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RE: Last to post wins - Creeperopolis - 02-03-2024
Brother Jonathan: or, the New Englanders is an 1825 historical novel by American writer John Neal. The title refers to Brother Jonathan, a popular personification of New England and the broader United States. The story follows protagonist Walter Harwood as he and the nation around him both come of age through the American Revolution. The novel explores cross-cultural relationships and highlights cultural diversity within the Thirteen Colonies, stressing egalitarianism and challenging the conception of a unified American nation. It features mixed-race Anglo-Indigenous characters and depicts them as the inheritors of North America. The book's sexual themes drew negative reactions from contemporary critics. These themes were explicit for the period, addressing female sexual virtue and male guilt for sexual misdeeds.
Literature scholars have praised Brother Jonathan's extensive and early use of realism in depicting American culture and speech. Using phonetic transcriptions, the dialogue documents a wide range of regional accents and colloquialisms. Included in the dialogue is a likely-accurate depiction of American Indian English, and what may be American literature's earliest attempt to express a wide range of emotion using children's natural speech patterns. Neal's characterizations of American character and speech were praised in the UK but derided in the US. The author nevertheless considered them central to developing an American literature distinct from British precedent.
Neal wrote the original manuscript while crossing the Atlantic from Baltimore in early 1824, then revised it in London many times before convincing William Blackwood of Edinburgh to publish it in mid-1825. It is Neal's longest work and possibly the longest single work of American fiction until well into the twentieth century. The editing process was the most laborious of Neal's career and resulted in a number of inconsistencies in the plot. The author fashioned many of the deleted sections into separate works he published later. Considered one of America's top novelists at the time, Neal wrote Brother Jonathan with a British audience in mind in order to boost his reputation internationally. It was a financial failure that received mixed but mostly warm reviews at the time. Twenty-first century readers are generally unaware of the book, and many scholars consider it too complex to be considered good.
RE: Last to post wins - Creeperopolis - 02-04-2024
In the 1891 English cricket season, Somerset County Cricket Club returned to first-class cricket after a five-year absence. They competed in the County Championship, which had been established the previous year, for the first time. Somerset began the season poorly, drawing one and losing two of their opening three fixtures, after which there were some comments in the press questioning whether the club deserved to be playing first-class cricket. A victory over Kent in their next game shifted opinion in their favour, and another win later in the season over Surrey, who won the County Championship in both 1890 and 1891, gained them further plaudits. Overall, Somerset won five, lost six and drew one of their County Championship matches, and finished fifth in the table, level with Kent.
The Somerset team predominantly consisted of amateur batsmen, supported by two professional bowlers. Lionel Palairet led Somerset's batting in terms of both runs and average during the County Championship season, scoring 560 runs at an average of 31.11, and was also the only Somerset player to score a century during 1891. Somerset's professional bowlers, George Nichols and Ted Tyler, along with an amateur all-rounder, Sammy Woods, did almost all of the bowling for the county; Woods led the bowling tables with 72 wickets at an average of 17.08.
RE: Last to post wins - Creeperopolis - 02-05-2024
The Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower, also known as One Hanson Place, is a skyscraper in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City. Located at the northeast corner of Ashland Place and Hanson Place near Downtown Brooklyn, the tower was designed by Halsey, McCormack & Helmer and constructed from 1927 to 1929 as the new headquarters for the Williamsburgh Savings Bank. At 41 stories and 512 feet (156 m) tall, the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower was the tallest building in Brooklyn until 2009.
The Williamsburgh Savings Bank was originally headquartered in Williamsburg, Brooklyn; its officers decided to construct a new skyscraper headquarters near Downtown Brooklyn in the mid-1920s. The bank occupied the lowest floors when the building opened on April 1, 1929, while the remaining stories were rented as offices. By the late 20th century, dentists' offices occupied much of the structure. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the tower's exterior as a city landmark in 1977 and designated some of the interior spaces in 1996. Through several mergers, the Williamsburgh Savings Bank became part of HSBC Bank USA, which sold the building in 2004. The building's upper stories were converted to luxury condominium apartments from 2005 to 2007, while the banking hall became an event space.
The building's main entrance is through a large arch on Hanson Place. At ground level, the tower is clad with limestone above a granite dado. Above the sixth story, the building is faced in brick with terracotta decoration, and a series of setbacks taper to a clock tower and a domed roof. Inside is an entrance vestibule and lobby with ornately decorated marble and metalwork. The 63-foot-high (19 m) banking room includes a nave, aisles, and a chancel—spaces similar to those found in a church. A basement lobby leads to Atlantic Terminal and the Atlantic Avenue–Barclays Center station, while a mezzanine-level ladies' lounge overlooks the banking room. When the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower was completed, there was commentary about both the building's architecture and its symbolism as Brooklyn's tallest building. Over the years, local residents have used the building both as a clock and as a landmark for giving out directions, and the tower has been used as a filming location.
RE: Last to post wins - Creeperopolis - 02-06-2024
Mount Berlin is a glacier-covered volcano in Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica, 100 kilometres (62 mi) from the Amundsen Sea. It is a roughly 20-kilometre-wide (12 mi) mountain with parasitic vents that consists of two coalesced volcanoes: Berlin proper with the 2-kilometre-wide (1.2 mi) Berlin Crater and Merrem Peak with a 2.5-by-1-kilometre-wide (1.55 mi × 0.62 mi) crater, 3.5 kilometres (2.2 mi) away from Berlin. The summit of the volcano is 3,478 metres (11,411 ft) above sea level. It has a volume of 200 cubic kilometres (48 cu mi) and rises from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. It is part of the Marie Byrd Land Volcanic Province. Trachyte is the dominant volcanic rock and occurs in the form of lava flows and pyroclastic rocks.
The volcano began erupting during the Pliocene and was active into the late Pleistocene and the Holocene. Several tephra[a] layers encountered in ice cores all over Antarctica – but in particular at Mount Moulton – have been linked to Mount Berlin, which is the most important source of such tephras in the region. The tephra layers were formed by explosive eruptions that generated high eruption columns. Presently, fumarolic activity occurs at Mount Berlin and forms ice towers from freezing steam.
RE: Last to post wins - Creeperopolis - 02-07-2024
Angelita Grace Velasquez Aquino (born February 7, 1973) is a Filipino actress, fashion model, and television personality. Prominent in independent films, she has also worked on television shows of varying genres, and is known for her versatility and adaptability in portraying protagonists and villains. She has received various accolades, including six Star Awards, two Golden Screen Awards, and a Gawad Urian.
A journalism graduate of the University of the Philippines Baguio, Aquino began her career as a model, before making her film debut with a minor role in the action drama Mumbaki (1996). She made her first television appearance as a presenter of the lifestyle show F! (1999). Her breakthrough came in the erotic drama Laro sa Baga (2000), which earned her a Star Award for Best Supporting Actress. She gained wider recognition for starring in Crying Ladies (2003) and Donsol (2006), which were the Philippine submissions for Best International Feature Film at the Academy Awards. Aquino established herself as a leading actress playing villainous parts in the drama series Magkaribal (2010), Maria la del Barrio (2011), Apoy sa Dagat (2013), And I Love You So (2015), Till I Met You (2016), and Dirty Linen (2023).
Aquino received two Gawad Urian nominations in the same year for her roles as a transgender woman in the drama film Porno (2013) and a woman desired by a teenage girl in the coming-of-age drama Ang Huling Cha-Cha ni Anita (2013), winning Best Supporting Actress for the latter. Among her notable performances are a widowed mother in the horror drama Amorosa (2012), a military intelligence officer in the action series Ang Probinsyano (2017), and a middle-aged woman smitten by a younger man in the erotic comedy Glorious (2018).
On stage, Aquino has performed in local theater productions of The Vagina Monologues (2002) and Closer (2013). Described by various media publications as among the most beautiful and finest Filipino actresses of her generation, Aquino has been involved in charitable work and causes, including education, gender equality, and women's rights.
RE: Last to post wins - Creeperopolis - 02-08-2024
The Second War of Scottish Independence broke out in 1332 when Edward Balliol led an English-backed invasion of Scotland. Balliol, the son of former Scottish king John Balliol, was attempting to make good his claim to the Scottish throne. He was opposed by Scots loyal to the occupant of the throne, eight-year-old David II. At the Battle of Dupplin Moor Balliol's force defeated a Scottish army ten times their size and Balliol was crowned king. Within three months David's partisans had regrouped and forced Balliol out of Scotland. He appealed to the English king, Edward III, who invaded Scotland in 1333 and besieged the important trading town of Berwick. A large Scottish army attempted to relieve it but was heavily defeated at the Battle of Halidon Hill. Balliol established his authority over most of Scotland, ceded to England the eight counties of south-east Scotland and did homage to Edward for the rest of the country as a fief.
As allies of Scotland via the Auld Alliance, the French were unhappy about an English expansion into Scotland and so covertly supported and financed David's loyalists. Balliol's allies fell out among themselves and he lost control of most of Scotland again by late 1334. In early 1335 the French attempted to broker a peace. However, the Scots were unable to agree a position and Edward prevaricated while building a large army. He invaded in July and again overran most of Scotland. Tensions with France increased. Further French-sponsored peace talks failed in 1336 and in May 1337 the French king, Philip VI, engineered a clear break between France and England, starting the Hundred Years' War. The Anglo-Scottish war became a subsidiary theatre of this larger Anglo-French war. Edward sent what troops he could spare to Scotland, in spite of which the English slowly lost ground in Scotland as they were forced to focus on the French theatre. Achieving his majority David returned to Scotland from France in 1341 and by 1342 the English had been cleared from north of the border.
In 1346 Edward led a large English army through northern France, sacking Caen, heavily defeating the French at Crécy and besieging Calais. In response to Philip's urgent requests, David invaded England believing most of its previous defenders were in France. He was surprised by a smaller but nonetheless sizable English force, which crushed the Scots at the Battle of Neville's Cross and captured David. This, and the resulting factional politics in Scotland, prevented further large-scale Scottish attacks. A concentration on France similarly kept the English quiescent, while possible terms for David's release were discussed at length. In late 1355 a large Scottish raid into England, in breach of truce, provoked another invasion from Edward in early 1356. The English devastated Lothian but winter storms scattered their supply ships and they retreated. The following year the Treaty of Berwick was signed, which ended the war; the English dropped their claim of suzerainty, while the Scots acknowledged a vague English overlordship. A cash ransom was negotiated for David's release: 100,000 marks, to be paid over ten years. The treaty prohibited any Scottish citizen from bearing arms against Edward III or any of his men until the sum was paid in full and the English were supposed to stop attacking Scotland. This effectively ended the war, and while intermittent fighting continued, the truce was broadly observed for forty years.
RE: Last to post wins - Creeperopolis - 02-09-2024
Dorothy Leigh Sayers (/sɛərz/;[n 2] 13 June 1893 – 17 December 1957) was an English crime novelist, playwright, translator and critic.
Born in Oxford, Sayers was brought up in rural East Anglia and educated at Godolphin School in Salisbury and Somerville College, Oxford, graduating with first class honours in medieval French. She worked as an advertising copywriter between 1922 and 1929 before success as an author brought her financial independence. Her first novel Whose Body? was published in 1923. Between then and 1939 she wrote ten more novels featuring the upper-class amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey. In 1930, in Strong Poison, she introduced a leading female character, Harriet Vane, the object of Wimsey's love. Harriet appears sporadically in future novels, resisting Lord Peter's proposals of marriage until Gaudy Night in 1935, six novels later.
Sayers moved the genre of detective fiction away from pure puzzles lacking characterisation or depth, and became recognised as one of the four "Queens of Crime" of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction of the 1920s and 1930s, along with Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham and Ngaio Marsh. She was a founder member of the Detection Club, and worked with many of its members in producing novels and radio serials collaboratively, such as the novel The Floating Admiral in 1931.
From the mid‐1930s Sayers wrote plays, mostly on religious themes; they were performed in English cathedrals and broadcast by the BBC. Her radio dramatisation of the life of Christ, The Man Born to Be King (1941–42), initially provoked controversy but was quickly recognised as an important work. From the early 1940s her main preoccupation was translating the three books of Dante's Divine Comedy into colloquial English. She died unexpectedly at her home in Essex, aged 64, before completing the third book.
RE: Last to post wins - Creeperopolis - 02-10-2024
The siege of Bukhara took place in February 1220, during the Mongol invasion of the Khwarazmian Empire. Genghis Khan, ruler of the Mongol Empire, had launched a multi-pronged assault on the Khwarazmian Empire ruled by Shah Muhammad II. While the Shah planned to defend his major cities individually, the Mongols laid siege to the border town of Otrar, and struck further into Khwarazmia.
The city of Bukhara was a major centre of trade and culture in the Khwarazmian Empire, but was located far from the border with the Mongol Empire, and so the Shah allocated fewer than 20,000 soldiers to defend it. A Mongol force, estimated to number between 30,000 and 50,000 men and commanded by Genghis himself, traversed the Kyzylkum Desert, previously considered impassable for large armies. Bukhara's defenders were caught by surprise and, after a failed sortie, the outer city surrendered within three days on 10 February. Khwarazmian loyalists continued to defend the citadel for less than two weeks, before it was breached and taken.
The Mongol army killed everybody in the citadel and enslaved most of the city's population. The Mongols appropriated the work of skilled craftsmen and artisans, conscripting other inhabitants into their armies. Although Bukhara was then destroyed by fire, the destruction was relatively mild compared to elsewhere; within a short space of time the city was once again a centre of trade and learning, and it profited greatly from the Pax Mongolica.
RE: Last to post wins - Creeperopolis - 02-11-2024
Elizabeth Maitland, Duchess of Lauderdale, 2nd Countess of Dysart (née Murray; 28 September 1626[1] – 5 June 1698), was a Scottish noblewoman. She was the eldest daughter of William Murray and his wife Catherine, the Earl and Countess of Dysart. She was raised in English court circles during the years leading up to the English Civil War and received a well-rounded education from her parents. Her first husband was Lionel Tollemache, by whom she had eleven children. In 1672, three years after Lionel's death, she married John Maitland and gained a prominent position in the restored court.
After her father's death Maitland held the title of Countess of Dysart in her own right and after her remarriage in 1672 she was also the Duchess of Lauderdale. She was famous for the political influence she exercised and for her support for Charles II during his exile. As an associate of the secret Royalist organisation known as the Sealed Knot, she actively supported the return of the monarchy after the execution of Charles I. She was also a lifelong patron of artists, particularly Peter Lely. She died at the age of 71 at her family home, Ham House near Richmond by the Thames, and is buried in the nearby parish church.
RE: Last to post wins - im_a_waffle1 - 02-11-2024
I win.