#London Northwestern

[travelbinge]

By Jamesrelfdyer

London, England

[uomminecraftsociety]

Part 14 of shipping different train companies together.

West Mildands Trains goes by 2 different identities. Sometimes she is West Midlands Railway (WMR), sometimes he is London Northwestern Railway (LNR).

As LNR, he has a fierce competition with Avanti. Truth is, LNR can't quite compete athletically with Avanti however LNR does have his supporters. WMR is a lot calmer but a hard worker. She works with a lot of other folk but generally cares a lot more about her workplace than the others.

WMT dates Chiltern. Chiltern was once going to be the next best thing but it was determined she would not be however a new kid is on the block trying to take over the new golden child. Chiltern isn't happy with this but has come to accept it.

[jacktheoh]

Vibdeo

[agoddamneddelight]

how reliable is the london northwestern. spent way too long on this :)

[childrenofcain-if]

So I think you mentioned that MC is from Seattle, WA and also spent time in Providence, RI, where are the other ROs from? P.S. as a Pacific Northwestern, I love the Washington representation ❤️

i’ve always loved the scenery and atmosphere in the pacific northwest region so it just made sense to put MC originally residing there.

as for the other ROs:

C LACROIX: seattle, washington, USA (birthplace and currently living here)

V NÆSHOLM: ribe, jutland, denmark (birthplace) / chicago, illinois, USA (currently living here)

W OSTENDORF: berlin, germany (birthplace) / providence, rhode island, USA (lived there until they were 12) / pittsburgh, pennsylvania, USA (currently living here)

D DIACONU: austin, texas, USA (birthplace and lived here until they were 14) / san francisco, california, USA (currently living here)

M WHITLOCK-SINGH: birmingham, west midlands, england, UK (birthplace) / london, england, UK (currently living here)

[stephensmithuk]

The Lost Special

CW for discussion of sexual abuse and capital punishment.

Originally published in The Strand in 1898, i.e. during the hiatus years, this would be collected with a bunch of other Doyle stories in the Round the Fire Stories collection released in 1898. Doyle continued to have stories regularly published during the hiatus.

The London and West Coast Railway Company is fictitious; the company that operated the line discussed in this route was the London and North Western Railway (LNWR), the biggest revenue earner of the period due to the sheer size of its operations. It would become part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) in 1922 during "Grouping" i.e. the merger of British railway companies into four major ones. The LNWR name came back as the London Northwestern Railway brand of West Midlands Trains in 2017, operating commuter and semi-fast services from Euston. That franchise is due to operate until 2026, at which point, considering the likely result of the upcoming election, it will be nationalised. What happens to the name after that remains to be seen.

Liverpool Central refers to two stations. The one here is the six-platform "High Level" station, opened in 1874 as the headquarters of the Cheshire Lines Committee (CLC) and offering services to Manchester Central, London St. Pancras or even Harwich for the ferry services to the Netherlands. The CLC remained independent after Grouping

There was also, slightly to the North West. the 1892-opened "Low Level" station, that was underground, opened by the Mersey Railway, but with staircase access to the High Level one and provision for a through railway connection left to that station if it was decided to join the two lines. This operated local trains towards Birkenhead using the world's second underground railway after London. This also stayed its own operation after Grouping in 1922; both companies would become part of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948.

In 1966, the Beeching Axe saw the High Level station have nearly all its services diverted to Liverpool Lime Street, with only those to Gateacre still calling there. BR wanted to stop those entirely, but local opposition prevented that. With no need for six platforms, two become a car park and the station ended up with just one functional platform in 1970, ending up in rather a state of decay. It shut entirely in 1972 and was demolished, the Gateacre services going, along with the whole North Liverpool Extension Line.

The Low Level station, however, still very busy, would have better fortunes - it would become the centre piece of the new Merseyrail network. The station was renovated, the two lines were linked and today Liverpool Central is one of the busiest stations in the UK outside of Greater London. However, the eastern part of the planned loop, including services to Gateacre, fell victim to budget cuts in the late 1970s.

Rochdale is a town in the Greater Manchester area - at the time it was a textiles hub, but that very much declined from the 1950s and the place has acquired a bad reputation. In 2012, a child sex abuse ring involving British Pakistanis "grooming" white girls was convicted in a high-profile trial and the resulting public reaction was, to put it mildly, racially-tinged. It also came out that the town's deceased former MP (who had in fact been knighted), one Cyril Smith, was a paedophile.

"Specials" refer to trains arranged outside the usual timetable, often in connection with some event. These included football excursions (or FOOTEX in BR parlance) carrying fans to away games around the country. In the hooligan-heavy 1970s and 1980s, BR would use older carriages due to the frequency of them getting damaged by drunken supporters, the whole thing becoming a policing headache. Others included various enthusiast-oriented journeys and "Merrymaker" mystery trips, usually to a seaside destination.

The main companies do not really do these today in anything like the numbers they used to, but various private companies have stepped in, including a West Coast Railways Company oddly enough, that provides the rolling stock, locomotives and drivers for the Jacobite tourist service from Fort William to Mailaig. These charter trains can be found operating multiple times a week, being sold through various different companies. Most use heritage rolling stock with vintage steam or diesel engines involved, with a variety of types catering to your tastes, although a big wallet is generally needed. Like at least £100 for standard class without dining and even then the schedule might not be the most convenient; these trains are planned around the regular services and you might have a long wait sitting in sidings for the next bit of your path to be clear.

In any event, the special train would have cost around £5,412 adjusted for inflation. However, a cursory glance suggests it would actually cost far more to do that today - hence the high prices modern "specials" charge passengers.

Signal boxes were required to log the details of trains passing through - the type could be identified by various lights arranged on the front and later the specific service by four-character codes. Today this is done electronically and monitored at larger control centres - older boxes have generally closed, with some being transported to heritage railways for their use. I would assume that the stations not mentioned did not have their own signal box.

In terms of the stations mentioned here, these were on the 1830-opened Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the first intercity railway in the world.

This route is today part of the City Line in the Merseytravel Network - trains are today operated by Northern or TransPenine Express. It was electrified in 2015. For each station in turn...

St Helens Junction: Still open.

Collins Green: Closed 1951.

Earlestown: Still open, despite being listed for closure in the 1963 Beeching Report.

Newton-le-Willows: Still open. Even had a Motorail terminal for a while, but this is long gone.

Kenyon Junction: Closed to passengers 1961, shut entirely 1963. Various locals have called for reopening it.

Barton Moss, closed 1929.

Parliamentary trains are those which railway companies had a legal obligation to operate - basically to provide cheap services for workers. This could mean one train per day on a route. Some did the bare minimum, some did a lot more. With this requirement no longer around, the term has evolved to mean services run at the legal minimum, even as low as one train a week, because it's cheaper to do that rather than go through a closure process. In some cases, the route would be used for engineering work diversions and so it is needed to keep up driver familarity. Current examples include Pilning, which has two trains a week on a Saturday. The most notable is Teeside Airport, which is meant to serve the airport of that name that operates four to six passenger flights a day, but is a fifteen-minute walk away, so getting a bus is much more preferred. This got one train westbound a week until May 2022, when its platform was deemed unsafe and Teeside International Airport refuses to pay for repairs.

Railway companies had their own police forces; these would later come under the British Transport Police.

Many mines and industrial planets had connections to the national network for transporting goods like coal or clay; BR even developed a "Merry-Go-Round" system allowing hoppers to be filled up and emptied while moving at a very slow speed to save time on shunting; newer versions are still in use, despite the coal market having massively declined. Mines would have their own engines - the nationalised National Coal Board kept steam locomotives going until 1982, 14 years after BR stopped using them, with some of their former engines now featuring on preserved lines.

The Vistula river runs through central Poland, including Warsaw.

Many mines would be closed once their seams were worked out to the point of it being now longer economical to run; some are now tourist attractions, at least in limited sections.

France used the guillotine for capital punishment until the abolition of that in 1977. It would also be extensively used, in a slightly different form in the German states, including extensively by the Nazis, until 1966, when East Germany switched to shooting people in the back of the head.

New Caledonia is a French territory in the Southern Pacific that was used as a penal colony at the time; it is currently in a state of political turmoil in a row over expanding the franchise to cover more recent arrivals, something opposed by indigenous groups seeking independence. The proposal has been suspended at time of writing due to France's upcoming elections.

[sourcreammachine]

this is fucking deranged

this is baso one train interchange why does it look like this

[ID: extract from National Rail's supplement to the london tube map, with commuter rail lines as well as the tube. this extract shows that map's depiction of the king's cross st pancras and euston area, large rail interchanges extremely close to each other that together become the busiest heavy rail terminus in the uk. both euston and KCSP, and the nearby farringdon, are depicted as an 'internal interchange', which means there are platforms connected by tunnels, as opposed to a regular interchange with multiple entrances on the surface. internals are depicted as circles connected solid bars, while externals are simply one circle. euston and farringdon have two connected circles, while KCSP has six. euston is also connected via a dashed line to ‘euston square’, indicating the two stations are less than ten minutes apart and foot traffic is encouraged (‘square’ is actually literally just outside the entrance of euston). the western lobe of euston is depicted as the terminus of the Lioness Line (orange) and the northwestern railway (lime with bars), which emerge from the station going northwest, depicted as being attached to each other. passing through this lobe is the western branch of the Northern Line (black). the eastern lobe of euston depicts the other branch of the Northern Line, coming from the north but turning east at euston to travel to KCSP, intersecting with the Victoria Line (azure), coming from the southeast before also turning east at euston to run parallel to the Northern Line towards KCSP, though with a gap between the two. no rail termini emerge from the western lobe of euston. the next stop on the western branch of the Northern Line after (western) euston is warren street, which also is the next stop for the Victoria Line after eastern euston, creating a right-angle triangle with the Victoria, western Northern, and the euston internal interchange. to western euston’s southwest via the ten-minute walk dashed line is euston square, which is an interchange for three tube lines, the Hammersmith City (salmon), the Circle (yellow), and the Metropolitan (dark magenta) all of which run next to each other horizontally. the three lines cross the northern-victoria-euston triangle without stopping at euston itself, towards KCSP.

KCSP is an intimidating Y shape of six lobes - three in a vertical line, then two emerging on the northwest spoke and one on the northeast. despite the name of this underground station, drawn as the internal interchange, being ‘king’s cross st pancras’, the giant Y is actually not labelled this at all - the western fork hovers near the label ‘st pancras international’ while the eastern hovers near ‘king’s cross’, and the southern fork remains unlabelled. the southernmost lobe of KCSP is for the glued-together Hammersmith, Circle and Metropolitan from euston square (not euston proper), after which the lines turn southeast to farringdon. this lobe also is for the Piccadilly line (navy), which comes from the northeast before turning south - the only Piccadilly stop in the KCSP-euston area. the middle of the three vertical lobes is for the Northern, travelling east from euston - and nothing else. the northernmost of the vertical lobes is for the Victoria - and absolutely nothing else. the Victoria crosses the Northern at euston whilst travelling diagonally, but then deliberately creates itself a gap before turning horizontal, to reach a separate lobe from the Northern due to KCSP being an internal interchange. both the Northern and Victoria politely duck under the Piccadilly after KCSP. from the Victoria lobe emerges the two spokes for king’s cross and st pancras international. King’s Cross is the terminus of the Great Northern (golden-brown, bars) and a branch of the Thameslink (maroon, bars), both heading north but separated by a tiny gap from each other. the first of the two lobes for SPI is the terminus for HS1 (blue, bars of yellow), which is absolutely not a commuter line - it goes to bloody Paris. this lobe is also bisected by a different branch of the Thameslink, going vertically, after which it sails over the Victoria, Northern and the triple glued-together lines, immediately after which it turns southeast, over the Piccadilly to farringdon. HS1 and this Thameslink out of SPI are once again separated by a tiny gap. the western lobe of SPI is the terminus of the EMR (cyan, bars), which emerges due north. the gap between the EMR and Thameslink is almost imperceptibly larger than the gap between Thameslink and HS1. after the lowest lobe of KCSP with which they intersect the Piccadilly, the triple lines (Hammer., Circle, Metro.) turn southeast to the northeasternmost of farringdon’s two lobes, with which they intersect nothing. this lobe is connected via an internal interchange to another, which is where it intersects the Thameslink coming from SPI, but also the Elizabeth Line (violet)/end ID]

[signiorbenedickofpadua]

Last sentence game

I was tagged by @just-french-me-up! Thank you kindly ❤️

I am sure no one who has been follow me for any significant amount of time will be surprised that I'm giving you a little more than just one line... I just can't help myself ;)

“How did— You.” “Me…?” said Hob, somewhat taken aback. Had this man—his…clustermate?—already caught a glimpse of him without his noticing? The man did not answer, and a second later Hob was swaying back in his chair in the pub with a sensation of having just been bodily kicked out of an exclusive club by an overeager bouncer. He squinted as his eyes tried to readjust themselves to going from sunlight to the much more dimly lit pub, then started as he realised that the strange man had followed him there and stood by the side of the table, taking in the surroundings. “Hm. England.” He turned his head towards the nearest window. “London.” “You—” “The South Bank. Northwestern Greenwich.” His eyes fell to the table, and he reached down to where Hob had left his wallet after paying for the whisky and flipped it open. With deft fingers, he slid the driving licence out and gave it a cursory glance before casually tossing it back on the table. Looking down at Hob with dispassionate disdain, he said, “You may tell your master to employ more careful spies in future, Robert Gadling,” before disappearing again. Hob blinked. When he looked down at the wallet, he found it still closed and undisturbed. “I— What…?”

"Wait," you may say to yourself, "are you writing a Sense8 AU in the year of our Lord 2024?" - Yes. Yes, I am. "Weren't you working on something else?" you may then ask. "Perhaps even two things?" - Yes. "Didn't you say you had a policy against letting yourself have more than two WiPs going at any given time to increase the chances of actually finishing what you've started?" - ...No comment.

I'll go ahead and tag @mathomhouse-e, @aralezinspace, @im-not-corrupted, @beatnikfreakiswriting and @tj-dragonblade this time 😊

[beardedmrbean]

Aug. 5 (UPI) -- Bangladesh's embattled prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, resigned Monday and fled the country after protesters stormed her official residence in the capital amid a growing revolt that began over quotas for government jobs in which hundreds of mostly protesters have died.

The announcement from the head of the army, Gen. Waker-uz-Zaman, came after security forces were overwhelmed by thousands of people incensed by a violent government crackdown descending on the Sher-e-Bangla Nagar area of Dhaka, setting cars and offices ablaze.

Footage circulating online shows protesters celebrating inside Hasina's residence, removing furniture and elsewhere in the city trying to tear down a statue of her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, former prime minister and leader of the country's independence movement, who was assassinated in 1975.

Promising the formation of an interim government, Zaman pleaded with demonstrators to call off their protests.

"Whatever demands you have, we will fulfil and bring back peace to the nation, please help us in this, stay away from violence," said Zaman who promised the military would also back off.

"The military will not fire at anyone, the police will not fire at anyone, I have given orders."

Hasina arrived by helicopter in India at a military airbase 17 miles east of Delhi on Monday evening with the BBC reporting that she may be en route to London, citing unconfirmed reports.

A spokesman for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Monday that he wanted to see urgent action to "ensure democracy" won out -- but made no mention of Hasina coming to Britain or any discussions regarding where she might go into exile.

"The right to peaceful protest must be protected and never subjected to violence, and we call on the authorities to release all peaceful protesters and ensure due process is followed for those charged and prosecuted," he added.

"I hope that swift action is taken to ensure that democracy prevails and accelerate the process towards peace and security to people in Bangladesh."

Hasina's son, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, said she had been considering resigning for the past 24 hours and had left the country for her own safety at the insistence of her family.

He rejected the accusations leveled at the 76-year-old of outstaying her welcome after four terms totaling more than two decades during which she gradually morphed from the democratic icon catapulted into office in a people power uprising into an authoritarian leader amid crackdowns on dissent and allegations of graft.

"She has turned Bangladesh around. When she took over power it was considered a failing state. It was a poor country. Until today it was considered one of the rising tigers of Asia. She's very disappointed."

In Dhaka, demonstrators ignored an evening curfew as unrest and looting continued into the night with demonstrators breaching the gates and damaging the residence of Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan in the Dhanmondi area of the capital where smoke was seen coming from the building.

Protesters torched the city's Mujibur museum.

Northeast of Dhaka, 150 miles away in Sylhet, the offices of the deputy commissioner and superintendent of police and the homes of several councilors were attacked.

Hasina's resignation came a day after more than 90 people were killed Sunday during clashes between anti-government protesters and police -- 13 of whom were among those killed after thousands of people attacked a police station in the northwestern district of Sirajganj.

Sunday's casualties brought the death toll to 280 since early July when student protests over the partial reinstatement by the courts of civil service recruitment quotas -- where sought-after government jobs were reserved for supporters of Hasina's ruling Awami League -- erupted into wider, and violent, anti-government unrest.

Government crackdown efforts escalated from tear gas and rubber bullets to live fire, curfews and Internet blackouts bringing hundreds of thousands more people onto the streets demanding change and ultimately Hasina's resignation.

Student organizers had called Sunday for a national non-cooperation government boycott under which people would refuse to pay taxes and utility bills.

[studentofetherium]

it's fascinating how british people categorize accents. like if you mention a "british accent" around a british person they'll start going off about how they don't have a british accent, they actually have a northwestern rural yorkshire accent with hints of a northern accent, and also you're so ignorant for considering that the same as a london accent

[travelbinge]

By Josephowen

Hampton Court, London, England

[uomminecraftsociety]

Thank you very much for riding. Today's rail journey was brought to you by today's sponsor, the police.

[une-sanz-pluis]

If 1416 had seen members of the dynasty achieving successes – it was notable how Sigismund had been met by all three of Henry’s brothers in their order of seniority as he progressed from Dover to London to meet the king himself when he arrived in May – the year 1417 provided the best example of how much Henry owed to his close male relatives, two of whom, Clarence and Gloucester, accompanied him on his second invasion of Normandy. His choice was interesting. Was it, as already suggested, because he wanted to act in close unison with him and to supervise his activities personally that Henry ordered Clarence to accompany him? And was it to give him further experience of war, in particular of siege warfare and of the use of the new artillery, that he chose Gloucester to take command of part of the army? In both cases, but for rather different reasons, Henry may have felt that he would prefer to have these two men under his orders. Two things are notable. The first is that both men remained in Normandy under Henry for at least two years, each loyally committing his life at this time to the fulfilment of Henry’s ambition, making it almost the ambition of the dynasty. The second is the extent to which these two men, in their contrasting military ‘styles’, assisted Henry in his conquest of Normandy. Clarence was the man of flamboyant action seen, for instance, in his scaling of the wall at Caen and his cry ‘A Clarans, A Clarans’ recorded by the chronicler, and in the manner in which he and a small force of men captured Pontoise in a daring dawn raid on 30 July 1419. Such notable actions achieved success, and were duly recorded by the chroniclers who still wrote in a chivalric vein whenever the opportunity occurred. Those very same chroniclers were also interested in the relatively new techniques of war which developments in artillery presented. They thus admired Gloucester’s contribution to the war, his rapid conquest of northwestern Normandy in the spring of 1418 when towns and castles surrendered in quick succession to his army. Most of all, they noted his successful completion of the six-month siege of Cherbourg, carried out by a man with relatively little practical experience of war behind him, but with an interest in siege warfare and in particular the advantages which the use of artillery was now giving the attacker. Nor should we think of Gloucester as a man who preferred to win success from the comparative safety of an artillery emplacement. Like all his brothers, he was no coward; the Brut records that, at the siege of Rouen to which he went after he had taken Cherbourg, Gloucester deliberately pitched his encampment closer to that city’s wall – and hence closer to danger — than did any other commander. The important point to underline is that Clarence and Gloucester presented Henry with useful contrasts in military style; one was ready for dramatic action when required, while the other preferred to use the new weaponry to achieve less dramatic but equally lasting results.

Christopher Allmand, Henry V (Yale Monarchs, 1992)

[bracketsoffear]

Hunt Leitner Reading List

The full list of submissions for the Hunt Leitner bracket. Bold titles are ones which were accepted to appear in the bracket. Synopses and propaganda can be found below the cut. Be warned, however, that these may contain spoilers!

Blackwood, Algernon: The Wendigo Boucher, Chris: Last Man Running Brooks, Max: World War Z

Christie, Agatha: And Then There Were None Connell, Richard: The Most Dangerous Game Crichton, Michael: Jurassic Park

de France, Marie: Bisclavret Dostoevsky, Fyodor: Crime and Punishment Doyle, Arthur Conan: The Hound of the Baskervilles/Sherlock Holmes series

Fletcher, David: Hunted: A True Story of Survival

Household, Geoffrey: Rogue Male Hunter, Erin: Warrior Cats

Kavan, Anna: Ice King, Stephen: Cujo

Lem, Stanisław: The Hunt London, Jack: Call of the Wild

Mallory, Thomas: Le Mort D’Arthur Manifold, John: The Griesly Wife Melville, Herman: Moby Dick Messingham, Simon: The Doctor Trap

Nisneru, Alexandra: Hunt

Ólafsson, Bragi: The Pets Orczy, Baroness: The Scarlet Pimpernel

Perkins, Stephanie: The Woods Are Always Watching Perrault, Charles: Little Red Riding Hood Pierce, Tamora: Huntress Pinkwater, Daniel: The Werewolf Club Povey, Jeff: The Serial Killers Club Pratchett, Terry: I Shall Wear Midnight Pratchett, Terry: The Fifth Elephant Preiss, Byron: The Secret

Schenkel, Rudolph: Expressions Studies on Wolves Sheckley, Robert: The Seventh Victim Shusterman, Neal: Red Rider's Hood Sin, Damien: The White Tiger of Kalimantaro Stine, R.L.: The Werewolf of Fever Swamp Stoker, Bram: Dracula

Takami, Koushun: Battle Royale Thompson, Hunter S.: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Traditional: Actaeon

Van Allsburg, Chris: Jumanji Vega, Danielle: Survive the Night

Yoshitomi, Akihito: School Ningyo (School Mermaid)

Blackwood, Algernon: The Wendigo

In the wilderness north of Rat Portage in Northwestern Ontario, two Scotsmen – divinity student Simpson and his uncle, Dr. Cathcart, an author of a book on collective hallucination – are on a moose-hunting trip with guides Hank Davis and the wilderness-loving French "Canuck", Joseph Défago.

While their Indian cook, Punk, stays to tend the main camp, the others split up into two hunting-parties; Dr. Cathcart goes with Hank, while Défago guides Simpson in a canoe down the river to explore the vast territory beyond.

Simpson and Défago make camp, and it soon becomes clear that Défago senses – or at least thinks he senses – some strange and fearful odour on the wind. That night, Simpson wakes to find Défago cowering in terror from something outside the tent. Later Défago runs off into the night, forcing Simpson to go and look for him. He follows his footprints in the snow for many miles, realising that Défago's are not the only set of tracks. The larger set of footprints are not human, and gradually it seems that Défago's own tracks have metamorphosed into smaller versions of the larger set. Eventually, both sets of tracks vanish, and Simpson believes he hears Défago's distant voice calling out from somewhere in the sky above: "Oh! oh! This fiery height! Oh, my feet of fire! My burning feet of fire ...!"

Simpson finally manages to make his way back to the main camp, where he is reunited with the others. Dr. Cathcart and Hank go back with him to search for Défago, and when camping once more out in the wilderness, Défago – or some hideous parody of Défago – appears before them before vanishing once again into the night.

Conflicted and disturbed about what they have witnessed, they return to the main camp to find that Défago – the real Défago this time – has made his own way back, suffering from delirium, exposure, and frostbite. He dies soon after, and the three men are left in a state of bafflement and uncertainty about what has occurred. Punk alone could have explained it to them, but he fled home as soon as he caught the terrible odour that Défago carried with him. As an Indian, he instantly understood that Défago had seen the Wendigo.

Boucher, Chris: Last Man Running

Synopsis: "Eager for solitude away from the TARDIS and the endlessly inquisitive Leela, the Doctor steps out onto a benign-looking planet. But the apparent tranquillity hides a terrifying secret...

The TARDIS has arrived on a world of violence, where hideous creatures hunt and kill endlessly, vying for supremacy at the top of the food chain. But is evolution on the planet natural or engineered by some higher power? And why has an aggressively suspicious alien police force sent a secret mission here?

With no one safe from the planet's tireless predators, Leela's warrior instincts are tested to the full. The Doctor, meanwhile, begins to suspect that there is a scientific purpose to the planet — one married to a sinister intelligence.

Whatever the data being collated from the planet, the Doctor soon realises its usage may have far-reaching consequences for all humanity... "

Why it's Hunt: The TARDIS has arrived in what essentially amounts to a supersoldier training ground, where everything in the environment is hostile and out to kill them.

Brooks, Max: World War Z

Zombies will chase humans for as long as it takes to catch them. A zombie will chase a human into the sea, over a cliff, into a raging inferno, it doesn't matter. A zombie will go after any living prey that it can find, and eat it to death. In the chapter where the astronaut from the International Space Station is interviewed, he mentions one zombie that chased after a small animal in the desert. When the animal burrowed under the sand, the zombie started digging for it, even as sand continued to pour back into the hole, filling it just as fast as it was dug. The zombie was digging nonstop for five straight days before it apparently lost the animal's scent and gave up.

Christie, Agatha: And Then There Were None

"First, there were ten—a curious assortment of strangers summoned as weekend guests to a little private island off the coast of Devon. Their host, an eccentric millionaire unknown to all of them, is nowhere to be found. All that the guests have in common is a wicked past they're unwilling to reveal—and a secret that will seal their fate. For each has been marked for murder. (...) When they realize that murders are occurring as described in the rhyme, terror mounts. One by one they fall prey. Before the weekend is out, there will be none. Who has choreographed this dastardly scheme? And who will be left to tell the tale? Only the dead are above suspicion."

Spoilers: So this book's plot is the last great hunt of a Hunt avatar: Judge Wargrave. Who did the typical hunt avatar thing of joining the law to get his feel and now lets himself go all of springing a trap on his prey and playing with them like a big cat.

***

Ten people, trapped on an island, all of them murderers who escaped justice. They are slowly picked off one by one as judgement for their crimes, causing them to search desperately for the killer before turning on one another, evoking themes of paranoia and betrayal akin to MAG 176: Blood Ties. {Spoilers: The killer was the judge, who had gone into law enforcement to sate his desire for killing and punishment, much like Daisy Tonner did)

Connell, Richard: The Most Dangerous Game

A ruthless hunter named Sanger Rainsford is stranded on Ship Trap Island and meets General Zaroff. Zaroff, a hunter who is bored with hunting animals, hunts Rainsford for sport.

***

Big-game hunter Sanger Rainsford and his friend Whitney are traveling by ship to the Amazon rainforest for a jaguar hunt. Rainsford falls overboard while investigating the sound of gunshots in the distance and swims to Ship-Trap Island, where he finds General Zaroff and his manservant Ivan. Zaroff, another big-game hunter, knows of Rainsford from his published account of hunting snow leopards in Tibet. Over dinner, he explains that although he has been hunting animals since he was a boy, he has decided that killing big game has become boring for him. After escaping the Russian Revolution, he purchased Ship-Trap and rigged the island with lights to lure passing ships into the jagged rocks that surround it. He takes the survivors captive and hunts them for sport, giving himself handicaps to increase the challenge. Any captives who can elude Zaroff, Ivan, and a pack of hunting dogs for three days are set free; to date, though, Zaroff has never lost a hunt. Rainsford denounces the hunt as barbarism, but Zaroff replies by claiming that ‘life is for the strong.’ Zaroff is enthused to have another world-class hunter as a companion and offers to take Rainsford along with him on his next hunt. When Rainsford staunchly refuses and demands to leave the island, Zaroff decides to hunt him instead. Rainsford uses traps and cleverness to outmaneuver Zaroff, killing Ivan and one of the dogs before jumping into the sea. Disappointed at Rainsford's apparent suicide, Zaroff returns home, but finds Rainsford waiting for him, having swum around the island to evade the dogs and sneak into the chateau. Zaroff offers congratulations for defeating him, but Rainsford prepares to fight him, saying that the hunt is not yet over. A delighted Zaroff responds that the loser will be fed to his dogs, while the winner will sleep in his bed. The story abruptly concludes later that night by stating that Rainsford enjoyed the comfort of the bed, implying that he killed Zaroff in the fight.

Crichton, Michael: Jurassic Park

Big hungry dinosaurs vs. small tasty humans. Muldoon commented that the raptors were cruelly intelligent and liked to hunt for sport as much as for food. It was actually justified because (as Malcolm realizes) the raptors discovered that humans are an easy meal and become a favored prey. Meanwhile, the Tyrannosaur seemed to be stalking Dr. Grant and the kids in particular, even leaving behind a Hadrosaur kill to pursue them down a river. At one point it's even waiting at the bottom of a waterfall with its jaws open, hoping they'll fall inside.

de France, Marie: Bisclavret

Covers several common themes of the Hunt -- loyalty, betrayal, and werewolves. Bisclaveret is a werewolf trapped in his lupine form by his wife's treachery, and is hunted by his king, who does not know his identity.

Dostoevsky, Fyodor: Crime and Punishment

The whole book is about feeling certain that your crimes are about to be uncovered, always looking behind you for the pursuing policeman, the hand of justice that is sure to catch you at any moment.

Doyle, Arthur Conan: The Hound of the Baskervilles/Sherlock Holmes series

As per this post: "I know he's already been in the Eye Poll, but trust me, he's such a Hunt guy. All of his observational skills aren't Eye (he'd probably think that was cheating), but the result of a finely trained mind and keen, Hunt-enhanced senses. He's relentless in his pursuit of criminals, trekking for miles through city and country alike to track down a suspect. He gets bored and listless without the thrill of the chase, as Watson has so often remarked, as though something was sapping his energy. Feed your god, or it will feed on you."

Fletcher, David: Hunted: A True Story of Survival

The author is pursued for the entire book by a furious mother bear after he kills her cub in a series of escalating cinematic attacks and escapes.

Household, Geoffrey: Rogue Male

A bored, upper-class British sportsman is found on the grounds of an unnamed European dictator's residence with his hunting rifle in hand, and subsequently arrested. His claim, maintained under torture, that he was stalking the dictator purely as an exercise in the skill of the hunt and that he had no intention of firing is so audacious that it is almost believed — but nonetheless he cannot be allowed to live. To execute such a well-connected Briton would cause an international incident, so his captors decide to kill him by throwing him over a cliff so that his body will show injuries consistent with accidental death. Though badly injured he survives and manages to make his way to the Channel and from there back to England. Where he discovers that home does not mean safety, nor an end to the pursuit.

Hunter, Erin: Warrior Cats

this book series has inspired children for year after year to run around pretending to be feral cats on the playground. it's hunt.

***

This book was made for The Admiral

***

The concept of your housepet running off to join a feral cat society just feels Hunt-y to me.

Kavan, Anna: Ice

The book follows a male protagonist who feverishly pursues a young nameless woman from country to country as society collapses due to a beginning of a new ice age. People flee their cities to go south, so a lot of the scenes take place in the wilderness and the forests. The protagonist often fantasizes about the woman being torn to shreds by wild animals as she flees a pursuer, and often compares her to prey animals.

King, Stephen: Cujo

A formerly friendly St. Bernard turns into a killing machine after being bit by a rabid bat.

Lem, Stanisław: The Hunt

A runaway is chased by humans with dogs. As the story evolves, it becomes clear that it is a robot, an intelligent machine, one of many created by humans to be hunted. For this reason it was endowed with wit and strength and an ability to be afraid, so that it would run away and make a hunt interesting: "... a tangled plot full of surprises, a forest strategy, a duel of cunning, of tactics, including laying double trails, dodging, looping the scent back on itself, crossing white-water streams and aerial bridges formed by fallen trees". A little girl helps him to hide, but eventually it turns out that her goal was to lay her hands on a gun and shoot the hunted robot herself. It is well known that Lem was ruthlessly burning his unpublished works, and the researchers were puzzled why Lem kept this one. Stanisław Bereś attempts to explain this as follows. Lem never wrote and seldom spoke about his life during World War II in Nazi-occupied Lwow. However one can decipher subtle hints about his experiences of that time in various Lem's works of fiction. Bereś points out an obvious parallel of the runaway's hopeless struggle for his life from The Hunt story, with the experience of the Jews during the Holocaust, including Lem's own. Therefore Bereś suggests that Lem felt overexposing himself in the story, therefore he set it aside and eventually wrote another, a more entertaining version and possibly forgot about the older manuscript.

London, Jack: Call of the Wild

The story follows Buck—a mix of St. Bernard and Scotch collie—throughout his journey as a sled dog. Buck’s story begins at the house of Judge Miller in Santa Clara, California. Here, Buck is a beloved domesticated pet, living comfortably. However, after gold is discovered in the Yukon territory of Canada, Buck is stolen by one of Miller’s gardeners as the demand for sled dogs increases. The gardener sells Buck to dog traders and makes a profit, and Buck is soon shipped north, abused and beaten as he goes. Along with a sweet, unassuming dog named Curly, Buck is sold to two government couriers, François and Perrault, who put him to work as a sled dog. Buck is soon overwhelmed by his surroundings, particularly when he sees a group of huskies attack and kill Curly. As Buck is forced to adapt to the wild, his primitive instincts begin to surface. It is during this time that he makes an enemy of the lead sled dog, Spitz. The two fight a number of times, and Buck consistently undermines him in the hopes of diminishing his authority. After a final, decisive battle, Buck kills Spitz and appoints himself as the new lead dog.

Mallory, Thomas: Le Mort D’Arthur

Large portion of it is about the Quest for the Holy Grail and how all the knights keep setting out to find it and failing

Manifold, John: The Griesly Wife

A poem in which an abusive husband chases his new wife through the snow -- until she changes into a wolf and turns the tables on him. http://mohammadmirzaee.blogfa.com/post/527/Poem-The-Griesly-Wife-By-John-Manifold

Melville, Herman: Moby Dick

Ahab goes on a mad, doomed hunt for a white whale that may or may not be an eldritch abomination and represents God/nature/life, despite the numerous signs that he should give up on his quest and live a fuller and happier life. Unsurprisingly, everyone except Ishmael gets killed by said whale, with Ahab getting tangled in his own harpoon line and dragged down to the depths (in an ironic echo of his own words about how a drowning creature stays down the third time).

Messingham, Simon: The Doctor Trap

Sebastiene was perhaps once human. He might look like a 19th-century nobleman but in truth he is a ruthless hunter. He likes nothing more than luring difficult opposition to a planet then hunting them down for sport. And now he's caught them all - from Zargregs to Moogs, and even the odd Eternal...

In fact, Sebastiene is after only one more prize. For this trophy, he knows he is going to need help. He's brought together the finest hunters in the universe to play the most dangerous game for the deadliest quarry of them all. They are hunting for the last of the Time Lords - the Doctor.

Nisneru, Alexandra: Hunt

Monsters are real. For Emily and Jeremy, the price of this truth was extremely high. Ten years after their mother's death, they hunt these creatures. But every once in a while, they become the hunted. When Emily finds herself in trouble, who will save her?

Ólafsson, Bragi: The Pets

Back in Reykjavik after a vacation in London, Emil Halldorsson is waiting for a call from a beautiful girl, Greta, that he met on the plane ride home, and he's just put on a pot of coffee when an unexpected visitor knocks on the door. Peeking through a window, Emil spies an erstwhile friend - Havard Knutsson, his one-time roommate and current resident of a Swedish mental institutionon his doorstep, and he panics, taking refuge under his bed and hoping the frightful nuisance will simply go away.

Havard won't be so easily put off, however, and he breaks into Emil's apartment and decides to wait for his return. Emil couldn't have gone far; the pot of coffee is still warming on the stove. While Emil hides under his bed, increasingly unable to show himself with each passing moment, Havard discovers the booze, and he ends up hosting a bizarre party for Emil's friends, and Greta.

Orczy, Baroness: The Scarlet Pimpernel

"They seek him here, they seek him there / Those Frenchies seek him everywhere / Is he in heaven, or is he in hell?/ That damned, elusive, pimpernel."

Perkins, Stephanie: The Woods Are Always Watching

Bears aren't the only predators in these woods.

Best friends Neena and Josie spent high school as outsiders, but at least they had each other. Now, with college and a two-thousand-mile separation looming on the horizon, they have one last chance to be together—a three-day hike deep into the woods of the Pisgah National Forest.

Simmering tensions lead to a detour off the trail and straight into a waking nightmare; and then into something far worse. Something that will test them in horrifying ways.

Perrault, Charles: Little Red Riding Hood

You know why

Pierce, Tamora: Huntress

Corey wants to fit in with the cool kids at her school and ignore her family's oddball religious practices. However, the group of popular kids that Corey has befriended regularly hunts people for sport. They try to hunt her when she refuses to participate, only for the Goddess that Corey's family worships to appear and hunt them instead.

Pinkwater, Daniel: The Werewolf Club

A boy whose parents raised him to be a dog inadvertently joins a club of actual werewolves.

Povey, Jeff: The Serial Killers Club

When our unlikely hero runs into a murderer, he ends up killing the killer. Then he goes through his attacker's wallet and finds another shocker: an invitation to a party hosted by Errol Flynn. Errol Flynn? Isn't he dead? Intrigued, our hero crashes it - and discovers the Serial Killers Club. Its mission: share thrills and make sure members don't target the same victims. With aliases from old Hollywood, they include "Tallulah Bankhead", "Richard Burton", and soon, "Douglas Fairbanks Jr.", our hero himself. But "Dougie" isn't going to waste the innocent. Instead, he plans to knock off the "stars" one by one. And when they notice their numbers dropping, he'll have to answer a killer question: is he one of them - or not?

Obviously there are some strong Hunt element here, killing killers, questions of morality, becoming the monsters that you kill, etc. But also, "Okay, I know how it sounds, but Murder Club wasn’t supposed to be like this."

Pratchett, Terry: I Shall Wear Midnight

The villain of this novel is the Cunning Man, the spirit of a witchfinder who sows suspicion of witches among the people of the Disc in hopes of reigniting the witch hunts.

Pratchett, Terry: The Fifth Elephant

"The Scone of Stone, an ancient dwarven artifact, has been stolen, and without it, the new Low King of the Dwarfs cannot be crowned. It's up to Sam Vimes and the Ankh-Morpork City Watch to travel to Uberwald and unravel the dark conspiracy surrounding the theft. Also, Vimes fights werewolves."

Not the strongest contestant, but Vimes does spends a chunk of time being hunted down by werewolves

Preiss, Byron: The Secret

This book contains 12 gorgeous, detailed paintings. Each painting contains clues to the location of a treasure box. Originally published in 1982, only 3 of the treasure boxes have been found. For over four decades, people have been possessed by obsession with finding the treasure boxes, a hunt being passed down by parents to their children. This is very reminiscent of the Hunt ritual we see in MAG 133: Dead Horse. The promise of a treasure pulling people in to a neverending hunt.

***

The Secret is a treasure hunt created by Byron Preiss. The hunt involves a search for twelve treasure boxes, the clues to which were provided in a book written by Preiss in 1982, also called The Secret. These boxes were buried at secret locations in cities across the United States and Canada that symbolically represent events and peoples that played significant roles in North American history. Anyone who uncovered one of the treasure boxes was entitled to exchange it with Preiss for a precious gem; after Preiss died in 2005, his estate assumed the responsibility of honoring the terms of the treasure hunt. As of 2024, only three of the twelve boxes have been found. Preiss kept no record of the treasure boxes' exact locations before his death, leaving it a possibility that the remaining boxes may never be recovered.

Schenkel, Rudolph: Expressions Studies on Wolves

This is THAT study. The one that was conducted on a tiny sample of wolves in captivity, yet so quickly taken up by pop culture? The one that gave us the Omegaverse, but also a whole new hierarchy for toxic dudebros to measure themselves up against.

Sheckley, Robert: The Seventh Victim

Takes place in a world in which society that has eliminated major warfare by allowing members of society who are inclined to violence to join The Big Hunt, a human hunting game in which participants alternate between being a "hunter" and a "victim". The protagonist is surprised to learn that his intended victim is a woman, something which he has never heard of. As he tracks said victim down, he begins to fall for her -- but will love or death rule the day?

Spoiler: It's death. But not hers!

Shusterman, Neal: Red Rider's Hood

In this second entry in Neal Shusterman's Dark Fusion series, he twists the familiar fairy tale of Red Riding Hood into a brooding story about a city plagued by gangs. Red, a boy famous for cruising around in a blood-colored Mustang, takes on the Wolves after they rob his grandmother He decides to beat them by joining them to learn their weaknesses After a while, however, he finds himself drawn to the pack. At the next full moon, will Red take up their murderous ways or will he take them down?

Sin, Damien: The White Tiger of Kalimantaro

Two retired ex-cops travels to the Indonesian jungles to hunt a divine white tiger, only to realize the tiger to be old, mangy, lice-ridden and ready to die of age and disease. They kill it anyway, along with several other animals that they encounter along the way, in gruesome detail. Then the real white tiger shows up, and it turns out to be a god-like entity the size of an elephant possessing supernatural necromantic powers, given how it resurrects the old, slain tiger into a tiger zombie...

Stine, R.L.: The Werewolf of Fever Swamp

There's something horrible happening in Fever Swamp. Something really horrible. It started with the strange howling at night. Then there was the rabbit, torn to shreds. Everyone thinks Grady's new dog is responsible. After all, he looks just like a wolf. And he seems a little on the wild side. But Grady knows his dog is just a regular old dog. And most dogs don't howl at the moon. Or disappear at midnight. Or change into terrifying creatures when the moon is full. Or do they?

Stoker, Bram: Dracula

Dracula is all about the hunt and the hunted. Dracula hunts the innocent for their blood, stalking them and draining them to turn them into hunters in their own right. The protagonists, in turn, hunt Dracula. A Leitner version of this book would probably turn anyone who read it into another Trevor Herbert.

***

Famous for introducing the character of the vampire Count Dracula, the novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to move from Transylvania to England so he may find new blood and spread undead curse, and the battle between Dracula and a small group of men and women led by Professor Abraham Van Helsing.

Dracula has been assigned to many literary genres including vampire literature, horror fiction, the gothic novel and invasion literature. The novel touches on themes such as the role of women in Victorian culture, sexual conventions, immigration, colonialism, and post-colonialism.

Takami, Koushun: Battle Royale

From Goodreads: "(...) a class of junior high school students is taken to a deserted island where, as part of a ruthless authoritarian program, they are provided arms and forced to kill one another until only one survivor is left standing. (...)"

I mean, the concept of hunting each other until only one person remains in video games did get named after it, so it's a prime Hunt candidate for me.

Thompson, Hunter S.: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Gonzo journalism featuring Thompson and his Samoan lawyer on the hunt for the American Dream by way of semi-biographical of a road trip, reporting on a biker race, a lot of booze and drugs, and deliberate confusion.

Traditional: Actaeon

(Summary via Wikipedia) Artemis was bathing in the woods when the hunter Actaeon stumbled across her, thus seeing her naked. He stopped and stared, amazed at her ravishing beauty. Once seen, Artemis got revenge on Actaeon: she forbade him speech – if he tried to speak, he would be changed into a stag – for the unlucky profanation of her virginity's mystery. Upon hearing the call of his hunting party, he cried out to them and immediately transformed. At this, he fled deep into the woods, and doing so he came upon a pond and, seeing his reflection, groaned. His own hounds then turned upon him and pursued him, not recognizing him. In an endeavour to save himself, he raised his eyes (and would have raised his arms, had he had them) toward Mount Olympus. The gods did not heed his desperation, and he was torn to pieces.

Other versions of the myth suggest his fault was bragging that he was a better hunter than Artemis, not seeing her naked.

Van Allsburg, Chris: Jumanji

A Leitner version of this book would cause the jungle to manifest physically in your home, with new animals escaping to hunt you down with every page turned.

Vega, Danielle: Survive the Night

Julie lies dead and disemboweled in a dank, black subway tunnel, red-eyed rats nibbling at her fingers. Her friends think she’s just off with some guy—no one could hear her getting torn apart over the sound of pulsing music.

In a tunnel nearby, Casey regrets coming to Survive the Night, the all-night underground rave in the New York City subway. Her best friend Shana talked her into it, even though Casey just got out of rehab. Alone and lost in the dark, creepy tunnels, Casey doesn’t think Survive the Night could get any worse . . . until she comes across Julie’s body, and the party turns deadly.

Desperate for help, Casey and her friends find themselves running through the putrid subway system, searching for a way out. But every manhole is sealed shut, and every noise echoes eerily in the dark, reminding them they’re not alone. They’re being hunted.

Trapped underground with someone—or something—out to get them, Casey can’t help but listen to her friend’s terrified refrain: “We’re all gonna die down here. . . .” in this bone-chilling sophmore novel by the acclaimed author of The Merciless.

Yoshitomi, Akihito: School Ningyo (School Mermaid)

A horror manga / anthology series by Akihito Yoshitomi about Japanese school girls who really want boyfriends. But rather than going through the trouble of getting the attention of a boy, talking to them and just being themselves, they decide on a much quicker way to do so... By hunting mermaids in their school and eating their flesh.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Cockrum’s support allowed the Old Globe in San Diego to stage “Henry 6,” a large-scale, two-part adaptation of Shakespeare’s three “Henry VI” plays. Credit...Ariana Drehsler for The New York Times

+

A Former Monk Who Won Powerball Is Giving Millions to Theaters

Roy Cockrum has donated more than $25 million to 39 theaters, helping the Old Globe in San Diego stage the one Shakespeare play it had yet to produce.

By Robin Pogrebin

Reporting from San Diego.

Aug. 3, 2024

When Roy Cockrum, a one-time struggling actor and a former monk, won a $259 million Powerball jackpot in 2014, he decided to splurge on something a bit out of the ordinary: supporting nonprofit theater.

He set up a foundation that has given away $25 million to 39 American theaters so far, which is why he found himself the other night at the Old Globe in San Diego. He was there to watch the premiere of a production he supported to help the theater reach a milestone: a large-scale staging of the only Shakespeare play it had yet to produce, an adaptation of the somewhat rarely performed three “Henry VI” plays.

“The question I put to artistic directors is, ‘Is there a project you’ve always dreamed of doing that you couldn’t afford?’” Cockrum, an apple-cheeked, snowy-haired 68-year-old, said in an interview. “To help artistic directors dream bigger than they would otherwise.”

At a time when nonprofit theaters across the country are struggling with rising costs, fewer subscribers, smaller audiences and dwindling corporate philanthropy, Cockrum’s generosity stands out.

“He’s an inspiration to other philanthropists at a time when our field is really struggling and where we need innovative ideas about philanthropy to try to move the field forward,” said Barry Edelstein, the Old Globe’s artistic director. “We’re not going to solve the structural financial problems facing the sector through Bernie Sanders-style $27 contributions. It’s going to take really significant infusions at the scale that Roy is doing them.”

Over the last decade, the Roy Cockrum Foundation has supported American theaters including the Goodman and Steppenwolf in Chicago as well as the Guthrie in Minneapolis. One production it helped finance, “Prayer for the French Republic,” produced by Manhattan Theater Club in New York, was nominated earlier this year for a Tony Award for best play.

Cockrum’s path to becoming a major theater benefactor was anything but typical.

He was originally drawn to acting, doing plays as a high school student in Knoxville, Tenn., and later earning a degree in theater from Northwestern in 1978. After stints at the Virginia Shakespeare Festival and at the Actors Theater of Louisville as an apprentice, he worked in Chicago and then New York, where he did some commercials and appeared in the cultish Off Broadway hit “Vampire Lesbians of Sodom.” He supported himself through day jobs, including waiting tables at Charley O’s in Rockefeller Center, hand modeling and proofreading financial documents.

But the grind took its toll.

“After 21 years in New York as an actor, it wasn’t as much fun,” Cockrum recalled. “And 9/11 happened, and there were lots of sirens going on all the time and I was out of work and all that was on TV were firemen’s funerals.”

Looking for respite, he went on a five-day silent retreat at Holy Cross Monastery in New York’s Hudson Valley and “got hooked.” In 2002, he became Brother Roy, entering the Episcopal monastery of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist in Cambridge, Mass., becoming a postulant and a novice.

While on a 2004 visit to London, Cockrum was moved by Nicholas Hytner’s sizable production of “His Dark Materials” at the National Theater. He began thinking about how in Europe, government support of the arts makes such big stagings possible, while theater in the United States depends on commercial backers or private philanthropy.

“I thought, should I ever have two nickels to rub together, I would try to help fill the gap that exists for nonprofit theaters in America,” he said.

It was around this time that he decided not to take the vow to remain a monk for the rest of his life, so he could return to Tennessee to care for his parents, who were in declining health. “I decided I was needed more in Knoxville than in East Africa,” he said.

It was back in Knoxville that he picked up a Powerball ticket at a Kroger grocery store — and won $259 million. “I fell to my knees,” he recalled.

What he did next was shaped by his experience in the monastery. “You live under a vow of poverty for a while and then come into a great deal of money — how you decide to spend that money is affected by that view of the world,” he said.

To collect the money sooner, he opted to take the jackpot as a smaller lump sum of $158 million (minus 25 percent after taxes) so that he could start his foundation, which has a small board of directors and an executive director.

Cockrum has personally given to other charitable causes, including Doctors Without Borders and a religious camp for the Episcopal diocese. He is on the board of the Knoxville Symphony, where he is the primary sponsor of its Chamber Classics Series. And Cockrum has treated himself a bit, spending some of his winnings on “luxury travel” and an electric BMW iX. But the foundation’s only focus is theater.

Every board meeting begins with a reading of the mission statement and a quote from Albert Camus: “Without culture, and the relative freedom it implies, society, even when perfect, is but a jungle. This is why any authentic creation is a gift to the future.”

Tax forms show the foundation’s gifts as ranging from about $25,000 to more than $1 million. And at a time when many nonprofit theaters are trying to save money by mounting shows that require only one or two actors, Cockrum’s foundation gravitates toward large productions. “A large show means a lot of people working,” Cockrum said.

Theaters have to be invited to apply for funding. The foundation keeps up with the activities of regional theaters all over the country, and asks institutions how it might help them realize their most ambitious theatrical goals.

For the Old Globe, the answer was Shakespeare’s “Henry VI” plays.

The Old Globe — inspired by the Globe, the London theater where a number of Shakespeare plays were first performed — opened in 1935 in Balboa Park, with performances of abridged versions of Shakespeare’s plays as part of the California Pacific International Exposition. Over the decades it has expanded and been rebuilt, developing a strong reputation for producing new works and creating productions that wound up on Broadway, most recently “The Heart of Rock and Roll,” the Huey Lewis musical. But it remains committed to staging Shakespeare.

The theater had performed every Shakespeare play in the canon except the “Henry VI” plays. They can be a daunting challenge for many theaters because they are lesser-known by audiences, there are three plays and they require a large cast.

Edelstein, a Shakespeare specialist who took over the Globe in 2012, proposed adapting the drama into “Henry 6,” a more digestible two-part production presented on alternate nights. He wanted to use video and live music, and believed it was important to incorporate regular San Diegans, in keeping with the Globe’s ongoing community commitment “to make theater matter in people’s lives.”

More than 1,000 people ended up participating in free acting, directing and design workshops as well as making appearances in walk-on parts, video projections and recorded choral singing. And Cockrum enabled the Globe to make it all happen with infusions of money over several years totaling about $1.8 million.

“We could never put 30 people on stage without him, let alone all the community stuff,” Edelstein said, adding that Cockrum’s funds also underwrote an exhibit about the history of Shakespeare and a public art piece in the theater’s plaza. During opening weekend, Cockrum was praised by Edelstein in a toast at a preshow dinner for “reinventing how arts philanthropy works.” Many cast members thanked Cockrum at the party afterward.

While the pandemic has taken a toll on live performance, Cockrum said he remained optimistic about theater.

“I’ve been in packed houses in Minneapolis, D.C., New York — I’m seeing people loving going to the theater,” he said. “People know what solitude is now and are keen to be out and about.”

[stephensmithuk]

The Blanched Soldier

Originally published in 1926; the Americans actually got this one first by a month.

I have covered the Boer War extensively in a previous post, but will add some notes on items directly relevant to this story.

The Imperial Yeomanry were a volunteer i.e. not career military force of mounted infantry formed in 1900 as reinforcements in the Boer War. They were disbanded in 1908 and merged into the Territorial Force, a precursor of what is now called the Army Reserve.

Mounted infantry were infantry that travelled on horseback and fount dismounted. They continued in use into the Cold War, with some units also being "mounted" on bicycles on both sides of the Second World War, before being replaced with mechanised infantry.

Middlesex was the traditional county that covered much of the North and West of what is now Greater London; losing a large chunk of its territory and population to the London County Council in 1889. It was abolished in 1965, but remains very much a thing for sporting and cultural purposes, with its own county cricket team being just one example.

A martinet is a strict disciplinarian, the name coming for a type of short whip. Arnold RImmer from Red Dwarf is sometimes described as such, although the character is clearly meant to be quite pathetic.

The Victoria Cross is the highest British award for gallantry, equivalent to the Medal of Honor and like that medal, frequently awarded posthumously. It also usually requires multiple witnesses to the gallantry in question. It trumps absolutely everything bar the George Cross in the honours system, and it is traditional for a private with a VC to be saluted by a general officer.

The most recent VC was awarded to Joshua Leakey in 2015 for his involvement in a firefight with the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2013, where he took control of a machine gun left on a hill and kept firing even as bullets ricocheted off the weapon.

An elephant gun is a large calibre rifle intended for use against elephants and large animals. They saw some military use in the World Wars by the British against armoured German snipers in the trenches of the First and by the Italians against British armoured cars in North Africa during the Second. Since ivory hunting became taboo, they are much less common.

Bedford is a market town in England and county town of Bedfordshire. It has two stations, the main one being located on the Midland Main Line running into St Pancras. Served by Thameslink, East Midlands Railway and London Northwestern Railway services, the last on the Marston Vale line to Bletchley, it is on the outer edge of the London commuter belt.

The other station at Bedford St. John's is served by LNWR services on the Marston Vale line to Bletchley, which is part of the former Varsity Line from Oxford to Cambridge. The station was resited in 1984.

The Sultan of Turkey - and the whole Ottoman Empire - in 1903 was Abdul Hamid II, a modernising absolute ruler who faced many assassination attempts and was ousted in a coup in 1909, replaced by his half-brother Mehmed V.

The Spectator is a British political magazine that has run since 1828. Being distinctly conservative in its world view, its former editors include one Boris Johnson.

"Squadron" was the traditional term for company or battalion sized cavalry or mounted infantry units. Outside of naval and air force use, it is now used for armoured units, which are frequently old cavalry units that just changed their level of horsepower.

Stoep is an Afrikaans word for "stoop".

Leprosy is transmittable by close contact, but you generally need a lot of it. It is still common in Brazil, much of Africa and India, but is now curable. Prejudice remains a big problem, with "leper colonies" still being common.

The general scholarly consensus is that it wasn't ichthoysis, of which there are many types. The NHS has more information here (with pictures): https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/ichthyosis/