentleman would order the rest of the despatch to be given. He was sorry to find that the right hon. Gentleman had left the House, because this was a despatch which he understood the right hon. Gentleman to desire him to read, and he wished the right hon. Gentleman to hear the rest of the despatch. The despatch went on to say—Then would commence a period of great danger for Europeans, who would be at the mercy of the soldiers, exasperated by defeat, while the British Admiral could not risk his men ashore, because his whole available force for landing purposes did not exceed 300 men.He (Mr. Chaplin) was bound to say, quite apart from the information which might or might not have been supplied by Major Tulloch to the Government—and he hoped the Committee would be distinctly told to-night that the information which had been supplied would be laid on the Table—he was bound to say that, quite apart from that information, 1601 there was contained in the despatch he had read sufficient to induce him to believe that the Government had ample warning of the fearful consequences likely to ensue from the bombardment, which fearful consequences actually did ensue, and which Her Majesty's Government took no sufficient moans to prevent. These were points upon which he hoped the Government would give the Committee distinct information and full explanation before the debate was closed that night.
§ MR. CHILDERS
I thought I had answered the Question put to me by the hon. Member in reference to Major Tulloch the other day. What I said then was, that Major Tulloch was neither the agent nor the adviser of the Government in any sense. Major Tulloch was an officer on the Staff at Portsmouth, and, having a considerable local knowledge of Alexandria and the neighbourhood, he was sent by me to Sir Beau-champ Seymour to give him information about Alexandria and its vicinity. He was simply attached to Sir Beauchamp Seymour for that purpose before the bombardment commenced. He was not sent as the agent of the Government, nor as their adviser, to Sir Beauchamp Seymour; but it was felt that his local knowledge might be useful to the Admiral. I have already made that statement. Whatever information Major Tulloch possessed in regard to the neighbourhood of Alexandria he gave to Sir Beauchamp Seymour, but he was never asked to advise Her Majesty's Government on naval or military operations. Therefore it is not my duty, audit would be establishing an extraordinary precedent if, having appointed an officer for that purpose, I was to allow myself to be catechized about his personal opinions on subjects which were altogether beyond the sphere of his duty.
§ MR. CHAPLIN
said, that was not the question. He had not asked for what purpose Major Tulloch had been appointed, or to whom he was credited, or what special powers he might have at this moment. What he did ask was, whether Major Tulloch did not send home information to the Government that probably a bombardment, unsupported by troops, would result in the horrible state of things which had since been witnessed at Alexandria? He had further asked whether, if Major Tulloch did send home information to that effect, 1602 the Government would lay it on the Table?
§ MR. CHILDERS
That was not the subject of Major Tulloch's employment. He might send over his opinion as to the politics of the Cabinet; but that would have nothing to do with the purpose for which he was sent out. He was sent to Alexandria for a specific purpose—namely, to give Sir Beauchamp Seymour local information—information in regard to Alexandria and the neighbourhood. Beyond that, he had no other duties to perform, and I can certainly give no other answer than that which I have already given.
§ MR. GOSCHEN
said, he thought there ought to be an understanding whether the debate was to be continued, or Progress was to be reported. The questions involved were of great importance, and a desultory discussion of this nature would only prejudice them. Either the debate should proceed regularly, if that was the general feeling, or it should be brought to a close. He felt very strongly the disadvantageous character of a desultory discussion of this kind.
said, he had understood the Prime Minister to say that be would not be indisposed, if there was a general desire on the part of the Committee, to consent to an adjournment of the discussion. He thought the right hon. Gentleman who had just sat down (Mr. Goschen) only expressed the feeling of a great many Members on both sides of the House. The statement which had been made by the Prime Minister was one of such extreme importance, and was made under such circumstances, that it was most desirable the House should have time to consider all the various and important issues which were involved; and he had, therefore, ventured to rise for the purpose of asking the Government until what day it would be convenient to adjourn the debate?
I propose to take it to-morrow; but, perhaps, the best course would be for me to withdraw the Motion I have made.
§ SIR R. ASSHETON CROSS
asked if it was proposed that the House should meet to-morrow, at 2 o'clock?
§ MR. ONSLOW
said, he hoped the Government would tell the Committee exactly the number of troops it was pro- 1603 posed to bring from India, and the estimated cost.
§ MR. ONSLOW
said, the question would not come on to-morrow; the noble Marquess the Secretary for India (the Marquess of Hartington) had given Notice that he would not move his Resolution until after the present debate had closed. He thought the House and the country ought to know as soon as possible what the precise number of troops was that Her Majesty's Government intended to send to Egypt, not only from this country, but from India, and the estimated cost of the expedition. It was a matter of the highest importance that this information should be given.
THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTON
I do not think it is desirable that the House should ask at the present moment for exact information as to the number of the troops. The exact composition of the force to come from India is still under the consideration of the War Office. I may state, however, that, as the hon. Member is aware, tolerably accurate information has been given in the newspapers. A force—I think it is called a division—amounting to between 7,000 and 10,000 men, has been warned for service in India, and the Government of India are prepared at short notice to supplement it if necessary. I am afraid I shall not be able even to-morrow to state the exact cost; but any information which I may be able to give will be most appropriately given when I move the Vote.
§ LORD EUSTACE CECIL
said, that as a great deal had been said about a Question which he had asked the other day, he thought it only fair to say that he got no answer from the right hon. Gentleman the Secretary for War. He had drawn the attention of the right hon. Gentleman to a passage in The Times. It was not necessary for him to read the passage; but the Secretary for War, in answer to the Question, simply stated, as far as he (Lord Eustace Cecil) understood him, that there was no accredited agent of the Government whatever in Egypt, and that he did not in any way consider Major Tulloch an accredited military agent. But there were official agents and non-official agents. They had had instances on more than one occasion of unofficial agents being employed by the Government. There was the case of the hon. Member for Longford (Mr. 1604 Errington), who was not long ago employed as an unofficial agent at Rome. There were also the cases of Sir William Gregory and Mr. Wilfrid Blunt, who had been unofficial agents in Egypt; and now they were told that Major Tulloch was an unofficial agent. He had no doubt that the right hon. Gentleman was right in saying that Major Tulloch was an unofficial agent; but he had not asked exactly what the opinions of Major Tulloch were, but whether the whole story, as it appeared in The Times, was true or not? He wished to remind the right hon. Gentleman of the last portion of the story as it appeared in the letter of The Times' Correspondent. The Times' Correspondent related the whole of his conversation with Major Tulloch, in order to show that the Government themselves had received from their own trusted agent recommendations of a course of action which would have saved the whole of Alexandria. "Why," asked The Times' Correspondent, "have they failed to adopt it?" That was the point of his (Lord Eustace Cecil's) Question. He wished to show that the Government had received such information as they were stated in The Times newspaper to have received. But he got no answer to that Question. He did not care whether it was from Major Tulloch, or from anyone else, that the Government received the information. The material point was, whether they did receive such information. If the Government were really warned, as he was informed, several weeks before, that it would be a very improper thing to attempt to bombard the forts of Alexandria without being prepared to land a force on those shores, he asserted, advisedly, that the Government were most culpable in not paying attention to that advice. His Question did not turn upon the fact that Major Tulloch was or was not an accredited officer; but whether the Government did or did not receive the information contained in the statement in The Times? And to that Question he received no answer. They had had on that side of the House, on more than one occasion, to complain of the manner in which Questions had been answered by Members of the Government. A Question was put to the Secretary to the Admiralty (Mr. Campbell-Bannerman) the other day by his right hon. and gallant Friend (Sir John Hay) as to what had happened to the guns of the 1605 Alexandra during the bombardment. His right hon. and gallant Friend was naturally very much interested in that Question, and he (Lord Eustace Cecil) could not, for his own part, see that it was at all an improper Question to put. Negotiations were going on in Europe, and any facts of this kind could not long be concealed. But the hon. Gentleman the Secretary to the Admiralty refused to answer the Question; and yet to-day he found a full statement of the damage done to the guns in the newspapers. He held in his hand an extract showing exactly what had happened, from which it appeared that in one case one of the tubes had burst, and that neither of the accidents was very serious. In point of fact, one of the guns was perfectly serviceable shortly after the accident. He merely mentioned this to show that the Secretary to the Admiralty could have given an answer if he had chosen without any detriment whatever to the Public Service. It was only fair and right that such information, if it could be supplied, should be given. He hoped that when Questions of this kind were asked, the occupants of the Front Bench would treat hon. Members on the Opposition side of the House with the same consideration and courtesy with which the Opposition treated them three or four years ago. At that time a great many Questions were put to the late Administration—Questions of a grave character which it was sometimes difficult to answer without injury to the Public Service; Questions which did not always display a great amount of discretion on the part of those who put them; but he challenged any hon. Gentleman to show that they were not invariably answered with perfect frankness. On two or three occasions the Opposition had a right to complain of the manner in which certain Members of the Government answered Questions, and especially on the occasion to which reference had been made in the course of the present debate.
§ MR. CHILDERS
I answered the Questions put to me by the noble Lord categorically, and if my manner was not courteous I am very sorry for it. The first Question was—"Had the Govern- 1606 ment an accredited military agent at Alexandria?" I said, "No; not until Sir Archibald Alison arrived." When he arrived he was, of course, the agent of the Government. I was then asked if Major Tulloch was an agent for the Government? and I stated "No;" that he was neither the agent nor the adviser of the Government, but a subordinate officer on the Staff at Portsmouth who knew Alexandria, and was sent out to give local information to Sir Beauchamp Seymour as to the geographical features of Alexandria and the neighbourhood.
§ LORD EUSTACE CECIL
Will the right hon. Gentleman allow me to correct him? I only asked if any communication had been received from an agent of the Government, and, if so, what was the date of it? I never said a word about Major Tulloch.
§ MR. CHILDERS
Quite so; but the noble Lord referred to the paragraph in The Times in which Major Tulloch's name was mentioned.
§ SIR JOHN HAY
said, that what the House had a right to complain of was, that information was given to the newspapers before it was given to the House, and apparently by Members of the Government. Indeed, information had been given to the newspapers which had been refused to the House—such as the information alluded to by his noble Friend (Lord Eustace Cecil) with reference to the Question he (Sir John Hay) had put to the Secretary to the Admiralty as to the guns reported to have burst on board the Alexandra. If the guns were inefficient, there could have been no harm in saying so; if they were not inefficient, it would be satisfactory to the country to know the fact. At the present moment the hon. Gentleman the Secretary to the Admiralty had a large Vote of £350,000 for new guns in connection with the Naval Ordnance, and it was only right and proper that the House should know how the ordnance at present in the possession of the Navy stood its work at the bombardment. The hon. Gentleman, however, snubbed him, and said it was a Question he had no right to ask, and that it would be disadvantageous to the Public Service to give a reply. He was bound to say that he had always received the greatest possible courtesy from the right hon. Gentleman now Chief Secretary for Ireland (Mr. 1607 Trevelyan) when he filled the Office of Secretary to the Admiralty. He had questioned the right hon Gentleman frequently upon naval matters, and was always treated with courtesy. Indeed, the replies of the right hon Gentleman were always given in a candid manner, respectful to the House, and were of the greatest advantage to the Service. He trusted that the hon. Gentleman the present Secretary would, in future, follow the same course; and that when a naval officer—there were not many in the House at the present moment—put a Question in regard to a matter upon which he was competent to form an opinion, the hon. Gentleman would at least reply in a courteous manner to the appeal made to him. He (Sir John Hay) was sure the Committee would see that when a sum of £350,000 was about to be voted for the purpose of providing Naval Ordnance, they ought to know whether the existing Naval Ordnance was of a character the public could rely upon. With all courtesy and kindness towards his hon. Friend the Secretary to the Admiralty, he wished to say that the House had a perfect right to receive information on subjects of that character. He would only add, in reference to the Notice he had given to delay the Vote for Naval Ordnance, that he should not put the Committee to the trouble of discussing it.
§ MR. CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN
said, the right hon. and gallant Baronet had said a great deal about a want of courtesy shown him. He should be the last person in the House to wish to have discourtesy attributed to him. If he had ever said anything in the nature of what had been called a "snub," he should be ready to apologize; but it was never his intention to say it. There was a distinction between answering Questions put from one Member to another in the House, and anything relating to the public interest. The Government had had a great many Questions addressed to them since he had the honour of filling his present Office—Questions, addressed to the transactions at Alexandria, and in reference to the presence of the Fleet in Egyptians waters, which appeared to himself and those with whom he consulted it would be injurious to the public interest to answer. Statements had appeared in the newspapers, perhaps rather tending to throw discredit on the Service, and these, on many 1608 occasions, had been immediately embodied in a Question, and the Government were asked whether or not such statements were true. He quite admitted that in some of the operations in which they were engaged there might, in some instances, be little danger in communicating information; but he would ask the House whether it was a good precedent that, being engaged in active operations of war, or in immediate preparations for such operations, any sort of Question a Member might choose to ask must be at once answered by the Government under penalty of being accused of a want of courtesy? He could only say to his right hon. and gallant Friend that he had no intention of behaving discourteously to him, or to anyone. Now, with regard to the two guns mentioned. As a matter of fact, he believed there were three guns injured on board the Alexandra; and why, it was asked, was not full information given of the amount of damage, and how the guns stood the work? The first reason was that the Government did not know, and that was a substantial reason in itself. And how could it be expected they should know two days after an engagement? Of the manner, the nature, and the effect of the injury, the Government were not yet in possession of the information, and therefore he might be excused, he thought, from attempting to give a hypothetical answer. And he would submit to the House, with the greatest deference, even if the Government had known, it was undesirable immediately to make public, and without full inquiry, damages of this sort. He thought he was justified, in the circumstances, even if he had full information, in declining to give an answer.
§ SIR JOHN HAY
said, he accepted the hon. Gentleman's statement, and thanked him for the expressions he had used. He supposed he might gather from the statement that the apparently communicative paragraph in The Times did not come from the Admiralty?
§ MR. CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN
said, no communicative paragraph had been sent from the Admiralty. Nothing would be communicated to the newspapers by the Admiralty that would not be stated in the House.
§ MR. ILLINGWORTH
said, this desultory discussion was scarcely worthy of the gravity of the subject. It ought to be announced whether the debate was 1609 to proceed or not. If the Government really wished to adjourn it, they should do so.
§ MR. ILLINGWORTH
said, then that should be done. These comparatively insignificant and not particularly relevant topics were unfitted to the gravity of the subject and the dignity of the House.
§ MR. R. N. FOWLER
said, he desired to say a word on the question of the payment of the Indian Forces out of the Indian Revenue. That question had been alluded to by the right hon. Baronet (Sir Stafford Northcote) and others. He was sorry not to see the Postmaster General in his place at the moment, and he hoped that there would be a full discussion of this subject. It seemed to him that this question was decidedly an Imperial question, and that they were not justified in taxing the already overtaxed people of India for the payment of Imperial expenses. He was glad his hon. Friend the Member for Guildford (Mr. Onslow) had given a Notice on the subject.
§ MR. R. N. FOWLER
said, the point had been alluded to by others, and he only wished to say that when the question arose, he should give his cordial support to the Motion of his hon. Friend.
asked if the Government had received any recent telegrams from Egypt which they could communicate to the House?
§ MR. ASHMEAD-BARTLETT
said, he desired to refer for a moment to the statement in The Times, and the answer in reference to it given to the noble Lord the Member for West Essex (Lord Eustace Cecil). That reply was a remarkable instance of the Minister for War's answers, and he took notice at the time of the words used. The right hon. Gentleman stated that a distinguished and experienced officer was specially sent by the Minister for War to Alexandria and the seat of operations to advise the Commander-in-Chief, Sir Beauchamp Seymour, with regard to the condition of Alexandria, and, of course, in regard to the events happening or 1610 likely to happen, and yet in the same breath he stated that this distinguished officer was not an agent of the Government, not an accredited official agent. He also declined to state whether the War Office had received, directly or indirectly, through Sir Beauchamp Seymour or through Major Tulloch, that information which every Member of the House was morally certain they did receive—namely, that to undertake the bombardment of Alexandria without a landing force to cut off the retreat of the enemy, would necessarily doom the city to destruction. The country would form its own opinion of the motives that made the right hon. Gentleman unwilling to commit the Government to an admission that they had received the information. They must have received such information not only from Major Tulloch, but from Mr. Cookson, the acting Consul, and probably from Sir Edward Malet, and they certainly knew it from communications from the leading British inhabitants of Alexandria. For days, for weeks, before, they had been told that that would happen which had happened. They were told so by inhabitants who had been in Alexandria for decades, and who knew perfectly well what would be the course of events. Then the Prime Minister had asked, how was it possible to adopt any other course than the bombardment, and how, in loyalty to the Powers, could a force be landed? But how, then, was it not disloyal now? If it was disloyal to the Powers, to the Conference, to the Porte, to send a force on the 11th of July, how was it legitimate or loyal to land a force a few days later? Last Thursday it was stated there were 6,000 or 7,000 troops in Alexandria. What was the object of this force? Was it with the vain and hopeless attempt to make the hand-to-mouth, drifting policy of the Government consistent with their statements in the House, that their policy was to protect life and property? The argument of the Prime Minister failed, because if such action was disloyal on July 11th, when it would have been effective, it was no less disloyal now. He hoped the hon. Members who had taken up the question as to Major Tulloch' s statement would press for an answer, which the House had a right to demand.
§ MR. GOURLEY
said, he would now ask the Secretary to the Admiralty a 1611 Question which he had down for that evening, but which, in deference to the wishes of the Prime Minister, he did not put before. He wished to inquire if the Secretary to the Admiralty could inform the House what vessels had been told off for the purpose of convoying our merchant ships through the Suez Canal, and also what vessels had been told off for the same duty by other Powers? Last week the hon. Gentleman stated, in answer to his Question, that an Italian man-of-war had acted as convoy. He would like to ascertain exactly what was being done in protecting the vast amount of commerce which this country had passing through the Canal. The Prime Minister had said that something would probably be done for the protection of the Canal; but what he was anxious to know was, what the English Government were really doing at the present moment for the purpose of convoying our commerce? Rumours had arisen of attacks by Arabs, and the Government had not stated what precautions had been taken to prevent such. The Question was one which, in the interests of commerce, demanded a specific statement on the part of the Government.
§ MR. CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN
said, he must pursue his rôle of reticence and decline to tell his hon. Friend all the particulars for which he asked. He could perfectly understand his anxiety and that of others interested in the enormous amount of commerce passing through the Canal; but he could only say that from all he could hear there had been no danger of disturbance of the traffic yet, and the authorities on the spot considered the arrangements made and the force they possessed sufficient for purposes of protection. He could not give particulars of the British or other vessels there. It would not be desirable to give such information.
§ MR. O'DONNELL
said, so far as he could gather from the explanation of the Secretary for War of the reasons why the Government did not listen to the warnings of Major Tulloch, it was one of the most singular defences of a Government policy it had ever been his fate to hear. If he was not mistaken, the defence of the Government for not listening to the warnings of Major Tulloch was that Major Tulloch was sent out to Egypt in a totally different position; and when Major Tulloch warned the Government of the probable 1612 consequences of their policy and the imminent danger to life and property in Alexandria from the absence of a landing force, he was performing no business of his. These were the words of the right hon. Gentleman—it was no business of Major Tulloch's to warn the Government of the consequences of the bombardment. It was the most singular application of Spanish etiquette to this country he had come in contact with. A Spanish King was once unpleasantly near a blazing fire; but because the proper official was not present to put up a screen, His Majesty was allowed to roast. In a similar manner it seemed not to have been Major Tulloch's position to put up the screen at Alexandria, and the Government considered that Major Tulloch's presumption in trying to do that which was no business of his justified the Government in taking no notice of Major Tulloch's warning. This was the logical position assumed by the Government. For his own part, he entered his protest against the theory which had been enforced in the House, that the Arabs or the Egyptian Army set fire to Alexandria. He had no doubt whatever that, in the despair and exasperation of the moment, the work of conflagration was probably extended by the desperate Arab population; but he was perfectly certain of this, that the shells from the English Fleet originally set fire to Alexandria before a single incendiary extended the conflagration. [Cries of "No, no!"] The declarations of hon. Members opposite, some of whom had not taken the trouble to make certain of the facts, would not move him from his assertion that the shells from the English guns set fire to Alexandria hours before any incendiary assisted the work. When the manner in which the Fleet fought the fortifications was considered it would be seen how, without attributing any blame to the action of the Fleet, it occurred. The Inflexible fired on the forts from a distance of from 3,000 to 5,000 yards, and the slightest possible change in the elevation would be equal to a very wide deviation from the mark and would be sufficient to hurl the 1,700-lb. shells right into the centre of the town—if they missed the forts at the water's edge they must inevitably go into the town. The manager of the Anglo-Egyptian Bank, with 60 or 70 other Europeans, were witnesses of the fact that the shells of the 1613 Fleet in several cases fell into, and in a large number of cases went over, the town. Denials of this were of no use, because he knew that reports on the subject had been sent in from foreign officers who were witnesses of the bombardment, and these reports were in the possession of all the Governments of Europe; so if Her Majesty's Government wished to escape the blame of setting fire to Alexandria in a time of peace, they must choose some other line of argument than that their shells did not hit the town. They did strike the General Hospital, where the Geneva flag was flying—unintentionally he had no doubt—they did strike the English church; they struck the Arab quarter.
§ MR. R. N. FOWLER
rose to Order. Had these remarks any connection with the Question before the Committee?
The Vote is not yet withdrawn, and the hon. Member is in Order if he persists, though the right hon. Gentleman wishes to withdraw the Vote.
§ MR. O'DONNELL
said, this interruption did more credit to the worthy Alderman's patriotism than to his knowledge of the Rules of the House. He could understand the natural desire of every Englishman to throw a cloak over the black deeds of the 11th July. He would not dwell upon it, for it would be fully examined in the further progress of discussion. But he was struck by the statement of the Premier, in which he laid severe stress on the calling together of the Chamber of Egyptian Notables without the previous consent of Tewfik Pasha. On that he would remind the Committee it was a question with which Turkish allegiance and Mohammedan law had a great deal to do. The previous conduct and actions of Tewfik in authorizing the despatch of a foreign Fleet, with possibly hostile motives, to Alexandria, and his conduct in accepting a menacing declaration from England and France ordering him, under penalty of force majeure, to dismiss certain officers and Egyptian Ministers, made Tewfik de facto a traitor to the Sovereign of Turkey. That was a fact that created a powerful effect in Constantinople—that, before Arabi took any steps to oppose the authority of the Khedive, the Khedive had violated his allegiance both as a Mussulman and a Civil servant of the Sultan of Turkey. One reason why the Government could not get the Sultan to 1614 act decisively was because the Sultan was convinced that, before Arabi took any steps to defend Egyptian nationality against foreign invasion, the Khedive had violated his allegiance and become an ally of the enemies of Islam and Turkey. He also observed a strong statement in the Premier's speech to the effect that it was only in default of Turkish intervention that Her Majesty's Government determined on the course they had taken. But he was unable to see any signs of urging upon the Turkish Government to intervene, except under conditions that Her Majesty's Government ought to have known it was impossible the Caliph Sultan could satisfy. So far from the Sultan being opposed to intervention in Egypt, his interest as Suzerain would have prompted it. So far from Her Majesty's Government trying to counteract his disinclination to intervene, in the accounts and the despatches the House had before it the Government opposed to the utmost of their ability any design of the Sultan to intervene in Egypt, except under conditions that the Sultan Caliph could not accept. So late as the 18th May, Lord Dufferin reported, in his despatch to Lord Granville, that he had taken advantage of a visit paid to him by the Turkish Foreign Minister to do what? To recommend the Sultan to intervene? No; but to remonstrate against the alleged preparations for a Turkish expedition to Egypt. So that, when Her Majesty's Government tried to allege Turkish inaction as an excuse for their action, they were met by the fact that their statement was contradicted by their own official papers. Her Majesty's Government must have known, if they had any knowledge of Eastern Courts, that it was absolutely impossible for the Sultan to intervene in one of his own Provinces as the mere mandatory of the infidel Powers of Europe. At this present moment, in consequence of the action of the Government, the Mussulman feeling at the back of Arabi was very strong, as strong, perhaps, as that at the back of the Sultan himself. He could not accept it, in the slightest degree, as a defence or explanation that a number of European Powers favoured or supported the action of the Government. The interests of foreign Powers were not the interests of England in the East. It was part of their policy to see England impose conditions upon the Sultan. 1615 He knew how useless it was for him to make this protest. He had addressed the House in protest against former measures under the present and the former Government. Only two days ago, Her Majesty's Government decided that the South African Act was to be allowed to lapse; and he remembered, when he opposed that Act, he was treated with scorn, and his opposition was regarded as wilful, idle Obstruction, though it so happened that he was well acquainted with South African affairs. Two months ago, he had, in the course of debate, ventured to warn the Government that the course taken was calculated to imperil matters, and he was left to the suave assurances of the Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs that his forebodings were unfounded; but now it appeared that what were called "gloomy forebodings" were true, and the optimist assurances of the Under Secretary turned out to be unfounded. He had failed to find any justification for the statement that the riot at Alexandria on June 11 was anything but what he had repeatedly stated it to be—the outcome of a desperate riot between Arabs, Greeks, and Maltese, in which European roughs were aggressors, and in which four Arab lives were taken for every one European. A foreign writer acquainted with the facts estimated the number of Arabs killed as 600 or 700. No misconception of facts could get over this—that wherever a force of troops was under Arabi's command, and he was allowed to control matters, there European life was safe. So long as Arabi and his troops ruled in any part of Egypt, previous to the aggressions of Her Majesty's Government, there European life and property were safe; the anarchy in Egypt was the direct result of the intervention of Her Majesty's Government. The Government were now entering on a course of aggression in Egypt, and he had very little doubt that Her Majesty's Forces would be quite successful in scattering the forces of Arabi; and he had no doubt that Her Majesty's Forces would in time, perhaps in a short time, reduce the whole of Egypt to obedience to such order as reigned in Warsaw. But after Arabi was driven from the field, and after the Egyptian forces were scattered, the whole of the problem in reality remained to be solved, and the whole Eastern Mussulman world would be enlisted in hatred of the English pirates. 1616 Wherever the name of Allah was invoked curses would be rained on the heads of Englishmen. Not long ago there was a solemn consultation among Mussulmans in India as to whether Mahommedans were bound in true allegiance to the English Sovereign of Hindostan, and Mussulman Doctors being consulted came to the resolution that so friendly and impartial had been the action of England towards Mahommedans, so just had been their conduct and friendly their relations with the Padishah, that Mussulmans, without any violence to their religious principles, could, and ought to, yield loyal, law-abiding allegiance to the English Sovereign. That binding consultation of the Doctors of Islam, which ranged the forces of Islam on the side of English rule in India, had been dissipated for ever by the shells of the Inflexible that burst over Alexandria. In reply to a Question of his, the Government denied that the shells had done any damage to the town of Alexandria; and he was tempted to inquire what was the amount of destruction which was likely, in the views of artilleryists, to be caused by the explosion of a 1,700-lb. shell amidst the houses of an Oriental town. But even though it was assumed that these 1,700-lb. shells had no influence in creating the conflagration, they had, at any rate, destroyed for ever the alliance which had lasted now for nearly a century between the Mohammedan Power in the East and the more or less Christian Power of the West. After Egypt had been occupied, after Arabi had been conquered and, if British chivalry had its way, had been hanged—for British chivalry had a peculiar way of exhibiting itself under some circumstances—after all that had been done, a greater difficulty remained before the Government. Never did an English Minister make a greater mistake if he fancied that Europe meant more than to further complications for English policy, and to further embarrass England's position, by egging England on to the work she was now undertaking in Egypt. At this moment it was said that questions about the future position of Holland and Luxembourg towards the German Empire were among the little matters with which Prince Bismarck would approach England as a quid pro quo, and as determining his attitude towards proceedings in the East. Austria would make her claim—
The hon. Member is going very far from the Question; he must not discuss other matters than those connected with the Vote.
§ MR. O'DONNELL
said, he intended to say but a few words to show that the policy of the Government was not a solution of the difficulty, but was the beginning of evils. He felt the same confidence with which he predicted, five years ago, that the South African Act would not be a solution but a beginning of difficulties in South Africa—that the policy in Egypt was the beginning of difficulties in Europe.
§ SIR CHARLES W. DILKE
said, he would appeal to the Committee to do one thing or the other. It was not the wish or desire of the Government that the debate should be postponed—the desire of the Government was that the debate should go on that night; but, in answer to an appeal from the other side, the Prime Minister felt that there were reasonable grounds for the appeal, and he had, therefore, decided to give way, and had asked leave to withdraw the Vote until to-morrow. That being so, it was rather unfair for hon. Members to address the Committee—many of whom had left the House—and to carry on the discussion partly by a desultory conversation upon minor topics, and partly by speeches going over the whole ground, like that to which they had just listened. He would not attempt to follow the hon. Member in his speech; but there was one point in reference to a question of fact that he would notice. The hon. Member said that the events of the 11th of June arose out of a quarrel between Arabs and Europeans, in which the latter were the aggressors. Now, the information he had in the Papers before him left no doubt that such was not the case. He had not only read the depositions taken before the Commission at Alexandria, so far as they went—for the Commission broke up upon the withdrawal of the Consular Agents—but he had spoken with the British Commissioner and with American missionaries and others from Egypt, and the evidence thus obtained placed it beyond doubt. There could be no doubt left on the mind of anyone that the first accounts received of the massacre were accounts of a very imperfect kind; and there could be no doubt now that the massacre of June 11 was premeditated, and that arrangements were made beforehand for carrying it out.
§ MR. O'DONNELL
said, with regard to preparations among the Arabs, to which, probably, the hon. Baronet referred, no doubt there were such; but the hon. Baronet omitted to state that there were previous proposals for brigading the European inhabitants into a regular armed force; and though this was rejected by Her Majesty's Government, the knowledge of the fact came to the ears of the general population of Alexandria, and the consequence of this proposal for arming 3,000 or 4,000 able-bodied Europeans in Alexandria was to spread a feeling that the authorities in Alexandria were engaged in a plot to form, in fact, an advance guard of an army of occupation. The Under Secretary could not deny that proposals wore laid before Sir Beauchamp Seymour, previous to the riot, for forming the European inhabitants of Alexandria into an armed force, ostensibly for purposes of self-defence; and the Committee would at once see the influence such a proposal had on the minds of the Arab population. But the riot itself arose out of a quarrel commenced by Greeks and maltese
§ SIR ANDREW LUSK
said, that, impressed by the importance of the subject to the shipping interest, he desired to follow up the Question put by the hon. Member for Sunderland (Mr. Gourley). He would not ask for any particulars in the answer; but he hoped the Government would try to give some assurance in reference to the protection of the trade and commerce in the Suez Canal. It was a very serious thing for the mercantile community, and "a fellow feeling makes us wondrous kind." Seven-eighths of the trade was British, and they were in a great state of anxiety and perplexity to know what to do. One of the chief uses of a Navy was to protect our trade; and they ought to have some confidence that the Canal trade would be protected. Would the Government, then, speak out at the present time? He did not want particulars; but let the Government give an assurance that the shipping would be protected, and be allowed to proceed on its way; and, seeing that we had so many ships to do the work, it was fair to ask the Government to say that the shipping interest should be looked after.
§ SIR CHARLES W. DILKE
said, the hon. Member asked for a positive declaration; and if that declaration had not 1619 been already made—and he thought it had by the Secretary to the Admiralty—he could assure his hon. Friend that the Government intended to give every protection.
§ MR. THOMAS COLLINS
hoped the Committee would have clear information at what hour the House would meet to-morrow.
§ Motion, by leave, withdrawn. | English | NL | d1448645f86d9698a5deb8dc39abd910be79504f8c4b41fe74727e14d24c288c |
The real life story of Sir Jeffrey Hudson, the court dwarf of Queen Henrietta Maria, can perhaps be compared to that of Tyrion Lannister of Game of Thrones.
He was called a “rarity of nature,” and became a court entertainer. Later, he would be a voyager, a warrior and a slave. He was captured by pirates; he fought in the English Civil War; and he won in a duel with a full-size man.
But perhaps the most remarkable detail of Jeffrey Hudson’s life is how he grew 22 inches while living as a slave in North Africa.
The details of his story can be found in the book Lord Minimus: The Extraordinary Life of Britain’s Smallest Man, where author Nick Page starts with the tale of Hudson’s birth on June 14, 1619, in Oakham in Rutland, England.
Hudson was one of five children — his siblings all grew at average height, but Jeffrey showed signs of a growth hormone deficiency from a young age.
In 1626, on his seventh birthday, standing only 18 inches tall, he was presented as a “curiosity” to the Duchess of Buckingham who took him into her household.
It was a custom of European courts of the time to keep little people for amusement, and the oddity of their childlike appearance and a grown man’s wit attracted kings and aristocrats alike.
Later the same year, he was presented to King Charles I and his consort, Henrietta Maria, in London. While enjoying the lavish company of the royal couple, the Duchess of Buckingham planned an entertaining surprise. Jeffery was hidden inside of a large pie which was to be served at the time the party reached its peak.
Once the pie was placed in front of the king and queen, Jeffrey broke through the crust, dressed in a knight’s armor made especially for him.
The queen was apparently so amused and impressed by this that she invited Hudson to London as a part of her eclectic entourage. That’s how Hudson became a resident of Denmark House in London (modern day Somerset House.)
Life within the walls of Denmark House wasn’t as glamorous for Hudson as one might think. Back then, little people were treated no better than pets, as their size was interpreted as a subhuman characteristic.
He was in the company of two other curiosities, a monkey named Pug, and a Welsh porter named William Evans, who was reportedly a man of such excessive growth that he was labeled a giant.
Hudson and Evans developed an act in which the Hudson would emerge from the giants pocket along with a loaf of bread, which he would later use to make a sandwich.
During this time, people began to write poems and narratives about him. According to author Nick Page, many of these poems explicitly stated that he was only famous because of his size and remarkable proportions.
But three years later, the ten-year-old became part of a much bigger world. In 1630, he was sent to France on a mission to bring the queen a midwife to aid in the delivery of her firstborn.
But the return journey was a treacherous one. Dunkirk pirates captured and plundered the ship before finally releasing the crew. This was the first of many times that Hudson would be taken captive on the open sea.
Seven years later, Hudson took his second trip across the English Channel. This time, he traveled with his fellow courtiers to the Netherlands to witness the Dutch in their attempt to drive out the Spanish.
In 1640, as the English Civil War was brewing, Hudson traveled again to the Netherlands with Queen Henrietta Maria. Their mission was to raise money to support King Charles and the royal army. While the queen did manage to sell some belongings, she failed to gain the support of the Protestant Dutch government.
When Hudson and the royal consort returned to England, they found themselves in the middle of a Civil War. As they joined the Royalist forces at Oxford, Hudson was appointed a “Captain of Horse” by Henrietta Maria.
No record exists of whether Hudson fought or commanded his own fleet. But historians have uncovered evidence, in letters written by Henrietta Maria that Hudson was a skilled horseman and a crack shot with a firearm. In 1634, as the war worsened, the queen returned to her home in France with Hudson and the members of her house. This would mark a grim turning point in Jeffrey Hudson’s life.
Having grown weary of being known only for his novel size and proportions, Hudson started to look for other ways to prove himself worthy of fame. In October 1644, Hudson challenged one of William Croft’s brothers to a duel. A quote from The Letters of Henrietta Maria recounts this event in detail:
“The giving cavalier [Croft] took no firearms, but merely a huge squirt, with which he meant at once to extinguish his small adversary and the power of his weapon. The vengeful dwarf, however, managed his good steed with sufficient address to avoid the shower aimed at himself and his loaded pistols, and, withal, to shoot his laughing adversary dead.”
Since dueling was illegal in France, Hudson was sentenced to death for challenging and killing Croft. But the queen intervened on his behalf, and he was exiled to England instead. Months later, he was captured by Barbary pirates off the coast of France, who then sold him into slavery in North Africa.
Little information exists about this time in his life, but it must have been a grave contrast from the life he was used to living in the service of the Queen.
Hudson spent 25 years in slavery, and according to the 1885 Dictionary of Natural Biography, claimed to have grown 22 inches as a result of the “buggery” he was subjected to. Sir Jeffrey Hudson was eventually rescued by the English and brought home, only to be thrown into Gatehouse Prison in 1676.
Little information exists about the charges that landed him in jail, other than it was due to his Catholic religion at the height of the anti-Catholic sentiment in England.
Hudson’s life story would be most definitely lost if he hadn’t been interviewed by an antiquarian named James Wright who decided to make a little chronicle about this interesting little man.
He spent 14 years in jail before being freed in 1679. In 1680, Sir Jeffrey Hudson died of unknown causes and was buried in an unmarked pauper’s grave. | English | NL | 49b818256aaec22d75c653a378cb3710dc170ada36413acb9f5e0dd87b5b80bc |
Hi everyone! The scientists have many sediment cores to analyze from our third location so all of the labs will be quite busy for the next several days. Since things go on around the clock, one of the responsibilities of our co-chief scientists is to make sure things are running smoothly and on schedule. Today, I am going to tell you about one of the co-chief scientists, Steven D’Hondt.
Steven D’Hondt grew up in Washington State and started collecting rocks when he was seven years old. When he turned eight, his parents bought him a mineralogy kit. They encouraged his interests by taking him rock collecting for things like amethyst and petrified wood and even to mineral shows. When he went on to college, though, he decided to major in economics and not science. One of his first classes was about geology and after one of his professors encouraged him to take another geology class, he was hooked. A lesson to be learned is, don’t be afraid to try new things, you might find that you like them. Steve went on to earn a PhD in geology at Princeton University.
As he worked in the field of paleontology (ancient life) and geochemistry (the chemistry of the earth), he became interested in present day life forms on our planet. This led him to the field of oceanography, where there is a lot of life.
In his spare time, Steve likes to spend time with his family, and he likes to cook and garden.
(In the photo below, Steve is inspecting some cores with the other co-chief scientist, Fumio Inagaki, whom we will learn about another day.) | English | NL | 20d96950fbf567a7aa2a103fa6cdeb5cf22138d5bcabb078c378773750b5c8cc |
10th May 2015
Matera - a tale of two cities
It was an astonishing introduction to Matera , the town that was built in the rocks tumbling down the side of the ravine La Gravina, through which the river of the same name flows. I stepped through a small archway and was immediately chased away by a local with his dog shouting “privato”. In the face of such menacing behaviour (the man not his dog) I retreated. Then I decided to stand my ground and defend my right to be there by pointing out, in his mother tongue, that I had been directed there by a sign ‘itinerario turistico’. His attitude changed immediately and he waved me through with a gracious “prego” (welcome).
My objective was the Rupestrian church of Santa Barbara which I found at the bottom of two flights of steep steps. But the iron gate guarding the caves was securely padlocked and no opening times were displayed. There was nothing to indicate it may be opening any time soon but nevertheless I perched on a nearby wall to wait and see and to enjoy the beauty of the dramatic scenery around me. It was a bizarre mixture of rugged slopes plunging down to the river punctuated with caves and topped by modern apartment buildings.
I had started at the furthest point of the area known as the Sasso Caveoso. I had wandered along a very ordinary street where the only sign that I was on the edge of a UNESCO World Heritage site was the occasional brown tourist sign pointing down narrow alleys from which it was possible to access the network of paths that wove their way up and down the slope of the ravine like a spider’s web. Many of these paths did not lead anywhere or were barred by locked iron gates. Several interesting sites in this area are subject to the vagaries of private ownership. Through the bars of one of these gates I had tantalising glimpses of an old monastery but my only option was to re-trace my steps. I met a local resident who asked me if the church was open and when I told him it was not he called the owner, his brother, to find out when it would be open. Having assured me it would be open early the next morning and encouraged me to come back we went our separate ways.
I did return the next morning and met the owner Francesco Festa who took me on a private tour of his monastery constantly punctuating his commentary with “no foto”. I was itching to disobey as the caves were also a small museum housing a fascinating collection. The monastery had been used for marriage ceremonies and examples of dowries, comprehensive lists of the items the bride would be bringing to her new home, were attached to the wall – one began ‘a mattress stuffed with wool’. Kitchen utensils, farming tools and as stamp for the bread – at one time baked in communal ovens were all displayed. But his most treasured exhibits were the frescoes on the walls including an unusual fresco of the sun on an arch.
Moving on I found the Convincio di San Antonio an excellent example of a rupestrian church. I was enjoying my solitary exploration of Sasso Caveoso. Across the ravine I could see crowds of tourists arriving and making their way down to the more popular (but less evocative) Sasso Barisano that I could see perched on the hill top ahead of me. The Sassi are considered to be one of the most ancient cities in the world and have been inhabited continuously since the Paleolithic age till today. Thirty years after the Sassi were abandoned people, and in particular creative individuals, had begun to move back and to restore some of the buildings and convert some of them into hotels. Since the area was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1993 there has been a steady stream of visitors to the area.
I was able to take my time exploring the various caves of the convincio and admiring the frescoes on the walls. It was incredible that hundreds of years ago people had tunnelled into the soft rock making separate rooms on two levels and had lived and worshipped there.
Casa Grotto del Casalnuovo is one of the original houses. I made my way through the narrow entrance (small entrance fee payable) into the gloom of a windowless dwelling which was suddenly flooded with light and a distant voice asked me in which language I would like to have the commentary. I chose English as I had the place to myself. It was a fascinating experience moving through the five areas each with a separate purpose – the living room, the kitchen, the bedroom and then down some very worn steps to the place where they had stored their wine and their animals. A small well in one corner had provided the water and an open fire with a protective cover in the middle had provided the heat. It was the combination of people and animals that had led to the Sassi being declared unfit for human habitation in the 1950s when legislation was passed requiring all inhabitants to move into modern housing built especially for them – Sasso Caveoso was left abandoned and some areas remain so.
When I emerged into the piazza in front of the Church of San Pietro it seemed I had stepped into another world – large groups clustered around their guides, parents chided their exuberant offspring and local craftsmen encouraged visitors to buy their wares. I was in the more sophisticated Sasso Barisano.
I made my way through the district known as the Civita up to the cathedral which is currently being restored but it was still possible to view the beautiful interior from a viewing platform. The hitherto slow re-building and restoration of the Sassi has become a frantic activity since it was announced that Matera was to be the Cultural City of 2019. The excitement this had generated was evident from a proliferation of both official posters and hand-written announcements.
I spent a lot of time exploring Sasso Barisano wandering up and down its narrow alleyways and flights of uneven steps – it was a strange mixture of luxury hotels, simple guest houses and residential areas punctuated by small terraces from which I could enjoy views of the whole area. I was grateful for the regular signs pointing to specific buildings of special interest (mostly churches of which there are hundreds) which helped me find my way through the labyrinth of passageways.
Finally I emerged in the Piazza Vittorio Veneto where I found the official tourist information office and asked for directions to the station – I had to leave the following day and I had found very little information on the internet about public transport. I did have a look around the square the home of the pretty Chiesa di Materdomini and the sub-terranean church of Santo Spirito I did not have to wait for one of the guided tours through the Palombaro Lungo an underground masterpiece of hydraulic engineering that supplied water to the whole city from the huge tanks in which rain water was collected. But later in the day I came across the Casa Cisterna where, after a tour of the house we had a demonstration of the cistern system that supplied water to individual houses. I moved on to Castello Tramontano standing proudly atop the small hill from which is has guarded the town for centuries but currently inaccessible as it is being renovated and will be the centrepiece of a new city park.
My circle was nearly complete as I wandered along the widening Via Rupina enjoying the the contrast of deep pink blossom against the cream stone walls of the old buildings.
I found a terrace overlooking Sasso Caveoso – one last lingering look at the church of Church of Santa Maria Idris, housed in a huge rocky mound now lit up by the golden rays of the sun.
British Airways operates flights from London Gatwick to Bari and there are trains and buses from the airport to Bari Central railway station and from there the Bari – Matera railway line is run by the Ferrovie Appulo Lucane – the tickets are very cheap and the scenic journey takes around about an hour. I found my bed and breakfast accommodation, a modern apartment close to the Sasso Caveoso through the booking. com website. | English | NL | dd71c0ad50ad9a0a6424d3f3846805e74c57fa0ce7a2498bb2ed7f4f50a9d603 |
2Ti 3:16 Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness.
Joh 5:39 Ye search the scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal life; and these are they which bear witness of me;
Ac 17:11 Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of the mind, examining the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so.
Ro 15:4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that through patience and through comfort of the scriptures we might have hope.
Back to Worship Page
Back to Main Page | English | NL | d60fce31a5e7a9bd0c62a58dbc142ae7a3748fc41ac592118f18a98a79b2f9c6 |
Arome certainly recalled how his father had unleashed his macho fist on his mother’s face, not for the first time, but this time, it was the last straw that broke the Camels back- the last thunder-blow that transited his mother to non-existence.
Like an ants sting on a bare buttocks, chills were sent down Arome’s spine when he watched the staggering lips of Dr. Isa as they struggled to spit out the sad words, “we tried all we could, but the haemorrhage was excessive… and… we lost her.”
Home was never Arome’s, his heart was never there, his pulse beat faster these past years. In his early teen age, he’d been exposed to violence, not from the movies, but from the set-stage of his father.
Does he have a family? Is this a family? A people disintegrated by hate? A family devoid of love and care? Where affection existed, but only in the metaphysical?
Arome is still wallowing in shock, conversely, his father is recuperating from his solitude, thinking of bringing another woman home, to satisfy his libido, maybe an antidote for his ailing promiscuity, and another weak punching bag.
One of these nights, a very unusual one, the rains had watered the earth and lightening rumbled the skies. Papa closes his eyes in cozy, and delves into a deep-snoring-slumber… but wait… he hears footsteps in his sleep, his eyes stagger for clearer sight, he stretches his arm to reach the bedside lamp… lights ON!… Arome is standing beside his murderous father, with thirst for revenge and possibly justice, he thinks… staring at papa with burning desires, desires of hate, with tears cascading down his teenage eyeballs… and the kitchen knife, yes! a knife, in his right hand.
Papa attempts to dislodge Arome, but he was too slow to act, and lo! Here lies he, the one who killed his wife, gasping for air, prudent with his breath, soaked in pool of blood- with a knife, the kitchen knife, stucked to his stomach, slicing his intestines, battering his muscles, shattering his abdomen… this is his pound of flesh, his share of death’s spoils, killed by his blood, his eyes and mouth wide open, opened in shock, but closed to the realities of this world.
Arome heads for the door, runs like he never did before, but the law catches up to him and he is rounded up. Today, 18 years seem like 18 days, Arome is in chains, confined to a room, hindered from touching the world by iron bars, he has a new family– inmates! Prisoners with almost similar stories, stories of domestic violence… | English | NL | 7a15624d8ecf1cbc19b18763245db6f47c47b86ad071e23656908217fef2e652 |
It was a disaster. Not a disaster like when the biscuit jar is empty, but a proper disaster. At least, that’s what Timmy heard, while he was playing in the sitting room as his parents watched the news.
The town was flooded. The roads had become huge rivers, so people had to be rescued by boats. He saw families leave their homes, all their things, and even their toys.
Timmy felt himself grow smaller, he felt heavy and gray inside; without saying a word, he slipped off to his room.
Timmy sat on the edge of his bed, his legs dangling over the side, cuddling his dragon teddy.
“Oh dear, whatever is the matter?”
Clarisse’s rumbly voice woke Timmy from his day dream.
“Clarisse!” he cried with joy. “What are you doing here?”
“Well, to be honest,” Clarisse replied, “I was busy doing something else, but I could feel you were sad so I had to see what was the matter. Why are you so sad?”
“I saw a disaster on television,” said Timmy, looking down at the floor, so Clarisse would not see the tears in his eyes.
“Ah, yes. That is a very sad story indeed…” replied Clarisse.
“Yes, and what if it happened to me? What if it happened to Mum and Dad? What if I didn’t have my dragon teddy? Or my room? Or my toys or books or, or, or anything…?”
“Indeed, that would be terrible, wouldn’t it?”
“Yes,” said Timmy, unable to imagine something so hugely terrible, but still stuck in the fear of this imaginary disaster in his own life.
“What do you think would help? What would make a disaster better?” asked Clarisse.
“I don’t know. I’m only a boy,” replied Timmy, rather annoyed, “that’s a question for adults, not for boys… not for girls…”
“Well,” responded Clarisse slowly, “sometimes we feel worst when we are looking at something from the outside, when we think there is nothing we can do to help: if we can find a way to help, we often feel much better.”
“But what can I do to help?” asked Timmy.
“I thought you’d never ask!” replied Clarisse, “hop on and let’s go.”
Timmy jumped onto Clarisse’s multicoloured back and, in the blink of an eye, they were flying across the sky. It wasn’t long before they arrived above the town. Clarisse slowed and, as if by magic, Timmy noticed that he was neither wet nor blown away, even though the rain was pouring and the wind was howling.
Clarisse swooped down. Timmy saw people being helped into boats and taken to safety; he saw schools where beds had been made up for them, and he saw other helpers cooking meals in large school kitchens.
Many of the helpers Timmy saw were kind and smiling. Some served hot food to warm the people who had come in from the cold storm, while others handed out towels, soap and even a teddy to a little girl who was sitting quietly in a corner.
Nobody had noticed the enormous multicoloured dragon hovering above them, or the boy riding on his shoulders. Nor could anyone hear them.
“Do you see that little girl, sitting in the corner?” asked Clarisse.
“Well, she finds the storm scary and she is very sad that she has had to leave her home and her toys. We could help her, would you like to do that?”
“Oh yes, I really do want to help her,” replied Timmy.
“I knew you’d say that!” smiled Clarisse. “It’s very simple. I want you to remember a very happy time. A time you felt loved… A time you felt excited… A time you felt special…”
“Oh, like Christmas morning!” cried Timmy, “Or when I could swim on my own! Or when I had lines to say in the school play!”
“Yes, that’s exactly it!” laughed Clarisse. “When you think of those moments, can you notice how warm you feel inside? How big your heart feels? As if it is shining a light that spreads out around you?”
Timmy concentrated. Yes, he did feel warm inside. He did feel as though his heart had grown inside, as if he were completely full of love.
“Good,” whispered Clarisse, “can you imagine that warm, fuzzy feeling is a big ball of soft pink light?”
Timmy nodded again.
“Now let that soft pink ball of light float over to that little girl and cover her in all those wonderful feelings of love and specialness that you felt.”
Timmy watched as the ball of light floated over to the little girl. He watched as the ball’s light wrapped around her, like a woolly blanket. He watched as, slowly, her body relaxed; he watched as she picked up the teddy she had been given and gave it a cuddle; he watched as she looked around her and saw her parents; he watched as she smiled her first smile since she had left her home.
“You see,” said Clarisse, “that’s the power of love. You shared your love with that little girl and you helped her to feel better. Even though she is still in the school hall with her parents, she feels a little stronger now. She knows that she is safe and that, eventually, everything will be ok again.”
“That’s amazing,” replied Timmy quietly.
“Indeed it is,” said Clarisse, “so now you see: it really doesn’t matter that you are a boy and not an adult yet, because you know that you can do something to help whenever you want.
“You can fill your heart with love from all your good memories, and you can send that ball of love to anyone. You have seen how powerful your love is, how your love helps others, even when they are having a tough time. Really, that makes you a wizard! For a wizard is someone who takes something ugly and turns it into something very beautiful, something very special.”
“A … wizard?” asked Timmy quietly, as they flew back home.
“Well, why not?” replied Clarisse, “You already have the dragon!” | English | NL | 72843c01887d0190488d75d022ae6bc6f6f8075996a12f17d03696d5ec6df0e6 |
'Little' in the Bible
Now let a little water be fetched, wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree.
See now, this city is near to flee to, and it is a little one. Oh let me escape there (isn't it a little one?), and my soul will live."
The servant ran to meet her, and said, "Please give me a drink, a little water from your pitcher."
behold, I am standing by this spring of water. Let it happen, that the maiden who comes forth to draw, to whom I will say, "Please give me a little water from your pitcher to drink,"
For it was little which you had before I came, and it has increased to a multitude. Yahweh has blessed you wherever I turned. Now when will I provide for my own house also?"
and all their wealth. They took captive all their little ones and their wives, and took as plunder everything that was in the house.
It happened, when they had eaten up the grain which they had brought out of Egypt, their father said to them, "Go again, buy us a little more food."
Judah said to Israel, his father, "Send the boy with me, and we'll get up and go, so that we may live, and not die, both we, and you, and also our little ones.
Their father, Israel, said to them, "If it must be so, then do this. Take from the choice fruits of the land in your bags, and carry down a present for the man, a little balm, a little honey, spices and myrrh, nuts, and almonds;
We said to my lord, 'We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, a little one; and his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother; and his father loves him.'
Our father said, 'Go again, buy us a little food.'
Now you are commanded: do this. Take wagons out of the land of Egypt for your little ones, and for your wives, and bring your father, and come.
Jacob rose up from Beersheba, and the sons of Israel carried Jacob, their father, their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him.
It will happen at the harvests, that you shall give a fifth to Pharaoh, and four parts will be your own, for seed of the field, for your food, for them of your households, and for food for your little ones."
all the house of Joseph, his brothers, and his father's house. Only their little ones, their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen.
Now therefore don't be afraid. I will nourish you and your little ones." He comforted them, and spoke kindly to them.
He said to them, "Yahweh be with you if I will let you go with your little ones! See, evil is clearly before your faces.
Pharaoh called to Moses, and said, "Go, serve Yahweh. Only let your flocks and your herds stay behind. Let your little ones also go with you."
and if the household is too little for a lamb, then he and his neighbor next to his house shall take one according to the number of the souls; according to what everyone can eat you shall make your count for the lamb.
When they measured it with an omer, he who gathered much had nothing over, and he who gathered little had no lack. They gathered every man according to his eating.
Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and inherit the land.
the little owl, the cormorant, the great owl,
Why does Yahweh bring us to this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will be a prey: wouldn't it be better for us to return into Egypt?"
But your little ones, that you said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which you have rejected.
So they went away from the tent of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, on every side: and Dathan and Abiram came out, and stood at the door of their tents, and their wives, and their sons, and their little ones.
The children of Israel took captive the women of Midian and their little ones; and all their livestock, and all their flocks, and all their goods, they took for a prey.
Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man by lying with him.
They came near to him, and said, "We will build sheepfolds here for our livestock, and cities for our little ones:
but we ourselves will be ready armed to go before the children of Israel, until we have brought them to their place: and our little ones shall dwell in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land.
Build cities for your little ones, and folds for your sheep; and do that which has proceeded out of your mouth."
Our little ones, our wives, our flocks, and all our livestock, shall be there in the cities of Gilead;
Moreover your little ones, whom you said should be a prey, and your children, who this day have no knowledge of good or evil, they shall go in there, and to them will I give it, and they shall possess it.
We took all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed every inhabited city, with the women and the little ones; we left none remaining:
We utterly destroyed them, as we did to Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying every inhabited city, with the women and the little ones.
But your wives, and your little ones, and your livestock, (I know that you have much livestock), shall live in your cities which I have given you,
Yahweh your God will cast out those nations before you by little and little: you may not consume them at once, lest the animals of the field increase on you.
the little owl, and the great owl, and the horned owl,
but the women, and the little ones, and the livestock, and all that is in the city, even all its spoil, you shall take for a prey to yourself; and you shall eat the spoil of your enemies, which Yahweh your God has given you.
You shall carry much seed out into the field, and shall gather little in; for the locust shall consume it.
your little ones, your wives, and your foreigner who is in the midst of your camps, from the one who cuts your wood to the one who draws your water;
Assemble the people, the men and the women and the little ones, and your foreigner who is within your gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear Yahweh your God, and observe to do all the words of this law;
Your wives, your little ones, and your livestock, shall live in the land which Moses gave you beyond the Jordan; but you shall pass over before your brothers armed, all the mighty men of valor, and shall help them
There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua didn't read before all the assembly of Israel, with the women, the little ones, and the foreigners who were among them.
Is the iniquity of Peor too little for us, from which we have not cleansed ourselves to this day, although there came a plague on the congregation of Yahweh,
He said to her, "Please give me a little water to drink; for I am thirsty." She opened a bottle of milk, and gave him drink, and covered him.
So they turned and departed, and put the little ones and the livestock and the goods before them.
The congregation sent there twelve thousand men of the most valiant, and commanded them, saying, "Go and strike the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the little ones.
She said, 'Please let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves.' So she came, and has continued even from the morning until now, except that she stayed a little in the house."
Moreover his mother made him a little robe, and brought it to him from year to year, when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.
Then Jonathan said, "My father has troubled the land. Please look how my eyes have been enlightened, because I tasted a little of this honey.
Then Saul said to Jonathan, "Tell me what you have done!" Jonathan told him, and said, "I certainly did taste a little honey with the end of the rod that was in my hand; and behold, I must die."
Samuel said, "Though you were little in your own sight, weren't you made the head of the tribes of Israel? Yahweh anointed you king over Israel;
It happened in the morning, that Jonathan went out into the field at the time appointed with David, and a little boy with him.
but the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and raised. It grew up together with him, and with his children. It ate of his own food, drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was to him like a daughter.
I gave you your master's house, and your master's wives into your bosom, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that would have been too little, I would have added to you many more such things.
David said to Ittai, "Go and pass over." Ittai the Gittite passed over, and all his men, and all the little ones who were with him.
When David was a little past the top [of the ascent], behold, Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth met him, with a couple of donkeys saddled, and on them two hundred loaves of bread, and one hundred clusters of raisins, and one hundred summer fruits, and a bottle of wine.
Now, Yahweh my God, you have made your servant king instead of David my father. I am but a little child. I don't know how to go out or come in.
The same day did the king make the middle of the court holy that was before the house of Yahweh; for there he offered the burnt offering, and the meal offering, and the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar that was before Yahweh was too little to receive the burnt offering, and the meal offering, and the fat of the peace offerings.
that Hadad fled, he and certain Edomites of his father's servants with him, to go into Egypt, Hadad being yet a little child.
The young men who had grown up with him spoke to him, saying, "Thus you shall tell this people who spoke to you, saying, 'Your father made our yoke heavy, but make it lighter to us;' you shall say to them, 'My little finger is thicker than my father's waist.
So he arose and went to Zarephath; and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks: and he called to her, and said, "Please get me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink."
She said, "As Yahweh your God lives, I don't have a cake, but a handful of meal in the jar, and a little oil in the jar. Behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and bake it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die."
Elijah said to her, "Don't be afraid. Go and do as you have said; but make me of it a little cake first, and bring it out to me, and afterward make some for you and for your son.
It happened in a little while, that the sky grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. Ahab rode, and went to Jezreel.
The children of Israel were mustered, and were provisioned, and went against them. The children of Israel encamped before them like two little flocks of young goats; but the Syrians filled the country.
Please let us make a little room on the wall. Let us set for him there a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp stand. It shall be, when he comes to us, that he shall turn in there."
The Syrians had gone out in bands, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maiden; and she waited on Naaman's wife.
Then went he down, and dipped [himself] seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
He said to him, "Go in peace." So he departed from him a little way.
Hazael said, "Why do you weep, my lord?" He answered, "Because I know the evil that you will do to the children of Israel. You will set their strongholds on fire, and you will kill their young men with the sword, and will dash in pieces their little ones, and rip up their women with child."
Jehu gathered all the people together, and said to them, "Ahab served Baal a little; but Jehu will serve him much.
The young men who had grown up with him spoke to him, saying, "Thus you shall tell the people who spoke to you, saying, 'Your father made our yoke heavy, but make it lighter on us;' thus you shall say to them, 'My little finger is thicker than my father's waist.
All Judah stood before Yahweh, with their little ones, their wives, and their children.
and those who were reckoned by genealogy of all their little ones, their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, through all the congregation: for in their office of trust they sanctified themselves in holiness.
Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek of him a straight way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance.
Now for a little moment grace has been shown from Yahweh our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage.
Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness, don't let all the travail seem little before you, that has come on us, on our kings, on our princes, and on our priests, and on our prophets, and on our fathers, and on all your people, since the time of the kings of Assyria to this day.
Letters were sent by couriers into all the king's provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to plunder their possessions.
In those letters, the king granted the Jews who were in every city to gather themselves together, and to defend their life, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all the power of the people and province that would assault them, their little ones and women, and to plunder their possessions,
Aren't my days few? Cease then. Leave me alone, that I may find a little comfort,
They send forth their little ones like a flock. Their children dance.
They are exalted; yet a little while, and they are gone. Yes, they are brought low, they are taken out of the way as all others, and are cut off as the tops of the ears of grain.
"Bear with me a little, and I will show you; for I still have something to say on God's behalf.
For you have made him a little lower than God, and crowned him with glory and honor.
For yet a little while, and the wicked will be no more. Yes, though you look for his place, he isn't there.
Better is a little that the righteous has, than the abundance of many wicked.
There is little Benjamin, their ruler, the princes of Judah, their council, the princes of Zebulun, and the princes of Naphtali.
The mountains skipped like rams, the little hills like lambs.
You mountains, that you skipped like rams; you little hills, like lambs?
Happy shall he be, who takes and dashes your little ones against the rock. By David.
A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:
The tongue of the righteous is like choice silver. The heart of the wicked is of little worth.
Better is little, with the fear of Yahweh, than great treasure with trouble.
Better is a little with righteousness, than great revenues with injustice.
a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep;
"There are four things which are little on the earth, but they are exceedingly wise:
The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eats little or much; but the abundance of the rich will not allow him to sleep.
There was a little city, and few men within it; and a great king came against it, besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it.
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- Loving Children | English | NL | 1ef6a37735b5a091a1facd13013dbd66eb97d1d8f56ca61fb0a1dd2f27e05ebb |
Yazhpanam Arumuga Navalar kindled the renaissance spirit in the Tamil Shaivites in Yazhpanam (Jaffna) and the rest of ilangai (Srilanka). This biography of this great devotee is based on the work by Sri. S.Shivapadasundaram.
The name of Arumukha Navalar is held in high esteem all over the Shaiva world of today. Men holding opposing views on Shaiva observances are seen vying with one another in attempting to quote his words, however irrelevant they may be, in support of their respective opinions. But, most people know next to nothing of his glorious life. This little book is a humble attempt to give the English-knowing public a very brief account of his noble life. My nephew, Pandit Sambandhan, proposes to issue a Thamil version of this, as the Thamil biographies already in the field are too voluminous to the ordinary reader.
This book is based on the writings of Navalar and on the biography written by his illustrious nephew, the late Sri T. Kailasa Pillai of Nallur. I am conscious of my incompetency to undertake this work. But, I consider that even a meager and slipshod account of Navalar has a value, and that this may impel some accomplished biographer to write a book worthy of that great saint.
July 19th, 1950.
Srila Sri Arumukha Navalar was born at a propitious hour. The shaiva Religion was panting for him. The Thamil language was thirsting for him. Jaffna was longing for him. The Shaiva Religion had been in the strangle-hold of alien forces for two centuries. Thamil Literature and Grammar were gaoled in Palmyra leaves. Jaffna had no leader and was groping in the dark. Navalar came, saw and gave them all relief.
The Portuguese came to Jaffna at a time when persecution was the order of the day in Europe. In England, it began with Queen Mary, who conducted it with such fury as gave her the name of Bloody Mary, and went on for nearly a century with unabated callousness. France witnessed the massacre of thousands of Protestants on a single day, St. Bartholomews’ day. So, when the Portuguese conquered Jaffna, they pursued the policy of their motherland, and persecuted the people, who were all Shaivites. Several of these fled to India and settled at Vedharanyam and Chidambaram. The most distinguished of these was Gnanaprakasa Munivar, to whose honoured family belongs our great Navalar. The vast majority of those who remained in Jaffna adopted the via media of professing the Catholic religion and following the Saiva religion. The rest were genuine Catholics.
Those who adopted the via media were actually unable to follow their religion in its essential details. Their inability to attend to their religious observances such as temple worship, fasting and initiation, left them very little Shaivaism to follow, thus, they became as much nominal Shaivites inwardly as they were Christians outwardly.
When the Portuguese were compelled to bid good-bye to Jaffna, these nominal Christians threw off their Roman Catholic cloak and began to profess Shaivaism. But, as I said just now, they had little Shaivaism left. The Dutch, who followed the Portuguese, were less severe but were none the less anxious to impose their faith on the people. This they did more by insidious methods than by direct action. The birth of Protestantism in Jaffna was due to them.
The advent of British rule gave the Shaivites of Jaffna some respite. The Shaivites felt that they were fairly freed. Shaiva Priests came from Vedharanyam and revived Shaivaism in a few centre’s. But, priests of other religions also came, not merely to look after the people of their own faith, but with the avowed object of winning Shaivites to their religion and of undermining Shaivaism. They came, not as individuals, but as mission bodies. No other part of Ceylon was subject to missionary domination so much as Jaffna. The Shaivites had lost their backbone, in consequence of two centuries of foreign aggression. The missionary offered food, clothing, cash, service and English Education, in return for apostasy. A large number of Shaivites were lured by these baits, forsook their religion and became Christians. Several of them were made pastors to draw their brethren to the Christian fold. These men were more sincere than those who professed Christianity through fear of persecution in the time of the Dutch and the Portuguese. The missionary told them that Shaivaism was the religion of an ignorant, superstitious, barbarous people, whereas Christianity was the religion of the most enlightened peoples of the world. But, most of them did not completely give up their faith in the religion in which they were born. The Shaivites who remained steadfast in their own religion took no action to counteract missionary aggression. Shaivaism was then at its lowest ebb.
It was then that the land gave birth to the Avatara Purusha. He rejuvenated Shaivaism, brought out its latent powers, and fully armed it for defense, and even for offence.
The Thamil language did not suffer in consequence of foreign rule. It had several great scholars. But, it was laboring under two disadvantages, the less serious of which was the malicious jealousy of its custodians. The Pandit was not prepared to reveal to others the results of his own work. He taught only what the Pandit class knew. With him perished the fruits of his labour. The handicap of the student of Thamil was that Thamil books were not in print. Every pupil had to write on palmyra leaves every book that he wished to study. Arumuga Navalar printed the more important Thamil works in a press of his own. He wiped out literary monopolies by becoming a teacher himself, and spread knowledge far and wide by writing and preaching. He is said to have been the first preacher in the Shaiva world, and to have introduced the word ‘prasangam’ (Sorppolivu) to denote preaching.
Navalar was born at Nallur on the 18th of December, 1822. He belonged to the clan of Karkattavellalas and his family had long been well known for Thamil scholarship. One of the most distinguished members of his family was Gnanaprakasa Muniver, who was a great Agamic scholar and who wrote eight Sanskrit works and a commentary on Sivagnanasiddhiar in Thamil. Navalar’s great grandfather, Ilankai Kavala Mudaliyar, his grandfather Paramanander, and his father, Kandar, were all employed under Government, and were also eminent Thamil scholars. His father was also a play-Wright, physician and author of several Thamil medical works. Navalar had four elder brothers, all of whom entered Government service. He had three sisters, one of whom was the mother of Vidva Siromani Ponnambalapillai.
He received his early education in a small school, conducted by Subramaniapillai. Till his ninth year, his extra ordinary intelligence had not attracted the attention even of his teacher. When he was nine years old, his father died. He saw that his father had been composing a Thamil play and had left it incomplete. He completed it. His brothers were struck by this wonderful performance, and sent him for higher studies, first to Saravanamuttu Pulavar, and then to his teacher, Senathiraja Mudaliar. His teachers taught him at the usual rate, but soon found that their ration only kept him in starvation. They, therefore, gave him everyday what they would give others for a month. He always got up at 4 o’ clock in the morning and began his studies immediately after his religious observances. The only break in his study during the day was the meal time. He had a delicate constitution and he never took any kind of bodily exercise. He was a perfect stranger to sports and games. His head alone was massive. He completed his Thamil studies in his twelfth year. He was then sent to the Methodist English School in Jaffna to study English. He soon gained proficiency in the language, and the head teacher of the school, Rev. Peter Percival, asked him to teach English in the lower classes and Thamil in the upper classes. Navalar spent his spare time in the study of Sanskrit and religious philosophy.
In his nineteenth year he was offered the work of translating the Bible into Thamil. He proposed to accept the offer on condition that he was free to follow his religious observances, to preach Shaivaism and to criticize other religions. The Rev. Gentleman had to accept him on his terms, as he could not get another like him to do the work. He also availed himself of this opportunity to study Thamil Literature and Grammar under Navalar. He was so much benefited by his teachings that he often referred to him as his Guru.
Navalar had to study commentaries on the Bible and other biblical works so that his translation might be true to the original and carry with it the spirit of the work. When the translation was completed, Rev. Percival took him to Madra, where the Bible had been translated by a body of Pandits. The two translations were compared, and several points of disagreement were found in them. They were, therefore, submitted for choice to great scholar in Madras, who, not only recommended the Jaffna translation, but also admired the scholarship of the translator. The mission accepted this translation and published it. The translation of the Bible gave Navalar a mastery of the Christian religion, which proved to be of great value to him in his work as religious teacher.
While Navalar was engaged in this work, he studied the methods adopted by missionaries to spread their religion. He also saw how his own religion was languishing, partly by the neglect of its followers and partly by missionary aggression. He, therefore, took to the study of the Saiva Religion, soon mastered the Shaiva Sidhanta works in Thamil and studied Devaram and Tiruvachakam. Concurrently with these, he studied Sanskrit grammar and literature. He then proceeded to the study of the Shivagamas, which form the ultimate authoritative works of Shaivaism. He had to be content with the study of the few Agamas which were then available. He studied Upanishads and Puranas also. Besides these, he studied the Upagamas, Paddathies and several miscellaneous works. Pandit S. Ganapathipillai has, in his introduction to Arunachala Kavirayer’s Life of Navalar, given a list of over eighty books quoted by Navalar in his works.
He was thus master of Thamil literature and grammar, of the Kriya Kandam and the Gnanakandam of Shaivaism, possessing good scholarship in Sanskrit and a fair knowledge of English. He was an acute thinker, an able versifier, a facile writer, eloquent speaker, and brilliant controversialist. But all this means no more than that he was a painstaking and mighty genius. There must have been several such geniuses both in Jaffna and in South India. These did not however become Arumuka Navalars. Along with knowledge, grew his love of God and Love of truth. There was in him a close co-ordination between knowing and doing. What he knew to be good and right he always did. His love of God elevated his spirit, and his love of truth created in him a burning passion to spread the truth. These are what made him the great Navalar that he was.
Navalar’s heart was filled with the woes of his country. The thought of marriage could not enter his head. His brothers tried in vain to get him married. But he was determined to be a bachelor all his life.
He began his public work in his twenty-third year. He got together a number of young men who had attained scholarship in Thamil, and taught them Thamil Literature and Shaiva Religion in the morning and in the evening. The most brilliant among these were Sadasivapillai, Nataraja Aiyar and Arumukhapillai. Sadasivapillai followed the footsteps of his Master, made a vow of celibacy, and became Navalar’s lieutenant. Later, he took full charge of Navalar’s Printing Press in Madras. After the passing away of the Master, he conducted not only the press but also Navalar’s school at Chidambaram. Nataraja Aiyar specialized in religious study and devoted himself to the teaching of Shaiva Philosophy. Arumukhapillai chose to remain a bachelor, joined the Adhinam of Tiruvannamalai as a Tambiran, and wrote a commentary on Periapuranam.
Among those who formed the second batch of Navalar’s students were his nephew, Ponnambalapillai, Vaidyalingapillai and Sentinatha Ayer. Ponnambalapillai was as great a Thamil Scholar as Navalar himself became a teacher and produced a large number of Thamil Scholars, chief of whom were Sabapathy Navalar and commentator Veluppillai. Vaidyalingapillai became the head teacher of his Master’s school at Vannarponnai, and served in that capacity for several years. Sentinatha Aiyer devoted himself to the study of Religion, and wrote several works, the most remarkable of which was his admirable translation of Nilakanta Bhashyam.
Navalar’s work as teacher thus fully justified his purpose and expectations. He produced a number of Navalars.
Two years later (1847) he turned to preaching. He selected the Vasanta Mandapam of the Shivan Temple at Vannarponnai for this work, and delivered lectures on Friday evenings. Karthikeya Aiyer, who had been his classmate and had caught his religious spirit, became his co-worker. The subjects of the lectures included the existence of God, worship of God, love of God, love of religion, Shiva pooja, Shiva Deeksha, Temple festivals, the purpose of life, the termination of life, abstinence from meat and abstinence from drinks. It happened once that Kartikeya Aiyer was unable to be present on a day fixed for him. The audience requested Navalar to take his place. He said that he was unprepared. The assembly insisted that he ought to lecture to them. He chose unpreparedness (to death) as the subject of his discourse and seemed to have done much better than on days when he had prepared the subject.
His words were not words carrying mere sense. They carried conviction and compulsion. They compelled the hearers to practice what they had heard. A good number of them received Shiva Deeksha, gave up meat eating, became regular temple-goers, and adopted Shaiva acharam. He soon extended his sphere of activity and preached in the villages also. In some of these villages, he established schools and provided them with funds. His Kopay school is even today in a flourishing condition. But, the Puloly School was badly managed by those who were in charge of it, and was ultimately closed. He got others to establish schools at Kandarmadam, Colombogam, Inuvil and Matagal.
While building up Shaivaism he took care also to fortify it against the inroads of Christian Missionaries. He saved two of his classmates from the snares of the missionary. These were M. Tillainathapillai and S. Chinnappapillai, who had promised the missionary to receive baptism and to become Christians on a certain day. He pointed out to them the excellences of Shaivaism and the flaws in Christianity so clearly and effectively, that they gave up the idea of being baptized. The former became a devoted follower of Navalar and joined his school as a teacher. The latter qualified himself as a Proctor of the Supreme Court, and rendered valuable service to Shaivaism.
He also wrote books such as Subra Bodham and Shaiva Dooshana Parikaram, with which he repelled the attacks made by Christians on our religion. Of the latter book, the Wesleyan Methodist report for 1855, printed in England, says, “The amount of scripture brought to the defense… is most surprising, and the adroitness with which every possible objection is anticipated and repelled belongs only to a first rate mind. The book is doing much mischief."
In Subra Bodham, Navalar says that those who interpret the Puranas do not know even the fundamentals of Shaivaism and speak of Shaiva and Subramanya as actually marrying their Saktis. Those who know anything of religion know that God is formless and omnipresent and “that it is absurd to speak of God marrying anyone.” Navalar also condemns in this book the hellish practice of nautch dance in temples, and exhorts temple managers to replace it by the recital of Devaram and by religious lectures.
In his Yalpanasamayanilai, he exposes the frauds of the missionary and of the converts - The missionary tried at first to convert our people by means of preaching. He had no success. He then established schools expecting to win over the pupils and those who offered to serve under him as teachers. But, there were Government schools at that time, which most people preferred. The missionary was, however, able to persuade Government to close its schools. He thus became undisputed master of the educational field. Shaivites turned Christians to become teachers. The padre made priests of some of these and gave them the title of reverend. (Navalar says “as paddy and rice became dearer, the little of reverend became cheaper and cheaper”). Even these reverends were good Shaivites in their heart of hearts. They went to Shaiva temples and made contributions for pujas and festivals. The Christian teacher had to keep up appearance only during school time. The padre knew that most of his converts had no faith in Christianity. But, he kept them on for two reasons. He had to report a large number of conversions every year to the missionary society in England or America. Otherwise, he would lose his job. Secondly, though these men were nominal Christians, their descendants were likely to be true Christians. Navalar gives four instances of Christians cheating the missionary. They were of interest at that time as those men were then living. As they are now dead and gone, I am not disposed to give even a sample.
While Navalar stood mainly on the defensive, his friends, Sankara Pandithar of Neerveli and Damodarampillai B.A.B.L., made frontal attacks on Christianity. Visvanathapillai, who was one of the two who first graduated at the Madras University, (the other being Damodarampillai) was a Christian and attacked Shaivaism. Later, he repented, became a Shaivite, went to Chidambaram, atoned for his writings by cauterizing his tongue with a heated gold pin, and became a faithful follower of Navalar.
Whenever Navalar saw anywhere a glaring breach of Shaiva observance, he condemned it unsparingly in leaflets or lectures. He severely attacked the mercenary and heterodox life led by Shaiva priests. In one leaflet, he asks, “some men of the climber class have given up toddy-drinking, and some pulayas have given up beef eating, and have mended themselves; on the other hand, some bare-fore-headed velalas eat beef and drink arrack in the company of Christians, and there are Shaiva priests and Brahmin priests who perform funeral obsequies and wedding ceremonies for them; who are more respectable, the former or the latter?”
Having worked towards the removal of the abuses in Shaiva religious observances, he proceeded to do constructive work by writing books on Shaivaism. His first catechism and second catechism give in a nutshell what every Shaivite ought to know of his religion. He published them and sold them for a nominal price. It so happened that almost every Shaivite who could read, got a copy of his first catechism, studied it and tried to follow it. This little book, more than anything else shaped the life of the people and made them good Shaivites, Every Thamil teacher made it a point to teach it. It thus found its way into almost every Shaivite home. Children had also to commit to memory the stotrams included in it. There was no one in those days who did not know the Stotrams of Vinayaka (மண்ணுலகத்தினில் பிறவி...) and Subramanya (மூவிருமுகங்கள் போற்றி...). Exactly fifty years ago, I heard a grown-up man, a cholera attendant singing மூவிருமுகங்கள் போற்றி..., as he was going in the night to the cholera hospital, hoping to drive away cholera spirits by the repetition of this Stotram. His fourth reader is a mine of religious information. It contains the essence of the Shivagamas and may / will be used as a reference book. Whenever a doubt arises about religious observances, one has only to refer to it and clear the doubt.
He attempted to renovate two ancient temples. There had been a Shivan Temple at Keerimalai, but somehow it had disappeared. He wrote a pamphlet about it and exhorted the public to rebuild it. There was a good response. He went to Keerimalai, inspected the place, found out the old site, and made a ground plan of the temple. He interested some Brahmin priests in it, who undertook the work.
The other temple was Thiruketheeshvaram, the site of which he made out from the Devarams of Sambander and Sundarar. The temple had disappeared, and the site of the temple had lapsed to the crown. He applied to the Government for the sale of the site. But, Mr. Twynam, who was then Govt. Agent of the Northern Province, did not recommend the sale. He, therefore, made and appeal to the Shaiva public as follows:
“There are two Shivan Temples in Ceylon, which were sung by the Devaram Hymnists. Tirugnanasambanda moorti Nayanar has sung a Devaram in praise of Tirukonamalai. Thiruketeeshvaram was sung both by Sundaramoorthy Nayanar and by Thirugnanasambandha moorthy Nayanar. This temple is at Matottam, which is very near Mannar, in the Northern Province. This is now in ruins, overgrown with jungle. How many temples are being built anew in Ceylon! How is it that you have not given your thought to this great and Sacred Temple! If every Shaivite in Ceylon makes some contribution, however small, towards it, what a big sum it will amount to! If all of you will ponder over this and build this sacred temple, that great Ocean of Love, Shiva Peruman, will bestow His Grace on you.”
He now directed his attention to the abuses in temples. He attacked nautch dance in temples with all the force he could command. He also violently criticized the mismanagement of some temples. Those who were concerned in these matters became his enemies. Once a band of hirelings went to his place to assault him, but were dispersed by an influential friend of his.
He strongly condemned the slaughter of goats on the car festival day. In this connection he writes, “Alas! They say that they will have to suffer in consequence of the Punyam of giving up the slaughter of a goat on the car wheel. People know how steamers of huge size travel long distances in the sea and return unscathed, though no goats are sacrificed when they start on their journey. Cars of massive size safely go round Tiruvarur and Tiruvidaimarutoor and other temples without any such sacrifice. Are we to believe that only this puny car in this temple of Jaffna would not be safe without the slaughter of a goat?”
He also pointed out the anomaly of Shaiva priests officiating in the temples of Kannaki, and of Shaivites worshipping in these temples and in Roman Catholic churches. He says of the former, “Even these monstrous sinners, who, without any pang of horror, placed the images of Vinayaka and Subrahmanya on either side of Kannaki, a Vaishya woman of the Jain religion, are regarded as priests of the Shaiva Religion!” The worship of Kannaki was imposed on the people of Ceylon by king Gajabahu, seventeen centuries ago. The worship would have ceased with his death but for the fact that shameless priests of the Shaiva Religion were and are officiating in these temples.
He is hard on the Shaiva priesthood of his time. He addresses the Shaivites and says, “You grudgingly pay your Government a tax of ninety cents a year. In return for this small sum, fine roads are constructed for you so that you may conveniently and comfortably travel wherever you please. On the other hand, you give your priests rice, dhal and ghee, clothes and rupees with your obeisance. What do you get from them in return? Do they teach you or your children either religion or morals? Do they preach in your temples? Do they establish schools and educate your children? When some Shaivite is inclined to become a Christian, does the priest ever approach him and convince him of the superiority of Shaivaism and save him from becoming a prey to the missionary. During his visits to you, does he ever tell you any rules of conduct, such as, do not kill; do not drink; do not eat meat… and so on? When the missionary attacks your religion, does he ever repel the attack and establish your religion? How many of your priests are ignorant of the correct pronunciation of anthyeshti? Do you ever employ a carpenter, blacksmith or washer man, who does not know his trade? Why, then do you engage a priest who does not know his business?”
He always upheld the spirit and not the letter of the Agamas. While he recommends the regular performance of Shraddha, he insists that the Brahmin who officiates or receives gifts must be learned, must be one who performs regularly his daily religious duties, and does the ceremony with earnestness and devotion. Gifts to men without these qualifications take the donor to hell. Speaking of the caste system, he says, “Among Brahmins, there are Brahmins, Kshatryas, Vaishyas and Sudras. Among Kshatryas there are Brahmins, Kshatryas, Vaishyas and Sudras. Among Vaishyas there are Brahmins, Kshatryas, Vaishyas and Sudras and so on.” He means that caste depends on birth and on the observance of caste dharma.
Devaram, Tiruvachakam and other works of Saints were regarded by him as the manifestation of God’s Grace and as the nearest approach in Thamil to the Vedas and the Shaiva Agamas. He, therefore, called them Arul-Pa. His indignation was, therefore, aroused when songs of a contemporary of his, not esteemed by him as a Saint, were styled Arul-Pa. He wrote a pamphlet condemning it and pointing out that, if his songs should be called Arul-Pa, the authors of Devaram and Tiruvachakam would be regarded as men of the same level as that of this versifier.
We saw that students of Thamil literature were obliged to copy out their books in palmyra leaves before they could study them. This was very laborious, and those who did not have the patience to copy them were unable to study. He, therefore, undertook to print them. Several mistakes had crept into these manuscripts. He collected manuscripts of each book, compared them and selected that best readings. He copied them on paper himself, and gave them to the press to be printed. He, thus, published Kanda Puranam, Peria Puranam and Bharatham. To Peria Puranam, he added a Soochanam, which explains the Philosophy and Psychology underlying the austere lives led by the Saints spoken of in the Puranam. It includes authorities from several Agamic Works and contains priceless information. He also published Nighantu (a dictionary in verse) with a prose version, and the Nannool with a commentary. The study of these two books was at that time regarded as an indispensable preliminary to the study of Thamil literature. Later, he published Nannool with an extensive commentary, Thirukkural with Parimelalagar’s commentary and Thirukkovaiar with Perasiriyar’s commentary.
He wrote a catechism of Thamil Grammar and a concise Thamil Grammar for the use of school children. He also wrote several prose works. He was one of the earliest writers of prose literature. Most of the prose works before his time were commentaries. His prose style has received universal praise. Peria Purana Vachanam. Thiruvilayadal Purana Vachanam and Kanda Purana Vachanam were his chief prose works. The last of these is really a paraphrase of Kandapuranam.
Kandapuranam is undoubtedly a work of unique merit. The style is simple and the verses are eminently musical. Its smiles far outdistance those of the works that can stand even second to it. It is encyclopaedic. Shaivaism, Vedantism, Vaishnavaism, Atheism, and even Materialism are there. It gives and account of the origin of the four Shiva Moorthams, Vinayaka, Bhairava, Veerabhadra, and Subrahmanya. Ethics is taught in a practical manner. It speaks of weapons of warfare unknown even to the makers of the atomic bomb. Its greatest value is its religiousness, with which it is saturated. As every major literary work (பெருங்காப்பியம்) is bound to give accounts of weddings, it relates the weddings of Shiva and Subrahmanya. God has neither form, nor desires, nor need. To speak of a real wedding to God is therefore utter nonsense.
In his Subrah Bodham, Navalar explains the meaning of these weddings. When God starts the creation of the Universe, His aspect of Activity manifests, He is then seen in conjunction with this Activity. This Activity is called Mother or Umadevi, and this apparent conjunction is what is called the wedding of Shiva. This Activity has three forms, called Ichcha, Kriya and Gnana, which respectively control, activate, and enlighten the universe. Of these three Kriya and Gnana are, according to Kandapuranam, Deyvayanai Ammai and Valli Ammai respectively, and it is the manifestation of these Shakthis that is represented as Subrahmanya’s wedding with them. Similarly, Periapuranam speaks of Sundarar’s wedding with Paravaiyar and Sankiliar. Sundarar was called the Friend of God (எம்பிரான் தோழர்) and he could never be overcome by the fascinations of the material body of a woman. The only relationship that Saints can have with other souls is that of a Guru. Sundarar saw that they were souls on the threshold of divinity, and took them on as his disciples. This act, the author of Peria Puranam represented as the wedding of Paravaiyar and Sankiliar, in order to fulfill the requirement of a major literary work.
Navalar wrote commentaries on Shaiva Samaya Neri. Tirumurukatrupadai, Koilpuranam, and Shiva Dharmottaram which is a portion of the Shivagama, called Sarvokta.
He corrected the manuscripts of several works on grammar and literature for publication by others, the most notable of which was Tolkappiyam with Senavarayar’s commentary.
The press he owned in Jaffna was too small for his needs. He, therefore, went to Madras to do his printing work there, as paper and labour were also cheap. He bought a press, housed it, left it in charge of his most loyal disciple, Sadasivapillai, and went to Chidambaram which was as dear to him as his own place. It is the capital of the Shaiva world. What Rome is to Catholicism, and Mecca to Islam, Chidambaram is to Shaivaism. Our saints have called it the Temple. The name ‘Koyil’ by itself always meant Chidambaram. He therefore, established a school there and endowed it. Distinguished scholars like Sabapathy Navalar and Acharya Vetpillai presided over the school, and produced a large number of Thamil scholars. The present annual income of the school from its endowments is Rs. 25000.
The temple at Chidambaram was not conducted according to the Shaivagamas. The priests themselves were not true shaivites, as they never had Shiva Deeksha. Navalar was unable to persuade them to follow the Agamas. He, therefore, delivered a lecture in his school, pointing out the indispensability of Shiva Deeksha to the priests and the impropriety of the un-Agamic form of Poojah performed by them. Instead of reforming them, this lecture roused their anger. They had been treated by others as demi-gods. This denunciation was far too much to be borne by them. A band or hirelings went to assault Navalar. But they were dispersed.
While in India. Navalar visited several sacred shrines and delivered religious lectures everywhere. When he was at Kumbakonam, the head of the Tiru-avaduturai Adheenam invited him to his Matam for the purpose of honoring him. The head of this Matam had all along been regarded as the spiritual head of the Shaiva world. He received Navalar with great regard and love. At his request, Navalar delivered a lecture, and the head of the Matam, in order to honour him or rather to honour it, gave him the title of Navalar. He stayed there a few days, spending his time in reading rare Agamic works, not available anywhere else. Though he accepted the title, he would not accept anything tangible.
When he went to Ramnad, he was invited by the Prime Minister of the Rajah of Ramnad to his palace. This invitation was very much similar to that of the head of Tiru-avaduthurai. The Minister wanted to honour him. But, he was only a temporal prince, and Navalar had no regard for temporal power. He declined to go to him. Then, the Minister, who was also a great scholar, composed a stanza begging him to accept his invitation, and sent it through one of the palace vidvans. He consented to go to him, on condition that neither he nor any of his companions should be required to show any kind of respect that he might expect from them.
The minister treated him with very great regard and requested him to revise the manuscripts of several Thamil works for publication.
Navalar returned from India in 1870, and did a good deal of literary work. Meanwhile, the Methodist school in Jaffna made an order that pupils should not wear Sacred Ashes. Most of the Shaivite pupils disobeyed the order, and were, therefore, sent out of the school. These pupils went to Navalar and requested him to open an English school. He immediately started one and maintained it from the fees paid by the pupils. Government refused to register the school for grant. The public did not give him any pecuniary help. The Mission school relaxed the order requiring pupils not to wear Sacred Ashes. The pupils also saw the disadvantage of studying in a school which was not recognized by Government. The school had therefore to be closed after it had worked for four years.
In the year 1877 Jaffna was stricken by famine and cholera. He did some service in this connection. He saw that the Government officers who were sent to give relief to the people misappropriated the funds at their disposal and allowed the people to suffer. When the Governor visited Jaffna, he represented to him the wrongs done to the people by these officers, and the indifference of the Government Agent to the welfare of the people.
In July 1879, he delivered his last lecture in his school, on the Gurupooja day of St. Sundarar. At the close of his speech, he said that was his last lecture. On the second of December of the same year, he fell ill. He was not able to perform his Shiva Pooja on the three following days. He got a priest to perform the external poojah, and he himself performed the mental poojah. On the last day, at about 8 p.m. he requested those present to sing Devaram, wore Sacred Ashes and Rudraksha Mala, raised his hand to his head, and meditated on God. At about ten o’clock, he quitted his body. He was then 56 years and 11 months old.
Navalar was deeply religious. His activities proceeded from his religion. Service to man was service to God. He served the Shaiva Religion not because it was his religion or it was the true religion but because he loved Shiva. Even his service to the Thamil Language was regarded by him as service to his Religion, because he thought that the study of Thamil was not an end but a means to love and serve God. "கற்றதனால் ஆய பயன் என்கொல் வாலறிவன், நற்றாள் தொழாஅ ரெனின்"
He knew no fear, because he did not prize even his body. We have seen that attempts were made on his life both in Jaffna and in India. But these did not deviate him in any way from his course of action. He had a regard for religious men. But he never respected wealth or power. Though he received contributions for his school, he never accepted presents made to him personally. When the head of Thiruavaduthurai Adhinam visited his school at Chidambaram, he presented him with a shawl and two vestiges. Navalar sent the price of these presents to him, requesting him to make with that money the necessary repairs in Marai Gnana Sambandar’s temple near Chidambaram. The successor-elect of the Adheenam sent him eighty rupees. He returned the same to him by a bank draft. Just as he was free from fear, he was equally free from ordinary anger. One day, his cook, in a fit of madness, took a large quantity of rice and threw it on his face. Navalar was calm and unmoved. He sympathetically tried to find out why he did it. But Navalar was not free from righteous indignation. One day, his elder brother, Tyagaraja, wishing to know the extent of Navalar’s religious feeling, said to his hearing that the stories of Peria Puranam were all false. Navalar became mad with fury and chased his elder brother, who got into a room and locked himself in. Others in the house intervened, and Navalar withdrew. But, when an insult to his religion or to his country came in writing, there would be no one to intervene, and his ire had full sway. One Veerasamy Mudaliar of Narasinga Puram had somewhere written disparagingly of Jaffna. Navalar came to know of this. He collected materials not only of the writer but also of his superior, and wrote a counter attack, which showed no sign of mercy. The booklet that Navalar wrote was full of the glories of Jaffna and the glorious stupidities of the Mudaliar. From the list of glories I quote one. The temple of Ramesvaram, held in great veneration even by the people of Northern India, was built by a king of Jaffna, according to an inscription in the Holy of Holies of the temple. The temple of Vedaranyam was built by Tillainatha Tambiram of Jaffna, to which the Rajah of Tanjore gave extensive lands and other sources of income, as a reward for the cure of a disease of the Raja’s son, effected by the Tambiran with no medicine other than Sacred Ashes. Navalar also made a personal counter-attack on the Mudaliyar. The Mudaliyar was the third assistant to the Head Thamil Pandit of a school. Navalar, who had access to the subject matter of an answer paper written by the Head Pandit in a public examination, quotes enough from it to show that he did not know even the elements of Thamil Grammar. Of such an ignoramus, the Mudaliar was the third assistant, and was afterwards relieved even of this humble post, in consequence of his utter inefficiency. Those who can relish an unsparing merciless attack will do well to read this pamphlet.
Navalar had good social instincts. One day, when he was teaching in his school, he heard the cry, “Fire”. He darted like an arrow, reached the house that was burning, and did all he could, along with others, to put out the fire. One of his pupils had an attack of small pox. He visited him every day, in spite of the insistence of his friends that he should not go there. He took part in politics too. When a successor had to be appointed in place of Sir Muttukumaraswamy as the Thamil member of the legislative council, he held several meetings in support of Mr. (later Sir) P. Ramanathan against the candidature of Advocate C. Brito, a personal friend of his, but not one so well qualified as the former.
Navalar was a scholar and author, teacher and preacher, exemplar and reformer, mighty genius and indefatigable worker, lover of Thamil, lover of Shaivaism and lover of God. Another like him the Thamil land has not seen for several centuries.
1. அகத்தியர் அருளிய தேவாரத் திரட்டு
2. அன்னம் பட்டியம்
3. இலக்கணக் கொத்து
4. இலக்கணச் சுருக்கம்
5. இலக்கண விளக்கச் சூறாவளி
6. இலக்கண வினா விடை
7. இலங்கை பூமி சாஸ்த்திரம்
9. கந்த புராண வசனம்
10. கந்தபுராணம் பகுதி 1-2
11. கொலை மறுத்தல்
12. கோயிற்புராணம் ( புதிய உரை )
13. சிதம்பர மான்மியம்
14. சிவஞானபோதமும் வார்த்திகமென்னும் பொழிப்புரையும்
15. சிவஞானபோத சிற்றுரை
16. சிவராத்திரி புராணம்
17. சிவசேத்திராலய மஹாத்ஸவ உண்மை விளக்கம்
18. சிவாலய தரிசன விதி
19. சுப்பிரமணிய போதகம்
20. சூடாமணி நிகண்டு மூ. உரை
22. சைவ சமய நெறி
23. சைவ தூஷண பரிகாரம்
24. சைவ வினாவிடை
25. சௌந்தர்ய லகரி உரை
26. ஞான கும்மி
27. தருக்க சங்கிரகம்
28. தருக்க சங்கிரக தீபிகை
29. தனிப் பாமாலை
30. தாயுமானசுவாமிகள் திருப்பாடல் திரட்டு
31. திருக்குறள் மூலம் பரிமேலழகர் உரை
32. திருக்கை வழக்கம்
33. திருக்கோவையார் மூலம்
34. திருக்கோவையார் நச்சினார்க்கினியர் உரை
35. திருச்செந்தூர் நிரோட்ட யமக வந்தாதி
36. திருஞான சம்பந்தமூர்த்தி நாயனார் புராணம்
37. திருத்தொண்டர் புராணம்
39. திருவாசகம் - மூலம்
40. திருவிளையாடற்புராணம் - மூலம்
41. திருவிளையாடற்புராணம் - வசனம்
42. தெய்வயாணையம்மை திருமணப் படலம்
43. தொல்காப்பியம் சூத்திர விருத்தி
44. தொல்காப்பியம் சொல். சேனா. உரை
45. நன்னூல் - காண்டிகை உரை
46. நன்னூல் - விருத்தி உரை
47. நீதிநூல்திரட்டு மூலமும் உரையும்
48. நைடத உரை
49. பதினோராம் திருமுறை
50. பாலபாடம் - 4 தொகுதிகள்
51. பிரபந்தத் திரட்டு
52. பிரயோக விவேகம்
54. பெரியபுராண வசனம்
55. போலியருட்பா மறுப்பு
57. யாழ்ப்பாணச் சமயநிலை
58. வக்கிர தண்டம்
60. விநாயக கவசம் | English | NL | cec84278b6b416986740d14c2e1e1f6a71092e8c9ce18ca3c1060898a65a17ab |
She trembled slightly as she approached him, glistening in the sunlight, tall and proud. It had been so long. He looked strong and dependable, as he always had done but she had to be the strong one. In control, running the show.
That first grip, the feeling so familiar even though she had consciously pushed the memories away and he was solid against her. Taking a deep breath she whispered
“Let’s go, big feller.” And they were off, madly, crazily, rushing it. She only fumbled once, her crippled foot getting in the way. He could have thrown her to the floor so easily if he weren’t being tolerant. He just gave a throaty chuckle and let her get her footing again.
Deliberately, she slowed the pace. This was fabulous. So many almost-gone, longed for emotions flooded through her as he responded to the slightest grip or slacken of her right hand. Shifting her weight infinitesimally and he moved with her, the perfect Dom/sub, near-telepathy of the ideally-matched couple. Keeping it as slow as possible while staying in perfect balance with each other, she reached her left hand down to stroke him. This was her only love.
He stayed obedient to her wishes, controlled and steady but she felt him quivering between her thighs, an extension of her own body, like another limb that moved to her own brain impulses and she knew that he wanted to go, let rip, let the ending be glorious. So she gave him his way and they screamed to a halt as it finished.
The tears streaming down her face were only from the wind, of course they were, it had been months since she rode her motorbike. With the characteristic ruffling of her hair, she bent forward to kiss him and whisper.
“Thank you, beloved. That was wonderful.” | English | NL | 14586db1ee1b246b35d19fc7e4229ea7b0101790effb720db2a19e26388a7694 |
Meet Dr. White
Dr. Steven J. White is a Dallas, TX double board-certified plastic surgeon offering cosmetic and reconstructive surgery for the breast, face, body, and skin. A perfectionist who constantly strives to improve his surgical craft, he is not happy until he knows he has done his best. Dr. White is one of the few plastic surgeons in the United States certified by both the American Board of Plastic Surgery and the American Board of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery. Consistently listed as a Top Doc by D Magazine, a Texas Super Doctor by Texas Monthly, and ranked among the world’s top surgeons, Dr. White is considered renowned in the field of plastic surgery.
Dr. Steven J. White is guided by a principle he learned at an early age: "If you are going to do something... do it right." This simple philosophy has served him well both academically and professionally throughout his life. Raised on a ranch in Central Texas, he was influenced by both Texas and European culture. His interest in art stems from his European travel as a youth. Medicine was a natural career choice since it allowed him to pursue his love of science with his desire to help others.
Specialties and Skills
Dr. White focuses his Dallas, TX plastic surgery practice on cosmetic and reconstructive surgery for the breast, body and face. This includes breast augmentation and breast lift surgery, as well as tummy tuck, liposuction and body contouring for the arms, buttock, hips, and thighs. A master at his skill, he uses his artistic eye to naturally and gracefully transforms patients that undergo facial surgery. He creates gorgeous, lasting results during facelift, brow lift and rhinoplasty surgery. His private practice also offers skin rejuvenation using a number of nonsurgical treatments to reverse the hands of time. Procedures such as BOTOX, fillers, laser skin resurfacing, and chemical peels, allow patients to regain their youthful glow without having to undergo a surgical procedure
Education and Training
Dr. White has distinguished himself among his peers at every level of his academic career. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Baylor University with Honors and later graduated Alpha Omega Alpha from Baylor College of Medicine with Honors. Alpha Omega Alpha, or AOA, is considered the "Phi Beta Kappa of medical school." It is a medical honor society that recognizes the top ten percent of medical students in the nation. Dr. White was further recognized for his achievement in medical school by his selection for Basic Science Honors, a distinction reserved for the top students in each class.
His interest in surgery grew from his fascination with human anatomy. Dr. White's surgical career was shaped by many highly acclaimed surgeons. While in Houston, he was honored to have trained and operated with two of the most famous surgeons of our time: Dr. Michael DeBakey and Dr. Denton Cooley. During his many years of surgical residency in two specialties, he was also fortunate to have trained under several world-renowned plastic surgeons. Dr. White is board certified by both the American Board of Plastic Surgery and the American Board of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery. He dedicated 8 years to residency training (after medical school) in order to be fully trained in both specialties. Dr. White received his training in Otolaryngology (ENT or Ear, Nose, and Throat Surgery) at UT Southwestern Medical Center and Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas. He then returned to Baylor College of Medicine in Houston for his residency in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.
Dr. White is a member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons and a Fellow of the American Academy of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery. He is also a member of the Double Boarded Society as well as numerous other medical societies.
A commitment to be the best. A surgeon whose primary goals are patient safety and natural appearing results. These are the hallmarks of Steven J. White M.D. and USA Plastic Surgery. Known for his expertise in plastic and reconstructive surgery, Dr. White believes there are no shortcuts to knowledge and experience. We welcome you to come meet Dr. White in person at his Dallas cosmetic surgery practice located at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, which has been recognized as a Top 100 Hospital of America. | English | NL | f64d9692db87b4fc59e698e7ff7eb540add3963e1948d8fec9232c2b4161d8b4 |
What kind of a city was Kiev in 1240? It had already passed the pinnacle of its tenth and eleventh century glory, but it was still one of the richest and grandest cities of ancient Rus.
This city, which grew up along what was then the most important European trade route, leading “from the Varangians to the Greeks,” from Scandinavia to Byzantium, glistened with golden cupolas and was protected by mighty walls. Kiev was home to Slavs and Scandinavians, Turks and Khazars, and was frequented by travelers from Western Europe and the Arab caliphates. All were amazed by its magnificence and wealth.
By the thirteenth century, the main centers of ancient Russian life had shifted to the northeast. Vladimir and Suzdal had emerged and blossomed, and ships were not traveling down the Dnieper to Byzantium, which had also passed its prime, as often as they once had. Nevertheless, many still saw Kiev as the heart of Rus.
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Russian Life is a 29-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.
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Montpelier VT 05601-0567 | English | NL | fa5e293033b8a550689a5405c1f0591fd2b5b7746abb7d3630ffa91daaa1bcaa |
Subscribe To Clive Standen Reveals Rollo's Mindset As Vikings Season 5 Returns Updates
Rollo will be making a more prominent return to Vikings when the History drama continues on November 28. What is the mindset Rollo is in when the story picks back up in the second half of Season 5? When asked about filling in the blanks regarding Rollo's life off-screen, actor Clive Standen shared some insight, saying:
Rollo is in a unique position. He now has respect, fame, fortune, a family, and -- in his mind -- the rewards of the gods. All are things Rollo thought would satiate him, early in Vikings' run. Apparently he is struggling with whether it has all been what it is said to be. So where does he go from here? Well, he still has some unfinished business, as Clive Standen revealed:
That's right. You can thank Lagertha and Bjorn for his return. Bjorn is his nephew by way of his brother Ragnar. Lagertha being Bjorn's mother and Rollo's former sister-in-law is not the only dynamic to their relationship. Rollo has a history of romantic feelings for her. Whether he will attempt to pursue those feelings is unclear.
Perhaps he is just seeking Lagertha and Bjorn's forgiveness. Rollo's track record with his people since becoming a count and marrying into Frankish royalty has not been great. He and Ragnar ultimately faced off again when the latter led another effort to attack Paris. Rollo ended up defeating Ragnar in an epic river battle.
In the aftermath of Rollo's victory, Ragnar pretty much fell apart. Rollo's brother was left relatively broken by the experience. His subsequent disappearance and eventual return ultimately led to him being executed. A lot has happened in between that time, which could bode both good and bad for Rollo's hope of reconciling with Bjorn and Lagertha.
If Rollo is hoping to make-nice with his nephew and Lagertha, he has a long road ahead. His involvement will be a neat ingredient for the show. Vikings always flourishes as a series whenever Rollo is around. He is a complex character. Frankish by choice and a Viking by birth, you would be hard-pressed to find a character as caught in the middle.
It will be interesting to see where the last half of Season 5's story takes him. Elsewhere in his interview, Clive Standen mentions Rollo drinking some sort of tonic. He also hints that Rollo is "slowly dying," possibly "sooner than we think." Is Rollo motivated by thoughts of a final adventure? We will all have to tune and see. Hopefully, he is legitimately backing Lagertha. She needs all the help she can get if she hopes to unseat Ivar. | English | NL | a38a4c964ba1623841d85e413669b945e2dec5e15d5e4b81ebc8c21bb3d5d509 |
In 1870, Heinrich Schliemann went to the Troad, the northwest corner of Asia Minor, and made up his mind, against all current scholarly opinion, that Priam’s Troy lay buried under the hill called Hissarlik…
In the year 1822, a lad was born in Germany who was to turn the spade work of archeology into one of the romances of the century. His father had a passion for ancient history, and brought him up on Homer’s stories of the siege of Troy and Odysseus’ wanderings…. “With great grief I heard from him that Troy had been so completely destroyed that it had disappeared without leaving any trace of its existence.”‘ At the age of eight, having given the matter mature consideration, Heinrich Schliemann announced his intention to devote his life to the rediscovery of the lost city. At the age of ten, he presented to his father a Latin essay on the Trojan War. In 1836, he left school with an education too advanced for his means and became a grocer’s apprentice. In 1841, he shipped from Hamburg as a cabin boy on a steamer bound for South America. Twelve days out the vessel foundered; the crew was tossed about in a small boat for nine hours, and was thrown by the tide upon the shores of Holland. Heinrich became a clerk, and earned a hundred and fifty dollars a year; he spent half of this on books, and lived on the other half and his dreams. His intelligence and application had their natural results; at twenty-five, he was an independent merchant with interests on three continents; at thirty-six, he felt that he had enough money, retired from commerce, and gave all his time to archeology. “In the midst of the bustle of business I had never forgotten Troy, or the agreement I had made with my father to excavate it.”‘
In his travels as a merchant, he had made it a practice to learn the language of each country he traded with, and to write in that language the current pages of his diary. By this method, he learned English, French, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Swedish, Polish, and Arabic. Now he went to Greece, studied the language as a living speech, and was soon able to read both ancient and modern Greek as fluently as German. Henceforth, he declared, “I should find it impossible to live anywhere but on classical soil.'” Since his Russian wife refused to leave Russia, he advertised for a Greek wife, laid down precise specifications for the position, and at the age of forty-seven chose a bride of nineteen from among the photographs he received. He married her almost at sight, and unwittingly in the ancient style of purchase; her parents charged him for her a price commensurate with their conception of his fortune. When his new wife bore him children, he reluctantly consented to baptize them, but solemnized the ceremony by laying a copy of the Iliad upon their heads and reading a hundred hexameters aloud. He named them Andromache and Agamemnon, called his servants Telamon and Pelops, and christened his Athenian home Bellerophon. He was an old man mad about Homer.
In 1870, he went to the Troad, the northwest corner of Asia Minor, and made up his mind, against all current scholarly opinion, that Priam’s Troy lay buried under the hill called Hissarlik. After a year of negotiations, he secured permission from the Turkish Government to explore the site; he engaged eighty laborers, and they set to work. His wife, who loved him for his eccentricities, shared his toil in the earth from sunrise to sunset. All winter long an icy gale from the north drove a blinding dust into their eyes and swept with such violence through the cracks of their frail cottage that no lamp could be kept lit in the evening. Despite the fire in the hearth, the water froze nearly every night. “We had nothing to keep us warm except our enthusiasm for the great work of discovering Troy.'”
A year passed before they were rewarded. Then, blow by blow, a workman’s pick exposed a large copper vessel, and this, opened, revealed an astonishing treasure of some nine thousand objects in silver and gold. The canny Schliemann hid the find in his wife’s shawl, dismissed his workmen to an unexpected siesta, hurried to his hut, locked the door, spread out the precious things on the table, linked each one fondly with some passage in Homer, adorned his wife with an ancient diadem, and sent messages to his friends in Europe that he had unearthed “the Treasury of Priam.'” No one would believe him; some critics charged him with having placed the objects where he found them; and, at the same time, the Sublime Porte sued him for taking gold from Turkish soil. But scholars like Virchow, Diirpfeld, and Burnouf came to the site, verified Schliemann’s reports, and carried on the work with him until one buried Troy after another was uncovered, and the problem was no longer whether Troy had existed, but which of the nine Troys exhumed had been the Ilios of the Iliad.
In 1876, Schliemann resolved to confirm the epic from another direction to show that Agamemnon too was real. Guided by Pausanias’ classic description of Greece, he sank thirty-four shafts at Mycenae in the eastern Peloponnesus. Turkish officials interrupted the work by claiming half of the material that he had found at Troy. Unwilling to let the precious “Treasury of Priam” lie unseen in Turkey, Schliemann clandestinely dispatched the objects to the State Museum at Berlin, paid the Porte five times more damages than were required of him, and resumed his digging at Mycenae. Again, he was rewarded; and when he saw his workers carrying up to him skeletons, pottery, jewelry, and golden masks, he telegraphed joyfully to the King of Greece that he had discovered the tombs of Atreus and Agamemnon. In 1884, he moved on to Tiryns and, guided again by Pausanias, unearthed the great palace and cyclopean walls that Homer had described.
Seldom had any man done so much for archeology. He had the faults of his virtues, for his enthusiasm drove him into a reckless haste that destroyed or confused many exhumed objects in order to reach at once the goal that he sought; and the epics that had inspired his labors misled him into thinking that he had discovered Priam’s hoard at Troy and the tomb of Agamemnon at Mycenae. The world of scholarship doubted his reports, and the museums of England, Russia, and France long refused to accept as genuine the relics that he had found. He consoled himself with vigorous self-appreciation and went on digging courageously until disease struck him down. In his last days, he hesitated whether to pray to the God of Christianity or to the Zeus of classic Greece. “To Agamemnon Schliemann, best beloved of sons, greeting!” he writes. “I am very glad that you are going to study Plutarch, and have finished Xenophon…. I pray Zeus the Father and Pallas Athene that they will grant you a hundred returns of the day in health and happiness.” He died in 1890, worn out by climatic hardships, scholastic hostility, and the incessant fever of his dream.
Like Columbus, he had discovered a world stranger than the one he sought. These jewels were older by many centuries than Priam and Hecuba; these graves were not the tombs of the Atridae, but the ruins of an Aegean civilization, on the Greek mainland, as ancient as the Minoan Age in Crete. Unknowingly, Schliemann had proved Horace’s famous line vixerunt fortes trnte Agamemnona—“there lived many brave men before Agamemnon.” Year by year, as Dörpfeld and Muller, Tsountas and Stamatakis, Waldstein and Wace dug more widely into the Peloponnesus—and still others explored Attica and the islands, Euboea and Boeotia, Phocis and Thessaly—the soil of Greece gave up the ghostly relics of a culture before history. Here too men had been lifted from barbarism to civilization by the passage from nomadic hunting to settled agriculture, by the replacement of stone tools with copper and bronze, by the conveniences of writing and the stimulus of trade: Civilization is always older than we think; and under whatever sod we tread are the bones of men and women who also worked and loved, wrote songs and made beautiful things, but whose names and very being have been lost in the careless flow of time.
This excerpt originally appeared in The Life of Greece: The Story of Civilization, Volume II, by Will Durant.
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“In order to acquire quickly the Greek vocabulary,” Schliemann writes, “I procured a modern Greek translation of Paul et Virginie, and read it through, comparing every word with its equivalent in the French original. When I had finished this task I knew at least one half the Greek words the book contained; and after repeating the operation I knew them all, or nearly so, without having lost a single minute by being obliged to use a dictionary….Of the Greek grammar I learned only the declensions and the verbs, and never lost my precious time in studying its rules; for as I saw that boys, after being troubled and tormented for eight years and more in school with the tedious rules of grammar, can nevertheless none of them write a letter in ancient Greek without making hundreds of atrocious blunders, I thought the method pursued by the schoolmasters must be altogether wrong…. I learned ancient Greek as I would have learned a living language.”
Pausanias traveled through Greece about A.D. 160, and described it in his Periegesis, or Tour.
Towards the end of his life, Dörpfeld and Virchow almost convinced him that he had found the remains not of Agamemnon but of a far earlier generation. After many heartaches, Schliemann took the matter good-naturedly. “What?” he exclaimed, “so this is not Agamemnon’s body, these are not his ornaments? All right, let’s call him Schulze”; and thereafter they always spoke of “Schulze.” | English | NL | 3d303a19bb0f5cae29b9a3a93e88f20c027b5149348552efd83157b34a01d54b |
Last week, Vida, an organization that "seeks to explore critical and cultural perceptions of writing by women," released their annual pie charts that examined 2011 book coverage, and compared how many of the books written about were by male versus female authors.
The results clearly showed that venerable publications such as The Paris Review, Harper's Magazine, The New York Times Book Review and The Atlantic cover significantly more works by male authors.
One of the greatest offenders, The New Republic, reviewed over four times as many books by men than those by women. Similar results were reported for The London Review of Books. The survey also looked at the staffing of these publications, and the results were also overwhelmingly weighted towards men.
Some people, including author Jennifer Weiner, have spoken out about the statistics, saying that they seem to imply discrimination against female writers by major book reviewers. But are literary journalists entirely to blame, or is a seed of discrimination also planted much earlier on in the publishing process?
One reviewer wrote for The Guardian that she's had a difficult time tracking down "good" books by women (which she prefers to literary fiction by men). The reason? They aren't being published.
Here at The Huffington Post, we've noticed a similar trend. However, a bigger question seems to have been overlooked. There are certain publishers whose books regularly get reviewed by both mainstream and niche 'literary' publications. How do these match up in the gender stakes?
We took a look at all of the books published in 2011 by four of the major imprints - Knopf, Crown, Little, Brown and Farrar, Strauss and Giroux - and tallied the authors by gender. These publishers were chosen for their focus on literary fiction - the types of books typically reviewed by places like The New York Times Book Review and The Atlantic. We only included hardcovers in our count for the same reason.
What we found (see below) was that the gender ratios of books published by these imprints are in a few cases almost identical to those of the publications cited in Vida's survey. If the gender representation in major publications is to change, and we believe it should, then perhaps that also requires a shift either in the mindset of the more "literary" publishers, or a broadening of the books and publishers whose work is covered by the media.
The debate continues...
See below for Vida's overall 2011 reports on different publications, factoring in all coverage including articles and reviews. You can see all of their pie charts here. | English | NL | bbd232df5292ff0ab9385d3c22b59928de0809c22e1558f89757cd0fc0d7d0c6 |
Misty is one of the most recognisable characters in the Pokémon franchise. She was Ash Ketchum's first companion in the anime, and one of the first Gym leaders you will battle in the video games. Misty wasn't some damsel in distress who needed saving every other episode, Misty could take care of herself, and she never took grief off of Ash or Team Rocket. Misty was also a skilled Pokémon trainer, and she never let her friends down.
Having a strong female protagonist is a testament to how the Pokémon franchise was made to appeal to both boys and girls. Before Pokémon, kids TV shows (and more importantly, the toys they were made to promote) were split down gender lines. With Pokémon, the series could be enjoyed by both boys and girls. Pikachu was a cute animal, who could also fight against other cool monsters in battle. You could root for Ash Ketchum in his quest to be the best... like no one ever was, and you could also be a fan of Misty, who could go toe to toe with the boys in battle if she wanted.
Misty has existed since the earliest days of the franchise, and she has one of the most interesting (and disturbing) histories of any Pokémon character. We are here today to look at one of Pokémon's most beloved characters. From the constant attention she received from older guys (both in fiction, and the real world), to the original intended outcome of her relationship with Ash. Here are the 15 Things You Didn't Know About Misty.
15 Her Wannabe Grandpa Is Actually A Pervert!
Many episodes of the Pokémon anime had to be censored in order to be shown on American television. The most notorious of these was "Electric Soldier Porygon", as it made international news (before Pokémon was even being considered for a Western release). This was due to a sequence of flashing lights during the episode, that caused children across Japan to suffer epileptic seizures.
Outside of "Electric Soldier Porygon", the most famous of the banned episodes was "Beauty and the Beach". When clips of this episode leaked online in the early days of the Internet, a lot of fans thought they were fake. During the episode, a beauty contest is held on the beach for girls. James of Team Rocket enters, and he wears a suit with a set of inflatable breasts. Of all of the banned episodes, "Beauty and the Beach" did eventually see an English release. The episode was heavily censored, and the run-time had to be cut down considerably.
During the English dub of the episode, Misty is accosted by a creepy old man, who claims that he wishes Misty was his granddaughter. In the original Japanese version of the episode, he tells her that he was thinking about "having fun" with her in eight years time. This old man is the first in a long line of creepy men who lust after the 10 year old Misty on this list.
14 Misty's Song
There once existed a musical stage show based on Pokémon. It was called Pokemon Live! and it featured actors for the human characters, and people in mascot costumes for the Pokémon. All of the cast were new, except for Maddie Blaustein, the voice of Meowth in the anime. She also provided the voice of Meowth for the live show.
Pokémon Live! only had a limited run, and no footage of the show was believed to exist. A copy of Pokémon Live! was uploaded online by its producer, Chris Mitchell, in 2012. This means that everyone can now enjoy the show.
Before the show was put on YouTube, the only way fans could experience Pokémon Live! was through a couple of its songs being released on other Pokémon music CD's. One of the tracks from Pokémon Live! was called "Misty's Song".
"Misty's Song" is a straight up ballad about how Misty is in love with Ash, but is too nervous to tell him. This song is considered prime material for Pokémon shippers all over the world. Sadly for them, it is not considered canon.
13 She Was Ash's Longest Running Female Companion
Misty became Ash's companion during the 2nd episode of the show. She stayed by his side during his journeys through Kanto, the Orange Islands, and Johto. In the episode "Gotta Catch You Later!", Ash, Misty, and Brock go their separate ways. Ash would travel to Hoenn, Brock returned to Pewter City (though he would soon rejoin Ash), and Misty became the leader of the Cerulean City Gym.
Ever since journeying through Hoenn, Ash has had a number of different female companions. May was with him through Hoenn (and the Battle Frontier in Kanto), Dawn was with him in Sinnoh, Iris was with him in Unova, and most recently, Serena was with him in Kalos.
Of all of Ash's companions in Pokémon, Misty was the longest running of the girls that joined him. She was with him for 280 episodes. Brock is the longest running companion overall (as he also journeyed with Ash through the Hoenn and Sinnoh regions).
The people who have stayed with Ash the longest are actually Team Rocket, as they have been in almost every single episode of the show since the 2nd one.
12 She's Never Coming Back
Pokémon is going through a huge revival at the moment. The unprecedented success of Pokémon GO has lead to a mainstream nostalgia wave for the original games, and early seasons of the anime. The rave reviews for Pokémon Sun & Moon have also led to a surge in popularity for the latest entries in the series.
With such a renewed interest in the early days of Pokémon, would it be possible for Misty and Brock to return to the anime, and join Ash on his latest journey?
Sadly, this will not be the case. According to Masamitsu Hidaka, a former director and storyboard artist on the show - Misty will never return as a main cast member.
While he stated that cameo appearances were fine, Misty would not become a full-time companion to Ash ever again. Her story is complete as far as the anime staff are concerned, and Ash needs new companions in order to keep the show fresh.
11 Misty's Marriage Proposal
Due to the increasing delays with the release of Pokémon Gold & Silver in Japan, the Pokémon anime was forced to come up with a filler season to bridge the gap between the first two generations. The result of this was the Orange Islands season. After losing to Ritchie in the Indigo League, Ash Ketchum is tasked with picking up a mysterious item known as the GS Ball, from a place known as the Orange Archipelago. This led to a filler season, where Ash competed against four Gyms that focused more on completing tasks than battling (kind of like the Island Challenges in the recent Pokémon Sun & Moon).
In the episode "Misty Meets Her Match", Ash challenges the third of the Orange Islands Gyms. The leader of the Gym was named Rudy, and he had a serious crush on Misty. Throughout the episode, Misty has to choose between rooting for the oblivious Ash, or the charming Rudy. Ash defeats Rudy in battle, and before they all depart, Rudy asks Misty to stay on the Island with him. She refuses, and continues her journey with Ash.
That is what happened in the English dub. In the original Japanese version of the episode, Rudy asked the 1o year old Misty to marry him. It seems that the Pokémon anime wasn't finished with inciting controversy - they wanted to add "child brides" to the list of stuff that would get the show into trouble.
10 The Fate Of Misty's Bike
The reason Misty tags along with Ash in the first place is because he was responsible for destroying her bike. In the first episode of the anime, Ash "borrows" Misty's bike, so that he can escape from the Spearow that are chasing him. Pikachu defeats the Spearow horde with a Thunder Shock attack, but also destroys Misty's bike in the process. The bike is left with Nurse Joy at the Viridian City Pokémon Center, and Ash & Misty begin their journey across Kanto.
In the episode "Gotta Catch Ya Later!", Ash and his friends return to Viridian City. When visiting the Pokémon Center, the resident Nurse Joy reveals that Misty's bike had been fixed by the previous Nurse, and was good as new. Ash Ketchum's debt had finally been paid, and the two were free to part ways.
The Nurse Joy who fixed the bike is missing her calling in life. She took a bike that was essentially a piece of charred metal, and fixed it so that it looked brand new. If they ever create a Pimp My Ride show in the Pokémon anime world, then she should be the first in line to become a host.
9 Misty's Original Purpose
Here is your regular reminder that Misty is 10 years old. In fact, all of Ash's female companions that came after Misty are also 10 years old. We should also remind you that there are a lot of creepy people working in the Japanese entertainment industry.
Masamitsu Hidaka was one of the directors and storyboard artists on the Pokémon anime series. During an interview in 2008, he was asked about the possibility of Misty's return to the show. One of the reasons given for Misty not coming back (outside of a possible one-off appearance), is due to her original purpose on the show. According to Hidaka, Misty's original purpose on the show was as eye candy for the boys in the audience. This is why Ash has changed female companions so many times over the years. The creators of the show like to change up the eye candy, so that the boys can have something to enjoy. Hidaka stated that girls are more customisable than boys, and you can put them into bathing suits (those were his exact words).
So yeah... the reason Misty, May, Dawn, Iris, and Serena were included on the show, was so that the kids at home can ogle their 10 year old bodies. Sorry for ruining Pokémon for you.
8 Misty's Signature Pokémon
The one thing that most Pokémon fans can tell you about Misty is that she is a Water-type Pokémon trainer. With that in mind, what is her signature Pokémon? Ash has Pikachu and Brock has Onix, so what about Misty?
When it comes to the anime, most people associate Misty with Psyduck. While she used her Starmie, Staryu, and Goldeen a lot in battle, Misty's Psyduck was more memorable than the others. Psyduck always seemed surprised about being called into battle... because he never was, he just showed up announced. Despite being dim-witted, Psyduck was one of the most powerful Pokémon on Misty's team (when he wanted to be).
In the Pokémon video games, Misty's signature Pokémon is Starmie. A powerful Starmie has been on Misty's team in every one of her video game appearances. Depending on your choice of starter Pokémon, Misty's Starmie might be one of the first big hurdles you will have to overcome in Pokémon Red & Blue. Starmie is one of the most viable Pokémon in the first generation of games, due to having partial Psychic-typing, and having access to great moves like Recover, Double Team, and Psychic. When playing the older games, it might be worth making Starmie your own signature Pokémon.
7 Misty's Voice
In the 4Kids dub of the Pokémon anime, both Misty and Jessie were voiced by Rachel Lillis. She held these roles from the first episode in 1998, until "Pasta La Vista" in 2006. This was due to the original voice cast of the show losing their jobs.
In 2006, the licence for dubbing the Pokémon anime was coming up for renewal. The show was waning in popularity, so Pokémon USA began looking for a different production company, who could dub and edit the show for less money. 4Kids Entertainment had held the rights since the show was first brought to America, and the voice cast appealed to the fans for help. In the end, the rights went to TAJ Productions, and the original cast were replaced with cheaper sound-a-likes.
Rachel Lillis was the first of the original recurring voice cast to return to the show, but not as Misty or Jessie. She voiced Maylene, the leader of the Veilstone City Gym in Sinnoh. She would later voice several minor characters, and some of the one-off Pokémon that appeared in the show. Her final appearance to date was in a special episode of the anime that was meant to promote the 2008 release of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time & Darkness. Rachel Lillis voiced Shinx and Sunflora in this episode.
6 Squirtle Almost Murdered Misty
Squirtle was the Water-type starter Pokémon for players in the Kanto region. Choosing Squirtle was a loose analogue to picking the "medium" difficulty in a regular video game. Bulbasaur will steamroll the first two Gyms, but his final evolution is not that strong (at least in the older games). Charmander will have a hard time with the first two Gyms, but his final evolution is very powerful. Squirtle is considered to be somewhere in the middle in terms of viability. The whole "Starter=difficulty" thing was dropped in later games, and players can now choose any starter they like, without having to worry about the long term ramifications.
Like all of the other Kanto starters, Squirtle found his way onto Ash's team. In the episode "Here Comes the Squirtle Squad", a group of sunglasses wearing Squirtle are manipulated by Meowth into believing that Ash & his friends are the bad guys. Ash is forced to battle one of the Squirtle squad. During the fight, a wild Goldeen injuries Pikachu. With Pikachu incapacitated, the Squirtle Squad kidnap Ash and his friends. Ash convinces the Squirtles to let him go and get medicine for Pikachu. Meowth translates the Squirtles threat to Ash - that if he doesn't come back by noon tomorrow, then the Squirtle Squad will dye Misty's hair purple.
That is what they said in the English dub. In the original Japanese version of the episode, the Squirtle Squad said they would murder Misty if Ash did not return. It seems that the Squirtle Squad are way more hardcore than anyone realised. They were willing to become killers based on Meowth's word alone.
5 Misty Loves Gen 2
In Japan, the Pokémon franchise started with the video games. It was due to the success of Pokémon Red & Blue that the other adaptations were created. The original series of the anime was being created while the 2nd generation of games were still in their earliest stages of development. This is why several Pokémon that would not show up in the games until Pokémon Gold & Silver appeared first in the anime. Ho-Oh guest starred in the first episode of the show, and Marill would appear as one of Tracey's Pokémon during the Orange Islands season.
The first ever 2nd generation Pokémon to be owned by a trainer in any form of Pokémon media was Misty's Togepi. During the episode "Attack of the Prehistoric Pokémon", a mysterious Pokémon Egg was found. A tournament is held between Ash, Misty, Brock, and Meowth, over the ownership of the egg. Misty is the victor, and Togepi becomes her Pokémon.
So what happened to Misty's Togepi? In the episode "A Togepi Miracle!", Misty underwent the same trauma that Ash (and the audience) went through in the episode where Butterfree leaves. Togepi evolves into Togetic, and is left behind by Misty so that it can protect other Togepi from harm.
4 The Punch Edits
The entire Pokémon franchise underwent numerous censorship in order to see a release in America. The Pokémon video games have had the Game Corner's removed due to European regulations concerning gambling. Clothes have been lengthened to make them less revealing. Cigarettes and guns have been taken out completely. Nazi symbolism was changed. Items from Japanese culture have been shoddily edited to make them more American. Both 4Kids and Game Freak had their work cut out for them when they brought the Pokémon franchise to the West.
Some of the earliest episodes of the Pokémon anime had scenes censored that concerned Ash and Misty. The two did not get off to a good start, as Ash was responsible for destroying Misty's bike. Misty also took offence to the fact that Ash did not seem to care for his Pikachu. In the original Japanese versions of these episodes, Misty showed her displeasure by giving Ash the back of her hand. Misty smacks Ash right in the face on several occasions. The actual scenes involving physical contact were cut out of the English dub of the episodes.
3 Misty The Gym Leader
After Ash, Misty, and Brock split up for the last time in the episode "Gotta Catch Ya Later!", Misty returned to the Cerulean City Gym. She has only made cameo appearances in episodes since then.
While Ash made his journey to Hoenn (followed quickly by Brock), Misty took control of the Cerulean City Gym from her valley girl sisters. In her last few appearances, she gave away her Togetic, and supported Ash when he battled in the Ever Grande Conference.
Misty's last physical appearance in the Pokemon anime was in the episode "Cerulean Blues". It is during this episode that Misty overcomes her fear of Gyarados, and obtains one for herself. In the original Japanese version of the episode, it is revealed that Misty is not the official Gym leader yet, but is allowed to continue to act as one for the time being. In the English dub, it is stated that she has become the official leader of the Cerulean City Gym. This puts her in line with the video game version of Misty, who remains a Gym Leader well into the Pokémon Gold & Silver era.
2 Misty And The Mistletoe
The cast of the English dub of the Pokémon anime have appeared on several soundtracks made up of songs from the show. In 2001, a CD made up of original songs was released in time for the holiday season. Pokémon Christmas Bash is composed of Christmas themed songs, sung by the cast of the Pokémon anime. If you want to indulge in some awful Pokémon/Christmas puns, then the whole CD can easily be found on the Internet.
One of the most infamous tracks on the Pokémon Christmas Bash CD is called "Under the Mistletoe". The song is set during a Christmas party. All of the main Pokémon cast are enjoying the festivities, while ignoring the theological issues of celebrating Christmas in a world that doesn't seem to include Christianity. During this song, both Ash and Misty are secretly hoping to run into each other under the mistletoe. When the two cross paths under the mistletoe, Ash freaks out and runs off. This can be forgiven, as he was still 10 years old at this point (well, he's actually still 10 years old now according to the anime).
"Under the Mistletoe" is one of the few pieces of Pokémon media that implies that Ash has a crush on Misty. While many non-canon sources confirm that Misty has feelings for him (like "Misty's Song"), this is a rare occasion where Ash's mindset is explored.
1 Misty Almost Ended Up With Ash
When you consider that the Pokémon franchise has been going for over twenty years now, it might come as a surprise to learn that the series was planned to end at one point.
Pokémon Gold & Silver were originally planned to be the final games in the series. The reason that those games had so much content, and were delayed so many times, was due to the developers wanting to end the series on a high note. The amount of cash that was being generated from the franchise ended up changing a few minds at Game Freak, and the series continues on to this day.
It seems that the Pokémon anime may have also been planned to end with the first movie. A very early teaser trailer that was shown in Japan has leaked online in recent years. This trailer contains footage showing an older Misty, hanging around with a young girl. At the end of the trailer, a Pikachu is shown being given to the girl. None of this footage was ever shown again.
So what does this trailer snippet mean? Many fans take this as proof that Ash and Misty ended up together, and that Ash bequeathed his Pikachu onto his daughter. This would most likely have meant the end of the Pokémon anime as we know it today. It is entirely possible that the series could have continued with new characters, or Ash could have carried on... with the audience knowing that he was destined to be with Misty in the end. | English | NL | 85c6aa25d36b197372447b9eb0ab72c99ea0bf55e6bbf43cf89ce40bd2bcbe6b |
Billy Joe Royal
(Read all about Billy Joe Royal after the videos)
Billy Joe Royal (April 3, 1942 – October 6, 2015) was an American pop and country singer. His most successful record was "Down in the Boondocks" in 1965.
Life and career
Born in Valdosta, Georgia to Clarence Royal and Mary Sue Smith, and raised in Marietta, Georgia, Royal performed at the Georgia Jubilee in Atlanta during his teens. He formed his own rock and roll band, and became a local star at the Bamboo Ranch in Savannah in the late 1950s and early 1960s, where his singing style was influenced by African-American performers including Sam Cooke.
He was a friend of performer and songwriter Joe South, and recorded what was intended as a demo of South's song "Down in the Boondocks". The recording was heard at Columbia Records, who offered Royal a singing contract in 1965 and released his version of the song, produced by South. "Down in the Boondocks" remained his best-known song, reaching number 9 on the Billboard Hot 100, and number 38 in the UK.
He followed up his initial success with the singles "I Knew You When" (Top 20, 1965) and "Hush" (1967), also written and produced by Joe South. Another South composition, "Yo-Yo," just missed the top 40 in Canada and charted poorly in the U.S. when Royal released it in 1967, but a later remake by The Osmonds was a much greater success. His 1969 single, "Cherry Hill Park", peaked at No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100. In the 1970s his recording of "Heart's Desire" gained popularity among Northern soul enthusiasts and was regularly played in Northern soul nightclubs.
By the late 1970s, Royal had become a regular performer in Las Vegas, and also appeared as an actor in movies and on television. His last hit on the US pop charts was in 1978, when his version of "Under the Boardwalk" became a minor hit. However, he reinvented himself in the 1980s as a mainstream country star, and had his first hit on the country music chart in 1984 with "Burned Like a Rocket", released on the Atlantic label. His other country hits included "I'll Pin a Note on Your Pillow" (1987), "Tell It Like It Is", and "Till I Can't Take It Anymore" (both 1989). His successes on the country charts continued until the early 1990s.
Royal experienced a second comeback during the 2000s due to regular airplay on "oldies" radio stations. His music was further exposed to younger generations through a movement known as The Beat Army, an online music forum based on Facebook which is operated by author and music producer Paul Collins. Royal continued to tour regularly, performing concerts at casinos, music festivals and clubs in Canada, the United States, Japan and throughout Europe. His set lists included a mixture of songs representing multiple genres from the 1960s onwards. He also played Robert Ally in the indie Western film Billy the Kid (2013), co-starring country singer Cody McCarver. | English | NL | 0eceea5d64557ea66d0af5037703dc6cca63f9f2d90dc68f079563b6e24ab3a8 |
Sir Terry Frost RA
Sir Terry Frost, RA (1915-2003)
Terry Frost was born in Leamington Spa in 1915 and grew up in a working class family in the 1920s. Serving in the commandos in the War,
he was captured and spent four years as a POW at Stalag.
Repatriated and demobbed, he could not settle and, on the advice of his friend Adrian Heath, set off for St. Ives and a serious attempt at art.
In the late 1940s he went to Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts, using his ex Servicemen's grant, and divided his time between the thriving art scenes of London and St. Ives and rapidly gained the respect and admiration of both.
In 1951 he worked as assistant to Barbara Hepworth and found himself in the thick of the St. Ives spirit.
His first one-man exhibition in London was at the Leicester Galleries in 1952. By that time he was committed to abstraction.
His passionate use of straight lines and circles and the manner in which he achieved a great sense of harmony in his works define him stylistically.
His work is notable for his use of primary colours and of shapes reflecting Cornish marine life.
He exhibited widely internationally and in England, notably at the Redfern Galllery, New Art Centre and Austin Desmond.
From the early 1960s his position as a leading abstract painter was consolidated and his reputation as a tough but essentially sympathetic and inspiring teacher began to grow. He later became Professor Painting at Reading University. He was elected RA in 1992.
He was knighted in 1996, The Tate Gallery holds his work.
He died in 2003. | English | NL | e3331930aa9c06695bc912f5ac000ec07bd021e4340837b362bb8c5516d01793 |
Day 37: Port Macquarie, New South Wales, Australia
May 26 is a special day in the Benson Drury calendar, as it is our wedding anniversary. For this reason, I dedicate today’s post to the beautiful seaside town of Port Macquarie, the place where we were married.
Port Macquarie is famous for its beautiful beaches, rainforests, great fishing and whale watching expeditions.
The town also has a history as one of the first convict settlements in Australia. Nowadays British tourists are stunned that people were sent here for ‘punishment’. In many ways, it has become a bit of a joke between the two nations, though there is a very serious side to the history of penal colonies in Australia. Convicts were the builders for the colonists and in Port Macquarie you will find many historic buildings were built by prisoners, including the church where we were wedded.
St Thomas’ is one of the oldest churches in Australia, in fact St Thomas’ is the oldest church outside of any of Australia’s capital cities. The St Thomas’ website says:
St Thomas’ Church was built by convict labour when Australia was still part of the Diocese of Calcutta and Port Macquarie was a penal settlement. The foundation stone was laid in 1824 and the first services held in 1828, when the worshippers were the Chaplain, Camp Commandant, a detachment of British Infantry and the well guarded convicts who stood at the west end of the nave.
Port Macquarie is not just a place for colonial history, it is also a place of modern creativity, with the Glasshouse Port Macquarie functioning as a cutting-edge venue for cultural and arts events year-round.
Port Macquarie is a town we love to visit when we travel up the coast of New South Wales. It is not only beautiful, it is also a place that holds a lot of significance for us. | English | NL | 461828020fbf5302913e379a3cd1976401cd7eb00b5db32e4ce94fa580f4ac80 |
|« Alan Ball|
William Dean was known to dislike his nickname, "Dixie". He preferred to be known as William or Bill.
It was given to him by his Everton
team-mates on account of his very curly, wiry hair, like that of the black
slaves of the American South.
Nickname or no nickname, Dean has one of the best claims around to be the greatest Evertonian of them all. True, there are others such as Ted Sagar, Brian Labone, Neville Southall and for different reasons Howard Kendall who all have very good claims too, and in truth it just isn't possible to say who is the greatest. But the club has never had a greater goalscorer. Tommy Lawton may have been a finer player, and Gary Lineker as prolific a marksman, but neither played anything like as many games for Everton and, equally importantly, neither ever scored 60 goals in a single First Division season.
That remarkable record is unlikely ever to be broken. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Everton were Champions that season, but it is not for the fact that they finished top of Division One in 1927-28 that anybody remembers that campaign. In fact, going into the final match at home to Arsenal, Dean needed a hat-trick to take the League record away from Middlesbrough's George Camsell, who had scored 59 times in Division Two only a season previously. Needless to say, he got it, to the delight of the Goodison crowd.
Dean's overall record for Everton is phenomenal, that 60-goal season the peak of a 13-year spell at the club following his signing from Tranmere Rovers in March 1925, which saw him score 349 goals in 399 League games. He won the League Title in that record-breaking 1927-28 season, yet remarkably was in the side relegated to the Second Division two years later — still scoring 23 times in 25 games. In 1930-31, Everton were promoted straight back to Division One on the strength of Dean's 37 goals, and Dean scored in 12 successive league matches — another unbeaten record!
The following season, Everton became one of the few clubs to have won the Second and First Division titles in successive seasons. Dean was again rampant, notching 45 goals in his last truly prolific season. Even afterwards he still scored at a very respectable rate. In 1932-33 he scored five goals in six games as Everton won the FA Cup, one of which was in the Final as Manchester City were beaten 3-0 — when Dean became the first player ever to wear Number 9 on his shirt. By the time he left in 1938, joining Notts County, he was the club's leading goalscorer with a total of 377; scorer of the most hat-tricks for Everton (37); and the highest scorer in Mersey Derby matches with 19.
If William Dean was ever asked where he would like to be when he died, likely as not he would have said "Goodison Park"; and so it was that in 1980, at a Derby match, he passed away. His records went with him to his grave. Two of the three are still there with him; Ian Rush scored more goals in Mersey Derbies, but some of them were in matches other than League and FA Cup meetings. No Everton player has come close to beating his tally for the club, and they probably never will. Barring a major change in the rules, it is unlikely that any player will ever score more than 60 goals in a League season.
|DEAN, WILLIAM RALPH|
|Lge apps 399, total 431|
|Lge goals 349, total 383.|
|16 caps (England).|
This page © Richard Pike & Marko Poutiainen 1999. | English | NL | 678a3db11d6f9d2e615a93d1e3c8f357b76159b125b99c2e8a6a68c891a2a88a |
§ "That a Supplementary sum, not exceeding £100, be granted to His Majesty, to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1903, for Expenditure in excess of that provided for in the original Army Estimates for the year for the Pay, etc., of the Army."
§ * SIR CHARLES DILKE (Gloucestershire, Forest of Dean)
said that he understood the Government to say yesterday that the expenditure in the present financial year in connection with the Somaliland Expedition would he about £250,000. There was often a great difference between the amount coming into course of payment in the financial year and the amount known to the Government to have been actually expended. He therefore desired to ask whether the Government had formed any idea of the amount of expenditure on Somaliland incurred in the present financial year, but which would not conic into course of payment until next year. From information he had received, he imagined the Government must know that the expenditure already greatly exceeded the £250,000 referred to yesterday.
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR WAR (Mr. BRODRICK,) Surrey, Guildford
said that when they were dealing with the Indian Government in the matter of supplying troops and incurred expenditure, it was rather difficult, as the right hon. Baronet had suggested, to frame an accurate estimate, but the general estimate for the expedition, on the basis that it would last not longer than four months, was between £500,000 and £600,000. About £250,000 would become payable before 31st March, but some expenditure had no doubt been incurred which would appear in the Estimates to be circulated to-morrow.
§ MR. CHARLES HOBHOUSE (Bristol, E.)
understood that £75,000 had already been paid in connection with the expedition, and that a further £185.000 would be expended before 31st March, and that in the estimates of money to be expended after 31st March would appear a further sum of about £500,000.
§ MR. CHARLES HOBHOUSE
said that that would not make up the original estimate of £500,000 or £600,000.
§ MR. BRODRICK
pointed out that the first estimate was £250,000, and there was a previous sum of £250,000 taken by the Foreign Office which did not come into this account, but would appear in the Estimates to be presented to-morrow. Those two items made up the £500,000.
§ MR. COURTENAY WARNER (Staffordshire, Lichfield)
supposed that if the operation lasted longer than four months the amount required would largely exceed the estimated £500,000 or £600,000.
§ MR. BRODRICK
If the expedition lasts for a longer period a further sum will be required, but we have no reason to expect that it will last considerably longer.
§ MR. WEIR (Ross and Cromarty)
, referred to the apppropriations in aid, consisting of proceeds of sale of cast and other animals, supplies and stores, and asked whether the sales had been by public auction or by private treaty. | English | NL | aff5c2062942f4ec64c73c263cd463e1f09a429aa8a9dd0a0aa83bdb5e136526 |
Recently, the Elementary students have been learning about various languages and the history of language. On Wednesday, Preston’s mom ,Yin Cheung, returned to the class and shared with the students about Chinese writing, including its history. The students then had an opportunity to try their hand at various Chinese characters. They used calligraphy pens and markers to write with.
The students have also learned about Braille, including the story of Louis Braille and his incredible invention, which did not become widespread until after his death. An example of the Braille alphabet was shared to everyone, and some of the students worked on charts with various words, including their names, in Braille.
The Upper Elementary students have learned about the history of the English language, including ancient Runes. One pair of students wrote a list of animals in the Amazon River Basin completely in Runes. What a fun exploration of an ancient language! | English | NL | 6a5effb8b2f68ea4422da016b9def14dd649a0aaa8f6f670b9ffce4ff9050fe4 |
June was generally an unsettled month and, while there were warmer and drier periods, much of the month was notably cool and, for large parts of the country, very wet, with persistent and heavy rainfall more characteristic of the winter half-year. The most exceptional rainfall occurred over low-lying areas of central and eastern England, leading to some notably high peak river flows and localised (but severe and damaging, particularly in Lincolnshire) flooding. However, June rainfall totals and river flows were not as outstanding as in other recent very wet summers (e.g. 2007 and 2012). The wet June contrasts markedly with previous months and the rainfall has reduced soil moisture deficits (SMDs) across England, bringing short-term relief from agricultural and environmental stress. The long-term impact of the persistent dryness is still evident in southern and eastern England. Groundwater levels continued to decline in the Chalk and were notably low across East Anglia and, while June river flows were typically normal or above, recessions recommenced in late June into early July. Reservoir stocks were moderately above average at the national scale, with only two impoundments (in the south west) having stocks around 10% below average at month-end. Overall, the water resources situation has improved and the recent rainfall has diminished the likelihood of water resources pressures in summer 2019. However, July began very dry and current outlooks for the next three months suggest a continuation of below normal flows and groundwater levels in parts of eastern England, so agricultural and environmental impacts remain a risk through to the autumn. | English | NL | e05ddc7ad4b7573966075b20c05ff6e5c05c657f8f812238e3ba625847b7577b |
Hatton Castle, once a magnificent mansion known as Hatto (or Haltoun) House in Ratho, west of Edinburgh, caught fire in 1952 and was demolished in 1955.
The nucleus was an impressive 55ft-high L-plan tower house whose walls were over 10ft-thick. It can be dated to the early 15th century as in 1453 it underwent a notable siege.
Its owners, the Lauders of Hatton, unwisely chose the wrong side in the dispute between the Earl of Douglas and King James II. This was to be a war that lasted to the bitter end and William de Lauder of Hatton was to lose both his castle and his life as a consequence.
The King took the field in person and appeared before Hatton Castle in Lothian with a fine train of artillery. Fortunately for the historian, the costs of the siege were noted in the Exchequer Rolls allowing us to follow the action. Preparations were carefully made:
A grey horse for the King; the transport of the great bombard (heavy battering cannon); stone cannon balls; javelins and arrows; setting up an armourers booth and the making of bows; the hire of men and horses; salatis (a type of helmet - pictured); pitch; bitumen; beams and a sow.
James is justly famed for his love of artillery so the employment of a sow might strike us as a little odd. A sow was a penthouse on wheels, heavily timbered with a pitched roof covered with wet hides. It would be pushed against the walls of the castle whereupon the men inside - no doubt wearing their salatis - would hew and batter at the castle wall to bring it down. James was obviously not relying too closely on his bombards!
The castle fell from the twin effects of cannon and mining but the war was not at an end and its course will be covered in future articles.
Rising from the flames
Hatton had been so heavily damaged that it was not until the following century it was repaired and only then after James V had granted his royal permission.
In 1653, Charles Maitland completely remodelled the mansion giving it, broadly, the form it had when fire took hold on the evening of 25th February 1952. The Evening Dispatch recorded: "One portion after another of the house, which contained four floors, was involved in the blaze, until there was no part of the building which was free from the flames."
CLAN CONNECTION - Clan Douglas
Article by Scottish Castles Association member Brian McGarrigle. | English | NL | 8deae81340c3034b014e1a26dc95d7365291b7630b08ed078f035960c8786926 |
This is a Task Management app developed for the iPad, using Xamarin. We used Xamarin-Forms which was very newly launched at this time. It was a challenge to use Xamarin-Forms at that time, as it was just released, and there was a lot that was still unsupported. For example the swipe gesture to open up options like Delete, which was very basic to any iOS app, was something that was not supported at that time. This app was all about list views and details. The list views demanded several actions as options in each row. The Task details was a flow of a few views as steps to creation or completion. The timeline was automatically added to the user’s Calendar and the user schedule was also shown to aid the task timeline setup. The Gamification part added interest to the app as it created a challenge for the user to gain points if tasks were completed in a predefined manner and within the preset timeline.
The Task Management App was developed in Xamarin-Forms exclusively for the IPad user. It involves defining Categories and Goals and creation of categorized Tasks with preset Goals. Each Task can further be given a priority scheme, a timeline and sensitivity pointers. Task status can be changed by the user to indicate completion status. Gamification aims to create a challenge for the user in order to increase the success rate. Daily scores and Highest scores are displayed, and updated as the user completes stages of a task’s timeline. Developed with Xamarin-Forms when it was just released, brought forth several challenges to the development team. These were either in the form of limitations in the newly released Forms module, or as a result of the learning curve of the developers getting on board the Forms module. | English | NL | 9c4de924aa5725a3db41acc7ee52d73f9c30c62ff65b9977dfbb1b6434dbd89f |
One of the fun things about Peter and the Starcatcher is the interaction between the ensemble on the stage and the audience in their seats. So last night, the first time that we had a big crowd in the theatre to watch the first preview, was an important moment for all the artists involved. The actors start to hear and feel the responses to their lines and actions and that can effect their timing, especially in a play like Peter and the Starcatcher, which is ripe with funny moments. Designers can use audience responses to help them put finishing touches on lighting, sound, and more. Even though folks watching the first preview were not seeing a “finished” play they were thoroughly entertained and left with comments like “…it was wonderful and such a hoot!”
As we near opening night, the role of the director is nearly over. Here’s Art Rotch to tell us a bit about all the magic that Teresa K. Pond has brought us.
Teresa K Pond is a director who grew up making theatre in Anchorage, where her father, Robert Pond, ran Anchorage Community Theatre for many many years. I’d heard of her work when she ran ACT herself later, then follower her story as she earned her MFA, ran Millbrook Playhouse in Pennsylvania, then spent time in New York City where she made a successful stage version of Pinkalicious, based on the children’s book. When Teresa moved back to Alaska recently, I made a note to meet her and see her directing work at the first opportunity. Flowers for Algernon is a distinctive piece of theatre that Teresa directed in Anchorage that I was able to see, and we went out for coffee to chat about the play, directing, and the kind of theatre we each like to make in Alaska. I remember spending a long time at Side Street Espresso and came away wanting to find the right project to introduce Teresa to Perseverance Theatre.
About a year later, Peter and the Starcatcher made our short list, which is usually a time in our programming process when we start asking if there’s a director in our group that will have an affinity for the play and understand what it would be to make it into a production for Alaskan audiences. Teresa fit the bill in several ways: her experience making theatre for young audiences would help with the young characters at the center of this play, her skills with musicals and movement would be valuable, and her deep passion for British humor and adventure were plusses. She certainly understood how the story would present in Alaska, and appreciated as much as we did how the new book writes out some of the dated challenges of the original, such as the portrayal of indigenous characters, and how the character of Molly gives us the kind of self-assured and empowered heroine we seek for our times. | English | NL | 10e414615f058d8689d6b0c2948bee0d2fa75bb88d4bd8d68f3a2db6fa3d93f8 |
In February of 1949, any woman in Tacoma who felt threatened could protect herself by setting off her hand-held personal alarm. Mrs. Donna Younger and Henry Sandahl, both employees of Fraser's, 912 Broadway, demonstrated the new alarm that would scare the daylights out of law-abiding citizens let alone one who was on the prowl. The alarm, which was sold at Fraser's, was small, made of plastic, and when turned on it would set up a siren-like howl that could not be shut off. A woman could carry the alarm in her purse and set it off when danger came near. A special key was used to rewind the alarm. | English | NL | dc4b161774722c502f84a3e1af6e491c61b00f51a99eb7f8fce65c63950801ad |
In our study of Isaiah chapter fifteen, we look at God's judgment on the Moabites and are reminded that almost doesn't count when we are talking about a right relationship with God.
"An oracle concerning Moab: Ar in Moab is ruined, destroyed in a night! Kir in Moab is ruined, destroyed in a night!" NIV translation
As we have seen in the last couple of chapters, God is dealing with Israel's neighbors and, here, He turns to the Moabites. Lot, the nephew of Abraham, had a son with his oldest daughter after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (see Genesis 19). This son's name was Moab and the land of Moab is what we call Jordan today. Ar and Kir were the two strongholds of the land and we see, here, a prophecy that they will be destroyed in a single night.
In our world today, we do not even wonder about the fact that a city can be destroyed in a night. But, at the time of Isaiah, they did not have the weapons of mass destruction that we have and so the only way that this would be possible is by the very power of God.
"Dibon goes up to its temple, to its high places to weep; Moab wails over Nebo and Medeba. Every head is shaved and every beard cut off. In the streets they wear sackcloth; on the roofs and in the public squares they all wail, prostrate with weeping. Heshbon and Elealeh cry out, their voices are heard all the way to Jahaz. Therefore the armed men of Moab cry out, and their hearts are faint." NIV translation
We see the widespread destruction of the cities and the fact that the people cry out to their idols. We see that they shave their heads and beards as well as wearing sackcloth which were things that the Israelites did as signs of repentance. We see that the Moabites were going through the motions but did not worship God.
They had inherited this from Lot as he had been close to faith in God as he traveled with Abram but had missed out when he made the choice to settle among the people of Sodom. Much the same type of thing is happening today as many will go and sit in a pew and go through the motions but they do not have a true faith in God. This is what many call the "almost persuaded" as they are so close to the kingdom of God but fall short of putting their trust in Jesus Christ. They, like the Moabites, are destined to be judged and this will be rapid just as is foretold here. | English | NL | b943b981807c31e24d7c9a31c2155553819d360d332a13c0e735c4c1c51f5208 |
Hercule Poirot never risked his little grey cells – nor his impeccably waxed moustache – by attempting to hang ten. Nor did Jane Marple ever strap a board to the roof of a Kombi and thunder out of St Mary Mead in search of the perfect tube.
Their enigmatic creator, though, was something of a pioneering and diehard wave-rider. At a time when many of her contemporaries were chugging cocktails in Blighty, Agatha Christie was paddling out from beaches in Cape Town and Honolulu to earn her surfing stripes.
Research by Pete Robinson, founder of the Devon-based Museum of British Surfing, suggests Christie and her first husband, Archie, may been among the first Britons to learn how to surf standing up.
The thriller writer's surfing safari began after the first world war when Archie was offered the job of helping to organise a world tour to promote the British Empire Exhibition, which was to be held in London in 1924.
In January 1922, the couple left their young daughter in the care of Agatha's mother and sister. They arrived in South Africa in early February and were soon introduced to prone surfboard riding on Muizenberg beach.
Christie noted her observations of the sport – and reactions to the odd wipeout – at the time, writing: "The surf boards in South Africa were made of light, thin wood, easy to carry, and one soon got the knack of coming in on the waves.
"It was occasionally painful as you took a nosedive down into the sand, but on the whole it was an easy sport and great fun."
They continued their tour through Australia and New Zealand before hitting Honolulu in August. It was at Waikiki, pictured, that the Christies learned how to surf standing up – and how to deal with sunburn and sharp coral.
To protect their feet, they bought soft leather boots and Agatha swapped her silky bathing outfit for something a little more practical but equally stylish: "A wonderful, skimpy emerald green wool bathing dress, which was the joy of my life, and in which I thought I looked remarkably well!"
Agatha, who stayed in Hawaii until October that year, wrote in her autobiography: "I learned to become expert – or at any rate expert from the European point of view – the moment of complete triumph on the day that I kept my balance and came right into shore standing upright on my board!"
According to Robinson the entries reveal a new aspect of Christie's life as someone with a "passion for the sea" and "a sporting young woman".
She was, however, neither the first — not the least likely — high-profile British exponent of the sport.
"In the early 1920s very few British people were surfing and the only one we know about earlier than her, standing up, was Prince Edward," he added. | English | NL | c73b76c0d28320f241e100682888c359d8631b807621fa4637bb4932e4c04c1d |
The Titanic cost the equivalent of about $193 million in today’s money to build and was completed in April 1912. Some 3,000 men had worked on the project, using around three million rivets in the gigantic ocean liner’s construction. Eight shipyard workers had met their ends during the building of the vessel, too.
Then on April 10, 1912, the Titanic – by now berthed at the English port of Southampton – embarked upon its maiden voyage. The ship’s first brief port of call was Cherbourg in France, and this was followed by a second short stop, at the Irish port of Queenstown – today known as Cobh.
After that final docking in Ireland, the ship had an approximate total of 2,224 crew and passengers on board. The Titanic then headed off into the open Atlantic Ocean on a course for its final destination: New York City. But as we know, it would never arrive there. | English | NL | 06e6801916141f49ba502044dbf22f57ddc8e8bf5919075cb09646b338a11d3c |
Teacher perceptions of the process of desegregation in selected Pietermaritzburg schools.
This research project attempts to identify teacher perceptions of school desegregation at three schools in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. A targetted selection of schools was made to ensure that three of the former apartheid era Education Departments were represented. Data were gathered from interviews with teachers and by means of questionnaires that were completed by pupils. The study attempts to replicate a study that was carried out by Verma et al (1994) in secondary schools in Britain. The Pietermaritzburg study sought to examine the experiences and attitudes of teachers in three racially desegregated schools to deepen our understanding of the complex processes of inter-racial and inter- cultural exchange within the three schools. The Pietermaritzburg (as did the Verma et ai, 1994) study focussed on the following areas: • How well did the teachers know themselves, their students and colleagues? • What, if any, relevant policy frameworks did they operate with, and how widely were these internally known and acknowledged? • To what extent were teachers equipped by knowledge, experience, training and disposition to contribute to good inter-ethnic relationships? • What were the teachers' perceptions of the state of pupil inter ethnic relationships? • To what extent did school/community links affect the pupil inter-ethnic relationships? • see page 38. The teacher interviews were used to create a profile for each school and selected data from the pupil questionnaires were used to compare the opinions of the pupils to that of the teachers. The profiles of the three schools were compared to determine similarities and differences in terms of the research questions. The major findings of the study were that: • The teachers did not know their pupils' ethnic backgrounds. • None of the schools operated with any policy frameworks with specific reference to either the promotion of inter-ethnic relationships, or the handling of racial incidents or racism in general. None of the schools were equipped by knowledge, experience, training or disposition to contribute to good pupil inter-ethnic relations. Assimilation was the primary approach adopted in response to desegregation. Very few links existed between the schools and the communities that they served. The state of pupil inter-ethnic relationships was perceived by the teachers as being poor. The comparison of the findings of the Pietermaritzburg and Verma et al (1994) studies revealed that: • The circumstances under which school desegregation took place in the United Kingdom and South Africa were different; teachers in both the studies were ill-prepared to teach in multi-ethnic schools; insufficient INSET was identified as a problem in both studies; significantly better school-community links were identified in, the Verma study as compared to the Pietermaritzburg study and; • teachers in the Verma study were better informed about macro and micro education policies as compared to the teachers in the Pietermaritzburg study. This study recommends that mechanisms need to be established to ensure that the role players involved in education work together as it is impossible to implement any form of educational reform without the participation of all the role players. The study also recommends that research needs to begin focussing on actual classroom practice to determine how racism is addressed in lessons and how it is tackled as a problem among children. | English | NL | e68ab500cdb3263088612955d7b567160fda32519ffa98cb94274a9db305ef37 |
The second half of the 12th century saw a boom in building activity in the Ile de France region, the beginning of what was later to become known as Gothic art. In Saint-Denis, Sens, Paris, Laon and Noyon, great building projects were undertaken to enlarge and embellish old cathedrals, bringing them into line with the new architectural style. Chartres could not stand apart from this flurry of activity, and the renovation of the main portal was begun shortly before the middle of the century.
Another fire which destroyed part of the cathedral on the 10th of June 1194 provided an opportunity for the cathedral to be completely rebuilt. The treasure of relics was saved. The west entrance and four Romanesque windows were incorporated into the new building.
The decision was taken to rebuild the cathedral. Bishop Reginald of Bar, who was first cousin to king Philip II of France, oversaw the project. His 72 canons managed the affairs of the bishopric. They had become very wealthy by dint of the taxes levied on the flourishing agricultural activity in the Beauce region and provided funds for the construction. Pope Innocent III supported the renovation work. He restructured the Church, initiated the resurgence of pastoral care, reformed priest training and reaffirmed the strength of the sacraments during the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars.
The city became rich and over the years of peace grew into a flourishing commercial hub and breadbasket. Its population swelled to 6,000. Politically, Chartres was not yet part of the royal estate, not joining it until 1286 under Philip the Fair. The Count of Chartres, at the head of a powerful domain whose lands extended far and wide, saw himself as the rival of the fast-expanding Capetian power base. He was firmly in favour of having a large, beautiful cathedral that rivalled the bold constructions being built in Capetian territory.
As in all cities at this time, a new society of middle-class citizens and working artisans developed, becoming part of the profound economic, cultural, social and religious change that took place in around the 1200s. They too were keen to invest their new wealth in a work that returned this prosperity to God.
As a result, all of the city’s economic vigour went into rebuilding the cathedral, and construction progressed apace. The building started in 1194, worship there began in around 1220, and the finishing touches to the decoration were added in 1230 with the fitting of the huge transept doors, which had been carved beforehand. Few cities could boast such a rapid construction. Further minor additions and embellishments were made until 1260, and on 17th of October of that year the cathedral was formally consecrated in the presence of King Louis. | English | NL | 2b86b0b0f00270545686c612197cb0fd1a1f7e31718bcd0855ea602382c97e5f |
Built in 1937 by Theodore Rodgers. Mr. Rodgers was a textile manufacturer from Philadelphia, PA who specialized in socks. His mill was nearby and later became Knight MFG. The architect who designed the house was Mr. Lindsey M. Gudger, on 52 Carter St. Asheville, NC. The home remained the Rodgers residence and was eventually purchased by their son Mr. Al Rodgers sometime in the late 1950’s or early 1960’s. Mr. Rodgers maintained his residence here until about 1970 when it was rented by several different businesses and then was left vacant
In January 1977 Dr. Gottfried started practicing in the medical building nearby at 1425 Patton Ave. He had been driving past the property for several years and thought it would make a great office space. Finally in 1980 he met with Mr. Rodgers and took a serious look at the property. The grass on the yard was about 3 feet tall, trees were grown up totally obscuring it from Patton Avenue. There were leaks in the roof, broken pipes and bad wiring etc. Dr. Gottfried is an optimist and began to plan how he could make the building into an office. While the office appears quite grand from Patton Avenue, in it’s original state most of it was only 16 feet deep and there were 2 large open porches, one facing Patton Avenue and the other on the South end of the house. It was when Dr. Gottfried considered closing in the porches that he began to see the possibilities and an agreement with Mr. Rodgers was reached. Dr. Gottfried moved his office into the old house in October of 1980. Later that year he started the renovation of the second floor and the attic to accommodate his family of four. The family joke is that they had “temporarily” moved into the upper part of the house in 1981, but somehow ended up staying there for almost 16 years! In 1990 they added the portion of the house that is now the reception area for the dental office. We have made numerous changes to the house as our practice has grown, but it still maintains it’s unique character.
All this rich history makes this dental office unique beyond just its architecture. | English | NL | 229bcc968ae715537b279477802add740dd3a9bff231757cddedb480572175a5 |
Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1723 - 1792
About the artist
Sir Joshua Reynolds is one of the best-known names in British art. He was one of the great portraitists of Europe in the second half of the 18th century. His works and his fame spread across the continent through prints of his paintings. He was also the first President of the Royal Academy, founded in 1768. This institution, under the patronage of King George III, played a key role in the professionalisation of art in Britain. It gave artists greater social and intellectual status and created a 'national school'. Reynolds, although he actually distrusted the politics of Royal patronage, was almost universally perceived by his contemporaries as the figurehead of the Academy. His fame as an artist was indivisible from his fame as 'the President'.
Reynolds, born in 1723, came from Devon. His father was a clergyman and master of the local grammar school, so he was brought up in an atmosphere of learning. His love of books and philosophical debate remained one of his strongest characteristics throughout his life, and he was friendlier with literary men, such as Doctor Johnson, James Boswell and Oliver Goldsmith, than he was with his fellow-artists.
His strongest impulse as an artist lay in proving that painting was one of the liberal arts, whose greatness came from the thought that went into it, rather than a craft or skill. Technically, Reynolds was a flawed artist, as many of his contemporaries came to realise. He was never a great draughtsman. He disguised his limitations as a painter under a liking for experimentation with colours and glazes. He justified this to himself as a way of recreating the styles of the Old Masters. This was a key part of Reynolds's intellectual stance.
Regarding the taste of the British public for art as limited, he believed that by imitating the Old Masters he would help educate patrons. But realistically, he also recognised that their taste could not be 'improved' overnight. He continued to work largely in the field of portraits, which were what British patrons most wanted. For a long time he limited the way he imitated the artists of the past, only gradually expanding his repertoire. He was annoyed when younger rivals such as Gainsborough and Romney rocked the boat, even while he recognised their abilities.
After he was chosen as the first President of the Royal Academy, Reynolds felt under pressure to adopt a more orthodox approach to history painting, which academic theory regarded as the highest branch of art. Before 1768, he had contented himself with adopting a 'historical' style in a number of his most prestigious portraits, ones which were likely to be seen by a large number of people and might be engraved as prints. The Lady Lever's full-length 'Duchess of Hamilton and Argyll' (1758-60) is one of the most celebrated examples of this, with the figure's air of a classical sculpture and its subtle allusions to Venus. However, from around 1770, Reynolds began regularly to paint actual mythological subjects. In 'Venus Chiding Cupid' Venus appears as herself, the Goddess of Love, rather than as a famous beauty at the court of George III.
The following paintings by Sir Joshua Reynolds from our collections are available to view online: | English | NL | 76cf9e5b746b82b59f0169166127e560ea0e34bf0323b6d37eaebaf95a645075 |
Excerpt from Great Orators and the Lyceum, by James B. Pond. From The Cosmopolitan magazine, Vol. XXI, No. 3, July 1896. The byline of the magazine at that time was “From every man according to his ability: to every one according to his need.”
This is the same magazine that is known as Cosmo, and features monthy “10 Ways To Make Your Man a Slave” type articles.
I just thought it was interesting to see something on Ingersoll, so I scanned and OCRed it.
Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll is without oubt one of the greatest popular orators now living. Ingersoll will never receive the full credit due to his great success as an orator during the present generation, as his vehement assaults on the Christian religion have aroused so many and such powerful enmities. But without regarding his creed, judging him solely by his power as an orator, no nation can to-day produce his equal. There is poetry, wit, humor, sarcasm, and tenderest bathos in nearly every lecture he delivers, whether on religion or politics. Colonel Ingersoll is not invited by the lyceums to lecture in their regular courses, as his infidelity arouses the opposition of all orthodox committees. But his fame is such that he does not need aid in procuring audiences. Whenever he wants to lecture, he sends out an agent, “hires a hall,” nd lectures at his own risk, and almost always, when in large cities, to his own great pecuniary benefit. In the smaller towns the church influence is always too much for him, and it does not pay him to lecture there.
While coming from New England one day with Mr. Beecher, I found Colonel Ingersoll in the same car. After a pleasant salutation between the two, the Colonel went to his seat. In his mischievous way, Mr. Beecher said “I have written that man’s epitaph.” He showed me, written on the margin of a newspaper, with his pencil, “Robert Burns.” | English | NL | bb66654e65188b85ba4b7a378cd201d440003a81ad56ffe5202728880eb7e602 |
My first memories of my mother aren't ones about the woman who actually brought me into this world. No, they are ones about the woman who brought me into her heart. I was five years old when my first memory came. I was in a station wagon, seated beside my three year old sister after being taken from the orphanage by a strange woman. Driving along the black asphalt road, I remember her telling me to roll down the window in the back seat. After doing so, she told me to speak my name into my hand and then toss it out the window – never to remember it again. I'm not sure if I was just that susceptible to the power of suggestion, but I obeyed and it took twenty-two years before I discovered what my birth name had been. Anyway, from the moment the wind carried my name away, I became a new person.
I remember arriving at a house I'd never seen before. Three people stood in the front yard, a man and a woman as well as a ten-year-old boy. As the social worker turned off the car, she told me that this was my new family – my new mother, father and brother. I remember being shocked when I asked her how long I'd be staying there and she laughed and told me forever. I'd been moved around so many times, shuffled between homes and families that it didn't sink in what forever meant.
A whirlwind of memories grew as the first weeks of my new life passed. The church threw a shower for both my sister and I. I was stunned at all the presents given by people I didn't know. I still have the small white bible that had my new name engraved in gold on the front. There were many new dresses as we came to this family with nothing but the clothing on our backs.
One of the funniest and yet saddest things my mother shared was the day she walked into the living room and saw me carefully ripping out every page in one of the new coloring books I'd been given. She asked why and I told her that I had to share with all the kids in the orphanage. She told me that she explained that every page was mine and then she went into her bedroom and cried.
My new mother told me years later, that for the first several weeks, I repeatedly asked, "What is my name?" She'd tell me yet again until one day I stopped asking, finally becoming that little girl. My younger sister had a very difficult time bonding with this family and as I grew older, my heart really hurt for her. Though you'd think a younger child would find it easier to slip into a new life, she'd never had any sort of bonding from the very beginning of hers.
Years later, my husband proposed to me and I told him I'd accept under two conditions. One was that he'd never ask me to iron anything – I had grown up ironing stacks of handkerchiefs every Saturday morning. Do you remember those glass soda bottles that you could stick a metal thingy in to turn it into a sprinkle bottle? Well, I'd have to dampen those handkerchiefs every Friday night, put them in a plastic bag and into the refrigerator. Then, every week, I'd pull them out, stand on a little stool and iron each one. Needless to say, I hate ironing unless it is quilt fabric – lol. And, as a side note, whenever I include a 'handkerchief' in one of my books, I smile thinking of those piles and piles of my father's handkerchiefs.
The other condition to becoming his wife was that, no matter how many children we had together, we'd adopt at least one. I was so grateful to have been chosen to be part of a family, to learn that no matter what I did, I wasn't going to be sent away again that I just had to offer that same love and security to another child. My husband agreed and we adopted not one, but two children from different families.
At the age of twenty-seven, knowing that my oldest adopted child was going to be asking those hard questions soon, I decided to attempt to find out more about my missing years. My adoptive parents had told me that my birth parents had died. Well, I discovered that wasn't the truth. Here's a note, never lie to your children – it hurts a great deal when they discover that you have.
At this point in time, I had been a foster parent to several other children and had learned the system a bit. Without help, I'm sure I never would have gotten anywhere in my search as I had absolutely nothing to go on. All I knew was the city where I was adopted and my place of birth from my 'corrected' birth certificate. Adoption in the early sixties was a secret – not the open forum you see today.
After a great deal of struggling, a social worker stepped into my life and helped me. Imagine my surprise to discover I had two older sisters that I never even remembered. I also was given two names – one was mine, one was my youngest sister's. I remember being very upset when I drove to my parents' house and had to ask them which name was mine – to discover they had always known. It did explain why when I entered school, I remember hearing people calling me what I thought was "Nan". I would say, I'm not "Nan" and give them my new name. As it turned out, my name wasn't Nan, but something similar. And, yes, the people calling me Nan were my two eldest siblings though I had no clue as to who they were. Our family soon moved away from that small town so no further contact was possible with anyone from my previous life.
From there, I set up a meeting to finally reunite with my missing siblings. I was slightly terrified – what if they hated me? What if they didn't remember me as I hadn't remembered them? The moment they walked through the door, both in their thirties, it was as if all of us were little girls again. The years simply fell away. The meeting went from a neutral place to my house and our husband's just looked on in awe as they watched us catch up on twenty-two years of life apart. We talked through the night until we were all hoarse. It was an amazing evening. I believe that only those people who don't know their history, could understand the magic of having those missing details filled in by siblings that had been there.
The three of us decided to try to find our birth parents. Our youngest sister, the one I was raised with, left it up to us, not being able to say how she really felt about it. Armed with knowledge the older girls had as they remembered their birth names, we set out and eventually were successful.
This little story was supposed to be about my adoptive mother. What I really want to leave you with is this – if it hadn't been for that woman I probably would not be alive today. If it hadn't been for her to insist that her family was not complete with her only son, no telling where I would have wound up. Those first five years of my life were hell – every year after has been heaven. Sure, my mom and I fought. I acted out and she made sure I knew that wasn't acceptable. She wasn't one to hug and kiss or to give compliments freely, but when she did, you knew you were the luckiest kid on the planet.
My parents had another child, a little girl, seven years after adopting the two of us. The greatest thing she ever told me was that, as my mother became gravely ill, she was talking about me. She said that "Maggie would give anyone the shirt off her back." Well, that might be true but it is only because this wonderful woman gave me the love and security to know that I was going to be okay.
I lost my mother last year and even today, I pick up my phone thinking, "Oh, I've got to tell mom." My heart breaks a little each time I remember that I can't ever talk to her again. But, I do – I look up to the heavens where I know she is and we talk.
There is a saying "anyone can be a father – it takes a special person to be a dad." Well, to me, this is truer for my mother. This woman didn't give birth to me but she chose me, she took me, a strange, frightened little girl of five into her home and into her heart. Thank you, mom, I love you so very much.
Please comment below, say hi, share stories of your mother, your adoption, anything you enjoy sharing. Include your email and one person will be chose to recieve their choice of a book from Maggie's backlist.
Please remember to also enter via the rafflecopter to win one of the grand prizes donated by Blushing Books.a Rafflecopter giveaway | English | NL | fb8729ccb522cec3f62fc43f299714d4d75a72ad375ed49b9a3a64976da00bab |
The Clonmel Chronicle, 27 June 1896
Late June 1896, and Colonel the Hon. George Hugh Gough, C.B.’s time as Commanding Officer of the King’s 14th Hussars was coming to a close. The Clonmel Chronicle captured his final inspection of his troops at Cahir Cavalry barracks, an event marked with bittersweet celebrations by officers, men and the local schoolchildren. The festivities concluded with a peculiar 19th century custom whereby the horse drawing the Colonel’s carriage was “taken from its shafts”, to be replaced with a man, an act that symbolised dedication and loyalty, and, of course, submission to one’s social betters. This tradition was also one much-beloved of tenants on their landlord’s wedding days (or, at least, the newspapers of the day inform us that it was much-beloved, though the tenants themselves may have had other thoughts on the matter.) The Colonel was Irish born, having hailed from Gort, and he received his education at Eton and Cambridge. His career was a distinguished one, including time spent as private secretary to Field Marshal Garnet Joseph Wolseley, who was Commander in Chief of the Forces from 1895 to 1900. Gough’s service in the army continued in South Africa, where he died in 1900, in his forty eighth year. A colleague wrote of him – A truer-hearted and more upright and honourable gentleman, a better soldier, and more courteous and industrious official, never served on the staff at headquarters. He was buried in Bloemfontein. | English | NL | 59ffa2549901cac528b6f2ecff64dc8809b4408b32e6092ae7d9ac6c99e3819a |
Maria Kirch (1670-1720) was a highly regarded German astronomer, although her opportunities were limited because of her gender. She discovered a comet in 1702, becoming the first woman to make such a finding.
Kirch was born Maria Margarethe Winckelmann on February 25, 1670, in Panitsch, Germany. Her father, a Lutheran minister, educated her at home until his death. At that point, an uncle continued her education. From an early age, Maria showed an interest in astronomy. She studied with Christopher Arnold, the "astronomical peasant." This self-taught man who also worked as a farmer, lived in Sommerfield, a German town near Leipzig. Arnold was known for his observations of the great comet of 1683 and the transit of Mercury of 1690. Maria showed promise in her studies and became Arnold's unofficial apprentice. Later, she worked as his assistant and lived with the Arnold family.
Married Gottfried Kirch
Through Arnold, Maria met Gottfried Kirch, one of the most important astronomers in Germany. She and Kirch fell in love and decided to marry. Her uncle initially disapproved of the union, preferring that she choose a Lutheran minister. He eventually relented and the two were married in 1692. Gottfried Kirch was 30 years her elder and had been married previously. Together they had one son and three daughters.
Gottfried Kirch had studied with Hevelius in Danzig, Germany. He was a calendar maker as well as an astronomer, who earned his living by making observations for calendars and ephemeredes (tables of the positions and motions of the stars, planets, and other heavenly bodies). Gottfried Kirch was one of the first scientists to use the telescope in systematic observation, discovering several comets. He trained his sisters in astronomy, and they used their knowledge to produce calendars and almanacs. Gottfried Kirch gave his new wife further education in astronomy, as he had his sister before him and many other students as well. At the time, women were not allowed to study at universities, but in astronomy that did not really matter. Much work and discourse was conducted outside of the university. Gottfried Kirch himself had not studied at a university.
The two scientists worked together as a team, though Maria Kirch was primarily regarded as her husband's assistant and not his equal. To produce the calendars and ephemeredes, they had to make observations and perform calculations. Sometimes they would divide the labor by viewing different parts of the sky. For example, he would observe the north, while she took the south. Other times, they would take turns on different nights, so that one would watch while the other slept. Kirch preferred to begin her observations at about 9 p.m. Beginning in 1697, the couple began recording information about weather as well. Their children became involved, and the entire family made weather observations daily through 1774.
The data collected by the Kirch family was used to make calendars and almanacs. It was also useful for navigation. The Royal Academy of Sciences in Berlin sold their calendars, which constructed a time frame for planting crops. Such information as phases of the moon, the setting of the sun, eclipses, and the position of the sun and other planets was included.
In 1700, Gottfried Kirch was named the royal astronomer by Frederick III, elector of Brandenburg. The family moved to Berlin where a new observatory was being built. It took 11 years to complete this project. In the meantime, Kirch and her husband conducted observations from their home. They were also able to use the observatory owned by a family friend and amateur astronomer, Baron von Krosigk. Despite the success of their calendar, the Kirch family was not financially secure. However, Gottfried Kirch refused to accept a stipend from Frederick III because it would take funds away from students who needed them more.
Discovered a New Comet
While making her nightly observations, Kirch found a previously unknown comet on April 21, 1702. She was the first woman to do so. However, she received no recognition for this finding. The comet was not named for her, though most newly discovered comets were named for their first observers. When news of the comet was first published, Gottfried Kirch took credit for the discovery. He might have done so out of fear of ridicule if people had learned the truth. For her part, Kirch might not have staked her claim in her own name because she only published in German, while the language of preference in the scholarly German publication, Acta eruditorum, was Latin. She may have accepted the fact that her husband was the master astronomer and been content to remain in his shadow. Eight years later, Gottfried Kirch admitted the truth of the matter.
Kirch continued to do important work in astronomy, under her own name and with the proper recognition. In 1707, she discovered an aurora borealis, or northern polar lights. Two years later, she published, under her own name, the pamphlet Von der Conjunction der Sonne des Saturni und der Venus, about the forthcoming conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. The pamphlet included both astrological and astronomical observations. Some scholars have claimed that it was more astrological than astronomical.
At this time, astronomy and astrology were closely linked. While astronomy is the science of the stars and heavenly bodies, astrology focuses on how the stars and planets influence humans by their relative positions and movements. Astrological calculations were common because the idea of planets conjoining was very interesting to people of the time. Many astronomers, including Kirch, tried to distance themselves from astrologers, though she did provide the needed observations. There might have been some interest on her part, but as Alphonse des Vignoles, president of the Berlin Academy, said in her eulogy (quoted by Londa Schiebinger in The Mind Has No Sex? ) "Madame Kirch prepared horoscopes at the request of her friends, but always against her will and in order not to be unkind to her patrons."
On Her Own
After an illness, Gottfried Kirch died on July 25, 1710 in Berlin. Kirch tried to take her husband's place as astronomer and calendar maker at the Royal Academy of Sciences. She claimed that she had been doing much of this work while he was sick. At the time, it was not unusual for widowed women to take over their husband's business. Kirch tried to apply this tradition to her own situation. However, the executive council of the Academy refused to let her continue. Indeed, they never even considered the possibility before Kirch began petitioning them. They did not want to set a dangerous precedent.
The Academy's president, Gottfried von Leibniz, was the only one who supported her efforts. He had always encouraged her work. In 1709, he had arranged for her to be presented at the royal court in Prussia. She made a strong impression as she explained sunspots. However, the influence of Leibniz was not enough to change their minds, though Kirch was left without an income. They gave her a medal, but no job. Kirch fought the council for a year, even going to the king with her petition, but she was denied. The experience left her feeling bitter. Kirch believed that she was denied the position because of her gender. This claim may have had merit. Johann Heinrich Hoffmann, a man with little experience, was appointed to the position. He soon fell behind in his work, and did not make the necessary observations. It was suggested at one point that Kirch become his assistant. Though this did not happen, Hoffmann might have used her help unofficially, while publicly dismissing her.
Became Master Astronomer
In 1712, Kirch accepted patronage from a family friend named von Krosigk and began working in his observatory. Training her son and daughters to assist her, Kirch continued the family's astronomical calling. She was the master astronomer there, and had two students to help her. They continued to produce calendars and almanacs, as well as make observations. Kirch published pamphlets on her own as well. In 1711, she published the well-received Die Vorbereitung zug grossen Opposition, in which she predicted a new comet. A year or two later, she came out with The Position of Jupiter and Saturn, which again was a mix of astronomical calculations and the more popular astrological observations.
The family's financial situation took another blow when von Krosigk died in 1714. Though the Kirchs continued to use his observatory, it was not the perfect situation. Kirch moved to Danzig to assist a mathematics professor. She lasted only a brief time before returning. The family also worked in other observatories. In 1716, Kirch and her family got an offer to work for the Russian czar, Peter the Great, but preferred to stay in Berlin. She continued to calculate calendars for places such as Nuremberg, Dresden, Breslau, and Hungary.
That same year, Kirch's son Christfried became the director of the Royal Academy of Sciences' Berlin Observatory, after the death of Hoffmann. Kirch and her daughter, Christine, became his assistants. Within a year, the members of the Academy complained that she took a prominent role during the visits of strangers. She asked that she make herself more like an assistant and stay in the background. Kirch refused to do this and was forced to retire. She had to relinquish her home, on the grounds of the observatory.
Kirch continued to work out of the public eye. Eventually, conditions forced her to give up all astronomical work. She died in Berlin on December 29, 1720. After her death, her daughters continued much of her work. All three assisted their brother in his position as master astronomer. Despite her struggles, Kirch accomplished much in her lifetime.
Further Reading on Maria Winckelmann Kirch
Alic, Margaret, Hypatia's Heritage: A History of Women in Science from Antiquity to the late Nineteenth Century, The Women's Press, 1986.
Dictionary of Scientific Biography, edited by Charles Coulston Gillispie, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973.
The Macmillan Dictionary of Women's Biography, third edition, edited by Jennifer Uglow, Macmillan, 1998.
Mozans, H.J., Woman in Science, University of Notre Dame Press, 1991.
Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey, Women in Science: Antiquity through the Nineteenth Century, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, 1986.
Schiebinger, Londa, The Mind Has No Sex? Women in the Origins of Modern Science, Harvard University Press, 1989.
World Who's Who in Science: From Antiquity to the Present, Marquis Who's Who, 1968.
Yount, Lisa, A to Z of Women in Science and Math, Facts on File, Inc., 1999.
Isis, June 1987. | English | NL | b303d0840d3f2bff81ffb02c3c858ebfca5ffb6d5a1fa68121af8d9c5dc5f559 |
1 John 3:1 “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”
We are going to spend three sessions hearing about what the Bible teaches that all believers in Jesus Christ are adopted as children into the family of God. I have decided to set out on this journey because firstly this is biblical teaching, and of course, that is indispensable for any gospel enterprise. Its great end should be that we know the blessed Bible better. Then, secondly, sonship is Trinitarian teaching, and that is somewhat neglected teaching today but the Trinity lies at the very heart of biblical Christianity, and, thirdly, we are anxious to study it because it is personal and experiential teaching – sonship is not something theoretical and doctrinal. God has not only delivered us from the condemnation of sin but he has brought us into a living relation with himself our heavenly Father. We are given the right to be called the children of God, and indeed “that is what we are.” It is the human affections that need this teaching via our minds. Sonship is not spoken about as often as it merits, but the Bible’s revelation that God becomes the Father of his people is one more incredible display of how rich is the grace of God.
I want to begin with a panorama of the various textures of sonship that are found in the Bible, pointing out first of all this, that . . .
1. THERE IS JESUS CHRIST, GOD’S ETERNAL SON.
In an utterly unique sense he is God’s Son, his only begotten Son. Jesus spoke to his disciples after his resurrection and he made a distinction between their relation to God their Father and his. He did not say, “I’m now returning to our Father.” He said, “I am returning to my Father and your Father; to my God and your God” (Jn. 20:18). You appreciate the difference between our sonship and his, how Jesus’ sonship is an eternal sonship. He has always been God’s Son just as the Father has always been the Father. That is how God is. That is a necessity of God’s own nature; he can only exist in the form of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. The Son and the Spirit and the Father are equally divine. When any of us fathers have a child we have someone who is as human as we are. We don’t beget a son who is 90% human or 98%. New fathers don’t stand around in the maternity ward looking through the window at the cribs where their sons are sleeping and there test one another as to how human their sons are. They don’t brag, “Mine has been registered as 98% human,” while another father caps him by bragging, “Mine is 99% human.” No. Every baby is 100% human. Every son possesses his father’s exact and entire nature. So it is when God begets a Son he is not 90% divine, or even 99%; he is 100% divine, he is as divine as his Father. The Son of God is infinite, eternal and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth. All that his Father is he also is. He possesses every quality of God the Father, to create, to sustain all things, to redeem, to judge. Especially he has the attribute of self-existence. We men depend on food and water and oxygen and gravity and light and warmth in order to to survive. They are our life-support system, but God depends on nothing whatsoever. He is eternally self-sufficient. The Father is self-sufficient; the Son is self-sufficient; the Spirit is self-sufficient. None of the persons of the godhead has ever been in need. For example none of them has felt loneliness. They live in the glory of their divine self-sufficiency.
Then alongside this fact of the eternal Son being as equally divine as the eternal Father is another great emphasis in the Bible, that is, on the unique affection that binds God the Father to God the Son. He is God’s beloved Son. On more than one occasion God the Father speaks aloud so that men and women hear this tribute he pays to his Son as to the depth of his affection, “This is my beloved son . . . Son I really love you, and I am pleased with everything that you’ve done. I want all the men and women in the world to know how much I love you.” You bear in mind that God is love. God never became love. He always has loved and always had an object for his love in the glory and depth of his own being. There is Jesus the Son of his love, and in Jesus he never saw anything that cooled his love, that diminished the fervour of his affection for his Son, nothing to irritate, nothing to complain about, nothing for which to say sorry. Quite the reverse, however he looked at his Son, all he knew about him, even the thoughts of Christ’s mind filled him with more and more love. He loved him eternally; he loved him measurelessly; he loved him comprehensively; he loved him infinitely, and yet he loved him more and more. There was no grace or pity or mercy in his love for Christ. His Son was worthy of all the love that was focused upon him. He was as lovable as his Father; he was an exact transcript of his Father’s own glory and beauty.
Consider those marvelous words with which John begins his gospel, that “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God . . .” They were with one another like the most loving husband and wife are with one another. There is that mutual outgoingness between the God the Father and God the Son, the face of the one towards the face of the other in adoring love, the heart of each beating in love for the other; the hand of each one of them (of course anthropomorphically) extended out to grasp the hand of the other like lovers delighting in the touch of one another. So before we speak of God’s love for the world, or God’s love for his children we begin with the eternal and necessary reality of God the Father’s love for God the Son, the beauty and graces of Christ evoking the love of God
Then, right through every phase of our Lord’s ministry, as Jesus moves successively from Bethlehem through all the phases of his ministry, through all the phases of his humiliation and degradation into the abyss of Golgotha – at every stage in that great journey – that incredible, unrepeatable, awesome descent into the dereliction – he is always the Father’s Beloved; and even in that moment, when God forsakes him and withholds from him his own answering voice, and withholds from him any consciousness of divine recognition while he hangs on the cross, even then and there, at that moment, he is the Father’s beloved Son.
What we are talking about is the most elementary and monumental basis for our faith; the eternal love of God the Father for his only begotten Son. He was totally satisfied being ‘with’ his Son. He was eternally satisfied in being ‘with’ his Son. He was divinely satisfied in being ‘with’ his Son. That is the very heart of who God is. In other words we can never say that God was bursting to find some object on which to focus his love. It was not that he was frustrated, full of love, but having nothing and no one to love and so having to create the world and make mankind and elect a church. There never was a time when God did not have an object for his love. There was always his unique, and utterly attractive, and enthralling, and adorable Son. I believe that from eternity God has been captivated by Christ. There are some earthly fathers who had thought that they would never have children but then in middle age their wives became pregnant and gave birth to a baby boy, and these men often cradle their own sons in their arms and gaze at the wonder of their child, and the glory of the one whom God had given to them and their wives. God has been eternally enthralled with his Son who was without beginning or end of days.
My professor John Murray married late in life, and
he came to Aberystwyth after the birth of his first-born child and it was about the same time as one of our children had been born, and so on the Saturday evening when I was out of the house my wife and John Murray talked babies. They talked of the tiny hands and how they would grip your finger. “It’s a miracle,” one of them said, “Yes, but not in the technical sense of the word,” said the professor.
So there is the Father’s love for his own adorable and utterly lovely Son, and that is the primal sonship, the eternal Sonship of the Lord Jesus Christ.
2. THERE IS THE UNIVERSAL SONSHIP OF MANKIND.
In other words everybody is a child of God; now I am conscious that that is a loaded, and in some respects, a suspect concept, and I want to take it in a guarded and careful way. Here is the teaching of the Bible, that God made man in his image and likeness. You did not come about by chance or luck. You do not owe your identity as a human being to millions and millions of years of the process of the survival of the fittest, beginning many ages ago as a single cell creature in primeval slime and changing and adapting until you and Leonardo da Vinci and Beethoven and Einstein and Jesus came along. No, men and women have been designed and formed by God, and in that sense God alone is the Father of every single one of us. Listen to your Father! Obey your Father! Come back to your Father!
Here are some of the Bible’s explicit affirmations concerning this truth, one from the Old Testament and one from the New. We are asked by the prophet Malachi, “Have we not all one Father? Did not one God create us?” (Mal. 2:10). He is rebuking them for the way they show partiality in law courts towards the wealthy and powerful but punishing the innocent who are poor or ignorant men. God speaks through Malachi in the previous verse and says to them, “You have not followed my ways but have shown partiality in matters of the law” (Malachi 2:9), but all these men upon whom you are standing in judgment are sons of God, and they should all be treated as such. Every one is on the same level; none less human; none less in the image of God; just a few cosmetic differences between one man and another. So show no partiality or discrimination. Didn’t one God create us all?
Then in the New Testament we read of Paul preaching in Athens. It was a sophisticated and literate community but full of idols and temples, people following hundreds, if not thousands of different deities. Paul told them, “God made the world and everything in it . . . some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring,’ . . . from one man he made every nation of men . . .” (Acts 17:24, 28, 26). Each one of you is the offspring of God; you are God’s children. You are not a little higher than the animals but made a little lower than the angels. How can you live as you do in such deliberate darkness and carnality, more like animals than angels? How can you so quickly give in to your desires and lusts and hostilities as you do, obeying the law of the jungle more than the law of God? Your conscience tells you that this is wrong; it bears witness with me that you are not living as you should.
Aren’t you in debt to your God? Hasn’t he cared for you through your life? Hasn’t he given you every good gift – the best gifts that you’ve ever had? Long life, health, a sound mind, material prosperity, daily bread, loving parents, a spouse, children, grandchildren? Have you not most or even all of those gifts? It is God your Creator and Father who has given you these things. You have long ignored him, but he still blesses you so kindly. He has sent the sun to shine on you, and the rain to fall on you when you’d been acting unjustly and selfishly, just as much as when you were caring so lovingly for that sick family member. God never gave up on you. You have been unconscious of your dependence on God, that you have lived and moved and had your being in him. Your breath has been in his hands; every beat of your heart; every particle of electric activity in your brain has been sustained by him. How wonderfully faithful he has been to you. This year I took the funeral service of a woman well over a hundred years of age. I have known her for 45 years, and we would love to have been sure at any time but particularly in these last years that she appreciated God’s grace, and the finished work of Jesus Christ, and that that was her sole confidence at the end. I cannot say with certainty that it was, and yet how merciful God had been to her materially and in health and with the kindnesses she received for 105 years. How great was God’s faithfulness to her; how wonderful his provision to her. She was just one person out of 6,000 million people in the world, many of whom like her are the beneficiaries of the goodness of God their Creator Father, and yet might never cast themselves on his mercy in Jesus Christ. There is no human being but is indebted to the Lord for the provision he has in God daily loading him with his benefits.
I say, God has made us, and God cares for us, but let me also say this, that even in our indifference and coldness to God and our determination to crow the sinners’ anthem, “I did it my way” and will have it played at the crematorium at our own funeral service, yet all of you retain the vestiges of the image of the God who made you. Even you who have no profession of faith in God whatsoever, even you I say show by your life your likeness to God your Father. I will not qualify for a moment the Bible’s teaching on original sin. I refuse to modify or mitigate all the great emphases in Scripture on total depravity, but there are explicit Biblical references that show us in the plainest possible manner that every single person in his fallenness retains vestigially the image of God. The great tyrants like Mao and Pol Pot and Stalin and Hitler lived and died in the image of God. The mass murderers and serial killers, the torturers and suicide bombers – every one of those merciless fiends bore God’s image and likeness. I am referring to their family love, their kindness to animals, their interest in the creation, their sense of beauty, their skills and handiwork, their intelligence and their flashes of common sense – all these things reflect that though they were evil men and atheists they’d failed to eradicate the divine image of the God who had made them. They were not as bad as they could be nor as bad as they would become. All men and women are made in God’s image and likeness.
Let me give you some teaching from the Bible that clearly affirms this fact. Firstly, again from the Old Testament and then from the New Testament. There are the words of God to Noah “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man” (Genesis 9:6). Why is it a terrible thing to murder a person but not to kill a rat or a bluebottle? Killing a man or woman is destroying someone made in the image and likeness of God. It is a unique sin against God. Secondly, there is an even more pointed and searching reference still in the epistle of James. The apostle is speaking of the gravity of the sin of the defamation of a man’s character, for example, to accuse him of sexual sin resulting in his being suspended for a year or two from his work while a weary investigation goes on, or whispering about him that you know shameful things that he has done, dropping hints that he is a man of lust. James is dealing with this all too familiar sin of slander and libel, and he says, “You are saying things like that about someone who bears the image of God.” Think of how men said of Jesus, the perfect image of God, that he was a drunk, or that he was full of the devil. They were men who were Jews, the inheritors of the covenants and promises of God and yet they c
rucified the Messiah when he came. So James says to his mainly Jewish Christian readers, “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness” (James 3:9).
You understand my point? No matter how low a man can fall, and people can fall appalingly low, men and women never cease to bear in a basic and unassailed way the image of God. No matter the degradation, the depravity, the godlessness, the immorality, the bestiality and man’s repudiation of all that is noble and decent, yet, in the depths of his degradation he is still different from the beasts that perish. He retains his rationality; he retains his conscience; he retains his terrible sense of the eternal power and godhead of God. There is no man so depraved and debauched that his conscience does not periodically summon him before the divine tribunal. That is an important factor that equips us in our evangelism and encourages us to be bold. We have the voice of their consciences on our side, even when they are disagreeing with us and rejecting all we say of the love of God and the mercy of Jesus Christ. We know that there is an inner witness saying to them, “What that Christian is saying to us is true.”
So there is the unique Sonship of Jesus Christ, and there is the universal sonship of every single man and woman.
3. THERE IS THE ADOPTIVE SONSHIP OF BELIEVERS.
Now the teaching on adoption is pervasively present in the entire Bible. There are not only many references to the word ‘adoption’ but there are other references to the household of faith, the family of God, to the fact that Christians no longer being aliens and strangers or slaves but being sons of God. The Bible tells us this;
i] Our adoption as Christians was planned by God the Father before the foundation of the world. In Ephesians 1 and verses 4 & 5 the apostle says, “In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.” He decreed that we should be adopted as his very children.
ii] Again, our adoption as Christians was accomplished by Jesus Christ the Son. It was not by our lives and merit. In Galatians 4 and verses 4 and 5 Paul says, “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.” Without Christ’s redemption we could never become sons of God. Only redeemed sinners are adopted sinners.
iii] Again, our adoption is applied to us by God the Holy Spirit. In Romans 8 and in verses 15 and 16 we read, “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.”
iv] Our adoption will be revealed and consummated in the coming great day. In Romans 8 and in verse 19 the apostle writes, “The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.”
So our sonship was planned by God the Father, accomplished by God the Son, applied by God the Spirit and will be revealed in the great day to come. Then how do we become the children of God? The apostle John writes to Christians and he stands in solidarity with them crying out in wonder at what God had done for them all: “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (I Jn. 3:1).
I think it is most helpful to think of this change from alienation to becoming sons in terms of the word ‘receive.’ You receive God into your life, and God receives you into his family. That is the only way the divine act of adoption takes place. There has to be this twofold receiving. Both parties in this great change receive the other. When I was about ten years of age my parents thought about adopting a teenager from an orphanage in Merthyr, and this boy actually visited our house in John Street and looked around, but in order for the process of adoption to commence both he had to be agreeable, and my parents had to be agreeable, and in this case neither were. Neither my parents nor the boy would receive the other as parent or as son, and so he never returned. Now that is how it is in the Bible.
You have this ‘receiving’ on our part clearly set out in the opening of John’s gospel where the evangelist writes, “to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,” (Jn 1:12). You remember in the parable of the prodigal son the boy had demanded his legal right to take all his inheritance and leave home, leave his father, his brother and the farm and head off with his money to a distant city. There he sought to forget everything about his father and his love, and his teaching, and all the privileges that he’d enjoyed in that home. He wanted to expunge all of that from his mind. He buried himself in parties and fun, spending all he had until there was no more cash to spend. Then he discovered that all his companions were fair weather friends and no one helped him in his poverty. He was reduced to tending unclean pigs and starving with hunger even tempted to eating pig swill.
Then what happened? We are told that once again he received his father into his thoughts. He was the last person the boy had thought of while he had money, and friends, and wine, and women, and music. That man – that righteous, loving, sin-hating, great and godly man, the greatest man he had ever known – he hadn’t wanted to think of him at all. He had banished him from his mind; he had gone as far from him as he could go, but when he came to his senses he thought of reality. He emerged from the shadowlands of partying and drinking and promiscuity and loud music, and he came into the light of truth. Listen to what he said to himself; “How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father . . .” (Lk. 15:17&18). What had he done? He had received his father back into his mind and thinking again. An intellectual revolution had taken place. He had lived without his father for a long time but now the great change is taking place in him and the first sign of it is that he is receiving thoughts of his father into his mind again.
So he receives his father into his mind, and the next step is to receive his father into his life. “I will arise and go to the place where I know my father is to be found,” and off to his home he returns with all his fears, and uncertainties, and rehearsed speeches. He is in dread of being rejected; he is asking himself what kind of welcome he’s going to get, and he’s got some words ready to defuse the situation. He doesn’t realise that once he’s received his father back into his life his father will certainly receive him into his heart. While he was still a long way off his father saw him; he had often looked down the country lane as far as his eyes could see. Would one day his lost son reappear? Would he see that familiar figure on his way home? And one day he sees a dot on the horizon and he watches and prays as the slowly moving figure gets bigger. His eyes are glued on the person until he knows without a doubt that it is his boy! He is so bedraggled, and wretched. He is skinny, under-nourished and weak. Maybe he was dirty and his clothes were stinking; maybe shame and fear were written all over his face, but he was coming home and his father was full of compassion. He flung wide the door, and hurried across the farmyard, and opened the gate and ran along the lane to meet him; old legs of an old man running faster and faster, panting for breath. Take care old man. Don’t fall! Take your time. “H
ow can I” he says, “For this my son was dead, and is alive again and was lost and is found,” and he runs, afraid his boy will change his mind at the last minute and turn back overwhelmed with shame. He catches him in his arms and wraps them around him and kisses him. He’ll never let him go again. He has ached for this day of homecoming. He cuts short the boy’s rehearsed speech.
The boy comes home to a father’s embrace, and immediately to all the signs of sonship. All the paraphernalia and insignia are conferred upon him. The father calls for the best robe fit for a son, and the ring of sonship and the sandals of sonship – not the boots of a servant. The fatted calf must be taken from its stall and slaughtered and a great feast must be prepared. Tell the men to bring their flutes and drums and ten-stringed instruments. No more work today for anyone. It is a holiday on the farm. He didn’t say to the boy, “What have you been doing with my money? How did you get into such a mess? What a shape you are in!” He didn’t say, “Don’t you know what shame, what disgrace you’ve brought upon us. Don’t you know the anxiety you caused your mother? Don’t you know how we’ve been feeling all these silent months never hearing a word from you, not knowing whether you were alive or dead?” There is none of that in the narrative, nothing at all. It’s a party. It’s a celebration, and everything is forgotten in the joy of that restoration. Once the boy received his father into his thinking again and determined to go home then his father received him.
That is the way of divine adoption. To as many as received Jesus Christ into their lives then to those he freely gave the right to be called the sons of God, and he deals so lavishly with them. He freely pardons the way we have offended and grieved him. He doesn’t mention sins – though sin was etched all over this man’s face in the most evident way, but the father ignores it. He doesn’t throw our past at us. He forgives all our sin, all our past sin, our present sin, our future sin, our enormous sins, and our little sins. In that moment we become whiter than snow. In that moment we pass from condemnation to justification. We are no longer aliens but sons and heirs. I am sure that this boy would have said, “But what about my past? Don’t you want to discuss my past? Don’t you want to interrogate me, and ask what I’ve been doing?” We often think like that. We cannot believe that God simply overlooks our past, and forgives it, but that is the way it is. He casts our past and all its sin into the depths of the sea.
Then we are made the sons of God. At that moment; at the very beginning of our new life with our Father, then all the riches of the Father are now ours, pardon, healing, cleansing, restoration, justification, adoption, the gift of the Holy Spirit. What is this parable saying to us about sonship? Somewhere in this boy’s past it had been implanted indelibly that whenever things went wrong he could call home, and when they went badly wrong, he could always come back; he must always come home. He had not been taught, “If you disgrace this family then never come back.” He had not been conditioned to this view, “If you let us down . . . if you bring shame on our name, then don’t bother to return.” He’d been told, “However low you go, however deep the abyss or appalling the degradation you must always feel you have a father how loves you and an open door into his presence. Here you can return.”
What is true for coming back to God is true for our children coming back to us their parents. We came back to God and he forgave us everything, and so our children must know that if we face the ultimate in tragedy, ours or theirs, they can still come home;
if they become drunkards they can still come home;
if they marry the wrong people they can still come home;
if they become drug addicts they can still come home;
if they get Aids they can still come home;
if they get pregnant they can still come home;
if they have an abortion they can still come home;
if they end up in prison they can still come home.
They must have that assurance. It is one of the most momentous elements in the divine pedagogy that God accepts sinners and makes them his children when they turn away from their sin and come home, and that that is reflected in our own parenthood.
I am saying that divine adoption springs into operation when you come home. So come home . . . come home . . . come home . . . come home . . . come home . . . come home . . .
8th August 2010 GEOFF THOMAS | English | NL | 015bb1d296f30bfd2ecc3c9f613a6875fd4064bcdb2f54fe55a1c663b36887f4 |
Curse of the Wolf
In the old days, some individuals and to convert the in wolves. It didn't take long and there were more and more. Other people were afraid of them and thought that the only option is to kill the wolves had threatened them. First, is trying to break that never no conversion ,but it didn't work. The majority used a wolfbane. This can be from the Wolf to get only the antibody, which shouldn't. This is made later, but it's looking for, because when someone started to ask, it was noticeable and usually told. The procedure time was left with only a few small groups, which can transform, but in secret. During the full moon, however, is not how to embrace them and shall submit to the moon. Those groups have created rules that must be observed. One of the rules is that no one must know about them and avoid the Wolf fever to the past are not repeated, and they were completely wiped out. When the conversion of hiding into dark forests to threatened by the people living in the area. It is said that a man who falls in love with Wolf and kills a Hunter on the evidence of the other wolves, would take the place of Hunter and can give you freedom. However, it never even happened.
The year 1870 / MDCCCLXX
How peaceful the day she thought Helen maid Miss weighted became who just drank tea with friends in the garden. She was wearing a beautiful, pink, striped dress and a hat on his head, to cut off his her beautiful hair. Her neck a necklace of her ancestors, which her mother gave her. Helen couldn't believe his eyes. She saw several men stand behind the House, carrying a bowl of fruit "Ma'am we should go. It's too late. "discreetly indicated that it didn't seem strange to others, and she said that the eyes of men coming to them, "Yes, we should go." Juliana rose of garden chairs, adjust your clothes and say goodbye. Peaceful day I guess. The men are close to them, "hurry up, before I run out of, let us see." She tried to, as soon as we could, "where they come from. I thought you got rid of them, as I told you. " Helen looked "I'm sorry. I should have considered that a long time ago for nothing. I don't understand. "she lifted the dress to walk faster and started toward his house "We have to go Helen, or pay for it. Made a mistake, that you check. "she felt guilty. Just what the collapse, they headed for the door. In the doorway stood the men, what is before she saw Helen behind the House, Julie's friends, "you must come with us, someone wants to see you." Afraid of what will happen ". I have to go. I've got some work to do. "they built them in the way that they could not go anywhere. Juliana put their luggage on a Chair on the porch and tried to escape. She realized that men go for them. The House has a thick wood that could be cut. She thought them along with his servant escapes, but they caught Julian and Helen heard screaming. She hid behind a tree and tried to be quiet. Helen's screams stopped "Oh, my God. They killed her. "she whispered to her. What you will do now is only she, who can stop them, but why Helen changed? Afraid of? He doesn't know and never will.At one point lost a devoted servant and friend. She looked, if not see the man, but no trace of them. She wanted to escape. As soon as she turned, her father stood in front of her father. Some men just... "her heart was beating about a hundred and six".I know. I told them. "I don't believe this is from my father never expected. Although he was against the wolves, but to go this far "What?! How could you?! "tore down her necklace from her neck," you don't deserve This. You're a disgrace, a monster. What is normal to you, your mother and Helen were the wolves. " The only thing that was left after her mother was the necklace, but he took it and threw it away, "his mother paid years ago. It could not, it's a curse for her, and you were the only one who would expect that it will understand and not to kill her. Go ahead, kill me, like you did your mother and your servants ago Helen. " He had a lot of Wolf fever, such a possibility already gets and so did not hesitate for a minute, and he killed her when his cheek dry a tear, which was trying to stop. After this terrible crime took my daughter in my arms and carried her sobbing to the well, gave her a kiss on the forehead and threw it in there. The last thing you could see was Julie's hand, which engulfed the thick clothes ". Wolves, these monsters are dead and buried. " All the victims, buried his daughter just threw into the well. as well as her mother years ago. That they are all dead, he just thought. Juliana had a son named Zeno, and gave it to the education of people who knew her secret, and that he will hide. She knew that they would never tell her and did not betray the secret. Zeno learned what his family was like and tried to hide it. He said that only people who really believed. If Juliet's father learned that he has a grandson, Zeno would have survived. About his mother every time he spoke as about significant Lady, died in an unfortunate accident. Julian has always tried to protect their species and so she and her son was for centuries. | English | NL | 899395b281a2df7b5a22d4617323b1c414a1fc678999ecf95a2b71e031cbf7af |
Think about the following questions while reading the article HERE.
1. How would you react if your parents told you they were taking you to a spider and insect petting zoo? Be sure to give reasons for your reaction.
2. Why is or why isn't it important for people to learn about the living creatures around us? | English | NL | 4969c9274357d8b9e898e2c90d9a9c890e36c92afc6d81c4bad9325c17a126d4 |
Senator Roger Katz is currently serving his fourth term in the Maine State Senate. He represents the people of Senate District 15, which consists of Augusta, China, Oakland, Sidney and Vassalboro. Prior to his legislative service, Senator Katz was Mayor of Augusta for two terms.
In the 125th Legislature, Senator Katz was the Chair of the Government Oversight Committee and a member of the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee. During the 126th Legislature, Senator Katz continued as a member of the Government Oversight Committee and served as the Assistant Republican Leader in the Maine Senate. In the 127th Legislature, he is once again the Chair of the Government Oversight Committee and a member of the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee.
This session, in addition to chairing the Government Oversight Committee and serving as a member of the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee, Senator Katz will also serve as a member of the Health and Human Services Committee.
Senator Katz has long been active in his community, serving as Chair of United Way and Co-Chair of Team Cony, which helped raise $1.5 million for Augusta’s new high school. He has also served as President of the Kennebec Valley YMCA, Chair of the Augusta Charter Commission, Co-Chair of the Augusta Bicentennial Celebration, Chair of the Augusta Development Corporation and Vice President of the Maine State Music Theatre.
For his dedication to the community, Senator Katz has been honored by both Le Club Calumet and the Kennebec Valley Chamber of Commerce.
An accomplished attorney, Senator Katz is a former President of the Maine Trial Lawyers Association and has been named as one of the “Outstanding Lawyers in America.” He also co-hosted “Looking at the Law,” a statewide television program.
Roger Katz resides in Augusta and is the proud father of two adult children, Shari and Jonathan. | English | NL | 54419d236af33718190159377ef23223de7eb50eb5df5f8f6e7fdf232c77538b |
Born in 1832 as the eldest son of a Catholic family, Randolph Michael Probstfield left his native Germany for the United States at the age of 22. By 1868 he and his wife, Catherine Sidonia Goodman Probstfield had established a family homestead in what was to eventually become Oakport Township, Minnesota. This homestead preceded the development of Fargo-Moorhead and became an important stopping point for land as well as river travelers of the period.
Probstfield, his wife, and their eleven children (two children did not survive infancy) were deeply involved, not only in the daily activities of their own homestead, but also the development of educational and social activities for the other settlers that followed them into the area. Probstfield not only built the first school house, but also served as teacher for the “community organized” school and was also instrumental in formally organizing both the school district and the township.
Probstfield’s contributions to the agriculture of the area were equally significant. Avid in agricultural experimentation, he tested and proved for the United States Bureau of Agriculture that the Red River Valley was a fertile and viable locale, not only for the traditional crops of the area, but also for the cultivation of tobacco, sugar beets and tomatoes.
A man who derived much happiness from his wife, children and love of the land, Randolph Michael Probstfield face many challenges, public as well as personal, financial as well as emotional, during his lifetime. Yet, through it all he maintained ownership of an indomitable spirit which has fortunately been passed down to his many descendants.
MN State University, Moorhead, has many of Randolph and Catherine’s papers, detailed here: | English | NL | 6254e341e4999288162f9f7b97a0d0f09cff4209973ecefa3ecd89c4f1f378f9 |
When Jenna Sanders leaves her dead end job and accepts a management position at exclusive spa on the island of Eden, she hopes to put the past behind her and move on with her life. Unfortunately, the past refuses to be buried, and when she discovers that her sexy boss is her former lover, old wounds reopen and shake the walls she has so carefully built around her heart. Caine is offering her everything she’s ever wanted, but can she trust him? As they rekindle their passion in the bedroom, secrets rise up from Eden’s waters and threaten to tear them apart. Only by diving deeper can they move forward, and Jenna must decide if she is willing to risk her heart for a second chance at love.
Note: This story contains a contemporary male-female romantic pairing with mild kink.
She pressed her lips together for a moment in thought. “I know you, Caine. You’ll never be happy in one place. You live for the dive.”
“I’ll be happy if I’m with you.” He hooked his finger under a long strand of hair and pushed it over her shoulder.
“Don’t be ridiculous. You love adventure too much.”
“I love you, too.”
“You can’t give diving up. It’s in your blood.”
“It’s in your blood, too.” He inched closer. “Look, I don’t like what happened in Chicago, but can concede that you didn’t have my note and therefore had no idea of my true intentions. All of that is in the past. This is our present.” He inched forward. “Our future.”
She shook her head. “I can’t wait around for you to figure things out, Caine.”
“I already have everything figured out. I just need you to wait until the end of this job.”
“And what if another job comes along? What about Rex?”READ MORE
He slid his arms around her body and pulled her close. “What about us? Don’t you want to at least try?” He leaned forward and brushed his cheek against her temple. “Try for me, Jenna. That’s all I ask.”
“Why should I try, Caine?” She asked as she eased away. “I gave you my heart before, and you broke it into pieces. Give me one good reason why I should trust you again.”
“You want a reason?” He leaned back and shifted his gaze to her mouth. “Because every morning when I wake up, I think of you. Every night when I go to bed, I dream of us, and how good we could be together. Give me another shot, Jenna. Do it for me. For us.”
The kiss was hard and demanding, just the way she liked it. Damn him for knowing her needs, and damn her for falling for him all over again. Tears filled her eyes as she wrapped her arms around his neck and held on tight. The towel around her shoulders fell to the ground. Caine swept his tongue into her mouth, causing her to shiver with need. He tasted so warm, so good. Jenna knew if she let herself, she could sink deep into this man and never come up for air.
When he finally broke away, she took in a large, steadying breath. Through an erotic haze she watched Caine flash her a seductive smile, then push her backward into the pool.
“Hey!” Warm water hit her hard, and once again Jenna was struggling for breath. She popped back up to the surface and wiped the water from her eyes. When she could focus, she saw Caine pulling off the last of his clothes.
“What are you doing?”
“Making you remember how good we had it—and how good it could be again.”COLLAPSE
Jodie B., Amazon wrote:
Suzanne hits all the right hot spots in her writing. she's got hot , naughty sex wherever and whenever. she's got some drama, family, death, money men, hot men, down on their luck men and deception and more! She lays it all out beautifully!! sorry I'm not the kind of rater that gives away the book for that I feel you need to read it for yourself and decide what you think. All I can say is that it's one hell of a ride!! I hope you enjoy her books as much as I do!!
GDS, Amazon wrote:
I wasn't sure how this story was gonna end and Suzanne Rock sure surprised the daylights out of me with this ending. Actually I was at the edge of my chair the whole way first she would lean this way and then sway the other. Another hit...
Action packed, fast paced, and love the attitude of the island! | English | NL | f4a99f72e13460e11f6afdd29ba89000da27c1475e9034d6354756899dc717fa |
The Widow of Zarephath
1 Kings 17:7-24
The Widow of Zarephath was in despair.
There was famine in the land.
She and her son were starving, on the verge of death. A strange man approached her, asking for water and food. Despite her dire circumstances, she offered hospitality to this foreigner. She shared all her remaining food and invited him into her household.
She did not know that God had chosen her to provide for Elijah, yet she recognized God in him: “As the Lord your God lives.” She trusted Elijah’s words.
By her act of hospitality and sharing, she and her son were saved.
Her faith was tested when her son became ill and died.
Elijah pleaded with God, and her son was restored to life. She acknowledged God’s work in this miraculous act.
Jesus recalls this widow’s story in the first sermon of his ministry (Luke 4:25-26).
Her example of trust and hospitality can guide us when we face times of despair or have opportunities to share with those in need.
Unexpected blessings can spring from such faith and generosity.
Betty Chandler, Hornby. | English | NL | 76c9882b16d7b57529e6379922f0389b7f87a46811efd1274d3d470d45393016 |
- But our empathy is what makes us so special, Tim-21. It is why the TIM series was created in the first place.
- -- Tim-22
- -- Tim-22
After being built, Tim was sent to Dirishu-6 Moon where he would live with a local Dirishu Colony family called the Tavers. Over the next year, he grew close and protected the family. He became accepted by them and was even thrown a birthday party. One night, Tim asked to be shut off so he could dream. However, Tim stayed off for 10 years. The Harvesters attacked their colony and Andy was evacuated while his mother stayed behind and died in a mine trying to help others escape.
10 years later, Tim awakened to find his colony and family dead. He headed to a Comm Link room to discover what happened. Tim learned a poisoned gas bubble had killed the entire colony. At the same time as his awakening, gigantic Harvester Robots appears and destroyed nearly the entire world's population. As a result, humans had begun a mistrust for Robots and began a robot culling. Scrappers had nearly destroyed the entire galaxy's population of robots. Since Tim had connected to the network, this had alerted others to his presence. Scrappers soon arrived and chased him into a mine where he ran into his previous family's corpse. The Scrappers entered the cave and blasted a hole in Tim's body, disabling him.
A Driller Robot woke up from the commotion and came to Tim's aid. After fighting the humans off, the Robot rushed Tim to receive medical aid but was too dumb to operate medical machinery. However, Dr. Jin Quon and Captain Telsa arrived and quickly relocated the injured Tim to their ship to perform emergency medical procedures. While disabled and attempting to download a backup of his memory, Tim began having a dream of other scavanged robots wanting his help.
More Scrappers soon arrived and captured Tim and his crew. They brought them to Gnish. He was surprised when he wasn't placed in the interrogation chair, but Quon was in his place. Soon, Jin had his arm chopped off in torture and he admitted to be a fraud. He found the codex and didn't invent the Tim series at all. However, the Hardwire, a rebel group of robots, arrived and freed them from the Gnishians captivity.
Tim-21 set out for the homeplanet of the robots with the Hardwire. He brought Jin Quon and Telsa with him as he refused to let go due to his high emotional settings. He soon began to question his emotions and realized they may be drawing him back. He was reassured by Tim-22, a fellow companion robot with the Hardwire, that his empathy is what made the Tim series unique.
Tim was soon brought to Psius and had his memory analyzed for dream patterns. Psius wanted to find an afterlife for robots. When Tim-22 became impatient, he allowed 22 to take Tim-21 to the inner core. Upon arriving, Tim 22 admitted he felt 'jealousy' as a feeling. He then pushed Tim-21 into an abyss where it was revealed the robots were building a secret army of warrior robots.
Appearances, Images, and Quotes Edit | English | NL | 2556adeb4bfb6be4f82d1915ca5be7648c72dc5f6763e16ae743e205696dd881 |
Bill graduated in mineral engineering from Leeds University in 1978. He spent 5 years in the mining industry before moving to upstream oil, where he has worked for most of his career. He was with Shell for over 30 years working in a wide range of well-related activities in The Netherlands, Norway and the UK.
During that time he spent over 20 years in hands-on, supervisory and operational support roles, notably 8 years as rig superintendent in the Brent field during a challenging period when horizontal and extended reach drilling technology was emerging as a means of accessing isolated and depleted reservoirs. He enjoyed his last 10 years in Shell as the custodian of the wells technical standards and coaching the younger engineers on learning from incidents and managing risks in well design and operations, with particular emphasis on behavioural aspects - and learning a great deal himself during the process!
Bill’s interests revolve around spending time with his family: he has a wonderful wife and two grown-up daughters, all of whom are school teachers, so the opportunity for any laddish behaviour nowadays is slim! He enjoys rugby, cricket, cycling, playing the fiddle, comedy, and walking their dog in the marvellous Scottish countryside. | English | NL | 1c08bd12d07bbedbc55d3b9f2a3f5286b76167c44f009d283cccddfe61f2d92f |
It’s been two years since Angie’s friend, Tessa, got married to Jedrick and introduced her to his brother, Ardan. From the moment, she saw him she knew he was the man for her. There’s only one problem…he’s elf…an elf who swears human and elves don’t mix. But Angie has other plans in mind.
When Ardan asks her to his house after the delivery of Tessa’s and Jedrick’s twins, she jumps at the chance. Even though he keeps telling her nothing will happen, they have been doing this dance for a very long time. And when she teases him by caressing his body, Ardan knows he’s lost. But love and commitment are more than just hot sex.
Ardan still doesn’t trust human women and Angie is determined to prove that she is the woman…the only woman…for him. She loves medicine, the North Pole and him more than anything else in the world. When Ardan is summoned to help a hurt elf, he is unavailable and Angie goes in his stead to prove to him that she loves the community of elves as much as he does.
But something goes terribly wrong and Ardan is left to care for a comatose and possibly dying Angie. Ardan realizing just how precious this woman is, vows to prove to her his love is fathomless. No matter what the future holds.
Chuckling, she felt him in her cunt, the tiny vibrations heightening her already susceptible senses even more. “Of course, it probably wasn’t. Human men are jerks when it comes to that part of the anatomy. It can and will be very pleasurable when we do it, I assure you.”
“If you say so,” she murmured.
“I can’t promise I won’t take you there tonight, but I will take you to new territory all the same.” Making her wetter, he began working her ass tenderly, rubbing his finger to and fro, up and down, until she was a wiggling mass.
She had never felt anything like this before. No one had ever touched her in this way, with this much respect and feeling. Soon, Angie moaned for something she didn’t understand or ever think she would want.
“Please…,” she breathed, “…please…”
Slowly, his finger penetrated her ass and she almost exploded. Not moving, he allowed her to adjust to the new sensations. And what sensations they were. This was nothing like what had happened before, this left her craving for more and she found herself pushing hard against his hand.
“That’s right. Push down,” he encouraged.
Soon she had engulfed his whole finger. Now she had one in her cunt and one in her ass, and each brought such pleasure she thought she would die before she ever got off. But he still had more surprises in store. Leisurely, he began to move both fingers, in and out, fast and slow. Pushing. Pulling. Tugging. Giving. To the point where she was one massive, quivering piece of flesh. Leaning down, he blew on her clit and she knew that within a matter of moments she would be lost.
Alternating between thumb and tongue, he laved her body with wetness then hardness. Sensations came and went. He brought her up to a peak and let her down gently, never allowing her to go over the edge. Her pussy throbbed in ways she had only imagined were possible. Moaning out loud, she began to pump her hips up and down, grateful that he followed her every move. He continued to finger and tongue-fuck her until she felt she couldn’t stand another minute.
Hot pleasure began to rain down on her in molten globs. Her breath came in shorter and shorter pants. And then, he gently bit on her clit and she went tumbling over the edge. | English | NL | 26984b097a7dae13a8994a62e07ff394c7fa24f32ef9da035c293ab79e6df488 |
Can Dex survive a nightmare that won't let go?
Dex's life has gone into a tailspin. One night that ruined his entire world. He can't sleep, he can't eat. He's lost his job, and is about to lose the last of his sanity. When the world crashes down around him, he's ready to let the world win.
Dex has friends, though, who are determined to not let him self-combust.
One man will be there to guide him through his nightmare, to hold him to keep the demons at bay, and still let him be strong enough to find the strength to love after his darkest hour.
Dex sat gingerly on the fabric covered chair in the quiet, private office. He was healing, but damn, healing hurt. It didn't help make sitting any more comfortable, either.
"How are you today, Dex?" Dr. Michaels, his therapist, asked. She gave him a kind smile once they were both settled.
"Better." Unfortunately, it was taking a long time to get completely well.
"Would you like a water?" She started to stand and he waved her into the chair.
"I'm fine." Really, she was already sitting. Why bother now?
She tossed brown hair behind her shoulder and got comfortable, crossing one leg over the other, like they were going to spend the next hour chatting.
Dex supposed they were.
All about him.
He stroked a hand up and down his arm, waiting for her. She placed a small notebook on her lap and clasped her hands lightly around a knee. "What would you like to talk about?" Her voice was firm, but lyrical. He honestly didn't mind talking with her, it was the subjects they talked about. Not his favorites.
"He's out on bail now." It almost fell out in a rush and he clutched his upper arm in a huddled grip, fighting to stay calm. It was difficult to stay the ripples of fear that were threatening.
"And the police know this, I'm sure," she offered with a tipped head of understanding.
"They should. They did it," he returned.
"Are you worried he'll find you?"
"No, well, not really. He doesn't know much about me other than what I look like and my first name." Though if the police had revealed more, he had no idea.
"I'm also sure he's been warned away from you. That's standard procedure."
"Doesn't always work," he pointed out.
"No," she agreed, calmly, though saddened. "But we have to move you forward. The police can deal with Mr. Carson."
Dex shuddered. That name... He'd learned to despise it and fear it all at the same time. Conrad Carson. He dreaded hearing that name.
"So tell me what you've done this week. How is Brian? He's still your guardian angel, I take it?" She smiled again, this time as though she shared a secret.
"Him and a few more. They're being so supportive and sweet."
"I'm glad to hear that."
He was too, more than. It wasn't like his family was going to suddenly show up and offer any kind of tenderness.
He talked with his therapist for the hour he had, and occasionally she wrote a note, or asked about a comment, but this was one more week, another hour to work through the fear that still gripped him. Nightmares that refused to leave him alone.
He could barely walk outside his own door since that night. Dex felt safe with Brian and Chad, and even Sonny, as big as he was. Anyone else? He couldn't even speak. It had taken two sessions with Dr. Michaels to be able to talk to her about any of those fears.
His fear of men beyond those he trusted had forced them to find not only a female counselor, but a gay-accepting one as well. She had to be accepting. Not merely indifferent- embracing. Because right now, Dex could hardly stand the feel of air against his own skin. Dealing with any person who couldn't empathize with Dex one hundred percent was useless to him.
The only two people he allowed to get that close were Brian, more out of necessity that he'd adjusted to, and Chad, a friend who had become an angel in disguise.
The stitches may be gone leaving the scars on the outside, but they were only a fraction of the pain that the world could see.
* * *
It was supposed to be a night of fun dancing. It turned into a nightmare. Dex had spotted Chad when he'd walked in that Saturday night. It was only the second time he'd been to Shakers-Dex didn't have the confidence to attempt Slick's. Even at barely twenty-one, he knew its reputation-that it could get a little too wild in the corners.
Finding the confidence to approach the good-looking man, Dex had asked him to dance.
That had been wonderful. Chad had been strong and sweet at the same time and Dex had hoped to dance with him again. When Conrad had caught his eye to dance, he was still feeling flushed from dancing with Chad and hadn't thought anything of how the man was groping him all over. What was inappropriate didn't have time to cross his mind. He'd told Dex over and over how cute he was. Conrad used a lot of his body. Now Dex knew what that meant.
Conrad had been much taller, with large hands and a broad, strong body, but that was fine. He hadn't really cared how the man was built. Dex had wanted to dance.
Conrad had wanted more.
He'd followed Dex into the men's room and backed him against the wall. What happened then... It was one of the many things he'd been working through with Dr. Michaels: How he'd struggled with those invasive hands but couldn't stop the pawing. Feeling utterly helpless when he couldn't keep Conrad from jerking and tearing at clothing as he bit at Dex's mouth and neck. Not kissed-bit. Dex hadn't been drinking a lot, but there simply was no contest against the man's strength.
He couldn't imagine another man touching him now, much less being intimate. The desire to be desired was gone. There had been blood, too. He remembered that. And the fucker hadn't used a condom. He'd forced Dex against the wall, rutting like a beast Dex had never suspected existed.
Dex had tried to fight but he simply couldn't break the drunken strength shackling him. That was also when he realized Conrad had blocked the door. He had the mass to keep people out.
It hadn't taken the asshole long, leaving Dex limp, in shock, and sobbing quietly. He hadn't cared at all that he'd cried like some little girl. Still didn't. All he'd wanted to do was to shrivel into a hole and never come out. He'd never felt so violated. It was a word he was still coming to grips with, with his therapist's help.
Conrad had washed Dex's face with sloppy hands, making sure he was dressed. Sort of. It wasn't until Conrad marched him through the club and outside that he realized his night wasn't over.
He really didn't remember much beyond that. He'd shut down into a quiet place in his mind. From the statement Chad had given, he didn't want to remember. He'd awakened in the hospital ER with Chad at his bedside. It was through Chad that Dex had met Brian that night. He'd learned afterward that they'd interrupted Conrad's second attack as they were leaving for the night. Brian convinced him to press charges, to take that much of a stand despite the fear and shock coursing through him.
Now he was managing with slow steps to navigate the humiliation. It wasn't easy. He'd been so naive. He'd finally been able to exist in his own skin, no longer the gay kid in his class, and this was what it got him. All he'd wanted was to dance and meet some people.
He didn't care in the least if he never walked into another dance club again. | English | NL | 76d9e2b1c849fd39c34ecebaf21b7db27c67564267a2701f9ba4aadb9c9873d8 |
The Silverstream Charolais Stud operation was established in 1968 when Charolais beef cattle were first introduced in New Zealand.
Bruce and Maureen were at that stage dairy farming with an interest in beef cattle as a sideline. By the late 1970’s the Fishers had 60 Charolais in addition to their herd of 70 Friesians. They also had many successes in beef competitions. By 1978 Bruce was elected to council of the New Zealand Charolais Breeders Association. Maureen was just as keen to popularise the Charolais breed just as much as Bruce so through the 70’s and 80’s they entered many shows and beef competitions to help promote the breed.
All the Silverstream bloodlines originate from the Brookfield Charolais herd. In 1983 Bruce and Maureen went to St Andrews in South Canterbury to see the Copeland’s Brookfield herd and were very impressed with the cattle. They felt they were far superior to their own graded up cows. The Copeland’s were unable to continue farming their stud. Bruce and Maureen leased (and later purchased) the 70 females that made up the Brookfield herd. Among them were some very significant females including Brookfield Ocelot who would be regarded as one of the most influential cows in the world. She was the dam of Silverstream Ulverstone, Silverstream Vance, Silverstream Executive, Silverstream Jonah, the grand dam of Silverstream Performer. After purchasing the Brookfield herd all of Bruce and Maureen’s own graded up cows were sold. | English | NL | 1c39688e716aa9dafcc5602044ff5bd4872780733068ccbf81c6e5befff68fe2 |
Cecil was born in King’s Norton in 1890, the son of George and Eleanor Ann Besant, but had moved to Wolverhampton by the 1891 census. They were living at 58 Compton Road, Wolverhampton in 1901. In 1911, he was living at 11 Princess Street, Wolverhampton, along with his siblings Harold Joe, Arthur Augustus, Norman Leslie and Josephine Hancher. By this date, Cecil was an assistant to a cloth merchant. He married Lydia Clark in Wolverhampton in 1916, and they moved to 79 Gatis Street, Wolverhampton.
On 12 October 1914 Cecil joined the 3rd North Midland Field Ambulance within the Royal Army Medical Corps (number 421242). By this date his trade was given as tailor. He rose to become a Sergeant in July 1915, but died of influenza on 3 November 1918 at the 2nd Australian general hospital in Wimereux, France. Among the articles of private property forwarded to his wife were some photographs, two notebooks, a watch and strap and a mirror in a case. However, they were only received by his widow on 16 May 1919, following a letter from Cecil’s father chasing up the whereabouts of his personal effects. He left effects to the value of £274 2s. 5d. He is buried at the Terlincthun British Cemetery, Wimille, France, and is remembered on the Royal Army Medical Corps memorial in St Peter’s Church. | English | NL | 6863c0b7678d2c2cd2aa652bb9e799f703edc46feba27e997b0e1460dcb7d907 |
by Tory Lord O’Neill
There he was, as always, on the eve of her birthday.
She never expected him. Never dreamt of him, but there he was. As always, he was standing on the corner waiting for something—her perhaps—but she didn’t see him until she tripped, snagged her heel, rolled her ankle and fell slightly into him.
“Whoa! You okay!”
What’s the rush, buttercup?
Each time, his hands felt slightly different. Firm like a contractor. Gentle like a surgeon. Scarred from a fire. But with that first touch, all of their lives came flooding back to her. She remembered how he smelled of cinnamon on that morning in South Bend and how his nose crinkled when he laughed. She remembered the feeling of his fingers running through her wet hair on the shores of San Juan and the feeling of her knees buckling when the military police came to her door in the summer of ’42 to give her notification.
In this life, however, he was a piano player. After nearly rolling into an oncoming bus, he’d steadied her and offered to take her for a drink at a bar up the street. She stared into his eyes and saw their lives together. The last time they’d met, he was a newspaper editor with eyes the color of coffee mixed with cream. In that life she’d slipped her hand into his and they danced all night, his arms supporting the whole of her as she leaned in and smelled the familiarity of him.
In this life, she declined his offer for a drink.
Just one, he’d insisted, reminding her that he’d saved her life and the trauma was inevitable for them both. She laughed and agreed to just one. As he walked her towards the bar, she remembered their fourth life together. He’d written letter after letter from the frontline, until one day they stopped, becoming nothing more than yellowing pages tucked into some forgotten chest–memories of a distant time.
In one life he’d asked her to be his wife against her father’s wishes. She could still smell the gun smoke as her father took aim, and chased him from their front porch.
After losing him in New Orleans, she’d asked her mother if love always felt like inevitable loss. Her mother explained that the love within some souls is too powerful for this world and bringing them together can cause an explosion so forceful that these souls splinter off, leaving bits of themselves across time. These souls spend forever searching for their missing pieces—trying to make themselves and each other whole.
She followed him into the bar. It reminded her of the tavern in Northern Ireland where they’d drank whiskey until the sun rose over the southern border.
This piano player was the twelfth incarnation of him. Eleven lives that she remembered, all fighting to be recounted as she stared into his green eyes. He smiled at her and slipped behind the keyboard. Softly he began to play the song they’d danced to at their wedding—the one in the hills of Mississippi when her hair was twisted into braids and his eyes were as black as coal. She could almost taste their wedding cake as he tapped gently on those keys.
Do you believe in reincarnation? she’d asked one evening as they lay in their bed in Tehran. He smiled and said, Only if it means coming back to you each time.
And so they did. Each time they touched, she remembered. Eleven lives together. Eleven times loving him. Eleven times losing him. Not once did he remember her as that wide-eyed debutante, nor that rebellious poet. He didn’t see her as that jazz singer in Paris, nor that acclaimed scholar in East Berlin.
She swayed softly to their song, remembering the way his arms felt around her at their Junior Prom in Santa Cruz. She smiled at him. She had found him again. As she always had. Soon, she remembered, she would lose him. To war. To illness. To accident. Each time she would lose him.
She studied his face. The way his nose wrinkled and his lips curled back into a smile. She wasn’t sure if she could bear to lose him for the twelfth time. A long time ago, her mother had told her that when the soul is ready to heal, it finds a way. She wasn’t ready to let her soul be ripped from her again. She patted her pockets gently, searching for her keys—searching for her out.
The music lulled to a stop and he moved towards her, a flash of silver in his hands.
“You dropped these.”
She thanked him. Taking the keys from his hand, she excused herself—explaining that her friends were waiting for her at another bar. She would have to raincheck their drink.
“Of course,” he smiled and winked, “Maybe next lifetime.”
Tory Lord O’Neill is a Philadelphia-based writer. She is an alumnus of Temple University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in English. She is currently pursuing a Certificate in Creative Writing at the University of Pennsylvania. When she isn’t writing, Tory spends her time developing her blog (unheardheart.wordpress.com) and honing her witty rapport on Twitter (@1porcelaindoll). | English | NL | c27bc0745c25d7f03f660e669b41fa018b24c4a769d6b5644167ce9af5a08712 |
Bret Michaels, born March 15, 1963, in Butler, Pennsylvania, is the lead singer in the glam-metal band Poison, whose hits include “Talk Dirty to Me” and “Every Rose Has Its Thorn.” In 2007 Michaels emerged as a reality TV star on VH1’s Rock of Love, following up in 2010 with Bret Michaels: Life As I Know It. Michaels also won The Celebrity Apprentice (2010).
Singer, songwriter, actor, television personality. Born Bret Michael Sychak on March 15, 1963, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (some sources say Butler, Pennsylvania). Usually seen wearing his trademark bandanas and cowboy hats, Bret Michaels became a rock icon as the frontman of Poison, one of the biggest hair metal bands of the 1980s. He has also recently become a reality television star with Rock of Love and Rock of Love 2. While pursuing his dreams, Michaels has wrestled with a chronic disease. At the age of 6, Michaels was diagnosed with diabetes. Throughout his career, he has taken insulin and measured his blood sugar levels to manage his illness.
In the early 1980s, Michaels started playing in a band with longtime friend and drummer Rikki Rockett. The two later joined forces with bassist Bobby Dall and guitarist Matt Smith to form the band Paris. After playing mostly local gigs in the Pittsburgh area, the band moved to Los Angeles. Not long after their arrival, Smith was replaced by C. C. DeVille, and the band changed its name to Poison. Like some of the other LA metal bands of the time, Michaels and the rest of the group teased their hair, went heavy on the make-up, and worn outlandish outfits, which led critics to label such groups as hair metal bands. They were sometimes compared to Mötley Crüe, another up-and-coming LA metal band.
After making the rounds on the LA club scene, Poison landed a contract with Enigma Records. Their first album, Look What the Cat Dragged In, was released in 1986. Not only was Michaels the group's leader singer, but he also worked with the other members to write all of the songs for the recording. The recording nearly reached the top of the album charts the next year, driven such hits as "Talk Dirty to Me." The group then went on tour with Ratt, Cinderella, and Quiet Riot.
While critics derided them for being formulaic and derivative, Poison developed a devoted following who loved their pop-infused metal sound and glam rock looks. Their second album, Open Up and Say . . . Ahh! (1988) was an even bigger smash. The infectious party anthem "Nothin' But a Good Time broke into the top ten while the ballad "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" made it all the way to the top of the pop charts. On the road, Poison soon moved up from supporting other groups to being the main act.
The follow-up album, Flesh and Blood (1990), also did well on the album charts and featured the hit "Unskinny Bop" and the power ballad "Something to Believe In." But the group's success was not free of strife and difficulty. Michaels got into a few legal scrapes over a few brawls he was involved with. There was also turmoil within the group. In 1991, Michaels got into an altercation with DeVille backstage at the MTV Music Video Awards, and DeVille was later fired from the band.
As popular music tastes changed in the 1990s, Poison began to lose some of its audience. Their next recording, 1993's Native Tongue, did not fare as well as their earlier albums. With new member Richie Kotzen aboard, the group wrote all of the songs for the album, but only one struck a cord with music fans, the up-tempo power ballad "Stand." Kotzen was later fired and replaced by Blues Saraceno.
Scandals and Setbacks
Michaels also suffered a personal setback around this time. In 1994, he was in a serious car accident, which left him with a broken nose, jaw, and several fingers as well as a few ribs. Michaels and the rest of the group went back into the recording studios for the next project. After completing work on their album, they were disappointed to learn that the record company did not want to release it. The company put out a greatest hits album instead. The new material was finally released in 2000 as Crack a Smile and More.
In 1998, Poison was dropped by their record label. With his band floundering, Michaels explored other projects. He formed a production company with actor Charlie Sheen, which led to his first lead film role in Letter from Death Row (1998). Michaels played a convicted killer facing the death penalty. In addition to acting, he also wrote the screenplay and the soundtrack for the film. Michaels also served as a co-director.
Michaels made headlines around this time for a very different type of performance. A sex tape involving him and former girlfriend Pamela Anderson ended up in the hands of the Internet Entertainment Group. To stop its release, Michaels sued the company. It was unclear how the company got possession of the tape. At the time, Michaels's lawyer, Edwin F. McPherson, told the Los Angeles Times that "Pam had a copy. Bret had a copy. Bret still has his copy. That's all I know."
After that scandal lost steam, Michaels went back on tour with Poison, with DeVille as a band member again. They had to cancel some dates in 2001 after Bobby Dall underwent emergency surgery on his spine. After he recovered, Dall rejoined the group and Poison pressed on. They released an album of new material, Hollyweird, in 2002. While it failed to make much of a splash on the charts, the group remained a popular live act. Michaels also did two solo albums, Songs of Life (2003) and Freedom of Sound (2005).
Not everyone was a fan, however. Michaels was struck by some broken glass after someone fired shots into his tour bus in Chicopee, Massachusetts, in 2005. Unshaken, he released a statement at the time, which read in part: "It's going to take more than a cowardice act like this to make me stop performing or stop my tour."
Reality TV Star
Taking his career in a new direction, Michaels shared his quest for love with television audiences in the reality show, Rock of Love, in 2007. A group of women vied for his affection while undertaking a number of different challenges. Reviled by critics, the show received a number of harsh reviews, including this comment from The New York Times: "The well-meaning has-been Bret is surrounded with women who are too young, too frantic or too high to know that being easy isn't funny in itself." Still, audience members became hooked on the show for all its odd-ball characters and Michaels' candid commentary. Michaels also incorporated his diabetes into the program, teaching the contestants what to do in case of emergency. In the end, he picked Jes, the pink-haired cosmetologist from Illinois.
Alas, Michaels' relationship with the winner never really got off the ground. He continued his search for a woman who was attractive and could handle his rock and roll lifestyle in Rock of Love 2 in 2008. This latest bunch of scantily clad bachelorettes have done private peep shows for Michaels, worked on motorcycles, played mud football, and completed other challenges while trying to win Michaels's heart. Some did not try too hard. One contestant got so drunk that she slept through her own elimination.
Beyond reality television, Michaels is reportedly working on another film. He told Billboard magazine in 2007 that he has been writing another screenplay. "It will basically be my life story, not only in the music business but what happened as a child," he said. That same year, Poison released an album of cover songs from such artists as David Bowie, the Rolling Stones, and Grand Funk Railroad.
In addition to his work with Poison and on TV, Michaels has enjoyed some success as a solo performer. He has maintained a hectic touring schedule in recent years, which has been interrupted by several health challenges. In 2009, Michaels was injured while performing on the Tony Awards. He was struck in the head by a piece of the show's set. The following year, Michaels had a brain hemorrhage that he believed was caused by his Tony Awards injury. He also underwent an emergency appendectomy in 2010.
In May 2014, Michaels left the stage in the middle of a performance because of low blood sugar. He then underwent kidney surgery that fall and ended up returning to the hospital several times after the procedure. During this crisis, Michaels' guitarist Pete Evick posted updates on the situation on Michaels' Facebook page. He wrote that Michaels "was in and out of 6 hospitals throughout the Midwest" during a two-week period. While some concert dates had to be postponed, Michaels remained committed to perform his other November shows.
Michaels is a father of two. He has two daughters, Raine and Jorja, with former girlfriend Kristi Gibson.
We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us! | English | NL | 46bbdea42ed62c0f69d57538a848dd8f7154101b4d9686ff6023f757ab9159f7 |
CHRISTMAS DAY 1993.
“Immanuel” – God with us
ILLUST: Five years ago no one here at Binscombe knew who I was. Imagine if ,one day, I had written you a letter. You received and read the letter. Would you know me? NO You would know a little bit about me but you wouldn’t know me.
After a number of letters I sent you a photograph of myself. Would you know me then? NO, you would now know what I looked like but you still wouldn”t know me.
If after that a very close friend of mine came to live in Godaliming and he told you more about me. All the naughty things I did when I was boy etc… Would you know me then? NO, you still would not know me.
BUT you do know me, WHY? Because I came to Godalming myself with my wife and children and now you know me and I know you.
You know me because I came to live amongst you. That in a small way illustrates what God did. There was a time in the OT when God, through the Propets, told people about himself and they knew something about God and what he was like.
But then one day God came himself. That day was Christmas 2000 years ago. Jesus came to live where we live. He came to be a human like you and me.
“And Christ became a human being
and lived here on earth among us
and was full of grace and truth”
“Long ago God spoke in many different ways
to our fathers through the prophets, ..
But now … he has spoken to us through his Son”
Jesus came to live where we live and to be like us in every way. The only difference between him and us, and it is a big difference, there was no sin in Jesus. We, however, are born sinners and it was for that very reason that Jesus came. To save us, to rescue us from our sin.
Jesus is just like us but with no sin in him. He is also like someone else.
ILLUST: There was a Nativity play at a school one evening. There was Mary and Joseph and the Shepherds and the angels…. Then came the wise men and as they each knelt to give their gifts one of them forgot his lines. The teacher urged him to say something, to say anything. Eventually he blurted out, “Eeh, He’s just like his Dad, isn’t he?” [From tract “The Nativity Play” -Topical Christian Tracts, Horsforth ,Leeds]
The little boy was right, Jesus is just like his Dad. His father is God himself. Jesus is just like God; in fact Jesus is God. His “name is called Immanuel – God with us” Here was the Creator of the universe himself become a creature.
Listen to the words of one of Charles Wesley’s hymns;
“.. Our God contracted to a span,
In comprehensibly made man.
He deigns in flesh to appear,
Widest extremes to join;
[God and man joined together in one]
To bring our vileness near,
and make us all divine:
And we the life of God shall know,
For God is manifest below.
Jesus who was like God became like us so that we could become like God. Doesn’t this boggle your mind. God wants us to be like him. Not that we can be God that is blasphemous but that we can reflect his image and be what He made us to be before sin entered the world.
But it is precisely because sin entered the world that Jesus came. By coming to earth and going to the cross and dying Jesus took upon his shoulders all the sin of all the people in all the world for all time.
He paid the price so that we could be forgiven and be given new life.
But in order to receive this new life we need to respond to him.
ILLUST: [From tract “The Nativity Play” -Topical Christian Tracts, Horsforth ,Leeds]
“In another nativity play a boy whose nickname was ‘Wally’ was chosen to be the inn-keeper The crowd was enthralled by watching the childern act. Eventually Joseph and Mary knocked at the inn door, “Sorry … we have no room .. go away!”
Joseph asked again,”Are you sure? We have travelled a long way and Mary is due to have a aby at any time.” It seemed ages before Wally replied, “Sorry but there is no room.”
Joseph and Mary slowly turn to go their way. Wally watched. Then he shouted, “Joseph, come back you can use my bedroom!”
Another navivity play ruined! But a truth Told.
Is there room in Your life for Christ? Or are you saying to Him, “Go away there is no room for you.” Jesus’ coming to Earth and dying for us on the cross to take away the sin of the world remains meaningless until we respond to his offer of salvation. There is nothing we can do to save ourselves. If we could have saved ourselves there would have been no need for Christ to come and die.
But it is precisely because we cannot save ourselves that he did come and he died for YOU and for ME. If we have responded to his offer of salvation then he has become our Immanuel – God lives in us and we in Him. If you haven’t responded to Him yet, then he remains distant and you remain cut off from God. Why not respond to his this Christmas and really come to know him as “Immanuel – God with us”? | English | NL | 7de4d386f66d92554513c8fed0ee32c5d41b9f885ad2d816ad6fe3ece4e61bbb |
Pipe smoking was practiced by both Indigenous men and women.
Pipe bowls were made from ceramics or carved from hard materials such as pipestone, soapstone, wood, or corncobs. The stem was usually made of a hollowed out tube of wood. Pipes were used recreationally to smoke tobacco, or blends of aromatic plants or barks. Pipes were also used on political and ceremonial occasions. Unique metal-forged axe pipes were gifted to Indigenous chiefs and leaders.
Pipe smoking has dwindled, but the practice and symbolism still carries on as some of these pictures show. | English | NL | 34e21fca13bf711b4d608faa135663a8fea3b6715436839474bb8e2ba4662700 |
Mike McKamy - Owner & Manager
Mike has been involved with swimming for over 40 years. He has taught lessons and led programs at Millard High School, the University of Nebraska-Omaha, the Happy Hollow Club, and Westside High School. He started swimming with the local swim team in Waterloo, Iowa, when he was 7 years old. Mike swam competitively in high school and college. He continues to compete with the Omaha Master's Swim Club and has participated in several Master's National Championships. For 12 years, Mike coached for Swim Omaha and the Millard Aquatics Club. He directed the Westside Swim Lesson program for 6 years and the UNO Swim Lesson program for 4 years. Mike has coached at every club level of swimmer from beginners to the National level including many swimmers who competed in the Olympic Trials. He taught swim lessons to toddlers and children in his backyard in the summer from 2009-2012. He and his wife opened Little Waves in 2012. He is married to Kristi, who retired from Millard Public School after 33 years as a teacher and librarian. Their son, Alex, and daughter-in-law, Brooke, have 4 children and live in Concord, Nebraska. Alex is a math teacher at Laurel-Concord-Coleridge Middle School. Their daughter, Claire, graduated from Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa, with a degree in math. She also has a computer programming degree from Metropolitan Community College. | English | NL | 7fd43236c7d50687ddb0da7ee6186ead78228485d1e80cd9bb61361ad0845423 |
Learn more about the history of Derby Arboretum
Joseph Strutt, one of Derby's mill owners and former Mayor of Derby, was so thankful to the working people of Derby for helping his family make their fortune that he commissioned work to start on Derby Arboretum.
John Claudius Loudon designed the park, adapting Strutt's original plans for a botantic gardens and pleasure grounds to include landscaped walkways. Work started in July 1839 and the deeds were handed over to Derby Town Council on Wednesday 16th September 1840.
Derby Arboretum first opened its doors to the public on Thursday 17th September 1840. The whole town of 1,500 people took the afternoon off and headed to the park to celebrate.
The park originally charged an entry fee but was free on Sundays and Wednesdays so people on low incomes could still enjoy the park. The entry fee was stopped in 1882.
It is thought that Frederick Law Olmsted took inspiration from the Arboretum for his design for Central Park in New York.
Towards the end of the 20th Century, the Arboretum was in decline. In 2002 the park received funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund to refurbish it and help bring it back to its former condition.
Over £5 million was invested into the park to restore buildings and provide new facilities for toddlers and older children. Work was completed in 2005.
After a lengthy local campaign, a new bronze replica of the Florentine Boar statue, produced at cost by a local engineer, Alex Paxton, was finally put in place in November 2005.
Historic trees of Derby Arboretum
The Arboretum has a superb collection of trees, some of which were planted in the 19th century. One specimen of Caucasian Lime is the tallest tree of its type in Britain.
John Claudius Loudon’s design took into account of the magnification tree routes by exhibiting them at eye level.
Pick up your free tree trail leaflet from the Rangers office or download it below. | English | NL | 9a9c2bfd92b0fdf7a667176497cffee69476381fc75f1bc27f387d5011af6221 |
In this excerpt from his book, Preaching and Teaching from the Old Testament, Walter Kaiser explains why the Old Testament should be emphasized more in local churches:1
Let it be affirmed right away that the central theme of both the Old and New Testaments is Christ. Did not our Lord rebuke the two disciples on the road to Emmaus on that first Easter Sunday afternoon for their failure to understand that he was the one to whom all the Law, Prophets, and Writings pointed (Luke 24:25–27)?
Indeed, while the prophets were ignorant of the time and the circumstances surrounding the coming of the Messiah (1 Pet. 1:10–12), they were clear about five things: (1) they were writing about the Messiah; (2) they knew Messiah would suffer; (3) they knew Messiah would also be glorified and that he would triumph; (4) they knew the suffering would precede the glory; and (5) they knew that they were speaking not only to their own generation but to all of us who would come later, such as those in the church in Peter’s day.
Therefore, the prophets’ bewilderment about their lack of knowledge as to the precise date of the appearing of Messiah should not be taken as proof that the prophets spoke “better than they knew,” or that they often spoke in ignorance of what they wrote. | English | NL | 76d34092bfc033ee597e8a1de6dbeb0a96f0a4bbe1137e705ce9fa31d5d4c7ef |
Art student Maya Cantescu has always had secrets to keep — her mysterious disease that has turned her into something like a vampire, her father’s obsession with ritual magic, her own talents for the occult. Now, however, she has a secret far more dangerous than those: in self-defense, she killed a man with magic.
Can her lover, the wealthy, powerful runemaster Tor Thorlaksson, protect her from the consequences? He has dangers of his own to face, because his family’s evil past haunts him. A powerful spirit from the mists of time is hunting Tor down, in hopes of taking him away from Maya and making him her own — forever.
Katharine Kerr was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1944 to a family which considered itself British-in-exile far more than American. In 1962, she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, and has lived there ever since.
In 1979 a friend gave Katherine her first fantasy role-playing game. She became so intrigued with gaming and with the fantasy field that she began writing articles for gaming magazines, and for some time was a contributing editor to ‘Dragon’ magazine, as well as devising gaming modules. Now, however, she is devoting herself exclusively to fiction. | English | NL | e171ad2a088a9cf702aff8a04e32d02159a206e0dbf3abfaa3718125236bf5ec |
Walter Salles first picked up a copy of On the Road as a student in Brazil in the 1970s. The country was under a military dictatorship at the time, torture and censorship were rife, and the dog-eared book was passed furtively from hand to hand, a window to a kind of freedom he and his fellow students could only dream about. It affected him profoundly: "The way they lived was the way in which we wanted to live, so the book had a very resonant quality for my generation. The idea of movement as an instrument to better understand who you are and who you could eventually be wasn't allowed to us because the roads were blocked. Literally. We were denied a future and here were characters fighting to redefine their own future."
So when Francis Ford Coppola asked him to direct the movie of On the Road in 2004 – after seeing Salles's The Motorcycle Diaries at the Sundance film festival – it was a responsibility he took seriously. Not only was the book a cult classic of American literature, but the preceding 50 years were littered with the wrecks of failed attempts to turn it into a film. Jack Kerouac first mooted the idea of an adaptation in 1957 when he wrote to Marlon Brando suggesting that he could play Dean Moriarty (Kerouac would play Sal Paradise). Brando never replied. In 1979, Coppola bought the film rights and there followed several doomed attempts involving heavyweight directors such as Gus Van Sant and Jean-Luc Godard and an ever‑changing lineup of leading men, from Brad Pitt to Sean Penn.
A documentary-maker by background, Salles agreed to take on the film on the condition that he could first make a non-fiction account of his "search for On the Road". There followed an intense five-year research period, with Salles crisscrossing America in search of every last surviving beat writer, artist and expert, meeting the surviving characters who inspired the fictional alter egos and faithfully retracing the route taken by Kerouac and his band of adventurers "in search of it".
It was on one of these research trips, to Kerouac's childhood home in Lowell, Massachusetts, that Salles was shown "the scroll" – the 120ft-long roll of paper on which the author had famously typed the original stream-of-consciousness manuscript in 1951. This proved to be a turning point for Salles and provided the answer to the question: how do you film the unfilmable?
A far more visceral piece of writing than the heavily edited version that was eventually published by Penguin in 1957, the scroll opens with the death of Sal's father and, for Salles, this represented the key to the film's thematic core: "The search for the father leitmotif was so much more present in this version than in the 1957 edition, that we immediately altered the beginning of the screenplay and Jose Rivera, our writer, started to use the scroll as the text he was adapting," Salles explains.
Realising that it would be futile to make the book adhere to the traditional Hollywood three-act format, Salles and Rivera decided to remain true to the book's collection of disjointed journeys rather than trying to condense it neatly into one epic trip. Instead, they took their narrative arc from the developing friendship between Dean and Sal, and their transition from youth into adulthood.
During his travels, it became apparent to Salles that the diversity of landscapes the characters travel through in the book no longer existed in 21st-century America: "You can drive 2,000 miles and you will encounter the same Walmarts, fast-food chains and homogenised architecture that you saw two days before." The search for authenticity took them 60,000 miles in total, from Argentina to Canada, chasing the snows of Patagonia and the blistering heat of Mexico.
True to the spirit of the book, where living vicariously is not an option, Salles wanted his cast to feel the changing seasons, "to experience the rain on the windshield, the dust, to feel the humidity of Louisiana, or when you are in the midst of the Arizona desert, to feel the solitude". This commitment to experiencing everything first-hand led the director and Garrett Hedlund, who plays Dean Moriarty, to take their own road trip once the main shoot had finished, to capture some of the book's spontaneity and a sense of the changing landscapes.
"We took the old Hudson and did the journey from the east coast to the west. Garrett was driving and whenever we saw a back road that looked interesting we took it," says Salles. "It was conceived with the same kind of freedom that you find in the book and we didn't know where we were going to sleep. We got to meet really extraordinary characters on the way… we were listening to jazz all the time… it was a unique journey." Much of the footage captured on this trip made it into the final cut of the film.
A similarly rigorous approach was taken when it came to preparing the cast for their roles. Salles gathered them together in Montreal for a "beatnik bootcamp" – a month-long immersion and bonding session with visits and talks from beat survivors and experts. They were preaching to the converted. For most of the actors and crew this was a passion project, inspired by a love of the book. Kristen Stewart, for example, first read On the Road aged 14 and was intrigued by the Marylou character, the child-bride who rejects the traditional roles on offer for women of that era and goes on the road with Dean and Sal, blazing a trail for sexual liberation. She was one of the first actors to be cast, back in 2007 before the Twilight phenomenon, and her sudden rise to fame was instrumental in helping the project to finally secure its elusive financing.
Hedlund was similarly committed to the cause, turning down other parts during the long and tortuous development period so that he could be available for the part of Dean Moriarty when the film finally got the green light. Producer Rebecca Yeldham, who had previously worked with Salles on The Motorcycle Diaries, explains that they were well aware that Kerouac fans would be coming to the film with their own expectations about how the characters of Dean and Sal should look and act, and did not want to add another layer of expectation to that by casting an established actor.
"We wanted the audience to discover Sal and Dean through a fresh lens," she says. "So even though we had many name actors jostling for those two parts, Walter really loved the idea of discovering two actors for those roles. In the UK, Sam Riley [who plays Sal] is better known than he is in other parts of the world, but he's still fresh, he doesn't bring expectations. Garrett had been in a range of movies but was still relatively unknown. Walter met Garrett in 2007 and the minute Garrett walked into the room and began to read… Walter didn't want to make the movie with anyone else."
Kerouac's book is famously influenced by the free-flow style and energy of the jazz scene that was burgeoning in the clubs of Harlem in the late 1940s. Salles tried to inject a little of that spirit into the shoot by encouraging his cast to improvise where possible: "The actors were so immersed in that world that at some point they started to be able to improvise in the logic of their characters. It's a little bit like jazz. Once you know the structure of the piece you are allowed to bifurcate from it because you know you will find your way back," he says. Some of the movie's more memorable scenes – notably where a hitchhiker (played by musician Jake La Botz) starts to sing an a cappella song in the back of the car, and during an unsettling stopover at the Louisiana home of junkie William Burroughs (a memorable cameo by Viggo Mortensen) – were the result of such improvisation.
Salles admits that there were times during the film's protracted genesis when he doubted that it would ever get made. But for him, the journey was worthwhile. This is his fourth road-trip movie and comparisons will inevitably be drawn with The Motorcycle Diaries, a similar tale of friendship between two men on a journey of discovery.
"The narrative is very similar to Motorcycle Diaries in the sense that it is constructed layer by layer and [gradually] you reach a point where you realise that the characters are not the same ones you've been following since the beginning of the journey. The journey is very complex because it entails moments of exhilaration but also moments of extraordinary pain. Loss is included in the idea of movement."
A complex and rewarding genre the road-trip movie may be, but Salles admits he wouldn't mind tackling something less epic and more contained for his next project: "My next film is going to be set in a phone booth." | English | NL | f76936040591fbc776b08f79ac8b7cc28ecc53d6c6545b7954065c6759664d52 |
Arthur Butterworth had a long and successful career in music. A trumpeter in the Scottish and Hallé Orchestras, he gave up professional playing in his late thirties to focus on conducting, instrumental teaching and, primarily, composition. He was drawn to traditional genres such as the symphony and the concerto and wrote several fine pieces for brass band.
Some of Butterworth’s first acknowledged scores were performed while he was still a student at the Royal Manchester College of Music (RMCM, now the Royal Northern College of Music). Among them is the piano piece Lakeland Summer Nights, Op.10, which dates from March 1949 and was premiered by Jean Barker at an RMCM recital on 14 February 1950. | English | NL | f48b0b102cb980459265a577b720c14778762058978775e75496a3964dac7bcf |
PLAYED BY: Violet Carpenter
CHARACTER NAME: Quille Nightflower
OCCUPATION: Traveling merchant and herbalist.
KNOWN SKILLS: Quille is a skilled forager and trader.
BIRTHPLACE: On the road in Faedrun.
APPEARANCE: Wears comfortable clothing.
RELATIONSHIPS: Quille maintained close relationships with several of her missing caravan mates, including her parents and her partner Caster.
RUMORS: “Seems lost…” “Were you just in my stuff?”
BIO / BACKGROUND HISTORY: While though she was born in Faedrun, she does not remember it. She was born on the road while the undead rampaged the lands and spent her first year either on the road or in a boat. Once she got to Mardrun, her family were able to get by with just enough to support themselves and have some niceties.
Quille was a traveling Soujourner and part of a small caravan which delivered supplies during the war. One evening, the group was set upon by Grimward raiders. During the attack, she was separated from her companions and has been searching for them ever since.
Currently, she is living on the fringes of society just trying to survive and get back to her people. She is also looking for a reliable group of people to work with while she is on her own. She is a merchant, so finding a group where she can peddle her goods and find trade connections is also important to her.
She is wary, slow to trust, but loyal. She is also nosy and curious. | English | NL | f3c077e8e71454a488f315acec32c3708ba9cd7d00cfe5a5fcea0fe0c5b41947 |
Home Quote Process
Whilst at Confused.com I was asked to look at the Home Insurance quote process and work out ways to improve the number of users that completed it.
This involved breaking the question set down into clear defined areas and ensuring the customer knew where they were within this process.
The first steps were identifying which questions where necessary to provide an accurate quote and removing the ones which were not needed.
It also involved experimenting with the order in which questions were asked. With a view to asking easy ones first to get users into the process quickly without having to make them think too much. The more taxing questions would appear further down the order.
The image above shows my thoughts for quick wins which were presented to the account team. These could be implemented fairly quickly in order to get instant improvements.
- Dreamweaver HTML | English | NL | 33f65cc158735bfb57b01c08240a559f3fac9c0951acab3a3189edfa8a79e5c2 |
She stood straight and still. The winter’s wind pulling on her long red hair, shifting her dress around her legs, trying to push her down. But she stayed true. She faced death head on, unafraid of his darkness, his shroud or his scythe; took no notice of the unkindness of ravens he sent forth to collect souls. He stood menacingly, holding his black book open. But she knew the book of the dead intimately. Read cover to cover. Death had been wrong and she knew it. She would find the one Raven that possessed her soul… and set him free.
Image: No Claim to Image | English | NL | 0e500b50f867454a089e014fcd48f723d51a6ae059fb093cd35ea49551be34d7 |
Thursday, 22 January 2015
We were sitting having lunch on our pool deck when I suddenly spotted some activity in the ocean. Chris rushed to get the binoculars and we could not believe what we saw. Two Southern Right Whales! Their distinctive V-shaped blow due to their two blow holes makes it easy to identify them from afar. They were milling around quite close to the shore showing their flippers and tails without any particular hurry. It was such a surprise and lovely to watch. Their usual time in our waters is from May to November when they move back into the Antarctic where they feed on krill. They do not feed in our waters at all, they come to our coasts to mate and to calve. They were called the Right Whale by the early whalers as they have so much blubber that they could float for a long time in the sea after being harpooned. When industrial whaling started in the early 20th century huge numbers were taken annually and levels were so low that hunting Right Whales was banned as early as 1937. Since the ban numbers have increased and it looks as things are looking up for these gentle giants. Seeing endangered species making progress makes me optimistic for the future of this wonderful planet. | English | NL | 35810ab3278e6cbcce5f92d95f96a7bda785b07c01d78b6c5b85eda1eb4e9419 |
This post has been published by me as a part of Blog-a-Ton 55; the fifty-fifth edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. In association with Rashmi Kumar, the author of Hooked, Lined and Single and Jyoti Arora, the author of Lemon Girl.
The weather had been unchanging for past few days. Monsoon was supposed to be romantic for many. But for me it was a reason of my bad health. My head was hurting so badly I was afraid it would split open the very moment. However it didn't and kept on hurting more. I put down the bottle of aspirin on the table and walked to the window. It was pitch dark outside. The clock above the window showed 9 pm.
I watched the rain coming down in sheets. As if the heavy sound of downpour was not enough, the waterfall some distance away drummed like an attacking tank drawing closer, inch by inch. When the lightning flashed, followed by a deafening thunder, my head almost cracked and I cringed. But just a split second before my eyes closed, I saw something. Or someone. In the veranda. Under the berry tree.
Like I said, it had been this way for past few days followed by nights. However I hadn't seen anyone under that tree earlier. I remember this clearly because it was planted by me in my childhood and I have watered it and have seen it grow to a big red berry tree. It is my favorite pass-time to watch it, shutting down my mind. So there was no one near my house a few hours back, rather nobody wanders in vicinity of my house. So coming back to this person, yes it was a person. I wondered who would it be. I have last seen a person months back. I have all the necessities stored in the attic. I live with myself, alone.
Still wondering, I switched on the lamppost, I saw it was a female.
As I walked to the drenched woman, I saw her eyes changing emotions and I was lost in thoughts. What was she thinking? Does she fear me? Is she relieved. However I couldn't really make out. When I reached the tree, I held the umbrella over her head and we walked back. However she stood by the door while I entered the front door of the house. When I looked back at her, the question she asked confused me. Water was dripping from her head and face. She asked me, "Will you be fine if I come in?" Why would she ask? I just nodded and went inside to get her some dry clothes.
Later when she was back into my dry clothes, to my surprise, she asked for red wine and said she can prepare garlic soup for me. These are my favorite, something I would want to have served over my deathbed. I nodded again, thinking how this lady would know about them, trying to recollect her face. But I couldn't. No matter how much I tried, I simply couldn't. I finally resigned and asked her if I knew her. Yes, off-course, she said. "But you wouldn't recollect now. You would soon", she said. I shrugged and waited for the soup to arrive.
We first had the soup as we sat by the window and watch the rain fall. "Life has not been that pleasant for you, isn't it?" she asked. I didn't say anything. Who knows who she was, it was better she did the talking. I was sure over the conversation, I would figure out her identity.
"Do you still go out to the ravine back towards the waterfall? How is the kind woman in that hut. I still remember the day when you hurt yourself falling down the tree stealing the fruits from her orchard. And when she treated your wound and gave you garlic soup, you were all smiles. I still remember your happy face. Do you remember?"
I looked at her and laughed out loud, I don't know why. All I remember then was the woman's corpse floating in the waterfall. She was a kind woman, I could remember though, but albeit distantly, little more imaginary than reality. I told the lady so.
"That indeed was a tragedy", the lady said with a loud sigh. As we finished the soup, I poured ourselves wine. As she held the glass she looked beautiful, any guy would have fallen for her. I told her so to which she asked if I have fallen for her.
It's beyond my capacity, I said to myself and instead asked her, "Aren't you afraid?"
She gave surreptitious laugh and whispered something into my ears which I couldn't comprehend.
"What did you say? How do you know about me?" I asked her worriedly.
It was very queer night, and the woman strange. I felt insecure as if she was binding me. The time seemed to have stopped into the night and the rain had swept us along with the house into a sea typhoon. Everything seemed to be tumbling, up and down. I looked at the glass in my hand, it was straight up but my hand was shaking, perhaps in awareness of something my mind couldn't comprehend. I looked at the woman one more time and asked again.
"What did you say? How do you know about me?" I was getting hysterical.
She smiled. And as she did, I felt something was heaved up from my memory dump. And I writhed in an anticipation. Stop. I wanted to say. But she kept smiling. And then she came close and looking into my eyes, she spoke in a very soft voice.
"Martin, just listen to me. You are important"
I looked at her puzzled. But her smile and her words were soothing and somehow calmed my anxiety and surprisingly I was feeling at peace slowly. I looked at the wine glass. It was still full. It wasn't the alcohol but the woman who's demeanor was working on me.
But was it true? Am I important? It was unfathomable. I kept quiet.
"Yes. The lady, she was so kind, wasn't she?", she asked.
"Kind. Yes. She was. But what did she get in return?" I asked, "Bruises and black eye?" My voice was getting edgy again and I feared I will snap. To calm myself I closed my eyes but the woman's corpse floating in the clear river water kept flashing before my eyes. I almost screamed.
"There is no meaning to this existence! If you were unwanted from the day you are born. Do you know how it feels when everyone abandons you? When people look right through you? When your existence does not matter to even a single person?" My voice was low, trembling.
"You were never unwanted. Do you really think otherwise? Do you remember the school-boy you saved from drowning. What would have happened if it was not for you to jump into the river and save him?" I looked at this lady who was churning my memories and bringing up what was hidden below the heap.
She was still smiling. She continued. "You say nobody cares for you. But when you ran away into the woods, who was it who came searching for you?... She searched you every where, calling your name, while you hid in that trunk, listening. You did wanted that woman to find you, didn't you?". When I looked up, I saw she looked right through my defiance. I found my own reflection in her. I did wanted her to find me. I wanted love. I wanted a mother. I wanted a normal life.
"You remember the her bruises. But you do remember the smile that spread on her bruised face. The tears flowing from the swollen eyes the moment she saw you. You ran to her and hugged her tight. Didn't you? Do you remember?"
"Yes. I did. I really did. She called me son. And I tugged her like a new born. I never knew my biological mother but when I hugged her, I became her son". When I closed my eyes, her face appeared, without bruises, her face smiling, calling me son. I can hear her voice. "Are you hurt? You are trembling son. Don't be afraid. I am here. For you". Don't be afraid. I am here. For you. Don't be afraid. I am here. For you.... the words replayed on my mind, the voice filling the void inside me.
"She tended the tree with you. How will you feel if that tree crashes? Do you want that? It has to be strong, no matter how strong the wind blows. Do you think it will survive this storm?"
"It will survive. It will survive". I kept muttering. Don't be afraid. I am here. For you.... the words still running on my mind.
When I opened my eyes, I was alone. I felt calm spreading through my body and mind. Something had changed. My heart was light and my mind clear. I felt the urge to have garlic soup, it's warmth passing through my body just with the thought.
When I looked out the window, the storm had passed and even while it drizzled, it was unusually calm. The cool breeze was flowing but it carried some fragrance which filled me with contentment. I looked at my hand, it was steady. I realized my head no longer hurt and deep inside, I was feeling at peace.
I threw the bottle of aspirin in the dustbin, it wasn't my last day after all. I made myself a garlic soup. As I drank it spoon by spoon, I watched the water dripping through the leaves and branches of the tree. It had survived the storm.
The fellow Blog-a-Tonics who took part in this Blog-a-Ton and links to their respective posts can be checked here. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton. Participation Count: 21. Image Credits: Monsoon by Yann (Wikimedia Commons). Shared with GNU Free Documentation License CC Attribution-Share Alike. | English | NL | 0811f2096b8b81a3cb5f386ec6b00c343d3377df41681e6767489dc9e5fe57d3 |
Today marks the end of Cru’s Winter Conference for 2017. This year’s conference gathered over 1,000 students from about 69 campuses around California, Arizona and Hawaii. For those of you who were not able to join us, the theme of the conference was Compassion, and following are a few morsels your fellow bears wanted to share from their experiences this weekend.
“During the Day of Compassion [a time where we went out to serve the community and share the gospel], Madison and I talked to a woman who was relaxing at Huntington Beach. As we asked her questions from the survey, her response that stood out to me was how she rated her relationship with God and why. She rated it a 4 out of 10, because she felt distant from God, like He wasn't answering her prayers. This sounded familiar to how I felt two months ago, so I shared with her about my struggles and how God revealed Himself in the midst of them. It was great to be able to minister to her and have her minister to us. Before going out for the Day of Compassion I had felt like God wouldn't use me because I'm broken, but that conversation taught me that when I have authentic compassion for others, God can use me in a significant way. “ –Kim W.
“When I'm up at Berkeley there are 2 voices in my head. The first is my own, which is reiterating my to-do list and urging me to control all aspects of my life. The second is God’s. What I took away from Winter Conference is that I need to put God’s voice on a pedestal, and His must overpower my own. When we listen for His voice more and share the Gospel with others, we glorify Him in all that we do.” –Jenica B.
“I've been reflecting upon an excerpt from a Desiring God article I read, which talked about how we as Christians are called to outdo each other in love. Looking in on my life, the majority of it would not be characterized by a desire to actively outdo one another in love. Dwelling on that, I've seen the Lord revealing in me a need for greater compassion and intentionality. I wanna ask people how they are doing and actually care. I want to genuinely engage with others and approach all aspects of life with the same passion and fervor that I lead off with. I just want to be consciously aware of the need for investment in others and to take action in caring and loving, without falling into a comfortable rhythm.” –Chris H.
Compassion is a core part of who God is, and this weekend challenged us to consider what it would look like for us to reflect His character and show compassion in our lives. Compassion from the Lord moves us. It allows us to see pain and suffering and feel empathy, and then urges us to do something about it.
As we return to the busyness of Berkeley, the temptation is to be preoccupied with the challenge and tasks that we personally face. So let's pray that the Lord would prompt us to look up and see the people in our lives who are in need of compassion.
“By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?" -1 John 3:16-17 | English | NL | 213d15824eaec50608e4f882dc1b8ae0a4e37cd89cfb9ff4f992416bba338242 |
Nzinga: African Warrior Queen
From 1583 to 1663, Nzinga watched, listened and grew into her final role as Ngola, or Queen of Angola. Her father, the elder Ngola or King, was a wise ruler who practiced fairness unless he was opposed by rebellious chiefs. Even then, he exerted justice that would influence a return to loyalty and obedience; when that failed, he would mercilessly destroy his enemies. Nzinga sat quietly in the back of his audience room, listening to him respond to the needs of his subjects. When she wasn’t doing that, she would be listening to the reports of the women who were part of his extensive spy system both within his kingdom and as far away as Luanda, the base of invading Portuguese soldiers and traders. The old Ngola had high hopes that his son would succeed him, but Mbande showed passion only for hunting and feasting. Mbande will inherit the role, but it would be his mother, Kaningwa, who ruled and did everything in her power to prevent Nzinga’s rise to power. Nzinga trained as a warrior and possessed a wisdom for strategy and justice beyond her father or any other chief’s capabilities.
The amazing essence of this novel, however, concerns the communication of the women around Nzinga, their sharing of joys and sorrows, their ability to feast, work, and strategize with perfect balance. Their world is depicted as a celebration of life and a supernatural belief fleshed out in their devotion to each other and their Ngola. Formidable as the Portuguese might have been, they didn’t have a chance against the woman destined to become the first African Warrior Queen and her retinue. Stunning, beautiful and outstanding historical fiction, and highly recommended reading! | English | NL | 7ea62ab7c7b256b473da16d75914cf07a1389dad7a6e3f07d1f10ce8d423a1a4 |
In July 1860 the Hayling Railway Company was formed, in order to build a branch line from Havant to South Hayling. It was estimated that it would take seven years to raise the money, acquire the necessary land and build the line. The civil engineer contracted to build the line was Frederick Furniss, who was born in Ashford-in-the Water, Derbyshire in 1825. He and his second wife, Septima, rented Langstone Villa in Langstone HIgh Street, where their five children were born between 1864 and 1870.
Work began in the spring of 1863. The first mile of track was laid to Langstone, and opened for carrying freight on 19th January 1865. The railway company then got into financial and technical difficulties when constructing the Hayling section, because the embankment they were building along the mud flats was continually being washed away. However, a rich land agent, Mr Francis Fuller, came to the rescue, becoming chairman of the Hayling Railway Company in 1866. The embankment was abandoned, and land was purchased to allow the line to run along the shore. Fuller had visions of making Hayling into a prominent seaside resort by building villas and a race-course. Frederick Furniss was again the contractor.
On 28th June 1867 an experimental train ran from Havant to Hayling. The passengers included Mr Fuller, Charles Longcroft (vice-chairman), Frederick Furniss and the Mayor of Portsmouth. The company subsequently ‘partook of the contractor at the Royal Hotel’. Mr Furniss presided. The first official passenger train to Hayling ran on 17th July 1867. There were three classes of travel, with 1st, 2nd and 3rd class return fares at 1s 9d, 1s, and 9d. On 27th July 1867 there was a notice in the Portsmouth Times which stated that the Hayling Island railway was now open. ‘Special trains will be provided on very reasonable terms for pleasure parties. For arrangements apply to F. Furniss, Langston.’ Train services were agreed with Furniss providing locos and rolling stock. The initial timetable showed that Furniss was providing 6 trains in each direction, on weekdays only. He ran the train services until the end of 1871, after which the LBSCR took over. On departing from Langstone, Furniss advertised for sale a valuable 8 horse portable steam engine and a mortar-machine with 9ft pan, bed and frame. | English | NL | a1fa859a82324565856178db7ebf8a005a4c4b30c6ec40aea17f29ec5cf90d49 |
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